After An Ci's visit, Liu Bei had a deeper understanding of Yuan Jun. This battle was not only a victory with swords and guns on the battlefield, but also a moral victory in the hearts of the people. Although no war has broken out yet, the two armies
The fight has already begun.
Fortunately, before Liu Bei went south, he had ordered all his soldiers not to invade people's houses and fields.
His daily leisure life is confined to the camp. Compared with the military discipline of Anci and Yuan's army, the Han army may be even more superior. In addition, he is from Yan people and has the name of the Han Dynasty, so he will not be disgusted by the people of Youzhou.
.The only weakness is that he has been away from Youzhou for too long, while Yuan Shao wins people's hearts in Youyan,
If you promote a lot, it will be difficult for you to gain the upper hand in a short period of time.
Therefore, Liu Bei still did not use troops, but sent advance envoys to various states and counties.
In the name of the imperial court, he tried to ask the magistrates of various counties to report on their duties in Jixian County. There was no time limit set, and the Bafu did not care when the officials came voluntarily.
After the news was released, the four county magistrates of Zhuo County, Jundu, Guangyang, and Changping immediately came to meet Liu Bei and asked him to send troops as soon as possible to repel Yuan Jun and Wuhuan. Liu Bei comforted them and said: "This matter cannot be rushed.
But don't panic, just do whatever you need to do. The summer harvest is coming next month, and the autumn harvest cannot be delayed. If Yuan Jun makes any move, the shogunate will naturally come forward." These people were hesitant, but they still agreed.
Then one after another came to Lu County, including Wu Zhong, Gu'an, and Xu Wu's commander. Although these people had made an appointment with Yuan Jun, they did not dare to offend the court, so they still responded to the imperial edict and came to meet him. Liu Bei saw four more people coming.
County, very happy to get to know each other,
Said: "The country is in difficulty now, and it is rare for you to not abandon the seal and hold on to the border. I only hope that you will stick to the time a little longer, and the country will be peaceful and you will be able to build it." Then he held a banquet with them, and these people
They all left with great gratitude.
There were also some commanders who did not come in person, and sent county chiefs or meritorious officers to come to deliver the report. Liu Bei did not feel embarrassed, but encouraged these people who came: "loyal ministers are rare, as long as your heart is with the court, your majesty will not
I will treat you badly." Then he arranged for Xu Shu to talk to them one by one in secret, and persuaded many people to serve as secret agents.
After all these arrangements, Liu Bei felt a lot more at ease. After all, when the county magistrates came to Jixian to report on their duties, it meant that the imperial court still had influence in Youzhou. If Yuan Jun did not take action at this time, it would be unfair in the eyes of the counties.
It is an act of weakness to dare to fight. If Yuan Jun is forced to attack and loses the geographical advantage,
He can also strike early,
Find flaws in it, regardless of success or failure,
At least at this moment, the Han army can advance or retreat, and it has taken the lead.
Sure enough, on the twelfth day of the seventh month, an urgent report came from Zhuo County, saying that Yuan's army suddenly came from the northeast and laid siege to the city. The soldiers set up an arrow tower in front of the city, built a large well gate and rushed the chariot. They also sent an arrow message to the city, and ordered
They opened the city immediately, otherwise after the city was broken, the resisters would be killed without hesitation. The magistrate of Zhuoxian County was deeply frightened and came overnight to issue a letter asking for help.
Liu Bei received the letter and ordered General Tai Shici to lead 6,000 troops to support Zhuoxian County. He himself had other arrangements. He believed that the Yuan army, which was threatened from behind, could not concentrate its forces to attack the city and would inevitably turn its forces to fight. At this time, Liu Bei
, as long as Taishi Ci insists on avoiding the battle, he can delay the use of force, and he can just go south to capture Anci.
He instructed Tai Shici: "Ziyi, you are usually too strong, but this time you are outnumbered, so don't fight hard. If anything unusual happens, report to me immediately!"
