At the end of the Han Dynasty: a stingy husband from his hometown

Chapter 229 Outsmarting the City Gate
Huang Zhong, who had pretended to be defeated before, burst into laughter after seeing the camp being engulfed in fire.

He was riding on his horse, pointed at the location of the camp with high spirits, and shouted loudly: "Yan Yan has fallen into the trap, please follow me to kill the enemy, and we will make great achievements today!"

"kill!"

The Jingzhou army, which had been cheating on defeat every day these days, was full of anger. When they heard Huang Zhong's voice, they all roared to vent their grievances.

Huang Zhong led thousands of Jingzhou troops, like tigers descending from the mountain, to fight back in a mighty manner.

As soon as they arrived outside the camp, they saw many Yizhou soldiers rushing towards them, discarding their helmets and armor.

Huang Zhong didn't hesitate and took the lead and killed him.

There was no suspense in this battle. Ten thousand Yizhou troops were directly killed and returned in defeat. The Jingzhou army led by Huang Zhong suffered very few casualties.

Yan Yan, Pang Le, and Li Yi had just fought their way out of the camp and faced Huang Zhong head-on.

"Huang Zhong is here, Yan Yan is gone!"

Huang Zhong was overjoyed when he saw the embarrassed Yan Yan, and directly led his troops to kill him.

At this time, the Yizhou Army was defeated. Yan Yan was worried about being surrounded by the Jingzhou Army and had no intention of fighting. He turned his horse's head and fled in the other direction.

Li Yi was smarter and followed Yan Yan to escape.

Pang Le couldn't see the situation clearly. When he saw Huang Zhong charging towards him on horseback, he actually stepped forward to stop him with his gun drawn.

"clang!"

"clang!"

"Pfft!"

The two fought against each other, and Huang Zhong killed Pang Le and fell from his horse.

Li Yi, who was fleeing behind Yan Yan, couldn't help but panic when he saw this situation. He just ran for his life and didn't dare to look back.

Huang Zhong did not pursue Yan Yan and Li Yi, but divided his troops into two groups.

He led an army to guard the steep road in front of the camp, and beware of the Yizhou army in the city coming to rescue him.

However, Huang Zhong asked Liu Pan to lead a group of troops and block the entrance of the camp to capture the Yizhou soldiers who had escaped. Anyone who resisted would be killed without mercy.

Compared with the pursuit of Yan Yan and Li Yi, the [-] Yizhou troops who had become a turtle in the urn were the biggest gain from this battle.

If he can be captured, the vitality of the Yizhou army will be greatly damaged.

If you ignore these people and allow them to return to the city safely, they will only need a short rest before they are on the battlefield again and become enemies.

But Huang Zhong beheaded Pang Le, hung his head on his horse, and led his troops to guard a mountain road.

as predicted.

Not long after, Zhao Wei, who saw the flames blazing in this direction, was worried that Yan Yan was in trouble, so he asked Zhang Ren and Wu Yi to lead five thousand troops each to rescue him.

Zhang Ren happened to encounter Yan Yan and Li Yi who were fleeing in a hurry. After learning the details of the war, he did not dare to neglect them.

He hurriedly led his troops to the Jingzhou military camp, but was intercepted by Huang Zhong halfway.

Huang Zhong occupies a favorable geographical position, and he has just won a great victory, which greatly boosted the morale of his officers and soldiers, so they are not afraid at all even if they are outnumbered and defeated.

Not long after the two sides fought, Wu Yi also led his army to join the battle group.

However, the terrain of the mountain road is too narrow, and the Yizhou Army cannot take advantage of its large number of troops.

The two sides fought from dawn to dusk. Seeing that it was difficult to break through the mountain road guarded by Huang Zhong in their eagerness, Zhang Ren and Wu Yi led their troops away.

As for Huang Zhong, he had long known that Liu Pan had surrendered all the prisoners.

However, he did not dare to act rashly and still guarded the mountain road. It was not until Liu Pan re-established the camp overnight that he led his troops to withdraw.

In Dianjiang City.

Yan Yan and Li Yi were kneeling on the ground in a state of embarrassment, while Zhao Wei's face was extremely gloomy.

This battle cost nearly [-] soldiers and horses, and he also lost his trusted general Pang Le. How could Zhao Wei not be angry?
At this time, the eyes he looked at Yan Yan were also full of suspicion.

Just because a few days ago, the Yizhou generals took turns coming out of the city to fight Huang Zhong. Although they did not defeat the Jingzhou army, they all had small victories.

On the other hand, Yan Yan's ability was still higher than that of other generals, and he was repelled by Huang Zhong in a few words when he went into battle for the first time.

