Brother Zhuge was in Chaisang City and had just sorted out the work of receiving household finances.
At the same time, on the afternoon of the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, we were at the eastern foot of Mount Lu, thirty miles south of Chaisang City.
Chen was ordered to go south early in the morning to intercept enemy reinforcements that might appear at any time.
He attached great importance to Zhuge Jin's orders and believed in Zhuge Liang's calculated enemy reinforcement speed, so he marched very quickly along the way.
I am afraid that enemies from Haihun and Nanchang will appear at any time and threaten Chai Sang.
He brought all 2,000 Danyang soldiers, who were already elite soldiers who were good at mountain warfare, and 300 elite white horsemen. Those left behind by Zhuge Jin in Chaisang were all Gan Ning's old troops and new auxiliary troops.
The troops were out of breath after catching up, but fortunately it didn't delay things. The army arrived at Lushan Mountain before noon and chose some dangerous positions to set up ambushes.
Chen Dao asked the Danyang soldiers to set up an ambush on the hillside, while the Baijie Jingqi pulled away slightly and hid at the forks of the mountain roads on both sides, preparing to wait for the main force to kill the enemy, and then rush out to block the road to cover up or cut off the enemy.
After arranging all this, Chen Dao asked his scouts to look up from high places to confirm that no enemy was seen within a radius of twenty or thirty miles.
"It seems that I was too impatient. The Second Young Master said that the enemy would not arrive until tonight or tomorrow morning. It turned out to be true." Only then did Chen breathe a sigh of relief and allowed the troops to rest and eat dry food.
The time Zhuge Liang requested was not that urgent in the first place. He was afraid that the execution would not be good, so he increased the time limit.
If the enemy army appears at this time, Chen Dao's troops will be exhausted, and they may really fall into a hard battle.
Fortunately, the enemy did not come for a long time. Chen Dao rested for most of the afternoon, and the soldiers generally took a nap for an hour to recover from the fatigue from the battle with the wind last night.
Because it was a short-distance battle, the troops did not bring any luggage, not even a marching pot, so they could not cook at all, so they only ate the dry food they carried with them.
The soldiers were choked and panicked. They had already drank all the water in the bamboo tubes they brought with them and could not boil the water. So the subordinate officers suggested that Chen Dao allow all the soldiers to drink mountain water.
While Chen Dao agreed, he reminded: "Try to choose the cleaner ones upstream to drink. Colonel Zhuge has repeatedly emphasized that drinking water should be boiled if it can be boiled to avoid gastrointestinal diseases. Today is a special event."
Since Zhuge Jin led the army, other details of military management may not be comparable to those of famous generals, but the sanitary conditions of the army have always been implemented with great care, and they are not too troublesome.
A big advantage that modern people have over ancient people is their common sense of medical and health care. If you can drink boiled water, eat well-cooked fish, and reduce digestive tract infections, why not do it.
However, the situation today was special. Although it was Chen Dao's first time to visit Mount Lushan, he saw that the mountains and rivers here are beautiful and there are many springs, so they should be very clean.
With his permission, his subordinates ordered the soldiers to fetch water from the nearby waterfall.
During the Han Dynasty, the famous Sandie Spring had not yet been discovered, but the Xianglufeng Waterfall where Li Bai wrote his poems had already been discovered.
The mountain springs where Chen arrived for his soldiers to draw water were not Xianglufeng or Sandiequan, but these waterfalls were generally not far from the main road.
Judging from the maps of later generations, a few miles east of Xianglu Peak and Sandiequan is the surface of Poyang Lake. The steepness of the eastern foothills of Lushan Mountain is evident.
Setting up an ambush in such a scenic, steep and dangerous area greatly enhanced Chen Dao's confidence in defeating the enemy's reinforcements.
If before coming today, he had sixty-seven points of victory in his heart, now that he has seen the victory here, his confidence has also increased to nine points.
While waiting for the enemy, he couldn't help but think repeatedly in his heart:
"My lord lent me to Zhuge Lieutenant Ping Yuzhang. Now, ten days after entering the country, Gan Ning took the first victory in the two breaches of the city. My troops are still two or three times his. If I don't win a big victory, I will be defeated in the future. How to transfer to the main bus?
