In September of the fifth year of Yanxing in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the envoy Chi Jieyi and General Fenwu of the Three Divisions of Liangzhou Muxing, the Protector of the Western Regions of Liangzhou, Wenxian Hou Lvbulu Fengxian arrived at Yuzhong in the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
At this time, the territory under Lu Bu's rule had been greatly improved compared to the sizeless land situation in the first year of Yanxing.
The north is roughly centered on Lingzhou, passing through the Lingwu Valley along the river, directly bordering Shuofang. Since he opened the road, the Huns often went south to trade with him.
To the northwest, it has penetrated deep into the hinterland of the Hexi Corridor. Zhang Chang recruited the Qiang people here to confront Zhang Heng of Xiliang. If he goes further, he can cut off the Hexi Corridor in the middle. However, this place is mostly infested by Qiang people, and the supplies are not abundant. It is far away from Lingzhou, Lu Bu's base camp. If it is forcibly cut off, it will be easily attacked by the rebels from the north and south, thus cutting off the retreat. Therefore, Lu Bu has no further plans.
The southwest is Lu Bu's current main attack direction. In the past two years, he attacked cities and territories along the river and captured Sanshui, Zhuanyindu, Zuli, and Yuwei. Later, he built Fengyi Fort at Fengyi Mountain in Anding. Lu Bu was able to occupy the main transportation road and control the mountain fortress to protect the left and right sides. The rebels were unable to do anything and actually let him push his troops into the Yuzhong area.
The location of Yuzhong is built adjacent to the river, at the northern end of a huge basin, within which is the Yuanchuan River Basin. During the reign of Emperor Sejong Xiaowu, the largest priest's garden in the country was located here. A few dozen miles to the south is Dingxi Road, the only important road from Hanyang to Jincheng, and a few dozen miles to the west is the Lanzhou Basin, the second richest area in Longshang. The so-called gateway of the three counties and the important town on the Silk Road came from this.
But Lu Bu had no intention of attacking such a crucial place.
The reason is similar to not attacking Wuwei: Although Yuzhong is important, the rebels also attach great importance to it. Once they attack, they will inevitably face a desperate resistance. Lu Bu's army is still at a disadvantage, but the rebels will definitely be able to gather heavy troops in Yuzhong, so it is difficult Get results.
Therefore, Lu Bu's original plan was to continue to attack Gaoping. Although Gaoping is not an important transportation route, it is also a very rich place in Longshang. Once captured, he can open up another important route to Guanzhong and wait for the imperial court's supplies to be doubled. After being transported in, Lu Bu continued to expand his army and practice martial arts. How could the other counties resist?
But in the middle of this year, the situation changed. Under pressure from Lu Bu, the heroes of Liangzhou reiterated their alliance with Yu Didao to discuss countermeasures, and even Heshou Ping Han King Song Jiandu, who had been at Heguan for many years, came to participate.
Naturally, Lu Bu also received the news, and sent many secret agents to spy on the information. However, Didao was Han Sui's base camp. There were many obstacles on the mountain road from Yuzhong to Didao, so no one could succeed in the dark.
Even so, the final result of the conference was an unhappy one. First, Song Jian, the king of the river head, led his troops back to Heguan in the west, but there was no response. Then Liang Xing, Zhang Heng, Cheng Yi and other troops who faced Lu Bu directly sent people one after another to contact Lu Bu and inquire about Lu Bu's tone. They seemed to have the intention to surrender. The rest of the thieves Qiang Di who went to Lingzhou to seek refuge were not even considered. The number of Qiang people who came to seek refuge was as many as 10,000 households.
Among the people who came to seek refuge, there was one named Liu Xiongming, who was highly valued by Lu Bu. Liu Xiongming was originally a jade collector in Lantian, but because of his tall stature and extraordinary resourcefulness, he was respected by the bandits as their leader and participated in the Liang chaos. He was also involved in Didao's discussion this time, and Lu Bu also got the news from him.
To put it simply, the various ministries in Liangzhou were dissatisfied with Han Sui's repeated defeats and proposed to elect Song Jian as the new commander-in-chief. Han Sui refused to give up his throne, which led to great disputes between the two rebel parties, so that people were divided and each was looking for a way out.
After reviewing Liu Xiongming's remarks, they are consistent with the current situation, so Lu Bu is convinced.
