Two more days passed. In Zhang Fei's mansion in Yang County, the generals gathered again to discuss the military situation.

Zhang Fei asked, "How many days have we lost contact with Yong'an?"

Fu Wei replied: "It's been five days. ”

Zhang Fei asked again: "What has happened in the past two days on the side of the barbarian army going north?"

Wei Yan replied: "The barbarians who went north, the salt workers and the people who were coerced by them all lived in Pingyang County, and they have not moved until now, as if they want to live permanently. ”

Zhang Fei pondered for a moment and said, "It seems that this group of barbarians is indeed a bait sent by the Jin State, and their purpose is to lure us out of the city, and then the Crouching Tiger Army from the upper reaches of the Fen River will attack us. It's just that I don't understand how many troops the Crouching Tiger Army has dispatched this time? If there are too many troops, there will inevitably be problems in the defense of the Shangdang; if there are too few troops, how can he swallow my 30,000 troops in one bite!"

Wei Yan suggested: "Since we don't know the exact strength of the Crouching Tiger Army, then we will send an army to investigate!"

Yang Yi asked meaningfully: "Who will you send?"

Wei Yan replied without hesitation: "Give me 3,000 cavalry to ensure that you will have a clear understanding of the bottom of the Jin army!"

Zhang Fei sighed in his heart, feeling that this Wei Yan among his generals was really a rare talent, knowing that there was likely to be a lot of danger ahead, he still stood up without hesitation at this time of danger.

"Wen Chang, I will allocate you 3,000 cavalry and order you to be the vanguard general and go to Yong'an to reconnoiter the enemy's situation. Remember, once you can't do anything, retreat quickly and fight face-to-face!" Zhang Fei finally agreed to Wei Yan's request.

At noon that day, Wei Yan led 3,000 cavalry out of the north gate of Yang County and galloped towards Yong'an.

The county seat of Yong'an is more than sixty miles away from Yang County, and even a rapid cavalry march takes half a day to arrive. Therefore, when Wei Yan led the army to Yong'an City, it was already night.

The quick-witted Wei Yan did not venture to approach the city wall of Yong'an, but sent a small group of soldiers to dismount and take off their uniforms, dressed as people fleeing from Anyi, and went to the city to call the door. As soon as a few soldiers pretending to be ordinary people approached the gate of Yong'an, they were shouted by the defenders at the head of the city.

The defenders at the head of the city shouted: "A few thieves and thieves in the city, don't go any further, otherwise don't blame us for being ruthless!"

The people under the city replied: "The official who guarded the city, a group of barbarian cavalry came from Anyi to arrest people everywhere, we are the people who fled from Pingyang, please do well, let us into the city to hide!"

The defenders at the head of the city also said: "Pingyang is located in the hinterland of Hedong, and near it is the 30,000 army of General Zhang Yide.

Seeing that they couldn't open the city gate, a group of soldiers under the city had to leave Yong'an with a curse, and then returned to the hiding place of the 3,000 cavalry in a twist and turn, and reported the situation to Wei Yan.

Wei Yan thought about it for a while, and then analyzed the result that Yong'an City had been occupied by the Crouching Tiger Army, so he led the army to turn around and go south along the Fen River. How did Wei Yan deduce that Yong'an City was occupied? He guessed it based on the fact that the defenders at the head of the city heard that there were barbarian cavalry in Anyi and did not panic.

A few days ago, Yang County sent people to inform the Anyi County Order and the garrison, and Anyi brought out the barbarian cavalry, and the officials and hundreds of soldiers there were frightened and asked Zhang Fei to send troops to garrison them. If Yong'an hadn't missed, then they should have been very panicked after hearing the news that Pingyang was occupied by barbarian cavalry, and they shouldn't have been so calm.

Wei Yan considered the plan that Zhang Fei was going to carry out next, so he followed Fenshui from Yong'an to the downstream direction, intending to find out if a large number of the main force of the Crouching Tiger Army had moved closer to Pingyang County. But to his disappointment, when he led the team to run through the direction of due west of Yang County, there was still no trace of the Crouching Tiger Army. At this moment, the outpost suddenly sent an urgent report, saying that it was observed that the head of Yang County was in flames that night, and asked him to return to Yang County as soon as possible, and not to fall into an ambush.

As soon as Wei Yan received this news, he thought that the main force of the Crouching Tiger Army had arrived in Yang County, so he hurriedly led the army to march overnight, and finally approached the city of Yang County in the early morning. After repeated searches by sentinels, after making sure that there was no trace of the Crouching Tiger Army around the county seat, Wei Yan cautiously entered the city gate.

Entering the city of Deyang County, Wei Yan found that many houses on both sides of the road had collapsed due to the fire, many soldiers were busy evacuating and transferring people, and some soldiers were still extinguishing the remaining fires. Wei Yan hurriedly went to see Zhang Fei, made a detailed report on the situation of his two days out to reconnoitre, and then mentioned that he had seen the fire in Yang County the night before.

Zhang Fei heard Wei Yan ask about this, and replied with a puzzled expression: "Yesterday night, tens of thousands of arrows dragging flames suddenly flew from the direction of the East Gate, and all of them shot into the city, but there was no trace of the enemy. Since it was night, I was afraid that the enemy army would set up an ambush outside the city, so I did not order my troops to go out of the city to meet the battle. ”

When Wei Yan heard this, he also frowned and said, "Why do I think that there is an invisible net covering our heads? The main force of the Jin troops has not been found anywhere, and the cavalry of the barbarians has also stayed motionless in the city of Pingyang County, is it possible that they still want to confront us in the city?"

Zhang Fei said with a cold face: "I have the same feelings as Wen Chang, although I don't know what kind of conspiracy the Jin Kingdom has designed against us, but I am afraid that this time their plans must be not small." So I decided to lead the army south to Xiangling tomorrow, and the original plan to capture Binh Duong will be nullified!"

Wei Yan nodded, did not say anything against it, but said a little unwillingly: "Why don't I lead three thousand infantry to stay in Yang County and see what kind of calculation the Jin Kingdom has this time?"

While the two were discussing, they suddenly came to report urgently, saying that they had found that the barbarian army in Pingyang County had moved again, and they were carrying more than 100,000 people to continue to go upstream along the Fen River, and now they were only less than forty miles away from Yang County.

As soon as Zhang Fei and Wei Yan heard the news, they immediately stood up.

"Since the barbarians don't take us seriously like this, why do you have to fight with them this time, I want to see how they can coerce the 100,000 people in Hedong to Xihe under the blockade of the 30,000 soldiers of the Northern Army!" Zhang Fei looked angry, and finally decided to face Yan Xi head-on, instead of taking the third way out that he had just considered, that is, leading the army to move to Xiangling.

If Zhang Fei knew that the rocket rain that was falling in the sky last night was just a momentum created by a thousand soldiers of the Shenhuo Battalion, and the real main force of the Crouching Tiger Army had been lurking under the noses of him and Wei Yan, he would definitely implement the third plan without hesitation, instead of crashing headlong into the pocket array that Pang Tong and Li Jinwu had carefully arranged for him.