Chapter 268 Battle in Hebei

late at night.

The Jizhou camp in the east of Meijicheng was silent, and only the scouts guarding the lookout were still searching the empty darkness around with vigilant eyes.

There was a large cluster of dense weeds three miles east of the camp. Suddenly, a rustling sound sounded like a ghost in the grass. Clusters of black shadows emerged from the grass like ghosts. A faint starlight shone on these black shadows, reflecting a dark light. It was the hideous iron armor, and it turned out to be an army.

That's right, this is indeed an army, the Liangzhou army in Jicheng.

When Ma Butcher burned Han Sui and Pan Feng's army in Meiji City, he burned Han Sui and Pan Feng's 100,000 troops, and Guo Tu personally participated in this battle. Therefore, when rebuilding Meiji City, the guy fully considered the possibility of the city being surrounded on all sides and reserved a secret passage for escape underground. After Fa Zheng learned about it, he would be amazed at the "genius's idea."

"Emergency gather!" A depressing voice sounded leisurely, "Brothers, hurry up."

The soldiers who emerged from the grass quickly began to form a formation. Under the faint starry sky, the army had about five or six hundred people and formed a battle formation. A tall Liangzhou Primary School stood in front of the formation. Suddenly, Fa Zheng's advice sounded in his ears again when he was about to leave the city.

Night attacks should be mainly harassment, and you must not mislead things if you love fighting.

Under the night sky, five or six hundred people leaned towards the quiet Jizhou camp like ghosts. Although the scouts on the lookout were so wide that they could not find the army from the endless darkness. Until a cold wolf-toothed arrow rushed into the sky and shot through his throat coldly, then collapsed on the tower without a humming sound.

"kill!"

"kill!"

"kill!"

A series of shouts suddenly sounded under the quiet night sky. Yuan Shao, who was sleeping, was awakened from his sleep by the shouts, put on his armor and rushed out of the tent, but he saw that the fire in the camp was red, and a raging fire had already ignited on the tent near the east side.

"What's going on?" Yuan Shao asked anxiously, "Where did the shouts of killing come from?"

"Lord, someone steals the camp!"

"Stealing camp?" Yuan Shao's heart sterned and he said sternly, "What's going on?"

In less than a moment, Tian Feng, Xun Chen, Gao Gan and other advisers rushed to Yuan Shao's tent one after another. Yuan Shao urgently ordered Han Meng and Zhang He to rescue the attacked Chunyu Qiong camp, while waiting for the news with Tian Feng and Xun Chen. After such disturbance, Yuan Shao had already lost all sleepiness.

It was about to dawn that the riots in the Jizhou camp gradually subsided. Jiang Qi, Han Meng and Zhang He protected Chunyu Qiong, who looked embarrassed, and came to Yuan Shao's central army tent.

"Lord!" As soon as he entered the tent, Chunyu Qiong shouted excitedly, "It was Gongsun Zan's person who came to steal the camp!"

"Nonsense!" Yuan Shao frowned and shouted, "Jizhou Army and Youzhou Army are now allied troops. How could Gongsun Zan's people come to attack our army?"

"It's really Gongsun Zan's man." Chunyu Qiong said anxiously, "Although the last general did not catch the thief soldiers who stole the camp, he still found many clues, including two sabers abandoned by the thief soldiers, and the rockets fired by the thief soldiers into our camp, which were all the standards of the Youzhou Army. Isn't this arguing about the problem?"

As he said that, Chunyu Qiong waved his hand and soldiers had already presented the sabers and arrows he mentioned. Yuan Shao, Tian Feng and others stepped forward to look carefully and found that it was indeed weapons and arrows used by Youzhou soldiers. Yuan Shao's face changed a little. However, Tian Feng frowned and meditated for a moment, shook his head and said, "My lord, I'm afraid there is a fraud in it."

"Oh?" Yuan Shao said, "How can there be a fraud?"

Tian Feng said: "If Gongsun Zan wants to be unfavorable to his lord, he will not sneak attack General Chunyu's camp, but should go straight to the lord's camp! Moreover, if Gongsun Zan wants to be unfavorable to his lord, it is the best time to fight with Ma Teng in Yunzhong, but he eventually betrayed his covenant with Ma Butcher."

