(ps: Double monthly pass has started, please give me a monthly pass!)
When it was confirmed that Boss Cao was about to die of illness, Deputy Director Tao, who had already secured victory, suddenly ordered to abandon the sneak attack and prohibited Zhao Yun and Wei Yan's troops, who were less than three miles away from Cao's camp, from launching an attack. After lingering outside Cao's camp for more than half an hour, Deputy Director Tao simply ordered the troops to retreat, ending the camp robbery with an anticlimax. .
Deputy Director Tao never explained why he did this to the generals. Seeing that Deputy Director Tao looked unkind, the Xuzhou generals did not dare to ask, until the Xuzhou army successfully withdrew its camp, and the troops returned to their respective units in units. After resting in the camp, the Xuzhou generals gathered again in the Chinese military commander's tent, waiting for Deputy Director Tao's explanation.
As a dictator with sole power, Deputy Director Tao certainly has the right to refuse to answer the purpose of all his actions. However, the decision made by Deputy Director Tao this time was too big and had a profound impact on the development of the war. Therefore, Deputy Director Tao After pondering for a long time with a melancholy expression, the director finally said to the Xuzhou civil and military ministers who had already arrived: "Gentlemen, generals, you must be very surprised. We sent troops to rob the camp this time, and the enemy was clearly unprepared. Why should I Are you going to suddenly give an order to abandon this operation?"
"I'm not hiding anything from you." Deputy Director Tao cleared his throat and said calmly: "Because I have received reliable information that our enemy's coach Cao Mengde is terminally ill and will die tonight. Maybe by this time he has already He died, so I decided to order the troops to retreat."
Deputy Director Tao's words seemed to drop a thunder in the Chinese army's tent. The Chinese army's tent exploded immediately. Except for a few insiders, almost every Xuzhou civil and military officer was speechless and then screamed. He said, "Lord, Cao Cao is going to die? Is it true? If it is true, why did you order to stop the attack when there is such a good opportunity?"
"Quiet, quiet." Deputy Director Tao waved his hand to silence the accomplices and lackeys, and then said expressionlessly: "To be honest, I feel a little impulsive now, because the information I received is that Mr. Cao is likely to die. Tonight, it is not that Cao ** will definitely die tonight. Maybe Cao ** will survive tonight and his condition will improve tomorrow. Such a situation is not impossible. However, I will never regret what I just did. This decision was made.¡±
"Lord, what do you mean by this? Why do you, the general, become more and more confused as you listen?" Wei Yan asked very puzzledly: "Since Cao Cao is likely to die tonight, our army has the upper hand and can just launch an attack." Victory is certain, so why did you, my lord, give the order to stop the attack? Why did you say that even if the Cao thieves survive the night and survive the night, you will never regret the decision to stop the attack?"
"Two reasons." Deputy Director Tao replied: "First, humans are not grass and trees, how can we be ruthless? Back then, at the gate of Xuzhou City, Mr. Cao spared me once and helped me with a fake oil pan. Although he and I have always been at odds with each other and hated each other, I still keep this kindness in my heart, so in order to repay his kindness, I decided to let him spend the last night of his life in peace, so that he would not He will surely die under the sword of our army, and there is no need to worry about the loyal and brave soldiers under his command when he is dying."
What happened to Deputy Director Tao and Boss Cao in Xuzhou City when he first time traveled has been spread all over the world over the years. Of course, everyone in Xuzhou's civil and military officials is also aware of this, and they have often ridiculed Boss Cao in private. He let the tiger return to the mountains and dug his own grave. He even cursed Boss Cao for getting water in his head and raising tigers, which gave Deputy Director Tao the opportunity to bring harm to the world - such as the surrender of Jizhou generals before they surrendered to Deputy Director Tao. So after hearing Deputy Director Tao's explanation, Xuzhou Wenwu all shut their mouths. In addition to continuing to regret missing this God-given opportunity, they also discovered for the first time that Deputy Director Tao, who was notoriously evil-hearted and rotten, actually had a little bit of humanity.
