Chapter 258: Begin to Defeat the Enemy, Four Days However, after Qin Zhen met with Chen Jiao, he finally decided on an overall strategy. Letting Xu Sheng stay outside the city, he entered the city alone to defeat the enemy. As for Zhang Liao and Gao Shun outside the city, they were also among the best generals under Lu Bu. But Qin Zhen did not take the two of them seriously. The reason was that they did not have enough soldiers and horses. In ancient wars, the number of soldiers and horses almost determined the victory or defeat of most wars. This is also the reason why battles in which the outnumbered side wins over the larger side are easily praised. In addition to the number of troops, the situation of the attacking and defending sides is also a key factor. The defenders can win even with fewer soldiers because they have the help of the city. On the contrary, if the attackers do not have enough soldiers and horses, it will be almost impossible to win in a frontal attack. This is the current situation of Zhang Liao and Gao Shun. First of all, the number of their troops is equal to that of the troops in the city, but if the troops outside the city are added, their numbers will be suppressed.

Furthermore, Qin Zhen has the city defense, while Zhang Liao and Gao Shun are outside the city! In this situation, even if Qin Zhen does not have a general who can match the two of them, he can still use strategies. He walked all the way into the city, and Xiahou Lan and others came to greet him. However, Qin Zhen waved his hand when he saw this and said to everyone: "I am here to defeat the enemy, so there is no need for you to be polite!" "Go and boil some water for me to bathe. I will go to meet the guests later." When everyone heard his words, they were all confused, but they still prepared according to his orders. On the other side, in the big camp outside Zhongli City, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun deployed their troops here since they arrived in Zhongli that day and saw that the enemy had fortified their cities and cleared the fields. Fortifying the city and clearing the fields was one of the commonly used strategies for defending a city in ancient times. In short, it means to defend the city and clear out the food houses in the suburbs to weaken the strength of the attacking party. Sometimes, in addition to food and civilians, they would also poison the water along the way and cut down trees outside the city. The main goal is to make the attackers suffer as much as possible! However, because the farm was located on the bank of the Huai River and there were not many trees outside the city, Xiahou Lan did not go too far. However, even so, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun have not had an easy time these past few days. After all, after Chen Deng offered his suggestion, they had already learned a piece of news. That is, the enemy they are facing now is most likely Qin Zhen! The order Lu Bu gave them was to hold the camp and keep an eye on Qin Zhen's troops. So the two of them did not dare to slack off at all and directly divided into two teams to defend against Qin Zhen's surprise attack. But after several days, there was no movement in the city. So while Qin Zhen was wondering about their movements, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun were also wondering about Qin Zhen's movements. Seeing that there was still no sign of troops moving in the city, Zhang Liao found Gao Shun and said: "Now that we are here to attack this city, the enemy will clear the area in advance." "Chen Yuanlong said that Qin Zhen has arrived in Jiujiang." "Now that he has arrived and sees our army coming to attack, how can he not take action?" "Why have we been stationed here for several days without seeing any movement of the enemy?"