This time, he lost his troops and generals and returned in defeat.

Without the support of the generals in front, Zhao Wei would not be too harsh on Yan Yan even if he returned in defeat.

However, the other generals Zhuyu was in front, and Yan Yan had issued a military order before the battle, so even Zhao Wei could not show too much favoritism.

He looked at Yan Yan and scolded sternly: "When you led your army to attack the camp, didn't you first enter the camp to investigate?"

Zhao Wei's remarks were somewhat of an afterthought.

The battle was so fierce. After Yan Yan led his troops into the camp, he went straight to the place where the Jingzhou army stored grain, grass and baggage. How could he have time to inspect each camp?

However, after all, it was Yan Yan who made the mistake in this battle, and he had no words to refute. He just kowtowed and said, "I am willing to take the blame!"

After all, Zhao Wei cared about the friendship between his fellow countrymen and set his sights on his confidant general Li Yi, and shouted sternly: "I sent you and Pang Le to accompany Yan Yan on the expedition, just to check for Yan Yan's shortcomings."

"This was a huge defeat. Pang Le died in battle, but you came back safely. Do you have anything to say?"

Li Yi was shocked when he heard this. Knowing that Zhao Wei wanted to share the blame with Yan Yan, he immediately hurriedly argued: "General Mingjian, after we rushed into the camp and killed Huang Zhong, I and Pang Le planned to split up their forces to pursue the Jingzhou army. .”

"In this way, even if the soldiers and horses inside the camp are attacked by fire, as long as there is still a wave of soldiers and horses outside the camp, they can still resist Huang Zhong's army and buy enough time for the soldiers in the camp to retreat."

"However, Yan Yan cared about Huang Zhong's past kindness and was unwilling to kill them all. He prevented me and the two from leading troops to pursue Huang Zhong. This is why we were defeated."

"Pang Le was beheaded by Huang Zhong just to cut Yan Yan off from the throne and had nothing to do with Wei Jiang."

"Therefore, although someone is responsible for negligence in this battle, he cannot bear all the blame. General, please be more careful!"

When Yan Yan heard this, he couldn't help but be so angry that his steel beard stood on end, and he glared at Li Yi angrily.

Poor god.

Yan Yan had no intention of pursuing Huang Zhong because of his old feelings.

The reason for this was that Yan Yan was afraid of Huang Zhong's bravery and was worried that the two would lead troops to pursue him rashly, which would lead to loss of troops and generals.

What's more, compared to the few troops under Huang Zhong's command, occupying the Jingzhou military camp and cutting off Zhou Qi's army's food route to invade Brazil was of more decisive significance for this Bajun battle.

It was precisely for this reason that Yan Yan planned to defend the camp first before talking about anything else.

But he didn't expect that he would be falsely accused by Li Yi because of this.

Zhao Wei didn't know what Yan Yan was thinking, so he immediately looked over with some suspicion and shouted in a deep voice: "Is what Li Yi said true?"

Yan Yan took a deep breath and said: "It is true that a certain person did not let the two lead troops to pursue him, but it was not out of nostalgia for the old relationship, but because he wanted to defend the camp and cut off Zhou Qi's food route."

After Zhao Wei heard this, he couldn't bear it anymore and shouted angrily: "You have over [-] soldiers and horses under your command. Even though you still have a strength advantage by dividing your troops into two groups, you are still unwilling to split your troops to pursue Huang Zhong. After all, you, Yan Yan, are too stupid and derelict in your duty. Or do you really have other ideas?”

Yan Yan was framed like this for no reason, and she didn't know how to defend herself. In addition, she was already full of depression due to the defeat. She didn't even take a breath, her eyes went black, and she fainted.

Zhao Wei asked people to take Yan Yan down for diagnosis and treatment. During this period, he asked Li Yi in detail about the details of the war.

In order to escape guilt, Li Yi naturally added fuel to the fire and placed all the blame on Yan Yan.

Although Zhao Wei said that Gu Nian and Yan Yan were in the same county, Li Yi was his confidant after all, and he was more willing to trust his own people emotionally.

Zhao Wei simply did not summon Yan Yan again. After he regained consciousness, he directly sent troops to put him under house arrest.

On the one hand, he went to Chengdu to inform Liu Zhang of all the war going on, and on the other hand, he discussed with his generals how to deal with Yan Yan.

Although Generals Lingbao and Deng Xian had some dissatisfaction with Yan Yan before, they were all local generals in Yizhou after all.

At this time, the power of the Dongzhou faction in Yizhou continued to expand, and they did not want to add insult to injury and chose to remain silent.

