Zhao Junsheng sent someone to find Dongfang Chen and said: "National teacher, just now Xu Yibao said that Xiao Si is very likely to send a partial division to go on the road through the Wuling barbarian area to sneak attack Ba County, if they set up their carriages and horses to attack Ba County, I believe that Duan Changyan should still be able to defend Ba County, but if they sneak attack, this is difficult to say, after all, there is only a thousand days to be a thief, there is no reason to prevent thieves for a thousand days, the enemy is in the dark, and the defenders of Ba County are in the light, and they can't be prevented!" I wonder if the national teacher can prevent the sneak attack of the Song army? ”

Dongfang Chen thought for a while and asked, "Your Majesty, is this news reliable?" ”

Zhao Junsheng shook his head: "There is no exact news, Xu Yibao has not heard the relevant rumors, he is not Xiao Siyan's descendant after all, Xiao Siyan will definitely not tell him if there is any secret military operation, he is based on Xiao Siyan and some strange actions of his staff in the past few days, I think this possibility is still very large!" ”

Dongfang Chen nodded: "No matter how likely this is, Your Majesty, the minister thinks that we should still have to take some precautions, if Xiao Siyan really sent a partial division to attack Ba County, and our army did not make corresponding arrangements to take precautions, once they succeeded, Sichuan Shu and even Liangzhou would be directly threatened!" ”

Zhao Junsheng got up and walked outside and said: "I'm not worried that the Song army can reach the city of Chengdu, where there are nearly 20,000 infantry cavalry of our army, I believe that Su Ji and Li Song can hold Sichuan and Shu, I am worried that if the Song army breaks through Jiangzhou, and then swings north to cut off the communication between Liangzhou and our army, and cut off the supply line of our army, the consequences will be unimaginable!" ”

Dongfang Chen thought for a while, chased after him and said: "Your Majesty, the minister suggested that an order be issued to Duan Changyan, reminding him to take precautions, on the one hand, strengthen the deployment of troops, increase patrols and sentry posts, and let the soldiers be more vigilant, especially strengthen the inventory of the personnel entering the city at the city gates!" On the other hand, let Duan Changyan take the initiative to send people deep into the Wuling barbarian area to find out the news, or directly bribe the Wuling barbarians to provide information! Besides, you can also send a letter to Chengdu City, so that Li Song and Su Ji can pay more attention to the situation in Ba County, and once they receive the news of Ba County's request for help, they will immediately send reinforcements! ”

Zhao Junsheng stopped and thought about it, and said to Dongfang Chen: "Yes, at this time, please ask the national teacher to deal with it!" ”

Dongfang Chen bowed and said, "The minister obeys the order!" ”

Zhao Junsheng pondered for a while, then turned around and said: "National Teacher, I plan to take 10,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry to the north, and most of the remaining troops are here to deal with Xiao Sihua, the commander is Lu Shuang, Yang Lie is the deputy general, and the national teacher is the military division, if you can break Xiao Si's words, you will break it, if you can't break it, you must try to form a standoff and stalemate situation, and delay time for me to attack Xiangyang in the north!" ”

Dongfang Chen was silent for a while, and said: "Forgive the minister, Your Majesty's move is too risky, if Xiao Siyan really sends a partial division to attack Ba County, even if His Majesty orders Duan Changyan is reminded, he may not be able to prevent it, if the Song army is partial to the division and then waves north to cut off our army's food and grass, not only will we be very dangerous here, but Your Majesty's troops and horses will also be cut off from retreat!" ”

Zhao Junsheng waved his hand: "I have already considered this matter, and I have also arranged a backhand, I still let them succeed even though I know that they may attack Ba County, and I can't even handle this little thing, isn't it in vain that I, the emperor, deserve it?" Take 10,000 steps back, as long as I take the army to the city of Xiangyang and complete the rendezvous with Sima Chuzhi, there will be no problem of no way out, and there will be no problem of retreat and food supply! ”

Dongfang Chen bowed: "It seems that Your Majesty has thought it through, and the minister is too worried!" ”

"Since you have no objection, then this matter is settled! Lu Shuang is still a little impulsive and not calm enough when he encounters things, if he wants to make any unwise moves or give irrational orders, you have to dissuade him in time, I will let Yang Lie assist you! ”

"There is also Yang Dayan, this kid is young and vigorous, more than brave, calm is not enough, and he also lacks some experience, for the time being, he can only use his force, don't rely on him too much!"

Dongfang Chen bowed: "Remember!" ”

In the next two days, Zhao Junsheng sent Yang Dayan to lead the army out of the camp to provoke and insult outside Yidao City, forcing the defender Xiao Chengzhi to go out of the city to fight.

On the east bank, Lu Shuang also received an order from Zhao Junsheng to lead his army to Yaoting to provoke, trying to provoke Xiao Siyan and force him to fight.

Although Xiao Siyan defeated Liu Jinming, the general of the cadre army, with the method of luring the enemy and the new weapon, infantry spear formation and infantry crossbow formation in the previous battle, he was not so arrogant that he relied on this not to take the cadre cavalry in his eyes.

He has fought several battles with the cadre army, and he knows very well the sharpness of the attack power of the cadre cavalry, and the last time he was able to defeat Liu Jinming and eliminate more than 1,200 cadre cavalry was because Liu Jinming was careless and fell into his strategy.

