On the first day of the first month of the fifth year of Wude, the soldiers in Dianchi City were busy arranging their weapons, battle armor, and the equipment and baggage they carried, and the expressions on the faces of each soldier were almost exactly the same, all of them were blue and brows, and they looked like they were facing a great enemy.

Since Zhang Fei occupied Yizhou, Nanzhong has been in a turbulent situation, in just a few months, has experienced two consecutive turbulence, first of all, Gao Ding, Zhu Bao and others led by Yonghong because they were unwilling to accept Zhang Fei's rule, and united together, and bewitched Yi to rebel and form a confrontation with Zhang Fei.

Unexpectedly, Meng Shu, the leader of the Yiren, was even more ambitious, not only killing Yonghong, Gao Ding, Zhu Bao and others, but also wantonly increasing his troops, preparing to conquer Yizhou in the north and win the world.

It's a pity that although Meng Huo's ambition is huge enough, he uses people improperly, and he believes the words of Wang Yan, Li Hui and others, and his subordinate Duo Si is also quite ambitious. Fortunately, Meng Huo's henchmen fought the vulture bone out of the encirclement, and only then did they take Meng Huo out to avoid death.

Immediately afterwards, Li Hui, Wang Yan, E Huan and others designed to kill Duosi, Ah Huilan, Dong Dana, Busy Yachang and others, and defeated their subordinates, and then surrendered to the Han army.

At this point, Dianchi County was occupied by the Han army.

But on the other hand, Meng Huo, who escaped from death, not only did not dispel the idea of invading Yizhou, but intensified, when Duo Si died, Meng Huo first turned the gun and conquered Duo Si's tribe, making itself a lot stronger, and then united with the Nanban Mulu King, Bai Yue brought the cave master, Yang Feng and others, and Meng Huo was the leader again. 300,000 troops were raised and assembled in the area of Ailao Mountain, ready to counterattack again.

For more than half a month, Meng Huo has been actively deploying troops, and almost all the ethnic groups in the southwest have been pulled over by Meng Huo. Whether it is true or false, the number of people gathered has far exceeded 300,000 anyway, and in the area of Ailao Mountain, a force that cannot be ignored has been formed, and it has been eyeing the Han army stationed in Dianchi County.

The Han army is also actively mobilizing troops and horses. In order to deal with the serious incident that suddenly happened this time, everyone led by the chariot general Zhang Liao, Gan Ning, Xu Huang, Ma Chao, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Pang De, Wen Ping and others gathered in Dianchi City, in addition, there were Wu Yi, Zhang Yi, Lei Tong, Wu Lan, Fei Shi, Zhuo Ying, Li Hui, Wang Yan, Lu Kai, E Huan and other Shu Chinese martial arts. It can also be described as strong.

However, in terms of troops, the Han army is weaker than Meng Huo, and now near Dianchi City, a total of 130,000 troops are stationed, but in this 100,000 army, there are some mixed fish, except for the 40,000 Jingzhou soldiers brought by Zhang Liao. There are also 30,000 Sichuan soldiers, 30,000 Liangzhou soldiers, and 20,000 Nanzhong soldiers and 10,000 Yongzhou soldiers led by Xu Huang. And. Of the 30,000 Liangzhou soldiers, only 10,000 were Han Chinese, and the remaining 20,000 were Qiang. Due to the different regions where these armies are usually located and their living habits are also different, it is inevitable that there will be stumbles when they are mixed together.

Che cavalry general Zhang Liao. He is the highest official among all the generals, so this army is also under his command. Although the generals under him all looked at him, in fact. These people are all working in silos, and they are not very united.

