In the summer and June of the first year of Taiwu, Zhang Chong decided to make an expedition to the north to capture the land of Youji.
First, he moved the Northern Expedition military headquarters to Handan, and then appointed Marshal Zhang Dan of the Right Army as the prefect of Changshan to control the Xiang Kingdom. It was a holiday to worship Ding Sheng, the marshal of the former army, as the prefect of Qinghe and to control Guangzong; to worship the marshal of the rear army Dong Fang as the prefect of Zhongshan and to control Julu. Zhang Chong's personal general, the Central Guard Army, numbered 10,000 people and was stationed in Handan.
As a result, the strategy of this Northern Expedition became very clear.
It is a three-pronged approach, attacking from the north and defending from the east. With Zhang Dan and Dong Fang each commanding tens of thousands of troops, they set off from Xiangguo and Julu for the Northern Expedition. Ding Sheng garrisoned Guangzong to defend against the attack of the Han army on the right.
After all the armies were dispatched, Zhang Chong personally led the Central Guard Army to move forward to Xiangguo, deciding to use this place as a breakthrough.
On June 10, 20,000 Taiping troops entered the house and broke through the city without bloodshed.
In fact, this was thanks to Zhang Chong's original deployment of a hometown support team in the Changshan area.
Originally, Zhao Yun returned to the Changshan area to pull troops as a support force, but then the Guangzong Incident broke out, and Zhang Chong kept Zhao Yun in the army so that he could participate in this battle and accumulate merit.
Therefore, Liu Hui, the former Queen of the True King Ding, and a group of companions came to serve as the back-to-home support team. Liu Hui's ability was indeed extraordinary. Within a few months of returning to his hometown, he relied on connections and bribes to establish connections in Fangfangcheng.
So, on June 10, when tens of thousands of troops surrounded the house, without any effort, Ling Zaojun opened the door and surrendered.
Zhang Chong met with Liu Hui, Guo Shu, Zhang Xiang and others, and saw that their skills were indeed extraordinary, so he recruited Liu Hui to his side, and ordered Guo Shu and Zhang Xiang to join the Feilong Army as cavalry generals, still serving as the vanguard of the entire army.
After taking the house effortlessly, Zhang Chong ordered his army to quickly attack the Yuan clan in Changshan Chongyi.
Yuanshi is the hub of Guangyang Road's east and west divisions. To the west, you can reach Daidi, and to the east, you can reach Yanji. It can be said that if Zhang Chong wants to conquer Youji, this Yuan clan is the city that must be attacked.
Precisely because this city must be captured by the enemy, in the original defense plan of Ju Shuoxian and Lu Zhi, this city was an important defensive fortress.
But this was the original situation. After the Xiang Kingdom was besieged earlier, although Feng Xun, the governor of Changshan, did not have the troops to go south for rescue, he was hoping that Lu Zhi, the general of Bei Zhonglang, could lead his army south for rescue.
But until Xiangguo's city was broken, he didn't see any soldiers in the north, not even any news. Feng Xun felt cold in his heart, and what was even worse was that Ju Shou had fought so well in Xiang State, but he could not avoid defeating the city, so how could he be so virtuous?
Therefore, Feng Xun did not want to stay with the Yuan clan. He took most of the county soldiers directly north and stationed at Jiumen in the north of the county. This place is located on the north bank of the Hutuo River and east of Jingxing Pass. It is a natural defensive stronghold.
Not only did Feng Xun leave because of this, but also because his relationship with the local powerful people of the Yuan clan had reached a freezing point over the matter of worshiping the mountain god.
In fact, Feng Xun also regretted a little. If he had known that this day would come, why would he offend these local powerful people to death just for some money?
Not to mention that Feng Xun left in despair, the seven powerful families on the Yuan clan directly held the Yuan clan magistrate Wang Yi in check and controlled the power of the county, dominating and dominating.
And when they learned that the Taishan bandits were heading north, they were unwilling to give up their foundation and wealth, so they decided to defend the city of Yuanshi.
As the Yuan family was an important place in Changshan and a shortcut to the Yan Dynasty, the Han Dynasty naturally attached great importance to the defense of this city.
As early as Feng Xun's period, he and Changshan King Liu Hao recruited troops and fortified the area. A total of 600 soldiers were recruited before and after, and six garrisons were built ten miles outside the Yuan clan.
