Chapter 101 Two battlefields
Hearing Cao Bao, Zhang Fei snorted: "This useless thing almost ruined the governor's important matter today. I think the Taishan thieves are ordinary and can't withstand several attacks. It collapsed, but this old man Cao Bao usually boasted that Danyang's soldiers were invincible, but when it came to war, he didn't know that he was nothing more than a group of city foxes and rats. Today I saw with my own eyes that the Taishan thieves broke the formation. Could it be this? Cao Bao is a thief with two sides, and he is unwilling to work hard?"
Zhang Fei became more and more serious as he spoke, and in the end, he really doubted whether Cao Bao was loyal.
Chen Deng was dumbfounded by Zhang Fei's rhetoric. Cao Bao, a dignified general in Xuzhou, would not collude with a Taishan thief like Zang Ba, even if he wanted to liaise with foreign enemies, right?
Besides, Zang Ba can’t offer any benefits to bribe Cao Bao.
If Ming Gong wants to eradicate Cao Bao, Xu Dan and others, then they will just jump over the wall and seek foreign help.
But now Cao Bao is not only highly regarded by Ming Gong, but he himself is almost becoming your eldest nephew's father-in-law. Under such circumstances, how can he hook up with Zang Ba without going crazy.
"General Yide, don't talk nonsense. Cao Wenwei is also my important general in Xuzhou. Today he also led the Danyang army in a bloody battle against the Taishan bandits. If he hadn't been the main force for the general to hold back the Taishan bandits, the general would have been unable to defeat the enemy with his iron cavalry. Isn’t it easy?”
Chen Deng first persuaded Zhang Fei, and then shouted: “I will go to meet General Cao personally.”
Zhang Fei saw Chen Deng getting up and hurriedly took his hand. He put down the tea bowl and stood up: "What the Governor said must be right. Fei is stupid. Please give me some advice. Fei is very grateful!"
Chen Deng waved his hand: "Why did General Yide say this? Deng is not blaming the general, but asking the general to understand. Not everyone is as brave and good at fighting as the general. Although General Cao has made mistakes, he is still the same after all. The generals are fighting bloody battles for the sake of the public. Even if they are unable to do so, they should not be criticized too harshly."
"The governor is too complimentary. > Zhang Fei couldn't help but be happy after being praised by Chen Deng. He didn't know where to put his palms as big as cattail leaf fans.
Any dissatisfaction with Cao Bao disappeared.
Chen Deng left the commander's tent and took Zhang Fei behind him to greet Cao Bao.
Cao Bao saw Chen Deng from a distance, stepped forward quickly, and gave a big salute: "Bao Bao was in a panic and almost lost his army and humiliated the country. I am grateful to the governor and General Yide for their help."
Cao Bao was actually very grateful. It feels aggrieved that after fighting with Chen Deng for so long, he is always no match for the opponent. He only relies on Tao Gong's favoritism to maintain a stalemate.
Now that Tao Gong is gone and Liu Shijun is Chen Deng's confidant, he has no choice but to hug the young master's thigh tightly.
You can see that the young master is also very polite to Chen Yuanlong. If there is a conflict between him and Chen Deng, the young master will definitely be unhappy.
What's more, he is in the army now, and he was really caught off guard today and almost ruined the overall situation. If Chen Deng killed himself directly, even if the young master wanted to rescue him, it would be beyond his reach.
After thinking about it, Cao Bao decided to plead guilty. Even if he could not ease the relationship with Chen Deng, he would at least make it impossible for the other party to use the topic as an excuse and directly chop off his head.
"Bao Bao is fully aware of today's crime, and I beg the governor to give the last general a chance to make meritorious service. Bao Bao will take the lead and avenge his shame."
Cao Bao lowered his head deeply, and so did he. I'm a shameless person, but the Danyang soldiers' fight today was really embarrassing.
If the Danyang soldiers were the only ones who came to the city today, I am afraid that Zang Ba would be able to celebrate his victory in Kaiyang City now.
"Why did the general say this?"
Not only did Chen Deng not scold him as harshly as Cao Bao imagined, but he took the initiative to come out of the tent to greet him and even helped him up personally.
"As the saying goes, when a horse stumbles and a man stumbles, victory or defeat is a common thing for military strategists. Today, the Danyang soldiers did have a small setback, but the main force did not suffer any setback. Zang Xuangao was on the front line in person, but he was still defeated by our army. I only saw General Cao driving to the front line, supporting Xuan Gao, boosting morale, and blocking the Taishan bandit's fearless offensive."
