It may be because he was beaten and scared by the Danyang soldiers in Sun Wu's army, and just fled back to Hefei from the shore of Chaohu Lake, our timid deputy director Tao immediately withdrew the siege team and retreated twenty miles to the village with the Xuzhou army. Seeing this situation, the Hefei defenders who were trembling under the Yinwei of Xiangyang artillery were of course surprised and surprised, and they couldn't understand why the Xuzhou army suddenly withdrew, and they didn't dare to pursue rashly.

The mystery was revealed in the night, when the second watch of the night was about to arrive, Sun Ben and Wu Jinger led the team to Hefei City, after an extremely strict identity check into Hefei City, the puzzled Hefei defenders finally understood the truth of the Xuzhou army's retreat - after a long time, the gentleman's army could not stop Sun Wu's team, Tao Ying personally went out and bravely crowned the Sun Ben brothers of the three armies to defeat, so the parrying Tao Ying was forced to withdraw his troops to avoid the sharp edge of Sun Wu's army.

Finally figured out the origin of the matter, the generals of Hefei cheered, and inevitably praised the martial arts of the Sun Ben brothers, and also expressed deep admiration for the ingenious tactics of Sun Wu's army to clean up the world's first rogue army, the Junzi Army, especially the generals of the Liyang Army, who had suffered a big loss from the Junzi Army, and even stomped their feet and sighed that they had not known such tactics earlier, otherwise how could they let the group of clowns who jumped off the beam of the Junzi Army easily succeed? Only Qiao Rui, the chief general of the Hefei garrison and about to take over the command of Sun Wu's army, did not have much joy on his face, on the contrary, he was a little worried.

Worry is worry, some things that should be said still have to be said, after taking Sun Ben's hand and barely squeezing out some smiles, Qiao Ruiqiang smiled: "General Boyang, I haven't seen you for almost three years, right?" After a long absence, the general is not only still the champion of the three armies, but also more and more brave, which is really gratifying. Speaking of this, Qiao Rui turned to Wu Jing next to him and smiled: "Wu Taishou, it seems that we haven't seen each other for a longer time, Taishou teaches his children and nephews well, and there are many talents among the younger generations, which is really admirable and enviable." ”

Wu Jing, who was in his early forties, bowed to Qiao Rui and said with a smile: "What the general said is extremely true, the last time the general and the general met was four years ago, and it was indeed a reunion after a long absence. After hearing that his nephew Sun Ce was unjustly killed, Yang Hong's traitors instigated the lord to kill all the old Sun family in the army, thanks to the general's argument in front of the lord, which saved the lives of countless Sun family members. ”

"It's too polite, that's what Rui should do." Qiao Rui shook his head modestly, looked at the Sun Wu clan behind Sun Ben and Wu Jing, and smiled easily: "Taishou went on the expedition, why did he bring so many sons and nephews to the army?" This military bump, can they stand it so little? Hey, who is this general, why haven't you seen it before? ”

Qiao Rui asked a general Sun Wu who was slightly younger than Wu Jing, and the general didn't need Wu Jing to introduce him, so he immediately bowed and introduced himself, saying that he was Sun Jian's younger brother Sun Jingzi Youtai. Then Wu Jing introduced Sun Fu, Sun Quan, Sun Ling, Sun Kuang and Sun Lang and other nephews to Qiao Rui, the only niece Sun Shangxiang, and his two sons Wu Fen and Wu Qi, and then Wu Jing ordered his nephew to bow to Qiao Rui, thank Qiao Rui for his righteousness and dedication, and respectfully called Qiao Rui his uncle, and finally Wu Jingcai explained to Qiao Rui: "Don't blame the general, I didn't want these children to go to the battlefield at such a young age, but they heard that they were fighting with Tao Ying and the thieves in the north, so they insisted on accompanying the army, the last general couldn't resist them, and he also wanted them to take the opportunity to get used to the military affairs, so he brought them all. If you are presumptuous, please also invite the general Haihan. ”

"It's okay, as long as you can endure hardship." Qiao Rui waved his hand generously, and sighed again: "Jiangmen Tiger Species, it is really different, I fought to go to the battlefield to be familiar with military affairs when I was a teenager, and I am much better than my sons who are not successful." ”

