Great Han Empire

Chapter 984 Chapter [-]
The advice of Peng Lie and Lei Zhong woke up Zhong Yao, who was intoxicated in the victory. He accepted Lei Zhong's suggestion, and quickly wrote to Lu Bu on the front line of Pengcheng, and proposed the idea of ​​attacking Xuzhou by taking advantage of the momentum.

On the tenth day of the fifth lunar month, the army crossed the Yingshui River and advanced rapidly towards the Guohe River. At this time, Eight Hundred Li Kuaiqi sent the imperial edict.

The imperial court asked Zhong Yao to immediately divide his troops to support Luyang and Kunyang, ensure the safety of Yingchuan, and prevent the Jingzhou army from threatening the periphery of Luoyang. , and it is possible to occupy Runan, but after Yuan Tan suffered such a heavy blow, he fell into a slump, and it is difficult to make a comeback, so there is nothing to worry about.Now the army of the West Route was defeated in Nanyang, and the army of the East Route was blocked at the front line of Pengcheng and Tan (tan). If the battle situation is not stabilized quickly, the victory of the Battle of Yuzhou may be fleeting.

Zhong Yao was dumbfounded. He never expected that the imperial court would resolutely order Lu Bu and Gao Shun to withdraw from the front line of Pengcheng and Tancheng, and order Wang Dang to withdraw to Wuguan regardless of the safety of the Yuzhou battlefield.The meaning of this imperial decree is very clear, the war in the south is over, and the emperor and the general are going to lead the army to the western border.At this moment, Yuzhou has not been completely captured, and the army is still chasing and killing Yuan Tan. If Lu Bu withdraws from Xuzhou, Gao Shun withdraws to Langya Kingdom, and Wang Dang withdraws to Guanzhong, then the Jingzhou army on the West Road battlefield can use all their strength to attack Luyang , Kunyang, threatened Yingchuan, and Cao Cao was able to quickly gather an army to fully support Yuan Tan's counterattack against Yuzhou. In time, it is impossible to take all of Yuzhou and drive Yuan Tan out completely.Now for Zhong Yao, the most urgent task is to consolidate the existing results and redeploy troops to ensure that the army can defend the three prefectures of Runan, Chen and Liang, and ensure that the battle of Yuzhou will not fall short and achieve nothing.

The court's reasons are high-sounding.At the beginning, it was Zhong Yao and Lu Bu who strongly demanded to attack Yuzhou, and the court gave them three months. Now that the three-month deadline is approaching, and Zhong Yao and Lu Bu have basically completed their planned goals, the court should of course follow the original plan Quickly end the war in the south, and turn to fully implement the strategy of suppressing Qiang.

But there is a deeper meaning behind this reason.The imperial court didn't want Zhong Yao to take all of Yuzhou, and he didn't want to see him make such great achievements in just a few months, and he didn't want Zhong Yao to gain a foothold in the army and get more opportunities to lead the army.Zhong Yao must bear part of the responsibility for the failure on the Nanyang battlefield. He is not only the commander of the Yingchuan army, but also the main planner of opening up the Yuzhou battlefield. He also failed to take all of Yuzhou within the time limit stipulated by the court, so even if the court raised its hand and let Zhong Yao's merits and demerits be offset, he would have no possibility of continuing to lead the army.

Today, when people from northern Xinjiang dominate the government, non-northern Xinjiang ministers like Zhong Yao, who show their sharpness, must be the focus of attack.

Zhong Yao was angry.Although Chang Shi Zheng Hun, Sima Yuan Ba ​​and others were also very angry, from the perspective of the overall situation, they still advised Zhong Yao to calm down and obey the imperial court's will.In any case, based on Zhong Yao's credit for regaining the three counties and states in Yuzhou in more than two months, even if he cannot be promoted after returning to the court, he will not be punished.

=

Zhong Yao summoned the generals of various ministries, announced the imperial decree, and discussed the next offensive and defensive strategies.

