It was already dark. In the temporary camp on the north slope of Wushan Mountain on the south bank of the Yellow River, the soldiers of Bingzhou Army traveled back and forth for two consecutive days. They couldn't hold on anymore and fell asleep. Even if they wanted to chase Guan Yu, they could only rest for enough to dawn tomorrow.

But Lu Bu was extremely sad and angry after having his buddy. He was still drinking wine to relieve his boredom and venting his heart. He muttered to the body of Wei Yue that he had just restrained, as if he had to finish drinking this pot of wine before he could rest.

"A Yue, I still remember that four years ago, we captured Jinyang City in Taiyuan, and Zhang Yan led his personal guards to break north and escaped overnight. We chased each other day and night in Taihang Mountains, five days and five nights, and finally intercepted Zhang Yan at Yanmen.

That time, thanks to your shooting down Zhang Yan's war horse from a hundred steps away, otherwise if he was escaped, he would have to chase him for a few more days. I never thought that you were so brave that you could have died at the hands of Guan Yu. Brother, today, you will have a chance to wipe out Guan Yu this time!"

As he drank, Lu Bu slapped the table and shouted. Obviously, he had saved enough anger this time, unlike when Wen Chou was defeated, he still wanted to take advantage of the money.

Nowadays, Lu Bu no longer cares much about personal honor and disgrace, and can truly share the same hatred with Wen Chou. The deaths of Yan Liang and Wei Yue have ignited the common hatred between Lu Bu and Wen Chou.

After drinking almost the same thing, Lu Bu remembered something, so he asked the guards under the tent to bring an enemy official who came to surrender yesterday (it was already past the second half of the night, so it was "yesterday")

The man was named Pan Jun, who was originally a member of a side army under Guan Yu's command.

Didn’t you say that before? Because Guan Yu always kept the real escape route secret from his soldiers and generals, the soldiers below did not know Guan Yu’s final plan.

Some soldiers were organized into mobile troops and needed to take on the labour of "returning back and seducing the enemy", and the morale of the army became increasingly shaken. Although the final result proved that Guan Yu's prestige was still enough and the troops did not collapse, there was still a problem of desertion.

During the past two days of fake actions of luring the enemy, hundreds of ordinary soldiers and several officers and staff members could not withstand Guan Yu's orders and changed every day. They no longer believed in Guan Yu and were completely desperate about the probability of escape, so they surrendered to Lu Bu on the front line.

This Pan Jun is the representative of it. Fortunately, he is just an aide and has no right to lead troops directly, so when he surrendered, he couldn't take too many people away, and only dozens of confidants followed him.

At that time, the leader of Pan Jun's army was Hao Pu. Hao Pu also surrendered to the Eastern Wu when Guan Yu lost Jingzhou in history, but he was relatively honest. He was the other counties around him, and he was isolated and had no help.

Therefore, the situation this time is far less desperate than the battle of Jingzhou in history, Hao Pu still withstood the pressure. When Pan Jun ran away, he sent someone to leave a message to him for his rebellion, and said that Guan Yu was cruel, if he ran away and the main general did not run away, the main general would definitely be held accountable for the crime of not being strict in custody.

Hao Pu did not have time to pursue Pan Jun, or he tried to chase him but failed, but he chose to go to Guan Yu to apologize. Guan Yu also pardoned him, saying that in such a critical situation, he himself did not defect and had withstood the test. Pan Jun's defection suddenly happened, and it was understandable that he did not pursue him.

Hao Pu's anxiety gradually calmed down, and he continued to serve the Han Dynasty like other loyal ministers such as Zhao Lei and Xi Zhen.

Fortunately, within a few hours later, Guan Yu's army killed Wei Yue, crossed the Yellow River north and broke through temporarily successfully. The morale of the soldiers was greatly boosted. Hao Pu and others breathed a sigh of relief. No one would consider surrendering or fleeing again.

Although Guan Yu cannot be considered successful in escaping, he at least temporarily broke away from contact with the pursuers.

In this way, Pan Jun, who surrendered to the enemy at the darkest moment before dawn, fell into an embarrassing situation.

It's even more embarrassing than a person who has been a traitor in 45 years.

After only half a day of good life, Lu Bu re-took it as a death sentence by "Guan Yu sent to surrender to me and lure me to make wrong judgments. It was Pan Jun's misleading that made me relax my support and guard against Wei Yue, and indirectly killed Wei Yue."

Now Lu Bu has drunk some wine for the tribute to Wei Yue. He is angry. Of course, he asked his personal guard to tie Pan Jun, pull him to the spirit to torture him and torture him, and torture him for confession.

