Chapter 124: The Big Pocket

At the moment, Guo Youzhi said this and this, and Liu Hou nodded frequently. It didn't take long for the entire Shu military camp to boil. The Shu army is well-trained, and it is very good at setting up camp and pulling out the camp, and it will soon be able to pack things and set off.

In order to conceal Sima Yi, Liu Hou sent 5,000 rattan armor soldiers to patrol around the barracks and strangle a person who dared to spy on the barracks, with the aim of driving the spies of the Wei army far away, so that they could not see the reality in the Shu army barracks.

In addition, the tents and flags around the Shu army camp have not been removed, so it is difficult to see from the outside, and the inside of the barracks is actually empty.

In order to achieve better results, Liu Hou also got ten cavalrymen, tied branches behind the horses' buttocks, and let them run back and forth in the camp, making dust that covered the sky, giving people the illusion that the troops in the camp were frequently moved.

The visual effect was not enough, Liu Hou had several sheep hoisted up and their hind hooves stepped on the drum, and the sheep kept stepping on the drum surface, making the drum rumble endlessly.

These alone were not enough, Liu Hou asked the two battalions of the Second Artillery Corps to take turns to bomb the city gate tower, city wall, city gate and other places, which made the nerves of the defenders in the city always highly nervous, thinking that the Shu army was going to attack at any time and did not dare to act rashly.

While the Shu army was making this series of small actions, the brigade quietly moved out of the camp and retreated south. The brigade had walked twenty miles south, and it was already evening, and Liu Hou ordered the team to stop advancing and bury the pot on the spot to make rice.

Only retreated twenty miles, this distance is obviously not very safe, either not withdraw, if you want to retreat, you have to retreat a little more thoroughly, completely withdraw to a safe area. But now that it's getting late, should you leave overnight or rest overnight and leave tomorrow? Liu Hou couldn't make up his mind, so he ordered his own soldiers to invite the three strategists over to discuss.

Not long after, Guo Youzhi, Deng Zhi, and Bu Qi arrived one after another, and Liu Hou beckoned them to come over and eat together. Because in the march, even Liu Hou, the emperor, ate very simply. There is no need to think about the Manchu and Han banquets, there are no big fish and big meat, and there is not even the standard of three dishes and one soup for later generations of cadres to work in the countryside.

Soon, the Huotou army prepared the meal, and the soldiers came over and put a low table with foldable legs and feet in front of Liu Hou and the three stinkers, and then put the meal on each low table. This should be the most humble emperor banquet in history.

Including Liu Hou and the three strategists, the meals were the same, with only one green vegetable, one meat and one bowl of rice. In fact, everyone in the army is the same food standard, from the general, even the emperor, down to the ordinary soldiers, this kind of egalitarianism helps to shorten the distance between the generals and the soldiers, so that the generals can quickly gain the love of the soldiers.

The meals were ordinary, but the portions were generous, ensuring that each soldier had an adequate supply of calories so that their combat effectiveness could be guaranteed.

Of course, this is at the beginning of the march and the food supply is normal, if you have to march continuously and can't stop to prepare fresh food calmly, most people's green vegetables will turn into pickles, and meat will also become bacon, and only Liu Hou, the emperor, and a few high-ranking generals can continue to enjoy fresh vegetables and meat.

Of course, such a meal is too simple for high-ranking officials and nobles, and it is not rich for the common people in later generations, but in this era of war, it is already a very good treatment for these soldiers and ordinary people.

For them, it is already thankful that they can eat enough, and having meat and vegetables is a treatment that only exists during the New Year, so the soldiers of the Hong Army are like the New Year every day.

Liu Hou and the three of them were talking about where to go while eating, and Guo Youzhi advocated traveling overnight, believing that it was safe to walk at least fifty miles.

Deng Zhi didn't think so, he thought that he hadn't gotten more information about the danger so far, and according to the scout's report, the two enemy armies had also set up camp ten miles away from the original Shu army camp, and the danger had almost been lifted, so there was no need to retreat in such a hurry, and he even built a plan to turn around and destroy one of the enemy troops.

Bu Qiu chose neutrality, one in favor, one against, and one abstained, which made it difficult for Liu Hou to do, and in this situation, even if he wanted to vote democratically to decide where to go.

The meal was simple and fast, and in less than a quarter of an hour, Liu Hou and the others finished eating, and when the guards helped everyone clean up the dishes and chopsticks, they suddenly heard an urgent report. Liu Hou was taken aback, and hurriedly asked the herald who reported the news to come over and speak.

The news brought by the herald was really surprising, and another Wei army of about 50,000 men was found in the southwest of the procession, and they had approached ten miles from the Shu army, but they had already stopped to set up camp and build fortifications.

You must know that Liu Hou and the others have already walked twenty miles to the south, and at this time there is still a team of 50,000 people in the southwest direction of them, that is, if they did not retreat before, they have already fallen into a big pocket.

"If there is an enemy army in the southwest, will there be one in the southeast?" Guo Youzhi interjected.

