Kuragaki Castle.

Liu Bei stood against the wall, tilting his head and squinting, looking at a crow at the head of the city.

The crow tilted its head, as if it was also looking at Liu Bei.

Liu Bei has been hiding here for nearly ten days. For the sake of secrecy, he can't go out of the city, so he can only wait for news in the city. When there is news, it all depends on when Yuan Tan needs him to go into battle. He hoped that Yuan Tan would have news earlier, but he didn't want Yuan Tan to have news, and sometimes he couldn't figure out what he was thinking. But one thing he knows very well is that these are not decided by him, but by Yuan Tan.

Is Lao Tzu a middle horse? Liu Bei crooked the corners of his mouth, feeling very sarcastic. Parallel with Cao Bao and Xu Wei, it is by no means a compliment for him, but a humiliation. He had brief contact with Cao Bao and Xu Wei when he was in the plains, and he looked down on them at all, but now he was classified by Yuan Tan as the same as them, which was really providential.

It turns out that I am such a good thing in Yuan Tan's eyes. The more Liu Bei thought about it, the more angry he became, he took off his bow, put on an arrow, slowly pulled the bowstring, and aimed at the crow.

It is said that before his death, Guo Tai sighed, "Zhan Wu stops, in whose house", implying that the Yuan family will succeed the Han Dynasty, could it be this crow?

The crow turned his head and looked at Liu Bei, as if he was a little mocking. Liu Bei thought about it, released the bowstring again, and inserted the arrow back into the quiver.

The raven flapped its wings, rattled and disappeared from the city in an instant. Liu Bei secretly smiled bitterly, and was about to go down to the city to rest, when Zhang Fei, who was lying on the city wall, shouted and beckoned him to go up. Liu Bei was bored, so he walked up and walked to Zhang Fei's side with his waist bent. Zhang Fei pointed to the distance, Liu Bei looked up, and there were dozens of war horses parked on the official road in the distance, surrounded by them, as if they were looking at something.

"Who?"

"I don't know, it already appeared once yesterday, but there are only five horses, and today it has increased several times, so it is likely that I am suspicious here."

"Sun Ce's people?" Liu Bei became uneasy.

"It should be, no one under Captain Zhu has so many cavalry except for him." Zhang Fei paused and said, "They just ambushed two knights, coming from the direction of Junyi. ”

Liu Bei was even more uneasy. There were only two kinds of knights who came from the direction of Junyi: one was a scout sent by Sun Ce, and the other was a herald sent by Yuan Tan. It was more than forty miles from Junyi to here, beyond the scope of ordinary scout reconnaissance, and only cavalry could complete such a task. Since these people were sent by Sun Ce, they were naturally Yuan Tan's subordinates who were intercepted and killed.

What is Yuan Tan's order? Is there a war?

Liu Bei held his breath and looked at the knights outside the city, becoming more and more annoyed. If it weren't for the Zahu cavalry that was completely lost in Xiao County, he could have sent cavalry out of the city to outflank them now, capture these people, and ask them to understand. Now he only has a total of more than 30 horses, even if he rushes out, he has no chance of winning, and if he sends foot soldiers, it will be even more useless, only to eat ashes.

Fortunately, Yuan Tan's order will not only send one group of people, as long as you are patient, the second group of people will come soon. Liu Bei comforted himself, and suddenly felt that something was wrong, Yuan Tan's order fell into the hands of the other party, and I was exposed, is there any point in hiding here? Yuan Tan sent someone here, naturally he gave me an order to attack, I have forty miles to rush, go early, and the road can be easier.

"Yide, you take people out of the city to catch up, intercept as many people as possible, and ask for understanding."

Zhang Fei turned his head to look at Liu Bei, and saw that Liu Bei was serious, not like a joke, so he immediately got up excitedly, got down the city tower with a few cavalry, and rushed away with a few cavalrymen through the broken city gate. Guan Yu, who was reading in the city gate cave, heard the sound of horses' hooves, and hurriedly walked out, and was just about to speak, when Liu Bei came to meet him.

