On the morning of September 20th, with heavy fog and white mist, the Bafu forward took the opportunity to lead his army across the Tuma River.
It is now the dry season, and the Tuma River has already ebbed. The river surface, which was originally thirty feet wide, is now only three or four feet wide, and the water is so shallow that you can see the floating sand on the bottom of the river. On the remaining exposed riverbed, grass half as tall as a man grows densely, and it is so green that it seems particularly unsuitable in autumn.
The Bafu soldiers found six places where the water was as shallow as their ankles, and waded through the river in groups.
At this time, everything was quiet, not even the sound of birds or insects, only the heavy footsteps of the soldiers stained by the river water. Even though the conditions for crossing the river were good, the Han soldiers had not yet crossed the halfway point when the mist became thinner and they could vaguely see in the distance.
Liu Bei looked back at the dark crowd on the south bank and couldn't help but feel a little anxious. He thought that Ting Jian was right. The army was moving so slowly that it would be a bit foolish to want to fight in the wild. So he turned his head to look at the north bank of the river and pondered the tactics. After thinking for a moment, he called Zhang Fei over and asked him to lead a thousand cavalry to attack Wenchang Pavilion in the southeast of Chonghe City first.
Wenchang Pavilion is less than eight miles away from Duma River. Under the guidance of the guide, the Bafu knight only rode for about two quarters of an hour before he vaguely saw the shadow of Zhenji.
This place was originally a relatively prosperous market in the Bohai Sea, famous for its corn transshipment. At its peak, there were more than 500 families living here. But now there are heavy troops gathering by the Duma River, and most of the civilians have fled, leaving only a few lonely old people who are unable to hike, trapped in hundreds of empty thatched mud huts.
Cao Jun had fifty cavalry stationed here, and the rest were infantry. When they saw Zhang Feijun leading his troops, they did not dare to resist, so they all retreated to the temple streets. Zhang Fei led his troops through here, checking and killing each other one by one. However, he also lost the opportunity. When Cao Jun sent hundreds of cavalry to assist, he only occupied half of the market.
At this time, the weather was already bright. If Cao Jun blocked the street, Zhang Fei would not be able to use force no matter how hard he tried. So he decisively abandoned the market and led his troops to retreat to the plain south of Wenchang Pavilion. Cao Jun's knights rushed over immediately. Both sides planned to attack. This horse racing hedge.
At this time, the infantry who were still trapped in the city also quickly withdrew. The remaining two hundred people collected the corpses of their companions. However, they did not receive the military order from their superiors to retreat. Not knowing where to go, they boarded the east side of the pavilion. We were on a higher slope and watched the battle unfold from a distance.
I saw the knights on both sides facing each other with their long horses, using their horse power to gallop towards the opposite side. A burst of golden dust was brought up from the tail of the horse, covering both sides. When the two collided, the knight did not dare to blink due to the smoke. Instead, he raised the tip of his spear high and tried his best to find the weakness of the opponent in front of him. When they stabbed the tip of the tree, once it hit, everyone, whether they were men or horses, would be impaled. This went on for more than a dozen rounds, with bodies of men and horses strewn all over the ground, and there was still no winner.
There were many soldiers in the Han Dynasty, so when they saw this, they asked some of them to be replaced first. After breakfast, they changed people and horses before fighting again.
Zhang Fei and his team have been racing for several rounds, breaking through ten levels. But after a few quarters of an hour, the horse was overwhelmed, sweating profusely, and foaming at the mouth from exhaustion, so he had no choice but to jump off the horse to rest.
While chewing biscuits among his followers, he complained to the knights who were resting together: "Damn it, the thief is so difficult to beat. I rushed for a few times, but the thief still dared to challenge. These boys Xianbei can compete with the Battle of Pingcheng!"
Several soldiers agreed in unison, and a confidant who was very popular with Zhang Fei said: "The general is indeed brave, but I see that there are warriors in the enemy's formation, and they have killed many people in our army, so they think they can win!" It turns out! When Zhang Fei was fighting on the left wing, there was also a warrior on the right wing of Cao's army. He was eight feet tall and looked like a bear. No one in the Han army could challenge him.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Fei immediately said, "Then I'll go meet him!" Then he immediately went to his mount and took off the reins, changed into a new purple horse and rushed into the enemy's formation again.
