After losing two battles and falling prey to Cao Cao's schemes many times, Yuan Shu had completely lost the idea of competing with Cao Cao. At this moment, he just wanted to escape for his life, so Yuan Shu gathered his elite troops and left the east city gate.
Cao Cao only had more than 10,000 soldiers and horses besieging the city, but they relied on morale and clever distribution. Yuan Shu broke out from the east gate. Cao Cao could not resist it anyway, not to mention Yuan Shu gathered all the elite troops at hand to fight out together.
Yuan Shu led his army out of the city. Due to the news that Liu Biao, the Mu of Jingzhou, had sent troops to block his return to Nanyang, he could only run to the southeast and retreated for more than 150 miles without stopping, crossing Nanyang one after another. Jishui, Bianshui and Suishui lead directly to Xiangyi.
Xiangyi still belonged to Chenliu, and Cao Cao followed the principle of sending Buddha to the west. When he saw Yuan Shu running away, without saying a word, he just said, "Follow him."
Yuan Shu couldn't believe it, and before he could catch his breath, Cao Jun, who was as fast as the wind, followed him again. Such was the courage of many people. He booed and frightened again and again, and even the most daring people could not avoid panic. , not to mention that Yuan Shu was a man of cruel temperament and cruelty at heart. Seeing that Cao Cao was following him again, he was frightened out of his wits. He quickly abandoned Xiangyi and ran away, and ran into the strong Taishou City in Linjun County, where he hung up a no-war sign.
Due to the hasty withdrawal along the way and the pursuit of enemy troops behind them, most of Yuan's army was defeated halfway through the two hundred-mile escape. In the end, the Yuan army that reached Taishou City had less than 20,000 remaining defeated troops.
On the contrary, Cao Cao's army that was pursuing Yuan Shu had already merged with the Qingzhou army led by Cao Ren, and with the capture of prisoners along the way, the strength of the army was close to 70,000 to 80,000. With one going down and the other going up, Cao Cao's army had an absolute advantage.
However, the walls of Taishou City were strong and had been rebuilt not long ago, so it was not easy to attack. Yuan Shu defended the city for more than a month, but Cao's army was unable to attack it for a long time.
Although it is impossible to attack the city by force, there are other ways to think of. What kind of person is Cao Cao? Seeing that Taishou City is close to the Suishui River and the terrain is extremely low. It is late spring, the snow in the upper reaches has melted, and the river has surged. He is worried. How to drive Yuan Shu away? Seeing this scene, Cao Cao suddenly had a plan in mind...
The next day, Cao Cao sent tens of thousands of soldiers carrying hoes and planes to the upper reaches of the Suishui River, carrying earth and stones to intercept the rapids.
Yuan Shu was shocked when he saw this. If the city was flooded like this, wouldn't it be like a fish and a turtle? He immediately led his troops to break out of the city and crossed the Suishui River to Ningling, which was slightly higher. Cao Cao played the old trick of officers and soldiers catching thieves again, and He led his troops to pursue him.
Cao Cao then crossed the Suishui River and rushed towards Ningling City, and deployed besieging troops under the city. Upon seeing this, Yuan Shu abandoned Ningling and fled again.
This time, Yuan Shu no longer took chances. Not only did he escape from Yanzhou, he even dared not enter Yuzhou, which was close to him. He was frightened by the speed of Cao Jun's pursuit and crossed the Yangtze River without any consideration. After arriving in Jiujiang City, I was able to stabilize my three souls and seven souls and save my life.
In this way, Yuan Shu retreated from Kuangting to Fengqiu, then fled to Xiangyi, Taishou, Ningling, and finally went straight to Jiujiang City.
Yuan Shu was defeated and fled to Jiujiang, but Chen Yu, the assassin of Yangzhou, refused to accept him. Yuan Shu withdrew to Yinling, gathered heavy troops in Huaibei, and attacked Shouchun. Chen Yu was afraid and was defeated in Xiapi. Yuan Shu then led Yangzhou and was also known as Xuzhou Bo.
