Chapter 45: Encounter

As mentioned last time, Cheng Yu accused Sima Yi of bad intentions, and Sima Yi launched a counterattack without backing down:

"Hmph, short-sighted, Liu Chan, this son is by no means as simple as you think. If you ignore Him today, He is the one who will take your life tomorrow. King, Liu Chan definitely deserves your attention, and you must send a large army to exterminate him as soon as possible. Moreover, its combat power is not as weak as it seems on the surface, and ignoring such an enemy will definitely suffer a big loss. The lion fights the rabbit with all his strength, please King Mingjian. ”

The ministers divided the main battle faction represented by Sima Yi and the wait-and-see faction represented by Cheng Yu, and argued fiercely. Cao Cao was in the chaotic hall of the vegetable market, as if he hadn't heard their arguments, and quietly closed his eyes and pondered, weighing the gains and losses. After a long time, he suddenly opened his eyes, and his originally dim and cloudy eyes were scorching, and he only heard him say categorically:

"I have made up my mind, send 100,000 troops to attack Jingzhou City!" Obviously, although Cao Cao is old and weak, he still does not lack ambition, which well explains the meaning of the sentence that Lao Ji is determined to be thousands of miles.

"The king is wise!" Regardless of which faction the ministers were, whether they were in favor of fighting or against going to war, after Cao Cao made his decision, they all put away their arguments and bowed down to Cao Cao in praise. It shows the good political literacy of the Wei ministers, and also shows Cao Cao's super cohesion among the Wei ministers.

"Sima Yi."

"The minister is here!" Sima Yi said solemnly.

"Lone life for you to be the governor of the capital, command the three armies, Xu Huang and Zhang Liao are at your disposal, in addition, let Cao Zhen lead 3,000 tigers and leopards to help you, be sure to capture Liu Chan alive." (The governor of the capital was an official position once set up by Wei and Wu, but there was no one in Shu.) It can be seen from the promise of Sima Yi that Cao Cao still trusted Sima Yi at this time.

"No, Yi will live up to the king's trust, break Jingzhou, and capture Liu Chan alive."

If Liu Hou knew that Cao Wei attached so much importance to himself and sent such a luxurious lineup to arrest him, he would not dare to take a step out of Jingzhou City. If he knew that the forward was Xu Huang, one of the five good generals, that there was an old fox Sima Yi in the Chinese army, and that there was another five good general Zhang Liao in the rear army, and that there were 3,000 tigers and leopards riding tigers and leopards, he would definitely give up Jingzhou City, turn around and flee to the Jingzhou, ready to sneak back to Chengdu at any time.

It's a pity that he doesn't know anything, he only knows that Xu Huang is the vanguard, and the vanguard has about 20,000 soldiers and horses, and this is the enemy he is currently dealing with.

Liu Chan, who was extremely afraid of death, used all 500 cavalry as scouts during the march* and reconnoitred the movements of the team in all directions day and night in three shifts. He was really afraid of being made dumplings, so he not only reconnoitred on the front road, but also didn't let go of his own back road and side.

This ultra-luxurious squad of scouts soon encountered enemy scouts. When Liu Hou and they crossed Maicheng and arrived at Zhangxiang, the scouts came to report, and found the scout team of Cao's army 20 miles ahead, and the two sides had a short exchange of fire, killing 9 enemy scouts, escaping 1, 1 killed and 3 wounded.

Liu Hou was also a little nervous when he first went into battle, and together with Guo Youzhi, Zhang Bao, and Guan Xing, he inquired in detail about the situation of the scout captain at that time.

It turned out that this group of scouts left the camp early this morning, and they had arrived 20 miles away in less than an hour, and no twists and turns had happened, and they saw a group of cavalry in yellow armor galloping over from a distance. Needless to say, it was Cao Jun's scout. For this sudden encounter, the scout captain did not have a trace of panic, after all, almost all the people who can be scouts are the elite of the army. I saw him calmly give an order:

"Stop!" The scout captain raised his right hand, clenched it into a fist, and shouted at the group to stop advancing. Everyone pulled the reins of their horses and stopped advancing, and their movements were uniform, showing that all of them were well-trained and elite soldiers. For the first time, wind the crossbow arrows. These scouts, everyone is armed to the teeth, and everyone has a cavalry **.

