Murong Ping went upriver along the Western Han River, and after reconnoitring Wudu Dao in one breath, he went east to the street pavilion where the army was hiding, preparing to report the reconnaissance results of the past two days to Ma Chao.

What Murong Ping didn't expect was that when he rode into Jieting Town, he couldn't find any trace of the Xiliang Army, and no one knew about it when he asked the people in the town. When Murong Ping was at a loss, he suddenly felt that someone had hit him with a stone on his back, so he looked back and saw Duan Xuan, who was dressed as a farmer, squeezing his eyebrows at him, so he quietly followed Duan Xuan out of Jieting Town, and went around to a dense forest, and finally saw the army commander Ma Chao and the troops.

Murong Ping told all the information he had reconnoitred all the way, only to hear Tian Yu's face becoming more and more solemn.

"Are you saying that the commander of the besieged city is not Sima?" Tian Yu asked Murong Ping.

"It's true, there is just a word on the handsome banner, and I haven't seen Sima's family. Murong Ping said with great certainty.

"Could it be that Zhang Ren from Yizhou is out of Sichuan?" Tian Yu said to himself a little, "Zhang Ren appeared under the city of Xiabian, so where did Sima Yi go?"

"How many enemy troops are there besieging Xiacheng?" asked Ma Chao.

"Judging by the reconnaissance, there are at least twenty thousand horses. Murong Ping replied.

"Meng Qi, we're in trouble now. At first, I only thought that the 30,000 horses led by Sima Yi besieged the city, but now it seems that the soldiers and horses of the Yizhou army that attacked Wudu are not a few, and the troops of Zhang Ren and Sima Yi add up to at least 50,000, and Sima Yi is still nowhere to be seen, so I am afraid that this battle will be difficult to fight. After Tian Yu analyzed, his face was a little ugly and said.

Ma Chao looked at the map for a long time without saying a word, and finally pointed his finger at Wudu Dao in the west of Jieting Town, and then said: "Shanglu City in the west of Xiabi City has not yet fallen, and Xiaban City is besieged, so Hechi City in the east of Xiabi is either under siege by Sima Yi's army or has been taken by it, so we must be stuck on Wudu Road to avoid Sima Yi and Zhang Ren forming an encirclement of our army." ”

Tian Yu looked at the map near Wudu Dao, nodded and said: "Wudu Dao is held in the upper reaches of the Western Han River, and not far behind him is Didao County of Longxi County and Xixian County of Hanyang County. But now that Shanglu City has not yet fallen, it cannot be surrendered, so I suggest that after occupying Wudu Dao, the army will be divided into two roads, one way to the south to Shanglu City, and one way to stay in Wudu Dao. ”

Ma Chao then ordered the army to pull out, led 10,000 cavalry to Wudu Dao, leaving Duan Xuan to lead his division of 3,000 people to garrison the city, and he took the remaining 7,000 main force to continue down the Western Han River and go to Shanglu City.

It was also a coincidence that after Sima Yi let Murong Ping pass, he waited for two days in the canyon where the ambush was set up, but he didn't wait for Han Wei to rescue the army under him, Sima Yi only thought that the guards in Shanglu City were a calm person, so he carefully led a group of men and horses out of the canyon and moved closer to Shanglu City, and the main force was still left in the canyon by him. Sima Yi's purpose in dividing his troops in this way was to use himself as a bait to lure the defenders stationed in Shanglu City out of the city to pursue, and then annihilate Han Wei's troops in the canyon.

Sima Yi didn't know that there were actually no regular troops stationed in Shanglu City, and when he saw the hundreds of defenders scattered on the head of Shanglu City, he thought that the lord defending the city was playing some trick to capture the old man, so he first ordered Chen Shi to go to the scolding formation, wanting to scold the lord of the city.

Chen Shi scolded Shanglu City for a long time, and was very depressed to find that no one paid attention to him at all. Of course, no one in the reserve forces in the city would pay attention to him, and this group of brothers was looking at the thousands of troops suddenly under the city with weak legs.

The county commander in Shanglu City had seen Murong Ping who had come to reconnoiter two days ago, and had already learned the news that Xia Zhi had been besieged, so he gathered the five hundred reserve soldiers who were originally responsible for public security in the city according to Murong Ping's suggestion, blocked the four gates, and waited for the Xiliang army to come and take over the city.

This county commander had the intention of surrendering, but when he thought of the Jin State's treatment of officials who surrendered without a fight, he died of this heart. He would rather choose to live and die with the city, and after his death, he can still let his family get a good pension, but if he chooses to surrender without a fight, he can only live in the endless pursuit of the Jin State in the future.

Just as Sima Yi was preparing to feint to attack the east gate of Shanglu City, Ma Chao led 7,000 Xiliang cavalry from the upper reaches of the Western Han River to the north gate of Shanglu City. The cavalry marched, covered with dust, and could be seen from a few miles away, so it was naturally difficult to hide people's eyes, so Sima Yi did not wait for Ma Chao to copy behind him, so he led the army to retreat to the east urgently, avoiding Ma Chao's edge.

Sima Yi thought to himself: "Fortunately, I didn't rashly attack Shanglu City, otherwise when the battle was going on here, this cavalry that suddenly appeared copied the back road of our army, which would be really dangerous." ”

Sima Yi's army was placed not far from Shanglu City, and naturally did not escape the reconnaissance of the Xiliang Army, Ma Chao followed Tian Yu's suggestion, mainly occupied Shanglu City, and did not chase Sima Yi to the east, just avoiding the possibility of being ambushed by Sima Yi in the nameless canyon.

Sima Yi, who retreated to the canyon, immediately sent people to reconnoiter outside Shanglu City, only to learn that the cavalry he saw from a distance today turned out to be the cavalry of the Jin Kingdom, and the main general who commanded this army was Ma Teng's eldest son Ma Chao, and until this time, Sima Yi still didn't know where Han Wei was.

Sima Yi retreated to the area around the canyon, and Ma Chao sent Murong Ping to reconnoitre. It didn't take long for Murong Ping to return to Shanglu City in a sweat and report his astonishing discovery to Ma Chao.

Last time, Murong Ping was in a hurry to go to Shanglu City, so he just felt that the terrain around the canyon was steep, but this time he watched Sima Yi lead the troops into the canyon with his own eyes, and then there was no trace. Murong Ping is not a fool, he naturally knows how powerful this is, he estimates that the reason why he didn't detect Sima Yi's traces last time was that he was afraid that people had already hidden in the canyon, if this time the Xiliang Army didn't know the depth and plunged into it, it would really be a place to die.

Ma Chao listened to Murong Ping's report, and was also secretly frightened, glad that he had just followed Tian Yu's advice and did not rashly send troops to pursue Sima Yi.

Sima Yi and Ma Chao have not yet fought each other, but they have been fighting wits for several rounds. Now that the Xiliang army has entered Shanglu City, it can be regarded as temporarily curbing the pace of the Yizhou army marching west and north, and as long as the Yizhou army holds the canyon, it can rest assured that it can besiege the Xia Zhi defenders, and no longer worry about the Jin army in Shanglu City coming to the rescue.

Suddenly, the situation in Wudu fell into a stalemate.