Perhaps because of the unfavorable impact of the current situation, the more Zhu Gai thought about the incident that was bullied by the bandits yesterday, the more he felt his anger was blocked, and at the same time he felt a little nervous and uneasy.

Prime Minister Cao sent troops to Jianghuai this time to expel Sun Quan, block the access road to the Central Plains in the northeast of Jiangdong, and ensure stability between Jianghuai. For this reason, the scale of troops used was very huge. Not only were the elite central army directly belonging to the Bafu, but also newly recruited soldiers and Wuhuan Hu cavalry from Hebei and other places, and also summoned the Qingxu local army of Xuzhou governor and general Zang Ba. Under such large-scale military operations, the relatives of the Cao family of Xiahou and the generals of Yu Jin, Zhang Liao, Le Jin, Zhu Ling and other generals would inevitably have the intention of competing with each other. At the same time, they were all facing the increasingly serious Cao Gong who was treating his subordinates.

Previously, Cao Chun and Cao Zi and the general Tiger and Leopard Cavalry were the pioneers of the entire army. They accidentally missed a very small-scale disturbance of the enemy cavalry, which caused Cao Gong to be furious and sent Xiahou Miaocai to come forward and captured and killed the military Sima who Cao Chun trusted and used on the spot in front of everyone. Cao Chun was a minister who was close to him and his status was more valuable than that of time. How could he have suffered such humiliation? This made him both ashamed and angry. After leading his troops to Hefei, he immediately sued him for illness and recuperation. No matter how he said that he was unwilling to participate in subsequent military operations.

The cavalry team that had harmed Cao Zihe immediately fled. Cao Gong ordered Yu Jin to distribute people to Alipay. Yu Jin had always regarded Cao Gong's orders as bigger than the sky. After receiving the order, he mobilized a large number of troops and mobilized more than 20,000 troops. He set up a net of heaven and earth within a radius of dozens of miles, but many people were killed by the enemy cavalry and broke through the encirclement.

Yu Jin, who was rare to be famous for his virginity, suffered a loss. The generals were just watching his jokes, but Yu Jin was really ruthless. When he came back, he accused a unit of the right wing of the army in front of Cao Gong that failed to respond to military orders in time, so that the enemy cavalry escaped. The general who led the army was Zhu Ling. He was a general under Cao Gong's command during the Yuan-Cao alliance. He was very famous in the army, but his subordinates were one and there was something that outsiders could not pour water into it. This behavior was always disliked by Cao Gong, so he went with the flow and gave him the charge of "not being strict in the military and not being cautious in the orders". The charge was not light, and Zhu Ling was immediately deprived of his military power, and he himself was appointed as Yu Jin's subordinate in a nearly humiliating manner.

After the above two incidents happened, all the troops in the army were shocked. After that, when Cao's army dispatched generals to fight, the generals all took a twelve-point spirit to avoid being blamed by Cao Gong for being unfavorable.

According to Cao Gong's order, Zhang Liao and Zhu Gai's main task was to clean up the Huainan Haoba led by Lei Xu and others, and to the Huainan Haoba between Wei and Cao Sun's families. Since Cao Gong intended to build a new city 30 miles west of Hefei, the tens of thousands of people in this vast area would become slave workers in building the city.

However, the task was not smooth. The actions of the Huainan tyrants were surprisingly orderly. While gathering the people and retreating into the mountains, they went forward to Lu'an with suspicious troops, delaying the actions of the Cao army in Shouchun. When Zhang Liao and Zhu Gai arrived, they cut off the rear with a small number of elite troops and repelled many pursuits. Yesterday, Zhang Liao personally led his troops to attack, and was about to capture and kill the enemy's brave generals, but was confused by the bluff of the bandits. If this continues, the bandits' position will become more and more steep and more difficult to capture. They are about to flee to the south under the eyes of the generals of the court!

If this continues, I am afraid that my mission will fail, so how can I explain it to the prime minister? Once this incident was spread yesterday, Zhang Liao and himself will probably become laughing stocks for their colleagues. As a general who has been through the military service for a long time, it is not a big deal to suffer a small loss here and there. However, will this incident arouse Cao Gong's anger? Zhu Gai really couldn't guess it thoroughly and dared not think about it.

