On the official road from Qichun County to Exian County, the fertile fields that should have been fertile around are now gradually barren, and it is difficult to see people for miles, perhaps this is the price of war. In the distance, an elite Han army was advancing towards the nominal destination in an orderly manner, and when the flags were waving, I only felt a sense of slaughter.

Because there was a rebellion in Jiangxia County, and most of them were Han and barbarians in the county, it can be said that there was constant chaos, so it was rare to see people passing by along the way, and I thought that those people either died in military disasters or fled to other places, otherwise they would have joined the chaotic army, after all, under the chaos, they had no other choice.

In the Central Military Department, Fu Quan rode a horse and listened to the report of several scouts who were covered in sweat, so he waved his hand to order a few people to leave, of course, he knew that a few people were rushing to report the news, and no horses must be tired, so they let people reward more money to comfort their hearts, which made those people leave with joy.

However, it is also because of this reason that Fu Quan's heart is also more and more eager to break the county seat of Qichun, only by breaking the city and defeating the rebels, he can only rely on the capture of a batch of horses, otherwise he can only go to other counties under the rule of the Han Dynasty to be seconded and requisitioned, but it is obviously too late now. Now, there are only a dozen horses in his whole army, and his favorite generals can ride, and everyone else has to walk, no way, he has few sailors and limited transportation capacity, and these dozen horses are already the limit of the transportation capacity that can be brought out, which is really a little poor and sour.

"Coercing the old and weak to pretend to be elite soldiers and follow our army, what does this Qichun rebel army want?" Fu Quan glanced left and right, and asked Wang Mou and Yang Hong around him, and behind them Guan Yu, Huang Zhong and other confidants and generals controlled the horse and listened, although they were also considered to have been on the battlefield for a long time, but in terms of strategy, they were obviously inferior to Wang and Yang, the two famous people in Shu.

Wang Mou and Yang Hong glanced at each other, and the puzzled look on their faces gradually appeared, and they didn't understand what the rebels in Qichun County meant to mislead them? Test them? Or is it something else?

There are more and more problems, and nothing is gained, but they are too much of a hindrance behind their own soldiers and horses, you must know that their ultimate goal is to capture Qichun County, if they turn around and attack, they obviously can't avoid the eyes of the rebels behind them, and they will still be exposed, so this rebel army has to find a way to eliminate it.

"Prince, why don't you order Guan Sima to send his troops and horses to set up an ambush, and when the thief army arrives, ambush and kill him. Let people change the clothes and armor of the thief army, and open the gate of Qichun City, and the small city of Qichun will be broken! Yang Hong may have received the courtesy of Fuquan after offering his advice yesterday, and he couldn't help but feel a little high-spirited in his heart, and took the lead in making suggestions.

In fact, Yang Hong's strategy is very simple, that is, to send someone to destroy this gang of thieves, and then order people to change their clothes and go to the city of Qichun County, after all, as long as the city gate is opened, as long as the Han army of the city is delayed for a few moments, then the elite under the command of Fuquan will be able to enter the city to fight in the streets of the rebels. And since it is a short-handed battle, with the elite of the Han army under the command of Fuquan who have been trained for a long time, will they still be afraid of those Han barbarian farmers who may have been exploited by officials two months ago? Obviously, these thieves who have rebelled against the Han Dynasty for a long time are definitely not the opponents of the elite Han army, and the Han army's breakthrough of the city is not a matter of being captured?

Nodding, Fu Quan didn't speak, turned his head to look at Wang Mou, and waited for him to speak. Over there, Wang Mou still lowered his head and pondered, and did not make any movement because of Yang Hong's proposal, and only after he seemed to notice Fu Quan's gaze did he raise his head, meet Fu Quan's gaze and salute: "What should we do if the thieves use this army to lure our army to ambush and kill?" ”

Thieves lure our army to ambush and kill? Fu Quan was stunned for a moment, thought about it carefully, and then understood, and hurriedly asked: "According to Yuantai's intentions, these hundreds of old and weak are all thieves who are testing the movement of our army, so they are sent here?" ”

"Exactly!" Wang Mou replied in a deep voice, and then continued: "Most of these hundreds of troops are dressed up as old and weak women and children, if they are destroyed, the thieves will know that our army is false and real, so it will be difficult for the prince to succeed." ”

As soon as the words came out, Fu Quan's face was gloomy, and Yang Hong, who had just proposed his plan to deceive the city, obviously changed from relaxed to a little unnatural, after all, it would not be normal for anyone to be suddenly "slapped in the face" like this. However, Wang Mou is from Yizhou like him after all, and the suggestions he made him unable to refute, so he could only be silent and silent.

