Zhang Chong's Taishan Yellow Turbans invaded Zhangxian County on April 27. When the entire original team in Zhangxian County surrendered, Zhang Chong left 500 troops, led by Li Fu, to stay in Zhangxian County as a way out.
Then on April 29th and May 10th of the sixth year of Guanghe, Zhang Chong led the Taishan Yellow Turbans to continuously attack Dongpinglu and Wuyan City. Especially in Wuyan, the Taishan Army seized hundreds of thousands of millet.
This relieved the transfer pressure. Afterwards, the Taishan Army changed its route and went straight to Xuchang.
Zhang Chong and his old brothers have been to this place in Xuchang. Zhang Chong still remembers the family members of the Zhao family who cherished the glory of their family. At that time, Zhang Chong didn't know much about the Zhao family in Xuchang until he heard about it later.
Yong said that he only knew that this family belonged to Zhao Yan, the Marquis of Xuchang. His greatest achievement was to find an ancient road for Liu Bang, who was in trouble in Hanzhong at that time. Only then could Han Xin build a plank road openly, secretly visit Chencang, and enter Guanzhong.
At that time, Zhang Chong paid attention to this ancient talk and planned to find an opportunity to get information about this ancient road from the Zhao clan. Because this road is so important, he must know that he will enter Guanzhong in the future and want to take off.
We also need to put on two wings, this one is Yizhou, and the other is Bingzhou. There is not much to say about entering Bingzhou, it is just a few ferries, there are not so many tricks, but entering Yizhou will be fatal.
When entering Yizhou from Guanzhong, the first thing is to enter Hanzhong, and there is a natural danger between Guanzhong and Hanzhong, which is the 800-mile Qinling Mountains, which stretches from east to west and is majestic and steep. If you want to enter Hanzhong, you must cross the Qinling Mountains, and the ancestors walked there
Paved plank road.
However, the road from Guanzhong to Hanzhong was rugged and dangerous, and almost all were mountain trails, making it impossible for large armies to march. There were only three roads that could march, namely Baoxie Road, Ziwu Road, and Tangluo Road.
Baoxie Road connects Baoshui and Xieshui Valley. The southern end starts at Baocheng and the northern end ends at the entrance of Xieshui Valley. This road is also the earliest official road built. It was built in the Yin and Shang Dynasties and is the shortest road from Hanzhong to Guanzhong.
Then there is the Ziwu Road, which starts from Ziwu in the south, runs through the Ziwu Valley, and goes directly to Ziwu Pass, which is not far from Chang'an. It can be said that it is the closest road to Chang'an. When Liu Bang was driven into Hanzhong by Xiang Yu, he took this road
road.
Finally, there is the Tangluo Road. This road is right between Baoxie Road and Tangluo Road. It balances the advantages of the two roads, but the disadvantage is that this road is the most difficult to walk.
But Zhang Chong knew that almost all of these roads were on the surface, and there were defenders in various places. If he wanted to pass through these roads without the enemy's defense, there was only one situation where the entire army would be wiped out. Later, Cao Shuang took the middle road.
Tang Luo said, and then Wang Ping's army of 100,000 troops was defeated by Wang Ping's 30,000 troops, almost completely annihilated.
Therefore, when walking through Guanzhong, you cannot just take one road, which will be a dead end. You must use both right and wrong. Zhang Chong's attack on Xuchang was to capture the Zhao clan and obtain the route of Chencang's old road from their hands, so as to make some preparations for entering Shu in the future.
Of course, after this old road to Chencang was discovered, it was no longer secret, but Zhao was proud of this road and must have some detailed information of his own, which Zhang Chong wanted.
When Zhang Chong led his army to move north to Xuchang, Hebei Taiping Road sent Zhang Jiao's latest military report. Since Zhang Chong gave up going north to camp with Zhang Jiao's regiment, the letters sent by Zhang Chong became more tactful.
I know that Zhang Jiao is already afraid of him, but what can he do? At least now everyone can fight Hanting together and survive.
Zhang Jiao's letter described the situation from April to May. Although Zhang Jiao said in the letter that Hebei was out of the way and only Yecheng had not yet been conquered, Zhang Chong knew immediately that Zhang Jiao had indeed conquered Yecheng.
It’s no wonder that Yecheng, the county governor of Wei County, is not an ordinary city. It has been a famous capital city since the Spring and Autumn Period.
First of all, this place is the key point in the north, and it is located on the main traffic road east of Taihang. You can reach Jicheng via Handan in the north; you can cross the river to the east of Henan from Liyang in the south; you can cross Fukou in the west and enter Bingzhou through Taihang; you can reach Cangting in the east.
