Chapter 138: Kill Man Chong in the east and attack Li Tong in the west (Tui Shu, Mi Han)
In the early autumn of July, the afternoon sun shines brightly, and the autumn wind blows gently, bringing some coolness to the hot summer and autumn season.
On the Pavilion Post Road in the east of Dingying City, there is a jungle stretching for several miles along the road. The trees have not yet turned yellow and withered, and the dense branches are hanging down, swaying in the breeze, making a rustling sound.
On the small slope to the east of the pavilion, several horses stood. After the horses galloping in the distance came over, they went down the small slope and stood on the side of the road where the other party came from, waiting quietly.
Soon the team of men and horses were approaching, and what caught Shen Chen's eyes was a middle-aged man with broad shoulders. He was tired of work and had a smile on his face. He was like the most generous gentleman in the world, looking at him with a smile. .
"Little sir."
He said: "You have grown taller and grown up!"
Seeing the man's still gentle words, Shen Chen could no longer hold back. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, got off his horse, knelt down on one knee and said, "Chen, pay your respects to Mr. Xuande."
This prayer is worth it.
Not only because he is Shen Chen's savior, but also because of his ideal of benevolence and caring for the people, and also because he is the cause for which Shen Chen strives for his whole life!
"We haven't seen you for six years. My little gentleman is now an adult. Stop acting like a child."
Liu Bei dismounted and gently helped Shen Chen up. He grabbed Shen Chen's shoulders with both hands and looked up and down carefully.
What he saw was no longer an eight-year-old child, but a powerful and strong young man.
The boy was fourteen or fifteen years old. He was wearing a battle armor, showing his muscular and bronze arms. He had a ring-headed sword in his waist. His face was resolute, and his eyes were full of strength.
This moment reminded Liu Bei of another child who had grown up with him.
Tian Yu.
It's just that Tian Yu was raised by him, but in the end he left him.
However, Shen Chen only had a few interactions with him in Xuzhou back then, but she still cares about him now. Even though time flies, six years later, the friendship seems to have never diminished.
But Liu Bei would not be angry because he raised Tian Yu but Tian Yu left him.
Because he knew that Tian Yu had to support his old mother, just like he left his hometown to start a business after his mother died of illness.
The little gentleman has also grown up.
Liu Bei sighed in his heart that he had been able to build a foundation on his own and personally killed Cao Ren, the enemy who had killed his relatives. He was no longer the child who trembled in the sea of fire.
"Gong Xuande's kindness will never be forgotten forever."
Shen Chen said seriously: "If it hadn't been for you, the thousands of people from Chenhuangmen Pavilion would have been reduced to corpses just like the hundreds of thousands of people who died in Xuzhou."
Liu Bei sighed: "At that time, I had only a small number of troops and could not resist Cao Cao's attack in Xuzhou. I pitied tens of thousands of people in Xuzhou. I wanted to send people to collect their corpses, but I didn't expect that Yuan Shu and Lu Bu would attack again. In the end, I had no choice but to defect to the imperial court. I originally thought I could do something in front of His Majesty, but unexpectedly, Cao Cao pretended to be the emperor, but in fact he controlled the power, bullied the emperor, and tyrannized the government. I took the imperial edict and wanted to attack Cao Cao, but he was defeated many times. In the past few years, I have wasted time. Nothing has been achieved, but now it is not as good as Mr. Xiao's battle in Nanyang, where he killed Cao Ren and Le Jin and showed great prestige."
Shen Chen encouraged: "It doesn't matter how many times a person is knocked down. What matters is whether he has the courage to get up again after being knocked down. Although the public could not defeat Cao Thief, he kept attacking Cao Thief. Your courage, this courage is already very valuable, so why should you be discouraged?"
"The little gentleman is right."
Liu Bei also has a lot of tenacity and will not be lazy when encountering setbacks. He nodded seriously and said: "So this time I am going to contact the old troops, recruit new troops, crusade against Cao Cao, and serve the emperor!"
Shen Chen pointed to Dingying City to the west and said, "In that case, let's use Man Chong's head as a starting point today."
"good!"
Liu Bei said happily: "It's just what I want."
Shen Chen cupped his hands and said: "Please surround the south gate and the east gate, and send a group of troops to ambush the west city. I will attack from the north gate. I expect that Manchong will not be able to defeat me. It is very likely that I will defect to Li Tong from the west gate."
"good!"
Liu Bei said: "I will make arrangements right away."
The two of them parted ways, and Shen Chen turned back to the north. At this moment, his troops had also arrived outside Dingying City.
After returning to the camp, Shen Chen immediately issued an order to cut down trees outside the city, build simple ladders, and then immediately began to attack Dingying City.
The same is true for Liu Bei. He did not bring any large siege equipment and could only use simple ladders. However, this did not prevent them from being confident in taking down the city because there were too few defenders in Dingying City.
