On the first night when he was about to enter the mountainous area of Mangdang Mountain, Yuan Tiangang did not sleep well for most of the night. The reason for not sleeping well was not how to leave Meng Rang's team. In fact, Yuan Tiangang had already prepared for himself to get out. The only thing to worry about is that Meng Rang's army is stronger than expected. At present, the relatively weak Qiaojun army is not sure of victory.
"Forget it, it's not something I can worry about. I'd better worry about how to get out of it tomorrow." Yuan Tiangang didn't go to sleep until he figured it out, and slept until it was twilight. Waking up by Meng Rang's personal soldiers, he woke up yawning and led four followers to join Meng Rang.
When seeing Meng Rang, Yuan Tiangang's entourage each received a dry ration from Meng Rang's own soldiers, and Meng Rang also handed a dry ration to Yuan Tiangang himself, and said very politely: "Mr. Let’s get some dry food, our scout scout, Zhang Xutuo’s old dog crossed the Bian River overnight, according to that old dog’s habit, he has already sent troops south by now, we have to hurry up and go, So I don’t bury the pot for cooking.”
"It should be so." Yuan Tiangang nodded, and then asked with concern: "Your Majesty, how is the situation at Chen Gouguan and Mangdang Mountain in Qiao County? Have you found anything unusual?"
"There is no movement in Qiao County." Meng Rang replied casually: "There is no abnormality found in Mangdang Mountain. It should be fine."
"Didn't find anything unusual?" Yuan Tiangang was a little worried. He didn't dare to say that Chen Yingliang had already arranged an ambush in place in advance, or he hadn't had time to arrange an ambush. He took the dry food on his scalp, and followed Meng Rang's elite team to the southeast of Mangdang Mountain.
Meng Rang's team strictly implemented the previously scheduled transfer plan. Meng Rang's elite troops were at the forefront, led by Meng Rang himself, and the cavalry team, which was more expensive than gold on the Central Plains battlefield, followed Meng Rang. Leading the supply and food team to walk in the middle, and the yellow and emaciated miscellaneous soldiers, women and children, the old and the weak walked at the end of the team, serving as the rear of the whole army. ——Meng Rang's intention must be clear to everyone, that is, once Zhang Xutuo catches up, he will use these huge numbers of old and weak soldiers to block the road and consume the energy and time of Zhang Xutuo's team, while Meng Rang will lead the elite team Take the opportunity to run away, and then rely on the backbone of the team to easily recruit refugees and civilians to join the army and revive their momentum.
In view of Zhang Xutuo's resolute pursuit attitude, the front, middle and rear teams of Meng Rang's army all walked very quickly. It only took more than an hour to complete the open official road of more than 20 miles, and successfully reached the edge of Mangdang Mountain As a result, Meng Rang frowns a little. Although Mangdang Mountain is not really a high mountain, the mountain is still undulating and the area is vast. It is very difficult to quickly pass through the mountainous area. But things have come to this point, Mangdang Mountain is surrounded by lush virgin forests, there is no road to go, trying to detour around the mountain will only waste more precious time, Meng Rang has no choice but to force himself Brazenly let the army walk into the mountain road, and at the same time comforted myself in my heart, "It's okay, this road is difficult for us, and Zhang Xutuo's old dog's team is also difficult. As long as we pass through this mountainous area smoothly, we will be fine."
