At this time, the situation of the confrontation between Wu and Han was that the Han army, Guo Huai, led his army to besiege Bagong Mountain. Zhou Buyi, the commander-in-chief of the left army, led his generals to garrison troops at Xianshui River. Huang Quan, the naval commander-in-chief, led his troops to garrison at Feishui River to stop them. Sun Wu sent reinforcements to Duanchaohu and Shaopi. The Wu army, Lu Meng, Jiang Qin and other armies have gathered in Shaopi, but because they are afraid of the Han army, they dare not easily engage in battle. As a result, two anxious fronts were formed. Guo Huai and Lu Su who were guarding Bagong Mountain competed for the Huaihe River. Huang Quan and other troops faced the Wu reinforcements from a distance without fighting.
As mentioned earlier, the Han people only built pontoon bridges on the Huaihe River and still could not conquer Bagong Mountain. However, reinforcements from Shouchun had arrived and could provide support from land at any time. When Huang Quan saw this, he knew that a stalemate had formed in Bagong Mountain, so he told Liu Xie the truth: "Although the thief Lu Meng and other troops are afraid of fighting, they can support Lu Su from the southeast and fight hard with the thief army in the mountains. It is not a wise move, but His Majesty's previous plan can be done." Liu Xie then wrote back to urge the navy to dig trenches, high forts and deep trenches south of Bagong Mountain to isolate the Wu armies from the two places as much as possible, and made Use all your strength to trap the illusion of Bagong Mountain, and then the left army can attack.
Within two days, Huang Quan received a reply and discussed with the generals. Unexpectedly, the generals thought that the project was too huge and could not be completed in one day. It is better to set up multiple flags, advance towards Shouchun, and then send out scouts to patrol. If the Wu people send troops to support Bagong Mountain, they will take advantage of the situation to attack Shouchun and force the enemy to return for reinforcements. If the enemy does not return reinforcements, they can defeat the Wu people's empty navy. This will give them the greatest advantage. Although Huang Quan disagreed in his heart, he could not resist the trend, so he had to write a reply and report the matter to Liu Xie, and then set up a large scout to guard against the Wu people's every move.
As we enter August, the weather starts to get murky. Standing in the Han camp and looking up at Bagong Mountain, I saw the Huaihe River flowing eastward, and the mountains on the other side were covered in mist. This was the first heavy fog of the year, blurring the sight of both parties. Sometimes the sun breaks free to show its head, but the sunlight cannot penetrate the layers of dense fog. Instead, we can see a yellow flower-like disk gradually falling in the vast western world. The faintly undulating hills to the east and the endless plains to the west left only faint silhouettes in the haze. The heat that had been there before was released all at once, making some soldiers still wearing summer clothes feel a little cold.
The Han troops from the north felt extremely uncomfortable with the moisture in the air. Although they were wearing autumn clothes, the moisture seemed to be all-pervasive, seeping in from every gap in the clothes. It was okay for now, but after a while As time goes by, as the air-conditioning worsens, I'm afraid quite a few people will start to fall ill. This Bagong Mountain was originally called Beishan. It got its name because it was located in the north of Shouchun City. Later, Liu An, the king of Huainan in the Western Han Dynasty, and his disciple Bagong learned Taoism here. The Eight Lords were both men and women, able to rejuvenate their youth and make alchemy and elixirs. , and finally ascended in the daytime on the mountain, and the chickens and dogs attained enlightenment, so it was renamed Bagong Mountain. But today, there is no trace of fairy spirit in Bagong Mountain. Except for the Wu army's camp, the ground is covered with mugwort and fox rats are crawling around the camp. Once fighting begins, there will be crows croaking nearby, which is really annoying.
