Lu Bu looked at Chen Gong, thought for a long time, and then said slowly, "Gongtai, this is the best opportunity to eliminate Cao Mengde. We can't let it go."
Chen Gong nodded, "Cao Mengde is very cunning. If we let him go, it will be difficult to find this opportunity in the future."
Lu Bu laughed loudly, "Yes, this is a good opportunity. No matter what, we must take advantage of this opportunity to eliminate Cao Mengde."
After finishing speaking, Lu Bu turned to look at the soldier who sent the message, "Go tell Zhang Liao and let him keep an eye on Cao's army. Don't be too lazy to fight. Wait for the army to arrive before making plans."
"Send the order, the army will move quickly, we must catch up with Cao Mengde."
Following Lu Bu's order, the army sped up again and headed south quickly.
Cao Cao knew that he was running for his life, and regardless of the soldiers' fatigue, he just urged them to speed up.
Lu Qian rode his horse and came to Cao Cao's side, "My lord, Bingzhou soldiers and horses have been behind you and are unwilling to leave."
Cao Cao nodded, "Ignore it and let everyone get on their way as soon as possible."
At this time, although Cao Cao was calm on the surface, he was also a little nervous in his heart.
There is only one fire wall technique. If the Bingzhou Cavalry catches up again, it may be in danger.
Although he still has a way to deal with it, Cao Cao definitely doesn't want to use it if he can, because it is too expensive, so it is his last resort.
Cheng Yu also galloped over with a worried look on his face, "My lord, at this speed, I'm afraid I'll be caught up by Lord Lu Bu soon, and then things will be really bad."
Cao Cao frowned and said, "Tell everyone, as long as you leave Yanzhou, you can rest."
Cheng Yu smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Lord, it's not that we don't want to hurry up, but that in the battle last night, many soldiers were injured. Although they were all minor injuries, it would be fine to rush on the road for a short time, but if we rush
Their wounds couldn't bear the long journey, so their speed slowed down a lot."
At this point, Cheng Yu looked around and suddenly lowered his voice and continued, "My lord, now is not the time to be merciful. It is better to abandon these wounded soldiers and speed up our army's march."
After hearing this, Cao Cao frowned. After thinking for a long time, he smiled bitterly and said, "No, if everyone knew that we abandoned the wounded soldiers, it would definitely make people panic and morale will be greatly reduced.
What should we do if Lu Bu's army comes after us and no one is willing to fight wholeheartedly?"
Cao Cao's worry is not unreasonable. If he abandons all the wounded soldiers now and lets others see it, he will definitely be afraid.
They know that they will be abandoned if they are injured. When it comes to fighting the enemy, who would dare to fight the enemy? If they are injured, wouldn't they be abandoned?
If everyone in a team thinks this way, there is no need to talk about combat effectiveness. I am afraid that it will collapse immediately at the slightest contact.
Cao Cao didn't care about those soldiers, but he was more worried that if everyone didn't want to fight with all their strength, everyone would be close to being annihilated.
Cheng Yu shook his head and said slowly, "I have a way to solve the lord's dilemma."
Cao Cao knew that Cheng Yu was a strategist, and through the introduction of game players, he also knew that Cheng Yu was one of his five great strategists, and he was very powerful.
"Zhongde, do you really have a solution?"
Cheng Yu nodded and spoke in a lowered voice.
Cao Cao was full of doubts at first, but after listening to Cheng Yu's story, a smile appeared on his face.
"Zhongde's plan is indeed very clever, so we will act according to it."
After a cup of tea, the entire army received an order to stop and rest.
At this time, it was already dawn. The soldiers had been exhausted after a night of fighting last night and had traveled such a long distance. After hearing the order, they immediately cheered.
"Great, I can finally rest!"
"I'm so tired today!"
This is an extraordinary period. Even if you take a break, it will only be a temporary break and it will not last too long. Therefore, when everyone takes a break, it is also to rest together with the people in their own team.
Li Hai was a commander with ten soldiers under his command, and he was under the command of General Cao Hong.
After a battle last night, 3 of Li Hai's ten soldiers were killed and 2 were injured, and their combat effectiveness was directly reduced to half.
Everyone sat down to rest. Li Hai turned to look at a strong man next to him and asked with concern, "Old Qi, how is your injury?"
Lao Qi, who looked about 24 or 25 years old, had a dark face and a hint of honesty. When he heard the question, he smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"It's nothing serious, it's just a scratch. However, after walking for a long time, the wound that finally closed opened again."
