One hour after Hu Feng was killed, as the sun was to the west, the battlefield in front of Wuzhangyuan camp was finally roughly cleaned.

Previously, Hu Feng led his troops out of the city at the early morning of the morning, and the water and land transport was forty miles. It was already noon when the war started. The battle lasted for another hour. It was almost dark after cleaning the battlefield.

The broken walls and damaged pits had no time to repair them. Xu Huang just took a comprehensive inventory of the results. After attacking the camp, there were more than 400 prisoners who surrendered and were captured. There were five or six hundred prisoners captured in the subsequent pursuit, which totaled one thousand.

The enemy's casualties were also very heavy. There were as many as seven or eight hundred people who were shot in intensively during the attack. On the contrary, there were only more than two hundred people killed and injured in melee hand-to-hand combat. Then the entire army collapsed due to Fazheng's efforts, and some were killed and injured in the pursuit.

In the end, hundreds of people trampled and drowned due to the congestion and crossing the Wei River to the north.

Some even climbed the side of the ship and wanted to get on the boat, but were afraid of overloading and capsizing, so they chopped off their fingers and fell into the river and died.

It can only be said that there are too many examples of catching ships and avoiding arrows by the Wei River, slashing comrades' fingers, which makes military strategists who understand history have to wonder if this river has a curse. This example happened in history when Li Jue and Guo Si chased Emperor Xian of Han, and later when Ma Chao chased Cao Cao, it was Fazheng's turn to mow grass and brush his experience in this life.

The reason why this battle was so successful was that in addition to the general's command, martial arts, quality and equipment, the most important thing was that Fa Zheng was too familiar with the local terrain. It was obviously a away game, but he knew the geography better than General Li Jue, who was fighting at home.

But he lost a battle with Liu Bei last year, which also relaxed the enemy's vigilance against Fazheng's command ability and the ability to use the geography, and thus underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly.

Some people may say: Chang'an officers who participated in this battle have lived in Mei County for at least one or two years? How could they not be familiar with Wuzhangyuan and Weinan terrain?

Locals who have lived for one or two years are indeed familiar with each other, but can they compare with those who have lived here for more than fifteen years since childhood? This is like one is a college student who went to another place to study, while the other is living there all his life, and only went to another place to study in college. That is definitely the latter who is more familiar with it.

...

After counting the results of the battle, Xu Huang discussed with Fa Zheng: "There are about 5,000 enemies this time. I think it would be good if I can escape back to Mei County in the end. These soldiers are not trained, and their morale and military discipline are not good either. I asked the prisoners, and many of them were in the army for less than a year.

They were defeated so badly in this battle that they might take the opportunity to flee back to their hometowns and return to their farming. What plans do our army plan to continue to collect food and grass in Weinan? However, the Weinan villages within twenty miles of the surrounding area have basically been collected. If there are more, they can only plunder the people's winter food rations, which is probably a detriment to the military's authority."

Fa Zheng was quite satisfied with the result: "At most, two thousand can only escape back? That's very good. I guess the number of troops in Mei County was less than 10,000. It was still the place where it was the Baoxie Road intersection, which was a military key, just in case it was stationed. Ordinary small counties may have only a few hundred to more than 1,000 defenders.

When Hu Feng was defeated, there were definitely less than 5,000 people left in Ji County. After our army recruited the prisoners, it was absolutely fine to withdraw 2,000 people to fight. More importantly, the prisoners said that Hu Feng was a confidant who was deeply trusted by Li Jue.

The county magistrates, county magistrates, and even the Qujunhous stationed in the county should be locals, not from the direct lineage of the Xiliang Army. Hu Feng was accidentally killed by us, so they were not worried that Li Jue would be punished? I think, I can try to surrender some people. If it succeeds, it will be better than searching for food and fodder between the countryside and consolidating the frontier camps."

Xu Huang was shocked when he heard this: "You are going to take the risk to occupy Mei County? This... Faduwei, I know that your family is a prominent family in Mei County, and I don't doubt your persuasion and face. But first, you cannot personally take risks and persuade them;

Secondly, even if the persuasion is successful, now... it is still a long time before our army's full-scale northern expedition, and you cannot defend the Mei County. At least this place is still the exit of the plank road, with Taibai Mountain and even Baozhong reinforcements. Even if the road is difficult to walk, there is no way out.

If you arrive at Mei County, it will be the north bank of the Wei River. If you want to retreat, you will have to cross the Wei River and Wugong River, and the straight line is thirty miles away. Li Jue's revenge army will arrive in two or three days. At that time, he will be surrounded by Mei County, and it will be a turtle in a jar."

Fa Zheng smiled slightly: "I just said to give it a try and add more chaos to Li Jue, and did not say that I would occupy Mei County. I am responsible for it. Even if I convinced it successfully, it is nothing more than promises that the officials of Mei County will "successfully maintain their original positions in the future" and ask them to bring money and grain from the treasury in the city to invest.

