Chapter 204 Division of Troops
On May 21, the sixth year of Guanghe, the Taishan Army and the Yellow Turbans of Dongjun divided their forces and then headed westward. Among the carriages and horses, 16,000 of their troops galloped along the official road.
But this time, the fate of Dongjun Taiping Road is once again in the hands of others. Otherwise, Zhang Chong marched westward, successfully broke through Aocang and blocked Huangfu Song's northward journey, and history would take a real U-turn. Otherwise, Zhang Chong's defeat would have brought the history of Taiping Road back to its original track. But no matter what, Dongjun Taiping Road failed to seize this opportunity to change its destiny.
To be honest, although Zhang Chong didn't know what the plan was for Dongjun Taiping Road, he already regarded it as a guard dog in his heart. In this age of great strife, I am still asking for land and housing. No wonder in history, Huangfu Song’s side had wiped out all the Taiping Road in Yingchuan. This group of people was still running around on the south bank of the Yellow River, neither going north nor south to support Yingchuan. This is the pattern of co-authorship.
In fact, Zhang Chong regarded Dongjun Taipingdao as a guardian dog, and Dongjun Taipingdao also regarded Zhang Chong as a thief in the religion. Bu Ji said:
"Zhang Chong is not an ally, but he actually has different intentions. It is not a good thing for a great virtuous teacher to start a big thing, but a traitor gets involved."
Things often go like this, when you hate someone, that person probably hates you too. Their parting was all about mutual sympathy.
But no matter who is the stupid one, Zhang Chong's first attempt to form a camp with the forces within the sect failed anyway.
Without the support of Dongjun Taiping Road, Zhang Chong now has enough elite troops, but the military strength to defend the city is not enough. In order to cope with the subsequent series of wars, Zhang Chong will definitely occupy multiple city strongholds to form a three-dimensional defense zone with a certain depth.
However, using Zhang Chong's capable field troops to defend the city would not only be cost-effective, but would also weaken the current military strength. Therefore, Zhang Chong needs a certain number of military forces that can stand in the same camp as him. . For this reason, Zhang Chong could only start what he did in the Taishan area, defeat the powerful, equalize the land, and blast a certain number of field guards to defend his stronghold.
Logically speaking, Zhang Chong's first priority now should be to attack Puyang urgently. Because the fight for Puyang is related to Zhang Chong's entire strategy of coordinating the northern and southern Taiping Roads, rather than breaking down some small dock walls on this road to divide the fields.
But Zhang Chong didn't think so. If he didn't destroy all the dock walls now, when he and Huangfu Song confront each other, the money and food from these wealthy families' dock walls would be used by Huangfu Song. At that time, he and the Han soldiers will be strengthened again.
Secretary Gao Sheng meant that even so, Puyang must be occupied first, and then the troops must be sent back to break the dock walls. There must be a sequence.
But Zhang Chong shook his head and pointed out that if Gao Sheng did what he did, it would be good in theory, but not in practice.
In terms of time, when they arrive in Puyang, it will be June. Then he doesn’t know how long it will take to attack Puyang. If it takes a month, then it will be July immediately, and then he can divide his troops and return to break these dock walls. , divide the fields, and pull up the field guards, it will take at least October. In this way, it will take four months.
Historically, the Han Dynasty prepared troops in March, marched south to Yingchuan in April, defeated the Yellow Turbans of Yingchuan in May, defeated the Yellow Turbans of Runan in June, defeated the Yellow Turbans of Dongjun in August, defeated Zhangjiao and Zhangliang in October, and defeated the Yellow Turbans in October. Zhang Bao was broken in January. If the process of history had not been interrupted, if troops were raised on Taiping Road in April and Huangfu Song came out of seclusion in May, then we would now be in the stage of confrontation with the Yingchuan Yellow Turbans.
If it took him four months to raise the field guards, then according to the progress, Huangfu Song would have already reached Dongjun. So there is not enough time.
It was also at this time that Zhang Chong decided to take a two-pronged approach and decided to divide his troops.
Now he has 8,000 victorious soldiers and 8,000 old troops. Now that we want to establish a base in the Heji area, we can leave the old camp here and divide it into two thousand troops to break down the dock walls and equalize the fields in this area.
After thinking about it, Zhang Chong leaned on his horse and shouted to the guards behind him:
"Map."
Then a guard immediately pulled out a map captured in Dong'a. This was a map of counties in the Heji area of Yanzhou. It was not very accurate, but the names of each county were there.
Zhang Chong looked at the map and immediately said to Shi Fan Chang, the secretary who accompanied the army:
"I want you to write this military report."
Fan Chang, acting as Zhang Chong, carried the penholder with him, leaned on the saddle to write, and then listened to Zhang Chong:
"Order Dong Fang to lead a hundred cross-collision troops, leading Heifu, Xi Shen, Wang Han, and Ma Wu Baiqi, and combine two thousand troops to stay in the Heji area, defeat Juancheng and Linqiu counties, and use this as a stronghold Establish the Heji base area. The requirements are to break down the wall of the dock in this area, divide the fields, and pull out a field guard who can hold a knife and not shake in the face of the enemy."
Here Zhang Chong has finished speaking, and over there Fan Chang has already started writing, and he is indeed the first author of the Taishan Army. Of course, he is definitely not as good as Cai Yong, but who told Cai Yong not to write this kind of thing.