As one of the representatives of the Dongzhou faction, Wu Yi was naturally happy to see Yan Yan dealt with by military law, and immediately said: "Once military law has been established, it should be strictly implemented, otherwise all generals will lose their respect for military law in the future."

"Yan Yan had already issued a military order before going on the expedition. If he is not dealt with impartially, I am afraid it will be difficult to restore the military's authority."

"Besides, ten thousand troops were lost in this battle, and even General Pang Le was killed by Huang Zhong. How can we convince the public if we just fool around with this?"

Zhao Wei's face turned gloomy when he heard this.

Wu Yi had caught Yan Yan's trap, so he launched an attack without mercy, but Zhao Wei couldn't do anything about it.

At this moment, Zhang Ren stood up and said: "Yan Yan was indeed derelict in his duty for not detecting the ambush in the Jingzhou military camp in advance. However, he did not let Pang Le and Li Yi lead the troops to pursue him, but instead stood tight. Yingzhai didn’t do anything wrong.”

"I dare to ask you, general, what are the thousands of soldiers under Huang Zhong's command compared to the Jingzhou military camp that can cut off Zhou Qi's food route?"

"Besides, Huang Zhong is by no means an easy person. Since they have decided on a strategy in advance, even if Pang Le and Li Yi divide their forces to pursue them, they will probably be in trouble."

"In my opinion, Yan Yan's defeat in this battle should indeed be punished, but it cannot be said that he incurred this defeat because he missed Huang Zhong's old kindness."

Zhang Ren's words were quite pertinent, and they also left a way for Yan Yan to survive.

With such a huge defeat, if Yan Yan is really accused of not letting Pang Le and Li Yi lead troops to pursue because of his gratitude to Huang Zhong, then the nature of this defeat will be completely different. Yan Yan is afraid It must be dealt with by military law.

If this point is eliminated and Yan Yan's decision-making is correct, the defeat will only be due to the failure to investigate.

We are all commanders in charge of the army. Who can guarantee that they will not be defeated due to a lack of investigation in the future?
If Yan Yan is really to be executed for this reason, then all the generals in the army will definitely be in danger.

Zhao Wei couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Zhang Ren's words.

Although he still had some doubts about Yan Yan, they were from the same county after all, and Yan Yan was quite famous in Ba County.

If he kills him himself, he will definitely lose the hearts of Bajun.

Seeing what Wu Yi was about to say, Zhao Wei was the first to say: "Zhang Ren's words are reasonable. Yan Yan is indeed responsible for negligence in this battle. He is temporarily detained and exempted from official duties, pending the punishment decision in Chengdu."

"For the current plan, we should focus all our energy on Huang Zhong."

"If we can't break through the Jingzhou Military Camp, I'm afraid the whole of Brazil will be captured by Zhou Qi soon."

"At that time, Dianjiang became an isolated city, and we were in a worrying situation."

Lingbao immediately jumped out and said: "According to the reports from the scouts, more than [-] of the soldiers trapped in the Jingzhou military camp were killed or injured, and the rest all surrendered."

"Huang Zhong has less than five thousand soldiers and horses, and now there are six thousand prisoners of the Yizhou Army. It must be difficult to take care of them." "As long as we rob the camp at night and cause chaos in the Jingzhou Army camp, those prisoners will inevitably There was a riot. At that time, the inside and outside were coordinated, so why worry about not being able to capture Huang Zhong?"

Deng Xian also responded: "This is reasonable."

"Besides, our army has suffered a new defeat. Huang Zhong must be arrogant and arrogant. He didn't expect us to rob the camp at night."

"If we follow this strategy, we will definitely defeat Huang Zhong and turn the tables on him!"

Zhao Wei was overjoyed when he heard this and said: "In that case, we will rob the camp tonight. Even if we cannot capture Huang Zhong alive, we will still rescue thousands of prisoners!"

But Yan Yan, who was being detained, was shocked when he learned that Leng Bao and others were going to rob the camp.

Through previous defeats, he had been able to determine that Huang Zhong had deliberately faked defeat and was by no means as easy to deal with as everyone thought.

With Huang Zhong's ability to command troops, he would not have exposed such a big flaw, allowing Leng Bao to successfully rob the camp.

He hurriedly said to the soldiers guarding him: "I have something important to see General Zhao. Please let me go first."

The soldier said helplessly: "The general has already said that the envoy will not be seen until the results of the treatment in Chengdu arrive in Dianjiang."

Yan Yan was very anxious and said: "Can you please help me spread the word that Huang Zhong should not be underestimated. He has been a fraud before. I am afraid that I will make a mistake if I go to rob the camp tonight. Please proceed with caution."

