The two thousand men who left the city eventually returned alive, less than a hundred. Although they had won a lot of money, they still lost money.

Wei Yan leaned against the closed city gate, gasping violently, and the feeling of escaping from death was a bit complicated. He felt sorry for the soldiers' death and regretted his recklessness. In fact, when Ma Chao was moaning, Wei Yan should retreat, but he wanted to expand the results of the battle and further damage the Xiliang army. Fang You was later killed by Ma Chao.

The person who can cut off his beard and abandon his robe who was chasing Cao Cao was indeed extraordinary!

After a breath of severe breath, Wei Yan gritted his teeth. Although he didn't want to admit it, there were enough reasons and excuses, but when he faced Ma Chao just now, he did feel timid.

"General, are you safe?" The deputy general led his men out of the city and looked at Wei Yan's one-way street.

"Then Ma Chao retreated?" Wei Yan shook his head, stood up and asked.

"It has retreated!" the deputy general nodded.

"What a Ma Mengqi." Wei Yan grinned his teeth, but at this moment he realized that there was a color hanging on his arm. His heart was filled with fear before, and he didn't feel anything, but at this moment he relaxed and the blood began to seep out. He realized that someone had cut him off, which hurt.

The deputy general quickly ordered someone to invite a doctor to help Wei Yan bandage the wound, and supported Wei Yan and said with a wry smile: "Ma Chao has followed his father to fight since he was a child. He is the best in the northwest. When the general comes, he does not know his power. The name of General Shenwei Tian can stop his children from crying at night in the land of Qiang people in the northwest."

The Qiang people are different from the Han people. The most important warrior is that Ma Chao's reputation is mostly caused by killing the Qiang people. On the contrary, the Qiang people are quite respectful to Ma Chao.

Wei Yan nodded. In the past, he didn't believe that someone could regain a defeated army on the battlefield by relying solely on momentum. Now he believed that it was probably Guan Yu and Zhang Fei who did not have the ability. This was not just a matter of prestige, but the fear and admiration of Ma Chao in the bones of the Xiliang army had surpassed the fear of defeat. That was a battle. If it were a Han army, Ma Chao might not be able to do this.

"It's a pity that I lost two thousand soldiers for nothing. This is my fault!" Wei Yan sighed. This was indeed caused by his command error. If he took steady steps and ended as soon as possible, this battle was not only unforeseen, but also a small victory, but now, he has lost two thousand troops for nothing.

It is also that Yangping Pass has sufficient defenders, with a total of 8,000 defenders. Otherwise, the casualties of these two thousand people would directly cause Yangping Pass to be injured and fall into a complete disadvantage in the subsequent war.

"This battle is not the general," said the deputy general quickly.

Wei Yan glanced at the deputy general, laughed, and walked back, laughed and said, "But after seeing the power of the Pojun crossbow, Ma Chao is enough to make Ma Chao worry!"

The Pojun Crossbow was the first time to show its power on the battlefield, and the effect was indeed amazing. Even Wei Yan and others never thought that the Pojun Crossbow was so powerful. After three rounds, it took at least 300 lives.

Although Yangping Pass is fierce, due to the limitations of the terrain, the number of troops invested in the battlefield every day is not large. The casualties of these 300 people are quite large. Moreover, the three waves of Pojun crossbows have brought the enemy's defensive loopholes, and the casualties caused by the ordinary arrow clusters that followed closely. Coupled with the normal losses in the battle between the two sides and the casualties of Wei Yan and his men and horses, Ma Chao's losses in this battle were at least 3,000 or even 4,000.

However, there is nothing to be proud of when the battle defended the city is like this. In general, Wei Yan still feels that he has lost, and he almost even lost his life.

On the other hand, although the Western Liang army finally won a city under Ma Chao's strong counterattack, the Shu army was defeated, but after withdrawing the troops and returning to the camp, the atmosphere in the central army commander's tent was not very high.

Ma Chao sat behind the commander's case with a gloomy face. Pang De and several other generals stood alone. The power of the city-guarding weapon in Yangping Pass was amazing. Even if it was used to killing and even against Cao's army, the Xiliang Army felt powerless. The powerful crossbow tool was one aspect. The most important thing is that in a narrow area like Yangping Pass, the power of the crossbow tool was too great.

"How many casualties will be caused in this battle?" After a long time, Ma Chao opened his eyes, looked at the generals, and asked.

"In this battle, our army lost more than 4,000 people. The front army was defeated and fought with the rear army, which caused a lot of losses to our army." The general responsible for recording military merits came out and bowed to Ma Chao and said.

It was also Wei Yan that was too sinister. If the city guard equipment was revealed at the beginning, it would not have caused such great casualties. However, Wei Yan chose to use the crossbow tool when the Western Liang army was at its most densely attacked. The crowd was the most dense. At once, three rounds of arrows came down and the direct losses were quite large. But what was worse was that the formation was dispersed and a large number of shield soldiers were killed in battle, which directly exposed the troops without shield protection in the back row to the opponent's archers, and the casualties caused were even more terrifying than the casualties caused by the crossbow tool.

Ma Chao didn't say anything, and with the previous losses in siege, the 20,000 people he brought had lost more than 6,000 people before he actually entered Hanzhong. Moreover, there seems to be no hope of breaking Yangping Pass. The crossbow tools alone are like a natural barrier.