After Xiangguo's city was destroyed, the powerful families of Changshan State panicked and began to arm their troops one after another, with a total of three thousand soldiers. This number is also the current total number of troops in Yuanshi City.
Other county soldiers had already followed Feng Xunbei and retreated to the Jiumen area. The local tycoons in the city have to rely on 3,000 soldiers and 600 soldiers outside the city to defend the Yuan clan. You can imagine the difficulty.
The first year of Taiwu, June 12th.
The Feilong Army, the vanguard of the Taiping Kingdom, was the first to arrive at the outer defense line of Yuanshi City.
Taking advantage of the early morning camp troops leaving the village to collect firewood, the leader of the Feilong Army, Li Hu, took advantage of the situation and walked in directly. The camp soldiers were already weak and were caught off guard, resulting in a massive defeat.
When the soldiers guarding the rear saw the soldiers in front rushing north, they had no intention of fighting. The whole battalion abandoned the camp and fled. The Feihu Army took advantage of the victory and pursued it. After that, all six garrison walls were pulled out by Li Hu in one morning. The remaining Changshan state soldiers could not resist and fled into Yuanshi City one after another.
In this way, in just one morning, the Taiping Northern Expeditionary Army used only one unit to pull out the Yuan clan's outer defense line and clear the obstacles.
It can be said that the weakness of the Yuan clan is completely exposed to the eyes of the Taiping Kingdom.
And over there, although he was nine gates behind, his attention was always on the Yuan clan's Changshan Prime Minister Feng Xun. Seeing the Yuan clan fighting like this, he also cursed:
"The local tycoons of that generation are very brave and fierce with me on weekdays. I thought I would really treat these people as human beings, but I didn't expect that when the thieves and soldiers came, they would run away in fear and hide their heads. The gold and jade were covered with mulch on the outside."
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After that, Feng Xun no longer had any hope for the Yuan family. Instead, with the help of the Zhang family, the country's top tycoon, he strengthened his troops and prepared military supplies. At the same time, he shouted to Lu Zhi, saying that the lips are dead and the teeth are cold.
On the Taiping side, Zhang Chong led his army to garrison the Yuanshi City but did not attack the city.
Instead, he began to order generals in the tent and ordered each battalion to plunder the cities around the Yuan clan. These cities are located on the flanks and rear of the army. If they are not captured, their supply lines will be in danger.
So Zhang Chong ordered Pan Zhang to lead thousands of troops to attack Luan City, Xie Bi to lead thousands of troops to attack Gaoyi, and Wang Zhang to lead thousands of troops to attack Pingji.
Afterwards, the army rested for two days under Yuanshi City, built a nest, a ladder and a ladder, and prepared to launch an attack on Yuanshi.
Also within these two days, the remnants of the Yellow Turbans and hungry people in Changshan came to Yuanshi City to defect to Zhang Chong.
Today, Zhang Chong's reputation can be described as skyrocketing. The remnants of the Yellow Turbans who used to beg for their lives in the Taihang Mountains, under the leadership of young commanders Sun Qing and Yu Du, joined forces with the weak people and came to join them.
The same was true for the hungry people nearby. After knowing that the Taishan Army, which had strict military discipline and made decisions for the head of Guizhou, arrived, they also gathered here.
It has been two years since Hebei was in chaos. There were already natural and man-made disasters. In addition, Changshan State missed spring plowing this year. It can be said that the land is full of hungry people and homeless people. For the hungry people, Changshan Kingdom would still think of providing relief during the stable period, but in these troubled times when food is more important than life, no one can help them.
Therefore, they could only place their hope on the great general who acted for heaven.
They didn't know that General Chongtian had become the Lord of Taiping at this time, and he was still called by his previous name. But no matter what the Taishan Army is called, its determination to serve the people has never changed.
Facing the endless stream of hungry people, Zhang Chong managed them with the Shiwu system on the one hand, and on the other hand, he stepped up the allocation of grain and grass from the rear to the front.
And soon, many Taishan generals who were sent out to attack other counties and cities sent good news one after another and sent food and grass to Yuan's camp.
In fact, Changshan State's troops in the southern counties have long been exhausted by the Prime Minister Xu Xun. He felt that in the Battle of Xiangguo, the Han army was fortified everywhere, but in the end it was defenseless. He decided to gather the entire county's troops in one place for long-term defense.
