Wei Xiaobao's Three Kingdoms Adventure

Chapter 156: Cutting off the robe and beard and abandoning Chang'an

Ma Chao kept provoking Cao Cao outside Chang'an City, and retreated quickly once the other party left the city.

Cao Cao was worried that Ma Chao was lying in ambush and did not dare to pursue him too deeply. After this happened several times, Cao Cao simply stopped leaving the city and let Ma Chao challenge him outside the city.

Xu Chu could not tolerate Ma Chao's provocation and volunteered to fight.

Cao Cao was getting impatient because he couldn't wait for Han Sui's reinforcements. When he saw Xu Chu was willing to go out of the city to fight, he agreed.

Xu Chu and Ma Chao fought for more than a hundred rounds without a clear winner, and both sides returned to their camps to rest.

Seeing Ma Chao's bravery, Cao Cao became even more anxious, but unfortunately the scouts he sent out never returned after arriving in Anding.

Wei Xiaobao had already arranged for Ma Yunlu to ambush Cao Cao's scouts after retreating to Yingchoujian. After capturing a few of them, he went back to Chencang via the mountain road and then went to Chang'an to meet Ma Chao.

Cao Cao noticed that Ma Chao had been besieging the city for a long time without attacking, and he began to grow suspicious. Then he heard a soldier come and report, "Report! Ma Chao's army suddenly has thousands of elite cavalry!"

Cao Cao was horrified. "Could it be that Ma Teng has persuaded Zhang Lu in Hanzhong to send troops to help?"

Cheng Yu said, "Ma Chao has been stationed outside the city for over ten days, apparently waiting for reinforcements. Han Sui's army has yet to arrive. If this stalemate continues, I'm afraid the strength of the enemy and ours will reverse!"

Just at this time, Han Sui's letter arrived.

After reading this, Cao Cao cursed: "Han Sui is such a shameless bastard! He refused to send troops to help, but instead falsely accused me of taking advantage of the opportunity to attack him!"

Cheng Yu continued, "When we left Jizhou, Wen Ruo said that the people of Xiliang were very cunning and that the Prime Minister must be on high alert. Now it seems that Han Sui has no intention of coming to Chang'an's rescue. He only wants to sit back and watch the tigers fight, and reap the benefits."

Cao Cao said, "Since that's the case, let's take advantage of Ma Chao's lack of troops and charge out of the city!"

In the Ma family army outside the city, Ma Yunlu tried his best to persuade Ma Chao to retreat.

Ma Chao said, "Since Han Sui has already fled back to Wuwei, why don't we seize this opportunity to capture Chang'an?"

Ma Yunlu said, "Cao Cao is an expert in commanding troops. If we attack the city by force, we will probably suffer losses."

Ma Chao said, "Xu Zhu is the only one in Cao Cao's army who's a bit tougher to deal with. I don't take the others seriously. Besides, I didn't use my full strength when I fought Xu Zhu the other day. If we were to engage in combat, I wouldn't be afraid of him."

Ma Yunlu has always known his elder brother's temper. Once he makes up his mind, no one except his father Ma Teng can persuade him.

In desperation, Ma Yunlu could only send someone back to Tianshui to inquire about Wei Xiaobao's news, while he stayed in the army to deal with the situation.

Before Ma Chao could even set out to attack the city, Cao Cao had already taken the lead and attacked.

Xu Chu led the vanguard to challenge Ma Chao, who also came out to fight. The two sides no longer fought alone, but engaged in positional fighting as soon as they met.

Relying on the bravery of the Xiliang cavalry, Ma Chao took the lead in launching a surprise attack.

The Guanzhong Plain is flat and open, and the cavalry of both sides fought back and forth for more than ten rounds.

Seeing that he was defeated, Xu Zhu led his troops to flee in a hurry, but instead of retreating towards the city, he headed straight for the valley in the south.

Ma Chao was so excited about killing that he immediately ordered a pursuit.

When they were about to reach the edge of the mountain, a large number of soldiers suddenly emerged from the valley and rushed towards Ma Chao.

Ma Chao thought to himself that something was wrong and realized that he had fallen into an ambush by Cao Cao. He quickly turned his horse around and prepared to retreat.

But it was too late, the soldiers around him had surrounded Ma Chao.

