Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3640: The wind of Song Dynasty makes ghosts cry, and the fire of stone illuminates people's hearts

Songshan Mountain Road.

Near Nanyang in Runan, the presence of Songshan Mountain is actually not much different from that of Zhongnan Mountain in Guanzhong.

It is a mountain after all, and as usual, there must be some great hermits in the mountain. It would be great if there were some temples or Taoist temples as well.

A hermit may not really be above the mundane world, just like a so-called Buddhist monk may not necessarily be devoted entirely to the common people of the world.

Historically, the martial monks of Mount Song did not go to serve the King of Tang because they saw the suffering of the people of the world. Instead, it was because Wang Shichong, who occupied the Heluo area at that time, took a fancy to the wealth and population accumulated in the temples of Mount Song for many years. Therefore, the monks of Mount Song were actually more threatened by Wang Shichong's forces, so they joined forces with the Tang army to "return to the country and make meritorious monks."

The so-called martial monks, with all their martial arts prowess, actually originated from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Temples had large amounts of tax-free land and wealth, which naturally attracted the attention of bandits. Therefore, they trained martial monks to resist bandits on the one hand, and to maintain the "voluntary" offerings from believers in their own territories on the other.

True and false, false and true.

So some principles are applicable to both ancient and modern times.

The gentry of Shandong and the soldiers of Yuzhou were not fighting for the Han Dynasty, but just for their land and assets. If Fei Qian was willing to give more than Cao Cao, they would most likely rebel immediately, just like the monks who helped the King of Tang attack Huanzhou City.

From the Taigu Mountain Road to the south, there is a mountain pass called Guikuai, because the wind blowing here squeezes and collides with each other, like a ghost crying.

Xiahou Xian ambushed at this Guikuai Pass.

He had just fought with the cavalry scouts on the Taigu Pass Road a few days ago. It was not a great victory, but it also strengthened Xiahou Xian's confidence.

But waiting will wear out one's patience. Xiahou Xian had been waiting at Guikuai for a long time, and he didn't know whether the military academy ahead could lure the Hussar cavalry to fight according to the plan. He became somewhat anxious.

"Put your head back! Cover your helmet with something! Don't let the people on the other side of the hill see you!"

Xiahou Xian and others became impatient, so they got up from their hiding place and checked all the way. They knocked with their scabbard a subordinate beside them who stretched his head out to check on the opposite valley.

Xiahou Xian climbed up the slope on the side using his hands and feet.

On the small platform at the top of the slope, twenty or thirty soldiers were guarding two or three huge rocks.

These huge stones were originally on the top of the mountain, but not all of them could be used. Instead, some of the corners of the stones had to be knocked round with an iron awl before the stones could roll smoothly on the hillside.

"Is everything ready?" Xiahou Xian looked at the two or three huge rocks, "Don't let anything go wrong when the time comes!"

"Don't worry, Captain!" The Cao army soldier beside the stone replied, "Absolutely no problem!"

"Yes, yes, don't worry!"

Other Cao army soldiers also responded.

Xiahou Xian's eyes fell on the boulder, looking at some marks of hammering on the stone, he seemed to feel that something was wrong, but before he could take a closer look, he heard shouting from afar.

Xiahou Xian turned his head and looked, "Here they come, here they come! All ready!"

"only! 』

"yes! 』

"Just wait and see, Captain!"

After the successful ambush of Xiahou Xian last time, the Cao army soldiers naturally had more respect for Xiahou Xian.

Soldiers are so simple and realistic. They will naturally obey orders from whoever can lead them to victory.

But after a moment, the Cao army soldiers who were ready to fight were a little dumbfounded...

……

……

A little earlier in time, when Xiahou Xian was ambushing at Guikuai, Sima Yi also came along the mountain road with his soldiers.

Sima Yi was wearing a military uniform and a helmet, and his beard was covered with dust. He was not much different from the other soldiers in the military academy. Only the cold light in his eyes made people feel that he was shrewd and unusual.

