When your boss asks you who is better between him and your former boss.
Cheng Pu replied:
"Sun Sima was able to do things that ordinary people would not do, he was brave and diligent, and never regretted every turn. But Commander Qu did extraordinary things, transcended the ordinary and became a saint, and was far ahead of his predecessors. It can be said that there are four or five people in the world who are like Sun Sima.
But those who can be as handsome as him are probably the three kings of ancient times."
Guo Zu, who was next to Zhang Chong and was also the leader of the collision team, couldn't help but be speechless after hearing Cheng Pu's words. He seemed to see Yu Jin in the past in Cheng Pu, who was always so capable.
Sure enough, after hearing Cheng Pu's words, Zhang Chong burst out laughing, and then said in a wicked way:
"Are you trying to say that if God didn't make him handsome, then eternity would be like a long night."
Unexpectedly, Zhang Chong's joke was not a joke at all when heard by the gangsters.
Everyone immediately bowed and shouted:
"If heaven did not give birth to a handsome man, then eternity would be like a long night."
Seeing the solemn expressions of all the officials, Zhang Chong was stunned.
At this time, a flying army came running from the road with flags on its back. When they arrived in front of Zhang Chong, they reported the military situation.
But the front line has already met the enemy.
The flying army carried the flag and sent a military report, saying:
"Last night, the fourth cavalry battalion of our front army met the cavalry of the Julu Han army on a narrow road outside Liangqi City, and a huge battle broke out."
When Zhang Chong heard this military report, he stopped joking and asked seriously:
"Be specific."
Then the articulate Fei Jun carried the flag and preached:
"According to reports from the front line, the four armies of "Tianwei", "Tianxiong", "Tianwu" and "Tiande" fought with the Gaolan Department of the Han Army outside the city of Liangqi last night. At that time, a group of Gao's cavalry were in the countryside.
While looting grain in the wild, they encountered one of the sentry cavalry of the Tianxiong Army. Afterwards, the two armies fought in a melee at night. At dawn, the main cavalry regiment of the Thieves' Army came to support. The Tianxiong Army's sentry cavalry was unable to support them and they were defeated. After that, my main force, the fourth battalion, happened to catch up.
.Then there was a big fight.”
When Zhang Chong heard this, he felt confident. With the four battalions of Tianzi's assault cavalry fighting together in the field, nearly two thousand assault cavalry could not be defeated.
Sure enough, Na Beiqi continued:
"At that time, Ma Wu, the commander of the cavalry division of the Tiande Army, attacked the rebels from behind when the battle was fierce at the front. When the cavalry of the Han army fought in the front, the commander of the cavalry division of the Tiande Army attacked and killed the rebels from the rear. Our army won a great victory."
Ma Wu had been stationed in the Heji area before. This time Zhang Chong made some adjustments to the army and transferred both Xi Shen and Ma Wu from the Heji area into the 10th Battalion of Tuqi.
Among the ten battalions of the Tuqi, the fifth battalion of Feizi was the upper fifth battalion, and the fifth battalion of Tianzi was the lower fifth battalion. Xi Shen became the commander of the Flying Leopard Army after resigning from the Heji area, while Ma Wu became the lower battalion.
Commander of the Tiande Army of the Fifth Battalion.
In addition, the original commander of the assault cavalry was Tian Jun. The scale of the assault cavalry before was only one or two thousand people, but now it has reached the scale of four thousand cavalry, and it is no longer suitable to be the commander of a complete establishment.
Therefore, Zhang Chong moved Tian Jun to the rank of captain of the sudden cavalry under the shogunate. In normal times, each battalion of the sudden cavalry still has the battalion level as the highest unit. Only when large groups are needed for combat later, Tian Jun will continue to serve as the commander.
So at this moment Tian Jun is beside Zhang Chong as a member of the generals.
After hearing what Tu Qi said about the great victory, Tian Jun felt a little worried, so he asked the flag bearer:
"How many enemy troops escaped in this battle."
