Mao Jie originally planned to open the city to raid when the Qin army suffered heavy losses and was in chaos, but the scene in front of him gave him the idea. Although the Qin army suffered a sudden trap ambush and lost some officers and soldiers, it was not at all confusing. It quickly formed a defensive formation, which made Mao Jie feel that there was no chance to take advantage of it.

Zhuge Liang, sitting in a carriage in the distance, looked at the huge pits in front of the city wall, frowned, and said to the messenger bell beside him: "Retreat." The sound of the golden bell in the Qin army rang out loudly. The Qin army slowly retreated and stopped several miles away. Relying on an independent hill, a large-scale camp was built along a winding stream. The battle stopped for a while, but the more intense battle was still behind.

Zhuge Liang stood in front of the map, his eyes fixed on Chen Cang's small town, and he couldn't help but mutter to himself: "Chen Cang's small town witnessed the critical battle of the rise of the Han Dynasty back then. Unexpectedly, hundreds of years later, it has become a key place to influence the situation in the world! Is this God's will?"

At this time, Yan Liang led a few scouts in. Zhuge Liang heard the footsteps behind him and turned around. Yan Liang strode to Zhuge Liang and clasped his fists and said, "Military advisor, all the scouts sent out have come back." Zhuge Liang's eyes fell on the scouts. Several scouts came forward to pay homage. The scout on the far left first clasped his fists and said, "Military advisor, the villain was ordered to investigate everywhere outside the city and found that the entire area outside the east gate was dozens of feet deep, which was huge.

The trap! When the villain investigated, he almost fell into the trap!" The other two scouts also reported the results of their investigation outside the north gate and the west gate respectively. They were the same as the situation outside the east gate. The entire area, dozens of feet deep, had all dug huge traps! In other words, Liu Bei's army used the huge traps to build a completely artificial natural chasm around the entire city, making Chen Cang, who was already easy to defend and difficult to attack, turned into a natural chasm that was a man-made one that could not be opened by a man!

Zhuge Liang frowned, and then said with some admiration: "This must be done by Pang Tong! Pang Tong could actually think that our army might be able to make a desperate bet and be really smart!"

Yan Liang said proudly: "It's no big deal to just trap! Tomorrow morning, our army will launch a large-scale attack, first fill the trap, and then attack the city!"

Zhuge Liang shook his head slowly and said, "It's not that simple! Even if we can succeed in the attack, how much price will our army pay and how much time will take?" Yan Liang, as a powerful general, thought so much. Hearing Zhuge Liang's words, he was stunned on the spot and couldn't speak for a while. Zhuge Liang looked thoughtful, and his face was in a bad mood, but in fact he was anxious. The current situation is very critical for his side. Every time he delays one day, Luoyang will be more dangerous! In Hanzhong, Ma Chao and Xu Shu did not expect the enemy to attack them, and they don't know what the situation is now?

Hanzhong is at this moment. The sun sets west and the earth is dark. The farmers who have worked for a day humming local tunes, carrying ploughs, walking towards the village not far away in groups; huge water and windmills are scattered in the fields, slowly turning under the reflection of the sunset, a beautiful pastoral painting like pastoral song!

At this time, a team of hundreds of people, led by a middle-aged man with elegant temperament, came out of the city with dozens of trucks of food and grass, and headed towards Jigu, dozens of miles north. Jigu is the focus of defense in the north of Hanzhong, approaching Dingjun Mountain, and now a Liu Bei army is stationed on Dingjun Mountain, threatening Hanzhong City at any time. Therefore, there are now three thousand Qin troops stationed in Jigu to prevent Liu Bei's army from raiding Hanzhong from the north. The grain transport team in front of him was to transport food and grass to the Qin army stationed in Jigu. The leading middle-aged man named Xue Ding, who is one of the famous gentry in Hanzhong who rarely takes the initiative to follow the Qin army.

Since surrendering, Xue Ding has worked diligently and will take the initiative to give all his land and devote most of his family resources to Ailang. Ailang was quite moved by Xue Ding, so he named him the Chief Shi of Hanzhong and helped Xu Hong manage the civil affairs of Hanzhong as Xu Hong's deputy. Xue Ding was cautious in the position of Changshi and meticulously implemented the various policies issued by the Qin Wang Mansion. He was one of the most outstanding local officials among all local officials. In the year-end assessment of the annual meeting last year, Xue Ding was rated as the first-class, which was the highest evaluation of local officials. Ailang's side had already intentionally transferred him from Hanzhong to stand alone, so Xue Ding would not stay in the position of the Chief Shi of Hanzhong for long.

Xue Ding led hundreds of civilians to Jigu with dozens of carts of food and supplies. The sky soon became dark, and the team set off torches and headed north along the official road. The terrain became more and more steep, and the team's speed had to slowly slow down. Until midnight, two mountains and one valley appeared in front of him, and Jigu arrived. Xue Ding urged everyone to hurry up, and after about several hours, the team finally arrived outside the Qin army camp at the pass.

