Just because news came from the direction of Jinan:
"Taishan's army goes south!"
Ding Sheng's tribe, who was originally in Pingyuanjin, suddenly crossed the river and attacked Pingyuan County a few days ago.
At this time, most of the troops in Qingzhou were taken by Cao Cao to attack Xu, and they could not organize any decent resistance. This allowed Ding Sheng's Taishan Army to fight all the way to the Luoyin area, and the other counties were shocked three times a day.
It was precisely because of this that Cao Ren, who was staying in Qingzhou, quickly sent a message to Cao Cao in Xuzhou, asking him to quickly come back for reinforcements.
Cao Cao pretended to have a headache and thought about it alone for a long time.
He is not a fool, he knows that now is not the time for Taishan's army to go south for a decisive battle.
First of all, it was already late autumn, and winter would soon begin. Going south at this time, no matter how arrogant the Taishan Army was, they did not dare to think that they could capture the Central Plains in just over a month.
Secondly, the Taishan Army had just finished its campaign against Liao, and its soldiers and horses were exhausted. If they were to go on an expedition at this time, even the Iron Army would not be able to withstand it.
The last and most important thing is Cao Cao's own extreme suspicion. The Taishan Army went south just to mobilize him back.
What is the purpose? It is very simple, that is to give Xuzhou a breath of fresh air.
When he and Yuan Shao began to seek wider depth to cope with the pressure of the Taishan Army, the Taishan Army was not stupid and began to take action.
Ding Sheng's actions were just such a harassment to mobilize his troops to return reinforcements.
But even though Cao Cao judged this, he finally hurriedly led Xu's army back.
Why? Because he doesn't dare to gamble.
At this moment, Cao Cao had a lot of property in his hands, but he didn't dare to be as single as before.
And sure enough, when he returned with a large army for reinforcements, Ding Sheng withdrew his troops.
Cao Cao's inner agglomeration cannot be explained to outsiders.
He had realized that Taishan's army now had complete control over him. Just like this time, if he did not return reinforcements, Ding Sheng's troops might join Taishan's Guan Yu and attack his rear.
And if he returns support like this every time, then his main force will be limited here, and his power will never be able to develop.
When the main force of the Taishan Army in Hebei really went south for a decisive battle, Cao Cao would still be dead.
At this moment, Cao Cao realized that there was a problem with his strategy, so he turned his attention to Yuan Shao. He believed that Yuan Shao should have the same worries as him.
…
Indeed, Yuan Shao also faced the same dilemma as Cao Cao.
When he ordered Ju Yi to go out to attack Jiangxia through three passes, Guan Yu from Taishan and Heifu from Heji began to threaten Yuzhou from the northeast and east respectively.
It's just that he has three advantages over Cao Cao. First, Yuzhou is deep and he can resist step by step. Second, he has more soldiers. Even if he supplies Ju Yi's southern army, today's Yuzhou can still gather 20,000 warriors and 40,000 county soldiers. The third is him
If there is an ally, it is Zhang Miao.
Chen Liu's Zhang Miao can defend him against Heifu from the Heji direction, while he only needs to deal with Guan Yu from the Taishan direction.
Even so, he also felt constrained by the strategic environment. Now he finally understood the role of Zhang Chong in opening up bases in the Central Plains.
These dotted bases are like sticks that stir things up. Whenever his expansion reaches a critical moment, these bases will be used for him.
Who can stand this?
Therefore, Yuan Shao wanted to destroy Guan Yu and Heifu, but this was a critical moment in the war in Jingzhou and he could not divide his troops.
In this regard, he is not as good as Cao Cao. Cao Cao is completely in control of Xuzhou. He can fight when he wants and leave when he wants. So it doesn't matter if he retreats once, he can fight back next month.
But Yuan Shao was different. He had put so much effort and preparation into this surprise attack on the three levels.
If he retreats this time, he will not be able to conquer Jingzhou again. Therefore, Yuan Shao can only grit his teeth and hold on, but in his heart he has regarded Guan Yu as a target that must be eliminated.
However, when both Yuan Shao and Cao Cao saw the first-level intention of the Central Plains Taishan Army to send troops to harass all parties, the news that came next suddenly silenced them.
The Taishan Army sent troops from Daibei to attack Bingzhou.
It turns out that this was their real intention.
…
In the second year of Taiwu, October 5th.
The 20,000 Taishan Army rear troops and 10,000 central guard troops gathered in Gaoliu, Daibei, with a total strength of 30,000 troops, marched south to Bingzhou on this day.
These Taishan troops who were ready to attack soon followed the Fenshui Road and invaded Pingcheng.
Pingcheng was actually Datong in the future, but compared to the importance attached to it in the Ming Dynasty, Pingcheng at this time was almost reduced to a sheepfold for the barbarians.
How could these tribes have any overall vision? When Zhang Chong's banner rushed into Pingcheng, these people were still confused.
As a result, Pingcheng, an important border town on the dividing line between Hu and Han, fell into the hands of the Taishan Army effortlessly.
Entering Shanxi from Hebei, there are usually three Taihang Mountain tunnels connected, which are also commonly used military passages in Hebei. But this time the Taishan Army did the opposite.
They took the passage that the Hu people used to go south, that is, from outside the Great Wall to Yunzhong, and then entered Yanmen County along the Fenshui Channel. After conquering Yanmen County, they crossed Juzhu Mountain and entered the Taiyuan Basin.
