Chapter 925 Prophecy
After the news of Cao Cao's defeat reached Pengcheng, rumors and fear spread throughout the city.
People in Xuzhou, like everyone else in this world, are superstitious about prophecies and conscription. Even because of the influence of Dongyi culture, Xuzhou is even more superstitious in this area.
Pengcheng belongs to Chu culture culturally, and a typical feature of Chu culture is worshiping ghosts and gods and believing in witchcraft and blessings.
Even though hundreds of years have passed since the death of Chu, the Pengcheng area and even Xuzhou as a whole are still influenced by Chu customs.
In the Han Dynasty, witches were originally worshiped, and they could be said to be spread in every corner of society. Among the people, there were witches in the streets and alleys, and there were blessings in the houses.
Among these, the northern area of Huaihe River centered on Pengcheng is even more popular.
Local people would sacrifice cows to gods, even if they did so without hesitation.
They not only worship the gods of mountains and rivers appointed by the Han Dynasty, but also worship the ancestors and sages in history, and even Emperor Gaozu, Huang Shigong, and Liuhou.
But more often than not, they still worship some obscene temples that are not officially recognized.
Among the many temples of obscenity, one special one is Buddhism.
In this dynasty, the Pengcheng area was the core of Buddhism after Luoyang.
This was due to the fact that King Liu Ying had a good pagoda, and the place where he came to the country later was Pengcheng, so he brought many Buddhist monks and classics to Pengcheng, which affected the religion here.
But the most influential thing to the people and scholar-bureaucrats in Pengcheng now is no longer the King of Chu a hundred years ago, but the pagoda built by the former Prime Minister Zuorong in Pengcheng area.
During the Tao Qian period, Zuo Rong cut off the water transportation of the three counties and built a pagoda temple in Pengcheng.
It is the largest Buddhist pagoda in the world and can accommodate three thousand people. There are even bronze Buddha statues coated with gold and decorated with brocade clothes enshrined in the Buddhist temple.
Since the establishment of this Buddhist temple, thousands of believers have chanted Buddhist scriptures inside it every day.
During the Zairong period, Pengcheng also held a "Buddha Bathing Festival" event, which was very extravagant.
The banquet was laid out on the road for dozens of miles, and thousands of people came to watch and eat, spending a huge amount of billions.
Later, after Tao Qian's death, Zuo Rong fled to Jiangdong, and this grand occasion has disappeared. But the superstition of Buddhism in Pengcheng area has not changed.
Even because of the chaos in the world, Xuzhou, as a rare pure land, the people even believed in the power of the Buddha.
This foreign god from the Western Region must have boundless magical power, otherwise how could he protect the safety of Xuzhou?
This is the thinking of believers. Everything Xuzhou Wenwu did is not as good as a golden Buddha statue.
But on the day when news of Cao Cao's death reached Pengcheng, the golden Buddha enshrined in the temple suddenly shed tears.
At that time, countless believers were reciting Buddhist scriptures devoutly, and the hall was filled with smoke and solemnity.
But in everyone's eyes, the Buddha statue shining with boundless light suddenly shed tears of blood, yes, it was blood.
This strange sign made everyone feel that disaster was coming.
They all thought of a prophecy that had recently begun to circulate in the city:
"The King of Wheels will come from the north."
Chakravartin is the holy king among Buddhist believers. They say that the Buddha who was deified in the human world is Chakravartin and came to save them from suffering and open up a pure land.
Then people kept saying that they all had a dream together.
It is said that in a tall room, a god with a bow defeated a god with a sword, and finally sat high for nine days.
Someone later explained that the man wearing the sword was the Maojin sword, and that was Liu. And the one holding the bow was none other than Zhang Zhang, that is to say, the god named Zhang defeated the god named Liu and finally became a god.
In addition, the wheel-turning king came from the north and his surname was Zhang. Doesn’t this mean that he is the king of Datai?
In such an atmosphere, everyone in Pengcheng realized more and more that the restoration of the world was God's will. Even the loyal Fuhan faction despaired, thinking that they were going against nature.
This is no longer a mere prophecy, but a real reality.
When Cao Cao was defeated in the Eastern Battlefield, Xuzhou's upper-class elites knew that the situation was over.
At this time, Pengcheng not only had his arms cut off, but his heart and soul were also in chaos due to Taishi Ci's sudden cavalry attack. Now only Pengcheng, who was alone, was about to face tens of thousands of Taishan Army elites.
If one city can defeat the whole world, then what is it but going against the will of heaven?
It is in this atmosphere that the signs in the city are becoming more and more evil.
Some people said they saw a two-headed snake swaggering through the downtown area. Some people say that they dreamed that a goddess told them that they should stay at home at a certain time and recite the "Supreme Yellow Taiyi", and then they could take refuge.
