When dismissing the veteran soldiers and prisoners, Wang Yue came over and clasped his fists to Liu Cheng and reported: "My lord, the general has already found out about the county soldiers and prisoners.
They handed over the grain and grass to Sun Jian in the afternoon two days ago, and then the two sides set off separately. , Li Min led the county soldiers back to Yingchuan, and Sun Jian also marched towards Qiao County at the same time."
"In addition, according to the accounts of these veterans, Sun Jian's troops have 15,000 men, 500 cavalry, and the rest are all infantry."
Liu Cheng thought that Sun Jian had been delayed a lot of time in Xinyang due to lack of food and grass.
This time he would definitely speed up the march after having food and grass.
Five hundred cavalry could not march alone, so Sun Jian's 15,000 men and horses must still be normal infantry.
The marching speed, considering the road traffic conditions of this era and the number of troops in Sun Jian's army, the fastest marching speed per day would not exceed eighty miles.
Liu Cheng calculated silently in his mind, then opened the map to find the locations of Xinyang and Qiao County, traced the distance of the road with his fingers, and then ordered the messenger: "Call the whole army to be ready, and set off to Qiao County in a quarter of an hour."
County, we will wait and see in Qiao County.
The troops who intercepted and killed Sun Jian will send another person to inform Wang Shuang and tell him that we will go to Qiao County first and will leave marks along the way."
"Get the order" A quarter of an hour later, when Liu Cheng left with three thousand cavalry, the civilian husbands and the county soldiers who had not been separated finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then fled for their lives.
The map in Liu Cheng's hand was the imperial map, which was relatively accurate.
The map showed that the distance from Chen County to Qiao County was about two hundred and thirty miles.
With the cavalry's marching speed, as long as he was familiar with the road, he could If you work harder, we can set off now and arrive at Yin o'clock tomorrow morning.
The scout team responsible for reconnaissance at the front not only has the responsibility of reconnoitring the enemy's situation and terrain, but also has the task of inquiring about roads, bridges and rivers, so that the army can take the safest road and the shortest distance.
Marching at night is the most boring, because you can't make a sound when there are orders, you can't talk during the journey, and you can't nap, except when you are resting, you can talk in a low voice, you can't make any noise, and you have to go to the toilet.
With the guide car, marching at night is much more convenient.
Using it can ensure that the army will not lose its way.
At most, it will only take more miles.
The scout team will take the guide car with them.
However, because of its large size, it is difficult to carry It's still a little inconvenient, but Liu Cheng has asked Ma Jun to improve it, trying to make it so that it can be held in the hand or carried on the body.
Although he had calculated the distance in advance and estimated that he would arrive at about 10:00 in the morning, due to the difficulty of marching at night, the actual situation was still somewhat different from the estimate.
It was not until dawn at 0:00 in the morning that Liu Cheng led his army to arrive at a distance from Qiao County.
Twenty miles south.
Liu Cheng looked up at the red sun that had risen.
He turned around and looked at the surrounding situation.
He reined up his horse and ordered: "Herald, pass on the order.
The whole army will camp and rest on the spot.
Let the scout team go to Qiao County to investigate.
If there is a large army passing by or arriving, order the first station to Send people to set up security posts twenty miles away, and deploy patrol teams between the army and the security posts.
Tell the security posts and patrol teams that if any surrounding people break into the security area, they will be allowed in but not allowed to leave, and all will be temporarily detained.
When to let them go and wait for orders?"
"Follow orders" The soldiers fought two battles in the past few days and marched continuously at high intensity.
It was indeed too much for them.
After setting up simple tents, the soldiers fell into the tents one by one and fell asleep.
The most tiring thing is the scout team.
Not only can they not rest at this time, they also have to go around to scout the enemy and find out the news.
They can only return to the camp after they are sure that there is no danger within a radius of twenty or thirty miles, find out the information, and map the surrounding terrain. rest.
I don't know how long it took, but Liu Cheng was woken up: "General, a strange Yishi cavalry just appeared at the guard post we deployed twenty miles south.
The other party may have thought that we were Yuzhou soldiers setting up a guard post here. , so we stepped forward to inquire, and our guard post learned that the other party was a soldier from the south participating in the struggle against Dong, so we let them come over and sent someone to notify the patrol team.
The other party discovered an abnormality when they came into contact with the patrol team, so both parties There was a battle, and after the opponent lost seven people, three of them fled back."
Liu Cheng stood up and his mind suddenly cleared.
He saw that it was Wang Yue and immediately asked: "What time is it now?"
"Just after noon, I will speculate that it is likely that Sun Jian's men have arrived," Wang Yue replied.
Liu Cheng immediately said: "It is too early to find out where the men and horses who were previously judged to be Sun Jian are.
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The messenger immediately sent out a scout team to investigate.
The general wants to know the detailed information and orders to wake up all the soldiers, eat and feed the horses.
Gather together in a quarter of an hour and prepare for battle."
"Follow your orders" Several loud whistles soon came from the camp, and the originally extremely silent camp suddenly came alive.
