Great Han Empire

Chapter 753: A Storm of Troubled Heroes

Pingyuan County, Gaotang City.

Tian Kai looked at the letter in his hand in disbelief, then looked up at Guan Jing.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

Tian Kai handed the letter to Guan Jing, "Pingyuan City is empty."

"Is Pingyuan City empty?" Guan Jing's complexion changed, and he hurriedly read the letter carefully.

"Tian Yong and Zou Wu crossed the river smoothly, and then advanced forty miles to reach Pingyuan City, and now they found that Pingyuan City is an empty city." Tian Kai frowned and looked down at the map on the desk, "Could it be that Yuan Shao, Cao Cao The attack over there was successful, and Li Hong transferred the two armies of Wang Dang and Gao Shun to the central and western battlefields? Li Hong gave up the eastern battlefield? How is this possible?" Tian Kai said with a wry smile to himself. , "What does Li Hong want to do? Lure the enemy to go deep?"

"Advanced Pingyuan City." Guan Jing put down the letter, "At present, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Liu Biao, and Liu Bei have not sent any news. We don't know the development of the entire battle situation, so we have no way of guessing Hebei's real intention to abandon Pingyuan City."

"However, if we fall for the trick, Pingyuan City may be surrounded overnight by the Northern Xinjiang Army." Tian Kai hesitated, "According to our information, there are 2 troops from Wang Dang and Gao Shun on the opposite side of us, and Li The 5000 cavalry and [-] troops can completely stop us at Pingyuan City, and there is no need for them to abandon Pingyuan City."

"Indeed." Guan Jing nodded again and again, "According to the planned attack strategy, the main attack direction of the Northern Expedition Army is Yuan Shao's west road and Cao Cao's middle road. Our east road attack is only to contain the 5000 troops of the Northern Xinjiang Army Don't allow these 5000 troops to support the two battlefields in China and the West. If this intention is to be exposed, it should be within five to ten days after the attack begins, not now. Now that Liu Bei's army has just crossed the river, Li Hong will not It is possible that Liu Bei's Xuzhou army participated in the attack in the middle, that is to say, the 5000 troops must still be in Pingyuan County."

"However, I think it's better to take the opportunity to take Pingyuan City. No matter what tricks Hebei plays, after ten days, our attack direction will be completely exposed. Li Hong will definitely draw troops from the warships in the east. Attacking, retreating and defending, it is absolutely possible to firmly contain the [-] northern troops."

Tian Kai thought for a long time, but still did not agree, "Don't take any risks. If Li Hong's goal is to eat us, then after we are besieged in Pingyuan City, the Northern Border Army may invest more troops in the eastern battlefield. Once he kills us Eat it up, and turn around to fight Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, it will be much easier."

Guan Jing didn't insist.The northern border army is not an army that will be defeated in one hit, and they must have intentions to abandon Pingyuan City.

"The book tells Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Liu Biao and Liu Bei, please rest assured that we are attacking Pingyuan City." Tian Kai said, "Please tell us the battle situation as soon as possible."

=

At the end of May, in Handan, the general went to the palace.

Sima Fugan is reporting the battle situation in the past ten days in detail.

=

On the West Road battlefield, the right general Zhang Yan, Long Xiang general Zhao Yun, Li Feng general Jiang Wu, and Fenwu general Lu Bu led [-] northern troops to block Yuan Shao's Henan army, Liu Biao's Jingzhou army, Zhang Yang's Hanoi army, and Yuan Wei's Yuzhou army. military.

Yuan Shao's generals Han Qiong, Zhu Ling, and Tao Sheng led an army of [-] to attack Liyang. Currently, the [-] army of Lieutenant Yu Du, the middle base lieutenant, pinned down Liyang City and failed to advance an inch.

Yuan Shao personally led Yuan Wei, Gao Gan, Gao Rou, Yuan Zhong and his generals Ma Teng, Pan Feng, Zhao Fu and other [-] troops to attack and cross the river from Changshoujin and Puyangjin in the direction of Puyang. The [-] troops including Lieutenant Qin Yi, Lieutenant Kuyi of Tunqi, Lieutenant Mustafa of Changshui, Lieutenant Jifeng of Huqi, and other [-] troops blocked them.Yuan Shao is still in Puyang, and his army failed to gain a foothold on the north bank of the Yellow River.

