Jisun could not convince the believers with words that this was just a construction machine and not the wrath of heaven, but he could convince them with actions.
There is no doubt that the believers are ignorant, but they are very enlightened in their hearts and know right from wrong. After Ji Sun stayed in the city in person and ate and lived with the soldiers to stabilize people's hearts, Qingzhou Yellow Turban also recovered from the initial panic. Walked out.
They also discovered that the eight so-called stone-throwing machines had loud thunder and light raindrops, and the cannons fired, but in fact no one was killed. As a result, the morale of the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans gradually recovered.
That's how it is for people. As long as you don't kill them directly, you can do whatever happens next. No matter what happens in your life, you will continue to live as usual. This is why, whether it is extreme joy or extreme fear, it is just a period, and this period has passed. will return to its original emotional level.
Later, in order to find confidence in the Han army, Ji Sun decided to go out of the city to attack the Han army's fortress at night to boost the morale of the army.
October 13th, night.
In order to take down the eight stone machines outside the city, Jisun personally led a hundred people to lower the city out. These hundred people were all from Shanliao near Mount Tai. They walked across mountains and rivers as if they were walking on flat ground, not to mention the three trenches opposite.
They stepped on the wooden planks, climbed over the trench silently, and directly touched the Han army's barrier.
At this time, the Han army's fortress was brightly lit, and the Han army was laughing and calling for friends.
The battle during the day made the Han army very reassured. In addition to the three trenches originally constructed, the Han army did not think that the Yellow Turban Army in the city could attack them at night, so they relaxed their guard, lit fires in the barriers, and chatted about the army. Interesting facts.
Some of the unbridled ones even smuggled out drinks stolen from nearby, and then drank a lot of wine. They wanted this kind of wantonness before the war. This is the style of veterans. Some recruits could only look at the seniors with envy. He was bragging, so he could only oil his armor silently.
Many people have never come into contact with weapons or armor, and they always think that these things will not break. In fact, these things are very useless. For example, armor rusts easily, so the armor must be buried in the sand and Polish and oil regularly for maintenance.
But even so, armor is still easy to rust. Because after strenuous activities while wearing armor, sweat stains will remain on the armor and corrode the armor. Therefore, after the army is repaired, these armored soldiers will continue to maintain their armor. Of course, some wealthy people will directly Just leave these tasks to the disciples.
The same goes for bows, bowstrings and arrows. These things must first be kept dry, and then when not in use, the strings must be lowered. Do not leave them stretched for too long, as this will damage the toughness of the bowstrings.
This is the daily life of a samurai. From the moment they pick up their armor, they are taught to maintain your armor as if it were your own life, because they can really save your life at a critical moment.
The Han troops in the outer camp were having fun and maintaining their weapons, while the Chinese army's tent in the inner camp was holding an emergency military meeting.
Several tallow candles lit up the big tent, and senior military officers kept arriving in a hurry. They were whispering to each other, and they obviously didn't know why Lu Zhi suddenly summoned them.
Everyone took their seats, and Lu Zhi, who was at the head, had been as motionless as a sculpture. When everyone settled down, Lu Zhi coughed, and then the military deputy Zhongfu next to him spoke first.
Zhongfu is quite young and should have gone to bed at this time, but since the war started, he has not had a good night's sleep. What's even more frightening is that when he closes his eyes, all he can think about is his son who died in the war.
His face was heart-wrenching. So, with his eyes bloodshot at this moment, he slowly told the people present a military report.
It turned out that when the Han army withdrew its troops and returned to camp today, an urgent message came from the rear of Handan. The message said that Zhao Guoxiang Wang Fen and his people rebelled in Xiang State.
This Wang Fen was a famous scholar in Yanzhou. He had previously sent troops to assist Hu Muban in the expedition against Zhang Chong. He had been living in Kyoto as an official until recently, and was recently brought back to Zhao State by Liu Hongqi to replace the former Zhao State Prime Minister Xiang Xu as the new Zhao State Prime Minister.
Xiang Xu, the Prime Minister of the State of Zhao, was not deprived by the court. He could not bear the pressure of the war and abandoned his seal and ribbon alone, and returned to his hometown in Hanoi by bicycle. Although Xiang Xu was not a qualified local official, for the Han court at this time
, regardless of ability, if you can stay in the territory, you are already a good official. But Xiang Xu couldn't meet such a low requirement, so he became a fugitive official on the grounds that his mother was old and sick and he had to go back to support her.
After that, Wang Fen was dumped by Liu Hong and became the hot-shot Prime Minister of Zhao State. Because Handan had become the garrison of the Han army in Hebei Province, Wang Fen, as the local governor, was unwilling to stay in Handan for a while, so he moved the government to Xiang State.
