By the way, let's introduce the relationship between the old Tao family in Xuzhou and the Yuan family in Shouchun, in fact, the relationship between the old Tao family and Yuan Shu was not only good, but also a hardcore ally, especially when Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu's brothers competed, the old Tao family firmly stood on the side of Yuan Shu, helped Yuan Shu send troops to attack Yuan Shao, and helped Yuan Shu fight for Yanzhou.

It stands to reason that Tao Qian supports Yuan Shu so much, even if Yuan Shu is not grateful to Tao Qian, he should give Tao Qian a little respect, but no one thought that our second general Yuan didn't know whether it was the water in the head or the brain was underdeveloped.

Now that he has completely torn his face, General Yuan Er naturally no longer has the slightest scruples, Sun Jian's old department Lu Fan instigated Yuan Shu to take advantage of the fire to rob and send troops to rob Guangling, although Lu Fan's true intentions are still questionable, but General Yuan Er still did not hesitate to send Sun Ce, who is about to become the little overlord of Jiangdong, and ordered him to lead an army of 8,000 to the east, ready to take advantage of Tao Yingnan's expedition to Zhenrong, which will inevitably lose both sides, and take advantage of the territory of the former allies.

In order to delay the advance speed of Sun Ce's army as much as possible, and in order to obtain greater tactical detour space, after the Junzi army left Guangling City, it immediately displayed the magic weapon of the long-distance run, which was almost the best in the world, and rushed westward at full speed without changing horses, and ran one hundred and ten miles in just five hours. For the first time, there was a long-distance attack on rotating war horses, and Tao Ji, who was very energetic, wanted to run another twenty or thirty miles before resting, but Tao Ying decisively stopped and ordered the Junzi Army to stop and rest, preparing to wait until dawn before setting off westward.

"Second brother, the soldiers and the war horses have sufficient physical strength, let's walk another twenty miles, right?" Tao Ji suggested: "Second brother, didn't you say that the farther away we are from Guangling, the better it is to fight Sun Ce Xiao'er?" Wouldn't it be better to hurry up and walk an extra twenty miles? ”

"The terrain is not familiar, so be careful." Tao Ying shook his head and said: "Third brother, you and I have never been to the west of Guangling, and we are not familiar with the terrain in this area, so we all rely on the moon and stars and the wisp needle (the original compass suspended by silk) to identify the direction, and today happens to be August 30, there is no moon in the sky, and it is too deep in the night, not only easy to get lost, but also easy to have accidents." ”

Tao Ji looked left and right, and found that his vision was indeed very poor after nightfall today, so he nodded and said, "Okay, then the little brother will arrange the night guard and scout, second brother, you rest early, don't get tired." ”

Tao Ying agreed, and then instructed: "Third brother, let our scouts pay attention to finding guides, and when they meet local farmers or mountain residents, they must be polite and not intimidated, and then invite them to me." To fight guerrilla warfare, it is very important to be familiar with the terrain. ”

Tao Ji took the order and left, but Tao Ying did not rest immediately, hurriedly ate a little dry food and salted meat, Tao Ying lit a dead wind lamp, unfolded the sheepskin map and studied it under the lamp, from this rough map that was barely detailed, the western part of Guangling is indeed a good place to fight guerrilla warfare, there are many hills and forests, and there is no lack of gentlemen army to quickly intersperse the plain area, and at the same time, the Chushui River, Chihe River and Nushan Lake, which have a large flow in later generations, do not exist in this era, which is very suitable for the Junzi Army to play a fast run strength.

However, there are many positive and negative sides of everything, and the terrain with many hills requires the Junzi army to be very familiar with the terrain and roads, especially the southwest has more mountains and forests, and the hinterland of Guangling is relatively open, this area is simply surrounded by mountains, with many large and small roads, streams, woods and hills, which are incomparably complex.

