I will be the master of Xuande

Chapter 705 Zhang Yide has clear thinking

The surprise battle was very detrimental to the Yizhou Army.

They never thought that the imperial court would rush to Xi County so quickly to launch a surprise attack on them.

The four words "soldiers are valuable and swift" are exactly what they mean when applied to the soldiers and horses of the imperial court.

Liu Jian commanded Ruoding from the rear. He asked Xiahoulan and Hua Xiong to lead the captains and other commanders respectively to defeat Zhang Wei's army as quickly as possible.

For a moment, the soldiers and horses of the Tianshi Sect were bleeding like rivers and fled in confusion.

While Hua Xiong and Xiahou Lan were commanding their troops to attack Zhang Wei, Zhang Wei came to the front line with his troops and wanted to resist the imperial troops.

Hua Xiong saw Zhang Wei from a distance, and without saying a word, he directly ordered his cavalry archers to fire arrows at Zhang Wei!

Although the arrows of the horse archers are not dense, they are very close and are shot in a wandering manner. The trajectory is difficult to figure out!

Those arrows flew towards Zhang Wei's location. Zhang Wei was caught off guard and was shot into a red sieve. He fell to the ground and died!

Zhang Wei died, and the other soldiers of the Tianshi Sect were scurrying around like leaderless flies. Without unified command, they could only fight blindly.

They were no match for the imperial troops and horses, and were quickly dispersed by the imperial troops and horses.

At this time, the troops led by Yan Yan had also arrived.

He is a general in Shu, and in terms of experience, he is not on the same level as Zhang Wei.

Seeing that the Tianshi Sect's army was defeated, he hurriedly ordered his soldiers to rush forward to assist the Tianshi Sect in confronting the imperial troops.

It's just that although Yan Yan has rich combat experience, his combat experience is limited to Sichuan and Shu. If it comes to guarding battles, mountain battles, and position battles, Yan Yan may be a good fighter and few can match him.

But on this plain battlefield, he faced Xiahoulan and Hua Xiong, who had rich field experience. Both of them were fierce generals who had experienced hundreds of battles and had been fighting in the northern and northwest frontiers all year round.

With these two people together, fighting Yan Yan is completely relaxed and enjoyable.

Hua Xiong's cavalry was extremely mobile, and with the support of Xiahoulan's Baili army at the side, the troops' tactics were proficient, and Yan Yan's army was quickly defeated without the ability to fight back.

Hua Xiong himself was even more unstoppable. He rushed into the Shu army's battle formation brandishing a sword. His sword slashed back and forth among the enemy formations. Countless soldiers died under his hands. Cheng was a rare warrior!

Along the way, two generals from Shu came to stop Hua Xiong, one was Lingbao and the other was Deng Xian.

The problem was that the generals in central Sichuan were completely incompetent in front of this brave general from Xiliang. The two sides only fought for a few battles when Hua Xiong shouted loudly and, relying on the cover of the cavalrymen beside him, suddenly killed Lingbao under his horse.

Subsequently, General Jiang Qi from Hebei, as well as captains Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang arrived one after another.

The three men attacked Deng Xian together, but Deng Xian couldn't resist them at all.

Soon, Deng Xian's troops were defeated, and he himself could only retreat in defeat. However, these three men did not give him a chance. A group of cavalry under Colonel Lu Kuang rode towards Deng Xian's side and fired five spears. At the same time, they stabbed Deng Xian directly and threw him off the horse.

Suddenly, the Shu army lost two generals and was unable to continue to fight against the imperial army.

Seeing that things had reached this point, Yan Yan, a famous general in Sichuan and Shu, knew that he was helpless, so he could only lead his troops to retreat in a hurry. The Shu army abandoned their helmets and armor, lost their troops and generals, and was unable to gain a foothold in Guanzhong. Yizhou fled.

Xia Houlan quickly reported the battle at the front to Liu Jian in the rear. Liu Jian was not in a hurry. He just calmly asked Hua Xiong and Xia Houlan to temporarily station their troops in Yi County, and always monitored whether the enemy's troops would Fight back with your carbine.

He himself returned to Chang'an with great fanfare. At the same time, he spread the news to various places that the imperial troops defeated 30,000 Shu troops in a single blow, and publicized the good news.

As soon as the 30,000 Yizhou troops left Qinchuan, they were beaten back to Hanzhong by the imperial army. They could no longer play any role and could not threaten the imperial court at all.

This victory came so quickly and the results were so great that it inspired almost all the Han soldiers in each state, and the morale of the court was unprecedentedly high.

The closest battlefield to Guanzhong is Longxi County in the northwest where Zhang Fei, Lu Bu, Zhang He, Xu Rong and others fought against the Liangzhou rebels.

