My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 94: It took He Qi several months to complete a task, but Guan Yu could complete it in just a few days

No matter how reckless Chen Pu was, he knew he had fallen into a trap when he heard that the commander of the Han army was Guan Yu.

Guan Yu's prestige is much greater now than it was in the same period in history. After all, he had commanded 10,000 people and defeated enemies three times his size in the two battles of Huaiyin and Chaisang. Zuo Rong might be a bit of a rubbish, but Ji Ling and Liu Xun were barely decent.

In this era, a general can be considered famous if he can defeat a larger force with a smaller one twice in a row against an army of more than 10,000 people.

When Zu Shan, who was traveling with him, heard that Guan Yu was coming, he quickly panicked and immediately discussed with others, "Brother Chen, what should we do? Should we hold the strategic point of Le'an Mountain and wait for Guan Yu to tire himself out?"

Stimulated by Zu Shan's words, Chen Pu finally came to his senses and immediately rejected this idea: "Stay here and defend? That means you don't want to die fast enough! Immediately let the troops take the refined copper with them, but don't take the ore, go down the mountain downstream, and try to get back to Yi County in a roundabout way."

While Chen Pu ordered the troops to pack up as soon as possible, he took the precious map and explained to Zu Shan:
“Don’t you think about it? On the way here, we went down Linli Mountain, then went downstream along the Po River until the confluence of the Po River and Le’an River, then went upstream along the Le’an River, all the way to the end of this tributary, and then we arrived at Tongshan.

After we passed the mouth of the Poshui River and the Le'an River, Guan Yu sent troops from the downstream Poyang County and went upstream to block us. Now if we return along the same route, we will run into Guan Yu directly in the river valley and meet him on a narrow road.

The later we leave, the further Guan Yu can go upstream to meet us. In this case, how can we not race against time and return as soon as possible! We also need to send more scouts along the way. Once we find Guan Yu approaching, we will give up the river valley road and go north over the mountains in advance.

As for staying here, it would be courting death. How much food can we get from fishing, hunting and gathering wood in a barren mountain? Can it feed so many of us? If Guan Yu blocks the river valley, we will starve to death even if we hold the strategic point!"

Zushan naturally understood what Chen Pu said.

If other people don't look at the map, they may be a little confused, but it is easy to understand with a little analogy - Poshui River and Le'an River are like a T-junction.
When Chen Pu and his men came, they went south along the T-shaped horizontal road, then turned east to the fork road of the vertical road. As soon as they reached the bottom of the vertical road, the T-shaped intersection of the way they came was blocked by Guan Yu, and they could not return the same way. They could only rush to get close to the intersection as soon as possible, and then go over the mountains and take a detour through the steep terrain.

Even for the Shanyue people, it would be impossible for them to simply climb over the mountains around Huangshan and march forward.

It is best to march along the valley, especially the valley with a big river, as the terrain is relatively flat and easy to travel. Forcing your way over the ridge is something you do only when you have no other choice.

Zushan understood this clearly and decisively followed Chen Pu's advice. He gathered his main forces and immediately fled back the same way.

The Jinqi and Maogan tribes, each with one to two thousand men, who had followed them to join in the fun and cheer, also hurriedly followed them.

However, even though the situation was critical, the four major tribes did not consider immediately submitting to the government, or surrendering and cooperating and serving the government.

It was not because Guan Yu was not famous enough that they had to fight him, but because Chen Pu and others had been too confident about the ruggedness of their hometown for generations.

They knew very well that since the Qin Dynasty, the government's army had been unable to penetrate the Huangshan Mountains to hunt down these Shanyue tribes. As long as they could return to their nest safely, they could defend themselves on Huangshan Mountain and live a free and isolated life.

