“…… General Peng, Yue Xingren, you must not believe it, in fact, among the first people who followed our His Royal Highness the King of Han, in addition to the Xiang brothers of the King of Han, and General Feng Zhongfeng, the villain Wei Shan is the oldest! The villain not only personally participated in the army of His Royal Highness the King of Han, but also helped the King of Han to exterminate the bandits in Maling Mountain before the Prime Minister raised the army, and made a contribution to the King of Han! The inconspicuous scar on the right cheek of our Han King was also personally dropped during that time when he was fighting bandits. ”

“…… It's just that later, Wu Xinjun of Chu State incorporated the original army of our Han King, divided the young marshal's army at that time into three, and the villain happened to be included in Feng Zhong's army, and followed Feng Zhong to directly obey the command of Wu Xinjun of Chu State, and the villain was forced to leave the army under the command of His Royal Highness the King of Han. But the villain can swear to the sky, the villain has always been loyal to His Royal Highness the King of Han, and he never dared His Royal Highness the King of Han to help the villain at the beginning. So this time, Feng Zhong secretly arranged for the little envoy to test your reality and whether it was worth joining forces with you, and the villain didn't excuse himself, and immediately agreed to ....... ”

Listening carefully to Wei Shan's somewhat exaggerated self-introduction, Peng Yue suddenly spoke, interrupting Wei Shan and asking, "Wait, you said you were sent by Feng Zhong?" So, you came to us with his marching map, and it was actually arranged by him? ”

"General Peng, that's true." Wei Shan hurriedly replied: "Now I am not afraid to let General Peng know the truth, in fact, General Feng Zhong and our Royal Highness the King of Han have always been close and affectionate, General Feng has never forgotten His Royal Highness the King of Han's kindness to him, as well as the brotherhood between him and His Royal Highness the King of Han, he has long wanted to betray the Western Chu army and return to our Royal Highness the King of Han, but it is difficult to speak alone, General Feng and his army have been stationed in the rear of Pengcheng far away from the front line, and they can't find a chance to change the banner anyway, so they have not dared to take action." ”

"So this time, he took this opportunity to let the villain deliberately violate the military law, take the opportunity to escape from the Western Chu army, pretend to come to you, and take the opportunity to find out for him whether General Peng is our Han King's person, and then discuss the joint affairs with you on his behalf."

After that, Wei Shan, who had already grown up a lot, hurriedly asked Peng Yue and the others for their guilt, and said: "General Peng, Yue Xingren, because the villain couldn't figure out the details of you before, I was worried that you were just ordinary bandits who were swaggering and deceiving under the banner of the King of Han, and if you couldn't cooperate, you would harm our General Feng, so I didn't dare to explain the truth to you as soon as we met, and I ask you to forgive me." ”

"It's okay, you don't know our details, and it's human nature to be careful." Peng Yue waved his hand generously and asked, "Since Feng Zhong intends to betray the Western Chu army and send you to find out if we are the army of the King of Han, how do you plan to join forces with us?" ”

"General Feng, he hopes to join forces with you to march into Pengcheng, and take the capital of the Western Chu thief army, and also take the opportunity to rescue the wives and sons of His Royal Highness the King of Han, and protect them back to the side of our King of Han."

Wei Shan's answer made Peng Yue and Yue Mo both gasp, and then Wei Shan hurriedly added: "General Peng, rest assured, the situation of your army, our General Feng also has a certain understanding, and knows that with the strength of your army, it is absolutely impossible to take the capital of Western Chu, but with the help of our General Feng, the Western Chu thief army in Pengcheng can be defeated and Pengcheng can be at least eighty percent sure." ”

"So please also ask General Peng to believe in the sincerity of our General Feng Zhong anyway, work hand in hand with us, and don't go further north, take advantage of the fact that the army in the hinterland of Western Chu has been almost hollowed out to go south to Pengcheng, and join forces with our General Feng to rescue the wife and son of the King of Han, as well as the parents, wives and children of the major important ministers under the command of the King of Han."

