Chapter 24 Pang Tong's Strategy

"Withdraw!" After shooting another wave of arrows, Chen suddenly waved his hand, and then all the archers began to retreat in an orderly manner, avoiding the enemy from both sides, bypassing Xu Changcheng and beginning to retreat to the west.

"What's going on?" Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun suddenly withdrew like this when they saw that they were still trying their best to stop them. Suddenly, they couldn't figure it out. However, the soldiers can't take care of this. Without the terrible rain of arrows, they only need to cross the previous trenches to successfully complete the set goal and enter Xuchang City.

"Strange, it's too strange!" On the head of Xu Changcheng, Cao Yan muttered to himself, and Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun under the city also looked at each other in front of each other. However, the urgent military situation could not allow them to hesitate for too long. After sending scouts to be convinced that there was nothing abnormal around, Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun carefully commanded the army and slowly moved to Xuchang City. After they arrived at the city, Cao Wei ordered to open the gate and enlarge the army to come in.

"Father!" After seeing Cao for several months, Cao Pi and Cao Zhang were already sobbing. Zihuan, Zihe, why pretend to be a child!" Although Cao Jian taught his son, the meaning of satisfaction in his words was still obvious. After being besieged for a long time, his son was rescued. Even if Cao Wei was a hero for a lifetime, he couldn't help but feel excited.

"King of Wei, we are late to save you, and ask the King of Wei to forgive you!" Next, Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun and others were comforted one by one. At this time, Xiahou Dun hesitated for a long time and gritted his teeth and said, "King of Wei, Mr. Fengxiao has passed away a month ago!"

"What?" For the rest of his life after Cao's disaster, he suddenly heard the bad news. For a moment, he also felt dizzy and almost stood unsteadily. Everyone quickly helped Cao Wei to sit down in the hall and gasped for a long time. Cao Wei stopped Cao Pi, who was going to call a doctor, and asked astringently, "Zihuan, how did you get to Fengxiao?"

"Mr. Fengxiao is a disease of overwork!" Cao Pi said with a sad face, and then told the original story of Guo Jia's expedition to Liaodong until his death, and his plan to help the army cross the river with iron ropes. Cao Yan and others sighed when they heard it, but even Xiahou Dun and others, who already knew it, sighed when they listened to Cao Pi's words again.

"Fengxiao is dead, and I will be lost this day!" Cao Yan was stunned for a long time, suddenly shouted, and then fell on the table and did not wake up. Now everyone was panicked and hurriedly called the doctor to check.

A group of doctors treated together for about half an hour, and then they sweated out of the room one by one. Everyone knows Cao's condition that it was purely because he was in agitated mood after hearing the bad news, so that the head wind disease recurred, and then he suddenly fainted. Now after the treatment of a group of doctors, it has finally stabilized. It is estimated that after a few more hours of sleep, they will recover, and everyone will be relieved when they hear the words.

When Cao Wei woke up, it was already this night. With some difficulty in opening his eyes, Cao felt a little bitter in his mouth and knew that he had taken the medicine. After raising their spirits and humming a few words, Cao Pi and Cao Zhang, who were sitting aside and taking a nap, hurriedly heard the sound and moved.

"Is your father better?" Cao Zhang hurried forward and asked. Cao Pi put a soft cushion behind Cao Qian and helped him sit up. It's much better for my father, son, how is the military situation at present? Cao Xiu shook his head gently, quickly adjusted his state, and began to ask Cao Pi about the military situation.

"It's very strange. Liu Bei has disappeared since we entered the city. Uncle Yuan Rang has sent scouts to inspect about 30 miles, but he hasn't seen Liu Bei's soldiers!" Cao Zhang was a little unbelievable. He is also a person who has fought a war. He has never seen such a great retreat for no reason. His intuition tells him that Liu Bei is going to play a conspiracy.

"I see. Go and call Wen He over!" Cao said lightly. He said, " This kind of thing can't be solved by Cao Pi and Cao Zhang. It's better to discuss with Jia Xu what tricks Liu Bei wants to do.

