June 25, Yongjia 2nd year, White Horse.

The general of Zhendong of the Xiongnu Han Kingdom, Wang Mi's right-hand man Cao Wei stood at the highest point of the fortress, looking at the mighty river in the distance. Perhaps it was a common summer rainstorm approaching, and as far as the eye could see, there were gray clouds, gray water vapor, and the wide river as far as the eye could see.

Baima County belongs to the Puyang country of Gunzhou, and there is an important ferry on the big river in the county, Baimajin, and Liyangjin across the river in the north. This place is the fortress of the north and south of the river, not only an important north-south passage for travelers and traders, but also a place where soldiers must fight for since ancient times, the victory and defeat of Chu and Han are divided by this, and the success or failure of Yuan Cao is determined by this.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty, when the heroes competed, Li Shiqi said that the Han ancestors guarded the white horse and stuffed the mouth of the flying fox to show the princes, and the world knew where to go. The importance of Hakumasin can be seen. Subsequently, Liu Bang, the king of the Han Dynasty, then sent the generals Liu Jia and Lu Juan to lead 20,000 infantry and hundreds of cavalry, crossed Baimajin into Chu, and cut off the grain route of the Chu army, thus taking the lead in swinging a decisive blow in the confrontation between Chu and Han. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Yuan Shao, a powerful warlord who commanded the four prefectures of Ji Qingyou and the four prefectures, also gathered a large army in Liyang, trying to move south here. In order to ensure the main force crossing the river, Yuan Shao ordered the general Yan Liang to attack Liu Yan, the Taishou of Dongjun stationed in Baima. After Cao Gong learned the news of the attack on the white horse, he personally led his own horse to the north to meet the attack. Guan Yu and Zhang Liao rushed to Baimapo as the vanguard of Cao's army, and successively beheaded Yan Liang and Wen Chou, the generals of Yuan's army, so that the battle situation fell into a stalemate again, triggering the battle of Guandu, which later determined the general trend of the north.

In the second year of Yongjia, in addition to the role of guarding the river, the white horse also became the key point to isolate the king of the East China Sea who was trapped in Yanzhou from the Luoyang court. After Shile crossed the river to the south, he first guarded this place with the elite led by Lu Ming, the general under his command. Because the county town of Baima is small and difficult to garrison troops, Lu Ming also specially built a military base at the foot of Baima Mountain, and he is ashamed to name it as "Lu Ming Base". Later, the war situation in the Central Plains gradually developed in the direction of benefiting Shile, and there were more and more directions that needed to conquer the city, so Shile mobilized Lu Ming to fight on the front line, and handed over the task of guarding the white horse to his ally Wang Mi. So Wang Mi ordered the heavy general Cao Wei to lead an army of 5,000 to defend it, and sent Xu Miao and Gao Liang to be his deputies.

But Cao himself was not happy to accept the appointment. With his eyes, he could naturally tell that the appointment of himself was actually due to Shi Le's secret encouragement. Before joining the Xiongnu Han Kingdom, Cao Wei's identity was Wang Mi's Zuo Changshi, not only won many battles on the battlefield, but also directly planned all the battle plans of Wang Mi's army. After separating Cao Wei from Wang Mi's marching sequence, it seems that Cao Wei's department was qualified to be in charge of the army, and the sphere of influence of Wang Mi's department was expanded; In fact, it weakened the independence of Wang Mi's department as a whole, so that it had to follow Shile's actions.

That Shile is good at deceit, but he can't hide it from me! Cao Wei thought of this hatefully, coughed up a mouthful of thick phlegm, and spit it out violently under the camp. Cao Wei is now in the same Lu Ming base, because he is full of vigilance against Shi Le, and even Cao Wei has no good impression of Lu Ming of Shi Le's subordinates, so since he entered Baima, he has tried several times to move the army back to Baima County.

But this idea was completely dispelled by Cao Wei half a month ago, because the imperial army of Youji Erzhou finally moved.

As early as when Shi Le, Wang Mi, Liu Ling and other giants joined forces and crisscrossed the Central Plains, the giants had already expected that sooner or later the imperial court would use the last mobile forces of the two states. Therefore, even if the army is fighting in action, it always has considerable strength to hold the rear. To the east, given the distance of the lower reaches of the great rivers and the complex terrain of mountains and rivers that were not where cavalry could be used, there was no need to be too guarded. On the central line, a very large number of newly recruited troops were mainly deployed along the line of Juye, Chengyang and Juyang, relying on the low-lying lakes and terrain in the areas of Daze, Lize and Heze for defense; In comparison, it is the ferries of Yanjin, Jianjin, Wenshijin, and Baimajin on the western line that are the most important, and they are all heavily defended.

