Retreat Chang'an!

This word, like a knife, pierced Cao Cao's heart. It hurt his heart and felt blood dripping.

Tongguan, the gate of the Great Qin Dynasty, the fundamental reason for defending the national gate. One man should be a pass and ten thousand men cannot open it. Even Cao Cao never dreamed that Tongguan would be broken one day.

In fact, Tongguan was indeed not broken, but he abandoned it without fighting and was defeated by the enemy without fighting.

The reason is simply because he was not able to compete with the pottery, and lost Pubanjin, a pass that seemed less important than Tongguan, but was actually thousands of times more important than Tongguan.

"As soon as Tongguan is lost, the Wei thieves will be able to enter the pass through Hongnong Avenue without any obstacles. The army is approaching Chang'an. How do you plan to ask me to defend against the enemy?" Cao Cao said in a deep tone and glared at Fa Zheng, with a hint of resentment in his eyes.

It was Fa Zheng who offered his plan and asked him to draw Pubanjin's troops to aid Tongguan in the south. Although he was himself who made the final decision, deep down in Cao Cao, how could Fa Zheng make mistakes in his proposal and have some complaints?

Fa Zhengxin was also cut by a knife, but he could only pretend to be calm and bowed: "The Chang Emperor is the capital. His Majesty has been in charge for several years. The city walls are strong and thick, which are several times better than Tongguan. Moreover, the city has sufficient food and grass, which can last for several years."

Fa Zheng suddenly became heroic and continued: "Although our army is defeated, the main force has not been fundamentally hit. We can still gather nearly 60,000 infantry and cavalry, backed by Chang'an City, and fight a fierce battle with the pottery thieves. As long as we can fight the Han army southward, our Qin Dynasty can turn danger into safety."

Fa Zheng did not say it clearly, but the implication was clear, that is, to ask Cao Cao to send someone to Han Kingdom to ask for help from Liu Bei.

In order to preserve his face in the previous episode, Cao Cao refused to ask Liu Bei for help, but at this point, it was no longer important to see what he looked like. It was the top priority to protect the Qin Dynasty.

In the lobby, the ministers were silent. At this point, no one objected.

Cao Cao was silent, his fists clenched, and his eyes were filled with unwilling anger. It was obvious that his mind was experiencing a fierce ideological struggle.

After a long time of confusion, Cao Cao sighed deeply and said, "Forget it, I'll send the order and the entire army will immediately abandon Tongguan and retreat to Chang'an. I will compile another letter from myself and send Mao Sui to Jijing to ask for help from Liu Xuande."

On that day, more than 50,000 Qin soldiers stationed in Tongguan abandoned the Tongguan City that they had been defending for a long time and hurriedly retreated towards Chang'an City.

As soon as the Qin army left, the detailed work inside and outside the pass passed the news to the Wei army outside the pass.

After obtaining the authorization of the pottery merchant, Xiang Yu and Bai Qi immediately launched a large army and launched an attack on Tongguan City. They took down this important Guanzhong gateway city with almost no bloodshed.

Once Tongguan is broken, the soldiers of the Great Wei no longer have to cross the Yellow River north. They can directly go to Tongguan Avenue to enter Guanzhong. The food and grass can also be unobstructed from the Central Plains and transported to Guanzhong front line through Tongguan.

On the Pubanjin front line, after defeating Ma Chao's Iron Cavalry Army, in order to prevent the Xianbei people in the north of the barrier to attack the Bingzhou front line, the Tao merchant immediately ordered Huo Qubing and Yingbu to lead a large army of 10,000 infantry and cavalry to rush back to Jinyang to expand defense in the night.

Tao Shang himself, Yuchi Gong and Luo, led an army of 10,000 to continue to move south, conquered Zhucheng east of Fengyi County, such as Linjin, and then crossed the Luoshui River south. A few days later, he met with the main force of the Wei army who advanced to Huayin.

At this point, the Wei army's 200,000 infantry and cavalry army officially crossed the natural danger of Tongguan and entered the Guanzhong Plain.

After the Tao merchant army invaded Tongguan, they continued to march along the westward road and headed towards Chang'an in a mighty manner.

Because Cao Cao had decided to concentrate his main force and defend the capital Chang'an, most of the cities east of Chang'an were abandoned by Cao Cao.

The Tao Shang then unobstructed the road, and defeated Zheng County, Xinfeng, Baling and other cities. The 200,000 troops arrived east of Chang'an in a near future.

After months of tug-of-war, at the end of winter, the pottery merchant finally saw the towering Chang'an City.

This ancient capital, where the Han Dynasty was located, and which had been baptized many times by war, finally stood at the intersection of fate again.

Whether to continue to become the capital of Qin or become a sub-capital of the Great Wei will decide in the next war.

After the Tao merchant arrived outside Chang'an City, he was not overwhelmed by victory and immediately launched an attack on Chang'an City. Instead, he conducted detailed reconnaissance on the enemy troops in Chang'an area.

According to the information, Cao Cao had appointed his eldest son Cao Ang as the governor, and led 30,000 elite Qin infantry troops to station in Chang'an City as the commander, with General Xiahou Dun, veteran Yan Yan, and young clan general Cao Zhen as the deputy general, defending Chang'an City.

In order to ensure that Chang'an City is not surrounded by 200,000 Wei troops and becomes an isolated city, Cao Cao himself joined forces with Ma Chao and others to defeat the army, led more than 30,000 elite infantry and cavalrymen to set up a camp on the Weiqiao line in the northwest of Chang'an City, forming a horn with Chang'an City.

