The fierce north wind blows through the mountains and forests, and the trees are rattling.

On the hills in the distance, Liu Bei led an army of 50,000, plus more than 10,000 people who had retreated from the front line, and about 60,000 people confronted Cao's army.

Cao Cao's troops were around 100,000.

Qishan Road is a relatively spacious road, with a large number of valleys, flatlands, and hills along the way, which is almost the area of Qinling Town, Qinzhou District, Tianshui City, Gansu Province in later generations.

Along both sides of the road, dense camps were built, various fortifications were constantly erected, and I don't know how many trees were cut down.

After the afternoon, close to the end of the day, Liu Bei waved his flag at the top of Qishan Mountain in the distance and gave the order to attack.

From a small hill in the southeast of Lucheng, a mark of people and horses, the banner on it is written with the word "Kou", the person headed by is in his thirties, burly, quite brave, it is the deputy army Zhonglang Kou Feng.

When Liu Bei was stationed in Changsha County in his early years, he once had the idea of accepting Kou Feng as his son, but it happened that Mrs. Gan was pregnant with Adou, so she broke off this idea.

But although he did not accept him as a son, because Kou Feng was brave and good at fighting, Liu Bei loved him very much, treated him like a son, and often called him a fake son.

At this moment, Kou Feng received the order and came to Zhang He's array with a group of people to shout and provoke.

Although Cao's army was much larger than Liu Bei's army, with a total strength of 170,000 to 120,000, and the battlefield of Lucheng was more than 100,000 to 60,000, because it had just arrived in Lucheng and had not yet set up a formation, it was inconvenient to take the initiative to attack.

It's just that Kou Feng called for battle in front of the camp, if he didn't go out to fight and beat him back, I was afraid that the soldiers would be unstable, and they felt that Cao Cao was afraid of Liu Bei and didn't dare to fight.

So Zhang He on the side immediately said: "King Wei, the last general is willing to fight!" ”

"Hmph."

Cao Cao said coldly: "Selling your shoes will only make the fake son refuse his father." If I go to war, won't Liu Bei laugh at me for bullying children with generals? Where is Huang Xu'er? ”

"Father."

Cao Zhang, who was also in his thirties, stood up and said, "The child is willing to kill that Liu Bei's fake son and send his head to his father." ”

"Yes, that's my good boy."

Cao Cao stroked his beard and laughed: "You can just break it and test Liu Bei's details." Remember, if Na Kou Feng is defeated and flees, he must not chase after him, lest he lure the enemy deeper. ”

No matter how stupid Cao Zhang was, he knew what the result would be if he chased someone into someone's army of tens of thousands with a standard of people, so he hurriedly said: "Only, don't worry, father." ”

At that moment, he held a spear and went down the mountain majestically.

Soon, Cao Zhang also led a group of men and horses out of the Cao military camp in the northeast, and came to Kou Feng, who was shouting and scolding in the open space in front of Lucheng.

The two sides were originally two or three miles apart, and in just ten minutes, Cao Zhang led the men and horses to the front.

"Thief, take your life!"

Huang Xu'er roared angrily, and then Pegasus headed towards Kou Feng.

"How daring!"

Kou Feng shouted, and also raised his gun and stabbed directly.

Both sides were on horseback, so they were much faster than the infantry behind, and they were already engaged before the men and horses on both sides could hedge.

Cao Cao and Liu Bei were both watching this battle from the top of the mountain, and they saw that the two sides were coming and going, and they fought for more than ten times in an instant.

Cao Zhang seems to have a vague upper hand, but Kou Feng is not weak, and from time to time he finds opportunities to fight back, constantly fighting back and forth.

Immediately after that, the people and horses in the rear rushed over, and the people and horses on both sides were three or four thousand, standing on the top of the mountain and looking at it, it felt like two small black dots crowded together, chaotic.

"King Wei."

"Huh?"

Hearing the call of Zhang He beside him, Cao Cao answered.

Zhang He said quite puzzledly: "Liu Beijun at the bottom of this mountain doesn't seem to be an elite. ”

"Huh."

