In this year (AD 215), Cao Zhen was thirty-nine years old and Liu Xie was twenty-three years old. Cao Zhen was the general of the Eastern Dynasty and conquered the west, and his position was only lower than Cao Pi. Liu Xie was already eighteen years old.
He entered the court and participated in political affairs, and now he is on the throne, leading the government and the public, and looking at the world. It can be said that he is unparalleled in majesty.
Cao Zhen was originally the son of Cao Cao's brother-in-law Qin Shao. After Qin Shao died for Cao Cao, Cao Zhen was adopted by Cao Cao. Because he was proficient in military affairs at a young age and made shocking remarks from time to time, Cao Cao looked at him differently and called Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu together.
As a Thousand Mile Horse of the Cao family, he often told Cao Pi that if he were to take charge of the military affairs of the DPRK in a hundred years, only Zi Dan could take over it. Cao Zhen also often praised himself as Wu Han and Feng Yi, hoping to assist Cao Cao and his son to achieve great achievements.
.However, after the Battle of Pingcheng, the military situation of the Eastern Dynasty deteriorated sharply. After the Battle of Xindu, Cao Cao was defeated by Liu Bei, and was eventually trapped in Linzi and even captured alive. The Eastern Dynasty no longer had a large place in Hebei.
At that time, most of the trusted generals in Cao Cao's camp, those well-known warriors who were known as tiger warriors and ten thousand enemies, except Li Zheng who died early, others such as Cao Ren, Xu Zhu, Dian Wei, Wen Ji, Zhu Ling, Cao Hong, etc., died in the battle.
On the battlefield with the Western Dynasty, the counselors from the north and the south who were famous for their wisdom in the Eastern Dynasty, such as Tian Feng, Shen Pei, Guo Jia, Xun Yu and others, also disappeared due to various reasons. The Eastern Dynasty
The only remaining senior generals under his command are Xia Houyuan, Lu Zhao, and Zhang He.
"If a man wants to accomplish great feats, why should he fear that the enemy is outnumbered and we are outnumbered? Even though the Western Dynasty is now powerful, didn't the marshal defeat Liu Bei in Beipi with a mere 50,000 men?" Cao Zhen encouraged morale like this when training troops in Liaodong.
, and discussed the future campaign strategy with Cao Pi. Within two years, he successively conquered Fuyu and Goguryeo. He also made good friends with Murong Xianbei and Kushan Guanbu Xianbei, and miraculously pulled out an 80,000-strong army from Liaodong, which made him happy for a while.
I couldn't stop. But I didn't expect that my ambition would be shattered like a dream.
After receiving the news of the deaths of Xia Houyuan and Zhang He, Cao Zhen went out for a slow walk around the city, only to find that the earth was also covered with autumn frost, the yellow flowers were scattered, the dead leaves were gone, and it was a lonely and desolate scene. He thought to himself that life is like falling flowers on the branches, gorgeous.
After a while, they would eventually wither away in the dust. The remnants of the Eastern Dynasty who were begging for a living in Liaodong probably had the same fate. But he then cheered up and thought, even so, a man like Tian Heng should die, how could he?
Can you be as miserable as a woman?
So he began to think about the way to withdraw from the siege. Juyong and Jingxing had been defeated, and the Han army was likely to encircle him in Zhuoxian County. If he tried to encircle him in Zhuoxian County, he was just asking for death. Therefore, he had to retreat to Liaodong and wait.
It is time to fight again in the coming year. But it is easy to come and difficult to go. Now you are surrounded by enemies on all sides. If you want to forcefully retreat to the direction of Lulong, you will inevitably fight with Zhao Yun's troops along the way. The Han army in the city will take advantage of the situation to come out to pursue.
If you are not careful, your bones will be buried here. Therefore, although Cao Zhen planned to evacuate, his behavior was uncharacteristic. He began to order all the armies to attack the Han army in Zhuo County in turns, and beat drums day and night to tire out the defenders. This move was indeed effective.
On about four or five days, the defenders in the city were struggling, and even the flags were often crooked.