The flag bearer said without thinking:
"Back to the general, we killed 600 prisoners in this battle, and probably that number of scattered cavalry escaped from the battlefield."
Seeing that the result was not what he expected, Tian Jun said to Zhang Chong with concern:
"Commander Qu, in such an encounter, although our army won, the thieves were defeated but not wiped out. Jun is worried that the news of our army's march north must have been obtained by the Julu Army."
Zhang Chong nodded and said to Tian Jun:
"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about too."
Just when Tian Jun thought that Qu Shuai was worried that the Julu Army would step up its attack on the city, he heard Qu Shuai say this:
"I'm really worried about him running away."
Tian Jun: “…….”
Afterwards, Zhang Chong thought for a while on his horse and said to the generals:
"There is a time lag now. There must be a time from when Guo Dian heard about the defeat of the cavalry in the south and was able to decisively order a retreat. And we must seize this time. We are still less than two days away from Handan.
Cheng, I intend to march at full speed, and we will be able to reach Handan around noon tomorrow. At this speed, although the combat effectiveness of the army will decrease, it is still acceptable. What do the generals think?"
The generals accompanying him, such as Xi Shen, Tian Jun, Dong Fang, Yu Jin, etc. all looked at each other and said "hey" together.
Immediately, Zhang Chong ordered the entire army:
"Order all armies and battalions to hurry up and reach Handan at noon tomorrow. Then order the flying army to send orders to the fourth battalion of the sudden cavalry in front, order them to rush to Handan quickly, and contain the Julu bandits outside the city. They must not let them go.
He retreated safely. Finally, he sent an order to Zhang Qiong of Liang Qi in front to prepare hot water on the side of the road so that the troops rushing along the road could replenish it."
After these three orders, the Taishan Army, which was still walking slowly, quickly started running.
Led by the officers at the front, each battalion began to run slowly. For them, training for dozens of miles was difficult, but it was still bearable.
On the contrary, it was the war ahead that stimulated them, because it was both glory and land. At this moment, the Taishan Army, under the leadership of Zhang Chong, was already quite like the old Qin people who were happy to hear the war.
Therefore, in each camp, everyone shouted slogans to each other, shouting one after another:
"We are a grain of sand on Mount Tai, and the mighty wind blows across the world. We are a drop of water on the river, and the turbulent waves in the sky are three thousand. We are generals and soldiers, and we dare to change the sun and the moon into the yellow sky."
The sound sung by thousands of people can naturally be heard for ten miles, but its momentum seems to spread throughout the entire mountains and rivers.
…
Naturally, the singing did not reach Guo Dian’s camp under Handan City.
But the news that Taishan's army was heading north had already reached Gao Lan after he returned from defeat.
From the battle this morning, Gao Lan took the lead in escaping with his core cavalry force of 500.
It wasn't that Gao Lan didn't have a bloody heart, in his opinion, either he took advantage of the opportunity and ran away with 500 cavalry, or they would all be buried outside the Liang period city.
In fact, he launched a sudden offensive against Liang Qicheng during the day yesterday and once captured the Taishan bandit's east wall camp in the second phase.
But at night, a cavalry team that was out collecting grain was suddenly ambushed. Gao Lan didn't take it seriously, so he ordered his general Zhang Tai to lead 500 cavalry to support him.
But who would have known that this was actually a trap by the Taishan bandits. The enemy directly took two detours and suddenly launched an attack on the advancing Zhang Tai tribe.
Zhang Tai was killed in battle at that time.
Gao Lan didn't care about Zhang Tai's defeat at all. He even had the joy of killing someone with a borrowed knife. Who makes this man so ignorant of praise? But the terrible thing is that as soon as Zhang Tai was defeated, Gao Lan's retreat was cut off, and he was about to face being killed.
The consequences of a pincer attack.
At this time, Gao Lan no longer cared about the scattered cavalry who were still wandering outside, and directly fled with the core of five hundred cavalry in the starry night.
