Chapter 579: Trap
In fact, the reason why Yuan Shao was so determined was none other than Cao Cao.
Yuan Shao was tempted when he learned that Cao Cao defeated Qi's Yellow Turban, swept through three counties, seized countless money and grain, and trained a Qingzhou army based on Qi's Yellow Turban.
Yuan Shao has always been proud. He has always been Cao Cao's big brother, but now? The little brother did better than him, at least in dealing with the Yellow Turban issue.
Seeing that Cao Cao was about to cut off the chaos and use force to quell the Yellow Turbans' great harvest, I saw myself being so sloppy and still being told by those Yellow Turbans that half of my foundation came from their funding.
How could Yuan Shao endure this?
After pacifying him, he collected his money and food, and urged his Dingkou to join the army. Yuan Shao also brought out a Yuzhou soldier.
And once interests and face all point to conquest, a war will naturally be inevitable.
So when Liu Pi and others' letter of stance was sent to him, it was natural that it was a scrap of silk.
Not to mention that Yuan Shao had already made up his mind, some rumors in the market made Yuan Shao wary. Some of the people he used to accuse Runan of the Yellow Turban were not out of thin air, it was really because they were connected to Guan Yu of Mount Tai.
After the battle in Qingzhou in the middle of the year, Guan Yu did not stop his troops, but continued to send small forces to various areas of the Yanyu, Jianghuai and Huaihe areas.
Every time they defeat a powerful force, they will leave some of their weapons behind and then lurk in various places.
In addition to constantly passing on information, these people also provide support and protection to various resistance forces.
It is said that a group of Surabaya thieves in Pengcheng had caused a rebellion, and the Taishan Army was behind it. Their purpose in the rebellion seemed to be to save a group of Surabaya heroes who were detained by the Pengcheng Order.
There are countless such things. It seems that Guan Yu changed the hard confrontation of large corps in the past and adopted a more covert and flexible method to enhance the influence of the Taishan Army in Huaisi and the Central Plains.
Yuan Shao did not dare to take Guan Yu lightly at all.
Guan Yu was so powerful in the East before that his younger brother Cao Cao almost captured Qingzhou and was almost knocked down by this man. And now that someone under his rule is colluding with Guan Yu, how can he not let Yuan Shao take notice of him?
In addition, before he decided to attack the Yellow Turbans in Nanyang and Runan, he had just wiped out Liu Chong's forces in Chen State. Among the many letters captured, the Yellow Turban Army's support to Chen State was the most eye-catching.
Obviously, these Yellow Turban thieves are also funding Yuan Shao's enemies in an attempt to balance Yuan Shao's strength.
So Yuan Shao took action.
He first secretly dispatched the elite troops of Chen, Pei, and Liang to the front line of Tongbai Mountain, and then built barrier fortresses at the mountain exits of Laoleshan, Tongshan, and Tongbai Mountain to completely cut off the Yellow Turbans' exit from the mountain.
Among them, Tongbai Mountain was heavily besieged, where the main altar of the Southern Taiping Road was located.
The current leader Liu Pi lives here.
Liu Pi's personal destiny was obviously affected by the opportunities of the times. Among the many commanders in Runan, Liu Pi ranked relatively low, but those in front of him either died or escaped. In the end, only Liu Pi still held high the apricot-yellow flag and had the last laugh.
But this does not mean that Liu Pi is so talented and strategist. At first, he only managed to survive in the Tongbai Mountain area with the remaining Yellow Turban soldiers. However, he did not expect that the opportunity of the times came, and he, a talented man, actually led the Yellow Turban soldiers to usher in the war. Big expansion.
That is, the suppression of the Great Uprising was not the end of the troubled times but the beginning.
With the decline of the Han Dynasty, the heroes of Guandong rose up. In order to expand their troops crazily, these people exploited their subordinates to the extreme, which also caused the head of Guizhou who was about to settle down to flee again.
This time they were no longer afraid of the Yellow Turbans, and even took the initiative to join the Yellow Turbans, because reality told them that compared with the Han army, the Yellow Turbans were simply one of their own.
Besides, except for the Yellow Turban soldiers who fled to the mountains, where else could they go?
So the more intense the fighting in Kanto is, the better the development of the Yellow Turbans will be.
Liu Pi also made a contribution here. He quoted the method of the Five Pecks of Rice Sect to transform the Taiping Dao organization from a rebellious armed force in the past into a welfare organization with a grassroots mutual aid nature.
Also because more and more Guizhou leaders voluntarily donated their savings and grain to the Yellow Turban Army, the Yellow Turbans suddenly gained control of huge wealth and resources.
Relying on this resource, the Yellow Turbans began to open trade routes again, exchanging what they had and needed, and increasing their wealth.
Liu Pi did this not only to make his believers' lives better, but more importantly because he understood the cost of gathering wealth.
Those disciples did not give their savings to the Yellow Turban for nothing, they wanted the Yellow Turban to protect them in times of crisis.
In other words, Liu Pi has actually opened up an insurance business that is far ahead of his time.
It's just that Liu Pi has no concept of actuarial calculation, and he doesn't know whether he is losing or making money. He often had nightmares, dreaming that he could not give five buckets of rice to his disciples, and then he was torn alive by his disciples.
But now the good news has come, Yuan Shao is coming to attack him, and he no longer has to worry about whether he can afford grain.
But the bad news also came, the war finally broke out.
……
As the main mountain of Tongbai Mountain launched the order to protect the teachings, countless Yellow Turban remnants from the Tongbai Mountains to the Dabie Mountains began to attack Yuan Jun.