Peng Lie gloated.He teased eccentrically, my lord, you'd better send your troops back to help Lu Yang.Master Lei and I led the army north to Suiyang to help you block the counterattack of Yuan Tan and Cao Cao, lest you lose sight of the other, empty-handed, and end up in a tragic ending of being escorted back to the capital by a jian car.

Zhong Yao glared at him, wishing he could punch Peng Lie's smiling face.

For more than a month, the Battle of Yuzhou has been carried out smoothly under Zhong Yao's control. There has not been a hard battle from the beginning to the end. Behind every battle is a conspiracy. Zhong Yao despised him very much.If this continues, even if Xuzhou is defeated, Zhong Yao will be responsible for the credit alone, so the generals in the big tent are as happy as Peng Lie at the moment.The commander-in-chief on the Yuzhou battlefield is about to be replaced, and this sinister and despicable old man is finally going to leave.

Lei Zhong stood up in time.He solemnly warned the generals that the Battle of Yuzhou was not over, but had just begun. With the east and west containment battlefields, one defeated and the other retreated, Liu Biao, Yuan Tan, and Cao Cao's armies would soon come from the east and west. A counterattack was launched against Yuzhou from the west and west, followed by a hard battle, a bitter battle. After this battle was over and the rebels were defeated, the three prefectures and states of Yuzhou were truly recovered. Only when Yuzhou has a firm foothold can the counties and states of Yuzhou be stabilized, Jingzhou and Xuzhou can be continuously threatened, and a solid foundation can be laid for the next step of the army's recovery of Jingzhou and Xuzhou.

Peng Lie and the generals of the various ministries suddenly came to their senses, and their expressions immediately became serious.

"If we win the next battle, we will all contribute. If we lose, we will not only lose our troops and gain nothing, but all of us will be punished by the court." Lei Zhong continued, "If there is no accident, the emperor and The general will lead his army to the west at the end of this month, and the imperial court will not allocate money and food to us. That is to say, the three adults, Lu Bu, Gao Shun and Wang Dang, can only give us a certain amount of help on the battlefields on the east and west wings. Can we hold on? In Yuzhou, we can only rely on ourselves, and the money and food for the army can only be raised from the counties and states in Yuzhou. The longer the battle, the greater the possibility of our failure."

Zhong Yao's expression changed.He looked at Lei Zhong gratefully. Lei Zhong's words relieved him and stabilized the morale of the army, but at the same time, it also made him see the crisis he was facing.He thought of the counterattack of the rebels, but ignored the problem of food and grass.At the end of May, the imperial court will no longer allocate food and grass after the stipulated time limit for attacking Yuzhou. This is the heaviest blow the imperial court has dealt to itself.It seemed that the people in the imperial court were determined to put themselves to death.

Peng Lie and the generals became nervous involuntarily, and became more and more annoyed with Zhong Yao.We have all suffered misfortune from this old man. He offended the imperial court and his life was in danger. As a result, we also suffered from the same disaster and fell into bad luck with him.

"My lord, immediately report to the imperial court, requesting the imperial court to take into account the crisis in Yuzhou, and temporarily leave Lord Peng and my army behind. Without our 5 troops, how can Yuzhou defend?" Lei Zhong turned to face Zhong Yao, bowed and said "In addition, please tell the court again, my lord, not to appoint Yuzhou officials for the time being. Before Yuzhou is stabilized, all Yuzhou officials will be appointed by you, so that you can quickly raise food and grass."

Zhong Yao's face became more and more ugly.Although I have read military books and boasted that I am both civil and military, but today, compared with these veterans who have experienced many battles, my understanding of the army and the battlefield is almost blank.Lei Zhong first thought that after the war situation changed, the rebels would counterattack and Yuzhou would fall into crisis. Then he thought about the issue of food and grass. Now he reminded himself that the imperial court would most likely send Peng Lie and his army back to Yanzhou and Henan for garrison. It is very likely that the new commander-in-chief of the Yuzhou army will be appointed impatiently.When the new commander-in-chief of the army arrives in Yuzhou, the officials in all parts of Yuzhou will be replaced immediately. This will not help stabilize the counties in Yuzhou, but may lead to chaos in Yuzhou.

