Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

Cao Cao almost died at the hands of Lu Bu twice, which left him with a serious psychological trauma. The last time he proposed to send troops to Shangdang first, it was not because he saw any conspiracy, but just to get rid of Lu Bu as soon as possible and steal his wife.

If Yuan Shao retreated, Cao Cao would admit that he alone would not dare to challenge Lu Bu.

Xi Zhicai said, "If Lord Benchu ​​withdraws his troops, Hedong County will have no choice but to give up. Henei borders Wei County, making it easier to deploy defenses. Baixing is in the hands of Jizhou. All Lord Benchu ​​needs to do is send troops to block Taihangxing and seize Jiguan, and then he won't have to fear the Bingzhou army."

"What a shame! Such a great opportunity! Now I just hope Benchu ​​can outpace Lü Bu and take Hukou Pass before he returns from Jinyang."

As Cao Cao was praying, Xiahou Dun walked in from outside and bowed, reporting, "My lord, Yuan Rang sent a messenger to report that Zhang Liao's army could not withstand our attack and retreated to Hanoi. The Yuan army stationed at Baixing Pass was repelled, and Zhang Liao has already entered Shangdang from Baixing."

"waste!"

Upon hearing this news, Cao Cao was furious. "Are the Yuan army's generals useless? How many men does Zhang Liao have? He was surrounded and attacked by our army, and how could he be repelled?"

Cao Cao felt a sudden pain in his head. He had just planned to attack Jiguan, but Yuan's army had lost Baixing. Was he going to let him live?

Xiahou Dun explained, "This isn't their fault. Zhang Liao is simply too treacherous. He's been fighting our army to the death, pretending to be determined to defend Hanoi and refusing to give an inch, but secretly he's been planning a retreat and has quietly sent a team to Xiaguankou."

"How many soldiers and horses does he have left?" Cao Cao asked while rubbing his aching temple.

"About 8,000!"

"After fighting for so long, our army has lost over 5,000 soldiers, while he has lost less than 2,000. Now he has retreated to Shangdang, obviously intending to join forces to suppress Yuan Benchu."

Xi Zhicai said, "This situation isn't actually that bad for us. Previously, he held three counties, forming a three-way siege, making it very difficult for our army to encircle and suppress him. Now that he has retreated to the pass, it may be easier to defeat him."

He had barely finished speaking when Xiahou Dun continued, "This is exactly the other matter I wanted to report. Zhang Liao has left 5,000 soldiers guarding the pass. Yuan Rang has attacked twice but failed to take it, so he requested reinforcements."

"Leaving more than half to guard the pass?" Cao Cao was surprised for a moment, then realized, "This is not right, it's very wrong!"

He had just thought that Zhang Liao was withdrawing his troops to encircle Yuan Shao, but from this it seemed that he was clearly trying to guard the third passage from Bingzhou to Henei.

Xi Zhicai's optimistic attitude immediately collapsed, and his face instantly turned ugly. "If my guess is correct, there may be a large number of troops stationed in Taihang Xing!"

Cao's army currently completely occupies Henei, but if the three important passages are all controlled by the Bingzhou army, then he has to suspect that Henei may be the third trap set by the enemy. After Lu Bu defeats Yuan Shao, the Bingzhou army will send troops into Henei from three directions. Can Cao's army resist it?

That woman was truly daring. She was putting all of Lü Bu's wealth on the line. Where did she get her confidence from? If even one link went wrong, all the wealth Lü Bu had accumulated over the years would be gone.

"No, where does he get so many soldiers?" Cao Cao was puzzled. They had done a rough investigation before sending out the troops. The total strength of Bingzhou was only more than 20,000. No matter how they arranged it, there would be no extra troops to be stationed in Taihang Xing.

"We'll know if we send a team to investigate. If our army can't capture two of the passes, Hanoi won't be considered part of Yanzhou. My lord, you must make plans early."