"The second reason is that I have to let Cao's army understand my intentions." Deputy Director Tao said calmly: "Everyone knows that when Cao Cao led his army to invade Xuzhou and massacred more than 20 cities, this blood debt has been paid to this day. It has not yet been completely settled. The officers and soldiers of Cao's army who participated in that war are now the core members of Cao's army. It is impossible to guarantee that they will not worry that I will find them to settle old and new accounts together. They will definitely be involved in a battle with our army. Fight to the end. In order to tell them that I no longer care about what happened back then and have forgiven them, I ordered the attack to stop and let them understand that I can even forgive Cao **, the culprit, let alone them? "
Almost all the civil and military officials in Xuzhou continued to remain silent. Only Qin Yi, the veteran general who was involved in the battle back then, stood up and said cautiously: "My lord, are you really not going to pursue Cao Cao's blood debt? In those days, our northern cities in Xuzhou, but It¡¯s so miserable to be harmed by Cao¡¯s thieves.¡±
"When is the time to retaliate? Let him let go of the past." Deputy Director Tao sighed: "It will be easy for me to kill Mr. Cao tonight, but I will kill them all in the future."??Cao's subordinates who participated in the massacre of the city in Xuzhou are not hopeless, but if I do this, the soldiers and civilians of Xuzhou who were massacred back then can survive? Speaking of blood debts, who among the people here, including me, does not have more or less blood debts of human life on their hands? Do we still want to kill all the three tribes of those who were killed by me, so as to avoid future troubles forever? The blood debt in Xuzhou is over, and no one will mention it from now on. "
Qin Yi lowered his head and was speechless, with some tears appearing in the corners of his eyes. Jia Laowu, who was the first among the civil servants, saw what Qin Yi was worried about, so he stood up and comforted Qin Yi: "General Qin, my lord, this is not a woman's kindness. , He was thinking about the overall situation. If our army takes advantage of the situation and kills Cao Cao tonight, then Cao Ang, who has been established as the legitimate son by Cao Mengde, will inevitably collude closely with Liu Bei's thieves in order to avenge his father. The core backbone of Cao's army is worried about our army settling old accounts. I will definitely support Cao Ang in joining forces with the Big Ear Bandits, and then working together with the Big Ear Bandits to resist our army tenaciously."
"If such a situation really occurs, the consequences will be serious." Jia Laohu added: "At that time, not only will our soldiers make many unnecessary sacrifices, but our army's war to dominate the world will also inevitably be delayed for a long time. Because the rest of Cao's army has no choice but to unite closely with the Big Ear bandits, and even be willing to be annexed by the Big Ear bandits. By then, the strength of the Big Ear bandits will be greatly increased. They will have the Hanzhong granary to gain a foothold and the Qinling natural barrier to hold on. We If the army wants to eliminate him, it will be even more difficult, and the soldiers and civilians all over the world will suffer more because the big-eared thief cannot be eliminated, and the war cannot be subsided for a long time."
Speaking of this, Mr. Jia Poison sighed and said: "General Qin, the fact that you shed tears because my lord is unwilling to avenge his murdered companions and the people is enough to prove that you are an emotional person, so in order to let you The old man from Xuzhou vented his anger and caused the people all over the world to suffer from the flames of war for a long time. How can you bear it?"
Qin Yi finally cried out, knelt down on his knees to Deputy Director Tao, kowtowed and said, "My lord, I will no longer avenge my brothers, nor my colleagues and subordinates. My lord's good intentions, The last general also understands everything." The generals in Xuzhou also knelt down together and praised Deputy Director Tao's hypocrisy and virtue.
Deputy Director Tao sighed, first asked the generals to stand up, and then personally helped Qin Yi, and said guiltily: "For the sake of the overall situation, I can only let down you old people left behind by my father, but you can rest assured that I will be responsible for my future." You must be compensated, and I hope General Qin can write to the old people in Xuzhou to tell them my difficulties and persuade them to be like you and understand what I have done."
