While the Western Army was aggressively attacking the Eastern Army, Guan Yu and other knights were also paying attention to the movements of Cao Cao's main formation. After Ma Chao led his troops to attack most of the Eastern Army, the yellow flag soldiers in front of him suddenly found a way out and immediately rushed towards them like they were dying. Fleeing to the east, Guan Yu guessed that Cao Cao must be hiding there, so he led his troops to chase after him desperately.
There were so many fleeing Dongren that Guan Yu looked left and right as he chased them, feeling that he was like a small boat in the torrent, and would be overwhelmed by dozens of times more enemies at any time. But after running for a while, the crowded crowd gradually dispersed in the wilderness, seemingly changing from fallen leaves in autumn to carp trapped on the river beach after low tide. When the hills and depressions appeared in front of them, they became densely packed. The endless dangerous forest jumped out, and no man or horse could cross it.
So Guan Yu urged his horse to jump among the rocks and climbed up the hillside next to the dangerous forest. Looking back from the slope, you can see that the sky to the west is covered with dust and clouds cover the fields. It is the battlefield for the decisive battle between the east and west. The east slope is gentle, the view is broad, and the road winds around the mountain.
Looking down, Cao Cao and his followers, nearly a hundred people on foot and on horseback, were actually resting on the roadside down the slope!
The two sides were only a mile apart, and almost at the same time, they both noticed each other with vigilance.
The Western knights on the top of the slope didn't even have time to think. They all raised their horses and stepped on the loose gravel and dust, sliding down the slope. Suddenly dust flew up and gravel rolled down. Where the horse's hooves hit his legs, he stumbled along the way. Next to Guan Yu was one of Jia Kui's servants. His mount lost its footing in the rapid slide, and its hoofs fell, breaking the horse's legs, and both the man and the horse fell down. The stirrups dragged his boots, and the man and the horse were inseparable for a moment, and he rolled down several feet before slowly stopping. The others ignored the danger, bypassed him and continued running down. In the blink of an eye, several riders were almost at the bottom of the slope.
Jia Kui was the first to rush to the bottom of the slope, the second was Shangluo Du Peng, the third was Guan Yu's chief secretary Liao Hua, followed closely by Guan Yu. As soon as the horse's hooves stepped onto the solid ground, they suddenly became much more powerful. Guan Yu was overjoyed when he saw that Cao Cao and his entourage had escaped no more than ten feet away. He drew the red dodder fiercely and rushed forward. He raised his sword forward with his right hand and shouted to him loudly: "Is Cao Cao okay? Guan Yu is here. Don’t you just want to stop talking about old times?”
How could Cao Cao not recognize Guan Yu's voice? You can tell it's him just by looking at his figure from a distance. Seeing more than ten Western riders chasing after them like ghosts, they were frightened. Regardless of the road, they fought hard and ran forward.
Upon seeing this, Cao Xiu, the last guard, couldn't help but stop and ask the knights beside him to stop. He took out the long knife from his waist and stood still. He took off a piece of white cloth from his left wrist and wiped the sweat off his hand. He said in his heart: "I'm afraid it will be difficult to survive in this battle, but as long as the marshal is allowed to escape, my family will still have hope for recovery!" Then he stood up with his sword raised to face the enemy.
Jia Kui, who was running at the front, saw several Dongmen suddenly standing in front of him. He stood motionless facing the sword and tried to lift the reins to avoid it, but it was already too late. He simply urged his horse forward, stretched out his long sword, and stabbed Cao Xiu in the chest. Unexpectedly, Cao Xiu suddenly turned around quickly and bent down, and slashed the running horse's leg with his long knife. Jia Kui was frightened when he saw the cold light passing by. Then he heard a pop and the horse's legs flew off. He took off his pedals and threw himself out, falling to the ground filled with yellow dust. The clothes on his face, arms, and legs were all scratched, and his skin was bloody and painful. He lay on the ground unable to stand up.
When the Westerners who followed saw that Jia Kui was cut down, they quickly moved their horses around the Easterners who were wielding swords and chased in the direction where Cao Cao escaped. When Cao Xiu and others saw them walking away, they were still not relieved. They saw several Westerners following them, charging towards him with their prancing horses. He managed to parry for a few rounds, but was soon stabbed and covered in blood. , and then sat slumped on the ground, letting his body slowly become cold.
Besides, Guan Yu's flying cavalry pursued Cao Cao, and ran for several miles, gradually approaching, almost within touching distance of his sword. Around Cao Cao, there were only a dozen cavalry including Wu Dun, Xiahou Shang, and Cao Zhen. Liao Hua waved his long thorn, and the tip of the thorn struck the armor on Cao Zhen's back with a squeaking sound. Cao Zhen didn't have any weapons, so he didn't dare to look back. He kept his horse away and ran diagonally to the right. Liao Huazhi was not with Cao Zhen, so he immediately left him and approached Cao Cao.
Guan Yu is on the left of Liao Hua and very close to Cao Cao. At this time, Cao Cao had Wu Dun on his right and Xiahou Shang on his left behind. Xiahou Shang wanted to turn around and strike Guan Yu's horse on the head with his knife, but Guan Yu didn't wait for him to turn around, and used the tip of the knife to move it over diagonally, hitting him in the right rib and causing him to fall off his horse. Guan Yu lightly teased Xiahou Shang with the tip of his sword. Although he could not kill him, he made him fall off his horse and lose his fighting power. This also avoided the situation where he would use too much force and be unable to turn around to deal with Cao Cao. This is exactly what famous veterans who have experienced battles understand. Sometimes it is not necessary to use brute force, but to use cleverness to win.
At this moment, the only powerful general beside Cao Cao was Wu Dun.
