Chapter 1240 Cooperating and Not Competing

  In fact, even without Li Liu leading the way, Jiang Wei would probably be able to find a suitable place and cross the plateau.

  Because there is a ravine at the junction of Chousangyuan and Qinling Mountains.

  It was near the place where Li Liu was found—the people who were originally sent out to search had almost found that place.

   Climbing up this ravine, you can directly reach the top of Chousangyuan.

  Of course, with Li Liu leading the way, it must be much more convenient, at least saving a lot of time and energy.

  Chousangyuan in the Qin and Han Dynasties was no better than later generations. It was a dangerous place with deep grass, dense forests and steep slopes.

   Entering the forest, you can feel the staggered branches above your head, and the dense canopy covering the sky and the sun.

  Looking up, you can only see the sky dotted with stars, and the rare sunlight that is missed is like a brightly colored insect, as if crawling on the moss and the reddish withered ferns.

  In places where the sunlight is slightly exposed, many miscellaneous trees are entangled with old vines, forming bushes.

   Many of these coiled vines still have barbs.

  The overgrown brambles and weeds seal the already dense forest more and more airtight, like a natural barrier, preventing people from walking in the forest.

  Therefore, it was not unreasonable for the Qin State to use the dense forest on the Chousang Plain to block the armies of the six kingdoms of the East.

  If someone who is not familiar with the terrain comes here, it is impossible to go around and get lost.

  Even if you don't get lost, marching in this dense forest will be an extremely test of the quality of the soldiers.

   Not to mention being able to get out by luck, but on the other side, the wall is like a knife, how to go down is also a problem.

   In case of being discovered by the Qin army, and there is no reinforcements in the future, it will really be sent to the tiger's mouth.

   Qin Jun is called the division of tigers and wolves, that is not a joke.

   "General, the villain usually hunts in this area, so he is familiar with this place."

  Li Liu led the way at the front, and at the same time explained, "There is no road here. If you are new to this place, you probably won't be able to tell the direction."

  Jiang Wei followed him, seeing what this person said, it didn't seem like a lie.

   Obviously, it looked like a bush in front of him, and it was impossible to get through, but this person walked up to him, turned around again, and suddenly there was a gap in front of him that he could walk through.

  If you are not familiar with this place, it will definitely not be so easy.

  If so, in just half a day, the clothes on Jiang Wei and others were hung with several large and small holes by branches or thorns.

   But no matter what, as long as you can get on stage, everything will be easy.

   After all, although the plateau is long, it is not too wide, and there are people leading the way.

  Jiang Wei and his party soon reached the other side of Chou Sangyuan.

   "General, please take a look."

  Li Liu took Jiang Wei and others, stood on the edge of the cliff, pointed down, and said:

   "From here, there is a slight slope. If you want to go down, there is no more suitable place than here."

  Jiang Wei looked down, but saw a river at the bottom of the cliff, like a white belt, winding to the north. He thought this was the precipitous stream in front of Hangu Pass.

   Stretch your neck again, and look at the cliff with your head.

   The **** that Li Liu said was like being cut down by a giant knife.

  Jiang Wei was so surprised that he lost his voice:

   "How is this **** different from a steep wall?"

   Then he looked to the north again, and sighed involuntarily:

   "Sure enough, there are some differences..."

  The cliffs elsewhere are not sloped, but straight down, like the tallest city wall in the world, without any leverage at all.

  In contrast, the **** here is less hopeless and does not know how to climb.

   After all, the army brought a lot of ropes with them this time.

  Just connect the ropes, tie them to the tree, and finally use the ropes to descend.

  The hemp rope, a specialty of Nanxiang, has been tried and tested for a long time, and the quality is unquestionable.

  Anyway, after Lao Li was tied to death by Nanxiang hemp rope, he wanted to escape unless he became a dead person.

   "General, after going down here, the road will be much easier. The edge of the water is very flat. As long as you follow the valley to the north, about a hundred miles, you will be Hangu Pass."

  When the surrounding soldiers heard this, they were all happy and eager to try.

   "General, without delay, please let the last general lead a team to explore the road before it gets dark!"

  Someone has volunteered for the job irresistibly.

   "That's right, General, if we show up behind the bandits, the bandits will be frightened to death, why worry about Hangu Pass?"

   Seeing the morale of the generals boosted, Jiang Wei was also happy.

  It's just that he looked down the cliff, and then followed the Jujian to the north, thoughtful, but he didn't immediately agree to the soldier's request.

   After a while, he said:

   "Hangu Pass is hidden in the valley, and it is as deep and dangerous as a letter. If we go directly down and go northward along the water, it is easy to march, but it is not the best strategy."

   "Suddenly descending behind the bandits can scare the enemy, but if the bandits stay in the pass and hold on to them, waiting for reinforcements from the east, we may not be able to go down at once."

  Jiang Wei's eyes showed determination:

   "We have gone through all kinds of dangers, is it just to scare the enemy? If we want to do it, we must win the Hangu Pass."

   "Dare to ask what the general intends to do?"