Although Gao Lan passed back the military information about the Taishan bandits going north, he abandoned the army and fled. At this time, the Julu Army under the leadership of Guo Dian still showed the glory of the previous Han army, so he looked down upon Gao Lan.
Such a fugitive.
Therefore, although Gao Lan's life was saved, his reputation was ruined.
Everyone in the army calls him:
"General Long Legs."
Zhao Fu, who had never dealt with Gao Lan, even mocked Guo Dian in front of him:
"If you are afraid that the enemy will be defeated and flee, General Wen Gao should take the lead."
Faced with all this, Gao Lan could only retreat in shame, but he already hated Zhao Fu in his heart.
In the end, Guo Dian did not deal with Gao Lan, but still ordered him to continue to lead the remaining 500 cavalry. The reason for this was that Guo Dian had no intention of withdrawing his troops, so he decided to continue the attack on Handan.
This posture naturally aroused the opposition of the Julu generals, who all advised Guo Dian to return north, as Handan would definitely be impossible to capture.
This is not a double standard. Can Gao Lan's retreat and Guo Dian's retreat be the same thing?
The former is cowardly fighting, the latter is fighting. There is a huge difference!
But Guo Dian didn't know why, but he just didn't listen to the advice. As the generals expected, he insisted on going his own way and continued to attack the city.
However, Guo Dian was not really stunned. In a situation with a fortified city in front and reinforcements behind, ordinary armies would not be able to defeat it.
But Guo Dian had already made arrangements for these situations.
When he sent Gao Lan to the south, Guo Dian actually made arrangements under the city.
He divided the four gates of Handan under his four generals, Zhao Fu, Cheng Huan, Wei Liang and Guo Xun. From the 26th, the four generals harassed and attacked the fortress day and night. In the city, the sound of police, drums and people continued until dawn, and Lu Xiang,
Brother Lu Kuang was so disturbed that he could not rest.
In addition to the harassment at night, the Julu Army also attacked the north and south gates during the day, using ladders to tear down the city wall. Dozens of brave men climbed up the city first, but were cut down and severely wounded by Lu Kuang with an armored axe.
Don't back down.
After that, from the 26th, 27th, and 28th, the Julu Army continued to attack for three days without success. So Guo Dian prepared a hole to attack the city.
There is no water flow around Handan, so there is no moat, which is suitable for using underground caves to attack the city. Now that the underground caves have been dug, we are waiting for Guo Dian's order.
Therefore, after Guo Dian knew that the Taishan Army was coming, he still refused to withdraw, hoping that he would be lucky enough to attack the cave.
But what weaknesses did Handan's city defense have, could the Lu brothers not know? Therefore, listening urns had been placed on the four walls for a long time, and people were monitoring them day and night.
So just when Guo Dian thought he could break into the city, a group of elite troops led by Lu Xiang himself came out of the city and directly connected with the tunnel dug by the Han army.
Then Lu Xiang led the dead soldiers directly out of the tunnel and directly entered the tunnel entrance outside the city. At that time, all the Han army generals were discussing matters in the Guo Dian camp, and no one was in charge of the east camp.
So after Lu Xiang led his men to kill all the soldiers of the Han army digging the earth camp, they burned the grain and fodder of the Dongying camp, and then walked away from the tunnel again.
As for the tunnel, it was naturally dug.
Surprisingly, after the highly anticipated hole attack failed, Guo Dian still refused to retreat. Instead, he began to reinforce the outer trenches he had originally built.
These trenches were built by Guo Dian as soon as he arrived. At that time, the generals did not understand what he meant. It was not until the Taishan Army came to the north that they realized that Guo Dian planned to rely on these outer trenches to build tunnels.
But no one thinks that Guo Dianduo is a mastermind, they just think that he is crazy!
Why?
Because they want to fight on two fronts. They have to attack Handan City, but also resist the Taishan Army outside. This is one force worth two flowers, and who knows how many people will come from the Taishan Army heading north?
