As soon as Zhang Ju's vanguard stepped into the Han army's river defense trap, Liu Bei, who was stationed in Yongnu County, quickly got the news.

Because the Han army had to defend a forty-mile-long river, they had to disperse patrols without encountering the enemy to avoid stealing and gather reinforcements only after discovering the enemy situation.

"Report to the commander, the enemy's situation was discovered in the river section 15 miles downstream, and the beacon fire had been raised." The lookout hand on the city tower saw the beacon fire and immediately reported to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei thought about it and found that the defense area was patrolling by Zhou Tai. He immediately ordered: "Let Chief Yun lead the main force to provide quick reinforcements! Yide also led a thousand cavalry along the river to clear the fish that leaked the net!"

Liu Bei's generals now only Guan Yu and Zhou Tai know how to fight water, so the fleet patrol mainly depends on them.

Zhang Fei is a native of Zhuo County and is not very good at swimming. He can only take half of the cavalry under Liu Bei's command to attack the enemy troops who have been lucky enough to cross the river and land.

As for the other half of the cavalry, they were taken away by Zhao Yun and patrolled the section of the Sancha River upstream, responsible for warning and harassing the enemy troops discovered by the sluggishness. Therefore, there was no chance for Zhao Yun to play on the main battlefield.

While Guan Yu was rectifying his troops, Li Su also asked Liu Bei for his order, hoping to go to the scene with the army. He also brought Mi Zhu, who had been uneasy since the fleet was requisitioned, to harvest the spoils and stabilize the people's hearts.

Liu Bei thought about it and it was a rare opportunity to encounter an enemy for the first time, and the enemy must have been caught off guard. This kind of victory scenario should indeed be seen by the "investors" so that investors can feel at ease with their capital.

Liu Bei then advised him: "Boya, I'll leave it to you. It's enough to let him see the power of our army. Don't let him be too close to the enemy."

"Don't worry." Li Su agreed, and then took Mi Zhu with him and followed Zhang Fei on land.

It took a few minutes to run. When Zhang Fei sprinted to the scene, Guan Yu's fleet was still six or seven miles away.

Then Li Su and Mi Zhu saw a spectacular scene: there were at least three or four hundred intact war horses on the north bank of the river. They lost their masters and walked there, and were captured and controlled by the Han army patrol soldiers.

On the river, at least a hundred floating corpses can be seen by the naked eye, most of which died like hedgehogs.

Obviously, Zhang Ju's first wave of vanguard cavalry was too careless and he never expected that an enemy would appear on the river.

Li Su asked Zhou Tai and asked, and it was true. Those people did not conduct any investigation at all. When they saw that there was no ship to collect on the south bank, they actually wanted to find the shallows and ride their horses down the river, and wandered to the other side to find a ship.

Then Zhou Tai, who was patrolling here, killed a strong half-way attack, stabbed the rebel vanguard in the waist with one knife, cut it into two pieces, and shot it with crossbow arrows in close proximity.

Think about it, many cavalry slowly flowing forward in the river water more than one meter deep, and being shot as a living target. That's so miserable!

After the war, Zhou Tai cleaned the battlefield and cut off the heads of three or four hundred rebel cavalry at once. As for their horses, except for those who were shot to death during the battle, the rest were also seized.

Li Su was very satisfied with hearing this and smiled and encouraged Mi Zhu:

"Come on, Brother Zizhong, these three hundred horses have been put away, and put your heart back in your stomach - I have told you a long time ago that Liu Duwei is a man of military intelligence. Sending money, grain, carriage and ship to him to suppress the thieves is definitely a huge deal. He can also make meritorious service for the country and receive rewards. Isn't it the best of both worlds!"

It turned out that when Liu Yu, the governor of the state, requisitioned the Mi family fleet, the rent offered was to give an additional 300 horses, but he did not say how long it would take. If the war was not progressing quickly, then he would owe it first and give it to him when it was seized. This made Mi Zhu a little worried.

