Mythical Version of the Three Kingdoms

"Zixiao, we can't go any faster. It's raining so hard and the roads are muddy. If we continue to speed up, it will be easy for the battle line to be disconnected. Besides, the soldiers under our command are obviously resentful because of the high-speed march." Xiahou Yuan caught up with Cao Ren and spoke in a somewhat urgent tone.

Cao Ren's face was heavy when he heard this. He looked back at the soldiers around him. Although he couldn't see far, he could see a little coldness from their faces soaked by the heavy rain.

After all, marching in this kind of climate is already very unsatisfactory, and Cao Ren is still urging his subordinates to speed up. Considering that the soldiers themselves have more or less resentment towards the Cao family, the current climate and march can be said to have further magnified this resentment.

"You came from the rear army, what do you think along the way?" Although Cao Ren was anxious about the situation, the attendants around him and the headquarters led by the attendants all had cold faces. It was normal for other low-level soldiers to have resentment on their faces, so Cao Ren had to slow down the march and ask Xiahou Yuan, who had been chasing from the rear army, about the overall situation of the entire army.

"Not very good, most of the soldiers have cold faces and gloomy expressions. Forcing a march at this time is too damaging to morale." Xiahou Yuan's face was obviously not very good. He was not blind, and he had fought with the army for so many years, so he could see the current state of the soldiers. It was obvious that most of the soldiers were very unhappy about having to work for Cao in this climate, especially for forcing a march in the rain!

"Take a break and let the core headquarters appease them." Cao Ren sighed. No matter how anxious he was, he had to stop and rest. Otherwise, if the camp was really blown up, what would it matter even if he could reach the Helmand River crossing? Well, the camp was not really blown up, but it was very likely that he would not work hard.

Although it was easy to get into trouble on the battlefield, the officers and soldiers under Lao Cao's command, as long as they were veterans, now had a life-saving talent per capita, and even some talents of pretending to be dead, which was very disgusting and outrageous. So when they really arrived on the battlefield, it was not too difficult to kill Cao Ren's group if they did not work hard. After all, compared with the soldiers, these officers and soldiers were more valuable in attacking and killing.

As Cao Ren ordered to rest for half an hour, various special secrets and talents quickly supported it. As for exposure, there was no need to talk about it at this time. If the other party could detect it, such a large army would be exposed anyway. If the other party could not detect it, it would not be exposed even if some special secrets were used.

In this case, it would be better to let the soldiers play freely, at least to further stabilize morale.

"I heard that the opponent this time is Ardashir." Ma Pin supported the force field to form an umbrella-shaped protective cover for more than a hundred brothers under his command. After Cao Ren ordered the whole army to stop and rest, he took out a huge bamboo water bottle from his backpack, which was wrapped with a layer of soft grass. When he opened the lid of the pot, hot steam gushed out from the mouth of the pot. Ma Pin drank two mouthfuls of ginger sugar water in a row, warmed up his body, and his condition improved a lot.

"Where did Brother Ma get the ginger sugar water?" The soldiers under his command came over after smelling the smell, and Ma Pin poured some for them. The others had limited loads, so he was the only one who could carry more things. This bamboo water bottle with a diameter of more than ten centimeters could hold more than ten kilograms of water at a time, which was heavier than the weapons of ordinary soldiers and accounted for a lot of weight. Generally, only the big guys would use this kind of water bottle.

"When I went out, I found the cook in the next camp boiling ginger sugar water, so I asked him to fill two pots for me. I thought it was a bit heavy, so I took it with me." Ma Pin said indifferently. Normal soldiers still had more than 30 kilograms of weight, so they must be wearing armor. Ma Pin said that at this level, there is actually no difference between 30 kilograms more armor and 30 kilograms less armor.

"Who else can we fight here except Ardashir." An old soldier took some ginger sugar water from Ma Pin to warm himself up and complained, "But there don't seem to be many Holy Death Knights in Ardashir. I remember that an old man in General Xu's side marked the Holy Death Knights and found that the number of Holy Death Knights is getting smaller and smaller now."

