Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

"Cao Mengde escaped. I heard that he was forcibly taken away by Xun Gongda and others when he fainted."

At Guo Jia's residence in Yecheng, Xun Chen leisurely walked into the four-cornered pavilion, sat down on the mat opposite Guo Jia in a familiar manner, and told him the latest information from Yanzhou.

"The king didn't send a large army to pursue him. He only sent a thousand light cavalry to follow and harass him for a while, then let him go!"

Guo Jia casually took a cup from the coffee table and poured him a cup of tea. He asked in surprise, "Why did the king let the tiger go back to the mountain?"

Xun Chen picked up his tea and blew on it. He said, "The soldiers fought for a whole day and night, even replacing all the reserve horses. In just one day, the battle was over. Over 60,000 heads were beheaded and over 40,000 captured. Under such circumstances, how can we send a large army to pursue them?"

Guo Jia nodded in understanding. "Given the princess's personality, even if she lets him escape temporarily, this matter won't drag on for too long. If it's not resolved in Yanzhou, it will have to be resolved in Yuzhou and Nanyang as well."

Xun Chen chuckled. "How could the princess be as cruel as you say? When Yuan Benchu ​​was defeated and surrendered, she not only did not touch Jizhou, but also allowed him to reunite with his family and live a life of seclusion in paradise. If Cao Gong had surrendered, she would not have killed him all."

"no the same!"

Guo Jia stirred the tea leaves in his cup. "She didn't move Jizhou initially because she couldn't do so temporarily. Later, the aristocratic rebellion led to foreign invasion, and she nearly lost the entire Jizhou. She won't let this happen again, so she must resolve the Yanzhou issue once and for all. Cao Gong has been operating in Yanzhou for so many years, and his roots are deep. As long as he survives, there will always be hidden dangers within Yanzhou. She won't surrender, and... Cao Gong won't surrender either."

Hearing him say this, Xun Chen couldn't help but worry, "If Cao Gong doesn't surrender, Wen Ruo, Gong Da and others probably won't surrender either!"

Guo Jia shook his head and sighed, "Our old nest in Yanzhou has been lost. Retreating to Yuzhou is nothing more than a last-ditch effort!"

At this point, Xun Chen suddenly thought of something and said, "When the princess returned from Yizhou, she brought back 30,000 soldiers and horses, but she didn't come to participate in the battle of Yanzhou. Instead, she sent them to Yingchuan. Was she waiting for Cao Gong there?"

Guo Jia nodded. "If Cao Gong escapes to Dongwu or Runan, he might be able to save himself temporarily. However, going to Yingchuan or Nanyang would be a complete trap. Besides the Yizhou army, the Liangzhou and Yongzhou armies have rested for over a month and are almost ready to go into battle again."

"If he really flees to Runan, he'll be handing over Yingchuan and other places. Yanzhou and Xuzhou have already been lost, so how could he bear to give up these rich and prosperous places?" Xun Chen sighed and asked, "In Fengxiao's opinion, will Sun Bofu surrender?"

"Definitely not in the short term, but who knows what will happen in the future!"

"Then when will Liu Jingsheng surrender?"

"Once Cao Gong dies, he will definitely surrender Jingzhou!"

Xun Chen nodded, was silent for a moment, and then suddenly asked, "Is Fengxiao worried about Cao Gong?"

Guo Jia was stunned for a moment, then shook his head. "The victors are kings and the losers are bandits. This has been the case since ancient times. Since we've decided to fight for the world, we must be prepared for this. What are you worried about? But you, do you want to go to Runan?"

Xun Chen said, "When I went to Yanzhou to rescue you from prison, I stopped by to visit my brother. He swore that the righteous path in the world lies with Cao. Now that Cao Cao's army has been defeated, I want to ask him where the righteous path lies."

"If the princess allows, please give my regards to Wen Ruo and tell him that I have some good tea and books waiting for him to enjoy."

Xun Chen nodded slightly, put down his teacup and bowed to say goodbye!

…………

As Guo Jia said, Cao Cao's escape to Yingchuan was like walking into a trap. Although Lu Bu was unable to send a large army to pursue him, the Flying Eagle Team had been following him all the way, and every move of Cao's army was under his control.

