During the three months when Chen Chong gathered people in Chencang, he quietly watched the development of the situation in Guanzhong and quietly organized the Liang people who had been placed around him into an army. By the time Liu Fan paid homage to Ba Ling, he had received many appointments. Forty thousand, although the force was still far inferior to the Shu army that surrounded Chang'an, it finally had the strength to fight. Therefore, Chen Chong finally prepared to send troops, aiming to regain Chang'an.
It's just that in any battle, the teacher must be famous. After all, if the name is not correct, the words will not be smooth, and if the words are not smooth, the things will not be accomplished. But now the word "name" has become Chen Chong's top priority in sending troops.
Generally speaking, King Qin is the best name for raising troops, but for Chen Chong, it is no longer available. Under Jia Xu's arrangement, although the emperor did not embarrass Chen Chong's family and his party members on a large scale, the emperor's edict refuting Chen Chong and Liu Bei as rebels and traitors had already spread throughout the three auxiliaries. It sounded too ridiculous to join the King's army as a traitor, and everyone in the army thought it was unacceptable.
Since King Qin failed, the other option was to fight against the rebels. After all, the Shu army was now the main enemy. First, denounce them as rebels, and then defeat them and win. In this way, the emperor's false accusations would be insignificant if he reestablished his power. Although it is used reluctantly, it is better than having no name, so Dong Yue, Hu Zhen and other Liang people like this name.
But Chen Chong was not satisfied. He objected and said: "To fight rebellion with rebellion is just to deceive oneself and others. In the final analysis, it is just to use power to suppress others. How is it different from the Shu people? The current military strength is not as good as that of the Shu people. How can we make the people want to ?”
Finally, he pondered for a long time and ordered Zhang Ji to make dozens of large flags, divided into two styles, one was a red background with a blue border of one foot, with the words "Advocating justice and peace of the people", and the other was a white background with a green border of one foot. A large banner with the message "Serve the public to fight the chaos".
Everyone was amazed when they saw these horoscopes, and talked privately: "Dragon Head does not talk about the officialdom, nor does he talk about obedience and disobedience, but only talks about calming chaos and calming the people. His public heart is really beyond reproach, but it seems that His Majesty is stingy."
After the flag and name were decided, Chen Chong officially sent out troops. At the same time, there was a letter sent as a reply to Liu Fan's previous letter. This was because he felt that the previous reply was too sloppy, so he wrote a special letter and sent it to Liu Fan as an envoy.
In the letter, Chen Chong recalled the past friendship between the two families and talked about Liu Yan's old kindness. He still called Liu Yan "Old Lord", showing great respect. He treated Liu Fan as his younger brother and still had great affection for him. meaning, but there is no mention of the upcoming battle between the two armies throughout the article.
What is even more strange is that Chen Chong elaborated at the end of the letter: "Confucius was wandering in the forest of curtains and resting on an apricot altar. His disciples were studying, and Confucius was singing on the strings and playing the harp. Before the music was halfway through, a fisherman got off the boat. Come, his eyebrows are white, his robes are straightened, he walks above the plain and stops far away from the land, with his left hand on his knees and his right hand holding his bow to listen. At the end of the song, he invites Zi Gong to ask questions. Knowing that Confucius was not good at all in his life, he laughs and is about to leave. . Confucius knew that he was extraordinary, pushed his harp and bowed in, and asked about the way. The Fisherman said: Benevolence is benevolence, but to be slandered by the four kinds of slanders in return for the destiny is contrary to its truth. "
After Liu Fan had read the book, he specially summoned the generals to the defense area for a military meeting. After everyone circulated this letter, many people were puzzled by its meaning. After discussing it in the end, they just felt that it basically meant that the destiny of the Shu army was false and they would not succeed. Dong Zhao even mentioned a rumor, saying that at the beginning of last year, it was said that Chen Chong also encountered a white deer in Kunming Pond. Unfortunately, he did not know whether it was true or not, and he obviously held this view.
Unexpectedly, Liu Fan laughed loudly and said: "Then you are wrong." Seeing everyone's confusion, he calmed down and continued to explain: "This is what Longshou gave to me more than ten years ago. His It means that it is difficult to hide your true nature. Although I claim that I will imitate Emperor Xiaowen and be a pure, filial and benevolent king, my true nature is not like this, so sooner or later I will reveal my flaws."