"You were careless!" Sima Yi said to the leader of the defeated scout team very rudely, "You were incompetent in command and neglected the training, causing the soldiers under your command to suffer losses! According to the law, you will be stripped of your position as leader and given thirty military sticks! You will be temporarily appointed as the leader for now, and we will settle the matter after the battle! Do you accept or not?"

The scout leader remained silent and did not respond immediately.

The scout leader was carrying injuries, neither light nor serious.

Previously, he and his team were ambushed by Xiahou Xian, and more than ten people were lost.

"According to the drill manual, scouts should go three in front and five in the back when exploring unknown areas. Why didn't you follow that?" Sima Yi said expressionlessly, "Because the mountain road is difficult to travel and the soldiers are tired?"

The scout leader then whispered: "It was not a small oversight, but the mountain path was narrow at that time..."

Sima Yi chuckled and pointed his finger, "Quibbling. Twenty more military sticks. Chen Junhou, take him to the front line to see what it means to be a forward scout!"

Chen Junhou responded and said to the scout leader, "Follow me!"

Sima Yi's gaze followed the figure of the scout leader and then moved to a farther place.

As the General of Cavalry gradually gained the upper hand, some of the lower-level military academies inevitably lost their caution and became arrogant, thinking that they had "enough" experience in previous battles of blood and fire, so they did not need to follow the Cavalry Manual step by step, but instead acted according to their "experience", or they thought that Cao's army was just so weak and they would win by just pushing forward.

After all, as lower-level military academy team leaders, their horizons are limited. Especially after senior generals such as Zhu Ling were transferred away, these scout team leaders would naturally develop some mentality such as "I am the old one, and so-and-so is the newcomer".

These are some of the problems that are bound to arise in almost every organization as it expands.

Sima Yi was originally in the Hedong battlefield, and did not have much interaction with these cavalry soldiers from Longyou and Guanzhong. Because of the timeliness of information transmission, these lower-level military schools of the cavalry also did not have any special concept of the name Sima Yi for the time being.

Perhaps after a period of time, when new court reports gradually reveal Sima Yi's battle examples in Hedong and Sima Yi is promoted to a high position, those soldiers and military officers who have never served under Sima Yi will be more convinced.

This time Sima Yi came and took over the cavalry troops that had stayed here before. It was indeed simple for him to use the method of killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, but Sima Yi felt that doing so would make the cavalry general dissatisfied.

Based on this period of time, Sima Yi could not completely understand Fei Qian's thoughts, but he could roughly guess some of them. These captains and military schools in the cavalry army would most likely become local chief officers in Shandong and Central Plains for a period of time, so if Sima Yi wanted to establish his authority right away, it would be easy to chop off heads and kill people, but it would not be of much benefit to subsequent matters.

Of course, the key point is that Sima Yi knows that it doesn’t matter what the scouts think, what matters is what Fei Qian thinks…

Looking at the distant mountains, Sima Yi was lost in thought.

The military officers and soldiers behind him were waiting for his orders.

"There are only a few thousand soldiers at Guikuai. If they see our main force coming, they will definitely retreat after fighting... They will definitely not fight to the death with us at Guikuai..." Sima Yi stretched out his hand and pointed at the mountains in the distance, "If we let these guys run back, we will have to guard against the next ambush... Why not take this opportunity to gather them together and annihilate them?"

"Ma Qilang, take three hundred men with you, go east along this valley, and climb up that ridge... Remember, do not alarm Cao's army at Guikuai... When Cao's army retreats, set fire to it and cut off their retreat."

Ma Qilang obeyed the order.

"The road to the east is cut off, Cao's army must retreat to the southwest Yique direction." Sima Yi continued to issue orders, "Send an order to the Yique Pass Military School, they must block the Yique Pass Road, and no one can escape! But do you understand?"

"clear! 』

Another messenger responded.

