The Chu army advanced slowly and orderly.
On the hillside, several people were holding horses and looking out.
Sun Ce stopped after looking at the urgent report sent by the horse. He handed the things to Zhou Yu and Pang Tong for inspection one after another, frowning and saying.
"Youping and Ziyuan are confused. Not to mention how the Wei army deceived our scouts and got behind them. How can Cao Cao still have troops to use?"
The Qin State entangled 140,000 Wei troops, there were 100,000 Wei troops on the Xuzhou battlefield, and 50,000 Wei troops were stationed in the Song County fortress. Cao Cao still had at most 10,000 troops available.
However, in fact, it can be said that Cao Cao did not even have these 10,000 troops because there were Karasuma in the north. No matter how good Cao Cao's relationship with Karasuma is, he can't be undefended in the north. In that case, he is simply saying to these nomads, "Come and rob me!"
Sun Ce estimated that there were at least 20,000 Wei troops stationed in the north. In addition, Cao Cao and Liu Bei had lost more than 20,000 people in the battle in the past few months. In order to fill this gap, Cao Cao has recruited many strong men. Where else can he squeeze out the army?
Ji Shu had already led his army back along the road. He didn't say much. He just sent someone to hand over Zhou Tai's urgent report to Sun Ce intact. After Pang Tong finished reading, Zhou Yu took it over and read it again. He looked at it very seriously, and after thinking hard, he spoke to Sun Ce.
"Bo Fu, have you forgotten Wuhu Liu Yueqi?"
Battle of Wuhu?······
"So, you, like Ziyuan, believe in Youping's judgment?"
"But where did Cao Cao come from..."
Sun Zhi was silent for a while, and a bright light flashed in his eyes.
"You mean, Liu Bei is plotting against us?"
Neither Zhou Yu nor Pang Tong spoke, but their eyes confirmed Sun Ce's statement.
Sun Ce's face suddenly tensed up, and he walked back and said.
"Mr. Lu Zhi is a great Confucian of his time and the pillar of the country. Both Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei studied under Lu Zhi and are his most proud disciples. Although I have never met Liu Bei, I heard my father praise Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei when the princes were begging Dong. "
"Liu Bei's virtuous reputation has spread all over the world. Now I neither bully the weak nor take advantage of the situation, but treat him with sincerity and conspire with Cao Cao's thieves. If this kind of damaging move is just to consume our army, it shows that Liu Bei is nothing more than that. "
"Let's go to Xiaopei. I want to ask clearly in person."
After that, Sun Ce was about to mount his horse and set off, but Pang Tong quickly stopped Sun Ce.
After Pang Tong returned to Jianye with Ji Shu, he was quickly introduced to Sun Ce. After a long conversation all night, Sun Ce was also very pleasantly surprised by Pang Tong's erudition and keen eyesight. The next day, he temporarily appointed Pang Tong as military advisor general according to the Chu State's system of recruiting talents, and directly entered the upper echelons of the Chu State.
To be honest, this made Pang Tong very panicked. For this reason, he had to squeeze out some time to study and handle official duties cautiously. Now, he is repaying Sun Ce's respect.
"My lord, this trip is not appropriate. If Cao Wei attacks our rear, my lord must immediately return to the army to protect Shouchun. As long as Shouchun is stable, whether it is to march north to Song County or come to Xuzhou to form an alliance with Liu Bei to attack Wei, we can deploy it calmly. "
Pang Tong's words made sense. Sun Ce also knew the importance of Shouchun, otherwise he would not have left Chu State's strongest Tiger Roar Camp in Shouchun.
After hearing Pang Tong's words, Sun Ce stopped, turned around and said.
"Shiyuan, you are right."
"But Youping's guess is just a guess after all. Even if I believe Youping, if our army abandons the alliance between the two countries and withdraws directly based on this, it will inevitably be true and ridiculed."
"Now we are only half a day away from Xiaopei. I believe Ziyuan can buy us one more day. Order the army to speed up!"
Pang Tong's method was indeed the most appropriate strategically, but as Sun Ce said, he ignored the opinions of ordinary people. If a judge decides on a prisoner's sentence based only on guesswork, even if the guess is reasonable enough to convince everyone, it will be difficult to execute.
Pang Tong sighed softly and nodded.
But Zhou Yu also raised objections.
"I disagree."
"Why?"
Sun Ce turned to look at Zhou Yu standing on the other side.
Still asking why? Zhou Yu gave Sun Ce a roll of his eyes.
The information the Han army now gave them was that Wei's 100,000-strong army had withdrawn fifty miles north of Xiaopei.
But if Zhou Tai discovered that the information about the Wei army's ambush was true, then the Han army had deceived them and deliberately concealed the Wei army's movements. Since quantity can be deceived, the entire information is questionable.
Is the Wei army really fifty miles north of Xiaopei?
"When the battle situation changes, we should deal with it calmly. We should be stationed on the spot now and spread out scouts to find out the enemy's situation. Zhou Taiji said that if troops are sent to search the mountains, follow-up intelligence will follow within half a day at the latest. We should get this We will take action based on the information.”
Zhou Yu's answer was calm but firm. He believed that this was the safest way at the moment.
This made Sun Ce hesitate a little, and he thought for a while before saying.
"Since the Wei State has mobilized its troops to sneak attack on our rear, there will naturally not be many troops on the battlefield in Xuzhou. It seems that we are afraid of Cao Cao if we stay here. Order all the troops to be on strict alert and continue to advance."
