Han officials

Chapter 193: The Displaced Emperor Liu [22]

Under the central army flag, Zhong Hu was not at all anxious about the setback in the siege.

The Lord cannot be angry and raise an army, nor can he be angry and cause war.

Act when it is beneficial, and stop when it is not.

Anger can be restored to joy, anger can be restored to joy, a destroyed country cannot be restored, and the dead cannot be resurrected.

Therefore, wise rulers should be cautious about it, and good generals should be vigilant about it.

As a veteran who has accompanied Wei Zhe all the way, Zhong Hu can be said to be Wei Zhe's first student.

It was also for this reason that he took the military tactics taught by Wei Zhe most seriously.

Sometimes even Wei Zhe felt that Zhong Hu was too serious, but he remained the same.

From this perspective, Zhong Hu may not be Wei Zhe's best disciple, but he is the most standard one.

Those who are good at fighting are good at others but not at others.

He has achieved half of this.

For this reason, when he saw Mao Kun and others suffer setbacks, he remained calm and continued to attack at his own pace.

Surrounding three sides and leaving one side missing, this is just the beginning, he has only used half of the tactics to attack the city and capture the stronghold.

So what if the city gate is blocked? As long as we take the city wall, we can still break into the city!
Geng Wu, who was standing by, could not help but sigh to Han Xi, "This man truly has the bearing of a great general!"

Upon hearing this, Ju Su nodded slowly, but he thought about more.

According to his understanding, Zhong Hu himself had no background, he was just the leader of the troops of the Xuanxu Wei family.

If it weren't for Wei Zhe's help, he would probably have remained unknown all his life.

But such an ordinary person has now become a general in a certain area, which shows that Wei Zhe is lucky.

Just like the group of butchers and dog dealers in Pei County back then, they were able to become dukes and marquises only because they followed the right person.

This made Ju Su even more curious about Youzhou and Wei Zhe.

After all, good birds choose the right trees to roost in, and good ministers choose the right masters to serve.

In these troubled times, if I could find a wise leader to serve, my life would be worthwhile.

……

At the same time, on the top of Nanpi City.

After the first wave of attack by the Wei army was repelled, the Nanpi officials couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

But when they looked to the right and saw the pile of broken bodies, many people couldn't help but feel a tightness in their hearts.

It was not until Wei Jia led his men to inspect the North City that the court official Chai Hong finally growled in a low voice, "Madman, he is a madman!"

Upon hearing this, Gongcao Hou Lang gritted his teeth and nodded, with inexplicable fear in his eyes.

After all, he was not a disciple of the Runan Yuan family, and he did not want to go through fire and water for Yuan Shao.

What does it matter if a bandit who kills officials and seizes the throne is the legitimate son of a three-generation official?
After looking at each other, Chai Hong and Hou Lang nodded in tacit understanding.

So after a while, the two of them quietly went to find the chief clerk Lu Kai.

In a corner, surrounded by his confidants, Chai Hong whispered, "Brother Zibu, the first wave of attack was so fierce that the Wei army almost occupied the city walls. I'm afraid the next wave of attacks will be even more difficult!"

Although Lu Kai didn't say anything after hearing this, his solemn expression said it all.

Seeing this, Hou Lang gritted his teeth and said bluntly, "Yecheng won't send any reinforcements at all. Even if we die, it will be in vain. We might as well risk our lives."

Chai Hong even argued cunningly, "I'll die if I want to, but how can we, as innocent people, give up our lives for the bandits who want to seize the throne?"

Looking at Chai Hong, Hou Lang, Gao Jun and others with fierce eyes in front of him, Lu Kai sighed lightly and finally nodded.

Although the county magistrate was kind to him, he had no choice but to make a choice for the sake of his family.

Thinking of this, he immediately said decisively: "The county magistrate has the Yuan family guards beside him. If we act rashly, it will be difficult to succeed. It is better to gather the young and strong men from each family and take the initiative to guard the city. This way, we may succeed."

After hearing this, Chai Hong and the others paused for a moment before nodding in unison. Gao, Lü, Hou, and Chai were the four major clans in Nanpi, and their combined private armies rivaled even those of the county government.

If they were allowed to take the opportunity to get closer, the group of guards and county soldiers around Wei Jia would definitely not be a problem.

When Chai Hong and others took the initiative to express goodwill on behalf of each family, Wei Jia thought that it was his family's decisive action on the city wall that frightened these people, and he immediately accepted it with great joy.

However, when more than a thousand young and strong warriors in leather armor climbed to the top of the city wall, Wei Jia found something wrong.

