In this year, Liu Bei was thirty-four years old, Cao Cao was thirty-nine years old, Guan Hai was forty-six years old, and Zhang Fang was twenty-five years old.
As a general of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Bei established his government in Jinyang, and with Chen Chong's assistance in Chang'an, he led an army of 140,000 from four states to fight against the Qi and Han Dynasties. It could be said that he had overwhelming power for a while. Although Guan Hai was restored to the rank of Grand Sima of the Qi and Han Dynasties, he was actually
The upper Qi and Han Dynasties have been torn apart, and the Baibo and Heishan armies are both seemingly inseparable from him. Even so, even if the three armies are gathered together, there are only about 90,000 troops, which is far less than Liu Bei.
Under this situation, the Qi and Han armies from the north and south did not dare to engage in a decisive battle with Liu Bei's army, and their retreat could not cut off Liu Bei's food route. They could only watch the Han army attack the city day by day and strangle the Montenegrin army to death. The situation is clear.
Almost all knowledgeable people dare to conclude that as long as the Han army persists for ten more days, this year's war will end with a complete victory for the Han army.
But the result was beyond everyone's expectations. General Liu Bei suddenly sent an envoy, first ordering all the troops to stop attacking and hold on to the camp, and then sent envoys to Guan Hai and Zhang Fang respectively, carrying Liu Bei's letter, which said: "The place where the sun and the moon are located
Zhao, I was born into the Han Dynasty. People in the north and south of Sishui are all Han people. Now I have raised troops from Jinyang.
.
There was an act of usurping the throne and overstepping the control, which made the sky thunderous and the ministers were indignant. Therefore, they issued an edict to punish the thieves, raised their swords and soldiers, and raised their troops here. The king's army is magnificent, with fine armor and shining sun, millions of troops, and a company of hundreds of miles.
, chatting and laughing together in Qi. The top and bottom work hard, aiming to take over my homeland. Since ancient times, the land of Qilu has been a royal land. Emperor Shizong granted Zen and the ancestors were revived. How can I allow it to get involved? How can you win after being exhausted and defeated miserably?
However, the two armies fought the most hard work for the common people. Two years of fighting, thousands of miles of wilderness, and no corpses. Every time I think about it, don't you feel sad? Confucius was a benevolent man who did not hurt innocent people. Meng Ke was righteous and put the people first, even though he was stupid.
, and I am willing to carry out the work. You should remove your honorific title, go up to the table, and accept the imperial duties, just like the story of Zhang Yan. Bei also spares no good wishes and suspends the siege of the city. You can take the people away and return to Linzi to appease the people. From now on,
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have one master of both the East and the West without the pain of war?"
After Guan Hai got the letter, he laughed and said: "I didn't expect that Liu Xuande was quite literate in his military life." He was deeply upset that the assassination failed, so he handed the letter to his assistants for circulation and asked the envoy to wait outside. The envoy left the camp for a while.
, he said: "I failed to kill Liu Bei. Due to both emotions and reasons, he should be extremely angry and immediately ordered the city to be destroyed. How could he break the siege and let me evacuate?"
Teng Dan frowned and said: "Could it be that the assassination was actually successful, and the puppet government was pretending to be aggressive and wanted to force us to retreat, but in fact there was already chaos in the army?"
Speaking of this, Guan Hai was very moved. If Liu Bei really died, the morale of the Han army would definitely be shattered. He could raise his troops for a decisive battle, so why should the other party let him go? But as soon as he had the idea of a decisive battle, the thoughts came to his head.
My blood suddenly turned cold again. What if Liu Bei was not dead and wanted to use a trick to force me to take action? Once the decisive battle is over, I can't just leave if I want to. And the withdrawal of the siege may also be a fraud. If when he withdraws, half of the Han army
What about Tao attacks? This is something he has to consider.
After listening to Guan Hai's concerns, Tao Qiuxiu said: "Ming Gong's concerns are indeed reasonable, but this is easy to handle." He glanced at Guan Hai and said slowly: "After the assassination, there are still hundreds of followers.
