Yan Rou finished reading the paperwork and handed it to the beard and fist casually.

"Look at it, too."

"Tell us, my lords, I barely know a few words, and my beard is not much better than mine. What's the news coming from Zhuocheng? Fist asked.

"As we predicted, Lord Muguo of Jizhou led an army of 50,000 to attack the Yellow Turban Army. In addition, Lord Taishou urged us to cross the giant horse water as soon as possible and defeat Fan Yang. Yan Rou put away the bamboo slips and said with a smile: "Lord Taishou said it easily. We only have such a small number of people, how can we defeat Fanyang City? ”

"Why not? Zhang Niujiao's hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban troops have been eaten by us piece by piece, why can't we build a city? Beard said disdainfully.

Yan Rou didn't bother to pay attention to him, and continued: "I think we should cross the river first and meet the little bird. ”

"Before leaving, Lord Lieutenant said that everything is up to Lord Yan. But I have an idea? Fist said.

"Tell me. People say that we are a den of thieves, and it makes me angry when I hear it. The Captain trusted us to take on the task of chasing Zhang Niujiao alone, and if we did this well, we could destroy some of the enemy, which would be ideal. What about horse thieves? still kills people and makes meritorious contributions. Yan Rou waved her big thick hand and said proudly.

"Ziyu, what are we doing after Zhang Niujiao? Do you want to be a cavalry escort for him? I think a siege would be more appropriate. ”

"Siege?" Yan Rou immediately said, "That's a good idea. There were not many of us, and the troops who were fighting with the horns could not move, so they could only watch the big fat sheep, but they did not dare to pounce on it. Since we can't deal with him, let's just surround Fan Yang and block the follow-up troops of the Yellow Turban Army in Fan Yang City. If Zhang Niujiao does not save him when he sees death, the troops in Fanyang City will not be able to escape, and sooner or later they will be annihilated by us. ”

"You have a premise for this idea." Hu Zi pointed at Yan Rou and said, "If Zhang Niujiao gives up holding on to Fanyang, directly crosses the Yishui River, and retreats to Zhongshan Kingdom, then there won't be too many troops left in Fanyang to contain us." Only when Fan Yang has fewer troops can we encircle the enemy. If there are many of them, break through the siege and go out of the city, tens of thousands of people, and they will run away as soon as they rush, we will not be able to stop them at all. ”

Yan Rou and his fists both nodded, agreeing with Beard's concerns.

"Right now we don't have accurate information on this." Fist hesitated and said, "I see that we will cross the river first, and at the same time send someone to inform the dreadnought troops to strengthen reconnaissance and pay close attention to the movement in the direction of the Yishui River." Zhang Niujiao wants to go, and he can only go from the three places of sculls, Yidu, and Xudu. If the Yellow Turban Army's large forces and grain and grass baggage were concentrated in these three ferries, it meant that they were ready to abandon Fanyang City. ”

"In other words, the Yellow Turban Army that stayed in Fanyang just wanted to contain us and cover the crossing of the river by the large army, and their number was definitely not large. We'll beat them. Yan Rou said happily, "What do you think?" ”

"It is indeed a great credit to be able to capture Fanyang City." Beard said excitedly.

Zhang Niujiao and his troops did not enter Fanyang City, and ran directly to the Yishui River.

On the north tower of Fanyang City, Zhang Baiqi's face was pale, and he silently looked at the army moving outside the city, gloomy and sad.

After the destruction of the Jiuli Pavilion, he has been very depressed and has suffered a great mental blow. He never had the courage to meet Zhang Niujiao. The marshal has always trusted himself, reused himself, and discussed everything with himself, but in the crucial battle, because of his own negligence, the marshal's plan to encircle and annihilate the leopard army fell short. The Yellow Turban Army not only suffered heavy losses as a result, but also pushed the commander into a very embarrassing situation. It is a trivial matter that the reputation of the marshal is damaged, and the serious thing is that the marshal may lose his position as the leader of the Yellow Turban Army because of this.

Zhang Baiqi fell into deep self-blame. Chu Feiyan was worried that he would apologize for Zhang Niujiao's scolding, so he had deliberately arranged for him to avoid Zhang Niujiao.

