Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 283
Li Zuoche was also very predictable. On the second day after the main force of the Han army arrived in the suburbs of Henan County, Xiang Kang, who was good at treachery and deceit through envoys, sent an envoy to visit Sima Ang at the camp with a white flag in his hand, saying that there was Xiang Kang. The handwritten letter must be presented to Sima Ang in person.

However, Li Zuoche also wronged Xiang Kang a little bit. It is not that every time Xiang Kang sends envoys, he is stealing, tricking, and occasionally negotiating with dignity. This time is an exception. The letter brought by the Han army envoy is actually just a very ordinary letter. Inviting Sima Yang to fight to the death in the northern suburbs of Henan County, he did not intend to play any shameless tricks.If you want to say that Xiang Kang has some kind of scheming, it's just that Xiang Kang used to be famously afraid of fighting, and he wanted to use this to seduce Sima Yang to fight quickly.

It's a pity that Xiang Kang, who is rarely a gentleman, put his hot face on his cold butt this time. Keeping Li Zuoche's advice in mind, Sima Ang not only didn't summon the Han army envoys, he even didn't accept Xiang Kang's letter of engagement. He immediately drove the Han army envoy away, and asked the soldiers to clearly tell the Han army envoy that if Xiang Kang sent an envoy to contact the camp next time, the Henan army would be immoral and directly execute the Han army envoy on the spot.

After the envoy reported the situation to Xiang Kang, Xiang Kang also immediately understood that something was wrong, and said, "Please, it seems that Sima Ang is determined not to deal with us this time, and he cannot negotiate with him. There is no way to use the means."

"Who told you that you are notoriously shameless, at least nine of the ten times you sent envoys were cheating?"

Zhang Liang and Chen Ping slandered together, and then Zhang Liang said: "King of Han, Sima Yang categorically refused to meet our envoy while digging deep and high fortifications. It seems that he is determined to stand firm and wait for the king of Western Chu and others The allied armies of the princes and our army have come from far away, and it is difficult to transport food and grass. If Sima Ang drags them into a confrontation and consumes them, the situation will inevitably be unfavorable. It is better to take Sima Ang to set up camp not long ago. The fortifications are not strong enough, and send troops to attack as soon as possible. Take Sima Ang's camp."

Xiang Kang was silent for a moment, and then said: "It's not that easy. This morning, I went to the vicinity of the Henan army's camp to take a closer look. grasp."

Zhang Liang is not good at tactics, so he didn't insist on a frontal attack. He just reminded: "The foreign minister reminded the King of Han. If the King of Han must get in touch with Sima Ang, it is not impossible. Our army During the Battle of Mianchi, many prisoners of the Henan bandit army were captured, and among them there were quite a few officials of the Henan bandit army who were quite important. You might as well use them to hand over your letter to Sima Yupifu, so as to get something out of it.”

Xiang Kang's eyes lit up, and he immediately said: "That's a good idea, how about this? I heard that Sima Ang is also a rough man with a quick temper. Let's just use the old method I used when I was in Huaisi. Let the captives of the Henan bandit army send him a set of women's clothes to motivate him to fight, what do you think?"

"Your Majesty, forgive me for speaking bluntly. I am afraid that doing so will be useless, and it will also lose your dignity, Your Majesty."

Chen Ping hurriedly tried to dissuade him: "Mr. Sima Wang refused to meet our envoys, and he also refused to accept our letter of engagement. This idea must have been given to him by Li Zuoche. Seeing that we sent prisoners of war to bring letters and women's clothes to the camp." , Li Zuoche will definitely understand that this is our aggressive strategy. Not only will he persuade Sima Ang to calm down, he will probably persuade Sima Ang not to read the letters and gifts, and directly destroy the letters. Laughing at the king, you are unscrupulous, and you will lose the style of the king."

Thinking about his bad reputation and the information he had collected about Li Zuoche before, Xiang Kang found out that this possibility was really possible, and immediately dismissed the idea - he has already become the King of Han, and so does Xiang Kang. You have to pay attention to your demeanor and bearing.

Fortunately, although Sima Ang's attitude of standing firm and waiting for help is firm, the Henan Army's deployment is not completely seamless. After pondering for a long time on the sand table of the map that had been prepared before the expedition, Xiang Kang quickly discovered a Henan army. The small loophole in the army's defense is that Henan County, which is the main force of the Henan Army, is about [-] miles away from Luoyang City, the capital of the Henan Army. Although this distance is not far, it is not very close. It is easy to echo and rescue each other, and the Han army still has a certain chance to defeat the Henan army one by one, or create a fighter to besiege the city and fight for aid.

(Note: Henan County at the turn of the Qin and Han Dynasties is now Luoyang. At that time, Luoyang was located at the intersection of Yishui and Luoshui, which is now the ancient city of Luoyang in the Han and Wei Dynasties.)
After discovering this opportunity, Xiang Kang did not hesitate, and immediately called Wei Heng, a general of the Henan Army who had been captured and surrendered, to learn about the specific situation of the Luoyang garrison of the Henan Army in person. He answered truthfully, saying that there were probably more than ten thousand defenders in Luoyang City, and the defender was Sima Ang's brother-in-law Zhang Xian. Only then was Sima Ang entrusted with the important task of staying in the capital.