Cao Cao smiled and said: "The elite of Liu Bei's army are all in the hands of Guan Yu and Shen Chen, and the men and horses mobilized are just the county soldiers of Jingzhou, and the southern soldiers are already weak, not as good as the northern soldiers, and they are not elite, how can they be outnumbered opponents?" ”

"I see."

Only then did Zhang He understand the reason.

Cao Cao said arrogantly: "This battle widow not only wants him to lose Jingzhou, but also wants him to lose Hanzhong." When the widow takes Hanzhong and Nanyang, it will be the day of Liu Bei's destruction. At that time, just Sun Quan and his ilk, why worry about it? In this world, there will be no one after all! ”

"King Shengming of Wei!"

The surrounding entourage, generals, and strategists surrendered one after another.

Cao Cao laughed triumphantly.

And the victory and defeat in the distance are divided.

It's not that Kou Feng can't beat Cao Zhang, but the soldiers fall into disadvantage.

Liu Beijun's real main army was divided into two parts, one was the elite infantry he recruited in Nanyang and Changsha and Wu Yi's Dongzhou soldiers.

These people were combined into one, and after screening, there were 50,000 first-line elite soldiers left, currently under Guan Yu's control, and now facing off against the 60,000 elite soldiers brought by Cao Cao from the Kanto region in the Bao Chuan Road.

The other part is the 50,000 horses selected by Shen Chen from the 200,000 Jingzhou troops left behind in the Liu Biao period, plus Zhang Xiu's Xiliang army and Shen Tao's Huangmen soldiers, a total of 60,000 people, currently stationed in Nanyang, controlled by Shen Chen, and engaged Cao Hong.

There are also 20,000 Changsha soldiers inherited from Liu Pan by Huang Zhong, 10,000 Xiliang cavalry from Zhang Fei, 10,000 Wuxi barbarians from Shamoke, and Jiangxia sailors from Huang Jie.

But the 20,000 soldiers and cavalry were small, and Shamoke followed Shen Chen in Nanyang, while the Jiangxia Naval Division belonged to the first-line elite naval army, which was placed on land, and its combat effectiveness was no different from that of the second-line county soldiers.

Therefore, now more than sixty percent of the 70,000 troops brought by Liu Bei are not first-line elites, but second-line county soldiers and Qiang people recruited by Ma Chao, and most of them are in number.

The only people who can really fight in it may be the cavalry of Zhang Feibu and Ma Chao's department and Li Hei's more than 10,000 troops who have been trained for many years.

Although Cao Cao also had some miscellaneous soldiers, his main elite brought 100,000 people over.

Therefore, even if the remaining 70,000 people are not strong soldiers, the 100,000 soldiers who follow Cao Jun are enough to win the battle and crush Liu Bei's troops.

At this moment, Cao Cao watched the battle under the mountain and gradually gained an advantage, his face was proud, and he was scolding and scolding, saying things like big-eared thieves and selling shoes.

In his later years, his temper became more and more eccentric.

In history, he scolded Liu Bei every day after the Battle of Hanzhong, and also purged many of Liu Xie's Hanchen.

For example, after the Jiping rebellion, when asked if the Hanchen had put out the fire, the firefighters stood on the left, and those who did not put out the fires went to the right, and the ministers stood on the left one after another, but Cao Cao said that they were rebels and all of them were killed.

It can be seen that at that time, he felt that his time was running out, and he became more and more brutal.

Here he stood on the top of the mountain and cursed.

Liu Bei, who was over there, saw that the situation was not good, and immediately withdrew his troops.

Kou Feng then found the opportunity to swing away from Cao Zhang's offensive, turned his horse and left.

After Liu Bei's soldiers around him received the order, they also threw away their armor and fled to the rear.

Cao Zhang's eyes were red, and after the victory, he forgot Cao Cao's instructions for a while, chased a few hundred meters more before he remembered, and hurriedly reined in his horse.

At this time, Cao Cao also ordered the collection of troops.

But unexpectedly, the east gate of Lucheng City opened, and Wu Lan, the defender of the city, led the army out and launched a surprise attack on Cao Zhang's right flank.

Cao Jun was caught off guard, was caught off guard, and returned defeated.

