Upon hearing Zhuge Liang's claim that he had a plan, Liu Bei was perked up and quickly asked Zhuge Liang what his plan was.
Zhuge Liang then laughed and said, "Since Yan's bandit is certain that Zilong will be passive and lazy in fighting, he will not be very tight in the siege of Baima City. The king can then send someone to give an order to Zilong, ordering him to lead his army to make a surprise attack while Yan's army is unprepared.
At Baimajin in the north, the grain and grass gathered by the Chu army was burned down in one fell swoop. The Chu army's grain and grass were destroyed, and the morale of the army would be severely depressed. It would be inevitable for the troops to retreat. In this way, the crisis in Puyang would be resolved without a fight."
Zhuge Liang shook his feather fan lightly and spoke eloquently, showing great confidence.
Liu Bei nodded repeatedly as he listened, but he worried: "Since Zilong is passive and lazy in fighting, what will happen if he refuses to carry out the king's order?"
"If Zilong really dares not to carry out the king's strict orders, then I'm afraid the rumors outside are probably true. The king can also use this order to test Zilong's loyalty." Zhuge Liang said with a sneer.
Liu Bei pondered for a long time and then thought that he had no other solution, so he decided to adopt Zhuge Liang's strategy and sent someone with his secret order to Baima City to present it to Zhao Yun that day.
Although the Chu army's navy blocked the Yellow River, the Yellow River is thousands of miles long and so vast that the Chu army could not cover everything. It only blocked important ferries along the coast.
Liu Bei's messenger could disguise himself as a civilian, cross from the sheltered area along the coast to the south bank, then pass through the Chu army's loose siege defense line, and successfully enter Baima City.
Three days later, Liu Bei's Wang Ling was placed in front of Zhao Yun.
Looking at the Wang Ling written by Liu Bei himself on the table, Zhao Yun frowned deeply, and his eyes flashed with an expression of unspeakable pain.
"The king's previous order to the general was not to order the general to stand firm and not fight. Why did he suddenly order the general to take the risk and attack Baima Jin today?" the generals on the left and right asked in confusion.
Zhao Yun sighed and said nothing, but a big question mark flashed in his mind:
Could it be that the king was influenced by those rumors and had doubts about me, and wanted to test me with this?
Yes, that must be the case. If not, how could Liu Bei change his order day by day?
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, those rumors outside are clearly spread by Yan Liang, deliberately trying to alienate our monarchs and ministers. How can you believe it?" Zhao Yun gritted his teeth secretly. He felt more and more aggrieved and disappointed in his heart.
"General, shall we go out with a fight or without a fight?" The generals were anxious, waiting for Zhao Yun to make up his mind.
Zhao Yun took a deep breath, suddenly slapped the table and stood up, saying in a deep voice: "Your Majesty has an order, how dare you disobey me? Since your Majesty wants me, Zhao Yun, to fight, I will obey your order."
Although Zhao Yun claimed that he wanted to go to war, there was something tragic in his tone.
Having made up his mind, Zhao Yun began to make preparations. He repeatedly sent out spies to secretly detect the Chu army's situation.
Two days later, Xi Zuo inquired about the latest information, saying that the latest batch of grain ships from the Chu army had arrived at Baimajin Ferry, fifteen miles north. The grain was now unloaded and disembarked. It was estimated that the grain in this batch was at least 500,000 dendrobium.
After receiving this information, Zhao Yun weighed it carefully and decided to lead his army to attack Baimajin and burn the food and grass.
…
It was a night with dense clouds, and the night was like splashing ink.
Zhao Yun stood at the east gate of Baima, looking at the Chu camp in the southeast from a distance.
Among the Chu camps under siege, the enemies in the northern camp were the strongest because they had to defend Baimajin, followed by the western and eastern camps, and the southern camp was the weakest.
This time, Zhao Yun decided to lead his army through the gap between the east camp and the south camp, cross the Chu army's defense line at night, then circle to the north, surprise Baimajin, and burn the food and grass in the Chu army's ferry.
When the Chu army heard that Baima Jin was attacked, the soldiers and horses of its northern camp would rush to Baima for reinforcements as soon as possible, and the other camps would also be on guard after hearing the news.
At that time, Zhao Yun could take advantage of the emptiness in Beiying and pass through the gap to successfully evacuate to Baima City.
Zhao Yun pondered for a few days, and this was the only strategy he could think of to successfully raid Baima Jin and escape unscathed.
The night wind was howling, the clouds were getting denser, and the sky was getting darker.
Zhao Yun raised his head and glanced at the sky, took a deep breath, and said in a deep voice: "The time has come, let's go out of the city."
Zhao Yun descended to the top of the city, rode a white horse on his hip, carried a silver spear in his hand, and led about six thousand cavalry, quietly exiting from the east gate of White Horse City. The army marched silently, and soon disappeared into the night.
The howling wind covered up the sound underfoot very well. Zhao Yun ordered the army to tread as lightly as possible. After less than half an hour of sneaking in secret, Zhao Yun led 6,000 soldiers and horses and successfully passed through the gap in the Chu army's defense line.
At this time, Zhao Yun became much bolder and ordered the army to speed up and march quickly to the north.
Baima City was built for Baima Jin. The city is only ten miles away from Baima Jin. The terrain here is flat and the road is convenient. Within an hour, Zhao Yun could already see the lights of Baima Jin.
The important ferry on the south bank of the Yellow River is just outside Lixu.
The surroundings were still dark, nothing was out of the ordinary, and there was no movement in the direction of Baima City. All signs showed that Zhao Yun's plan was going very smoothly.
