"Bo Miao, quickly order a group of sergeants to arrange kerosene and other fire starters along the plank road behind you." Zhao Yun ordered Deng Zhi in a firm tone.
Hearing this, Deng Zhi was stunned for a moment, then realized what he said and hurriedly advised: "General, don't do it. If the plank road is burned down, it will be extremely difficult to build in the future. I am afraid that the Baoxie Road will not be used within a year or two. In this way, our army will go north." There will be one less road when exiting the customs."
After a pause, he continued: "Old General, if Zhi Qin leads an army to attack, the Wei army will never retreat until it is destroyed."
"If we can attack by force, we will be here soon." Zhao Yun said with a smile: "Bo Miao does not need to persuade me anymore, the responsibility will be borne by me alone. Go and arrange manpower quickly, before it is too late."
Deng Zhi said: "That's not what Zhi meant. Alas, I'll go right away." After that, he stamped his feet and went to arrange his men.
In the afternoon, the sentinels reported that thousands of Wei troops were chasing after them, and they were less than twenty miles away from here. The fire starters placed by the Han army on the plank road were already several miles away. If they were burned down, they would be enough to cut off Cao Zhen's pursuit.
After hearing this report, Zhao Yun looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was getting lower and lower in the west, so he said to Deng Zhi: "We can't wait any longer, Bo Miao, send the order to light the fire."
"General, are you really going to do this?" Deng Zhi wanted to persuade again: "Why don't we divide the two thousand troops and go back to block the Wei army. As long as we can break through the enemy in the valley, our army will have a chance to turn around."
"This is too risky. If we can't break through the valley in front of us at night, there will be more and more Wei troops. By then, we will be surrounded in the middle and will be defeated." Zhao Yun sighed and continued: "Go and light the fire."
Deng Zhi also sighed, cupped his hands and said, "No."
On the other side, the Wei army scouts were also reporting to Cao Zhen that the Han army was blocked. Cao Zhen was overjoyed after hearing this: "Haha, Qin Ji and the others did a good job. God is really helping me."
"But General, I smelled the smell of kerosene on the plank road in front. It seems that the Shu thieves may have burned down the plank road." said the scout.
Cao Zhen said in shock: "What, this is happening? Damn it, this old man Zhao Yun wants to set fire to stop our army again, he is so shameless!"
He quickly issued an order: "Order the lightly-armed soldiers in front of us to speed up and prevent the Shu army from burning down the plank road." After saying this, he urged the troops to speed up their pace.
On the plank road where only three or four people could walk side by side, Deng Zhi personally led people to the nearest ignition point. As long as this place was ignited, the fire would spread for several miles.
"Light the fire."
Deng Zhi looked back at the valley ahead. The sound of fighting there had not stopped, and seemed to be getting louder. At this moment, the army cannot advance or retreat, and has no choice but to burn down the plank road.
Deng Zhi and others took a few steps back, leaving only a sergeant holding a torch in front. As the sergeant was about to light the torch on the railing of the plank road sprinkled with kerosene, he suddenly heard a shout from behind: "Stop lighting the fire." ,Stop ignition..."
Deng Zhi and others looked for the sound and saw a messenger rushing towards him. He ran up to Deng Zhi and said, "General Deng, General Zhao has ordered that the plank road does not need to be burned down."
"Why is this?" Deng Zhi was surprised and happy.
The messenger replied: "Reinforcements are coming from behind the valley. Under the surprise attack, the Wei army was attacked from both sides. Most of them have been wiped out. Our army can withdraw through the valley."
"This is happening? It's great." Deng Zhi said happily.
Then he ordered the sergeant to extinguish the torch and hurried back to the front. From a distance, he saw Zhao Yun talking to a well-armored general. After careful inspection, he found that the general was Liu Yin, the lieutenant general of Hanzhong County.
"General Zilong."
"General Liu Zhonglang."
Zhao Yun looked back and said with a smile: "Oh, Bo Miao is back."
"Yin has met General Deng." Liu Yin cupped his fists and saluted.
Deng Zhi asked: "General Zilong, what happened? Why is General Liu Zhonglang here?"
"Haha, Bo Miao, fortunately Xiuren came in time and suddenly came out from behind the Wei army, killing hundreds of Wei soldiers in one fell swoop. Only a few dozen of them ran over the mountains and along the remote mountain paths.