"General Yide rushed to the enemy's rear and attacked from the side. Among them are General Cao's meritorious service. If you hadn't contained a large number of elite soldiers from the Taishan bandits, he might not have had the opportunity to perform meritorious service. "
Chen Deng said, looking at Zhang Fei: " General Yide, what do you think of what Deng said?"
Zhang Fei was smiling at the back as a background, but suddenly he was mentioned by Chen Deng, and he suddenly woke up and hurriedly echoed: "The Governor's Office. It’s just what I want!”
As he said this, Zhang Fei specially clasped his fists at Cao Bao: "General Cao has worked hard today."
Cao Bao felt like he was in a dream. When did Chen Yuanlong become so easy to talk to?
You must know that his reputation in the state is that he has always been strong and outspoken.
He would actually deal with it for himself?
The next moment, Chen Deng’s actions were even more unexpected than Cao Bao.
Chen Deng actually held Cao Bao's hand directly: "General Cao, there will be a big battle in the future. At that time, Mr. Cao will be the vanguard and make great contributions. Today's small setback is nothing."
Cao Bao Some people felt Chen Deng's sincerity, and guessed that the other party wanted to take the opportunity to reconcile with him?
That would be great.
Cao Bao was excited and hurriedly knelt down on one knee again: "Meng Dudu personally came to comfort me, Bao Bao is not very grateful. Please rest assured, Dudu, if we fight again in the future, Bao will behead Zang Ba and present it to the Dudu. Under the tent!”
Zhang Fei, who had nothing to do at first, became anxious when he heard this.
A pair of big copper bell eyes stared, and he wanted to yell at Cao Bao who was trying to steal the credit, but he suddenly remembered Chen Deng's admonishment just now, swallowed the curse words back, and then jumped out to four words.
“Me too!”
The next day, there was no more fighting between the two sides.
The Xuzhou Army went all out to build fortifications and fortifications, looking like they were going to surround Kaiyang.
The Taishan Army has no intention of leaving the city to fight in the field. It is gathering strong men in the city and choosing to join the army, hoping to expand the army and then fight to the death with the Xuzhou Army outside the city.
But people's happiness is not the same.
When the next evening, the Xuzhou Army outside the city burst into loud cheers, Zang Ba inside the city felt bad.
Coming out of the county government office, Zang Ba got on his horse and ran straight to the city tower.
Zang Ba, who was standing at the top of the city, knew that things were in big trouble when he saw more than 5,000 people from Zhao Yun and Xu Dan who had rushed to the Yishui River to prepare to cross the river.
The Xuzhou Army actually has backup! ?
Zang Ba felt numb all over and thought he was dreaming.
Because he felt it was wrong no matter how he calculated it. Liu Bei had just moved into Xuzhou for less than half a year, right?
Where did he get so many soldiers and horses, and where did he get the food and grass?
Zang Ba suddenly remembered that Liu Bei was still working in the fields. He also specially sent detailed work to the cities of Xiangbi, Lanling, and Chengxian. He indeed saw Liu Bei recruiting refugees and cultivating fields. Only then did he Let him completely relax.
But the soldiers and horses in front of him cannot be deceived. Tens of thousands of Xuzhou troops have really blocked the gate of his city.
That night, Zang Ba frantically urged the city's organizations to strengthen and form a team. After a few days of rough training, Zang Ba went out to fight in the city again.
Because he knew that he was waiting for death, there were no reinforcements in Kaiyang, and there was not much food in the city.
If the Xuzhou Army cannot be defeated, there is only a dead end.
Before he had time to finish all this, at noon on the fourth day, when Guan Yu, Lu Su, and Zhang Jie arrived at the Yishui River, the Xuzhou Army once again cheered, like burying Mount Tai. Kou's Elegy.
Zang Ba has been completely silent and has no more thoughts of breaking through.
The opponent's regular army has more than 20,000 men, and our own army has less than 7,000 young men. This battle is really unwinnable.
Once the field battle out of the city is unfavorable and the young men collapse and roll back into the formation, it will be a direct result of the city being destroyed.
That afternoon, Chen Deng formed an array on the plain north of Kaiyang City, showing off his troops and his momentum.
It is also the basis of Danyang soldiers, but Guan, Zhang and Zhao have already surpassed Cao Bao and Xu Dan in terms of spirit and strict military discipline.
Naturally, Chen Deng was placed at the forefront.
Zang Ba stood on the city wall, watching the opponent's military formation carefully. He was silent for a long time, sighed deeply, and went down to the city.
The next morning, a group of envoys came outside the city and asked to enter the city to meet Zang Ba.
The words were divided into two parts, and Liu Feng was also ready to set off.
Before departure, Xu Sheng’s soldiers were mobilized.
In more than a month of intensive training, the biggest improvement for these Danyang soldiers is their discipline.
