Xiping is located in the northeast of Wuyang, due west of Dingying.

There is a cypress pavilion in the north of this city, which is the land of the cypress country in the spring and autumn.

There is Tangxi Pavilion in the east of the city, in the middle of the martial arts, the ancestor sealed the son of the king of Surabaya as the Marquis of Tangxi.

At this time, Li Tong led 5,000 men and horses, went out of Xiping Dongcheng, crossed Tangxi Pavilion, and went to Dingying.

The two places are very close to each other, Xiping County in the Han Dynasty is located more than ten miles southeast of Wuyang in the later generations, and Dingying is located more than ten miles east of Xiping County in the later generations.

And at that time, Xiping and Dingying belonged to the upstream and downstream relationship, Xiping was in the middle of the river, and after the river arrived at Dingying, it flowed into Rushui.

Therefore, the official road is on the bank of the Lushui River, passing the Tangxi Pavilion, all the way to the east, about 40 kilometers, to Dingying.

Man Chong learned in the early morning of July 1 that Liu Bei had set out from Shangcai to attack Dingying.

He had the option to go.

But the reason why he stayed to defend the city was because behind him were the two counties of Zhaoling and Liqiang, which had no soldiers and horses, and further north was Xudu.

In addition, he thought that Liu Bei's conscription was mostly a rabble, not many materials, and even weapons and blades were not complete, so he should be able to hold out until Li Tong came to help, so he would stick to the city.

But when Shen Chen arrived, he understood that the general situation had gone, and he had to abandon the city and flee. It's just that it was too late, and he was finally intercepted by Shen Chen and killed by him on the spot.

At that time, the battle ended at noon, and the man sent by Manchu to report the news rode to Xiping, and since it was not possible to keep the horses galloping continuously, it took an hour and a half to inform Li of the news before noon.

Li Tong temporarily assembled the team and asked his deputy Xiping County to order Zhao Yan to stay behind to guard the city, while he himself traveled lightly, and ordered the soldiers to bring twenty days of dry food to Dingying to support.

Therefore, when Man Chong was killed, Li Tong had actually just set off not long ago, and according to the time, if the speed of the rapid march was eight kilometers per hour, it would take about five hours to reach Dingying County.

So Shen Chen thought that Li Tong was eager to rescue Ding Ying and would definitely not send scouts to investigate at any time, so he suggested to Liu Bei to immediately attack Li Tong west and set up an ambush halfway.

This suggestion was approved by Liu Bei.

It's just that the soldiers he recruited are indeed relatively ordinary, from Shangcai to Dingying, the battle has not been fought much, and the physical strength has been exhausted, and many people have unbearable foot soreness, and they can't continue to walk at all.

Shen Chen can also understand this, most of the soldiers recruited by Liu Bei are low-level poor, and they are far less good at eating than the elite soldiers carefully cultivated by Huangmen Pavilion, and the training amount of the two sides is also different, so naturally they cannot compete with them in physical strength.

So in the end, Liu Bei let Jian Yong, Sun Qian, Mizhu, and the three left generals lead the large army to rest in Dingying City, and personally led a small number of elite cavalry and soldiers brought from Yuan Shaona, about 3,000 men and horses, plus Shen Chen's 4,000 troops, a total of 7,000 people, to intercept Li Tong to the west.

In this way, the two sides ran to each other along the official road of the Lushui River. When Li Tong was still more than 20 kilometers away from Dingying, Liu Beijun also went west for more than ten miles, walked for about an hour, and finally found a hill on the south bank of the Lushui River and began to arrange an ambush.

This hilly forest is dense, is on the south side of the post road, is a piece from west to east, up to several kilometers of small hills, the mountain is not very high, the highest place is less than 100 meters, the hills on the side of the road rise and fall, the height is more than ten zhang.

The soldiers hid in the forest one after another, it was during the day, the birds went out to feed, and there was no situation where the birds were alarmed by entering the forest at night, and in the small hill on the south side of the post road, the grass and trees were all over Liu Bei and Shen Chenjun.

Minutes and seconds passed.

After about half an hour, the road to the west was already full of dust.

