Goose Three Kingdoms

Chapter 69: The So-called Military Knowledge

The next morning, we were on the hillside near Luyang.

The black bear once again crouched between the trees and observed Lu Yang.

The golden sunlight happened to fall on the wooded area where he was, making it difficult for him to see clearly for a moment.

As the sun gradually rose, teams of soldiers wearing only armor set out from the city.

There were about seven or eight teams of a hundred men, connected in front and behind and marching in a winding manner.

Instead of heading towards Ye County, we headed towards Kunyang.

Kunyang is the Kunyang where the Battle of Kunyang took place, where Emperor Guangwu fought a decisive battle with Wang Mang's new army.

There are many cities between Ye County and Kunyang, and even towns have cities.

But most of them have become ruins and empty cities. Even a famous city like Kunyang now has only a hundred households and about three or four hundred garrisons.

Following this battalion of troops, two more battalions of troops came towards the Luyang Mountain entrance one after another.

More than thirty scouts and light cavalry were divided into several teams and headed straight for several mountain valleys and paths between the mountains of Luyang.

Counting the small columns of hundreds of men marching, Black Bear retreated only after the gates of Xiangcheng were closed.

After riding for more than thirty miles, they turned into a valley with a spring to rest.

When the black bear arrived, he saw dozens of people slaughtering five cows and skinning them.

The map was spread out on the ground again, and Black Bear said to Gan Ning, Zhao Yun and others who had gathered around him, "Three battalions of soldiers and horses were dispatched from Luyang this morning. One battalion went to Kunyang, and the other two battalions came along Jackdaw Road. I don't know if they are Xiahou Dun's troops or the troops recruited by the road."

Zhao Yun said, "I have been ordered to act as a decoy to intercept and kill Cao's scouts to distract their attention. I hope the captain's troops will stay thirty miles away from me so that we can provide support. If a large group of Cao's troops come to pursue us, I hope the captain will act as a decoy to hinder the pursuit."

"That's as I should. I will lead more than 20 riders to assist you in robbing and killing the scouts."

Black Bear also wanted to get more horses. Scouts were the elite of the army, and capturing some of them would help quickly strengthen his cavalry strength.

Gan Ning stretched out his hand and grasped the grass leaf, kneading it, and tasted the dark green grass juice at his lips, savoring it carefully: "Captain, this matter needs to be done as soon as possible. The soldiers of Xiahou Dun and Lu Zhao are easy to deal with, but the troops of Lieutenant General Yu Jin and Li Dian who will arrive in three days are quite tenacious."

Black Bear understood what he meant. If they wanted to capture the elite scout, they had to act now.

If Zhen Jin and Li Dian arrive, any one of these two people is very likely to unilaterally break through the Jackdaw Road.

Yu Jin's subordinates were the Taishan soldiers and the Dongping soldiers, who were Yu Jin's fellow villagers. They had followed Cao Cao since he started his business. Yu Jin's partners and colleagues at that time generally became middle-level managers.

The army under Yu Jin had a strong cohesive force. They never suffered any serious losses while following Cao's army in its campaigns, but instead captured rich trophies.

Even under the system of forced labor, this group of people were the ones who benefited.

After being arrested, it is very difficult for them to give up their property and surrender to you and serve you.

This was the case with Yu Jin's troops, and even more so with Li Dian's troops.

Under Cao Cao's command, Li Dian was always a relatively special person.

He was notoriously unwilling to compete for military merit, had no desire to fight, and looked down upon the improvement in status that merit brought.

For Li Dian, how much is the salary from the court?

His family monopolized the Juye Lake and was able to support more than 3,000 troops without receiving any salaries or military pay from the imperial court.

Therefore, Li Dian's followers and clansmen were even more difficult to convert after being captured, and they would always think about escaping back.

With Li Dian's protection, no one can be held responsible for the defeat and capture... As long as he escapes back, he will be a member of the Li family's army and will never have to worry about food and drink.

Gan Ning's reminder was very useful, and Black Bear said: "According to Xingba's plan, we should rest and recuperate according to the plan, focusing on resting the officers and soldiers and horses."

He made his decision and the little meeting was dissolved.

There was no way. The accompanying horses had become noticeably thinner when they followed the infantry from Xi County to Wancheng and then to Duyang.

Although they tried to save horsepower as much as possible during each march, the horses became weaker and weaker.

A well-fed person can easily travel over a hundred miles a day; as long as the diet is adequate, he can travel for many days or even half a month.

But horses really can't do that, their digestive ability is too poor.

With less than 200 horses, they ate much more beans and wheat every day than 800 people.

To put it bluntly, in the eyes of Gan Ning or other military officers, the combined value of this batch of war horses was more than that of five hundred people.

These horses don't need to play a big role. As long as they have a chance to charge before the battle... they can often make their money back.

