Rejuvenation of the Han Dynasty in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 457
This time only the vanguard came, and there was not much food and grass, so they were not afraid of damage, but the setback in the first battle was a great blow to morale.

Zhou Yu's surprise attack on Xiakou shocked Jiangxia and made people's hearts unstable. This is a good opportunity to take the city, but if Jiangxia's defenders win and their morale is revived, the attack will undoubtedly become more difficult.

The moon and stars were scarce in the sky, the night wind was gentle, the hazy moonlight shone on the mountains, and the shadows of the trees danced. Lu Fan became more cautious and ordered the soldiers to light torches and walk slowly.

Marching at night was originally a taboo, but Zhou Tai went further and further away, Lu Fan had to speed up his journey, and then followed.

After walking for a while, he finally caught up with Huang Gai. At this time, the night wind was getting tighter and the mountain road was rough. Lu Fan became vigilant. He looked at the terrain around him by the light of the fire, and hurriedly called Huang Gai to stop.

Huang Gai asked, "What did Ziheng discover?"

Lu Fanyan said: "The mountain road here is narrow and the trees are dense. If you use fire to attack, there is no way to advance or retreat. General Huang still leads people to chase Zhou Tai back quickly. I will arrange defense here."

Huang Gai also felt a little scared at this time, the valley was longer than he imagined, it seemed to have no end, and the rugged mountain road separated the people and horses for a long distance, and it was impossible to form an formation at all, which was not a good thing. Immediately lead troops to chase Zhou Tai.

Lu Fan placed his men and horses around the mouth of the valley, and put the grain and grass in the middle of the road, leaving only one road in the middle to pass through.

After the arrangement was completed, everyone put out the torches, hid in the woods on both sides, and waited for the movement ahead.

Zhou Tai was urging his troops to catch up, when he suddenly heard someone shouting behind him, stopped the troops, saw that it was Huang Gai coming, pointed to the front and laughed and said: "General Huang came just in time, the valley exit is ahead, we can catch up soon The enemy is gone."

Huang Gai chased after Zhou Tai, and said: "The mountain road here is rugged and narrow, and there are many trees and weeds. I am afraid that the enemy will attack with fire, so the general retreats quickly."

Zhou Tai sneered and glanced around, only heard the night wind whistling, but did not see any movement, and said coldly: "We have been walking in the mountains for a long time, and the exit is right in front of us, if they used fire to attack, they would have set it on fire long ago. Wouldn't it be more dangerous to go back?"

Huang Gai was stunned when he heard this, and suddenly felt that what Zhou Tai said made sense. The enemy had not set fire yet, which meant that there was no ambush. Instead of risking walking back all night, it was better to go forward as soon as possible.

Zhou Tai laughed and said: "The three soldiers sent by Huang Zu to defend Guishan Mountain have been killed by me. They fled in embarrassment. How dare they lie in ambush here? You and I go out of the valley first. If we can't catch up with the enemy, we will go Go down to the village at the mountain pass, and tomorrow we will welcome the lord to attack Xiling together."

Huang Gai was about to answer when suddenly there was a shout behind him, and he saw a fire igniting in the mountain path.

At this time, the night wind was blowing, and the weeds on both sides of the road were ignited by the wind. Huang Gai's face suddenly changed, seeing the fire behind him, he shouted: "Follow me back!"

"Ahead is the mountain pass, follow me!" Zhou Tai shouted, ordering the soldiers to rush forward.

At this moment, the valley was on fire, and retreating troops would be courting death. Zhou Tai thought that Jiang Xia's army was vulnerable, so he rushed out of the valley, and their ambush broke by itself.

But Huang Gai wanted to hurry back to join Lu Fan, the two turned their horses' heads, and before they had time to discuss, they ran in opposite directions.

In a blink of an eye, flames lit up in all directions in the valley, and the fire was raging on the mountain road. Zhou Tai rushed forward, and saw that he had reached the mouth of the valley, and was urging his horse to rush forward.

