Great Han Empire

Chapter 767: A Storm of Troubled Heroes

After reading Qu Yi's and Tian Chou's letters, Li Hong hurriedly summoned Jia Xu, Chen Qun, Yuan Huan and Sima Yi to discuss matters.

The rebels suddenly went west, disrupting the planned deployment, and it was impossible to encircle and annihilate the rebels under the city of Ganling. Strategies suddenly became easier.However, this kind of ease is only in the imagination. In fact, the hope of the northern army to encircle and wipe out Cao Cao has become very slim.

After Qu Yi discovered that the rebels were retreating westward, he immediately ordered Wang Dang and Xu Huang to go south to Qingyuan and Guantao to stop them. However, Wang Dang and Xu Huang were about [-] miles away from Qingyuan and Guantao. There is a Qing River, and the rebels have already crossed the Qing River, only about two hundred miles away from Qingyuan and Guantao.Whether Wang Dang and Xu Huang can rush to Qingyuan and Guantao to stop the rebels before the rebels will immediately become the key to encircling Cao Cao's rebels.

If you can't encircle Cao Cao and let Cao Cao and Yuan Shao join forces, all strategies will be useless.

"Where are Yan Liang's various armies now?" Li Hong was also anxious.Cao Cao's move was far beyond his expectations and caught him off guard.

"According to the latest news, General Yan Liang's army has all crossed the Jiangshui River." Sima Fugan pointed to the map and explained to Li Hong one by one.

General Yan Liang, Zhang He, Zhang Liao and Gao Lan's [-] troops are rushing to Guting.Zhang Zhen and Qin Yi's two battalions of the Northern Army, and Lou Lu and Lu Huanyang's Karasuma cavalry with a total of [-] cavalry were rushing to Dongwu.Gao Shun's [-] troops are rushing to Panhe.Lu Bu led Mustafa and Jifeng's two battalions of [-] cavalry to search for the Jingzhou army south along the Dahe Gudu.If nothing else happened, Zhao Yun, Jiang Wu, Wei Jun, Liu Ming, Li Su and Gongsun Xu's [-] cavalry had already reached Luting and were about to attack Ganling.

In terms of distance, the nearest to the rebels is General Zhao Yun's iron cavalry.The second is General Wen Chou's [-] infantry army. Now General Wen Chou has rushed to Qinghe and is preparing to cross the river to pursue.The distance between Zhang Zhen and other troops who first crossed the Jiangshui River and the rebels is more than three hundred miles, so there is no hope at all.

Although General Zhao Yun is the closest to the rebels, he is the furthest away from us. It is difficult for us to contact him in a short time.If he can fight from the direction of Yuancheng to between Guantao and Weicheng before the rebels, we can ensure the encirclement of Cao Cao.

Weicheng is about two hundred miles away from Yecheng, and Yuan Shao's army will be able to kill it soon.In order to cut off all the retreat routes of the rebels, General Zhao Yun's iron cavalry must divide his troops to garrison Ganling, Fagan and Yuancheng. In this way, the troops he can invest in Guantao and Weicheng to stop the rebels are very limited.

=

"General, I don't want to think about whether we can wipe out the rebels. Let's find a way to stop Cao Cao and Yuan Shao from reuniting." Jia Xu smiled wryly and shook his head, "Although Qu Yi and Tian Chou's methods are good, they don't know Yan Liang The positions of the general's various ministries. However, fortunately, the two masters, Ko Yi and Tian Chou, were able to make a decisive decision and were willing to be charged with violating orders and commanding beyond their authority, which bought us a lot of time."

"Do you think it is impossible for Wang Dang and Xu Huang to rush to Qingyuan and Guantao before the rebels?" Li Hong asked.

"It's impossible for them to get ahead of the rebels." Jia Xu's tone was very firm. "They still have to cross a clear river, which will take too much time. We can only count on General Zhao Yun."

Li Hong thought for a while, pointed at Sima Yi and said, "Give general Zhao Yun an order, please don't attack Ganling for the time being, and go straight to Guantao and Weicheng to cut off the retreat of the rebels."

