Chapter 918 Young Phoenix
The sound of hooves was like a drum, shaking the earth.
On the official road entering Guangxian County, a cavalry team was approaching at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The apricot-yellow cloaks behind them rustled in the cold wind, the war horses sneezed from their nostrils, and the yellow mud rolled up by their iron hooves was like sand and gravel behind them.
All the knights looked solemn, and there was sweat in the palms of their hands holding the reins tightly.
Guan Ping marched at the front of the team. Just two hours ago, a team of You Yi who went out to scout attacked a team of Cao's troops from Ju County and obtained a major piece of information.
The Taishan troops of Ding Sheng and Dong Fang fell into Cao Cao's plan and were blocked by him in the mountain roads in the west of Qi State.
This news caught Guan Yu off guard. He originally planned to lead a cavalry raid on Cao Cao's logistics supplies, leaving the chance of defeating Cao Cao to Ding Sheng and Dong Fang who were fighting head-on.
But who would have thought that Ding and Dong Shuai were so useless? Did this fall into Cao Cao’s trap?
But at that time, Guan Yu suddenly thought of how he had fallen into Cao Cao's scheme last year. Those outsiders thought it was a scheme at first glance, but it was the most able to confuse the insiders and make them unwavering in their wrong judgment.
This was how he was deceived back then, and now Ding and Dong Ershuai were also deceived in this way, so much so that Guan Yu, who rarely spoke, couldn't help but cursed Cao Cao, "treacherous".
What a traitor to Cao Cao!
But this brings two good news at the same time:
One is that fortunately, Guan Yu was right behind Cao Cao, and because of his fast march, he had already reached a place less than forty miles away from Guang County.
And the other good news is that, haha, Cao Cao is actually in Guang County.
So Guan Yu immediately ordered Guan Ping to lead five hundred cavalry as the vanguard, clear all the sentry cavalry and watchtowers along the way, and open a secret road for the main force.
In order to keep Guan Ping's team as highly mobile as possible, Guan Yu also divided the remaining spare horses in the team into 500 horses, ensuring that each person in the vanguard had two horses.
After that, Guan Ping was ordered to take five hundred selected elite cavalry, about two days' rations, and one day's worth of water, and set off towards Guangxian at about 1:00 in the morning.
Throughout the morning, Guan Pingping's vanguard cavalry kept galloping on the road, and soon encountered Cao Jun's sentinel cavalry cruising nearby.
When Cao Cao used troops, he would naturally take Guan Yu's presence into consideration, so when he was sitting in Guangxian to organize a front ambush, he still sent out a lot of sentries and placed them on the rear line.
But that's all Cao Cao could do.
After all, just the decisive battle with Ding Sheng at this time had already exhausted all Cao Cao's trump cards.
Could he not know that Guan Yu's appearance might be the direct cause of his failure? Cao Cao knew too well, but even so, he could not mobilize any troops to block Guan Yu's northward passage.
The only thing Cao Cao could do was to annihilate the Taishan Army in the valley as soon as possible, and then use this time to turn back and attack Guan Yu.
Cao Cao could only bet on Guan Yu's slow intelligence or slow reaction.
Most of the outpost knights in Guan Ping are outstanding soldiers in the army, and they are good at catching animals.
Precisely because they are all experts, these tourists can know where Cao Jun may place sentries and where sentries are likely to be when they look at these places.
Originally, even if Cao Jun's sentry cavalry was discovered, they could still escape. After all, everyone was riding horses that could not fight, but the information could definitely be sent to the rear.
But Guan Ping and the other Yi Yi people each wanted two horses. As soon as they discovered Cao Jun's sentry cavalry, these people completed the horse change, and then after only a short pursuit, they used their riding bows to kill them.
From the mouths of these surviving Cao Jun sentry spies, Guan Ping and the others took a rest to adjust their direction, then sent updated information on the road to Guan Yu who was chasing behind them, and continued to set off.
This time, they directly ran into a patrolling Cao army team. After a brief confrontation, Guan Ping and the others began to chase them on the bushy and rugged mountain road.
