Xiahou Yuan led 15,000 cavalry and approached in the direction of Huaili to intercept all the Zhang troops who wanted to rush over.

Wei Rui led 10,000 infantry troops to meet Gao Changgong, and met Xiahou Yuan's cavalry halfway through. Xiahou Yuan was overjoyed when he saw the enemy's infantry, and immediately led his people to rush over.

"General, slow!" Zhonglang General Hao Zhao came over from the side at this time and said to Xiahou Yuan: "The general leads the troops out, and the enemy must already be clear. Knowing that the general led tens of thousands of cavalry, but still brought foot soldiers to meet him, there must be fraud in it. ”

Xiahou Yuan thought about it and felt that what Hao Zhao said was quite reasonable. Although he was reckless but not stupid, after thinking about it carefully, he found the unreasonableness, even if Zhang Yijun's infantry was elite, he could not compete with a large number of cavalry in the field, and the other party did not have a few carriages, so he could not do it to the chariot formation.

If it's not the enemy's stupidity, it's a deception! Zhang Yi has always been good at employing people, and every one of the generals he uses to lead the troops is not simple, even if it is a small Cai order, it has left a deep memory on Xiahou Yuan.

Look at Zhang Yi's employment, Di Qing was selected from prison, Shang Shifu, Wei Wentong and others are civilians, Fu Youde was born in the military, Xue Rengui was just a county lieutenant at the beginning, these people with low backgrounds were selected by Zhang Yi and became the main force among Zhang Yi's generals.

Now Di Qing, Fu Youde, and Xue Rengui have all become the generals of the capital leader. Di Qing and Fu Youde don't say it, this Xue Rengui didn't deter millions of Qiang people in the northwest.

It took Ma Chao more than ten years, coupled with the reputation of his ancestors, to get the title of a Shenwei Tian General. But Xue Rengui was revered as the god of arrows by the Qiang people in less than a year, how can he be an easy person?

With Xue Rengui's reputation, it shouldn't be difficult to recruit 108,000 Qiang cavalry, but why didn't there be even one cavalry among the enemy's reinforcements?

Xiahou Yuan was afraid of the enemy's strategy, so he said to Hao Zhao: "Let the whole army retreat back ten miles, find a favorable terrain, and send more scouts to see if there are any other enemy troops around." ”

"No!" Hao Zhao hurriedly took the order and quickly went to make arrangements.

Xiahou Yuan found a gentle slope on Wei Rui's inevitable path, and after letting all the cavalry go up the gentle slope, he waited for the arrival of Wei Rui's army. As long as Wei Rui dared to go down the slope, he would dare to kill from the slope and hit the enemy army.

Wei Rui couldn't help but laugh when he saw Xiahou Yuan's withdrawal: "It seems that the enemy army has become cautious. ”

"That's true, I wanted to experiment with a new weapon, but it looks like I'll have to wait a little longer." The white-clothed scribe behind Wei Rui said regretfully.

Wei Rui turned his head and smiled at the scribe and said, "Kong Ming, you are really ingenious in making this inverted horse nail, if you can't see it, the enemy cavalry will suffer heavy losses." ”

That scribe was Zhuge Liang. After Zhuge Liang escorted grain and grass to Ji County at the beginning of the year, he did not go back, but stayed to join the military aircraft. He built a batch of inverted horse nails (that is, iron thistles, the purpose of the invention is to damage the horse's hooves, so it is called inverted horse nails) in Ji County, and sent them to Huaili, but because there was no war, they were not needed.

When Xue Rengui recovered Anding and Beidi, he also brought a lot. It's a pity that Xue Rengui is going to attack others, and when there is no defense, he doesn't use it.

When Wei Rui saw this weapon, he was immediately surprised, and he also wanted to see the power of this weapon, so he sent a full infantry army.

It's a pity that Xiahou Yuan chose to withdraw his troops very carefully, otherwise he could have experimented on Xiahou Yuan just now.

Since Xiahou Yuan withdrew his troops, Wei Rui naturally had to move forward. After walking out of the road of seven or eight miles, the scout came to report that Xiahou Yuan had already occupied the favorable terrain in front and held the intersection.

Wei Rui and Zhuge Liang listened to the scout's description, and then glanced at each other, "It seems that everyone who has become famous should not be underestimated!" ”

"Xiahou Yuan is a fierce general of the Cao army, good at long-distance running, and is known as the general of Shenxing. If the ability was mediocre, it would have been defeated a long time ago. Zhuge Liang said: "The enemy has stopped the intersection, and it is impossible for us to pass." The enemy cavalry rushed down the slope, and we didn't have time to know the nail of the horse, so let's take a detour! ”

Wei Rui nodded, and then ordered: "Order the whole army to the south and bypass here." ”

The so-called only path is the inevitable choice when you don't want to pay the price.

But there are very few absolute roads, such as Wuxian Tongyu belly, into Hanzhong or into Shu plank road is absolute, because in addition to these roads, you have no place to go.

The reason why Deng Ai is known as a famous general is that his Yinping sneak attack broke the absolute path of the ages and bypassed the first pass in the world.

The main road guarded by Xiahou Yuan is only connected to Huaili and Lantian. But from Huaili and Lantian there is definitely more than this outlet, at most it is only thirty or forty miles away.

Wei Rui promptly recognized that he would not take the infantry army to test the power of the cavalry, and Xiahou Yuan had no choice but to do it.

Xiahou Yuan watched Wei Rui go around the city, and couldn't help but have a headache, the enemy was too cunning.

At this time, Zhang He led the defeated army to join Xiahou Yuan. When Xiahou Yuan saw that Zhang He was seriously injured, he didn't admit to scolding him, but only asked about the battle.

After listening to Zhang He's words, Xiahou Yuan said very understandingly: "There is no problem with the disposal of Jun Yi, but the enemy is too cunning. It is also strange to enter the cloth with a layout of fire in this world. ”

Xiahou Yuan did not suspect that Zhang He was lying, Zhang He was not such a person. And this kind of unreliable lie will definitely be exposed, and Zhang He can't do it.

Zhang He said: "Now that Gao Changgong has come to the general's headquarters, the general should have made preparations early. ”

Xiahou Yuan nodded, "Just now I forced Wei Rui's department to make a detour to the south, and now we are camping on the high slopes on both sides of the road, waiting for Gao Changgong to arrive. If he dares to pass through the road, I will attack him on both sides, and if he also takes a detour, I will take advantage of his retreat and start a pursuit. ”

When Zhang He heard this, he also nodded, Xiahou Yuan's method was the same as what he thought, and he was relieved.

"You can recuperate with peace of mind, I have enough of me here." Xiahou Yuan asked Zhang He to be sent back to Chang'an.

Hao Zhao also led people to finish building the camp and began to make a fire to cook.

The next day, Gao Changgong came to the vicinity of Cao Ying with his soldiers and horses, and when he saw Cao's army on the high slope, he immediately ordered to move forward and turned to local defense.

Xiahou Yuan saw that Gao Changgong was so cautious, and he didn't let the cavalry attack, and Zhang He's experience made him a lot more careful.

However, when it was noon, Xiahou Yuan was dumbfounded, because another army came from the south, and it joined Gao Changgong, and it was Wei Rui's department who went south yesterday.