Xun Chen said: "Yes, I think what Yuan Hao said is very reasonable."

Han Meng said: "How to explain these weapons and arrows?"

Xun Chen said: "It may also be the Liangzhou Army's plan to blame."

"Captain the blame?" Zhang He said disapprovingly, "The army of more than 100,000 surrounded Meiji City like an iron barrel, and there were carbonite burning belts outside the city, so even an ant could not climb out. In this case, even if the Liangzhou army was willing to blame, how could the army leave the city? Could it be that it would fly out of the sky?"

Xun Chen said: "Maybe the reinforcements of the Butcher Ma arrived."

Zhang He said unhappily: "Mr. Xun Chen, please don't doubt the ability of our scouts and cavalry. This general can tell you with certainty that there is absolutely no Liangzhou army within a radius of 100 miles! The Liangzhou army closest to Meiji is three hundred miles away, and that is Fang Yue army at the Wild Bison Ferry."

"That's it." Han Meng also echoed, "If dozens of spies were hiding outside the city to make trouble, it was not impossible, but now at least thousands of enemy troops came to steal the camp! Enemies of a thousand-man scale appeared on the open grassland. If General Zhang He's scouts could not be discovered, then there would be no need to fight this battle."

"Yes!" Chunyu Qiong gritted his teeth, "It's Gongsun Zan's person, it must be!"

"It's absolutely impossible." Xun Chen shook his head and said, "Gongsun Zan cannot do such a stupid thing."

Chunyu Qiong said angrily: "Mr. Xun Chen, what do you mean? Are you suspecting that this general fabricated fake evidence and framed Gongsun Zan that dog thief?"

Xun Chen said coldly: "I don't say that."

"Okay." Yuan Shao frowned, "Shut up the general if you make a fuss."

In the end, the civil servants and generals under Yuan Shao had a quarrel for a long time but did not come to an end. As a military advisor, Tian Feng could not explain the strangeness. Yuan Shao was worried, so he quietly adjusted the arrangement of the Jizhou soldiers and strengthened his vigilance against the Youzhou army in the south of the city.

Who knew that late at night five days later, the Jizhou camp was attacked again!

The attack was Jiang Qi's camp in the north of the city, which was close to the Heishan Army. The enemy did not kill the camp, but only placed a few rows of rockets outside the camp, and burned more than a dozen tents, several cars of supplies, and dozens of Jizhou soldiers were injured and killed. As a result, the entire Jizhou camp was in chaos again.

What's even more serious is that Jiang Qi found a hatchet outside the camp that only Heishan Army had. And that night it happened to be Jiang Qi's cousin Jiang Zheng's turn to patrol the night. The unlucky Jiang Zheng was shot by the enemy in the stolen camp with an arrow. Jiang Qi was furious and without Yuan Shao's permission, he ignited three thousand elite troops and rushed straight to Heishan Camp, turning Zhang Yan's Heishan Camp to a total of earth.

When Yuan Shao heard the news and sent people to stop him, at least three thousand Black Mountain soldiers had become the unjust souls to die.

Although Yuan Shao explained everything afterwards and even took Jiang Qi as a public stick, Zhang Yan was already in a state of grudge and soon made adjustments to the arrangement of the Heishan Army and strengthened his defense against the Jizhou Army. Almost at the same time, Gongsun Zan's Youzhou Army also strengthened his vigilance against the Jizhou Army.

In just a few days, the relationship between the Jizhou Army, Youzhou Army and the Heishan Army underwent subtle changes.

Hebei.

Ju Yi's eight thousand first climbed the camp and rode a fast horse, and quickly advanced from Hetao to Hebei. After more than ten days of rapid marching, he barely arrived at Changshan County. Before the army could rest, the army received an urgent report from Feng Ji, the remaining guard of Wei County. Yecheng was attacked, and Xiliang's general Ma Chao led 20,000 Xiliang cavalry to plunder Wei County.

