Episode 211: The Battle of Chang'an
Have you won? Have you completely defeated the enemy? Dian Wei looked around in a conscious sense. In the sight of him, the soldiers of Jizhou coalition who had put down their weapons and were jailed. Next to him, the soldiers of the Taiping Army were all excited and happy, and they talked about the battle just now and were full of show-offs.
Xiao Lan was right, he had already won, but who could know how many bloody Taiping soldiers had been fighting behind this victory. He couldn't help but sigh. Dian Wei felt a little tired at this moment. After all, even if he had the courage of ancient evil, he was only a trivial force in the huge battle formation of hundreds of thousands of troops.
Even if such a huge war was won, the Taiping Army was not a small number of casualties. Looking around, most of the soldiers who followed him and rushed to fight were gone, and the ones left were scarred. Even Dian Wei's heart could not help but sigh for the formation.
Zhao Yun was captured, and the remaining white horse Yi naturally could not escape this fate. On the battlefield, the enemy who finally resisted finally gave up on the resistance and the war stopped.
In this battle, the two sides invested a total of 700,000 to 800,000 troops, and fought for more than five or six hours. The Jizhou coalition army lost nearly 300,000, and nearly 100,000 were captured. The rest fled with Yuan Shao and others retreating.
Yuan Yi, Liu Gun and other princes were killed in battle, Kong Rong was captured, and the former princes of Guandong were about to disappear. Most of the generals under Yuan Shao were killed and injured, especially after Lu Bu was defeated by Xiao Lan, most of the generals under Bingzhou Army Zhang Liao, Gao Shun and other generals under Bingzhou Army were regarded as abandoned sons and became prisoners of the Taiping Army. In addition, the loss of the White Horse Yicong No. 1 general Zhao Yun under Gongsun Zan, the coalition forces were almost collapsed and disintegrated.
Chunyu Qiong and Jiang Yiqu died in the chaos of the army. They were trampled on each other by their own cavalry when the army retreated riotally. Yuan Shao's nephew Gao Gan led his army to cut off the rear for his uncle. When he wanted to escape, he was chased and killed by Taishi Ci.
In this battle, nearly 100 generals of the Jizhou coalition were killed and injured, most of which were killed by Dian Wei, which shows that he was fierce and brave. He has really reached a terrifying level.
After this disastrous defeat, the Jizhou coalition was no longer able to compete with the Taiping Army, and even lost its capital to defend. To this day, Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan have few generals. Apart from Yan Liang and Wen Chou, there are almost no generals who can stand alone.
In contrast, although the Taiping Army lost nearly 30,000 soldiers in this battle, the real generals led the troops did not suffer much damage, and such a record was enough to shock the world.
Compared to the loud cheers of Taiping soldiers, Xiao Lan was much calmer, but no matter how happy he was, he would not easily reveal it in front of the soldiers. This is the most basic cultivation of a hero. Obviously, Xiao Lan has really gradually completed his transformation.
At dusk, Xu Chu, Chen Da, and Zhou Tai led their troops back. When the war broke out in front, they sneaked into the rear. Although they did not completely burn all the food and grass of the Jizhou coalition forces, they also destroyed most of them. However, because the Jizhou coalition forces lost more than 200,000 troops, the remaining food and grass were enough, and the results of the battle seemed limited.
"I ordered Chen Dao, Xu Chu, Taishi Ci, and Zhou Tai to lead 50,000 troops out of the Bohai Sea to attack Youzhou!"
"I ordered Guo Jia, Huang Zhong, and Gao Lan to lead 100,000 troops to Luoyang, leave Hangu Pass to advance to Chang'an, and take down the Han Dynasty emperor."
Without a moment of rest, Xiao Lan ordered the division of troops to attack that night. Early the next morning, he personally led his troops across the border bridge and took advantage of the great victory to launch the most fierce attack on Jizhou.
Just as Xiao Lan was dividing his troops, Cao Cao was leading his troops to fight with Xu Rong, Zhang Ji, Li Jue, Guo Si and others. Cao Cao had Cheng Yu as his plan, and the Xiahou brothers, Cao Ren, Le Jin, Li Dian and other brave generals had more than 100,000 troops, and the troops were strong, but Xu Rong and others were not weak. In addition, Jia Xu made suggestions, for a moment, the two sides were evenly matched, and the battle was fierce.
