According to Ju Su's idea, after driving away Li Jue and Guo Si, he should immediately join forces with Lu Bu and bring the emperor's carriage back to Huaicheng to avoid any further trouble.
He looked at Xun You in the distance and guessed that the other side thought the same thing, but the destination was Cao Cao's Xu County.
Ju Su thought that there might still be some twists and turns. If there were no accidents, based on the comparison of strength between the two sides, Lu Bu and Youzhou coalition forces were still weaker than Cao's army. But with the reinforcements of Zhang He, Duan Wei who had reconciled with Lu Bu in private, and Dong Cheng who was aware of Cao Cao's intentions, Cao's army did not dare to act rashly.
It can be said that Cao Cao's move inside the city, which originally planned to win him, was cracked by our side, and he fell into an embarrassing situation.
Under the checks and balances between the two sides, the key decision-making power fell on the emperor Liu Xie, who was a man with his own ideas. He might not necessarily favor Cao Cao, but the possibility of favoring Yuan was even lower.
The battlefield was already in chaos. Because of Duan Wei's betrayal, Li Jue and Guo Si, who could have retreated safely, now had no way to escape.
Li Jue's eyes were red as he blocked Zhao Yun's iron spear while shouting at Duan Wei who was rushing over: "Duan Wei!"
"If I escape today, I will kill your entire clan!"
Duan Wei's expression remained unchanged, and he said coldly, "Me too."
Li Jue saw that Zhao Yun's spear skills were becoming more and more powerful, and he would be defeated in less than a dozen moves. For the first time, he panicked and shouted, "Duan Wei!"
"People from Liangzhou don't fight people from Liangzhou!"
"Why betray us!"
Duan Wei heard this and shouted, "How dare you say you are from Liangzhou!"
"You have ruined the reputation of the people of Liangzhou!"
"Our ancestors in Liangzhou defended the border against foreign enemies, not harmed the people!"
Li Jue shouted, "Duan Wei!"
"You are so confused!"
"Our ancestors have been guarding the border for more than ten generations. How did the imperial court treat us?"
"They are on guard against us, and they are short of food and money. We are like dogs with no dignity just for food!"
"We take back what we deserve, what's wrong with that!"
"Duan Wei!"
"It's not too late to turn back now. Let's charge into the city together and let the emperor serve us!"
Duan Wei sneered: "You are the one who can't turn back!"
"No one in the world wants you to be alive now!"
"kill!"
Seeing that Duan Wei was determined, Li Jue knew that he had no choice but to fight to the death. He roared, swung his halberd with all his might, forced Zhao Yun away, and turned to flee.
Seeing Duan Wei blocking the way, he turned his horse and rushed out from the side. Zhao Yun chased him all the way. Li Jue shouted to his men, "Stop him!"
Li Jue's personal guards rushed up and tried to stop Zhao Yun, but saw Zhao Yun wielding his spear everywhere, and the Liangzhou soldiers were knocked off their horses one after another, but Zhao Yun's speed was also slowed down a lot.
Li Jue took the opportunity to escape. When he was about to break out of the encirclement, he heard the sound of a bowstring behind him and Zhao Yun shot an arrow at his horse's buttocks.
The warhorse Chitong suddenly fell to the ground. Li Jue fell to the ground, dizzy and barely stood up. Zhao Yun had already rushed over on his horse, with his spear everywhere. The tip of the spear pierced Li Jue's throat and came out from the back of his neck, leaving a flower of blood.
As soon as Zhao Yun retracted his spear, Li Jue's body spun around and fell straight to the ground, dead.
The Youzhou soldiers present immediately shouted, "Li Jue is dead!"
"Li Jue is dead!"
The sound spread far away, and the Liangzhou army was in chaos, trampling on each other and fleeing. Guo Si heard it from afar, his heart turned cold, and he immediately turned around and fled.
Xu Huang wanted to charge on his horse, but was stopped by Guo Si's personal guards. He saw Guo Si running further and further away.
