The Jagged Cavalry of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 144 Chapter 144
Zhang Yan said with a gloomy expression: "Brother Fengxian died two miles away. At that time, Cao Jun was in a hurry and I couldn't rush through. That's why I couldn't bring out Brother Fengxian's body!"

As soon as the words fell, Gao Shun and Zhang Liao bid farewell to Zhang Yan one after another, and led hundreds of soldiers trapped in the camp to search for Lu Bu's body.

After Zhang Yan gathered his troops, he also went together. Wherever he passed along the way, he saw the corpses of Xuzhou soldiers lying on the ground, and he felt extremely sad.

Three thousand cavalry, after this battle, more than 2000 people were lost, leaving only five or six hundred cavalry, many of whom were seriously injured.

Such a disastrous defeat made Zhang Yan feel uncomfortable, and these cavalry were the elite of Xuzhou soldiers, and they were also the only cavalry troop under his command. Unexpectedly, they were completely lost in this battle.

However, fortunately, during the process of searching for Lu Bu's body, there were one or two hundred war horses on both sides of the road. These war horses stood quietly, lowered their heads, and gently pushed the soldiers who were lying in a pool of blood. It can be seen that they are loyal to their masters.

Zhang Yan asked his subordinates to gather all the horses on the battlefield. After confirming that Cao Jun had retreated, he ordered the soldiers to clean up the battlefield.

Gao Shun and Zhang Liao led the soldiers trapped in the camp, and soon came to the place where Lu Bu was attacked. However, except for the red rabbit horse lying in a pool of blood, Lu Bu's body was not found on the ground.

However, the bodies of Song Xian, Hou Cheng and others were found.

Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, together with more than 500 soldiers trapped in the camp, buried Song Xian, Hou Cheng and others, as well as Chituma on the spot, and vowed to find Lu Bu's body and kill Cao Cao to avenge Lu Bu!

Later, Zhang Yan's scouts brought back the news that Lu Bu's body had been taken away by Cao Cao. Gao Shun and Zhang Liao were heartbroken after hearing this, and they didn't know how Cao Cao would torture Lu Bu's body.

Gao Shun and Zhang Liao knew that they would not be able to ask Cao Cao to return Lu Bu's body with this little force in their hands, and their only hope could only be pinned on Zhang Yan.

Gao Shun and Zhang Liao discussed for a while, walked towards Zhang Yan together, handed over to Zhang Yan unanimously, and said loudly: "My lord died in the hands of Cao Cao, even the body was taken away by Cao Cao, we There are only a few hundred soldiers, and they are no match for Cao Cao. Zhang Andong has a strong army, a lot of talents, and he is like a brother to my lord. We want Zhang Andong to be the master of the two of us!"

When Zhang Yan heard Gao Shun and Zhang Liao's words, he asked, "I was almost killed by Cao Cao today. If you hadn't arrived in time, I'm afraid I would have died already. Brother Fengxian and I are brothers and sisters, and now he died tragically in the In the hands of Cao Cao, as a brother, how can I not help him avenge? However, now our army has suffered heavy losses, and the cavalry is almost lost. We should temporarily avoid Cao's edge, wait and see what happens, and then slowly plan."

Gao Shun hurriedly said, "But, my lord's body is still in Cao Cao's hands..."

Zhang Yandao: "Please rest assured, I will find a way to recover Brother Fengxian's body from Cao Cao, but if you let me make the decision, then from now on, you must obey my orders, and no matter what you do, you must ask first." I must not have any private actions, understand?"

Gao Shun and Zhang Liao looked at each other, and said in unison: "As long as Zhang Andong can avenge my lord, I will be willing to do my best for Zhang Andong!"

"I won't let you be cows or horses. I just want you to obey my orders, that's all. If you can do it, you will be my subordinates from now on. If you can't do it , then please leave as soon as possible, I will not force others to do anything." Zhang Yan said.

Lu Bu is dead, this is an indisputable fact.As Lv Bu's former troops, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and more than 500 soldiers who were trapped in the camp, which one would not want to avenge Lv Bu?

But Cao Cao's strength, they know better than anyone else, if they want to take revenge, they can only rely on Zhang Yan and borrow Zhang Yan's power to complete the revenge.

Therefore, after some discussions, Gao Shun and Zhang Liao decided to serve under Zhang Yan's tent, listen to his orders, and then try to avenge Lu Bu.

"General, please accept my obeisance!" Gao Shun and Zhang Liao bowed to Zhang Yan in unison.

Zhang Yan hastily helped Gao Shun and Zhang Liao up, and said loudly: "With the help of the two of you, I can get twice the result with half the effort to avenge Brother Fengxian. However, I heard that Brother Fengxian still has some old troops stationed in Chengwu County. Here, led by Wei Xu and Cao Xing, they are protecting Lu Bu's family, right?"

Gao Shun nodded.

Zhang Yandao: "Now Brother Fengxian is dead, they don't know the news yet, if they know that Brother Fengxian is dead, what will they do?"

Gao Shun is a sensible person, once he heard what Zhang Yan said, he immediately understood, and immediately clasped his fists and said, "Don't worry, General, Wei Xu and Cao Xing are both Feng Xiangong's old subordinates, and we are old acquaintances. As long as I write a letter and send someone to send it over, I believe Wei Xu and Cao Xing will lead their troops to serve under the general's account and serve the general."

"It's the best. After all, there are many people and strength is great, and Wei Xu and Cao Xing are also brave generals. It would be the best if they can come to help, so I will thank you." Zhang Yan said.

