Ji Han Da Sima

Chapter 473 Escape with one boot

Five days is a long time. For ordinary people, it almost passes by in the blink of an eye.

However, during these five days, Cao Ren was restless. He often wandered on the tower and looked out of the city, looking both excited and nervous.

Cao Ren, who had been suppressed by Nan Han for so long, finally found a chance to make a comeback. Once reinforcements of five thousand cavalry can be obtained, it should be possible to defeat the Han army besieging the city through external cooperation. Then he contacted Zhang He who was on the upper reaches of the Han River and gave Liu Bei in Xinye a central flower, which made him feel completely proud.

Within five days, Cao Ren watched with his own eyes the mourning ceremony in the Han camp. The advocates who were originally used for military operations played mourning music for the funeral of 'Pang Tong'. Most of the soldiers mourned the death of 'Pang Tong'.

When the Han army was preparing for Pang Tong's funeral outside the city, Cao Renze and Niu Jin selected two thousand men on foot and on horseback, and rewarded them with gold and silver, and promised them rich lands and houses, as encouragement.

After a few days of tossing between the two parties, the time was finally approaching the agreed date.

December 8, night.

The night before the appointment, an arrow tied with a scarf flew through the night in an arc and shot into the city.

"General, a letter from outside the city!"

Hearing this, everyone was happy for it. Even though Zhu Zhi had experienced several ups and downs, he was still overjoyed at this moment. He kept saying the word "delivery", feeling lucky to have escaped from death.

Cao Ren's hearty laughter rang out, and he replied: "Just wait and see while I defeat the enemy!"

Cao Ren's joyful voice sounded from the city.

By the next night, the two thousand soldiers in the city who were recuperating had already eaten meat, drank wine, and had a feast. Under Cao Ren's summons, two thousand cavalry, armored and armed, were waiting to assemble at the gate of the city.

"Ha ha!"

The attendant ran quickly and brought the arrow to Cao Ren.

"color!"

Niu Jin is covered in heavy armor, holding his spear and shaking lightly, his body moves dexterously, as if he is alive. The tip of the branch split the air, producing a whirring sound.

Time passed little by little, and by midnight everything was silent except for the sound of the howling cold wind.

Zhu Zhi held on to the city wall and shouted: "General, please be more careful. If something goes wrong, take charge of the city to respond. The crossbows on the city can protect the general!"

Zhu Zhi stood on the city in armor, watching the fire signal outside the west gate.

Cao Ren suppressed his smile and ordered: "Tomorrow night, General Niu and I will lead the elite out of the city. Zhu Xiangyang will be in charge of the city, and he will preside over all military and political affairs."

The impatient Cao Ren took off the scarf, saw the contents of the letter, and laughed out loud.

Although Cao Ren is leading the battle tonight, he is not the one leading the charge, but his general Niu Jin. After all, Cao Ren is the same as Guan and Zhang. As he gets older, he lives up to his original courage. Moreover, they are all high-ranking officials, and their subordinates must be responsible for charging into battle.

"Your Majesty ordered Cao Zidan to ride tigers and leopards to help, and we will be able to defeat the thieves tomorrow!"

Suddenly, in the darkness of the Han Army's Western Camp outside the city, dozens of torches suddenly lit up, and then large firelights dispersed the darkness of the night.

With that said, Cao Ren looked at Niu Jin beside him and asked, "How is Bo Zheng doing?"

"promise!"

In the silent night, the crescent moon is like a hook in the sky, and there are stars.

Holding the letter and pacing, Cao Ren smiled and said: "According to Jing Wen's letter, Cao Zidan's troops have arrived around Fancheng and will make an appointment with our army."

Seeing this, Zhu Zhi was overjoyed, jogged a few steps, and shouted to the bottom of the city: "General, General Zidan has raised the fire as promised, it should be attackable!"

Finding the familiarity of the weapon, Niu Jin responded in a muffled voice, indicating that he and his subordinates were ready.

"Attack, open the door!"

With a creaking sound, the gate of Fancheng was gradually opened.

Then in the dark city cave, the cavalry took the lead to leave the city, and the leader was Niu Jin. Because the horse's hooves were wrapped in cloth, the sound of the horse's hooves was particularly dull. After the galloping sound of the cavalry, the infantry also filed out of the city.

With coins in their mouths and cloth wrapped around their hooves, and illuminated by dim torches, the Wei army sergeants formed their troops outside the city.

