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At night, teams of Cao army soldiers patrolled back and forth on the village wall. The number of patrols tonight increased by twice as much as usual. The soldiers were fully focused and were particularly alert to all movements. The arrival of the Han army made the Cao army at Qishan Fort nervous. It was not until this time that the Cao army soldiers vaguely guessed that Licheng might have been lost.

Qishan Fort is a wall-shaped camp, built to be solid, occupying almost the entire mountain. The surrounding terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Although there are only more than 2,000 defenders, they can defend against the attack of 20,000 people. It is a fort set up by the Cao army on Qishan Road.

The chief general Jiao Huang was Jiao Chuzhi, the general of Cao's army. He followed Cao Ren to pacify the remnants of the Yuan family in Hebei and was named the captain. His father Jiao Chu was killed in the Battle of Red Cliff and was posthumously named the Marquis.

Jiao Huang was a general of Cao Ren. He was brave and good at fighting, cautious and cautious. He was trusted by Cao Ren and appointed as the chief general of Qishan Fort and was ordered to guard Qishan Fort to death.

Jiao Huang's expression was also very nervous at this time. Although he knew that Licheng had fallen and concealed the news from the soldiers, he also received Cao Ren's order to defend Qishan Fort to prevent Han army from attacking.

In other words, he knew that the Han army would arrive sooner or later and was mentally prepared, but when Huang Zhong's army really arrived, he still felt tremendous pressure. He is most worried about being sneak attacked by the Han army and suffering the same fate as Licheng.

To this end, he not only strengthened the patrol soldiers, but also moved all the food, grass and supplies to the center of the camp. At the same time, he ordered five soldiers to act in groups. Any soldiers less than five people would be arrested. Violators would be severely punished, and even the second order should be changed overnight. All means were to prevent the Han army scouts from sneaking into the camp.

At this time, on the wall of the village, the main general Jiao Huang was staring at the southeast direction with all his attention. During the day, he could clearly see the Han army camp. Judging from the size of the Han army camp, there should be less than 10,000 people. He camped about five miles away from Qishan Fort. In order to prevent himself from attacking from a high position, it seems that the Han army is also very cautious and is not in a hurry to launch an attack on Qishan Fort.

At this moment, the patrol soldier suddenly heard the shout of a patrol soldier: "Who is reporting his identity? Otherwise, the arrow will be shot."

The Cao army soldiers in the camp suddenly became nervous, and a group of soldiers rushed to the southwest corner. Jiao Huang shouted: "Precautions for their respective posts and do not leave at will."

More than a dozen teams of soldiers also returned to the post. At this time, Jiao Huang quickly walked to the southwest corner and saw the soldiers holding crossbow arrows, nervously staring at the bushes outside the camp. "What happened?" Jiao Huang asked.

A village chief came forward to report, "Report to General, I just found that someone was shaking in the bushes outside the camp, and there was no movement now."

Jiao Huang looked up at the moonlight. The night sky was clear and there was no cloud. A full moon hung in the sky. The silver moonlight covered the hills. He would not misread such a night. He was also confused. He took a crossbow from the soldier and aimed at the largest bush below.

With a light click, he pulled the hanging knife and a crossbow arrow shot towards the bushes like lightning. Only screams from the bushes could be heard, and then countless black shadows ran out of the bushes and fled down the mountain.

"There is an enemy situation" Jiao Huang shouted, and the surrounding Cao troops fired arrows down together. Only a scream was heard, and seven or eight black shadows fell into the arrow. At this time, the bells in the camp rang, and the harsh bells echoed in the night sky.

A group of soldiers rushed to the wall of the village, blew bows and arrows, aiming at outside the camp. At this time, the defenders had already fired several rounds of arrows, but it seemed that the enemy had retreated. Jiao Huang felt very angry that the Han army was indeed going to attack the camp at night.

"The order for all soldiers to rest tonight is not allowed."

The Cao army soldiers struggled until dawn the next day and confirmed that the Han army had retreated. Then they opened the gate of the village and went out to inspect the situation last night.

Jiao Huang went out to patrol the village himself. The soldiers had found the bodies of the Gu Han soldiers. There were still a lot of blood on the ground. It seemed that the injured had run away. Jiao Huang looked at the bushes and trees around him and shouted loudly: "Tell me my order. All the bushes and trees within two steps of the camp will be eradicated. The caves must be filled to death. No places to hide are allowed."

Two thousand soldiers raised their axes to chop the bushes and woods. In fact, the best way is to burn them out with a fire, but Cao's soldiers were worried that setting fire would affect the camp, so they could only use knives to wipe them out.

