Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 263 The right time, right place and right people
Xiao Yan immediately straightened his attitude and said responsibly, "My Xiao family has received the grace of the emperor for generations. How can we flee at this time? We will never reconcile with the bandits in Bazhou!"

Pei Yuan didn't care whether this statement was true or false, and continued, "In this way, we have the support of the people, and my chances of defeating those Bazhou bandits have increased by 20%."

Xiao Yan thought of what Pei Yuan said just now about the right time, the right place, and the right people, and said to Pei Yuan, "I hope Captain Pei can speak clearly and give me some advice, so that I can have some sense of propriety."

Pei Yuan wanted to strengthen Xiao Yan's belief, so of course he would not hide it.

Then he said to Xiao Yan, "I just asked Taoist Zhiwei, and he said that this place is a place where dragons and tigers clash and it is a place of war. The army is marching back and forth in formation, which has aroused the evil spirit. Therefore, the clouds and water are disturbed by the evil spirit, and it is not raining."

Xiao Yan was silent for a moment, then asked Pei Yuan, "How much do you think Qian Hu can believe this?"

Pei Yuan said seriously, "100 percent. Not only do I believe what Taoist Zhiwei said, but I can also tell Deputy Captain Xiao very clearly that no matter it is tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, the day when Big Tiger and Starry Sky appear in front of us will be the day when the rain and snow fall."

Xiao Yan really wanted to say, unless you can call the wind and rain.

But Captain Pei is a bit evil, and Xiao Yan is the one who dares not to speak too confidently.

He had solved such an unsolvable problem this morning without any effort, so maybe this kind of thing wouldn't be a problem for him either.

Seeing that Xiao Yan did not raise any doubts, Pei Yuan continued, "I have experienced the power of freezing rain. As long as we can hold on when Big Tiger and Starry Sky arrive and wait until the freezing rain falls, these Bazhou bandits who have rushed here in a hurry will suffer from the freezing rain and their combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced. By then, we will be able to easily defeat the enemy when we are tired."

Xiao Yan sighed inwardly, so this is what you were planning.

But isn't it a joke to pin all your hopes on the predictions of a sorcerer and the will of heaven, which may lead to an unknown outcome?
Unfortunately, Pei Yuan has blocked Xiao Yan's retreat, and the two sides are now tied to the same rope. Xiao Yan can only hope that Pei Yuan will be luckier this time.

At this time, Pei Yuan said, "Look, Deputy Captain Xiao, the place where we are camping now is the highest place near this hill. When the main forces of Big Tiger and Starry Sky arrive, there will not be many options for camping."

Pei Yuan pointed at the terrain nearby and said, "They can either choose to camp near the hills over there, or they can only camp in the lowland in front of the right. Because our camp is slightly steep on both sides, we can only attack from the front and back gates. If we defend these two places, we can block the entrance and exit of our camp."

Xiao Yan followed Pei Yuan's instructions and examined it carefully. He didn't quite understand it and could only nod repeatedly following Pei Yuan's assumptions.

Pei Yuan added, "But the hill is covered with pine trees, a large pine forest. These pine trees are very flammable, and winter and spring are the peak seasons for frequent wildfires. In addition, they also have to guard against our fire attack, so they must not dare to station too many troops on the edge of the hill. They can only place the main camp in this low-lying area."

Pei Yuan pointed to a large open space not far away.

Wait for Xiao Yan to look over.

Pei Yuancai concluded, "After our way to Yanggu was blocked, I thought that now that things have come to this, we must be prepared for a decisive battle with the main force of the bandits."

“So, the first thing I thought of was this place.”

"So while I was making plans, I took the opportunity to pretend to abandon the baggage and flee, and rushed here first to seize the advantageous position."

"Hmm." Xiao Yan listened, but was thinking about something else.

Unexpectedly, "Little Wu Song" had been insidious for so long, and as soon as he made a move, he was immediately countered by Pei Yuan's series of plans.

And what made Xiao Yan speechless was.

While Pei Yuan was playing with the bandits of "Little Wu Song", he had already begun to make intensive preparations for a decisive battle with the main force of the bandits in Bazhou.

Put yourself in the shoes of "Little Wu Song" and think about it.

The response of this bandit leader was quite remarkable. Xiao Yan had previously thought that it would take a lot of effort just to deal with this guy.

However, unexpectedly, under Pei Yuan's wisdom, the bandit leader finally behaved like a fool.

First they took great pains to dig up the road that the government troops were traveling on, then they took great pains to fill it up again, and they also contributed more than a thousand young and strong prisoners to the government troops without bloodshed.

