When Chen Mu was in Wuxian, Liu Bei's main force also began to cross the Bian River and advance south.
On the vast plain, endless black spots occupy the entire world.
Liu Bei sent Zhang Liao as the vanguard and went straight to Dangshan Pavilion.
Dangshan Pavilion is located in the northwest of Xiang County. It used to be part of Cao Cao's garrison. They detected the approach of Zhang Liao's army and quickly retreated.
joke.
The vanguard troops usually only have a few thousand people.
Your vanguard force is an army of nearly 20,000 people. How can you fight this battle?
In fact, as mentioned before, although an army in the Han Dynasty had 12,500 people.
However, the specific quotas are different. For example, Gao Shun's trapped army had two troops with 5,000 men, while Zhang Liao's Wansheng Army had about six troops with 15,000 troops.
That's good. Zang Ba's Taishan Army took in many of his old troops and acquaintances when he was a bandit in Mount Tai. The number was even larger, reaching more than 20,000 people from eight tribes.
Military discipline is a problem when there are a large number of people. Fortunately, Zang Ba did not embarrass Liu Bei. He was used to being undisciplined when he was a Taishan bandit. When he became a regular army, he acted strictly in accordance with disciplines. After killing many people, he naturally became more disciplined.
The Wan Sheng Army is the most powerful army in Qingzhou, and its combat effectiveness is not inferior to that of the Central North and South Armies. It is rumored that General Jiuhu's troops will be incorporated into the regular army in the future, and there are strong calls for the Wan Sheng Army to be the first batch.
In this case, the Wansheng Army itself had a high fighting spirit, strong combat effectiveness, and a large number of people. Cao Cao's 5,000 defenders deployed in the Dangshan Pavilion area would only fight them if they were out of their minds.
So Zhang Liao, the former army commander, drove straight in and continued southward to threaten Xiang County. Cao Cao withdrew all his troops from the Xiang County city, then crossed the Sui River and set up camp south of the Sui River.
This time, they no longer divided their forces to block the attack, but chose to concentrate their forces against the imperial army.
Cao Cao also figured it out. Liu Bei didn't know where he really dug several mines. Hearing that huge amounts of coins and rewards were distributed, there was never a time when his finances were exhausted.
He is very wealthy and has a crowd of more than 20 to 30 million people. How should he fight this battle?
Cao Cao himself felt that there was little hope.
But he had to fight even if he didn't want to fight. After stationing troops south of the Sui River, he began to actively prepare for the decisive battle.
They hoarded food and grass, prepared defensive equipment, and dug and built ditches.
In this battle, Cao Cao felt that he was not alone. Although he was outnumbered, he still had the main forces of Liu Biao and Sun Ce coming to support him, which made him feel relieved.
By the eighth day of September, Liu Bei's army had already arrived in Xiangxian County in a mighty and mighty way. Like a torrent, the city was surrounded by camps for miles.
Thousands of cavalry were sent to the other side of the river for reconnaissance, as if they were trying to surround Cao's camp, creating a sense of oppression as if dark clouds were closing in on the city.
What Cao Cao didn't know was that Sun Ce's city in Wu County was lost the night before yesterday.
At midnight, there are few stars and crows and magpies fly south.
It is the time when late autumn turns to early winter, and the weather becomes colder. Since autumn is when the moon is brightest, the earth is covered with silvery light, which soaks into the heart and spleen like cool water.
The world around us seems like a vegetable market. In the autumn night, there are insects chirping, birds chirping, rivers rolling, and even tigers and wolves howling in the distance.
This is no joke. In ancient times, Henan and Hebei were developed relatively early, but the area covered by forest vegetation was still very wide, and the plains were mostly hilly, that is, small hills tens of meters high.
Hills cannot be cultivated, so when a large number of hills gather, they often form vast primeval jungles with an area of several square kilometers or even dozens of square kilometers.
The ancients couldn't cut down trees with the efficiency of electric saws. Therefore, there are still a large number of virgin forests in Henan and Hebei, and there are countless jackals, tigers and leopards.
Zhou Tai personally led the soldiers out of Nancheng, then detoured to Xicheng, followed the wilderness trail all the way north, and approached Chen Mu's camp.