At this time, Manchong of the city was on the tower of Dingying's south city gate. There were too many enemies from the south of the city, tens of thousands of them, almost filling up the entire official road, which put great pressure on him.
His expression was gloomy, because the news of another enemy force suddenly appearing in the north of the city had just come. He originally considered that although Liu Bei had tens of thousands of people, most of them were temporary recruits with very few elites, so he used the city to hold on. , waiting for reinforcements.
But he didn't expect that another enemy came from the north. According to the scouts' investigation, the flag was "Shen", which was obviously Shen Chen from Kunyang.
Kunyang is very close to Xiangcheng, only more than 40 kilometers away, but very far from Dingying. Therefore, when Xia Houyuan got the news, Man Chong didn't know about it yet.
After traveling more than 300 miles in three days, they suddenly attacked Runan. Who could have imagined this?
Now he has been surrounded by groups. In addition to the 500 elite men he personally selected and recruited, the rest of the former disciples of the Yuan family who surrendered before are in internal turmoil in the city, and the military morale is very unstable.
Holding on to the city under such internal and external troubles is tantamount to a dead end.
So Man Chong must find a way to escape.
There is a plain around Dingying, and the view from the top of the city is very good.
He watched the south gate and saw that Liu Bei had divided his troops early to surround the east gate. At the same time, a large number of soldiers were cutting down the trees in the surrounding forests and building siege equipment.
Man Chong even vaguely saw some black spots heading south, so he immediately said: "Liu Bei hasn't even built a camp. I'm afraid he will attack the city soon. And I think there are cavalry going south, so he must have sent people to take a detour." , sent an ambush to the west city, this is a siege of three towers, if we break out from the west of the city, we may be ambushed."
The left and right said: "Master Fu, what should we do now?"
"Let's break out."
He sighed.
You will die if you wait any longer, and if there is a rebellion in the city, you will die even faster. It is better to leave immediately while Liu Bei's army's siege offensive is not completed.
After saying that, he ordered his surroundings and immediately summoned 500 soldiers. The remaining soldiers who had been recruited were not reliable and were in danger of revolt, so he ordered them to guard the city. At the same time, he transferred his 500 trusted soldiers on the grounds of garrisoning the west gate. past.
But the more than 2,000 soldiers in the city who had surrendered from Yuan's old army were not stupid. After receiving Man Chong's order, they went to the top of the city to see that the three gates in the southeast and north were all besieged, and only the west gate was empty. , but you, Man Chong, took five hundred men and horses to the west city gate. Isn't it obvious that you abandoned them and escaped alone?
Almost as soon as Man Chong led five hundred of his confidants to the West City, a rebellion broke out first at the south gate. Someone opened the city gate. Liu Bei was still preparing to attack the city at this time. When he saw that the city gate was opened, there was no After hesitating, he immediately sent people to garrison the city. He also learned that Man Chong was in the west city, so he immediately pursued him.
After the south city was broken, it didn't take long for the north city and the east city. But when he saw the gate of the east city open, Shen Chen immediately realized that there must be a rebellion within Manchong. There was a high probability that others would break out to the west city, so he personally led the scout cavalry. , and kill towards the west city gate.
Shen Chen's army actually did not have many cavalry, only about a hundred men. These horses were given to Zhang Xiu after he helped Zhang Xiu defeat Cao's army. Later, in successive battles, the cavalry serving as scouts suffered heavy casualties, and now there are less than forty people left. .
It's just that there are not many cavalry on his side, and there are even fewer full favors. There are only seven or eight cavalry in total, and the rest are infantry. At this moment, the west city gate is wide open, and everyone quickly runs to the west, wanting to evacuate in the direction of Xiping.
But not long after he left the West City, the cavalry galloped behind him.
Man Chong turned around and saw that it was the enemy coming from the north of the city.
Unexpectedly, although Liu Bei was a little slow, Shen Chen reacted quickly and immediately led his cavalry to pursue him.
He is indeed a man who can fight with Duke Cao several times without deciding the outcome.
His face was as cold as frost, and his eyes seemed to be bursting with fire, and he shouted: "Formation!"
"Form up!"
The shrill sounds from left and right resounded across the sky.
The five hundred soldiers under Man Chong immediately began to line up nervously and orderly. Although there were not many people, they had all types of troops. There were dozens of halberds and halberds in the front row, and dozens of crossbows behind them. Hands ready to go.
He looked around, his eyes were splitting, and he shouted angrily: "If we don't fight to the death now, we will be doomed. If we fight to the death and repel them, we can return to Xiping!"
"Death to live!"
Shouting from left to right.
"Death to live!"
The surrounding soldiers suddenly burst into shocking roars, and their morale was high.
Seeing this, Shen Chen in the distance immediately reined in his horse and shouted: "Stop the horse!"