When Ma Yunlu saw Ma Chao pursuing Xu Zhu, he sensed something was amiss and had already led his army to support him. But then, finding Ma Chao trapped within the formation, he was at a loss. Cao Cao's infantry and archers formed a circular formation. The infantry on the inner flank, armed with spears and halberds, constantly harassed Ma Chao's cavalry, while the archers on the outer flank had their bows drawn and arrows ready, awaiting Cao Cao's command to pierce Ma Chao, the center of the formation, like a hedgehog.

Cao Cao stood on his chariot and shouted to Ma Chao, "Ma Mengqi, you have been trapped in the battle. Why don't you dismount and surrender, lest your men follow you and die in vain?"

Ma Chao didn't say anything, but just led his soldiers to charge.

However, this formation was quite strange. The infantry, with Ma Chao as the center, ran in one direction. As soon as they showed the slightest flaw, other soldiers would immediately fill in. Moreover, the central space had been compressed to an extremely small size by spears and halberds, making it impossible for the horses to speed up.

Ma Chao in the formation and Ma Yunlu outside the formation were both terrified.

Just at this moment, a cavalry suddenly rushed out of the valley and rushed towards Cao Cao's rear with shouts.

Cao Cao was so shocked that he fell off the chariot.

Xu Zhu quickly helped Cao Cao onto his warhorse, and the two looked behind them.

I saw a general in white clothes and bright silver armor, leading the cavalry into the battle formation, and the word "Zhao" was written on the battle flag of the army!
"Who is coming?" Cao Cao looked at Xu Zhu with an incredible expression on his face.

Xu Zhu looked closely and said to Cao Cao, "This man must be Zhao Yun, one of Liu Bei's powerful generals!"

Seeing that Zhao Yun's cavalry was charging through the formation and the formation could no longer remain intact, Cao Cao hurriedly ordered a retreat.

Ma Chao, who was at the center of the formation, also discovered that someone was coming to rescue him. With a command, the soldiers took advantage of the enemy's panic to break out of the encirclement and head straight for Cao Cao.

Cao Cao thought to himself that something was wrong and quickly turned his horse around and ran away.

Ma Chao chased Cao Cao all the way, and Cao Cao could no longer escape back to Chang'an, so he could only flee to Tongguan.

Ma Chao shouted from behind: "The man in the red robe is Cao Cao. There will be a huge reward for capturing him alive."

Cao Cao showed fear when he heard this and hurriedly untied his red robe and threw it away.

Ma Chao shouted again, "The one with the long beard is Cao Cao. There will be a huge reward for capturing him alive."

Cao Cao immediately drew his sword and frantically struck his beard.

Fortunately, Xu Zhu was there to protect him, and Cao Cao finally escaped to the port. He quickly abandoned his horse and boarded the ship to avoid Ma Chao's pursuit.

Although Ma Chao was angry that he failed to kill Cao Cao, he did not dare to stay in the port for long and immediately joined forces with Ma Yunlu to attack Chang'an.

Unexpectedly, when Cao Cao was fleeing in a hurry, Zhao Yun had already led his army into Chang'an City. When Ma Chao arrived at the foot of the city, the top of the city wall was already full of large flags with the word "Zhao" on them.

Ma Yunlu recognized Zhao Yun and shouted to him from below the city wall, "General Zhao, we are Ma Chao and Ma Yunlu from Tianshui. Please open the city gates!"

Zhao Yun said, "Cao Cao is treacherous and must be guarded against. You should station your troops outside the city for now, and we will discuss entering the city tomorrow."

Ma Yunlu wanted to shout more, but Ma Chao stopped him. "Yunlu, there's no need to shout anymore. The situation is clear. Liu Bei sent Zhao Yun here to seize the opportunity to capture Chang'an. How could he let us into the city?"

Seeing that Ma Chao's face was red with anger, Ma Yunlu advised, "Brother, General Zhao saved your life. Since he won't let us into the city, let's thank him and return to Tianshui."

Ma Chao, helpless, clasped his fists and shouted to Zhao Yun on the tower, "General Zhao, I, Ma Mengqi, will always remember your life-saving grace today. However, I will not tolerate outsiders occupying our city on Xiliang territory. If we meet General Zhao on the battlefield in the future, I'm afraid he will show no mercy."

Ma Chao didn't wait for Zhao Yun to reply before ordering the entire army to return to Tianshui.

(End of this chapter)