Chapter 164 Exam Paper
Zhang Hu completely destroyed the Shaanxi Xingdu Division. Except for a few fortified city guard posts, there was nothing left to grab, so he led a hundred thousand people to the southeast again, and ran back to Ganzhou to guard (Lanzhou) ) temporarily settled down to make next plans.
Zhang Hu, Fang Ge and Niu Youtian were all obsessed with the rich Sichuan Province, but they were frightened to the core by being beaten by Sun Jie, especially Ma Qiancheng. Although Sun Jie was fighting fiercely with the She'an family, no one could tell whether this guy would suddenly turn around and vent his evil fire on himself, and he would really not dare to go back for a while. Besides, if you want to return to Sichuan, you have to pass through Taozhou - unless you are crazy, who would want to provoke that barbarian Yan Minwang again? Zhang Hu and others were all from the border army. When it came to killing people, they had dozens of lives under their hands, but... the fighting style of Yan Manzi's group was not something that his group could handle now. We live there, so don’t worry about Sichuan yet.
Then there are only two roads left, north or east. To the north is Zhang Hu's lair: Ningxia Wei. It was a bit similar to Xingdusi in Shaanxi Province, with fortresses everywhere and extremely poor. But there is a difference: although the former boss Cao Xiong was exiled, Qiu Yue is still there! That old man was not only Zhang Hu's benefactor, he was also really good at fighting - Zhang Hu knew very well that the Ningxia guards were not Shaanxi Xingdusi. Ning'an Fort, Jinji Fort, Wuzhong Fort, Lingzhou Fort... passed by An After the farce caused by King Hua, the court went through a massive rectification. The defenders in every place were poor and impoverished. Now, in their eyes, I was just a fat sheep. If they won, they would lose some lives. You can't make any money. If you lose any small battle, you will be severely bloodied!
So we can only go eastward.
There are three roads heading east: North Road, Middle Road, and South Road. The north road is poor, and there is little oil and water left in the places Guan Shengyun has swept away. The middle road is strong, including Fengxiang Prefecture, Baoji, Yi County, Xi'an Prefecture, and Lintong... This road is heavily crowded with officers and soldiers. Every step of the way will encounter bloody battles in the fortified city, so let's go South Road: Take the Gongchang Prefecture and go straight into Hanzhong Prefecture, and then see if you can have a chance to enter the equally rich Huguang.
The reason why Zhang Hu was eager to leave and become bigger was because he was poor. The land in northwest Shaanxi Province is so barren that many places rely on blood transfusions from the imperial court to survive. Although you can capture a lot of food every time you take down a stronghold, it will also add a lot of mouths to eat food! Most of them are women, children, the elderly and weak who cannot serve as soldiers, so you have to support them! On the one hand, every guy who is pulled into the war camp will usually drag a large family of trash behind him. On the other hand, if these people follow, they can at least build up momentum. If they encounter a strong enemy that cannot be defeated, they can still be left behind. They were holding back the pursuers. These guys used to be scattered in various villages digging for wild vegetables and nibbling tree bark, and they could barely breathe. Now they have dug such a big pile. If they stop for a while, the surrounding area will be dug into white ground in three to five days. Consuming precious food... In other words, every time you take a place, you will make a small fortune. You will make a profit in the first few days, but once you stay for a longer time, you will start to eat into Dashuai Zhang's capital.
So Zhang Hu couldn't stop.
There were many places to plunder, so Zhang Hu invented a very useful method: let the scouts step in in advance, and then suddenly send out elite soldiers to surround the place and start looting. First kill a few unlucky ghosts to establish their authority and subdue the villagers, then pick out the strong ones and directly recruit them to be combat soldiers or auxiliary soldiers. After robbing everything, set a big fire and burn everything to the ground - what about the remaining people? We can only follow Dashuai Zhang’s old camp, otherwise we will starve to death! Zhang Hu also discovered a particularly interesting thing: when arriving in a new place, the ones who rob the most and attack the most ruthlessly are often those who were the victims not long ago! Zhang Hu figured out the truth after thinking about it for a while: Weak people can only achieve psychological vent and balance by inflicting violence on groups weaker than themselves! I have been harmed, and I cannot afford to offend the person who harmed me, so no one else will have an easy time, and I will let you taste the pain of harm too!
This kind of situation is of course what Zhang Dashuai is most happy to see: those former "victims" who waved the butcher knife mercilessly at the weak, sink deeper and deeper into the mire of sin, and finally can no longer extricate themselves - there have been several This time, on the way to Gongchang Mansion, in Jin County (now Yuzhong) and Qingshui Fort, the vanguard troops encountered what can be called stubborn resistance, and these people died everywhere. Will Dashuai Zhang feel distressed? Haha, that’s weird! On the contrary, Marshal Zhang was very happy: they were not the "own people" brought out from Sichuan, they would just die if they died... Oh, not only that, their family members and young female relatives left in the old camp would be divided immediately, Others were kicked out without mercy to fend for themselves, so as not to waste precious food in vain!
This tactic invented by Zhang Hu is indeed very useful. The guys in front know that their families are following them in the old camp behind them. If they don't work hard, the officers supervising the battle will not only not spare them, but they will also settle accounts with them. They will risk their lives to open a way for them no matter what. The family members who were following behind only knew that their whole hope, the pillar of the family, was leading the way, so they had to keep up no matter what... In this way, Zhang Hu did not need to waste many manpower to watch the old camp, and could Calmly send more fresh troops to the front.
