My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 393: Defeat Zhang He and Subdue Chang Xi

Chang Xi was squeezed out by Chen Gong's scheme and thought he had gained a chance to catch his breath, to wait and see the outcome and seek better conditions for surrender.

Little did he know that what Chen Gong wanted was for Chang Xi to stand aside and watch so that he could free up his hands to deal with Zhang He first.

After Zhang Liao and Chen Gong withdrew their troops and returned to the camp, there was no conversation that night. Zhang Liao just continued to strengthen the camp and prepare to fight against Zhang He who was about to arrive.

Fuyang is not far from Pengcheng, a total of more than ninety miles away. Even if Zhang He marches carefully, he will definitely reach the place in two days. If he walks a little faster, one and a half days will be enough.

The next morning, Zhang Liao and Chen Gong took advantage of the situation and waited for Zhang He's reinforcements to arrive.

Although they were called reinforcements, their numbers were actually smaller than Chang Xi's troops. Chang Xi had at least 7,000 to 8,000 men, while Zhang He brought no more than 6,000 men.

Who made Pengcheng empty? Lu Zhao and Feng Kai were both sent away and couldn't come back. Zhu Ling had just been defeated and lost 2,000 soldiers. Now the total number of Cao's troops in Pengcheng County barely exceeded 10,000.

Zhang He sent out 6,000 soldiers just for show, which was the limit. If he sent more, there would be no veteran soldiers left to defend Pengcheng, so he could only rely on civilians and able-bodied men.

Zhang He knew that the hope of rescuing Chang Xi was extremely slim. His main purpose was to prevent Chang Xi from shirking responsibility, destroying the reputation of the court, and being criticized for not being worthy of the generals who came to support him.

Fortunately, the northern part of Pengcheng County is mostly plains, and Zhang Liao has no geographical advantage to ambush Zhang He halfway, which makes Zhang He very safe all the way.

The two sides approached each other fairly and impartially, and a war was about to break out.

At 9:00 a.m., after Zhang He arrived, he first found a plain only a dozen miles away from Zhang Liao's troops, stopped to rest his horses and let his soldiers catch their breath.

He was not in a hurry to set up camp. After all, it was a battle on the interior lines. If possible, it would be better to choose a nearby city to spend the night. Setting up camp was too troublesome.

While the soldiers were resting, Zhang He sent out scouts for the last time to confirm the enemy situation in order to decide on subsequent tactics.

The two armies were not far apart, and the lookouts could almost see the opposite camp. The scouts only spent a few cups of tea and came back to report:
"Reporting to the general, the one leading the troops on the opposite side is Zhang Liao. We have not seen Guan Yu's flag yet. The number of troops is only two to three thousand. They have not completely surrounded Fuyang County. They are only surrounding the north and south gates. There is also a line of fortifications in the east of the city. There are no enemy troops in the west of the city."

"Guan Yu hasn't come yet? Doesn't that mean that if I go around to the west gate now, it is possible for me to go directly into the city and join forces with Chang Xi?" This thought flashed through Zhang He's mind.

Zhang He thought that the troops he brought were not enough to completely annihilate Zhang Liao.

Although it was six thousand against three thousand, the enemies were all cavalry, and Liu Bei's cavalry had always been well-armored and well-equipped, which he had known for a long time.

When fighting a war, one should concentrate superior forces as much as possible. Now there is a new opportunity in front of him. If he can join forces with Chang Xi, it will be nearly 15,000 people against 3,000, and Zhang Liao's advantage in weapons and equipment will be eliminated.

Thinking of this, Zhang He could not help but order his troops not to rest, but to quickly reorganize and march, preparing to make a small detour and go around the west of the city to see if they could reach the city and join forces with Chang Xi.

All of this was done very carefully, and the troops' movements could almost be described as "moving", with dense formations and very slow steps. The main point was "even if they encountered cavalry attacks during the march, they could react immediately and fight the enemy with spears."

Zhang He's army had many infantrymen. Even if he took the initiative to chase Zhang Liao, if Zhang Liao avoided the battle and gave way, he would only catch up with him in vain. It can be said that the outcome of this battle was already very tilted before it even started.

Zhang He's marching method made the last twenty miles extremely difficult. The troops marched from 9:00 p.m. to early 3:00 p.m. before they reached the west of the city.