Qin Yi nodded with tears in his eyes and promised to immediately write to Lu You, Xu Dan and Zhang Jie, all old people from Xuzhou, to explain the difficulties of Deputy Director Tao. Deputy Director Tao ordered Qin Yi and a group of old people from Xuzhou to be promoted to one rank each. Fifty towns to appease the old people left behind by the cheap dad. Finally, Deputy Director Tao ordered the army to display the banner of serving the country and bringing peace to the people, and strictly prohibited Xuzhou soldiers from killing innocent people indiscriminately. He stated that anyone who kills one person indiscriminately will pay for his life, so as to strictly enforce military discipline and win over the hearts of the people.
It was also at the end that Qin Yicai asked Deputy Director Tao: "My Lord, there is another question. Why do you say that if Thief Cao does not die tonight, or even gets better, you will not regret giving up the attack tonight?"
"It's very simple." Deputy Director Tao replied: "If Mr. Cao doesn't die tonight, he will definitely understand that I am repaying him for his life back then, and I am also showing goodwill to his soldiers. Under his inner guilt, Our future accounts will be much easier to deal with. At the very least, Mr. Cao will not let his troops still fight to the death with our army after his death."
The night passed quickly, and early the next morning, Xuzhou scout Pegasus, who was sent to scout Cao Jun's camp, reported back, saying that he found that Cao Jun's camp was mostly empty. Only Zhang He led the rear army to clean the camp and take away all the baggage that could be taken away. Transfer to Hangu Pass. Upon learning of this situation, Deputy Director Tao, who had already spared Cao's troops once, did not hesitate and immediately ordered Zhao Yun to lead an army to attack Zhang He's rear troops. He also specifically ordered to capture more prisoners in order to grasp the enemy's situation.
When Zhao Yun's troops rushed to the front of Cao Jun's camp, they encountered almost non-existent resistance. Cao Jun's rear troops led by Zhang He had no fighting spirit at all and immediately fled into the Hangu Pass and piled some heavy baggage. He lit it in the valley road and used the fire to block the pursuit of Zhao Yun's troops. Zhao Yun easily captured Cao Jun's camp and captured some Cao Jun soldiers who had not fled into the valley. After being comforted and interrogated, Cao Jun soldiers truthfully confessed that the Chinese army had killed them last night. There were cries all over the place, and Cao Jun had already begun to retreat at the fourth watch, but these ordinary Cao soldiers had no idea whether Boss Cao was dead.
Zhao Yun sent the news back to the camp. Deputy Director Tao was also afraid that his father-in-law was trying to cheat his death to lure the enemy, so he did not immediately send troops to attack Hangu Pass, but sent more scouts to carefully detect the movements of Cao's army. One day later, another detective report came soon, saying that only a small number of Cao's troops were left to defend Hangu Pass, and the main force had already evacuated Hangu Pass and fled to the west.??After the main force of Cao's army withdrew from Hangu Pass and reached the open area to the west, the army immediately raised the white flag and screamed to the ground. After hearing the news, Deputy Director Tao lamented, and then he finally believed that his father-in-law had been killed by him.
Lamenting, lamenting, before confirming the attitude of Boss Cao's traitor Cao Ang, Deputy Director Tao did not dare to take it lightly. He immediately ordered Ma Yan to lead his army to attack Hangu Pass, and sent a messenger to inform the partial division commander Zang Ba of the death of Boss Cao. , ordered Zang Ba to step up the attack on Jiguan, pursue with all his strength Cao's army, which might abandon Jiguan at any time and retreat to Hedong, and not give Cao's army a chance to concentrate on Tongguan and hold on.
