Chapter 240 Copy the tail
Guanghe six years, August 20th.
The Taishan Army and Ru Ying Huangjin finally went north together.
During these days of repairing supplies in Yingyang. Although the Taishan Army mainly garrisoned at the original Han camp ramparts, they still followed military regulations and set up small villages at the four entrances of the surrounding arteries. Although it was unlikely that the Han army would turn around and attack the Taishan army again, Zhang Chong, who had always been cautious in using troops, decided to arrange it in this way to block the potential offensive line of the Han army.
At the same time, during the days of renovation, Taishan's army maintained strict discipline. They did not loot the countryside or kill the people. They only systematically searched the properties of the wealthy people in the countryside and distributed all the seized wealth to the people. The Taishan Army's slogan of doing justice for heaven and punishing criminals has become deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in this series of practical actions.
The fact that so many heroes defected to the Taishan Army this time has a lot to do with the strict discipline of the Taishan Army itself. Too many people in Guizhou who could not survive have defected to Taishan's army, leaving thousands of soldiers behind to block the roads. However, when the local tycoons faced Taishan's army coming out from all directions, they all fled first. The positive and negative of the above made the Taishan Army very powerful in the central area of Yingchuan.
Generally speaking, these newly defected heroic members will not be able to enter the Taishan Army's battle order from the beginning. On the one hand, they are not familiar with it yet and dare not leave their back or heart to them. On the other hand, these new defectors are often not very effective in fighting and cannot go into battle directly.
Therefore, the Luo Gang and Pan Zhang tribes that were previously recruited in Puyang are still being trained in Puyang.
But this time, the Taishan Army did not reject anyone who came, and directly selected its strongest troops to train four battalions with two thousand soldiers. The reason is very simple. Zhang Chong does not have enough troops now and needs to put up a fight quickly, otherwise he will suffer a loss when he joins forces with Ma Yuanyi and He Yi.
But despite this, the four businesses compiled by Zhang Chong are not simple, and they are all somewhat talkative.
One is the Yingyang camp, and the camp will be the local hero Ma Bao who has taken refuge. It is said that he is a descendant of Yingyang Hou Ma Fang, but in the territory of Yingyang, there are not only one thousand, but also eight hundred. He is now a powerful official among the iron officials, and the battle of Yingyang has been settled. Later, he killed the officials and took six hundred iron official slaves to defect to Zhang Chong.
The second is the Xiangcheng camp, and the camp general is Li Jing, the ranger of Xiangcheng. He took advantage of the chaos and rose up. After being defeated by the local wealthy Li family, he took the remaining 400 people to Taiping Road.
The rest are the two battalions on the left and right of Sicheng, and the battalion generals are Xu Zhong and Chen Guang respectively. They were all rangers from Si City who were on the run. Seeing the majesty of Taishan's army, they came here to fight for their future.
In addition to expanding the four battalions of troops, the Taishan Army was also digesting the prisoners of the Han Army.
Zhang Chong had no use for most of the officers in the Han army's infantry and cavalry, but continued to stay with him as auxiliary soldiers in the collision team. These people have a sense of family and country, and their interests are highly consistent with the Han court. Even if they surrender to Zhang Chong, Zhang Chong will still be useless for the sake of the purity of the army.
But Zhang Chong absorbed the remaining Han soldiers. A total of one thousand cavalry and one thousand armored soldiers were absorbed. Among the thousand cavalry, 800 were Han cavalry who were forced to surrender in the Battle of Changshe. In other words, in this battle of Yingyang, a total of less than 200 Han cavalry surrendered. It can be seen that the Han cavalry in this battle The intensity of consumption.
The number of these two thousand surrendered troops was close to Zhang Chong's own main force, making Zhang Chong's strength almost doubled. During most of the time they were stationed in Yingyang, the officers of the Taishan Army were familiar with these newly added descendants. It was hard to say that they had much trust, but at least they had to be familiar with them.
After absorbing so many surrendered troops, isn't Zhang Chong worried about problems? Of course I have this concern. But Zhang Chong made three preparations.
