Dong Zhuo naturally didn't know that Xu Rong met Chen Mu. It was like a mouse meeting a cat. A catapult punch knocked him out of control.
The day after the previous day's meeting ended in a quarrel, Xu Rong's request for instructions on relocating the Kwantung Army's population arrived in Chang'an.
This put the proposal shelved yesterday back on the table, forcing Dong Zhuo to reconsider the matter.
However, Dong Zhuo found that people like Lu Bu, Hu Zhen, and others were too simple-minded and could easily cause conflicts and were not useful, so he called Li Ru and Yan Zhong, and the three of them made up their minds in private without asking other generals for their opinions.
In the front hall of Weiyang Palace, Dong Zhuo has now lived in the palace grandly. He doesn't care about the feelings of the emperor and the queen. Anyway, it's not like he hasn't done anything in Luoyang before, so it doesn't matter.
Sitting on the main seat in the front hall, Dong Zhuo looked at Li Ru and Yan Zhong and said, "Xu Rong also knows the battle report from the front."
Niu Fu's battle report must be given to Chang'an as soon as possible, so Chang'an has to know the news one day in advance, and Xu Rong has to wait one day late.
Li Ru still knew that Xu Rong had something, so he asked: "What is Xu Rong's opinion?"
"His suggestion was for us to fight."
Dong Zhuo shook his head: "But our army is insufficient in strength and may be difficult to maintain."
Li Ru pondered and said: "However, this matter is of great importance. If the situation is not broken, the Kwantung Army's logistics strength will greatly increase, which will be extremely detrimental to our army. This is a long-term benefit, and Ming Gong still cannot ignore the future harm."
"Do we really want to go to war first?"
Dong Zhuo hesitated for a moment. If Lu Bu left, he would have no bodyguards around him.
Li Ru advised: "Ming Gong, "The Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor" once said that if we continue to cut off, we will suffer chaos. If we hesitate at this time, when all the people in Guanzhong are moved away by the Kwantung Army, and Luoyang produces grain next year, then
Our army is in danger."
Dong Zhuo's expression was cloudy and constantly changing, as if he was thinking about something.
The hall was extremely quiet for a moment, and no one spoke.
Yan Zhong didn't say anything because he knew very well that what Li Ru said was the truth, and even he couldn't think of any good solution.
Li Ru didn't say anything, but was waiting for Dong Zhuo to make the final decision.
After nearly half a quarter of an hour, Dong Zhuo glanced at the two of them strangely and suddenly said: "Wen You, Cheng Han. I want to know if these people are very important to the Kwantung Army?"
"Nature is very important."
Li Ru said: "It is difficult to leave one's homeland, and it has been a tradition of the Han people to relocate to their homeland since ancient times. People from Luoyang all want to go back. As long as the Kwantung Army can help them, they will be grateful in the future. After cultivating grain and grass, they will all donate and pay taxes.
, then the Kwantung Army will have enough food and grass and will have no further worries."
Dong Zhuo then asked: "Then what use do these people have to us?"
What’s the use for us?
Li Ru thought about his words carefully, then shook his head after a moment and said: "It's useless. All the fields in Guanzhong are already owned. The population of Chang'an plus the surrounding counties has reached one million. Even if the fields in Guanzhong need to be cultivated, we can't
You don’t need so many people.”
Dong Zhuo's eyes flashed with a bloodthirsty red light, and with a devilish voice, Jie Jie said with a strange smile: "Hehehehehehe, since we don't need so many people, why should we leave them to the Kwantung Army?"
When he smiled, Yan Zhong felt goosebumps all over his body. After carefully savoring what Dong Zhuo had just said, a look of horror suddenly appeared in his eyes.
Important people from the Kwantung Army.
Dong Zhuo didn't want it.
Since the two sides are hostile, then they will destroy your plan.
How to destroy it?
Yan Zhong asked with a slight trembling: "Ming Gong means..."
"Massacre the city!"
Only two words came out of Dong Zhuo's mouth.
But it made everyone, including Li Ru, feel horrified and broke into a cold sweat.
Massacre the city!
Dong Zhuo is a man who has no conscience at all. There is no way to describe him.
...
...
Outside Xinfeng City, Chen Mu still didn't know what Dong Zhuo was going to do.
After arranging catapults to bomb the city, Chen Mu sent Zhao Yun to lead a scout team to disperse around Xinfeng and head west.
The role of scouts is naturally to explore the terrain, observe cities and towns in various places, and record the distribution of villages, roads, and enemy troops.
Especially when large armies are facing each other dozens of kilometers apart, the corpses of scouts from both sides may be strewn everywhere along these dozens of kilometers.
Nearly a thousand scouts, like scattered fish fry, were distributed in several counties east of Chang'an to detect the enemy's situation and engage in confrontations with the detective horses in the enemy's rear city.
Chen Mu may not be a qualified lord because he does not have the leadership qualities and courage to be a lord without fear of death.
But to lead an army alone and be a qualified commander, you still have such confidence.
People like Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, and Zhou Yu should actually be regarded as strategists far from being regarded as counselors.
People are not born with the ability to fight. Many things need to be learned and explored slowly before they can be summarized into experience.
Chen Mu's learning ability is pretty good. He learned a lot from Lu Zhi, and now he is putting it to good use.
Tens of thousands of troops gathered under the city, and the scout cavalry was dispatched to observe the surrounding environment.
Everything is arranged in an orderly manner and there is no leakage.
