Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 331 Confrontation in Lu City
The sharp north wind blew the mountains and forests, and the trees whirled.

On the hills in the distance, Liu Bei led an army of 1, plus more than [-] people who had retreated from the front line, about [-] people confronted Cao Jun.

Cao Cao's army strength is around [-].

Qishan Road is a relatively spacious road, with a large number of valleys, flat land, and hills along the way, which is almost the area around Qinling Town, Qinzhou District, Tianshui City, Gansu Province in later generations.

Along both sides of the road, densely packed camps were built, various fortifications were erected continuously, and an unknown number of trees were felled.

After noon, near the end of noon, Liu Bei waved a flag on the top of Qishan Mountain in the distance and gave the order to attack.

A group of people and horses slowly came down from a small hill in the southeast of Lucheng. The banner above had the word "Kou" written on it. The leader was in his thirties. Kou Feng.

When Liu Bei was stationed in Changsha County in his early years, he had the idea of ​​accepting Kou as his son, but Mrs. Gan just happened to be pregnant with A Dou, so she gave up this idea.

But although he didn't accept him as his son, Liu Bei loved him very much because of Kou Feng's bravery and skill in fighting. He treated him like a son, and often called him a fake son.

At this moment, Kou Feng took the order and brought a team of troops to Zhang He's formation to yell and provoke.

Although Cao's army was much larger than Liu Bei's army, with a total strength of 17 to 12, and more than 6 to [-] on the Lucheng battlefield, it was inconvenient to take the initiative to attack because he had just arrived in Lucheng and had not yet formed a formation.

It's just that Kou Feng was calling in front of the camp. If he didn't go out to fight and beat him back, the soldiers' morale might not be stable. They felt that Cao Cao was afraid of Liu Bei and dared not go out to fight.

So Zhang He immediately said: "King Wei, the last general is willing to fight!"

"Humph."

Cao Cao said coldly: "Selling shoes will only make the fake son reject his father. If Junyi goes to war, wouldn't Liu Bei laugh at me for bullying children with generals? Where is Huang Xuer?"

"Father."

Cao Zhang, who was also about 30 years old, stood up, cupped his hands and said, "I am willing to kill that fake Liu Bei and send his head to my father."

"Well, it's really my good boy."

Cao Cao stroked his beard with a big laugh and said: "You can just break it, and test Liu Bei's details. Remember, if the Kou Feng is defeated and flees, you must not pursue it deeply, lest you be lured into the enemy by him."

No matter how stupid Cao Zhang was, he knew what would happen if he chased him into an army of tens of thousands with a bidder, so he quickly said, "Wei, don't worry, father."

At that moment, he was holding a long gun, and went down the mountain in a majestic manner.

Soon Cao Zhang also led a group of troops to rush out from Cao Junying in the northeast, and came to kill Kou Feng who was shouting and cursing in the open space right in front of Lucheng.

The distance between the two sides was only two or three miles, and in just ten minutes, Cao Zhang led his troops to the front.

"Thief, take your life!"

Huang Xu'er let out a roar, and galloped towards Kou Feng to kill him.

"How brave!"

Kou Feng yelled, and also raised his gun and stabbed straight.

Both sides are riding horses, so they are much faster than the infantry behind them, and they have already fought together before the men and horses on both sides hedged.

Both Cao Cao and Liu Bei watched the battle from the top of the mountain, and they saw the two sides coming and going, fighting for more than ten rounds in an instant.

Cao Zhang seems to have the upper hand, but Kou Feng is not weak, he finds opportunities to fight back from time to time, and keeps fighting back and forth.

Immediately afterwards, people rushed over from behind, and there were three or four thousand people on both sides. Standing on the top of the mountain, it felt like two groups of small black spots crowded together, disorganized.

"King Wei."

"Ok?"

Hearing Zhang Yun's call beside him, Cao Cao answered.

Zhang He said rather perplexed: "The Liu Bei army at the bottom of the mountain doesn't seem to be any elite."

"Ha ha."

