Originally, Cao Cao was not prepared to arrive at Hulao Pass so soon.

If Ye Zhao really sent troops personally, Cao Cao would definitely gather a large number of troops and then go to Hulao Pass. This would take time. After all, although Xuchang is the capital, it is impossible to raise too many troops, and the soldiers and horses of the surrounding counties would not be able to gather together for a while. Therefore, Cao Cao was originally planning to marching and send people to inform the troops from all over the country to gather outside Hulao Pass. However, although Hulao Pass has been taken away, the enemy's chief general this time was Ye Zheng, not Ye Zhao.

Just to deal with a junior, Cao Cao felt that there was no need to mobilize all the troops. Even if there was a lesson from Cao Hong, Cao Cao obviously looked down on Ye Zheng, the younger generation.

Therefore, after Cao Hong came back, Cao Cao accelerated the march and his colleagues issued an order to keep the troops and horses that were originally preparing to arrive in the surrounding counties and counties temporarily unmoved. Cao Cao only brought 40,000 troops near Xuchang and arrived in Xingyang early the next morning to join Cao Zhen's 10,000 vanguard army.

Although it has not yet been discovered how many soldiers Ye Zheng had, in Cao Cao's opinion, it was his first time leading the army. Ye Zheng would not have more than 20,000 soldiers and horses. Although Guanzhong was strong, it was impossible for Cao Cao to give Ye Zheng too many soldiers and horses. Even if Ye Zheng was powerful, he was too young. Ye Zhao was floating and rising in the position of county magistrate until the end of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Although Ye Zheng was Ye Zhao's son, he could not do it according to the rules.

"See lord!" In the Xingyang County Government, Cao Zhen respectfully bowed to Cao Cao.

"Zi Dan did a good job." Cao Cao looked at Cao Zhen with satisfaction. This time he went to the battle, most of the second generation of the Cao group, that is, the younger generation of talents, such as Cao Ang, Cao Zhen, Cao Pi, Xiahou Ba and others.

Cao Cao and Ye Zhao faced the same problem. The older generation of generals are now getting older, but today, if you want to be unified, you may not be able to do it in recent years. Cao Cao and Ye Zhao compete for power in the north, and Sun Ce, Liu Biao, and Lu Bu are in the south based on the terrain. The two heroes in the north have to decide the victory or defeat. At least this time, even if Ye Zhao goes out in person, Cao Cao does not think that the situation in the north will determine the victory or defeat in a short period of time.

Cao Cao and Ye Zhao's territory were too large. One tiger was in Guanzhong, holding the four prefectures of Yongliang and Shu. There were also many territory outside the frontier that were included in the territory by Ye Zhao. If Cao Cao could defeat Ye Zhao this time, he would directly attack Guanzhong, divide Ye Zhao's territory into two, and then gradually erode. He first swallowed Xiliang, Bingzhou, and the land outside the frontier that could be slowed down, and then concentrated his troops to attack Shuzhong.

Even if everything went as smooth as Cao Cao imagined, after defeating Ye Zhao, he would have to spend at least five years to annex Bingzhou and Xiliang, which also included digestion problems. As for Shuzhong, as Ye Zhao's first land, and the road to Shuzhong was difficult to move, Cao Cao didn't know whether he could completely eliminate Ye Zhao in his lifetime.

Even if Ye Zhao wins this battle, he will not be able to annex Cao Cao's territory in a short time, not to mention Sun Ce from Jiangdong and Lu Bu from Nanyang are eyeing each other. Therefore, at this time, even if Cao Cao and the older generation of generals under Ye Zhao can still fight, the two began to increase their cultivation of the younger generation. At this point, Ye Zhao saw it earlier. When he was in Shuzhong, he had already established Chengdu Academy and began to cultivate the younger generation of talents so that he would not be able to make the younger generation unrequited.

In the past two years, Cao Cao has also begun to build schools while weakening the scholarly class, especially in cultivating the younger generation of the Cao clan, and Cao Cao began to focus on cultivating.

After all, Cao Cao is different from Ye Zhao. Although his subordinates have begun to join the poor, the main forces in the court are still controlled by the scholar class. Now the two sides are interdependent. However, if Ye Zhao is defeated, the scholars will definitely not be as obedient as they are now. Therefore, in order to avoid the rebound of scholars, while Cao Cao continued to promote poor families, he could only focus on cultivating clan talents. In the next hundred years, he will rely on these clan talents to take on the main responsibilities.

Cao Zhen did not attack Ye Zheng without authorization, but steadily occupied Ao Cang and Xingyang first, compressing Ye Zheng's activity space outside Hulao Pass. Cao Cao admired him very much, and he was not arrogant or impatient, and he was as a general.

"Tell me what Ye Zheng was doing after occupying Hulao Pass?" Cao Cao looked at Cao Zhen and smiled.

"Go back to the lord." Cao Zhen bowed and said, "When Ye Zheng saw our army occupying Zhihu in Xingyang, he sent people to seize Ao Cang, but was occupied by the last general. It was not a war, but directly retreated to Hulao Pass. Yesterday, he was repairing the city wall and digging traps outside the city. It seemed that he wanted to compete with our army for patience."

Cao Cao nodded and sighed, "Xu Ming gave birth to a good son."