When the Xuzhou army attacked Hangu Pass, they encountered strong and unusual resistance from the Cao army who stayed at Hangu Pass. Xiahou Shang, who was ordered to stay behind, personally went into battle and led the Cao army officers to wildly resist the Xuzhou army's attack on the pass. Ma Yan's troops were covered by thick smoke. Under such circumstances, Hangu Pass was still not captured in the daytime. It was not until dusk that Deputy Director Tao sent Wei Yan to lead the absolutely elite Danyang rogue soldiers to reinforce the attack. Only then did they enter Hangu Pass after it became completely dark. What shocked the Xuzhou soldiers was that there were only more than 1,200 Cao soldiers guarding Hangu Pass. Xiahou Shang, who was responsible for staying behind, still refused to surrender after being killed and surrounded by Xuzhou legions. Shouting the slogan that I will hold on for three days, he stormed into the densely populated area of ????Xuzhou soldiers and fought hard to death. Deputy Director Tao sighed again when he heard the news, and ordered Xia Houshang to be put into a coffin and buried alive.
After Xia Houshang sacrificed his life to block it for a day, the Xuzhou army lost the best opportunity to pursue the main remnant of Cao's army. Although Deputy Director Tao sent Zhao Yun to lead the army to pursue overnight, the narrow Xiaohan Road west of Hangu Pass made the pursuit inconvenient. , so Zhao Yun's army still failed to catch up with the enemy's main force before Cao's army retreated to Xin'an. The main force of Cao's army, with Zhang Liao as the temporary commander, moved quickly with light chariots, escorting Cao's coffin all the way to the west, traveling hundreds of miles a day. Zhao Yun was afraid that he would be alone. He went too deep, so he had to send someone to report to Deputy Director Tao for instructions on whether to persist in the pursuit to the end?
After the messenger sent by Zhao Yun delivered the news to Deputy Director Tao, Deputy Director Tao, who had just led his troops to Hangu Pass, looked a little ugly. He wanted to pursue him to the end with all his strength, but Mr. Jia persuaded Deputy Director Tao to give up the pursuit. Because Jia Laohu, who had accompanied Mr. Dong on many trips to Xiaohan Road, was well aware of the geography of Guanzhong. He pointed out that Xiaohan Road had high mountains and narrow roads, leaving little room for detours. Cao¡¯s army would definitely have a heavy rear, and there would not only be little hope for an all-out pursuit. To defeat the main force of Cao's army, there is a possibility that he might accidentally fall into an ambush due to unfamiliarity with the geography and the depth of the lone army. Deputy Director Tao, who listened to Jin's advice, had no choice but to order Zhao Yun's team to suspend the pursuit and station on the spot, waiting for the main force to move westward to rendezvous.
At this point, the first phase of the Xuzhou Army's Western Expedition came to an end. Although the Xuzhou Army failed to seize the opportunity to annihilate the main force of Cao's Army to the west of Tongguan, it still managed to kill the leader of Cao's Army, Boss Cao, and achieved a decisive victory, leaving the group without a leader. The main force of Cao's army could only abandon Hangu Pass and Jiguan and withdraw to Tongguan to reorganize defense. At the same time, the Xuzhou partial division led by Zang Ba also performed well. After Cao Jun's partial division Ren Jun led the main force to abandon Jiguan, he quickly moved his troops to attack the pass and forced Cao Jun's troops staying at the pass to surrender. They launched a timely pursuit and bit the tail of Ren Jun's troops, which basically ensured After completing the task of not allowing Ren Jun's troops to evacuate to Tongguan, Cao's eldest brother-in-law Ren Jun, who was hotly pursued by Zang Ba, did not dare to risk crossing the Yellow River. He could only lead his army in Anyi to join forces with Cao Jun's Hedong governor Pei Mao to defend the city. , the remaining forces of Cao's army were forced to disperse.
Surviving Boss Cao to death has another benefit for the Xuzhou Army, that is, Cao's army is about to face a critical moment of power transition. At the same time, Cao Ang, the only rebel designated by Boss Cao during his lifetime, is also the only one among Boss Cao's disciples who has a strong influence on the Xuzhou Army. The son who has a good impression of him is naturally far better than Cao Pi, Cao Zhi and others who hate Deputy Director Tao so much that Xuzhou army theoretically has hope of recruiting the remaining troops of Cao's army. Therefore, after taking Hangu Pass, Deputy Director Tao not only sent a message to local officials in various places in the pass to recruit Cao's army to surrender, but also immediately arranged for Jiang Gan, the most fearless of death among his advisers, to attack. On the pretext of paying homage to Boss Cao, he rushed to Chang'an and took the opportunity to contact Cao Ang and Xun Yu and others tried to recruit him to surrender.
