Chapter 303: Surrounding Wei and rescuing Zhao (1/2)

"What a strong wind!"

Cao Peng reined in his horse and pulled up the scarf, covering most of his face, only revealing a pair of eyes, "How far is it from Yanjin?"

"Almost there."

Kan Ze urged his horse to follow and said to Cao Peng.

"The wind is so strong, why don't we find a place to take shelter first? This place is not far from Yanjin. There must be many scouts from both sides, so we should be more careful."

Cao Peng thought for a while and pointed to a mound in front of him.

"Take shelter behind the hill and send someone to inquire about the situation."

"Here!"

Kan Ze turned around quickly and told Xia Houlan what Cao Peng meant.

Xia Houlan immediately led ten flying beasts and urged his horses to leave the team. Cao Peng led the others and headed straight for the south slope of the mound not far away.

The mound runs east-west and is about 200 meters long.

It's not too high, just over twenty meters. It should be a large amount of silt brought from the Yellow River, which accumulated into mounds.

In history, the Yellow River has changed its course countless times, which is very different from the river course of later generations. There have been major changes, minor changes, and medium changes.

The Yellow River gave birth to this people, but it also brought countless disasters to this people.

Yanjin has gone through several changes of route, so there are hills of various sizes on this land. One side is steep and the other side is gentle. Cao Peng and others found a small forest at the foot of the south slope, so everyone urged their horses to start.

Hide in the woods to escape the raging wind.

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Originally, Cao Cao ordered Cao Peng to rest in Puyang and did not ask him to return to the army.

However, there was a poacher named Xu Gongming in Puyang City, which made Cao Peng always feel worried. Later, under Cao Peng's persuasion, Deng Fan stayed in Puyang County and served as the military commander of the East County Sima, with the right to lead the army. Speaking of which,

Deng Fan was quite familiar with his job as Sima. When he was in Chen County, he had served as Cao Hong's Sima. But in comparison, the Sima of Dong County seemed to have greater power.

Just because of the three words "joining the military", the meaning is completely different.

When he was in Chen County, Deng Fan only had the responsibility of military governor, but in Dong County, he could gain more say and even participate in government affairs.

After Xu Huang got Deng Fan, he couldn't help but give up.

Cao Peng found out that this guy had nothing to do and ran to his residence. It was called visiting Cao Peng, but when Xu Huang's eyes slipped away from Gan Ning and others, Cao Peng always felt that this guy had no intentions.

Good intentions. So, before fully recovering, he bid farewell to Xu Huang. But he heard from Kan Ze that Xu Huang was secretly inquiring about Gan Ning, which made Cao Peng feel so calm.

This guy really has bad intentions.

Xu Huang kindly asked to stay, but Cao Peng sternly refused.

"My lord is fighting fiercely with Yuan Shao in Yanjin. As a junior, how can I hide aside and watch the battle?

Although Yan Liang was killed before, Yuan Shao's vitality was not injured. I am not saying that I am very capable, but at this time, I must stand by my lord's side."

What he said was very convincing.

Even if Xu Huang wanted to stay, he couldn't say anything else.

He wants to serve Sikong, can't he stop him? Others can say it, but Cao Peng is Cao Cao's nephew and is not under the jurisdiction of Xu Huang. Cao Peng is the middle commander of the Northern Army and is under the jurisdiction of Jia Xu. So.

, Xu Huang really couldn't stop him and could only send Cao Peng away from Puyang.

Before leaving, Xu Huang gave Cao Peng 500 troops and horses, so that Cao Peng could gather a guard of 800 people.

For Xu Huang, after retaking Puyang and capturing thousands of Yuan's soldiers, his military strength had returned to its previous strength, even slightly exceeding it. Five hundred soldiers and horses was nothing. But for Cao Peng, five hundred

Soldiers, their power will skyrocket...

However, Cao Peng didn't expect these five hundred people to reach the combat effectiveness of Heijian.

He had already thought about handing these 500 people to Cao Cao when he arrived in Yanjin. If Cao Cao didn't want them, he would order Hao Zhao to train these people. After all, his rank was not high.

It is already extraordinary that the Northern Army can have a guard of 300 people in the middle... 800 people?

Tsk tsk tsk!

Cao Peng didn't dare to think too much.

The journey westward was relatively peaceful.

