Lu Bu had made up his mind. Even though he inexplicably followed his adopted brother's insistence and lay back on the couch to rest, his mind would not change.
The next morning, Han Xin was still restless and could not sit still. When he wanted to find his brother to talk, he found him empty-handed in the tent.
With the guidance of his personal guards, he found his way to the parade ground.
He arrived a little later and saw his brother standing in the chilly spring weather, with his muscular and smooth upper body bare, as if nothing had happened, and beads of sweat glistening in the sunlight; but he missed the moment when the other side easily knocked down a group of soldiers in the name of a martial arts show.
Seeing his brother riding the jade lion so majestically, with both the man and the horse showing off their might and spirits, he could not help but believe that his brother, who was always reckless, was not just acting on impulse, but had really changed his temper.
In this case, thinking that the opportunity was fleeting, Han Xin no longer hesitated to be polite with Lu Bu, and quickly ordered his deputy general Li Bi to organize the army.
After noon, they set out smoothly and marched northward.
Lu Bu stood lazily on the top of Chaoge City, watching the army march away in a mighty force, and he did not stay in the city for long.
He conveniently selected the deputy general Zhou Lan who was accompanying the army on this trip to stay here.
Zhou Lan was shocked when he learned that the commander-in-chief was going to march with a light cavalry and a small entourage, but would leave him to guard the city.
His first reaction was to object: "Please think twice, Sima Lu, this is absolutely—"
Lu Bu was sitting cross-legged with a nonchalant look on his face, and it was unknown what he was thinking about. Hearing this, he raised his head and looked at Zhou Lan calmly: "Hmm?"
He simply raised his eyebrows, and Zhou Lan suddenly fell silent.
Seeing Zhou Lan's stubborn face and her stammering attempts to persuade him, Lu Bu simply stood up.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, and slowly put his right hand on his thin waist, revealing the powerful Longyuan Sword, and pretended to be surprised and said, "No—?"
How dare you, a bastard, object to what I say
Do you dare to speak again to the sword bestowed by the king
Zhou Lan felt like crying but had no tears.
He was not a fool without any sense, so how could he not understand the hidden meaning of the words of this extremely casual commander
Even though he had a lot of advice to give, Lu Bu had a hot temper and was willing to beat even a king, so how could he listen to a mere deputy general like him
After seeing that he had frightened Zhou Lan, Lu Bu snorted triumphantly and went back to the barracks.
After careful selection, Lu Bu selected exactly 2,000 soldiers, and happily left Zhou Lan, who had a sad face, and set off towards the west happily.
Before his cheap brother left, he had already found out that there were already two grain teams on the way from Xianyang.
Although I don't know the exact location, I will run into it sooner or later as long as I walk from east to west.
Sure enough, after only two days and one night of travel, Lu Bu ran into a group of Chu soldiers driving carts loaded with large and small bags.
A row of ferocious cavalrymen, like tigers out of a cage, suddenly appeared before their eyes, and Lian Ao, who was in charge of transporting this batch of grain, was terrified.
The next time he saw that they were all wearing the same Chu army uniforms, he let out a sigh of relief with lingering fear.
Only then did I have time to identify the person by the pair of extremely eye-catching pheasant tail feathers.
Why is General Lu here
Although he didn't dare to ask out loud, his thoughts were written all over his face.
Lu Bu was in a good mood. After seeing the situation clearly, he kindly replied, "The king has ordered me to do my best to escort a carriage."
"Thank you very much, General Lu."
Lian Ao was so flattered that he kept bowing, but Lu Bu impatiently waved his hand to stop him. He then asked casually, "How is General Zhang? Is the situation in the capital all right?"
It's a pity that except for the day he received the order, Lian Ao had never seen General Zhang Han, the commander-in-chief. He was usually in the military camp. When he heard the words, he hesitated and was extremely anxious, but he couldn't explain the reason.
Seeing that he hadn't said anything for a long time, Lu Bu simply stopped waiting and waved his hand again, urging him to move on: "Stop talking nonsense and get on the road. I'm not far behind you, and I will make sure nothing happens to you."
He spoke hesitantly and didn't know the answers to any questions.
What else can I do
It would be better to send the food and fodder quickly to prevent the soldiers under that fool from starving.
Lian Ao Ru had been in a hurry since he had been pardoned, and now he did not dare to delay for a moment. He hurriedly urged his soldiers to set off again.
Although Lu Bu and his cavalry were not following closely, the weighty promise of "not far behind" made Lian Ao, who had been on high alert all the way, miraculously feel relieved at this moment.
Lu Bu honestly stayed not far away and escorted the people into the Chu territory. Only then did he turn his horse around and go to look for the second food team amid the people's trembling thanks.
Then they followed the same pattern and smoothly sent the second grain truck in, but they still didn't see a single hair of Peng Yue or Chen Yu's followers.
Lu Bu finally felt that something was wrong.
—Could it be that I followed too closely and was noticed by those two mice with very sensitive noses
Lu Bu pondered for a while, and finally felt that going back and forth like this was really time-consuming and laborious, and it would easily alert the enemy, and he would not be able to catch the person for a long time.
So they decided to break up the whole into small groups on the spot, dividing the 2,000 cavalry into 500 groups, each with 100 men, and dividing them into five groups in total, and then scattering out.
He himself found a small village nearby to settle down temporarily.
When the cavalrymen sent out discovered the whereabouts of Peng Yue or Chen Yu, they would immediately send one person back to report, and he would then rush over and give them a head-on blow.
As soon as Lu Bu came up with an idea, he acted immediately.
He was really lucky - only five days after the troops were divided, one of the teams actually brought news.
Although Chen Yu was not found, Peng Yue, who was hiding in the Yan County area, was discovered by them.
