Early the next morning, Kou Yanqing led the army to continue southward, with the general Liu Xingyuan as the vanguard, Guo Xing as the rear army, and personally led the main army as the Chinese army.

As a result, just halfway through the march, news came that the Wu army had seized Jingmen County, and the Liang army defending the city surrendered without a fight.

After getting the news, Kou Yanqing was so angry that she almost scolded her mother.

He was originally worried that Jingmen would be occupied by the Wu army, so he specially ordered to send reinforcements to let the local defenders hold on and wait for his arrival.

Unexpectedly, the defenders surrendered after the arrival of the Wu army.

In fact, what he didn't know was that in the past two years, Liang and Jin had lost one after another, especially this time when Zhu Wen personally conquered Hebei, and the result was an extremely ridiculous defeat.

This was not only a great blow to the high-level officials of Liang State, but also a great shock to the lower-level officials.

Many officials no longer have the pride of being an "orthodox dynasty", but are extremely disappointed with the future of the Liang state.

After Wang Maozhang led the troops to Jingmen, he only sent an envoy to persuade him to surrender, telling the general who was defending the city that if he surrendered, he could serve as a commander in the forbidden army of the Wu army.

The guard general only commanded more than 2,000 people in the Liang army, and his position was not as good as that of the commander of Wu State, but now he got Wang Maozhang's guarantee, coupled with the pressure of the Wu army, which caused him great oppression, so the guard general obediently surrendered.

After taking Jingmen bloodlessly, the Wu army once again sent troops to prepare to take Changlin County, which was not far from Jingmen.

Unfortunately, this time there was no such good luck, and the Changlin defenders not only refused the persuasion of the Wu army to surrender, but also led the army to insist on resisting.

Although the Wu army sent a force of 10,000 troops, because of the rush of the march, they did not have time to carry heavy siege equipment.

Relying only on those improvised long ladders to attack the city, it is difficult to make a breakthrough in a short time.

After Kou Yanqing learned the news, he breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately led the army to speed up the march, preparing to rush to relieve the siege of Changlin as soon as possible.

After Wang Maozhang learned the news that he failed to break through Changlin, he also led his troops forward, intending to break through Changlin County before the arrival of the Liang army.

……

More than thirty miles east of Jingmen, a cavalry of 3,000 people was galloping briskly, causing the ground to tremble slightly.

This cavalry is naturally the cavalry of the Wu State led by Hou Zhan, preparing to make a detour to Lexiang.

At this time, the two people in the lead, each wearing a fine black armor.

"With our current marching speed, we will probably be able to reach Lexiang tomorrow. However, thirty miles before arriving in Lexiang, we will all dismount and walk. Ben taught you this, do you remember? One of them, a middle-aged man who looked a little tired, turned his head to the young general next to him and said.

"The last general remembers that this is to maintain the horsepower, and before engaging the enemy, the horse must not be tired, otherwise the charge will not have the strength, and the enemy will not be able to rush!" The young general replied respectfully.

This middle-aged general is naturally Hou Zhan, and the young general on the side is the most optimistic cavalry general in the Wu army, Chai Kehong, the eldest son of Chai Zayong.

As Shi Yan and Hou Zhan, two excellent cavalry generals, gradually grow old, Wu Guo naturally has to train new cavalry generals, otherwise it will be a waste if there is no suitable general for cavalry in the future.

"Yes, the physical strength of horses is the most important in the cavalry charge, like Li Cunxuan, the king of the Jin Dynasty, I heard that he gave an order that all cavalry must try to walk as far as possible before engaging the enemy, in order to maintain horsepower; Wait until you are five miles close to the enemy before you can mount your horse. Hou Zan nodded and continued.

"However, our mission this time is different from the charge; Normally, we charge into battle, and that's when the enemy already knows we've arrived, but this time we're going to make a surprise attack on the enemy's city. ”

"To do a raid, the first thing is to use the word 'fast'! At this time, there is no need to engage the enemy on foot, because the longer we delay after getting close to the enemy, the easier it will be to be discovered by the enemy, and the less likely it is that the surprise attack on the enemy will succeed. ”

……

Hou Zan tirelessly taught Chai Kehong his many years of experience in leading troops.

After several years of contact, he also found that Chai Kehong did have a talent in commanding cavalry, and in the future, perhaps after he and Shi Yan and others could no longer step on the war horse, the cavalry of Wu State would be handed over to Chai Kehong to command.

"Old, really old!" Looking at the young man who had been galloping his horse for so long, but there was no tiredness on his face, Hou Zan also had to sigh in his heart.

Back then, he could also be like Chai Kehong, riding a horse and galloping for several hours, but he was still in good spirits; But although he is not yet fifty years old now, he is far from what he was back then.

