Chapter 202 Going North
On May 20, the sixth year of Guanghe, Jizhou, Ye County, Wei County, north of Zhang River.
This is the time when the fragrant grass of summer is at its peak, but the flowers have fallen and people have perished without knowing it. At this moment, Zhangshui has become a sad place for everyone in Taiping Road, Hebei.
The Zhangshui River in the north of Ye County is very clear, because when the Zhangshui River originates from the Shangdang area of the Taihang Mountains and flows from west to east, the areas it flows through are mostly the limestone and quartzite areas of the Taihang Mountains, where the sediment is thicker. If there is less water, the Zhangshui will be clearer, so some people call this Zhangshui Qingzhangshui.
But now the clearing water in the northern section of Ye County is filled with blood. Countless Taiping Taoists numbly salvage the corpses of their fellow Taoists. No one wants to recall the bloody days.
These days, Taipingdao has shed all its blood under Ye City, but has found nothing. Today, the military report finally came from the Chinese army tent decorated with gold and exuding supreme sanctity between heaven and earth:
"The whole army gave up the siege and returned to Handan."
They are finally about to withdraw. This is what the most daring yellow scarf warriors on the Taiping Road can't help but sigh.
This Yecheng, built on the high ground near the Zhang River in the north, stretches seven miles from east to west and five miles from north to south. The city walls are made of rammed earth. The Taiping Road attack lasted from April to mid-May, and thousands of corpses had been left behind the city.
But just when they attacked the city and stood on the wall of Ye City, fate played another trick on them. A group of cavalry heading south suddenly attacked the Chinese army's tent. The anxious Chinese army even offered money for reinforcements from all ministries.
In this way, the Taiping Taoist disciples who had already attacked the city were driven off the city wall. After that, they were never able to stand on the city wall of Ye County again. Some of them retreated north, while others died on the way across the Zhang River.
The Chinese army has police, so the nine Yellow Turban troops who originally crossed the river naturally have to return to the army for rescue. However, because Zhang Jiao did not originally designate anyone to be the commander of the former enemy, when crossing the river, all the troops looked north and no one was on the south bank to stop the Han soldiers.
Zhang Ze, the prefect of Wei County who has been fighting and living on the city wall these days, keenly seized the chaos of Taiping Road crossing the river. This time he personally led two barbarian troops under his command out of the city and directly attacked the nine Taiping Road soldiers who were crossing the river. .
Finally, a disastrous defeat at Taiping Road occurred on the Zhang River. Nine soldiers suffered heavy casualties and the Zhang River was cut off. But fortunately, the leaders of each department successfully withdrew.
In the following days, the two sides did not fight again. Taiping Road is gloomy and gloomy, but Zhang Ze of Wei County is gathering strength and waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
Indeed, the leading Youzhou cavalry are here, are reinforcements still far away?
The Han soldiers could think that Taipingdao was not stupid, so they naturally expected this. On this day in the Chinese army tent decorated with gold foil, Fang Qushuai was discussing this matter with General Sanwei:
"The sentinels from the north have come to report that Xiang Xu, the Prime Minister of Zhao State to the north of us, has gone south from Xiang State, and it seems that he is going back to Handan."
The person who said this was Bai Que, who was responsible for the four sentinels on Taiping Road.
Upon hearing that it was Xiang Xu, all the generals in the tent laughed, and one of the strong men with long beards was the first to laugh:
"As for Xiang Xu, a idiot who still has the guts to go south, he is really going to laugh to death. This stupid old man is just a useless madman. He was so boastful about what he said before, as long as people read the "Book of Filial Piety" on the north bank of the river. , we can be killed. What happens next? We march to Handan, and this idiot sneaks away to Xiangguo. What is there to be afraid of?"
This tall and strong man with a long beard is called Zuo Beard Zhangba, and he is very good with his hands. What Zuo Beard Zhangba said was directly what the generals wanted, so they all applauded.
There was also a heckler among them, who even said:
"When I read the "Book of Filial Piety" and wish to die for us, I see those wealthy families whose fathers are unkind and whose sons are unfilial. They are also the ones who are unfilial. If I really wish to die, I also wish to die for them. If you put it this way, it would be unfair to Xiang Xu. It’s been a big help to us and will save us from having to stab each other.”
It's no wonder that these yellow scarf generals look down on Xiang Xu, he is indeed absurd. Study "Laozi", wear crimson gauze hair, disheveled hair. But he also claimed to be Confucius and named his disciples: "Yan Yuan", "Zigong", "Ji Lu" and "Ran You". Later, when the county saw that he had acted erratically, they promoted Xiaolian, but the man was not worthy of it. It was not until the end of the country that he was specially summoned to join the army. He earned such a great reputation that he was sent directly to the State of Zhao to be the Prime Minister.
You must know that this is a step to the sky. Normally, a person of filial piety and integrity would only become a county magistrate. He only refused a few conscriptions and became the prime minister of two thousand dan in one step.
But it was only after he arrived in Zhao that the world knew his true nature. The pomp and majesty of Erqianshi was not bad, but he ignored it if he was asked to fulfill the responsibility of Erqianshi herdsman. Wormwood has grown in the office, and he has not even opened a single document. After that, he only did one thing when he took office, and that was to be ashamed and boastful. Asking people to read the "Book of Filial Piety" in the north and remember the death of bandits was just one of them.
Bai Que waited for the generals to finish laughing before he started to say the next words. He was thoughtful and knew that the sect had been in a gloomy state recently, so he specially brought out Xiang Xu, a fun-loving person, to cheer up the generals. But then, Bai Que’s words were not so optimistic:
"It is precisely because Xiang Xu is a straw bag that when he dared to go south to stroke our beards, it can be seen that the Youzhou soldiers in the north have gone south. Later, our sentry did find a large amount of horse dung in the Nanhe area of Julu. The size of four thousand riders.”
