The white foam sprayed by the war horse flew through the air, then mixed with the flying dust, and got stuck on Xia Houyuan's head and face.

Shrubs and weeds retreated beneath the horses' hooves.

War horses are generally not easily frightened, but once frightened they are difficult to control.

I don't know when, Xia Houyuan's helmet had fallen off, and his originally tied hair was scattered, just like Xia Houyuan's mood at the moment, chaotic.

The horses galloped wildly, panicking and not choosing the right path.

Xia Houyuan could only hold on to the neck of the war horse, trying not to be jolted by the horse. He didn't know how long it had passed, nor how many miles he had run. Finally, the horse was exhausted, stopped slowly, and fell to the ground with a thud.

At the same time, Xia Houyuan and Xia Houyuan also rolled off the horse.

Xia Houyuan almost hit a rock. Even though he was exempted from instant death damage, when he fell off the horse, it rubbed firmly with the ground. There were suddenly a few cuts on his arms and head and face, and they were dripping with blood.

Embarrassed.

The war horse had lost strength and had lost too much blood. It had fallen to the ground. It was foaming at the mouth. There was little air in and a lot of air out. It was no longer good. However, it still tried to raise its head and looked at Xia Houyuan aside. I don't know.

In order to appease Xia Houyuan, or to seek help from Xia Houyuan.

Xia Houyuan's horse was injured and fled. The soldiers were scattered in all directions. Even Xia Houyuan's guards were caught off guard. They could not care about this one but not the other. They could only choose to chase Xia Houyuan all the way back. After running for most of the day, they waited for

Xia Houyuan's horse was exhausted and finally stopped. However, several guards looked around and no one knew where they were now...

There is no GPS positioning these days. It can only be manually observed. The guards looked at each other and separated a few people to go to the surrounding area to look at the terrain. Others started to be on guard. Others came to the dazed Xia Houyuan and lowered their heads.

He shouted: "General, General!"

As if he heard the call, Xia Houyuan's eyes finally regained focus. He once again focused his gaze on the face of the guard in front of him, and asked rather eagerly: "Why?"

The guard responded confusedly, "Why?"

The guards and others were a little worried. After all, these guards were basically connected to Xia Houyuan himself. If Xia Houyuan had a high status, these guards would naturally rise. If Xia Houyuan failed, these guards would naturally have no future...

Moreover, these guards are often not one person, and they also involve the families, wives, children, and children of the subsequent guards. Therefore, we cannot look at Xia Houyuan like this and boldly say: "General, let's go back to Yanzhou?"

Xia Houyuan was obviously lost in thought again, his eyes were once again distracted, and he did not respond.

The guards looked at each other.

Normally, it would not be the guard's turn to comment on this kind of matter, but Xia Houyuan is obviously mentally ill at the moment. It is obviously unrealistic to expect him to come up with an idea immediately, but having no idea is still a problem after all.

"Don't panic! Have you eaten? You guys, go search the surrounding area and see what you can find. The general is just thinking about some questions. It'll be fine if you figure it out! Work first, don't stand around stupidly!"

A more mature man, who looked like a guard leader, stood up and gave orders loudly.

With the order, people felt a little more at ease. These guards also silently assigned tasks and did the corresponding things. There were some busy things at hand, so they didn't think randomly. After a while, someone stood up and said:

Build a bonfire, then use your helmet to fetch water from a nearby water source, then hang it on the bonfire to serve as a temporary pot and cauldron, add some picked wild vegetables and the dry food you carry with you, and start cooking.

After all, it happened so suddenly, who could run around with a pot?

What?

Dander, oil, dirt and lice inside the helmet?

Just get used to it. It's like the cafeteria of later generations of schools. When you see cockroaches or flies in your freshman year, you will probably start yelling in a fuss. In your sophomore and junior years, it will be much better, because you know that it is useless to scream. In your senior year, you will even feel

This is an extra meal given by the canteen chef...

Humans are very strange creatures. After eating something, their minds don't seem to be so flustered.

The guards gradually settled down and began to keep watch spontaneously.

Xia Houyuan is still thinking, and his mind is still on the battlefield before. There are still arrows flying in the air like locusts, the horses and soldiers are still roaring and fighting for their lives, the bloody swords and spears are flying, and the arrows thrown by Zhao Yun are still in the air.

A small iron halberd whirling and circling...

Why?

Why were my soldiers defeated so quickly?

Why is there such a big gap even though they are both cavalry?

Why didn’t I realize it at the time, or even think I could win?

why why……

Countless question marks swirled and collided in Xia Houyuan's mind.

Darkness slowly fell.

The guards guarded Xia Houyuan, their eyes full of worry. Victory or defeat is a common thing for military strategists, but if Xia Houyuan cannot get out, then not only Xia Houyuan, but also these guards will be finished!

However, these guards could not say that they would pull open Xia Houyuan's head and help him straighten it out. They could only wait quietly for Xia Houyuan to recover...

In this battle, for Xia Houyuan, the injuries on his body are secondary. What is more important is the trauma in his heart. When self-confidence is completely destroyed, no matter who it is, it will be quite uncomfortable.

, especially someone like Xia Houyuan who is somewhat arrogant on weekdays.

In the wilderness, the night is dark, and from time to time I think of the howls of wild beasts, showing a world where the jungle is strong and the strong eat the strong.