"All the troops?" Sima Yi asked hastily.

"All the troops, all [-] cavalry will go over." Li Hong waved his hand and said, "Send more people to find him, no matter what, we must find him as quickly as possible. In addition, tell him that all the troops on the battlefield in Jizhou are now being punished." General command."

Sima Yi turned around and ran out of the tent.

"Tell this news to Yan Liang and Zhang Yan as well." Li Hong turned his head and said to Chen Qun, "No matter how urgent you are to write to Master Qu Yi, I agree with his and Tian Chou's strategy of annihilating the enemy. He commands."

"Order Yan Liang, please throw away all his belongings, and take all the troops to Qingyuan and Guantao to encircle Cao Cao. He must arrive at the battlefield within two days." Li Hong paused for a moment, and then added, "Tell Yan Liang, It was the last order I gave him, and General Qu Yi will give him orders from now on."

"General, the [-] Jingzhou troops who escaped from the Dongguang battlefield..." Yuan Huan asked in a low voice, "Let them flee?"

"Let them flee and leave them alone." Li Hong laughed, "If this battle can completely annihilate the rebels, including Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, what's the use of these 1 people?"

=

Li Hong, Jia Xu and others discussed some details, and then Jia Xu drafted a memorial and reported it to the court urgently.

Li Hong also urgently ordered Zuo Zhonglang General Zhong Yao, Bohai County Prefect Song Wen, Hejian State Minister Weizheng, Anping State Minister Zhen Yan, Ganling State Minister Xu Hun, Wei County Prefect Ding Li and others to organize more immediately. Many people went south to help the army transport food and supplies.

=

In the ninth month, Ganling Kingdom, ten miles southeast of Yimu City.

Lu Bu's iron cavalry caught up with the fleeing Jingzhou army.

Seeing the billowing smoke and dust flying in mid-air behind them, and hearing the majestic sound of horns in the wind, the generals of the Jingzhou Army were so frightened that their livers and gallbladders were torn apart, their souls were scattered, and their escape speed suddenly accelerated.

"Run to the southeast, to the southeast..." Xiahou Dun galloped on his horse, roaring non-stop, trying to prevent the army from collapsing.Five miles to the southeast is Dahe Gudu. The terrain here is uneven, which can effectively block the impact of cavalry.

"Master Xiahou, how far are we from Pingyuan City?" Wen Pin watched his personal guards holding up bloody sabers to kill the fleeing soldiers, feeling extremely distressed.

"There are still sixty miles." Xiahou Dun reined in his horse and stopped, looking back at the approaching Northern Xinjiang cavalry with a look of despair, "Master Wen, if we don't give up this army, none of us will be able to escape."

The war horse that Wenpin sat on restlessly raised its neck and neighed repeatedly, as if feeling the bloody and murderous roar coming.

"You go." Wenpin shouted loudly, "Since I brought them to Hebei, I will bring them back. If I die, I will die with them."

Xiahou Dun's face turned red, he was ashamed and speechless, turned around and rode away.

=

The northern Xinjiang iron cavalry roared like a tide, the deafening killing sound and the huge roar of thousands of galloping horses broke through the smoke and dust covering the sky, and went straight to the sky.

Like clouds and arrows screaming with horror, black clouds moving at high speed in the sky are like bloodthirsty beasts with teeth and claws, scrambling to rush into the Jingzhou army.The soldiers of the Jingzhou army rushed to the hogs, and their screams soared to the sky in an instant.War knives are flying in the air, spears are like poisonous snakes spitting out letters, cold weapons wantonly nibble away the fresh life, the sky is dotted with bloody flowers, the hot battlefield is dotted, fear and hatred are sprinkled all over this summer. Sky.

=

Mustafa roared, and a spear pierced through the enemy's body. Before he could straighten up, he saw a long arrow screaming from the corner of his eye.Terrified, Mustafa threw away his spear, and fell to his horse with all his strength.

With a sound of "咻", the long arrow flew out while rubbing against his neck.

