The Warriors of the Three Kingdoms

Step by step, get ahead.

Liu Zheng commanded troops on Shangyong's side and started preparing for the big battle in full swing.

The same is true for Liu Bei on the other side.

a month ago.

The winter has just passed, and the rain and snow have not completely melted away.

The weather was still cold, Liu Bei came all the way from Chang'an City to Hanzhong.

Of course, Liu Bei's arrival was not announced, but came here silently.

Naturally, the purpose of his coming here is also for Hanzhong.

Although the battlefield in Hanzhong is guarded by Liu Bei's most trusted second brother Guan Yu.

Liu Bei believed that with Guan Yu here, Hanzhong would never make any mistakes.

But it is not so easy to take down Hanzhong in a short time, so Liu Bei personally brought some soldiers and horses to reinforce Hanzhong.

He tried in vain to take advantage of his strength to capture Nanzheng City in a short time and capture Zhang Lu alive.

The county magistrate's office in Pian County.

This was originally the place where the local county magistrate lived, and it was the most luxurious house in the vicinity.

It's just that after Ma Chao led people to conquer this county, it became Liu Bei's temporary residence.

Liu Bei took his military adviser Cheng Yu and his bodyguard Pang De by his side.

"Brother Ma Chao, this time you took down the Pian County, and you have done a lot of credit. I will definitely claim the credit for you in front of His Majesty the Emperor. At that time, Brother Ma Chao, you will bestow the title of General Fubo, and you will definitely be more powerful than your ancestor Ma Yuan. , Guangzong Yaozu."

The 17-year-old Ma Chao has no name yet, so Liu Bei generally calls him a little brother.

Ma Chao followed Liu Bei. Although it was not long, he won Liu Bei's trust.He was highly valued by Liu Bei.

No matter what to do, Liu Bei is willing to take Ma Chao with him.

Firstly, Liu Bei took a fancy to Ma Chao's ability.

Secondly, Liu Bei also wanted to win over Ma Chao.

Ma Chao's father, Ma Teng, is now Xiliang, a legitimate Liangzhou shepherd no matter what he says.

Only by attracting Ma Chao can Ma Teng temporarily stabilize, not at this juncture.What's wrong again.

Liu Bei never wanted to see him fighting on the front line again, only to have another fire in his backyard.

Bringing Ma Chao by his side, showing his liking for Ma Chao, can gain Ma Teng's favor, and can also make Ma Teng feel a little afraid when he feels disobedient.

Ma Chao became famous as a teenager.

He is only 17 years old, and now his reputation has been shaken, and his reputation has resounded throughout Xiliang.

Having become famous at a young age, he is more or less arrogant.

At this time, he heard Liu Bei say that he wanted to claim credit for himself in front of the emperor.When Ma Chao was even conferred the title of General Fubo, he was not to mention how happy he was.

It's like, people who have been living in the shadow of their ancestors suddenly become prominent.In one fell swoop surpassed the glory of the ancestors.

The sense of glory brought by the glory of the family and the glory of the ancestors.

The young Ma Chao couldn't help feeling a little proud.

"Thank you, my lord! In the end, it is my duty to share the worries of my lord."

"Hey, your father and I have a deep friendship, so don't talk about thanking us. Right now our army is running out of food and grass in Hanzhong, and I guess it can last for another two months at most. Yes. If we can’t take down this Nanzheng city within two months, I’m afraid our western expedition this time will be in vain.”

After Liu Bei first gave Ma Chao a sweet date, he quickly changed the subject and showed a solemn expression.

This Ma Chao has been completely confused by Liu Bei's sweetness just now. He is young and energetic, and he is no match for an old fox like Liu Bei. He immediately patted his chest and said at this time.

"Don't worry, my lord. With Ma Chao here, let alone two months, just give me [-] days in Nanzheng City, and I will break through the city!"

Chapter 954 Attacking Nanzheng

Liu Bei originally planned to attack Nanzheng in a short time.

Hearing Ma Chao's words at this time, he was overjoyed.

Although Liu Bei has assembled an army of [-] to [-] in Hanzhong, Liu Bei still wants to win over Ma Chao's troops, because although Ma Chao is by Liu Bei's side.

However, these soldiers and horses in Ma Chao's headquarters are not directly under Liu Bei's jurisdiction. Ma Chao's people are the soldiers sent to Ma Chao by his father Ma Teng himself.

There are not many people, only 8000 people.

