When it was getting dark, a forest seven or eight miles east of Guandu Camp suddenly caught fire!

Thanks to this place being the main logging site during the construction of Guandu Camp, a lot of dry wood and dead branches and leaves after being exposed to the summer sun became the catalyst for fires. Of course, the most important thing was the high temperature and the easy nature of the forest itself.

Combustibility... In short, as soon as the fire started, it immediately rolled towards the depths of the forest with the force of a prairie fire.

"Gongsun dog! Gongsun dog!"

Deep in the woods, Cao Cao, who had just breathed his last breath, had not had time to laugh a few times against the trees to soothe his heart, or even wait for the longed-for sunset. He first saw the billowing smoke and flames, and then he couldn't help but curse. "You really have to hurry up.

Kill them?!"

However, this gaffe did not bring the slightest benefit to Cao Cao. In fact, after scolding him, Cao Cao regretted it and even felt ridiculous for his behavior... In this battle, do you still need to be affectionate?

?

And when the war is going on like this, as a general, shouldn't what you should do be to boost morale and think about how to solve the problem? What's the point of howling like a defeated dog here?

"What can I do?" At this thought, Cao Cao immediately looked around.

However, it didn't matter, but he felt sad for a moment... It turned out that Cao Sikong, who owned half of the Central Plains and held an army of hundreds of thousands, had only a hundred cavalry left by his side at this moment.

What's more terrible is that Xu Chu, the leader of the guards whom he most relies on and trusts, is no longer with him, and his life or death is uncertain.

In other words, Cao Mengde did not dare to do divination.

"Lord!" Among the accompanying officials, Xu Si was considered a higher-ranking official. He immediately responded anxiously after hearing this. "The problem now is that we can't stay in the forest... there is only a small stream in the forest.

It’s not enough to fight the fire =… You can’t leave the forest rashly, because once you leave the forest, the road outside the forest is clear and the view is wide, and you may be captured by the well-prepared Yan army!”

"So I'm asking you what I can do?" Cao Cao responded seriously, leaning against a tree. "There is a fire in the forest in summer, and a gust of wind blows up, and it will start immediately without warning!"

"We still have to leave!" Xu Bang was sweating profusely, but his basic thinking ability was still there, and he quickly gave the answer. "If you stay, you may have to entrust your life to God's will. Maybe you can survive, but

Once the body dies, it will be as dead as charcoal, and it will not even be possible to rest in the ground... But if you go out, you may still be able to fight hard and hold your life in your own hands..."

"Xu Chengzhang said well!" Cao Cao, whose mind was in confusion, took a long breath, then immediately got on his horse, and turned back to face the accompanying knights and said with all his strength. "As of now, I, Cao Cao, stay here because I will

My life is entrusted to God, but if I go out, I can entrust my life to you! Between heaven and man, I, Cao Cao, trust you!"

Hearing this, the remaining hundred or so cavalrymen who were originally Cao Cao's closest confidants also got up and got on their horses again regardless of their fatigue.

"Lord!"

However, at this moment, another person suddenly stepped forward and stopped in front of Cao Cao. It was another senior staff member who was accompanying Cao Cao this time, General Fenwu, who was engaged in Wang Bi!

It is said that Wang Bi was the person who followed Cao Cao as soon as he entered the army, and he was diligent and hard-working. Cao Mengde always compared Wang Xiu with Gongsun Xun, which shows his status in front of Cao Cao.

With trust.

In other words, this person is Cao Cao's true confidant.

Therefore, although Cao Cao was determined, he still faced this person seriously: "What do you mean, Zi Xing? The situation is critical, we'd better get out of the forest quickly!"

"Please, my lord, give me the yellow claws and flying lightning, give me the golden helmet, give me the big flag, and give me the big cloak on my lord's body!" Wang Bi bowed his head, and then ignored Cao Cao's astonishment and stood up to force him forward.

He dismounted and began to take off the opponent's cloak and golden helmet.

The surrounding knights were stunned for a moment, then woke up one after another, and stepped forward to assist Wang Bi at Xu Si's urging.

What can Cao Mengde say when meeting such a subordinate... Moreover, he is not a pretentious person, and there is no need for pretentiousness between him and Wang Bi. In this situation, the best way to repay Wang Bi is for him to survive and win the final victory.