Immediately after the winding, they took out the short gun hanging from their bodies, removed the wooden plug that plugged the mouth, pressed the ammunition inside with a strip, and poured a point on the fire......

These short guns turned out to be the equipment of Liu Hou's guards, but there were more than 100 of them, and this expedition was all taken out for these servants temporarily. Thanks to this period of time, the Jingzhou branch of the firearms factory has been put into production, and a small number of short guns have been produced one after another, which have also been used by Liu Hou to equip these scouts, and in this way, only 200 have barely been scraped together. Fortunately, the waiting team was dispatched in shifts in three shifts, and these short guns were used in turns, which was enough to meet the requirements.

In order to gain a little more time before the battle, the waiters had already loaded the ammunition in the gun tube before leaving, and then plugged the wooden plug at the mouth of the gun to prevent the ammunition from falling out.

Since the short gun is generally hung on the body with the mouth facing up, the ammunition generally does not fall off, so when the battle is about to go, as long as the wooden plug is removed, if you have time, you can use the whole strip to compact the ammunition, if you don't have time, even this step is saved. As long as you pour a little more ** on the fire, you will be able to fire it immediately, and the process will not be slower than winding a crossbow arrow.

At this time, the enemy scouts also stopped, and there was no verbal communication between the two sides, and they were quietly carrying out the pre-battle preparations at hand. The scouts of the Wei army also wound the crossbow arrows, and the general scouts were equipped with crossbow arrows and swords, and some were also equipped with a riding bow, which was lighter than the standard bows and arrows in the general army, although the range was short, but it was conducive to quick bow shooting on horseback.

After a while, both sides completed their preparations at the same time, and almost at the same time, the captains of both sides gave an order and galloped towards each other. The two teams of scouts, each with 10 people, rode their horses but ran with amazing momentum, like two huge waves crashing into each other.

The two sides were still 30 steps away, and the short gun in the hands of the Shu army scouts took the lead, "Bang!" Bang! Bang! With ten loud bangs, the two scouts of the Wei army fell down in response to the sound and fell off their horses. The war horses of the Wei army, who had never heard the sound of gunshots, let out "Sigh and law!" The screams were messed up.

Three of them neighed and put their front legs on the brakes, and it is estimated that in addition to being frightened by the noise, the horses were probably also hit by buckshot. Poor knight above, in this sudden change of movement, was thrown off his horse by inertia.

Seeing that the lethality of the short-shot projectile was not as loud as its sound, the scout captain couldn't help but shake his head secretly, these scouts' marksmanship still needs more practice.

However, at this moment, he was not allowed to think too much, but he gave an order, and everyone threw down their short guns and picked up the cavalry crossbows. And the short guns that are thrown are not discarded because they are tied to the body with a rope. At this time, the remaining 4 or 5 people of the Wei scouts forcibly raised the crossbow arrows in their hands and aimed at the enemy, regardless of the horses that were still in the commotion, because they knew that if they did not fire the crossbow arrows at this time, they would never have a chance to fire the ses again.

In the blink of an eye, the two sides entered the ** range of 20 steps, and the two sides fired crossbow arrows at the same time, the difference is that the Shu army of 10 people fired 10 crossbow arrows, and it was aimed at a relatively stable situation, while the Wei army only had 5 people, or 5 crossbow arrows were seung in the case of the mount turmoil, and the result can be imagined.

This time, the Wei scouts fell 3 more, and the Shu scouts immediately put it down after sending the crossbow arrows, and let it float beside him by the rope. At the same time, the left hand raised the small round shield tied to the hand to protect the door, and the right hand drew the saber, ready to fight in close combat.

Most of the crossbow arrows were under the crotch of the small round shield, and there were only two unlucky guys, one was hit in the neck and died on the spot, and the other was shot in the shoulder, holding back the pain and continuing to charge.

