Great Han Empire

Chapter 572: Troubled Times Heroic Chapter Dangerous
Lü Bu and Zhang Liao led the generals from Jiangyang to meet Xu Rong ten miles away.

Xu Rong came galloping like lightning with a hundred cavalry.

After the Battle of Yanmen Pass, except for Xu Rong who met Lu Bu once, he had not seen the rest of the generals for two years.Everyone saw the tall and mighty Xu Rong striding forward with a smile on his face, and they couldn't help but bowed to the ground and shouted "Master General..." Xu Rong was very excited, and hurriedly helped everyone up one by one, saying goodbye to each other.

Everyone is very emotional.The soldiers from Northern Xinjiang went on an expedition to the outside of the Great Wall last year. They not only regained the lost land but also conquered the desert. In the past two years, he has been deeply trapped in the bloody storm in Gyeonggi. Not only has he failed to achieve anything, he has not achieved an inch of success, but even survival has become more and more difficult.Many people don't understand why a great Han country suddenly changed beyond recognition?Why did the powerful Dong Zhuo suddenly become a traitor?Why did the former colleagues in the court and Paoze in the army suddenly become enemies?

The generals surrounded Xu Rong with admiration and admiration, talking non-stop.Since the prefectures and counties raised troops to challenge Dong, the situation in Gyeonggi has become more and more serious day by day, and there are many crises. Even Dong Zhuo went back to Chang'an last month, which made the soldiers very pessimistic.However, the arrival of Xu Rong gave them hope, especially today, Xu Rong personally commanded the various armies and used ingenious tactics to completely defeat the aggressive attack of the rebels in just half a month.In the eyes of the generals, Xu Rong will definitely help them tide over the difficulties.

Xu Rong patiently answered many doubts in the hearts of the generals.The Gyeonggi crisis did not originate from Dong Zhuo's various actions, but from the power struggle between warriors and scholars.Only by resolving the matter in the court can the crisis in Gyeonggi be resolved.General Hussars sent me south to create this opportunity for reconciliation, and Lord Xiangguo took the initiative to return to Chang'an to create this opportunity for reconciliation.

"My lord, if Lord Xiangguo reconciles with Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, will we stop fighting? Will we be able to live a stable life?" Wei Xu asked hastily.

Xu Rong pondered for a while, nodded and said: "It should be like this. Now the ant thief rebellion broke out in Qing, Yan, and Xu three states. It is huge and the disaster is serious. If the rebellion is not suppressed in time, the great Han society may be destroyed overnight. At this time No matter whether it is the imperial court or Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, no one will just watch the society collapse, so the opportunity for reconciliation is at hand."

"With Sun Jian surrounded, can we force Yuan Shu to reconcile with Lord Xiangguo?" Cheng Lian asked, "Is it that simple?"

"Of course it won't be that simple." Xu Rong laughed. "Surrounding Sun Jian is equivalent to breaking Yuan Shu's hand, which will greatly reduce his strength. This is a prerequisite for forcing Yuan Shu to agree to a settlement."

"So, do we just encircle or not fight?" Lu Bu asked, "My lord, what about the food? Although Sun Jian and Ji Ling abandoned a lot of food, grass and luggage, it was far from enough for our tens of thousands of troops to consume. During this period of time ,What shall we eat?"

Everyone stared at Xu Rong together.The question that everyone is most concerned about now is not whether to fight or not, or whether we can win the war, but how to feed our stomachs.

Xu Rong looked around and said with a slight smile, "Master Hu didn't come?"

Zhang Liao said with a smile: "Where does Hu Zhen have the face to see you? He is now a joke in the army. Lord Xiangguo asked him to lead an army of [-] to guard the tiger prison. Not only did he fail to defend, but he was snatched away by the Lord without a single soldier." , This embarrassing face." Suddenly Zhang Liao thought of something, his face changed suddenly, "My lord, do you want to..."

Xu Rong said calmly: "Food is scarce, and there are many people. If you want to feed your stomach, there are only two ways. Either eat people or kill people."

Lu Bu and the generals suddenly realized that, although they were very surprised, they couldn't restrain their joy, and they all smiled.

"My lord, what should we do about Sun Jian? We're taking him for nothing?" Zhang Liao asked in a low voice.

Xu Rong smiled, pointed to the attendant behind him and said, "Open the map..."