At this time, he had to put out the torches, because there were sentries for several miles around Chen Mu's camp. Once someone noticed it in advance, the sentries would beat gongs, drums, and horns, which would immediately attract patrolling soldiers.
Although they were originally going to do this kind of thing, there are two different concepts between being discovered on the outside and getting close enough to trigger the alarm.
Since the cordon deployed by Chen Mu is very large, the straight-line distance from the outer cordon to the camp can be four to five miles. No matter how loud they make noise outside, they may not be able to affect the camp headquarters. By then, the patrol guards outside will
can solve them.
Therefore, if he wants to make the whole camp a commotion, Zhou Tai must go deep into it.
He ordered another group of people to go around the west side of the forest from the side road, and he led the remaining people to extinguish the torches. Then he asked the soldiers to hold the gongs and drums, and slowly and slowly groped towards the outskirts of the imperial army step by step.
He didn't dare to move too fast. Firstly, he had to avoid the patrolling guards, and secondly, he had to investigate the enemy sentry. Therefore, Zhou Tai had to go to investigate in person every once in a while, and then lead the team to move forward.
The delay was enough for Chen Mu to search the entire army for someone who looked similar to Zhou Tai, not just in appearance, but in spirit when he couldn't see clearly at night.
In fact, there is also a loophole in this, that is, the accent and tone of voice can easily be detected by people who are familiar with Zhou Tai.
But Chen Mu had already thought of this, and he planned to use Zhou Tai himself to complete this matter.
If you look down from a high altitude, you will see that Zhou Tai led his soldiers to crawl forward with difficulty. It took more than an hour, from Ren Ding Mo Mo, which is about 11 o'clock in the morning, to three quarters of midnight.
, it was around 1 o'clock in the middle of the night before we finally entered the outer core of the camp.
The camp set up by Chen Mu is less than ten miles away from the city of Wuxian County, and there are warning lines for four to five miles around it. But now Zhou Tai is only about three miles away from his camp, which means that the distance is less than 3 kilometers.
, Zhou Tai spent more than 2 hours.
There is no other way. You can still walk some distance north from the city. But when you get to the outer cordon, you have to avoid the patrolling sentries and guards at all times. If you don't walk step by step, it is impossible to go deep into the core area.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! But Zhou Tai must have never imagined that the delay of more than 2 hours would be fatal. Because at this moment, Chen Mu has already selected the candidate, and then started to
The fake "Zhou Tai" dressed up in disguise and prepared to send troops.
Over there, Zhen Zhou Tai saw that the time was ripe and saw the imperial army camp brightly lit and silent from a distance, so he ordered: "Send the order, gongs and drums sound!"
Immediately, the soldiers started beating gongs and drums, making the noisy sound even more lively in the already noisy night.
Originally it was just the chirping of insects and birds, but suddenly the sound of sharp musical instruments resounded throughout the world.
As expected, the surrounding imperial soldiers were in chaos, shouting warnings one after another, making the surroundings of the imperial military camp even more chaotic.
Zhou Tai clearly saw a long line of torches in the distance. First, the patrol soldiers on guard outside the camp began to mobilize. Then the gate of the headquarters camp opened and groups of heavily armed soldiers rushed out.
"Okay, the enemy has been fooled and continues to make noise. Let's retreat south to draw the enemy away and gain opportunities for our brothers to the west!"
Seeing this scene, Zhou Tai was very happy.
His mission was completed. After the peripheral security was removed, as long as a fire was lit in the west, someone would definitely be busy putting out the fire. Even if there were no casualties, the imperial army would definitely not be able to sleep well all night after the fire broke out.
Zhou Yu had already given him a reply, saying that if he completed the task well and harassed the imperial army, which would not be able to rest normally, he would be able to quickly dispatch troops to defeat the imperial troops after Sun Ce's main force arrived.
Everyone knows that no matter how strong the willpower is, it is impossible for a person to stay awake for several days and nights. As long as it can disturb the rest of the imperial army and make them sluggish, it will be a great achievement.
Not to mention that this type of tactics has been around since ancient times, the Great Man's Sixteen-Character Policy alone is a summary of this type of tactics.
But Zhou Tai must not have thought of it.
