After Cao Cao left, Cao Ren prepared to evacuate on the second day.
Of course he didn't know that Tao Qian in Shan County had sent Liu Bei to investigate the situation at this time, so he had almost no precautions.
It's not that Cao Ren was careless, but that he followed Cao Cao and beat Tao Qian as if he were beating his grandson without any pressure.
At that time, it was said that Danyang produced elite soldiers. Tao Qian was from Danyang and only trusted his fellow villagers, so he recruited a large number of Danyang soldiers, led by his trusted general Zhonglang General Xu Dan.
As a result, in the Battle of Pengcheng, when Cao Cao and Tao Qian had similar military strength, Cao Cao defeated Tao Qian and annihilated all his main troops.
The so-called Danyang soldiers were vulnerable to Cao Cao's Qingzhou soldiers. Such results naturally made Cao Ren look down on Tao Qian's strength.
Moreover, Cao Cao also said before leaving that under normal circumstances, if they suddenly withdrew their troops without any reason, Tao Qian would definitely suspect that this was a trick to lure the enemy, so Cao Ren took it for granted that Tao Qian would not come out.
So when Cao Ren's army left Xiangbi and was heading north to retreat towards Lanling, suddenly an anxious scout came to report that Tao Qian's pursuers had arrived and were less than ten miles away from the rear.
At that time, Cao Ren was still directing the retreating soldiers to advance in an orderly manner, ordering all the ministries and battalions to leave from the north gate of Xiangben in a swagger, and set off in a normal march before and after.
This arrangement is a very conventional marching plan. The front army opens the way, the main force of the middle army is separated from the front army by more than ten miles, and the rear army is responsible for the rear.
But Cao Ren did not expect that Tao Qian would pursue him, so the distance between the front, middle and rear armies was not far.
Suddenly hearing the news that Tao Qian was chasing him, Cao Ren was shocked, but as a famous general of Cao Wei later, he quickly calmed down.
Because after thinking about it, Cao Ren thought that this might be Tao Qian's exploratory attack, and it should not be a large-scale army attack, so he issued an order: "Send my order, and the rear army will change into the front army and meet the enemy with me."
"yes."
The messenger immediately went to convey the order.
At the same time, Cao Ren let the front army continue to advance, and he led part of the middle army, plus the rear army, a total of 2,000 people to break up the rear.
He believed that these people were enough to repel Tao Qian. When Tao Qian found out that they were indeed planning to retreat, he would set up an ambush at Lanling and defeat the enemy, which would allow Cao Cao to deal with Lu Bu safely.
After giving the order, Cao Ren moved to the rear with his personal guards, came to the rear army, observed the terrain, and saw that this was a rural pavilion about ten miles northwest of Xiangben County.
The north is hilly because it is close to Niqiu Mountain, and there are villages at the foot of the mountains. Now the villagers have fled long ago, and most of the remaining people have been killed, leaving it in ruins.
To the south are some fields, rivers and forests, with criss-crossing farmland, shadows of bamboo groves, small bridges and flowing water, and the countryside is all deserted.
After Cao Ren carefully examined the terrain, he thought that the terrain here seemed narrow, but in fact it was quite open.
Because except for the river, people can walk through the fields and villages on both sides. It is definitely not possible to stick to the official road. The enemy can outflank it.
So after thinking carefully, he noticed the forest not far away and had an idea in his mind.
The terrain of Xuzhou is flat. Because it is close to the Niqiu Mountains, there are some hills and hills that are not very high. It is also close to the city. Both sides of the official road are crowded with pavilions and villages. It is impossible to use the terrain to set up an ambush.
However, Cao Ren felt that Tao Qian's soldiers and horses were nothing more than wine sacks and rice sacks, and it was enough to scare them. There was no need to fight. If they defeated the enemy in a real battle, it would make Tao Qian suspicious.
Therefore, he decided to deliberately bluff and ambush some men and horses in the forest. When the enemy approached, he immediately made a noise and pretended to be an ambush.
