Chapter 67 Follow the Trend
On the outskirts of Luyang Mountains, on a small ridge.

Black Bear, Gan Ning, Wang Wei and a dozen others squatted among the trees and looked at Luyang City, which was more than ten miles away.

The area around Luyang City was wide and open, and a group of soldiers gathered five miles south of the city. They took off their armor and went to the river to play in the water and escape the heat.

"Xiahou Dun arrived too quickly."

Black Bear crouched and observed, and said to Gan Ning beside him: "If he doesn't enter the city tonight, we will kill him first!"

Gan Ning did not refuse: "Please investigate nearby. If he really abandons his baggage and rushes here, his men and horses will surely be tired. I will teach him my ability tonight."

Black Bear told Xu Lin on the other side: "Go and slaughter the cattle. Xingba and I will have a feast together after we return!"

"Here!"

Xu Lin retreated immediately, and the other accompanying military officers also crawled back.

There were only two people left on the mountain, Black Bear. After a quick look below, they found a river at the foot of the mountain with a very wide riverbed, which showed that the amount of water was very large during the flood peak.

But now it is dry and rainy, and the river surface is only shallow, which does not hinder navigation.

After observing the route ahead, the black bear, who had better eyesight, pointed to a dry ditch and said, "You and I will go along the ditch. The weeds on both sides of the ditch are overgrown, which can best cover our tracks."

Gan Ning barely recognized that the river at the foot of the mountain passed through Ye County and was a tributary of the Lishui River; and the artificial canal led to the Fushui River outside the southern city of Luyang.

The two rivers are connected by a canal, which can better utilize the river water and expand the irrigation area.

However, there are few people living nearby, so this kind of water conservancy facility is no longer needed, so they just block both ends of the canal.

Without saying anything more, they took a detour down the mountain and headed north along the dry river canal.

Both of them were riding dried horses, and they were fast and silent as they crept to the rice fields on the south bank of the Fushui River.

At this time, it was clearly seen that the south gate of Luyang was opened, and carts of pounded and husked rice were being transported out.

The army that received the rice started to cook dinner.

Looking around, he saw the flags of General Jianwu and Yin of Henan standing side by side. The flagpoles were tall, and there were slightly shorter battle flags around them.

"It is indeed Xiahou Dun. Others should be discussing matters in the city and enjoying Lu Zhao's hospitality."

Black Bear whispered, "With Xiahou Dun's status, he will stay in Yecheng tonight. Why are his subordinates setting up stoves outside the South City? Isn't this a waste of time?"

"General Qu, this should be shown to Liu Yuzhou's troops, with the intention of persuading Liu Yuzhou to withdraw his troops."

Gan Ning also whispered: "If Xiahou Yuanrang leads his troops into the city as soon as he arrives, it will appear that he is afraid of Liu Yuzhou, which will damage morale and be detrimental to the Ye County garrison."

Black Bear nodded, and the two of them lurked patiently.

While observing, he saw another panting team circling Luyang City and coming along the Wanluo Road.

They also rushed directly to the north bank of the Feishui River, discarded their armor and weapons, and jumped into the water.

They only brought armor and weapons, no other tents or anything like that. Even the iron pot was temporarily borrowed from the Luyang garrison!

This shows that the baggage train was still moving in the rear, and Xiahou Dun was marching quickly to rescue Ye County.

For Cao's army, this was a march through the heartland, so they could be more reckless and reckless.

As the sky was about to get dark and many insects began to buzz and fly, Xiahou Dun's soldiers, who had just finished their meal, regrouped and entered the city to spend the night.

There were no tents outside the city, and there were traces of cooking fires by the river.

Seeing this, Black Bear and Gan Ning were unwilling to give up and had no choice but to return to Luyang Mountain.

They were less than thirty miles apart, which was not very far considering the strength of the Yin Gan horses.

Seven cows had been slaughtered in the camp, some were cooked with bones, some were roasted, and some had their tenderloins sliced ​​and prepared for hot pot.

Everyone sat around, and Black Bear said, "I thought that the enemy army had come from a long distance to attack us, so I took advantage of their exhaustion and the rudiments of their camp tonight to rob and kill them. After all, Xiahou Dun knows military affairs, and my plan failed."

As they were talking, Xu Lin brought a plate of roasted beef and pushed it in front of Black Bear. Gan Ning advised from the side: "Military forces are always changing. This is a natural thing. I just don't know how many troops there will be after Xiahou Dun."

