Chapter 34 Difficult to fight

In a bloody battle to the west of Pengcheng, almost all the elite troops of Bingzhou under Lu Bu's tent were wiped out, and even all of them died in the camp, and three generals Cao Xing, Wei Xu, and Xu Dan were defeated.Xuzhou, Yanzhou, and Danyang soldiers were pursued by Chen Deng, and countless people fled to death. Only a thousand people finally returned to Xiapi. Cao Cao took advantage of the situation to besiege Pengcheng, intending to lure Lv Bu into battle.However, Lv Bu learned from the lessons he had learned in Yanzhou, and defended Xiapi without sending reinforcements, and ordered the defenders in Xuzhou's cities to fortify the walls and clear the fields.In view of the situation in Hebei, Cao Cao did not dare to delay, so he attacked the city for three consecutive days and nights, broke through Pengcheng, and captured Hou Kai, the prime minister of Pengcheng appointed by Lu Bu.In order to shake the situation in Xuzhou, Cao Cao used his trump card and ordered the massacre of all the people in the city;

Faced with such a threat, the weakness of the Lu Bu Group became more and more prominent.He originally went into exile in Xuzhou, and absorbed armies from various places along the way. These armies had their own commanders and it was difficult to merge them. In addition, Xuzhou had been divided and chaotic since Tao Qian's time. Therefore, Lu Bu's rule did not have a strict system, but was closer to a military alliance.In this alliance, various factions cooperate with each other and fight against each other, but the absolute main force of the Bingzhou soldiers plays a deterrent role, because with them, other factions will bow their heads and obey their ears.Now Lu Bu's left general title has been revoked by Cao Cao in the name of the court, and the elite of Bingzhou are dead and injured.Lu Bu has neither the title to rule Xuzhou nor the strength to protect everyone. Who will follow him?The counties of Donghai, Pengcheng, Langya, and Xiapi opened their doors and surrendered one after another, and Xiapi became an isolated city in an instant!

Only then did Lu Bu realize that sticking to the line would not solve the problem, so he sent Zhang Liao again to contact Zang Ba, Wu Dun, Sun Guan and others who were in the coastal separatists, intending to join forces; he also sent Xu Si and Wang Kai, the rebel generals from Yanzhou, to Huainan and agreed to Yuan Shu's plan. On the condition of becoming a son and daughter in-laws, he called for reinforcements from his former enemies. But Cao Cao didn't give him any room to breathe. He marched rapidly from Pengcheng, and within a few days he had already entered the boundary of Xiapi.Once the city was besieged, there was no way to fight, and Lu Bu had no time to wait for rescue, so he had to gather the remnants of the defeated generals and reluctantly send troops, trying to stop Cao Cao's progress.

Cao Cao had already prepared for this battle.When arranging the formation of the marching army, Shi Huan, Lu Zhao, Wang Tu, Cai Yang, Jia Xin, Hu Zhi, Niu Gai, Niu Jin, Zhang Xi and other young generals were sent to lead the team with their own soldiers. Chen Deng and Chen Deng gave strategies to defeat the enemy.Considering that Lv Bu was brave enough to attack the coach, Cao Cao deliberately moved the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to the end of the team.So as soon as they got the report from the scouts, everyone went their own way in an orderly manner—the teams spread out in a fan shape to make room for the battle; Cheng Yu and Chen Deng led their entourages to act according to the plan; the tiger and leopard cavalry guard Cao Cao boarded a high rise behind Slope, overlooking the entire battlefield.

Among the sergeants, there were many veterans who had gone through the Battle of Puyang. They told their companions about Lu Bu's majesty, and they almost praised him as a magic soldier, as if he would immediately shake the mountain when he appeared.Unexpectedly, when Lu Bu led his troops to the front, everyone was discouraged--Lu Bu was still dressed in the same outfit: wearing a purple gold crown with three-pronged hair on his head, wearing a red gold animal-face chain armor, and a Xichuan red brocade battle robe with a hundred flowers on his shoulder. A sparrow bow painted in gold lacquer, an exquisite lion girdle around the waist, silver silk kneepads on the legs, tiger-headed combat boots on the feet, and a red rabbit horse straddling a golden saddle; All sides of the prestige.However, the Bingzhou iron cavalry that was inseparable and gave him majesty no longer exists!