Zhang Liao and Gao Shun were considered a breath of fresh air under Lu Bu's command. Although Zhang Liao was a guest general, he had always been loyal to his duties. Gao Shun was a man of few words, and only Zhang Liao was talkative, so the two of them could get along well. Listening to Zhang Liao's words, Gao Shun hesitated for a moment, then said in a deep voice: "There must be something fishy going on here. Qin Zhen has few soldiers, and a large number of them are stationed here." "If the lord advances westward, even if the people there don't know about it, we should still be suspicious and not sit still!" "But we have been ordered to hold on here, what can we do?" When Zhang Liao heard what he said, he stroked his beard and said in deep thought: "In my opinion, Qin Zhen may not have arrived in the city yet. We might as well give it a try!" "If that's the case, we can seize the opportunity and try to break into the city!" When Gao Shun heard this, he frowned slightly and did not quite agree with this statement. He has always been a man who believes in following orders and is unwilling to do anything fancy. It was hard to refute Zhang Liao's words, so he said: "Brother, if you have this intention, how should I test it?" Zhang Liao then revealed his plan. It turned out that he wanted Gao Shun to go with him to attack the two gates separately and test the enemy's strength. Gao Shun saw that he was determined to do so, and after hesitating for a while, he said: "Since you have such intention, let us lead the troops to see it!" As he said this, he and Zhang Liao led their troops out of the camp and headed towards Zhongli. But as soon as the two of them left the camp, they saw a soldier riding a horse and shouting: "Generals, there is a man in the city who calls himself Qin Zhen, and he invites you two generals to meet him at the foot of the city!" Hearing this, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun subconsciously looked at each other. Fortunately, they wanted to test whether Qin Zhen was in the city, but they didn't expect that Qin Zhen would take the initiative to invite them to meet! After thinking for a moment, Gao Shun said to Zhang Liao: "Qin Zhen is a man of many tricks. Even if he is in the city, there is no need to test him!" "We don't know what it means yet, so don't take it lightly!" Zhang Liao heard this, but shook his head and said: "Qin Zhen is just a scholar. Although he has wisdom and ideas, there are limits to what he can do." "It's bright and clear now, so it's hard to set up an ambush." "If we are afraid of his name, and spread it out in the future, it will only increase his reputation." "Whether it's true or not, since he wants to see us, we might as well go and find out what he means!" After saying this, without waiting for Gao Shun to refuse, he led his troops towards Zhongli. When Gao Shun saw this, he was afraid that something might happen to Zhang Liao, so he ordered his men to guard the camp and followed Zhang Liao. As the two of them walked to the foot of the city, they saw a scholar in black standing on the city wall. Before the two of them came closer, Qin Chen spoke loudly:

"I heard that Lü Feng led his troops here. I wonder which general is leading the troops outside the city?" After taking a hot bath, he returned to his usual dashing self. Zhang Liao and Gao Shun, who were standing below the city, saw this and looked up to see Qin Zhen. Gao Shun did not respond, but Zhang Liao stepped forward and answered loudly: "I think it must be Lord Qin in front of you. I am Zhang Wenyuan, a general under Marquis Wen's command!" "I wonder why Mr. Qin has called us here?" It would have been fine if he didn't speak, but as soon as he spoke, Qin Zhen said: "I wondered who it was, but it turned out to be Zhang Wenyuan from Yanmen!" "I heard that the general was also a righteous man, and he once trained troops with General He Jin to fight against the enemy." "Although he later submitted to Dong Zhuo, he was not a follower of the enemy!" "Now that our two families have formed an alliance, why did you lead troops here from Lü Fengxian instead of trying to persuade them to reconcile?" When Zhang Liao heard this, he was immediately ashamed and speechless. If Qin Zhen started pointing at his nose and scolding him right away, he would have retorted. But Qin Zhen's kind words of advice left him speechless. But as soon as Zhang Liao retreated, Gao Shun knew something was wrong and shouted: "Qin Zixuan, I know you are very eloquent, so I won't waste my breath on you!" "If you have the guts, lead your troops down and set up your battle formation, so that we can have a great battle!" "If you don't have the guts, you can just hide in the city. If you use your words to gain the upper hand on the city wall, what kind of hero are you?" After hearing what Gao Shun said, Qin Zhen couldn't help but nodded secretly, thinking that Gao Shun was truly a good general! He had been silent just now, but now seeing that his morale was being dampened, he began to refute him. In an instant, all the verbal advantage he had just gained was completely wiped out. However, he did not call the two here today to start a war with them. Seeing Gao Shun asking for a fight, he smiled and said: "Since you are so stubborn, I don't want to persuade you any more!" "I know that Lu Bu will go around the city, so I let you stay here!" "General, if you want to fight, do you dare to fight with me?" "Within four days, I will destroy your camp. If I fail, I will surrender from the city!" "If the camp is breached in four days, you two will surrender and join our army, how do you think?" Gao Shun and Zhang Liao were both shocked when they heard this, wondering how could there be someone in the world who would act like this? If you want to break into the stronghold, you can just come here quietly. Why announce this directly in front of them? If they are reminded now, they will certainly step up their defenses. How will Qin Zhen break through? Thinking of this, Zhang Liao hurriedly said to Gao Shun:

