When the Huns and Xianbei arrived in Jinyang with a total of 20,000 men, Chen Chong and Liu Bei finally decided to send troops.
After nearly a month of preliminary preparations, once the 160,000-strong army set off, it was as powerful as an earthquake. Xu Huang in Qi County first went south along the Fen River, met with Zhang Fei's troops in Hedong in advance, and then felled trees along the river. , building boats and preparing to build pontoons to cross the river.
Then the armies of the prefecture gradually gathered together. Chen Chong and Liu Bei fought in the north and south over the years, and they had generals who had fought with them, such as Zhang Fei, the captain of Hedong, Zhang Yang, the governor of Shangdang, Tian Yu, the governor of Yanmen, Yang Hui, the governor of Xihe, and Taiping. Xu Huang, the captain of the school, Liu Deran, the captain of Dongping, Gu Yi, the captain of Yanmen, Linghuyuan, the captain of Dingxiang, Wu Meng was engaged in Gao Zhun, Bingcao was engaged in Taishi Ci, Dianjun was engaged in Qin Yilu, and the cavalry captain Wei Gu were all included. Biji. In addition, there were also the Xiongnu Zuo Ri Zhu Wang Liu Xuan, Helian Gudu Hou Helian Chihou, and Xianbei young commander Tuoba Pigu who came to help. For a while, flags stretched to the sky, soldiers reflected the sun, and the military appearance could not be greater.
It can be said that the entire Bingzhou came out in full force, except for Duan Xin's new investment. Most of his subordinates were from Liang and were unwilling to fight with Li Jue and others, so Chen Chong appointed Duan Xuan as the captain of Taiyuan. More than ten thousand people were sent to guard Jinyang and Mayi.
Yang Feng, Han Xian and others stationed in Linjin sent scouts to Puban every day to watch. When they saw Zhang Fei and Xu Huang building ships and bridges on the other side of the river, they immediately returned to the city to report. Yang Feng was shocked when he learned about it, and discussed with Han Siam Dugu Qubei and others: "With thirty to forty thousand troops crossing the river, temporary bamboo rafts and boats are enough, but the other side wants to build a bridge to cross the river. I'm afraid this is not an ordinary number. Can the number of soldiers reach more than 100,000?"
This guess did not need to be recognized by the others. Soon the scouts came again and reported that there was an endless stream of sergeants arriving at Puban. From time to time, a brand new flag could be seen. It had obviously been spread out for nearly four miles in front of Puban, but it was The rear formation of his team cannot be seen from a distance.
The number of incoming troops must have exceeded 100,000, which panicked them so much that Dugu went to Beiben and planned to send troops to destroy the pontoon. Han Xian hesitated and said: "Chen Tingjian always defeats the enemy with a small number and defeats the enemy with a small number." There are many victories, and the troops are deployed like gods. It is really beyond our reach. What's more, our military strength is very different now, how can we fight against them? If there is any mishap, our lives will be at stake here."
Ranwen
Dugu Qubei sneered at this opinion. He said: "The military discussion has made it clear before that we are allowed to delay here. If we don't resist a little now, wouldn't it be a violation of our promise? What's more, even though there are many people, there are not enough people. Our army, if the encounter is unfavorable, the worst we can do is retreat. I think you have been with Chen Chong for too long, and he has tamed the courage of a bear into the courage of a dog."
These words are really hurtful, but Dugu Qubei does make sense. No matter how you say it, retreating without fighting will lose the true nature of a warrior. Han Xian couldn't resist him, and finally agreed to send troops with him. After ordering the troops, everyone found some pine trees and hay in the city, as well as some boats left by Niu Fu, and planned to take them upstream. After the pontoon bridge was initially built on the other side, they would set fire to the boats upstream, so as to delay the delay. Time is considered worthy of the appointment at the military meeting.