Although Zhang Niujiao hated Zhang Baiqi for being incompetent, and the battle of Jiuliting disappointed him, Zhang Baiqi was a fierce general in the Yellow Turban Army after all, and he had made many military exploits for the Yellow Turban Army, and he could not completely deny others because of the defeat in this battle. So Zhang Niujiao never mentioned it. He wanted to wait for this matter to settle down before letting Zhang Bai ride to lead the army.

Fang Biao hurriedly ran up to the city tower and shouted to Zhang Baiqi: "Zhang Shuai, Da Shuai wants to see you." ”

Zhang Baiqi's face was expressionless, he looked blankly at the outside of the city, and smiled bitterly.

"I'm not going. I left 20,000 brothers to escape alone, and I had no face to meet him. I'm not going. ”

Fang Biao glanced at him sympathetically, knowing that he had not yet come out of the shadow of defeat, and was extremely depressed.

He waved his hand to the attendant behind him, telling him to reply to the marshal, walked to Zhang Baiqi's side, and said cautiously: "The marshal said, the battle of Jiuli Pavilion is the first battle, and the responsibility for the defeat is him, and it has nothing to do with you." Zhang Shuai should not blame himself too much. ”

Zhang Baiqi's heart trembled. The gratitude to the marshal, the kindness of the marshal, the guilt of the soldiers who died in the battle, the hatred for himself, all kinds of complicated feelings came to my heart in an instant. He let out a long sigh.

"Is Dashuai going to give up Fan Yang?"

Fang Biao immediately said, "Yes." Now the situation in Changshan and Zhao is critical, the official army is attacking very fiercely, and the marshal must quickly rush back to Changshan to command the battle, so he ordered Sun Shuai and Zuo Sima to escort grain and grass to cross the river, leaving Zhang Shuai and I to hold on to Fanyang for a period of time to contain the Youzhou army that was chasing after them. ”

The clouds in the sky were so thick that the sun could not be seen, and they were gray, vast and bleak. The wind on the surface of the river was strong, and from time to time it swept over the bare treetops, making a loud roar. The clear water of the river showed a hint of coolness, gently lapping against the low bushes on both banks.

Chu Feiyan stood by the Yishui River, silently looking at everything in front of her, and her mood was a little depressed.

He had already sent people to urge Zhang Niujiao to move first and hurry south. If Zhang Niujiao received his news and immediately went on the road, he should have rushed to Yidu by now.

Changshan's situation is now very critical, to the point where Zhang Niujiao must rush back to deal with it personally.

Since Chu Feiyan's 50,000 troops rushed back to Changshan in time, they cooperated with Wulu and Wang Dang's troops and quickly repelled Guo Dian's attack.

Then came the news of the failure of Zhang Niujiao's northern expedition spread among the Yellow Turban Army, which immediately triggered a major earthquake in the Yellow Turban Army. The leaders of the Yellow Turban Army, who had no intention of fighting, began to form gangs one by one to re-elect the new leader of the Yellow Turban Army.

More leaders had the idea of preserving their strength and returning to Taihang Mountain. They considered that Zhang Niujiao's more than 100,000 main forces were basically lost in the Northern Expedition, and the future of the Yellow Turban Army was bleak. Many chiefs even ordered their own troops to withdraw from the front. Some small leaders in the rear began to secretly rush grain into the mountains, ready to withdraw to Taihang at any time.

The weakness of the morale of the army directly led to defeat on the battlefield. The White Ring Division, which was holding on to Xiangguo, suffered heavy losses due to the lack of supply and had no choice but to withdraw from the battlefield. In a fit of anger, not only did he not return to Handan to meet Yang Fengjun, but directly led his troops to Taihang Mountain.

The king of the Changshan Yellow Turban Army has been following and pursuing Guo Dian, but because of supply problems, he had to withdraw halfway, and was ambushed by Guo Dian near Yuanshi City. Wulu, who had been following him, not only did not support in time, but turned around and withdrew first. Wang Dang's troops couldn't hold on, and in the end the whole army was annihilated, and only Wang Dang escaped with a few hundred people desperately breaking through.

Wang Dang immediately joined Chu Feiyan's subordinates and surrounded Wulu, who was about to flee into Taihang Mountain, in Shiyi. Now the two sides are at war. The enemy did not fight, but he fought first.

Chu Feiyan kept looking up at the sky, sighing and worrying.

