For a period of time, Zhang Yan was very depressed.
He has been in the Taihang Mountains for more than ten years. When his team was at its strongest, he could deploy hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. Together with their families, old and young, the number could reach one million. His influence spread to Changshan, Zhaojun, and Zhongshan. , Shangdang, Hanoi and other places, and even became a force that even the court was afraid of.
It was during this period that Emperor Ling granted him the official position of Pingnan Zhonglang General in order to appease him, and also gave him the power to express his filial piety and integrity to the court.
You must know the background of the times under the control of the party. Even some big aristocratic families may not have this background. Zhang Yan has been involved to this extent, and he can be called the most successful mountain bandit.
Even though he was later defeated by Lu Bu, his vitality was severely damaged, and he had no choice but to shrink his sphere of influence to the Taihang Mountains, he still had nearly 30,000 tribesmen on hand, and including family members, old and young, there were still more than 100,000 people.
Over the years, except that he did not have the prosperity of Luoyang City in the Taihang Mountains, he was not much different from the king of a country within a country.
Because of this, he was unwilling to surrender to Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Lu Bu and others.
After all, no matter how high-ranking an official you are, there will be someone above you to check and balance you, but it is different in Taihang Mountain, he is the emperor.
However, he felt that he would probably say goodbye to this kind of life.
Because Cao Cao's man deliberately fell into Lu Bu's hands the letter he wrote to him, didn't he force himself to be at odds with Lu Bu?
Under this situation, the way to play both sides and watch the fire from the other side is completely blocked. There are only two ways in front of us now. Either continue to stay out of the matter. In the end, whether Cao Cao wins or Lu Bu wins, he will have to settle the score with his wife. There is no prerequisite for peace talks. .
Or, surrender to Cao now, and there is still a chance for mediation.
Compared with the price offered by Lu Bu, Cao Cao was obviously more generous. The envoy said that he could choose any of the two counties in the North as his base.
After some ideological struggle and discussions with Du Chang and other bandit leaders, they unanimously decided to support Cao Cao.
The prerequisite is not to be a pioneer, but to be a supporter. After all, the fear of being dominated by Fang Tian Huaji still lingers in Zhang Yan's heart like a nightmare to this day.
Having said that, Zhang Yan is still very depressed. After all, she went from being a local emperor to working under someone else's command. From then on, she just eats royal food and obeys orders.
I originally thought that such a depressed mood would last for a long time, but I never thought that just a few days later, Zhang Yan's mood would fly into the sky again like a roller coaster.
When the boys went down the mountain to plunder, they captured two girls who looked like gods.
This kind of thing happens from time to time, but the usual method is to hand it over to the small bandit leaders first in exchange for rewards such as food. As for how the captured girls are distributed, that is decided by the bandit leaders.
But with the beauty of the girl captured this time, even the bandits did not dare to try it, so they hurriedly sent it to Zhang Yan.
Zhang Yan took a look and said, oh, sisters, they are still so beautiful, not bad, let’s sleep with them.
At first, Zhang Yan just treated the sisters as beautiful vases and settled them down.
After all, during the years he had been the leader of the black bandits, there were not only thirty or forty women who belonged to him in the village, but there were no such beautiful women as these two sisters.
After a while, Zhang Yan's mood changed subtly.
Because he found that these sisters were really extraordinary. When they faced him, they were completely different from ordinary women. Those women who were caught on the mountain, even if they said complimentary words on their lips, they could not hide the fear in their eyes. .
When the sisters looked at Zhang Yan, their eyes were burning, full of love and admiration. This move was very effective for Zhang Yan.
He could capture hundreds or even thousands of women, and many would take the initiative to follow him, but no one would be as close to him as the two of them were, as if they recognized that he was their destiny.
In addition, the sisters are proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and their dancing skills can make people go soft. How could Zhang Yan withstand them?
In just four or five days, Zhang Yan was completely smitten, and she had the illusion that she did not love the country but the beauty.
It is not difficult to understand that the woman in the red sleeve move is not something ordinary men can resist. Chen Dengshang, who comes from a wealthy family in Xuzhou, cannot resist, let alone Zhang Yan, who is just a bandit.
Therefore, for these sisters, Zhang Yan almost always responds to their requests.
