The altar outside the city of Chenxian is not for worship. Yanbei's influence on others and the world is getting bigger and bigger with his status, and the temperament of not believing in heaven and earth is spreading among the army and the people. The same is true for Zhang Liao, for the Yan army, the sacrifice to the heavens before the war has been dispensably reduced to an ordinary ceremony, and now they pay more attention to worshipping the heroic spirits after the war.

Zhang Liao's altar is to sacrifice to the sky, but not to ask for martial arts, but to ask for rain, for Cao Cao.

On the afternoon of September 4, it rained in Xinyang County, northern Runan, but in just half an hour, it turned from fine cow hair to heavy rain.

The advent of the rainy season did not make Cao's garrison in Chengfu City feel worried, but more and more relaxed. Torrential downpours are not a good thing for anyone, and few generals will go out to fight when it rains, just like Zhang Liao closed the city during the rainy season of Chen and Liang, and in this weather the armies on both sides wore summer clothes that had not yet been changed, and could not withstand the chill of the night, and injuries and illnesses would bring great losses to the combat strength of the besieging army.

The rain came quickly and urgently, although it was a good thing, but it also made Xiahou dizzy.

Chengfu County is not a big city, but it is close to the widest official road in the northeast of Runan and the widest official road of the Liang Kingdom in the northeast, guarding the Qianxi Valley, and is the gateway to the northeast of Runan. The boundary of Runan is easy to defend and difficult to attack to the south of the river, but it is not a geographically advantageous place to the north. Because of the topography, there is only one road connecting the east and west in the whole county of Runan, or the gallop road built in the pre-Qin period, and the rest of the roads are all running from north to south, all of which are blocked by the valley hydrology. If we divide it by the road of Chen and Liang to the south, we can divide Runan into east and west, with the west and north facing Chen, and the east and north facing Liang, and Yingshui as the boundary between east and west.

In the Liang State alone, there are three official roads that can go south to take the eastern part of Runan, which are the first line of the city father from north to south and east; close to the middle of the Sishan line; From north to south to west, Xinyang, Songguo, Xiyang, and Ruyin. Among them, the three counties of Xinyang, Sishan, and Chengfu are also the frontiers of the main roads, and they are the top priority of the Cao family's defense in the eastern part of Runan.

The three roads are nearly 200 miles away from each other, and they have to go all the way south to the east and west of Ruyin to communicate with each other, separated by a stretch of mountains, and only a seasoned scout from a hunter can deliver the information within two hours, which is still a speed that can only be reached by crossing mountains and mountains. If any of the main roads encounter the enemy's situation, it will take at least three days to wait for reinforcements, because of the twists and turns of the official road, the distance between the nearest two counties of the three counties is a full 500 miles, and the farthest Xinyang is even separated from the city father by 1,100 miles!

However, because of the topography, the three main roads are valleys, although the reinforcements are unfavorable, but they are barely a good place to defend, before the rainy season, the Cao family let Zhang Liao try to fight back in the Qianxi Valley The soldiers and horses suffered a lot.

Now that the rainy season is coming, the eastern part of Runan does not have to worry about the attack of the Yan clan, those valleys are not easy to pass in peacetime, if it rains rains today, it may not be necessary for the defenders to slide down the mountain to seal the entire army in the valley, who dares to take such a risk, even if it is Zhang Liao.

But there are indeed a lot of things that Xiahoudun is worried about, such as the difficulties brought about by the rainy season. Because of the difficulty of galloping along the three mountain roads, Cao's brigade of soldiers and horses were deployed in Ruyin City, which is located near Yingshui and the middle road of Runan, where Cao Cao's camp was also there. From Ruyin to the east of any city, it is much closer than the three cities to support each other.

Even if he felt relieved that the road was difficult to travel brought by the time, Xiahoudun had to send someone to send the grain and grass baggage from Ruyin to the three cities he was guarding, which itself was to prepare in advance for the heavy rain, but the rain came too quickly and too quickly, and finally the three teams of grain teams escorting the baggage were trapped on the road, without preparing extra straw mats, and the grain could not be on the road, otherwise it would be soaked in the city.

Let the sergeant eat the rotten grain? One can imagine how much of a blow that would take on morale.

The burden on Xiahoudun's shoulders is not heavy, in the past, he was in charge of the tuntian of each county, and he served as the Taishou, even if he was not frustrated on the Yan side, he was also the chief official of the county like Sima Lang, but now he has become the general of the town guard...... In fact, this is not that he is reused, in the eyes of orthodox princes like Cao, state and county officials are reused; This is a manifestation of Cao's internal talent shortage.

The Yuan clan lasted ten years under the attack of the Yan clan, and it was not until the last two years that this situation appeared; However, the foundation of the Cao clan is not as good as the Yuan clan, but it has suffered from the rebellion of Lu Bu and Chen Gong in Yanzhou one after another, and the pressure of the Yan clan to move southward, Cao Ren, Xiahou Yuan and other clan generals have died one after another.

For Xiahoudun, guarding the northeast of Runan is to catch ducks on the shelves, and he has to do it as a last resort.

Xiahoudun knew very well that because of the topography in the northeast of Runan, if the Yan army wanted to fight, it would definitely attack here. Seeing that autumn is about to enter the winter moon, how much the Cao clan expects to get the opportunity to recuperate at the end of the year, how urgent the Yan clan wants to choke their throats without giving them the slightest respite!

In this case, even if it is an adventure, it is not surprising.

In fact, as Xiahoudun expected, just after the arrival of the rainy season in Xiahoudun, for the third time, he sent people to urge the baggage team carrying grain and grass to rush to send out riders as soon as possible, following the sound of horses' hooves in the rainstorm, the camp outside Sishan City rushed to ride on the official road in the distance...... That's the north, the direction of the Liang country.

The rider, dressed in a short coat of ordinary people, had been soaked by the rain and was covered with mud, and his face was pale, apparently frozen by the long gallop in the rain, and he turned over and dismounted and quickly entered the camp, which was a spy sent by the Cao clan to the north. The envoy hurriedly ran to Xiahoudun's body, but he bowed down but unconsciously bowed down with his legs, and raised his head to Xiahoudun with both hands on the muddy land: "General, seventeen days ago, Zhang Liao gathered soldiers and horses in Chen State to open an altar to worship the sky, and then went north to Liang State, and from Lu Liang to the south through Qian County, approaching Cheng's father!" ”

Zhang Liao's soldiers went around in a big circle, from Chen in the west to Liang in the northeast, and then quietly went south through the official road. Xiahoudun gritted his teeth slightly, calculating the speed of the Yan clan's soldiers and horses in his heart, letting the rain blow on his shoulder armor and splashing on his face, and said, "Where is the Yan army now, Qian County?" ”

"Back to the general, his subordinates did not arrive in Qian County when they set off, but now they should have passed Qian County, and Keri will become a father!"

Xiahoudun clenched his fists tightly, he arrived at Cheng's father tomorrow, and now it was too late to block it, so he could only send a message to Cao Cao of Ruyin as soon as possible, and then send someone to warn Cheng's father's guard Li Dian!