"In battle, I am not tired of deception. You just do it." [Han Feizi·Nanyi]
The Liao Tunnel is on the west side of Liao Ze. The bay is usually wide and the water is deep. Not far from the shore, the terrain gets higher and higher. It is easy to form a moat and is easy to defend but difficult to attack. The fortress has a radius of more than 20 miles and is almost impregnable by Gongsun Du.
, which is daunting.
Fortunately, it was still winter at this time, and the vast Liaoze area in the past was also covered in ice for thousands of miles. The geographical advantage that the Liaotunnel relied on disappeared, and its defensive ability was instantly weakened by more than one level.
As soon as Zhang Liao led his army here, he sent people to set up camp in the south. He adopted Sima Yi's suggestion and deployed suspicious troops here to bluff, making the Liao tunnel guard mistakenly believe that there was a main force of 30,000 to 40,000 men here. Zhang Liao took advantage of this.
Taking the opportunity to set foot on the frozen Liao Ze and Liao River, we quietly bypassed the Liao Tunnel and headed towards Xiangping in the northeast.
Only partial generals Zhang He and Sima Yi were left in the tunnel south camp, leading more than 10,000 troops to garrison. Due to the lack of troops and horses, Zhang He had to lead his troops to symbolically attack several times. Several attacks failed.
It seemed that they had retreated hastily without exerting all their efforts, and it didn't take long for Bi Sheng to feel suspicious.
Bi Sheng was a veteran who followed Gongsun Du when he started his career. He had also heard about the reputation of Zhang He in Hebei Province in his early years. According to the rumors he heard, Zhang He should not be of such a standard.
With this idea in mind, Bi Sheng looked at the top of the city for a long time, and finally discovered something strange. Although looking at the smoke from the enemy's camp in the distance, it seemed that there were thirty or forty thousand people in the camp, but in the daytime, when he looked at the soldiers and horses in the camp, it did not look like they were there.
There were approximately 30,000 to 40,000 people.
After thinking about it all night, Bi Sheng finally made a bold decision to leave the city!
He didn't have so many reasons and ideas to be timid. Since he concluded that Zhang He was bluffing and that there was a suspicious force outside the city, he should first gather effective troops to give him a severe blow.
Zhang He, who was outside the city, had been a little uneasy lately. He calculated the time for Zhang Liao's departure and said to Sima Yi one day: "After being here for so many days, will Bi Sheng notice anything? If we attack the camp, I'll wait.
It’s better to deal with it.”
The response also needs to meet the opponent's attack at the exact moment. Otherwise, if you guard against it day and night, you will definitely be negligent.
Sima Yi thought for a while and calculated that Zhang Liao had probably bypassed the Liao Tunnel and headed straight for Xiangping. There was no need to continue to take risks: "It is better to show the true nature of our army to the enemy first. Bi Sheng will know it later."
, Not only are we worried that General Zhang will harass the rear, but we are also afraid that our army will pursue us from the rear, so he will definitely come out of the city to attack me. By then, we will be waiting for work and can defeat this thief first."
Zhang He thought for a while and then said, "What you said makes sense."
He was good at making clever changes and not sticking to established rules. He made an immediate decision and called the school captain Cheng Pu to make careful plans and preparations.
So after some arrangements, there was the scene that Bi Sheng thought he had seen through at the top of the city. He found the flaw, mobilized his troops and went out of the city during a dark night with no moon, intending to make a surprise attack. Who would have expected that Zhang He and others were prepared for it.
, many obstacles such as horses were set up in the camp to block the roads, and the narrow terrain of the camp was used to give Bi Sheng a successful ambush.
Under the dark night sky, Bi Sheng was riding a horse crookedly, his left hand tightly covering his injured right arm. His personal weapons had long been thrown away. At this time, there were only a few close men left to protect him.
In the middle, all around were unknowingly surrounded by Zhang He's troops.
Although Bi Sheng had fought with foreign tribes such as Goguryeo, his subordinates were not skilled in armor and did not know how to fight. Naturally, Gongsun Du was able to count many victories in battles, and Bi Sheng also earned the false name of "General of Liaodong". Over the years,
Bi Sheng seemed to be trapped by these false names, obsessed with the past of sweeping away barbarians, and never realized how elite the soldiers and horses that the imperial court relied on for its revival were.
His observation was not wrong, but the other party ambushed and strangled the army he was proud of with only ten thousand people, which dealt him a heavy blow. At that moment, Bi Sheng had no intention of fighting desperately, and only hastily stopped the rear.
