Xiahou Dun's military strength and ability to command troops were not as good as those of Zhang Liao and Xu Huang, but he was not a fool either.
Idiots will not be reused by Cao Cao. When it comes to judging people's abilities, Cao Cao can be said to be the best.
"Lord, I'm going to help General Guan." Chen Dao said to Liu Bei, holding a tiger halberd.
Liu Bei stopped him and said: "Wait a minute, Yun Chang can defeat Xiahou Dun, just watch carefully and don't let him take the opportunity to escape."
"promise."
Chen Dao responded, reined in his horse and stepped aside, staring closely at the fight between Guan Yu and Xiahou Dun.
At this time, Xiahou Dun knew that he had no chance of survival, so he fought to the death, but it was hard for Guan Yu to win for a while.
The two fought for more than fifty rounds, but still could not decide the winner. Guan Yu became more and more angry as they fought, but the eldest brother was watching, and he could not make a fool of himself.
Guan Yu used his sword more and more fiercely, but Xiahou Dun made a mistake and was scratched on his arm, and almost dropped his weapon.
But Xiahou Dun was ready to fight to the end. He endured the pain in his arm and swiped at Guan Yu with a knife in one hand.
However, the power of one hand was much weaker. Guan Yu just raised his sword to block Xiahou Dun's sword, and then swung the Qinglong Saber forcefully towards the opponent.
Xiahou Dun knew it was hard to stop him, so he simply threw away his weapon and looked up to the sky laughing: "Hahaha..."
Unfortunately, the laughter stopped as soon as it started. Guan Yu struck him off his horse with a sword and died.
Guan Yu put away his long sword and looked at Liu Bei, thinking that he finally did not embarrass himself in front of his elder brother.
At this time, Wen Chou broke through the camp gate and rushed in with his troops. He happened to see Guan Yu kill Xiahou Dun and shouted: "What a force!"
Guan Yu looked back, half-squinting his eyes, and lightly stroking his long beard.
As soon as Xiahou Dun died, his soldiers were immediately left without a master. Many of them threw away their weapons and begged to surrender. Those who did not want to surrender were quickly cut down.
At this moment, a soldier rushed over and reported to Liu Bei: "General Gao Shun has been killed in the battle, Cao Cao has fled to the west, and General Gan Ning and General Zhang Xiu are leading troops to pursue him."
"Gao Shun is dead!" Liu Bei did not expect, "Hurry, chase!"
It's too late to be sad now, it's important to catch up with Cao Cao.
He didn't want Gan Ning to be like Gao Shun, so he wanted as many soldiers and horses as possible to chase him.
Liu Bei took Guan Yu and Chen Dao and led his troops to pursue westward. Wen Chou followed closely behind him, followed by the troops led by Ju Shou and Yan Liang.
Lu Qian led the troops in front, and Dian Wei protected Cao Cao and Guo Jia. They broke through Gao Shun's ambush formation and fled westward.
Gan Ning and Zhang Xiu's men and horses were chasing after them, and they were less than three miles away.
After daybreak, Cao Cao heard the shouting of killing from behind but was still very close. He did not dare to stop and rest, and continued to urge his troops to move away quickly.
The three thousand soldiers sent by Xiahou Dun were rushed and killed by Gan Ning and Zhang Xiu. Only less than a thousand soldiers could follow Cao Cao. Those behind were either killed or captured, and not many could escape.
I don't know how long I ran before I saw Lu Cheng in front of me.
Lu Qian came back and asked: "Ming Gong, should we go to Lucheng for a while?"
"No," Cao Cao shook his head and said, "This city is very small and cannot be defended for a long time. This place is not far from Pengcheng. You should lead people to occupy Pengcheng and prepare food."
"promise."
Lu Qian quickly agreed and led his troops to Pengcheng first.
"Fengxiao, how are you? Can you still leave?"
Cao Cao saw Guo Jia's pale face and asked.
Guo Jia shook his head slightly: "Ming Gong, Jia is not in trouble, let's leave quickly, don't let the enemy soldiers catch up!"
"Okay, let's go quickly and we'll be fine when we get to Pengcheng."
Cao Cao ordered everyone to run forward quickly.
After running for who knows how long, Gan Ning still couldn't catch up with Cao Cao. He was so angry that he cursed: "Cao Cao is so good at running. Hurry up, brothers, don't stop, chase him."
"General Gan, why don't all the brothers stop and have something to eat?" said a military lord next to him.
"Let me ask you, did Cao Cao's troops stop to eat?"
The Junhou shook his head and replied: "Probably not."
"They won't eat, why should we? Chase after him quickly, catch up with Cao Cao and capture him, then we can go back to drink and eat meat."
After hearing that they could drink wine and eat meat, everyone got excited again and continued to chase west.