(Note: The straight-line distance is only a dozen miles, but Zhang He had to go around to the west of the city, which was far away)
Zhang Liao did not take the initiative to lead his troops to engage him. Instead, he ordered the main force to clear the road and set up a false flag in the south of the city. He only sent out a small group of scouts to patrol and monitor Zhang He from a distance of several hundred steps, in order to tire out the enemy.

As a result, by the afternoon, the physical strength of Zhang He's troops had generally declined, but on Zhang Liao's side, only the scouts who were monitoring the enemy had consumed a lot of physical strength. At least 90% of the soldiers were able to rest safely, and some even had lunch before mounting their horses.

Seeing that Zhang He's troops had reached the west gate of Fuyang County, they had no choice but to stop them. At this moment, Zhang Liao's army suddenly sent out hundreds of cavalrymen, who rushed straight to Zhang He, reined in their horses at a distance of 150 steps, and then some of them dismounted, stepped on their crossbows, and shot several arrows with letters tied to them at Zhang He.

At the same time, the hundreds of cavalrymen followed Chen Gong's instructions and shouted in unison: "Zhang He, you can go into Fuyang City if you want. Why do you have to be so sneaky? General Guan has already told us that if we encounter this, we don't need to stop you. We will let you and Chang Xi meet up!

"General Guan's army will arrive today! Even if they don't come to Fuyang, they will go straight to Pengcheng from Xiapi and cut off your way back to Pengcheng! You can stay in Fuyang County as long as you want, and we will go to Pengcheng. When the time comes, we just need to kill Guo Jia. Do you still want to live under Cao's command? Don't you have to surrender to our army?"

Zhang He heard the noisy cursing in the army and was so angry that it was too late to stop it. He quickly ordered the archers to shoot arrows to drive away the cavalry.

But his army's morale had been shaken by the insults. Ordinary soldiers might not understand military tactics and geography, but the middle and high-level officers in the army all knew about them.

Everyone knows that Pengcheng and Xia Pi are both along the Sishui River, with Pengcheng in the upper reaches and Xia Pi in the lower reaches. In comparison, the small county of Fuyang in the north is not on the main transportation route and is not a must-pass place on Guan Yu's attack route.

If Guan Yu did not want to fight a field battle or an annihilation war with him, and did not care about the gains and losses of the small county of Fuyang, it would be completely possible for him to attack directly to the north of Pengcheng and cut off Zhang He's way back to Pengcheng.

"General, are we being surrounded by Wei to save Zhao?" Zhang He's subordinates became nervous and asked this question as the first thing they said. Zhang He's scalp was numb, so he had to lower his voice and shouted in a dignified but gentle voice: "Don't shake the morale of the army! Those who speak nonsense will be punished by military law! Pengcheng will be fine... At least Guo Jijiu will be fine!
Now that things have come to this, I will not hide it from you. Before we set out, Guo Jijiu told me not to worry about him. If Guan Yu dared to besiege Wei to save Zhao, he would lead General Zhu to retreat westward and would not be surrounded by Guan Yu in Pengcheng! So we just need to take care of ourselves!"

This was indeed a reassurance Guo Jia gave Zhang He before he set out. Zhang He felt that the future was very pessimistic and hopeless when he heard it.

Guo Jia has reached the point where he needs to be comforted and people should stop worrying about his life or death in order to stabilize people's hearts. How bad has the situation in Pengcheng County become?
Zhang He really didn't want his subordinates to know these words unless it was absolutely necessary, otherwise their subordinates would be even less motivated to fight.

But Chen Gong was so vicious that he broke the window paper on the eve of the battle. All kinds of psychological attacks let the Cao army know that they were doing useless work and trying to save the court's face. How could they maintain their morale by fighting an unnecessary battle?

The reputation and credibility of the imperial court were issues that the higher-ups considered. Ordinary soldiers didn't care about the reputation of the imperial court, and in their opinion, it was a waste of life to make them fight for this purpose.

At this point, Zhang He had no way out. It would be a waste of time. Since Pengcheng was unlikely to be defended, how to keep more troops was the primary concern.

