By mid-December, Pang Tong's troops had bloodlessly taken the two wealthy counties of Jingzhou, and taking these two counties would not make him the focus. Jingzhou is still a barrier. Only Lu Bu and other Pang Tong's cronies knew about this matter, and the people who learned about it also behaved like Liu Qi and others, and they were shocked to hear it. Lu Bu was shocked and said: "The courage of the virtuous brother has reached such a point, the elder brother is less than one ten-thousandth!" ”

Due to a few months of cultivation and the autumn harvest, Pang Tong's army had sufficient food and grass, and the soldiers were eager to rest. At the same time, Pang Tong learned that after Pang Tong's army took the two counties of Jingzhou, especially Weixing County on the east side of Hanzhong County, Zhuge Liang had come to Anyang County in Hanzhong County, and Anyang had more than 200,000 troops at this time. With a force of this scale, in the hands of Zhuge Liang, it is not to be underestimated for Pang Tong.

Pang Tong has been waiting for this day for a long time, and without any other consideration, he will fight with Zhuge Liang again in Anyang County. He transferred 200,000 troops to the pass, and summoned Zhao Yun, Ji Ling, Gao Shun, Jia Xu, and Zang Ba to the pass.

In terms of the overall situation, due to the weakness of Jingzhou after the civil strife, it was taken by Pang Tong's army and two counties, which seemed to be a critical moment. But Liu Qi actually left the north vacant and did not send any troops, and there were thousands of people in some important places. The army was pressed on Yidu County, which borders Yizhou, and Jiangxia County, which borders Cao Cao and Sun Quan, and they are very relieved of Pang Tong's army and resist Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Sun Quan with all their might. can't help but make the princes puzzled, after being taken by Pang Tong's army to take the two counties, Jingzhou will still ally with Pang Tong? Cao Cao and Sun Quan continued to confront each other, and Cao Cao vigorously developed water conservancy in the territory. In fact, Sun Quan was most nervous about the rebellion of some foreign ethnic groups in the southernmost part of Yangzhou, which they called barbarians, and had sent additional troops to suppress them.

As the situation continued to develop in this way, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Sun Quan did not regard Jingzhou as an optional target. Even Guan Yu, who had already pressed his heavy troops in Badong County according to Zhuge Liang's arrangement, began to secretly withdraw part of his troops, and he himself left Badong County, and was guarded by Zhang Jaw, a military general who had taken refuge in Liu Bei's Yuan Shao, who was second only to Yan Liang and Wen Chou.

Zhuge Liang ordered people to build many wooden towers in Anyang County to monitor the movements of Pang Tong's army. These well-arranged wooden towers are a real nuisance to Pang Tong. Lu Bu, who didn't pay attention to this, poured: "This Zhuge Liang is interesting, can you use some wooden towers to prevent my army from pressing the realm?" Let me burn him! ”

Pang Tong, who knew the mystery well, said: "Brother, don't be anxious, you will fall into Zhuge Liang's trap." These wooden towers can effectively detect our troops, even at night, if our army is discovered by patrols, the patrolmen only need to report to one of the wooden towers, and the others will make fires for people to guard. And through the observation of the situation by these wooden towers, he can also command the battlefield, but I don't know how far Zhuge Liang has thought about it. ”

"Then you still have to burn it?"

Pang Tong, who was full of doubts, said in a deep voice: "I am very worried about Zhuge Liang's plan. Don't burn it at close range, I'm afraid it's going to be tricked. ”

"Rockets to shoot?"

Shaking his head, the auditor smiled, "That's too close." I have a way. ”

Pang Tong ordered the army to go out of the pass for thirty miles and go down to the village, five miles away from the first wooden tower. He spent another half a month personally supervising the manufacture of a batch of instruments. When ten catapults were pushed to the front line to face the wooden tower. The Yizhou soldiers on the wooden tower were dumbfounded, and immediately raised a wolf smoke alert, and the other wooden towers successively conveyed the police information after discovering it.

On the gray and bleak earth under the cloudy sky swept by the cold wind, Pang Tong's black horse came to the front of a row of catapults, and he drew his royal sword and held it high. The catapult soldiers behind him watched him with bated breath. As soon as the sword swung forward, the soldier immediately ignited the stone wrapped in the tarpaulin, and in an instant, activated the catapult mechanism, and the flint roared into the sky.

