Vol 2 Chapter 2797: Zhang Liao fought against Cao Cao at Guandu, Gao Shun captured Cao alive
Chapter 2797 Zhang Liao fights Cao Cao at Guandu, Gao Shun captures Cao Bianjiao alive
Chapter 2793: Zhang Liao fought against Cao Cao at Guandu, Gao Shun captured Cao Bianjiao alive
“The Grand Governor, the Yuan Sect Master, the Yuan Sect Master, he...”
Hearing what his subordinate said, Cao Bin suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart and asked quickly: "What's going on?"
“Zongzhu Yuan is missing.”
"What?"
Cao Bin's eyes widened immediately, and without saying a word, he rushed to Yuan Jiuling's hospitalization, but there was no one there. Yuan Jiuling had already left Xuchang last night.
As a grand master, if Yuan Jiuling really wants to leave, the ten-meter-high city wall will obviously not be able to trap him.
Looking at the empty mansion, Cao Bin was crying without tears. He knew that he must have been in a hurry and Yuan Jiuling escaped from Xuchang overnight, but what was this?
“General Yu, you are entrusting someone to a bad person.”
Cao Bin beat his feet and chest angrily. After all, without Yuan Jiuling, how could he defend Xuchang City?
At this moment, Chen Gong came over and handed over a letter, saying: "Grand Governor, Gong thinks you should read this letter first. The Yuan clan master had another reason for avoiding the war and leaving without saying goodbye."
Hearing this, Cao Bin didn't care about being angry anymore. He quickly took the letter and read it. He also learned about the news that Da Qin Diao's twenty-four great masters had come to the Central Plains.
The impact of this news on Cao Bin was far less severe than that of Yuan Jiuling, because the top leaders of all countries knew from beginning to end that although there were many masters siding with Da Qin, Da Qin was following the royal unification route.
Therefore, Ying Hao would never send these masters to directly deal with the country, and at most he would send them to deal with top masters who were hostile to Great Qin.
Cao Bin also admires Ying Hao's behavior that he can easily unify, but chooses the difficult mode.
There is a price to pay for relying on external forces. Cao Wei relied too much on the power of the Demon Sect, which resulted in the place being controlled by the Demon Sect. Now that Cao Wei has come to take control of the place, he can no longer control the place.
Da Qin is now so powerful that even if it borrows power, there will be no consequences. However, it may suffer backlash in the future, and the best way to unify it is ultimately to rely on itself.
Of course, another reason why Ying Hao would do this is that the Qin Dynasty is strong enough and can achieve unification even without the help of external forces. Otherwise, he probably would not make this choice. After all, the unification of heaven and earth is the greatest.
Since the fist could not hit him, Cao Bin would not be afraid, but the iron fist could hit Yuan Jiuling.
So, after Cao Bin learned the news, he somewhat understood why Yuan Jiuling escaped from the battle.
After all, anyone who is targeted by the twenty-four great masters and may die at any time cannot help but be afraid.
“Immediately fly a pigeon to send a letter to the lord, informing you of the situation in Xuchang City.”
Cao Bin said with determination. He actually knew in his heart that once Yuan Jiuling left, Xuchang might not be able to hold on for long.
Once Xuchang falls, the Yingchuan Qin army can march straight in and cut off the retreat of Chen Liu and the Dongjun Wei army. By then, Cao Cao and Le Yi may be completely wiped out.
So, Cao Bin’s real intention in sending the letter to Cao Cao was actually to persuade Cao Cao to abandon Guandu, or even abandon the entire western front, retreat to the eastern front, and continue to resist Qin.
Cao Bin actually wanted to persuade Cao Cao to surrender. After all, the gap between the two sides was too big.
It has only been two months since the war started, and the Wei army is almost unable to hold it anymore, while the Qin army's grain and grass reserves can support a million-strong army for at least a year.
But the Wei army was at a disadvantage in all three major battlefields, and the Yingchuan battlefield was about to be defeated.
If the fight continues like this, there really isn’t much hope.
Of course, although Cao Bin had this intention, he did not dare to speak out. After all, Cao Cao already had some demonic obstacles.
The relationship between the Ying and Cao families is very close. Not only is Cao Cao sworn brother to the Emperor of Qin, but his two daughters are also the concubines of Ying Hao. With these two relationships, even if Cao Cao fights against Qin to protect Wei, he can still have a decent relationship. Way to end.
