A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 432: Breaking into the enemy camp to boost morale, winning or losing in an instant

April nd
Zhang Liao, who was anxiously waiting for a reply from Xuzhou, finally received the letter before Sun Quan's army encircled him.

After looking carefully, Zhang Liao frowned, his hands trembled slightly without others noticing, and then he sat back down without saying a word.

"General, what did Governor Gao say? When will reinforcements arrive?"

Facing the inquiry from his generals, Zhang Liao had to answer bluntly: "Cao Cao has captured Pei County. Xuzhou is facing a big crisis. I'm afraid it won't be able to send reinforcements."

"Ah, so we can't fight against Duke Wu's army of 100,000 by leaving only 5,000 of our troops? What should we do?"

Since Sun Quan had long expected to send troops, Zhang Liao stationed many spies in Jiangdong, so he got the news just when Sun Quan was gathering his troops.

When Sun Quan's army gathered in Wancheng, Lujiang County, and set out, Sun Quan's troops reached 100,000. The boats and flags covered the sky and the sun, and the flow of rivers turned into the flow of ships.

"General, since Wu's army is so powerful and our five thousand men are like mantises acting as chariots, I am afraid that Wu's attack will not be able to stir up a single wave. According to the general's opinion, it is better to retreat to Zhongli and rely on the Huai River. war."

Seeing that all the generals in the hall were in panic all day long, none of them dared to fight. If the general is like this, it can be expected that the soldiers under his command must be unsettled.

Zhang Liao finally couldn't help but exploded. He shattered the cases in front of him with one palm. The huge noise caused the audience to fall silent and everyone looked at him.

"Shut up, as the defender of Jiujiang, my lord has given us Jiujiang, which is a huge trust. I, Zhang Liao, have not achieved much in these years.

Firstly, there was no military merit, and secondly, there were no gains. We just stayed at Hefei and did a little hard work in guarding Jiujiang. However, when the Lord awarded the generals in Yedu, he still did not forget us and promoted us to military positions one after another.

Let me wait for you to be promoted from a lieutenant and Sima under General Zhenxi to the current governor of Jiujiang and the general against rebellion. Each of you is in the position of partial general and assistant general. What an honor it is. Emperor Wu also treats Huo Wei. But that’s it.

Whether Jiujiang is lost today or not depends on our decision-making. Disasters of life and death can happen in a matter of seconds. Without thinking about repaying the Lord's kindness, he even said that he would retreat and be defeated. How can he live up to the heart of the king of heaven and earth? "

After listening to Zhang Liao's heartfelt words, the generals felt so ashamed that they all knelt down on one knee and worshiped: "It was lard like me who deceived our hearts and gave birth to such an unfaithful heart. We are really guilty of death.

But even if we have the desire to serve the country, Wu's army of one hundred thousand is like the roar of a big river and has no ability to serve the country. We still ask the general to lead us through this difficulty and defend Hefei and Jiujiang. Even if we die on the city wall, we are still willing to do so. . "

Seeing that the generals still had ambition, Zhang Liao said proudly: "Okay, since all the generals are willing to fight to the death with me, then I will take you to meet the Lord of Jiangdong for a while!"

Zhang Liao immediately selected 800 elite warriors from the entire army, all of whom were strong and skilled in swords and bows. Some of them were selected from the army, and some were soldiers who had been following Zhang Liao.

Then Zhang Liao immediately sent an order to Taishi Ci, the governor of Guangling, asking him to look for opportunities to invade Wu County on the south bank. Although he knew that Sun Quan would definitely defend Wu County, he could also divert some of his attention.

Then he secretly ordered Pinghe General Chen Jie to lead the Guangling navy and secretly enter the Zangzhoupu that he had dug beside Shushui earlier, and hide the elite navy there. It would be of great use to him.

Due to the slow march of Sun Quan's 100,000 troops, they are still more than 40 miles away from Hefei and it is estimated that they will arrive in three days.

Zhang Liao prepared to take the lead in attacking in the early morning of three days before Sun Quan's army completed the encirclement, "to reduce its momentum and calm the hearts of the people", and then he could defend the city.

With Zhang Liao's encouragement, all the generals eliminated their doubts and were all excited, ready to fight to the death with the Wu army and make achievements to repay Duke Zhao.

On the night of April 5th, Zhang Liao reviewed the eight hundred warriors he had personally selected at the South Gate of Hefei. He walked impatiently in front of them one by one and sorted out their weapons and armaments. Zhang Liao spent nearly an hour on this move.

In order to make each of these eight hundred elite soldiers strong and capable, Zhang Liao not only gathered all the armor stomachs in Hefei City, but also asked Tai Shici of Guangling to transport more than two hundred sets by ship day and night.

"Brothers, the Wu army bullied us with a small number of people, and pressed the territory with large troops, hoping that we would surrender the city. I heard that slavery is prevalent in Jiangdong. I won't say more. Given our status, if we fail, we will inevitably become Jiangdong. A slave soldier of a certain general or a large family.

But under the command of Duke Zhao, we are clean and honest, upright guards, and can walk on the street with our heads held high. So do you want to be a human being or a slave? "

"Be a man!"

"Very good! Come here, serve wine and meat. Tonight, you can have enough wine and meat, and tomorrow you will kill the enemy with me!"

In order to boost the morale of these eight hundred people, Zhang Liao not only made a heavy promise, but also killed dozens of cattle, which were extremely important in the south. He also bought all the Taibai hops from the Bai caravan stranded in the city with a huge sum of money and gave them as gifts. Soldiers about to go into battle.

In the early morning, the sky was slightly bright, and the Hefei City Gate slowly started to move until it was completely opened.

Zhang Liao wore armor and held a halberd, and led eight hundred people directly towards the Wu army camp opposite.