"Hush!"
Gan Ning and other knights immediately reined in their horses.
Shen Chen said: "Man Chong is not an incompetent person. He actually formed a formation on the spot, which is quite troublesome. Let's wait until Xuande Gong's troops arrive."
Everyone then stopped, about half a mile away, and looked at each other.
"Retreat in turn!"
Seeing him stop, Man Chong immediately raised his sword and shouted.
This moment is a bit like Cao Cao's cavalry pursuit when Shen Chen retreated from Xiangcheng to Kunyang.
Since the infantry formation was extremely lethal to the cavalry, Cao Cao did not dare to take the initiative. He just wanted to delay time and wait for the infantry from behind to come up.
The same is true now.
If Man Chong was running westward in a mess, Shen Chen would attack without hesitation. But this man was from a lower-class background and was not a child of an aristocratic family. In the end, he was able to become the third Duke of Cao and Wei, which shows that his talents are extraordinary.
But there is a problem. Ziyun Mountain retreated one day early in the early morning. Cao Cao's cavalry chased him all night, and the infantry and baggage were one day behind. No matter how much time was delayed, Cao Cao's army would not be able to catch up in a short time. arrive.
Now the main force of Liu Bei's army is in the south of the city, only three or four miles away from the west of the city, and can be reached in an instant.
Although most of his troops were indeed ragtag, the only elite ones were the 500 Bu Qu whom Zhao Yun recruited in Yecheng and the two or three thousand men Yuan Shao gave him before setting off.
But the huge difference in numbers between the enemy and ourselves cannot be changed by whether we are elite or not, not to mention that Liu Bei still has powerful generals such as Zhang Zhao, Taishi Chen Dao, etc.
Soon, in this tense and exciting confrontation, Man Chong's team had not gone far at all, and the cavalry sent by Liu Bei had already circled around to the post road less than ten miles away from Dingying City to stop him.
At the same time, Liu Bei's main infantry force was approaching.
At this time, Man Chong was surrounded by people. He was still riding on the horse, his face was frosty, and he watched quietly.
At first, if he had given up on Five Hundred Steps and fled directly from the west city gate on horseback, he might still have been able to escape, but now it was too late, he was already surrounded.
But Man Chong did not regret doing this. Tai Shigong said: Everyone is destined to die, either on Mount Tai or lighter than a feather. At least if he died in battle today, it was for the imperial court and for Duke Cao!
"Man Chong, surrender."
Liu Bei put on his battle armor, rode forward, and said loudly: "Cao Cao is not worth your life."
Man Chong responded coldly: "Liu Bei, Duke Cao treats you well, but you have rebelled repeatedly. How can a disloyal and unjust person like you be worthy of persuading me to surrender?"
"Cao Cao treats me well?"
Liu Bei's eyes turned red at that time and he angrily said: "Yes, he treats me well. But do you know how he treats the emperor? He kills his uncle, brutally tortures his concubine, and even doesn't let go of the prince in his belly. I saw it with my own eyes.
The emperor begged, asking Cao Cao not to blame the imperial concubine, but he still ordered the imperial concubine to be strangled. Is this big man Cao Cao's big man, or is his majesty's big man? In the name of the emperor, I ordered to punish this traitor, what's wrong?
Really? On the contrary, you are rebellious and traitorous people who have ignored your orders and helped Zhou to commit cruelty. You should be punished!"
"snort."
Man Chong snorted coldly: "My uncle and your concubine conspired to cause rebellion, and I deserve to die."
Liu Bei pointed at him and said angrily: "Shut up, you shameless thief. This is the emperor's order to my uncle and me to secretly get rid of national thieves like Cao Cao. Your majesty has ordered you to open your eyes for him, and you are worthy of doing so."
Scholar?"
"Mr. Xuande, there is no need to reason with these young men who have no king or father."
Shen Chen pulled out the ring-headed sword from his waist, looked at Man Chong coldly and said: "He even tortured and bullied a highly respected veteran of the three dynasties like Mr. Wen Xiangong. This thief's character is the same as Cao Cao's, both of them are inhumane.
He is a cruel man. The emperor is still waiting for us to rescue him in Xudu, and all the ministers in the court are still waiting for us. Let's kill him."
"kill!"
Liu Bei raised the sword in his hand and pointed at Man Chong.
"kill!"
The troops led by Guan, Zhang, Taishi and others surrounded the Manchu army layer by layer.
Bows and crossbows kept firing arrows, but there were too few people in Manchong, and there were only dozens of crossbowmen, so their lethality was limited.
On the contrary, the front troops of Shen Chen's army and Liu Bei's army pressed forward, blocking the front with shields. The archers and crossbowmen kept firing rapidly. They had too many arrows, overwhelming the Manchong army, and killed one third of them in an instant.