The soldiers who followed Lu Bu were miserable, they were dressed in different colors, they were of different heights, and they had both long and short hands.Bingzhou soldiers, Xuzhou soldiers, and Yanzhou soldiers have all disrupted the organizational system, and they are grouped together temporarily. There are only a hundred horsemen, and even some of them are young men who were temporarily captured from Xiapi City.Along the way, many people were booing and sluggish, and the two generals Gao Shun and Cheng Lian who were in charge of the team had to keep yelling at them to keep the formation—this battle has not yet been fought, and the victory or defeat is already known at a glance .

Cao Cao sat on the top of the hill with the command flag in his arms. Seeing such a scene, he couldn't help but smile: "Even if you have the courage to overlord, use this remnant army to defeat the general, and the result is not killing yourself in Wujiang?" Holding up the painting halberd, ordering the whole army to charge - this is not a war, it is a life-threatening! When the miscellaneous soldiers heard the order, they didn't even bother to shout the word "kill". They raised their weapons and rushed forward tremblingly.And all the forwards listed in Cao Jun's forward are newly promoted young generals, who belong to the generals' accounts. Today, Cao Cao singled them out to charge, and these people are holding back to kill the enemy and make contributions to their future!As soon as they saw such a fierce soldier coming, they urged their mounts to lead their own soldiers and rushed forward.

When the two armies met, without hearing any movement, a large area fell on Lu Bu's side.When the people behind saw that the one in front had already been sent to death, they cried in fear and were about to disperse, and more people fled backward than rushed forward. Seeing that the battle was about to end, suddenly a red shadow rushed into the battle group.Fang Tian waved the halberd in Lu Bu's palm to the left, and a dozen or so weapons flew flying;After all, Lu Bu is Lu Bu, and just one man and one horse is enough to keep a large group of Cao soldiers busy.But seeing Fang Tian painting a halberd up, down, left, and right, he had already killed the cao soldiers beside him, and no one dared to approach him within a few feet of his horse.Then he yelled loudly, jumped up from the red rabbit horse and jumped into the formation of Cao Jun. He jumped in the crowd like chopping melons and vegetables, looking like a devil and crazy, scaring Cao Bing to avoid .Gao Shun and Cheng Lian also arrived, piercing the formation with two spears. Then, only a hundred cavalry quickly followed, all of them were in a desperate posture, no matter how many Cao soldiers were on the opposite side, they held their weapons. Close your eyes and stab, killing one is enough money, killing two is profitable!The general has the heart of death, and the soldiers have no greed for life. It is these few soldiers and horses that resist Cao Jun's offensive.As soon as they killed like this, the miscellaneous soldiers who had originally retreated were dumbfounded, and suddenly realized that there was still a possibility of victory in this battle, they all rushed back to help out with their weapons.

Cao Cao looked a little foolish from the mountain, he never expected that the battle with a certain chance of winning would be like this.The battle was so tense that it was breathless, the clash of weapons caused chilling crashes, and the horses neighed and charged back and forth.Blood erupted from time to time like flames, and where the forwards of the two armies fought hand-to-hand, everyone was killed like a gourd of blood; the fallen corpses were trampled into pieces of mud by combat boots and horseshoes. Cao Cao bent down and narrowed his eyes to look for Lu Bu.I saw that his eyes were bloodshot at this moment, his face and body were covered with sticky blood, and he shouted "Kill!" while swinging the halberd to stab and sweep.Just when he saw a cavalryman slashing at him in the chest with a saber, Lu Bu dodged his body and stabbed the painted halberd into his stomach. Cao Bing then swung the bloody corpse into the crowd with a flick of the air, and knocked down a large area... At this moment, the young general Cai Yang was approaching him, and when he saw Lu Bu throwing out the corpse with his painted halberd high, he raised his gun and shot at him. Stabbed at his armpit; before Lu Bu could retract his halberd and grab it with his left hand, he held the point of the spear in his hand and pulled back with all his strength - even the spear and the person were thrown to the ground, but fortunately several soldiers He forgot to save his life, and dragged Cai Yang away from the red rabbit's horse's hoof, only to save his life.