While the infantry and cavalry were reuniting, Cao Ren looked at the Han camp and saw the loud beating of drums and shouts of killing in the Han camp. He knew that Cao Zhen had led the infantry and cavalry to launch a general attack.

"Shut up!"

Cao Ren rode his horse to Niu Jin's side, raised his whip and asked: "Now the reinforcements will attack the enemy camp from the northwest. Our army can attack the camp from the southeast, and the enemy's army will be defeated inside and outside."

"promise!"

Niu Jin held the reins in his hands, carefully observed the situation in the night, then raised his long spear high and shouted: "Follow me!"

Niu Jin led the cavalry to advance first, while Cao Ren led the infantry to advance quickly. The infantry and cavalry sergeants, holding pine needles or swords and spears, slowly marched toward the Han army's camp. They marched in an orderly manner, and the clanging of armor sounded in the dark night.

The Han army seemed to be fighting Cao Zhen's troops. The drums were beating extremely enthusiastically, the fires in each camp were soaring into the sky, and there were constant shouts of killing. The entire Han stronghold fell into chaos.

Listening to the noisy sounds, the Wei army seemed to feel the turmoil caused by Cao Zhen's attack on the Han army, and accelerated their pace, hoping to join the battle as soon as possible and cooperate with Cao Zhen to defeat the Han army.

Niu Jin led hundreds of Wei cavalry to rush to the edge of the Han camp. Under the moonlight, they could only see a few human figures moving around the camp. There were no soldiers guarding the outside, but the camp was noisy and there were constant shouts of killing.

Seeing this, a cavalryman took the lead, jumped over the ravine, and slashed at the soldiers blocking the way with his sword.

A cold light flashed, and the man fell down under the knife. But the cavalryman was shocked. He didn't feel the killing pleasure of the knife penetrating into the skin and the blood splattering, and there was no sound of the usual people shouting and wailing, so he suddenly felt doubtful.

He slowed down his horse and walked slowly, using the pine tree in his hand to shine on the fallen soldiers. Under the dim firelight, he saw that the Han soldier he had just killed was not a human being, but a scarecrow disguised in a military uniform.

"How's it going?"

Niu Jin rode his horse into the camp, looked around, saw the empty Han camp, and asked doubtfully.

"General, there is no one in the camp!"

"General, the enemy is pretending to be a real person!"

The knights gathered around one after another, talking about the strange phenomena in the camp. "not good!"

When Niu Jin saw the dummy carried by the cavalry, he felt bad and shouted: "Retreat, retreat quickly!"

"The thieves have an ambush in the camp~"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Before he finished speaking, the sound of military drums rang out in the previously lonely Han camp. Thousands of human figures swayed in the moonlight, countless bright lights appeared inside and outside the camp, heads of people were running around, and the shouts of killing were loud.

When Niu Jin saw an ambush surrounding him, he did not dare to hesitate. He immediately led a hundred cavalry to look for Cao Ren, but the cavalry he commanded was abandoned by him.

"Whoosh!"

Han army crossbowmen appeared out of nowhere and shot at Wei Qi who escaped from the camp. There was a sudden sound of breaking through the sky, and hundreds of arrows flew out of the darkness. Wei Qi, who was running, suddenly stopped, and more than ten figures fell to the ground, snorting continuously. Obviously, visibility is low at night, and accuracy is far less accurate than during the day. Few people die from arrows, and most are injured.

Niu Jin wielded his spear to block the arrows, and the armor was thick. Even if an arrow was hit, it would still be blocked by the armor. Niu Jin led his cavalry to escape from the Han camp trap without any danger, but because it was dark, there were only dozens of cavalry following him.

"General!"

The infantry were not far from the cavalry. Niu Jin found Cao Ren in the firelight and shouted: "General, you have fallen into the trap!"

Cao Ren listened to the closer and closer shouts of killing in the dark night and asked: "What kind of trick did you get into? Where is Cao Zhen?"

Niu Jin took Cao Ren's hand and said anxiously: "General, our army's plan has been known to the bandits, who have set up an ambush outside the camp to wait for our army!"

"what!"

Hearing this, Cao Ren's face changed drastically and he murmured: "Isn't that Cao Zhen's letter fake?"

By now, Cao Ren had only realized what happened tonight, and gradually guessed that everything that happened tonight was at the hands of the Han army.

Could it be that the letter from that night was obtained by the Han army?
But Pang Tong died that night, and the Han army must have been unprepared. How could they capture the letter?

Although Cao Ren has many unanswered questions now, the current situation does not allow him to think too much.