But just when Guan Yu was dealing with Xia Houshang, Wu Dun suddenly turned around and aimed at Liao Hua. The two were only a few feet apart, their horses' heads and tails connected. Liao Hua even saw clearly that it was a slender armor-piercing weapon with sharp spikes. arrow. When the arrow was aimed at Liao Hua, Wu Dun raised his thumb, and the armor-piercing arrow shook, flew out from the bow, and just passed the bow body, it hit the horse's head under Liao Hua's seat, penetrated his nose, and Liao Hua immediately The horses fell to the ground together, and the arrow feathers on their heads were still trembling.
But Guan Yu's sword was almost too close, and Cao Cao could almost feel the coolness behind his back. At this critical moment of life and death, Cao Cao suddenly thought of something, and suddenly pulled the reins of his horse, commanding the yellow-clawed horse under his command. Unable to react in time, he raised his front hoof in pain and threw Cao Cao to the ground. Guan Yu wanted to move forward with his sword, but he couldn't help but feel surprised when he saw this. While reining in his horse and circling, he was on guard against Wu Dun who also turned his horse around.
At this time, Cao Cao endured the pain of falling and staggered up slowly. When he looked up, he saw Guan Yu approaching slowly. Guan Yu saw that he looked nervous, but he still managed to remain calm and said: "Yun Chang, have you forgotten? When you and I parted ways in Xindu, we still had a promise of three arrows!"
Guan Yu was startled when he heard this. When Cao Cao started talking, he immediately remembered the past. In the seventh year of Yanxing, when Cao Cao decided to send him back to the Western Dynasty, he did say this at the banquet: If they could meet on the battlefield one day, he would spare Cao Cao three arrows. It's just that Cao Cao's current embarrassing situation is far from what he expected.
Guan Yu stuck the sword shaft on the ground and looked at Cao Cao whose face was covered with dust on the ground. He couldn't help but smile and said: "Meng De is right. It's just that I didn't come with a missing bow this time. And if I let you live, I feel sorry for the dead soldiers."
Cao Cao said: "There is a missing bow on my mount, which can be used by Yun Chang. If Yun Chang does not comply with the agreement and dies under Yun Chang's sword, I will die without regrets." After that, he slowly summoned his mount, He took out the bow bag and quiver and handed them to Guan Yu.
Guan Yu was only three feet away from Cao Cao at this time, and could cut him into two pieces with a wave of his hand. However, when Guan Yu saw Cao Cao's contradictory smile that was half flattering and half conceited, he couldn't help but laugh in his heart. This was still the same person who was there. Cao Mengde, who captured himself alive during the Bohai War and beat Liu Bei to the point of losing his armor? Then he remembered the years when the two of them led the army to fight the rebellion together, which made him sigh with emotion, and thought in his heart: No matter what Cao Cao was like, Guan Yunchang was an upright person. Once he made a promise, he couldn't go back on it. What's more, even if he spared three arrows, he might not be able to capture him alive.
After making up his mind, Guan Yu stopped his smile, lowered his bow, and said slowly to Cao Cao: "In this case, I will give Meng De three arrows time." After that, he opened Cao Cao's horn bow and put it on it. A ringing dysprosium arrow with white withered feathers made a gesture of shooting into the sky, and signaled Cao Cao to leave with his eyes.
How could Cao Cao not know how determined Guan Yu was? After thanking him silently, he hit his horse and continued running eastward. As soon as he set off, Cao Cao heard a sharp bone whistle, which was the sound made by Mingdi when it broke through the air. This made Cao Cao's heartstrings tremble, and he resisted the desire to turn back and continued to ride his horse. At this time, he had only escaped more than thirty steps.
Seeing this, Guan Yu calmly drew out his second whistled arrow. After aiming it at Cao Cao for a moment, he raised his hand and shot it into the air. When the whistle disappeared, Guan Yu shot the third arrow. All three arrows had been shot, and Cao Cao was already more than a hundred steps away from Guan Yu, but had not yet left the arrow range, so he quickly drew out the fourth arrow, without even taking aim, and shot it casually, with a posture as if Will be in.
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However, to Guan Yu's expectation, it was not Cao Cao who fell, but Wu Dun who was guarding him. The moment Guan Yu missed his arrow, he immediately rode his horse to Cao Cao's back. The arrow missed and entered Cao Cao's left side, piercing his breastplate. And this block finally allowed Cao Cao to escape the arrow's range.
Guan Yu was slightly surprised, but then he wanted to ride his horse and continue to catch up. However, just as he was about to wave his whip, there was a sound of piercing the air from the left, hitting Chi Tu's hind leg. Chi Tu neighed and galloped forward a few steps. , but in the end I couldn’t bear the pain and stopped.
At this time, a figure jumped out from the thorns on one side and followed Cao Cao eastward quickly. Guan Yu recognized that it was Cao Zhen who had just been driven aside.
Seeing that Chi Tu was injured, the sun was setting, and the energy and horsepower of his followers were exhausted to the limit, Guan Yu gave up his intention of changing horses and chasing again. The chief clerk, Liao Hua, was wrapping up the bleeding scratches on his waist with a towel, and asked Guan Yu worriedly: "Junhou, how will you recover next?" Apparently he was worried about Guan Yu letting Cao Cao run away.
Guan Yu smiled and said, "Why bother yourself? Although we have let Cao Cao off, our army has undoubtedly won a great victory. From today on, Dong Cao will probably be unable to recover, and the popularity of the world will return to my brother."
After that, he got off his horse, briefly treated Chi Tu's wounds, and then led his horsemen to bundle Cao Xiu, Xia Houshang and other prisoners into a group, and led them step by step towards Pingcheng.
