Deng Ai had gone to support the Public Security City, and he understood the current situation of the Public Security City best. What he saw was far more than the formal scenes that could be expressed in writing.

That was real flames of war and corpses. Those shocking scenes could destroy a person's will. When the will collapses, the public security defense line will also collapse - these cannot be measured solely by the numbers in the battle report.

In other words, the situation in Public Security City is far more severe than these civil servants expected.

Follow the authority when the situation arises. As a person who dared to sneak attack Yinping and go straight to the capital of Shu, Deng Ai never thought of taking the ordinary path. His principle of doing things is to achieve his goal by any means, and the consequences are completely negligible. This is also the case.

Because of this, both Deng Ai and Zhong Huicai were designed by Sima Zhao.

Fortunately, Sima Zhao is still playing in the mud at home. As for how Li Qi will deal with his overstepping of authority, we can wait until then.

Now Deng Ai only knows one thing: the police reinforcements cannot be delayed any longer.

War consumes not only soldiers but also food and grass.

Jingzhou was in urgent need of soldiers, while Cao Jun in Huayin City was in urgent need of food and grass.

It's not that Cao Cao never thought about breaking through the east blockade and clearing the obstacles between Huayin City and Tongguan, so that food and grass could arrive smoothly. However, there were two troops stationed between Huayin City and Tongguan. Ma Chao and Zhao Yun

The Qiang cavalry led by each other supported each other and beat back every time Cao Jun broke out.

Now that there is a shortage of grain in Huayin City, the grain officer has to dilute the rice grain and distribute it to the soldiers in the form of dendrobium.

The last time we did this was during the campaign against Yuan Shu. Thinking of the scapegoat Wang He, the current warehouse officer trembled.

Sima Yi suggested: "Since a small group of soldiers cannot break through the blockade of Ma Chao and Zhao Yun, then we have to attack with a large army."

Cao Cao said: "But this is equivalent to handing over Huayin City to Li Qi."

Because in addition to Ma Chao and Zhao Yun, Li Qi's troops and horses are also waiting on the other sides. As long as Cao's army marches out from the east gate in large numbers, these troops and horses will inevitably attack the other three city gates.

Sima Yi said: "Tongguan is dangerous and can be defended, and it has access to grain roads, so it can be fought in a protracted battle. If we stick to Huayin, it will be detrimental to our army. If soldiers mutiny because of the food and grass issue, the consequences will be even more disastrous. Of course, Huayin

The city cannot be given to Li Qi for free, he must pay the price."

Cao Cao asked: "What's Zhongda's clever plan?"

Sima Yi informed Cao Cao of his plan, and Cao Cao nodded silently.

It seems to be somewhat useful, but not particularly useful.

But now, it seems there is no other choice.

It was just getting dark when the city gate of Huayin City opened with a "bang bang" from the inside.

A group of soldiers and horses quietly came out and ran towards Ma Chao's camp not far from the east gate. The leading general was the former Hebei Sitingzhu, Zhang He.

A spy had already rushed to tell Ma Chao the news.

Ma Chao is also used to it. The longer Huayin City is trapped, the stronger their desire to break through their own line of defense. At the same time, the higher the frequency of enemy raids, the more urgent the food and grass in their city are. This is a good thing.

Therefore, Ma Chao was always ready to meet the enemy. After hearing the news, he immediately mounted his horse and prepared his army.

Unexpectedly, another spy came to report: "Zhang He's team suddenly headed south, towards Zhao Yun's camp."

Zhao Yun was stationed in the southeast of Huayin City, which is the road leading to Tongguan.

It seems that the purpose of Zhang He's attack to the southeast this time was to open up the grain road between Huayin City and Tongguan. However, Zhang He suddenly changed direction. It is not known whether Zhao Yun was prepared.

Ma Chao said to Ma Dai: "You stay in the camp while I pursue Zhang He. I will attack with Zilong from both sides and capture Zhang He alive."

Ma Dai obeyed the order and left five thousand cavalry to guard the camp and watched his brother leave.

The dust raised when the cavalry left had just settled when another spy came to report: "General Ma, General Cao Gao Lan is leading a group of troops towards the southeast."

Ma Dai was shocked. He felt that Ma Chao had just fallen into a trap.

Zhang He may not be going to attack Zhao Yun. His real intention may be to lure Ma Chao out, and then he and Gao Lan will attack Ma Chao from both sides.

Although Ma Chao is brave, he only has 5,000 cavalry. You must know that Zhang He and Gao Lan are not weak. Whether they were under Yuan Shao or Cao Cao now, they all relied on their military exploits to climb up the ranks step by step.

In order to rescue Ma Chao, Ma Dai mobilized 3,000 soldiers and horses from the camp to search for Gao Lan.

At the same time, Zhao Yun also received two military intelligence reports: one was that Zhang He came towards the southeast, but turned around and attacked Ma Chao halfway; the other was that Gao Lan arrived shortly afterwards and attacked Ma Chao with Zhang He.

Zhao Yun thought to himself, The purpose of setting up camp here is to coordinate with Ma Chao. Now that Ma Chao is under siege, is there any reason not to save him?

In other words, Cao Cao sent Zhang He and, after viewing the two teams, stirred up Ma Chao in the east and Zhao Yun in the southeast.

Hearing that there was a battle in the southeast, Sima Yi stepped forward and said: "Wei Gong, you can leave the city."

Cao Cao nodded and led his army straight out of the east gate. At the same time, he sent Lu Chang to lead a partial army to attack Ma Chao's camp.