Xu Lin sat cross-legged on the side. Other guards brought more meat on plates. He also said, "General Qu, I am worried about one thing. Ye County is a big city after all, and Liu Yuzhou is well-known. I am afraid that Xiahou Dun will choose to stay in Luyang to wait and see the situation of the battle because Ye County is strong and Liu Yuzhou's troops are strong."

"During this period, Xiahou Dun will definitely send troops to explore Jackdaw Road. Should our army go or stay?"

Luyang was also a big city. Due to the many years of trade during the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, Ye County, Kunyang and Luyang were all large cities with tens of thousands of households.

Gan Ning grabbed the beef in one hand and the rice in the other, kneaded them into a ball and put them in his mouth to chew.

It felt a little bland, so when I made the second beef rice ball, I applied a thin layer of salt powder on it, thinking about how the battle situation would change.

The previous success of the night attack plan was one kind of battle situation. Now that Xiahou Dun is spending the night in Luyang City, that is another kind of battle situation.

With the city and sufficient supplies, Xiahou Dun's troops can rest and recuperate at ease; they can threaten Liu Bei so that he cannot attack the city with all his strength, and they can also encourage the defenders of Ye County to hold on.

In fact, when Xiahou Dun hurriedly marched to Ye County, he had already achieved most of his success.

With the city around, Xiahou Dun rested and gathered his strength while waiting for Li Dian and Yu Jin to join him. Once the three armies joined together, it would be time to launch a counterattack.

Liu Bei had to either fight or evacuate... he had no choice but to stay in the camp because Liu Bei had no reinforcements.

It was meaningless for him to hold on. Without external intervention, the situation of the war could not be changed.

Even after he was captured by Xiahou Dun, other second-line Cao troops would rush to join the battle upon hearing the news, in order to eliminate this biggest threat to Cao Cao in one fell swoop.

As Xu Lin worried, Xiahou Dun would not easily fight Liu Bei; but he still had the strength and courage to divide his troops to conduct reconnaissance and control Jackdaw Road, threatening Liu Bei's retreat.

Gan Ning deduced the battle situation in his mind and felt that the situation was urgent. He said, "If Liu Yuzhou withdraws his troops from Ye County, our army will be cut off if we do not withdraw."

The most important thing is to preserve our own manpower, and the initiative is currently in our hands.

They had no choice but to retreat. If they attacked, Xiahou Dun and Lu Zhao, who had a total of four to five thousand men in Luyang City, were all veterans who had experienced the battle of Guandu. They had strong morale and the officers were resolute in fighting spirit. They would not be easy to deal with.

The longer the delay, the greater the possibility that Xiahou Dun would split up his troops to investigate Jackdaw Road, until it became inevitable. Gan Ning expressed his opinion that the troops should be withdrawn for the time being.

Liu Bei had no choice anyway, because Liu Biao was stingy. If he sent another 10,000 or so reinforcements as a show, Liu Bei would have a better choice.

Rather than retreating at the first touch.

Without reinforcements, it will be very troublesome if we are caught by Cao's army.

He doesn't even need 10,000 people. If Liu Qi's 3,000 men stationed in Wancheng cooperate with the battle and are willing to help Liu Bei guard the retreat passage of Wankou, Liu Bei will dare to go out and have fun.

As the governor of Yuzhou and the left general of Han Dynasty, he stirred up chaos in Ruying area.

If Liu Bei really had a small chance of attacking Xu Du, rescuing the imperial court and the emperor, and capturing the families of Cao's officers, then Cao Cao would be finished.

So Liu Bei must have had some ideas about this battle.

Unfortunately, Liu Biao only gave very limited support, allowing Liu Qi to garrison in Wancheng with 3,000 people... This could ensure that when Liu Bei retreated, he would have a buffer and would not be completely defeated.

Reason told Gan Ning that he should retreat, but he was reluctant.

Black Bear's reason also told him that he should retreat to the depths of the mountain path; when Liu Bei retreated and lured Xiahou Dun to pursue him, he would cooperate with Liu Bei in a pincer attack, and after defeating Xiahou Dun, it would not be too late to counterattack.

But they were more or less unwilling to accept this. Even the tribesmen who were eating beef and drinking beef bone soup around them were somewhat unwilling to accept this.

The black bear remained silent while Gan Ning ate patiently.

