After the battle of Dingtao, when the combined forces of Sun and Liu were counted, they almost cried.

In this battle, although Lu Bu's generals Cheng Lian and Hao Meng were successfully killed, our own losses were considerable.

First, Chen Deng was killed in battle, Lu Meng and Chen Dao were seriously injured, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were almost killed by Lu Bu. At this time, almost everyone among the top generals in the Sun-Liu coalition was injured.

In terms of soldiers, Liu Bei sent 70,000 soldiers and horses to pursue Lu Bu, and Sun Quan had 50,000. The total number of soldiers and horses was 120,000. After escaping for hundreds of miles, only half of them were left.

On the other hand, Lu Bu and Boss Cao had only suffered less than 20,000 losses in addition to the losses of Cheng Lian and Hao Meng.

It can be said that this battle directly extinguished the momentum of Liu Bei and others. They did not dare to attack easily.

On the other hand, this battle also indirectly illustrates a problem, that is, the cooperation between Yuan Shao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan is not as good as between Lu Bu and Boss Cao.

For example, Lu Bu was defeated at the beginning, which was an extremely unfavorable situation for Boss Cao.

If Lu Bu is really eliminated by Liu Bei and others, then Boss Cao will not have the ability to attack.

Because at this time, he also needed to face the threat from Yuan Shao in Jizhou. At this time, Yuan Shao had personally commanded an army of 400,000 to threaten Guandu.

In Guandu, Boss Cao only deployed less than 200,000 troops.

If Xuzhou cannot win at this time, it will be a stalemate, which will be detrimental to the war situation in Guandu.

At this time, Boss Cao had only two choices. One was to abandon Lu Bu and transfer Xiahou Dun's main force back to Guandu to deal with Yuan Shao's threat.

Another way is to take the initiative and rescue Lu Bu while defeating the coalition led by Liu Bei and Sun Quan.

The advantage of the first method is that Boss Cao can concentrate all his strength to deal with Yuan Shao, but the disadvantage is that Lu Bu will die.

The second method is to save Lu Bu, but if Liu Bei and Sun Quan cannot be defeated quickly, once a stalemate occurs, it is very likely that Guandu will not be able to be defended.

Given the choice between the two, Boss Cao still chose Lu Bu.

Because he believed that Lu Bu, the great Han Hou Wen, could definitely defeat Liu Bei and others. This was Boss Cao's trust in Lu Bu, and he felt that he would not be wrong.

On the other hand, Liu Bei's side can be summed up in one sentence: the tripartite alliance actually does not trust its allies.

Because they knew that once Liu Xie was eliminated, the rest would be internal fighting among the princes.

In other words, Liu Bei and the others are allies now, but there is no telling when they will turn against each other.

Therefore, they need to preserve their strength as much as possible and make allies when necessary.

This resulted in the poor flow of information between them, lack of tacit understanding of cooperation, and hesitation in doing things.

One party is alone and throws away, and the other party is looking forward and backward, and the result is naturally self-evident.

The combined forces of Cao and Lu defeated Liu Bei and others in Dingtao County, causing the enemy to lose troops and generals, and the rivers were filled with blood.

However, neither Boss Cao nor Chen Gong under Lu Bu were dazzled by the victory in front of them. They knew that for now, the troops of Yuan Shao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan were still far ahead of themselves.

Therefore, the Cao and Lu coalition forces chose to withdraw in a very tacit understanding. They first retreated to the Yanzhou border to deal with the threat of Yuan Shao in Guandu.

According to Boss Cao and Chen Gong's plan, as long as Lu Bu retreats to Yanzhou, Xuzhou and Yuzhou can be abandoned.

The main reason for abandoning Xuzhou is that the princes in Xuzhou are now too powerful. If you want to compete with them, you must have a relatively stable rear.

But now, Yuan Shao personally leads the troops and suppresses Guandu, so this stable rear area no longer exists.

The reason for abandoning Yuzhou is entirely because Yuzhou cannot be defended. How can we defend a large plain?

In addition, Yuzhou was previously the hardest hit area by the Yellow Turban Army, and the livelihood of the people here has long been destroyed.

In order to save the people of Yuzhou from suffering and at the same time increase the defense of Yanzhou, we had no choice but to abandon Yuzhou.

Compared with Yuzhou and Xuzhou, which can be given up, Yanzhou is regarded by Boss Cao as a place that must be defended.

This is not because Yanzhou is Boss Cao’s hometown, but because Yanzhou’s geographical location is more important than Xuzhou and Yuzhou.

First of all, although Yanzhou is not big, it is a state with a large population. Its tax collection and military resources are all ranked among the top of the Han Dynasty.

At the same time, Yanzhou is also the gate of Sili Luoyang. If Yanzhou is lost, Hulao Pass will face direct attack from the princes.

Therefore, Yanzhou must be defended and cannot be retreated lightly.

However, when Boss Cao was formulating this strategy, he also made a mistake.

Yanzhou is in the north, Yuzhou is in the south, and further south are Yangzhou and Jingzhou.

At this time, the imperial army is attacking Jingzhou. They will not just watch the coalition of princes occupy the entire territory of Yuzhou, and will definitely send troops to stop it.

In this way, as long as Yanzhou is defended and Yuan Shao is defeated, he can go south to attack Yuzhou at any time.

At that time, as long as the roads from Yuzhou to Xuzhou and Yangzhou are cut off, the enemies of Yuzhou will become turtles in the urn and be slaughtered by others.

A Yuzhou with no people, no food, and no natural dangers is a dead place, where people will die as many as they come.

Why bother guarding? What a good place to trap people? Why not use it?

As for whether the emperor's heavenly army can withstand the Yuzhou Division, Boss Cao is not worried at all.

The performance of this group of heavenly troops has exceeded Boss Cao's expectations. It can be said that holding part of Yuzhou will not be a problem.

Now that Boss Cao has seen through this, he no longer hesitates and prepares for a decisive battle with Yuan Shao in Guandu.

As long as Yuan Shao is defeated, no matter how much territory the alliance of princes takes, he will have to spit it out to Cao, and it will have to be doubled.

Based on this purpose, after Lu Bu's army moved to Yanzhou, Lu Bu, on Chen Gong's suggestion, left behind Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and the trapped camp, as well as most of the Bingzhou cavalry.

He only took Wei Xu and other generals with him, as well as 20,000 elite cavalry, and headed towards Guandu, preparing to support Boss Cao and defeat Yuan Shao first.

"Hahaha, Fengxian, are you okay?" Lu Bu had just arrived at Boss Cao's camp in Guandu when he heard Boss Cao's hearty laughter.

"Mengde!" Lu Bu saw Boss Cao personally coming out of the camp to greet him. He quickly got off his horse and rushed towards Boss Cao.

"Mengde, thank you very much this time, otherwise, I, Lu Bu, might have lost my life in Peiguo,"

"Hey, what did Fengxian say? Not to mention you and I are old friends. Even without my rescue, I believe Fengxian will be able to break out of the siege."

"When it comes to thanking me, I also want to thank Fengxian. I fought with Yuan Shao, and many aristocratic families in Yanzhou did not expect us to win. Some even secretly wrote letters of surrender to Yuan Shao."

"If it hadn't been for Fengxian's victory in Xuzhou, it might have been more difficult for me. Moreover, Yuan Shaoduo's cavalry, I only have 30,000 tiger and leopard cavalry under my command. Fengxian, you brought 20,000 elite Bingzhou cavalry."
Chapter completed!