Entering the customs from Liao, there is no mountain customs in the Yuan fashion. Shanhaiguan was repaired and built by Xu Da in the early Ming Dynasty.

At that time, it was called Yuguan, also known as "Linyuguan".

It was built during the opening of the Sui Dynasty and was an important military town in Liaodong during the Tang Dynasty. But then the two northern dynasties of Liao and Jin, as well as the Yuan, the rulers were all nomads, and the foundations were all outside the pass, so they didn't have to be too guarded against the pass, so the focus of their fortification shifted from outside the pass to inside the pass. Yuguan is also gradually abandoned.

In addition, during the period of Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, in order to strengthen the rule and prevent the Han rebellion, the walls and checkpoints of the world were completely destroyed; Although since the Red Turban Rebellion, the Yuan Court has issued another order to rebuild and repair the city walls in various places, but first, the focus of the Red Turban Army's activities is in the Central Plains and Jingchu; Second, after Deng She captured Liaodong, he sent Li Ye to constantly harass Liaoxi, so in fact, the road to the customs from southeast Liaodong was unimpeded; Especially after the destruction of the whole army of Shijiabao, it was smooth sailing and almost unstoppable.

Chen Hu drove straight down, and within two days, he had passed the border and entered the abdomen.

As soon as he entered his stomach, the news could not be hidden. The first thing to know is naturally Dadu. Many years ago, Liu Futong made a three-way northern expedition, and Mao Gui had approached Gyeonggi all the way, and the nearest place was only 100 miles away from Dadu, when the world was shaken, most of them were frightened, and some people even suggested that they should immediately "move the capital", that is, abandon the city and escape.

But after a few years, the same thing happened again. Up to Emperor Yuan, down to hundreds of officials, everyone was frightened. For a time, the discussion of "moving the capital" was once again noisy.

However, in the end during the war years, the news did not spread quickly, although most of them had been alarmed, Chahan, who was far away in Caozhou, did not know this situation at this time. However, although he didn't know that Chen Hu had already entered the customs, in the past few days, he had become increasingly suspicious of Zhao Guo in Chengwu City.

"What is Zhao Guo's idea for this little thief?"

It was Li Weixin who asked the question, and he was also full of doubts: "First of all, he lied that Deng Thief personally raised 200,000 troops to come, wanting to compete with the lord. Use such low-level means to scare us. The lord judged that he wanted to use this strategy to frighten us, so that our army would not dare to move; He could thus take the opportunity to withdraw his troops. The minister also thought so. But after several days, why did he still sit firmly in the city, and there was no movement at all? ”

"I can't say that there is no movement at all. In the past few days, he has been out on reconnaissance and cavalry, and has sent many small troops one after another, and has constantly clashed with our army's food protection team on a small scale. When they grabbed the grain, they didn't transport it away, but burned it on the spot. ......, this kind of behavior? ”

"What does the lord think?"

"Why is it that the more he thinks about it, the more he doesn't want to withdraw his troops, but wants to fight a protracted war with us?"

"Protracted war? ......, but except for a while ago when he sent Monk Li to attack, he didn't move for a while? ......, could it be that he wants to wait for us to run out of food? ”

"No!"

Chakhan Timur shook his head and said, "If it were to wait for our army to run out of food, he would not have sent only a few cavalry squads to harass him. He has tens of thousands of troops in the city, and his troops are sufficient, so he can completely hold the key points, lay down copper walls and iron walls, and prevent Gaotang, Dongping, Dongchang, Daimyo and other places from sending us food. ”

The Lord is right. ......, then, why did he do this? ”

"The old man is also suspicious."

Chakhan Timur took his hand, turned around the tent a few times, muttered to himself, and said: "Fight and not fight, retreat and not retreat." Small strands of harassment, the main force does not move. ......Protracted? ......Wrong! The old man thinks that he is a bit like he wants to drag us here? ......, yes, it must be! ”

"Drag us here? ......, why? What good is it for him to hold our army back? As the lord said, he only sent some small teams of cavalry to harass me, but he refused to lay down the iron wall and completely cut off my food route. If this stalemate continues for a long time, it will be useless except to make us consume more food? ”

Li Weixin paused, and then said: "Not only is it useless, but his troops are more than ours, tens of thousands of people are stationed in one city, and the daily consumption of grain is several times that of mine; After a long time, it is inevitable that there will be the disadvantages of 'old teachers'. In this way, he obviously has more harm than good! ......, Zhao Thief is not a fool, he knows that it is a loss-making deal, but why do he want to do it? ”

Most of the time, the wise man is better than the rectum; But at some point, people who are too smart are not as good as their rectum. Why? If you are smart, you will be suspicious. is like Zhuge Liang's empty city plan, scaring Sima Yi away. Although this story is fake, it makes a lot of sense from the perspective of psychological warfare.