At the same time, in order to boost morale, Cao Zhen summoned his soldiers to practice martial arts and shoot willows, and the winner was rewarded with raw meat. He personally drew a three-stone strong bow and shot at the target, and the arrows were accurate. He also ordered the knights to take the time to fight with sticks. The drummers also
The cowhide beating and big drums were used to cheer up, and the sound shook for more than ten miles. Many people from the surrounding villagers came to watch. They were either shocked by the martial arts scene, marveled at it, or clasped their hands to pray to God. The Han troops in the city also saw it, thinking that Cao Zhen was still going to do it.
Before reinforcements arrived, they stepped up their attack on the city. Zhong Yu and Lu Yu were a little frustrated and determined not to go out to provoke the Liao army.
At this time, the Liao army actually encountered great difficulties. Just when Cao Zhen was bluffing, Zhao Yun and Sima Yi's troops in the east led their troops to continuously attack the grain road between Lulong and Zhuoxian. Although they were not successful every time, they
There were also many gains. The Liao army's logistics gradually became unable to support them. Although Cao Zhen was anxious, he did not dare to show it on his face. Instead, he secretly ordered many mounds to be piled up in the camp, only covering the top.
Layer layers of wheat to show the soldiers that logistics is worry-free.
Finally, in late October, the Xindu army was approaching Zhuoxian County less than fifty miles away. One night, Cao Zhen suddenly ordered the entire army to abandon the camp and go north. Just when the Han army on the city still didn't understand what was going on, the last Liao army moved down the city.
The camp was burned to the ground, and flames and smoke suddenly rose. From a distance, the sea of fire rose into the sky, as if it was about to swallow up the entire Zhuoxian city.
The fire made it difficult for the defenders in the city to go out, and even led the approaching reinforcements to think that Zhuoxian had fallen. They quickly sent all the scouts to check out the situation without caring about anything else. This gave the Liao army an opportunity to escape. Since there was not much food and grass in the army,
Cao Zhen simply ordered the entire army to march upstream from the Baoshui River Valley in the north, intending to cross the Yanshan Mountains first and then head east to join Luzhao's headquarters.
Wei Yan, who was leading the army in front, was very anxious when he received the scout's report. He said to his subordinates: "Your Majesty came with the power of Mount Tai, aiming to wipe out the bullies and kill all the bandits. If he is allowed to leave like this, I'm afraid there will be disaster."
Blame it. What can we do? We can only pursue it urgently." The generals also believed this, so they all asked him to fight and expressed their stance. However, Wei Yan also had concerns, so he picked Liang Shuang out from his subordinates and said to him in detail: "This pursuit,
The important thing is to make your intention clear to Your Majesty, not to kill the enemy. I will give you eight thousand light cavalry. You have to ride fast to chase. If you have the chance, fight. If there is no chance, follow you. After chasing for 300 miles, you will come back. Cao Zhen is a wise general after all. Be careful.
fell into his scheme."
Liang Shuang had been in Nanfu for several years and was a veteran general under Wei Yan. However, he had never had the opportunity to make meritorious deeds recently. At this time, he was very excited when Wei Yan reminded him. He clasped his fists and said back: "Don't worry, General, I will fulfill my mission.
"That day, he led his troops to pursue the traces of the Liao army. When they saw the mountains, the sky gradually turned gray. Probably because of the mountains blocking them, they did not feel the manic north wind, but they saw white
Snow spots fell, and it turned out that it started to snow again.
Liang Shuang was afraid that they were too far away and the traces of the Liao people would be covered up by the heavy snow, so he ordered his subordinates to hit the horse and drive quickly. When there was still no snow on the grass, they also entered the Baoshui River Valley. The next day, they immediately rode to Mount Ankou.
Hanging to the north, he looked at the abrupt cliff to the east. On the cliff, curls of green smoke and speckled sparks could be vaguely seen. When Liang Shuang saw this, he knew that there was probably the rear camp of the Liao army.
