In the wilderness late at night, the bright moonlight shone on the earth, preventing the twenty grain trucks heading south from being blinded.
The cool evening breeze blew, swaying the forest branches and leaves, and the reflections in the moonlight were swaying. The night owl's cry from time to time made the five-hundred-person food protection team feel even heavier.
Tonight's mission is not for military merit.
In the distance, a pair of eyes were examining the advancing grain team. After they entered a fork in the road and determined the route, he turned around, mounted his horse, and galloped away.
After traveling five miles, he came to a dense forest and dismounted, "General, Lu Jun has left Anlin Road. All the subordinates ten miles behind have checked and confirmed that there is no ambush!"
Li Tong, who was sitting on a raised stone, held his sword with both hands, his eyes closed, and he looked like he was asleep.
After a while, he waved and said, "Let's explore again!"
"Here!"
After the scout left, the lieutenant on the side asked puzzledly: "General, since there is no ambush, why not make a decision immediately, lest things change if it is too late?"
Li Tong was noncommittal and silent, like a statue.
As this was his first battle after joining Cao Ying, he did not dare to take it lightly even if it meant robbing food and even if there were only 500 people on the opposite side.
Because he clearly remembered that there were two dense forests along Anlin Road, and the dense forests could be used for ambush.
He wanted to wait until the other party walked out of the wilderness and confirmed that there were no dangers around him before taking action. He was not in a hurry anyway.
Besides, he brought eight hundred cavalry with him, and the food and grass were traveling at such a speed that if he wanted to, he could catch up even after sleeping.
It was July, and there was already a bit of chill in the wilderness at night, but there were many mosquitoes in the dense forest, and Cao Jun who was ambushing here was tormented to no end.
Finally, after an hour and a half, the scout came back again.
"General, Lu Jun left Anlin Road and entered Qianhe Bay."
Hearing this, Li Tong finally opened his eyes.
There is a flat river in Qianhe Bay with no cover on all sides. Eight hundred cavalry can kill them all in a moment.
Moreover, there is no need to worry about ambushes.
"Soldiers, obey orders!"
"My subordinate is here!"
"Follow me to Qianhe Bay!"
"Here!"
It's obvious that there are only 500 people on the other side, and it's obviously just a robbery of food. It makes your blood boil, but it won't, the centurion of the cavalry thought in his heart.
A group of eight hundred horsemen, with their heads in the arms and their horses bound in hooves, headed towards the shallow river bend to kill.
Maybe it's because the night in the wilderness is so quiet that you can clearly hear the sound of horse hooves even if you are wrapped in a coarse cloth; or maybe it's because the moon is so bright that night that you can see for miles.
In short, Li Tong and his men were still two or three miles away from the grain truck, so the people in the grain transport team began to shout in panic, "The enemy is attacking! There is an enemy cavalry attack! Run!"
With just a shout, the five hundred people abandoned the grain cart and fled in all directions. The target was also very clear, which was to go in the opposite direction, hoping that the other party would have some scruples and give up the pursuit.
"Stop chasing! I'm afraid there's a scam!" He rushed to the grain truck, but Lu Jun had already run away.
Of course he could catch up if he wanted to, but Li Tong knew very well that his mission was to rob food, not kill people.
He turned over and dismounted, took out the sword from his waist and pierced a burlap sack on the grain cart. After pulling it out, the wheat inside flowed out.
"Withdraw!" After confirming that everything was correct, he took the grain truck and turned it around.
Qianhe Bay is not close to Cao Jun's camp. It is more than 40 miles away. In addition, there are several water veins passing through it. To find shoals and wade, the eight hundred cavalry can only escort them slowly. Grain truck.
As a result, Liu Bei's scouts discovered that the food and grass had been robbed and passed the news back to Ankou, but they had not yet returned to the camp.
"What? All twenty grain trucks were robbed?"
Liu Bei, who was wearing an inner coat and a satin robe without even wearing shoes, ran out of the room when he heard the news.