"Yun Chang, immediately gather all the men and horses, prepare to set off, and march quickly in the direction of Junyi."

"Good!" Guan Yu answered and immediately went to greet the soldiers. Liu Bei, with more than a dozen personal guards, turned over his horse and rushed out.

——

Elfang saw the knights rushing out of the city and smiled.

As Sun Ce expected, Liu Bei was indeed hiding nearby. Forty miles, a rapid march only takes more than an hour, they may appear on the battlefield at any time, if they appear at night, the lethality is even greater.

"Let's go!" Elfang turned his horse's head and gave the order to retreat. Sun Ce took care of it again and again, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei are all rare fierce generals, especially Guan Zhang, who are by no means comparable to ordinary people. Guan Yu had fought with Chen Zhi, and he did not let Chen Zhi take advantage of various unfavorable situations. Elfang is skilled in arching horses, but he thinks that he is not as good as Chen, and he doesn't want to delay his business.

The knights mounted their horses one after another, and as they rode their horses, they took off their crossbows from their backs. As Sun Ce's personal guard knight and often served as a scout, Sun Ce was very concerned about their safety, and was equipped with a four-stone crossbow suitable for use on horseback, which had half the range of ordinary bows, helping them defeat the enemy in many battles.

Seeing Zhang Fei and the others chasing after him, Elfang raised the crossbow, aimed at Zhang Fei, and pulled the crossbow machine.

"Whoosh!" The crossbow arrows galloped away, heading straight for Zhang Feimian's door.

The other knights also raised their crossbows and fired arrows.

As soon as he saw Elfang turn around and raise his hand on the horse's back, Zhang Fei hurriedly bent down, kicked the war horse fiercely at the same time, accelerated and rushed forward, and at the same time clenched the spear in his hand. The range of a hand crossbow is usually only thirty or forty paces, and they are at least a hundred paces apart, and even if the other party has a three-stone crossbow or a four-stone crossbow, it is very few, and the danger is the last distance. Using a shield is not enough, he is more accustomed to using a spear to block, with his martial arts, one or two arrows can still be opened, even if it can't be opened, as long as it doesn't hit the vital point of the war horse, it will not affect the battle.

But he immediately regretted it. The sound of the breaking wind he heard was very dense, and it was not one or two arrows as he thought, at least ten or more.

Knowing that it was meaningless, Zhang Fei still shook his wrist, danced his spear, and struggled to the death. The spear spun up, and with two crisp sounds, two crossbow arrows were knocked away, but more crossbow arrows passed through the spear and shot into the neck and chest of the war horse, and penetrated most of it. Zhang Fei was also hit by an arrow in the shoulder, which was blocked by his shoulder, and he couldn't go deeper, but it hurt so much that he snorted.

The war horse neighed and fell to the ground, Zhang Fei was caught off guard, flew up, landed with a bang, slid forward a few steps away with his face against the ground, and threw out the spear in his hand. Several of the knights behind him were also shot and fell from their horses, and for a while people shouted and neighed, and there was a mess.

Seeing this, Elfang couldn't hold back the ecstasy in his heart, slammed his mount, turned his horse, kicked the war horse violently, and galloped towards Zhang Fei. The crossbow was too late to catch the arrow, so he raised his spear, leaned down, and stabbed Zhang Fei in the back. Seeing this, the other knights also turned their horses' heads and shouted loudly, some wound up their arrows, some abandoned their crossbows and spears, and followed Elfang to charge.

Liu Bei rushed out of the city gate, followed Zhang Fei, and suddenly saw Zhang Fei's formation in chaos, and the rest of the knights dodged to the side of the road, knowing that something was wrong, and they didn't have time to think about it in a hurry, so they took off their bows, bent their bows and arrows, and shot several arrows in one breath.