The Wei army's camp and the way to escape were piled with various supplies and large livestock, so naturally they were not thrown away randomly.
The Wei army fled north, and the baggage must not be retained.
Since it cannot be retained, it must be destroyed directly to avoid endangering the enemy.
Or use them to block the pursuing enemy and attract their attention.
Food like grain is easy to burn, but how do you destroy livestock?
And if you burn the grain, it will definitely alert the Wu army. It is better to use it directly to block the way and buy time for the army to retreat.
Large livestock are precious items and will run away when frightened. Wu Jun must have spent a lot of effort to collect them.
Therefore, Zhu Huan finally cleared the road and could continue to lead his people northward.
Encountering many defeated Wei troops along the way, Zhu Huan just asked people to disperse them and not block his own way.
These defeated troops no longer posed any threat. All he had to do was catch up with the main force of the Wei army that had escaped.
As for gathering the defeated troops, someone will do it later.
"General, there is thick smoke ahead!"
Zhu Huan looked up and saw thick smoke floating in the air, and there were more than one place.
"No, this must be Cao Cao's thief trying to stop our pursuit again! Send the order, speed up!"
Zhu Huan immediately understood what Cao Cao was thinking.
"General, if there is an ambush ahead of the thieves..."
"Impossible! It's too late for Cao Cao to escape now, how dare he stay?" Zhu Huan said decisively, "It's just to use fire to stop the pursuers!"
At the same time, he quickly sent people to investigate, and it turned out that the Cao thieves were burning food in front and trying to block the road with fire.
As soon as Zhu Huan heard this, he hurriedly drove his troops to where Cao Cao's thieves were burning food and asked people to get water to put out the fire.
It seems that Cao Cao didn't want to burn food in the camp, but he didn't have time to burn it, which gave him a big advantage.
This fire may have bought Cao Thief some time.
Thinking of this, Zhu Huan became even more anxious.
"Follow up quickly, don't fall behind! As long as we can catch up with the thief chief Cao Xiu, that will be our first success!"
Although the autumn wind blew and the weather began to turn cooler, everyone in the Wu army who was rushing to pursue them was full of steam and ran forward desperately. No one wanted to take a look at the surrendered soldiers of the Wei army who were sitting or lying on the roadside.
"If according to what Xiu Mu (Zhu Huan) said, an ambush was set up at Jia Shi and the trailer early, would Cao Xiu'an have a way out?"
After a small victory in Wancheng in the first battle and a huge victory in Shiting in the second battle, Sun Quan couldn't wait to come to Lu Xun's central army. He was extremely happy when he saw the huge supplies captured by the army.
At the same time, he remembered that Cao Xiu's army had fled north, and he said something with regret.
Lu Xun shook his head, "Your Majesty, if Xiu Mu leads ten thousand people to set up an ambush with rocks and trailers, I'm afraid Cao Xiu may not come in."
From Wancheng to Shiting, to jiashi and trailers, it is a pocket-shaped terrain.
The stone clamp and the trailer are the mouth of the bag.
If Cao Xiu found that the rope had been tied at the mouth of the pocket early, how could he rush in?
The experience of Wu Qiangkou's ambush has shown everything. Cao's thieves are not without capable people.
Even after entering, Cao Xiu set up an ambush in Shiting just in case.
It also shows that he is not a useless person.
If you want to show weakness to the enemy, you cannot expose your strength prematurely.
Lu Xun was very thoughtful and liked to plan before taking action in military matters. Even when Cao Xiu had arrived at Shiting, he still used the tactic of showing weakness to lure the enemy, just to be careful.
Zhu Huan's plan was too dangerous, and it would risk alerting Cao Xiu in advance, making Cao Xiu afraid of leading his army deeper. Naturally, he was unwilling to use it.
Sun Quan naturally knew this, but seeing such a good situation, if he could block Cao Wei's army, not only Hefei, but even Shouchun could fall into his hands. If he said he was not tempted, it would be false.
That's why he couldn't help but say such a sentence.
"It's just that I'm greedy." Sun Quan smiled a little self-consciously, "I just hope that Xiumu will not let the thief escape."
"We can't run anymore. They can't run anymore. They're right in front. Quick, keep up!"
Zhu Huan was overjoyed and shouted loudly as there were numerous figures in front of him.
The Cao thieves who fled in front actually organized a counterattack with the school captain. Zhu Huan rushed over and defeated this small group of troops who had broken the rear with great ease.
"kill!"
