The development of the war for more than a month was pretty much what Zhang Heng expected.
There is no problem with this, but the problem is now that Dong Zhuo is about to withdraw from the army, how to keep him.
In the last battle outside the city, the princes of Guandong were defeated miserably, and in the end only tens of thousands of tribesmen fled back. After more than a month of bloody battles, there are now even fewer soldiers available under his command, less than 30,000.
The frightened princes of Guandong are naturally unable to use them, so since this month, the main force defending the city has been Liu Bei and Sun Jian's soldiers, as well as Cao Cao's assistance.
When Zhang Heng left, Liu Bei had about 25,000 troops and horses, but now there are only 20,000 left. And Sun Jian's 15,000 people also had less than 12,000 people left.
Of course, Dong Zhuo also suffered a lot from causing such heavy casualties to the coalition forces. Of the 70,000 Xiliang cavalry, there are now only more than 50,000 left, and they are all extremely tired.
The most important thing is that after the entire battle, too many senior generals of the Xiliang Army were killed or injured.
Niu Fu, Li Meng, Guo Si, Wang Fang, Fan Chou and a large number of generals who had fought with Dong Zhuo for many years were all killed in the battle. Now only Li Jue, Zhang Ji and Lu Bu are still useful under Dong Zhuo's command.
Seeing that the morale of his soldiers was low, Dong Zhuo decided to lead the army to return Luo and rest first.
He wanted to rest, but Zhang Heng wanted to keep him.
It stands to reason that since the war has reached this point, it would be best for both sides to just stop.
But Zhang Heng had his own considerations.
The military has always served politics. In the past, the two sides won and lost each other, but now they are in a stalemate. If we stop here, it’s hard to say who will win and who will lose. If nothing is done like this, it will not add prestige to Liu Bei's camp, let alone take over a state in a logical way!
It is naturally unrealistic to kill Dong Zhuo in this battle, but Zhang Heng still wants the credit of a big victory to increase his power, so he still has to fight this battle.
Not only must he be beaten, but he must be beaten to hurt Dong Zhuo!
After pondering for a moment, Zhang Heng asked: "Mr. Xuande, what is the attitude of the princes in the city now?"
"Them?" Liu Bei couldn't help snorting when he heard this, "They have been frightened for a long time and have been hoping that the Dong thief will retreat."
Compared with Dong Zhuo's loss of troops and generals, the Kwantung princes were actually even worse.
When the jujube came out, there were seven princes and an army of 150,000. Now there are only 30,000 soldiers and horses left, and even Bao Xin and Zhang Chao, who were princes on one side, died in the battle.
Now the remaining princes all want to end this battle quickly so that they can go back to accumulate strength and make up for what they lost before.
Zhang Heng immediately said coldly: "Then ignore them, we will send troops on our own. I just don't know what Sun Wentai and Cao Mengde's plans are, and whether they are willing to send troops to continue fighting against Dong's thieves."
Liu Bei replied: "I should be willing. Cao Mengde, as a loyal minister of our Han family, will naturally not back down. And Sun Wentai had already wanted to go out to fight, but the princes tried to dissuade him one after another, so he was unable to do so."
"In that case, Xuande Gong might as well pay them a visit later and invite them to go out of the city to fight the Dong thief tomorrow." Zhang Heng said with a smile.
In this way, it can be considered helpful.
"Okay." Liu Bei nodded.
"Besides, doesn't Thief Dong like to write a gauntlet? Let's also give him a gauntlet and invite him to a decisive battle outside the city. Let's see if he dares to come."
Speaking of this, Zhang Heng suddenly remembered that the princes were invited to go out to the city to fight Dong Zhuo, but in the end they were defeated and returned, and he couldn't help laughing.
Liu Bei also smiled and nodded again.
At this time, Zhang Fei, who had been immersed in drinking, suddenly jumped up.
"Ziyi, are we going to go out of the city and have a head-on battle with the Dong thief?"
Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and said a little strangely: "Why, Yide is afraid?"
"Of course I'm not afraid." Zhang Fei argued quickly, "It's just that the Xiliang army is really difficult to deal with. A head-on confrontation will inevitably lead to heavy casualties. So I was thinking, Ziyi, can you come up with a good strategy, just like the last time we were in the water?" Just like Yan Niufu, let’s give Thief Dong a hot pot!”