As for the two sisters, they have no other requirements. They just feel that they are from a famous family. Even if they want to marry Zhang Yan, they should have a happy wedding at least.
This request was certainly not excessive, and Zhang Yan agreed without any hesitation.
Although the total number of Black Mountain bandits and their families in the Taihang Mountains exceeds 100,000, they are all idiots, but no one would choose a good day.
In order to please the beauty, Zhang Yan even went down the mountain to catch a few gentlemen who knew this and went up the mountain to plan a good life.
At this time, one of the sisters smiled coyly and said: "Your Majesty, no need. I am not talented, but I am also proficient in the Book of Changes. March 15th is the best day in the first half of the year."
Zhang Yan slapped her thigh after hearing this, "Then it will be March 15th."
As a result, the Taihang Mountains became lively, and all the five villages in the Zhongshan area were decorated with festive hairpins in red, and they were full of joy.
For them, this is definitely a day more joyful than the Chinese New Year. General Zhang Yan of the Montenegrin Army is getting married, so they must make everyone happy.
During this period, Zhang Yan was able to get a lot of benefits from Lu Bu, Cao Cao, and even previous high-ranking officials, so he began to purchase wine and meat without hesitation.
Moreover, in order to make the young lady smile, Zhang Yan planned to allow everyone except those on patrol to drink freely on March 15th.
Of course, he also has crazy capital. Lu Bu and Yuan Xi are at odds with each other in Youzhou. On the other side of Bingzhou, Cao Cao has agreed to be a subordinate. They cannot attack him, so there is no need to be too cautious.
"Madam, what are you doing?" On the night of the tenth day of March, the sisters came to an open space in the village and fiddled with an object that Zhang Yan had never seen before.
"Your Majesty, this thing is called a prayer lamp. After it is lit, it can slowly rise into the sky. It is used by us sisters to pray for your Majesty. May God protect your Majesty."
The sisters' sweet answers made Zhang Yan feel warm in her heart. She really didn't hurt you two in vain, so she gave each of them a smack on their face to reward you.
"Ma'am, please don't joke. There are no flying lights in the world." Zhang Yan crossed her arms and kissed the perfect lady, then watched them both struggle.
"Your Majesty, just wait and see." The two girls smiled coyly, and the kids on the side couldn't help but swallow their saliva.
Zhang Yan also smiled, smiling happily, her eyes narrowed into a thin line.
He felt that God was really treating him well. He was already over 40 years old, yet he could still send two such caring and lovely people to him. How young he was.
After a while, the two girls set up the prayer lamp. As the kerosene in the bamboo basket below ignited, the gauze tent above began to fill with heat.
After another short while, the prayer lantern flew up unsteadily in front of everyone's astonished eyes.
"A miracle, a miracle, you can really fly!"
"Here, how does it fly without wings?"
"Could it be that the ladies know the magic of immortality?"
All of a sudden, people in the village swarmed in, pointing at the slowly flying prayer lanterns and marveling at them.
People who were a little farther away were so frightened that they hid because they didn't know what had happened. They thought they had seen a monster. More people were kneeling on the ground, kowtowing desperately for blessings.
Zhang Yan himself was stunned. The sisters said this thing could fly, so he just took it as a joke. After all, it was their good intentions, how could it damage this pure love?
But when he witnessed the prayer lamp flying higher and higher, he felt a storm in his heart. After all, he was a knowledgeable person, and he immediately had some ideas.
What did Zhang Jiao rely on to gather millions of Yellow Turbans in the first place?
A scroll of peace magic and two bowls of ghost-repelling talisman water are enough to summon people from all over the world to join in their service in a short period of time.
If you use this thing to attract people from the world, saying that it can understand the hearing of heaven, then what should you do?
I'm afraid its power is far greater than Zhang Jiao's Taiping Yaoshu, right?
After all, whether that thing is useful or not depends entirely on opening one's mouth, but this blessing lamp can really be seen by the world. How can this kind of impact be comparable to that of a big cake?
If I use it well, not only can I return to the peak of the Black Mountain Army, but what can even Cao Cao and Lu Bu do to me?
The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. He stepped forward and hugged the sisters, "You two are really my lucky stars!"
"Your Majesty, there are still five days before the wedding. The slave family is going to light a prayer lamp for Your Majesty every night and pray to God."
