A knight rushed over from behind and shouted directly at Sun Ce: "General, there are cavalrymen behind him, and the number is unknown, and they are still inquiring."

"I understand." Sun Ce nodded. The knight turned his horse's head and ran to the back of the team. Sun Ce held the reins of the horse, raised his hand, and signaled the cavalry to stop moving forward. He turned around and looked at it. There was no smoke and dust on the horizon. He only saw a group of birds flying through the sky, chirping non-stop, revealing panic and uneasy.

"There must be something in front of it." Sun Ce muttered and shouted at Xie Guanglong: "Old Xie, take two people to see."

"Here." Xie Guanglong responded and took the two knights forward.

Seeing that Sun Ce sent Xie Guanglong's mission, Yi started to inspect equipment from the infantry and cavalry. It was risky to pass through Rencheng, and fighting was a high probability. Everyone was mentally prepared enough. There were no surprises at this time and they were very calm.

But Sun Ce was not calm at all. Things on the battlefield can be big or small, it may be just an encounter, or it may be a long-planned ambush. He dared not take any luck and had to make the worst plans. Compared with the plan, it took a day to delay, but this was not important. If Yuan Tan and Xinpi wanted to ambush him, it would be enough to arrange everything in just two days.

Guo Jia had long estimated that this possibility, and had agreed to a response before departure. According to the plan, Guo Jia should be not far ahead, just for the sake of concealment, and there would not be too many troops. Just some rangers, the main force would be farther away, and it would take some time to arrive at the battlefield.

So he had to wait. The time would not be too long, but the risk was not small at all. Yuan Tan and Xinpi had a strong desire to take his life. If they sent troops to ambush him, they would never send thousands of people to do it perfunctorily. It would be a heavy army to siege and be sure to be foolproof. Strong crossbows and scoops are necessary, and it is not impossible to dig some hidden pits. Xie Guanglong was sent because he was most familiar with these techniques. The Yellow Turban Army had a passion, equipment and training, and those who could survive were all human spirits. Xie Guanglong was even the leader among them. He was both sperm and yin, and had rich survival experience. He was better than anyone else in dealing with this situation.

Sun Ce did not need to consider reconnaissance. His mission was to figure out how Yuan Tan would arrange it based on the reconnaissance results. It would be normal for an ambush in front, but it would be unpredictable for a cavalry to appear behind. It seemed that the front was blocked and the back was intercepted, and the two sides were attacked, which had a higher success rate, but this undoubtedly exposed the intention to combat, greatly reducing the ambushes' abruptness, which was not in line with common sense of military use.

With Xinpi's IQ, it seems that he shouldn't be so clumsy. Head-on combat is more beneficial to him, and even if he can't beat it, he is still more than enough to break through. For Yuan Tan, the success rate of ambush is higher. If he is well concealed, when he enters the ambush circle, a round of volleys can cause him to suffer heavy casualties and may even kill him.

Could it be that I was thinking too much that this was not arranged in advance by Yuan Tan and Xinpi?

Sun Ce jumped off the horse and transferred the bags on the horse's back to the horse. Because the distance was short, he only brought people and horses for three days. The man had two dou of rice, the horse had two stone beans, and some light wine used as drinking water, which weighed seventy or eighty kilograms. They were placed on the back of the horse when marching. The man wore armor and carried troops and rode horses. One was to reduce the burden on the horse and preserve his physical strength, and the other was to prevent unarmed during unexpected confrontations.

Without giving instructions, more than 600 Yicong infantry and cavalry were doing the same thing. However, Wu Meng, the Yicong infantry and cavalry of the two battalions of Wu Wei must wear heavy armor and prepare for large shields for infantry to make a forcibly breaking through. Yicong infantry and cavalry are equipped with small and sturdy round steel shields, Wu Meng, and Wu Wei also equipped with a certain number of square large shields with larger protection areas. When breakthroughs are needed for infantry battles, these large shields are more practical than round steel shields.

After a while, another knight came to report, and a large number of cavalry appeared behind him. However, these cavalry did not charge, but instead dismounted and set up a formation on the side of the road. There were many people, a total of four or five thousand, and equipped with many powerful crossbows.

Sure enough, he was rich and powerful. Sun Ce sighed. Although he had no cavalry, he could gather four or five thousand horses for transportation. The signs of the Yuan family's four generations and three men were indeed not given for free. Compared with them, Zu Rong could not hide his shabby appearance. Of course, he was even more shabby. He couldn't even get three thousand horses, so he could only rely on robbing.

Four or five thousand horses, this is a very generous spoil.

Ma Chao took a few knights to monitor the situation behind him, and sent a knight to report every once in a while. The other party intercepted the retreat and set up a formation, but did not launch an immediate attack, as if waiting for something.

Sun Ce chuckled. He knew what they were waiting for. On the south side is the camp of Rencheng and Yuan Tan, and on the north side is a large swamp. It has rained several times recently. The places where he could walk have now become unknown. He either goes east or west. The east side has been blocked, so he can only go west. On the west side is an ambush circle, and the position will definitely be stronger than the newly established position, so these people just need to cut off his retreat and do not need to take the risk of launching a strong attack.

After a while, the knights who followed Xie Guanglong to reconnaissance came back. Although they saw nothing, Xie Guanglong judged based on his experience that there was an ambush position in front of him. He and another knight went forward and tried to contact the cavalry that was supporting him, asking Sun Ce to wait patiently.

Sun Ce breathed a sigh of relief.

"Envoy, Chief Secretary, Sun Ce stopped."

"Stop?" Yuan Tan and Xinpi looked at each other, not quite understanding what it meant. The scout took a breath and explained. Sun Ce was less than two miles away from the ambush position he was guarding, but he did not continue to move forward. He seemed to have discovered something and sent a knight to inquire in front.

Xin Pi frowned slightly, pondered for a long time, and laughed: "Sun Ce's intuition is very good. He should have smelled the danger and did not break into the ambush circle. But even if he discovered it, it would be useless. There were 10,000 elite soldiers in front and behind, and six thousand powerful crossbows were waiting for him. Whether he was moving forward or retreating, it was a dead end."

Yuan Tan nodded. "He was so calm that he was cut off from his back. He didn't speed up his escape as soon as possible, but stopped."

"He is brave and of course he will not be as busy as ordinary people to escape." Xinpi said with a crooked mouth. "Perhaps he is still waiting for Zhu Huan to answer him."

"Will Zhu Huan come from Kang's father?"

"It should be. Sun Ce was surrounded, and they could not help them." Xinpi quickly walked to the map, picked up the cinnabar pen, and drew an arc on the map. "Empress, Sun Ce has already entered the trap. Unless he really has wings, there is no possibility of escape. We can deploy the second trap and ambush Zhu Huan. Kang's father came here for about thirty miles and marched for an hour. We have the benefits of the landlord, and have plenty of time to prepare a trap for Zhu Huan. When he rushed to this thirty miles, he would catch up in one go."

Looking at Xinpi's confident smile, Yuan Tan was also overjoyed and agreed immediately.
Chapter completed!