Due to the foggy weather in the south, the fog has not cleared yet, and only the outline of the Wu Army's camp can be vaguely seen.

"Brothers, kill the enemy!!!"

As early as yesterday, Sun Quan had arrived in the south of Hefei City and established his own banner. Zhang Liao had already noted the location of Sun Quan's main camp. Therefore, Zhang Liao went straight towards the big banner with the character "Sun".

A few dozen steps outside the Wu army's camp, the generals on duty had already discovered Zhang Liao's actions and led their troops to fight.

Zhang Liao had personally killed dozens of Soochow soldiers and two Soochow generals. Then, shouting his name loudly, he stepped forward and rushed into the Soochow camp.

"Zhao's general Zhang Liao is here, and the thief Sun will die!!!"

After that, Zhang Liao led his army to continue the fierce attack and rushed to Sun Quan's banner.

At this time, Sun Quan had been awakened by Zhang Liao's actions. He led his generals to the high platform under the banner to look out. He was shocked when he saw that Zhang Liao was only dozens of steps away from him.

Anyone who is knocked on the door early in the morning is not in a state of confusion. Therefore, although Wu's army is 100,000 strong, but he is suddenly awakened, he is still panicked and does not know how to deal with it.

Seeing that they could not withstand Zhang Liao's attack, Sun Quan and others fled to a higher mountain tomb. Sun Quan even defended himself with a halberd.

Zhang Liao saw that Sun Quan was retreating and that the protective battalion under the banner was too elite and it was difficult to attack, so he gave up taking the banner and went to the mountain tomb to yell at Sun Quan and provoke him to come down and fight.

But Sun Quan did not act rashly. Only then did Sun Quan realize that Zhang Liao led very few soldiers, so he ordered the Wu army to gather and surrounded Zhang Liao's troops.

Zhang Liao's move was originally to boost the morale of the army. Knowing that nothing could be done, he fell into siege and immediately ordered a retreat.

In order to successfully break through the encirclement, he asked the army to expel the besiegers from left to right, and then he went straight forward to carry out a "rush attack", opening the encirclement of Soochow and heading all the way towards Hefei City. The Wu army followed from a distance and did not dare to get close.

In this battle, the two sides fought from early morning to noon. The morale of Wu's army was completely lost. They returned to repair their defenses. The morale of the Hefei defenders calmed down because of their great victory in the first battle. The generals also expressed their sincerity to Zhang Liao and saw the weakness of Wu's army. , no longer worried about the next battle.

Because of what Zhang Liao did to the Wu army, the morale of the army was in chaos, and the defenders of Hefei were so powerful that they all thought that the Wu army was a group of weak soldiers who had exerted their full strength to the fullest.

Therefore, Sun Quan commanded the army to besiege Hefei for more than ten days, but could not capture it. In addition to morale, Zhang Liao had been waiting for a war during the years he was stationed in Hefei, so he continued to build city walls, making Hefei look like a fortified city.

Not only are the city walls tall, the city defense equipment is sufficient, and the military rations have been defended for more than half a year, Shushui has also been introduced to fill the moat.

Just to fill the moat, Wu Jun abandoned many corpses and spent a long time.

April 11

Just as Cao Cao was leading the army to attack Pengcheng, he suddenly learned that Liu Bei had crossed the Yellow River and captured Qinting in Dongjun. One hundred thousand troops were being transported across the river in a steady stream, and the forward 10,000 soldiers were led by Zhennan General Zhang Fei. Next, they captured Puyang, an important place in Dongjun.

At this time, Puyang only had three thousand defenders, and most of them were stationed in the north of the city. However, Zhang Fei came from the south of the hinterland and Puyang fell.

Cao Cao was very impatient. After leaving behind 10,000 troops, he personally took the remaining 40,000 troops and hurried towards Dongjun.

At this time, Cao Cao's soldiers in Dongjun were scattered along the Yellow River, totaling no more than 10,000 people.

Knowing that Liu Bei was well prepared, Cao Cao's 40,000 troops might not be able to resist him. On the march, Cao Cao sent people to rush south and mobilized Cao Ren, who was stationed in Jiangling, to urgently bring 50,000 troops to support Dongjun.
Cao Hong, who had captured Gaodu, also mobilized 20,000 men under his command to withdraw from Gaodu and return to Sizhou to aid Sizhou to prevent Liu Bei's army from breaking through and entering Sizhou.

April 13

After Cao's army retreated, Gao Shun immediately went south with 30,000 reinforcements to support the besieged Hefei.

Sun Quan learned that Cao's army had withdrawn and knew that it was impossible to capture Hefei City, so he withdrew his troops.

Seeing the Wu army withdrawing, Zhang Liao realized that Xuzhou had won the battlefield and reinforcements were on the way, so he led his troops to pursue the enemy. He also ordered the Guangling navy hidden in Zangzhoupu to attack and destroy the bridge for the Wu army to retreat.

The Wu army was attacked in the rear, the bridge in front was destroyed, morale once again fell to the bottom, and they had no intention of fighting at all, and they were defeated.

Zhang Liao led his men all the way towards Sun Quan's commander-in-chief and was about to capture Sun Quan, but missed the opportunity to capture Sun Quan alive because he didn't know Sun Quan's appearance.

Sun Quan and Gan Ning relied on their good horses to jump over the broken bridge and narrowly escaped death.

When Sun Quan collected the defeated army in Lujiang, a hundred thousand troops, only more than 40,000 people came back, severely damaged.

Gao Shun came to Hefei with reinforcements, but found that the Wu army had been defeated by Zhang Liao. Under incredible circumstances, he sent more troops to Zhang Liao, left more troops in garrison, continued back to Xiapi, and sent the battle report to Liu Bei.

(End of this chapter)