Chapter 735: The flag of Great Chu is planted all over the Central Plains
In the afternoon, Yan Liang led the follow-up troops and entered Tongxiang City.
Standing on horseback outside the city, Yan Liang watched the enemy city from a distance. Zhang Liao cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, this city has low walls and very weak defenses. Please give the king an order and I will lead the army to attack the city from all sides. We will be able to defeat it in less than an hour."
Raise this city to the ground."
Yan Liang only nodded slightly, but did not agree to Zhang Liao's request.
The walls of the small city in front of him were low, and the soldiers could climb up to the top of the city with their bare hands without the help of climbing equipment. However, Zhao Yun in the city only had less than two or three thousand remaining troops. Yan Liang only gave an order, and his army of fifty or sixty thousand attacked from all sides.
The city must be razed to the ground in an instant, along with the remaining enemies in the city.
Yan Liang naturally knows this very well.
However, Yan Liang also knew that with Zhao Yun's character, after the city was broken, he would fight to the death, fight to the last drop of blood, and die on the battlefield to preserve his reputation.
If that were the case, wouldn't it be in vain that Yan Liang spent so much effort to devise this strategy?
After pondering for a moment, Yan Liang sneered: "Leave more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to surround the city, and the rest of the army will go to Puyang. After Zhang Fei is destroyed, we can then clean up the city."
Of course Yan Liang will not forget that he and Zhao Yun had a bet.
Yan Liang wanted to trap Zhao Yun in this city, besiege it but not attack it, and let Zhao Yun see if Liu Bei's big-eared thief would come to rescue his lone army.
Previously, Zhao Yun occupied the important territory of Baima City and had 10,000 soldiers and horses. Yan Liang had to leave a large army to surround him. With Zhao Yun's current situation, Yan Liang only needed to leave more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to trap Zhao Yun to death. Naturally,
There is no need to rush to break the city.
After the order was passed, Yan Liang left Jiang Qin to lead 10,000 troops to surround Tongxiang City and trap Zhao Yun. He himself mobilized all his troops to join the army attacking Puyang.
At the same time, Yan Liang sent an order to Pan Zhang, ordering him to take advantage of the situation to sweep Baima City and clear the rear as soon as possible.
Zhao Yun's attack took away more than 6,000 troops and horses. At this moment, less than 4,000 troops and horses were left in Baima City. Before Pan Zhang could attack the city, the remaining Yan troops in the city opened the city and surrendered. The Chu army took them without any effort.
Went to Baima City.
At this point, the road to the east was opened, and the Chu army of more than 100,000 troops rushed towards Puyang in a mighty manner.
Zhang Fei in Puyang City originally thought that half of the Chu army's strength was contained, and wanted to take advantage of the lack of strength of the Chu army in the west of Puyang City to launch a counterattack with 30,000 infantry and cavalry and defeat the Chu army in one fell swoop.
But while Zhang Fei was still formulating a counterattack plan, he suddenly received the bad news that Baima had fallen and Zhao Yun was defeated and trapped in the small town of Tongxiang.
Zhang Fei was so horrified that his plan was shattered that he gave up his attempt to counterattack and immediately sent the information to Liyang on the north bank to ask Liu Bei for instructions on what to do.
Liyang City, Yan Army Camp.
In the royal tent, Liu Bei was pacing with his hands behind his back, anxiously waiting for news from the south bank.
Zhuge Liang shook his feather fan slightly, looking calm and confident.
Seeing Liu Bei's anxiety, Zhuge Liang smiled and comforted him: "Don't worry too much, my king. Zilong is both wise and brave. I believe that as long as he is willing to accept the order to attack, he will definitely succeed in the battle and burn the Yan thief's food and fodder."
"Does the military advisor trust Zilong so much?" Liu Bei turned around and looked at Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang suddenly realized that what he had just said was too full. There were countless examples of miscalculations in the past. If there was an accident of 1 in 10,000 this time, wouldn't it be very unpleasant for him?
Thinking of this, Zhuge Liang sighed: "Unless it is true as the rumors say, Zilong is passive and unwilling to fight and is unwilling to try his best. In that case, this raid on Baimajin may be unusual.
Zhuge Liang's words are smart. The implication is that in short, there is no problem with Zhuge Liang's strategy. If there is a problem, it is Zhao Yun's own problem.
"Well, I hope Zilong can understand the righteousness and not let his personal joys and anger affect the king's overall situation." Liu Bei sighed, with that expression, it was obvious that he believed Zhuge Liang's words.
While the two principals and ministers were discussing, Chen Dao hurried in and said with cupped hands: "Your Majesty, General Yide has sent the latest battle report from the south bank. The Battle of White Horse has a result."
Both the monarch and the minister looked shocked, and their nerves became tense at the same time.
When Liu Bei saw Chen Dao's gloomy expression, an ominous premonition suddenly surged in his heart, but he still pretended to be calm and just waved his sleeves and asked, "Tell me what the outcome will be."
Chen Dao coughed dryly and said silently: "Zilong was ordered to attack Baima Jin at night, but was defeated by the Chu army. He led the remaining troops to flee to Tongxiang City and was surrounded. Now the Chu army had taken the opportunity to capture Baima City. More than ten people
The main force of ten thousand has pressed forward to the front line of Puyang."
In the big tent, there was dead silence for a moment, only the sound of rapid breathing was left.
Liu Bei's face was livid, his chest was rising and falling, and his eyes were filled with shock and anger, as if he couldn't believe what Chen Dao reported was true.
Even Zhuge Liang was full of surprise, and even more shame flashed across his face, as if he was embarrassed that his plan had been foiled by Yan Liang again.
However, Zhuge Liang's shame was all hidden in his heart. On the surface, he only looked a little surprised.
