On October 23, the 16th year of Hongde, the 60,000 vanguard army of Chu led by Xiong Hu, the Yujun of Chu, was defeated in Yanling, and the whole army was annihilated.

About three days after that, the hundreds of Chu soldiers who were lucky enough to escape Yanshui finally came to "Shangcai" with great difficulty.

Shangcai is the site of the ancient Cai State, and it is also a border area between the Wei State and the Chu State today.

Because the border between Wei and Chu has always been constantly fighting, therefore, in the border areas of the two countries, there are almost no people living in the two countries, and those who stay in this border area are often some robbers and bandits.

However, since Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu Xuancheng, led the army to enter this place, the robbers and bandits in this vicinity have almost disappeared.

Since the king of Chu officially declared war on Wei, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, immediately waved his army into Shangcai, and ordered the Xiong nobles under his command, as well as ordinary generals, to quickly attack the cities of Wei, and successively conquered Changping, Chenling, Xuxian, Shangshui, Xihua, and Linying.

Although the local county magistrates and military captains of Wei led the soldiers and civilians in the city to resist to the death, they could not resist the army of Chu after all, and at best delayed the destruction of the city.

No, just recently, Zhaoling City, which was in danger of the Luohe River, was finally captured after being surrounded and attacked by the large army of Chu for several days.

The fall of Zhaoling meant that Xiong Tuoba of Xuancheng Jun had removed the last nail in his march forward, and he was finally able to wave his army north without scruples to support the vanguard army on the front line, that is, Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu.

But what he never expected was that the hundreds of defeated soldiers on the front line actually conveyed an unbelievable news to him: Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu was defeated and almost wiped out.

"How so?!"

In the process of summoning the defeated soldiers, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, who heard the terrifying news, jumped out of his chair in a panic.

And the rest of the generals who were listening in the tent were also shocked.

You must know that Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu has an army of 60,000 in his hands. And how many guards did Yanling City of Wei have?

"Yan Ling has support, lured our army to cross Yan Ling, and ambushed Lord Xiong Hu."

As he spoke, the summoned soldiers told Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, in detail, what they knew, only to hear the latter frown frequently, and he didn't say anything for a while.

Long. Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, asked hesitantly, "What about Xiong Hu?" ”

The defeated soldiers looked at each other, and one of them bowed his head and cautiously replied: "At that time, the Wei army occupied the pontoon bridge and forced our soldiers down Yanshui, and Lord Xiong Hu was mixed in the army, or he might be captured, or ......."

He didn't say any more, but the people in the tent understood what he was trying to say.

"Either captured or killed...... What?'

Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, rubbed his brow bones tiredly, and couldn't help but sigh.

To know. Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu is the cousin of Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, the two are almost the same age, the difference is only that Xiong Tuo is the son of the current King of Chu, the royal blood of the Xiong family, and Xiong Hu is a side branch and belongs to the Gong family.

If it is explained by the title of Wei, it is equivalent to the relationship between the prince and the prince.

But because the two are of the same age, they have played since childhood. Therefore, Xiong Hu, the king of peace, has always strongly supported Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, and assisted him in expanding his influence in the state of Chu. It is hoped that he will become the king of Chu in the future.

It is precisely because of this that when he heard that Brother Pingyu Xiong Hu might face an accident, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, couldn't help but feel a little worried.

In the tent, a general saw Xiong Tuo's expression, and hurriedly comforted: "Son, Lord Xiong Hu is auspicious." Most of them were unfortunately captured by the Wei army, but they didn't have ...... Well, that's not necessarily the case......"

"I hope so." Xiong Tuo, the monarch of Xuancheng, sighed slightly, and then the expression on his face became much more solemn: "However, Xiong Hu was defeated. I really didn't expect it...... Hum! Someone came, passed on the order of a certain person, summoned Xiping's Zaifu (亘), Shangshui's Ziche (fish), and Zhaoling's Lianbi, waved the army north, and gathered the army in ...... Yan Shui! ”

The slaughtering father in his mouth, Zicheyu, and Lianbi are the three generals under the command of Xiong Tuo, the king of his city.

"Yes!"

After issuing the order of the commander of the general march, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, issued another order to his army: the whole army is out!

In the next two or three days, Shangcai, Xiping, Shangshui, and Zhaoling, and the four armies that were stationed in the four areas that had been captured by the Chu State jointly waved their troops to the north, and the troops pointed directly at Yanshui.

In the process of marching into the army, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, was surprised to find that the Wei army, which had defeated the 60,000 vanguard army of Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu, did not seem to take advantage of the situation to regain the lost territory.

No, from the news of the three generals Zaifu, Zicheyu, and Lian Bi, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, did not hear that they had encountered the Wei army advancing south, which made him a little puzzled.

After all, it stands to reason that the Wei army near Yanshui annihilated the army of Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu in one go, and it should take advantage of the morale of the sergeants and soldiers to recover their lost cities of Wei, why didn't there be any news of their march south?

Of course, this refers to the large army of the Wei State, and as for the small forces, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, also knows that there are many cavalry teams of the Wei State recently, and they are endlessly harassing them without knowing whether they are alive or dead.

