Tiger Guards

Chapter 291 The End of Ge Township
"Lord Attendant, Cao Cao has fled."

When Zhao Ji entered Han Meng's camp, Han Meng strode over to greet him, took a torch from a guard, and personally lit it for Zhao Ji.

Zhao Ji was not surprised and dismounted, walking on foot: "How can you be so sure?"

"The fighting spirit of the Cao army on the other side is not strong."

Han Meng turned to look at the Cao army's northern outer camp to the east, pointing to the Cao army's campfire: "Although the campfire is dense, just now when I sent troops to scout, the enemy's arrows were sparse and weak."

"I understand, I'll arrange it right away."

Zhao Ji turned to Han Shu and said, "Order each team to shout 'Cao Cao has fled!' after I sound a drumbeat here, the entire army should shout 'Cao Cao has fled!' After shouting it more than ten times, then observe the effect."

"Here."

Han Shu appeared excited, but his steps were not very steady when he turned around and walked away.

Everyone was tired from playing, and Zhao Ji was no exception. He felt very uncomfortable from the chafing on the inside of his legs.

After watching Han Shu lead dozens of knights away to relay the order, Zhao Ji said, "Once the drums are sounded, I also want to see the reaction of Cao Cao's army."

"Here."

Han Meng agreed and turned to arrange the drummers, while Zhao Ji went to the ramparts and looked out over the low fence at the northern outer camp, which was half a mile away. There were indeed quite a few torches there.

In the firelight, one could see some of Cao Cao's soldiers scaling the walls and cutting flesh from the dead horses outside the camp.

Soon, the sound of drums echoed behind Zhao Ji. Upon hearing the drums, the opposing camp also began to beat their drums, and more and more figures crowded towards the ramparts, preparing for battle.

"The reaction was indeed quite fast."

Zhao Ji said to those around him, "The enemy is exhausted, just like our army. They shouldn't be reacting so violently to the sound of our drums."

Zhu Ling remained silent as he followed behind, while Zhang He inquired, "Does the Grand Chamberlain mean that the enemy forces gathered spontaneously?"

"maybe."

Zhao Ji was also somewhat unsure, and continued, "If it is my central army, the night watch soldiers and the resting soldiers are divided into two or three groups. If the enemy attacks, without my order, those who are not night watch soldiers should just gather at the military officer's office and wait for orders, and should not act rashly."

Upon hearing this, those around him nodded in agreement; this was how they managed their troops.

The night watch force consists of at least a quarter of the troops, on average a third, and sometimes as much as a half.

Why would they all crowd to the fortress to defend against the enemy at the first sign of trouble?
Zhao Ji was genuinely unsure. Seeing the smiles around him, ready to praise him, he waved his hand in advance: "This is just my guess. There is also the possibility that the enemy camp is small but has many soldiers. There is no need to worry too much. Let's wait and see."

“What the Chamberlain said is very true.”

"Indeed, we shall wait and see."

After several people echoed each other, they stood quietly with Zhao Ji at the fortification, listening to the resounding drumbeats.

Upon hearing this, the drummers on the periphery also joined in the rhythm and beat their drums.

A single drumbeat marks a moment; the melody builds, and after the drums from all directions sound together, they will all stop.

Zhao Ji's cavalry rested, while Zhang He and Zhu Ling's soldiers had already entered Cao Cao's western camp, surrounding the northern outer camp from both sides.

As the drums sounded, Lü Bu rose, his hand on his sword, his cloak billowing southward in the wind, while nearby campfires crackled and popped.

Wei Yue stepped forward: "My lord?"

"do not mind."

Lu Bu stared silently at Cao Ren's camp to the west, also suspecting that Cao Cao had abandoned his army and fled.

He desperately wanted to kill Cao Cao, not out of hatred, but because if Cao Cao lived, he would interfere with Lü Bu for a long time to come, becoming the biggest obstacle to Lü Bu's dominance in the Central Plains.

If Cao Cao were to cross the river at this moment and establish a firm foothold, there would be a certain probability that it would inspire the defending troops in each camp.

After all, Cao Cao had already made a clean getaway. If they refused to fight to the end, Cao Cao would pursue and execute their families.