Lu Bu was overjoyed and shouted, "Hurry up and follow me! If you're late, there will be no meat to eat!"
The two thousand soldiers he carefully selected all had temperaments that suited his taste and were excellent riders.
At this moment, his loud shout easily made their blood boil. They shouted excitedly for war and killing, and galloped forward behind the commander.
At this moment, Peng Yue had no idea that his whereabouts had been discovered and that a disaster was about to happen.
He was originally from Changyi. As it was close to Juye Lake, he made a living by fishing since he was a child. He also made friends with a group of fishermen in the same situation.
When the troubled times just started, when he heard the news that Chen Sheng and Wu Guang had started an uprising, some villagers instigated him to take advantage of the situation.
However, he was not in a hurry at that time. He was patient and waited for more than a year. Only after he saw with his own eyes that the destruction of Qin was inevitable did he gather people into an army and become a very inconspicuous member among the princes vying for supremacy in the Central Plains.
Because of his lack of outstanding military achievements and the fact that he had never followed Xiang Yu into the Shanhai Pass, he later lost his title.
The reason why Peng Yue risked his life to start a rebellion was that he only wanted to gain wealth and glory by his own efforts.
The reason why he did not join Chu was because he knew very well that people like Xiang Yu, who were born into Chu aristocrats, were arrogant and had very high standards. Unless he was as brave as Ying Bu and was willing to risk his life, if he joined him, he would be nothing more than a sycophantic prince.
He was not even worthy of Xiang Yu's attention, let alone any hope of making a name for himself.
However, he had taken a liking to Liu Bang and wanted to help him in his time of need. When he attacked Changyi County, he was unable to capture the city due to his lack of strength, so they had to part ways temporarily.
The successful attack on Jiyin that day had boosted the morale of the army and was a good time to recruit soldiers. However, Han Xin, who appeared out of nowhere but was a tough nut to crack, showed up and defeated them miserably.
If he hadn't seen the opportunity quickly, he would have lost his life. How could he have cared about saving his soldiers
He fled into the forest, intending to take advantage of the terrain to vent his anger, but Han Xin was very alert and only chased him for a short distance before refusing to go any further.
He suffered heavy losses and did not dare to test the Chu city again. In addition, he needed to restore his troops, so he simply wandered back to Changyi and set up camp in the familiar Juye Lake.
He was originally worried that the Chu officials would send troops to suppress him, but it happened that Ying Bu rebelled against Chu and entered Chu to burn, kill and loot, which was a good opportunity to completely incur Xiang Yu's hatred.
Taking advantage of the chaos and disorder everywhere, he secretly took in the scattered remnants of the army, while plundering the surrounding areas and occupying the mountains as a king.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. Just when the development momentum was good and he had accumulated more than 10,000 people under his command, Xiang Yu, who had been stationed in Lingbi and kept his troops idle, began to move north.
To go from Lingbi to Boyang, the capital of the old Jibei State, one must pass through Huling and cross the Si River. Only forty miles west of Huling is Juye Lake where he was stationed.
As his military strength grew, the area in which he operated also expanded, and his influence grew stronger and stronger, to the point where it could no longer be concealed.
How dare he continue to hang around in Juye Lake when Xiang Yu's hundreds of thousands of brave and elite soldiers passed by
As a last resort, he had to move westward with the more than 10,000 people he had just assembled.
Having learned from the previous experience in Jiyin City, he did not dare to seize food from the enemy's mouth in Chu territory and launch an attack on a large city that could receive reinforcements from the main Chu army at any time.
Therefore, when passing through Chengyang and Yan County, he did not stay for long.
But as he led a crowd of tens of thousands, he soon had to face the dilemma of insufficient food and fodder.
It is obviously not enough to just plunder some small villages along the way.
Seeing that the rations he carried were about to run out, Peng Yue became extremely anxious and finally thought of the Chu army's grain transport convoy.
He had been active in Liangdi, and although he was not familiar with the terrain in Guanzhong, he knew several roads that must be passed to transport food and fodder from Xianyang.
Although the Chu army is unparalleled in the world's strength, it is destined to have weaknesses.
In terms of food supply and logistics, no military force can be so strong and invincible.
With more than 10,000 men under his command, he launched a surprise attack, and the grain convoy would certainly not be able to resist.
If this was accomplished, he would not only get military rations and solve his own temporary problem of food shortage, so that he could survive the period of being forced to wander outside; he could also disrupt the food supply of the Chu army and ease the pressure of Zhang Er's anti-Chu alliance; he could also vent his anger about being driven out of Jiyin and his army being completely defeated.
Killing three birds with one stone, why not do it
With this in mind, Peng Yue sent people to conduct a thorough investigation of the grain route, and then carefully considered the method of surprise attack.
He has always been able to keep his composure. To ensure that nothing would go wrong, he could have sat back and watched the world in chaos and the turmoil in the State of Wei for more than a year without taking any action. What's more, he was just robbing a grain team
What Peng Yue could never have imagined was that his careful planning was destined to be a case of the mantis stalking the cicada, with the oriole unaware of the situation behind.
—When Lu Bu ordered his followers to wrap the horses' hooves with cloth, put wooden sticks in the horses' mouths, and approach the tens of thousands of fat sheep silently from behind, he felt a sense of excitement that seemed familiar.
Back then, I led that taciturn guy named Gao and easily defeated the more than ten thousand Black Mountain troops with only the 800 light cavalry in the Xianzhen Camp.
That was an unparalleled majesty that made the incompetent Yuan Xiaoqi dumbfounded and filled him with deep fear!
Thinking of this, Lu Bu smiled disdainfully.
When I was killing people everywhere and making the enemy tremble in fear, these ignorant little bastards in front of me had not even shown up... They have been dead for hundreds of years!