===

Hu Zhen heard that Xu Rong did not come, but led his army to attack Luyang. He was very happy, and hurriedly commanded the army to storm the small town of Yangren.Xu Rong did not come, and the credit for annihilating Sun Jian should be attributed to Hu Zhen and Lu Bu.Hu Zhen lost the tiger prison last time, and Lu Bu lost several cities this time. Both of them are guilty of crimes.Hu Zhen happily said to his subordinates, Xu Rong is very sensible, knowing that he offended me last time, not only did he not dare to come this time, he even didn't even want credit for it.

Lu Bu seemed to have been scolded by him, and he cooperated very well, and the warlord attacked wildly.

Because Hu Zhen wanted to take the blame and make meritorious deeds, his [-] troops fought very hard and attacked the Nancheng tower several times.Fortunately, Lu Bu gave Sun Jian a lot of face. Whenever Nancheng was in an emergency, his army would withdraw.Sun Jian was then freed to reinforce Nancheng, severely injuring Hu Zhen's siege army.After three days of fighting, Hu Zhen and Sun Jian suffered heavy losses, and Lu Bu was also scarred. However, Sun Jian saw an opportunity to break through from Lu Bu's "help".

In the middle of the night of the third day, a fire suddenly ignited at Guangcheng Pass, five miles away from the small town of Yangren, and the sound of war drums and killings was earth-shattering.

Sun Jian was overjoyed and hurriedly assembled his troops to break out of the encirclement.At this time, it must be the army sent by Yuan Shu to rescue him to attack Guangcheng Pass.

Zhu Zhi suggested breaking out from the four gates at the same time to disperse the enemy's forces, and the south gate was the main direction for the army to break through.Sun Jian disagreed.Hu Zhen's army was in charge of besieging the south and east gates, and it had been severely damaged in the past three days. Judging from Lu Bu's attacks in the past few days, it was obvious that he wanted to consume a lot of Hu Zhen's troops.Sun Jian asked if there was a conflict between Lu Bu and Hu Zhen, and Lu Bu wanted to take this opportunity to kill him.If this is indeed the case, it will be safe for us to concentrate all our forces to break out from the south gate, because Lu Bu will not support him.

Just when Sun Jian and others were arguing and undecided, Zhang Liao fled back from the direction of Guangcheng Pass with the remnants of the defeated army. The fearful and shrill shouts resounded through the dark night, "The rebels are coming, the rebels are coming... ..."

The soldiers were terrified, watching Zhang Liao lead the defeated army through the camp with dumbstruck eyes, screaming at the top of their lungs as they ran, "Go... go... run away..."

Lu Bu didn't wait for the army to assemble, he jumped on his horse and ran, "Let's go, let's go, everyone, go back to Yique, go back to Yique..."

The terrified soldiers uttered a wailing cry, then roared and fled, wanting nothing, and ran away with their heads in their arms.

Without hesitation, Sun Jian rushed out of the south gate with his army.

Hu Zhen was swearing and assembling the army at this time, preparing to retreat, when caught off guard, the army was hit head-on, and the terrified soldiers did not resist at all and fled.

At this time, there was a clear and intensive sound of war drums from the direction of Guangchengguan, obviously the army that came to rescue was rushing over.

Sun Jian roared, "Kill, chase after me and kill..."

Zhu Zhi, Cheng Pu, Han Dang and others are all battle-tested warriors, how could they miss such a good opportunity to wipe out the enemy, they all commanded their own soldiers and chased and killed them bravely.Hu Zhen's army suffered a bloody massacre, resulting in countless casualties.

Sun Jian was fighting heartily, when several scouts rushed over and blocked his way, "My lord, Guangcheng Pass is closed and wide open, but there is no reinforcements."

Sun Jian gasped, and broke out in a cold sweat, "Hurry up, Ming Jin, stop chasing and killing, seize Guangcheng Pass, seize Guangcheng Pass..."

=

Under the reflection of the soaring flames, Guangchengguan looked very strange.

Zhu Zhi rushed in with a thousand elites and searched around.The pass was empty, there was no one there.

The scouts rode out of the customs and galloped south for ten miles, but still did not find any traces of people.

Sun Jian led the army slowly into the pass.He and the generals looked at each other, puzzled.What's going on here, is it all arranged by Lu Bu?One is to kill Hu Zhen, and the other is to let him go?Could it be that Lu Bu also took refuge in Zhu Jun?
"It's 150 miles southward to Luyang. On the way, only Dahuling's terrain is very dangerous." Gongsun Cheng said worriedly, "If Lu Bu wants to use us to kill Hu Zhen first, and then kill us later, as long as we are here It is enough to pre-set ambushes in the local area.”