Because the large army of Cao's army was still building a camp in the rear, only Zhang He's department, Xiahou Yuan's department and Cao Zhen's department were in the front position, and the defense was more than enough, and it was not rational to take the initiative to attack, so Cao Cao did not dare to order the whole army to attack, so he could only let Xiahou Yuan save it.

When Xiahou Yuan roared and rushed over with the soldiers, the sound of Mingjin also sounded in Lucheng, and Wu Lan withdrew to Luchengli, leaving more than 1,000 corpses of the enemy and the enemy on the battlefield where Cao Zhangkou Feng fought before.

"Hmph."

Seeing this scene, Cao Cao snorted coldly and said, "Go back to the camp." ”

"Back to camp!"

Xu Chu said with a loud shout.

King Luan of Wei drove down the hill and went to the back camp.

At this time, it was getting late, and both sides collected their troops and went back, and there was a draw, and no one took advantage.

After Liu Beijun withdrew his troops, he returned to Lucheng and returned to Yingzhai.

The Cao army also retreated to the rear one after another, and the soldiers continued to be on guard in the front, and the direction of the main camp of the Cao army, which was four or five miles away from Lucheng, was in full swing to build a camp.

A moment later, Liu Beijun's side dispatched hundreds of scout cavalry to bring back the corpses of the soldiers who had died in battle.

It was the same on the Cao army's side, where hundreds of scout cavalry came out.

In the past, unless everyone fought a war, unless it was a victory, if it was the kind of battle in which the troops had to be withdrawn even if they were won, it was often that no one collected the corpses on both sides, and the corpses were exposed in the wilderness.

Especially in that kind of large-scale battle, when tens of thousands of people were killed and wounded in the first battle, the result was rotting corpses all over the place, causing plague to run rampant.

For example, in the second year after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, "in the spring of the second year of Zhongping, the great epidemic".

After Dong Zhuo's rebellion, "in the summer of the fourth year of early peace, there was a great epidemic. ”

Then there was the war of the princes of the Central Plains, the people were struggling to survive, and the corpses of the dead and wounded soldiers in various places were not collected, resulting in the continuous plague.

This point is written in the preface of Zhang Zhongjing's "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases", including Dong Zhuo's migration of the population to Guanzhong, causing the great plague in Guanzhong. Cao Cao slaughtered Xuzhou, causing the Great Plague of Xuzhou and Huainan and so on.

Therefore, from the beginning of the great plague in the world the year before last, Shen Chen told Zhang Zhongjing that the source of the plague was caused by the fact that after the death of a person, the corpse was uncollected, and gradually decomposed to the point of giving birth to epidemic qi.

So at that time, doctors from the south to the north propagated every day, telling the people and scholars in the north that they must remember to collect the corpses to prevent the epidemic.

It was from that time that both the enemy and the enemy had the habit of collecting corpses.

Liu Beijun and Cao Jun's soldiers who were responsible for collecting the corpses did not fight after they met, basically holding shields and bows and crossbows on their backs, maintaining a vigilant posture and starting to collect the corpses.

Because of the first-come, first-served relationship, Liu Beijun arrived first, so he seriously collected the corpse, and Cao Jun watched from a mile away.

They came to collect the corpses of their comrades, and they fought again and continued to throw down the corpses, and then they continued to collect the corpses, and they continued to rise, and it was pointless for the cycle to go on and on.

Therefore, when scouts collect corpses, they often stagger the time to avoid further fighting, which can be regarded as a new unwritten rule in the past two years.

After Liu Beijun collected the corpses and left, Cao Jun came up and took the corpses of their comrades away.

The two sides seem to have formed a more tacit unspoken rule.

Soon.

Even the scattered swords on the battlefield were gone, and only bright red blood stains were left in their place, telling others that there had been a skirmish here.

The sky is getting darker and darker, the sun is slowly setting, and the sky and the earth are getting darker.

The north wind howled, blowing the hills and trees.

Cao's military camp has only just been built, and the fortifications have not yet been excavated, so it will take at least half a month to complete all the fortifications.

Therefore, at this time, the Cao army was still quite vigilant, and a large number of fortifications were temporarily built closer to the battlefield on the periphery, and many Cao troops were also patrolling the camp back and forth to prevent people from attacking at night.

