Because Dong Zhuo really intended to lure the pursuing troops in the city so that he could set up an ambush.
But Mengju was also wrong.
Because the ambush Dong Zhuo planned was not a decoy ambush, but a retreat ambush.
After Dong Zhuo heard about the situation encountered by his ministries, he decided to withdraw directly.
Although he did not know that he was facing an ocean of people's war, he was not unfamiliar with this kind of problem. He had also encountered this kind of problem when he was fighting in the west.
When they were fighting in the Huangshui River Valley, marching, camping, and sleeping overnight, there was no moment when the surrounding Qiang tribes were not watching them with eager eyes. The solution to this problem for the Qiang Han army was not complicated.
One walked away, the other raped, and the other brutally killed.
Dong Zhuo chose to leave.
If the situation is not favorable, then leave. He has different intentions, so how can he be willing to use his own soldiers to fill this bottomless pit? Moreover, Lu Zhi's army, which was supposed to arrive, has not been seen yet. It is obvious that he is using Dong Zhuo for consumption.
In the previous battle of Dong Zhuo's suppression of the rebellion in Xindu, Lu Zhi made the wrong decision because he failed to send a beacon fire message to Lu Zhi in the city of Lieren in time and sent three thousand troops from Yecheng to the north to support him.
It was precisely because Yecheng's troops were mobilized that the Taishan bandits from the north took advantage of the situation. Not only did they lose the important place of Yecheng, they also lost the veteran general Zhang Ze, the prefect of Wei County.
And what about Dong Zhuo? Not only did he have no regrets, he was proud of his military exploits, plundered the capital, and raped women.
As a result, the relationship between Lu Zhi and Dong Zhuo took a turn for the worse. This time Dong Zhuo's Hedong soldiers were used as the vanguard of the front army to go south, with the intention of consuming this man.
Lu Zhi could see that Dong Zhuo was probably a disaster.
The imperial court has always liked to use people from Xizhou as generals, not only because they are good at conquering and fighting, but also because the court needs these people to serve as the central link with Xizhou.
Yes, old commanders like Duan Jue did have explosive tempers and were overly aggressive, but they were still loyal to the central government. But Lu Zhi saw that Dong Zhuo was a wild rebellious man. Not only did he learn the explosive tempers of old commanders like Duan Ying. He is 100% honest, but his loyalty to the court is not apparent at all.
He was worried because he was worried about the impending war. He would have killed this officer long ago.
And Dong Zhuo probably saw this sign. Not only did he live in a military camp when he was in Handan, but even when he went south this time, he only practiced martial arts under the city without doing anything practical.
However, Dong Zhuo withdrew, but would he really be despondent?
No, Dong Zhuo personally led the cavalry, wearing yellow scarves on their heads, and began to plunder nearby. Didn’t your Taishan Army pull your heart away from your capital of Guizhou? But aren’t there still so many left?
Dong Zhuojun pretended to be a Yellow Turban bandit and began to plunder villages and towns along the road. Not only did he ruin the reputation of the Taishan Bandit, he also chopped off the heads of these Guizhou leaders as a reward for their merit and replenished their military resources.
This is the cruelty of the foreign soldiers in Xizhou, who only regard Hebei as an enemy country and treat the people like pigs and dogs.
…
Lu Zhi of Handan also left the city after Dong Zhuo's army set off, but the direction of the army was not to Yecheng in the south, but to the east.
There, the Qingzhou Yellow Turban and Taishan Army coalition forces from Liren were attacking in the direction of Handan.
At the same time, Guangzong's Hebei Yellow Turbans were also marching towards Julu.
Guo Dian, the governor of Julu, sent letters three times a day to Handan, asking for reinforcements.
After the Battle of Julu, due to the shortage of grain in Aocang, the Han army in Hebei could only retreat to the Zhao area to eat. The Julu prefect Guo Dian was left with only 3,000 county soldiers. His subordinates included Gao Lan, Zhao Fu, Cheng Huan, Wei
Bright four generals.
But this time Guo Dian said that Guangzong's Hebei Yellow Turbans were coming out in full force, and his three thousand soldiers would definitely not be able to stop them.
This is why misfortunes never come singly. When Lu Zhi and the Han army in the south were attacking together, the Taishan army also sent out soldiers in all directions, contacting the Qingzhou Yellow Turban and Guangzong Yellow Turban successively.
Of course, things are not going smoothly here. The first one is that Zhang Liang’s former general Zhang E successfully entered Liren City with the Eastern Expedition Army.
Then Zhang E wept with blood and told Jinan Qushuai Jisun, the truth about the death of General Zhang Liang in the battle between Julu and Zhang Liang that day.
The rumors were correct. The fatal arrow that shot Zhang Liang to death came from the rear and was from Hebei Province.
But Zhang E didn't know who shot it specifically. Zhang Liang was still angry at that time and asked Zhang E to go home and not go back to the rear or tell anyone about it.
Under the coercion of Zhang Liang before his death, Zhang E cried and agreed. After that, he took a dozen of his direct brothers to change their military uniforms and wandered near Zhangshui.