Hearing this, Peng Yue, Yue Mo and others were of course excited and excited, but human nature, things are related to the life and death of Peng Yuejun, Peng Yue of course did not dare to easily believe Wei Shan's words, Wei Shan took out Feng Zhong's handwritten letter to Peng Yue from the mezzanine of the people's clothes he wore at the beginning, and presented it to Peng Yue with great dignity, and said: "General Peng, our General Feng has entrusted the lives of his whole family to you, as long as this letter leaks a little bit of rumor, Our General Feng will definitely have to die at the end of the world, not to mention his wife and children in Pengcheng. ”

Carefully took Feng Zhong's letter and read it carefully, seeing that the content of Feng Zhong's letter was similar to Wei Shan's oral introduction, and he also took the risk of stamping Feng Zhong's official seal of Western Chu on the letter, Peng Yue believed it by three points, but it was still the same sentence, the matter was related to the life and death of Peng Yuejun, and he didn't know enough about Feng Zhong, Peng Yue still didn't dare to be careless and gullible, and thought about it for a while before saying: "Brother Wei Shan, it's not that I don't believe in your sincerity, it's that the matter is too big, and I must be careful." In this way, you go back and tell General Feng Zhong that as long as he promises me one thing, I believe that he really wants to change the banner anyway, and I can rest assured that I will work with him to take Pengcheng together. ”

"Please General Peng, as long as we can do it, we will do it with all our might." Wei Shan hurriedly replied.

"It's not a difficult thing for you." Peng Yue replied, "Don't you want to join forces with us to take Pengcheng?" In this way, as long as you tell Feng Zhong to slow down the pursuit, let us cross Surabaya first, and give me two days to take Liuxian County in the south of Pei County to replenish grain and grass, so that I will believe him. ”

Peng Yue's conditions were actually quite cautious, asking Feng Zhong to slow down the pursuit, in addition to giving Peng Yue's army, which was tired from a long battle, time to take a breath, when going south to attack Liuxian, even if Feng Zhong repented of cheating, or Xiang Sheng and Xiang He led the army north from Pengcheng, Peng Yue's army would have enough time and space to flow to other places and not fall into the enemy's trap.

However, to Peng Yue's surprise, after listening to Peng Yue's conditions, Wei Shan immediately laughed and said: "General Peng, it turned out to be just such a trivial matter, the general can rest assured, don't risk the villain to go back and tell General Feng about the situation, you just rest assured that you will cross the river here in Huling, and then leave a little army to pretend to be at the Surabaya ferry, pretending to block General Feng from crossing the river, General Feng will never rush to cross Surabaya, and will only wait for the army left behind at the ferry to leave, he will cross the river and chase you again." ”

"Really?" General Peng Yue asked suspiciously.

"Of course it's true." Wei Shan smiled and said: "General Peng, don't mind if you say something offensive, you are good at rapid marching, and our General Feng is not far behind in this regard, if we hadn't deliberately shown mercy to General Feng and were unwilling to really pursue you, we would have caught up with you in the past few days." Therefore, as long as you leave an army to pretend at the ferry, General Feng will definitely not rush to cross the river, and will only deliberately wait for you to go far before sending troops to chase after you. ”

General Peng Yue was suspicious, and after thinking about it for a long time, he said: "Okay, I will believe you for the time being, but for the sake of prudence, Brother Wei, you should go back and tell General Feng about the situation first, and then I will wait until I take Liuxian and open the way to enter Pengcheng, and by the way, I will also take on the important task of contacting General Feng, so that we can cooperate and act." ”

Wei Shan agreed, and at that moment Peng Yue hurriedly agreed with Wei Shan on the contact method, leaving Wei Shan to wait for Feng Zhong's pursuers in Huling, and then resolutely changed the plan to go north, organized the army to rush to cross Surabaya in Huling, and took a great risk to go south to stay in the county, and at the same time left Hu Yu to lead 3,000 troops to guard the Huling ferry, pretending to intercept Feng Zhong to cross the river, and cautiously came south.

Two days later, the Peng Yue army, who was good at wandering, went south to the city of Liuxian, which was only about 100 miles away from Pengcheng, and confirmed that Hu Yu did not send someone to send an urgent report, and the Peng Yue army, which had consumed too much grain and grass on the way to flow, did not dare to slack off, and immediately launched an attack on the small town of Liuxian, and because there were only hundreds of defenders in Liuxian County, Peng Yuejun easily took the small town of Liuxian in only half a day, and captured a batch of military grain and grass to supplement the army.

As a result, it was also at this time that Hu Yuan, who stayed at the Huling Ferry, sent someone to deliver the news, saying that after Feng Zhongjun arrived at the Huling Ferry, he really did not rush to launch a rush attack, but chose to send people to the upstream and downstream to collect the ferry, and at the same time sent scouts to continuously investigate the situation behind the Huling army. Of course, Peng Yue and Yue Mash were overjoyed when they heard the news, and Yue Mash couldn't wait to say: "It seems that this matter can't be faked, we can rest assured that we can join forces with Feng Zhong." ”

"Don't get too excited just yet." Peng Yue was still very cautious, and said: "In addition to preventing Feng Zhong from casting a long line to catch a big fish, we also have to carefully consider how to join forces with him to take Pengcheng, if we can't successfully take Pengcheng, we also have to consider the next retreat, be careful to sail the Wannian ship." ”