Unexpectedly, on the first day of the actual capture of the enemy, Zhou Tai seized 300 horses, and the quality of the enemy's vanguard's horses was quite good, so Mi Zhu made a lot of money.

"Liu Duwei is really a man who knows the military. He commands the troops so rigorously and has a proper combat. Although the envoy is elegant and righteous, he must have heroes like Liu Duwei to fulfill it."

Looking at the three hundred horses that Liu Bei's troops personally paid him, the balance in Mi Zhu's heart tilted towards Liu Bei again.

Those top businessmen have the best view of "potential stocks".

After a few days of contact, Mi Zhu has seen that Liu Yu is just a noble bloodline and has a high starting point. It is precisely because Liu Yu is already the most popular among the world, you can curry favor with him now and give priority to the attention you receive.

Although Liu Bei is still a county magistrate, how fast does he rise? Half a year ago, he was a county magistrate. Four months ago, the imperial court did not give him a job, but instead gave up his official position, he became famous all over the world. He also begged to be promoted to 600 stone county magistrate, and now he is the Qianshi Chief magistrate...

This growth rate is definitely a top unicorn!

Just when he watched Zhang Fei and Zhou Tai kill the thief Yingzi, combined with Liu Bei's courtesy of personally removing his clothes and pushing food to him in the past few days, Mi Zhu had already decided to skip Liu Yu and join Liu Bei directly.

As soon as Mi Zhu collected the spoils, he saw another large group of cavalry rushing over on the south bank. This time, it was obviously Zhang Ju's main force who heard that the vanguard was destroyed and rushed to take revenge. From a distance, there were at least five thousand cavalry troops, and the smoke and dust rolled in the back could not be seen clearly.

Mi Zhu had never seen such a scene, and his legs were trembling. Li Su knew that anyone had an adaptation process, so he quickly called Zhang Fei to protect Mi Zhu and retreat to the distance to watch the battle.

Zhang Ju came in anger and saw the death of hundreds of vanguards, and just felt that "I was accidentally imprisoned. If I were prepared to fight with great integrity, these miscellaneous fish would not be enough for me to deal with it." So he did not hesitate at all and directly ordered the entire army to break out and launch arrows at once.

The cavalry under his command were mainly light cavalry who were good at using bows and arrows.

However, the stirrups in the late Han Dynasty only had one side, usually a hemp rope ring, and the saddle was also a soft leather material, which was not very stable.

Therefore, many of the cavalry of the Wuhuan and the Southern Xiongnu were asked to stop the horses, ride on the horses and shoot, or let the horses run in a relatively stable manner.

Only the more fierce Xianbei cavalry, or officers and generals who are good at riding and shooting, will fly and shoot at high speed.

Zhang Ju's thousands of cavalry in the front army were walking slowly along the river while firing arrows wildly while tens of steps away from the river bank.

"Aooo~" The sound of breezes and bones tucked on the wooden board made the Jiujiang soldiers who had encountered a strong enemy of the Hu people for the first time frightened.

These soldiers who were refugees two months ago only had a bloody battle with the Danyang soldiers. Dalang Taosha selected these relatively elite people to keep. Many people had never seen what the nomadic Hu people looked like until yesterday, and it was inevitable that they were not firm in fighting spirit.

Fortunately, the panic lasted for a short while. When they found that the arrows of most enemy archers were blocked by the newly reinforced cabin wooden boards, their confidence soon returned.

Some of the small fishing boats on the coast of Hebei also have straw tents or some curtains. Therefore, when the Wuhuan cavalry first met, they did not know the strength of the superstructures of these sea boats.

I thought I could shoot through just like a straw tent, and shot the sailors behind the bunker, but I did so much useless work.

Mi family boarded the boat, and countless bows, arrows and crossbows quickly spit out arrows from the clever porthole holes. The massacre effect was better than meeting the crossbow formation that first entered the camp.

