On June 26, Shen Chen's army took advantage of the darkness and suddenly went north to his father's city.
Neither Xia Houyuan nor Li Dian knew this news.
In fact, they have deployed scouts around Kunyang, but now they are not being attacked by troops, and the surrounding scout posts have been pulled out.
Even the nearby villagers were moved to Nanyang. Once strangers appeared near Kunyang, they would be arrested.
Therefore, when Lou Fa led 1,500 men and horses all the way to Fucheng County, the people of Fucheng knew about it.
The father city did not surrender, and there were almost no guards in the city. The county magistrate and other officials, large and small, escaped from the east gate overnight and went to Xiangcheng to report the news.
Lou Fa did not plunder the people, and the banner he used was "The Han hussar general Liu Biao took the clothes and ordered to attack the Cao thieves, the benevolent and righteous troops of Jingzhou welcomed the emperor, and never took a grain of rice from the people."
The reason for using Liu Biao's banner is that Shen Chen and Gan Ning are now nominally Liu Biao's generals. At this time, Liu Biao's main force is still in Jingnan and cannot conquer Zhang Xian, so he cannot send people to support Shen Chen.
However, when he heard that Shen Chen had defeated Cao Hong and Xia Houyuan, killed two Cao generals, and had a 50-50 fight with Cao Cao at Ziyun Mountain, he immediately worshiped him as the Zhonglang general.
At present, there are not many lieutenants under Liu Biao's account, only Han Xi, Wenpin, Lu Jie, Liu Pan and others, who are the senior generals after Cai Hao, Zhang Yun and Huang Zu.
Now Shen Chen is already a lieutenant general at a young age, surpassing the middle and lower-ranking officers, which is enough to show that Liu Biao attaches great importance to him.
Under the banner of Liu Biao, Lou Fa arrived at Jiaxian County on June 27th and headed for Yangdi.
When Xia Houyuan and Li Dian learned the news, they were shocked and quickly sent people to pursue them.
On the night of June 27th, Shen Chen led Gan Ning, Deng Zhao, Shen Mi and others towards the east in a mighty manner.
His current total strength is only 6,700. There were originally many wounded soldiers. The seriously injured have been sent back to Nanyang. The slightly injured have recovered after more than a month of rest. The total strength now is 6,500.
In terms of troop arrangements, Shen Zhen, as the general guarding Kunyang, led a thousand men, and Lou Fa led a force of 1,500 men to the north, so Shen Chen now had 4,000 troops.
On June 28, Lou Fa learned that Xia Houyuan and Li Dian each personally led two to three thousand troops to attack him, so he immediately returned to his father's city.
At the same time, Shen Chen's army had arrived at Dingling overnight. After taking control of Dingling, they only rested for half a day before heading east to Yancheng on the night of June 28. These places are very close to each other. From Kunyang to Dingling About thirty-five kilometers, Dingling to Yancheng is thirty-five kilometers, and it takes two days to cover seventy kilometers, which is more than enough.
By June 29th, Shen Chen had occupied Yancheng. It was not until this time that Xiahou Yuan and Li Dian got the news and quickly led their troops south. The problem was that they were still in Jiaxian County, which was a hundred and two kilometers away from Yancheng. Ten kilometers is too far.
Moreover, they analyzed a fatal problem, that is, they must consider what Shen Chen wants to do.
The news they learned at this moment was that a partial division of Shen Chen's army was heading north, while the main force was moving east. This was very much like a pincer offensive, with Xia Houyuan and Li Dian's road in the middle to defend Xu Du, so Shen Chen's army attacked Xu Du from the left and right sides. All.
And there is obviously a partial division on the left, and the real main force is in the east. Go all the way north from Yancheng, and you can reach Xudu in two days' journey through Zhaoling Jianqiang. This strategic intention is too obvious.
