However, the official departure of the army does not happen in a day or two.
Especially when more than 100,000 troops gather together and there is a sea of people, there must be a sequence.
The Nine Tiger Generals now have another Sun Jian.
However, although Sun Jian was a general, he was not included in the Nine Tigers.
Because his rank of general is a military rank, not an actual position.
And General Jiuhu and their rank are also generals.
But the actual duties are the nine generals with real power in the front, rear, left, center, southeast, northeast, southwest and northwest.
Sun Jian's role as general in rebellion was considered a temporary position and did not belong to his army.
Therefore, when Liu Bei made the deployment of troops, he placed him under Chen Mu, that is, Zhao Yun's tribe, to lead Zhao Yun's army.
In this way, General Nine Tigers and Liu Bei were accompanied by Dian Wei, Qian Zhao, Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, and Xu Rong, totaling almost 80,000 troops.
On Chen Mu's side, there was only Zhao Yun's force, which consisted of 30,000 troops from the Central South Army, commanded by Zhao Yun. This brings the total force that Liu Bei and Chen Mu have hoarded in Pei and Liang to 110,000.
It was originally supposed to be an army of 150,000 people. Huang Zhong and Tai Shici were sent away by Chen Mu and led the navy south to take Jiangdong. Currently, only Zang Ba leads 20,000 infantry, plus Cai Yang, Chen Gui and others in Xuzhou have 40,000 people.
So from a broad perspective, the total force of the imperial court to encircle and suppress Henan was still 150,000. It was just that the generals were stationed in different locations and were not gathered together.
Liu Bei himself was in Zhuqiu County, Pei State, with 80,000 troops gathered around him, while Chen Mu was in Xiao County, Pei State, on the front line between the enemy and us.
After determining the tactics, Liu Bei formally issued the order for a general attack.
He sent Chen Mu to lead 30,000 people to attack Wu County.
He led the main force to attack Xiangxian County, and at the same time sent Xu Rong to lead 10,000 troops to attack Linsui.
According to intelligence, Liu Biao sent more than 40,000 men, and the army is currently stationed in Linsui and Taiqiu areas. Liu Bei only sent Xu Rong to bring 10,000 people there, and he really did not take Liu Biao seriously.
By the fifth day of September, Chen Mu's army in Xiao County officially set off. Thirty thousand people walked on the roads in the wilderness and countryside, stretching for miles like a long dragon.
The autumn wind outside the city was bleak, and the cold wind howling from the north caused the withered weeds on both sides of the Bin River to sway slightly in the wind.
Hundreds of years later, this river called Bianshui will be excavated under the order of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. After expansion, it will be transformed from a medium-sized river into a Tongji Canal for transporting grain and grass, connecting the north and the south.
If we use this river to transport grain and grass, we will get twice the result with half the effort. Unfortunately, the imperial court has not yet stabilized the area, and even Henan has not yet been recovered, let alone such a major project as expanding the river channel, which is simply impossible before unifying the world.
Chen Mu was riding on the back of Ziying. The wind was blowing and the water was cold. There were dense crowds of people. He crossed the river in an orderly manner along the bridge built a few days ago. The water under the bridge was gentle, with rippling blue waves, and slowly flowed eastward.
go.
On the vast plains, people live in the countryside in the distance. Most of the villages are dilapidated and the fields are deserted. There are only a few curls of smoke rising from a few houses. The whole world is desolate visible to the naked eye.
Since the land of Henan came into the hands of Cao Cao and Sun Jian, except for the several wars launched by Yuan Shu, Tao Qian and Lu Bu in the past few years, it has not experienced war for several years now.
But during the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Dong Zhuo's Rebellion, Henan was the hardest hit place.
Coupled with years of war, natural disasters, and rampant plagues, during the Emperor He's period, the land of Yuzhou and Yanzhou, which originally had a population of more than 10 million, now only has less than half of it left.
Those who could escape had mostly escaped, and the remaining people were basically broken pots, old men, women, and children who were unable to escape.
Human beings are not like crops and leeks in the field. After one crop is cut, another crop will grow quickly.
Therefore, compared to the past, Pei State is indeed much more desolate.
It has been some time since the imperial army came to Xiao County. A large number of scouts, scouts, and sentries were dispatched dozens of miles around. Officials also went to the countryside to comfort the villagers and posted notices to tell the fellow villagers not to panic.