The atmosphere in the air suddenly quieted down, although it was in the field, but at this time, in addition to the footsteps of soldiers marching and the sound of armor clashing, only the loud chirping of birds flying in the sky echoed in everyone's ears.

At this moment, Fu Quan, who listened to Wang Mou's advice, was also meditating, indeed, the two had their own reasons, but it was obvious that what Wang Mou said was more in line with the interests of the rebels. If he empathizes and puts himself in the position of the rebels in Qichun County, if he sees the Han army, which was still showing its teeth and claws the day before yesterday, and forcing him to fight a decisive battle with all his might, suddenly withdrawing, showing a posture of abandoning Qichun County and making a detour to Exian County, he himself will doubt the true thoughts of the Han army. In order to detect the reality of the Han army, of course, they had to send people out of the city to investigate, but it was obvious that the rebels in Qichun County did not use a regular method to investigate, but deceived the Han army.

These Han rebels in Qichun County deliberately only sent dozens of people to follow the Han army with a small army pretended to be old and weak, women and children, in order to test the intentions of the Han army.

And if the Han army really wants to abandon Qichun County and go to capture Exian, of course they will not care about the small group of rebels hanging far behind them, because on the one hand, the Han army is marching urgently, how can there be time to delay here, and then turn around and annihilate this force of soldiers and horses; On the other hand, even if this group of soldiers and horses followed the Han army to Exian, even if they attacked the Han army, it would not cause much damage to the Han army.

Therefore, this small group of rebels should be safe no matter what, but if they are annihilated by the Han army on the way, then the intention of Fuquan and the others will immediately become clear, the intention of the Han army is to be drunk and warm, not to drink, and to support and take Exian County, but secretly want to turn around and take advantage of the relaxation of the vigilance in Qichun County to raid and capture Qichun County. It can be said that this small group of rebels seems to be insignificant, but it is a test chess piece laid by the rebel generals in Qichun County.

"I didn't expect that there would be such a master in this Qichun County, this plan is really attacking!" After pondering, Fu Quan shook his head and sighed bitterly, no wonder he asked Guan Yu, Huang Zhong, and Yan Yan to take turns to fight outside Qichun County yesterday, but there was no news in the city, and it turned out that his plan had already been seen through. Just like when playing cards, his hole cards have already been known by the opponent, so how many chances does he have to win? Obviously, the odds of winning are frighteningly low.

"The Han barbarians in Jiangxia County live together, and there is no shortage of people who have general knowledge and strategy to join the thieves, it is not surprising that the rebels have this plan, the prince must not work hard, and the thief's plan should be broken at the moment." Wang Mou said that even if he guessed the intentions of the rebels, he had to find a way to deal with them, otherwise their plan would be in vain.

"Hmm", Fu Quan agreed with his head, thought for a moment, but his mind was bright, and he said left and right: "Order, the whole army accelerates, hurry to Exian, dare to delay, fight twenty!" ”

"No!"

Guan, Huang and other generals who had been waiting impatiently for a long time responded loudly, even if they didn't understand the meaning of Fu Quan's order, it did not prevent them from carrying out the orders issued by Shangguan, because this was their duty.

After a while, the various units of the Han army, which had been marching at a normal speed, suddenly marched in a desperate manner. To put it simply, when I started running, there were bursts of footsteps on the ground, bringing up countless dust, and alarming countless birds and flowers on both sides of the official road.

In the summer of May, the acacia flowers in Jiangxia County are in full bloom, and the wind blows a faint fragrance of flowers, and sometimes a few small stamens fall quietly. In the air, the locust flowers fluttering in the wind, fragile and thin, gradually fell to the rebel team pretending to be old and weak women and children who followed the Han army.

At the front of the rebel ranks, a barbarian on horseback wiped the beads of sweat from his scattered hair with the robbed Han clothes he was wearing, and complained incessantly: "Damn the weather, it's so hot, I shouldn't have been ordered to go out of the city if I knew it, wouldn't it be happy to stay in the city?" ”

This barbarian who has been complaining is the barbarian general who was ordered by Ma Hu to lead his troops out of the city this time, named Liang Fierce, and he knows that this is not a Han name. Of course, no matter how much this murderer complained, it was impossible for him to change his mission of leading dozens of soldiers out of the city with a group of Han people who were threatened, because he was the confidant and favorite general of the rebel Qu Shuai Ma Hu in Qichun County. In Ma Hu's opinion, only this powerful subordinate Liang Ji can carry out the strategy that Qin Chuan provided him, and he is not at ease when others implement it, and he does not dare to tell him the purpose of this plan.