He gritted his teeth and ordered someone to go forward and knock on the door, asking Chang Xi to quickly open the west gate and let his reinforcements enter the city.

However, the reaction of the Fuyang defenders soon made Zhang He very angry.

After a while, a general on the top of the city wall shouted loudly: "My general has never seen General Zhang Junyi! Who knows if you are real or fake! Zhang Liao is outside the city, you can't open the door casually to prevent fraud! Even if you are General Zhang, you must repel Zhang Liao first before opening the door, otherwise if he takes advantage of the situation to kill him and follow, wouldn't it be easy for us to seize the city!"

Zhang He did not expect Chang Xi to have such an attitude. He had already become a fence-sitter before Cao's army showed any signs of absolute decline. He had traveled ninety miles to get here, but he did not even dare to open the door because Zhang Liao was by his side!

Moreover, how long can Guan Yu's main force lag behind Zhang Liao's vanguard? If it drags on until tonight or later, will Guan Yu come? At that time, Zhang He, with 6,000 men, will fight against the enemy's main force?
"Chang Xi, you bastard! The court treats you well! Lord Cao promoted you and gave you a higher rank. When he heard that you were surrounded, he asked me to save you regardless of the safety of Pengcheng. Aren't you afraid of being called a traitor?"

Zhang He was extremely angry, but he still had to curse. The purpose of Guo Jia sending him here was to shut up the people and let them know that "even if Chang Xi surrendered to Liu Bei, it was Chang Xi who was sorry for the court, and the court was not sorry for him in the slightest. Everything was Chang Xi's personal fault."

The loss suffered by the court this time can be regarded as paying off the credit debt for taking advantage of Zang Ba and Sun Guan last year.

Chang Xi was in the wrong, so he didn't dare to curse back at Zhang He's scolding, nor did he dare to shoot arrows to confirm his conviction. The Taishan bandits in Fuyang City also began to whisper when they heard this, and some bandits who regarded themselves as trustworthy began to secretly look down on their own commander.

Zhang Liao finally took advantage of this opportunity, assembled his cavalry, and suddenly launched a charge against Zhang He's troops.

"All troops, follow me! Cao's army has just been betrayed by its allies, morale is low, and they will have no desire to fight. Kill!"

Three thousand cavalry, a combination of light and heavy, with the heavy cavalry equipped with breastplates leading the way, and the light cavalry and archers patrolling on both wings to contain the enemy, and then they rushed towards Zhang He's troops.

For a moment, the screams of killing shook the sky and the cries of crying were like thunder.

"Don't panic! Keep your ground! Use spears and lances to form a circular formation to resist the enemy!" Zhang He tried his best to enforce military discipline and to withstand Zhang Liao's offensive.

Zhang Liao led a charge, which threw Zhang He's front troops to the ground, like a gust of wind blowing through the desert, stirring up countless floating sands.

But the core of Zhang He's central army was stable for the time being. Relying on their numerical advantage, they tried their best to plug the leaks, just like the rock bed exposed after the floating sand was blown away.

Seeing that the vanguard's charge was slowing down, Zhang Liao gritted his teeth and led the charge himself, and ordered the soldiers around him to shout in unison, "Zhang He will be defeated today! When General Guan arrives, don't even think about escaping!"

Such shouting and killing really weakened the will of Zhang He's army to resist. Everyone was uneasy and began to worry about the threat of "Guan Yu" who had not yet appeared.

Maybe it was God's will.

Zhang Liao and Zhang He fought for a while, and finally the dust and noise of a large army advancing rapidly came from the south. Soon, a large flag with the word "Guan" appeared on the southern horizon.

"General Guan is here! Kill the bandits! Don't let any of them escape!" Zhang Liao's troops were in high spirits, and their physical strength seemed to have suddenly increased.

The steel-filled horse-cutting swords and long spears flew and stabbed with all their might, forcing Zhang He's troops to retreat step by step.

The spirit and energy of Zhang He's central army soldiers seemed to be completely drained away by the news that "Guan Yu is coming", and they were collapsing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Zhang He had no choice but to abandon the army and flee with his cavalry. As for the remaining infantry, he was allowed to let as many of them as possible escape.

It was impossible for Zhang Liao and Guan Yu to divide their troops into too many groups and capture everyone back.

(End of this chapter)