Chapter 32: The rain is coming

Cao Chong jumped out of the horse in front of the camp outside the city, and couldn't help but breathe a few breaths and paused. His breathing in the past few days still hurt his vitality. This period of galloping on the horse was already a little unbearable. He stopped and took the opportunity to look at the people behind him. He saw a hundred tiger soldiers with war horses following him like shadows, and they had stopped the war horses behind him. They tightly tied the reins in their hands, turned their heads, and aimed at the eastward official road.

, and in just a moment, Huang Zhong's three hundred personal guards and Wei Yan's one hundred poems also rushed over. With Huang Zhong's gesture, the soldiers beside him roared loudly, and three gongs remembered that the four hundred people stopped all the time. The dust that was rushing forward with a sudden step was like a yellow dragon, and instantly swallowed the four hundred people. When the dust faded and the four hundred people appeared again, they had formed a small square formation that could enter the attack state at any time.

Cao Chong nodded happily. Huang Zhong did have a good way to train troops. Although it was only two miles from the city to the camp outside the city, he could keep up with it by himself. The team was still so energetic, which shows its combat power.

"Yuan Zhi, you are waiting outside, Yongnian will follow me into the camp." Cao Chong threw the reins in his hand to Zhou Buyi, raised his legs and entered the camp with Zhang Song. Xu Yi and Dianman followed closely with twenty newly selected tiger soldiers. The original eight tiger soldiers had been ordered by Cao Chong to be assigned to the newly assigned tiger soldiers, each with ten people, and they used the small formation of ten people developed by Deng Zhan and Huang Zhong and others to toss the new people every day.

The soldiers at the door checked Cao Chong's waist card and opened the camp gate. Although Cao Chong could not run in the camp, his pace was extremely fast and he came to the central army's tent in a short while. In front of the central army's tent, Cao Ren's son Cao Tai and a very tall and mighty general stood up.

"Have you ever sent General Zhennan's military order?" Cao Chong had no time to chat with them and asked in a straightforward manner.

"Cang Shu. You are here so quickly. As soon as my father's military order was delivered, you rushed to the front of the camp. I didn't have time to go out to greet you. It's such a rude." Cao Tai put his helmet and pressed the ring-headed knife at his waist and smiled: "My father ordered me to bring a thousand people to welcome you. After he arranged the defense of Jiangling City, he then set off. This is Niu Jin, the father's army, to help me."

Upon hearing this, Cao Chong looked at Niu Jin who was bowing to him with a smile and nodded. He knew that this man was very skilled in martial arts and brave in combat. He was Cao Ren's confidant general. It seemed that Cao Ren wanted his son to make meritorious contributions this time and sent all the generals to him.

"There is one day of marching in Haoxue. The fire started yesterday in the middle of the night. It has been midnight since then. The Prime Minister's army has to pass through Huarong Road. The marching speed cannot be too fast. It is estimated that it will take one day to one and a half days. If it goes well, you can reach Haoxue at about noon tomorrow. You must control the relevant key terrain near Haoxue at noon tomorrow to ensure the safety of the army's passage." Cao Chong said solemnly to Cao Tai. Cao Tai heard this and nodded in agreement: "Don't worry, I will definitely arrive at Haoxue before tomorrow to ensure the safety of the Prime Minister's army passage. Cang Shu, aren't you with me?"

"I won't be with you. If I calculate from the time when the fire broke out last night, the warships in Jiangdong took advantage of the southeast wind, I'm afraid they will rush to reach the Haozui in front of you. They are on a boat, and the soldiers are not tired. Even if there are only a few thousand people, they can block the Prime Minister's army in Haozui. At that time, there will be intercepting in front of the Prime Minister and pursuers behind. The morale of the army is unstable, and I'm afraid the situation is not good. Therefore, I want to rush in front of the Jiangdong Navy to prevent them from seizing favorable terrain. I have few people, Huang Hansheng and others are natives in Jingzhou. They are used to walking on mountain roads and are familiar with the terrain, so they should be faster. I will move forward along the official road. After reaching the tiger jumping ravine, they turn south. There is a mountain pass where I will block the Jiangdong army."

Cao Chong said the marching route to prevent Cao Tai from finding him at that time and was anxious. In fact, he was worried that Liu Bei would come with the army. Liu Bei was in Jingzhou for a long time, and with his personality, he would not have a secret understanding of the important terrain of Jiangling, not to mention that he was Zhuge Liang, who had been in Jingzhou for more than ten years. The Hao acupoint was at the west end of Huarong Road. The terrain was complex, the mountains were high and the forests were dense. At this time, the weather was dry. Once they set a fire, they were afraid that Cao Cao's defeated soldiers would be blocked on Huarong Road without a few hundred people, and they might even burn Cao Cao himself to death. Cao Tai's people's movement speed could not keep up with it. Only those five hundred people were all elite, and were mainly locals in Jingzhou. If they were used to this kind of mountain road, they could block Liu Bei's defeated soldiers outside the Hao acupoint before setting fires.