This time they were lucky enough to directly capture the cavalry commander of the sentry cavalry, and learned a piece of extremely bad news from his mouth.
That is, Cao Cao issued an order to these sentries and posts, that is, messages must be delivered to the rear camp every two hours.
Guan Ping's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately understood that it would be useless even if they cleared all the sentries on the passage, because as long as these sentries did not send back the message on time, Cao Cao would definitely notice that something was going on behind him.
Even by estimating the time, you can know the approximate location of the attacking Taishan Army.
Only then did Guan Ping understand, where did the sentinel sent by Cao Cao send news to Cao Cao? It’s just useful because they can’t give it away.
Thinking of this, Guan Ping immediately realized that he only had two hours to attack Cao Jun. If he could not complete the attack within the time, Cao Cao would definitely run away.
Immediately, Guan Ping ordered:
"The whole army abandons its armor!"
Guan Ping's order shocked the lieutenant general. This lieutenant was a cavalry officer next to Guan Yu. His name was Xu Hu. After hearing this, he subconsciously replied:
"Captain Lieutenant, we can't fight even if we get to Guang County."
Guan Ping glared at Lao Xu coldly and asked:
"We are cavalry, and we can fight with swords and horses. What's the matter? You, Mr. Xu, also came from the Taishan Army. When King Zhang took his brothers out of the mountain, did everyone in the cavalry have armor?"
Lao Xu was choked and hurriedly explained:
"Fighting without armor, I'm afraid our brothers will suffer too many casualties."
Guan Ping is usually easy to negotiate with, but during the war, he doesn't know who he has learned from, and he really speaks the truth.
But Guan Ping also recently joined Guan Yu's army, so the old people in the army didn't know that their commander's son would have such a temper.
If he knew, Xu Hu would definitely not say this more.
Sure enough, when Xu Hu said these words, Guan Ping whipped Xu Hu's shoulder armor with his riding crop, and then he heard Guan Ping Senhan say:
"Why, our lives are important, but the lives of those trapped Paoze don't count? Lao Xu, listen to me, even if you and I die in battle today, we will all die in Guangxian. If we can’t catch up in two hours, you and I will be sinners!”
At this time, Xu Hu did not dare to say any more and hurriedly began to pass on Guan Ping's orders.
There was a commotion in the team. After all, the armor on his body was a talisman, which could protect his life better than Huang Tiantai Shanjun.
But the military orders are like mountains.
The army has never just been about love, but also about iron and blood, choices and sacrifices.
When the order from above was passed down as firmly as a rock, all the Youyi Tuqi took off their armors and then threw the dry food they carried on the ground.
Water cannot be thrown away. They can survive without food. Without water, they will lose their combat effectiveness in a moment.
The tourists present now all have an intuition that this time they may really die in Guangxian.
These fine and valuable cavalry armors were abandoned on the road like piles of graves, which made people feel even more miserable.
After a while, Guan Ping and others, who were completely lightly dressed, accelerated their speed and soon disappeared into the twists and turns of the mountain road. Only the corpse of Cao Jun lying on the road spoke of cruelty.
……
At this time, people outside Guangxian County were noisy.
Cao Pi, who had just reached the height of a pony, was standing not far away and looking curiously under the protection of several family warriors.
Cao Pi is the third son of Cao Cao. Although he is young, he can shoot at the age of six and can start writing at the age of seven. Then when he went to war with his father this year, he learned how to ride and shoot in the army.
Recently, he was learning swordsmanship from several military swordsman masters.
He eats well, trains a lot, and his height is not hindered by his father, so he is also a brave young man. Anyone who sees him has to praise him for growing well.
This time, Cao Pi and several of his cousins stayed behind in Guangxian County with their father, Cao Cao. Unlike his uncles who were already able to act independently, they still needed to gain experience in the army before they could be released outside.
Cao Cao's education for his children was obviously advanced beyond that of people of this era. Even though Cao Pi was only more than seven years old at this time, he was already taken to the camp to be exposed to war.
In fact, it is difficult for any father to part with him.
The cruelty and hardship of military life is something that even an adult cannot bear, let alone a child like Cao Pi?
But living in troubled times and in the Cao family, there is nothing you can do.