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Xiang State was founded by Zhao Shi. It was also called Xindu at that time and was also the other capital of Zhao State. Generally speaking, if Handan was lost, Zhao State would go to Xiang State in the north to continue fighting. It has been an important city of Zhao since ancient times.
After Wang Fen moved the county administration to Xiang State, he recruited refugees and trained national soldiers on the plateau of the Xin Palace of his old Zhao State, and did a very good job.
But Wang Fen's mistake was that he made a mistake while drunk. A few days ago, at a banquet, he talked about current political affairs with the then lieutenant of the middle school.
At that time, Wang Fen blurted out:
"Nowadays, eunuchs are rampant. Why can't we fight against these people? It's not because there are people behind them. So I think, if we want to solve the eunuchs, we must first deal with the people behind them. The Marquis of Hefei and I, hehehe, can't
Say, don’t say.”
When Wang Fen woke up the next day, she remembered what she had said last night and immediately asked someone to call Zhao Guowei, but Zhao Guowei disappeared immediately.
After worrying about alone for a few days, Wang Fen gritted his teeth and decided to raise the flag in Xiangguo. In the name of "Qingjun side, Fenghefei", he sent a message to the northern counties of Zhaoguo with the seal of Zhaoguo, and directly threatened the Han army in Hebei.
The most important granary, Juqiao Granary.
After the defenders in Handan learned the news, they sent a letter to Lu Zhi, who was on the front line, asking him to make a decision.
Lu Zhi was dizzy and puzzled at the time. He had already thought about how to break the city, but there was such a big omission in the rear. What worried him even more was that Wang Fen and the Marquis of Hefei were upper-class figures in the Han Dynasty.
They started an uprising at this critical moment, still in the name of the Qing emperor, which would inevitably cause a huge blow to the politics of the Han Dynasty.
And not only that, after the grain supply in Aocang ran out, the reserves in Juqiaocang had become the most important supply for the Han army in Hebei. Therefore, not only from political and military considerations, Lu Zhi could not leave Wang Fen alone.
But at this time, the siege of the city was at a critical point, and Lu Zhi needed to take charge of the overall situation here, so he had no choice but to let Dong Zhuo lead his troops to criticize the rebellion.
After hearing this, Dong Zhuo did not hesitate and accepted the order directly. However, he had a condition, that is, he currently only has 4,000 troops in his headquarters, and it is difficult to quell the rebellion in the northern part of Zhao State, so he asked Lu Zhi to allocate 5,000 northern troops to him.
Lu Zhi thought for a while and agreed.
At this time, the Han army camp suddenly burst into flames, and the senior Han army officials who were still discussing the details hurriedly came out of their tents to watch. They saw the front camp with flames soaring into the sky, especially the eight towering stone machines, which were like large torches. Attracting countless moths to dance with in the night.
The soldiers who hurriedly ran over reported to the generals that a team of Yellow Turbans had used kerosene to burn down the eight stone machines during the night. However, the soldiers in the front camp said that the rebel army they had defeated would organize firefighting. .
It was okay if he didn't say this, but Lu Zhi's face turned even more ugly when he said it.
His student Gongsun Zan next to him snorted coldly and cursed at the guard:
"Let people run away, just say they ran away, and then defeated them? And this is burned like this. It's useless to put out fires. Let the brothers retreat and rest. We will attack the city tomorrow. We will do this tonight and go to the battlefield tomorrow. Death?"
The guard was also an honest man, and was quite surprised when he heard this. He glanced at Lu Zhi, saw him nodding, and then hurried to the front camp to deliver the order.
After half a day, the hustle and bustle of the front camp ended, leaving only the crackling sound of the eight giant "torches".
Looking at all this, Lu Zhi murmured:
"What an eventful year it has been."
…
On the second day, Dong Zhuo left with two armies and nine thousand soldiers and horses.
Lu Zhi did allocate 5,000 men to Dong Zhuo, but only 1,000 of them belonged to the five schools of the Northern Army, and the rest were soldiers from Hanoi and Zhao's counties.
It's not Lu Zhizhao, but the core weapons and equipment he has are the five schools with about 10,000 people. If they are all given to Dong Zhuo, what will he do?
In fact, this kind of thinking of treating soldiers as one's own is common to all military commanders. The logic is very simple. The better the soldiers, the easier it is to perform meritorious service, and the easier it is for the general to be promoted. And those who have become warlords are even more In this way, the soldiers in their hands are their existence itself.