The soldiers in charge of guarding did not dare to treat Yan Yan lightly and ran to help him pass the message.

Unexpectedly, after Zhao Wei heard what the soldiers said, he immediately slapped the table and shouted: "Yan Yan is as afraid of Huang Zhong as a tiger, what should we fear?"

He turned to look at the soldier who was summoning him, and asked: "The robbery of the camp is quite secretive. How did you know that he was imprisoned?"

The soldier hurriedly said: "After all, Mr. Yan still has many cronies in the army. We can't stop them from visiting them."

Zhao Wei said angrily: "I'm giving you an order. From now on, no one is allowed to visit Yan Yan without my general's orders!"

Yan Yan was looking forward to it in the room, but when she got such a result, she immediately collapsed on the ground and lamented.

He knew that he had been labeled as a defeated general, and even if he could save his life, his future career would probably be ruined.

Until now, he is still worried about the situation on the front line and sighed: "If you don't listen to me, there will be a big defeat!"

It is night, the moon is bright and the stars are sparse.

Deng Xian and Lingbao each led three thousand troops and quietly went to rob the camp.

In order to make meritorious deeds, Li Yi invited him to be the vanguard and led 2000 people to lead the charge.

But when Li Yi came to the vicinity of the Jingzhou military camp, he saw that the camp was really empty of defenses, and there were not even many soldiers on guard.

Li Yi couldn't help but be overjoyed and said to himself: "God is really helping me!"

He first lurked in secret, waited until the appointed time, ordered his soldiers to remove the antlers, and then led his soldiers directly into the camp.

"Kill!"

"Capture Huang Zhong alive!"

"The Yizhou army has arrived. Huang Zhong is about to die soon. Brothers who are captured, don't panic, all move!"

The soldiers who followed Li Yi into the camp all shouted in unison, and the entire Jingzhou military camp suddenly screamed like thunder, and flames shot into the sky.

Deng Xian and Lingbao were overjoyed to see Li Yi succeed, and led their troops into the camp one after another.

As expected by Lingbao, there were too many captured Yizhou soldiers, and Huang Zhong had few soldiers to guard them.

After they heard the shouts in the camp, they launched a riot one after another. Taking advantage of the chaos in the camp, they killed the Jingzhou soldiers guarding them, grabbed their weapons, and rushed out.

With these prisoners as internal agents, the defeat of the Jingzhou Army was accelerated.

Seeing that the situation was over, Huang Zhong had no choice but to abandon the camp and lead his troops to retreat.

Lingbao learned the lesson this time. The first thing he had to do after breaking into the camp was to explore each camp.

Do not see do not know.

When Lingbao saw that there were many fire starters piled up inside the tent, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

He hurriedly shouted: "Get out of the camp quickly!"

Lingbao, Deng Xian, and Li Yi were worried about following in Yan Yan's footsteps and did not dare to stay too long in the camp, so they directly led their troops and rushed out.

The prisoners of the Yizhou Army also took the opportunity to escape from the camp one after another, following Lingbao and others.

Not long after the three generals left the camp, they saw flames blazing into the sky inside the camp. Lingbao was so frightened that his back was dripping with cold sweat. He said to Li Yi and Deng Xianri, "If we hadn't learned from Yan Yan's mistakes, we would have perished in the flames." Got it!"

Lingbao and others were still in shock when they heard the thundering drum sound in front of them.

"The thief has fallen into my trap, come forward quickly and die!"

But they saw that Huang Zhong and Liu Pan had already led their soldiers to kill Lingbao and others.

Lingbao was furious when he saw this and shouted: "My soldiers are numerous and powerful, and they have not been burned, so what should we fear?"

"Everyone, follow me forward. I will definitely kill Huang Zhong here today!"

When Deng Xian and Li Yi heard this, they had no objection and all led their troops to follow Lingbao and kill him.

Huang Zhong had lost consecutive battles before, and they had long lost their sense of awe, which is why they were so rampant.

When Huang Zhong saw that the Yizhou army was advancing instead of retreating, he immediately sneered secretly in his heart, then quietly bent his bow and arrow, and shot directly at Li Yi who was at the front.

It was now dark night, Li Yi and others approached the camp where the flames were blazing, but Huang Zhong's men and horses were hidden in the darkness.

Anyone who has experienced it should know that Huang Zhong could clearly see Li Yi at this time, but Li Yi couldn't see Huang Zhong's movements clearly.

In addition, people were shouting and horses were screaming, and the situation was extremely chaotic. Li Yi could not hear the sound of arrows piercing the air.

"Pfft!"

A blood flower bloomed, and Li Yi, who was still planning to avenge his shame, only felt a pain in his throat, and then his vision turned black and he fell off his horse.