Wu Jing was modest, but Sun Ling, the third son of Sun Jian, who was only thirteen years old, couldn't wait to ask: "Uncle Qiao, when will you send troops to kill the pottery thief?" Our brothers can't wait, when you send out the army, our brothers are willing to be the vanguard, go to fight the pottery thief to the death, and avenge our eldest brother! ”

"Be a pioneer? Wait until you're eighteen years old to think about it. Qiao Rui laughed, turned to Wu Jing and Sun Ben and said: "Wu Taishou, Boyang Xian's nephew, you are tired from afar, take the children down to rest, it's getting late, I'll make up for you tomorrow for the wine banquet that washes the wind and dust, I have arranged a camp for you in the east of the city, but it may be a little crowded, you will have some, if you really can't be stationed, you can come to me, and I will find a way for you." ”

"Thank you, General." Wu Jing and Sun Ben thanked him together, and then Wu Jing said kindly: "General, if the city is really not stationed, the last general and others can set up camp outside the city, there are more than 26,000 troops in Hefei City, plus 12,000 troops led by the last general, all stationed in the city, plus the people of Hefei who fled from outside the city and entered the city, it must be very crowded." ”

"No, you can't be stationed outside the city, you must be stationed inside the city." Qiao Rui hurriedly shook his head, and rejected Wu Jing and Sun Ben's kind suggestions, Sun Ben and Wu Jing were a little strange, but for Qiao Rui's sake that Qiao Rui had always been good to the old Sun family, Wu Jing and Sun Ben still did not insist, and honestly led the army to the east of the city to station.

Sun Ben and Wu Jing soon knew the reason why Qiao Rui had to garrison Wu Sun's army outside the city, because when the tent was raised the next morning, Qiao Rui's first order was to order the army to block the four gates, and completely fill the east, west, north and south four gates of Hefei with brick and stone sandbags, so as to further strengthen the defensive strength of the Hefei city wall, and not leave the weak point of the city gate to give the Xuzhou army's siege weapons a chance to break through -- and at the same time, not to give the Hefei army a chance to go out of the city to fight in the field. The result is also very natural, as soon as Qiao Rui's order was issued, the Hefei generals immediately exploded.

"Completely block the four gates?" The first to shout against it was Liu Kai, the younger brother of Liu Xun, the Taishou of Lujiang, who asked in disbelief: "General, aren't you joking?" Completely blocked the four gates of Hefei, how can we get out? ”

"No need to go out." Qiao Rui replied coldly: "There is plenty of grain and grass in the city, and the water source is also abundant, and General Sun Ben and their reinforcements have also entered the city, and our army has no need to go out of the city, and the city gate is completely blocked, so that the pottery thief's collision car can not break through the city gate, and it will not give any chance for the pottery thieves who may exist in the city to make trouble." As for the scouts, they can go up and down the city walls with ropes. ”

Sun Ben and Wu Jing, who had just arrived in Hefei, were dumbfounded, and the Hefei generals who already knew some of Qiaorui's combat style looked at each other, saying that they didn't expect Qiaorui's courage to be so small, and they didn't dare to go out of the city to fight with the Xuzhou army in the field. Immediately afterwards, Liu Ye also stood up and saluted to Qiao Rui: "General, blocking the city gate can indeed prevent the pottery thieves from making chaos, but the general has not thought about it, the city defense battle is not blindly passively beaten, and the appropriate attack can not only reduce the pressure on the city wall, but also find a chance to win by surprise, which is far better than being beaten passively in the city." ”

"Mr. Ziyang, I know that you are familiar with military books and have a deep understanding of strategy." Qiao Rui replied calmly: "But the order given to me by the lord is to hold on to Hefei and gain time, so I don't need to attack and fight, let alone win by surprise, Hefei This battle, my tactic is to stick to the city and consume troops against the pottery thief!" ”

"Hold on to the city?" Liu Ye smiled and said: "General, the pottery thief stone machine is powerful, you haven't seen it, we stay on the city wall and blindly be beaten passively, can we be sure that the pottery thief retreats?" ”