When Huang Zhong saw his long arrow shooting into the air, he roared angrily, and the horse came flying towards him.Mustafa fell so badly that he tried to stand up unsteadily, but a roaring saber had already struck him with thunder.

Mustafa screamed, unable to hide, and instinctively closed his eyes.

"When..." There was an explosion, and a long halberd came across the sky, and it blocked Huang Zhong's inevitable knife, "Kill..." Lu Bu roared wildly, and drew the knife with his left hand, at an unimaginable speed A knife chopped on Huang Zhong's shoulder blade.

Blood spurted out, Huang Zhong let out a miserable snort, and dropped his saber, just at this moment his horse was shot by a stray arrow, the horse hissed in pain, its hooves flew like flying, and galloped away with him on its back.

Mustafa opened his eyes suddenly, and touched his head with lingering fear.

"Go..." Lu Bu yelled at him.

Mustafa understood, and grabbed the halberd.Swinging the halberd, Mustafa's vigorous body rose into the air and landed firmly behind Lu Bu.

=

Lu Bule stopped his roaring horse, and stretched out his big blood-stained hand to accept the documents sent by Kuaiqi.Yan Liang ordered him to give up chasing and killing the Jingzhou army, and hurried to the Ganling Congress to join the main force.

Lu Bu cursed angrily, wiped the sweat off his face out of breath, and looked up at the battlefield.

On the river bed in the distance, soldiers from both sides are fighting fiercely.On the river embankment a few hundred paces away, several officers of the Jingzhou Army were ordering the soldiers who had fled to the other bank to quickly line up, preparing for a final fight, but few of them seemed to stop. They all ran away like madmen.He looked back again.From behind his horse to the horizon, there are dilapidated corpses and discarded ordnance flags everywhere. A dozen war horses that have lost their owners are standing among the corpses, waiting for something alone.

After chasing and killing all the way to the present, the three or four miles long road is covered with the corpses of the enemy. There are not many left of the ten thousand Jingzhou army, and they can withdraw.

Lu Bu thrust the halberd into the ground hard, escaped from the water bag from the leather pouch next to the horse's belly, raised his head and took a sip of water, then slowly spit on the ground.

"Send the order, Ming Jin...withdrew from the battlefield..."

=

In the ninth month, Ganling State, fifteen miles southwest of Ganling City.

Zhao Yun took Qu Yi's order and walked up and down on the grass.Jiang Wu, Wei Jun and others stood beside him, watching him quietly, without speaking.

"Can scouts be rewarded?"

Jiang Wu shook her head, "Zi Ni (Li Su) went to investigate in person, he must be convinced, don't worry. He was born as a scout, so he can't make mistakes."

Zhao Yunjian frowned and was very anxious, "If the rebels are indeed retreating westward, we should follow Master Qu's order and move Fagan and Yuancheng south to completely cut off the rebels' retreat."

"Have you decided?" Wei Jun said worriedly, "Although there is Zitai (Tian Chou)'s seal on it, you have to know that once we go south to attack Fagan and Yuancheng, it is tantamount to disobeying General Hutou's military orders. , if this matter is pursued..."

Zhao Yun sighed, "Master Qu wouldn't do this if it wasn't urgent."

"Zilong, just to be prudent, wait a little longer." Liu Ming persuaded in a low voice, "If the rebels retreat westward to lure us away from Ganling City, after we leave, they will turn around and head south from Ganling. If we retreat in the same direction, our guilt will be great."

After hesitating for a long time, Zhao Yun waved his hand decisively, "I believe in Master Qu. Zifeng (Jiang Wu), Huzi (Wei Jun), and Qiansi (Liu Ming), you three will lead the army south immediately."

"Send it first, or attack Yuancheng first?" Seeing that Zhao Yun had already made a decision, Jiang Wu asked the army's target directly without further persuasion.

Zhao Yun turned to look at the guards standing not far away.Several personal guards hurried over with the map and spread it on the ground.

