Chapter 616: The Name of Yan Liang, Megatron China
The sound of war drums, accompanied by Yan Liang's sharp shout, reached its highest pitch.
The remaining 30,000 soldiers moved with a roar, like a torrent that burst a dike, rushing towards Cao Jun.
Yan Jun launched an all-out attack.
The soldiers of Cao Cao's army were already confused. The hands holding their weapons began to tremble. Everyone was panicked. They looked at the burning camp for a while, and then looked at the rushing Cao Jun. They were frightened.
Fear is all shown in color.
Cao Cao was also full of surprise. Looking at the fierce tide of Yan's army, Cao Cao didn't know how to respond for a while.
"Prime Minister, the morale of our army is in chaos. We must not fight anymore at this time. Retreat quickly. If we are caught by Yan's army, it will be too late." Liu Ye, who was accompanying the army, shouted anxiously.
Only then did Cao Cao realize in shock, the hatred and unwillingness in his heart.
Although he had countless hatreds and wanted to fight Yan Liang to the death, the remaining trace of reason in his mind told him not to be impulsive. If he fought to the death now, he might lose his life.
After only hesitating for a moment, Cao Cao gritted his teeth and shouted, "The whole army retreats."
Before he finished speaking, Cao Cao turned his horse and left first.
In the battle of the Western Han River, Cao Cao was chased by Yan's army and could hardly escape with his life. Cao Cao still has lingering fears.
At this time, Cao Cao did not want to experience such a shock again, so once he decided to retreat, he simply retreated without hesitation at all.
Before the golden bell sounded, Cao Cao's general's flag had already left first.
Cao's army, which was already in great disarray, saw that Cao Cao was leaving first. In an instant, its morale was shattered. Cao's army, which numbered tens of thousands and had not yet fought, turned to look for the wind and fled.
The cavalry took the lead and fled. More than 20,000 Chinese troops who had not fought followed, but they suffered a lot from the 20,000 front troops who were still fighting fiercely.
Le Jin, who was fighting a bloody battle, heard the sound of gold ringing and had no choice but to retreat according to the order. However, Yan Jun, who was so close at hand, would not let them go easily. These Yan Jun who had risen up to fight followed closely behind them.
They came to kill like crazy.
Immediately afterwards, the main force of tens of thousands of Yan's troops also rushed in. With an overwhelming advantage, they rolled up.
Twenty thousand of Cao's troops were killed, with ghosts crying and wolves howling, rivers of blood flowing, and corpses strewn across the fields.
The whole army came out. Yan Liang rode his horse and wielded his sword. He also led five thousand Tiger Guards and killed them all.
The rolling tide of soldiers pursued Cao Ying on a long bloody road.
When Cao Cao and his frightened soldiers finally escaped to the camp, they saw that the antlers outside the camp were completely destroyed, and the raging flames blocked his way back to the camp.
Behind him, Yan Liang's army was coming like the wind. If Yan's army chased him, even if Cao Cao could escape to the camp, he would be defeated by Yan Liang's remaining camp.
The panic-stricken Cao Cao had no fighting spirit at the moment and no longer dared to think about holding Hanzhong. Without even thinking about it, he immediately led his remaining troops to retreat to the Xiegu Valley.
When Li Dian and other generals guarding the camp saw Cao Cao abandoning the camp, they all lost their fighting spirit and fled to Xiegu.
Of course, Yan Liang would not let Cao Cao go so easily. On the one hand, he divided his troops to capture Xiegu Camp, and on the other hand, he personally led the army and followed him into Xiegu.
The valley road was narrow and difficult, making it difficult for the horses to move forward. In desperation, Cao Cao had to order half of the horses to be abandoned and the cavalry to abandon their horses and walk.
Cao Cao, who had escaped for dozens of miles, was like a frightened bird. He was afraid that Yan Liang would pursue him, so he ordered the plank road to be burned down to block Yan Liang's pursuit.
