Three Kingdoms

  Chapter 991 Overturned was overturned

  When Feiqian returned to Pingyang, Zhang Yan, who was far away in Heishan, commanded the army, and finally walked out from the Taihang Mountains, and stationed in the mountainous area near Wugong County.

  Yu Du, who had been wandering around the surrounding mountains with his soldiers and horses, got the news, quickly gathered his soldiers and horses, and came to meet Zhang Yan. After a battle in Yecheng, most of Yu Du's troops had been lost, and only 3,000 of the 8,000 men were left, and they looked haggard and embarrassed.

  Seeing the appearance of Yu Du's troops, Zhang Yan was still taken aback even though she was somewhat prepared in her heart. She couldn't help frowning and said, "How did it become like this?"

  Yu Du smiled wryly and said: "Commander...it's a long story..."

  Zhang Yan greeted Yu Du to sit down, and said comfortingly: "It's okay, who can guarantee that I will succeed in everything and not fail at all? It's okay, it's okay, sit down, what happened in Yecheng?"

  As Zhang Yan asked, someone fetched water bags and dry food, and handed them to Yu Du.

  Thanks to Yu Du, first took a few bites of the black miscellaneous noodles, and then drank a few sips of water, Fang Chang sighed, put down the water bag, and said, "Oh! At first, we were all smooth..."

  As Yu Du said, the plan to rebel in Yecheng was indeed very smooth at the beginning. With the assistance of Han Fu's former head Shi Geng Wenwei and Bie Jia Min Bodian, Yu Du sent Hei Ping and Tao Sheng to sneak into the city with troops, suddenly launched an attack, and took advantage of Yuan Shao's defenders not reacting, and successfully captured the city in one fell swoop...

  But what happened next was beyond Yu Du's imagination.

  As Yu Du said, there was a reason for their heavy casualties. At that time, they had just captured Yecheng during the day, and Tao Sheng rebelled suddenly at night! Originally, Yecheng was barely suppressed by the Black Mountain Army, but Tao Sheng's rebellion caused great chaos among the Black Mountain Army. Yuan Shao, who was originally the protector of Yecheng, and the family of Zhou Shi rushed out of Yecheng and fled to Juqiu...

   Later, I heard that Yuan Shao was overjoyed after hearing the news, and immediately named Tao Sheng as Jianyi Zhonglang General to honor his achievements.

  Tao Sheng's on-the-spot mutiny caused Yu Du to immediately fall into an extremely unfavorable situation.

Originally, if the family members of Yuan Shao and others were in control, then no matter whether it was Yuan Shao or some of the surrounding noble families, they would naturally have to be careful. What would be the consequences if you were in a hurry? However, with Tao Sheng's actions, all the original ideas of making Yuan Shao and others cast a rat-like weapon fell through. Some big households also took the opportunity to rebel. Under internal and external coercion, even though they were overpowered by poison, they still had no way to hold Yecheng.

The Black Mountain Army was not a capable soldier in the first place, and many of them were transformed from farmers. Although they have seen blood, there are still some gaps after all. In addition, Yecheng was unprepared before, and they got it right in a hurry. Now All of them reacted, and even the soldiers from the surrounding counties came to put down the rebellion. How could Yu Du's Black Mountain Army resist it?

After guarding for less than a day, the casualties were so great that Yu Du lost confidence, so he took advantage of the night to break out and leave Yecheng, but he was ambushed by Yuan Shao again, and in this way, his entire combat power was greatly reduced. Part of the explanation, if it wasn't for Yu Du who saw the situation was not good and broke through to the death, maybe even he himself was involved...

  Strictly speaking, the loss of Yu Du's soldiers was not caused by fighting in or outside Yecheng, but by starvation, escape, and injuries during this period.

Far away from the Montenegro area, there is no timely logistics supply, and the nearby counties saw Montenegro falling into the water, and all of them came out to fight and try to gain some military exploits, so Yu Du and the others didn't dare to stay in one place for too long, they could only keep going Those who circled in the mountainous area, hungry and full, were fine, but there was a lack of medical treatment and medicine, and those soldiers who were injured in the battle could not receive timely medical treatment, and basically all wounds were infected one after another afterwards. And died.

