Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 125 Poor Information

The trick of deceiving Xia Houyuan was also a psychological tactic.

Give gold to the county magistrate, emphasizing several times that he will withdraw his troops, and then buy servants, let him expose the county magistrate.

The servant is telling the truth, and he has a grudge against the county magistrate, so he is naturally willing to do such a thing.

The result was that Xia Houyuan mistakenly thought that the county magistrate was telling lies. In fact, Shen Chen went north to Xudu, so he withdrew his troops in a panic.

The strategy of killing two birds with one stone not only got rid of the evil county magistrate, but also tricked Xia Houyuan into making a trip for nothing. It is estimated that even if he is a supernatural general, he will be exhausted to death.

At the same time, after Shen Chen went out from the east gate, he indeed went south along the Ru River.

But instead of going to Donggen Township or Dingling, it turned to the south for more than ten miles, and then went northeast all the way to Fenqiu.

Yingshui is a big river, but it also has narrow places. There are bridges crossing the river in Yingyang, Fenqiu, and Linying respectively. Shen Chen actually didn't know which way Xudu's reinforcements would go, but he chose the nearest one.

Which of the upper, middle and lower pawn lines is the fastest?

Of course it's in the middle.

Yingyang is in the north. If you go from Yingyang to Xudu, you have to go north for dozens of miles, and then go east to Yingyin.

Linying is in the south. If you go to Xudu from Linying, you have to go south for dozens of miles, and then go north to Yingyin.

Only Fenqiu is in the middle. After passing Fenqiu, you will arrive at Yingyin, and after passing Yingyin, you will be Xudu.

So Shen Chen squatted in Fenqiu.

He left Xiangcheng at around nine o'clock in the evening, before ten o'clock. Xia Houyuan arrived at eleven o'clock, and then immediately set off to defend Xudu.

Fenqiu is less than twenty miles away from Xiangcheng.

In terms of the distance, when Shen Chen turned south and went south for more than ten miles, Xiahouyuan was arriving at Fenqiu, and when Shen Chen went to Fenqiu again, Xiahouyuan had arrived at Xiangcheng, and the two sides were perfectly staggered.

Although he didn't know when Xu Du would send someone over, it didn't matter to Shen Chen, even if it was good to lie in ambush when the enemy came.

So in this situation where both sides were estimating the time, but Xun Yu miscalculated Shen Chen's marching speed, Xia Houyuan and Shen Chen had a misunderstanding that was just right.

Shen Chen didn't know if Xia Houyuan had come, and he didn't know when he would come. After all, the official way was there. If you weren't a cavalry soldier, you couldn't judge by whether the horse dung was fresh or not.

And Xia Houyuan thought that Shen Chen had made a detour from Linying to attack Xu Du, so he was so frightened that he hurried back, and in this misunderstanding between the two sides, they bumped into each other.

"General."

At the end of the night, that is, around one o'clock in the middle of the night, Shen Tao hurriedly reported to Shen Chen: "They are here! They are coming from the direction of Xiangcheng."

"Oh?"

Shen Chen was quite surprised, and said: "I didn't expect their speed to be so fast. It seems that they arrived in Xiangcheng not long after we left."

Shen Tao asked: "What should I do?"

"Ready to fight."

Shen Chen drew out the Huan Shou Dao from his waist. He usually wears a sword, but the Huan Shou Dao is better than a sword in battle.

"Ready to fight."

"Ready to fight."

"Ready to fight."

More than a dozen orderlies began to whisper orders to the soldiers ambushing on both sides of the road.

These soldiers will also communicate with each other, and each find a good attack position under the command of the official army.

Fenqiu is a rural pavilion, located on the south bank of Yingshui River, surrounded by luxuriant water plants and forests.

In the silent night in the distance, the dogs in the village smelled the smell of strangers and kept barking.

Cao Jun held the torch, and all the soldiers' faces were full of fatigue, even if they were constantly drilled by Xia Houyuan on weekdays.

But this time the intensity was too high, and even many people were left behind, and the front and rear rows were seriously out of touch.

Getting closer to Fenqiu, Xia Houyuan's lieutenant advised him: "General, the soldiers have been walking for a day and are very tired. Let's take a rest."

He is not tired on horseback, but the soldiers are all infantry, and they are as tired as grandsons.

And none of the so-called scouts went out to check the news, because he believed that the enemy was running towards Xudu, and it was impossible to send out the scouts, so he didn't know that there was an ambush ahead.

Looking back, seeing the soldiers panting one by one, disheveled hair, and no fighting spirit, Xia Houyuan also knew that even if they arrived in Xudu, they would not have much fighting power, so he could only grit his teeth and say: "Okay, pass the order, rest by the river, and drink some water first." water."

"The general has an order to rest by the river ahead."

The orderly shouted back.

It seemed as if everyone was relieved all of a sudden, and almost used the last bit of strength to run towards the river.

But at this moment, suddenly arrows clustered like rain, shooting randomly.

"Kill!"

Shocking shouts sounded.