When he said this, he waved his hands slightly and sighed: "In the letter of Longshou, he compared me to Confucius, but compared himself to sages. It's really the same as before! He is humble on the outside but reserved on the inside. He wrote this letter specifically to let me know It’s hard to retreat!”
Only then did everyone suddenly realize. Zhang Song handed the letter back to Liu Fan, turned around and said to the generals: "Young Master has traveled thousands of miles through dangerous terrain, and has just experienced a shocking battle that could change the color of the world. It is the time to show off your wings. How could it be possible? Why retreat because of such a weak letter? Chen Longshou's reputation is great, but he has lost his foundation. How many troops can he bring out to fight with us just by relying on Chen Cang?" He was very worried about Chen Chong in his words. Contemptuous, all the generals also laughed in agreement.
However, Huang Quan still thought that Chen Chong should not be underestimated. He said: "I have heard about Chen Chong's reputation for a long time, and I have also kept a light on his military formations. His military formations are exquisite, no less than Wu Qi and Sun Bin in ancient times, and they are definitely not Lu Bu." How can it be judged based on the number of people if it can be compared? Moreover, Guanzhong is the place where Chen Chong has ruled for a long time, how can it be said that it has no foundation? A hero should not be treated with common sense. Have you forgotten that Xiang Ji despised Gaozu in the past? , don’t use Fan Zeng’s words, let Gaozu return to Hongmen, so that he will hate Wujiang. If we don’t stand up and wait, I’m afraid we will all be Chen Chong’s prisoners!”
As soon as these words came out, the generals were immediately speechless. After all, Huang Quan has always been famous for his knowledge of soldiers in the army and was highly valued by Liu Fan. Now he has made military exploits in Duanliuyuan. Therefore, although his words cannot convince everyone, they are hard to despise.
Liu Fan folded the letter in his hand and pinched it on his fingertips, and then slowly said to everyone: "There is a saying in "Six Tao": 'When you see the emptiness, advance; when you see the reality, stop.' It can be seen that the way to use troops is to know the emptiness and the reality and act. Although what you said is not unreasonable, I don't know whether Long Shou is true or not, so it's useless no matter how much you say." There was already a hint of irritability in his words.
Zhang Song immediately sensed his master's intention: Liu Fan's military strategy focused on planning before taking action. Now he was going to confront Chen Chong, which was obviously beyond his expectation, so he was not sure about it.
So he tried it out and said: "In that case, how about we postpone the siege for a while, retreat to Luo Valley, and let Chen Chong, the dragon, fight Lu Bu, the tiger first, and we wait and see what happens?"
This plan was indeed in line with Liu Fan's wishes. His eyes lit up, but then he realized that it was wrong. He shook his head and rejected it: "Although this plan is good, it is not feasible. Now I have a great victory, and everyone has lost it. How can Chen Chong and Lu Bu fight? Moreover, the soldiers have traveled across mountains and rivers and experienced hardships. Now that they have won a great victory, retreating without fighting will inevitably make the soldiers depressed."
Since we can't retreat, we have to shrink our troops first and find out whether Chen Chong is real or not. Liu Fan quickly made up his mind. Except for Huang Quan's task of recruiting counties to surrender under Feng Yi, the rest of the troops besieging Chang'an, such as Gao Pei, Liu Dan, Zhang Ren and others, led their troops back to Pingling to assemble. During the gathering, Liu Fan sent more than 10,000 guards to Zhang Song. On the one hand, he hoped that Zhang Song would stabilize his martial arts and prevent the results of the battle from being ruined. On the other hand, he also entrusted him with the task of investigating Chen Chong's reality in order to prepare for the next war.
Unexpectedly, after the meeting, Zhang Song and his troops had just arrived at Huaili when they suddenly received a letter asking for help from the martial arts defenders. The letter stated that Chen Chong had arrived at Wugong City the day before yesterday, and now there were large mounds of earth and archery towers surrounding the city. He must be attacking the city in the near future. He hoped that Zhang Song would lead his troops to rescue him as soon as possible.