At this time, Zhang Xiu's troops had fallen behind and were about to be overtaken by Liu Bei and Guan Yu's troops.
Although there was nothing to eat, we basically ran along the Surabaya River, and we could drink water at any time.
Cao Cao didn't know how long he had been running. Looking at the sun and looking west, he only knew that it was already afternoon.
"How far is it from Pengcheng?" Cao Cao asked.
A soldier next to him immediately replied: "Gong Ming, there are still ten miles."
"Shili, okay, let's go quickly."
Cao Cao heard that there was only ten miles to go, and he felt a little relieved. When he reached Pengcheng, he would no longer have to run.
As for why he no longer had to run, Cao Cao didn't know. He only knew that he had to have a place to stay and take a rest.
Undoubtedly, at present, Pengcheng is the best place.
Pengcheng City is high and deep, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack, mainly due to Tian Yu's repairs.
At this time, a horse galloped in front of him, and Cao Cao noticed that it was one of his own.
The man patted his horse and hurried forward. He dismounted and walked to Cao Cao's horse to salute: "Report to Duke Cao that Chun Yuqiong and Zhang He are leading 30,000 troops to besiege Juancheng."
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha……"
Cao Cao burst into laughter suddenly, and the laughter continued for a long time, leaving everyone confused as to what he meant.
Only Guo Jia knew that Cao Cao was smiling helplessly.
Cao Cao had already expected that Yuan Shao would definitely send troops to capture Yanzhou, but now it only confirmed his guess and did not surprise anyone.
It is precisely for this reason that Cao Cao thought of running to Pengcheng to defend the city, and then find a way out of the predicament.
According to Cao Cao's thinking, the worst outcome would be for him to disperse all his troops, then return to Qiao County to stay at home and no longer serve as an official.
Based on his friendship with Yuan Shao, Yuan Benchu should agree to this request.
To get Yuan Benzhu to agree, he must protect himself first before raising conditions.
"Let's go to Pengcheng."
Cao Cao suddenly calmed down and was not as anxious as before.
Guo Jia understood Cao Cao's thoughts and stepped forward and said: "Ming Gong, although Pengcheng is strong, it cannot be defended for a long time. We must send people to Yecheng urgently to see General Yuan and ask him to withdraw his troops and horses and let Ming Gong go."
Otherwise, if the city is destroyed, I'm afraid Liu Bei won't be able to tolerate it!"
Cao Cao had already had this intention. He looked at Guo Jia and spoke in dialect for a moment: "Fengxiao, on behalf of Gu, go to Yecheng to plead with Yuan Benchu. He said that Gu is willing to return home to take care of his old age. He just asks him to let Gu's family go, and so on.
Soldiers!"
"Promise, Jia will live up to Ming Gong's trust!"
Guo Jia bowed his hands to Cao Cao as a gift. After saying goodbye, Cao Cao sent twenty soldiers to escort him to Yecheng.
After seeing off Guo Jia, Cao Cao heard the noise of soldiers not far behind and knew that the enemy soldiers were about to catch up again.
"Go quickly."
Cao Cao led his troops and horses in a hurry again and rushed towards Pengcheng.
Ten miles is not a long journey, especially after seeing Pengcheng City, Cao Cao and his soldiers ran faster.
Cao Cao finally passed the city gate and entered Pengcheng, followed by soldiers and horses rushing in behind him.
When the soldiers and horses entered the city, they saw the enemy soldiers pursuing them from a distance. Lu Qian quickly ordered the gates on all sides to be closed and arranged for men and horses to guard the city.
Lu Qian had already designated Tian Yu's former Prime Minister's Mansion as Cao Cao's residence and prepared food for him.
After Cao Cao ate, he lay down on the couch and closed his eyes.
Dian Wei stood beside him and accidentally saw tears flowing out of the corners of Cao Cao's eyes.
Dian Wei hesitated, not knowing whether he should wipe away Cao Cao's tears or say something, but in the end he did not move or say anything.
He knew that nothing he could say would be of any use, as the matter had come to this point and no one could undo it.
After a long time, Cao Cao opened his eyes, stood up, and said to Dian Wei: "Let's go patrol the city."
Cao Cao took Dian Wei and inspected the west, north and south city gates first, instructing the soldiers to guard the city gates, and making everyone eat first, and then came to the east gate tower.
Lu Qian stood on the city gate tower, looking at the increasing number of enemy soldiers gathering outside the city, his face full of worry.
"Ming Gong!"
Seeing Cao Cao, Lu Qian hurriedly saluted.
"How is the situation in the city? How many soldiers and horses do we have in the city?"
Cao Cao did not ask about the situation outside the city, but asked about the situation inside the city first.
He could understand the situation outside the city. As long as the city could be stabilized, the troops outside the city would not be able to attack the city so quickly.