Cao Cao saw this and knew the outcome was decided. He smiled at Lu Bu and said, "Li Jue is dead, and Guo Si is trying to escape. Are you interested in taking Guo Si's head, Lord Wen?"
After hearing this, Lu Bu said calmly, "My horse is not feeling well today, so I'll leave the credit to you, General."
Cao Cao was speechless. When did Lu Bu become smart?
I originally wanted to get Lu Bu out of the way and then return to the city immediately. Maybe I could still have some chance. But now Lu Bu is unmoved. How can he be so patient?
He guessed correctly. Ju Shou only said one sentence to Lu Bu before the battle.
What Cao Cao does, what Wen Hou does, where Cao Cao goes, where Wen Hou goes, other than that, don't worry about anything else.
Cao Cao looked at the fleeing Guo Si and thought that if he sent Cao Chun and Cao Hong to chase him, they should be able to catch up. But if he did that, he would only have infantry at his disposal. What if Lu Bu and the Youzhou army attacked him?
He hesitated for a moment, and decisively sent someone to call Cao Chun and Cao Hong back, preparing to retreat back to the city and make further plans.
Ju Shou watched from the top of the city wall and thought that Cao Cao was indeed very careful in his actions. If he revealed a flaw, Ju Shou would not mind taking more drastic measures. But now it seems that this is unlikely.
He shook his head. Yuan Xi and he were right. Cao Cao was indeed a formidable enemy.
If Jizhou continues to take it lightly and allows it to expand its power, it will sooner or later become a major threat!
Cao Chun and Cao Hong came back with sullen looks on their faces. They had already known that Zhao Yun had killed Li Jue and Li Xian, and had become the main contributors to the defeat of the Liangzhou army. They wanted to hunt down Guo Si, but were called back by Cao Cao.
Cao Chun said angrily: "Zhao Yun is lucky, he is really in the limelight this time!"
"I will take 200 cavalrymen to hunt down Guo Si. We will definitely be able to bring back his head!"
Cao Cao listened and said calmly: "The safety of the emperor in the city is more important, let's go back first."
Cao Chun finally came to his senses and quickly accepted the order.
When Zhao Yun saw Cao Cao withdrawing his troops, he did not bother to clean up the battlefield. He immediately withdrew his troops and prepared to enter the city with Cao Cao.
Now it was Yang Feng and Xu Huang's turn to be confused. Why didn't they hear the sound of the retreat? Why did Cao's army and Youzhou's army all go back?
Yang Feng looked at the Liangzhou soldiers who were fleeing and disbanding all over the ground and asked, "Gongming, what can we do now?"
Xu Huang saw that Cao Cao's central army was shrinking slightly, not like they were victorious, but rather like they were on guard against something. He couldn't help but frown and said, "Something is wrong."
"Something must have happened."
As the two were hesitating, they saw a cavalryman from the Youzhou Army riding over and whispering, "Something happened in the city. Cao's army attacked the Baibo army. General Hu Cai was killed and General Han Xian escaped."
"What!" Both of them were shocked and looked at each other.
Xu Huang didn't know the secret, but Yang Feng did. Today, the Baibo Army deliberately let the Liangzhou Army enter the city in order to take the opportunity to eliminate Yang Ding and Dong Cheng. This idea was proposed by Yang Feng.
But he never expected that while the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, Cao Cao actually took the opportunity to attack the Baibo army, causing the Baibo army to suffer a great loss!
Yang Feng was sweating profusely and said to Xu Huang: "Hurry up and organize the troops!"
"The next target Cao Cao is going to deal with will definitely be us!"
The two men quickly gathered the remaining Baibo troops and gathered them together, ready to respond to Cao Cao's attack at any time.
Cao Cao saw that the enemy had become a frightened bird, and said to his attendants, "Return to the city!"
