"What's going on there?"

"That's a lot of smoke!"

"It's a fire, isn't it?"

"Come and have a look!"

The grain and grass were burned, and it was soon discovered by the Wei army in the nearby Guancheng.

Cao Zhen and other generals had been patrolling the camps scattered in the second line of defense, and the soldiers hurriedly informed Chen Tai, who was the closest to him, of the news.

When Chen Tai learned the news, he rushed to the scene of the incident.

Hundreds of carriages, thousands of stones, grain and grass, have been burned down at this moment, and the ground is full of corpses of people and soldiers.

Chen Tai's adjutant general looked shocked and asked the defenders of the nearby Guancheng: "Where can the soldiers and horses quietly solve our 2,000 grain transportation team?" You haven't heard a single movement? ”

Chen Tai waved his hand when he heard this, and said: "The nearest camp here is also twenty miles, and it is located at the entrance to the mountain, high and low, and there is a sound that will not be transmitted to the mountain. ”

The adjutant general looked puzzled and said, "Who is it?" ”

"Naturally, it's a Shu soldier, who else can there be?" Chen Tai carefully examined back and forth on the ground, constantly fiddling with the corpses of the soldiers on the ground.

These corpses only have arrow wounds and knife wounds, but the arrows were recovered by Ma Chao, this time they came out alone, and the arrows are consumables, and if the situation allows, they must be recycled for multiple uses.

"These corpses were wounded by arrows and stabs, and most of the corpses from the mountain pass were knife wounds, and most of the dead in the open area behind were arrow wounds." Chen Tai looked at it for a while, and said in a deep voice: "The situation should be like this, the Shu army is divided into two roads, one way from the small road to the mountain road, blocking the way of our army, and the other army and horses surround our grain transportation team from behind.

After the Shu soldiers in the mountain road attacked, our army was defeated and fled backwards, and then was shot with arrows by the soldiers outside, thus being completely annihilated. ”

When the adjutant general heard this, he said: "This group of Shu troops is so powerful, there is no trace left." ”

Chen Tai said: "Although there are no footprints on the ground, it should be a cavalry, but it is wrapped in cloth and the horse's hooves are covered, but some traces can be seen."

Judging from the knife wound, it should be a heavy horse under Ma Chao! There are arrow wounds, which means that they also brought light horses, and the cavalry of the Shu army used scimitars, and I have seen that kind of knife wounds, which are exactly the same as this one. It's just the strength of the troops, I can't guess. ”

Although Ma Chao tried his best to cover up the traces, Chen Tai still saw some clues, but he couldn't speculate on Ma Chao's troops.

Chen Tai muttered: "If it is Ma Chao's cavalry, it should be from Liangzhou Wuwei bypassing Longshan. Hurry up and go to the north of Gaoping to find out the situation! Be careful, where is Ma Chao! ”

"No!"

"Uncle Xuan, how is the situation?" At this moment, Cao Zhen got the news and came belatedly with the generals.

Chen Tai replied: "It should be the Xiliang cavalry under Ma Chao's command, both light cavalry and heavy cavalry, but Ma Chao covered up his tracks, and I can't guess the strength of the troops." ”

Xiahou Rong immediately said: "If it is the Xiliang cavalry, it should be from Wuwei bypassing Longshan, and it will go north in Gaoping, and send someone to investigate as soon as possible." ”

Chen Tai nodded and said, "I've sent someone." ”

Cao Zhen said with a calm face: "I thought that Ling Bud was dead, and the Shu army would temporarily retreat, but I didn't expect Liu Chan to be so resolute that he actually asked Ma Chao to bypass Longshan to intercept my grain road!" ”

Xiahou Rong chuckled: "Ma Chao's lone army is deep, he can't bring many soldiers and horses, at most five thousand people, Huating, Meixian's reinforcements will arrive in the next two days, don't worry." The general could order the landlords near the three cities of Gaoping to move into the city by force, so as not to plunder them to replenish grain and grass.

And in my various cities, the grain and grass can still support about ten days, as long as the grain is not transported to Longshan in these days, Ma Chao's cavalry has no grain and grass, and they will have to retreat. ”

Cao Zhen's eyes lit up, and he immediately ordered: "Yes, quickly arrange for the landlords near Longshan to move to the city, and send scouts to scatter everywhere to find the traces of the Shu soldiers." ”

"No!"

Cao Zhen looked at the generals and said, "Let's go to Gaoping first and wait for news." ”

The generals went to Gaoping together, waited for a long time, and then returned to the scouts who went to the north of Gaoping.

Cao Zhen immediately summoned the scouts and asked, "How is it, have you found the Xiliang cavalry?" Or are they the traces they left behind? ”

"Didn't find it!" The scout shook his head.

Cao Zhen was puzzled when he heard this: "It's impossible, Ling Bao has been dead for only seven days, Liu Chan has a thousand-mile horse, which is often used to deliver news, the reason why the Xiliang cavalry will come, it should be Ling Bao's death that angered Liu Chan, so that Liu Chan's soldiers are in danger."

According to the time, Ma Chao should have come from Longshan, Wuwei, Liangzhou, and must have stopped in Gaoping, how could there be no trace. ”

The scout said with a depressed face: "We have traveled more than forty miles north, and we have not found any trace of Ma Chao's soldiers and horses. ”

The Wei army naturally couldn't find the traces of the Han army, the Han army ate dry food, didn't need to make a fire for cooking, and carried medicine for insect prevention, and there was no fire at night, and the traces of and peeing Ma Dai were all dealt with again, how could it be discovered.

Cao Zhen said in a deep voice: "Send more scouts to search, you must find out Ma Chao's traces, the enemy is in the dark, I am very passive in Minghui, as long as I know Ma Chao's location, he can't do anything."

In addition, in the future, to transport grain, we must send more soldiers to escort it, and at the same time, in the mountains, we must also send troops to respond, each time we have to transport two carriages of wolf smoke, as soon as Ma Chao arrives, immediately light the wolf smoke for me. ”

The generals gave their hands to the order: "No! ”

Cao Zhen searched for Ma Chao's traces everywhere in the three cities of Gaoping, but he didn't expect that Ma Chao was already on his way to Linjing at the moment.

After marching for more than a day, Ma Chao arrived at Linjing smoothly and settled in a valley thirty miles north of Linjing.

"How many days do we have left?" After settling down, Ma Chao summoned Ma Dai and asked.

Ma Dai replied: "I took ten days before leaving, and I stayed for another three days when I destroyed the Wei army's food team, but it has been five days since we came out." So there are only five days left. ”

It's just that it's five days, and that's because there are still three days that can't be counted, because those three days of grain and grass are used back. The amount of grain and grass that can be maintained in the territory of Wei is only five days.

Ma Chao groaned: "That is to say, within five days, we must get grain and grass, otherwise we can only go back." ”

Ma Dai nodded and said, "Yes, if Linjing doesn't transport grain to Longshan in the past five days, we can only go back." Linjing to Longshan to transport grain, is a large-scale transport, can last for a long time, but I don't know when the last time the Wei army transported grain, if it has been delivered in the past two days, it may not be sent again within five days, if so, we will be miserable. ”

Ma Chao muttered: "First send someone to find the nearby Haoqiang, if the Wei army does not transport grain within three days, it can only be borrowed from Haoqiang." ”