Liu Biao's 400 Jingzhou troops crossed the river from the direction of Muniudu and entered Hemu City, while Captain Huben Zhang Zhen blocked the attack from the direction of Dunqiu and Weiguo City.Due to the successful raid of Changshui Camp in Pengting, the Jingzhou Army lost more than [-] people and hastily withdrew to Hemu City. So far, there has been no sign of attacking Northward again.

Han Hao of the Hanoi Army led 1 troops to attack Neihuang City.General Zhang Yan originally planned to let infantry captain Chen Jian and Huqi captain Jifeng ambush Han Hao in the Inner Yellow River, but because General Lu Bu and Shesheng captain Chang Gong failed to restrain Zhang Yang, Zhang Yang retreated rapidly, resulting in the attack. The ambush failed.However, Master Chen Jian still killed 300 people on the south bank of the Inner Yellow River.

With the efforts of General Lu Bu, Zhang Yang, the prefect of Hanoi, led an army of [-] to stop at Fengting on the Huan (Huan) River, and finally met with General Lu Bu.Although Zhang Yang didn't make any promises, he obviously couldn't refuse General Lu Bu's request, so Zhang Yang won't take the initiative to attack us in the near future.Of course, if Yuan Shao's army reached Neihuang and Fanyang, Zhang Yang would have no excuse, and his army would join the attack immediately.

=

On the middle battlefield, General Qu Yi of the Left leads General Wei Jun of Xiangwu, Liu Ming of Right Wise, Zhang Yun of Mighty, General Gao Lan of Wu Yi, General Wen Chou of Wu Lie, General Xu Huang of Wu Rui and Zhonglang an army of [-] cavalry against Cao Cao. Liu Bei's Yanzhou Army and Liu Bei's Xuzhou Army.

Cao Cao's [-] troops crossed the river from the direction of Cangting, and are currently fighting fierce battles with Wei Jun, Liu Ming, Gao Lan, Xu Huang and other [-] troops in Dongwuyang and Yangping.Cao Cao's army was blocked under Dongwuyang and Yangping cities, and has not been able to break through so far.

Liu Bei's [-] troops crossed the river from Chi (chi) to Pingjin, and directly attacked Liaocheng. Zhang He and Wen Chou led their troops to block the attack by relying on the Luoshui River. The two sides are still fighting fiercely.

=

On the East Road battlefield, General Hu Lie Yan Liang led Xiaoqi General Wang Dang, Zhechong Zhonglang General Gao Shun, Yangwei Zhonglang General Zhang Liao, Wufeng Zhonglang General Li Su, and Heiling King Loulu [-] troops to face Tian Kai's army. [-] Qingzhou Army.

At present, there has been no fighting on the East Road battlefield.

=

Judging from the ten-day war, the rebels mobilized a total of 16 troops from seven states. If the Yangzhou Yuan Shu army who was in charge of transporting grain and grass in the Central Plains is added, the total strength of the rebels is about 18 troops.We have invested 14 troops, and we are at a slight disadvantage in terms of military strength.

The rebels adopted a seven-way simultaneous attack on the three battlefields, which was quite different from our previous expectations.

We originally thought that the rebels would concentrate their main forces on the two wings and adopt the strategy of several lines of simultaneous attack, so as to attract us to put our troops into the battlefield on the two wings, so as to cover Cao Cao in the middle and enter the Ganling Kingdom as quickly as possible, destroying our overall Defense, so we put the main force on the two wings of the battlefield, intending to beat Yuan Shao on the west road, and lure the enemy to deeply injure Tian Kai and Liu Bei on the east road, forcing Cao Cao's attack in the middle road to be uncovered and had to give up halfway.

But now the rebels are focusing their attack on the middle battlefield, and they are still the first to attack, which surprised us very much.In addition, their practice of deploying heavy troops on the west road and only placing Tian Kai and a Qingzhou army on the east road is also a good way to contain our troops.