Lu Qian hesitated for a moment and replied: "To report to Duke Ming, we now have more than 4,000 soldiers in the city. As for the situation in the city... there are less than a thousand people in the city, and there is a shortage of food..."
Cao Cao waved his hand and told Lu Qian not to say any more. With these two words alone, Cao Cao knew what the situation would be like in the coming days.
"Haha, the people of Pengcheng are actually willing to abandon their homes and food and run away with Liu Bei..."
"Ming Gong, the people of Pengcheng followed Tian Yu." Lu Qian immediately corrected him.
"Tian Yu followed Liu Bei, didn't the people of Pengcheng follow Liu Bei?" Cao Cao looked very unhappy, "You said that he went to Xuzhou alone and killed so many people in order to impress him, is it really inferior to Liu Bei, a man of benevolence and righteousness?
Name?"
Lu Qian mumbled and didn't know how to answer.
"Are you afraid of being alone?" Cao Cao suddenly looked at Lu Qian and asked.
"Ming Gong is so powerful all over the world, Qian has nothing but respect for Ming Gong, why should he talk about being afraid?" Lu Qian replied carefully.
Cao Cao looked outside the city and seemed to be thinking to himself: "Respecting but not being close to me, is it that I have power but no virtue?"
Lu Qian didn't dare to answer anymore, and Cao Cao didn't let him answer. He sighed to himself: "I wonder what happened to Yuan Rang?"
Cao Cao still doesn't know the news about Xiahou Dun.
Lu Qian hesitated again and answered hesitantly: "Ming Gong, General Xia Houyuanrang, he...he died in battle!"
He heard from the cavalrymen who had just escaped from behind that Xiahou Dun was killed by Guan Yu.
This seemed to be what Cao Cao had expected. He looked up to the sky and sighed: "Yuan Rang, Miaocai, Zixiao, Zilian, I have harmed you all! If I had listened to your words, I would not have welcomed the emperor to Xu County."
, Why is this happening today! The emperor is in hand, but Gu is not strong enough. Dong Zhuo is in front, but Gu is following in his footsteps, hahaha..."
Dian Wei and Lu Qian looked at each other, neither of them dared to speak.
Cao Cao stood looking outside the city for a long time. It was not until night fell that he asked Lu Qian: "How many days will the food in the city last?"
"Fifteen days at most." Lu Qian replied.
"Arrest all the people in the city, lock them in one place, and put people under guard." Cao Cao ordered.
"No." Lu Qian responded quickly.
"Hold the city gate."
After Cao Cao finished speaking, he took Dian Wei away.
After Gan Ning, Zhang Xiu and Liu Bei led their troops and set up camp outside the city. Later, Ju ordered people to send food so that everyone could eat.
These grains were all obtained from Cao Cao's camp.
In order to prevent Cao Cao from escaping, Liu Bei and Jushou Zhang Xiu discussed again and decided to use Zhang Xiu's Nanyang troops to surround Pengcheng to the south, Yan Liang to lead 20,000 troops to surround Pengcheng to the west, Jushou and Wen Chou to lead the remaining Jizhou troops to surround Pengcheng to the north, and Liu Bei to lead the Xuzhou troops to surround Pengcheng to the north.
Mawei is east of Pengcheng.
All parties deployed troops and horses overnight, and each deployed 3,000 troops as mobile troops. If Cao Cao broke through, two nearby mobile troops would rush to help and must stop Cao Cao.
A peaceful night together.
After dawn, on the way from Yanzhou to Pengcheng, Zhou Ping, Zhang Fei, Xu Chu and others were on their way.
Zhou Ping wanted to rush back to Xuzhou quickly and watch Cao Cao's defeat and death with his own eyes. Only in this way could he feel at ease.
Otherwise, if Cao Cao does not die, it may be difficult for Liu Bei to defeat Yuan Shao in the future.
"Sir, look quickly, there are Cao soldiers ahead."
Zhou Ping heard the soldiers shouting urgently and followed the sound. Sure enough, he saw twenty or thirty horsemen in front of him. The people on the horses were all wearing the clothes of Cao soldiers.
Among them, there was a man wearing Confucian clothes who was particularly eye-catching.
Zhou Ping took a closer look and discovered that the man wearing Confucian clothes was none other than Guo Jia and Guo Fengxiao.
"Why is he here?" Zhou Ping thought to himself, and then looked behind him, but no longer saw anyone.
Although he was confused, Zhou Ping didn't think much and immediately ordered: "Stop them and capture them."
As soon as Zhang Fei saw Cao Bing in front of him, his hands were itchy and he patted his horse and rushed out.
Over the past few days, he had been urging Zhou Ping and everyone else to leave quickly, just to rush back and kill the enemy as soon as possible.