The crossbow formation that first entered the camp did not have the defense and mobility of the crossbows on the ship. And the martial arts skills of those archers and cavalrymen of Zhang Ju were far inferior to those of Gongsun Zan’s later authentic Baima Yicong.

Soon, screams were endless, which made Zhang Ju begin to doubt his life - my dream of Emperor Meng had only been in a few days, so why did he encounter such a defeat?

The enemy sailors have only one thousand at most? Including the 500 cavalry on the other side, there are a total of one thousand five, and they are actually fighting with seven or eight thousand people on their own!

At this moment, the shooting battle lasted for nearly ten minutes, and there were golden drum waves in the upstream direction. It was Guan Yu's main force to support Zhou Tai.

Guan Yu has more archers and more elite shooting skills.

In addition, Zhang Ju's cavalry did not notice at first, and naturally formed a queyue formation on the river bank in order to surround Zhou Tai, so the two ends of the queyue formation were too close to the river bank. After Guan Yu came, a wave of thousands of arrows shot at the same time, and all the Wuhuan cavalry at the protruding part of the westernmost end of the queyue formation were shot into blood gourds.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly! Don't shoot against the enemy! Go around and find somewhere else to go around the river!" Fortunately, Zhang Ju was decisive. Seeing Guan Yu shooting a corner of his formation so that his parents didn't recognize him, he hurriedly called for retreat.

Because of the obstruction of rivers, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei could not cross the river to pursue him, so he had to let Zhang Ju retreat temporarily.

Zhang Ju was shocked and counted the number of people and found that at least five or six hundred people were shot to death - it was estimated that four hundred people died when he shot against Zhou Tai, and the last wave of firepower that Guan Yu instantly took away Xiao 200.

"Nearly eight thousand cavalrymen lost 900 people on the first day and lost two consecutive battles! What should I do if I continue to fight like this!"

Zhang Ju regretted that he had no counselors around him, and the scholars did not hang out with him at all. He could only rely on the little military qualities he had accumulated when he was the prefect of Mount Tai and wanted to deal with it himself.

After thinking about it, he thought of two things without surprise: first try to use the cavalry's speed advantage and bypass the enemy's naval army's stealing efforts.

If it really doesn't work, I can only go around the upstream with a very shallow water, but I have to go around very far, almost to the edge of the Yanshan Mountains, and those roads cannot carry the supplies of these thousands of cattle and donkey carts.

Of course, Zhang Ju was reluctant to give up the things he had already obtained. He would definitely try his best to find a way to transport them back before the last moment.

So he called out a Wuhuan tribe master named Wuyan who temporarily obeyed his orders, and ordered: "Wuyan, tomorrow you will divide your headquarters into two thousand cavalry and go to Yongnu County to pretend to cross the river, and lure the Han navy to intercept it, and create an opportunity for me to cross the river downstream. After crossing the river, I will kill the Han army from behind and support you to cross the river."

Because Zhang Ju was only slightly defeated, and had taken everyone to steal so many good things before, his prestige was quite good.

This Wuyan was originally the leader of the Wuhuan tribe of Youbeiping County, and he was quite familiar with Zhang Ju, so he did not question his orders.

Unfortunately, their stealing strategy was discussed long ago by Liu Bei, Zou Jing and others in the military discussion before the interception. They had countermeasures, and obviously they would only work but not work hard.

Five or six days after that, Wuyan changed routes and circled the Han army every time, and each time he had only a small-scale contact, dozens of cavalry killed in battle and retreated.

But the gap he pulled out was not large enough, and there was no time for Zhang Ju's main force to cross the river. At most, it was just to let Zhang Ju sneak past hundreds of light cavalry without luggage.

Once Zhang Fei's cavalry rushed over to patrol the river, hundreds of light cavalry crossing the river could not defeat it. At first, the Wuhuan people didn't believe this evil and wanted to rely on a small number of vanguard troops who had already crossed the river to resist the number of people and buy time for the subsequent large troops to cross the river.

