Yan Liang was angry and decided to fight Cao Cao in Licheng. However, Yan Liang's decision was not entirely motivated.
Licheng is the nearest city to the west of Wancheng. If Cao Cao takes possession of this city, it can be used as a springboard. The soldiers threaten Wancheng, and the soldiers and horses can enter the hinterland of Nanyang wantonly.
After two invasions by the Xiliang Army and Yuan Tan, Nanyang's economy has suffered a big blow. Yan Liang spent a lot of effort to recover slightly. How can he tolerate Cao Cao's destruction now?
In order to protect the people of Nanyang and protect this base for him to advance north to the Central Plains, Yan Liang must do this.
Jia Xu was frightened by Yan Liang's murderous intent, and his body shook slightly.
At the first moment, he was even worried that Yan Liang was acting out of impulse and losing his composure, but after calming down and thinking about it carefully, Jia Xu immediately understood Yan Liang's reason for giving Cao Cao a useless piece of meat in Chapter 309.
After a moment of silence, Jia Xu stroked his beard and said: "It is not possible to fight Cao Jun in Licheng, but now Licheng is occupied by Zhang Liao. If we fight the enemy here, we must seize the upper hand and turn around.
Passive becomes active.”
Jia Xu was indeed Jia Xu. He quickly followed Yan Liang's thoughts and thought of a countermeasure.
Yan Liang perked up and said, "How do you change from passive to active? Let's talk about it, Wen He."
Jia Xu then moved closer to the brazier and explained his strategy in a leisurely manner.
Yan Liang's stern face gradually became cryptic. After hearing Jia Xu's plan, he said happily: "Very good. Wen He's plan is very good. Let's do it this way. Cao Cao has seized my city of Li. Then I will call him
He paid the price for it."
The plan was decided, and that night, a horseman came out and galloped towards Licheng.
…
One day later, when Yan Liang's messenger left the camp, a horseman galloped to Cao's camp under the cover of night.
That was the messenger sent by Zhang Liao to deliver good news.
After waiting for several days, Cao Cao finally received the news that he had succeeded in seizing Li City. This news boosted the spirits of Cao Cao and his subordinates, and the haze of the previous failed ambush was swept away by this good news.
Licheng had given Cao Cao a piece of cake, and the road to Wancheng was opened. At this time, Cao Cao was already thinking about how to divide his troops and plunder grain and grass to relieve the pressure on him to transport grain from Guanzhong.
"It turns out that Yan Liang also foresaw that our army would seize Li City and actually sent more than 10,000 soldiers and horses. Fortunately, Wen Yuan led Qingqi and was one step ahead."
Guo Jia looked at the information and saw something else besides the successful strategy.
Cao Cao sneered, "Fengxiao, you are more cunning, but Yan Liang is still a step too late."
Cao Cao was in a very good mood, and there was a bit of ridicule in his words.
Guo Jia was not as proud as Cao Cao, but he was still thinking carefully, trying to find more meaning from it.
After a moment, Guo Jia's eyes suddenly flashed with surprise, "Yan Liang not only wants to seize Li City, he also wants to pass through Li City to sneak attack Wuguan and cut off our retreat."
This sentence woke Cao Cao out of his complacency. He turned around to look at the map and pondered it carefully for a long time. He couldn't help but show a look of enlightenment.
"No wonder Yan Liang has been so aggressive in recent days, claiming to have a decisive battle with me. It turns out that he has such a treacherous plan. This person's thoughts are really treacherous."
Cao Cao sighed and sighed, but actually scolded Yan Liang for being treacherous, as if he had completely forgotten how he used his methods to trap and kill Yan Liang's cavalry.
While sighing with emotion, Cao Cao's lips turned cold again, "So what if Yan Liang has a treacherous plot? Why don't you break it because of Fengxiao? This is God's will. God is also on the side of the truth, so why worry about not defeating this thief."
Guo Jia knew that Cao Cao did not really disdain Yan Liang, he just wanted to use his self-confidence to cheer up the generals.
So he smiled slightly, and just as he was about to say a few words of humility, when the words came to his lips, he was suddenly interrupted by an abnormal sound coming from outside the tent.
In an instant, the nerves of everyone in the tent were tense, and their ears pricked up instinctively.
The shouting of killing came from outside the tent, from far to near, and it was clearly the shouting of killing.
Yan Jun robs the camp!
These four words immediately flashed into everyone's mind, and everyone's face suddenly became filled with alertness.
Cao Cao, however, remained calm. He only waved his hands and said, "Why do you need to panic? Each of you will defend your camp. If the rebels dare to come, just shoot them with random arrows."
After Cao Cao's order was passed down, Le Jin, Yu Jin, Cao Hong and other generals all retired and rushed to their camps.
Cao's camp, which stretched for several miles, and more than 30,000 Cao's soldiers quickly came out in armor and entered the fighting position. Thousands of sharp arrows were cocked, ready to counterattack Yan Liang's army's attack at any time.
The generals of the Cao family galloped down, yelling at the soldiers not to panic, and to brace themselves for battle.
I strained my ears to listen, but I could hear the rumbling drums and the angry shouts of beasts in the east line of the camp, tearing up the darkness of the night, breaking through the night sky, faintly, as if there were countless soldiers and horses.
Like a pack of angry beasts, they come fiercely.
Judging from the sound alone, it was as if Yan's army had marched out in full force and was about to launch a decisive battle-like night attack.
In the big tent, Cao Cao's face was as calm as water, and he only sipped warm wine. At least on the surface, he always remained calm and calm.
Tens of thousands of Cao's troops were waiting in formation, nervous but excited to prepare for the battle.
However, the shouts of death in the darkness continued for a long time, but no enemy troops were seen charging towards them.