Jin crosses the big river to enter Yanzhou, and then becomes Qingqing. It can be said to be an important hub in the north.
In addition, the terrain around Yecheng is flat, with roads extending in all directions, and the Zhang River, Huan River, Baigou, and the Yellow River are connected to the Yellow River for water transportation. In a word, the soldiers of this county can be intimidated by the people of Jizhou.
If you raise your army to the east, Qingzhou can be secured. When you return to the north and look north, you are not afraid of Youzhou. If you lead your army to the west, Bingzhou will be shaken. It is a first-class treasure land.
Therefore, Zhang Jiao also planned to use this place as his base when he attacked Yecheng. However, such a good place is also well-defended. To the west of this place is the towering Taihang, and guarding Fukouxing can block the land to the east. To the southeast are the Yellow River natural chasms.
, there are Liyang, Baima, Cangting and other ferries for defense. Then the Zhang, Huan and Fu rivers flow through it to the north and south, which can hinder the enemy's advance.
Zhang Jiao was blocked to the north of Yecheng and could not advance any further. Although Zhang Jiao said in his letter that he had broken through the perimeter of Yecheng and could attack overnight, Zhang Chong understood that there was not much time left for Zhang Jiao.
.
Zhang Chong had previously left a message to Zhang Jue, asking him to pay attention to the Youzhou cavalry coming from the north. This time Zhang Jiao did not mention anything about Youzhou in his letter, and I don't know if he took it seriously.
In this letter, Zhang Jiao once again mentioned the matter of asking Zhang Chong to go north to camp with him. Zhang Jiao meant that since Zhang Chong's Taishan Army is going to Dongjun, it can join Dongjun's Taiping Road.
Together they crossed from Cangting to the north, and attacked Yecheng with him from front to back.
Zhang Chong took the letter and was noncommittal. No matter what happened to Zhang Jiao, he still walked along the Taiping Road according to his original plan.
After defeating Zhangxian, Dongpinglu, and Wuyan before, his strength expanded again. Among them, Zhangxian's generals Gao Ya, Wu Zi, Zhao Shu, and Li Zou were all brave. Zhang Chong selected four of them to join the collision team. Here we are.
In Dongpinglu, there were Taiping Taoist disciples Xie Hui and Wu Rong led a thousand Dongpinglu Yellow Turbans to defect. Zhang Chong collected 300 of his brave men and supplemented them with 200 surrendered prisoners of Dongping Kingdom and organized them into one unit, named "Pinglu Camp".
Xie Hui is the leader, Wu Rong is the deputy, and the rest are incorporated into the old camp.
After Wuyan was captured, the local Taiping Dao generals Zhao Liang and Zhu Ying led two thousand Taiping Dao soldiers to join forces with Zhang Chong. Zhang Chong still simplified his 400 soldiers and organized them into the Wuyan camp.
In this way, Zhang Chong developed like a snowball and kept selecting. Now he has 7,000 victorious soldiers and 8,000 old battalions. This does not include the 1,020 captured soldiers who were captured in the previous battle in Zhang County. Just like that, this
A team of 16,000 people consumes 600 shi of food every day. Fortunately, they have saved enough along the way, otherwise they would have to clean up the place like thieves.
This is just a military aspect. After breaking three cities, Zhang Chong's bigger gain was that he captured all the treasury of King Dongping over the years. In this wave alone, the savings of Zhang Chong's Taishan Army's holy treasury doubled. In addition, there were also
Some talented people defected to China, not many great ones, but there were a few unsuccessful literati.
One is Chen Yue, a student of Hongdu School, who specializes in calligraphy. However, his family is not well-off and he cannot be an official. He can only go back to his hometown to make a living by writing. Later, when the Yellow Turbans of Taishan came to the city, he came directly to join him. There was also another one named Jiang Sheng.
The fortune teller also came to join him. This person was actually the fortune teller who helped the Langya thieves when the Taishan Army attacked the Langya thieves a few years ago. He also somehow transformed into Wuyan. Some of them were Xu Bang's.
Friends and former officials, they joined the Taishan Army at the invitation of Xu Si.
The huge gains along the way once again strengthened Zhang Chong's strategy of independent development south of the Yellow River, so Zhang Chong could only politely refuse Zhang Jiao's request to go north to the regiment camp.
However, when Zhang Jiao received a letter, Zhang Chong naturally had to reply to him. In addition to once again reminding Zhang Jiao to pay attention to the land to the north, Zhang Chong also asked the visitor to bring Zhang Jiao a Dongping King Seal. As for how Zhang Jiao understood this move
, this is out of Zhang Chong’s control.
