Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 1924: Dongcang’s Dilemma, Nine-Rank Zhongzheng

Although the appearance of the imperial shadow made Meng Tian and Yang Yanzhao take this matter to heart, their top priority was not to dwell on a mere imperial shadow.

Meng Tian initially had 20,000 soldiers from the Barbarian Bear Legion, plus 5,000 Golden Fire Cavalry. In addition, there were 30,000 Yanbei Navy and 50,000 Guandong Army that came later. In the previous battle, he wiped out 80,000 enemy soldiers, and he only lost about 7,000 to 8,000 people.

Therefore, at this time, Meng Tian really had nearly 100,000 soldiers and horses in his hands.

The enemy's 80,000 soldiers were all lost. How could Huang Ying fight against their army of nearly 100,000 by himself?
Therefore, for Meng Tian and Yang Yanzhao, the real priority was to sweep across the Qingbei counties in the shortest possible time according to their original plan, lead the troops from various divisions, head straight to Pingyuan, and attack Lin'an, the capital of Dongcang.

However, Meng Tian and Yang Yanzhao had different opinions on the issue of dividing troops.

Needless to say, the troops that entered Yuanjiang County along the river could only be Mo Peng's Yanbei Navy. For this group of troops, the Yanbei Navy was the only choice.

Only the Yanbei Navy could take a large detour by water, bypass Pingyao, and attack Yuanjiang County along the river. The rest of the troops could only fight steadily from land one place at a time.

However, who would lead the troops to sweep across Pingyang and then lead the troops directly to Pingyuan? Neither Meng Tian nor Yang Yanzhao was willing to give in.

Mo Peng also wanted to fight for this opportunity, but he knew from the beginning that it had nothing to do with him.

If they wanted to follow the Yellow River into Yuanjiang County, sweep across the Yuanjiang River as quickly as possible and block the southern side of the plain, only the Yanbei Navy could do it.

Although the Han Dynasty's Fierce Whale Corps still has a Tianhe Navy, they are unable to spare any time at this time.

At this time, the Fierce Whale Legion had to ensure control of the river system between Hebei and Henan, and was responsible for escorting supplies for Wang Yu's hundreds of thousands of troops.

In addition, they also have to help Xue Rengui control the large river system between Hedong and Hexi, and help Xue Rengui intimidate the small court in Hexi Road to prevent the small court in Hexi Road from threatening Wang Yu's southern expedition.

Besides, at this time, even if various places in Qingbei are empty, Lin'an, as the capital of Dongcang, still has thousands or even tens of thousands of soldiers. If they rely on the Yanbei navy, they may not be able to take it down.

The navy lacks large-scale engineering equipment, and compared with those landlubbers, it is certainly possible that the navy is completely ignorant of the tactics of attacking strongholds. They have some knowledge in their daily training, but they certainly cannot compare with those landlubbers in this regard.

Not to mention, as the capital of Dongcang, Lin'an is definitely tall and solid, and its city defense is definitely not bad.

Therefore, even though he knew that he would gain a lot if he succeeded, Mo Peng still hadn't thought of taking his brothers to such a place to fight to the death.

He led the troops to sweep across Pingyang, and then led the troops directly to Pingyuan. What was Pingyuan County? It was the place where Lin'an, the small court of Dongcang, was located. In other words, if any general led the troops along this route, he might be able to achieve the feat of destroying the enemy's capital.

Moreover, if Huangfu Minghan could be stopped and captured and killed, he could even be credited with destroying the country.

If it was for other functions, for the sake of the overall situation, Meng Tian and Yang Yanzhao might have given way. After all, these two people were not the kind of generals who had no sense of the overall situation.

However, such merit, whether it is the merit of destroying the enemy's capital or even the merit of destroying a country, cannot be given up.

If they really achieved the feat of destroying a country, it would be the highest honor for a general. It would not matter if they died in this battle! For many people, there are many things that are more important than life and death.

Therefore, whether it was Meng Tian or Yang Yanzhao, they both wanted to be responsible for the war along this route and let another person attack Pingyao County.

If it comes to official positions, then of course Meng Tian is higher. The general of the Guandong Army is Wen Zhong, and Wen Zhong is just on par with Meng Tian in terms of official position. Both of them are generals of the main army.