On the one hand, the surrendered troops were disrupted and added to the battalions under his command. On the one hand, he ordered the army to preach and talk about the Taishan Army's policies. Whether it was the holy treasury system or the temptation to divide the fields in the future, they were very attractive to the poor Han soldiers. Finally, Zhang Chong also ordered Zhang Dan's army stationed in Fengqiu to march westward and join him in Xingyang. By then, the two armies will have more than 10,000 troops combined, and the ratio of these two thousand surrendered troops is not an exaggeration.
When the Taishan Army and Ruying's Yellow Turbans went northward. The force personnel are as follows. Among them, the main force of Taishan Army is 6,000, the cavalry is 2,000, the infantry is 4,000, and the new auxiliary army is 2,000. Then there is the old camp of the rear army with 18,000 people, doing the work of pushing baggage and carts. All the mules and donkeys that Zhang Chong used to go south had been given to the old camp to be used as draft animals for the baggage trucks.
The Yellow Turban He Yi tribe in Runan has a military strength of 8,000, of which 6,000 are strong and brave enough to fight, forming a unit of its own. The last one is Ma Yuanyi's Yingchuan remnant, with a military strength of 10,000, of which the number of capable fighters is roughly 6,000. In other words, the Taishan Army, Runan Army, and Yingchuan Army are roughly equal in strength. This gives both Ma Yuanyi and He Yi a certain sense of security.
Then the armies of Ru and Ying also followed, totaling tens of thousands of people. Therefore, at the last count, the total number of Yellow Turban troops heading north to Aocang was close to 50,000.
Such a large-scale march is naturally very impressive. Twenty miles along the way, apricot-yellow flags were fluttering, and the armor was fierce. But the commanders of the three armies are worried.
Just because of one thing: there is not much food.
Ru Ying Huangjin was already short of food earlier. Previously, Peng Tuo decided to fight in advance because the entire army only had enough grain for another ten days. However, Taishan's army traveled hundreds of miles with only sufficient rations and not much food. Fortunately, the Han army had enough food for the barrier at that time. A few days before the war, a batch of military rations had just been delivered from the rear.
However, after the Han army was defeated, no more food supplies came in. After the food supplies in the barrier were divided between the Ru and Ying armies, most of them were consumed by the expansion of the army and the capture of prisoners. Therefore, the food reserves at that time were only enough for about 20 days.
Before, in order to raise food. Three groups of Yellow Turbans sent troops to the four villages to attack the wall of the dock and plunder food. But this does not fundamentally solve the problem and can only maintain supply for a short period of time.
To solve this problem, the fundamental thing is to break through one or two Han army cities, so as to obtain large-scale supplies.
After discussing with Ma Yuanyi and He Yi, Zhang Chong decided to attack Changshe again.
Now that the three armies are fighting together, the military command naturally needs to be discussed by the three of them. But in fact, both Ma Yuanyi and He Yi knew that in terms of military strategy, no matter how proud they were, they could not compare to Zhang Chong, the soaring general. After all, where are Zhang Chong's past achievements? So generally as long as what Zhang Chong says is reasonable and well-founded, these two people will listen to Zhang Chong's suggestions.
The same goes for playing Changshe this time. On the one hand, the Thai-Henan coalition forces are indeed short of food, and Changshe has been attacked several times by Bo Cai before, but the city has not been broken. There must be a lot of savings in the city. On the other hand, the Taishan Army needs a strategic environment where it can advance and attack and retreat and defend.
The Taiyu Yellow Turbans are indeed going north to Aocang, but they are not going to die. Changshe is located below Xingyang. If you want to go north to Xingyang, this Changshe is the only way. If this city is not captured, the Han army here can completely contact the remnants of the main Han army in Yangzhai to attack the Taiyu Yellow Turbans from the rear.
At that time, it would be very dangerous for them to attack Xingyang in front and be attacked by the Han army in the back.
For this reason, Changshe must also be defeated and leave a way out for himself.