When the officer guarding the gate saw someone coming, he immediately shouted loudly: "Stop!" Xue Ding asked the team to stop, and then rushed forward and clasped his fists and said, "I am Xue Ding. I am under General Ma Chao's military order. I will specially escort the food and grass to the army!" The officer looked at Xue Ding and recognized him. His originally serious expression immediately smiled and clasped his fists and said, "It turns out to be Lord Changshi, I'm rude!" Then he ordered his subordinates to open the camp gate and sent people to report to General Ma Dai. The person in charge of guarding Jigu was Ma Dai.

Xue Ding led the team into the barracks, and the camp gate was closed. When he arrived at the tent, Ma Dai led several officers to greet him, and immediately stepped forward and said, "General Ma Dai!" Ma Dai smiled and bowed, saying, "Mr. Changshi has worked hard all the way!" Then he asked in confusion: "Why is Lord. Changshi personally escorting the food and grass?" Usually, such things are usually done by a small official in the prefect's palace, so Ma Dai asked this question

. Xue Ding smiled and said, "The officials are idle, and the officials in the palace are not free, so they are the ones who are the ones who are here." Ma Dai smiled and said, "Mr. Changshi is so diligent, it is really a role model for all local officials! No wonder last year's end-of-year assessment, the adults received the highest evaluation of Class A first-class!" Xue Ding smiled and clasped his fists and said, "The general is over!" Then he pointed to the dozens of carriages behind him and said, "A total of twenty-seven carriages of food and grass, please accept it!"

Ma Dai waved his hand and smiled and said, "I have escorted it here in person. I don't have to check it!" Then he said to an officer beside him, "Chen Jia, take your people to put all the food and grass into the warehouse." Chen Jia agreed with his promise with his fists, then recruited his officers and soldiers, took the twenty-seven trucks of food and grass to the warehouse.

Ma Dai clasped his fists at Xue Ding and said, "It's too late now, so don't rush back. So I rested in my military camp for one night. It's not too late to go back tomorrow to pay the order." Xue Ding hesitated for a moment, clasped his fists and said, "Since that's the case, then I'll bother!" Ma Dai waved his hand and said, "What are you doing so polite?" Then he said to another officer: "Chang Sheng, take Lord Chief and the others down to rest." The officer who called Chang Sheng clasped his fists and agreed, and led Xue Ding and the others down. Ma Dai looked at the night, and the moon had already set westward, so he asked his officers to go down to rest, and he himself went into the big tent to rest.

The barracks returned to silence, and except for a few sentries and patrols, all the officers and soldiers fell asleep.

At this moment, among the high mountains and ridges in the northwest direction, countless people were marching between the steep mountains and rivers under the cover of night, without a sound of speaking, only occasionally there was a huge sound of rocks rolling down the cliffs, which was particularly thrilling in this quiet night.

Soon after, the army passed through the mountain barrier and came to the hillside of a mountain. The eyes suddenly became clear. There was an endless plain in the distance, and there was a tall hill near. There were fires on the top of the hill. Obviously, there were people stationed. To go to the wide and wide place in the distance, you had to pass through the foot of the hill and the valley behind the hill.

"Second General, there are enemy troops stationed on the hill in front of him, what should I do?" A general couldn't help but ask a mighty general with long beard and blushing face. The general was nothing but Guan Yu. It turned out that Liu Bei followed Pang Tong's suggestion to take action to attack the east and the west, and led Guan Yu and other generals to lead the main army to the near Hanzhong soon. Then Liu Bei divided his troops into two groups, and 70,000 elite troops were led by Guan Yu, and passed Dingjun Mountain, preparing to break into Hanzhong from Jigu.

The attack on Ma Chao and Xu Shu was caught off guard. According to Pang Tong's estimate, if he acted quickly enough, this attack might defeat Ma Chao and Xu Shu and seize Hanzhong; the other 130,000 troops were led by Liu Bei himself to attack Hanzhong from Jiameng Pass, and formed a cross-bone attack with Guan Yu's troops from south to north. Liu Bei was full of confidence in this action. Although he dared not say that he was sure to win, he felt that he had already mastered 90% of the chance of winning.

Guan Yu looked at the hill and said, "Don't worry about the enemy above!" Then he said to Guan Ping, "Guan Ping, I want you to lead an elite force from the foot of the mountain to attack the main enemy's camp directly. Do you dare?" Guan Ping felt that his father underestimated him, and couldn't help but be angry, clasped his fists and said, "If you can't attack the enemy camp, you will be the military law!" Guan Yu looked at Guan Ping, smiled and nodded, with a very appreciative expression.

Zhise. Then he gave a careful order, and Guan Ping showed surprise. Guan Yu asked, "Have you recorded all the things I said?" Guan Ping clasped his fists and said, "I have recorded everything!" "Very good. Go." Guan Ping responded and immediately led thousands of warriors with black scarves to leave the brigade and quickly descended from the mountainside, arrived at the foot of the opposite hill, and then walked along the foot of the mountainside toward the main camp of the Qin army located at the entrance of the mountain.
Chapter completed!