In the second year of the first peace, in July.

After Dong Zhuo led his troops to Chang'an, the direction of Luoyang could already lift the alert, and there was no need to strictly guard against Dong Zhuo's soldiers and horses.

But Li Xian could not be idle, he sent several groups of scout horses to cross the Yellow River to find out whether the bandits in the direction of Montenegro were active.

He also selected three Dongjun people with good psychological and physical qualities, and sent them to blend in with the thieves in Montenegro and Yu Poison, and find out the details of their location and path in Bentun, so that they could send troops to recruit and suppress them in the future.

If they send troops to attack the counties on a large scale, they can also give the news as soon as possible and let the counties and counties garrison their troops to take precautions.

Modern people play a very slippery thing like this, but people in the Han Dynasty should not play like this, and they will never think of it.

The few people who were sent by Li Xian to be undercover agents were reluctant at first, thinking that it would be too immoral to do so and would damage their personality.

Li Xian gave them ideological work: "You only need to go undercover for a year, and after a year, no matter whether you have merit or not, I will give you a promotion and reward when you come back." Think about it, they came out to attack and rob the people, and for the sake of the disaster, how many people's wives were separated, and their families were ruined. Now you are loyal to the king and the people, and you have done great righteousness, although your deeds are despicable, but your righteousness is high in the sky. And I won't publicize this to the public, so you can go with confidence. ”

The three of them discussed and thought all night, and felt that what Li Xian said was also reasonable, and finally agreed to go undercover the next day.

At the same time, Li Xian also sent several people to answer the news with them.

However, there is usually no news, mainly when they want to come out on a large scale, they need to send the news out.

Since the Black Mountain thieves were shot dead by Zhang Niujiao's attack on Tao, the thieves elected Zhang Yan as the commander, and the number of thieves reached millions.

Zhang Yan is a native of Changshan Zhending, and Zhao Yun is a fellow villager.

Because of his agility, others called him Feiyan.

After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he gathered a group of teenagers and went out to attack and annex various mountains.

Back in time, there were already more than 10,000 people under his command.

Liu Bei was also like him at that time, he was the boss himself, with a group of young brothers.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei followed Liu Bei at that time.

It's just that Liu Bei didn't become a thief like Zhang Yan, but there should be other bosses.

Therefore, Liu Ziping of the plains knew that he was brave and recommended him to Qingzhou to follow the official army to conquer the traitor Zhang Chun, and then he officially entered the official career.

Otherwise you don't fight, who knows you're good.

Zhang Yan is also a smart person, and later took advantage of Cao Cao's general to pacify Jizhou, surrendered to Cao Cao, successfully cleared his name, became the general of Pingbei, and also sealed the Marquis of Anguo Pavilion.

At that time, in the area of Youji Jizhou and Sili Hanoi, there were many gangs and bosses like them.

The Zhang Niujiao mentioned above is a native of Boling, Zhongshan, and Liu Bei's Zhuo County is a neighboring county, and Zhang Yan's Changshan is also a neighboring county.

Lu Bu of Wuyuan in Bingzhou, Zhang Yang in the clouds, and Zhang Liao in Yanmen also gathered like them, and finally was called as a county official because of Wu Yong and embarked on a career as an official.

So Zhang Liao doesn't care who he is with, as long as he can be promoted and make a fortune.

He followed Ding Yuan first, then He Jin, then Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu, and finally Cao Cao.

When he was guarding Hefei, why did Cao Cao put Li Dian, who had opinions with him, together, and Le Jin.

Of these three Cao Cao, the most trustworthy is Le Jin, and he shouldn't trust Zhang Liao so much.

Cao Cao also rarely gave Zhang Liao the opportunity to command the army alone.

Zhang Liao and Xiahou Yuan surrounded Changfeng in the East China Sea, and when Changfeng was willing to surrender, Zhang Liao dared to go to Sangong Mountain alone and go to Changfeng's house to accept his surrender.

Because he knows people like Chang Xian, and he can trust him.

After Cao Cao broke through Yecheng, he sent Zhang Liao to Zhao and Changshan, and recruited the thieves of Yuanshan and Sun Qing of Montenegro.

Of course, no matter what their origins were, these were influenced by the social environment at the time.

It's far away, back to the point.

The so-called Montenegrin thieves are only a general term, and not all bandits are in Montenegro.

Now the undercover agents sent by Li Xian to infiltrate the Black Mountain thieves have finally spread the news that Yu Poison, Bai Huan Zhenggu and others will lead more than 100,000 people to attack and rob Wei County and Dong County.

After receiving the news, Li Xian immediately went to Puyang to discuss with Xiahoudun.

