Cao Cao personally took charge of Changping because he had his old rival Pang Yuan in Changping City. Cao Cao looked around and his command was full of talents, but the only people who could compete with Pang Yuan might be Xun You and Cheng Yu. Unfortunately, neither of these two people could come to Changping, so Cao Cao had to take action by himself.

Before the Battle of Changping was about to begin, there was news that Fang Zhiwen crossed the river northward from the south. When Cao Cao heard this news, he had a headache. He leaned on the bed in the big tent. Cao Cao felt very uncomfortable. He was planning to use Xiahou Yuan to bypass Changping and raid Xinji and threaten Xuchang. If the battle was good, he could even take Yingchuan in one fell swoop, close the portal to Sili, making it difficult for Liu Bei's two territories to echo each other, and then slowly solve the problems of Runan and Jingzhou.

Who knew that Fang Zhiwen would suddenly cross the river and head north at this time. Although Fang Zhiwen only occupied Guangling City, which was originally an empty city, Cao Cao could not rest assured. Who knew that Fang Zhiwen would further erode the west? This matter was combined with the previous sudden attack on Mengyin. It was the sharp blade that stabbed Cao Cao's back, one south and one north!

"Oh!"

Cao Cao sighed, and suddenly the voice of Xi Zhicai came from the other side of the screen.

"Why is the lord sighing? But for Fang Zhiwen, he crossed north?"

"Zhicai, you are here, come and talk!"

Xi Zhicai walked around the screen and looked at Cao Cao's expression carefully. Seeing that Cao Cao's expression was still good, he couldn't help but feel relieved. The guard brought a round stool for Xi Zhicai, and Xi Zhicai naturally sat down.

"Are you worried about Fang Zhiwen's Northward Transfer?"

"That's right, whenever I think of Fang Zhiwen sharpening the knife behind me, I feel so uncomfortable, and my head is like there are thousands of troops running back and forth! "

Cao Cao said, pressing his forehead hard, as if he wanted to press back the brains that were about to rush out.

Xi Zhicai smiled and said, "Lord is thinking a little bit!"

"Well? I'm thinking a little bit. Zhi means that Fang Zhiwen's intention to pass north is not what the original image thinks?"

“That’s right!”

"Where does this start?!" Cao Cao suddenly sat upright from the pillow, and his depressed expression just now disappeared!

"Lord, we don't know why Fang Zhiwen's purpose of going north, but we can guess based on his behavior. Let's see if the subordinates guessed correctly!"

"Okay. OK, Zhicai quickly said!"

"Lord, if you were Fang Zhiwen. If you wanted to plot against our army, where would you choose to take action? Guangling?"

"This Guangling is not bad, because Guangling is not eye-catching. Our army has no garrison in Guangling. Relatively speaking, it is much easier to occupy Guangling than elsewhere."

"Well, then even if the lord is right, Fang Zhiwen would rather occupy Guangling than Hexian, Anqing, Xunyang and other places, for the sake of simplicity, so why not choose Haixi? The strategic location there is much more important, and as a battlefield, that direction is more suitable than the water network area around Guangling."

"this"

"Lord. You can't deny that our army has no defensive capabilities on the Yangtze River. Fang Zhiwen actually can log in anywhere, so when we can't defend against a threat, we can only choose not to defend."

"No defense?!"

"Yes, just like Yuan Shao didn't set up defenses on Fang Zhiwen at all, he even transferred all the troops of Taishan County to Lu County, completely treating Xu Huang, who was in a cloud, as his general. Haha, lord, we might as well learn it too!"

"How is this possible?!"

"This is entirely possible. Since we cannot set up defenses everywhere, we can only do not set up defenses. When Fang Zhiwen really starts his operation, we will consider how to fight against it. Before that, we just need to do what we are doing now."

"What is this? How can you think so? In this way, wouldn't you hand over your wealth and life to Fang Zhiwen? This is absolutely not possible!"

Looking at Cao Cao's dark face, Xi Zhicai smiled helplessly. Cao Cao was very cautious, so he felt very poor. It was definitely difficult to make Cao Cao accept such a high-risk strategic route.

"But lord, do we have the ability to defend this long line of defense? How can we defend from Pengguo, Donghai, Xiapi to Huainan, Lujiang? Therefore, what we need to do is to defend the key cities and only defend those key cities. If we really start a full war with Fang Zhiwen, we will mobilize heavy troops to build a front line. Before that, we can only defend the key points!"

Cao Cao frowned, thought for a while, then nodded reluctantly and said, "Okay, even if Zhicai is feasible, then does it have anything to do with Fang Zhiwen's attempt to go north?"

"Yes! If Fang Zhiwen went north to attack our army, then we can't do anything before he started, because we don't know where he would start, so there is no way to defend himself. We can only order all regions to strengthen their vigilance and repair the city defense."

"Uh, that's true!"

"If Fang Zhiwen is just doing things, then we will ignore it even more!"

"Present?"