Then you can continue southward from the Taiyuan Basin, enter Hedong, and then point directly to Luoyang.
That's right, Zhang Chong is preparing to conquer Luoyang this time.
In addition, there is another group led by Yu Jin. They will start from Yecheng and then enter Hanoi. Then the two armies will meet in the east of Hedong.
In other words, this time the Taishan Army will divide its forces into two groups to attack together along the east and west foothills of Taihang Mountain, and finally completely capture Bingzhou and Luoyang.
The reason why Zhang Chong designed such a strategy was because he took the current world situation into consideration.
As a first-class strategist in the world, Zhang Chong is always able to draw a line of action from a complex environment.
When the news of the Kyoto Incident reached Zhang Chong, he was keenly aware that the balance of power among the various forces in the world was about to be broken.
It was also this incident at the White Horse Temple in Kyoto that made Zhang Chong notice a force that he had never paid attention to before, and that was the Kansai Court.
In the past, he would care about Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Jian, and the Yuan brothers. But he would not care about people like Liu Xie.
But this time about the White Horse Temple incident, news came from the foreign military flying cavalry lurking in Kyoto. They determined that the forces of the Kansai court had done a lot of things in this White Horse Temple operation. It can be said that He Jin could do this this time.
The reason for the quick counterattack was probably due to the force of the Kansai side.
When this information was sent to Zhang Chong, he suddenly realized that at this time, Kansai had the potential to overpower Qin.
According to the alliance between Longliang and Liang, it can be said that there are five in the world, and it has more war potential than the Taishan Army that occupied Hebei.
Zhang Chong had always looked at Guanxi from an old perspective. Ever since Liu Hong entered the Guanxi, he felt that Guanxi was just lingering. But who would have thought that it was also a coup, and the Guandong court was full of corpses and seas of blood. In the end, it became weaker and weaker with each passing day.
.
But what about the Kansai side? The strongman Dong Zhuo took over.
When the ministers of Kansai were fighting with the eunuchs, the young emperors Liu Xie and Dong Zhuo became the final winners. No one knows how they reached a tacit understanding. Maybe the key figures were Empress Dowager Dong and Dong Min.
Originally, Dong Zhuo might have thought about something he shouldn't have thought at first, but after he successfully became a general as a foreign relative, he realized that with this title, everything fell into place.
What makes Liu Xie stronger than his brother Liu Bian is that he is more decentralized, or more tolerant.
His elder brother couldn't stand He Jin being domineering at all, but Liu Xie didn't think Dong Zhuo was domineering at all.
After gaining legal principles and fame, Dong Zhuo no longer needed to prove his power as in history, so his methods became more restrained and gentle.
In short, the Kansai warriors with Dong Zhuo as the core burst out with tremendous energy after receiving full authorization from Liu Xie.
This was reflected in the war as they completely drove the Kwantung Army out of the Weihan Passage and began a strategic counterattack.
It was also under this situation that Zhang Chong had to start taking action.
Originally, Zhang Chong wanted to wait a little longer, because the actions of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were exactly what he hoped for.
What was Zhang Chong originally worried about the most?
What he worries about is using Hebei alone to fight against the princes of the world, and then he will be completely strangled between the mountains and the sea. Although historically, it is difficult for such a combination to succeed vertically and horizontally, but no matter how low the probability is, as long as it happens, it will
It's very uncomfortable.
So Zhang Chong decided to wait.
And this is the opportunity that awaits.
As Zhang Chong expected, facing the pressure from the Taishan Army, both Cao Cao of Qingzhou and Yuan Shao of Yuzhou chose to expand outward. However, expansion split their alliance and created more enemies.
First, Qing and Xu completely turned against each other, and Xuzhou was defeated by Qingzhou. Then Yuzhou and Jingzhou fought with each other, causing Jingzhou, the only complete strength in Kanto, to be quickly consumed.
Zhang Chong's original plan was to attack the Taishan Army in Heji, Taizhou, and Pingyuanjin, and mobilize the main forces in Yuzhou and Qingzhou to make them exhausted.
This move was learned by Zhang Chong and later became a ruthless move of the Qing Dynasty.
Whenever the main force of the Ming army was about to wipe out all the rogue bandits in the Central Plains, the Manchus and Qing dynasties began to enter the country and attack Beijing. Then Emperor Chongzhen impatiently recalled the main force of the imperial court back to Beijing, and then the rogue bandits reappeared.
Relying on this method, Xiao Manqing dragged the Ming Dynasty to death.
But now, the Taishan army is stronger than the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, and the Cao and Yuan armies are weaker than the Ming court. Do you think they can withstand this method?
Therefore, Zhang Chong had already stabilized the Diaoyutai and prepared to continue bleeding Cao and Yuan, and finally struck with a thunderous blow.
But these methods can only be used so far.
Because of the decline of the Kansai capital, it was no longer able to resist Kansai. Once Kansai was allowed to move forward to Heluo, and the two capitals merged into one, Kansai would be able to unite the remaining people of the Han Dynasty.
By then, it will be difficult to control Kansai.
Therefore, Zhang Chong had to strike first, go to Bingzhou, cut off an arm of Guanxi, and then enter Kyoto to completely block Guanxi in the Weihan Passage.
Therefore, precisely in order to achieve this strategic goal, Zhang Chong led the 30,000-strong Taishan Army to go south again.