Lu Bufang tore Cai Yang off, and on the other side, two big sabers, Niu Jin and Niu Gai, arrived again; he hurriedly turned around and swung the halberd - the two sabers flew away without a trace!The second general lost his weapon and was so frightened that he pulled his horse and ran away.Lu Bu hadn't retracted his halberd when suddenly he felt a golden wind rushing towards the back of his head.It turned out that among the young generals, Zhang Xi was the smartest, and he created a bloody path, and went around behind him to strike.It was expected that the shot was inevitable, but Lu Bu suddenly pulled the red rabbit's mane - the red rabbit immediately lowered its head and lifted its hind hooves.Zhang Xi's spear brushed past Lu Bu's head, but the Chitu horse's hind hoof kicked Zhang Xi's mount on the neck.The beast jumped up and down in pain, and actually carried Zhang Xi towards the direction of his soldiers...

Cao Cao couldn't stand it any longer, stood up abruptly, and shouted: "The rear team shoots arrows!" After the order was passed, Cao Jun's rear team immediately released a rain of arrows, and the landing point happened to be where the two armies met.No matter whether it was Lu Bu's soldiers or Cao's soldiers, many of them were hit by the arrows. The soldiers on both sides were puzzled and naturally retreated two steps. In this moment of stupefaction, Cao Cao raised his command flag and swayed it left and right in the air——the hill to the east of the battlefield burst into drumming and music, and a white flag was erected on the hill, with the words "Yanzhou people come to surrender" written on it.Cheng Yu, Li Dian, and Lu Qian stood under the banner, surrounded by Yanzhou soldiers, shouting their native dialect at the top of their voices. There are quite a few Yanzhou people in Lu Bu's army, who defected there with Chen Gong back then.These soldiers had been oppressed by Bingzhou people for a long time, but they dared not flee because of Lu Bu's prestige.Suddenly hearing the local accent on the battlefield, and seeing the general from his hometown, everyone felt that it was time to go home, and a few of them ran eastward immediately.As soon as one ran, a group followed, and Yanzhou soldiers left the battle line in a steady stream. "Don't leave!" Lü Bu was furious, and swung his halberd to kill two people who wanted to run away; seeing that they couldn't stop the deserters, he wanted to rush up the hill and kill the flag to kill.At this time, it was heard that there was another commotion on the top of Xishou Mountain, and a white flag was erected saying "Xuzhou people come to surrender".Chen Deng, Chen Jiao, and Xu Xuan stood under the flag, and the Xuzhou soldiers who had recently surrendered to Cao were beating drums and gongs to greet fellow villagers—suddenly, the Xuzhou deserters under Lu Bu's tent also opened the gate! People from Yanzhou fled to the east, and people from Xuzhou fled to the west.Lu Bu suddenly felt a chill, as if all the blood had been drained from his body, and he looked back - only a group of panting Bingzhou fellows were left. Originally, the enemy was outnumbered, but now more than half of them ran away, Lu Bu really couldn't fight anymore.Seeing that Cao Jun had attacked again, he turned Chitu and shouted, "Retreat!" and galloped out of the battle formation first.As soon as he fled, the remaining soldiers hurriedly followed. Cao Jun chased and killed him for a while, and many exhausted Bingzhou soldiers were stabbed under their horses with random guns. Although he won, Cao Cao couldn't be happy at all. The command flag in his hand fell to the ground, and he let out a sigh of relief: "Oh...it's the end of the fight, I'm sweating...let's go down the mountain!" Before he got down to the foot of the mountain, he saw Shi Huan Zong dragging a bloody prisoner galloping towards him, and he shouted from a long distance, "Report