Therefore, both of them immediately returned to the defense. Xiahou Yuan and Li Dian both brought only two to three thousand men. There were two to three thousand defenders in Xiangcheng and Linying. At this moment, they only left one thousand men to guard, and they immediately united their troops. , did not go to Yancheng, but went to Jianqiang County first, hoping to deploy defenses in advance to prevent Shen Chen from going north.
There is actually no problem with this arrangement, because Xia Houyuan and Li Dian must ensure the safety of Xudu. Now that Shen Chen's main force appears south of Xudu, they must ensure the safety of the south of Xudu, not to mention that Liu Bei has also been in Runan recently. Prepare to attack Xudu. This will kill two birds with one stone and defend Shen Chen and Liu Bei together.
But they overlooked one thing.
That is, Shen Chen and Liu Bei actually knew each other, and their friendship was not shallow.
At that time, Shen Chen and Liu Bei only met once in Xuzhou, which largely gave people, including Cao Cao himself, an illusion.
I thought the two of them were acquaintances.
You must know that Chen Qun, Chen Deng and others are still Liu Bei's old subordinates. They are disciples and former officials. This friendship should be deeper, but now they are all working for Cao Cao in Cao Ying.
Liu Bei was in Runan, and Chen Deng, as the prefect of Guangling, did not respond to him.
So they had no idea that this was a trap set by Shen Chen. He had never thought about going to Xudu, but planned to join Liu Bei first.
On June 30, Shen Chen's army set off again after a day's rest. This time they only brought twenty days of dry food. They traveled lightly and did not even carry tents. They ate dry food when they were hungry and fetched river water when they were thirsty. Either sleep in the city or sleep in the wilderness in the wilderness.
It took three days like this, and by the early morning of July 1st, he was already less than twenty miles away from Dingying.
At this moment in Dingying City, Manchong, who had just woken up not long ago, was very preoccupied. He only had a casual breakfast, and then immediately went to work at the county government office to deal with various official documents.
As the prefect of Runan appointed by Cao Cao, he actually did not rely on Li Tong's power in the process of pacifying Runan.
At that time, Yuan Shao was preparing to deal with Cao Cao, and people from all over Yuzhou responded. Countless disciples and old officials of the Yuan family rebelled in Runan, and all county magistrates surrendered to Yuan Shao. Although Li Tong, who was in Yang'an at the time, refused Yuan Shao's solicitation, but Cao Cao didn't completely trust him either.
Therefore, at that time, Man Chong was also secretly guarding against Li Tong. He recruited 500 troops, quelled the rebellious disciples and former officials of the Yuan family in the surrounding areas, and captured more than 20,000 civilians and 2,000 soldiers.
The people were assigned fields and ordered to cultivate them, and soldiers were called into his command.
But these soldiers were all former disciples of the Yuan family. Firstly, their combat effectiveness was not very strong, and secondly, they were also a factor of instability. Therefore, he recently learned that Liu Bei had gathered tens of thousands of troops in Runan and had led his troops northward. When I arrived at Shangcai, I felt very sad.
Fortunately, Cao Cao wrote to him a few days ago. He had arranged for General Cai Yang to lead 3,000 troops to come to Dingying for reinforcements and would arrive in Dingying soon, allowing him to hold on for a while longer.
Now he is waiting for news about Cai Yang at the Dingying County Government Office.
"Report!"
At this moment, a soldier came in a hurry, entered the hall, knelt down on one knee and said: "Master Fu!"
"Is General Cai Yang here?"
Man Chong asked immediately.
The soldier said: "Liu Bei has sent troops. This morning, the scouts discovered his movement. He came from Shangcai to Dingying. According to the distance, he should arrive outside the city in the afternoon."
"What?"
Man Chong frowned, wandered back and forth in the hall for a few steps, and then said: "Quickly, let someone notify General Li and ask him to send someone to help."
"only!"
The soldiers immediately went out to deliver the order.
Man Chong's face was extremely serious. After thinking for a moment, he immediately left the mansion, put on his Hufu armor that was convenient for combat, and prepared to lead his troops to the south of the city to wait for Liu Bei's arrival.
