Chapter 95: White Horse Xuanjia, he will never come back
Zhang He finally escaped back.
With the defeat of all the Jizhou Army stationed in Qinghe State, the entire eastern battlefield has been occupied by the Qingzhou Army.
In this way, strategically, Qingzhou formed a three-sided attack on Jizhou from the southeast and west.
East refers to the northeastern direction of Wei County, where the main force of Liu Bei, Gongsun Zan, and Yuan Shao's main force from Qinghe State and Julu County formed a confrontation with Yuan Shao's main force in Ping'en, Shuzhang, Lieren and other places.
South refers to the Qingzhou Army led by Chen Mu and Zhang Fei, which attacked Guantao, Yuancheng, and Yin'an in the southeast of Wei County from the direction of Yanzhou, and faced off in Wei County, Fanyang, Neihuang and other places.
The west refers to the Sili soldiers and horses headed by the Luoyang Small Court, Guan Yu, Zhong Yao, Zhao Yun and other tribes, attacking the southwest of Wei County and confronting the enemy in Linli, Dangyin and other places.
This was a strategic plan formulated by Chen Mu in the past two years. One was to curb the development of Jizhou, and the other was to attack from three sides, making it difficult for Jizhou to deal with it.
Now half the battle is won.
The remaining half lies in when to choose the decisive battle with Yuan Shao.
But at this moment, it's not possible.
Because the foundation of Jizhou lies here, you have to eat one meal at a time and do things one by one. If you want to annex the entire Jizhou in one go, at least right now, it is not the time.
Jizhou Yedu, the residence of the governor.
When the news of Zhang He's defeat came back to Yedu, Yuan Shao was having a banquet with many generals in his mansion.
From the death of Wang Fen in September to December now, when he took over the entire land of Jizhou, Yuan Shao has been adjusting the internal forces and balancing the many factions.
First, they used various methods to secretly suppress the party members, and put those party members who were originally in high positions into the cabinet with empty posts, and promoted them openly and covertly. Then, they firmly controlled the real power and military power in their own hands.
This process lasted for three months, and now, the entire Jizhou court, from inside to outside, has mostly become Yuan Shao's people, including the servants of the little emperor of Jizhou, all have been changed.
Just like Cao Cao purged a large number of loyal Han veterans in his later period to pave the way for Cao Pi, the current change of power in Jizhou naturally represents a change of personnel.
Otherwise, why would people like Yan Liangwen, Chou Xu You, Guo Tu, etc. take refuge in Yuan Shao, not just to be able to rely on him and prosper?
Now that the work was finally done, Yuan Shao was very happy and held a big banquet in the mansion to celebrate the matter.
"Now that the internal problems in Jizhou have been resolved, the old court officials have either been appointed to official positions or appointed to other idle positions. No one in Jizhou can threaten Duke Ming anymore."
"Yes, the Sili Xiaowei, Shangshutai, and Yushi Zhongcheng took over the power to Duke Ming. The emperor was also controlled by Duke Ming. From now on, there will no longer be any constraints whether it is appointing officials or dispatching troops. This time
It’s gratifying and congratulatory.”
"My lords, I am too happy too early. Although Duke Ming has taken control of the entire Jizhou, Lu Bu has always disobeyed Duke Ming's orders. This time he even looted places. If we don't deal with it as soon as possible, he may be a serious problem."
Many counselors were congratulating Yuan Shao, and someone raised an objection. When everyone saw it, it was Liu Zihui, the counselor Wang Fen relied on before, who suggested that Lu Bu attack Yanzhou.
When Yuan Shao heard what he said, he nodded secretly and said, "What Zi Hui said is true. Lu Bu is the one who gives me a headache."
Now foreign enemies are waiting for him, Qingzhou, Youzhou and Luoyang are attacked from three sides, but Yuan Shao is not worried.
Because the legacy Wang Fen left for him was so huge that even if three places attacked at the same time, he would still have enough troops to deal with it.
Therefore, the strategy he chose at this time was to calm down the internal affairs first before fighting against the outside world.
The saying "To fight against foreigners, we must first stabilize the inside" was not invented by Baldhead. The earliest source is the slogan "Respect the king and fight against the barbarians" put forward by Duke Huan of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period - which means to first "pacify the inside" and then "respect the king" and then "respect the king".
Only in this way can we “fight foreigners”.
Then in the Western Han Dynasty, Chao Cuo advocated the elimination of feudal vassals and shouted the slogan "To repel foreigners, we must first pacify the country." This is the earliest source of this sentence.
Moreover, this strategy has been highly praised by most rulers in the past dynasties.
Only by resolving internal contradictions can we be consistent with the outside world. This is an eternal truth.
But now that the internal power struggle has been resolved, Yuan Shao's people have completely taken over, but there is still Lu Bu, who is still a big trouble. He only asks him for supplies all day long, and orders him to attack Luoyang, but never does anything, which makes Yuan Shao very unhappy.
In fact, the earliest conflict between Yuan Shao and Lu Bu was when the eighteen princes challenged Dong. However, this was a matter of national justice and not a personal hatred.