Sima Yi said: "After our army passes this mountain pass, we must immediately set up a checkpoint on the top of the mountain and guard it day and night to prevent Cao's army from attacking our grain transportation route! Cao's army is familiar with the terrain here, so we must not be careless!"

"Remember, don't rush to win. Be invincible first, and then win by yourself."

……

...Ghosts Crying Pass.

"That hussar soldier came and went, went and came again. Did he discover something?"

The guard beside Xiahou Xian whispered.

Xiahou Xian reached out and took out the map from his bosom, and looked at it again for a while. "There is only one road here, otherwise we have to take a detour... It's normal for these cavalry soldiers to be cautious... Sooner or later, they will pass through here! Let the brothers hold on, and don't expose themselves!"

The guard asked, "What if they don't come?"

"No, they will definitely come!" Xiahou Xian said, "If they don't come, they won't investigate again and again!"

"But, what if..." The guard was still a little worried.

Xiahou Xian looked at the map and clicked on it twice. "Even if that happens, you see, we still have two routes to retreat. One to the east, one to the southwest... Even if the Hussars want to block us, can they really stop us?"

The guard whispered, "There is a place called Thunder Cliff on the road to the east... If..."

Xiahou Xian nodded and said, "That's it. Send two squads of soldiers to investigate below the Leida Cliff... If there are cavalry troops, give them a warning and we will take the southwest route..."

Xiahou Xian felt that he was well prepared. Not only had he made arrangements for the attack, he also had two routes of retreat, which was enough to ensure that nothing could go wrong.

But actually...

His plan actually had a lot of problems.

It’s just that Xiahou Xian hasn’t realized this yet.

In fact, Cao Yi did not agree with Xiahou Xian's plan to ambush at Guikuai again this time.

The reason is simple. The terrain here is too obvious and too easy to ambush. Therefore, Cao Yi believes that the cavalry will carefully investigate and will not rush into Xiahou Xian's ambush. Once the cavalry finds out that there is an ambush, the trap set by Xiahou Xian will lose its meaning. It will be ineffective and will damage morale.

But after Xiahou Xian won his first victory, he did not think that Cao Yi's suggestion was for his own benefit, but felt that Cao Yi was "jealous" of him...

Because of the previous ambush, when Cao Yi arrived, the battle was basically over.

And the key is that Xiahou Xian believes that he has succeeded before, so he will succeed this time as well!

Even if we take a step back and assume that the ambush fails just as Xiahou Xian planned, it can slow down the advance of the cavalry, and then Xiahou Xian and his men will have two alternative retreat routes!

Why not do something with low risk and high returns?

Xiahou Xian raised his head and looked towards the north, his eyes revealing the confidence that is unique to young people. "We are more familiar with the terrain here. The advantage is on our side... We will definitely win..."

……

……

On the other side, Chen Junhou led the scout team from before and stood on the mountain road, facing Guikuai in the distance.

"Three in front, five in the back. Three explorations, five people climbing up." Chen Junhou said calmly, "Did you see anything?"

The scout leader's lips trembled, as if he wanted to say something, but after a while he sighed, "Yes... I was wrong. There is an ambush by Cao's army ahead. I was careless before."

Chen Junhou glanced at the scout team leader and asked, "Why are you sure that Cao's army is ambushing ahead?"

The scout leader said: "When the team retreated for the first time, a cold light flashed on the ridge..."

If a hunter sees prey about to fall into a trap, he will definitely try his best to hide and never show his head. But if he sees the prey running away, the hunter will probably stretch his neck to take a look...

At this time, the five people who are standing at different angles behind the queue and looking far away are likely to see some abnormal phenomena.

Three checks before and after will magnify this possibility.

As long as Cao's army is exposed once, then we can conclude that there is an ambush...

The previous leader obviously did nothing because he thought there were no Cao troops, or it would not matter if they encountered Cao troops. After all, when he encountered Cao scouts before, most of them would turn around and flee, so the leader of the scout team thought that Xiahou Xian's team would also flee.