The distance from Lieren to Xiangguo is about 120 miles. After Dong Zhuo brought a supply, he first led his army north to Quliang and spent the night there. Then he crossed the Ming River, the Waishui River, and then stopped at the Qishui River. The camp was settled on the south bank.
At this time, after crossing the river, it was the state of Xiang. Dong Zhuo did not choose to cross the river immediately, fearing that he would be attacked halfway across the river. On the contrary, after he stationed himself on the south bank of the river, he transferred Xiang in the name of General Bei Zhonglang. In the east of the country, there were one thousand Julu soldiers, five hundred Pingxiang soldiers, and five hundred Ren County soldiers to join him. He also specifically requested that they recruit 4,000 people from the territory and bring corresponding provisions.
Generally speaking, Dong Zhuo felt that there was not much of a problem in countering the rebellion this time. Because Xiang State was the deputy capital of Zhao State at that time, even though the city was very solidly built, there were loopholes in the overall defense.
Among the series of acropolis surrounding Xiangguo, such as Zhongqiu, Neiqiu, Bairen, Lincheng, etc., they are all concentrated in the north of Xiangguo. However, between the south of Xiangguo and Handan, there are only two towers, Tantai and Surenting. A city fortress. Why is this?
It turns out that the purpose of establishing the Xiang State during the Zhao State was to serve as a stronghold against the Zhongshan State. Zhongshan State was a country established by the Rong people in northern Hebei during the Spring and Autumn Period. Later, when the Zhao people expanded into the Hebei area, their main enemy was the Zhongshan State in the north.
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There is a special place to point out here, that is, in the middle of Hebei Province, there is a huge lake called Dalu Ze next to Julu. The so-called continent means the vast sea, which shows how huge this lake was in the eyes of people at that time.
Because of the existence of Dalu Ze, the land of Hebei was directly divided into the northern and central areas. The narrow area between Taihang Mountain and Dalu Ze was the most convenient road for Zhongshan State to invade Zhao State. Therefore, the Zhao people also
Several military fortresses were built on this line, and Xiang State was established behind these military fortresses to facilitate the command of the front line against Zhongshan State.
Hundreds of years later, the ancient Zhongshan Kingdom has long since ceased to exist and has become the current two commanderies of Changshan Kingdom and Zhongshan Kingdom. However, the geographical advantages of our predecessors still affect the present.
This is the charm of history, everything has a reason and everything is connected.
After setting up camp, Dong Zhuo tentatively asked people to cross the river, but found that none of the rebels were guarding the river, so Dong Zhuo felt relieved, knowing that Wang Fen was an idiot.
So, after leading his army to join the brave soldiers of Julu, Pingxiang and Renxian, Dong Zhuo moved his army and crossed the river.
On October 18, Dong Zhuo built fortifications outside Xiangguo City in preparation for attacking the rebels.
According to Lu Zhi's order, Dong Zhuo built three beacons outside Xiangguo City.
What Lu Zhi meant was that if the outer city of Xiang was captured, one beacon would be lit, if the inner city was captured, two beacons would be lit, and if Wang Fen was captured, three beacons would be lit.
In the counties between Xiangguo and Lieren's camp, as long as they saw beacon fires, they would light the corresponding number, and the beacon fires must be delivered to Lu Zhi in time. Obviously, for Lu Zhi, accurately grasping the situation on the battlefield in Xiangguo is extremely important.
It's important.
It has to be said that Xiangguo, as an important town in Hebei Province, had very well-defended cities. But unfortunately, the rebel leader was Wang Fen, who also did not know how to fight. Therefore, in just one day, Dong Zhuo filled in the ravines in Xiangguo's outer city one after another, and also opened up
Create a siege road.
Of course, this is thanks to the bravery of the people in Julu and other places. Under the swords of Dong Zhuo's soldiers, they braved arrows to fill the ravine, but their lives were like a piece of grass.
In order to suppress the rebel archers on the top of the city, Dong Zhuo built three mountains of earth according to the law, just like the people in the city. Then Lu Zhibo's Hanoi soldiers were driven to the mountains by Dong Zhuo, and they used bows and arrows to shoot at the city.
Just when everything was going well, an accident happened.
On October 19, there was a sudden heavy rain under Xiangguo City. The heavy rain fell with great force, which directly turned the hastily built earth mountain into a pulp. The three hundred Hanoi archers who were camping on the earth mountain at that time were directly submerged by the earth mountain, and there was no one left.
Spared.
As soon as this incident came out, the soldiers in Hanoi were in an uproar and sat on the ramparts, saying that they would not go to the battlefield again no matter what.
Unable to do so, Dong Zhuo reported all the conditions under Xiangguo City to Lu Zhi.