Even if Xiao Yan looked at it from his own perspective, there was nothing wrong with "Little Wu Song's" series of plans.

It did put the government troops in a dilemma.

But where lies the problem?

The problem was that his opponent was Pei Yuan, so the situation on the battlefield was like an adult playing with a child.

For "Little Wu Song" who has worked hard to plan and give his all, he is facing dimensionality reduction attacks from different levels.

Before Pei Yuan could properly respond, Wu Song's army was already defeated.

No bloodshed!

As one of Pei Yuan's potential enemies, Xiao Yan felt a sense of sympathy when he thought of this.

Pei Yuan continued to explain to Xiao Yan, "The weather alone is nothing, and the location alone is nothing. But the power of the two combined is unpredictable."

"Think about it, if their main force is stationed in such a low-lying place and it encounters freezing rain, what will happen?"

Xiao Yan was a little hesitant to answer.

He no longer dared to use his own opinions to guess the inner thoughts of the person in front of him.

He hesitated for a long time, and finally said under Pei Yuan's encouraging gaze, "Move camp?"

Pei Yuan nodded in satisfaction, "That's right. Big Tiger and Starry Sky were unknown in the Bazhou Army before, and they must be mediocre. Their views should be similar to yours."

Xiao Yan: “?”

Although Captain Pei was somewhat impolite, he thought that the two of them were now on the same side and had common interests.

Xiao Yan could only silently transform this into a sense of participation.

Pei Yuan looked at the open space in the distance, as if he saw the massive army of Bazhou bandits.

He murmured, "When the rain starts to fall, it should be midnight, by which time even the most vigilant bandit leader would rest."

"They only besieged a thousand imperial troops, while they had more than 20,000."

"The gap of more than 20 times between them gives them enough capital to be disrespectful."

"There may be a few scattered sentries watching us, perhaps."

Pei Yuan calmly predicted the future decisive battle, as if he was narrating something he had witnessed and that had already happened.

"When the rain drops start to fall, the sentinels will retreat back into their tents in laziness."

"No one would disturb the two leaders' sweet dreams for something as common as rain. Even if the two leaders wake up, they will subconsciously decide... to continue sleeping and wait until tomorrow morning to see how to solve the problem."

Xiao Yan looked at Pei Yuan and felt more and more weird.

Pei Yuan looked at the open space in front of him, and like a wizard who had received inspiration, he continued his prophetic deduction.

"When the water in the camp accumulates more and more and starts to soak the food, firewood, and even the straw mats where the soldiers sleep, they will suddenly realize it."

"But in the cold rain, it is not easy to make the decision to move the camp. They tend to wait and see, from night to morning, from morning to noon, but the rain never stops."

"Their crude and simple tents began to leak a lot."

"Faced with the rising water level, they finally decided to move their camp. When they found a higher place to set up camp, they found that there was no fire to light and no wood to ignite." "When they survived another night in the cold, it was time for us to kill them."

Pei Yuan finished speaking, looked at Xiao Yan, and asked calmly, "How about it, do you think they will meet my prediction?"

Xiao Yan admitted that this vision was quite wonderful.

But he knew better that there were countless possibilities for subsequent changes, and Pei Yuan's plan relied on too many subjective ideas and contingencies.

Xiao Yan didn't want Pei Yuan to be too proud, nor did he want him to take things for granted and make stupid mistakes, so he said bluntly, "Well, Captain Pei, you must first make sure that the two bandit leaders will stay in the position you left for them, and also make sure that the rain you mentioned will come as promised."

Pei Yuan said "hmm".

Xiao Yan felt that Pei Yuan's response was very casual, as if it was not worth mentioning.

Pei Yuan really didn't pay much attention to this question. He continued with the previous topic and spoke casually.

"As for the people's support, it's very simple. You just need to listen to me. Because only if you listen to me, you, a thousand people, will have a chance to compete with those more than 20,000 bandits."

Xiao Yan sighed and said nothing more. He only said, "I hope Captain Pei's plan can finally come true. Otherwise, I'm afraid we won't be able to get out of Yanggu."

Pei Yuan had a relatively calm attitude towards this.

Pei Yuan might not be able to escape, but it is hard to say whether "Zhuge Jiang Gan" can escape successfully.

After Xiao Yan met Pei Yuan, he could clearly understand what those busy soldiers were doing when he looked at them.

Deep trenches were dug and strong walls were built to prevent the Bazhou bandits from becoming desperate and running over to exchange homes with us.

The tents and temporary warehouses in the camp are all rainproof.

