After sending Cao Cao away, Chen Mu set out on the road again.
In fact, Chen Mu also considered whether to merge with Cao Cao.
But this idea only turned around in my mind and I rejected it immediately without any hesitation.
the reason is simple.
Huangfu Song, Zhu Jun, and Lu Zhi are all fairly upright, have great reputations in the country, and can be regarded as gentlemen.
If you work under them, at least you don't have to worry about them trapping you.
If you have meritorious deeds, you will be reported, and if you have contributions, you will be rewarded. For example, Sun Jian rose to prominence because of his bravery in battle and was promoted by Zhu Jun.
But I can't hide it.
"A capable minister in times of trouble, a traitor in troubled times" is not in vain if he doesn't laugh with you.
As a guest soldier, Chen Mu was attached to Cao Cao's tent and controlled by him. Once Cao Cao had evil intentions, such as letting Chen Mu be a vanguard during a war and using him as cannon fodder, the joke would be big.
Don't think that Cao Cao can't do it. Bao Xin, the prime minister of Jibei, welcomed Cao Cao as the shepherd of Yanzhou. He can be said to be Cao Cao's biggest benefactor in his early days.
As a result, Cao Cao prepared to ambush the Yellow Turban soldiers and arrived at the battlefield with Bao Xin first.
The trick is that before their troops arrived, Cao Cao and Bao Xin ran to the battlefield first, and then met the enemy at this juncture.
In order to save Cao Cao, Bao Xin died in battle.
"Three Kingdoms·Book of Wei" records this.
"Taizu was proud of the thieves and wanted to challenge Shouzhang with a surprise attack. He first went to the battlefield with Xin, but before the infantry arrived, the soldiers met the thieves and engaged in battle. Xin fought to the death to save Taizu. Taizu had no choice but to break out the siege, and Xin died at the age of forty-one."
The most outrageous thing about this section is that when you go to set up an ambush, the two generals inexplicably run onto the battlefield and are surrounded by the enemy. Then Bao Xin dies, and Cao Cao runs back alone.
No one believes that Cao Cao did not deliberately trick him to death for Bao Xin's men.
What's more, there are even conspiracy theories, and there are many malicious conjectures. Maybe the two of them did not meet the enemy at all, or in other words, only Bao Xin met the enemy...
Although this kind of conjecture is somewhat suspected of trying to trick Lao Cao, the doubts in it are really intriguing.
Moreover, Lou Gui, Xu You, Bian Yi... each and every vivid example is placed in front of him. With so many lessons learned, coupled with the risk of being robbed of his credit and working as a wage earner, Chen Mu is certainly not willing to do so. Hang out with Boss Cao.
Unless you plan to abandon Liu Bei and defect to him, it is far better to go to Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun than to go to Boss Cao.
Chen Mu led his troops all the way south and walked away. Cao Cao's troops were far more numerous than his, so it was slow to cross the river. After he walked several miles and disappeared at the end of the road in the distance, Cao Cao's troops had only crossed half of the river.
Xiahou Dun on the side whispered: "Mengde, just let them go like this?"
Many people in later generations thought that Cao Cao's father, Cao Song, was a child adopted by Cao Teng from the Xiahou family, so Cao Cao, also known as Xiahou Cao, was from the Xiahou family.
But in fact, after modern DNA testing, Cao Cao has no blood relationship with the Xiahou family. Instead, he has the blood of the Cao family. Therefore, it can be concluded that Cao Song should be the child adopted by Cao Teng from the Cao family.
However, the Xiahou family and the Cao family are not completely unrelated. Both of them are powerful men in Qiao County, Peiguo, and their families have been married for generations. In this generation, Xiahou Yuan married Cao Cao's wife and sister. Especially Cao Cao's generation, Xiahou Dun and Xia Houyuan, have been together since childhood. When they grew up, they had a small relationship, and Xia Houyuan even went to jail for Cao Cao.