"Okay, okay, I, Zhang Yan, am so lucky to have such a good wife like you!"
Zhang Yan was really moved. During his more than ten years as a mountain bandit, he had brotherly love and awe-inspiring power around him, but there was no love between a man and a woman that moved his heart.
In the past, Zhang Yan even felt that women would only affect the speed at which he drew his sword.
Now, his heart is filled with only the word happiness.
This is a truly good wife, who not only makes me feel at ease, but also helps me achieve dominance.
"Look, that's the Marquis's Yunwen lantern!" At the foot of Taihang Mountain, a sergeant trapped in the camp exclaimed, pointing to the sky lantern that looked like a bright moon rising into the sky.
Immediately, the centurion behind him pushed a few people away, looked over, and said in surprise: "Great, we finally found it. Let's go to Ancheng and report to General Zhao immediately!"
"Here!"
After learning the news, Zhao Yun marked a circle on the silk cloth Lin Mo gave him, nodded and said: "Zhang Yan is indeed cautious. Wei Yue was here when he saw him before."
Zhao Yun pointed at the Taihang Mountains on the boundary of Changshan Mountain on the silk cloth, and then pointed at the marked circle, "Now he has moved almost a hundred miles. If Yunwen hadn't made arrangements in advance, how could he know his location."
"Marquis Lanling really has a plan." Wen Chou couldn't help sighing.
In the Northern Kingdom, Wen Chou believed that Tian Feng and Ju Shu were the top advisers, but most of their strategies were to come up with some solutions and countermeasures based on the opponent's situation.
But Lin Mo was like a game, planning in advance and calculating people's hearts, but he had never seen a situation where the other party could follow the path he designed step by step.
Of course Zhao Yun had seen too much, but this was the first time Yan Liangwen Chou saw Lin Mo die in person, and he couldn't help but be speechless for a moment.
You know, Zhang Yan is a tough nut to crack. Even the two brothers joined forces and brought tens of thousands of troops, but they couldn't take down this black bandit in the Taihang Mountains.
Now, Lin Mo made a little move and locked Zhang Yan's position. The most important thing was that the enemy was clear and we were hidden. The other party had no idea how many turbulent undercurrents were hidden behind the sky lantern.
No wonder Marquis Wen is as prosperous as he is today. Even the Northern Kingdom was captured in a snap. He is really a monster.
On March 15th, with Zhang Yan's village as the center in the Taihang Mountains, the five nearby villages were festively decorated with red flowers and Chinese characters. Except for the lack of firecrackers, it was a sea of people, red flags waving, and gongs and drums. Noisy.
Zhang Yan tied a large cut-out red flower on her chest, holding her hijab-covered sisters with both hands, smiling from ear to ear.
The festive gongs and drums were beaten from morning till night. No one knew how much wine Zhang Yan drank on this day. All they knew was that he accepted everyone who came.
Men are always willing to prove that they are excellent in a self-righteous way in front of the woman they love.
These two sisters are proficient in all kinds of music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and they come from a famous family. What can Zhang Yan do to improve her image?
He is called the general of the Montenegrin Army, but he knows in his heart that these are just a mob in the eyes of celebrities.
After thinking about it, I decided to refresh my sense of existence with the heroic spirit of not getting drunk after a thousand cups.
After drinking and getting drunk, he dragged the bandit leader who was going to patrol the sentinel and didn't let him go. He wanted to declare his happiness to everyone.
By this time of Haishi, the festive sound of gongs and drums could no longer be heard, because those who played the gongs and drums gathered together to drink.
In fact, the life of bandits is not as rich as imagined, because they do not have enough food for one person and the whole family is not hungry, but also have to take care of the food of the family. Sometimes they encounter local army defense and resistance, and there is no harvest in plundering. At this time, Still have to go hungry.
Therefore, no one is willing to let go of this opportunity to eat and drink.
At midnight, it was not clear what happened to the nearby cottages, but in the cottage where Zhang Yan was, there were only a handful of people who could still stand and talk. There were 3,000 people, and almost all of them had collapsed.
Even the bandits who were sentrying openly and secretly at several places on the mountainside fell asleep leaning against a crooked-necked tree.
When Chou arrived, Zhao Yun, Yan Liang and Wen Chou led the 800 camp to climb the mountain, but it went smoothly.
