On the 21st day of the 10th month of Jian'an, Liu Cong and Wei Yan, the pioneer of Jingzhou, led 15,000 troops, left the Partridge Ridge camp and marched to Fancheng.

Liu Cong instructed Liu Bin, the head of the Partridge Ridge Battalion, to stay in the battalion with 5,000 men and horses, improve combat readiness, and be ready to reinforce at any time to conquer Fancheng.

He also issued two edicts in succession, respectively to Liu Feng Guanping, and ordered them to tightly block the east-west roads of Fancheng to prevent Cao's soldiers from escaping.

The Jingzhou Bing Camp of Partridge Ridge is only a hundred and ten miles away from Fancheng, Liu Cong and his entourage set off early in the morning, traveled all the way, and arrived at the bank of the water river ten miles north of Fancheng when they arrived at Xin, so they set up a large camp here to stay, and there was nothing to say for a night.

After breakfast early the next day, Wei Yan took two thousand elite soldiers to Fancheng to check the terrain, and Liu Cong instructed: "At present, Cao Ren's favored soldiers are at a disadvantage, and it is estimated that they will not go out of the city to face the battle." He will not send troops to set up an ambush, Wei Wenchang will lead his troops to check the shape from far and near, and then he can come back to study siege measures. We must not covet meritorious service and rashly attack the city. and shall be prepared for many days in the city. ”

Wei Yan agreed to go.

However, it was said that the plainclothes scouts of Fancheng Cao soldiers had seen Jingzhou soldiers coming from afar the night before yesterday, and now they had set up camp by the Shuihe River, so they hurriedly reported this military situation to Cao Ren, the general of Fancheng Cao soldiers.

Cao Ren discussed with Man Chong, closed the city gate in advance, and sent soldiers on duty to the city to watch the movements of Jingzhou soldiers.

He also ordered the battalions of Cao soldiers in the city to prepare, and once Jingzhou attacked the city, they would go to the city to defend.

Look at the almost noon, Cao Bing on the wall of Fancheng suddenly saw a Jingzhou soldier in the north, about one or two thousand people, and drove towards Fancheng with a big grin.

When they hurriedly sent an alarm to the city, Man Chong and Cao Ren had already taken some of Cao's soldiers to the city wall.

So everyone went to the Jingzhou soldiers to observe, and Man Zhong asked suspiciously: "Why only one or two thousand people came, what do you mean?" Is there still a large team of people behind? ”

Seeing this, Cao Ren didn't say anything, and hurriedly ordered: "The first echelon will immediately enter the city and prepare to resist the attack of Jingzhou soldiers." ”

As soon as the order came out, 2,500 people from the first echelon of Cao's soldiers who were waiting in the city quickly climbed the city wall, holding weapons and observing the Jingzhou soldiers.

At this time, the Jingzhou soldiers had already come to the outside of the moat, and I saw that the Jingzhou soldiers were led by a red-faced general, and they came to the outside of the moat and behaved very elegantly, all holding weapons in their hands, standing outside the moat, some observing on the city wall, and some looking down at the moat.

The red-faced general with the soldiers and the dozen or so deputy generals around him were calm, and they were all stationed there, looking at the moat for a while, looking at the city wall for a while, and talking about something there.

Some of the Cao soldiers in the city recognized Wei Yan, so they introduced Cao Ren and said, "The main general, the general who led the troops is Wei Yan." ”

Cao Ren didn't squeak either, because he still hadn't seen what the purpose of Wei Yan leading the troops to stand here was, so he and Man Zhong didn't speak.

At this time, seeing that Wei Yan seemed to have finished discussing the matter, after giving a few orders to the soldiers in the line, he took a few lieutenants and guards, rode around the moat on horses, and looked at it, and discussed something from time to time.

As mentioned earlier, the moat of Fancheng presents a U-shape, surrounded by Fancheng on three sides, and only an opening is open in the south. In fact, both ends of this U character are connected with the Han River, and in fact, the moat in the south of Fancheng is the Han River.

Therefore, when Wei Yan and his entourage rode to the shore of the Han River, they had already explored the outer defense facilities of Fancheng, so they rode back the same way and slowly came to the Jingzhou soldiers lined up in the north of the city.