We will plunder all the grain stored in the city, stockpile it in this Wuzhangyuan, or divide the three holes of the cunning rabbit into Taibai Mountain. Then we will withdraw immediately, and we will not wait for Li Jue to besiege him."

Fa Zheng had never discussed this idea with anyone before the war. Not only Li Su, who was far away in Chengdu, could not know, but even Lu Su of Nanzheng. After all, no one could have thought in advance that Fa Zheng could kill Hu Feng with just over a thousand people, nor did he think that Li Jue's extermination battle would become a tactic of fuel.

But who made Fa Zheng a little bit of a risky person and always made strange plans - of course, Fa Zheng's curious plan is different from Wei Yan's curious plan.

Wei Yan plays a lot of money and profits. Fa Zheng means that the chips you pay are very small, and you can't lose much money if you lose bets.

After all, how much does a counter-espionage plan cost? Just send a letter and a little bribe, and send a talkable dead room.

"Anyway, there is not much loss if you don't succeed. Why not try it? Don't worry, I'll think about it again tonight. I'll make a decision at the latest tomorrow." Fa Zheng Rushi analyzed, patted Xu Huang's shoulder, and Xu Huang stopped thinking about it.

After dinner, Xu Huang continued to lead his troops to strengthen and restore the camp, cut down trees and find stones again, collect dead grass branches to make firewood balls.

Fa Zheng was indeed very diligent. He continued to investigate and torture the prisoners overnight, inquire about the enemy's military situation, and at the same time improved his letter of persuasion to surrender, and thought about "how to use the plan of persuasion to surrender so as not to expose the lord's formal plan of the Northern Expedition at the beginning of next year."

This confidentiality work not only involves the location and route of the Northern Expedition, but also involves the specific date of the Northern Expedition. Both must be kept confidential, and the others must serve these two points.

The isolation and investigation were late at night, and Fa Zheng really gained a lot - because among the prisoners, there were two officers at the level of Qu Junhou under Hu Feng, who fully knew the military secrets of the military army in Mei County.

First of all, Fa Zheng heard that the Magistrate of Mei County sent an emergency messenger to Chen Cang and Chang'an at the same time. The messenger who went to Chang'an brought back Hu Feng, while the messenger who went to Chen Cang brought back "Zhang Jiyi was in a fierce battle with Han Sui, and he needed to cooperate with Guo Si to attack Han Sui. At a critical moment, he could not reinforce Mei County."

This information is too important. Not only did Fa Zheng know that Zhang Ji really couldn't come, but he even told all the reasons - he could only blame the disunity within the Xiliang army. Therefore, the reason for "refusing to reinforce friendly forces" must be explained very in detail to avoid being suspicious of friendly forces.

If Liu Bei's army was put into Liu Bei's army, he would not have to explain so much. The king would have a conclusion on his merits and demerits in the end, so how could he take such a merit and demerit?

So, Fa Zheng not only knew Zhang Ji's movements, but also knew that Guo Si was also far away. Now he only had to worry about Li Jie's family.

Secondly, from the captured Qu Junhou, Fa Zheng also asked about the military dynamics in some surrounding areas, including Qi County, 150 miles north of Mei County, where more than 10,000 people from Yang Ding besieged a Ma Teng army in the city.

The head general of the Ma Teng army who was surrounded was named Ma Chao. He was a young man with no military achievements. He had a scale of thousands. The more specific situation was not clear about the prisoners under Hu Feng.

"Although Ma Chao's military achievements are not obvious and he is young and knowledgeable, he heard that he is Ma Teng's eldest son and must be highly valued. How could he appear here? If Ma Teng's army wants to enter Anding, he can only walk Jieting and Huating cross Longshan.

I guess I was hit by the enemy's plan and cut off my back route. Is it that I bumped into Qi County? It must be all the cavalry of the entire army, otherwise there would not be such a high mobility and so far. Such a unit is also a scheming force. It would be great if I could provide some help and let them use it for our army...

Just how to contact them? Forget it, don’t think about it for the time being, do our own business. Anyway, the king will be punished in full in early February next year. In the worst case, Ma Chao stayed in Qi County and stayed until the beginning of next spring, and waited for our army to accept it before surrendering."

Fa Zheng first reserved some computing power in his heart, and then began to persuade officials in Ji County to surrender.

That night, he combined the clues and information at hand and wrote a letter of half persuasion and half intimidation in the second night. Then, he handed it to a close friend beside him before dawn, and asked Xu Huang to send a small group of cavalry guards to gather two small boats to deliver the letter to Mei County.

