Chapter 708 Ordering Troops
This time, the envoys of Yuan Shao's alliance were mainly from the following three parties: the Kansai imperial court, Qingzhou Cao Cao, and Nanyang Yuan Shu.
As for Chen Liu's Zhang brothers, they were almost vassals in Yuan Shao's eyes. He was just following his lead and did not attend.
So while the officials of Yuan's army outside the central tent were drinking and singing, enjoying the meat and wine given by Yuan Shao, the three families inside the central tent had a fierce quarrel with Yuan Shao.
No matter how Yuan Shao comforted himself or pretended to be calm, the illustrious Taishan Army was like Mount Tai weighing on his heart, weighing him down.
Therefore, he urgently hopes that these three companies can take the initiative to attack in other directions to relieve the pressure on his side.
But Yuan Shao's idea naturally did not receive support from the other three companies.
In their own words, each of their families is also tired of the war, and their enemies are not just the Taishan Army.
For example, the most powerful Guanxi Army has just put down the unrest in Yizhou, but there are still a large number of Yizhou soldiers making trouble in the local area, which has restricted a lot of the energy and strength of the Guanxi Army.
However, the difficulties of the Guanxi Army were also temporary, because they were gradually getting through the most difficult stage. The Pingxi Army, headed by Pingxi General Fu Xie, finally captured the main force of the rebels in the Jincheng area. The two sides fought a decisive battle in Yugu, and the Han army won a great victory. .
In this battle, the Qiang chieftain Beigong Boyu and the rebel leader Guo Guo were defeated. Han Sui, the tycoon of Liangdi, retreated to the depths of the Hexi Corridor with his remaining troops, no longer posing a threat to the inner reaches of Guanzhong.
The previous military rebellion in the farming area in Jiuquan was also put down by Fu Xie's deputy commander Guo Si. Except for the rebel leader Zhang Heng who escaped, the remaining 28 core members were skinned by Guo Si and patrolled all over Jiuquan.
Although Zhang Heng is still recruiting remnants deep in the Hexi Corridor, he can no longer pose a threat to Kansai.
Therefore, at this time, Kansai has passed the worst stage of its geopolitical situation. In the northwest, it is facing the Taishan Army with the Fen River as the boundary. In the east, there is the Weihan Zhigu as a basis, and on both sides of Liangzhou and Yizhou , you can also start to recuperate.
However, the decision-makers in Kansai, including Dong Zhuo, still dare not take it lightly, just because as the Taishan Army captures Gyeonggi, the latter will become the biggest threat to Kansai.
Therefore, it is imperative to establish alliances with the princes and forces in the Central Plains region.
But the truth is this, but it is absolutely impossible for Guanxi to do something to pull chestnuts out of the fire for Yuan Shao. At this time, Guanxi could only promise Yuan Shao to dispatch a small number of troops to contain the Taishan Army in the Weihan area, and they had no spare capacity for more.
Although years of war have tempered a large number of elite soldiers, it has also consumed the vitality of Yong, Liang and Yizhou. If they really had the strength, they would have counterattacked Bingzhou. After all, the Taishan Army in Bingzhou is like a giant ax hanging in the air. On the head, Dong Zhuo and Liu Xie could not sleep all night.
If there are practical difficulties in Kansai, then Cao Cao in Qingzhou has deeper considerations.
This time, it was Chen Qun who represented Cao Cao in the Yuan Shao Alliance.
Yuan Shao was very rude to Chen Qun, a junior. He needed Cao Cao to immediately launch a counterattack in Qingzhou against Jizhou, the base camp of the Taishan Army.
Yuan Shao was also reasonable. He told Chen Qun that now that the main force of the Taishan Army was gathering in the Gyeonggi area, it was the time when his rear was at its weakest, and this was also the best time for Cao Cao to attack the Taishan Army.
On his side, he contained the main force advocating a charge, while Cao Cao's side crossed the river from the plain and attacked Yecheng directly. Yuan Shao also said that it had not been long since Hebei fell into the traitorous territory, and there were still many virtuous elders who yearned for the Han Dynasty. Once Cao Cao raised the banner of the Han Dynasty, Hebei would inevitably be in chaos.
And once the Taishan Army in the Gyeonggi region knows that there is chaos in the north, they will be anxious to come back for reinforcements. If he then raises a hundred thousand troops to attack them and defeat them, great events in the world will be settled.
Yuan Shao even promised Cao Cao privately that after the Taishan army was defeated, he would share his territory with Qingzhou. It means that Yuan and Cao share the world.
But no matter whether Yuan Shao is hard or soft, Chen Qun is just a yes man, saying the same thing over and over again, and he has to go back and report to Cao Cao to be sure.
In the end, Yuan Shao was no longer interested in Chen Qun, a yes-man with no authority, so he directly compiled a letter and sent it to Qingzhou, asking Cao Cao to comply.