Originally, Zhang E had extinguished his anger and hatred, and the hardship of being begged for a living in Zhangshui had been wiped out. But it wasn't until he saw the group of people wearing yellow scarves again that day that he realized how full his hatred was.
of intensity.
Sure enough, when he learned that his mentor was killed by someone within the sect, Ji Sun was furious and wanted to lead his troops back to Guangzong to seek justice for his mentor.
But sacrificing his grandson was still sacrificing his grandson. He loved his teacher, but he loved Huang Tian's great cause even more. So he restrained his anger and stepped up his efforts to organize his troops.
The first battle allowed him to see the gap between the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans and the real main force of the Han army, and made him determined to form an army according to the Taishan Army model.
Jisun understood that whether he was seeking justice for his mentor or building Huangtian's great cause, he could not do without the knife in his hand.
After that, he seconded a training team of 400 people from Zhang Dan's Eastern Expeditionary Army to teach the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans how to make flags and learn golden drums. He even selected Te Zhuang to learn how to prepare large formations like the Taishan Army.
However, these actions aroused the opposition of other commanders of the Qingzhou Army. They expressed their concerns to Jisun in a vague way. They were worried that by doing so, the influence of the Taishan Army in the Qingzhou Yellow Turban would be too great, which would not be a good thing after all.
But Jisun asked three questions directly:
"If you don't train your troops, how can you survive?"
"If you don't train your troops, why go back to your hometown?"
"If we don't train our troops, how can we honor our great cause?"
These three questions left Zhang Rao and others speechless. Yes, they are now in Hebei. Facing the swords of elite Han soldiers, they are already stretched thin. They do not train troops or practice formations. Do they really want to be a foreign country in Hebei?
ghost?
Among the two commanders, Xu He and Zhang Chong had dealt with each other when they were in Jinan. Xu He originally planned to invite Zhang Chong to go to Liaodong to plunder with him, but Zhang Chong missed it because he was attacked by powerful forces near Mount Tai.
.
Therefore, Xu He did not object to military training.
But Zhang Rao was different. Because of his relationship with Tang Zhou, his relationship with Zhang Chong was relatively stiff, so originally Zhang Rao also worried about this knot and objected.
But Zhang Rao is not a selfish person. He took 10,000 children from his hometown to cross the river north and lost his troops. He already felt ashamed of his hometown elders. If he puts his children in danger again because of his personal grudges, he will really
I can't accept it no matter what.
In this way, the Sanqu commanders all agreed, and the Qingzhou Yellow Turban military training officially began.
The Qingzhou Yellow Turbans originally had high-quality troops and a strong sense of resistance. The reason why they were repeatedly defeated by the Han army before was because of their lack of battle formation skills.
Now, with the 400 training teams of the Eastern Expeditionary Army forming battle formations, and the Aocang millet brought by the Eastern Expeditionary Army, the elite soldiers have enough food, and the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans' combat power has increased by leaps and bounds.
And because most of the people in the Eastern Expeditionary Army are from Taishan and Jinan, which are of the same origin as the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans, with similar accents and similar customs, they integrated very quickly.
Therefore, when Zhang Chong's messenger from Yecheng arrived at Lieren City with a letter, he invited the Qingzhou generals to attack the Han army in Hebei.
And the sacrifice to the sun did not disappoint, and only brought a letter to Zhang Chong with one sentence:
"When the snow melts, I will hunt the red dragon with my brother and live up to Huang Tian and my master."
…
If the Qingzhou Yellow Turban alliance was surprisingly smooth, then the alliance with the Hebei General Road had twists and turns.
Speaking of which, when Zhang Chong was in Xingyang that day, it was indeed Zhang Jiao who took the initiative to invite Zhang Chong to lead his army north to attack the Han army. But now the Taishan army has really come, and they have also sent a visitor with a meeting letter.
Guangzong, but found something was wrong.
The person who came to Guangzong on behalf of the Taishan Army was Dong Zhao. He asked himself as an envoy to contact the Hebei Yellow Turbans to send troops together. Together with the Taishan Army in Yecheng and the Qingzhou Army in Liren, they attacked Lu Zhi's tribe from the south, east and north.
Originally, things were going very smoothly. Zhang Bao, the local general who was in charge of general affairs, went out of the city in the snow to meet Dong Zhao and other Taishan Army messengers.
For his dignity, doing this can be said to be condescending.
But soon Dong Zhao discovered something was wrong. After they entered the city, they were arranged in Guangzong's post house. Although there was no shortage of food and wine, and even firewood for warmth, they could not see the great virtuous teacher.
I asked the envoys of the Yellow Turban Army that I had made friends with, but every time they said that they had already reported it and were waiting for time. Before it was over, Dong Zhao's deputy envoy Zhong Yan whispered that he and others had been monitored by the Hebei Yellow Turbans.
Sure enough, Dong Zhao went upstairs and looked at the street below. There were pedestrians coming and going from time to time. It was snowing, who would go out?
So Dong Zhao called the guard general Shi A and ordered him to secretly arrest someone for questioning.
After Shi Azi surrendered to Lu Xiang and Lu Kuang, he also showed his peak skill of seizing a sword with his bare hands, and soon became famous in the army.