Time passed minute by minute.
As evening approached, the Kwantung Army still seemed to have no intention of withdrawing its troops and continued to block the gate of Xinfeng County.
Inside the city, Xu Rong was anxious as he listened to the rumbling sound of catapults smashing into the city outside.
"Have the troops sent out yet?"
This was the fourth time he asked the guards around him.
The guard replied helplessly: "General, the Kwantung Army's scouts have blocked the three gates in the north, south, and west, and our scouts cannot get out at all."
"Send again, keep sending!"
Xu Rong said anxiously: "We must give Li Cai a death order and must not leave the stronghold."
"knew."
The personal guards had no choice but to rush out and continue to deploy manpower.
Xu Rong was restless in the mansion, with a very anxious look on his face. He stood in the hall and walked back and forth for a long time, unable to stop for a moment.
This chapter is not over yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading! He understood that Chen Mu suddenly made such a big move. He first sent out a trebuchet to smash the door, and then sent scouts to block other city gates to prevent his scouts from getting out. In fact, he wanted to
He was trapped for a short time, turning Xinfeng into an isolated city.
So what is Chen Mu’s purpose in turning Xinfeng into an isolated city?
Of course something needs to be done.
The main force of the Kwantung Army is outside the city, so it is impossible to bypass Xinfeng and attack Baqiao in the rear.
Moreover, this is also a big taboo among military strategists. It is easy to be attacked from both sides. Chen Mu will not make this mistake.
Then the only possibility is to pull out the nails that Xu Rong ambushed in Hongqing Mountain.
Whether it was sending a small group of troops into the mountain to harass them, or luring them down the mountain, Xu Rong felt that Chen Mu would definitely devise his trick.
Now that the orders in the city cannot be passed on, it means that Li Cai's troops are left alone.
If Tan Ma can no longer go out, as for what they will do, it can only depend on God's will.
Alas, I just hope Li Cai can stabilize himself.
Xu Rong sighed in his heart. He didn't have the ability to transmit messages thousands of miles, so he could only hope that Li Cai would remain unmoved in the face of temptation.
What is Li Cai doing now?
He took all his troops and horses down the mountain in a mighty manner, preparing to burn the Kwantung Army's camp.
In fact, Li Cai struggled with this decision for a whole day.
Logically speaking, in such a large camp, there are seven or eight campsites, and the tents alone stretch for several miles, all the way to the Wei River. It is impossible not to leave soldiers and horses in the camp.
But what surprised Li Cai was that all the soldiers he sent down the mountain reported that the camp was empty, as if it had been completely abandoned.
After hesitating for a long time, until it was almost evening, Li finally couldn't hold himself back and decided to go down the mountain.
After dilly-dallying and testing for a long time, I officially entered the camp.
Some people may say that it would be better to burn down the camp and send a few people there.
Why so many people?
However, if you set fires in winter, and it rained heavily in the past few days, you may not be able to burn down a camp even if you send a few people there, even if they are exhausted.
You must know that camping is not as simple as enclosing a piece of land and placing everyone's tents in it.
First of all, the camps must be separated and not all crowded together.
Almost every military unit and school of soldiers and horses has its own camp, which is led by the army commander and captain of the same school. Then several camps form an army, commanded by the general of the army.
These camps will be scattered throughout the camp, forming horns with each other, separated by fences in the middle, forming separate camps dotted around each other.
The purpose of this arrangement is also very simple. If the enemy attacks from the front, if the camp is a whole, it will be immediately defeated.
Only when they are all separated can the maximum effect of the camp be realized.
After all, once the enemy attacks, they can only break through the outside and cannot threaten the inside. You can also rely on your own camp to continue the counterattack, or even divide the enemy, giving you a chance to turn defeat into victory.
Therefore, even if Li Cai prepared fish paste and oil to set fire, he would still have to light the fires one by one, and with his thousands of people, he might not be able to cause much damage.
Therefore, when Li Cai led his troops to the empty camp, he regretted why he hesitated for so long.
If he had come earlier, the result might have been greater.
"ignition!"
Li Cai gave the order, and rows of soldiers held torches and began to rush towards the tents in the camp.
Tents are important supplies, especially in winter. If there are no tents in field operations, it will be a huge blow to the Kwantung Army. Maybe this battle will directly defeat the Kwantung Army.
When the time comes that you have made great achievements, you may be promoted to the rank of captain, get promoted and make a fortune. You will no longer have to go through life and death like this and you will have a bright future.
Thinking of this, Li Cai became even more excited.
But he didn't know that at this moment, in the ground under his feet, black shadows were already quietly lurking, preparing for a sudden attack.
Zhang Liao and Gao Shun had dug a tunnel as early as last night and were waiting for them quietly.
The campground is really too big.
Li Cai just sent people to inspect various camps and did not notice at all that inside the camp near Hongqing Mountain, several passages had been dug out of the ground, enough to ambush thousands of troops.
Today's Shaanxi is not the time when the Loess Plateau was eroded by water and soil in later generations. As the land of Longxing in the Qin State, Guanzhong at this time was rich in water and soil, with green mountains and green waters, and the land was very solid.
Therefore, if a cave is dug underground and it is only a passage and not too deep, the possibility of collapse is not high. After all, this is the case for cave dwellings in Yan'an and coal mines in Shanxi.
Zhang Liao and Gao Shun were lurking in the tunnel, like poisonous snakes hiding in caves, quietly waiting for their prey to take the bait...