"what?"

Xia Houyuan looked in shock at the surrounding wilderness, where countless figures appeared in the field, in the forest, beside the gully, and under the ridge of the field.

In fact, it is not easy to fight when it is too dark. In history, Cao Cao personally conquered Zhang Lu and was beaten badly at Yangping Pass. As a result, when he withdrew his troops in the middle of the night, he got lost and accidentally ran into the enemy camp. Break through the Yangping pass.

It can be seen that there are too many unexpected factors in the dark night, including when Shen Chen ambushed, the soldiers did not hold up torches, and it was easy to attack without distinguishing between the enemy and the enemy, so his soldiers were spread out in small groups.

First there was the first roar, and then the soldiers shot arrows at Cao Jun holding torches on the official road.It took a lot of time to light the torches after shooting the bows and arrows that I carried with me.

However, Xia Houyuan was suddenly attacked, and the entire army was in a state of collapse. The soldiers ran around like headless chickens, and the entire battlefield was in chaos.

"General, let's go!"

A lieutenant slapped Xia Houyuan's horse desperately.

This time is no longer the time when personal force can turn the tide. Their 5000 troops are all exhausted and powerless. The enemy is waiting for work, and they have no strength to fight back.

Xia Houyuan naturally understood this too. Although he wanted the soldiers to fight back, it was useless, so he could only grit his teeth and say, "Withdraw!"

"withdraw!"

The cries of Cao Jun's withdrawal shook the entire wilderness, and Cao Jun's soldiers, who had no fighting spirit, scattered like birds and beasts.

"Hurry up!"

Shen Chen went into battle in person, led his personal guards and only beheaded a small group of Cao Jun, and the battle was basically coming to an end.

The soldiers at Huangmenting distinguished themselves from the enemy by shouting and clothing. In an instant, Cao Jun was running around, unable to catch them in the grass, fields, forests, and rivers.

After more than 20 minutes of chaos, with the sound of a whistle, the soldiers of Huangmenting began to gather.

Wait until a large number of torches gather.

Shen Chen immediately asked the leader Deng Zhaodao: "I asked if there were any prisoners, where did this Cao army come from, and who is the general?"

"Back to the general, Xu Du is here, the general is Xia Houyuan, he ran away."

"How many people and horses have we captured?"

"About six to seven hundred people."

"How many people were killed?"

"About 300 people."

"Is there anyone important?"

"One of Xia Houyuan's lieutenants was captured, named Zhu Zhong."

"Enough is enough. Take a few captives with you, and the rest of them will strip off their clothes and go back immediately after letting them go."

Shen Chen gave an order, stripped off Cao Jun's clothes, and headed towards Xiangcheng.

The reason why he chose to take advantage of Xia Houyuan's exhaustion was to use the captives to eat Liu Dai and Wang Zhong.

In fact, this is a very time-wasting behavior, because it is very difficult to fight annihilation in the era of cold weapons, not to mention that it is still dark.

Cao Cao annihilated [-] Yuan's army in the Battle of Guandu, and Yuan Shao fled back with only [-] cavalry.

It was already midnight, and even if they were to lie in ambush on the road and attack when Xia Houyuan's army was very tired, it would at best break up his troops.

In the absence of dawn, Shen Chen didn't have so much time to hunt down the scattered Cao army once he hid in the fields, woods, and bushes.

More importantly, he must immediately go back to cooperate with Gan Ning to annihilate Liu Dai and Wang Zhong's troops. Only by clearing all the Cao troops at the Nanyang Gate first, can he occupy Kunyang and other places in Ye County in the future, and seize Cao Cao's troops. initiative.

To some extent, places like Kunyang in Ye County are as important to Nanyang as Hanzhong is to Bashu. Only when you control Kunyang in Ye County can you enter Henan from Nanyang.

If Shen Chen doesn't hurry up and go south now, but wastes time on Xia Houyuan, Liu Dai and Wang Zhong are likely to join forces and stick to a city.

If they were allowed to hold on for two more days, until the reinforcements from Xu Du and Runan arrived, they would at most occupy Ye County, and the two counties at the exit of Nanyang could not be captured, and they would still be controlled by Kunyang and Wuyang.

Therefore, in order to achieve the strategic goal of seizing the entire Nanyang portal in his own hands, so that he can go north to attack Cao Cao at any time in the future, Shen Chen can only reluctantly give up the idea of ​​​​annihilating Cao's army, capture a part of Cao's army, and pull out their clothes. Immediately choose the speed of soldiers and rush to Kunyang.

At the same time, Liu Dai from Kunyang and Wang Zhong from Wuyang are facing a choice.

Cao Hong was defeated. Although he was not killed, he suffered heavy losses. The 5000 men and horses in the rebellion were scattered, and the rest either fled to the deep mountains and old forests, or were killed and captured. Less than 1000 people escaped with him.

They ran desperately all the way to Kunyang, and at night, more than 1000 scattered remnants returned to Kunyang and Wuyang, leaving only 5000 out of 2000.

