After being proud of himself for two or three days, Cheng Lian paid the price.

On July 28th, the fifth morning after entering Shangjun, to be precise, it was in the early morning. The inside and outside of Mizhi Town were quiet. Most of the soldiers, including Cheng Lian, were sleeping, and only a few soldiers on duty were on duty, remained awake.

Cheng Lian has been a little decadent and enjoying his life because he has been intimidating several counties recently, and has been burning, killing and looting before, and has gained a lot.

Yesterday, after his troops inspected the territory, Cheng Lian guessed that Liu Bei's army should have received news that he was rampant in Shangjun and lived in the county towns upstream of Fushi or Wuding River. If Liu Bei's army came, it would be slow to run.

Therefore, Cheng Lian did not return to Fushi, but just stationed in Mizhi Town to rest. Mizhi is further downstream of Fushi County, closer to the Yellow River and the other side of the river to Shi County.

Other troops are gradually collecting their property, preparing to stop whenever they see it, and to tidy up the things stolen from the west of the cotton area, and continue to move eastward every day.

After staying last night, Cheng Lian enjoyed several "Mizhi Poo" he sucked and slept a little deeper, so when the night patrol officer came to report in a hurry, he pushed him two or three times before he woke up, which also caused the screams of the women around him.

"Zhonglang, emergency military information!"

"How anxious? I can't even wait for the time I'm driving the woman out?" Cheng Lian angrily scolded while tiring his clothes.

"Liu Bei's cavalry came out last night, and killed Yang Zhou and was approaching!" The scout officer's voice was shrill. Cheng Lian was stunned to see clearly that there were still blood on the other person's face.

"What? So fast? Tell me clearly!" Cheng Lian was still a little unbelievable, and subconsciously asked and confirmed.

On the other hand, it was also because the two stolen women next to him, who had been screaming since the scout officer rushed into the bedroom to report the matter, because they were not dressed and were seen by outsiders. The noise disturbed Cheng Lian's listening to military information.

Cheng Lian was irritated. As soon as he asked his subordinates, he turned his head and scolded him fiercely: "Looking for death! Shut up! You will die if you are looked at by a few times!"

One of the women looked ugly, but they were relatively obedient and had a wink. After hearing Cheng Lian's murderous warning, they immediately shut up. But the other one, who was slightly better in appearance, seemed to be used to being arrogant and still didn't stop.

Cheng Lian was too lazy to remind him for the second time at the critical moment of military affairs. He pulled out the hanging sword from the pile of clothes on the head of the bed and wiped the woman's neck with a backhand.

As a result, another ugly woman who had a color to hold back her screaming was only finally able to hold back. At this moment, she witnessed her companion being killed and screamed again instinctively and irresistibly.

Cheng Lian also stopped reminding him that he used his first sword force, so he took advantage of his inertia to take back his hands and chopped off the ugly woman who was silent and screaming again.

But his face remained unchanged, as if nothing had happened: "Speak quickly! It's bad luck, the most annoying woman. Who will come? How could it come so quickly!"

This is not because Cheng Lian is a bloodthirsty person, but because he often harasses behind enemy lines and guerrilla cavalry generals, all have sensitive nerves, alertness, and irritability, and they often kill people easily.

Five years ago, when he and Wei Yue followed Lu Bu to chase Zhang Yan, the final stage was that heavy snow fell and rushing into the Taihang Mountains.

At that time, Zhang Yan had lost even Jinyang City. He had no base, just drilling into the valley to fight guerrillas. He fought for someone who responded quickly and had a sensitive sense of smell. He was like a wolf who was looking for food when the snow closed the mountain, and was inhumane.

Cheng Lian saw with his own eyes how Zhang Yan died - Zhang Yan finally brought only the elite guards of his confidant and direct descendants and some family members. Zhang Yan had been a prince who had been with his family, but he was reluctant to leave his wife and son. In the end, he was dragged down his transfer speed when encountering an emergency. Lu Bu caught up with the whole family and destroyed the family without leaving any family.

From that moment on, Cheng Lian warned himself that he must learn from Zhang Yan's lessons and that no family members could drag down his speed of transfer in this life, otherwise he would kill him with his own hands!

Women will only affect the speed of my sword drawing and transfer!

All those who were not decisive enough died! Last year, even Wei Yue was poisoned by Guan Yu! Five years ago, the general who successfully chased Zhang Yan with Lu Bu, except Lu Bu himself was the only one left Cheng Lian, who was still alive!