Li Tong was indeed in a hurry to put out the fire, because after Sun Ce was assassinated, Sun Quan was busy with internal affairs and would not attack and disturb Xudu, so the Cao army in the south withdrew from Runan to the vicinity of Yingchuan to guard against Shen Chen in Kunyang.

As a result, he never expected that a Liu Bei suddenly appeared, and with Yuan Shao's order, he summoned the remnants of the Yuan clan in Runan and began to attack Xu Capital in the north.

This was obviously unexpected by Cao Jun, after all, at this time, the rear of Runan was extremely empty, and most of the defense forces of Xu Du were in the southwest, and the southeast was completely only full of more than 2,000 people. Therefore, Li Tong was afraid that after Liu Bei defeated Manzhong, he would go north to attack Xudu, so he hurried away.

At this time, the soldiers had already trotted for an hour and a half, walking for about forty miles, and the whole team was almost disjointed, the soldiers were thirsty and tired, and the officers were still whipping them, urging them to speed up.

"General, take a break."

One of Li Tong's lieutenant generals persuaded: "The soldiers have been galloping for an hour and a half, and they will soon arrive at Dingying, if they are not allowed to rest, I am afraid that when they reach Dingying, they will not have the strength to fight with the enemy." ”

Li Tong turned his head and looked behind him, the team walked sparsely, it was the intersection of summer and autumn, the afternoon was still very hot, the soldiers were so tired that they couldn't breathe, their sweat was dry, their faces were black, their lips were white, and it was indeed as the adjutant general said, they could not continue to march in such a hurry.

So he looked ahead, pointed to the mountains in the distance, and said, "There is a mountain ahead, and the river is opposite, so let's go and rest in the forest." ”

"The general has an order, go to the mountains ahead to rest."

"The general has an order, go to the mountains ahead to rest."

"The general has an order, go to the mountains ahead to rest."

The herald galloped his horses, running all the way to the rear and shouting, and the soldiers of Li Tongjun's army suddenly perked up, and the pace of sending them to death couldn't help but speed up a little, and they ran towards the mountains and forests at a high speed.

Truly.

Dozens of kilometers along the way, there is a plain with a smooth road, villages and farmland on both sides of the river, only that mountain forest can shade the blazing sun, and it is normal for Li Tong to choose here.

The most important thing is that he thinks that Liu Bei is still besieging Ding Ying, Shen Chen's news is that he sent people from Kunyang to the north to attack Yang Zhai the day before yesterday, where could he have expected that Shen Chenjun had trained a pair of iron feet, and he could run here to intercept him in just three days?

At that moment, Li Tongjun ran towards this mountain forest like a fly, and more people ran towards the river like joy. Along the way, the rear army ate the ashes of the front army, and their bodies were dirty, even if they couldn't take a bath, they could drink some water and scrub their lower arms.

At this time, in the mountains and forests, Liu Bei, Shen Chen and others were lurking in the forest, and they had already seen Li Tongjun running from a distance.

"Big brother, they're coming."

Zhang Fei tried his best to lower his voice, and said softly: "Kill." ”

"No."

Shen Chen shook his head and said: "In the past now, you can't wipe out all the enemies, and when they rest by the river, no one is vigilant, and then they can be wiped out." ”

Zhang Fei glared at Shen Chen: "You son, when I was fighting, you weren't born yet." ”

Shen Chen also glared back: "General Zhang, I heard that you often whip soldiers for no reason, if one day, you are under my command, I will let you also taste the taste of being whipped!" ”

"You!"

Zhang Fei was furious, and the Zhangba Snake Spear was held in his hand and looked at him.

Liu Bei looked at Zhang Fei, frowned and scolded: "Third brother, don't be rude, listen to Mr. Xiao's words." ”

"Hmph."

Zhang Fei had a violent personality, snorted coldly, and stopped talking.

Shen Chen didn't bother to deal with him, he didn't want to have a good relationship with everyone, Gan Ning's personality was also easy to kill, but he was murderous on the battlefield, and his personality was quite persuasive.