The distance of 20 steps was fleeting, the two sides touched, 9 sabers against 2 sabers, and the result spoke for itself. However, these Wei scouts were indeed brave, and with a death blow, the two Wei scouts who were still on the horse were forced to exchange for the injuries of the two Shu soldiers.

After that, it was to chase and kill the 3 Wei soldiers who were dismounted in front, and it was no surprise to the 3 infantry with 6 cavalry, who knew that there were really good hands in this team of Wei army scouts, and they were robbed of an ownerless war horse by a Wei army scout, only to see that he was vigorous, dodged and cut at his two sabers, and jumped on the horse when he turned over, pulled the reins, pulled the horse's head, and galloped towards the way he came.

Only two of the scouts of the Shu army still had cavalry bows, and the others had long since lost all means of long-range strikes. At the captain's command, the two men also drove their horses in pursuit, and as they pursued, they faced the fleeing enemy in the rear.

It's a pity that they reacted a step too slowly, they had already been distanced by this Wei scout when they started, and the bow itself was closer, and it was struck at high speed on horseback, and it was difficult to guarantee the accuracy. And the Wei scout was obviously also very professional, he kept lying on the horse's back, and he didn't control the direction of the horse, but only stabbed the horse's ass with a dagger and let the horse run wild.

And the scouts of the Shu army obviously couldn't spoil the horses like this, so they gradually let him distance him farther and farther, and finally fled. Although, two arrows hit the back of the Wei scout, and one sze hit the horse's buttocks, but the distance is long and the bow is soft, in the case of the Wei scout being protected by leather armor, unless he is too unlucky to be shot in the vital point, it is estimated that he will not die so easily. Based on this, the scout captain speculated that Cao Jun should have also known about the encounter with the Shu army by now.

After listening to the scout captain's report, Liu Hou was secretly glad that he armed the scout team to the teeth, glad that he equipped them with short guns and obtained the right to strike first, and also glad that he equipped them with a small round shield to strengthen their protective capabilities. It's just that their armor is not satisfactory, and if you have time, you must build better armor for them to increase their survival chances.

After asking Guo Youzhi to arrange the rewards and pensions of these scouts, Liu Hou convened a military meeting.

"What do you think of the current situation?" Liu Hou asked.

"What else is there to see, meet the enemy's scouts, that is, the enemy army is nearby, what else is there to say, let's meet him and beat him. We have 5,000 musketeers, and we are afraid of a bird, even if he Cao Cao comes 50,000 people, I will still kill them. I don't believe that there is still an army in the world that can break through our defenses under the three blows. Zhang Bao was the first to speak.

"The second brother must not be rude, and first listen to what the third brother and Mr. Guo said, military affairs are not child's play." Guan Xing stopped Zhang Bao's nonsense.

"Knowing oneself and knowing that the other is invincible, second brother, we must not mess around until we know the enemy's situation, so as not to fall into the enemy's way." Liu Houdao.

"Generally speaking, it is not less for a scout to scatter 20 miles, and it is not much to scatter 50 miles, but Xu Huang, a famous general of Cao Wei, would do this. That is, the enemy army is about 40 to 70 miles away from us. But we do not know the specifics of the enemy's forces. It is necessary to intensify reconnaissance and thoroughly find out the situation of the enemy forces before arranging the next move. Guo Youzhi analyzed.

"That is, there is only one or two days between us and the enemy. It turns out that before we know it, we are so close. Guan Xing said.

"Yes, so now we are about to enter the battle phase, and we may encounter the enemy at any time." Guo Youzhi.

"Yes, it could be an encounter at any time, and the enemy should already know about our existence. The tactics we had conceived before, such as burning grain and grass, attacking the enemy's camp at night, and setting up ambushes in dangerous places, could not be used without knowing the enemy's movements. Liu Houdao.

"Shizi is right, we don't know exactly how many people there are in the enemy's forward, where they are camped, and how to arrange the troops, so of course it is impossible to launch a sneak attack on them. For now, the only way to do this is to strengthen the scouts' reconnaissance forces, find out the situation as soon as possible, and monitor the enemy's movements as much as possible. As long as their every move is under our watch, then we can do whatever we want. Guo Youzhi added.