Things like fighting and killing require the most technical skills.

If you can, you can; if you can’t, you can’t.

If you act recklessly, you will get half the result with twice the effort and even lose your head.

Under the command of Liu Biao and Huang Zu, Gan Ning's many tempers had been worn out, and he didn't care about retreating for the time being.

Just pull back your fist, gather your strength, and wait for the opportunity to strike again.

Who knows, the enemy might be able to strike a better pose next time.

Black Bear picked up the charcoal-grilled pork tenderloin slices with chopsticks and ate them silently. After he was full, he drank some tea.

After thinking again and again, he suppressed his resentment and said, "We can't just consider the present, we also have to consider Guanzhong. Guanzhong is different from other places. Although it is now desolate and dilapidated, people all over the world are afraid of this place, and the people in Guanzhong are also unwilling to accept it."

"If I don't have enough prestige, it will be difficult to get the people in Guanzhong to obey me."

Black Bear said in a soothing tone: "Since Liu Yuzhou already has a perfect strategy to defeat the enemy, and we don't have a better plan to defeat the enemy, why not take a step back and cooperate with Liu Yuzhou to defeat the enemy."

Seeing that no one objected, Black Bear said, "There are many swamps in the Central Plains. There has been a severe drought since the beginning of this spring. Many swamps have dried up, which is convenient for infantry to cross. We don't have any baggage vehicles, so we can replenish food after defeating the enemy. If Liu Yuzhou pursues the victory, we will also march into the Central Plains."

Gan Ning nodded. How could he be willing to retreat?
He asked, "If we defeat the enemy, will we need to divide our forces to escort the prisoners?"

Seeing Black Bear remain silent, Gan Ning couldn't help but sigh: "This Cao army is not easy to deal with."

They were all poor people under the system of forced labor. After being captured, they were escorted to the rear, and their families would be punished. If the punishment was severe, their entire family would be executed in public, and if the punishment was light, their wives would be forced to remarry.

Either the family is destroyed or people die.

So don't expect the defeated soldiers to work for you after you force them to land. Most of the defeated soldiers and prisoners will only try to escape back.

Duyang has its own particularity. Cao's army has no roots in Jingzhou and has no basis for implementing the staggered service system.

The captives captured in Duyang were still mainly from Nanyang, and they did not resist migration very much.

The turbulent times have lasted for nearly twenty years. As long as you are with your family, it is not difficult to accept moving to another place to live.

After defeating Xiahou Dun together with Liu Bei, it was impossible for him to run around with the captured surrendered troops.

Either divide the troops and let Xu Lin and Wang Wei lead three or four hundred people to escort the prisoners back to Wancheng via the Wanluo Road.

There are great hidden dangers in the escort process, and there is a risk of getting out of control at any time.

As for massacring the surrendered troops and prisoners, even Gan Ning had never considered this solution.

If Liu Bei wants to pursue the victory after defeating the enemy, he has two choices.

Or simply give up the burden of surrendered soldiers and prisoners and cooperate with Liu Bei to lead a light force out of the Central Plains.

Taking advantage of a large loophole in Cao's defense, he tried to hide during the day and move out at night to wander around Xudu.

Alternatively, they could take the assigned prisoners with them and surrender, and the entire army could retreat together to minimize the possibility of mutiny among the prisoners.

Of course, if Liu Bei defeated Xiahou Dun and took a conservative attitude and wanted to withdraw his troops, then there would be no hesitation and they could just withdraw together.

Given the current size of Cao's army, it is simply impossible for us to challenge them alone.

The black bear looked around and saw that the big and small leaders, after their full meal, straightened their backs, their eyes bright and eager to try.

"In that case, let's rest well tonight, set out at four o'clock, and retreat thirty miles! If Cao's light troops come to pursue us, we will turn back and fight them."

"The Jackdaw Road is narrow after all. When two brave men meet on a narrow road, the brave will win. Our army also has a chance of winning."

Black Bear also looked around with a sharp gaze. Gan Ning responded, "I'll follow your orders, Commander. I've long wanted to test the abilities of Cao's generals."

No one was afraid. The legendary experience of Xu Lin and his group of veterans around the Central Plains also stimulated Gan Ning's troops.

The low casualties in Po Duyang last night and the quick recovery of the lightly wounded.

The morale of the soldiers was so high that it was like a raging fire.

　Next chapter is available

　　
　
(End of this chapter)