Seeing that the Liao army was about to break camp soon, one of his subordinates asked Liang Shuang if he wanted to take the opportunity to attack. After all, when breaking camp, an army's defense is often at its weakest. Liang Shuang remembered Wei Yan's instructions before leaving.
, I wanted to shake my head and refuse, but then I thought, if I can't make a contribution this time, I'm afraid I won't have much chance in the rivers when I return to Xiangyang. The warrior originally wanted to put his head on the knife handle to seek wealth, how could he just let it go?
How did it go?
Therefore, he quickly gave orders to all his ministries, planning to divide into two groups, east and west, to attack the rear camp of the Liao army. However, just as he was dispatching his troops, a group of gray-white shadows appeared in the pine forest in the northeast, and the soldiers facing him stared intently.
Look, you realize that this is one or more people on horseback. The hoofs of the horses are jumping on the withered grass and snow, making almost no loud noise. And the people on horseback are leaning on the horse's mane and moving forward, holding it with one hand?
Holding the bow in one hand, he followed the horse undulating and leaping lightly on the snow.
Almost in the blink of an eye, the gray-white shadow had already come within a stone's throw, and a man stood out from the horse's mane. He held an arrow across his mouth, and another arrow was already on the string. The Han army scout had no time to draw the arrow.
The other party's arrow had already penetrated the back of his neck. When the people behind him saw someone falling on their backs in front of them, they knew they were being attacked. For a while, they called their comrades to form a defensive formation, but there were dozens of cavalrymen in front of them.
The human cavalry rushed over with arrows fired. Similar scenes also occurred in various pine forests on the mountain road to the north. The Liao knights rode up to the deceased, jumped off the horse, took out a knife, cut off the head, tied the hair to the horse's tail, and mounted the horse.
Dragging on the snow, dragging out dark bloodstains. The surrounding Han army scouts formed formations and fired their dynasties into the sky to warn their colleagues to defend against enemy attacks.
But at this time, the Liao cavalry had already cut in from both sides along the direction of the Han column. They cut in from the side against the enemy's direction and cut off the opportunity of the column. Even though the Han column stretched for a long time and the resistance was weak,
The fighting became more and more intense, but the Liao army's soldiers and horses did not hesitate at all. Instead, they dug in one after another. Gradually, a continuous gray shadow appeared in the surrounding mountains and fields, and for a while they could not be seen.
At the end, the fighting Han army realized that they had not encountered the Liao army's rear camp, but had broken into the Liao army's ambush.
Liang Shuang quickly changed his arrangements. In order to prevent his troops from being cut off and outflanked, he ordered his soldiers to flee from the masses in units of team leaders. He thought to himself that his subordinates were all light cavalry, and it would be easy to break them into pieces.
He escaped. However, he misjudged the determination of the Liao army. Cao Zhen knew that this battle was the key to whether he could safely return to Liaodong. He personally supervised the formation on the front line and saw that the Han cavalry had the idea of escape.
He simply ordered the trumpets to be blown, and all the remaining light cavalry of the Liao army inserted themselves into the center of the Han army, fighting to the death with them.
Liang Shuang was originally at the rear of the rear army hall, but was soon entangled by several Liao army knights. One of them rode his horse to his side, suddenly pulled the bow with his foot, and shot a Hulu arrow with a wide and flat arrowhead, hitting Liang Shuang head-on.
The collision was so violent that the arrow cut his neck flat and flew out from behind. Liang Shuang's head was completely cut off and thrown into the air. Blood spurted out with a sizzling sound, but there was no head.
The corpse was still sitting upright on the horse, continuing to gallop up and down with the horse.
When the remaining Han cavalry saw this, they all lost their minds and ran away like crazy. They eventually divided into dozens of small groups and ran into a small slope with sparse shrubs nearby. The Liao people tried to continue the pursuit, but as night fell,
As they gradually descended, the surrounding rock walls were so steep that they had to stop slowly. They carefully listened to the sounds from the south. After everything was silent, they reorganized their ranks and continued on the planned path as if they had woken up from a dream.