In the original history, the record of "Huangshan's old nest could not be breached" was maintained until the 13th year of Jian'an, when it was broken by He Qi of the Eastern Wu. And in history, He Qi's greatest achievement in his life was to destroy Chen Pu and Zu Shan. However, now Chen Pu and Zu Shan had been involved in the incident 11 years earlier and provoked someone they shouldn't have provoked.

But no matter what, from their own perspective: this time they were in danger because of greed. They took the initiative to attack from their old nest in Huangshan, which is extremely dangerous, and came to the Poshui River Basin, which is relatively easy to be targeted, to commit crimes, only to be attacked by shrimps when they were swimming in the shallows.

As long as you can go back, there is still hope! Give it a try.

……

After Chen Pu and Zu Shan made up their minds, they withdrew their troops from the mountainous area very quickly, which was enough to amaze the Han army.

The Shanyue people could walk on mountain roads more than twice as fast as the Han people. Chen Pu had an idea and asked the soldiers to sharpen their knives while chopping wood. Before escaping, they spent some time chopping down a lot of wood and bamboo in Le'an Mountain. Then they used makeshift bundles of grass to make rafts and bamboo rafts, and let the soldiers drift along the Le'an River Valley.

The mountain area is steep, the river has a large drop, and the water flows very fast. Guan Yu's army climbed the mountain upstream from the downstream, while Chen Pu rushed down from a high place, and the speed difference was more than three to five times -

It should be easy for tourists who have played the "Western Zhejiang Grand Canyon Rafting" in later generations to understand that the speed of rushing down the river is many times faster than when you climbed the mountain.

Chen Pu and his men drifted nearly 100 miles in less than a day, which was a very fast speed. Seeing that it was already the early afternoon (3:30 p.m.), he estimated that the distance to Guan Yu's army might not be far, so he let the troops rest for a while.

They also sent out the strongest scouts to drift downstream to conduct reconnaissance. If they spotted the enemy, they would abandon their rafts and run back to report.

After waiting for half an hour, the scout came back and reported that they found Guan Yu's troops had just gone upstream from the mouth of Poshui and Le'an River, and had walked more than 20 miles. There were still more than 20 miles of mountain roads away from our army.

Chen Pu was also slightly surprised when he heard the news: "Our army has traveled nearly a hundred miles downstream, but Guan Yu has only walked more than twenty miles? It turns out that these Han people are not good at climbing mountains. From early morning till now, they have only climbed more than twenty miles of mountains."

Zu Shan, who was nearby, heard this and discussed the matter, "Since we are still 20 or 30 miles away, should we continue to drift downstream?"

Chen Pu rolled his eyes and said, "Of course not! If the two armies continue to get closer, if we want to go north over the mountains, Guan Yu will rush up and bite our rear army, and we will definitely suffer heavy losses!

The reason why I stopped here to let the soldiers rest is because there is a pass in this area, which can lead us over the northern ridge of Le'an Mountain, bypass Lengshuijian, and directly reach Changnan Town (now Jingdezhen) on the bank of Poshui River, thus bypassing Guan Yu's interception! "

After Chen Pu finished speaking, he did not allow Zu Shan to question him and immediately ordered the troops who had rested enough to abandon all the bamboo rafts or push them down the mountain stream to see if they could mislead and stop the enemy.

Then all the soldiers equipped themselves lightly and prepared to cross the pass near Lengshuijian.

……

After Chen Pu's troops began to prepare to cross the mountain, the relevant situation was soon discovered by Guan Yu's army scouts.

Even the scouts of Guan Yu's army returned faster than Chen Pu's scouts - because when Chen Pu's scouts went west to scout, they could drift downstream, but when they returned to report the news, they had to climb the mountain on foot.

Guan Yu's scouts were just the opposite. When they went east to investigate, they had to climb mountains. When they arrived at the place, they could build a raft in advance and hide in the dark. After discovering the movements of Chen Pu's army, they would drift westward and return.