Now, the enemies in the valley have been cleared, and a certain brigade has been ordered to set off first. "Zhao Yun explained happily.
Deng Zhi nodded and said with a smile: "I see. Fortunately, the messengers ran very fast, and Zhi almost set the plank road on fire." He looked sideways at Liu Yin and asked, "How will the general know about me?" Waiting to be trapped here?”
Liu Yin replied: "I want General Bo Miao to know that Prime Minister Zhuge has sent an envoy to let the two generals choose an opportunity to return to Hanzhong. A letter has also been sent to my family, and I have ordered General Mo to lead his troops to Baoxie Road to respond.
At the end of last night, the general led 3,000 troops to Di Ge for a rest. This morning, after walking for twenty or thirty miles, he encountered 3,000 right-wing troops returning with a large amount of military supplies. Only then did they know that the two generals had ordered the withdrawal. So the general asked the three thousand right-wing troops to retreat to Chiya on their own, while he led his sergeants to come to meet them.
Approaching this valley, the scouts reported that the Wei army was fighting with our army here, so he led his troops to sneak attack from behind and successfully eliminated this Wei army. "
"So that's it. Fortunately, General Zhonglang was well prepared and led his troops to respond. Otherwise, our army would have had no choice but to burn down the plank road." Deng Zhi said happily.
Zhao Yun nodded and said, "Yes, if Yang Mingzhi had not had the foresight, our right army would have been in danger."
"Mr. Yang Fu is very witty and he really deserves his reputation!" Deng Zhi also admired him.
Liu Yin said: "It's getting late, so I would like to ask the two generals to retreat first and stay here to block the Wei army."
"Well, this valley is indeed an excellent dangerous pass." Zhao Yun said: "In this way, Bo Miao, you lead the army to retreat, and I will lead a thousand troops to stay with Xiuran to stop the enemy."
"yes."
Soon, Deng Zhi led the large group of troops to evacuate. Nearly 4,000 soldiers and horses under Zhao Yun and Liu Yin were deployed on the peaks on both sides to ambush, waiting for the arrival of the Wei army.
"Hmph, the Shu thieves really want to burn down the plank road. They are really crazy." Cao Zhen saw the fire starters hidden around the plank road and couldn't help but cursed.
General Yan He came closer and said, "General, that's not right. Since the Shu thieves had prepared fire starters, why didn't they burn down the plank road? There must be something fishy in this."
"Well, this matter is indeed a bit strange. Could it be that something happened to Qin Ji and the others?" Cao Zhen said with doubts: "There is no sound of fighting in the front. It is impossible to say that Qin Ji and the others have been defeated."
"Instruct the scouts to go forward and investigate, paying special attention to whether there is an ambush of Shu thieves hiding in the valley ahead."
The captain in charge of deploying the scouts quickly responded: "No."
Less than half an hour later, Cao Zhen led his troops to the front of the valley. By this time, it was already dark, and the valley hundreds of steps away was quiet. The vaguely visible valley mouth was like a bloody mouth waiting for strangers to enter, revealing an infiltrating... breath.
"Where have Qin Ji and the others gone? Where are the Shu army?" Cao Zhen was shocked when he saw that no one was fighting in the valley.
Yan He said: "General, it seems that General Qin and others have been defeated by the Shu army. The Shu army has retreated far through this valley."
"Oh, that must be the case. Qin Ji is so incompetent that he let the Shu army run away. I will punish him when he returns." Cao Zhen nodded and said angrily.
"Report, General, there is an ambush of Shu troops in the valley ahead." Suddenly, three scouts came out of the valley and shouted.
Cao Zhen said in surprise: "All armies are on alert." He then asked the scout leader who came to him: "How many people are there in the Shu army? What's the situation in the valley?"
"Back to the general, I waited until I took a look inside the valley. The ground was full of corpses, both from our army and those from the Shu army. Although we found traces of a large number of Shu troops moving forward, we still looked at the peaks on both sides. Take a look.
Unexpectedly, before they reached the mountainside, dozens of arrows were shot from the mountain, and the four brothers were shot to death immediately. The three of us were at the end and luckily escaped with our lives. We were unable to find out how many ambush soldiers there were, but we estimated that there were no less than a few hundred people. "
"I see, I understand." Cao Zhen nodded and waved the scout to retreat.
"General, what should we do now?" Yan He asked.
