Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 123 A Rare Opportunity
There are three reasons why Liu Laosan's army was able to miraculously defeat the Qin army that went north to block the attack, and successfully went to the bank of Gushui to cheer for the young generals. There are also Cao Shen, Zhou Bo and Fan Kui's first-class generals in the late Qin Dynasty, who played the role of the mainstay.The second is that the Qin army Zhang Ping sent to stop was not the elite Longxi elite of the Qin army who were confronted head-on by the young generals, but an ordinary army composed of prisoners from Lishan and a few veterans of the Qin army. on a par.

The third reason is the most outrageous. In history, Liu Laosan, who was extremely lucky, followed his own character and broke out, and got lucky!
Why do you say that Liu Laosan is lucky?The specific situation is as follows. As Xiang Kang estimated, Liu Laosan, who has never been ambiguous in anti-Qin affairs, decided to send troops to reinforce Pengcheng. The [-]-odd troops all came to Pengcheng, and they were determined to help Xiang Kang keep Pengcheng—of course, it was also to keep Liu Laosan himself. Once Pengcheng was lost, the next target of the Qin army must be Liu Lao who was close at hand. Three, so Liu Laosan can't do it if he doesn't want to work hard.

After receiving Xiang Kang's request to rush to the Pengcheng battlefield as soon as possible, Liu Laosan, who owed Xiang Kang's favor, did not hesitate. Divided into two, he personally led [-] troops to go ahead with light equipment, and let Cao Shen lead the rear army to carry the supplies and food and grass to follow.

As a result, at this time, an accident that no one expected suddenly happened. The front army led by Liu Laosan had just opened the distance from the rear army, and was immediately discovered by the Qin army's scouts, and then the Qin army scouts did not have time to confirm Did Liu Laosan have any other troops behind him? He immediately rushed back to the Gushui battlefield to report the news to Zhang Ping, and falsely reported that Liu Laosan had only about [-] troops. Zhang Ping just sent [-] soldiers from the defenders of the camp to go north, and then paid no attention to Liu Laosan's army that he looked down on at all.

Of course, Zhang Ping's underestimation of the enemy made Liu Laosan cheaper in vain. After encountering the Qin army who was going north to block the attack, Liu Laosan, who was actually close at hand in the rear army, decisively formed an array to meet the enemy, and used insulting methods to lure the Qin army to send troops to attack his own battle formation. The Qin army stepped forward to attack, Liu Laosan's troops resolutely resisted, and fought with the Qin army at close quarters. After Cao Shen led the rear army to arrive, the unprepared Qin army had no chance to fight in formation. Forced to start a scuffle with the outnumbered Liu Laosan army.

Lishan criminals fought to obtain the pardon of the Qin court. Previously, they were able to defeat Zhang Chu's main force in the Western Expedition in the water because of the Qin army's elite Xianyang lieutenant army as the core backbone. It is also because of the Longxi elite of the Qin army who played the role of the sea god. Although Zhang Han's reorganization and training during the period, the combat effectiveness has been greatly improved, and the combat ability is not comparable to the ordinary anti-Qin rebel army. However, it is still a new army at heart. In a downwind battle, you can be as indomitable and invincible as a young commander, but a disadvantage will soon be revealed.

Especially under Liu Laosan there were several fierce men. In the melee, Fan Kui, who was holding a dog-butcher knife, took the lead and led Liu Jun's soldiers to rampage among the Qin army crowd, cutting melons and vegetables like entering no one's land. In one breath, he killed fifteen soldiers of the Qin army.There is also Zhou Bo, a trumpeter who practiced martial arts since he was a child, and led his troops to cut off the heads of nine soldiers of the Qin Army in the melee, which completely boosted the morale and fighting spirit of the soldiers of the Liu Army.Unable to stand up to these two world-class fierce generals and the generals of Liu Jun who are good at melee, Qin Jun, whose soldiers are almost all Lishan prisoners, quickly collapsed and fled like a group of rabbits being chased by evil wolves. After chasing and killing, he successfully assaulted to the north bank of Gushui, helped the main force of the young marshal who was already in trouble break the stalemate, and reversed the battle situation on the south bank of Gushui in one fell swoop.