But it was too late. Chai Hong and others surrounded him from the front and back and hacked him to death in the blink of an eye.

Seeing the internal strife among the defenders on the city wall, the Wei army below the city was overjoyed and immediately prepared to take the opportunity to attack the city.

However, they did not expect that before the ladders could reach the city wall, Chai Hong and others who had killed Wei Jia could not wait to cut down the flags on the city wall and threw all the weapons in their hands to the bottom of the city to show their intention to surrender.

Seeing this, Zhong Hu, who was standing under the central army's banner, slowly nodded and said, "Go up to the city and surrender!"

As the setting sun was about to disappear over the horizon, the flag of the Youzhou army was finally raised on the top of Nanpi City.

However, Zhong Hu did not lead his troops into the city. After clearing the four city gates and controlling the city wall defenses, the Youzhou army remained stationed outside Nanpi City.

Seeing this situation, the powerful families in Nanpi County had no choice but to go out of the city to pay a visit.

Fortunately, Zhong Hu was not a cruel person, and after some comforting, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Since they took the initiative to kill the Nanpi magistrate and surrender, Zhong Hu also specially recruited the sons of various families to serve as his personal cavalry guards as a reward. Nanpi was completely in the hands of Youzhou.

……

While the Youzhou army was conquering cities in Bohai County, the neighboring Qingzhou was also not idle.

Although Kong Rong summoned scholars and civilians in Beihai State, gathered troops for military discussions, issued proclamations, and wrote letters himself to communicate with various states and counties and make joint plans, it was still useless.

Zhang Rao, the leader of the Yellow Turbans in Beihai, led 200,000 men in rebellion. Kong Rong took the initiative to fight back, but was defeated by Zhang Rao.

Kong Rong, who always boasted of his unparalleled talent in the past, is now unable to even defend his territory, let alone compete with the heroes of the world.

As the Yellow Turbans in Beihai grew in strength, Kong Rong could only gather scattered soldiers and move to Zhuxu County. He gradually gathered more than 40,000 officials and civilians, rebuilt the city, established schools, promoted talented people, and promoted Confucianism.

Well, that’s all Kong Rong knew. As for why he did this, he probably didn’t even know.

Fortunately, Liu Bei came to surrender with more than a thousand soldiers at this time, and Kong Rong's situation improved a lot.

At least he no longer had to move to other places to fight against the invasions of the Yellow Turbans.

Even after Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others made great progress, Kong Rong recovered several cities, which made him even more proud, and he often compared himself to Gou Jian in his words.

However, when Zuo Chengzu, a member of the Council of Ministers, advised him to appoint Liu Bei as the general and give him full power to control the Yellow Turbans in Beihai, Kong Rong laughed heartily and said, "If I use Xuande, General Xu will surely laugh at me!"

After all, Liu Bei was neither a member of a noble family nor a famous scholar, and he also had the stain of having once followed Gongsun Zan.

Kong Rong seemed to treat Liu Bei with great courtesy, but in fact he only treated him as a tool.

So when the Yellow Turbans of Beihai attacked again, Kong Rong personally took command of the troops to respond.

To show his noble demeanor, Kong Rong drank a lot of fine wine before the battle, mounted his horse himself, and fought the enemy on the Lai River.

At the beginning, it was okay. Liu Bei's troops acted as the vanguard and blocked the offensive of the Yellow Turban Army, but Kong Rong's military strategy was not even comparable to that of the Yellow Turban generals.

Because the Yellow Turban Army took advantage of the stalemate in the front and waded through the water on both wings to attack Zhuxu. As a result, Kong Rong was caught off guard and the city was quickly breached and his army was defeated. In the end, even Kong Rong himself was not allowed to enter the city and had to lead the remaining troops to continue fighting.

After several incidents, almost everyone around Kong Rong gradually defected.

So when the Youzhou army split into two groups and attacked Bohai County and Hejian County respectively, Kong Rong, who had accomplished nothing, saw that the mess of Beihai Kingdom was really impossible to clean up, so he simply left the county and took Liu Bei and others to seek refuge with Tao Qian, the governor of Xuzhou.

Anyway, just by virtue of his reputation as a descendant of Confucius, people always give him face wherever he goes.

However, Liu Bei, who was stranded in Xuzhou, was in a very complicated mood, especially when he heard that Wei Zhe appointed Taishi Ci and Zhong Hu as generals to attack Bohai and Hejian counties, his mood became even more mixed.

Not to mention comparing himself with Wei Zhe, he is far inferior even to his officers and generals.

This made Liu Bei, who had just arrived in Xuzhou, very depressed. He didn't know when this life of wandering would end...

(End of this chapter)