At this time, the patrolling soldiers in a chaotic mess outside, as well as the soldiers guarding the camp who hurried out to check the situation, were actually actors arranged by Chen Mu.
joke.
I know the sixteen-character policy by heart better than anyone else. How can Zhou Yu use this trick on him?
Isn't this a big show in front of Guan Gong's gate?
Maybe a new word will be born in the future - "playing smart in front of Mr. Chen's gate".
Anyway, at this moment, Chen Mu was sleeping soundly, and the plot that should be laid had been laid. If Zhou Tai was deceived, he would be deceived, and it didn't matter if he was not deceived.
After all, all he had to do was send a few teams and dozens of people to ambush around the city, waiting to see if Zhou Tai left the city. If he did, he would act according to the plan. If he did not, he would continue to observe and patrol.
Originally, the soldiers patrolling outside were assigned to keep watch at night. Most of the other soldiers had stuffed cotton in their ears and went to sleep when it was time to sleep, not bothering to pay attention.
The actors over there who were supposed to be cooperating with Zhou Tai's performance shouted chaotically for a while, then quickly gathered together, lit torches and formed a long queue, chasing after Zhou Tai.
This situation was also within the scope of his expectation. His mission was to move these people away from the mountain to facilitate operations there.
So while continuing to beat the gongs and drums, they began to retreat back.
But their position was already deep, and there were still some patrol soldiers and sentries nearby who noticed them and came towards them with shouts and shouts.
Zhou Tai did not dare to entangle with them, not because he was afraid of them, but if he continued to be entangled, a large army would arrive immediately. There would be thousands of people patrolling the perimeter alone, more than those guarding the city.
Once surrounded, it's a dead end.
Anyway, the mission was completed. Zhou Tai shouted and asked the soldiers to discard the gongs and drums, take out the steel knives, and follow him to fight a bloody path, repelling several waves of attacks, leaving dozens of corpses behind, and broke out outside.
And just when he broke out of the encirclement, Zhou Tai looked to the north and saw that the raging flames had ignited. He immediately laughed and said to the people around him: "It's done."
"General, there is a fire next to their camp. It will keep them busy for a few days. If the wind is lucky and strong, it may endanger their camp."
An officer laughed and said: "If we take the opportunity to attack at this time, maybe we can defeat them."
Zhou Tai was immediately moved. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Let's wait and see."
He wanted to know how chaotic the enemy was.
If there is great chaos and we even prepare to move camp, there may be a good time to attack.
In fact, in ancient times, when setting up camp, forests and riversides were often chosen because of the availability of wood and water sources.
But it does not mean that they will be particularly close to the forest. In order to prevent the enemy from setting fire, the place chosen must be an open area and some distance away from the forest.
Therefore, even if it is burned, it will be difficult to harm Chen Mu's camp.
Zhou Tai couldn't burn Chen Mu's camp, but if the forest caught fire, the camp would definitely be affected if he left it alone.
Therefore, when Zhou Tai came to think about it, the enemy would definitely have to get up in the middle of the night to put out the fire. In this cool autumn season, once the fire was lit, it would definitely not be extinguished so quickly.
After working hard for several days, the imperial soldiers finally became exhausted. At this time, Sun Ce's main force arrived and they would definitely be able to kill all the imperial soldiers and horses in one fell swoop.
But it would be a good idea to take advantage of this moment to conduct a sneak attack.
That's what Zhou Tai thought.
He had no idea that at this time, outside the Xicheng camp, taking advantage of the chaos just now, the thousands of people he sent to set fire to the camp had been completely wiped out.
The current flames are all a batch of wood left behind when Chen Mu cut down trees to build a camp, and they were dry-burned in the open space.
A firebreak was also dug around it to prevent the fire from spreading to the distant forest or the nearby camp.
Because his vision was blocked at night, Zhou Tai could only see the fire in the northwest, but he didn't know exactly where the fire started. He thought everything was going according to plan.
At the same time, at the top of Wuxian City, Chen Bao and Yuan Xiong were watching the situation outside the city in the distance.
They were too far away and it was night, so they couldn't see anything clearly. They could only vaguely hear the overwhelming whistling sound and the constant echo of various gongs, drums, and bronzes, and the entire imperial camp was in chaos.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Okay, the general succeeded!"
"Look over there, the fire is burning."
