Tan Ma replied happily: "It will probably arrive at dusk tomorrow. 1 (1)"
Liu Jia quickly said to Zhao Yun: "Jia wants to take a trip to Zilong. I wonder if General Zhao is willing?"
Zhao Yun immediately replied: "I will go there eventually."
At this time, Xu Shu also came out and said: "I would like to accompany the general to attack General Ma and his party."
Liu Jia looked at the two people in front of him with relief, then turned to look at Pang Tong. Pang Tong smiled and said: "This is best. General Ma and his party are short of food and clothing and are weak. They must be followed by Xu Chu's troops. With General Zhao's support and Yuan Zhi's relief, General Ma and his party can come back safely." ¡±
At that moment, Zhao Yun ordered 30,000 elite soldiers to protect the 800 stones of grain and grass, 20,000 sets of cold clothes, and thousands of tents allocated by Xu Shu, and meandered toward the east.
How did Ma Chao escape from danger, and how did he capture so many prisoners?
It is actually very simple to say how to get out of danger. At that time, Ma Chao was blocked from retreating westward by Cao Cao's heavily defended Mi City, and the two main roads to the southwest and south were blocked by Xu Chu, Xia Houyuan, and Cao Ren's tens of thousands. The tightly defended Chang'an is to the east, and to the north are mountains that cannot be crossed by large forces. Therefore, Ma Chao was trapped there and did not dare to move even half a step. The 20,000 hungry and cold troops could only wait for reinforcements. Now that Wei Mi City has been captured and the westward retreat has been cleared, Ma Chaozhou is out of danger and can return.
"It's just that the question of how they captured tens of thousands of prisoners requires a few more words to explain clearly. And this has to start with when Liu Jia and others planned to bomb Cao Cao and sent Ma Dai to infiltrate Ma Chao's troops.
When the soldiers on duty outside the camp reported that Ma Dai had arrived alone, Generals Ma Chao and Zhang Ren, who were discussing matters in the camp, could not help but turn pale with shock. He ran out of the tent in a hurry.
Seeing Ma Dai looking ragged and tired, Ma Chao and Zhang Ren's hearts dropped even more.
Ma Chao grabbed Ma Dai's hand and asked in a trembling voice, ignoring the astonishment of the surrounding soldiers: "Did something happen to the King of Shu? Is the army defeated?"
When Ma Dai heard this, he was stunned at first, and then smiled: "Brother, what are you talking about? How could the King of Shu be defeated? I was ordered by the King of Shu to help my eldest brother escape from danger."
"That's good. That's good. It really scared me just now." Ma Chao said quickly. Zhang Ren also sighed and waved his hands to drive away more and more soldiers who surrounded him.
but. Whether it is Ma Chao, Zhang Ren or the surrounding soldiers, they all still look dubious. They were all guessing that it was because Ma Dai had difficulty telling the truth in front of everyone, and they were worried that telling the truth about the defeat of King Shu would affect their low morale. Otherwise, how could Ma Dai come here in such a state of embarrassment with a few lonely people?
After Ma Chao welcomed Ma Dai into the camp, he withdrew his men, and then asked Ma Dai quietly and nervously: "Brother, should you tell the truth now?"
Ma Dai waved his hand and said with a big smile: "Hi. Brother, can you give me some food here? I am really tired and hungry now. Why have you become so timid all of a sudden?"
As he spoke, he took out a letter sealed in a bamboo tube from his arms and said with a smile: "This is a letter from the King of Shu to my eldest brother. You will know after you read it."
Ma Chao hesitantly took the small bamboo tube that still contained Ma Dai's body temperature, and then he couldn't wait to open the seal and read it at a glance. As he read, the doubts in his heart finally disappeared, and his face showed a happy look.
After reading it carefully again, he ordered the guards outside to bring potatoes and horse meat to Ma Dai. While calling Zhang Ren into the tent, he handed the letter to him who was also anxious.
Ma Dai was obviously hungry. He ate a fistful of potatoes in one bite. After drinking a few sips of water, he raised his head and said, "Are you killing horses for food now?"
Ma Chao nodded painfully: "There is very little food left in the army. Now we divide one day's food and grass into three days. What if we don't kill the horses?" After speaking, he turned to Zhang Ren and said, "General Zhang, just now, it was really Because Chao was afraid in his heart. If the King of Shu really had any shortcomings, I, Ma Chao, would not be able to atone for his sins even if he died a hundred times. If Ma Chao hadn't been greedy for merit and made a mistake and fell into this place, how could the King of Shu and his hundreds of thousands of horses have encountered such a dangerous situation? ?Please General Zhang forgive Ma¡¯s crime.¡±
Zhang Ren waved his hand quickly and said: "Ren understands General Ma's mood very well. Ren's heart went cold just now when he saw General Ma Dai appearing outside the camp gate. General, there is no need to blame himself too much. To be in this situation is not only It was the general's mistake, and Zhang is also responsible. Haha. Now what is not a bad thing has become a good thing? Xu Huang's 60,000 troops were annihilated by the King of Shu. The King of Shu and Cao Cao are in a stalemate, as long as the King of Shu really wins according to what the letter says . Then the Central Plains will definitely become the treasure of King Shu from now on."