Li Xian said to Xiahoudun: "General Xiahou, I have discovered that the Black Mountain is poisoned and other thieves, and I want to lead more than 100,000 people to attack and rob Wei County and Dong County in the east. The general can quickly report to General Cao and General Yuan of Jizhou, so that they can take precautions and protect the people's safety. ”

Although Li Xian belongs to Xiahoudun, he is now in the limelight, and he seems to have the potential to catch up with Xiahoudun, which makes Xiahoudun feel a little unhappy.

Li Xian did not report the news directly to Cao Cao, but first informed Xiahoudun, and also expressed respect to Xiahoudun and wanted to improve the relationship.

Xiahoudun asked, "Have the bandits entered the realm of Wei County and Dong County?" ”

"I received news a few days ago that they just left the valley, and now they should have almost entered the realm of Wei County, and they will enter Dong County in a few days."

"Since the thieves have not yet entered our East County, why should we panic, it is not too late for the thieves to enter the East County and we will send troops to attack."

Xiahoudun didn't disbelieve Li Xian, but he didn't pay attention to the bandits, he felt that those black mountain thieves were not vulnerable at all.

"I have sent out a scout horse to investigate the news of the bandits, and I hope that the general will also be ready to attack the thieves in the next few days."

Li Xian has fulfilled his duty to inform, and whether he listens or not, whether he believes it or not, is Xiahoudun's business.

He quickly went to Dongwuyang to inform Cao Cao of this information, so that Cao Cao could be prepared.

Seven days later, more than 50,000 Montenegrin thieves entered the territory of Dongjun and attacked Dunqiu and Weiguo.

Li Xian gathered 2,000 soldiers and horses and went to Puyang to discuss countermeasures with Xiahoudun.

Xiahoudun had also received news at this time, and he had brought Li Xian into the city.

"What's the best way to go straight?" Xiahoudun asked first.

"There are many bandits, we can ambush the river first, wait for the thieves to cross the river and besiege them, and then take advantage of the situation to cross the river to pursue, then the thieves will be defeated."

"What if a thief doesn't cross the river?"

"There is General Cao's army in Dongwuyang, and although there are many thieves, they will not dare to go north, so they can only cross south. I expect that the thief will cross the river, and he who crosses the river will be in vain. ”

Even Li Xian knew who was going to cross the river, which made Xiahoudun somewhat unconvinced.

But the thieves will eventually cross the river, and Xiahoudun also has the same opinion.

Xiahoudun led 2,000 troops and left 2,000 people to guard Puyang.

He joined forces with Li Xian to wait in ambush twenty miles from the river crossing.

At the same time, Cao Cao has also taken Cao Ren, Cao Hong, and Xi Zhicai.

He personally led 7,000 foot soldiers and 1,000 cavalry to attack the bandits.

Only Xiahou Yuan, Xun Yu, Chen Gong and others were left to defend the city.

When Xun Yu went to write to Guo Jia, he had already received a letter from Guo Tu and Xin Ping in Jizhou, asking him to go to Jizhou to assist Yuan Shao.

So Guo Jia went to Jizhou, and only Xi Zhi received Xun Yu's book and came to Dongjun.

At this time, the three undercover agents sent out by Li Xian crossed the Yellow River in advance and returned to Li Xian's troops.

The information they brought back was: the Black Mountain thieves attacked Wei County with poison, and the Yellow River attacked the area of Dunqiu Weiguo in the north of the Yellow River, and Bai Huan was responsible for crossing the Yellow River to attack Puyang.

Bai Huan led more than 15,000 people, all of whom were foot soldiers.

There were fifteen thousand thieves, and Li Xian and Xiahoudun together had 4,000 people, of which 1,000 were cavalry, which was more than enough to deal with the bandits.

Li Xian's plan was: Xiahoudun led his troops to ambush the Yellow River ten miles away, and Li Xian led his troops to lie in ambush twenty miles away from the Yellow River.

Xiahoudun let go of the bandits first, and when Li Xian launched an attack in front of him, and when the bandits fled, Xiahoudun killed from the side, blocked the bandits' retreat, and attacked back and forth.

By noon, most of the bandits had crossed the Yellow River and were clamoring to march towards Puyang City.

Xiahou died down and lay quietly two miles beside the road, allowing the bandits to pass with peace of mind.

Bai Huan held a big knife in his hand, rode on a horse, and walked among the thieves.

They did not send out sentinels to detect ambushes like the officers and soldiers did.

This time, they made a big move, and Bai Huan brought more than 10,000 people, and they didn't take the Puyang defenders very seriously.

When he was marching, suddenly the drums in front of him rumbled, the flags were unfurled, and the shouts of killing shook the sky.

After a while, a group of cavalry rushed first.

The bandits who walked in front saw the general rushing in front of the incoming army, with golden helmets and iron armor, holding halberds, stepping off the white horse, and being extremely majestic.

They were so frightened that they shouted, "It's General Halberd, everyone run!" ”