Xia Houlan sat quietly on a big rock by the river beach, and the setting sun gradually set in the west, sprinkling the orange afterglow on his left cheek.

On the river beach not far behind him, nearly a hundred soldiers lay quietly, and at this time, they had lost any life.

In a battle last night, the brothers resisted to the death, leaving at least 400 corpses behind by the incoming thieves, and finally retreated to the other side of the vengeful water.

As it turned out, it was a wise decision for Xiahoulan to choose the relatively narrow south bank of the river beach to march and camp. If it weren't for the fact that he was always on guard against the movement on the other side of the river, and strictly ordered the military marquis and soldiers patrolling at night to be vigilant, perhaps there would not have been nearly a hundred people "lying" on the river beach watching the sunset at this time......

Xia Houlan led the team, and the observance of military discipline was very strict, sometimes even to the point of rigidity and harshness.

For example, he demanded that his men strictly follow the rules of camping in the wilderness, and that every night, even if they had an hour of rest, they would dig some pits outside the camp and place stones and thorns that hindered the progress of men and horses.

For example, every day he asked the people accompanying him to place the convoy in the outermost part according to the cart loaded with clothes and clothing, the meat and miscellaneous cart in the middle, and the grain and forage cart in the innermost formation, and to extinguish all the fires before going to bed, so that the camp was pitch black and there was no fire.

The soldiers and civilians were somewhat resistant to Xiahoulan's requirements, but every time they saw him digging pits and directing all kinds of heavy vehicles, they consciously kept their mouths shut. People's hearts are flesh and blood, and a leader like Xia Houlan who takes the lead can always get the support of most of the soldiers.

Yesterday night, the party finally came to the area where Xia Houlan was most worried, and he ordered the soldiers to carry a large number of stones from the river beach to the outskirts of the camp early, and then deliberately formed a semicircle formation with all the baggage vehicles around the river bank, and left a passage near the west side of the river for one rider to enter and exit, and built a temporary embankment on the inner side of the river to prevent anyone from touching the camp from the other side of the river.

After doing this, Xia Houlan was still a little uneasy, and at that time, she had an idea, and actually ordered all the clothes and quilts to be unloaded from the car and distributed to all the people and soldiers.

After dinner, the tired men and soldiers fell asleep in the thick and warm tents, and everyone thought that Xiahou Sima was good, although he was usually a little stricter, but he was still sympathetic and concerned about everyone, and actually sent the clothes and clothes sent to the front line for everyone to use.

In fact, they all misunderstood Xia Houlan's intentions.

At the third watch, the third marquis in charge of guarding suddenly saw a few fires shaking on the other side of the river, and he hurriedly ran to report to Xiahoulan.

Xiahou Lan, who couldn't take off his armor, slept very lightly, and when he listened to the report of the military marquis, he hurriedly came to the water's edge to look north.

"It's not good, there are at least a thousand people on the opposite side are converging, hurry up and wake up all the brothers and people, don't light the fire, keep quiet!"

The marquis did as ordered, first calling the other three marquis, and then the four of them went to wake up the sleeping soldiers.

When the soldiers heard that a large group of thieves were gathering on the other side of the river, they were completely sleepy and hurriedly took up their weapons and gathered in their accounts.

In the darkness, Xia Houlan said in a calm tone: "Brothers, the gang of thieves on the other side is gathering more and more, obviously coming for us!" The deployment has been made, and now we have revenge water to rely on, and if the thieves directly cross the water, we can use the earthen dam by the river as a cover to shoot them all to death in the water! If the thieves go around the river upstream, we have a car formation as a cover, and they will not be able to please them! ”

"I, Xiahou Lan, have no other requirements for everyone, just the brothers to be restrained and calm when the thieves rush over! If they set fire to our vehicles with rockets, we would use the people to put their clothes on the roofs of the cars and pour water from the river on them, so that our formation would remain undisturbed. As long as the enemy does not disrupt our position, they will not be able to enter, and we can shoot them with bows and arrows! ”

"At the end of the day, I declare three military disciplines: Fear the enemy and kill! Those who intend to escape, kill! Those who spread rumors and disturb the morale of the army, kill! ”

With Xiahoulan announcing the "Three Killings Order", the camp was furious, and both the soldiers and the people took action.

After a while, a small group of thieves crossed the river on horses, and quietly came towards the embankment here, Xia Houlan arranged for a hundred soldiers to hide behind the earthen dam, and when these thieves crossed the river, they shot arrows at the black shadow in the river together, and suddenly a miserable scream sounded.

The leader of the thieves on the north bank of the river saw that it was not advisable to cross the river directly, so he left a small number of his men with torches to continue shaking, and he led most of his men to swim five miles to the water of revenge, and then crossed the river south after launching from here.

After easily repelling the small group of thieves in the river, Xiahou Lan did not dare to relax and ordered the soldiers to continue to be vigilant.

Half an hour later, the rumbling sound of horses' hooves was heard in the upper reaches of the riverbank, and more than 2,000 thieves suddenly lit torches and rushed towards them with a terrifying sound.

Xia Houlan looked at the countless torches in the distance, and cursed in her mouth: "Idiot! With torches in such a dark night, are we afraid that our archers will not be able to see clearly? ”

In fact, it wasn't that the leader of the thieves was really stupid and incurable, but he miscalculated the determination of this grain transport team to resist to the death and Xia Houlan's calmness.