"Master Qu said that the purpose of the rebels retreating westward was to join Yuan Shao. Because they were retreating too fast, we were caught off guard and had no troops to stop them. Although Wang Dang and Xu Huang are rushing to the front line of Qingyuan and Guantao , but they are too far away from Qingyuan and Guantao, and I am afraid it will be too late, so after you go south, go directly northwest to the line between Guantao and Weicheng, cutting off the way for the rebels to retreat westward."

"Then Fagan and Yuancheng will stop fighting?" Liu Ming asked.

"I'll fight." Zhao Yun said, "We are iron cavalry, and we don't have siege equipment. We say that we are attacking the city, but we are actually encircling the city and cutting off the connection between the inside and the outside of the city, so there is no big difference between the number of people and the number of people."

=

"Zilong, if the rebels are retreating westward, then we are only more than 100 miles away from the rebels at most. Why can't we just kill them and why do we have to go around Guantao to stop them?" Wei Jun looked at the map carefully, a little asked suspiciously.

"There are more than 5 rebels. If we attack directly from the flank, not only will we not be able to defeat the rebels, but it will make the rebels withdraw faster. If the rebels withdraw quickly, the time to join Yuan Shao will be brought forward. That way Come on, we will completely lose the opportunity to encircle and wipe out the rebels." Zhao Yun explained, "Our purpose of this battle is not to drive out the rebels, but to severely injure the rebels, to beat Yuan Shao, Cao De, Liu Biao and others to death , so that after we regain our energy, the difficulty for us to go south to pacify the world will be greatly reduced. If we just drive them away and the rebels still have strength, then when we go south to quell the rebellion in a year or two, the difficulty will be extremely high. One can imagine."

Jiang Wu, Wei Jun, Liu Ming and others nodded repeatedly.

"Does the general still want to eat Yuan Shao?" Gongsun Xu said slightly surprised.

"The main thing is to fight Yuan Shao." Zhao Yun said, "Yuan Shao is the most powerful. If he can be wiped out, not only will the war continue in the Central Plains, but Guanzhong and Guandong will also be in danger."

"But Yuan Shaoyuan is in Yecheng, and we surrounded Cao Cao, so he will definitely run away." Gongsun Xu asked puzzledly, "Could it be that after we surrounded Cao Cao, that idiot Yuan Shao would seek his own death to save Cao Cao?"

Zhao Yun thought for a while, then smiled, "We have surrounded Cao Cao, no one knows whether Yuan Shao will come to rescue him or not. This is how wars are like, it is impossible to be exhaustive, we can only take one step at a time."

"Haha..." Jiang Wu reached out and patted Zhao Yun, "You are too greedy. In fact, even if Yuan Shao ran away, we could still eat Cao Cao's rebel army, plus the tens of thousands of people we wiped out in Dongguang, The record has been brilliant.”

Zhao Yun laughed loudly, "Indeed, indeed, I am too greedy. Alright, three adults go first, and I will tell you as soon as I have news."

=

In the ninth month, Ganling State, five miles southwest of Dongwu City.

On the vast plain, several armies are marching rapidly.

At the forefront are the two battalions of the Northern Army of Zhang Zhen and Qin Yi.On their two wings, Lou Lu and Lu Huanyang each galloped with an iron cavalry, and the rolled up dust floated in mid-air, like a soaring eagle spreading its huge wings.

Twenty miles behind them, the armies of Zhang Yun, Zhang Liao and Gao Lan were advancing side by side.

Immediately behind the army were 10,000+ civilian husbands, and thousands of horse-drawn carts were galloping on the road carrying food and supplies.On both sides of the road, you can see pieces of sheep from time to time.

=

Yan Liang stood on the side of the road with his chest open, holding half of his skirt as a fan, fanning it once and for all.The black hair on the chest was soaked with sweat, and there were beads of sweat on his face.

"My lord, you are a general..." Zhou Shan stood beside Yan Liang, looking at his disheveled clothes, with a look of contempt on his face, "You look so... so..."

