Originally, before Cao Ren led the army to attack Xicheng, although he took away most of the troops in Nanyang County, he did not also transfer away the Wei troops belonging to Cao Xiu in the Fancheng area.

The reason is simple, because Fancheng was the first line of defense for the Wei Dynasty to guard Nanyang County, and at that time Guan Yu was more threatening than Mi Yang.

Therefore, even though the Wei army led by Cao Ren was destroyed outside the West City, the troops in Cao Xiu's hands were not damaged at all.

And if he wanted to hold Fancheng, a strategically contested place that was located on a plain with no mountains as a barrier, Cao Xiu would definitely have no less than 10,000 troops.

In fact, Cao Xiu originally had about 15,000 troops. Later, because of Sun Li's plan, he transferred 3,000 troops to Sun Li to garrison in Yancheng. Therefore, Cao Xiu can currently mobilize about 12,000 Wei troops in Fan City.

The 20,000 Wei troops in Cao Xiu's hands were expanded from the foreign troops that Cao Cao left in Nanyang back then, so their combat effectiveness is naturally impressive.

Previously, because of Sun Li's advice and fear of Guan Yu, Cao Xiu led the 12,000 Wei troops to huddle in Fancheng.

It's just that among the only famous generals from the Cao clan left today, Cao Xiu's military style is particularly violent.

Although the tens of thousands of Han troops outside Fancheng did not attack Fancheng before, they were surrounded by tens of thousands of Han troops for several months. This made Cao Xiu, who had a violent personality, feel suffocated in his heart.

What's more, Guan Yu had previously placed the bodies of the Wei army's cavalry outside Fancheng.

Cao Xiu once served as the leader of the Central Army, so among the thousands of corpses, many of them were his old troops.

Guan Yu's behavior made Cao Xiu hate him very much.

So today, when Cao Xiu in Fan City noticed signs that the Han army was withdrawing from the siege, he immediately organized his troops in Fan City.

After most of the Han army retreated from the northern siege of Fancheng, Cao Xiu immediately led an army of 10,000 out of the north gate of Fancheng.

Although he was besieged, Cao Xiu was unable to obtain much information to deduce why the Han army suddenly withdrew from the siege.

No matter what the reason was for the Han army to withdraw from the siege, Cao Xiu, who was good at seizing the opportunity, would immediately lead his army out of the city.

The reason why Cao Xiu led his army to huddle in Fan City before was because there were no reinforcements from the Wei army outside Fan City at that time, and he did not have an advantage in terms of troops.

But now not far outside Fancheng, there are tens of thousands of Wei troops led by Zhang Liao.

Yancheng and Fancheng are not far apart. Cao Xiu, who is trapped in the city, cannot chat with Zhang Liao outside Yancheng in real time.

But it was very simple for Zhang Liao to tell Cao Xiu something by lighting the beacon fire.

There are tens of thousands of strong reinforcements of our own not far away. After the Han army withdraws from the siege, Cao Xiu will definitely choose to lead the army out.

From a military perspective, this move can be used as a rival to Zhang Liao's army.

Personally speaking, Cao Xiu wondered if he could find a loophole when the Han army retreated, so as to give the Han army a hard blow to vent the resentment he had been feeling for the past few months.

What disappointed Cao Xiu was that when he led his army out of Fan City, he did not find such a flaw.

Under normal circumstances, the infantry is somewhat similar to the aircraft of later generations.

The most likely times for aircraft accidents are during takeoff and landing.

The time when the ancient infantry was most easily taken advantage of by the enemy was during marching and retreat.

Many excellent tactics in ancient times were derived from this weakness of the infantry, such as "strike halfway across the battlefield, encircle the point for reinforcements, and wait for work at leisure" and other classic tactics.

Well, at first Cao Xiu also wanted to use a tactic similar to a half-crossing attack.

But when Cao Xiu led his army out of Fancheng, he immediately gave up this idea.

Although the Han army took the lead in withdrawing from the northern perimeter of Fancheng under Guan Yu's order, the Han army did not seem to be panicking in its withdrawal.

Before they evacuated, they transported a large number of antlers that could be used again onto the baggage trucks in an orderly manner, and chose to burn those items that could not be transported away.

So when Cao Xiu led his troops out, what he saw was that outside the north gate of Fan City was a mess, and there were even flames burning in many places.

The flames burning everywhere made the open space outside the north gate of Fancheng seem a bit hot in this cold winter.

Because most of the burning items were made of wood, blown by the cold wind, a lot of wood ashes produced by the burning floated in large quantities in the world where Cao Xiu and tens of thousands of Wei troops were located.

Many of them even fell on Cao Xiu.

Outside the north gate of Fan City, which was a bit hot and constantly filled with ashes, Cao Xiu saw that the Han army that had just evacuated from the north gate had not gone far at all.

Outside Fancheng was a vast plain. Cao Xiu, who was riding a horse, looked far away and saw that the follow-up troops of tens of thousands of Han troops were even less than a mile away from them.

This scene made Cao Xiu feel suspicious in his heart.

Isn’t it necessary to evacuate as soon as possible?

But he saw that the Han army was acting unhurriedly. It didn't look like they were retreating, but rather like they were luring the enemy.

