During the three months when Chen Chong gathered people in Chencang, he quietly watched the development of the situation in Guanzhong, and at the same time quietly organized the Liang people who had been placed around him into an army. When Liu Fan paid a visit to Ba Ling, he got an appointment from everyone.
There were 40,000 soldiers. Although they were still far less powerful than the Shu army that surrounded Chang'an, they finally had the strength to fight. Therefore, Chen Chong finally prepared to send troops, aiming to regain Chang'an.
It’s just that in any battle, the teacher must have a reputation. After all, if the name is not correct, the words will not go smoothly, and if the words are not right, the things will not be accomplished. But now, the word "name" has become Chen Chong's top priority when sending troops.
Generally speaking, King Qin is the best name for raising troops, but for Chen Chong, it is no longer available. Under Jia Xu's arrangement, although the emperor did not embarrass Chen Chong's family and his party members on a large scale, Chen Chong and Liu Bei could not.
The emperor's edict refuting him as a rebel and traitor had already spread throughout the three auxiliaries. It sounded too ridiculous to serve as a traitor in the king's army, and the whole army thought it was unacceptable.
Since King Qin fails, the other option is to fight against the rebels. After all, the Shu army is now the main enemy. First, denounce them as rebels, and then defeat them. In this way, the power is restored, even if the emperor's false accusations are made, it will be insignificant. Although it is used
It is difficult to get it, but it is better than having no name, so Dong Yue, Hu Zhen and other Liang people often like this name.
But Chen Chong was not satisfied. He objected and said: "To fight against rebellion with rebellion is just to deceive oneself and others. In the final analysis, it is just to use power to suppress others. How is it different from the Shu people? The current military strength is not as good as that of the Shu people. How can we make the people want to
?"
Finally, he pondered for a long time and ordered Zhang Ji to make dozens of large flags, divided into two styles, one was a red background with a blue border of one foot, with the words "Advocating justice and peace of the people", and the other was a white background with a green border of one foot.
A big banner with the message "Serve the public to fight the chaos".
When everyone saw this horoscope, they all marveled and commented privately: "Dragon Head does not talk about the officialdom, nor does he talk about obedience and disobedience, but only talks about calming chaos and calming the people. His public heart is really beyond reproach, but it seems that His Majesty is stingy.
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After the flag and name were decided, Chen Chong officially sent out his troops. At the same time, there was a letter as a reply to Liu Fan's previous letter. This was because he felt that the previous reply was too sloppy, so he wrote another letter specifically,
Send an envoy to Liu Fan.
In the letter, Chen Chong recalled the past friendship between the two families and talked about the old friendship between Liu Yan and Liu Yan. He still called Liu Yan "Old Lord", showing great respect for him. He treated Liu Fan as his younger brother and was still quite affectionate.
meaning, but there is no mention of the upcoming battle between the two armies throughout the article.
What is even more strange is that Chen Chong elaborated at the end of the letter: "Confucius was wandering in the forest of curtains and resting on an apricot altar. His disciples were studying, and Confucius was singing on the strings, playing the drums and the harp. Before the music was halfway through, a fisherman got off the boat.
Come, his eyebrows are white, his robes are straightened, he walks above the plain, and stops away from the land, with his left hand on his knees, and his right hand holding his Yi to listen. At the end of the song, he invites Zi Gong to ask questions, knowing that Confucius was not good in his life, he laughs and is about to leave.
.Knowing that he was extraordinary, Confucius pushed his harp and bowed inward, asking about the Tao. The Fisherman said: Benevolence is benevolence, but to be slandered in four ways is contrary to the truth."
After Liu Fan had read the letter, he specially called all the generals for a military meeting. After everyone circulated the letter, many people were confused about its meaning. After discussing it, they just felt that it basically meant that the destiny of the Shu army was false and they would not succeed. Dong Zhao Geng mentioned a rumor, saying that at the beginning of last year, it was said that Chen Chong also encountered a white deer in Kunming Pond. Unfortunately, he did not know whether it was true or not, and he obviously held this view.
Unexpectedly, Liu Fan laughed loudly and said: "Then you are wrong." Seeing everyone's confusion, he calmed down and continued to explain: "This is what Longshou gave to me more than ten years ago. His It means that it is difficult to hide one’s true nature. Although I claim that I will imitate Emperor Xiaowen and be a pure, filial and benevolent king, my nature is not like this, so sooner or later I will reveal my flaws."
