This plan to deceive Xia Houyuan can be regarded as a psychological tactic.
He gave the county magistrate gold, emphasized several times that he would withdraw his troops, and then bribed his slaves to expose the magistrate.
The slave was telling the truth, and since he had a grudge against the county magistrate, he was naturally willing to do such a thing.
As a result, Xia Houyuan mistakenly believed that what the county magistrate told was a lie. In fact, Shen Chen went north to Xudu, so he withdrew his troops in panic.
Killing two birds with one stone, he not only got rid of the evil magistrate, but also deceived Xiahou Yuan into running away in vain. It is estimated that he, a magical general, would be exhausted even if he could travel thousands of miles in six days.
At the same time, after Shen Chen left the east gate, he did go south along the Ru River.
But instead of going to Donggenxiang or Dingling, they took a diversion and headed south for more than ten miles, and then headed northeast toward Fenqiu.
Yingshui is a big river, but it also has narrow places. There are bridges crossing the river at Yingyang, Fenqiu, and Linying. Shen Chen actually didn't know which way Xu Du's reinforcements would take, but he chose the nearest one.
Which of the three upper, middle and lower troop lines is the fastest?
Of course it's the middle.
Yingyang is in the north. If you go from Yingyang to Xudu, you have to walk dozens of miles further north, and then go east to Yingyin.
Linying is in the south. If you go from Linying to Xudu, you have to walk dozens of miles to the south, and then go north to Yingyin.
Only Fenqiu is in the middle. After Fenqiu, you will reach Yingyin, and after Yingyin, you will reach Xudu.
So Shen Chen squatted in Fenqiu.
He left Xiangcheng at about nine o'clock in the evening and before ten o'clock. Xia Houyuan arrived at about eleven o'clock, and then immediately set off back to defend Xudu.
Fenqiu is less than twenty miles away from Xiangcheng.
In terms of journey, when Shen Chen turned south for more than ten miles, Xia Houyuan was arriving at Fenqiu. When Shen Chen was going to Fenqiu again, Xia Houyuan was at Xiangcheng. The two sides were perfectly separated.
Although he didn't know when Xu Du would send people, it didn't matter to Shen Chen, even if it was an ambush when the enemy came, it would be good.
So in this situation where both parties were estimating the time, but Xun Yu miscalculated Shen Chen's marching speed, Xia Houyuan and Shen Chen had a just-in-time misunderstanding.
Shen Chen didn't know if Xia Houyuan had come, or when he would come. After all, the official road was there. If you weren't a cavalry member, you couldn't judge by whether the horse dung was fresh or not.
Xia Houyuan thought that Shen Chen was taking a detour from Linying to attack Xudu, so he was so frightened that he hurried back, and amidst the misunderstanding between the two sides, they bumped into each other.
"General."
At the end of the night, which was around one o'clock in the night, Shen Tao hurriedly reported to Shen Chen: "They are here! They are coming from the direction of Xiangcheng."
"oh?"
Shen Chen was quite surprised and said: "I didn't expect them to be so fast. It seems that they arrived in Xiangcheng not long after we left."
Shen Tao asked: "What should I do?"
"Ready to fight."
Shen Chen took out the Huanshou Dao from his waist. He usually wore a sword, but on the battlefield, the Huanshou Dao was more useful than a sword.
"Ready to fight."
"Ready to fight."
"Ready to fight."
More than a dozen messengers began to whisper instructions to the soldiers ambushing on both sides of the road.
These soldiers will also communicate with each other and find their attack positions under the command of the officers and soldiers.
Fenqiu is a rural pavilion located on the south bank of Yingshui River, with lush water and grass on both sides and forests everywhere.
In the distance in the silent night, the village dogs smelled the scent of strangers and barked continuously.
Cao Jun held up torches, and all the soldiers' faces were full of fatigue, even though they were constantly drilled by Xia Houyuan on weekdays.
But this time the intensity was so high that many people had already fallen behind, and there was a serious disconnect between the front and rear rows.
As he got closer and closer to Fenqiu, Xia Houyuan's deputy general advised him: "General, the soldiers have been walking for a day and are very tired. Please take a rest."
He is a horseman and will not get tired, but the soldiers are all foot soldiers, so they are as tired as Sun Tzu.
Moreover, there were no so-called scouts who went out to find out the news, because he was convinced that the enemy was running towards Xudu, and it was impossible to send the scouts out, so he had no idea that there was an ambush ahead.
Looking back, he saw that the soldiers were all panting, with disheveled hair, and no fighting spirit. Xia Houyuan also knew that even when they arrived in Xudu, they did not have much fighting power. He could only grit his teeth and said: "Okay, pass the order, rest by the river, and drink some first."
water."
"The general has orders to rest by the river ahead."
The ordering soldier turned around and shouted.
This moment seemed to free everyone, and they almost used their last bit of strength to run towards the river.
But at this moment, suddenly there was a shower of arrows, shooting randomly.
"Kill!"
Shocking shouts of death rang out.
"What?"
Xia Houyuan watched in shock as countless figures appeared in the surrounding wilderness, fields, forests, beside ravines, and under the ridges of fields.
