Along the way, the former army took thousands of prisoners and drove their chariots toward Quliang.
Along the way, the Chinese army stayed at the same place to organize the baggage, and used the remaining carriages to carry a certain amount of supplies and slowly marched towards Quliang.
Along the way, the rear army began to clean up the mess in Yiyang City. The fire had to be put out, the grain, grass and coins in the city's warehouses had to be collected, and there were a lot of things to do.
Chen Mu was left by Liu Bei to manage the newly surrendered soldiers. Firstly, these soldiers had just surrendered. Secondly, most of them were from Jizhou. There were not many who could drive horses, so they were of little use.
The auxiliary soldiers outside Yiyang City, under the command of a large number of mid-level officers, carried the items in an orderly manner. Although the fire in the city had not been completely extinguished, it was not easy to put out the fire because Mingshui River was not far outside the city and it was easy to get water.
difficulty.
As the auxiliary soldiers stepped forward, the fire had become much smaller. A large number of soldiers began to clean up the ruins in the city, while the senior officers who stayed behind were looking for a place to live, preparing to give the rear army an early rest.
Nowadays, including Gaoyi, the seat of Jizhou, Julu, Anping, Guangping, Zhao and other counties where the Yellow Turban disaster has been most serious, most of the houses are empty, and the people either become Yellow Turban thieves, are killed, or flee for their lives to other counties.
, so there are no common people to be found in the entire Yiyang City.
This situation had to wait until the end of the year after the Yellow Turbans were pacified, and Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty moved the seat of Jizhou from Gaoyi to Yecheng. Jizhou rested and recuperated for several years before it could slowly recover from this severely damaged rebellion.
Without the common people, the entire city was used as a military camp by Lu Zhi's army. There was no owner's house in the city, so it naturally became a military camp.
The fire in the city was gradually extinguished, and troops moved in one after another.
As auxiliary troops that are not combat troops, the rear army will not set off for Quliang tomorrow morning, so they will stay in the city tonight. Moreover, Yiyang is very close to Quliang and Guangping City. After capturing Yiyang,
This place also has strategic significance and can be used as a rear camp. If the battle goes against the front, Lu Zhi's army will have a retreat point.
Therefore, the city was quickly cleaned up. Lu Zhi was strict in running the army and had very good military discipline. When doing the cleaning work, tens of thousands of people performed their duties, and the scene was orderly. Those who worked, those who were on duty. It took more than an hour.
, the matter was almost handled, and Yiyang City quickly fell into calm.
But just when Lu Zhi's rear army stationed in Yiyang and the front army and the middle army set off for Quliang, Liu Bei's advance troops were not relaxed.
Because they didn't know where the enemy had gone, they had to keep advancing along the Ming River. At that time, there were no roads or dams on the river bank, so they had to walk along the river bank. But the problem was that there was no Ming River at this time.
After any rest, there are no flood prevention measures.
As the most important tributary of the Ming River, the water channel of the Ming River is large and small at the top and is curved, so its water flow capacity is not suitable for the amount of incoming water. During the flood season, it cannot be vented in time, and floods often cause disasters. It will take until the 20th century to
Only with the arrival of a new era can the floods be quelled.
This means that floods often occurred along the Mingshui River during the Eastern Han Dynasty. In addition, trees were cut down along the way, and there was a large amount of farmland. The earthen structures were relatively soft. You can imagine how slow it would be if you rode a horse across the river bank.
The only good news is that Liu Bei's troops were trapped in the soft earthen structures of the river beach, and the same was true for Guo Daxian's troops. Because Guo Daxian's troops were so large in number and severely exhausted, their marching speed was twice as slow as expected.
There was a time difference of four quarters of an hour between the time they withdrew from Yiyang City and when Liu Bei's troops began to pursue them, which was nearly an hour. However, they had only walked 8 miles, which was almost 3 kilometers.
Some people may be surprised that no matter how bad the road conditions are, the speed is too slow and is no different from ordinary people walking.
In fact, it was not because Guo Daxian did not want to hurry up and escape, but because of the personnel composition of the Yellow Turban Army.
Even though there are 20,000 Yellow Turbans in Yiyang City, there may not be that many young and strong people.
In ancient times, many rebels rebelled with their families. There were at least 10,000 to 20,000 dependents in every 10,000 young men.
The same is true for the structure of the Yellow Turban Army. Due to the disasters and bad times in various places in the past two years, many old people and women have starved to death, leaving a large number of middle-aged and young people with labor force.
These people really couldn't survive anymore, so they rebelled with Taiping Dao.
Among them, the young people are fine, but the physical strength of the middle-aged people has seriously declined after the age of forty, and their endurance is far less than that of the young people, which has caused this situation.
The most typical example is that when Liu Bei fled from Xinye to Jingzhou, he was defeated at Changbanpo in Dangyang. This was because Liu Bei brought more than 100,000 old, weak, women and children as well as a lot of food and baggage. He only walked 10 miles a day, and his actions were very fast.
However, Cao Cao sent out light cavalry to pursue him, traveling three hundred miles a day and night, which was 30 times faster than Liu Bei's speed.
As a result, Cao Cao's 5,000 tiger and leopard cavalry successfully intercepted Liu Bei's army at Changbanpo. In a battle, they suffered heavy losses. Even his two daughters and Xu Shu's mother were kidnapped by Cao Cao. You can know that there are old men in the army who are not physically fit.
What is the result of being weak?
