After the Battle of Handan, the two sides only engaged in small-scale fighting and did not engage in a decisive battle.
Yuan Shao only had this little wealth, and he didn't dare to gamble it all away.
Liu Bei, on the other hand, rushed into the battle, and the Youzhou army was defeated again, and his morale dropped. He might not be able to win against the Yuan army with high morale.
Therefore, both sides had scruples and did not dare to start a full-scale war. Both sides gathered their troops and stopped to go back to rest.
Liu Bei retreated to Liangqi County. Xian Yufu Yan Rou, Ke Bineng and others evacuated under the cover of escorts. The Youzhou army retreated all the way to Shantai, with countless casualties and escapes.
Yuan Shao returned to the city, rested his morale, and at the same time sent someone to send a message to Yecheng that the two sides were preparing to unite and retake Wei County.
While both sides were in the rest stage, two Qingzhou armies were rapidly moving towards their position in Shexian County.
Zhuge Liang wore a blue silk robe underneath and a white plain gauze coat outside. He was riding on a horse and galloping quickly on the official road under the protection of dozens of guards.
The day before yesterday, he received an order from Chen Mu, asking him to immediately set off from Huai County to the north and return to the camp to command the battle against She County. This was the first time he had received such an order, and it was also the first time he had led troops on an expedition.
So we set off immediately the next day.
Chen Mu's deputy general was called Wen Su. Liu Bei assigned 5,000 men from his own troops to station Chen Mu west of Handan. Sima Yi was in charge of the official seal of the army, so when arranging the garrison task, Wen Su deliberately missed a loophole.
Wen Su was not involved at this time. When Chen Mu was not in the camp, Wen Su was still leading the army. Originally, Wen Su was supposed to receive Liu Bei's order to come to support two days later, that is, during today's surrender ceremony.
But before he received the order, he received an order from Chen Mu yesterday, asking him to withdraw from Handan City to Wushi Township in the southwest today, and then attack Shexian County from Wushi Township to the west.
The location of Wu Shi Township is to the east of the Xiangtang Mountain Scenic Area in later generations. It is not far from the Longfeng Valley where Chen Mu ambushed Xu Rong. Shexian County is the exit of Fukouxing, connected to Wu'an, and can enter Handan eastward, and Wu Shi
The township is located due south of Wu'an, just south of Fukouxing.
Zhuge Liang went north from Huai County, passed Anyang, Jiuhou City and other places, crossed the Fu River, and arrived at Wushi Township. After meeting Wen Su in Wushi Township, he detected Gao Gan's army this afternoon. When Gao Gan's army passed by
After Wu'an, the march began.
After coming out of Shexian County, the road to Fukouxing suddenly became clear. The Taihang Mountains on both sides overlapped each other. The forest on the left and right sides of the official road was dense. Rows of slender bamboos stood on both sides of the road. Dewdrops dropped from the lush branches and leaves.
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After passing the green bamboo forest in front, he saw rows of troops. Zhuge Liang stopped and a general rode over from a distance. He looked him up and down and frowned: "You are Zhuge Kongming."
"Exactly."
Zhuge Liang bowed his hands and said, "Liang has met General Xu."
Xu Huang's frown became more solemn and he asked: "The fourth general sent you here? Looking at you, have you been on the battlefield before?"
"Never."
Zhuge Liang knew that it was because Xu Huang looked down on him because he was too young, so he smiled and said: "I know the general's concerns. However, in ancient times, Gan Luo was the prime minister in the twelfth year. At the age of seventeen, the Shaofu had followed Duke Ming to fight against the Yellow Turbans. Confucius said:
"I judge people by their words, and I will lose them. I judge people by their appearance, and I will lose my sons and daughters." How could the general appreciate youth but despise Liang?"
These words made Xu Huang's eyes light up, and he nodded and said: "You are quite capable of eloquence. Since it was the Fourth General who sent you here, you naturally have the Four Generals' reasons. He asked me to discuss with you how to capture Shexian County.
Do you have any good ideas?"
Zhuge Liang stood up and dismounted, took out the map and said, "General, please dismount and talk in detail."
Xu Huang dismounted and came over.
In addition to sending Wen Su to lead his five thousand men, Chen Mu also asked Xu Huang, who occupied Linlu Valley, to cooperate with his actions.
As mentioned before, Linlu Valley is connected to Fukouxing, which is the southern foot of Fukouxing. It can be connected to Linlu Valley from She County and Luxian County in Shangdang County, Bingzhou, because the north of this place happens to be Zhuozhang River and Qingzhang River.
At the intersection of water, there is the Zhanghe Ancient Road connecting Fukouxing.
Xu Huang could go north from Linlu Valley and directly attack the south of Shexian County. However, Chen Mu sent a handwritten message ordering him to cooperate with the Wen Su tribe in the east to capture Shexian County, so he went east along the Zhanghe Ancient Road.
, arrived at Xiaogu Township northwest of Wushi Township, and met with Zhuge Liang, the representative of Wen Su's army, to discuss how to act.
