Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1190 The End
Xiahou Yuan appeared to be very calm on the surface, but he was actually extremely anxious. He calculated very clearly that he only had half a quarter of an hour left before Wen Pin's army would catch up. In this limited time, he had to lead Cao's army to break through the Jin army's obstruction, otherwise their entire army would be wiped out!
So when he saw that Huang Zhong on the opposite side was an expert archer, he had no choice but to lead his troops forward. It was not that he wanted to fight against the general, but his men were tired and he really could not send anyone.

Thinking of this, Xiahou Yuan gritted his teeth. Over the years, Cao's army and Yuan Xi had fought dozens of battles, big and small. Whether in terms of generals or soldiers, Cao's camp had an absolute advantage in numbers. It was common on the battlefield for several Cao generals to besiege one Yuan Xi general.

However, the Battle of Jizhou forced Cao Cao to send almost all his generals to Jizhou, including Sima Yi, the military advisor who conquered Yizhou, and General Le Jin. This made Xiahou Yuan, who was busy stabilizing the situation in Yizhou, initially feel that this was an overreaction.

But the detailed battle situation reported from Jizhou later made Xiahou Yuan realize how bad the situation was. The ferocious tiger actually chose to go into all-out war with Cao's camp at all costs!
The situation in Jizhou became increasingly worse, and Cao Cao finally issued a series of urgent orders to recall Xiahou Yuan. Only then did Xiahou Yuan realize that this time the two sides were going to have a decisive battle without reservation to decide the ownership of the Central Plains.

When he took the Jingzhou passage out of Sichuan, he had already guessed that there might be twists and turns, but he never imagined that in addition to Liu Bei taking the opportunity to attack Jingzhou, even Xionghu himself was waiting for him, and had sent three groups of troops to chase and intercept him!
Xiahou Yuan had a bad premonition in his heart. He was now on the verge of despair. Was he going to die here today?
No, if he died, Cao Xiu's side in Yuzhou would also collapse, so he absolutely could not die, he had to escape!
Thinking of this, Xiahou Yuan roared angrily and led his men to charge forward on horseback, breaking the formation of the Jin soldiers blocking the way in front of them into pieces. The dense arrows clanged on his armor, and the force of the impact made his sternum hurt slightly.

But in the face of life and death crisis, Xiahou Yuan instead entered a detached state. The movements of both sides on the battlefield were all in his eyes, and the next course of action was also marked one by one in his mind. He kept issuing orders, allowing his subordinates to continue tearing apart the opponent's defense line.

Cao's army was like a trapped beast, rushing left and right in the net, and the encirclement was not strong, and there was a danger of being torn to pieces by sharp claws and teeth at any time. Seeing this, Huang Zhong had to be fully alert to deal with it.

He tried several times to draw the bow and shoot Xiahou Yuan, but his actions were repeatedly interrupted by several Cao army archers who were specifically targeting him. This made Huang Zhong extremely depressed, as the other party was obviously targeting him!
Seeing that Xiahou Yuan was getting more and more fierce in the battle, Huang Zhong began to wonder in his heart, why is this Cao army commander so tenacious? He is completely on a different level from the Jiangdong army he had dealt with before.
In fact, Xiahou Yuan may be the most suitable candidate to take up the banner of commander in Cao's camp. Except for his slightly weaker personal martial arts, his command ability is also ranked among the best among the famous generals in the world.

Since Zhou Yu's death, the Wu Kingdom has not been able to produce any capable generals. Huang Zhong has fought against the Wu army many times in the past two years, so when he met Xiahou Yuan, he found it difficult to adapt for a while. However, he was very smart and he knew that the opposing Cao army had a fatal weakness.

My strength is almost running out.

Cao's army had been running for several days without any chance to rest. After so many consecutive battles, they had already overdrawn their lives. As long as they could block this attack, Cao's army would be finished!

However, the next moment, Xiahou Yuan moved aside, allowing more than a hundred Tiger and Leopard Cavalrymen behind him to come.

Just now, his lieutenant general led these elite cavalrymen to rest in the back and recuperate, enduring for half an hour, just for this moment. With a shout from Xiahou Yuan, these tiger and leopard cavalry rushed out like wild beasts out of their cages, and instantly tore through the blockade of the Jin army with an extremely violent attitude!
Huang Zhong saw that the situation was not good, so he had to order the soldiers behind him to surround the enemy and ordered the archers to shoot arrows. However, the Wei army completely ignored the arrows at this time and just rushed forward, carrying with them many Yizhou soldiers behind them and breaking through the blockade of the Jin army completely!
Huang Zhong saw Xiahou Yuan also rushing out with Cao's army, and cursed angrily. He quickly gathered his soldiers and chased after him, but he saw that Xiahou Yuan was about to rush into the dense forest on the east side. If he scattered and fled, it would be difficult for Huang Zhong to catch up with him!

Xiahou Yuan looked at the rolling crowd and breathed a sigh of relief. He had finally succeeded!
As long as you rush into the dense forest ahead, everything else is up to fate. How far you can run depends entirely on luck.

Seeing that the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry in the front were about to rush into the woods, Xiahou Yuan couldn't help but smile, but the next moment, the expression on his face froze.

A dense rain of arrows shot out from the forest, knocking down the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry in front one after another. Occasionally, a bamboo tube was thrown out, which blew the soldiers and horses behind and caused chaos.

Xiahou Yuan was cold all over, Wen Pinjun?
How come the other party came so quickly?

impossible?

Huang Zhong, who was chasing behind, was originally extremely anxious, but at this moment he was overjoyed. He knew that Wen Pin's army did not explode the bamboo tubes. This should be Lu Xun's army, which was the first among the three routes to set fire to the mountain!