When he said this, he waved his hands slightly and sighed: "In the Dragon Head Letter, he compared me to Confucius, but compared himself to sages. It's really the same as before! He is humble on the outside and reserved on the inside. He wrote this letter specifically to let me know It’s hard to retreat!”
Only then did everyone suddenly realize. Zhang Song handed the letter back to Liu Fan, turned around and said to the generals: "Young Master has traveled across thousands of miles of dangerous terrain, and has just experienced a shocking battle that could change the color of the world. It is time to show off his wings. At such a moment, how could he retreat because of such a weak letter? Chen Longshou has a great reputation, but he has lost his foundation. How many troops can he bring out to fight with us just by relying on Chencang alone?" He was quite contemptuous of Chen Chong, and all the generals laughed in agreement.
However, Huang Quan still thought that Chen Chong should not be underestimated. He said: "I have heard about Chen Chong's fame for a long time, and I have also kept a light on his military formations. His military strength is exquisite, no less than that of Wu Qi and Sun Bin in ancient times, and it is really not Lu Bu." How can it be judged based on the number of people if it can be compared? Moreover, Guanzhong is the place where Chen Chong has ruled for a long time, how can it be said that it has no foundation? A hero cannot be treated with common sense. Have you forgotten that Xiang Ji despised Gaozu in the past? , Don’t use Fan Zeng’s words to let Gaozu return to Hongmen, so that he will hate Wujiang. If we don’t stand guard, I’m afraid we will all be Chen Chong’s prisoners!”
As soon as these words came out, the generals were immediately speechless. After all, Huang Quan had always been famous in the army for his knowledge of soldiers, and was highly valued by Liu Fan. Now he had made military exploits in Duanliuyuan, so although his words could not convince everyone, they were still impressive. Hard to despise.
Liu Fan folded the letter in his hand and pinched it on his fingertips, and then slowly said to everyone: "There is a saying in "Six Tao": 'When you see the emptiness, advance; when you see the reality, stop.' It can be seen that the way to use troops is to know the emptiness and the reality before moving. Although what you said is not unreasonable, I don’t know whether Long Shou is true or not, so it’s useless no matter how much you say.” There was already a hint of irritability in his words.
Zhang Song immediately sensed his master's intention: Liu Fan's military strategy focused on planning before taking action. Now he was going to confront Chen Chong, which was obviously beyond his expectation, so he was not sure.
So he made a tentative statement: "In that case, how about we postpone the siege, retreat to Luo Valley, and let Chen Chong, the dragon, fight Lu Bu, the tiger first, and we wait and see what happens?"
This plan was indeed in line with Liu Fan's wishes. His eyes lit up, but then he realized that it was wrong. He shook his head and rejected it: "Although this plan is good, it is not feasible. Now I have a great victory, and everyone has lost. How can Chen Chong and Lu Bu fight against each other? Moreover, the soldiers have traveled across mountains and rivers and experienced hardships. Now that they have won a great victory, retreating without fighting will inevitably depress the soldiers."
Since retreat is impossible, the only choice is to shrink the troops first and find out whether Chen Chong is real or not. Liu Fan quickly made up his mind. Except for Huang Quan, who had been tasked with recruiting counties to surrender under Feng Yi, the rest of the troops besieging Chang'an, such as Gao Pei,
Liu Dan, Zhang Ren and others all led their troops back to Pingling to gather. During the gathering, Liu Fan sent more than ten thousand guards to Zhang Song. On the one hand, he hoped that Zhang Song would stabilize his martial arts and not ruin the results of the battle. On the other hand, he also entrusted him with investigation
Chen Chong carried out a virtual and real mission in order to prepare for the next war.
Unexpectedly, after the meeting, Zhang Song led his army to Huaili when he suddenly received a letter from the Wugong defenders asking for help. The letter said that Chen Chong had arrived at Wugong City the day before yesterday, and now there were huge piles of earth and archery towers around the city.
The city will be attacked in the near future. I hope Zhang Song will quickly lead his troops to rescue him.