After making detailed arrangements, Black Bear immediately selected twenty-three knights to follow Zhao Yun northward, looking for an opportunity to capture Cao's scouts.

At the entrance of Lushan Road, on the Wanluo Road.

The infantry battalion led by Xiahou Lan marched in the cool early morning weather. All the soldiers were wearing armor. When they had marched a total of fifteen or sixteen miles and were preparing to rest, Xiahou Lan saw a pile of horse manure on the road.

Stop the marching team.

When I drove my horse closer, I saw that most of the horse manure had been trampled and broken into pieces.

He got off his horse and approached a piece of horse manure that was still intact. Seeing that the surface was dry and hard, he turned his head to look at the guard beside him and said, "Break it open."

The personal soldier stepped forward to pick up the horse manure and broke it open in front of Xiahou Lan. He saw that the inside of the horse manure shell was fresh and moist, and there were obviously undigested wheat residues and broken bean feed.

A dozen military officers came up and saw it, and immediately recognized that this was fine feed that only military horses could eat, and it was definitely not something that civilian horses could eat.

Xiahou Lan observed the horse manure that was crushed and stuck to the ground. He squatted on the ground and frowned and asked his subordinates: "It is normal to have knights scouting. But there are also a large number of infantry following. Why is that?"

His battalion commander stepped forward to observe the broken horse manure on the ground. It had been dried by the morning sun, but the manure was bright in shape and strong in smell, and was definitely not manure from a few days ago.

The military commander looked around again and asked, "Does the battalion commander mean Liu Xuande will send troops from Ye County to Lushan?"

Xiahou Lan stood up without saying a word, and turned his head to look at the peaks of Lushan Mountain on the right. After taking a look, he said, "Let's continue. Let's rest after another five miles."

The guards brought the horses, and he mounted them. He said to the military judge who followed him, "Send a messenger to report to General Xiahou, and select ten more riders to advance slowly to investigate the enemy situation. If you encounter our scouts, tell them that Liu Xuande has sent nearly a thousand infantry and cavalry along the road into Lushan. I'm afraid they are setting an ambush."

The military judge immediately turned his horse and left. The camp commander stepped forward and asked, "Captain, what should we do now?"

"I suspect Liu Xuande deliberately set up a false formation. Before General Xiahou issued the order, our army rushed to Lushan as planned and set up camp in a selected location to control the mountain road."

Xiahou Lan was not prepared to take any targeted actions. His task was to select a place to set up camp inside Lushankou, clear out and expel enemy scouts layer by layer, and ensure the stability of Luyang's flank.

He has a battalion of soldiers behind him, how could he not be able to deal with an enemy force of three to five hundred people?

As for reporting a thousand men to Xiahou Dun, it would be beneficial to report more enemies.

If you win, you will gain great military merit; if you lose, you will have less responsibility.

Besides, he had no intention of taking any risks. The fact that he was assigned to Xiahou Dun was already a blessing from his ancestors.

After all, he was not from the Xiahou clan of Qiao County, so he had no capital to fight recklessly. Ensuring the stability of Luyang's flank was the most important thing.

What can a separate force of only a few hundred people do once they block the exit of the Wanluo Road?
Next to a pine tree on a nearby mountain, Black Bear stood sideways behind the tree, observing with squinting eyes what was happening in front of Xiahou Lan's troops' marching column on the mountain road.

At the moment, I only regret that I don’t have enough savings. If I could produce more than a thousand blood peaches every day, I would be able to dominate the Central Plains.

Even if they could not break into the city, Cao's army would not be able to catch up easily just based on their mobility.

Even if there are a dozen Taoist soldiers at the level of Iron Cavalry, they can directly attack the marching team from the flank.

Even if we cannot kill their general, we can at least disrupt their formation and make them unable to move!

Unfortunately, the savings are too little.

If we really wait until the accumulation is sufficient and the Cao army becomes the Wei army, it will be really difficult to deal with.

After watching the team moving further and further away and resting for another five or six miles, Black Bear saw a group of scouts appear on the opposite ridge.

Zhao Yun and his group of more than twenty riders were riding their horses up the mountain road, and a battle could break out between the two sides at any time.

So I observed patiently.

Not far from the foot of the mountain, Xiahou Lan's troops rested on the spot. Many soldiers took off their armor and jumped into the tributaries of the Lishui River to play.

The sun was hot, and more and more soldiers joined in. They also began to collect stones and build crude dams in the river to accumulate river water.

Xiahou Lan was also washing her face by the river water which was gradually accumulating and rising.

But the knights he had sent out had not yet returned, so he called the military judge and asked, "Where is a good place to camp nearby?"

The military judge looked around and pointed to the southern hillside where the black bear was and said, "The terrain here is flat and originally a mountain field. There are plenty of trees nearby and there is water near the foot of the mountain. It is a perfect place to set up camp."

