In fact, just as Liu Yi feared, Cao Ren and Cao Hong had a brief discussion after the meeting in Zhuyang.

"Now Hanzhong is afraid that he has already gotten the news." When Cao Hong saw Cao Ren, he frowned and said, "This battle, I'm afraid it's not easy to fight." ”

"Zhuyang is three hundred miles away from Shangyong, but it is less than two hundred miles away from Fangling." Cao Ren heard this, and said in a deep voice: "The road is difficult, if it is an ordinary march, I am afraid that it will take ten days, it is better to send a light cavalry to gallop through the night, rush to Fangling, when the enemy army is not ready, take Fangling first, if you can occupy this city, you will have a foundation in Hanzhong, Liu Bei entered Hanchuan for only a few months, the people's hearts are not stable, at this moment, the next city, will be able to catch the enemy off guard, and then do not take the Yong, take Xixian first, with these two cities in hand, the Shangyong is lonely!" ”

Although Shangyong, Fangling, and Xixian counties belong to Hanzhong, the nearest Shangyong is three or four hundred miles away from Hanzhong, which is farther from Nanyang to Shangyong, although the location of Shangyong is more important, but if Cao Jun first takes Xixian and Fangling, the position of Shangyong, even if Hanzhong wants to rescue, it is difficult for Cao's army to easily cut off the road between Shangyong and Hanzhong if the troops are enough.

"Good, in that case, let me be the pioneer?" Cao Hong thought for a moment when he heard this, and also felt that Cao Ren's plan was good, if he could win a city first, it would be a big advantage for Cao Jun.

The two of them have agreed, and at that moment, Cao Hong picked out three thousand elite soldiers as the vanguard, and killed Fangling in the starry night, and handed over the military power in his hand to Cao Ren to command, without the slightest hesitation.

It's just that it doesn't go a hundred miles, but it is blocked by a checkpoint, the checkpoint is not majestic, the number of people is not much, look at the scale, at most a hundred people, but the location is extremely disgusting, is stuck in a dangerous place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the worst thing is that after discovering the traces of Cao Jun, the beacon fire has been lit.

"When is there a level here?" Looking at the wooden level in front of him, Cao Hong's face was a little ugly, and he was stuck in this damn level before he was halfway through the surprise attack plan.

As for what the beacon tower is for, Cao Hong is not a novice, so he naturally knows that with this beacon fire, I am afraid that Fang Ling will be prepared soon.

"General, what now?" The adjutant general came to Cao Hong's side and asked.

"What else can I do? Beat this level first! Cao Hong said a little depressed, he had also known the terrain of Hanzhong before, but he didn't remember that there was such a checkpoint, it seems that it should be newly built.

Although the plan failed, this level must be broken, since the surprise attack failed, then attack.

Although there is no rest along the way, but the left and right are just a small level of more than a hundred people, the height of the wooden wall is not even two zhang enough, this kind of level, although the location is a little disgusting, but it is not difficult to break.

3,000 people could not be put into the battlefield at once, so Cao Hong divided the soldiers and horses into six teams, one team for every 500 people, and attacked in turn.

It is easy to defend and difficult to attack, so it must be well manned, this kind of fragile level, Cao Ren is confident that it will not take an hour to conquer.

But the next siege battle, but a little unexpected Cao Hong, the basic wooden level is quite solid, not to mention, the soldiers in the level bow and arrow range is also very long, I thought that an hour can be captured the level, it took a day to break through, the soldiers guarding the pass saw that they could not stop it, they did not hesitate to abandon the level and escape.

In this battle, Cao Hong lost more than 200 soldiers, and the enemy had already fled except for more than 30 corpses.

Seeing that the sky was dark, and his whereabouts had been exposed, and the plan had failed, Cao Hong could only set up camp here first, and ordered Pegasus to inform Cao Ren, while he led his own vanguard to continue to advance.

Early the next morning, Cao Hong led his troops to set off again, but what made him feel aggrieved was that he did not travel more than thirty miles, and there was another checkpoint, which was also a wooden structure, but it was obviously much taller than the previous one, and there seemed to be more soldiers guarding the pass.

The beacon fire was ignited, and Cao Hong hated it so much, in this way, even if it was broken, the other party knew his position well, how could there be a secret at all.

"Attack!"

This time, Cao Hong didn't even bother to talk nonsense, this time, the other party had enough manpower, and because the gate was stronger than the previous one, it took two days to break through, and this time, more than 400 people were lost.

Repaired overnight, set off again, no accident, after marching fifty miles, another checkpoint blocked the road, what made Cao Hong a little uncomfortable was that this checkpoint was actually built of stone, three zhang high, fifteen zhang wide, above the city, there were many people, there were many people and horses, I was afraid of no less than 800 people!

Cao Hong took out the map and looked at it, after this pass, there are a few miles to Fangling, Fangling's soldiers and horses can support here at any time, which is equivalent to pushing the wall of Fangling a few miles forward, looking at the defense of this pass, if you want to break through this level, you may not be able to capture it if you run out of people and horses.

"General, how is this good?" Cao Hong's lieutenant looked at Cao Hong with a wry smile, are you still fighting?

