Chapter 373: Avalanche, Cao Cao's End To be precise, the confrontation between Cao Cao and Liu Bei lasted from early March to the end of April, but what broke the confrontation was the news that Qin Zhen was sending troops. Long before Cao Cao received the news, Liu Bei received the letter sent by Qin Zhen from Xiangyang. Seeing that Qin Zhen intended to contain the enemy in Nanyang and let Guan Yu open up the situation in the Central Plains, Liu Bei called everyone to discuss the matter: "When we first came here, we wanted to seize Hanzhong, contain Cao Cao here, and take the opportunity to attack the areas under Cao's command in the north." "General Huang has killed Xiahou Yuan, Wu Yi has marched into Nanzheng, and the land of Hanzhong is under our control." "I am worried that Cao Cao might withdraw his troops after losing two battles. If we let him leave easily, it will be difficult to conquer the Central Plains!" The actual military strategy of their Northern Expedition this time was highly confidential, and only Liu Ye, Pang Tong and others knew about it. The other senior generals were unaware of this and were all shocked when they heard it. Fa Zheng simply guessed Qin Zhen's plan. Seeing that Liu Bei's military strategy was not much different from what he expected, Fa Zheng offered Liu Bei a plan:

"If you want to stop Cao Cao from returning, you should quietly march north and set up camp with your back to the Han River." "I have heard that Cao Cao is suspicious by nature. He will surely think that our army intends to pursue us, and will not dare to withdraw easily." "Send another thousand troops northwards and create confusion to the north of Baozhong, so as to prevent Cao Cao from understanding your plan!" Liu Bei followed his plan and immediately ordered Wei Yan and Meng Da to lead more than a thousand soldiers each and march north first to act as a decoy. Taking advantage of the cover of night, they quietly built a pontoon bridge from the lower reaches of the Han River, crossed the Han River, and set up camp on the north side. So the next day, as soon as Cao Cao ordered the troops to withdraw, his spies saw that Liu Bei's army had moved its camp north and stationed with its back to the water. Cao Cao was already ill at this time. When he heard the news, he asked Xu Chu to carry him outside the camp to watch. Seeing Liu Bei moving his camp northward, he knew that he had fallen into Liu Bei's trap of luring the tiger away from the mountain. Now that he was like this, he must be guarding against his withdrawal. If he withdraws his troops now, Liu Bei will certainly attack everywhere, and even if he does not want to fight, he will suffer losses. When he thought about the double-sided attacks from Qin Zhen and Yuan Shao in the east, he became extremely anxious and spat out another mouthful of blood. Xu Chu and others saw him and hurriedly helped him into the tent. However, after Cao Cao entered the camp, he refused to rest and hurriedly called Lou Gui and Guo Jia to come and said: "We have fallen into a trap this time. Liu Bei must be trying to delay me here. Now that we are stationed with our backs to the water, we must be ready to pursue us." "If I am delayed for too long, the east will be in chaos. I must find a way to escape from this place to protect the overall situation!" When Guo Jia heard this, he suggested that Cao Cao go first, and he and Lou Gui would lead the army to resist Liu Bei's troops. After Cao Cao entered the Baoxiade Road, they would slowly withdraw their troops. As long as they had Yangping Pass in their hands, they could withdraw. When Cao Cao heard this plan, he was about to nod his head, but he heard a spy come to report that there seemed to be military movements on the mountain roads in the north, and the trees along the road were burned, and it was unknown where they were now. It turned out that after Wei Yan and Meng Da received the order, they went north and burned a lot of trees, and ordered the soldiers to make noise in the forest. When Cao's scouts came to investigate, the two led their troops up the mountain and covered the area with trees, making it difficult for the spies to find them. Cao Cao did not know that Liu Bei had only 2,000 troops in the north, and he thought that Liu Bei had already ambushed him in advance, so he did not dare to move. As a result, Guo Jia's plan was shelved, and Lou Gui suggested secretly sending a troop to rob Liu Bei's grain team.