After thinking about it for a long time, Peng Yue made up his mind and said: "In this way, call Hu Yu back first, and then we will enter Xiao County, cross the valley from Xiao County, and finally enter Pengcheng eastward." In addition, Feng Zhong was told not to cross the valley water, and directly enter Pengcheng east on the north bank of the valley water. ”

"Go to Xiao County first, and then go east to Pengcheng? Why? Yue Mo asked very strangely: "We can go south from Liuxian directly to Pengcheng, why do we have to go to Xiao County and go around in a big circle?" ”

"Three reasons." Peng Yue raised three fingers and explained one by one: "First, we go south directly from Liuxian to Pengcheng, and we must cross the valley at the ferry near Pengcheng to threaten Pengcheng. At that time, if Feng Zhong deliberately delayed the time to slow down the pursuit, he would definitely arouse the suspicion of the Western Chu thief army against him, which would be unfavorable to him. ”

"Second, this can prevent Feng Zhong from casting a long line to catch a big fish, as long as he enters Pengcheng from the north bank of Gushui to the east according to our requirements, even if there is any accident, there is a Gushui blocking the road, we will have plenty of time to adjust the situation. In addition, after arriving at the Pengcheng battlefield, if the situation is not right, we can also quickly go south from Chidao to widen the distance between us and the Western Chu thief army, and it is not easy to be caught up by the Western Chu thief army. ”

"The third point is the most important, we have to give Feng Zhong a reasonable excuse to return to Pengcheng." Peng Yue said again: "If Feng Zhong is really joining forces with us, then ask him to come over directly, we will join forces to fight Pengcheng, and we will also face the problem of attacking the city, and there will definitely be many people in Feng Zhong's army who are unwilling to abandon the darkness and turn to the light, and help Feng Zhong and us attack the capital of the Western Chu thief army. ”

"So the best way is to let Feng Zhong temporarily continue to fight with us under the banner of the Western Chu Thief Army, find an excuse to let him return to Pengcheng, join the Western Chu Thief Army in Pengcheng, and then suddenly turn against him like General Yongya in the decisive battle, so that we can be caught off guard by the Western Chu Thief Army and help us quickly take the important town of Pengcheng."

After listening to Peng Yue's explanation, Yue Mo was of course so impressed that he threw himself to the ground, and he didn't have the words to praise Peng Yue for his thoughtfulness and thoroughness, but Peng Yue waved his hand, saying that these were nothing, and then arranged for people to go north to contact Hu Yue, and let Hu Yu secretly convey his own request to Feng Zhong through Wei Shan, and asked Feng Zhong to act according to the plan.

After seizing the time to rest in Liuxian County for about a day, the lightly armed and hurried Hulu army went south to Liuxian County to join Peng Yue, and then Peng Yue did not delay, and immediately took the army to the southwest, and rushed to attack the small town of Xiao County directly east of Pengcheng, Feng Zhong followed with the army from afar, kept a distance and calmly pursued, deliberately leaving Peng Yuejun a chance to cross the valley water. As a result, relying on Feng Zhong's deliberate release of water, more than two days later, Peng Yuejun crossed the valley water near Xiao County very smoothly, quickly blocked the ferry, and destroyed the ferry, so that Feng Zhongjun could justifiably temporarily garrison the north bank of the valley water.

The most critical step also came, according to the original plan, Peng Yue deliberately left an army to guard the Gushui Ferry, and then personally led the main force to the east to attack Pengcheng, Feng Zhong received the scout report, and immediately gathered the generals in the army, announcing that Peng Yue's army was likely to take advantage of the situation to attack Pengcheng, in order to defend the capital of Western Chu, it was decided to return to Pengcheng directly from the north bank of Gushui. As a result, all the generals under Feng Zhong's command were very worried, and they all questioned: "General Feng, what if our judgment is wrong? If Peng Yue's thief army just bluffed, pretended to attack Pengcheng, and deceived us into going back to Pengcheng directly, and then they suddenly turned around and went to other places, wouldn't we have worked hard in vain these days? ”

"Yes, Brother Feng, for the sake of prudence, let's rush across the valley water and continue the pursuit." Xu Ci, an important assistant, also said: "During this period of time, for various reasons, we have not been able to catch up with Peng Yue's thief army, and let them seize the opportunity to take down Liuxian, the two Xiang generals must have been furious in Pengcheng, if we chase down Peng Yue's thief army again, you will definitely not be able to explain to them." ”

Feng Zhong pretended to ask for a moment, and then said: "It's better to be cautious, Pengcheng now has less than 10,000 defenders, if we don't rush to cross, we can't immediately cross the valley to pursue, giving Peng Yue's thief army the opportunity to attack Pengcheng, Pengcheng even if there is a slight mistake, we are all guilty of death." It is better to give priority to returning to Pengcheng, if General Xiang Sheng and General Xiang It are held accountable, I will bear it alone, and it has nothing to do with you. ”

Seeing Feng Zhong's insistence, the generals under his command who loved Feng Zhong very much did not dare to object, they all hugged their fists and sang promises, and immediately led the army to follow Feng Zhong to the north bank of the valley and rushed back to Pengcheng to rescue.