In fact, just like the speculation of Fu Quan, Wang Mou and others just now, then Qin Chuan asked Ma Hu to send people to coerce the old and weak people to pretend to be rebels to follow the Han army, which meant to test the Han army. Originally, if Fuquan really acted according to Yang Hong's strategy, I am afraid that the county seat of Qichun would have understood the true intentions of the Han army at this time, but all this was shattered by the anomaly discovered by the old Hou Qi in the Fuquan army with his intuition.

"General, drink saliva and quench the anger." I saw a brute soldier beside Liang Fierce holding a leather bag and handing it to him, this brute soldier is Liang Fierce's personal soldier, and he said with a courteous smile on his face at the moment, and when he spoke, he first helped Liang Fierce open the skin bag stopper, and then handed it to Liang Fierce.

Seeing the water bladder, the Liang fierce immediately took it, poured the cool water directly into his throat, and suddenly felt a burst of coolness all over his body, and he still felt relieved, and he also took the water bladder and poured it on his head to dispel the heat from the outside of his body.

It turned out that the old and weak women and children who were driven all the way were also thirsty, but because these Han barbarian coalition troops did not take care of them at all when they left the city, and they brought less water, so they were naturally limited in what they could drink.

But Liang Ji, who was just comfortable over there, heard the noise in the team behind him, and his just good mood was disturbed again, and he hurriedly scolded these Han people, but if he didn't take into account his subordinates and some Han soldiers, considering their mood, he couldn't say that he would step forward at this time to stop these Han people. After all, there is not much water in the army, and I haven't seen the wells and rivers replenish along the way, and there will naturally not be much water source for these Han people, so it's all because of this damn ghost weather, it's so hot, and after walking for more than ten miles, people are dying of thirst.

In fact, the Han people in this "rebel army" are all "good people" in Qichun County who obey Huang Sui's rule, as for those who disobey the opponents, except for those who fled and left, the others have long become the ghosts of the rebels. The reason why only these old and weak women and children are allowed to come out, and not the strong, is because Mahu himself is ready to let these people die, as long as his henchmen will be fine, everything else doesn't matter, and the city is strong, but because Mahu wants to keep them as his reserve army to prevent accidents, how can they be cannon fodder who have been abandoned by him? After all, even these strong people are used as cannon fodder when defending the city, but as the commander of the army, how to maximize the utilization rate of cannon fodder is also very important.

In the end, Liang couldn't stand the noise of these Han people, so he ordered someone to distribute some more water to those people. As a close confidant of Ma Hu, he knew very well that although his Han barbarian alliance army was extremely close because of the Han barbarian mixed residence, it was not a clan after all, and if the barbarians did anything to harm the Han people, they were very willing to collapse their alliance army. Therefore, in these small things, it is also very necessary to be able to take care of the Han people and bring the Han soldiers under his command to their hearts.

"How far is it from Qichun County?" Taking advantage of the Han people's efforts to drink water, Liang asked the soldier who had just handed him water, thinking of the order given to him by Ma Hu, of course he had to be cautious.

"About twenty miles."

"Twenty miles?" Liang Meng muttered a sentence in his mouth, then looked at the Han people who were still drinking water from each other, and said to the pro-soldiers: "Let these Han people drink quickly, and the army will continue to advance." ”

"No!" As soon as the barbarian soldier received the order, he went to the Han people who were drinking water and shouted to them, urging them to hurry up.

The day always flashed by, and the night came slowly, and when the well-trained Han army marched quickly, it suddenly left the rebels, who were mostly old and weak, far away.

In the dark, about fifty miles outside the city of Qichun County, the rebels who had been marching for a day camped here, and Liang Fierce in the camp didn't care about other things at all, he was waiting for news of the scouts sent by the station.

The sound of "tapping, tapping" came from a distance, and then Liang Ji saw the person he had been waiting for for a long time, it was the Hou Qi he had sent out, and he had been sent to reconnoiter for a long time, and finally came back at this moment.