Before he could say anything, all the Han troops were chasing after the torches lit by the Wei soldiers. In the dark night, there were loud shouts of killing, and torches were lit on all sides. In the flickering fire, the Han army soldiers appeared and charged towards the helpless Wei army.

"go!"

Cao Ren didn't think too much and ordered his left and right: "Withdraw the troops and return to the city!"

But Cao Ren has already led his troops out of the city. How can it be so easy to retreat?

When the Wei soldiers retreated, they were intercepted and killed by Feng Xi's troops.

Under the night, the Han and Wei armies fought fiercely together, with loud shouts of killing, swords and spears, and soldiers fighting each other. How can being attacked by someone be the same as attacking someone else? The Wei army had only a small number of infantry and cavalry, but when it was attacked by the Han army, it only took a few battles, but the army was in chaos because of its unstable morale.

Cao Ren didn't care so much and retreated directly to Fancheng with his infantry and cavalry.

On the way back to the city, he was ambushed by the Han army again.

Huo Du wore armor and held a spear, rode his horse to intercept the soldiers, and shouted loudly: "Cao Ren, a common man, fell into Pang Du's plan, so he won't die!"

These words contained a lot of information. It was revealed that Pang Tong was not dead and everything was arranged by him, which scared Cao Ren.

"kill!"

Huo Du led his cavalry and went straight to kill Cao Ren. On the way, he slashed with swords, stabbed with spears, and trampled on his horses. The Wei army was so panicked that they ran away from each other and had no intention of fighting for a long time.

Cao Ren didn't dare to fight Huo Du. He knew that holding a torch in the dark was too big a target, so he simply asked Zuo Fang to abandon the torch, and he and Niu Jin led their cavalry to sneak into the night and escape.

Soon, the Han army defeated the Wei soldiers. The Wei soldiers either surrendered or fled, and they were no longer organized. But Cao Ren sneaked into the night and escaped, making it difficult for everyone to find him.

"General, there is no trace of Cao Ren!" the attendant rode up and shouted.

Huo Du looked at the dark and chaotic countryside and shouted: "The cavalry is pursuing and searching, and the infantry is marching in formation outside Fancheng. Even if Cao Ren cannot be captured, Cao Ren cannot be allowed to return to the city."

"promise!"

In the dark night with only the moon lighting up, Cao Ren led his cavalry in the dark. He did not dare to approach any place where there was light and loud noise. After finally getting close to Fancheng, I saw Han troops stationed on foot and cavalry outside the city on all sides, always looking for him.

In the countryside outside Fancheng, Niu Jin looked at the Han troops already patrolling and garrisoning outside the city, and said: "General, the thieves are well prepared and have surrounded the four gates of Fancheng. I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to enter the city."

Niu Jin's voice was very low, for fear that some Han soldiers would hear him.

Cao Ren sighed and said, "Pang Tong is so cunning that he faked his own death to deceive me!"

With that said, Cao Ren, who had been running around for a long time, was a little tired, so he dismounted and sat on the ground to rest.

"General, now that all our elite troops have been wiped out, I am afraid that Fancheng cannot be defended. It is better to go north to His Majesty's camp." Niu Jin suggested.

Cao Ren felt uncomfortable with the sand and stones on his left foot. He sighed and said, "Let's see how many servants there are left?"

With that said, Cao Ren took off the boot on his left foot and prepared to pour out the sand and gravel.

Niu Jin took a few glances, carefully counted the heads, and said: "There are still seventeen riders, and Lian Jin has eighteen riders."

As soon as Niu Jin finished speaking, Cao Rengang had not yet put on his boots, but he saw several Han army rangers in the dark night without holding Song Ming. They suddenly emerged from the dark night and yelled at them: "But the traitor army? Where is Cao Ren?"

This inquiry frightened Cao Ren to the point of losing his mind. He didn't have time to put on his left boot, so he directly put on his jiaoshao (sock) and mounted the horse.

Niu Jin seemed to be well prepared. He drew his bow and shot two horsemen on the spot. One was hit by an arrow in the throat and the other by an arrow in the eye socket. Niu Jin's brave performance and the seventeen cavalry on Cao Ren's left and right came out, which directly scared the Han army's cavalry away.

Although the Han army's cavalry left, Cao Ren was already intimidated, and Gai knew that most of the Han army would arrive in a moment. He ignored his left boot and fled northward with the Eighteen Cavalry including Niu Jin.

(End of this chapter)