At present, on the middle battlefield, we have an army of [-], of which [-] infantry were recruited after the implementation of the recruit system last year, and their combat effectiveness is not strong, while the [-] troops of Cao Cao and Liu Bei are leftovers after several years of successive battles. the elite.Although the army on the middle battlefield is relying on the strong city to hold on tenaciously, it is meaningless to fight like this. Firstly, our losses are too great, and secondly, we will not be able to achieve the goal of annihilating the enemy.

On the West Road battlefield, we also have an army of 5. Although we are all elite divisions of the Northern Xinjiang Army, facing the crazy attack of Yuan Shao and Liu Biao's [-] troops, the loss is equally astonishing over time, and if the [-] people lose If it is too big, it will have too much impact on the imperial court's plan to calm the world in the future, so we have to choose to retreat at the right time.

We have 5000 people on the East Road battlefield, and we voluntarily abandoned Pingyuan City. We originally planned to lead Tian Kai and Liu Bei's army to Nanpi City to encircle and wipe them out, but it seems impossible now. Liu Bei joined the attack on the Middle Road Battlefield , and Tian Kai's troops were weak, not only did he not go north, he didn't even enter Pingyuan City, which was really helpless.

Because we made many mistakes in our early estimates, as a result, we also made many mistakes in the deployment of troops. We put the strongest troops against the strongest rebel forces, and placed the weakest troops on the middle road where the rebel strength is centered. , So now there is a very passive situation on the three battlefields.

=

Seeing that Fu Gan had finished speaking, Li Hong turned his attention to Jia Xu.Since Yu Peng left, Jia Xu has been in charge of the history of the two prefects as a general of the right middle man.

Li Hong has never been familiar with him, but he heard Li Wei talk about him very early on.Back then Dong Zhuo had three very talented people, Changshi Liu Ai, Sima Tianyi and Jia Xu.Liu Ai and Tian Yi died one after another, but Jia Xu was lucky enough to go to northern Xinjiang with the emperor.Jia Xu is an old official of Dong Zhuo, and has a very close relationship with Li Jue and others, so when he arrived in Jinyang, he received a cold reception immediately, but Li Wei valued him very much, and repeatedly asked the eldest princess and Li Wei Hiroshi recommended.This is why Jia Xu first became Shangshu Youpushe.

After Yu Peng left this time, Li Hong originally planned to let Tian Chou take over as the governor of the two prefectures, but Li Wei urgently wrote to Li Hong and strongly recommended Jia Xu.Li Hong was a little unhappy about this.

What Yu Peng said that day shocked Li Hong a lot, so he not only accepted Yu Peng's request and sent Yu Peng to the desert, but also transferred Shang Shu Zuo Pu She Zhu Mu from the court, and asked him to replace Tian Yu as the post. The prefect of Hanbei County actually weakened Li Wei's power in disguise, making it easier for the forces in northern Xinjiang to be controlled by him.Even the big officials in northern Xinjiang have violated their own words, so what will happen in the future?
He transferred Tian Yu to Taiyuan as the prefect, implying that Li Wei wanted to balance the civil servant faction in northern Xinjiang and promote a group of scholars from Youzhou.For this reason, he also wrote to the eldest princess, saying that Taiyuan County is now equivalent to Jing Zhaoyin and Henan Yin in the past.The eldest princess thought that Tian Yu had stayed in the desert for eight years and managed Hanbei County very well, so he deserved this reward, so she agreed without hesitation.

Ordinarily, Li Wei should be able to understand Li Hong's thoughts. At this time, it is really inappropriate for him to recommend Jia Xu as the head of the two prefectures, and it is even more inappropriate for Li Hong to let Tian Chou come back.The relationship between Li Hong and Tian Chou is too close, especially when it involves his wife Xiao Yu and Tian Zhong who died in the battle, so in Li Hong's heart, Tian Chou is his younger brother, and Fu Gan, the son of Master Fu Xie, is his other younger brother. Everyone in Hebei knows this.Therefore, Li Wei's actions will make people feel that he is deliberately cultivating his own power.