"This must be a trick, don't respond to it!" Gao Shun heard this, glanced at Zhang Liao, and then said loudly to Qin Zhen: "You must be deceiving me, but I don't believe it!" "If you want to attack the stronghold, just come here and I will deal with it myself. I won't waste my breath with you!" After saying this, he ordered his troops and Zhang Liao to march towards the camp. When the people on the city wall saw this, they were extremely surprised and asked Qin Zhen hurriedly: "Since the military advisor wants to attack the stronghold, there is no point in speaking directly to you!" "The enemy must be on high alert now. How can we attack them?" In response to everyone's words, Qin Zhen smiled slightly, said nothing more, turned around and walked towards the city. At the same time, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun returned to the camp and gathered together to discuss. Although they only talked with Qin Zhen for a while this time, the two of them looked like they had suffered a defeat, with their brows furrowed. There was no other reason. Both of them were thinking about the purpose of Qin Zhen's words. The words "take the camp within four days" were obviously used to intimidate them. But the meaning behind this sentence is not simple. Just whether this sentence is true or false is enough for them to think about it for a long time. If it is true, it means that Qin Zhen will definitely implement a strategy within these four days. Now that they know Qin Zhen is about to carry out his plan, how should they guard against it? If it is false, then what is the meaning of Qin Zhen saying this? If this was a tactic to tire out the enemy, what if they defended the city closely for four days but Qin Zhen went out to fight on the fifth day? What if this was just a bluff, meant to lure them to stay here and wait for reinforcements? This is often the case. When you suddenly find out you have fallen into a trap without knowing it, you will be surprised but not very scared! But what if you know from the beginning that the other party has a strategy, and this strategy specifies the purpose and time. Then you will start to fall into a state of fantasies, actively thinking about the enemy's strategies, and looking for a perfect plan. Now Zhang Liao and Gao Shun have entered this wonderful state. After thinking about it for a while, Gao Shun looked at Zhang Liao with dissatisfaction and said: "I have long told you that Qin Zhen is full of tricks, so I told you not to go!" "Now, he said he would break into the camp in four days. How should we respond?" Zhang Liao felt a little regretful when he heard this, but he remained unyielding and said: "We are stationed here freely. Whether he says so or not, we must hold on." "Could it be that if he says that we can capture the stronghold within four days, we should withdraw our troops?" "If Bo Ping (Gao Shun's courtesy name) wants to blame me for going to answer his call, he should just let down his guard and let me guard him for four days!" "If Qin Zhen is allowed to attack our camp, I will personally go before Marquis Wen and plead guilty!" Having said this, he walked out of the tent with a serious face.

Gao Shun frowned when he saw this, and after thinking for a while, he felt that something was wrong, so he quickly sent someone to pass the message to Lu Bu. Although Zhang Liao was angry with him, he naturally did not dare to take off his armor. In order to defend against Qin Zhen's plan, he went out to patrol the camp again and ordered people to reinforce the weak points one by one. After doing all this, he felt a little relieved. But at this moment, news suddenly came from the scouts outside the camp. It is said that there are about 3,000 soldiers and horses marching out of Zhongli City and crossing the Huai River! Upon hearing the news, Gao Shun and Zhang Liao were both shocked. Qin Zhen said it would take four days, and they thought the earliest would be tonight or tomorrow! Unexpectedly, Qin Zhen started to take action right after he made his announcement. Now crossing the river to the north, what is Qin Zhen going to do? (End of this chapter)