"I know better than Mr. Ziyang how powerful the pottery thief stone machine is, but it doesn't matter, I don't need to be sure that the pottery thief retreats, I just need to buy time for the lord." Qiao Rui's tone became more and more cold, and he waved his hand vigorously, and said categorically: "I have made up my mind, you only need to carry out the order, and immediately start blocking the four gates, and those who violate the order will be engaged in military law!" ”

"Wait!" Sun Ben finally woke up and jumped up, and said loudly: "May I ask the general, what do you mean by these words?" Could it be that the last general and others came to Hefei from Wanling thousands of miles away, just to hide in Hefei City and be beaten passively, and watch Tao Ying annihilate the thieves outside Hefei City and show off their might, unable to take revenge? May I ask the general, why can't you consider raising troops out of the city to fight to the death with Tao Ying's thieves? ”

"Sure enough." Poor General Qiao Rui sighed quietly, and said helplessly: "General Boyang, please be calm and don't be impatient, the specific reason will be explained later, it is inconvenient to talk here." ”

"If the general has something to say, please teach it in public, and the last general will listen to it." Sun Ben said a little angrily: "The last general has been fighting in the south and north with his uncle Wentai for more than ten years, and he has never fought such a shitty battle, hiding in the city and not daring to go out of the city to fight, even the city gate is completely blocked, when the head of the turtle is shrunk?" ”

Many Hefei generals laughed out loud, because the shrunken turtle happened to be their newly nicknamed Qiaorui. Hearing these laughter, and seeing Sun Ben's bad attitude, Qiao Rui's temper was a little hot, and he hummed: "General Boyang is really easy to say, raise troops out of the city and fight to the death with Tao Ying's thieves, are you sure of winning?" ”

"Why aren't you sure?" Sun Ben asked rhetorically: "Yesterday, when our army went north to reinforce Hefei, didn't we break the Xuzhou thief army on the shore of Chaohu Lake?" It was the main force of the thief army led by Tao Ying's thief himself who was defeated! ”

"Big break?" Qiao Rui laughed out loud and said unceremoniously: "To put it bluntly, beheading one hundred and twelve corpses is also a big break?" It seems that in General Boyang's ranks, there are nearly 100 soldiers who trample on each other's dead and wounded, right? ”

"That's because our army is tired from afar, and the pursuit speed is not fast enough, so Tao Ying escapes by chance!" Sun Ben was furious and roared: "If Tao Ying was not afraid of the might of our army, how could he retreat twenty miles overnight? ”

"Boyang, don't be rude." Seeing that the situation was not good, Wu Jing hurriedly came out to stop his nephew's further rude behavior, grabbed Sun Ben, and Wu Jing turned to Qiao Rui and said: "The little nephew is young and ignorant, offending the general, please don't be surprised." But the little nephew is by no means out of malice, although the pottery thief military is strong, our army is not afraid of him, the last general is willing to mention the headquarters of the people and horses out of the city, to fight in front of the pottery thief village, if not victorious, the last general is willing to be dealt with by military law. ”

Qiao Rui pursed his lips and was silent, and only said after a while: "Wu Taishou, General Boyang's eagerness to avenge Bo Fu's eagerness, I understand, but you really underestimate Tao Ying's thief, this thief has always been known for his deception, Cao Ying, who is known as the world's annihilator, Cao Mengde is afraid of him for three points, yesterday's battle, I am sure that it must be Tao Ying's thief who was defeated, and the overnight withdrawal of the army is also deliberately weak, the purpose is to induce our army to go out of the city to fight, if General Boyang goes out of the city to fight, he will be hit by the pottery thief!" ”

"The pottery thief is deliberately deceitful and weak, how can you see it?" Wu Jing asked suspiciously.