But these 8000 people are all elite cavalry of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry. Such a number of cavalry is difficult to obtain even for Liu Bei today.

Even if it is Liu Bei, with his current status, the number of cavalry under his command is no more than ten thousand. This is because he picked up the horses left by Lu Zhi and reorganized the cavalry. If there is no legacy of Lu Zhi, Liu Bei's cavalry may only have thousands of people .

Of course, there are still some soldiers and horses stationed in Yanzhou to guard against the Yuan brothers in the north and Liu Zheng in the south.

If Ma Chao's cavalry were to cooperate with the siege, even if Ma Chao's men were not allowed to attack directly, they only needed to be on the sidelines and cooperate with guerrilla warfare, which would be enough to make Zhang Lu in Nanzheng city feel intimidated. .

Liu Bei's idea had already been formed in his heart, but it was difficult for him to speak directly to Ma Chao.

That's why he changed his way to talk to Ma Chao.

Ma Chao is young and energetic, and he doesn't understand these twists and turns, so he easily leads himself into it.

This promised Liu Bei to attack Nanzheng within half a month.

"Okay, with your help, little brother Ma Chao, I think this mere Nanzheng City will definitely be taken, so let's do this. Three days later, I will let my second brother Guan Yu lead [-] elites to attack Nanzheng from the front. Ma Chao Brother, you should lead your troops to raid the rear of Nanzheng."

After Ma Chao agreed, Liu Bei quickly arranged a matter for Ma Chao according to the plan he had thought up before.

Although Nanzheng City is the seat of the county government, the city will not be too big. The terrain near Hanzhong is very undulating, and there is not a sufficient plain. The city is built here, but it is built on high ground, so the city, except for the people, is basically It cannot accommodate tens of thousands of troops.

In the city, except for some soldiers from Zhang Lu's headquarters, there were no other troops, and the troops brought by Liu Zhang to support were not arranged by Zhang Lu to Nanzheng City.

Instead, Zhang Lu divided a place outside the city and set up camp temporarily.

In doing so, on the one hand, the location in the city is too small, and there is not so much space for Liu Zhang’s troops to live in. Another reason is that Liu Zhang brought too many troops. It is no longer under Zhang Lu's control.

Zhang Lu naturally wouldn't do such a thankless thing.

For the time being, Liu Bei told Ma Chao about his plan to attack Nanzheng, and Ma Chao nodded repeatedly. Ma Chao also wanted to curry favor with Liu Bei. After all, Liu Bei is now a great general.

The status is here. If the Ma family wants to go further, they need to curry favor with Beijing officials like Liu Bei.

With Ma Chao's consent, Liu Bei's attack on Nanzheng was settled in this way.

Soon, in three days, it will be here.

Outside Nanzheng City.

Guan Yu is wearing armor and riding on a war horse.

Guan Yu, in his 30s, is at his peak.

Since losing to Lu Bu successively before, Guan Yu has also worked harder and harder in recent years to hone his martial arts.

The bone-chilling arrogance diminished a bit on Guan Yu's body, and some of it was more of that biting perseverance.

Guan Yu glanced at the Nanzheng city tower in front of him from a distance in front of the formation of the three armies.

Tens of thousands of troops lined up behind him one by one.

Although his soldiers and horses had already surrounded Nanzheng City, Zhang Lu on the tower also had a plan to deal with it.

When Guan Yu's army appeared outside the city, tens of thousands of soldiers in the city were already ready to deal with the attack of Guan Yu's army at any time.

After all, during this period of time, more and more soldiers and horses have been appearing near Hanzhong. Zhang Lu, who has always been cautious, naturally dispatched a large number of scouts and spies to inquire about the surrounding situation. Zhang Lu's eyes.

So Zhang Lu had been preparing for this battle outside Nanzheng City for a long time.Faced with Guan Yu's tens of thousands of troops attacking Zhang Lu, he didn't even have any timidity.

In the previous battles with Liu Zheng, Liu Bei and others, Zhang Lu's troops have always been at a disadvantage.

Some forces originally cultivated by relying on the Five Dou Rice Sect suffered heavy losses in just one year.

In this way, Zhang Lu's heart was suffocated all the time, and he wanted to save face.

It can only regain what was lost on the battlefield.

Now facing Liu Bei and others' attack again, Zhang Lu has made up his mind to give Liu Bei's men some color in this battle.

Under Nanzheng City.

Guan Yu breathed a sigh of relief, and then shouted loudly towards the tower.

