In the mountainous areas of Huoshan, Ma'anshan and Huangshan in Lujiang and Danyang counties at the end of the Han Dynasty, there were many powerful chieftain tribes.
They survive in rugged areas that are looked down upon by the Han people. They rely entirely on the water network of the Yangtze River tributaries on the edge of the mountainous area for transportation. Their living customs are also half-Han and half-mountain.
The young men of these tribes are drawn to the battlefield and often perform bravely, but their military discipline is also very loose and extremely difficult to command. These troops have a unified name, which is called "Danyang Soldiers".
General He Jin recruited Danyang soldiers back then, so Xuzhou Mu Tao Qian also liked to recruit them. Liu Bei still has three thousand Danyang soldiers in his army.
At this moment, Zhang Duo, who was forced by Chen Lan to fight with Zhang Fei, was strictly speaking a "Danyang thief and handsome man".
Just a few months ago, there were three major Danyang bandit forces, Zheng Bao, Zhang Duo, and Xu Qian, distributed in the mountainous areas around Chaohu Lake in Lujiang County.
Later, Zheng Bao, the most powerful man, actually wanted to plot evil and tried to coerce some Han clan clan members to act as fronts for him, so he chose Liu Ye who lived in Lujiang.
Liu Ye did not want to be the leader, so he secretly attacked and killed Zheng Bao at the banquet. He also criticized his subordinates, saying that rebellion would only lead to annihilation by the imperial court, so it was better to Zhao'an.
The group of uneducated guys were actually frightened by Liu Ye, and then they split. They didn't want Zhao'an to defect to Xu Gan and continue to be Ruxu thieves.
Those who were willing to accept the imperial edict voted for Zhang Duo, and then Liu Ye helped Zhang Duo to join forces with the prefect Liu Xun.
Zhang Duo doesn't have any ambitions. He was originally a water bandit. After joining Liu Xun, he hid as often as he could and tried not to participate in the fighting.
It's just a matter of eating royal food. What kind of fate are you playing with?
This time Liu Xun attacked Huaiyin and needed to gather supplies from Guangling, so he called Zhang Duo to be responsible for water transportation and escort on the Yangtze River.
Zhang Duo did not participate in Yuan Jun's first counterattack against Zhang Fei last night. His troops were naval forces. Of course, the deadly battle on land should be left to professionals.
As for the civil officials in the city, Liu Ye, the new meritorious official, originally had the most say.
Liu Ye was a wise man who protected his own safety, so he secretly protected the people involved and prevented Zhang Duo's tribe from suffering too many deaths.
Unfortunately, this consideration of the interests of the small group was finally broken when Chen Lan returned to Guangling City.
After all, Chen Lan was the captain. When Liu Xun was away, of course he had the final say in military affairs. Liu Ye, a meritorious officer, could not overstep his authority and could only make suggestions.
Zhang Duo was ordered to lead his sailors to storm the city wall. He was miserable and came to complain and plead. Liu Ye did not dare to ask him to disobey the order directly, but only ordered:
"I will go to Captain Chen to negotiate an agreement, but you can't openly disobey military orders. Let's make some noise first and give Captain Chen a face."
Zhang Duo believed Liu Ye's promise and went to attack Zhang Fei with a grimace.
It's a pity that this kind of mentality of working hard but not exerting effort, how can it be possible to defeat the determined Zhang Fei? Even if Zhang Duo's troops were three times the enemy's, it would still be useless.
Both sides started clamoring for an attack at midnight, but in fact they fought for more than an hour and made no progress at all.
Zhang Fei felt like he was facing a formidable enemy at first, but later he found that the enemy was so weak that the thunder was louder and the raindrops were softer. It was worse than the first half of last night. There was no pressure at all. Zhang Fei was also puzzled.
…
After Zhang Duo was forced to go to work, Liu Ye estimated that his posture was sufficient. It was only then that Chen Lan took a short rest, had breakfast, and seemed to be in a good mood, so he asked to see the other party and stated his strategy.
