I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 546: The army is approaching, Su Yao is sitting on the fishing platform

Zhao Yun successfully went on the mission and persuaded Wen Pin, stabilizing the situation in the rear and buying Su Yao precious time to prepare for war.

At the same time, in front of Yique Pass, Dong Zhuo's army led by Niu Fu and others had also arrived.

"Ha ha ha ha."

Ten miles north of the pass, Niu Fu stood in front of the battle array, laughing loudly:

"Wen You and Fan Chou praised this Su to the skies. He is rare in the world, but I think he is just like that."

"He didn't defend the strategic point outside Yique Pass at all, and the entire army retreated back to the city. How can he be brave and fearless?"

Niu Fu's laughter echoed in the wilderness, sounding particularly arrogant. Behind him, generals such as Li Jue, Guo Si, and Zhang Ji also looked relaxed, as if they were full of confidence in the coming victory.

Even before the war officially began, these people had already volunteered to fight, willing to be the vanguard and behead Su Yao.

However, at this moment when the whole army was excited and victory seemed certain, Jia Xu seemed to be hesitant to speak, and frowned as he looked at the surrounding terrain.

This was his first time to come to Yique.

But, just by looking at it from a distance, you can see that this place is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Yique is the southern gateway of Luoyang, and is the only way to go south from Luoyang and north from Jingxiang.

Here, two mountains, east and west, face each other, and the Yi River flows through them. From a distance, it looks like a natural gate, so it is named Yique.

Since the Spring and Autumn Period, Yique has been an important place in the struggle for the Central Plains. After Shang Yang's reforms, the Qin State encroached on the Central Plains, and it was here that Bai Qi defeated the coalition forces of Han and Wei.

Today, the capital of the Later Han Dynasty was Luoyang, and the Eight Gates of Luoyang were built to lock the capital.

Yique Pass is a majestic pass built on the west bank of the Yi River at the narrowest part of the river. It stands majestically and imposingly.

This is a city gate that cannot be conquered by a quick attack.

He wanted to give a reminder, but as the youngest and least experienced captain among the four generals under Niu Fu, Jia Xu could not refute him in public like Li Ru did.

Therefore, he just sighed when everyone was excited to fight.

Sure enough, when Niu Fu saw his unique performance, his laughter stopped abruptly and he frowned and said:

"Why does Wenhe act like this? Does he have a different opinion?"

When Jia Xu saw Niu Fu asking a question, he stepped forward and said:

"General Niu, as the saying goes, there is no false reputation under a great name."

"Su Yao has always been able to defeat the larger force with a smaller one, and has repeatedly achieved remarkable feats. He is definitely not an ordinary person."

"Now I see that the road in front of the pass is narrow, easy to defend but difficult to attack. He took the initiative to retreat inside the pass, perhaps to lure the enemy deeper into the pass."

Niu Fu frowned slightly when he heard this, but then he burst into laughter:
"Wenhe is worrying too much!"

"I think Su Yao is just a brave man, how can he be smart? If he really has such a mind, how can he easily give up the pass and let our army set up its battle array?"

Niu Fu was no fool. He had followed Dong Zhuo in his campaigns and had extensive combat experience.

Therefore, Niu Fu knew very well that since ancient times, whether defending a city or a pass, the most taboo thing was for everyone to retreat.

To truly defend a city, if there is spare capacity, one must set up camp outside the city, form a support structure with the city, and maintain mobility and initiative.

At worst, they would set up layers of defense, lean against the city walls to fight for the space in front of the city gate, and not give the attackers the opportunity to act at will.

The most classic of these was the siege during the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

Those peasants had no military training at all, and despite having a large number of troops under their command, they all hid behind the city walls.

As a result, they approached the city and besieged it, piled up earth into a hill, and attacked the Yellow Turban bandits from their high ground, and the bandits couldn't even fight back.

Afterwards, the Yellow Turban bandits, unable to bear the casualties, finally thought of seizing space outside the city and going out to fight. However, the morale and personnel of the Yellow Turban bandits had been severely hit, so they naturally fell into the trap and were caught in one fell swoop.

Today, when Niu Fu saw Su Yao retreating to the pass without knowing the consequences, he immediately knew that the battle was half won.

"What the general said does make sense."

Jia Xu shook his head and said:
"But even if Su Yao is incompetent, Lord Lu is both civil and military. With him in charge, the bandits will definitely not make such a low-level mistake."

"Although Wenhe's words make some sense, in my opinion, Su Yao's move was a helpless one."

The person who answered the question was Li Jue, who explained:
"The enemy's forces are limited. If we divide them and station them outside the pass, they will be defeated one by one by our army. Delaying for that long will be useless. It is better to retreat inside the pass and concentrate our forces. This is the wisest move."

"However, our army has many times more troops than his. Even if they concentrate their forces to defend, how long can they hold out?"

Guo Si interrupted, his tone full of disdain:
"In my opinion, it is better to attack the city directly and end the battle quickly!"

"That's right!" Zhang Ji immediately agreed.

Seeing that Jia Xu still seemed worried, Niu Fu waved his hand:

"Wenhe, no need to say more."

"Not only is our army several times larger than the enemy's in this battle, we also have the Nanyang army behind us to support us, and we have Lu Bu as our internal support. Why should we worry about not winning?"

"Now that the war is imminent, don't disturb the morale of the army!"

As soon as Niu Fu finished speaking, everyone responded immediately.

This man is Mr. Dong’s son-in-law and the de facto second-in-command of the Liangzhou Army.

However, after everyone responded, what was even more surprising was:
"We have an insider?"

Niu Fu laughed loudly, and he obviously enjoyed everyone's unexpected surprise:
"That's right, this is the plan of Mr. Dong and Wen You!"

"Lü Bu, we have already persuaded the Du Liao army's Sima to rebel. When the siege reaches its climax, he will take advantage of the chaos to open the gates."

"This Yique Pass has long been in my possession."

"I see!"

Upon hearing this, all the generals showed joy on their faces, and even Jia Xu was shocked by the news.

The Sima of an army was the highest military rank that could be given to the Marquis of Guanjun, who had just risen to the rank of a 2,000-stone vassal.

He is definitely a core general, how could he be turned against his master?
For a moment, Jia Xu didn't know whether he should sigh that Dong Gong and Li Ru were one step ahead, or worry whether this was a conspiracy by Su Yao, Lu Zhi and others.

But no matter what, as Niu Fu said, in the face of a great war, the morale of the army cannot be disturbed. In the absence of solid evidence, Jia Xu can only hope for a good result while secretly preparing for contingencies.

In this way, Dong Zhuo's army set up camp outside the pass and made intensive preparations for an all-out attack on the city.

But over there in Yique Guanzhong, the scene was completely different.

"It seems that the fish has taken the bait."

Su Yao stood on the city wall, staring coldly at the enemy troops outside the city that were like a swarm of ants, with a faint smile on his lips.

Seeing this, Lu Zhi frowned slightly and asked worriedly:

"Lord Su, are you sure that Lu Bu will act according to the plan? What if he turns against us at the last minute..."

Su Yao shook his head and interrupted confidently:
"Don't worry, Lord Lu."

"Although Lu Fengxian has some shortcomings, he is not hopeless. I believe that he will make the right choice now."

"And we will surely achieve final victory!"

(End of this chapter)