Of course, the Shaanxi Third Division had already received the news about the escaped thief Zhang Hu. However, despite the fierce quarrel on the surface, the adults were not really anxious in their hearts: Indeed, the thief Zhang was a soldier of Shaanxi Province, and he had not been captured. Did the old Qin soldiers in Jiujiang break up and flee to Sichuan in a panic? Who dares to say that it is wrong? Sichuan Province itself can't handle a few stragglers and defeat the bandits. Can you blame Shaanxi Province? Later, they did run back to Shaanxi Province. Hey, don't forget, did the five or six hundred head-level skills commanded by Yan come from Shaanxi Province? Just ask whether Taozhou Wei and Lintao Prefecture belong to Shaanxi Province! The imperial court indeed only rewarded Li Yao and Commander Yan, but that was because the adults in Shaanxi Province were upright and not greedy for merit! Level 20 skills are not achieved by adults strategizing, praising military affairs and educating the people? And then, where did Thief Zhang go? Hum hum, Shaanxi Xing Du Si! There is a governor there, and there is a Xingdusi government. We, the Third Division of Shaanxi Province, are neither greedy for merit nor overstep our authority. As a result, you have been treated like a deserted country by Zhang Thief. Now that you have come back, we still have to settle matters with your Xingdusi. Where is the account!
All the adults in Shaanxi Province are experts in this kind of war of words, and no one is afraid of it! The only thing to do is to seize all the troops that can be gathered and defend them tightly along the Weishui River from Baoji, Yixian, Wugong, Xingping to Xi'an Prefecture in Xianyang. As long as Zhang Thief does not capture any of the cities, it will be a great victory. ...Anyway, no matter how bad it is, it will never be worse than Shaanxi Xingdusi! Of course, it is best to find a way to get Thief Zhang to get out as soon as possible. As long as he leaves Shaanxi Province, everything will be fine - it's not like there is no precedent before...
The adults from the Third Division of Shaanxi Province also took a look at the "Where to Go" test paper placed in front of Zhang Hu. The answer is the same: 99%, Zhang Thief will choose to run east along the Hanzhong Mansion at the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi. As for whether we go to Huguang or Henan, or whether we go to Shanxi, it doesn't matter at all. Whoever we go to will be unlucky, as long as we don't stay in Shaanxi Province and cause trouble for the adults.
Lord Bao Zhicai, the commander-in-chief of the Shaanxi Dusi Mansion - well, at this time Lord Bao had already taken the credit for the massive "Qin Army Exercise" and was promoted from the third-rank commander of the capital to the second-rank captain. The commanding officer was informed - first, he cooperated with the Second Division of Fan Zhen to send a very stern warning to Gongchang Mansion in the name of the Dusi Mansion, warning him that he was about to face the military situation of the Zhang thief going south, and at the same time, he promulgated a message without leaving any trace. Those with a discerning eye can decipher the mystery if they read it carefully, but the order is perfectly interpreted according to the purely literal meaning: "Every guard, thousands, and hundred stations will be on alert immediately. Everything will be carried out according to the orders of Gongchang Mansion. If every inch of the mansion is lost, it will be carried out according to military law!"
You can't fault this command no matter where it is placed, right? But if you are an old official, for example, Xue Chengye, the prefect of Gongchang... the subtext he can read is: you can mobilize all the guard forces in the area, even if you allocate all the troops from other states and counties, it will be fine, as long as you can protect the city. If you lose, nothing will happen! As for the officers at the guard station, I have made it clear to you: listen to the prefect! Does the "fu" in "Losing a Prefecture" refer to the city of Fucheng, or any county in the entire Gongchang Prefecture in a broad sense... Haha, you can guess for yourself! Don't ask, just ask: "No inch of land can be lost!" - Isn't that what the adults say? Therefore, Anding (today's Dingxi), Huining, Ningyuan (today's Wushan), Qinzhou (Tianshui)...along the most likely marching route of Zhang Hu predicted by the adults, the defenders on this line were all transferred to Gongchang Fucheng, if Zhang Hu really comes down this road, it will be very easy.
Then, Lord Bao raced against time to rush to Hanzhong Mansion in person. He stopped at Fengxiang Mansion for two days on the way and made full arrangements: he deployed nearly half of the Fengxiang Mansion's troops in Baoji and Erliguan, dug trenches and set up hard camps. The flags were fluttering and stretched for more than ten miles. Unless the scouts sent by Zhang Hu were all blind, they would not be able to see that the formation was here.
After arriving at Hanzhong Mansion, Mr. Bao had a secret conversation with Mr. Lin Xiaojing, the prefect, for a whole night. Later, Mr. Lin gave an order with a dark face: Xing'an Station and all the garrison troops east of Hanzhong Prefecture rushed to the aid of Fucheng and Malingguan at night. The defenders abandoned the pass and rushed to Dashan Pass adjacent to Fengxiang Prefecture to defend. They were temporarily placed in Ningqiang Prefecture. (Today's Ningqiang) and Miuxian County (today's Mian County), the defeated soldiers who were taken in after Lu Guangyu was dispersed all went to Hutou Pass and Jitou Pass to the north of Hanzhong Prefecture to set up defenses - Hanzhong Fucheng and Fengxiang Prefecture to the north. It can be said to be impregnable, but the price is: there are no defenders along the entire border between southern Hanzhong Prefecture and Sichuan Province. If Zhang Hu marches along this line, there will be no obstruction!
In order to ensure the safety of Fengxiang Mansion, Lord Bao not only stayed at Dashan Pass for two days when he returned, but also left more than a hundred elite soldiers to supervise the battle before leaving. The leader was the cavalry guard from Andongzhong of Pingliang Mansion. Mr. Qian——Zhao Ergou.
[Do you still remember Zhao Ergou? ^_^]
