The beginning of the Three Kingdoms Cheng Yuanzhi

Chapter 120 The battles are fought one by one
In the autumn of the second year of Chuping (191), the situation in the world suddenly became turbulent.

Cheng Yuanzhi knew very well that the period of Chuping (190-193) was the most chaotic period of the Han Dynasty, and it was also a transitional period for the princes of the world from "seeking Dong" to "separatist regime".

Ever since Dong Zhuo retreated into Guanzhong with the imperial court, the princes of the Guandong began to involve wildly and attack each other.

At this stage, the Great Han Dynasty split into countless separatist forces of different sizes, with state and county masters, and counties and counties as kings.

Many large and small forces formed military alliances and fought in chaos.

In the original history, the princes of Guandong were quickly divided into a tripartite alliance of Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shao to check and balance each other.

Dong Zhuo, Ma Teng, Han Sui, Zhang Yan and other forces formed a group because of their similar interests (Zhang Yan respected the Chang'an court as the head because he was appointed as a general in peace by Emperor Ling).

Gongsun Zan, Yuan Shu, Sun Jian, and Tao Qian are an alliance; against another alliance formed by Yuan Shao, Zhang Yang, Liu Yu, Liu Dai, and Cao Cao.

Since Cao Cao was only a real and unknown prefect, he, together with Zhang Yang, was a vassal under Yuan Shao's command.

In a nutshell: the two Yuan Dynasties were fighting, and Dong Zhuo was sitting on the mountain watching the tiger fight.

Although the princes are an alliance, inherent internal contradictions always exist, and occasionally wars break out with each other and compete for territory.

But the situation at this time is very different from the original history.

Since the Black Mountain Army had been brought under Cheng Yuanzhi's command early on, and Zhang Yang, Yuan Shu, and Sun Jian had also become their own people, the two-Yuan alliance had shown a crushing stance against the other alliance from the very beginning.

The alliance headed by Gongsun Zan, Cao Cao, Liu Dai, Liu Biao and others seems a bit too weak.

Especially considering that Xu Mu Tao Qian and Youzhou Mu Liu Yu are about to join the two Yuan camps.

The situation of Gongsun Zan and Cao Cao's alliance is even more difficult.

Among the four vassals in this alliance, Gongsun Zan and Liu Biao had a relatively easier life. The former owned half of Youzhou, a small part of Jizhou, and northern Qingzhou and northern Yanzhou; the latter gradually secured Jingzhou.

But the two also have hidden dangers. Liu Bian faced the joint attack of Sun Jian and Yuan Shu; Gongsun Zan was constrained by Liu Yu, the shepherd of Youzhou, and threatened by Cheng Yuanzhi.

And in Yanzhou, where Cao Cao and Liu Dai are entrenched, there are seven princes, each occupying one or two counties, and fighting each other.

This made Cao Cao too busy to take care of himself, unable to expand outward at all.

At this time, it should have been a good time to take the opportunity to provoke Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan to fight and unify Jizhou.

Because an enemy's enemy is a friend, Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan have irreconcilable conflicts.

But Cheng Yuanzhi was not in a hurry to attack Gongsun Zan, but took the opportunity to attack the remaining erhu in Bingzhou, while preparing to build cavalry.

In the original history, Yuan Shao was limited by the lack of strong cavalry, so he and Gongsun Zan staged a scene where you stab me once and I stab you twice. It took nine years of fierce fighting in Youzhou, Jizhou, before Gongsun Zan was eliminated.

Cheng Yuanzhi didn't want to spend so long on Gongsun Zan.

But let's not mention this for now.

……

Just like the Huns are divided into north and south, Qianghu is divided into east and west. Xiqiang lived on the Qinghai Plateau for a generation, rebelling from time to time, and the well-known Beigong Boyu and Erhe Shaoge are all from Xiqiang. leader.

The Eastern Qiang settled in the inside of the bend of the Yellow River, the north of Chang'an City, and the Loess Plateau.

Compared with the Western Qiang, the Eastern Qiang is more docile, agrees with and obeys the orders of the Han court more, and has rarely caused trouble.

But this was not enough to make Cheng Yuanzhi let them go.

Later generations believed that the Sihu in Bingzhou was the culprit of the 300-year chaos in China, so Cheng Yuanzhi hated the Sihu entrenched in Bingzhou very much.

