Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 224: Guanxi Convergence, the Situation is Complicated

June 2nd, Pubanjin.

The water of the Yellow River was surging, and boats were shuttling back and forth on both banks, and on the boats were soldiers from Bingzhou.

On the west bank of the river, Li Song, who had arrived at the river beach first, was discussing camping arrangements with Shi Yi.

Since Li Song, Lu Fan and Guo Tu successfully persuaded Zhang Yu five days ago, he led his army to set out on May 28th. After four days of marching, he covered nearly 200 miles from Anyi to Pubanjin.

Seeing that the generals in Guanxi did not leave any troops nearby, Li Song led his troops across the Yellow River and set up camp at Pubanjin on the west bank.

"Today we need to dig trenches and set up camp, with our backs to the ferry, to prevent the enemy from attacking at night!" said Li Song.

Shi Yi asked, "Should we expand the range of the reconnaissance to fifty miles?"

Li Song hesitated for a moment and said, "Thirty miles will be fine. Let's see if we can get the news to the rebels."

"General, do you want to let the enemy know our movements?" Shi Yi asked.

Before Li Song could speak, he saw a cavalryman coming up on horseback and saying in a hurry, "General, Chang'an has been breached, and Lu Bu and Cheng Pu have escaped with 800 cavalrymen. They are now only ten miles away from our army."

"Chang'an was captured?"

Hearing this, Li Song's expression changed slightly, and he exclaimed: "Chang'an City is strong, and there are several months of food and grass inside, how could it be broken so easily!"

Although Li Song had thought of watching Chang'an fall, he was shocked to learn that Chang'an had fallen. Calculating from the time the Guanxi rebels surrounded Chang'an, it was probably less than ten days from the siege to the fall of the city. The situation changed so quickly that it was unexpected.

If he had known that Chang'an City could be breached so easily, he would not have had to persuade Zhang Yu earnestly that night to sit back and watch Chang'an City be breached.

"What should we do now?" Shi Yi asked.

Li Song thought for a while and said, "Expand the scouts' reconnaissance range to forty miles. First, inform the Lord that Chang'an has fallen, and Generals Lu Bu and Cheng Pu have fled with their cavalry."

"promise!"

Li Song took the order and retreated, then hurried forward to arrange the task.

A little later, Lü Bu and Cheng Pu came with 800 cavalrymen, exhausted and dusty. When they saw the "Li" flag on Puban Ferry, they knew they were their own people. They felt relieved, slowed down their horses, and hurried forward to meet up.

"General Lu!"

Seeing Lu Bu, Cheng Pu and others fleeing in panic, Li Song led his men to quickly meet them.

"General Li!"

"what happened?"

Li Song looked at the embarrassed crowd and asked, "After you recruited Niu Fu's troops, you received a message from Chang'an asking for help, so you asked me to lead the troops to cross Puban Ferry first. Why is General Lu here now, and where is Minister Wang?"

"Hey!"

Lu Bu got off his horse, tilted his head and sighed, saying, "To be honest, yesterday my soldiers rebelled and opened the city gates to welcome the rebels into the city. I hastily gathered my troops and fought with them, but was eventually defeated due to the disparity in strength. When I left, I looked for the prince, wanting to escort him out of the city. Unexpectedly, the prince had no intention of leaving the city, and now I am afraid that more harm than good will happen."

"If Song knew that Chang'an was breached yesterday, he would have rushed to Chang'an day and night. Now he has missed out on national affairs!" Li Song said pretending to be annoyed.

"It's not General Li's fault!"

Lu Bu said in a low voice: "You have been in arrears with the soldiers' pay for many months. Now you are opening the city to help the enemy. This is a failure of my rule."

Lu Bu didn't want to take the blame for the old soldier opening the door and surrendering to the thieves. If Zhang Yu blamed him for Wang Yun's death, he would have nowhere to cry. He wanted to throw the blame as far away as possible.

Li Song suppressed his joy, sighed, and said, "The old soldiers are not Han people. They rebelled because of the arrears of money and food. It is not the general's fault. I wonder what the situation is like in Chang'an City now?"

"It has been occupied by Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou and others!"

Lü Bu pointed at Wang Jing and said sadly, "Before leaving the city, I wanted to escort the prince's family out of the city, but on the way, the bandits surrounded and killed them, and many of the prince's family members died. Lü Bu and General Cheng fought bravely to protect the prince's two sons and their young grandson!"

"Where is Wang Fufeng?" Li Song asked.

Lu Bu shook his head and said, "Wang Fufeng is far away in Huaili. I am afraid he will not know until today that Chang'an has been captured. If you want to save Wang Fufeng, you should let him leave the city quickly. As far as I know, Ma Teng and Han Sui's troops have left Longshan and are now in Fufeng."

