Chapter 199 Letter
Zhang Chong's Taishan Yellow Turbans invaded Zhangxian County on April 27. When the entire original team in Zhangxian County surrendered, Zhang Chong retained 500 troops, commanded by Li Fu, who stayed in Zhangxian County as a way out.
Then on April 29th and May 10th of the sixth year of Guanghe, Zhang Chong led the Taishan Yellow Turbans to defeat Dongpinglu and Wuyan cities. Especially when the Wuyan Taishan Army seized hundreds of thousands of millet grains, the pressure on transportation was immediately relieved. Afterwards, the Taishan Army changed its route and went straight to Xuchang.
Zhang Chong and his old brothers have been to this place in Xuchang. Zhang Chong still remembers the family members of the Zhao family who cherished the glory of their family. At that time, Zhang Chong didn't know much about the Zhao family in Xuchang until he heard about it later. Yong said that he only knew that this family belonged to Zhao Yan, the Marquis of Xuchang. His greatest achievement was to find an ancient road for Liu Bang, who was trapped in Hanzhong at that time. Only then could Han Xin build a plank road openly, secretly visit Chencang, and enter Guanzhong.
At that time, Zhang Chong paid attention to this ancient talk and planned to find an opportunity to get information about this ancient road from the Zhao clan. Because this road is so important, you must know that in the future, when he enters Guanzhong, if he wants to take off, he will have to put on two wings, this one is Yizhou, and the other is Bingzhou. There's not much to say about entering Bingzhou. It's all about the few ferries and there aren't that many tricks, but entering Yizhou will be fatal.
When entering Yizhou from Guanzhong, the first step is to enter Hanzhong, and there is a natural danger between Guanzhong and Hanzhong, which is the 800-mile Qinling Mountains, which stretches from east to west and is majestic and steep. If you want to enter Hanzhong, you must cross the Qinling Mountains and take the plank road laid by our ancestors.
However, the road from Guanzhong to Hanzhong is rugged and dangerous, almost all on mountain trails, making it impossible for large armies to pass. There are only three roads to march on, namely Baoxie Road, Ziwu Road, and Tangluo Road.
Baoxie Road connects Baoshui and Xieshui Valleys. The southern end starts at Baocheng and the northern end ends at the entrance of Xieshui Valley. This road is also the earliest official road built in the Yin and Shang Dynasties. It is the shortest road from Hanzhong to Guanzhong.
Then there is the Ziwu Road, which starts from Ziwu in the south, runs through the Ziwu Valley, and goes directly to Ziwu Pass, which is not far from Chang'an. It can be said that it is the closest road to Chang'an. When Liu Bang was driven into Hanzhong by Xiang Yu, he took this path.
Finally, there is the Tangluo Road. This road is right between Baoxie Road and Tangluo Road. It balances the advantages of the two roads, but the disadvantage is that this road is the most difficult to walk.
But Zhang Chong knew that most of these roads were on the surface, and there were defenders everywhere. If he wanted to pass these roads without the enemy's defense, there was only one situation in which the entire army would be annihilated. Later, Cao Shuang took the Tangluo Road in the middle, and then his army of 100,000 was almost completely annihilated by Wang Ping's army of 30,000.
Therefore, when walking through Guanzhong, you cannot just take one path, as that will be a dead end. You must use both the right and the odd. Zhang Chong's attack on Xuchang was to capture the Zhao clan and obtain the route of Chencang's old path from their hands, so as to make some preparations for entering Shu in the future.
Of course, after this old road to Chencang was discovered, it was no longer secret, but Zhao was proud of this road and must have some detailed information of his own, which Zhang Chong wanted.
While Zhang Chong led his army to move north to Xuchang, Hebei Taiping Road sent Zhang Jiao's latest military report. Since Zhang Chong gave up heading north to camp with Zhang Jiao, the letters sent by Zhang Jiao became more and more tactful. Zhang Chong knew that Zhang Jiao was already jealous of him, but what could he do? At least for now, everyone is still fighting Hanting together and trying to survive.
Zhang Jiao's letter described the situation from April to May. Although Zhang Jiao said in the letter that Hebei was no longer in the way and only Yecheng remained, Zhang Chong knew immediately that Zhang Jiao had indeed conquered Yecheng.
It's no wonder that Yecheng, which is under the jurisdiction of Wei County, is not an ordinary city. It has been a famous capital since the Spring and Autumn Period.
First of all, this place is the key point in the north, and it is located on the main transportation road to the east of Taihang. Going north through Handan, you can reach Jicheng; going south to Liyang, you can cross the river to reach the east of Henan Province; go west to Fukou and cross Taihang to enter Bingzhou; go east to Cangtingjin and cross the river to enter Yanzhou, and then go to Qingqing. It can be said to be the hub of the north.