Cao Hong said with a depressed face: "Go down to the village first!" ”

The soldiers are sleepy and the horses are lacking, and the people have been prepared for a long time, and this city wall looks quite strong, and it is a fart.

Seeing that Cao Hong did not immediately attack the city, but began to camp and go down to the village, Meng Da, who was standing beside Liu Yi, finally breathed a sigh of relief, and said with admiration to Liu Yi beside him: "Sir, I finally scared these Cao troops." ”

As he spoke, he secretly pinched a cold sweat, if it weren't for Liu Yi's insistence on setting up more checkpoints along the way, with the marching speed of these Cao troops, I am afraid that they would only react when they reach Fangling.

I heard that this time Cao Cao mobilized 400,000 troops and horses from Nanyang, Chang'an, Luoyang, and Xiliang to attack in two ways, although I know that there are exaggerated elements in this, but even if it is a fold and then folded in half, there are a lot of troops, and in the entire Hanzhong, Liu Bei left only 50,000 soldiers and horses, and he has to defend everywhere and fight for troops, and he will definitely not be able to fight Cao Cao.

Liu Yi also breathed a sigh of relief, he didn't have much time for himself, these three checkpoints, the first checkpoint was built the day before Cao Jun arrived, and it was used for emergencies, so he bought himself a day's time, and it took two days to build the second checkpoint.

The third and last one, Liu Yi specially located at the mouth of this valley, although there is not enough time, but Liu Yi still insists on using cement to do, until now, the city wall looks solid, but in fact the cement has not dried, a finger poked up is a hole, if the Cao army really attacked directly, Liu Yi could only flee back to Fangling, refusing to defend the city.

Fortunately, the previous two levels brought a lot of psychological hints to Cao Hong, the small wooden levels are so strong, isn't this stone level even more difficult to deal with?

Therefore, he chose to wait for Cao Ren's army to arrive before attacking together.

In order to avoid the soldiers stepping on the cement, Liu Yi laid a layer of wooden planks on the city wall, at this moment everyone stood on the wooden plank, although Cao Jun went to camp and set up camp, but Liu Yi did not dare to take it lightly, always pay attention to Cao Jun's movements, the cement is initially dry, at least four or five hours, if you want to dry it completely, it will take longer.

"Order the soldiers to be careful, always be ready, if the Cao army comes to attack, we will immediately withdraw to Fangling!" Liu Yi looked at Meng Da and asked.

Meng Da was stunned for a while, shouldn't he hold on at this time?

"Sir." Meng Da looked at Liu Yi, hesitated for a moment and said, "Even if we take advantage of the geographical advantage here, we can hold on for some hours, so why bother withdrawing lightly?" ”

Meng Da was also worried about being poked, but he was reluctant to build this checkpoint, the location of a checkpoint here is really good, if he can hold it, he won't have to worry about the threat from the direction of Nanyang in the future.

Liu Yi pointed to his feet when he heard this: "Hollow, if the Cao army attacks the city tomorrow, it will collapse with just a battering ram, do you think such a large Guancheng will be so easy if it is built solidly?" ”

Of course, if it can drag on for three or five days, there will be no such worries, but now, this level is completely a paper tiger, and it is okay to scare people, but if you want to rely on this place to hold it, it will be extremely difficult.

Anyway, Liu Yi himself would never take this risk, Fang Ling has made sufficient preparations, even if this level is demolished, it will be fine.

Mengda: "......"

Until nightfall, Cao Jun did not make any further moves, Liu Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief, and sent people overnight to put a large piece of the made antlers densely in front of the pass, and dug three trenches outside the gate, which were covered with barbs below, and made some camouflage on them, and finally took people to make two broken crossbows on the city wall, a distance of fifteen zhang, and the two broken crossbows took turns to put them, which should be enough to deter the enemy.

Early the next morning, when Cao Hong came to observe the enemy situation with his men and horses, he looked at the dense antlers in front of the city wall, and then looked at the rows of soldiers in bright armor on the head of the city, and was a little speechless in his heart.

Where did those antlers and horse rejection piles come from?

It's just that in this battle, his strength of more than 2,000 troops, I'm afraid he can't eat it, but if he doesn't fire an arrow, he can't say it, Cao Ren thought about it, and prepared to deter the enemy, so he ordered someone to bring a bow and arrow, and came to the place where he closed an arrow, pulled the strong bow full, and shot an arrow.

The cluster of arrows whistled through the air, and with a pop, it sank into the female wall, and the tail of the arrow trembled.

Seeing this, the surrounding Cao Jun cheered loudly: "The general is brave!" ”

A hundred paces away, although he did not shoot the enemy, but an arrow into the stone city wall, this force alone was enough to grain morale.

Cao Hong looked at the strong bow in his hand a little blankly, and then looked at the cluster of arrows inserted in the city wall, and was a little confused in his heart, when did his archery skills become so powerful?

"Let's go!" Naturally, he couldn't show it, so he calmly turned the horse's head with the guards and went back to the camp.

Liu Yi stood on the city wall, saw Cao Jun leaving, came to the female wall, pulled the arrow cluster off the wall with a cat waist, and the arrow cluster still carried the cement that had not dried up, and turned his head to look at Meng Da: "Why are they happy?" ”

"I guess I think this wall is real." Meng Da pondered for a moment and sighed.

"There's something wrong."