to Duke Cao, Cheng Lian will eventually be captured!" "Let him go!" Learning from Cao Xing's suicide last time, Cao Cao hurriedly got off his horse, stood on the hillside and cupped his hands, "General Cheng, thank you for your hard work." Cheng Lian was shot in the thigh, and was dragged by Shi Huan for a while, his face was blurred with blood, he couldn't stand up, and it took a lot of effort to barely sit still.He was not as stubborn as Cao Xing, he just sighed, "Oh...it's God's will..." "It's not God's will, it's people's hearts!" Cao Cao led his horse and walked down the hill, "Although Lu Fengxian has the courage of Xiang Yu, how did the soldiers and the people really turn to him? Relying on force alone without cultivating benevolence failed in Yanzhou in the past , It will also fail in Xuzhou today." Cheng Lian was speechless for a while, and finally raised his head and said slowly: "As Cao Gong said, my general is not a talent for life. To say something from the heart, thinking of what we have done these years, the general often feels like a light I'm backing it!" Indeed, Lu Bu's men were capricious and plundered the people, and they had killed too many people. Seeing his remorse, Cao Cao smiled and said, "Since Lu Bu has fled, he will not be able to hold on when he returns to Xiapi; if I attack the city, there will be many casualties. There is no need for soldiers to sacrifice. Can the general call out from the city to let Lu Fengxian open the door and surrender? I promise that I will never kill the lives of the soldiers in the city!" Cao Cao asked Chen Deng that Xiapi is the most fortified city in Xuzhou, and the battle for fortification is bound to be difficult. . "If you don't want to be here, I'm afraid it will be difficult to surrender." Cheng Lian's tone was very firm. "Not necessarily?" Cao Cao sneered, "I don't think Lu Bu has perseverance in what he does." Cheng Lian shook his head and said, "Lu Buyi said, Chen Gong is hard to shake!" Cao Cao was at a loss for words at once - when he killed the three sages every day, Chen Gong rebelled in anger, and bewitched Zhang Miao, Zhang Chao, Li Feng, Xue Lan, Xu Si, Wang Kai, Mao Hui, and Xu Xi to rebel.Lu Bu has no ambitions, and he will probably surrender, but Chen Gong may not be able to... Cheng Lian murmured: "Mr. Cao doesn't know something. Bingzhou and Yanzhou have always had conflicts. Now there are only hundreds of Song Xian and Hou Cheng's soldiers in Bingzhou in the city. The overall planning has fallen into the hands of Chen Gong and others. .Even if Lu Bu returns to Xiapi, he won't be able to control those people!" "I heard that Yingchuan Chen Yuanfang and his son are also in the city, are they safe?" Cao Cao suddenly thought of Chen Ji and Chen Qun. Cheng Lian's bloody face twitched, and he seemed to be smiling: "Well, Chen Gong has been taking care of him...and Bi Chen and Wei Zhong too." Bi Chen is the other driver, and he is very important to the two of them.Unexpectedly, Chen Gong's rebellion, Wei Zhong's covetousness and defection to the enemy, and Bi Chen's abandonment because of his mother's coercion—these are two more muddled accounts! Cao Cao pondered for a long time before saying, "No matter what, let's surround the lower Pi first." He lowered his head and asked Cheng Lian, "Is the general willing to surrender?" Cheng Lian shook his head: "I was born in Bingzhou, and I will serve as my master. If my general surrenders, I will surrender immediately. If my general does not surrender, I will die." Cao Cao nodded: "Lü Bu is not talented, but there are all good men in the tent... Shi Huan, temporarily put him in the army, and wait until he can go to the Pi." After this great battle, Cao Cao's mind became active again: Lu Bu is unparalleled in the world for his bravery, but he has no lofty ambitions. If he can be recruited and used as a vanguard, why not do it?