The Three Kingdoms become stronger when they get treasures

Chapter 278 Ma Chao’s Great Defeat
One of the most critical reasons why this battle was able to achieve such a great victory was that Cao Cao was restrained by Ma Chao and was unable to lead his army south.And Cao Cao was also a little miscalculated. He thought that after getting rid of Ma Teng and recruiting Han Sui, Xiliang would basically stabilize.Unexpectedly, Han Sui would be so loyal and help Ma Chao to avenge Ma Teng.

So Cao Cao had no choice but to personally lead an army to deal with Ma Chao, because Chang'an City was too important. He did not expect the Xiliang army to be so capable of fighting, nor did he expect that Ma Chao was so powerful. Not only did he defeat many of his generals, but even himself Almost killed by Ma Chao.

Several times, when Cao Jun saw Ma Chao coming on horseback, he turned around and ran away in fright. Cao Cao had no choice but to focus on defense for the time being, looking for opportunities to defeat Ma Chao.

Zhang Wu stayed Gan Ning and Wen Pin with [-] sailors to guard Chaisang, and at the same time harassed Jiangdong.His elder brother-in-law Ma Bochang was transferred to be the prefect of Yuzhang County, and Jian Yonglai was transferred to be the prefect of Luling.At the same time, some officials in Yuzhang and Luling were swapped with officials in some counties and counties in Jingzhou. This not only deepened the relationship between the two sides, but also facilitated Zhang Wu's complete control of Yuzhang and Luling counties.

Zhang Wu sent Liu Pan to lead the army to garrison Yuzhang County, responsible for maintaining the stability of these two counties.Then, Zhang Wu led his army back to Xiangyang.

After Xiahoudun led his army to Fancheng, he first set up camp and then pretended to attack Fancheng several times, but the defenders of Fancheng ignored him.Xiahou Dun didn't dare to really order to attack the city. After the scouts found out that the Jingzhou army had occupied Chaisang and Zhang Wu was on his way back, Xiahou Dun had no choice but to withdraw his troops to Wancheng.

After Zhang Wu returned to Xiangyang, after arranging his official affairs, he went back to the mansion to reunite with his wife and children.Zhang Wu now has three children. In addition to the eldest son born to his wife Ma, there are also two concubines who gave birth to a son and a daughter for Zhang Wu, who were named Zhang Jing and Zhang Qing respectively by Zhang Wu.

Later, Zhang Wu summoned his civil and military officials, first arranged the affairs of Yuzhang and Luling counties, and then ordered the expansion of the army. This expansion was mainly to expand the infantry.

The current Jiangdong Navy is no longer the opponent of the Jingzhou Navy. The current number of Jingzhou Navy can deal with the Jiangdong Navy, so it will no longer expand, and at most select some captives to be incorporated into the Navy.

The next step is to attack and occupy Jiangdong's city, which requires a large number of infantry, so Zhang Wu plans to expand at least [-] infantry to be enough.

Now that Zhang Wu has money, it is still very easy to recruit soldiers, but it takes a long time for the recruits to train. Zhang Wu is afraid that he will not be able to catch up with the time, so he selects some of the Cao troops who were captured before.

Then, Zhang Wu asked Ma Liang to bring a large number of gifts to Wuling County to find Sha Moke, the leader of the Wuxi Man, and appointed Sha Moke as the general. He ordered him to recruit [-] barbarians to Xiangyang for training, and all of them were paid.

The war between Jingzhou and Jiangdong came to an end, but Cao Cao was still confronting Ma Chao.

The Xiliang Army has a large number of cavalry, and they come and go like the wind, and they are very sharp in fighting on the plain.Cao Cao originally wanted to build a stronghold by the Weihe River to defend Xiliang's iron cavalry, but Ma Chao, Ma Dai and others led troops to the front, piled up hay and set it on fire, so they couldn't build a camp.

Cao Cao was very worried. Although Cao Jun was strong in foot combat, he still couldn't fight the Xiliang iron cavalry head-on. Moreover, Ma Chao was too brave. Except for Xu Chu, none of Cao Cao's generals could defeat Ma Chao.

Xun You suggested: "Prime Minister, it is advisable to build an earthen city on the sandy soil of the Weihe River to resist Ma Chao. As long as we can hold on for a while, there will definitely be a turning point."