The leader of the thieves thought that the hundreds of people left on the north bank of the river were still feintting and shouting there with torches, and thousands of torches were suddenly lit up on his side, which could create the effect of two pieces of bread in an instant, which could cause great panic to the officers and soldiers on the defense.

"Brothers, hold your breath and wait for the thieves to come near, and then listen to my command to shoot arrows! All the people with stones in their hands, listen to my command to throw them out! ”

Gradually, a long line of countless torches rushed to the outskirts of the camp.

"Shoot the arrows!"

"Put it again!"

"Throw stones!"

Although there were already neighing of people and horses outside, the camp was quiet and terrifying, and only Xia Houlan's clear and passionate commands could be heard from time to time.

"Oops, there's a pit in the ground!"

"Straight lady thief, why are there so many big stones!"

"Not good, there are a lot of archers in the opposing camp!"

"Quick, set off rockets to burn their camp!"

Suddenly the thieves who were hit head-on panicked, some were unfortunately hit by arrows and fell from their horses, some horses were trapped in the crotch and their front hooves were broken, and some people were tripped by boulders on the ground......

When he saw a large number of rockets shooting from a distance, Xia Houlan immediately ordered: "Pick up the uniform, cover it on the roof of the carriage, and quickly pour water on it!" ”

Gongsun Ji, who was awakened in the middle of the night, quietly poked his head out of the tent, he looked at the figure of the commander not far away, and for a while, his heart was mixed. The more outstanding Xiahou Lan became, the more Gongsun Ji's prestige in front of the officers and soldiers was impacted, but if he didn't have a strong command in this dangerous time, he would have to explain himself to the edge of this cold river beach.

Seeing that the fire attack was ineffective, the thieves risked their lives and charged forward twice, but they were all repelled by Xiahoulan's commanded soldiers with bows and arrows.

The cavalry of Youzhou must not only be proficient in horsemanship, but also be good at archery, otherwise there is no way to stop the Wuhuan and Xianbei people, who are good at riding and shooting. Because of this, a qualified cavalryman, from enlistment to real training and maturity, requires at least three years of effort.

The thousand cavalry that Xiahou Lan brought on this trip were one-third of the three thousand elites at the bottom of the box under Liu Yu's command, although they could not be compared with Gongsun Zhan's white horse Yicong, but they were also trained veterans, so there was no difficulty in hiding behind the chariot formation and shooting arrows. As Xia Houlan analyzed, as long as the vehicle formation is not broken and the enemy cannot rush into the camp, the defender's morale will not be chaotic, and they can hold on all the time.

What these thieves really didn't expect was that Xia Houlan actually thought of a way to cover the wall of the car with a wet blanket, which completely frustrated their idea of attacking the camp with rockets.

Another point is that it also makes the defenders feel down-to-earth and the thieves feel terrifying.

Among the batch of grain, grass and military materials escorted by Xia Houlan, there were more than a dozen carts loaded with arrows destined for Macheng!

An array of fire-fighting wagons, an unlimited number of arrows, cavalrymen dismounted and archery, plus a disciplined and terrifyingly calm leader, and a group of men who kept throwing stones from the inside out......

Well, whoever meets such a difficult opponent is hell to hell!

After suffering and wounding nearly 500 people, the thieves finally had no choice but to retreat.

However, an even more unimaginable scene ensued!

Seeing that the thieves were defeated, Xiahou Lan yelled at the hundred cavalry who were already ready behind him: "Brothers who are really decided, rush out of the battle with me to kill the enemy!" ”

A hundred Zhending soldiers who had been in the limelight on the Jicheng school field shouted in unison: "Xiahou Sima is mighty! Fight the enemy! Fight the enemy! ”

The next moment, Xiahou Lan, who was waiting for work, rushed out of the reserved passage like a tiger out of the cage, and roared to kill the thieves running behind!

Xiahoulan led a thousand cavalry on this trip, and there were four military marquis who led the team, each with 200 cavalry, and Xiahoulan led 100 Zhending cavalry, plus 100 Youzhou cavalry who were temporarily incorporated in. According to the convention of the Han army, the four military marquis lined up in the front and back, left and right when marching, and Xiahou Lan led the Chinese army himself.

At this moment, Xiahou Lan personally led a hundred Chinese cavalry to kill from the camp, although the number was not large, but the indomitable momentum completely deterred the thieves and the Youzhou cavalry who stayed in the camp.

Several military marquis did not receive the order of Xiahou Lan to pursue, so they did not dare to act rashly at this time, so they had to watch Xiahou Lan disappear outside the camp with a hundred horses.

The vanguard of the thieves had already begun to cross the river, and suddenly heard the sound of shouting and killing from the rear, and immediately panicked, and could no longer care to maintain the formation, like ducks going down the river, "poof", "poof", "poof" jumped down the icy water of revenge.

The leader of the thieves was in a hurry, and hurriedly led hundreds of his subordinates to intercept Xia Houlan, who was catching up, but was stabbed off his horse by Xia Houlan, who looked like a mad tiger. When this unlucky guy was dying, he suddenly remembered what Yan Rou said to him when he left Ningcheng: "When the time comes, only grab grain, grass and military funds, don't kill people easily......"

Nima, what a cheat, don't kill people easily? Lao Tzu is going to die now!

PS: Have a great weekend, dear friends! Don't forget to vote for South Province. Thank you very much for the reward of 8888 starting coins from Zhou Zilong, who is the heaviest reward that Nandao has received so far, and I am moved by tears......