Huang Zhong's guess was correct. After Lu Xun was broken through by Xiahou Yuan, he knew that he could not catch up with him. He looked at the map for a long time and decided to take a gamble and ambush directly in the woods east of Maicheng.

The facts turned out to be just as Lu Xun had expected. He guessed Xiahou Yuan's escape route correctly and blocked him. The Wei army that was trying to break out was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses immediately.

Xiahou Yuan saw this and knew that this was the last barrier, so he shouted loudly: "We can't shoot arrows in the forest, rush into the dense forest, and then disperse to break out!"

"I'll cut off the queen!"

His words gave hope to the Wei army that was about to collapse. A large number of Wei soldiers shouted and rushed into the woods, rushing towards the unknown enemy, while Xiahou Yuan turned his horse's head abruptly, trying to meet the chasing Huang Zhong.

Huang Zhong saw this and it was exactly what he wanted. He fired arrows continuously and shot down the guards around Xiahou Yuan one after another.

Xiahou Yuan was just trying to delay time. He saw that most people had rushed into the dense forest and knew that Huang Zhong was no match for them. After he and his men had shot all their arrows, he decisively followed them into the forest.

However, at this moment, there was a loud bang, and his warhorse was hit by Huang Zhong. The arrow penetrated deeply into the horse's buttocks. The warhorse neighed and was about to stand up.

Xiahou Yuan touched the quiver at his waist and found only one arrow left. He immediately bent the bow, put the arrow on it, turned around and shot.

It was not known whether it was a coincidence or not, but the arrow shot right at the forehead of Huang Zhong who was rushing over. Huang Zhong was already within a dozen steps of him at this time. Seeing the arrow flying towards him, he quickly raised his head to avoid it, but the arrow hit his cheek and left a trail of blood.

Huang Zhong screamed in pain and subconsciously bent his bow and shot back. The arrow was so powerful due to the pain that it flew out and hit Xiahou Yuan's side with a "puff" sound.

Xiahou Yuan screamed and fell off his horse. He saw Huang Zhong rushing towards him with a knife, but his body was unable to move at all. Then he lost consciousness and knew nothing. His generals saw this and rushed over to take revenge, but Huang Zhong led his men to kill most of them. The rest saw that there was no way out, so they all fled into the woods.

Lu Xun led his soldiers in the woods to block the enemy, but Cao's army was scattered. Although Lu Xun tried his best, a small number of people still escaped under the cover of the dense forest.

However, in this battle, only a few thousand of the tens of thousands of Cao's troops escaped, and the rest either died in battle or surrendered. The Cao army forces in Jing and Yi states suffered a serious blow. I am afraid that for a long time afterwards, the Cao army will no longer be able to take the initiative to attack in the direction of Jingzhou.

When the news reached Yiling, Yuan Xi, who was in charge, was overjoyed. Cao's army had lost so many soldiers and their commander Xiahou Yuan. Next, he could hand over the defense line of Jing and Yi to Liu Bei and concentrate on destroying Cao Cao's hometown in Yuzhou!
He said to Lu Lingqi: "Send the order to assemble the army and wait for Boyan and the others to come back. Then we will return to Shouchun and attack Yuzhou!"

After hearing this, Lu Lingqi smiled and said, "Husband, don't you want Jingzhou anymore?"

Yuan Xi said, "No, the rest of Jingzhou is no longer useful to me, so I'll leave it to Lord Xuande to fight for."

Lu Lingqi smiled and said, "It's really not for Madam Cai?"

Yuan Xi was troubled and asked, "Am I such a person who can't distinguish between the primary and the secondary?"

"The most important thing now is how to defeat Cao Cao. Yuzhou is much more important to me."

"Besides, it will be late autumn in half a month. Although we may not be able to take all of Yuzhou, it won't be a problem to take Runan. As long as we plant this nail in advance, Cao Ying will be in great trouble next year, and the support for Jizhou will be greatly weakened."

Lu Lingqi said: "In Jizhou, it can be said that the victory or defeat is undecided this year, but it will take several years, right?"

"My husband is really generous. He dares to let the military advisors take charge of the situation."

Yuan Xi said, "I feel very relieved that Kong Ming and his men are in charge. I can't do better if I go there myself."

"In the battle of Jizhou, Cao Ying fought with all his might and would never give up a single battle. Although I made a gesture of all-out attack, in my heart, I was actually reluctant to push Cao Cao too hard."

"After all, most of the soldiers he killed were from Jizhou."

Lu Lingqi said: "This is what is called being cautious before you kill the rat."

"Isn't my husband waiting for Cao Cao to die of illness?"

Yuan Xi laughed and said, "You still know me best."

"That's right. If Cao Cao died now, it would probably be the best outcome for Jizhou."

"But who can say for sure about this kind of thing?"

He and Lu Lingqi walked out of the house side by side. The yellow leaves in the yard were falling in the autumn wind. Yuan Xi saw it and sighed, "Another year has passed."

“Sometimes, as we watch the years pass by, we wonder how long we have left to live.”

Lu Lingqi chuckled and said, "My husband, if you want to discuss poetry about the sad autumn, you should go to Madam Zhen and Madam Cai. It would be like playing the lute to a cow if you go to me."

"I grew up in the north, and my future was uncertain. I just knew that I would be satisfied if I could do what I wanted while I was young."

"What is that poem that my husband mentioned, life?"

Yuan Xi laughed, "Enjoy life to the fullest!"

He suddenly realized that only by throwing away the burdens and traveling light can one go further!

(End of this chapter)