After frowning worriedly, Tao Ying turned his gaze to the border between Guangling County and Jiujiang County, in this location, there is a very small county called Dongcheng, from the reputation of this small county in Dongcheng is the territory of Xuzhou, but it is four hundred miles away from Guangling, but it is only more than three hundred miles away from Yuan Shu's base camp Shouchun, after the rebellion of Zhenrong, this county has long lost contact with Xuzhou Thorn Mansion, and now I don't know whether it fell into the hands of Yuan Shu, or was robbed by a certain mountain king like the ancient city to make a lair, But this small city happened to be stuck on the road of Sun Ce's army, and it was the only way for Sun Ce to advance eastward.

"Why don't you take a trip to this East City?" Tao Ying suddenly had a whim, and pondered in his heart: "Dongcheng is the only way for Sun Ce, and it is also the throat of Sun Ce's grain road, hurry up and take a trip to Dongcheng, you can understand the local terrain and various conditions in advance." Also, since Dongcheng is the county seat, no matter how dilapidated it is, there must be some people and people, and there should be a guide who is familiar with the terrain in this area, which is better than looking for a needle in a haystack in the mountains and forests. ”

Thinking of this, Tao Ying considered an important question, that is, where has Sun Ce arrived now, has he arrived in Dongcheng or crossed Dongcheng? Rushing for 400 miles in the case of unknown terrain, what if he accidentally encountered Sun Ce's main force in a narrow area?

But after a little thought, Tao Ying couldn't help but smile a little dumbly, knowing that he was too cautious, Sun Ce is indeed a first-class general in the world, and he must understand the truth that soldiers are fast and fast, but Sun Ce's 8,000 army must not be all cavalry, how could Yuan Shu, who has a rat's belly and chicken intestines, hand over so many cavalry to Sun Ce, who is not a henchman? How far can a mixed team of infantry and cavalry march in three days? Besides, Yuan Shu clearly wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of his southern expedition to Zhenrong to rob the fire, and he definitely hoped that he and Zhenrong would lose both, and then he would reap the benefits, and it was even more impossible for him to play with his life on the march, so it was very unlikely that Sun Ce's army would have arrived in Dongcheng and crossed Dongcheng now.

Having come to this judgment, Tao Ying, who was actually more suspicious than Uncle Liu Huang and Boss Cao, did not rashly make up his mind, but first summoned Tao Ji and Nian Bin and other five generals of the gentleman's army, and gave them an order, and arranged for Nian Bin to lead a team of gentlemen to change the banner of the Zhenrong rebels to go first, in case of a sudden encounter with Sun Ce's main force, and then announced the action of smashing Dongcheng, Tao Ji and Nian Bin and others agreed together, remembering Tao Ying's advice with their hearts.

"Wait." Just as he was about to let the generals go down to rest, Tao Ying suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly added: "Generals, take this opportunity to announce a new military discipline, from now on, before we engage the enemy, we will use bows and arrows to stir in the horse manure, apply horse manure and then shoot the enemy." ”

The five generals of the Gentleman's Army looked at each other, and Tao Ji asked curiously: "Second brother, what are you doing with the arrows smeared with stinky horse manure?" ”

"Arrows are murder weapons." Tao Ying's face did not change and his heart did not beat: "Our gentleman's army is a teacher of benevolence and righteousness, a teacher of morality, and it is just forced to kill the enemy in battle, so we use the most bows and arrows, and the arrows are best painted with some dirty things, and some of the killing atmosphere is washed away, so as not to be said that our gentleman's army does not match the name, and the murder weapon is not concealed, which is a loss of gentleman's style." ”

"Second brother, you're a nerd again." Tao Ji complained, "What kind of murderous atmosphere, the army does not kill the enemy and is still called the army?" ”

"yes." Nian Bin echoed: "Just say that the arrowhead is painted with the smell of horse manure, and the iron arrowhead is still easy to rust, and there is no way to recycle it after a few times." ”

