Chapter 199 Chapter Twenty-Eight

When camping and stationing troops, Xu Huang also ordered the soldiers to dig five stove holes. According to the calculation at the time, one stove could cook food for ten people.Xu Huang dug 70,000 to 80,000 more stoves if he said less.During the march, Xu Huang also made the soldiers deliberately expose their targets, shouting with great fanfare, beating drums and ringing gold. When Zhang Lu's detailed work reported these illusions, everyone except Zhang Wei had no doubts.Zhang Lu hurriedly ordered Zhang Weizheng to dispatch the soldiers guarding Yangping Pass to defend the Xihan River area, but Zhang Wei barely dealt with it, and only sent more than 10,000 people there, and the heavy troops were still in the Yangping Pass area.

After dozens of days of hard marching, Cao Cao's main force finally reached Yangping Pass and joined forces with Xia Houyuan's troops.Zhang Lu was taken aback when he heard the news, "Cao Cao's army appears and disappears like ghosts and ghosts. It's really unpredictable!" Zhang Lu sighed sincerely.Then, the cowardly commander-in-chief of western Sichuan knew that the situation was over, and decided to surrender without a fight. However, Zhang Wei, who was in charge of guarding Yangping Pass, and his general Yang Ang strongly opposed it. Zhang Wei said: "Brother, please don't worry, don't say discouraged words too early, otherwise it will shake the morale of our army. Cao Jun is strong, but after a long journey, food and grass It's hard to help, now we have reached Yangping Pass. It is only at the end of the crossbow that we can't wear Lu Jin. Besides, our army has contacted with Xiahou Yuan's army. In the past year, he has not taken away an inch of my land and grass, and his strength is only mediocre. Our army is in the Yangping Pass has a tall city wall for more than ten miles, how can Cao Jun easily break through it?"

Yang Ang echoed Zhang Weidao: "Master, as the saying goes, 'the cunning rabbit has three caves'. Before Cao Cao's army came, we made full preparations. I discussed with the generals. If Cao Cao came knocking on the pass, we will fight to the death, sir. Retire to Nanzheng and prepare food and grass to help us. If Cao Cao really breaks through the pass, the master can immediately hide in Bazhong to escape the bad luck. Besides, it is still uncertain whether Cao Cao and I will live or die!" Staff officer Yan Pu also agreed with this plan, and Zhang Lu also mustered up his confidence and retreated to Nanzheng in order to support his own troops.

Cao Cao led his army to station more than ten miles away from Yangping Pass. As soon as he settled down, he led his confidants to inspect the terrain of Yangping Pass. Yangpingguan was built between two steep peaks, and a tall city wall of more than ten miles was built along the mountain.Cao Cao saw neat military flags planted on the top of the wall, and a large number of sharp-edged stones piled up every few dozen steps on the top of the wall.Cao Cao knew in his mind that it seemed that there was a price to be paid for attacking the city and breaking through the barriers. Cao Cao personally supervised the battle and ordered the vanguard officer Xiahou Dun to send troops to attack the city for the first time to test the opponent's military strength.

Xiahou Dun, the one-eyed general, took the lead and led 10,000 soldiers to carry the ladder and rushed to the foot of the city. The crossbowmen shot arrows at the top of the city to cover the impact. When Cao Jun rushed to the foot of the city bravely, he saw a red flag on the top of the city, and thousands of soldiers stood up on the Great Wall in an instant, holding stones, and smashing at Cao Jun at the foot of the city.Stones fell like raindrops, some of Cao Jun's hands and feet were broken, some were covered in blood, and his brains burst.Frustrated by the first wave of shock, Cao Cao ordered his soldiers to call Jin to withdraw the army. Zhang Lu's soldiers saw Cao's army retreating on the city wall, cheering thunderously, while Xiahou Dun, who retreated, drooped his head and was extremely depressed.

Cao Cao went to the front line to witness this situation. He comforted the soldiers and said with self-blame: "When Wudu was destroyed, the generals said that Zhang Lu's Taoist soldiers were not strong in combat. Today I saw it with my own eyes, and I realized the evil consequences of trusting others. It seems that no matter what the military situation is, you have to personally analyze it yourself, which is the most reliable!" In the next ten days, Cao Cao ordered his troops to attack the city more than a dozen times in turn, but the progress was still not much, while the number of casualties in his own army continued to increase, and the food was gradually exhausted.

The experienced Cao Cao began to feel a little nervous, and seemed unable to grasp the overall situation of the war.He said to Sima Yi: "I am old and my brain is not working anymore!" Liu Ye considered that the army had been fighting for too long, and the soldiers were troubled by casualties and fatigue, and the morale of the army was also weakened.Especially when the food was running out, the supply of the army became the first crisis, so Cao Cao was suggested to withdraw his troops. Cao Cao thought about it and decided to stop using troops.During this period of time, what pleased him most was that Zhang Liao repelled Sun Quan's attack. However, according to secret reports, some scholars and nobles in Xudu were stepping up their contacts and wanted to take advantage of his opportunity in Longxi to carry out a coup d'état. This became his worry again. .He wrote a letter to Wang Bi, the leader of the imperial forest army, to strengthen his defense work, and there was no other good strategy.

In the end, Cao Cao made the decision to return to the division and withdraw his troops.He ordered Xu Chu, the personal security officer, to go to the front line to recall Xiahou Dun's troops stationed on the mountain.As the troops were dispersed in various parts of the mountain, the massing operation was not completed until nightfall. Seeing that Xu Chu hadn't returned for a long time, Cao Cao was afraid of something unexpected, so he called Liu Ye and said: "Please go to the front line with Xin Ping to check it out. Xu Chu should have returned to his life long ago. I'm very worried..."

Liu Ye nodded, and led dozens of fast horses with Xin Ping, and rushed into the night, the sound of horseshoes gradually faded away.Cao Cao fidgeted in the tent, and came out several times, looking forward to the troops returning soon. In fact, at the same time that Liu Ye and Xin Ping were leaving, Xu Chu led his team through a mountain bay on the way back, and accidentally discovered a relatively large hidden camp of Zhang Wei.Zhang Wei was drinking and having fun inside, when a sentinel came to report: "General, Cao soldiers have come to rob the village." Zhang Wei was startled, pushed away a charming woman nestled in his arms, and knocked over the wine bowl on the table with his hand.

He stammered and asked, "How many people does Cao Jun have?" The sentinel replied: "I don't know yet, because it's too dark, I can only judge by Cao Jun's footsteps that it is a large number of troops." Few people knew of Zhang Wei's camp. He thought to himself: "Probably Yangping Pass has been lost, and his cronies have been arrested, so they betrayed me and told Cao Cao my whereabouts. It is the best policy not to hesitate, to escape first." Zhang Wei Wei then led his army to flee to the mountains in the direction of Nanzheng. Xu Chu was overjoyed when he heard the report from the outpost, and rushed to Zhang Wei's camp with a knife and horse. When he got there, there was only a mess left, and there was not a single Zhang Lu soldier in the empty camp.Xu Chushe went down to the empty stronghold and led his troops in pursuit.

The soldiers in Yangping Pass also heard that Zhang Wei had escaped. When Liu Ye and Xin Ping arrived, most of Cao's army had already entered Yangping Pass. Liu Ye was so happy that he hurriedly edited a book, so that his soldiers rushed to send it to Cao Cao who was waiting for him.