The most important thing was that Cao Xiu had excellent eyesight. He looked down from a high position and happened to see the general who was leading thousands of Han troops to cover the retreat of the front army.

He is eight feet long, has a leopard's head with eyes, a swallow's jaw and a tiger's beard, and in his hand is a dark iron spear.

Who else is this person if it’s not Zhang Fei?

After seeing that Zhang Fei was responsible for leading the army and escorting him back, Cao Xiu couldn't help but narrow his eyes.

This was his subconscious action when he encountered danger after serving in the army for many years.

The first time Cao Xiu met Zhang Fei was more than ten years ago.

But the first real fight between him and Zhang Fei was in the Battle of Shimona a few years ago.

In the Battle of Xiabian a few years ago, Zhang Fei, who did not have many troops, successfully used bluffing to frighten Cao Hong, the then-coach of the Wei army.

It's just that Zhang Fei didn't hide his plan from Cao Xiu.

Cao Xiu guessed that Zhang Fei did not have many troops at all, so at Cao Xiu's suggestion, he personally led the tiger and leopard cavalry to attack Bian.

In that battle, Cao Xiu's formation killed Lei Tong, Ren Kui and other generals won the battle of Xiabian.

That battle made the world know Cao Xiu.

But what puzzled the world was that Cao Xiu had already judged that Zhang Fei didn't have much of an army at all.

Why didn't the Wei army, which had superior strength, directly attack Zhang Fei's headquarters? Or, after winning the Battle of Xiabian, did they continue to expand their results and attack Zhang Fei's headquarters?

You must know that there were famous generals such as Cao Hong, Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen, and Zhang Ji in the Wei army at that time, and the heads of Zhang Fei and Ma Chao were much more valuable than those of Wu Lan and others.

Others don't know this reason, but Cao Xiu himself knows it very well.

Nothing but him, because he was afraid of Zhang Fei in his heart.

Cao Xiu's fear of Zhang Fei originated from the moment he saw Zhang Fei for the first time in more than ten years.

That year, Cao Xiu was still under the command of Cao Chun, one of the five thousand tiger and leopard cavalry, and followed Cao Cao to pursue Liu Bei and others in Dangyang.

The day Cao Xiu first met Zhang Fei, he was in front of a bridge. The bridge was not long, only a dozen steps away at most.

On the other side of the bridge where five thousand tigers and leopards were riding, there were only Zhang Fei and twenty cavalry.

However, due to such a huge disparity in military strength, what happened later became a lifelong shame for the five thousand tiger and leopard cavalry, and even a lifelong shame for Cao Cao.

One man broke the bridge by the water, with his angry eyes and spear across his face, and roared at the five thousand tiger and leopard cavalry who were slaughtering the people:

"I am Zhang Yide, come and fight to the death together!"

That roar was as loud as thunder, making all five thousand tigers and leopards tremble with fear.

At that time, the long knives in their hands were still flowing with blood from hundreds of thousands of people.

This scene also deeply reflected in the heart of Cao Xiu, who was still young at that time.

Some shadows can never be erased.

It can be said that between Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, Cao Xiu was more afraid of Zhang Fei.

When he saw that Zhang Fei was personally leading the army to suppress the battle, Cao Xiu, who had been rushing out in a hurry, thinking of leading the army to pursue the Han army to avenge his bloodshed, suddenly gave up his plan.

Now the distance between Zhang Fei and Cao Xiu is not far, only one mile.

At present, Cao Xiu has no less troops than Zhang Fei, and he even has a city behind him to support him.

It's just that Cao Xiu, who traveled thousands of miles across China in order to bury his grandfather and join Cao Cao, and was praised by Cao Cao as "the Cao family's thousand-mile horse", today does not dare to cross even this distance.

A thousand miles is easy to travel, but one mile is difficult to cross. Is this the Cao family's thousand-mile horse?

Just as Cao Xiu led more than 10,000 Wei troops to watch the Han troops retreating away, more than 10,000 Han troops who were retreating also saw the Wei troops leaving the city behind them.

Originally, when one's own army was retreating, if an enemy force with a strength no less than one's own suddenly appeared behind them, the retreating infantry would feel panicked.

But with Zhang Fei behind them, the retreating 10,000 Han troops did not fall into this mood.

Zhang Fei, who was responsible for holding down the formation, also saw Cao Xiu not far away.

Unlike Cao Xiu, who was deeply afraid of Zhang Fei, Zhang Fei looked at Cao Xiu with a bit more amusement.

The turtle came out of the turtle shell.

Just playing for fun, Zhang Fei, who puts the overall situation first, has no intention of fighting Cao Xiu now.

He was just strolling in the courtyard, guarding the back of more than ten thousand Han troops.

Just as the "confrontation" between the two sides occurred, 10,000 Wei troops led by Sun Li also rushed outside Fancheng.

When Cao Xiu's generals saw the arrival of another 10,000 troops, they immediately said to Cao Xiu with joy: "General, our army is now twice as powerful as the enemy's army, and we can attack it!"

This general does not know Zhang Fei.

Unlike the general's joy, Cao Xiu had a look of hesitation on his face after hearing what the general said.

There are 20,000 on our side and 10,000 on the enemy.
To be continued...