Shortly after Zhang Fei led his troops to retreat, Zhang Yang's troops were defeated by Cao Cao's army. Sima Fang's Hanoi army in the rear was rotating and had not yet had time to fill the front line. As a result, after the Shangdang army was dispersed, the front line was suddenly destroyed, forming a huge rout in the middle. The Han army was completely out of line, and Huangfu Li's troops were no longer in line. , Sima Defense Department also gathered together and retreated south together.
Unexpectedly, Liu Bei's situation suddenly deteriorated, and he was extremely worried. He 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: "It's urgent! If our army retreats south now, I'm afraid the whole army will no longer be in array, and we will be buried here! Ming Gong, I am willing to lead the army to resist the north." , with severe punishments and clear laws, the bandit army is also tired. If they are driven back today, they will withdraw their troops even at dusk, so our army can be reorganized and fight again tomorrow!"
Liu Bei was convinced, so he transferred three thousand of his five thousand Jinyang troops to Zhang Xian, and gave Zhang Xian the Zhongxing Sword, saying: "My life and death depend on the general today!"
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. After admonishing Zhu Hao to sing "Song of the Great Wind" as a heroic act, Zhang Xian immediately got on his horse, shouted "Magnificent", 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 horse barrier, 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 the horse, their voices mixed together, 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 soldiers in front of him on the spot, and said to himself: "If you want to find your own death, go ahead and throw yourself into the water." In this way, the defeated soldiers 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 the Cao army who followed saw that the Han army could still fight back, they all showed hesitation.
Unexpectedly, at this time, something happened to most of the Han army in the south, which completely changed the entire war situation.
Jianping General Dong Cheng learned that the Han army's front line 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. But he was overjoyed in his heart, thinking: I am leading the army to the last place, and Liu Bei is holding back from left to right. He will definitely be unable to check and balance me. 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 He led the crowd to leave the group and ran to the southwest.
"Treading on the Stars"
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: "Could it be that the thieves are ambushing us in the rear?" The rumor spread more and more widely. When Chen Wang Liu Chong and Jizhou Governor Yuan Tan heard the news, they also broke away from the battle, which in turn caused the entire rear army to commit suicide without a fight. Collapse.
At this time, Liu Bei felt a little comforted when he saw Zhang Xian blocking Cao Jun, but he couldn't help but worry about Guan Yu, thinking about his safety now? I was so melancholy that I couldn't drink water. He was about to send Zhu Hao to see the battle situation of Xu Shu's troops, but Huangfu Jianshou, the military adviser, stumbled back, looking panicked, his hands and feet trembling, and said: "Ming Gong! Something big has happened, the rear army has gone." They all broke up and ran away, and all the ministries were in chaos!"
"What!" Liu Bei was shocked, 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 food. Now I have abandoned the battle. Escape from me!"
After saying that, Liu Bei stood up and cut his knife, wanting to see it in person. At this time, Fazheng, Zhu Hao, Meng Da, Xun You and Chen Qun all came over. Fa Zheng said: "The defeat has been decided. We are in trouble. Please return to the east capital as soon as possible and order Chen Gong, Zhang Miao and others to guard Henan. If it is too late, we will lose the world 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 we do with Yide, Yunchang, Yuanzhi, Zhendong and other tribes?"
Xun You said: "We can only let Zhendong go to the rear first. We will reorganize the army and follow up later!" 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 it. He immediately flew 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 entourage flew past. When they saw this situation, they couldn't help but burst into tears and sighed: "I wanted to return to my hometown with a fire, but I didn't want to return home 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. As a result, Zhang Xian was also deeply surrounded.
Because Zhang Xian wore a gold imperial Zhongxing sword hanging 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 gather thorns. The horse was quickly stabbed to death, and Zhang Xian could only dismount and fight on foot. After several more fierce battles, a Cao soldier stabbed Zhang Xian, cutting a large gash along the gap between his armor and skirt. Pull it out, and all the intestines inside will flow out.
Seeing that their general was injured, some Jinyang soldiers tried to come to Zhang Xian's rescue, but they were unable to break through. Zhang Xian knew that he was going to die, so he didn't bother to grab the intestines. Instead, he took out his sword from his waist, cut off the flowing intestines with his hand, and continued to fight to the death with Cao's soldiers. Seeing this, Cao's soldiers couldn't help but retreat in fear, and just surrounded Zhang Xian. , but no longer stepped forward. Zhang Xian laughed twice at this, then sat on the dirt with an arrow in his hand, took two breaths, and then there was no movement.
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 hearing this, 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 subordinates 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", no longer missed the battlefield, and led his troops to withdraw from the southeast.
Xu Shu led his troops to fight and retreat, and shot out all the arrows he had brought with him. Cao Ren didn't know why, but he thought that the Han army in front of him was going to fight for his life, so he stopped attacking and kept two arrows' distance from the Han army. While joining Cao Cao, he observed Xu Shu's weaknesses.
At this time, the sky was completely dark, Cao's army was slaughtering Han soldiers in the distance who could not escape, and all the Han generals gathered together to make the final military discussion. Xu Shu said to the people around him: Tuoba Pigu, Tuoba Liwei, Huang Zhong, and Shejian: "At this time, night has come and the moonlight is not yet bright. This is probably the last chance to escape. You take advantage of the rebel army before they can react. All the elites should go after Duke Ming!"
Everyone was taken aback and tried to dissuade him: "Jun Xu is the mastermind of the domineering government. If we all die, we should not harm Jun Xu. Jun Xu should go first!"
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." If you leave early, I can wait for an opportunity to escape. If you hesitate any longer, you will all die here!"
Everyone knew his painstaking efforts and couldn't help crying and thanking 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 injured, and there were only about 8,000 people capable of fighting. Therefore, Xu Shu gathered these eight thousand capable warriors in one place, and let the rest of the wounded rest. He told them, "If the rebel army comes, you can surrender with troops." Then he personally inspected his subordinates and asked them: "I Now I die with you, do you have any regrets?" The Han soldiers all replied loudly: "I die with Xu Zheng, I don't have any regrets!" Xu Shu laughed when he heard this.
Cao Jun waited for two hours and saw that Xu Shu's troops had been stationed here and neither retreated nor surrendered, so they finally decided to fight the final battle at night. The knights of Cao's army did not make any rash moves, but raised fire to surround the Han army on both sides. After encircling them all, they sent someone to ask: "Who led you? Why don't you surrender to our army? Sima Gong of Hanoi and General Chang of Xuzhou , and you, Henan Guanhuhu, have all surrendered to our army. If you can abandon the secret and surrender to the 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!"
Sima Fang, who had surrendered, heard the voice and said to Cao Cao: "It's the think tank of the Bafu, Xu Changshi! 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, "Unfortunately, I have seen Xu Yuanzhi's talents, but he is a righteous man, after all, he cannot 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 rainstorm of arrows at the Han army. After shooting most of them to the ground, the knights rushed forward to kill and chop. Waiting until dawn the next day, Cao Jun identified the heads of the 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.