It turned out that a horse trap had been dug here long ago, Zhou Tai fell into the pit, and the followers behind him never stopped in time, they all fell in one after another, their eyes went dark in an instant, and they were buried in the depths by many people.

The Wu troops behind them had no time to stop, and they collided and trampled on each other at the entrance of the valley, causing countless casualties. There were ambushes on both sides firing arrows constantly. In the darkness, they could only hear people shouting, horses neighing, and screams.

At this time billowing thick smoke drifted over from the valley, surrounded by flames, drums in the mountains kept beating, I don't know how many Jiang Xia troops were there, and cold arrows shot from time to time, countless Wu soldiers fled in embarrassment and rolled on the ground.

Huang Gai crossed the place where the fire had just started, and his men were retreating, when suddenly a group of men and horses rushed out from the side of the road, the first one, and immediately blocked the way.

Wu Bing was running away in a panic, when he saw an ambush suddenly appeared, he couldn't help panicking, the fire from behind kept approaching, and there was no way out.

It was Liu Hu and Han Xi who were ambushing here. Seeing Wu soldiers coming, they both stepped forward to stop Huang Gai, and started fighting in the valley.

Facing a desperate situation, the soldiers of Wu rushed forward fearlessly. Archers had long since fired arrows at random, causing countless casualties.

Although Huang Gai was quite old, he was very brave. He dominated the two generals without losing the wind, waving his whips, his beard and hair flying, and defeated the two of them with his own strength.

The two fought for more than thirty bouts, seeing that they couldn't take Huang Gai down, and there was no need to fight him to the death, they had no choice but to give up Huang Gai and let him fight a bloody path, chasing and killing the scattered Wu soldiers from behind.

At this time, Huang Gai was old and strong, drenched in blood, and led his entourage and personal soldiers to march forward brazenly, rampaging through the chaotic army, no one was invincible, he forced a bloody path and walked away.

Huang Gai had just broken through and saw Lu Fan coming to meet him. The two joined forces and were about to go out of the valley when suddenly there was a fire in front of them, and his expression changed drastically.

Lu Fan exclaimed, "No, those grain carts must have been burned."

Just now he saw the fire in the mountain, the shouts of killing were loud, and Zhou Tai and Huang Gai had not returned for a long time, so he was worried and came to meet him himself, but he didn't expect that the grain cart set up on the mountain road caught fire as soon as he left.

Huang Gai said in a deep voice: "Go quickly, if the whole valley catches fire, you and I will have nowhere to go."

At the moment, he opened the way ahead again and rushed to the mouth of the valley. Sure enough, he saw that the grain cart was burning and the soldiers were fighting chaotically.

It was Hao Zhao who set the fire outside the mountain. He was ordered by Zhuge Liang to wait for the grain burning cart, but he saw clearly that Lu Fan was piling up grain and grass here for fortification, and he was not in a hurry to dispatch.

It wasn't until Lu Fan couldn't bear it and entered the mountain that he rushed out with his troops and killed Wu who was guarding the grain cart. Some soldiers had brought fire tools and set the grain on fire.

Still fighting, seeing the Wu soldiers fleeing in front, Hao Zhao did not love to fight, and led his troops back to the mountain from the small path. He only had 300 troops, so there was no need to fight the enemy in desperate situation.

Huang Gai escaped from the valley first, most of his beard and hair were burned, his white beard turned into black beard, his armor was torn, and he was covered in blood.

Lu Fan followed out, also in a panic, with less than 1000 soldiers left behind, and some people crawled out of the thick smoke one after another.

Lu Fan looked at the fleeing soldiers under the light of the fire, with a gloomy expression, before Zhou Tai came out and asked, "Where did General Zhou go?"

Huang Gai sighed: "Youping has chased to the mouth of the valley. When the fire broke out, he went forward to kill him. I'm afraid... more disasters than luck."

Lu Fan sighed helplessly, and exited Liushugou in embarrassment with Huang Gai. Seeing that there were only hundreds of people following behind, he pointed to the lake ahead and said, "Let's take a rest here first, and see how many people can escape."

(End of this chapter)