Liu Bei caught up with Guo Daxian and immediately sent someone to contact Lu Zhi's former army troops who were galloping on the official road.
This force was personally led and commanded by Lu Zhi, with four senior generals under his command: Colonel Bao Hong of Tunqi, Colonel Zhongji of Changshui, Prince Fu of Shesheng, and Wu Lan, Colonel of Infantry.
As for the Northern Army deputy general Zong Yuan, Lu Zhi stayed in Yiyang City to coordinate the rear army, while the Yue Cavalry Colonel Wu Fu arrived at the location between Guangping County and Julu County with 5,000 cavalry.
During the Han Dynasty, this place was called Jize Township.
As mentioned before, the geographical location of Guangping and Julu during the Han Dynasty was different from that of Guangping Julu in later generations.
Jize County in later generations was far from Julu County in Guangping, but at this time Jize County was just in the middle of the two places, on the border of Julu County and Guangping County. In the Han Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of Julu County.
It was not until 221 AD that it was placed under the jurisdiction of Guangping County by Cao Wei.
But in any case, this is indeed a good place to lay an ambush. Since there are large swamps and lakes here, there are many reeds and wild grass taller than the body, five thousand cavalry are hidden in them, just like water drops flowing into the river.
Once it is detected that Zhang Jiao's army intends to retreat from Guangping to Julu, then in Jize, the five thousand cavalry can retreat and block it on the plain after Guangping leaves the city. Then Zhang Jiao's army can be allowed to pass Jize.
, wait until they get out of this swamp, and then chase them on the flat ground.
From this point of view, the command system of Lu Zhi's troops is quite strategic, much better than Zhang Jiao who only passively defends and takes beatings. This also confirms from the side that there is no shortage of smart people in any era.
It’s just social progress and ideological reform.
Lu Zhi's troops used chariots to ride on the official road. The official road at this time was actually a relatively wide dirt road, and it would become very muddy if it rained. However, the weather has been good recently and there has been no heavy rain, allowing the chariots to run smoothly.
In fact, the speed of the chariot is not too fast, because the ground is uneven and the bumps caused by it are unbearable for soldiers and prisoners, so they can only slow down, worse than a bicycle, and can only travel eight or nine kilometers per hour.
Anyone who has ridden a bicycle knows that under normal circumstances, people walk at a speed of 3-5 kilometers per hour, while the speed of a bicycle is more than three times that of a person, about 15-20 kilometers per hour.
Horses can run at a speed of more than 35 kilometers per hour, and some better war horses, such as Red Rabbit and Lu, can reach a maximum speed of more than 60 kilometers per hour.
It can be seen that Lu Zhi's speed is quite slow, basically no different from a horse jogging and walking.
But even so, it was much faster than Guo Daxian's troops.
As Lu Zhi moved forward, he also made many marks on the road to make it easier for Liu Bei's people to find him.
For example, the people sent by Liu Bei did not find the mark on the official road, which means that Lu Zhi has not arrived yet, and the person has to ride in the opposite direction in the direction of Yiyang to find Lu Zhi. And if the mark is found, it means that Lu Zhi has not arrived yet.
If you are already in front, then gallop your horse on the official road towards Quliang to catch up with Lu Zhi.
The fact is that Lu Zhi had already left Guo Daxian's troops far behind at this time. When Guo Daxian took an hour to walk seven kilometers, Lu Zhi only took half an hour to catch up with him. Even Liu Bei
Didn't follow Lu Zhi's footsteps.
It is 40 miles from Yiyang to Quliang. When converted into kilometers, it is actually about 16 kilometers. Lu Zhi walks seven or eight kilometers per hour and can reach Quliang in about two hours.
Guo Daxian walked an average of 3.5 kilometers per hour. Even if he started first, it would take him four hours to get there.
Although he set off about 40 minutes ahead of schedule, he was walking on two legs while using a wheel on the other side, so his speed was completely crushed.
In this way, there is a time difference of one hour. This one hour is the perfect time that Chen Mu, as a modern person who is proficient in mathematical concepts, can plan!
War is all about timing.
The reinforcements led by Grouchy were only 4 hours away from Waterloo, but it was these 4 hours that changed the fate of a great emperor.
When the people sent by Liu Bei found Lu Zhi, Lu Zhi was already less than 3 kilometers away from Quliang.
