Chapter 439 Overturning the General
On August 7th, the weather was still extremely hot, and the Dingting battlefield was even steaming with heat.
After this battle, countless surviving officials recalled this day's battle and thought it was the hottest day they had ever experienced in their lives.
Because of the arrival of Taishan Army reinforcements and their elite tenacity, Lu Zhi was unable to achieve an overwhelming victory in the morning. But because the size of the Han army was nearly three times that of the Taishan army, the balance of victory finally tilted towards the Han army around the afternoon.
After half a day of fierce fighting, the Taishan Army Guards were fighting on all fronts, so they had no time to eat. But at this time, the Han army could change their formations calmly and go down in batches to rest and eat.
Therefore, the longer the time goes by, the more tired Taishan's army becomes, and the closer the Han army's victory becomes.
However, Lu Zhi on the north slope was not very happy because he could settle the accounts himself.
On the Dingting side, we saw only 17,000 enemy troops from the beginning to the end. The intelligence from the previous secret conversations said that the Taishan bandits had reinforced 5,000 troops. In addition, when the cavalry went on the northern expedition to Zhending, the military strength Probably around 30,000 people.
In other words, the enemy army was at least about 35,000 people. But now only 17,000 people have appeared, so where are the remaining 20,000?
Are you all on the road? Lu Zhi didn’t believe it.
Therefore, Lu Zhi had a vague premonition that the Taishan bandits were dividing their forces.
Soon, three dusty sentries came running from the east of the battlefield, and the military reports they brought cleared Lu Zhi's doubts.
But the solution to his doubts made his hands and feet go cold.
In the military report, three ministers including Hejian Chen Yan, Bohai Governor Yang Xuan, and Anping Prime Minister Linghu Yu jointly expressed their feelings. The Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms were ambushed by Taishan bandits in the Shenzhen area. They were unable to fight and had to retreat from the north.
The battle took place last night. Nearly 20,000 thieves and a large cavalry raided the coalition camp.
At that time, the Han army was stationed on the dirt road on the north bank of Hutuo River, and camped on a flat ground with a slope behind it to rest.
In fact, during the day, the Han army had a brief conflict with the sentry cavalry of the Taishan army. At that time, Gai Tong, who was riding in Youzhou, felt something was wrong and was worried that he had encountered the main force of the Taishan thieves.
But at that time, the three commanders-in-chief, Chen Yan of Hejian, Yang Xuan, the governor of Bohai, and Linghu Yu, the prime minister of Anping, did not believe it, because during their communication with Lu Zhi, they had clearly learned that a war was already happening in Dingting at this time.
The main force of the Taishan bandits was obviously held back by Lu Shuai. Where did the main force come from?
So they set up camp here, but unexpectedly, the Taishan Army launched a night attack that night.
The attack was carried out by 12,000 people from the Marshal's Department of the Taishan Army's Right Army and four cavalry units, totaling 14,000 cavalry. Since most of the Han army was unprepared, this night attack was a complete victory.
The three guards tried to escape in a hurry, but fortunately Gai Tong dissuaded them.
Gai Tong led his troops and part of the Han army, carrying the flags and banners of the three armies, pretending to be the main force and retreating towards the east. The three guards retreated from the north, preparing to take a detour to join Lu Zhi in the north.
It was extremely dark, so the assault cavalry of the Taishan Army were indeed attracted by the large banner brought by Gai Tong, and they all pursued towards the north.
But it wasn't until the early morning of the next day that Zhang Dan realized something was wrong. If it was the main force, it would have been impossible to retreat so quickly, so Zhang Dan hurriedly sent the army north to prepare to pursue the real main force.
But after all this hard work, the three guards of Hejian, Bohai and Anping escaped.
As soon as the army was settled, someone sent this military report to Lu Zhi.
……
At this time, Lu Zhi's anger was boiling in his chest. He had never wanted to kill someone as much as he did now.
He couldn't figure out what shit Chen Yan, Yang Xuan, and Linghu Yu ate to reach the position of two thousand stones. Now that the war in Hebei is like this, they are still so polite and playful, with no sense of vigilance.
More than ten miles away from the battlefield, I dared to put my horse outside the camp and sleep leisurely. It's really not a pity to die.
Originally, he thought that as soon as the Hejian Corps arrived, he would be able to surround and kill the Taishan Army here, and cut off the little thief Zhang Chong first. But what now?
Instead, he would have to withdraw.
Because although the Han army already had an advantage on the battlefield, it was not overwhelming. If they continued to fight like this, they might have to fight until midnight.
By then, the main force of the Taishan thieves who have been freed up will be able to rush to join the battle.
He now has an insight into Zhang's strategy for attacking the little thief. That is to let him defend and contain him at Dingting in front of him, then lead his main force to attack his partial division, and then return to the division to fight him decisively.
Thinking of this, Lu Zhi once again curbed his ambitions and decided to withdraw his troops and return to Zhongren Pavilion in the north, which was his designated battlefield.