After Lu Zhi got the book, the military deputy Zhongfu next to him offered Lu Zhi a plan, saying that he could write a memorial to remove Dong Zhuo and send it to the country, and then ask Lu Zhi to keep it and send it to Dong Zhuo. This would not only put pressure on Dong Zhuo, but also stimulate him in his work.
Xiangguo worked hard.
From this, we can also see that Zhong Fu is really dedicated to serving the public good. You must know that Dong Zhuo is considered the most powerful general among the Han Dynasty generals. It is really not a joke to make this person jealous.
Especially for warriors like Dong Zhuo from the border areas of Xizhou, there is no sect that does not have dead soldiers. It is not even necessary for Dong Zhuo to use his own people. There should not be too many desperate poor men like Liangzhou. It will not be surprising if Zhong Fu has an accident later.
Therefore, Lu Zhi also advised Zhongfu why he should use this dangerous strategy.
Dan Zhongfu said generously:
"If you can benefit the country, why would you dare to think about it with your own body?"
In the end, Lu Zhi sent the impeachment form written by Zhong Fu to Dong Zhuo.
Dong Zhuo was so angry that he cut off the corners of the table and cursed:
"What an old dog. I thought that we are all from Kansai. We still respect him so much, but who would have thought that he would harm my old director like this."
Dong Zhuo was going crazy, and his son-in-law Niu Fu said dullly:
"Sir, that surname is from Kyoto, not from Kansai. We in Kansai don't have such 25 people."
Niu Fu didn't see that when he said these words, the generals like Fan Chou, Li Que, Wang Fang, Li Meng and other generals silently stepped aside, just wanting to distance themselves from Niu Fu.
Sure enough, as soon as Niu Fu finished speaking, a corner of the case was thrown at Niu Fu.
Then Dong Zhuo was heard roaring:
"Okay, since you are so heroic, you can lead the team in person and climb first, so as not to embarrass us Kansai people."
Niu Fu, who knew he had said something wrong, did not dare to express his anger. He hurriedly clasped his fists and led two hundred soldiers to ascend first.
Not to mention that Niu Fu was really brave. If others climbed up first, they would let his soldiers climb up first, but he really took the lead, risking the stone himself, and killed him on the top of the city with his sword in his mouth.
With this fierce general as an example, the morale of the two hundred elite Liangzhou soldiers soared. They followed Niu Fu closely and stood on the top of the city.
Wang Fen, who was originally watching the formation at the top of the city, was still happily watching the howling Han soldiers below the city, but suddenly he saw a disheveled barbarian leading a group of armored soldiers to attack the top of the city.
Wang Fen didn't think much at all and immediately went to the city to avoid it.
In fact, Renniu Fu is an out-and-out Han Chinese, and the reason why he wears his hair disheveled is because of the customs of Liangzhou. There are only 500,000 Han people in Liangzhou, and there are more than one million Qiang people living here, so Liangzhou Han people
They were inevitably contaminated by Hu Feng, which was one of the reasons why they were not tolerated by the Central Plains scholars.
Wang Fen subconsciously avoided the evil man, not wanting to see blood dripping on the city wall.
But who knew that there was a young general named Zhang Xiu among the armored soldiers in Niu Fu's army. He was quite quick-witted. When he saw the civil servants under the canopy over there retreating, he shouted loudly:
"The traitor Wang Fen was killed by the formation."
The sound was like a loud bell, which shocked all the Xiangguo soldiers on the city and looked north. Sure enough, they saw the canopy representing the Prime Minister of Zhao hurriedly descending from the top of the city.
As a result, the soldiers' hearts were in an uproar and they no longer had the will to fight. The outer city of Xiangguo was lost.
Dong Zhuo outside the city did not expect that his son-in-law actually captured the outer city of Xiangguo. He originally wanted to light a beacon, but then he thought about it, why did I, old Dong, surrender to Lu Zhi?
The people from the North are not good people either.
So Dong Zhuo led his army into the city and surrounded the inner city of Xiang State.
At this time, Wang Fen on the inner city desperately shouted to Dong Zhuo below the city:
"General Dong, you are tired after coming all the way. I have some specialties from the State of Zhao here, and I would like to give them to General Dong to try."
Then I saw nearly a hundred beautiful palace concubines being let down from the inner city. Obviously, these were the specialties of the State of Zhao.
Dong Zhuo originally wanted to scold Wang Fen, but when he saw these hundred people, Mei Ji's eyes went straight. Not only Dong Zhuo, but also every one of his generals were dumbfounded. Not because of Dong Zhuo's majesty, they came to snatch it in the morning.