The messenger also had a surname of Fa, who was in his thirties, but he was not his original surname, but his family's slave. He worked as a servant for Fazheng's father Fayan, and later stayed with Fazheng as a clerk. He sent a dangerous job of surrendering, which could be killed, and of course he could not go there in person.

After sending the messenger, Fa Zheng asked Xu Huang to send a few fast horse scouts to search in Qi County. It is best to know more about Ma Chao's movements. It doesn't matter if there is no gain. Return immediately. Safety and preservation of strength are the most important.

Because I went to Mei County from Wuzhangyuan to go down the Wei River, it was safe to sail in the dark. When the city gate opened at dawn, I arrived at the city.

All the guards stayed far outside the city. The messenger bribed the gatekeeper with a lot of money and said that he could tie him up and go directly to meet the county magistrate.

Seeing that he was so blatant and had several horseshoe gold ingots to take money, the gatekeeper was not afraid of him playing tricks, so he tied them up and sent them directly to the county government with the letter cage.

The current magistrate of Ji County, surnamed Zhao, named Zhao Yi, is a native of Youfufeng County, but is not from Ji County.

The messenger was only loosened after he arrived at the county government office. Then, in front of Zhao Yi and his personal guards, he opened the letter cage and took out the letters, some property, and a wrapped head.

"This is the head of the Chief Hu, and the Chief Zhao County should be familiar with him? You saw him yesterday morning. Thank you for your cooperation in luring the enemy and letting him underestimate the enemy to attack the Wuzhangyuan camp of my Faduwei. Only then can my Faduwei wipe out his army and capture the head. When Li Jue's main force comes, I wonder what will the Chief Zhao County will be dealt with?"

"What? Are you not afraid of death?" The moment Magistrate Zhao saw the heads rolling out, he was stunned. He had no idea of ​​this possibility at all. Moreover, the facts proved that Hu Feng's defeated scattered soldiers and scattered soldiers did go slowly. Most of them probably fled and did not return to Mei County at all, so that Magistrate Zhao did not know about Hu Feng's death.

Fortunately, he was quite clear-headed. After a while, he knew that he would immediately send a scout to search upstream along the Wei River to see if there were any defeated soldiers, and then strictly question the people returning to the city to confirm the military situation.

After a while of tossing, it took about an incense stick to confirm that what the messenger said was true.

The soldiers in Mei County were all the strong men who had just been arrested in Youfufeng this year, and only a few officers were from Xiliang. No wonder Hu Feng, who was airborne, was so chaotic after he was killed.

The messenger took the opportunity to take out Fazheng's letter and asked the magistrate of Zhao County to carefully. He repeatedly moved him in the Fazheng's letter to understand his feelings and threatened him with his power. In the end, he bluffed and said that Ma Chao from the northern Qi County had already contacted him. Immediately, ten thousand Wuwei County cavalry went south and attacked Mei County, so that he could do it himself.

He also said, "If you are worried that Ji County will not be able to defend it in the future anyway, you can abandon the city and plunder the treasury and return to the south."

Fa Zheng arranged a resettlement plan similar to that of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition in later generations, if the strategic goal was not achieved, he would "spread thousands of people from Longxi and take Hanzhong."

All large households with large grain and small population are welcome to immigrate. All donations of military funds are guaranteed in the name of the King of Hanzhong. After the success of the Northern Expedition, all surrendered officials will be retained after the original position after the restoration.

Moreover, this promotion is currently only valid for officials in Mei County. Who makes this the first stop of the future Northern Expedition? It is the key to the grain road and Fazheng's hometown.

In Fazheng's faith, the words and words are all about "I won't tell him about this promotional activity for ordinary people from other places."

The Zhao County Magistrate knew the potential forces of the Legalists in the local area, and also knew that Fazheng had no false words. After thinking about it, he decided that it would be better to surrender and avoid disaster.

After all, it is really not a good thing to be an official in Li Jue. He has added such heavy taxes every year. If he fails to complete the work, he will directly send troops to rob him. Who can bear it? He always "surrounds one side, kills all the old and weak, and kills all the young and strong."

Moreover, Fa Zheng can kill Hu Feng in seconds. Who knows how many troops Wuzhangyuan has? His crime of "misjudging the enemy's situation and misleading friendly forces" may be tortured when he arrives at Li Jue.

"Please give the envoy back to the Faduwei. Zhao is willing to abandon the secret and invest in the light and pay the money and grain for the treasury. However, he also asks the Faduwei to keep his promise and relocate the wealthy families in the city who are willing to surrender together."

After the messenger received the reply letter, he asked an officer sent by Xu Huang to supervise the treasury, and at the same time, he sent him to the previous orders, he sent several scouts to continue northwards, trying to bring the news of "the willingness to surrender in Ji County" to Ma Chao. As for what Ma Chao did specifically, it depends on his own. This variable factor could not be controlled by Liu Bei's camp.

——
Chapter completed!