"Dog thief! Tell me all the final retreat plan that Guan Yu originally planned! Then let me spare you! Tell me, is Guan Yu going to walk west along the north slope of Wushan on the south bank of the Yellow River? Then how did he finally pass through the cliff area of ​​Shaanxi Gorge!

If you dare to come to me to surrender, do you think death is the worst? Pan Gou, this general lets you know what you want to live without dying! I want you to live without dying!"

Pan Jun was tied to a wooden pillar by a large flower. Lu Bu personally whipped and wolves toothed rods, and in a moment he beat Pan Jun so hard that his skin was bursting. There were red-burned soldering irons and other simple torture instruments next to him.

It’s not that Pan Jun doesn’t want to recruit, but that the other party doesn’t believe what he recruits:

"General Lu spared my life! You misunderstood that I was sincerely surrendering. Guan Yu announced his retreat plan. He really shot the north and sank the unburned materials into the Yellow River to avoid investing in the enemy. At the same time, after leading the enemy to the north, we broke south and crossed the mountain behind Hangu Pass...

Ah, stop beating, I really said everything, he escaped like this. If you don’t distinguish between loyalty, treacherous and cruel people, aren’t you afraid of destroying the reputation of the General of the Cavalry, the Reverent and the Innocence, ah?”

The moment Pan Jun was beaten unconscious, there was only an unwilling thought in his mind.

This idea may be similar to someone a thousand and eight hundred years later: Do you think my first four acts are not positive? After suffering from the torture of the enemy, do you think if I grit my teeth again, wouldn’t I survive...

It's so unlucky! Just a few hours away, is Hao Pu's thick-browed and big-eyed eyes really loyal to Gingering than us? Not necessarily! He was so lucky that he had been working for several hours!

One thought of heaven and one thought of hell, alas.

But there is nothing to blame for this. God has actually given him a chance to choose again.

I'll give you a chance and you won't be useful! This time I've been betrayed again!

Then what else is there to say?

...

The next morning, Lu Bu woke up and saw a dead person tied to the pillar in front of Wei Yue's spiritual position. He was shocked to ask why.

The left and right answered timidly: "The general drank last night to question the enemy general who surrendered. The surrendered general was desperate and refused to attack. The general got angry and... he killed him to pay homage to the Wei Chief Captain."

Then Lu Bu remembered, "Ah, it turns out that it is not suitable to do when you are angry when you drink. But now that things have come to this point, there is nothing to regret. He sets the tone with great majesty:

"That's right, this person who pretended to surrender during his death is worthy of death! Since I can't ask, I will be beaten to death. Remember to inform all the civil and military officials of our army who knew about this: I have seen through Pan Jun's surrender."

At least Lu Bu knew how to stabilize people's hearts so that no one dared to surrender in the future and was scared. So his handling was almost the same as the aftermath of Cao Cao's killing of Cai Mao and Zhang Yun in the Romance. (Note: Cai Mao was not killed by Cao Cao in official history)

After all this, Lu Bu ordered the entire army to set off and continue to go westward to pursue Guan Yu.

The troops marched along the northern slope of Wushan for half a morning, but as they walked, especially as the troops climbed through two high slopes, and stood at a high place without seeing the shadow of the enemy in front of them. This really made Lu Bu's army fall into deep suspicion.

Lu Bu thought to himself: "Did Guan Yu marching without sleeping all night? It's impossible. His troops have not had a good rest for at least two days, so they will definitely not be able to withstand the physical strength. He is still leading a convoy, so he will definitely not be able to chase after us on foot.

Moreover, the north slope of Wushan is not easy to walk. Although you don’t use a torch at night, you can also hear the sound of the Yellow River along the river. However, the sound of the Yellow River is too loud and it is difficult to accurately identify the distance and the river will fall into the river if you are not careful."

Lu Bu could not understand how Guan Yu had distanced the distance overnight. He marched in confusion for more than half an hour. At noon, Lu Bu's army climbed over another high place on the north slope of Wushan Mountain on the south bank, and asked the troops to carefully look and investigate, and then they discovered the abnormality.

"General, look! There are a large group of chariots and horses on the north bank ahead. Isn't it Guan Yu's army?"

Lu Bu was shocked and quickly climbed up to stare. Isn’t it Guan Yu? Then his heart was filled with greater shock:

"Where did Guan Yu cross the river? His convoy can cross the river directly? And this is not a ferry, and Xiaopingjin has been taken back by us.

