Cao Cao thought that his march from Xinye to Fancheng was slow and steady enough, if it weren't for the Baihe River in the middle, Cao Cao really wanted to camp for a hundred miles. However, the ferry thirty miles south of Xinye City is not bad, the water is shallow and flat, the key is to have a wide field of vision, and not afraid of Liu Cong's ambush.

As the former commander of the army, Zhang Liao was naturally responsible for the preparation of the large army to cross the river and the vigilance on both sides of the Baihe River.

Zhang Liao learned the lessons of Cao Ren and Xiahoudun, and sent guard posts for several miles near the ferry, and crossed the river with 2,000 and 2,000. Every two thousand crosses the river will be settled on the opposite bank before moving on to the next batch.

In this way, you will not be able to trample each other in the river with your own people in the event of a large-scale enemy army.

The former army's river crossing operation can be said to be very smooth, after more than 20,000 Zhang Liao's subordinates successfully crossed the river, the Jingzhou soldiers did not appear!

The rest of the troops then began to cross the river, and by dark there were nearly 40,000 men camped on the west bank of the White River. There were also nearly 40,000 people on the east bank of the White River who were ready to cross the river in Japan, and the rest remained in Shinno Castle untouched.

The autumn nights were breezy and undisturbed by the rain, and the soldiers were finally able to sleep peacefully.

Twenty miles north of Fancheng, after dinner, Liu Pan and Huang Zhong set off with their team, this was their first harassment tactic, and when those sentry cavalry saw tens of thousands of Cao troops crossing the Baihe River during the day, they were eager to immediately pull four thousand cavalry to attack!

Due to the reconnaissance of the sentinels during the day, and the fact that the cavalry were already very familiar with this section, they did not even light torches in the first half of the journey. It was not until there were still two miles away from Cao Ying that more than 4,000 torches were lit instantly, and the troops rushed towards Cao Ying with shouts.

The sound of the horse's hooves and shouts of the cavalry, which had already soared into the sky, immediately alarmed the Cao army on both sides of the White River.

The Cao army on the west bank of the Baihe River ran out of the camp one after another, and when they learned that it was the enemy attack, they hurriedly dressed up and gathered with weapons.

However, Liu Pan and Huang Zhong did not give them time to react, and the 4,000 people stopped near Cao Ying in a semi-encircled state. They took out their bows and arrows and ignited the arrows that had been prepared long ago, and quickly shot the arrows towards Cao's camp tent.

The cavalry came and went faster, and just when Zhang Liao gathered his troops and prepared to counterattack, these cavalrymen had already finished shooting the rockets in their hands and turned away. Seeing the enemy leave, Zhang Liao did not pursue.

There is a reason, the enemy army is coming to harass, although the cavalry is only three or four thousand, but I don't know how many ambushes are still lying on both sides of the White River.

To be on the safe side, I definitely don't chase it! Moreover, although these cavalry only hurriedly shot a few arrows and left, they were all rockets, and there were flammable materials everywhere in the autumn when it did not rain, and some even shot directly on the camp tent, so it took Zhang Liao nearly half an hour to extinguish the fire on and around the camp tent.

When the guards were strengthened and the soldiers fell asleep again, the rumbling of horses' hooves could be heard again in half an hour.

Just when Zhang Liao thought that the enemy soldiers were coming again, he was surprised to find that the enemy army appeared on the other side of the White River, and the method was still the same as just now, three or four thousand cavalry rushed to Cao's camp tent, and after shooting the arrows in his hand, he turned around and left, leaving Cao Jun with no chance to think and counterattack.

Then a pile of Cao Jun's tents were left on fire, and Cao Cao's soldiers had no choice but to fight hard to completely extinguish the fire, and it was already the second half of the night.

About an hour later, the cavalry of Xiangyang appeared again, this time even more, Liu Pan led the troops on the west bank of the Baihe River, Huang Zhong led the troops on the left bank, and thousands of cavalry sat on horseback and shouted in unison: "Capture Cao Cao alive, step on Xuchang!" ”

"Capture Cao Cao alive and set foot in Xuchang!"

Although these cavalry still did not attack again after shooting a few arrows, and there were not many places where they were on fire, the earth-shaking shouts in the second half of the night could not make the Cao army sleep, and if the Cao army did not come out to meet the attack, these cavalry would not leave.

After Cao's army gathered two or three thousand people, the two groups of cavalry turned around and ran.

In the second half of the night, after being tossed like this two or three times, some slightly impatient soldiers couldn't sleep, although the soldiers who served Jingzhou never appeared again, but the soldiers of Cao Jun were still worried subconsciously and waiting......

It was in this worry and waiting that a new day was ushered in.

At this time, the cavalry harassing them was sleeping in the camp of Fancheng.

The arrival of the day made most of the soldiers of Cao's army finally calm down, and Zhang Liao had already sent someone to report to Cao Cao about the enemy's operations, Cao Cao was also helpless, this was Liu Cong's territory, they were familiar with the terrain, and they had cavalry and naval troops, so they could come and go freely on both sides of the White River.

Fortunately, these cavalry did not force their way into the camp, otherwise the losses of Cao's army would not have been small.

