Chapter 45: Take Sichuan (Thirteen)

Ma Chao is very angry, angry, upset, and depressed now. At this time, Ma Chao took off his armor and sat in the big tent. There was a jar of clear water in front of him, which was used to calm his anger.

It was late at night, and the gongs and drums outside were very lively. Ma Chao was sitting in the tent with the harsh noise. He couldn't help it, so he poured a large bowl of clear water and drank it in one gulp, so that the cold clear water level could relieve his increasingly vigorous liver fire.

For three consecutive days, he had to endure the harassment of this noise every night. Ma Chao initially led his troops out to find the enemy. When he was today, he was too lazy to pay attention to those people. He had already seen that those people were just beating and not attacking, but just harassing them. So Ma Chao discussed with Pang De and left only some soldiers to guard him every night. As for these beatings, they would come back after they drove away, so just ignore them.

But in this way, none of the soldiers in the village slept peacefully, and complained every day. Pang De once said to him, "If this goes on for a long time, there will be a mutiny. We must make a decision early. Why not retreat and go back to the camp?" Ma Chao heard it and said, "We have not retreated in a battle with the enemy. If so, wouldn't we be very morale declined?" So he did not follow Pang De's words, but just rested in the same place. However, there must be drums at night at night, and Wei Yan led his troops to call in the battle during the day. At first, he only shouted outside the camp, but later he asked thousands of soldiers to shout and scold each other outside the camp. The sounds were heard for several miles, even if he sat in the tent, he could clearly hear it.

"Can you be sure I will lead the army back?" Ma Chao was thinking, and a small school came to report: "The enemy suddenly came to the front of the siege and attacked our army with bows and arrows!" Ma Chao heard the report and hurriedly stood up and said, "But the enemy has come here?" The small school said, "The enemy shot an arrow and saw General Pang lead the army out, so he fled in the distance!" Ma Chao heard this, and sat back again, thinking, "This is still Xue Bing's tired soldiers' plan. They didn't want to rush to kill at all, but they just wanted to make our army powerless and generals have no spirit. In this way, I will make us have no power to fight and finally defeat our army in one battle." Thinking of this, he hurriedly ordered: "Come, I will send my order to the whole army to detach the camp. When General Pang's troops return, the entire army retreats ten miles to the camp!"

As soon as the general order was released, the 40,000 army immediately became busy. When Pang De led three thousand light cavalry back, he saw Ma Chao carrying a spear and was waiting for him. Seeing Pang De back, he said, "Ling Ming said so much in the first place. Let's retreat for a while, and then come to attack this level after resting!"

When Pang De saw Ma Chao following his words, he was overjoyed and said, "If so, our army should leave a group of troops to cut off the rear, so as to prevent the enemy from sending people to attack while our army retreated." Ma Chao said, "What the Lord said is very good!" Then he ordered Pang De to lead three thousand troops to cut off the rear, and lead the army backwards.

But Ma Chao led his troops back. Xue Bing was resting in the house, and suddenly a personal guard called him outside the window. Xue Bing stood up, left the house, and asked the personal guard, "What's the matter?" The personal guard said, "General Meng Da said that there was a military report!" Xue Bing said, "Where is Meng Da?" The personal guard said, "Wait outside!" Xue Bing said, "Call in!" The personal guard was ordered and hurriedly went down to call Meng Da.

After a while, Meng Da arrived and saw Xue Bing, he hurriedly said, "General, Ma Chao raised all his troops and retreated." Xue Bing was stunned when he heard this and smiled, "This is Ma Chao who could not bear the trouble, so he retreated from the camp." At this point, he asked again, "Can Ma Chao break the rear?" Meng Da replied, "I saw that Ma Chao kept Pang De break the rear, so he did not lead the troops to attack. He just hurriedly led the troops back to the pass to report to the general."

Upon hearing this, Xue Bing said, "General Meng is doing a great job. General Meng can go back tonight and have a rest! Please tell General Huo that he doesn't have to go tonight!" Meng Da should have accepted the order and retreated. Seeing that Meng Da had left, Xue Bing said to his guard: "You go and rest too!" Then he turned around and returned to the bedroom.

As soon as he came back, he saw Sun Shangxiang awaken, looking at him with his eyes wide open. When Xue Bing saw it, he smiled and said, "Why are you awake?" Sun Shangxiang heard it and said, "When I woke up, I didn't see you by my side, and I said, you left me again!" Xue Bing said, "How could it be? I just went out to talk to General Meng about some business!" Sun Shangxiang said, "I heard it!" Then, he said, "Ma Chao retreated, are you going to leave too?" After saying that, he looked at Xue Bing with reluctance, as if he would never see him again.

Upon hearing this, Xue Bing laughed, lay down again on the collapse, and said to Sun Shangxiang: "Ma Chao just retreated for a while and set up a new camp. It's not about leading troops to retreat. I will continue to stay here!" After hearing this, Sun Shangxiang smiled happily and said: "It's better if you don't leave, I hope that Ma Chao will stay outside the pass for the rest of his life!" Xue Bing said to himself: "I'm afraid I want him to stay for the rest of his life, so Liu Dada and Zhuge Dada are not willing to do it either! Just wait for Sichuan. This Western Liang tiger must be the next target to clean up." Thinking in his mind, Sun Shangxiang was held in his arms again, and the two fell asleep again...

The next day, Xue Bing got up early and rushed to the mansion. Ma Chao retreated and set up a village, so he had to redeploy the defense strategy. Xue Bing arrived at the mansion and ordered the left and right to invite the generals to discuss matters, and then he became stunned at the map in front of him. Soon, everyone arrived. Xue Bing withdrew his gaze and said to everyone: "Ma Chao retreated ten miles to the village last night. What do you think?"