Zhuge Liang quietly looked at Liu Bei and saw that Liu Bei's face was red. He seemed to be filled with endless anger and might explode at any time.
Zhuge Liang felt a slight chill in his heart. Without thinking too much, he sighed: "It seems that I was unfortunately right. Zilong was really passive and lazy in fighting. Not only did he miss a great opportunity to fight, but he also made our entire south bank defense situation worse."
Fell into passivity.”
Liu Bei was full of anger and had nowhere to vent. Hearing Zhuge Liang's words, he became furious and cursed bitterly: "Zhao Yun, Zhao Yun, it's a shame that Wang Zhi trusted you. I didn't expect that at this critical moment, you would use your personal power to
To depose the Duke is really to disappoint the king."
"Your Majesty, please calm down. I am at fault in this matter. After all, Zilong came out of Baima City on my recommendation. I originally thought that Zilong was a person who distinguishes between public and private affairs, but I didn't expect that, alas~~"
Zhuge Liang sighed, full of self-blame, bowed deeply, cupped his hands and said: "I made a mistake in recommending someone, please punish me."
"The failure of this battle is not the fault of the military advisor. Why should the military advisor take responsibility?" Liu Bei lost some of his anger and helped Zhuge Liang up.
Zhuge Liang secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Military advisor, the situation on the south bank has reached this point, how should Wang Dang respond?" Liu Bei asked anxiously.
Zhuge Liang pondered for a long time and sighed silently: "Now that Baima City has been lost, Yan Liang's army has to march straight in. Puyang City is afraid that it will be difficult to defend. Liang thought that at this point, in order to preserve strength, only strong men have to cut off their wrists."
A strong man breaks his wrist?
Liu Bei felt a numbness on his arm, as if one of his arms had really been cut off.
"How to judge?" Liu Bei asked in a deep voice.
Zhuge Liang pointed at the map with his feather fan and said slowly: "At present, the navy of the rebel army has only blocked the river from Baima to Yanjin. There has not yet been a large number of enemy navy on the river from Puyang. Liang thought that the king should order Yide as soon as possible.
Lead the army on the south bank and retreat to the north bank at starry night. Only in this way can we successfully protect the thirty to forty thousand fresh troops before the Chu army completes the encirclement."
Zhuge Liang changed his original intention and suggested that Liu Bei abandon the south bank.
There is nothing we can do about it. The situation on the south bank is now completely unfavorable to the Yan army. If Zhuge Liang still hopes to keep the land on the south bank and dreams of retaking Xuzhou for a future counterattack, then he may have to cut off the 40,000 yuan sent to Zhang Fei.
Qingyan Army.
At that time, how did he behave in front of Liu Bei?
In order to maintain his current position, Zhuge Liang had no choice but to give up his plan to hold on to the Central Plains with regret.
Liu Bei fell into silence, his gray face filled with all kinds of unwillingness. For him, abandoning the Central Plains was like cutting his flesh.
After pondering for a long time, Liu Bei bit his tongue and said bitterly: "That's all, pass on the order and order Yide to speed up the Qingyan Army and evacuate to Hebei immediately."
"Your Majesty, your Majesty is wise." Zhuge Liang raised his hands and praised him. He suddenly remembered something and asked hurriedly: "What about Zhao Zilong's lone army?"
As soon as Zhao Yun was mentioned, Liu Bei became angry and waved his sleeves and said: "The fall of the Central Plains was all caused by him. If he has the chance to break through, then let him. If not, let him fend for himself."
Hearing what Liu Bei said, Zhuge Liang didn't say anything else, but secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
…
The news of the fall of Baima swept through the cities of Qingyan, and was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the armies along the coast that were still stubbornly resisting the might of the Chu army.
At this time, Zhang Fei in Puyang City was determined to die and prepared to live or die with Puyang City.
At this moment, King Liu Bei's order arrived, ordering Zhang Fei and the troops on the south bank to immediately abandon the city, cross the river, and retreat to Hebei.
Although Zhang Fei felt extremely unwilling to do so, he did not dare to disobey Liu Bei's orders, so he could only abandon the city and flee with hatred.
For several days, from Zhencheng to Puyang, the defenders from all over the city abandoned the city and fled. More than 40,000 Chu troops abandoned their helmets and armor and fled to the north bank in embarrassment.
Yan Liang's original plan was to annihilate all the Yan troops on the south bank, but Liu Bei's withdrawal was so straightforward, which somewhat exceeded his expectations.
When Yan Liang received the intelligence and ordered the naval forces to immediately move eastward and blockade the Puyang river, most of the Yan army had already fled to the north bank.
However, this small miscalculation was already insignificant to Yan Liang's gains from this battle.
From Qingzhou in the east to Linzi, to Licheng, Dong'a, and then to Zhencheng and Puyang in Yanzhou, the cities along the Yellow River that stretched for thousands of miles were all owned by Yan Liang.
This also means that after many years of bloody battles, Yan Liang finally drove Liu Bei's forces out of the south of the Yellow River. The entire Central Plains is now owned by Yan Liang.
When all the cities on the south bank had planted the flag of Chu, among the heavy siege, there was still an isolated city still raising the flag of Yan.
That lonely city was naturally the small town of Tongxiang that Zhao Yun was guarding.
Yan Liang stationed in Puyang, and after resting for a few days, he personally led his army and marched to Tongxiang City.
After Yan Liang arrived in Tongxiang, he sent several surrender officials from Puyang who had no time to evacuate to Tongxiang to meet Zhao Yun.
Yan Liang ordered these surrenders to tell Zhao Yun that Zhang Fei had withdrawn and that Zhao Yun had been abandoned by Liu Bei. He persuaded Zhao Yun not to be stubborn anymore and to fulfill the bet and surrender to Yan Liang.