After pondering for a moment, Cao Zhen sighed, "This valley is on the main road, narrow and steep, and the Sichuan thieves must be in a strong position to occupy all the dangerous places. In addition, the sky is dark, so our army cannot do anything to attack. For the sake of the current plan, we can only withdraw our troops."

After saying that, he led his personal guards to fight and shouted loudly, "Cao Zhen, I wonder which general is waiting for him in the valley? Can you come out and talk?"

Halfway through the mountain, Zhao Yun and Liu Yin were sighing that the ambush was discovered by the Wei army. Suddenly, when Cao Zhen shouted at the foot of the mountain, the two ordered the soldiers to set up a torch and showed up.

"I'm Zhao Zilong, Changshan. I've been waiting for General Cao here for a long time." Zhao Yun smiled and stroked his beard.

Cao Zhen said, "I didn't expect that it was General Zhao who cut off the rear personally. Cao rushed forward quickly and never captured the old general. It's a pity!"

"Haha, I'm sorry, the general escorted us all the way back to Hanzhong. As the saying goes, "I'll leave after sending you thousands of miles. The general has shown sincerity to send him here. I'll ask the general and his brothers to turn back and send him back again. If you send him on, it will be annoying. It's okay, I'm afraid that the boys under my command will not agree."

As soon as these words came out, Liu Yin led the soldiers and shouted in unison: "Kill, kill, kill..."

Cao Zhen was furious when he saw this, but when he saw that there were no more than a thousand torches on the mountain, he had to press his anger and sneered and replied, "Humans say that Shu people are hospitality, but today it seems to be a false statement. Humph, Cao will visit Hanzhong soon, and the old general must not be turned away by that time."

After saying that, without waiting for Zhao Yun to respond, he turned his horse's head and returned to the front, and said to Yan He and others to retreat. So, the front team of the Wei army changed to the back team, and the back team changed to the front team, and slowly retreated.

"General Zilong, should we catch up with us?" Liu Yin suggested as he looked at the back of Wei Jun as he retreated.

Zhao Yun shook his head slightly: "Forget it, it's dark, it's bad, let them go." After a pause, he said: "I ordered my brothers to set up camp and stay here tonight to prevent the Wei army from coming back, and withdrawing back to Hanzhong tomorrow."

"promise."

The Wei army had been on the plank road for several miles. Yan He came to Cao Zhen to report, "General, the Shu army has not left, and is cutting wood and building a camp."

It turned out that Cao Zhen did not completely give up the pursuit, and asked Yan He to stay near the valley to observe secretly. Once the Han army thought that the Wei army had withdrawn and relaxed their vigilance and abandoned the valley, he would immediately lead the army to fight back.

However, Zhao Yun was so cautious that his last glimmer of hope was lost.

"Forget it, you go back to the front team and retreat."

Seeing Cao Zhen’s depressed, Yan He offered his suggestion: “General, there are still objects of fire-driven by the thieves on the plank road. Why don’t we burn this plank road? It can also be considered a slight anger.”

Cao Zhen took a deep breath after hearing this, and indeed smelled the smell of tinder oil. After thinking for a moment, he shook his head: "Forget it, burning the plank road will cost some of the people's strength. However, if the Shu thieves want to invade the territory again, they can attack from other roads, which is not too great. Besides, the Shu thieves can attack from the north from Baoxie Road, and our army can also go south from this road in the future. It's a pity to burn it."

"Yes, I understand."

Cao Zhen said again: "Although I failed to achieve full achievements this time, I finally repelled Zhao Yun's Shu army, which is considered as an explanation to the emperor. After I go back, I will count the results of the battle immediately. I will report the victory to the emperor."

"No." Yan He replied.

The next morning, Zhao Yun sent his scouts to explore the north. After learning that the Wei army had really withdrawn, he immediately ordered the troops to set off. He arrived at the Dige Pavilion to join Deng Zhi and the others. Ten days later, more than 7,000 people from the Right Army and the three thousand county soldiers of Liu Yin returned to Hanzhong successfully.

