Since he wanted to go deep into the enemy's rear and cut off the grain route, Cao Cao was generous for a while, and all the troops and horses led by Zhang Liao were cavalry.
There were more than 1,300 people in total, and almost all the war horses that Cao Cao's camp could use were brought out. This shows that Cao Cao attaches great importance to this food shortage.
The group of people went south along the chasm, found a boat to cross the chasm, and then went north to cross Jishui and Pushui. Only then did they arrive at the expected destination.
This is located on the west side of Baima. Yuan Shao must pass through this place when transporting grain from Yanjin or Baima. It can be said to be an excellent location to cut off the grain road.
They actually bumped into many Yuan Shao's troops along the way, but with Zhao Yun and Shi Huan leading the way, it was difficult for these Yuan Shao's troops to pose a threat to Cao's army led by Guan Yu.
Even when some scattered scouts informed Yuan Shao of the location of Cao's army, Yuan Shao was accustomed to it.
Depriving each other of food is almost a basic operation of war.
Especially when they heard that Guan Yu and others only had more than a thousand cavalry, they were even more disdainful.
"The team that Ma Yan is supervising to transport grain this time includes hundreds of grain trucks, 5,000 mounted infantry, and tens of thousands of farmers. How can an army of this size be shaken by a thousand cavalry?"
It's not that Yuan Shao underestimated his enemy.
It is true that Cao Jun's record of running out of food was ridiculously bad.
I don’t know how many times Cao Jun has transported food in the past few months, but Cao Jun never succeeded. How could he suddenly succeed this time?
What's more,
In order to ensure the success of Ma Yan's grain transportation, Guo Tu, with Yuan Shao's tacit approval, actually secretly added a lot of troops to Ma Yan's grain transportation team, which was twice as many as Han Xun's when he was transporting grain.
With such strength, even if Ma Yan is really a straw bag, he cannot be easily defeated.
Therefore, this military information was only regarded by Yuan Shao as a normal food robbery mission, and there was not much reaction.
Yuan Shao didn't care about it, and Coke ruined many Cao generals.
Zhang Liao did not dare to be careless in the past few days. Since his men were all cavalry, scouts would leave the team every half an hour to investigate. Such frequent arrangements were enough for Cao Jun to observe any disturbance within a radius of twenty miles.
Seeing that Yuan Shao did not send any extra soldiers to respond, Zhang Liao narrowed his eyes even more sharply.
"In this case, we only need to defeat Ma Yan and burn his food and grass!"
"It's just that these days, we have to hide in the surrounding mountains and forests to endure the cold and wet, which is a hardship to all the soldiers."
Zhang Liao settled down, but his soldiers all excitedly said: "It's not bitter! There are so many meaty lords here!"
???
It turned out that when He Yan knew that there was a high probability that he would be tricked into the battlefield by Cao Ren, he asked Liu Ye to take out all the remaining fried noodles to use as military rations.
Although this thing is not meat, it has a lot of fat!
Isn't it better for everyone to drink hot noodles and drink corn soup than to drink corn soup in the camp?
Not to mention the soldiers, even Xia Houyuan, Le Jin, Shi Huan and others drank happily every day, and even wished that Ma Yan would come a few days late to eat more fried noodles.
Among them, Le Jin and Shi Huan are the most interested in fried noodles.
The two of them, one is a pioneer warrior and the other is a young knight, both worked at the bottom before they became famous, so they naturally know what military rations the soldiers eat on a daily basis.
Corn, bean soup, some dried mulberries, wild vegetable leaves...
In front of fried noodles, those things are completely dregs!
The two of them looked at He Yan with very passionate eyes, but they were embarrassed to talk to He Yan because they were not familiar with him.
However, Xia Houyuan relied on the fact that he was He Yan's uncle, sat down next to He Yan with a bowl in his hand and sighed: "If the military rations are changed to this thing, then the little guys under my command will definitely howl every day! Shen Hou, what do you think of this thing?"