The white horse guarded by Cao Wei is an extremely important link in this defense line that stretches for thousands of miles from east to west. Since learning that Youji's soldiers and horses were dispatched, Cao Wei sent all the people within a radius of dozens of miles to the left, reinforcing the camp day and night, turning this camp, which he hated not long ago, into a fortress that could not be attacked:

The walls of the barracks were heightened by three feet and widened by two feet, and the walls were densely covered with pheasant moats, and a wall of sheep and horses six feet thick and five feet high was built outside the north and south camp gates; The woods outside the barracks were completely cut down, the timber was dragged back, and several tall watchtowers were erected in the barracks, so that from here to Liyangjin on the other side of the river, any movement could be seen at a glance; A small village was erected on the White Horse Mountain to the west of the camp, forming a horn facing the headquarters; Several cellars were urgently dug in the camp to store the food and materials looted during the period.

Cao Wei looked around at the camp and couldn't help but feel a sense of ambition. In summer, the river is swollen, the current is wide and rapid, and there is such a strong fortress as the backing, which is enough to firmly control the zhì ferry, and even if the Jin army has millions of people, it can only cry out in vain...... Hehe, Yanzhou is in the hands of General Wang, but just sit and wait to see when that clever man will take Luoyang!

A junior colonel hurriedly ran to Cao Wei's side: "General Cao, General Xu told you to come to the watchtower quickly!" ”

Xu Miao is Cao Wei's deputy, and it is actually a bit rude for him to send someone to call Cao Wei like this. However, the number of Wang Mi's subordinates has almost swelled wildly in the past half a year, and hundreds of generals and lieutenants have been sealed, just to facilitate command, and they still call each other at ordinary times, and no one takes the class sequence seriously. Therefore, Cao Wei didn't care, and nodded: "I'll go now!" ”

Turning around, he ordered again: "Captain Mu, you come with me." ”

Lu Yao, the general of Pingbei, led a large army from Youzhou to the south, first to Xindu to visit the Jizhou assassin Shi Ding Shao, who had not appeared in public for a long time, and then went to Guangzong to join the beggar army and the local garrison of Jizhou. However, they did not rush to cross the river, but instead divided their troops and went out in all directions to wipe out the remnants of the Hebei bandits hiding in the poor forests everywhere. A year after the Hebei bandits fought with the Jizhou army, the main force broke into the Central Plains under the leadership of Shi Le. Most of those who stayed in Jizhou were old, weak, sick and disabled. They were led by Zhao Lu, a general under Shi Le and one of the "Eighteen Cavalry", who led the division to break off, and hid everywhere, occasionally doing some robberies to supplement military resources. How can this kind of miscellaneous soldier be the opponent of Youzhou's elite? In an instant, they were slaughtered, and the rest fled wildly, and many of them made rafts out of sheepskins, and crossed the river to the south.

This Captain Mu was one of the thieves who fled to the White Horse camp more than ten days ago. At that time, there were more than 100 people in their whole group, and in the middle of the night they went into the water from the fork of the small river next to Liyangjin, and finally avoided the eyes and ears of the defenders, but they were scattered by the torrent, and only forty or fifty people were able to set foot on the south bank at the end.

After the cross-examination of the defenders of Baimalei, they were very familiar with the nicknames, names, and characteristics of the bandit leaders from all walks of life, and they were indeed the remnants of the Hebei group of bandits. But Cao Ling and Shi Le were not all the way, and of course they would not accept these people lightly, so they ruthlessly took away their weapons and kept them in the barracks. Only this Captain Mu is outstanding and very smart, and he got the opportunity to be by Cao Wei's side.

Cao Wei and Captain Mu came to the watchtower, but saw that everyone in the building was looking nervously at the north bank of the river. Xu Miao is too old to see clearly, so he can only twist his gray beard and be anxious. Seeing that Cao Wei was here, he hurriedly greeted him: "Old Cao, come and see, the situation on the other side is a little wrong." ”