On the way last night, there were either rocky beaches or mud flats on the banks of the Yellow River. There was no enough water for the boat to dock. Could it be that Guan Yu's people walked into the water of the Yellow River at least waist-deep in the darkness of the night and then climbed onto the boat?"

He had a series of soul-searching questions, but fortunately he also had a slightly adaptable aide around him, and immediately thought of a possibility:

"General, Guan Yu cannot have a ferry with the army. It must be the kind of car he used to cross the river by himself! Since he is using a car to cross the water, where is the problem of getting started? There is no dock to be able to dock, wouldn't it be better to just push the car from the rocky beach and use a pole to push it down the river?"

Lu Bu was stunned for a while and slapped his thigh regretfully: "What a pity! I have been fighting with Guan Yu for more than ten days, but I only found out today how their ox cart is used!

This is really a powerful tool for both water and land. If our army had a knowledgeable man discovered it early, imitated it in large quantities, and discovered its usefulness, how could it be so caught by the enemy in today's battle? "

The generals around him quickly asked: "What should we do now? We don't have a boat to cross the river here. Do we need to temporarily log wood and raft to cross the river?"

Lu Bu thought for a while: "It's useless to set up a raft! Since Guan Yu could cross the river once, he might cross it again for the second time. He divided a small number of people and cavalry, and returned to Xiaopingjin to cross the river from there to the north bank, and explained the situation here in detail to Cheng Lian, so that he could all fight ships on the north bank to support him.

But tell Cheng Lian that Guan Yu is not an idiot, and Wei Yue has been killed by him. Cheng Lian’s army alone is definitely not a match for Guan Yu, so don’t make a rash move. Wen Chou’s main force is already a day later than us, and he can almost reach Xiaopingjin.

After Cheng Lian transferred all the warships on the north bank, he flew Wen Chou's soldiers to the north bank. He and Wen Chou chased each other. If they chased to the mouth of Qingshui River and Yellow River in Dongyuan County, they had not caught up with them, so Zhang Liao could also help the battle.

Our army continued to chase westward, and I personally led the troops to prevent Guan Yu from crossing to the south bank again to avoid the battle and escape!"

Lu Bu's arrangement was actually a bit of a military taboo, because he would divide the total pursuing force into two parts, giving Guan Yu a front-line chance to defeat each of them.

Fortunately, the pursuing party's strength is at least five times that of Guan Yu. If Zhang Liao adds it, it will be more than six times. So even if the two parts are divided, it can still be significantly advantageous.

However, Lu Bu didn't know that Guan Yu had seriously injured his arm now, and he thought Guan Yu was in full swing, so he only left him to lead and block it in the south bank. Lu Bu thought that if only one general was left on one side to block Guan Yu, he would have to take action himself to defeat Guan Yu.

Everything was arranged like this, because Yuan Shao's soldiers had to have a ferry to get ashore and get off the boat, and they could not find a shallow rocky beach to go up and down the river, so the deployment of pursuit would definitely delay time.

So on May 18th and 19th, both armies were in motion and had no chance of fighting. Guan Yu wandered upwards for more than 150 miles of mountain road, and the pursuit was one day late, so even if the warships were faster than climbing the mountain, they barely shortened the distance between the two sides.

Until May 20th, Guan Yu had only had the last five days of military ration left, and the arrows and other supplies were almost consumed, and the baggage was getting lighter and lighter.

The distance between the chasing party and the retreat party finally narrowed the battle distance, and it was about to break out at any time. However, Guan Yu had already retreated to Sanmenxia and was about to escape from the sky.

Because Lu Bu and Guan Yu chased each other through the Yellow River for the past two or three days, he had completely understood the characteristics of the water and land caravan. As long as Guan Yu walked through the gentle slope of the southern foot of Zhongtiao Mountain on the north bank and passed through Sanmenxia, ​​then Guan Yu could go down the river again and take the Yellow River waterway and return to Chang'an!

Cheng Lian's warship could not pass through Sanmenxia from the river surface, and it was blocked downstream from then on and could not play a role.

Wen Chou's 70,000 army can chase Sanmenxia by land. But even if you chase it, it is useless. As long as Guan Yu crosses Sanmenxia and goes down the river, Wen Chou can only watch it on the shore.

Lu Bu's direct troops were on the south bank, because he wanted to pass Sanmenxia by land, and he walked not by Zhongtiao Mountain but by Wushan. The section of Wushan in Sanmenxia is cliffs and cannot reach the cliffs. As mentioned earlier, Lu Bu's direct troops were even more useless.