Unexpectedly, they had just led the troops and walked more than ten miles north, and unexpectedly ran into a cavalry army of about 2,000 people at Jiyang. Both armies were startled, and they were obviously not prepared to encounter them here. This merging cavalry took the lead in crossing the river from Caisangjin and went downstream to protect the pontoon. Seeing that the enemy was outnumbered, they had no intention of entanglement. They immediately turned their horses around and retreated to Caisangjin. Seeing that their whereabouts had been leaked, Bai Bo's army made some calculations and felt that the fire ship plan could not be carried out at this time, so they withdrew to Linjin.
The fire ship failed, and everyone had no idea how to stop the enemy. Han Xian came out again at this time and said: "It is really not a good idea to face the army here. It is better to abandon this place and retreat to Zheng County. Chen Chongruo besieged the city, and Zheng I don't know how much more dangerous the county is than Linjin. Even if we can't defend it, we still have a way to retreat. If he doesn't besiege the city, we will follow him, and we have done our best."
At this time, no one objected, but Dugu Qubei looked at the useless Songming in the city, feeling unwilling to accept it. Suddenly he had an idea and said: "I have often heard in the clan that Chen Chong buys people's hearts, saying that no matter how big or small he is, No matter how high or low you are, everyone should be treated equally to show your high moral integrity.”
Han Xian and Yang Feng were confused, but they had been with Chen Chong for about four years, so they had no objections to this and all nodded in agreement.
Dugu Qubei said: "In that case, why don't we put all these pine trees and firewood in the city, withdraw outside the city early, and leave only a few people in the city. When their army is about to take over the city, the people we left behind will Setting a fire in the city will definitely cause them great harm. Even if Chen Chong doesn't fall into the trap, given his nature, seeing the situation and having to send people to put out the fire and provide disaster relief, he can still delay it for a day."
He said it easily, but Han Siam and Yang Feng were all horrified when they heard this. Once the fire was set off, no one knew how many people would be burned to death. Han Xian, in particular, slandered: The Huns in front of him once said that he was a dog with courage, but he could be said to be a wolf.
But after considering the profit and loss, the two of them had to admit that he had a good plan. Not only could they set fire to delay the march of the merging army, but the fire also destroyed the city defenses, which would also make it easier for them to copy the merging army's retreat in the future.
At this time, on the east bank, Chen Chong, riding Qing Wei, was traveling with Liu Bei and a group of state government aides, and had just arrived at Jie County on horseback. At this time, Jie County has become the hub for the front line to cross the river. The army received supplies here and then crossed the river. Time was tight. Chen Chong thought that it was too slow to cross the river from one place. It was better to divide the troops into two groups and cross the river at Puban and Fenyin. Build a floating bridge. The army crossed the river in two ways, trying to control the crossing time within one day. However, when he arrived in Jie County today, he was shocked to learn that the Fenyin pontoon bridge had not yet been erected.
"Gongming, what's the reason for this? The forwards have already arrived at the ferry, but they are unable to cross the river at this time. They have stopped, and the timing of the troops in the rear to cross the river will also be delayed."
The person responsible for building the Fenyinjin bridge was originally Xu Huang. Chen Chong originally had high hopes for him, but unexpectedly he made a mistake as soon as he sent out troops. So when Xu Huang came to report the time, he asked with half concern and half anxiety.
Xu Huang did not shirk, but just explained: "When I was building the bridge, I planned to send troops to assist Pu Ban. Unexpectedly, I met the two thieves Yang and Han halfway. They seemed to be heading north to attack. I didn't dare to take the risk, so I had to We suspended the construction of the bridge and sent scouts to inquire about the news. By the time they returned to Linjin, they had already been delayed for two hours. This was a dereliction of duty on my part, but please rest assured that I have collected the ships, especially for the bridge construction, which will surely be completed within an hour. It’s set up.”
Chen Chong felt relieved and gave Xu Huang a few more words before discussing with his staff. He said with a smile: "It seems that Yang Feng, Han Siam and the others are still a little brave. I thought that with my army so powerful, they would be afraid when they were on the west bank. Even if they didn't abandon the city and flee, they would still defend the city. Now, It seems that we still underestimate them. It’s just that they don’t plan to leave, so what should we plan?”