"Hahaha, this fire is enough to keep them busy."
"It's a pity that we have too few soldiers. Otherwise, if we take advantage of the situation and attack, we will definitely win a big victory."
"It would be good if you can harass them. The governor said that Chen Zigui is not an ordinary person. It is not easy to defeat him."
"I know he is the most wise man in the world. I think he just farted. He was not attacked by us."
"Hey, look, someone seems to be coming over there, holding a torch. I don't know who it is."
"Let me see."
Chen Bao and Yuan Xiong were chatting and watching from a distance when they suddenly saw dots of fire approaching from several miles away.
The two of them were a little confused, why would someone come to the city at this time?
Before they could figure out what was going on, the torches in the distance were already approaching. The people at the front raised their heads and shouted in Huaibei dialect: "Open the door. We have alerted their defenders and are chasing them."
The two of them looked down and saw that the man originally chosen by Chen Mu was 50-60% similar to Zhou Tai. He was wearing the same armor and clothing, and since it was difficult to see clearly in the night, they were 80-90% similar.
The only problem is that Zhou Tai's voice is rough. Although the pitch of the voice below is amplified as much as possible, it is still very different from Zhou Tai's usual tone.
In fact, if someone like Zhou Yulusu was on top of the city, we might be able to find some clues.
For example, why did they cause a big commotion not long after they set off the fire? Why was Zhou Tai able to withdraw so quickly? Shouldn't it be a little later?
Also, the tone of voice is different from usual. If you stay with Zhou Tai for a long time, you may find something wrong.
But Chen Bao and Yuan Xiong were not smart people. Historically, they were just Sun Ce's generals. They were only mentioned once in the history books and had no outstanding experience. Naturally, they were not high-level talents.
So when I saw "Zhou Tai" being chased by the enemy and the pursuers from behind were approaching, I had already seen Zhou Tai's face, so naturally I wouldn't think too much about it.
Subconsciously thinking that after Zhou Tai completed his mission, he was discovered by the enemy defenders chasing him all the way here, so he quickly ordered the city gate to be opened.
Then... there is no more.
Fake Zhou Tai quickly took control of the city gate, and the pursuers from behind poured into the city like a flood. In less than a quarter of an hour, the entire Wu County had been lost.
At this time, Zhen Zhoutai was still watching the fire and was very happy. When he saw the enemy's pursuit, he hurriedly prepared to evacuate.
In fact, according to the original plan, after attracting attention here and setting fire there, they got rid of the pursuers and had to wait for the other group to come back before running towards the city.
However, Zhou Tai found that the enemy's troops were of high quality. Even without lighting torches, they kept biting them by the moonlight and footprints.
Therefore, when he found that he could not get rid of the pursuers, Zhou Tai had no choice but to leave. As for the other group of people, they left it to fate.
Anyway, the mission is accomplished, even if that group of people is caught, the sacrifice is worth it.
At that time, Zhou Tai ran back to the place where the horses were stored before, mounted his fast horse, called to his infantry brothers, and hurried back.
It took another half an hour before they returned to the gate of Wu County.
Seeing that the city was safe and sound, Zhou Tai shouted before he even got close: "Open the city gate and prepare to fight!"
"General, what happened."
Chen Bao, who had a knife pressed against his back on the top of the city, was forced to ask questions.
Zhou Tai shouted: "I didn't get rid of the pursuers. They followed me. Let's open the city gate first."
"only!"
Chen Bao disappeared at the top of the city.
After a moment, the city gate opened wide, and Zhou Tai dived in without any precautions.
The moment he walked out of the city gate and entered the city.
A big net was thrown down.
Feng Kai, the partial general in charge of this operation, jumped down from the top of the city, knocked Zhou Tai off his horse, and said ecstatically: "Wen Su has already been promoted to General Lang, it's my turn to make a great contribution this time!"
"What? Chen Bao, you traitor!"
Zhou Tai was horrified, yelling and struggling at the same time.
But his whole body was trapped in the net, and countless soldiers around him pressed him down. Before the soldiers behind him had time to react, countless imperial soldiers and horses surrounded them.
At dawn, Chen Mu got up after a long sleep and heard the latest battle report.
Zhou Tai was captured alive, and Wu County has been captured!