The struggle of an ethnic group often requires the efforts of the community, but its demise may be determined by the will of one or two people.
This is the characteristic of human society. A small number of people make decisions, and most of them passively bear the predetermined fate.
So, it was September 3rd, the second year of Taiwu.
The King of Goguryeo gathered all his warriors, elites, and soap warriors, and combined 30,000 troops to fight Zhang Chong at the Taizi River with 5,000 horsemen and infantry.
……
Under the mighty trumpet, all Goguryeo troops filed out of camp.
With their steps thundering and their sleeves fluttering like wind, thirty thousand people from all over the country stepped out in rows under the shouts of their respective military officials and clan chiefs.
At the same time, Yan Ran, the king of Goguryeo and his homeland, sat in a chariot and watched the armies dispatch with leisurely time.
At this time, he didn't feel as depressed or embarrassed as yesterday, and even the elder was so angry that it never happened.
Suddenly, the King of Sichuan from his hometown came and said:
"Who knows what is written on the flag opposite?"
In the direction pointed by King Sichuan of his hometown, a tall apricot-yellow scroll was floating on the other side of the river.
The King of Sichuan in his hometown did not know that the former army general Dajiulu had also asked this question before, and soon his head was hung under Tian Jun's horse's neck.
It seems that this is not a good sign.
The king of Sichuan in his hometown asked a question, and all the intellectuals and intellectuals in his country were enthusiastic. One of them, a mediocre-looking scribe, stood out from the crowd and replied:
"Your Majesty, the four characters written on the opposite side are Han Chinese characters, which means 'walking the path for heaven'."
The King of Sichuan in his hometown repeated this word:
"Do justice for heaven?"
After that, he pondered for a while, obviously thinking about the meaning of these four words.
Suddenly, the King of Sichuan from his hometown slapped his thigh:
"These four words are good, very good."
But the person kept saying it was good, but did not say at all how or where it was good.
After that, the king of Sichuan, his hometown, said to the mediocre-looking scribe just now:
"Yi Basu, you are the most educated person in our country. If you can think of four words for me, you can do it better than the Han people across from you."
The mediocre scribe was called Yibasu, who was promoted from the lower class by the King of Sichuan of his home country. Although he was not from the top five nobles in the country, he was proficient in Chinese. He once went to Lelang to study with the Wang family, and he was a great literary talent in the country.
Yibasu saluted respectfully, but was not in a hurry to accept the order. He asked:
"Your Majesty, it is possible to write in a large paper, but it is too weak to use Chinese."
The king of Sichuan, his hometown, rolled his eyes:
"If you don't use Chinese, why don't you make one temporarily? People won't recognize it if you write it like that, so what's the point of writing it?"
Yibasu thought about the same truth. After praising the king's wisdom, he asked someone to pull off a piece of white cloth, and then wrote four words:
"Blessed by heaven."
After he finished writing, he explained to his hometown King Sichuan:
"Your Majesty, the Han people on the opposite side use the four words "Serve Heaven to Act on the Way", which shows that they have more than enough merits but show insufficient virtue. However, our army uses the four words "Feng Tian Cheng Yuan", which shows that our great Goguryeo's virtue and destiny are prosperous by Heaven."
The king of Sichuan, his hometown, laughed loudly, and then hurriedly asked the strongman to raise the white flag with black characters.
When the King of Sichuan of his hometown saw this large scroll with four characters of dragons and phoenixes dancing, and pens running like dragons and snakes, he exclaimed that it looked good. But what the man didn't know again was that raising the white flag meant surrender, which was another bad omen.
The King of Sichuan, who felt that he had done a great thing, finally stopped fussing and began to wait quietly for the developments on the battlefield ahead.
Ahead, where he couldn't see, both the Taishan Army and the Goguryeo Army had a tacit understanding to stop outside the river, and then both sides sent engineers to start building the pontoon bridge.
This was also the condition for the Taishan Army to agree to release the bodies of nobles such as Yuan Dayi back.
At that time, the Taishan Army said that if you are unwilling to withdraw even after taking the corpse, then you will fight to the death with the Taishan Army. In this case, the Taishan Army would be happy, so let’s meet on the battlefield.
Then they made an appointment with the Goguryeo envoy on the time and method of the battle.
Both sides will send out people to build the pontoon bridge, and then each will decide the order of attack.
In this way, with the joint efforts of both parties, the not-wide Prince Edward River was covered with pontoon bridges, with a total of sixteen pontoon bridges connected one after another.
During this process, the King of Sichuan, his home country, was bored. Just when he was getting anxious waiting, a man ran down in front of him and brought a piece of news.
"Your Majesty, the Han people on the opposite side said that they are willing to send four thousand troops to cross the shore, but they said that the battlefield space is too small and there is no way to enter, and they want us to retreat."
Faced with such a request, King Sichuan of his home country frowned and asked around:
"Are the Han people on the other side trying some tricks? How dare they, four thousand of them, take the initiative to cross the river and invite us to attack us?"
These civil and military officials offered suggestions one after another. Some thought that this was because the Han people were arrogant and arrogant. Some people think that there cannot be only 4,000 people facing them. Once we give up our position, they will definitely come out in large numbers.
Among these confusing suggestions, King Sichuan of his hometown caught the most explanatory one, so he said about the hiking trail he just came down:
"Go back and find out for me the number of Han people on the other side. See if there are only four thousand people."
Na Jianbu took the order, then galloped towards Guo, dismounted and galloped back.
Soon, a message came back from the front:
"It has been detected that the enemy's army is indeed composed of four thousand horse and foot."
After receiving this accurate news, the King of Sichuan of his hometown suddenly laughed. He raised his right hand and then raised four fingers:
"Four thousand, just four thousand. The general of the Han people opposite is really arrogant. Since they come to seek death, I, the king, will help them."
