My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 671 Pursuit of victory
The Battle of Fancheng thus came to an end, with the Left Army achieving a great victory and the allied forces suffering a crushing defeat.

Cao Ang led more than two thousand men and, taking advantage of the last moment, escaped from the northeast of Fancheng under the pretext of rescuing the left flank. No one else survived.

Liu Zhang was the first to flee into Fancheng, and then he closed the city gates.

Cao Ren led the left wing army in a hasty retreat. Under Huang Quan's relentless pursuit, only about four thousand men managed to escape into the main camp outside the city.

Due to the defection of the Dongzhou soldiers and the blockade of the road by the defeated Yizhou soldiers on the left flank, only Niu Jin and Chang Diao's two troops, totaling more than 2,000 men, managed to escape and join forces with Cao Ren. The remaining 10,000 men either died or surrendered.

As for the Yizhou army on the left flank, apart from the more than a thousand personal guards who were taken away by Liu Zhang, the remaining troops suffered heavy casualties, and less than 10% were able to escape successfully.

The allied forces, which originally numbered 70,000, have now dwindled to only 10,000, and are completely out of equipment. The soldiers are terrified, and morale has plummeted.

However, Liu Feng's side was also in a bad situation. In addition to their own casualties, they captured more than 40,000 prisoners, which was almost the same number as the Left Army.

The large number of prisoners was a great thing, indicating that the Left Army had achieved its objective in this battle, severely damaging the allied forces and almost eliminating Cao Ang's threat and restraint.

Although Cao Ang himself fled to Fucheng with more than two thousand men, it was almost impossible for him to cause any more trouble; he could only prolong his life for a while longer.

This battle sealed the fate of Yizhou, leaving Cao Ang, Liu Zhang, and Zhang Lu with no chance of turning the tide.

That night, the Left Guard Army gathered up the defeated and surrendered soldiers while launching a night offensive with the troops that had been preserved.

This included Liu Feng's two thousand personal guards, as well as the troops under Lu Xun, Quan Cong, and Fu Tong.

Fighting through the night is obviously quite risky, especially since the soldiers are already exhausted after a day of fighting. It would be best to call it a day and call it a day.

However, Liu Feng, Lu Xun, and others keenly observed that the remnants of the allied forces had shown obvious signs of splitting, forming three major groups: Liu Zhang in Fancheng, Cao Ren in Cao's camp, and Pang Xi and Leng Bao, the remnants of the Yizhou army, as well as some smaller forces.

Liu Feng decisively dispatched his more than two thousand personal guards to Lu Xun, who had suffered less losses in this battle, to take command of Quan Cong, Fu Tong and other troops, and to continue their efforts, with Cao Ren's troops as their primary target.

Liu Feng's choice of Cao Ren was not without reason. Liu Zhang was trapped in an isolated city with its gates tightly closed, clearly a lamb to the slaughter. He would certainly not dare to come out of the city to rescue Cao Ren, and might not even have the intention to open the city gates to let him in.

Pang Xi, Leng Bao, and other troops from Yizhou must be like frightened birds at this moment. How could they dare to leave their camp to rush to Cao Ren's aid? They are probably still praying in their camp not to become the first target of the Left Army.

Only Cao Ren possessed not only profound knowledge of strategy and courage, but also the elite strength of Cao's troops.

If they were given a night to rest, they could at least recover 30-50% of Cao's troops' fighting strength. And given Cao Ren's abilities and personality, he would certainly dare to engage in open field battles to support the other two factions.

Therefore, the only way is to take advantage of your illness and kill you.

Taking advantage of the fact that Cao's army is now demoralized and the other two forces dare not provide support, we should deal with Cao Ren first.

Of course, before leaving, Liu Feng also instructed Lu Xun that there were many variables in night battles, and that he should be careful, not seeking victory, but seeking stability.

If Cao Ren is worn down for one night, without giving him a chance to regroup and recuperate, then when the main force of the Left Army, which has rested all night, is mobilized early the next morning, Cao Ren, even with three heads and six arms, will have no strength left to struggle.

Lu Xun accepted the order and led nearly nine thousand troops to the outside of Cao Cao's camp. He did not launch an attack immediately, but instead chose a camp near Cao Ren to garrison.

At its peak, Cao Ang had over 70,000 soldiers and another 40,000 to 50,000 able-bodied men in Fancheng, totaling over 100,000.

The city could only accommodate a maximum of ten thousand people; the other hundred thousand or so were all camped and lodging outside the city.

At present, Cao's army has suffered a great defeat and its remaining troops are concentrated in the main camp. The remaining camps are only occupied by laborers and have no power to resist the Left Army.