Therefore, in terms of rank, Meng Tian can definitely surpass Yang Yanzhao.

However, the problem is that, of the nearly 100,000 soldiers under their command, half are from the Kwantung Army.

In other words, if we want to capture Lin'an next, we will have to rely mainly on the Kwantung Army as the main force.

In this case, it would be impossible for Meng Tian to use his higher official position to completely ignore Yang Yanzhao's opinion and let him attack Pingyao instead of sweeping Pingyang.

If this is true, the soldiers of the Kwantung Army will definitely be dissatisfied with him, Meng Tian.

Disharmony between generals and commanders is a big taboo when it comes to war.

However, both of them wanted this opportunity, and neither of them wanted to give it up easily.

In the end, due to time factors, both sides had to compromise with each other. Meng Tian took charge, with Yang Yanzhao as deputy, leading the Guandong Army, plus five thousand golden fire cavalry, to sweep across Pingyang, and then march into Pingyuan City, and directly approach the Dongcang capital Lin'an.

As for the tens of thousands of Barbarian Bear Corps soldiers, they were led by Bi Zaiyu, Yang Zaixing, Cheng Yaojin and other generals of the Barbarian Bear Corps, to capture Pingyao as quickly as possible and connect it with Pingyang where they are now.

And Bi Zaiyou, a young general who had just joined the army and was now only a lieutenant general, easily got the opportunity to lead the battle.

Originally, he would not have had such an opportunity, but if Meng Tian did not come, he was the only one among the remaining generals who had considerable ability to lead troops.

It’s not that apart from Meng Tian, ​​there is no one else who can lead the Barbarian Bear Legion. It’s just that the main force of the Barbarian Bear Legion is on Han Xin’s side, and most of the generals are naturally on Han Xin’s side as well.

Therefore, Bi Zaiyu can be said to be very lucky to have got a chance to truly perform.

In just over ten days, the 50,000-strong Guandong Army had swept across the remaining half of Pingyang County. Since then, Pingyang County, one of the eight counties of Qingzhou, has completely fallen into the hands of the Han Dynasty.

After the 80,000 main troops were killed, there was almost no resistance in the places they passed through. Most of the county magistrates surrendered at the sight of the enemy. Only 20% to 30% of them had the courage to resist. Even if there were a few people who resisted, without any power, they would be swept away along the way.
Therefore, Meng Tian and Yang Yanzhao were able to completely capture the remaining half of Pingyang within just ten days. As long as they arranged the defense here, the army would officially force its way into Pingyuan County.

At this time, the Dongcang court had just received the news of defeat on the front line four or five days ago. At this moment, the people in the Dongcang court were in turmoil and terrified.

On the other hand, when Huangfu Guhan received the bad news five days ago, he also showed a little panic, but he quickly calmed down and issued several orders in an orderly manner.

Eighty thousand soldiers and horses were almost wiped out. At this time, the entire capital, plus the scattered cities around the capital, could only gather ten thousand soldiers and horses at most.

Although Dongcang still had troops capable of fighting, they were all tied up in the Zhushan battlefield and could not be transferred back to support Lin'an for a while.

The remaining tens of thousands of scattered soldiers were also distributed in the area of ​​Heyang and Qingnan occupied by Dongcang. These soldiers were not only out of reach at this time, but also unable to gather in a short time.

Faced with the oncoming army of Meng Tian and Yang Yanzhao, Huangfu Guhan followed the advice of his advisers Wen Qing and Huang Chao, and withdrew his troops to prepare to defend Lin'an. At the same time, he ordered all cities on the front line to close their gates and defend themselves, in order to delay Meng Tian and Yang Yanzhao for a month.

Meng Tian was worried that Huangfu Guhan would escape early, but this was only the worst outcome.

In fact, Huangfu Guhan is more or less a big shot in this world, and he is not so scared that he would give up his country when a strong enemy arrives.

As long as you can hold on for a full month, you may still have a chance to win.

This month was more than enough time for Yang Su to withdraw some troops to defend the city.

Furthermore, when Han Xin's troops just attacked Qingbei, Huangfu Guhan immediately sent people to Tianshidao.

Such a long time has passed up to now. If they hold on for another month, even if the Tianshidao troops have not arrived yet, it will be almost time.

