The soldiers of Cao's army looked at each other, and they were so frightened that they did not dare to get up. Even though Guan Yu was gone, they still lay on the ground and did not dare to get up because they were not sure whether Guan Yu was really gone.
Song Ya and Song Xin stood up when they saw Guan Yu walking away. When the soldiers saw someone standing up, they slowly followed suit and stared blankly at the burned-out grain truck that was smoking.
Song Xin came outside the camp, where there was only the headless body of the camp commander lying there alone, with the spear still clutched tightly in his hand. His head had been kicked to nowhere by the large group of war horses.
After daybreak, the number of people was counted and all the food and grass were burned, and more than half of the soldiers were killed or injured.
Song Xin had already realized that Guan Yu's movements behind Cao Ren had already begun, and they were coming and going like the wind. Even if there were several lines of defense, the gaps between each line of defense would still be exploited by Guan Yu. One of the highlight moments of Guan Erye's life has begun.
At this time, the camp was leaderless, and the soldiers didn't know what to do. They saw Song Ya dressed as a team leader, and they all expected him to give orders.
Song Ya had no choice but to find two chiefs here and chose one of them to take a few soldiers with him to Dangyang to report the news. The other chief took the remaining soldiers to Jiangling to report to Cao Ren. Song Ya was afraid that Cao Ren would be suspicious, so he took some pieces of bamboo, wrote down a brief process of Guan Yu's robbery of the camp that night, and asked the leader to take him to the south.
"Jiangling is in danger. If Guan Yu doesn't kill these soldiers, I'm afraid he will let them spread what happened tonight and shock the hearts of our troops." Song Ya said.
Song Xin took one last look at last night's camp. The burning carts and fodder were still telling of the misery of last night. The early morning sunshine does not make people feel refreshed, but makes people feel infinitely depressed. The rising sun was shrouded in thick smoke, as if it had lost its luster.
The two looked around the camp and saw that all the war horses had been captured by the enemy, except for a few old and weak pack horses that the enemy despised. A whip was struck on the horse's hindquarters, and the packhorse walked forward for a few steps, and then slowed down again. The two of them were helpless. This speed was not as fast as walking...
At the same time, Guan Yu led thousands of light cavalry and turned from west to northeast for two hours. At this time, they were repairing at Hanjinkou. Behind him are soldiers carrying fodder and food from small boats, busy and orderly. Looking at the flag on the boat, it turned out to be Soochow.
After attacking Cao Jun's grain team last night, Guan Yu deliberately led his troops to attack from the west. After that, he went west again, and then detoured to the east. Last night, Guan Yu personally led half of the knights to attack and destroyed Song Xin's baggage team, beheading nearly a hundred people and burning countless grains. The other half of the army was led by his eldest son Guan Ping, who also made some gains in the northwest direction. Killed one of Cao's army's lieutenants and one of the camp commanders, and burned hundreds of grain and carts. Now the two have joined forces.
Hanjinkou is to the east of Dangyang. This time Guan Yu detoured here from the west and met Wu General Su Fei here to replenish supplies.
Now Hanjinkou is like a knife stuck in the weak spot of Cao Cao's defense. It's just that Cao Jun didn't know that this place had been secretly occupied. Su Fei would even imitate the tone of the Hanjin guard and regularly send military reports to Dangyang and Xiangyang to paralyze the enemy.
Guan Yu and his son sat together with Wu General Su Fei and several other followers. They drew a simple map on the sand on the ground and reported the locations of the enemies they encountered last night. In this way, the gap in defense between Man Chong and Cao Ren was clearly figured out.
Guan Yu squinted at the rising sun in the east, with a smile on his lips.
"In the current situation, Le Jin and Man Chong's troops have not yet taken any action. They ordered all the soldiers to rest for half a day and dispersed their troops into small groups of three to five hundred men to continue to harass Cao's army." Guan Yu said.
"Father can make repairs here. It's enough for me to lead five hundred soldiers out."
Guan Yu stroked his long beard and said: "My son must not underestimate the enemy. Le Jin and Man Chong are both famous generals who have been on the battlefield for a long time. Especially Man Boning, this man is very shrewd. I am afraid that our army's resting place will not be hidden from him for too long." After our army has finished resting, we can go out together to disturb the enemy."
"Yes, Guan Ping has the order."
Dangyang was the core of Cao Cao's second line of defense in the Battle of Jiangling, and Man Chong's camp was stationed in Dangyang County.
It was already past noon when they arrived, and they went directly to the Dangyang County Government Office where Man Chong was stationed.
An announcement was made, and soon after, a sergeant led a few people in. When Song Xin entered the county government office, he was slightly surprised. In the lobby, there was a tall man with a waist ten inches wide, sitting behind the desk in the middle, discussing something with his staff.
Song Ya tilted his head and said quietly: "This man is Man Boning. This man has been in charge of prison matters for a long time. He is very shrewd. He once served as a vassal of Xi Cao in Yanzhou. The wealthy families there were afraid of him. You can speak later , but you need to be careful.”
"Well, cousin, don't worry, I won't talk nonsense, you just need to report the truth, my little brother is listening."
At this time, Manchong raised his head, scanned everyone with his small eyes, and asked, "What do you want to report?"
"General, last night the convoy transporting grain and grass was raided by Guan Yu's Qingqi, killing and injuring nearly a hundred people. The leader of the camp was killed in the battle, and all the grain and grain were burned." Song Ya bowed and said.
Man Chong stood up and Song Xin estimated that he was at least 1.9 meters tall and looked like a hill.
"Where? Point it out to me."
He didn't seem surprised, nor did he show any panic, he just asked lightly.