Xiang Kang nodded after thinking about it, then suddenly asked: "Are there any gates in Luoyang?"

"Reporting to the king, there are all." Wei Heng's answer disappointed Xiang Kang, and said: "Luoyang used to be the capital of Zhou Tianzi, and including the south gate facing Luoshui, there were urns at the four gates. All over the world, Luoyang was designated as the prefecture of Sanchuan, and great efforts were made to build the city and renovate and strengthen the city walls. Therefore, when the allied forces of the princes attacked Luoyang, it took a lot of effort to take Luoyang. For this matter, the king of Western Chu later He also executed all the Tyrant Qin prisoners of war in Luoyang to take revenge."

Xiang Kang was completely at a loss, and secretly said: "There is no other way, such a strong city, and the city gate is protected by the Wengcheng. If the army is too small, it will definitely not be able to take it down. If there are too many troops, it will definitely arouse Sima Yang's vigilance immediately. Don't overdo it." , When we are preparing to attack the city, he only needs to find an opportunity to send [-] troops back to reinforce Luoyang, even if I send [-] to [-] troops to go there, it is difficult to take Luoyang City with confidence."

Thinking about this, Xiang Kang's heart suddenly moved, and he hurriedly said in his heart: "Wait, if there are too few troops, I will definitely not be able to take it down? That is to say, if I only send [-] to [-] troops to bypass Henan County to attack Luoyang, Whether it's Sima Ang's main force or Luoyang's defenders, they must understand that I'm pretending to attack Luoyang, trying to trick Sima Ang's main force into dividing up their forces, and won't take my partiality too seriously. If I do enough work on this... ..., wouldn't you be able to take the initiative on the battlefield?"

After coming to this conclusion, Xiang Kang immediately asked Wei Heng, "General Wei, just now you said that Sima Ang's brother-in-law, Zhang Xian, is cautious. How cautious is he?"

"Work very steadily. When marching and fighting, no matter whether it rains or snows, he insists on personally leading the team to patrol the camp every night." Wei Heng immediately replied: "When we were in Hengshan County, there was a time when the Tyrant Qin army bluffed and lured the enemy. I wanted to lure him into an ambush, but in the end he only chased for five or six miles, and when he saw the narrow road ahead, he immediately chose to retreat and not pursue, and the ambush that the Tyrant Qin army had worked so hard to arrange was in vain."

"It's no wonder Sima Yifu gave Luoyang to him to guard." Xiang Kang snorted, and asked again: "How did the allied forces of the princes break Luoyang City?"

"Use orthodox siege tactics." Wei Heng continued to answer truthfully, saying: "First fill up the moats of the north gate and west gate, prepare enough siege weapons, and then attack the two northwest gates at the same time. It took a lot of effort. This is how Luoyang City was taken."

"Why did you only attack the two northwest gates at the same time, and didn't attack the east gate?" Xiang Kang asked quickly.

"Because in the northwest corner of Luoyang City, there is a highland called Lingtai, where you can look down on the whole city of Luoyang from a high position, and the river to the north is convenient for water, suitable for stationing large troops, and very convenient for commanding the attack." Wei Heng replied: "At that time For the convenience of command, the King of Western Chu arranged his main camp on the Lingtai, and by the way, commanded the simultaneous attack on the two northwestern gates of Luoyang."

Xiang Kang nodded slowly, and after thinking about it for a while, he finally made up his mind, and said to himself: "Just do it like this, at worst, the army will waste some time. It's better than passively attacking the main camp that Sima Yang is defending with all its strength. Really. No, I still have the option of attacking Luoyang by force!"

After making up his mind, Xiang Kang immediately ordered: "Call Zhujishi, I have an order to explain."

In the end, after Xiang Kang explained his tactics to Zhujishi carefully, Chen Ping next to him cautiously reminded: "Han Wang, although this can achieve the effect of turning the customer into the main, it is a waste of time. We must guard against Shen Yang." Send troops from Yingchuan to the north to reinforce Sima Yupifu."

"Strategically, we can safely despise our opponents." Xiang Kang replied with a famous saying, and said with a sneer: "My elder brother entrusted three counties to Sima Yang in one go, and only allocated to Shen Yang, who was beaten to death. In Chuan County, Shen Yang is definitely full of anger, he will not send troops to reinforce Sima Ang so easily, he will just hide in the sidelines and watch the fun, without enough benefits, he will definitely not attack lightly."

…………

According to Xiang Kang's instructions, early the next morning, Zhujishi led 1 Han troops, including some of the new soldiers, to march eastward, bypassing the strong camp of the main force of the Henan Army, and taking the wilderness north of Henan City. , Go straight to Luoyang, Sima Ang's lair, and kill him.Then, exactly as Xiang Kang expected, seeing that Xiang Kang only dispatched less than [-] troops eastward to Luoyang, Sima Ang really laughed out loud and said, "Is Xiang Kang just daydreaming? Do you want to win Luoyang, the capital of this king?"