Cao Cao smiled and said, "The elite of Liu Bei's army are all in the hands of Guan Yu and Shen Chen, and the troops mobilized here are just the county soldiers from Jingzhou. The southern soldiers are weak and weak, not as good as the northern soldiers, and they are not elite. How can they be a match for few people? "

"I see."

Only then did Zhang He understand the reason.

Cao Cao said proudly: "This battle will not only require him to lose Jingzhou, but also Hanzhong. When the widow takes Hanzhong and Nanyang, it will be the day of Liu Bei's downfall. At that time, Sun Quan and his ilk will be nothing to worry about? This world , will eventually belong to the widow!"

"Wei Wang Shengming!"

The surrounding entourage, generals and counselors surrendered one after another.

Cao Cao laughed triumphantly.

In the distance, the victory has already been divided.

It wasn't that Kou Feng couldn't defeat Cao Zhang, but that the soldiers fell into a disadvantage.

The real main force of Liu Bei's army is divided into two parts, one is the elite infantry he recruited in Nanyang and Changsha and Wu Yi's Dongzhou soldiers.

These people were combined into one, and after screening, the remaining [-] elite soldiers were currently under the control of Guan Yu, and they were now facing off at Baoxie Road with the [-] elite soldiers Cao Cao brought from the Kanto.

The other part is the 20 troops selected by Shen Chen from the 5 Jingzhou Army left behind during the Liu Biao period, plus Zhang Xiu's Xiliang Army and Shen Tao's Huangmen Army, a total of 6 people are currently stationed in Nanyang, controlled by Shen Chen, fought with Cao Hong.

Others include Huang Zhong's [-] Changsha warriors inherited from Liu Pan, Zhang Fei's [-] Xiliang cavalry, Shamoke's [-] Wuxi barbarians, and Huang She's Jiangxia navy.

But the [-] soldiers and cavalry were relatively small, and Shamoke followed Shen Chen in Nanyang, while the Jiangxia navy was a first-line elite navy, and on land, its combat effectiveness was no different from that of second-line county soldiers.

So now more than [-]% of the [-] troops brought by Liu Bei are not first-line elites, but second-line county soldiers and Qiang Di people recruited by Ma Chao.

The only ones who can really fight are the cavalry from Zhang Fei's and Ma Chao's divisions, and Li Hei's more than [-] troops who have been trained for many years.

Although Cao Cao also had some miscellaneous soldiers, his main force brought 10 soldiers.

Therefore, even if the remaining 7 people are not strong soldiers, the [-] soldiers following Cao Jun are enough to win the battle and crush Liu Bei's troops.

At this moment, Cao Cao was watching the battle down the mountain, and he was gradually gaining the upper hand. His face was full of pride, and he was still cursing, saying things like big-eared thief and selling shoes.

His temper became more and more eccentric in his later years.

In history, he scolded Liu Bei every day after the Battle of Hanzhong, and also purged many of Liu Xie's officials.

For example, after the Jiping Rebellion, when the Han officials were asked if they had put out the fire, those who put out the fire stood on the left, and those who did not go to the right.

It can be seen that at that time, he felt that his time was running out, and he became more and more brutal.

Here he was standing on the top of the mountain cursing.

But Liu Bei over there saw that the situation was not good, and immediately called for gold to withdraw his troops.

Kou Feng then took the opportunity to swing off Cao Zhang's offensive, reined in his horse and left.

After Liu Bei's soldiers got the order, they also threw away their helmets and armor one after another, and fled to the rear.

Cao Zhang was so red-eyed, he forgot Cao Cao's instructions for a while after the victory, and chased for a few hundred meters before he remembered, and hurriedly reined in.

At this time, Cao Cao also ordered to withdraw his troops.

But unexpectedly, the east gate of Lucheng opened, and the city guard Wu Lan led the army to attack Cao Zhang's right wing.

Cao Jun was caught off guard, was caught off guard, and returned in a complete defeat.