He was now wearing bright armor painted red and a dome-topped iron jacket with red tassels on his head. When he was galloping on a war horse like this, he was like a ball of flame rising into the sky, which was very conspicuous in the crowd.
In the first charge, he did not engage Cao's cavalry, but let all Cao's troops on the left see him. When he ran back, sure enough, he saw a sturdy armored knight rushing over, holding a long spear, and a small flag with a black tiger hanging from the tip.
Neither of them stabbed each other in the first round. They just collided with each other, but they were both shocked. Both sides knew that they were encountering an opponent they had never seen before and that it would be difficult to win with brute force. Therefore, in the second round, they both started to use new tricks. Zhang Fei straightened the tip of his spear, and when the two sides got closer, he suddenly turned to the side and picked up the brim of the opponent's hat with the tip of his spear, and actually pulled off the opponent's entire armor.
Under the iron helmet was a dark-brown face. Apparently he was not frightened by the loss of his helmet, because his long spear had already been shot and thrust straight into the belly of the horse where Zhang Fei was sitting. The horse was only covered with a layer of cowhide. How could it withstand such a puncture force? There was a pop and the tip of the spear pierced through the abdomen. Zhang Fei noticed that he was losing strength while sitting down, and knew that the opponent had succeeded, so he quickly jumped off the galloping horse. Even though he was wearing armor, the fall still made him sore.
When Zhang Fei looked back again, he saw that the opponent had broken his long spear. He pulled out his knife and jumped off his horse, intending to continue fighting with him on foot. However, Zhang Fei took the fall and knew that he could not use his strength and it was no longer his. The opponent can only call for protection from the cavalry. At this time, Cao Jun took advantage of the situation to pursue and called dozens of knights to chase Zhang Fei. Zhang Fei had to change his horse and retreat in embarrassment.
Before leaving, Zhang Fei did not forget to turn around and shout: "Black iron man, what is your name?"
The man who looked like a black tower said in a loud voice: "I am a tiger soldier under the marshal's command, Xu Chu and Xu Zhongkang."
As soon as Zhang Fei retreated, the Han army's offensive also stopped. The Han cavalry formed a formation on the plain to prevent Cao Jun's knights from attacking again. But Cao Jun obviously had no intention of continuing to fight. They gathered all the infantry in Wenchang Pavilion and slowly evacuated north, leaving Wenchang Pavilion to the Han army.
At noon, Liu Bei led the follow-up army to station in Wenchang Pavilion.
Although he had gained important territory, Zhang Fei was deeply impressed by Cao's army. He said to Liu Bei: "There are elite soldiers in the bandit army who carry the tiger flag. They are called tiger soldiers and are very durable." Liu Bei heard this and smiled at Guan Yu who was standing aside. He said: "The thieves have tigers. Our army has tigers, so we can see who is real and who is fake."
When Guan Yu saw Liu Bei's frivolous words, he sat down and said, "Brother, please don't forget the arrangements you made when you came. You must not test the traitor army lightly, nor start a big war lightly."
Liu Bei waved his hand to show that he knew, then straightened his face and sent Chen to lead the scouts to inquire about the layout of Cao Jun's camp.
Chen arrived and led fourteen people. Each person picked a horse and set off. They only took their bows, arrows, quivers, swords and other items, and headed northwest along the official road. After traveling for about ten miles, they encountered a small group of Cao Jun on the road. They quickly killed them on horseback. Then they changed into Cao Jun's clothes, pretended to be from Hebei, and continued riding north.
Ten miles further north, they crossed a hill and saw a series of military camps in front of them, and knew that it was Cao Cao's camp. They led their horses into a deep forest and lurked until it became completely dark.
People were constantly coming in and out of the enemy camp, and Chen Dao listened carefully to the military bugles coming in and out. Chen Dao picked three more people and said to them: "You can go in. Be careful and don't panic at any time." They remounted their horses and galloped towards the military camp, using the bugle to enter. Walk through the camp and pay attention to the strength and weakness of its troops. When he saw a lax soldier, he ordered him to stop and asked him his name and general. He scolded him for disobeying military orders and beat him with a whip.
