People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 431 Life and Death
"Your Majesty, Cao Ren is here to pick us up!" Seeing a large black army slowly coming towards them on the distant horizon, Guo Jia suddenly felt relieved. He knew that the Wei army was safe for the time being.

Cao Cao, who was beside him, also relaxed visibly. There had never been a moment when Cao Cao felt that Cao Ren was so lovable.

He looked back at his army, and saw that most of the soldiers were resting in a mess, and wounded were everywhere. The scene before him could only be described as gloomy and bleak.

They had lost countless supplies in their hasty escape, and now they even had to kill horses to survive.

The casualties of soldiers in this battle were countless. The original army of hundreds of thousands was reduced to only about 60,000 to 70,000. Even if there were still some scattered small troops that had not been gathered, they no longer had the chance to reunite.

It can be said that the Wei army has really fallen into a desperate situation.

When Cao Ren rode his horse hurriedly into the camp and knelt down in front of Cao Cao, Cao Cao suddenly had an urge to cry. At that moment he wanted to say, "If you had come one second later, I would have starved to death."

"Now that Zixiao is here, I feel at ease."

Cao Cao, who escaped the disaster, held Cao Ren's hand tightly. It was certainly worth being happy about surviving the disaster, but now he could only sigh.

If it were in the past, even if he encountered difficulties and lows, with his optimistic and confident personality, he would be willing to laugh out loud and would not take the temporary difficulties seriously at all.

But now he was filled with sorrow and loneliness, and he was considered strong not to cry.

"Your Majesty, rest assured. If the enemy dares to attack, Cao Ren will make sure they never return!" Cao Ren said immediately.

Cao Cao then forced a smile, but after taking a look at the civil and military officials standing beside him, his smile quickly turned into a bitter smile.

"I have lost to the Yellow Turbans again this time. Do you still have the confidence to help me clean up the mess?" Cao Cao took a deep breath and asked everyone in a deep voice.

Everyone looked at each other with solemn expressions, but no one backed down: "As long as we follow your majesty, we will have confidence!"

Having said that, everyone is actually very pessimistic.

In the past, Cao Cao would never have asked such a question. He would always look confident and would never be knocked down by a temporary failure.

Now, Cao Cao asked such a question, which showed that he was beginning to lack confidence.

Even someone as strong as him could not help but doubt himself and the State of Wei, to the point where he needed to seek spiritual strength from outsiders.

But if even Cao Cao, the lord, is like this, how much better can his subjects be?

No matter what, everyone's words still made Cao Cao fight more courageously.

"Let's go back to Xuchang. I'm afraid the Wei Kingdom will have a hard time in the future. Do you guys want to go back?"

Cao Cao looked at the world behind him, thinking back to his escape, feeling filled with emotion. However, he stopped talking halfway, and his "Huh?" was full of astonishment.

Everyone was stunned, then looked in the direction of Cao Cao's voice and saw a large army beginning to appear in the distant sky.

Of course they could tell at a glance that this was the Yellow Turban army.

In fact, they were not unfamiliar with this scene. They had been chased by the other side all the way, but now seeing this scene, they felt very surprised.

Cao's army reacted quickly and immediately organized a large army to prepare for battle. This time their response was much calmer. After all, Cao Ren led 50,000 fresh troops to reinforce his forces, which was enough to deal with the exhausted Yellow Turban army in the rear.

Although the Yellow Turbans appeared, they were not as eager to attack as before. Instead, they stationed their troops on the spot and confronted Cao's army.

The sudden addition of 50,000 troops by the Wei army was something that could be easily discovered. The Yellow Turbans also knew that the strength of both sides had reversed again and would not attack rashly. When Cao Cao and others saw the Yellow Turbans' behavior, they knew that the Yellow Turbans were unwilling to let the Wei army go.

What they were wondering was where the Yellow Turbans got the confidence from.

"We have already entered the territory of Wei State. Why do the Yellow Turbans dare to pursue us so deeply?"

Inside the military tent, Cao Cao discussed matters with his ministers, but he was puzzled by the actions of the Yellow Turbans.

Not only him, but others couldn't figure it out either.

If the Yellow Turbans continued to advance deeper into the enemy's territory with the Wei army, they would be encircled by the Wei army. As they were isolated and deep in the enemy's territory along a long front line and had no way to get supplies, the Yellow Turbans would sooner or later be swallowed up by the Wei army.

This was obviously not a wise move. Even though the Yellow Turbans were powerful and had just defeated the Wei army, if they really dared to attack so rashly, the Wei army would not be afraid at all.

“If the Yellow Turbans really follow our army into deep battle, I will kill them if they dare to come!” Cao Ren stood up at the first moment. Although he did not understand the Yellow Turbans’ intentions, he was very confident that he could deal with it.

The rest of the people nodded. No matter how powerful the Yellow Turbans were, they could not be fought like this. If they were really so arrogant, they were confident that they could teach the Yellow Turbans a lesson.

Cao Cao paced back and forth. Although he felt something was wrong, he ignored it.

His heart beat faster, but he did not realize that this was a reaction caused by an instinctive sense of crisis. Instead, he thought it was a reaction caused by excitement.

At this moment, he hoped very much that the Yellow Turbans would be stupid enough to continue chasing him, so that he could perhaps take advantage of this opportunity to turn the tables.

After a while, he stopped and said: "The Yellow Turbans are too arrogant, but this is our army's opportunity. Listen to my orders, the army will slowly retreat, and we must lure the Yellow Turbans deep into Wei territory, then..."

"wrong!"

Just as Cao Cao was beginning to plan things, he suddenly heard a scream, which interrupted his words.

Cao Cao was startled by the shouting, but he didn't have time to blame him. He looked in the direction of the voice and saw Guo Jia with wide eyes and a look of fear on his face.

In an instant, Cao Cao's heart sank to the bottom.

Although he didn't know what was wrong, it was the first time he saw Guo Jia look so panicked, which meant that something very bad must have happened.

Everyone turned their heads to look at Guo Jia, and an ominous premonition suddenly appeared in everyone's mind.

Guo Jia stood up and began to speak with a gloomy face: "The Yellow Turbans would never do such a stupid thing as marching alone into the depths of the enemy's territory. If they dare to do so, they must have something to rely on. They must understand that it is impossible to break through the Wei defense with only this exhausted army, unless..."

Cao Cao's heart tightened, and he quickly asked, "Unless what?"

At this time, Xun Yu also suddenly realized, and his face turned pale: "Unless the Yellow Turbans have another army attacking Wei, Xuan Xia is probably planning to use the momentum of the counterattack to quickly attack and destroy our Wei State!"

When these words were spoken, everyone was shocked, and no one could sit still.

Cao Cao took a deep breath, fell down on the chair, and it took him a while to come back to his senses.

"The entire army should immediately retreat to defend Xuchang, and also send orders to the prefectures and counties to strengthen defense and requisition food supplies. Then immediately send people to Han and Wu to ask for help, and tell Liu Bei and Sun Quan that our Wei State is in a life-and-death situation!"

(End of this chapter)