How could he possibly spit out the meat that was already in his mouth? Cao Cao immediately ordered, "Send another 5,000 soldiers to attack Baixing with all our strength. Send another 8,000 to Jiguan to capture Song Xian. At the same time, send a team to explore the way to Taihangxing."

"Yes!" Xiahou Dun accepted the order.

All three roads were controlled by the Bingzhou army. Even if Cao Cao wanted to assist Yuan Shao at this time, it was impossible. He could only take advantage of the battle between Lu Bu and Yuan Shao to seize the passages to consolidate the military defense in Henei.

…………

"Amo, Qu Yi has sent out his troops, and they all seem to be heading towards the East City Gate."

The next day, in Jinyang City, just as the sky was beginning to turn pale, Zhang Mo was woken up from her bed by Juxiang.

She sat up from the couch, picked up the clothes hanging nearby and put them on, then asked, "Are you sure everyone is heading east of the city?"

Juxiang said, "It's not yet completely light. We can only vaguely see a little bit in the east. Those dark figures are all coming from the east. There's no movement in the other three directions for now. Ah Chu asked if we should push some of the crossbows from the west and south of the city to the east?"

Zhang Mo thought for a moment and shook her head. "The crossbows are heavy, so we have time to push them forward now. If Qu Yi makes a feint to the east and attacks in the west, we won't be able to push them faster than his soldiers can run. There are no obstacles to the west and south of the city, and the city defenses are insufficient. It will be easy for him to break through. Let's see how the situation develops."

She put on her clothes, tied her hair casually with a headband, put on a windproof hat and went out. When she arrived at the top of the city, the sky had begun to turn blue, and she could vaguely see that the soldiers walking in front of her in the distance seemed to be carrying a lot of heavy things.

When it got brighter, Zhang Mo finally saw what Qu Yi's soldiers were carrying, including long ladders, rafts, dismantled tents and other miscellaneous items.

"Is he going to use these things to cross the river?" Xu Chu asked.

"That's probably it. I've already had all the large trees around here cut down. He's desperate, dismantling his own food trucks and tents to build the trees. He's clearly confident he can capture the city today."

Xu Huang said, "Where does he get his confidence from? Even if we don't make backup plans, with 3,000 soldiers, their subordinates, civilians, and crossbows inside the city, it wouldn't be that easy for him to take it in a day."

Zhang Mo laughed and said, "He's not confident, he's arrogant!"

"Looking at the situation, he plans to attack from the east gate. It's still time to go to the south to mobilize crossbow carts." Xu Huang said.

Zhang Mo considered it for a moment and then ordered, "Then transfer the equipment from the western half of the south wall and send a message to Anren, asking him to cross the Fen River from the lower reaches to the west bank first."

"Why?"

Xu Huang was puzzled at first when he heard her plan, but after a moment's thought, he immediately understood. "You mean, Qu Yi's target is the southern city wall?"

Zhang Mo nodded. "This moat is a branch dug from the Fen River. It skirts the east side of the city and then joins the Fen River in the south. If he sends the rafts downstream to the Fen River and the soldiers follow along the moat, with so many rafts, they can ferry thousands of people to the western half of the broken city wall in a short time."

"Isn't it a bit unreliable to judge based on this? What if this is not his intention?" Xu Huang asked with some doubt.

"He's Qu Yi! He wouldn't really gather all 40,000 troops under one city wall. He deliberately created such a large commotion in the east. Besides diverting the crossbows from my west and south, he also wanted to isolate my cavalry in the east."

The Fen River runs from north to south through Jinyang City, dividing the entire city into two parts, east and west. There is a bridge inside the city to connect the east and west, but there is no bridge outside the city. There are two city gates on the south and north walls. Once the cavalry in the city go out from the east gate, they can only be isolated on the east side by the river. If they want to go to the west to kill the enemy, they must first return to the city, cross the bridge and then go out from the west gate. If Qu Yi is fast enough, by the time you go in and out, his soldiers may have climbed onto the city wall.