Unable to tell the truth from the false in the dark night, the camp officers and generals did not dare to act in vain. They could only continue to guard the camp with suspicion.
However, as time went by, the shouts of killing outside the camp became weaker and weaker, and finally disappeared and returned to calm.
Looking around, there was nothing but darkness outside the camp, and there was no sound at all, as if nothing had happened.
Cao Cao, who was in the tent, had a sneer on his lips, "It turns out it was just a ploy to tease the enemy, huh, what a small trick."
Cao Cao saw through Yan Liang's plan and believed that it was just a harassment plan by Yan Liang, just to make his soldiers unable to rest and to destroy their spirit.
The facts turned out to be just as Cao Cao expected. For three days in a row, Yan Liang sent out small groups of troops every night, taking turns outside the camp to make noises of an incoming army.
Cao Cao then ordered 30,000 soldiers to take turns to rest, and 10,000 soldiers were on duty every night. The rest of the soldiers blocked their ears and ignored the enemy's harassment tactics.
Three days later in the evening, Cao Cao read at night by candlelight and waited for Yan Liang's clown performance of "Gongs and Drums Noisy to the Sky", intending to practice his concentration.
However, after nightfall, everything was quiet outside the camp. Cao Cao waited for most of the night and didn't hear any movement.
It was an unexpectedly quiet night, and Yan Liang did not send anyone to disturb it.
Yan Liang stopped harassing him, which made Cao Cao feel uncomfortable. When he saw Dongfang turning white, Cao Cao actually didn't feel sleepy at all.
But for some reason, Cao Cao had a vague feeling of foreboding in his heart.
In other words, this feeling of his has existed for many days, but the unexpected silence tonight made his feeling stronger and stronger.
Unconsciously, it was already dawn. At dawn, all the generals came to report and said that nothing unusual happened last night.
As Cao Cao listened to the generals' reports, his eyes became more and more focused. Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something, and he hurriedly ordered the scouts to go and explore the enemy camp.
Half an hour later, the scouts brought back shocking news: Yan Jun's camps were all empty!
This news immediately exploded, and all the generals were shocked. Everyone was talking about it, and they couldn't figure out why Yan Liang suddenly withdrew his troops.
With a gloomy look on his face, Cao Cao immediately came out of his tent and rode his horse straight to Yan Jun's camp. The generals quickly followed him with their troops.
Stepping into the empty camp and looking around at the empty flags scattered all around, Cao Cao's face became increasingly ugly, as if he felt like he had been tricked.
Guo Jia, who was following him, was also full of suspicion. Not long after he walked, a look of surprise suddenly flashed in his eyes.
"Prime Minister, it turns out that Yan Liang's harassment a few nights ago was deliberately to cover his withdrawal. We fell into his trap," Guo Jia said anxiously.
"Withdraw troops? Now that Li City has been lost, could it be that Yan Liang withdrew Wancheng?" Cao Ren said on the left.
Guo Jia shook his head and said: "If Yan Liang wanted to retreat to Wancheng, he could have retreated openly. How could he use such bluffing tactics? I guess his army must have rushed to Licheng."
With a word of warning, all the generals were shocked.
Now there are only about 1,500 Zhang Liao in Licheng. He can barely cope with the 10,000 enemies before. If Yan Liang's main force also rushes away, facing dozens of times the enemy, how can Zhang Liao withstand it?
.
When he woke up, all the generals cursed Yan Liang for being cunning.
Cao Cao also had an angry look on his face. Now he finally realized why he had been feeling something was wrong these past few days. It turned out that he had subconsciously felt that there must be a conspiracy involved in Yan Liang's recent actions.
Feeling humiliated, Cao Cao immediately gritted his teeth and said sternly: "Send the order, break camp immediately, and the whole army will set off for Li City immediately."
…
When Cao Cao realized that he had been deceived and his army set off to pursue Li City, Yan Liang and his infantry and cavalry army were already on the road less than twenty miles away from Li City.
Since the two battalions were relatively close to each other, if Yan Liang's army made any movement, Cao's army would definitely detect it, so Yan Liang used Jia Xu's plan to stage this suspicious attack.
While his raiding troops were beating gongs and drums to harass Cao's army every night, Yan Liang's troops left the camp in batches, but under the cover of the noise and killing, they quietly headed north towards Li City.
After three days of harassment, Yan Liang's 25,000 cavalry had already been completely withdrawn. What was left to Cao Cao was an empty camp that looked "full" with flags everywhere.
At dusk, Yan Liang arrived at the Licheng camp, where Lu and Zhang had already been camped for a long time.
In the Chinese army's tent, Yan Liang summoned the two men. Once inside, Yan Liang commended Zhang He in front of everyone for his strict execution of his military orders.
Lu Lingqi originally wanted to blame Zhang He for missing the opportunity, but saw that Yan Liang praised Zhang He as soon as they met, so she had no choice but to give up.
After receiving Yan Liang's words, Lu Lingqi said: "Now that my 30,000 troops have gathered, my sworn brother, please order the attack on the city. I will personally cut off Zhang Liao's head and offer it to my sworn brother."
Faced with Lu Lingqi's request to fight, Yan Liang did not order an immediate attack. Instead, he ordered the siege of Li City to continue without attacking.
Lu Lingqi suddenly became curious and said hurriedly: "Sister-in-law, our army is dozens of times larger than the enemy. It is easy to conquer a mere Li city, but why do we still besiege it instead of attacking it?"
Yan Liang glanced at Jia Xu, who was stroking his beard and smiling slyly, and a sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"It's just a small city. The initiative to attack or not to attack is not entirely up to me. I want to keep this small city and turn it into a piece of useless food for Cao Cao, so that he can enjoy what it means to be uncomfortable."!