If things go according to Liu Zhang's plan, Liu Cong should start attacking Zhang Lu in Hanzhong after arriving in Jiameng County. But Liu Cong didn't think so, although Liu Zhang added a lot of military horses and soldiers to Liu Cong's headquarters, and the entire army was close to 25,000 people, and the defenders of Baishui Pass, Yang Huai and Gao Pei, were under Liu Cong's command.

But Liu Cong didn't come to fight Zhang Lu or not just to fight Zhang Lu, not to mention that he couldn't command Yang Huai and Gao Pei smoothly, even if the two generals were obedient. This Hanzhong can also be successfully defeated, who will this Hanzhong belong to at that time? Attributed to Liu Cong, I am afraid that the soldiers of Shu will not agree, and if it belongs to Liu Zhang, isn't he surrounded on three sides?

And at this time, Cao Cao, a strong enemy in the north, also made frequent moves, and in March of the sixteenth year of Jian'an (211), Cao Cao ordered Zhong Xuan, the commander of the division, to conquer Zhang Lu in Hanzhong County (now Hanzhong County, Shaanxi). To enter Hanzhong, you must pass through Guanzhong (the ancient name is Guanzhong to the west of Hangu Pass, and the ancient Hangu Pass is in the northeast of Lingbao, Henan), so Zhong Miao entered the Guanzhong. At that time, Guanzhong was still in a state of division and separation, and the generals were each based on one side and did not belong to each other, among which Han Sui and Ma Chao were the strongest. The generals in Guanzhong thought that Zhong Xuan was going to attack him, and they all rebelled for a while, and Ma Chao, Han Sui, Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Yang Qiu and other ten generals joined forces with 100,000 troops, and stationed in Tongguan to confront Ma Chao and other troops.

Cao Cao saw that Tongguan was difficult to capture for a while, so he secretly sent generals Xu Huang and Zhu Ling to lead more than 4,000 cavalry to cross the Yellow River from Pubanjin (now Yongjixi, Shanxi) by night, and set up a camp on the west bank of the Yellow River north of Tongguan, and then the whole army went north, and under the response of Xu Huang's army in the west of the river, crossed the river from Pubanjin to attack. Ma Chao saw that Cao's army had reached Hexi, abandoned Tongguan, and retreated to Weikou (now Huayindong, Shaanxi) to fortify.

At this time, if Cao Cao knew that Liu Cong had seized Hanzhong, Cao Cao would probably abandon Ma Chao to attack Hanzhong, wouldn't it be a fire to himself at that time? Of course, the most important thing is that Liu Cong himself is unwilling to contribute to Liu Zhang, the opponent he was supposed to eliminate, and it is impossible to help him grab the territory so hard.

Therefore, Liu Cong made up his mind to move into Jiameng County, and after he moved in, he would continue to attack Zhang Lu in the name of expanding his armaments. On the one hand, it is Liu Cong's most urgent task to envelop the people of Shuzhong, and on the other hand, to open up the channel between him and Shangyong.

Yang Huai and Gao Pei held strong troops and self-respect, Liu Cong was difficult to tame for a while, and Liu Cong wanted to go to a joint exercise in harmony with future generations. Through the constant exercises and exchanges between the two armies, we do not believe that they cannot penetrate. The first thing Liu Cong did was to invite Yang Huai and Gao Pei, who were stationed at Baishui Pass, to lead hundreds of elite soldiers into Jiameng County in the name of strengthening armaments and facilitating joint operations.

After Jiameng County, the school held an elite confrontation match between the two armies, that is, the elite soldiers of each side were selected by both sides to conduct horse battles, foot battles and hand-to-hand competitions. It's called a competition, but in fact, I want to take this opportunity to understand the real strength of the Baishui Pass garrison and win over the middle and lower-level officers in Yizhou. As soon as Liu Cong's plan was introduced, Yang Huai and Gao Pei came with people.

Fa Zheng, Pang Tong and others also secretly admired Liu Cong, if you invite Yang Huai and Gao Pei to drink in an attempt to get closer, they may ignore you. But when it comes to the competition, both of them are military generals, for fear that others will say that he can't do it, and now Liu Cong proposes to compete, they can't ask for it, and they want to frustrate Liu Cong's prestige on the school field, but they don't know that this just enters the scope of Liu Cong's calculations.

Yang Huai and Gao Pei came with confidence, and the competition was in Jiameng County, and Liu Cong also specially invited local famous people to come and watch the battle. Horse battles were fought with 50 men from each side in an open field outside the city gates. Foot combat and hand-to-hand combat were selected in the Jiameng school field, with 100 people from each side. In order to test the strength of both sides on a larger scale, it was agreed that the soldiers participating in the competition should not be repeated.

