When the sun set and a bright moon rose in the eastern sky, Zhu Jiang, who had escaped death, was in the woods not far from Zhujiabao, staring at the wisps of cooking smoke rising in Zhujiabao with a hideous expression.

Zhu Jiang never thought that it was just a cup of tea, and he, the owner of Zhujiabao and the hairy crab rampant in Chaohu Lake, escaped from his lair in a hurry like a lost dog!

This is an unprecedented shame for Zhu Jiang!

Zhujiabao fell too quickly, and the fast Zhu Jiang still couldn't believe it, and only felt that he had a nightmare.

At that time, when the rain of arrows poured on the gatehouse, Zhu Jiang felt boundless fear for the first time, he reacted quickly, quickly pulled two cronies in front of him, and then rolled down the gatehouse, only to escape a catastrophe, and when he got to the bottom, he was still hit by a stray arrow in his left arm, and he didn't have time to organize any resistance.

When the gate was broken, the injured Zhu Jiang could only flee through the back door in a hurry, and he couldn't even take care of his wives and concubines.

A small leader beside Zhu Jiang asked dejectedly: "Dashuai, what should I do?" ”

Zhu Jiang covered the wound on his left arm, annoyed by the crying of his wives and concubines, his expression was hideous, and he looked like a devouring person: "I don't share the sky with Zhang Liao!" Immediately gather people from all walks of life to besiege Zhujiabao, and Zhang Liao will be trapped and killed in Zhujiabao! ”

The leader hesitated and said, "Dashuai, now that we have suffered heavy losses, the other leaders of Chaohu may not listen to Dashuai's words...... Even if he comes, he will not act overnight, but Zhang Liao may have to leave tomorrow morning. ”

Zhu Jiang's eyes flashed: "I can't move them, naturally someone can mobilize them!" ”

You must know that the real masterminds of this murder of Zhang Liao are not them, but those heroes on the left and right sides of the river, and he doesn't believe that those people know that Zhang Liao has invaded Zhujiabao and can not mobilize other people to come here.

But if those people want to rush over, it will be the second half of the night, and what they are most afraid of is that Zhang Liao will leave directly in the middle of the night.

However, Zhu Jiang can lead the party, naturally he has his advantages, one is ruthless, the other is cunning, he looked around, he still has five or six hundred people, immediately turned his eyes, and said sharply: "Dig a pit!" Digging a pit on the front and back gate avenues of the fort dock overnight, this commander wants to make Zhang Liao's cavalry unable to rise out of my Zhujiabao tomorrow! ”

……

Outside the fort, Zhu Jiang took a group of lost dogs to hide in the dark like moles and prepare to dig a pit at night, but inside the fort dock was smoke curling and the smell of rice overflowing.

Zhang Liao took a group of cavalry to feast, and it was very comfortable.

After entering the fort, Zhang Liao killed all the bandits who dared to resist in the fort, and the rest and their families were driven out, leaving only more than 20 people to work as coolies.

Next, Zhang Liao is not welcome, Zhujiabao is Zhu Jiang's lair, it was broken too quickly, Zhu Jiang didn't have time to take anything away, this time it was all cheap Zhang Liao, Zhang Liao came to the bottom of the old Zhu to be generous.

He ordered the soldiers to slaughter hundreds of pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks in the fort, and even a dozen cows were not spared, in addition to wine, eggs, duck eggs, and bacon were all searched out, and the soldiers who were tired for days were all given a meat cut, so that the soldiers were all excited, all of them were hungry, and they couldn't close their mouths with a smile, Zhang Liao gave the army a good treatment, but after all, it was impossible to slaughter pigs, cattle and sheep on a large scale, and there were not many opportunities to open their stomachs and open meat.

At the same time, Zhang Liao also let go of the granary in Zhujiabao, and the soldiers were served to feed the war horses, so that thousands of war horses were also excited and neighed with joy.

The reason why ordinary princes can't afford to raise cavalry, in addition to the lack of war horses, is that the cavalry consumes several times more than the infantry, and the consumption of another war horse is the largest, far better than people. Because in high-intensity and high-weight running, it is not enough for war horses to graze close to each other, and they often need to eat beans to supplement their physical strength and endurance.

But beans are also the rations of soldiers, and they are limited in war, and war horses usually eat some beans mixed with grass, how can they be eaten as openly and happily as they are now.

Zhang Liao asked the captain to open the stove on all sides, prepare dry food for the soldiers for several days, and hang bags of beans on the side of the war horse.

As for the mountains of gold, silver and copper coins, Zhang Liao didn't care about them, and it would be cumbersome to bring too many of these things on the battlefield, so he asked the logistics officers to distribute them to the soldiers and let them carry them as appropriate, and they must not affect their combat effectiveness.

Fortunately, Zhang Liao's military regulations have always been strict, and he is very relieved about these.

Under the moonlit night, Zhang Liao's soldiers were in full swing in Zhujiabao, feasting, shouting and shaking the sky, but Zhu Jiang vomited blood outside the fort, and he knew that the belongings he had saved for many years were over without going in. Although he had more than one fort, this one was his most important stronghold.