Xiahou Lan put his hands on his hips and looked up at the gentle slope. He could not help but nod: "The terrain is not high, so we can avoid mountain torrents. The gentle slope is also conducive to drainage. This is it. Let's set up camp here."

The military judge agreed immediately, since it was just a temporary garrison anyway.

It is impossible to let them be in charge of such an important place as Jackdaw Road.

This means that after Jin and Li Dian join forces, one of them will be responsible for breaking through the Jackdaw Road.

Xiahou Lan observed for a while and felt that the southern mountain was too quiet, so he turned his head and said to the military law officer: "It is convenient to cut wood in the forest, and it is also convenient for the enemy army to set up an ambush. We should wait for the rear team to arrive, take turns to guard, and divide the team to cut wood."

"Yes."

The military law officers were also happy to rest for a while. There was not much work to do during logging and camping. When the rear team arrived, they could work together and everyone would feel relaxed.

At this time, Cao's scouts on the northern mountain blew the horn, and the humming sound echoed in the mountain road and could be heard from far away.

On the ridge, Zhao Yun led more than 20 riders in pursuit, and the enemy turned around and fled.

But Zhao Yun's horse was fast, and he used his lance to deflect a dangerous arrow. He rushed to the front and knocked a scout off his horse with one spear.

Regardless of life or death, he continued to chase.

He also realized that Black Bear lacked prisoners such as scouts, while he, Zhao Yun, lacked horses!

If we capture a few more scouts, we should be able to exchange them for some Donghu horses.

But after the Cao army scout blew the horn, the nearby scouts all moved towards here.

Zhao Yun didn't want his personal guards to be killed here, so he captured four prisoners and three horses and ran down the mountain into the depths of Jackdaw Road.

The scout team behind joined the knights under Xiahou Lan, and more than seventy knights followed in a line.

Dust rose into the sky and the sound of horse hooves spread along the mountain road.

The black bear observed for a while, then rode his horse westward along the ridge to chase.

In the mountain road, more than seventy Cao's knights chased for five or six miles, and then saw more than twenty of Zhao Yun's riders reined in their horses and stopped.

For a moment, these Cao army knights did not dare to rush forward to fight.

They looked around and saw enemy soldiers standing up in groups of three or five from the bushes on both sides of the mountain path, drawing their bows.

"retreat!"

The scout captain was feeling even more angry and felt that things were not going well. He shouted loudly and turned his horse around to leave.

Then a cavalryman in a white robe and golden armor came slowly towards them, holding a heavy and long double-edged halberd, and behind him there appeared more than twenty cavalrymen, blocking the road.

Before Lu Bu in the east could make a move, the scout captain took out his bow and put an arrow on it, and said to his men, "Blow the horn to warn them!"

Immediately, the scout beside him jumped off his horse, took out the hanging horn from his waist bag, took a deep breath, and blew it towards the east.

When the horn was blown, the scout captain and other scouts opened their bows and shot at Lu Bu.

The knights under Xiahou Lan were better at archery on foot, and they dismounted and took out powerful bows.

Lu Bu held the halberd in front of him and shook it rapidly. The blade of the halberd rotated at the same time, deflecting threatening arrows one by one.

Occasionally, arrows would hit his gilded iron armor and be bounced away.

The horse under him was already wearing a set of patent leather horse armor, so it didn't matter.

After just one round of shooting, Lu Bu rushed to the scout captain's face, but he was unable to execute overly complicated commands.

The heavy Fang Tian Ji chopped down, and a scout's horse's head was split in two!
Almost at the moment when the horse's head was split, Zhao Yun felt as if his heart was pinched by a pair of black hands, and he felt suffocated for a moment!
Then came the second horse, the third horse...

When Lü Bu split the fourth horse's head and broke the left front leg of a horse with his halberd, Zhao Yun could no longer hold back and shouted angrily: "Go!"

More than twenty riders behind Zhao Yun rode their horses and charged closely behind him. They would not hold back!

Opposite you are Cao's elite scouts. If you dare to hold back, you may lose your life!
Before Zhao Yun and his men could launch their attack, Gao Shun and four other leather-armored Taoist soldiers appeared belatedly in the scout queue.

Four iron halberds were used to cut off the horses' legs. In an instant, people and horses fell to the ground, and screams and horse neighs were intertwined.

On the top of the hill next to it, a black bear was perched on his horse, obviously watching the battle on the mountain road.

The elite scouts were proud of themselves and they all chased together to rescue their companions. They even dared to fight in formation after being ambushed, but their results were far from ideal.

When he saw Zhao Yun taking the initiative to charge, after seven or eight breaths, this round of charge knocked a layer of scouts off their horses... Black Bear felt his heart suddenly stop beating.

Some words are stuck in my throat and I really want to shout them out.

My soldiers... my cavalry!
There's no point in shouting it out.

In the blink of an eye, my mind became dull and interest-less.

(End of this chapter)