Fortunately, although the mountainous area of Mangdang Mountain is relatively vast, the peaks are not too high, and the roads are not too narrow. Even Meng Rang's cavalry team, who is like their lifeblood, can walk on the mountain road without any hindrance, and the marching speed can still be maintained. Guaranteed, at the same time, the scout sentry team who went forward to open the way did not find any abnormalities, so as the three teams in the front, middle and back entered the mountain smoothly, Meng Rang gradually relaxed, and began to consider whether to set up an ambush in this area, and warmly entertained them. The old rival Zhang Xutuo who drove him around all at once
Yuan Tiangang followed Meng Rang almost every step of the way, constantly pointing Meng Rang to various places of interest in the famous historical mountain Mangdang Mountain, such as the quarry in the era of the Yellow Emperor Chiyou, the Confucius Mountain where Confucius avoided the rain and taught his disciples, and Mozi lived in seclusion Beizhou Mountain, what remains of the cottage that Zhang Fei built when he was a bandit, the ancient Mangdang Road that Qin Shihuang walked through when he was on a tour, the first tomb of Chen Sheng in the world who called out the prince and general Xiangning, and introduced the history of it Meng Rang and others, who were gradually relieved of the allusions, listened with gusto, and almost wanted to visit the scene of the famous scene.
As an ambitious and cultured bandit, Meng Rang is of course most concerned about the scene of the elder Liu Bang's snake-killing uprising. He took the time to ask Yuan Tiangang: "Mr. Chunfeng, you said that Liu Bang, the great ancestor of the Han Dynasty, killed snakes on this road?" Rebel, where is the place where he cut the white snake?"
"It's right in front, not far away." Yuan Tiangang pointed to the front and said casually: "It's at that location. It is said that Liu Bang killed the snake and rebelled next to a small lake. Unfortunately, the river has been diverted for hundreds of years. The lake has turned into a small pond... huh?"
The reason why Yuan Tiangang made a startled sound was that, just in the direction he was pointing, a puff of blue and black cooking smoke rose up, and the location seemed to be the small pond that Yuan Tiangang introduced, and Meng Rang also noticed it. After cooking smoke, he hurriedly sent people to check the situation, and at the same time asked the army to be vigilant and prepare for battle. As a result, not long after, a young man ran back and played to Meng Rang: "My lord, they are a small group of refugees, only more than twenty people. They don't know where they stole a big fat sheep." , killing sheep and cooking meat by a pond."
"Damn, I'm scared!" Meng Rang cursed, and then said happily: "Okay, I have some meat to eat, go quickly, go and see the situation."
Yuan Tiangang knew something was wrong, but he didn't dare to say it out loud. He just followed Meng Rang's soldiers and walked forward quickly. After walking for more than a mile, he came to the legendary place where Liu Bang's snake-killing uprising was. Beside the small pond, there were really twenty or so ragged mobs confronting the Meng Rang army's vanguard sentinel. There was indeed a dilapidated iron pot boiling beside the pond, and angry shouts could be heard faintly. Shouting, "It's our sheep, the sheep we borrowed with great difficulty, wanting to share the meat, dreaming!"
"My lord! There are people coming again, a lot of people!"
"Damn it, I'm unlucky! Go! Go!"
Shouting, the group of refugees seemed to have seen Meng Rang's brigade arrive, and knew that they would die if they were outnumbered, so they ran away to the southeast in fear. The mutton was being scooped up with knives and guns, and someone shouted: "Wine! There are two jars of wine!"
Hearing that there was wine and meat, Meng Rang's soldiers were overjoyed, and quickly stepped forward to share the wine and meat. Meng Rang also quickened his pace happily, knowing that Yuan Tiangang, who was about to be ambushed by the Qiaojun army, would set up an ambush in this area. On the other hand, he was suspicious, and hurriedly followed, while whispering to his four attendants: "Don't divide the meat and wine, it's weird."
When they arrived at the scene, the sentry soldiers began to pour wine into their mouths, and some people were screaming because of the scalding meat. Meng Rang strode forward, grabbed a wine jar, and first After smelling it, he praised the good wine loudly. Then he poured a breath into his mouth with the wine jar, and then called out good wine again. Finally, he handed the wine jar to Yuan Tiangang and invited Yuan Tiangang to drink. Yuan Tiangang was very careful He put the wine under his nose and sniffed it carefully. He didn't find any abnormalities, but he didn't dare to drink it. He just put the wine jar to his mouth, held it up with his lips pursed, and took a sip, then praised: "Good wine. But it's a deep mountain. Old Lin’s, the wine from those thieves?”
