Shortly after Zhang Fei led his troops to retreat, Zhang Yang's troops were immediately defeated by Cao Cao's central army. Sima Fang's Hanoi army in the rear was rotating and had not had time to fill the front line. As a result, after the Shangdang army was scattered, the front line was suddenly destroyed.
A huge rout was formed in the central part, and the Han army was completely out of line. Together with Huangfu Li's troops and Sima's defense troops, they also retreated southward.
Unexpectedly, Liu Bei's situation suddenly deteriorated. He was extremely worried and asked Zhang Xian, the governor of Xuzhou who was guarding the Chinese army, "Can we still fight now?"
Zhang Xian also knew that the situation was urgent and said to Liu Bei: "The matter is urgent! If our army retreats south now, I am afraid that the entire army will no longer be in array, and we will also be buried here! Ming Gong, I am willing to lead the army to resist the north.
, with heavy punishments and clear laws, the thieves are also tired. If they are driven back today, they will withdraw their troops even at dusk. Then our army can regroup and fight again tomorrow!"
Liu Bei was so convinced that he transferred three thousand of his five thousand Jinyang troops to Zhang Xian, and gave Zhang Xian the Zhongxing Sword, saying: "Today, my life and death depend on the general!"
At this time, the sky was getting late and the twilight was hazy. Zhang Xian knew that his trip would definitely be a narrow escape, so he asked Liu Bei for a bowl of wine and drank it all in one gulp. He advised Zhu Hao to sing "The Song of the Great Wind" as a grand tour. Zhang Xian
Then he got on his horse, shouted "Great", and led the crowd to gallop north.
The Yuzhou Army from the north happened to hit them head-on. Zhang Xian ordered his troops to stick all the wood they brought with them on the ground, set up a simple barrier of horses, and sent his soldiers forward. He said in unison to the defeated soldiers:
"Don't retreat! You can't survive by retreating, but you can turn defeat into victory by going north."
The defeated soldiers crowded in front of Juma, and their voices were high and low, and they said to Zhang Xian: "Forget it, General Guan has been defeated, what chance can there be to turn south, there are so many of us, where are they?"
Can you finish the killing?"
Zhang Xian was furious when he heard this. He ordered his soldiers to shoot the defeated troops in front of him on the spot, and said to himself: "If you want to seek death, just go and throw yourself into the water." In this way, the defeated troops could only turn to the east and west.
They fled, while Zhang Xian gathered a few remaining soldiers and was about to fight again. When Cao Jun, who was following, saw that the Han army could still fight back, they all showed hesitation.
Unexpectedly, at this time, something happened to the majority of the Han army in the south, which completely changed the entire war situation.
General Dong Cheng of Jianping learned that the front line of the Han army was unfavorable and that the left wing was attacked by Cao's army. He knew that the Han army was in an extremely dangerous situation. However, he was overjoyed and thought: I am leading the army at the last position, and Liu Bei is supporting me from the left and right.
, I will definitely be unable to check and balance me anymore. If I don’t leave now, when will I wait?
So he ordered his subordinates: "The thieves are strong and our army has been defeated. It is time for the whole army to return to Han Valley in order to fight again next year." After giving the order, all Dong Cheng's troops shouted "Our army has been defeated", and then they
Lead the crowd to leave the group and run to the southwest.
When Dong Cheng retreated, the Han troops around him didn't know why. They could only see a large number of soldiers retreating hastily in the evening. They were all frightened and said to each other: "Is it possible that the traitors are ambushing you in the back?" Rumors spread more and more.
When Yueguang heard this, King Liu Chong of Chen and Yuan Tan, the governor of Jizhou, immediately broke away from the battle, causing the entire rear army to collapse without a fight.
At this time, Liu Bei saw Zhang Xian blocking Cao's army, and felt a little comforted. But he couldn't help but worry about Guan Yu. How was his safety now? He was so melancholy that he couldn't drink water. He was about to send Zhu Hao to see the battle situation of Xu Shu's troops, but the military adviser
Huangfu Jianshou stumbled back, looking panicked, his hands and feet trembling, and said: "Ming Gong! A big event has happened. The rear army has broken up and ran away, and all the ministries are in chaos!"