Are they locked up in the puppet camp? We don't know the success or failure of the assassination, but they must know it. We can use this to reply to the letter and ask the puppet government to release them. If the assassination succeeds, they will definitely not dare to release them. If the assassination fails, these hundreds of people will
It's not of much use, and Liu Bei will not be stingy with it, so we might as well agree first, and then we can all withdraw our troops together when Zhang Shuai and others withdraw."
After everyone heard this, they all thought it was reasonable, so Guan Hai said, "Then I'll leave the reply to you." Tao Qiuxiu immediately pulled off a piece of white cloth, swiped it like the wind, and quickly finished writing it. Guan Hai stamped it and wrote it.
Send the letter back to the messenger.
When the envoy returned, Zhang Fang's reply had arrived first. Zhang Fang said that as a subordinate of Guan Hai, he did not dare to act alone. As long as Liu Bei could persuade Guan Hai, he would naturally respond. After Liu Bei received Guan Hai's reply,
Feeling at ease, he said to those around him: "This matter has become eighty-nine."
Kong Zhen's words before his death made Liu Bei immediately understand the cause and effect. Therefore, he did not embarrass the accompanying Taiping Taoists. He only sent Fa Zheng to lead the crowd to supervise, and there was no shortage of daily food. Since Guan Hai made the request, he obviously wanted to withdraw his troops.
Because of his sincerity, Liu Bei did not hesitate and released these believers that day. Before they left, considering that the weather was getting colder, in addition to dry food and water for the road, Liu Bei even gave each of them an extra winter coat.
When the group of people arrived at Feicheng, Guan Cheng understood the cause and effect, and was quite unbelievable. He asked himself: "Two months ago, he killed my people like grass, and today he is willing to sincerely let us go?" So there are still people.
Hesitant. But those who came back said that Snake Hill had been besieging the city for a long time, and there was not much food and grass in the city. People could often be seen escaping and surrendering. Those who surrendered were so hungry that they were bloated. It is said that only in the morning was the food included in the two meals a day.
Some rice, I really can’t hold it anymore.
Now that the Black Mountain Army has reached this point, Guan Hai decided to agree to return eastward. He summoned the generals to discuss it and only said: "Liu Bei is fine, and Zhang Fang is hungry and cold. What should I do if I don't leave? Let's go!" The generals also felt that there was no better way.
Therefore, they all agreed. If Liu Bei did not die, the Han army would not collapse. However, Zhang Fang was already on the verge of destruction. If he continued to fight, Qi and Han would never be able to win this war that was destined to fail.
Guan Hai decided to reply to Liu Bei. In the letter, he tried his best to exaggerate his military strength, but this only exposed his weakness. Worried about being ambushed, he wrote in the letter: "My land in Jibei is being invaded by you; if I must return, I can go.
I'm a hundred miles away."
The reply was delivered to Liu Bei's account. Liu Bei did not read it himself, but asked Xu Shu to read it to him. He stood outside the house and looked at the not-so-young mulberry tree in the pavilion. After hearing Xu Shu's reading, Liu Bei did not reply immediately, but
He took out the Huangtian Talisman left by Zhang Jue from his chest, stared at it for a long time, showed a sad smile, and said softly to Xu Shu: "I have fulfilled my promise. Just do as he said!" p>
Unexpectedly, when the military order was passed down, Cao Cao, who was besieging Gang County on the southern road, was extremely dissatisfied and refused to withdraw his troops. He even said in public: "Now that the city is so close, the general has abandoned it like worn out shoes. How can he be worthy of the soldiers who fought bloody battles on the battlefield?"
How can we be worthy of the heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the country in the past few years? How can we be worthy of His Majesty, who has great trust in the general? Such disloyalty and unjust chaos will never be obeyed!"
After hearing this, Liu Bei frowned and wrote back: "Why are we raising our troops? It's just peace in the world and peace and harmony for the people. Now that the puppet dynasty is declining, it is the time to win the hearts and minds of the people. How can we just judge the gains and losses in one battle? Now I let it go.