After hearing the scout's report of Chen Pu's movements, Guan Yu finally perked up and ordered his troops to speed up their march. The 6,000-man army changed its slow pace in the morning and began to march harder, completing the last 20 miles, ready to bite Chen Pu's rear army and strike hard.

At this point, it is not difficult to see that Guan Yu was actually fishing. He deliberately pretended that the expeditionary force, which was mainly composed of Han people, was not good at climbing mountains and moved slowly, so that Chen Pu was forced to the vicinity of Lengshuijian, and had to go north to cross the dangerous mountains.

Some of his other officers did not understand this decision and could not help but remind him: "General Guan, even if we climb at full speed now, it will take a long time to go these 20 miles. By then, Chen Pu's vanguard and central army will have escaped, right? Even if we block them, we can only block the rear army."

Guan Yu was very confident: "Don't worry, Chen Pu can't climb over Leng Shuijian."

……

At the same time, at the mountain pass near Lengshuijian, Gan Ning, with more than 2,000 Danyang soldiers and his own Jinfan Battalion, a total of 3,000 people, had arrived in advance and was lying in ambush.

Never underestimate Gan Ning’s direct troops. Although the Jinfan Battalion is composed of sailors, they are all from Ba County after all, and they are very good at climbing mountains - just like the people of Chongqing in later generations, who can’t climb mountains?
Guan Yu was in the open, and the reason why he was marching so slowly upstream and up the mountain was to create a time and distance difference for Gan Ning, so that Gan Ning, who was in the dark, could get back to his position in advance.

All of this was planned and ordered by Zhuge Jin before the battle. Of course, it was also inseparable from the on-the-spot execution of Guan Yu and Gan Ning. Otherwise, no matter how good the rear plan was, it would be useless if the front-line troops could not keep up with the rhythm.

Chen Pu didn't know that there were so many climbing experts who were good at mountain warfare in the Han army. It was normal for him to misjudge the speed and trajectory of the two armies.

The vanguard of Chen Pu's army entered the mountainous area and climbed for more than half an hour. Seeing that the sky was gradually getting dark (five o'clock in the afternoon), they were rejoicing that they were about to escape the encirclement when suddenly there were loud sounds of gongs and drums on the hillsides on both sides, arrows flew everywhere, and branches and rocks fell down.

Countless Shanyue people were stunned in an instant, hundreds of soldiers fell down after being hit by arrows and stones, and the pits and valleys were stained with blood.

Chen Pu was undoubtedly lucky, because the Shanyue people did not ride horses in battle, and they could not ride horses when crossing the mountains, so Chen Pu was not like the Zao family a few months ago, who were too conspicuous and were sniped by Gan Ning's army. In addition, Chen Pu liked to lead by example and personally led the vanguard troops to march in front. When Gan Ning rushed out, he was already cut off in the middle and front of Chen Pu's army, so Chen Pu was lucky enough to escape the initial interception.

Gan Ning's army originally wanted to continue using arrows and rocks to cause casualties and weaken the enemy at the top of the slope, but seeing that the enemy was in chaos and trying to rush through the pass in one go, Gan Ning finally made up his mind and led his troops to charge down personally.

"Gan Xingba of Ba County is here! Those who surrender will not be killed!" Gan Ning was as powerful as a tiger descending from the mountain, with the two swords in his hands flying, and he was invincible. In a moment, he killed more than a dozen Shanyue soldiers.

"You have fallen into Captain Zhuge's trap! Why don't you surrender quickly!" The Danyang soldiers rushed down the mountain at great speed. Their agile posture in climbing the mountain wall was exactly the same as that of the Shanyue soldiers.

After all, they were originally from the Shanyue tribe. They just took the money of the Han people and changed their careers to become professional mercenaries.

When the Shanyue soldiers saw the Danyang soldiers' offensive, their morale suddenly dropped, and many soldiers chose to kneel down and surrender.

When Chen Pu saw that things were going badly, he no longer dared to try to save his main force. He just took advantage of the time when Gan Ning was held up by the main force and frantically climbed forward and fled.

