Wuyang, Cao Xiutun military land.

Raising troops to the north to blockade Lishui had the intention of preventing the Han army from scattering horses and burning grain.

Now he has more than 20,000 soldiers under his command, and the five armies are divided into seventy-mile joint camps, looking for fighters like Xiahou Shang.

Zhou Wei, who fled from Jingzhou, was serving as a Zhonglang general under his command, and the northern scholars were deeply sympathetic to the Jiangdong scholars, and it was not easy for Zhou Wei to run out of such a lone seedling, and he was familiar with the geography and climate of Jiangdong, and he also went around Jingzhou, and he was given a Zhonglang general position, and more than 1,000 troops barely had a foothold.

Zhou Wei is not a person who is in peace, and he went out to reconnoiter the Han army camp with Li Xu, the general of Wuyi Zhonglang, and Wuyang is only less than sixty miles away from Tian Xin's camp.

Inspecting the geography in person is a thing that the school must experience.

It is related to one's own destiny and the lives of the officers and men of the whole army, and there is no room for sloppiness.

Zhou Wei and Li Xu also wore ordinary light riding leather armor, crouching in the reeds on the south bank of Lishui to observe the north bank, which was only twelve miles away from Tian Xin's camp, and there were several small guard camps outside the camp.

Li Xu saw that the Han army on the other side of the river was harvesting reeds, and many of the reeds had been dried, and they were being bundled and stacked: "Tian Xiaoxian is really bold in using soldiers, and his subordinates are also arrogant and unprepared, and they are easy to break." ”

"Not really."

Zhou Wei had another opinion: "Although his subordinates are arrogant, they are also eager to fight. The will to fight is high, and if it is not a quick and easy to break the enemy, you must not be careless. ”

On the other side of the river, Li Ji wore a bamboo hat to shade the sun and led a personal soldier to patrol the riverbank.

Li Xu and Zhou Wei retracted into the reeds, and waited for Li Ji to pass by before continuing to observe, Zhou Wei pointed to the sun-dried reed bundles: "This is for the night battle, Jingnan has many fish, and the officials will collect fish oil and accumulate it." After being impregnated with fish oil, a bundle of reeds can be burned for half the night, and the light is as brilliant as day. ”

Zhou Wei was a little silent, and seeing that Li Xu was silent, he continued in a hoarse voice: "When Tian Xiao first guarded Jiangling, he was short of fish oil. This person is fond of fire attacks, and used fire to break Lü Meng in Jiangling, and when he fought a decisive battle with the Jiangdong army in Maicheng, he sent knights to set fire to the wilderness, so that Jiangdong could not arrange ambushes and suspicious soldiers. Harvesting the surrounding reeds today also means to broaden the horizon. ”

"It turns out that there are a lot of intentions."

Li Xu squinted at Li Ji's back as he walked farther and farther, and pointed at the unharvested reeds in the upper reaches of the south bank of Lishui: "After cutting down the reeds on the north bank, the Han army will cut down the south bank." After the attack is empty, if our troops want to go to the south bank and intercept it, they will be exposed. The matter should be reported to General Zhennan to avoid mistakes. ”

Along the south bank of the Lishui River, you can march close to the foot of the mountain, and the reeds are the best cover. And because there are mountains in the southeast of Lishui, the terrain is higher and the land is hard.

Unlike the north bank of Lishui, due to the gentle terrain, there are many mud ponds and puddles, which are not suitable for large armies to sneak.

In the Yongdao that was renovated and repaired by the 70-mile Jingyu Chi Road, there was a small battalion every ten miles, and 700 troops were stationed.

The general Sun Lang was responsible for the defense of Yongdao, and most of the troops under his command were officials who rebelled due to forced labor in Yingchuan and Luoyang; As a condition for Cao Ren to evacuate, Cao Cao also opened the passage and let Yingchuan Sun Lang and Liang County Zheng Gan lead their troops and henchmen to withdraw to Nanyang.

The two brought more than 20,000 families of famine victims, all of whom were resettled between Wancheng and Xinye. The victims of this migration have experienced war, cold, and hunger, so most of them are young and strong men and women, and few are old and young.

It was by following Sun Lang that the Tianxin clan successfully fled south from Yingchuan.

At this time, Sun Lang was the general, and Zheng Gan was the Sima, with 5,000 immortal new troops guarding the Yongdao, and constantly increasing the Yongdao.

Based on the wooden wall of Yongdao, the loess is strengthened and prepared for fire prevention; He also built an earthen fortified longhouse on the inside of the wooden wall, which could not only garrison the soldiers, but also store supplies.

The climate is getting hotter and hotter, and the timber used to build the road is gradually drying out, and fire prevention has become the most important thing.

Fortunately, although the wooden wall corridor is long, the height of the wooden wall is only about eight feet, and the process of building the earthen wall is simple, and there is no need to build an elevated frame.

