Xuande

Chapter 555 Gongsun Zan Taking the Initiative
Liu Bei's order to Gongsun Zan was not to attack, but to build an army to guard against and deter Yuan Shao.

Liu Bei also specifically asked Gongsun Zan to tell him his encirclement plan, and asked Gongsun Zan to wait for the order. Without an order, he was not allowed to send troops to attack Yuan Shao privately. He had to wait for the army to encircle and crush Yuan Shao and the Jizhou rebel group in one go.

Gongsun Zan also thought this way at the beginning, he didn't intend to do anything, he just waited for the Luoyang court's order.

However, there are too many scumbags around him, and he wants Gongsun Zan to make contributions, and he also leads them to make contributions together, gaining the approval of Liu Bei and Lu Zhi, and thus promoting Luoyang.

They got together to discuss state affairs, and thought that Gongsun Zan's appointment as governor of Youzhou as a Youzhou native must be the result of haste and adjustment after the war.

If you don't take advantage of now to get more military exploits, when will you wait?
They analyzed that Liu Bei arranged too many people for this battle, Dong Zhuo, Liu Yu, Qiao Mao, and the Central Han Army in Luoyang, plus him, Gongsun Zan, the Five Route Army attacked a Yuan Shao, this is to divide Yuan Shao into five horses Rhythm.

Yuan Shao will definitely die, and correspondingly, Gongsun Zan may not be able to get more achievements.

The governors of the other states are not easy to get along with.

Qiao Mao is fine, Dong Zhuo is an old general who fought fiercely, and Liu Yu is also an old bureaucrat. I heard that he is very good at dealing with the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou, and his army is also quite strong.

Everyone wants credit, but there are only so many credits. If one person eats too much, the rest will not have enough to eat. If the meritorious service is not enough, how can Gongsun Zan be promoted to Luoyang by virtue of his military exploits?

So a group of people began to give advice to Gongsun Zan, let him take the initiative to attack.

Yuan Shao is messing around in Jizhou now, making people hate him. Many people in Jizhou hate Yuan Shao and don't cooperate with Yuan Shao. If he can attack Yuan Shao first and catch Yuan Shao by surprise, he may be able to make great achievements.

At that time, Gao Sheng Luoyang will not be a dream.

After Gongsun Zan heard this, he thought it was impossible at first, and it was definitely not a good thing for him to violate orders like this.

"Without Xuande's order, how could I attack without authorization?"

As a result, his subordinates persuaded him.

"The general is outside, and the emperor's order is not acceptable. When you find a good opportunity, you must seize it vigorously, take the initiative to attack, catch Yuan Shao by surprise, and defeat Yuan Shao at one stroke. For military expenditures, maybe the general will thank you at that time."

At that time, Gongsun Zan still hesitated.

"But it's not a good thing to send troops without authorization, is it?"

"Given the relationship between you and the general and the captain, is this a serious problem?"

Shan Jing, Gongsun Zan's subordinate, persuaded him: "As long as you make meritorious service, and then ask the general and the Taiwei to make up for it, there will be no problem. Otherwise, after this battle, you will definitely step down as governor of Youzhou. What position will you hold? ?”

Being persuaded in this way, the balance in Gongsun Zan's heart began to waver.

So after learning that Liu Bei had dealt with Yuan Shu, Gongsun Zan began to discuss with his subordinates how to deal with Yuan Shao, and finally made an initiative with his cousin Gongsun Yue, his subordinates Yan Gang, Shan Jing, Tian Kai, Guan Jing and others. Attack Yuan Shao's plan.

He found out that Yuan Shao had troops stationed in Gaoyang County to prepare for the battle. There were not many troops, about three to five thousand, while he had more than 3 soldiers, so he thought he could win and surprise Yuan Shao by surprise.

After a night of final consideration, Gongsun Zan made up his mind.

Then, on October 29, Gongsun Zan ordered his generals Tian Kai and Yan Gang to lead [-] troops southward to assault Gaoyang County, preparing to catch Yuan Shao by surprise.

Yuan Shao was indeed caught off guard.

Because there was no accurate news that Gongsun Zan was going to send troops before, the battle in Gaoyang County happened suddenly. When Qu Yi, the guard of Gaoyang County, learned that Gongsun Zan's army was coming to attack him, it was three months before Gongsun Zan's soldiers arrived at the gate of Gaoyang County. hour.

When the incident happened suddenly, the generals around Qu Yi panicked and asked Qu Yi if he wanted to retreat.

But Koji didn't panic.

"Fleeing without fighting, what awaits us after returning back must be strict military laws, and may even be beheaded for this. Do you want to be beheaded for this? Anyway, I don't want to."

Of course, everyone didn't want to be beheaded, but Gongsun Zan had a large number of people, and Gaoyang County was regarded by Yuan Shao as the least threatening road, so the number of security troops arranged was the least, only more than 3000.

How can more than 3000 people fight against an army of more than [-]?
Qu Yi believes that field battles are of course not possible, but defending the city is fine. Although the city lacks soldiers and horses, the food can last longer. Just yesterday, Qu Yi finished counting the materials on hand and confirmed that he has the resources to support the army for four months. food.