Later, the reason was found out. The scout of the Qin army who misreported the military situation was immediately executed by Zhang Ping, and he was not allowed to be buried after death.

Later, when the attacking army was directly killed and retreated by the young commander-in-chief, Zhang Ping, who was furious, dispatched troops immediately, but at the same time deployed troops to reinforce the camp to cover the return of the defeated soldiers on the north bank and prevent Liu Laosan's army from taking the opportunity to attack. At the Qin Army camp, while reorganizing the army, they attacked the Young Marshal's camp again. However, the morale of the soldiers of the Qin Army, whose morale had been seriously affected, could no longer show the same indomitable momentum as before. Similarly, a large number of soldiers rushed to the top of the battalion wall, but they were firmly blocked by the soldiers of the young general army at the bottom of the camp wall.

Knowing that this was a manifestation of the demoralization of the army, all the generals of the Qin Army advised Zhang Ping to withdraw troops as soon as possible to reduce losses, and to attack the camp after regrouping, but Zhang Ping refused to listen, and insisted on launching another large-scale attack. The struggle had almost no effect. The defense line of the young marshal's barracks, which had been crumbling many times before, seemed to have become a copper wall and an iron wall.

In the end, when it was getting dark, Zhang Ping had no choice but to let someone ring the bronze gong for withdrawing troops, and returned to the camp full of remorse and anger.Seeing this scene, the soldiers of the Young Marshal Army were of course bursting with cheers. At the same time, after the cheers, many soldiers of the Young Marshal Army who were on the front line immediately lay down on the top of the camp wall, snoring deafeningly from exhaustion.

It was also at this time that Xiang Kang let out a long sigh of relief, and then realized that his underwear was cold and drenched with sweat from tension, but Xiang Kang didn't bother to pay attention to these things, except for arranging for the reserve team to go to the wall to change Outside the frontline army, which was exhausted to the extreme, he sighed and said: "Finally, I survived this battle. As long as the main force of the Tyrant Qin army does not come to Pengcheng, the rest of the battle will be much easier."

"Young commander, aren't you too optimistic?" Zhou Zeng, who accompanied Xiang Kang to witness the fierce battle, still had lingering fears, fearing that Xiang Kang would be optimistic and underestimate the enemy. Our losses are not small, and the strength and overall strength of the Tyrant Qin army are still higher than ours, so why do you say that the next battle will be easy?"

"The Tyrant Qin army failed to take down our camp after launching such a large offensive. The morale of the army will definitely be seriously affected. Even if they attack our camp again, due to the psychological impact of today's battle, it will be difficult for them to fight today. With the kind of momentum at that time, our soldiers have survived such difficulties today, and they will definitely have more confidence in the camp defense next time, so I can be sure that we will be able to fight more easily and beautifully when we fight the camp defense next time .”

Xiang Kang explained confidently, and then said: "And Zhang Ping and other generals of the Tyrant Qin army are not fools. Seeing that our camp is so difficult to crack, in order to reduce their army losses, they will definitely find other ways to attack us. They don't come to fight us head-on, they have the idea of ​​opportunism, and our chance to kill them will come."

"Kill them?" Zhou Zeng was surprised when he heard that, and hurriedly asked: "Young commander, the enemy's strength is far superior to ours. In addition to waiting for help, you also want to use the weak to defeat the strong?"

"Of course, since the Tyrant Qin army sent them to our door, of course I have to do my best to kill them." Xiang Kang smiled and said in a low voice: "Wait, I gave Xiang Han a secret order before. After confirming that Feng Zhong went north from Jiujiang, let him immediately let Fuli county magistrate..."