"Normal, that thing needs to be replenished at my level." Ma Pin had a look of understanding on his face. Although he went to participate in the Ganges War and was knocked unconscious by a dog before leaving the country and thrown into the woods, he learned from his shame and became braver afterwards, and now he has reached the fifth level of smelting.

"That thing is really hard to deal with. If you really encounter it, you don't know how to fight it." Hu Bo, who came from the side to trick Ma Pin into giving him ginger sugar water, also sighed, and everyone present was silent after hearing this.

For veterans of Ma Pin's level, encountering the Holy Death Cavalry is worse than encountering the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, because the latter can't beat you and you can run away, and as long as you are careful with the latter, the opponent can't actually kill you in a few hits. Of course, three or five veterans like Ma Pin circle and kick a Divine Iron Cavalry, and it is difficult to quickly take it down on the battlefield, but the Holy Death Cavalry is different. The Holy Death Cavalry can really kill veterans like Ma Pin in a few hits.

High attack, high mobility, high breakthrough, although much more fragile than the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, if a veteran of Ma Pin's level seizes the opportunity, he may be able to pierce the soldiers of the Holy Death Cavalry with a three-edged rapier and then kill them directly, but the opponent can also kill veterans like Ma Pin in a few hits.

It is possible for tens of thousands of fearless ordinary soldiers to hold back the Xiliang Iron Cavalry. Even if the Xiliang Iron Cavalry can break through, it will take some time. But it is impossible to do so against the Holy Death Cavalry. The Holy Death Cavalry may be slightly injured, but with its super high mobility and breakthrough ability, it can directly break through the front line.

So facing the Holy Death Cavalry, even veterans like Ma Pin would have a headache. This is not an opponent that you won't die if you are careful. It is a real opponent. Even if you are careful, you will die. What's worse is that you can't retreat when fighting the Holy Death Cavalry. If you retreat, the battle line may collapse directly.

The veterans under Cao Cao actually studied the Holy Death Cavalry when they sat together, but the more they studied, the more they felt that the Holy Death Cavalry was a sublimation of a regular cavalry. The only problem was that the sublimation was a bit too much, which made it impossible for the Holy Death Cavalry to deal with it in a normal way.

"I don't know, maybe it was General Xiahou." Ma Pin said.

"That's probably the legion that has been formed for many years but has never been formed. It is said that they use the elite who are carefully selected." Hu Bo said with some speculation.

The legion that Hu Bo mentioned is actually the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry. Cao Cao said that he would do this thing when he was in the Central Plains. Now it has been more than ten years, and it has finally made some noise. And it was not created by Lao Cao, but by Cao Ang.

"Are you kidding me? Have you been selected?" Ma Pin sneered when he heard this. The carefully selected elites, funny, we are standing together, what are you pretending to be!

"I haven't? You were selected?" Hu Bo smiled and asked Ma Pin, "I'm not an elite, are you an elite?"

"I'm not an elite either." Ma Pin was not ashamed, but proud. He was just working for Lao Cao, how could he really risk his life? But even his brothers didn't receive the news, so he was definitely not an elite. What a joke, in this broken place of Kandahar, there are still 5,000 people who can surpass him, Ma Pin?

This is the fifth level of smelting. Not counting those old guys who have pretended to be dead, after experiencing the change of heaven and the curse of world consciousness, the entire Han Dynasty may only have a little over a thousand now, don't expect more. In this case, how many people under Lao Cao can have more than the fifth level of smelting? One hundred, two hundred?

Anyway, at most there are more than a hundred. In other words, if a guy like Ma Pin is willing to expose himself, he can at least get the treatment of a thousand men. However, for Ma Pin and his group, a thousand men is too dangerous. What if they are named by the strong men on the opposite side? If they can't beat them, they will be finished. It's better to be a centurion, safer!

Even if there are some shameless guys on the opposite side, in a general-scale melee, veterans with such strength will not be injured after fighting as long as they are not in the most central and strongest area.

"Huh." Just as Ma Pin and Hu Bo were chatting, Hu Bo frowned slightly.