The next moment, Shen Chen, Gan Ning, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yuntai, Shi Ci and others had led their infantry into Man Chong's army formation, and his troops immediately collapsed.
Among the rebels, Man Chong's mount was shot with an arrow, and he flew wildly in all directions, throwing him off his horse and slamming him into the middle of the post road field next to him.
He climbed up with difficulty, raised his head, and saw a blade reflecting cold light waving towards his neck in the afternoon sun.
"Pfft!"
Blood spurted out, and under the tremendous force, the head fell off the shoulders. Even until death, Man Chong's eyes were wide open.
Shen Chen kicked his body down and wiped the blood on the knife with his clothes.
This later cruel official of Cao Wei died like this.
Gan Ning said regretfully: "Ah Chen, you started too quickly."
"To deal with the enemy, you should strike like lightning."
Shen Chen turned around. At this time, the battlefield had basically been calmed down. Fifteen thousand people were fighting five hundred people. There was no suspense in the first place. Once Man Chong died, the remaining people would naturally surrender.
The soldiers cleared the battlefield under the command of officers at all levels, while Shen Chen took Gan Ning to see Liu Bei.
Liu Bei was on a hillside. When the two came over, he had already ordered his soldiers to escort the prisoners and pick up the weapons and equipment that fell on the ground.
Although Yuan Shao gave him a lot of supplies and troops, Liu Bei was unable to carry a large amount of luggage when he went deep behind enemy lines, so weapons and equipment were in short supply. Among the more than 10,000 people, there were even a few thousand whose weapons were very crude and inferior. , so he cannot waste every sword or halberd.
"Gong Xuande."
Shen Chen came over and saluted Liu Bei and said, "Are your soldiers still strong enough?"
Liu Bei asked in surprise: "What's wrong?"
Shen Chen said: "Man Chong stayed here until now. It must be because he didn't know that we were here. He thought that the soldiers recruited by the Duke were not elite soldiers. He could rely on the city to hold on and wait for Li Tong's reinforcements. If he ran away now, he saw me. When the army arrived, we fled out of the city, but it was too late. This shows that Li Tong is probably on the way here. We should go to Xiping immediately and set up an ambush on the post road."
Liu Bei was accompanied by Jian Yong, Sun Qian, Mi Zhu, Mi Fang and others. When he heard his words, Mi Zhu was surprised and said, "Since we are going to fight Li Tong, why don't we wait for work in the city?"
"Zi Zhonggong!"
When Shen Chen saw Mi Zhu in the crowd, he respectfully raised his hands and said, "I haven't seen him in years. Sir, you are fine."
“Daily living is acceptable.”
Mi Zhu looked at this young man and sighed in his heart.
Back then, he helped manage Huangmenting's fields, but now the two of them are no longer what they used to be.
Mi Zhu is no longer a wealthy businessman in Xuzhou, but a wandering General Zuo who follows Liu Bei and works as a lieutenant.
And Shen Chen is no longer the country boy he used to be. Now he has become Liu Biao's lieutenant general. He even defeated Cao Cao in Nanyang, killed Cao Ren and Le Jin, and his reputation spread far and wide.
"Just fine, sir."
Shen Chen explained: "The reason why the ambush was set up on the post road was because Li Tong was afraid that Manchu would lose his favor, so he would march at full speed and would not send scouts to check the surrounding situation all the time. But after arriving at Dingying, he would become vigilant. Send out scouts to conduct a large-scale reconnaissance. If they find out the clues and know that the city has been destroyed and Man Chong is dead, it will be even more difficult to defeat him."
Man Chong was now besieged by Liu Bei. Li Tong must have been very anxious, so he instinctively thought that the enemies were all in Dingying and the surrounding area of Xiping was very safe, so he marched quickly and waited until he was twenty or thirty miles away from Dingying before stopping and sending scouts to investigate. .
This is the standard way of encircling a point to attack reinforcements. In later generations, General Xu, the founder of our country, liked this tactic the most. Every time he besieged a certain place, he would immediately rush to the vicinity where the enemy's reinforcements were stationed to find a dangerous place to set up an ambush, and then wait for the enemy to rush in. When I went to reinforce the besieged place, I was attacked head-on not long after I left home.
Therefore, in war, it is very important to understand the enemy's psychology.
After hearing Shen Chen's words, Mi Zhu thought carefully for a moment and sighed: "No wonder my lord wants to call you Mr. Xiao. With such intelligence, you are indeed far better than us."
A friend asked in the previous chapter how Guan Yu came. This friend went back to read the previous chapter and wrote that Guan Yu heard that Liu Bei was recruiting soldiers in Runan, so he immediately bid farewell to Cao Cao and took his two wives to join Liu Bei.
In addition, the book "Mi Han" is about Mi Fang's son. My book is from the middle and late period of the Three Kingdoms, and his is from the later period of the Three Kingdoms. It is very beautiful.