Therefore, Cao Cao took Xiahou Dun with him when he went out to fight the Yellow Turbans and made him his assistant general, that is, his deputy general. As for Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Chun and other subsequent team members, they are not there now. Xiahou Yuan is in prison, and Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Chun and others are more than 10 years old.
It has not yet entered the stage of history.
Now, among Cao Cao's men, except for a few lieutenants assigned by the imperial court, only Xiahou Dun and Le Jin are known to later generations. Among them, Xiahou Dun is the assistant general, and Le Jin is just one of Cao Cao's bodyguards, the one who crossed the river to find Chen Mu before.
knight.
"This man is obviously a lieutenant in the army, but he is dressed as a scholar. I am afraid he is a wise man. He may have seen through my intentions, so he should not be underestimated."
Cao Cao narrowed his eyes. He still can't tell which of Chen Mu's words is true and which is false.
"He's just a little lieutenant."
Xiahou Dun curled his lips.
Cao Cao shook his head and said: "Now that the Yellow Turbans are rampant and the world is in turmoil, it is the time when dragons and snakes are overturned and heroes rise together. Yuan Rang, you must not underestimate the heroes of the world."
It's not that Cao Cao can tell that Han Zuo has arrived now, but he feels that the world is already in chaos, and there must be heroes in the chaos. When the time comes to pacify the world, these people will definitely be rewarded, such as
Wei Qing and Huo Qubing were usually able to make a name for themselves in the peaceful years.
While the two were talking, Chen Mu had already walked out of Xinzheng and officially entered Yuzhou. The distance from Xinzheng to Changshe is only a hundred miles, which is about 38 kilometers when converted into kilometers. However, this is a straight-line distance. The ancient roads were rugged, so the actual distance was much longer.
Far.
Calculated based on the walking time of 3 kilometers per hour, Chen Mu set out in the morning and would not arrive until the evening. Therefore, despite the short distance of more than 300 kilometers from Jizhou to Yuzhou, it was not unreasonable for them to walk for more than half a month.
After entering Yuzhou, the mountains and hills gradually become more numerous. Yuzhou is Henan. Compared with the plain landforms of Hebei, Henan is higher in the west and lower in the east, and has many more mountains than Hebei.
Yingchuan County, where Changshe is located, is located in the west of Yuzhou, just at the intersection of the Qinling Mountains and the Taihang Mountains. The road is steep and winding.
Chen Mu actually did not lie about the issue of food and grass, because he was a troop sent by Lu Zhi, not a troop of the imperial court.
Without military orders from the imperial court, the generous officials along the way would provide some supplies, while the stingy ones would not provide them with supplies. Therefore, after the supplies brought from Jizhou were used up, they had no choice but to rush to find Huangfu Song.
Fortunately, the team brought dry food for 10 days, and some officials also gave some of it along the way, so they could barely support it. Otherwise, Chen Mu would have to spend money to buy food, and a three-thousand-man army would eat horse chews every day.
, the cost is not a small amount, and it is difficult to afford it.
It is now the end of May. The summer sun is baking the earth. The climate in Yuzhou is hot and dry. It is a little cooler at night. I pass through some towns on the road and ask for directions along the way. Near evening, I have arrived in Changshe County.
This is Changge Township, more than ten miles outside Changshe County, with dense mountains and forests, plain fields, and houses built along both sides of the river. At this time, there are few people. Looking from a distance, I can faintly see people wearing yellow scarves stationed there.
In the village.
"It seems that Changshe is in danger. Even the towns to the north of Changshe have been occupied by the Yellow Turban Army, which means that Huangfusong has only an isolated city left. But if I remember correctly, Huangfusong should use fire attacks against the Yellow Turban Army and turn defeat into victory.
, I just don’t know when it will be.”
Chen Mu signaled the soldiers to hide in the forest and watched the Yellow Turban soldiers in the village from a distance, thinking silently in his heart.
Zhang Fei whispered: "Fourth brother, there is a thief."
"Um."