And now is a window period. The current situation in Yuzhou is generally beneficial to Zhang Chong.
At present, in Yuzhou, the entire frontline Han army includes Zuo Zhonglang General, You Zhonglang General, and Han soldiers in various counties and counties. The powerful tribes number more than 50,000 people, of which the powerful tribes account for 50,000 people. Half of it is indeed the core hinterland of the empire.
But these military forces were unable to help Zhang Chong for a while. Zuo Zhonglang's general Huangfu Song has deteriorated and is unable to serve as director. The court has sent a new coach south to Yangdi to take charge of the work. Before the head coach took office and the various departments were integrated and trained, it would be difficult for his departments to send troops to intercept Zhang Chong.
Zhu Jungang, the right middle man general, was reprimanded by the Hanting Central Committee and ordered him to quickly join the left middle man general. But Zhu Jun has his own plan. He thought that his strategy of going south to Runan was very good, and it directly hit the waist of the Yellow Turban Army.
Together with Wang Yun, the prefect of Yuzhou, he mobilized the Yuan and Zhou families of Ruyang, the Huan family of Shangcai, the Kong family of Song Gong, the Chen family of Shaoling, the Fan family of Qiang, and the Chen family, Xu family, Liao family, and Dai family of Pingyu. The Ancheng Zhou family; the Nandun Ying family; the Xiyang Zhang family; the Xiping Li family; and the Qisi Sun family.
Which of these powerful families is not born with two thousand stones, has thousands of servants, and has a tribe of hundreds of people. With a little mobilization of armed forces, a powerful force of more than 10,000 people was gathered in Runan alone. Together with Zhu Jun's main force of more than 10,000 Han troops, they swept away fallen leaves like an autumn wind and defeated the remaining Yellow Turban army in Runan.
After only half a month of marching south, Zhu Jun had already captured and killed 20,000 Yellow Turbans and captured countless cattle and millet. Moreover, this offensive directly mobilized the Runan Yellow Turbans from Yingyang to go south, greatly reducing the pressure on Huangfu Songbu in Yangzhai. So he asked Chen Shangshu to stay in Runan and start another journey. However, for Zhang Chong, Zhu Jun was facing Huang Shao who was coming from the south and had no chance to disturb his retreat from behind. So this department is also abolished.
Therefore, the only people who had the chance to cause trouble to Zhang Chong were the local soldiers and horses of Changshe. But what are those benefits for?
On August 20th, 50,000 Thai and Henan troops marched north, and on the 24th they surrounded Changshe.
The two powerful families of the Changshe Zhong family and the Han family mobilized their clan soldiers to defend the city together with the Changshe County Magistrate. However, they only held off for three days before the city of Changshe was captured. Several brave generals from the Taishan Army climbed up the stairs first, and Ma Bao, the general from the Yingyang camp, killed the Changshe county captain and won the battle.
In this battle, except for a few of their children, the Zhong and Han families were all wiped out by Taishan's army. Although these two families resisted the Taishan Army, Zhang Chong did not massacre his family. Not only that, Zhang Chong also specially hosted a banquet for the heads of the two families, Zhong Yu and Han Rong. The reason for this is because one of them has a relationship with the head teacher, and the other has a family that is benevolent to the Taishan people.
How to say this. Zhong Yu is Zhong Yao's father, but more importantly, they are party members. To be honest, they are somewhat related to Taiping Dao. There is a high-level executive in Taiping Dao in Hebei named Zhong Xian, who is in the position of offering wine. And this person was a member of the Zhong clan, so Zhang Chong did not torture the Zhong clan.
And Han Rong is even more different. His father's name is Han Shao. Twenty years ago when Gongsun Ju Dakui started an uprising in Mount Tai, Han Shao was the county magistrate. At that time, the chaos was turbulent and refugees were everywhere. Many people fled to Ying County. When he was about to starve to death, it was Han Shao who took the risk of beheading to open a granary and release grain, saving countless people. Many people in the Taishan Army are descendants of the victims who were rescued twenty years ago, so everyone still remembers the life-saving grace that year.
