Chapter 286: The butcher Ma step by step, Cao A-mon is in a dilemma

In July of the eighth year of Jian'an (195), Emperor Xian of Han, Ma Yue, Liangzhou, led 20,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry out of Wuguan, and captured Nanxiang, an important town in the northern part of Nanyang County with lightning speed, thus officially kicking off the attack on Nanyang. In the same month, Han Prime Minister Cao Cao personally promoted 10,000 troops to the west of Shunyang, set up camps on the east bank of Danshui, and confronted the Liangzhou army across the river.

Nanyang Prefect Chen Ji ordered his relative Chen Rao, and Chen Ying led his army to 3,000 to be in charge of the order in front of Cao Cao's tent.

On the west bank of Danshui, Liangzhou Army Camp.

Ma Yue stood on the high platform with his sword, surrounded by his civil and military confidants such as Jia Xu, Li Su, Ma Chao, Gao Shun, Xu Chu, Li Meng, Dian Wei. Although the scorching sun in the sky had already set westward, the land of Nanyang in July was still as if it was roasted in a stove, which was so hot that it was suffocating.

Apart from Liangzhou Daying is the Cao army camp.

The Cao army camp was covered with flags and golden swords stood like a forest. Teams of Cao army were patrolling back and forth in the camp, and the wilderness outside the camp was filled with scouts of Cao army.

The terrain of this area is smooth, with neither jungles nor canyons, and lacking the necessary terrain conditions for surprise attacks. Ma Yue deliberately chose this place as the battlefield, obviously in order to have a dignified decisive battle with Cao's army!

Ma Yue also figured it out. Since he couldn't play with conspiracies and tricks, he would simply defeat Cao Cao from the front battlefield with absolute strength! As the saying goes, one force will be reduced to ten times, in the face of absolute strength, all conspiracies and tricks will be useless. Since this statement can be passed down through the ages, it will definitely not be unreasonable.

Ma Yue looked over for a moment, turned around and said to Jia Xu, "Wenhe, have you seen it clearly?"

"See clearly." Jia Xu said, "Judged from the camp and banner, the Cao army's strength is about 10,000, and the Nanyang army's strength is about 3,000, which is similar to our previous estimate."

"Hahaha." Ma Yue smiled at the sky, "That is to say, our army's strength is almost twice that of Cao's army! Moreover, our army has sufficient food and grass and no worries, but Cao's army is short of food and grass, and the old nest in the rear is always facing the spying of strong neighbors. Our army has such a clear advantage. If we still cannot win this battle, then the general can really commit suicide."

Jia Xu said: "Lord, soldiers are a trick. Although our army has all the advantages, we must not underestimate the enemy."

"Well, Wenhe is right." Ma Yue changed his expression when he heard this and said in a deep voice, "I am a little proud."

On the east bank of Danshui, Cao's army camp.

Cao Cao was also surrounded by Guo Jia, Xun You, Li Dian (Cao Xiu guarded Hangu Pass), Zangba, Chen Dao, Chen Ying and others, standing on the observation deck and observed the reality of Liangzhou camp. Although the weather was as hot as a steamer, Cao Cao's heart was getting colder and colder. I don't know why the Liangzhou army on the west bank of Danshui made Cao Cao feel a little unfamiliar.

This Liangzhou army is different from any Liangzhou army that Cao Cao had contacted before.

The Liangzhou army during the Dong Zhuo period was a group of wild animals. Although they were cruel and bloodthirsty, they were simple-minded and dull, and they were not too difficult to deal with. The Liangzhou army when the horse butcher first decided on Liangzhou was a group of wolves. As long as the horse butcher, the wolf king, roared, the group of evil wolves would pounce on them regardless of everything. Even if there was a ferocious lion in front of them, they would swear to tear them into pieces.

At this moment, the Liangzhou army opposite Danshui gave Cao Cao the feeling: this is a real army!

"This is definitely not the old subordinate of the Ma Butcher!" Cao Cao said decisively, "This Liangzhou army does not have the unique killing aura of the old subordinate of the Ma Butcher, but has stricter discipline and a more neat military appearance. If the original reason is not wrong, this should be the Liangzhou new army trained by Gao Shun."

"The new army in Liangzhou?" Chen Ying said, "Since it is a new army, it is not worth worrying."

