Chapter 210 Zhou Mu
Just as the Taishan Army and the Han Army were fighting in the wilderness of Puyang, a military report from Beizhonglang General Lu Zhi was also sent to Liu Hong in Kyoto.
Lu Zhi wrote three things in his memorial:
One is about the war in Hebei. Since Lu was implanted in Hebei, he first fought with the Yellow Turban Army against the military envoy, and then joined forces with four thousand cavalry from the Wuhuan School Wei Zong to defeat the Yellow Turban Army in Handan. However, the main force of the Yellow Turban Army was not lost, but retreated to Quliang to continue fighting with Han soldiers.
The second is about the war in Dongjun. Lu Zhi himself saw through the Taishan Army's strategy of marching westward to Aocang. On the one hand, he sent Zhong Shao south to guard Puyangjin. On the other hand, he wrote down the possibility that the Taishan bandits might attack Aocang westward during the war, so that the central government could make early preparations.
The third is Lu Zhi's suggestions on how to pacify Taiping Road now. He pointed out in the military newspaper that the current administration could no longer keep up with the development of the war. In the past, civil riots and bandits were all small-scale, and only one prefect could coordinate the suppression of all counties in the county. But now the Yellow Turban thieves are invading all directions, and they have already spread across states and counties. It would be okay if the Yellow Turbans are still in the prefectures, and they can suppress them carefully. But if the Yellow Turbans break into other counties, the prefect of this county will ignore them. Some eunuchs even regarded their neighbors as their own borders and devoted themselves to driving the Yellow Turban thieves to other counties. Finally, the Yellow Turban thieves also took advantage of this disadvantage and kept running back and forth in the border area, destroying them endlessly. Therefore, Lu Zhi suggested that the original governor should be changed to Mu Bo, who should focus on the military affairs of a state and select important cities to occupy his post, so as to coordinate with the governors in the state and suppress the bandits.
Liu Hong read Lu Zhi's military report, and thought of the joint military report from Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun he received a few days ago, and became worried. Because the news sent by Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun was not very good either.
The main force of the Han army on the South Route left the customs in May, and now the first military report has been sent in June, and they have been defeated in succession.
Huangfu Song's military report stated that Zhu Jun first attacked Yingchuan Bocai's troops, suffered a slight setback, and retreated to Yangdi. Then Huangfu Song's tribe came and joined forces to attack the Yingchuan Bocai tribe, but the battle was unsuccessful. Later, Huangfu Song observed the formation and found that the Bocai tribe had set up a stronghold on the grass. He immediately cut off the fire and attacked the Bocai tribe.
Especially in summer, the weather is dry and fires are burning. But just when Huangfusong thought that this battle was a victory, a summer rainstorm suddenly struck the general, and Bocai's troops were safe except for a small amount of their baggage that was burned. In the end, Huangfusong could only continue to stalemate with Yingchuan Taiping Road in Yangdi.
Not only that, Zhao Qian, the governor of Runan, was defeated by Taiping Road in this county. Chu Gong, the prefect of Nanyang, was attacked and killed by Zhang Mancheng's troops. The Yellow Turbans in Guangyang killed Guo Xun, the governor of Youzhou, and Liu Wei, the prefect. It can be said that there is no good news.
Because of the current situation, Liu Hong had to seriously consider Lu Zhi's suggestion, which was to establish a state pastor. But he also knew that this matter was of great importance, so he said that why the Han family made the prefect the head of the place was to absorb the chaos of the Six Kingdoms. The lesson is not to make the place powerful.
After thinking about it, Liu Hong called Yang Ci to discuss the matter. Yang Ci meant that he could only set up a prefecture in Yanzhou first. It was a land of four wars and really needed a magistrate to unify the counties and provide a unified state. The empire held Xingyang to the east.
Finally, Yang Ci recommended the capable minister Huang Wan to be the Fang Bo of Yanzhou.
Huang Wan came from the Huang family in Anlu, Jiangxia. Like Yang Ci, he was a descendant of the public clan. His great-grandfather Huang Xiang was a famous minister, and his grandfather Huang Qiong was the third Duke. And he himself was famous when he was young. Later, due to the party's imprisonment, he was banned from office for twenty years, but this did not let him waste his time. On the contrary, his fame spread all over the world.
