Early the next morning, after the Eastern soldiers worked hard to repair the camp overnight, they finally returned to their tents to rest. Knowing that after the Western Army was defeated, they would not rush to fight again, so they slept particularly peacefully, and for a while, they snored one after another, just like the surging waves. Cao Cao had just woken up from his sleep at this time. He raised the tent again, informed everyone about the capture of prisoners, and ordered everyone to discuss what to do. Lan
Although there was an accident in yesterday's battle, the Easterners generally had the upper hand, so the morale of the generals was greatly boosted. The radical ones may say that they will fight again tomorrow, while the conservative ones also say that it will not be too late to repair for a few days before challenging. Seeing the generals rushing to fight first, Cao Cao nodded secretly: The generals are so eager to fight, which shows that their military morale is good, and victory will not be difficult.
However, he scanned the crowd and found that there were two discordant factors in the upsurge of invitations to fight: Qu Yi was sitting in the corner holding a knife, staring blankly at the mud, not knowing what he was thinking; Conversation, brows furrowed, obviously not talking about happy events.
Cao Cao waved his hand to silence everyone, and then asked Xun Ruo, "What do you want to say, Wen Ruo?"
Xun You stood up and said, "I'm thinking that yesterday's victory was really a fluke. If Ming Gong wants to win again, it may not be easy."
Seeing that the generals looked worried, he continued: "Yesterday's victory was due to the unwiseness of the Western thieves and their lack of caution in coming from afar; second, the help of the divine wind, the great Sima took the opportunity to act bravely and broke through his formation; third, Duke Ming was responsible for the victory. Only by making decisions when the opportunity arises and clearly observing the actual situation can we defeat the enemy in one battle. In this battle, our army has the right time, location, and people, but we cannot win completely. Why? It’s because the Western Army is strong and our army is weak!"
After making this conclusion, Xunhe finally said: "It can be seen from this that the Western bandits are difficult to eliminate. In this case, it is better to retreat to Hebei first and seize one or two Henan cities before the Westerners can respond."
After Xun or finished speaking, Ju Shou also stood up and said slowly: "Ming Gong, Shou also holds this intention."
After the two expressed their positions, the generals were in an uproar. Xun You and Ju Shou were the leaders of the scholars in Henan and Hebei respectively. Unexpectedly, after the victory in the battle, they estimated the Westerners so highly that even Cao Cao himself did not expect. After all, it was Shangshu Ling Xun or who persuaded Cao Cao to fight with all his strength before. If he opposes it now, it would seem to be capricious.
Cao Cao knew that there was some truth in what he said, but it was also not entirely true. He turned to look at Qu Yi and said, "Da Sima has experienced battles for a long time. Yesterday he defeated the enemy first and won the three armies bravely. What do you think about the future war? It's okay. tell me the story."
Qu Yi glanced at Cao Cao, covered his shoulder injury and walked to the center of the main tent, and said bluntly: "Xun Wenruo seems to have some truth, but he is just trying to blame the marshal. If the marshal sent elite troops to me today, why would he let Chen Chong escape? If after defeating Liu Bei, he led his army to attack Chen Chong with me, why would there be so much trouble? Even if the Western bandits cannot be wiped out, the two thieves will be in a panic and unable to escape."
Everyone was shocked when they heard this, and they all looked back at Cao Cao. Qu Yi's words were entirely to take the credit for yesterday's achievements to himself, and to attribute the mistakes to the generals of the Eastern Dynasty. What he said was so reasonable that even Xun Yu, who was known as a wise man, could not think of words to refute for a while.
Fortunately, Cao Cao was not as embarrassed as his subordinates imagined, and just smiled. He walked up to Qu Yi, looked at Qu Yi's bear-like figure, then pointed to the injury on his shoulder and asked, "Is Da Sima's injury okay?"
Qu Yi said casually: "It's okay to ride a horse, but if you want to get into battle and kill the enemy like yesterday, and capture Chen Chong alive, I'm afraid it won't be possible."