Li Hong called Tian Chou, showed him Li Wei's letter, and asked for his opinion.Tian Chou smiled slightly after reading the letter.General, Brother Zhong Yuan is not recommending Lord Jia, but to show you his heart.At this time, apart from him, who would dare to recommend to you a senior official outside of Beijiang as the history of the two governors?Li Hong said, this is what makes me unhappy.Why did I play the princess to transfer Zhu Mu and Yu Peng away from the court?I just want to warn him, tell him to restrain himself a bit, don't like to make his own decisions in everything, it's not good for him.Now that he is the chief minister, sometimes I can still talk about him. In the future, he will be the Sangong, what else can I say about him?If he doesn't change his self-righteous personality, he will suffer sooner or later.

Tian Chou smiled and said, I have time to persuade him privately.However, I also agree that Mr. Jia is also in charge of the governors of the two prefectures. This can make the former Chang'an officials feel safe and make them trust the general more.

Li Hong saw that Tian Chou had no objection, so he asked Jia Xu to also lead the history of the two prefects.If this battle can be won, it is conceivable that Shi, the head of the two prefectures who directly assists the general, will make a great contribution.For this, Jia Xu is very grateful to the general for his trust.

=

Jia Xu is old, doesn't speak much, is humble and cautious, and lives indifferently. After getting along with him for a few days, Li Hong likes his aloof personality very much. He often chats with him and talks about the past in Xiliang. .

"What does Mr. Jia think of the situation in front of you?"

Jia Xu cupped his hands and said: "Before the war, we had a three-step strategy. The first step was to block, the second step was to delay, and the third step was to wipe out the enemy with cameras. At present, although the battle situation is not what we expected It went so smoothly, but basically it was still within the controllable range. This little passivity in front of me didn't actually have a big impact on the overall situation. Compared with the rebels, they were more passive, because Cao Cao on the middle battlefield was still Without winning Tobu Yang and Yang Ping, they are still far, far away from their goals."

"The key now is how to change from passive to active. In addition to proper adjustments in the deployment of troops, it is also very important to preserve strength. It is really not worthwhile for us to invest our limited troops in such unnecessary consumption."

"Let them in now?" Li Hong shook his head. "It's too early to let them in now. For the people of Jizhou, the fact that the rebels have reached the front line of Qinghe so quickly shows that the rebels are very powerful and can easily cause them to panic. I It is difficult to ensure that there will be no problems in the rear. From the perspective of the imperial court, I would rather sacrifice the lives of some soldiers than to scare innocent people and even cause a wave of fleeing. I must let the people feel that Jizhou is safe."

Jia Xu was silent for a while, then pointed to the map and said: "Then put Cao Cao in Ganling City, so that the rebels' intentions can be partially realized, so that Yuan Shao's attack will be weakened, and the loss of the Northern Army on the West Road battlefield will be reduced." decrease very much."

The target of the rebels' attack was the central part of Jizhou. After taking down the Xindu City of Anping State, they basically took over half of Jizhou. to support each other.Let us put Cao Cao into Ganling State first, which is equivalent to disrupting the distance between the three rebels, so our opportunity has come.

After Cao Cao entered the Ganling Kingdom, he entered into a stalemate with us.At this time, in order to continue going north, he must get the cooperation of the left and right wings, and he will constantly urge Yuan Shao to attack Yecheng.At the same time, in order to stop Cao Cao, we must deploy troops from the east road to support the battlefield in the middle road.

As long as our reinforcements arrive at Ganling, and Yuan Shao has already approached Yecheng, Cao Cao will definitely divide his troops to support Tian Kai under such a surefire situation, and let Tian Kai take advantage of the weak strength of the East Road battlefield to attack the south. Skin.

The opportunity to annihilate the enemy lies in this mobilization, and our current passive force has thus been transformed into a strategy to lure the enemy.

=

Li Hong, Tian Chou, Fu Gan, Sima Yi, Chen Qun, Yuan Huan and others had already understood Jia Xu's meaning and couldn't help nodding their heads.

"It seems that in order to stabilize people's hearts, my great general, Xingyuan, is going to move to Ganling Kingdom." Li Hong said with a smile.