Ju Yi did not dare to neglect, so he led the camp and went south to Wei County to rescue Yecheng.

Yecheng East is effective, Ma Chao's camp.

"Report~~" When Ma Chao was watching the map at his desk, a small school suddenly stepped inside and knelt down and said quickly, "General, Changshan urgently reported!"

Ma Chao said without raising his head, "Tell me!"

The little school said: "Ju Yi, the general of Yuan Shao, led 8,000 people to the camp first and went south from Zhending (the capital of Changshan County)."

"Yes." Ma Chao nodded and asked, "Can there be any abnormal movements in Bohai, Hejian, Zhongshan, and Qinghe counties?"

Xiaozhao said: "All counties are deep ditches and high builds, ready to stick to them, without any abnormal movement."

"Hahaha." Ma Chao laughed loudly, straightened his waist suddenly and said loudly, "These brave bandits know that they have retreated into the city to hold on. Only Ju Yi dares to compete with the Western Liang Iron Cavalry. However, Ju Yi is not an Yi person. This person is the number one general under Yuan Shao. He is good at fighting. He is even more a tiger and wolf army under his command. He should not be underestimated."

"What the general said is not bad." Youya General agreed, "In the past, when the Ze Kingdom fought, the governor of Youzhou, Gongsun Zan, could not do anything to climb the camp for only 8,000 infantrymen! In the end, heavy rain fell, and Gongsun Zan's Youyan cavalry was trapped in Ze Kingdom and was defeated, and he never recovered from then on. It was precisely because of this battle that Yuan Shao became the hero of Hebei."

"Yeah." Ma Chao nodded sternly and said in a narrow voice, "Ju Yi's First-Trending Camp will never be much different than General Gao Shun's Clan. The Clan can kill Xianbei Iron Cavalry without leaving any armor, and the First-Trending Camp will not be much worse! In this world, there may be cavalry that can break through the First-Trending Camp's defense, but it will never be the General's Xiliang Iron Cavalry!"

Ya Jiang Ning said, "General, do we want to avoid war?"

"Avoid the battle?" A cunning smile suddenly appeared on the corner of Ma Chao's mouth, and he shook his head, "No, of course, we cannot avoid the battle! As long as we defeat Ju Yi's Xiandeng Camp, Yuan Shao couldn't withdraw his troops from Hetao! Therefore, in order to achieve the purpose of siege Wei and rescue Zhao, Ju Yi's Xiandeng Camp must be defeated."

"Go to the camp first to defeat?" Yajiang said sternly, "I'm afraid it's not easy."

"Of course it's not easy." Ma Chao said coldly, "It may be impeccable to climb the camp first, but Ju Yi has a fatal weakness!"

"Ju Yi's weakness?"

"Yes, this guy Ju Yi~~being warlike!"

Luoyang, Cao Cao's temporary residence.

Thanks to Zhang Ji's careful treatment, the epidemic on Cao Cao was completely controlled and his body improved day by day. Cao Cao got up early this day. When he was discussing affairs with Guo Jia, Xun You and others, he suddenly saw Cao Hong breaking in panting and shouting: "Lord, Ma Butcher Ma is back."

"Huh?" Cao Cao was startled and said in a low voice, "Where is the butcher horse now?"

Cao Hong said: "Maybe in Hebei Baima, maybe he has returned to Guanzhong, and the specific whereabouts cannot be determined, but the horse butcher has returned to the north, because his eight thousand Xiliang Iron Cavalry had already reached Hebei from the waterway, and is now plundering people in Wei County, Qinghe, Dongjun, and Pingyuan."

"This horse butcher!" Cao Cao frowned and shook his head, "I can't change the nature of bandits in my life. I'll plunder everywhere I go, alas."

Cao Hong said: "But this time it seems a little different."

Cao Cao said: "What's the difference?"

Cao Hong said: "Listen to the careful reward. This time, the butcher of horses does not rob food or money, only the population, and the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled, only the healthy young men, women and children. I don't know what the butcher of horses is going to do?"

"Huh?" Guo Jia's face darkened and he said to Cao Cao, "Lord, Ma Butcher Ma is planning ahead and wants to plunder the young and strong Guandong to make up for the gap in the large losses of the young and strong Guanzhong population."