At the same time, since the two sides are allies, Liu Cong advocates friendship first and competition second. However, in order to reflect the true strength of the two armies, so that the garrison and the offensive can be reasonably deployed, Liu Cong suggested that the losing side of the competition should receive three months of training in the opposing battalion. Yang Huai and the running companion did not object to this, and all of Liu Cong's starting points seemed to be to be able to win.

The people of Jiameng were very curious about the arrival of Liu Cong's troops. However, Liu Cong was very strict with his subordinates, and basically did not contact the people. This time, when I heard that the Jingzhou soldiers were going to compete with the Baishui Pass defenders, everyone was also in high spirits, and they rushed to tell each other, they wanted to see the strength of the reinforcements invited by Liu Yizhou for thousands of miles? Can you keep Jia Meng and resist Cao Cao?

Liu Cong also deliberately expanded his influence by posting notices in the city. Inform the rules and locations of the competition, as well as the agreement between the two parties. Therefore, early in the morning on the day of the competition, the city walls and the school grounds were crowded with people watching the excitement. Some of the people who were not able to climb the city wall had to go out of the city to find some small dirt slopes or tall trees to climb up. Fa Zheng even had to dispatch all the officials and county soldiers to maintain order.

Liu Cong also led Wei Yan, Pang Tong and others to the city tower, while Yang Huai and Gao Pei had already chosen the observation point, in their opinion, Yizhou and Jingzhou also did not have many war horses and cavalry. According to the general situation, Yizhou is closer to Liangzhou, the source of high-quality horses, and the cavalry should be slightly stronger.

But they didn't know that no matter how strong the Yizhou soldiers were, they were stronger than Liu Cong's personal guards, and these people were selected by Zhao Yun from thousands of cavalry. In order to join the cavalry battalion, these people were selected from tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers* After personal training by Liu Cong, Liu Pan, Huang Zhong and others, they can be described as one in a hundred and the elite of the elite. Among them, Liao Hua is also in the mix, the little guy is eighteen years old, he looks very strong, under the influence of Liu Cong and Zhao Yun's guidance, he practiced martial arts hard, and finally seized the opportunity today, since Liu Cong allowed him to play, he has been grinning.

Sure enough, Ma Zhan was not as equal as Yang Huai and Gao Pei expected, and even the Yizhou soldiers had the upper hand. The cavalry detachment of fifty people had just stood still, and the Jingzhou soldiers rushed them to pieces at the first charge, so angry that Yang Huai and Gao Pei stomped their feet on the city tower. You must know that these cavalry are also among the best in the Baishui Pass garrison, and they are generally responsible for the escort of the general and the transmission of military information to Chengdu and Guanghan.

The gap is too big, and the people watching the battle on the city wall are also exclaiming, these Jingzhou soldiers are as fierce as generals, and they don't fight according to the key points, they just use guns to hold up, and a charge can overturn more than a dozen by brute force. After the two sides were rectified and exchanged directions, Jingzhou even only came out with twenty horsemen. This was discussed by them temporarily, and Liu Cong didn't know.

The Yizhou soldiers thought it was a formation at a glance, but before they could understand it, twenty horsemen came out, among which Liao Hua was the first.

Twenty people to fifty people, too underestimating people, Yang Huai and Gao Pei looked at Liu Cong very dissatisfied, Liu Cong was also helpless, he didn't arrange it like this. These grandsons are usually proud, and it is estimated that the first charge felt that the Yizhou soldiers were weak, so they wanted to show off.

But the situation on the field immediately stunned Yang Huai and Gao Pei. This time, the twenty people did not charge collectively, but one to two and one to three, especially the small soldier among them, who looked as if he had just joined the army, but he came up and picked out four or five people in a row. However, in the blink of an eye, most of the fifty Yizhou cavalrymen fell off their horses and lay on the ground.

Liao Hua was even more proudly holding up his spear, grinning at the city tower, in Liu Cong's opinion, this kid was sassy, in the eyes of Yang Huai and Gao Pei, this was simply a provocation. They can stand this kind of stimulation there, damn, fifty can't beat twenty people, how can this game be played?

"That's it, that's it, Jingzhou and Yizhou are not cavalry-based. Let's look at the infantry......" The two of them found a step for themselves, turned around and ran.

They had to rush to the school field to cheer up the infantry to win back no matter what, as long as the infantry could, this competition would be won, after all, Jingzhou and Yizhou were also cavalry not the main force. Otherwise, it's too faceless, this is in front of the people of Jiameng. In the future, you won't obediently obey Liu Cong's orders?

As soon as they arrived at the school, they found that the inner three floors and the outer three floors had already been surrounded by water. This made Yang Huai and Gao Pei very depressed, they had been stationed in Baishuiguan for a few years, and they had never seen the local people so enthusiastic, what did they want to be?