After Jia Xu received the account, Cao Wei had returned to normal, but he still sat in ** to meet Jia Xu. Wen He, Liu Bei suddenly withdrew his troops. What do you think? After signaling Jia Xu to exempt him from the gift, Cao Jian asked directly.

"There must be fraud!" Jia Xu said it bluntly.

"Why is that so?" Cao asked with some fun. It was a little funny.

"After receiving reinforcements from General Zixiao and others, we have no less than 200,000 troops. It's just that this place is very close to Liu Bei's hinterland, and he can mobilize his army to fight to the death with us. Now that the army is withdrawing in a hurry, there must be fraud here!" Jia Xu said lightly.

"I also thought about it. If so, how do you think Liu Bei will cheat?" Cao Shen frowned slightly and continued to ask.

"I really don't know about this!" Jia Xu sighed. If you can even think of this, then Jia Xu is really more than a magic stick. Cao Jian nodded and then asked, "Wen He, in your opinion, what should I do now?"

Jia Xu was a little silent, and finally said, "In my opinion, now it is not the best policy for Xu Changkong to wait for Liu Bei. There are still hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Hebei, and Yuan Tan has been killed, and there is no worry about the future. Now, after the master recovers from his illness, he can either take the initiative to attack and fight to the death after forcing out Liu Bei's main force; or he can return to Hebei to plan again!"

"This is not bad!" Cao Wei nodded. Now Cao has thought for a moment, but he is still a little hesitant. There is no reason: Xu Chang Cao can't afford it, but he can't keep it.

At present, Cao Jian is in Henan, and with the 40,000 defenders of Shanyang Xu Huang, he will only have more than 200,000 troops. If you return to Hebei, it will be very safe. However, after being besieged for several months after his defeat, not to mention the heavy losses, the demorality is even more inevitable. In addition, after Liu Bei's siege of the city for a long time, Xu Chang's food and fodder were not enough, so even if he left a large number of soldiers after the withdrawal, he may not be able to keep Xu Chang.

But even if he can't afford it, Cao can't just lose Xu Chang like this. It is not only for their own military interests, but also for the hearts of the people under their own rule. Although Cao Qian is strong in Hebei, most of the civil and military officials who assisted him, such as the Xun brothers and the Xiahou people, are from Yanzhou and Yuzhou. Since these people followed Cao Qian to rise up more than ten years ago, because of the rampant thieves in Yuzhou at that time, the children of their clans moved to live in Yanzhou, which was relatively peaceful. At present, if Cao Yan abandons Xu Chang and leave, then Liu Bei can calmly attack Yanzhou from Jingzhou, Qingzhou and Xuzhou. In this way, Cao Yan's old foundation can be completely copied. Cao Yan doesn't want to stage the tragedy that was raided by Zhao Feng ten years ago.

is very contradictory and ironic. Xu Chang, who was originally of great strategic importance to Cao Wei, was made a chicken rib because of Sima Yi's clever strategy this time. Cao is not guarding, nor is he abandoning. After thinking too much, my head hurts a little again.

Looking at Jia Xu, who didn't say anything in front of him, and waited for him to make up his mind, Cao Wei knew that in fact, Jia Xu was still inclined to withdraw the army first. His first proposal to lure Liu Bei's main force to fight a decisive battle, as long as anyone with a little brain can understand that Cao Yan, who is in this state now, fights with Liu Bei with a non-dominant force. Although he does not hit stones with pebbles, he is obviously at a disadvantage. Cao Yan thought for a moment and motioned Jia Xu to go down first. He was going to discuss with Cao Ren and Xia Hou Dun first to see what they could do.

But I didn't wait for Cao Hen to discuss a result. This afternoon, Tan Ma, who had just inquired about the news, brought Cao Hen an amazing news.

"What, Liu Bei's army occupied Liang County?" When Cao Jian heard the news, he doubted for a moment whether he had heard it wrong. What did Liu Bei do when he had nothing to do?

