Chapter 292 Tiger’s Eye
November 7, the sixth year of Guanghe's reign, was also the second day after the winter snow melted.
Lu Zhi's army in Handan also moved south as scheduled.
The vanguard was the 4,000 Hedong soldiers of Dong Zhuo, the prefect of Hedong. After they marched for two hours, the riding sentry in front encountered the flying army of Taishan Army.
Since the Battle of Xingyang, the Feijun suffered heavy losses due to blocking Youzhou's sudden cavalry.
After the war, although Zhang Chong recruited a group of elite Han soldiers and military warriors to Meng Ju, reconnaissance sentries and martial arts were different, and these were all trained.
Therefore, after the war, Meng Ju spent a lot of effort training new assault cavalry, but even so, the flying army's reconnaissance and blocking capabilities could not be restored to those before the war.
Meng Ju also knew that it was not easy to train the flying army, so after a brief contact with Dong Zhuo's outpost cavalry this time, he broke away from the battle and returned to Liangqicheng.
Liangqicheng is fifty miles away from Yecheng. It is the latest northern defense town built by the Taishan Army. Compared with the small town of Fujin on the Fu River, Liangqi City was stronger and closer to Handan, and could build a deeper defense depth.
But Liang Qicheng also had a shortcoming, that is, there were no rivers around it, so it was difficult for the Taishan Army in Yecheng to supply Liang Qicheng. Therefore, there were not many defenders in Liang Qicheng, with a total of a thousand people.
The defender of Liang Chicheng was Wei Xian. When the Taishan Army captured Yan County east of Puyang, he and his brother Wei Chang took 600 rioting villagers to Puyang and defected to the Taishan Army.
After that, the Webster brothers were selected into the collision team, and then they went to the military academy and were sent to generals, and then to the training school for senior military officers, and then they were sent to be generals. It can be said that they made rapid progress.
This actually reflects a trend in the promotion of military officials in Taishan, which is to pay attention to the upright roots and red seedlings. The more hard-working you are, the more you have experience in riots, and even have leadership skills, the more you will be vigorously trained by the Taishan Army.
Since the Xingyang War, the Taishan Army has gradually taken an independent development route in strategic development. In other words, Taishan Army focuses on cultivating the basic base of its own values.
The Webster Brothers belong to this kind of basic market. The two men at the back each took two hundred soldiers and eight hundred to protect the fields and guard Liang Qi. One is working as a trainer and the other is staying at the military academy. Each has a bright future.
Soon after Meng Ju returned to Liang Qicheng with 200 flying troops.
Dong Zhuo's troops came from the north, and then formed a large formation directly under Liang Qi City.
Wei Xian and Meng Ju looked down from the top of the city. On the melting ground, they saw the colorful military flags of Dong Zhuo's troops dancing, with the words "Hu", "Yang", "Niu" and "Dong" standing vertically. , "Liu", "Hua", "Li", "Guo", "Fan", "Zhang", "Wang".
The army is majestic and the generals are gathered together.
Wei Xian and Meng Ju didn't know that among these Xizhou warriors under the city, which one would be picked up in the future and not be a trend-setter of the times? It can be said that any one of the following heroes is a rogue.
But individuals are always consistent with the times, such as Guo Si, Li Jue, etc., can they still be like history, with one hostage to the minister and the other to the emperor?
No one can tell. In short, no matter what, in the eyes of Wei Xian and Meng Ju on the top of the city, these people are just ordinary people. Even their leader Dong Zhuo is just a slightly powerful general in the Han Dynasty.
While Wei Xian and Meng Ju were watching the formation, Dong Zhuo's army under the city had also set up a large formation.
I saw Dong Zhuo riding on a majestic Liangzhou BMW, galloping all the way in front of the formation. He raised his whip and pointed for a while, and shouted after a while. After riding for a while, he raised the flag for the formation.