Sun Jian discussed with several subordinates for a long time.If Lu Bu really had an ambush in Dahuling, even if the army was killed, the losses would be staggering, and if they couldn't kill them, after dawn, Lu Bu's whole army would catch up and surround the army in Dahuling. The whole army was wiped out.Considering that the army's food and grass could still last for a few days, Sun Jian felt that it was better to be more cautious, so he wrote another letter of plea for help to Qiao Rui who was stationed in Luyang, asking him to come quickly with food and grass.Previously, the army was besieged in the small town of Yangren, and Guangcheng Pass was lost. It is understandable that Qiao Rui did not come to the rescue, but now that he is out of trouble, there is no reason for him not to come to the rescue.

"If he doesn't come after two days, I'll go to Luyang and kill him." Sun Jian said coldly.

===

At the end of April, Nanyang County, Luyang City.

Qiao Rui is in his thirties, tall and stalwart, with a pair of red phoenix eyes, three long beards, and a bit of elegance in his heroism.He is a relative of the Yuan Clan, and a cousin of Yuan Shu, who was once assigned to Yuan Kai's Taifu Mansion.When Yuan Kui served as a foreign official in Beijing, he was specially asked to serve as a captain in Runan County to recruit volunteers in the base of the Yuan Clan.

After Qiao Rui received Sun Jian's second request for help, she immediately consulted with Ji Ling.Is it to save Kong Ni or Sun Jian?
At this time, Kong Ni's fourth letter of appeal for help arrived.Kong Ni said that Li Min's army, the prefect of Yingchuan, has not yet returned to help, and he is probably trapped in Yangcheng, so there is no hope.Yangdi (zhai) city has been besieged by Xu Rong's army for seven days now, and the situation is getting more and more critical, so I beg Qiao Rui to come to help quickly.

Ji Ling thought for a while and said: "Master Yuan has a book, telling us to save if we can, and to put on a show if we can't, so as not to be a truth in the future and be hated by others. I think it's obviously not good to stand still, so we should do it." It looks like. Now that Sun Jian has occupied Guangcheng Pass, he has no worries about going south. The reason why he dare not retreat is mainly because he is worried that the army will ambush in Dahuling. I think you can go there, there is no danger. Should I go? Well, it's embarrassing to meet."

Qiao Rui laughed and said, "Who told you to run so fast? You gave up Guangcheng Pass, which means pushing Sun Jian into a desperate situation. Of course he hates you to the bone. It is very dangerous to save Kong Ni. It is Xu Rong's army that surrounded Yangdi City." , are all elites from northern Xinjiang. Are you sure?"

Ji Ling waved his hand and said casually: "I'll go to Yangzhai City to take a look around, and just perfunctory Kong Ni. Maybe Xu Rong will withdraw when he sees our reinforcements arrive. After all, he has no food and grass to support the city. We don't have enough troops, so we can only frighten people like Kong Ni."

"You and I have left, who will guard this Luyang? How many troops will be left?"

"Let Chen Lan stay behind, 1000 people are more than enough."

The next day, Qiao Rui led 4000 troops north to Guangcheng Pass to meet Sun Jian, and Ji Ling led 5000 troops east to Yingchuan Yangzhai City to rescue Kong Ni.

==
Huoyang Mountain is located between Guangcheng Pass and Luyang City, eighty miles away from Luyang City.

When Qiao Rui led the army northward along the Huoyang East Foot Avenue, Xu Rong led the army southward from the West Foot Trail of Huoyang Mountain.

At dawn, Chen Lan, who was sleeping, was awakened by the sound of war drums soaring into the sky and a huge roar, "What's going on?"

"My lord, Xu Rong...Xu Rong's army is attacking the city." The servant who came to report was sweating profusely and said in panic.

Chen Lan jumped up in shock, and shouted: "Isn't Xu Rong in Yangdi City? Why did he run to Luyang overnight?"

"My lord, there is indeed a large army of northern Xinjiang outside, densely packed with tens of thousands of people." The soldier who reported the letter pointed to the outside of the city with fear and said, "They are knocking on the door, we can't hold it, we can't hold it..."

Chen Lan didn't wait to put on her battle robe, and ran out with a sword in her hand, "Is the whole city surrounded?"

"No, they just arrived, and the west gate has not been surrounded yet."

Without thinking, Chen Lan raised her knife and roared, "Let's go, let's go through the west gate, go through the west gate..."

The attendant asked in surprise, "My lord, are you not defending the city anymore?"

