Chapter 30

September 1st, Xuzhou, Pengcheng.

Jiangdong special envoy Zhang Hong arrived in Pengcheng and discussed with Cao Cao specific about the joint forces to attack the Central Plains.

In August, Liu Biao invited princes from all over the country to Xiangyang to discuss the plan of the Northern Expedition. According to the latest news from Chang'an, after the eldest princess became pregnant, Li Hong decisively took charge of Chang'an, cleared all opponents in the court, and then let Xu Rong, Li Wei, Zhang Yan and Zhao Yun assist the young emperor to deceive the world. He actually took power in Jinyang, showing a fierce face of usurping the Han Dynasty. Since Li Hong arrested a large number of aristocratic families and merchants, especially the Ying Ru scholars who had close ties with Xiangyang were almost wiped out, Xiangyang lost many channels to obtain accurate information. However, according to the current situation, it took Li Hong a long time to stabilize Chang'an and stabilize the prefectures and counties in various places. In addition, the northwest frontiers and deserts had just been pacified, Li Hong was very likely to withdraw troops from Nanyang.

Sure enough, in mid-August, Chang'an sent a special envoy, Cui Jun, the Taichangqing, to Xiangyang, proposed a peace talk, and returned Zhang Yun and Ma Su to Liu Biao. The conditions in Chang'an were very harsh, and they asked Xiangyang to give up Nanyang and Hanzhong, and then talk about the confrontation between the north and the south. Xiangyang firmly refused, believing that this was Li Hong's delaying strategy. At this moment, Li Hong agreed to confrontation between the north and the south. To put it bluntly, he agreed to share the world with the southern princes. Just when the situation matured, he would depose the emperor of Chang'an ascend to the throne. Liu Biao told Cui Jun that you would go back and tell Li Hong that if he was willing to give up Luoyang, and

Return all the Qingyan and Henan prefectures to us, retreat to the north bank of the Yellow River, and we will discuss peace. Cui Jun said goodbye without saying a word, leaving. Before leaving, he and Liu Biao said heartily. He said that the eldest princess was pregnant. If he gave birth to a boy, Li Hong would usurp usurpate the Han Dynasty immediately. "There are many high-ranking families loyal to the Han Dynasty in Chang'an and Luoyang, and there are also many wealthy families in the Central Plains who swear to defend the Han Dynasty to the death. As long as you and Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Quan and others march north to the north, these people will rise up and respond. Li Hong and the Northern Frontier Army will definitely be defeated and fled to Hebei."

Cui Jun's words are very credible. Now Li Hong has severely damaged the aristocratic families, and he has also taken the opportunity to promote the aristocratic and reformed Confucianism. To put it bluntly, it is to revive the Taoist Huang-Lao study and completely drive the classics and literature out of the official school. These measures have deeply angered the aristocratic families. Those scholars who temporarily escaped the disaster are full of hatred. As long as the opportunity is right, they will definitely counterattack Li Hong, and may even repeat the incident of the Chang'an mutiny.

After carefully analyzing the various situations, Liu Biao, Cai Mao and the envoys of the princes unanimously determined that this was the best opportunity to go north to attack Li Hong and regain the Central Plains. Now Chang'an, Luoyang, Central Plains and Hebei are in chaos. The Northern Frontier Army has exhausted the national treasury for several years. Li Hong is unsustainable and vulnerable.

Liu Biao still sticks to the attack strategy at the beginning of the year. He dragged the main force of the Northern Frontier Army to Nanyang, let Cao Cao, Sun Quan and Zhou Yu from the East join forces to fight the Central Plains, and let Liu Bei from the West attack Longnan and attack Guanzhong. "As long as the Central Plains battlefield is made a breakthrough, Li Hong will definitely be defeated."

Xun Yu, the special envoy of Xuzhou, and Zhang Hong, the special envoy of Jiangdong, headed south together. On the way, Zhang Hong received a letter from Sun Quan and went to Pengcheng to meet Cao Cao and discuss the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains.