"Lord." Pang De took a step forward and bowed and said, "It seems that Yangping Pass cannot be attacked forcibly now."

Judging from the current situation, even if the Xiliang army was exhausted, it might not be able to take down Yangping Pass. It is obviously not advisable to attack, so we can only think of some other ways to break the city.

Ma Chao nodded silently. Pang De didn't say anything, he didn't dare to attack again. Today he turned the situation around and recovered some disadvantages, but Ma Chao could not guarantee that this effect would be achieved every time, let alone Wei Yanjing dared to leave the city easily after this defeat?

How many days have you been fighting?

Ma Chao felt a little distressed. He didn't have much property, but now he has lost half of it in Yangping Pass. Even if he breaks through Yangping Pass, would he still have the energy to attack other cities in Hanzhong?

I couldn't help but feel a little bit of retreat in my heart, but Ma Chao didn't say it out. Now I'm going to leave, this trip to Hanzhong will become a joke, and Ma Chao's prestige will also decline greatly.

In the next few days, Ma Chao sent people to challenge the city every day, but did not forcefully attack the city. Wei Yan had seen Ma Chao's horror, so he naturally would not leave the city easily. He just guarded the city gate every day, and at the same time went up the mountain to watch Ma Chao's military camp from time to time to prevent Ma Chao from thinking about anything else.

However, Ma Chao did not give up completely. In the past few days, he kept sending people to search around to see if there was a road that could bypass the Yangping Pass, or directly take a detour and directly enter Hanzhong from other places.

However, such a road is difficult to find, and Hanzhong also borders the Qiang people, but the road that needs to be taken is too long and the logistics cannot be supplied at all. As for the small road, the Xiliang army searched for half a month, but could not find it.

Ma Chao was even more determined to retreat and began to call Pang De and others to discuss the withdrawal of the troops.

"Lord, General Yang said we don't have to worry about food and grass. Retreatment like this may cause ridicule!" A general frowned.

A ridicule?

Ma Chao shook his head tiredly. So what if he laughed? Yangping Pass cannot break the attack. Do you waste food and grass here every day? Besides, Ma Chao knows more than anyone else how many families are in the three counties in Longyou. It has been one month since the army has been traveling, and the little food and grass they have accumulated is almost over. If they don’t leave, Ma Chao is afraid that food will be cut off directly in the back.

"Transfer our military orders and withdraw our troops!" Standing up, Ma Chao waved his hand and asserted that he had decided and no one could change it.

"Here!" After hearing this, the generals responded to their orders and began to pack up and prepare to evacuate.

Wei Yan always paid attention to the movements of Ma Chao's army. Ma Chao began to set up camps and Wei Yan naturally discovered it.

"General, should you take the opportunity to attack?" Seeing Ma Chao's army leading the camp, the deputy general looked at Wei Yan excitedly.

If it were in the past, Wei Yan would definitely not have asked Ma Chao to leave so easily, but after the last pursuit, Wei Yan did not dare to be arrogant this time. After hesitating for a while, Wei Yan shook his head: "We are ordered to guard the pass. After Ma Chao retreated, he sent many scouts to investigate the movements around him."

Although Ma Chao left, Wei Yan knew very well that the crisis in Hanzhong had not ended. There was probably more than Ma Chao who really coveted Hanzhong, and the real enemy had not yet emerged.

Compared with Cao Cao, Ma Chao is indeed not a big problem.

but……

Wei Yan suddenly thought of a question: If Cao Cao wanted to attack Hanzhong, Ma Chao's three counties in Longyou were behind Cao Cao. If he was Cao Cao, he would definitely pacify Longyou first, relieve his worries, and then attack Hanzhong again.

But why did Cao Cao not have the intention to attack Ma Chao's rear for so long?

"Send someone to catch up with Ma Chao immediately and send me a letter!" Wei Yan suddenly looked at the deputy general and said in a stern manner.

"Ah?" The deputy general couldn't react a little. He was still fighting yesterday. Now that Ma Chao retreated, why did he still send a letter? Could it be that he wanted to humiliate Ma Chao? He asked subconsciously: "General, if this matter is angered by Ma Chao, and he will return to attack again, wouldn't it cause many troubles?"

"It's not to insult him, but to save him!" Wei Yan shook his head and said, "The traces of Cao's army have been found in Ziwu Valley. Obviously, Cao's army is also planning to Hanzhong. However, if Cao's army wants to attack, it must first pacify the three counties of Longyou to eliminate future troubles. However, it has been twenty days since Ma Chao came here, and the supply of food and grass in the Xiliang army is constantly in full swing. I'm afraid that Cao's army wants Ma Chao to attack first. At this time, Ma Chao retreated his troops, which is worthless to Cao's army, and I'm afraid that Cao's army has already ambushed the troops halfway."

"That's true, why should the general remind Ma Chao?" The deputy general said with confusion. What does Ma Chao's life and death have to do with them.

"If Ma Chao could stabilize in Longyou, the Cao army would not dare to attack rashly. This is because of the coldness of lips and teeth!" Wei Yan shook his head and said. In terms of the overall situation, Wei Yan was the top one among the generals under Liu Bei. In this regard, I'm afraid Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are not as good as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
Chapter completed!