"If the general is willing to rush to the Ganling Kingdom to command, then we will be more accurate in grasping the opportunity, and the chances of winning this battle will be greater." Jia Xu said with a smile, "Yuan Shu's non-existent thing is not Reliable, if there is, we can take advantage of it, if not, it is a trap, we can't give up, we have to take advantage of Yuan Shu's opportunity in the Central Plains, make this matter real, let Cao Cao believe it when the time is right, Let him make mistakes while taking care of one thing and lose another, and it will be difficult for him to be undefeated."

Li Hong couldn't help laughing when he thought of Yuan Shu's embarrassment. Thinking about it, I'm really sorry for him."

Tian Chou laughed.Sima Yi approached Tian Chou curiously and asked, "Brother Zitai, what did Yuan Shu ask you to say?"

"Yuan Shu said that state affairs are deceitful, which is the same as the cunning of soldiers." Tian Chou said with a smile, "This time, whether Yuan Shu is deceiving us or not, let's deceive him first."

Sima Yi's eyes lit up, "Since we can use this trick on Yuan Shu, why can't we use it on Yuan Shao?"

Li Hong looked at him, then at Jia Xu.Jia Xu's face darkened, he glanced at Sima Yi from the corner of his eyes, and sighed softly.

"Master Xu Rong and Ma Teng have been friends for many years. He is an upright person, so he may not agree." Tian Chou patted Sima Yi lightly, and said in a low voice, "Many generals over there, including General Pang De, are more or less the same as Ma Teng. It doesn't matter. If they know that the general did it on purpose, it will be bad for the general. In addition, Zhang Yang is an old friend of General Lu Bu. They are brothers in life and death. If we kill Zhang Yang on the battlefield, General Lu Bu can understand, but To kill him in this way, I am afraid..."

Fu Gan stood up suddenly, and said with a very resolute look: "General, I'm going to Hedong."

"No." Li Hong refused straight away.

"General..." Fu Gan knelt down abruptly, "I must go..."

"Your father died on the battlefield. If you want to kill Ma Teng, you have to kill him on the battlefield." Li Hong shook his head and gave him a hand, "If I let you go to Hedong, your father will be under Jiuquan." So ashamed."

Fu Gan gritted his teeth and said loudly: "Then I will go to Changshui Camp or Huqi Camp, and I will kill him on the battlefield."

"No." Li Hong refused again.

"General..." Fu Qianjun blushed, his eyes were wide open, "Why not? Why can't I become an iron knight?"

"No, unless I die." Li Hong said angrily.

Fu Gan was so angry that he turned around and ran out.Tian Chou gave Sima Yi a wink, and Sima Yi chased after him.

"General, if Marquis Zhuangjie knows that you dote on Yancai (Fu Gan) like this, he may not be happy." Jia Xu hesitated for a long time, but couldn't help but gently persuade him.

"I owe Master Fu too much." Li Hong shook his hand and said sadly, "Maybe I have been on the battlefield for a long time, maybe my brothers died too much, and now I don't want to hear familiar people among the names of those killed in battle. , I am not as strong as I used to be."

Jia Xu, Tian Chou and others looked at each other speechlessly.

=

In early June, Tobuyang.

The fire on the city wall was still burning, the banners were still flying in the air, and the colorful battle flags were still dancing in the wind, but the soldiers of the Northern Xinjiang Army had already started to retreat.

The stick was covered in blood, lying on the corner of the city wall and crying loudly, "Why do you want to leave? We are not defeated, why are we retreating?"

"You kid still let people live?" Huang Tongyi kicked him on the leg and scolded angrily, "Military orders are like mountains, and military laws are ruthless. Do you know that? You violated military discipline and beheaded alone, but it's just as big as a bowl Scars, but if all of us in the same team accompany you to behead, there are dozens of scars.”

"I won't leave." Stick cried sadly, "One hundred people from the village came out together, and now there are only 64 people left. I want revenge, and I won't leave."

"Stinky boy, do you want your aunt to be a widow and your little brother to have no father?" Huang Tong became impatient and wanted to kick him again.