If Zhang Fei is not sympathetic to the low-level soldiers and still has to go further and further on the road of death, he doesn't mind letting Zhang Fei taste the whip.

As he spoke, Li Tong's large army had already reached the bottom of the mountain, and except for a few who went to rest in the forest, most of the soldiers rushed towards the river.

Seeing that the other party was about to enter the forest, Shen Chen saw that the time had come, picked up a bone whistle and put it in his mouth, and plucked up all his strength to blow it.

"Toot toot toot!"

Suddenly, there was a whistle in the entire mountain forest, which was the order to release arrows.

"Shoot the arrows!"

"Shoot the arrows!"

"Shoot the arrows!"

Countless figures suddenly appeared in the forest, bows and crossbows were fired in unison, and thousands of arrows fell like raindrops.

Li Tongjun was caught off guard and fell in a large area.

The mutation on this side suddenly frightened the soldiers by the river, some wanted to take up arms to fight, some instinctively wanted to escape, and some saw that the other side of the river was not far away, so they simply jumped into the river and swam to the other side.

In an instant, Li Tongjun's 5,000 men and horses were in a mess, and Li Tong himself was actually waiting on the post road for his guards to help him fetch water.

Seeing the sudden ambush, his face changed greatly, and he immediately shouted: "Assemble, assemble, form a formation!" ”

"Knock knock!"

The beating of drums and trumpets are intertwined.

There were the drums of Li Tongjun and Liu Beijun, and groups of soldiers rushed out of the forest and killed Cao's army.

If this is a group of elite people, they may be able to react quickly.

However, Li Tong's army itself was a second- and third-line soldier, and they were tired all the way, and they had just drunk a lot of river water, and their hands and feet were weak, and they could not take up arms to fight at all.

Therefore, almost as soon as the two sides came into contact, they were defeated.

The wilderness was full of fleeing Li Tong's army, and Li Tong himself was still a fast runner, not like Manzhong who stayed to fight to the death, and after seeing the collapse of the army and the general trend had gone, he immediately rode his horse and fled westward.

And the rest of Li Tongjun was miserable, he drank enough river water in a very tired situation, let alone run away, he couldn't even walk, and was almost completely killed by Liu Bei and Shen Chen's coalition army.

Maybe it can't be said that it was all wiped out, but the first few waves of crossbow shots killed and injured more than a thousand people, and the rest of the people almost all surrendered on their knees, not giving them a chance to be killed at all.

Liu Bei did not have Cao Cao's penchant for killing prisoners, so he ordered all the captives to be escorted to Dingying, most of these soldiers were from Runan, and there were still remnants of the Yuan clan in Runan, and he could use Yuan's influence to absorb these soldiers into his ranks.

On July 1, at dusk, Liu Bei and Shen Chen's 7,000 allied troops returned to Dingying with more than 3,000 prisoners of Li Tongjun.

By July 2, the entire Dingying City was a chaotic scene, Liu Bei's army itself did not lay a good foundation, the number of elites was not large, and three thousand soldiers were included, which naturally caused the entire establishment to be in chaos, looking like a group of rabble.

But there is no way, now the total number of troops is nearly 20,000, and Lao Liu has never been so rich in his life.

When he was in Xuzhou, he said that he was a pastor in Xuzhou, but there were only a few thousand people in the direct army. Later, when he became a pastor in Yuzhou, there were fewer soldiers and horses. The only time he commanded tens of thousands of people to fight, Mi Zhu contributed a large number of slaves, but he was defeated by Lu Bu in the first battle.

So now the number of troops is nearly 20,000, which is completely beyond his ability, so it took two or three days just to straighten out the soldiers and horses, and with the help of Shen Chen, he barely completed the incorporation.

It was only on the 5th of July that this miscellaneous, patchwork team began to set off in a majestic manner.

But their marching speed was not fast at all, and they could only walk almost fifty or sixty miles a day, that is, about twenty kilometers, and it took two days to get to Yuncheng alone.

You must know that Shen Chen's troops are elite soldiers who have undergone strict training, and their long-distance running ability is extremely excellent, and their daily walking speed can be maintained at four or five kilometers per hour, and the limit of a day can be seventy or eighty kilometers, which is faster than Sima Yi's attack on Meng Da.