"That's because you haven't experienced Gao Shun's power!" Li Dian said coldly, "If you had fought with Gao Shun, you wouldn't think so."

Li Dian is undoubtedly the clearest thing about whether Gao Shun is powerful!

When Cao Cao first conquered the 800 bandits for the prefect of Dongjun, Li Dian had a sneak attack on Changshe with Le Jin and had a confrontation with Gao Shun. At that time, Gao Shun was just a small school of the Yellow Turban Army. It was this confrontation that Li Dian was unforgettable and would never forget! It was this Gao Shun who turned the tide and turned a group of mobs into an elite soldier in the blink of an eye.

In the end, the battle situation of Changshe took a sharp turn, and Li Dian's best brother Le Jin was also killed in this battle!

"Hmph." Chen Ying said coldly, "I think you were scared by Gao Shun?"

"What did you say?" Li Dian was furious and pulled out his sword and said sternly, "Is there a way to say it again!"

Chen Yingyi drew his sword in his hand and said tit-for-tat: "I'm afraid you won't do it?"

"Stop!" Cao Cao's face changed and he shouted, "The enemy is actually pointing his weapons at his friendly forces. Do you want to try the military law of the original state?"

Li Dian and Chen Ying stared at each other, withdrew their swords and retreated.

"Go down." Cao Cao waved his hand coldly and said, "Fengxiao, Gongda stay."

After the generals got off the lookout table one after another, Cao Cao turned his eyes to Guo Jia and said worriedly: "Fengxiao, the prospect of this battle is not optimistic."

"Yes." Guo Jia also looked solemn and said, "The Liangzhou army has twice the strength of our army, and it has sufficient food and grass, and there is no worries. On the contrary, our army has only half the strength of the Liangzhou army. Moreover, the lord saw this scene just now. The three thousand Nanyang troops sent by Chen Ji may not be just a helping."

Xun You said: "Lord, why not just send Chen Ji's three thousand men back to Wancheng. Staying here will cause trouble."

"No, not only can Chen Dao and Chen Ying's three thousand soldiers be sent back to Wancheng, but he should instead ask Wancheng to intimidate and ask Chen Ji to send reinforcements again!" Cao Cao said this, and a faint cold light flashed through his narrow little eyes, and said quietly, "Nanyang is not Yingchuan after all. If Chen Ji turns against us at the battle and cut off our army's retreat, the consequences will be unimaginable."

Guo Jia said: "In the current situation, Chen Ji will not turn against him at the last minute. However, the lord is extremely worried. Our army should prepare for the future and separate Chen Ji from his army as much as possible. Even if Chen Ji wants to turn against him, he will not be able to turn the world without soldiers or generals."

Cao Cao rubbed his temples and whispered: "Fengxiao, in your opinion, how should we deal with the Liangzhou army?"

Guo Jia said: "There are only two ways to win with a small number of people. One is to defend the tired enemy. When the enemy's morale is low, he will take advantage of the momentum to attack him when he is determined to retreat. The other is to win by surprise, using ambush, flooding, fire attack, cutting off the enemy's food route and other strategies to destroy the enemy. However, the terrain on both sides of the Danshui River is not suitable for using surprise attacks to defeat the enemy. The butcher Ma chose this place as the battlefield, which was obviously carefully considered. In view of this, Jia thought that our army had no choice but to defend the tired enemy."

Cao Cao frowned and said, "Is there really no other way?"

Guo Jia said: "At least, there is no better way, but as time goes by, it is unknown whether the Liangzhou army may expose any weaknesses. In short, our army must not act rashly."

"Okay." Cao Cao nodded and sighed, "Then send the order to strengthen the guard against all the soldiers of the army, but if anyone attacks without authorization, he will be killed without mercy."

Two days later.

On the west bank of Danshui, Liangzhou Army Camp.

Xu Chu, Ma Chao, Li Meng, and Ju Tu were not untied, so they rushed to Ma Yue's central army's tent. In the tent, Ma Yuezheng, Jia Xu, Li Su and Gao Shun looked at the map to study the strategy of striving for Nanyang. Looking up, he saw Ma Chao four generals entering in one after another, and couldn't help but smile and asked, "Meng Qi, how?"