"In the southeast of Dangyang, one day's journey from Jiangling." After Song Ya finished speaking, he pointed out the approximate location of the attack last night on the sand table. One of Man Chong's staff placed a bamboo piece on the sand table and marked it. .
Song Ya saw at this time that there were many similar bamboo pieces on it, which should be the locations where supplies were attacked. Man Chong was silent for a while thoughtfully, then turned to stare at Song Ya and asked:
"Are you a soldier of the food team?"
"We are the messengers sent by General Jiangling Cao to Xiangyang to deliver a message. This is my cousin, and I am going with you. We met the grain team in the evening, so we stayed in the camp for the night."
"How many soldiers and horses does Guan Yu have? Where are they going?"
"About... a thousand people, all cavalry, left the camp and headed west." Song Ya replied honestly.
"Have you encountered any other enemy troops before you met the food team?" Man Chong continued to ask.
"I haven't encountered them before. We all walked on small roads and tried to avoid the main roads. We encountered the grain team when we returned to the official road." Song Ya replied.
"Are you two messengers sent by General Zixiao? Do you have any letters with you?" Man Chong was a little suspicious of Song Ya and Song Xin at this time. Because the two men were attacked that night as soon as they met the grain and grass transport team, which made him have to be suspicious.
"General Cao handed me a letter." After saying this, Song Xin took out the letter and handed it over. Song Xin and Song Ya could hear the suspicion in Man Chong's words. In order to dispel his suspicion, he took out Cao Ren's letter.
A staff member took the letter and showed it to Man Chong. The letter was sealed with fire paint, and it was written that the Prime Minister was interested in marrying him. Man Chong naturally did not dare to open it. But Cao Ren's handwriting was still familiar to him. I felt relieved when I saw that the letter was not fake.
He stood up in person and handed the letter back to Song and Xin.
"The enemy situation is complicated during the war, and Boning has to be careful. You two will go down and rest. You can leave for Xiangyang tomorrow. I will also write a letter and ask you to help deliver it to the Prime Minister."
"Let the general lead you."
After Song Ya finished speaking, he and Song Xin turned around and returned to the hotel to rest. The soldiers who had come with them were left behind to continue questioning. As for what they were asking, they naturally didn't know.
"This Man Chong is really cautious and suspects that we are spies." Song Ya returned to the hotel and said jokingly.
"Well, this is the first time I have seen such a careful general." Thinking of Man Chong's plump figure and delicate personality, Song Xin felt that the contrast was a bit big.
"Cousin, you and I need to rest for the night and leave tomorrow."
Both of them felt tired from last night's tension. Song Ya didn't say anything, just agreed, and went to sleep first.
At night, Man Chong held up a lamp and carefully inspected the positions of dozens of crossed bamboo pieces on the sand table. He was thinking about where Guan Yu might be hiding. He had sent many scouts to look for them, but they found nothing.
In the past few days, the places where the baggage troops were attacked were all between Jiangling and Dangyang. The places where the attacks occurred were only one to half a day's journey from Jiangling and Dangyang.
And looking at the trend, the enemy troops are still moving northeast of Dangyang.
Now his troops are shrinking and deploying defenses on the Dangyang front line. If we allocate our military strength to chase Guan Yu, we may be surrounded and annihilated by his design. If he just sits and guards Dangyang, he can only let Guan Yu cut off his food route.
"The locations where Guan Yu's army attacked our army are all one to half a day's journey away from Dangyang and Jiangling, and... are all close to these locations." Man Chong closed his eyes slightly, and a picture appeared in his mind. A more detailed sand table map, with countless soldiers, ships, chariots and horses moving and fighting on this sand table. He simulated Guan Yu's military habits, displayed all the attack locations one by one, and deduced them along the sand table.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes and took a picture of the map.
"Hanjinkou! It must be here that Guan Yu obtained food supplies. Guan Yu deliberately led his troops from the west and then left west, just to make me mistakenly judge that he was to the west of our army.
If he is in the west, his grain supplies must cross the Yangtze River and then be transported by land, which will inevitably be discovered by our army's scouts.
By taking Hanjinkou, the enemy's supplies can be covered by fishing boats, pass through the water network of the Han River tributaries, depart from the Youjiang mouth, and be transported to Mianshui through the Yangtze River. Presumably Hanjinkou... has been secretly captured by Sun Liu. Guan Yunchang is really awesome. No wonder the Prime Minister has valued you so much these years. "Man Chong saw several letters on the table, which were sent by the guard at Hanjinkou. Presumably, these were also forged by the enemy!
"We must communicate with Le Jin and Wenpin and agree to attack Guan Yu together to squeeze him out of the gap in the defense line. This matter must also be reported to the prime minister."
After Man Chong made up his mind, he immediately started writing a letter, detailing the current situation, Guan Yu's threat, and suggesting that he, Le Jin, Wenpin, and Cao Ren each send some troops to attack the place where Guan Yu is most likely to be. Hanjinkou. If Hanjinkou can be captured, Guan Yu's supplies will be cut off and he will retreat.
The next day, Song Xin came to say goodbye to Man Chong, who handed them the letter he wrote last night and entrusted it to be delivered to the prime minister. The two said goodbye to Man Chong, rode out of the city and continued running north.
It would take several days to travel to Xiangyang, so the two of them avoided the main road as usual to avoid encountering the enemy. That night, the two went to a dilapidated house to rest.
Tomorrow we have to ride for another whole day to reach Yicheng.
At night, when Song Xin was meditating and practicing Qi, Xiaoyu suddenly said:
"Song Xin, Song Xin, that General Bai is here."