The four tribes had a total of more than 10,000 men. Their original plan was to wipe out the Le'an tribe and then repel the Han army that dared to support the Le'an tribe as a deterrent. The Le'an tribe had several thousand households, and if Chen Pu did not bring superior forces, he would not be sure of victory.

Gan Ning only had more than 3,000 people, and it would be impossible to stop them all.

However, Chen Pu's act of abandoning the army and fleeing naturally further undermined the morale of the army.

At first, Gan Ning did not think of shouting the slogan "Your commander has escaped" to undermine the enemy's morale. It was only as the fighting went on that the Shanyue soldiers discovered that their commander was missing and became chaotic.

After Gan Ning understood the situation, he immediately ordered the Danyang soldiers to shout more, further accelerating the enemy's collapse.

After a while, as the fighting in the front became more and more chaotic, Guan Yu's army in the rear finally arrived and launched a close pursuit of Chen Pu's rear army that had not yet crossed the mountain.

This last straw completely crushed the Shanyue army. Guan Yu had more than 6,000 fresh troops, twice as many as Gan Ning, but he directly kicked the tail of an army that was on the verge of collapse, and the last will of resistance completely collapsed.

About an hour later, the battle was completely over. The Shanyue surrendered soldiers in the mountains and valleys put down their weapons and knelt, sat or lay down, daring not to resist anymore.

Because it was already dark, Guan Yu had no time to count the troops. He simply searched for weapons, then surrounded the Shanyue people, lit a bonfire in the mountains, and camped there for the night (of course, he would cut down all the grass and trees near the bonfire first to prevent fire).

It is now April in the lunar calendar, and we are not afraid of the cold when spending the night in the mountains. However, there are more and more mosquitoes, poisonous insects, ants, and even snakes, toads, and centipedes. In one night, many soldiers were stung and bitten and suffered unbearable pain. Some were even poisoned and killed by poisonous creatures, which was inevitable.

After surviving the night, Guan Yu and Gan Ning took advantage of the early morning to recount the prisoners and spoils.

The final statistics show that about 17,000 Shanyue people were killed in this battle, nearly 4,000 were killed or wounded, and 13,000 were captured alive or surrendered. Thousands of people also managed to escape over the mountains, and the exact number is incalculable.

The only pity is that we still didn’t catch this guy Chen Pu and he actually got away.

But from another perspective, it was thanks to Chen Pu's escape that the Han army was able to easily wipe out the enemy that was twice its number. Otherwise, the enemy's will to resist would definitely be stronger.

After a search and interrogation, Guan Yu finally discovered that the highest-ranking captive among them was a tribal leader named Zushan.

Upon learning that the other party was the leader of the second largest tribe in Yi County and also a distant cousin of Jing County Marshal Zu Lang, Guan Yu frowned, realizing that this prisoner could still be of great use.

So he followed the prisoner policy Zhuge Jin had told him before the battle, and called Zushan over and beat him:
"You coveted the Le'an Mountain Copper Mine and dared to resist the imperial army. Your crime is unforgivable! But for your brother's sake, I will let you go back today. If you persuade your brother to lay down his weapons immediately and submit to the court, I will forgive you. Our army will counterattack Lin Lishan today to eliminate the thieves' nest! If you still insist on doing it, you know the outcome!"

Guan Yu knew that Zushan was a fool, and it made no difference whether he captured him or not. Even if he released him, he would only release him, and would not release the thousands of prisoners of war he brought with him.

Let Zushan go back and tell him that if Zulang knows how powerful we are, it would be best if he surrenders directly. If he does not surrender, then the blame for the crime will be put on Zulang.

Zushan couldn't understand all this, but when he heard that he could be released, he thanked the emperor immediately and wanted to run away.

Guan Yu grabbed him and said, "Why are you running so fast? I said I would let you go. Did I say you can run faster than us? Of course we have to wait until we march to Linli Mountain, surround Yi County and take it, and then we can talk about the rest.

