Xiahou Shang led the soldiers and horses straight to Nanzhai, along the way there were torches lined up, drums and trumpets moved, but when they got closer, they found that there was no movement in the Han army village, and the lights were not raised, as if there was no one in the whole camp.

Xiahou Shang looked at the Han camp, constantly calculating in his heart, and the deputy general Yu An saw Xiahou Shang hesitating and admonished: "General, if we don't hide it, the thief army will definitely know and be alert."

If there is no movement now, I am afraid that there is a calculation, we do not know the truth and reality, we must not take risks, and besides, the thieves are far superior to us, so it is not a good strategy to attack with such a swagger! ”

Xiahou Shang said: "What you said is reasonable, it should be like this on weekdays, but now I am here to scare the grass and snakes, Ganning's Chinese army has been hanging the flag for almost a month, but I don't see where Ganning is located?"

Tonight, I'm going to see if Gan Ning is there, and see if I take the flag! Signal, light the torch, beat the marching drum! ”

The Cao army was ordered to march forward all the way, and the Han army was in full array, with bows and arrows fired in unison, and the Cao army's vanguard attack was blocked. Left and right hurriedly persuaded: "The thief army is prepared, it is better to retreat, so as not to consume troops!" ”

Xiahou still ignored it and said, "Drumming and marching!" ”

Cao's army continued to shout and attack, approaching the Han camp to smash the horses, fill in the trenches, and kill the village and set up a ladder to climb the village.

The Han army's bows and crossbows on the camp retreated, and they used long knives and halberds to assassinate and block Cao's army.

Xiahou Shang asked left and right: "Have the scouts ever come to report that the thief army has left the camp or has there been any abnormal movement?" ”

Left and right replied: "The scouts have not found it!" ”

Xiahou Shang waved his hand and said, "Continue to attack the village!" "Xiahou Shang attacked the city for half an hour, and Cao's army couldn't succeed, so Xiahou Shang ordered Mingjin to withdraw his troops.

The Cao army quickly retreated, the formation was chaotic, and Xiahou Shang kept an eye on the Han army, and then led his troops to retreat with great fanfare, secretly ordering scouts to closely monitor the Han camp.

Xiahou Shang led the troops to rush to the direction of Xizhai to support, and on the way, Zhang He's personal guards hurriedly came to report: "General Zhang He is in ambush, the situation is critical, I hope the general will go to respond." ”

Xiahou Shang listened to it, and muttered for a while, and the left and right Cao generals were very anxious, and hurriedly asked for help.

Xiahou Shang shouted: "The thief general sees through our army, which shows its ability, our army rushed to support, not to mention the rush back and forth, it will definitely fall into the calculation of the thief army, and act calmly for the generals. ”

After saying that, he divided two thousand soldiers and horses, and ordered the deputy general Yu An to lead them, each holding two torches, to disperse and stand still, and march westward.

All the cavalry of the concentration department is 600 horses, led by Zhou Jun, and all the cavalry are not allowed to ride, quietly following behind Yu An, if there is an ambush on the way, you can cooperate to get out of trouble, if there is no ambush, go straight to support Zhang He.

After Xiahou Shang made the arrangements, he looked at the crowd: "Generals, there is no need to worry about Yu An and Zhou Jun helping Xizhai, now we will immediately turn back and attack the thief army Nanzhai." In the past, I did not hide my body and sneak attack, but marched with great fanfare, regardless of attacking the camp.

In fact, I have long suspected that Nanzhai is a suspicious soldier, but pretending to be a temptation, at first glance, the thief army is well-prepared and can deal with it freely, but in fact, it confirms my idea! Think about the movement of the thieves. If the thief army really has 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers and horses, why don't they take advantage of the situation to counterattack when they see our army retreating, but blindly stick to it! ”

Left and right hesitated: "It may be that the thief army is afraid of ambush and does not pursue!" ”

Xiahou Shang shook his head and said: "I lit the torch to let the Han army see the strength and location of our troops clearly, and it can be considered prudent for the retreat of the army and the thief army not to pursue, for fear that our army will lure the enemy's soldiers and horses."

More than 1,000 soldiers and horses retreated from the siege, the sharp spirit rubbed slightly, the formation was scattered, and it was a good opportunity to rush back to the main formation, and the physical strength of our army in the siege had already been consumed.

The Han camp is open on all sides, there is nowhere to ambush, take advantage of the situation to counterattack, kill out of the camp to drive the defeated army to counterattack our army, it is the method of using soldiers, there are capable generals in the thief army who can see through Zhang He's attack on the camp, why can't he seize such an obvious opportunity.

