Chapter 81: Reporting to the superior army, taking the lead everywhere [Seeking follow-up reading]

"Because the general trusted and valued me, he recommended me to the Praetorian Guards, and Liao was able to take charge of the army. And because the general trusted me, he handed the current battle over to me."

Zhang Liao first mentioned two things about Cao Cao's trust in him, and then he said politely, "General, you trust me, and I will also trust you in return."

There is no need to elaborate on the rest.

In Zhang Liao's view, Cao Cao's trust and importance in him should be repaid with trust.

Zhang Liao himself had never expected that Cao Cao would trust him, such as the current battle situation.

His qualifications were far from enough, but Cao Cao was willing to entrust him with the important task.

Zhang Liao felt deeply grateful for this trust, which was also the reason why he chose to stand with Cao Cao.

As the two men had a brief conversation, changes had already taken place on the battlefield.

Lu Bu held the spear with both hands, the blood in his body surged, and he thrust the spear out slowly but quickly.

The spear actually affected the celestial phenomena.

Troops gathered in the sky, like a huge lightning, and the pressure was like a mountain.

Lü Bu borrowed the power of heaven and earth to raise the spear's momentum. The front end of the spear contained a spirit that could pierce through everything.

"Well come."

On the opposite side, the tendons in Dian Wei's neck bulged again, and the weapons behind him raged like flames.

Click!
The surging military force stirred up a storm.

The halberds and spears in the hands of Lu Bu and Dian Wei broke at the same time.

The air currents that exploded at the point of confrontation caused some soldiers who were closer to have buzzing ears, and they fell down one after another as the world spun around them.

Within a range of twenty to thirty feet, only Dian Wei and Lu Bu were left standing.

Zhang Huai leaped up and down, heading straight for the place where the two men were confronting each other.

Dian Wei and Lu Bu started fighting again, and Zhang Huai also rushed forward. They fought against Lu Bu together. The sound of fighting was like war drums, and the swords were as sharp as swords. No one could even get close to them.

"My God, human power can reach such a level!"

"Captain Lu is truly a man of such courage that he can defeat a thousand enemies."

"The person who fought against Commander Lu is not bad either. Who is he?"

Even in the chaotic battlefield, the attention of both the enemy and our side was drawn and the fighting was almost stopped.

Zhang Liao and Cao Cao were also looking into the distance.

Zhang Liao said generously: "To be honest with you, I have always believed that Lu Bu is the best general in the world. He has the courage of a great king, and I admire his martial arts.

The personal guard of the upper army is so powerful that he can fight with Lu Bu and not lose! "

Cao Cao nodded slightly. In terms of personal bravery, it was not wrong to say that Lu Bu was the best.

Dian Wei was the king of infantry combat. Before the battle, Cao Cao gave Dian Wei some special treatment, reminding him not to let Lu Bu mount his horse, and said to Dian Wei:

"Lü Bu is a man who loves bravery and fame, and is ambitious and has great desires, so he does not have the courage to fight to the death.

He is greedy for life and is nowhere near as brave as you, Dian Wei."

What Cao Cao meant was that at the critical moment, if he had to exchange injuries with Lu Bu, he would definitely avoid it and would not fight to the death with Dian Wei, not even willing to get injured.

Therefore, Dian Wei had a certain advantage in the fight with him.

But it was still difficult to defeat Lu Bu.

After watching for a moment, Cao Cao knew that even with the help of Zhang Huai, there was no hope of defeating Lu Bu.

If he wants to leave, no one can stop him.

We need at least someone of Dian Wei's level to suppress him.

Only if we get one more person among Huang Zhong, Xu Chu or Zhao Yun can we defeat Lu Bu.

----

Dong Zhuo sat in the Chongde Hall, looking at the letter in front of him anxiously.

The last message Li Ru sent said that Cao Cao used the strategy of confusing the enemy with a new one, and firmly ordered him to attack the city defenses as planned.

Dong Zhuo then ordered a tentative attack on the city defenses.

But after Li Ru delivered the message, Dong Zhuo consumed two messages and tried to contact him again, but Li Ru did not respond.

After waiting for Li Ru for a long time with no response, Dong Zhuo could no longer suppress his anxiety.

"Somebody come!"

As soon as Dong Zhuo finished speaking, a messenger came in from outside the door and reported:

"Sir, our troops were ordered to launch an offensive against the city defenses. But as soon as we launched the offensive, the food and money sent by Luohe from the south city was attacked."

Dong Zhuo’s weakness has always been food and salary.

If food and wages are insufficient, the soldiers are in danger of mutiny.

Especially those under his command, who are a collection of people from all sides, have been together for a short time and their loyalty is not that high.

He had previously allowed his subordinates to plunder Luoyang in order to replenish food and money.

Tonight, he and Li Ru, in addition to wanting to seize the city, kill Cao Cao, and occupy the palace, also wanted to fight for the Luoshui ferry crossing to and from Luoyang, which is the bank outside the South City Gate. Unexpectedly, someone got ahead of them and attacked the batch of food and money he had just received.

The city gate at the southeast corner of Luoshui was previously controlled by Ding Yuan, which also controlled the port outside the city.