"The traitor Zhang Lu cut off the communication between the Central Plains and Western Shu. Such acts of treason are committing rebellion. Today I am ordered by the general to attack you. Hurry up and leave the city and surrender, or wait for our army to enter the city. , there must be no survivors!"

Guan Yu is full of righteousness, standing on the commanding heights of morality.

Holding the banner of justice, ready to attack Zhang Lu.

But Zhang Lu, who was standing on the tower, just sneered when he heard Guan Yu's righteous words.

"Hmph, Guan Yu, where is your great general? There are three emperors in this world, which one do you serve? You don't even know who the emperor is, and you still have the nerve to make trouble in front of me!"

"Your allegiance is to the emperor, and I am allegiance to my Yizhou Mu! We all don't offend the river, but you come here to trouble me for your own interests, so don't blame me for being rude!"

Zhang Lu was not frightened too much, facing Guan Yu's intimidation, Zhang Lu was not afraid at all.

"Bold, little prefect, living in a corner, domineering, and dare to slander the court, today I will let you understand what is the end of committing chaos, where is Zhang Xiu!"

Guan Yu shouted loudly at the team behind him.

Zhang Xiu, who had just defected to Liu Bei last year, also followed in this battle against Zhang Lu, and is now a general under Guan Yu's account.

At this time, hearing Guan Yu's shout, Zhang Xiu didn't dare to hesitate, and immediately rode forward a few steps.

Hastily echoed Guan Yu's call.

"The end is here!"

"The general ordered you to go to Nanzheng City to call for battle, do you dare to go?"

"Why don't you dare?"

"Very well, then you will lead [-] pawns to call for battle!"

Guan Yu immediately issued an order to let Zhang Xiu be the vanguard and go to Nanzheng City to call for battle.

Chapter 955 Zhang Xiu called the array

Under Guan Yu's order, Zhang Xiu naturally did not hesitate, and immediately raised his gun to attack, and then [-] infantry around him followed Zhang Xiu closely, and ran to the front of the formation, planning to show off his power in the city first.

Calling out before the battle is nothing more than belittling some enemy troops in terms of momentum.

Zhang Xiu, known as the spear king of the Northland, was originally from Zuli in Wuwei County.He is the son of Hussar General Zhang Ji.He was also the warlord who ruled Wancheng in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and one of the heroes in the late Han Dynasty.He is a representative of Liangzhou Haozu Group.

It's just that the current Zhangxiu is very different from the Zhangxiu in history.

Zhang Xiu originally followed his step-father Zhang Ji under Dong Zhuo's hand, and has been hanging around in Xiliang, and his position is neither high nor low.

Following Dong Zhuo's downfall, Zhang Ji also became an independent Xiliang Army in disguise.

Then the dispute between Han Sui and Ma Teng made Zhang Ji choose to join the court again early on. After all, when Dong Zhuo betrayed the court, some of his subordinates were still unwilling.

Zhang Xiu was one of them. Later, Zhang Xiu took refuge in Liu Bei and gradually became a rare general under Liu Bei.

Liu Bei saw Zhang Xiu's strength and knew that Zhang Xiu was not weak, so he boldly let Zhang Xiu follow Guan Yu to attack Zhang Lu.

When Zhang Xiu stood up from the battlefield and gradually appeared under Nanzheng City, Zhang Lu's expression on the tower became a little gloomy.

"People in the city, dare to go out of the city to fight?"

"Your grandfather Zhang Xiu is here, hurry up and leave the city to die!"

Zhang Xiu, one man and one horse, stood at the foot of Nanzheng City, shouting loudly to the top of the city tower. Such shouting was just a formality.

Zhang Xiu didn't think that Zhang Lu on the tower was so stupid that he really sent people out of the city to fight. After all, it was not good to defend while standing on the tower. Going out to fight was a fool's behavior.

Originally, Zhang Lu on the city tower did exactly what Zhang Xiu said, and planned to stay behind closed doors and let the enemy troops call for battle.

Anyway, if Guan Yu in the city can scold at will, it will not lose a few hairs, and it will have no effect on Zhang Lu if they scold them dry.

But Zhang Lu's reluctance to leave the city doesn't mean that Liu Zhang, who came here to supervise the battle, is unwilling.

Liu Zhang came here because he wanted to give the imperial court a good look, so that the court's people should not underestimate Yizhou.

Liu Zhang had a seat on the top of the city tower. While eating fruit, he listened to Zhang Xiu's screams at the bottom of the city, and suddenly glanced at Zhang Lu who was beside him.