I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 604: Fan Chou surrenders, Xu Rong admits defeat

In the darkness of night, in the light of fire, in front of the neatly arranged rows of cavalry, General Xu Rong reined in his horse and stood.

He looked deeply at the chaotic camp ahead and the defeated soldiers kneeling on the ground, and finally set his sights on Fan Chou who was running over hurriedly:

"It's so embarrassing!"

Facing Xu Rong's condescending rebuke, Fan Chou felt relieved and even very kind.

This would never have happened before yesterday.

After all, both of them were officials with a rank higher than two thousand stones, and they were equally powerful as the Generals of the Central Army and Colonels who were in charge of the troops. There was no absolute distinction between the upper and lower ranks.

This is mainly because during the Han Dynasty, most of the colonels held real power and commanded the troops in local areas, while the lieutenant general was the commander of the imperial guards. The two had their own powers and responsibilities. Unless otherwise appointed and clearly stated their subordinates, the colonel could completely ignore the lieutenant general.

However, this situation has changed a lot now.

At the end of the Han Dynasty when wars were frequent, the number of troops in various places increased, and the ranks of Colonel and Lieutenant General were devalued and issued indiscriminately.

Dong Zhuo's Western Liang Army alone dispatched four Generals of the Central Army, namely Niu Fu, Xu Rong, Duan Wei and Dong Yue.

This time, Dong Zhuo only brought Niu Fu and Xu Rong with him to the capital.

Originally, Dong Zhuo had promised to promote one or two more Generals of the Household depending on their performance. For this reason, Hu Zhen, Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou and others were secretly competing with each other, and none of them would submit to the other.

Who would have thought that after this battle, the tide receded and all the competitors were killed. At this time, Fan Chou had completely lost the desire to compete for the top spot.

Seeing Xu Rong is like seeing my real father.

On the one hand, Xu Rong's record is reliable.

In a situation where everyone was on the verge of being wiped out, Xu Rong achieved the only victory the day before yesterday, which was truly exciting.

What is more crucial is the troops under the command of this General.

Compared to himself who only had 3,000 soldiers, Xu Rong had twice as many soldiers as him, with 6,000 soldiers available!
This gave Fan Chou a great sense of security.

Even though he was scolded in front of him, he didn't feel angry, and even laughed.

After all, life is everything!
So Fan Chou ran all the way to stand in front of Xu Rong, bowed and shouted:

"Xu Zhonglang, I have waited so long for you, and finally you have arrived!"

"If you had come a little later, we would have been finished."

Xu Rong was irritated when he saw Fan Chou's cowardly look, but Su Yao's recent battle record was truly shocking.

Among these, what is even more frightening is Su Yao's killing of senior generals.

None of the officers and soldiers who directly confronted him escaped with their lives.

I have to say, it is very rare and precious that Fan Chou is still alive and can talk to me.

but
"That traitor Su Yao is brave and cunning. I don't mind if you can't defeat him."

"But you were stationed in the main camp, and you fled before the enemy troops arrived. This is truly a shame for a general!"

"How can you win a battle if you lead the troops like this?"

When Fan Chou heard this, a trace of embarrassment appeared on his face. He did not try to explain himself, but just lowered his head and voluntarily accepted the punishment.

He even spoke very seriously and directly requested to resign from office and apologize to Dong Zhuo.

This guy stunned Xu Rong.

It took him a moment to come back to his senses. Good boy, are you trying to run away? ? ?
Suddenly, Xu Rong's face became extremely gloomy.

Defeat is not shameful. Which general has never lost a battle?

But if he loses the determination to fight, then keeping this person around will cause endless harm.

Immediately, Xu Rong snorted angrily:
"It's good that Captain Fan has admitted his mistake."

"However, Lord Dong is now personally escorting the emperor to the west, and has ordered me to supervise the battle and buy time."

"You have lost many soldiers and generals this time, and you have humiliated our military prestige. You cannot escape the blame!"

Xu Rong glanced at Fan Chou sharply and snorted coldly:
"Come here, quickly capture this man and behead him in public as a warning to others!"

"what?!"

Fan Chou was horrified, and seeing that Xu Rong was not joking, he begged for mercy:
"Xu Zhonglang, I know I am wrong, but my crime does not deserve death!"

Fan Chou knelt on the ground, kowtowed repeatedly, and his voice was filled with tears.

However, Xu Rong's expression was stern and he showed no emotion at all.

"Military law is ruthless, Fan Chou. As a general, you have no way of managing the army, causing the army to lose morale. How can such behavior be forgiven lightly?"

After saying this, he raised his hand and waved, and the personal soldiers behind him immediately stepped forward and lifted Fan Chou up.