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei stood at the door, their expressions were not very good.
"Our people chased for ten miles and did not see anyone pursuing Lu Jun. I think all the food and grass have entered Cao's camp!" Guan Yu looked unwilling.
Five thousand stones, that was five thousand stones of food and grass. It was enough for the people in Ankou County for a month, so it was given to Cao Cao for free.
For Lu Bu, it was just a loss of five thousand stones of food and grass, but for the three brothers dormant in Ankou, this was their lifeblood.
Zhang Fei was so angry that he grinned and said: "This boy Lin, what clever tricks does he have? He just squandered the food and grass. If you really can't do it, give us the food and grass, and you can still keep the brothers full." Kill the enemy!"
Liu Bei was so distraught that he was not even in the mood to comfort his two younger brothers.
This matter, no matter how big or small, left him without any pajamas, and walked directly out of the room. Regardless of the cool night, he sat down on the stone steps with a solemn expression.
Five thousand stones of food and grass, that's five thousand stones. It's not like Lu Bu is rich. He used these five thousand stones of food and grass but didn't accomplish anything. Then when he really needs food and grass, he will still be willing to use it. Why don't you give it?
He had always believed that Lin Mo was a genius, so it was a bit unreasonable for him to write a letter with the intention of being kidnapped by Cao Cao. After all, there was really no place where he could be ambushed along the way.
But he was still willing to obey the orders because he also believed in Lin Mo.
As a result, all five thousand stones of food and grass fell into Cao's camp, and we got nothing.
"There is no such truth in this world!" Obviously, Liu Bei became more and more angry as he thought about it.
"Faint move."
Guan Yu narrowed his red eyes, stood in front of Liu Bei, and sneered: "Young people can't stand setbacks. After being beaten by Cao Cao for a while, they started to make stupid moves."
deathly silence
After an unknown amount of time, Liu Bei finally raised his eyes to look at Guan Yu, his eyes full of exhaustion, "Hasn't Jingzhou received a reply yet?"
I had a vague feeling that I should leave a way out.
He can't compare with Lu Bu. If the front line is defeated, he can retreat to Jiujiang. For Liu Bei, if he is defeated here, there will be no place to go.
Guan Yu sighed. Although he didn't speak, the answer was already written on his face.
Just when Liu Bei lowered his head in despair, Guan Yu added: "But Liu Biao's son Liu Qi actually sent someone here."
"Where is the messenger? Is there a letter?" Liu Bei stood up suddenly.
Guan Yu shook his head, "It's just a dictation. Young Master Liu Qi said that his father wanted to accept us, but the Cai family has been blocking it. Young Master hopes that we can go directly to Jingzhou. As long as we arrive, he will mediate and persuade Liu Biao."
Liu Bei was very surprised by these words.
Most of the government affairs in Jingzhou are controlled by the four major families of Huang, Cai, Pang, and Kuai. This is true, but Liu Biao is not ready to accept that he can't make the final decision in such small matters. Obviously, he himself is wavering before he gets it right. The Cai family’s intention.
As the eldest son and the heir to the Jingzhou family business, Liu Qi would disobey his father in this way.
I'm afraid there's a lot going on here.
If Liu Biao invited him to Jingzhou, Liu Bei would certainly not hesitate, but since the person coming was Liu Qi's messenger, he would have to consider the matter.
Moreover, now that the battle situation has entered a stalemate, it is not possible to escape unscathed even if you want to leave.
In the final analysis, Liu Bei just wanted to find a way out first.
Liu Bei frowned and frowned. After thinking about it, he shook his head and said, "Let's first see if Lu Bu has any backup plans."
From the defeat at Donglinkou to today's stupid move, Liu Bei's trust in Lin Mo plummeted.
It is understandable that young people will inevitably feel proud after achieving some meritorious deeds.
But, the real king always goes through hardships and finally emerges from the phoenix nirvana.
After some setbacks, he became a mess, and in the end it was difficult for him to become a great person.