Sun Quan was willing to send 50,000 troops north to help, but the condition was that if Cao Cao recovered the Central Plains, he would give him three counties, Xia Pi and Guangling in Xuzhou, and Jiujiang County in Yangzhou, and Jiujiang County in Yangzhou. If Cao Cao failed to conquer the Central Plains, he would return Jiujiang County to Jiangdong as a reward.

Cao Cao was so angry that he cursed. It was very difficult to recover the Central Plains by relying on Xuzhou's troops alone. Even if he recovered, his strength would be greatly damaged. At that time, if Sun Quan took the opportunity to attack Xuzhou, Xuzhou would most likely become their possession. But if he agreed to Sun Quan and joined forces to fight for the Northern Expedition, could Xuzhou be saved? With Sun Quan and Zhou Yu's consistent character, they would definitely threaten at critical moments, and they would most likely suffer losses.

When Cao Cao was angry, the head wind disease immediately broke out, and he kept moaning. Now the head wind disease tortures him like a useless person. As long as he uses his brain, as long as he is overworked or angry, the head wind disease will immediately occur, and it will take a long time to get into pain and can't do anything.

Xun Yu advised him, but it would be better to agree. At present, the opportunity is rare. Only by regaining the Central Plains can hegemony be pursued. Otherwise, if you are trapped in a corner of the Jianghuai area and be attacked from all sides, you will sooner or later be defeated.

"How credible is Cui Jun's words?" Cao Cao strongly endured the great pain and said helplessly, "Look carefully, those people Li Hong dealt with this time? They are all scholars from Ying Ru, and some scholars from Hebei. Almost all scholars from the Northern Xinjiang and Guan Luo surrendered to Li Hong, including Yang Biao and Xu Shao, who were highly prestigious, also bowed to Li Hong. It can be seen that Li Hong has compromised with them and their interests can be guaranteed. In this case, Cui Jun's words are actually unreliable. It is likely that Li Hong's plan to lure the enemy."

When Xun Yu understood, Cao Cao didn't want to fight anymore, he wanted to get a bargain. The current deadlock in the Nanyang battlefield was caused by the Northern Frontier Army. In order to solve the problem in Chang'an, to stabilize his internal affairs as soon as possible, and to achieve his own series of goals, Li Hong deliberately left more than 100,000 troops on the Nanyang battlefield. Otherwise, it would be easy to conquer Wancheng with the means of the Northern Frontier Army fighting Luoyang. The Nanyang battlefield is now the most important "chess piece" in Li Hong's hand. As long as the timing is clever, this "chess piece" can immediately make Liu Biao surrender, thus achieving Li Hong's unspeakable goal.

Liu Biao had 100,000 troops in Jingzhou and ordered the princes with the emperor. Once he and Li Hong secretly reached an agreement to confront the north and south, Li Hong would usurp the country. The next one was Liu Biao usurpation. However, no matter whether Liu Biao was the emperor himself or let his son be the emperor, as his Liu clan member, he could continue to order the princes under the banner of the Han Dynasty. This was something that Cao Cao could not accept.

Cao Cao's attack on the Central Plains at this moment will not only damage his own strength, but will also force Li Hong and Liu Biao to reach an agreement as soon as possible so that he can recruit troops from the battlefield in Nanyang to besiege Xuzhou. Everyone knows Liu Biao. He does not have the ambitions of Yuan Shao and does not have the confidence to defeat Li Hong. He wants to defend his own acre of three-point land. If Li Hong withdraws his troops in Nanyang, Liu Biao will definitely slap in high fives to congratulate him, so he doesn't care whether Li Hong will beat Cao Cao. Cao Cao is defeated, and there is still

Sun Quan and Zhou Yu defended the Jianghuai line to the death. With the powerful navy in Jiangdong, the northern border army could only sigh even if it reached the north bank of the Yangtze River. Jiangdong was undefeated and Yizhou was undefeated. The overall defense in the south was still unbreakable, and Liu Biao's Jingzhou was still as solid as a god. Liu Biao's idea was clearly reflected in his offensive and defensive strategy. He always hoped that Cao Cao and Liu Bei would break through the two wings, and were unwilling to invest all the troops in Jingzhou on the battlefield in the Nanyang.

