Becoming stronger from cutting Hu and Cao Cao

"Cao Ren is my humerus general. How can he not defend a mere Zhending County?" Cao Cao laughed loudly.

"report"

Just as Cao Cao stopped laughing, he saw a fast horse galloping ahead.

"Report to King Wei that a large number of our troops have been defeated in front of us."

The scout got off his horse, knelt on one knee in front of Wei Wang Cao Cao and said.

At this time, in the woods not far from Cao Cao's army, many soldiers wearing Cao's armor were sitting and resting under the trees.These soldiers looked defeated at first glance, and they looked more embarrassed than each other.

Naturally, these rout soldiers escaped from Zhending County, Cao Ren's troops.It was midnight when Cao Ren withdrew, and it was sometimes dark, and Cao Ren sometimes retreated.So when they left, they only gathered more than ten thousand soldiers and horses, and the rest of Cao Jun's soldiers ran on their own.

It was dark at night, and the road could not be seen clearly. It happened that many soldiers were running along the relatively flat official road, so they happened to meet Cao Cao.

"Broken soldiers, how could there be broken soldiers?" Cao Cao couldn't help but feel angry and have an ominous premonition.

"Quickly summon some rout soldiers and ask where they are from?" Cao Cao hurriedly ordered.The scout in charge of exploring the road had to leave, and after about a stick of incense, he brought a few defeated Cao troops.

"Greetings to His Royal Highness the King of Wei." Seeing Cao Cao, these defeated soldiers accepted their heads and were defeated.

Cao Cao glanced at the soldiers, they were really in a state of embarrassment. At this time, all the armor on their bodies had been lost, and they were only turning around the inner shirt inside the armor. The weapons in their hands were lost. The helmet that was worn crookedly.

"Whose soldiers are you?" Cao Cao asked.

"Report to His Royal Highness the King of Wei, are we soldiers of General Cao Ren?" the defeated soldiers replied.

"What's the matter, could it be that Zhending County lost the battle, and you are deserters?" Cao Cao said angrily.

"His Royal Highness, we are not deserters, we are routed. Zhending County is not defeated. Zhending County is lost. General Cao Ren has long since disappeared." The Cao soldiers argued.

A deserter is not the same as a rout. The deserter escapes by himself, and he must be punished.But the rout is different. The rout is because the main general ran away, and he had to run away.

At this moment, Cao Cao's face turned pale.He said just now that Cao Ren could keep Zhending, but in the blink of an eye, he heard the sad news that Zhending County had been lost.

This really hit the face too fast, like a tornado.Cao Cao felt that his face was about to be swollen.

Chapter 211 Guo Jia Advises Cao Cao

When Cao Cao heard that Zhending County was lost, his expression changed again and again.Cao Anmin's soldiers were defeated and killed Cao Cao can understand, after all, Cao Anmin is still young, the defeat may be due to lack of experience.But how could Cao Ren lose?Cao Ren is a general. In Cao Cao's army, only the Xiahou brothers can compare with him when it comes to leading troops in battle.

The most important thing is that Cao Anmin is still fighting in the field, but Cao Ren still has Zhending County as a defense.How did Cao Ren lose, and how could he lose so quickly.

This time, Cao Cao's mood became a bit cloudy and cloudy, and something happened with thunderstorms.

Although Cao Cao is not tall, he is less than 1.6 meters tall, but if Cao Cao gets angry, no one dares to speak.

Xu Chu and Dian Wei are more than two meters tall, with big arms and round waists. They stand up like two walls of people, and they dare not stroke Cao Cao's beard at this time.

At this time, there is only one person who dares to speak, and that is Guo Jia.

Guo Jia was Cao Cao's military adviser and Cao Cao's mastermind.The biggest advantage of Cao Cao is that he listens to others.Can listen to other people's advice, especially for Guo Jia, no matter what time, Cao Cao is willing to listen to Guo Jia's words.

Guo Jia saw that no one dared to persuade Cao Cao at this time, so he came to persuade him. Since Cao Ren's army had been defeated, Zhending County had been lost.Then at this time, you can't rush forward, after all, no one knows what Li Chen is thinking.

In case, Li Chen sent troops to ambush them somewhere to make a surprise attack on them, then he would accompany his wife and break up again.

"Wei Wang, our army has been traveling all night and is quite tired now. At this time, it is better to camp and rest on the spot, and first send scouts to search along the road. On the one hand, we can gather the defeated soldiers, and on the other hand, we can also see if we can find General Cao Ren. .” Guo Jia said to Cao Cao.

