【Chang'an Great Retreat】
After the "Battle of Liangtianpi" started, Huang Chao keenly sensed that the end was approaching. Although he refused to admit it, his actions were honest. He and his loyal lackeys were ready to withdraw from Chang'an.
Huang Chao chose to break out of the encirclement in the southeast direction, taking Lantian Pass, crossing Lanqiao, and rushed to Shangzhou (today's Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province), discarding a large number of rare treasures along the way. This was based on years of struggle experience.
Sure enough, after the "Hundred Regiments War", the Tang army repeated the scene of the first recovery of Chang'an, raping, looting, smashing, looting and burning. The poor people of Chang'an were repeatedly ravaged by both officials and bandits in less than three years. Very few survived the disaster, and the city of Chang'an was almost reduced to a pile of smoking ruins.
Even if there were pursuers coming to kill them, they would covet the property that was discarded along the way. They would fight for it, and there would be no team. There was no team to pursue the grass army.
In this way, Huang Chao led the Cao army to evacuate Chang'an in a calm and orderly manner. Although they suffered a disastrous defeat, they still retained most of the fresh troops and still had considerable destructive and deterrent power.
There is a kind of victory called retreat.
Huang Chao withdrew from Chang'an twice, and both times were forced to do so after a disastrous defeat in the decisive battle. However, the Cao Army was defeated but did not collapse. Both retreats can be regarded as successful strategic shifts, comparable to the Dunkirk retreat.
Chang'an can no longer stay, where should Huang Chao go?
Leaving Lantian Pass, passing Shangzhou, Caizhou is in the southeast direction. From Caizhou to the north, after crossing Minshui River, it is Chenzhou, then to the north is Bianshui, and further to the north is Huang Chao's hometown.
The magic of love went around in circles for five years, and I went home to celebrate the New Year.
Caizhou had just been promoted to Fengguojun by the Tang Dynasty, and Qin Zongquan, the governor of Caizhou, was promoted to the defense envoy. Qin Zongquan was originally a tooth general in the Zhongwu Army. During the "Xuzhou Mutiny", he took advantage of the chaos to separate Caizhou. With the spring breeze of the imperial court's united front policy, he successfully became the governor of Caizhou and then the defense envoy of the Fengguo Army.
Now, the important task of stopping the Cao army fell on Qin Zongquan's shoulders.
After the "Battle of Liangtianpi" started, Qin Zongquan had been taking a wait-and-see attitude. Commander-in-Chief Wang Duo repeatedly urged him to send troops to help, but he always declined with various reasons.
The first to get the moon near the water tower, Caizhou Qin Zongquan sat on the front row of the bench and had a thorough view of the Chang'an war. He saw clearly that Huang Chao, who was reciting chrysanthemum poems, was already a thing of the past and was struggling to his death. When the Cao army pioneer Meng Kai led his troops to attack, Qin Zongquan resisted.
The centipede is dead but not stiff. Qin Zongquan obviously underestimated Cao Jun's strength, and Meng Kai taught him how to be a new man every minute.
Qin Zongquan sized up the situation and changed his banner again without hesitation, joined the Cao Army's camp, and surrendered to Huang Chao.
As a result, the Cao army was able to cross the border smoothly.
Meng Kai, the vanguard of the Cao army, took the lead and served as the vanguard for the army. He built roads across mountains and rivers and built bridges. He was determined by the prefectures and counties along the way. He conquered Caizhou Fengguo's Qin Zongquan in the first battle out of Lantian Pass and Cao Cao. The army is even more powerful. The way home is not far away.
Next stop, Chenzhou.
No one would have thought that Chenzhou would be the beginning of the real demise of the Huangchao gang.
The little Chenzhou taught Huang Chao a truth: the most distant place in the world is not the end of the world, but very close at hand.
[Three Hundred Days in Chenzhou]
When Meng Kai arrogantly arrived at Xiangcheng near Chenzhou, he was suddenly attacked head-on. His army was almost wiped out. Meng Kai was captured alive and beheaded. The person who organized this Xiangcheng blocking battle was Chenzhou Governor Zhao Yan (pronounced the same as "drawing").
Unofficial histories say that Meng Kai is Huang Chao's illegitimate son. This is not credible, because unofficial histories also say that Huang Chao's nephew Lin Yan is Huang Chao's illegitimate son. Others say that Meng Kai and Huang Chao have a long-yang love, a habit of cutting sleeves, and good gay friends. Good comrade... these are just gossips in the public, and have never been directly responded to in the official history.