"A while ago, I faced the Xuzhou thief army in Zhongli, and Tao Ying deliberately sent auxiliaries to serve as the vanguard, and after three consecutive defeats, he was injured and dealt with, tempting me to deploy the main force to the north bank of the Huai River." Qiao Rui did not hide it, and said calmly: "And after I was hit, the main force of the pottery thief immediately went south at full speed, and it only took a few hours to completely break through my main force, and break through the Huai River defense line that I painstakingly arranged in one fell swoop. The pottery thief must have tried to repeat his old tricks and lure our army out of the city to fight. ”

"And that matter?" Wu Jingyi's letter was suspicious, but Sun Ben said unconvinced: "Our army encountered the main force of the thief army yesterday, and also defeated the famous generals Xu Chu and Gao Shun of the thief army in the fight, and the gentleman's army, known as the first army in Xuzhou, has no way to take our army. ”

After finishing speaking, Sun Ben surrendered his hand to the battle and said: "Please give the general an order, allow the last general to lead the army to fight in front of the pottery thief array, if he does not win, he is willing to be dealt with by military law!" ”

Qiao Rui's face was embarrassed, and Liu Kai and Liu Ye over there persuaded Qiao Rui to accept Sun Ben's invitation to fight, and said that if Sun Ben did not win the battle, it would not be too late to block the four gates of Hefei, and Wu Jing, who was quite confident in the combat power of the self-army, also pleaded, hoping that Qiao Rui could give the self-army a chance, and said that if the self-army could not win, he would definitely support Qiao Rui's decision to block the four gates, Qiao Rui could not resist the will of the generals, and wanted Wu Jing and Sun Ben to suffer a little loss to facilitate discipline, and finally nodded and agreed that Sun Ben and Wu Jing led the headquarters out of the city to fight, He also arranged for Liu Kai to lead 5,000 troops to respond, and Qiao Rui himself stayed in Hefei to prevent accidents.

………………

In a short time, Wu Jingsun Ben led the men and horses of his headquarters out of the city first, and went north to fight in front of the Xuzhou army camp, and the Xuzhou scouts who monitored the movements of Hefei hurriedly sent the news back to the camp. At this moment, Tao Ying was watching Jia Xu and Lu Su play Go, and after listening to the scout's report, he dreamed that Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao, who had led the army out of the city to fight a decisive battle, were still happy, but Lu Su was already laughing happily and said: "The thief army is finally willing to go out of the city, and the lord's plan to lure the enemy has succeeded again!" ”

"It's not even close." Tao Ying smiled and said: "Qiao Rui has already suffered a big loss of my deceit in the Huai River, and he will not dare to go out of the city easily to fight a decisive battle, if my expectations are not bad, this time Qiao Rui sent Sun Ben and Wu Jing out of the city to fight, the idea should be to let Sun Ben and Wu Jing suffer a loss, and then facilitate discipline and restraint, if you want Qiao Rui, the main force of the shrunken turtle faction, to go out of the city for a decisive battle, it is more difficult than ascending to the sky." ”

"In this case, why did the lord cheat and retreat? Wasting time? Lu Su asked in surprise.

"Because I found that the team of Sun Ben and Wu Jing is very useful." Tao Ying said with a smile: "In the previous matter of Sun Ce and the Jade Seal of the Inheritance Kingdom, Sun Ben and Wu Jing hated me to the core, and they would definitely not be willing to hide in the city and defend it, so I deliberately deceived yesterday to let them see the hope of defeating me head-on, and planned to use this to take advantage of it." Later, when I found out that Sun Ben and Wu Jing's team had a majority of Danyang soldiers, I was even more reluctant to kill Sun Ben and Wu Jing's team immediately. ”

"Sun Ben and Wu Jing's team has a majority of Danyang soldiers?" Lu Su, who had just learned about this situation from Tao Ying's mouth, was stunned at first, and then immediately raised his three fingers with a smile and said with a smile: "Three days!" In three days, one of Qiao Rui's heads will be two big! The discipline of our Xuzhou army is already strict, and the Danyang soldiers are also handed over to the Danyang people Cao Bao, Xu Tan and Zhang Zhen to be under the control, and they can be ruthless and ruthless, and they are still fighting every day to make trouble, gambling and cheating, forming gangs and bullying friendly troops, Qiao Rui and Sun Ben and Wu Jing are not Danyang people, and it is more difficult to manage the team with the majority of Danyang soldiers than to ascend to the sky! ”