The remaining three gentlemen and hundreds of generals also objected, and all of them refused to carry out Tao Ying's strange military order, and Tao Ying had no choice but to say angrily: "You idiots, do you have to make my words clear?" There are a lot of tetanus germs in the dung, and the arrows are coated with horse dung, and as long as the enemy is shot and wounded, even if the enemy does not die on the spot, he will easily be infected with the incurable tetanus, and the wound will deteriorate and die! This is the Huns' western expedition to Daqin (Rome), the effect is only a little worse than smearing aconitum poison on the arrow, we can't find so many aconitum as poisoned arrows, so we have to take horse dung instead! ”

"I see." Tao Ji slapped his thigh and suddenly realized: "This is a good idea, why didn't you tell us before, second brother?" ”

"When I fought Zhenrong, I originally wanted to tell you, but considering that most of the Zhenrong rebels were from Xuzhou, I changed my mind, but to Sun Ce'er, hum!" Deputy Director Tao snorted coldly, and scolded: "You fools, tell you to read some books and don't listen, we are a gentleman's army, a teacher of benevolence and righteousness, a teacher of morality, there are some things that can be done, but the words must be said beautifully, what kind of love, love, benevolence, morality, must be on the lips at any time, so that we can be like a moral gentleman, in line with our identity as a gentleman." ”

The next day, the gentleman's army immediately set off again, led by Nian Bin a team of light cavalry pretending to be the defeated soldiers, Tao Ying led the main force to follow three miles away, all the way to the east of the horse, full speed to the east city. In this way, close to noon on the second day of the ninth month, the Junzi army also entered the territory of Dongcheng County, which was less than twenty miles away from Dongcheng County.

"Report!" The herald of Nian Bin's team rushed to Tao Ying and reported loudly: "Qi Yu Gongzi, our team scouts found the enemy scout team five miles ahead, with the flag of Yuan Shujun, General Nian asked Gongzi to instruct whether to engage in battle?" ”

"Damn, I'm a step too late." Tao Ying's heart sank, and he hurriedly ordered: "Tell Nian Bin, continue to disguise the defeated soldiers and contact the enemy scouts, take the opportunity to grab two tongues, and then withdraw to join me." ”

The herald took the order, and Tao Ying led the main force of the Junzi Army to move to the rear of the hills, using the mountains and forests to cover the tracks, and at the same time preparing for battle to prevent the front team from being detected by Sun Cejun. Fortunately, after a while, Nian Bin's front team withdrew very smoothly, not only did not recruit the team to chase the soldiers, but also brought Tao Ying two Sun Cejun prisoners, it turned out that Nian Bin sent someone to Sun Cejun scout team to falsely claim that the army was defeated by the Zhenrong Army, Sun Cejun scouts really believed it, and urgently needed to understand the current situation of Guangling County, and volunteered to lead the way for Nian Bin, and took this 'Zhenrong Defeated Army' to meet Sun Cejun's generals, Nian Bin took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack, killed three and captured two, and the rest of Sun Cejun's scouts fled back to report the news.

Since there are Sun Cejun scouts who have fled, then Sun Cejun's brigade will definitely be killed immediately, the time is urgent, Tao Ying didn't think much about it, and immediately interrogated the two Sun Cejun scouts on the spot, but these two captives had Sun Ce's little overlord style, not only did not confess honestly, but also threatened Tao Ying in turn: "Dog thief!" If you know each other, let us go immediately, otherwise, as soon as our General Sun's army arrives, he will immediately kill all of you! ”

Tao Ying was not angry, but he just drew his knife and cut off the right arm of the fiercest scout who was yelling, and then asked him, "Do you want to say it?" How many Yuan Shujun are there in Dongcheng? Who will the Lord be? When did you arrive at Dongcheng? ”

"There are millions of troops in the East City! Dog thief! The scout with the severed arm was very brave and continued to curse.