In this way, Pengcheng's people were already in a state of confusion even before they encountered a single soldier of the Taishan Army.
Pengcheng's will to fight is disintegrating.
As Taishan's army approached more and more, the people of Pengcheng either hid in Buddhist temples and recited Buddhist scriptures, or hid in their homes and sang "Supreme Yellow Taiyi".
The prayers in the city have drowned out the trumpets of the Xuzhou Army.
Regarding what happened in the city, what were Chen Deng and Sun Jian doing?
Of course, they did not sit back and watch the rumors and panic in the city. They also understood that these must be the methods of the Taishan Army, and most of them were the force called "Xiu Yi".
But it is useless for you to talk about such superstitions and rumors, because not only the common people believe this, but also the civil and military personnel present.
Therefore, to deal with these, we can only respond to others in their own way.
Chen Deng and others also began to publicize a series of prophecies and rumors. Even in this area, they, the scholar-bureaucrats who received orthodox Confucian education, were very good at it.
Many of them have systematically studied prophecies.
At this moment, countless prophecies expressing destiny in Han were spread throughout the city, but they all seemed to have opposite explanations.
For example, the Canglong on the Big Dipper shines brightly in the night sky. The blue dragon is the eastern sky, and it is shining brightly, indicating that the blue sky is still protecting the big man.
And the Canglong belongs to the wood genus, and wood makes fire. With the help of the Canglong, why should the Yan Han be afraid?
But soon new rumors came out.
But these people seem to have forgotten that when people were in trouble on the Taiping Road, they used to say, "The sky is dead, and Huang Tian will stand." Now that the Taishan army is surging, the sky above Xuzhou can't hold on for long.
Then there is another one, I don’t know where I heard it from, saying that the Queen Mother went south to Xuzhou that day and brought out from the palace the Red Emperor Sword that Gaozu used to kill the White Snake.
This artifact, which has been worshiped by all the people in the world for more than 400 years, will definitely protect the Han Dynasty again and make the Han Dynasty great again.
But it seems that the person who made this prophecy may have forgotten that if the artifact is useful, how did Kyoto fall?
But no matter what, Pengcheng at this time is full of rumors and prophecies. They are fighting with each other, trying to get into more people's minds.
And those Xuzhou elites who wanted to continue fighting seemed to finally be able to preside over the war after being comforted by these spiritual powers.
In this way, the Xuzhou Army in Pengcheng has been paying attention to the movements of the Taishan Army in the north.
Previously, Li Hu's unit of the Taishan Army invaded Peixian County, and its main force was still in the Sheqiu area in central Yanzhou. But in just eight days, the main force of Taishan Army arrived from Sheqiu to Peixian County, and joined Li Hu's troops there to launch an attack southward.
The distance from Peixian to Pengcheng is 140 miles. The Xuzhou Army built the Sishuiting defense line, the Liuxian defense line and the final Shififiling defense line on this passage.
These three lines of defense all cross Surabaya and are distributed from north to south. Among them, the first line of defense of Surabaya Pavilion is the most important to the Xuzhou Army.
Sishui Pavilion was the place where Emperor Longxing was founded. It has been an important transportation place since the Qin Dynasty. It is located at the intersection of Fengshui and Sishui. These two rivers separate the northern part of Pengcheng on the left and right, which is natural. Line of defense.
The Xuzhou Army undoubtedly devoted their efforts to the Sishui Pavilion defense line. There are dozens of dock fortresses along the coast alone.
But such a line of defense violated a military taboo.
The Xu and Yang families had a strong military strength, which numbered 80,000 to 90,000 after joining forces. Among them, the Yangzhou Army added additional troops, from the original 20,000 elites to 40,000.
It can be said that Sun Jian has fully realized after seeing the current situation clearly that if he doesn't bet all his belongings, he may not even have the chance to bet later.
Although Taishi Ci's sudden cavalry continued to wreak havoc in the heart of Xuzhou and even reached the Yangtze River several times, the Yangzhou Army's reinforcements took the Zhongdu Waterway.
No matter how good the Taishan Army's assault cavalry were at fighting, they could not stop the reinforcements on the waterway.
As a result, troops and grain from Yangzhou were sent to Pengcheng, adding to Pengcheng's military strength.
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At this time, the strength of Xu Yang's family reached 80,000 to 90,000. It stands to reason that their strength is far greater than that of Taishan's army.
But what Xu Yang has to defend is not just the three lines of defense in Surabaya?
On the east bank of Surabaya, in the direction of Lanling, troops of the Taishan Army have appeared.
Therefore, in order to prevent the Taishan Army from coming around from the Xuexian and Yinping lines, that is, the northeast direction of Pengcheng, to Pengcheng, the Xuzhou Army built another line of defense on the plains east of Weishan and west of Yinping.
