Following a loud horn blast, arrows rained down from the dense forest, aiming at Han Hu's army.
It's just that the arrows were not very powerful. They seemed to have a deterrent effect. They were not aimed at the crowd, but were fired at random into the woods on both sides of the road.
However, Han Hu's army did not expect that they would suddenly encounter an ambush, and they suddenly became confused. Many people rushed into the jungle to the left and right in a panic. On the contrary, they shot hundreds of unlucky people to death.
Countless soldiers on the hillside rushed out of the forest, waving their swords and shouting at the same time.
"Kill!"
"Those who surrender will avoid death!"
"If the Jingzhou Army doesn't fight the Jingzhou Army, surrender!"
The soldiers of the Han Hu Army came from Linyuan. Today is already the third day. They have been eating and sleeping all the way, so they are very tired.
We had just rested for a while in the medicine mountain, but everyone was top-heavy and had no ability to fight back. For a while, the Han and Hu troops were in chaos, unable to organize effective resistance at all.
"No chaos, no chaos!"
Han Hu was riding on horseback. Seeing this scene, he became furious and killed several fleeing soldiers with his own hands. He intimidated the surrounding officers and shouted angrily: "All Sima, Qu Junhou, commanders, and captains, give me
Take care of your troops and stay where you are, ah!"
Before he could pronounce the word "formation", Han Hu let out a scream, and there was an arrow on his neck. The feathers on the tail of the arrow were buzzing. His head tilted and he fell from his horse.
At the foot of the mountain in the distance, Huang Zhong, a gray-bearded veteran, stood on a big rock. He glanced down. He was only fifty meters away from the ground and killed Han Hu with one arrow.
In the era of cold weapons, there is such a master of archery who is always on target, which is comparable to a highly skilled sniper in the modern army!
As soon as the general died, the army became more chaotic. The officers did not rally the soldiers and joined the fleeing team.
And Liu Pan's army was like a torrent surging down from the mountains, rushing towards the Han and Hu troops on the road. They were still shouting surrender without killing, and they also used Runan very pointedly, with Guanzhong accent and Nanyang accent.
shouting.
This slogan obviously has a huge effect, because Liu Pan's army was also an army from Nanyang before. Cai Mao also had a large number of Nanyang troops, and the source of the Nanyang army was the refugees from Guanzhong and Runan and the remnants of the Yellow Turbans that Liu Biao accepted in the early years.
Cai Mao's sense of belonging has never been very high.
After Han Hu was shot and killed, when the soldiers heard these familiar accents, they almost instinctively discarded their weapons and equipment one by one, and knelt down to surrender. Even Han Hu's deputy general Sima also joined the surrender team.
"Brothers, we are all Jingzhou troops. We all served for the late emperor in the past, but Cai Mao, Kuai Yue, and Zhang Yun stole the throne for the second prince. We are the eldest prince's team, so we have to help the eldest prince get it back. Who else can we help?
Helping the eldest prince to recapture Jingzhou, can he still treat you badly?"
"Are you from Guanzhong? I am also from Guanzhong. We are all homeless people who fled from Guanzhong to Jingzhou. If it hadn't been for the late emperor to take him in, we would have died long ago. Now I am following the eldest prince to repay the late emperor.
The grace of taking you in."
"Don't resist, everyone, put down your weapons. You have to think about it. Even the invincible General Shen has been helping the eldest prince. It can be seen that the eldest prince is the lord of Jingzhou. Why do you have to follow Cai Mao and sacrifice your life?"
After Liu Pan's troops rushed down the mountain, they quickly took control of the situation. A large number of Han Hu troops knelt down and surrendered. They took away their weapons and equipment one by one, and officers at all levels began to go up and brainwash everyone.
According to Shen Chen, in fact, it is best for this kind of slogans and concepts to go down to the grassroots soldiers, so that every grassroots soldier must remember that they should not only shout slogans when attacking the enemy, but also shout them in peacetime, so that the soldiers know What are you doing.
However, it was still too difficult to do ideological work in the ancient feudal period. So far, except for the three thousand Huangmen soldiers, it is almost impossible for other armies to achieve this. Therefore, Liu Pan currently issues military orders to officers at all levels, and the officers We are responsible for doing this kind of ideological propaganda.
Just like Han Xin was surrounded by enemies on all sides, he used embarrassment to undermine the morale of Xiang Yu's army. Shen Chen also asked them to surrender on the condition that they were both Jingzhou soldiers and could sacrifice their lives for Liu Cong and Liu Qi.
Even Yuan Shao's 80,000-strong army surrendered in the Battle of Guandu. Now that Han Hu's army was moved by such slogans, they felt even less guilty and joined Liu Pan's army at the speed of light.
Soon the capture work was successfully completed, but Huang Zhong did not order to leave, but ordered the soldiers to disguise themselves again.
The scouts came to report that there were Wang Jie's troops about ten miles away behind Han Hu's army.
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Zikou is about thirty miles away from Yiyang County.
When Cai Mao's fleet arrived, the fishing villages and rural pavilions at Zikou Port had already been occupied by the vanguard.
Cai Mao took his nephew Cai Du and chief secretary Hu Zheng off the ship. Several of his generals were already waiting for him outside the ship. After he got off, they gathered around to report the situation to him.
"Lieutenant, we have already occupied Zikou, and several surrounding villages and pavilions have also sent troops to garrison."
"We have also sent people from the direction of Yiyang to investigate. The scouts should be back soon."
"We found a local guide and learned from the guide that from the south of Yiyang to Xinyang Township, and to the east of Xinyang Township is Linxiang."
The generals reported the results one after another.
