Although Cao Cao did not agree with rash pursuit, since Lu Zhi had given the order, Cao Cao would naturally use all his strength.
What's more, Cao Cao's objection to the pursuit just now was just out of rational considerations, and his three clan brothers met such a miserable end this time. If there is a chance, Cao Cao will naturally not let Xiang Yu go.
Moreover, Cao Cao was very confident that the Yellow Turbans would definitely have an ambush, but if the ambush was set up in Chenliu County, the number of people would not be too large, and it would never exceed three thousand. Otherwise, no matter how large the number of people is, they will not be able to hide it from the informants of the Han army.
As cunning as Cao Cao, he had already thought of a way as soon as he started pursuing. Moreover, Cao Cao's method was almost the same as Lu Zhi's. It's a pity that Cao Cao left in a hurry. If he knew that there were Li Xiang's troops behind him, he wouldn't have done anything unnecessary.
Cao Cao directly divided the five thousand Qingqi into two groups, with his brothers Cao Ren and Xia Houying and Sun Jian's general Cheng Pu leading the two thousand troops. Cao Cao led the remaining three thousand Qingqi, following closely behind.
In this way, even if the front and rear sides are ambushed, the Yellow Turbans will never be able to eliminate them in a short time. While the Yellow Turbans ambush and the ambushed soldiers and horses were fighting together, another army led the troops straight in, and the Yellow Turbans' ambush could be broken in an instant.
…
"Report..."
Li Xiang was still marching when he saw an orderly soldier running over in panic and urgently reporting, "Report to the general, General Cao Cao and General Sun Jian are in front of us, and they are ambushed by the Yellow Turbans. The situation is extremely critical."
"Send the order, the whole army speeds up." After hearing the news from the ordering soldiers, Li Xiang immediately gave the order.
Li Xiang could naturally guess that there was a high probability that there would be an ambush set by the Yellow Turban Army ahead. However, Li Xiang is not a good person. On the premise that the Han army wins overall, Li Xiang will not care if something happens to some people. Moreover, these days, these people have been harvested by Li Xiang and their summoning points are gone, and their final value to him no longer exists.
Along the way, Li Xiang was not in a hurry to chase Chi You and his group. After all, without careful planning, it would be difficult to successfully kill people with such force if they caught up with them.
Not only was Li Xiang not in a hurry to pursue Chi You, but he also slowed down his marching speed without leaving any trace.
If Cao Cao and Sun Jian were really unlucky and fell into an ambush by Chi You, and Li Xiang was late to support them, then the danger to Cao Cao and Sun Jian would be even greater.
If these two people really died in the ambush of the Yellow Turbans, Li Xiang would really lose one and a half opponents in the future. As for the remaining half, it is naturally Sun Ce and Sun Quan. Besides, the cost of this plan is not high, just five thousand soldiers and horses.
In the ensuing battle, five thousand soldiers and horses were nothing more than drizzle, and even if they were preserved, they might not be of much use. But if these five thousand soldiers and horses are used to exchange the lives of Cao Cao and Sun Jian, then Li Xiang will make a lot of money this time.
But now that the messengers have sent news, Li Xiang has to speed up his march. After all, there are many people with mixed eyes, and Li Xiang will not teach others what to do.
What's more, after such a long time, if Cao Cao and Sun Jian could really persist until Li Xiang rescued them or escaped with their own lives, then Li Xiang could only say that they were lucky. Anyway, it doesn't matter if it doesn't succeed, it's just Li Xiang's impromptu idea.
To Li Xiang's surprise, when Li Xiang led his army to the ambush site, not only were Cao Cao and Sun Jian fine, but they actually won the battle, and almost all the three thousand Yellow Turbans who participated in the ambush were killed.
However, although Cao Cao and Sun Jian had won this battle, their eyes were red at this time, filled with murderous intent, and their mental state was extremely poor.
After getting to know each other better, Li Xiang found out that although Cao Cao and Sun Jian were fine, Cao Bin and Zu Mao, both under Cao Cao and Sun Jian, had died in the battle.
Cao Bin is a younger brother of Cao Cao, and Zu Mao is nominally a subordinate of Sun Jian, but in fact, although they are not brothers, they are better than brothers. Now that these two men died in battle, it is no wonder that Cao Cao and Sun Jian are like this.
It's a pity that only two minor characters died, Li Xiang thought secretly.
At that time, Cao Cao and Sun Jian's army were pursuing all the way. When passing through a mountain forest, Cao Ren's troops had passed safely. Therefore, Cao Cao and Sun Jian, who were behind them, took it lightly for a while.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Cao Cao, Sun Jian and others entered the mountain road, there was the sound of arrows, and three thousand yellow turban soldiers fired hidden arrows from all directions. However, fortunately, Cao Cao and Sun Jian reacted in time and managed to maintain the situation.
In fact, it was indeed an ambush set by Chi You in this mountain road. However, Chi You did not expect this ambush to cause much damage to the Han army. The reason why Chi You set up this ambush was just to act as a barrier to prevent the Han army from actually pursuing him. It can be said that these three thousand Yellow Turban soldiers were originally Chi You's abandoned sons.
Cao Cao's division of troops was indeed a clever plan, and Zhang Dingbian, who was left here by Chi You to command the ambush, had no way to break it. However, Zhang Dingbian was a famous general of his generation, and he quickly determined that the leader of the Han army was in the army at the back.
Therefore, Zhang Dingbian decisively let go of the army led by Cao Ren, and chose to ambush the route where Cao Cao and Sun Jian were.
The two most powerful brothers under Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, were seriously injured and naturally they would not attack with the army. Xia Houying was with Cao Ren, leaving Cao Cao with only two generals, Cao and Cao Bin. However, these two generals are good at commanding troops in combat, but their martial arts skills are not as good as those of the other generals.
During the chaotic battle, Zhang Dingbian took the lead and went straight to kill Cao Cao. Cao Bin fought desperately to protect Cao Cao. As a result, he was killed by Zhang Dingbian at the end of the fifteenth battle.
However, Cao Bin's persistence was not meaningless. At the critical moment, Sun Jian blocked Zhang Dingbian in time and saved Cao Cao's life.
Sun Jian had fought against Zhang Dingbian once before Lu Zhi and Li Xiang arrived in Yanzhou, so he naturally understood that Zhang Dingbian was no match for him. Therefore, although Sun Jian had three generals, Huang Gai, Han Dang and Zu Mao, he still fought very conservatively. He just wanted to delay the battle and wait for the return of Cao Ren and other generals in front.
The distance between Cao Ren and Cao Cao's army was not too far. When Cao Cao's army was attacked, Cao Ren sped up and wanted to return.
Although the three thousand Yellow Turban soldiers were regarded as abandoned by Chi You this time, Zhang Dingbian was not. Calculating that time was almost up, Zhang Dingbian wanted to leave quietly alone.
However, although Zhang Dingbian wanted to retreat, Sun Jian and others pursued him. In the end, Zu Mao was shot down by Zhang Dingbian with an arrow.
There is no doubt that Cao Cao's strategy is quite correct. Although Cao Cao and Sun Jian's troops were ambushed, before the Yellow Turban Army could destroy Cao Cao, Cao Ren led his army back. Soon, under attack from both inside and outside, the Yellow Turban Army who participated in the ambush was completely wiped out.
Unfortunately, the gap between the generals of the two sides was a bit wide, and in the end, Cao Cao and Sun Jian each lost a general.
This battle seemed to be won by Cao Cao and Sun Jian, but in fact they were defeated.
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