Xu Rong sat in the woods in the barren mountain, picked up a dead branch, and focused on teasing the ants under his feet. At this moment, the scout hurriedly ran over: "General Qi, Cao Ang's army is coming from five miles away, with a huge momentum."

Xu Rong did not look up, but said in a deep voice: "If you send the order, everyone will hide it tightly for me, so you must not be exposed! If anyone misses a big deal, it will be the enemy of our five thousand army. I will strip him alive!"

"I understand!" The messenger next to him quickly went to convey Xu Rong's order, and the scout hurried to reconnaissance again.

Less than a quarter of an hour later, the scout ran back and whispered: "General, the enemy's headquarters is three miles away from us."

Then Xu Rong threw down the branches, stood up, and whispered: "Let's go, take me to see."

The barren mountain lurking in Xu Rong's troops is about two miles away from the main road, which is also the place Xu Rong specially selected. If it is close to Delu, it is easy to be discovered by Cao Ang's scouts; if it is far away, it is not convenient for the troops to quickly occupy the road, cutting off the retreat of Cao Ang's troops.

Under the guidance of the scout, Xu Rong quickly came to the grass near the roadside, and looked at the distance with his hand.

I saw a huge army walking on the road of officialdom. More than a hundred cavalry were walking in my head, guarding the surroundings, and immediately went to reconnaissance when there was any movement. I was very alert.

Behind the Rangers, there is a square formation composed of five hundred sword and shield hands. These sword and shield hands hold a skinned wooden shield in their left hand and put their right hand on the hilt of the waist. They walk over neatly with the command sound. At a glance, you can tell that they are elites who have experienced the battle on the battlefield. Moreover, almost every five hundred people is wearing a layer of leather armor on their bodies. This must be Cao Ang’s elite!

And among these sword and shield hands, a general was sitting on a tall horse with a spear. There were about forty or fifty people next to this general, who were actually wearing black iron armor!

Seeing this, several generals around Xu Rong couldn't help but exclaim, and were very envious.

Xu Rong laughed and scolded: "You guys are really unpromising. You actually envy that fool! They are wearing armor and look majestic, but now they are still twelve miles away from Xingyang City. When they reach the city of Xingyang, they will have no strength to fight, and they will be exhausted! It seems that Cao Ang is just a fame! I originally thought that Cao's army was a strong enemy, but now it seems that it is just ordinary. I don't know what happened to Lu Bu, but he actually lost to such people. It's really unpromising!"

After Xu Rong said this, everyone burst into laughter, but they were afraid that Cao Jun would find out, so they tried hard to lower their voices.

Xu Rong said as he looked at Cao Jun walking towards him and whispered to everyone: "I think Cao Jun has a size of seven or eight thousand people, so I can't underestimate it. Even seven or eight thousand sheep are quite time to catch! Everyone will make arrangements, and we can only move when we take action from Xingyang. Don't expose it in advance."

The generals nodded and said yes, and soon surrounded Xu Rong and left quietly.

At this time, the Cao army's large army had already crossed the mountain pass and was about to resist the planned camping site. Soon the scout heard good news and found a mountain spring nearby, which was enough for the army to use.

Cao Ang was overjoyed and said to the generals around him: "God really helps me. I will send orders to build camps in the favorable terrain near the mountain spring, cut down trees, and build village walls. At the same time, he ordered the entire army to remain vigilant and prepare for being attacked by the enemy!"

Hearing Cao Ang's orders, soldiers from various units took action, especially Fang Yue's troops, who went dozens of feet to form a formation to fight.

Xu Rong had just returned to the lurking ground of the large group of people, and the general of the scout station hurriedly came to report: "Report to General, Cao Ang's troops did not continue to move forward, but set up a camp not far from the mountain pass, and also included the mountain spring water in the camp!"

Xu Rong was shocked when he heard this and asked angrily: "How is it possible? Did someone not pretend to be well and they discovered it?"

Natun General shook his head repeatedly, "General, everyone is hiding well. Even those who predicted the lurking can't see any clues in the distance. It should be that they are tired of walking and want to rest here for a while. I can't see that Cao Ang is quite cautious."

Xu Rong frowned, "I hope this is the case, let's do it. Choose ten people to accompany you, let's go close to reconnaissance together."

The general of Tun quickly agreed, selected ten clever scouts, and escorted Xu Rong to the near the mountain pass to reconnaissance.

Soon, everyone arrived at the mountain pass and saw Cao's soldiers working in a camp in a tense manner, and several neatly arranged soldiers were also facing the direction where the enemy might appear, and were carefully guarded.

Xu Rong couldn't help but sigh: "I was still laughing at them just now, but I didn't expect to make a mistake. No wonder they have been wearing armor for a long time, and it turned out to be preparing for camping at this time!"

General Tun whispered: "General, why don't we try to hit them?"

Xu Rong sighed and shook his head: "They have been wearing armor for a long time, waiting for their leisure. If we go out, we must first gather from each other invisible places, then wear armor, and then go down the mountain to challenge. With this skill, they have already built the wall of the village, and we only have five thousand people, so we must be beaten to death! Unexpectedly, Cao Ang really has some real skills, and I underestimated him!"