But now Cao Cao is like a gambler who cannot afford to lose. In order to retain the power in his hands, the methods he adopts are becoming more and more extreme, to the point of completely disregarding his family and tribe.
Whoever dares to speak like this at this time will be unlucky, even Cao Bin, a clan member, is no exception. If this trend continues, it will be difficult for Cao Wei to end.
Cao Cao was unwilling to give up his rights and still had the luck of defeating the Qin army in his heart. Cao Bin had no choice but to hold on to Xuchang as much as possible to buy time for Cao Cao in Guandu to retreat.
————
Guandu, in official history, was the decisive battle site between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and the famous Battle of Guandu broke out here, and now it has become the forward position of the center line of one of the three major battlefields of Qin and Wei.
In order to defend Chenliu, Cao Cao carefully built three lines of defense in eighteen counties in eastern Henan. He wanted to use this to resist the Qin army's attacks layer by layer and consume the Qin army's strength. Guandu was the core of the last of the three lines of defense. .
But what Cao Cao never expected was that even if Ying Hao was not among the middle army, the Qin army's offensive led by Zhang Liao would be so fierce.
Under Li Cunxiao's fierce attack, the first and second lines of defense were breached one after another, and a large number of cities such as Mi County and Xinzheng fell. The passage between Henan Yin and Yingchuan was opened, forcing Cao Cao to retreat to the third line, mainly Guandu. Line of defense.
Just when Cao Cao was worried about how to defend Guandu, Bai Qi transferred Li Cunxiao to the northern battlefield, which naturally greatly relieved Cao Cao's pressure.
Cao Cao thought that without Li Cunxiao, he would be easier to face Zhang Liao, but he didn't expect that Zhang Liao would be so difficult to deal with. Although Li Cunxiao left, Zhang Liao still had many powerful generals under his command, such as Zhang Dingbian, Xu Huang, Yu Jin, Zhang He, and Li Dingguo.
Especially Zhang Dingbian, Xiahou Dunhe and Kagutu, the two war gods, were all defeated by him. Only Cao Wei's general Tantai Yu, who was recognized as second only to Yin Zhou, could draw with him.
In addition, after Li Cunxiao left, Zhang Liao also changed his previous aggressive approach and instead advanced steadily while eliminating threats from the rear. The 150,000-strong army fought steadily, leaving Cao Cao unable to find any chance.
Although Cao Cao was full of resourcefulness, Zhang Liao's military advisor was Jia Xu. In terms of conspiracy and scheming, he was still far behind Jia Xu. Even if Fan Li and Cheng Yu were added to the mix, it would be difficult to figure out the vigilant Jia Xu. .
Under Jia Xu's plan, Zhang Liao divided his army into two and marched 90,000 troops to the north of Qinling. They attacked Yuanwu from Juan County and finally confronted Cao Cao at Guandu.
The southern route was led by Li Dingguo, who led 40,000 troops out of Xinzheng. After conquering Yuanling, they did not go north to attack Zhongmou, but went straight east to Kaifeng.
Kaifeng in this era was not very famous, and it was far from the status of Kaifeng in the Song Dynasty. It was just a small county with a population of tens of thousands.
During the Yellow Turban Uprising, Ying Hao also used 50,000 Han troops to defeat Huang Chao's 200,000 Yellow Turban troops in Kaifeng. This was the first time that Kaifeng became famous.
Kaifeng's position in Cao Cao's third line of defense is also very important. After all, behind Kaifeng is Chenliucheng. Although Chenliucheng is impregnable, it does not mean that Kaifeng is not important. Therefore, Cao Wei's defense in Kaifeng is still very tight, and it is personally controlled by the clan general Cao Ren. guard.
Zhang Liao led an army of 100,000 troops to attack Guandu after defeating Yuanwu. However, after Li Dingguo defeated Yuanling, he attacked Kaifeng instead. This gave the Wei army in Guandu a bad feeling.
After all, according to common sense, Li Dingguo should have come to Guandu to join Zhang Liao, but now Li Dingguo did the opposite. This made all the generals, including Cao Cao, smell the conspiracy, and the person behind it was 100% responsible. It's the old thief Jia Xu.
Cao Cao has already suffered a lot of losses at the hands of Jia Xu, but he doesn't want to be plotted by the other side again, so every step he takes next is cautious, for fear of falling into the opponent's trap.
