Cao Cao's generals are mainly the five good generals and the Eight Tiger Cavalry from their relatives, as well as the earlier generals who died such as Li Dian.
The Cao family has a transcendent status, and there are many brave and capable warriors. Cao Xiu and Cao Zilie are the younger of the Eight Tiger Riders. He is Cao Hong's cousin and the same generation as Cao Pi. Like Xiahou Shang and Cao Zhen, they are all juniors.
He lived in Jiangdong when he was young. Later, Cao Cao raised troops to attack Dong and spread the word to the world. Cao Xiu saw the news and returned to the north all the way, and was called Qianliju by Cao Cao.
During Cao Cao's southern and northern campaigns, Cao Xiu was always with him and was trained as a junior war zone commander. It was only because he stayed in Jizhou with Cao Zhang to defend Liaodong that he did not appear on the Chibi battlefield.
He also served as the adjutant of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, and his status among the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry was second only to Cao Chun.
After returning from Bingzhou, Cao Chun was ill and Cao Xiu was gradually taking over the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.
Cao Wu did not expect that after refusing Xu Chu to accompany him, Cao Cao actually sent him to go south to Jiaozhou with him.
Looking at the neat cavalry team, although there are only less than a thousand people, they seem to be looking down at ten thousand troops. At a glance, they are the most powerful team in Cao's camp.
Cao Wudao: "How is my brother's army doing?"
Cao Xiu said respectfully: "Reporting to uncle, we are being formed. The Prime Minister asked me to lead eight hundred elite tiger and leopard cavalry to protect my uncle."
"Okay. Among the central army, there are still vacancies in the central protective army and the central leading army."
Cao Wu said something meaningful, turned around and moved forward.
Cao Xiu was overjoyed. He quickly got on his horse and led the cavalry behind Cao Wu and others.
In Cao Cao's camp, rank and salary are not the most important, but proximity to Cao Cao is important.
Originally, this team was supposed to escort Man Chong into Jiaozhou, but in fact it was to escort Cao Wu. Now Man Chong went to Jiaozhou on his own, and seemed to want to imitate Liu Jingsheng's old story of riding into Jingzhou alone.
Cao Wucai was too lazy to take care of it, so he let Man Chong do it on his own. If he could survive until his death, he would naturally protect him.
The tiger and leopard cavalry joined, and the team grew a lot. The traders and civilians along the way did not even dare to look at them. Everywhere the cavalry were standing, they stood on the roadside, fearfully lowering their heads and waiting for them to pass.
Especially the two flags with the word "Cao" made them dare not move.
The reason why the people of Xinye fled south with Liu Bei was because Cao Cao's reputation for massacring the city spread far and wide. However, Cao Cao also had deeds of cutting off his beards on his behalf. The army was ruthless towards the enemy, but rarely invaded his own people.
They passed through Nanjun all the way to Jiangling. Cao Hong, who was stationed in Jiangling to defend Yizhou, had already been waiting outside the city.
Cao Hong is known as a powerful right-hand man in the army. He loves to make friends with guests, but he rarely waits for people for several days.
Cao Hong was overjoyed to see Cao Wu coming, and kept his nephew Cao Xiu aside completely while reminiscing about old times.
After several exchanges of greetings, Cao Wu even took a boat across the river from Jiangling without entering the city.
Ah Wu and Ah Ba left here. Because Zhao Yan was in Jiangxia to supervise the work-for-relief work, Ah Wu went to find Zhao Yan and Wenpin to reconcile. Liu Bei took the people of Xinye to Xiakou, but abandoned them again. In the end, they became the main force in providing work-for-relief.
After bidding farewell to his two daughters, Cao Wu went south along the road, passing through Wuling County, Changsha County, and Lingling County, and went straight to Guiyang County.
Jin Xuan, the prefect of Wuling, Liu Du, the prefect of Lingling, Zhao Fan, the prefect of Guiyang, and Han Xuan, the prefect of Changsha, all went out of the city to greet them. This team of a thousand people was treated like an envoy from the emperor.