If Jingzhou wants to fight to the death, he will be afraid of the Northern Army. Because Li Hong dares not defeat, he will be unable to defend if he loses Chang'an and Central Plains, so he can only retreat to the north bank of the Yellow River. So as long as Liu Biao dares to fight, and Cao Cao and Liu Bei cooperate on the two wings, Li Hong will definitely withdraw his troops, and the confrontation between the north and the south will become a matter of success. Unfortunately, Liu Biao cherishes himself very much and is unwilling to let himself suffer any losses.

Cao Cao saw through Liu Biao's thoughts, and Sun Quan took the opportunity to threaten him, so he lost his power and dared not fight. He was worried that Liu Biao would betray him and that Sun Quan would stab him in the back. In the end, Xuzhou was not eaten by the Northern Army, but was eaten by Liu Biao and Sun Quan. Cao Cao would rather trap Xuzhou and deal with Li Hong and Sun Quan, and survive in the cracks, than to lose and fight against the Central Plains.

Cao Cao didn't want to beat him anymore, and Xun Yu, Cheng Yu, Mao Jie, Ren Jun and others also had different opinions. Everyone had their own opinions and argued endlessly.

At this moment, Xiahou Dun, Li Dian, and Guo Jia urgently reported to Cao Cao that the army conquered Changyi and was advancing towards Dingtao.

"Gao Shun gave up Changyi?" Cao Cao felt unbelievable, "What happened in Hebei? Is there a change in the battlefield in Nanyang?"

Immediately afterwards, Cao Hong and Yu Jin reported urgently that the Northern Army voluntarily withdrew from Suiyang and were retreating to Chenliu. Cao Hong asked Cao Cao whether he would continue to attack north?

Man Chong and Liu Xun reported from Qicheng urgently that Lei Chong's army retreated rapidly, Zhou Yu and Lu Su led their troops across the river, and the two armies were about to meet. The two asked Cao Cao for advice, should they go north to attack Suiyang, or attack Chen State in the northwest?

Cao Cao and everyone discussed for a long time, but it was difficult to make a choice.

However, just two hours later, the situation suddenly changed. Fast horses rushed into Pengcheng, Xiaopei, Xiaoxian and Xiangcheng in the night at the same time, and discovered the northern border iron cavalry army and tens of thousands of iron cavalry army.

"I fell into a trap..." Cao Cao was shocked and shouted repeatedly, "I ordered Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong to retreat immediately, retreat immediately..."

"I'm notified Man Chong, Liu Xun, go north to support..."

"I urgently ordered Cao Chun to attack with the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry and rescue Cao Hong from Suiyang direction first, hurry up, hurry up..."

"Send people to Shouchun to Shouchun and let Cao Pi and Xiahou Yuan gather their troops and prepare to cross the river and go north to support."

"Go and invite Zhang Hong, hurry..." Cao Cao pointed at Xun Yu and shouted, "Agree with Sun Quan's conditions, please lead his army north immediately, immediately..."

On the first day of September, Changyi.

Xiahou Dun and Guo Jia had a fierce argument. Li Dian stood aside and looked at Guo Jia who was angry and couldn't help but think of the quarrel a few months ago.

Cao Cao's dispatch of troops to attack the Central Plains caused great controversy, and the focus of the controversy was the attack strategy.

Cao Cao had his own overall considerations. He did not have the confidence to capture the Central Plains, so he divided his troops into four parts. One was led by Cao Ren to restrain the Qingzhou army in Tan City, one was led by Xiahou Dun to attack Changyi, the other was led by Cao Hong to attack Suiyang, and the other was led by Man Chong to attack Runan, forming a cross-border attack with Zhou Yu and Cao Pi on the south bank of the Huai River. Cao Cao's deployment was obvious. He had no intention of attacking the Central Plains, just to restrain the Northern Army in the Central Plains and help Liu Biao defend Nanyang.