Lingbao and Deng Xian, who were originally preparing to fight Huang Zhong to the death, were frightened when they saw Li Yi being shot through the throat by an arrow.

It was only then that they suddenly remembered Huang Zhong's incredible archery skills.

The two of them were frightened and did not dare to rush forward. Instead, they hid themselves in the crowd.

At the same time, the captured Yizhou troops also rushed out. They were extremely embarrassed at this time and directly broke up the formation of Lingbao and Deng Xian's soldiers.

Huang Zhong took the opportunity to cover up the attack. Even though Lingbao and Deng Xian had many soldiers and horses under their command, they could not take advantage at all. They had to fight and retreat towards Dianjiang City.

During the retreat, Deng Xian comforted Lingbao and said: "Although Li Yi suffered a loss in this robbery, we still rescued thousands of captured Yizhou soldiers. The merits outweigh the faults."

Hearing this, Lingbao's face looked a little better.

The two of them did not dare to fight, and withdrew towards the city with their soldiers, horses and the prisoners.

After arriving at the city gate, Lingbao and Deng Xian shouted sharply: "We have returned with a great victory, open the city gate quickly!"

Zhao Wei caught the light of the fire and did not dare to neglect after seeing their faces clearly, and hurriedly ordered people to open the city gate.

Naturally, Lingbao and Deng Xian entered the city first with their soldiers, followed by the Yizhou Army prisoners in ragged clothes and in a state of disarray, many of whom were unarmed.

When Zhao Wei learned that the second general had rescued thousands of prisoners, he was overjoyed and personally greeted him in the city.

But soon, Zhao Wei felt something was wrong and asked, "Where is Li Yi?"

Lingbao and Deng Xian looked at each other and knew that they couldn't keep it secret, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and said: "Then Huang Zhongyu tried his old trick to burn down the camp. Fortunately, we discovered it in advance and avoided following Yan Yan's footsteps."

"However, just as we were retreating, Huang Zhong led his troops to fight. Li Yi was pierced through the throat with an arrow and died on the spot."

When Zhao Wei heard this, his vision went dark and he almost fell to the ground.

Generals Pang Le and Li Yi were no better than others, but they were Zhao Wei's confidants, and they all fell into the hands of Huang Zhong without thinking.

When Zhao Hao was feeling out of his mind, he saw gongs and drums blaring outside the city. Huang Zhong and Liu Pan had already led their troops to kill him.

Zhang Ren was shocked when he saw this and said hurriedly: "Hurry up and urge those prisoners to enter the city. Don't let Huang Zhong take the opportunity to kill him!"

Wu Yi said nonchalantly: "There are Yizhou soldiers and horses in the city, and Huang Zhong has less than five thousand men. Even if they all enter the city, it will only be a way of death. What are you afraid of?"

Zhang Ren also felt that Wu Yi's words were reasonable, but still urged the Yizhou Army prisoners to enter the city just in case.

Zhao Wei also recovered from the heavy pain, and then said in a cold tone: "Huang Zhong killed two of our generals in succession. If he does not avenge this, he will not be a human being!"

"After the prisoners outside the city enter the city, I want to personally lead the army out of the city to fight to the death with them. I must kill Huang Zhongyu under his horse!"

Unexpectedly, as soon as Zhao Wei finished speaking, he heard a shout at the city gate.

Many prisoners of the Yizhou army broke out and killed people, and soon occupied the city gate.

Zhao Wei couldn't help but be horrified when he saw this, and then heard loud shouts coming from outside the city.

Zhao Wei didn't know what happened yet, but he also knew that the most important thing was to regain the city gate now.

He immediately roared: "Seize the door, seize the door quickly!"

Zhang Ren hurriedly led his troops to seize the gate. He never thought that those people disguised as prisoners of the Yizhou Army at the gate were all extremely fierce.

The city gate was very narrow and the army was of no use at all.

Seeing Huang Zhong's soldiers and horses getting closer and closer, Zhao Wei asked his subordinates to line up in the city and shouted sternly: "Archers, regardless of whether we are the enemy or not, all the rebels at the city gate will be shot!"

"Prepare your bows and arrows!"

"volley!"

"Puff puff!"

Dense arrows slanted down, and whether they were real Yizhou Army prisoners or Jingzhou soldiers pretending to be prisoners, many people were blocked by the arrows without any cover.

Ling Cao was hit by three arrows, but still did not retreat. Instead, he raised a corpse in front of him and stood guard at the door.

The same was true for Chen Wu. He led the most elite Lujiang Shangjia, and even though most of them were killed by arrows, they still refused to retreat.

(End of this chapter)