Lu Xun chose a camp located 200 meters away from Cao Ren's camp. The two camps were so close that they could hear each other almost perfectly. Any loud noise on one side could be heard clearly on the other.

After Lu Xun entered the camp, he arranged for guards and then ordered the hundreds of captured laborers in the camp to cook.

The camp was filled with Cao Cao's supplies, so there was no need to worry about not finding firewood or rice.

Subsequently, Lu Xun divided his troops into three waves, each with 2,700 to 2,800 soldiers. He arranged for Quan Cong's troops to rest first, and after eating, they could remove their armor and sleep. Fu Tong's troops, on the other hand, were responsible for guarding the camp, with half on duty and half resting.

After Lu Xun and his troops had eaten their fill, they lit torches and marched ostentatiously toward Cao Cao's camp.

Cao Ren had already been informed of Lu Xun's arrival.

At this very moment, he is organizing the troops in the camp.

At present, Cao Ren still has eight or nine thousand troops under his command. Among them, Cao Ren himself has more than two thousand soldiers, Zhang Wei has also escaped more than one thousand, Niu Jin and Chang Diao's two troops together have more than three thousand people, Cao Ang's personal guards have more than nine hundred people, and there are also several hundred Yizhou soldiers who have gone astray.

However, the composition was actually more complex. Of the more than 3,000 people under Niu Jin and Chang Diao, more than 600 were stragglers who broke out from Yin Shu and Jia Xin's forces. Among the hundreds of people in the Yizhou army, they were divided into Dongzhou soldiers and Shu soldiers, and the organizational structures they belonged to were also quite varied.

It is no exaggeration to say that Cao Ren can currently command no more than five or six thousand troops, and of those, probably no more than half are still capable of fighting.

Therefore, Cao Ren's most urgent task, just as Liu Feng had thought, was to first set things right, reorganize the troops, clarify their structure, and restore their organization.

The importance of this mission even surpasses that of rest and recuperation; otherwise, even if the soldiers were allowed to rest for a whole night, they would not recover much combat strength by the next day.

People need to have a backbone, especially when they fail.

Clearly defining the organizational structure is equivalent to establishing a backbone for the soldiers from top to bottom, giving them a sense of reliance. Only by doing this well can the foundation for restoring morale and combat effectiveness be laid. While Cao Ren was reorganizing the troops without stopping, he planned to incorporate all the other troops into the command of Niu Jin and Chang Diao, except for his own troops and Cao Ang's personal guards, which maintained their complete organizational structure.

The news of Lu Xun's entry into the camp was quickly reported to Cao Ren.

Although Cao Ren was somewhat surprised, after carefully checking, he found that Lu Xun was only cooking in the camp and had not sent troops to attack. So he put it aside for the time being and continued to busy himself with his own trivial matters.

However, their good fortune was short-lived. Half an hour later, Cao Cao's army discovered that Lu Xun's army had set out and was deploying its forces in their direction. The catapults and ballistae used on the right flank were also brought over by laborers and placed in front of the formation.

Cao Ren immediately ordered all the lights in the camp to be turned off, and his personal guards, Cao Ang's personal guards, and other troops that were still organized and capable of fighting were to prepare for battle.

Soon, the lights in Cao Cao's camp went out one by one, eventually disappearing completely into the night.

It was during a lunar eclipse, and the moonlight and starlight were very dim, so most of Cao Cao's camp was under the protection of darkness.

However, their good fortune was short-lived. Soon, fires broke out on the left side of the camp, and bonfires were lit, illuminating the angles for firing.

The Left Army adopted a new nighttime aiming method, namely the two-point-one-line tactic.

Simply put, two bonfires were lit at approximately the same distance along a line to the east of Cao Cao's camp, so that they were aligned with Cao Cao's camp.

In this way, when the catapults and ballistae are aiming, they only need to keep in line with the two campfires behind them, and their aim will inevitably be towards Cao Cao's camp.

In this way, ballistae and catapults no longer needed to search for targets in the pitch-black night; they could simply use the campfire behind them as a reference point to greatly improve the accuracy of nighttime shooting.

This method effectively solved the accuracy problem of night shooting, but it was the first time it had been used in the Han Dynasty.

It's not that the Han Dynasty didn't have this technology. In fact, the prototype of the two-campfire orientation technology had already been used in military operations during the Qin and Han Dynasties. However, it was usually used to help patrolling soldiers determine their direction and location at night. Its use to guide military equipment was a first.