Zhu Huan had just led his men through a mountain forest when suddenly shouts of killing began from both sides. He saw a Wei general guarding the intersection on horseback in front of him. He pointed a knife at Zhu Huan and shouted in a stern voice, "Wu Lu! You've forced me too much, and I'm going to fall!" "
Zhu Huan was shocked. He could only hear the shouts of killing in the mountains on both sides. When he saw the many flags in the forest, he felt a thump in his heart. "No, I was only focused on chasing, but I forgot about this!"
At that moment, he quickly turned his horse's head, and before the Wei army encircled him, he led all the soldiers to retreat three miles to observe the enemy's situation.
At this moment, Quan Cong led the rear army and caught up.
"Why did General Zhu look back?"
Quan Cong felt nervous when he saw Zhu Huan's flag was a little confused. He thought something had happened and hurriedly approached him and asked.
Zhu Huan told him the situation. Quan Cong looked at the direction where Zhu Huan was ambushed and said, "The thief Cao is not being pursued. Could it be that he is deceiving?"
However, after chasing all the way, the soldiers were also exhausted, so they had to rest the whole army first, and at the same time sent scouts to investigate.
After a while, the scout came back and said that Cao's thieves had withdrawn and many flags had been abandoned in the forest.
"The thief Cao must be having doubts!"
Zhu Huan was reminded by Quan Cong and already had suspicions in his heart. Now when he heard what the scout said, he knew that he had fallen into a trap. He stood up and gritted his teeth and said, "Thief Cao is cunning!"
After saying that, he was about to lead the army to pursue again, but Quan Cong stopped him, "General Zhu has routed the troops along the way to clear the road, and has to chase the thieves again. The soldiers are probably tired. This time, let me lead the people first, General Zhu Just follow behind and provide support."
Zhu Huan was unwilling at first, but when he saw that his soldiers had not finished resting and knew that Quan Cong was telling the truth, he had no choice but to agree.
This time it was Quan Cong who led the way.
When he caught up to a dangerous place, he saw another Wei general blocking the way ahead, "Wu Lu still doesn't want to give up? After falling into the trap once, he still dares to be so careless again."
Quan Cong was furious, "Cao Cao, how can you repeat this plan again and again?"
After saying that, he led the Wu army to charge forward.
Sure enough, I heard shouts from the mountains on both sides again.
"Don't be afraid! The Cao thieves have already fled. Can An set up an ambush?"
Quan Cong shouted loudly.
Unexpectedly, this time, many Wei troops emerged from the mountains on both sides. A burst of arrows rained down, and the Wu troops were caught off guard. A large number fell down on the spot, with constant wailing.
"Erect shields! Arrange!"
Quan Cong was shocked and ordered quickly.
It's just that the Wu army pursued many things and captured many prisoners. Everyone thought that Cao's thieves were unable to fight anymore. In order to catch up with Cao's thieves, they all moved forward with light troops. How could there be a big shield to block the rain of arrows?
The second wave of arrow feathers came down quickly, and Wu Jun howled again.
"withdraw!"
Quan Cong gritted his teeth and immediately turned his horse's head, intending to retreat.
As soon as the Wei general saw that the Wu army was about to run away, he laughed loudly and said, "In front of General Zhu Ling, the Empress of Wei, the Wu thief still wants to escape?"
At that moment, people were beating drums, and the Wei army began to surround them on three sides.
The Wu army marched in a hurry, while the Wei army was waiting for work. In addition, due to the favorable geographical location, the Wu army was unable to stop them from attacking from three sides, and everything suddenly became chaotic.
Quan Cong rushed left and right, but was unable to break through the encirclement. Seeing this going on, he was afraid that the entire army would be annihilated.
At that moment, he shouted repeatedly, "Stand in formation and wait for reinforcements!"
Then he turned his horse's head again, turned around and charged forward, killing several Wei soldiers in a row.
"Don't be arrogant, leader of thieves!" A Wei general rushed forward and grabbed Quan Cong, "Come and die quickly!"
"Who are you?"
"That's General Jianwu Wang Ling!"
Wang Ling entangled Quan Cong, making it impossible for him to escape, while Zhu Ling commanded three Wei armies to strangle him in turn.
Without a commander-in-chief, the Wu army was unable to organize a powerful counterattack. Seeing the encirclement shrinking, Wu soldiers fell one after another.
Quan Cong's eyes were red, but his opponent's martial arts were not weak, so he couldn't escape. With both sides distracted, his moves became more and more scattered.
Wang Ling gradually gained the upper hand and began to persuade him to surrender, "General, why didn't you surrender earlier?"
When Quan Cong heard this, he shouted angrily, "How dare Cao Zeian bully me?"
He knew in his heart that if he continued like this, he would either lose his strength and die, or lose his strength and miss and be captured.