Since more than 10,000 people from the Right Army went north to Xiegu as suspicious soldiers, Zhao Yun and others have restrained the Wei army in Guanzhong for two months. During this period, although dozens of wars were experienced in all kinds of wars, Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi only defended but did not attack, so the army was not seriously damaged.

Until this time, due to frequent reports from Longyou, Zhao Yun and others were relaxed in their guards. As Cao Zhen seized the flaws and took the opportunity to design, resulting in Jigu's failure and the camp was destroyed. The army had to retreat back to Hanzhong.

Fortunately, the veteran Zhao Yun was still powerful and personally cut off the rear and stopped Cao's army from pursuing, so that most of the military capital and soldiers were protected.

In two months, more than 12,000 people in the Right Army lost nearly 5,000 people, and more than 2,000 casualties were suffered in the last battle alone. Although the loss was less than half, it was not small.

However, the Han army gave the Wei army even more damage. According to the estimates of Zhao, Yun and Deng Zhi, Cao Zhen's army should have no less than eight or nine thousand casualties.

However, in the report submitted by Cao Zhen to the Emperor of Wei a few days ago, the Battle of Jigu was still called a great victory, and threatened that the prisoners of war killed nearly 10,000 Han troops and seized countless military funds, which made Cao Rui very happy in the court and immediately sent envoys to Meicheng to reward the troops.

Although Cao Zhen's report was an exaggeration, it did repel the Han army. If the casualties between the two sides were not the same, it would be normal for the Wei army to claim victory. What's more, in the situation of continuous losses in Longyou, Cao Wei really needs a victory to inspire people now.

Cao Rui didn't know that Cao Zhen's battle report was exaggerated, but in order to calm people's hearts, he had to pretend not to know.

Sure enough, when the news spread throughout Guanzhong and returned to Luoyang, many people put away their thoughts that they shouldn't have, and the panic situation in the court was much calmed down.

Zhao Yun and others rested in Baocheng for a few days before setting off and returning to Mianyang station. Of course, the envoy had already gone to Longyou to inform Zhuge Liang of this matter.

The news reached Shangqi. Although Zhuge Liang and others regretfully ordered the Right Army to retreat one step late, the result was acceptable.

"Although Zilong and the others suffered a mistake in Jigu's refusal, they successfully withdrew from Hanzhong, and the losses of the soldiers and baggage were not great. What's more, they not only successfully completed the task of restraining the Wei army in Guanzhong, but also made many achievements, which was a great contribution." Zhuge Liang put down the battle report in his hand and said to everyone.

Yang Yi smiled and agreed, "Yes, if General Wuzilong and others attracted Wei Ting's attention and successfully restrained tens of thousands of troops in Guanzhong, our victory in Longyou would not have been so easy."

"Yes, General Zilong and others should remember their first merits, attacking more with fewer attacks, and attacking strong with weak attacks. Although there were minor setbacks, most of the Right Army was protected and still a victory." Ma Su also praised the Right Army.

Zhuge Liang nodded and suddenly asked Yang Qing, who was sitting next to Ma Su, "Mingzhi, the battle report said that Liu Yin and the others went north was arranged by you. Why didn't I listen to you? If Liu Yin hadn't led the county soldiers to respond in time, Zilong and the others would be in danger this time. Even if they could withdraw from Hanzhong, the casualties of the army would probably be very high."

Yang Qing replied with a smile: "Qing just had a temporary idea, thinking that even if General Zilong received the military order to retreat, it would be good if someone would take him back. Anyway, after Liu Yin came back from Xicheng, he was responsible for transporting military supplies to Chiya and Dige. It would be a matter of course for him to go north to take a look.

But I was afraid that being too cautious would make people laugh, so I just wrote to you privately and never told the Prime Minister. I never thought that this time it would really play a big role. It was a lucky thing."

"Is it a lucky person? Or did you have foresee it?" Zhuge Liang glanced at him with a little meaning.

"The Prime Minister is too proud, how can Qing be aware of the future? He is used to being cautious and likes to make more preparations, so he will come in handy."

Yang Qing quickly found an excuse to explain. He could not say that he knew that Zhao Yun had lost to Jigu in history because he was forced to withdraw from Hanzhong because of his reduced vigilance. He could only use his own caution to make excuses.
Chapter completed!