Yan Liang glared at him viciously, as if he was going to eat him in one bite, "This shitty day, it's so hot... The general should come and see for himself. In this weather, we have to rush [-] miles to Qing Dynasty in two days. How is that possible? Even if they arrive, at least half of the people will not be able to fight.” Then he remembered something, gritted his teeth and cursed, “I should have killed that Wei Yan, how dare he lie to me and let me fight in Dagu? He wasted a day in vain, a day..."

When Zhou Shan heard the word "General", his head drooped, the contempt on his face turned into anger, and he kept muttering, "The General is a lunatic. They are all wild horses in the desert."

"What did you just say?" Yan Liang suddenly put his head close to his ear and roared.

Zhou Shan shuddered, and hurriedly backed away, "My lord, we can't reach the battlefield within two days, you should plead with the general for a day's grace?"

"The general can give me a day's grace, but Cao Cao won't." Yan Liang sneered, "With this day, Cao Cao can go to Yecheng to escape the summer heat with Yuan Shao."

=

Stick closed his eyes in pain, letting Dahei pull him to run, his legs almost dragged on the ground.

"Uncle..." Stick suddenly cried, "Uncle, I can't run anymore..."

"Persist for a while, hold on for a while..." Dahei's eyes were straightened, and his speech was slurred.

"Uncle, we ran from south to north, then from north to east, and now from east to west, uncle, when are we going to run?" Stick cried more and more sadly, "Except how many times we fought in the first few days Outside of the battle, I have never fought again, and I just run away every day. Uncle, is this fighting or running away?"

Dahei didn't speak, and ran panting with his head down, the shield on his back was like a boulder, and he couldn't breathe.

"You boy, what nonsense are you talking about?" Huang Tong suddenly appeared beside the two of them.He was shirtless, and his battle helmet was tied around his waist with a rope. He looked very funny, "Didn't we fight in Xinhe that day?"

"That's called fighting?" Stick curled his lips, choked up and said, "I just shot three arrows, and then I sat on the embankment and watched the cavalry kill people on the other side."

"Hehe..." Huang Tong didn't say anything, and took off the shield from the stick, "Let me carry it for you. The heat was unbearable, so I took off the leather armor."

Dahei turned to look at him, "My lord, if Shangguan sees you like this, you will be miserable."

"The wind blows when they are riding, and I can't take off my clothes to cool off when I walk on two legs?" Huang Tong called nonchalantly, "It's such a hot day, tell him to get off the horse and run, and see how many miles he can run." Then He cursed uncleanly.

Stick stopped crying and looked at him adoringly.

=

In September, Wei County, thirty miles southeast of Ping'en City, by the Qinghe River.

Xu Huang walked slowly on the embankment, enjoying the cool breeze blowing from the river.

In the river valley, the exhausted soldiers fell to the ground and fell into a deep sleep.After two days and two nights of rapid marching, the army traveled 250 miles, and finally arrived at the scheduled crossing point.It is forty miles away from Qingyuan City, and it is also forty miles away from Guantao City.

The scouts had already crossed the river to investigate the military situation. If the rebels hadn't arrived at Qingyuan, the army would start to stop them in Qingyuan.If the rebels had already occupied Qingyuan, then there was no need for the army to go to Guantao City, which was [-] miles away from Qingyuan, but directly inserted into the Daliu Ruins, [-] miles in front of Guantao City.

Xu Huang saw Wang Dang.Wang Dang was soaking in the river with his eyes closed, enjoying the coolness of the river.

"You didn't let the soldiers go to the river to take a bath, but you sneaked here yourself." Xu Huang's tone was very dissatisfied.

Wang Dang smiled awkwardly, "It's not an example, it's not an example...Everyone goes down to the river to take a bath, there is too much movement, once the traces of the army are exposed, it will be troublesome." Wang Dang's skin is dark, and he can't tell when he blush, "A person The situation will be different if you wash in the river.”

"Get up." Xu Huang picked up the clothes by the river and threw them to him, "Let the soldiers see, where do you put your face?"

Wang Dang had no choice but to put on his clothes and follow Xu Huang back to the embankment, "Why are you wandering around if you don't sleep?"