No one would expect the combat effectiveness of the 5,000 people of Sun Lang and Zheng Gan to be used completely as an engineering team, replacing the role of the 8,000 surrendered army.

Tian Xin Daying, as the weather heated, Meng Da became more and more anxious.

If he didn't have enough meritorious service, what face would he have left in Jingzhou?

Tian Xin had just taken off his armor and cooled off when he returned to the camp, and Meng Da and Shen Tan came to see him and asked about the military situation.

The map was placed in front of him, and Tian Xin held a folding fan in his hand and drew it between Daying and Yexian: "Tomorrow, the Longxiang Army will build a fence from Yexian County to our army's camp, and our army also wants to build Yexian." Only one can be repaired to guard against the light cavalry of the Wei army. ”

Meng Da hurriedly said: "This matter is easy, and I am willing to lead the army to build it." ”

Shen Tanshancheng had a heavy accent, just smiling, and his face was unwilling.

"In this way, after General Zidu and Long Xiang's army converge, he can assist Xu Chengzhen in transporting new wheat. The first batch of new wheat is about 20,000 stones, and after arriving at our army's camp, it can be transported back to Duyang by some stations of General Sun Lang. ”

Tian Xin pursed his lips as he spoke, the biggest problem now is the lack of transportation capacity, how many people will have to transport more than 100,000 stones of wheat?

Manpower picks up and carries, one person carries two stones, and the one-day foot journey is about eighty miles, barely transported from Yexian County to the vicinity of Duyang.

Whether it is transported from Yexian County to Duyang in one go, or with the battalion as the site, relay transportation, one person can transport two stones a day.

Sun Lang also had to bring people to build loess for the wooden wall plates, so each battalion of 700 people could squeeze out 2 or 300 people to assist in transportation. After deducting the daily consumption of the army, plus the capacity of donkeys, horses, and wheelbarrows in the camp, the upper limit of Sun Lang's daily capacity is about 7,000 stones.

This is the average capacity of Yongdao, Nanyang is also harvesting in summer, and the county guard Deng Fu lacks Ding Zhuang to mobilize the army, and it is impossible to divide labor to assist in transporting grain.

Sun Lang's 5,000 people can be in place because the 8,000 troops are placed in Xinye, and they can work in place of these 5,000 people.

After thinking for a while, Tian Xin settled Shen Tan first: "The general of Zhengbei is good at plagiarizing, I intend to use it as a guerrilla, and I also ask the general not to be anxious and appease the officials to recuperate." When it comes to war, I'm of great use. ”

Shen hesitated and arched his hand: "Junhou, my officials are not tolerant of heat and dryness, please use troops as soon as possible." ”

"Well, the decisive battle is within seven days."

After getting an accurate reply, Shen Tan left.

The mountain people under his command include Ba people, Han people, and Jing Man, and the living area is cool in summer, and it is really impossible to survive the heat of the plain in midsummer.

Some Ba people and Jing Man's head was prickly heat, so they had no choice but to cut their hair short to enjoy the coolness.

Then Tian Xin found Pang Lin, who was inspecting the barracks' combat readiness materials: "Brother Shiheng, I have the intention to borrow troops from the Mei family." ”

The barbarian king Meifu migrated down the mountain with most of the Jing barbarians, but several spacious and fertile valleys were still in Meishiki's hands, housing his relatives.

Mei Shi will lead 5,000 barbarians to participate in the Eastern Expedition, and Shamoke, the barbarian king of Wuxi in Jingnan, will also respond to Liu Bei's solicitation and will lead more than 10,000 barbarians down the river to participate in the battle together.

The population of Jingman is about 40,000 households, and the Mei clan in the Tunliu Valley still controls about 8,000 households of Jingman.

Mei Shi took away the elite Ding Zhuang who was recruited from the Jing Man, and the 8,000 Jing Barbarians of the Mei clan were not within the scope of the army, and they could easily mobilize 5,000 barbarians with their own weapons.

Regardless of the attached Jingman or the Jingman who stayed in the valley, now the statistics are made and the tax must be paid.

Pang Lin thought about it for a moment and shook his head: "When Mei's reinforcements arrive, it's too late." Now that His Majesty's Eastern Crusade is imminent, and there is Mencius Du's previous unauthorized dispatch of troops, I think it is not appropriate for filial piety to gather troops again. ”

Observing the change in Tian Xin's demeanor, Pang Lin said again: "The enemy surrounds me five times, and I can retreat with the whole army, which is a show of strength." Filial piety should not be obsessed with how many captives are killed, and it is advisable to think about it. ”

Tian Xin blinked, it was right to think so, the Wei army gathered three or four times the number of troops, but watching his own complete retreat would hit the morale of the Wei army.

This is also the reason why the Wei army pursued, the Wei army would rather continue to lose a small defeat than be contaminated with the suspicion of 'cowardice'.