Ji Han Liu Zhang

Mengjin.

When Gao Lan saw the pontoon bridge sinking under the artillery fire of Cao's army on the opposite bank, his expression gradually became indifferent. Facing the flag officer's request for orders, he did not say a word for a long time and just remained silent.

After a while, Gao Lan sighed deeply and told the flag officer, "Retreat and return to camp."

"Yes." The flag officer responded, and then he hurriedly conveyed Gao Lan's order to the soldiers and officers in the various garrisons.

Seeing the flag officer's departing back, Gao Lan couldn't help but sigh again in his heart. As for crossing the river, he planned to make a feint to the east and attack in the west. On the one hand, he made a big fuss upstream, searching for boats and making the illusion of crossing the river in order to confuse Cao's army. But in fact, the real place he was going to cross the river was the floating bridge downstream.

Unexpectedly, the clever plan he had come up with was discovered by the enemy general Cao Ren. Cao Ren was not fooled by the scene upstream, but found the real shore where he would cross the river, and sank the pontoon bridge he had worked so hard to build with the artillery stones of the Thunderbolt Chariot.

Through this incident, Gao Lan realized two things. First, the enemy general Cao Ren was no ordinary man and should not be taken lightly. Second, Cao's army had also studied the Thunderbolt Chariot from Guanzhong, and it seemed that the results were not small. They had developed a Thunderbolt Chariot that could fly stones eighty steps away.

After leading his troops back to the camp, Gao Lan no longer placed too much hope on crossing the river. Even if there was a wise and brave general like Cao Ren guarding the other side of the river, his chances of crossing the river and conquering Henan were extremely small, almost zero.

However, Gao Lan did not give up completely. He decided to wait for the arrival of Qubei, the Right Wise King of Southern Xiongnu. According to the letter handed over by Gao Gan, Qubei would bring 3,000 Hu cavalry for combat.

Because of this, Gao Lan planned to take advantage of the erratic fighting style of the Xiongnu cavalry. Although it was not suitable for his large group of troops to cross the river, it would be difficult for them to cross the river under Cao Ren's nose.

However, he intended to send a small group of Hu cavalry to cross the river and harass Henan, causing some trouble for Cao Ren, to see if he could make Cao Ren make mistakes in a hurry and reveal one or two flaws.

Within a few days, Qu Bei, the Right Wise King of the Southern Xiongnu, led three thousand Xiongnu cavalry to Gao Lan.

"General, why did you set up camp on the north bank instead of crossing the river?" Qu Bei asked Gao Lan directly. He didn't understand why Gao Lan, who had arrived here earlier than him, had not crossed the river yet and stayed on the north bank of the river.

Gao Lan did not take it as an offense. He knew that Qu Bei's question was not meant to mock him, but simply because he did not understand him. He waved his hand and said, "The enemy general Cao Ren is defending very strictly. I have been here for several days and have not had the opportunity to cross the river."

"So that's how it is." Qu Bei nodded, the confusion on his face disappeared, and then he asked, "My subordinates are all cavalrymen, not good at boats. If we talk about crossing the river, even the general will be helpless, and I am afraid I will just sigh at the river."

"Of course we can't cross the river with a large group of troops." Gao Lan brought out his plan: "But we can cross the river with a small group of troops when there is an opportunity, and Cao's army will be helpless. I intend to appoint the troops of the Right Wise King to split into small groups to cross the river and harass Henan. If we can make Cao Ren unable to advance or retreat, then our large group of troops can take the opportunity to cross the river and Henan can be conquered."

"I wonder what the Right Wise King thinks?"

Gao Lan did not forcefully ask Qubei, the Right Wise King of the Southern Xiongnu, to obey his orders, but spoke kindly and in a negotiating tone to prevent Qubei from being unhappy and missing the opportunity to fight, thus ruining the battle he had planned. "Even if the general has an order, I will obey it." Qubei had no objection. He, a Southern Xiongnu, had received great favors from the Yuan family and was able to live in Taiyuan County, avoiding the harsh weather on the grasslands. He also received a lot of rewards every year. He should repay such great kindness.

Of course, although the Yuan family’s kindness was great, Qu Bei valued more the strength of the Yuan family as the number one prince in the world. Yuan Shao was entrenched in Hebei and was powerful in Heshuo. If he did not obey Yuan Shao’s orders, he was afraid that the tribe would be in danger of being overthrown.

Seeing that Qubei was very understanding, Gao Lan said with a cheerful face, "Even if the Right Wise King agrees with my plan, then I would like to ask the Right Wise King to allocate more than a thousand cavalrymen and divide them into ten groups to attack Henan and harass Cao Ren's rear."

As a result, team after team of Hu cavalry took advantage of the opportunity to cross the Yellow River and landed on the land on the south bank of the Yellow River, that is, Henan. Relying on the speed of their horses, they traveled back and forth in Henan and caused harm.

Among them, a few Hu cavalry were careless and were killed by Cao's cavalry, and their heads were handed to Cao Ren.

"It's the Huns." When Cao Ren saw the enemy's heads without hair, he gave his judgment. It was known to the world that there were Southern Huns in Bingzhou. He also knew it. In addition, Yuan Shao was benevolent in his administration and won the hearts of the barbarians. Therefore, it was not surprising that Gao Lan's troops had the support of the Southern Huns.

At the same time, Cao Ren learned from the cavalry that the Xiongnu cavalry was divided into more than ten groups, with about a hundred cavalry in each group. Relying on their good riding skills and large numbers of horses, they wreaked havoc in his rear, killing anyone they saw and burning any house they saw. Now the people of Henan were in a panic.

In addition, Cao Ren received a document from Zhong Yao, which stated that Zhong Yao had also learned that the Hu cavalry had destroyed the local area. In order to protect the country and the people, he had ordered the Henan gentry to temporarily take shelter from the Hu cavalry in forts or county towns, and requested Cao Ren to quickly wipe out the Hu cavalry and restore peace to the Henan gentry.

Cao Ren considered for a while and made a plan: "Zihe, I have more than 800 cavalrymen under my command. I will assign them all to you. You will take care of the Xiongnu cavalrymen who sneaked in. As for guarding Hejin, I will take care of it."

"Yes." Cao Chun accepted the order.

As a general who commanded the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry in history, Cao Chun's ability to command cavalry in combat was outstanding and excellent.

Therefore, under the command of Cao Chun, the Xiongnu cavalry who sneaked into Henan suffered a heavy blow. They were defeated in every battle and suffered heavy casualties. The severed heads were piled up like a small hill.

But in just three to five days, only three to five hundred Huns were left out of the thousand or so. They did not dare to stay in Henan, for fear of being killed by Cao Chun. So they hurried back to Yuan's camp on the north bank of the Yellow River, ignoring their mission of harassing Cao Ren's rear, just to get out of Cao Chun's hunting range.

"There is such a general who is good at riding cavalry in Cao's army?" Qu Bei learned about Cao Chun's existence from the surviving Hu cavalry. He exclaimed in surprise. He thought that the riding skills of the Xiongnu Hu cavalry under his command were unmatched, but he did not expect that Cao Chun, who was born in the Cao family, was so powerful.

Gao Lan's face was gloomy. His plan of crossing the river to make a feint to the east and attack the west had failed, and his plan of harassing Henan had also failed. As for crossing the river, he was at a loss as to what to do, and the battle situation along the way was deadlocked. (End of this chapter)