Returning from Haidong, we can not only capture the two cities of Shegang, but also let the three states know my loyalty, how can we call it chaos? If you and I kill all the people in Guandong, even if we have thousands of miles of land, what value will it have? I hope you will think about it.
Be careful."
But after replying to the letter, Cao Cao still refused to obey the order. Liu Bei also became angry and simply ordered Guan Yu: "You and I will break camp and return west tomorrow, and let him attack the city by himself!" After that, he began to work on related matters.<
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Liu Bei's Northern Route Army had as many as 90,000 men. When it moved, it was so huge that it was like the earth was shaking and the mountains were shaking. There were smiling sergeants everywhere. After all, this year's war ended early. It was only the beginning of October. The soldiers were all excited.
They couldn't help but be happy when they thought that they no longer had to climb the wall with ants or suffer from the cold in winter, and could even spend the rest of the year in peace. There was no trace of the love for war that Cao Cao said. They were so excited that they used to do things day and night.
, now it’s arranged in four hours.
Before leaving, Liu Bei sent Wei Yanbu to the rear and placed some salt, rice and other items in the north of Sheqiu City for the Black Mountain Army to leave the city. When Yang Feng led the Black Mountain Army, wearing armor and riding horses, and slowly left the city, Liu Bei's Han Army
They had already left. As for the road, there was no trace of the Han army. Only on the road at the horizon, a few people could be seen riding on horses, observing their retreat.
Soon, Yang Feng brought out all the troops. Most of these people were in ragged clothes and swollen from hunger. When the north wind blew, many people trembled and groaned. At this time, there was a faint sound of horse hooves from the north, which made it difficult for them to move.
They were very vigilant and quickly formed a formation at the edge of the city, but not long after, Yang Feng saw clearly that the coming flag was Guan Hai's troops.
After the two armies merged, they all breathed a sigh of relief and sent an envoy across Surabaya to contact Zhang Fang in Gang County. As soon as the envoy crossed the river, they discovered that there was still a Han army in Gang County that had not withdrawn. Judging from the flag, it should be Cao Cao's.
When Guan Hai and others were confused, the Han army withdrew again.
Guan Hai only thought that Cao Cao's rear retreated slowly, and he really didn't want to stay here anymore. So he quickly sent his troops to build a pontoon bridge to welcome Zhang Fang across the river, and then hurriedly retreated to Taishan County. On the way back, he
Incidentally, he sent a letter to commend Yang Feng and his party, appointing Yang Feng as the cavalry general, Han Xian as the hussar general, and Dugu Qubei as the great chanyu.
As soon as Guan Hai left, Feicheng, Lu County and other places also surrendered to the Han army one after another. At this point, Yanzhou was generally pacified. But in front of the Han army was the tall Mount Tai in the east, and Yuan Shu in the south, who was deliberately regaining his lost territory.
During the period after negotiating peace with Bai Bo's army, Yuan Shu made repeated attacks from Runan. He first sent 30,000 men to attack Chen State, and then sent 40,000 men to attack Yingchuan. Chen King Liu Chong was unable to resist.
Fortunately, Liu Bei returned with his army. Yuan Shu did not dare to scratch his beard and withdrew his army back to Shouchun. However, after this battle, Yuzhou was in turmoil and bandits were in turmoil. Many refugees and bandits took the opportunity to plunder in various counties, leaving the already poor people.
It becomes more difficult.
The person who carried out the case, Bian Rang, heard about the difficulties in Yuzhou, so he followed the newly appointed governor of Yuzhou, Huangfu, to visit Liyou County. He saw the hungry people walking like zombies in the winter, howling with their mouths open. He was moved and wrote: "The cold clouds are far away, covering the bushes.
The mountains are high, the wind is rustling and the roads are fluffy. The rivers are solid yet steep and deep. I feel sad about the obstacles in people's livelihood, and the tears are falling horizontally and uncontrollably."
Five years have passed since Dong Zhuo usurped power, but people's hearts have changed. Where are they headed?