"Isn't this a scam?" Wen Chou even thought that Zhang Yan was playing a trick, right?
"Not to mention Zhang Yan, even Cao Cao and Sun Ce are Yunwen's playthings." Zhao Yun had absolute confidence in Lin Mo. He did not believe that Zhang Yan could have such a mind.
Although, he also felt that something was not right in his heart. The defense was too lax, and he was even ready to forcefully charge into the mountain.
They were almost at the top of the mountain when they finally met a group of people who shouted at them, "Who are they? Password!"
Yan Liang took a look. Although it was pitch dark, after getting familiar with the dark environment through the faint moonlight, he could still tell that the opponent was a standard military team of fifty people.
"Good guy."
Yan Liang's witty words did not make the other party laugh. The bandits, who had drank but were not completely drunk, looked at each other and shouted again: "Password!"
"There is a password, I'll come over and tell you."
Yan Liang smiled and moved closer, then waved the golden-backed knife in his hand. A cold light flashed through the bandits' astonished eyes. The leader's head rolled so far away that they didn't even react.
But the trapped camp behind Yan Liang was not in a daze. He waved his butcher knife and started to kill.
"Enemy attack! Run! It's an enemy attack!" The bandits who finally reacted began to flee. Some of them ran towards the stronghold, and some ran in the opposite direction.
Relying on his familiarity with the terrain and the fact that he couldn't run fast even though he was trapped in heavy armor, he was able to run away in a short time.
"Quick! Don't run away Zhang Yan!" Seeing this, Zhao Yun urged everyone to speed up.
"Get up quickly! Get up, everyone. An enemy is coming up the mountain. The king's team has been killed. Get up quickly!" The bandit who ran back to the stronghold grabbed the gong and beat it desperately.
The bandits who were lying scattered in the stockade cursed impatiently: "Stop making noise!"
A few people stood up sporadically. Their minds were confused. They probably understood what they meant, but they were so powerless that they couldn't even walk steadily, let alone hold weapons.
The bandit ran to report Zhang Yan, but Zhang Yan was even more drunk. Not to mention the sound of gongs and drums, stabbing him twice at this time would probably not have any reaction.
In despair, he simply abandoned the stronghold and fled.
Zhao Yun, who rushed into the stronghold, couldn't help laughing when he saw this scene. Wen Chou's worried heart also relaxed. It seemed that it was not an ambush.
"You guys stay outside, brothers, let's go in and find Zhang Yan!" After Zhao Yun issued the military order, the trapped camp quickly took action.
They did not take action against the unconscious bandits, but stood in a group of fifty people in a wide field of view to lock down these people and prevent bandits from coming in from the outside.
"General Zhao, here!" Zhao Yun only found five or six village halls when he saw a man in red waving to him.
The three of them rushed over quickly and kicked open the door. They saw that Zhang Yan was completely drunk and another girl was beside him.
Yan Liang and Wen Chou even took an oil lamp and went over to see clearly that face. It was indeed Zhang Yan. Then the two brothers looked at each other. Yan Liang said calmly: "This lord can't defeat Zhang Yan after six or seven years of fighting. That's it." Is it easy to be dealt with by Marquis Lanling?"
They feel as if they are dreaming. Is this a bit too childish?
"Marquis Lanling, it's too easy to earn military merit by following him in the war."
Wen Chou laughed speciously, then looked at Zhao Yun and asked, "What should we do next? Take him down the mountain?"
After all, there were so many people who ran away just now. If all the bandits in the surrounding areas were gathered together, there would be tens of thousands of people. It would be impossible for these few hundred people to stop them.
Even if the three of them don't have war horses now, they won't get much benefit.
"No need."
Zhao Yun leaned against the door frame and said softly: "Zhang Yan is in our hands. Others dare not move rashly. Just wait. When he wakes up, there are still things for him to do."
Yan Liang, Wen Chou looked at each other and nodded understandingly, "Then, we'll go out and guard."
This place was handed over to Zhao Yun, and the two brothers went out to join the camp to prevent the bandits from getting reinforcements.
However, seeing how drunk they were, they probably wouldn't be able to wake Zhang Yan up until dawn.
Five thousand words, one chapter
(End of chapter)