In order not to cause unnecessary trouble, Zhang Liao divided the army into five, the Jingzhou soldiers led by Zhang Liao were stationed in the south of Dianchi County, the Liangzhou soldiers brought by Ma Chao and Pang De were stationed in the north of Dianchi County, and the Sichuan soldiers continued to be led by Wu Yi and stationed in the west of the city, and the 10,000 Yongzhou soldiers led by Xu Huang were stationed in the east of Dianchi City, while the 20,000 Nanzhong soldiers led by Li Hui, Wang Yan, E Huan and others were stationed in the city, responsible for inspecting the whole city and the security in the city.

In this way, the five soldiers from different regions will no longer have any friction, and they will perform their duties every day, waiting for the decree to be issued.

In the hall of the county government, there is a huge sand table in front of Zhang Liao, on which the high mountains, flowing water, rivers, plains, valleys, streams, etc. are clearly outlined in detail in the south of the country, and even the city and the pass can also be shown on it, so that people have a feeling of overlooking the earth in the sky, and can make people feel clear at a glance after looking at it.

As long as he is in charge of commanding the battle, no matter where he goes, Zhang Liao will definitely send someone to explore the local terrain in advance, and then make a very detailed sand table for him to command the battle.

However, this time for the production of the sand table, Zhang Liao did not put much effort into it, because Lu Kai presented him with a plain palm map that took several years to complete.

The Pingman finger map was drawn by Lu Kai himself, and it took him several years in total. When he was the Taishou, he deeply felt the confusion of the local residents that it was difficult to govern, and he also guessed that in the future, once the ethnic minorities in Nanzhong developed and expanded, they would rebel sooner or later. So he made a secret visit, spent several years, personally walked all over the mountains and rivers of Nanzhong, and every step he took, he had to stop and record, and when he finished the trip, he drew a picture of the plain and savage palm according to what he recorded and the memory in his mind, ready to come in handy in the future.

Zhang Liao made such a large sand table according to the Pingman's palm map presented by Lu Kai, and he could overlook the entire world of Nanzhong when he stood there.

Zhang Liao's eyes were firmly fixed on the place where the sand table was full of small red flags, which was the Ailao Mountain where Meng Huo was located, and in this place that spread far away, it was Meng Huo's army that gathered.

"Newspaper—"

A scout ran in from outside the hall with a long voice, and before his feet had even stepped into the hall, he heard him shout loudly: "General Qiyu, urgent report, there is movement over there in Meng Shu!" ”

As soon as Zhang Liao heard this, he immediately realized the seriousness of the matter, and hurriedly asked, "Tell me quickly!" ”

After the scout stepped into the hall, he first took a few breaths before he said: "General, I just received an urgent report, the army led by Meng Huo has come out of Ailao Mountain, and the vanguard force has about 50,000 people, and has crossed the water and is approaching Shuangbai County. ”

After Zhang Liao heard this, he immediately locked his eyes on the sand table in front of him, and stared at Shuangbai County tightly with a pair of eyes.

Although the Han army occupied Dianchi County, it did not occupy the entire county. Among the counties in the south and central China, the Han army completely occupied only Zhuti County, such as Yuewang County and Yizhou County, and the Han army only occupied the main cities, but did not occupy the entire territory.

But Rao is so. The Han army of more than 100,000 troops was stationed in Nanzhong, which was also a great threat to the surrounding ethnic minorities, but under the pressure of more than 300,000 rebels such as Meng Huo, the Han people who had been razed in Nanzhong were either ethnic minorities. basically maintained a wait-and-see attitude, and did not really bet their lives on a certain party.

Moreover, these people's sense of war is very keen, more than half a month ago, the people of all ethnic groups who were on the front line from Ailao Mountain to Dianchi Lake. They all dragged their families and migrated to other places early, just to escape this unprecedented war scene.

Meng Huo's army has moved, which means that the war has begun, and the battle may start at any time.

However, Zhang Liao is not worried about this, because there is still a long way to go from Shuangbai County to Dianchi. What he has to do now is to temporarily stabilize his position and wait for the imperial decree to come down. Then he can justifiably command the army to fight, so that these elite soldiers and strong generals under his command will not dare to have any complaints.