And now the speed is three or four times slower, which shows that it is not a good thing to have more troops. Because this will make the troops too bloated, and the quality of the soldiers is not high, and the fighting spirit is relatively poor, and it is not as strong as a small group of elites.

However, Shen Chen also knew that a small group of elites was only suitable for surprise attacks. For example, Deng Ai attacked Yinping, and Li Yuxue entered Caizhou at night, but they only brought three to five thousand people. If you attack head-on, you still need a large force.

At this time, Xiahou Yuan and Li Dian finally knew that Shen Chen had played another tactic of attacking the east and the west, and he actually cooperated with Liu Bei to kill Li Tong and occupy Dingying in just one day.

Therefore, they hurriedly gathered their forces to defend the area of Linying and Fuqiang to protect the safety of the south of Xudu, and at the same time let Cai Yang join him to jointly defend Xudu.

Cai Yang was Cao Cao who led 3,000 elite soldiers from the Guandu front line and went south to Runan to prepare to attack Liu Bei.

In history, he was beheaded by Liu Bei, so Cao Cao sent Cao Ren over to defeat Liu Bei, and finally Liu Bei had to flee back to Yuan Shao, and then went to Nanyang in the name of Liu Biao of the Southern Alliance.

But now that the Caiyang people have not arrived, the full favor is gone, and Li Tong has also been defeated, and he will be sent to death if he goes to Runan again, so he was transferred to Liqiang and stationed with Li Dian.

On July 9, it took four days for Liu Bei's army to arrive at Zhaoling, which is located in the south of Liqiang, less than 200 miles away from Xudu, which is equivalent to Luohe City to Xuchang City in later generations, about 70 kilometers, and 175 miles into Hanli.

After the army arrived at Zhaoling, Shen Chen once again proposed to Liu Bei to divide the troops that night.

Zhaoling County Mansion Mansion.

Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Tai Shici, Jian Yong, Sun Qian, Mi Zhu, Mi Fang, Shiren, Liu Yan, Yuan Qi, Xiahou Su and other generals and strategists gathered together, and Chen was only a captain of the guards at this time, serving as a guard at the door.

Liu Bei sat on the main seat with the position of the left general of the Han Dynasty and Yuzhou Mu, while Guan Yu and others sat under Liu Bei's left hand, Shen Chen was not his subordinate, but belonged to friendly forces, so he sat under Liu Bei's right hand with Gan Ning, Shen Mi, Deng Zhao and other generals. Because the Han Dynasty respected the right, this was a kind of respect for the guests.

After everyone sat down, Shen Chen bowed his hand to Liu Bei and said: "Xuande Gong, Cao's army is gathered in the south of Xudu, the rear is empty at this time, I plan to lead the troops to the north, cross Yingshui from Yingyang, and then break Yingyin, kill Xudu, when the time comes, Xiahou Yuan and others will be chaotic, and the public can plow the court and sweep the holes, and go straight to Xudu!" ”

Liu Bei frowned and said: "If this is the case, then the Cao army will inevitably withdraw to Xudu to protect the city of Xuchang, isn't Mr. Xiao dangerous?" ”

Shen Chen said with a smile: "It's okay, as the so-called soldiers are fast, our soldiers practice day and night, but six hundred in three days, and one thousand two in six days." Zhaoling is a stone's throw away from Xudu, and our army can arrive in one day, although it will take some detours to Yingyang in the north, but it will be possible to reach the city of Xudu in two days at most, so Cao's army will definitely not react so quickly. ”

Sima Yi and Xiahou Yuan were already considered to be the top marching speeds in the Three Kingdoms, but one walked more than 40 kilometers a day on average, and the other walked 70 kilometers. Shen Chen was even faster than Xiahou Yuan, and he could walk eighty kilometers a day, although it was not as fast as the iron feet of our army in later generations, it was already a god speed at that time.

Of course.

This kind of speed can only be achieved in plains such as Henan and Hebei, such as Sichuan, Shu, Liaodong, Qinling and other mountainous areas.