After striking for so long, Yan Liang was killed by Guan Yu, Jiang Yiqu and Wei Yue, but finally escaped unscathed. How could this make Lu Bu feel angry?

Seeing that the enemy was about to escape, Lu Bu didn't even have time to get off the horse and camp for a rest and have a meeting, but instead summoned his generals to ask about countermeasures: "Did you just watch Guan Yu run away? What else can you do!"

The generals looked at each other and said that everyone had tried their best. It was not the pursuit of the matter. Several of them said indignantly: "General! We really don't blame us for this matter. A few days ago, the fast horse messenger you sent to communicate with Zhang Liao and Jia Xu. Didn't you return that Zhang Liao was about to formally attack Anyi?

The messenger clearly stated that once Zhang Liao surrounded Anyi, he would divide his troops south across the Zhongtiao Valley Road to Dayang County, and block Guan Yu and pass through Shaanxi Gorge. That was originally our only chance. Zhang Liao could intercept Guan Yu's head!

No matter how fierce we are chasing each other, it would be in vain if no one in front of us blocks the road and stops the head! Could it be that Zhang Liao saved his strength and was afraid that he would not be able to intercept Guan Yu alone for one or two days?

That's a fear of the enemy. Even if Zhang Liao is not Guan Yu's opponent, with the dangerous and narrow terrain of Dayang, he blocked the narrow road between Zhongtiao Mountain and the Yellow River. Isn't it okay to stick to it without fighting? Guan Yu jumped over the wall in a hurry, and at most he would attack Zhang Liao's defense zone and seize the road. Can't he even defend the danger!"

Lu Bu still trusted Zhang Liao very much, but his subordinates all pushed Zhang Liao all the blame for the failure to pursue, and Lu Bu was also a little hesitant.

It is true that they made sense that Zhang Liao had already penetrated deep behind enemy lines before the pursuit began, and was the most likely person to intercept Guan Yu from the front.

Why didn’t Zhang Liao come!

Just when Lu Bu was angry, a whistle boat came from the north bank, which was sent by Cheng Lian and brought a messenger from Zhang Liao's army to report here urgently.

Lu Bu immediately met the other party, but the man brought bad news from Zhang Liao and Jia Xu:

"General Lu! General Zhang originally wanted to siege Anyi with two plans for water and fire, flood the low-level camps outside the enemy's city with water, and burn the enemy ships on the water dock with fire. However, he was attacked by the enemy general Wu Ban and Zhang Ren, and broke the two plans for water and fire! He said he was ashamed of the general, and the situation of the battle changed, so he was defeated and could not be blocked by Shaanxi Gorge."

Lu Bu was so shocked that his chin dropped: "Nonsense! What kind of water, fire, how many people have been lost? Who is the Wu Ban? But the rich guy, when I was holding Jinwu's tent, I saw the waste of Wu Kuang family! How could such a person break so many tricks and defeat Zhang Liao!"

The messenger also looked full of regret: "After the war, Mr. Jia realized that there were strange and strategic figures in the enemy army, and that was Li Su's favorite disciple Zhuge Liang, and his military strategy was not inferior to Mr. Jia."

Lu Bu was stunned for a while and laughed in anger: "Li Sugou Thief! Next time I will kill you and Guan Yu! And that Zhuge Liang!"

Unfortunately, in this meaningless rage, Guan Yu and Wen Chou and Cheng Lian fought and retreated, and finally passed through the north bank of Sanmenxia.

All Lu Bu could do was watch Guan Yu pass the most turbulent gate of hell in Sanmenxia, ​​and drove the caravan down the Yellow River again. Then Lu Bu and Wen Chou watched Guan Yu go away on the south and north banks respectively.

Cheng Lian watched Guan Yu go away from the Yellow River through the turbid waves.

There were some young officers under Cheng Lian’s tent. They had never been to this section of the Yellow River before and wanted to try to go up and chase him. However, just a few feet deep into the waters of the Ghost Gate, they were swept to the bottom of the river by a whirlpool and then smashed to the reefs of Dizhu Mountain, with no bones left.

After a few ships died, the other soldiers of the Waterway Army calmed down and never chose to give them rashly.

Guan Yu had been suppressing for many days, and only then did he breathe a long sigh and confirmed that the two sides had set apart several miles away, so he made the entire army yell in the caravan:

"Thank you General Zhengbei to see him off! General Zhengbei invites you back! This hastily encounter, and there is no sufficient reception for guests. See you next time, we will drink horses and hunt Taiyuan!"
Chapter completed!