Liu Hong had no objection this time because Yang Cilu was able to predict the current affairs, so he agreed to Huang Wan Chijie as the shepherd of Yanzhou and in charge of all military affairs within the territory.
Huang Wan sent the edict on June 4th. The next day, he immediately set out. Also setting off with him was the Dang bandit general Zhou Shen, who led 800 Liangzhou soldiers to serve as Huang Wan's troops and march eastward together. On June 16, Huang Wan and others arrived at Chenliu Fengqiu. It was also at this time that news of the destruction of Puyang City reached here.
They were too late, and Puyang, the county seat of Yanzhou, was breached.
What's going on? Puyangjin was broken on the 11th, but Puyang City fell on June 15th. How is this possible? How did he defeat Zhang Chong?
This is all thanks to one person, Zang Rong, the left-behind deputy general of Liyang Camp. After Zang Gong, the famous general of Guangwu Zhongxing, he had been the deputy general who stayed at Liyang Camp. The chief generals of the camp had to go out of Zhongshan Kingdom and Xianbei was on guard.
Let me tell you the story of these four days first.
Puyang City has said a long time ago that this fortified city, which has been renovated in the past dynasties, is surrounded by a large river and is easy to defend but difficult to attack. And because this is a crossing of a large river, there are ample supplies of food, fodder, and military supplies. Then there are high walls on all four sides, the east city is two feet five feet high, the south city is three feet high, the west city is two feet six feet high, and the north city is two feet seven feet high. They are generally one foot higher than the county towns at the same level.
Originally, the Puyang Fortress, supplemented by the Puyangjin Barrier not far away, could form a limited and in-depth defense system, which was more effective than simply defending the isolated city. Because if we can stabilize our stronghold outside the city, we can fight a positional battle with the Yellow Turban Army outside the city. In that case, the security inside the city will be easier to ensure.
But unfortunately, because of Cao Shao's cowardice, he refused to leave the city, causing the Yellow Turban Army to calmly remove the Puyangjin stronghold. Of course, there is a saying that the excessive superstition of Puyang City's defense by the wealthy families in the city, such as the Tian family, may be the key.
Puyangjin broke through the wall at noon on the 11th. In the afternoon, Cao Shao felt that the situation was unsafe, so he posted a list in the city to recruit troops. Puyang is a big city. There are fifteen cities in Dongjun, with a population of 140,000 and a population of 700,000. Puyang has 30,000 households and 160,000 people, of which 20,000 to 30,000 people live in Puyang City. It is truly a big river city.
Therefore, when the prefect Cao Shao posted a list to recruit soldiers, he should be able to recruit a lot of people. But in fact, there were only a few people who responded, and only 500 soldiers were gathered, that is, five villages. In order to stimulate more people to join the army, Cao Shao became ruthless. First, he increased the reward for recruiting soldiers every other day. It even posted a reward of 100,000 yuan for those who can fend off the thieves. But the people of Puyang were not moved at all, and no one responded. This was the result of Cao Shao's abuse of the people in the past. When it came to the end, no one was willing to sacrifice their life for him.
With no choice, Cao Shao could only send county soldiers to force the people of Puyang to go to the city, promising a reward of three hundred per day, but in fact the people of Puyang actually received the reward in vain, and then fled home. In the end, after working for a long time, Cao Shao only recruited 500 new soldiers and was in great embarrassment.
But fortunately, at this moment, Lieutenant Lihu County had received the military order from the governor Cao Shao, and he finally led five hundred Shanshan troops.
Due to their limited strength, the Taishan Army did not surround Puyang on all sides, but only camped in the east of the city to attack. So Lihu's five hundred soldiers entered the city directly from the south of the city.
As the saying goes, Cao Shaoshi arrived in the next two days, and soldiers from Baima, Yanxian and other places successively entered Puyang City. In particular, Yanxian soldiers also borrowed 800 foreign soldiers, namely Chenliu jujube soldiers. As a result, by June 13th, the military strength in Puyang City had swelled to 4,000, and they were able to compete with the Taishan Army outside the city.