Liu Bei held a military meeting to discuss.

About eight miles away from the front line of Lucheng, in the camp tent of the main general of Liu Bei's army in the rear, Liu Bei sat on the main seat, and below were Fa Zheng, Jia Xu, Deng Zhi, Yang Yi, Ma Liang, Zheng Du, Jiang Wan and others.

The candles in the camp were shining, Liu Bei was wearing a black and red royal robe, wearing a crown on his head, he looked around and said: "The widow wants to attack the Cao army at night, what do you think?" ”

He's now calling himself a widow.

Cao Cao was the first to call himself lonely, because only the county marquis and above can be called lonely, so after Cao Cao welcomed the Han Dynasty and offered Emperor Liu Xie was named the Marquis of Wuping, he began to call himself like this.

After that, Sun Quan, because Cao Cao wanted to win him over, let him inherit the title of his brother Marquis Wu, and also began to call himself Lone.

Liu Bei is a little miserable, he has always been a Yidu Pavilion Marquis, and he can't be called a lonely widow, so he calls himself me.

But now that he is the king of Hanzhong, he has come to the front of Sun Quan and is tied with Cao Cao, which is equivalent to skipping the stage of claiming to be a lonely county marquis and a prince of the country, and he has begun to call himself a widow.

"The King."

Fa Zheng got up and arched his hand and said: "Cao Jun is still building camps and fortifications at this time, and before the fortifications are rested, it must be the most vigilant time, and I am afraid that we cannot send troops." ”

"Ugh."

Liu Bei sighed: "The widow is not ignorant of soldiers, so he naturally knows." But the widows are afraid that the more it drags on, the more unfavorable it will be to our army. ”

"It is already very difficult to transport grain and grass from Hanzhong, but the grain and grass in Hanzhong also have to be transported from Chengdu and Jiangzhou, along the way more than 1,000 miles are lofty mountains and high mountains, the road is difficult to travel, just from Chengdu Jiangzhou to Hanzhong to transport grain to Hanzhong for one or two months, and then from Hanzhong to transport it is even more lengthy, once it meets the summer and autumn rainy season, there is no grain of grain and rice for several months."

"Although we have hoarded a large amount of grain and grass in Hanzhong, it is not easy to store grain and grass, and at most we will have to run out of grain for a year, so we cannot cut off grain and grass. On the other hand, Cao Cao is now in Guanzhong Tuntian, and grain and grass can be supplied on the spot, far less troubled than us. ”

"If there is a confrontation for a year, I am afraid that the widows will have to retreat and return to Wudu."

In the end, Liu Bei shook his head.

Of course, such a large-scale battle cannot be fought in a day or two.

Especially this kind of mountain terrain can be described as a one-man pass.

The front section of Qishan Road near Tianshui is relatively open, so it can accommodate more than 100,000 troops.

But in the second half, the road close to Wudu is extremely narrow.

Among them, there are several branch trails such as Tietangxia Road, Mumen Road, Yangxi Road, Hanxia Road, Longmen Trail, Luogu Trail, etc.

The road is rugged and difficult to navigate, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is not an exaggeration to call it a sheep intestine bird road.

Therefore, Liu Bei only needs to guard the entrance of Qishan Road, Rongqiu Mountain Range and Qishan Mountain Range, so that Cao Jun can not advance an inch.

I'm afraid this battle will go on for a long time.

There are so many trails in the rear, which seems to be easy to defend, but it also increases the difficulty of transporting grain.

It is common for the grain transporters to climb the mountain and descend the mountain every day, and then climb the mountain, and travel ten miles a day.

The front-line grain and grass are consumed so much, and when the grain storage is exhausted, I am afraid that the grain and grass in the rear will not arrive in time, so Liu Bei has to give up the dangerous road of Qishan Road.

Fa Zheng said with a smile: "Don't worry, the king has a plan, but Cao Jun can't hold it for a long time." ”

"Oh?"

Liu Bei hurriedly said: "Filial piety speaks quickly." ”

Fa Zheng's profound gaze looked to the southeast, and said softly: "Don't you forget Sun Quan and General Zuo? ”