After seeing hordes of troops bustling out of the city, the people in the distant countryside stood on the hills at the head of their respective villages, looking at them calmly or even without any emotion.
For the people, they never care about who will rule them. What they care about is whether they can survive in the coming year, nothing more.
At this moment, the county road leading to Wuxian County in the south seemed so long. The gentle breeze blew through the wheat planted in autumn and harvested in spring, the tall trees by the river, and the forest in the distance.
, brushing over the hills on both sides of the road, making a rustling sound.
In late autumn, the weather turns cooler.
The wild geese in the north dotted the sky with stars and roared southward. The soldiers on the ground were arranged in an orderly manner, flooding the entire country road, and slowly moved forward in the direction in which the wild geese were flying.
In the evening, Chen Mu looked at the surrounding scenery. Although there were hills in the Henan Plain, if he found a hill more than ten feet high, he could see an endless panoramic view.
After more than ten miles, he arrived at the city of Peiguowu County. After a day's journey, he had to find a place to camp and prepare to attack the city.
"Prime Minister, General Sun said that we can camp eight miles ahead. There is a forest over there, next to the river."
One of Sun Jian's generals, Wang Hu, came quickly to report to Chen Mu.
In this battle, Sun Jian was the vanguard. He had already set off before Chen Mu's army arrived. The two sides were more than ten miles apart, so he had to clear the way for the main force in the rear and find a garrison location in advance.
Chen Mu nodded and said, "Go and have a look."
On the hillside, the surrounding guards followed closely. After descending the slope, they galloped southward along the gap on the left side of the rural road. There was still a long queue on the road. Zhao Yun was at the head of the team, and at the back was Wu Anguo leading his troops behind him.
.
After walking about eight miles, we came to a flat area. This is a rural pavilion on the outskirts of Wu County. A tributary from the Bin River flows through this place, nourishing a place of water and soil.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Chen Mu looked around and saw from a distance that the terrain here was flat, with lush vegetation, and a forest near the river, which was the source of wood needed by the army.
There is also a water source. The only problem is that, perhaps because of the war, the surrounding villages in Farming Pavilion have been abandoned and no one has taken care of them. The vegetation has grown rapidly. It is also late autumn. If you get too close to the forest, the enemy may burn it down.
Endanger the camp.
However, the ancients were not so rough in building camps. Since there was a river, ditches were often dug around the camp. Moreover, it was located in the Henan Plain area, and the surrounding area was extremely empty. It was impossible to imitate Lu Xun's burning camp.
"Prime Minister."
Sun Jian rode up to greet him. When he got close, he got off his horse, raised his hands and said, "Is this place feasible?"
Chen Mu nodded and said, "Yes, we will set up camp here."
"promise!"
Sun Jian bowed his hand in greeting, and since he was older than Chen Mu, worthy of his brother, and his official position was not much worse than Chen Mu's, he agreed.
After Sun Jian left, Chen Mu looked at the horizon in the distance. About a few miles away, a majestic and tall city stood at the end of the road. If nothing unexpected happened, Sun Ce's spies were probably everywhere around the army.
Intelligence from the Military Intelligence Department showed that not long after Guo Jia and Xi Zhicai went to Jingzhou and Yangzhou respectively to lobby Liu Biao and Sun Ce, both of them finally reluctantly agreed to send the main force north to support Cao Cao.
If it were a few years later that Liu Biao died of illness and the young Liu Cong came to power, maybe a lot of people would persuade Liu Cong to surrender, especially incompetent people such as Cai Mao and Zhang Yun.
But at least Liu Biao is not dead yet.
Although he was only the lord who defended the city and did not have the ability to expand territory, his mind was not so stupid that he would sit back and watch Cao Cao perish and wait for death.
Liu Biao knew very well that once Cao Cao was destroyed, he would be the next person the court would deal with.
Therefore, we had no choice but to send troops.
Sun Ce did the same thing, and against all opinions, he personally led his troops northward to support.
Currently, only the front army sent by Sun Ce is stationed in Wu County. Zhou Tai from Jiujiang leads 5,000 troops to station in Wu County. Zhou Yu from Lujiang leads 10,000 troops to station in Shiqiu. He himself leads the main force in the rear.
After the imperial army arrived in Wuxian, Chen Mu arranged for people to start building the camp. It would be too late to build a large camp tonight, so it was just simple repairs.
The perimeter was fenced off, and multiple camps were not built. Instead, a large open space was circled by the river, and the camp was left in place for the time being.