"Yan Liang, although you are victorious in every battle, today you are going to defeat me, Zhao Yun. Once these five hundred thousand dendrobiums of food and grass are burned, I am afraid you will have to retreat."
Even Zhao Yun, who had always been calm, could not suppress his excitement at this time, and a sense of confidence arose in his chest.
The army continued to sneak, and the outline of Baimajin was already in sight. Zhao Yun seemed to be able to vaguely see the soldiers in the enemy camp at the ferry, who were still working through the night, unloading the grain and grass on the transport ship.
The time has come, when will it be more?
"All troops, attack, burn all the enemy's food and fodder -" Zhao Yun let out a loud roar, then rode out with his horse and spear.
Six thousand Yan troops on foot and cavalry rushed towards Baimajin with loud roars and shouts.
Within a few miles, six thousand Yan troops rushed to more than a hundred paces away in an instant.
"The military advisor is really good at predicting things."
"Haha, I'm sorry. If it weren't for the king's reminder, I wouldn't be able to use my method."
In the Baimajin camp, two riders came out from the shadow one after another.
The heroic and majestic man at the front was none other than Yan Liang, and the one following behind was Pang Tong.
Following Yan Liang's appearance, the officers and soldiers of the Chu army who were hiding behind the military tents appeared one after another in the camp.
In fact, the rumors about Zhao Yun were caused by Pang Tong's careful arrangements and spread in the Liyang area on the north bank.
The purpose of this plan was to arouse Liu Bei's suspicions about Zhao Yun, and Pang Tong also speculated that Zhuge Liang would definitely propose a plan to Liu Bei and order Zhao Yun to attack by force and raid the grain and grass in Baima Jin to relieve the pressure on Zhang Fei in Puyang.
Now it seems that Pang Tong's strategy has indeed worked.
"Give Zilong a surprise." Yan Liang sneered and raised his whip.
The sound of war drums suddenly rose up, instantly piercing the silence of the night.
Along the line of the camp, roars suddenly rose like a tide, and more than 5,000 crossbowmen who had been lying in wait for a long time appeared in unison.
Accompanied by the buzzing of thousands of birds, thousands of sharp arrows rose into the sky, like meteors all over the sky, and pounced on the onrushing Yan army.
The enemy camp suddenly changed. Zhao Yun looked shocked and thought to himself: "No, the enemy has been prepared for a long time. Could it be that I fell into Yan Liang's plan?"
Before Zhao Yun and his soldiers had time to taste their panic, arrows from the sky were already arriving like locusts.
Zhao Yun reacted very quickly. In a hurry, he danced out an iron curtain with the silver gun in his hand, and bounced off the incoming arrows with a clanging sound.
Zhao Yun was extremely skilled in martial arts. Although he was in the dark and could not catch him with only a few arrows, the soldiers with weak martial arts around him were as if they were in a nightmare.
In the darkness, with unclear vision, how can one tell the direction of an arrow just by the sound of it?
The soldiers of Yan Army who were unable to dodge were knocked to the ground like dead leaves in autumn by the violent storm of arrows. Amidst the splashing blood mist, screams could be heard.
"Withdraw troops, quickly retreat to Baima City -" Zhao Yun shouted loudly while blocking the arrows.
The Yan army, which suffered heavy losses, had already begun to turn around and retreat without Zhao Yun's orders.
In the Baima Jin camp, Yan Liang had ordered to stop shooting arrows, raised his whip and shouted: "All armies attack, let the king crush the enemy thieves severely."
At the command, with the sound of cannons, the camp gate of Baimajin opened wide, and thousands of Chu troops swarmed out.
Zhang Liao personally led more than 10,000 infantry and cavalry, marching towards the defeated Yan army with corpses all over the ground.
Zhao Yun did not dare to fight, so he led his defeated soldiers to retreat southward, trying to cross the defense line and escape back to Baima City before the Chu army who besieged the city was aware of it.
But when Zhao Yun led the remaining troops to accept the white horse, he suddenly heard another cannon fire, and thousands of Chu troops rushed out of the enemy camp in front of them like a tide. The leader of the leaping horse was none other than the veteran Huang Zhong.
Zhao Yun did not dare to fight, so he had to move his troops eastward instead of returning from the original route.
Unexpectedly, before they could go more than a mile, there was a call to kill from the front, but it was Jiang Qin who led an army to kill them.
At the same time, there were huge flames from all directions, as if countless Chu troops were surrounding and killing them.
At this moment, Zhao Yun was shocked to realize that he had completely fallen into Yan Liang's plan, otherwise how could the other party set up such a siege and almost trap him to death.
"General, there don't seem to be many enemy troops in the northeast. There is a small town called Tongxiang ten miles away from here. Why don't we go to that city first to take shelter." General Zhao Yun added.
Zhao Yun looked around, thinking that there was no way he could return to Baima City. If he didn't find a city to protect him, his thousands of soldiers and horses would soon be strangled and killed.
In desperation, Zhao Yun had no choice but to follow the advice of his generals and head towards Tongxiang City.
Zhao Yun and his remnant soldiers were lucky enough to break out of the encirclement before the Chu army encircled them. They did not dare to take a breath all the way and headed straight for Tongxiang City.
At dawn, Zhao Yun led his troops to escape to this small town with less than a hundred households.
There were no soldiers in the town, so it was impossible to withstand Zhao Yun's attack. Zhao Yun captured this small city with almost no effort, and the walls were less than ten feet high.
Just as Zhao Yun entered the city, thousands of Chu troops followed and soon surrounded the small city.
Zhao Yun stood at the top of the low city, looking at the dark enemy outside the city. He felt an inexplicable sadness in his heart. Only then did he realize that this time he was truly in a desperate situation.