On May 15, the day Zhang Chong led his army to surround Xuchang, a group of scouting horses brought a letter from the north, making the war more complicated and confusing.
This time the person writing the letter was not Zhang Jiao, but Zhang Chong’s teacher, Zhang Liang.
In the letter, Hebei Taiping Road had just experienced a setback, and the reason was that the Youzhou Cavalry raided the Taiping Road Camp north of Zhangshui River.
From mid-April to May 3, the three Zhang Jiao brothers joined forces to besiege Yecheng, an important town in Hebei Province. One hundred thousand Hebei Taiping troops and Zhang Ze, the prefect of Wei County, fought fiercely at Zhangshui. The main contention was the three areas north of Zhangshui.
Zubingyi.
These three military posts were beacons built to prevent the Qiang people from rushing down from the Taihang Mountains. Although they were small but strong, Taiping Road was not very good at attacking the city. It took ten days of continuous fighting to destroy two of them.
Not only that, Zhang Ze, the governor of Wei County, is also a powerful figure, known as Zhang Wohu. This gentleman is from Nanzheng, Hanzhong. When he was the governor of Zangke, he defeated the Southern Barbarians and shocked Nanzhong. Even because of his presence, these Southern Barbarians
Those who rebelled had to go to other counties to rebel. Almost all of his later resumes were related to the war. He served as the Colonel of Huqiang, the Governor of Fufeng, and the Governor of Guiyang. Previously, Banzhen, a barbarian from Bajun, rebelled, and he was appointed Colonel of Longji.
He returned to Hanzhong and settled in Baman. Finally, he came to Wei County and became the prefect.
Therefore, the three brothers of the Zhang family suffered a bloody blow in front of Zhang Ze, a crouching tiger of the Han family. Zhang Ze had two elite soldiers in his hands, one was a Nanzhong guard and the other was a Qiang guard, both of whom were good at fighting.
A few times before, when I left the city and passed through the walls of Taiping Road, I felt like I was entering an uninhabited land.
Taipingdao was unable to capture the Han court's stronghold on the north bank of Zhangshui, which was mostly related to the repeated attacks by these southern barbarian elites. However, Zhang Jiao later went out to personally boost the morale of the entire army, and the army stormed the stronghold on the north bank, even dispatching the yellow turban warriors under his tent.
In the battle, the Han troops north of the Zhang River were wiped out.
Even though Zhang Ze, the governor of Wei County, was good at fighting, he eventually retreated into Ye County due to the superior force of Hebei Taiping Road and continued to defend.
Then on May 6, the Taiping Dao Jizhou Army dispatched the Heishan Division, Huanglong Division, Zuo Xiao, Guo Daxian, and ten thousand people from four divisions to cross the Zhang River south to besiege Ye County. Zhang Jiao, holding a nine-section staff, stationed north of the Zhang River to coordinate the attack.
city.
In the next five days, Taiping Road took turns to attack. Later, they sent eighty-five troops from Yu Shigen, Qing Niujiao, Zhang Baiqi, Liu Shi, and Zuo Beard Zhang, totaling ten thousand people. They merged with the previous legion and stormed Yecheng.
It seems that Zhang Chong's reply and the Dongping King's seal he sent put a lot of pressure on Zhang Jiao, and now the desperate ants are attacking the city.
Although this move caused heavy casualties, it was indeed effective. The outer city of Ye County had been destroyed, and the prefect Zhang Ze led the county soldiers to retreat to the inner city. It was only a matter of time before Ye County fell.
But at this time, a Youzhou cavalry going south raided Zhang Jiao's camp on the north bank of Zhangshui River. This group of people obviously came to behead people, but fortunately Zhang Jiao was cautious and arranged all the yellow scarf warriors under his tent in the big tent. .The two hundred Youzhou cavalry who made the final raid were all killed, but Zhang Jiao was also shot with an arrow. Now he no longer goes out of the tent, and only allows Zhang Liang to serve as director in his tent.
Zhang Chong looked at Xuchang in front of him. He never expected that Zhang Jiao was actually injured. Although the master did not say how serious the injury was, at least he was no longer able to act. Could it be that Zhang Jiao had suffered such a serious injury in history? If not, then he Wouldn’t Zhang Chong’s hard work make Taiping Road even more difficult?
What Zhang Chong didn't know was that at this moment, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, who had formed an army after Wu Yuyu had completed it, had already led 40,000 Han court elites to attack Yingchuan.
A catastrophe in Taiping Road is inevitable again.