Chapter 379: Falling into the trap
Outside Hangu Pass is the last great plain between Wei and Han, and it is also the natural place for decisive battles between Kanto and Kansai.
On the west side of the plain outside the pass is the majestic Hangu Pass, followed by the long Xiaohan Road. On the north side of the great plain is a large river, which is a natural obstacle.
It can be said that Kansai occupies an excellent geographical advantage in this battle. They have a stronghold of 40,000 elite soldiers at the foot of the pass, with a large river on their left and a powerful pass behind them to defend, so they can advance and retreat freely.
However, the Kansai Army still has a hidden worry, that is, the Jianshui passing through Hangu Pass will divide the Kansai Army under the pass into two parts. Although the Jianshui is not deep, it will be somewhat troublesome if both sides support it.
According to the information Zhang Chong has received so far, the Battle of Donggu that broke out on March 9 was initiated by the Kwantung Army.
The main force of 56,000 soldiers was dispatched by Huangfu Song into three groups. One group was the forward force led by Zhu Jun, which was roughly located on the west side of Donggu Pavilion, only two miles away from the enemy's army. Along the way was the Chinese army commanded by Huangfu Song himself, entrenched in Donggu Pavilion. The last route was the rear army commanded by Qianguang Luxun, now the cavalry general Ding Gong.
Huangfu Song spent a lot of time on scheduling, and he trusted Zhu Jun very much. Although the two of them were a little dirty when they suppressed the Yellow Turbans in Yuzhou, Huangfu Song still had no doubts about Zhu Jun's ability, so he took it as his pioneer.
But Huangfu Song has only one comment on the current cavalry general Ding Gong, that he is a idiot.
Ding Gong comes from the Ding family of Pei State in Yuzhou. He is not only one of the driving forces behind the rebellion in Henan, but he is also friendly with the current Sikong Xuxiang. It can be said that he is a person recognized and accepted by both factions, so he was specially selected. In the army, he was used to check and balance Huangfu Song.
Huangfusong knew that as a Kansai native, it would be difficult for him to be truly accepted by the Kanto gentry, but he had no choice. He made a wrong decision at the lowest point in his life, which forced him to live in Kanto. Walking all the way to the dark side.
What comforted him a little was that the Kansai side did not liquidate his clan because of this. Unfortunately, these descendants of the family will be thrown into the battlefield to fight with him.
This is helplessness. Even for people like Huangfu Song who are already Taiwei, there are too many things that cannot be changed.
So even though he knew that Ding Gong was a idiot, he also knew that this person was here to check him or to attack him. But Huangfu Song still put Ding Gong behind.
This is the confidence and determination of the commander-in-chief Huangfu Song. He is responsible for this battle and his soldiers.
The idiots can come and share the work, but please stay away from the battlefield.
After Huangfu Song made arrangements, the Kansai Army on the opposite side sent an envoy, a young man named Fa Zheng.
Seeing him talking freely in front of him, Huangfusong seemed to see his old self.
However, the expressions of the generals present were not as indifferent as Huangfu Song, simply because this boy named Fa Zheng actually shouted before the battle that no prisoners would be taken in this battle. So there is only one ending for all of them, and that is death.
Huangfusong did not think that Fazheng had lost his mind. He knew that this must be a decision discussed by the Kansai side.
But the same goes for Huangfu Song, who will take no prisoners in this battle. This is a real life and death battle.
The generals wanted to sacrifice Fazheng to the flag, but Huangfusong waved his hand and asked Fazheng to go back, with Huangfusong's words:
"In the past, I was the leader, but now I am the enemy. Let us fight to the death on this vast plain, so that no more blood will be shed in the world."
Yang Biao, the commander-in-chief of Guanxi Province, was silent for a long time after hearing this.
Finally, both sides beat the war drums almost at the same time, each with eighty-one cowhide drums, which made the heaven and earth tremble.
As soon as the war began, Zhu Jun, the vanguard commander of the Guandong side, ordered the entire army to pounce on the enemy's defense line under the pass.
Zhu Jun, who was already gray-haired, took the lead and personally moved the banner forward to directly direct the battle on the front line.
Zhu Jun has aged very fast in the past two years. In fact, being coerced into chaos by Henan's powerful forces has made him suffer internally. He was greatly favored by Liu Hong. Even if he could convince himself that the incident was for the sake of clearing the emperor and corrupting the eunuch to save the world, it still could not change the fact that he was a second minister.
Therefore, Zhu Jun's frivolity at the moment is more like a kind of paralysis. Only by being in the world of blood and sand can he forget those shameful things.
So there is this old man chatting about being a teenager, holding the yellow from the left and holding the blue sky from the right, and riding thousands of horses to roll around the level hill.
There is a saying that the military strength between Kanto and Kansai is actually the same.