But the other powerful families in the city did not have this treatment. The Taishan Army used familiar procedures to inspect their property.
The capture of Changshe greatly enriched the inventory of the Thai-Henan coalition forces. Moreover, after seeing the smooth and rhythmic process of siege and torture by the Taishan Army, Ruying's Yellow Turban exclaimed that it was awesome. In their minds, the prestige of the Taishan Army was greatly improved.
Using this Changshe battle, the cohesion of the three armies has improved a lot.
After taking a short rest and replenishing supplies, Zhang Chong left Chen Huan as the guard of Changshe, and then led his army and the Zhong and Han clansmen to continue northward, and soon left the boundary of Yuzhou and headed towards Sili. The school captain left.
Their next stop was Xinzheng.
——
The Taishan army is attacking like a tiger over there, but what is the Han army doing here?
Did nothing! Just wait.
Of course this is not accurate either. As early as when the Thai-Henan Yellow Turban coalition moved north, Cao Cao in Yangdi suggested that Zhao Rong, who was temporarily in charge of military strategy, send troops to attack and not allow the thieves to move north.
However, Zhao Rong reprimanded Cao Cao, a defeated general, and did not adopt Cao Cao's suggestions.
In fact, Zhao Rong knew the purpose of Taishan's army going north. The Taishan Army's troop dispatching strategy was too clear. Generals with a little military talent knew that the Taishan Army went north to attack Xingyang. And once Xingyang is broken, the Han army's food route in Hebei will be cut off. It's really hard to say how many people there will survive by then.
But Zhi Gui knew that Zhao Rong had nothing to do. Doesn't he want to fight? Doesn't he want to be the Han Dynasty hero who turns the tide? But he really can't do it.
From the Yingyang battlefield, only three of the five armies were able to retreat to Yangdi. One of the armies was afraid of being held accountable because it was the first to withdraw from the battlefield, so it never dared to merge with Zhao. In addition, the morale of the whole army is not high. It would be good if they can hold the passage to Kyoto. It is really difficult to mobilize them to fight out.
Of course, there are thousands of reasons for not sending troops, but there is only one reason for wanting to send troops. If it were Cao Cao, no matter how difficult the situation was, he would work hard as long as it was beneficial to the overall situation. But Zhao Rong couldn't do it. All the above reasons were just his shirk. In the final analysis, this person was just an official and didn't have much responsibility.
But when he refused Cao Cao's suggestion, Cao Cao stabbed him.
He didn't know what method he used, but he actually bewitched Bao Hong, the captain of the Zuo Army, and asked him to go east to Changsha with the intention of intercepting the Taishan Army.
Bao Hong, the captain of the Zuo Army, was the first to withdraw from the battlefield that day. He was worried about being held accountable and could not seek stability like Zhao Rong. With Cao Cao's chest-beating assurance, he set off with his four thousand men.
Cao Cao said that as long as he could stop this battle, or even make an effort to intercept the westward march, he would use his connections to intercede for Bao Hong. Not only would he not be guilty, but he would also have merit.
When all the generals were hesitant to move forward, you, Bao Hong, were the only loyal and brave warrior to persevere and face difficulties. Aren't you an upright and loyal minister?
This is how Bao Hong was persuaded.
But Bao Hong is not stupid. He knows that if he really intercepts the Yellow Turban Army with his small force, he will not be able to stand in the way, and he will definitely be able to use the mantis as a chariot. Therefore, after he delayed building the pontoon bridge in Yingshui for a while, he carefully launched it in the direction of Changshe.
Not only that, with the 4,000 soldiers in hand, he also divided his troops to advance in four directions, fearing that he would run into the enemy along the way and the entire army would be annihilated. In this way, we walked and stopped, and when we arrived at the Wuliting Pavilion outside Changshe, we finally found out that the main force of the Taishan Army continued to move north, and the only one left in Changshe was an unknown person named Chen Huan.