"How is the lord going to let our Danyang soldiers infiltrate Hefei City?" After putting down a chess piece, Jia Xu finally spoke, and said with a smile: "How about a melee with Sun Ben and Wu Jing, and let our Danyang soldiers take the opportunity to sneak into Hefei City?" ”

"There's no hurry." Tao Ying shook his head, pointed out a stinky move to Lu Su, and then said with a smile: "Let my fellow villagers be proud a few more times, and then they dare to dare to make trouble, besides, Sun Ben and Wu Jing have rich experience in the battlefield, so it is not so easy for our Danyang soldiers to blend into their team, we must first find out some situations, and then it is not too late to act." ”

After smiling, Tao Ying turned around and ordered to the herald who had been waiting for a long time: "Order all battalions, the enemy must not go out of the village to meet the battle, only close the camp and defend it, and those who go out to fight without authorization will not be spared!" Then send an order to Xu Sheng, so that he led the Feng Yu army to the camp gate to guard, if the enemy rushes to the camp, just entertain the feather arrows, and clean up the battlefield immediately after the enemy retreats, even if there is still a breath of the enemy's wounded soldiers, bring me back to rescue with all my might, I have a lot of use! ”

The herald sang the promise and left, and after Jia Xu put down another chess piece, he said slowly: "Lord, if Xu is not bad, if it goes on like this, it won't take much time, that Mr. Liu Ye and Liu Ziyang are afraid that they will have to think of a surprising winning strategy again, and the lord should prepare as soon as possible." ”

"It doesn't matter." Tao Ying smiled lightly: "With Mr. Wenhe here, I am not afraid of the enemy's strategy, what I am most afraid of is that the enemy does not need to calculate, a self-aware enemy like Qiao Rui, that is called trouble." As for Mr. Ziyang, I clap my hands to welcome him to come and get an axe in front of Mr. Wenhe. ”

After another period of time, the army led by Sun Ben and Wu Jing finally arrived at the Xuzhou army camp outside the battle, seeing that the Xuzhou army camp door was closed and no one went out of the village to face the battle, Sun Ben and Wu Jing were puzzled and a little proud, and unceremoniously commanded the army to the camp gate and scolded wildly, trying to provoke the Xuzhou army to fight, and also scolded the ancestors of the old Tao family for eighteen generations one by one. And the only thing that made Deputy Director Tao more depressed was that among the voices that scolded the eighteenth generation of the ancestors of the old Tao family, it turned out to be the Danyang accent that was the loudest.

From the morning to the afternoon there was no movement, the angry Sun Ben ignored Wu Jing's obstruction, once urged the army to impact the Xuzhou army camp, the result is also natural, when Sun Wu's army rushed into a hundred steps, the Xuzhou camp was immediately a storm of arrows to entertain, a number of Sun Wu soldiers fell to the ground in the arrow, the rest have retreated, repeated twice, and finally until it was about to get dark, the futile Sun Ben and Wu Jing had no choice but to retreat.

Of course, it was not in vain, at least Deputy Director Tao's cheap fellow Danyang soldiers were triumphant and demoralized, and they all said that the Xuzhou army was nothing more than that, and they didn't even have the courage to face the enemy with their own Danyang soldiers -- so after returning to Hefei City, the Danyang soldiers who fought alone and fought for a dragon immediately created two fights and two incidents of molesting people and girls in Hefei City, and repeatedly asked to expand the camp and did not want forty people to be crowded in one room or a tent, forced the defenders of Hefei to urgently vacate a street of houses for Sun Wu's army to camp.