The large amount of pine wood that is cut down can be used as structural timber and as fuel, killing two birds with one stone.

As Xiao Yan was watching, he vaguely saw another bandit scout appear in the distance.

Without waiting for Xiao Yan to call for someone to get it, the patrolling Xuzhou cavalry quickly rushed forward, trying to capture the scout.

When the cruising Xuzhou cavalry rushed over, some infantrymen with bows immediately appeared and shot a volley of arrows.

Xiao Yan's expression changed slightly.

Simple scout harassment is nothing, but if infantry with bows also appear, that would be an unusual signal.

Xiao Yan quickly ended his patrol and went to look for Pei Yuan again.

But Pei Yuan was also concentrating on watching the raid in the distance.

One Xuzhou cavalryman was killed by a hail of arrows. The other Xuzhou cavalrymen who followed immediately scattered in all directions facing the threat of an ambush, and paid careful attention to that side.

At the same time, there were cavalrymen on their way back.

Pei Yuan asked Xiao Yan, "Guess why Xiao Wusong suddenly dared to provoke me again?"

Xiao Yan had thought of that possibility on the way here, and asked nervously, "Could it be that the two bandit leaders are here?"

Pei Yuan made his judgment, "It should be."

Pei Yuan looked at the sky and saw that it was almost dusk, so he said to Xiao Yan, "It seems that they will not be able to arrive in time today. But tomorrow morning, the 20,000 troops will appear in front of us."

Xiao Yan asked Pei Yuan a little nervously, "Is there any discrepancy with Qian Hu's plan?"

Pei Yuan shook his head, "I'm also considering it."

"If their bandit army arrives tonight, they will probably start a night battle, trying to take advantage of us and capture us in one fell swoop. If they can't make it, they should also join up with 'Little Wu Song'. We will have to fight tomorrow morning."

"Only after we survive the first wave and hurt them, will they consider setting up camp and dealing with us seriously."

Xiao Yan nodded and said nothing.

When two armies meet, they have to fight first before deciding the next direction.

Xiao Yan asked Pei Yuan, "How is the preparation made by Qian Hu?"

"It's not bad." Pei Yuan said, and then looked at Xiao Yan, "I'll leave this to you. I'm going to go back and have a good rest. The first battle tomorrow won't be easy to deal with either."

Xiao Yan had seen Pei Yuan's bravery, so he certainly understood how important it was to let Pei Yuan recuperate sufficiently.

Pei Yuan looked back and saw the piles of pine wood.

He thought for a moment, and then instructed Xiao Yan, "Find some captives later, burn the surface of these woods, and then extinguish them with mud."

Xiao Yan gave him a questioning look, and Pei Yuan explained, "I'm afraid they'll use fire. Pine wood is too easy to ignite, and something bad will happen."

Xiao Yan couldn't help but praise, "Captain Pei is really meticulous."

Pei Yuan glanced at Xiao Yan and ignored him.

At this time, there was a louder noise coming from outside the camp.

Pei Yuan didn't bother to go back to eat or sleep. He took a few steps forward, stood on a wooden ladder and took a few looks.

Then they saw a small group of ambush bandits dragging the dead Xuzhou cavalryman with their horses, showing off their might back and forth in the distance.

Many Xuzhou cavalrymen were ready to rush over and fight.

Pei Yuan thought for a moment and said to Xiao Yan, "Let Chen Toutie also take the archers to deal with it. We can't let the morale drop at this time."

Xiao Yan said, "Captain, don't be impulsive. The thieves are provoking us like this, so they must be ambushing us. If we fall into their trap, the loss will outweigh the gain."

Pei Yuan felt that the possibility was not great, but there seemed no need to take the risk, so he slowly said, "Okay, then it's up to you."

Pei Yuan agreed so readily that Xiao Yan was a little surprised. He himself raised an opinion, "If we don't care, what about the morale of the army?"

Pei Yuan sighed, "You are the one who doesn't want to be beaten, and you are the one who wants to be beaten."

Xiao Yan was speechless after hearing what Pei Yuan said.

Pei Yuan thought for a moment and came up with an idea, "It's not difficult. The same thing, facing different people, will show different emotions."

"If we were to be timid in the face of a provocation from a defeated general like Xiao Wusong, our morale would naturally plummet."

"But what if we say that the ones who ambushed and provoked us are the main force of the bandits from 'Big Tiger' and 'Starry Sky'?"

"Then maybe they will think that those bandits have a large army, but they can only use such inferior means to deal with them. Maybe it will be able to dispel their fear and boost their morale."

(End of this chapter)