Can it be made into military rations?"
When Xia Houyuan asked, both Le Jin and Shi Huan pricked up their ears and listened carefully to He Yan's answer.
"It's possible."
"But we need to plant flax on a large scale, otherwise there won't be enough oil."
He Yan didn't hide anything.
Fried noodles have no technical content. Wheat is now being grown on a large scale. The only problem is flax.
"If the government could allocate hundreds of hectares of land to grow flax, then it would probably be possible to replace all military rations with fried noodles!"
The yield of flax is very low.
Even if it produces a full 30% of the oil, one acre of land cannot harvest much flax oil. It is undoubtedly a bit fanciful to want to feed the army for a long time.
Hearing this, Le Jin couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
Xia Houyuan was quite contented: "Let me just say this, if fried noodles can really be used as military food, wouldn't it be better than what ordinary people eat at home? In this case, who would farm? Wouldn't they all join the army?"
"Yes, this flax cannot be used as food after all."
"..."
What few people didn't notice was that Shi Huan silently recorded what He Yan said in his heart, and quickly thought of one of his colleagues who was in charge of the farming...
Cao Jun camped in the mountains and forests for three days, and finally waited for Ma Yan, who had returned from transporting grain from Hebei.
After eating fried noodles for three days, Sergeant Cao's soldiers were all radiant. Their Huanshou swords, which had been unable to be suppressed for a long time, were ready to move. They were just waiting for Guan Yu's order to rush over.
Zhang Liao also grasped the timing of going into battle extremely well. When Ma Yan's grain transport team reached the middle section, he slapped his horse and led the cavalry out——
"Zhang Wenyuan of Yanmen is here!"
Zhao Yun and others followed closely behind.
"Xiahou Yuan from Qiao County is here!"
"Changshan Zhao Zilong is here!"
"Pei Guo Shi Gong Liu!"
"Yangpingle Wenqian!"
Many cavalrymen rushed out following the five men, and soon there were only about 200 people behind.
…
He Yan, who was left behind, stared at Cao Ren beside him with contempt: "Uncle Xiao, aren't you coming?"
"I……"
Cao Ren's face was red from suppressing his emotions at this moment.
What the hell!
When marching and fighting, there must always be someone to stay behind!
Originally, if Cao Ren didn't come, everyone might still be arguing about who should stay behind.
Zhang Liao is the chief general, Xia Houyuan is the elder brother, Zhao Yun is the Zhonglang general, Le Jin is good at breaking formations and is the first warrior to ascend, and Shi Huan is the captain of the Zhongjun, supervising the generals. His status is so high that it is inappropriate to leave any one behind.
Unexpectedly, Cao Ren actually volunteered to be the grudge. So everyone voted with their feet, but they would definitely choose Cao Ren!
Cao Ren raised his fist in frustration and wanted to hit He Yan, but when he saw Xu Hu and Xu Bao following He Yan, he stopped angrily.
These two tiger soldiers are so fierce that Cao Ren can't beat him. Otherwise, with Cao Ren's temperament, he would not have tortured He Yan with "social death" in the military camp...
Just as He Yan was madly taunting Cao Ren from the rear, Cao Jun and Yuan Jun were also fighting together in front.
Ma Yan was indeed a bit brave. When he saw Zhang Liao leading his troops, he was not frightened. Instead, he called his soldiers to form a formation to resist Zhang Liao.
The problem is that General Cao dispatched this time is too luxurious.
Zhang Liao stopped crying.
Zhao Yun is full of courage.
Xia Houyuan is on the right side of Hubu Pass.
Yue Jin, who is famous for his achievements.
Shi Huan, a young man who became a hero.
There are also He Yan, who is witty and courageous, strategizing, outstanding, and arrogant, and Cao Ren, who is not very important...
These fierce men are also accompanied by elite cavalry with high morale. Even if Yuan Shao comes in person, he will only be beaten to death, let alone a Ma Yan?