Although Lieutenant Zhuge comforted me, he said that I was as immovable as a mountain and had always been good at defending, blocking, and setting up ambushes. But Gan Ning was as fast as the wind, good at surprise attacks and fast attacks, and was the first to get there quickly. Today's battle happens to be an ambush and a blockade. I must prove myself! "
As Chen Dao thought, he recalled the last bitter battle and battle he experienced, which was a few months ago on the battlefield in Huaiyin County.
At that time, the Lord also asked General Guan to play the role of storming the camp. He said that General Guan's offensive was in line with Sun Tzu's Art of War saying, "Invasion is like fire, and its speed is like wind." He and Tian Yu were arranged to ambush and intercept Ji Ling on his way to reinforce Liu Xun. He performed well that time and even fought to the death to force Ji Ling back.
Thinking of this, Chen Dao clenched the steel gun in his hand and comforted himself: Although Zuo Rong's bandit army is large, can his generals still have Ji Ling's commanding ability?
He even held back Ji Ling and forced him back. In today's battle, there is still the danger of Lushan Mountain. If he can throw wood and rocks from the cliff to contain him, there will be absolutely no problem!
After an unknown amount of time, a scout officer next to him finally came over and gave him a slight push: "Look, there are a large group of troops coming from the south!"
Chen Dao was full of energy and immediately entered the state.
…
At the same moment, on the mountain road of Mount Lu.
An astonishingly large group of Ze family troops, like a long winding dragon, crossed the narrow valley between the mountains and the lake from south to north, marching regardless of fatigue.
A relatively knowledgeable Sima from the county army couldn't help but worry when he looked at the situation of the team. He couldn't help but ride his horse back and asked the general to slow down or consider setting up camp.
"General, even if we cross Mount Lu, we still have more than thirty miles to go before we reach Chaisang. It's already the end of the year, and it gets dark early in the middle of winter. Maybe the rear army will have to go down the mountain in the dark, and they will easily make mistakes. casualties.
It is better to let the front army retreat and the middle army to camp on the spot, rest for the night, and then rush to Chaisang tomorrow. It would be a good idea to send out scouts to investigate Chai Sang's current situation. "
The general's name was Zuo Tong, who was Zuo Rong's cousin and the fourth in the clan. He rode on a tall horse and led seven to eight thousand troops, all of whom were reinforcements brought from Haihun County, trying to go to Chaisang to reinforce his second cousin.
After listening to the army commander's suggestion, Zhe Tong immediately said angrily with a straight face:
"You're a waste of manpower! We've already said that we still have more than thirty miles to reach Chaisang, so why don't we hurry up? As long as we can enter the city, why set up camp? Isn't it better to just sleep in the city? You always said You have to cherish your soldiers, is this how you cherish them?"
Zuo Rong himself had betrayed his lord three times and was afraid that his subordinates would follow suit, so he was extremely nepotistic in running the army. The commanders of all armies were his brothers or cousins.
In his eyes, the loyalty of generals is the most important, but the former officers of the county army who are really talented generals have to be managed by the Zuo family and cannot be fully reused.
The Army Sima was robbed by Ze Tong and looked ashamed, but he still couldn't help but defend:
"But now it has been four days since the last waterway reinforcements were defeated. Lushan Mountain is steep and there is no news from the north to the south. It is not known whether Chai Sang is doing well or whether there have been more soldiers besieging the city.
If we cross the mountain but can't break into the city, and we have to camp overnight, wouldn't it be hectic? "
Zhe Tong scolded: "Nonsense! The last time the waterway reinforcements were defeated, it was just because you were incompetent and unaccustomed to water warfare! I asked the defeated soldiers that the army only had three to five thousand people at most! How could such a small number of people completely besiege Chai? Sang? As long as we get to the city, we will definitely be supported by my second brother!"
These words were the final word and finally completely blocked the mouths of the Zhongzhong faction.
Because what Zuetong said is true. The government troops encountered by the waterway reinforcements a few days ago were indeed very small, and the navy troops among them were less than a thousand people——
The problem was that those thousand men were commanded by Gan Ning, so the Zuo family navy was defeated despite several times the size advantage.
