Chapter 12: The Battle of Wuzhong

  "Cao Cao!"

  Although he had been mentally prepared, Yuan Shang's heart still skipped a beat and took a long time to calm down.

  The number one figure at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty!

  That slightly old-looking, ordinary and unremarkable man is actually Cao Cao?

  This generation's hero has a somewhat unimpressive appearance, to be honest, Yuan Shang feels that standing next to him, he is obviously more than a hundred times stronger.

  What a pity! You can't judge people by their appearance.

  If he hadn't traveled back, in a few years, the hero of the mountain would almost certainly defeat Yuan Shao, then pacify the four states, advance into the northern border, and reach Liaodong, unifying the north of China, achieving great feats, becoming the cornerstone of Cao Wei's founding, and after his death, he was posthumously honored as Emperor Wu of Wei, his name passing down for centuries.

  But who would have thought that Cao Cao, known as the unparalleled hero of his time, was now standing at the foot of the mountain, smiling kindly to himself and calling himself "Little General".

  It's hard to predict what will happen in life...

  It was clear that the people who were shocked by Cao Cao's name were not just Yuan Shang alone. The soldiers of the Yuan army, who were secretly stationed on both sides of the mountain, turned pale after hearing Cao Cao's name, and they looked at each other nervously, their voices shouting and waving flags much smaller than before, and their momentum was clearly much weaker than before.

  Yuan Shang suddenly understood in his heart: Cao Cao was suppressing their own morale!

  A hero is indeed a hero, why would they bother to chat with you about trivial matters and ask for your name? Do you think Cao Cao wants to pay New Year's greetings to you?

  Cao Cao and Yuan Shang exchanged names, nothing more than to report their own titles in conversation, intimidate the soldiers of the Yuan army, and let their own morale be low, so that they could quickly defeat the Yuan army.

  What a cunning old dog.

  After reporting his name, Cao Cao smiled as if nothing had happened and continued: "General, now that I have reported my name, why don't you respond? It's just a name, why be stingy with it?"

  Yuan Shang smiled casually and directly exposed Cao Cao: "Cao Mengde just wants to use his prestige to intimidate our army. Since your goal has already been achieved, why bother asking me my name? I'm just a mediocre person, even if I report my name, Cao Mengde may not remember it anyway. Why should I humiliate myself... Today, I won't tell you, what can this old thing do to me?"

  Cao Cao seemed nonchalant, while on the other hand, Xu Chu was furious and shouted: "You little beast, when the Imperial Chancellor is speaking to you, keep your mouth clean!"

  Cao Cao raised his hand to stop Xu Chu, nodded in approval, slowly stroked his long beard, and said slowly: "Young people are not impatient or impetuous, they know my intentions and understand how to restrain their sharpness, and their words can still be provocative... It's really rare. If it weren't for the urgency of today's matter, I wouldn't mind slowly discussing with you, but unfortunately, this concerns the overall situation, and I must take your life quickly."

  Yuan Shang heard this and his expression didn't change, but in his heart he felt somewhat stifled.

  Cao Cao grasped the reins of his horse, pointing at Yuan Shang from a distance. Suddenly, he changed the subject and said: "Your tactics to create suspicion and sow discord may have been able to deceive Zhang Liao and Xu Chu, but they won't work on me... However, before I attack the mountain, there's still one question I'd like to ask you: Wu Xiong is a crucial location for storing grain, yet you were willing to set it on fire. What did you hope to achieve? Can you enlighten me, General?"

  Yuan Shang lazily bantered with Cao Cao, shaking his head and saying disdainfully: "We have plenty of food and grass, so much that we can't finish eating it all. I'm afraid the soldiers will eat too much and burst to death. Can't we just burn some grain and loosen our belts?"

  Cao Jun's generals, with Xu Chu as the leader, were enraged upon hearing this. Who is this kid? He speaks in such a roundabout way, it's really too much. When did Yuan's army produce such a scourge? It makes one want to skin him alive.

  Cao Cao narrowed his eyes, let out a cold laugh and said: "Since you refuse to speak, then I'll remind you. You set fire to the grain stores at Uchang, ostensibly to create a diversion and confuse my army, but in reality it was just to make the main camp of Yuan's forces see the smoke and quickly send troops to rescue them. This is nothing more than a simple tactic of creating a diversion on one side while attacking from another. Do you think you can deceive Cao?"

  Yuan Shang's eyebrows suddenly rose upon hearing this.

  Cao Cao is really a scoundrel, in front of the two armies, he again revealed all his own strategies like a overturned bamboo tube, just to suppress our morale once more, is he finished or not?

  At his age, he doesn't care about saving face anymore.