This continued until late at night, and they had a preliminary idea of Cao Jun's camp. Chonghe City is a small city that can only accommodate more than 10,000 people and cannot support the Cao army and the Han army. Therefore, Cao Cao moved the camp five miles southeast to use the city to store and transport heavy supplies of grain and fodder, and used the camp to confront Liu Bei's army in a stalemate. After Chen Daode heard about it, he wanted to find some weak points in the camp that were sparsely defended, so that he could lead his troops to break through in the future. However, Cao's army was arranged extremely tightly, with one post every five steps and one sentry every ten steps. There were almost no dead ends.
When it was time to leave the camp, the sergeants at the camp gate asked Chen Dao for the password again. One of them stepped forward to answer the question before riding his horse out of the camp. Unexpectedly, the sergeants looked at each other, drew their arrows and said to him: "The bugle will change at midnight. Who are you waiting for? Come and visit the camp!" After saying that, they drew their bows and shot.
After hearing this, Chen Dao secretly screamed, but he had no choice but to hold on to the arrow and rush forward. The moment he rushed out of the camp gate, he felt a pain on his back and arms, and he knew that he was He was hit by an arrow, but fortunately it was not a vital wound and the horse was not injured. Chen Dao gritted his teeth and continued southbound, and rushed back to Wenchang Pavilion in two quarters of an hour. When he fell in the camp, he remembered that none of the ten people in the forest had come back, and they were probably all surrounded and killed by Cao's army.
After Liu Bei got the information from Cao Ying, he immediately summoned the officials in the government for discussion. He said to everyone: "I thought Cao Cao would want to fight me quickly, but I didn't expect that he also wanted to stalemate with me."
Xu Shu congratulated Liu Bei and said: "Ming Gong, this is a good thing. The thieves thought that our army was too large and our food and supplies were too heavy to be used up. They only wanted to delay it for a while so that we could retreat without a fight. Who didn't expect that our army had food and supplies?" It will take more than a hundred days, enough to delay until the Qingming Festival next year. Now our army has locked up most of the rebel army. We only need to wait for the good news from General Duan in the north and General Gongsun in the west." The current commander of the Central Route Army is Gongsun Zan, because he Han Fu's son Han Chun was still under his command, so Liu Bei asked him to take Han Chun eastward to fight with Zhong Yao.
Liu Bei was noncommittal and asked Xu Shu, "Is there any news from those two groups?"
Xu Shu replied: "General Gongsun and Han Shijun are besieging Yecheng. There is no progress, but good news has come from Duan Zhenbei. It is said that four days ago, he defeated Bao Xin and entered the garrison. Next, he plans to contact Gongsun Du, attack Jicheng together."
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the tent couldn't help but laugh. They thought: The North Road was so successful, it seems that the bandit army is about to be destroyed. It's just that when it comes to individuals, what they actually think is different. For example, Taishi Ci and Wei Gu, Liu Bei's veteran generals, thought to themselves: It's a pity that we have so many troops here, but we can't make any military exploits, so we have lost our wealth and honor like this. For example, Chang Xi and Yuan Tan, the surrendered generals who defected to Liu Bei in the past two years, thought to themselves: Unfortunately, I am new to this place. How can I prove my loyalty if I don't fight? There are also relatives like Dong Cheng who were criticized and guarded against. He thought to himself: It's a pity that Cao Cao can't hold on for a moment. Is there really no way out for Your Majesty?
At the same time, the news of Duan Xuan's defeat of Bao Xin soon spread to Chonghe City. When the generals heard that the north was defeated, they couldn't help but feel nervous. Only Cao Ren said to Cao Cao: "The counties in the north think that our army is about to fight. We couldn't save each other, but Duan Xuan and Gongsun Du used strong troops to force them to attack Youzhou. It only took a moment for Youzhou to change its color. However, Gongsun Du had the intention of separatism and would not unite with Duan Xuan. Please order me to go north, and I will defeat them. Gongsun will definitely be able to defeat the enemy with one strike!"
Cao Cao did not agree immediately, but continued to ponder. He looked at the map of Bohai County and suddenly had an idea.
