"The thieves must also have ambushes here, and tomorrow we will change course and go south to the south, and they may pursue us desperately if they are in a hurry." He Bao said;

Zhang Xiaotian said with a smile on his face at this time: "He Bao, then guess which one is most likely to be lying on the other side to spy on us?" "Of course it's Red Eyebrows, only among the horse thieves they have the strength to attack us during the day, even if it's Tao Qian, he's in Pengcheng

There will never be a huge mobilization of thousands of men and horses to attack and raid, so he can only adopt the tactics of night attack or fire attack. He Bao said;

Zhang Xiaotian said with a smile: "Only by knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent can one win a hundred battles." This is what the old grandson of the great soldier said, how can we miss such a good opportunity and not let him plant a big fight. ”

Hearing this, He Bao and Chen Cheng's four eyes immediately lit up.

"Besides, we have a secret weapon, that is, the red eyebrows don't know that we have three hundred extra elite soldiers, just by virtue of this,

We can then make the red eyebrows eat a nose of ash, and when they squirt out, their eyebrows will be redder. Then he lowered his voice and said his plan.

He Bao and Chen Cheng were amazed when they heard the case. At this time, Zhang Xiaotian casually asked: "Why did we walk for a few days and not even see a village, as if we were in a no-man's land?" ”

Chen Cheng replied: "Because no one is allowed to live within 50 miles of the official road during the war, I am afraid that when the enemy comes along the official road, he can take food and women and strong men." ”

Zhang Xiaotian suddenly realized, and repeatedly studied the details of the operation with He Bao and others, and then returned to the camp.

As night fell, Zhang Xiaotian and He Bao's three hundred soldiers, armed with strong crossbows, lay in ambush in a dense forest only a few hundred steps away from the camp, looking at their own chariots and horses that were slowly leaving in the dim sky.

By the time it was dawn, the team commanded by Chen Cheng had disappeared at the bend downstream. After another moment, the sound of hooves and human voices came from both sides of the strait at the same time.

A group of nearly 700 horse thieves galloped out of a dense forest upstream, and a large group of fierce thieves also poured out on the other side of the river, one of whom was on a horse.

It is the number one horse thief in Chang'an. I saw that he was so angry that he was glaring at this time, and he was like thunder, constantly urging his men to move the raft that crossed the river out of the hiding place, so that they could chase the enemy, and it was obvious that he had been out of order.

The sound of hooves arose, and the horse thieves on this side of the bank were already swarming along the river, while another group of horse thieves began to cross the river.

Zhang Xiaotian peeked at He Bao at this time, and saw that he was still calm and calm in this tense situation, and secretly praised him in his heart.

At this time, I saw more than 40 rafts, carrying war horses and supplies, crossing the river. When the red-eyebrow men unloaded two batches of nearly 700 war horses and grain, they began to carry the horse thieves across the river.

Red Eyebrows was also on one of the rafts at this time. There were only a hundred or so horse thieves left on the shore, all of them defenseless, and they were busy driving their horses to the flat ground near the shore.

I saw Zhang Xiaotian make a gesture, and more than 300 people sent out a round of crossbow arrows from the dense forest, which caused the opponent to turn over on his back, and more than half of the casualties were lost.

The red eyebrows and other horse thieves were scattered, and they fought back with arrows in panic. The small number of thieves left on the shore shouted and fled in all directions.

After Zhang Xiaotian and the others moved to the boulder on the shore early,

Only the sound of the crossbow machine was heard, and the powerful arrows flew like locusts towards the unsheltered horse thieves on the raft. The horse thieves were shot by arrows, and blood immediately stained the raft and the river.

Seeing that the casualties were too heavy, the red eyebrows hurriedly ordered to withdraw to the other side.

The crowd aimed at him, and thousands of arrows were fired at the obvious target. Although the horse thieves held their wooden shields high, they still couldn't resist the powerful arrows of the hundred crossbows, and they fell one after another.

Seeing that the form was not good, the red eyebrows shouted wildly, turned over and jumped into the river, hiding under the raft. The thieves also relied on the gourd to draw scoops and jumped into the river one after another.

There were nearly 400 horse thieves on the other side, but there was nothing they could do but jump and scream.

Powerful arrows shoot straight into the water,

Blood poured out of the water, and then the corpse of the thief that surfaced, and the scene was terrible.

Either you die or I die, it has always been an iron law on the battlefield. At this time, the raft drifted downstream in a haphazard manner.

Zhang Xiaotian's heart was hanging on Chen Cheng's side at this time,

With an order, Wu Jin withdrew his troops, had no time to pay attention to the life and death of Red Eyebrows, rode on the thief horse that had been robbed, and took all the horses loaded with weapons and food away, and galloped downstream.

The war on Chencheng's side also came to an end at this time. When they arrived at a suitable place for the terrain downstream, they joined forces to form a formation, and 600 men led by Gongsun Ce lay in ambush in the dense forest on the flank, waiting for the pursuers.

Six hundred horse thieves came along the river, and just turned the corner, when they saw the Han soldiers who were waiting for the battle, they had already entered the range of the ambush soldiers, and they were panicked.

The Han soldiers who were covered by the borrowed car array, crossbow machine and strong bow, fired together, and immediately turned over on their backs.