The wooden towers that rise above the horizon are tall and majestic. But in the next moment, the standing object was hit by a series of burning meteorite-like objects, shattered, the wooden frame collapsed, and the flames burned. In an instant, the tower vanished, leaving behind scattered or burning wooden pillars. Seeing this scene, the soldiers of the Pang Tong army cheered, but the eyes of the soldiers of the nearby wooden tower were full of fear, what they just saw was the wooden tower that was destroyed in an instant, and the few soldiers on it had no time to evacuate, they must have fallen to pieces, or they may have been smashed and charred by the boulder. Infinite reverie ran through my mind with endless fear.

And Pang Tongjun began to move, and with a mechanical "creaking" and other coherent sounds from the catapults, the second one shattered, the third toppled over, and the fourth one fell apart. Pang Tong's army was like a broken bamboo, and the wooden tower that Zhuge Liang's soldiers had worked so hard to build was like a mustard, and there was no power to parry.

Just as the army was slowly advancing to destroy all the wooden towers, Pang Tong received information from forty miles away that Liao Hua of Xingshi County was leading 30,000 troops to march here. Pang Tong thought to himself: "Zhuge Liang must have sent all the way to cut off my rear support, either a quick battle, or a protracted war, we must guard against this wave of men." ”

Near evening, Pang Tongjun, who had left Dazhai for twenty miles, went down to the village. Pang Tong sent a large number of scouts to the west to reconnoitre. The next morning, there was a horse survey report, and Liao Huajun set up a village by the river on the side of the mountain. At noon, there was a return of exploration horses, and the Liao Hua army had no movement to send troops, and saw that the war horses washed by the river were very thin, and the patrols outside the village were very lazy, and many of them were old and weak soldiers, and there was no morale at all.

This made Pang Tong very puzzled, Liao Huajun was really so poor and weak, so they came here just to deter him and make him dare not enter lightly. Or pretend to be a pig and eat a tiger? The strong soldiers are all hiding? It doesn't seem that necessary, after all, as far as 30,000 people are concerned, even if they are elite soldiers, as long as they grasp the situation and make the right decisions, Pang Tong will not be afraid.

But there is also a gap between the elite soldiers and the weak soldiers, and Pang Tong's judgment of the battle situation must refer to this, and then be flexible. In the case that he couldn't guess the enemy, and the Tanma also saw only the old and weak soldiers and the thin horses, Pang Tong made a decision. He was going to go and see the truth himself. If he had gone on his own, he would have been able to see the flaws.

At the fifth watch, accompanied by Xueyue and ten cavalrymen, Pang Tong marched westward. The sky was still very dark. When they approached the mountain, the sky was slightly bright, and taking advantage of the chaotic color, Pang Tong and the others rode up the mountain. The valley is not steep, and the height of the mountain is estimated to be only a few tens of zhang. After reaching the top of the mountain, Pang Tong began to look south to see Liaohua's Dazhai.

I saw that the village was very quiet at the moment, with flags standing and patrols in an orderly manner. As long as the sky gradually brightens, waiting for those people to go out of Dazhai and wash horses on the big river in the southwest, a series of actions can be spied out, Pang Tong is convinced of this. But the gentle glow of the sky shone across the mountain. When his men reported it, they found that a large number of enemy soldiers had secretly sneaked to the foot of the mountain at some point. Pang Tong, who has always been very confident in himself, was also shocked. If the enemy gathers around, it must have happened not long after they went up the mountain, and they had already been discovered at that time?

Pang Tong, who was twisted into a pimple between his eyebrows, said angrily: "Okay, you Zhuge Liang!" "It's a plan within a calculation. Zhuge Liang asked Liaohua's men and horses to camp here, deliberately released thin horses, and sent veterans to confuse the spies. In order to have a more accurate grasp of the situation, Pang Tong had deep doubts about the situation in Liaohua, so he would come here to investigate in person. As a wise and resolute commander, Pang Tong's qualities in this regard have been calculated into his strategy by Zhuge Liang. As long as Pang Tong approaches, then the task of Liao Hua will be officially launched. Therefore, it is conceivable that even at night, there must be people from Liaohua ambushing around to observe the movement, and Pang Tong must go up the mountain and immediately ambush the troops to the foot of the mountain.

At the foot of the mountain, there were already a large number of enemy soldiers, and the soldiers in Liaohua Dazhai swarmed out and moved under Pang Tong's sight, but he was helpless. Liao Huajun said that Pang Tong was surrounded by the foot of the mountain. Pang Tong's subordinates had already begun to look at him nervously, but Pang Tong still looked calm and relaxed. He turned his head to look at Xue Yue, who was also calm, and said, "Let's start." ”