】
This made Cao Cao burst into laughter. He pointed at Qu Yi and said, "Da Sima is so straightforward. It's no wonder that Ben Chu couldn't tolerate you." Lan
Qu Yi's expression suddenly changed and he was speechless. Cao Cao took off the fox fur robe on his back, put it on Qu Yi, and then said: "Da Sima is right, I did make many mistakes in yesterday's battle, but the past is over and cannot be brought back. I use this fur robe to I’m giving it to you, and I hope Grand Sima won’t mind it. So from Grand Sima’s perspective, what should we do next?”
Qu Yi originally thought that Cao Cao was going to recall old things, but he was unexpectedly shown such concern by Cao Cao. He was touched for a moment, and after a moment of reflection he replied: "Although the Western bandits have lost this alliance, they are quite resilient and will probably be able to fight again. But in the battlefield of military battles and the place where corpses are erected, if you must die, you will live, and if you are lucky, you will die. This is a truth known to the ancients. To put it bluntly, the brave will win when two armies fight. Our army won a battle, and the morale of the army is available, but It’s not enough. If the marshal wants to win, he must conquer Xianbei.”
Cao Cao said "Oh" when he heard this, turned to look at the other generals, and asked them what they thought. The opinions of the generals were relatively unified. After all, the biggest factor in turning the tide of the war was that Xianbei stayed out of the matter. Everyone knew it and was dissatisfied. But now was the critical period to contend with the Western Army. If Kebi was pushed and scolded, everyone was afraid that Kebi would defect before the battle, so they all tried to appease him and wait until he returned to the army to make plans.
But Qu Yi disagreed, and then said to Cao Cao: "These are all knowing one thing but not the other. I have been in the Western Dynasty for a long time, and I know that Liu Bei has no intention of recruiting Ke Bi Neng, but he only supports Tuoba Xianbei. Ke Bi Neng also knows it well. But yesterday when Xianbei was sitting and watching, we can see that the captive chiefs are all Shasai leprous, fearing power and not being moral. The marshal should scold the culprits with stern words and demand punishment, so that these white captives will obey. "
When Cao Cao heard that what he said was reasonable, he couldn't help but look at him with admiration. He sent someone to get a gold belt, gave it to Qu Yi and said, "Da Sima speaks straightforwardly, and he is really insightful when he sees people and things!" Looking back, he summoned Chen Lin and asked him to He wrote a sternly worded document and gave it to Cao Xiu. He delivered it to the Xianbei camp on the same day and asked Kebi Neng to send an envoy to explain.
Qu Yi guessed correctly, and Kebineng sent an envoy and a follower over the next day. The envoy was a man of seven feet and five inches in height. Although he was not considered majestic, his demeanor appeared to be extremely shrewd and capable. Once he entered the tent, even if the generals around him seemed to have malicious intentions, he sat as calm as a mountain. After Cao Cao appeared, he solemnly introduced himself to Cao Cao, claiming to be Ke Bineng's son-in-law Yu Zhutan.
Although Yu Zhutan bowed to Cao Cao with thoughtful etiquette, his words were neither humble nor arrogant, which made Cao Cao feel resentful. Lan
Cao Cao asked, "What is Chanyu's reply to sitting on the sidelines and watching the battle?"
Yu Zhutan replied in fluent Chinese: "My king thinks that the marshal will win, and he doesn't want to compete with the marshal for credit. The changes that will follow are beyond what my king could have predicted."
Cao Cao said suspiciously: "Then the Western Army counterattacks in front of the formation, and you wait for no help and retreat, what's the point?"
Yu Zhutan had obviously expected this question, and immediately replied: "The Western Army attacked too quickly, and your troops collapsed too quickly. My throne is by the Wenying Lake, and it is difficult to launch a rescue in a hurry. When I asked the generals for their opinions, they all thought that If the battle is about to be defeated and the enemy will lose his head, it would be better to save all the troops first and wait for another battle in the future."
Cao Cao was filled with anger when he heard that he was talking so freely and confusing right and wrong, but he still held back and asked, "How is Shanyu going to explain to me?"