The subordinate looked at his fierce expression and trembled slightly and added reports quickly, fearing that his speech speed would be slow and provoked the General of the Central Army, so he chopped him up like that woman:

"The one who came was Ma Chao. He seemed to have been stationed in Gaonuduo for a day, and then he hid and left at night to enter Yangzhou County, which was controlled by us, and rushed all the way here."

Cheng Lian still felt incredible: "Ma Chao? This is not surprising. But even Ma Chao, how could his large army run past the fast horse messenger who reported the message? Did I eat S on the outpost I left at Yangzhou? Why didn't the alarm be issued!"

My subordinates were also in a dilemma: "I don't know. Anyway, the Hu Duwei of Yangzhou County has not been alerted so far. Maybe Ma Chao was circling around at night and took the lead and cut off the contact between Yangzhou County and us.

The enemy situation was still our guards who were scattered twenty miles south of the town and found that they were rewarded quickly. Ma Chao was only five miles away from here at most. His troops should be one man, two horses or three horses, and they only came so fast when they changed their horses."

"One person has many horses? Isn't that a common trick used by the Huns and Xianbei people? Liu Bei did not have so many horses. If you don't ask, the whole army will gather immediately! Don't fight, run to the north, and you will take a bunch of people to the bed, let them move north, and meet me.

We will fight Ma Chao again in one place. If we can run away, run away. First observe Ma Chao's virtuality and reality before talking about it! If we confirm that Ma Chao is not strong enough and cannot get rid of it, we will turn around and fight to the death!"

Cheng Lian also heard that he really didn't have time to think about it slowly. The important thing now is to make decisions first and assemble troops first. The towns in Hetao have no defense, and the cavalry had to fight when they arrived in front of him. They couldn't even avoid it.

Cheng Lian also suffered another loss, that is, his 12,000 people were slightly dispersed because they maintained rule and extortion everywhere. In this case, any of them caught by Ma Chao would be defeated by each person. So it is not embarrassing to run first and shrink first.

Cheng Lian could have imagined that when Ma Chao came, the greatest possibility was to search and kill along the Wuding River. This would not only hit the most Chenglian cavalry troops and find the most combat opportunities, but also block the ships in the Wuding River that transport goods and cross the river to return to the Wuding River-Yellow River estuary in Lishi.

In this way, Cheng Lian lost the most convenient option to directly cross the Yellow River to return to Taiyuan, and the possibility of his escape would be greatly reduced.

But Cheng Lian still dared to do this when he thought of this, so he naturally made a choice. Cheng Lian knew very well that the Yellow River had not much water in the Hetao area, and because it was not bound by mountains, the Yellow River became very wide and shallow, and the flood was flooding very unrestrained, and the water speed was not fast.

Therefore, as long as the cavalry can escape temporarily and keep the distance so that Ma Chao can't find him. If you find a savanna, you can just make some wood or make a raft temporarily to cross the Yellow River.

As long as he is willing to abandon the ship, Ma Chao will not be able to find out the logic of his movement trajectory and can secretly cross the river everywhere.

Unfortunately, Cheng Lian was so decisive, but it was not fast enough. When he led two or three thousand confidants who had the fastest reaction to flee north from Mizhi Town, Ma Chao's troops were already surrounded from three directions like a prairie fire.

Cheng Lian finally had to choose a hero to cut off his arm - when he fled north, he did not bring his own flag, nor did he bring any heavy and slow things, and he also used a few slow-responsive friendly forces to act as the blocking and bait.

Ma Chao thought Cheng Lian had not left Mizhi Town, so he spent some time slowly besieging the town. In the end, although he killed and forced one or two thousand prisoners to surrender, he wasted time.

Without the first move, Cheng Lian was instantly dissatisfied. Ma Chao felt that his two days of marching at night and the layout of one and three horses were wasted. When he used this move more than two years ago, he even killed Guo Si by the Juyan Beach.

A mere Cheng Lian shouldn’t be able to win? Is Cheng Lian more valuable than Guo Si?

This is not because Ma Chao is proud. He predicts that the enemy has forgotten to be lenient. It is because of Ma Chao's intelligence and he is never good at guessing human nature. He forgot that guerrilla generals like Cheng Lian have no face burden and are not afraid of embarrassment.

Guo Si, after all, followed Li Jue to hold the emperor and was named General of Cavalry by Liu Xie. He had a high status and would eventually be squeezed out of reach. When he encountered an enemy attack that seemed to have a little chance to turn the tables, he would not be able to let go of his idol's burden and run away humbly.