Bai Que's words immediately solidified the atmosphere in the Chinese army tent. Especially some of the believers from Youzhou, such as Zhongshan Kingdom, Hejian Kingdom, and Bohai Kingdom, directly frowned.
Some of them, their relatives and friends, have more or less gone to Northern Xinjiang for training, and have an intuitive understanding of the strength of Hanting's Youzhou Cavalry. They have no illusions at all. You know, these are four thousand cavalry. Once the charge starts, it will be overwhelming.
Bai Que guessed the situation of the big account after talking about this military report. But he had more to say:
"There is also a new governor here in Julu named Guo Dian. After the original governor was defeated by us, the Han court sent this person to Julu. Now he is organizing troops near Xiaquyang in the northernmost part of the county. The intention is unknown." At this time. , Zhang Bao, who was sitting on the right side of Zhang Jue, spoke:
"Can we find out Guo Dian's background?"
Bai Que shook his head and only said that this person was from Sili. He didn't know the rest of the situation, but he added:
"Now Julu is everywhere in our Taiping Road. People dare to come to Julu alone. This shows that they are bold in doing things and should not be underestimated."
Zhang Bao read Guo Dian's name once, and then asked Bai Que to continue.
Bai Que nodded, and then told a big news:
"The Yellow Turban comrades in Hanoi desperately sent the news that Yan Luzhi and the main force of the Han Dynasty had arrived at the south bank of Huan River."
This news is indeed a bit shocking, considering that it is not many miles away from Yecheng. The journey of his army only takes three to five days.
Whether to fight or to leave, all the generals were looking at Zhang Jiao. Zhang Jiao looked rosy at this moment, and it was obvious that the damage from the previous arrow was not as severe as imagined.
Zhang Jiao said lightly:
"Yecheng is now unbeatable. We have to retreat to Julu now and hold on there. When the veterans of the Han army are tired, we can go out of the city and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop. General Di Gong will be in charge of the retreat in a moment. Today we will To retreat to Handan, first defeat the Xiang Xu tribe.”
What Zhang Jiao said was true. The generals chanted the slogan that Huang Tian would win, and went down to make preparations.
Looking at the backs of the generals, Zhang Jiao said with mysterious eyes:
"Your apprentice is still unwilling to go north?"
Zhang Liang, who was sitting on the left side of Zhang Jiao, naturally knew that his brother was talking to him, and also knew that the apprentice he was talking about was Zhang Chong.
So Zhang Liang sighed and shook his head.
Zhang Jiao didn't say anything, and the tent fell into silence.
——
At this time, Zhang Chong was also in trouble. He knew that the Yellow Turban Army camp in Hedong County would definitely have a series of troubles, but he still underestimated the short-sightedness and xenophobia of the Yellow Turban Army in East County.
On May 18th, Dian Wei defeated Dong'e County, but now it is the 20th, and Taishan's army is still in Dong'e and has no westward direction. The reason was that they disagreed with Dongjun Taiping Road about the next march.
Bu Ji from Dongjun rushed to Dong'a yesterday to discuss with Zhang Chong. Bu Ji meant that he would lead his troops to cross the Yellow River north and camp with Zhang Jiao. However, Zhang Chong repeatedly advised him to go north now, completely abandoning his colleagues on the south bank of the Yellow River. If he could not gather Taiping Dao from all over Yanzhou together as soon as possible, he would be defeated by the Han court one by one. Therefore, Zhang Chong still insisted on leading his troops to the west and captured Aocang in the Han Dynasty. The main force of the Han soldiers going north relied on Aocang to supply their army. As long as Aocang was captured, the Han soldiers would have no food and would inevitably lose. This is to surround Wei and save Zhao.
Bu Ji had been persuaded by Zhang Chong yesterday, so today Zhang Chong was ready to march west to Puyang. This place is three hundred miles away from Puyang, and it would take ten days for the army to walk alone. Fortunately, this area is the Heji Plain, the road is smooth, and the march is not difficult.
The reason why Zhang Chong wants to attack Puyang next is not only because it is the administrative center of Dongjun, but also because of the situation here. Zhang Chong wants to occupy it as the rear.
Puyang, the ruins of Zhuan Xu in ancient times, is also called Diqiu. It was later the capital of the Wei Kingdom and competed with Qi and Lu for supremacy here. At the end of Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu defeated Zhang Han. Later, Lu Bu also fought with Cao Cao based on this place. Why do these forces have to settle here first?
Because Puyang is located between Dahe and Pu River, it is the west gate of Heji Plain and the east gate of Chenliu. Moreover, there is an important ferry here, Puyang Ferry, which can directly cross the river.
When Zhang Chong takes over this place, he can immediately fly north from this ferry once he can no longer hold on to the Taiping Road in the north. Therefore, Zhang Chong must fight against Puyang, and he has even decided to start a powerful division of land nearby, using this as a base to gain a firm foothold.
But just when Zhang Chong was ready to invite Dongjun Taiping Road to march westward, Bu Ji changed his mind again. This time he neither mentioned going north nor wanted to go westward with Zhang Chong. They are from Dongjun. They cannot leave their homeland and are unwilling to move westward.
When Zhang Chong heard this, he knew it was an excuse.
Sorry for posting late today. Do you want me to draw a map of the counties and counties of Hebei? Because I didn’t plan to write more about the Battle of Hebei, I didn’t think about drawing it at first. But I'm worried that if I don't draw it, readers won't be able to understand what Zhuqushuai from Hebei Province is discussing in this chapter. If you want, I'll draw it tonight. You can take a look at it when the time comes.
(End of chapter)