With three swords, Tao Ying cut off all the remaining hands and feet of the severed arm scout, then turned to another scout, licked the blood on the knife edge and asked with a cruel smile: "Boy, it's your turn, do you want to say it?" ”

"I say! I say! Seeing that Tao Ying was so ferocious, the other scout was so frightened that he was about to pee his pants, and hurriedly said: "General, we arrived in Dongcheng an hour ago, the forward is General Huang Gai Huang, the deputy is Zhou Yu and Lord Zhou, there are more than 2,000 people in the forward, and now General Huang and Lord Zhou are in Dongcheng City. ”

"Zhou Yu?!" Tao Ying was taken aback, and then Tao Ying hurriedly asked, "What about Sun Ce'er?" Where did he go? When can I get to Eastside? ”

"General Sun is thirty miles behind us, and he personally carries the grain and grass behind." The scout replied tremblingly, "We will probably be able to reach the East City by this evening." ”

"Sun Ce Xiao'er personally escorted the grain and grass? How much grain and grass did you bring with you, and you need Sun Ce'er to escort it personally? Tao Ying asked.

"How much grain and grass is there, the villain doesn't know." The scout shook his head, and when he saw Tao Ying's face sank, the scout hurriedly added: "A lot, a lot, the specific villain doesn't know, but the villain heard a few generals say that we must be prepared for a protracted war this time, and the road from Shouchun to Guangling is not easy to walk, and it is not easy to transport grain and grass, so I brought a lot of grain and grass." ”

"It looks like at least a month's worth of food." Tao Ying thought in his heart, and cut down the honest confessing scout with a knife, and quickly ordered: "Strip off the helmets and weapons of these two captives, and take away all the valuable things on their bodies, make the illusion of murder and robbery, and then retreat to the south!" ”

The soldiers of the Junzi Army followed the order, Tao Ying dipped his fingers in blood again, and wrote crookedly on the ** corpses of the two unlucky scouts: "Sun Ce Xiaoer, we sent you to Guangling, don't chase it, otherwise you will only ask for trouble!" After writing these blood words, Tao Ying immediately got on the horse and led the army south, and when Tao Ji next to him asked what the meaning of this line of words was, Tao Ying replied: "I wrote it in the tone of the remnants of the army, just now Nian Bin used the reputation of the remnants of the army to contact the enemy, and I will leave the book in the tone of the rebels, which is to strengthen this impression to the enemy." ”

"Oh, I see." Tao Ji applauded and said with a smile: "Second brother deliberately made the enemy think that we were just a remnant of the army, and the enemy would think that we were insignificant and would not send troops to chase after us." ”

"Stupid!" Tao Ying scolded with a smile, "You just happened to say the opposite, I deliberately left a book, in fact, I wanted the enemy to divide troops to hunt me down!" Think about it, more than a hundred remnants of the Rongrong army riding war horses are weak and can be bullied, and there are more than 100 war horses to grab, and the stupid people under Sun Ce Xiao'er have to chase with red eyes? However, there are definitely not many pursuers they sent, so isn't it just the right opportunity for us ants to gnaw bones? ”

Tao Ji was a little dumbfounded, and after thinking about it carefully, Tao Ji suddenly came to his senses and praised: "Second brother, you are really cunning, yes, if it were me, if you encounter more than a hundred cavalry defeated from the battlefield, you must have robbed his mother!" ”

"It's not enough, don't make some illusions." Tao Ying thought about it for a while, then turned to Nian Bin and ordered: "General Nian, all your more than 100 war horses should be untied from their sackcloths, and let the war horses be pulled on the ground casually. Nian Bin agreed, and hurriedly commanded his subordinates to follow the order, arranging the illusion that the Junzi Army only had more than 100 horsemen.

Dongcheng is at a sharp angle on the map of Guangling County, and the Junzi Army sneaked three or five miles to the south, and has actually entered the territory of Jiujiang County, Yuan Shu's old nest, and the terrain in this area is even more complicated, one after another, and the open area under the mountain is very small, which is not conducive to the battle of the Junzi Army, and at the same time, there is also a faint sound of chasing soldiers in the distance behind him, so Tao Ying has no choice but to continue to go south, one is to find an open area, and the other is to find a local guide.