At the same time, Liu Bei's army was not far from Dingying. Pingyu was very close to Dingying, about fifty kilometers. He had walked more than thirty kilometers from Pingyu to Shangcai the day before yesterday, and rested for two days in Shangcai. , and set out from Shangcai to attack Dingying in the early morning of July 1st.
Shangcai and Dingying are less than 20 kilometers apart. No matter how slow we go, we can reach them in one morning.
Wait until three quarters in the corner, which is about ten o'clock in the morning on July 1st.
At Yingyang Pavilion, ten miles away from Dingying, several cavalrymen came galloping on the wide loess post road.
Liu Bei was at the front of the team, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Tai Shici were in the rear commanding the troops and horses respectively. There were Zhao Yun and a young general beside him.
In addition, his subordinates now include Jian Yong, Sun Qian, Mi Zhu, Mi Fang, Shi Ren, Liu Yan, Yuan Wei, Xia Hou Zuan and others, and the young general named Chen Dao was recruited in Pingyu .
Seeing the cavalry approaching at a gallop, Chen Dao, as Liu Bei's current guard captain, rode forward and said: "Stop!"
The people who came were Shen Chen's cousin Shen Tao and several scout cavalry. When they saw Chen arrived, they looked at the banners of Liu Bei's team at the rear. The banners of "Liu", "Guan", "Zhang", "Tai Shi" and others were clear, so he asked : "But it's Duke Xuande's team?"
"Who are you?"
Chen Dao asked.
Shen Tao replied: "I am a member of General Shen Zhonglang's subordinates under General Hussar, and I came here to pay homage to Duke Xuande."
"Let them come over."
Liu Bei naturally heard this and quickly asked Chen Dao not to stop him.
When Shen Tao came closer, she turned over and dismounted. When she saw Liu Bei, who had saved Huangmenting, her eyes filled with tears. She knelt down on one knee and said, "Mr. Xuande, I haven't seen you for many years. How are you lately?"
"Who are you?"
Liu Bei looked at him suspiciously, as if he looked familiar, but after all, it was just a one-time encounter and his memory was not very deep.
Shen Tao said: "I am Shen Tao, Ah Chen's elder brother. Back then, my parents and younger brother were mistakenly thought to be Ah Chen's family members by Cao Ren and were brutally killed. If Xuande Gong hadn't come to help, we, the thousands of Huangmenting clan members, would have died. He died a long time ago."
"I see."
Liu Bei sighed: "It was a coincidence. If the ship had not been damaged, Mr. Xiao and your tribe would not have been saved. No kind person would have watched this incident."
Shen Tao wiped her tears and said, "My clan members and I will always remember justice and justice. Ah Chen is waiting for you in Dingying. Please come with me."
"Walk!"
Liu Bei waved his hand, and the army marched northward in mighty force.
At this time, Shen Chen's army was less than ten miles away from Dingying. He asked Gan Ning to lead the soldiers to continue setting off, while he and several of Deng Zhao's trusted knights flew southward.
When he arrived at a pavilion about a mile away in the east of Dingying City, he could already see a dense army from the south coming north from a distance.
Shen Chen was riding on horseback and the sun was rising. When he looked at him from south to north, he could only vaguely see his silhouette.
A few knights were standing on a high slope in front of the pavilion, surrounded by villages and fields. There were still many people outside the city, because they all heard that they were soldiers and horses of Ambassador Liu.
Liu Bei had been the shepherd of Yuzhou for several years, and his reputation for benevolence and righteousness had always been there, so when he came to recruit troops, he quickly recruited many troops, and many celebrities came to join him, so the people did not flee.
At this moment, Shen Chen watched from a distance. At the end of the road, the familiar and generous figure was getting closer and closer, slowly coming into sight.
"Little sir."
The man smiled and said softly in a gentle and mellow voice: "You have grown taller and grown up!"