Fifteen thousand soldiers and horses were divided in one fell swoop.
Then in the southwest of Pengcheng, that is, Xiao County on the Bianshui River, because this is the main route into Pengcheng from the Central Plains direction, and the Taishan Army also has a large number of regiments in the Central Plains direction.
Therefore, in order to guard against this passage, Sun Jian led 20,000 Yangzhou troops to defend here.
Once these two sides are gone, there will be only more than 60,000 people left.
Pengcheng needs to be the commander-in-chief of the rear area and also needs a considerable amount of maneuverability, so there are more than 40,000 people inside and outside Pengcheng.
Therefore, in fact, the Xuzhou Army's three lines of defense in Surabaya totaled 20,000 people.
Although the Surabaya Pavilion defense line has the largest number of people, with ten thousand people, but even if there are ten thousand people scattered in dozens of dock walls, how many people are there in each one?
There is an iron law in military operations, that is, whoever can obtain superior forces in a local location will gain battlefield advantage.
When the Xuzhou Army scattered tens of thousands of people like sesame seeds between Fengshui and Si River, their failure was doomed.
The first to launch the attack was Ma Chao's troops who had just arrived in Pei County.
On that day, Ma Chao led his five thousand troops to cross the Fengshui first and directly broke through the three fortresses in front of him.
Ma Chao's troops were a typical mixed force of infantry and cavalry. After successfully crossing the river, their total strength was actually greater than that of the Xuzhou Army on the opposite side.
With its strong unit and superior military strength, how could the Xuzhou Army remain undefeated?
Once these three dock walls are breached, it will directly declare the failure of the Xuzhou Army's Surabaya Pavilion defense line.
The nearby Xuzhou Army lacked cavalry and had no time to assemble to stop them.
So Ma Chao's troops took advantage of the victory and headed south, heading straight to Liu County in the rear.
When he learned that Ma Chao had launched the attack without giving any notice, Li Hu, who had been waiting for the camp order, cursed:
"Ma'er, you are so domineering."
But no matter the scolding, Li Hu, who had lost the opportunity, was unwilling to wait and led his eight thousand troops to cross the Fengshui River south.
Li Hu's tribe originally had only 5,000 elite troops, but after conquering Pei County and accepting surrender from Jiang Qin's tribe, he also took over some nearby rebels, so he only had 8,000 troops.
In terms of combat effectiveness, Li Hu's temporarily expanded troops are indeed inferior to Ma Chao.
This can be known from the series of battles after Li Hu's troops crossed the river.
While Ma Chao's troops broke through three forts, Li Hu's troops only broke through two.
But Li Hu's army had an advantage that Ma Chao and others did not have, that is, because there were many Xuzhou soldiers in the army, they gained huge advantages in language and geography.
It was precisely because they heard that there were many Xuzhou accents in the Taishan army that the defeated Xuzhou soldiers chose to abandon their weapons and surrender. It was also because they were more familiar with the geographical roads and were obviously behind Li Hu's troops that they could catch up with Ma Chao.
But when Li Hu arrived at the Xuzhou Army's second line of defense on Si River with 800 sudden cavalry, which was here in Liuxian County, he saw that the flag of the Taishan Army had been hung on the top of the city.
Outside the city, Li Hu met Ma Chao's general Guo Zhao, and then he learned that Ma Chao was no longer in the city, but continued south to attack Shiwuliting.
Li Hu was shocked when he heard this.
Fifteen Mile Pavilion, as its name suggests, is only fifteen miles away from Pengcheng.
Then Ma Chao left all his infantry here and led less than five hundred cavalry southward. Wasn't he afraid of being surrounded by the Xuzhou army?
This person is too adventurous!
At this moment, Li Hu's expression changed, and he finally decided to go south to support Ma Chao.
He ordered Guo Zhao to guard this place and wait for the infantry behind him to go south. Then he sent people back to report to the king in the rear that Ma Chao had rushed south and had gone deep alone.
After finishing this, Li Hu replenished the water and rice and quickly headed south with 800 cavalry.
Now it depends on whether the horse's fate is in danger and whether it can support him until he arrives.
In fact, when Li Hu set off, his general asked in confusion:
"General, that pony disrespects the general so much, general, why don't you let him waste his time? Otherwise, won't he be able to climb on top of us and dominate us in the future?"
Unexpectedly, Li Hu looked at this person and hummed:
"Are you following me on the first day? Could it be that I, Li Hu, am a man who abandoned the public service for personal reasons? This is the first battle of our army, and it is related to the morale of the whole army. How can we lose?"
The general was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect his general to have such a big structure.
But he didn't want to, and then he heard Li Hu say:
"However, we don't know how many enemy troops there are in this line and whether we will encounter an ambush, so we have to be cautious."
Now the general caught the keyword:
"Caution!"