Chapter 109 Articles in the stove

"General, the Jingzhou army is really fierce today!" In Ba County, Liu Yu, the deputy general with his arm hanging around his neck, was a little angry with Zhang Ren. This wound was shot through his right arm by a dark arrow of the Jingzhou Army when he commanded the defense of the city.

"It seems that Zhang Fei is desperate and wants to fight quickly!" Zhang Ren sneered, and then said to Liu Yu, "The general insists on two more days. When the Jingzhou army's food is exhausted, we can counterattack and cover up."

"Are two days enough?" Liu Yu felt that Zhang Ren was a little too confident, but he heard Zhang Ren laugh and said, "We have been here for a long time, and Zhang Fei's grain and grass have been poor for a long time. It was said that General Gao robbed again, and Zhang Fei was ashamed and angry, so he attacked. We only need to stick to it for one or two days, and the people will withdraw because of the lack of food and fodder. What's more, Zhang Fei's surname is like fire. If he can't attack for a long time, he will drink and whip the soldiers. In this way, the army will be confused.

"Although Zhang Fei is a man, Zhuge Liang is resourceful and should not be underestimated!" Liu Yu suddenly remembered something; he quickly reminded him. Without the battle of Chibi in history, Zhuge Liang is very famous in Jingxiang, and Liu Yu has more or less heard of it.

"This kind of white-faced scholar still has some skills in governance, so it's not enough to worry about fighting!" Zhang Ren didn't think so. This governor Zhang is a typical practitioner. He believes that war must be fought only by those who have really been to the battlefield, and the role of those counselors who can only talk is limited. Such an idea is doomed to his failure.

Zhang Ren expected that after the Jingzhou army attacked for three days, leaving more than 7,000 corpses, in the early morning of the fourth day, the defenders were surprised to find that those annoying Jingzhou troops, with the terrible touting machine, did not come to continue to disturb themselves today.

"Governor, the Jingzhou army retreated overnight!" Liu Yu reported to Zhang Ren in surprise. The latter frowned slightly when he heard the words and sent detailed work to inquire about the whereof of the Jingzhou army. In the afternoon, detailed works came one after another, saying that the Jingzhou army had gone south.

"South?" Zhang Ren was also stunned when he heard the words, and then understood and smiled, "It seems that this Fei is unwilling to return to Jingzhou like this. I want to go to Nanzhong and Zhu Di to gain a firm foothold, and then Xu Tuwo Xichuan!"

"General, since Zhang Fei has withdrawn, shall we pursue him?" Liu Yu and others asked.

"Chasing, naturally you have to chase. Otherwise, if Zhang Fei is allowed to hold his feet in the south, then I, Xichuan, will never be at peace!" Zhang Ren said in a low voice. Immediately, Zhang Ren left Liu Yu to guard the city, and he personally led 50,000 troops to chase Zhang Fei to the south with Ma Yan, Liu Han and other generals.

"General, the Jingzhou Army should have camped here last night. Look, the ground is full of cooking stoves." Ma Yan pointed to the military stove on the ground. This kind of military stove is built with stones. After it is built up, you can put the pot on it, and then light the firewood and grass below to cook rice and boil water. Generally, when the army withdraws, unless you want to hide the traces, these stoves will be kept, and few people deliberately clean them up.

"Well, send someone to count and see how many military stoves there are." Zhang Ren said quietly. After a while, the army counted and reported that there were about 5,000 stoves.

"Ten people in one stove, then there should be 50,000 people!" Zhang Ren muttered. The march is different from the garrison. Generally, when marching, especially when marching in a hurry, the army only cooks a meal on the stove, and the other two meals are prepared together, and then take them on the road. Generally speaking, a stove is only enough for ten people to eat around. On the one hand, the marching pot is about the same size, which is only enough for ten people to eat. On the other hand, if there are too many people around a pot, it will be crowded and bumpy when eating.

