Weishi County, located about 100 kilometers northeast of Xuchang, is less than 60 kilometers away from Zhongmu County, where Guandu is located, and is the closest city to the front line of Guandu except Kaifeng.

The reason why Ren Jun had to go north from Wei's and not from Kaifeng or Chen Liu, was because Kaifeng Chen Liu, who was the right flank front line of Guandu.

Historically, these two counties were garrisoned by Zhang Xiu, and Zhang Xiu's Xiliang cavalry was used to contain a large number of Yuan Shao's cavalry.

Coupled with the protection of Xiahoudun on the left flank, a relatively safe grain route was isolated for the middle passage, and Ren Jun was able to barely transport grain and grass between Xudu and Guandu.

Otherwise, he would have been defeated by the overwhelming Yuan army, and he would have swallowed it alive and could not even have scum left.

Now because Zhang Xiu did not participate in the war, Cao Cao had to put Xiahoudun in the area of Kaifeng Chenliu to protect the safety of the right wing of Guandu, and the left wing let Yu Ban be on guard in Aocang and other places.

Fortunately, Cao Cao is not short of cavalry now.

In the battle of Yanjin itself, Wen Chou sent five or six thousand war horses, and later Zhong Xuan in Guanzhong gave him another two thousand horses, which supplemented Cao Cao with a large number of iron horses, which barely resisted the attack of the Yuan army on the grain road.

However, it was precisely because Zhang Xiu did not participate in the war and lacked any help, which made the Yuan army greatly damaged Weishi, Kaifeng and even Yanling and other places in the rear.

The people of these places moved south to Yingchuan or Chenguo, leaving the area deserted.

From the reproduction of Chinese civilization to the end of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese nation was far from conquering the earth.

The once fertile fields have now been replaced by lush weeds and endless forests, the rivers have no one to build embankments, no one has dug new canals, and the fields have been flooded by the overflowing water of the Weichuan River, turning into swamps and lakes.

Active in this reckless wilderness, except for the occasional official messenger who traveled back and forth between the front line of Guandu and the rear of Xudu, there were only packs of jackals and hungry tigers.

In the absence of food, those wolves and tigers even dared to rush to the official road to attack the passing people, and only dozens of scouts with knives could make them a little restrained.

Shen Chen led three thousand foot soldiers, and walked on the wilderness with great difficulty, and everywhere he could see wild grass basils as deep as half a human height, swaying in the wind like an ocean. You also have to walk through kilometers of pristine forests and fight tigers and wolves.

It is impossible for him to take a relatively good official road, there are too many scouts on the official road, Cao Cao has to communicate with Xu Du every day, and the Wei family is the middle station, so he can only choose to move forward in the wilderness.

There were too many unexpected twists and turns along the way, and even a few soldiers were lost, and finally on October 22, they arrived at the Weichuan Pavilion north of Yanling and south of Wei's family.

The location of this place is probably east of the town of Weichuan and west of Zhuqu Town, there are large undulating hills, lush forests, the village that was once in the south of the post road has become a ruined wall, and the barren fields have long been uncultivated, and have become a paradise for wild animals.

Wild deer, hares, wild roe deer, river muntjac, raccoon dogs, wild boars, pheasants, wild ducks, countless, jackals, tigers and leopards will shuttle at will, go into the forest and scare countless birds, if it were not for the rammed earth post road because there are often messenger scouts to and fro, it is quite tidy, I don't know that I think this is a barren southern mountain forest.

At the end of October, it was early winter, and the mountains were full of yellow-brown and yellow-brown leaves, and a thick layer of dead branches and fallen leaves were piled up in the forest. The scout, who was delivering a letter to Xudu, suddenly noticed a flock of birds flying in the distance, and was suspicious for a while, but when he looked again, a herd of deer passed by, so he relaxed and continued on his way.

Shen Chen led an army of 3,000 and ambushed in the forest about 100 meters away from the official road.

This jungle stretches for several kilometers as if as far as the eye can see, connecting the hills and mountains on the left side of the road, and autumn and winter are intermingled, and it is not rain or snow, if you set a fire, it will turn into a scorched earth within a radius of several kilometers.

"It's a great place to set fires."

Under the leadership of their respective squad leaders, the soldiers of the forest were scattered in various ambush points, while Shen Chen and Gan Ning Zhang Fei patrolled the terrain.

This time, it was Zhang Fei who volunteered, saying that he wanted to change his mind and would not act recklessly.