With the intention to die, he no longer cared about the soldiers who were about to be killed or injured. He ignored his own safety and just wanted to die with Wang Ling. He actually forced Wang Ling to take a few steps back to restore some decline.
Quan Cong became more and more courageous as he fought. Just when he was about to push forward again, he heard the sound of gold ringing from Cao Wei's rear.
Although he didn't know what happened, Wang Ling quickly got rid of Quan Cong and led his men back.
Quan Cong thought he was doomed this time, but he didn't expect that the Wei army actually retreated at the last moment, and he quickly took the opportunity to retreat to his own army.
He raised his eyes and saw that the Wei army not only did not attack them again, but they continued to close their wings, as if they wanted to retreat.
If it were normal times, Quan Cong would not miss this great opportunity. He would definitely lead his army to counterattack.
But when he looked around, he saw that most of the soldiers he had brought over had fallen to the ground. There were less than a hundred of them relying on each other to defend each other, and everyone was still injured.
Self-protection is not enough, so how can we have the energy to counterattack?
So he could only watch the Wei army retreat in an orderly manner.
After a while, Zhu Huan arrived with his rear army. Seeing the situation in front of him, he was shocked. After seeing Quan Cong, he felt a little relieved and asked, "Is Zi Huang okay?"
"I'm fine. I just didn't expect Cao Cao to be so cunning. He showed weakness several times in the past, but it was just for the sake of pride, and then he actually set up an ambush here. I was careless and was trapped in a heavy siege. Almost the entire army was wiped out."
Quan Cong was surrounded by his cronies. After seeing Zhu Huan, he breathed a sigh of relief and knew that he was finally saved. At the same time, a look of shame appeared on his face.
The ambush by Zhu Lu and Wang Ling finally allowed Wu Jun to slow down the pace of pursuit and gave Cao Xiu a chance to breathe.
However, although the pursuers in the rear were frightened, the scouts soon received news that there was a Wu army on the left front who was planning to circle in front of him.
"He must be going to Wuqiang to cut off our retreat!"
Cao Xiu immediately thought of the joints involved.
After all, when the army came, Wu Jun had planned to ambush at Wuqiangkou, but he was discovered by himself and could not succeed.
It seems now that they still don't give up.
"Wu Lu actually wants to prevent our horses from returning north?"
Cao Xiu's face turned pale. This feeling of knowing what the enemy was going to do, but having no way to do it, made him know what despair meant.
I saw that he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, and he was panicked and confused. "The stone is our escape. If Wu Lu takes the lead, we will die without a burial place!"
"Why did the general say such depressing words?" The confidants on the left and right persuaded him, "Wu Lu took a detour to the front. He was walking on a small road. There will definitely not be too many people."
"Moreover, the small road is far and difficult. They may not be faster than us. If we travel on the main road, although the army has been damaged, most of it is still there, so why should we be afraid of them?"
"Yes, yes! As long as we can reach Jia Shi before them, we can return to Yangzhou from there."
Cao Xiu couldn't care less about resting, so he quickly climbed onto his horse and continued to run for his life.
It's just that the running ahead has consumed too much of Wei Jun's physical strength, and their steps have long become heavy and slow.
Wu Jun, who was on the right front, had gradually moved away from them and ran in front of them.
The Wu general who was sent to cut off Cao Xiu's retreat was Pan Zhang.
Pan Zhang was a fierce general in Soochow, with only a few thousand soldiers and horses, but the ban was strict, and a few thousand men could be used as ten thousand people, so he was specially singled out by Lu Xun and sent to cut off Cao Xiu's retreat.
After Pan Zhang confirmed that he had bypassed Cao Xiu's defeated army, he relied on his familiarity with the terrain and headed north.
When he vaguely saw the dangerous terrain of Jia Shi, he was overjoyed. As long as he could hold on to this mountain pass, he would be able to make immortal achievements!
"All troops move quickly!"
He took the lead and prepared to go and occupy the pass.
Unexpectedly, when we reached the foot of the mountain, we suddenly realized that something was wrong.
There were actually many flags on the mountain, and there were faint figures of people.
Only the sound of "dong dong dong" drums was heard from the mountain, and the Wei army began to form formation at the mountain pass.
"Not good! Cao Xiu originally had a garrison here!"
Pan Zhang quickly asked the entire army to stop.
The Wei army quickly completed their formation and began to slowly push forward. At the same time, there were more and more flags on the mountain.
The general of the Wu army was shocked. If Cao Xiu really had a garrison here, then his light army was marching in a hurry, and his physical strength was not enough. In addition, the other party was waiting for work, and he was afraid that he would suffer a big loss.