Chen Lan didn't think highly of Liu Ye in her heart, mainly because she felt that Liu Ye was too young and had gained the position by selling his teammates - Liu Ye was only eighteen years old, and his only previous achievements were to kill Zheng Bao and introduce his tribe to accept Liu Xun's imperial edict.
This kind of thing is nothing in the eyes of scholars, but it is a very unloyalty taboo for martial arts warriors who are born bandits and water pirates.
Chen Lan is a Huoshan bandit, and he still has some sympathy and a sense of empathy for Zheng Bao's experiences.
Therefore, when the two of them were discussing, Chen Lan did not give Liu Ye a good look. She started by sarcastically saying: "Sir, you are really good at planning. Your plan to attack Huaiyin was also seen by you, and our army will completely implement it." , and finally ended up like this!”
Liu Ye was speechless for a while. He had seen Liu Xun's general plan before sending troops and expressed his approval. But at that time, he really felt that Liu Xun and Ji Ling were in a stable position and had no flaws.
Later, the front sent back military information saying that Liu Bei's xiapi had been stolen, and Liu Ye felt even more secure. He also flattered Liu Xun a little in his reply, wishing that Liu Xun would be able to achieve military success at his fingertips. This is also human nature -
Liu Ye in history was such a guy. Decades later, Cao Rui asked him if he could conquer Shu, and he said he could. Other important ministers told him that they were indestructible, and he followed their advice.
In the end, Cao Rui and his ministers reconciled, and Liu Ye, the "ah, yes, yes, yes", was betrayed and his reputation was ruined.
However, Liu Ye felt that the current defeat ahead had nothing to do with him.
There was indeed nothing wrong with Liu Xun's original plan. Who knows what happened at the execution level later, which made Liu Bei's combat power explode and become several times stronger in a sudden desperate situation?
Liu Ye had to endure the humiliation and apologize, and told Chen Lan separately before putting forward his own response suggestions: "General, now is not the time to hold people accountable! For this reason, I think Zhang Fei's sneak attack will be difficult to repel. If you let Zhang Duo attack fiercely, you might even play into Zhang Fei's hands and let him smoothly consume more of our troops!"
Chen Lan listened and replied with a smile: "Then what do you think we should do? Should we just run away and give up Guangling?"
Liu Ye suppressed his emotions and continued to say calmly: "Whether Guangling will be lost or not, it's hard to say at the moment. With the battle going like this, we can't get it back with our own strength.
We can only hope that Fu Jun's defeated army can rush back as soon as possible and destroy Zhang Fei with an absolutely superior force. But if Liu Bei arrives before Fu Jun, it will be all over. "
Chen Lan said angrily: "You are really disloyal, you just want to protect yourself!"
Liu Ye retorted: "I'm not disloyal! I'm just prepared! When planning a strategy, you must consider the worst case scenario! What's more, even if Guangling is lost for a while, I still have a plan to help you turn defeat into victory and finally defeat Liu Bei! As long as we are fully prepared, lose Guangling." Be more clever and pave the way for the future!"
When Chen Lan heard this, he laughed angrily: "You don't want to make progress! You still have the nerve to talk about long-term solutions? Then tell me how to defeat Guangling and turn defeat into victory!"
Liu Yetu said: "It's very simple. The crisis Liu Bei faces cannot be stabilized by victory on the frontal battlefield. His biggest problem is that Xiapi is lost, the soldiers and their families are in the hands of the enemy, and the several cities he controls are also lost. No one is hoarding surplus food!
He is so eager to let Zhang Fei counterattack Guangling, and even takes risks to attack Guangling, which shows that he is about to run out of food and is interested in Guangling's food reserves! As long as we hurry up and take advantage of Zhang Fei's failure to control the city, we can transport the remaining grain in the treasury back to Lujiang as much as possible.
Even if they fall in the end, they can still burn those who are unlucky and not leave them to Liu Bei. In this way, Liu Bei will only get an empty city without food. Within a month or two, his army will still be hungry and collapse!
