————————————

Guandu is not a city, it is a camp specially built to transport food, grass and supplies.∽↗

At the third update of the night, the camp was quiet and silent. In addition to the bright lights at the east and west gates, darkness enveloped the huge tent. Only the Zhongjun camp tent was still faint.

The general in charge of Guandu camp was Ren Jun, whose courtesy name was Boda and from Zhongmu County. He was one of the first trusted generals to respond to Cao Cao's uprising. He led hundreds of clans to join Cao Cao's command. Since then, he has followed Cao Cao in the south and north for more than ten years and has always been Cao Cao's most trusted and capable commander of the rear army. Every time Cao Cao led troops to fight, Ren Jun was the chief general of the rear army, supplying food, grass and supplies in the rear. This has been the case for more than ten years, with few exceptions.

The most rare thing is that until now, the arms and food supplies that Ren Jun was responsible for escorting had never made any mistakes. He repeatedly defeated the enemy's plan to cut off the food route, which was truly foolproof and was deeply trusted by Cao Cao and even the generals of the entire army.

It is precisely because he is good at commanding the rear army that Cao Ren led his army to the expedition this time and still ordered him to be the chief general of the rear army, presided over the transportation of arms and grain, stationed in Guandu, and provided food and supplies to more than 100,000 troops in front.

The readers are not wrong. Since the Zhao Yun army outside Kaifeng City robbed the camp at night, Cao Ren's army lost tens of thousands of people. When he captured Zhongmu County, more than half of the 120,000 troops under Cao Ren's army were lost, and only 60,000 troops were left to Zhongmu. Relying on the city's benefits, he confronted the Western Jin army in the Luoyang camp in the long distance. However, half a month after Li Li personally led the army to aid Luoyang, the Jingzhou army that attacked Nanyang County mobilized 200,000 reinforcements from the rear again, and Cao Ren's army that attacked Henan County was also increasing troops. When Li Li led his army to Luoyang, Cao Cao of the Northern Wei Dynasty sent general Cao Hong and Le Jin to lead 100,000 Qingzhou troops to reinforce Cao Ren, and arrived in Henan County almost at the same time as Li Li's army. At this point, Cao Ren's army had as many as 170,000 troops under Cao Ren's army, and stationed in Zhongmu City. Confronted the Luoyang camp where the Western Jin army was stationed.

The arrival of 100,000 reinforcements in Qingzhou greatly encouraged Cao Ren to lead his army to attack Henan County. Therefore, not only did he not fear withdrawing because Li Li's army arrived in Luoyang, but instead strengthened Zhongmu City, arranged troops and set up a stance to stalemate with the Western Jin army, and had a decisive battle with the Western Jin army.

At the same time, when more than 100,000 Cao troops were stationed in Zhongmu City, Cao Ren ordered the commander of the Later Army Ren Jun to build Guandu camp to provide food, grass and supplies for the army. Therefore, when Zhao Yun stationed the army in Kaifeng City, Guandu was at best just a ferry for fishing boats, but after Cao's army occupied Zhongmu City, Guandu, the originally inconspicuous Yellow River ferry, completed a magnificent transformation and became a thoroughfare fortress connecting Chenliu, Yanzhou and Henan County. Ren Jun was the chief general of the Cao army who was in charge of Guandu Fortress. There were 10,000 troops under the tent, responsible for receiving the food, grass and supplies transported from Yanzhou, and then supplying 160,000 troops in the front. Therefore, Guandu is a transit station to ensure the logistics supply of Cao's army. It is also a supply base for hoarding military supplies and food.

Four days ago, when Cao Ren learned that Li Li, who was stationed in Luoyang, sent two troops, he felt that the long-awaited fighter plane finally appeared. So Cao Ren made a quick decision and ordered Ren Jun to guard the Guandu camp, while leading the army south to Yingchuan to contact the Jingzhou army. Therefore, the Cao army that remained in Zhongmu City and confronted the Western Jin army was definitely not more than 50,000. In addition, Ren Jun, who was stationed in Guandu, had 10,000 troops under the tent of Ren Jun, was stationed in Guandu, which was the entire force of the Cao army's troops left behind in Zhongmu, Guandu and Kaifeng. Correspondingly, the remaining 110,000 troops followed Cao Ren south to attack Yingchuan. This is the reason why the east gate and north gate of Yangdi City in Yingchuan were attacked by Cao's army at the same time.