The more Lü Bu pondered, the more determined he became to prevent such a thing from happening. He immediately turned and shouted, "Beat the drums!"

"Here!"

As the war drums of Lü Bu's central army sounded, the officers and soldiers who were resting in various places began to assemble under the urging of their military officers.

Just as Lü Bu was gathering his troops here, preparing to launch a strong attack on Cao Ren's arched camp on the south bank, the drumbeats from the west abruptly stopped in the darkness.

Cao Cao has escaped!

Cao Cao has escaped!

Cao Cao has escaped!

The Hebei soldiers shouted at the top of their lungs, attracting the attention of the officers and soldiers of Cao Cao's outer camp, northern camp, and central camp, who looked around to observe the changes in the expressions of their comrades and officers.

The northern outer camp was where Cao Cao's central army officers and soldiers were stationed.

The uproar was even greater, and Cao Cao has not appeared since the drumbeats began.

Now, as long as Cao Cao patrols the camp in his armor, he can quell such suspicions.

However, despite the expectations of six or seven thousand people, Cao Cao did not appear for a long time.

As the shouts outside the camp gradually subsided, the officers and soldiers of the Northern Outer Camp completely lost control, rushing out of the camp and fleeing towards the Bian River.

Many people discarded their armor and weapons, wearing only helmets and carrying swords, and headed north in groups.

Without torches for illumination, they marched northward in complete darkness to break through.

At this moment, Cao Cao had successfully reached the north bank, and Xiahou Dun was also brought there on a stretcher.

Dian Wei stood beside Cao Cao, holding a shield in one hand and a halberd in the other, surrounded by dozens of fierce warriors on high alert.

Cao Ren was selecting knights to escort Cao Cao to Jiyin.

Hearing the faint sound of drums from the south bank, Cao Ren hurried to see Cao Cao: "Brother, leave quickly, I will cover your retreat!" "Zixiao should preserve his life to serve others, and must not act rashly."

Cao Cao grasped Cao Ren's hand, his expression complex: "I observe that Zhao Ji and Lü Bu are both ruthless and vicious. When two tigers fight, there will surely be casualties. The Emperor, seeing their ferocity, will surely issue an edict ordering us to raise troops to punish the traitors. There is plenty of time ahead; we should not be concerned with temporary gains or losses."

"Brother, rest assured, I am by no means a weakling."

Cao Ren was moved and helped Cao Cao to mount his horse. His personal guards also brought horses over. Dian Wei and the others already had horses, and after mounting their horses one after another, they also took these spare horses.

The most important thing now is to quickly leave the battlefield and enter Dingtao City before news of the defeat spreads, so as to gather together the forces in Jiyin and northern Shanyang.

If the action is slow, and news of the major defeat spreads and these counties make their choices, then it will be too slow to recover and regain control.

If they were to be attacked by Lü Bu and Zhao Ji's separate forces during this period, many counties and powerful families would naturally switch sides, as if the whole thing were being swept away.

So escaping to the north bank was not the end; the end was Dingtao in Jiyin County!
Lü Bu and Zhao Ji will never sit idly by and watch our side regroup. They will definitely send troops to harass us, and we will have to fight another battle here in Dingtao in the future.

Only when Cao Cao fled to Dingtao and gained a foothold did he have the leverage to negotiate with Yuan Shao!

Faced with the alliance between Lü and Zhao, we must unite with Yuan Shao.

These are things that Cao Cao understood after he retreated to the north bank and his thinking was no longer affected by the battlefield.

Once he found the next thing to do, Cao Cao felt fulfilled.

As for the troops abandoned on the south bank of the Bian River, all they could hope for was that they could hold out for a while longer, until Zhao Ji and Lü Bu's troops were exhausted before attempting a breakout, which would greatly increase the chances of success.

Soon, Cao Cao's few dozen men, along with several dozen cavalrymen sent by Cao Ren, combined to a hundred or so riders, each with two horses, galloped toward Jiyin.

The sooner you arrive, the greater the chance of salvaging the situation.

As the horses galloped through the darkness, Cao Cao felt increasingly overwhelmed and realized he should train Cao Ang so that he could take charge of things on his own sooner.

