Three Kingdoms

Tianshui.

In the camp of the Xiliang allied forces not far from Tianshui City, in a large tent, several torches tied to pillars illuminated the tent brightly. In the middle of the tent, the Xiliang generals were sitting together. In the middle was a simple map, and at the bottom was the Xiliang scout who had just returned.

"The troops conquering the west are marching eastward..."

The Xiliang scouts who were sent to Shanggui were covered in dust and lowered their heads to report.

After hearing the news, the Xiliang generals were confused, some were secretly happy, some were relieved, and some frowned deeply.

"What's the point of this expedition to the west?" Cheng Yin stroked his beard and kept moving his eyes from side to side and said, "First send General Han to demonstrate with his armor, and then lead his troops back east without fighting?"

"...According to the current situation, if the expedition to the west is to advance westward, it will naturally take this place..." Ma Wan said, "The expedition to the west has reached Shanggui, only two days away from here, but now there is no fight and no dispatch. It’s really weird to retreat eastward like this..."

Li Kan said: "Is it possible that the food supplies for the Western Expeditionary Army have been exhausted and they have to return?"

Ma Wan waved his hand and said: "Hey, how is it possible? The Hanzhong reinforcements that marched to the west brought some reinforcements. If it is ten days and a half months later, it is possible. It has only been a few days now, how is it possible that the food will be exhausted? "

Cheng Yi laughed loudly and said, "Or is Zheng Xi injured and wants to go back to Guanzhong to heal?"

Duan Xuan frowned and said: "As far as I know, Zhengxi is not a general in front of the formation. He always stays in the center of the army. He is not defeated at the moment. How can he be injured? In my opinion, it may be a ploy to lure troops?"

Cheng Yin thought for a moment, nodded, and said: "General Duan is right, it is indeed possible. The terrain of Shanggui Tianshui is wide, which is conducive for us to move around, but it is not conducive for the Zhengxi infantry to form formations, so If we fight in the mountains and ravines to the east, we can better utilize our infantry advantage..."

Liang Xing followed the topic and said: "If that's the case, it is indeed possible. To the east of Shanggui, there are Longshan Mountains, ravines, and woodlands. Let's not talk about whether there is an ambush in Zhengxi. Even if there is an ambush, our scouts will It may not be possible to detect them all..."

Zhang Heng said: "If Zhengxi attacks Tianshui, he will be in the light and we will be in the dark. We can naturally attack and outflank Zhengxi, making it impossible for Zhengxi to take care of both ends. But now that Zhengxi retreats, if we pursue him, we will become We are in the open, tsk tsk..."

The candidate said: "Zhengxi is good at fighting. This move must have deep meaning. If you don't know what's going on, it's better not to act rashly."

"That's right, if the expedition to the west doesn't come, I can't wait. At worst, if we give up, we won't have any losses..." Zhang Heng originally didn't have many troops, and his relationship with Han Sui was average, so naturally he didn't I must avenge Han Sui, so it would be best if I didn't fight him.

Cheng Gongying sat aside and saw that everyone was talking casually and even talked about the two-pronged strike. He couldn't help but feel a little anxious. He stood up, with tears in his eyes and said with a sad voice. : "Everyone! Everyone! Today Zhengxi killed General Han. If we can't take revenge, how can we face the elders in our hometown? How can we face the heroes of the world? If we can't work together, if we kill General Han today, how can we kill him tomorrow? No other generals? By that time, there will be no one left in Xiliang!"

After Cheng Gongying finished speaking, the tent became a little dull.

It turned out that the Xiliang tribes were summoned by Han Sui. They originally wanted to go further and obtain greater benefits, but they did not expect that before the money and items were obtained, Han Sui, the previous convener, had already been defeated. People were not seen alive or dead. corpse, then the previous plan to obtain the wealth in Guanzhong will naturally disappear.

Without financial motivation, just rely on the word "revenge" to send troops to fight Zhengxi?

Although there are many such things in the history of Xiliang, for example, during the period of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, the Qiang people rebelled, mostly because Han officials killed some Qiang people or local right-wingers because of some things.

But there are also some things where there is no talk of revenge at all...

For example, the deaths of Beigong Boyu and Bian Zhang.

Do you really care about revenge?

Therefore, in fact, revenge or not is just a cover. Use it when you need it, and throw it aside when you don't need it.

The most important thing is that neither Han Sui nor Ma Chao can defeat Fei Qian, the general who conquered the west. How can we win if we rush forward recklessly?

Although the Xiliang generals each had their own ideas, they basically reached an agreement on this point. Seeing Cheng Gongying's sad words, Duan Xuan coughed and said with emotion: "Of course General Han must be avenged! However, Zhengxi There are many tricks, so we have to be on guard. According to your wishes, we should send some more scouts to investigate carefully, lest we fall into the treacherous plan of conquering the west."