It was already approaching evening above Wu County City. The sun was setting, and the sunset glow on the horizon turned half of the sky red.
Zhou Tai stood at the top of the city and looked into the distance. He could only vaguely see densely packed troops surging in the distance.
A simple camp rose from the ground, standing like a dark cloud.
"General."
The scout came back to report, knelt down on one knee and said: "We have found out clearly that the person coming is the Central Southern Army of the Imperial Court, led by Prime Minister Chen Mu, General Zhao Yun, with about 30,000 troops."
"Um."
Zhou Tai nodded and asked, "How is their camp built?"
The scout replied: "I couldn't see clearly from a distance. Their scouting horses scattered in all directions and drove us away. But from a distance, I saw that they arrived late and didn't have time to set up camp. They just built a fence, pitched a tent, and
There are not many fortifications.”
Zhou Tai was surprised: "There is no trench?"
"They don't have time to dig."
"Weird."
Zhou Tai muttered something, put his hands behind his back, and hesitated.
The deputy general Chen Bao next to him said: "General, they don't have time to dig trenches. If we attack the camp tonight, attack it with fire, and burn down their camp, we will definitely defeat the enemy."
Zhou Tai shook his head: "Something is wrong. Then Chen Zigui has been in the army for many years and has been invincible since the Yellow Turbans. How could he make such a mistake?"
Another deputy general, Yuan Xiong, said: "General, does he suspect that there is fraud?"
Zhou Tai walked slowly on the top of the city, thought for a while and said: "Now that Duke Ming is still in Guyang, it has rained recently in the Huaihe River, which has blocked the grain road. It will take some time for Duke Ming to go north. We cannot take the initiative to fight the enemy."
.”
"But if I missed this opportunity, I'm afraid..."
Chen Bao advised: "Perhaps the enemy came in a hurry and was tired from traveling all the way. He felt that our troops were too few and dared not attack. Did he do it specially?"
Zhou Tai has a relatively calm personality and said: "In this case, send someone to ask the governor and listen to his opinion."
The vanguard of Sun Ce's troops this time was Zhou Yu's tribe, totaling 20,000 people. In addition to Zhou Tai's 5,000 troops and Zhou Yu's own 10,000 troops, there was another 5,000 troops led by Jiang Qin, located in the Huangzangyu Mountain Forest to the east.
among.
Wu County is located due south of Xiao County in later generations, northeast of Huaibei City, and southwest of Xuzhou City. About 20 miles to the east is Huangzang Valley, and about 40 miles to the south is Shiqiu County.
The terrain here is very flat and is part of the Huaibei Plain. The only mountains and hills are the Huangzangyu Mountains to the east.
Zhou Yu ordered Zhou Tai to garrison Wu County and Jiang Qin to garrison Huangzang Valley. Together with his own troops, the three armies formed an inverted triangle.
Once any one of them is attacked, the other two can rush to support from different directions and attack the enemy's flanks.
Now Zhou Tai also felt that the enemy seemed to have a big weakness, but he did not dare to act rashly, so he immediately sent his knights to Shiqiu to ask Zhou Yu for instructions.
Zhou Yu had actually received the news of Chen Mu's attack. After all, Chen Mu did not hide it. The army marched south in a mighty manner. As long as Sun Cejun's scouts were not blind, they could see them.
When it was getting dark, the messenger sent by Zhou Tai reported to Zhou Yu. After Zhou Yu thought about it for a while, he quickly replied.
It was close to midnight before Zhou Tai got a reply. At this time, the lights in Chen Mu's camp were brightly lit in the distance, and there were soldiers patrolling the camp with torches on the outside. It seemed to be heavily guarded, and there was no good opportunity to make a move.
"The governor wrote back and said that Chen Mu is in charge of Yan Jin's army. Although there are no ravines and a large number of fortifications, he will definitely send more troops and horses to guard him. Night attacks are useless, but he can use the strategy of tiring the enemy to disturb him."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! After reading the reply, Zhou Tai said to Second General Chen Bao and Yuan Xiong: "How do you think I should disturb the enemy?"
"How about lighting a fire in the west and making noise with gongs and drums in the east?"
Chen Bao thought of an idea.
When they saw that Chen Mu had simply built the camp without digging ditches and building fortifications, they planned to set the forest on fire and set the camp on fire.
But just looking at the situation outside, we know that this idea will definitely not be implemented.