The battle in Yuzhou is over, of course the main force must return to the original station quickly, and because Zhong Yao failed to fight the battle of Yuzhou well, he will naturally be recruited back to the court, so whether Yuzhou can be defended is self-evident.Of course, Zhong Yao is responsible for Yuzhou's gain and loss, and Zhong Yao's fate can be imagined.

The general is really going to kill me.The more Zhong Yao thought about it, the more chilling he became, and suddenly he was dripping with cold sweat and shivering.

Without further ado, Zheng Hun wrote the memorial immediately.

Yuan Ba ​​quietly wiped off his cold sweat, and asked respectfully: "Master Lei, what is the current countermeasure..."

"Kill Xiangxian County directly..." Lei Chong walked to the map hanging on the side of the big tent in two steps, and pointed to Xiangxiang County, the governor of Peiguo County on the map, "From the perspective of the court, we occupy a large part of the southern battlefield. The advantage, as long as we don't fight, the rebels will never dare to counterattack, but please see, my lords, with Gao Shun and Zang Ba already occupying Langya Kingdom, Xuzhou's Pengcheng and Tancheng frontlines are already directly threatened by us. If we If we stand firm in Suiyang of Liangguo in Yuzhou, then Peiguo will be safe to defend, and the front lines of Pengcheng and Xiaoxian will be under our direct attack. Xuzhou will be attacked from three sides, and the situation is in jeopardy."

"The situation in Xuzhou is so critical, Jiangdong will inevitably feel cold, and he will definitely help. The loss of Yuzhou is a fatal blow to Xiangyi's rebellion trying to form a confrontation between the North and the South. Jingzhou must do everything in its power to help Yuan Tan regain Yuzhou and restore Jingzhou. As a result, Yuzhou will definitely be attacked by the rebels from the east and west in the near future, and the situation in Yuzhou will continue to be chaotic, and the flames of war may continue."

"The imperial court can't afford to fight this battle. When we returned to Beijing at the end of last year, the general said repeatedly that the imperial court was unable to support the two-front battle, so the imperial court saw that the goal of severely injuring the rebels had been achieved, and immediately ordered the withdrawal of troops from the east and west battlefields. , The Yuzhou battlefield on the middle road was switched to defense, which is consistent with the purpose of the imperial court's request to launch an attack in the south at the beginning of the year, and there is nothing wrong with the imperial court's edict."

"But the imperial court obviously ignored the determination of the rebels to counterattack, and ignored the importance of Yuzhou to the rebels in maintaining the confrontation between the north and the south..." Lei Zhong paused for a while, and continued, "Perhaps the imperial court did not ignore these issues, but I don’t want to change the purpose of launching the southern war at the beginning of the year, and I don’t want to occupy Yuzhou and plunge the southern battlefield into a protracted war, which will consume a lot of money from the imperial court and seriously affect the imperial court’s strategy of suppressing the Qiang.”

Lei Zhong looked at Zhong Yao with a serious expression, and said with a wry smile: "The reason why the imperial court agreed to the request of your lord and General Lu Bu to attack Yuzhou is probably to encourage the morale of the army, and they don't want to hit the determination of the frontline soldiers at this time. I never thought that my lord would win Yuzhou within three months, so..."

"So you may return to your respective residences immediately..." Zhong Yao sighed, "Yuzhou is bound to be lost again."