After losing nearly 20,000 troops and 3,000 Liangzhou fine horses, Cao Cao finally used the burned plank road to stop Yan Liang from pursuing him.
Seeing that the plank road was destroyed and the terrain of the skewed valley was complicated, and that if he pursued further he might be ambushed by Cao Cao, Yan Liang ordered the troops to retreat. The troops withdrew from the skewed valley and arrived at Cao Cao's abandoned camp.
With a great victory, Yan Liang's strategic goal was basically accomplished.
As Yan Liang had predicted in advance, Cao Cao was completely driven out of Hanzhong and suffered heavy casualties.
For Yan Liang, in addition to repelling Cao Cao, there was another unexpected gain, which was the nearly 3,000 Liangzhou fine horses left by Cao Cao.
Although Yan Liang has always had Shenxingqi and Tiefutu cavalry, he has been campaigning east and west for many years, and his horses have suffered a lot of battle losses.
However, the land occupied by Yan Liang was an area in the south that did not produce horses. Many of the needed war horses could only be obtained through smuggling by traders, which was far from being able to meet the required supplies.
These three thousand horses are like providing help in times of need, and are of great help to Yan Liang in maintaining the strength of his cavalry.
With rich fruits in hand, Yan Liang marched with his head high and led his army into Cao Cao's abandoned camp. He planned to rest here for one night and tomorrow he would lead the victorious army to Nanzheng City, the seat of Hanzhong County.
As soon as they entered the camp, Huang Zhong, who had entered the camp early, came to greet him.
"My lord, there are more than two thousand soldiers in Cao Cao's camp. They were all captured by our army before they could escape. There is also an enemy general named Guo Huai who was imprisoned by Cao Cao in a prison car. Please tell me how to deal with it."
Guo Huai...
Buried historical memories quickly emerged in Yan Liang's mind.
Yan Liang remembered that this man in history served as a general in the western part of the Wei Kingdom in the late Three Kingdoms period. He not only assisted Cao Zhen and Sima Yi in repelling Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, but also fought alone against Jiang Wei's invasion in the later period.
Moreover, Guo Huai was the governor of Liangzhou, and he was very good at governing, which made the Qiang Han people very supportive of him.
This means that Guo Huai is a rare general who is both civil and military.
It is indeed interesting that the current general would be put into a prison car by Cao Cao.
Yan Liang immediately rode forward, and at the same time summoned several captives to surrender, asking why Guo Huai was imprisoned.
After asking, Yan Liangcai learned about Guo Huai's advice to Cao Cao. He also learned that during the battle of Dingjun Mountain, Guo Huai had also advised Xia Houyuan several times.
"This Guo Huai does have some knowledge. If Xia Houyuan and Cao Cao listen to his advice, the outcome of victory or defeat is still unknown."
As Yan Liang sighed, he began to appreciate Guo Huai even more.
Not long after marching, the group arrived at the rear camp, and saw a military general sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed in the prison car. Although he was in the prison car, his demeanor was quite calm.
The general in the prison car was naturally Guo Huai.
"What's wrong with him? Let him out quickly." Yan Liang raised his whip and shouted.
The soldiers on the left and right rushed forward and opened the prison car.
Guo Huai opened his eyes, glanced outside, and immediately got out of the prison car calmly, walked up to Yan Liang, and slightly cupped his hands: "I have heard about Yan Da Sima's name for a long time, and today I saw that it is indeed well-deserved."
"How did you know that I was Yan Liang?" Yan Liang asked curiously.
Guo Huai said calmly: "He can destroy Liu Biao, kill Sun Quan, defeat Liu Bei, and dominate half of the country with his own strength. Although he has never met, Huai also knows that such a person must have extraordinary magnanimity. Although Huai is not talented, this point
I still have good eyesight.”
Although he only said a few words, his evaluation of Yan Liang was extremely high.
Even so, Yan Liang could not detect the slightest hint of flattery. With just these few words, Yan Liang could conclude that this Guo Huai was indeed no ordinary person.
