After Liu Bei was defeated in Beipi, he led his troops to cross Jiangshui in a hurry. After leaving the battlefield, he rested in the southern suburbs of Dongguang.
He thought that Cao Cao had only a small number of people. Even if he had won a complete victory, he still needed time to rest and recuperate. Now that the masses were dispersed, if he returned to the army at this time, it would be difficult for all the states in Henan to be saved. Therefore, he tried to send people to recruit scattered soldiers and gather the separated tribesmen. .
He waited in Dongguang until September 29th, when Xun You, Fazheng, Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong, Guo Gong, Taishi Ci and other generals and assistants from the rear of the palace also came to join him. Looking at each other, less than half of his colleagues who had gone north were already missing. Among them, Guan Yu, Xu Shu, Wei Yan and other old men in the army were missing. Liu Bei shed tears thinking about it, and everyone looked at each other speechless. After a long time, they talked about the current military.
In three days, although 50,000 remnant soldiers were barely gathered under the tent, the situation was really not optimistic. When defeated, in order to facilitate their escape and most of them had no armor, the bags of dry food and skins of water they carried with them were all shriveled. Especially after several days of fleeing, many horses could no longer hold up and began to die one after another. The soldiers began to kill horses for food.
Liu Bei sighed after hearing this, and asked Xun You who was accompanying him: "The army in Qingzhou has not yet been mobilized. Can we get the Taishan bandits to come to our aid and defend Henan?"
Xun You said: "Ming Gong, now all the baggage is lost, the food road is cut off, there are pursuers behind, Qingzhou has no foundation, how can we defend it?" Fazheng also said at the side: "There is not much to worry about now. The top priority is as follows. Xu Zhizhang said in his farewell words that he should first return to Luoyang to defend Luoyang, and order the garrison troops from various counties to return to Chenliu and Yingchuan to consolidate the foundation, and then try to revive."
Liu Bei was extremely unwilling. In the past few days, when he recalled the defeat in this battle, he no longer resented the defeat of the entire army. He believed that the loss of this battle was due to his hasty formation and decisive battle with Cao Cao at the death. Therefore, he felt a lot of self-blame in his heart. He sighed and said, "But now that our troops are scattered all over the country, if I retreat again, won't I be putting the soldiers in a position of tiger and wolf? Even if they want to escape, they will have nowhere to go. If I go to Jiuquan in the future, how should I face them?"
Someone heard this anxiously and persuaded him, "Why do you care, Duke Ming?" The pawns who escaped said that they heard that Guan Yu, Sima Fang, Chang Xi, Pan Xu, and Wei Yan had all surrendered to the thieves, but Duke Ming still missed him. I don’t want them to turn the war around in the future!”
When Liu Bei heard this, he was furious. He drew his sword and stood up, cursing: "How dare you talk, Shu Zi?! Chang Yun, I am a brother of life and death, Chang Wen, I regard him as my own son, Cheng Shu (Chang Xi) and I have the same aspirations, let alone Sima Gong and Pan Gong." We are all elders, how can we easily surrender to thieves! If anyone surrenders, I will be responsible for them!"
Everyone did not dare to be silent after hearing this, but Fa Zheng advised him: "We are deeply moved by the magistrate's kindness, but we must not defend this place. If you want to wait, you should wait at the Pingyuan floating bridge. Don't wait for thieves." The army came in pursuit, only to regret it!"
Liu Bei stared at him for a long time, and finally he sheathed his sword and said: "Okay, without further ado, we must send a message to Yanzhou and ask Chen Gongtai to lead troops to rescue." The Han army broke camp and went south. In order to recruit more scattered soldiers, Liu Bei was there along the way. Red cloth was tied to the tree to leave a signal to the soldiers and lead them south.
When he arrived at the Kingdom of Li, Liu Bei met a group of envoys, who turned out to be sent by Yuan Tan. It turned out that after he led his army to retreat, he discovered that Dong Cheng was leading the army alone, but it didn't help. Dong Cheng refused to listen to his dissuasion and had already crossed the river with Chen Wang Liu Chong and his troops via the pontoon bridge and went straight to Guanzhong. As a surrendered general, Yuan Tan did not dare to act arrogantly, so he had to guard the pontoon bridge to welcome Liu Bei to cross the river.
Liu Bei was overjoyed when he heard this and said to the envoy: "As long as Xiansi can guard the pontoon bridge, I will definitely protect his wealth!" But the news was obviously too late. Liu Bei only walked for half a day when Cao Jun appeared on the pontoon bridge and was talking to Yuan After two hours of walking, we got the news that Cao Jun's scouts had appeared behind him, and it seemed that the main force of Cao Jun's army was heading south.
Liu Bei was greatly annoyed, but he knew that complaining was a waste of time, so he could only keep urging his men to go south. The people could not even take care of cooking, so they could only get water from the old path of the Yellow River. The river water was turbid, but the soldiers were impeccable. They reluctantly introduced it into their mouths and swallowed it directly. They endured the discomfort of river sand in their throats and ran wildly from day to night.
At about midnight, the hungry Han army arrived at Pingyuan Ferry and happened to see Yuan Tan's army fighting fiercely with the tiger and leopard cavalry who had seized the bridge. At this time, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry had the upper hand and drove down all the soldiers on the bridge on the north bank. Most of Yuan Tan's troops were on the south bank. They tried to rush onto the pontoon bridge several times, but were beaten down by the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.
At this time, Liu Bei also reached the most dangerous moment. In front was the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry that basically occupied the pontoon bridge, and behind was the main force of Cao's army that was about to arrive. All the generals rode forward to participate in the battle to seize the bridge. Mengda saw that there were infantry scattered here, and there were no officers to command them. They were all resting in the distance. He galloped around on horseback, collecting skirmishers everywhere, and shouted: "Those who want to survive, cross the river quickly. Cao A'ao is chasing after him with his cavalry, and they are about to arrive!" He ordered every sergeant he saw to lead them. Bows, arrows and halberds were used to fight for the pontoon bridge.