What Guo Jia said was very tactful. Now that they are camping and resting, it is not because of fatigue.That was obviously because he was afraid of an ambush, so he didn't dare to go forward.But at this time, in order to avoid affecting the morale of the army, Guo Jia couldn't say it clearly.

"Hey."

"It's the only way to go now." Cao Cao sighed.

Cao Cao responded, and Guo Jia hurriedly began to give orders.First, they sent soldiers and horses to collect the routs along the way, and then sent people to find Cao Ren.In addition, Guo Jia also sent a team of cavalry to take a look at Zhending County, hoping to find out the situation in Zhending County.

After giving all orders, Guo Jia returned to Cao Cao.At this time, the army had completely stood up, and began to bury pots and cook food on the spot, and set up camp.

"Feng Xiao, do you think this Li Chen is the nemesis alone? Before Li Chen rose up, we won battles one after another, and even Yuan Shao, the four generations and three princes, was not our opponent. But since we beat Li Chen After Chen's rise, no matter how we fight, we will lose, and we will make a wedding dress for this kid."

"Feng Xiao, I suspect that the matter of becoming king is because this kid tricked us and made us take the blame." Cao Cao raised his hands behind his back and looked up at the sky.

When it comes to Li Chen, it's not just Cao Cao who has a headache, Guo Jia is even more headache than Cao Cao.It is true that Cao Cao and Li Chen are rivals, but in the same way, Guo Jia and Li Chen's advisers are also rivals.

Every time he confronted Li Chen's counselors, Guo Jia always had the feeling that two fists were no match for four hands.

He felt that Li Chen's advisers, whether it was Liu Bowen, Jia Xu or Li Ru.If one is singled out, it may not be his opponent Guo Jia.However, this time it was a one-on-three attack, which made it impossible for anyone to resist.

Guo Jia thought to himself, there are few top counselors, but Li Chen has three.Not to mention the top fierce general, the big man has produced a Lu Bu in decades, but a fierce general like Lu Bu under Li Chen is like a Chinese cabbage.

I don't know where this King of Qin, Li Chen, has drawn out such capable ministers and generals.

In this battle, Cao Cao sent 30 troops and made a wedding dress for Li Chen.Moreover, a nephew died, and a Zhuo County and a Zhending County were lost, which made Cao Cao very depressed.Cao Cao now felt that Li Chen was simply his own nemesis, specially restraining himself so that things would not go well for him.

Cao Cao walked around the camp with his back on his back, and Guo Jia followed behind Cao Cao. After a long time, he comforted him and said, "King Wei, there is no general who wins all the time in this world. We have won for so many years, but now we are defeated. That's fine too."

"The King of Wei didn't see Liu Bei. He was there when he was attacking the Yellow Turban, and he was still there when the Eighteenth Route was attacking Dong Zhuo. But hasn't he been defeated for so many years? Up to now, although he has won the name of the King of Shu No, can't you only live under the fence in Donghai County?"

"Although our army has lost a few battles recently, they have only scratched the surface, not to the point of breaking the bones. If we can find the problem in this small defeat, we can avoid a big defeat in the future."

Don't tell me what Guo Jia said, Cao Cao felt it made sense in Cao Cao's ears.Of course, what Guo Jia said is really justified and well-founded, so there is nothing wrong with you.

When Guo Jia said this, Cao Cao heard it.Cao Cao is a person who can listen to advice, especially he is willing to listen to Guo Jia's advice.

"Ha ha!"

"Listening to Feng Xiao's words, I suddenly become enlightened."

"Feng Xiao is right. You are not afraid of losing now. As long as you can find the problem, then you will not be defeated." Cao Cao laughed while stroked his beard.

At this time, I saw a soldier running in a hurry from a distance.

"report"

"Report to His Royal Highness the King of Wei that General Cao Ren has led about ten thousand defeated soldiers to the camp." The soldier knelt down and reported.

Cao Ren also ran along the official road, but there were many others, so the marching speed was slow, so he was slower than those stragglers, and it was only after a while that he met Cao Cao head-on.

"Bring Cao Ren here." Cao Cao stroked his beard and said.

"Da da da!"

Not long after, there was a sound of hurried footsteps, and Cao Ren, who looked embarrassed, was led by the soldiers.Cao Ren didn't come empty-handed, he was holding a sword in his hand.