"Can't sleep." Xu Huang sighed, and asked worriedly, "I wonder if Mr. Zhao's cavalry can arrive near Guantao in time."

"Gongming, don't count on it." Wang Dang said with a smile, "The general is in Gonggao, too far away from Ganling City. When Zhao Yun receives the news, he will not be able to fly in time even if he has wings. I guess he may obey Master Qu. order to take down Fagan and Yuancheng first, but they will definitely not come to join us."

"Look, should we send someone to the Yuancheng area to contact Mr. Zhao?"

"Without an iron cavalry, I can still stop Cao Cao." Wang Dang said arrogantly, "He has worked hard under the city of Xindu for more than ten days, but in the end he got nothing, and his body and mind are exhausted. Just such an idiot, I will fight one by one."

Xu Huang smiled wryly, "General Wang, whether you can stop Yuan Shao and Cao Cao from reuniting is directly related to the great cause of ZTE. How can you..."

"Okay, okay, I was wrong..." Wang Dang hurriedly put his arms around Xu Huang's shoulders, "I'll send someone to Yuancheng to contact Zilong immediately..."

=

On September, Xuzhou, Guangling County, Dongling Pavilion.

On the Dongling Pavilion River, hundreds of large and small warships were engulfed by the fire.

Sun Ce's face was ashen, looking at the raging flames on the river, he wished he could fly back to Guangling City immediately, and personally kill the city tower with a knife.

"Chen Deng, I'm going to crush you to ashes."

Sun Ce led his army to attack Guangling City from mid-August. As a result, more than ten days passed. Not only did they fail to conquer the city, but Chen Deng seized the opportunity and rushed sixty miles overnight to Dongling Pavilion. A lot of food, grass and luggage were burned up.

Sun Ce was so angry that he roared like thunder, and rushed back to Guangling City with his troops.He gritted his teeth and swore that he would take down Guangling City at all costs.This is not only for revenge, but also for his own face, but also for Yuan Shu's hegemony and his own survival, or to put it better, for the great cause of ZTE.

This time, whether Yuan Shu can occupy the Central Plains is directly related to the success or failure of his hegemony, so he urges himself to go north to Yanzhou as soon as possible to join him every day.Yuan Shu placed high hopes on himself, and he wanted to win Xuzhou no matter what, and could not cause Yuan Shu's strategy to fall short because of his own incompetence, resulting in the failure of Yuan Shu's hegemony.

However, when Sun Ce met the embarrassed Cheng Pu and Han on the way, his heart was almost broken.

Chen Deng burned Sun Ce's warships, food and grass, led Sun Ce from the camp to Dongling Pavilion, and immediately returned to Guangling City, where he attacked Sun Ce's camp.Because Sun Ce took away the main force, Cheng Pu and Han Dang were outnumbered, so they had to abandon their camp and flee.

At this time, Sun Ce had no food, no grain, so he had no choice but to retreat, and the warship returning to Jiangdong was burned to ashes. The army could only go west along the Yangtze River, via Jiangdu, Then cross the river and return.

Sun Ce was so sad and angry that he even thought of committing suicide.He knew that Yuan Shu suffered the most from this defeat, and Yuan Shu's hegemony was destroyed.

Sun Ce retreated with more than 8000 people.The soldiers were tired and hungry, depressed, and walked slowly. As a result, they were ambushed by Chen Deng again near Xiaoyuan Pavilion at dusk.Sun Ce lost more than 1000 people and fled in despair.

Chen Deng was not satisfied, and set fire to the mountain on Sun Ce's escape.Under the escort of Cheng Pu and others, Sun Ce escaped desperately. In the end, only 800 soldiers remained with Sun Ce and fled back to Jiangdong.

Sun Ce was defeated in Guangling.

=

In September, Yanzhou, Jiyin County, and Dingtao City.

Yuan Shu had a nightmare.He dreamed that flames were billowing on the Yangtze River, and Sun Ce was dripping with blood, howling loudly in the fire.

Yuan Shu yelled, jumped up, covered in sweat, still in shock, sat on the mat and didn't speak for a long time.

=
(End of this chapter)