Otherwise, if you don't go find your elder brother, but instead go directly to Linlishan's stronghold and continue to resist the imperial soldiers, where can I go to settle accounts with you?"

Zu Shan heard this and secretly groaned in his heart. When Guan Yu said he would let him go, he had indeed thought of this. If he could escape back to his old nest, then he could defend it in a dangerous place. He might have a chance. Why would he still look for a big brother?

Unfortunately, Guan Yu was not conservative and had already prepared for this move.

……

After cleaning up the battlefield, Guan Yu handed over the 13,000 disarmed prisoners to Gan Ning, asking Gan Ning to escort them back to Poyang County first.

He himself led a main force of 6,000 people and rode back to the bank of the Po River without stopping. Then he marched upstream along the river. In a few days, he traveled nearly 200 miles and finally arrived at Yi County, the source of the Po River.

Because the mobile forces of Chen Pu and Zu Shan were severely damaged, Yi County had no Shanyue people to defend the city. Guan Yu took only three days and a simple attack to capture the county. He then further advanced into Linli Mountain and besieged the tribes of Chen Pu and Zu Shan in the dangerous area of Huangshan Mountain.

Of course, Zushan himself was unable to return to the mountain stronghold. He was always under surveillance by Guan Yu, and only at this time was he allowed to go back to report to Zulang.

On the other hand, after Gan Ning transported the captives back to Poyang County, Zhuge Jin, who was in Poyang County, also assigned local militia to temporarily guard the disarmed captives and arranged for these people to do some hard labor first.

Then, Gan Ning would take the Danyang soldiers back to meet Guan Yu and prepare to attack Linli Mountain, or to encircle and attack the possible reinforcements of Zu Lang.

However, just as Gan Ning was hurriedly packing up and preparing to set out for another battle, Zhuge Jin said that he could rest for one more night and even arranged a welcoming banquet and celebration banquet in Poyang City.

Gan Ning had been working non-stop these days and had turned a deaf ear to other things. He could not help but feel a little confused: "Why should I be happy? Captain, the war is more important. I'll drink with you when I come back!"

Zhuge Jin smiled slightly and clapped his hands. A man came out from the back hall of the county government office. Gan Ning looked closely and found that it was Zhuge Liang.

"Kong Ming? You're back from Guangling? That's really... cause for celebration, but now is not the time to say goodbye..."

Zhuge Liang and Gan Ning were familiar with each other. After all, Gan Ning was brought here by Zhuge Liang, so he was not shy and took out a box from his arms and shook it in front of Gan Ning:

"Xingba, this is the will of His Majesty. You have been officially appointed as the Yuzhang Commandery Commander. We did not do it on our own. Also, from today on, you must call me 'Zhonglang' or 'Fujun'. You can no longer call me Xiaowei. Your Majesty has also officially appointed me as Pingyue Zhonglang Jiang and Danyang Taishou.

The decree also mentioned that we are authorized to suppress the Danyang bandit Zu Lang. We are now following the emperor's decree to suppress the bandits. Therefore, you should take this decree to Yunchang to see. It will be very helpful in boosting the morale of our army and disintegrating the enemy's will to resist. "

Gan Ning was originally eager to make achievements, but he was immediately attracted by this unexpected news: "What? The emperor actually knew about me and directly conferred the title on me? This... Lord, I don't think we have reported our military achievements in Yuzhang, right? Can the killing of Zuo Rong be reported to the emperor?"

Zhuge Jin smiled slightly and said, "This was done by Lord Xuande under the guise of Liu Yangzhou. If you work hard with us, there will be plenty of opportunities for meritorious service and promotion."

Gan Ning's eyes turned red, and he kowtowed quickly: "I would rather follow Lord Ding and build a career, and go through fire and water without hesitation!"

(End of this chapter)