But chaos also emerged as these foreign soldiers entered Puyang. There is a common phenomenon among the soldiers of this apocalypse, that is, when they encounter thieves, they become angry and seize the people's belongings. They were bad at fighting, but they were good at looting.
The soldiers from Lihu, Baima, and Yan counties were okay. After all, they were local soldiers from Dong County. They had the nostalgia of the countryside, so it was hard to go too far. But it also drove away a large area of the house and gave it away to use as a place to stay.
They came to save Puyang, should they let them sleep on the street? Does this make sense?
The eight hundred soldiers of Suanzao went too far. Depending on whether they were reinforcements or foreign soldiers, they raped and looted wantonly. When they found someone they liked, they were kidnapped into the military camp, which made the public opinion in Puyang boil.
But Cao Shao ignored it and just entertained the generals every day, drinking and singing. Cao Shao had reason to be happy, because he suddenly discovered that fighting could actually make a fortune.
As long as a false article is published in the book, thousands of money will come rolling in.
With the help of several old officials, he continued to falsify accounts and inflate losses. There was obviously no battle outside, but he had already lost hundreds of thousands of arrows here. Cao Shao did not keep the money for himself, but generously shared it with the foreign soldiers.
He, Cao Shao, is not stupid. Only by catching these soldiers can he be safe.
But unfortunately, on June 15, a group of cavalry claiming to be Liyang Camp appeared in the north of the city, saying that they would enter the city to provide assistance.
The North Gate garrison was from the Ji clan in Weiguo County, and they were also the first powerful soldiers to join Puyang. His family came after the ancient Wei Dynasty and had always enjoyed food rations and shared weal and woe with the Han family.
This man looked at the talismans and seals representing Zang Rong of Liyang Camp from the hanging bamboo basket, and there was no mistake. He knew that Zang Rong was a powerful general from Liyang, and his Liyang battalion was a powerful force that had repeatedly gone out to the fortress, so he lowered the suspension bridge without much hesitation and let this group of people in.
But then these cavalry began to charge at the city gate opening, directly entering the city, followed closely by endless enemy soldiers.
Now Puyang is finished.
Naturally, it was the Taishan Army's cavalry that rushed into the city, but what happened to Zang Rong's talismans and seals? This is not fake.
It is true that this thing is genuine, and it was obtained by Zang Rong.
It turned out that when many reinforcements entered Puyang, Zang Rong of Liyang Camp also went south. With only a hundred Youzhou cavalry, he confidently passed the White Horse and quickly marched eastward to Puyang, taking twice as long as he did.
On June 14, he arrived outside Puyang but did not enter the city, because the cavalry entering the city would not be of much use, but it could play a decisive role outside the city.
Then he discovered the loopholes in Puyangjin and decided to take the risk and raid Qiaozhai. The man was really brave. He led a hundred cavalry and charged forward wildly. He really hit the Taishan army by surprise. Many of them didn't have time to put on their clothes and armor when Zang Rong came to kill them.
But it was a pity that the camp Zang Rong charged was the southern camp, and Guan Yu was in that camp.
Seeing that the officials had not had time to prepare, Guan Yu himself put on his armor and rode out of the stronghold with a silk stocking. Before Zang Rong could react, Guan Yu had already killed him in front of Zang Rong. Then, without waiting for anyone to react, Guan Yu stood up and fell from his horse. , and then the man was trampled to death by the horse behind him.
But Guan Yu killed these hundreds of horses by himself, and was soaked with sweat, but he was not hurt at all.
These Youzhou assault cavalry were all blinded. In the blink of an eye, the general was gone, and then in the blink of an eye, they were surrounded by thieves. They were all whip-haired Wuhuan people. They were chattering in a hurry. Taishan Army could not understand a word of what they said. Some of them got tired of listening and immediately cursed:
"Abandon your weapons and surrender."
The Wuhuan people understood this and immediately dismounted their horses and knelt on the ground. They always kneel down easily in front of Han people.
This is the main theme of this era, one man acts as five barbarians.
(End of chapter)