Compared with the original, today's Danyang soldiers are not completely reborn, but they have really changed a lot.
This was more than a month of hard work by Liu Feng, Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang and others.
This performance of Xu Sheng and Pan Zhang made Liu Feng quite satisfied. These two people did not wait until Liu Feng got the results before following suit, but followed Liu Feng's example early in the morning.
This shows that Xu Sheng and Pan Zhang are truly impressed by Liu Feng, and have reached the point where Liu Feng will follow suit without thinking in anything he does.
This kind of blind obedience is a very high degree of loyalty in this era.
During this expedition, Liu Feng did not make a long speech, but only emphasized a few points. The first point is military discipline. Anyone who harasses the people will be executed, those who rape women will be executed, those who steal items will be executed, and those who disobey orders will be executed.
The second point is seizure. All seizures must be handed over. Private storage is strictly prohibited. Anyone found will be killed.
After each battle, part of the loot captured can be used to reward the entire army. Those with meritorious service will receive more, and those killed and injured in battle will receive additional pensions.
This article has changed dramatically from Liu Feng’s original plan.
Originally, Liu Feng planned to hand over half of all the captured items to the state capital, and divide the other half into five parts, one to reward those with meritorious service, one to be divided among the officers, one to provide compensation for those killed and injured in battle, and one to be stored in the camp treasury in case of emergencies. If necessary, the last portion will be divided equally among the whole camp.
As a result, as soon as he told Xu Sheng and Pan Zhang what he meant, they were immediately frightened.
It turns out that the treatment of the soldiers in Donghan Prefecture was extremely low, with no wages at all. They were given some rations every month, which was probably worth between 100 and 120 Wen.
Now the prefectures and counties not only give the soldiers a monthly salary of 200 wen, but also prepare additional weapons, armor and other ordnance, and also take care of the soldiers' food, clothing, housing and transportation. Now Liu Feng plans to give rewards, which is unprecedented. Inspiring.
If it was really said that half of the seizure would be given, the soldiers would probably not be able to believe it and would become suspicious.
And even if it is given after the war, it will cause a lot of trouble for Liu Bei.
If you give it to me, will the other soldiers give it to you?
You give so much, and if other soldiers also ask for it, what will Liu Bei do?
Liu Feng then reacted, realized his mistake, and then changed it to what it is now.
The third point, military merits, all military merits, the most important thing is to obey the orders, and those who dare to mess up the formation to get the heads will be killed. All the heads will be evenly distributed and picked by the unarmored auxiliary soldiers in the rear team.
Liu Feng has emphasized these three points many times over the past month and explained the reasons for such regulations to everyone.
Therefore, everyone has become accustomed to these things.
I originally wanted to talk about conferring military merit on land, but in the end Liu Feng didn't mention it.
After all, this is not mature enough and there are many problems, so we need to think more about it.
Xu Sheng... In fact, it should be regarded as Liu Feng's subordinates. After setting off, the morale was much higher than that of Cao Bao and Xu Dan's troops, and even better than that of Guan, Zhang, and Zhaotian.
Just this, if Liu Bei saw it, he would probably be overjoyed again.
Before departure, Liu Bei came to see him off in person, and specifically told Liu Feng not to forget that the commander of this journey was not him, but Xiahou Bo, and even the deputy general was not him, but Chen Dao.
Liu Feng is just a soldier and can make suggestions, but he is absolutely not allowed to interfere with military aircraft as a prince.
Liu Bei was quite relieved about Xiahou Bo and Chen Dao.
Xiahou Bo is an old man. He followed him from Zhuoxian County. After dozens of battles, he was loyal to death and had great generals. He was one of Liu Bei's most capable confidants, second only to Guan Zhang. .
Although his abilities are not as good as those of Zhao Yun, he is even better emotionally.
Although Fu Shiren and others are also old brothers, they are indeed a whole level behind Xiahou Bo.
As for Chen Dao, he is a newcomer. When Liu Bei was in Yuzhou, he came with several knight-errant brothers to join him.
This man is proficient in martial arts, strong and brave, and taciturn. Not long after he arrived, he felt that Liu Bei had won Liu Bei's trust in his conduct.
Moreover, this person is both civil and military, and has been listed as a key confidant in Liu Bei's heart.
Of course, Chen Dao's ability in both civil and military skills cannot be compared with that of Erye, and even Zilong is far inferior. At most, he is only literate.
But even so, Liu Beijun, who graduated from prenatal education per capita, can already be regarded as a top student.
This time, for the sake of his own son, Liu Bei sent out two powerful civil and military arms, and also dispatched 500 personal guards, including a full 50 cavalry. This shows how much he cares about Liu Bei. seal up.
