Han officials

Chapter 204: No Longer the Wu Amon [12]

On the Bingxu day of May, Bohai County.

After hesitating for a long time, the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou finally entered the territory of Bohai.

Since the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou did not have a recognized leader, only Zhang Rao's troops came this time.

Even so, the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou numbered nearly 300,000.

Of course, most of them are the elderly, the weak, women and children, and only one in three of the Yellow Turban bandits are actually capable of fighting.

It is said to be an army of 300,000, but in fact it is more like a beggar army or the rebel army in the late Ming Dynasty.

The fact that family members accompany the troops is a characteristic of this kind of chaotic army.

How to say it, this kind of army does have a certain combat capability, but not much.

It is easy to defeat famous generals, but it is a bit difficult for those who only know how to talk about war on paper.

After all, quantitative change leads to qualitative change. When the number of rebel troops reaches a certain level, their lethality will naturally change.

Zhong Hu, who participated in the Yellow Turban Rebellion, was clear about this.

At the same time, he was more aware that normal logic could not be used when fighting against the Yellow Turbans.

……

In the afternoon, outside the city.

Zhong Hu led 20,000 infantry and cavalry and watched the Yellow Turban Army, which was all over the mountains, cross the Machah River at ease.

As the boundary between Bohai County and Pingyuan County, the Machah River is actually not deep and the water is not turbulent.

Therefore, the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou did not build any ships or bridges, but simply waded through the water.

But even so, Ju Su still thought it was a good opportunity to attack the enemy halfway across the river.

That's what he thought, so he asked directly.

Zhong Hu was not a talkative person, but considering that Ju Su had recently gathered a lot of food and fodder, he immediately said succinctly, "The Yellow Turbans are as powerful as sand. If we don't defeat their elite troops, it will be a waste of effort to kill any number of their lesser soldiers."

Although Zhong Hu stopped talking at that point, Ju Su still heard his surprise.

It seems like... Zhong Hu deliberately let them in to fight?
Thinking of this, Ju Su suddenly understood Zhong Hu's thoughts.

Indeed, instead of guarding against the Yellow Turbans from Qingzhou moving north all day long, it would be better to kill them in a direct battle.

Besides, the main elite troops under Zhang Rao have not crossed the river yet, so it’s meaningless to kill as many meat shield soldiers in the front as possible.

If they scared Zhang Rao into changing his position when crossing the river, they would still be in trouble.

Just when Ju Su seemed to have made some progress, Zhong Hu, who had been expressionless under the central army flag, finally moved.

When he doesn't move, it's fine; when he moves, it's like thunder.

Without any hesitation, he rushed directly towards the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou with a formation of arrows.

Five thousand palace soldiers were the arrowheads, and twelve thousand garrison troops were the arrow body, directly inserted into the Yellow Turban formation.

"Send a message to Hua Xiong, don't worry about anything else, just focus on Zhang Rao's general flag!"

"Send the order to Mao Kun to attack them diagonally from the east and drive them to gather together."

Unlike Taishi Ci, although Zhong Hu often went to the front line during battles, he rarely took action himself.

If possible, he would even prefer to stay on the cloud car and command the battle.

After years of experience in battles, the more he fought, the calmer Zhong Hu became.

Soon, half an hour passed.

Seeing that Zhang Rao's main force was on the verge of collapse under the counterattack of 3,000 palace soldiers led by Hua Xiong, Zhong Hu understood that Zhang Rao really had no backup plan, so he immediately and decisively sent 2,000 palace soldiers and 3,000 garrison troops into the battlefield.

So in a blink of an eye, the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou on the north bank of the Machah River felt a lot of pressure.

The Yellow Turban generals, previously filled with arrogance and confidence, now looked around in awe. Perhaps because they had been in Qingzhou for so long, accustomed to fighting rough battles, the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou were completely stunned when they first encountered such an elite opponent as the Youzhou army.

After all, they had been rampant in Qingzhou before and had no rivals.

Especially after the fall of Beihai Kingdom, the last county in Qingzhou, the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou became extremely confident.

This is also the reason why Zhang Rao gladly accepted the invitation after receiving it from the Black Mountain Army.

In Zhang Rao's opinion, although the Youzhou Army was famous, it was actually just that.

Just like Kong Rong, the Prime Minister of Beihai, who seemed to be famous all over the world, but was actually a fool.

It has to be said that Kong Rong really did a great job of trapping Zhang Rao.

He successfully used his failure to make Zhang Rao misjudge the strength of his army.

As a result, Zhang Rao thought he was there for a banquet, but in fact he got into trouble.

……

"Chase~don't stop!"

Hua Xiong, with an excited look on his face, led more than a thousand elite cavalrymen from Youzhou and rushed towards the fleeing soldiers in front of them.

Whenever the fleeing Yellow Turban soldiers tried to escape from other places, bursts of screams would be heard, which would immediately scare the fleeing soldiers so much that they dared not think any more and subconsciously ran forward with the crowd.

Even if they were out of breath and had no strength left, they would immediately regain their spirits just by hearing the screams. After several rounds of torture, the fleeing soldiers in front of Hua Xiong had become so blinded by the torture that they could only flee forward.

It has to be admitted that Hua Xiong is indeed quite talented in cavalry warfare.

Even though he had just learned the "Reverse Rolling Pearl Curtain" technique, he had already mastered the core of this tactic.

On the battlefield, he seemed to have transformed into a horse whip, whipping the fleeing soldiers in an orderly manner.

Half of the 300,000 Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou didn't even see the enemy on the opposite side. They were swept into chaos by themselves and then rushed towards them like a snowball.

Use the few to defeat the many, the strong to defeat the weak;
Drive out the attacking force and sweep away the enemy.

I can only say that the "rolling up bead curtain" trick is extremely useful if used in the right situation!

When one army was defeated, all the armies were defeated. In the end, even Zhang Rao himself was caught up in it and could not move.

"Don't retreat! Don't retreat! Turn around and kill me!"

Looking at the large number of soldiers around him, Zhang Rao's expression was one of pain.

He clearly still has tens of thousands of troops around him, so why doesn't he dare to turn around and fight?

Zhang Rao didn't want to turn the tide, but fighting and retreating should still be possible, right?

……

Ji County, Military Academy.

Just as Wei Zhe was teaching military tactics on the stage, he received good news from Bohai County!
"Hahaha!" Wei Zhe couldn't help but laugh out loud after watching it, "What a great Bo Yuan! He's truly impressive!"

Of course, it was not difficult to defeat 300,000 Yellow Turbans with 20,000 infantry and cavalry.

But the fact that Zhong Hu was able to capture most of the 300,000 Yellow Turbans from Qingzhou was a real test of his skills on the battlefield.

It is easy to behead someone but difficult to capture them. Sometimes things on the battlefield are actually a bit counterintuitive.

For example, in the Battle of the Machah River, if Zhong Hu had attacked the enemy halfway across the river when they were trying to escape, he could have achieved a great victory in the easiest way, and the risk would have been much smaller, but the results would undoubtedly have been much less.

However, Zhong Hu, who has always been steady, chose another way this time.

It now seems that Zhong Hu no longer only knows how to win a battle, but also knows why he is fighting.

He had clearly distinguished between tactical means and strategic objectives...

(End of this chapter)