At that time, it would not be an exaggeration to describe Pang Meng as a famous general. In the entire Eastern Expedition Army, Pang Meng's status was second only to Gai Yan.
Li Xiang's angry rebuke to Pang Meng made Pang Meng furious. The latter jumped up and said, "Am I greedy for life and afraid of death? When I followed your majesty on expeditions here and there, you didn't know where you were!"
Li Xiang turned a blind eye to Pang Meng's rage. He asked loudly: "Stop mentioning your previous achievements! Now General Gai and a hundred thousand soldiers are trapped in Lanling, but you, Pang Meng, want to die without saving you. You are not greedy for life and afraid of death."
, what is it again?”
After all, Pang Meng was born as a military commander, and his fiery temper could not be suppressed. His eyes were scarlet, he raised his hand, held the hilt of his sword, and said through gritted teeth: "Bold Li Xiang, if you dare to talk nonsense again,
I will kill you now!"
Not only was Li Xiang not afraid, but he laughed loudly and said proudly: "You Pang Meng are so capable! You have the guts to kill me, the powerless Sheriff Shi, but you don't have the guts to go into battle to kill the enemy! The best in the world!
There is no one more shameless than you, right?!"
When Pang Meng heard this, his lungs almost exploded with anger, and his body trembled suddenly. As a favorite of the emperor and a general with outstanding military exploits, who would not be polite to Pang Meng? Even Gai Yan, in front of Pang Meng
Nor would he speak like this.
Now that he was being pointed at his nose and yelled at by a little-known county magistrate, Shi Lixiang, and humiliated, how could Pang Meng endure it?
He roared angrily, drew out the sword from his ribs, took three steps into two steps, and rushed towards Li Xiang. He raised the sword and dropped it, hearing a pop in his ear. As the light of the sword flashed, Li Xiang threw himself to the ground.
Blood was pouring from his neck, and he lay on the ground. His limbs twitched a few times and then stopped moving.
At this time, the Chinese army tent became completely quiet. Pang Meng held the bloody sword and stared blankly at Li Xiang's body, unable to recover for a while. Pang Meng's subordinates present stared at him with big eyes and small eyes.
, everyone was dumbfounded.
The county magistrate Shi was not a big official, but he was also an official of the imperial court with a salary of 600 shi. Pang Meng was killed as soon as he was told to kill him. How to explain this to the county government and how to explain it to the imperial court? Everyone looked at each other, got up and left one after another.
When Pang Meng approached, a general was very clever and immediately said: "Yes...it was Li Xiang who was rude to the general. General...the general couldn't hold it back for a moment, so he killed Li Xiang by mistake! Yes! The general killed Li Xiang by mistake!"
Li Xiang!"
Everyone reacted, nodded in agreement, and said all at once: "It was Li Xiang who made rude remarks, and the following offended, so the general accidentally killed him!"
Pang Meng took a deep breath and slowly sheathed his sword. He turned around and returned to his seat silently, sitting down slowly with his face changing.
He was indeed impulsive just now. Now that the person is dead, there is no point in regretting it. What he has to consider now is how to explain this matter to the court.
It was impossible to hide such a big matter. Pang Meng thought about it, called a general, and asked him to send Li Xiang's body back to Pengcheng. In addition, he went to see the prefect Zhao Meng, explained the matter to him, and tried to win as much as possible.
Zhao Meng’s understanding.
The emperor has always hated the capital army for bullying local officials. The matter of him killing Li Xiang is a big or small matter. If Zhao Meng is willing to speak for him, this matter can be reduced to a major matter. If Zhao Meng is not willing to help him, the matter can be reduced to a minor matter.
If you talk and add fuel to the imperial court, things will get into trouble.
According to Pang Meng's wishes, the general and several officers and soldiers loaded Li Xiang's body into a carriage and pulled it into Pengcheng.
After entering the city, the general immediately went to see Zhao Meng, the prefect of Chu County. Zhao Meng was shocked when he learned the news that Li Xiang had been killed. He was stunned for a while before he came back to his senses.
He asked the general about the whole story. The general just made up a story, saying that Li Xiang had committed an offense below and had spoken harshly to Pang Meng. Pang Meng was impulsive and could not control his emotions, so he accidentally killed him.
Li Xiang.
Zhao Meng is the prefect of the county, and Li Xiang is the governor of the county. Can Zhao Meng not understand his subordinate? Li Xiang is upright, honest, and selfless. He dares to confront the powerful, but he will never bully others.