Cheng Yin quickly glanced at Cheng Gongying, then stroked his beard and nodded and said: "General Duan is right. General Cheng Gong should not be impatient. We will naturally assist General Cheng Gong in revenge for General Han. However, When a large army marches, it needs a commander to coordinate it from the center to the left and right. Otherwise, if the general's orders are not passed and the military orders are not fulfilled, wouldn't it be a major event?"

The candidate said: "Brother Cheng's words are reasonable. If you are a man of merit, you will not avoid relatives. Just elect Brother Cheng as the leader of the Xiliang Alliance!"

Before Cheng Yin waved his hand with a smile, Yang Qiu frowned and said: "General Han's life and death are unknown, and the enemy is on his side. He doesn't think about how to fight to defeat the enemy, but he chooses to push the Xiliang leader? It's putting the cart before the horse, isn't it?"

Cheng Yin's face immediately fell.

Duan Yan glanced at Cheng Yin and said slowly: "Brother Yang is right. If General Han is still alive, it would be disrespectful for us to elect the leader of the alliance. If General Han really breaks his sword on the battlefield, his body will not be cold at the moment. To covet the position of alliance leader so eagerly, isn’t this a bit too much?”

Li Kanteng suddenly stood up and said: "Why don't you take the appearance of others? General Duan, if you have something to say, just say it directly, don't beat around the bush and be weird!"

Duan Xuan narrowed his eyes with a dead smile and said: "Why, General Li is so majestic, but he still has a prejudice against a certain person? When General Han was here before, a certain person also had something to say. Now that General Han is gone, a certain person You can’t even say a word?”

Liang Xing sneered at the side and said: "You haven't even become the leader of the alliance. You are so majestic and you can't say a word. If you really become the leader of the alliance, will there be a way for us to survive?"

Li Kan did not dare to get angry with the powerful Duan Xuan, but he was not afraid of Liang Xing, who was almost the same. He immediately pointed at Liang Xing angrily and shouted: "You have the guts to say it again?!"

Liang Xing also stood up, with an angry look on his face and his hand on the handle of the sword at his waist: "The generals didn't say anything when we sat down. Why are you jumping out and gesticulating? If you want to find trouble, grandpa will accompany you!"

Seeing that the situation was not right, the people on the side quickly hugged Li Liang and separated them...

Cheng Gongying stood there, seeing that a good pre-war meeting turned into a farce, and he was filled with anger. He wanted to borrow the power of these Xiliang generals, so he couldn't scold or hit him, he could only Holding it in forcefully. Perhaps it was because the torches were burning in the big tent and the oxygen was thin, or perhaps because his blood pressure was too high for a while and he couldn't control it. Cheng Gongying felt his eyes go black for a while, and he couldn't stand steadily, so he fell back...

…………………………

Street pavilion.

Although the matter was urgent, we should not mess up the order just because the matter was urgent. Therefore, the army still marched at a normal speed and did not rush to march.

Jia Xu led the vanguard into Fanxudao Road, while Fei Qian led the cavalry center and made some repairs at the west entrance of Fanxudao Road, waiting for feedback from the front.

At the west entrance of Fanxu Road, there is a famous place. Strictly speaking, it is not famous now. It was a place that became famous only because of Brother Zhu's Northern Expedition, Street Pavilion.

The street pavilion is located at the west entrance of Fanxu Road. There used to be an ancient city, but it has been abandoned for a long time, and the city wall has been damaged and cannot be used.

Now that he's here, Fei Qian also went around this abandoned ancient city. He looked at the broken eaves and broken walls that remained in the small town, and found that this ancient city was not actually a ruined city that was destroyed during the war, as he originally thought. Damaged ones should be those that had to be voluntarily abandoned due to the cutoff of the water source.

Because the earthquake in the early Han Dynasty not only broke the Chencang Road, but also changed the flow direction of the Western Han Dynasty water, and even changed some underground water veins, causing the Qingshui River that was supposed to originate from the north of Jieting to move to the south. The wells in the ancient city naturally dried up, and one had to go to the Qingshui River more than ten miles away to get water. For the people in the early Han Dynasty, this was undoubtedly a natural disaster that could not survive, and the only choice was to abandon the street pavilions. Here, find another place to make a living.

It is precisely because of this that Fanxu Road Crossing is not a suitable place to set up a camp. Li Ru's camp was not set up at a street pavilion that was short of water, but at the source of Qingshui River, ten miles south of the ancient city of Jieting. , for the convenience of getting water.

But the problem is that Ma Su, who has never been to the street pavilion in his life, doesn't know that the street pavilion is short of water...

It's even possible that even Brother Pig may not know it.

"Wen You, if we unite 20,000 infantry to meet the 50,000 long-attack cavalry in Guanzhong, how should we set up a stronghold?" Fei Qian stood in the south of the damaged Jieting ancient city, looking at the Fanxu crossing in the distance. After all, he couldn't hold it back and asked Li Rudao for advice.