But he miscalculated this move. The day after he sent Taishi Ci to fight, Liu Bei was still patrolling the camp in the southern suburbs of Jixian County, planning to send troops Anci at night. However, when the sun was just above his head, the battle report suddenly came, saying that Taishi Ci
After crossing the river, they went south for more than forty miles and were ambushed by the enemy in a dense forest. They may have been defeated now.
Liu Bei was shocked. This was the first time he had lost a battle since entering Yan. He was filled with anger and shame. He didn't want to wait any longer. He put on his armor without any use for lunch, dictated the military deployment to Xu Shu, and shouted, "
Send out troops immediately, I'll go first!" Then he took Fazheng and three hundred horsemen with him and ran south to the north bank of the river.
On the way, he met several envoys sent by his own side. Based on their reports, he concluded as follows:
After Yuan Jun surrounded Zhuoxian, he did not attack immediately. Instead, he surrounded Zhuoxian with most of his troops and cut off the news. He also used some of his elite cavalry to rush seventy miles north to the hills on the south bank of the river.
It was not dense. It was mostly shrubs and weeds, so they hid on the side of the hills. Taishi Ci did not expect that there could be an ambush here. Yuan Jun suddenly attacked from behind and was unprepared. Taishi Ci still organized a counterattack, but in the end
Unable to win, they could only leave nearly a thousand corpses and go north, and nearly two thousand people were injured. They could no longer fight in a short period of time. Yuan Jun was not reluctant to fight. After a small victory, he immediately withdrew southward, and Zhuoxian also immediately relieved the siege.
, and vigorously publicized the matter in various docks along the way, claiming that ambushes would still be arranged along the way.
Taishi Ci's troops were all the elites of the Bafu. When Liu Bei learned the specific losses, he couldn't help but grit his teeth and secretly resented it. His whole body felt hot, but at the same time he had to admire General Yuan Jun's military strategy. The location chosen for this ambush was so clever that it was neither
As for being too conspicuous, there is no place to hide, and the timing of the attack is extremely accurate, so that such an unexpected effect can be achieved. No matter who came up with this idea, this strategy is amazing.
Moreover, he also guessed that Liu Bei might be angry and send troops. Instead of confronting Liu Bei who was bent on fighting, he retreated more quickly to the back of his camp. Because the enemy general calculated that even if they won this battle, they would suffer heavy losses, so it was better to wait for the time being.
Avoid.
On the other hand, the Han army, Taishi Ci's troops were largely dispersed and did not dare to move easily north of the Yangtze River. After the counties in Youzhou learned the news, the losses in Zhuoxian County were probably incalculable.
"Hateful! Hateful!" Liu Bei cursed in a low voice. He looked around and saw a green gauze tent, extending beyond it was a mulberry field. The area where the war started was trampled beyond recognition, but after half a day of rain yesterday, it seemed to have recovered a lot.
Few. It is obvious that the battle was effectively carried out in a very short period of time. This was all due to our own negligence and the enemy's effective execution.
"If I were there..."
He couldn't help but reflect like this, and then his thoughts changed: "I shouldn't say such wise words after the fact. No matter what the reason is, if you lose, you lose. Now you just lost for a while. If you admit your mistake, you still have time to save the situation."
But he suddenly thought that no matter what, this battle would always hurt his prestige. The county magistrates who had been watching a few days ago didn't know what to think. As he thought about it, he felt a slight pain in his chest.
After all, this is his hometown. The time when a person is least willing to fail is when he is in his hometown.
In the early morning of the next day, when the morning sun came out, most of the Han army came out from Zhuoxian County. After being washed by the rain, the weather was as clear as water, and the sky traces seemed to be within reach in the sunshine.
At this time, Taishi Ci also came back. He did not dare to look up at Liu Bei and apologized in a low voice: "Please forgive me, General. I didn't expect to set an ambush on the road, so many of my colleagues were implicated."
Liu Bei waved his hand, then helped him up and said: "It's not your fault. You are not familiar with the terrain here. I shouldn't have sent you first, or at least I should have found a good guide for you." He
After a moment of silence, he asked Tai Shici to tell him the situation during the war in person, so as to find out the details of Yuan Jun.
