Zhang Yan said with a dim expression: "Brother Fengxian was killed two miles away. At that time, Cao's army was in a hurry and I couldn't rush over, so I couldn't take out Brother Fengxian's body!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gao Shun and Zhang Liao said goodbye to Zhang Yan one after another, leading hundreds of soldiers from the camp to search for Lu Bu's body.

After Zhang Yan gathered his troops, he also went together. Wherever he passed along the way, he saw the bodies of Xuzhou soldiers lying on the ground, and he was extremely sad.

After this battle, more than 2,000 cavalrymen were lost, leaving only five or six hundred cavalrymen, many of whom were seriously injured.

Zhang Yan felt so uncomfortable in such a crushing defeat. Moreover, these cavalrymen were the elite soldiers of Xuzhou soldiers and the only cavalry team under his tent. Unexpectedly, they were all lost in this battle.

Fortunately, in the process of searching for Lu Bu's body, there were still one or two hundred war horses on both sides of the road. These war horses stood quietly, lowered their heads, and gently pushed the soldiers who fell in the pool of blood, which showed their loyalty to their masters.

Zhang Yan asked his troops to collect all the war horses on the battlefield. After confirming that Cao's army retreated, he asked the soldiers to clean up the battlefield.

Gao Shun and Zhang Liao, and the soldiers from the camp, soon arrived at the place where Lu Bu was attacked, but the red rabbit horse lying in a pool of blood could be seen on the ground, but the body of Lu Bu was not found.

However, the bodies of Song Xian, Hou Cheng and others were found.

Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and more than 500 soldiers from the camp buried Song Xian, Hou Cheng and others, and the Red Rabbit Horse on the spot, and vowed to find Lu Bu's body, kill Cao Cao, and avenge Lu Bu!

Later, Zhang Yan's scout brought back news that Lu Bu's body was taken away by Cao Cao. Gao Shun and Zhang Liao felt heartbroken after hearing this, and they didn't know how Cao Cao would torture Lu Bu's body.

Gao Shun and Zhang Liao knew that with the little force in their hands, they could not ask Cao Cao for Lu Bu's body back, and the only hope could only be placed on Zhang Yan.

Gao Shun and Zhang Liao discussed it and walked towards Zhang Yan together. They bowed to Zhang Yan at the same time and said loudly: "My lord died at Cao Cao's hands. Even his body was kidnapped by Cao Cao. We only have hundreds of soldiers and are not Cao Cao's opponents at all. Zhang Andong's subordinates are strong and full of talents. They are also sympathetic to my lord. We want to ask Zhang Andong to decide for us!"

When Zhang Yan heard Gao Shun and Zhang Liao's words, he asked, "I was almost killed by Cao Cao today. If you hadn't arrived in time, I'm afraid I would have died long ago. Brother Fengxian was like brothers and sisters. Now he died tragically at the hands of Cao Cao. As a brother, how can I not help him take revenge? However, now our army has been severely damaged and the cavalry has almost been lost. We should temporarily avoid the sharp edge of Cao's army, wait and see how it will happen again."

Gao Shun hurriedly said, "But, my lord's body is still in Cao Cao's hands..."

Zhang Yan said: "Please rest assured. I will find a way to ask Cao Cao for Brother Fengxian's body, but if you let me make the decision, then from now on, you must obey me. No matter what you do, you must ask me first. Don't take any private actions, do you understand?"

Gao Shun and Zhang Liao looked at each other and said in unison: "As long as Zhang Andong can avenge my master's revenge, we are willing to be a cow and horse for Zhang Andong!"

"I don't let you be a cow or a horse. I just want you to obey my orders. That's all. If you do it, from now on, it will be my subordinates. If you can't do it, then please leave as soon as possible. I won't force it." Zhang Yan said.

It is an indisputable fact that Lu Bu is dead. As Lu Bu's old subordinate, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and more than 500 soldiers in the camp, who do not want to avenge Lu Bu?

However, they knew better than anyone else about Cao Cao's strength. If they wanted to take revenge, they could only rely on Zhang Yan and borrow Zhang Yan's power to complete revenge.

So, after some discussion, Gao Shun and Zhang Liao decided to take action under Zhang Yan's account, obey his orders, and then find a way to avenge Lu Bu.

"General is here, please accept my prayer!" Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and the other two bowed to Zhang Yan in unison.

Zhang Yan hurriedly helped Gao Shun up, Zhang Liao and said loudly: "With you two helping each other, I can get twice the result with half the effort. However, I heard that Brother Fengxian still has some old subordinates stationed in Chengwu County, led by Wei Xu and Cao Xing to protect Lu Bu's family, right?"

Gao Shun nodded.

Zhang Yan said: "Now Brother Fengxian is dead, they don't know the news yet. If they know that Brother Fengxian is dead, where will they go?"

Gao Shun was a sensible person. When he heard Zhang Yan say this, he immediately understood and immediately clasped his fists and said, "General, don't worry, Wei Xu and Cao Xing are both old subordinates of Fengxian Duke, and they are also old acquaintances with us. As long as I write a letter and send someone to send it over, I believe that Wei Xu, Cao Xing will lead his troops to serve the general in the general's position and serve the general."

"It's the best, after all, there are many people and great powers, and Wei Xu and Cao Xing are all brave generals. If you can come to help, it's the best, then you'll be lucky." Zhang Yan said.