However, the Xiliang army had just experienced an accident, and people were unwilling to accept each other. Xu Rong, Zhang Ji, Li Jue, Guo Si and others were also dissatisfied with each other. When they were fighting, they were often at a disadvantage. After a few battles, Xu Rong simply listened to Jia Xu's strategy and encouraged the benefits of Chang'an's tall and strong city, and could not defend it. Cao's army came far away to fight, and the food was in short supply. It took only a long time to retreat without fighting.
Guo Si was originally just a groom who was the lower-ranking member of Dong Zhuo's tent, but with his extraordinary talent, he gradually became valued by Dong Zhuo. He was tactful, and although he was not angry with Xu Rong's attitude, he never opposed it at all.
But Li Jue couldn't accept it and couldn't help cursing: "He can do it. When the Prime Minister was there, General Niu, General Dong and General Duan were so powerful. If they were there, how could Xu Rong be so arrogant!"
The three people Li Jue mentioned are Niu Fu, Dong Yue and Duan Wei. Niu Fu is Dong Zhuo's son-in-law, and Dong Yue and Duan Wei were both veterans who followed Dong Zhuo to rise up. These three are the three generals that Dong Zhuo trusts the most!
However, Niu Fu and Duan Wei were responsible for guarding Liangzhou and were now fighting with Ma Teng, while Dong Yue was already dead during the Chang'an Rebellion.
To be fair, if we talk about this talent, Xu Rong's ability must be above these three people. The only disadvantage of Xu Rong compared to these three people is that he is different from Dong Zhuo. Therefore, when Dong Zhuo was there, although Xu Rong had to be valued, his status was far below that of the three people.
Therefore, as soon as Li Jue said this, he immediately received the approval of everyone around him. Everyone followed Li Jue for a while. Finally, Guo Si couldn't help but ask: "Don't argue. Now the enemy is in front of him. Although Xu Rong is abominable, his ability is really good. We still need to unite and fight against Cao Cao."
At this time, Zhang Ji, a general of the Xiliang Army who had been standing next to him without making any noise, suddenly said, "Everyone! This is not a solution! We have to listen to him and Xu Rong in everything. Sooner or later, it will be annexed by him. For us, this is definitely not a good thing."
"No," Hearing Zhang Ji's words, Li Jue, Guo Si and others couldn't help but change their faces. After Dong Zhuo's death, they occupied Chang'an and suppressed all the officials of the court, but in fact no one obeyed each other. Now, Xu Rong gradually had the intention to lead, which was definitely not the result they wanted: "If Xu Rong was allowed to remain so dominant, the power of us would be annexed by him sooner or later."
Yang Feng suggested at the right time: "Why don't we take the opportunity to go out of the city to sneak attack Cao Cao's camp tonight? If we defeat Cao Cao, then Xu Rong's prestige in the army will be weakened. At that time, it will not be so easy for him to annex us."
"But do this, aren't we going against General Xu Rong's military orders?!" Yang Feng finished speaking, and there was a tall young general under his command frowning.
When Yang Feng heard the young general's inquiry, he was stunned and immediately asked, "Xu Huang, what do you mean?"
Xu Huang looked serious and responded in a deep voice: "General, since we have elected General Xu Rong as the head of the army, we should comply with the military order. If the general openly disobeying General Xu Rong's military orders in this way, wouldn't it be a big loss of General Xu Rong's face? It is also very likely that the morale of the soldiers in the city will be unstable and will not be conducive to dealing with Cao Cao's army in the future!"
Hearing Xu Huang's advice, Yang Feng was silent for a moment, and finally shook his head and said coldly: "Although what you said is reasonable, there are still many things you don't understand. This time we must leave the city. As long as we defeat Cao's army, all problems will not exist. You don't need to say more, just follow me out of seclusion and kill the enemy!"
"This... the last general obeys the order." After all, it is just a young general, and it is impossible to decide the situation. In the end, Yang Feng's proposal was unanimously recognized by Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Ji and others. After nightfall, they led 50,000 troops and rushed to Cao's camp.
However, when they attacked Cao's camp in a fierce manner, they unexpectedly discovered that the huge Cao's camp was empty. Zhang Ji and others looked at each other with confusion on their faces. It was not until a while before they woke up. They immediately exclaimed and shouted: "Ah! No, we have fallen into the trap!" (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!