When Liu Hou heard this, he broke out in a cold sweat, this Sima Yi wouldn't be so ruthless, right? Such a big deal, now the three armies are already 150,000, if there is really an enemy army in the southeast, it is 200,000 soldiers and horses, plus the defenders of Xiangyang City, how many people did he bring out this time?

"Without further ado, please give the order of Your Majesty, go quickly!" Guo Youzhi arched his hand.

Right! Now is not the time to be stunned, the top priority is to jump out of the encirclement of the Wei army first, otherwise when Sima Yi tightens his pockets, it will be troublesome to leave again.

Liu Hou immediately ordered the army to immediately end its rest and continue to march south, as for those who eat slowly, they can only be unlucky, but there are few people in the army who eat slowly, except for some people who have special tasks and cannot eat on time, such as the pro-soldiers who served Liu Hou and others to eat just now, they originally planned to wait for the emperor to finish eating, and then they started eating.

Now that there was no time, the team had to move on, so they had to nibble on dry food as they walked. The dry food of the Shu army is actually very delicious, which is a biscuit made by mixing flour, lard, eggs, bean flour, sesame seeds, sugar, salt and other things.

There is also an upgraded version of the biscuit that changes lard to sesame oil and adds milk, but because milk is really a rare thing in this era, this upgraded version of high-end goods is a special supply for the royal family, and only Liu Hou is eligible to enjoy it in the army.

Liu Hou originally wanted to get some compressed biscuits, but he didn't know the recipe for compressed biscuits, so he had to add the three major nutrients according to his imagination.

According to his poor knowledge of nutrition, he knew that carbohydrates, fats, and proteins were the three essential nutrients for the human body, so he used flour and sugar as carbohydrates, eggs and soybean flour as protein sources, and lard and sesame oil as fat sources in this military dry food.

Not to mention, this recipe is nutritious and tastes quite good, you can eat two pieces to top a meal, it is convenient and fast to eat, and it is deeply loved by soldiers and generals in the army. Scouts, in particular, don't have much time to eat because they have to constantly run around on the road, so they must bring a few pieces of this kind of military ration with them when they go on a mission.

However, because this kind of dry food lacks fiber and vitamins, if you only eat this kind of biscuit for a long time, it will lead to symptoms such as constipation and fire, so Liu Hou also specially asked Hua Tuo to develop a pill, which is composed of a variety of traditional Chinese medicines such as croton, bezoar, honey, etc., specifically for the symptoms of eating military dry food for a long time.

This pill is sealed in yellow wax and made into the form of wax pills, and when eating dry food, eating one pill every two days can prevent constipation and fire, and the effect is very good.

While urging the army to speed up and go south, Liu Hou sent people to meet the Second Artillery Corps. Because the Second Artillery Corps was about to bombard Xiangyang City, it set off an hour later than the large army, but they were equipped with horse-drawn carriages and marched much faster, and it was believed that they would soon be able to catch up.

The army had not gone far south, and Liu Hou received another report from the scouts, and sure enough, 50,000 Wei troops had been found in the southeast. At this time, Liu Hou was completely panicked, Nima, how many people are there in Sima Yi this time?

There are 200,000 people outside the city, and I don't know how many there are in the city, but there is his base camp, so there must be more than 50,000, more than 250,000 horses, should Wei pay so much attention to me.

Liu Hou lamented in his heart, he couldn't care so much now, and blindly urged the army to speed up and rush south, so as to get out of the encirclement as much as possible. If these 250,000 horses were the cold weapons troops in the past, Liu Hou wouldn't have to be so panicked at all, no matter how many people you have, no matter how you surround you, I will choose a direction at random and just hit it out, with firearms in hand, who can stop it?

However, now the Wei army also has firearms, although there are certainly not as many firearms as the Shu army, and the proficiency of the soldiers in the operation of firearms is certainly not as good as that of the Shu army, but there are many people who can't bear it. There is a saying that if 250,000 horses pounce on them in all directions at the same time, one person will surely die if he throws a thunderbolt.

If Liu Hou knew that Sima Yi's total number of troops this time was 300,000, not 250,000, he would definitely be even more panicked. At midnight on the march, the Second Artillery finally arrived, which made Liu Hou somewhat relieved. At this time, the whole army was already tired, and Liu Hou had to order the army to stop and rest.

Fortunately, the scouts reported that the Shu army had crossed the two Wei armies in the southeast and southwest, and now the two Wei armies were ten miles away from them to the northeast and northwest respectively. Although they were close, the scouts detected that they were all encamped, and there was no sign of movement of troops.

So, Liu Hou decided to let the troops rest for half a night, otherwise even if they could still run, they would not be able to fight again in case of any emergency.

Fortunately, the aerial reconnaissance and ground reconnaissance of the Shu army are much more advanced than the Wei army, and in terms of intelligence information, the Wei army is comprehensively suppressed, so although the three armies are now very close, the Shu army has already discovered the Wei army, and the Wei army does not seem to have found that the Shu army has slipped here.