I suspect that Liu Bei was able to maintain his military morale for so long and finally counterattack because he must have been instructed by an expert to block the news. But after this battle, the loss of Xiapi cannot be sealed. It is entirely possible that Liu Bei's army will be defeated even if it wins! We must not be blinded by the failure in front of us, let alone Liu Bei's temporary small victory! "
Chen Lan was stunned when he heard this. He just felt that the hearts of these tactical people were too dirty.
What kind of despicable and shameless way is this? Guangling City is still in the hands of Yuan Jun for the time being, but he actually thought of burning the granary and not leaving it to Liu Bei?
Chen Lan was greedy for money and asked him to burn the military rations he controlled in advance to hurt both sides. How could he do this?
Of course he cursed Liu Ye, and Liu Ye also argued with him, saying:
"Even if we don't burn food, it is impossible for the prince to attack Huaiyin in the future. There is no need to store so much military food in the front. At least we should seize the time immediately and rush to transport some of it back."
Chen Lan still doesn't agree with this statement.
In the end, Liu Ye persuaded him again and again, hinting or even stating that Chen Lan could make false accounts and overstate the war losses on the transported grain, so Chen Lan reluctantly agreed to do it on his own as a civil servant.
And Liu Ye finally got his wish, and got his close friend Zhang Duo out of the drudgery of attacking Zhang Fei.
Zhang Duo is currently the only navy general in Guangling City. To seize time to transport part of the stored grain back to Lujiang, we can only count on Zhang Duo's men to take action.
…
Another hour later, outside Guangling City and at the mouth of Hangou River.
Zhuge Jin was still sitting on his speedboat sent by the Mi family, watching the progress and dealing with emergencies at any time.
Suddenly, the lookout on the ship shouted loudly: "Sir, a large fleet of ships from the southeast water gate has left the city and is heading towards us!"
Zhuge Jin was shocked, thinking that the enemy realized that there was someone crossing the river in white clothes to provide Zhang Fei with siege equipment and military supplies, so they came to search for him.
"Hurry up and set sail! Run down the river at full speed and escape! Leave a few sentry boats to continue watching and report back at any time!"
Zhuge Jin quickly ordered, and the fleet cut off the ropes holding the anchor stone and fled more than ten miles away.
Fortunately, after a long time, those Yuan Jun fleets were not found pursuing downstream. Instead, they were sailing against the current and heading back upstream. After the sentinel ship left behind found out about the situation, it immediately reported the truth to Zhuge Jin in the safe zone.
Zhuge Jin was stunned again, completely unable to understand what was going on.
Later, I heard reports one after another that there was an endless stream of fleets coming out of Guangling and there were a lot of them.
Only then did Zhuge Jin realize. He quickly chased the sentinel boat sergeant and asked a few details: "How deep is the draft of the enemy ship? If it is fully loaded, how many people can it transport?"
The guard ship sergeant answered truthfully, saying that all the ships had a deep draft and could transport at least thousands of people if they were used to transport people.
Zhuge Jin twisted the cattail leaf fan for a while, and then suddenly realized:
"This must be because the morale of Liu Xun's army is about to collapse and he feels that he cannot hold on, so some people want to withdraw first? But Yide has not taken the city yet, which means that there are still many defenders left in the city, and the few who escaped can't use so many More transport capacity, the excess transport capacity must be used to transport things..."
Zhuge Jin finally guessed that they might have transported valuable materials first to prepare for the orderly destruction of the city.
This kind of thing is very common. When Liu Bei and Ji Ling were fighting in the battle of Xuyi more than half a month ago, Liu Bei also did this. He retreated in an orderly manner and did not leave any food for Ji Ling in the end.
Unfortunately, Zhuge Jin only had two to three hundred sailors and guards around him, and there were more than a dozen large and small ships in total, so he was unable to stop them at all.
This is the helplessness of the weak. Sometimes even if they see through some clues, they don't have the capital to stop them.
All Zhuge Jin could do was to send another messenger to contact Zhang Fei and tell Zhang Fei about this speculation to further strengthen Zhang Fei's confidence and make him believe that "the enemy has become timid and has begun to transfer supplies and some second-line troops. Sailor, Guangling will definitely be able to capture it smoothly."