At the moment, he did not dare to neglect, and before the opponent was approaching, he led the army to retreat for several miles, and at the same time sent scouts to investigate the news.
When the Wei army saw Pan Zhang taking the initiative to retreat, they did not pursue him. They just slowly retreated to the mountain pass and stood ready.
When Pan Zhang learned about Wei Jun's actions, he suspected that the defenders who were holding the stone had already known about Cao Xiu's defeat, so it was important to defend this place.
He was unwilling to give up, and when night fell, he quietly went there with his elite soldiers, hoping to attack and seize the pass.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he led the people to the foot of the mountain, he heard the loud sound of drums on the mountain.
Pan Zhang knew that he had been discovered, so he had to retreat again.
Jia Kui on the mountain saw that Wu Jun had no intention of attacking Jia Shi by force, so he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
He only arrived an hour earlier than Wu Jun, and these days, he has been traveling from Dongguan to Dongguan without any rest, and the soldiers are already exhausted.
There were more than 6,000 soldiers, but only more than 1,000 arrived at Jiashi, not even 2,000.
The thousand soldiers placed at the mountain pass during the day were actually the majority of the troops he had on hand, and they were only tired troops who had just rested for most of an hour.
On the mountains on both sides, two to three hundred people were making noise.
If there really was a fight with Wu Jun, he might not be sure to hold the stone.
Naturally, Pan Zhang didn't know that Jia Kui had planned an empty city. News soon came from behind on the left side that Cao Xiu's army had been traveling all night and was almost at Jiashi.
In desperation, he had to quickly evacuate overnight.
When Cao Xiu learned that there was someone guarding the stone, his heart felt as if he had fallen into an abyss, and his body felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
It wasn't until the Wei army, which was trapped in the stone, took the initiative to send people to respond, that Cao Wei's defeated army cheered like thunder.
Even the elite confidants who had been protecting Cao Xiu collapsed to the ground after learning that he had been rescued, and even the ceremonial guards and other items were scattered on the ground.
Jia Kui quickly led his men to Cao Xiu and said, "Jia Kui, the lower official, has met Da Sima. Da Sima has worked hard all the way. Please move to the camp for a short rest. Food has been prepared there."
When Cao Xiu heard the words "hard work all the way", he thought Jia Kui was mocking him. He was immediately ashamed and angry, and his face turned purple. If it hadn't been for the darkness, he might have found a crack to squeeze in.
Cao Xiu became angry and shouted, "I fought with Wu Lu at Shiting. If you could have arrived earlier, or attacked behind Wu Lu, or attacked on the side of Wu Lu, how could the army have ended up in such a situation? "
"This is a big defeat because you came too late!" The more Cao Xiu said, the more he felt that he was justified. He wanted to insult Jia Kui, so he pointed to the ceremonial guard on the ground, "Why don't you help me pick up the ceremonial guard?"
Jia Kui stood in front of Cao Xiu, standing firm and motionless, and retorted, "Da Sima did not listen to others' advice, did not know the strength of the army, and led 100,000 troops and horses to die. How can it be blamed on Kui? Kuang Kui was originally the governor of Yuzhou in the country. It is not right. Pick up those who abandoned the battle for Da Sima!"
At that time, Liu Bang had a white horse alliance with all the heroes: if he was not Liu, he would not be a king; if he was not a hero, he would not be a marquis.
In addition to consolidating the Liu family's world, it is also protecting the long-term wealth of all the heroes.
In the words of later generations, although this large company named Liu Han belonged to the Liu family in name, in fact, all the heroes also had shares and received dividends, so they were considered small shareholders.
The patriarch of the Liu family is the chairman and occupies the majority position.
But the subordinates below often want to be the CEO, and their power is not small.
In the last four hundred years of the Han Dynasty, especially in the early Han Dynasty, the ministers of the Han Dynasty all had a sense of ownership.
Although the Cao Wei Dynasty replaced the Han Dynasty, this trend has not completely disappeared.
After all, Jia Kui was a patriarch who had followed the Cao family since Cao Cao's time. At the same time, when Cao Cao died, he supported Cao Pi as the king of Wei and quickly stabilized the situation. He can be regarded as the founding patriarch of Cao Wei.
So Cao Xiu wanted to use his power to suppress others, how could Jia Kui fall for his tricks?
Seeing that Cao Xiu actually wanted to blame himself for the defeat, Jia Kui glared at Cao Xiu and said, "When I return to Yuzhou, let's see how I report to the emperor!"
After saying that, he turned around and left.
Cao Xiu looked at Jia Kui's back with resentment and overturned the food Jia Kui had sent him on the spot.