In this way, Dong Zhuo's fat body moved his horses left and right in front of the battle. Even in the severe winter of November, Dong Zhuo and his horses were still sweating profusely.
After Dong Zhuo rode his war horse back under the banner, the guards who had been prepared quickly removed Dong Zhuo's armor and wrapped him in a tiger skin cloak.
Dong Zhuo pushed off his cloak, took off his outer clothes, wiped his sweat casually, and left his upper body bare, revealing his majestic body with bulging muscles.
He said to Li Meng, the general next to him:
"How? Is the military strength available?"
Li Menggong worshiped:
"My lord, you are so majestic. When I finally see my lord bathing in the golden light, I will only think that a heavenly being has come to this world."
Dong Zhuo stretched out his fleshy palm as thick as a futon and waved it casually, pretending to say:
"Just talk about these things in private. How are the generals feeling?"
As Dong Zhuo's general, Li Meng was responsible for the generals' requests, so he said to Dong Zhuo:
"My lord, all the generals were vying to climb up first, especially Fan Sima and Guo Sima, who got into a fight because they were vying to climb up first."
This is not like Li Meng giving eye drops to Generals Fan Chou and Guo Si. In other places, these two people's private fights in the Chinese army would definitely be dealt with by military law, but in Dong Zhuo's army, this is a symbol of bravery. .
Sure enough, when he heard this, Dong Zhuo laughed wildly and joked:
"A horse thief, a mediocre dog, imitates others, shows off his power, and seeks to beat him."
Although he was looking for a fight, Dong Zhuo was smiling, obviously very satisfied with the generals in the army.
Afterwards, Li Meng was about to ask Dong Zhuo when he would attack the city.
But seeing Dong Zhuo wearing a tiger skin cloak, he turned around and walked back, giving the order:
"Order the whole army to set up camp, bury the pots for cooking, and then send people to tell Lu Zhi behind him that he is blocked in Liang Qi and wait for his reinforcements to arrive before making other plans."
Li Meng was stunned when he heard this, thinking that he heard wrongly. Wasn't he still under Xuanwei City just now? Why did he set up camp again?
When he was about to ask in confusion, he saw Dong Zhuo stopped in front of him, motionless, and then turned his neck to look sideways at Li Meng.
Li Meng knelt down at that time and shouted back the order:
"General, obey your orders."
Then Dong Zhuo turned his neck again and said calmly:
"Go ahead."
So, Li Meng went to deliver the order in a sweaty state. His lord was so powerful that he almost leaked urine just by looking at him.
Dong Zhuo was a master of his subordinates, so after receiving military orders, the generals obeyed them honestly even if they were confused. They chose a slope five miles outside the city and set up camp.
After that, Dong Zhuo's various ministries settled in camp as before, and each ministry sent cavalry out to collect food and capture Dingkou. Then the generals continued to play with women in the big tent.
Li Huan, Li Jue's younger brother, volunteered this time and also led a small cavalry of 20 people out of the stronghold to collect grain. Because there had never been any trouble when collecting grain in the past, Li Huan carelessly didn't bring his armor when he left the stronghold.
As a result, in a small settlement a few miles away from the main camp, Li Huan's twenty cavalry were directly ambushed by the Taishan Army.
This Taishan Army is the field guard of several nearby settlements.
After the Taishan Army conquered Fu River, they began to divide the fields on the north bank of Fu River. They attacked the local tyrants nearby, distributed all the mature fields to the wandering poor, and directly pulled out the soldiers to protect the fields.
Moreover, Hebei people have heard about border police for a long time, often practice military preparations, and have good combat literacy. At that time, Yuan Shao refused and led 100,000 Hebei Jingjia across the river to fight Cao Cao. In the end, Guandu was defeated, and only 800 of the 100,000 Jingjia returned.
In this way, Yuan Shao and his sons still relied on Hebei's rich wealth and victorious soldiers to survive Cao Cao's attack for seven years.
This is the foundation of Hebei.
And now the Taishan Army enjoys such a heritage. Although these field guards are hungry and weak, they dare to fight when they have a sword. The bravery of Yanzhao is indeed well-deserved.
Li Huan faced about 200 field-protecting soldiers. Under the command of more than a dozen Taishan Army commanders, they surrounded Li Huan and others.
Li Huan was at the end, and before he was surrounded, he retreated wildly with his horses. Seeing that the general had run away, the remaining twenty cavalry lost their determination to fight to the death and quickly followed Li Huan and retreated.
However, the area where they were surrounded was covered with thick bushes and rugged terrain. When they fled in a hurry, seven or eight of the horsemen fell down and were stabbed to death by the field guards who caught up.
Seeing that they could not escape, five Dong Zhuo's cavalry simply used their horses as a barrier and formed a circular formation to prepare for resistance. But unfortunately, under the impact of the waves of field guards, even though they killed several people with their own hands, they were still cut into pieces. Li Huan completely ignored the robes behind him and galloped towards the military camp.
The seven or eight cavalry behind him looked at the back of Li Huan's cavalry, and then at the pursuers running behind him. They gritted their teeth, turned around and charged towards the violent field guards.
As soon as Li Huan arrived at the camp, he shouted:
"Awei, Aying, bring the brothers and follow me."
Li Wei and Li Ying were both Li Huan's disciples. When they heard their brothers shouting, they rushed over with their men. They didn't say anything and just followed Li Huan out of the stronghold.
In the Northland, their Li family is like this. When one person is in trouble, the whole clan goes to battle. It is precisely because of this unity that the rural tycoons in the North can resist the Qiang Hu who are eyeing them around.
So they didn't ask anything. Anyway, if they had something to do, it would be fine.
When Li Huan led two hundred elites to the bush where the field guards had ambushed him, they saw that the field guards had long since disappeared, leaving only eighteen corpses that had been chopped into pigs. .
There were also some dead horses, with most of their flesh chopped off, and then laid bloody and steaming on the frozen soil.
Facing the tragic situation of Paoze, Li Huan was furious and shouted to the sky:
"It hurts me."
……
On that day, Dong Zhuo's teams who went out to collect food from the stronghold were more or less ambushed. Finally, we returned to camp. Not only did we get nothing from this food haul, but we also lost 64 people.
Dong Zhuo's army was all arrogant and powerful, so they couldn't bear the bad temper. At that time, they sent out their troops and began to raid the surrounding settlements.
However, the nearby settlements had already been arranged by the Taishan Army to evacuate to the ancient city wall of Zhao and Wei in the south. There are city walls and beacons built during the long-term confrontation between Wei and Zhao.
Due to nearly five hundred years of wind and rain, these protective structures are only left with earth slopes. But it also became a good hiding place.
Therefore, when Dong Zhuo's generals swept away the troops aggressively, there was only one settlement where people went to Shekong. In the end, they had no choice but to burn down the huts and not return to camp.
But that night, Dong Zhuo's camp was attacked by the field guards who had dispersed nearby. They threw firewood at the camp to vent their hatred for the destruction of their homeland.
Many Dong Zhuo sergeants in the camp were so angry that they rushed out of the camp with their companions.
But the night swallowed them up, and these people never returned.
It was not until Sergeant Dong Zhuo, who was about to collect firewood, carefully left the camp on the second day that he saw these robes.
It's just that they can no longer recognize these people, because their heads have been cut off, and they have been pulled out and turned into pigs.
At this time, these Dong Zhuo sergeants realized that the situation seemed to be a little different.
It seems that these weak rabble-rousers are no longer the sheep from whom they get everything they want. Obviously, they transformed into hungry wolves under the organization of the Taishan bandits.
Because they were familiar with the terrain, they would often ambush Sergeant Dong Zhuo who was leaving the camp. They often ambushed the Han army in surprising ways.
Even some sergeants who went out to fetch water from the camp were ruthlessly dragged into the deep lake by the arms protruding from the water.
These Qin Hu from the deserted borderland were so frightened that they all thought they were facing a group of water ghosts.
All these situations were sent to Dong Zhuo.
Dong Zhuo, who got up from the group of naked women, thought of a way to completely resolve the matter.
……
On November 10, Wei Xian, who was patrolling Liang Qitou as usual, suddenly discovered that Dong Zhuo's army under the city had withdrawn from the siege.
Wei Xian was puzzled and quickly called General Meng Ju, who was in the city.
After Meng Ju arrived, he looked at the scattered retreating Dong Zhuo army and said firmly:
"This is a decoy attack. It's done casually to lure us out of the city to attack, so we don't have to worry about him."
Wei Xian pondered, in fact, Meng Ju was much older than him in terms of merit, status and seniority. Meng Ju is one of the four pillars of the Taishan Army and has outstanding achievements. Moreover, what Meng Ju said is quite reasonable. Therefore, you should obey both emotion and reason.
But the same words can be heard by different people and at different times, and the effects are different.
Wei Xian pondered for a moment, then turned to Meng Ju and said:
"Colonel Lieutenant, what you said makes sense. But as a defensive general, I will let the enemy come and go as they please without firing an arrow. Aren't the Han troops looking down on me in the future? So, I plan to send troops to pursue. If we win, it will be good. If we lose, please ask the captain to lead the flying army to suppress the battle for me."
After hearing this, Meng Ju fell silent.
Theoretically, he is indeed more senior than Wei Xian, but he has no control over Wei Xian. The reason why Yecheng chose Wei Xian as the Liang Qi garrison was that naturally he would be in charge of all the defenses in the city.
He can indeed overstep his authority. With his seniority in the military, it is not difficult to refuse Wei Xian. But this will intensify the relationship between him and Wei Xian. What's even more embarrassing is that this kind of interference in the decision-making of foreign generals is a taboo for subordinates.
But, that’s the but.
None of the above was discussed by Meng Ju. He was drafted and trained by Qu Shuai from Taishanliao, and he had long regarded Taishan Army as his home. Therefore, he is responsible for the cause of the Taishan Army.
So, Meng Ju shook his head and said to Wei Xian calmly:
"It's better not to leave this city. Your responsibility is to guard Liang Qi. Others will be taken care of, so you don't have to worry about it."
Wei Xian, who had always been going smoothly, never expected that Meng Ju would reject him directly. He was a little embarrassed, but he knew that Meng Ju was a veteran in the army, so he was still explaining:
"The Han army under the city is approaching fiercely, but it suddenly retreats at this time. It must be because of changes in the rear. The art of war says that it hurts people but does not kill them. This is the situation at this time. Since the enemy wants to retreat, then I will not let him Retreat, this is the way to use troops.”
But Meng Ju directly interrupted him with a wave of his hand. He was very disgusted with these people who came out of the military academy. They always talked about the art of war, and they all sounded like everyone was using the military.
Meng Ju and other elders are all practical warriors, and all their battle experience and consciousness are honed from life and death. Naturally, they can't stand those who talk on paper.
Originally he was restrained and polite to Wei Xian, but now he heard this man's words and suddenly interrupted him rudely. He pointed at the deputy general behind Wei Xian, Jin Sheng, and ordered:
"Take Wei Xian down. If I can't tell you, I won't."
Jin Sheng was an old Taishan soldier, so he naturally listened to the military orders of the Mengju veteran faction, so he sang "O", took off Wei Xian's saber, and then invited him to go down to the top of the city.
Wei Xian's face turned red and he mumbled some crazy and silly things about Lao Ge before he was dragged down.
After all, this Taishan Army still belongs to their old Taishan people.
After dealing with Wei Xian, Meng Ju in the city sighed and looked at the retreating Dong Zhuo army with disdain.
"Skills only add to the jokes."
(End of chapter)