If it wasn't Sima Yi's coach at that time, and he changed to a butcher on the street, or any rough person, it was very likely that he wouldn't even think about it and would have killed him directly. However, if it weren't for Sima Yi, Zhuge Liang would naturally not have come up with this strategy.

Gossip and talk, the book is back to business, this Li Weixin, now a bit of Sima Yi's meaning, too smart and suspicious, many things that don't have to be considered have also broken into his mind. Suddenly, he remembered something, his face changed slightly, and he said: "Lord, soldiers are not tired of deceit, and they are false and real. Could it be? Then Deng Thief really wants to raise 200,000 troops and horses to go west, and he wants to fight Caozhou with us? ”

"What do you mean by that?"

"That's why the Zhao thief will be full of tricks and do everything possible to drag our army down!"

Chakhan Timur smiled: "Sir is too worried. Didn't we discuss it before? At present, it would be good if Deng Thief could have 10,000 or 20,000 troops available in Yidu, where is there as many as 200,000? ”

Li Weixin didn't feel embarrassed, and said, "Yes, the minister thinks a little too much." ......, but if it weren't for this reason, why did the Zhao thief hold back our army? ”

The two were puzzled.

It's no wonder that they can't think of the truth, in fact, Deng She's focus has always been on Shandong, Central Plains, and Huaisi; I never imagined that I would suddenly go south and aim at the capital. What's more unexpected is that Hong Jixun's plan is obviously the capital, but it is actually Chahan himself.

There was silence in the tent.

Li Weixin stood up and slowly walked to the map hanging on the side wall, carefully watching the situation on the map. While watching, he frowned and pondered, and after a while, he said: "Lord, Zhao Thief's move must have a purpose. Knowing that he has other intentions, if our army continues to sit still, I am afraid that it will not be good. ”

Sitting still, of course, is not good. Fighting a war emphasizes an initiative, and it is too passive to wait all the time.

The old man thought the same thing. In my husband's opinion, what should our army do? ”

"It's better to startle the snake!"

"......, oh? I would like to hear about it. ”

"I can't guess his intentions, so I just hit him. Minister's news: 'Mistakes in chaos'. As soon as the battle starts, the situation is chaotic, and perhaps, he will show his feet. ”

"How?"

Chakhan Timur also came to the map, examined it carefully, and said: "His city is very well fortified, and if he attacks it hard, I am afraid that there will be many casualties." ”

"The day before yesterday, there was a military report, saying that it was found that some of the grain of the thief army was in Chuqiu and Shanzhou. ......, the main forces of the Zhao thieves are all in Chengwu. If the lord makes a light horse, sets off at night, avoids Chengwu, and overnight, he can reach Chuqiu and Shanzhou, and take advantage of his unpreparedness to attack it with fire, and he will be able to succeed. ”

"Chuqiu and Shanzhou, both after Chengwu, one lives on the south side and the other lives on the east side. Send light cavalry to attack, even if you can succeed, it will not be easy to withdraw. ”

"The lord can personally lead the elite and go out of the city to line up. If the Zhao thief dares to go out of the city to intercept the return of our light cavalry, he can take the opportunity to attack his rear formation. ”

"......, so?" Richard thought for a moment and said, "I'm seven or eight points sure." ”

The two armies face each other, and the one who surprises wins. Six points are enough, let alone seven or eight? This is equivalent to deciding the matter. Chakhan Timur said: "Without further ado, the soldiers are fast. Since this is the case, I will choose the general school, and I will go out of the city and attack at night tonight! ”

……

Chengwu City.

Zhao Guo put on armor and pressed the knife to inspect the city wall.

Since the beginning of autumn, there has not been a single rain. Autumn tigers, autumn tigers, when it is the hottest, the sun is even more vicious than summer. The trees in the city were hanging with their leaves. In order to facilitate the defense of the city, the trees outside the city have long been cut down, leaving only one by one stumps, exposed to the sun, dried and withered.

Zhao Guo was wearing only light armor, and he was so hot that he was sweating.

He stretched out his hand to wipe the sweat on his forehead, looked into the distance, and looked at Caozhou City in the distance for a while. It was too far away to see anything, only a swarthy swarthy spot on the horizon. The wind blew, rolling the red flags around him. The originally hot wind seemed to be mixed with a hint of coolness.

There was an accompanying Qianhu who said "Huh", and hurriedly looked up at the sky, and saw that it was still cloudless, but in the extreme distance, there seemed to be clouds rolling and rolling up.

"Is it going to rain?"

"It's been hot for days, and it's long overdue for rain!"