Now, even if Zhang Niujiao rushes back to Changshan, the situation will be difficult to recover. Zhang Niujiao lost more than 100,000 troops, which dealt too much blow to the Yellow Turban Army, and the high morale was wiped out in a blink of an eye. If you want to revive the morale of the Yellow Turban Army and stabilize the morale of the Yellow Turban Army, in addition to Zhang Niujiao himself, he must rush to Changshan immediately, and it is best for Zhang Niujiao to lead the troops to defeat the Jizhou army, win several battles in a row, and capture several cities.

It's hard, it's too hard. If the marshal is not in a hurry and is in a hurry to attack Youzhou in the north, the situation of the Yellow Turban Army this year is very good. But it was too late, and from the moment the leopards of Youzhou led their troops to cross the Shengshui River, bad luck befell the Yellow Turban Army again.

"Here, Chu Shuai, Da Shuai is here."

The squire behind him pointed to the opposite shore and suddenly shouted.

When Zhang Niujiao saw Chu Feiyan, his heart was warm.

After receiving Chu Feiyan's urgency, he suddenly realized that the plan he had set for the Northern Expedition was indeed a big mistake. Even if there was no leopard Li Hong's Fengyun Iron Cavalry, even if his 150,000 army was attacking Youzhou Jicheng, in the face of the current situation, he had no choice but to retreat to help.

He ignored the deep meaning of Chu Feiyan, Yang Feng and others who raised their opposition to the Northern Expedition. Now he suddenly understood, but it was too late.

When he and other Yellow Turban leaders summarized the reasons for the failure of the Yellow Turban Army last year in Taihang Mountain, they summarized a lot, but they ignored a fatal reason, that is, everyone's selfishness. Zhang Niujiao has a clear conscience, he is indeed to inherit the legacy of his master Zhang Jiao and live a good life for the people of the world. But what about the others? What about those who are willing to follow him and those who are reluctant to follow him? Are they also for the people of the world?

Zhang Niujiao knew that it was not, some people wanted revenge, some people wanted to be able to get rich, and some people wanted to be able to control more armies and do whatever they wanted. If Zhang Niujiao cannot satisfy their wishes, it is only a matter of time before they split and fail. Even if we can win this year, what about next year? And the year after?

The defeat of the Yellow Turban Army will be inevitable if we do not solve the problem of the different goals of the leaders of the Yellow Turban Army, do not establish their absolute authority in the Yellow Turban Army, do not establish a set of strict military discipline in the Yellow Turban Army, and do not thoroughly control every soldier of the Yellow Turban Army.

Zhang Niujiao's expression was grim, but his hurried tone couldn't hide the anxiety in his heart, and when he saw Chu Feiyan, he immediately said, "Yanzi, let's go overnight today." ”

"Dad, aren't you going to take a break in Beixincheng?" Chu Feiyan asked with concern.

"Nope. The sooner you go back, the better, I'm afraid that the Yellow Turban Army will finish beating Wang Dang, a bastard. ”

Chu Feiyan shook her head helplessly, "Wang Shuai has a short temper, I'm afraid it's already over if he wants to fight." Let's think about how to end up going back. ”

Zhang Niujiao whipped his horse whip into the air fiercely, and said angrily: "If this kid makes a big deal and tears the Yellow Turban Army apart, see if I don't kill him." ”

Chu Feiyan saw that Zhang Niujiao's attendants had arrived one after another, and hurriedly got on the horse and said to Zhang Niujiao: "Let's go, Dad." The troops set off in the morning, and now they are probably about to reach Fanxingting. We're going to catch up with them before dark. ”

"How many troops are left in Beixincheng?" Zhang Niujiao asked.

"Zhang Feng's 5,000 people stayed here. I told them to keep an eye on the three crossings along the Yishui River. When Sun Shuai and Zuo Sima's troops arrived, a total of 30,000 or 40,000 people would cross the river to protect this batch of grain and grass, and there would definitely be no problem in terms of safety. Chu Feiyan immediately replied.

Zhang Niujiao looked back at Yi Shuihe and said worriedly: "I hope Ziyin can withdraw safely with his troops." ”

Chu Feiyan asked in surprise, "You didn't call him back together?" ”

"I asked him to stay in Fanyang and block Yan Rou's cavalry." Zhang Niujiao looked at Chu Feiyan, with a trace of sadness in his eyes, and whispered, "He doesn't want to see me." ”