  The expression on Jiang Wei's face became more determined:

   "If we don't go down and continue to pass through this dense forest until the end, we can use the convenience of the terrain to attack the thieves in the valley from a high position, just like standing on a high house and building water."

  Hearing Jiang Wei's words, not only the surrounding soldiers were taken aback, but even Li Liu couldn't help persuading him:

   "General, please think again! If you really want to follow the general's words, you will have to walk more than a hundred miles in this dense forest."

   "Moreover, on the platform, it is not all flat ground, and there are also places that need to be climbed. I am afraid that the soldiers under the general's command will be unbearable."

  Jiang Wei heard the words, looked at the soldiers around him, and asked:

   "Everyone who came here with Wei, have you ever complained because of the burden?"

  Everyone burst into laughter:

   "As long as you can make meritorious service before the battle, you don't care about your life, it's just suffering, what's the point!"

   "If you can make great achievements just by being tired, what's the point of being tired?"

  …

  Jiang Wei looked at Li Liu again:

   "You don't have to worry about matters in the military, you just have to lead the way."

  Seeing the reaction of the Han army, Li Liu couldn't help but marvel in his heart:

   This sincere soldier is also!

   Hearing what Jiang Wei said again, he couldn't help but turn pale with shock:

   "General, although the villain has some experience, he has never walked through this forest!"

   "Double! As long as you can take us out of this forest and give you something, I will give you twice as much."

   "Uh..." Li Liu was suddenly stuck.

   What the Han army gave was indeed what I needed most—it was something harder than money.

  Jiang Wei saw his expression and continued:

   "Anyway, it's impossible to let you go before we reach our destination. You have to go with us, so as not to leak the wind."

   "If I were you, I would agree immediately and find a way to help us get out of this forest as soon as possible. In this way, you can get the things as soon as possible, and we can leave as soon as possible."

  Li Liuyi heard that this is indeed the truth, he gritted his teeth, and finally nodded:

   "Little man, just try your best."

  Jiang Wei smiled, turned around and said:

   "Let the soldiers set up camp on the spot, take a good rest today, and continue tomorrow."

   "Here!"

   Turning to Chou Sang Yuan is a great encouragement to the soldiers.

   As for turning down the plateau directly, we still continue to walk in the dense forest on the plateau.

  For them, they are all here anyway, so there is no big difference.

   After all, no one would think of retreating at this time, so naturally they had to grit their teeth and move forward.

  If not, wouldn’t it be a failure?

   When Jiang Wei led the army sneaking forward in the dense forest of Taiyuan, Liu Yin, who had been looking forward to it, finally received the first good news after Jiang Wei left.

"good!"

  After reading the secret letter sent back by Jiang Wei, Liu Yin couldn't help but slapped his thigh:

   "As expected of Jiang Boyue!"

   After saying this, he raised his head again, looked at Hangu Pass ahead, and shouted:

   "Come on!"

   "General?"

   "Pass my order, the whole army is rested, and we will continue to attack Guancheng tomorrow!"

   "Here!"

   Just when the beacon fire at Hangu Pass ignited again, north of Dahe, as if an agreement had been made, the battle was also renewed.

   The first contact with the Wei army was not Feng Duhu, who was leading the army on the Zhiguan Road, but Shi Bao, who set out from Gaoping Pass and was about to attack the eldest son.

  The eldest son's first barrier, to the east of Danshui, the Wei army has long been ready.

   "General Zhonglang, this is the thief, I have already prepared!"

  Hu Zun, who followed Shi Bao to observe the enemy's situation by the water, couldn't help feeling a little worried, "Is our military strength insufficient?"

   "According to the report of the spies, wherever the water is easy to cross, the bandit army has set up camps to guard them, and along the water's edge, there are beacon fires every three miles."

   "The vanguard sent by the last general tried to cross the water several times, but they were all discovered by the thieves and had to retreat."

  The pioneer in Hu Zun's mouth is his own son, Hu Fen.

  Hu Fen was eager to make contributions. After cleaning up the Wei army scouts on the west bank, he thought about erecting a pontoon bridge before the arrival of the army.

   But I didn't expect that the generals of the bandit army on the other side were not mediocre, and the defense was extremely tight. In the end, they had to camp on the west bank to wait for the army.

  Shi Bao raised his binoculars and looked towards the opposite bank, but seeing the camps on the other bank, he knew that what Hu Zun said was not a lie.

  Thinking in his heart, Shi Bao asked:

   "From here on upstream, have you ever checked everything?"

   Hu Zun pointed to the upper reaches of Danshui and asked.

   "When the water goes up, there is the Danshui River Valley. There are dangerous mountains on three sides of the valley. Behind the dangerous mountains in the north, there is still the Shicheng Pass, which is the second line of defense for the bandit army."

  Shi Bao put down the binoculars, followed Hu Zun's point of view, with a dazed look on his face:

   "Could it be the place where the Zhao army was gathered and wiped out during the Battle of Changping?"

   "General Mingjian, that's exactly the case."

  At any rate, he was also a person who tried his best to find out the way to do smuggling. How could Shi Bao not know the famous place of Shangdang?

  The reason why Zhao Jun's hundreds of thousands of troops failed to escape back then was because of that river valley.