For a moment, soldiers gathered near the bridge and fired at each other. The arrows were like rain, hitting and crackling in the air. The corpses were piled up as high as a hillock.
There were only a few tigers and leopards guarding the bridge, and they quickly used up all their arrows. They picked up the arrows they shot and shot them back. As the strength of the counterattack became smaller and smaller, the Han army took the opportunity to rush onto the bridge and drove many Cao soldiers into the river.
At this time, a strong man from Cao's army stood at the head of the bridge to block the oncoming sergeant. He seemed to be a Wuhuan man with leopard eyes and a jackal voice. He was estimated to be about nine feet tall, a whole head taller than the average person. He was really like a god. He held a big stick in his hand, with a ring of iron plates tied around it with iron nails. He would hit anyone he met, even if they were wearing armor and helmets. When he hit them, their bones would be broken, and they would either die or be injured. All the Han troops were driven back.
Liu Bei became anxious and asked Zhang Fei to come forward and fight with him. However, Zhang Fei was deprived of food and did not have much strength. He went up to fight with his halberd several times and was forced down. The Han army had no choice but to shoot arrows at random. The arrows stuck on the strongman gradually became denser, like a hedgehog with bristling fur, but they could not penetrate because he was wearing two layers of thick armor. This is also because he is physically strong, otherwise it would be difficult for ordinary people to bear such heavy armor, let alone be able to swing a stick to kill the enemy.
Liu Bei regarded Taishi Ci as a sharpshooter, and wanted to ask Taishi Ci to shoot an arrow to break the armor. Unexpectedly, Taishi Ci's five-stone bow had already fallen halfway, and there were no armor-breaking arrows available.
In desperation, Huang Zhong rode his horse up a small slope. He dismounted and watched the giant fight against the Han army's attack alone. He felt hot in his body and was a little dizzy because of the wounds from the previous hard battle. But he still calmly pulled out an arrow. The tip of the arrow was sharp and slender, and the feathers of the arrow were white and flawless, even in the dark night.
Huang Zhong steadied himself, put on his bow, and waited for his turn. At this time, the man's face was exposed. In just a blink of an eye, the bowstring rebounded and made a crisp sound. The sharp arrow left the string and flew away, just like a flying bird chasing its target across the dark water. The prey goes away.
Impartially, the arrow went in through the giant's left eye, and passed out from the back of the neck with the arrow shaft, leaving only the white feathers outside. The giant took two dazed steps, then collapsed to the ground, and fell from the bridge into the water with a splash. The Han soldiers were stunned for a moment, and then cheered thunderously. They rushed onto the pontoon and drove away the remaining Cao troops in a short time.
Liu Bei was then able to lead his troops across the river. Just as he was about to step onto the pontoon bridge, there was a sudden commotion behind him, and a figure quickly ran in front of his horse, knelt on one knee on the dirt, and bowed down to him.
Liu Bei was startled when he saw that the man had wrapped his head with a rag, and there were dark red blood stains on the cloth. He was holding a wooden stick in his right hand. He was still wearing a single coat, and his clothes were covered with dirty mud spots. Although he bowed down and could not see his face, the deerskin boots under his feet showed his identity as a Han soldier.
Liu Bei dropped the reins and observed the man carefully. The man also slowly raised his head. Before Liu Bei could say anything, the people around him cheered.
This person is actually Wei Yan!
It turned out that Wei Yan was captured while charging to the east, and Cao Jun tied him with wooden shackles in the woods and imprisoned him. But there were too many prisoners, and Cao Jun could not guard them. Wei Yan took advantage of the night and knocked down his guards, and then hid in the reeds and kept knocking the shackles with stones, until his wrists were bleeding and the skin was worn out. After liberation, he swam out of the Jiangshui River and followed the footsteps of the Han army southward.
Wei Yan said: "General, last time I was in the mud, I really couldn't do anything. Now that I'm here to fight against the bandits, I'm still willing to be the vanguard. I will avenge this battle!"
As if his weapon had been lost and recovered, Liu Bei grabbed Wei Yan's clothes. I remembered that when he was fifteen years old, he followed me around. Now he has a full beard and looks like a man. For a moment, he was feeling sad and happy at the same time, and he didn't know what to say, so he could only firmly grasp Wei Yan's shoulders, which were as broad and strong as a bear.
When everyone heard what he said and ran out of Cao's camp, they asked him about the current situation of the remnants of the Han army. Wei Yan did make some inquiries, and he said: Pan Xu and Sima Fang must have really surrendered, Chang Xi said they surrendered and rebelled again, but they were nowhere to be found, and Guan Yu was captured and seriously injured, and Cao Jun was treating him, while Xu Shu, Zhang Xian and others Everyone should have been killed.
Liu Bei was silent when he heard this. He interrupted Wei Yan's statement and said to everyone: "Cross the river first, otherwise Cao Jun will catch up." After that, he got on his horse and walked in front of everyone. But when he walked to the middle of the floating bridge, listening to the gurgling sound of the river under his feet, Liu Bei couldn't help but look back at the north bank in the dark night, which was his sad place.
A huge wave of confusion and regret hit him, and the uneasiness and anxiety that had been suppressed for these days also arose spontaneously. Liu Bei's mind suddenly went blank. Everyone saw him swaying on his horse, then suddenly fell down and fell straight into the water. Wei Yan was shocked and jumped into the river from the bridge, hugging Liu Bei's body before he drowned.
Liu Bei suddenly heard a commotion on the bridge, which gradually faded into nothingness.
(Kang Long regrets the end)