"Since we know there is an ambush on the other side," Chen Junhou asked again, "if we still need to conduct reconnaissance, what should we do?"

"Send two teams of three to five people to take turns to conduct reconnaissance, and the main team will stay outside the dangerous ambush point. It will be less than 12 hours, and then evacuate." The scout team leader replied almost immediately.

Sending two teams through the ambush site may seem dangerous, but in fact the risk is not too high.

Because when the opponent finds a large group of people staying at the edge of the trap, they will often have a higher "endurance", but as the saying goes, three times the limit, so you can't send too many people, two teams of ten is the limit, if there is a third team, it is likely to cross the opponent's bottom line, thinking that at least a little meat is enough. At the same time, the time can't be dragged out too long, generally within an hour, the forward scout team must be allowed to turn around, at this time the opponent will often think that the front team is going back to report the news that "everything is safe", and most of the time they will not activate the trap.

This is basically investigating the other party by stepping on their psychological red line...

After hearing this, Chen Junhou didn't say anything. Instead, he whistled twice with his hand in his mouth, and then stretched out his hand to gesture.

Two small teams were formed in the queue in front, one team of three and the other team of four, and they went directly to the Ghost Crying Pass one after the other.

Obviously, Cao's army would not be willing to take action against this small number of people.

Obviously, Chen Junhou had already made arrangements before the interrogation.

When the scout leader saw it, the look of dejection on his face grew even more intense.

Fifty military sticks would require at least five heads to be chopped off to offset the blows. This was still easy to say, but if he was deprived of his position as team leader, it would take more than five heads to get him back to his full-time position...

What a regret!
……

……

On the other side, while Chen Junhou and Xiahou Xian were fighting at Guikuai, Ma Qilang led three hundred men, without armor, trying to reduce the weight on their bodies as much as possible, using them to carry bows and arrows, fire starters, etc., and climbed up the hillside with difficulty.

Because the mountain that Ma Qilang climbed was a cliff and he couldn't get down after climbing up, there was naturally no need for close combat, and the armor was equivalent to a "burden" in a sense.

Ma Qillang likes this kind of battle.

It’s not that Ma Qilang is afraid of close combat, or that he feels great to get free kills from a distance, but now that he is under Sima Yi’s command, the orders he receives are clear, and there aren’t too many variables.

Just like now, Sima Yi wanted Ma Qilang to intercept Cao Jun's retreating route, so he wouldn't change it halfway and ask Ma Qilang to fly down the mountain for close combat...

If both long-range and close combat are required, then should Ma Qilang and others carry their bows, arrows, flammable materials, etc., or throw them away?

This is the most important reason why Ma Qilang and other hussars feel comfortable.

They were not afraid of fighting desperately, nor were they worried about bleeding and getting injured, but they were troubled by the confusion of orders. They didn't know what to do on the battlefield, nor did they know where their teammates were. After all, not everyone can see the overall situation and understand the changes like a keyboard warrior. Most of the military academy sergeants can only take care of the things in front of them and the soldiers around them.

The so-called "in principle" and "should be predicted" in Shandong are like a nightmare to soldiers like Ma Qilang.

If the order is only a "principle" requirement, then the executors may have different interpretations, resulting in inconsistent standards. For example, some places may strictly enforce it, while other places may relax it, resulting in unfairness.

For Sima Yi, clear instructions gave the soldiers more room for proactive development.

It was just like Sima Yi did not tell Ma Qilang and others not to wear armor, but in order to carry more long-range weapons, Ma Qilang and others automatically took off their armor to reduce the weight.

This kind of subjective initiative can only be demonstrated when the orders are clear and the responsibilities are well-defined. Otherwise, everything is "in principle", which has no benefits except for providing the superiors with a backdoor convenience to act as referees, players and spectators at the same time.

It was not easy to climb the cliff with bows and arrows and fire starters, but Ma Qilang and his men climbed up the cliff in advance. Before he could catch his breath, he said, "Send...send a signal to the envoy, I...we are at the location..."