Cao Cao sent [-] soldiers to dig the earth to build the city, but Ma Chao sent Pang De and Ma Dai each led [-] cavalry to clash back and forth, and the sand was not firm, and as soon as a wall was built, it fell down soon.

Cao Cao was helpless, depressed and uncomfortable. He didn't expect Ma Chao to be so difficult to deal with.

The army from Xiliang came to Guanzhong far away from Xiliang. The transportation of food and grass was very troublesome, and there was not much food in the poor place of Xiliang, so these soldiers from Xiliang had no food to eat and looted the people everywhere. They had no intention of staying here anyway. , who cares about the life and death of the people in Guanzhong.

The atrocities of the Xiliang army angered a hermit, surnamed Lou, named Zibo, Taoist name Mengmei Jushi, who was from Jingzhao and lived in seclusion in Zhongnan Mountain.Zhongnan Mountain is located in the southwest of Chang'an City, in the Qinling Mountains. This Lou Zibo witnessed the atrocities of the Xiliang Army looting and mutilating the people, so he came to see Cao Cao and offered a plan.

Lou Zibo said: "Is the prime minister going to camp by the Wei River? Now is the time, why don't you send soldiers to build the city?"

Cao Cao said: "There is a lot of sand and soil by the river, it is not convenient to build a city, and it will fall if it is built. I wonder if the layman has any clever advice?"

Lou Zibo said again: "The Prime Minister uses his troops like a god. Don't you know the time of day? It's the end of September, and the clouds are overcast for days. When the north wind blows, there will be severe cold. The Prime Minister can wait for the wind to rise, and then send soldiers to carry soil and splash water. After dawn, the earthen city will be built."

Cao Cao was so enlightened that he was very happy and wanted to reward Lou Zibo generously, but Lou Zibo left without accepting it.

So, Cao Cao used this method to build an earth city overnight, which was very strong.Ma Chao was shocked when he saw it.

Satisfied, Cao Cao wanted to pretend to be a fork, so he rode out of the camp, followed by Xu Chu.Cao Cao shouted in front of the formation: "Ma Chao, do you think I can't build a camp? Now I built it overnight, even God helped me, I think you should surrender sooner!"

Ma Chao is furious, the hatred of killing his father is irreconcilable, I surrender to you, Lao Mu!

Ma Chao was about to slap his horse and go forward to capture Cao Cao alive, but Cao Cao turned behind Xu Chu, with wide eyes and a big knife in his hand, Ma Chao didn't dare to move.

Seeing that Ma Chao was not moving, Xu Chu stared at Ma Chao with his eyes wide open. The two of them stared at me and I stared at you, and finally went back separately.

The next day, Ma Chao and Xu Chu fought. The two fought for more than 200 rounds, and even changed horses once in the middle. In the end, they were tied.

Cao Cao praised Ma Chao for having the courage of Lu Bu, and said: "If the horse does not die, I will have no place to die!"

And Ma Chao also said to Han Sui: "Xu Chu is really a tiger idiot, even the ancient evils are nothing more than this!"

The two sides were a little tired from the confrontation in spring to winter, especially on Ma Chao's side, there were more cavalry, and horses were not suitable for fighting in winter, and Cao Cao planned to build camps on both sides of the Wei River. The situation was not good for the Xiliang army.

Han Sui originally wanted to avenge Ma Chao, but after fighting for so long now, many of his soldiers died, even the generals Cheng Yin and Zhang Heng were killed in battle, so he wanted to temporarily withdraw his troops until the winter was over and the spring warmed up. Let's discuss again.

Ma Chao was still a little hesitant, but Han Sui directly sent Yang Qiu as an envoy to Cao Cao's camp to discuss the matter of the two sides' strike, and said that he was willing to cede land for peace.

As a result, Cao Cao seized the opportunity to turn Ma Chao and Han Sui against each other by means of a divorce. Ma Chao cut off Han Sui's left hand and killed Han Sui's generals Ma Wan and Liang Xing.Cao Cao took the opportunity to send troops, finally defeated Ma Chao, and chased him all the way to Anding.

Ma Chao, Pang De, and Ma Dai escaped, but only about thirty cavalry followed, and the rest were captured by Cao Cao.

(End of this chapter)