Especially the old injuries on his body, which recurred from time to time, made him suffer a lot.

Just as he was secretly sighing, a cavalry squad responsible for opening the way at the forefront made a new discovery.

"General, an enemy army has been found ahead, there are not many people, there are only about three hundred people, and the other party has already discovered our people." The soldiers who came to report reported.

"A team of about three hundred? Is it patrolling? Hou Zan frowned and thought, but he didn't give an order, but looked at Chai Kehong.

Chai Kehong immediately came to his senses and gave an order: "Zhang Yuankai, you lead the cavalry to the front to take a look, don't rush to attack first, but you must ensure that no enemy army escapes!" The rest of the brigade, slow down and move forward! ”

"Yes, the last general commands!" The general named Zhang Yuankai was ordered to go.

The cavalry is generally only half the size of the infantry, that is, there are 1,000 men in the infantry, while the cavalry is only 500 men.

However, the number of enemy troops is only 300 men, and sending 500 cavalry to surround the enemy army.

Hou Zan listened to his response and nodded noncommittally.

These unimportant emergencies can just be used to test Chai Kehong's ability to deal with them, so Hou Zan didn't give orders before, but let Chai Kehong take command on his behalf.

Soon after, the two of them led the main force to the front, only to see that there was an enemy army of less than 300 people, forming a circular formation, with pikemen outside and archers inside, trying to resist the enemy.

At first, these people saw that the enemy army surrounding them was only 500 cavalry, and although they were frightened, they were still able to maintain their formation steadily; But when the Wu army brigade arrived, in the face of absolute strength, they didn't have the courage to continue to hold on.

"Send people to persuade them to surrender and tell them that if they don't surrender within half a burnt of incense, after breaking through, they will all be killed!" Chai Kehong glanced at Hou Zan and saw that he still looked like an old god, so he immediately ordered.

Not long after the shouts of those who persuaded them to surrender, there was a commotion among the enemy troops, but then a man who looked like an officer came out tremblingly.

They fell!

This result is very normal, after all, in the face of absolute strength, they can't escape, they can't fight, if they don't surrender, the other party will make it clear that they will all be killed after the war.

In this way, they have no choice but to surrender, after all, everyone does not want to die.

After some inquiry, Hou Zan and the others learned that the enemy army was patrolling nearby.

With the chaos in the world, bandits are rampant everywhere, especially in war-torn areas.

Recently, there has been a bandit of nearly 100 people in Lexiang County, looting everywhere, and some time ago they robbed a grain transportation team of the Liang Army.

And the task of their squad was to go to encircle and suppress those bandits, but they didn't expect to run into a large group of Wu cavalry in the end.

Hou Zan and the others didn't care about the bandits, but asked about the situation in Lexiang City.

Those Liang troops who surrendered, naturally had something to say, and they didn't dare to hide it in the slightest; It didn't take long for Hou Zan to know the news he wanted to know.

"Kou Yanqing left 3,000 people to guard the township, and he also ordered the city gate to be closed at all times, so he was really cautious!" He whispered to himself.

"General, since the enemy army has left so many troops to defend the city, and they don't open the city gate in normal times, it's only difficult to raid them!" Chai Kehong's face also showed embarrassment.

The cavalry is not good at attacking cities, and if the enemy is not well guarded and does not close the city gate at all times, then they can still find a way, maybe they can take the city gate.

But the enemy army is obviously heavily defended, so there is not much chance of seizing Lexiang.

No matter how powerful the cavalry is, it is impossible to fly into the city.

Hou Zan nodded approvingly, and said with a smile: "Whether you can capture Lexiang or not, this is just an attempt, even if you can't, it doesn't matter much." We just need to keep harassing their food convoys! ”

The battlefield is changing rapidly, and no one can fully predict what will happen; So the two were not disappointed that there was no chance to capture Lexiang.

"General, what about these captives? Do you want to ...... them" After getting the news he wanted, Chai Kehong asked Hou Zan in a low voice.

Hou Zan hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "No need, it's just some unarmed captives, there is no need to kill them all." Throw all their weapons, armor, and clothes into the valley, and take all the officers with them. I don't think it's going to be anything. ”

"Yes, the last will obey." Chai Kehong bowed and replied, and at the same time breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

Wu Jun has strict military discipline, although there will be times when prisoners are killed under special circumstances, but under normal circumstances, everyone still does not do that.

At this time, if Lexiang's defense was lax and they still planned to raid, then in order to prevent the news from leaking, they could only do something similar to killing prisoners; But since Lexiang was heavily guarded and basically had no chance of a surprise attack, then they didn't have to kill the prisoners, after all, neither of them was a person who loved to kill.

After some deliberation, the whole army moved on; That night, after resting for the night in a remote place, they finally arrived in Lexiang early the next morning.