The Conquest of the Three Kingdoms

Li Yan couldn't defend his tactics, and Zhang Lu soon tasted the bitter fruit.

Zhang Lu originally thought that Li Yan, who captured Yangping Pass, would be dazzled by the victory, and would leave the pass without hesitation to fight him.

In order to defeat Li Yan in the decisive battle in the wilderness, Zhang Lu specially mobilized [-] elite cavalry from Liangzhou. These [-] cavalry were exactly the capital he dared to fight Li Yan.

After Zhang Lu captured Liangzhou, he got Liangzhou's healthy horses, and the number of cavalry under his command increased dramatically.

If it is purely about the number of troops.Zhang Lu is not dominant among the several major princes.But he has a huge advantage in the quantity and quality of cavalry.

However, the land of Yizhou has steep mountains and rivers, which is not suitable for cavalry combat, so Zhang Lu made his way to Ping Hanzhong.Did not bring many cavalry into Sichuan.

But now it is different, after crossing Yangping Pass and heading east, the Mianshui plain is far more open than that in the middle of Sichuan, so the cavalry has a place to use.

Therefore.Zhang Lucai dared to lead his army into Hanzhong, hoping to take advantage of his cavalry advantage to defeat Li Yan in one fell swoop and regain Yangping Pass and other lost ground.

It's a pity that Zhang Lu's beautiful blueprint was shattered.

Li Yan was not as he had imagined, dazzled by the victory, and went out to fight blindly. Instead, he closed the door tightly and couldn't hold on.

In desperation, Zhang Lu could only send several generals to Yangping Pass to challenge Li Yan in turn, but Li Yan turned a blind eye to them.

This confrontation and stalemate lasted for nearly a month without knowing it.

The autumn is deep, the rain is endless, and mudslides in Nanzheng occur frequently. The already difficult valley roads are even more difficult. The Hanzhong Army's food roads are often in a disadvantageous state.

With insufficient food and grass, the tens of thousands of Hanzhong Army in Hanzhong could only reduce the number of soldiers to match themselves day by day.

Zhang Lu, who was full of confidence when he came, was also demoralized and fell into melancholy at this time.

In the military tent, the atmosphere was gloomy.

"Let's talk about it, how did you defeat the Chu army and take back Yangping Pass?" Zhang Lu asked all the civil and military personnel with a straight face.

Everyone was silent, even Yan Pu was silent at this time.

After all, he was the one who suggested to Zhang Lu to transfer the cavalry from Xiliang to the south into Hanzhong, and he was the one who fought to the death with Li Yanjue, but now Li Yan refuses to leave, making Zhang Lu fall into complete passiveness. I have a plan, but it is not easy to export it for a while.

In the silence, a man came out, cupped his hands and said, "My lord, now that the food supply is not smooth, the morale of the three armies is low, Yangping Pass and Dingjun Mountain have all been occupied by the Chu army, Hanzhong is in a difficult situation. Shou, the last general thinks that at this time, it is the best policy to resolutely abandon Hanzhong and withdraw troops back to Guanzhong."

Zhang Lu raised his eyes and looked away, but saw that the person who spoke was Yang Shu.

Yan Pu and other counselors secretly agreed in their hearts, and almost stood up to express their agreement.

However, Zhang Lu's brows were condensed, and he said displeasedly: "The soldiers of the three armies took Hanzhong with great painstaking efforts, but now you persuade the truth to hand over Hanzhong to the Chu army. You are calling this general cold. our hearts?"

Such a questioning made Yang Shu speechless immediately, showing embarrassment on his face, so he had to retreat embarrassingly.

Yan Pu, who was about to agree, swallowed the words when they came to his lips.

Yan Pu knew that Zhang Lu was afraid that he would abandon Hanzhong and retreat to Chang'an in a desperate manner, which would hurt his face and ruin his prestige.

As the general of Zhenbei, if his prestige is lost, how can he subdue the officials? Zhang Lu has no choice.

Even though Zhang Lu himself knew that Hanzhong was undefendable, he just couldn't turn this corner for a while, and couldn't let go of the face that would be lost sooner or later.

Yan Pu, who knew Zhang Lu's heart well, could only sigh inwardly.

In this unharmonious atmosphere, this military meeting ended with nothing to gain.

The morale of the Hanzhong army became more and more depressed.

……

Yangping Pass.

When Zhang Lu Daying was in the depressing environment of the No. [-] Middle School, Li Yan was holding a wine meeting, and the mouths of the soldiers of the three armies were not idle, eating three meals a day until they were full.

Yangping Pass was originally the place where the Hanzhong army stored grain. After Li Yan broke through the pass, the fleeing Hanzhong army had no time to destroy the grain, and all the hundreds of thousands of hu grains fell into Li Yan's hands.

Li Yan can be said to be a veritable big family for the food in Yangping Pass.

Therefore, when the Hanzhong Army in Nanzhengkou was living a miserable life with a daily limit, Li Yan's soldiers in Yangpingguan were full of wine and food every day.

What glory, what belief, all the beautiful slogans, are far less affordable than eating full.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Chu army, full of food and drink, thankful for the kindness of the king of Chu, with nowhere to vent their high morale, one after another generously asked for a fight, and wanted to use all their strength to kill the Hanzhong army, in order to repay Li Yan for their kindness. kindness.

Li Yan is well aware of the predicament of the Nanzheng Hanzhong Army, the high morale of his own army, and all the pros and cons.

Li Yan and his counselors felt that the time had come, and it was time to deal a fatal blow to Zhang Lu.

On the same day, Li Yan, Pang Tong, and the lieutenant general had a joint discussion and decided, so they wrote a letter of war in their own handwriting and sent it to Zhang Lu in Nanzheng.

