The thick smoke rolled into the sky, and the war horses neighed through the mountains and forests.

There were shouts of killing on the narrow mountain road above the cliff, mixed with shrill screams and clanging fierce fighting.

More than a thousand black-clad escorts divided into two groups, pretending to be two passing caravans to attack the Western Liang army that had fled here. Then they suddenly launched an attack and ignited a carriage full of thatched and dried firewood, causing the horses pulling the cart to be frightened and crazily attacked the Western Liang army formation.

Meeting on a narrow road. Faced with a sudden change, more than 4,000 Xiliang war cavalry surrounded by front and back resisted hastily. They were also limited by the narrow mountain roads and could not move forward or retreat. They were crowded into groups for a while, and were scrambled by the fire carriage and suffered huge casualties.

The first wave of the fire carriage alone caused thousands of cavalry to panic by the carriage, causing them to fall from the cliff and to pieces.

After the carriage collided, two black-clothed entourages rushed out and attacked from the front and back, reaching close contact with the cavalry under Li Li. However, just as the two armies fought close, the Xiliang cavalry was caught off guard by the black-clothed entourage again. Unable to defend, they suffered huge casualties again, and had to shrink their formation and retreat step by step.

There is no reason, just because these black-clothed escorts actually carried a crossbow with them and hid behind them in advance until they suddenly attacked when they were about to fight against the Western Liang cavalry. The crossbows were launched at the same time, causing many cavalry to die immediately and suffer heavy damage again.

After two rounds of killing, only 3,000 soldiers were left in more than 4,000 Xiliang war cavalry, and 40% of the soldiers were lost. At this point, the black-clothed entourage had no means of sneak attack, so they fought close to each other with the Xiliang war cavalry, fighting to the death. During the battle, the black-clothed entourage was very fierce and tenacious, and they all seemed to have a deep blood hatred with the Xiliang army. They were not afraid of death, and they advanced but did not retreat.

Faced with such a fierce enemy, the pressure on the Xiliang army increased greatly. Although it had a clear advantage in military strength, it did not take any advantage in the fight. It was hard to distinguish it from the black-clad escorts.

Such a difficult battle is rare for these Xiliang soldiers who broke through Yecheng, and it can even be said to be the first time in the first place. This situation occurred entirely because the narrow mountain road limited the combat effectiveness of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry. Even if they had the advantage of military strength and powerful impact, they could not perform at all. They could only send more than a dozen people to fight with the black-clothed escorts at a time, while the others were blocked in the middle of the mountain road, and they were in a dilemma. Even if they had strength, they could only be anxious.

It has to be mentioned that during the previous breakthrough, the arrows carried by these Western Liang cavalry had been used up. This made them blocked on the narrow mountain road, watching the soldiers in front of them fight, and their comrades were knocked off the cliff, so anxious that they were as anxious as ants on the hot pot, but they could not help at all.

Just as the battle situation was in a stalemate, the situation suddenly changed. The Xiliang Army ushered in a major turning point. This turning point originated from the sharp screams of ghost crying and wolf howling when Liu Bei fell off the cliff.

There were not many black-clothed entourages who saw Liu Bei being knocked off the cliff. However, it was his tragic scream when he fell off the cliff that attracted the attention of the black-clothed entourages, which greatly affected the fighting spirit and morale of the black-clothed entourages who fought desperately.

As one goes up and down, the soldiers of Xiliang were greatly excited. Then, the soldiers who rushed in the front and back fought back, reversing the unfavorable situation of passive beatings in one fell swoop, robbing more combat space, allowing the remaining cavalry to join the battle group and further expand the results of the battle.

In the afternoon, the sun in the sky was completely covered by dark clouds, and the whistle and whirlwind was mixed with the moisture coming from the wind and storm.

At this moment, a pain scream like a beast roar came from the battlefield in the middle of the mountain road. This was Guan Yu's voice, and the black-clad entourage all heard it.

In an instant, the tenacious fighting spirit of the black-clothed entourage was finally disintegrated, and the formation was in chaos. Some of the black-clothed men had already fought and retreated, trying to escape from the battlefield.

Coincidentally, just when the black-clothed entourage was about to resist, a rumbling sound of horse hooves came into everyone's ears, and then tens of thousands of troops emerged from the top of the mountain, and tens of thousands of cavalry rushed in front.

