When Cao Ren returned to the city victoriously, he was extremely relieved to see Zhou Yu spitting blood and falling off his horse, so he ordered someone to celebrate the victory.
Cao Xiu said, "We are under the order of the Prime Minister to defend Huainan. Now we are just barely able to save Shouchun. It is not appropriate to celebrate!"
Cao Ren cursed: "Zhou Lang has ruined my reputation. It's a pity that your arrow failed to kill him."
Cao Xiu also felt deeply regretful and said, "I never expected Zhou Yu to enter the city in person. I was not well prepared. Otherwise, I would have trapped him in the city even if it cost the lives of my entire army."
Cao Ren frowned and sighed, "It's a pity that we can't understand the Prime Minister's brilliant plan. The Prime Minister will arrive in Shouchun soon. How can I face him?"
Cao Xiu offered a suggestion: "Zhou Yu was injured and should have rested and recuperated, but he forced himself to go out. He must have known that reinforcements were coming and wanted to stabilize the army's morale, but he did it the other way around. I think he has already planned to retreat. We should take advantage of the chaos in the Wu army to raid the camp overnight, kill Zhou Yu, and then take back Hefei, which will be the time to celebrate our success."
"This is a brilliant plan!" Cao Ren laughed and praised, "It really is worthy of being a master of the Cao family."
This was Cao Xiu's first time as a military officer, so he did not dare to be careless. He asked Cao Ren to make preparations in secret and personally sent people to the Wu army to gather information, waiting to take action in the second half of the night.
At three o'clock in the morning, the spies returned to the city and reported that the morale of the Wu army was indeed low. The lights in Zhou Yu's tent were on all night, doctors were coming in and out to treat patients, and each camp was packing up and preparing to retreat.
Cao Xiu was overjoyed and immediately went to see Cao Ren. The two of them immediately summoned all the generals to discuss and divided their troops into three groups to march out of the city to raid the camp, take Zhou Yu's head, and present it to the prime minister!
Half an hour later, Cao's army quietly left the city, with Zang Ba as the vanguard, Cao Ren and Cao Xiu personally attacking the center, Zhu Ling and Niu Jin encircling from both wings and heading straight for the Eastern Wu camp.
When they arrived outside the camp, Zang Ba had already checked the enemy situation and reported: "Most of the Wu troops were relaxed and unprepared. The eastern camp was piled with vehicles and was ready to retreat."
Cao Ren snorted coldly: "Zhou Lang bullied me. It's too late to leave now!"
At Cao Xiu's command, drums sounded suddenly, and Cao's army attacked from three directions from the main gate, with two more groups of troops on the left and right to encircle the enemy and rush straight into the Eastern Wu camp.
Cao Ren took the lead, sword in hand, and ran straight to the central army tent. There were not many obstacles along the way. He seemed to feel something was wrong, but seeing the fire on the general's tent, he had no time to think and rushed forward.
Sizzle—
The tent was broken open with a sweep of the sword, but there was only a torch inside, with swords and guns inserted vacantly, and no one was there. His heart sank immediately.
"Retreat quickly!" Cao Ren knew that he had fallen into a trap and quickly ordered his troops to retreat.
At this moment, drums sounded all around outside the camp. Cheng Pu in the east, Huang Gai in the west, Han Dang in the south, and Dong Xi in the north, the Wu army rushed out like a tide.
The army in desperation will surely win. At this time, the Wu army fought back with high morale. Every soldier was like a tiger descending from a mountain. They first fired arrows at random, shooting down countless Cao soldiers, and then rushed into the camp with all their might, killing Cao soldiers so badly that they threw away their helmets and armor and had no chance to fight back.
Cao Ren fought hard and broke out of the camp. He heard shouts and screams all around him. The camp was ablaze with flames and there were shadows of people everywhere. He could not tell who was friend or foe, and he had no idea where Cao Xiu and the others were.
All the troops were scattered, and the front and rear could not rescue each other. The Wu army kept encircling them from all sides. Cao Ren had no choice but to lead the remaining troops to retreat, and the whole way was filled with fleeing Cao troops.
When they were about to reach the city of Shouchun, an army suddenly rushed out from the river bank. Lu Meng led his troops to block their way. Cao Ren stepped forward to fight them. After more than ten rounds of fighting, Ling Tong suddenly rushed out from behind.
Cao's army was attacked from both sides and was defeated again. Cao Ren did not dare to fight and only broke out of the encirclement with his personal cavalry. At that time, Cao Xiu and Zang Ba also arrived with the remaining troops. All the generals gathered their troops and headed into the city.