At this time, I didn't know what Wei Yan had ordered there, and the Jingzhou soldiers turned around and walked backwards, as if they were about to leave here.

The Jingzhou soldiers walked calmly, and the whole team walked slowly without hurrying or slow, without taking the Cao soldiers who were waiting on the wall of Fancheng in their eyes.

When Cao Ren saw this, he immediately understood that Wei Yan had observed the terrain.

Before, after Liu Cong took more than a dozen Jingzhou soldiers back and forth to inspect the terrain, Cao Ren knew it, and he held back a wave of anger in his heart, and now he saw the posture of the Jingzhou soldiers as if no one was around, Cao Ren was furious, and he was about to go down the city wall when he turned around, and led the troops out of the city to chase and kill.

But he was stopped by a full favor.

Man Zhong said: "At present, the enemy situation is unknown, General Cao rashly went out of the city, in case of loss, he will live up to the high expectations of Cao Gong, and he must not be reckless." After that, he looked at the Jingzhou soldiers who were moving away, and turned his face to order Cao Bing: "Don't dare to shoot arrows quickly, do you really let them go like this?" ”

Cao Bing heard this and hurriedly released the arrow.

Wei Yan's men and horses had already left the moat, and he heard a gust of wind whistling, and when he looked back, he saw a rain of arrows flying over, and he heard a fluttering sound nearby, and a few arrows with a long range fell on the dirt beside him, splashing a few puffs of dust.

Jingzhou soldiers didn't think much of it, so they just walked without hurrying.

Seeing that he came to a place more than a mile away from Fancheng, Wei Yan ordered the soldiers to stop and rest on the spot for lunch.

The Jingzhou soldiers dispersed freely, and each of them sat by the river with dry food and had lunch.

After lunch, we took a casual rest here before slowly returning to the camp.

This move of the Jingzhou soldiers almost blew Cao Ren on the wall of Fancheng into anger, and he was full of favor to dissuade Cao Ren and said: "The enemy situation in front of you is unknown, who knows if this Wei Yan came with two thousand men and horses to lure the enemy?" If it's not to lure the enemy, why do you act so calmly? It seems that there is an ambush in the rear, if this is the case, our army will be surrounded by ambushes as soon as they leave the city, and the consequences are really unimaginable. ”

Cao Ren just bowed his head and didn't squeak, and stopped for a while before saying to Man Chong: "I'm doing this to put on a show - I can't show weakness and fear of war in front of the soldiers, so that Wei Yan's sharpness will grow and our prestige will be extinguished." ”

"That's right." Man Zhong said, "However, no matter how we fight in the future, we dare not be impulsive, we have a little possessions, and we cannot make up for the slightest loss, you and I are serious about it." ”

Besides, Wei Yan led two thousand men and horses to patrol under Fancheng City, and he was already familiar with the defense situation of Fancheng, despite this, but on the way back, Wei Yan's mood was a little unsmooth, so he lowered his head and rode on the horse without saying a word, and kept thinking about how to take the next step.

It turned out that after Wei Yan saw the power of the gunpowder developed by Liu Cong in advance, he had a plan, thinking of sending soldiers to dig tunnels from the dark to the bottom of the walls of Fancheng while feintting to attack Fancheng.

After the tunnel is dug up, then transport gunpowder from the tunnel and pile it up at the end of the tunnel under the city wall, and at the same time ambush the main force around Fancheng, and wait for the gunpowder to explode, after the city wall is overturned, the Jingzhou soldiers who are ordered to ambush from the gap in the blown city wall rush in, and they can occupy Fancheng in an instant.

It stands to reason that although Wei Yan's plan is not ingenious, the implementation of this plan will definitely conquer Fancheng. Therefore, Liu Cong agreed with Wei Yan's battle plan, and ordered Wei Yan to serve as the main general to conquer Fancheng, and lead 10,000 elite soldiers to fight on the front line of Fancheng.

However, at this time, Wei Yan found that he had encountered difficulties in implementing his battle plan after some reconnaissance, so he rode on his horse and bowed his head without squeaking, and only reported to Liu Cong after coming to the barracks.

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