!

"Lord!" After hurriedly changing into a big cloak and a golden helmet, and sitting on the Claw Huang Feidian, Wang Bifu gave another serious instruction. "I will take the first step and go east. I have a big flag with me, and I may bump into the main force behind me. My lord, I will

Preservation comes first, you can wait for a while, wait until the fireworks are so intense that you can no longer bear it, then go south, then wait and see the situation to decide whether to go east or west... In short, please take care, my lord!"

After saying this, he didn't wait for Cao Cao, who was still in a daze, to reply. He wore a golden helmet that was obviously too small, took about half of the knights, and Cao Cao's banner, and galloped away eastwards.

Cao Mengde stayed where he was, wanting to speak but was speechless.

A moment later, as Wang Bi fled out of the forest, shouts of killing began almost instantly. Cao Cao then mounted his horse in confusion, leaned over and slowly headed south with dozens of other knights.

When I came out of the edge of the woods, I saw countless knights of the Yan army and the defeated soldiers of the Cao army heading east... In fact, for these soldiers, they may not have seen Wang Bi's dress, but more importantly, Cao Cao's flag was there.

At!

It must be known that flags have been an important part of the army since ancient times. For the vast majority of soldiers and even grassroots officers, it is impossible for them to recognize the face of their commander, nor to identify who is of higher rank in a chaotic battle.

The commander, and the flag is an extension of the general himself... Killing the general and capturing the flag, as the name suggests, the achievement of capturing the flag is the same as killing the general! Because once the flag is lost, it means that the corresponding general has lost it to some extent.

Ability to command!

For example, the white horse flag played an important role in the charge launched by the Yan army before.

On the other hand, this is also the fundamental reason why Cao Cao had to carry the flag with him no matter what when he retreated and escaped. It is also an important reason why Wang Bi's strategy was so effective - the flag itself has so much meaning.

!Even if Cao Cao cannot be captured, capturing this flag is enough to declare the victory of this battle based on certain battlefield traditions and procedures!

Of course, even so, even though countless soldiers and horses were chasing eastward, there was still one person on the battlefield who didn't think so. The commander of the Yan army, Gongsun Xun, knew Cao Cao too well. He didn't dare to say that that person was definitely not Cao Cao, but in

In his opinion, there is a higher probability that it is at least not Cao Cao.

But at this time, the fire started, the sky was getting late, and the two armies' structures completely collapsed. Even Gongsun Xun could only control about a thousand white horse followers, so he hesitated a little.

"Lord!" Pang De asked carefully. "Should we go after him?!"

"Wait a moment." Gongsun Xun looked at the forest with intense fireworks and raised his hand slightly to signal, "Just watch."

"Then what should we do with this person?" Pound hesitated for a moment, then pointed to Xu Chu's body on the ground.

"Hang his head in front of your horse." Gongsun Xun said without any hesitation, "To frighten the enemy!"

"Here!"

When Pang De heard this, he dismounted his horse and bowed his head. Ma Chao was about to speak, but he didn't dare to speak.

After Gongsun Xun waited for a while, he saw that the fire line was advancing at an extremely fast speed. Under the thick smoke, there was no commotion or response from the soldiers on the left and right. However, the afterglow of the sunset behind him was fading away, but he finally jumped forward on his horse and led the white horse in person.

Chase east!

In fact, he also figured it out. Xu Chu risked his life to give Cao Cao a chance to breathe, allowing the latter to successfully escape from the sight of the pursuers, and setting fire to the forest was the last effective method... At this time, the sky was getting dark.

, if Cao Cao really wanted to sneak in plain clothes or stay in the woods at the risk of being burned to death, he actually had no other way to deal with it. He could only resign himself to his fate and depend on his luck. Instead, he might as well go east and try to catch the person who broke through under his banner.

Cao Mengde.

After all, no one can tell at this time whether that person is the real Cao Mengde. If it is true, wouldn't it be a pity if he was too clever to be clever because of his own suspicion?!

The sky finally dimmed, and soldiers everywhere were in chaos. The fireworks in the forest brought an even greater sense of excitement to the end of the battle... Since the battle ended with cavalry versus cavalry, the battlefield had actually expanded to an incredible area.