To give the most extreme example, Guo Si is still good, and he will only bet when he has the opportunity to have a "nine-death death" opportunity. If he is like Xiang Yu, he has been the overlord of the world, even if he is "no life in ten deaths", he will not escape.

No matter what, although there was no surprise attack to kill Cheng Lian in seconds, Ma Chao quickly calmed down and rushed forward and chased Cheng Lian to the ground. He chased Cheng Lian for war. Whenever Cheng Lian's cavalry dared to stop and escape, Ma Chao would be extremely excited.

After two days and one night of pursuit, Ma Chao won several small victories, each time he annihilated hundreds of enemies and more than a thousand scale, and captured a lot of prisoners. Cheng Lian's troops was cut off to only more than 9,000 people. Nearly one-quarter of the troops were lost during the retraction and assembly of the troops.

However, Cheng Lian also relied on delaying time to escape and snowball, gathering all the troops scattered everywhere back. In this process, he also thoroughly found out the scale of Ma Chao's troops-

In fact, Cheng Lian had some understanding of the total scale and number of cavalry that Liu Bei's army could use at the beginning.

As we all know, before the war with Yuan Shao, the Liu Bei army could move to expeditions, about 320,000 troops, including 250,000 infantry and 70,000 cavalry.

Liu Bei would leave a total reserve team of nearly 10,000 people in Chang'an at any time. Guan Yu had more than 10,000 cavalrymen on the Hedong battlefield, and there were fewer cavalrymen in the south, but Li Su still had nearly 10,000 people.

Therefore, Liu Bei could use cavalry mobile troops at any time, but in fact, there were only between 30,000 to 40,000, and the others were all useful.

And this did not consider the deception that Yuan Shao and Lu Bu were deceived - because in the information they received, Liu Bei sent away 70,000 to 80,000 reinforcements to Li Su on the southern front, and there were probably 10,000 cavalrymen here.

Therefore, in the eyes of the commanders of the Kanto camp, Liu Bei could dispatch a total of no more than 30,000 cavalrymen in total.

The Han troops at most give cavalry an additional pack horse for road transport, but they will never give cavalry troops that are rich enough to have one man, two horses and three horses. This is a luxury that the Xianbei Huns can do.

Therefore, when Cheng Chu encountered a sneak attack, he learned that Ma Chao was suspected of having three horses, his first reaction was, "Can Ma Chao get 10,000 horses? Liu Bei just concentrated all 30,000 war horses for him, and he only had 10,000 cavalry.

Is our enemy harassment effect so good? Let Liu Bei send all the cavalry potential troops to Shangjun to block the entrance? If that is true, although we suffer some losses, it will be beneficial to the overall situation. At least General Lu will not encounter reinforcements from Liu Bei's cavalry troops. We have completed the task of luring the enemy assigned by General Lu in another place."

Unfortunately, all this was just his initial idea.

After a one-and-two night mobile war, after the cat and mouse catching, Cheng Lian summarized the latest situation and confirmed that Ma Chao had only 5,000 cavalrymen and used about 15,000 horses.

In other words, Liu Bei seemed to have assigned half of the war horse that he could flexibly use to Ma Chao to solve the problem of Shangjun. The remaining half was obviously still in the hands. When Lu Bu took action, it would probably be used to block Lu Bu.

When Cheng Lian found out this data, he felt very unwilling: How dare you fight so arrogantly with only 5,000 people? Yesterday morning, I was scared that I thought you had at least more than 10,000 elite riders!

Although he did not gather his 12,000 horses at the first time, he was still very unwilling to be killed by Ma Chao and 5,000 people. He felt that he had run away wrongly and was frightened by Ma Chao and deceived him.

However, even though he ran here, he finally got out of contact, Cheng Lian was not so stupid that he gathered troops and rushed back.

His officers also advised him not to be impulsive: Although Ma Chao's few soldiers, because he has three horses, he has very abundant loads, and 5,000 people can wear iron armor. Judging from the previous battle records, Ma Chao's cavalry's combat power is very strong, and his equipment advantage is still crushing.

Cheng Lian also knew the benefits of the Kansai Army's breastplate and steel pyramid guns, so he chose to let the troops seize the time to find a shallow water area near Wuyuan and the northern section of the Yellow River in the clouds, and quickly make a raft and sneak across the river. But if it is really inevitable, for example, when Ma Chao arrives again during the waiting time for making a raft, then you should fight.