However, with Zhang Fei's bravery and two or three times the number of people on the local battlefield, these Wuhuan people who were ignorant of death were soon taught to be human beings.

Three days later, even if there are a small group of Wuhuan Light Cavalry who fights the time difference and smuggles across the river, they will never dare to fight with Zhang Fei anymore. Instead, they will run as far as they want to go immediately and escape for their own battles.

As a result, the soldiers ran back, and there were more and more supplies in Henan. Zhang Ju was left with only 6,000 cavalrymen, but none of the supplies, food and grass could be transported across the river.

"Do you really have to give up the money that you have worked hard to grab most of the Bohai County? Escape back to western Liaoning with light clothes? No! I have just started a short time ago. If I give up this money, what would Qiu Liju think of me?

I have promised that I will lead the way to plunder the people of Hebei and let them live without worries. If I can’t collect grain now, and let the army of more than 100,000 people there go hungry, who will support me?"

Zhang Ju did not want to give up this money and food supply no matter what.

He knew very well that his and Zhang Chun's uprising was entirely dependent on provoking the Hu people for his use. Their two Zhangs own direct troops totaled less than 20,000. The reason why the Hu people followed them and regarded them as their leader was not because the Hu people were cheap, but because the Hu people believed that they could rob countless property with the Hu people.

This is the foundation of Zhang Ju's career and he will never be able to abandon it. Otherwise, their cooperative relationship with the Hu people would have cracks at any time.

After being blocked by Liu Bei for ten days, Zhang Ju finally thought of another attempt: he sent a secret envoy to negotiate with Liu Bei and asked Liu Bei to let him cross the river.

...

In Yongnu County, Liu Bei, who had been in a good mood recently, was in a happy mood during the happy event. He drank small wine and ate stewed meat, and talked and laughed with Li Su:

"Zhang Ju, who was trapped by us on the south bank of the Hang Shui for almost ten days, finally calmed down. I think he was trying to get out of trouble? He has not sent cavalry to harass and die in the past two or three days.

Last time I heard the war report, the Wuyan tribe sent hundreds of cavalry to go around the upper Liangxiang Valley, but was shot and killed by Zilong, who was on the patrol, and forced to retreat, right?"

Li Su also followed him and said, "It is impossible to force him to retreat. He must be thinking of other tricks. More than 100,000 people from Qiu Liju are waiting for him to grab food and grass back."

The two were chatting, and suddenly a messenger came to report that there was a messenger from Zhang Ju who asked for a visit on the other side of the river.

"Beheaded! What qualifications are there to send envoys like this kind of traitor?" Liu Bei didn't even think about it.

"Hey! Don't be anxious, you might as well listen. Although Zhang Ju's envoy can be killed, we should also give other newly affiliated Hu people some face and leave a chance to persuade some Hu people in the future." Li Su hurriedly persuaded.

He still has to do diplomatic work frequently in the future, so he does not want to kill the other party's envoy first to increase the difficulty of himself in the future.

Liu Bei agreed to listen reluctantly.

After Zhang Ju's envoy came in, he said bluntly: "Gours to Lieutenant Liu, my family... The king said that as long as Lieutenant Liu is willing to let him cross the river, he is willing to give one-third of the money he has plundered in Bohai County to comfort Lieutenant Liu's army."

Li Su was happy as soon as he heard this: Haha, isn’t this the conditions that Jin Wushu wanted to give Han Shizhong the way back after he plundered the Taihu Plain?

No, Jin Wushu gave Han Shizhong a half-point score of five or five!

Zhang Ju actually gave only one third, so he was so insincere!

I want it all.

——

PS: If you are not careful, you will easily write it in detail. But I am still free now. I will give you an extra thousand words. This chapter is more than four thousand words, so don’t spray water without water.
Chapter completed!