"This is this rain, and the light cavalry scattered outside, I'm afraid it won't be good to attack the Tartars' food protection team."

"It's not easy for us to attack, and it's not easy for the Tartar food team to walk."

"It's strange to say, the old thief of Chahan is quite patient. For so many days, I can just stay in the city and not be able to move out of half a step. ”

"It's not because our handsome family is clever, according to me, nine times out of ten, the old thief of Chahan is confused! Maybe you really think that we want to withdraw our troops, so we are bored in the city, waiting for us to 'retreat' and attack from behind! ”

Several generals laughed in unison.

Zhao Guo didn't laugh.

"Handsome?"

"Cha and Chahan are not unscrupulous people, and Li Weixin is even more wise. We, our side is dry thunder and no rain, it's okay if the time is short, and when the time goes by, they will notice something. Say, maybe, it's already suspicious now. ......, everyone, don't be careless. ”

There is another sentence, Zhao Guo did not say. The day before yesterday, he received a secret order from Yidu, saying that Chen Hu had crossed the Haihe River and was about to enter the customs. Counting the time, it should have passed the Chongqing Pass by now and entered the hinterland. In two or three days at most, the news will surely reach the ears of Timur of Chakhan.

In other words, that is.

The military order given to him by Dunshe: "Hold off Chahan". In another two or three days, it will be successfully completed. The more you are at this juncture, the more you can't make mistakes.

He thought in his heart, thinking: "Chahan is scheming, the more he does not move, the more bottomless I feel." At this critical moment, there must be no mistakes. ......Do you want? Send someone to attack him again? Only defeat is not allowed to win. After the fight, it was expected that the order for help from most of the capital could just be sent to the camp of the old thief in Chahan. Our army took the opportunity to feint defeat and retreat, and let him go north. Wouldn't it be good? ”

"Hold on to Chahan" is not just about dragging it down; When letting him go north, he also needs to do it seamlessly, so as not to make him suspicious. How can I keep them from being suspicious? The best way is naturally to pretend to be defeated, so that Chakhan Timur can also worry about the future, so that he can go north to help with confidence and boldness.

Moreover, there is another benefit to pretending to be a big failure.

After the order for most of the capital's request for help was delivered, would Chakhan Timur immediately rush to help? For Haidong, this is an unknown. After all, Richard Han was divided into one side, like a prince, although he was still a courtier of the Yuan court on the surface, but what did he actually think? No one knows. In the battle with Polo Timur, he had already disobeyed the orders of the Yuan Emperor on several occasions. Will he not follow this time?

It's not impossible.

If Deng She is changed, he will definitely not comply.

Because from a military point of view, the best thing to do is not to rush to the aid immediately, but to sit back and watch what happens. When the Haidong army is tired, when the two tigers are injured, they will suddenly start to exert force. Two advantages, one is that it is relatively easy to defeat the Haidong Army; Second, it can be convenient to control most of the capital.

As far as Hong Jixun deduced, Chakhan Timur would "surround Wei to save Zhao", abandon most of them to rush to help, and go straight to Huanglong to gain benefits. Actually, it's just a middle way.

Therefore, in order to prevent Chakhan Timur from really sitting back and watching most of them not be saved, the Yan army of Chengwu also needed a "big defeat".

If there is no "big defeat", it is equivalent to giving Chakhan Timur an excuse, and Zhao Guo is eyeing him before, how can he go north? How to help? But with the "big defeat", there is no excuse to sit back and wait for the change.

The relationship between this, Deng She has long analyzed Zhao Guo clearly in military documents; Zhao Guo also knew it early. So, at this time, he thought: "I should feign a big defeat." ”

The plan was decided, and he ordered: "Call, tell Monk Li to come to the Shuai's mansion to see me quickly." "The inspection of the city head has been completed, and Ziye led the generals down the city wall and returned to the Shuaifu.

As soon as he arrived on the front foot, Monk Li hurried from the camp on the back foot.

"I, I have a military order for you, if you can do it, then, even if you make up for it, you will not mention the sin of your last defeat. If it can't be done, the two crimes will be punished together! Also, you don't need me to give another order, you just raise your head and come to see me. ”

"Yes! Please give the order of the commander, and the last general will be able to complete it regardless of life and death. ”

"I want you to lead the army, go out of the city tomorrow, and then attack Caozhou for a while."

As soon as he heard that he was going to fight Caozhou again, Monk Li suddenly had high morale, blushed, clenched his fists, and said loudly: "Please rest assured!" This time, if the last general loses again, he doesn't need to be punished by the commander, and would rather die on the battlefield. ”

"Nope. ......, this time, only you are allowed to lose, not to win. ”