Although the Kansai soldiers have been fighting the Qiang people all year round and have stronger individual soldier skills, the Kwantung Army they faced was built with the main force of the Northern and Southern Army as the core, and was equipped with many powerful troops from the Kanto region, so the war between the two sides fell into a tense situation.
But the war soon took a turn for the better.
When the Kwantung Army was dispatching its troops, a northeasterly wind suddenly blew up, directly raising a cloud of sand and dust.
Zhu Jun, who was supervising the troops on the front line, immediately seized this opportunity and ordered the archer to pour out all the arrows in the quiver.
The officials on the front line of the Kansai Army were knocked off their feet by the large wave of arrows, and they immediately ordered their own archers to fight back.
But they misjudged the distance between the two sides.
Because the equipment of the two Han armies was similar, the bows and arrows used by each had a similar range. Therefore, the soldiers in Kansai subconsciously thought that if the opponent could shoot them, I could also shoot them.
Therefore, under the orders of the commanders of the various formations, the shooters on the Kansai front also fought back frantically. But because of the northeast wind, these arrows did not hit Zhu Jun's army at all. Instead, Zhu Jun's archers picked up a large number of arrows and shot them back again.
At the same time, Zhu Jun ordered Zhang He to lead the leading troops to take advantage of the chaos to attack the enemy's formation.
Zhang He wore three layers of armor, then ran wildly with a group of strong men wielding mallets and axes wielding swords and axes. Especially Zhang He was filled with blood and anger.
He wanted to avenge his clan brother Zhang Chao. He did not know that Zhang Chao died in the power struggle among the upper class in Guandong. Zhang He only knew that it was these Kansai barbarians who killed his beloved clan brother.
Zhang He already had the courage of tens of thousands of people, but now he was so angry that he was so angry that he couldn't stop him. Not long after he broke into the Kansai camp, he killed the general of the first battalion.
The Kansai Army's position became more and more loose. Finally, when Zhu Jun came forward with final preparations, the Kansai Army finally retreated.
They tried to cross the stream to reach the friendly forces in the south, but this time the small shallow river became the burial place of most of the officials of the Kansai Army.
The Kwantung Army came from behind and did not miss any opportunity to kill the enemy. There were tragically dead Kansai officials lying everywhere in the stream. The stream at this moment was clearly red.
Later in the chaos, Zhu Jun watched his sons chasing each other under the banner. He took a deep breath and smiled:
"Go and write a letter to Marshal Huangfu behind you, saying that we won and let him attack the enemy on the south bank of Jianshui."
The soldiers on the side laughed when they heard this, and then took the order and rushed back to the marching shogunate in Donggu Pavilion behind.
But soon, more and more Kwantung troops stopped fighting. They turned around during Pao Ze's discussion and felt uneasy when they saw the black clouds rising into the sky behind them.
Zhu Jun also saw that the black smoke was coming from the east bank of Gushui. What was burning?
The black smoke that Zhu Jun saw was also seen by Huangfu Song who was at the Donggu Pavilion Military Post. He was confused at first, then couldn't believe it, and asked Yuan Shao next to him:
"Ben Chu, tell me the truth, where is our luggage now."
Now Yuan Shao is accompanying the army as the commander of the Central Army. Although he is not in charge of the baggage, he is responsible.
At this moment, Yuan Shao's face was ashen. He thought for a while and told what he knew:
"Commander, when Shao and his army crossed the Gushui River, the baggage was under the control of Ding Palace of the rear army, and it was still on the east bank of the Gushui River."
Huangfusong took a breath, then turned to the person below and said angrily:
"Does any of you know where the baggage is now?"
Just when the Chinese army's tent was as quiet as ice, Zhu Jun's soldiers rushed in joyfully after reporting his victory. He did not notice the tense atmosphere in the tent, but still reported the good news:
"Commander, our front army has defeated the enemy on the north bank of the stream. We are just waiting for Commander-in-Chief to send troops."
But after the person finished speaking, there was no reply from above for a long time, so he raised his head in confusion.
Only then did he see Huangfu Song's face was terrifyingly dark.
He didn't know what happened, but at this time, another soldier came in.
As soon as Fang came in, he knelt on the ground and said tremblingly:
"Commander, the baggage on the north bank of Gushui was burned by the Kansai cavalry."
At this time, Huangfusong breathed a sigh of relief and asked the soldier:
"Oh, what is your servant General Ding doing now?"
This commander was much more knowledgeable than Zhu Jun’s commander. He noticed that the commander seemed to be on the verge of anger, so he hurriedly replied:
"Back to the commander, Commander Ding is organizing troops to rescue the supplies and supplies. When I came, the enemy's cavalry had been defeated."
Huangfu Song was speechless for a long time, and finally sighed and ordered:
"The whole army retreated to the north bank of Gushui."
Then he turned to Zhu Jun’s soldiers and said:
"When you go back, tell me that I will put your Zhu Shuai in the rear to protect the entire army's retreat."