Therefore, counties such as Luan City, Gaoyi, and Pingji have long been depleted of their military strength, and each city only has a hundred patrols to maintain daily security.
And when Pan Zhang and other tiger and wolf generals appeared outside the city with thousands of elite soldiers, the final result was naturally self-evident.
The local tycoons in the three cities either fled in fear or hid far away. The remaining ones also lost all their money and food to the army in exchange for peace. As a result, the three cities were conquered without fighting.
In addition, after Wang Zhang defeated Pingji, he encountered Dong Fang's army heading north from Julu. At this moment, they also pulled out Yingtao and Yang family one after another, and were heading towards the Xiaquyang area. They will attack Xiaquyang as planned, and then wait for the next military order here.
At the same time, the three flying cavalry battalions of Feihu, Feilong, and Feibao also bypassed Yuanshi City and quickly headed north, trying to attack Chongyi Zhending on the south bank of the Hutuo River.
There, they will join up with the two thousand infantrymen assigned by the Marshal's Mansion, and launch an attack on Zhending.
It was at this time when good news was spreading frequently that Zhang Chong ordered an attack on the Yuan clan.
After being fully prepared, the elite soldiers with the Central Guards as the backbone stood on the top of the Yuanshi city an hour after the siege.
Almost all the guards in the Taiping Army wore full-body iron armor. Once they stood on the top of the city, they looked like rocks. As the banners of the Han army were chopped down one after another, the Taiping army captured the Yuan clan with three cheers.
Since the Yuan clan was defeated, Zhang Chong did not rest and reorganize. He left one part of Li Wu to guard and organize, while most of them continued northward, preparing to join the forward army.
But on the way, Zhang Chong received a military report from the front. The five vanguard armies headed by Li Hu, Xu Huang, Xi Shen, Zhang Ying, and Li Xian were frustrated at the gate of Zhending City.
Although the loss of troops was not large, it undoubtedly had a huge impact on the situation of success since the Northern Expedition.
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At that time, when Dong Fangjun broke through the empty Xiaquyang, there was the Hutuo River on the opposite side, and Zhongshan on the other side of the river.
At this time, Zhongshan was leaderless and in chaos. However, after learning about the Taishan Army's Northern Expedition, several local tycoon forces in the southern counties still united together to defend the Hutuo River.
However, Dong Fang saw that the water surface of the Hutuo River was wide and there was no boat division to cross it. In addition, he saw that the river on the other side was heavily fortified, so he did not dare to go deep alone. Therefore, Quyang was temporarily left to organize the army.
Later, when Dong visited the base camp, Feijun Tiqi sent a military report and ordered him to divide his troops to march west along the Hutuo River to Zhending, where they would join the Feilong, Feihu, and Feibao armies to attack Zhending.
Subsequently, Dong Fang ordered Zuojun Lieutenant Zhang Ying and Deputy Lieutenant Li Xian to lead two thousand officers and soldiers westward to Zhending.
On June 14, Zhang Ying and Li Xianbu arrived in the east of Zhending City.
At this time, the Feilong, Feihu, and Feibao armies had removed all the fortresses outside Zhending City, leaving only Zhending City waiting for Zhang Ying and Li Xian to attack.
At first, Feilong, Feihu, and Feibao were not angry. They felt that they had spent a long time and let the cubs of the rear army marshal pick the peaches.
But when Zhang Ying and Li Xianbu actually attacked the city, the three generals realized how lucky they were.
It turns out that the real order at this time was not an ordinary subordinate, but a loyal man named Sun Jin.
This official is not very famous now, but in history, this person later belonged to Liu Yu, the shepherd of Youzhou. When Liu Yu was killed by Gongsun Zan, this monarch was loyal and righteous, and cursed Gongsun Zan endlessly, and finally had a fight with his master. And died by the sword.
On the other side of Zhending is Jiumen, which is where Feng Xun, the Prime Minister of Changshan, is stationed at this time. It can be said that Zhending is the bridgehead of Jiumen on the other side of the river, and its location is extremely important.
Therefore, Feng Xunxu recommended Sun Jin as Zhen Ding's order and defended Zhen Ding with his loyalty and courage.