In fact, it was because this period of time was too boring, and there was no war every day, and he and Gan Ning were also idle, and now that they heard that there was going to be a war, they were naturally very enthusiastic.

Hearing Shen Chen's words, Gan Ning said, "Then why don't we just attack with fire?" ”

Shen Chen smiled: "Fire is uncontrollable, if it's just this one, maybe you can use fire." But the surrounding forests stretch for dozens of miles, and if we use fire, where will we flee to ourselves? ”

"Amount"

Gan Ning thought about it, although there are many swamp lakes around, but the swamp lakes are full of dense weeds, once the fire starts, people who get into it will be burned directly, which is too dangerous.

Shen Chen glanced around, he had already noticed that this place could be attacked with fire, but now it was autumn and winter in the north, if a fire broke out, it would soon spread out and it would be almost impossible to extinguish, the impact on the ecological environment would be small, and it would be a big deal if he burned himself by playing with fire and burning himself.

Although there are also cases where Liu Bei burned Bowangpo and Lu Xun burned Yiling, they were all special circumstances. The mountains and forests of Bowangpo are not as vast as those of the Wei family, and Liu Beijun set them on fire, and they retreated from the fire area, and they could even pursue them.

The Battle of Yiling is located in the south, the air in the south is humid in summer, not easy to produce mountain fires, and it is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the rainy season is frequent. Therefore, Lu Xun just burned Liu Bei's camp and did not cause a large-scale mountain fire.

The situation on Wei's side belongs to the mountains, forests, and grasslands, and it is autumn and winter, and the weather is dry, and the whole area is like a powder keg, and it is easy to stretch for dozens of miles.

So unless he planned to die with Cao Cao's reinforcements, he still couldn't attack with fire.

After all, if you send a few people to light a small fire, you will definitely not be able to burn people, and you must set fire to 3,000 people at the same time to cause a huge flame in a short time, in case the wind direction is not right, or the fire spreads faster than people can run, then they have to explain to these 3,000 people here.

"If we cut down all the trees around us and pile them on the road, and let the soldiers carry hay and set it on fire when the enemy passes by, wouldn't we be able to burn only Cao's army, but not us?"

Gan Ning suddenly had a flash of inspiration, although he is a military general, but he is also from a big family, he is full of poetry and books, he is not stupid, just artificially create a separation zone to prevent fire.

Zhang Fei noticed the sound of horses' hooves in the distance, touched his chin and said, "I'm afraid it's not easy, there are too many Cao Jun scouts coming and going on this road." ”

Shen Chen got Gan Ning's suggestion and fell into deep thought, and after a while, asked, "Uncle Xingba, do you know bird language?" ”

"Bird language?"

Gan Ning was happy at the time, pointing to the colorful brocade feathers on his head and said: "I have eight hundred brocade sails under my command, don't speak bird language, birds and beasts can do everything, when I was in Ba County, I took them around hunting, and bird language can even attract a hundred birds to a flock of hooves." ”

Shen Chen said: "If we cut down the trees behind the two sides of the road, and dig ditches to divert the water from the surrounding lakes and swamps to isolate the flames, only burn the road and both sides, and then let the soldiers carry hay to lie in the middle of the road, Cao Jun will burn it immediately, maybe we only need to burn the battlefield, and it will not hurt us." ”

"What about the scouts?"

Zhang Fei asked.

This post road is the only way for the Wei clan to Yanling, and there are countless messengers to and from Xudu and Guandu, and they are not fools.

Shen Chen said: "You can use the bird language to spread the sound, when the scout comes, we will stop, and as soon as the scout leaves, we will continue." ”

His idea is very simple, to lay an ambush on the road, with hills to the north and forests to the south, and the trees for hundreds of meters from the forest to the road should not be moved, and after a hundred meters, a separation belt of tens of meters will be cut.

As long as you don't enter the forest, it's hard to see anything unusual. And the amount of work is not very large, you just need to ensure that the flames do not catch up when your own people retreat.

So methodologically, it's one thing that's completely doable.

Do what you want to do at the moment, they set off on October 21, and Liu Bei was separated in Pingning Pavilion, this time it was October 22, although I don't know when Cao Cao's reinforcements will come, but he and Liu Bei agreed to attack Xu on October 23, so there should be plenty of time.

So Gan Ning let the Jinfan thieves who knew the language of birds scatter out, lying between the official roads, once they found the messengers of Cao Jun, they immediately whistled, imitating the language of birds, the mountains and forests and jungles were constantly singing birds, and they would only communicate in the bird language that their own people could understand.