To be honest, when Ma Chao screened out Zhang Ren just nowAt that time, Zhang Ren was still a little unhappy. He might have failed to contact the King of Shu. He was really worried about whether Ma Chao and Ma Dai would do something amazing. Now after reading this letter, he finally felt relieved. Come.
Ma Chao swept away the initial feeling of malaise, walked to his seat in a few steps, and said to Zhang Ren: "What does General Zhang think of the King of Shu's plan?"
Zhang Ren thought for a while and said: "Now we can say that we are running out of ammunition and food, so we will bet on it according to the wishes of the King of Shu."
"Yes! I, the general, think so too. If we win, we will be able to enjoy a good life, and if we lose, we will only die a few days earlier." Ma Chao said with high spirits.
After finishing speaking, he shouted loudly outside the account: "Come here!"
A guard came in in response: "The young one is here!"
"Send an order to restore the original supply of food and grass from today. Tomorrow morning no, right now, let General Luo Shan go to the Muloyingzhuang area to conduct reconnaissance to find out the transportation situation of Cao's army." Ma Chao ordered.
"Yes!" The guard bowed, turned around, straightened up, and strode away with a smile on his face full of dishes: Haha, we can have a full meal again.
At noon the next day, General Luo Shan was sent to the reconnaissance area to report: "There is a group of 5,000 grain transport soldiers starting from Chang'an and heading towards Mule Camp. It is estimated that they will arrive at Mule Camp the day after tomorrow."
Ma Chao asked: "How many defenders are there in Mule Camp?"
"There are about 20,000. Among them, there are 600 cavalry."
"Okay! We will rob the five thousand grain transport team." At this point, Ma Chao happily looked at Zhang Ren and Ma Dai on the left and right.
Both of them nodded excitedly.
Luo Shan quickly objected: "General, isn't this inappropriate? Once we set off, Xu Chu's troops will come from behind us, and then"
"Haha, don't worry, General Luo. Things are different now. We just don't want the rear, so we can leave this dilapidated camp to Xu Chu." Ma Chao said happily.
"This" General Luo Shan looked at Ma Chao dumbfounded. Then he looked at the others. Seeing that Zhang Ren and Ma Dai had no objection, I was even more surprised. "Without this camp, where would we have gone even if we had robbed the food and grass? Under the siege and interception of Cao Jun, where would we have settled? The army would collapse in such a cold weather in the wild in just a few days."
General Luo Shan advised him dutifully.
"We just want to fill our stomachs now. Xu Chu doesn't dare to chase us this time. General Luo, just wait and see the show." Ma Chao said with a smile.
"" General Luo Shan hesitated and said nothing more. Although there were many doubts in my mind, I still walked out of the camp: Why didn't Xu Chu have so many people dare not chase him?
Early the next morning, Ma Chao ordered the entire army to set out camp, and not even Pang De's men were left. More than 10,000 cavalrymen and nearly 1,000 infantrymen whose mounts were eaten went towards the east of Mulingyingzhuang without anyone noticing.
However, this so-called unawareness was only temporary. Less than two hours after Ma Chao's troops set off, Xu Chu, who was less than ten miles away from Ma Chao's original camp, received the relevant news. He quickly discussed with Xia Houyuan.
"How dare you Ma Chao to send out the whole army? You don't even want the rear, you don't want your life?" Xu Chu said to Xia Houyuan who only got up after getting the news.
"Could it be that they knew that General Xu Huang's forward camp was occupied and were preparing to attack Wei Mi City together with Liu Jia?" Xia Houyuan said hesitantly.
"Impossible, we have tens of thousands of horses and are not dead. He will be eaten by us before he reaches Yumi City." Xu Chu flatly denied it.
"That's a desperate move! We are trapped to death anyway, why not rush out to grab some food and eat a few meals instead of starving to death." Xia Houyuan said.
"Haha. Since he wants to be a dead ghost, I won't let him do it. It's okay to die if you want." Xu Chu laughed, and then gave a loud order, "Elite soldiers set off! Chase down Ma Chao's son!"
Following the sound of a formation, there was a sound of beating drums, and thousands of elite soldiers, led by Xu Chu and Xia Houyuan, chased Ma Chao's troops. On the way, Cao Jun saw Ma Chao's abandoned camp. The village was full of junk they didn't want, and there wasn't a single soldier left inside.