The next day, due to the vigilance of the front team, the 40,000 men on the west bank of the White River slowly marched south, and the 40,000 men on the east bank of the White River also completed the crossing in the morning, and most of the soldiers originally stationed in Shinno Castle also moved to the east bank of the White River. There are only more than 10,000 defenders and logistics civilians left in Xinye Castle.

While Cao Cao ordered the troops to be slow and difficult to advance, Liu Cong of Fancheng and Huang Zu and Zhuge Liang of Xiangyang City were not idle, Liu Cong took out the edict given to him by the emperor, published the content of the edict to the public, and began to recruit people on a large scale in the two cities.

These people include those who are responsible for building the city walls and temporary training, how to use bushes, drawing bows and archery, and even opening up some young adults who are interested in guarding Xiangyang for simple training.

Fancheng recruited nearly 20,000 people, and Wen Ping was responsible for dividing these people into several parts, collecting stones and timber from outside the south gate of Fancheng, and on the other hand, starting to carry out large-scale siege warfare drills, including enemy arrows entering the city, catapult burning materials and stones hitting people's houses, how to evade and fight fires, and so on. Liu Cong's purpose was not to let the common people master many skills to protect themselves, but to mobilize the people's hearts, so that everyone could unite to resist Cao, and not give those spies who took the opportunity to enter the city to incite a chance to take action.

Xiangyang City did not have the people who made trouble as Cao Cao hoped, and Liu Biao's eighteen years in Jingzhou in Xiangyang were also deep-rooted. Now that Cao Cao is raising unrighteous soldiers, Liu Cong's propaganda is very in place, and even the people of Xiangyang know about Cao Cao's killing of Kong Rong.

When another night came, Zhang Liao fell asleep in anxiety, he didn't even take off his armor, he had advanced more than thirty miles south today, and he didn't know when and where the enemy's cavalry appeared?

Since he was only harassed on the first day, the losses were not large, and there were not many dead and wounded soldiers, Cao Jun did not formulate a special countermeasure against the harassment of the valve.

In Cao Jun's opinion, in two or three days, the army could be camped north of Fancheng, and then there might not be any need to worry about enemy harassment. However, the troops left behind in Xinye were very nervous, although they were covered by the city gate and the city wall, but the lesson of Cao Ren's annihilation told them that it was not necessarily safe to stay in the city, not to mention that the enemy was three or four thousand cavalry, and there were only 10,000 infantry in Xinye City.

However, the enemy cavalry that Cao Jun feared did not show up that night, and after waking up on the morning of the third day, the battalions exchanged messages, and the result was that they did not encounter the Jingzhou cavalry.

This made the Cao soldiers who were walking in front breathe a long sigh of relief.

But Cao Cao, who was walking behind, couldn't sit still? The harassment tactics dealt a great blow to their own troops, and it was a late-night attack, Cao Jun was not familiar with the terrain and would definitely not dare to pursue, why did Liu Cong Xiaoer use it for one night, and when Cao Jun'er came to the city, in addition to charging into battle, three or four thousand cavalry really couldn't make too many waves, and the cavalry defending the city was useless at all?

Don't?

This kind of cavalry running thousands of miles has appeared frequently in history, and Cao Cao attacked Wuchao when he was against Yuan Shao.

If Liu Cong sent these cavalrymen to the back to cut off his own grain route, it would not be a joke.

Thinking of this, Cao Cao's back was numb for a while, and he immediately summoned the main general, asking to send sentry horses one after another to patrol between Xinye and Wancheng, and report immediately if he found an abnormality.

Without the harassment of the enemy, Cao's army got a good rest, and the next day's march was faster, crossing the river for three consecutive days, and most of the main force of Cao's army had crossed the Baihe River and gradually pressed towards Fancheng.

One day they could set up camp north of Fancheng to start the siege, and in order to be cautious, they set up sentinels on the way from Fancheng to Xinye.

Despite this, this night was still harassed by the Jingzhou cavalry, Cao Jun did not know where these cavalry came from, just in the second half of the night, when everyone fell asleep, four thousand cavalry from south to north, the once familiar sound of horses' hooves could be heard from afar.

Just when Cao Jun thought that these people were just harassing his sleep and setting fire to the camp, taking advantage of the slow assembly of the enemy army, Liu Pan and Chang led the troops smoothly into a camp with about 100 tents, slashed and trampled on horses, and then quickly shot rockets and left.

Stayed in Cao Ying for almost a quarter of an hour, that is, this quarter of an hour, it was enough for Cao Jun to pay the price, and the direct slashing caused at least thousands of casualties, plus this time the cavalry almost broke into the position, and then shot rockets, almost all of them fell on the camp tent, and the fire caused by the Cao army kept Cao Jun busy for two hours, fortunately, Jingzhou did not come again, otherwise Cao Jun would go crazy.

The effect of the harassment tactics of three days and two nights was obvious, at least psychologically, which made Cao Jun feel fearful, and Cao's generals quickly realized this, and how to deal with the night attack of Liu Cong's cavalry became the main problem of Cao Jun's current situation.