The reason why the Tianshidao troops arrived so slowly was because they were rescuing other families, not their own, so there was no need to be so aggressive!

After all, no matter how weak Dongcang was at that time, the troops attacking them were not the main force of the Han Dynasty, but only the second route.

Even if they delay for a while, Dongcang will not be unable to hold out against the Han army's second legion of troops!
Letting them delay for a while is also to make Dong Cang consume more of his strength.

Allies are just allies!
But neither the Dongcang court nor the Tianshi Dao could have expected that Dongcang would be so vulnerable. Within a short period of time, the situation in Qingbei had deteriorated to this extent.

At the same time, Huangfu Guhan planned to take advantage of this time to mobilize the people from various counties to defend Pingyuan to the death. Even if he could not defend it in the end, he would use the counties in Pingyuan to consume half of the troops of Meng Tian and Yang Yanzhao.

Under Huangfu Guhan's full mobilization, each county temporarily organized a large number of able-bodied men.

The Han Dynasty re-established the imperial examination system, while the Zhao and Song dynasties used the slogan of sharing the world with the literati to attract talents.

As for Huangfu Guyuan and Huangfu Guhan, they vigorously strengthened their ties with those aristocratic families, big and small, and relied heavily on the power of those aristocratic families.

Especially Huangfu Guyuan, under the promotion of Tianshidao, directly pushed over big families like Nangong family, and his power expanded again.

Although Huangfu Guhan did not have such good luck, under the basic national policy of getting close to the aristocratic families, he still received the support of most of the aristocratic families within his ruling area.

However, because of the incident between Tianshi Dao and Nangong family, Huangfu Guhan was also implicated in various aspects. The economic blow was naturally the heaviest. Similarly, the originally good relationship with the various families was also affected by this incident.

Big families like the Nangong family have considerable influence on smaller families.

And on this basis, Huangfu Guhan finally accepted the advice of his adviser Chen Qun, and officially launched the Nine-Rank System on the day when Dongcang was established half a year ago.

Although the Nine-Rank System could not save Dongcang from its economic crisis, it reunited the aristocratic families, big and small, and brought them more closely together with the Dongcang court.

That is why, until the last resort, Yuan Shao began to consider the Han Dynasty. Before that, among all the forces, in Yuan Shao's heart, the Han Dynasty was only ahead of Tianshi Dao Dayan.

It has to be said that among all the forces in Da Cang, Zhao Song and Dong Cang are the two most friendly ones to the aristocratic families. It is precisely because of the slogans and systems they put forward that they have received the support of a large number of aristocratic families.

Compared with Zhao Song, Dongcang's biggest disadvantage is that it is a little weaker. Therefore, those aristocratic families consider Zhao Song more than Dongcang. But at least, these aristocratic families in the area ruled by Dongcang have been brought together by Huangfu Guhan.

The Nine-Rank System was a system that granted official positions based on family background and talent, and favored the aristocratic families. Once it came into being, it became an important way for the aristocratic families to gain political power. If it continued for a long time, the aristocratic families could even monopolize almost all official positions through the Zhongzheng officials.

How could such a system not be welcomed by families big and small?
Although the Zhao Song Dynasty launched the slogan of "ruling the world together with the nobles and officials", the nobles and officials refer to people who hold official positions. People from aristocratic families who hold official positions are nobles and officials, people born into powerful families who hold official positions are also nobles and officials, and similarly, ordinary people who hold official positions can also be called nobles and officials.

In essence, the Zhao Song Dynasty never cut off the path for ordinary people to advance from the bottom up, and Zhao Kuangyin never thought of it that way.

But on the other hand, the Nine-Rank System introduced by Chen Qun completely cut off the path for the lower class to advance to the upper class, and firmly grasped the right to become an official in the hands of the aristocratic families.

Huangfu Guhan is not blind to this point, nor is he blind to the fact that this system is completely a step backward in history.

However, given the harsh environment he was in at the time, he could only grit his teeth and continue on this path.

No matter how big the disadvantages are, they can only be considered after he wins. If he loses halfway, the disadvantages will be nothing more than rootless duckweed.

Therefore, with the support of the noble families from all over the plain, Huangfu Guhan easily formed a militia team in each county.