Anyway, his troops were all cavalry, and they traveled very quickly in places like the Hetao Plain. As long as you find a remote location, Ma Chao might not be able to find him.

In the past two days, he had already run north from Fushi to a place equivalent to the later Ordos area. Of course, there was no name in the late Han Dynasty, but it just belonged to the junction of Shangjun and Yunzhongjun.

...

However, although Ma Chao didn't know where Cheng Lian wanted to secretly cross the Yellow River, he was very energetic.

Relying on his ability to change horses and riders, after discovering that Cheng Lian had no intention of returning to Taiyuan County along the Wuding River, Ma Chao also guessed that Cheng Lian was avoiding his edge, giving up all the ships, and temporarily setting up a raft when he was no one.

Ma Chao used the most upright and stupid method - to divide his troops and run them out, and searched north along the mouth of Wuding River and along the Yellow River.

Considering that he didn't have enough time, he even divided his troops and directly penetrated from Fushi to the north to the bank of the Yellow River, then searched eastward, and first penetrated eastward along the Wuding River to the bank of the Yellow River, and then searched northward.

This can shorten the time to discover the enemy by half, just like a clamp attack, and finally meet at the corner of the "Ji" shape in the northeast of the Yellow River in Yunzhong County.

Regarding this decision, his younger brother Ma Dai couldn't help but persuade him: "Brother, our troops will be even more dispersed. If he meets Cheng Lian, he will turn around and fight us in a decisive battle? Then it will be his turn to gather troops in one place, and we will suffer."

Ma Chao: "Didn't Your Majesty give us a special match this time? If he wants to beat you, run away. Just bite and keep a distance, and then send a letter to wait for me to meet.

Besides, the cavalry charged on the Hetao grassland. I don’t believe that the blind and deaf people in Bingzhou have not seen my reputation yet. Do they know the benefits of our army forging steel breastplate and other equipment? Even if they have equipment, it’s okay for me to fight two or three of them.

Moreover, Cheng Lian was not alone and had more horses. I suspect that his troops had run away and were not even enough horsepower. When they fight really bloody, they must have lost their morale and strength. We cannot give them the opportunity to slowly build ships in a corner of the Yellow River to restore the strength of the war horses."

Ma Dai then agreed with the promise, feeling that what his brother said was indeed very reasonable.

...

So, on the north bank of the Yellow River, on the unknown riverside grassland at the junction of Yunzhong County and Shangjun, Ma Chao finally collided with Cheng Lian's nine thousand men.

When he was picking up the enemy, Ma Chao took out his telescope and observed it - the purpose was to confirm the progress of Cheng Lian's raft building.

"The trees were cut down, and it shouldn't be enough, so few rafts were built. According to this progress, his troops should have chosen this place to start construction this morning. He also gave horses a lumber in batches. It seems that the average rest time for horses will not exceed two hours, and the overwork has not been restored so completely in the past few days.

Hurry up, everyone replaces the horses used for charge, let the armoured horses and horses take a break, leave the two young men to guard, and the rest follow me to kill them!"

After Ma Chao made a simple and organized deployment, he was deeply influenced by the cavalry operations and launched a just right offensive.

Cheng Lian reacted quickly and immediately assembled the troops and horses, but he was not attacked. He had endured so much that he finally reached the moment of exploding:

Ma Chao is getting more and more excessive. No matter how you look at this wave, there are only three or four thousand people. He dares to attack me now? He agreed that there are five thousand people. He is trying to speed up his finding me, so he also divided his troops to search?

Is it a taboo for military strategists to disperse their troops and be defeated by them?

Of course Ma Chao knew, but what Ma Chao was even more worried was that if he did not commit a military taboo, the enemy would be even less confident to fight with him.

He had killed Guo Si, but he had never lost the grassland cavalry battle. It would be better to make some taboos to let the enemy see some hope.

Similar to a master deliberately expressing his intention to let the other party have one hand in order to lure the enemy to fight.

...

"If I don't do this, would you dare to fight me?"

Two hours later, when Ma Chao pulled out a cone gun from Cheng Lian's body in the setting sun, he muttered to himself like this.

To be honest, if there was Lu Bu on the other side today, Ma Chao would never dare to act like "I'll let you have one hand" to underestimate the enemy. Ma Chao knew that he was not Lu Bu's opponent.
Chapter completed!