"No!" Cao Tai and Niu Jin bowed their hands at the same time. Seeing that they had understood what they meant, Cao Chong turned around and left the camp and marched along the official road with five hundred people. After Cao Tai gathered his troops and rushed out of the camp, he saw only the dust of the sky and earth, and there was no trace of the figure.

Liu Bei sat on the big ship that Sun Ben was moving upstream, feeling restless. From time to time, he got out of the cabin to see where he saw it. Although the ship took advantage of the increasingly fierce southeast wind and the speed was quite good, he still felt it was too slow and he wished he could reach Hao's acupoint in a while. When Sun Quan sent someone to inform Jiangdong to burn Cao's camp, he didn't believe it very much. He always thought that Sun Quan was a fool. But Zhuge Liang advised him to be prepared and whether there was any trouble. Let's take people to the side of Jiangdong's village. If the fire broke out, then follow the Jiangdong army to fight. You can also take some advantage in the chaos. If the fire broke out, it would be okay to retreat.

Zhuge Liang made detailed plans for him and suggested that once Jiangdong became popular, he would not follow Jiangdong's army to chase the land. First, there were 30,000 elite soldiers in Jiangdong, which was much more than Liu Bei could draw. I guess there would be no great contribution for Liu Bei to pick them up. Second, Cao Cao's army was too large, and even if there were only 50,000 troops left, it might not be easy to bite. Instead, it would be better to let Zhou Yu take advantage of this. Liu Bei led 4,000 troops up the river and landed in Hao's acupoints, and penetrated from the tiger jumping ravine to the heart of Hao's acupoint. As long as he reached the heart of Hao's acupoint, there would be no 4,000 people, even if there were only 400 people, scattered around and set fire, he could burn the Hao's acupoint into a fireball within a radius of dozens of miles. At that time, Cao Cao's defeated army, who had been running for a day, would be afraid that he would surrender.

Liu Bei may even capture this old opponent he was a little afraid of from the bottom of his heart. If this is true, even if Zhou Yu scored 100,000, it would not be as good as Liu Bei's contribution. What's more, the one who was able to escape to Hao's acupoint first was undoubtedly the most important person and the most elite force in Cao Cao. It is much higher than the people who were behind and those who were arrested by Zhou Yu.

As soon as he heard Zhuge Liang's analysis, Liu Bei's eyes lit up immediately. He asked Guan Yu to pull out some boats and send 4,000 people from him to the vicinity of Lukou, maintaining a suitable distance from Jiangdong Water Village. While dreaming of capturing Cao Cao, he was guarding against being swallowed by Zhou Yu. After a day of worry, he actually saw the fire in Cao's camp. As soon as he saw the fire, he immediately leaned his fleet towards Jiangdong Water Village, took Zhao Yun and dozens of personal guards onto Zhou Yu's ship, and brought Zhuge Liang's plan to change it and asked Zhou Yu to send some people to swim upstream with him. Even if there was no one, it would be better to send more boats to him. Anyway, you, General Zhou, went ashore to kill the enemy, and these ships were also waiting in the hollow of the river.

Zhou Yu heard this. He laughed and nodded immediately, but he did not hand over his ship to Liu Bei, but told him that Sun Ben's people came with the ship he left in the camp. When Sun Ben came out of Cao's camp, you would go upstream with Sun Ben, and you would have to pay back a thousand of his people anyway.

When Liu Bei heard this, he felt ashamed. He had damaged more than 200 Liu Qi's loyalists, but he took Sun Ben and asked Lu Cui to send him over a thousand Cao troops. However, he was a little dissatisfied and wanted to swallow Sun Ben's 1,000 people. Unexpectedly, Zhou Yu saw through his thoughts and followed his words to clarify his thoughts. He had no choice but to thank him. When Sun Ben got on the boat, more than 6,000 people left the brigade and headed straight for Hao's acupoint.

"General Zuo. Don't be impatient. The southeast wind is getting stronger and stronger, and the sky is getting darker. It is about to rain." Sun Ben, who was closing his eyes in the cabin, couldn't help but smile when he saw Liu Bei's anxious look. He looked up at the sky and sighed: "This rain is probably not too small, and it will be even harder to leave on Huarong Road. I think my in-laws can't reach Hao's acupoint for two days. You rushed over and set fire now. First, it's too early and can't burn him. Second, the fire he worked hard to set is probably extinguished by this rain. I'm busy in vain."