After hearing this, Cai Mao nodded with satisfaction and said: "Shan, at the latest tonight, Han Hu and Wang Jie from Linyuan will arrive. At that time, let them surround Yiyang, and our army will go straight to Xinyang to seize Changsha County!"
"only!"
All the soldiers responded accordingly.
Xinyang is Ningxiang, a county-level city hosted by Changsha in later generations. The straight-line distance from Yiyang to Ningxiang is less than 40 kilometers and can be reached within two days.
Cai Mao's army numbered 60,000. Han Hu and Wang Jie led 13,000 troops and captured Linyuan Hanshou. Sun Yi and Qian Bo led 10,000 troops to Nan'an. Han Xi led 10,000 troops to Luo County. Then he brought 20,000 people to support him.
In addition to these few troops, there are nearly 10,000 troops stationed scattered in Huarong, Chiling, and Jingling. In particular, there are 10,000 troops in Jiangling. Zhang Yun sent people here a few days ago.
So the current situation is that Cai Hao and Zhang Yun have more than 100,000 troops in their hands, almost all over Nanjun. There are basically no big problems in the deployment of the army and strategic and tactical policies. It can be said that they have a strong advantage over Jingnan in this battle. must.
After Cai Mao got off the ship, he set up a temporary camp in Zikou. He was waiting for the arrival of Han Hu and Wang Jie. However, there was still no news about the planned rendezvous until the next morning.
On October 29th, three quarters after the meal time in the morning, Cai Mao had breakfast in his tent and began to handle today's official duties.
"Is there any news from Wang Jie of Hanhu?"
It was not until the beginning of Yuzhong that Cai Mao, who was impatient to wait, summoned Hu Zheng, the chief secretary, to inquire about the situation.
Hu Zheng replied: "Lieutenant, we have already sent someone. It has been raining lightly for the past two days. It is more than 200 miles from Linyuan to Yiyang, and we still have to cross the mountains. The three days are really urgent. Maybe it is
Delayed by rain."
"Hmm."
Cai Mao pondered for a moment and said: "Let Lu Jie lead 5,000 people to Lanxi. Wang Jie of Hanhu wasted too much time. If they had arrived yesterday, we would have already set off for Xinyang. It is really shameful that these two guys missed the military plane. If
If we can't conquer Yiyang, I will kill them as a warning!"
"only!"
Seeing that Cai Mao seemed angry, Hu Zheng didn't dare to say anything more, so he went out to do things.
Lanxi is located due east of Yiyang and is a branch of Zishui. After passing Lanxi, all the way south is Xinyang. Obviously Cai Mao planned to send the vanguard to occupy Lanxi until Han Hu and Wang Jie's troops arrived and surrounded Yiyang.
, and immediately marched to Xinyang.
But at this moment, a scout suddenly came hurriedly outside and shouted at the door: "Report!"
"Come in."
Cai Mao replied.
The scout entered the tent, knelt down on one knee and said: "Report to the Taiwei that a large number of enemy troops have appeared in Lanxi and are stationed in the east of Yiyang City, blocking our way south to Xinyang."
"How many men and horses are there?"
"No less than ten thousand people."
"What?"
Cai Mao was very surprised and said: "A few days ago, I heard that the defenders of Zuo Tang, Linyuan, and Han Shou retreated to Yiyang. Their total number was less than 5,000, and Liu Pan's total number was only 20,000. How could there be 10,000 more people coming?
Lanxi? Could it be that he only stationed 5,000 people in Luo County?"
"This is so shameless."
The scouts were helpless. They couldn't fly to Luo County to have a look. How could they know?
"Probe again and report again!"
Cai Mao said immediately.
"only!"
Scout out.
Hu Zheng said quickly: "Lieutenant, things have changed."
"That's not right. How did Liu Pan conjure up so many people? Even if he recruited people temporarily, didn't he train them and build weapons, weapons, ordnance supplies?"
Cai Mao was puzzled for a moment.
Recruitment doesn't just mean recruiting some young men and giving them weapons. That's the Yellow Turban Army, and the regular army needs to be trained.
And not only training, but also providing them with weapons and equipment, clothing, food and other materials.
Changsha County is actually quite wealthy, with a population of over one million. The problem is that no matter how wealthy it is, it is impossible to produce so many people in a short period of time, unless...
"Unless the big clans in Jingnan support the eldest prince and send clan troops."
Hu Zheng himself was from a small aristocratic family in Xiangyang. He immediately realized this and said: "I heard that the Kou family in Luo County and the Liu family in Linxiang have defected to Liu Bei. Although Liu Bei is anxious to go to Xichuan, he has good relations with Liu Qi and will
You won’t leave these people to help Liu Pan?”
"Um."
Cai Hao felt that Hu Zhengyi's analysis of being as fierce as a tiger was very reasonable, so he nodded and said: "That should be the case. If it's just some local clan soldiers, it shouldn't be a big deal. Counting Liu Pan's 10,000 more people, we have an army of 50,000 or 60,000."
, what are you afraid of?”
At that moment, Cai Mao was unmoved. In addition to sending people to inquire about the news, he continued to station in Zikou. Lanxi and Zikou were only twenty miles apart, and the two sides were in a confrontational situation with Yiyang, Lanxi, and Zikou.
At the beginning of November, the scouts who went to Yaoshan to inquire about the news had not returned, and Han Hu and Wang Jie were still missing. Cai Mao could not sit still and immediately sent troops to Yaoshan.
It's just that what he doesn't know is.
At this moment, a big net is quietly approaching. In addition to the troops in Jingnan, Bajun Jiangzhou, with the help of Bajun businessman Zhou Lin, Liu Bei raised more than 3,000 ships and sailed down the river in a mighty manner.