Taishi Ci took this battle as a shame in his life, so he naturally kept the details in mind. From the time of entering the ambush to the response between the enemy and ourselves, he could tell it eloquently. Liu Bei listened and asked questions from the side, how is Yuan Jun's armor? How are the bows and arrows? How are the horses? Flags
How? Especially who is the general? Hearing that the word "Ning Guo" was written on the flag, he knew that the enemy general was Zhang He. He couldn't help but sigh to the shogunate's assistant: "I met Zhang He on the way south, and I saw him in person.
He led his elite troops to explore, thinking it was of no use, but unexpectedly he had memorized the surrounding terrain clearly. What a clever general!"
But Fazheng, who was listening on the sidelines, suddenly asked: "Ziyi just said that all the Yuan troops in the ambush were Han soldiers. Could it be that there are no Wuhuan soldiers? Yuan Shang and Wuhuan combined forces, so logically there should be some!"
Taishi Ci lowered his head and thought for a moment, "I fought for an hour during the war, and it is true that no Wuhuan people were seen, but it may be that the battlefield was chaotic and I didn't pay attention."
Fa Zheng shook his head and said: "No, the speech habits of the Wuhuan people are very different from those of the Han people. Unless the number of people is very small, it is impossible not to notice it." He also called several envoys who had reported the news before and asked them what they were doing in Zhuo.
If anyone saw Wuhuan people outside the county town, the envoys looked at a loss and said they had no impression.
After hearing this, Fazheng looked happy and said to Liu Bei: "Ming Gong, it is not too late to go and fight Anci now."
Seeing that Liu Bei couldn't understand, Fa Zheng explained: "Yuan Shang came to Zhuoxian, but Wu Huan was not seen in the army. It can be seen that Yuan Shang did not dare to trust him, so he could only use Wu Huan to stay in Anci to guard the camp. Wu Huan cannot be trusted, so naturally he
We will not really work for the Yuan family. But now that the Yuan army is dragging the siege baggage and worrying about our army's harassment, it will definitely not move quickly. We can take this opportunity to attack Anci again. I dare to predict that Wuhuan will build a camp.
Outside the city, our army won a small victory, and they naturally ran eastward!"
Liu Bei was greatly relieved and immediately ordered the entire army to turn around and attack southward with light equipment. The forward knights arrived at the northern suburbs of Anci in the middle of the night. As expected, they saw the Wuhuan people defending themselves in the city camp. However, they were not good at building camps and their defense was very lax.
The army sent three small teams to lurk over, and successfully set fire to the surroundings of the camp very easily. The light of the fire was like catkins floating in the military tent. It didn't take long before the horses and Wuhuan people were in chaos, and the noise was like that of a busy city. Yuan Jun in the city saw a sudden fire in the camp outside the city, and there were shouts of killing everywhere, and he was frightened and couldn't calm down. Outside the firelight, the night was as dark as a hollow, and he didn't know how many Han troops were coming. The guard general in the city at this time was
Su You, the captain appointed by Yuan Shao to protect Wuhuan, was afraid that Wuhuan's troops would be scattered after opening the city, which would lead to the loss of Anci. Therefore, he locked the city gates and refused to react no matter what happened outside the city.
When the Wuhuan people saw this, they were greatly disappointed. Tadun immediately ordered people to blow the trumpet and retreat northward, leading his guards to rush towards Lulongsai.
When Liu Bei saw them escaping, he did not stop or pursue them. Instead, he ordered his men to remove the flags left by Yuan Jun in front of the camp, and took with them all the Wuhuan wounded and prisoners who could not move. At dawn, he began to withdraw his troops to Jixian.<
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After the war, it was counted that the Han army captured a total of 6,000 Wuhuan and captured about 4,000 horses, which was a great harvest. After Liu Bei inspected the camp, he breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn't help but smile to Fa Zheng and said: "
Thanks to Xiao Nao's ingenious plan, people's hearts turned towards me again."