Yuan Jun abandoned Baima, stationed troops in Yanjin, and fought against Cao Cao.

So there was no trouble along the way. When Cao Peng passed by Baima, he stopped for another day to pay homage to the spirits of the dead.

The white horse is in ruins.

If it weren't for the ruins that were burned black by the fire, no one would even think that this place was once a county town.

There is almost no complete building in the entire city. Looking around, there is only a sense of decay and dilapidation. As you walk around, you can see piles of solidified, grease-like things from time to time. These are after people were burned to death.

The remaining fat…

Eight thousand people were burned to the ground!

If we include Yan Liang's massacre of the city and Le Jin's massacre of prisoners, more than 20,000 lives were lost in this small county in less than a month.

Previously, Cao Peng could not bear to kill prisoners.

But in the blink of an eye, he lit up the fire and buried eight thousand people in the sea of ​​flames.

Standing outside the ruins, Cao Peng felt more and more that he seemed to be hypocritical...

Cao Peng ordered people to prepare incense outside Baima City. Cao Peng bowed three times to the ruins to pay homage to the spirits of the dead who gathered above Baima City.

The next day, Cao Peng took his people and left Baima.

Until the thirteenth year of Jian'an, that is, before the Battle of Chibi began, Baima had been neglected and became a wasteland overgrown with weeds.

After Red Cliff, Deng Ji, who was the governor of Dongjun at the time, ordered the reconstruction of Baima and moved 3,000 households of refugees from various places to settle in Baima, which made Baima prosperous again. However, at that time, many people had forgotten that,

It was Cao Peng who turned White Horse into ruins.

After entering the woods, Cao Peng dismounted and rested.

It can be seen that he is not in a good mood and is even a little depressed.

In fact, Cao Peng seemed a little depressed after leaving Baima.

Kan Ze could understand Cao Peng's mood, so he stepped forward to comfort him: "Master, are you still sad about the white horse?"

"I can't say it's sad, it's just thousands of innocent souls...

You know, I don't like this feeling very much. Since I returned from Luoyang, I always feel that I have become very hypocritical... In fact, I also understand that I can't stop this kind of thing. But watching others do it, and doing it myself...

…It’s always been a weird feeling.”

Kan Ze smiled bitterly and said, "Young Master, time is the time and luck is the same."

These four words seemed to convey a lot of truth, and Cao Peng couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

A soldier brought dry food. Cao Peng swallowed it wholeheartedly. After stretching, he was about to talk to Kan Ze. But suddenly, he froze. He listened as if listening, and after a moment he said to Kan Ze.

: "Derun, did you hear anything?"

Kan Ze also listened carefully, but he only heard the sound of cranes and wind.

He shook his head, and just as he was about to speak, he saw Gan Ning walking over in a hurry, "Sir, I seemed to have heard a killing cry just now."

"oh?"

Cao Peng walked to the edge of the forest and said, "I seem to have heard it too!"

"At this time, Duke Cao and Yuan Shao are still fighting?"

Kan Ze didn't hear it, but he also knew that the hearing abilities of Cao Peng and Gan Ning were far beyond his ability.

"Prepare for war!"

Hao Zhao suddenly gave an order, and Hei Ming suddenly sat up, knelt on one knee, held a knife in one hand and a shield in the other, and looked out of the forest warily.

In the distance, Xia Houlan galloped over with ten scouts on his back.

He rushed into the forest, jumped off his horse and quickly came to Cao Peng, panting: "Sir, it seems that Duke Cao was attacked by Yuan's army. I just saw Yuan's army rushing towards Duke Cao's camp. There seemed to be a lot of them.

, I made a rough estimate, there should be about 10,000 people.

General Le Jin's small camp was attacked.

Although General Xu Chu has led troops to rescue, the situation does not seem too optimistic.

Yuan Shao seems to be preparing to lead the main force to attack Duke Cao's central army. In my opinion, Duke Cao may not be able to withstand Yuan Shao's attack."

"Then what are we waiting for? We go to the rescue immediately."

When Cao Peng heard this, he became anxious. He quickly picked up the painting pole and halberd, and was about to mount his horse and go into battle.

Kan Ze grabbed the bridle and said, "Sir, wait a minute."

"What's Derun's clever plan?"
To be continued...