Xun Yu and Guo Jia questioned Cao Cao's deployment. If Xuzhou's troops were combined into one team, they would definitely gain something to attack the Central Plains north, and they could quickly help Liu Biao gain an advantage in the Nanyang battlefield. Once the Northern Army was in a hurry in the Central Plains, Li Hong would withdraw from the Nanyang battlefield and mobilize troops to guard the Central Plains. In this way, the Jingzhou army could go north to attack Yingchuan and threaten Luoyang, which in turn could help the Xuzhou army continue to fight against the Central Plains. If the situation in Chang'an is out of control, Guanzhong and Hebei are in chaos, the Central Plains will be at their fingertips.

According to Cao Cao's attack strategy, the combination of the whole was broken into pieces and attacked from multiple ways, not only could it not threaten the Central Plains, but it could not help the Nanyang battlefield. What was particularly terrifying is that once the Northern Frontier Army wins the Nanyang battlefield and increases its troops in the Central Plains, the attacking armies in Xuzhou are at risk of being wiped out.

Cao Cao refused to accept advice. His first consideration was to preserve his strength, and second consideration was to prevent the sneak attacks from Sun Quan and Zhou Yu. Third, he did not believe in Liu Biao. Liu Biao and Yuan Shao can be said to be a kind of person, with great talent and ambitions, and he could not accomplish great things.

Cao Cao knew that with his strength and Xuzhou, a small land, would sooner or later be eaten by Li Hong and Sun Quan. In the current situation, he must first obtain a favorable situation of confrontation between the north and the south, and then take advantage of the stalemate of Liu Biao and Li Hong, cross the river to fight Sun Quan, occupy the land of Wu and Yue, and relies on the danger of the Yangtze River to form a stalemate with Li Hong, and Liu Biao formed a stalemate. In recent years, he has been raising his energy, not to fight the Central Plains, but to fight Jiangdong. He had to fight against the powerful Northern Frontier Army, and he had no chance of winning. Moreover, the Central Plains is a place of four battles, and even if it was defeated, he might not be able to defend it. It would be different to fight Jiangdong. Sun Quan's foundation in Jiangdong is still unstable, and he is also in a row with Zhou Yu, fighting openly and secretly, and has a great chance of defeating Sun Quan.

Cao Cao was unwilling to lose his strength on the battlefield of the Central Plains. He had to wait until the confrontation between the north and the south stabilized, and use Liu Biao in Jingzhou and Liu Bei in Yizhou to restrain Li Hong, then provoke the conflict between Sun Quan and Zhou Yu, provoke the conflict between Zhou Yu and Liu Biao, lead Jiangdong into war, and then find an opportunity to cross the river openly, kill Sun Quan and occupy the land of Wu and Yue.

Only his son and a few brothers knew about Cao Cao's idea, but no one else knew about it. He had been fighting for more than ten years and was still struggling to survive. He had to give up the unrealistic fantasy of dominating the Central Plains and revitalizing the country, and instead seeking a path to survival. Only when survival is guaranteed can he think of other things such as hegemony. Since Yuan Shao's death, everything has changed. He drove Liu Bei away to occupy Xuzhou with the goal of returning to the Central Plains. However, Yuan Shao failed and died, and the situation has changed. He was still struggling in the desperate situation of survival.

Xun Yu and Guo Jia fought hard and advised him repeatedly. Cao Cao had no choice but to transfer Guo Jia to Xiahou Dun's army and asked Xun Yu to stay in Xiangyang to keep a permanent resident in order to promptly inform the situation in Jingzhou.

Now that the situation on the battlefield has changed, Li Hong actually sent a large cavalry army from the northern border to launch a counterattack, as Guo Jia said, all the armies were immediately in danger of being wiped out, and Xuzhou was facing defeat.