The cavalry of the Wei state, with a team of about a few hundred people, wandered like rats in the territory occupied by the Chu army, tirelessly harassing the scattered forces of the Chu state. If it encounters a small group of Chu soldiers, it will be eaten, and if it encounters a large number of Chu troops, it will retreat decisively and will not give the Chu army a chance to counterattack.

What's even more troublesome is that these Wei cavalry don't fight close combat with the Chu army at all, and often put a wave of bows and arrows in the distance, and then they don't care about the casualties of the Chu soldiers, as long as the Chu army shows signs of counterattack, this group of people will immediately retreat, retreat to the edge of an arrow, and then release a wave of arrows.

Repeatedly.

Thanks to this almost shameless tactic, neither Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, nor the three generals under his command, Zaifu, Zicheyu, and Lian Bi, now dare not release a small force to pursue them.

After all, they didn't attach much importance to these cavalry at first, so seeing that the number of cavalry on the other side was only a few hundred, they casually sent more than 1,000 infantry to pursue, but they didn't expect that the more than 1,000 Chu infantry were eaten by the Wei cavalry of only a few hundred people, and there were almost no Chu soldiers who could escape.

Get it to the end. The Chu army could only send several times the number of small troops to pursue, but even so, those Wei cavalry were still able to calmly retreat without effectively killing some of the Chu soldiers with bows and crossbows.

In fact, it's pretty good.

Worse still, those Wei cavalry sometimes dispersed. No, just yesterday, a team of the Chu army transporting grain and grass was attacked by this gang, and the 3,000 Chu soldiers who were responsible for transporting grain were all wiped out, and all the grain and grass on the convoy were burned.

At that time, Xiong Tuo, the monarch of Xuancheng, realized that the cavalry sent by Wei was afraid that there must be at least three or four thousand.

"What a despicable tactic!"

At that time, after hearing the news that the grain and grass team was attacked, the prince of Xuancheng Xiong was furious.

Because in his impression. The role of cavalry is nothing more than to line up in a line on the battlefield, and then charge together to storm the defense line of the opposing army, but I didn't expect that the role of cavalry was so disgusting.

"If I had known this, I should have formed a cavalry ......

Looking at the endless stream of attack reports delivered to him, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, was very annoyed in his heart.

He wished that he also had a cavalry in his hands at this moment, but unfortunately, the state of Chu was located south of the Great River. There is no place to produce war horses, and those war horses in the army are used for the generals. It was also exchanged with the "Ba State" in the west of the Chu State, and it was not as good as the war horses cultivated by Han and Wei themselves.

You must know that the price of the war horse that Pakistan gave to the king of Huangcheng Xiong Tuo was quite expensive, so expensive that it would cost to form a cavalry of 5,000 people, and the war horse alone could raise an army of tens of thousands of people.

And no wonder. After all, in the state of Chu, soldiers are quite worthless consumables, and as long as the king of Xuancheng gives a certain amount of "settling-in allowance" before every battle, there will be a large number of civilians in the state of Chu who can't even eat enough for their families. A sum of money that is precious in their eyes but insignificant in the eyes of Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng.

It is precisely because of the low life of the Chu State that the princes and nobles of the Chu State are accustomed to recruiting civilians in the territory to fight before the war.

Give these civilians a weapon, a piece of leather armor, that's fine. But if it costs a lot of money to form a cavalry, I don't think many noble lords are willing to pay this money.

After all, in the eyes of many noble lords of the Chu State, the military exploits are piled up with human lives, and they themselves, as long as they sit in the rear and enjoy their achievements, compared with those people, the Xuancheng Jun Xiong Tuo is much better, at least he has formed a formal standing infantry in the territory, and pays military salaries on time like other countries, unlike some noble lords of the Chu State, who would rather spend a large amount of money on luxurious enjoyment than use this money to form a formal army.

"It seems that after this battle, I will say that I will trade some war horses with Pakistan and form a cavalry, otherwise...... Otherwise, it would be too passive.'"

After being endlessly harassed by the Wei cavalry for several days, Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu Xuancheng, made up his mind.

Of course, passive is passive, but he did not let the cavalry of Wei wantonly harass, and after several days of observation, he also responded.

Quite simply, it was to order the army under his command to ignore the provocations of those Wei cavalry, and not allow a small force to pursue without permission.

In this way, the cavalry of the Junshui Battalion led by the Wei general Cao Jue was greatly reduced.

After all, no matter how you say it, they are only a cavalry of about 5,000 people, and at this time, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, who has joined the three generals one after another, has an army of more than 60,000, and it is estimated that the final strength is at least 80,000 or more.

Therefore, Cao Jue said that he would not dare to really attack this army of 80,000 people, because it was no different from looking for death.

As for Cao Jue and the cavalry team under his command, they took advantage of the Chu army to shoot from a distance while they were rushing to Yanshui, and Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, did not care about these losses at all.

The 60,000-strong army was huddled together, and they were more vigilant in peacetime, even if the army of Wei could still kill some Chu soldiers with long-range shots, but the effect was obviously minimal.

There is only one point, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, has not yet thought of a countermeasure.

That is the grain road, that is, the transportation route of grain and grass.

In this regard, the 5,000 Junshui battalion cavalry led by Cao Jue has become a major problem for the Chu army. (To be continued.) )