"Lord, don't be surprised, Kong Ming is here!" When everyone fighting on the mountain road looked up, a loud voice came from the top of the mountain.

Immediately, a handsome man holding a feather fan stood on the top of the mountain, looking down from a high place, then waved his feather fan and ordered loudly: "Shoot the thief in black and shoot the arrow!"

At this moment, all the soldiers of Xiliang on the mountain road recognized it. The person who came was Zhuge Liang, the brother of his lord Nanyang, and Zhuge Kongming.

The "swoosh" arrow shot down, and hundreds of black-clothed entourages were not among the arrows, and fell to death with screams. The remaining hundreds of black-clothed entourages had the intention to retreat and fled in a hurry. Unfortunately, they missed the best time to retreat, so that as soon as they left, the Western Liang Iron Cavalry followed and chased after them until they wiped out all black-clothed entourages.

Until now, the identities of these black-clothed entourages surfaced, and they were the personal guards who had been fighting for many years with Liu Bei.

After the defeat of Xuzhou, only more than 1,000 people fled to Runan with Liu Bei. After that, Guan Yu found Liu Bei and brought more than 200 personal soldiers. At this point, Liu Bei and the two Guan Yu brothers had only more than 1,500 close friends who had been fighting for the rest of their lives. After learning that Zhang Fei was killed by Li Li, Liu Bei wanted to lead the remaining troops to Liu Biao in Jingzhou, but Guan Yu insisted on avenging Zhang Fei. So after the two brothers had a good argument, no one could convince anyone, and for this reason they stayed in Runan for half a year.

In the end, Liu Bei decided to lead his army north to join Yuan Shao. Unexpectedly, when they led their troops to the north bank of the Yellow River, news that Yuan Shao had poisoned the Han Emperor Liu Xie, which immediately disrupted their original intention of joining Yuan Shao. After that, Liu Bei and Guan Yu had to make a long-term plan and hesitate for more than two months. During this period, they became bandits in Yanzhou and barely made a living.

It was during this period when he was a bandit that Cao Cao in Yanzhou learned about the whereabouts of Liu Bei, Guan Yu and his team. Xun Yu volunteered to persuade Liu Bei to lead his troops to join Cao Cao. Cao Cao was forced to be a member of the alliance to fight against Yuan, and Liu Bei did not really willingly lead his troops to serve, so the whereabouts of Liu Bei and his team were concealed. As a result, their brothers were as if they were sinking into the sea and disappeared completely from the sight of the princes in various towns.

In the Battle of Yecheng, Liu Bei and Guan Yu led more than 1,300 troops from their headquarters as surprise soldiers. Hidden in the dark, he was responsible for cutting off the scouts and whistle cavalry of the Xiliang Army. More than 200 scouts of the Xiliang Army outside the East Gate were silently wiped out by them, but they also paid the price of more than 300 casualties for this, which was equivalent to exchanging life for life, and the casualties were still above the scouts of the Xiliang Army. After eliminating the scouts of the East Gate, Liu Bei led his troops to sneak into the mountains and forests in the west that night, trying to wait for the rabbit. He gave Li Li a fatal blow to the defeated Li Li.

According to Cao Cao's planned plan, he intended to send Liu Bei 5,000 or 10,000 more troops and horses, and ordered them to set up an ambush within a hundred miles outside the west gate. In this way, even if Liu Bei failed to intercept and kill, he was defeated by the fugitive troops led by Li Li, Cao Cao could send troops to reinforce him in time. However, Liu Bei flatly rejected Cao Cao's kindness and insisted on leading his troops to set up an ambush in the jungle of the West Mountain. He claimed that if Li Li did not escape to Bingzhou, no matter how many troops there were, it would be in vain. Seeing that Liu Bei had made up his mind, Cao Cao no longer insisted, and fulfilled Liu Bei's wishes and ordered him to lead his troops to intercept Li Li who might have fled to Bingzhou.

However, the mountains and forests in the west border Bingzhou and are quite close to the Huguan defenders. The risk of ambushing here is extremely high, and if you are not careful, you will be wiped out. However, Liu Bei turned the other way, holding the gambler's mentality of knowing that there is a tiger on the mountain, and resolutely decided to go directly to Huguan and set up an ambush on the cliff road thirty miles southeast of Huguan. This is why Li Li and others did not find any clues in the jungle. Obviously, Liu Bei knew that most of the Western Liang army came from bitter and cold places and was good at field battles and fighting in the jungle. Therefore, he decisively gave up the plan to set up a jungle, and then pretended to be a caravan and walked on the cliff road in advance to wait for Li Li and his group to appear.