In the allure of Renxu in August, the haze still shrouded the Huaihe River and Bagong Mountain. The Han troops stationed at the pontoon bridge had just woken up from their sleep and were preparing to cook. At this time, I suddenly heard war drums ringing on the top of the mountain, and I couldn't help but be shocked. After all, after the fog cleared, both sides had extremely poor visibility, and neither could command the overall situation well. Who would have expected that the Wu people would dare to take the initiative to attack? This is really surprising. It exceeded everyone's expectations. It was the first time for Guo Huai to serve as the commander-in-chief of an army. He was extremely nervous at this time, but he quickly calmed down and comforted everyone by saying that in such weather, the Wu people could send at most several thousand people to attack the camp. As long as our army's formation is not in chaos, they will have nothing to do. . After that, everyone felt a little more at ease, and then Guo Huai named Li Dian as the vanguard and asked him to go ahead to meet the enemy.
After Li Dian got the order, he couldn't wait for breakfast. He just ordered his subordinates to bring some dry food with them and set up a formation on the valley road to meet the Wu people coming down the mountain.
In the past few days, Li Dian has been sick and weak. He put on his iron armor, asked his slaves to carry the iron bag, and came to the horse to prepare to mount. He grabbed the bridle of his mount, stepped on the stirrup with his left foot, and kicked off the ground to get on the horse, but suddenly he felt dizzy above his head and his vision suddenly went dark. He had to put his feet down, hold on to the saddle with both hands and catch his breath. Seeing this, the knights on the left and right reined in their bridles and dismounted to help him. Li Dian waved his hands to dismiss the crowd, gritted his teeth and mounted the horse with all his strength, and suddenly felt the scene in front of him shaking. He composed himself and waved his hand to move forward. If you see the Lord on the left and right, you will be ill and unable to support your health, which will inevitably add a bit of depression to your heart.
So we went straight to the valley road, and when we reached the mouth of the valley, we met the Wu people's vanguard. When the Wu soldiers saw the Han army coming, they immediately withdrew from the entrance of the valley and went straight to a hill diagonally opposite the valley. The Han army hurriedly sent out troops to pursue them, and saw that there were hundreds of Wu people on the slope, forming a formation at the top of the slope and refusing to leave. When Li Dian learned that he was encountering an enemy ahead, he ordered hundreds of archers to come out of the valley and form an array to shoot at the Wu people. His son Li Zhen suggested: "There must be a large army behind the thieves. It is better to eat up this army before they gather together, and then block the people behind at the mouth of the valley."
Li Dian refused: "Our team has not arrived yet, and the enemy's situation is not clear. If we can't eat, we will die."
After a while, the pioneer came again and reported that the Wu people had lit a bonfire high up, and the fire was blazing, as if they were communicating with the people on the mountain.
Li Zhen wanted to lead more than a thousand people to drive away the Wu people, but when Li Dian waved his hands and said nothing, he had to give up.
Soon, the follow-up groups of the Han army arrived one after another and formed a thick triple formation at the foot of the mountain to form a confrontation with the Wu people. Just stare into the distance. There were more and more Wu flags in the mountains, spread out left and right along the hillside. It was unclear how many people there were, but they obviously exceeded the original defense on Bagong Mountain. When Li Dian saw this, he immediately guessed that the Wu army had come to support Bagong Mountain from land, and wanted to catch the Han army by surprise when they first arrived. However, the navy did not report the news at all, which made him curse secretly in his heart, and at the same time, he sent the news to Guo Huai.
In order to observe the Wu formation, Guo Huai ordered Yue Cavalry Colonel Cen Guang to lead two cavalry out of the formation to ask questions. Cen Guang was a close associate of Wei Yan, the former governor of Nanfu, and knew the Wu army very well. He took the order and went out into battle, fully armored, wearing a red cloak, a leather hat, and a short knife hanging on his waist, but he did not bring a bow and arrow. This was the attire for talking.
Cen Guang led two of his followers to approach the Wu formation. He ordered his followers to report their identities and ask the Wu people to come out and talk to each other. After a while, a person came forward from Wu's formation. He did not carry a bow or arrow, and slowly walked to the position where he was twenty steps away from Cen Guang. The Wu people didn't wait for Cen Guang to speak, and asked first: "Who is your official here? Please give me his name."