I even thought that even if I didn't fight for the world, I would first clean up the Hu people in Bingzhou and eliminate the future troubles; after unifying Hebei, I would then clean up the Hu people around Youzhou.

In short, the priority of clearing the troubles is before striving for world hegemony.

Because of this reason, he couldn't tell others, which led to seeing him killing Hu so vigorously, not only the imperial court and other princes, but also the Sihu of Bingzhou were stunned, and Zhang Erjingang was puzzled!

We (you) are the kingdoms of the heavens, powerful men!How can we treat (us) these barbarians so rudely?

What about the mind of the Celestial Dynasty?The bearing of a powerful country!
After Eastern Qiang Hu's lobbying failed, Zhang Yang raised 300 troops to attack, and the front was only more than [-] miles away from Tucheng on the outskirts of Eastern Qiang.

The leaders of the various tribes of the Eastern Qiang quickly responded, threatening: "If Zhang Yang dares to take another step forward, the Eastern Qiang will definitely die with him!"

Zhang Yang refused to listen, and continued to march, and went another two hundred miles, and there was still one hundred miles away from Tucheng, where he set up camp.

The leaders of the various tribes of the Eastern Qiang could not sit still, jumped up and shouted: "The 80 tribes of the Eastern Qiang and the 20 warriors will fight to the last moment to defend every tribe, every inch of the mountains and rivers!"

It's full of words!
Zhang Yang continued to advance, and the front of the troops went straight to Tucheng outside the Eastern Qiang.

The sun is slanting westward, and the heat wave is rolling.

It is quiet on the Loess Plateau, that is the tranquility before the war!

The Eastern Qiang guard soldiers wiped the sweat from their foreheads, squinted their eyes and looked around.

One of the patrol captains rubbed his eyes, staring straight to the southwest.

Facing the red sun slanting to the west, he saw a long golden dragon rushing towards the Tucheng Fortress with its back to the sun.

The patrol leader said to a soldier beside him in puzzlement: "Hey, look at that piece of gold, is it an enemy attack?"

The soldier glanced in the direction of his finger, and was shocked for a moment: "Yes, it's an enemy attack!"

Then he quickly rang the golden gong in his hand.

……

Zhang Yang stood beside the horse road, setting up a pergola with his hands, looking at the panic scene in Tucheng in the distance, and said to Zhang Liao beside him: "Wen Yuan, how are you?"

Zhang Liao also sized him up and said, "General, our army has come a long way away, and our soldiers and horses are very tired. The opponent is already prepared, and it is not appropriate to attack by force at this time."

"At the end of the day, the mountains here are crisscrossed, the slopes are rugged, and the soldiers and horses seem to be invisible during the march. I am afraid that someone will rob the camp tonight, and there will be nothing left and right. Why don't our army use the plan..."

Zhang Yang originally wanted the front troops to charge first to deter the Eastern Qiang.Hearing this, he immediately made a decision and said:

"Okay! Let's retreat three miles, find a good terrain to go down to the village, and hurry up to prepare!"

Zhang Liao took the order and turned around to arrange the corresponding affairs.

The sun was setting, and the sky was full of red clouds.

The moon has not yet risen, and the vastness covers the earth.

When it was getting dark, a wind suddenly blew up, getting bigger and bigger, and the flags in the Bingzhou military camp fluttered.

This is good news for the Tucheng side.

The darker the sky and the higher the wind, the better for their actions tonight.

Before learning that Zhang Yang was coming to kill, hundreds of thousands of Qiang people had gathered around Tucheng, including [-] soldiers, [-] cavalry, and [-] infantry.

At this moment, all the cavalry and infantry were out of the city, hiding in the darkness.

Move a little farther away.

Around Mo Hai hour, a spy came from the direction of Tucheng in the dark and said to Zhang Yang, "General, they are already five hundred steps away."

"it is good!"

They really came to rob the camp!

Zhang Yang's eyes lit up, and he shouted in a low voice, "Zhang Liao, tonight's battle is under your full command!"

Zhang Liao made a solemn promise, and said to the spies, "Repay me with a hundred steps!"

After a while, "Report to the army, the enemy has reached a hundred paces..."

Zhang Liao ordered again: "Report me with fifty steps!"

rustle --

This time there is no need to report, even though it is impossible to see in the dark, the sound of the enemy's footsteps can already be clearly heard.

Hearing the sound, he has entered the range of fifty steps.