If you don’t eat some hardships early, you may not be able to eat them later if you want to. One more year of exposure to war means one more year of experience, and of course one more year of risk.
But Cao Cao can accept this risk. After all, he has many sons and can resist!
But no one asked whether Cao Pi was willing to accept such a risk.
At this time, looking at the team that was delivering grain to the warehouse, Cao Pi didn't know where the field soldiers were. Anyway, these shabby soldiers like this had been gathering in Guang County like a trickle in the past few days.
While Cao Pi was looking around, a young warrior with gorgeous armor beside him said disdainfully:
"What a bunch of bed bugs. You can smell that despicable stench from such a distance. Saburo, it's better to stay away from me. Otherwise, you can greet your mother later and let her smell it, so you won't worry about it being broken?" ”
The person who said this was Cao Pi's uncle, Bian He.
Cao Pi's mother was Mrs. Bian, who was still one of Cao Cao's many concubines at this time. However, her mother's family was also a wealthy family in Pei State, so her status was much higher than other concubines, second only to the main wife, Mrs. Ding.
In this plane, Cao Cao did not have the opportunity to initiate the Battle of Wancheng, so naturally he did not let his eldest son Cao Ang die in the battle.
In history, it was precisely because Cao Cao played with women that Wancheng was defeated. Not only did he lose a general like Dian Wei, but he also lost Cao Ang, the eldest son of the Cao family at the time.
Cao Cao's wife, Mrs. Ding, who was also Cao Ang's biological mother, completely broke with Cao Cao because of this incident and took the initiative to divorce Cao Cao.
It was because of Mrs. Ding's divorce that Cao Cao made Mrs. Bian his first wife. In this way, Cao Pi became the eldest son from a concubine.
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This can be said to be the biggest factor for Cao Pi to inherit Cao Cao's career in the future.
But now, Cao Ang is alive and well and stationed in Xuzhou as Cao Cao's envoy. Cao Cao's first wife is still Mrs. Ding, so Cao Pi naturally doesn't have much chance at this time.
But some people understand one thing from birth: Opportunities are always earned by oneself.
At this moment, Cao Pi was watching the field soldiers coming and going in front of him, paying attention to whether there were any warriors among them who could be attracted to his side. When he suddenly heard his uncle's words, he nodded immediately.
But something suddenly occurred to him, and Cao Pi stopped abruptly, and then said in a childish voice that had not yet changed his voice:
"How could uncle say such a thing? Aren't these people the cornerstone of my Cao family? Aren't it also these men who have supported my father's great cause with their shoulders? So they are all great benefactors of my Cao family. ”
These words immediately stunned Bian He beside him.
Before he realized what was happening, he saw that after Cao Pi finished saying these words, not only did he not retreat, but he actively stepped forward to the side of the group of field soldiers.
Bian He didn't care how his nephew could say such false words at such a young age, so he quickly led his warriors to protect him.
When Cao Pi came here, he was already surrounded by people. In the circle, a middle-aged man who looked like a military ration official was scolding several dark-skinned men.
The waists of those men were almost bent to the ground. They were scolded by the soldier and food officer, but they did not reply at all, but kept begging for mercy.
In fact, Cao Pi had already noticed this side when he was standing there. He came over, tried hard to hold his breath, and then said:
"What are you doing? Hurry up and hand over the food, and let the people behind you wait for a long time. It will be dark soon."
But no one paid attention to her milky words. Who are you?
On the contrary, behind the crowd, a dirty boy about the same age as Cao Pi said angrily:
"Those gang of dog officials will make things difficult for us, and they only know how to bully me. They will beat them to death when I grow up."
Cao Pi choked at the young man's breath, and then calmly took a step back, away from the man's spit.
At this time, Bian He from behind came over and cursed at these people:
"What are you doing? Didn't you hear Saburo asking you questions?"
With that said, Bian He pointed at the soldier and food official in the circle and scolded:
"You come out and go to Saburo to answer."
When the military and food officer heard the title "Sanlang", he didn't know who he was. After all, only the children of the Cao clan in the army could be called "sanlang", let alone Sanlang.