The Northern Frontier Army was very arrogant, galloping on the big and small roads, with smoke and dust rolling, and they did not hide their whereabouts or attack purposes at all. They had the speed, and they had enough time to cut off the retreat of the Xuzhou army, encircle and annihilate the Xuzhou army.

Xiahou Dun asked the troops to give up their food, grass and supplies, and retreat day and night. How much can they withdraw? Guo Jia believed that the vitality of the army was gone. The only way was to defend Changyi and drag the cavalry of the northern border to win time for Cao Cao in Xuzhou to defend Pengcheng. "If Xuzhou is lost, the northern border army will surely kill the Huaihe River, and the northern bank of the Yangtze River is in danger. Therefore, at this moment, Sun Quan will definitely go north to support him regardless of everything. As long as Pengcheng is not lost, Xuzhou will be as solid as a soup, and Jianghuai will be safe and sound."

Xiahou Dun didn't listen at all, and roared at Li Dian, "Retreat quickly, withdraw quickly..."

Guo Jia was so angry that his face turned red and his ears roared sharply, "You are ruining Xuzhou and the country. Li Hong let the cavalry of the northern border go south at this moment, and he is already determined to conquer Xuzhou. The northwest border and the desert have stabilized, and Li Hong will no longer look forward and hesitate like in the past."

Xiahou Dun sighed to the sky, "Fengxiao, Pengcheng has no army, what should I do to defend it? Sun Quan has the danger of the Yangtze River and a powerful navy, but does the Northern Army have a navy? It is just your wishful thinking to rely on Sun Quan to rescue Xuzhou." He waved to his personal guards, "You protect Lord Guo and ensure his safety."

Guo Jia was wrapped in a bush. Xiahou Dun stood in the square, looking up at the bloody sunset, speechless. This time Li Hong led his army south, can Xuzhou still be protected?

September 1st, Suiyang,

Cao Hong lay on the map, holding a candlestick in one hand and gesturing on the map with the other.

Yu Jin rushed in, "Brother Zi Lian, the divisions have been assembled. In which direction should we retreat?"

"First cross the Suishui River." Cao Hong said, "Let's go south and go to Qiao County."

"Go back to your hometown?" Yu Jin widened his eyes in surprise, "Isn't that just falling into the trap?"

"The cavalry in the northern border is too fast, they must have arrived in Xiaocheng, and the Xiangcheng area blocked us." Cao Hong put down the candlestick and smiled bitterly, "If nothing unexpected happens, Lei Zhong's army may be heading north, intending to encircle us in the Dangshan area."

Yu Jin squatted down and looked at the map, "If Lei Chong leads his army north, Zhou Yu and Lu Su's army will cross the Huai River. They will meet Man Chong and Liu Xun's army in Qicheng." He turned to look at Cao Hong and asked in surprise, "Do you want to go south to join them?"

"Yes, if the enemy is unexpected, bypass the blockade of the Northern Frontier Army, and save the army first." Cao Hong pointed to Xia Pi City, "Then we joined forces and quickly retreated to Xia Pi City to defend, giving Pengcheng strong support."

"Do you want to send someone to contact them first and ask them to go to Dancheng area in North China to meet us?"

"Send a fast horse immediately."

"Okay, I'll go and do it immediately." Yu Jin stood up and bowed, "Brother Zi Lian, I will lead the Forward Battalion to leave first."

"Wenze, don't walk too fast, you must keep a distance of 30 miles from me." Cao Hong said solemnly, "It's more than 400 miles to Qicheng. If you travel day and night, you will definitely arrive within three days. However, the Northern Army in Xiangcheng is on the east bank of Suishui River, which is only more than 100 miles away from us. If they chase us horizontally, we will be very dangerous."

Yu Jin nodded repeatedly, turned around and ran away.

On the second day of September, Xiaocheng.

Cao Chun and three thousand tigers and leopard cavalry crossed the Bishui River overnight. After a short rest in Zhuzhou, he rushed down to the city and prepared to pick up Cao Hong.

