People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 82: Fell into a big trap with the Yellow Turbans!
Zhang Chun was relieved after learning Tian Chou's good plan. He could then wait for reinforcements and fight with the Yellow Turbans.

One day passed, two days passed, three days passed, and the Yellow Turbans remained motionless.

Zhang Chuntian Chou went up to the city wall to investigate every day, and only saw that the Yellow Turban camp was carrying out its daily activities. Everything was normal, so he naturally would not think of attacking the camp or anything.

It was not until the early morning of the fourth day, when they climbed up the city wall again and looked into the distance, that they saw that all the soldiers on the city wall were happy, because they were getting closer and closer to the sixth day.

If we continue like this for two more days, everyone will get 500 yuan. How can we not be happy?

Zhang Chun was not happy at all when he saw this. He didn't even fight a war, but let these peasants earn money so easily. He felt as uncomfortable as if he had swallowed a fly.

With Zhang's strength, if he really didn't want to pay, he could just refuse to pay. But if he really didn't pay, the soldiers wouldn't dare to say a word.

However, in this way, the Zhang family's aristocratic family would completely lose face. No matter what they thought in their hearts, they still had to appear decent on the surface. And for the aristocratic family, face was more important than money.

Zhang Chun looked at the smiling soldiers coldly, thinking in his heart that it is not so easy to get my Zhang family's money, let's see if you have the chance.

After putting all these thoughts aside, he concentrated on observing the enemy camp. The smoke from the cooking of the army of nearly 10,000 people was a spectacular sight. From a distance, he could vaguely see the crowds of people moving around in the camp, making a lot of noise.

After watching for a while, Zhang Chun saw that the Yellow Turbans showed no signs of attacking, so he decided to return home.

However, Tian Chou stood on the top of the city wall with a frown on his brow, not moving at all. He looked at the Yellow Turban camp from afar, as if he was worried about something. Just when Zhang Chun was about to walk down the city wall, he was suddenly startled and then shouted.

"General, please stay. We have been deceived!"

"Ok!"

Zhang Chun paused, turned around, and saw Tian Chou hitting his hand in frustration, his face turning red.

These days, he has become very aware of Tian Chou's intelligence. Even Tian Chou said that he was cheated, which made him feel uneasy.

"What's going on?" Zhang Chun returned to the top of the city wall and asked hurriedly.

Tian Chou sighed in self-blame and pointed towards the Yellow Turban camp: "General, look, the enemy's tents seem to have a large number of soldiers coming in and out frequently, but in fact, they are just a group of people pretending to be powerful!"

Zhang Chun looked from afar upon hearing this. He didn't think anything at first, but after looking carefully for a while, he discovered the problem.

Just as Tian Chou said, he saw the enemy soldiers changing guards, often one team would go into the tent and another team would go out of the tent, which was nothing wrong.

But the problem was that after he stared for a while, he found that the soldiers who had obviously entered the tent to rest came out of the tent again after a while and continued to perform the defense of the camp.

If you keep a close eye on their movements again, you can see that they walk a long distance, then run to another camp and pretend to patrol for a while, and then start to change guard in the tents in this camp.

This process repeats itself over and over again. Although the tents in the camp are empty, it gives the illusion that there are many people inside.

Zhang Chun was dumbfounded when he came back to his senses. He looked again and found that the Yellow Turbans seemed to have a strong presence in the camp, but the actual number of people was probably only more than 3,000 people that could be seen outside. As for the 1,000 cavalrymen circling around Pinggu, there was no need to mention them.

So the question is, what about the remaining 5,000 people?

"General Zhang, the enemy army probably only left behind a small force to stabilize us. As for the main force, they may have already ambushed on the way to the reinforcements. This..." Tian Chou felt extremely ashamed when he spoke. He was deeply embarrassed to be fooled by the Yellow Turbans.

The Yellow Turbans controlled the distance skillfully, being in a situation where they could see but not see clearly, so that it took so many days for me to realize something was wrong.

The Yellow Turbans' intention in making this arrangement was obvious. Apparently, they did not want to fall into the dilemma of being attacked from both sides, so they left an empty camp to confuse Pinggu and concentrated their forces to defeat one reinforcement route first. However, they were actually fooled.

In this way...

Zhang Chun was no fool, and he immediately realized the problem: "The reinforcements may be in danger!"

After saying this with a serious look, he immediately looked at the somewhat panicked generals around him and said, "Quickly send troops to attack the camp and pursue the main force of the enemy!"

The generals agreed in unison and were about to do it, but Tian Chou stepped forward.

"General, don't worry. It is better to send two thousand vanguards to test the enemy's strength. If we confirm that the enemy camp is empty, it may be too late to pursue and help. What our army should really do is to meet another reinforcement force as soon as possible!"

Pinggu is located in the middle of the three counties. No matter whether the bandits go north to ambush the reinforcements from Guangping or south to ambush the reinforcements from Luxian, Pinggu will not have time to provide support, and the Yellow Turbans may have already started fighting with them.

At this time, it would be a more correct choice to unite with another one as soon as possible as Tian Chou said.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chun realized that he was too panicked and couldn't even think of what to do. He was even worse than a young boy.

"Yes, just do as he says!"

Soon, two thousand soldiers were mobilized in the city. With an order, the city gates were opened, and a general led his troops to attack the camp. They fought with the Yellow Turban cavalry outside the city, rushed to the front of the camp, and attracted more than a thousand Yellow Turbans to come out of the city to fight.

When Zhang Chun saw that the situation was just as he expected and the main force of the Yellow Turbans was no longer in the camp, he no longer hesitated and immediately sent his main force out of the city to support the front.

When the Yellow Turbans saw this, they knew that the officers and soldiers had already discovered their strength, so there was no need to pretend anymore.

Their mission had been completed and they had no intention of engaging with the officers and soldiers here, so they sounded the retreat signal. Eventually, under the cover and harassment of the cavalry, they fought with the officers and soldiers several times and successfully split up into several groups and withdrew.

After interrogating the prisoners, Zhang Chun and Tian Chou learned that the main force of the Yellow Turbans had left the camp several days earlier and had headed north to ambush reinforcements from Guangping.

Although they were very worried about the reinforcements from Guangping, they also knew that if they went over to support and report the news now, they would get nothing, so they simply headed south to meet the reinforcements from Lu County, intending to combine the strength of the two counties before launching the campaign.

Zhang Chun and Tian Chou's prediction was correct. In fact, when they realized something was wrong, the Yellow Turbans, who had been hiding in the valleys on both sides of the road from Guangping to Pinggu a day earlier, launched an ambush without the Guangping army noticing.

Although there were more than 6,000 soldiers and officers in Guangping, the real combat troops were only 3,000 troops gathered by various powerful families, and the remaining half were auxiliary troops composed of ordinary peasants. The Yellow Turbans also ambushed and attacked suddenly, and the Guangping soldiers and officers were at a loss.

The battle was over in just over two hours. Under the encirclement of the ferocious Yellow Turbans, the Guangping army finally collapsed. Countless people fled, abandoned their weapons and surrendered.

The Guangping general Zhang Ju was captured by the Yellow Turbans in one fell swoop, and was then escorted to Xu Chen. Before he could say a word, he heard Xu Chen's cold voice of sentencing.

"Take the prisoners and wait until our army enters Guangping after the battle. We will then interrogate and question them one by one. Those who deserve to die will die, and those who deserve to be punished will be punished!"

(End of this chapter)