Later, General Meng Ju of the Fei Army reorganized the Fei Army. When he heard that Shi A had such courage and skill, he immediately felt that this person was a rare sentry rider, so he directly asked Lu Xiang and Lu Kuang for him.
Again, since Meng Ju is a veteran in the army, Commander Qu agreed to select elite soldiers from all armies to reorganize the flying army, so the Lu brothers had no choice but to let him go no matter how unwilling they were.
After Shi A joined the Fei Army, he really took the lead and became the bravest soldier in the whole army. He suddenly became the commander of the Fei Army and was able to take charge of his own role.
This Shi'a is also lucky. The Fei army has a large establishment and requires a lot of labor and blood. Even though Shi'a is the first-class, he can't be directly released as a general.
According to the system of the Taishan Army, when junior military officials are transferred to the mid-level and senior levels, they must first enter the military academy for further study, and then have their scores verified by professors, officers, classmates, and former subordinates.
So this Shi'a can be considered extraordinary.
This time, Shi A led a flying army of fifty people to escort Dong Zhao and Zhong Yan to Guangzong.
Shi A got Dong Zhao's order and returned with a sack in a sack.
Afterwards, the prisoner revealed the main messenger behind the threat.
…
"Wei Shou?"
When Dong Zhao got the name from the prisoner, he murmured:
"Trouble."
Yes, it's a big trouble. Because this Wei Shou has a good background, and he's not young at all.
After Dong Zhao felt that Zhang Chong had a rare commodity, he focused on the Taishan Army. As a staff member of the Chinese Army, he had many information channels, which in itself was a necessary way for staff to improve decision-making.
As the Hebei Yellow Turbans were the largest ally of the Taishan Army, their human relations were naturally the focus of attention of Dong Zhao and other shogunate aides.
The most important people on the Taiping Road are naturally the three Zhang brothers of Julu. Below them are naturally the military commanders and channel commanders. But in the middle are a group of road officials from the Hebei General Road, who maintain the Taiping Road across the country.
connections and operations.
And this Wei Shou is currently the envoy of Hebei Province under the Zhang brothers. He is responsible for the daily operation of Hebei Province. He can be said to be the third figure.
Wei Shou has this power partly because he is the brother-in-law of the three Zhang brothers, so they are one and the same.
Zhang Jiao did not come from a poor background. He came from a wealthy family in Julu. The Wei family of Julu was Zhang's wife. The mothers of Zhang Jiao and others were from the Wei family.
On the other hand, Wei Shou's importance is also inseparable from his family.
The Julu Wei family can be traced back to Wei, one of the seven heroes of the Warring States Period, after Wei Wuji, the king of Xinling. His grandson Wei Wuzhi was Liu Bang's adviser and the great ancestor of the Julu Wei family. He was a high official of the Han Dynasty for several generations.
For this reason, the Zhang brothers all rely heavily on the Wei family. In fact, this aspect also reflects how deeply entangled the upper levels of Taiping Road in Hebei are with the powerful Julu.
But now, the No. 3 figure in Hebei Taiping Road is spying on them. What does this mean?
Feeling the seriousness, Dong Zhao silently digested the news and asked Shi A to deal with the prisoner.
This person could only disappear, because Dong Zhao could not have a falling out with Hebei Taiping Road. And this person disappeared, even though Wei Shou knew that one person was missing, but no other news came out, so he knew what Dong Zhao meant.
Dong Zhao did not share the confessions obtained from the prisoners with his deputy Zhong Yan.
This is not because Dong Zhao is a solitary person, but because he is very suspicious of this clan member of the Zhong clan in Changshe.
Zhong Yan and the others were captured by the Taishan Army when they marched north from Yingyang to Changshe, and most of their clan was taken away by the Taishan Army. The Zhong family was also very obedient and never showed any dissatisfaction. It seemed like they would join if they couldn't beat them.
Zhong Yao's younger brother, Zhong Yan, joined Zhang Chong's shogunate and made praise paintings.
So why is Dong Zhao suspicious?
It was intuition, the same kind of intuition. He always felt that Zhong Yan was physically in Taishan Camp, but his heart was in the Han Dynasty.
There were also letters that Ding Sheng had seized from Huang Wan's account. Some of the information in them was only known to them, the officials, so Dong Zhao always knew that there was a spy among them.
As for this inner ghost, Dong Zhao suspected that it was Zhong Yan.
As for whether the suspicion is wrong? So what?
This was Dong Zhao's first official mission, and he regarded it as an opportunity to make a leap. Anything that affected the success of the mission, even if there was only a slight chance, he, Dong Zhao, would kill it.
Just excluding Zhong Yan from the decision-making team was Dong Zhao's gentlest method.
If you don't see it, he can even sacrifice his own brother.
This Dong Zhao is a man who does big things. No wonder in another dimension, he jumped among many forces and directly did a big thing. He successfully promoted Cao Cao to Emperor Xian and won generations of wealth. Even if he was beaten by the people of his time
Thought he was a sycophant.
And now, how can this sycophant who is capable of big things do this big thing for Zhang Chong?