If the thief army is unmoved, there must be no soldiers to send! There is another point, General Zhang He of Xizhai was defeated and asked for help, thinking that the thief army should also be able to know the situation, and the thief army was prepared to set up an ambush in the village in advance.

I marched to the west and made an action to rush to support, why don't I see that there are soldiers and horses in the main village, at least make a false army, and entangle our soldiers and horses! Therefore, the Nanzhai thief army must be a suspicious soldier! The people will be right.

Xiahou Shang transferred 2,000 soldiers and horses from the city, combined 10,000 troops, extinguished the torches, turned around and quickly dispatched, went and returned, and went straight to the Han army Nanzhai. Xiahou Shang divided the army into three sides to attack.

Cao Jun lowered his voice as much as he could, approaching the Han camp. In front of the Han camp, the Han army took advantage of the retreat of the Cao army to move out of the camp and set up the camp at the gate of the camp.

The Cao army was hindered and jumped up, smashed the rejection horse, and went straight to the Han camp, and the Cao army attacked with all his strength, taking advantage of the situation to set fire to the village.

In the past, Xiahou Shang came with great fanfare, and the Han army saw that it was naturally prepared. Now that the Cao army was defeated and relaxed, the Cao army suddenly turned back, and the Han army was really caught off guard.

Although there were soldiers and horses on guard, the Cao army changed one side to attack on three sides, but the intensity was far from comparable to before, and the Han army was scattered and the pressure suddenly increased.

The general of the Cao army was ordered to lead the troops to attack first, to boost morale, the Cao army struggled to attack, threw fire oil at the Han camp, the fire in the camp was bright, the Cao army broke the gap in the camp, and the two armies were short of each other, and there was chaos.

Xiahou Shang saw that Cao's army was killed in the camp and the sneak attack was successful, so he ordered the torches to be rekindled, and there was a shout to make a big noise.

The momentum of the Han army was frustrated and gradually weakened. To make matters worse, the Cao army introduced fire into the village, and the Han army actually rioted, and many people fled in panic, causing the Han army's defenses to collapse.

Xiahou Shang took advantage of the situation to enter the village in one go, killing thousands of soldiers and horses and capturing nearly 3,000 people. The Han army fell into chaos to Xiahou Shang's surprise, the Han army was an elite at all, how vulnerable it was.

Xiahou Shang entered the Han camp and looked at the layout of the camp, there were many straw men on the ground, and Xiahou Shang immediately understood.

There are several straw men in front of each house in the Han camp, the straw people are wearing Han army armor, wearing green cloth and mantle clothes, and there are many flags planted near the straw men, making it look like a real person from a distance.

Xiahou Shang fiercely provoked a straw man: "The thief army is cunning, and he actually used a straw man to pretend to be a soldier and a horse to deceive me, hateful!" ”

Cao Jun escorted two captains of the Han army to report: "General, we interrogated the prisoners a little and learned that there were only 2,000 soldiers and horses in the battalion, and the remaining 3,000 soldiers and horses were people requisitioned by the thief army, wearing armor and pretending to be soldiers to transport food.

It was these people who caused chaos in the thief army just now, and the general of the thief army is dead, and these two people are the highest ranking of thieves! ”

Xiahou Shang scolded: "The thief army was clever but didn't expect to be defeated in the hands of the people in the end!" ”

Xiahou Shang pointed a gun at the captain of the Han army and said, "Say, how many soldiers and horses do you have, and where are the rest of the soldiers and horses?" ”

The captain of the Han army said with a smile: "My prince and marquis have already led the main force to the north, smashed Luoyang, swept away your gang of Han thieves, Zhongxing Han, there are more than 100,000 soldiers and horses here, and you can destroy this ......!" ”

Xiahou didn't wait for the Han army captain to finish speaking, and stabbed him to death with two shots. Cao Jun presented the captured Gan Ning flag, and Xiahou Shang tore the flag with a big Gan character and said: "It's a pity that I didn't make up my mind to take a risk, otherwise how could the thief army besiege the city and coax it for so long!" ”

After that, he ordered the Nanzhai garrison to behead all the generals and colonels above the captain, cut off the heads and take them to Xizhai.

When Xiahou Shang arrived, Yu An and Zhou Jun arrived not long ago, and they were responding to Zhang He's retreat. Zhou Jun led his troops and horses to attack the Han army.

Yu An rushed to tell Xiahou Shang that he had indeed encountered an ambush and blockade by the Han army when he was supporting Zhang He, but no matter how prepared he was, the Han army did not have many soldiers and horses, Zhou Jun led his troops to kill, and the Han army retreated and followed.

