After Hou Cheng came out of the valley gate with his people, he separated from Lu Bu's troops. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

He disguised himself and dozens of his men as porters transporting goods, got on several wooden boats that had been prepared a long time ago, walked along the Yang Canal outside the Gumen to the east, crossed the Hongchi and entered the Luoshui, and then continued to flow down the northeast along the Luoshui, and finally entered the Yellow River.

The speed at which the boat travels in the water is very fast, once it travels more than fifty miles, even faster than the speed of horseback. Smuggling certain "contraband" by boat, even transporting people, is one of the safest and most discreet ways.

The cabins of the cargo ships are relatively large, and some even have to be divided into two layers, and a few sacks containing people are hidden in the lower cargo compartments of the cabin, and the people standing on the river bank do not see anything abnormal at all.

The location where the water enters the Yellow River is 200 li and 100 li away from the Mengjin Ferry and Wushejin Ferry in the upper reaches respectively. When a few wooden boats entered the gentle Yellow River, it was almost certain that the mission had been successful.

Now that it is winter, the water level of the Yellow River has dropped, and the wind and waves on the river are light, so it is easy to get to the other side of the river as long as you drive a wooden boat.

However, a successful crossing of the river is only half the task.

Because the action was very sudden, the two-day preparation time was not enough to get in touch with Gao Shun in Hanoi, so after Hou Cheng led his people to the north bank of the Yellow River, he had to watch out for possible pursuers behind and unexpected obstruction and inspection ahead.

In this regard, Hou Cheng also has a countermeasure.

He changed Liu Bian and Tang Ji into the clothes of rich families, applied a light layer of ginger juice to their faces, and made their hairstyles messy, making people look like people who were seriously ill. Hou Cheng and his subordinates also changed their costumes, and now they are all family members armed with short knives, escorting two carriages home. After the two carriages were put ashore, Hou Cheng exchanged gold for people, and the people who got the gold were afraid of encountering robbers, so they had already returned to Zhuangzi and hid.

Such a team is not conspicuous in this world that has begun to become unpeaceful. The team traveled all the way north, sleeping in the wilderness at night, which was a bit harder, but reduced the likelihood of being inspected.

When Lü Bu led his troops through Hangu Pass and arrived at Shaanxi County via Mianchi, the team led by Hou Cheng finally crossed the counties of Hanoi without danger and arrived at the southern entrance of Taihang Mountain.

The northern exit of Taihang is Tianjing Pass, and at present, Taihang, the mountain valley road leading from Hanoi to Bingzhou, is controlled by Zhang Yang.

Hou Cheng used a special method to get in touch with his own people hidden near the mouth of the valley, and with their help, he escorted Liu Bian and Tang Ji into the high mountains and dense forests of Taihang.

Liu Bian was not as scared as he was when he was first taken captive, because Tang Ji, who was by his side, gave him some confidence and comfort.

If these people wanted to harm him, they wouldn't have brought him from Luoyang to such a remote place, let alone a few palace maids and eunuchs who usually served him and Tang Ji. They will kill the palace maid and the eunuch outright, maybe insult Tang Ji again, and then hand him over to some behind-the-scenes mastermind.

Being able to escape from Luoyang under the nose of Dong Zhuo's terrible traitor, Liu Bian felt that a big stone pressing on his heart had been removed. Even though he had to sleep in the wild with Tang Ji every night, he could actually sleep peacefully, which was much better than when he stayed in the small courtyard where he was imprisoned in Luoyang.

When Hou Cheng escorted Liu Ban through Taihang, Lü Bu began to cross the river with his troops.

The scout, who had traveled a hundred miles, suddenly returned to report to Lü Bu and discovered an unexpected military situation in Hedong.

The Southern Huns stranded in Hedong County seemed to be taking advantage of the fire to loot, and they and the Baibo army led by Guo Da were in the west and the other in the east, looting and looting the rich counties of Hedong.

These rebellious Southern Huns have a leader named Luan Ti Yufuluo, also known as Yu Fuluo, who is the son of the Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu Luan Ti Qiangqu given by the Han court, and is also the brother of Luan Tihu Chuquan.

Knowing that the attached Southern Huns were in trouble in Hedong, Lu Bu's face sank. If he remembers correctly, this Yu Fuluo had a son, whose name should be Liu Bao, and Liu Bao's son was called Liu Yuan, who was the founder of the Xiongnu Han regime during the Wuhu Rebellion.

In Lu Bu's view, these Hu people in the north have no good birds, they are all white-eyed wolves who can't raise a family, as long as the Han dynasty declines, they will always come out to cause trouble in the Central Plains.

During the march, Chen Gong carefully checked the map of Hedong and said to Lu Bu: "Fengxian, this chaotic Southern Huns in Hedong have to be guarded against. If my speculation is correct, there must be a secret collusion between Yu Fuluo and Guo Da. Yang Feng's troops operated on the north bank of the Lianshui River, and it seemed that there were only 30,000 men, but if they were supported by the Southern Huns in the area of Jiangyi, the plan to attack Yang Feng from behind would be thwarted or even defeated. ”

Lu Bu also carefully looked at the map and thought about the strategy to break the enemy. When he saw the word "salt pond" marked on the map, he suddenly thought about it.

"Gongtai, is there a salt supervisor near the salt pond?"

"The salt supervisor is located five miles north of the salt pond, storing the high-quality salt produced by the salt pond and the taxes collected, which is the place where the wealth in Hedong County is concentrated."

"If I ambush the soldiers and horses near the salt prison, will I wait for Guo Da or Yang Feng?"

"Quite possibly! The salt pond is the wealth of the Han Dynasty, Guo Dazhi and his ilk rebelled, the most concerned is to plunder the wealth, the salt prison stored a large amount of pool salt, no different from gold and copper, the most suitable for distribution to a large number of rioters to buy people's hearts. ”

"Okay, then let's do it." Lu Bu immediately called the herald and asked him to communicate the various departments, speed up the march, and rush to the north bank of Yanchi before sunset tomorrow.

In Xie County, a strong man in his forties was discussing important matters with several subordinates. This person's name is Guo Da, and he is the commander of the White Bo Army. He had just received a tip-off that reinforcements from the direction of Luoyang had begun to cross the river.

Hu Cai, who served as a military advisor, analyzed to several major generals and said: "Niu Fu is as timid as a mouse, since he suffered a defeat, he hid in Anyi, which is high in the city and deep in the pond, and will not come out, if we can't drive it out of Hedong as soon as possible, I am afraid that the reinforcements sent from the direction of Ruoyang will converge with Niu Fu, and the situation is extremely unfavorable for our next step to send troops to Hongnong and enter the pass in the west!" ”

Li Le, who was in charge of logistics, frowned and said: "Now that it is winter, the weather is getting colder, and the army has not yet prepared enough food, grass and winter clothing. ”

Guo Da, who was sitting in the middle, said with some annoyance: "This is not good, that is also inconvenient, is it difficult to let more than 100,000 people of the Baibo Army live in the three strongholds of Xie County, Biancheng and Sangquan City?" In my opinion, the soldiers and horses of the imperial court are not very afraid, even if there are reinforcements coming from Luoyang, can't we take the initiative to attack and annihilate them? ”

Han Xian looked at Guo Da, who was a little irritable, and suggested: "We still have the hidden aid of the Southern Huns, if we let Yu Fuluo lead the troops to join Yang Feng and make a posture of besieging Anyi, the reinforcements from Ruoyang will definitely go straight to Anyi to relieve the danger of Anyi." In this way, we can set up an ambush on the road of the reinforcements and defeat them in one fell swoop! ”