It was a very arrogant letter of challenge to Zhang Lu.

In the letter of war, Li Yan satirized Zhang Lutuo, a general of the Han Dynasty, but actually a traitor of the Han Dynasty.

In the end, Li Yan directly ordered Zhang Lu to get out of Hanzhong as soon as possible, otherwise Li Yan would flatten the Hanzhong army and cut off Zhang Lu's head with his own hands.

The most "vulgar and rude" thing is that Li Yan also vowed to kill Zhang Lu and take all his wives and concubines including his wife Bian as his own after breaking Chang'an.

Zhang Lu, who watched this book, was so angry that his lungs almost exploded.

For many years in the world, Zhang Lu has never been scolded by any opponent, and even Yuan Shao once scolded him as "the curse of eunuch".

However, it was the first time for someone like Li Yan to openly declare that he wanted to occupy all of Zhang Lu's wives and concubines.

Zhang Lu, who likes to rob other wives and concubines the most in his life, is now facing the threat of his own wives and concubines being robbed. Such humiliation makes Zhang Lu more resentful than calling him a eunuch.

"Li Yan, the dog thief, how dare you be so ashamed, pass on the order, and tomorrow the three armies will come out, and the truth is, we will fight this lowly bastard to the death!"

In a rage, Zhang Lu tore Li Yan's letter of war to pieces, and angrily ordered a decisive battle.

All the civil and military men were overwhelmed by Zhang Lu's fury. They had followed Zhang Lu for so many years, and they had never seen Zhang Lu so angry before. At this moment, no one dared to speak out.

"Your Majesty, Li Yan refused to fight for a month, and today he challenged our army when the morale of our army was low. The general thought that if the king accepted the challenge, he would play into Li Yan's hands." Yang Shu didn't know Zhang Lu's temperament, so he went Sing the opposite tune.

Zhang Lu glared at him, and said angrily, "I have stationed troops in Nanzheng for many days in order to lure the Chu army to fight. Now he took the initiative to send them to my door, which is exactly what I want. If we don't fight now, why wait?" hour."

"Your Majesty—"

Yang Shu wanted to persuade him again, but Zhang Lu's face changed suddenly, and he waved his hands and shouted: "Yang Shu, you have repeatedly shaken the morale of the army, how can the truth tolerate you again, come here, put Yang Shu in the prison car, and wait for the truth Kill the Chu army and deal with you."

Zhang Lu, who was stimulated by Li Yan, was already a little dizzy, and Yang Shu, who was not good at grasping the leader's mind, happened to hit the muzzle of the gun.

The left and right relatives rushed forward and dragged the poplar out with a few strokes.

"Yang Shu is right. Li Yan knew that our army's morale was low, so he took the initiative to call for a fight. With the current situation, even if our army has the advantage of cavalry, the chances of winning are not much..."

Yan Pu sighed in his heart, and wanted to speak out to remonstrate, but seeing Zhang Lu's face full of anger and murder, he had no choice but to swallow the words.

Yan Pu didn't dare to speak out, let alone those civil and military personnel in front of the tent, everyone was afraid of offending Zhang Lu, although Yang Shu felt a little wronged, no one dared to intercede for him.

Looking coldly at Yang Shu being dragged away, Zhang Lu said angrily: "The truth is that the will to fight has been decided. If we don't destroy the Chu army, we vow not to stop fighting. Whoever dares to retreat and shake the morale of the army will use the same military law as Yang Shu." Discussion."

Under the power and influence, everyone was terrified.

Suppressing the intention of all the ministers to retreat, Zhang Lu immediately ordered to raise an army of [-] tomorrow to fight Li Yanjue to the death.The autumn wind is rustling, and the sky will be bright.

The east gate of Yangping Pass was wide open, and tens of thousands of soldiers of the Chu army lined up neatly, walking out of the pass in an orderly manner with firm steps.

Banners cover the sky, and swords and guns are like forests.

In the sky, [-] cavalry soldiers formed large and small army formations that stretched for miles, and marched towards Nanzheng.

The huge red flag with the word "Chu" stood tall, and all the soldiers of the three armies could clearly see it.

In front of the red flag, Li Yan was wearing black armor and holding a green dragon knife, his eyes were calm and majestic like a mountain.

On the left and right, the lieutenant general and Li Feng guarded the two sides. Gao Shun, Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, Zhang Jai and other fierce generals all came out of the battle, leading the battalions of soldiers and horses, and marched forward in a show of force.

Not long after the soldiers marched, a black wave slowly rose from the horizon ahead.

The sky full of banners, the fierce forest of swords, halberds and spears, and the countless Hanzhong soldiers slowly came into Li Yan's eyes. . .

The two armies advanced slowly, and stopped advancing in a tacit understanding at a distance of several miles.

Li Yan looked up at the formation of the Hanzhong Army. Although he couldn't see clearly, his keen perception enabled him to notice that although the formation of the Hanzhong Army was still in order, its morale was not very high.

An obvious sign is that a large part of the densely packed flag is slanted.

If the flag is tilted, it means that the soldiers are not strong enough and their fighting spirit is not high.

"The report from the scouts is really good. The Hanzhong army is short of food and grass, and the soldiers can't even eat enough. It's strange to have the energy to fight. Zhang Lu, do you really think that your soldiers are all iron men?" Li Yan sneered.

"Look, general, the Hanzhong army is behind the formation. There is dust rising, it seems that Zhang Lu hid the cavalry behind." The deputy general pointed at the enemy formation.

Without the lieutenant reminding, Li Yan had already observed it.