The capture of Ao Cang was not successful, and he did not drag the water at all, but directly withdrew his troops, avoiding the possibility of being double-teamed, and being able to take it and let it go. With his previous performance, Ye Zheng was very purposeful and decisive. Otherwise, if Ye Zheng insisted on capturing Ao Cang and Hulao Pass to form a horn between them, it would only allow Cao Cao, who was killed immediately, to suffer from the loss of troops and generals, and would not get any benefits.

Seeing that things were not done, Ye Zheng turned around and left decisively, which made Cao Cao a little amazed. Cao Hong was not wronged. Even if a famous general in the world, he would probably not be as decisive as Ye Zheng in this situation.

"In addition, the general estimated that the defenders of Hulao Pass would have at least 20,000!" Cao Zhen said seriously: "Yesterday Ye Zheng led his troops to send troops to Ao Cang. The general wanted to take the opportunity to attack Hulao Pass, but was blocked by Guan Ping's army. The general dared not fight greedy and retreated back to Xingyang. Judging from the troops under Guan Ping at that time, Hulao Pass is now in sufficient strength."

This may also be Ye Zheng's plan to lure the enemy, inducing Cao Zhen to attack Hulao Pass, and then he returned to his army to attack Cao Zhen with Guan Ping, and followed the situation to attack Xingyang.

However, Cao Zhen is obviously not an easy person, and he also gave up decisively, which made Cao Cao very satisfied. Cao Zhen's performance was not too inferior to Ye Zheng. This time the two sides tested it, it was a draw.

However, now that Cao Cao led his army, Ye Zheng probably did not dare to go out for customs and fight again, with 20,000 defenders...

Cao Cao had a headache. Hulao Pass was originally a powerful pass, and he sent Cao Hong to guard it only had 5,000 soldiers and horses. If Cao Hong had not committed any mistakes, 5,000 soldiers and horses would be enough to guard Hulao Pass. Now Ye Zheng had 20,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, and the possibility of a forced attack was extremely low.

At that time, Dong Zhuo invested only more than 30,000 troops in Hulao Pass, but the princes almost used more than 100,000 lives to increase their lives. Although the civilians had already consumed the spirit of Hulao Pass at that time, the methods were a bit disgusting and unkind, even if the army of various vassals wanted to take down Hulao Pass, it would be impossible to break Hulao Pass without filling 70,000 or 80,000.

Now Ye Zheng has 20,000 defenders in his hands. Judging from Ye Zheng's methods, even Cao Cao would not be too easy to break through the Hulao Pass.

"What kind of tricks do you have to help me break through the barrier?" Cao Cao looked up and looked at Xun You and others.

"This..." Xun You and others smiled bitterly and shook their heads. The best way is to trick Ye Zheng out of Hulao Pass and annihilate the enemy from outside the city. Then it is easy to break Hulao Pass. However, judging from Ye Zheng's performance, this method seems to be unworkable.

Ye Zheng is unlikely to give them this opportunity.

If you cannot lure the enemy out of the city and annihilate the enemy, you will only have a strong attack, but there are only some means of strong attack. This has been the case throughout history, and it depends on human life.

Cheng Yu tentatively said: "Maybe you can try to dig a sub-army. If you can dig a tunnel from here to Hulao Guanzhong, you can throw our elite soldiers into Guanzhong, and cooperate with the inside and outside."

In the past two years, Cao Cao followed Ye Zhao's example and recruited a large number of craftsmen. There was also a digging army in the army who was good at digging. He used a similar method when he attacked Yecheng before, and the effect was good.

"No, Hulao Pass is not Yecheng, and the land here is not suitable for digging holes." Cao Cao shook his head. If he could dig, how could the battle at Hulao Pass be so difficult? The walls of Hulao Pass are so high and the foundation is quite deep. Even if you don't consider whether they will be discovered, to dig a passage that can lead to the interior of Hulao Pass, at least five or six feet of digging underground. Hulao Pass is close to the Yellow River. The soil is soft and the tunnel is so deep that it will seep water. If there is a slight movement on it, it may directly lead to collapse inside the tunnel.

"If it was to accumulate water and attack..." Cheng Yu said halfway, he would not say that it was close to the Yellow River, and they were in the lower reaches. Once the Yellow River breaks, it is still unknown whether Hulao Pass will be flooded, but their troops in the lower reaches will probably have to be flooded by a flood first.

"It seems that there is only one picture of a strong attack!" Cao Cao smiled bitterly. This was the result he was most reluctant to see. If he attacked Hulao Pass, his own losses would inevitably be huge. At this time, Cao Hong could see the trouble of losing Hulao Pass. If Hulao Pass was not lost, they would take the initiative, attacking and defending when they retreated.

Now that Hulao Pass has been seized by Ye Zheng, and offensive and defensive, Cao Cao's situation is a bit embarrassing.

"But it may not be!" Xun You looked at Cao Cao and smiled, "Lord, if you can persuade Lu Bu, Liu Biao and us join forces to attack Ye Zhao, our army may not have no chance of winning."

After Lu Bu swallowed Yuan Shu, he occupied Nanyang and Runan, the two major counties, with a population of one million. Although he is the lowest among the five princes today, his combat effectiveness is not weak. Liu Biao wanted to retake Nanyang several times before, but was defeated by Lu Bu.
Chapter completed!