So at first Yuan Shao decided to take charge of Jizhou, and Lu Bu had no objections.
After all, Lu Bu is not a fool. Even if he worships Wang Fen as his adoptive father, the relationship between father and son is somewhat scary. If he wants to rely on this to seize Jizhou, not to mention that the entire Jizhou will not agree.
Even the Jizhou soldiers under his command may rebel.
Therefore, Lu Bu was relatively calm at first, and honestly obeyed Wang Fen's orders before his death. After withdrawing his troops from Yanzhou, he stationed himself in Dangyin and confronted the Luoyang soldiers and horses.
But over time, problems will eventually arise.
Because Lu Bu had only 25,000 soldiers and horses, he faced Guan Yu's tens of thousands of troops at Dangyin. The two sides fought several times. Although Lu Bu defeated Guan Yu several times with his courage, it also made him feel a lot of pressure, so
He requested Yuan Shao for additional troops several times.
Most of Yuan Shao's troops were in the northeast of Wei County, and he also arranged 60,000 to 70,000 troops in Yecheng. These troops were all useful, and there were almost no troops left for Lu Bu to send, so he refused.
But what Lu Bu saw was that there were still 60,000 to 70,000 people in Yecheng, but they didn't send reinforcements to me. Good guy, this was because he was on guard against me, so he gradually became resentful and started to cause trouble.
For example, on the pretext of insufficient food and grass, they sent troops to plunder and rob people in Fanyang, Neihuang, Yin'an and other places, causing harm to the place.
In this way, Yuan Shao also became suspicious of Lu Bu, and began to block Lu Bu's food and equipment. On the surface, he also issued an edict in the name of the Emperor of Jizhou, recalling Lu Bu to Yecheng, saying that he would give Lu Bu an official rank, and give him a new title.
Send some manpower.
Lu Bu didn't know that Yuan Shao was already suspicious of him. When he heard the news, he was very happy and set out on the road. He only took dozens of guards with him, lightly dressed and ran back to Yecheng.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Since Yuan Shao had not completely controlled the entire Jizhou at that time, he did not dare to break up with the party members headed by Xun and Chen Yi, and directly ordered Lu Bu to be killed. So.
After Lu Bu came back, he held a banquet in honor of him, told him to defend the southwest of Jizhou, and promoted him to the general of the Western Conquest.
General Zhengxi is a general with a heavy title, one of the "old wars of the Han Dynasty", and is definitely higher than generals with other titles and Zhonglang generals, so Lu Bu has no doubts about his presence and readily accepts it.
After promoting Lu Bu, Yuan Shao asked him to bring 5,000 reinforcements and a large amount of supplies to prepare for the reverberation of Yin.
On the surface, Lu Bu came to Yecheng this time to collect these troops, horses and supplies, but in fact, Yuan Shao had secretly given an order to the two army commanders leading the army, ordering them to secretly get rid of Lu Bu, under the pretext of being
Guan Yu's army attacked and Lu Bu died among the rebels.
If this plan were to deal with ordinary people, it would definitely be foolproof. However, Lu Bu's bravery was beyond Yuan Shao's imagination. One day after the army set off, it was getting late the next day and they set up camp near Lishui.
The two army commanders thought the time was ripe, so they decided to lead their troops to attack and kill him in the middle of the night. While it was dark, they led hundreds of people into the camp and slashed with knives, cutting one person into pieces.
The soldiers thought they had killed Lu Bu, so they went to attack Lu Bu's personal guards. Unexpectedly, a fierce man came out of the tent.
It turns out that these days, Lu Bu also secretly suspected that Yuan Shao might have become suspicious of him and wanted to murder him, so he asked a personal guard to sleep in his tent, while he wore the clothes of a personal guard and slept next to him with several personal guards.
in the tent.
As a result, the actions of the army commander disturbed Lu Bu in the tent. Lu Bu led his personal guards and used a square-shaped halberd to break out of the 5,000-man military camp with only a few people lost.
Although Yuan Shao sent a letter afterwards saying that this was the personal behavior of the two army commanders and had nothing to do with him, and they had been executed, he hoped that Lu Bu would not take it to heart.
But now that the rift has occurred, it can no longer be repaired. The relationship between the two parties has become difficult to ease and is close to the point of being torn apart.
Therefore, after Yuan Shao solved the internal conflicts in Yecheng, he couldn't help but feel a headache when he heard Liu Zihui talking about Lu Bu. Although he wanted to get rid of Lu Bu, the problem was that Lu Bu couldn't do anything lightly. Luoyang still had
He has to be allowed to resist.
For a moment, because of this issue, the originally happy banquet suddenly became a little solemn.
After a while, Xu You said: "Ming Gong, Lu Bu can't move now. If he moves, Wei County will be in danger. We should aim our main direction at the Youzhou Army and Qingzhou Army in the northeast. Only by repelling them can we take complete control.
Jizhou.”
Guo Tu also said: "Yes, although Ming Gong now has strong soldiers and horses and 200,000 men in command, how can Wei County last for a long time? Only by defeating Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan can we conquer the world."