However, the western coastline had been gradually controlled by Dong Zhuo in recent days because of the deposed emperor, which had attracted some onlookers to defect.

He had ordered the food and money to be shipped from the surrounding counties in the past few days, and they must not be lost.

Dong Zhuo immediately sent orders to send reinforcements and protect food and money.

"Someone raided the grain..."

When his food and money were attacked, Dong Zhuo began to come to his senses.

Tonight is not only their initiative, but also a joint counterattack against him by all forces in the city.

He moved back and forth, asking for advice whenever he encountered problems. Li Ru was not there, and although he had other advisers under his command, none of them was as good as Li Ru.

Dong Zhuo weighed the pros and cons for a moment and ordered his men to strictly guard the palace to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the chaos and seizing the emperor.

At the same time, a slender and agile figure sneaked into the palace from the area controlled by the East Gate and Xiyuan Army.

Female assassin Chen Ying!
Cao Cao made a lot of arrangements for tonight.

When Chen Ying enters the palace, Lu Zhi and Cui Lie will also cooperate and bring some imperial guards to provide support and disrupt Dong Zhuo.

On this day, Luoyang was in chaos as everyone inside and outside the palace had their own plans.

Cao Cao returned to Luoyang in the afternoon.

On the top of the city wall, Huangfu Song's deputy general Du Ling saw him and breathed a sigh of relief:

"It's good that the upper army is back. Dong Zhuo's troops started to seize the city defenses at dawn and have not stopped fighting until now."

"As expected by the upper army, the captain guarding the middle gate was bribed to welcome Dong Zhuo's troops to the city. Fortunately, we are prepared, and the competition at the middle gate is fierce now."

Cao Cao's previous deployment of troops made it difficult for Li Ru and Dong Zhuo to see through his tactics, but in fact the method was not complicated.

He was prepared for the fact that Dong Zhuo would turn his attention to him after deposing the emperor.

Cao Cao secretly transferred part of the troops stationed on the city wall out of the city.

Because they acted in advance, there was plenty of time, there was no need to move a large number of troops at once, and because they used military strategies to cover it up, they were able to do it relatively secretly.

Then, all the soldiers who were transferred out were ordered to wear the clothes of Huangfu Song's subordinates, and line up outside the city to climb to the top of the city wall, creating a scene that Huangfu Song's troops were coming and the city defense was being strengthened.

To be honest, this is not uncommon. Dong Zhuo also used a similar method of moving troops out of the city.

Make the military strength appear to have increased significantly, so that the opponent cannot figure out the real situation and dare not act rashly.

Dong Zhuo and Li Ru had a preconceived idea that Huangfu Song's troops might appear at any time.

When he saw more and more soldiers and horses on the city wall, he thought they were Huangfu Song's troops.

In fact, the reinforcements sent by Huangfu Song were used by Cao Cao to block his troops outside the city.

Li Ru was distracted by the news sent back by Dong Zhuo, and it took him a while to figure out the underlying reason, which was a strategy of confusing the enemy with new troops.

It was this missed opportunity that gave Cao Cao the chance to take his life.

In other words, the troops defending Luoyang city have always been there.

Cao Cao only used a strategy to make Dong Zhuo suspicious and uncertain. By the time Dong Zhuo reacted, he had already lost the initiative and his plan was doomed to fail.

At this time, Cao Cao came back from outside the city and slowly climbed to the top of the city wall.

It is worth mentioning that his walking posture is a little awkward.

The Claw Huang Feidian was too strong and had a wide back, so the previous saddle was not suitable. Sitting astride it would easily pull yourself, and Cao Cao was a little uncomfortable when he first rode it. Fortunately, he had practiced and was fine.

He came back with Dian Wei and other personal soldiers.

Outside the city, Zhang Liao was leading his troops and was still fighting with Fan Chou's troops.

The enemy had already shown signs of defeat and was being held back by Zhang Liao's troops, who were nibbling away at them bit by bit.

The fight between Dian Wei and Lu Bu ended with the intervention of Zhang Huai.

When Lu Bu was besieged by Zhang Huai and Dian Wei, he was only slightly at a disadvantage. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, he took the initiative to withdraw.

Cao Cao came back and after understanding the situation on the top of the city wall, he looked towards the direction of the palace.

He and Jia Xu discussed the arrangements last night in secret, hiding an unknown plan.

Everything else was smokescreen, including the looting of city defenses, the confrontation of troops outside the city, and even the attack on food and money, all to conceal the real purpose and attract Dong Zhuo's attention.

This was also a consideration in killing Li Ru.

As for success or failure, it all depends on the palace!
Ps: Regarding the combat effectiveness of the generals of the Three Kingdoms and the intelligence of the counselors, I looked for a lot of information before writing the book, so I didn’t make a random ranking.

Including the widely-known novel, it is actually not the original and has been deleted and revised many times.

Those materials are quite authoritative. There are horizontal data comparisons of real historical materials and generals in the novel. Many of their battle records are recognized by historians and are very detailed. There are only about five or six people who are truly first-line, including Lu Bu and Dian Wei.

In terms of pure strength, many people actually rank Dian Wei first.

There will be a separate chapter later, talking about the next stage of the plot, everyone can take a look if they are interested

(End of this chapter)