At the beginning of the war, the overall situation was not favorable to Yuan Jun.
In addition to not expecting the Yellow Turban Army to cause such a large-scale rebellion, another reason is that there are a large number of Yellow Turban Soldiers among Yuan's army.
This is not to say that Yuan Shao was careless in his work and had to become a Yellow Turban or recruit some Yellow Turban soldiers, but that these were caused by some problems left over from history.
After the failure of the Yellow Turban Uprising, its armed forces did not disappear. Instead, they were transferred to various counties and counties and were absorbed by the powerful in these places. After they were recruited by the local area, they began to eat military rations. A large part of Yuan Shao's army came from the heroes of the Central Plains who had been eradicated before. They were either eliminated or absorbed, so these officials with a Yellow Turban background infiltrated into Yuan's army.
These Yellow Turban soldiers who joined Yuan's army either due to economic reasons or helplessness had deep feelings for the Taiping Road in the past, and their hearts were still towards that side.
They did not dare to openly defy the orders from above, but they spontaneously pulled out the arrows and replaced the heads in private, and then pretended to be a fool on the surface.
And with such two or five soldiers, how could Yuan Shao win?
Therefore, on September 10th, Yuan Shao personally went to Pingyu in Runan to take over the task of conquering Tongbai Mountain.
After discussing with a group of wise men, Yuan Shao deployed his troops on the front lines of Wufang and Langling, and then discussed with Yuan Shu of Nanyang to cut off the Yellow Turbans' escape route in Tongbai Mountain.
In this way, Liu Pi and other Yellow Turbans were restrained by Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, and the entire external situation took a turn for the worse.
What worsened the situation even more was that when the Yellow Turbans from the Dabie Mountains went north to attack Xincai in Runan, they were ambushed by Yuan Shao's general Li Tong and returned with a heavy defeat.
Although the Yellow Turbans in the Dabie Mountains still have strength and continue to absorb nearby refugees to grow, they have also lost the ability to come out of the mountains again in a short period of time.
Now the Yellow Turbans in Tongbai Mountain were truly surrounded.
But Tongbaishan Yellow Turban is not without defeat.
In terms of military strength alone, there are approximately 50,000 to 60,000 Yellow Turban tribesmen in the entire Tongbai Mountains, and they occupy the old nest of the green forest. The mountains are high and the forests are deep, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.
But Yuan Jun on the opposite side should not be underestimated.
Yuan Shao gathered a huge army of about 30,000 elite soldiers at the northeastern foot of Tongbai Mountain, and his younger brother Yuan Shu was even more powerful. He directly pulled out an army of 50,000 at the southwest foot of Tongbai Mountain to help his brother.
The two Yuans are known as one hundred thousand, with their banners connected and their trumpets heard, covering the sky and the sun.
Of course, since the brothers have settled the accounts, Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao don't want much, just give him 50% of everything captured.
Yuan Shao agreed.
Yuan Shao in this plane is no longer the northern landowner who controls the four states. At this time, he urgently needs to unite Yuan Shu, so even if he can eat the Yellow Turban, for the sake of unity, Yuan Shao pulls Yuan Shu to work together.
And Yuan Shu didn't object. After all, as long as he blocked the road, he could get such huge benefits.
According to the agreement, Yuan Shao will take the lead in launching the attack.
Afterwards, Yuan Shao ordered his confidant Xin Pi to lead three thousand troops to attack Tongbai Mountain.
Xin Pi often made suggestions for Yuan Shao, so he was always regarded as a first-class counselor.
But in fact, the Xin family of Yingchuan is an out-and-out martial arts family. Their ancestors are after the Xin family of Longxi, and their military training has its own family origins. This time, Xinpi participated in the battle as a leading general.
It makes sense for Yuan Shao to use Xin Pi.
Xinpi is a person who, at best, has a strong temperament, but at worst, is very ruthless and stubborn. Once he leads the army, he will first organize the army internally.
The methods he used were also very violent, and he directly encouraged internal reports. Once he was reported, he was directly assigned to death squads and driven to the front line.
And once someone dares to die on the front line and survives, they will immediately be rewarded with wine and meat.
One hard and one soft, people's hearts gradually become attached to them.
In Xinpi's words, he didn't have time to identify, and he didn't care who was loyal and who was traitorous. Everyone is taken to the battlefield in turn, and the battlefield will test everything.
In this way, as soon as several methods were used, the military atmosphere was immediately purified.
After rectifying people's hearts, Xinpi immediately attacked the mountain without stopping.
The Yellow Turbans in Tongbai Mountain did not rely solely on Tongbai Mountain for defense, but also built barriers in the mountain roads.
One of the most important strongholds is Yangkou Wall.
In ancient times, Tongbai Mountain was also called Dafu Mountain, and the Huai River flowed east from the southern foot of Dafu Mountain in Tongbai Mountain. Its mountain pass was called Yangkou, and the south of the Huai River was Fu Yang.
The Yangkou Wall is the first barrier for the Yellow Turbans in the mountain. If Yuan Jun wants to attack the mountain, he must first break the Yangkou Wall.
Because the Yangkou wall is near the Huai River, it is surrounded by wetlands. In order to pave the way, Xinpi harvested all the hay nearby and paved a marching road.
Then the brave soldiers in the army filled the gully with soil. In just one day, the ravine outside the Yangkou wall was completely leveled.
For several days afterwards, Xin Biji personally supervised his troops' attack on the wall, and the shouts of killing shook the heaven and the earth.
On September 13th, the wall of Yangkou collapsed.
Xin Jun used his troops vigorously and resolutely.
(End of chapter)