After eating and drinking, ignoring Zhu Jiang who escaped outside the fort, Zhang Liao asked people to pile up the front and rear fort gates with stones and heavy objects, and assigned some soldiers to take turns to watch the night, and the other soldiers all rested.

Running and fighting for days, it is rare to have such a good place to rest.

After the soldiers rested, Zhang Liao did not rest, but took a few guards to inspect the surroundings of the fort, looked at the situation outside, and naturally saw those bandits who were secretly digging a pit on the avenue not far in front of the fort gate, so that the soldiers on night patrol did not have to pay attention to it, and returned to the room without noticing other problems.

Lying on the couch but unable to sleep, he simply got up and lit the lamps and candles, and looked at the topographic map of Chaohu Lake in the dim light.

As a soldier, as long as you obey orders, you will fight when you should fight, and you will sleep when you should sleep, in addition to killing the enemy and worrying about your life, it is actually very simple, but it is not so easy to be the main general, you have to plan inside and outside the battlefield, plan to deal with all accidents, you have to worry about the victory or defeat of the war, and you have to be responsible for the safety of the whole army.

After several days of running and fighting, it was rare to take a temporary rest in this Zhujiabao, and at this time Zhang Liao had time to think about the accident he encountered in Chaohu.

If he had anticipated and prepared for the previous changes in Luoyang, and the battlefield in Yuzhou was completely under his control, then the trip to Chaohu Lake was indeed an accident.

Zhang Liao didn't expect that something would happen to Chaohu's side, Zhang Jian would be in danger, he had always led the war before, leading Yuan Shu's nose, but now it was the other way around, he was led by others.

It's not a good feeling, there are too many crises and uncertainties, especially away from home, and he has no other advantages than the incomparable combat power and the mobility of the cavalry.

This is the battlefield, no matter how carefully planned, there will always be some things that are out of your expectation or even control.

This can be regarded as a rebound from the reform of the imperial examination, but it is reflected on the battlefield.

The family's actions this time were indeed somewhat unexpected by Zhang Liao, in his opinion, even if the family's forces rebounded, they would not be so fierce, and would only hide behind the scenes as a promoter.

Just like the Sui Dynasty in history, the Sui Dynasty was the first to implement the imperial examination and weaken the power of the nobles to monopolize politics, and there was a backlash from the family at that time, but it was not the first to rebel. The main reason for the demise of the Sui Dynasty was that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was too anxious to govern, attacked frantically externally, carried out super projects internally, and did not give the people a way to live, which led to large-scale popular rebellion and unstable political power.

However, thinking about his own situation, it is almost the same, although he has not been happy and has been recuperating, but it is an indisputable fact that the rear is unstable, especially the fact that there are people in the court who secretly collude with external princes, and Yuan Shu, a person who hates himself, takes the lead, with the influence of the Yuan clan in Jianghuai in Runan, how can the family be indifferent.

All kinds of factors have led to their current predicament, the cavalry is not omnipotent, when limited by the terrain, it is not even as flexible as the infantry, the advantage of the cavalry is difficult to play in the Chaohu area, if it is in the vast plain, unless those bandits will dig the pit all over the world, otherwise how can they resist the cavalry's vertical and horizontal gallop, but it is different in Chaohu, the mountains and rivers are added, the road is not wide, and the cavalry is subject to the constraints everywhere when digging a trap in the critical place.

In any case, the situation has come to this point, and the only way to deal with it is to find a way to deal with it.

Finding Zhujiabao to rest tonight is just a temporary strategy, the key is to save Zhang Jian, no matter what, Zhang Jian can't have an accident!

Judging from the news that came yesterday, Zhang Jian is fine for the time being, and judging from the news from Xu Chu all the way, Feidong Road has also encountered many bandits and local thieves, but fortunately, there is no crisis.

The more enemies they pinned down in these two ways, the safer Zhang Jian would be there for the time being.

Now that his main goal has fulfilled the enemy's wish and entered the middle of the army, there are two possibilities for Zhang Jian, one is that the enemy will no longer pay attention to Zhang Jian and will concentrate on dealing with himself, and the other will directly attack and kill Zhang Jian, because he has no use value.

And the latter is very likely, because Zhang Jian has developed a lot in Jianghuai in recent years, controlling countless ships, and accumulating a huge amount of wealth, which is enough to make these powerful families and bandits covetous.

We must find ways to break through the encirclement in front of us and rush to Zhang Jian quickly, but in the same way, we can't disregard the lives of the soldiers, although it is very important to rescue Zhang Jian, it is a private matter to a large extent, and Zhang Liao cannot let his soldiers die in vain because of his own selfishness.

From this point of view, Zhang Liao has never been a qualified commander, although he is calm and good at capturing fighters, but he cannot treat soldiers like pawns in order to achieve his goals.

But it is precisely because of this that he is deeply loved by the soldiers, how can there be no casualties in the continuous battle, but the morale of the soldiers is extremely high, just because of him, the lord, as long as he gives an order, these soldiers will go to the soup, without hesitation, the soldiers are willing to die for him from the bottom of their hearts, and those strategists are also willing to assist him.

Comparing hearts to hearts, Zhang Liao must also be responsible for their safety.

From this point of view, Zhang Liao is a good lord.