"Songcheng Luji Company?" Meng Rang noticed the red seal on the wine jar, and said with a smile: "The gang of thieves just now probably robbed some caravan because of their luck, but they ran into us again if they were unlucky. Quickly call Li Chou and Wang Xin'e and let them drink some too."
Ordering people to summon the generals under his command, Meng Rang stopped the meat-grabbing behavior of the soldiers and ordered the soldiers to cut the mutton into small pieces and distribute them to everyone. He also took a piece of mutton the size of a fist and ate it, and then invited Yuan Tiangang to eat with him When it came to mutton, Yuan Tiangang, who had already discovered that something was wrong, quickly continued to excuse himself as a vegetarian, and thanked Meng Rang for his kindness. Meng Rang also remembered Yuan Tiangang's habit of never eating meat in the past two days. The mutton that fell was distributed to the cronies.
At this time, Li Chou, Wang Xin'e and others had already arrived at the scene. After learning what had happened, they all laughed loudly, scrambling to share the meat and drink. Quickly share all the mutton, and even a big pot of mutton soup. Then Meng Rang noticed that there was grass and water here, and the terrain was open, so he simply let the army take a rest here, replenish drinking water, and waited for the front, middle and rear troops who were a little out of touch, and at the same time sent people to scout the movement ahead. I'd like to see if there is anything like this in this area.
After the order was conveyed, the bandit army, who had already walked dozens of miles, was not polite. They either sat or lay down to rest on the spot, drank water and ate dry food, and let their horses gnaw the dense grass nearby. As a result, the bandit soldiers almost The small pond with a radius of several feet was drained, and nearly a thousand war horses also gnawed clean the surrounding green grass and young leaves.
It was also at this time that Yuan Tiangang, who had been on a high level of vigilance, was pleasantly surprised to find that there were a lot of cute little beans of unknown origin scattered in the surrounding grass, and at the bottom of the clear small pond, there were also some glassy beans sleeping quietly. The red stones and white stones—Yuan Tiangang, who has a certain research on alchemy, dares to bet his head that these red stones and white stones are definitely the legendary red stones and white stones, the raw materials for making arsenic, a natural poison that is slightly less toxic than arsenic! There may even be natural arsenic, but it's not easy to get it, so Yuan Tiangang is not sure whether Chen Yingliang used it to entertain Meng Rang's elite team.
Secretly admired that Chen Yingliang's heart was more poisonous than arsenic, Yuan Tiangang was not polite. In order to let the bandit soldiers rest here more, Yuan Tiangang quickly introduced to Meng Rang the allusion of Liu Bang's snake-killing uprising here, and what did he say? Qin Shihuang found that there was a kingly spirit here, so he came here specially to tour the story of Yanzhen, but it also received some effects, allowing Meng Rang and others to rest here for a while, and then ordered the army to continue moving forward.
Yuan Tiangang soon realized that he was wasting his energy. The army had just started to move forward, when the scouts who were sent to the front suddenly rushed to report, and shouted from a distance: "My lord, it's not good, the road ahead is blocked. Blocked, blocked with stones and logs!"
"What?!" Meng Rang, Wang Xin'e and the others were taken aback, and quickly asked, "Have you found any enemies?"
"No." The scout replied loudly, and added: "But that section of the road is very narrow, and it is tightly blocked by logs and stones, making it impossible to pass."
Meng Rang's face changed a little, and he hurriedly shouted: "Go quickly, go and see the situation!"
"Master Meng, you can't go!" Yuan Tiangang quickly expressed his loyalty, grabbed Meng Rang who had already eaten meat and drunk wine, and said, "Master Meng, have you forgotten the story of Sun Bin and Pang Juan? Staying on the road, tricked Pang Juan to go forward to check the situation, and then took the opportunity to shoot a volley of arrows, shooting Pang Juan to death in the narrow passage of Maling!"