In Cao's camp, he watched the grain carts push into the camp gate one after another. Cao Cao did not kill Cheng Yu who woke him up. Obviously, he would not kill people in his sleep.
He patted one of the grain trucks and nodded with satisfaction.
Five thousand stones of food and grass is definitely a huge fortune in this age of constant war.
Although he could only sustain an army of tens of thousands of people for ten days and a half, the biggest purpose of robbing this batch of food and grass was not to feed his men, but to cut off Liu Bei's supplies and make him He won't fight.
Achieving the goal is more important than anything else.
"Are there any casualties?" Cao Cao looked at Li Tong with his hands behind his back.
Li Tong smiled arrogantly, clasped his fists and bowed, "I reported to Sikong that our army rushed to the grain truck, but Lu Bu's men fled in panic without losing a single soldier!"
Zero casualties, this has always been a legend.
But when Cao Cao heard this, the smile on his face froze, and then a subtle transformation occurred, and his eyes flickered a little.
He slowly turned around to look at Li Tong and asked word for word: "You mean, before you even reached the front of the formation, the other party just appeared and ran away?"
"Sikong, what's the problem?"
When he asked this, Li Tong became a little unconfident and quickly explained: "The last general made his move after people watched them for more than ten miles."
Cao Cao shook his head sadly and asked softly: "Don't you think it went too smoothly?"
"It went well, isn't it?" Li Tong obviously didn't have too many thoughts.
Cao Cao glanced at him, the disdain in his eyes was not concealed at all, "How come there are 500 escorts for 5,000 shi of grain and grass, right? You only have 800 cavalry, how could you let them abandon the grain and flee without even fighting." "
"The eight hundred cavalry led by General Coco have begun to charge. How to deal with the mere five hundred infantry?" Li Tong was obviously not convinced.
Cao Cao snorted, "Let me ask you, if the grain transport team loses grain and fodder, how should the military law deal with it?"
Li Tong raised his head and said: "The grain transport officer should be beheaded, and the soldiers should be beheaded if they abandon the grain and run away."
Before he finished speaking, Li Tong himself realized the problem.
Yes, if you just ran away, wouldn't you be asking for your own death?
With everyone dying on both sides, there must be a glimmer of hope after a battle.
If you rush over with tens of thousands of cavalry, it will be fine if the opponent runs away. You only have 800 cavalry. No matter how large the formation is, it is limited. There is no reason to run away like this.
After Li Tong thought about it clearly, he wondered: "Why is this?"
Cao Cao didn't want to talk to this idiot anymore, so he said loudly: "Food inspection!"
After giving the order, no matter how stupid Li Tong was, he realized that these grains and grass were probably poisonous!
So he hurriedly chased after them, moved all the grain trucks out of the granary, and placed them at the other end.
Then take out a bag of grain from each vehicle, then take the grain and feed it to the live chickens in the chicken coop.
This is the simplest way to test for drugs.
After a while, no results came out, and Cao Cao felt that he had lost interest, so he simply went back to sleep.
But Li Tong couldn't sleep no matter what, he would not give up until he saw the result.
If he robbed a bunch of poisonous grain and grass and was not alert enough to inspect the grain, then it would be nice not to be held accountable, let alone any merit.
It's a pity that there is no rush. Animals like chickens don't eat at night, so they can only wait.
The chickens didn't start pecking until after dawn.
After another hour, all the chickens that were pecking were lying on the ground with their legs straight.
"Damn, it's really poisonous!" Seeing that he could no longer get any credit, Li Tong yelled, cursing Lu Bu for being a dangerous villain who dared to poison the army rations. If I don't rob the rations today, Liu Bei will I'm going to be poisoned to death by you!
No, no, I have to report it to Sikong quickly.
Cao Cao didn't sound like he was blaming Li Tong. He sneered a little proudly, "You dare to do the same thing even with a small skill."
Then he waved his hand, signaling for him to step back and rest.
At the end, he added: "Let Fengxiao come over."
"Here."
(End of chapter)