The remaining horse thieves couldn't retreat, so they wanted to bypass the chariot formation from the flank, but at this time, Gongsun Ce and the 600 Han soldiers who were in ambush shot them all over the place, and they couldn't form an army.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the horse thief hurriedly retreated, but he did not expect to meet Zhang Xiaotian's reinforcements, and he was killed again by surprise, and less than twenty or thirty people escaped, all of whom lost their armor and ran into the jungle next to the shore.

Zhang Xiaotian suffered less than 100 casualties and none of them were seriously injured in this battle, and the results were impressive, which once again proved that Zhang Xiaotian had excellent military acumen and flexible and effective tactics.

Zhang Xiaotian sent 20 people at this time to send more than 400 captured horses back to Chang'an, and kept the weapons, arrows and food for his own use, and after treating the wounded soldiers, he continued to travel south along the river.

By dusk when the camp was over, there were still two or three days left to leave the river. Because of the ups and downs of the road, and after the dramatic battle,

Under the fatigue of people and horses, everyone tried to find time to rest, and they did not say anything all night, and continued to hurry the next morning.

At this time, the scenery changes again, the mountains are undulating and extended, the vegetation is luxuriant, the scenery is picturesque, the mountain streams are deep, the waterfalls and springs are flowing, which makes people overwhelmed.

When Zhang Xiaotian was enjoying the beautiful scenery, suddenly a hoof sound came, "Report to the captain, Chang'an is secretly coming to report!" "Bring it on!"

Zhang Xiaotian was immediately shocked when he saw it, and hurriedly summoned He Bao, Chen Cheng, Gongsun Ce and other generals to come to discuss. HE Bao,

Chen Cheng, Gongsun Ce and a few others soon came, Zhang Xiaotian showed them the secret edict, and everyone also showed a disgraced expression on their faces at this time.

It turned out that this edict was an edict asking Zhang Xiaotian to return to Chang'an to quell the rebellion, and during Zhang Xiaotian's mission, the ten permanent servants used a stratagem to kill the general He Jin,

After hearing the news that He Jin was killed, he set fire to Nangong and chased Zhang Rang and others.

Zhang Rang and Duan Si, the servant of Zhongchang, hurriedly abducted the young emperor Liu Wei and the king of Bohai, Liu Xie, and fled in the middle of the night to Xiaopingjin (southwest of present-day Gongxian County, Henan Province), the crossing of the Yellow River.

Dong Zhuo, who was marching, saw a sea of fire in the capital from afar, knew that the situation had changed, and heard that the young emperor was in Beimang, and Dong Zhuo hurriedly led his troops to go.

After Dong Zhuo welcomed Liu Wei to the palace, he coerced the Son of Heaven to order the princes and began to intervene in the central power of the entire imperial court.

Now the situation is becoming more and more familiar to Zhang Xiaotian, and now he must rush back to Chang'an to rescue Liu Xie and lay a solid step for his plan.

Then everyone deliberated, and after making a unified opinion, they left one after another, and each went to prepare for his return, and the chaotic sound of the crowd alarmed Mrs. Fen and everyone.

Hurriedly sent someone to invite Zhang Xiaotian to inquire about the reason, and then Zhang Xiaotian informed them of the receipt of the edict, so that they could prepare to leave for Chang'an at any time.

After the next five or six days of peace, and as they approached the East China Sea, their scouts once again spotted the enemy's spies and let them know that the danger was repeated.

They have a lot of horses, they have obvious targets, they have to constantly repair broken cars, and they are slow like snails, and it is impossible to get rid of their enemies, and they can only be satisfied with praying that these unknown enemies will not be more powerful than Red Eyebrow.

After three days, he left the mountain road and returned to the endless prairie on the north shore of Surabaya, and it would take another day or two to reach the East China Sea.

The group stopped at this time on the edge of the grassland.

Zhang Xiaotian, He Bao, Chen Cheng, and Gongsun Ce walked to the side to discuss, and everyone looked solemn.

"Now our whereabouts and troops are all known by the enemy, but we know nothing about the enemy who will attack, which is a taboo for the enemy to be secret." He Bao said

Chen Cheng continued: "If the enemy comes to attack, it will definitely be within one or two days, because in this plain land, it is difficult to attack and defend, and the enemy will definitely not let go of such a good opportunity." ”

He immediately smiled bitterly and said: "I'm most afraid that Tao Qian will send his soldiers to attack them disguised as horse thieves, then we will definitely be in a big way." "Chen Cheng proposed this possibility, it will definitely become a reality, since this is the case, we can't sit idly by." At this time, Zhang Xiaotian frowned and said after thinking for a while;

The three of them listened attentively at this time, to see what kind of clever plan this resourceful commander had to save his life.

"We simply found a dangerous plateau near here with the mountains back to the plains, built earthen ditches, and stockpiled wild game springs.

Guarding him for ten days and a half months, in addition, he sent light cavalry to the East China Sea, begging the guard Zang Ba there to send troops to help, even if Tao Qian was cunning, he couldn't help us. At this time, Zhang Xiaotian said in a deep voice:

After thinking about it, everyone felt that this was the best way out of the way.

Immediately, Zhang Xiaotian informed Mrs. Daofen of the method, and then she conveyed it to the fourth princess.

After a careful survey for half a day, they finally found a high ground facing the plain on the edge of the grassland and set up camp.

At this time, the whole army immediately became busy, and at the same time sent forty fast horsemen to the East China Sea in five routes to ask for help.

The project of establishing the camp this time was very different from that of the previous one, and the trench was used as the main defense. A mud trench two meters deep and one meter five wide was dug along the edge of the highland.