Then Lu Bu asked Liu Xiongming if he should accept Liang Xing and other troops. Liu Xiongming analyzed that Liang Chaos has been going on for more than ten years, and its duration is unmatched by other parts of the country, and the situation is definitely not the same. Among the leaders of the Guandong moth thieves, there may be those who are desperate and are being held hostage by chaos. But in today's Liangzhou, those who can still control an army with more than 10,000 troops are all heroes and heroes who are difficult to be subordinated to others. Even if they surrender now, they will definitely rebel in the future.
In view of this situation, Liu Xiongming offered advice to Lu Bu, saying that the current plan is to accommodate the poor people, refute the big thieves, and make the soldiers and civilians return like water, so that the culprits have nowhere to hide. For this reason, he specifically emphasized that this was necessary if he wanted to command the troops to go to the township pavilion and unite the army.
Lu Bu was convinced of this and praised Zhang Liao and others: "Although there are many warriors in my palace, I only have a think tank today!" So they all acted according to this strategy.
Liu Xiongming took the opportunity to say to Lu Bu: "Yuzhong is a key place in Xiliang. Now it is stationed by my good friend Jiang Zheng. He has long wanted to serve the court, but because of the key location, it is difficult to come like me." To defect, before I came, he had made an agreement with me that as long as the general can go to Yuzhong, he will open the door to welcome him. Is he interested?"
Lu Bu was very excited when he heard this and couldn't help but clapped his hands and said: "Now that the achievements are before us, there is no reason not to take the past." He immediately ordered to go to the state capital and mobilize 40,000 troops. They sent out troops in mid-August and arrived in Yu in early September. Under the middle city.
As expected, Yuzhong Kaicheng did not fight, and its guard Jiang Zheng went out ten miles to meet Lu Bu. His words were extremely humble, and his behavior was like a slave. He actually said that Lu Bu had the courage of an overlord, but he was despicable and no one dared to look up to him. This made Lu Bu very happy. .
Then he led Lu Bu to the city, where he saw mountains of rice and grain piled up in the treasury and rows of swords, enough to supply the entire army for a year. Going south to the Priest's Garden, Lü Bu obtained another sixteen thousand horses. Such a harvest could be regarded as Lü Bu's greatest harvest in all his years. He appointed Jiang Zheng as the cavalry captain of the state capital in public, and drank with him to show his favor.
During the Double Ninth Festival, Lu Bu held a banquet in the city to reward the three armies. At this time, the news of Linzi's fall had just come, and everyone couldn't help but put down their wine glasses and started talking about it. They analyzed the impact of this battle on Guandong, and they all thought that the news would be spread throughout the world. Talking about how the imperial court awarded the generals in the Bafu afterwards, they all thought that the general Liu Bei had made the arrangements properly and took the greatest credit.
This really made Lu Bu unhappy. Since the Battle of Jinyang, Lu Bu has always thought that Liu Bei's battle was nothing more than an easy battle and that he only relied on Chen Chong for support. Unfortunately, all he could hear at this moment were words of praise for Liu Bei, and he couldn't get angry. At this time of celebration, he could only lower his head and drink a few more glasses of wine.
At this time, Lu Bu suddenly noticed that Jiang Zheng and Liu Xiongming were whispering at the table, and occasionally looked over, as if they had something to say but had concerns. Lu Bu then asked them: "Today is a day of celebration. You two have made great achievements, what else do you dare not say?"
Liu Xiongming and Jiang Zheng looked at each other and then reported to Lu Bu in detail. It turned out that Liu Xiongming's friend Yang Ming was also stationed in Jincheng, wanting to surrender to Lu Bu. But now that Yuzhong was lost, Han Sui immediately strengthened the defense and personally led 30,000 troops into Jincheng. They were undecided whether they should advise and attack Jincheng.
When Lu Bu heard that Jincheng also had an inner chamber, his drunkenness immediately dissipated and he quickly asked Jiang Zheng for details. Jiang Zheng replied that in order to keep the city gates safe, Han Sui had always ordered all units in the army to change their defenses every day. Jincheng was a large city with eight gates. Yang Ming had more than 3,000 men under his command and could only occupy one section. If Lu Bu wants to capture Jincheng, he must first identify the flags of various ministries, contact Yang Ming, and then open the door to welcome the army when Yang Ming changes defense for the second time. But if they don't handle it properly, not only will Jincheng be unable to be captured, but Yang Ming will also have a hard time surviving, so they hesitate in their hearts.