At that moment, Yan Liang laughed and said boldly: "Well said, Guo Huai, I know that you are also a person. If Xia Houyuan and Cao Cao had listened to your advice, they would not have been defeated today. Others cannot listen to your advice.
"Gu is the best at accepting advice, so submit to Gu."
Yan Liang didn't mince words and directly surrendered.
Guo Huai's eyes showed some hesitation, but then his expression became determined.
"Thanks to the great Sima Yan for being so important, Huai is willing to do his best to serve the great Sima." Guo Huai bowed respectfully.
The previous time he spoke to Xia Houyuan and was reprimanded by him, now he spoke to Cao Cao and was thrown into a prison car for the angry Cao Cao. Guo Huai had already become cold-hearted.
Now that things have happened, there is a hero like Yan Liang here, and he is so praised and appreciated. Guo Huai is a man who knows the current affairs, and there is no way he would not surrender.
After defeating Cao Cao and gaining another general with both civil and military skills, the rewards of this battle far exceeded Yan Liang's imagination.
The proud Yan Liang was in high spirits and couldn't help laughing wildly.
The day after he surrendered Guo Huai, Yan Liang's army set off, with the newly surrendered Guo Huai leading 5,000 troops as the vanguard, and marched straight into Nanzheng.
Cao Cao was defeated in Xiegu and his army fled back to Guanzhong. When the news came, the entire Hanzhong was shattered.
Wherever Yan Liang's army passed, the yellow sands and the cities in Baozhong all looked down upon the wind.
In less than two days, Yan Liang's army had already reached the gates of Nanzheng City.
At this time, most of the scholars and people in Nanzheng City had moved away for Cao Cao, and there were only a thousand county soldiers and a few hundred military households left in the city.
Before the army arrived, the officials in the city opened the city gates to welcome the surrender.
Yan Liang's army wasted no time and he planted his red flag on the top of the city of Hanzhong County.
The capture of Nanzheng was determined by a message from Yu County in Hanzhong. After arriving in Nanzheng, Yan Liang ordered Zhu Huan to lead 5,000 soldiers and horses, march eastward along the Mian River, and cooperate with Lu Xun of Nanyang to jointly capture the three counties of Shangyong.
The Shen brothers of Shangyong were originally followers of both sides. They surrendered without fighting when Cao Cao attacked. Now that Cao Cao was defeated and retreated from Hanzhong, they immediately surrendered to Yan Liang.
Considering the Shen brothers' repeated rebellions, Yan Liang was not polite to the two brothers. He ordered Zhu Huan to directly behead the two Shen brothers, and forcibly removed all the more than a thousand powerful families from Shangyong three counties from Shangyong.
The three counties were moved to Nanyang.
It was nearing the end of autumn, and the fighting in Yizhou had basically ended. In addition to Hanzhong, the three Shangyong counties, as well as the two counties of Wudu and Yinping in the west, were all owned by Yan Liang.
It can be said that the entire Yizhou has returned to Yanliang.
Although Cao Cao's army was severely damaged when he returned to Guanzhong, Yan Liang could not rely on Hanzhong to launch an attack on Guanlong in a short period of time because he had relocated more than 200,000 Hanzhong people in advance.
Moreover, after nearly a year of war, Yizhou has suffered considerable losses, and it will take time to recover its economy and heal the wounds of the war.
Therefore, after capturing Hanzhong, Yan Liang ordered the troops to stop and announced that he would return eastward in the near future.
Before returning to the east, Yan Liang also made arrangements to appoint Lu Xun as the prefect of Hanzhong and lead an army of 20,000 to guard the key areas of Hanzhong to defend Cao Cao from Guanlong.
In addition, Yan Liang appointed Li Yan as the prefect of Shu County and ordered him to sit in Chengdu.
One in the north and one in the south, two generals with both civil and military skills will defend the western frontier for Yan Liang and guard the Shu territory.
The news that Yan Liang defeated Cao Cao and captured Yizhou soon spread throughout the world.
At this time, Yan Liang was truly a powerful figure in China.