   Zhang Yan nodded silently after listening, patted Yu Du on the shoulder, and said nothing. Zhang Yan has been leading the army for many years. As the commander of the Black Mountain Army, he is very aware of this situation. The loss of severe death is very astonishing. If you add that the wounded soldiers cannot eat enough and their physical fitness cannot be recovered, then even a small wound will eventually lead to the death of the whole person. Therefore, the sharp increase in the loss of soldiers is reasonable. among the things...

   "It's okay, under such a bad situation, you still have so many people left, and you also involved Yuan Jun's rear, and once captured Yecheng, it is already a great achievement..." Zhang Yan comforted.

   During this period of time, for Yu Du, the ups and downs were too difficult. Hearing Zhang Yan's words, Yu Du almost shed tears.

  After being silent for a while, Zhang Yan suddenly said: "Commander Yu, you just said... At first, the big households in Ye City didn't move much, and after Tao Sheng rebelled, he suddenly responded in the city?"

  Yu Du squeezed the water bag, and said slowly while thinking: "...Yes, at the beginning, there were indeed no big households in Yecheng to resist...We also thought that there were not many troops in Yecheng, but we didn't expect..."

Zhang Yan pondered for a while, then gritted her teeth suddenly, cursed, and then saw Yu Du's cautious look, smiled, and said, "I'm not scolding you, but scolding these big dogs in Jizhou Believe it or not, even if that **** **** Tao Sheng didn’t rebel, these big families would probably still do it that night! Hmph, maybe, this **** was lured into rebellion by these big families..."

   Yu Du was a little puzzled.

   "Forget it, let's not talk about this..." Zhang Yan didn't give Yu Du a detailed explanation, and changed the subject, "How many of your men can fight?"

  Yu Du said: "There are still about 2,000 more, and other repairs and repairs can also be made... Commander, how do we fight next? Do you still want to fight Yecheng?"

  Zhang Yan chuckled twice, and said: "Of course you have to fight, if you don't fight... I'm afraid some people will have opinions... But how to fight, you need to think about it..."

  Yu Du followed Zhang Yan's gaze, and saw a sturdy and strong man standing out in the middle of the valley. The strong man seemed to have noticed Zhang Yan and Yu Du's eyes, turned his head to look over, and bowed his hands slightly.

  Zhang Yan also nodded and returned the gift.

   "This person..." Yu Du said, "Could it be the one sent by General Gongsun..."

  Zhang Yan didn't say yes or no, but ordered: "Commander Yu, I'll add two thousand troops to you, and then you can take a good rest these two days..."

In fact, Zhang Yan didn't want to fight, because now that Yecheng is no longer in his hands, any forceful attack would be tantamount to hitting a rock with an egg, but he had to fight, after all, the agreement with Gongsun Zan was there before, and Gongsun Zan also sent it according to the agreement With 2,000 war horses, if he just retreated like this, I am afraid that Gongsun Zan will not have the next cooperation.

   It doesn't matter how you look like now, but at least you have to show an attitude.

Zhang Yan looked in the direction of Yecheng in the southeast, pondered for a long time, and said: "Commander Sui should have arrived in the past two days...Yecheng, hum, okay, there are many soldiers in Yecheng, and we can't beat it, but I don't believe it. County, there will be so many troops!"

  Yu Duxin understood and said: "Does the commander mean to attack the surrounding areas and plunder townships and counties?"

  Zhang Yan nodded.

"Okay!" Yu Du gritted his teeth with hatred for having lost so many soldiers but gained nothing when he thought of this, so he didn't have any good feelings for these big gentry families in Jizhou, so he had no good feelings for Zhang Yan's arrangement is quite agreeable.

  Looking at Yu Du's expression, Zhang Yan also guessed a little bit, and laughed softly: "This time, I guarantee that the Yuan family will not be able to take care of both sides!"

   "That's right!" Yu Du said with a little joy, and then felt a little regretful, "It's a pity that it's not the autumn harvest time, otherwise we would have snatched back all the surrounding Zhuanghe!"

  Zhang Yan blinked: "Who says now is not the time?"

  Tian Fu widened his eyes, and said, "The commander-in-chief means..."

"...this," Zhang Yan said slowly, "...failed to take Yecheng, and there was a traitor among our people. This...is somewhat unjustifiable with General Gongsun, but we have to make amends, right? What? What does Yuan Cheqi need most to compete with General Gongsun?"

  Yu Du clapped his hands together and said, "Food!"

  Zhang Yan nodded and said: "That's right, since we can't take Yecheng as planned, at least we have to do something, hehe, to deal with the value of the horses that General Gongsun gave us..."

