In recent years, Cao Cao's military strength has grown rapidly, and Cao's army has become more arrogant when facing the enemy, but defeating the strong with the weak is what Cao Cao is best at!

Although the first battle failed, Cao Cao woke up and quickly discussed with Jia Xu in private.

This time he went on an expedition because he was worried that Sun Quan from the southeast and Liu Bei from Jingzhou would take advantage of the attack, leaving Cheng Yu to prepare for the war in the southeast, and Xun You to prepare for the raid against Liu Bei. The top strategist only brought Jia Xu to accompany him.

Jia Xu was originally from Liangzhou and knew very well about Ma Teng and Han Sui. He would rather join Dong Zhuo than be with Han Sui. Ma Teng acted as a strategist, so he naturally did not like them.

After Dong Zhuo's death, Jia Xu did not rush to surrender to other forces, but temporarily lived beside Zhang Xiu as a counselor. Zhang Xiu had defeated Cao Cao twice with his strategy.

Before the Battle of Guandu, Jia Xu finally decided that Cao Cao was the wise ruler he wanted to surrender and urged Zhang Xiu to surrender to Cao Cao.

When Jia Xu saw Cao Cao asking for advice, he knew that he did not want to attack Tongguan, so he offered Cao Cao the advice:

"In the Xiliang army, Ma Chao was brave and good at fighting, Han Sui was wise and good at planning, and Tongguan was strong and difficult to break. He could only turn to Hedong and march into Guanzhong. If he attacked him from front and back, then Tongguan would be defeated without attacking him. This is the best strategy! In order to confuse Han Sui, Ma Chao and the Prime Minister temporarily stationed heavily in Tongguan, and made a look of increasing the strength of troops, attracting Ma Chao and others to put the heavy troops in Tongguan, so that they could use the plan calmly!"

When Cao Cao heard that Jia Xu's plan was inconsistent with what he thought, but Cao Cao was even more determined this time and was ready to show the enemy as weak, so that those potential enemies could also jump out, then turn to Hedong, attack Guanzhong, and quell the Xiliang Rebellion in one fell swoop.

The morale of the Xiliang army was strong. Although Han Sui was worried about gains and losses and wanted to live in peace with Cao Cao, he could no longer control the general trend.

Because Ma Chao captured Chang'an and Tongguan was a great victory, Ma Chao's army won the victory by head-on attacking Cao Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, but Han Sui did not have a decent record, so he is far inferior to Ma Chao's prestige in the army!

The news came back to Xiliang, and Ma Chao's prestige in the entire Xiliang was unparalleled. Many large tribes sent envoys to join Ma Chao's alliance.

Because of his two victories, Ma Chao felt that the combat power of the Cao army was just that and wanted to make a contribution in one battle. He did not rush to attack Cao Cao's camp. Instead, he sent his confidants back to Wuwei and Xiping, and to form alliances with other tribes, asking them to send troops to discuss superior forces to fight a life-and-death battle with Cao Cao.

Of course, Ma Chao did not want to give up the opportunity to crack down on Cao Cao's morale, and sent troops outside the camp every day to quarrel.

On that day, Cao Cao was patrolling the camp and happened to meet Pang De verbally, but he turned a deaf ear! Because he hadn't discussed military information for a long time, he wanted to see what the generals thought, so he beat drums and gathered the generals, made routine work, and asked for advice from all the generals.

There are genius figures in all fields, and Cao Cao is a natural commander. His intuition tells him that he cannot fight Ma Chao in Tongguan. Therefore, he is thinking about changing the battlefield, but he has not formed a feasible strategy.

He brought the generals together, naturally hoping that someone could understand his intentions and come up with a feasible solution.

He didn't know that because Cao Cao hangs high a war-free card and is prohibited from fighting, none of them consider the battle, but privately discusses the lessons of the failure of the last battle.

The generals reached a consensus on this failure, believing that the main reason for this failure was that the attack of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry was cracked by Ma Chao.

Therefore, when Cao Cao asked for advice, Yu Jin first proposed:

"The cavalry in Xiliang, use long spears and short swords. The spears can restrain the tiger and leopard cavalry. Our army should add crossbow soldiers to fight."