  The valley is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and there is only one narrow valley mouth to exit.

  At that time, as long as the Qin army followed behind, quickly blocked the mouth of the valley, and then took advantage of the high mountains on three sides, it would be enough to surround the Zhao army in the valley.

   Zhao Kuo wanted to fly out with two wings, and he was afraid that he would be shot down by the Qin army.

  Because of the special terrain of the river valley, even if the Zhao army on the periphery wanted to come to reinforce it, it would not be easy.

  As long as Bai Qi's deployment speed is fast enough, and he can dispatch a partial division in time to occupy a favorable location, he can easily stop Zhao Jun's reinforcements.

  The main force of the Zhao army in the valley had no choice but to starve to death.

   No way, Bai Qi was deliberately starving Zhao Jun to death, at least so hungry that they had no strength and could not move, so it took so long before they finally accepted Zhao Jun's surrender.

  Anyway, if it was Shi Bao himself, he would do this.

   After all, it is definitely dangerous to accept the surrender of hundreds of thousands of enemy troops whose morale has not fallen and their physical strength is still there.

   But if it is replaced by hundreds of thousands of enemy troops who can't stand up, kill each other and eat human flesh, even the robes can't believe it, and even have to be on guard against each other, wouldn't it be much easier?

   As for why Zhao Kuoming knew that the Qin army was just downstream from the mouth of the river valley, why he led hundreds of thousands of troops into this obviously pocket trap, probably only those involved in the matter knew.

  Shi Bao himself definitely did not dare to lead the army inside.

  So, although the Danshui River is long, the most suitable place to cross it right now is really only the lower reaches of the valley mouth.

  Hundreds of years ago, Qin Jun probably faced Zhao Jun across the water here, right?

  Shi Bao can think of this, and the general of the Wei army on the opposite side can naturally think of this too.

  So the two sides tacitly stationed a team of troops at the mountain passes on both sides of the valley mouth to monitor each other.

   "Order the whole army to immediately cut wood and make rafts. I will test it out today to see how prepared the thieves on the other side are."

  When Hu Zun heard this military order, he couldn't help being a little worried:

   "General Zhonglang, the soldiers rushed from Gaoping Pass, and they were a little tired all the way. Why don't they rest today..."

  Shi Bao raised his arm, stopped what Hu Zun said, and explained:

   "General Hu, I told the soldiers to hurry along this way, just to let the Wei thief know that I want to recover Shangdang in a hurry."

   "Now that we're here, if we don't act a little more eagerly, how can we convince Thief Wei that we are in a hurry to cross the water?"

  Hu Zun suddenly realized:

   "General Zhonglang is trying to confuse the thief?"

   "No, not just to confuse."

  Hu Zun is the chief general of the Tuchen Army, and the Tuchen Army is the main force in this battle. Naturally, Shi Bao wants to make some plans clear to Hu Zun.

   "What I have to do is to mobilize as many thieves from Shangdang as possible."

   "So the way we confuse the thieves must be to really fight, so that the thieves dare not spare any energy."

   "Really fight?" Hu Zun became more and more puzzled when he heard the words:

   "General Zhonglang, please forgive me for speaking bluntly, even if we are in a hurry to cross the water, it is best to plan ahead..."

  Mingming Zhonglang general was in Gaoping Pass, he planned well and had the air of a general.

  How come here, but it makes people feel a little reckless?

  Shi Bao laughed:

   "General Hu, I'm not in a hurry to cross the water. I said, I just need to attract the thieves as much as possible."

   "If they don't come over, then we will fight there and take the opportunity to force the Danshui. If they come over, there will be someone on the side of Huguan to cut off their retreat."

   "Anyway, it's not us who are in a hurry, but them."

  Hu Zun heard the words, and then suddenly realized:

   "General Zhong Lang means that we create opportunities for General Zhendong?"

   "Of course."

  General Zhendong is his nobleman. How dare he fight with General Zhendong for his great achievements in recovering the Shangdang?

   After regaining the Shangdang, it is time to show your talents.

  Eagle claws must have the awareness of eagle claws.

  Shi Bao considers herself to be the minion of Zhongduhu, so naturally she has to consider issues from the standpoint of Zhongduhu in order to be worthy of Zhongduhu's cultivation.

   Those aristocratic families in the Shangdang had no chance to deal with them before.

  Now they dare to collude with thieves to make trouble, they simply don't know what to do!

  Hu Zun naturally didn't know what Shi Bao was thinking, but when he heard Shi Bao's plan, he couldn't help feeling admiration in his heart:

  The Protectorate of the Central Government is really well-mannered!

  If it were someone else, would there be any reason not to take credit?

   However, under the command of Zhongdu Hu, although the generals are separated by thousands of miles and unable to communicate, they can cooperate in such a way.

   No wonder the big man has won many battles and victories over the years.

  The soldiers are elite and brave, and the generals are united as one, so why not worry about the great cause?

  Thinking like this, Hu Zun saw that Shi Bao couldn't help licking his lips, salivating like a jackal, and for some reason, he suddenly shivered.

  (end of this chapter)