Xiahou Shang immediately threw troops and horses to force the Han army to retreat, and hung out the head of the Han army general, Ling Bao and Zhao Rong guessed a rough idea in their hearts, gave up the entanglement, and retreated to the village in an orderly manner.

After dawn, Xiahou Shang, Zhang He and others met to count the losses, Zhang He's soldiers and horses lost nearly 3,000 soldiers and horses, and hundreds of horses were injured and could not ride.

Zhang He was annoyed, and Xiahou Shang comforted him with kind words, after all, it was Zhang He who dragged the main force of the Han army to break through Nanzhai by himself.

Bao Ying, who attacked Beizhai, led the cavalry to rush back, telling that he led the troops to attack Beizhai, and Beizhai did not have many soldiers and horses, nor was it ambushed, and the Han army set fire to the village after the soldiers and horses entered the camp, and the horses were frightened.

When he withdrew from the Han camp, he realized that there was ice around him, and many horses were injured and thousands of horses were injured, and few knights were injured, but the absence of horses was equivalent to the absence of cavalry.

Xiahou Shang ordered Bao Ying, Yu An, and Zhou Jun to lead troops to attack Dongzhai, and the Dongzhai defenders had 2,000 soldiers and horses.

Xiahou Shang slowed down his attack on Dongzhai because of the importance of supporting Zhang He, and the Han general led 2,000 soldiers and horses in the camp to retreat to Jianyang.

Xiahou Shang joined Zhang He's soldiers and horses slightly better than the Han army, but Ling Bao and Zhao Rong guarded the Xizhai and relied on the camp to hold on, Xiahou Shang was helpless for a while.

Zhang He was ordered to defeat the Han army to relieve the siege of Nanyang, and then went north to meet Xu Huang to attack Guan Yu's back road, after a battle, Nanyang can be called to relieve the siege, but the cavalry lost nearly forty percent, unexpectedly, Zhang He was annoyed.

Xiahou Shang was besieged for a month, the Han army tried its best to cut off the connection between Luoyang and Nanyang, Xiahou did not know that Guan Yu's army was going north, and now he knows the details and understands Cao Pi's deployment.

Xiahou Shang immediately sent people to requisition the soldiers and horses of the surrounding counties, guarded Nanyang with the soldiers and horses of the county seats, and handed over the elite soldiers and horses in Nanyang City to Zhang He.

The Han army was insufficient, and most of the counties around Nanyang were not captured, but when the envoy went to Nanxiang and Fangling counties, he found that they were occupied by the Han army (Lingbao blocked Nanyang, Nanyang City did not know that the two counties were lost).

Xiahou Shang and Zhang He couldn't help but get nervous, the two counties fell second, afraid that the soldiers and horses of Yizhou might come out of Sichuan to help, and the Han army could not leave heavy troops to garrison Nanyang again.

Xiahou Shang consulted with Zhang He, and Zhang He led 6,000 cavalry and 8,000 foot soldiers to the north to meet Xu Huang. Xiahou Shang led 6,000 soldiers and horses, and the strong men recruited by Nanyang and the soldiers and horses from the counties transferred to defend the city.

The two discussed properly, in order to prevent Ling Bao from seeing through the block, Zhang He retreated overnight, and Xiahou Shang walked back and forth every day with more than 1,000 wounded horses left behind, so that the Han army could see a herd of horses every day, mistakenly thinking that Zhang He's cavalry was still there, and did not dare to act rashly.

Xinye Pang Tong first received the report that the Cao army might attack from the Qingni Pass, and had already set up an ambush according to the plan he had left.

Then I learned from the rout that Nanzhai and Dongzhai were broken successively. Pang Tong sighed: "The army is impermanent, the plan calculated in advance is always flawed, Nanzhai and Dongzhai are not guaranteed, our army is false and real, and the plan of the suspicious soldiers is useless!" ”

Pang Tong sent scouts to listen to the news in detail, and at the same time gathered Zhang Fei and Ma Dai's cavalry to Fancheng to stand by.

Knowing that the Cao army besieged Lingbao in Xizhai, Pang Tong had a number of troops for the Cao army, and the soldiers and horses in Xizhai were unexpected, but the failure of Nanyang's plan made Pang Tong hesitate, and more than 10,000 soldiers and horses could not ignore it and put it in danger.

After much thought, Pang Tong decided to use cavalry in advance. Pang Tong made up his mind and sent people to urgently summon Zhang Fei and Ma Dai to discuss the matter.