"General, do you still want to chase?" Ma Yan saw that the number of the other party was almost the same as himself, and he couldn't help but feel a little drumming. Zhang Ren thought for a while, and finally said, "We still need to recover Nanzhong. Now we can't retreat easily, but it is Zhang Fei's trick to prevent this. In this way, General Ma, you lead 5,000 people to open the way first, and report the situation immediately.

"It's good!" Ma Yan also knew that it was safer to do so. At present, he led the way to open the way first. Zhang Ren led the army and then followed and chased after it for a short time. Along the way, it was obvious that the traces left by the Jingzhou army retreat could be seen. For example, fallen horses, discarded shabby armor. Although it is not much, it is enough to show that a large army has just walked here.

"General, there is another group of stoves in the open space in front of you!" At this time, a detective reported that Ma Yan had done the same. He hurriedly ordered people to count the total number of military stoves, which surprised him.

" More than 7,000 stoves?" Ma Yan felt that this matter was a little strange. If there were ten people in one stove, it would be enough for 70,000 to 80,000 people to eat. Why did Zhang Fei send more troops instead? After thinking about it, Ma Yan finally felt that he really had a headache and decided to wait for Zhang Ren to come before making a decision.

" More than 7,000 stoves?" Zhang Ren frowned when he heard the words, and then began to personally check the military stove scattered on the ground. For a long time, after looking at dozens of military stoves, Zhang Ren's face showed an intriguing smile.

"Governor, what's going on? Where did this flight come from?" Ma Yan felt a little pain in his head, but he heard Zhang Ren laugh and said, "Who said that Zhang Fei had sent more troops?"

"Huh? Governor, didn't Zhang Fei have more stoves? Ma Yan asked inexplicably, and the rest of the generals were also at a loss. However, Zhang Ren smiled and said, "Zhang Fei is not brainless. He was afraid that I would chase him, so he ordered the soldiers to dig more stoves to fake the truth. But what he didn't expect was that the fake was fake, which was different from the real stove.

"What's the difference?" Ma Yan asked the curiosity to the end, but Zhang Ren asked, "Ma Yan, how long does it take to cook a pot of rice?"

"About half an hour!" Ma Yan muttered a little.

"Yes, it takes about half an hour. In this half hour, you have to burn firewood and grass to cook, and in the end, there will naturally be a lot of ashes accumulated in the stove. However, I just checked dozens of stoves. Although the stones used to build the stove have traces of being burned by fire, many of them have only a little ash in them. I guess it's just a handful of grass to burn!" Zhang Ren said with a smile.

"The governor means that many of these stoves are fake?" After listening for a long time, Ma Yan also understood something.

"That's right. Zhang Fei was afraid that I would see the truth, so there were many fake stoves. Go down and check all the stoves carefully to see how many are real stoves and how many are fake stoves. Zhang Ren continued to order, and the troops quickly counted carefully. In the end, they reported that there were about 3,000 fake stoves, and the real stoves were about 4,000.

"If it comes to the real stove, it's not as much as yesterday. Zhang Fei's lack of food and fodder, coupled with the soldiers being far away from Jingzhou, is homesick, and it is not surprising that there are deserters. Come on, pass my orders and chase at full speed!" After Zhang Ren figured out the situation, he ordered a full-speed pursuit. The 50,000 Sichuan army ran all the way and chased it for two days. Finally, it caught up with the tail of the Jingzhou army on the edge of the water. After a scuffle, the troops of about 2,000 people were seriously injured. The rest of them threw away their armor and ran south. Zhang Ren ordered to continue the pursuit. These defeated soldiers ran to the rafts prepared by the river, and all of them ran across the river.

"General, here is another stove!" When he chased to the edge of the Minjiang River, he suddenly found that there was another military stove here. Zhang Ren almost sent people, but he found that the real stove was no more than 3,000, but the fake stove was more than 5,000.