To Feng Zhong's surprise, the next morning, when he hurriedly withdrew to Pengcheng City with his army, there was no movement on the south bank of Gushui and outside Pengcheng City, and the fields were full of busy farming farmers. If you do take the opportunity to slip away somewhere else, then I'm in big trouble. ”

No matter how hard he complained, it was useless, since he had already returned, Feng Zhong could only cross the river immediately with the army, but when Feng Zhong's army crossed the river in batches, Xiang Sheng, who was in charge of Pengcheng's city defense, suddenly came to Feng Zhong with a horse, and as soon as they met, he asked aggressively: "Feng Zhong, we asked you to lead the army to pursue the Peng Yue thief army, you repeatedly delayed the military plane and didn't catch up, why did you withdraw your troops back to Pengcheng without authorization?" Who gave you the order to call you back to Pengcheng? ”

"I found that the main force of Peng Yue's thief army was advancing eastward in Xiao County, and there were signs of attacking Pengcheng, and I was worried that our country would be lost, so I hurriedly brought my troops back." Feng Zhong hurriedly explained, roughly explained the original situation, and asked suspiciously: "Sima Xiang, why, you haven't received the report of Peng Yue's thief army entering Pengcheng eastward?" ”

"There's a ghost detective! Peng Yue's thief army has eaten the leopard's gall, and dares to invade our Western Chu capital? ”

Xiang Sheng's angry answer almost didn't make Feng Zhong faint, and he kept roaring, angrily accusing Feng Zhong of ineffective combat, causing Peng Yue's army to become more and more rampant, and also threatened to tell Xiang Yu about this situation, so that Xiang Yu could come forward to clean up Feng Zhong. Feng Zhong kept complaining in his heart, and said secretly: "Peng Yue Pifu, I was killed by you this time, I have shown mercy to your subordinates to this point, why don't you believe me?" ”

"Report ——!"

Fortunately, at this time, a scout of the Western Chu army suddenly rushed to Xiang Sheng's front, panting and arching his hand: "Qi Xiang Sima, twenty miles east of Pengcheng, the traces of the thief army have been found, and they are rushing towards Pengcheng, the scale of the thief army is very huge, and I don't know how many troops there are for the time being." ”

Feng Zhong also quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and had to admire Xiang Sheng's ability to govern the army, Peng Yue's army had already approached Pengcheng for twenty miles, and Xiang Sheng, the defender of Pengcheng, could actually receive the scout's report - and he could not quickly find out how many troops the enemy was incoming. Xiang Sheng was completely speechless, and only after a while did he shout: "Peng Yue's thief army is really coming towards Pengcheng?" How can it be? ”

"Sure enough, it was completely soaked in wine and softened the bones, and it became more and more useless, if it was my brother who ruled the army, just with your current performance, even if you are his cousin, he will definitely push you to the end, and he will definitely not show mercy."

Feng Zhong muttered in his heart, but his face was silent, and his patience was just waiting for Xiang Sheng's next move, and Xiang Sheng first scolded the scout who had only sent the military emergency report now, and then hurriedly said to Feng Zhong: "Brother Feng, you came back just in time, since Peng Yue's thief army is really here, please leave it to you about arriving at the thief army." ”

"Xiang Sima forgives the crime, it is a matter of Pengcheng's safety, the last general must tell the truth, the last general does not have this certainty to be able to defeat Peng Yue's thief army." Feng Zhong hurriedly said with a heartfelt voice: "The first reason is that the combat power of Peng Yue's thief army is stronger than we expected, far from being comparable to the ordinary rabble. The second is that my army has been marching in a hurry for days, and there was almost no rest last night, and the soldiers were tired and hungry, and they were not sure that they could repel Peng Yue's thief army. ”

"What then?" Xiang Sheng asked in embarrassment.

"I can only ask you to help." Feng Zhong immediately said: "Please Sima Xiang, you immediately lead the people of your headquarters out of the city, and join forces with the last general to fight against the Peng Yue thief army, and I will give you a hand and help you clean up the Peng Yue thief army." ”