As long as Zhang Fei is told this news, Zhang Fei's morale will be more stable and his soldiers will be more confident.
Of course, in addition to giving Zhang Fei confidence, Zhuge Jin also told him: Since the enemy intends to retreat in an orderly manner, he must not fail to prevent the enemy from finally jumping over the wall and setting fire to the remaining supplies in the city.
Guangling's supplies are the key to Liu Beijun's persistence!
…
All the trends in the war situation finally followed the instructions of Zhuge Jin and Liu Ye, the two cowardly strategists. They raised it high and put it down gently.
Seeing that no one can do anything about it, everyone is leaving a way out for themselves.
After Zhang Duo fought with Zhang Fei all morning, he retreated one after another without any effort, and by evening they were all gone.
In the front, the fast-running Liu Xun's army broke and fled back, and was gathered by Chen Lan, but this was not enough to form a decisive battle force to make up for it.
At this time, Chen Lan probably thought that Guangling was in danger, and the only hope was to see which side, Liu Xun or Liu Bei, arrived first.
It was dragged on until late at night, and everything was finally revealed.
Liu Bei led 6,000 infantrymen, marching at a crazy speed of 260 miles in two days and one night, and rushed to the north of Guangling County with light equipment.
And Liu Xun has not appeared until now. I don’t know where he went when he collapsed and bombed the camp that day.
Chen Lan was annoyed and furious for a while, but in the end he could only resist a little, so he took his cavalry and some direct troops who could keep up, abandoned the city and fled.
But at the last moment, he still remembered Liu Ye's advice and set a fire in the treasury before leaving.
Fortunately, Zhang Fei reacted quickly. He was reminded by Zhuge Jin in the afternoon, so he did his homework in advance and tortured the prisoners' mouths about the directions and roads of several key locations in the city.
At this moment, seeing the fire starting in the direction of the treasury, Zhang Fei did not care about waiting for his elder brother to join him, so he personally led his troops down the wall and fought fiercely along the long street, all the way to the treasury.
Chen Lang just set the fire and retreated for about a cup of tea when Zhang Fei rushed in like a mad tiger and killed all the remaining enemies in the surrounding area. He organized people to put out the fire with all their strength. Those who could not be saved at least removed some isolation and rescued some supplies. .
…
As soon as Liu Bei entered the city in disgrace, he immediately rushed to the northeast tower to see if his third brother was okay.
In the end, it was all in vain. Zhang Fei was no longer there, and only Zhuge Jin was seen on the tower watching the battle.
After Zhuge Jin confirmed that the main reinforcements had arrived, he allowed the fleet to dock and asked the three hundred sailors to escort him up to the city so that he could conduct micro-operations nearby.
"Ziyu? How can you go into danger personally? Hurry up and hide in the tower to avoid arrows! This is not what you should be here for!" When Liu Bei saw Zhuge Jin, he thought that the other party suddenly changed his temper and became brave. He did not expect it at all. arrive.
Zhuge Jin didn't mean to live up to his reputation. Yun Danfengqing explained: "How can I be a reckless person? I just saw the general's reinforcements approaching from a distance, so I came to the city to see Yide because I was afraid that he would not know the priorities of the pursuit——
Looking at the flames of the treasury in the distance, Yuan Jun must be wise and resourceful. He thought of the weakness of our army and wanted to burn the granary before retreating! If a general wants to find virtue, he will go to the place where the fire is the strongest, and he will definitely find it. "
As Zhuge Jin spoke, he pointed at the firelight in the distance with his cattail fan. Liu Bei was stunned for a moment, then looked along, and then he jumped up in realization: "Sir, please sit down for a moment! I'll come as soon as I go!"
After saying that, Liu Bei got on his horse again, led his bodyguard and galloped towards Zhang Fei's direction of putting out the fire.
——
PS: There were 8,000 words yesterday and 10,000 words today. I finished the Battle of Guangling in one go. With the new book issue so updated, it’s not too much to ask for votes, right? !
The dual-line operation is finally over. The protagonist reappears. Let’s take a breath tomorrow and update two 2K chapters...