"That's right! How did I forget this important event?!" Meng Rang's expression changed immediately, and he quickly ordered to Wang Xin'e: "Wang Xin'e, take a team up to check the situation, and pay attention to search the highlands on both sides of the mountain road! If you find that something is wrong, immediately withdraw it to me!"
Wang Xin'e took the order, and hurriedly led a team to the scene to check the situation, while Yuan Tiangang said to Meng Rang pitifully: "Master Meng, you have to investigate clearly, I really didn't know what would happen like this I led you to this road because I wanted you to avoid being intercepted by the officers and soldiers, I really didn't know there would be such a thing here."
"Mr. Chunfeng, you don't have to worry, I have no doubts about you." Meng Rang said impatiently, "If you really lured us here on purpose, you would have already run away. What are you doing here? Besides, if you I'm really uneasy and kind, and I didn't remind me to be careful about ambush just now."
Yuan Tiangang quickly thanked him, and publicly asked his four followers to stay by his side and not to run around indiscriminately, to prove his magnanimity and selflessness. .
At this time, black smoke suddenly rose from the depths of the road ahead. The smoke first lightened and then thickened, and gradually rose straight into the sky. It was the sound of drums, the sound of gongs, and people yelling to kill. Meng Rang's team was taken aback, and quickly raised their bows and arrows to look around, but the woods on both sides of the mountain road were quiet and silent, and there was no one in sight. Shadow, the scouts who went up the mountain to search also said that they found no enemy.
The sound of drums, gongs and horns was still reverberating in the valley, deafening, but Meng Rang's army could not even see half of the enemy. They rushed back to report that they also did not find the enemy situation, but someone lit the trees and weeds blocking the mountain road, so the smoke rose to the sky ahead, and at the same time, the advance path of Meng Rang's army was completely blocked by the fire and thick smoke.
Blocking the way forward with raging fire, the drums of war in the valley in the distance are shaking, but there is no enemy in the vicinity. Meng Rang didn't say he had seen such a strange ambush, but he had never even heard of it. For a moment, he didn't know whether to move forward or retreat. But the house leak happened to be raining all night, and at this moment, Meng Rang suddenly felt abdominal pain like twisting, and couldn't bear anything, so he quickly unbuttoned his pants, squatted beside him, and began to perform physiological movements, pulling and shouting, " Order the entire army to be vigilant on the spot, search both sides of the road, and if you find any traces of the enemy, report them immediately!"
"Uh!" Probably smelling Meng Rang's excrement, a bandit soldier next to him suddenly bent down and vomited, and his action also angered Meng Rang, roaring: "Spit your mother's head I think my excrement smells bad, I told you to eat all the excrement, do you believe it or not?"
"My lord, it's not that I hate the smell, it's that I feel uncomfortable in my stomach." The soldier explained aggrievedly, but before he finished his explanation, several soldiers beside him couldn't help vomiting violently. His own soldiers also followed Meng Rang's example, unbuttoning their trousers and squatting on the side of the road to pull them up.
"What happened?" Seeing this scene, Meng Rang was of course shocked, while Yuan Tiangang pretended to hold his stomach and screamed for pain, unbuttoned his pants and joined the ranks of defecating everywhere. The four followers Yuan Tiangang brought He was originally a capable soldier selected by Kan Leng himself, and he was instructed by Yuan Tiangang. Seeing this situation, of course, he squatted beside Yuan Tiangang without hesitation, pretending that everyone had already been recruited to share weal and woe.
At this time, Li Chou, who was behind, ran over holding his stomach, moaning and shouting, "My lord, the situation is not right. Many brothers are vomiting and diarrhea. I also diarrhea very badly. I have diarrhea twice, and my stomach still hurts." ..., ouch."
As he spoke, Li Chou squatted on the ground again and had severe diarrhea. At the same time, more soldiers of Meng Rang also squatted on the ground and unbuttoned their pants to defecate. The ordinary soldiers who had never eaten mutton bent over and vomited. The precious war horse also basically started having diarrhea. Seeing this scene, Meng Rang finally came to his senses, and screamed, "We've been tricked! We've been tricked! The wine and meat just now are poisonous!"