"What city is guarded by 1000 people?" Chen Lan scolded while flying on the horse, "If you miss, you can stay here."

=

Surrounded by cavalry guards, Xu Rong rode his horse into Luyang City.

The [-] Northern Xinjiang army had occupied the entire city at this time, and they were searching for food and property in the warehouse of the government office.Wu Xiong rode up to meet him, bowed and said with a smile: "My lord, I haven't won any battles this way, and my leg is almost broken."

"Aren't you riding a horse?" Xu Rong asked pretending to be puzzled, "Is the horse's leg about to break or yours?"

Wu Xiong laughed.The guards around couldn't help laughing, and also laughed.

"My lord, we captured Luyang and got the food and property. Are we going to leave again?"

"Yes, leave here immediately and follow Ji Ling to Yangdi." Xu Rong said, "Order all the ministries to move faster and leave here before dusk."

"Twilight?" Wu Xiong lamented, "My lord, at least let everyone rest for a day."

"Can't rest, let's go immediately." Xu Rong smiled, "It is only one or two hundred miles away from Wancheng, Yangdi, and Guangcheng Pass. Once we are entangled by them, we will be trapped here. We will go deep You can, but you can’t be too careless. Taking someone’s things and sleeping in front of them is too much deception.”

"So what if you bully him? Doesn't Yuan Shu still dare to fight to the north?" Wu Xiong said with a disdainful smile: "You said that Sun Jian is very powerful, why didn't he dare to cross Dahuling? In the end, we couldn't make an ambush, so we had to run here Come to rob him. This time it is a waste of money for him."

Xu Rong tapped Wu Xiong's battle helmet with the whip in his hand, and said affectionately: "Yuchen, there have been too many battles, the officials have become bigger, and their eyes have turned upwards. Didn't Wei Xu and Song Xian ambush Qiao Rui?" Is it more sure? As long as they grab the food and grass, they can still trap Sun Jian. I think it is better to trap Sun Jian than to severely injure Sun Jian. If Yuan Shu does not have strong strength, what will he use to compete with Yuan Shao? If the Yuan brothers do not fight among themselves , it will be very difficult for us to check and balance. As long as Sun Jian can be trapped in Guangcheng Pass for a period of time, Yuan Shu will definitely be anxious."

Wu Xiong shook his head, cupped his hands and said, "Your Excellency should think about such a complicated matter. Lu Bu should be attacking Guangcheng Pass now, right?"

"Almost." Xu Rong said, "If Sun Jian retreated more resolutely, he would have left, but now he is very troublesome. Once Lu Bu hits, Sun Jian will inevitably lose sight of one thing and lose another. If Qiao Rui loses again, it will be difficult for him to escape calmly Yes. Wei Xu and Song Xian have 5000 men, enough to defeat Qiao Rui and defend Dahuling."

"My lord, are we going to Yangdi this time, are we going to attack Li Yun and Li Meng who are besieging Yangdi City, and wipe out Ji Ling?"

"Total annihilation is impossible." Xu Rong laughed, "If he can rescue Kong Ni and leave Yangdi City and food to me, I don't even need to beat him."

=

In April, Henan Yin, Guangchengguan.

Sun Jian stared at the scout kneeling on the ground, speechless.

He thought that Lu Bu would set up an ambush at Dahuling, but who knew that Lu Bu would not set up an ambush at Dahuling, but at Rushui River, which everyone thought was the safest place.

Qiao Rui was defeated and fled, and Lu Bu's ambush soldiers took away all the food and supplies.Huang Gai, who had rushed to Dahuling to meet Qiao Rui, received the news and was about to go to the rescue when Lu Bu's ambush came back at an unimaginable speed, forcing Huang Gai back.There were indeed ambushes on Dahuling, and there were enough of them.

At this time, Lu Bu and Zhang Liao outside the pass were commanding troops to attack the city, but the food and grass inside the pass had been cut off.

"Get out, kill out today..."

=

Under April, Yingchuan County, Yangdi City.

When Li Meng and Li Yun saw Ji Ling coming to help, they hurriedly withdrew their troops and left.

Ji Ling happily entered Yangdi City.That night, I sang and laughed with Kong Ni and other officials, and got drunk.

When I got up the next morning, I saw that the dark army under Yangzhai City was surrounded again.But this time Xu Rong gave up Ximen.Without hesitation, Ji Ling led an army to protect Kong Ni and escaped from the west gate.

Xu Rong captured Yangdi City.

===

Under April, Nanyang County, Wancheng.

Yuan Shu roared like thunder.

(End of this chapter)