As a result, the king of Sichuan, his hometown, began to order all the armies to move back to make room for the Han army on the other side.
Even in order to leave a good reputation, King Sichuan of his home country did not intend to use any means, because this war will inevitably be sung by future generations, and he did not want future generations to think that King Sichuan, his home country, relied on conspiracy and trickery to defeat the Han people. Just like that, with the intensive sound of gold ringing and the vigorous march of the Chinese army, more than 30,000 Goguryeo people retreated back one after another.
At this moment, the unmoving apricot-yellow banner on the other side suddenly began to move towards this side, and then became faster and faster.
As the banner moved, there was a roar that shook the sky and the earth. The Han people on the other side were shouting wildly and fearlessly rushed to cross with the banner.
It was also from this moment that the rhythm of the entire battlefield suddenly accelerated.
Time may have only passed half a moment, and this sense of acceleration was also transmitted to his hometown, King Sichuan.
He was a little confused. Due to the problem of vision, he couldn't see what was happening on the battlefield in front of him. He just saw the apricot-yellow paper suddenly crossing the river.
Then it appeared in the front line, and then it accelerated.
The King of Sichuan in his hometown has also fought in the war. Of course he knows that things like the big banner are placed behind the formation, where the coach is located.
For example, the white riding banner he is currently standing is similar.
Therefore, he had never heard of a large banner being used as a charge flag. He was in a trance for a while and asked this sentence:
"Are the Han people on the opposite side about to surrender? Otherwise, why would Dagu appear in my front line?"
No one can answer this question, even Yibasu, the most educated person, is losing his voice.
Apparently they didn't understand what was going on ahead.
So what happened?
It turned out that just when Goguryeo's armies were steadily retreating in accordance with the banner of the Chinese army, Zhang Chong, who had been sitting on his horse under the apricot-yellow banner on the other side, suddenly shouted:
"The fighter plane is coming, order all armies to charge according to my instructions!"
Therefore, without the knowledge of the generals including Xu Huang, Le Jin, Zhao Yun, Li Hu, Xi Shen, etc., Zhang Chong took Tian Jun's tent-circling armor and rushed directly onto the pontoon bridge.
The heavy armored horses creaked as they stepped on the pontoon, making people worry that it would capsize in the next moment.
But Zhang Chong and the others only walked on the eight pontoon bridges laid by his own family. These finely crafted pontoon bridges undoubtedly supported the advancement of the Taishan Army's armored cavalry.
When Zhang Chong crossed the Taizi River with his soaring apricot-yellow banner, the Goguryeo people in front of them were speechless for a while, wondering what these people were doing.
These single individuals have lost their sense of vigilance in a large formation of tens of thousands of people, and they have been wrapped in an illusory sense of security.
Not only the Goguryeo people were speechless, but also the horsemen who were still on the north bank were dumbfounded.
Seeing the king's banner, they rushed across the pontoon bridge and were surrounded by the Goguryeo people on the opposite side.
Xu Huang, who had been eating dried meat before, saw this and didn’t even wear a bag anymore, and shouted:
"Follow me!"
Then he picked up his horse and ran towards the apricot yellow paper.
And faster than Xu Huang is Zhao Yun.
From the beginning to the end, he had been paying attention to Zhang Chong's side. When Zhang Chong's side charged, Zhao Yun gave the order to the prepared Heji knights:
"Follow me to protect the king!"
As a result, the golden and iron horses followed the movement of the apricot-yellow banner and entered the south bank of the Taizi River.
……
Zhao Yun, who was covered in dust, quickly picked up the apricot-yellow banner and shouted:
"Your Majesty, Zhao Yun leads the Heji knights into battle!"
Amidst the rolling sound of horse hooves, Zhao Yun's words were actually inaudible at all.
But Zhang Chong heard it. He laughed, held up the fine iron horse in his hand, and shouted:
"Gentlemen, follow me today to ride on Goguryeo, so that the horses cannot be returned!"
Then he raised his arms and shouted:
"Kill!"
At this time, all the three armies heard it. Some knights still on the pontoon heard the loud sound and could no longer suppress it. They shouted:
"Kill!"
As a result, a whirlwind set off by Zhang Chong and his armored cavalry swept into the front army of the Goguryeo army.
They drove the billowing smoke and dust, flooding and pouring like the Taizi River. Inside the smoke and dust was a sea of blood battlefield, and outside the smoke and dust, only the shouts of death could be heard.
Previously, because the Goguryeo central army ordered to retreat, all its troops withdrew to the south, and the formation changed from wealth to chaos. And when Zhang Chong led three hundred armored cavalry into the formation with unrivaled force, the front line of these people collapsed.
And this collapse was quickly transmitted to the rear army. The rear army was still in a daze like their king. Suddenly they saw the front army running wildly and knew that they had collapsed, so they immediately retreated.
In this way, the back pushed the front, and the front pushed the front. The originally small south bank valley was immediately blocked by water.
When these Goguryeo forces only left their backs to the Taishan Army, the war came to an end.
After three moments of fighting, the battle turned one-sided and Goguryeo collapsed.
When Zhang Chong rushed into the white banner of King Goguryeo, their king, King Chuan, was sitting slumped under the tent, and a stream of arrows hit him in the thigh.
Seeing this person, Zhang Chong, who was covered in blood, felt at ease, cut off the white banner with a knife, and then said contemptuously:
"I have no grudge against you, Goguryeo, so why did you come out to attack me?"
The King of Sichuan in his hometown looked embarrassed for a while, but what was even more embarrassing was this sentence:
"I don't dare to go to the country and go into the mountains to attack me. I just want to tie myself up."