Looking at Zhang Fei who wanted to take shortcuts, Zhang Heng couldn't help but sigh.
Good guy, if you say there is a clever plan, then there is a clever plan. I am not a god.
The last time Niu Fu was able to be flooded was purely because he caught up with the opening of the Yellow River. Coupled with the result of his careful design, it can be said that the right time, place and people are indispensable. How can it be so easy to repeat?
Dong Zhuo has already suffered a loss and is now as stable as an old dog. There are so many opportunistic opportunities in a plain field battle.
"First send out troops to test the situation and see what percentage of the Xiliang army's current combat strength is left." Zhang Heng thought for a while and replied.
Time has passed and everything in this world is constantly changing. If Dong Zhuo is not mobilized first, how can we find an opportunity to take advantage of him?
"That's fine. I've only been focused on defense for the past month. It's really frustrating. Whether it's a trial or a decisive battle, I have to be the vanguard tomorrow. You must not compete with me!"
Zhang Fei laughed at the generals.
Seeing that no one had any objections, Liu Bei stood up and made the final summary.
"Since the last war, I haven't had a confrontation with Thief Dong for more than a month. Now it's time to test his quality. Ziyi, please write a letter of challenge and invite Thief Dong to a decisive battle tomorrow!"
"As you command!"
Zhang Heng quickly stood up and cupped his hands.
Liu Bei looked around again and said loudly: "Generals, obey the order!"
Hearing this, everyone looked solemn and stood up quickly.
"Tomorrow we will fight the Dong thief. Don't neglect it. Everyone will return to camp later and assemble the army to prepare for war!"
"As you command!"
Everyone responded in unison.
Liu Bei immediately strode out to find Sun Jian and Cao Cao to discuss raising an army.
As for Zhang Heng, he invited Xun You and Guo Jia to his tent.
"Which one of you will write the declaration of war with Thief Dong?"
Zhang Heng picked up the pen and paper and smiled at the two of them.
Now that he has people under him, Zhang Heng can naturally be lazy and will never do anything himself.
Guo Jia looked disgusted and quickly shook his head.
Seeing this, Xun You reached out and took the pen from Zhang Heng's hand.
"Come down, I just don't know how to word it?"
This is not easy, just poke Dong Zhuo where it hurts!
Zhang Heng said with a smile: "This is easy. Didn't Gongda just kill Dong's brother in Luoyang and kidnap Dong's granddaughter? Just write about it."
"This..." Xun You looked stunned and said hesitantly, "Master Secretary, is it a bit disrespectful to write like this?"
In such a formal written exchange, even if they have a grudge against killing their father, they can't be so mean-spirited.
Zhang Heng waved his sleeves and said, "If there's anything bad to say, just write it like this."
Dong Zhuo is ready to retreat. If you don't provoke him, what if he doesn't dare to fight?
Furthermore, the sages have said: shoot a man first, shoot a horse first, curse a man first, scold your mother first!
Even if you don’t understand this truth, it’s useless for you to think that Xun Gongda is still a famous person today.
So, in Zhang Heng's contemptuous eyes, Xun You had no choice but to write a letter of challenge in a cold sweat, and then handed it to Zhang Heng.
Zhang Heng took it and looked at it, and immediately said dissatisfied: "No, the words are not sharp enough, rewrite!"
"this……"
Xun You had no choice but to write another letter, but this time the wording was a bit lax.
Unfortunately, Zhang Heng was still not satisfied and was asked to rewrite it again.
Now Xun You could only break the jar and wrote another letter using the words Zhang Heng expected.
After reading it, Zhang Heng smiled and gave Xun You a thumbs up.
"Gongda is so talented!"
At this moment, Xun You just wanted to cover his face and find a crack in the ground to crawl in.
Master, please stop talking, but you must not let the world know that I wrote this letter of challenge, otherwise I am afraid I will never be able to see anyone again.
The reason why he was so ashamed was because the content of the letter was really simple and crude, and he emphasized two sentences over and over again.
The first sentence: Dong Zhuo, your brother died miserably in Luoyang!
The second sentence: Dong Zhuo, your granddaughter was captured by me, very lucky!