Although Sun Ce was reckless and impulsive, he was an excellent successor to Sun Jian.

But the path that Sun Ce has already trod will inevitably block those who follow.

Cao Cao pondered and felt that he should send someone to join forces with Sun Ce. He occupied the upper reaches of the Si River, while Sun Ce was located in the middle reaches, creating an external environment for them to cooperate and survive.

Moreover, Sun Ce rebelled against Yuan Shu. If he wrote a letter to Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao would surely accept him and give him an official position, allowing him to live legally and preventing him from becoming a bandit.

Given Yuan Shao's immense power, the imperial court would certainly give him some face.

After abandoning his main force, Cao Cao's thinking became exceptionally clear.

Perhaps only by diverting his attention in this way could he avoid feeling too disappointed and regretful.

On the south bank of the Bian River, following the massive collapse of the outer northern camp, the northern camp under Wang Lang to the south and the northeastern camp to the east also disintegrated. This collapse quickly spread to the central army camp.

The lower-ranking officers and soldiers of Cao Cao's army scrambled to escape, fearing that they would be purged and killed by Lü Bu.

Many of Cao Cao's die-hard loyalists were taking the time to set fire to military supplies, documents, and even the fallen mid- to high-ranking officers in the camp.

If someone dies here and is identified, it will surely bring disaster upon their family.

For example, Liu Dai, who was seriously injured and unable to break through the encirclement, ordered his personal guards to bring bundles of straw and set the tent on fire. He and the other officers in the tent lost consciousness in the thick smoke and flames.

Meanwhile, the wounded soldiers and many soldiers from Yanzhou surrendered to Zhao Ji's position to the west, their cries and pleas echoing back and forth.

At this moment, even Yue Jin, sitting in a palanquin, began to break through the encirclement and fled towards the Chen army's position in the southwest corner.

The general of Chen Guobing, Yue Jiu, was not the same Yue as Yue Jin. His attempt to break through here was purely to take advantage of the fact that Chen Guobing dared not fight at night.

If they escaped the Sui River, they would have a chance to recover from their injuries, gather their defeated troops, and then return north to Cao Cao's command.

Zhao Ji climbed to the high platform of the northwest camp. Under the firelight, he reached out and pulled an arrow from the railing, gazing to the north alone.

Lu Bu's men, torches held high, charged from the mudflats north of the dike and the fields south of it. Cao Ren's arched position teetered on the brink of collapse and could be overrun at any moment.

Chunyu Qiong's five thousand Hebei soldiers and more than two thousand Yanzhou soldiers, who had arrived here on their own initiative, launched an attack without authorization, setting fire to the west and launching a fierce assault.

Cao Ren's arched formation did not hold for long before it was shattered by the fire dragons that attacked from both the east and west.

Countless torches flew towards the Bian River, only to be swallowed by its icy waters.

Zhao Ji grabbed the arrow, wiped the sweat from his face, and let out a long sigh of relief.

The long day was finally over. He wasn't physically tired, but he felt mentally exhausted.

The next steps were to clean up the battlefield, tally the merits, treat the wounded, and reorganize the troops.

As for Lü Bu, he will probably have to digest the surrendered soldiers from this battle.

Zhao Ji can no longer predict what will happen next year or later.

However, for the time being, he and Lü Bu could still maintain a certain degree of harmony.

If he wanted horses, he could only get them from himself; he was his only source.

Therefore, we cannot allow Lü Bu to become too arrogant, otherwise he will start thinking about optimizing channels and reducing costs.

Let Lü Bu stay in the western part of Yan and Yu; my only truly stable partners are King Chen and Liu Bei.

The imperial court is currently in Yingchuan and is unlikely to return to Luoyang easily, as Luoyang is simply too close to them.

Neither high-ranking officials nor Lü Bu would like Luoyang.

The high officials and the emperor temporarily settled in Yingchuan, becoming neighbors with the King of Chen. The King of Chen must have felt very insecure.

Fortunately, Chen Wang was quite skilled at doing things that he himself dared not do.

As he pondered, Zhao Ji snapped the arrow in half with one hand, as if he were breaking someone's leg.

(End of this chapter)