Looking at the Left Guard Army outside the camp, Cao Ren's face was pale, but his expression remained resolute. He feigned a relaxed demeanor and reassured his surrounding generals, saying, "Our camp is well-fortified, with trenches outside. The Left Guard Army has been fighting fiercely for a day, and their reckless advance with light troops is the reason for their defeat. Moreover, our allies are on both sides. Everyone understands the principle of 'if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold.' Seeing that we are under attack, they will surely come to our aid with all their might. We can sit safely in the camp and watch them defeat themselves. When they are exhausted and retreat, that will be the time for us to leave the camp and defeat the enemy."

While Cao Ren's words were somewhat exaggerated, all the generals agreed on one point: the Left Guard Army was far too arrogant and ambitious. Moreover, their actions showed a degree of contempt and disrespect for Cao's generals, which fueled their anger. Anger, to some extent, can alleviate fear and panic.

At this moment, the Left Army should have stopped and rested, but instead they were so reckless and arrogant that they could be described as an isolated force deep in enemy territory.

As the saying goes, even a spent arrow cannot pierce thin silk, and everyone felt that the Left Guard Army was indeed as reckless and impetuous as Cao Ren had said. Although they did not think that Liu Zhang and Pang Xi would come to their aid, they still couldn't help but have a glimmer of hope of defeating the Left Guard Army.

Of course, having just suffered a crushing defeat, the morale of the generals had already plummeted. Now, they were not thinking about defeating Lu Xun, but rather about forcing him to retreat slightly, which would have been enough to satisfy them.

Thus, under Cao Ren's command, the generals each went their own way.

Cao Ren ordered Cao Ang's personal guards and his two hundred elite cavalry guards to retreat to the rear camp to rest. These more than a thousand men were the most elite troops in Cao's army at present. They were not only fully equipped, but also had their morale still intact because they had not suffered direct attacks from the Left Guard Army.

If there is an opportunity to launch a counterattack in the second half of the night, they are undoubtedly the most suitable people to carry out the mission.

Subsequently, Cao Ren divided his remaining two thousand personal guards into two shifts to take turns on guard duty. He also ordered Niu Jin, Chang Diao, and others to speed up the reorganization of the troops, incorporating all the scattered soldiers into their ranks and re-equipping them with all the weapons from the camp.

Due to the long and dangerous journey, Niu Jin and Chang Diao's troops had discarded most of their armor and weapons, leaving most of them empty-handed.

Fortunately, Cao Cao's army still had a considerable amount of stockpiled equipment in their camp. They only had about three hundred sets of armor, all of which were leather, but they could gather more than two thousand six hundred long and short weapons, which was enough to barely fill their gaps.

During the first half of the night, although the Left Guard Army's offensive was considerable, the actual damage was minimal. The Left Guard Army merely continued to launch catapults and ballistae, and escorted laborers to reinforce the trenches; there was no real offensive in the true sense.

From Cao Ren to Niu Jin, Chang Diao, Zhang Wei, and others, Cao Jun judged that the Left Guard Army was likely employing a strategy of exhausting the enemy and depleting the physical strength of Cao Jun's soldiers.

Therefore, Cao Ren boldly arranged for all his personal guards to rest, but they could not leave their weapons and armor, so they could be re-equipped at any time. He also ordered Niu Jin and Chang Diao to have some troops with some fighting strength to be on guard, giving his main force time to put on their armor.

Time passed gradually, and by midnight, the soldiers of Quan Cong, Fu Tong, and other units had finished resting. After sleeping for three or four hours, their morale and strength had been restored to about 70-80%.

Because they were worried about alerting Cao Cao's army, the soldiers were served cold meals after getting up, with only a small amount of hot water provided. Even so, the soldiers seemed quite surprised.

Soon, the soldiers, having finished their meal, quietly left the camp under the command of Quan Cong and Fu Tong.

Under the cover of night, Cao's army did not discover their presence. After half a night of work, the trench outside Cao's camp was filled in with a section more than forty meters wide, which could directly attack Cao's camp's wooden palisade.

"General, both Captain Quan's and Captain Fu's troops are in place."

Upon receiving the message, Lu Xun finally smiled: "Then let's begin."

At Lu Xun's command, the catapults and ballistae that had been prepared for a long time immediately launched a large number of black leather bags, the liquid inside of which was naturally still petroleum.

Having grown accustomed to the slow, deliberate firing of catapults and ballistae, Cao Cao's army remained completely unaware of the impending danger.

Soon, the black liquid was splashed onto the wooden fence, and the next moment, hundreds of rockets swarmed in, instantly setting the entire wooden wall ablaze, causing great panic among Cao Cao's army.

This scene had already occurred once before at Fandun Hill, but the defending troops there were almost completely annihilated by the Left Army. Even those few who managed to escape were scattered by the chaos of battle. Moreover, Cao Ren was already overwhelmed with other matters and had no time to investigate why Fandun Hill had fallen.

(End of this chapter)