"Hmph! Liu Bei, I have been famous for a long time. Ziyu came back and said that the people of Xuzhou regarded him as the king of ZTE who restored the Han Dynasty. But now the situation makes me a little disappointed, I want to see with my own eyes, he What kind of person is he?"
Riding on his horse, Sun Ce ordered the army to continue advancing towards Xiaopei.
Zhou Yu and Pang Tong failed to convince Sun Ce after all, so they ordered to strengthen the alert and sent out a large number of scouts.
However, it seemed to confirm Sun Ce's statement. The rest of the journey was uneventful, and no ambush from the Wei army was found in many places where ambush could be carried out.
Sixty miles passed in the blink of an eye, and Peicheng could be seen across the valley in front. Zhou Yu and Pang Tong both breathed a sigh of relief. If the Wei army set up an ambush so close, as long as they withstood several waves of attacks and waited for the Han army to arrive, the Wei army would be in danger of being attacked from both sides. Xiahou Dun is no longer so unwise.
The mountains and forests on both sides are lush, leafy and beautiful.
To be cautious, after the army began to enter the valley, Zhou Yu dismounted his horse and went up the mountain to take a look.
Just when one third of the Chu army entered the valley, an accident happened. The scouts discovered the enemy, and seeing their whereabouts exposed, the enemy launched an attack in advance.
Whoosh!
A cloud-piercing arrow streaked across the sky, and the sharp sound shocked everyone.
Following this sound, dense arrows fell.
"Enemy attack!"
Many soldiers were caught unawares and were killed by arrows. The shield soldiers quickly raised their shields and began to cover both sides.
"Don't panic! Get into formation and retreat slowly!"
Gan Ning blocked the arrows with his sword and shouted to command the army.
"General, I will lead a group of soldiers and horses to attack the mountain on the left to disrupt the enemy's formation and reduce the pressure on our brothers. Be careful of the frontal battlefield."
Huang Zhong, under the cover of his own soldiers, drew his bow and fought back, and approached Gan Ning and said.
Gan Ning knew that Huang Zhong was using a phoenix-bill knife and that the blade was too long for jungle combat, so he handed his own knife to Huang Zhong and just said to be careful.
Huang Zhong didn't waste any words and quickly led his men to kill him up the mountain.
Gan Ning hid under the cover of his own soldiers and began to draw his bow to fight back while continuing to direct the retreat. Han Xing beside him thought for a while and asked for orders.
"Brother, how about I also lead a team to fight up the mountain on the right!"
"No, if we divide our troops any further, our team will be too thin."
As soon as Gan Ning finished speaking, dust was flying on the other side of the valley, and there was a rumble.
It's the cavalry!
Gan Ning narrowed his eyes.
"Shield soldiers, pay attention to cover the spear soldiers! Form up!"
"yes!"
After giving the order, Gan Ning said to Han Xing again.
"As soon as the enemy's arrows stop, the enemies on the mountain will definitely be killed. You lead a group of crossbowmen to the right to find a place to hide. I will kill them as soon as they leave the forest."
"yes!"
······
At this time, outside the valley, Sun Ce stood looking from a high place with a dark face. The more this moment, the calmer he became.
"Bo Fu, we haven't seen any enemy troops coming from behind, but we can't rule out a larger encirclement at the moment."
Sun Ce nodded, which meant that the valley in front of him was an encirclement set up by the enemy. At least it was not the worst situation now. Looking at the team slowly withdrawing, Sun Ce gritted his teeth.
"Damn it, how can there be an ambush of the Wei army here? Are those in Shiting really just ordinary bandits, and Youping is overthinking it? Or is it that Xiahou Dun, a mad dog, divided his troops to Shouchun, and at the same time dared to send out a large army to fight with me?"
As long as Liu Bei sends troops from Xiaopei now, he and Sun Ce will definitely be able to annihilate the main force of the Wei army here. Wei's Xuzhou battlefield will completely collapse and he will not even be able to defend Yanzhou and Qingzhou.
If such a big change occurs, it will inevitably affect the Silizhou battlefield, and Cao Cao will inevitably redeploy his troops and shrink his defense line. The Wei State is likely to lose all the land south of the Yellow River, in exchange for Chu State suffering heavy losses. Is this worth it?
"Lord, these are not Wei troops, but Han troops!"
Sun Ce was stunned and couldn't help but cast his eyes on Pang Tong.
Pang Yi's face was in disbelief, but his tone was very determined. He pointed to a place where arrows were most concentrated and said.
"This is a repeating crossbow!"
"Although the attack interval is much longer than that of Luoyue Crossbow, the attack here is undoubtedly an intensive attack that can only be achieved by a repeating crossbow."
"The person in the world who can imitate the repeated crossbow made by Junior Sister Yueying must be Senior Brother Zhuge! Senior Brother Zhuge is a true genius. Whether it is strategy, strategy, politics, or formation, he is the number one among all the brothers. , only the mechanism technique ranks second after Junior Sister Yueying. And only he can imitate Junior Sister Yueying's repeating crossbow."
When Sun Ce heard this, the veins on his face were exposed and he was furious. He looked extremely scary.
"In other words, Cao Cao attacked Liu Bei's Xuzhou, and I came to help him deal with Cao Cao. As a result, Liu Bei teamed up with Cao Cao to deal with me?!!"
Sun Ce chopped down the bowl-sized tree next to him with a sword and shouted angrily.
"Liu Bei, this shameless person! After I kill him, I will never let this villain go!"