A cut was made on his waist by a knife. Although it was not deep, it was very long. With his physique, as long as he rested for five or six days, he would be fine.
However, there is no time for him to rest now. Lu Bujun is chasing behind him, and he can vaguely hear the sound of horse hooves behind him. Who dares to stop at such a close distance?
Lao Qi is the fiercest soldier under Li Hai. He is honest and willing to help others, and everyone likes him very much.
In this team, in addition to Lao Qi, there was also a soldier named Zhang San who was scratched on his leg and was limping along the way.
While everyone was talking, there was a sudden sound of horse hooves.
Several Cao Jun soldiers rode horses and trotted over, shouting all the way.
"Everyone, listen, the lord has an order. The injured people must gather in front. The lord wants them to go first, leaving those who are not injured behind."
Everyone was overjoyed when they heard the news, and the injured soldiers were so excited that their eyes were filled with tears.
"It's great that our lord has not forgotten us."
An injured soldier sighed and said, "I thought we injured people would be abandoned. I didn't expect that the Lord would be so kind to us."
Li Hai patted Lao Qi on the shoulder and said, "Lao Qi, we will send you there, you go first."
Everyone stood up, helped the injured person, and arrived at the designated place.
Li Hai originally didn't know how many people were injured, but after waiting to arrive at the designated location, he couldn't help but be surprised.
They arrived late. At this moment, two to three thousand wounded soldiers had gathered at the designated location.
"Old Qi, you can go in peace. As long as we are here, Lu Bujun will not be able to catch up with you."
Lao Qi smiled naively, "Brother Li, when I recover from my injury, we will fight together."
Li Hai patted Lao Qi's shoulder and said, "Okay, come back as soon as you recover from your injuries. We'll be waiting for you."
Zhang San came over and whispered, "You should also be careful."
Not long after, Cao Cao's general Li Zheng came over from a distance with some soldiers and shouted loudly.
"Is everyone here?"
"We're all here!"
Li Zheng glanced at the people in front of him and nodded, "Now that we are all here, let's set off."
Following the order, Li Zheng took the wounded soldiers, took the lead to leave the brigade, and rushed towards Xuzhou again along the official road.
Half an hour later, the army set off and marched slowly along the official road.
Zhang Liao and Cheng Lian, who had been following closely behind, were more than a little curious when they saw Cao Jun's strange behavior.
"Lao Zhang, what are they doing? Why does the speed seem to have slowed down?"
Zhang Liao frowned and shook his head with a wry smile, "How do I know? If you really want to know, why don't you ask Cao Mengde, maybe he will tell you?"
Cheng Lian didn't care about Zhang Liao's joke and scratched his head, "Let me tell you, Cao Mengde probably doesn't have any good intentions, and maybe he has some tricks up his sleeve."
Zhang Liao nodded, "Yeah, let's be careful. Let me tell you, the farther away you are, the more you don't fall into their trap again."
Cao Jun's army advanced all the way. After another hour, he received the order and the whole army accelerated its advance.
There were no wounded soldiers in the team, and the speed suddenly accelerated a lot.
Everyone marched in a hurry, and they didn't rest until it was time to eat in the afternoon.
The soldiers had traveled such a long way and were already ravenous with hunger. They ate the food they brought in a hurry while they were resting.
Because Cao Cao came out in a hurry this time, he did not bring much food. After everyone had the meal just now, there was no more food left.
Cao Cao stood in the middle of the team, his brows gradually wrinkled as he listened to Cao Hong's words.
"No food?"
Cao Hong smiled bitterly and cupped his hands, "When we went out last night, each soldier brought two pancakes. Just now, they had already eaten them all. I'm afraid there will be no food for the next meal."
Cao Cao frowned and thought for a while, then turned to look at Cao Chun who was standing aside, and said slowly, "You lead the cavalry to the front to collect food. No matter what you do, at least let everyone have breakfast. Do you understand?" p>
Cao Chun was stunned for a moment, then took a step forward and asked tentatively, "Lord, is there any way?"
Cao Cao sighed, nodded, and said slowly, "Any method will do."
"The general will obey your orders."
Cao Chun cupped his hands, turned around and left. Not long after, he led hundreds of cavalry and ran towards the front.
After the cavalry left, Cao Cao ordered the army to set off again and continued towards Xuzhou.
Li Hai, who was walking in the middle of the team, frowned but had some doubts in his heart.