Hearing Shen Chen's words, Liu Bei asked with concern, "Is it really feasible?" ”

Shen Chen replied: "Three months ago, we had already killed Xudu once, and that time within five days, we first feinted to attack Xudu, then broke Yexian, Kunyang, and Wuyang, and then went north to take Xudu, and then fought for 600 miles, and we had to walk more than 100 miles every day. ”

Although it is 600 miles, it is only about 200 kilometers. But in five days, they had to make feints, fights, and set up ambushes, and they walked an average of 40 kilometers a day, and the speed of the march was already very astonishing.

Everyone in the hall suddenly exclaimed, looked at each other, and felt incredible.

Liu Bei said solemnly: "I also heard about this matter, at that time, I only knew that Mr. Xiao hit outside the city of Xudu, and Cao Cao was forced to rush back to Xudu overnight to defend, but I didn't know that the process was so tortuous." ”

Shen Chen said: "I also know that the soldiers are very tired, but this is also a last resort, the enemy is stronger than us, if we don't want to find a way, how can we save the Han Dynasty?" ”

Liu Bei nodded and said, "Mr. Xiao's fist supports the heart of the Han family, which is admirable. Okay, I'll listen to Mr. Xiao's words, two days later, no matter whether Mr. Xiao arrives in Xudu or not, I will start to attack Qianqiang, and even if I can't hit Xudu, I will delay the enemy for Mr. ”

"Thank you, Xuandegong."

Shen Chen thanked him.

Although Liu Bei's troops were bloated, he also took great risks and had to face the main force of Cao's army.

The army itself is not an elite soldier, and Cao Jun will focus on him, and if he is not careful, he may be defeated by Cao Jun.

And Shen Chen was just a small force around the rear of the sneak attack, in the case of Xu Du is extremely empty, the probability of success is very high, so it can be said that compared to the battlefield behind the enemy, Liu Bei's pressure on the frontal battlefield will actually be greater.

So after setting a strategy that day, Shen Chen asked the soldiers to rest for a day, and on the 10th of July, Liu Bei's army set off north again, preparing to encircle Liqiang County, while Shen Chen broke away from his troops and headed west in the direction of Dingling.

"Brother Shen!"

"Hmm!"

Shen Changqing walked on the road, and when he met someone he knew well, he would say hello to each other or nod his head.

But it doesn't matter who it is.

There was no superfluous expression on everyone's face, as if they were very indifferent to everything.

on this.

Shen Changqing is used to it.

Because this is the Demon Suppression Division, it is an institution that maintains the stability of Great Qin, and its main responsibility is to kill demons and monsters, and of course there are some other side jobs.

Arguably.

In the Demon Suppression Division, everyone has a lot of blood on their hands.

When a person is accustomed to seeing life and death, then he will become indifferent to many things.

When he first came to this world, Shen Changqing was a little uncomfortable, but over time he got used to it.

The Demon Suppression Division is huge.

The people who can stay in the Demon Suppression Division are all powerful masters, or people who have the potential to become masters.

Shen Changqing belongs to the latter.

Among them, the Demon Suppression Division is divided into two professions, one is the town guard and the other is the demon exterminator.

Anyone who enters the Demon Suppression Division starts with the lowest level of demon slayer.

Then step by step, he is expected to become a town guard.

Shen Changqing's predecessor was a trainee demon slayer in the Demon Suppression Division, and he was also the lowest level of the demon slayer envoys.

Have memories of the predecessor.

He is also very familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Division.

It didn't take long for Shen Changqing to stop in front of an attic.

Unlike other places full of slaughter, the attic here seems to stand out from the crowd, and in the bloody Demon Suppression Division, it presents a different tranquility.

At this time, the attic door is open, and there are occasional people entering and exiting.

Shen Changqing only hesitated for a moment, and then stepped in.

Access to the attic.

The environment has changed in vain.

A burst of ink fragrance mixed with the faint smell of blood came to his face, making his brow furrow instinctively, but quickly stretched.

The smell of blood on everyone's body in the Demon Suppression Division is almost impossible to clean.