In Cao Cao's impression, Yu Jin was also a wise and brave general. Seeing that he still placed his hope of victory on the tiger and leopard cavalry, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed and rejected it on the spot:

"If we add crossbow archers and are broken by Ma Chao's sword and shield soldiers, what will we do? We cannot count on the advantages of the troops! In fact, if we don't fight, the initiative is in my hands. Ma Chao can only show off his verbal advantage! He deliberately wanted to use a spear to break my tiger and leopard cavalry, but I will no longer use the tiger and leopard cavalry. What is the use of his leopard cavalry? As long as you stay in the camp, after a long time, Ma Chao's army's food and grass supply difficulties will have to retreat!"

Because Cao Cao did not adopt their suggestion to increase crossbow soldiers, the generals still took the strategy of persevering and insisting on it, they all discussed in private:

"Since the war, the Prime Minister has been the first, but it is not appropriate to be defeated. He fought with Yuan Shao in Guandu, and the enemy was several times higher than us, but he still took the initiative to attack. Now he was defeated by Ma Chao, why did he lose the confidence to fight again and show his weakness all the time?"

Cao Cao planned in the camp and sent troops out of the military camp at night every day, entered under the banner during the day, and looked like he had increased his troops for several consecutive days.

After a few days, the army reported:

"Ma Chao also added 20,000 new troops to assist in the battle, and he was the Qiang tribe in Liangzhou."

When Cao Cao heard this, he was overjoyed. The generals were puzzled and asked Cao Cao for advice:

"Ma Chao adds troops, our army is under greater pressure and his chances of victory are getting smaller and smaller. The Prime Minister is so happy. What is the reason?"

Cao Cao confronted Ma Chao in Tongguan, but in fact he had the intention to compete for economic strength!

Because it is not far from Luoyang and Hanoi, there is a lot of food and grass storage, which is very convenient for supply. Ma Chao's army has a lot of food and grass reserves in Chang'an are limited and can support it for a period of time. But now Ma Chao has increased his army and the food and grass consumption has increased. Once the food and grass are not enough, he can win the battle.

Although Cao Cao had an idea, he did not want to march from Tongguan. Even if Ma Chao didn’t have enough food and grass, as long as he left thousands of troops to guard the pass and returned to Chang'an by himself, it would be very difficult for Cao Cao to win!

Because Cao Cao's plan was not yet mature, he pretended to be mysterious and said to the generals:

"The secret of heaven cannot be revealed. When I defeat Ma Chao, I will explain it carefully to you!"

A few days later, Zhong Yao led thousands of remaining soldiers and brought Liu Xiongming to Tongguan, and first met Cao Cao to apologize.

Cao Cao did not blame him when he saw Zhong Yao, because Ma Chao was powerful and he did not hold him accountable for losing Chang'an.

After learning about Liu Xiongming's visit, Cao Cao was very happy and went out to meet him in person, holding his hand and said:

"When I sent troops to Guanzhong, I dreamed of a god man, this god man is you?"

Cao's morale is not high now. Although it is not yet time for the decisive battle, he is also very worried!

Now Liu Xiongming is here to compete with each other. He is a god-like existence in legend. In order to stabilize the morale of the army, Cao Cao naturally has to make a big fuss about him.

Therefore, Cao Cao treated Liu Xiongming with courtesy and appointed him as a general. He often led him to observe the virtuality and reality of the Xiliang army outside the pass, which made Ma Chao and Han Sui feel surprised.

Originally, Cao Cao wanted him to follow him, boost morale, and then attack Guanzhong together to calm the hearts of the people in Guanzhong.

However, Liu Xiongming believed that Cao Cao was not given him enough, so he falsely reported his merits in the chat, hoping to increase his weight, threatening that he had nearly 10,000 troops, but because of the unfavorable battle with Ma Chao, most of the troops were separated and only brought more than a thousand troops.

When Cao Cao heard this, he felt that the purpose of using Liu Xiongming to boost morale had been achieved, and it would be useless to stay here. If he was sent to Guanzhong to recruit subordinates and lead the troops to harass Ma Chao from behind, he would have more chances of winning.

A few days later, under the arrangement of Cao Cao, Liu Xiongming took his hundreds of his guards to take a detour to Wuguan into Guanzhong, preparing to recruit old subordinates and intercept Ma Chao's supplies and food from behind.

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Chapter completed!