"Xuande has caught up with Guo Daxian?"
"Yes."
"Very good, you go back and tell him first, asking him to follow closely, not to be exposed, and to wait for my general order."
"only."
The knight received the order and ran back to report the news.
In ancient times, there were no telephones or radios in wars. Communication between troops relied on messenger riders. Although it was inconvenient, it was impossible to do anything about it.
Lu Zhi was riding a horse. As a Confucian general, he was not a weak scholar. As early as when he was the governor of Jiujiang and put down the barbarian rebellion, he had personally mounted a horse to kill the barbarians and killed several bandits with his own hands. He was very brave.
In fact, many Confucian scholars during the Three Kingdoms period were not good people, and they were far from the weak image that everyone imagined.
For example, Xu Shu worked as a knight-errant in his early years. He killed people to avenge his friends and was arrested by the government.
Cheng Yu personally led the villagers to fight against the Yellow Turbans in Dong'a.
Yu Fan, an official of Sun Wu, was originally a subordinate of Wang Lang, the chatty king of Kuaiji. Later he defected to Sun Ce. Not only was he good at learning, he was proficient in "The Book of Changes", he was good at medicine, and he was also good at wielding a spear. He was a true civil and military man.
.
Therefore, Lu Zhi did not feel any discomfort while riding on the horse. As a Youzhou native with superb riding skills, Lu Zhi, who was over fifty years old, still maintained abundant physical strength. While riding the horse at a trot, he said to Bao Hong, the captain of the garrison and riding school next to him.
: "Bao Tunqi, where is this place? How far is it from Quliang?"
Bao Hong had already found a Quliang local among the prisoners and asked about the road conditions. He immediately replied: "Back to the general, this is Lugu Township, located east of Mingshan and north of Fuhe River. It is less than 8 miles away from Quliang."
Miles away."
Yiyang, Quliang and Guangnian County across the Mingshui River are actually the Yongnian Development Zone of Handan City in later generations. To modern people, this place with a total area of 761 square kilometers is pitifully small, and can even be as big as a fart.
To describe the place, it doesn’t even take half an hour to drive around it.
But in the Han Dynasty, when there were no roads or vehicles, the short 16-kilometer road between Yiyang and Quliang was quite rugged and difficult to walk. There were many uneven hills along the way, which caused difficulties for the movement of chariots.
A big obstacle.
When he heard that he was less than 8 miles away from Quliang, Lu Zhi said to Bao Hong and Wu Lan: "Bao Tunqi and Wu Xiaowei, you two will lead the army to move forward. The rest of us will follow me first to go to Quliang to observe the terrain.
"
"only!"
Everyone responded in unison.
Lu Zhi had more than dozens of personal guards, who were riding horses. In addition, the guards of the middle and high-level generals, including the captain of the Shesheng school, the captain of the Shui school, the Tun cavalry Sima, the Shui Sima, the infantry Sima, etc., totaled hundreds of people, urging the horses to move quickly.
go ahead.
They were riding single horses, not jogging like a chariot pulled by four horses. They galloped at full speed and immediately left the convoy behind.
The 8-mile journey took just over 10 minutes to arrive, which was very fast.
When he was two miles away from Quliang City, Lu Zhi ordered his horse to slow down and advance lightly.
Experienced frontier cavalry lie on the ground and can hear the sound of galloping horses several miles away. After slowing down the pace, the noise will be much smaller, so that they will not alert the enemy.
Lu Zhile turned his horse's head and entered the wild grassland beside the official road. After passing through the grassland, he came to a small hill outside the city.
This small hill is only more than ten meters high, but the view is pretty good, and you can see everything outside Quliang City.
I saw that the scale of Quliang was not much different from that of Yiyang. It was built on a plain two miles away from the south bank of Ming River. The tower was about two feet high, the gate was closed, and it was very quiet.
Lu Zhi watched for a long time and was surprised to find that the guards in Quliang City were really outrageous, even worse than Yi Yang. There was no one on duty at all.
Generally speaking, torches must be lit on the city tower at night, and someone must be on duty to patrol and keep watch. After all, as mentioned before, night blindness was still a problem in ancient times. If torches are not lit and someone is on duty, it is easy for the enemy to sneak into the city using ladders.