"Pfft."

"My lord, the last general has been defeated. Please use this sword to kill the last general." Seeing Cao Cao, Cao Renpong knelt down on the ground and said with both hands raised.

Will Cao Cao punish Cao Ren?If it weren't for Guo Jia's words just now, Cao Ren would have been unable to bear it.Although Cao Cao would not kill him, a punishment must be inevitable.

But now, after Cao Cao listened to Guo Jia's words.Cao Cao felt that punishment was not the purpose, but the purpose was to find the reason for the defeat, and he could only find the reason for the repeated defeats to Li Chen.Just now, he can avoid losing the next time he fights against Li Chen.

"Zi Xiao, Gu will not punish you, but if Gu wants to ask you a few questions, you must answer them truthfully." Cao Cao asked while pinching his beard.

Chapter 212 On Military System

Cao Cao had one thing to say and another to say two. Since he said he would not punish Cao Ren, then most likely he really would not punish Cao Ren.

Cao Ren thought to himself, King Wei, you can ask, let alone a few questions, you can ask ten or a hundred questions, and I will answer them truthfully.

Cao Ren was loyal to Cao Cao, and he would not hide anything about Cao Cao's problems.

"Please ask, King Wei, Cao Ren dare not hide anything." Cao Ren said to Cao Cao respectfully.

"Zi Xiao, why do you think our army has repeatedly lost to this kid Li Chen?" Cao Cao asked Cao Ren.

Cao Ren participated in the several battles between Cao Cao and Li Chen, so Cao Ren can be said to be one of the few people who have the most say in this matter.

After Cao Ren pondered for a while, he finally said: "King Wei, I think the biggest gap between us and Li Chen is the general."

"Take Xiazhending City yesterday as an example. That white-robed general named Chen Qingzhi commanded troops with a miraculous power. He was leading me by the nose."

"There is also the fierce general, Yuwen Chengdu under Li Chen's command, and Pei Yuanqing. Both of them are not inferior to Lu Bu in force. In order to ambush Lu Bu, we did our best and borrowed the strength of the three brothers Liu Guan and Zhang. That's what killed Lu Bu."

"Now it seems that if we want to deal with Yuwen Chengdu and Pei Yuanqing, it is almost impossible."

Cao Ren's words can be said to have pointed out the problem. We can't compare the handsomeness of commanding and fighting, and we still can't compare the fierce generals who charge into the battle. How can there be any reason for invincibility?

Cao Ren's words were actually very pertinent. For example, last night when Cao Ren lost the real city, it was also because Yuwen Chengdu and Pei Yuanqing led five hundred elite soldiers to kill the city wall.If it wasn't for these two men killing Cao Ren on the city wall, Cao Ren was caught off guard.

Cao Ren felt that if he defended head-on, he would have no problem defending for one night.

The most difficult problem now is that there are no strong generals in Cao Ying who can deal with Yuwen Chengdu and Pei Yuanqing.You know, Xia Houdun and Xu Chu, such fierce generals, might not be able to last a few rounds in the hands of Yu Wencheng and Pei Yuanqing.

Cao Ren said, this is exactly the pain in Cao Cao's heart.However, Cao Cao has nothing to do.Cao Cao also wanted to know where Li Chen pulled out such capable ministers, and then he went to pull them out, but Li Chen couldn't tell Cao Cao about such a good thing.

"Hey."

"There are very few capable generals in this world. If you want to find a strong general who can deal with Yuwen Chengdu and Pei Yuanqing, it depends on your chance." Cao Cao said with a sigh.

Seeing Cao Cao's sad face, Cao Ren suddenly thought of something, but he didn't know whether to say it or not.

What Cao Ren wanted to talk about was about the soldiers. After the battle yesterday, Cao Ren discovered that it was not just about the generals.The soldiers of the Wei army also have big problems compared with the soldiers of the Qin army, but Cao Cao's side has been farming from the beginning. If you want to change the farm soldiers into professional soldiers, I'm afraid it will not be so easy.

Cao Ren and Cao Cao grew up together when they were young. It can be said that when Cao Ren pouted his ass, Cao Cao knew what shit he wanted to do.Seeing the change in Cao Ren's face, Cao Cao knew that he had something to say.

"Zixiao, what do you want to say?" Cao Cao asked straight to the point.

After hesitating for a moment, Cao Ren said, "King Wei, I don't know if I should say something or not."