At this time, there were more than 10,000 defenders in the city, and the martial arts was not that of a small city. There were also sufficient supplies and garrison in the city. According to Zhang Song's guess, under such a defense, even if Chen Chong had an army of 100,000, it would be difficult to defeat him quickly. Unexpectedly, there was a letter from his subordinates
, did not mention the strength of the troops under Chen Chong's tent, but it also revealed that it was somewhat difficult to hold on, which made him quite suspicious. However, after careful consideration, there was no result, so he had to throw away distracting thoughts and quickly march towards martial arts.
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The distance between Wugong and Huaili is only eighty miles, and the cavalry can reach it in half a day. However, the Shu army is mostly infantry and carries a lot of baggage, so it cannot march quickly. In addition, Zhang Song does not know the details of martial arts and dare not rush to meet the enemy.
Therefore, from the perspective of conserving physical strength, Zhang Song except for sending scouts to find out the news, the army only moved forward thirty miles on the first day.
That night, the first batch of scouts returned to the camp as scheduled. Before they had time to change their boots, Zhang Song recruited them into the camp and asked about the situation of martial arts and the number of Chen Chong's troops. The scouts answered truthfully: "The thieves are laying siege to the city.
, they are still attacking the city at night. It is really difficult for us to get close, so we can only watch from a distance. However, the lights of the camp are like waves and the shouts are like thunder. It is estimated that the number of troops is no less than 100,000."
Zhang Song couldn't help being horrified when he heard this, and then stood up and rebuked in a cold voice: "What nonsense! More than a hundred thousand? Where can Chen Chong go to form a large army? If there are so many people, how dare Lu Bu raise an army to cause chaos!"
The scouts were scolded so much that they trembled, but still did not change their words, insisting that there were more than 100,000 people in the city. Zhang Song was doubtful. The military situation was critical, so Zhang Song went back and forth for hundreds of miles regardless of the scouts. He was exhausted physically and mentally, but still ordered
They went to review the situation. When the scouts left the camp, they looked back and saw that the lights in the tent were flickering. Zhang Songzheng was anxiously lying on the eucalyptus, writing first-hand military information to Liu Fan.
After hastily changing the horses and water bags, drinking a bowl of millet porridge, and washing their faces with hot water, at midnight under the waning moon, the scouts once again approached Wugong. There was no wind and no howling of wild beasts along the way.
However, the air current from the running horses still made their cheeks numb and their ears red. These people were extremely uneasy. After all, what they just reported was indeed what they saw with their own eyes, but their master did not believe it. This made them feel aggrieved, but at the same time, Zhang Song
The questions they had were indeed difficult to answer, so they could only run westward with the same questions.
When the moon gradually disappeared in the Western Mountains, the scouts rolled over to a land plateau ten miles east of Dongzuo Yuan to observe the movements of the Han army below the plateau. Looking from a distance, it was still the same as last time, with lights all over the ground.
It was like a sea of stars. But there was no way to return it, so they stayed there for more than an hour, until the orange-red sun rose slowly from the east, illuminating their vision below the plateau.
There are many formal military tents in Yuanxia, but looking around, there are not many soldiers wearing armor and stomach. Instead, there are countless people wearing short clothes and linen clothes, scattered like cattle and sheep in the vast wilderness of Weibei.
Here. They crowded around the Han army's military tent and surrounded Wugong City, as if they were part of the army.
The scouts took off their armor and mingled among them to inquire about the news, only to find that these people were local people in Fufeng who had volunteered to work in the army. When these Fufeng elders heard the news that Chen Chong had raised troops from Chencang, they immediately emptied their pots of food into the streets.
They greeted each other, but Chen Chong declined them all, so they helped to build mountains of earth. More than 100,000 people carried the mountains of earth together, and in just one day, the walls of Wugong City were filled in.
While the scouts were still exploring the news, they suddenly heard a tsunami-like cheer. They looked towards the source of the sound and saw the gate of Wugong City suddenly opened, and countless red-clothed Han troops poured into Wugong City like a wave.
.Under the rising sun, the two large flags written by Chen Chong were erected by the Han soldiers on the south gate tower. They were shining brightly and could not be looked at.
Following the uprising of the rangers in Wugong City, they successfully assassinated the Shu general Yang Huai who was guarding the city, and Chen Chong successfully captured Wugong City. At this time, only seven days had passed since Chen Chong sent troops from Chencang.