Cen Guang then replied: "General Right of the Han Dynasty and General Anton are here with one hundred thousand elite troops." This refers to the official positions of Zhou Buji and Guo Huai.
Wu Ren smiled and said: "Why does Marshal Guan have a future?"
Cen Guang also smiled and said: "The marshal is staying in Wancheng, waiting for the ebb of the Mian River. When the time is right, he will lead 80,000 horses and attack Jiangling."
Jingzhou fought against the Wu talents and won the battle. Knowing that Cen Guang was talking big words, the envoy couldn't help laughing.
Cen Guang asked, "Who is your official?"
The people of Wu shouted loudly: "Yang and Guang strong troops are coming together."
Cen Guang asked: "Who is the official in the middle, and who is leading the troops on the left and right?"
The Wu people said: "Lü Meng, the governor of Danyang, is in the middle, with Lü Jiaozhou on the left and Zhu Lingling on the right."
Cen Guang heard that soldiers and horses from Jiaozhou and Jingzhou had arrived, and saw Wu flags all over the mountains and fields, fluttering in the wind, and his color changed slightly. But he knew that he must not weaken his voice at this time, so he raised his head and said loudly: "Now that the Emperor Daxing has led his troops here, he is determined to revive the country and benefit all people, but you have repeatedly resisted. What's the reason?"
Unexpectedly, the people of Wu were surprised that the Han envoy suddenly asked this question. They were slightly startled, and then they replied: "You are gifted in the north and south, what else can you ask?"
Cen Guang knew that he had the upper hand in words, and he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, but his words became more forceful, and he said to the Wu people: "Then I will give you a word, God will reward good and evil, and you will be sent to die! "After that, he went straight back to his horse and walked away. Upon seeing this, the Wu envoy also rode back to the formation, and the two armies prepared to engage in battle.
Guo Huai listened to Cen Guang's report and learned that not only the reinforcements from Sanwu had arrived in Huainan, but also the troops from Jingzhou and Jiaozhou had arrived! That means the Wu people are planning to fight a nationwide war here! He didn't expect Wu Ren to be so determined, and was a little annoyed for a moment. But no one could tell how many people came across the street. At this point, the two armies met at the mouth of the valley. No one could leave calmly, and they could only fight.
The Han army's formation moved southward and spread out to open areas to set up formations. After discussion among the generals, Guo Huai's tribe was chosen as the right army, Li Dian's tribe was chosen as the left army, and Wang Ling's tribe was chosen as the middle army. This means that Guo Huai faces Lu Meng, Li Dian faces Zhu Ran, and Wang Ling faces Lu Dai. Everyone thought that Lü Meng had the highest status among the enemy troops and was also the most difficult to deal with.
The Han army was setting up a formation, but the Wu people had other plans. Lu Meng, the commander-in-chief of the Central Army, sent for Zhu Ran of the Left Army and said to him: "I will make an exchange with you. I will lead the Left Army and you will lead the Central Army."
Seeing Zhu Ran's confusion, Lü Meng explained: "When the enemy heard that I was in the Chinese army, they must have thought that the Chinese army was the main force. In fact, you also know that I only brought 10,000 elites this time, and I was just bluffing against them. Including Lu Zijing's 30,000 people, it is not enough to fight them. So I told Zijing before that we would send out another surprise force. Now I will go to the left wing, provoke the enemy's right wing, and fight with them. You just need to find the right moment. , go through the gap after the enemy troops are dispatched. Don’t rush to fight when you encounter the enemy. Wait until Zijing’s surprise troops arrive, and if you cooperate with him to fight together, you will definitely achieve success!”
Zhu Ran had never heard of these plans before, and he was a little repulsed by the fact that he had to hand over his own piece to Lu Meng to conduct it, but he couldn't help but feel a little moved when he heard Lu Bu's arrangement was so clever. After thinking for a while, he hesitated and said: "I am willing to listen to the commander's command. I will lead the troops through the enemy's formation and make the puppet army be attacked from both sides!"
