Chapter 8: Ready to Fly, Verse 28

Early March, Hanoi, Binh Cao City.

Fierce war drums rose into the sky, and then an earth-shattering roar erupted from the sky above Pinggao City, accompanied by a piercing roar from far and near, and a huge cloud of black arrows fell from the sky.

The sound of "...... Boom" sharp arrows tearing through the air was thrilling.

The sound ......of the arrow striking the shield and nailing the wall and piercing the doors and windows of the tower was terrifying.

The panicked and terrible roars came and went, and in an instant they merged into waves of turbulent sound that continuously crashed against the crumbling city wall.

Zhu Ling opened his eyes suddenly, turned over and sat up.

The extreme exhaustion of body and mind penetrated deep into the bone marrow, and the soreness and pain all over his body made him moan involuntarily. After several days of fierce fighting, his physical strength was seriously exhausted, and at this moment, Zhu Ling sat on the couch blankly, his mind was blank, and he couldn't tell whether he was in a dream or in reality, and it was day or night.

There was a dense "ding dong" sound and bursts of sharp whistling in his ears, like a violent storm suddenly descending on Pinggao City. Rain cats and dogs? It's raining? Zhu Ling closed his eyes, shook his numb head, couldn't support his tired body, and slowly fell to the couch.

There was a "clang...... the door split in two, and the two wooden doors slammed against the wall.

Several figures swarmed in.

Zhu Ling opened his eyes again, his stiff and tilted body suddenly regained his strength, and he stood up like a fierce beast waiting to be devoured, "The enemy has attacked?" ”

"My lord, the Northern Xinjiang Army is attacking continuously, and the East City Gate is in an emergency." Wu Hui panted and rushed to Zhu Ling's side, bowed down and shouted, "My lord, go to the East City Gate and have a look." ”

Zhu Ling scolded hatefully.

Last year, he and Guo Tu repeatedly wrote to Yuan Shao, requesting to attack the Northern Xinjiang Army stationed in Huaicheng, but Yuan Shao did not agree for some reason, and dragged it until winter, but the result was not successful. originally thought that Yuan Shao would launch a counteroffensive this year to drive out the Northern Xinjiang Army. Who knew that Yuan Shao still didn't move, and there was not even a sign of an increase in troops. Now, after more than a year of recovery, the Northern Xinjiang Army has taken the initiative to come to the door. Zhu Ling really didn't understand, the Northern Xinjiang Army was about to reach Luoyang, why wasn't Yuan Shao in a hurry? Do you have to wait until the Northern Xinjiang Army Chen Bing Huanghe is approaching Luoyang before the army counterattacks?

"Is there any news from Luoyang?"

"Nope." Zhu Ling's long history shook his head, anxious, "Lord Guo Tu came to write and said that he sent three letters a day to Luoyang to ask for military support. But there has been no palindrome from Luoyang. ”

"A bunch of idiots." Zhu Ling gritted his teeth, pointed out the door, and said angrily, "The people of Luoyang should be allowed to come and see how the Northern Frontier Army attacked the city." Such a fierce attack is enough to show the determination of the Northern Xinjiang Army to attack Luoyang. ”

"My lord, stop talking nonsense. The Northern Xinjiang Army attacked day and night, arrows and stones rained, our casualties were too great, let's ask Luoyang for help. Wu Zheng wiped the sweat from his face and urged loudly, "Now it is Zhang Liao and Zhang Xiu who are attacking the city, and when the other troops in Jizhou rush to the city, we will not be able to support it." ”

"How many casualties have we suffered so far?" Zhu Ling walked out the door and turned his head to look at Changshi who was following him.

"My lord, there are nearly a thousand casualties." The elder said bitterly, "The Northern Frontier Army has dozens of stone cannons, and that thing has hurt us too much. ”

"Lord Yuan is too partial." Wu Zheng scolded angrily, "Luoyang and Chang'an have stone cannons, but they don't give them to us." If we also have stone artillery now, how can the Northern Frontier Army be so rampant? ”

"Okay, let's say a few words." Zhu Ling glared at Wu Zheng, "You go to Xicheng to transfer troops to reinforce Dongcheng, go quickly." ”

Zhang Liao sat on the horse, covered his mouth, and kept coughing.

In the past few days, he supervised the siege of the city day and night, and he was so tired that he lay on the ground with his leather mattress in his arms, and slept casually, but he fell cold.

"Are you still dizzy?" Peng Lie on the side asked with concern.

When the imperial court first appointed Zhang Liao as the commander of the battalion and made Peng Lie his deputy, Peng Lie had a lot of opinions. He once wanted to write to the general to transfer him out of the camp, but then a series of events happened that made him change his opinion of Zhang Liao. Zhang Liao was kind, tenacious, and strict in governing the army, and won the trust of the soldiers of the battalion in a short period of time. With the beginning of the Jizhou War, Zhang Liao's outstanding military talent was brought into play, which made Peng Lie and Xiao Lei, the generals from the Yellow Turban Army, ashamed of themselves. After the Battle of Jizhou, Zhang Liao followed Yan Liang to fight in Hanoi. After Yan Liang was ordered to leave, he single-handedly commanded 20,000 southern troops to successfully capture Hanoi before winter came, which caused a great sensation in Hebei, and many generals of the Northern Xinjiang Army looked at Zhang Liao with admiration. Zhang Liao's outstanding military ability and proud achievements won the trust of the officers and men of the Northern Xinjiang Army.

