On the 20th day of the fifth month in the sixth year of Guanghe, Jizhou, Ye County, Wei County, north of the Zhang River.
This is the time when the fragrant grass of summer is at its peak, but the flowers have fallen and people have perished without knowing it. At this moment, Zhangshui has become a sad place for everyone in Taiping Road, Hebei Province.
The Zhangshui River in the north of Ye County is very clear, because when the Zhangshui River originates from the Shangdang area of the Taihang Mountains and flows from west to east, the areas it flows through are mostly the limestone and quartzite areas of the Taihang Mountains, where the sediment is thicker.
If it is less, the Zhangshui will be clearer, so some people call this Zhangshui Qingzhangshui.
But now the clearing water in the northern section of Ye County is filled with blood. Countless Taiping Taoists numbly salvage the corpses of their fellow Taoists. No one wants to recall the bloody days.
These days, Taipingdao has shed all its blood under Ye City, but has found nothing. Today, the military report finally came from the Chinese army tent decorated with gold and exuding supreme sanctity between heaven and earth:
"The entire army gave up the siege and returned to Handan."
It is finally time to withdraw. This is what the most daring yellow scarf warriors on the Taiping Road can't help but sigh.
This city of Ye was built on the high ground next to the Zhang River in the north. It spans seven miles from east to west and five miles from north to south. The city walls are made of rammed earth. From April to mid-May, Taiping Road attacked thousands of corpses under the city.
.
But just when they were attacking the city and already standing on the wall of Ye City, fate played another trick on them. A group of cavalry going south suddenly attacked the Chinese army's tent. The anxious Chinese army even offered money to send all the troops back.
aid.
In this way, the Taiping Taoist disciples who had already attacked the city were driven off the city wall. After that, they were never able to stand on the city wall of Ye County again. Some of them retreated north, while others died in the subsequent crossing.
On the road to Zhangshui.
The Chinese army had police, so the nine Yellow Turban troops who originally crossed the river naturally had to return to the army for rescue. However, because Zhang Jiao had not originally designated anyone to be the commander of the former enemy, when crossing the river, all troops looked north and no one was on the south bank to stop the Han troops.
Zhang Ze, the prefect of Wei County who has been fighting and living on the city wall these days, keenly seized the chaotic opportunity of Taiping Road crossing the river. This time he personally led two barbarian troops under his command out of the city and directly attacked the nine Taiping Road soldiers who were crossing the river.
.
Finally, a disastrous defeat occurred on the Taiping Road on the Zhang River. Nine tribesmen suffered heavy casualties and the Zhang River was cut off. Fortunately, the leaders of each tribe successfully withdrew.
In the following days, the two sides did not fight again. Taiping Road was gloomy and gloomy, but Zhang Ze of Wei County was concentrating his strength and waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
Indeed, the leading Youzhou cavalry have arrived, are reinforcements still far away?
The Han soldiers could think that Taipingdao was not stupid, so they naturally expected this. On this day, in the Chinese army tent decorated with gold foil, Fang Qushuai was discussing this matter with General Sanwei:
"The sentinels from the north have come to report that Xiang Xu, the Prime Minister of Zhao State to the north of us, has gone south from Xiang State, and it seems that he is going back to Handan."
The person who said this was Bai Que, who was in charge of the four sentinels on Taiping Road.
Upon hearing that it was Xiang Xu, all the generals in the tent laughed, and one of the strong men with long beards was the first to laugh:
"As for this idiot Xiang Xu, he still has the guts to go south. He is really going to laugh to death. This stupid old man is just a useless man. He was so boastful about what he said before, as long as people read the "Book of Filial Piety" on the north bank of the river.
, you can think of us to death. Then what? When we approach Handan, this idiot sneaks directly to Xiangguo. What is there to be afraid of such a stupid old man?"
This tall and strong man with a long beard is called Zuo Zhangba, and he is very good at using his hands. Zuo Zhangba said what he said directly expressed the opinions of the generals, so they all applauded him.
There was also a heckler among them, who even said:
"When I read the "Book of Filial Piety" and wish to die for us, I actually see those wealthy families whose fathers are unkind and whose sons are unfilial. They are also the ones who are unfilial. If I really wish to die, I also wish to die for them. If you put it this way, it would be wrong for Xiang Xu. It has helped us a lot and saved us from having to cut each knife one by one."
It's no wonder that these yellow turban generals look down on Xiang Xu. He is really ridiculous. He studied "Laozi", wore crimson gauze and disheveled hair. But he also called himself Confucius and named his disciples: "Yan Yuan" and "Zigong". ", "Ji Lu", "Ran You". Later, when the counties and counties saw that he had deviant behavior, they promoted Xiaolian, but this person was not qualified. It was not until the country finally called him that he joined the army, and he earned a great reputation. , was directly transferred to the State of Zhao as the Prime Minister.
You must know that this is a step to the sky. Normally, a person with filial piety and integrity would just become a county magistrate. He just refused a few conscriptions and became the Prime Minister of the country with two thousand stones in one step.
But it was only after he arrived in the State of Zhao that the world knew his true nature. He was not bad at the appearance and dignity of Erqianshi, but he ignored him when he was asked to perform the duties of a herdsman of Erqianshi. Artemisia grew in all the offices. Since then, he has not even opened a single document. After that, he only did one thing when he took office, and that was to be ashamed and boastful. Asking Beixiang to read the "Book of Filial Piety" and recite the death of bandits was just one of them.