Cao Pi was also well-known in the army, especially after Cao Ang left the army. He was the oldest Cao Pi, and he could not be remembered by others.
So he squeezed out quickly, wiped the sweat on his forehead with the handkerchief, and then saluted Cao Pi respectfully:
"Zhang Shun, a junior official, has met Sanlang."
Cao Pi smiled and asked Zhang Shun to explain the situation.
Zhang Shun was also troubled by this matter. When he saw Cao Pi asking about it, he hurriedly poured it out.
It turned out that when Zhang Shun was counting the grain just now, he found that the grain sent by the field soldiers was one-third less than the set amount.
In fact, if it was just a matter of shortcomings, Zhang Shun would have turned a blind eye. After all, they also knew that the most important thing now was the front line.
But others were a few dozen kilograms less, no more than a hundred kilograms at most, but what the field soldiers brought was actually a full one-third less. That was not a small amount. In terms of vehicles, it was three large vehicles.
Therefore, Zhang Shun could not let these people put the food into the warehouse, otherwise in the future, Duke Cao would find that there was not enough food to eat, and he would have to use the heads of his soldiers and food officials to determine the morale of the army.
And these people didn't argue, they just kept saying bitterly that a big car fell into the mountains on the road.
Bah, these people are all from the north. They have a hell of a mountain to climb. It’s intolerable to fool him with such nonsense.
When Zhang Shun explained these situations, more and more people gathered nearby.
They all heard that Cao Gong's third son appeared here, and they all came here to watch the excitement.
At this time, Cao Pi had roughly understood the situation. Just by looking at the faces of the field soldiers, he could see their evasion and guilty conscience.
So Cao Pi didn't know that the small amount of food must have been stolen by these people.
But seeing more and more people gathering outside, Cao Pi already had an idea.
In fact, he didn't need to be so impatient. After all, he was too young. Even if someone saw his potential, not many people would be willing to get closer to him.
But when Cao Pi knew that his father had crowned his cousin Cao Xiu in front of all the generals and awarded him the word "mandate of heaven", he couldn't wait any longer.
At this moment, many thoughts were in Cao Pi's heart, causing him to say something like this:
"Zhang Bingliang, you did nothing wrong in serving me. These good men who traveled hundreds of miles to deliver food to our army did nothing wrong either. You are all great benefactors of my Cao family. Here, I am young and I am not sensible. If so, can Zhang Bingliang listen?”
At this moment, Zhang Shun didn't know how many twists and turns he had to go around, and finally made a deep bow.
Afterwards, Cao Pi said to Bian He who was standing next to him like a fighting cock:
"Uncle, lift me on your shoulders."
Bian He was always slow to respond, but he obediently lifted Cao Pi on his shoulders.
At this moment, looking at the crowd of people below, most of whom were farm slaves of the Cao family, Cao Pi began his first performance in front of the public.
Just listen to Cao Pi shout loudly:
"In these troubled times, food is important, but is it more important than people's hearts? The lack of food cannot chill people's hearts. The fact that you can travel hundreds of miles to get food here shows your loyalty. Naturally, our Cao family cannot I’m sorry, all you heroes. So today I, Cao Pi, promise you that half of the food you bring will be used as a share, and the remaining half will be purchased by my Cao family.”
By the time Cao Pi finished speaking, the surrounding area was filled with cheers and shouts of Cao Pi's name.
But Cao Pi hadn't finished speaking yet and said again:
"Not only that, our Cao family will win this war, and the glory our Cao family has achieved today will not be exclusive to us, but will be shared with you, the heroes who are loyal to our Cao family. Don't leave today, wait until the big day When victory comes, you and I will drink together!”
Everyone was excited. They surrounded Cao Pi and danced uncontrollably. In the sound of beats, everyone gave the highest praise to Cao Gong and Cao Pi.
Destiny lies in Cao but not in Tai!
At this moment, Cao Pi, who was in the center, could no longer restrain himself. He roared in his heart:
"How can I not be Cao Pi if I can inherit my father's great business?"
As expected, the saying "The voice of a young phoenix is better than that of an old phoenix", your ambition really does not lie in your youth.