The Three Kingdoms: If you don't have money to buy an official position, you can only be the em

Chapter 37: The Plot Within the Plot, the Disappearance of Food and Grass

Liu Bei saw things very clearly and knew that the base camp in Taishang Mountain was Jiang Cheng's reliance.

It is also Jiang Cheng’s last resort.

But according to estimates, the troops there were already very weak after being withdrawn by Jiang Cheng, and the soldiers who could be dispatched to rob food would be the last troops.

In this situation, if the people who robbed the grain were defeated, the Taihang Mountain base would no longer have any protection.

All it takes is a few generals leading a small group of soldiers into the mountains to wipe them out.

By then, Jiang Cheng will be alone and will lose even his retreat route, so he will no longer be a concern.

"Then what do you think, how should we arrange it so that the enemy will definitely take the bait without alerting them?" Huangfu Song asked.

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei immediately said, "Let my second and third brothers each lead 5,000 cavalry to go and get the food and grass. But they will not join us, but follow ten miles behind us. If there is any movement, they will be ready to support us at any time!"

He wanted to take the credit.

Huangfu Song thought for a moment, nodded, and said, "It's feasible. However, in addition to the two generals Guan and Zhang, I will also send Huang Zhong and Zhang Liao to accompany you. The troops will be reduced to 2,000 each. You should go in a detour and don't alarm the enemy!"

After some deployment, a conspiracy against the grain-robbing army was quietly carried out.

However, what they didn't know was that in just half a day, Jiang Cheng received the news and informed Zhang Lu remotely.

Zhang Lu also formulated a response plan based on the enemy's deployment.

"Luring the snake out of its hole? Humph, then I'm going to show you how to change the food supply!"

Both sides had their own calculations, and they were at peace for the time being, and there was a brief calm on the battlefield.

On the other side, four fierce generals quickly led their men to connect with the grain transport team, and ambushed them in four directions, ten miles apart.

Three peerless generals, plus Zhang Liao.

With this kind of configuration, let alone the Yellow Turban Army today, even if Zhuge Liang wanted to rob food, he would have to think twice.

Zhang Jue even planned to give up.

Jiang Cheng also felt dangerous.

But Zhang Lu still made a plan and led his men to ambush in advance a hundred miles away from Huangfu Song's army.

"Because the army was short of food, they traveled almost day and night, starting before dawn and setting up camp late at night!"

On the day when the grain and fodder arrived, Zhang Lu chose a special time point, which was when the escort troops in front had passed and the team escorting the grain and fodder was resting late at night.

Directly lead the troops to attack.

He turned the light on the battery behind him to the maximum, illuminating the area for several miles and immediately alerting people from all directions.

"coming!"

"Took the bait!"

"Haha, your grandpa Zhang Fei is here!"

"on!"

With attacks from all directions, a distance of ten miles only took the time of an incense stick. In order to prevent the enemy from escaping, everyone surrounded them, making it impossible for the thieves who came to rob the food to escape.

But it was beyond everyone's expectations.

When the army surrounded the enemy, there was no trace of them. The lights were suddenly turned off, and even Zhang Lu himself disappeared, as if no one had come to rob the food from the beginning to the end.

"what's the situation?"

"What about people?"

"Where's the grain transport team? Where's the grain truck?"

Everyone found that in just one stick of incense, everything was gone. The enemy was gone, the military rations were gone, and even the people who transported the rations were gone!

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" After hearing the news, Cao Cao stared and waved his hands, saying, "Five hundred thousand dan of grain and fodder, if they were walking on the road, they would form a long queue ten miles long, and there would be more than three thousand drivers escorting them! Tell me, how could it disappear in just one stick of incense?"

The situation is really unbelievable.

The most important thing is that it is difficult to capture a group of soldiers transporting grain in such a short time, let alone transport the goods?
What a joke!

"Kill them, they can't get far!" Liu Bei also said.

Upon hearing this, Huangfu Song immediately gave orders and personally led his men to march a hundred miles overnight. At dawn, he finally led the army to the place where the military supplies were robbed.

The sky was already bright at this time, and the originally unclear traces could now be seen clearly.

But when they actually saw it, everyone was shocked, and even their scalps tingled: it turned out that the food and grass did not disappear, but were taken away along with the carriages and horses along the official road!

The reason why it was not discovered was that it took advantage of the special environment here.

Beside the road, there is a sloping river, five meters wide, with only one bridge on the official road.

The place where Zhang Liao is stationed in front is the bridge.

The food and fodder were ten miles behind him.

Zhang Fei was stationed in the west, in a forest where a large river passed diagonally. Together with three other generals, they guarded the food and fodder in all directions, and it could be said that their position was almost foolproof.

However, Zhang Lu, who was robbing grain, simply pulled the cart horses down and pulled them to the other side along the slanting river surface.

The river sloped toward the southwest, and Zhang Lu went toward the northwest.

Perfectly avoided Zhang Fei and Zhang Liao.

The generals in the encirclement subconsciously ignored the river!
"There is no bridge or boat on the river. How did they cross the river?" Zhang Liao was puzzled.

He was stationed on the only bridge and saw no one!
"It's not just the river. Something is wrong starting from the roadside!" Cao Cao observed, "There are deep footprints here, and the footprints are quite dense, all the way to the riverside. In addition, there are traces of supports. They may have transported the food and grass in a way that we can't imagine at all."

Soon, everyone brainstormed.

After eliminating all possibilities one by one, we are left with a rather outrageous guess: the people who robbed the grain led a huge number of laborers and built a temporary wooden road in a short period of time.

They also stood in the river, dragging a bridge to allow food and supplies to cross the river.

It only took a short time, that is, one stick of incense, to take away 500,000 dan of grain and all the people who were escorting them. The temporary bridge was also dismantled, leaving the returning army empty-handed.

"How can this be?"

Everyone couldn't believe it.

How many people would it take to transport 500,000 dan of grain within the time it takes to stick of incense?

Moreover, avoiding the sight so precisely meant that Zhang Liao and his men had always been exposed to the enemy. But if that was the case, why didn't they just attack directly?

"First of all, they have at least hundreds of thousands of people, most likely up to a million, and they can enforce orders!"

“Secondly, they know us inside out!”

"Finally, and most importantly, they were able to capture the soldiers escorting the food and fodder in one encounter with very few people, without wasting any time. Otherwise, even with a million troops, they would not have been able to succeed!"

Such analysis was even more unacceptable to Huangfu Song.

"Are you kidding? If the Yellow Turbans really had a million-strong army that obeyed orders, would they only use a few thousand people to fight us?" Huangfu Song shook his head and said, "Even if we charge directly, we will be defeated, right?"

Everyone was puzzled.

On the other side, Jiang Cheng was also amazed and asked Zhang Lu: "How did you get it?"

(End of this chapter)