Cao Cao claimed that he would send out troops on the 24th, but in fact he had already mobilized his troops on a large scale since August 3rd.
On the fourth day, Xiahou Dun led his troops to settle in Changyuan first. Following Cao Cao's instructions, he led his army into the city with great fanfare that day, and announced that large armies would come to the west for reinforcements. After the announcement was completed, he led a group of troops to sneak out of the city at night, and then entered the city the next day. This cycle continued, pretending that a large army was coming from the east.
The Black Mountain Army had spies buried in Changyuan. They witnessed Xiahou Dun entering the city that day and later listened to the announcement. The spies were extremely panicked at first and immediately sent a letter to Puyang asking for help. But after two days, the spies gradually noticed something fishy. When Xiahou Dun went outside the city to meet the army every day, Zuo Si, the reinforcement general who led the army, was always alone. The general was eight feet tall, with a waist as wide as a tiger and shoulders as broad as a bear. He was wearing a suit of scarlet armor and riding a pure black horse. He was very conspicuous.
On the fourth day, the spies concluded that it was a fraud and sent a message to the defenders of Puyang. At this time, Puyang's chief general was Yang Feng. During the late emperor's reign, he was appointed as the captain of the Black Mountain School and was the most famous general in the army after Zhang Yan. After he received the news, he did not take advantage of it. Instead, he first asked his subordinates: "Have you harvested all the autumn grain?"
After learning that the grain collection had been completed, he felt relieved and said with a smile: "The enemy made a deceptive plan first. It seems that he wants to bully the big one with his small things! But the autumn grain has been harvested. No matter what his intentions are, I will sit still like a mountain. It's better. In this way, we will first pretend to have fallen into the trap and recruit the people in the city. When they attack, we will strike later and we will definitely catch them by surprise and defeat the rebel army!" Upon hearing this, his subordinates all shouted for a clever plan.
Unexpectedly, after the news that the Black Mountain Army had strengthened its walls and cleared the country, Cao Cao was not angry but happy. He smiled at Cao Ren and said: "There are still smart people in the traitor army. If he can't see through it, my subsequent plans will be useless."
On the night of the 20th, Cao Ren set off from Jiyang first. After waiting for three days, Cao Cao led his cavalry to break camp from Chenliu, also setting off on a dark night.
The autumn wind was intoxicating and the bright moon was shining brightly. The sound of the cavalry's hooves was like waves, making ripples in the silence of the night. Cao Jun's two horses took turns riding at a speed comparable to a strong wind. They covered less than half of the eight hundred miles between Chenliu and Puyang in one night. After a brief resupply at Changyuan, Cao Cao's army crossed the Pu River and arrived at a pine forest at midnight on the 25th, which was only thirty miles south of Puyang City.
Cao Cao led his army to hide in the mountains and forests, and waited for another two hours before Cao Renjun's envoy arrived. Cao Cao asked the envoy: "Where is Zixiao? Have you been discovered along the way?" The envoy replied: "Duke Zhaoming ordered that our army go out day and night, and detour from Lihu to here. We will arrive in about ten miles. . There were no common people along the way, and the few who were discovered were killed by us."
Cao Cao smiled slightly and told the envoy: "You pass the order for me. When Zixiao arrives, send a scout ten miles north to look at the river. If you see fire, come to help immediately!"
After saying that, he turned around and summoned his generals before revealing the destination of his trip. It turned out that he planned to use these five thousand cavalry troops to directly attack the camp five miles north of Puyang. This place was set up by Zhang Rao last year. There were iron chains to block the river in the camp, which was where the Black Mountain Army had to save. Once the Black Mountain Army came out of the city to rescue, Cao Cao led his army to meet him face to face. He waited for Cao Ren to arrive and then attacked from both sides.
According to this plan, the fighting will be over tomorrow morning. So Cao Cao's army rested there and had a good sleep. They didn't wake up until the moon rose, and Cao Ren's army also arrived. When the action was about to begin, Cao Cao's army ate more of the dry food he had brought with him, leaving only one meal of dry food and a full water bag, and then set off at night, moving forward lightly.
The moon was particularly bright that night, and the road outside the jungle was also particularly smooth. Cao Cao set off at dawn and traveled quickly. Even though he made a big circle around Puyang and took an extra forty miles of detours, he was still in two places. Arrive at the river within an hour. There was a village by the river that had not moved into the city, with a population of only a hundred or so. In order to prevent the news from leaking out, Cao Cao locked up the village and drove it into a house, then pushed the wall and killed it.
The riverbank to the east of the village has little undulations, and the valley in between is generally flat, forming flat dams of varying sizes. It seems that due to the salt land, there is no grass growing on the high areas of the river beach. Except for a few villages, the flat areas are mostly covered with flying yellow sand and full of smoke and dust. It can be seen that the river here has not been dredged for many years.
Cao Cao's army rested temporarily in this village and sent scouts along the river to the west to see how far away they were from the camp. While the scouts were away, the weather suddenly cooled down. Although there was no wind, moisture was floating in the air. The hair and clothes of Cao Jun's soldiers became cold and wet. For fear of exposing his traces, he did not dare to light a fire to keep warm. Everyone shivered and huddled together, or hugged the horses to keep warm. Cao Cao comforted them and said: "When we crossed the chasm on a snowy night last year, it was many times colder than it is now. Now it's just a little air-conditioning, so what does it mean?"