"What's wrong?" Ma Pin looked at Hu Bo and asked.

"My clone was annihilated." Hu Bo said.

"I remember you have hundreds of clones." Ma Pin looked at Hu Bo and was silent for a while, "But with the strength of your clones, it's normal to be taken away by snakes, wolves, tigers and leopards in the mountains."

Hu Bo was silent for a while, raised his right hand, and then more than a dozen clones with dragonfly wings, no more than three inches high, flew out of Hu Bo's palm.

Although they were both illusion soldiers, Hu Bo completely gave up his innate combat ability after he fled from Old Yuan's house to Cao Cao's side, and instead focused on reconnaissance ability. This dragonfly-like thing is the reconnaissance ability developed by Hu Bo.

At the same time, veterans under Cao Cao's command with super-large scale, that is, a starting radius of more than 30 miles, and anti-interference reconnaissance ability, all found some anomalies.

"It seems not quite right." Several veterans with strong reconnaissance ability found anomalies. Although they were not very satisfied with Old Cao, intelligence and reconnaissance could not be delayed in the war, so after mutual confirmation, these intelligence were quickly summarized in the direction of Cao Ren.

"What, Ardashir's main force did not choose to retreat to the Helmand River crossing, but returned to the previous garrison?" Cao Ren was shocked when he received the news. How could this be possible? If it was a conventional attack, how could Ardashir's entire army be dispatched to encircle and suppress Yan Xing?

"This is what we have discovered. What should we do now?" Xiahou Yuan said with a gloomy face. This was not a joke. If Ardashir returned to the high ground where he was stationed before, it meant that if the other party wanted to break the dam and release water, they could do so at any time. Anyway, they could not flood him. If they could flood him after the dam broke, they would not lose anything.

Ardashir did want to retreat, but if he retreated normally, he could only go to the Helmand River ferry. But Cao Cao was not a fool. Ardashir would retreat there after defeating Yan Gui. As long as Cao Cao blocked him there, a fierce battle would be inevitable.

Even if Cao Cao's foundation was shaky now, the strong strength of the Han Empire was there. After a fierce battle, even if Ardashir could break through, he would definitely have to hand over some of his trump cards and expose his true combat effectiveness, and this was the information Cao Cao needed.

But now Ardashir gave up going back to the Kabul Valley from the Helmand River, and instead returned to the previous camp as if nothing had happened. Then the water attack method that Ardashir had prepared before really played its due role.

The current situation of Cao Cao and Ardashir is that they both know that the other side must have prepared means of water attack, and they also know that the other side is unwilling to fight to the death with them, and both want to reduce losses. In this case, the main forces of Ardashir and Cao Cao are both within the range of the water attack, and neither side will use water attack unless one side is about to be defeated and then threatens the other side with mutual destruction.

This is also the reason why Cao Cao was not worried about the main force attacking, being ambushed by Ardashir, and then being completely defeated in one go, because at that point, Cao Cao would just flip the table and say, "If Ardashir really dares to kill people indiscriminately, then we will all die together."

Similarly, Ardashir was not too worried about the end of his own subordinates. If he was really in a desperate situation, he would just dig. Therefore, when fighting in Kandahar, Cao Cao did not dare to force Ardashir to death. After all, in this situation, everyone had to restrain themselves.

The only time when they did not have to restrain themselves was when Ardashir was on the mountain and Cao Cao's main force was in the mountain road, or when Cao Cao's main force was in the city and Ardashir was in the mountain road.

After all, the terrain of Kabul was really like this. As long as the dam broke, both sides would be flooded in the mountain road.

But now the problem is that Cao Cao's main force is in the mountain road, preparing to go to the Helmand River Valley, while Ardashir is not going to retreat to the ferry, but is going to return to his previous highland camp. What does he want to do?

Cao Ren and the others' brains began to boil just thinking about it.

If this place bursts, the more than 60,000 of them will most likely be finished. Even if some of them can survive, they will not be able to face the subsequent strangulation of the Holy Death Riders.