Because Liu Bei came by water, the food and grass were transported from Xiangyang, and after arriving in Hanzhong, they had to be converted into manpower. The road for transporting grain from land is flat, which is perfect for using their cavalry to rob grain. Cao Cao followed his advice and asked Ma Chao to secretly lead the cavalry out of the camp to prepare for a surprise attack on Liu Bei's grain team. Unexpectedly, before Liu Bei's food and grass arrived, his men issued a declaration of war, inviting them to a decisive battle, but Cao Cao naturally refused. When Liu Bei saw this, he sent Zhang Fei to the front of the camp to challenge them. After two days, the morale of Cao's army began to decline. In desperation, Cao Cao sent Xu Chu out to fight Zhang Fei. They fought a fierce battle, but there was no winner, and they each returned to their camps. The next day, Xu Chu fought again. After two days of fighting, Pang Tong realized something was wrong and said to Liu Bei: "Xu Chu is Cao Cao's personal guard. In the past, it was Ma Mengqi who took on the challenge, but now it is Xu Chu who is fighting. There must be something wrong!" "Ma Chao is good at cavalry, and Cao Cao's path is blocked. I'm afraid he will attack our army's food supply route. We must be on guard." When Liu Bei heard this, he knew that Ma Chao's cavalry was powerful, so he asked how to stop him. Pang Tong then offered him a plan. Liu Bei acted according to the plan and ordered Huang Zhong to lead 6,000 soldiers to transport food. When they arrived at Longting, they stationed in a valley to rest temporarily. The news was then discovered by Ma Chao, who had been holding a lot of anger in for some time and was about to release it here. That night he led 5,000 cavalrymen to raid the camp, but when he entered the camp, he found it was empty. Huang Zhong led his troops up the mountain early, leaving only food carts and a small number of soldiers in the front camp as camouflage. When Ma Chao entered the camp, the soldiers in the front camp scattered. Thinking that he had succeeded, he ordered his soldiers to set fires everywhere. But when they entered the central camp, they discovered that there were no soldiers or horses. At this moment, Huang Zhong ordered the shooting. Suddenly, battering rams and boulders fell from the mountain, and rockets set the military camp on fire. When the fire started, Ma Chao's men naturally fell into chaos. Ma Chao wanted to retreat, but saw that Zhao Yun had already led the cavalry and had blocked the camp gate. In this situation, the test was the duel between the two cavalry forces, and Ma Chao naturally led his troops to charge out at all costs. However, Zhao Yun's cavalry was derived from the White Horse Volunteers, which was different from the cavalry that Ma Chao encountered in Xiliang. The Xiliang cavalry were good at charging and winning by bravery, but the Baima Yicong were good at riding and shooting, and they roamed the northern border. At this time, Ma Chao rushed out, and Zhao Yun began to detour and shoot to stop him. As soon as Ma Chao rushed out, he was met with a hail of arrows. Even though Ma Chao reacted quickly, he was hit by two arrows on his shoulder and hand. As soon as he was hit, Zhao Yun shot for a while and rushed forward again. Between life and death, Ma Chao had no time to care about much else. Without even taking the time to organize his formation, he hurried back to the camp. By the time Cao Cao arrived at the main camp, only a few hundred of his close followers in the Xiliang Army were left by his side, and the rest of the troops had dispersed. After this defeat, Cao Cao's only cavalry advantage had been lost. Seeing that Ma Chao was injured, Cao Cao ordered the doctor to treat him immediately. Thinking that if he continued like this, he would be defeated sooner or later, he made up his mind and led his troops to fight Liu Bei in a decisive battle. The next day, the two armies formed a battle formation and fought in Hanzhong. At Cao Cao's command, his troops immediately attacked Liu Bei. Originally Liu Bei's military strength was at a disadvantage, but now he had the advantage of Zhao Yun's cavalry. During the great battle, Zhao Yun made a detour behind the enemy, but was surrounded by Xu Huang's troops. So Zhao Yun raised his spear and rode his horse, breaking into the encirclement, charging left and right as if he was in an empty space. Relying on his bravery and rich experience in cavalry combat, he rushed towards Cao Cao's central army.