"Exactly, before General Xiahou and General Cao came to Xuchang, Liu Bei's army withdrew their troops to the east one after another, taking the Ru River straight into Liang County, and occupied Liang County yesterday!" The detective said in a low voice.

"Didn't I also leave 10,000 defenders for Zhang Yanyi to stay in Liang County? How could Liu Bei be captured so soon?" Cao Ren couldn't help but be stunned that he was in charge of guarding Liang County. Now as soon as he ran to Liang County, something happened to him. He couldn't afford this crime.

"Mi Fang, deputy general of Liang County, secretly opened the south gate while General Zhang was unprepared and responded to Liu Bei's entry into the city. After the hard battle, General Zhang Yi still failed to defend the city. At present, General Zhang has packed up his troops and horses and went to Shanyang to join General Gongming!" The detective said in a low voice.

"Mi Fang?" Cao Yan really didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he heard the words. He raised the army this time. Unexpectedly, it was the truth that repeated more lies. When Liu Bei's soldiers came to the city, Mi Fang offered the city again. It was really unpleasant to retribution. However, Cao Yan also knew that after Cao Ren left, Zhang Yi relied on 10,000 defenders to stay in Liang County. In the face of Liu Bei's hundreds of thousands of troops attacking the city, he was afraid he could not defend it for too long. At this moment, another detective came to report again.

"According to the king of Wei, on the third day, Li Tong, the former guard of Jingzhou, led 20,000 troops from the north of Wancheng and occupied Yiyang County!" This search horse brought a more puzzling news to Cao Wei. Yiyang County belongs to Sizhou, but the city wall there is low, and it is not a strategic place. What did Li Tong do when he was really idle?

"It's not good. Liu Bei wants to cut my army in Yanzhou!" After looking at the map, Jia Xu's face suddenly changed.

"Mr. Wen He, what do you mean by this?" Cao Zhang hasn't turned his mind yet, but Cao's face has also changed.

"Please take a look!" Jia Xu pointed to the map and said to the crowd, "Now Liu Bei has captured Liang County. After occupying Yiyang, if we take Chen Liu again, we will be completely stuck in the land of Xuchang Yingchuan. If we go east, we will be blocked by Chen Liu, and if we go west, we will be blocked by Yiyang. There are Liu Bei's army on both sides. In this way, Liu Bei doesn't need to fight hard. He just needs to wait for us to run out of food and fodder and the army is unstable, so he can win without fighting!"

"What?" Cao Zhang's face suddenly changed when he heard the words. He stared at the map for a long time, and then said with some difficulty, "In this case, isn't it a big deal?"

"I'm afraid it's not necessarily like this!" Cao Ren was much calmer than Cao Zhang. Pointing to Yiyang on the map, Cao Ren said, "The city wall of Yiyang is short, and Li Tong has no more than 20,000 defenders. After I wave my army to attack, I can capture Yiyang and open up the way back to Sizhou! Jingzhou's army and horses have been transferred by Guan Yu. At present, I'm afraid they can't draw other soldiers and horses to reinforce Li Tong.

"Yiyang is adjacent to Luoshui, and Liu Bei is convenient. Although the former Guandu was defeated, Gan Ning went up against the current to the hinterland of Sizhou. At present, I'm afraid he has entered Luoshui to assist Li Tong to guard Yiyang. Jia Xu sighed. In fact, as Jia Xu said, this is the strategy that Pang Tong quickly formulated for Liu Bei after hearing of Gan Ning's defeat, that is, he did not stick to trap Cao in Xu Chang, but took down the surrounding cities with superior forces and replaced Cao's cage from Xu Chang to Yingchuan. At this time, Liu Bei was personally leading the army to attack Jiyin. Once you take Jiyin, you can take the East County directly and completely divide Cao Qian's territory to the south of the Yellow River into three pieces. From east to west are Xu Huang of Shanyang, Chen Liu and Yingchuan counties in the middle, and Henan counties in the west.

(to be continued)