"Hey, don't mention it." Ma Chao angrily shook the horse whip in his hand and replied quite annoyed, "Cao Aman shrank his head and turtle. My younger brother ordered the soldiers to insult him in every way. Even his ancestors 18 generations cursed him all over, but he just shrank in the camp and refused to come out! General Li Meng was so angry that he kicked the camp with his cavalry and was shot back by Cao's army."

"Hahaha, Cao Aman is today," Ma Yue raised his head and laughed, "But this is also expected. It's not a good feeling to be at a disadvantage! This general used to be a small number of soldiers, but he had enough of this bird taste. Now that the feng shui has changed in thirty years, it's time for this general's opponent to taste this taste."

Jia Xu stroked the willow beard on his chin and said loudly: "Lord, the strategy of Cao's army is already very obvious, it is to defend the tired enemy! Trying to rely on water-free persistence to destroy the spirit of our army. If our army fails to attack for a long time, morale will inevitably be depressed. At this time, the opportunity for Cao's army will come."

"Hmph!" Ma Yue sneered, "How could I give Cao Cao such a chance?"

Jia Xu smiled slightly and said to Ma Chao and Gao Shun's generals: "Cao's army defended the tired enemy, and it was expected that the response plan formulated by this military advisor and lord was to go away and attack the enemy's back!"

Ma Chao and the generals said in a voice: "Get away from their ears and eyes, and attack the enemy behind?"

"Yes, get rid of his eyes and attack the enemy behind!" Ma Yue said coldly, "Cao Cao, Guo Jia's military tracks are invincible. If our army attacks Cao's army's camp, it will be the only one who wants. The general is not as good as he wants. When the two armies confront each other, they should use their strengths to attack the enemy's shortcomings! Even if Cao Cao, Guo Jia has the ability to understand the sky and the earth, he cannot make up for a fatal flaw of Cao's army, that is, the Cao army lacks a powerful cavalry!"

Ma Chao, Xu Chu, and Ju Tu all showed excitement when they heard this.

"Where is the sentence slogan?"

Ju Chu hurriedly stepped forward and said sternly: "The last one is here."

Ma Yue said: "Lead five hundred scouts, wolf cavalry, divided into twenty teams to patrol the wilderness on both sides of the Danshui day and night, and will kill all the scouts of Cao within a radius of fifty miles! Starting tomorrow, the general will not want to see Cao's scouts appear around the battlefield again."

Ju Tu clasped his fists and said, "The last general takes the order."

Ma Yue's eyes suddenly turned to Ma Chao and said sternly: "Ma Chao."

Ma Chao quickly took a step forward, stood side by side with Ju Tu, and said quickly: "The last one will be there."

Ma Yue smiled coldly, and a cold murderous intent suddenly burst into the corner of his mouth, and he said in a calm voice: "Leading two thousand iron cavalry, the entire army is only allowed to carry dry food and weapons and arrows for ten days. After Jutu cleared the scouts of Cao's army to explore the horse, he bypassed the Cao army's camp and rushed forward to the champion, Rang County, and cut off the Cao army's food route!"

"If the champion is in a hurry, Rang County will be in a difficult situation. We should abandon the city and force Wancheng, and there must be no mistakes."

Ma Chao clasped his fists and said, "Abide by the order!"

The next day.

On the east bank of Danshui, two cavalry Cao's army were wandering in the wilderness, seemingly aimless, but they are always monitoring the movements of the Liangzhou army on the other side of the river. The sky is high and the clouds are light, and the wind is bright. Except for some heat, everything seems so calm and peaceful. The two cavalry Cao's army did not notice that the shadow of death had already enveloped them.

"Xilulu~~"

A fierce neighing sound suddenly sounded from the left. Cao's army looked back in shock and saw dozens of Liangzhou horses appearing like ghosts in the wilderness five hundred steps away, sweeping towards the place where the two horses Cao's army were scrambling to find their way. The iron hooves were churning but the fierce sound of horse hooves (covered with hooves). No wonder they were covered within 500 steps without notice.

"It's Liangzhou's horse hijacking, go quickly!"

The two cavalry and Cao's army whistled and pulled out their horses and wanted to leave.

However, just as soon as the horse was turned around, the two cavalry and Cao army were surprised to find that two teams of Liangzhou explorers were coming from the other two directions, forming a clamping force.