Afterwards, Zhang Yan and others cleaned up the battlefield here and cleared out many corpses. A total of 2,436 Xuzhou cavalrymen were killed, all of whom were buried on the spot. In addition, more than 1,800 war horses were shot to death. In addition to the more than 200 war horses collected by Zhang Yan and existing war horses, three or four hundred war horses were still missing. Perhaps they were ridden by Cao's soldiers, or perhaps they were frightened and fled.

In short, there are only 936 war horses left in Zhang Yan's army. The cavalry troops formed before were almost wiped out tonight, which can be said to be a crushing defeat.

Although Cao's army also killed more than 3,000 soldiers, they were all infantry, which could not cause much damage to the Cao army as a whole.

At noon, Zhang Yan and others returned to Dingtao City dejectedly and sent scouts to inquire about Cao's army's movements.

In the evening, the scout brought news that Cao's army set up camp twenty-five miles north of Dingtao City but did not leave.

At the same time, the scout also saw that Lu Bu's head was hanging on the big cage in Cao Jun's camp, and Lu Bu's body was dismembered and hung around the camp to show warning.

Zhang Yan suffered a great loss this time and became more cautious about Cao's army's actions. At the same time, he also thought that he was alone and could not speak out. On the one hand, he sent someone to inform Yu Jin and asked Yu Jin to lead his army to trample Cao Cao's retreat, while on the other hand, he sent someone to Changyi to dispatch reinforcements.

At the same time, Zhang Yan also wrote a letter, sending scouts to Cao's camp, asking Cao Cao for Lu Bu's body.

Although Cao Cao killed Lu Bu, he failed to get rid of it with Zhang Yan, which became a great regret in his heart. However, this ambush severely damaged Zhang Yan's cavalry, allowing Zhang Yan to taste his own strength and prevent him from attacking easily.

Although Cao Cao won the victory in Cao's camp, he did not seem very happy. On the contrary, his brows were frowning, but he became more and more worried.

Although Lu Bu was dead, Lu Bu's old subordinates were not destroyed together. Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and others who had lost their commander naturally would take refuge in Zhang Yan's account in order to avenge Lu Bu.

In this way, Cao Cao was invisibly helping Zhang Yan to acquire Lu Bu's old subordinates.

Xuzhou has always had elite soldiers, but there are no good generals. Now Zhang Yan occasionally wins Gao Shun and Zhang Liao, two brave and good generals, undoubtedly found good generals for Xuzhou's elite soldiers.

If Zhang Yan is a brave but not a resourceful person, that would be fine, but Zhang Yan is also quite talented. Once Zhang Yan, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and others are closely combined, the combat effectiveness of the Xuzhou soldiers will definitely be improved.

This will be greatly detrimental to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao was worried when he suddenly saw Dian Wei walking in from outside with a feather arrow. There was a secret letter tied to the feather arrow. He hurriedly asked, "What are you holding in your hand?"

"You are the lord, this was discovered by the patrol soldiers. I will give it to the lord for the lord to make a decision." Dian Wei said.

Cao Cao took the arrow from Dian Wei's hand, took out a secret letter tied to it, looked at it quickly, and then sneered: "You actually asked me for a body?"

He immediately picked up the paper and pen, wrote a reply letter, called Xiahou Yuan, and asked Xiahou Yuan to take the letter to Dingtao City, and shoot the letter into the city with arrows.

Xiahou Yuan was the most superb archery among the Cao army. After receiving Cao Cao's order, he immediately rode out of the camp.

At this time, Guo Jia walked in from outside and said to Cao Cao: "Lord, I have something under my jurisdiction. I don't know whether to talk about it or not?"

“But it’s okay.”

Guo Jia then said fearlessly: "Our army won a battle today, killed Lu Bu, and severely damaged Zhang Yan's cavalry. Although he was a little regretful that he did not kill Zhang Yan, I believe that Zhang Yan had tasted the power of his lord. He would definitely not dare to send troops easily in the past few days. However, Zhang Yan still has thousands of soldiers in Dingtao. If he persists and does not fight, our army will do whatever he wants. Instead of consuming Zhang Yan here, it is better to take advantage of the joy of victory and retreat to Puyang. After a rest, it is not too late to fight with Zhang Yan again."

"You asked me to withdraw now?" Cao Cao said in surprise.

Guo Jia nodded and said, "Lord, our army is only left with these troops, and Puyang is empty. If Zhang Yan ordered Yu Jin to lead his army to detour behind our army, cut off our retreat, and mobilize reinforcements from Changyi City, our army is likely to be in a situation of being attacked from both sides. At that time, if you want to retreat again, it will be even more difficult. It would be better to take advantage of the victory this time, and the soldiers are all in high morale and retreat to Puyang to rest. After the spring of next year, it will not be too late to compete with Zhang Yan for Yanzhou!"

When Cao Cao heard Guo Jia mention Yu Jin, his brows frowned and said angrily: "I am very satisfied with Yu Jin. I didn't expect that he not only surrendered to Zhang Yan, but also went against me. I was really blind at the beginning, so I kept promoting him..."

Guo Jia said: "Everyone has their own ambitions, so the lord doesn't have to force it. My subordinates think that with our current military strength, it will be difficult to conquer cities and plunder again. If we can temporarily retreat to Puyang, have some rest and rest, and recruit soldiers and horses at the same time, we will use Yuan Shao's power again to compete for Yanzhou after the beginning of spring next year."

Cao Cao pondered for a moment and said to Guo Jia: "Fengxiao, I already know your proposal in my heart, but let me think about it again..."
Chapter completed!