Deputy Director Tao wanted to recruit the remnants of Cao's army, but someone was thinking about how to devour the remnants of Cao's army, including their skin and bones. When the news of Boss Cao's death reached Hanzhong, Uncle Liu laughed proudly and rejoiced that one of his mortal enemies, Boss Cao, had died tragically and immediately made an excuse. He reinforced the troops of his ally Cao Jun, leaving Xu Shu and Guan Ping to guard Hanzhong to supply grain and grass. He personally led Pang Tong, Zhang Fei and other civil and military troops and an army of 30,000 people to the north to disperse the pass, and quickly rushed to Chang'an to "rescue" the remainder of Cao's army.
In order to prevent Cao Ang, who was staying in Chang'an, from resisting and misunderstanding his good intentions, Emperor Liu not only did not dare to take the shortcut to the Ziwu Valley directly to Chang'an, he also sent an envoy directly to Chang'an before setting off, telling Cao Ang that the purpose of sending troops was to help Cao's army resisted the Xuzhou army and prepared to rest in Chencang. After confirming that Cao Ang agreed to march eastward, it would not be too late to march towards Chang'an - anyway, the main force of the Xuzhou army would not be able to march fast in order to ensure the supply of food and grass. However, Uncle Liu Huang was soon pleasantly surprised??I found that all my worries were in vain, because when the main force of the emperor's uncle's army was still marching hard on the rugged mountain road of Chencang Road, Cao Ang had already sent an envoy for help, asking Uncle Liu to send troops to Guanzhong as soon as possible to help him. The army resisted the Xuzhou Army's offensive.
"Okay, okay." After reading the respectful letter for help written by Cao Ang, Liu Huangshu's face suddenly turned into a flower. He happily smiled at Pang Tong and Zhang Fei on the left and right: "Cao Ang's nephew is so good. Urgent for help, it seems that we can¡¯t do anything if we don¡¯t rush to Chang¡¯an for rescue as soon as possible. Send an order to the whole army to speed up the march. We must reach Chang¡¯an before the Tao thieves arrive at Tongguan, so that Cao Ang¡¯s nephew can feel at ease.¡±
Pang Tong and Zhang Fei laughed and agreed, and then Zhang Fei went to deliver the order to the troops in person. However, Pang Tong mysteriously came to Liu Huangshu's ear and whispered: "My lord, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi sent people to send reports. Cao Ang is It was the idea of ??Cao Ang's confidant Sima Yi to immediately send an envoy to ask for help. Although Xun Yu came forward to object and Cao Ang hesitated for a while, Sima Yi didn't know what he said to Cao Ang behind his back, so Cao Ang skipped Xun Yu and sent an envoy directly to ask for help."
"Sima Yi?!" Uncle Liu Huang was stunned at first, then smiled happily and said: "I never had the chance to tell Shi Yuan before. In fact, I have known Sima Yi for a long time. Back then, the emperor was deceived by the thief Yang Hong and took him south. On the way Without food, Sima Yi, whose home was burned down by Li Guo's rebels, gave the emperor his secret stash of food. He was dragged southward by the ungrateful Xuzhou bandit army. It was I who rescued him from the clutches of the Tao bandits. He knelt in front of me and cried bitterly. He thanked me profusely and vowed to repay me generously, but I didn¡¯t expect that this guy kept his promise and really repaid me."
"So my lord has such a connection with Cao Ang's confidant Sima Yi?"
Liu Huangshu's city was very deep. This was the first time Pang Tong learned about this from Liu Huangshu. After being surprised, Pang Tong was inevitably overjoyed and said happily: "Cao Zhi married our army, Cao Pi took the initiative to move closer to our army, and Cao Ang's confidant Sima Yi returned. Thanks to the lord's great kindness, it seems that we are in an invincible position this time when we go north to rescue the remnants of Cao's army." (To be continued.