At this time, there were more than 10,000 garrison troops in the city. The martial arts was not that of a small city, and the city had sufficient supplies and garrison supplies. According to Zhang Song's guess, with such a defense, even if Chen Chong had an army of 100,000, it would be difficult to defeat him quickly. Unexpectedly, the letter from his subordinates did not mention the strength of the troops under Chen Chong's tent, but it did hint that it would be difficult to hold on, which made him quite suspicious. But after careful consideration, there was no result, so I had to throw away distracting thoughts and quickly move towards martial arts.
The distance between Wugong and Huaili is only eighty miles, and the cavalry can reach it in half a day. However, the Shu army was mostly infantry and carried a lot of baggage, so they could not march quickly. In addition, Zhang Song did not know the details of martial arts and did not dare to rush to meet the enemy. Therefore, from the perspective of conserving physical strength, Zhang Song did not send scouts to find out the news. The army only advanced thirty miles on the first day.
That night, the first batch of scouts returned to the camp as scheduled. Before they had time to change their boots, Zhang Song recruited them into the camp and asked about the situation of martial arts and the number of Chen Chong's troops. The scouts answered truthfully: "The thieves are sieging the city three times." , the city is still being attacked at night, and it is really difficult for us to get close, so we can only watch from a distance. However, the lights of the camp are like waves, and the shouts are like thunder. It is estimated that the number of troops is no less than 100,000."
Zhang Song couldn't help being horrified when he heard this, and then stood up and rebuked in a cold voice: "What nonsense! More than a hundred thousand? Where can Chen Chong go to form a large army? If there are so many people, how dare Lu Bu raise an army to cause chaos!"
The scouts all trembled after being scolded, but they still did not change their words and insisted that there were more than 100,000 people in Wugong. Only then did Zhang Song become suspicious. The military situation was critical, so Zhang Song ignored the scouts and had just traveled hundreds of miles back and forth. Even though he was exhausted physically and mentally, he still ordered them to review the situation. When the scouts left the tent, they looked back and saw that the lights in the tent were flickering. Zhang Song was anxiously leaning on the eucalyptus, writing first-hand military information to Liu Fan.
After hastily changing the horses and water bags, drinking a bowl of millet porridge, and washing their faces with hot water, at midnight under the waning moon, the scouts once again approached the martial arts. There was no wind along the way, and there was no howl of wild beasts, but the air current from the running horses still made their cheeks numb and their ears red. These people were extremely anxious. After all, what they just reported was indeed what they saw with their own eyes, but their master did not trust him, which made them feel aggrieved. However, at the same time, Zhang Song's question was indeed difficult for them to answer. They could only run westward with the same question.
When the moon gradually disappeared in the Western Mountains, the scouts climbed to a plateau ten miles east of Dongzuoyuan to observe the movements of the Han army down there. Looking from a distance, it was still the same as last time, with lights all over the place like a sea of stars. But there was no way to respond, so they stayed there for more than an hour, until the orange-red sun rose slowly from the east, illuminating their view below the plateau.
There are many formal military tents in Yuanxia, but looking around, there are not many soldiers wearing armor and stomach. Instead, there are countless people wearing short clothes and linen clothes, scattered like cattle and sheep in the vast wilderness of Weibei. inside. They gathered around the Han army's tent and surrounded Wugong City, as if they were part of the army.
The scouts took off their armor and mixed in to inquire about the news, only to find that these people were local people in Fufeng who had volunteered to work in the army. When these Fufeng elders heard the news that Chen Chong had raised troops from Chencang, they immediately rushed to greet him with baskets of food and pots of food, but Chen Chong declined politely, so they helped to build mountains of earth. More than 100,000 people carried the mountains of earth together, and it took only one day. In a short period of time, the walls of Wugong City were filled in.
While the scouts were still exploring the news, they suddenly heard a tsunami of cheers. They looked towards the source of the sound and saw the gate of Wugong City suddenly opened, and countless red-clothed Han troops poured into Wugong City like a wave. Under the rising sun, two large flags written by Chen Chong were erected on the south gate tower by the Han soldiers. They were shining brightly and could not be looked at.
As the rangers in Wugong City revolted and successfully assassinated the Shu general Yang Huai who was defending the city, Chen Chong successfully captured Wugong City. At this time, only seven days had passed since Chen Chong sent troops from Chencang.