Bai Que waited for the generals to finish laughing before he started to say what he said next. He was thoughtful and knew that the sect had been in a gloomy mood recently, so he deliberately brought out Xiang Xu, a fun-loving person, to cheer up the generals. But then, Bai Que said something terrible Less optimistic:
"It is precisely because Xiang Xu is a straw bag that when he dared to go south to stroke our beards, it can be seen that the Youzhou soldiers in the north have already gone south. Later, our sentry did find a large amount of horse dung in the Nanhe area of Julu. The size of four thousand riders."
Bai Que's words immediately solidified the atmosphere in the Chinese army's tent. Especially some of the believers in Youzhou, such as Zhongshan Kingdom, Hejian Kingdom, and Bohai Kingdom, frowned directly.
Some of them, their relatives and friends, have more or less gone to Northern Xinjiang for training, and have an intuitive understanding of the strength of Hanting's Youzhou Cavalry. They have no illusions at all. You must know that these are four thousand cavalry. Once the charge starts, it will be overwhelming.
Bai Que guessed the situation of the big account after talking about this military report. But he still had more to say:
"There is also a new governor called Guo Dian who came to Julu. After the original governor was defeated by us, the Han court sent this person to Julu. Now he is organizing troops near Xiaquyang in the northernmost part of the county. The purpose is unknown."
At this time, Zhang Bao, who was sitting on the right side of Zhang Jue, spoke:
"Can we check Guo Dian's background?"
Bai Que shook his head and only said that this person was from Sili. He didn't know the rest of the situation, but he added:
"Now Julu is everywhere in our Taiping Road. People dare to come to Julu alone. From this, we can see that they are bold in doing things and should not be underestimated."
Zhang Bao read Guo Dian's name once, and then asked Bai Que to continue.
Bai Que nodded, and then told a big news:
"The Yellow Turban comrades in Hanoi desperately sent the news that Yan Luzhi and the main force of the Han Dynasty had arrived at the south bank of Huan River."
This news is indeed a bit shocking. You must know that it is not many miles away from Yecheng. The army can only travel in three to five days.
Whether to fight or to flee, all the generals were looking at Zhang Jue who was leading them. Zhang Jue looked rosy at this moment, and it was obvious that the damage from the previous arrow was not as severe as imagined.
Zhang Jiao said calmly:
"Yecheng is now undefeatable. We have to retreat to Julu and hold on there until the veterans of the Han army are tired. Then we can go out of the city and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop. General Di Gong will be in charge of the retreat in a moment. Today we will
If we want to retreat to Handan, we must first defeat the Xiangxu tribe."
What Zhang Jiao said was true. The generals chanted the slogan that Huang Tian would win, and went down to prepare their own preparations.
Looking at the backs of the generals, Zhang Jiao said with mysterious eyes:
"Your apprentice is still unwilling to go north?"
Zhang Liang, who was sitting on the left side of Zhang Jiao, naturally knew that his brother was talking to him, and also knew that the apprentice he was talking about was Zhang Chong.
So Zhang Liang sighed and shook his head.
Zhang Jiao didn't say anything, and the big tent fell into silence.
----------------------------------
At this time, Zhang Chong was also in trouble. He knew that the Yellow Turban Army camp in Hedong County would definitely have a series of troubles, but he still underestimated the short-sightedness and xenophobia of the Yellow Turban Army in East County.
On May 18th, Dian Wei defeated Dong'e County, but now it is already the 20th, and Taishan's army is still in Dong'e and has not moved westward. The reason is that he and Dongjun Taipingdao have different opinions on the next march.
Bu Ji from Dongjun arrived at Dong'a yesterday to discuss with Zhang Chong. Bu Ji meant that he would lead his troops to cross the Yellow River north and camp with Zhang Jiao. Zhang Chong repeatedly advised him to go north now, but he gave up completely.
If the comrades on the south bank of the Yellow River cannot gather the Taiping Roads in Yanzhou together as soon as possible, they will be defeated by the Han court one by one. Therefore, Zhang Chong still insisted on leading his troops to the west and attacked Aocang of the Han court. The main force of the Han soldiers heading north was
They rely on Aocang to supply the army with food. As long as Aocang is captured, the Han army will be without food and will inevitably lose. This is to encircle Wei and save Zhao.
Bu Ji had been persuaded by Zhang Chong yesterday, so today Zhang Chong was ready to march west to Puyang. This place is three hundred miles away from Puyang, and the army would have to walk for ten days. Fortunately, this is the Heji Plain.
The road is smooth and the march is not hard.
The reason why Zhang Chong wants to attack Puyang next is not only because this is the county seat of Dongjun, but also because of the situation here, Zhang Chong wants to occupy it as the rear.
Puyang, the ancient ruins of Zhuan Xu, is also called Diqiu. It was later the capital of the Wei Kingdom and competed with Qi and Lu for supremacy here. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu defeated Zhang Han. Later, Lu Bu also used this place to compete with Cao Cao. Why are these forces
Should we all base ourselves on this place first?
Because Puyang is located between the Dahe River and the Pu River, it is the west gate of the Heji Plain and the east gate of Chenliu. Moreover, there is an important ferry here, Puyang Ferry, which can directly cross the river.
When Zhang Chong occupies this place, once he can no longer hold on to the Taiping Road in the north, he can immediately fly north from this ferry. Therefore, Zhang Chong must conquer Puyang, and he has even decided to start to divide the land with powerful forces nearby.
This is the base area to establish a firm foothold.
But just when Zhang Chong was ready to invite Dongjun Taiping Road to march westward, Bu Ji changed his mind again. This time he neither mentioned going north nor wanted to go westward with Zhang Chong.
I am a native of Dongjun. It is difficult to leave my homeland and I am unwilling to move westward.
As soon as Zhang Chong heard this, he knew it was an excuse.