In fact, it is not easy to fight when it is too dark. Historically, Cao Cao personally conquered Zhang Lu and was beaten to a bloody head at Yangping Pass. As a result, when withdrawing his troops in the middle of the night, he got lost and accidentally ran into the enemy camp. Inexplicably, he ran into the enemy camp.
Yangping Pass was conquered.
It can be seen that there are too many unexpected factors in the dark night, including when Shen Chen ambushed, the soldiers did not hold torches, and it was easy to attack without distinguishing between friend and foe, so his soldiers were spread out in small groups.
First there was the first roar, and then the soldiers fired arrows at Cao Jun who was holding a torch on the official road. After shooting the few bows and arrows he brought with him, he lit the torch for lighting, which wasted a lot of time.
However, Xia Houyuan was suddenly attacked, and the entire army collapsed. The soldiers were running around like headless flies, and the entire battlefield was in chaos.
"General, leave quickly!"
A deputy general slapped Xia Houyuan's horse desperately.
At this time, it was no longer time for personal force to turn the tide. Their five thousand men and horses were all exhausted and had no strength. The enemy was waiting for help, and they had no power to fight back.
Xia Houyuan naturally understood this. Although he wanted the soldiers to fight back, it was useless, so he could only grit his teeth and say: "Withdraw!"
"withdraw!"
The shouts of Cao Jun's withdrawal shook the entire wilderness, and Cao Jun's soldiers who had no intention of fighting dispersed like birds and beasts.
"Hurry up!"
Shen Chen personally went into battle and led his personal guards to kill only a small group of Cao's troops, and the battle was basically over.
The soldiers in Huangmenting relied on their shouts and clothing to distinguish themselves from the enemy. In an instant, Cao's army was running around, in the grass, fields, forests, and rivers, and they could not catch them.
After more than twenty chaotic minutes, with a whistle blowing, the Huangmenting soldiers began to assemble.
Wait until a large number of torches gather.
Shen Chen immediately asked Deng Zhaodao, the leader of the team: "Have you asked the prisoners, where did Cao's army come from, and who is the general?"
"Back to the general, it's Xu Du who is here. The general is Xia Houyuan, and he ran away."
"How many men and horses have we captured?"
"About six to seven hundred people."
"How many people were killed?"
"About two to three hundred people."
"Is there anyone important?"
"Capture one of Xia Houyuan's lieutenants, named Zhu Zhong."
"That's enough. Take a few prisoners with you. The others will take off their clothes and go back immediately after letting them go."
Shen Chen gave the order, took off Cao Jun's clothes, and headed towards Xiangcheng.
The reason why he chose to take advantage of Xia Houyuan's exhaustion was to use the prisoners to eat Liu Dai and Wang Zhong.
In fact, this is a very waste of time, because it is difficult to fight a war of annihilation in the cold weapon era, not to mention it is still dark.
In the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao annihilated 80,000 Yuan troops. Yuan Shao fled back with only 800 cavalry. That was because Yuan troops had no food and grass and chose to surrender all of them. As a result, they were killed on Cao Cao's order.
It was already midnight, and even if he were to ambush on the road and attack when Xia Houyuan's army was very tired, it would at best scatter his troops.
In the absence of daylight, hiding in fields, woods, and bushes, Shen Chen didn't have much time to hunt down the defeated Cao army.
More importantly, he must go back immediately to cooperate with Gan Ning in annihilating Liu Dai and Wang Zhong's troops. Only by clearing out all Cao Cao's troops at the Nanyang Gate can he occupy Kunyang and other places in Ye County and seize the opportunity to attack Cao Cao. Initiative.
To a certain extent, the importance of places like Kunyang in Ye County to Nanyang is equivalent to the importance of Hanzhong to Bashu. Only by controlling Kunyang in Ye County can one enter the Henan region from Nanyang.
If Shen Chen doesn't seize the time to go south now, but wastes time on Xia Houyuan, Liu Dai and Wang Zhong are likely to unite their troops and hold on to one city.
If they are allowed to hold on for two more days and wait until the reinforcements from Xu Du and Runan arrive, they will only be able to occupy Ye County at most. However, they will not be able to capture the two county towns at the exit of Nanyang, and they will still be suppressed by Kunyang and Wuyang.
Therefore, in order to achieve the strategic goal of seizing the entire Nanyang Gate in his own hands so that he could attack Cao Cao north at any time in the future, Shen Chen could only reluctantly give up the idea of annihilating Cao Cao's army, captured some of Cao's troops, and after pulling off their clothes, He immediately chose his troops and rushed to Kunyang quickly.
At the same time, Liu Dai from Kunyang and Wang Zhong from Wuyang are facing a choice.
Cao Hong was defeated. Although he was not killed, he suffered heavy losses. Five thousand people in the rebel army were dispersed. The rest either fled to the mountains and forests or were killed and captured. Only less than a thousand people escaped with him.
They ran desperately all the way to Kunyang. At night, more than a thousand scattered remnants returned to the two cities of Kunyang and Wuyang, leaving only more than 2,000 people out of 5,000.