Zhuge Liang's later bluffing tricks of "quietly sailing away at night and driving back during the day" were performed for the defenders in Chaisang City, and the reinforcements arriving at sea had no time to know.
It is only natural that they underestimate the enemy.
Lushan Mountain is steep, and news from the north and south is blocked. Until now, they had not even received the news that Chaisang had been lost early this morning.
Relying on the whip of his horse whip and strict military orders, Zuotong made the troops continue to march towards the depths of Lushan Road, hoping to go to Chaisang City to have a good sleep at night.
…
"Don't worry, don't make any noise! Let these people go!"
"Did you see those horsemen in the distance? There are almost no cavalry in the bandit army. Those few must be generals. They are not allowed to fire crossbows until they are within shooting range!"
On the cliff of Lushan Mountain, Chen Dao ordered his troops not to be exposed in advance and to wait until the enemy's small group of cavalry approached before they could fight out.
Although there was some commotion while the troops were delivering orders, God blessed the Han army. The sound of the Lushan Waterfall nearby covered up the sound of the ambush.
"Fire arrows!" Following Chen Dao's order, three hundred crossbows were fired at the Zuo family's army at the bottom of the slope almost simultaneously.
Other Danyang soldiers who were setting up an ambush in the distance saw the crossbow next to Chen firing with all its strength, and then they also fired, with the firepower of seven or eight hundred bows.
There was a "buzzing" sound, and hundreds of crossbow arrows directly shot the central army of the Ze family army into confusion.
"Ah--" Before Zie Tong could react, because the horse he was riding was the tallest and he was being taken care of by Fu Nu, he was hit by five or six arrows in an instant, and he was shot down along with a dozen of his bodyguards, tragically. The screams are endless.
At the same time, on the high slopes and cliffs on the west side, countless small stones weighing several kilograms each were thrown down by the Danyang soldiers with all their strength, causing the Zuo family soldiers below to have their heads bruised and bleeding, and their brains burst.
"Kill -" After throwing the stones, the Danyang soldiers who were good at mountain warfare wielded their swords and shields, or used hammers and shields, and leapt down like flying tigers. They struck hard at the flanks of the Zuo family army like tigers.
The enemy troops, which were already dragged into a long snake formation due to the mountainous terrain, were beaten until they could not see each other from the beginning to the end.
What's even more terrible is that these Danyang soldiers had been ordered by Chen Dao before the battle. At this moment, they were charging and shouting slogans: "Chaisang has been broken! Zuo Yuan is dead! Those who surrender will not be killed!"
"What? Chaisang has been breached?" After hearing this bad news, the morale of the Zuo family army suddenly plummeted. The target they wanted to rescue had already fallen, what the hell!
The number of Zuo's army was obviously three or four times that of Chen Dao's army, but they were quickly defeated.
"The white soldiers follow me and charge!" Chen Dao saw that the overall situation was decided, and finally ordered the white soldiers to fight out from the bifurcated valley on the flank.
He was very courageous. When the enemy army collapsed in chaos, he directly cut off the enemy army.
This move is actually very risky. If the enemy wants to escape, the combat power unleashed by jumping over the wall will be extremely exaggerated.
But what Chen Dao was betting on was that the enemy no longer had the courage needed to jump over the wall. Maybe they would not be able to break through and would kneel down and surrender in an organized manner!
Sure enough, Chen Dao's cavalry rushed out and blocked the retreat. Groups of monk soldiers in the Zuo family army rushed back towards Chen Dao like a tide, just wanting to open a hole and seize the way to break out.
Relying on the blind obedience and fanaticism of their faith, they are completely unafraid of death.
On the other hand, those county soldiers with relatively better military qualities were not so determined.
Under siege, some county soldiers formed a circle on the spot and defended themselves.
Others fled eastward, ignoring the water of Poyang Lake to the east. They abandoned their helmets and armor and threw themselves into the lake, trying to swim away from the battlefield.
Chen Dao looked at the monk soldiers with fanatical eyes and felt a burst of hatred in his heart for no reason. He waved his weapons and charged back and forth, killing dozens of monk soldiers with his own hands in a matter of seconds.
The white-collared cavalry behind him were equally merciless, killing the monk soldiers until rivers of blood flowed from them.