The soldiers came out of the tent and carried two kilograms of beans and walked towards the horses, feeding the horses and nibbling dry food.
At the same time, an extremely elite scout team quickly rushed out of the camp and headed south.
A quarter of an hour was up.
After everyone had urinated and defecated, fed the horses, and eaten dry food themselves, they all led the horses and started to assemble.
In just a few minutes, the three thousand cavalry were assembled, and the soldiers all led the horses.
Waiting in line for orders.
Liu Cheng rode on the red rabbit horse, closed his eyes and rested, waiting quietly.
He originally thought that Sun Jian's marching speed would not be so fast.
According to calculations, the instant should arrive in the evening, and he could calmly arrange an ambush.
However, something went wrong.
Sun Jian's marching speed exceeded his expectation.
Now the opponent's scouts We have already reached him, and we must have detected some situations.
It is no longer possible to deploy an ambush.
Of course it was okay to retreat.
Sun Jian only had 500 cavalry, so there was nothing he could do against him.
However, Liu Cheng wanted to test the combat effectiveness of Sun Jian's army, so retreating like this was a bit unwilling, and it was also a blow to morale.
An hour later, a scout rushed back and reported: "General Qi, they are indeed Sun Jian's men.
They number about 15,000 people and are about fifteen miles away from our camp.
After observation, Xiaoren and others believe that among them There are about 5,000 soldiers and horses who have been trained for a long time, and the remaining 10,000 are young and strong people recruited temporarily.
Their military discipline and combat effectiveness are very poor.
Now they have completed the formation and are advancing towards our army camp."
After listening to the scout's report, Liu Cheng thought about it.
His three thousand troops did not carry banners.
Unless Sun Jian caught the tongue, it would be impossible for Sun Jian to know the identity of his three thousand troops.
Even though Sun Jian didn't know the identity of his army, he still pressed forward with his troops.
It can be seen that Sun Jian was quite courageous, but with the strength of Sun Jian's troops, he did have the capital and confidence.
Liu Cheng ordered: "Call all the village chiefs."
"yes" After a while, six camp commanders came running over on horseback, clasping their fists and shouting in unison: "General" Liu Cheng nodded and said: "For the needs of the next battle, this general decided to divide the six villages into three thousand-man teams, merge the two villages into one thousand-man team, and merge the first and second villages into the first For the Thousand-man Team, the first village commander will serve as the Thousand-man Captain; the third and fourth villages will be merged into the second thousand-man team, with The commander of the fourth camp will serve as the captain of thousands; the fifth and sixth camps will be merged into the 3000-man team, and the commander of the fifth camp will serve as the commander of thousands.
The commander of thousands will be responsible for commanding the battle.
Although this is only a temporary establishment, I hope that The other three commanders must unconditionally obey the commander's orders during the battle, do you understand?"
The six people did not question Liu Cheng's order.
They cupped their fists and replied: "I obey."
"I, the general, will personally go to the front to inquire about the military situation of Sun Jian's army.
The scout team has been sent out.
Except for the county seat of Qiao County, there are no other troops within a radius of thirty miles.
If there is any movement, I, the general, will get it as soon as possible.
Okay, now you go back to your team, restrain your troops, and wait for the order."
"promise" Liu Cheng immediately rode out of the camp with a dozen cavalry guards and galloped towards the south.
After running for seven or eight minutes, several scouts emerged from a forest.
Liu Cheng and others rode their horses to a stop.
The leading scout captain clasped his fists and said, "General, Sun Jian's men have already arrived.
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They are about four miles away from here."
Liu Cheng asked: "Where can I observe Sun Jianjun's situation?"
The scout captain pointed to a small dirt bag two miles away and said: "You can barely get a rough look there, but the distance is too far and you can't see clearly.
If you wait until Sun Jianjun walks in, you won't be able to get away easily.
My subordinates are already there."
We had two battles with Sun Jian's scouts on that earthbag, and they also wanted to control that earthbag to observe our military situation."
"Let's go and take a look," Liu Cheng said, riding his horse and galloping towards the bumpkin.
When we came to the earth bag, the earth bag was not high, only about 20 meters, and the field of vision was limited.
Fortunately, there were no tall trees blocking the view.
Looking into the distance, we could see countless flags, and under the flags was a head of approval.
"Sure enough, the military formations have been set up.
It seems that they are ready to fight at any time."
Liu Cheng observed casually and said, As soon as he saw it, Liu Cheng found that the formation and pace of Sun Jian's army at the front were neat and the soldiers were very energetic.
However, the soldiers and horses in the middle and rear looked exhausted.
Show laziness.
It was obvious that the front group consisted of Sun Jian's elite troops, numbering 5,000 men, and the 10,000 men at the rear were newly recruited strong men.
Liu Cheng slowly retreated from the soil bag, mounted the red rabbit horse and galloped back with his guards, and soon returned to the camp.
When several thousand captains and village chiefs saw Liu Cheng returning with his men, they immediately gathered around and asked, "Lord, how is the enemy's situation?"