After hearing Xiang Kang's shameless trick, Zhou Zeng applauded of course, but Xiang Kang remembered something again and hurriedly asked: "By the way, where did Liu Ji's soldiers go? Did you send someone to contact us? "

It was also a coincidence that when Xiang Kang just asked this question, his own soldiers brought an envoy from Liu Laosan to tell Xiang Kang that after Liu Laosan's army took advantage of the situation to attack the Qin army's camp and failed, they had already retreated to Gushui, north of Pengcheng. Set up camp on the shore, and asked Xiang Kang if he wanted Liu Laosan to cross the Gushui south the next day to join Xiang Kang on the south bank of the Gushui.Xiang Kang made quick calculations, and quickly said to Liu Laosan's envoy: "Please send your envoy to report back to Peigong, and just say that you are very kind. I will remember this kindness today. As long as I have a chance in the future, I will definitely repay you twice. But There is no need to cross Gushui to the south, it is easy to come to Gushui now and difficult to go back, so please ask Pei Gong to set up camp on the north bank and cooperate with our army in fighting."

Liu Jun's envoy agreed immediately, and Xiang Kang asked Zhou Zeng to write for him on the spot to draw up an order for the young general to stay in the county and maybe Liu Laosan's army to enter the city. He handed it to Liu Laosan's envoy and said: "Please take this back to Pei Gong. If my prediction is correct, the Tyrant Qin army will bully your camp for being weak and weak. They will probably cross the river and attack your camp tomorrow. If your army feels unsure at that time If you hold the camp, you can retreat directly to the north. I will never care about it. If the Tyrant Qin army is chasing you and your situation is critical, you can take this order from me and enter the city of Liuxian County for temporary shelter. There is only one thing, please bear in mind, Mr. Pei. , if possible, please help me hold back the Tyrant Qin army chasing you for as long as possible, and buy me time here."

Fearing that Liu Laosan's envoy would not remember his explanation, Xiang Kang sent Xu Shu to cross the river with him to meet Liu Laosan, and he believed and introduced his meaning face to face. As a result, Liu Laosan immediately understood Xiang Kang when he heard it. He immediately nodded and said: "Go back and tell Young Marshal Xiang that I understand his plan, and please rest assured that as long as the Tyrant Qin army divides up to attack my camp, if I'm not sure how to hold it, even if the Tyrant Qin army doesn't want to Chasing our army, I also tried my best to lure the Tyrant Qin army to pursue and help him share the pressure as much as possible."

As expected by Xiang Kang, after the Qin army retreated back to the camp, just in the evening of the same day, Zhang Ping, the chief general of the Qin army, made up his mind to send troops to attack Liu Laosan the next day. There was no other reason. On the two battlefields on the north and south banks of Jungushui, a total of more than 5000 troops were lost, and more than 2000 people were seriously injured, including nearly [-] elites of the Qin Army from Longxi, killing one-third of the Qin Army's elite at once.

The reason, apart from the tenacious resistance of the Young Marshal, the key to the Qin Army's heavy casualties but nothing to gain is that the damned Liu Laosan successfully rushed to the north bank of Gushui, which boosted the morale and morale of the Young Marshal. As a result, the Qin army's battle to attack the camp was on the verge of failure, turning victory into defeat.So of course Zhang Ping hated Liu Laosan to the extreme, and ordered people to rush to build a pontoon bridge on the Gushui overnight, preparing to send a large-scale army to the north bank the next day to attack Liu Laosan's army whose camp had not yet been firmly established.

Just do what you say, the next day the sky just dawned, and Qin Jun, who had not fully recovered his physical strength, dispatched [-] troops in one breath, led by Yao Ang, went straight to Liu Laosan's camp to kill, Liu Laosan heard the news Not daring to be negligent, he hurriedly led the army and fled northward. Yao Ang led the army to chase for more than [-] li in one go.However, just when Liu Laosan had been driven away by the Qin army, Liu Laosan went down to the village [-] miles north of Pengcheng again, posing as if he was ready to go south at any time to continue to reinforce Pengcheng.