Xu Rong frowned and whispered: "After going back, you go and pass my orders so that everyone can stay in the mountains with peace of mind, so that they can't alarm the enemy, so as not to leave a large group of people here. It seems that Cao Ang's army also has experts who can choose this area to set up a camp. If the opponent has a large number of people left behind, we will not be able to break through the opposite defense line! Alas, I just hope that Li Ru can wipe out Cao Ang's troops in one fell swoop at the city of Xingyang!"

Following Xu Rong's order, the general nodded repeatedly and couldn't help but whisper: "General, that mountain spring is the largest spring nearby. There are only a few small puddles in our mountains. If it takes a long time, the soldiers will be thirsty!"

Xu Rong smiled and shook his head, "You have learned to think about things, it's great! But I told you this morning that everyone fills their water hyacinths. As long as you save some, it won't be a big deal. Anyway, the battle will last for two or three days, so we have enough water!"

The general nodded repeatedly, but couldn't help but sigh: I had known that I would have obeyed the orders and filled the water hyacinth. I wanted to be quicker, but I didn't expect it to be backfired. Alas!

At this time, Cao'an's camp had already begun to take shape. Cao Ang was not in a hurry to leave. Anyway, he agreed with Li Ru that he would exchange hostages in five days, and now it is only the fourth day. Taking advantage of the army here and the manpower is relatively abundant, Cao Ang ordered two village walls to be established, digging trenches in front of the village walls, and filling the excavated soil into the middle of the two village walls.

After two hours of hard work, the defense system of the entire camp was initially completed. Cao Camp has cut this official road into two ends. A camp gate was set up at each intersection at both ends. The front gate was covered with deer antlers and horses, and several arrow towers were built near the camp gate, which was extremely armed. Compared with the defense level when he fought against Lu Bu last time, it has been more than doubled!

At this time, several infantry phalanxes responsible for the guarding outside the village wall retreated to the camp one after another. After arranging the on-duty troops, the soldiers unloaded their armor, rested well, and prepared to welcome tomorrow's battle.

The scouts had already quietly spread out. According to their reconnaissance, there were indeed soldiers of the Xiliang Army hidden in the barren mountains in the northeast. However, the other party's hiding place was relatively clever, and the size of the other party could not be detected for the time being.

In front of the camp, in the woods south of the official road, the ambush of the Xiliang army were also found. The lurking level of these Xiliang army was not as high as that of the people in the barren mountains. The scouts had discovered the camp deep in the woods. They initially judged that there were three thousand infantrymen hidden there, and the flag was Guo Si's troops.

Cao Ang summoned all the generals, ordered the scouts to explain the situation, and said to everyone with a smile: "It seems that our pre-war speculation has basically come true. In these two places alone, the Xiliang army has ambushed a lot of people. I believe that when we march to Xingyang tomorrow, the other party will definitely have a large group of soldiers and horses. It is also beneficial for us to camp here in advance. These two ambushes dare not expose themselves, so they must have to hide in the grass and be bitten by mosquitoes, and they dare not make fire and cook. When tomorrow the war comes, the soldiers who stay here will wait for their work and will definitely get a advantage."

The generals laughed, and Cao Ang said in a deep voice: "I order Li Dian and Wei Zi to lead two thousand infantrymen and one thousand people in the baggage camp to stay here to guard this important transportation route!"

Li Dian and Wei Zi hurriedly stepped forward to obey the order and took the order handed over by Cao Ang.

Cao Ang said in a deep voice: "Shi Huan, your troops are all light infantry, and they are more convenient to operate. At night tonight, you sneak out of the camp and sneak into two ambush areas to see if they can pollute the water source of the other party. There should be many dead branches and leaves in the forest now. Go and see if you can set fire secretly! Anyway, we have not arrived in Xingyang yet, even if we have some excessive actions, the other party should not retaliate, so as not to expose their intentions!"

Shi Huan immediately stepped forward to take the order and soon led his army out of the camp quietly.

Cao Ang said to Le Jin again: "Today's cavalry reconnaissance and expulsion work are done well, so that the enemy scouts dare not get close to the reconnaissance. You have made a small contribution. You have a good rest tonight and prepare for tomorrow's battle. In addition, quietly set up cloth-made pedals under the saddle to prepare for tomorrow's battle!"

Le Jin immediately agreed. The war horses had three treasures, horseshoes, high bridge saddles and double stirrups. Cao Ang had never dared to equip these on a large scale, so as not to be stolen by the Xiliang Army and the Bingzhou Army. After all, there were large-scale cavalry in the army. Once the three treasures were equipped, the combat power would increase significantly, and Cao Ang would not dare to take this risk at all.

However, there will be a big battle tomorrow. Now equipped with double stirrups can effectively improve combat power, and the cloth is also relatively hidden. Even if the corpse of the war horse falls into the hands of the enemy, it is very likely to get away with it. After all, the Xiliang army has never taken the cavalry of the Central Plains in their eyes. After the war, they usually only care about swelling the money on the corpses and will not observe anything else!
Chapter completed!