What made Zhu Gai even more deeply afraid was that Zhu Gai himself and Zhu Ling were both from Qinghe, Jizhou, and they were from the same clan. Zhu Ling had been severely derogated. If he was blamed by Cao Gong again, he would be afraid that the entire clan would face unbearable consequences!

Zhu Gai couldn't help but smile bitterly: "I really shouldn't have retreated yesterday. If the Prime Minister knew about this, I really don't know what kind of punishment we would be... "

As soon as he said that, he felt regretful. As a deputy general, he should not criticize the main general's judgment in this way.

"Don't worry too much." Zhang Liao looked at him and shook his head and said, "That was my mistake in judgment and had nothing to do with others; if the Prime Minister asked, I would make it clear."

"Wen Yuan, that's not what I mean..." Zhu Gai quickly explained.

Zhang Liao smiled at him, walked forward slowly, and looked at the winding mountain and said, "It's a pity that they were not removed yesterday. Now they occupy the mountain danger and it is indeed difficult to take it down. However, we still have time... The scouts who stole the past other paths and reported that the bandits were holding the people and the march was slow. At least in the past two days, they could not cross the mountain. As long as we could kill this pass, the bandits would definitely not escape!"

Zhu Gai gritted his teeth and said, "General, the bandits cut off the rear with their elites, and we must also use elites to fight against each other. You might as well let my personal soldiers go into battle, no, even if I go into battle myself!"

Zhang Liao looked at Zhu Gai and smiled and said, "You are right. The mountain road is so narrow that our military strength advantage cannot be exerted. If you continue to stalemate, it will only cost the lives of the soldiers. However, I am bluntly saying that even if you go into battle yourself, it may not be enough to break through the enemy's defense. At this time, only the real brave man who died in the battle can overwhelm the opponent in one breath."

He pointed at himself: "This...it's up to me!"

Most of the generals under Cao Gong were heroes who were recruited in troubled times, but Zhang Liao was different from them. The counties he was born in were professional soldiers who grew up with foreign races over the years; the subordinates he led were regular border troops who truly preserved the style of a strong Han Dynasty. In the past chaos in the Central Plains, Zhang Liao and his brave subordinates had once destroyed millions of Black Mountain troops with the general Lu Bu, and fought side by side with Gao Shun's camp, forcing Cao Gong to a mess... Not to mention the ability to lead the army to defeat the attack, just by fighting in front of the battle, Zhang Liao and Zhang Wenyuan were indeed the leader among the generals of Cao's camp, and he had enough confidence.

In the past few years, whenever there have been great wars and hard battles, Zhang Liao often relied on his personal courage to use a small group of elite troops to attack fiercely to open up the situation for the entire army. As a deputy general, Zhu Gai has become accustomed to this situation.

But Zhu Gai thought again: in this terrain, the military strength advantage of Cao's army was suppressed to the greatest extent, and the bandits used too many means to threaten the lives of their soldiers, and those methods were not purely through personal bravery. Because of his unintentional words, the generals of the army were inspired to take action personally. If there were any damage to the subsequent ones, Zhu Gai was unwilling to accept it no matter what.

"I am naturally far less brave than the general. However, the terrain on this mountain road is complicated and the situation I face is different from that of a large army. Let me take people to fight for a battle first. If I really can't make a contribution, please ask Wen Yuan to attack." Zhu Gai said in a deep voice: "Wen Yuan, you are the chief general of the first army, and your identity is unusual!"

Zhang Liao stopped answering, and directly opened his arms and signaled the left and right personal guards to put on armor for him.

The guards were prepared and immediately surrounded Zhang Liao. They first removed the outer robe for Zhang Liao, then put on multi-layer silk robe as lining, and then held the crocodile, collar, arm guard, fish scale armor and leather tapes connected to the armor sheet, and ended the work for Zhang Liao one by one. Two big armored men knelt on one knee, offering long swords, iron spears, bows and arrows, and other weapons used by Zhang Liao. Zhang Liao held the hilt in his right hand and shook the iron spear gently with his left hand. The spear rod trembled like a living, and the spear tip and blades cut the air, making a sharp sound.

At the same time, his personal guards also tied up their armor and held the weapons in their hands. A series of black figures stood silently behind Zhang Liao, and their murderous aura rose up.
Chapter completed!