Xia Houyuan opened his eyes, but even though he was lying down, he was not sleepy at all.

After a night of silence, when the sun rose again the next day, what made these guards happy was that Xia Houyuan finally returned to normal. Of course, at least on the surface it looked like that. Xia Houyuan ordered his horse to be killed

The horses cut off some meat, cooked it and ate it, and then started back again.

Although Xia Houyuan himself seemed to be fine, the so-called "fire reconnaissance" this time actually "reconnaissed" and killed at least seven to eight hundred cavalry of Cao's army, causing Cao's already weak cavalry to suffer a heavy blow again.

One blow, coupled with the blow to the confidence of Cao's cavalry, this loss was no wonder that Cao Cao almost vomited blood and cursed Xia Houyuan, the main person in charge of this operation, as General Baidi.

Fortunately, Cao Chun was relatively calm and did not continue to fight with Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun also considered the endurance of the war horse and did not continue to fight Cao Chun regardless. After the two met, they retreated.

It can be said that most of Cao's cavalry were saved to some extent.

Cao Cao ordered to seize Xia Houyuan's general position and demote Dai Zui's service. At the same time, Cao Cao ordered Cao Chun to take charge of reorganizing the cavalry and strengthen alert and training. However, no matter what adjustments Cao Cao made later, the morale of the entire Chen Liu cavalry force collapsed.

The fact of the change caused a huge loophole to suddenly appear in Cao Cao's originally arranged front, which forced Cao Cao to start to change the plan in a targeted manner. When changing the plan, he received a report from Le Jin in Shanyang and discovered that

The soldiers and horses of "Tai Shi" were killed, which made Cao Cao feel like adding insult to injury and gave him a severe headache.

Cao Cao regretted a little. If he really knew that the current situation would happen, he might as well have pressed all the troops at the beginning and faced the hussar general...

In fact, if we talk about the overall strategic deployment, Cao Cao's original plan is not wrong, and is even a bit clever. If the hussar general attacks on horseback, no matter which side he goes to, he can flank the hussar general's retreat.

Going south means that Yue Jin and others from the north will march. If the hussars go north, it means Xiahou Dun from the south will advance. Then they will cut off the return of the hussar generals and their horses. They will use the city to press forward step by step, risking the whole year's harvest and destroying it.

Trap General Hussar's men to death!

But the hussars general stood still abnormally, making Cao Cao confused about what Fei Qian wanted to do...

Could it be that Fei Qian sensed Cao Cao's intentions and wanted to fight a protracted war?

Or maybe Fei Qian didn't want to welcome the emperor, but just pretended to be an attitude?

Or some other reason...

Cao Cao thought a lot, but what he didn't expect was that the hussar general Fei Qian could actually send a partial army to march into Hanoi!

What is Fei Qian doing?

In this era, the cost of information transmission is extremely high. Even if Hanoi and Jizhou are neighbors, it normally takes three days to transmit the message from Shanyang to Cao Cao. Even if it is urgent, it will take two days. From Xu

The same is true for the news transmitted from the county, which has a considerable lag. Cao Cao must consider what new changes have occurred during the period of time when the news is transmitted, and make corresponding deductions based on such changes...

Could it be that he wanted to contact Yecheng and rescue Yuan Shang? When did Yuan Shang get involved with Fei Qian?

But just when Cao Cao was about to send troops to take action, he received news that Le Jin had dispatched urgently, saying that the hussars led by "Tai Shi" were missing...

What's missing?

If Cao Cao hadn't known that Le Jin had a calm personality, he might have suspected that Le Jin was crazy now. After three batches, there were more than 2,000 and nearly 3,000 men and horses. How could such men and horses disappear without saying anything?

Could it be that he turned around and went back to the south? Or did he enter the mountains?

Cao Cao couldn't understand, and Le Jin, who was in the Shanyang area, was even more confused. He didn't even dare to leave Shanyang, so he could only send scouts everywhere to search desperately.

It is not that there are no traces. After all, so many people have passed by, and there are some traces after all. But these traces are very strange. On the one hand, they are very confusing, and on the other hand, there are some differences in numbers. This is why Le Jin finally reported to Cao Cao that the Hussars were riding horses.

One of the important reasons for missing.

After repeated confirmations by the scouts, it was found that only about six or seven hundred men and horses were heading southwest, while the rest of the hussars passing through Wen County seemed to have evaporated, leaving no trace at all.

Could it be that there were no such people in the first place?

Just like when Dong Zhuo used 3,000 people to pretend to be 30,000?

However, Le Jin did not dare to confirm. After all, if his judgment was wrong, the consequences would be very serious, so he could only report the situation to Cao Cao urgently and let Cao Cao make a decision.

Cao Cao supported his increasingly headache, unable to make a decision.

Is that really all we can do?

The candles in Cao Cao's main tent were not extinguished all night long...

…(◎_◎;)?……

When Cao Cao was unable to judge for a moment, Zhang Chen had already led his men on the journey back to Heluo.

"Captain, do you think it's useful for us to run around like this?" the guard beside Zhang Chen asked.

Yes, Fei Qianqiu sent troops northward, but it was not Taishi Ci. Taishi Ci was still at Hangu Pass. It was just Zhang Chen who led 700 people back and forth in the name of Taishi Ci.
To be continued...