The total strength of the city is only 5,000, and the soldiers patrolling the periphery have a long line of torches and countless men and horses. Even if the entire city's troops go out to set fire, they will probably be attacked and killed by the enemy before they get close.
Therefore, this idea has been dead. However, since it is a strategy to tire out the enemy, you can first use gongs and drums to attract the enemy's attention, and then light a fire. When the fire starts, the enemy will have to worry about their sneak attack and the burning of the camp.
, will definitely be very busy.
Zhou Tai felt that this suggestion was reliable, so he nodded and said: "Shan, just do this. I will personally lead the troops out of the camp later, and you will guard the city until I come back."
"only!"
The two took orders.
Soon Zhou Tai led two thousand people out of the city from the south gate.
One thousand people brought a lot of gongs and drums to make a sound, and another thousand people prepared fish paste.
Chen Mu's camp is not far from the forest, and the ground is covered with withered grass. Once a fire breaks out, it will spread very quickly.
However, there are patrolling troops from the imperial court for three or four miles around, as well as many sentries and spies. If they are accidentally alerted, they will be surrounded in an instant.
So Zhou Tai's plan was to use gongs and drums in the distance to attract the attention of the guards. When everyone near the forest was attracted to the southeast, another thousand people took the opportunity to light a fire.
Although burning the forest may not necessarily endanger the imperial camp, it will definitely make them scramble for a while, and they may not be able to have a good rest tonight.
It can be regarded as indirectly completing the two tasks of attacking the camp and exhausting the enemy.
However, what Zhou Tai didn't know was that just when he was furiously leaving the city and preparing to cause trouble, at this time, outside the south city, in the ravines, hills and fields near the city, under the cover of vegetation, there were several teams waiting and watching.
"Do you see clearly?"
"See clearly."
"How did you draw the leader?"
"The physical features have been drawn."
"Very good, let's go."
Because it was too dark outside the city, a large number of soldiers with night blindness could not see the road without lighting fires.
Zhou Tai felt that he was in the south of the city and not in the enemy's territory in the north, so he lit a torch when he left the city.
The lighting range of the torch is actually very short. If you look at it with the naked eye, you will definitely not be able to see anything clearly.
But the problem is that these people all have binoculars.
One by one, they took advantage of the cover of night and sneaked closer to the city gate. The nearest lookout was less than a hundred meters away from Zhou Tai.
Not only Nancheng, but also Dongcheng and Xicheng. Anyway, Chen Mu didn't think they would come out of Beicheng.
After drawing the appearance of Zhou Tai on horseback, the investigation team immediately withdrew.
They were all well fed with fish and shrimp, and often ate animal offal. They were not like ordinary soldiers who could not see at all at night and returned to their headquarters camp in the dark.
About a quarter of an hour later, five portraits appeared on Chen Mu's desk. The people who drew the paintings were all professionally trained scouts and were very good at grasping people's facial features.
Therefore, after seeing the broad-eared image, Chen Mu knocked on the table and said, "Tai Chang Zhou, please distribute the portrait and let officers at all levels look for it. Just look for someone with a similar appearance. It's best if you can say a few words about Jiujiang."
talk."
"only!"
The messenger next to him quickly went out with the portrait.
Chen Mu doesn't ask for someone in the army who is exactly the same as Zhou Tai. He only needs a similar body shape and appearance. There are four or five similar people. Wearing the armor and clothing of the Sun family army, the sky is already dark. Is it possible that he is afraid that he will not be able to deceive the defenders?
person?
All generals in each department had a copy of the portrait. The generals then summoned all junior officers, commanders, commanders, captains, two army commanders from each department, ten commanders, and one hundred commanders to come and recognize the portrait.
Less than two quarters of an hour later, amidst the sudden sound of gongs and drums outside, a bearded soldier about thirty years old with broad ears was brought to Chen Mu.
This man was not a soldier, but a village chief. After he saw the portrait, he felt that it was somewhat similar, so he volunteered to sign up. Although he didn't speak Huainan dialect, he just needed to learn a few sentences now.
After reading it, Chen Mu nodded with satisfaction and said, "It's up to you. Put on the armor and clothing of Sun Ce's soldiers and horses, and prepare to open the city gate. If you can break the city, it will be a great achievement!"
The village chief excitedly raised his hands and said, "Yes, Prime Minister!"
When he was taken down to change clothes and learn Huainan dialect, listening to the constant harassment outside, Chen Mu sneered, shook his head, and whispered: