Chapter 355: Beheaded alive
When your boss asks you who is better, him or your old boss.
Cheng Pu replied:
"Sun Sima can do things that ordinary people cannot do, he is brave and diligent, and he never regrets. But Qu Shuai does extraordinary things, transcends the ordinary and becomes a saint, and is far ahead of his predecessors. It can be said that there are four or five people in the world who are like Sun Sima, but Those who can be as handsome as him are probably the three kings of ancient times.”
Guo Zu, who was next to Zhang Chong and was also the leader of the collision team, couldn't help but be speechless after hearing Cheng Pu's words. He seemed to see Yu Jin in the past in Cheng Pu, who was always so capable.
Sure enough, after hearing Cheng Pu's words, Zhang Chong burst out laughing, and then said in a wicked way:
"Are you trying to say that if God didn't make him handsome, then eternity would be like a long night."
Unexpectedly, Zhang Chong's joke was not a joke at all when it fell on the ears of the gangsters.
Everyone immediately bowed and shouted:
"If nature does not give birth to a handsome man, then eternity will be like a long night."
Looking at the solemn expressions of all the officials, Zhang Chong was stunned.
At this time, a flying army came running from the road with a flag on its back. When it came to Zhang Chong, he reported the military situation.
But the front line has already met the enemy.
The flying army carried the flag and sent a military report, saying:
"Last night, the fourth cavalry battalion of our front army met the cavalry of the Julu Han army on a narrow road outside Liangqi City, and a big battle broke out."
When Zhang Chong heard this military report, he stopped joking and asked seriously:
"Be specific."
Then the articulate Fei Jun carried the flag and preached:
"According to reports from the front line, the four armies of "Tianwei", "Tianxiong", "Tianwu" and "Tiande" fought with the Han army Gao Lan outside Liangqi City last night. At that time, a group of Gao's cavalry were in the countryside. While plundering grain, we encountered one of the sentry cavalry of Tianxiong Army. Afterwards, the two groups fought in a melee at night. At dawn, the main cavalry regiment of Tianxiong Army failed to support them and they were defeated. After that, our main force, the fourth battalion, happened to catch up. . Then there was a big fight.”
Zhang Chong felt confident after hearing this. With four battalions of Tianzi's assault cavalry fighting together in the field, nearly two thousand assault cavalry could not be defeated.
Sure enough, the flag bearer continued:
"At that time, Ma Wu, the leader of the Tiande Army's assault cavalry unit, attacked the rear of the thieves when they were fighting fiercely in the front. When the Han army's cavalry fought in the front, the leader of the horse army attacked and killed the thieves from the rear. Our army won a great victory."
Ma Wu had been stationed in the Heji area before. This time Zhang Chong made some adjustments to the army and transferred both Xi Shen and Ma Wu from the Heji area into the 10th Battalion of Tuqi.
Among the ten battalions of Tuqi, the fifth battalion of Feizi is the upper fifth battalion, and the fifth battalion of Tianzi is the lower fifth battalion. After Xi Shen resigned from the Heji area, he became the commander of the Flying Leopard Army, while Ma Wu became the commander of the Tiande Army of the Lower Fifth Battalion.
In addition, the original commando general was Tian Jun. In the past, the size of the sudden cavalry was only one or two thousand, but now it has reached the size of four thousand cavalry, and it is no longer suitable to serve as a complete commander.
Therefore, Zhang Chong moved Tian Jun to the position of Tuqi Xiaowei under the shogunate. Normally, each battalion of the assault cavalry still has the battalion level as the highest unit. Only when a large group of troops is needed to fight later, Tian Jun will continue to serve as the commander.
So at this moment, Tian Jun was beside Zhang Chong as a member of the general group.
After hearing what Tu Qi said about the great victory, Tian Jun felt a little worried, so he asked the flag bearer:
"How many enemy troops escaped in this battle."
The flag bearer said without thinking:
"Back to the general, our army killed six hundred prisoners in this battle, and probably this number of scattered cavalry escaped from the battlefield."
Seeing that the result was not what he expected, Tian Jun secretly said to Zhang Chong:
"Commander Qu, in such an encounter, although our army won, the thieves were defeated but not annihilated. Jun is worried that the news of our army going north must have been obtained by the Julu Army."
Zhang Chong nodded and said to Tian Jun:
"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about too."
Just when Tian Jun thought that Qu Shuai was worried that the Julu Army would step up its attack on the city, he heard Qu Shuai say this:
"I'm really worried about him running away."
Tian Jun: “…….”
Afterwards, Zhang Chong thought for a while on his horse and said to the generals:
"There is a time lag now. There must be a time from when Guo Dian heard about the defeat of the cavalry in the south and was able to decisively order a retreat. And we just have to seize this time. We are still less than two days away from Handan. Cheng, I intend to march at full speed, and we can reach Handan around noon tomorrow. Although the army's combat effectiveness will be reduced, what do the generals think?"
The generals accompanying him, such as Xi Shen, Tian Jun, Dong Fang, Yu Jin, etc. all looked at each other and said "hey" together.
Immediately, Zhang Chong ordered the entire army:
"Order all armies and battalions to hurry up and arrive at Handan at noon tomorrow. Then order the flying army to send an order to the fourth battalion of the sudden cavalry in front, ordering them to rush to Handan quickly and contain the Julu bandits outside the city. They must not let He retreated safely. Finally, he ordered Zhang Qiong of Liang Qi in front to prepare hot water on the side of the road for the troops running along the road to replenish it. "
After these three orders, the Taishan Army, which was still walking slowly, quickly started running.
Each battalion, led by the military officer at the front, began to run slowly. For them, although tens of miles of training is difficult, it is still bearable.
On the contrary, it was the war ahead that stimulated them, because it was both glory and land. At this moment, the Taishan Army, under the leadership of Zhang Chong, was already quite like the old Qin people who were happy to hear the war.
Therefore, in each camp, everyone shouted slogans to each other, shouting one after another:
"We are a grain of sand in Mount Tai, the mighty wind blows in the world, we are a drop of water in the river, and the turbulent waves are three thousand in the sky. We are generals and soldiers, and we dare to change the sun and moon to the yellow sky."
The sound sung by thousands of people can naturally be heard for ten miles, but its momentum seems to spread throughout the entire mountains and rivers.
……
Naturally, the singing did not reach Guo Dian's camp under Handan City.
But the news of Taishan's army heading north had already reached Gao Lan after he returned from defeat.
From the battle this morning, Gao Lan took the lead in escaping with five hundred of his core cavalry.
It wasn't that Gao Lan was bloodless. In his opinion, either he took advantage of the opportunity and ran away with five hundred cavalry, or they would all be buried outside Liang Qi City.
In fact, he launched a sudden offensive against Liang Qicheng during the day yesterday, and once fell into the east wall camp of the Taishan bandits in the second phase.
But at night, a cavalry team that went out to collect grain was suddenly ambushed. Gao Lan didn't take it seriously, so he ordered his general Zhang Tai to lead 500 cavalry to support.
But who would have known that this was simply the trap of the Taishan thieves. The enemy directly took two detours and suddenly launched an attack on the advancing Zhang Tai's troops.
Zhang Tai was killed in battle at that time.
Gao Lan didn't care at all about Zhang Tai's defeat, and even took pleasure in killing someone with a borrowed knife. How could this man be so ignorant of praise? But the terrible thing is that once Zhang Tai is defeated, Gao Lan's retreat is cut off, and he will soon face the consequences of being flanked.
At this time, Gao Lan no longer cared about the scattered knights still wandering outside, and directly fled with the core of five hundred knights in the starry night. Although Gao Lan passed back the military information about the Taishan bandits going north, he abandoned the army and fled. At this time, the Julu Army, under the leadership of Guo Dian, was still showing the glory of the Han army in the past, so it looked down upon fugitive generals like Gao Lan.
Therefore, although Gao Lan's life was saved, his reputation was ruined.
Everyone in the army calls him:
"General Long Legs."
Zhao Fu, who had never dealt with Gao Lan, even mocked Guo Dian in front of him:
"If you are afraid that the enemy will be defeated and flee, General Wen Gao should be the first to do so."
Faced with all this, Gao Lan could only retreat in shame, but he already hated Zhao Fu in his heart.
In the end, Guo Dian did not deal with Gao Lan and still ordered him to continue to lead the remaining 500 cavalry. The reason for this is that Guo Dian had no intention of withdrawing his troops, but he still decided to continue the attack on Handan.
This posture naturally aroused opposition from the Julu generals, who all advised Guo Dian to return north, as Handan would definitely be impossible to capture.
This is not a double standard. Can Gao Lan's retreat and Guo Dian's retreat be the same thing?
The former is cowardice, the latter is fighting. What a world of difference!
But Guo Dian didn't know why, he just didn't listen to the advice, and as the general expected, he insisted on going his own way and continued to attack the city.
But Guo Dian was not really dizzy. In a situation where there is a fortified city in front and reinforcements behind, ordinary armies cannot defeat it.
But Guo Dian had already made arrangements for these situations.
When he sent Gao Lan to the south, Guo Dian actually made arrangements under the city.
He divided his four generals, Zhao Fu, Cheng Huan, Wei Liang and Guo Xun, into the four gates of Handan. Fourth, we will harass and attack the enemy day and night starting from the 26th. The sound of police, drums and people in the city continued until dawn, disturbing brothers Lu Xiang and Lu Kuang so that they could not rest.
In addition to the harassment at night, the Julu Army also attacked the north and south gates during the day, using ladders to tear down the city wall. Dozens of brave men climbed up the city first, but they were killed and severely wounded by Lu Kuang with an armored axe. Don't back down.
After that, from the 26th, 27th, and 28th, the Julu Army attacked fiercely for three days in a row, but to no avail. So Guo Dian prepared caves to attack the city.
There is no water flow around Handan, so there is no moat, which is suitable for underground siege. But now that the cave has been dug, Guo Dian's order is awaiting.
Therefore, after Guo Dian knew that the Taishan Army was coming, he still refused to withdraw, hoping that he would be lucky enough to attack the cave.
But what are the weaknesses of Handan's city defense? Do the Lu brothers know? Therefore, listening urns have been placed on the four walls for a long time, and people are monitoring them day and night.
So just when Guo Dian thought he could break into the city, a group of elite troops led by Lu Xiang himself came out of the city and directly connected with the tunnel dug by the Han army.
Then Lu Xiang led the dead soldiers directly out of the tunnel and directly entered the tunnel entrance outside the city. At that time, all the generals of the Han army were discussing affairs in the Guodian camp, and no one was in charge of the camp in the east of the city.
So after Lu Xiang led his men to kill all the soldiers of the Han army digging the earth camp, they burned the grain and fodder of the Dongying camp, and then walked away from the tunnel again.
As for the tunnel, it was naturally dug.
Surprisingly, Guo Dian still refused to retreat after the acupuncture attack he had high hopes for failed. Instead, they began to reinforce the outer trenches that had been built originally.
These trenches were built by Guo Dian as soon as he arrived. At that time, the generals did not understand what he meant. It was not until the Taishan Army came to the north that they realized that Guo Dian planned to rely on these outer trenches to build tunnels.
But no one thinks that Guo Dianduo is a mastermind, they just think that he is crazy!
Why?
Because this is trying to fight on both sides. Not only must they attack Handan City, but they must also resist the Taishan Army outside. This is one force for two flowers, and who knows how many people will come from the Taishan Army heading north?
Now being surrounded by Guo Dian like this, they couldn't even run away in the end. By then it would not be them besieging Handan, but Handan and outside reinforcements outflanking them.
What's even more terrifying is how much food can they collect by relying on the corridors, and can it compare with Handan in the inner circle? Before they trapped Handan to death, they themselves would be without food.
However, this style of play is not impossible, unless we also have reinforcements?
But where are our reinforcements?
……
While the corridor was being built outside, on the 29th, the Julu Army launched the most violent attack on the Taishan Army in Handan City. Thousands of Han troops attacked the head of Handan City in three directions, but in the end they still failed to achieve victory. .
Also on this day, the first batch of reinforcements from the Taishan Army arrived.
Following Zhang Chong's order, four generals, Yan Gang, leader of the Tianwei Army, Li Fu, leader of the Tianxiong Army, Li Bi, leader of the Tianwu Army, and Ma Wu, leader of the Tiande Army, came from Liang Qi with two thousand cavalry.
Accompanying him were 600 remaining soldiers of Zhang Nan and Guo Mo who were stationed at Jiulong Mountain in the northwest of Handan. After the second general learned that the main force in Yecheng had arrived, he also went down the mountain to join the Tuqi.
These days, they did not sit back and watch Handan being attacked, but continued to harass the Julu Army's rear food road. From time to time, they ambushed grain transport convoys from Yiyang, which greatly interfered with the Julu Army's reserves in Handan.
As soon as Yan Gang and the other four generals arrived, they decided to launch an attack on the Julu Army outside the city.
Amid the tsunami of friendly forces in Handan City, two thousand assault cavalry began to sweep across the northeast gate of Handan. But unfortunately, due to the existence of the Han army's corridor outside the city, the results of the attack were not great.
In addition to killing hundreds of Han soldiers who had no time to retreat to the corridor, the four battalions of assault cavalry could only walk around the camp trench. On the contrary, Lu Xiang in the city misjudged the situation and opened the city to attack the Han army as soon as the reinforcements arrived.
But unfortunately, as soon as Lu Xiang and his 300 soldiers left the city, Gao Lan's cavalry, who had already laid down, seized the opportunity and ran amok.
If Lu Kuang on the top of the city hadn't seen the opportunity and quickly closed the Handan city gate, he would have been almost charged in by Gao Lan's cavalry.
But the city was closed, and the three hundred soldiers outside the city had no way of retreat.
Facing the siege of more than ten Han troops, the armored soldiers of Taishan Army could only protect Lu Kuang to the city root. In the end, only Lu Kuang and more than ten people were pulled back to the city by the lowered basket, and the others died.
These brave soldiers were beheaded by the Julu Army, stripped off their armor, and then hung their heads outside the corridor to intimidate the sudden cavalry of the Taishan Army outside.
This not only angered the Taishan Army in Handan City, but also made the assault riders outside the corridor furious.
Their Taishan Army was invincible, how could they be so angry?
Therefore, Zhang Nan and Guo Mo personally led, in addition to the 600 people in their headquarters, many cavalry officers volunteered to dismount and participate in the infantry battle. A total of about a thousand people participated in the attack on the corridor.
Naturally, this attack on the wall had no results. After all, there was such a huge difference in strength between the attacking and defending sides. However, Guo Mo, one of the fighting generals, still stunned a Han army officer and captured him under the wall.
After that, Guo Mo chopped the Han army official alive in front of the Julu army on the wall.
Guo Mo chopped him into pieces more than forty times, then threw him on the ground and left him to die.
The soldier was not dead yet and could only scream under the wall. The Han troops on the wall did not dare to come out to rescue them, and their morale dropped to the lowest point.
Now, everyone knows that both sides are fighting to the death.
(End of chapter)