But when Lu Zhi ordered his troops to prepare to withdraw from the battlefield, the Beizhou warriors fighting on the front line had different reactions.
The veteran general Xiangping Li Min was commanding troops under the banner to attack the Taishan bandits under the wall of Dingting Pavilion. After hearing Lu Zhi's order, he shouted directly to the soldiers:
"Sitting on the bed, Lu Shuai, what can you see here? Now the Taishan thieves are gone, and they are about to be defeated."
After speaking, Li Min refused to take the order and asked his subordinates to continue the attack.
And because the soldier couldn't deliver the mission, he was anxious around Li Min.
Li Min came from a wealthy family in Xiangping, Liaodong. His family was a typical frontier general. His father and son had served in the frontier army for several generations. He could be said to be one of the representatives of the general family in the frontier army system.
Lu Zhi's Zhenbei Army has three relatively large systematic factions.
One is the border army family group in Waiyouzhou. These people are headed by the Liaodong Gongsun family, the Shanggu Kou family, the Yuyang Gai family, the Xianyu family, as well as the Liaodong Li family and the Lelang Wang family.
These military families were so intertwined in the border army that even Lu Zhi could only treat them with courtesy.
In addition to this group, the second largest group is Lu Zhi's disciples and former officials. These partially overlap with the previous faction, but they are closer to Lu Zhi and are also the core of Lu Zhi's Zhenbei Army.
The last faction is the border rangers, local tyrants, wanderers, and barbarians. These people were originally strongmen in Youzhou and Grassland. They were recruited by Lu Zhi and entered the formal system. They were generally regarded as peripherals.
Therefore, as a veteran in the military, Li Min developed a crazy and delicate look.
In fact, Li Min is not a minority. The Yan people are generous and willing to die, not to mention these border warriors who advocate offense.
Therefore, bravery, recklessness, and excitement have always been the spiritual background of these frontier army generals.
When Li Min disobeyed, Gongsun Zan, the leader of the front line on the other side, rode his horse directly to the foot of the slope where Lu Zhi was, then dismounted and came up the hill.
As soon as he arrived, he knelt on the ground and asked Lu Zhi for orders:
"Shuai Lu, why did you order the withdrawal of troops? We are about to win before our eyes."
Lu Zhi didn't say anything, and just asked the general's newspaper to be shown to Gongsun Zan.
Gongsun Zan passed by and understood the teacher's decision, but he was still unwilling to accept it.
So he pleaded:
"Lu Shuai, now it is about the survival of our Northern Territory and the safety of our Han Dynasty. I ask Lu Shuai to let me lead the charge for the last time. Zan is an ordinary person and doesn't know what the use of this charge is. But Zan knows , If we don’t work hard this time, I’m worried that I will regret it after I die, so please let me lead my brothers and fight again.”
Lu Zhi didn't speak, and others on the slope didn't dare to speak either. The atmosphere was a bit depressing.
Finally, Lu Zhi asked:
"How many rides do you want."
Gongsun Zan was overjoyed and responded quickly:
"The last general only needs five hundred white horses to follow him." Lu Zhi shook his head and said loudly:
"Since we have to fight for life and death, we must use all our strength. Five hundred cavalry are not enough. I will hand over all the thousands of cavalry under my tent to you. Since we want to kill, we must crush them completely."
Gongsun Zan did not hesitate. He beat his breastplate and made a loud promise.
Afterwards, Gongsun Zan ran to a camp down the slope.
There, 500 white-horse Yi Cong and two battalions of Chinese army tent assault cavalry were ready.
Five hundred white horse righteous followers, each riding a white horse, covered with white armor, equipped with two spears, and wearing helmets decorated with the feathers of the prairie eagle, were Gongsun Zan's most elite troops.
Everyone among them has a blood-like deep relationship with Gongsun Zan, and the righteousness lies in obeying each other in life and death, so they are called "righteous obedience".
The thousands of cavalry under the command of the Zhenbei Army were also elite. They were all tall and strong knights selected from the entire army, and the horses they rode were also the elite horses that the barbarians dominated in this grassland trade.
Once these people attack, it will be a roaring and tsunami, which is terrifying.
As soon as Gongsun Zan entered the camp, he took the talisman to check with the camp generals. After everything was correct, he officially took over the military power.
The temporary commander of Baima Yi Cong is Gongsun Zan’s confidant Wang Men. Seeing his lord return, he happily said:
"General, how shall we fight this time?"
Gongsun Zan laughed and said nothing, but said respectfully to another middle-aged general:
"I have met Mr. Zhang."
The general's name is Zhang Chun. He is the commander of the cavalry under Lu Zhi's tent. His rank is as high as two thousand stones. Although Gongsun Zan was the leader of the assault this time, Zhang Chun was higher than Gongsun Zan in terms of official position and seniority.
Therefore, Gongsun Zan could only stay humble and show more respect.
At this time, Zhang Chun didn't have the ambition to be a powerful general. He was still a fierce general of the Han family. Therefore, although he was dissatisfied with being driven by a young man like Gongsun Zan, he could still accept the order.