"The General of the Conquering the Lu said," Liu Bei smiled awkwardly, "It's just that Cao's thief has done many evil things and has ill-conspired plans. He wants to be unfavorable to our Han Dynasty. Although Bei is willing to serve the country, he is not talented and has limited ability. He has been determined to kill the thief for many years and is unable to make a comeback. This time he has such a good opportunity, so he really dares not make mistakes, so he is anxious. The General of the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Conquering the Con

"General Zuo, don't be anxious. Even when the fire broke out, Cao Cao sent a fast cavalry to notify Jiangling to Cao Ren to respond. I am afraid that Cao Ren will not receive the news a day or a night. When he arrives at Haoxue, it will be the third day. By then, we have occupied the favorable terrain, and he can only sigh at the fire. There are no people who can save people across the mountain. Cao Ren has a lot of cavalry. Maybe we can still wrap him around and get some war horses in vain."

While persuading Liu Bei, Sun Ben glanced at him, with a little disdain in his eyes. When he was in Cao's camp, he also heard people say that Liu Bei claimed to be a relative of the Han Dynasty and focused on the Han Dynasty. However, his own sons were named Liu Feng and Liu Chan, who were obviously ambitions, but he still pretended to be here. He was half-believing and half-doubted about this, and there was no way to find out whether this statement was true or false, because he didn't know if Liu Bei had two sons called this name, so most of them thought it was just one of thousands of rumors. When he heard Liu Bei's words, he couldn't help but feel moved and sighed, "General Zuo was loyal to the country, and his heart was commendable. Ben thought so, so he sacrificed his life for the country, surrendered himself to the thief, and defamed himself to the thief, just to abandon this thief. It's just a pity that my child, Cao's defeat, my child was afraid that he would die."

When Liu Bei heard this, he quickly comforted him: "The generals of the conquering the enemy are relieved and are of great national affairs. Why cherish a woman? Since Bei raised an army to rebel against Cao, many children have died in the army. He is also very sad. But for the great national affairs, he has to put aside his personal relationship."

Sun Ben thought of his daughter in Yecheng and his son in Kuaiji. He was really sad when he was acting. He thought of Cao Cao who sent Liu Yin to confer him as the general of the conquering the enemy. He wanted to send his son to be the prefect of Wujun. General Zhu Zhi persuaded him how similar was the words of Liu Bei in front of him? How could this be said lightly? But Zhu Zhi was just an outsider talking outsider, but Liu Bei in front of him said that his child was still so indifferent and indifferent, and he could not help but say that this kind-hearted person was either a great hero for the country and the people or a hypocrite.

"I heard that General Zuo lost his beloved son many times, but I don't know now..." Sun Ben asked pretending to be concerned.

"Oh. I've been running around a few days ago, and all the babies I gave birth to were lost in the army." Liu Bei sighed and said, "I finally settled a little while in Jingzhou, but I haven't reborn, so I adopted a child from the Luohou Kou family, named Liu Feng. Perhaps it was the blessing brought by Feng'er. My concubine, Gan, gave birth to a son last year, named Liu Chan. Haha, I'm learning to speak recently, and it's still cute." When Liu Bei talked about Liu Chan, he couldn't help but smile gently, and a rare trace of true love appeared on his face.

"Lord, it's windy outside, so it's better to go back to the cabin to rest." Zhao Yun took a step forward and said softly. Seeing that his eyes were wrong, Liu Bei woke up from his dream, he realized that he was quick and actually let go. He quickly whispered and went into the cabin. Sun Ben turned his head and looked at his back, and the smile on his face piled up higher. But his eyes gradually became colder. He said in his heart: "Governor is right. This Liu Xuande is indeed very ambitious, and Cao Cangshu did not wrong him. However, his youngest son is only two years old. I'm afraid that this name has not been taken for a few days. Only when you get close to me can you know how Cangshu knows it?"

A gust of wind blew, and a few raindrops hit his face. He suddenly shuddered and a strange thought came to his mind. Cang Shu was so weird that even Wu Fan, the magistrate of Jiangdong, could not see through it. Could it be that he would have predicted the future, or how could he have so many precautions for himself to surrender? If this is true, would he have calculated that we were going to burn the Hao hole and dug a trap in front and waited for us to jump?