And now send people back to ask for help, Yuan Shao will definitely send people to help, there is no need to support for four months to get relief, everyone still has the possibility of survival, so no matter what, we can't give up on this city.

After Qu Yi's analysis, people's hearts were stabilized, so the army rushed to fortify the walls and clear the fields around the county town before Gongsun Zan's army arrived.

They destroyed roads, burned houses, tore down bridges, blocked wells, and tried their best to embarrass Gongsun Zan's soldiers.

Then mobilize all the residents of the city to heighten and strengthen the city wall, transport the defense equipment to the city, and bury listening urns at the foot of the city wall to make emergency preparations for the defense of the city.

Qu Yi is a professional military commander with strong professional skills. Under his arrangement, the city defense work was completed in an orderly manner when Tian Kai and Yan Gang's troops arrived, and the city defense army was ready.

Tian Kai and Yan Gang first tried to persuade Qu Yi to surrender, using the name of righteousness to persuade Qu Yi not to follow Yuan Shao to do rebellious things, Qu Yi wanted to laugh when he heard it.

Before he responded to Yuan Shao's call, he followed the liquidation of the eunuch's power and robbed many of the eunuch's properties, and thus became a wealthy man in Jizhou.

The person has been killed, the money has been robbed, and the extravagant life has been lived, what else can he do?

There is only one way to go to the dark.

So he killed the persuading envoy and decided to fight to the end. Yan Gang and Tian Kai were very angry, so they ordered the city to besieged on all sides, attacked the city with all their strength, razed the city to the ground, and killed all the people in the city.

The battle started like this. Gongsun Zan's troops attacked fiercely, and Qu Yi defended to the death. The battle was very fierce, and it was impossible to tell the winner.

Qu Yi sent the news to Yuan Shao, asking for reinforcements, and Yan Gang and Tian Kai also sent the news to Gongsun Zan, hoping that Gongsun Zan could also send more troops as soon as possible, and strive to take down this nail as soon as possible and further attack Jizhou.

The news about Yan Gang and Tian Kai was sent to Gongsun Zan first. When he learned that the raid failed, Gongsun Zan was very angry. He felt that Tian Kai and Yan Gang were useless, and wanted to question the crime.

Chief Shi Guan Jing quickly persuaded Gongsun Zan.

"It is unwise to punish the general in the middle of the battle. I hope you can restrain your anger and make a decision after the war is over. Right now, Gaoyang County should be taken as soon as possible, and Jizhou should be defeated before Yuan Shao's army reacts. He realized that the first achievement does not belong to you."

Gongsun Zan felt that what Guan Jing said made sense, so he immediately ordered the main force of the army to advance, leading [-] troops towards Gaoyang County.

On the third day of November in the sixth year of Zhongping, when Gongsun Zan's vanguard arrived in Gaoyang County and began to attack the city more aggressively, Yuan Shaocai had just received Qu Yi's request for help. He was very surprised to learn that Gaoyang County was besieged by Gongsun Zan's [-] troops.

"There was no news before, and Dong Zhuo, Liu Yu, and Qiao Mao didn't make any changes. Why did Gongsun Zan move first?"

Regarding Gongsun Zan's sudden attack, Yuan Shao's think tanks didn't know what was going on.

A few days ago, they had just determined the military situation of the encirclement, and the garrisons in Bingzhou, Yanzhou, and Qingzhou showed no signs of advancing. Why did this happen to Gongsun Zan's troops, which they planned to launch an attack on their own initiative?
Could it be that Gongsun Zan already knew that they were going to take the initiative to attack and also contacted foreigners?
That's why we act first?
It shouldn't be, even if this news leaks, it won't be so fast.

Yuan Shao and his think tanks were puzzled, and they couldn't figure out why Gongsun Zan initiated this action.

But this is not important, since Gongsun Zan has already acted, they must launch a counterattack, defeat Gongsun Zan as soon as possible, destroy Youzhou, otherwise once the big siege is launched, Jizhou will inevitably be defeated.

Time is up now.

Yuan Shao immediately sent his general Yan Liang to lead a vanguard of 1 people to gallop to support Gaoyang County. He also led the main force to march at the fastest speed, hoping to reach Gaoyang County and face Gongsun Zan as soon as possible.

After the order was issued, Yuan Shao was relieved, but the common people and officials in the local area were unlucky.

The crossing of the army has always been a very scary thing. It is a severe test for local officials and the people. Although this time there is a task of forced marching, the army is not allowed to stay at will, but this will affect the local material preparation and road maintenance. And so on to ask for something bigger.

Some places with good habits on weekdays are fine, but some places that are negligent in their official duties on weekdays exploded. The chief led his subordinate officials and officials to rush to work non-stop all night, and must complete the task before the arrival of the army.

Otherwise, if they delay the march, Yuan Shao will reward them with a knife and let their heads move.

Yuan Shao didn't care about these things, he only asked for the speed of the march, rewarded the local officials when he encountered a smooth place during the whole march, remembered their names, and prepared to be promoted, and once encountered a blocked place, he would capture the local officials and behead them , And then send another smart and capable subordinate to take over the place.

The march of tens of thousands of troops tossed many places to death, but thanks to them sacrificing their lives, Yuan Shao's reinforcements arrived before Gaoyang City was broken.

(End of this chapter)