What's more, the other party was Pang Meng. He was General Ping Di who was personally named by His Majesty and a favorite minister of the emperor. How could Li Xiang speak rudely to Pang Meng for no reason and commit the following crime? The other party's words were not credible.
He looked at the general with a gloomy face and said nothing.
The general cleared his throat and said: "What my general means is that this incident was an accident. We should not hurt each other's harmony because of this incident. Let's make this a big deal and make it a trivial matter!"
When Zhao Meng heard this, he laughed in anger. The person who died now was his own Sheriff Shi. The dignified Chief Shi was killed. As a prefect, he had to help the murderer and pretend as if nothing happened.
, do you want to be the governor of your own? Who among the county officials in the future will believe in him?
He slammed the table and said in a deep voice to the general: "You go back and report this to General Pang. I will never let this matter go. General Pang disregarded human life and secretly hurt the lives of our Chu County officials. I will definitely
Report this matter to Your Majesty and ask Your Majesty to make a decision!"
The general's expression changed, he squinted his eyes and said, "Prefect Zhao, my general has admitted his fault and is willing to pay compensation for Li Changshi's death. It's too much for Prefect Zhao to hold on to him like this."
It's too much to be aggressive and bullying!"
Zhao Meng stood up suddenly and said: "Who is being aggressive now? Who is bullying others too much? I have a long history in Chu County, and General Pang will kill him whenever he says, but I still have Chu in his eyes."
The prefect of the county, do you still have the laws of the emperor?"
"You..." The general lowered his eyes and tried his best to suppress his anger. He changed the subject and said: "We will discuss this matter separately for the time being. Our army is short of food and grass now. I hope that Governor Zhao can send it in time."
People, transport food and grass to our army camp."
"No." Zhao Meng simply refused.
"What?" The general raised his eyebrows, wondering if his ears had heard it wrong.
"I said no!" Zhao Meng emphasized his tone and said word for word: "Until the murder of Li Changshi is not resolved satisfactorily, I, Chu County, will not send a grain of food to your camp! You go back
, report my words to General Pang truthfully!"
The general's face turned livid with anger. He raised his hand and pointed at Zhao Meng fiercely. First it was Li Xiang, and now it was Zhao Meng. Each one of them dared not to take his own general seriously. The officials of Chu County
Too arrogant and domineering!
"The army cannot live without food for a day! If you, Zhao Meng, do not send food to our army, you, Zhao Meng, will be fully responsible for all the consequences!" After saying this, the general turned and left.
Of course Zhao Meng knew the terrible consequences of having no food in the army, but Li Xiang could not die in vain. Pang Meng had to take responsibility for this matter. If this matter was not resolved, he would not be able to send food to Pang Meng's army.
forage.
On the same day, Zhao Meng wrote a memorial to Liu Xiu, detailing Pang Meng's fear of war and his daring not to send troops to reinforce Lanling, as well as his indiscriminate killing of people in Chu County and the indiscriminate killing of county officials.
Send someone to send the memorial to Luoyang.
On the other side, Lanling City. After discussing with Ben Xiu, Gai Yan once again made arrangements for a breakout.
This time, the Han army no longer broke through in one direction, but divided into two groups to break through in both directions. Gai Yan led his troops on one side and Ben Xiu on the other. Gai Yan led his troops to break out of the encirclement to the north, and Ben Xiu led his troops to break out of the encirclement to the south.
Disperse and intercept your own enemy forces.
This breakout plan is much better than the previous ones. In addition, Ben Xiu also decided that he would lead his troops to break out first, attracting as many enemy troops as possible to the southern line, and providing Gaiyan with a way to attack the enemy in the north.
The breakout of the line creates opportunities.
Such a decision is undoubtedly extremely risky, and it is very likely that the Benxiu tribe will be trapped in a tight siege. Let alone breaking out of the siege, they may be trapped to death by the enemy.
Gai Yan wanted to dissuade Ben Xiu, but Ben Xiu waved his hand and said meaningfully: "General Gai, in order to save our troops, ignored the danger and approached Lanling. Now that Lanling can no longer hold on, he breaks out. Xiu is responsible for it and should die."
Help!"
Ben Xiu was originally a subordinate of Dong Xian. It was after Dong Xian's army was defeated in the first battle that he suddenly decided to defect to the Han army. He did not know Gai Yan at all before, and there was no friendship between them. But after getting along with each other these days,
Gai Yan admired Ben Xiu very much as a person.