Before and after Zhang Pingping's report on Liu Jun's movements, Zhang Ping, who hated Liu Laosan deeply, was of course even more furious. General persuasion, saying that at this time should not divide the troops to fight, but Zhang Ping refused to listen, insisting that Chen Kan, the only general who supported his dispatch of troops, led the army northward, and went to Liu Laosan to settle new and old accounts.

The partial division's partial division was sent out, but Zhang Ping didn't have a good idea about how to fight the next battle. Although the strength and strength of the Qin army were still higher than the main force of the young commander's army, when he thought of the last battalion attack Not to mention the generals and ordinary soldiers of the Qin army, even Zhang Ping himself was unavoidably a little apprehensive during the arduous battle, and he dared not rashly decide to continue to attack the camp of the young commander in chief.Therefore, without the persuasion of other generals of the Qin army, Zhang Ping himself subconsciously dismissed the idea of ​​continuing to act recklessly, and began to rack his brains to figure out how to win by surprise, making use of his strengths and avoiding his weaknesses.

This of course made Zhang Ping's brain very troubled, because Qin Jun's biggest advantage now is field battles, but Xiang Kang is extremely cunning. It's like a tiger gnawing on a hedgehog, turning it over and over and can't find a place to bite.

Fortunately, as the saying goes, Xiang Kang, who has done a lot of evil, ushered in retribution. Just when Zhang Ping was worrying about how to break the deadlock, the scouts of the Qin army suddenly sent a messenger who claimed to be the young commander Fuli county magistrate. The man led to Zhang Ping, and the messenger not only brought the handwritten letter written by Fuli County Magistrate Duan, but also brought the list of money, food and materials stored by the Young Marshal Army in Fuli City, letting Zhang Ping know where Fuli is. A piece of fat meat, Zhang Ping also asked Zhang Ping to send troops south to attack Fuli City as soon as possible. At that time, he will try to sneak open the city gate to welcome the Qin army into the city.

After reading Duan's surrender letter over and over again for a long time, he carefully checked Duan's expression and reaction to the messenger. Seeing that his expression was clearly anxious, Zhang Ping made some calculations, then suddenly patted the case in front of him and shouted: : "Come on, take this poor guy down, push it out and chop it up!"

The soldiers in the tent sang a promise, and someone immediately stepped forward to capture Duan Zhu's messenger. Of course, Duan Zu's messenger was frightened out of his wits, and hurriedly shouted: "General, forgive me, what did the villain do wrong? Why did you kill the villain? Xiaoren!" Did people do nothing wrong?"

"Did you do nothing wrong?" Zhang Ping sneered, and said, "You go to trick me into offering a trick to surrender, trying to trick the general into dividing up Xiang Kang's rebels, so that Xiang Kang's bandits can take the opportunity to take advantage of it, and you deserve death. And you're saying you didn't do anything wrong?"

"General, I am wronged! I am wronged!" The messenger Duan hurriedly shouted again, explaining: "The villain was really sent by Duan Xianzun, the villain was not sent by Xiang Kang, the villain really came from Fu Li is here, if you don’t believe me, look at the general, in order to deliver the letter, the villain hurried all the way, and his shoes were worn out on the way!”

Struggling, the messenger really lifted his foot, revealing that the sole of the shoe had been worn out, but Zhang Ping was still suspicious, and shouted again: "Stop making excuses! Tell the truth, who sent you here? No matter how dare you Lie, behead immediately!"

The messenger of Duan Zhu was so wronged that he was about to cry. He kept crying out for grievances, saying that Duan Zhu and himself were sincerely planning to surrender the city, and that Duan Zhu, who had previously served as a jailer in Xu County, was coerced by the magistrate and the county magistrate. It was only when he was forced to surrender to the Young Marshal's Army that he never dared to forget that he was an official of the Great Qin Dynasty. When he heard that Zhang Ping's army had hit Pengcheng, he hurried over and sent a letter to surrender.It's a pity that Zhang Ping still didn't believe it, he slapped the case in front of him again, and shouted: "Push it out, cut it off!"