We've been walking for so long, why haven't we caught up with the wounded soldiers yet?
In terms of time, it didn’t take long for the injured team to leave early. Based on their speed, they should have caught up by now.
But why didn’t I see it?
In the entire Cao Jun camp, Li Hai was not the only one who had this idea.
Lu Bu led the army in pursuit, but unfortunately, Cao Mengde's team ran as fast as rabbits. They chased for a whole day, but they did not close the distance between the two sides.
Until nightfall, no matter how impatient Lu Bu was, he could only order to rest.
The soldiers started fighting last night and have been persisting until now. If they don't rest, I'm afraid the soldiers will collapse from exhaustion.
The camp had just been set up, and Chen Gong hurried over, "Marquis Wen, we didn't bring much food with us when we came out. I'm afraid there won't be any food by the time we get there early tomorrow morning."
Hearing the news, Lu Bu felt even more upset.
Not being able to catch up with Cao Mengde was enough to make him angry. Now that there is no food, what will the soldiers eat?
"Gongtai, why don't we go nearby to collect some food?"
Chen Gong nodded, "That's all we can do. Meng Zhuo is very famous here. If he comes forward, he should be able to borrow some food for our urgent needs."
Lu Bu nodded and said with a wry smile, "Okay, Gongtai, you can handle this matter. It's best to deliver the food as soon as possible so as not to delay the trip."
Chen Gong cupped his hands and was about to leave when suddenly there were rapid footsteps outside the tent.
Zhang Hu poked his head in from outside the camp and said, "Marquis Wen, General Zhang has sent someone back to deliver a message."
Lu Bu nodded, "Let him come in."
Not long after, a soldier walked in from outside the door, raised his hands and said, "I would like to inform Marquis Wen, General Zhang and General Cheng that they found a group of Cao soldiers on the fork in the road. I want to ask for instructions on what to do?"
Hearing the soldiers' words, Lu Bu couldn't help but be stunned and asked doubtfully, "What's going on? Didn't Cao Mengde's army go far away? Why did you find another pair of Cao's troops?"
The soldier cupped his hands and said, "Marquis Wen, General Zhang and others have been chasing Cao Mengde's army. They came to a fork in the road and saw messy footprints and horse hoof marks on the other fork, so they sent people to chase after them.
.
As a result, we found a group of Cao Jun along this road."
Chen Gong was curious and asked hurriedly, "Could it be that Cao Mengde's troops on this road were ambushing Cao Mengde?"
The soldier shook his head, "No, when we caught up with this group of soldiers, we discovered that all of them were wounded!"
"What?"
Chen Gong exclaimed and suddenly reacted. He turned his head to look at Lu Bu and said slowly, "I understand. I just said why they ran so fast. It turned out that they abandoned all the wounded soldiers, so they could run like this."
Quick."
Hearing this, Lu Bu was also surprised, "Gongtai, do you mean to say that Cao Mengde abandoned all the wounded soldiers?"
Chen Gong looked over at the soldier who was delivering the message and asked loudly, "How many soldiers are there in this team?"
"I'm afraid there will be more than 3,000 people!"
Chen Gong snorted coldly, "Cao Mengde is really cruel. These more than 3,000 wounded soldiers hindered his journey, and he gave them up without hesitation. It is really admirable!"
Lu Bu was also frightened when he heard this, and asked in surprise, "Gongtai, are all the more than 3,000 troops and horses abandoned?"
Chen Gong nodded and said slowly, "Cao Mengde was cunning. In order not to cause panic, he gathered all the wounded soldiers together and sent them to another fork, leaving them to fend for themselves."
Lu Bu snorted coldly, "Did Zhang Liao send anyone to chase these wounded soldiers?"
The soldier shook his head, "General Zhang didn't dare to make the decision. He just sent a detective horse to investigate, but took no action."
Lu Bu nodded, turned to look at Chen Gong, and asked slowly, "Gongtai, what do you think we should do?"
Chen Gong frowned, smiled wryly, and was about to speak, when suddenly, there were hurried footsteps outside the door again.
According to the original rules, visitors must first pass by Zhang Hu before they can come in to report matters.
But this time, someone rushed in shouting.
"There is an urgent military situation!"
"Marquis Wen, there is news from Dong'e that Yuan Shaojun's troops have gathered at the border of Yanzhou."
"What?"
When he heard the news, Lu Bu was startled and stood up suddenly.