Cao Cao didn't have many soldiers left in the Wuyang area of Kunyang, Ye County, only about eight or nine thousand.
At that time, his main focus was on Guandu. Since Liu Biao was restrained by Zhang Xian, he thought that eight or nine thousand men should be enough to defend the Nanyang gate.
What's more, there are also Manchu Li Tong and others in Runan.
This led to the fact that after Shen Chensheng's strategy of attacking from the east to the west was successfully implemented, the total number of soldiers in Kunyang and Wuyang was less than 6,000, and they had to defend two cities.
After Gan Ning's great victory, while occupying Ye County, he continued to lead his troops northward and sent two thousand people to guard Wuyang, while he stayed outside Kunyang City.
After a day of fighting, not only Cao Hong's army was very tired, but Gan Ning's army was also very tired.
After all, they didn't get much rest last night and kept fighting from midnight to noon, so after they chased Kunyang, they retreated more than ten miles, set up camp, and took the time to rest.
Seeing Gan Ning camped outside Kunyang, Liu Dai suggested to Cao Hong that they could launch a surprise attack. However, Cao Hong believed that there were only three or four thousand men in the city, while Gan Ning had six or seven thousand.
Moreover, the whereabouts of Shen Chen, who was used as a bait to confuse them, are not yet known. He is probably ambushing outside the city waiting for them to attack, so he cannot act rashly and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
So the two sides got along peacefully.
It wasn't until daytime on the third day after the fall of Ye County, at the end of sunrise in the morning and the beginning of eclipse time, that is, around six or seven o'clock in the morning, that things changed.
In the early morning, a group of scouts suddenly appeared in the northeast. It turned out that they were messengers sent by Xun Yu.
At that time, Xun Yu made three arrangements: one was to ask Xia Houyuan to go to Xiangcheng, the other was to ask Li Dian to guard Xudu, and the last was to send a message to Cao Hong and others, asking them to return to defense.
Xu Du's judgment at that time was that the enemy's main force would bypass Ye County, Kunyang and other places and go directly to Xiangcheng. Therefore, in order to avoid the battlefield and prevent being caught by Shen Chen's army scouts around Xiangcheng, the scouts chose This southern route runs from Linying to Dingying and then to Kunyang.
Although it was a slight detour, the scout only took about twelve hours for the 140-kilometer detour from Xudu to Kunyang, as he kept riding horses and had two cities along the way to supply supplies and change horses. , an average of twelve kilometers per hour.
Because of Xu Du's seal, the scouts were put into the city. At this moment, Kunyang guard Liu Dai and Cao Hong, who had withdrawn from Ye County, were on top of the city. When they heard the news, they rushed over.
"Xu Du was also deceived."
Hearing the news from Xu Du brought by the scouts, Cao Hong frowned and said, "That guy Shen Chen didn't want to attack Xu Du at all. His main force has always been in Ye County, but he led a partial division to Xiangcheng in order to deceive Xu Du." We’re just leaving the city.”
Liu Dai said: "What should we do now? Xu Du ordered us to return to Fangxiangcheng."
"You can't go."
Cao Hong shook his head: "Where the enemy's troops are, we should be there. Gan Ning's army is outside the city. This is something everyone knows. Shen Chen has only three thousand troops in Xiangcheng. I believe Brother Miaocai should Can handle it.”
"Then how should I reply to Xu Du?"
Liu Dai asked again.
Cao Hong thought for a while and said to the scouts who came to report: "You have been galloping all night and are very tired. Give me the seal. I will send people back to Xudu to tell Xun Lingjun that the people in Xiangcheng are just partial troops who deceived us. Please invite Xiahou After the general repulsed that army, he immediately rushed to Kunyang's aid."
"only."
After receiving the order, the scouts rested in the city. They also ran for a day and a night. Although they changed horses but not men in the cities along the way, they were still very tired.
At that moment, Cao Hong followed his intention and sent new scouts back to get the seal.
After noon, things changed again.
On the official road north of Kunyang, a group of Cao's troops suddenly appeared, numbering about a thousand people.
The leader, whom Cao Hong knew, was Xia Houyuan's deputy general Zhu Zhong.
He came to the city and told Cao Hong that Xiahou Yuan rushed to Xiangcheng at night and found that there were only three thousand enemies in Xiangcheng. Shen Chen's army in the city was very tired. The people in the city secretly opened the city gate. He defeated Shen Chen's army and learned that Shen Chen's army was defeated. Chen Chen's real intention was to break through Wuyang in Kunyang, Ye County, so he only took a short rest and came to help immediately.
Currently, their thousand people are the vanguard, and Xia Houyuan's main force is still more than ten miles away. He asked Cao Hong to open the city gate and let them in to rest.
This information is consistent with the information currently known about Cao Hong.
That is to say, Shen Chen's main force was not in Xiangcheng, but in the camp in the south of the city. Xiangcheng only had 3,000 troops. From the night before yesterday to last night, he would be very tired. It was normal for Xia Houyuan to defeat them.
So without thinking, he immediately ordered the city gate to be opened and let the thousand Cao troops in.