Zhang Liao looked at Peng Lie gratefully, and reluctantly shook his hand, "I can still support it." ”

"Tonight, do you still let Zhang Xiu and Fan Li continue to lead the army to attack?"

Zhang Liao looked up at Pinggao City in the distance, frowned and asked, "Where is the army of Yan Liang and Wen Chou now?" ”

"Lord Yan Liang has already set off from Yecheng. Lord Wen Chou is rushing to Liyang, and after he and Lord Xu Huang meet, he will take the army directly west to Chaoge City. If nothing else, the 30,000-strong army will be able to reach the city of Pingao in ten days. ”

"Ten days?" Zhang Liao thought for a moment and waved his hand resolutely, "Order the army and continue to attack." ”

In early March, Luoyang.

Yuan Shao, Fu Xu, Tian Feng, Xian Pei, Feng Ji and others had been discussing for several days, and they could not understand the intention of the Northern Xinjiang Army to suddenly launch an attack on Hanoi.

The news from Jinyang and Jizhou confirmed that the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army had left the fortress, and Jizhou was successively requisitioning people and ships to transport grain, grass and baggage to Youzhou. All indications show that the targets of Hebei's attacks this year are still the Xianbei rebels in the central and eastern parts of the country and the rebellions of the Hu ethnic groups such as Karasuma and Fuyu in the eastern Liaodong direction.

If the northern Xinjiang is unstable, Hebei will not be able to go south to conquer the Central Plains, and the decision of the Northern Xinjiang Army to continue to quell the rebellion in the border areas is undoubtedly correct. But now the question is, why did the two armies of Zhang Liao and Zhang Xiu attack Pingao City?

At present, on the north bank of the Yellow River in Hanoi, there are also the three cities of Ha Duong, Wen County and Pinggao, which are controlled by their own army, with 20,000 defenders, close to the forces of Zhang Liao and Zhang Xiu. If there were no reinforcements for these two people, they would not be able to conquer Pinggao and other three cities, and Chen Bing Huanghe directly threatened Luoyang. At present, the Northern Xinjiang Army in Jizhou has seven battalions and 70,000 troops, except for Gao Shun stationed in Pingyuan County and Gao Lan in Dongwuyang, only the 30,000 troops of Zhang He, Wang Dang and Xu Huang can support Hanoi. If these three armies supported Hanoi, the Northern Xinjiang Army would have 50,000 men and horses to attack the three cities of Hanoi, and the chances of victory would be greatly increased.

However, this led to an unbelievable situation, and the Northern Frontier Army had to fight on both the southern and northern fronts at the same time. It has only been more than a year since the Jizhou War, and Hebei has not recovered its vitality no matter what. In the case of very tight financial resources, Hebei will choose to fight on two fronts?

In fact, apparently impossible. So what was the purpose of Li Hong's order to attack the three cities of Hanoi? Is it to contain his own forces and prevent himself and Cao Cao, Liu Bei and others from taking the opportunity to join forces to attack Jizhou?

Last year, the Central Plains was in full flames and wars were frequent, and both Cao Cao and Liu Bei were exhausted at the moment and had no ability to go to the Northern Expedition to Jizhou. Even if this opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, they can only sigh and cry out in vain.

Since this is the case, then Li Hong still has one purpose left, he restrained his forces, not to prevent himself from joining forces with Cao Cao and Liu Bei on the Northern Expedition, but to prevent himself from taking advantage of the fact that the Northern Xinjiang Army had no time to take care of the Central Plains, defeat the exhausted Cao Cao and Liu Bei, and dominate the Central Plains.

After many analyses, Yuan Shao and the others finally determined that the real purpose of the Northern Xinjiang Army's attack on Pinggao City was to prevent themselves from seizing the Central Plains.

"Zhang Liao's strength is limited, and it is difficult to last." Tian Feng said, "In order to attract our main force, Li Hong is bound to quickly recruit other troops in Jizhou to support Zhang Liao and Zhang Xiu when the counterinsurgency war in northern Xinjiang has not yet begun. In this way, our defensive forces in Hanoi will be insufficient, and the three cities such as Binh Gao may be lost. Once the Yellow River threatens Luoyang, our main army will have to cross the river to the north and fight for Hanoi with the Northern Army. ”

"At this time, even if the Northern Xinjiang Army does not fight a battle and slowly retreats, he can drag our army in Hanoi, and we lose the best opportunity to capture the Central Plains." Tian Feng looked at the map on the desk, and his fingers kept clicking on a certain location, "Judging from Yuan Shu's current situation, he may be defeated at any time, so our main army can't go north to support Hanoi now." ”

If the main army does not go north, the three cities of Hanoi will be in crisis. How to take advantage of the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army to conquer the border fortress, and quickly capture the Central Plains when it was unable to move south in the short term, and at the same time recapture Hanoi and hold Luoyang, became a difficult problem in front of Yuan Shao.

