Chapter 545

Cao Cao and Cheng Yu were discussing how to retreat their troops safely.

"Report! My lord, urgent news from Yuzhou!"

Cao Cao's heart skipped a beat; an ominous premonition washed over him.

Sure enough, the thing he feared most had come to pass.

Cheng Yu opened the bamboo slip and took a look.

"My lord, Xia Houyuan was ambushed by Zhuge Liang during a night raid at Wuguan, and was ambushed again on his way back. He was struck by an arrow and wounded. Of his sixty-thousand-strong army, only five thousand retreated to Yexian."

Cao Cao heaved a long sigh.

"I was outmaneuvered by Liu Bei after all. This Zhuge village rustic is truly..."

Cao Cao had not expected this village rustic to defeat both Xia Hou brothers in succession.

"At least Miaocai is safe."

Troops can be conscripted again, but good generals are hard to find!

With a sorrowful face, Cao Cao went to 'vent his grievances' to Yuan Shao.

Since Yuan Shao's nephew had been killed and his own sixty thousand troops had suffered heavy losses, the two men instantly found they had much more in common.

Furthermore, because the Heishan bandits were becoming increasingly rampant in their attacks on the supply lines,

Cao Cao kindly suggested sending Cao Hong to lead thirty thousand troops to garrison the Zhixian area to temporarily secure the supply lines.

In reality, the troops Cao Hong took away were the elite of the elite among the Cao Army!

Yuan Shao agreed without a second thought.

When Xu You heard about it, he hurried to find Yuan Shao, his heart filled with distress.

"My lord, this Cao Aman is planning to flee, and he's taking our grain and fodder with him while he's at it!"

Yuan Shao?? His expression darkened. Did Xu You mean that he had been deceived by Cao Cao?

Guo Tu observed the situation.

"Xu Ziyuan, you are fear-mongering again!"

"The Heishan bandits are rampant; it is only natural for Cao Cao to help transport grain. In my opinion, Cao Cao simply does not want to suffer losses by fighting Liu Bei, so he proposed transporting grain to avoid it."

"How could my lord not see this? There are no battles recently, and the weather is cold; wouldn't it be better for our soldiers to rest and build up their strength in the camp?"

Xu You wanted to say more.

Yuan Shao waved his hand.

"Enough, I am a bit tired. You may leave."

Xu You turned and walked out of the camp tent, sighing in his heart; he felt he could no longer lead them!

As for reminding Yuan Shao to retreat, he truly dared not say it. Yuan Shao was a man who cared deeply about his reputation; if he mentioned retreating now, he might be beheaded.

"Sigh, other people's lords have eight hundred schemes, but my lord..."

A few days later, news also came from Yanmen Commandery.

Zhao Zilong, Yan Gang, Tian Yu, and others had crushed the one-hundred-thousand-strong coalition of the Western Xianbei and Wuhuan at Yanmen.

Zhao Zilong's might shook the frontier; in one battle, he shattered the Xianbei and Wuhuan forces. The Xianbei Kebineng and the Wuhuan King Gujin were both beheaded, and their corpses littered the ground for over thirty miles!

Zhao Zilong led thirty thousand iron cavalry to continue the pursuit, sweeping through dozens of Xianbei tribes and over a dozen Wuhuan tribes along the way. They captured a large number of cattle and sheep, 150,000 horses, and over 200,000 young Hu Ren women!

While sending people to drive these back to Yanmen Commandery, he had Yan Gang and Tian Yu contact the former subordinates of Brother Gongsun Zan in Youzhou to march into Dai Commandery!

Yuan Xi, the Inspector of Youzhou appointed by Yuan Shao, hoarded his troops in fortified cities like Ji while sending urgent pleas for help to Yuan Shao!

Because hundreds of thousands of laborers had been conscripted in Jizhou and Qingzhou, public sentiment was unstable, and small-scale uprisings broke out frequently. In Hejian, over ten thousand peasant soldiers had gathered.

Uprisings began to break out in the newly acquired Xuzhou, and the Huang Jin of Runan began to rise from the ashes, occupying mountains as kings and plundering commanderies and counties!