I don't know how many hills have been turned, and after walking for more than ten miles, a relatively open area of several miles in length and width finally appeared in front of the Junzi Army, and the Junzi Army was overjoyed that this open area was full of rice fields that had been harvested, and had been replanted with winter rape, and the position of the mountains and rivers in the distance, there was also the smoke rising, and the houses and dwellings could be vaguely seen, and there was even an arrow tower, which was obviously a common folk dock fort in troubled times.

"I can finally find a guide." Overjoyed, Tao Ying hurriedly ordered: "Quick, go to visit the master, but pay attention to the road, you must not trample on the vegetable fields of the villagers here, and you are not allowed to hurt and intimidate the villagers at will." Also, take good care of the war horses, and do not allow the war horses to go into the field to gnaw vegetables. The generals commanded, Tao Ying led the Junzi army along the road, took a straight lane and rushed to the civil dock fort, and the soldiers of the Junzi army carefully restrained the war horses and did not let the war horses trample on the farmland.

All the way to the gate of Dewu Fort, the people in the fort had already gone up to the fort wall and the arrow tower to defend, hiding behind the trench with all kinds of weapons, vigilantly watching the gentleman's army, and the arrow tower also set up a strong crossbow and aimed at the gentleman's army. After carefully observing this dock fort, Tao Ying's first impression was that this dock owner definitely understood military affairs, because this dock fort was not only very strong, the walls were high and the trenches were deep, and the equipment of the arrows and crossbows was also very reasonable, making up for each other's shooting dead ends, and there were even sharp piles buried in the trenches, and the bridge into the fort was also a special girder bridge, which could make the bridge tilt instantaneously and let the enemy on the bridge fall into the trench.

To Tao Ying's surprise, above the gate of the dock fort, there was a young man who was only twenty-one or two years old, dressed as a scholar like Tao Ying, with a white face and a slight beard, a tall figure, and a sword at his waist, and bowed his hand to Tao Ying and others very politely, and said politely and loudly: "Generals, I am the master of this dock, may I ask you to come to the dock, what do you have to advise?" ”

"It turned out to be the dock master, and I was polite below." Surprised by the young man of the dock, Tao Ying also turned over and dismounted, first waved his hand to let the soldiers of the gentleman's army retreat, and then bowed his hand to the dock master and said: "Please rest assured, the dock master is not here to borrow food and goods, and to lead the army to march in the bottom. ”

"He's the general who leads the troops?" The dock master was also a little surprised that Tao Ying's young and scholarly dress up, and hurriedly returned the salute: "The general is polite, I have seen it just now, the general restrained the team, did not indulge the sergeants to trample on the land of the neighbors, I am very grateful, may I ask the general's surname, where is the army?" ”

"In the next Tao should be the word Mingwu, Xuzhou point army Sima." Tao Ying introduced himself, and couldn't wait to say: "Dock master, there is a small reluctant request below, and I hope that the dock master will be fulfilled." When I first arrived in your place, I was not familiar with the terrain and roads, and I didn't know if the dock master could send one or two villagers who were familiar with the local road topography to accompany the army to guide the road. ”

Saying that, Tao Ying took out two pieces of gold from his arms, and said very politely: "Of course, I will not let the villagers here work in vain, two pieces of gold, one thanks to the dock owner, one thanks to the villagers who guide the way, and the villagers who guide the way do not need to bring their own food, his army is responsible for the diet of the army." ”

"The army led by Gongzi is the Xuzhou army?" The dock lord looked surprised.

"Exactly." Tao Ying nodded and admitted frankly.

