Le Jin was very puzzled after reading the secret letter and had no idea what Cao Cao meant by such an arrangement.
Zhang Liao was sophisticated and tactful and good at observing people's emotions. Although he fought bravely after joining Cao Cao, he liked to show compliments in front of Cao Cao, especially in the battle of Bailang Mountain.
On the way to conquer Wuhuan, Cao Cao encountered Wuhuan's Tadun army. At that time, because the vehicles transporting supplies were behind him, many of the vanguards of the front army did not have armor. In addition, the disparity in strength made him fearful. The counselors all advised to hold on and wait for reinforcements. Zhang Liao asked for battle without fear.
Cao Cao climbed up and saw from a distance that Tadun's army was in disarray. Knowing that the enemy had not expected to meet him here, he handed the flag to Zhang Liao and asked him to command the vanguard troops to charge with Zhang He.
Cao Cao was worried about Zhang Liao and Zhang He's failure, so he sent Cao Chun to lead the tiger and leopard cavalry to assist in the battle. The Wuhuan army rushed to respond and was attacked by Cao's army and disrupted their formation. Wuhuan King Tadun was killed by the tiger and leopard cavalry in the chaos. In the end, the Battle of Bailang Mountain The battle ended with Wuhuan's defeat and surrender.
After Zhang Liao's victory, he did not boast of his own merits. He repeatedly emphasized that Cao Cao used his troops well and commanded them properly. In the end, Cao Cao's boss regarded him as the first to defeat Wuhuan, and Cao Chun's tiger and leopard cavalry beheaded Tadun was weakened.
Le Jin followed Cao Cao from a very early age. He was often the first to fight and risked his own life. However, he was not as popular with Cao Cao as Zhang Liao, who had high emotional intelligence. Many people in the army suffered from jealousy and hatred.
Li Dian was elegant and elder-like, but the rift between him and Zhang Liao became even greater.
Li Dian was born in the Li family of the Yanzhou gentry, and had thousands of diners in the Cheng family. Because the Yanzhou gentry rebelled against Cao Cao and took refuge with Lu Bu in his early years, it was destined that the Yanzhou gentry could not be reused, especially those with military power would be jealous of Cao Cao.
Cheng Yu, a counselor in Yanzhou, resigned from his military power and took the initiative to stay with Cao Cao to advise on military affairs. Li Dian, who was also born in the Yanzhou noble family, was responsible for the transportation of logistics supplies all year round. Although he was resourceful, he was destined to have no chance to make the decision.
When the Yanzhou gentry welcomed Lü Bu and rebelled against Cao Cao, Li Dian's father Li Qian refused Lü Bu's recruitment and was killed. Zhang Liao served as a general under Lü Bu at the beginning.
Not only were Li Dian and Zhang Liao jealous, they also blamed Zhang Liao for their father's family feud.
Zhang Liao read the secret letter and pondered for a moment, then stood up and said to Le Jin: "Since it is the Lord's order, please ask Wen Qian to take on the important task of defending the city. Xue Hujun and I will go find Mancheng right now."
"It is better to let Xue Hujun and Mancheng defend the city, while Wen Yuan and I go out to defend the enemy." Le Jin suggested.
"We must obey the Lord's order." Zhang Liao shook his head with firm eyes, and then went out with Xue Ti to find Li Dian.
Zhang Liao and Xue Ti walked to Li Dian's room and saw Li Dian reading through the crack in the door. Xue Ti then coughed softly to alert the people in the room.
Li Dian recognized Xue Ti's voice. He quickly turned over and lay down on the couch. Then he pretended to be lazy and asked, "Who is that outside the house?"
"Mancheng, it's me." Zhang Liao saved enough face for the other party, then opened the door and walked in with Xue Ti.
"What's the matter with General Zhang?"
As soon as Li Dian finished speaking, Xue Ti handed over the secret letter, "This is the Lord's order. Wenyuan has handed over the city defense to Wen Qian. You can take a look first."
"I'm not feeling well. If I want to go out of the city with General Zhang, I'm afraid..." Li Dian hesitated.
"Hefei's life or death depends on these two generals. You two need to put aside your past grudges. I won't interrupt you after the order is delivered. I'll say goodbye." Xue Ti couldn't help but clasp his fists and retreated.
Originally, Zhang Liao planned to take advantage of Sun Quan's unstable foothold and use a death squad to catch him off guard tomorrow morning. Zhang Liao looked at Li Dian pretending to be sick on the bed and pondered for a long time, not knowing what to say.