The next day, the Han army began to carry out a breakout operation in accordance with the agreed upon plan. Ben Xiu led 30,000 men and took the lead in breaking out from the southern city of Lanling and advancing southward. As expected, Ben Xiu's breakout operation attracted a large number of Dong Xian's troops.
Dong Xian's army, which was deployed in the east and west of the city, gathered towards the south of the city, forming an encirclement against the Ben Xiu army that broke out to the south. On the other side, Gai Yan led his troops and rushed out from the north city. The entire army went north with all their strength.
Advance.
The current situation on the battlefield is that Dong Xian's army in the north of the city is resisting Gai Yan's army alone, while Dong Xian's army in the east, west and south of the city work together to surround Ben Xiu's army.
Gai Yan's army numbered 70,000, and they were all brave and capable Eastern Expeditionary Forces. Dong Xian's army in the north of the city also had about 70,000 troops, and was assisted by a complete defense system. One side was good at fighting, and the other side had complete defense facilities. The two sides were evenly matched in a fight.
.
Compared with the Northern Front battlefield where fighting was fierce and evenly matched, the situation on the Southern Front battlefield was much clearer.
Dong Xian's army in the east, west and south of the city, totaling 140,000 to 50,000 men, surrounded Ben Xiu's army of only 30,000 men, three levels inside and three levels outside, making it impenetrable.
The battle situation was almost one-sided. As Dong Xianjun continued to compress the encirclement, the living space of Ben Xiu's army became smaller and smaller. The thirty thousand people were finally squeezed into a ball. Looking around, people were crowded together.
, people are next to each other, people are crowded together, and people among them have difficulty even turning around.
Let's talk about the northern battlefield. Gai Yan personally went into battle, took the lead in the charge, and commanded his soldiers to rush forward. Under the full force of the Han army's attack, even Dong Xianjun, who had complete defense facilities, gradually began to be unable to support himself and was forced by the Han army.
You have to retreat continuously.
In this battle, the two sides fought from day to night. It was not until darkness fell that Gai Yan's army finally tore apart Dong Xian's army's defense line and broke through. However, at the same time, the 30,000 soldiers led by Ben Xiu had been completely wiped out by Dong Xian's army.
.
Even Ben Xiu was not spared and was captured alive by Dong Xian's army. Dong Xian hated Ben Xiu deeply. After learning the news that Ben Xiu was captured alive by his own soldiers, Dong Xian laughed three times and ordered Ben Xiu to be captured alive.
Capital punishment by breaking up a car.
This was the Battle of Lanling that broke out between the Han army and Dong Xian's army.
The Battle of Lanling started because of Ben Xiu's defection. Dong Xian was furious, gathered all his troops, and personally led the army to Lanling for encirclement and suppression. Gai Yan led his troops to rescue.
Ben Xiu abandoned the dark side and defected to the Han Dynasty. He was trapped in Lanling by Dong Xian's army. Gai Yan led his troops to rescue him. This was not wrong in itself. Liu Xiu also supported Gai Yan's decision to rescue Ben Xiu.
However, Liu Xiu felt that Dong Xian's army had a large number of troops and strong morale, and it was not suitable for Gai Yan's troops to fight against them. He should adopt the tactic of encircling Wei and rescuing Zhao, and led his army to sneak attack Dong Xian's home base Tancheng, forcing Dong Xian to lead his army to rescue, in order to relieve Ben Xiu.
The danger of being trapped.
After deliberation with the senior leaders of the Eastern Expedition Army led by Gai Yan, most of the generals, including Gai Yan, believed that the risk of encircling Wei and rescuing Zhao was too great. We could not risk the lives of one hundred thousand soldiers and go deep into the army alone. Therefore, the Eastern Expedition
In the end, the army did not adopt Liu Xiu's tactics, but chose to fight against Dong Xian's army.
The direct consequence of this was that the Eastern Expedition Army split. The conflict between Gai Yan and Pang Meng broke out completely. Pang Meng led his troops to leave the Eastern Expedition Army and retreated to Chu County to garrison. As a result, the strength of the Eastern Expedition Army was greatly reduced.
The weakening eventually led to the complete failure of the Battle of Lanling.
Ben Xiu led his troops to defect, and the Eastern Expeditionary Army failed to seize such a good opportunity. Not only did they fail to capture Lanling, but they also led to the annihilation of Ben Xiu's entire army. Along with this, Gai Yan's troops also suffered heavy losses. So far,
Gai Yan's troops were no longer able to engage in direct confrontation with Dong Xianjun.