Three Kingdoms: From Hulaoguan to Global Hegemony

Chapter 192 Zhang Ji's Defeat
The night was dark and the stars were sparse, so Zhang Ji did not dare to ask his men to light the torches out of caution, so the team moved very slowly, and did not enter Huayin County until dawn.

"The subordinates are worried that Li Su and Duan Yan will find something abnormal in the city after dawn, but the team is moving so slowly, and it will be difficult for us to deal with the pursuers when the time comes!"

Hu Che'er pointed to the carriages in the middle of the team. Each vehicle was full of grain and supplies, which was one of the reasons why the team could not move in a hurry.

But Zhang Ji smiled confidently after hearing this, "Don't worry, I've already made arrangements in the city, Li Su and Duan Yao won't come after me for a while!"

When Zhang Ji ordered to leave the city last night, he asked people to pile up the remaining grain and grass in the granary on Chang'an Avenue. After dawn, the people would fight wildly when they saw that there were no soldiers in the city and the grain was all over the ground.

At that time, the Duan Yan army stationed outside the west gate of Chang'an would definitely focus on rescuing food and grass after knowing it, and by the time they recovered the food stolen by the people, Zhang Ji's army might have passed Hongnong long ago.

Although the pursuers couldn't arrive for a while, Li Jue's troops were still speeding up towards Hongnong City. Zhang Ji didn't dare to take it lightly, so he ordered the former army to go first, and ordered them to take Hongnong City before dawn!
An hour later, Zhang Ji and his army had just passed the Huashan Mountain Road, but saw Hu Che'er getting angry and returning with the former army in a hurry.

Hu Che'er panted heavily and said: "My lord, something is wrong, Li Jue's vanguard has already occupied Hongnong City!"

"How could this happen!" Zhang Ji was shocked when he heard the words, "Didn't Li Jue's vanguard just arrived in Guo County yesterday afternoon, and there were still [-] Baibo soldiers in the city, why did they suddenly lose their battle?"

Hu Che'er replied: "My subordinates don't know either. It doesn't look like there are signs of a siege nearby. It is very likely that the Baibo bandits ran away after hearing the news!"

Zhang Ji sighed heavily after hearing this, it was still a step too late to rush him, and once Hongnong City was occupied by Li Jue's troops, Zhang Ji's army could only detour around Yiyang and then turn south to reach Wan city.

However, if Li Jue's large troops were to come to Hongnong City, they would have to pass through the vicinity of Yiyang, so Zhang Ji didn't dare to take the risk of taking a detour.

"At the end of the day, there are only more than 5000 soldiers in Hongnong City. Otherwise, if you let your subordinates lead people to charge, you may be able to fight a bloody way out of the city!" Hu Che'er proposed to force a breakout, but Zhang Ji shook his head and objected.

"No! Even if the army can break through quickly, those grain carts are moving slowly. Once they reach the city, they will be captured by the enemies in the city!" Without food and supplies, Zhang Ji was very worried that his soldiers would not be able to make it to Wancheng.

"It's not feasible to detour to the east, and it's not possible to break through the encirclement to the south. Are we going to be trapped at the foot of this mountain!" Hu Che'er also reminded Li Su and Duan Yan who were behind him that they might send troops to chase them at any time, so they must plan early.

Zhang Ji sighed again and pointed to the north, and ordered: "For now, we can only divert to Xin'an County in the north to hide, and then make plans!"

Just as the Jingyuan army turned around and headed north, there was a sudden roar from the ground, followed by deafening shouts of killing quickly approaching from behind them.

"Not good! This is the sound of galloping war horses..." Hu Che'er looked terrified.

Zhang Ji was also at a loss, "How did Li Su come so fast!"

It turned out that Li Su was pretending to be deceived by Zhang Jiyu to Duan Yan's camp, and Zhang Ji's every move was actually under his surveillance.

When Zhang Ji began to gather his army in the east of the city in the middle of the night, Li Su also quietly deployed a cavalry regiment of 5000 men outside the city.