Cao Cao was standing on the chariot. Seeing Zhao Yun's bravery, he could not help but ask everyone who this general was. When someone who knew him answered, Cao Cao sighed again and said: "Liu Bei has many brave generals under his command, but this man is as brave as Meng Qi and cannot be defeated." After sighing, he led the central army to retreat. Seeing this, Liu Bei ordered Huang Zhong and Zhang Fei to encircle the enemy from two directions. Cao's army was unable to resist and trampled on each other, resulting in many deaths. When they returned to the camp, there were only about 20,000 soldiers and horses. At this point, more than half of the 50,000 troops brought by Cao Cao had been killed or wounded, and were on the verge of collapse. Cao Cao did not care much about much, and ordered Xu Huang to cover the rear and led the army towards the slope. But when he arrived at the slope, he suddenly saw a soldier coming to report that Yangping Pass had been captured by Wu Yi. It turned out that Liu Bei was delaying with Cao Cao here, but ordered Wu Yi to attack Nanzheng openly and take Yangping Pass secretly. By this time, Hanzhong had almost completely fallen, and Cao Cao rode his carriage and rushed all the way into the slope. After marching for thirty miles, Cao Cao received news from the rear that Xu Huang had been defeated and had been defeated. This frightened Cao Cao so much that he fled again. In this way, the two armies chased each other, and it was not until mid-June that Cao Cao finally got out of the slant. However, bad news came one after another along the way. First, Qin Zhen defeated Cao Ang and besieged him in Nanyang. Luoyang was attacked by Xu Shu again, and Guan Yu sent troops to Yingchuan and killed Cheng Yu and Man Chong. Every piece of bad news was like a hammer hitting Cao Cao's heart, causing him to spit blood and his health to deteriorate. When his civil and military officials saw this, they were all saddened, and Guo Jia, Lou Gui and others felt the same way. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Cao Cao is not long for death, just like their current power. This is not a situation that can be changed by one or two people, because now three parties are attacking them! Without the development opportunities that Xun Yu and Xun You had expected, Liu Bei extended his hand to the north after seizing Jingzhou. At this time, Yuan Shao had just experienced a war with them and was determined to get back at them. Liu Zhang was simply forced to follow Liu Bei's huge power and had to follow Liu Bei to attack them. In other words, the princes of the world were once again driven by Qin Zhen with the general trend and followed Liu Bei to destroy them. In fact, fundamentally speaking, neither Liu Zhang nor Yuan Shao would want them to perish so quickly. But the situation they thought was different from what Qin Zhen had planned. They just thought that Liu Bei wanted to gain some advantage. Qin Zhen's plan was to eliminate their manpower through this battle, or even annihilate them directly. This was like an avalanche. Liu Zhang only wanted to take Hanzhong, and Yuan Shao only wanted to retake Bingzhou, but when the two families sent troops at the same time, it created a major trend. The situation was like a mountain of pressure and enemies were everywhere. Under such circumstances, Qin Zhen's dispatch of troops to Nanyang was the first heavy snow. Xu Shu captured Luoyang, which was the second heavy snowfall, and Guan Yu captured Chenliu and Yingchuan, which was the third heavy snowfall. The snow has accumulated to a certain level, and an avalanche will occur regardless of whether Cao Cao can achieve results in Hanzhong. Cao Cao's defeat in Hanzhong was caused by the last heavy snow. When this heavy snow arrived in Chang'an, it created a false impression for Cao Cao's subordinates. That means Cao Cao's demise is inevitable and there is no way to reverse the situation. The morale of Cao Cao's subordinates will immediately disperse.

As the saying goes, when the wall falls, everyone pushes it. Now that the wall has begun to fall, countless people will appear and start pushing it. Not to mention that Cao Cao was no longer able to take charge of things, even if Cao Cao could take charge of things, the final result would be the same as Xiang Yu, who was defeated at the Chu River. However, unlike Xiang Yu, Cao Cao no longer had Jiangdong. This hero who started his career in the Central Plains had no way to retreat. Like a hero in his twilight years, Cao Cao no longer had any way out and could only rely on himself. But now, Cao Cao couldn't bear it anymore, and he finally fell down, just like the human heart, completely fell down. Cao Cao fell ill, and the disease began to spread throughout Cao's army like a virus, until there was a lot of discussion in the camp. Faced with this situation, all Guo Jia could do was to block all news and allow Cao Cao, who was already ill, to get enough rest. Every day he looked at Cao Cao, who was in great pain, and cursed Qin Zhen countless times in his heart, while returning to the army while cursing. Just as Cao Cao's troops entered Chang'an, bad news came again: Wancheng had fallen! (End of this chapter)