"Hmm, it seems that Zhang Fei is indeed short of food and fodder. How long has it been since this? It has been broken up like this!" Zhang Ren was a little disdainful. Looking at the opposite side of Fushui, Zhang Renluo meditated and ordered to collect nearby county rafts for the army to cross the river to pursue.

"General, Zhang Fei has fled to Nanzhong. We are afraid that there will be a loss when we wait for the lonely army to go deep and chase again. Why don't we return to the army for the time being and make plans again?" General Gao Xiang saw that Zhang Ren was not good, and he hurriedly said.

"Otherwise, if we don't take this good opportunity to expel Zhang Fei from Xichuan in one fell swoop, and wait for him to develop a climate and connect with Jingnan, then we will have trouble sleeping and eating!" Zhang Ren said indifferently. After a day of effort, a large number of rafts were collected, and Zhang Ren ordered the army to cross the river in batches. After four round trips, the 50,000 Sichuan troops finally crossed the river, and it was already the afternoon of the day. Zhang Ren ordered to camp after advancing 30 miles.

"Kill!" Shortly after Zhang Ren left, a shout of killing suddenly broke out on the bank of the river, which was originally silent. Thousands of Jingzhou soldiers who had been ambushed for a long time killed from the upper reaches of the river. Their target was the Qianchuan army left by Zhang Ren to watch the raft. Soon after, the two sides began to fight each other. The Sichuan army hurriedly fought and the number of people was small, and they were killed for a while.

"Governor, the big thing is not good. Our brothers who stayed to guard the ship have been ambushed!" Zhang Renzheng led the army forward, but he heard the soldiers coming to report the news. This shock was really a great surprise. If there is no raft, you will really become a lonely army trapped on the south bank of Fushui.

"Kill back!" No need to think too much, Zhang Ren quickly made a decision. Then when the Sichuan army turned around to kill, there was also a shout of killing in the south. Countless Jingzhou troops suddenly appeared behind the Sichuan army and stabbed into their formation. The Sichuan army was suddenly attacked and suddenly panicked.

"Don't mess up, line up to meet the enemy!" Zhang Ren tried his best to command the rebel army. With his efforts, the Sichuan army began to gradually organize effective resistance. What Zhang Ren didn't know was that several people were watching him on a dirt slope not far from him.

"Although the soldiers are in the middle but not chaotic, Zhang Ren is indeed a famous general in the world!" Looking at Zhang Ren, who was the commanders in the field, rushing back and forth, Zhuge Liang also sighed. Zhang Fei next to him didn't have such a good surname. He ordered hundreds of soldiers to protect Zhuge Liang and other civil servants, and he would go down to meet the first general in Sichuan by himself.

"Military division, in the past, Sun Bin used a plan to increase troops and reduce the stove, but now you are increasing troops and increasing the stove, lure this position to be fooled, but it is better than the ancients!" Yang Yi, who was beside her, flattered the horse.

"Zhang Ren is known as the first general in Xichuan, breaking the art of war. If you want him to fall, you can't do it without any means. Zhuge Liang was not modest, but just shook the fan to pay attention to the fierce battle under the slope. After Zhang Fei personally joined the battle, the 60,000 Jingzhou Army has been in scuffle with the 50,000 Sichuan Army. Zhang Fei and Zhang Ren, the arrow figures of both sides, were invincible and led their subordinates to fight bravely.

But God doesn't want anyone to be invincible for too long. After easily solving a lieutenant of the Yizhou Army, Zhang Fei suddenly felt a murderous spirit forcing him, and hurriedly crossed the eight snake spear in his hand.

After a loud noise, Zhang Fei and the comers each took three steps back. Zhang Ren?" Seeing that the general with a brass face in front of him was not shocked back by himself, Zhang Fei immediately guessed his identity.

"Zhang Fei, die!" Zhang Ren roared, and then stabbed out with a gun.

(to be continued)