Fu Zhu, Tian Feng and others repeatedly discussed, carefully weighed the pros and cons, and finally decided to counterattack Jizhou from the direction of Baima and Puyang in Chenliu County, Yanzhou.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please look at ......," Fu Zhi said, pointing to the map, "The main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army has been left of the fortress, and there are only seven battalions of soldiers and horses in Jizhou. Gao Shun and Gao Ran were in Gaotang in Pingyuan County and Dongwuyang in Dongjun County, guarding against Zang Ba in Qingzhou and Cao Cao in Yanzhou respectively, and they did not dare to move easily. Zhang Liao and Zhang Xiu were in Hanoi and were fighting with us. Once the army of Zhang He, Wang Dang, and Xu Huang entered Hanoi, the defensive forces in the direction of Wei County in Jizhou were quite small, and at this time, our main army could enter from the direction of Baima and Puyang and go straight to Yecheng. ”

"We quickly cut off the connection between Jizhou and Hanoi, cut off the grain and grass of the Northern Xinjiang Army, and trapped the army of Zhang He, Zhang Liao and others in Hanoi." Fu Zhu looked at everyone excitedly, and said with a smile, "The Northern Frontier Army can only withdraw at this time. ”

"We won't let them withdraw, drag them in Hanoi." Tian Feng's big hand slapped on the map fiercely, "Tens of thousands of troops are trapped in Hanoi, and Li Hong has no choice but to recruit the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army to rush south to rescue." When the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army moves south, we will withdraw our troops. The main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army tossed back and forth, and the time for counterinsurgency this year was delayed. While Hebei lost Hanoi, it not only lost a lot of money, but also greatly delayed its southward struggle for the Central Plains. ”

"In addition, crossing the river to attack Jizhou can help us quickly seize the Central Plains." Judging the short beard and smiling slightly.

"At present, the armies of Cao Cao and Liu Bei are fighting against Yuan Shu in the Qicheng area, and Yuan Shu's defeat is only a matter of time. After Yuan Shu was defeated and returned to Shouchun, would Cao Cao and Liu Bei continue to attack Yuan Shu and completely defeat Yuan Shu to occupy Jiujiang County? ”

The judge stretched out his index finger and shook it gently, "Cao Cao will not continue to attack, because our army is eyeing the gate of the Central Plains." If the Northern Xinjiang Army does not come to Biansai to quell the rebellion this year, we will not pose much threat to him, but the current situation is completely different, and we will pose too much threat to him. ”

"Yuan Shu has nothing left, he will fight back, Cao Cao wants to take Jiujiang County, the loss will definitely be great. His loss was too great, which was equivalent to giving the Central Plains to us. Cao Cao wasn't stupid enough to do that.

"In order to eliminate Cao Cao's vigilance against us and let Cao Cao attack Yuan Shu with all his might, we have designed to requisition a large army to attack the Northern Xinjiang Army from the two directions of Pinggao and Aocang, but this strategy has an Achilles' heel, we can't requisition too many troops, so as not to arouse Cao Cao's suspicion." The judge spread his hands and smiled happily, "Now it's okay, the initiative of the Northern Frontier Army has helped us solve this problem." ”

"We can pretend to be taken by surprise, abandon Pinggao City, stick to the area of Wen County and Heyang, lure the Northern Xinjiang Army to the bank of the Yellow River, and then levy the armies of Luoyang and Yuzhou, and quickly enter Chenliu County in Yanzhou, and divide the troops into three routes, crossing the river from the direction of Yanjin, Baima, and Puyang to attack Wei County in eastern Hanoi and Jizhou."

"The three cities of Hanoi have been lost, and tens of thousands of troops of the Northern Xinjiang Army are about to attack Luoyang, so we have every reason to transfer our troops, and there are also good reasons to take the opportunity to march into Chenliu County in Yanzhou. At this time, even if Cao Cao was still suspicious, but after we crossed the river and attacked, he didn't have time to think about it, he, like us, had to rush for time. ”

"If he defeats Yuan Shu before us and returns to the Central Plains, it will be very difficult for us to capture the Central Plains. But if he falls behind us, he will not be able to come back, so he can only stay in the Jianghuai area honestly, and never want to set foot in the Central Plains from now on. ”

After Yuan Shao discussed the details with everyone, he immediately wrote to Guo Tu and Zhu Ling in Hanoi to temporarily hold on to Pinggao City, and when the follow-up army of the Northern Xinjiang Army arrived at the city, he immediately abandoned it.

Yuan Shao also wrote to Yuan Wei, Yuan Zhong, Gao Gan, Gao Rou, Xin Bi and others in Yuzhou, each with a large army, and immediately rushed to Zhongmu City, Henan Province to assemble.

Yuan Shao urgently told Jiang Qi, Wei Zhan, Fu Hu and others, the commanders of the armies of Luoyang and Henan, and each led his army to Zhongmu City.

The next day, Yuan Shaoliu sat in Luoyang, and he took Tian Feng and others to the Central Plains battlefield. Jump to