Dahei, who was standing by the side, hurried to pull him back, "Forget it, forget it, he is still a child, if he fights a few more battles and kills a lot of people, he will look away."

"What are you doing? Beating the soldiers?" A majestic voice suddenly sounded from behind the two.

Huang Tong was startled, and hurriedly looked back.Lei Zhong was looking at him with a grin. Beside Lei Zhong stood a tall, burly, majestic man, who could be seen as a big man.It was he who spoke just now.

"My lord..." Huang Tong and Da Hei hurriedly knelt down and saluted.

"Get up, get up..." Lei Zhong waved his hand, "This is Mr. Zuo General Qu."

The two felt dizzy and wanted to kneel down again to salute.Qu Yi whipped his horsewhip in his hand, and said loudly, "Forget it. What's the matter with that kid? Why are you crying? You don't cry when you're fighting, and you cry when you're not fighting. It's interesting."

Stick was too frightened to cry when he heard the word "General Zuo".He always thought that the biggest official he saw was Wei Lie Zhonglang General Lei Chong, but he didn't expect to see another general today, and it was General Zuo who couldn't be bigger.He even forgot to kneel down and salute.

"My lord, our team lost a lot when we evacuated the river embankment. During the period of defending the city, more than a dozen brothers died. All of them are from the village..." Huang Tong said a few words, his nose sore , can't go on.

"Hmph..." Qu Yi snorted coldly, "Butcher Cao won't live for a few days. He killed too many people, and God won't spare him."

"Quickly withdraw." Lei Zhong stretched out his hand to touch Stick's head, "We'll kill him when we get to Dahe Gudu."

"We withdrew to Dahe Gudu?" Huang Tong raised his leg in surprise and kicked the stick again, "Go, go, that's a good place to kill people, haha..."

=

In June, Changshoujin.

Accompanied by Tian Feng, Guo Tu, Yuan Wei, Ma Teng and others, Yuan Shao rushed to Changshoujin Ferry.

There were pools of dried blood everywhere on the embankment, and the strong smell of blood made people dizzy and unbearable.

Three miles in front of the ferry is a high slope. On this high slope, the Northern Xinjiang Army set up Juma and Luzhai, dug several deep and wide ditches, and set up hundreds of crossbows and dozens of stone cannons. .The 2000 Yuzhou Army fought here for more than ten days, but left nothing but more than [-] corpses.

"The Yellow Turban bandits from Montenegro are more cunning than foxes. After getting the weapons from Northern Xinjiang, their strength has doubled. It's too difficult to fight." Yuan Wei sighed in frustration, helpless.

"Now the direction of Liyang is blocked by Yu Du, the direction of Puyangjin is blocked by Qin Yi, the direction of Neihuang is blocked by Chen Jian, the direction of Yecheng is blocked by Lu Bu, and here is another bitter chieftain. He hoped that Liu Biao, who was in the direction of Hemucheng, would open up the situation, but in the end, after he was attacked by the Northern Xinjiang cavalry and killed more than 2000 people, he refused to go north alone, saying that the soldiers were not acclimatized, and it was difficult to continue." Yuan Shao complained dissatisfied. Said, "Cao Cao has captured Dongwuyang and Yangping, and is about to launch an attack on Ganling. We are still on the embankment of the Yellow River, shame on us."

"If Zhang Yang can make a breakthrough in the direction of Neihuang or Yecheng, we will be able to make great strides northward." Guo Tu said regretfully, "It's a pity that he is still wandering around Montenegro, I don't know how he fought this battle? "

"Send someone to remind you again." Yuan Shao thought for a while, then pointed to Guo Tu and said, "Gongze, you should go to Montenegro yourself."

"My lord, I heard that Zhang Yang and Lu Bu met secretly once." Gao Gan whispered.

Yuan Shao was taken aback, and turned to look at him, "Where did the news come from?"

"Zhang Yang's subordinate Yang Chou said it." Gao Gan leaned closer to his ear and said, "He has a good relationship with my subordinate Xia Zhao, and he entrusted someone to bring this news to Xia Zhao."

"Where is Xia Zhao? Tell him to come see me immediately."

=

(End of this chapter)