After listening to Wang Ling's analysis, the generals were overjoyed, clapped their palms and said: "Yes, the rice of 10,000 people and the rice of 40,000 people, there must be a huge difference between the rising cooking smoke, and you can definitely see the clues from the cooking smoke, or the general is wise!" ”

Wang Ling nodded and said in a deep voice: "Wait patiently, noon is coming, and you will be able to know the reality of the Shu army by looking at the smoke at that time." ”

Wang Ling and the generals waited at the head of the city, looking at the Han army camp for a moment.

Noon soon arrived, and in the Han military camp, the gang leaders also began to live and cook.

In an empty room, two soldiers were busy adding water to the pot, and a soldier came over with firewood and complained: "I really don't know what General Zhao is thinking, we only have 10,000 people, and we have to burn the stove of 40,000 people, isn't this a waste of firewood." ”

A soldier carried a wooden barrel and scolded the soldier who was making a fire: "General, he must have a deep meaning in doing this, what do you say so much?" Add more firewood, this one is cooked, burn the other stove as well, and I'll go get some water. Don't cut corners for me and ruin the general's big business. ”

In the pre-Qin period, Sun Bin used to reduce the stove to deal with Pang Juan, and on the first day, the military stove left behind in the withdrawal camp was enough for 100,000 people to eat. On the second day, only 50,000 people were left to eat, and on the third day, it was only enough for 30,000 people to eat.

With the number of stoves, you can calculate the number of soldiers and horses, and the earthen stove firewood, will rise cooking smoke, with the cooking smoke, in fact, you can also roughly estimate the number of soldiers and horses, but not as accurate as counting stoves, there may be a big error.

However, there must be a big difference between the cooking smoke burned from the stove used by 40,000 people and the cooking smoke burned from the stove used by 10,000 people, and by virtue of the richness of the cooking smoke, it can be determined whether there were 40,000 people or only 10,000 people in the Han military camp.

However, Zhuge Liang's clever calculation, the plan between virtual and real, how could he not want to come to the section of cooking smoke?

Therefore, Zhao Yun gave an order in the morning to let the soldiers burn all the earthen stoves in all the camps, and the rice was still cooked for 10,000 people, but the stove should be on fire, for fear of burning the pot and boiling water.

Like a large barracks of tens of thousands of people, a soldier in a room must not be too busy to cook so much food. Soldiers generally cook separately in battalions, departments, and songs, and stoves are distributed throughout the barracks.

Therefore, after the soldiers set the stove on fire, the entire Han army camp began to be shrouded in smoke.

"The Shu army has made a fire and cooked, look at it!"

"The smoke is quite large, and it must be more than 10,000 people scattered all over the camp."

"There are definitely more than 10,000 people in the Shu military camp!"

"This Zhuge Liang must have deliberately hidden his troops and sent Zhao Yun over to provoke and trick us into going out to attack, it's really tricky!"

"But Zhuge Liang has missed the cooking smoke after thousands of calculations, how can the cooking smoke of 40,000 people be hidden silently?"

Seeing this, Wang Ling also breathed a sigh of relief, and said in a deep voice: "Now we can conclude that this is Zhuge Liang's plan, let's ignore the Shu army, we can guard the city and wait for reinforcements." ”

"No!" The generals will take the command.

Zhao Yun led his troops to scold outside the city for a while, and then led his troops back to the camp to eat.

After eating, Zhao Yun led his troops to challenge again.

It's just that Wang Ling has already decided that this is Zhuge Liang's conspiracy, and he didn't pay attention to Zhao Yun at all, and he didn't even come out to answer Zhao Yun.

By the next day, Zhao Yun was still repeating his old tricks, and in the camp, the soldiers still burned the stoves of 40,000 people, and Zhao Yun still led his troops to Xiyang City to scold and fight.

The next day, when it was dark, Zhao Yun led the army to retreat, and Wang Ling led the people to inspect the city.

Yijiang looked at the background of Zhao Yun's departure, and sneered: "People often say that Zhuge is wise, I don't think so, the strategy obviously doesn't work, but I want to continue to use it." Poor Zhao Yun Lao'er, he sends troops to challenge every day, but he is afraid that he will not be able to sleep well at night when he is tired. ”

When Wang Ling heard this, his originally relaxed face suddenly became solemn, and he secretly said in his heart: "Zhuge Duozhi, even if you forget about cooking smoke for a while, you should be able to think of it soon, how can it be as usual for two consecutive days?" Could this be Zhuge Liang's bluff? ”

Thinking of this, Wang Ling's heart sank to the bottom, and he made up his mind that if the Han army was still like this tomorrow, he would definitely send troops out to attack the Han army and explore the reality of the Han army!