"Twenty thousand infantry? Fifty thousand enemy cavalry?" Li Ru glanced at Fei Qian.

Fei Qian understood what Li Ru meant, so he added: "Twenty thousand infantry do not seek complete victory, but only want to stop the enemy. We will arrive here in a day or two first. Fifty thousand cavalry came from Guanzhong to attack over a long distance, and all the men and horses were exhausted."

Is this the only way to compare...

After Fei Qian's supplementary explanation, Li Rufang nodded. Although he didn't fully understand why Fei Qian suddenly asked such a strange question, and he also had precise comparisons of soldiers and battlefield settings, he still thought about it and smiled hoarsely. Laughing, he said: "If someone leads the infantry purely to block the enemy, so that they can easily enter the Fanxu Road and set up a stronghold. Firewood can be piled up in the stronghold to lure the enemy into breaking the stronghold. Let's burn it first and then talk about it!"

Fei Qian was stunned and then laughed.

Sure enough, different people have different ways of dealing with it. Li Ru's way of coping can only be said to be very Li Ru. Although the west entrance of Fanxu Road is larger, there are 20,000 people, and they arrived a day or two early. They can set up a decent camp on the road, and the opponent has no choice but to attack.

However, as soon as he attacked, he fell into Li Ru's trap. Once the fire was set off, it would first dampen the enemy's energy, and secondly, the burning camp would naturally block the opponent's route of further attack. At least until the flames were extinguished, there would be more enemies. After two or three days, and then facing the next camp, the enemy will inevitably shrink back, whether to attack or not to attack...

The only problem is the wood and tools to build the stronghold. Although it is a bit difficult, there is not a shortage of trees on Longshan Mountain. In addition, there are 20,000 people. If organized properly, it will not be a big problem to stop them for ten days and a half.

Of course, if God is blind and it rains, there will be nothing to say.

Li Ru stroked his beard, looked at Fan Xudao thoughtfully and said, "The general's concerns are quite reasonable. If we retreat from Guanzhong, it will be troublesome for the Xiliang generals to establish a stronghold on the road..." Although the Qiang people Hu Qi are not good at building strongholds, there is still a possibility of such an eventuality.

Hearing this, Fei Qian's smile couldn't help but stiffen for a moment, and then he changed the subject and said, "If that's the case, Wen You must have a plan, so there's no need to say anything else... Well, I heard that Han Wen made an appointment among the Qiang people, and his reputation is Quite high, I don’t know if Wenyou knows why?”

Li Ru smiled hoarsely and said: "Although the Qiang people are not familiar with the scriptures and meanings, they still value friendship. Han Wenyue has a cooking style. If there is a need, he will donate money to help. The Qiang and Hu are grateful for their kindness, so they are named after them. However, using rice to cultivate kindness, stone rice to cultivate hatred, and using wealth to seek kindness and hatred will eventually come to an end."

Fei Qian nodded.

Indeed, this is true for the Hu people, just like Liu Yu, who was also famous in Youzhou and was killed by Gongsun Zan. The Wuhuan people in Youzhou also opposed Gongsun Zan and joined Yuan Shao's banner.

Of course, this may be the reason why Yuan Shao's flag looks much brighter than Gongsun Zan's.

"...Northern Hebei, Gongsun is afraid that his time is numbered..." Thinking of Liu Yu, Gongsun Zan, Fei Qian naturally thought of Yuan Shao of Jizhou, "At the end of this year, or early next year, Yuan Benchu ​​will be able to sit in Jiyou, left Nawuhuan is riding, and Qingyan's troops are on the right, either going south or westward... Therefore, it is not suitable to be stagnant here in Longxi and should be broken off quickly."

Hearing this, Li Ru was silent for a moment, then seriously raised his hands towards Fei Qiangong and said, "The general is far-sighted, and Wen You knows it."

Now that the stall is a bit big, it is better to close it first, stabilize it, and at least remove some of the hidden dangers inside. Otherwise, if another Zheng family second person or Hu Chuquan second person comes out, it will be a disaster. It's too much to handle.

The soldiers from the front rushed out from the Bansu crossing, waving blue flags to indicate that everything was safe.

Fei Qian nodded towards Li Ru, then waved his hand and ordered the rear cavalry to start entering Fanxudao.

"In this way, the matter of Longxi is entrusted to Wenyou. I will set off immediately, and Wenyou will stay."

Anyway, a smart man like Li Ru doesn't need too many explanations or instructions at all, so Fei Qian didn't continue to say anything more about Longyou's specific strategy, declined Li Ru and continued to send him off. After beating the horse, he took Huang Xu and other personal guards to Fanxudao, and followed the large group of people to Guanzhong...