By the time the scouts returned, it was already late at night and fog had begun to form. The mist is like an endless gauze covering the hillsides, river beaches, sand dunes, farmhouses and roads. The scout reported to Cao Cao that about ten miles to the east was the camp of the rebel army. With three river chains, there were three camps, each with about a thousand people. Perhaps because of the strong walls and clear fields, these camps were quite vigilant, and there were still people patrolling back and forth at night, seemingly divided into two groups to rest.
After learning the news, Cao Cao immediately ordered the entire army to go to war. After the order was given, the soldiers got up and packed up their armors and weapons with strong spirits. But there were also people who fell asleep in the cold fog and woke up suddenly only after being beaten by their companions. While moving their legs and feet, they gathered in one place and finally took action.
In order not to make any noise, the soldiers walked with branches in their arms, and the war horses tied their mouths with cloth straps to prevent them from neighing suddenly. As Cao's army advanced slowly along the river beach, the soldiers all led their horses on foot, which saved their horse power and prevented the sound of horse hooves from alerting the enemy. These are the tactics Cao Cao learned from Duan Xuan.
We walked cautiously like this for almost an hour, and slowly reached the first camp. The sky in the east has changed slightly, but the morning fog is even thicker. The firelight in the camp in the fog was like a piece of light-colored red paper, swaying in the breeze. A few steps further, Cao Jun's soldiers smelled a hazy fragrance, which was the smell of cooking smoke. It seemed that the Black Mountain troops had already stood up to simmer the fire. Cooking is done.
At this time, Cao Cao felt relieved. It seemed that the first step of the war was already certain. Before leaving, he had divided the entire cavalry into three teams. The first team ascends to the camp first and rushes when encountering enemies, trying to disperse the enemy forces formed to resist as much as possible. After breaking out of the enemy camp, turn back and enter the formation again from the side. The second team followed closely behind the first team and followed up to kill the lone enemy soldiers. After entering the camp, several small teams should be divided to kill the enemy everywhere, so that the enemy will feel that they are surrounded by enemies on all sides, lose their fighting spirit and flee everywhere. The third team detoured behind to intercept and kill the fleeing sergeants, especially the enemy generals on horseback.
Cao Cao personally led the first team in the formation. The first team was all the elites of this trip. Not only were the horses better, but the leaders were also warriors carefully selected by Cao Cao. They galloped into the fog and rushed into the iron chain camp in an instant. Coincidentally, this was the time for the guards to change, and the defense at Yingkou was not tight. When the sergeants of the Montenegrin Army suddenly saw the cavalry rushing in from the fog, they thought they were soldiers from heaven. They were all frightened and fled in all directions.
Cao Cao's troops broke into the enemy camp like tigers rushing into a flock of sheep. When they encountered the enemy, they chased them and drove them away so that they could not form formations to protect themselves. The Montenegrin Army camp was suddenly attacked and basically unprepared. The sergeants were horrified and scrambled to avoid Cao Jun's attack, so that Cao Jun's cavalry quickly penetrated the iron chain camp.
Then they turned left. The fog was very heavy, but with the noise and noise, Cao Cao quickly found the right position and entered the formation again. But this time, they encountered antlers, or picket fences, and had to dismount and rush to the fence to pull them out with their bare hands. Fortunately, the first wave of Montenegrin armaments was stunned, and then they were attacked by the second wave. There was no regard for lateral safety, and there were no guards around the fence. Otherwise, if hundreds of archers shoot randomly through the fence, they will cause great damage to Cao's army.
At this time, the second cavalry led by Cao Ang was entering deeply. Different from the situation encountered by the first group, after experiencing the initial panic, the leaders of the camp had begun to gather part of their strength to prepare for the incoming enemy. Unfortunately, in the darkness, the fog filled the air, and only the sound of killing could be heard, but the number of enemies could not be seen. Since we don't know where the enemy is coming from, we can't organize a formation to assemble to defend against the enemy.
Cao's army had a clear goal and a numerical advantage. As long as it found resistance from the Black Mountain Army, it would concentrate several times its strength to surround and attack them. After Cao Cao led his troops to fight back horizontally, the two groups of troops rolled back and forth in the formation, sealing the enemy and killing them. There was a thick fog all around, and the collapsed Montenegrin army quickly fled in all directions in order to save their lives.
They were ambushed by the third group of cavalry. In the dim morning light, the figures of Le Jin and others were like flowing pen and ink, floating back and forth on the paper, and the screams soon ended. Le Jin also broke through the fog and walked to Cao Cao to tell him his life. Beside Cao Cao, Dian Wei's ax was dripping with blood, and white steam was rising from the blade.
This assault was carried out perfectly, and not a single Montenegrin soldier escaped from the camp.
Cao Cao searched for a moment in the camp, and soon found an iron pile in the center of the camp, with an inch-wide iron rope attached to it, extending from the mist to the other side of the river.
Cao Cao touched the iron rope with his hand, stained by dew and rust. He frowned, looked westward at the invisible Puyang City, and ordered everyone in a cold voice: "Pry it open for me!"
However, the iron chains were thick and the iron piles were buried tightly, making it difficult to dig and pry them off in a hurry. At this time Dian Wei stepped forward and asked everyone to leave. I saw him holding a three-foot giant axe, steadying his horse's steps, and then found the most rusted place on the iron rope, raised the giant ax above his head, let out a loud shout, and the fire flashed, the iron rope broke with a sound, and smashed into the river. , causing a huge uproar.
When everyone was marveling at Dian Wei's magical power, Cao Cao got on his horse and told everyone: "Light the camp on fire and go to the second camp!"