The five generals Zhang Chong drafted all had their own considerations. For example, the reason why Dong Fan is the main general is because Zhang Chong promoted Dong Fan and wanted him to have the qualifications to take charge of his own affairs. Because Dong Fang was from Jiyin in Yanzhou, and the Juancheng and Linqiu counties they wanted to occupy belonged to Jiyin County. It was easier for Dong to open up the situation by visiting people in his hometown. Don't underestimate the rural people. In this era when the official population is very small, the local accent is still the dominant one in various places. If Zhang Chong chooses a foreigner to host here, the locals won't understand what they say, so how can they communicate with each other? This is also the reason why Zhang Chong established the camp head and basically organized and trained together with the children from his hometown. Without him, this is the only way.
Then he assigned Dong to visit a hundred-person collision team, not to serve as guards for him, but to serve as his training officers. The members of the collision team are originally composed of ten generals, so training ten people is no problem. After joining the collision team and learning the basics of writing and training in the team, it was no problem for each person to train fifty soldiers.
So this 100-man collision team was the seed that Zhang Chong used to pull out 5,000 field-protecting soldiers for Dong Fang. Zhang Chong's request to Dong Fang was that within three months, that is, by August, he would have to raise a field guard force of at least 5,000 people. Of course, if the target is exceeded, Zhang Chong will have his own reward. If it fails, then Dong Fang's future will have to be wasted.
Then there were the generals that Dong visited, and they all had their own opinions. Let’s talk about Heifu first. Heifu is the oldest and most loyal brother among them. When these two thousand soldiers are divided, Zhang Chong must have a rope, and this rope is Heifu. Moreover, there is another thing Zhang Chong values about Heifu, that is, he obeys military orders and is a very good executor. Therefore, he is not worried about Heifu relying on his old age to act against him and Dong Fang.
Then there is Xi Shen. The primary reason for choosing Xi Shen is that he is from Chengyang in Jiyin and a local snake in the north of Jiyin. Before he joined Zhang Chong's command, he had already gathered in Heji with his evil boys. Therefore, choosing Xi Shen means that he is familiar with people and geography and can assist Bi. Of course, another important reason is that this person has brains. Since he went to Lushan alone to persuade the Lushan bandits to surrender, this person is brave, resourceful and lucky. Zhang Chong wants him to be the cover-up for Dong Fang, just in case he is really Something went wrong, and Xi Shen was still there.
Then there is Wang Han's Laiwu Camp, which Zhang Chong carefully considered and arranged. Almost every one of the soldiers in the Laiwu Camp was the beneficiary of Zhang Chong's land allocation in the Taishan area. They were all the second sons of the family. The army that entered in order to let the family allocate good land could be said to be in harmony with the local Jiyin area. sex.
Zhang Chong was not worried that the team pulled out from behind would become a hilltop, there was already a hilltop, but Zhang Chong subconsciously wanted to neutralize the xenophobia in the area, so he inserted Taishan people into it. As for the general Wang Han, he was originally from Yanzhou, so it was natural for him to be responsible for the war from Dong'a to the western boundary of the county.
Finally, there is Ma Wu. The reason why he was given these hundred assault cavalry is because this area is the Great Plains, which is suitable for cavalry to gallop freely. With hundreds of horses and horses, it can be said that as long as Dong Fang uses his troops properly, he can serve as thousands of elite soldiers in the Heji area.
This also shows how much effort Zhang Chong put into making this division of troops go smoothly, but it was all worth it.
While he was thinking, Dong Fang had already led Hei Fu and the other four generals to Zhang Chong to take orders.
Looking at Dong Fang who was walking on thin ice, Zhang Chong encouraged him again:
"A Fang, you are the one who went out by my side. Your behavior is not only your own, but also belongs to the entire collision team, and to me, Zhang Chong. I will hand over the hundred-man collision team to you, and you must treat them as a weapon. For training officers, build a team for me. You will be my backup then, do you understand?”
Dong Fan knelt down to Zhang Chong:
"Qu Kui, don't worry. Dong Fang's body was shattered to pieces and he obtained the land of Heji for Qu Kui."
Zhang Chong nodded, and then called the many camp leaders of the old camp. He said to these old men:
"You are all my Taiping Taoist disciples. Now that the world is overturned, we can only escape from the land of inchworms to survive. But I and you promise that as long as our Taishan Army is still here, you don't have to worry that your efforts will be buried. Your merits will be deprived of you. Afterwards, your hard work in the old camp will be converted into merits, and your efforts will not be taken for granted. Let me tell everyone: there is no distinction between high and low. , when discussing honors, there is no difference. If we all eat from the same pot and bear the same risks, I will treat you the same.”
After finishing speaking, Zhang Chong said to Dong Fang:
"Ah Fang, now I will hand over the 8,000 members of the old camp to you. You must treat them kindly and reward them. You must organize and train some underage boys according to the military ranks and unify them into the 'Shaolang Camp'. These brats are me Waiting for the future is also the future of my Taiping Road.”
Dong Fang nodded solemnly. He knew that what Zhang Chong mentioned was his future work, so he remembered it carefully.
Finally, Zhang Chong bowed to his secretary Gaosheng and said:
"Mr. Bai Ya, I will hand over this Heji land to you. Please guard the rear for me, please."
Gao Sheng's name was Baiya, and he was entrusted by Zhang Chong to assist Dong to visit Liuheji and serve as the rear of the entire army.
In this way, Zhang Chong arranged the team of the Heji Army, and the whole army marched westward. During the journey, they broke down the walls of the strongholds and attacked Han soldiers whenever they encountered them. After only traveling 120 miles on the 15th, Zhang Chong finally arrived at Juancheng. Zhang Chong left Dong Fang's Heji Army and Laoying's 8,000 troops to continue to build a stronghold in this area, and then carried a streamlined 6,000 elite troops to march in one day. At a speed of forty miles, it took only five days to reach Puyang.
At this moment, Puyang is heavily guarded, and a killing is inevitable.
(End of chapter)