"Your Majesty, this is Xiang Kang's kid's plan to lure snakes out of the cave." Li Zuoche also fell into Xiang Kang's tricks, and immediately said: "The purpose of his false attack on Luoyang is to lure our main force back to rescue Luoyang. He has won the opportunity to fight in the field, the king doesn't need to care about it, he just needs to order General Zhang Xian to stick to Luoyang, but he must not take risks."

"It doesn't need to be so much." Sima Ang replied quite confidently: "This king knows Zhang Xian's temper better than anyone else. No matter what happens, he will never take the risk of going to war. The Han bandit army wants to draw him out. City, don’t even think about it.”

Although he was well aware of Sima Ang's wife and brother Zhang Xian's cautious character, Li Zuoche still did not dare to be careless, and said, "Your Majesty, it is best to tell General Zhang. Also, please remind General Zhang Xian, Xiang Kang's son He is also very good at using tricks to surrender, General Zhang must guard against this."

Sima Ang thought about it, so he still sent Kuai Ma Xijin to tell his wife and brother not to fall into the trap of the Han army. At the same time, he went to Wenyingchuan again to ask his former comrade Shen Yang to send troops north to reinforce him ——If Shen Yang can quickly go north from Yangcheng to reinforce Sima Ang's back, Sima Ang will naturally not have to worry about his own rear.

It's a pity that there has been no reply from Shenyang. On the contrary, after the Zhujishi troops of the Han army arrived at the outskirts of Luoyang, they immediately established a strong camp on the Lingtai high ground outside the city, and at the same time allocated their manpower. Carrying earth and stones to fill up Luoyang's north gate moat, while cutting down wood, rushing to make various siege weapons, and posing for a strong attack on Luoyang.Sima Ang and Li Zuoche sneered at this, believing that the Han army's partial division was just a bluff, trying to trick the self army into returning to the division to rescue Luoyang, revealing their flaws to take advantage of Xiang Kang's main force.

During this period, Xiang Kang's despicable tricks were also accurately predicted by Li Zuoche. On the third night when the Han army set up a battalion and marched east outside Luoyang City, there was a general of the Han army who claimed that he could not stand Zhujishi's bullying. They dispatched two newly recruited prisoners of war from the Henan Army to sneak into Luoyang City, claiming that they were going to abandon the dark side and turn to the bright side, so that the Luoyang defenders could attack the Han army camp. Under severe torture, the two prisoners of war obediently told the truth, admitting that they came to the city to trick Zhang Xian out of the city to attack the Han army camp because they were greedy for the huge reward promised by Zhujishi.And after Zhang Xian reported the news to Sima Ang, Sima Ang immediately sneered and said, "Xiang Kang, can you play some new tricks? How many times have you tried to divorce and surrender, who will fall for your tricks again?" ?”

On this point, Xiang Kang did not disappoint Sima Ang. As time passed, after five or six days, Sima Ang gradually realized that something was wrong. Relying on unremitting efforts, the Ministry of Finance actually filled up the moat outside the north gate of Luoyang, and successfully opened the way for the soldiers of the Han army to directly enter the city of Luoyang. At the same time, the scouts of the Henan Army also discovered that The Ministry has really rushed to create a large number of siege weapons, and it is possible to really attack Luoyang City at any time!
"Could it be that the Han bandit army is really planning to attack Luoyang? If so, if Zhang Xian makes any mistake, my situation will be very bad."

When Sima Ang finally started to feel uneasy, something that surprised him even more happened. In the early morning of the seventh day, Xiang Kang sent the general of the Han army, Long Qie, to lead [-] troops westward to Luoyang for reinforcements. Zhujishi, which had been fully prepared to attack the city before.At the same time, in order to prevent the Henan army from sending troops to intercept, Xiang Kang also arranged for the famous Han army general Ding Ji to lead an army out of the camp to cover the dragon and bypass the Henan army camp and march eastward.

Seeing the mobilization of the Han army on the high ground of the self-army camp, not to mention Sima Yang, even Li Zuoche was extremely surprised, and thought: "Could it be that Xiang Kang is really planning to attack Luoyang by force? If that's the case, We are passive."

"Your Majesty, we may have fallen for the trick. Xiaoer Xiang Kang deliberately sent only those with insufficient troops to the east, and also deliberately sent people into the city to pretend to surrender. All this is to cover up his preparations for the siege, and trick us into taking the Luoyang battlefield lightly and missing the advance plan." The opportunity to divide his troops back to aid Luoyang allows him to suddenly increase his troops on the Luoyang battlefield and really launch a strong attack on our capital Luoyang."

The former chief think tank of the Henan Army, Du Wanda, analyzed carefully, and Sima Ang's face gradually turned livid. After a little calculation, he asked Li Zuoche, "Guangwu Jun, what do you think?"

Li Zuoche was silent for a while, and then he said calmly: "Your Majesty, what the Du Shaofu said is very true. This time we were indeed fooled, and we fell into Xiang Kang's plan to turn against the guest. Now the initiative on the battlefield in Luoyang, Henan has been taken He got it."

(End of this chapter)