After scaring off Tao Qian's troops, they immediately retreated to Lanling. When they left, Tao Qian's people would definitely come to investigate the situation. Knowing that they were pretending to be an ambush, they must have thought that they were really fleeing in panic and chose to continue.
pursuit.
If the time comes to turn back and attack fiercely and defeat the enemy, Tao Qian will be frightened and dare not come forward. At that time, Cao Cao will be able to solve the dilemma of being attacked from both sides.
After making this strategy, Cao Ren felt that there was probably no problem, so he ordered 500 people to go to the distant forest to prepare instruments such as gongs, drums, and horns, so that they could immediately build up momentum once the war started.
The remaining 1,500 people stayed in formation. There were no so-called sword and shield bearers or heavy armored infantry. They only wore black linen military uniforms with their long hair tied up with cloth, and did not even have a piece of defensive armor.
Ordinary soldiers all stood at the front of the team with spears.
During this period, even Yuan Shao did not have much armor, let alone Cao Cao. Therefore, having armor is actually a relatively luxurious thing. Currently, among Cao Ren's army, only Cao Ren and some middle-level generals can wear armor.
Cao Ren ordered the soldiers to form a formation. Although there were not many 1,500 men, the dense spears facing the road were still very impactful. In this case, it would be difficult to attack by force unless using bows and arrows.
Does Liu Bei have archers?
The answer is no.
Bows, arrows and armor are important strategic materials and are extremely expensive. To put it bluntly, Liu Bei is a poor man now. Where can he get the archers?
Therefore, when he led his army to pursue him, he was surprised to see the enemy arrayed like hedgehogs.
The terrain on both sides of the post road is flat, mostly farmland and villages. People and horses on both sides spread out against each other, confronting each other on the road, in the fields, and in front of the villages.
There was no pre-battle interaction, no generals fighting, and even after the two sides met, they just watched each other from a distance.
Liu Bei waited for a while to observe on the hillside in the distance. After noticing that Cao Ren's left and right wings seemed to be undefended, he immediately ordered Zhang Fei and Guan Yu to outflank Cao Ren from the left and right wings.
Little did he know that this was exactly what Cao Ren wanted.
Before the two sides came into contact, flags were suddenly fluttering in the forest about half a mile to the south, gongs and drums were ringing, and shouts of death were heard.
"Dong dong dong dong!"
"Kill."
"Come on!"
Such a huge momentum made every Liu Beijun soldier very scared.
Liu Bei's own military ability was average, and he could not calmly think about whether the enemy was bluffing under such circumstances, so he did think there was an ambush as Cao Ren expected, and quickly ordered his troops to retreat.
He had just withdrawn his troops and retreated. Zhonglang general Xu Dan happened to lead the Danyang soldiers to pursue him. When the two sides met, Xu Dan came up and asked: "Liu Shijun, how is the situation?"
Liu Bei said: "The enemy has set up an ambush. I am afraid that I will be ambushed, so I dare not pursue him."
Xu Dan spoke sarcastically: "How can you be so cowardly when you come to help Xuzhou? If you retreat before fighting, won't you make the world laugh?"
"you!"
Zhang Fei shouted angrily: "Then go ahead."
Xu Dan said coldly: "Your Majesty is in front of me, how dare I overstep my authority?"
After Liu Bei was squeezed out, he said angrily: "The sage said, a gentleman's way is stronger than doing justice. Since I agreed to Duke Tao to come to pursue Cao Cao out of morality, I will naturally not be timid. I also ask General Xu to follow me closely.
Send troops to assist when the time comes."
After saying that, he reined in his horse and turned around, ordering the army to continue the pursuit.
Looking at his leaving figure, Xu Dan sneered. After Tao Qian lost Zang Ba, Sun Guan and others, he and Cao Bao were already the two most important military commanders in Xuzhou.
Cao Bao was born in the Wangmen family of the Cao family in Xuzhou. He was not a warrior but a scholar. Therefore, Tao Qian relied more on Xu Dan in the military.