Zhang Yan continued, "The war has come to this point. Even if the Yuan family had reserves of food and grass, it is estimated that they have almost consumed it. If we destroy all the Zhuanghe in this area, the time has passed. Even if the Yuan family wants to It is too late to replant! Even if he still has food and grass elsewhere, it will only support him for four or five months. By the end of this winter and the beginning of tomorrow, the Yuan family will definitely run out of food! At that time, even if he is guarding Yecheng, there will be What's the use?"

  Yu Du made some calculations, his eyes lit up immediately, and he looked at Zhang Yan with admiration: "The commander-in-chief is indeed a very human being, why didn't I think of this..."

Zhang Yan was very satisfied with Du's undisguised admiration, so she laughed, patted Yu Du's shoulder, and said kindly: "You are still young, and you have experienced less, I am old, and have experienced more... But as long as you use your brain more, it’s okay. How do you say it? Well, the one who counts more wins... Yuan Jiazi wants to maintain the front line with General Gongsun and maintain the army. How much food will be consumed every day, and now Jizhou can How much food there is, how much there are in the surrounding counties, these can roughly be calculated..."

  Yu Du said: "Then only the commander-in-chief can think of this. If it were me, I would definitely not be able to think of anything..."

  Zhang Yan laughed and waved her hand slightly.

   "...But," Yu Du suddenly thought of something, scratched his scalp and said, "...But, Commander, if all the Zhuanghe in the surrounding area are destroyed... When we arrive in autumn, won't there be none?"

This can be regarded as a little tacit understanding between the Black Mountain Army and the big noble families around Jizhou. The Black Mountain Army will go down the mountain every autumn harvest. , then you need to pray that the harvest can be completed before the arrival of the Black Mountain Army, and that the Black Mountain Army will not hold grudges next year...

   It is indeed as Yu Du said, if the surrounding Zhuanghe is destroyed, Yuan Shao will be hit, but it will also affect the harvest of the Black Mountain Army this year.

  Zhang Yan was silent for a while, and said: "I have already considered this matter... You don't have to worry about it, it's all right, go, have a good rest for two days, and then you can seek revenge from the Yuan family..."

   "Okay!" Since Zhang Yan didn't want to say anything, Yu Du didn't want to ask, so he stood up, saluted Zhang Yan, turned and left...

  Equal to the poison walking away, the smile on Zhang Yan's face gradually disappeared. He lowered his head, picked up a dead branch from the ground, and drew it on the ground.

  Zhang Yan looked at it for a while, closed her eyes and meditated for a while, and then looked at it for a while, nodding or shaking her head from time to time, sometimes frowning, sometimes smiling, as if she was thinking about something.

  Zhang Yan stared at a mark on the map, not moving for a long time.

After a while, Zhang Yan stretched out her feet and erased all the patterns or marks drawn on the ground, then raised her head, narrowed her eyes, looked at the gradually dimming sky above, and at the Taihang Mountains in the distance that gradually turned black , his eyes gradually became sharper.

  Zhang Yan has different emotions for this sky and this mountain.

  Ten years ago, he was still a teenager, and his name was Chu Yan.

When the Yellow Turbans broke out in the first year of Zhongping, Chu Yan was just a libertine, gathering a group of idle youths all day long to steal chickens and dogs, and sometimes he would attack those one-legged businessmen, just in this piece of Taihang Mountain, stealing and robbing money They are all used to eat, drink and drink with his subordinates, and spend all their time, but they never thought of doing it like this. On the contrary, they attract more and more people to become vassals...

  During the second year of Zhongping, Zhang Niujiao of Boling took advantage of the chaos of the yellow scarves and gathered a group of people, claiming to be generals, and then found Chu Yan...

Later, Chu Yan elected Zhang Niujiao as the leader and looted everywhere, and the team grew larger and larger. Later, when he attacked Yingtao, Zhang Niujiao was shot by a stray arrow and was seriously injured. With Chu Yan as the leader, Chu Yan changed her surname to Zhang...

   Later, the Yellow Turban was defeated, and Zhang Yan did not dare to fight head-on with the high-morale imperial army, so he hid in Montenegro. Although in the past few years in Montenegro, it can be regarded as the leader, and even accepted by Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, but after all, Montenegro is too barren, and the mountains are either wood or stone, so it is not a good place.

   Absolutely not.

  (end of this chapter)