Three Kingdoms: copy Lu Bu's force at the beginning

The news spread to Puyang.

Cao Cao was furious.

With a sound of "snap", Cao Cao slapped the desk hard, stood up angrily, drew out the long sword at his waist, and said through gritted teeth, "Yuan Gonglu, I am at odds with you."

No wonder Cao Cao was angry.

If it weren't for Huainan's delay for a full month, Xuzhou would never have fallen so quickly.

Of course, Cao Cao didn't even know that Zang Ba had been instigated by Yin Li a long time ago, and he was a pawn of Hua Yu's ambush in Xuzhou.

Moreover, Zang Ba was not exposed this time, allowing Chen Deng to attract everyone's attention.

So, Zang Ba fled to Jiangdong, and he was still Hua Yu's internal support.

Guo Jia frowned, staring intently at the map, and didn't have a good way to deal with it for a while.

Xuzhou fell, and Yanzhou was surrounded by the Qin army on all sides, and it was in danger.

And Yanzhou's [-] soldiers and horses, [-] in the north, [-] in the west, and [-] in the south, are just enough to defend.

But in this way, Cao Cao had to mobilize more than 2 troops from these three places to deploy in the east of Yanzhou to guard against Zhou Yu's troops.

No matter who it is, they all understand that Cao Cao is already a turtle in the urn, and defeat is only a matter of time.

Cao Cao hated Yuan Shu, and he definitely should.

If Yuan Shu was in front of Cao Cao, Cao Cao would definitely chop him up.

After losing his temper for a while, Cao Cao's anger finally subsided slightly. He put his long sword back into its sheath, turned his head to look at the four advisors, and asked, "Do you have any clever strategies?"

Cheng Yu sighed slightly, shook his head lightly and said, "Master, the current situation is extremely unfavorable to our army."

"At present, our army can only focus on defense for the time being, waiting for the news from Man Chong."

At this moment, Xu Chu's deep voice came from outside: "My lord, the Mandarin is back."

Man Chong is back?
Cao Cao couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief. Ever since he saw Mao Jie's head, he had worried about Man Chong's safety for no reason.

Now that Man Chong is back, it proves that Man Chong should have completed his mission during this trip to Taihang Mountain.

"Let him in now."

"Here." Xu Chu responded, and then the door opened with a "creak".

The figure of Man Chong walked in immediately.

Without waiting for Man Chong to salute Cao Cao, Cao Cao hurriedly said: "Boning doesn't need to be too polite, tell me quickly, how is the situation of this mission to Taihang Mountain?"

Man Chong's face was filled with high spirits, and he cupped his hands and said: "My lord, the final general has fulfilled his mission, and he has successfully persuaded Zhang Ning."

Zhang Ning?

Not Zhang Yan?

Cao Cao was taken aback, and asked, "Who is Zhang Ning?"

"My lord, Zhang Ning is the daughter of Zhang Jiao, the true leader of the Black Mountain Army, and Zhang Yan is just a general under Zhang Ning's command."

Only then did Cao Cao and others understand what was going on.

Man Chong said again: "Zhang Yan tends to surrender to Hua Yu, but Zhang Ning seems to disagree. After some persuasion by the general, Zhang Ning finally made up his mind to unite with the lord to fight against Hua Yu."

Cao Cao was overjoyed, and at the same time secretly called a fluke, if the leader of the Black Mountain Army was not Zhang Ning, but Zhang Yan, Cao Cao's end might be coming soon.

Now, with the army of the Black Mountain Army, Cao Cao immediately lifted his spirits and felt that his chances of winning were a little bit better.

Guo Jia asked: "Bo Ning, how is the situation of the Black Mountain Army, do you know?"

Man Chong cupped his hands and said, "I already understand."

"The Black Mountain Army claims to have 30, but it is actually 25."

"Among the 25 soldiers and horses, only [-] are truly elite."

"There are [-] more, and the equipment is okay, but the combat effectiveness is a little bit worse."