Despite Lu Shuang's incessant insults and challenges outside Yuting City, Xiao Siyan always endured it, adhered to the strategic tactics agreed upon by himself and his staff, and did not prepare to go out of the city to engage the enemy army until the situation changed fundamentally.

If two or three days passed, the cadres saw that the Song army would not go out of the city to fight no matter what, so they did not provoke again.

However, Xiao Siyan is not a lord who likes to suffer, he does not dare to go out of the city to fight with the cadres during the day, but at night, he keeps sending small forces to sneak attack, if the blind cat encounters a dead mouse, it will make a lot of money.

The Song army sent people to attack the camp of the cadres for two consecutive nights, and the battle was very fierce, although it was not able to break through the camp of the cadres, but it also showed the momentum of the Song army, so that the cadres and the whole army did not dare to underestimate them.

On the second day of the ninth month, Zhao Junsheng left Dongfang Chen, Lu Shuang, Yang Lie and others to lead the army to talk to Xiao Si, and he personally led 5,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry to the north.

The army first marched eastward this time, passing through Changning and Maicheng along the way, and now the military strength of the Song State is mainly in the north, and there are only a few hundred people in the hinterland county town at most to defend the city, and the quality of the soldiers is also uneven.

Zhao Junsheng with 5,000 cavalry and 10,000 elite infantry just set up a position under the county seat of Changning County, the officials and defenders in Changning County have already been frightened, there are only a few hundred people in the city, but there are 15,000 people outside the city, how to defend this city? Either way, the defense will be breached.

The officials and defenders of the city simply opened the gates and surrendered.

Zhao Junsheng left two or three hundred infantry to guard Changning, took away the original Song army in the city, reorganized them on the way to the north, took down their officers, and sent cadres and officers to lead the soldiers, if the soldiers did not obey the order, they would be killed, but Zhao Junsheng did not treat them harshly in terms of food, and treated them equally with the cadres and soldiers, so these surrendered Song troops did not dare to disobey their orders.

On the sixth day of the ninth month, Zhao Junsheng led his army through Maicheng.

At this time, there was no city in the city, and only a ruined wall remained, and these ruins and ruins told the world many stories that had happened here.

Zhao Junsheng stopped and looked at a large piece of ruins in front of him on the right, and asked Li Bao and the others, "Do you know Guan Yu?" ”

General Niu Dali smiled and said: "Your Majesty is joking, even if we are ignorant, we still know Guan Gong!" ”

Zhao Junsheng smiled and said, "Then do you know how Guan Yu died?" ”

General Hua Xiong said: "This minister knows, saying that Cao Wei and Dongwu conspired to attack Jingzhou, Guan Yu was defeated, defeated Maicheng, and then captured by Pan Zhang, the general of Eastern Wu, and was beheaded!" ”

Zhao Junsheng pointed to the ruins and said: "This is the wheat city of the year, when Guan Yu went north to attack Fancheng occupied by Cao Wei, and the general of Cao Wei's reinforcements surrendered and killed Pang De, and for a time shocked the world, Cao Cao then sent Xu Huang to lead the army to reinforce Fancheng, on the other hand, he sent people to conspire with Dongwu to conspire with Jingzhou, Sun Quan sent Lu Meng to attack Jingzhou, Guan Yu learned that the rear was attacked, and the soldiers had no intention of fighting, so they led the army to retreat south, but on the way to the south, bad news kept coming, and the families of the generals and soldiers were captured by the Wu army, The generals later learned from the envoy that their families were fine, so they all had the heart to fight again, and they scattered one after another, and when Guan Yu's army retreated here, there were only a few dozen people left! ”

The generals listened to Zhao Junsheng talk about Guan Yu's deeds, and they were all quite embarrassed.

Then the army turned north, and within a few days it entered the territory of Dangyang.

On this day, the army came to a small bridge with the words "Long Board Bridge" written in front of it.

Zhao Junsheng stopped his horse, looked at the map with the guards next to him, turned his head and asked the generals, "Do you know where this is?" At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Fei and Zhang Yide immediately blocked the pursuit of Cao's army with a horizontal knife, this is the Changban Bridge! Also, looking at the slope opposite in the distance, Zhao Zilong killed seven in and seven out of Cao Wei's army, and the savior rode alone was there! ”

Niu Dali said: "It's a pity that there are no chasing soldiers, otherwise we will also come to say, 'I am Niu Dali, I can come to the death together'"

The generals laughed: "Hahaha······"

Zhao Junsheng shook his head and waved his hand with a smile: "Go, keep going!" ”

"Keep going—" the herald shouted as the army crossed the bridge and continued north.

The march is less than a day's work, there is a pass in front, called the tiger tooth pass, because the shape resembles the tiger's tooth, so it is named.

The front sentry sent a report to the horse: "Your Majesty, there are 300 defenders in Huya Pass ahead, and the surrounding mountains are dangerous, and our army has cavalry who are afraid that they will not be able to turn over!" ”

Zhao Junsheng looked up at the Huya Pass in the distance, and said to Li Bao: "Pass the order, it's getting late, let's camp!" At night, send the capable and brave men of the Dragon Guard Army to touch the mountain from the side! Then send the soldiers to cut down some trees, and order the craftsmen to make a simple siege ladder, and once the dragon guard army touches into the pass and fights with the defenders, the army will take advantage of the chaos to attack the city and strive to take it once! ”

"No!" Li Bao clenched his fists and agreed, turned around and ordered the army to camp on the spot.