"Zixiao, although you and I are called monarchs and ministers, we are actually brothers. I am not only your lord, I am also your elder brother."

"Zixiao, if you have anything to say, you can just say it." Cao Cao said to Cao Ren sincerely.

Cao Ren said in his heart, the king of Wei treats me like this, I, Cao Ren, have no reason to hesitate.If the farming system is changed, it will only affect the interests of some people.

"King Wei, there is a problem with our military system."

"Our army is a field soldier. They train in their spare time and participate in farming when they are busy. There is very little training on weekdays. But the Qin army is a professional soldier, which means that they do nothing except training all day long."

"In the past, our opponents were all field soldiers, so we were invincible. However, since we met Li Chen, we have always lost our battles."

"The gap in the soldiers can be said to be higher than that of the generals. Under normal circumstances, one Qin army can deal with two or three of our soldiers. The most important thing is the will. The difference in the will to fight is really big. .”

"After our casualties reached [-]%, the soldiers no longer had the will to fight. After the casualties exceeded [-]%, they were basically about to be defeated. But the Qin army was different. Even if the casualties exceeded [-]%, the morale of the Qin army was still high. "

"His Royal Highness King Wei, I think that if we want to defeat Li Chen, we must first change the field soldiers into professional soldiers." Cao Ren poured out all the thoughts in his heart like beans poured from a bamboo tube.

It was not an easy decision for Cao Cao to change the field soldiers into professional soldiers.Cao Cao is different from Li Chen. When Li Chen took over Xuzhou, it was equivalent to starting from scratch.Li Chen can formulate rules unscrupulously, but Cao Cao is different. Cao Cao has a larger territory and already has a system of rules.

If you want to change this rule now, not to mention the interests of many people will be touched first, if you really move, I am afraid that Cao Cao himself will be hurt.

You know, Cao Cao has the field soldiers in his heart, if these field soldiers are transformed into professional soldiers.Well, first of all, it is the fertile land that has been reclaimed before. Without these field soldiers to be responsible for planting, then the biggest problem is that the fertile land will be abandoned.

After the good land is abandoned, it will cause a series of problems, and the biggest problem among them is the lack of food.After the half-cultivating and half-fighting soldiers in the field became professional soldiers, the output of food would decrease, but the number of people who ate food would increase.

The reason why Li Chen dared to use professional soldiers in this era of low food production was also because he had two magical weapons, sweet potatoes and potatoes.

At this time, if Cao Cao rashly uses professional soldiers, then food will inevitably become a big problem.Tuntian soldiers are self-sufficient and even wealthy, but professional soldiers are gold-swallowing beasts.

"My lord, it is not a good choice to change the military system rashly, it will bring huge pressure to our logistics."

"However, let's select elite troops from the army and form a professional army to try. When our logistics supplies can support it, we will gradually convert the field soldiers into professional soldiers." Just when Cao Cao was uncertain When paying attention, Guo Jia suggested a best-of-both-worlds solution for him.

Chapter 213 Cao Cao About Li Chen

After seven days.

Li Chen led the three-way army to escort the 30 troops of the Black Mountain Army back to Xiaopei. To Cao Cao's surprise, Li Chen actually exchanged the captured cities of Zhending County and Zhuo County to Cao Cao.

This was beyond Cao Cao's expectations. It is understandable for Li Chen not to be really sure, not to mention that the city is small, and it is not conducive to defense in terms of position.

But Zhuo County is different. Zhuo County is the seat of Zhuo County. It is a big city with high walls and thick walls for defense.Moreover, Zhuoxian County and Xiaopei can be each other's horns, even if Cao Cao wanted to take it back, it would not be so easy.

However, Li Chen was beyond Cao Cao's expectation and returned Zhuo County to Cao Cao, which made Cao Cao unable to figure it out anyway.

Now that Li Chen had withdrawn from Zhuo County, Cao Cao naturally had to take over. Almost immediately after Li Chen left, Cao Cao took over Zhuo County again.

Zhuo County, government office.

Sitting under the main hall are a group of civil and military personnel under Cao Cao's command.Everyone was discussing at this meeting, and the topic of this discussion was naturally why Li Chen gave up Zhuo County for no reason.

"The king of Wei is here." At this time, only hearing the shout of the guard outside the door, Cao Cao came in from the outside.

As soon as Cao Cao sat down, he saw Yu Jin kneeling in front of Cao Cao with a "plop".