Looking at Cao Cao who was like a frightened bird, Fan Li sighed and said: "My lord, with General Cao Ren here, Kaifeng will not be lost in the short term.
Even if Kaifeng falls, Li Dingguo will be unable to threaten Chen Liu. The real threat to our army is Zhang Liao.
Li believed that Li Dingguo's move was just a false shot, and the real target was Zhongmou City. "
Cao Cao was startled. It was not that he had never thought about this, but he was more concerned about Chen Liu's safety, so he subconsciously ignored it.
"What the military advisor said is reasonable, so I sent an order to Xia Houyuan to immediately lead an army of five thousand to support Zhongmou."
After giving the order, Cao Cao's eyes fell on the envelope on the table. This was the information that the school affairs office desperately intercepted and sent back. It recorded the storage location and transportation route of the Qin army's grain road.
Zhang Liao's acting style was too steady, and with the help of Jia Xu, Cao Cao couldn't find any opportunity to take advantage of it. If he wanted to defeat this combination, he had to make dangerous moves, so he wanted to surprise the Qin army's food road.
Of course, it is impossible for Cao Cao to surprise Wuchao this time. After all, Wuchao is located in the northeast of Guandu, while the Qin army is to the west of Guandu.
Cao Cao still wanted to defeat Zhang Liao through a surprise attack, burning the Qin army's food and grass, just like in history.
But knowing the location of the Qin army's granary, Cao Cao became a little timid. He was frightened by Jia Xu and worried that this was a trap deliberately set by Jia Xu.
Cao Cao was already suspicious, and when he thought about it, he became even more suspicious of the incorrect origin of this information. After all, how could such important information about the Qin Army's grain storage area be easily obtained by the school affairs office?
However, if this was really a trap, Cao Cao could also pretend not to know and use the trick. However, he was afraid that Jia Xu would guess that he would use the trick, so he arranged other traps for him later.
Thinking of this, Cao Cao felt his head hurt again, and even the headache that was about to get better returned again. It can be seen that Jia Xu really cast a big shadow on him.
"My lord, let's put aside the surprise attack on the Qin army's grain depot for now. The most important thing is to defend Guandu first. Once Guandu is lost, the third line of defense will be completely undefendable." Fan Li added again.
After hearing this, Cao Cao grasped the key point of the matter. After all, Zhang Liao's 90,000 troops were pressing down on the border, with thousands of catapults and 3,000 crossbows of various types. They fired tens of thousands of stone bombs and hundreds of thousands of war arrows at Guandu every day. arrows.
Therefore, the pressure on Guandu is actually very high. A huge amount of materials must be consumed every day to defend Guandu under the indiscriminate bombardment of the Qin army.
However, the cost of continuing to fight like this is too great. The Qin army can afford it because of its wealth, but the Wei army may not be able to afford it.
“Immediately send orders to the rear to collect supplies from Suanzao, Fengqiu, Junyi, and Pingqiu, and transport them to the front line…”
Before Cao Cao finished speaking, an immigrant soldier reported: "Report... to my lord, Zhongmou has been lost, and the defender Cao Bianjiao was captured alive by Qin general Gao Shun."
Cao Bianjiao was the nephew of Cao Wenzhao. He was also a famous general in the late Ming Dynasty. He fought bravely across the three armies and was brave and resourceful. Together with Cao Wenzhao, he was called the Great and Little General Cao.
Cao Bianjiao was appointed by Cao Cao as the defender of Zhongmu, which shows his extraordinary ability, but compared with Li Dingguo, there is obviously still a big gap.
The reason why the city was captured this time cannot be blamed on Cao Bianjiao. The main reason was that the Wei army's reaction speed was not fast enough. If Xia Houyuan could arrive in time, how could Zhongmu City be captured by Li Dingguo?
After Cao Cao heard the news that Zhongmu had been lost, he couldn't help but smile bitterly and said: "As expected by the military advisor, Jia Xu made another trick."
Since the war with the Qin army, Cao Cao has received news that either this city has been captured or that general has died in battle. There is basically no good news. He is almost used to being hit.
But this time in Zhongmu, Cao Cao couldn't help but tremble in his heart. After all, Cao Bianjiao was his nephew who grew up and was one of the descendants he valued most in the Cao family clan.
(End of this chapter)