Lu Bu couldn't help laughing and said to them: "What's so difficult about this? Just leave the contact to Liu Jun. As long as Yang Jun opens the door first and Liu Jun helps defend behind, and the door is not closed, can I still be defeated?" Zhou Zhou The rest of the people in the government also agreed after hearing this.
"I Have a Picture Book of Ghosts and Gods"
So Jiang Zheng was allowed to continue to garrison Yuzhong, while Lu Bu raised his troops to the west again.
On September 14th, Lu Bu led his army to the gates of Jincheng. The Liang army in the city came out of the city with more than a thousand cavalry to challenge Lu Bu. They were defeated by Lu Bu's own camp, so the Liang army returned to the city and could not leave. Lu Bu was then able to see the whole view of Jincheng, and couldn't help but take a breath of air. Renshou Mountain surrounded the city to the northwest, and the river surrounded it to the southeast. There was only a piece of land no more than twenty miles long and three miles wide for him to form an array. There was also a river under the city to protect the outer walls. , if we want to attack the city head-on, I really don’t know how long it will take.
That night, Lu Bu and Liu Xiongming observed around the wall. When they reached the southeast corner, Liu Xiongming pointed to a section of the wall and said, Yang Ming is here. Yang Ming's flag was a white wolf flag with a yellow background, which was very easy to identify. Lu Bu looked at it and saw that it was indeed the case. He immediately took out a three-stone bow, touched the corner of the city, and shot the arrow book written in advance into the city. When whispers sounded on the city wall, Lu Bu and the others quietly left again.
In the early morning of the next day, when the city had not yet changed its defenses, Yang Ming's troops quietly set up two yellow flags without any words. This was Lu Bu's secret code in the arrow book, indicating that Lu Bu had promised to open the city gate the next time he changed his defenses. At this point, the morale of the entire army rose sharply, and everyone thought that Jincheng was about to be defeated.
On the night of September 16th, Lu Bu was digging mountains outside the city, pretending to attack the outer walls of Jincheng, but in fact he ordered his troops to hide among the civilians. Countless people cast their eyes on the city wall, almost setting fire to it. Finally, they found the White Wolf Banner appearing in the southwest corner. Lu Bu was overjoyed and immediately ordered Liu Xiongming to lead more than 2,000 men to attack him.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Liu Xiongming held high the banner with the word "LV" and rushed toward the city gate like a black tide.
As expected, the city gate opened in response, allowing Liu Xiongming's troops to file in. When Lu Bu saw this, he immediately ordered the drummers to play the marching drums. Everyone in the state capital thought that the city was about to fall, and the troops cheered, and then ran towards the southwest gate.
Unexpectedly, the situation suddenly changed. Liu Xiongming's troops entered the city, but no one was left to guard the gate. Instead, they all disappeared behind the city gate. Before the follow-up Lu Bu army arrived, the city gate had been slowly closed.
All the ministries in the state capital were astonished. Before their cheers had stopped, several large flags with the word "Lü" were thrown down from the city wall. Someone on the wall shouted: "Thank you so much, Commander Lu, for sending me off!" Then there was a burst of laughter. Voice. Only then did the officers and soldiers of the prefecture suddenly realize that Liu Xiongming's claim of surrender was a lie, and he was the real one who deceived the army into coming to the city. He was the deathbed of the Liang people!
Then someone in the city shouted, saying that Jiang Zheng in Yuzhong was rebelling again, and the way back to the capital of Liangzhou was cut off. When Lu Bu's subordinates heard this, their morale suddenly dropped. Soon, some people in the army fled eastward one after another, causing waves of commotion, like an avalanche.
When Han Sui saw the fighter plane coming, he made an immediate decision and led all his soldiers out of the city. Although Lu Bu tried his best to marshal his army, it was all to no avail. Han Sui pursued them for nearly thirty miles. Along the way, there were corpses on pillows and flags floating with blood. Tens of thousands of people under Lu Bu's command were killed, injured, or captured.
Such a great victory was unprecedented since Dong Zhuo's death. The arrangements and plans were all made by Jia Xu.