Within a radius of more than ten miles, in addition to the large troops chasing Cao Cao, there were groups of Yan Army knights everywhere hunting down the fleeing Cao Army cavalry.

However, many of Cao's cavalry were defeated and simply lost their desire to fight. They either surrendered or fled in all directions, with no intention of confrontation.

Under such circumstances, many Yan army knights had their heads in their quivers under their horses, and they were probably carrying the corpses of their own soldiers on their horses, but they still wandered around the battlefield in an attempt to gain more military exploits.

It was under this situation that Cao Cao, who had previously taken advantage of Wang Bi to lure the enemy and escaped from the woods with fireworks, finally carefully returned from the south of the battlefield and tried to enter the Guandu camp - this was a very correct choice, because that time

Before the fatal charge, he clearly saw Shi Huan entering the camp with about two to three thousand cavalry. But now that it was dark, the Yan army could no longer gather its troops to attack the camp. With thousands of soldiers and horses and tens of thousands of civilians,

The permanently guarded camp has undoubtedly become a safe zone.

As the night passed by, Cao Cao and his men were elites with quick thinking. They first abandoned their flags, found several corpses on the battlefield, took their heads and hung them in front of their horses, and then smeared their armors with blood to make them look like Yan.

army, so there was no serious problem along the way until they met a general with seven or eight hundred horsemen and two halberds on his back.

"Have you ever met Cao Cao?" This Yan Army general, who was Zhang Liao, didn't take it seriously at first and just asked casually.

"Reporting to the general, they say that after the forest caught fire, Cao Cao's men went east!" There were several members of the imperial family who had lived in Hebei and Guanxi beside Cao Cao. They immediately pretended to be officers of the Yan army and stepped forward to exchange fluent words with Zhang Liao.

"But I heard that Duke Yan himself led his army to pursue him!"

Under the firelight in the distance, Zhang Liao nodded when he heard the words. He just laughed a few words that the other party had too few heads and needed to work harder. He ignored it and passed Cao Cao and his party directly, and continued to wander around and patrol.

However, after walking for about a few hundred steps, Cao Mengde and others did not dare to speed up hastily. Zhang Wenyuan suddenly became suspicious over there, then reined in his horse and turned around, frowning and asking:

"It was a team of fifty cavalry just now?"

"Of course!" Because of Zhang Liao's character, the guards nearby responded casually.

"But why do so many people in a mere team have beards?! And their beards and hair are so crooked?!" Zhang Liao asked with a sneer. "And how many of their horse hairs are curly?"

All the soldiers around were stunned.

In other words, this is Cao Cao's secret... These days, although beards are a kind of aesthetic respect and a kind of respect for dead parents, so there are many people who grow beards. However, it doesn't matter if you want to keep a beard.

The complete and tangible beard management can only be reserved for nobles and high-end people!

For example, Guan Yu's long and graceful beard is famous all over the world and he is known as the Beautiful Beard Master. Among them is Gongsun Auntie's contribution... As early as more than ten years ago, the Queen Mother of Yan State sent a special large beard to Guan Yu every year.

The brocade bag was used to hold Guan Yu's beard while he slept!

The so-called prevention of beard loss in middle age!

As for ordinary soldiers, especially in a grassroots unit with a team of fifty people, it is rare to have two or three people who care about maintaining beards. How come there are only fifty people, and there are more than twenty or thirty people with beards?

?!Not to mention that the hair can be hidden in the helmet, but the beard and horse mane are inevitably burned and bent when avoiding the fire, so that they are conspicuous.

Since Zhang Liao was suspicious, he turned around and chased the opponent without hesitation. As for Cao Cao and his party, when they saw the opponent's temporary turn, they dared not say anything, so they just hit their horses and fled!

Zhang Wenjian realized that he was in such a state, and couldn't help but get furious, and then called out to him from afar: "Ahead must be the plain-clothes camp of Cao's army's key figures, and it could be Cao Cao... Remember, anyone with a beard will be killed without mercy!"

When Cao Cao and the others in front heard this, they instantly realized what was wrong. Others, how could Cao Mengde account for this? He was so straightforward that he actually took out the Heavenly Sword to cut off the beard and beard under his chin while galloping on horseback.
To be continued...