Zhending originally meant Dayi, a rare city with ten thousand people in Changshan. And with the destruction of Xiangguo City, many aristocratic families in the southern part of Changshan Kingdom evacuated to Zhending in the north, causing the population of Zhending City to reach about 20,000 at one time.
With such abundant human resources, coupled with the fear of the Taishan Army, Sun Jin was able to massively expand his troops.
Moreover, in order to prevent the fleeing powerful families in Zhending City from fleeing, Sun Jin sealed the four gates of the city and asked Feng Xun on the other side of the river to give him an order to kill anyone who crossed the river!
Feng Xun did not expect Sun Jin to be so decisive, and finally felt that he was loyal and loyal, so he approved this order. A river patrol army of 2,000 people was specially mobilized to patrol the Hutuo River day and night, shooting anyone who dared to sneak across the river.
After cutting off the retreat in the city, Sun Jin asked the border general Tian Kai to be his general, and unified all the troops in the city under Tian Kai's command.
Sun Jin had a deep understanding of this fellow countryman and knew that Tian Kai was a strong general, so he asked Feng Xun to let Lu Zhi let Tian Kai go south to guard Zhending.
Sun Jin and others had known for a long time that almost none of the local chiefs of the Changshan Kingdom were trained in military affairs. Even if there were one or two who were loyal and loyal, they would inevitably die due to lack of ability.
Therefore, Sun Jin flew to Lu Zhi and asked Tian Kai to enter the city to assist in the defense and enrich Zhending's defense.
Tian Kai was still a mid-level officer in the Youbei Army at the moment, commanding only a hundred troops. He never thought that his fellow countryman Sun Jin would take the initiative against him.
But Tian Kai needs this opportunity. At this time, he is unknown and urgently needs a tough battle to become famous. Therefore, after obtaining Lu Zhi's consent, Tian Kai led his own 200 men, and Lu Zhi sent another 200 men to gather together a group and march south.
On June 10th, Changshan Guofang City fell, and on June 12th, Yuanshi City was in danger. On the same day, Tian Kai led 400 northern troops to Zhending and lowered them into the city from the cradle.
As soon as Tian Kai entered the city, Sun Jin entrusted all the military affairs in the city with his subordinates in the civil and military affairs, and all war and garrison affairs were subject to Tian Kai's control and dispatch. Anyone who fails to comply will be subject to military law.
In this way, Tian Kai accepted the order in the face of danger. He was grateful to Sun Jin for his kindness and decided to live or die with the city. And Sun Jin, together with the powerful officials of Zhending family, stood with Tian Kai facing the southwest, chopped off the chicken's head, and made an alliance with their blood to live and die together.
After Tian Kai took over Zhending, he ordered his troops from the north to descend on the city and burn all the residential buildings and grass markets outside the city. He knew that only the foreign soldiers under his command could do this job, and the local soldiers were unwilling to do it.
Burning people's houses and destroying people's grass markets have always been hateful things.
But there was nothing Tiankai could do about it. It was indeed a major thoroughfare city in the north, and business travelers from Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Qingzhou had to pass through here. It also became one of the few commercial cities in the north.
Therefore, not only is there a large population in Zhending City, but there are also large residential areas outside the city, all of which are used for business travelers and overnight stays.
Tian Kai discovered the shortcomings of this place on the day he entered the city. Once this place becomes a nest for Thai thieves and they can use it to attack the city, it will inevitably become a weak point in the city's defense.
So Tian Kai burned all the houses outside the city.
Then he recruited more troops and got a total of five thousand soldiers. Among them, he arranged thousands of people to guard each of the four gates in the southeast and north. He took his headquarters and more than a thousand people to garrison in the city to act as a mobile.
However, Zhang Ying and Li Xian, who had just arrived, had no idea about all this. They had effortlessly defeated the city during the Northern Expedition. They only thought that with the blow of their horns, the beating of the drums, and the charge of their subordinates, this Really won it.
Later, they suffered a big loss in Zhending. The five hundred soldiers responsible for the main attack were hit by the terrifying arrow rain in Zhending City. In the end, they lost a hundred soldiers and had no choice but to retreat.
Although only a hundred people were killed, since the Northern Expedition, their rear army marshal's troops had taken the entire northern part of Julu without dying so many, and in Zhending, this number was reached in one battle.
At this time, the second general realized that this was really difficult to fight!
Therefore, they formed a camp and stopped their troops, waiting for the next military order from the base camp.
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