Chapter 465

"Kill!! Kill Lord Yuan Shao! Kill Lord Yuan Shao!! Don't let him run away!!"

"Lord Yuan Shao, you dog, where are you fleeing? Return my eldest brother's life!!"

"Kill!!!"

"The Cao army is chasing! Run!"

"....."

That night, Cao Cao led his army, with Guan Yu and others as the vanguard, first routed the blocking army of Gao Lan, and then chased all the way, easily catching up with Lord Yuan Shao's army.

Forcing Lord Yuan Shao to stop and continuously divide his troops to cover the retreat to fight against Cao Cao.

But because of the morale problem, the troops he left behind to cover the retreat soon collapsed, and were easily defeated.

Of course, this also had a lot to do with the lack of fierce generals in the army.

Plus the fact that the other side had a heavenly god-general like Guan Yu, Lord Yuan Shao was beaten into a rout in just half a day.

Fleeing all the way, in the end, when Lord Yuan Shao successfully crossed the river and fled back to Jizhou, the remaining troops around him were less than 20,000.

"Hoo hoo... is the enemy army still chasing?"

Lord Yuan Shao panted and couldn't help but ask Ju Shou beside him.

At this time, how miserable was his figure?

His helmet had been lost at some point.

His armor was also in a mess.

"Reporting! My lord!"

Ju Shou on the side, although equally miserable, still bowed and reported: "We have temporarily shaken off the enemy's pursuit;"

"In addition, to prevent the enemy from crossing the Yellow River, I have already ordered people to collect and gather the nearby boats or destroy them;"

"Therefore, I fear the enemy will not be able to collect enough boats to cross the river in a short time!"

"But this can only prevent them for a while;"

"My lord, the top priority is that our army should return to Ye City as soon as possible, and at the same time, mobilize troops from all sides to defend Jizhou to deal with the Cao army's subsequent attacks!"

"That is the truly life-and-death matter!"

Of course, this sounded good, but Ju Shou knew very well that this defeat, with the loss of hundreds of thousands of troops, had caused Lord Yuan Shao to suffer a great blow to his vitality, and more than half of his strength had been lost.

Even if he ignored everything and concentrated all other troops to defend, the total number of troops would not exceed 200,000.

With these troops, wanting to resist Cao Cao's subsequent attacks was a slim hope.

Not to mention, if Zhang Yan of Heishan and Jia Wu of Bingzhou received the news of their army, they would likely not remain indifferent.

What awaited them would be a situation of being besieged from three sides.

In such a situation, even with Ju Shou's intelligence, he didn't know how to break the situation, let alone turn the tide.

"The trend is gone! Sigh!"

"If the lord hadn't listened to Guo Tu's words and killed Liu Bei at that time, it would have been good!"

"If the lord hadn't listened to Guo Tu's slander and attempted to take action against Xu You, or had simply killed Xu You directly at that time, perhaps the situation would be very different?"

Ju Shou thought with great despondency in his heart.

Of course, it was too late to think about these things now.

It was just hindsight.

But what could he do if he didn't think about these things now?

"Everything is Guo Tu's fault, he is the biggest sycophant!"

Ju Shou glanced at Guo Tu, who was also very miserable not far away, and couldn't help but hate in his heart.

"Good!"

Lord Yuan Shao had also lost his head and didn't know what to do. Hearing Ju Shou's words, his heart finally settled down a bit, and he immediately agreed to Ju Shou's suggestion.

Guo Tu on the side couldn't even care about competing for favor and flattery, and instead began to consider his own way out.

Because he also saw that Lord Yuan Shao was likely finished, and he should consider a way out for himself and Guo Jia.

"Defect to Cao Cao? This might be a good idea!"

Guo Tu thought.

As for defecting to Su Xuan?

He had never considered this point.

Because, as a member of the Yingchuan Guo family, he was naturally at odds with Su Xuan.

"However, I killed Liu Bei, and Guan Yu is still on Cao Cao's side. If I go to defect to Cao Cao, without some preparation and means, I fear I will directly face Guan Yu and be chopped by Guan Yu, right?"

"No! Must think of a way!"

"Must think of a way to make Cao Cao protect me in front of Guan Yu, and make Guan Yu not trouble me in the future!"

Guo Tu calculated in his heart.

And to make Cao Cao do this, he had to make enough contributions to Cao Cao.

And in terms of merit, what could be greater than directly offering Lord Yuan Shao to Cao Cao?

Thinking of this, Guo Tu couldn't help but secretly glance at Lord Yuan Shao, but the next moment he withdrew his eyes with a guilty conscience and trepidation, temporarily burying this thought in the bottom of his heart, waiting for the opportunity.

"It's not the time yet, must find a better opportunity to act!"

"Hmm! Before acting, it's best to contact Cao Cao first and get his approval and promise!"

·· ···Seeking flowers·· ····

Guo Tu calculated in his heart again.

There was no need to rush for this moment anyway. In his view, although Lord Yuan Shao had lost hundreds of thousands of troops.

But he still controlled the three states for the time being, and Cao Cao would also need some time to take down Lord Yuan Shao and all of Lord Yuan Shao's territory.

This gave him time to arrange and prepare.

"Tread tread tread!"