In addition, the terrain around Yecheng is flat and roads extend in all directions. Water transportation is also used to connect with Baigou and the Yellow River through Zhangshui and Huanshui. In short, one sentence is: The soldiers of this county can be intimidated by the people of Jizhou. Raise the army to the east and Qingzhou can be secured. Returning to the north and looking north, Youzhou is not enough to be feared. Leading the army to the west, Bingzhou was shaken, which was a first-class treasure land.
Therefore, Zhang Jiao also planned to use this place as his foundation when he conquered Yecheng. But in such a good place, the defense is also tight. To the west of this place is the towering Taihang. If you guard Fukouxing, you can block the land to the east. To the southeast are the natural chasms of the Yellow River, and there are Liyang, Baima, Cangting and other ferries for defense. Then the Zhang, Huan, and Fu rivers flow through it to the north and south, which can hinder the enemy's advance.
Zhang Jiao was blocked to the north of Yecheng and could not advance even an inch. Although Zhang Jiao said in his letter that the outer perimeter of Yecheng had been breached, he could attack soon. But Zhang Chong understood that there was not much time left for Zhang Jiao.
Zhang Chong had previously left a message to Zhang Jiao, asking him to pay attention to the Youzhou cavalry coming down from the north. Zhang Jiao didn't mention anything about Youzhou in his letter this time, and I don't know if he was interested in it.
Zhang Jiao once again mentioned in his letter this time that Zhang Chong should go north to camp with him. Zhang Jiao meant that since Zhang Chong's Taishan Army is going to Dongjun, it can join Dongjun's Taiping Road. Together they crossed north from Cangting and attacked Yecheng with him from front to back.
Zhang Chong took the letter and was noncommittal. No matter what happened to Zhang Jiao, he still walked along the Taiping Road according to his original plan.
After previously defeating Zhangxian, Dongpinglu, and Wuyan, his strength expanded again. Among them, Zhang County's generals Gao Ya, Wu Zi, Zhao Shu, and Li Zou were all brave and capable. Zhang Chong selected four of them to join the collision team. When they arrived at Dongping Lu, Taiping Taoist disciples Xie Hui and Wu Rong led a thousand Dongping Lu Yellow Turbans to defect. Zhang Chong compiled three hundred of his troops, and added another two hundred surrendered prisoners from the Dongping Kingdom, and organized them into one unit, named "Pinglu Camp". Xie Hui was the leader, Wu Rong was the deputy, and the rest were incorporated into the old camp.
After Wuyan was captured, local Taiping Dao generals Zhao Liang and Zhu Ying led two thousand Taiping Dao soldiers to join forces with Zhang Chong. Zhang Chong still organized 400 of his elite soldiers into the Wuyan camp. In this way, Zhang Chong developed like a snowball and kept selecting. Now he has 7,000 victorious soldiers and 8,000 old soldiers, not counting the 1,200 captured soldiers from the previous battle in Zhang County. In this way, this team of 16,000 people consumes 600 shi in food alone every day. Fortunately, they have saved enough along the way, otherwise they would have to clean up the place like thieves.
This was just the military aspect. After breaking three cities, Zhang Chong's bigger gain was that he captured all the treasury of King Dongping over the years. In this wave alone, the savings of Zhang Chong's Taishan Army's holy treasury doubled. In addition, there are still talented people who have defected to China. There are not many great talents who have defected, but there are a few unsuccessful literati.
One is Chen Yue, a student of Hongdu School, who specializes in calligraphy. However, his family is not good enough and he cannot be an official. He can only go back to his hometown to make a living by writing. Later, when the Yellow Turbans of Taishan came to the city, they came directly to join him. There is also a prime minister named Jiang Sheng who also came to defect. This man is actually the prime minister who helped the Langya thieves when the Taishan Army attacked the Langya thieves a few years ago. He also somehow changed his identity to Wuyan. There are also some friends and former officials of Xu Bang who joined the Taishan Army under Xu Bang's solicitation.
The huge gains along the way once again strengthened Zhang Chong's strategy of independent development south of the Yellow River, so Zhang Chong could only politely refuse Zhang Jiao's request to go north to the regiment camp.
However, Zhang Jiao received a letter, so Zhang Chong naturally had to reply to him. In addition to once again reminding Zhang Jiao to pay attention to the land to the north, Zhang Chong also asked the visitor to bring Zhang Jiao a Dongping King Seal. As for how Zhang Jiao understood this move , this is out of Zhang Chong's control.