"The last [-] people are basically a mob. The weapons and armor are all missing, and the training is not enough."

Fifty thousand elite?

One hundred thousand reserve troops?
Not to mention the other 10 soldiers and horses, the 15 soldiers and horses alone are amazing.

Guo Jia cupped his hands to Cao Cao and said, "My lord, since Zhang Ning agreed to form an alliance, Jia thinks that Zhang Ning can send troops immediately to cooperate with our army and attack the Qin army from the north to the south, so as to solve the difficulties on the northern front first."

Cao Cao nodded: "That's exactly what I mean."

"Besides, there are no advisers in the Montenegrin army, so I'm afraid it will be difficult to accomplish anything."

"Zhongde, it's hard work for you to take a trip to assist Zhang Ning and cooperate with our army."

"Remember, this matter must be kept secret, and Hua Yu's secret work must not find out."

Cheng Yu immediately got up and cupped his hands and said, "Here."

The news that Cao Cao sent people to Taihang Mountain twice, naturally, could not be hidden from Hua Yu.

It wasn't that Hua Yu had detected the whereabouts of Man Chong and Cheng Yu, but that Hua Yu had already bought a general of the Black Mountain Army.

This general was not Zhang Yan who advocated surrendering Hua Yu, but Tao Sheng.

Who is Tao Sheng?

He was not from the Yellow Turban Army, but the nephew of Tao Qian, the former governor of Xuzhou.

Tao Qian has two sons and a nephew. The sons are the eldest son Tao Shang, the second son Tao Ying, and the nephew is Tao Sheng.

With a hypocritical face, Liu Bei forced Tao Qian to give up Xuzhou to him when Cao Jun was under pressure.

Later, Liu Bei worried that the existence of the pottery merchant and Tao Ying would pose a threat to him, so he sent someone to secretly kill them.

When Tao Sheng heard the news, he disguised himself and secretly escaped from Pengcheng, heading west.

When he arrived in Taihang Mountains, Tao Sheng met Zhang Yan. The latter saw his extraordinary martial arts skills, so he recruited him into the Black Mountain Army and became a general.

Because Tao Sheng's martial arts were superior to those of Yu Du, Bai Rao and Sui Gu, so although he was less qualified, Yu Du and the other three did not have any objection to Tao Sheng being equal to them.

Liu Bei lied to Xuzhou and killed Tao Shang and Tao Ying. Tao Sheng naturally hated him.

Therefore, Liu Bei's enemy is Tao Sheng's friend.

Hua Yu happened to be Liu Bei's enemy, so Tao Sheng was determined to persuade Zhang Ning and Zhang Yan to join Hua Yu, and then use Hua Yu's hand to kill Liu Bei and avenge the Tao family.

Originally, Tao Sheng had already persuaded Zhang Yan, and he was going to send soldiers from Montenegro to join Hua Yu.

But who would have thought that Zhang Ning did not have this intention, but was persuaded by Man Chong.

Cao Cao and Liu Bei are allies, and Zhang Ning's alliance with Cao Cao is equivalent to forming an alliance with Liu Bei, which makes Tao Sheng very unhappy.

So, Tao Sheng sent his confidant, holding his own letter, secretly out of the Taihang Mountains, to Yecheng, to see Hua Yu.

In the letter, Tao Sheng stated his life experience, his hatred of Liu Bei, and even told Hua Yu of the alliance between Cao Cao and Zhang Ning to show his sincerity.

The terrain of Taihang Mountain is complicated, Zhang Yan has so many secret sentries densely planted, it is impossible for outside forces to infiltrate it.

Therefore, if it wasn't for the letter sent by Tao Sheng's confidants, Hua Yu really didn't know that Cao Cao and Zhang Ning had formed an alliance.

"Hey..." After reading the letter, Hua Yu squinted his eyes, looked in the direction of Taihang Mountain, and muttered to himself, "I didn't expect Zhang Ning to be the real leader of Taihang Mountain. It's interesting."

"Since your Montenegro army is going to abandon the terrain and come out, Gu will let you go and never return."