Liu Bao stopped at a mountain pass more than 50 miles away in the west of Mianchi County, looked at it with a monocular to the west, and saw a team of officers and soldiers appear outside the mountain pass in the lens, and stopped at a distance outside the mountain pass, slowly gathered together, when the last officer army arrived, the total strength was close to about 5,000 people, and a big Cao character was written on the flag in the center.

Only then did Liu Bao put down the monocular in his hand, stretched out his hand and handed it to the officers beside him, asking them to also use the telescope to see the situation of the officers and soldiers.

Since Xiao Tianjian's monocular was made, it has gradually begun to be distributed to the Xingtian Army, but because the lenses are rare and the scrap rate is too high when grinding, the number of outputs is very limited, and at the moment it is only able to be equipped to the battalion commander level, which is quite good, and the most equipped is the scout team, and the scout team will be able to have one, as for the other officers, they will not have this blessing.

So for this thing in Liu Bao's hand, the officers were very greedy, and one by one you rushed to the front to take a look, and they were all loud and surprised.

"Humph! It's really Cao Wenyao! We haven't avenged the revenge of the secret pile he slaughtered us last time, and he finally sent it to the door this time, since he came this time, don't think about leaving so swaggering! Why don't we all leave this guy behind this time! Take the head of this guy and sacrifice the souls who died at his hands! Liu Bao stepped on a stone and said to the generals who followed him.

The generals nodded their heads in agreement, and for this battle, they did not have the slightest fear of it, and they were already eager to try.

After Liu Bao led his troops to capture Mianchi County, he led his troops to be stationed in Mianchi County, during this time, he first cleaned up the hostile forces and some small bandits in Mianchi County, so that the situation in Mianchi County quickly stabilized, and at the same time built a temporary wharf by the Yellow River to receive all kinds of transferred materials from Shanxi.

These days, neither the Luoyang side nor the Shaanzhou side reacted quickly to the actions of the Xingtian Army, and the Luoyang defenders even cowered around Luoyang City, and did not dare to send troops to recapture Xin'anyi and Mianchi County.

However, Cao Wenyao in the direction of Shaanzhou made a lot of moves, sent troops to attack from time to time, and sometimes personally led his troops to sneak attack, Liu Bao has fought with Shaanzhou soldiers many times in this area during this time, and the two sides can be said to have won and lost each other, because it is not a large-scale battle, the advantages of the Xingtian Army's battle formation can not be fully played, so it has also suffered a few small losses, so that Liu Bao has long held his breath to fight with Cao Wenyao once, killing his arrogance.

In recent days, Xizuo sent back news from Shaanzhou, saying that Cao Wenyao was also rectifying his troops and horses in the near future, and he would soon send troops to Mianchi, wanting to open up the connection with Luoyang again, so Liu Bao personally led his troops to this place and blocked the main road leading from Shaanzhou to Mianchi.

In Liu Bao's right hand is Moyun Mountain, and his left hand is the Gold and Silver Mountain, two mountains and a ditch, this place is just the only main road from Mianchi to Shaanzhou, if Cao Wenyao wants to recover Mianchi County, then only by walking here can he enter the territory of Mianchi County, in addition to this, there are only a few trails that can be detoured, but these trails can not let the army pass at all, let alone carry heavy things, so Liu Baoka is here, it is equivalent to blocking the west gate of Mianchi County, and there is no need to worry about Cao Wenyao not coming.

And Cao Wenyao after careful preparations, but also finally at the end of October to act, the previous several temptations let him somewhat restore some confidence, feel that this battle can still be fought, so he gathered Hangu Pass and Shaanzhou four thousand soldiers and horses, out of Shaanzhou towards Mianchi County to kill, but after arriving here, learned that the front access has been cut off by the Xingtian army, so he ordered to stop.

To be honest, this place is not a dangerous place, and it is not suitable for large-scale operations at all, whether it is the official army or the Xingtian army, they can't invest a large number of people and horses, and they can only fight hard against each other between the two mountains, if the Xingtian army can't hold it, they can only get out of the way and let Cao Wenyao wave his army into the territory of Mianchi County, but if Cao Wenyao can't defeat Liu Bao here, then he can only choose to go back to Shaanzhou, so at this time, this place is very important.

In terms of troops, although Liu Bao concentrated the strength of three war battalions and two reserve battalions in Mianchi County before the war, and also had a small number of troops from the baggage battalion, if added together, the troops at hand were not much less than Cao Wenyao, and even had a certain advantage.

But this time Xiao Tianjian's order to him was to hold Mianchi, so in such a large place, the thousands of men and horses on his hands not only had to control this mountain pass, but also had to divide troops to garrison in Xin'anyi to prevent the attack of the Luoyang army, and also to divide troops to protect the wharf by the Yellow River and the county seat of Mianchi, so that Liu Bao's troops on hand would not have much to use.