Nowadays, although Zhang Liao has the largest official position, he is a strong soldier because his subordinates are all elite soldiers. Such as Ma Chao, Xu Huang, Gan Ning, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Pang De, Wen Ping and others, no matter which one. All of them have the courage of ten thousand people, and they are all brave and good at fighting. If you want to completely suppress them, it is obviously not enough to rely on the title of general of the chariot cavalry.

Especially Ma Chao, this person is particularly competitive, and the force is extremely high, among all the generals, I am afraid that he is the most powerful one, and since Ma Chao killed Zhang Fei, he has become relatively arrogant, and even sometimes he doesn't even listen to Zhang Liao's words, his confidant Pang De is also a ruthless character, and the force is also good, and most of the Liangzhou soldiers he brought are Qiang people, these people only obey Ma Chao's dispatch alone, and they don't buy other people's words. Therefore, Ma Chao is the most unstable factor in this army.

In the first few days after arriving in Dianchi, Ma Chao had already had a very stiff quarrel with Gan Ning, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Wen Ping, Wu Yi and others, and it was also thanks to Zhang Liao and Xu Huang who tried their best to mediate, which did not escalate the situation, otherwise, with Ma Chao's character, he would definitely kill each other.

Because of this, Zhang Liao, as the temporary commander, felt a lot of headaches. Ma Chao has merit in Shu, and it is the main credit for killing Zhang Fei, as soon as Shu is flat, Ma Chao feels that he has made a lot of contributions, and has been waiting for Zhang Yan's reward, but the reward has not come for a long time, and he has been suppressed by Zhang Liao repeatedly, which makes him extremely unbalanced in his heart, so that he has been drinking sullen alcohol recently.

After Zhang Liao learned of Meng Huojun's information, he immediately ordered an emergency military meeting, and all the generals had to go to the county hall to discuss the military situation.

In just a quarter of an hour, Gan Ning, Xu Huang, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Wen Ping, Wu Yi, Zhang Yi, Lei Tong, Wu Lan, Fei Shi, Zhuo Ying, Li Hui, E Huan, Lu Kai, Wang Yan and others all came one after another, but Ma Chao and Pang De never appeared.

Although everyone didn't say anything, they were a little impatient psychologically, Zhang Liao had already seen the expressions on everyone's faces, so he said with a smile: "General Ma and General Pang may have something delayed, let's wait a little longer, don't be impatient!" ”

No one in the hall spoke, but they all waited quietly. Almost half an hour later, Pang De, who was wearing a suit of armor, was late, and as soon as he entered the door, he bowed to Zhang Liao and everyone present and said: "Let Zhang Cheqi and the generals wait for a long time, there are some urgent matters in the barracks that need to be dealt with, so I am a step late, and I also invite Zhang Cheqi and the generals Haihan." ”

Although Ma Chao is annoying, Pang De next to Ma Chao is a good person, with a straightforward personality and easy-going personality, and he is the only person in Xiliang Bing who is not so annoying to look at.

"What could be more important than military intelligence? General Pang doesn't know the priorities too much, right? Gan Ning has a fierce temperament, and he gave Pound a dismount with one mouth.

Pound smiled and said, "It's me who is not good, I shouldn't do this, and I won't do it next time." ”

Gan Ning had no ill will towards Pang De, he was mainly targeting Ma Chao, he saw Pang De coming, but Ma Chao did not come, so he couldn't help but turn the gun to Ma Chao's body, and opened his mouth to ask: "General Pang, why don't you see General Ma?" Aren't you in a barracks? ”

"Oh, that's right, General Ma has been suffering from a cold recently, coughing very badly, dizzy, and can't get out of bed......"

"Oh? Is it? Before Pang De finished speaking, he heard Gan Ning say, "When did this happen, why did I see General Ma go out hunting with his own soldiers yesterday, why didn't I see him for a few hours, and I contracted the wind cold?" (To be continued)

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