The two of them sat on a stone block by the roadside. Zhuge Liang didn't bother to care whether the stone was dirty or not. He pointed at the map and said: "General, please see, the Shaofu once ordered students from the School of Geography to draw a map of the mountains around Shexian County. Shexian County."
Located in the center of Wuxing Mountain, just cutting off the mountains on both sides, it is an important pass at Fukouxing. High officials have occupied this place and are in an invincible position."
"Um."
Xu Huang nodded. He had been in charge of Linli for many years and had always wanted to capture Fukou County. Unfortunately, the location of She County was too good. As long as he controlled She County and Lu County behind it, it was impossible to capture the northern foot of Fukou County.
Next, the most important thing is that the mountain road is rugged. In addition to the big pass in Shexian County, there are countless small passes.
These passes are easy to defend but difficult to attack. Some of them are simply like a line of sky. Therefore, if you attack Shexian County from the east to the west, you can barely attack it. However, if you attack from the south to the north, the many passes are too difficult. After so many years,
Xu Huang did not advance much further north.
Therefore, Xu Huang knew very well how difficult it was to attack Shexian County. At the same time, he also understood that even if the high-ranking cadres led the troops and left, there were not many soldiers and horses in Shexian County, but this would still be a very difficult task because the terrain here was too dangerous.
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Zhuge Liang continued: "Although the high-ranking officials have taken away most of the soldiers and horses, Shexian County is the retreat route for the high-ranking officials' troops. There will be many people left in the city. If we face a head-on confrontation, the chance of winning is not high, so we can only outsmart them."
Xu Huang became interested and immediately asked: "Is there any way you can outwit me?"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Zhuge Liang smiled slyly: "The only way is to pretend to be a senior official and go back from the front line to urge the soldiers who are transporting food, or the troops who are returning to the defense. But if you go directly
, we will inevitably be questioned. We don’t know the password, so it is unlikely that we will pretend to be Yuan Jun to get in, so we need to think of other ways."
"any solution?"
"When the Shaofu came, I told him that he had already sent someone to contact Zhang Yan. Zhang Yan had surrendered to the imperial court. He was in the Xishan area to the north of Zhao State. If we could get him to help us go south to attack Shexian County, then Shexian County troops would
The horse must be facing a powerful enemy."
"Let Zhang Yan attack Shexian County? I originally wanted to sneak attack on some passes in the north of Linli County at night. If Zhang Yan attacks Shexian County, won't it make them alert?"
Xu Huang was surprised.
He originally wanted to attack at night, first rush through the pass in the north, and then fight directly to the foot of Shexian County.
If Zhang Yan's troops attack now, Shexian County will soon be on alert, making the small passes to the north probably even more difficult to attack.
But Zhuge Liang said: "General, think about it. Zhang Yan's army went south to attack Shexian County. Shexian County has insufficient troops and will definitely shrink and defend. At this time, the general will attack the passes at the northern foot of Fukouxing. Yuan's army in Shexian County will be in panic. That's it."
In order to create the illusion that Shexian County is in danger, at this time our troops are wearing Yuan's army clothes from the east of Wu'an and pretending to come for reinforcements. The enemy will be overjoyed and will not think so much, so they can take the opportunity to capture Shexian County."
This is a very typical psychological tactic. Shexian County is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is very difficult to attack by force. The simplest and most effective way is to pretend to be Yuan Jun to open the city gate. This routine has been used countless times in history, even in modern times, our army has
It is a classic tactic to deceive Zunyi City, but precisely because there are countless of them, it is not that simple to deceive the city gate.
Firstly, they did not know the passwords of the high-ranking cadres in the army. Secondly, if they ran directly to the Shexian city, the defenders on the city would definitely continue to interrogate them. If they revealed any discrepancies in the details, they would be discovered immediately. Therefore, Zhuge Liang's strategy was to let the city
The defenders could not come to question them.
So how to do this?
Very simple.
Putting the defenders of Shexian County in a very dangerous situation.
Zhang Yan attacked from the Taihang Mountains in the north, and Xu Huang attacked from the Taihang Mountains in the south. Both sides attacked together and stormed Shexian County.
Since there are not many defenders in Shexian County, a large-scale attack by the enemy will definitely frighten them, and as is reasonable, they will send people to Handan to report the news of the attack on Shexian County to Gao Gan and Yuan Shao.
At this time, Zhuge Liang sent people to pretend to be reinforcements. After the reinforcements arrived, the Shexian defenders who were in a precarious situation would subconsciously think that they were sent by senior officials to save them, and would not think about whether they were the enemy pretending to be the enemy.
, this will make it very possible to deceive the city gate and capture Shexian County.
Xu Huang questioned: "What if he still verifies the password?"
Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "The general is guarding Linli Valley. The location of Linli Valley is very important. If there is a fierce attack by Yuan's army, will the general report the news to the headquarters and ask for help?"
"Of course it will."