Since Cao Ren led the army to quietly go south, Ren Jun, who was stationed in Guandu granary, was highly vigilant. He always kept his heart tight and did not dare to slacken at all. He clearly realized that as Cao Ren led his army to attack Yingchuan, the front line grew longer and the supply pressure in the rear became greater and greater, and the Guandu camp became particularly important and he would never have any mistakes.

At the same time, because the front line is too long, defensive loopholes are prone to occur, which gives the Western Jin army an opportunity to take advantage of it. Once the Western Jin army sends troops to attack, the consequences will be unimaginable. If the Western Liang army really sends troops to attack, then the first choice of sneak attack is the Guandu camp where he Ren Jun is stationed. Because Guandu is the most important and weakest link on the front line of the Cao army's one-line snake formation, which is equivalent to the seven inches of a snake. The heart is directly related to the life and death of more than 100,000 troops.

It is precisely because of this worry that Ren Jun slept very late every night. As of tonight, he had been sleeping all night for three consecutive days, changing his work and rest time to staying at night and sleeping during the day. This was a habit he developed for many years in charge of the army. Except for his wives, concubines and personal soldiers, no one knew that he had this habit. It was precisely because of his good confidentiality work that he had never omitted the transportation of arms and food for so many years. He defeated the enemy's attempt to rob the camp at night dozens of times. For this reason, Cao Cao praised him for his "working hard and contributing great achievements" in public many times and was the pillar of the army.

There is another extremely important reason why Cao Cao was so important to Jun. This is that Ren Jun's wife was Cao Cao's sister (cousin). It was precisely because of this relationship that made him become Cao Cao's confidant general and a veritable royal relative. If it weren't for this, how could Cao Cao, who was suspicious by nature, hand over the rear to a foreign general for a long time?

Not only Cao Cao, but also Li Li of the Western Jin Dynasty. Li Li fought all year round, and the person in charge of logistics supply in the rear was Li Xuan, and Li Xuan was the brother of his wife Li Xin. They shared the same relationship with each other, prospering and losing the same loss, and their destiny was connected. Therefore, Li Li was undoubtedly the most reassuring to hand over the rear to Li Xuan, and his trust was still above his uncle Li Jue.

The door of the central army tent was covered with a faint cloak. Ren Jun, wearing Rong armor, leaned on the desk and wrote quickly. After approving a bamboo slip, he gently put down his wolf's hair and picked up the military book that he had not finished reading last night. He looked around absent-mindedly. It was not unfair to say that he was absent-minded, because his eyelids twitched a few times when he picked up the military book. Then he held the military book in his hand, but his mind was not on the script. His eyes were deep and dark, and he looked around from time to time, and his eyes were paying attention to the vacant door intentionally or unintentionally.

Somehow, Ren Jun was restless and his eyelids were twitching. He felt uneasy and an unprecedented sense of crisis filled his heart. As time passed, this indescribable uneasiness became stronger and stronger, so that he felt depressed. He was worried and had no mood to read. His years of warfare made him feel that the crisis was approaching him step by step. The things he was most worried about finally happened. The Xiliang Army had already targeted Shangguandu Camp. If it was soon tonight, it would be late tomorrow. The Xiliang Army would definitely come to rob the camp.

After picking up the military book and reading it for less than a quarter of an hour, Ren Jun put down the military book, got up and walked down the steps, and walked to the door. He pushed open the empty door and a refreshing cool breeze blew towards him.

"Uh!" When the cool breeze rushed into his nostrils, Ren Jun smelled a slight fishy smell in the air, which was a unique smell on the bank of the Yellow River not far from Guandu Ferry. Because Guandu was the place where fishermen stopped for fishing after fishing and traded, the fishy smell on the bank of the Yellow River not far from Daying was very strong. As long as someone towed the boat into the water, the fishy smell accumulated over the years would dissipate with the wind.