Since Cao Jun's large troops were still building camps in the rear, only Zhang Yun's, Xiahouyuan's and Cao Zhen's troops were in the front position. The defense was more than sufficient, and it was not rational to take the initiative to attack.

When Xia Houyuan roared and led the soldiers to rush over, there was also the sound of gold ringing in Lucheng, and Wu Lan withdrew back to Lucheng, where he was on the battlefield where Cao Zhang and Koufeng fought before, leaving more than a thousand corpses of the enemy and us.

"Humph."

Seeing this scene, Cao Cao snorted coldly and said, "Go back to the camp."

"Back to camp!"

Xu Chu shouted and said.

Then Wei Wangluan drove down the hillside and went to camp.

It was getting late at this time, and both sides retreated their troops back, and it was a tie, neither of them took advantage.

After Liu Bei's army withdrew, he returned to Lucheng, Huilucheng, and Yingzhai Huiyingzhai.

Cao Jun also retreated to the rear one after another, and the soldiers continued to guard in front, while Cao Jun's main camp, four or five miles away from Lucheng, was building a camp in full swing.

A moment later, Liu Beijun dispatched hundreds of scout cavalry to bring back the bodies of the soldiers who died in battle.

The same is true for Cao Jun's side, with hundreds of scout cavalry coming out.

In the past, unless everyone fought a battle, unless they were victorious, or if they had to withdraw their troops even if they won, the corpses on both sides were often left uncollected, and the corpses were exposed in the wilderness like this.

Especially for that kind of large-scale battle, when tens of thousands of people were killed or injured in the First World War, the result was that there were carrion corpses everywhere, causing the plague to run rampant.

For example, in the second year after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, "in the spring of the second year of Zhongping, there was a great epidemic."

After Dong Zhuo's rebellion, "in the summer of the fourth year of Chuping, there was a great epidemic."

Then there was the war between the princes of the Central Plains, the people were in dire straits, and the corpses of dead and wounded soldiers from all over the place were not collected, which led to continuous plagues.

This point is written in the preface of Zhang Zhongjing's "Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases", including Dong Zhuo's migration to Guanzhong, which caused a great plague in Guanzhong.Cao Cao massacred Xuzhou, causing great plagues in Xuzhou and Huainan and so on.

So from the great plague in the world the year before last, Shen Chen told Zhang Zhongjing that the source of the plague was that the corpses were left unattended after death, and gradually decayed to the point of giving off plague gas.

So the doctors who came from the south to the north at that time publicized every day, telling the people and gentry in the north that they must remember to restrain the corpses to prevent the epidemic.

That is to say, from that time on, both the enemy and the enemy have the habit of restraining corpses.

Liu Beijun and Cao Jun's soldiers responsible for collecting the corpses did not fight after they met. Basically, they were holding face shields, bows and crossbows hanging on their backs, and they kept a vigilant posture and began to collect the corpses.

Because of the first-come-first-served relationship, Liu Beijun arrived first, so he carefully gathered up the corpses, and Cao Jun watched from a mile away.

They came to collect the corpses of their comrades, fought again and continued to drop the corpses, and then continued to collect the corpses, and continued to rise. It is meaningless to repeat this cycle.

Therefore, when the scouts collect the corpses, they often stagger the time to avoid continued fighting, which can be regarded as a new unwritten rule in the past two years.

After Liu Beijun collected the corpses away, Cao Jun came up to take away the corpses of their comrades.

The two sides seem to have formed a relatively tacit unspoken rule.

soon.

Even the scattered weapons and soldiers were taken away on the battlefield, leaving only bright red bloodstains on the spot, telling others that there was a small-scale war here.

The sky is getting darker and darker, the sun is slowly setting, and the sky and the earth are getting darker.

The north wind howled, blowing the hills and trees whirling.

Cao Jun's camp has only just been built, and the fortifications have not yet been excavated. It will take at least half a month to complete all the fortifications.

Therefore, Cao Jun was still quite vigilant at this time, and temporarily built a large number of fortifications on the periphery closer to the battlefield, and many Cao Jun were also patrolling the camp back and forth to prevent night attacks.