"Hey." Cao Cao said fiercely, "This horse butcher is really counted in front of his true nature."

Guo Jia was silent. With Cao Cao's current strength, even if he was willing to stop the horse butcher's abduct, he could not send troops! In this battle at Hangu Pass, Cao Cao was so full of his nest. Even Cao Chun's tiger and leopard cavalry were sent to the battlefield, but he ended up in a crushing defeat. At present, Cao's army was seriously injured, and his situation was even worse than that of the horse butcher!

Now, Cao Cao needs a more breathing opportunity than the horse butcher. Now that the horse butcher doesn't make a big move to attack Cao Cao, he has already applauded. How dare he provoke the horse butcher? The only thing that is thankful is that the horse butcher does not know Cao Cao's predicament and will not launch a fatal blow to Cao's army at this time.

Cao Cao said sternly: "I regarded Ma butcher as his life's strong enemy, and Ma butcher must be the same. Although the Liangzhou army is seriously injured, Ma butcher always acts unexpectedly and must make the worst plans! He urgently ordered Wen Ruo (Xun Yu's name) to recruit new recruits from various counties in Yanzhou, and then ordered Wen Ze (Yu Jin's name) to train quickly to form an army as soon as possible."

In fact, Cao Cao also overestimated the strength of the butcher Ma!

Although Ma Yue had tens of thousands of troops under his command and were all elite troops who had experienced many battles, they were all cavalrymen. They were only good at fighting in fields but not in attacking tough battles. What's even more terrible is that after more than half a year of battles, the soldiers of Liangzhou generally became tired of war and wanted to return to Guanzhong earlier and did not want to fight again.

"Report~~" As soon as Cao Cao finished speaking, Xiahou Dun suddenly stepped into the tent and shouted, "Men De, Mr. Wen Ruo urgently believed it."

Cao Cao said anxiously: "Come on it quickly."

Xia Houdun stepped forward and submitted a letter. Cao Cao opened his eyes and read them at a glance. He immediately breathed a sigh of relief and said happily: "It's worthy of being Wen Ruo. Everything has been planned for me, hahaha."

Xiahou Dun said curiously: "Meng De, what did Mr. Wen Ruo say in the letter?"

Cao Cao was in a good mood and said happily: "Wen Ruo wrote that he had recruited 30,000 new recruits from the counties of Yanzhou. Sun Guan and Yin Li were training day and night. More than 100,000 Qingzhou Yellow Turban thieves came out of Mount Tai to surrender. Wen Ruo was placed in the military farm in Jibei Kingdom, and his young and strong men were selected to form a Qingzhou army of 20,000 people."

"It's time to go." Xiahou Dun said in admiration, "It's really Mr. Wen Ruo, and the arrangements were too thoughtful."

"But." Cao Cao changed his mind and continued, "Wen Ruo also told two news that was unfavorable to our army in the letter."

Xiahou Dun said: "What news."

Cao Cao said: "The first news is that the Grand Marshal Yuan Shu had appointed Sun Jian as the governor of Yuzhou without the permission of the emperor. The second news is Yuan Shu's confidant general. The prefect of Jiujiang Chen Ji has been appointed as the prefect of Nanyang by Yuan Shu. Yuan Shu's intention is very obvious. He wants to use Chen Ji and Sun Jian to restrain his true nature. It seems that Yuan Shu is determined to do the right thing this time."

Guo Jia advised: "Although Sun Jian was appointed as the governor of Yuzhou by Yuan Shu, he could not gain actual control of Yuzhou. As for Nanyang, one could check and balance the horse butcher in Guanzhong, and the other could buffer Liu Biao in Jingzhou. With Chen Ji there, he would only benefit the lord but not harm it."

"But I am worried," Cao Cao said quietly, "If Yuan Shu holds a grudge and attacks Yanyu from Yangzhou, the situation will be wrong! And what I am even more worried about is that if the butcher Ma and Yuan Shu collude with him, the consequences will be even more unimaginable."
To be continued...