At this time, Ma Chao's camp only had 2,000 cavalry. The lieutenants who stayed in the camp did not expect that Cao Cao would send out all the troops - after all, sending out all the troops would mean abandoning Huayin City. Therefore, the defense of the remaining troops in Ma Chao's camp was relaxed.

When Lu Chang's troops appeared not far away, the camp began to rush to meet the enemy.

Lu Chang did not tremble, and directly led his troops into the camp, throwing torches at each camp.

The fire took advantage of the wind and soon became a prairie fire, with thick smoke billowing and covering half of the sky.

Ma Dai, who was fighting with Gao Lan, was horrified when he saw the camp on fire.

For Ma Jiajun, it is not a big problem if the two thousand Qiang cavalry left in the camp are attacked. Anyway, Li Qi spent money to buy them from the Qiang people. Even if the food for human consumption is burned, the problem is not too serious.

, because the main supplies of food and grass are still stationed at Li Qi’s base camp, which is heavily guarded.

What Ma Jiajun fears most is that the fodder the horses eat will be burned.

Of the 50,000 Qiang cavalry brought from the Qiang people, after several battles, less than 40,000 were left, and 10,000 were left in Chang'an under the command of Pang De. The rest were basically assigned to the two camps of Ma Chao and Zhao Yun.

Therefore, most of the fodder is also in these two camps.

If the fodder is burned, these war horses will starve to death. There is no green prairie in Huayin area.

The horses starved to death and the cavalry became lame.

Seeing the thick smoke rising into the sky and joining the dark clouds, Ma Dai knew clearly that even if he withdrew his troops now, he would not be able to save the country.

"The top priority is to preserve the fodder in General Zhao Yun's camp." Ma Dai decided that he could no longer tangle with Gao Lan here, because maybe Cao Jun had already attacked Zhao Yun's camp.

But Gao Lan is here, you don’t have to be entangled just because you don’t want to be entangled.

When Gao Lan saw Ma Dai trying to run away, he pursued him even more.

At the same time, Zhao Yun came to meet Ma Chao and saw Zhang He and Ma Chao fighting in the battle circle.

How could Zhang and He be Ma Chao's opponent? Anyway, he had achieved his goal of luring the snake out of its hole and was about to retreat.

The direction in which Zhang He retreated was exactly in the direction of Tongguan, which was also the direction from which Zhao Yun came.

He had just escaped from Ma Chao's clutches and was now trapped in a fight with Zhao Yun, so exhausted.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Yun stabbed him in the right chest with a spear and almost fell from his horse.

Although the right chest was protected by armor, Zhao Yun's shot was so powerful that it actually pierced a hole in the joint of the armor, and the head of the gun penetrated one-third of the chest. Although it was not fatal, every time he raised the gun,

, all tearing at the wounds, the pain is unbearable.

Zhang He was unable to fight anymore and desperately broke out under the protection of the guards on his left and right.

Unexpectedly, Ma Chao arrived from behind and saw gunfire and guards falling off their horses one after another.

Zhang He was shocked and thought that I, Zhang Junyi, died here today!

Seeing Ma Chao's spear tip dangling in the back of Zhang He's heart, a scream suddenly came from the sky.

Ma Chao hurriedly dodged, and a long arrow missed Ma Chao's face.

A general rode his horse forward and shouted loudly: "Xia Houyuan is here, the horses should not be so arrogant."

Since losing an eye, Xia Houyuan's archery skills have become more and more sophisticated. If Ma Chao hadn't heard the news just now, the arrow would have passed through his head.

Ma Chao didn't understand that Xia Houyuan had been defeated repeatedly in the battle of Chang'an. He didn't know how much he weighed, right? Looking behind Xia Houyuan, flags were fluttering, people and horses were moving, and Qing Luo was in the middle.

Under the umbrella, it was Cao Cao.

Only then did Ma Chao and Zhao Yun understand that Cao Cao's army had already come out in full force and was probably planning to abandon Huayin.

Zhao Yun called Ma Chao and said, "Let's go back to the camp and hold on to see how he can survive my camp."

At this time, Ma Dai also came over from the rebel army and told Ma Chao about the burning of the camp.

In order to protect Zhao Yun's camp, Ma Chao had no choice but to abandon his burned camp and retreat with Zhao Yun toward the southeast.

When he was less than five miles away from the camp, a disgraced general came on horseback. It was Zhao Yun's deputy general Feng Xi.

When Feng Xi saw Zhao Yun, he turned over and fell off his horse, knelt down and said, "There was a sudden fire in our army camp, and all the food and grass were burned."

Zhao Yun slammed the iron sword of the spear into the ground, poking the mud three inches deep.

At first, they thought Zhang He was just making the same raid as before;

Later, they thought that Zhang He was just a bait to attack Ma Chao with Gao Lan;

Later, they thought that Zhang He and Gao Lan were just fighting outposts for Cao Cao, and their purpose was to allow Cao Cao's army to retreat to Tongguan smoothly.

Only now did they know that when Cao Cao withdrew to Tongguan, he also destroyed the fodder of the Qiang cavalry, leaving nearly 30,000 Qiang cavalry lame.

I have seen people burning human food, but I have never seen people burning horse food. It is really despicable, shameless and obscene...

The fire in Huayin City was finally put out.

This was not the flames of war that burned when Li Qi attacked the city, but the flames of war that burned when Cao Cao left.
To be continued...