As soon as Li Dian gave the order, the five hundred Cao army rode lightly and immediately became excited.

A thief is a thief, and the old and young women and children are also thieves, and their heads can also be exchanged for military merits.

However, just as Li Dian and the five hundred Cao Jun were preparing to kill, a small river appeared in front of them, the width of the river was about ten zhang, and the more than 1,000 old and young women and children did not hesitate to wade directly into the river, and then directly waded across the river, and it seemed that the deepest part of the river was only up to the chest.

By the time Cao Jun arrived, more than 1,000 old and young women and children had all crossed the river.

Without any hesitation, Li Pawn immediately ordered the whole army to wade across the river, even the old and young, women and children could wade across the river, and their cavalry would not be a problem.

However, what happened next was completely unexpected by Li Dian.

The first group of cavalry who walked in the front waded through the water less than two zhang, the depth of the water has not passed the belly of the horse, and then went forward, the river water has completely submerged the horse's back, the war horse because it can not step on the riverbed, it immediately began to panic, the war horse can indeed swim, but there must be long-term training, otherwise the war horse will be afraid of water.

Soon, the cavalry on horseback could not control the mounts under their crotches and slid off their horses.

Most of the cavalry who fell into the water could not swim, and immediately after falling into the water, they panicked, and while struggling, they shouted for help, and the whole river immediately became a pot of porridge.

"Go back, go back!" Li Dian immediately realized that he was careless!

Fortunately, Li Dian reacted in time, and the remaining more than 400 Cao Jun hurriedly retreated to the shore, and when he looked back, he saw the first batch of more than 50 horsemen who went into the water, except for a few people who could swim back, the remaining more than 40 people had all disappeared, even with their toes could be imagined, these more than 40 people must have drowned.

Although some people drowned, the hunt must continue.

At that moment, Li Dian found dozens of people who knew how to swim from the remaining 400 horsemen, and they went into the water first, and found out two shallow flat places that could wade across the river from the riverbed, so that they could cross the river with more than 400 light horses, but at this time, the more than 1,000 old and young women and children had already run away.

Li Dian naturally will not give up easily, biting the old and young women and children to chase after them.

Li Dian and more than 400 cavalry Cao Jun didn't realize that when they found the old and young women and children again, and chased after them relentlessly, they were no longer the same group they chased before, but changed to another group.

As a result, Li Dian and more than 400 cavalry Cao Jun were very frustrated to find that although they were only chasing a group of old and young women and children, and they were also carrying heavy food, they could not catch up with them.

Several times before and after, Cao Jun caught up with the old and young women and children.

However, at this moment, there will be either a small river of different depths or a deep stream ahead, and only a few rope bridges can be passed, and on one occasion, Cao Jun had already bitten the tails of old and young women and children in a valley, but at this time, a landslide occurred!

A man-made landslide choked the valley, forcing Cao's army to take a long detour.

Running all the way, chasing all the way, half a day passed quickly, and the sun began to set in the west.

After chasing for a long time, the careful Li Dian finally discovered that something was wrong, if they were chasing the same group of old and young, the other party should be tired, after all, the other party is an old man, a child and a woman, and the physical strength cannot be compared with the strong man in any case, not to mention that they are still carrying heavy food bags!

Li Dian's suspicions soon discovered something strange.

Now the gang of thieves they are chasing, the number of children is obviously less than that of the previous gang, but there are more women.

Obviously, when Cao Jun bypassed the valley and found the bandits in front again, the bandits had already secretly changed people!

This is not a group of bandits, but there are two groups, or even more, who keep rotating and taking Cao Jun around in circles in the deep mountains and old forests!

Then, Li Dian discovered an even more terrible truth.

The bandits left a mouthful of food on the way to escape, and Li Dian had people pick it up.

Li Dian took it with his hand and found that the grain bag was extremely light, and then took a knife to break open the grain bag and take a look, and found that it was stuffed with hay, where was the grain? At this time, no matter how stupid Li Dian was, he knew that they had indeed let the bandits play tricks, and there was no doubt that the bandits had already made careful arrangements, just waiting for them to enter the mountain to chase and kill.

Li Dian realized that the situation was wrong, so he decisively gave up the pursuit and returned the same way.

However, just when Cao Jun turned around and was about to return the same way, the strong bandits who had been missing before appeared like ghosts, although they were not many in number, there were only forty or fifty people, and there were only a few people.

These bandits sometimes hid on the hillside and fired a few cold arrows at Cao's army, sometimes they made a loud noise in the woods, and when Cao's army formed a strict cavalry formation and was ready to charge, they immediately dispersed.