Along the way, they were very careful, fearing that they would encounter the main force of the Northern Iron Cavalry, but unfortunately, they had just walked near Xiayi and bumped into the Fengyun Iron Cavalry and the Huben Yulin Camp. A 15,000 army roared from the direction of the Binshui River. The field was trembling violently under the iron hooves, and the deafening roar was shocking.

"Retreat, retreat..." Cao Chun saw the smoke and dust rolling in, and his soul was scattered, and led his army to turn around and run away.

Under the command of the little emperor, the Han army pursued the tiger and leopard cavalry successfully crossed the river. Cao Chun ordered the pontoon bridge to set fire. He knew that Cao Hong and Yu Jin's army had already finished and they could not use this bridge.

"Sir, look..." Suddenly, the tiger and leopard cavalry exclaimed in shock. Cao Chun looked back in shock and saw a flood of smoke rising from the sky between the sky. The northern iron cavalry miraculously appeared behind him.

"Sir, this is an enemy who came from Xiaocheng. Xiaocheng may have lost it."

"Sir, retreat quickly, retreat quickly... back to Pengcheng, return to Pengcheng..."

The horn trembled in the wind, the war horses ran wildly on the galloping road, and the soldiers of the tiger and leopard cavalry lay on the horse's back, trying their best to fly, but it was too late, and the Northern Iron Cavalry rushed in front of them to block the galloping road.

"Woo woo..." The horn of the charge penetrated the huge roar and resounded throughout the battlefield. Lu Bu commanded the Iron Cavalry of Du Liao, and the Iron Cavalry of the Huns spread out with geese. Twenty thousand soldiers rushed towards the enemy in the thunderous sound of killing.

The three thousand tigers and leopards were instantly flooded by the torrent.

The little emperor rushed to the side of the Binshui River, looking at the raging flames on the river and the clouds in the distant sky, and cursed.

Jia Xu, Yan Wuwei, Duan Xuan and others looked sideways and laughed out loud. The little emperor was quite imposing when he started to be angry. Li Xiu stared at him angrily, and the little emperor still didn't realize it. The more he cursed, his little face turned red and he was about to break his temper.

"Hey, have you scolded enough?" Li Xiu couldn't help it, and rode his horse to rush to him and pushed him hard, "You are the emperor of the Han Dynasty. You have to speak more politely, why are you like a horse thief?"

The little emperor spat hard on the ground, turned his head to look at Yan Wuwei, "Where can I find a war?"

"Qicheng..." Yan Wuwei pointed to the guide, "The two generals Lei Chong and Guan Yu dragged the enemy in the Qicheng area. If our speed was fast enough, we should be able to intercept them before they escaped to Xia Picheng."

"Blow the trumpet, blow the trumpet..." The little emperor raised his whip and roared fiercely, "Go south, continue to go south..."

"Your Majesty, this place is one hundred and sixty miles away from Pengcheng." Jia Xu smiled, "Don't you want to go and have a look?"

"It's the matter of the Grand Marshal who surrounds Pengcheng. I just go south to kill the enemy." The little emperor turned his horse's head and waved at the generals repeatedly, "Let's go, let's kill the enemy with me, kill the enemy..."

On the second day of the September 2nd, early in the morning, Suiyang.

The scout reported that the Xuzhou army was retreating urgently towards Qiao County.

"Cao Hong has done this trick?" Wei Xu sneered, looked at Meng Si and sneered, "He thought he could escape from the siege?"

"It's possible," Meng Si smiled, "If General Jiang Wu cannot kill to Dancheng first and block Cao Hong, then the army of Lei Chong and Guan Yu will be attacked from both sides."

"Hmph..." Wei Xu curled his lips disdainfully and turned to the messenger and said, "I urgently told the Grand Marshal that Cao Hong led his army to flee south. We will pursue him and ask him to urgently order Jiang Wu, Lei Chong and Guan Yu to intercept them. After annihilation of Cao Hong, we will fight to Xiapi City with Lei Chong and General Guan Yu."
To be continued...