Xu Huang didn't even think about it and answered directly. Whether it was asking for help or delivering a message, if he was attacked, he must convey the message to the outside world as soon as possible. Otherwise, once he was breached, the higher-ups would not even have time to respond.
He harmed his own army.
Zhuge Liang then said: "We will send people to ambush on the only road from Shexian County to Wu'an, capture the soldiers delivering the news, ask for the export order, and then pretend to be reinforcements. Even if he wants to interrogate him when he gets to the city, he will not ask so many questions.
detail."
"good!"
Xu Huang gave a thumbs up: "No wonder the Fourth General values you so much. You are indeed very capable, so just do as you say."
Zhuge Liang cupped his hands and said, "Thank you so much, general. We can take action tonight without further ado."
"I'll go back and prepare for the attack."
After Xu Huang got the military action plan, he nodded, got on his horse, turned his head and looked at Zhuge Liang who was looking at him on the roadside, and laughed and said: "Heroes come from young, hahahaha!"
After saying that, he patted the horse and left.
After Xu Huang left, Zhuge Liang got on his horse and said to his followers: "Let's go."
The two of them parted ways and went back to their respective deployments.
At this time, deep in the Taihang Mountains, Zhang Yan's camp also received an order from Chen Mu asking him to cooperate.
After receiving the warrant, Zhang Yan did not dare to neglect and immediately started taking action.
In fact, Zhang Yan had completely turned to Liu Bei. During this siege of Yecheng and Handan, he had sent people to ask Liu Bei for instructions and was willing to send troops to help. It was Chen Mu who asked him to stay in the Taihang Mountains.
This is what he did in history. After Cao Cao won the Battle of Guandu and surrounded Yecheng to the north, Zhang Yan sent people to surrender and expressed his willingness to send troops to help.
At this time, it was the same situation, except that Cao Cao was replaced by Liu Bei.
In Zhang Yan's view, his situation was very embarrassing. He was hiding in the mountains and old forests with hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban survivors, with insufficient food and clothing, and it was difficult to maintain himself. If he continued to choose to go against the imperial court, the consequences would inevitably be death.
Liu Bei defeated Yuan Shao at Jieqiao, just like Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao at Guandu. Yuan Shao had already settled down in Xishan, so taking this opportunity to defect to the new king was inevitable.
Now was a good time to make meritorious deeds. Zhang Yan personally led 50,000 elite troops and marched southward toward Shexian County.
As mentioned before, Zhang Yan's location was to the west of Xingtai City in later generations, only more than a hundred miles away from Shexian County. The army walked in the mountains for a day and night, and today they arrived in the deep mountains and old forests north of Shexian County.
On the morning of the third day, we finally arrived in Shexian County.
By this time, the Battle of Handan had ended. Yuan Shao and Gao Gan had retreated to Handan, and Liu Bei's army had retreated to Liangqi County. The battle in Shexian County had just begun.
Last night Xu Huang violently attacked several passes in the south of Shexian County and broke through three passes in a row, which had already alerted Shexian County.
They sent people to the front line overnight to deliver the message, but Zhang Yan's army moved south and suddenly began to attack Shexian County, making the defenders of Shexian County feel like they were facing a formidable enemy.
More importantly, Zhang Yan sent a partial division to bypass Shexian County and attack the Fukouxing Trail leading to Linlu Valley from the south of Shexian County, breaking through Xu Huang's front from the rear and helping Xu Huang's army move north.
Successfully broke through to the foot of Shexian County.
If it were in the past, this kind of thing would never have happened, because Shexian County had enough troops to intercept various passes, and Zhang Yan and Xu Huang's troops would not have appeared at Shexian County.
Even if they successfully break through to the Shexian city, there are still Luxian defenders behind them, holding two passes in front and behind, making them as insurmountable as a copper wall.
But at this time, Shexian County had a serious shortage of troops, which allowed Zhang Yan and Xu Huang to take advantage of the opportunity and have already reached the city.
The guard general of Shexian County learned that the enemy had emerged from the mountains and forests in the north and south to attack them. He looked at the enemy troops who had surrounded Shexian County on three levels inside and three levels outside, and then looked at the few four to five thousand troops in the city. He was as anxious as
Ants on the hot pot, before the city was completely besieged, several teams of scouts were sent to Handan to ask for help.
However, what the Shexian garrison did not expect was that all the soldiers he sent out to ask for help were intercepted by Zhuge Liang's troops who were ambushing on the road shortly after leaving the city. After the Qingzhou Army defeated Yuan Shao at the Battle of Jieqiao, they seized a large amount of Yuan's army's supplies.
, including countless military uniforms.
Cloth in ancient times was very valuable, and even military uniforms could not be burned, so these military uniforms that were originally to be re-cut were used again. All five thousand people dressed up as Yuan Jun and headed west.
On the fourth day, Yuan Jun, who had been flying the banner of Gao Gan, had arrived outside the city and launched an "attack" at night, breaking through the besieging Zhang Yan army in the east.