Now that they are surrounded by Guo Dian like this, they will not be able to escape even if they want to. Then it will not be them besieging Handan, but Handan and reinforcements from outside who will outflank them.
What's even more terrifying is, how much food can they collect by relying on the corridors, and how much can it compare with Handan in the inner circle? Before they can trap Handan to death, they themselves will be without food.
However, this style of play is not impossible, unless we also have reinforcements?
But where are our reinforcements?
…
While the corridor was being built outside, on the 29th, the Julu Army launched the most violent attack on the Taishan Army in Handan City. Thousands of Han troops attacked the head of Handan City in three directions, but in the end they failed.
Get results.
It was also on this day that the first batch of reinforcements from the Taishan Army arrived.
Following Zhang Chong's order, four generals, Yan Gang, leader of the Tianwei Army, Li Fu, leader of the Tianxiong Army, Li Bi, leader of the Tianwu Army, and Ma Wu, leader of the Tiande Army, came from Liang Qi with two thousand cavalry.
Accompanying them were Zhang Nan who was stationed at Jiulong Mountain in the northwest of Handan, and 600 remaining soldiers from Guo Mo's second division. When the two generals learned that the main force in Yecheng had arrived, they also went down the mountain to join the Tuqi.
These days, they did not sit back and watch Handan being attacked, but continued to harass the Julu Army's rear grain roads. From time to time, they would ambush the grain transport convoys coming from Yiyang, which greatly interfered with the Julu Army's reserves in Handan.
As soon as Yan Gang and the other four generals arrived, they decided to launch an attack on the Julu Army outside the city.
Amid the roaring tsunami of friendly forces on Handan City, two thousand assault cavalry began to sweep across the northeast gate of Handan. Unfortunately, due to the existence of the Han army's tunnel outside the city, the results of the attack were not great.
In addition to killing hundreds of Han soldiers who had no time to retreat to the corridor, the four battalions of assault cavalry could only walk around the camp trench. On the contrary, Lu Xiang on the city misjudged the situation and prepared to open the city as soon as the reinforcements arrived.
Attack the Han army from a flank.
But unfortunately, as soon as Lu Xiang and his three hundred soldiers left the city, Gao Lan's cavalry, who had already laid down, seized the opportunity and ran amok.
If Lu Kuang, who was on top of the city, hadn't seen the opportunity and quickly closed the Handan city gate, he would have been almost charged in by Gao Lan's cavalry.
But the city was closed, and the three hundred soldiers outside the city had no way of retreat.
Faced with the siege of more than ten Han troops, the Taishan Army soldiers could only protect Lu Kuang to the city root. In the end, only Lu Kuang and more than ten people were pulled back to the city by hanging baskets, and the others died.
These brave soldiers were beheaded by the Julu Army, stripped off their armor, and then hung their heads outside the corridor to intimidate the Taishan Army's sudden cavalry outside.
This not only angered the Taishan Army in Handan City, but also made the assault riders outside the corridor furious.
Their Taishan Army is invincible, how could they be so angry?
Therefore, under the personal leadership of Zhang Nan and Guo Mo, in addition to the 600 people in their headquarters, many cavalry officers volunteered to dismount and participate in the infantry battle. A total of about a thousand people participated in the attack on the corridor.
Naturally, there was no result in attacking the wall this time. After all, there was such a huge difference in strength between the attacking and defending sides. However, Guo Mo, one of the fighting generals, was able to stun a Han army officer and capture him under the wall.
After that, Guo Mo chopped up the Han army officer alive in front of the Julu army on the wall.
Guo Mo chopped him into pieces more than forty times, then threw him on the ground and left him to die.
The soldier was not dead yet and could only scream under the wall. The Han soldiers on the wall did not dare to come out to rescue him, and their morale dropped to the lowest point.
Now, everyone knows that both sides are fighting to the death.