The three armies of Xi, Sui, and Tang came over with great fanfare and surrounded Deng County tightly. There is a place called Gaohu more than ten miles west of Deng County, and Ruoao's pontoon bridge is erected between Deng and Gaohu. Gaohu is adjacent to Hanshui in the south, the terrain is flat and the jungle is dense, which is very suitable for ambush, and the king of Chuzhuang hides the main force in the dense forest.

Dou Jiao was very confused about the tactics of the coalition forces, because the enemy did not attack Deng Siege, and only attacked the bridge camp on the north bank of the Han River a few perfunctory times, as if he hoped that the Luyi army would drive over and fight them in a decisive battle. But once the army crosses the river to support Deng County, will the Wang division on the other side of Yanshui launch a strong attack?

Dou Jiao thought about it and finally found the crux of the problem: who was the supreme commander of the three armies in northern Hanbei? Suihou is the monarch, Tang Zi is a vassal feudal monarch, and Xi Gongzi Hu is just a county Yin. The Suihou had the highest status, but he never let a foreigner be the commander when the Chu State launched a joint operation; Zihu barely ranked tenth among Dr. Chu, and it was not his turn to take on this heavy responsibility; Tang Zi's status is even lower. The only explanation is that there is a very high profile hidden in the three armies.

Since Pan Yu has been showing his face on the west bank of Yanshui, then this important person is likely to be Bao Ai Hunt or Prince Yingqi. However, since the two of them could go to northern Han, why couldn't the king of Chu go? Since the king of Chu can go, why can't the king go? Could it be that the king of Chu would rather spend his days in the opposite side of Yanshui than go to the place where he is most needed?

If the facts are really as I expected, then I can explain why only the "King of Chuzhuang", Pan Yu and the Zuo Guang Guard of the royal family can be seen on the south bank of Yanshui, while other important people have disappeared! There are really masters in the royal family, this trick is too insidious!

As a battle-hardened veteran, Doujiao has a keen eye for the enemy's plots. But where is the king? The next thing to do is to find the hiding place of the Chinese army, and then take the initiative to attack and eliminate the king!

This plan was even bolder than the royal family's plan to ambush Ruo Ao with a royal master, and it was almost insane; Except for Doujiao, there is no second madman in the Chu State who can come up with it.

However, Emperor Dou disagreed, he believed that since it was certain that the main force of the royal family had reached the north bank of the Han River, then the Chu army on the south bank of the Yanshui River was singing the "empty camp plan". So why not avoid the real and attack the false, eliminate Pan Yu, seize the baggage, and go south to occupy Yingdu?

Dou Jiao said: "The soul of the Chu army lies in the king's pawn, and whoever has the king's pawn is the king of Chu." We can occupy Yingdu, but the strength of the little tyrant's pawns is still intact. It is ten times more difficult for us to fight the enemy in Yingdu than in Hanshui, and as long as the king is not destroyed, the whole of Chu is our enemy. Since this battle will be fought sooner or later, let's decide who lives and who dies here! ”

Doujiao sent a large number of scouts to the other side of the Han River. This is a special reconnaissance mission: each group of scouts lands at a designated location and goes to a designated area to reconnoitre. When some of them are unable to return because they have been hunted down by the enemy, it is a sign that there is enemy activity in that area; Although those scouts could not return, the enemy's distribution information had actually been transmitted back.

The results of the reconnaissance showed that the Chinese army was hiding in the jungle around Gaohu. Doujiao obtained the approximate area of the enemy's distribution and calculated the approximate number of people, as well as the number of Pan Yan's army.

King Chuzhuang realized that the Chinese army had been discovered, but Bao Ai decided to pretend that he did not know that he had been discovered, so as not to respond to the changes. Pan Yu also exposed his true strength, but Dou Jiao also pretended not to know that the other party was exposed, so as not to disturb Pan Yu.

The coalition forces besieging Deng began digging trenches, building nest carts and various siege machinery, while the rebels stationed at the bridge camp also began to attack the coalition forces.

On the Hannan side, sporadic Wakao troops began to pass on the pontoon bridge, and those people were sappers and military service. When they reached the north bank, they began to dig trenches on the west side of the pontoon bridge, as if they wanted to separate Dengxian from Gaohu, or to encircle the coalition forces from the outside of the trenches.

King Chu Zhuang couldn't hold his breath when he saw this situation. Obviously, Doujiao wanted to use the trenches to fend off the Chinese army in Gaohu and defeated the coalition army with the rebels in Deng County. But Bao Ai Hunt still insisted on holding his troops - it took him a lot of words to convince the impetuous King of Chuzhuang.

The army besieging Deng County also dug a trench between its own barracks and the enemy's bridge camp. In this way, a strange phenomenon appeared: Ruo Ao looked nervous and guarded against a clearing (located between Qiaoying and Gaohu), but turned a blind eye to the heavy troops besieging Deng County; The coalition forces were on the lookout for the enemies who were guarding the clearing, but they didn't care about the rebels in the city of Deng.

The time for the decisive battle had been set, and Doujiao divided Ruoao's army into three parts: the first part was led by his nephew Dou Zhen, and the team secretly traveled fifty miles upstream along the west bank of the Han River, where it crossed the Han River and circled to the back of the king's division; The second part was the main force, led by Dou Jiao, to the north bank through the pontoon bridge, pretending to attack the besieging troops; The third part was led by Douhuang, and the army crossed the river from the gentle place of the upper reaches of Yanshui, and then attacked the Pan Yuan Division.

On the eve of the war, Dou Jiao locked himself in the house and cried for a long time holding the god of his ancestors; And King Chu Zhuang, like the doctors who also suffered from neurasthenia, once again spent a sleepless night.

On the ninth day of the seventh month of autumn, Ruo Ao's army assembled when the night was about to fade. Doujiao looks energetic and confident. He gave a short mobilization speech in which he said that he had divined the battle and that the result was good fortune, a proclamation from heaven and the last battle to freedom. In addition, the soldiers were required not to be disturbed by the sign of the king of Chu and himself when fighting, as long as they remembered the words "bow their heads and look down", and fight bravely.

The army drove silently across the pontoon bridge in an orderly manner. The unexpected situation caused some confusion in the camp of the coalition forces; In order to cooperate with the action, the rebels in Deng County also began to beat drums violently and make a big noise, and the coalition camp immediately became a mess.

The besieging coalition hastily assembled in formation, but Ruo Ao had already begun to beat the drums. To the jaw-dropping of the coalition forces, the target of the enemy's attack was not the coalition forces at all, but the dense jungle in the direction of Gaohu!