On May 15, on the day when Zhang Chong led his army to surround Xuchang, a group of expedition horses brought a letter from the north, making the war more complicated and confusing.
This time the person writing the letter was not Zhang Jiao, but Zhang Chong’s teacher, Zhang Liang.
In the letter, Hebei Taiping Road had just experienced a setback, and the reason was that the Youzhou Cavalry raided the Taiping Road Camp north of Zhangshui River.
From mid-April to May 3, the three Zhang Jiao brothers joined forces to besiege Yecheng, an important town in Hebei Province. One hundred thousand Hebei Taiping troops fought fiercely with Zhang Ze, the prefect of Wei County, at Zhangshui. The main contention was for the three military posts north of Zhangshui.
These three military posts were beacons built to prevent the Qiang people from rushing down from the Taihang Mountains. Although they were small but strong, Taiping Road was not very good at attacking the city. It took ten days of continuous fighting to destroy two of them.
Not only that, Zhang Ze, the governor of Wei County, was also a powerful figure, known as Zhang Wohu. This gentleman was from Nanzheng, Hanzhong. When he served as the governor of Zoke, he defeated the Nanman and was powerful in Nanzhong. Even because of this person's presence, these Nanman rebels had to go to other counties to rebel. Almost all of his later resumes were related to the war. He served as the Colonel of Qiang Protector, the Governor of Fufeng, and the Governor of Guiyang. Previously, Banzhen, a barbarian from Bajun, rebelled, so he was appointed as Colonel of Longji and returned to Hanzhong to pacify the Baman. Finally, he came to Wei County and became the governor.
Therefore, the three Zhang brothers suffered a bloody blow in front of Zhang Ze, a crouching tiger of the Han family. This one has two elite soldiers in his hand, one is the Nanzhong guard and the other is the Qiang guard, both of whom are good at fighting. Going out of the city several times and passing through the walls of Taiping Road felt like entering a deserted land.
Taipingdao's inability to capture the Han court's stronghold on the north bank of Zhangshui was mostly related to the repeated attacks by these southern barbarian elites. However, Zhang Jiao then went out to personally boost the morale of the entire army. The army stormed the stronghold on the north bank, and even dispatched the Yellow Turban warriors under his tent, and finally wiped out the Han soldiers north of Zhangshui in one battle.
Even though Zhang Ze, the governor of Wei County, was good at fighting, he eventually retreated into Ye County due to the superior force of Hebei Taiping Road and continued to defend.
Then on May 6, the Taiping Dao Jizhou Army dispatched ten thousand people from the Heishan Division, Huanglong Division, Zuo Xiao, Guo Daxian, and four other divisions to cross the Zhang River south and besiege Ye County. Zhang Jiao, holding a nine-section staff, stationed north of the Zhang River to coordinate the attack. city.
In the next five days, Taipingdao took turns to attack. Later, they sent eighty-five troops from Yu Shigen, Qing Niujiao, Zhang Baiqi, Liu Shi, and Zuo Beard Zhang, totaling ten thousand people, to merge with the previous legions and storm Yecheng. It seems that Zhang Chong's reply and the Dongping King's seal he sent put a lot of pressure on Zhang Jiao, and now the ants are attacking the city.
Although this move caused heavy casualties, it was indeed effective. The outer city of Ye County had been destroyed, and the prefect Zhang Ze led the county troops to retreat to the inner city. It was only a matter of time before Ye County fell.
But at this time, a Youzhou cavalry going south raided Zhang Jiao's camp on the north bank of Zhangshui River. This group of people obviously came to behead people, but fortunately Zhang Jiao was cautious and arranged all the yellow scarf warriors under his tent in the big tent. . The two hundred Youzhou cavalry who made the final raid were all killed, but Zhang Jiao was also shot with an arrow. Now the account is no longer open, and Zhang Liang is only allowed to manage in his account.
Zhang Chong looked at Xuchang in front of him. He never expected that Zhang Jiao was injured. Although the master did not say how serious the injury was, at least he was no longer able to act. Could it be that Zhang Jiao had suffered such a serious injury in history? If not, wouldn't Zhang Chong's hard work make Taiping Road more difficult?
What Zhang Chong didn't know was that at this moment, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, who had formed an army after Wu Yuyu, had also led 40,000 Hanting elites to attack Yingchuan.
A catastrophe on Taiping Road is inevitable again.
Do you think we should write about the Hebei War? I'm worried about being scolded by you for being out of the protagonist's field of vision. But if I write it, I can write five or six chapters, haha.
(End of chapter)