After a few times, Cao Jun was also tired, but just after Cao Jun relaxed his vigilance, a large group of elite bandits wearing iron armor and holding Changge suddenly came out of the dense forest on the side of the road, lined up in a decent arrow assault formation, and launched a surprise attack on Cao Jun's marching column.

Cao Jun was caught off guard, and the entire marching army was immediately cut in two by the bandits.

Li Dian was taken aback, and immediately organized the light cavalry around him to form a charging formation to rescue the rear army.

Fortunately, the bandits are not in love with war, after cutting off the Cao army column and killing and wounding dozens of Cao troops, they did not hesitate to run into the dense forest on the opposite side of the mountain road, although Li Dian was angry, but he did not dare to chase into the dense forest, who knows if there are more bandits in ambush in the depths of the dense forest?

At that moment, Li Dian ordered the whole army to be vigilant, form a tight defensive formation, and slowly retreat.

This kind of high-intensity vigilance was extremely exhausting in energy and physical strength, and when the more than 400 horsemen led by Li Dian joined Xiahoudun's brigade, they were all exhausted.

"Man Cheng, have you ever caught up?" As soon as they met, Xiahou asked Li Dian.

"No, the terrain in the mountains is too complicated to catch up at all." Li Dian looked bitter, and said to Xiahoudun worriedly, "General, I found something suspicious. ”

"What's suspicious?" Xiahoudun's expression was already very unhappy.

Li Dian said: "There is obviously more than one gang of bandits, at least two, or even more!" ”

"What did you say?" A black line floated on Xiahoudun's head, and he asked in a deep voice, "How many bandits are there?" ”

"Yes, there are at least two bands of bandits, taking turns leading us around the old woods." Li Dian continued, "I have a very bad premonition that we are likely to fall into Yuan Jun's calculations, so it is better to withdraw quickly." ”

"Li Dian!" Xiahoudun couldn't bear it anymore, and finally broke out, and said sharply, "Are you making excuses for your incompetence?" What terrain is complex and there are several gangs of bandits? This is obviously a pretext, you are leading all cavalry, but the bandits are just a group of old and young women and children, and they are still carrying food bags, but you still let them run, and you still have the face to make excuses? ”

Li Dian was speechless, because what Xiahoudun said was not wrong, the other party was an old and young woman and a child, but he led the cavalry, and the cavalry failed to catch up with the old and young women and children, it was indeed a shame to say this, even if Li Dianming knew that the bandit was just carrying an empty grain bag, but he didn't have the face to say it to Xiahoudun, otherwise it would really make people look down on him.

But Li Dian is a very responsible general after all.

Li Dian's ability may be slightly inferior to that of Wuziliang, but his sense of responsibility is even better.

At that moment, Li Dian endured the shame and anger in his heart, and persuaded Xiahoudun to say: "General, there is really more than one group of bandits in the mountains, and their intentions are really very suspicious. ”

"Enough!" Xiahoudun thought that Li Dian was looking for an excuse for his incompetence, so he couldn't listen to Li Dian's advice at all, and even ridiculed Li Dian and said, "Li Dian, you are really going back more and more, and a group of bandits will scare you like this. ”

Li Dian's face turned red with anger, and he endured it so that he didn't have a seizure.

In any case, Xiahoudun is the main general and Cao Cao's chief general.

Xiahoudun only said that Li Dian was hit by him, so he was speechless.

Because it was getting late, Xiahoudun immediately ordered to camp in the mountains and wait until tomorrow after dawn to enter the mountains to pursue them.

Li Dian was originally worried that the bandits would launch endless harassment against Cao Jun at night, but to his surprise, nothing happened at night, so Xiahoudun also became more and more convinced that Li Dian was listening to alarmists, what groups of bandits, what bandits' traps, etc., just making excuses for his incompetence, that's all.

After dawn the next day, after the whole army had eaten dry food, Xiahoudun ordered to continue into the mountains to pursue.

After the bandits walked by, there were many traces left along the way, and at noon, Cao Jun caught up with the bandits again.

Seeing the old and young women and children appearing in front of him, Xiahoudun was excited and ordered the whole army to speed up, but Li Dian had hairs standing up all over his body, because the bandits had changed again!

Traps, this must be a designed trap!

At that moment, Li Dian hurriedly rode his horse to Xiahou and said, "General, you can't chase it!" ”

"Li Dian, you dodge for me!" Xiahoudun was furious, "Otherwise, don't blame me for being unkind to you!" ”

Li Dian didn't dodge, and said persistently: "General, I really can't chase anymore, I really can't chase anymore, this gang of thieves is not yesterday's gang, they have changed people, this is a trap, this is definitely a trap, and if you chase it again, there will be a big incident!" General, let's withdraw quickly, get out of the mountain quickly, or it will be too late! ”