"Your Majesty, have we not eaten meat or alcohol?" Several soldiers who were vomiting asked in surprise.
Meng Rang was stunned again, and then immediately screamed: "Pond! The enemy poisoned the pond! Those who drank and ate meat had diarrhea, and those who drank the pond water vomited. The enemy poisoned them in two ways!"
"Fuck me!" Li Chou cursed in pain, "What the hell is that son of a bitch, so wicked that he poisoned the old men!"
Noticing that almost all of Meng Rang's soldiers were squatting on the ground, and most of the surrounding soldiers began to groan and vomit, and the bandit soldiers who did not show symptoms of poisoning were in chaos, and the morale of the soldiers was even more flustered to the extreme. At the end, he also screamed: "Chen Yingliang! It must be that dog official Chen Yingliang! I heard that when he arrested Yang Xuangan, he poisoned Yang Xuangan's wine! King Meng, we have been tricked, that dog thief Chen Yingliang deliberately stood still , just to make us take it lightly, so that he can set up an ambush here to deal with us! It's over, I also drank just now!"
"Chen Yingliang, I'll fuck your mother!" Meng Rang almost vomited blood, clutching his stomach and screaming, "Order the whole army to turn around immediately and go back!"
The orderly who was vomiting agreed, but he couldn't move and ran to deliver the order. Li Chou also screamed hysterically, "My lord, are you crazy? The old dog Zhang Xutuo is chasing us. We are in this situation now. Isn't walking back courting death?"
Meng Rang was taken aback, and then quickly stopped the messenger, while Yuan Tiangang quickly calculated and analyzed, thinking that Chen Yingliang still refused to show up to attack, it must be to make the effect of the medicine worse, and he also hoped that Zhang Xutuo would rush to the front in time to catch up. Then he moaned and said loudly: "King Meng, we should continue to move forward. Officer Chen lit a fire to block our way, which proves that he is ahead..., ouch, his stomach hurts again, which proves that there may be no troops ahead of him."
Feeling that Yuan Tiangang's analysis was reasonable, Meng Rang decisively ordered the soldiers who were not poisoned or not deeply poisoned to go forward, fight the fire with all their strength to clear the road, and then squatted on the ground with severe diarrhea and cursed at Chen Yingliang. Yuan Tiangang also pretended to be poisoned. , standing up and squatting down to moan.
It was also at this time that a decent shout of killing finally sounded from the rear of Meng Rang's team. At the same time, he heard the sound of stones and trees falling to the ground. Meng Rang was so anxious that he sent someone to inquire about the situation. It was the Chinese army that was escorting the heavy food and grass that was attacked. They were pushed down from the mountain with rolling stones and fallen trees, killing and injuring many soldiers. Meng Rang was shocked when he heard the report, but he still didn't understand Chen Yingliang's tactical intentions, and he didn't know where the officers and soldiers were going to come from.
Under such circumstances, Meng Rang's most correct way to deal with it is of course to break up the army into pieces and evacuate from both sides of the mountain road. At the same time, Meng Rang, who was unfortunately poisoned, could hardly escape the search by the officers and soldiers, so Meng Rang had no choice but to order the army to open the way as much as possible, put out the fire and clear the way, and strictly ordered the soldiers to stop Move out of line to avoid being overrun one by one by enemies who haven't shown their faces so far.
Relying on many times of actual combat training in the past two years, Meng Rang's order was firmly implemented. Almost all the soldiers who were not poisoned or not deeply poisoned stepped forward to clear the way, leaving the generals and soldiers who were deeply poisoned to vomit and have diarrhea in place. Some soldiers who drank a lot of water and were weak began to twitch their limbs, showing symptoms of arsenic poisoning. Meng Rang and Li Chou, who drank a lot, were so unsteady that they could not stand still, and their bodies quickly developed symptoms of dehydration and weakness.