"Break through separately!"

The leading scout of Cao's army made a quick decision, and the two cavalry Cao's army scouts divided into two groups and galloped away opposite each other.

Unfortunately, whether it is the cavalry's riding skills or the running speed of war horses, Liangzhou's horse probing horses have an overwhelming advantage. The war horses of Liangzhou's cavalry are all Shandan. The Hetao military horse farm is carefully maintained, with a tall headed horse of at least seven feet (152 cm) height, like the war horses of Xu Chu's Iron Cavalry Camp, with a body height of at least eight feet, and Xu Chu's mount is even as high as nine feet!

However, the war horses of the Cao army's cavalry were all horse dealers, Zhang Shiping, who had sold the Mongolian ponies from Hetao to the Central Plains. They were generally only six feet tall (129 cm). Although they had good endurance, their running speed was far from comparable to those of the Liangzhou cavalry's cavalry. Without running a few hundred steps, the Liangzhou cavalry's horse had already caught up with the Cao army's scout.

"Swish!"

A sharp arrow will rush through the sky, and an arrow will penetrate the throat!

The two cavalry Cao's army fell from the horse's back without saying a word. The same scene was staged throughout the battlefield. In less than half a day, more than a hundred cavalry Cao's scouts scattered in the wilderness were almost wiped out by the scout wolf cavalry, which was absolutely superior to Jutu. Only a dozen cavalry Cao's scouts survived and fled back to the camp to report the news.

On the east bank of Danshui, Cao Cao's central army tent.

General Yu Jin stepped into the tent quickly and clasped his fists to Cao Cao and said, "Lord, Liangzhou's horse provocation attacks, and our army's horse provocations scattered around the battlefield have been hunted!"

"Ah, is there such a thing?" Cao Cao said in a lost voice, "Even if Liangzhou horse probing is superb, and his riding skills are superb, can our army's horse probing be defeated and can't escape? How could he be hunted by Liangzhou horse probing? "

"The lord doesn't know anything." Yu Jin replied with a bitter face, "The Guanzhong merchants and dealers come to the Central Plains are all short horses, while the mounts of the Liangzhou horse explorers are all tall and big horses. The running speed of the two horses is too different. Once they are targeted by the Liangzhou cavalry, our army's horse explorers will not be able to escape."

"It's bad, I'm cheating on the horse butcher!" Cao Cao jumped and cursed angrily, "I thought the horses sold by the Guanzhong merchants to the Central Plains were all Liangzhou military horses smuggled by the horse butcher. I didn't expect that this was a trap designed by the horse butcher in advance! Damn, the war horses that were purchased by the original money and grain were actually bad horses. Damn, it's extremely abominable!"

On the west bank of Danshui, Ma Yue’s army tent.

"Hahaha~~" Ma Yue smiled at the sky, "If I was not wrong, Cao Aman must be leaping and cursing now, saying that this general is not a thing. He used a batch of Mongolian hordes as Shandan military horses to sell them to the Central Plains. Not only did he make huge profits, he also caused Prime Minister Cao to suffer a loss."

"Hehe, Cao's army is in a dilemma now."

Jia Xu smiled and continued, "Entertainment means continuing to hold on, losing the scout and the eyes of the horse, and he could not know the news about the surrounding battlefield. Even the lord sent a large number of reinforcements from Guanzhong to condemn the coming, and then he would completely become a passive situation of being beaten, which was not taken by the wise."

"It's not that easy to retreat. I just ordered the three armies to defend, but in a blink of an eye, the military orders were changed to retreat. The orders were changed every day and night, and the morale of the army was the most damaged. What's more, there were three thousand Nanyang troops besides Cao's army. If we retreated in the last battle, we would inevitably be distracted. At that time, our army followed him and took advantage of the situation to cover up the killing. It would be difficult for Cao's army to not be defeated."

"Hmph." Ma Yue sneered, "Let Cao Aman have a headache. I want to see how Cao Aman and Guo Guicai resolve this problem?"

On the east bank of Danshui, Cao's army camp.

"Lord." Guo Jia's face changed and he whispered, "If there is no scout monitoring the movements of the Liangzhou army at any time, then our army will become deaf and blind!"
To be continued...