Then he gathered the remaining soldiers and horses and fled to Xiangping in a hurry.
Zhang He and others took the initiative to show their weakness to the enemy. After setting up an ambush and defeating Bi Sheng, they pursued and seized the Liao Tunnel, which allowed his soldiers to live in solid and warm houses during the freezing cold wind.
Bi Sheng still took more than 10,000 soldiers with him when he escaped. Zhang He thought about it for a long time and finally gave up the idea of pursuing him under Sima Yi's persuasion. It was freezing cold at the moment. Even if he was lucky enough to win, his troops would still be seriously injured.
Leave Bi Sheng to Zhang Liao at the front!
He thought so, but his subordinate Cheng Pu was not happy. He glared at Sima Yi unkindly, clasped his fists and said: "General, the morale of the general under my command is high and the morale of the army is usable. It is better to order the general to lead the troops in pursuit and achieve full success!"
"
The military order has been given, but there is someone who is unwilling to obey the order. Zhang He was about to scold him, but Cheng Pu said again: "The last general traveled to the counties in western Liaoning and eastern Liaoning when he was young. He is familiar with the geography. He is a hasty man.
Where can we escape? This time General Zhang is raiding Xiangping on the road. I don't know if there is a battle in the rear. If he suddenly encounters Bi Sheng's deserters behind him during the battle, wouldn't it be a big deal?"
"How can General Zhenbei have the unknown military you mentioned?" Zhang He said dissatisfiedly. In fact, Cheng Pu's words did speak to his heart. If he could defeat Bi Sheng with this partial army, his contribution in this battle would never be greater than that of Bi Sheng.
How much lower is Zhang Liao's attack on thousands of miles?
Ever since Zhang He returned to the imperial court under Yuan Shao, he has always been stuck in the position of a partial general. From afar, he saw that the southern general Xu Huang had several generals under his command, but Zhang Liao was the only partial general beside him, but he was not in a hurry for anything.
Spend time cultivating young captains like Jiang Ji and Zhang Heng.
What's more, when Zhang Liao and he were their own masters, Zhang He always regarded him as his opponent, and now he is inferior to him. This makes Zhang He want to establish meritorious deeds even more. Even if he does not replace Zhang Liao, he at least wants to get a general.
, just show your worth in front of the emperor!
After Zhang He pretended to scold Cheng Pu for a few words, he waved his hand and said, "Bi Sheng is also an experienced general. Although he may not have escaped thousands of miles away, there is no guarantee that he will turn around and attack Liao Tunnel when I am not prepared after resting.
Since your army is ready, I will send you as a vanguard to pursue Bi Sheng for our army!"
Cheng Pu was overjoyed to receive this military order and hurriedly thanked him and left.
After he left, Zhang He turned to look at Sima Yi and said slowly: "Zhongda seemed to have something to say just now?"
"Yes, but the meaning of what he said is probably consistent with the general." Sima Yi unexpectedly said, but he did not object to Zhang He changing the established military order, and still sent his pursuers.
Zhang He was stunned for a moment, then blurted out: "You actually said that..." After he finished speaking, he sighed softly: "If I don't accomplish this, I will feel uneasy!"
"I know what the general is worried about." There was no one around, so Sima Yi stepped forward and said. In a short period of time, he quickly gained Zhang He's trust with his extraordinary intelligence: "In those days, everyone called the general the General of Hebei.
General Bei has almost the same reputation. Nowadays... no one who has great ambitions will be content with it."
Seeing that the other party had revealed his thoughts, Zhang He did not reply for a moment, but looked at him calmly.
Sima Yi went on to say: "If someone else had asked for a fight just now, I would never agree to it. I would ask the general to dissuade him from anything he said. However, when I saw it was Cheng Pu, I had nothing to say. Having this person as my pursuer would be a good match for the general."
It’s cheap.”
He looked like he was planning for the other party, which made Zhang He interested: "What's the advantage? If I hadn't been the leader of an army and couldn't leave lightly, I was the one who led the troops just now, how could I have let the merits go?"
with him?"
"This merit should be given to Cheng Pu." Sima Yi said firmly: "The general knows that Cheng Pu is from Youbeiping, Youzhou, but he also knows that most of the time Cheng Pu was in the army, he was under the command of the Sun family in Jiangdong."
Zhang He immediately thought of something: "You mean the person behind the Sun family..."
"If we can make friends with Zhou Lang in the court through this, why should the general be worried about not being able to establish his reputation again?"