The thick smoke in front finally began to thin out, and the sound of clearing could be vaguely heard. Before Meng Rang and others were overjoyed, a loud noise suddenly sounded in the depths of the road ahead, as loud as a thunderclap, never heard before. Meng Rang and others who had heard such a loud noise were of course shocked, but Yuan Tiangang, who knew it was the explosion of gunpowder, was overjoyed, knowing that this must be the signal for Chen Yingliang's general attack.
Sure enough, when the loud noise of the gunpowder explosion was still echoing in the mountains, there were real shouts of killing from the front and back of Meng Rang's team. When the shouts of killing were abuzz, the front and rear directions reported separately, saying that Wang Xin'e's former army had been attacked by bows and arrows from the front, blocking the road with bows and arrows, and the bandit soldiers suffered heavy casualties during the forward clash , but could not rush in front of the officers and soldiers. At the same time, Wang Xin'e himself suffered from diarrhea and was unable to command the army, let alone boost the morale of the soldiers. And the rear came to report that there was an army of officers who were all tied up with leaves, detoured from the path to the official road, and was heading for this position.
"Block the back! Go ahead and charge with all your strength!" Meng Rang shouted in despair, still refusing to give up the last hope of a collective breakout.
Those who could move went to the front and back, and there were only a few hundred bandit soldiers who were spitting and pulling, and some soldiers who had begun to roll all over the floor and foam at the mouth. The bad news continued, saying that after the bandit army rushed to the front of the official army at all costs, they were hit head-on by the officer's long sword team, and were killed and injured. Still unable to break out of the encirclement, Meng Rang was furious and shouted orders The former army charged with all its strength, protruding from the encirclement at all costs.
The messenger ran away again, but just as the messenger was gone, Meng Rang found someone patting him on the shoulder, and when he looked back, he saw that it was Yuan Tiangang. : "My lord, I don't drink too much, I'm not deeply poisoned, we are already surrounded, why don't I take you to take a small path, I am familiar with this area and know the terrain. My followers are not deeply poisoned, so I can carry you on my back."
Yuan Tiangang's words are of course a typical cat playing with a mouse. His four followers have already quietly clenched their sheathed horizontal knives, but Meng Rang only hesitated. After being chased by the officers and soldiers with all their strength, he nodded immediately and said, "Okay, let's take a small path to retreat, but wait a while, I will send someone to call some brothers who are not poisoned."
"Your Majesty, there is no time! It is important to go first!" Yuan Tiangang urged, and also ordered: "Hurry up, set up King Meng and go!"
"I'm not leaving! What do you want to do? I'm not leaving!" Meng Rang was shocked, and when he was about to draw his sword, two of Yuan Tiangang's followers had already come up and grabbed his arms and snatched his weapon , picked him up and walked up the mountain, Meng Rang struggled and shouted, but was knocked unconscious by one of Yuan Tiangang's followers with a knife handle.
"What do you want to do? What are you doing?" Meng Rang's guards next to him were startled, and they stood up to stop them. Unfortunately, each one of them was either exhausted or vomited. The good Li Chou stumbled over and shouted: "Let go of the king! Let him go!"
The one who answered Li Chou was Yuan Tiangang who winked at one of his attendants and pouted at Li Chou. The attendant understood and raised his saber and strode forward to meet Li Chou. Only halfway through the lifting, Yuan Tiangang's entourage had already fallen decisively, hacked him to death, and chopped off his head, and then Yuan Tiangang yelled at the screaming bandits: "Run for your life! If you dare to follow up and be discovered by the officers and soldiers, Li Chou will be your fate!"
The thieves, who were so weak from vomiting and diarrhea, did not dare to go forward, they could only watch helplessly as Meng Rang went up the mountain on the back of Yuan Tiangang's entourage and disappeared into the depths of the dense forest, yelling and making gestures Chased, but basically couldn't even climb the nearby hillside. Occasionally, a few poisoned soldiers caught up, and they were all chopped down by Yuan Tiangang's followers.