"Yes, Lu Bu is just a minor problem and can be put aside first. Then Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei are the major problems. If they cannot be defeated, Jizhou will be in real danger."
"It's just that the power of these two combined forces should not be underestimated. They may be difficult to defeat in a short time. Ming Gong may have to lead the army himself to defeat them."
"If Ming Gong leaves, what will happen here in Yecheng? If Lu Bu attacks, it may be difficult for the city to resist."
"Then Lu Bu can't be that stupid. He came to attack Yecheng just to help Guan Yu. Unless he surrenders to Luoyang, he has a deep hatred with Liu Guan, Zhang Chen and four people. He was beaten by them several times until he vomited blood. How could he do it?
Surrender Qingzhou?"
Xu You, Guo Tu Feng, Xin Ping, Xin Pi, Xun Chen and others expressed their opinions. This is a matter of clearly distinguishing priorities. Although among these guys, only Xu You has a slightly higher intelligence, and the rest are basically 60-80.
When it comes to cheating, internal fighting is an expert, and external warfare is an outsider, but this point of priority can still be clearly distinguished.
After all, if you go to attack Lu Bu, you are helping the Qingzhou Army to get rid of a southwest barrier of Wei County. You can't do it without cutting off an arm. Therefore, even people like Guo Tufengji did not suggest that Yuan Shao get rid of Lu Bu first, but
Let him deal with the coalition forces of the two states of Qingyou first.
After hearing this, Yuan Shao felt that it was reasonable, and went around the crowd and said, "Yes, what you said is very much what I want, but Qingzhou has cotton-padded clothes and are good at fighting in winter. It would be unwise to fight them in this cold winter. So I decided
, when spring comes next year, I will personally lead a large army to conquer Liu Bei Gongsun Zan."
"Ming Gong is wise!"
Many counselors agreed.
And just when Yuan Shao thought that he would personally conquer Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan next spring.
Suddenly there was a noise outside, and a soldier hurried in, knelt down on one knee and said, "Mr. Ming, something big has happened."
"Hmm? What's the matter?"
Yuan Shao recognized this as the guard guarding the door of his mansion.
The guard said: "General Zhang He was defeated by the Qingzhou Army in Yin'an. The entire army was wiped out. Only dozens of people escaped. He has returned to Yedu and is seeking an audience outside the mansion."
"What?"
Yuan Shao suddenly stood up and said in shock: "Forty thousand people...the entire army was wiped out?"
"yes......"
The guard stuttered back.
Hearing the affirmative response, Yuan Shao did not faint.
This is 40,000 troops. Originally, Jizhou still had a strength advantage when facing the attacks from Qingzhou, Youzhou and Luoyang.
Once these 40,000 troops were destroyed, all the advantages were lost, and the military strength was basically the same.
For Yuan Shao, it was a bolt from the blue.
"hateful!"
Yuan Shao gritted his teeth and said: "Liu Bei, Gongsun Zan, I will definitely crush your bones and raise your ashes. Send an order, the army will be reorganized tomorrow and set off the day after tomorrow. I will personally go to Cuiqiu to fight to the death with Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei."
"only!"
Immediately, some close followers came to deliver the order.
Many counselors looked at each other, but none of them tried to dissuade them. Because Jizhou was now weakened, it really could not wait until next spring. It was necessary to repel the coalition forces as soon as possible in order to develop stably.
After the order was conveyed, Yuan Shao looked around at everyone and said, "Everyone, who wants to be the vanguard of the front army?"
Qu Yi immediately stood up, raised his hands and said: "Ming Gong, I heard that Gongsun Zan loved white horses, so he selected three thousand elite men to ride on white horses, and named them "White Horse Yi Cong". Is this true?"
"good."
Yuan Shao nodded, he knew this.
Qu Yi said again: "I heard that Liu Xuande gathered the strength of Qingzhou to build thousands of excellent horse armors, and selected thousands of the best people in the world to make up the armor. He named it "Xuanjia Heavy Cavalry". Is this true?
"
"good."
Yuan Shao said again that he had seen the Xuanjia heavy cavalry before, and its strength was extremely terrifying. Even he only had 300 pairs of horse armor and could only equip 300 heavy cavalry.
Qu Yi said loudly: "In this case, Qu Yi is willing to be a vanguard, charge into the battle for Duke Ming, kill the generals and seize the flag, no matter how hard he dies!"
"good!"
Yuan Shao said happily: "Qu Yi obeys the order, and I order you to be the general of the Eastern Expedition. You will lead your own troops as the vanguard and kill the enemy and perform meritorious service!"
"only!"
Qu Yi kowtowed and accepted the order, stood up and said: "Yi will return to the camp now, reorganize his troops and horses, and set off tomorrow to open the road to the Ming Dynasty."
"Go for it!"
Yuan Shao agreed.
Qu Yi cupped his hands again, turned around and walked out the door.
Outside the house is the time when the end of December meets January, the New Year is approaching, and the cold wind is fierce.
In the low wind, Qu Yi raised his head and looked at the gray sky.
White horse?
Xuanjia?
snort!
I, Qu Yi, will definitely call you, no matter what happens, there will be no return!