Chen Qun was frightened from beginning to end, but no one could tell what he was thinking.
The Guanxi side didn't expect anything, and Cao Cao didn't worry about it, but they didn't expect that Yuan Shu, who had never had any hope, agreed simply.
This time Yuan Shu not only came to the alliance in person, but even agreed to Yuan Shao very simply, preparing to send troops to the north, directly threatening the southwest of Kyoto, and echoing Yuan Shao's main force at Dagu Pass due south.
Yuan Shu even promised Yuan Shao that he would organize an army of about 50,000 to go north to participate in this battle.
This made Yuan Shao overjoyed, although he didn't know why Yuan Shu changed like this. He even thought that Yuan Shu was really sensible.
Coincidentally, before Yuan Shao's letter to Cao Cao was sent out, Cao Cao's letter to Yuan Shao had already arrived.
This letter was written by Cao Cao when Chen Qun had just left. When Chen Qun arrived at Heluo Camp, this letter arrived.
In the letter, it can be said that Cao Cao and Yuan Shao coincided with each other and both decided to send troops to Jizhou.
Cao Cao analyzed the current situation. In the letter, he highly praised Yuan Shao's decisiveness, supported Yuan Shao's actions, and supported him unconditionally.
Cao Cao did not support it in vain. He stated in the letter that he would send 20,000 elite troops across the river to Jizhou and penetrate directly into the rear of the Taishan Army to respond to Yuan Shao in Heluo.
In this way, the situation completely changed in Yuan Sha's direction. At this moment, the anti-Taishan Army Alliance's troops had reached 130,000.
Among them, Yuan Shu had 50,000 troops, Cao Cao had 20,000 troops, and he deployed an army of 60,000 troops in the direction of Guangcheng Pass and Yingchuan.
When Yang Mi, the envoy from Kansai, learned that Yuan Shao had planned an army of nearly 130,000, he also promised Yuan Shao after discussing with other envoys that Kansai would send 20,000 troops out of Hangu Pass.
So, in an instant, the total strength of the anti-Taishan Army alliance reached 150,000, and they would strangle the Taishan Army, which was "victorious in every battle".
However, although Zhang Chong in Kyoto did not know about this situation, he never took it lightly.
……
The situation in the Gyeonggi region is more complicated than Zhang Chong expected.
Previously, the Kwantung imperial court's search for the Gyeonggi region had reached an extreme, causing a large number of households and Guizhou chiefs to hide in Songshan Mountain. Although the Taishan Army continued to promote policies at the foot of the mountain, these Guizhou chiefs who entered the mountain had been frightened by the troubled times and did not care at all. Moved.
Gaining the trust of these people does not happen overnight, and the current Taishan Army does not have this time.
The military report Zhang Chong received that day was the military report that Dagu Pass was broken.
The original garrison of Dagu Pass consisted of thousands of people, composed of two battalions under Zhu Ling's command. But no one knew that the two deputy generals at the head of the battalion were actually instigated by Yuan Jun to rebel. So on the night of heavy snow, the enemy army broke through Dagong Pass with the support of the traitors.
Afterwards, Yuan Jun marched straight in, and after plundering several nearby dock walls, he camped outside Taigu Pass and waited for subsequent reinforcements.
At this stage, the Taishan Army can no longer tolerate hesitation, and the war has come.
But the current state of the Taishan Army is not very good.
First of all, under the Gyeonggi region, all regions have not yet organized land distribution, so the people in the Gyeonggi region are eager to get what the Taishan Army promised before the war. If they are not divided into fields or even recruited again at this time, it will be detrimental to the reputation of the Taishan Army. A big blow.
In addition, the situation in Kyoto is not ideal. The nobles and nobles who had lost their power were also ready to take action. They knew the city too well. Even though the Taishan Army had fully taken over the city, they still looked like outsiders.
At night, these unwilling aristocratic children communicate with each other along the intricate waterways of Kyoto, and conspiracies are born one after another in the dark corners of the city.
It only takes one place to see how cramped the Taishan Army is in Kyoto. That is, so far, the Taishan Army has not found the tunnel in the North Palace.
Zhang Chong knew that there was a tunnel in the Beigong, otherwise Queen Mother He and the others would not have disappeared. However, even though the generals searched the Beigong several times, they could not find it.
For this reason, Meng Ju, Cai Que, and Guo Zu all suggested that Zhang Chong move the palace to Nangong, but Zhang Chong finally rejected it.
Zhang Chong said to them:
"If the enemy troops can follow the tunnel and enter the Beigong, what difference does it make if I move or not? The ones who can protect me are not the walls of the Beigong but the brothers of the Taishan Army."
As a result, everyone stopped persuading, but patrolled more closely.
As for Zhang Chong, although he didn't pay too much attention to this, to be honest, he didn't feel good. He didn't know why the armies became timid.
Didn't they win? Didn’t they take Kyoto? Now that Yuan Shao has sent troops, what can he do? Just call it back!