The more he thought about it, the more he became, the more he was afraid. He couldn't help but shake his head and throw out this thought that even he felt a bit ridiculous. Prophet, is it so god who can still win Sun Kuang's american tea? Even if he is really a prophet, I'm afraid he'll die now. He smiled mockingly. He wiped the rain on his face, looked at the dark clouds that were about to press over his head, and shrank back into the cabin.

As soon as he stepped back to the cabin, a gust of raindrops as big as beans hit the board and splashed out water. When it hit the river, it disappeared into the rolling river water in an instant. The wind became stronger and stronger, causing the river water to whirlpool, rolling up waves half a man high, slapped violently on the tummy belly, making a rustling sound. The sails on the boat were torn tightly, making an unpleasant sound, which made people worry that it would tear apart the strong wind in the next moment. The rope as thick as a thumb pulled the thick mast and swayed back and forth in the strong wind.

"The wind is too strong, half of the sails are lowered." Sun Ben sat down for a moment with lingering fear, feeling that the sound of the sail was too shocking, and immediately issued an order.

"General, I'm afraid it's inappropriate." Liu Bei immediately raised objections when he heard that he had lowered half of his sail.

"It's okay, this rain is very heavy. There is Yunmengze in the south of Huarong Road and hundreds of small lakes of all sizes in the north. After this rain, the road will be muddy and it will be difficult to walk. Cao Zhe is afraid that it will be slower. We will be ahead of him no matter what. Moreover, even if we arrive at Hao's acupoint, we can't let the fire go." Sun Ben rubbed his temples that were a little painful and smiled reluctantly: "General Zuo, Ben has never had a good rest for the fire last night. He is really tired at this moment. I want to take a rest for most of the day before I arrive at Hao's acupoint. Please forgive General Zuo."

As he said, he made a gesture to the captain of the guard beside him to see him off. When Liu Bei saw him, he had to get up, and then returned to his boat after he was polite. Zhao Yun raised the shield in his hand to cover him with the rain. When he entered the cabin, he did not leave. He just looked at Liu Bei with an inquiring look. Liu Bei glanced at him and nodded, "Zilong, go and rest first, I have my own concerns about this."

Zhao Yun responded, lowered his head and went out, patrolled for a while, and sat quietly under the eaves of the cabin with his sword on his knees, closed his eyes and sat quietly.

Zhuge Liang put down the black chess piece in his hand, quietly looked at the chess game, raised his head and looked at Liu Bei who was sitting down with a dark face, bowed his salute, but didn't ask anything more. Liu Bei took the hot towel handed over by the maid next to him and wiped his face, glanced at the gentle Zhuge Liang, hesitated for a moment before saying, "Kong Ming, I have told Sun Ben the names of Feng'er and Chan'er."

Zhuge Liang raised his sword eyebrows and said "Oh", but he didn't say anything. Instead, he picked up another white chess piece from the white chess box and said with a smile: "Lord, you see, I made some mistakes in the previous one, and the impact is quite big. I think this piece is helping, but the loss is not very big." Liu Bei stared at the chessboard for a moment, and nodded thoughtfully, and said with a smile: "Sir, this is a great deal."

Zhao Yun, who was sitting outside the cabin, had a steady breath and his eyelids did not move at all.

"Lord, if you can defeat Cao Cao this time, you will be able to defeat Cao Cao, and you will be able to conquer some elite soldiers. The elite soldiers in the northern army will be of great benefit to the lord in the future. We have 4,000 troops here, and General Yide and 5,000 troops can also arrive at Hao Xiu in one day. Once Huarong City is occupied, you will not be too busy subdue the defeated soldiers in Hao Xiu, and trap them for two or three days first. After the Cao Ren army who came to help, we can use Cao Cao's military uniforms to sneak into Jiangling City. Jiangling will start with Jiangling, and rely on Yunchang's 10,000 naval troops. The Yangtze River is like a road for me, and we can lead the four counties in Jiangnan. As for Jiangxia, it is better to be guarded by Liu Boyu first."

Zhuge Liang said while waving his hands, paper was clothed on the chessboard. In a short while, a large piece of black pieces in the center of the chessboard was surrounded, and a small piece of black pieces next to him seemed to fall into the surrounding of white pieces again. Liu Bei looked at Zhuge Liang's flying fingers, his eyes became brighter and brighter, and his hands involuntarily reached towards the small piece of black pieces.

"Kong Ming, if we get Jiangling, it is equivalent to controlling Nanjun. In addition to the four counties in Jiangnan, Jingzhou is basically ours. But..." The light in his eyes suddenly darkened again, and his hand that reached out to Heizi stopped: "Zhou Gongjin is behind Cao Cao with 30,000 elite soldiers, and we may not be able to stop him."
Chapter completed!