After Gongsun Zan and Zhang Chun reviewed the action plan, they looked at another camp and sighed slightly:
"If we can also bring the Wuhuan Tuqi with Gong Qichou, this battle will be more secure."
Gong Qichou was also the captain of Wuhuan School. Under his tent were thousands of Wuhuan Tuqi soldiers who had been recruited to accompany the central army.
……
The time was approaching midnight, and the sun had begun to turn westward.
The Hanoi camp and the Zhaojun camp guarding the wall of Dingting finally used water and rice. It was Yang Mao who was on the wall who made it inside the wall and asked people to lower it down the wall.
With these additions, the morale of Hanoi and Zhaojun towns finally recovered a lot.
Moreover, new battalions were also being opened inside the wall. Not only was Wei Junzhen opened, but Yang Mao himself also came out of the wall with two thousand old Taishan soldiers to change defenses.
Originally, Yang Mao wanted to stay on the wall and continue to keep in touch with Cai Que's tribe to the west. However, due to the civil strife in Zhaojun Town, he had to step out and take charge of the situation.
After understanding the statement of the Zhaojun general, he knew that Li Ding was going to surrender, so he made a decisive decision to unarm all Li Ding's guards and take them into custody, and then ordered Zhao Rong to be the new Zhaojun town general, presiding over Military intelligence.
Yang Mao then withdrew to Dingtingbi, where the view was more important than staying on the front line.
With the reinforcements and supplies, and the restoration of chaos, the morale of Zhaojun Town has recovered a lot. So encouraged by the town general Zhao Rong, he launched a counterattack against the Han army.
Opposite Zhaojun Town is Li Min, the military veteran there just now.
Li Min never expected that the thieves who had almost lost their breath after being beaten by him would become fierce again. They were caught off guard and lost several battles.
Zhao Junzhen immediately began to pursue them. They arranged a team of fifty people into a row and advanced in a wide column. This formation is extremely easy to transform into a square formation.
But just as they were marching to the area where the Han army was originally located, they suddenly heard the Hanoi soldiers who were slightly behind shouting:
"The Han cavalry is coming."
The town general Zhao Rong also heard this, and he quickly blew the formation trumpet.
But it was too late.
Because of the problem of vision, Zhao Rong couldn't see the white horse Yi Cong in the distance when he led Zhao Junzhen forward, but the white horse Yi Cong clearly looked at them on the slope.
Seeing that this group of thieves came forward without the cooperation of friendly forces, Gongsun Zan immediately decided to launch an attack on this group of Taishan thieves.
When Gongsun Zan arrived, he was less than a hundred steps away from the nearest Zhaojun town camp. At this time, the horn for changing formations was heard, so it was too late.
The number of Zhaojun soldiers in this battalion is about 700, which is the size of two tribes. Almost all of them come from the southern region of Zhao State. The average age is only 20, and the youngest is only 15 years old.
Facing the charge of Baima Yicong, what would be the outcome without the infantry forming a phalanx?
Of course it collapsed without any surprise. They didn't even wait for Baima Yicong to hit him, they panicked and fled one after another.
The flag of this battalion was also captured by the Baima Yi Cong, becoming the first battalion head of the Taishan Army to be eliminated.
Many of the retreating Zhaojun soldiers had heard from old soldiers that if faced with a cavalry attack, the best way to save their lives was to lie on the ground and pretend to be dead.
In that case, as long as you don't get trampled to death, you'll probably survive, because war horses hate the smell of corpses on the ground. On the contrary, the faster you run, the more the cavalry will chase you.
Many people actually heard this and lay on the ground pretending to be dead. But except for some lucky ones, everyone else was trampled to death.
These people used their lives to verify one thing:
"You can lie to yourself, but don't lie to your brothers, because they will really believe it."
After the battalion was defeated by Cheng Zhi, Baima Yicong then attacked the head of the Chinese army camp led by the general Zhao Rong.
This time, with Zhao Rong in charge, the camp did not collapse. But so what? When Gongsun Zan used the double-headed spear and led Baima Yicong to rush in from the gap, Zhaojunzhen still could not save his defeat.
Even though Zhao Rong fought to the death, the officials waved their swords and halberds in an effort to drive away the white horse Yi Cong, but it was still to no avail.
Even because Zhao Rong was too exposed, Gongsun Zan saw him from a distance, and then hit Zhao Rong with an arrow.
Zhao Rong's eyes bulged and his lips trembled. He watched the children of Zhao County being slaughtered in front of his eyes. He shed tears of regret. Before he died, he ordered the flag guards to tear away the town flag and never throw it to the Han army. .
He said unwillingly:
"I may die, but the flag cannot be thrown away, and I, Zhao County, cannot lose my soul. Regret, I, Zhao Rong, am proud of my bravery, and God is true, so I can no longer make meritorious deeds."
After saying that, he grabbed a handful of void, then fell on his back, convulsed and died.
Behind him, his soldiers were in tears.
(End of chapter)