The dock master hesitated for a moment, and then he bowed his hand to Tao Ying and said: "Childe, it stands to reason that if you don't say that Childe pays you, Childe will ask for help directly, and we should also help." But now it is different, presumably Gongzi is also very clear that the left general Yuan Shu has sent troops to attack Guangling County, the forward has also arrived in Dongcheng, and the Jiujiang Army and the Xuzhou Army have actually started a war. And most of the people in this dock are Jiujiang people, if they help the son, Yuan Highway will be strange in the future, and he will not be afraid of it, but the neighbors will not be able to afford it. So, please forgive me for not being able to help. ”

"We won't rob you of your money and food, you ......."

Tao Ji was furious when he heard this, and he came up to reason with the dock master, but Tao Ying waved his hand, drank this grumpy brother, and said to the dock master: "What the dock master said is extremely true, indeed, this is Jiujiang County, if the dock master helps, Yuan Shu will definitely blame, and it will affect the villagers." ”

"Gongzi Xie understands the hardships and is grateful." The dock lord thanked him.

"The dock owner doesn't have to be polite, it's a presumptuous, disturbed, and farewell." Tao Ying was very carefree, bowed his hand to the lord of the dock, and then turned around and ordered: "Let's go, go to the next village to find a guide, watch out for the horses' hooves, and never allow the local people's farmland to be trampled on." ”

After that, Tao Ying really got on the horse and left, leading the gentleman's army to continue south along the rural road, although Tao Ji and Nian Bin and other generals were anxious, they did not dare to disobey Tao Ying's perverted military order, so they had to honestly lead the gentleman's army around the dock and go all the way to the south. And the dock lord looked at the back of the gentleman's army in the distance, and couldn't help but exclaim: "Such a benevolent and righteous teacher, such a handsome gentleman, is rare in the world." ”

At the same time, in the ranks of the gentlemen's army, Tao Ji caught up with Tao Ying, and asked anxiously and angrily: "Second brother, why are you so pedantic?" We don't know each other well here, and we finally found a local village that we can just look for a guide, how did you get sent away by that bullshit dock owner in a few words? If we don't rob them of their money, food, and women, and borrow a guide from them and give them back the gold, how can we be worthy of them? ”

"Stupid!" Tao Ying scolded in a low voice: "How many times have I taught you?" We are the teachers of benevolence and righteousness, the teachers of morality, what love, benevolence, morality, we must always hang on our lips, there are things that can be done, but we must not say them! ”

"But what about our guide?" Tao Ji asked angrily.

"Idiot! How can I have such a stupid brother as you? Can't use any brains? Tao Ying scolded in a low voice: "Did you notice it just now? This dock fort is very rich, two large granaries are so high that they are above the fort wall, one granary is not to say that it is loaded with 3,000 pieces of rice, and those dock soldiers, who are also holding strong crossbows and hard bows in their hands, have good knives and guns, and wear clothes that are not tattered at all, which proves that this dock fort is very fat! Tell me, what's going to happen here in a moment? ”

"What will happen?" Tao Ji asked inexplicably.

"You're not stupid enough to be that stupid, are you?" Tao Ying finally got angry, and said angrily in a low voice: "The pursuers who are chasing and killing us, when you encounter such a rich village, why don't you hurry up and grab it?" Do you think Yuan Shujun's military discipline is as good as our gentleman's army? When Yuan Shujun robs them, we will turn around and kill them back, what will the people in this dock fort think? ”

"You must be grateful to us to the extreme, and you will give us a guide for nothing, and maybe even treat us to a big meal!" Tao Ji suddenly realized, and said with a smile: "Sure enough, the second brother is still smart, we deliberately left horse manure for the enemy to chase, and the chasing soldiers will definitely chase to the door of this dock fort just now, and when the time comes, as long as those chasing soldiers are greedy together, we can get the hearts of the people here!" ”

"Shut up! Be quiet! How many times have I said that we are a gentleman's army, a teacher of benevolence and righteousness, a teacher of morality, what love, benevolence, morality, these beautiful words must be on our lips at any time! There are things that can be thought and done, but they must never be spoken! ”;