Later, Zhang Yan and others cleaned up the battlefield here, and cleared out many corpses. A total of 430 Xuzhou cavalrymen were killed in battle, all of which were buried on the spot.In addition, more than 800 war horses were shot to death. In addition to the more than 200 war horses gathered by Zhang Yan and the existing war horses, there are still three to four hundred war horses missing, perhaps ridden away by Cao Jun soldiers. , or maybe he was frightened and ran away.

In short, there are only 930 and six horses left in Zhang Yan's army. The cavalry unit formed before almost disappeared tonight, which can be described as a disastrous defeat.

Although Cao Jun also killed more than 3000 soldiers, they were all infantry and could not cause much damage to Cao Jun as a whole.

At noon, Zhang Yan and others returned to Dingtao City dejectedly, and sent scouts to investigate Cao Jun's movements.

In the evening, the scouts brought news that Cao Jun set up camp 25 miles north of Dingtao City and did not leave.

At the same time, the scouts also saw that Lu Bu's head was hanging on the banner of Cao Jun's camp, and Lu Bu's body was dismembered and hung around the camp as a warning.

Zhang Yan suffered a big loss this time, and became more cautious about Cao Jun's actions. At the same time, he also felt that he could not do anything alone, so he sent someone to inform Yu Jin that Yu Jin would lead his army to follow Cao Cao's back road, and at the same time sent someone to Changyi to dispatch Cao Cao. reinforcements.

At the same time, Zhang Yan also wrote a letter and sent scouts to deliver the letter to Cao Ying, asking Cao Cao for Lu Bu's body.

Although Cao Cao killed Lu Bu, he failed to get rid of Zhang Yan together, which became a great regret in his heart.But this ambush severely damaged Zhang Yan's cavalry unit, and let Zhang Yan taste his own strength, making him dare not attack easily.

In Cao Jun's camp, although Cao Cao won the victory, he didn't look very happy. On the contrary, his brows were wrinkled, but he became more and more worried.

Although Lv Bu died, Lv Bu's old troops were not wiped out at the same time, so Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and others who lost their commanders would naturally serve under Zhang Yan's tent in order to avenge Lv Bu.

In this way, Cao Cao is tantamount to helping Zhang Yan to incorporate Lu Bu's old department invisibly.

Xuzhou has always had elite soldiers, but no good generals. Now that Zhang Yan has won Gao Shun and Zhang Liao, two brave and skilled generals, he undoubtedly found good generals for Xuzhou's elite soldiers.

If Zhang Yan is a brave and intrepid person, that's fine, but Zhang Yan is also quite talented. Once Zhang Yan, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and others are closely united, the combat effectiveness of Xuzhou soldiers will be even greater. There will definitely be improvements.

In this way, it will be greatly disadvantageous to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao was worried when he suddenly saw Dian Wei walking in with a feathered arrow, and a secret letter was tied to the feathered arrow, he hurriedly asked, "What is that in your hand? "

"My lord, this was discovered by the patrolling soldiers, and I have come here to hand it over to the lord for decision," Dian Wei said.

Cao Cao took the arrow from Dian Wei, took out a secret letter tied to it, glanced at it quickly, and said with a sneer, "Are you asking me for a corpse?"

He immediately picked up a pen and paper, wrote a reply letter, summoned Xia Houyuan, and asked Xia Houyuan to take the letter to Dingtao City and shoot the letter into the city with an arrow.

Xia Houyuan was the most skilled archer in Cao's army. After receiving Cao Cao's order, he immediately rode out of the camp.

At this time, Guo Jia came in from the outside and said to Cao Cao: "My lord, I have something to say. I don't know if I should say it or not?"

"But it doesn't matter."

Guo Jia then confidently said: "Our army won a battle today, killed Lu Bu, and severely damaged Zhang Yan's cavalry unit. Although it is a bit regretful that Zhang Yan was not killed together, I believe that Zhang Yan has tasted the lord's strength. In the past few days, I will definitely not dare to send troops lightly. However, Zhang Yan still has thousands of soldiers in Dingtao. It's exhausting, why don't you take advantage of the joy of victory now, retreat back to Puyang, and after a rest, it won't be too late to fight Zhang Yan again."

"You want me to retreat now?" Cao Cao asked in surprise.

Guo Jia nodded and said, "My lord, there are only these soldiers and horses left in our army, and Puyang is empty. If at this time Zhang Yanling Yu Jin led his army to detour to the back of our army, cutting off our army's retreat, and returning from Changyi City If we mobilize reinforcements, our army will most likely fall into a situation where we will be confronted by the enemy. At that time, if we want to retreat, it will be even more difficult. Why not take advantage of the high morale of the soldiers after the victory this time and retreat back to Puyang Take a break, wait until the spring of next year, and then compete with Zhang Yan for Yanzhou!"

When Cao Cao heard Guo Jia mentioning Yu Jin, he frowned and said angrily, "I have treated Yu Jin well. I didn't expect that he not only surrendered to Zhang Yan, but also turned against me. I was really blind at the time. Only then will we continue to promote him..."

Guo Jiadao: "Everyone has his own aspirations, and my lord doesn't have to force them. The subordinates think that with the current strength of our army, if we want to attack cities and land again, it will be very difficult. If we can temporarily retreat to Puyang, we can take a good rest and recuperate. Recruit troops and buy horses, and after the spring of next year, it will not be too late to rely on Yuan Shao's strength to fight for Yanzhou again."

Cao Cao pondered for a moment, then said to Guo Jia: "Feng Xiao, I already understand your proposal, but let me think about it..."

"Then Fengxiao will not bother the lord, so let's leave!"

(End of this chapter)