Chapter 981 Making a Feint to the East and Attacking in the West

"Father, father!"

Cao Tai excitedly took a letter, rushed to Cao Ren, and said to him: "Father, a letter came in from outside the city, please take a look."

"Oh? It was shot from outside the city? Bring it over and let me take a look."

Cao Ren reached out and took the letter from Cao Tai. After unfolding it, his brows suddenly relaxed.

"Father, is there any good news?" Cao Tai asked immediately when he saw Cao Ren's brows tightening.

"That's right!" Cao Ren said with a smile: "Wen Lie has led Chai Sang's 20,000-strong navy to prepare for our army's retreat."

"That would be great!"

Cao Tai was excited for a while, but then calmed down: "However, Xiliang Navy has a large number of people, and 20,000 people may not be able to cope with it."

"It doesn't matter, Wen Lie has already said it in the letter." Cao Ren explained: "Tomorrow night, he will send a detachment of troops to attack the Xiliang army from the east to attract the enemy's attention, and then he will lead the main force to appear in person To the west, our army will retreat from the west."

"This letter was shot into the city without being known to the enemy. If it is operated properly, it should be able to be withdrawn. When we reach Jiangdong, our army can regroup and fight the enemy again."

The next day, the night was ugly.

The Xiliang Army Water Village was quiet at the moment. Except for the personnel on duty, most of the Xiliang Army officers and soldiers were already asleep.

"Um?"

Gao Chong, the commander-in-chief of the Xiliang Army and Navy, suddenly opened his eyes and woke up from his sleep. He heard a loud noise in his ears and was naturally awakened. As a general, he will inevitably experience night raids, so his nerves are extremely sharp, and he will be awakened immediately when he hears any chaotic noise.

"Come here, come here! What's going on?"

"Grand Governor, the enemy is attacking our water stronghold from the east at night. Lieutenant Zhu is currently leading the army to fight the enemy!"

"Enemy attack at night?"

Although Gao Chong had just woken up, his brain was thinking rapidly.

Cao's army was small in number and launched a surprise attack at night, apparently to support Cao Ren's retreat at night.

Gao Chong puts himself in someone else's shoes: What would he do if he wanted to help his own troops break out when they were at a disadvantage?

After thinking for a while, Gao Chong ordered: "Order the navy to be divided into two. One half will go to the east to attack the enemy, and the other half will immediately surround Jiangxia City. Cao Ren cannot break out under any circumstances."

"Here!"

To the east of Xiliang Water Village, the shouts of killing were loud, and the fire reflected the water red. Cao Jun and Xiliang Army were fighting together. Because he didn't know how many enemy troops were coming, Zhu Huan, who was cautious by nature, did not order a large force of his navy to attack, but stuck to the camp.

At this time, a large number of reinforcements sent by Gao Chong had arrived.

"Captain Zhu, the Commander-in-Chief has an order, ordering the entire army to attack!"

"The Grand Governor's order?"

Zhu Huan nodded: "Okay, since the Governor has given the order, the whole army will attack!"

"Kill!"

The east gate of the water village slowly opened, and tens of thousands of Xiliang watermen came out in one fell swoop, with a loud momentum.

"The enemy troops are coming out!"

Zhu Ju frowned and said: "Fight and retreat, we must buy enough time for Cao Annan."

On the other hand, the main navy led by Cao Xiu has arrived outside Jiangxia City.

"uncle!"

"Wen Lie, haha!"

When Cao Ren saw Cao Xiu, he was naturally overjoyed and stepped forward to hug him.

"Brother, I haven't seen you for many days." Cao Tai said to Cao Xiu.

"Haha, dear brother, stop talking nonsense, let's withdraw first and then talk about anything else."

Cao Xiu laughed, and then issued an order: "The warship is coming, retreat immediately!"

Nearly 20,000 Cao Jun soldiers in the city rushed out and boarded the warships, preparing to retreat with them.

"The enemy is retreating, don't let them go!"

At this moment, a cry of killing suddenly came from the south, and countless warships were seen rushing towards Cao Jun in the dark night with torches held high.

"what happened?"

"I'm afraid that the enemy has seen through my plan, but fortunately, the army has boarded the warship. Now our army must retreat quickly!"

Cao Xiu immediately ordered: "The whole army retreats, quickly!"

Hundreds of Cao's warships immediately set their sails and retreated towards the east.

"Catch up and don't let the enemy go!"

Huang Zhong shouted loudly, and tens of thousands of navy troops immediately rushed towards Cao Jun's navy, hot pursuit.

The purpose of Cao Xiu's army coming to Jiangxia this time was not to fight with the Xiliang Navy, but to assist Cao Ren in his retreat. Now that Cao Ren and tens of thousands of Cao's troops had been received on the warship, Cao Xiu naturally did not intend to continue to entangle with the Xiliang Navy. Instead, retreat quickly.

However, the distance between the Xiliang Navy and Cao Jun Navy is constantly getting closer, because Cao Jun's warships are full of people, carrying twice as many people as usual. With more people, the speed of the warships Unavoidably, it slowed down, and it seemed that the distance between the two armies was getting closer.

"Annan, Zhennan, the enemy is catching up, what should I do?"

Cao Xiu frowned and said, "Go up and stop the enemy."

The two captains named by Cao Xiu were naturally a little reluctant. Everyone knew that going up to intercept the enemy would mean a narrow escape, so who would be willing to die?

"Why, you don't want to?" Cao Xiu said coldly.

"Yes, I am willing." The two captains did not dare to go against Cao Xiu's wishes. This is because the military system of Cao Cao's army is very special. In order to prevent soldiers from rebelling, Cao Cao uniformly allocates wives to the soldiers without wives (the real state issues girlfriends), and at the same time brings the families of the soldiers to Pengcheng, in order to prevent these soldiers from defecting in battle. .

With family ties, these soldiers naturally did not dare to go against Cao Xiu's wishes, otherwise their families would be in great misfortune.

As a result, the two captains led dozens of warships and thousands of soldiers to meet Huang Zhongjun.

"Haha, such a small number of people dare to stop our army, they really don't know how to live or die!" Huang Zhong laughed loudly, and immediately ordered his troops to divide into two groups to surround Cao's army.

Cao Xiu immediately ordered the navy to retreat eastward. Two captains of Cao's army led dozens of warships to fight with Huang Zhong's army to buy time for Cao Xiu and others to retreat.

With two captains of Cao Jun blocking the way, Huang Zhongjun's warship was inevitably blocked, so Cao Xiu and others were able to retreat safely. However, Huang Zhong was not a fool. While he separated some of his troops to surround the two captains of Cao's army, the rest of his troops continued to chase Cao Xiu's army. Therefore, Cao Xiu had to continuously send out his troops and horses to block Huang Zhong's pursuit, and he lost more than thirty ships. The warships and more than 4,000 people managed to escape the enemy's pursuit.

After reuniting with the army and horses that attracted the enemy's attention on the east road, Cao's army lost a total of more than 6,000 men, but they rescued Cao Ren's 20,000 men, so there were still more than 30,000 men in the army, but their combat strength was still alive.