Therefore, when the construction was cutting down trees, Cao Jun's scout messengers did not know that in the jungle 100 meters away from the post road, they were cutting down trees and digging canals.

Thanks to the efforts of 3,000 people, the project lasted less than a day. On October 23, they dug out a fence of several hundred meters, with canals on both sides, to keep the soldiers safe.

Standing on the road and looking into the jungle, although you will feel a slight difference compared to before, the isolation zone is in the forest, and if you don't look carefully, you won't be able to see any difference before.

Shen Chen started the fire attack plan with peace of mind.

On October 25, in the early morning, a sharp bird's cry pierced the void, causing the surrounding birds to cry.

On the official road, Ren Jun led the army to slowly walk south, Wei's road to Yanling more than 40 kilometers, they set off yesterday, walked more than 20 kilometers, rested overnight in Fan Pavilion, 12 miles away from Weichuan Pavilion, and set off again in the early morning.

After the morning meal, they arrived near the Weichuan Pavilion, less than ten kilometers away from Yanling County, and after about three pavilions, they arrived at Yanling.

The reason why the soldiers of the Cao army moved forward slowly, the reason why they did not march in a hurry was that they had to conserve their physical strength, and they had to keep in touch with Xu Du's side at all times to prevent Shen Chen's army from Xu Du from suddenly coming north to intercept him.

As a cautious person, Ren Jun did not send people to investigate everywhere.

There were so many forests along the way that he couldn't look them up. The most important thing is that there are a large number of messengers shuttling back and forth on this official road every day, and there is an average of one team every hour, and there are no reports of anything unusual at all.

So he's just rushing now.

After walking through the corner of the hills in front of him, Ren Jun suddenly heard a group of birds singing, and he didn't care about it.

At this moment, a large number of dry grass and dead trees suddenly appeared on the road ahead, Ren Jun suddenly became vigilant, for no reason, how could so many dry grass and dead trees suddenly appear on the road?

If you look closely, the hay and dead trees are burning, and there is a sudden whistle all around, as if thousands of troops are rushing out.

"Toot toot toot!"

In the small slope forest on the right side, there were many people in an instant, and someone shouted: "Release the arrow!" ”

"Enemy attack, raise shield!"

Ren Jun let out a roar almost instinctively.

"Woohoo Woo

Arrows rained down on them.

And while the Cao army was on guard against the rain of arrows on the right side, a large number of soldiers rushed out of the forest on the left, with hay in one hand and fire sickle in the other, and began to throw them on the road after ignition.

At the same time, they did not forget to set fire to the ground on both sides of the post road, which was full of dead leaves and dead grass, and one person lighting it may not have any effect, and it can be extinguished with one foot, but thousands of people lit the fire at the same time, and the fire jumped up at once.

Shen Chenjun threw the hay into the fire, and the smoke began to fill everywhere, mixed with billowing flames, the flames jumped three or four meters high, and the sound of creaking branches burning kept crisp.

"Evacuate, retreat!"

In fact, after discovering that Shen Chenjun had appeared in the forest on the left, Ren Jun knew what was going on, and hurriedly wanted to order the soldiers to evacuate in the rain of arrows.

As a result, I never expected that the army had just turned around and was about to flee, and there were flames in the rear.

To the west of the post road is the small hill, which is not high, and the highest point is only twenty or thirty zhang, and the mountains are densely forested, and there is a fire below.

To the east of the post road was the forest where Shen Chenjun was ambushed, and the flames were not only burning both sides of the post road, but also spreading towards this forest, and soon the surrounding area became a sea of fire, and the monstrous heat wave seemed to swallow everything around.

"Shen Chen!"

Seeing this scene, Ren Jun immediately knew whose conspiracy it was, his face was black with smoke, and he roared on the horse: "The forests here spread for dozens of miles, don't even think about running!" ”

"General Bulao is worried."

The two sides were only more than a hundred meters apart, and the sound could be faintly heard, Shen Chen instructed the soldiers to quickly retreat to the back of the isolation zone, and shouted back: "If I can get away with it, I will come here to erect a gravestone for the general." ”

After that, the voice is getting farther and farther away.

In fact, the barrier is at best to make the fire spread more slowly, and it is difficult to completely block the fire, so the surrounding forest of several square kilometers is destined to turn to ashes.

Shen Chenjun in the forest is also running for his life, the fire in the rear has burned near the isolation zone, and it is temporarily blocked by the isolation zone and the canal, but countless hot ones in the forest will fly away, these are impossible to block the isolation zone, so it is only a matter of time before the forest in the rear will still catch fire.