Fan Chou struggled desperately and shouted loudly:
"Xu Rong, you can't do this to me!"

"I am Lord Dong's confidant. If you kill me, Lord Dong will never forgive you!"

But Xu Rong just looked at him coldly, not moved at all, just waved his hand without saying a word. He knew very well that at this critical moment, the morale of Fan Chou's camp was already low, and severe punishment would not be enough to stop the decline.

Since this man has no will to fight, let's use his head, a high-ranking official with an official salary of 2,000 stones, to enforce military discipline.

When the bodyguards saw Xu Rong's expression, they immediately understood what he meant and drew out the long swords from their waists. With a flash of cold light, Fan Chou's wailing stopped abruptly and a bloody head rolled to the ground.

The deserters who had been stopped before, as well as officers like Meng Fangna who had come with Fan Chou to greet them, were all terrified when they saw this. They lowered their heads and dared not look directly at this scene.

Xu Rong glanced at the soldiers around him and said in a deep voice:

"You all need to take this as a warning. Anyone who dares to do it again will be killed without mercy!"

The soldiers responded one after another, their voices trembling with awe.

Seeing this, Xu Rong nodded with satisfaction, and then ordered his personal soldiers to hang Fan Chou's head on the flagpole of his camp as a warning to others.

After doing all this, Xu Rong immediately took over Fan Chou's camp. He asked Fan Chou's deputy generals such as Meng Fang to gather the defeated soldiers, while he went into the camp to learn about the battle situation in detail.

After understanding the current situation, he did not waste any time and immediately ordered:
"Pass the order down, all troops, prepare for night battle!"

"Here!"

"Follow your orders!"

After receiving the order, Xu Rong's generals immediately took action, each performing their duties, mobilizing soldiers, and heading to the designated location.

Over there, Meng Fang and his men, who had just gathered the terrified fleeing soldiers, were stunned when they heard Xu Rong's order to attack:

"what?"

"No. Attack?"

Meng Fang's eyelids twitched, and he asked with gritted teeth:

"Xu Zhonglang, do you take this order seriously?"

"Why, do you have any questions?"

Seeing that all of Fan Chou's generals looked miserable, Xu Rong's face darkened. He pointed to the ferry and said:

"Because of your defeat, the rebels are now so blatantly transporting troops overnight."

"If I don't attack him now and beat him halfway, do I have to wait until he is fully prepared tomorrow and then we can fight him head-on with gongs and drums?"

"Then we really have no chance at all."

"This"

When Meng Fang heard this, it seemed to be true.

Putting aside his previous deep fear of Su Yao, if he thought about it carefully, this might really be the best opportunity.

Although Su Yao had seized the ferry and boats, and had cleared the dock since the evening, he had been busy guiding the army across the river.

However, transportation on a small river like the Luo River is not as convenient as shipping on rivers and seas, which have wide docks and large ships for loading and unloading.

Most of the ferries here are small boats with very low transportation efficiency. Coupled with equipment, supplies, war horses, etc., the number of people and supplies he can transport after these few hours is naturally limited.

And now, Su Yao, confident of his victory, crossed the river calmly, but he didn't know that the situation here had changed suddenly, with Xu Rong's 6,000 new troops joining in.

All of a sudden, in this short period of time, the balance of power between the two sides seems to have been completely rewritten, and it is a good opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to attack.

But that's it.
"That Su Yao is really amazing."

Meng Fang was still very hesitant. He took a step forward and whispered to Xu Rong:

"General Niu, Captain Hu, and Captain Zhao were all no match for this traitor and ended up dying on the battlefield."

"Captain Fan was also skeptical before. He thought we had the advantage in numbers, so he wanted to try to take a bite and test the quality of that guy."

"As a result, the guy we killed had a mouth full of blood. If Xu Zhonglang hadn't come, we would have been defeated without a fight that night."

Meng Fang took a deep breath and said with lingering fear:

"Xu Zhonglang, I wonder if you have a good strategy to defeat the enemy."

"I'm really worried that if we just charge forward like this, we'll end up repeating the same mistake again."

Seeing that Meng Fang was actually boosting others' morale and destroying his own prestige, Xu Rong did not get angry but laughed instead, praising him:
"Marquis Meng is right. It seems you are also thoughtful."

"I'm not going to fight recklessly."

"So you will be the vanguard in the battle later."

"Just fight with all your might, even if you lose, it doesn't matter."

"Rather, I don't expect you to win. This is a battle you are bound to lose. You just need to do your best."

"What?!" Meng Fang was shocked, his face full of confusion.

(End of this chapter)