However, Cao Wu had known that they would greet them and avoided them one after another. He only met with General Zhechong Yue Jin, General Huwei Yu Jin, Hengye General Xu Huang, and Polu General Li Dian.
The temperature is getting hotter and hotter along the way, there are more and more mountainous areas, and many soldiers are sick.
But the number of soldiers he led also increased, because Le Jin and others also joined in.
The purpose of leaving these four generals in the four southern counties was to intimidate the governors of the four counties and prevent them from acting rashly. Now that Cao Cao had a new goal, they followed him south to Jiaozhou.
These four men each led 5,000 infantry and cavalry, totaling 20,000, and headed south after Cao Wucai.
The troops left behind by their four generals were led by their deputy generals and were uniformly under the control of Zhao Yan, the governor of Jingzhou.
Their speed was not as fast as Cao Wu's, and they were soon separated from each other. However, Cao Wu and the four generals agreed to meet at the Jiaozhi border in the middle of the month.
Among the troops staying in Guiyang, Cao Wu saw a familiar figure.
The official position of the school captain Guanqiu Jian has not changed, but he has become the deputy in the first army, and the number of troops he leads has increased from 1,000 to 5,000.
Apparently Zhao Yan still remembered Cao Wu's care for Guan Qiu Jian.
Cao Wu only nodded to Guanqiu Jian and entered the innermost part of his military tent, where Zhang He was lying on a hut.
Zhang He was seriously injured. When he saw Cao Wu, he gritted his teeth and tried to get up, but Cao Wu supported him.
Along the way, he had met countless generals, and this was the first time that he valued a person so highly.
Zhang He said: "General Beifu, eight thousand cavalry were ambushed, but only one or two tenths of them returned. I am ashamed of the Prime Minister!"
Cao Wu held his hand and smiled and said: "Victory and defeat are commonplace for military strategists. General Zhang can cultivate with peace of mind, and we will be there in the future."
Zhang He had a look of gratitude on his face, and all the generals who were watching had their own plans in mind, especially Le Jin who had fought with Cao Wu in the Battle of Chibi. He always felt that Cao Wu already had the demeanor of Cao Cao's polite and virtuous corporal.
But he quickly shook his head and got rid of this idea. He was just a martial artist who was born in humble beginnings in the military. Thinking too much about things would only harm himself.
Zhang He nodded in agreement, and without waiting for Cao Wu to ask, he told the story of the attack.
…
Somewhere in the mountains of Wuling, Liu Bei lit a fire.
It was more than a thousand miles since he fled south from Xiakou. There was another route on his escape route.
Zhang Fei and Guan Yu sat down beside him, while Zhao Yun stood guard.
Liu Bei sighed: "When I raised my army from Zhuojun alone, Jizhou was in the north of the world. Now that it has drifted here, it is already in the south of the world."
The three generals were silent, looking at the dark mountains. They felt dissatisfied and unwilling to accept Liu Bei's situation, but also felt a lot of helplessness.
Liu Bei was stunned for a while and then asked: "Isn't the military advisor back yet?"
Guan Yu shook his head.
This military advisor does not refer to Pang Tong. Pang Tong became seriously ill after participating in the Chibi Water Battle. Although he was sent back to Liu Bei's army by Jiangdong, he rarely made suggestions.
The current military advisor is Ma Liang and Ma Jichang.
The Wuchangs of the Ma family were very famous in Jingxiang, but they did not serve as officials. However, after hearing about Liu Bei's benevolent and righteous deeds in Xiakou, the five of them traveled south to catch up with Liu Bei and join him.
In such a situation of defeat, five more counselors are actually of little use, especially since some of them are still young.
But Ma Liang brought a lot of help to Liu Bei.
Zhao Yun said: "Zhang Wenyuan's ability to kill Tadun is actually a talent that has sealed the wolf's status in Xu. It really cannot be taken lightly."
Liu Bei nodded, remembering that he and Zhang Liao were old acquaintances in the past, and sighed again.