He felt the anger of the army. Perhaps in their eyes, the world really belonged to them, and the original anger was suddenly deflated.
This is not Zhang Chong's unfounded worry. As a later person, he knows very well that this is what happened in history.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao led the rebel army to rise and fall, and fought all over the world, from the Central Plains to Lingnan, fighting without slacking off. After finally conquering Chang'an, he established his own political power, and then suddenly collapsed.
Another example is Li Zicheng in the late Ming Dynasty. It can be said that he conquered the world through bloody battles. He fought hundreds of battles in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and Hubei for the rest of his life, and finally captured Beijing. Then he was defeated by the Manchus only once, and the whole army collapsed.
The reason for this cannot but make Zhang Chong reflect.
Zhang Chong originally thought that the rush test was over, but now, he suddenly understood that the real test for the Taishan Army had just begun.
However, Zhang Chong actually had a plan for Yuan Shao's counterattack. Even the anti-Thai forces in the entire Central Plains united to besiege him, and he was also prepared.
Otherwise, why would he fight in Kyoto?
In his arrangement, Ding Sheng of Hebei, Heifu of Heji, and Guan Yu of Taishan were used as triangles to block and contain Chenliu and Qingzhou respectively.
Then use Bingzhou to squeeze the space on the Kansai side and suppress their eastward exit. In the end, the Yuan brothers in the south were dealt with by the main force in the Gyeonggi region.
Zhang Chong will not underestimate the enemy, but he will not exaggerate the problem to make himself confused.
In his view, there are indeed problems in the army and the Gyeonggi region, but they still do not affect the overall situation.
From Zhang Chong's own interviews, the Guizhou leaders who stayed in the capital during the war were generally willing to believe in the Taishan Army. They were also full of disgust at the Taishan Army's propaganda and still supported the Taishan Army.
In the army, the Taishan Army's belief in Taiping and their admiration for Zhang Chong grew even higher. So far, Zhang Chong has led them step by step to the present, and a new world is also opening up to them.
Why do these officials who come from poor backgrounds in the world distrust Zhang Chong and are unwilling to fight for Zhang Chong and the fruits of victory?
It was against this background that Zhang Chong held a grand military parade in the eastern suburbs of Kyoto.
The eastern suburbs were originally the place where the emperor of the Han Dynasty held spring festivals, but now tens of thousands of Taishan military officers and soldiers poured in. They shouted the slogan "Long live the King" and turned the world into golden color.
Zhang Chong rode a war horse and galloped back and forth in the various formations. He did not speak, but galloped while holding the big banner of "doing justice for heaven".
He wanted all the brothers to see him.
Strong golden light shone in the eastern suburbs. Zhang Chong was bathed in the sunshine, and the apricot-yellow paper in his hand fluttered in the wind. He couldn't remember how long he had been running. He only knew that wherever he passed, the armies cheered, and wherever he went, the masses screamed.
Finally, Zhang Chong returned to his original position with sweat profusely. He held the big banner with one arm and shouted to the officials in the outermost row:
"This flag is yellow. It is the color of the land, the color of our country, and a symbol of our poor brothers in the world. Eight years ago, I held this banner to die on Mount Tai, and now, you guys Inherit the banner, warriors who fight under this banner! Tell me, you are willing to fight for this banner until the end, will you swear to do so?"
The officials in front heard clearly and looked at the king they admired most. They shouted:
"Yes!"
The officials in the rear couldn't hear clearly, but they heard clearly the brothers in the front shouting "yes", so they did not hesitate and continued to shout:
"Yes!"
So, from front to back, from north to south, from the eastern suburbs to Kyoto, everyone who heard clearly shouted:
"Yes!"
Zhang Chong shouted again:
"Wherever Apricot Yellow goes, it is a land of peace."
This time, the collision generals behind them all shouted:
"Peace!"
Countless people chanted:
"Peace!"
The sound of peace continued, and everyone who was here was trembling, with goosebumps on their skin, and their eyes full of tears. They clenched their fists and roared solemnly towards the invisible king. .
Zhang Chong was also excited. He raised his arms and shouted wildly, shouting together with countless fanatical brothers.
Amidst the loud cheers, Zhang Chong looked towards the south with cold eyes:
"Yuan Shao, we came to the world to seek peace. Since you are here, I will let you know what the Yellow Sky Disaster is!"
The grand review was over, and the armies did not return to their respective camps. Instead, they headed south directly under the leadership of the flag.
Yu Gao came to the south to carve Yu Qing, and Heluo dragon and snake tested the powerful soldiers.
The sound of the big golden drum rising from the horns, the tusks holding the tent to see Huang Jing.
King Zhang held a grand military parade in the eastern suburbs, and the names of generals were frequently sung in the formation.
Jin Yong Qingjia has not yet taken off his armor, but his side horses have already passed Luoyang Jing.