The moment he smelled the fishy smell, Ren Jun's face changed drastically, and he was shocked. Then he turned his head slightly, raised his ears and listened to the sound of the northwest direction of the camp. Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves came into his ears: "No! The Xiliang Army is here!"

Amid the shock, Ren Jun instinctively ran wildly. He quickly ran to the war drum on the left side of the camp, grabbed the drumstick and beat the war drum: "Dong----dong-dong-dong!" This is the unique drum of the gathering of generals in the central army's tent, that is, the drums that beat the tent and gathered the generals to point their troops.

The sound of war drums rumbling throughout the camp. In the blink of an eye, the tent that was originally pitch black moved when they heard the sound. The lights quickly turned on, and the generals of the battalions distributed around the central army tent rushed out of the camp as soon as possible. While running towards the military tent, they were dressed in clothes and armor. At this moment, the sound of rumbling horses trampling outside the west gate of the camp came. Almost at the same time, the sound of screaming arrows breaking through the air came from the sky above the eastern gate, which was quite close to the central army tent.

Ren Jun stood on the war drum platform and looked in the sound. With the help of the firelight on the Yuanmen Tower, he clearly saw a rain of flowing arrows like dark clouds covering the sky above the Yuanmen. At this moment, based on this dense rain of arrows like locusts, Ren Jun could tell that the Xiliang army attacking the East Yuanmen at this moment had at least 10,000 soldiers and horses, and they were all elite cavalry who were good at riding and shooting. The arrow rain that was thrown in the air was a masterpiece of cavalry riding horses and shooting.

"All generals obey the order!" When the generals who hurried out of the camp rushed to the door of the military tent, Ren Jun was already standing on the steps in front of the tent with a spear, without any greetings, and there was no need to discuss strategies to defend the enemy. He directly ordered: "Cao Xiu led 4,000 troops from the left camp to guard the west gate, and this general personally led 4,000 troops from the right camp to guard the east gate, and Ren Xian led the remaining 2,000 people to guard the granary. The battle was urgent, and the generals should not hesitate, and quickly lead the troops to guard the camp!" Before he finished speaking, Ren Jun jumped off the steps, flew on his horse, and wanted to lead his personal soldiers to the east gate.

"Should you wait!" Just as Ren Jun was about to walk, a young general ran over to pull the reins and said anxiously: "My father is the chief general of the army. How can he take risks in person? The child is not talented and is willing to go to the east gate to guard the camp for his father. I beg my father to take charge of the army and make sure to make a decision!" The person who spoke was Ren Xian, the cavalry commander who was ordered by Ren Jun to guard the granary. Ren Xian was Ren Jun's eldest son. He was twenty-three years old, but he had been following Ren Jun for many years. Because of his bravery, calm and generous combat, he was quite as handsome as his father, and he had accumulated merits to be promoted to the cavalry commander.

Seeing that his beloved son Ren Xianying volunteered to guard the camp, Ren Jun felt very relieved and truly felt his son's filial piety, but his face was ugly. He scolded sternly: "The military order is like a mountain, how can it be changed? You can guard the granary for me, which is a great achievement. Without the order of my general, you must not act without any action. Otherwise, you will be severely punished! Let go quickly." He scolded his son with a stern face. Ren Jun grabbed the reins, waved his spear in his hand, and led his personal soldiers and the right camp soldiers to the east gate.

Cao Xiu, who was about to reorganize the army, rode his horse to Ren Xian after seeing this scene and comforted him: "I am protecting you, afraid that you will be in danger. Since that's the case, my brother will stay to guard the grain warehouse. Don't act voluntarily." Ren Xian nodded slightly after hearing the sound, then bowed to Cao Xiu and took the troops under the tent to the grain warehouse behind the central army's tent.

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

ps: [Heartly thanks: a04050235cxj book friends for their monthly ticket support, thank you!]
Chapter completed!