At this time, the soldier realized it later, nodded, and ran back to the main formation.
Huangfusong knew that he was a bit sorry for Zhu Jun by doing this, so of course he could gamble.
Even if the baggage at the rear was burned down, considering the reserves of the army, it would not be a problem to support them for three to five days. Now that the war has made great progress, Huangfu Song can definitely take a gamble and let the entire army launch a general offensive to defeat the enemies outside the pass in one fell swoop.
But Huangfusong knew that the risk of doing so was too high, and he did not forget that there was a great pass in front of him. He had absolutely no confidence that he would be able to break through on the fifth day.
And by that time, Huangfu Song didn't dare to think about what would happen if the army ran out of food.
It is true that for an army, the biggest enemies are always disease and hunger. After all, how many can only be killed by chopping with a knife and axe?
So he didn't dare to bet like this. Anyway, he had an advantage in front, so it was okay to retreat now. But when he thought of the huge baggage, he couldn't help but sigh.
In order to gather this batch of supplies, Kanto has done its best. After this batch of supplies was burned, Kanto no longer had supplies to support another western expedition in a short period of time.
It seems that this war between East and West is really going to bleed out the blood of the Han family.
When Huangfusong was still worried about the future situation, he had no idea that his decision had harmed Zhu Jun.
When the soldiers sent back the order from the Chinese army to Zhu Jun, Zhu Jun was confused.
This amount of information is too much. How come the baggage is on the east bank of Gushui? Why was it burned down? How does the enemy army know the location of its own side's baggage? What are the rear soldiers responsible for the safety of the baggage doing?
But when he knew that Huangfu Song was going to withdraw his troops and asked him to take charge of the rear.
Zhu Jun can understand, but understanding is understanding, but he cannot do it.
Why?
As long as you look at the current battlefield situation, you will know that withdrawing troops at this moment is nonsense.
At this moment, Zhu Jun's 15,000-strong army were all scattered on the battlefield, without any organization at all. What Zhu Jun can control and dispatch is the two hundred cavalry under his banner.
How do you want him to organize a retreat?
He didn't dare to ring gold at all, because as soon as he knocked, the opponent would immediately know that they were going to run away, and they would definitely fight back. When the time comes, a great victory will inevitably turn into a great defeat.
But what if we don’t withdraw? The main force behind them is already running away, and he will definitely die if he stays here.
So at this time, Zhu Jun made an unexpected decision. Instead of withdrawing his troops, he continued to let the Chinese army beat the drums.
After that, he quietly asked the two hundred Chinese army cavalry to go around to the rear, with many flags and dust raised, pretending to be the main force of the Chinese army attacking in full force.
Zhu Jun's move indeed made Yang Biao, who was in charge of the command at Guancheng, misjudge.
He knew that Dong Zhuo had sent cavalry around to attack the enemy's baggage. One of the leaders was Hu Zhen and the other was Lu Bu. Especially Lu Bu, Yang Biao could never forget him after seeing him.
He is nine feet tall, capable of riding and shooting, and is a first-class warrior.
After Yang Biao learned that Lu Bu was a military officer of King Qin in the south of Wuyuan County, most of the Bingzhou troops in the south were stationed in Hedong. Later, they were captured by Dong Zhuo with an imperial edict.
It was at that time that Lu Bu was under Dong Zhuo's command.
So after Yang Biao learned of this situation, he immediately transferred Lu Bu and other Bingzhou troops into the camp as the commander of the camp. However, Dong Zhuo led the Qiang and Hu cavalry and rushed into the camp. Dong Zhuo also shouted:
"I, Dong Zhuo's soldiers, are my people in life and my ghosts in death. Do you, Yang Biao, deserve to fight against me?"
As soon as this incident broke out, Yang Biao's prestige in the army was reduced again.
And Yang Biao also tolerated Dong Zhuo because he took the overall situation into consideration.
It was also because of Yang Biao's patience that Dong Zhuo later sent troops to attack the Kwantung soldiers, and the battle was won.
But now looking at the situation in Guanxia, the opponent actually wants to attack?
Yang Biao thought for a while and decided to order all ministries to stick to it.
After all, time was on their side, and taking the initiative only fell into the enemy's trap.
In this way, Zhu Jun maintained his posture for a long time. When he saw that the opponent had fallen into the trap, he also ordered the withdrawal of troops.
However, when Zhu Jun led his troops to retreat, they were attacked by Bingzhou cavalry. This time there was no accident and they were defeated.
In the end, only more than 8,000 soldiers followed Zhu Jun back to the east bank of Gushui. Nearly 7,000 people were trapped on the south bank and were finally captured by the Bingzhou Army.
After Zhu Jun watched sixty-eight officials being dragged out by Bingzhou soldiers and then executed across the river, Zhu Jun fell ill.
The second battle between East and West Beijing ended so dramatically.
(End of chapter)