Lei nodded emphatically, "If we want to change the current predicament, the only way is to go to Xiang County, approach Pengcheng, and quickly start a duel with Yuan Tan and Cao Cao's army, and attract more rebels to go north, so that the main force of the army will all fall into the battlefield of Peiguo , unable to return to the front line of Luyang and Kunyang. The imperial court had no choice but to continue fighting when the battles on the east and west wings of Yuzhou were very critical, because Nanyang had already lost one battle. If it lost another battle in Yuzhou, the entire The morale of the army will be hit hard, which will seriously affect the defense of Luoyang and the Central Plains. Yuzhou is defeated again, and we will immediately fall into passive defense. Yuzhou is not allowed to lose again."

"The biggest problem facing the court at present is food and grass. This year, the emperor and the general will definitely go on an expedition to the west, and there is a serious shortage of wealth. As long as your lord can solve the problem of food and grass, and use Yuzhou's food and grass to fight the war in Yuzhou, the court will not embarrass you. "Lei Zhong looked at the generals and said with a calm smile, "In this way, the Lord's credit has been made, our credit has also been made, Yuzhou has also been taken, and the strength of the rebel army has also been consumed. In the future, we will continue to suppress the rebellion in the south. It is the absolute main force, and the credit is still ours.”

"Okay..." Peng Lie slapped the desk hard, and shouted, "Good idea. Mr. Zhong, what do you think?"

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhong Yao waved his hand and said, "Go north, go north and attack Xiang County immediately."

=

In mid-May, Lu Bu received an imperial edict and withdrew his troops quickly.Gao Shun and Zang Ba also led their troops back to Langya.

In mid-May, Sun Quan wrote back to Cao Cao, and the Shanyue rebellion broke out in Kuaiji County. The main force of the Jiangdong Army went south to conquer Shanyue and intended to attack Jiaozhou. Because the governor of Jiaozhou (xie) refused to reply to Xiangyi's edict, Xiangyi was very angry , intending to let Sun Quan join the army of Guiyang in Jingzhou to go south to threaten Jiaozhou.Sun Quan said, now I have too much time to take care of myself in Jiangdong, and I have to bear the heavy responsibility of going south to Jiaozhou, and I am unable to go north to help. Please forgive me.

Sun Quan was unwilling to help, which was expected by Cao Cao, but Sun Quan went south to fight Jiaozhou under the pretext of Shanyue's rebellion, which was beyond Cao Cao's expectation.From this point of view, Sun Quan was already very pessimistic about the situation in Jianghuai. He had no intention of going north to compete with Cao Cao for Jiujiang and Lujiang counties, and instead concentrated on going south to fight Jiaozhou.

Cao Cao was happy instead of worried.Now that Sun Quan went south to fight Jiaozhou, the Yangtze River defense line was temporarily safe, and the troops stationed on the Huaihe River line could be quickly transferred to the north of Xuzhou to resist the attack of the Northern Xinjiang Army.Cao Cao immediately ordered the troops of Xia Houyuan, Man Chong, Yu Jin, Liu Xun and others to go north to support.

In mid-May, Yuan Tan withdrew to Peiguoxiang County and asked Cao Cao for help.Cao Cao ordered Cao Hong and Cao Chun to lead the army to rush to help, and ordered Man Chong and Liu Xun to lead the army directly to Xiangxian County to help Yuan Tan launch a counterattack and do everything possible to regain Yuzhou.

At the same time, Cao Cao wrote to Liu Biao in Xiangyang, asking him to attack Yuzhou in order to form a pincer attack from east to west with himself.Due to the loss of Runan, this letter could only be sent to Jingzhou by water, which greatly delayed the time.

=

In mid-May, Zhong Yao led the army to attack Xiangxian County, and wrote a letter to the imperial court, describing the current situation of Yuzhou in detail, imploring the imperial court to find ways to allocate troops to support Yuzhou, and ensure that the army's food and grass will be raised by Yuzhou, and will not compete with the western expeditionary army for imperial wealth.