  Yuan Shang's eyes rolled slightly, and then he bowed his fist to Cao Cao from a distance, speaking with a wicked smile: "Cao the Prime Minister is indeed wise and brilliant, truly having sharp eyes like a torch. I am deeply impressed by you, sir. You are indeed getting more robust with age, an old fox who is cunning and crafty, growing stronger with each passing day, and refusing to die..."

  Cao Cao's face changed instantly, his dark and gloomy expression sending chills down people's spines.

  The reason is the last word Yuan Shang said when he mentioned him.

  Old but not dead... What is old but not dead? Old but not dead is a thief, this little beast is cursing himself as a national thief.

  He raised his whip in his hand and slowly spoke two words to the generals behind him.

  "Kill the enemy."

  "Kill him!"

  One will order, thousands of troops set out at dawn. As Cao Cao's command was given, the Cao army infantry suddenly divided into two groups, one attacking left and one attacking right, with heavy armor in front and infantry behind, advancing up the mountain in a strict yet vigorous manner.

  Here!

  Yuan Shang muttered to himself in his heart.

  Since you're here, make yourself at home. Since it's inevitable that this would happen sooner or later, let's go all out and see who'll have the last laugh, still an unknown number.

  Yuan Shang shouted loudly to the soldiers behind him, "We have the high ground! Our army has a great advantage! Brothers, don't be afraid, drive away these bandits who want to rob our food!"

  As soon as the words fell, Guo Yuan behind Yuan Shang waved his hand with a large flag and shouted loudly: "Archers, release the arrows!"

  "Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

  A shower of swift arrows swept down the mountain slope, and first fell upon a line of Cao's soldiers who were rushing up the hill in front.

  However, Cao Jun's combat quality was extremely high. The fall of the front row soldiers could not affect the morale of the rear army at all. In an instant, the soldiers in the rear were seen trampling on the corpses of the front army with indifference and rushing forward wildly.

  Cao Jun's attack was extremely swift, and the Yuan army on Mount Shang had only fired two rounds of arrow rain when they saw Cao's army charging right in front of them. In an instant, the short weapons clashed, and the soldiers of both sides were entangled in a fierce battle on Mount Shang.

  Yuan Shang stood on the mountain slope, with Guo Yi protecting him by his side, watching the intense battle between the two armies on the mountain slope. Yuan Shang's heart felt somewhat heavy.

  The gap in combat power is really too big.

  Cao Jun was on the offensive, while Yuan Jun was defensive with borrowed momentum. Despite this, Yuan Jun continued to fight and retreat, making it difficult for Cao Jun to resist head-on clashes.

  If it goes on like this, I'm afraid that before long the entire army of Yuan Shao will be captured by Cao Cao.

  It seems that in order to fight against Cao Jun's army, we need Xun Yuqiong to lead the cavalry and infantry to launch a frontal assault, and then attack from both sides.

  Yuan Shangzheng was deep in thought when he suddenly heard a loud noise coming from the front of Wuchao's camp. He saw that Wuchao's camp, which had been quiet and still just a moment before, had suddenly burst out with many cavalrymen. The leader, who looked like a fierce bull, waved his large knife and charged straight at Cao Cao.

  But it was Chun Yuqiong who led Miao Yuanjin, Zhao Rui, Han Juzi and Lü Weihuo among several deputy generals to charge out of the city.

  Cao Cao, who was standing at the foot of the mountain, was slightly surprised and exclaimed: "Oh? I didn't expect that there were still ambush troops inside Wuchang! You wanted to take advantage of my solitary attack on the mountain and launch a pincer attack on my army... Ha ha, unexpectedly, Cao has still underestimated that little friend on the mountain."

  As he spoke, Cao Cao glanced at Yuan Shang on the mountain with a faint gaze, and then gave orders to the generals: "Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Yu Jin."

  "Yes!" The three replied in unison.

  "Order you three to lead the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, go forward to break through the Uighur cavalry that has rushed out of Wusun's inner camp, then charge into the camp to burn their grain, fight quickly and decisively, do not leave any survivors."

  "Promise!"

  Calmly looking back at Xu Chu, Cao Cao's mouth curled up into a faint smile: "Zhong Kang."

  "General! Xu Zhu is here!"

  Cao Cao pointed to Yuan Shang on the mountain with a distant finger, smiled slightly and said: "Zhong Kang, that white-armored young general on the mountain, I'm quite interested. Can you relieve my worries?"

  Xu Zhu heard this, his fierce face with a thick beard suddenly revealed a ferocious smile, saying: "Don't worry, my lord! I will personally go to the mountain and capture that little beast alive for you, and let you deal with him!"