Bao Hong's courage increased and he was bound to recapture Changshe.
But when Bao Hong ordered all the troops to join forces, he was attacked head-on by Chen Huan.
On August 27, while Bao Hong's foothold was not stable, Chen Huan led a thousand elite troops out of the city and marched hastily to attack Bao Hong. Bao Hong was caught off guard at first and suffered many casualties. However, when he discovered that there were not many Yellow Turbans on the opposite side, Bao Hong personally led the counterattack and stopped the retreat. The two armies fought fiercely for an hour. Chen Huan, who had fewer troops, finally couldn't hold it anymore and led his troops to retreat.
When Bao Hong decisively led his troops in pursuit, he wanted to take the opportunity to cover up and enter Changsha.
In his opinion, the thieves on the opposite side do not know how to fight. If he defended Changshe, he might not be able to defeat Changshe with the few troops he had, but now these bandits actually chose to go out of the city to fight in the field, and they still want to attack? Now he happened to be rolled back, and it turned out to be Bao Hong's luck.
But Bao Hong was not happy for long when he suddenly heard that he had been attacked by unknown cavalry in the rear and had collapsed. Bao Hong was stunned and looked at the retreating bandit soldiers in front. At this time, they began to counterattack.
Bao Hong realized that it was over and he had been tricked by the thieves.
Indeed, the tactics used by Chen Huan now are tail copying methods commonly used by the Taishan Army. It is to preset an ambush to cover the enemy's rear during the retreat, and then the front army will turn back and attack, attacking from both front and rear. Generally speaking, when an enemy is suddenly ambushed like this, few can resist it.
Chen Huan used the tail-copying method this time, and the person responsible for copying the tail was the Taishan Army's assault cavalry who had already gone north. The cavalry general Ren Yun led five hundred cavalry and struck Bao Hong directly in the middle.
It turned out that three days ago, Chen Huan detected that Bao Hong's troops were attacking Changshe in a divided force. He quickly sent a cavalry to catch up with Zhang Chong's main army, and invited a cavalry to go south, ambush Bao Hong, and kill him in one fell swoop. This department.
At this time, Bao Hong's troops were suddenly attacked from both front and rear, losing ground in advance and retreat, and the entire army collapsed. Ren Yun led 500 horsemen and chased and killed the Han soldiers with ribbons. For a time, the fields of Changshe were once again littered with corpses.
But not long after, more than 2,000 Han troops from the rear caught up and supported them. Bao Hong fled into this army in embarrassment and finally escaped death.
Ren Yunbu and Chen Huan met at the same place. Seeing that the Han army in front was well-organized and worried about more reinforcements coming from behind, they knew that the fighter plane had been lost, so they gradually withdrew into the city. Ren Yun was left by Zhang Chong to assist Chen Huan in guarding the Changshe.
Although Bao Hong was safe, he was so frightened that he no longer dared to set up camp at Wuli Pavilion and retreated. He no longer planned a quick victory. He wanted to "siege" the Yellow Turban Army in the dead city eight miles away from Changshe.
Bao Hong's embarrassment spread back to Yangdi and became a joke. When the enemy is eight miles away and besieged for a long time, it is said that he is trapping the thieves to death. For a time, knowledgeable people called him General Rat Gut.
But Bao Hong couldn't bear the friendly troops in the rear, and scolded the people behind him that they were like guardian dogs, not even as good as a guard dog. Housekeepers will yell a few words when thieves cross the border, but you people don't dare to fart when thieves cross the border, for fear that making too much noise will attract the attention of the thieves. You are simply cowardly. He was ashamed to be with Bao Hong.
At this time, Bao Hong stabbed the lungs of Yangzhai's allies. They cursed each other in the distance for a while. The lawsuit hit the center and they blamed each other.
It was under this circumstance that the new commander from the center led two thousand Chinese troops south to Yangdi.
And what changes will this person's arrival bring to the chaotic battlefield in southeastern Henan?
So people are watching.
Guess who the new coach is?
(End of chapter)