Therefore, Liu Bao only led a battalion of the headquarters here, plus a reserve battalion transferred from Yongning County, with a strength of only more than 2,000 people, compared to Cao Wenyao's more than 5,000 officers and troops, the strength is weaker, and it is not as good as when Liu Yaoben was stationed at the official crossing, there is a relatively strong fort that can be used as a fortification, at this mountain pass, Liu Bao basically did not have time to build any strong fortifications, and could only choose to lead his troops to fight with Cao Wenyao in the area of the mountain pass.

But even so, Liu Bao did not show any worry, but led his officers to observe Cao Wenyao's troops and arrangements with great interest, as if everything was under his control.

The reason why Liu Bao is so confident is not that he is blindly confident, the four battalions led by Liu Bao himself, the predecessor was actually the former recruit battalion of the Xingtian Army, and the main officers in it were actually strong generals in the former army of the Xingtian Army, and were later transferred to be instructors. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of the four battalions under Liu Bao's command is definitely very high among the various battalions of the Xingtian Army.

And during this time, Xiao Tianjian ordered Liu Bao to sit in Michi, considering that Michi County was attacked by the enemy on both sides of the east and west, and the pressure was very great, so in terms of weapons and material supply, the armies stationed in Michi County were very tilted, and often the self-made firearms transported from Shanxi were equipped with the battalions on this side of Michi, and the artillery transported from Jinnan was also used by Liu Bao, so the current old-fashioned bird guns in Liu Bao's four battalions have all been replaced with new-style self-generated firearms, and the proportion of firecrackers in the battalion is as high as more than half. At the same time, the Fourth Battalion was temporarily assigned to a reinforced artillery team directly under it, which not only had 10 three-pounder guns, but also temporarily equipped them with five newly imported six-pounder guns and two eight-pounder guns, and the firepower could be said to be very fierce.

In addition, this time the Yongning Reserve Battalion with the four battalions is not an ordinary reserve battalion, its predecessor is a new battalion formed by the subordinates who led the service from the previous clay pot, and the training time has been very long, although some of the personnel have been transferred to the combat barracks, but the skeleton is still there, the training degree is also the highest among the reserve battalions, and the quality of equipment is also the best, and the quality of their equipment has basically caught up with the regular combat battalion, except for the spear and knife card that the Xingtian Army is equipped with standard, The equipment of the bird gun has also reached nearly 30%, and its combat effectiveness is even comparable to that of some newly formed combat battalions.

And the leader of this reserve battalion is not someone else, it is Li Yantian, the third master under the original clay jar, after the crockpot and Li Yantian led the troops to serve, Xiao Tianjian first cut them off from the old department, and sent them to Jinnan to follow Yan Chongxi to experience it, so as not to form a small group among the Xingtian army, but after the crockpot arrived in Jinnan to see so many rules of the Xingtian army, some couldn't stand such constraints, and couldn't help but feel disheartened, feeling that there was no way to mix in the Xingtian army. So he simply received a large sum of money, took his family to Zezhou City to become a rich man, and lived a small life, and this Li Yantian stayed in the army, after some experience, he was sent back to Henan by Yan Chongxi this year, first as a company commander, and then transferred to Yongning, took over the reserve battalion in Yongning, and is now the commander of the reserve battalion.

Li Yantian was born to lead soldiers, plus he was young and self-motivated, he did a very good job in the army, and he was very strict in restraining himself, which was quite appreciated by Xiao Tianjian, so he made an exception to promote and reuse, and after bringing this reserve battalion, Li Yantian was also determined to make some merits, and wanted to turn this reserve battalion into the official combat battalion of the Xingtian Army, and this time he followed Liu Bao here, which was also an opportunity for him to show his skills, so the combat effectiveness of his reserve battalion should not be underestimated.

In this way, don't look at Liu Bao's strength is not as much as Cao Wenyao, but his combat effectiveness is not inferior to Cao Wenyao at all, which is also the reason why Liu Bao is full of confidence.

But Liu Bao is full of confidence, Cao Wenyao is much more careful than before, he thoroughly understood the strength of the Xingtian army in the battle of Guandaokou, and later fought with the Xingtian army many times, he almost didn't take advantage of it, this time although he was ordered by Hong Chengchou, he led his troops to recover the pond, but Cao Wenyao became a lot more cautious, and he no longer had the arrogant mentality he had before.

When he led his troops to the mountain pass, and learned that the Xingtian army had blocked the way, he immediately ordered to stop the advance, and began to camp on the spot.

As a result, Liu Bao and Li Yantian waited for two days, and Cao Wenyao did not attack hard at all, except for only sending a small number of troops to test the future, but led his officers and soldiers to build camps outside the mountain pass day and night, and also arrested people everywhere and helped them build fortifications, and put on a posture of defending the mountain pass to the death.