Ma Chao and others naturally received the news that Cao Jun was chasing after them. Although these Shu soldiers knew that most of them were cavalry and that Cao's soldiers would not be able to catch up in a short time, they all thought that if their troops had no place to stay, they would be overtaken by Cao's army sooner or later. Then they would face Cao's soldiers who were several times more powerful. Cao's soldiers, who had reinforcements everywhere to support them, were in danger, so the Shu soldiers were almost always uneasy.
It was already past noon. Under Ma Chao's order, the Shu soldiers completely ignored the Cao soldiers behind them and ordered the soldiers to??Bury the pot and make rice. After all the soldiers have eaten and drank the Adachi team. Ma Chao stood in front of the team and shouted loudly: "Brothers, were you hungry the past few days?"
"Hungry!" Most of the soldiers didn't know why Ma Chao asked, so they remained silent. Only a few soldiers shouted out their feelings over the past few days.
"Are you cold?" Ma Chao asked loudly again.
Now more people answered: "Cold!"
"Yes, we were cold and hungry the past few days. Do you know why?". Ma Chao asked again.
At this time, the soldiers gave various answers: "Because Cao Jun robbed our food!"
"Because we brought too little!"
"Cao's army is too large."
Ma Chao pressed his hand into the air, and then said loudly: "Be quiet! Yes, it's because we didn't know the weather would get so cold. It's also because a large number of Cao's troops were chasing us."
Having said this, Ma Chao raised his voice and asked loudly: "Do you want to eat well and wear warm clothes?"
"Think!" Everyone said the same thing!
"Okay! In front of us, there are countless grains and grass waiting for us to get, and countless cold clothes waiting for us to get. Brothers, are you willing to wait here to die of cold or starvation, or would you rather fight to death and kill the enemy? And die?"
"I would rather fight to death!"
¡°I don¡¯t want to starve to death!¡±
The soldiers who had eaten and drank suddenly cheered up. Looking at the soldiers with high morale, Ma Chao raised the silver spear in his hand and said loudly: "Let's go! If you are afraid of the enemy, don't kill them first!"
At dusk, a long team of Cao soldiers transporting grain appeared in the eyes of the Shu soldiers from a distance. Perhaps it was because Ma Chao and the others had not taken the initiative to attack during this period, so when Ma Chao's cavalry appeared in Cao Jun's field of vision, Cao Jun, who was preparing dinner, hesitated and did not prepare immediately. It wasn't until the sharp-eyed soldiers saw Ma Chao's flag that they knew it was Shu soldiers coming. Suddenly Cao Bing became panicked.
But soon the leader of Cao¡¯s army rode on a war horse and loudly commanded the panicked people:
"Quiet! Form a circular formation on the mountain immediately!"
"They are the Ma Chao troops who are besieged by us. Don't be afraid, please plan your actions before departure. As long as we persist for a few hours, our reinforcements from all directions will arrive."
¡¡
Under the orderly command of General Cao Jun, Cao Jun quickly formed two semicircular formations at the foot of the mountain using the mountain. The troops in front formed a small formation because they could not retreat. The large army at the back door formed a large formation. The so-called formation is to use their food, grass, and vehicles to form a wall in front of the team to prevent the cavalry from rushing directly into the team to kill. Behind this wall are archers and spearmen, followed by swordsmen. When the cavalry is far away, the archers start to shoot. When the enemy is close, the spearmen stab and kill them. Then the archers retreat slightly and the swordsman steps forward to kill. As for the migrant workers who transported food, they were ordered to carry stones, bows and arrows Obviously these Cao soldiers are well-trained troops.
The Shu soldiers were not surprised. Under the command of Ma Chao, the team first attacked the small semicircular formation in front. Although Cao Jun was tenacious, they had no choice but to outnumber the enemy. The troops of less than a thousand people were defeated in less than an hour. They were all chopped down by the highly motivated Shu soldiers. Except for the more than a thousand migrant workers who were hacked to death and trampled to death by the rebels, the rest became prisoners. The grain, grass and horses in the small round formation naturally fell into the hands of the Shu soldiers. Of course the Shu soldiers also suffered losses;
Next, the Shu soldiers attacked the Cao soldiers in the large circle formation. The difficulties encountered by the Shu soldiers were obviously much greater. The cavalry rushing in front were shot down by Cao Jun in batches. After charging close, they broke through Cao Jun's "protective wall" several times, but they were quickly pushed back by Cao Jun who was desperate for their lives. The damaged "protective wall" will soon be filled in.
After several charges were ineffective, the Shu soldiers who came from a long distance were tired and their morale dropped step by step. In addition, the Xu Chu troops following behind got closer step by step. Ma Chao decisively ordered to stop the attack. Let the soldiers go southeast with the captured grain, horses, prisoners, and dinner that Cao's army had no time to eat.