Zhang Liao waited for a little while, estimating the opponent's distance.

Thirty steps...

twenty steps...

He quickly lit the torch, raised it high suddenly, and shouted: "The whole army shoots!"

Crash--

More than a thousand people instantly stood up in the camp, with their bows fully drawn and arrows on their strings, and they all let go...

Shhhhhh-

As soon as the first wave of more than a thousand people finished shooting, they quickly squatted down and loaded their bows and arrows.

At this time, more than a thousand people stood up behind them, drawing bows and arrows.

After the second wave of people finished shooting, they immediately squatted down to load the arrows and let the third wave of people behind them shoot.

And so on and on and on...

In an instant, arrows rained down like locusts.

This classic three-stage attack, which has been used rotten in later generations, is still an advanced method of warfare without distinction and interval at this time.

Three-stage shooting is a kind of arquebus tactic that appeared in the sixteenth century. At that time, because the musket needed to be loaded with bullets and could not shoot continuously, three-stage shooting was born.

Later, it evolved into six paragraphs and nine paragraphs.

This tactic made up for the slow fire rate of muskets.Before the invention of continuous firearms, it was an extremely effective method of continuous shooting.

But bows and arrows can actually be shot continuously, but the requirements for each archer are very high, and they need to have strong arm strength and endurance.

That is, a dedicated marksman.

The appearance of the three-stage strike can enable ordinary soldiers to have the ability to shoot arrows continuously as a high-level marksman.

"Soldiers, light up the torches and charge with me!"

Zhang Liao held up the torch and rushed out first!
The cavalry who had been ambushing on both sides of the camp in advance saw the fire in the camp, and immediately surrounded them from both wings.

If it weren't for the most efficient strategy of encircling the three and missing one, Zhang Yang would even have wanted to surround the invading barbarians.

The essence of encircling three and missing one is on the open side, luring the enemy to flee, disintegrating their fighting spirit, following behind, and annihilating them in the movement.

Of course, it is not impossible to be surrounded on all sides, but the casualties will be much greater than when surrounded by three and one missing.

Because once the opponent's soldiers are in a desperate situation and are certain to die, they can only fight to the death for survival.

Usually, the soldiers' fighting power at this time is extremely terrifying and unstoppable.

In the dim light of the fire, three groups of soldiers and horses formed a "giant"-shaped encirclement, slowly closing in the middle.

Seeing that the half-surrounded Eastern Qiang and Hu had formed a momentum, Zhang Liao waved the torch again and again.

After receiving the order, the cavalrymen on the left and right rushed back and forth to kill the Dongqiang soldiers who were in chaos.

In less than an hour, the battle was over.

Almost all the [-] Dongqiang and Hu soldiers were wiped out, and only a few dozen fled without a trace.

Zhang Yang surrounded Tucheng overnight, not letting anyone escape from the city.

Early the next morning, before Zhang Yang could attack the city, the leader of the Tucheng tribe tied his hands and opened the city to surrender.

Three days later, all the leaders of the Eastern Qiang and Hu tribes led a crowd to surrender.

Even the Tucheng tribe, the most capable of fighting among their tribes, was defeated, and the Eastern Qiang tribes really couldn't muster the courage to fight.

The shadow of the famous tree of the people, not to mention the Southern Huns and Wuhuan people who were defeated by Zhang Yang.

Surrender is not ashamed to the Eastern Qiang, death is.

So far, after 140 years of perplexing the big Han and the state four Hu, three of them have been settled by Zhang Yang, and the next step is to accelerate the incorporation and assimilation.

At the north gate of Taiyuan City, Cheng Yuanzhi looked to the north.

After Bingzhou and the four barbarians, Xianbei was the only one left.

Are you trembling?

As soon as the Eastern Qiang was pacified, the convoy of envoys from the Xianbei tribe hurried to Taiyuan with rich gifts.

　In the original history, Cao Cao, who was exhausted in the crusade against Dong Zhuo, was able to rise again and finally occupy Yanzhou, mainly relying on Yuan Shao's funding.

　　Yuan Shao supported Cao Cao to fight against Yuan Shu, but Cao Cao's growth rate exceeded his estimation.

　　In addition, Yuan Shao himself was too slow to pacify Gongsun Zan, thus giving Cao Cao ten years of worry-free development time.

　　Reference materials "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" and "Three Kingdoms".

　　
　
(End of this chapter)