Seeing that Cao's army and Youzhou's army had entered the city, Yang Feng and Xu Huang were stunned outside the city.
To enter or not to enter?
If I go in, what if I'm ambushed?
If they don't advance, the Baibo Army will have no power at all around the emperor!
Yang Feng hesitated for a long time, and said in a hoarse voice: "Gong Ming, do you think this was instructed by the emperor?"
Xu Huang heard this and sighed, "General, if you had known this would happen, why did you do it in the first place?"
Yang Feng knew that Xu Huang was talking about the Baibo Army's abuse of power, and he said angrily, "Who knew so many people would suddenly come?"
"Isn't what Cao Cao is imitating today what we did back then?"
"In the future, someone will definitely treat him the same way he treated us!"
"I want to go into the city to see the emperor and apologize, but I'm afraid that if I don't see the emperor, Cao Cao will attack me!"
"How about we run?"
Xu Huang sighed: "General, where can we run now?"
"Huang is willing to meet the emperor on behalf of the general and convey the general's intention. The emperor should remember the previous friendship because the Baibo Army once rescued him."
Yang Feng hesitated again and again, and finally sighed, "Then I'll have to trouble Gongming."
"I will lead the troops outside the city to support Gongming."
Xu Huang looked at Yang Feng's trembling appearance, sighed secretly in his heart, and rode into the city alone.
In the emperor's residence in the city, Dong Cheng knelt in front of Liu Xie, crying and telling him that Cao's army had evil intentions, first attacking the Baibo army and then attempting to kill him.
Liu Xie listened to Dong Cheng's words, and for some reason he felt secretly pleased.
Do you remember to ask me for help now?
When you sent people to kill my queen, did you ever think that this day would come?
But Liu Xie understood that he had to keep Dong Cheng now. After all, the other party still had a lot of power inside and outside the court, and he had not yet fully digested it.
In addition, Liu Xie was somewhat caught off guard by Cao Cao's decisive action this time.
He was very willing to believe Cao Cao at first, but although the other party's move this time also had some vague hints from him, Liu Xie's intention at the time was just to give the Baibo Army a warning, but he didn't expect Cao Cao to do it so straightforwardly!
Yang Ding and Hu Cai were killed, and Han Xian escaped. After all, they were generals appointed by Cao Cao himself. Wasn't Cao Cao going too far?
Is Cao Cao really as loyal to me as he said?
While he was pondering, an attendant came to report: "Your Majesty, a great victory!"
"The traitor Li Jue was killed, Guo Si escaped, and the Liangzhou army was completely defeated!"
Liu Xie was overjoyed. Within half a day, he had solved the nightmare that had troubled him for years!
He smiled and said, "It seems that Envoy Cao is still quite capable."
"Which general under his command killed Li Jue?"
The attendant quickly replied: "Your Majesty, it is Zhao Yun, the commander of Youzhou!"
"Zhao Yun?" Liu Xie pondered, "I remember he killed Hu Feng the day before yesterday?"
The guard replied, "Your Majesty, that is true. He also killed Li Jue's nephew Li Xian, and he alone deserves the credit for today's achievement."
Liu Xie felt a little annoyed after hearing this, and thought that Youzhou was lucky to have found such a great general.
Although he had always been ambivalent towards the Yuan family, it would be unreasonable for him not to reward the generals he sent out for their great contributions.
But the key point is that Zhao Yun is a member of the Yuan family. Who knows if he will turn around and deal with himself after being conferred the title?
Liu Xie hesitated for a long time. He had no direct troops of his own now, and the most reliable person was Lu Bu. Unfortunately, Lu Bu's territory now only had a few cities, and it was difficult for him to protect himself.
Therefore, Liu Xie had to find more people who were loyal to him, but he couldn't tell who could be trusted and who had evil intentions.
He had been deceived and held hostage enough and suffered too much loss, but in the end, he still couldn't understand people's hearts.
So now he doesn't dare to trust anyone completely.