The long sky, how can it be inferior to me?
…
The problem Zhang Liao faced now was no longer how to pursue Liu Bei, but how to bring these 8,000 cavalry back to the four southern counties.
He is actually only more than a hundred miles away from Guiyang County, but this is not the Central Plains. The five ridges are almost all mountain roads, which are rugged and difficult to travel, and are not suitable for the march of large armies.
He had been studying since he was a child, and he was very envious of Fubo General Ma Yuan's deeds in the southern and northern wars. He knew that Ma Yuan had once conquered Jiaozhi in the south. He didn't expect that he had only reached the edge of Cangwu and was in a dilemma before he entered Jiaozhou.
Now, he already knew who defeated Zhang He.
In the past few days, he has already fought against each other.
It was not Liu Bei's two thousand men, but another force hidden in the mountains.
Wuxi Man, the Barbarian King Samoko.
The Wuxi barbarians were active in the mountains of Wuling County, and at some point they joined forces with Liu Bei and arrived here.
These barbarians originally fought without any rules, but they did not know who was commanding them. They actually advanced and retreated in a well-organized manner, harassing and ambushing them with various tactics, which was annoying.
He sent several envoys to Guiyang to exchange information, but there was no response. It can be guessed that he was killed.
Zhang Liao had to make a decision between continuing the pursuit and conserving his strength to return to the army.
…
In Yuzhang County, Lu Su, wearing linen clothes and cloth shoes, inspected a fortification.
After the defeat of Chibi, Changsha became Cao Cao's territory, and there was a third strategic junction between Cao Cao and Sun Yat-sen after Jiangxia and Hefei.
Yuzhang and Changsha are close to each other, and the defense line is hundreds of miles long. Cao is strong and Sun is weak, and the defensive pressure is great.
Fortunately, there is a big mountain between the two counties, so it is not easy for the army to move. But there are still some gaps where troops can be deployed.
Lu Su opposed all opinions and proposed to build beacon towers along the line to connect the defense lines.
Therefore, while Cao Cao was recuperating and had no time to spare, nearly a hundred beacon towers were built at the same time.
Cao Cao used Jiangxia as the Great Wall in the south, but little did he know that Lu Su and Lu Zijing were already building the Great Wall with their own hands.
Of course, the Great Wall only has beacon towers and no troop transport channels. When the army is advancing, it can only be used for sending messages.
However, the foundation of the four southern counties is too poor to support the army from using this as a base to attack Jiangdong, otherwise food and grass supplies will not be available.
It is impossible for hundreds of thousands of people to come from Changsha. Otherwise, Cao Cao would not have chosen to march eastward along the river at Jiangling instead of going south to the four counties and then marching eastward.
In this way, the Great Wall of Yuzhang County is enough to defend against the small army attacking from Changsha.
With this beacon line to the west, the natural danger of the Yangtze River to the north, and the iron wall to the east of the river, we can have a chance to breathe.
This is the forward vision of Lu Su, a strategist.
However, Lu Su understood that there was still a gap in this line of defense.
He looked south to the Five Ridges and felt restless.
"I wonder if Gongjin can take Jiaozhou south and gain the upper hand."
…
The junction of Cangwu County and Yuzhang County is deep in the mountains.
Thousands of elite soldiers advanced silently.
The leader was wearing a white robe, with a handsome face, and was looking around the terrain.
Not long after, a young general ran up from behind, clasped his fists and said, "Captain, we have found out that the ones fighting in the past few days were Cao General Zhang He and Liu Bei's army."
"Zishan, I am no longer the governor."
The man in front chuckled lightly and looked to the west.
The general behind said solemnly: "The governor is only a temporary choice, and nothing can be done if it is gone. In my heart, Gong Jingong is the person who should be the governor of the world, and he deserves the title of governor!"
It turns out that these two people are relatives of Jiangdong Zhou Yu and Mrs. Sun Quanbu!
This is really the world's heroes gathered in Jiaozhou.