On Liu Bei's side, a military meeting was held to discuss.

About eight miles away from the front line of Lucheng, in the tent of the head of Liu Bei's army, Liu Bei sat at the head of the camp, and below were Fazheng, Jia Xu, Deng Zhi, Yang Yi, Ma Liang, Zheng Du, Jiang Wan and others.

In the candlelight of the camp, Liu Bei was wearing black and red royal clothes and a crown on his head. He looked around and said, "I want to attack Cao Jun at night, what do you think?"

He's starting to call himself a widow now.

Cao Cao first called himself Gu, because only those above county marquis could be called Gu, so after Cao Cao greeted Emperor Xiandi Liu Xie and was granted the title of Marquis of Wuping, he began to call himself so.

After that, Sun Quan, because Cao Cao wanted to win him over, let him inherit the title of his elder brother Marquis Wu, and he also began to call himself lonely.

Liu Bei is a bit miserable, he has always been a marquis of Yidu Tinghou, and he cannot be called a widow, so he calls himself me.

But now he has been crowned King of Hanzhong, and has come to the front of Sun Quan, and is tied with Cao Cao, which is equivalent to skipping the stage of claiming to be an orphan, and starting to call himself a widow.

"Your Majesty."

Fazheng got up and cupped his hands and said, "Cao's army is still building camps and fortifications. Before the fortifications are finished, it must be the most vigilant time. I'm afraid they can't send troops."

"Ugh."

Liu Bei sighed: "It's not that I don't know about soldiers, so I naturally know. But I'm afraid that the more we delay, the worse it will be for our army."

"It is very difficult to transport grain and grass from Hanzhong, but the grain and grass in Hanzhong have to be transported from Chengdu and Jiangzhou. The road is full of high mountains and high mountains for more than a thousand miles. It will take a month or two, and it will be even more lengthy to transport it from Hanzhong. Once the summer and autumn rainy season hits, there will be no grain of rice for several months."

"Although we have hoarded a large amount of grain and grass in Hanzhong, it is not easy to store grain and grass. At most, there will be no grain for a year, so the grain and grass cannot be cut off. On the other hand, Cao Cao is now farming in Guanzhong, and the grain and grass can be replenished on the spot, which is far from the trouble we have. "

"If the confrontation lasts for a year, I'm afraid the widow will retreat and return to Wudu."

At the end, Liu Bei shook his head.

Of course, this kind of large-scale battle cannot be completed in a day or two.

Especially this kind of mountain terrain, it can be said that one man is in charge of the other.

Qishan Road is relatively open near Tianshui, so it can accommodate more than [-] troops.

But the road close to Wudu Xiabian in the second half is extremely narrow.

Among them, there are several branch trails such as Tietang Gorge Road, Mumen Road, Yangxi Road, Hanxia Road, Longmen Path, and Luogu Path.

The road is rough and difficult to walk, easy to defend but difficult to attack, it is not an exaggeration to call it the path of sheep intestines and birds.

Therefore, Liu Bei only needs to guard the entrance of Qishan Road, Rongqiu Mountain and Qishan Mountain, to prevent Cao Jun from advancing an inch.

This battle is likely to last for a long time.

However, there are so many trails in the rear, which seems easy to defend, but it also increases the difficulty of transporting food.

It is not uncommon for grain transport soldiers to go up and down the mountain and up again every day, traveling ten miles a day.

The food and grass consumption on the front line is so high, and when the food reserves are used up, I am afraid that the food and grass in the rear will not arrive in time, so Liu Bei has to give up the dangerous road of Qishan Road.

Fazheng smiled and said: "Don't worry, my lord, there is a plan, but Cao Jun can't hold it for long."

"Oh?"

Liu Bei hurriedly said: "Xiao Zhi, tell me quickly."

Fazheng looked to the southeast with deep eyes, and said softly, "Don't you forget Sun Quan and General Zuo, Your Majesty?"

(End of this chapter)