Han military camp.

Zhao Yun and Huo Jun sat opposite each other, eating dinner.

Watching Zhao Yun put down the dishes and chopsticks, Huo Jun asked, "Is Zilong full, it's not enough for me to let them bring some over!" ”

"It's full, don't want it!" Zhao Yun wiped the corners of his mouth, picked up the cup next to him and took a sip of water.

Huo Jun sighed and said, "Although it is autumn now, the weather is still very hot, and it is hard work to go out of the camp and fight. It's a pity that I'm not good at martial arts, otherwise I can take turns with Zilong to challenge. ”

Zhao Yun laughed when he heard this: "Haha, just scolding the war, what is this hard work, it is much easier than going into battle to fight." And Zhong Miao, you command and dispatch in the middle of the camp, it's not easy. ”

Huo Jun smiled and said, "I'm really ashamed, will the things in the camp tomorrow be the same as today?" ”

Zhao Yun thought for a while and said: "You have to make some changes, Da Sima has the talent to go through the heavens and the earth, according to normal circumstances, even if you ignore the cooking smoke, you can react quickly." That Wang Ling is not an easy person, if he continues as usual, he is only afraid of suspicion. ”

Huo Jun nodded when he heard this, and said: "That Wang Ling is indeed extraordinary, you led the troops to scold the war, and he actually sent herbal tea to relieve the heat, which shows his temperament." It's true that some changes should be made, but I don't know how Zilong plans to change? ”

"How do I know how to change?" Zhao Yun smiled, took out the paper left by Zhuge Liang from his arms, and said, "It's all up to Da Sima's clever plan." ”

Huo Jun took the paper, looked at it and said with a smile: "Okay, I know how to do it, let's arrange manpower, Zilong, you have a hard day, rest first." ”

"Okay, then it's hard work!"

Huo Jun nodded and left the tent.

After leaving the camp, Huo Jun gathered the soldiers and horses and ordered: "Brothers, work hard tonight, burn the earthen stove for me." ”

A partial general wondered: "Burning an earthen stove? Didn't you just use the meal, and why did you burn the earthen stove? ”

Huo Jun stroked his beard and smiled: "You don't need to ask, just burn it." ”

"Alright, brothers, act quickly!"

With Huo Jun's order, the Han army lit the earthen stove again, because it was night, there was no cooking smoke, but the fire of the earthen stove could be seen. From a distance, the Han military camp looks as if countless torches have been lit.

At the head of Xiyang City, the Wei army discovered the actions of the Han army and hurriedly went to inform Wang Ling.

Wang Ling led the generals to the city, and the generals complained: "What kind of moth is this Zhuge Liang doing, and he won't let people rest in the middle of the night." ”

The soldier pointed to the Han army camp and said to Wang Ling: "General, you see, the Shu army camp suddenly lit a torch just now, and it has been a while. Moreover, there was quite a lot of movement in the camp, and it seemed that it was going to go on an expedition. ”

The general of the Wei army looked at it and said, "The Shu army suddenly lit torches in the middle of the night, what do you want to do?" Could it be that the reinforcements sent against us failed? It shouldn't be, if you send troops at night, it's right to hide your tracks, how can you make such a big fanfare. ”

Wang Ling was silent, looked at the general with better eyesight beside him and asked, "You have better eyesight, what might you see?" ”

The general shook his head when he heard this, and said, "It's too dark to see clearly, but this fire doesn't seem to be a torch, but a stove fire!" ”

Wang Ling was stunned: "Stove fire? ”

The general nodded: "Yes, the light of the torch is very faint, and from a distance it looks like a star, moving and flashing." At present, the fire transmitted by the Shu military camp is larger than the torch in a single scale, and it will not move, just like the stove fire. ”

"Stove fire ......" Wang Ling secretly muttered in his heart: "Could it be that Zhuge Liang came to his senses, so he sent people to make dry food overnight to make up for the flaws?" Wrong...... Wrong...... A flaw in the strategy was seen and someone saw it, and trying to make up for it would not work.