Just as they were about to discuss strategies, the messenger from Pu Ban sent a message saying that the enemy troops on the other side had missed the opportunity to destroy the pontoon bridge after returning to Linjin. At this time, the east bank began to cross the river, and more than 5,000 people had already crossed. The enemy troops Seemingly panicked, he hurriedly led his troops to withdraw and headed south. Seeing that he left the city first and then retreated, Zhang Fei was undecided about whether to take over Linjin, so he sent someone to ask for advice.
Xu Shu also laughed when he heard this, and said to Chen Chong: "The teacher just said that they were a little brave, but they withdrew after a slight disadvantage. It can only be said that the thieves have lost their spirit." Chen Chong didn't care about this, his focus was on Bai Bo. As the army left, he pondered for a moment, and then said to the envoy: "Reply to Yide and ask him to send a team into the city to check first. If it is safe, it will not be too late to take over. Remember not to disturb the people."
The messenger promised to leave. Then Chen Chong unfolded the map. Liu Bei was obviously thinking about this matter. He immediately pointed to Zheng County in the south of the map and said: "It seems that they want to go here, because they are backed by the dangers of Lishan Mountain and Xiong'er Mountain, so I can't besiege the city." , and it’s easy to peek into my flank, quite a shrewd idea.”
Chen Chong nodded slightly, then shook his head and said: "He thought well, but we had no plan to besiege the city. The most important thing now is to rescue Xijing. He got out of the way and spared us the trouble. It happened as planned Plan and act.”
The so-called original plan was that after crossing the river in two ways, the army would not go to the north of Weiwei, but directly cross the Wei River to the south bank. After all, the north bank of the Wei River was crisscrossed by water nets, making it easy for the Liang army to block it. However, when marching in Weinan, the road was a little bumpy, but there was no need to worry about such blocking. Now that Bai Bo has retreated to Zheng County, it is nothing more than setting up an extra camp to confront him, and the combined army is now not short of men.
After the rest, Chen Chong and Liu Bei said goodbye for a while. Liu Bei was going to supervise Fenyin's crossing of the river on the north road, while he went to Puban to urge Zhang Fei. The two sides agreed to lead the entire army to cross the river before noon tomorrow, and then cross the Wei River at Ruixiang.
That night, Chen Chong rushed to Puban along the military formation. From a distance, he saw that the team crossing the river was in chaos and order was loose, which surprised him. But as I got closer to the river, I discovered that there was a fire on the other side. In the gloomy night, the sky ten miles away was as bright as day, as if there was a scorching sun in the city. Just by looking at it from a distance, you can feel the scorching heat.
"What's going on?" Chen Chong asked the soldiers on the shore, but no one could answer. "Where is Captain Zhang today?" he asked again, and this time someone answered: "The Captain has led his personal entourage to the east coast." Chen Chong found a boat and crossed with several staff first. Dahe didn't find Zhang Fei until he was in front of Jincheng.
At this time, Linjin City was like a scorching hell, the air was filled with the smell of burning flesh and blood, and there were cries and cries everywhere. Zhang Fei was leading the soldiers crossing the river to evacuate the refugees, but more people were trapped in the city due to the sudden incident. They had no choice but to pray helplessly to God until they were smoked to death and burned to death.
This was exactly Dugu Qubei's strategy. He hid dry firewood at the city gate and in the downtown area, and left about thirty dead soldiers. He only waited for the merging troops to enter the city before setting fire to the city. Seeing that Zhang Fei was not fooled, they did not hesitate and burned the market first and then the city gate. The citizens had no way to escape even if they wanted to. Zhang Fei was too slow to react and temporarily only put out the fire at the east gate. , less than twenty-three out of ten city residents escaped.
Chapter 19 Gongjing crosses the river