"We must send people to stop Ardashir now. If we really talk about distance, we are actually closer than Ardashir. We will directly abandon the Helmand River ferry and move the battlefield to the front of the camp abandoned by Ardashir." Cao Ren made a quick judgment.

In other words, Cao Ren is actually an offensive general. Like Sima Yi, he is a famous general with amazing performance in offense. As for why he is famous for defense, it is just because the opponents they encountered were too strong, so they could not attack and could only defend.

Because of the winding mountain roads, a straight distance of thirty miles may take hundreds of miles to go around. Even with the blessing of the essence of heaven and earth, the mobility of the soldiers is greatly improved and they can move hundreds of miles at high speed. In the current climate environment, a raid of hundreds of miles is also a very deadly situation.

However, the problem now is that if you don't rush to stop Ardashir, Ardashir will really burst the dam after he goes up the mountain. If you rush to stop Ardashir, the originally most suitable battlefield for Cao's army will be directly replaced by a new place, and the original situation of waiting for the enemy to tire out has also changed. If things go wrong, it may become Ardashi waiting for the enemy to tire out.

"We are not much closer than Ardashir." Xiahou Yuan recalled the map of this area, compared the position of Ardashir's army detected by the scouts, and then compared the current position of both sides from the mountain camp according to memory.

"But if we don't rush over at full speed, Ardashir will arrive at the mountain camp first, and then rely on the terrain to defend it. If a wave of floods comes, our army will not be completely wiped out, and I'm afraid there won't be much left." Cao Ren said with an extremely ugly face, "So we can only block here as quickly as possible and fight Ardashir."

"Fight a meaningless war?" Zhang Xiu also rushed over at this time. The scouts under his command informed him that they had detected a large group of people marching at a high speed for more than 20 miles.

"We need to measure Ardashir's combat effectiveness." Cao Ren said in a suppressed tone.

"Ardashir's subordinates are united and can march at a high speed. After arriving, they can also maintain a considerable combat effectiveness. Can our army do this now?" Zhang Xiu did not refute Cao Ren, but his truth was more advantageous than refutation.

"Near the original Helmand River crossing, I think our army can still win by waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out. At worst, we will not be defeated miserably. However, this kind of forced march of nearly a hundred miles, after arriving, it is very likely that we will start a battle on the spot..." Zhang Xiu looked at Cao Ren with a cold face, "Who here is sure to beat the Holy Death Cavalry? Are you sure to face Ardashir when the whole army is exhausted?"

Cao Ren's face looked extremely ugly at this moment.

"What do you mean?" Xiahou Yuan looked at Zhang Xiu and asked.

"Withdraw directly. Since there is no room for the tactic to be implemented, it is better to withdraw first and wait for a new opportunity." Zhang Xiu said slowly.

Although he had a normal relationship with Yan Xing, they were both from Liangzhou and had some fellow countrymen. In addition, Cao Ang's behavior was a bright spot for Zhang Xiu - Cao Sikong was unreliable, but Cao Shizi was reliable.

After all, Zhang Xiu had already invested a huge amount of money in Cao. If he could avoid changing jobs, Zhang Xiu still didn't want to. He hadn't considered this before, but Cao Ang dared to mobilize troops privately, so many things were exposed.

If it wasn't exposed, people like Zhang Xiu really wouldn't notice it, but this time it was almost clear, Zhang Xiu would naturally consider it, and Shizi Cao Ang seemed to be a really good choice.

After thinking this, Zhang Xiu would naturally help Cao Ang when he was able. For example, now, Cao, your plan has failed. There is no point in making up for it. It is better to fail directly. In this way, Cao will be beaten again to prove the justice of Cao Ang's deployment of troops, and directly determine the incompetence of the planner. That is, if Cao Ang had not deployed troops, not only would the plan fail, but also the troops would be lost.

"No!" Cao Ren sternly denied Zhang Xiu's idea.

"Then what do you say? Rush over and fight Ardashir?" Zhang Xiu confronted Cao Ren without any fear.

At least I can barely update on time at work, sigh