At this time, a soldier rushed to report: "General, there were traces of the enemy on the Xiquan side."

Jiao Huang was surprised. Could it be that the Han army's target last night was to target the water source and he rushed to Xiquan?

There is a clear spring on the top of the mountain where Qishan Fort is located. They flow out from the cracks of the rocks on the cliffs and finally gather into a stream and pour into the small river at the foot of the mountain. The water source of the Cao army in Qishan Fort is one of the clear springs. The origin of the spring water is in the Cao army camp, so Cao army is not worried about the water source.

However, Jiao Huang was also afraid that the Han army would do anything, causing the water source in the camp to dry up. He quickly arrived at the scene, located halfway up the mountain. The Han army dug a very deep pit several steps away from the mountain, several meters in a radius, and there was a little water accumulation in one of the pits.

An officer pointed at Jing Huang and said, "I guessed that the Han army's intention was to let the water veins flow out from the hillside, so that the spring water in the cliff would dry up."

Jiao Huang frowned, "Is this possible?"

"This situation is quite common in the Bashu area, but the Qishan Mountains have complex terrain and unknown water veins. It is very unrealistic to use this method. From this earth pit, we can see that the Han army's ideas have failed."

"But isn't there any water accumulation in the pit?"

"Report to the general, if the water vein was found, it would have formed a pool of water long ago. There would not be only such a little water. This is actually the accumulated water that penetrates the soil by rain and spring water. It makes no sense, so the Han army also gave up."

Jiao Huang nodded, and finally let go of his heart. He immediately ordered: "Fill in the pit and return to the camp."

.........

The Han army's night attack on Cao's camp ended in failure, and the operation to cut off the water source of Cao's army was forced to give up because they could not find the water veins. As Cao's army began to strengthen the walls and clear the shrubs, rocks and trees within two steps of the camp, and even a few hiding cracks were filled. The possibility of the Han army attacking Cao's camp became lower and lower, and the Han army had no movement even in the sky.

In the early morning of the fourth day, the Cao army soldiers discovered a scene that surprised them. The Han army camp stationed several miles away disappeared, and there was no trace of garrison around, as if it was blown away by the wind overnight. This made the Cao army soldiers discuss, and many soldiers realized that the Han army might have given up attacking Qishan Fort.

Soon, the scout went up the mountain to report. Within a radius of ten miles, no sign of the Han army was found, and it was indeed withdrawn. Jiao Huang was relieved and led the soldiers down the mountain to check. Soon, they came to the Han army camp. Apart from some cooking stoves, there were no other supplies, and there were still signs of camping. It was obvious that they were not in a hurry and had to clean up before leaving.

Jiao Huang was surprised. Could it be that the Han army could not capture Qishan Fort and retreated to Licheng? I felt that this was not like Huang Zhong's style of doing things. After all, there was no attack. He just admitted defeat and withdrew. How could Huang Zhong explain to Liu Jing when he returned?

Of course, there is another possibility that the Han army gave up the Qishan Fort and went north to attack Xicheng. After all, Xicheng was the key place for the Han army's northern expedition.

At this time, several Cao army scouts brought back an old man to collect herbs and reported to Jiao Huang: "General, this person knows something."

Jiao Huang was overjoyed and hurriedly walked up to ask. When he saw the old man trembling all over, he comforted him with kind words: "Don't be afraid, just tell me what you know, I will let you go. What's your surname? Who is the person?"

The old man bowed and bowed and said, "The villain's surname is Qiao, a native of Tianshui County. He has been collecting herbs in Qishan for nearly twenty years. The villain did see some things last night."

"What did you see, say it quickly"

"The villain saw countless soldiers lined up north last night. They were very careful and there was no movement. The villain hid on the rock wall and was so scared that he didn't dare to come down all night."

Jiao Huang took a breath of air conditioning, and he guessed it. Huang Zhong gave up Qishan Fort and went north to attack Xicheng. A tooth general next to him hesitated: "If the Han army doesn't care about us, then how can their logistics and food channels be guaranteed by Huang Zhong, aren't we afraid that we will cut off his food channels?"

Jiao Shaking his head, "We just cut off the Qishan East Road. The Han Army Grain Team can go to the Qishan West Road. Although the road is a little farther, it can bypass Qishan Fort. General Xiahou also set up a defense point on the Qishan West Road to prevent the Han Army Grain Team from going around the western road. Now there is no defense point there, and we can do nothing."

"What the general means is that we don't care?" his subordinate said in surprise.
Chapter completed!