Not to mention that Liu Bei had warned Xiahou Bo and Chen Dao countless times in private that the most important task this time was not to defeat Chang Xi, but to protect Liu Feng.
Once things get out of hand, just bring Liu Feng back immediately.
Although Xiahou Bo and Chen Dao didn't know that there would be a profession called nanny in later generations, they were already very clear about the positioning of their mission.
Liu Feng and his party set out from Xiangbi three days later, directly cutting the corner and blocking the main road from Zhenxian County to send troops.
It was only on the sixth day that Chang Xi of Zhen County received the news that Liu Bei had started a war, raided Kaiyang, and had troops approaching the city.
Chang Xi had a very good relationship with Liu Bei in history, but that was after Liu Bei moved the prefecture to Xiapi and gave up half of the East China Sea to Chang Xi. The friendship between the two parties began to accumulate from here. He maintained his position well. Later, Liu Bei returned to Xuzhou several times to rebel against Cao Cao, and Chang Xi always responded.
I don’t know whether he sincerely supported Liu Bei or resented Cao Cao. Chang Xi rebelled three times in the end.
If Yu Jin hadn't found an excuse to kill him directly, I'm afraid there would have been a fourth or fifth time.
Compared with the others, Chang Xi's relationship with Zang Ba is more like an ally, rather than a superior or subordinate. But he and Zang Ba had quite a lot of feelings for each other. Both of them had a fateful friendship that came out of the war.
After hearing that Zang Ba was besieged, Chang Xi immediately began to mobilize his troops and hastily sent out troops at dawn the next day.
Except for Zang Ba, Chang Xi’s tribe had the largest number, with a total of two thousand people.
This time he brought out all the troops, leaving Zhen County to the young and strong guards, which can be regarded as trying his best for Zang Ba.
Chang Xi marched very fast along the way. He marched for more than 40 miles on the first day, and continued to advance at high speed on the second day. Just before noon, when noon was approaching, he ran into Liu Feng's troops who were waiting for him. .
Liu Feng's troops had lunch early and had rested until now. As soon as they saw Chang Xi's troops, they began to form formations and put on armor.
Liu Bei raided the treasury and purchased from wealthy families, and gave Liu Feng more than 600 sets of leather armor. Adding the more than 100 sets left in the original camp, he made up 800 sets of leather armor. , actually pushed Liu Feng's troops to an armor armor rate of 80%.
The armor coverage rate of the Changxi tribe is very low, only a little over 40%. Except for a few of his core villages, the armor coverage rate is as high as 80%, and most of the soldiers are unarmored soldiers.
Suddenly encountering the enemy, Chang Xi was also panicked, but soon he discovered that the opponent did not take the opportunity to make a sneak attack, but formed a formation to meet the enemy.
Chang Xi breathed a sigh of relief, and then quickly ordered his men to set up formations and put on armor.
Chang Xi’s troops stopped one after another, and then changed their formations under the orders of junior officers.
The unarmored soldiers helped unload the armor from the mules and horses, helped the soldiers on the front line put it on, and then took the weapons and walked to their positions.
The process of arming Changxi's soldiers took about half an hour, but Liu Bei's side never took the opportunity to attack, but stayed where they were.
The frightened Chang Xi was immediately happy when the entire army was armed.
"Is the opponent's general a fool? He's just watching us put on armor like this?"
Due to the urgent march, Chang Xi placed his vanguard scouts very close.
When they saw Liu Beijun, the main forces of the two sides were actually less than two miles apart.
If Liu Beijun took the initiative to greet him, he would have a chance to catch Chang Xi off guard.
Although we won't win here, we should be able to get a good head start.
But for some reason, Liu Beijun didn't move, but stayed in the distance waiting for Chang Xijun to finish putting on his armor.
Chang Xi was also very experienced. After the entire army was put on armor, he was not in a hurry. He asked the troops to sit down and take a rest first, recover their physical strength from the rapid march along the way, and take some time to eat some dry food.
Liu Beijun still didn't respond, and Chang Xi almost suspected that his scout had lied about the military situation.
After eating, drinking, and resting, Chang Xi thought for a moment and decided to take the initiative.
He suspected that the purpose of Liu Bei's army was to delay him from going to Kaiyang.
Chang Xi guessed half right. Theoretically speaking, the order received by Liu Feng's troops was indeed to keep an eye on Chang Xi. If he was not allowed to enter the Kaiyang battlefield, victory would be achieved.
But Liu Feng was not satisfied with this, he wanted to do more.
However, he also understood Liu Bei's good intentions, so he wanted to do better within the scope allowed by Liu Bei.
For example, defeat Chang Xi head-on.
(End of this chapter)