Could it be that Zhuge Liang is planning to go on an expedition? It's not right, if it's an expedition, how can it be so fanfare? ”

For a while, Wang Ling's mind was like a mess, and he couldn't figure out what Zhuge Liang wanted to do.

The first general proposed: "It's better to send troops out to see the situation, if Zhuge Liang really plans to send troops to deal with our reinforcements at night, then it will be a disaster." ”

Wang Ling shook his head: "I can't see anything at night, if I am ambushed, I will be killed, and I will make a decision tomorrow at dawn." ”

Although Wang Ling decided to test the Han army again tomorrow, he didn't dare to run to sleep now, and continued to stare at the Han army camp.

After about two hours, most of the fire in the Han army camp finally disappeared, but it was the Han army that extinguished the fire.

However, the Han army did not rest, and Huo Jun gathered men to build the fortifications in the camp. However, at this moment, the stove fire has been extinguished, and the Wei army can't see what the Han army is doing.

Wang Ling almost didn't sleep all night, the sky was slightly bright and came to the city, Xiyang is close to the Huang River, there is fog in the morning, if you want to see the whole picture of the Han military camp, you have to wait until the sky is bright.

After sitting on the head of the city for an hour, the fog lifted when it was very bright.

The Han army was already cooking on the fire at this moment, and the smoke was rising.

Looking at the cooking smoke rising from the direction of the Han military camp, Wang Ling was surprised: "Why is the cooking smoke so thin?" ”

That's right, the Han army did not bluff this time, but really cooked according to the fire of 10,000 people.

The generals also rushed over at this moment, and there was a lot of discussion.

"The smoke is much thinner than yesterday's, and it seems that it only uses an earthen stove that is enough for 10,000 people to eat."

"The Shu army won't send troops out last night, right?"

"General, if that's the case, then it's bad, make a decision quickly."

The generals looked at Wang Ling one after another.

Wang Ling looked at the Han army camp and suddenly sneered: "This Zhuge Liang is really scheming, if he can't make a plan, he will have another plan." The Shu army didn't go out at all last night, and was making dry food in the stove, bluffing, and deliberately making the appearance that they were going to go on an expedition.

In fact, they continued to hide in the barracks, and made dry food last night, so they didn't have to expose their true strength because of the problem of cooking smoke. Look at it, there will definitely be no one in the Shu army to come out of the camp later, and they will make a look of being heavily guarded, afraid that our army will attack. ”

When the generals heard this, they were still a little worried, but Wang Ling had already said so, and they could only continue to wait and see.

Little by little, time passed.

"The Han army had already gone out to collect stones at this time yesterday, and it was this hour today, and it hasn't come out yet?"

"Zhao Yun didn't come out to challenge!"

"The Shu military camp seems to have more things than yesterday, I remember, there was no arrow tower there yesterday, why did there be an arrow tower overnight?"

Seeing this, Wang Ling smiled and said: "I just said, this is just Zhuge Liang's strategy, ordinary people will only think that Zhuge Liang sent troops out of the camp last night, so he led his troops to attack."

But Zhuge Liang is a wise person, he can't be measured by common sense, and he is cautious, he will not take risks, how can he leave an empty camp? Zhuge Liang must be in the Tibetan barracks, wanting to continue to lure us into attacking. ”

"Haha, the general is wise!"

"If it weren't for the general, we would have been fooled."

"Yes, although Zhuge Liang is powerful, our general is not bad."

When the generals heard this, they praised Wang Ling's wisdom.

Wang Ling smiled and said: "I was dizzy by Zhuge Liang's gang, and I didn't sleep well all night, so I would have gone to rest for a while." You are so wary. ”

"No!"

Han military camp.

Zhao Yun and Huo Jun stayed in the tent, Huo Jun was a little worried, and said, "I don't know if this Wang Ling will be tricked this time." ”

Zhao Yun said with a smile: "Most of the time he will be tricked, this person is smart but too cautious, he only thinks about waiting for reinforcements in his heart, he doesn't dare to fight with our army, and he is afraid of Da Sima." Seeing the situation of our army, we must still not be able to hold out.

But even if he leads his troops to attack, there is nothing, we have 10,000 soldiers and horses in our camp, including 5,000 elite horsemen, if he dares to come, it will just be in vain. ”