Now the soldiers of Shen Chen's army are divided into two branches, north and south, and the soldiers on the hill first drag Ren Junjun with bows and arrows, and there are soldiers in the rear of Ren Junjun's army who take advantage of their passing and then cut off their retreat with dry grass and dry firewood.

At this moment, the flames on the left and right sides of the entire post road were burning, stretching for several miles, and the soldiers of the Cao army were in a panic and wanted to rush out of the sea of fire, and what finally made them desperate was that Shen Chen was digging the isolation zone at a hundred meters of the forest, that is to say, it was almost impossible for them to break out of the sea of fire of a hundred meters.

In the jungle, thousands of soldiers fled eastward like desperate deaths, and in addition to them, there were countless wild animals with them, and in the face of natural and man-made disasters such as fire, all creatures were equal, but at least there was a barrier to serve as a buffer.

So half an hour later, Shen Chenjun escaped from this forest, and most of the animals also escaped, rushing into a wilderness plain, and then scattered towards the far forest in the north, east, and south directions.

Shen Chenjun's soldiers are now tired and paralyzed on the ground, a rapid march and a desperate escape are completely different things, it can be said that they have run at least four or five kilometers in the past half an hour, almost at the speed of a 100-meter sprint, and those who run slowly behind them are crawling out of the forest, for fear that they will become mature people if they take a slow step.

Looking back at the forest again, the near place has not yet burned, and a few kilometers away is already in flames, and the mountains that were ambushed before have now become a volcano, I just don't know if the men and horses led by Zhang Fei Ganning have escaped.

There was no forest behind that mountain, and the fire probably burned down the mountain that stretched for several kilometers, plus the forest here, because after this forest, there was a tributary of the Weichuan River.

There are also a large number of lakes around, and the ecological damage caused is only seven or eight kilometers around. The damage caused is much smaller than that of Guandu, Chibi, and Yiling.

Shen Chen gasped heavily, sweat on his head was like rain, and after resting for more than ten minutes, he saw that the flames were already spreading in this direction, so he waved his hand and shouted: "Order to assemble and evacuate south." ”

"Toot toot!"

When the assembly whistle sounded, many soldiers counted the number of people, and there was no loss of everyone, so they lined up and headed south.

The south of the Weichuan Pavilion is the South Xi Pavilion, and then it is the Anling Pavilion in the past, and then it is under the Yanling City.

Shen Chen and Zhang Fei Ganning agreed to go to Nanxi Pavilion to meet after arson, and at this moment, the fire behind them was full of fire, and the fire dragon swept, and even because there were more dead leaves in the forest, there was an explosion effect, and the roaring explosion sounded.

They left the Weichuan Pavilion and went all the way south, and finally arrived at the Nanxi Pavilion, they were still worried about Zhang Fei Ganning and them, but they didn't expect them to be faster than themselves.

At this time, they had already occupied the pavilion and the surrounding dilapidated villages to rest, and they were all too tired to work.

"Ah Chen."

Seeing Shen Chen come back, Gan Ning went up and said, "How?" ”

Shen Chen said: "The fire is burning, Ren Jun is afraid that there are no ashes left, let's take a rest and take Yanling south first." ”

"Okay."

Gan Ning should come down and was about to give the order.

Suddenly, the sound of horses' hooves sounded, Zhang Fei galloped over with several horses, and the knights around him basically led two or three war horses, and they also held a Cao Jun in their hands, and laughed: "Hahaha, little sir, Xingba, look what I caught." ”

threw that Cao Jun to the ground, and his nose and face were swollen.

"Where did this Cao Jun come from?"

Gan Ning was surprised.

Zhang Fei said: "I heard the sound of horses' hooves just now, so I chased after it, it was a team of messengers, and when they saw the flames and wanted to run, they were killed by me and brought a prisoner back. ”

Shen Chen stepped on this person, put a knife on his neck and said, "You are going to send a message to Guandu?" ”

The soldiers of the Cao army begged for mercy: "Spare your life, we are the messengers who sent a message to General Ren, Xu Du was surrounded, Xun Lingjun asked him to be stationed in Yanling Ce Promise Capital." ”

Shen Chen grinned and said, "You can go back and tell Xun Yu that Ren Jun has been wiped out, and Xu Du is already isolated, let him stop struggling and go out of the city and surrender as soon as possible." ”

Say a kick and kick that Cao Jun away.

Someone nearby gave him back the messenger horses that had been captured, and the messenger climbed on his horse in a panic and headed south.

(End of chapter)