Yu Zhudan ordered his followers to present two boxes, and when Cao Cao opened them and looked at them, he said: "These two people are the ones who suggested that my king should not move. One of them is Wang Le from Gu'an, and the other is Li Liu from Lingqiu. They are the masterminds of my king. To express his shame, my king specially killed these two people to thank the marshal."
When Cao Cao heard this, he finally couldn't bear it anymore and shouted to him: "Get down!" Yu Zhutan was stunned, but he didn't dare not listen, so he had to kneel down on his knees, put his hands on the ground, lowered his head and waited for Cao Cao continue. Cao Cao rushed forward, pulled out the short sword from his waist, turned the back of the sword, and shouted coldly: "Kebi can treat me as a coward, but he uses such nonsense to explain? He wants to kill someone to apologize, why doesn't he chop off his own head? ?! What kind of favor do you want to do to me, the Han people?" Lan
Yu Zhutan was in pain and did not dare to make a sound. The dog lay on the ground, speechless. Cao Cao went on to say: "If I hadn't fought with the Western Bandit for several years, making the Western Bandit unable to go north, did he think Liu Bei could accommodate him? He would have died without a complete body! Now in the battle, I am willing to fight with him. We are in a blood alliance, but he is capricious and retreats in public. What is his intention? Do you want to learn from Tan Shihuai? He is still far away!"
After saying that, he raised the knife and wanted to chop off his head. He lifted it into the air and put it down. After a while, he lifted it up and put it down again, and so on again and again. Yu Zhutan fell to the ground on all fours, his soul was in shock, he was sweating profusely, and he didn't even dare to breathe out.
After a long time, Cao Cao ordered people to bring hundreds of things wrapped in black cloth, and put them on Yu Zhutan's back one by one. There were about seventy of them until they were piled up like a hill. Yu Zhutan had difficulty breathing and did not dare to ask for mercy, so he could only lie there and try to hold on.
At this time, Cao Cao lost some of his anger and said to Yu Zhutan: "Go back and tell Ke Bineng that I don't care about what happened last time, but if he wants to sit back and watch again, he doesn't need to be here anymore. He should take care of him immediately." Lead his men and horses to climb Huituanhan Mountain! Next year, without the Western Bandits taking action, I will sacrifice his head to honor the soldiers here."
Yu Zhutan said he didn't dare, and Cao Cao asked him again: "Do you know what's on you?" Yu Zhutan shook his head, and Cao Cao smiled and said, "Stand up and see for yourself!" Yu Zhutan stood up with difficulty, and the weight on his body was Things suddenly rolled to the ground, and some black cloth spread out, and he was shocked to realize that these were the heads of Xianbei people with their hair tied in braids.
Cao Cao turned around and said, "These are all the results of our war with Great Sima Quyi. Tuoba Xianbei is afraid of being killed. I hope you won't be inside one day."
Yu Zhutan then asked: "Is Grand Sima Qu considered the best warrior in your country?" Cao Cao shook his head slowly and said with a smile: "Sima Qu is already a very strong warrior, but compared to one of my bodyguards, he is even slightly weaker. We are inferior. There are many heroes from our Central Plains, and I will let you see them today." Lan
After he finished speaking, he threw the short sword to a tall warrior behind him and walked straight out of the tent. Yu Zhutan stood there blankly, watching the warrior come over with a sword. He was dressed very simply, just wearing linen clothes. He was indeed very tall, but there was no one in Xianbei who could match him. But when this man walked up to Yu Zhutan, he suddenly held the knife in his right hand and barely shook it at the Xianbei man. Then, stretch out your left hand, hold the tip of the knife between your fingers, and roll it back. The hard steel knife was like a soft and obedient piece of paper in his hand, three times or two times, but in the blink of an eye, a murderous weapon turned into a ball of scrap metal.
Yu Zhutan was stunned. When he saw the man throwing down his knife and leaving, he quickly shouted: "Wait a minute, I don't know the name of the hero yet. Please tell me so that I can report back to my king."
The man then signed up and said, "I am Chen Liu Dianwei. I am just a warrior. I have no ability to lead a general. You don't need to remember it."