"I think General Zhang is very confident, so why not tell him the battle plan? The battle of Hefei is related to national affairs. If possible, Li Dian will not abandon public service for personal reasons."
Zhang Liao nodded and sat on the edge of the couch, and then said eloquently: "Sun Quan has come from far away with a large number of troops, and they may not be able to assemble them all tonight. I want to select elite soldiers and dead soldiers tonight, and tomorrow I will join the battle to kill the enemy and weaken their spirit. If they can gain a firm foothold, Then Hefei is in danger."
Li Dian frowned: "The troops in Jiangdong are quite large, and there are only 7,000 defenders in Hefei. I wonder how many people the general will bring?"
"If the number of people is too small, it is easy for a sheep to fall into a tiger's mouth. I plan to control it to less than a thousand people." Zhang Liao's eyes were extremely determined.
Li Dian mistakenly thought that the other party was going to bring most of the defenders, and he had already thought out his words in advance and prepared a rebuttal. When he heard that Zhang Liao would control the attack within a thousand men, Li Dian couldn't help but admire his courage.
Thinking that Zhang Liao had put aside his past grudges and devoted himself to serving the country, he tore off the linen cloth on his forehead, sat upright, clasped his fists and said, "Li Dian will obey General Zhang's orders."
Upon seeing this, Zhang Liao nodded with satisfaction, and then discussed the specific combat deployment with Li Dian. Zhang Liao was mainly responsible for leading the dead soldiers into the battle, and Li Dian was responsible for supporting him to break out of the encirclement.
In the evening, Zhang Liao selected 800 dead soldiers from the 7,000 defenders, and then slaughtered cattle and sheep and bought wine to embolden these dead soldiers.
The next day, when the east was just white, Zhang Liao put on his armor, mounted his horse, gathered his troops, and led eight hundred dead soldiers to the Jiangdong camp.
Sun Quan took advantage of Cao Cao's westward expedition to Hanzhong and left Jianghuai empty, and decisively decided to attack Hefei. In addition to deploying soldiers stationed across Jiangdong, he also deployed Lusu's soldiers in Lukou, and He Qi's troops in Poyang to quell Shanyue's rebellion, with a total force of 100,000.
The generals who accompanied Sun Quan on the expedition included Lu Meng, Chen Wu, Han Dang, Zhou Tai, Pan Zhang, Song Qian, Xu Sheng, Ding Feng, Jiang Qin, He Qi, etc. They were almost Jiangdong's all-star lineup.
Jiangdong adopted a private army system. Although these 100,000 people were uniformly under the command of Sun Quan, the specific deployment had to rely on the private army generals. The only soldiers and horses that truly listened to Sun Quan's independent command were the thousands of tiger soldiers who were in charge of the guards.
One hundred thousand troops arrived in Hefei by boat. After landing in Shishui, they rode for dozens of miles, and finally set up camp and built a fortress twenty miles outside the city.
On the eve of Cao Jun's morning raid, Sun Quan's 100,000-strong army had not yet completed its assembly.
Sun Quan was still sleeping soundly in the camp, and the soldiers who had gotten up earlier were preparing to bury pots and make rice. Suddenly, there were loud shouts of killing outside the camp. Sun Quan was so startled that he jumped up from his bed in a panic.
Zhang Liao took the lead and rushed into the Wu camp and killed dozens of Jiangdong soldiers who were on guard.
"Zhang Liao of Yanmen is here, and the rats from Jiangdong are coming to die soon." He announced his home address while running, and then led eight hundred soldiers to rush into the enemy camp as if they were in an uninhabited country.
Sun Quan put on his robes and walked out of the tent. He met Lu Meng and Jiang Qin who were rushing over. He asked in a panic: "Who broke into my camp? How many troops are there?"
"It's the enemy general Zhang Liao, and the troops he leads are unknown." Lu Meng shook his head and answered.
Zhang Liaohu entered the flock, and he ran straight to the position where Sun Quan's coach was commanding the flag.
"No, Zhang Liao intends to command the flag. If the commander's flag is broken and the army is in trouble, who will stand in my way?" Sun Quan shouted.
"Lord, General Chen Wu has gone." The guard outside reported urgently.
Lu Meng saw Sun Quan's worried look on his face and quickly comforted him: "Chen Zilie is a tiger general in the Jianghuai River and can definitely kill Zhang Liao."