"What!" Liu Bei was shocked and turned pale, and after a while he said angrily: "Since I established my government in Jinyang and collected soldiers from the east and west, I have treated them with the courtesy of a national scholar. I have never delayed my salary, soldiers and rations. Now I am abandoning the battle.
Let me run away!"
After saying that, Liu Bei stood up with his sword cut and wanted to see it in person. At this time, Fazheng, Zhu Hao, Meng Da, Xun You, and Chen Qun all came over. Fazheng said: "The defeat has been decided, and it is difficult to use it again.
Please ask Ming Gong to return to the eastern capital as soon as possible and order Chen Gong, Zhang Miao and others to guard Henan. Otherwise, the world will be wiped out in one battle!"
After saying that, he immediately supported Liu Bei on the horse. Liu Bei still hesitated and did not move according to the saddle. He said to everyone: "What should Ke Yide, Yun Chang, Yuan Zhi, Zhendong and other tribes do?"
Xun You said: "We can only let Zhendong go to the rear first. We will wait for a while to reorganize the army and then follow up!" But Fazheng was already anxious. He stretched out his hand and blew a sharp whistle in his mouth, whipped the horse and took a picture of the horse.
He immediately jumped into the air and galloped away. Along the way, the Han infantry abandoned their armor and fled with fire. The fires in the surrounding fields were continuous and spectacular. Liu Bei and his followers flew past. When they saw this situation, they couldn't help crying and sighed: "I wanted to raise fire."
Returning to my hometown, I don’t want to go back west in embarrassment, how should I meet Ting Jian?"
Liu Bei led the Chinese army to evacuate in this way, which completely put Zhang Xian and Xu Shu's troops into a desperate situation.
Seeing that his commander had withdrawn, Zhang Xian didn't know why, but he still resisted to the death. However, the fighting spirit of his troops was extremely low. When Cao's cavalry crossed the horse resistance and charged into Xuzhou's army, they were invincible and quickly cut the Han soldiers into pieces.
With several troops, Zhang Xian was also deeply surrounded.
Because Zhang Xian was wearing a gold imperial-given Zhongxing Sword on his waist, Cao Jun knew that he was a high-ranking official in the Han army, so more than 20 people gathered around him to collect thorns. The horse was quickly stabbed to death, and Zhang Xian could only dismount and fight on foot.
, and after several fierce battles, a Cao soldier stabbed Zhang Xian, cutting a large gash along the gap between the armor and the skirt. As the halberd was pulled out, the intestines inside flowed out.
Seeing that the general was injured, some Jinyang soldiers tried to come to Zhang Xian's rescue, but they could not break through. Zhang Xian knew he was going to die, so he did not bother to grab the intestines. Instead, he took out his sword from his waist and cut off the flowing intestines with his hand.
They continued to fight to the death with Cao's soldiers. When Cao's soldiers saw this situation, they could not help but retreat in fear. They just surrounded Zhang Xian but stopped moving forward. Zhang Xian laughed twice at this, then sat on the dirt with an arrow and shouted twice.
tone, and then there was no movement.
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On the other side, Xu Shu was still supervising the battle. He had stopped the defeat in the west. Although the front was retreating step by step, Cao Ren still had few troops. Even though he led his troops to charge several times, he was exhausted and could not move forward anymore.
Therefore, Xu Shu double-teamed and fired volleys from both sides, and finally used his superior strength to beat Cao Ren back.
But this does not help the overall situation.
The news of Liu Bei's retreat soon reached Xu Shu's ears. After he heard it, his expression remained as usual, but he sent an envoy to Zhang Fei who came to help and said: "Today's defeat is due to my poor planning. I want to turn defeat into victory.
It's not possible. The most urgent task is to retreat the whole army. Most of the troops led by the prince are cavalry, which are the elite of our army. They should not be abandoned lightly. Most of my troops are infantry. It is difficult to escape. Therefore, the prince should return west first.
I will lead my troops to the rear."