Xu Chu also rushed out, and the soldiers behind him ran forward. Only Zhang Wu and a dozen guards stayed with Zhou Ping.
In fact, Guo Jia and others also saw Zhou Ping in front of them, especially after seeing Zhang Fei, they immediately reined in their horses and stopped. Then when they saw Zhang Fei rushing toward him, they immediately turned around and ran away.
Looking at Zhang Fei rushing towards him, Guo Jia was so nervous that he forgot to run away. He stared blankly at Zhang Fei rushing towards him, thinking that Zhang Fei's snake spear would pierce his body.
He closed his eyes.
However, when he heard the sound of horses galloping by, he opened his eyes and saw that Zhang Fei had already lapped his horse and galloped past him to chase down the soldiers.
Later, he saw Xu Chu and many enemy soldiers running towards him. Guo Jia faced it calmly. Anyway, if he fell into their hands, he would die sooner or later.
Then he was wrong.
Xu Chu and the soldiers did not kill him, nor even looked at him. Instead, they ran after the soldiers behind him.
At this time, Zhou Ping came slowly on his horse and walked up to Guo Jia.
Looking at Guo Jia's pale face, Zhou Ping smiled and said: "Fengxiao, don't worry, Yide and the others won't kill you because you don't have weapons in your hands. They won't kill innocent people indiscriminately. Only Cao Cao and Cao Bing will."
.”
Guo Jia smiled miserably: "Zhou Wen'an, you win!"
Zhou Ping was slightly stunned and asked: "Did I win? Who did I win?"
"Beat me! Both you and I focus on planning. Those who are good at planning should choose the master first, and then the plan can be used. I am far inferior to you in knowing people. You avoid Cao Gong and choose Liu Xuande, but I avoid it.
Yuan Benchu chose Duke Cao. However, Liu Xuande would never have achieved what he has today without you. Not only did you defeat me, you also defeated Duke Cao!"
Although Guo Jia's face was still pale, he smiled, showing his respect for Zhou Ping.
Zhou Ping also smiled back: "You are wrong. I can't defeat you, let alone Cao Cao. The one who defeats you is General Liu's benevolence and righteousness that cares about the people of the world. Only when General Liu Xuande has this ambition can he gather all the soldiers.
How can General Liu eliminate the thieves and quell the chaos without the help of all the soldiers?"
"But what you said is right. I am slightly better than you in understanding people, and I am also better than you in observing the world's situation. The so-called trend, those who follow the trend are positive trends, and those who go against it can gain a temporary advantage.
The situation will eventually be defeated!" Zhou Ping said again.
"You're right, but it's a pity that things have come to this...you'd better kill me!"
Guo Jia now sincerely admits that he is not as resourceful as Zhou Ping.
Zhou Ping smiled: "I won't kill you, but you must come back with me. My lord, General Liu, will decide how to deal with you."
Now for Zhou Ping, if there is no Cao Cao, Guo Jia will no longer have any use.
If he goes to Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao will definitely not use him. Even if he is willing to use him, he will be ostracized by others. Guo Jia will definitely not be able to bear it.
If he stayed to assist Liu Bei, maybe Liu Bei would keep him by his side, but he wouldn't trust or reuse him.
After defeating Cao Cao, who else would be more trusted and reused by Liu Bei than Zhou Ping.
According to Zhou Ping, the best place for Guo Jia is to go back to his hometown in Yingchuan, drink and study at home, or find a part-time job as an official to support his retirement, but it is estimated that Guo Jia would rather stay at home than take this part-time job.
.
Zhou Ping now keeps Guo Jia and has not killed him, not only because he and himself are both counselors, but also because of Guo Tu's relationship.
No matter how close Guo Jia and Guo Tu are, they are still members of the same clan. If they don't kill him, they will be betraying Guang Luxun and Guo Tu, which will make it easier for them to talk to each other in the future. After all, it's not time for Liu Bei to have a showdown with Yuan Shao yet.
"Zhou Wen'an, are you saving me?" Guo Jia understood what Zhou Ping meant and took him back to see Liu Bei. With Liu Bei's personality, he would definitely not kill him.
"No one wants to harm you, so how can we save you? You and I are each our own masters, and each has his own agenda. To be honest, if you and I weren't on different sides, I really hope to become close friends with you and drink and chat with you!"
Zhou Ping spoke from the bottom of his heart. He and Guo Jia had no grudge, they just had different stances.
Guo Jia cast a grateful glance at Zhou Ping.
Zhang Fei, Xu Chu and others rushed back with their horses. Before the horses stopped, Zhang Fei shouted: "I killed six, captured one, and ran away three. Sir, they said that the eldest brother has chased Cao Cao to Pengcheng. Now
Cao Cao is besieging the city, let's leave quickly!"
Zhou Ping was overjoyed and said, "Okay, let's go."