Meng Da took the lead and said, "Can the general stop using tired soldiers?"

Xue Bing said: "This plan can only be used for a while. Now that Ma Chao retreated ten miles and went to the camp, our army used this plan to deal with him, then we are also very tired." Xue Bing said this because considering that the distance between the two sides is no longer as close as before, the troops sent by Xue Bing cannot retreat in the shortest time, and it is easy to get ambushed by the other party, so he simply gave up this method.

Fa Zheng nodded from the side and said, "For the sake of the present, we can only follow the pass and guard it."

Wei Yan said, "It would be better to lead an army to attack Ma Chao's Dazhai today! Ma Chao established a large village, and his soldiers were exhausted due to the plans of the previous few days. At this time, they should be able to achieve success!"

Xue Bing said nothing. He was thinking about this just now, whether to advance or not. If it succeeds, Ma Chao will be determined in a battle. However, how can he not be wary of his first change to a new village? If it does not advance, it will allow him to accumulate strength and fight to the death in the future.

Xue Bingzheng thought about it, and Fa Zheng said first: "What Chief Wen said is nothing, but you need to beware of Ma Chao's ambush!" Xue Bing heard this and asked Fa Zheng, "Does Xiaozhi have a plan?" Fa Zheng smiled and said, "You can ask General Wei to lead a military force. If he is not prepared, he can rush into the enemy camp to achieve his full achievements. If he is in a military force, he will retreat quickly and lure the enemy into attack. The general can lead another military force outside the camp to wait, wait for Ma Chao's troops to leave, seize his large village, and destroy his food and grass. In this way, Ma Chao can retreat!"

After hearing this, Xue Bing thought for a while, but found that it was a good plan. The only question was that if Ma Chao didn't chase him, or if he left half of his troops, he would do it. So he asked Fazheng, and Fazheng said again: "With Ma Chao's courage, he will lead his troops to chase him. As for what the general said, if there were troops there, the general was attacking the camp, and he was still afraid that someone would call him in the camp?"

Xue Bing smiled and said, "Xiaozhi said it!" So he said, "I'm too demanding! I think Ma Chao must have led most of the troops to pursue Wei Yan. Even if there are troops left in the camp, there will not be too many. We can make it happen if we have any intentions and unintentional." He thought, "Anyway, if we see Ma Chao's soldiers being led by the young men, then ask Meng Da to lead a army to attack for a while. It will lead all the troops to be drawn out!" He thought to himself, and said, "All the generals obey the order! Wei Yan led 5,000 soldiers to attack Ma Chao's large village in the front. If there are any ambushing troops, retreat quickly. If there are no ambushing troops, burn the camp!" Wei Yan said, "Get the order!" and turned around and left.

Xue Bing said again: "Meng Da and I led 5,000 troops, prepared many items to attract fire from the flank to the Machao Dazhai." Then he ordered Fa Zheng and Huo Jun to guard the pass. He had already made the order and went to Meng Dazhai to order the troops and horses, and left the pass and galloped Machao Dazhai.

However, Wei Yan led five thousand troops to the old village of Machao. He then ordered people to investigate carefully and wait until there were no ambushers inside, so he continued to move forward. Just as he was about to move, he suddenly had a plan, so he called the left and right guards and gave orders. Then he led the three thousand troops to continue moving forward.

After walking for a while, seeing Ma Chao's village ahead, Wei Yan thought to himself, "I think Ma Chao is not prepared, otherwise why hasn't the troops come out yet?" As he was thinking, he suddenly heard a cannon sound. The soldiers on both sides were Dongchuan soldiers. The first general was Ma Dai, who shouted angrily and rushed down.

Wei Yanyu could see clearly immediately. When he saw Ma Dai rushing down, Ma Chao's camp gate opened wide, and countless soldiers rushed out of it, but Ma Chao personally led the generals out. When Wei Yan saw it, he hurriedly shouted and ordered: "Ma Chao was prepared early, and the whole army retreated quickly!" Then he led the army back and ran back.

Ma Dai rushed from top to bottom, and saw clearly that Wei Yan had not yet fought, so he wanted to escape and cursed: "My son of Wei Yan! Don't run away if you have the courage!" So he hurriedly urged to step off his war horse and chased Wei Yan tightly.

Ma Chao chased after him for a while, and saw Wei Yan just running away, he felt suspicious. However, Ma Dai was furious and was chasing him tightly. He was afraid that Ma Dai would do something wrong again, so he led the army to hang behind him, and sent him to Pang De and asked him to guard the camp closely.

After not chasing for a long time, the two of them had already chased to the old village, and Wei Yan was missing from the left and right. Just as they were confused, they suddenly heard his subordinates shouting, "Fire! It's getting fire!" Ma Chao hurriedly looked at the point where he pointed, but saw a tent in front of him, which had already burned. He was surprised and suspicious, and there were several shouts beside him: "Fire! It's getting fire!" He looked around him quickly and found that all directions were on fire. Ma Chao hurriedly said to Ma Dai, "We've been trapped again! Taking advantage of the fire, I will retreat quickly!" He then led the army to look back.

However, the army was retreating, but when he heard the sound of cannons, two troops broke out from left and right. The general was Wei Yan. It turned out that Wei Yan was marching to Ma Chao’s old village and suddenly had a plan to leave two thousand soldiers and horses to arrange a hiding place in the village, prepare objects to attract fire, and then leave it here to ambush. When he leads his troops to retreat, he can hide in the fastest time. When Ma Chao’s troops arrive, he will confuse Ma Chao with the fire. When he wants to retreat, he will lead his troops to kill him.
Chapter completed!