After Zhang Fei learned the news, he said "treasure it", no longer missed the battlefield, and led his troops to withdraw from the southeast.
Xu Shu led his troops to fight and retreat, and fired all the arrows he brought with him. Cao Ren didn't know why, but he thought that the Han army in front of him was about to lead his troops to fight for their lives, so he stopped attacking and kept two arrows' distance from the Han army.
, while meeting up with Cao Cao, while observing Xu Shu’s flaws.
At this time, the sky was completely dark, and Cao's army was slaughtering Han soldiers in the distance who could not escape, while all the Han generals gathered together to make the final military discussion. Xu Shu looked at Tuoba Pigu beside him, and Tuoba was weak.
Huang Zhong and Shejian said: "The night has come and the moon has not yet brightened. This is probably the last chance to escape. Before the rebel army can react, pick some elites and go after Duke Ming!"
Everyone was taken aback and tried to dissuade him: "Xu Jun is the mastermind of the domineering government. If we all die, we should not harm Xu Jun. Xu Jun should go first!"
But Xu Shu shook his head and said, "Because of my presence, the three armies were prevented from retreating. If I fled first, could you stop the rebel army?" Everyone was speechless.
Then Xu Shu comforted him and said: "The teacher is still in Chang'an. As long as he is here, where will the government be short of think tanks? You are the pillars of the army, don't say more, go quickly, there will be more for you to fight for in the future."
At that time, if you leave early, I can wait for an opportunity to escape. If you hesitate again, you will all die here!"
Everyone knew his painstaking efforts, and couldn't help but shed tears and thank him. That night, he ordered three thousand elite soldiers and left quietly in the dim night.
At this time, many of Xu Shu's troops had been wounded, and there were only about 8,000 capable warriors. Therefore, Xu Shu gathered these 8,000 capable warriors in one place, and let the rest of the wounded rest. He warned: "If the rebel army comes,
, you can send troops to surrender." Then he personally inspected his subordinates and asked them: "I will die with you now, do you have any regrets?" The Han army all replied loudly: "I will die with Xu Cheng, no regrets!
"Xu Shu laughed when he heard this.
Cao's army waited for two hours and saw that Xu Shu's troops had been stationed here, neither retreating nor surrendering, so they finally decided to carry out the final battle at night. The knights of Cao's army did not make any rash moves, but used fire to outflank the two wings of the Han army.
After encircling them all, he sent someone to ask: "Who led you? Why don't you surrender to our army? Sima Gong in Hanoi, General Chang in Xuzhou, and you, Guan Huhu in Henan, have all surrendered to our army. If you can
Abandoning darkness and turning to light, the marshal may not be able to spare your life!"
When Xu Shu heard this, he stood up from the military formation and said to Cao Jun's envoy: "We are all men fighting on the battlefield, why do we need to confuse people's hearts? Today's defeat is all my fault. I am willing to die, but if you want to insult my integrity, I
Never give up!"
The surrendered Sima Fang heard the voice and said to Cao Cao: "It's Xu Changshi, the think tank of the Bafu! If the Ming Dynasty can get his help, great achievements will be made!"
Cao Cao covered his injured shoulder and laughed at Sima Fang: "Sima Gong is really a man who cherishes talents!" He then sighed, "It's a pity that I have seen Xu Yuanzhi's talents, but he is a righteous man, after all, he can't
If it is for my use, then it is better to fulfill him."
After that, he ordered the drums to be beaten. Under the moonlight, Cao Jun fired a rain of arrows at the Han army. After shooting most of them to the ground, the knights rushed forward to kill and chop. They waited until the next day.
At dawn, Cao Jun identified the heads of Han troops in the mountain of corpses. A Cao soldier found Xu Shu crushed by the corpse in a pool of blood. His hands and feet had been injured by several arrows, and his chest was still rising and falling slightly.
But Cao Bing had no intention of saving his life. He coveted the Yunlong Jade Sword in Xu Shu's hand. When no one was watching, he first cut off Xu Shu's head, then took the jade sword and put it into his clothes, and then went to his superiors to receive the merit.