Zhang Fei and Liu Biao had a clear division of labor this time. Zhang Fei fought against Ma Teng and Han Sui in Longxi County, while Liu Biao coordinated grain and grass and provided ordnance for him in the rear.

From this time on, the cooperation between the Liangzhou Production and Construction Corps and the Governor's Department gradually formed a tacit understanding.

The Liangzhou Governor's Department fought fiercely this time. As soon as Ma Teng and Han Sui established a foothold in Longxi County, Zhang Fei and Lu Bu launched attacks on them from two sides.

Zhang Fei is a man who fights head-on. He is not afraid of the soldiers of the Liangzhou Army who roam the fields all year round, especially in terms of cavalry. Although the Liangzhou Army is very powerful, Zhang Fei is confident that his elite knights from Hebei will not be inferior to Liangzhou. military.

After several major battles, the imperial army fully demonstrated their combat effectiveness.

In terms of generals, Zhang Fei, Lu Bu, Zhang He, and Xu Rong were all the top generals of the Han Dynasty. They were outstanding in terms of their bravery, ability to command the army, formation of troops, and even tactics. Far better than the local rebels in Liangzhou.

Of course, this does not mean that none of the rebels in Liangzhou are their opponents.

Two people like Ma Teng and Han Sui are very capable in using troops, but people like Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, and Yang Qiu are much less capable.

The number of their soldiers and horses was far less than that of Han Sui and Ma Teng, and they all had their own hidden agendas.

Therefore, although the Liangzhou Army has a large number of people, there is no unified command for their actions. The biggest obstacles are only the two warlords Ma Teng and Han Sui. Although the remaining rebels are ostensibly mobilized under their command, However, it is easy to lose control at critical moments, and they will care about each other over their own trivial matters. Many warlords are not very harmonious among themselves.

Jiang Ji, Liu Biao's meritorious officer, saw through this, so he asked Liu Biao to tell Zhang Fei on the front line not to rush to fight these small groups of warlords, but mainly to block Han Sui and Ma Teng. As for the other small warlords, just Interests and temptations from all aspects can be used to make them betray Han Sui.

After Zhang Fei received Liu Biao's information, he felt that Liu Biao was still very capable. It was amazing that he could think of this.

At the moment, it is much better to find ways to drive a wedge between the rebels and make them attack each other than to forcefully fight them.

After formulating a suitable plan, Zhang Fei, while confronting Han Sui and Ma Teng, sent people to secretly visit Cheng Yin, Yang Qiu, Hou Xuan, Li Kan and other Liangzhou rebels.

Use official positions in the imperial court, as well as property, food and other materials to lure them, hoping to achieve cooperation with them.

To put it bluntly, Zhang Fei is now here to recruit them on behalf of Liu Jian. After all, the composition of these Liangzhou warlords is very complex. There are powerful Han people, Han people, powerful Qiang tribesmen, etc. The situation is very complicated.

If these people are treated as enemies and fought, then Zhang Fei will have something to do in the end.

Ma Teng and Han Sui claimed to have 300,000 rebels, but according to Zhang Fei's estimate, the main combat strength of the headquarters led by Ma Teng and Han Sui was only about 80,000.

Regardless of whether the number of these rebels was falsely reported by Ma Teng and Han Sui, or whether they really had so many soldiers and horses, the key point now is where did their food and grass come from?

According to Zhang Fei's analysis, his Liangzhou Production and Construction Corps had supplies from the imperial court, Liu Biao assisted in farming, and these Production and Construction Corps farmed on their own. This allowed the soldiers of the Liangzhou Production and Construction Corps to stand firm in eastern Liangzhou. With your heels down, you don't have to worry about the supply of food and grass behind.

Although Ma Teng and Han Sui were from this state, Liangzhou was still relatively barren.

How do they support so many troops?

After thinking about it carefully, Zhang Fei still thought of Beidi County, Wuwei County, Jincheng County, Zhangye County, and Jiuquan County. There are many local powerful people secretly supporting them. Otherwise, Ma Teng and Han Sui would not be able to support so many troops.

In the west of Liangzhou, the support of the powerful Han people is the most important to Ma Teng and Han Sui. Even though there are many Qiang people in Liangzhou, the ones who can truly have the right to speak are the powerful Han people.

The people who can guide the Qiang tribes in various counties to compete with Zhang Fei must be the Han powerful right. At the same time, the people who want to stick to their own interests are also the Han powerful right.

Of course, so-called support from local tyrants and right-wingers also depends on who they are allocated to.