They are naturally voluptuous people, and they have been in the army for a long time. Although there are also caring soldiers and civilian girls, how can they be compared with these beauties?
Indeed, these beauties are not simple, they are the concubines of King Zhao Huai.
The lineage of King Zhao is the lineage of Liu Liang, the uncle of Emperor Guangwu at that time. Although he was named uncle, he actually raised the two Guangwu brothers personally, almost like his father. Therefore, the lineage of King Zhao received the favor of Zhao State when they were enfeoffed.
land.
These beauties were from the palace of King Zhao of Xiang State. Wang Fen was desperate and tried to use these beauties to find a way out.
So on top of the city, when he saw the reaction of the Liangzhou generals, he was ecstatic and shouted:
"I have a memorial here. You can give it to General Bei Zhonglang for me. He will understand me."
Dong Zhuo listened, pondered for a moment, and asked a scribe next to him:
"Send it or not?"
"The less trouble, the better."
"OK."
Therefore, Dong Zhuo solemnly responded to the city:
"Wang Fen, you are no longer a high-ranking official of the Han family. The moment you raised the flag of rebellion, you became a thief. As a general of the Han family, I can't even kill you in time, so how can I send you a message? Why don't you go out of the city and surrender with your arms bare?
Maybe your letter can still be delivered to General Beizhonglang."
Dong Zhuo's unkindness made Wang Fen lose his mind and he yelled:
"What a Qiang barbarian and mediocre person, with no faith whatsoever."
Wang Fen, who felt that his death was imminent, no longer cared about his dignity, pointed in the direction of Kyoto and cursed:
"The country is ignorant and immoral, and the harem is dissolute. Villains block the roads, and there is no way for loyalty. Pigs and dogs like you can criticize and criticize a famous person like me. If I were born in Guangwu, I would definitely be able to leave a name in history, build monuments and cloud towers, and
How could I be humiliated at the hands of Qiang barbarians?"
Before he finished, he clicked on the following Liangzhou generals:
"You guys who are so disgusting, you want to taint the beautiful concubine below? Let me tell you the truth, these are the people of the Zhao Palace. If you taint them now, you have committed a huge taboo, and you will die later. I will go downstairs first.
, let’s see how you die.”
After saying that, Wang Fen looked at a servant beside him, sighed, and then jumped down from the top of the city.
But because of the wrong posture, Wang Fen was not dead for a while.
The Liangzhou general who was already scolded in the city was about to chop Wang Fen to death with a knife. Who knew that Dong Zhuo said calmly:
"Why are you so anxious? Doesn't he want to see how we die? Hodor?"
The man named A Duo is another general of Dong Zhuo, Guo Si.
When Dong Zhuo called him, he immediately went out to listen to the order.
"You will let me go for a while. When the blood dries up, I will dig out his eyes and put them in a box. I will take them with me later. Also, Wang Fen looks like he has a lot of meat, and there is a lot of good oil."
Gao, at night you put a wick in his belly button, and then bring his wife and daughter, and we will have a good time around his 'human lantern'. Didn't he say we Qiang barbarians? Let him see the Qiang barbarians.
How it’s done.”
When Guo Si heard this, he smiled ferociously:
"Lord, don't worry, I promise to keep this light on."
Then the general from Liangzhou burst into laughter. With Dong Zhuo's consent, he went up and hugged a beautiful girl on his horse. This was the source of happiness in the evening.
Over there in the inner city of Xiang, Wang Fen jumped and the whole army lost its morale. They were all in a mess trying to escape. The Dong Zhuo soldiers who entered the city immediately went to search for Wang Fen's family members, including his wife, daughter, concubines and maids. They were all imprisoned.
There was a child in the shack, but Wang Fen didn't catch him, and no one knew how he escaped.
But Dong Zhuo didn't take it seriously and led ten beauties directly to an open space.
His soldiers surrounded him with curtains and made a crude curtain, and then Dong Zhuo vented his emotions in this scene in full daylight. The graceful and wild figures were combined in the curtain, and the sound was overwhelming.
If the coach does this, he must follow suit, and the whole country of Xiang falls into mourning.
At the same time, Lu Zhi, who was far away, did not know that Dong Zhuo had captured Xiang State. He could not wait for the beacon fire of Xiang State, and was worried that the Han army in Xiang State was not strong enough. So he gave Wei a
Yecheng of the county sent a message, ordering Wei Commandery to send 3,000 troops north to support Dong Zhuo, and to secure the Han army's important food routes.
It was precisely because these 3,000 soldiers from Yecheng went north that triggered a series of changes that followed, and the subsequent battlefield in Hebei became even more complicated and confusing.