Huang Chao's love for Meng Kai is obvious to all. Meng Kai is definitely a member of the core power circle of Huang Chao Group. If we want to rank the Huang Chao Group, the number one person is Huang Chao, the number two person is Shang Rang, the number three person is Lin Yan, and the number four person should be Meng Kai. Of course, this is my personal ranking for the direct descendants of the Cao Army. Some people may have objections to this.
But no matter how you argue, it should be undisputed that Meng Kai ranks in the top five.
Now, his favorite general Meng Kai was defeated and killed in Chenzhou, and his body was missing. Huang Chao was filled with grief and anger, and personally led an army of hundreds of thousands to surround Chenzhou.
Zhao Yan, a general, has been a loyal military general in his family for generations and has made many military exploits. Since the Huangchao rebellion, Zhao Yan has been an unswerving "warrior" and once led his troops to drive away the thieves who harassed Ruzhou and Dengzhou. When Huang Chao took control of Chang'an, he was elected as the governor by the soldiers and people of Chenzhou.
Zhao Yan had already predicted the situation of today's war when Huang Chao proclaimed himself emperor. He said that if Huang Chao was not killed in Chang'an, he would definitely flee eastward, and we, Chenzhou, would be the first target. The hatred between Chenzhou and the grass thieves has been going on for a long time, and it is inevitable that we will have to fight a vicious battle.
At that time, Zhao Yan had already actively prepared for the "Chenzhou Defense Battle", while Huang Chao and Meng Kai thought it would be smooth sailing.
Seeing the big from the small. "Send troops to attack." Huang Chao had already lost this battle before it started.
In terms of personnel deployment, the whole family of Zhao Yan went into battle. The second brother Zhao Chang, the third brother Zhao Jue, the eldest son Zhao Lu, and the second son Zhao Lin all went to the front line in person. As the saying goes, brothers fight, and father and son fight.
Repair the city wall, dig trenches, and build fortifications; store grain, repair armor, and prepare swords, crossbows, and arrows; all people within a radius of sixty miles will bring grain into the city, softening the scorched earth policy; recruiting and training Warriors, and carry out ideological education work for soldiers to strengthen their loyalty to the emperor and serve the country and strengthen their belief in victory.
In addition to the above routine operations, Zhao Wei's third brother Zhao Jue thought everything carefully and thought of an easily overlooked matter: moving the tomb.
At that time, the digging of ancestral graves would not only cause emotional harm to the soldiers and civilians, but also shake their belief in victory because they would not receive the blessing of their ancestors.
Zhao Jue was very thoughtful in moving the tomb before the war. At the same time, Zhao Jue also personally improved a batch of broken bed crossbows so that they could have a range of more than 500 steps. Within their effective range, they could shoot through people and were extremely deterrent.
Zhao Yan's second brother, Zhao Chang, is not idle either. He takes full advantage of the superstitious psychology of ordinary people and often performs tricks such as "possession by gods" in public at night, using "the help of evil soldiers and gods" to soothe those restless people under the silent night sky. Little minds.
The soldiers and civilians firmly believed in this and firmly believed that there were hidden soldiers taking the lead. Therefore, everyone worked bravely and fought for the lead. Although they were outnumbered and greatly disparity, they were able to win repeated battles.
Huang Chao and Qin Zongquan joined forces, claiming to be hundreds of thousands of people, and rushed to Chenzhou to avenge Meng Kai. Unexpectedly, Zhao Yan took the initiative to open the city gate, and the warriors filed out, giving the bandits another blow.
Huang Chao was frightened and angry, so he dug a huge ditch and attacked the city in hundreds of ways. The formation was comparable to that of the Battle of Guangzhou. Hundreds of thousands of rebel troops attacked the city from all directions, regardless of feint attack or main attack. All troops were the main attacking force.
Facing the powerful offensive of the Cao Army, the soldiers of Chenzhou were slightly frightened. Zhao Yan went to the front line in person and made an impassioned speech, using reason and emotion. He also stipulated strict military discipline: Anyone who dares to dissent will be killed!
Put yourself to death and live again. Zhao Yan was ready to fight, and even more ready to die. Killing Meng Kai showed his determination to die.
The general will have the heart to die, and the scholar will not be greedy for life.
Inspired by Zhao Yan, the soldiers and civilians of Chenzhou risked their lives and fought hard. Although they were outnumbered and trapped in an isolated city, they could always see the right opportunity, open the city gates, and release death squads to attack the grass army.
The heroic Chenzhou Death Squadron often takes advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness and surprises them, winning every battle. Maybe they didn't cause too many casualties to the Grass Army, but the psychological blow to the Grass Army was fatal.
Huang Chao was furious and on the verge of collapse. At this time, Huang Chao had lost his mind and the overall concept. He only had Chen Zhou in his eyes.
Huang Chao has to pay a heavy price for his feelings for Chenzhou.