Soon, Li Jue wanted to recruit Yuan Shu as a foreign aid, and he made Shu the general of the left, the Marquis of Zhai in Yang, Jiajie, and the governor of Yangzhou, which was regarded as recognizing Yuan Shu's status as the governor of Yangzhou.
In the Battle of Kuangting, Cao Cao actually fought very hard. First of all, there was a huge disparity in the numbers between the two sides. Yuan Shu had much more troops than Cao Cao. Cao Cao's advantage was that he was mentally prepared. He did not rely on the opponent's large numbers. He felt guilty first, but dealt with it calmly. He knew that he could not win in a head-on fight. He could only fight with his wits, so he adopted psychological tactics. He first gained the advantage with a surprise attack, and then came the "Six Hundred Miles" as fast as the wind. "Big Pursuit" did not give Yuan Shu a chance to calm down and think at all. Judging from the mobilization of the armies on both sides, Cao Cao had no intention of annihilating Yuan Shu's troops. He only wanted to completely destroy the morale of Yuan Shu's troops. Cao Cao put out an encirclement posture several times. In fact, None of them were completely surrounded, and they all reserved routes for Yuan Shu to retreat. Generally speaking, Cao Cao only pursued in one direction, and his purpose should only be to scare Yuan Shu.
Because Cao Cao's entire army was chasing after them so fast, they almost went without water for a whole day and night. The sun was very hot that day, and the weather began to turn hot in late spring and early summer. The soldiers were sweating profusely and their mouths were dry for ten miles. Inside, there was almost no water source. The soldiers' throats were smoking, their hearts were on fire, their heads were dizzy, and their legs were getting heavier and heavier. Cao Cao knew that it was because there was no water to quench his thirst, but he sent several groups of people out to explore, but no one was found. What should I do if there are signs of water, and in order to put a strong psychological pressure on Yuan Shu, he must not stop and take a break.
At this time, another fast horse came back to explore the water. Cao Cao had a flash of inspiration, rode his horse to meet him and asked: "Didn't you see a plum forest ahead?"
The fast-horse soldier was stunned. He didn't know what Cao Cao meant. He just kept his promise. So, Cao Cao turned the horse's head, pointed his whip back and sideways towards the soldiers, and shouted loudly: "My sons, we have found out." There is a plum forest ahead, which is full of sour plums. Everyone, hurry up and go ahead to pick plums to quench your thirst..."
With this shout, the whole army was shaken with joy, and all the soldiers were immediately excited and excited.
Although the plums were not eaten, the psychological stimulation quenched the thirst of all the soldiers. This is the story of "looking at plums to quench thirst" that has been passed down through the ages.
Yuan Shu's unprecedented retreat lasted more than 600 miles. He was in a state of panic, like a lost dog. As the leader of the Southern Kwantung Army, he was defeated so miserably by the newly formed Cao Cao Army. This shocked the whole world, especially He Wen. The princes of the Yuanhui Alliance were even more worried, and many even began to secretly contact Yuan Shao. For a while, the situation was quite unfavorable to Wenyuan's faction, and the hearts of the allied forces were unstable.
Others can't see how much Yuan Shu weighs. How could a modern man like Wen Yuan not see clearly? Although Yuan Shu has a good family background, he was born into the Yuan family's main wife, but he is an idiot with great ambitions and little talent. How can he be a monkey spirit? The defeat of Cao Cao's opponent, Kuang Ting, was already expected by Wen Yuan. He had to deal with Yuan Shao, and he had no intention of really relying on these allies, as long as they could share some of the pressure from Yuan Shao's faction.
Yuan Shu is not afraid of defeat. Anyway, the loss has nothing to do with Wen Yuan. However, if someone is half-hearted and drags Wen Yuan back because of Yuan Shu's defeat, Wen Yuan will not be able to bear the murderous intention in his heart.