The Xuzhou army is not for nothing, at least Xu Sheng found three Sun Wu soldiers who were not killed by arrows when he was cleaning the battlefield, and what made Deputy Director Tao smile from ear to ear was that two of these three soldiers were Danyang soldiers, so Deputy Director Tao hurriedly ordered to rescue the cheap fellows, and found more cheap fellows to identify, and the two Danyang soldiers who had just been rescued were related to relatives, and took the opportunity to inquire about more Danyang soldiers in Sun Wu's team. Began to forge and prepare the identities of Sun Wu soldiers for the veterans of Danyang in Xuzhou............ The first battle was rejected by the Xuzhou army, and the second said that Sun Ben and Wu Jing naturally went to Qiao Rui to ask for war again, Qiao Rui couldn't persuade him, so he had to let Sun Ben and Wu Jing go out of the city to die, but unfortunately Deputy Director Tao said that he refused to give Qiao Rui a chance to teach Sun Ben and Wu Jing a lesson, and he still couldn't hold out of the village, and also arranged a team of hand-trained scolders to go to the side of the village to scold Sun Wu's team, but Sun Ben led the army to rush to the camp, and then was shot back by the Xuzhou army's arrows, hating it so much that he was itchy but helpless, The cheap fellows of Deputy Director Tao in Sun Wu's team became more and more proud, and simply openly laughed at the shrunken turtle of Qiaorui, not daring to lead the army out of the city to fight with their defeated generals.

After repeating this twice, although Sun Ben and Wu Jing still believed that it was their military might that made the Xuzhou army dare not face the battle, Liu Ye, another smart man in Hefei City, saw that something was wrong - the Xuzhou army was obviously luring the enemy by doing this! So after thinking about it again, Liu Ye came to Qiaorui's city guard mansion overnight to ask for a meeting, and Qiaorui, who was eager to have a good relationship with his subordinates and really controlled the army, was also flattered, and immediately met Liu Ye in his study.

When Liu Ye entered the study, the time was already close to the third watch, and seeing that Qiao Rui was still sitting next to the bookcase in official clothes to take charge of military affairs, Liu Ye was inevitably a little surprised, and said: "It's going to be the third watch soon, why hasn't the general slept yet?" What should I do if I am so tired and tired? ”

"It's coming, I'll go to patrol the city and come back during the third watch, and I'll rest immediately." Qiao Rui invited Liu Ye to sit down, and explained with a wry smile: "Actually, I wanted to rest for a while during the second watch, but the people in Wu Taishou's team made trouble again, so I rushed to deal with it, delayed the time, and didn't sleep at all when I came back." ”

"Since the general is busy with military affairs, then I won't waste the general's precious time." Liu Ye said straight to the point: "Judging from the situation of the two generals Sun Ben and Wu Jing's two battles, I have already agreed with the general's judgment that Tao Ying's thief is deceiving the enemy and luring the enemy, so he insists on refusing to fight with Sun Ben and Wu Jing, and only when the general personally leads the army out of the city, Tao Ying will send troops to fight a decisive battle." ”

"Mr. Ziyang can understand this, Rui is really grateful." Qiao Rui was overjoyed, and hurriedly said: "When it comes to Ming, I will order the four gates to be blocked again, and I will ask Mr. Ziyang to help and persuade the generals to comply." Rui knew that Mr. had a good reputation in Huainan, and if Mr. opened his mouth to persuade him, the generals would definitely listen. ”

"The general misunderstood, and I still don't agree with the general blocking the four gates." Liu Ye shook his head, and said in a low voice: "General, I have already predicted that what Tao Ying hopes for the thief is definitely the general who personally leads the army to fight, as long as you get rid of the general who is good at sticking to you, Tao Ying can rest assured that he will attack the city and take Hefei Jiancheng." ”

Speaking of this, Liu Ye said solemnly for the third time: "In view of this situation, a certain person has thought of a plan, and he will definitely be able to break the thief and resolve the danger of Hefei!" The key to this plan is to ask the general to go out of the city in person to lure the enemy! ”

"I'm going out of the city to lure the enemy myself?" Qiao Rui asked in surprise.

"Not bad!" Liu Ye nodded vigorously and said in a deep voice: "Only when the general personally goes out of the city to lure the enemy, Tao Ying will resolutely pursue and kill the general to the end, and will not give the general a chance to return to the city to hold on!" Otherwise, no matter who goes to lure the enemy, no matter how many troops are dispatched to lure the enemy, the thief Tao Ying, who is as deceitful as a fox, will not fall for the scheme! Moreover, Ye can also guarantee that even if the general goes out of the city to lure the enemy, the city of Hefei and the general's golden body and jade body will not be in the slightest danger! ”

(To be continued)