Originally, Li Su wanted to wait for Zhang Ji to attack Hongnong City before attacking. At this time, he saw that the Jingyuan Army had diverted to the north, so he knew that Hongnong City might have been occupied by Li Jue's soldiers. .

"The evidence of Zhang Ji's mutiny is convincing, and the Grand Master has ordered a reward of five thousand for beheading his head!"

After Li Su gave the order, the five thousand cavalry rushed even more fiercely. At this time, Zhang Ji knew that once the matter was revealed, there would be no chance to recover. The army hurriedly fled to Xin'an County.

The cavalry on land has the strongest combat power, and Hu Che'er's men are all soldiers and are not opponents at all.

As soon as the two sides came into contact, they were divided. Fortunately, Hu Che'er bravely overturned more than ten cavalry in a row, and then filled the mountain road with damaged carriage frames, which temporarily blocked Li Su's cavalry.

At this time, Hu Che'er saw the dense vegetation nearby, so he asked his men to pile dry grass and branches in the middle of the mountain road. He was going to set fire to the mountain to stop Li Su's pursuit.

The fire quickly burned up, and the horses were frightened by the fire. Li Su could only retreat temporarily and wait for the fire to extinguish.

Seeing the soldiers of the Jingyuan army blocking the pursuit, all showed joyful expressions, but unfortunately the good times didn't last long, Li Su retreated and another army suddenly came from the east, and it was about to catch up with Zhang Ji's team.

Hu Che'er climbed up and looked into the distance, and saw that the team was carrying the banner of the left general Li. Needless to say, it must be Li Jue's army that had arrived.

Yesterday evening, Li Jue received the news that Xu Huang had occupied Hongnong City, so he asked his deputy general Wang Fang to lead [-] troops to occupy Huayin County under his banner.

Because the secret order Li Jue received was to capture Hongnong and control Chang'an, he knew very well that Dong Zhuo meant to attack Zhang Ji, the defender of Chang'an.

So before leaving, he told his lieutenant Wang Fang that if he encountered Zhang Ji's Jingyuan army on the way, he would go up and attack Zhang Ji's army without reporting back.

Zhang Ji was eager to flee for his life, but he didn't want to leave food and supplies behind, so Wang Fang's men quickly disrupted his formation.

When Hu Che'er saw that the lord was in danger, he quickly ordered his men to rescue him. The two sides fought each other with casualties. In the end, Zhang Ji had the advantage in numbers and repelled Wang Fang.

Although they won, neither Zhang Ji nor Hu Che'er dared to order a rest, because they knew that what they had just beaten away was only Li Jue's vanguard.

After a quick march, Zhang Ji and others finally arrived at Xin'an County.

"The city here is small and dilapidated...it's not a place to keep for a long time!" Hu Che'er was very pessimistic about the plan to stick to the city.

After Zhang Ji heard this, he could only sigh secretly in his heart. Now there is no better way, he can only advance the city to deploy defenses and then make plans.

……

After the first battle just now, there were still 5000 Jingyuan troops left. Zhang Ji commanded these people to march into the county town, but he didn't know that there was a group of people not far away who were closely watching them.

This team was soldiers from the Third Tu Battalion who came here to help the Baibo Battalion transfer supplies, and the leaders were Zhang Fei and Huang Fuyan.

"The morale of the Jingyuan army is low, why not take the opportunity to rush and grab some supplies!" Huangfuyan suggested.

Zhang Fei patted his thigh and replied: "I originally planned this way, but when I came here yesterday, I received an order from my lord, saying that if Li Jue and Zhang Ji go to war, I will help the Jingyuan army secretly." Guard Xin'an County!"

After hearing this, Huangfuyan was very puzzled, how did the lord Liu Yu know that Li Jue would go to war with Zhang Ji, and how did he figure that Zhang Ji would lead troops to garrison in Xin'an County?
(End of this chapter)