As a result, after Liu Bei arrived, Tao Qian trusted him as if he was possessed. Not only did he summon Liu Bei to discuss matters every day, but he also handed control of the four thousand Danyang soldiers to him, severely weakening the military power in Xu Dan's hands.
.
Seeing that Tao Qian seemed to intend to make Liu Bei the highest military commander in Xuzhou, this was a serious threat to Xu Dan and Cao Bao, which naturally made them dissatisfied.
Historically, the attitude of the Xuzhou Civil and Military Group towards Liu Bei was very clear. The civil servant group, headed by Mi Zhu and Chen Deng, adopted a welcoming attitude towards Liu Bei.
The general group, headed by Cao Bao and Xu Dan, was resistant to Liu Bei. This was proved when Lu Bu entered Xuzhou and the two men immediately rebelled against Liu Bei and welcomed Lu Bu's arrival.
So it was Xu Dan's idea if he could use words to provoke Liu Bei, let him go deep into the pursuit of Cao Jun, and kill Liu Bei with a borrowed sword.
But he didn't know that Liu Bei actually succeeded in defeating Cao Ren by accident.
It turned out that after Cao Ren scared off Liu Bei, he thought he had a trick, so he marshaled his troops and left, hoping to join the army in front.
As a result, Liu Bei suddenly attacked and was unable to respond in a hurry, so he was killed and defeated.
Seeing that the enemy had no ambush at all, Liu Bei, no matter how mediocre his military skills were, knew that the enemy was using a bluff strategy. He was overjoyed and ordered all his troops to pursue and kill him, and gained a lot.
At the same time, Shen Chen had already returned to his hometown.
Niqiu Mountain is not far from Huangmen Pavilion. Even if you walk, it only takes one day. If you ride a horse, you can get there in half a day. They set off on the morning of the third day of May and arrived in the Zhuangshan area in the afternoon.
However, since Cao Cao had not withdrawn his troops at that time, they did not dare to return to their hometown, so they had to cross the river with some migrating refugees and wait in the north of Shan County.
Among the waiting crowd, there were also people from the Zhuge Xuan family.
It was not until the tenth day of May that the news of Cao's army's official withdrawal spread and they finally returned to their hometown.
At this time, because Cao's army retreated and Liu Bei defeated Cao Ren, the news had spread throughout the Niqiu Mountains in the north, and the villagers hiding near Niqiu Mountain and Zeng Mountain began to return one after another.
People discovered that the villagers who refused to leave were massacred. Fortunately, this was only a small number, and most of them were still alive.
Shen Chen's clan uncle immediately sent people back to report the news.
Everyone had been hiding in the mountains to the north for more than a month, sitting in despair. When they heard the news that Cao Cao's army had evacuated, they all cried with joy, packed their bags and returned home.
By the third day, most of the villagers in Xiangben County had returned.
The county originally had a population of 30,000 to 40,000 people, but Cao's army only killed 23 out of 10. Although everyone was sad, it was a great blessing compared to the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in Xiapi counties.
Since it was Shen Chen who reminded everyone to escape, Shen Chen's reputation grew day by day. Many people in the townships and surrounding counties knew about the prodigy's words.
At this time, Shen Chen waited until all the Huangmenting villagers returned, and had already started discussing new matters with the elders of the Deng and Shen clans.
The first is to prepare for the family to move south. Xuzhou will be a quagmire of war in the future and cannot fall into it.
The second is to purchase weapons and equipment and organize some private soldiers.
After all, the whole world is now in chaos, and order has been lost. Thousands of people in Huangmen Pavilion are dragging their families with them, supporting the elderly and the young to flee south. They will be harmed by soldiers and bandits along the way, so they must have certain armed capabilities.
Therefore, he warned the clan elders and asked them to immediately find a way to sell all their fields and properties. They did not need anything but food, weapons, horses, vehicles and other supplies.
Since Shen Chen successfully led his tribe to escape the massacre, the village elders have begun to trust him extremely, so they all followed his requests.