"Yes! When doing this, Fang Zhiwen's purpose is to hope that our army will fight with Liu Bei and fight with Yuan Shao, and it's best to turn the Central Plains upside down. It's okay to completely destroy the Central Plains. At that time, it will be much easier for Fang Zhiwen to pack up! Now that the lord and Yuan Shao have reconciled, Fang Zhiwen can no longer change this fact, so he must encourage us to fight with Liu Bei, and even support Yuan Shao and Liu Bei to turn against each other. In order to encourage Liu Bei, to prevent Liu Bei from retreating, and to show his position, he has to take the initiative to attack me. This was the case before Mengyin, and the same is true in Guangling now!"

Cao Cao's eyes gradually became brighter, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt it made sense. Choosing Guangling, an inexplicable place from Fang Zhiwen, actually explains the problem. It seems that he is a little worried. Cao Cao subconsciously pressed his forehead and found that his head did not hurt at all, and he was refreshed and energetic!

Le Jin entered Wuping, replaced Xiahou Yuan, and released Xiahou Yuan's cavalry. Xiahou Yuan quickly went south to Chen County, and then quietly moved to the Xihua Fortress that Ji Ling recaptured.

At night, outside the Xihua Fortress was very lively, with trucks of food and grass and teams of pack horses walking out of the Xihua Fortress. The reason I chose to set off at this time was because it happened to be during the day when I arrived near Wenqiang, which could avoid being attacked. Relatively speaking, the safety of approaching Xihua is definitely higher than that of approaching Wenqiang.

However, after leaving people's sight, this large number of logistics troops changed directions. The sacks carried on horseback were immediately thrown away. The carriages were also removed and thrown on the side of the road. It turned out that the sacks were loaded with hay. The soldiers turned over the horses, and then the whole team quickly disappeared into the northwest and into the night.

In the early morning of the next day, Xiahou Yuan first used a small group of troops to pretend to be Liu Bei's army to trick Xinji's city gate, and then the army advanced and captured Xinji City in one fell swoop. He opened the gate to Xuchang, and then Cao Cao abandoned Changping and led his army to advance overnight, rushing into Xinji before Wei Yan arrived.

Cao Cao's move was ruthless, and he immediately tore Liu Bei's defense line into pieces. The Changping position seemed extremely awkward, and the steadily and strong competition became very useless. Once Cao Cao attacked Xuchang, which had few defenders, Liu Bei's western front line would be completely broken. If Cao Cao continued to advance towards Yingyin, then Liu Bei's entire territory might be broken. Yingchuan's status is really important to Liu Bei.

Therefore, Liu Bei immediately ordered Pang Yuan and Wei Yan to give up Changping and retreat to Xuchang, and he also retreated voluntarily from Wenqiang to Linying, echoing Xuchang and making up his mind to defend Yingchuan. At the same time, Gao Lan, who was ordered to retreat to Fugou and defend Xuchang's eastern line.

"Military advisor, this time Cao Cao made a move!"

Wei Yan stood on the city wall and looked at the cavalry of Xiahou Yuan who was wandering in the distance, saying unwillingly. Yesterday he fought with Xiahou Yuan one-on-one and tied. After that, Xiahou Yuan stopped provoking him, but just wandered in the distance, chasing the troops that raided Yiren and the scouts sent in the city.

Pang Yuan shook his feather fan, squinted his eyes and looked at the Cao army cavalry that was stirring up the dust, and said calmly: "It's a matter of time sooner or later. When Cao Cao's main force retreated from the eastern front, our army would be destined to be difficult to maintain the offensive. If the lord accepted the opinions earlier and took the initiative to shrink his defense, Cao Cao would not take advantage of such a loophole."

"Hey~! What should I do next? Passive defense?"

"What else can it be? There are more enemy cavalry on the battlefield now than us. Just preventing these cavalry from infiltration and destruction is a problem. However, if Yiren can be fully utilized, it will not be a big problem. After the defense line is stable, Cao Cao's weakness is that the number of Yiren is insufficient. As long as we bite this point tightly, even if we cannot achieve results in the Chen County direction, it is good to be able to gain time for Jiyin direction."

"But won't Cao Cao turn to attack Chen Liu?"

"This is definitely true, so I said that I should use Yi Ren well. Yi Ren's ability can fully delay and involve Cao Cao's attack, so that Cao Cao dare not divide his troops to go north. When Jiyin has a result, he will concentrate his troops to attack Chen County. However, what Yuan Shao will do then will be a problem!"

"Yuan Shao? This villain is unrighteous, can he still dare to bite a bite?"

"Why not? You all say he is a villain! Haha."

"Uh, if that's the case, it's going to be troublesome!"

"Yes, things have begun to become troublesome, or, at the beginning, someone has led the matter in a complicated direction. I even doubt that when may Gongsun Zan and Sima Fang will be disturbed!"

Wei Yan widened his eyes and asked in disbelief: "How could it be?!"

"Haha, just guess, but it's not completely impossible! I can only wait and see what the truth is!"

Wei Yan shook his head inexplicably, and looked out of the city with a complicated expression following Pang Yuan's gaze. The cavalry of Cao's army had gradually gone away, leaving behind dust in the sky. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!