Several passes bordering Yingchuan and Henan Yin were in the hands of the Tang army. Since the war with Yanzhou, the Tang cavalry had been going out of the passes from time to time to harass various counties. Due to the lack of cavalry, the Cao army was in an extremely passive position on the battlefield. Yingchuan prefect Xiahou Yuan was brave and strong, good at allocating food, but not good at using troops. Therefore, in the face of the harassment of the Tang army, he could only order various places to defend the city and wait for the result from Yanzhou.

The Battle of Yanzhou ended four days ago, but the speed of Cao's scouts reporting the news was far slower than that of the flying eagle. Before Xiahou Yuan received the news, Ma Chao, Zhang Fei, and Cao Xing knew about it the day after Cao Cao's defeat. They organized their troops and marched out of the pass in two groups. In name, they were coming to harass Yingchuan, but in reality they were waiting for news from the flying eagle to prepare to kill Cao Cao.

The autumn wind was bleak. On the banks of the Yingshui River, Zhang Yide shot two geese flying south and squatted by the fire to barbecue them. Ma Mengqi, holding a piece of grass in his mouth, leaned against a tree trunk and looked at the sky boredly.

"Ma Mengqi, what are you daydreaming about?"

"I was thinking that if I could kill Cao Mengde this time, the king would probably give me the title of military commander, right?"

"Stop dreaming!"

"How can I call it a dream?" Ma Chao stood up and spat out the grass in his mouth, looking unconvinced. "I was clearly the first to claim the victory in this attack on Yizhou. It was because that fellow Zhang He broke through Yangping Pass that the princess appointed him commander of Yizhou. Yangping Pass was the key to breaking through Shuzhong, so I accepted it. If I can successfully intercept and kill Cao Mengde this time, wouldn't my contribution be greater than Zhang He's? How can the king not promote me?"

Zhang Fei glanced at him and laughed, "I said don't dream because Cao Mengde's head is mine."

Ma Chao frowned, "You're not serving the Tang Dynasty, so why are you trying to steal my head?"

Zhang Fei said as a matter of course, "I have to repay the favor. Once I take Cao Mengde's head, I can go find my elder brother. You still have plenty of opportunities to make meritorious deeds. Please give me this head!"

"Are you crazy?" Ma Chao looked at him as if he were a fool. "The situation in Tang is already irrelevant. Are you going there to make enemies with the princess again?"

"Amo wouldn't even give my brother a piece of barbarian land, would she?" Zhang Fei hesitated. "She's not that kind of person!"

"That's because you don't know her well enough. Let me tell you a secret. When I was a groom for the king, I saw a map. It was the princess's plan for the future territory of the Tang Dynasty. Jiaozhou and even the islands south of Jiaozhou were included. So when the Central Plains is stabilized, she will definitely attack there. If your eldest brother surrenders, given his friendship with the princess, he can definitely get the position of governor. If he resists, I think he will have no choice but to flee south again."

Ma Chao paused and continued, "But fleeing to the south isn't a long-term solution. The princess has drawn the areas south of Jiaozhou. The reason she didn't include them in the Tang Dynasty's territory is probably because she felt that neither she nor the king could conquer them in their lifetimes. She drew them with dotted lines, presumably to leave them as a task for the next emperor."

"You're just bragging. It's such a faraway place. Not only her, but there are few people in the entire Han Dynasty who have been there. How could she possibly draw it?"

"You don't believe it?" Ma Chao walked over, picked up a branch, and drew the rough outlines of the Indochina Peninsula and the Indian Peninsula on the ground. "That's what I remember," he said. "She even had mountains and rivers on her map. Combined with the rivers flowing south from Yizhou, I think she wasn't just drawing randomly; she had a basis for it."

Ma Chao pointed to an area at the southernmost tip of the Indochina Peninsula and said, "It seems that many people in this area are still primitive tribes. Only here has a country called Funan been established."

Zhang Fei was half-believing and half-doubting after hearing what he said, and he thought to himself that when he found Liu Bei, he would have to persuade him to surrender.

The two were chatting when suddenly a sharp eagle cry was heard from the sky. Ma Chao jumped up and said excitedly, "My head is here!"