The pottery merchant knew the strength of Chang'an City and had no hope of breaking out of the heavy siege weapons such as the thunder cannons of the Great Wei Dynasty.

Moreover, in the previous Pubanjin battle, Cao Cao only lost only 10,000 cavalry. As for the earlier Hongnong battle, the 50,000 cavalry that had lost their troops were all Qiang troops, and Cao Cao himself lost only 7,000 Sichuan infantry.

Therefore, after several battles, Cao Cao seemed to have lost one after another, but the main force was not severely damaged. He was still able to piece together nearly 60,000 troops to compete with him.

The main force is still there, and with the back of Chang'an City and fighting at home, this Chang'an offensive and defensive battle is destined to be a protracted fierce battle.

The Tao merchant knew that this battle could not be decided quickly, so he immediately adjusted his mindset and showed twelve points of patience, preparing to waste time with Cao Cao and to the death.

Therefore, the pottery merchants set up more than ten camps of all sizes and seven miles to the east gate of Chang'an City, facing the enemy's east gate, and the enemy camp. They formed a confrontation.

After the establishment of the camp, the Tao merchants sent troops to sweep away nearby Fengyi and Jingzhao counties, isolated Chang'an, and delivered an order to transport siege weapons from the Central Plains to the front line.

All the thunder cannons, chariot crossbows, heavy city-breaking hammers, and the same powerful divine crossbow cannons were transported to the front line.

This time, the pottery merchants wanted to concentrate all the siege weapons that the empire could use, and use their hard power to break through Chang'an City in one breath.

Time passed day by day, and in a blink of an eye, the deep winter was about to end, the temperature rose slightly, but it was still extremely cold.

The Tao Merchants spent nearly a month to collect about 1,000 heavenly thunder cannons, more than 1,000 divine power crossbows, and nearly 500 crossbow chariots from the rear. It can be said that it has concentrated the most powerful siege weapons in the history of the Great Wei Dynasty.

Soon, even the giant heavy city-breaking hammer was transported to the front line.

This giant weapon designed by Huang Yueying, which once blasted the Jiangling City Wall. Due to its inconvenience in transportation, the pottery merchants rarely used it to siege the city. However, this time, the pottery merchants mobilized nearly 3,000 civilians and took a month to transport it from Luoyang to the front line of Chang'an.

When the heavy city-breaking hammer appeared in the Wei camp, the Qin army could clearly see this huge terrifying weapon at the top of Chang'an city, about a distance away.

The Qin soldiers were fighting terrified, and all the soldiers were disgusted by the city.

"Look, is that the heavy city-breaking hammer in the legend of the Wei army? It's too big."

"I heard that the Wei army used this city-breaking hammer to break through the gate of Jiangling City with just a moment. I wonder if the gate of our Chang'an City can hold on."

"It must be impossible to hold on. The Wei army not only has city-breaking hammers, but also divine power crossbows and thunder cannons. So many scary things are bombarded together. It would be strange if our city walls can eat."

"Yes, that Emperor Tao Shang of Wei is such a god. Where did he create so many magical artifacts? Could it be that he is really a saint who is reincarnated?"

Along the city, the Qin soldiers were talking and panic spread rapidly among the soldiers. Before the Wei army could attack the city, the Qin army fell into panic.

On the east gate tower, Cao Ang stared at the giant figure in the Wei camp, his eyebrows condensed into a rope, and his fist hit the city wall with a fierce blow, gritted his teeth and cursed: "Damn, the pottery thief actually brought a heavy city-breaking hammer. Is this vicious traitor, he still wants to blow my city gate directly?"

"The power of this heavy city-breaking hammer cannot be underestimated. I'm afraid we can't stand it, so we have to ask Your Majesty quickly." Xiahou Dun beside him frowned.

Obviously, in Xiahou Dun's view, the reason why Cao Ang was able to become the chief general was because he was the eldest son of the emperor. In terms of true strength, Cao Ang could not bear this important task.

As for Xiahou Dun, as the general of Qin and the leader of the Xiahou clan, he has an unsupervised status and reputation in Qin. In the eyes of the generals on both sides, Xiahou Dun is the actual commander of the three armies.

Therefore, when Xiahou Dun made such a suggestion, Xu Huang and other generals all agreed to ask Cao Cao for advice.

"My father ordered me to command the Chang'an defenders as a governor. This is my trust in me and it is the time when I show it. If I even ask my father for advice on this little thing, wouldn't it be that my father looked down on me? I think I am incompetent and unable to bear the heavy responsibility. No, I will never let my father look down on me..."

Thinking of this, Cao Ang's eyes rolled a few times and waved his hand quickly, "Uncle Xiahou, don't rush to ask for help from my father. That's obvious that you and I are incompetent. Why don't we think of a solution first? Maybe we can come up with a solution to it."

Xiahou Dun said in a deep voice: "The city-breaking hammer of the Tao thief has arrived, and the attack is about to come. No need to delay it. Anyway, I can't think of any solution. If you can have any good solutions, I would like to hear it in detail."

"I--" Cao Ang was stopped, his expression was urgent and helpless, and he was suffering from his lack of wisdom and could not think of any tricks to deal with.

Seeing that Cao Ang had no choice, Xiahou Dun planned to send someone out of the city to ask Cao Cao for help.

Just as Cao Ang shook his head and sighed inwardly, intending to give up, Cao Zhen, who had been silent all the time, suddenly had his eyes lit up and bowed: "The eldest prince, I have a way here. Maybe not only can I call the Tao thief's city-breaking hammer and useless land, but also his heavenly thunder cannons and divine power crossbow cannons, they all call them useless land."
Chapter completed!