The soldiers who had captured the courier once again sang promises, and immediately dragged him out of the big tent. The courier duan cried out for injustice, and was so frightened that he peed his pants on the spot.However, after Duan Zhuo's messenger was taken out of the big tent, Zhang Ping immediately pouted to his captain, and said in a low voice: "Go and see the situation, and tell the executioner to stop at the last moment."

The captain of the personal army took the order to go, and in a short while, the captain of the personal soldier returned to Zhang Ping with a smile on his face, and said with a smile: "General, just before the executioner's ax was raised on the execution ground, the man directly I fainted from fright. But he never changed his words, and kept saying that he really came to surrender."

"That should be true." Zhang Ping also showed a gratified smile on his face, and ordered: "Take him to the guest tent, so that he can be entertained, and send someone to call Yao Ang by the way, and say that I have good news to tell him. .”

The captain of the personal army acted according to the order, and soon, Zhang Han personally arranged for Zhang Ping's deputy, Yao Ang, to enter the tent. Without hesitation, Zhang Ping immediately told Yao Ang what happened just now, and then told Yao Ang After showing the letter of surrender written by Fuli county magistrate Duan and the list of food, grass and supplies hoarded by the young commander in Fuli city, he said to Yao Ang, "General Yao, this is a good opportunity. The army goes south to Fuli, and relying on Duan Zhuo's support to take down Fuli city, not only will Xiang Kang's rebels have nowhere to defend in the rear, in addition, we can also seize a large amount of food and military supplies to solve our shortage of food and grass. I plan to seize this opportunity and let you lead an army of ten thousand to go south to fetch Fuli, what do you think?"

After carefully understanding Zhang Ping's interrogation of Duan Zhu's messenger, Yao Ang was inevitably a little tempted, but after careful consideration, Yao Ang raised two more questions, saying: "General, if Duan Zhu is really determined to surrender the city, That is indeed a good thing. But have you considered, General, what if the messenger is a dead man who doesn't know the inside story? Also, we have already sent [-] troops to go north to chase Liu Ji's rebels. Wouldn't it be too much to divide our troops to go south to attack Fuli? If Xiang Kang rebels took advantage of our excessive division of troops and suddenly sent troops to launch a counterattack, what should our army do?"

"That courier may indeed be a dead person who doesn't know the inside story, but it may not be big." Zhang Ping pointed out: "First of all, our scouts did catch him on the road leading to Fuli. It was obvious that he had just walked a long way, and the letter he wrote was stamped with his Fuli county magistrate's seal, which can prove that it was written by him himself, and not hastily forged by Xiang Kang's rebels. And return one Wan Bu said, even if Duan Pifu really cheated and surrendered, what can he gain? When our army arrives in Fuli, we will fight if we have the opportunity. If we have no chance or find danger, we will retreat immediately. What can we lose? Fu Li is flat and flat, and there is a fast way to march quickly, are you afraid of being surrounded by ambushes of rebels?"

"That's true, but how do we deal with the danger of dividing our troops too much?" Yao Ang asked again.

"There is no need to deal with it, and there is no danger." Zhang Ping replied: "Our army has more than double the strength of Xiang Kang's traitor. Even if we send another [-] troops to go south, the remaining troops will still be a little more than his. , not only can you protect yourself, but you can still gain the upper hand in battles and field battles. And after you leave, I will immediately go to Ling Chen Kan and ask him to bring the northern army back to Pengcheng to join our main force. Wouldn't it be easier to sit back and relax?"

Yao Ang still hesitated a little, but Zhang Ping stopped talking to him, and just urged: "That's it, go and prepare, as long as you take down Fuli and capture enough food, grass and military supplies for us, the battle of Pengcheng The initiative is completely in our hands, the opportunity is rare, we can’t miss it, let’s go.”

(End of this chapter)