The drawbacks of having a large army stationed away for a long time began to manifest!

Liu Bei also encountered some trouble; Yang Qiu and others in Liangzhou rebelled and wanted to invite the Qiang people to join them.

As it turned out, the Qiang people, who were living a moderately prosperous life, sold them out immediately. Ma Teng and Guanqiu Jian led troops to directly wipe out Yang Qiu's lair and beheaded the rebels on the spot!

Yizhou was very peaceful. In Nanzhong, the brother-in-law of Liu Bei, the Great King, along with Zhang Song, Wu Yi, Yan Yan, Leng Bao, Dong He, Li Hui, and others were very loyal, and Wei Yan guarded Badong with heavy troops.

Pang Xi directly beheaded Cao Cao's envoy and sent the head to Zhang Song to express his loyalty to Liu Bei; his desire to survive was extremely strong.

Ten more days passed.

Mount Zhongtiao was covered in white snow, and the weather grew increasingly cold.

Upon learning that their backyards were on fire, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were both anxious and eager to return home!

Especially since the heavy snow blocked the roads, making the transport of grain and fodder increasingly difficult.

If they remained in a stalemate any longer, it would be meaningless.

Sun Ce and Zhou Gongjin used the excuse that they lacked winter clothing and that the mountains were cold to retreat southeast, retreating all the way to the vicinity of Maojin Ferry, and even crossed the Yellow River!

When Yuan Shao and Cao Cao found out, they cursed loudly; Sun Bofu was indeed treacherous!

Yuan Shao also realized it was time to retreat.

However, Liu Bei had been acting as if he were high on stimulants recently, frequently having his generals come out of the camp to challenge them.

Zhang He and Xu Rong even emerged from Mount Zhongtiao to threaten Yuan Shao's rear, making it dangerous for Yuan Shao to retreat.

"That eared thief is too treacherous!"

Yuan Shao was infuriated but had no way to deal with it.

Seeing that the grain and fodder in the camp were running low, Yuan Shao could no longer sit still.

"Meng De, I intend to withdraw the army; what do you think is best?"

Cao Cao frowned.

"Brother Benchu, Liu Bei is waiting for this exact moment. If our army retreats improperly, I fear the entire force will collapse!"

"Now, we can only send a fierce general to lead troops to cover the rear so our army can withdraw."

Cao Cao did not intend to use the retreat to lure the enemy; it was simply that Liu Bei was too treacherous, and the high observation towers on the other side could see the situation in their camp clearly.

He immediately stated that his own troops were too few and Le Jin's injuries from last time had not yet healed, but his ten thousand cavalry could cover the rear.

Yuan Shao almost cursed out loud; if Cao Cao sent cavalry, he would probably just run away at the first sign of trouble!

"Gao Lan, you take twenty thousand troops and must block Liu Bei's pursuit."

Gao Lan was unhappy in his heart; wasn't this asking him to go to his death?

However, military orders were like mountains.

"Understood!"

As for the laborers, Yuan Shao could no longer care about them; he wanted to take his elite troops back to Jizhou.

That night, taking advantage of the darkness,

Yuan Shao and Cao Cao led their elite troops and fled toward Henei.

Then followed the other units.

Liu Bei also received the news.

He did not order the entire army to attack; it was pitch black, and if Yuan Shao and Cao Cao had set an ambush on the road, he might be the one ambushed, which would not be worth the loss!

"Order the soldiers to get a good rest; we will pursue the defeated Yuan and Cao armies early tomorrow morning!"

"Understood!"

Most of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's troops were infantry; after traveling hundreds of miles, they could not run that fast.

At the same time, Liu Bei dispatched numerous scouts to report the situation of the Yuan and Cao armies in a timely manner.

With wind and snow swirling, the entire Hedong region was a vast expanse of white.

The great army marched out of the camp.

Gao Shun and E Huan led the infantry to defeat Gao Lan's rearguard and surrounded them completely.

Cao Cao's cavalry, seeing the situation was bad, ran extremely fast!

Liu Bei personally led sixty thousand cavalry in a pursuit!