Seeing this scene, Lu Zhi didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Who is this General Quliang? Why is he so careless that he doesn't even dispatch the night shift, but he doesn't know how powerful our army is?"
Changshui Captain Zhongji, who was on the side, smiled and said: "Back to the general, I asked the prisoner Yi Yang before and he said that it is Zhang Bao who loves General Yan Zheng."
"What a mediocre person."
Lu Zhi shook his head. The enemies were already in Handan, a hundred miles away. It was strange that they didn't send soldiers to guard the city gate in the middle of the night.
Wang Zifu, the captain of Shesheng School, analyzed: "There are Yiyang in the west of Quliang, Lieren, Diannong, Feixiang in the south, and Kuizhang in the east. The Yellow Turban bandits are all around, with no less than 80,000 troops. Yan Zheng is afraid that he thinks he
With five counties serving as barriers, we can rest easy."
Lu Zhi turned his horse's head and said: "Soldiers and horses are like arrows. How can there be an absolutely safe place in this world? Once Yi Yang is defeated, the three counties of Liren Dian Nong Feixiang are in danger. This strict government is really ambitious. Go back and send orders to the soldiers
, stopped advancing two miles away from Quliang, and ordered the soldiers to disguise themselves as prisoners, mix among the prisoners, and prepare to attack the city."
The reason why Lu Zhi still used Chen Mu's strategy of defrauding the city instead of using a ladder to go directly to the city tower was because the former army had a dusty journey and had no siege equipment at all. So even if the enemy had no guards on the city tower, he could not
We will not continue to implement the original plan.
It was already past midnight, and at rooster crow time (1-3 midnight), Quliang City was quiet, with more than 10,000 Yellow Turban troops sleeping soundly in the city. As the defender of Quliang City, Yan Zheng occupied Quliang City.
The former county magistrate was sleeping soundly with the robbed woman in his arms, unaware of the crisis at all.
In fact, the city tower was not empty, but the soldiers guarding the city were farmers who had just picked up weapons for two months and had no professional qualities at all. When the time came, which was around 11 o'clock, I was too sleepy, so I simply turned off the lights.
I took the torch and ran to sleep inside the tower.
Therefore, when the people sent by Lu Zhi to deceive the city gate were shouting outside the city, the people inside also heard the noise and were woken up. They walked from the tower to the city wall in a daze and peered down.
ask.
When more than a dozen soldiers guarding the city saw about one or two thousand people outside the city, the leader shouted in authentic Cantonese: "Open the door, open the door quickly!"
"Who are you?"
"We are the Taiping Army who escaped from Yiyang. The army attacked Yiyang and the city fell. We escaped. Please open the door and let us in."
"Where are Yu Qushuai and Chief Guo?"
The people at the city gate were quite alert and did not open the door immediately.
However, these people below all surrendered to the government and the army, and Lu Zhi was also a thief. He specially found people from the five counties of Quliang, Yiyang, Nongfei Township, Lierendian, captured their relatives, and arranged two officials around each person.
The army forced them to perform sincerely.
Unexpectedly, this arrangement had an unexpected surprise. There was a prisoner at the bottom of the city who was from Anping Township, Diannong County. When people came up the city tower, they lit a torch, and with the bright light, he noticed that there was a fellow prisoner of his on the top.
The man immediately shouted: "Cheng Heitu, Cheng Heitu, I am your brother Ma Zhi, open the door quickly."
The man surnamed Cheng, nicknamed Heizhu, took a closer look and saw that he was indeed a good brother from his hometown. He couldn't help but said with great joy: "He is really my brother. I will open the door for you right now."
Since they knew each other, the other soldiers naturally lost their vigilance. Soon the door opened and everyone filed in.
Cheng Heidu was the first to greet you, his face full of joy: "Brother, we haven't seen each other for two years since the drought in my hometown the year before last year and we had to make ends meet. I didn't expect you to join the rebel army."
However, what Cheng Heidu didn't expect was that Ma Zhi did not embrace him as enthusiastically as him, but stood there with a very embarrassed expression.
Before he could figure out the situation, a sharp long knife was already clamped on his neck.
Ma Zhi whispered: "Silence and squat down!"
Dong Dong Dong Dong.
The sound of dense footsteps sounded almost simultaneously.
Outside the city, tens of thousands of former troops rushed towards the city, roaring and rumbling, and entered the city!