Chen Mu nodded: "I saw it. This should be the outpost of the Yellow Turban Soldiers. We don't want to alert them. If one of them escapes, the other party will know that reinforcements are coming from the imperial court."
Zhang Fei looked around, frowned and said: "The mountains to the west are steep and insurmountable. Even if there is a mountain road to detour, it will probably waste a lot of time. To the east are plain villages and the river is turbulent. If you go there, you will be spotted by the Yellow Turban soldiers and horses.
, what should we do?”
"It doesn't matter, it will be dark soon, and the thieves will definitely go back to the village to rest. After they sleep peacefully, they will trample the fields from a distance."
Chen Mu looked up at the sky. The sunset in the distance had set, and the remaining rosy colors dyed half of the sky red. The burning clouds were like steaming waves of flames, coming menacingly and sweeping away the dusk crows that were flying around the sky.
Even the dusk crow knows how to go home, let alone people?
But the fields were deserted and overgrown with weeds.
There are no people here, only murderous beasts.
As the last ray of sunlight dissipates from the earth, night falls.
A silver moon hung in the sky.
Chen Mu and Zhang Fei quietly walked out of the woods with their soldiers. The cavalry led the horses and the infantry were connected with ropes. They held weapons and tiptoed through the fields next to the village.
There are several villages in Changge Township, with plains to the east and hundreds of acres of fields. If you go around a little further, you don't have to worry about being discovered by the enemies of the villages.
"Enemy attack!"
Less than two miles past the village, a scream suddenly came from behind, breaking through the clouds like the sound of a bell in the silent night.
Zhang Fei immediately tightened his grip on the spear in his hand, and the whole team's spirit was tense, and everyone was extremely vigilant.
Chen Mu shouted: "It was the imperial officers and soldiers behind us who entered the village and alerted the enemy. We don't need to pay attention to them and the whole army continues to advance."
"The Commander-in-Chief has an order. It's the imperial officers and soldiers who have alerted the enemy. Don't pay attention and continue to move forward."
The orders were passed down one by one. Under the night, the moonlight could not provide the soldiers with night blindness with much vision, so everyone could only continue to pull the rope and move forward.
Marching at night is a big test for soldiers. Firstly, they have too much night blindness and cannot see the road clearly. Secondly, people are full of fear of the unknown, and their vision is completely dark, so they will inevitably be scared.
However, Chen Mu used ropes to connect all the soldiers together, borrowing from Cao Cao's iron chains to connect ships, so that everyone would be much more emotionally stable and be able to continue walking smoothly.
Cao Cao's army passed by Changge Township and clashed with the Yellow Turban Army stationed here. Everything was as Chen Mu expected.
He won't go out on Cao Cao's behalf. If he fights now, he won't get much credit, and it will be easy to scare off the enemy.
Therefore, Chen Mu's current task is to rush to Changshe as soon as possible and join Huangfu Song.
From behind came shouts of killing, angry curses, the interlacing of weapons, and the constant sound of metal clashing.
But as the distance gets farther and farther, it slowly becomes calm again.
The team of 3,000 people marched forward without anyone speaking, and the atmosphere seemed a bit depressing.
After walking for about half an hour, they finally saw a city in the distance at the end of the road.
Changshe City is located on a plain, with the Qinling Mountains to the northwest and high mountains, and to the southeast is a plain with countless fields.
It is surrounded by dense forests and grasslands, and the river where the Wei River and the Qin River meet has vast waves, flowing around the plains and cities, irrigating the land.
This is the north of Changshe City, and the surroundings are completely silent. We can only vaguely see nearly a thousand tents stretching under the hillside in the distance, with lights lingering.
The Yellow Turban Army's hundreds of thousands of troops have surrounded Changshe City. The troops in the north are not many, only more than 10,000.
There are also 10,000 or 20,000 people on the east and west sides, and the three sides together only have 40,000 or 50,000 people.
To the south is the main attack direction of the Yellow Turbans, where a hundred thousand troops are stationed! They have attacked several times in the past few days, and each time they were reluctantly repelled by the army.