As Liu Bei expected, the remnants of Li Li's army, who had successfully broken through, indeed fled to the jungle in the west, trying to use the natural barrier of the jungle to Huguan to escape from the sky. It can be said that Liu Bei's entire ambush plan was quite successful, and everything was carried out according to his expected trajectory, as if he had guessed the escape route after Li Li's crushing defeat. Perhaps this is also the summary of experience and experience of Liu Bei's years of escape career. Therefore, he could guess what Li Li thought after suffering a great defeat and accurately judged that after Li Li successfully broke through, he would definitely choose the nearest escape route in Bingzhou.

However, one thing was beyond Liu Bei's expectations. This was that after Li Li broke through, there were four or five thousand warriors, and they were all elite soldiers who survived the disaster. According to his speculation, after Li Li's troops rushed out of Yecheng, his troops would definitely be killed or injured. Even if there were residual defeated generals to protect the left and right, at best, they would not exceed three thousand people.

Why do five thousand elite war cavalry need to escape? Is this the strength that the fugitive should have? With so many war cavalry, Li Li can lead his army back to the north bank of the Zhang River and join the troops on the north bank of the Daying. Why do you have to cross mountains and ridges and venture to Bingzhou?

But no matter what Liu Bei thought, Li Li led the remnant army to appear and fell into the ambush circle he had prepared in advance. Liu Bei was surprised and had no choice. The situation was so urgent that he had to shoot the arrow on the string. So he decided to launch an attack, and he used himself as bait to create a chance for Guan Yu to kill Li Li with one knife.

As the saying goes: planning depends on people and accomplishing things. For this amazing beheading plan, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and more than 1,000 personal soldiers under the tent waited for two years. It can be said that he sharpened a sword for two years, just to stab it out at this moment and get what he wished. However, the ambush he carefully planned finally ended in failure. The reason is that there is only one explanation: strength determines everything.

In contrast, the reason why Li Li survived the disaster this time was because of the more preparations he made on weekdays and the more likely he could succeed at critical moments; this was the case with the soldiers and horses, and even more so with human feelings. This time, he led nearly 5,000 cavalry to break through successfully, invisibly disrupting Liu Bei's ambush plan. Gongsun Zan's courageous pounce when his life was hanging on the line was due to Li Li's favor to Gongsun Zan on weekdays. Although he did not fully trust Gongsun Zan, he had always treated Gongsun Zan extremely well and treated Gongsun Zan in every way, and took care of Gongsun Zan's emotions on different occasions, so that he could not feel a trace of cold reception and lived a dignity. Therefore, when he was facing the most critical moment of life and death, Gongsun Zan stood up and repaid his former kindness with his life.

At dusk, a heavy rain that had been brewing for three days finally fell.

The downpour of rain fell from the lightning and thunder, washing away the thick smoke and dust in the sky, washing away the blood all over the ground and the blood that permeated the air. The falling rain smoothed out the devastated fields and the trampled green grass, soothing the wronged souls that have not yet gone away, and the sad and fragile hearts of the survivors.

At the same time, the belated heavy rain also left a curtain on the three-year-old fierce battle in Hebei. With the arrival of this heavy rain, the war smoke was extinguished, the battle clouds dissipated, and everything was settled.

After the Battle of Yecheng, this protracted war came to an end temporarily. After countless games and fighting, the outcome has become clear. Cao Cao in Yanzhou is the biggest winner. In contrast, Yuan Shao of Jizhou lost all the money and lost completely; while Li Li, who was sure to win, fell into a big fall at the last moment of victory, and suffered his first failure since the uprising, and was an unprecedented defeat.

Therefore, this rain came at the right time, washing away all the beacon smoke and putting it on its face, bringing back the tranquility that the mountains and rivers should have, and bringing the earth a pure sky.

————To be continued—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————To be continued———————————To be continued——————————To be continued—————————To be continued————————To be continued————————To be continued————————To be continued———————To be continued———————To be continued————

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