When they were near the outskirts of Shouchun City, they saw flags fluttering in the woods on both sides. Fearing that there might be an ambush ahead, they did not dare to return to the city, but went around it to the north.
Just as they bypassed the city, an army in front blocked their way again. Ding Feng raised his sword and shouted, "Cao thief shot us with a hidden arrow. Today I will avenge the commander-in-chief. You can't escape even if you have wings."
Zang Ba urged his horse forward to engage in battle. At this time, Fang Chengpu and Han Dang led their troops to catch up. Cao Ren led the remaining troops to withdraw. Zang Ba fought desperately for a while and then escaped on horseback.
Han Dang continued to lead his troops to attack, while Cheng Pu gathered his troops and surrounded Shouchun, shouting: "Who will defend the city? Those who surrender will not be killed!"
There was only the Yangzhou governor Liu Fu in Shouchun City. He did not want the situation to change again overnight. He had to watch Cao Ren bypass the city. There were only 3,000 defenders in the city, so defending the city was useless. In order to save the people in the city from suffering, he ordered the city to be opened.
Cao Ren and his nephew led the remaining troops to the bank of the Huai River. Cao Xiu urged his horse to cross the bridge when he suddenly heard the neighing of a warhorse behind him. Turning back, he saw that Cao Ren's mount was frightened, stood up, and threw Cao Ren off the horse.
Cao Ren's reaction was not slow. He hurriedly grabbed the railing, with half of his body hanging in the air, and almost fell into the river. Just as he was about to exert force to stand firm, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his ribs. It turned out that he was hit by an arrow.
"Be careful of ambush!" Cao Xiu saw a figure swaying in the reeds on the shore and shouted hurriedly.
Cao Ren was hit by an arrow from Zhao Yun at Ruxu last time, and his old wound had not yet healed. This time he was hit by another arrow and could no longer hold on, and fell into the river with a splash.
"Hahaha, Cao Ren, today you are trapped again!"
In the reeds, a man stood up with a bow and arrow in hand. He wore a hat woven from reeds and a straw raincoat. If he had not stood up on his own initiative, it would have been difficult to notice him.
Cao Xiu was furious and said, "How dare you, a villain, to shoot someone from behind?"
"I am Ma Zhong from Jiangdong!" The man laughed and said, "You plotted against my Grand Commander and injured my brothers, so I came here today to take revenge!"
Ma Zhong was originally Pan Zhang's deputy general. Both of them were born in the outlaws and were best at ambushes and assassinations and the use of hidden weapons. They were once in charge of the security of Jiangdong, and the thieves in the territory disappeared.
A few days ago, Pan Zhang was seriously injured while protecting Zhou Yu. This time, Ma Zhong led the troops. He took the initiative to request an order to set up an ambush in the front to capture the general of Cao's camp.
Cao Xiu hurriedly turned his horse around to rescue, but an ambush appeared on the shore and fired arrows at them. Countless Cao soldiers fell in an instant, and only more than ten people were left. They were unable to cross the bridge at all.
Cao Ren struggled in the river. He was not a good swimmer to begin with, and he was wearing heavy armor and was injured, making it difficult for him to move. He gulped down several gulps of water. Fortunately, there was a reef in the river, which he quickly held on to.
"Men, capture Cao Ren alive!" Ma Zhong ran to the river bank, threw away his hat, took off his raincoat, and jumped into the river with a nimble leap.
The Huai River was surging, but it had no effect on most of the Jiangdong soldiers. Ma Zhong was like a nimble fish, swimming through the waves and quickly approaching Cao Ren.
"Get out of here!" Cao Xiu shouted on the bridge and hurriedly shot arrows to stop him, but Ma Zhong dived into the water and disappeared.
At this time, the Wu army had already rushed to the bridgehead and came to capture Cao Xiu. Cao Xiu could not resist and had to fight and retreat towards the north bank.
Cao Ren was powerless to fight back in the water, and with no sign of Ma Zhong, he became increasingly uneasy. He had been captured in Nanyang before and humiliated by Liu Qi, so how could he be captured a second time now
"If Heaven wishes to destroy me, Cao Ren will never suffer the humiliation of being captured again!"
Cao Ren roared to the sky and was about to draw his sword to commit suicide when a huge wave hit him, knocking him off his feet. The sword slipped out of his hand and sank into the water. He immediately fell into despair and crashed headfirst into the reef.