Cao Cao didn't have many soldiers left behind in Kunyang and Wuyang, Ye County, only about eight or nine thousand soldiers.

At that time, he focused his energy on Guandu. Because Liu Biao was restrained by Zhang Xian, he thought that 9000 people should be enough to defend the Nanyang gate.

What's more, there are Man Chong Li Tong and others in Runan.

This led to the successful implementation of Shen Chensheng's strategy of attacking east and west. At this time, the combined soldiers of Kunyang and Wuyang had less than 6000 troops, and they had to defend the two cities.

After Gan Ning's victory, while occupying Ye County, he continued to lead his troops northward, sending 2000 people to guard Wuyang, while he himself was outside Kunyang City.

After fighting for a day, not only Cao Hongjun was very tired, but Gan Ning's army was also very tired.

After all, they didn't have much rest last night, and they fought from midnight to noon, so after they chased Kunyang, they retreated for more than ten miles, set up camp, and took the time to rest.

Seeing Gan Ning camping outside Kunyang, Liu Dai also suggested to Cao Hong that he could make a surprise attack, but Cao Hong thought that there were only three to four thousand troops in the city, while Gan Ning had six or seven thousand.

And Shen Chen, who was used as a bait to confuse them, did not know his whereabouts at the moment, and was likely to lie in ambush outside the city waiting for them to attack, so he couldn't act rashly, it was better to wait for the reinforcements to arrive.

So the two sides lived in peace.

Until the daytime of the third day after the fall of Ye County, at the end of the morning at sunrise and the beginning of the eclipse, that is, at six or seven o'clock in the morning, things changed.

In the early morning, a group of scouts suddenly appeared in the northeast. It turned out that the messenger soldiers sent by Xun Yu had arrived.

At that time Xun Yu made three arrangements, one was to let Xia Houyuan go to Xiangcheng, the other was to let Li Dian guard Xudu, and the last was to send a letter to Cao Hong and the others to return to defense.

Since Xu Du's judgment at the time was that the main force of the enemy was to bypass Yexian County, Kunyang and other places and go directly to Xiangcheng, so the scouts chose to go from Linchen in order to avoid the battlefield and prevent being caught by the Shen Chen army scouts around Xiangcheng. This southern route from Ying to Dingying and then to Kunyang.

Although it took a long detour, the scouts only took about 140 hours for the [-]-kilometer detour from Xudu to Kunyang after riding horses and changing horses in two cities along the way. Twelve kilometers per hour.

Because of Xu Du's letter, the scouts were put into the city. At this moment, Kunyang guard general Liu Dai and Cao Hong who had withdrawn from Ye County were on the top of the city. When they heard the news, they hurried over.

"Xu Du was also deceived."

Hearing the news from Xudu brought by the scouts, Cao Hong frowned and said: "That guy Shen Chen didn't intend to surprise Xudu at all, his main force has always been in Ye County, but he led his partial division to Xiangcheng to deceive We're just out of town."

Liu Dai said: "Then what should we do now, Xu Du ordered us to return to Fangxiang City."

"Don't go."

Cao Hong shook his head: "Where the enemy's troops are, we should be there. Everyone knows that Gan Ning's army is outside the city. Shen Chen only has 3000 troops in Xiangcheng. I believe Brother Miaocai should be able to Handle."

"Then how should I reply to Xu Du?"

Liu Dai asked again.

Cao Hong thought for a while, and then said to the scout who came to report: "You are very tired after galloping all night. Give me the seal, and I will send someone back to Xu and tell Xun Lingjun that the one in Xiangcheng is just a partial teacher who lied to us. After the general repelled that army, he rushed to help Kunyang immediately."

"only."

After receiving the order, the scouts rested in the city. They also ran for a day and a night. Although they changed horses and did not change people in the cities along the way, they were very tired.

Immediately, Cao Hong followed what he said just now, and sent new scouts to take the seal back.

After noon, things changed again.

On the official road to the north of Kunyang, a group of Cao Jun suddenly appeared, with about a thousand people.

The leader Cao Hong knew was Zhu Zhong, Xia Houyuan's deputy.

He came to the city and told Cao Hong that Xia Houyuan rushed to Xiangcheng in a starry night, and found that there were only [-] enemies in Xiangcheng. The Shen Chen army in the city was very tired. The people in the city opened the city gate secretly. After wanting to break Kunyang Wuyang in Ye County, he only took a short rest and came to help immediately.

At present, their 1000 people are the vanguard, and Xia Houyuan's main force is still more than ten miles away. Please ask Cao Hong to open the city gate and let them go in and rest.

This information matches what Cao Hong currently knows.

That is to say, Shen Chen's main force was not in Xiangcheng, but in the camp in the south of the city. There were only 3000 troops in Xiangcheng. They must have been very tired after driving from the night before to last night. It was normal for Xia Houyuan to break through them.

So without even thinking about it, he immediately ordered to open the city gate and let the thousand Cao troops come in.

(End of this chapter)