After all, Liangzhou is a poor place, and the local tycoons' wealth and food are much different from those of the Central Plains tycoons.

Therefore, they could not support the rebels on a large scale, and could only select some key rebels to supply, such as Ma Teng and Han Sui.

As for Duan Xuan, Candidate, Cheng Yin, Li Kan, Yang Qiu, Ma Wan, these second-rate rebels, they just followed Ma Teng and Han Sui to pick up leftovers.

To be honest, the specific benefits given by Liangzhou's tycoons did not have much to do with them.

There is no way, the cake is so big, whoever has a stronger fist will eat more!

Therefore, Zhang Fei sent people to appease a small group of warlords at this time and promised huge profits, which was extremely tempting to the rebels who followed Ma Teng and Han Sui.

After all, these bandits in Liangzhou are all poor thieves.

The envoys sent by Zhang Fei soon began to communicate with the small troops. Four of them, Li Kan, Hou Xuan, Yang Qiu, and Cheng Yin, were very interested in Zhang Fei's proposal.

Although the other bandits did not directly agree with Zhang Fei's opinion, they did not inform Ma Teng and Han Sui about it.

These bandits are not stupid. They saw that Zhang Fei's army had already established a foothold in Liangzhou. Until the rebels led by Ma Teng and Han Sui, they were afraid that they would not be able to live smoothly in Liangzhou in the future. What if Zhang Fei later If they really invade the western part of Liangzhou and the imperial court completely controls Liangzhou, then they will betray the information about Zhang Fei to Ma Teng and Han Sui. In the future, if the imperial court comes to them to settle old scores, they will have no chance of maneuvering. .

However, most of the rebel leaders still wanted to wait and see, and did not want to leave Ma Teng and Han Sui's command immediately, so they neither agreed nor objected to Zhang Fei's solicitation, but simply remained silent.

Only Yang Qiu, Li Kan and the other four people had small thoughts in their minds.

After Zhang Fei and others occupied Longxi County, the local powerful people became more and more dependent on the imperial court. Many Qiang people were also attracted by them. The rebels lost a lot of their source of livelihood, and the annual grain support was really not enough. To raise soldiers.

The benefits and wealth that Zhang Fei promised them, including food, could be said to be an amount that they had never heard of before.

After all, Liu Biao is now very effective in farming in the east of Liangzhou, and the Liangzhou Production and Construction Corps is becoming increasingly powerful. Zhang Fei has enough food and wealth to recruit these people, and Zhang Fei is backed by the entire imperial court, the Han Dynasty The biggest financial backer. He would definitely not break the promise he made to these rebel leaders.

Li Kan, the candidate, Yang Qiu, and Cheng Yin finally decided to accept the imperial edict.

Accepting the imperial edict means that they will become members of the imperial court from now on.

Zhang Fei also did not let them act as internal agents to cooperate with Han Sui and Ma Teng in his plan.

Zhang Fei knew that was unrealistic. If these small groups of rebels acted as internal agents around Ma Teng and Han Sui, they would soon be discovered and eradicated, which would be more of a loss than gain for Zhang Fei.

Li Kan, Cheng Yin, Yang Qiu, and Hou Xuan were all given military positions by the imperial court. Zhang Fei asked them to lead troops to Longxi, to his territory, and announced the imperial edict with great fanfare. Their reputation as bandits was officially removed and they were given the title of captain. At the same time, their army became a regular army of the imperial court and was incorporated into Zhang Fei's Production and Construction Corps.

And all the goods and food that Zhang Fei had promised to them were supplied to their army.

The reason why Zhang Fei did this was to use these rebels as an example to other rebels.

He wanted all the powerful people in Liangzhou and the local Qiang people to see that no matter where the power was in Liangzhou, the imperial court kept its promises.

In this way, the court's credibility in Liangzhou can be improved, and the influence of the rebels in Liangzhou can also be reduced.

Zhang Fei's thinking is very clear now, and things on the battlefield are not the most important thing.

Winning a battle or losing a battle is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.

The key issue now is to establish the majesty and reputation of the imperial court in Liangzhou, so that the people of Liangzhou have a sense of dependence and admiration for the imperial court.

The influence of the previous imperial court in Liangzhou was too weak. This was the reason why the people of Liangzhou continued to rebel.

Only by strengthening the imperial court's influence in the hearts of Liangzhou and the Qiang people can we control the northwest once and for all.

Previously, the imperial court had the idea of ​​​​moving a large number of Han people here to control Liangzhou, but Zhang Fei thought it was completely unnecessary.

As long as he can win the hearts of the Qiang people, Liangzhou will still belong to the imperial court.

Where are the people who are not the subjects of the imperial court?

(End of this chapter)