Liu Bei certainly didn't know that he would encounter the same fate as Guo Daxian in the future. After more than an hour of pursuit, they finally caught up with Guo Daxian 22 miles away from Quliang City.
Just as Chen Mu thought, Guo Daxian didn't know the road at first and could only judge the direction from Mingshui River in the north of Yiyang City. Although in ancient times, there was the prophecy theory of judging the direction through the Big Dipper, especially in the Han Dynasty, it was very popular. Many Confucian classics
He is also a famous prophecy expert, such as Zhuge Liang is one of the representative figures.
However, it is obviously impossible to expect a group of peasant soldiers to read the stars. After finding the right direction, Guo Daxian could have found the location of the official road. But unfortunately, he did not dare to take the official road for fear of being chased by soldiers behind him, so he could only follow the official road.
Mingshui continued to move forward, and the speed could be said to be quite slow.
When Liu Bei saw them about two miles away from Guo Daxian's troops, he saw a long dragon running for miles along the river bank. The Yellow Turban Army supported the old and the young, lit torches, and walked slowly toward the bend
Liang fled in the direction.
At a rough look, there were at least seven or eight thousand people. After the city of Yiyang was broken, only a few people ran away in panic, and most of them were gathered together by Guo Daxian to form this team.
At the front of the team, Guo Daxian rode on a tall horse and kept turning back to urge his men to go faster, completely unaware of the people behind him.
"Brother, Guo Daxian."
Guan Yu had excellent eyesight and saw the figure on the horse in the distance at a glance.
However, he was the only one riding a horse among seven or eight thousand people, and he was still at the front of the group, even if he didn't want to be conspicuous.
Zhang Fei wondered: "Since Guo Daxian has a horse, why didn't he go to Quliang alone to report the news?"
Liu Bei laughed and said: "How dare he? The Yellow Turban soldiers were short of horses, and only a few generals had horses. After the fall of Yiyang, hundreds of horses in the city fell into our hands. He was walking alone in the city.
On the official road, which is spooky and terrifying, with corpses everywhere, he feels guilty and is not afraid that ghosts and gods will take his life?"
If Chen Mu were here, he would definitely sneer at these words. As a high-quality talent in the new era who has received higher education and studied abroad, he has an extremely calm mind and careful thinking. Materialism has long been implemented in his heart, and he does not believe in ghosts and gods at all. superstitious thoughts.
However, the Han Dynasty can almost be said to be one of the most superstitious dynasties in ancient times. The witchcraft disaster that caused an uproar during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is a typical representative of it. The Taiping Dao was originally a religious rebel group that promoted superstitious ideas. Guo Daxian's Naturally, people believe in the theory of ghosts and gods deeply. Let a superstitious person walk on a road full of corpses in the middle of the night, which will definitely frighten his courage.
no way.
Who allowed the Yellow Turbans to commit evil in Jizhou?
Nowadays, the four counties in central Jizhou have ten houses and nine empty houses. It can really be said that "white bones are exposed in the wild, and there are no roosters crowing for thousands of miles." Ordinary people would be scared to death if they walked across the graveyard, let alone the corpses on the ground.
"Now that I have caught him, why not kill him all the way? I am sure that if I rush into the formation, I can definitely pierce him with a spear."
Zhang Fei waved the steel spear in his hand, eager to try.
Wanjun takes the general's head from it!
It's a good opportunity to become famous in this era.
But Liu Bei shook his head: "No, the riverbank here is soft and it is difficult for horses to gallop. Once stuck in the mud, even the bravest will be surrounded and killed. It's better not to scare the snake and just listen to the arrangements of the fourth brother."
Zhang Fei said angrily: "Oh, although the fourth brother is smart, the fighting opportunities are changing rapidly. He is no longer on the battlefield, how can he predict unpredictable things? Now is a rare opportunity. It is a good time to decide the outcome in a battle. As long as he kills If you are the leader of the thief, other enemies will surely fall in the face of the wind, which is a great achievement."
Guan Yu jumped off his horse and struck the ground with the Qinglong Yanyue Sword. The handle easily sank into the ground, and he couldn't help but said: "Fourth brother once told me before setting off that if we need to delay the enemy's advance, Let me check the geology of the river bank first. If the land on the river bank is soft, there must be no conflict with the enemy on the river bank. Yide, this is not possible. Let's wait until we get to the front and take a look."
"Fourth brother still has the foresight."
Liu Bei nodded approvingly: "Yide, just be obedient. Wait patiently, and when you get to the harder ground, you can use the cavalry charge. Once you receive the order, you can fight the enemy. I promise you A charge."
"All right."
Zhang Fei had no choice but to agree.
Just like people and their physiques cannot be generalized, the geological conditions of the same river cannot be generalized.
In some places, the geology is very soft due to river erosion. If you just step on the shore, it may cause landslides and collapses.
In some places, there is a straight line, and the river beach is relatively stable and has not been washed away by the river water over the years. The geological conditions will be slightly better, and horses can run.
This was Chen Mu's strategy after thinking of the tragic experience of Yang Zaixing, the peerless warrior in the Song Dynasty.
After all, that macho man charged into a large formation of tens of thousands of enemies by himself and killed hundreds of golden men by himself. It was like Lu Bu was still alive and the Overlord was reborn, but such a macho man got stuck in the mud because of a fight by the river. , and was shot to death by random arrows.
Chen Mu didn't want Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei to follow his old path, so he had to give advance warning.