At the same time, Zhong Yao wrote to Chen Chen who was in Yingchuan, Xu Jing, the prefect of Runan, He Kui, the minister of Chen Guo, and Liu Xian, the minister of Liang Guo, to try their best to raise food and grass for the army. The tycoons of the aristocratic family borrowed temporarily on credit, and no matter what, they had to ensure the food and supplies of the army.

On May [-]th, Xuzhou's reinforcements rushed to Xiangxian County, and the two sides fought fiercely.

On May 24, Man Chong and Liu Xun's reinforcements rushed to Xiangxian County, and the battle between the two sides became more bloody.

On May 25, Zhong Yao led his army to retreat to Dang County in Liangguo. Zi led and Shen Rong led their troops to join up.

On May 26, the imperial decree was sent to the front line, and there was also a letter written by the general to Zhong Yao.

The imperial court rewarded Zhong Yao and the frontline soldiers, agreed to Zhong Yao's request, and transferred Xiang Tao's [-] troops from Luoyang to support the front lines of Luyang and Kunyang, and ordered Peng Lie and Lei Chong to stay on the Yuzhou battlefield. Chenliu will send another army to garrison.

The imperial court also issued a decree to worship Zhong Yao as the general who conquered the west, holding a festival axe, and supervising the military affairs of Yuzhou. The big officials and the court all accepted Zhong Yao's recommendation.In addition, Xu Jing, a great Confucian scholar, was conscripted by the imperial court to Beijing and worshiped as Minister of the Shaofu.Jia Xu, the former Minister of the Shaofu, became a general of the Chinese army, commanded the Huben Yulin Army, and accompanied the emperor on an expedition to the west.

The imperial court did not let Zhong Yao supervise the military affairs of Yuzhou, but appointed another old minister Wang Ze as the governor. Obviously, it was worried that Zhong Yao would support his own self-respect. This point was emphatically mentioned by the general in his letter to Zhong Yao.The reason for the chaos in the Han Dynasty is partly due to the fact that Emperor Xiaoling followed the suggestion of the minister Liu Yan and changed the governor of the state to the governor of the state, allowing the local governor to supervise the military administration.The imperial court cannot make the same mistake again. Even if Yuzhou is the front line, and the local governor supervises the military administration to help stabilize Yuzhou, the imperial court will never agree. This is not a question of whether you believe it or not, but a question of the authority of the emperor and the laws of the Han Dynasty. You must understand the difficulties of the court.The imperial court would rather lose Yuzhou than repeat the same mistakes.

The general also explained in detail the imperial court's views on the southern war situation and the Yuzhou battlefield. I hope Zhong Yao will not misunderstand the imperial court. Since the imperial court asked you to lead the army, it believed you. Otherwise, why did it entrust the 10,000+ army to your command?Does the court want to defeat itself?If you can fulfill your promise, regain Yuzhou for the great Han, and defend Yuzhou, you will make great contributions. But if you cannot fulfill your promise and solve the problem of food and grass for the army, please make sure to preserve your strength as the best policy and resolutely abandon Yuzhou. Just keep Yingchuan.

For the imperial court, the strategy of countering the rebellion is to put down the rebellion of the Qiang people first, and stabilize the two northwestern borders first. This is the bottom line of the imperial court. You must not confront the imperial court for personal reasons.I am about to go on an expedition to the western border with the Son of Heaven, and I don't think I will return to Chang'an within two years, so I implore you to put the country first, obey the imperial court's will, stabilize the imperial court, and stabilize the war situation in the south.

Zhong Yao was deeply moved by the general's frankness, and he immediately wrote back to the general, expressing his vow to defend the majesty of the emperor and the court to the death, and to fight for the great man of ZTE.

=

At the end of May, Guanzhong, Chencang.

The chariot general Qu Yi made all the preparations, and when the emperor and the general arrived at Chencang, they vowed to set off.

On May 25, General Jiang Jiong (jiong) of the Xiliang Army rushed to Chencang to report.Han Yi, the commander-in-chief of the Xiliang Army, was killed, and Hanyang was in chaos.

=

(End of this chapter)