Li Song looked at the exhausted people and said soothingly, "The two generals have been exhausted after traveling all night. You can rest in the camp for a while. I will inform you of the fall of Chang'an."

"Thank you, General Li!"

"Thank you, General!"

After Lü Bu and Cheng Pu left with their cavalry, Li Song narrowed his eyes and said, "Inform the prince that Situ Wang is in danger."

"Yes!" The servant bowed in response.

Wang Yun's death made Li Song breathe a sigh of relief. When they learned that Wang Yun had killed Dong, everyone was happy. However, they soon realized that Wang Yun's existence hindered their march to Guanzhong, so they were quite troubled by this.

After all, there is no two suns in the sky, and no two masters for scholars. If Wang Yun controls the government, how can they interfere in the three prefectures of Guanzhong? Now Wang Yun stays in Chang'an, because of the plot to kill Dong, it is likely that there will be more disasters than good. Later, they will use troops in Chang'an, and there will be political slogans. Not to mention that when Li Song stationed troops in Pubanjin, he sent scouts to Chang'an. Now Zhang Yu, who is far away in Anyi, received the news that Chang'an had fallen on June 4th.

"Your Majesty!"

Xin Pi walked into the tent quickly and said in a hurried tone: "According to General Li's report, Chang'an was lost three days ago due to the rebellion of the old soldiers in the city. Lu Bu, Cheng Pu, and Wang Jing led 800 cavalrymen to escape to Puban. They were rescued by General Li two days ago. Now they are stationed at Dujin."

"How did Chang'an fall so quickly?"

Zhang Yu jumped up from his chair and asked, "What is the situation in Guanzhong now?"

"Not optimistic!"

Xin Pi said: "According to what Lu Bu said, Ma Teng and Han Sui also sent troops to Guanzhong. We don't know their attitudes at the moment!"

After a pause, Xin Pi said, "My Lord, if Wang Situ stays in Chang'an, it may be dangerous~"

Zhang Yu sighed. If Wang Yun stayed in Chang'an, he would most likely be doomed. He wanted to sit back and watch, but Chang'an didn't hold out for long. Even if he sent troops to rescue, it would be too late to save Chang'an.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yu's shame for not saving Wang Yun faded a lot. After all, Wang Yun's death was destined by heaven, and he could not change it. After all, Chang'an City was besieged for only eight days before it was broken. In order to deal with Niu Fu and his subordinates, he had no time to rescue them.

Seeing Zhang Yu pacing in silence, Xin Pi asked, "What are your plans now, my lord?"

"Move the army to Puyang and wait and see the situation in Guanzhong." Zhang Yu said, "and try to send someone to Huaili to see if Wang Fufeng can be escorted to Hedong."

Zhang Yu couldn't help but care about Wang Hong's life. After all, Wang Hong was his father-in-law. If his father-in-law died, his wife Wang Ji would probably be heartbroken.

Moreover, Wang Hong was not a pedantic person. Although he hated evil, he was not as loyal to the Han Dynasty as Wang Yun. In other words, his status was much lower than Wang Yun's, so he would not likely become an obstacle for Zhang Yu's troops to enter Guanzhong.

"What about the surrendered soldiers?"

"Let all the troops set out together and camp at Pubanjin."

"promise!"

At the same time that Zhang Yu led his troops to move, the situation changed drastically as Wang Yun was killed and Ma Teng and Han Sui's troops entered Guanzhong.

Wang Hong wanted to join forces with Song Yi, who was the governor of Zuo Fengyi, to help Zhang Yu's troops enter Guanzhong. However, in order to prevent the two from causing chaos, Li Jue summoned them to the court in the name of the emperor. Seeing that Wang Yun was dead, Wang Hong naturally rejected Li Jue's order and sent someone to persuade Song Yi not to enter the capital.

Since Song Yi was valued by Wang Yun, he was naturally a loyal person. He refused Wang Hong's invitation on the grounds that he was summoned by the king and insisted on entering Chang'an.

Seeing that Song Yi was summoned to the court and that Ma Teng and Han Sui had their troops in Fufeng, Wang Hong, thinking that he had just taken office as You Fufeng and had almost no foundation, gave up his plan to start a rebellion, fled to Huaili with his family overnight, went down the Wei River, and then took refuge with Li Song who was stationed in Puban.

On the seventh day, when Zhang Yu led his army to the east bank of Puyang, Song Yi, Huang Wan and other officials who participated in the execution of Dong were all beheaded by Li Jue.

When Li Jue learned that Li Song had stationed his troops in Puyang, he immediately ordered Guo Si and Fan Chou to lead their troops to station in Weibei, and sent people to recommend Han Sui as the General Zhenxi and Ma Teng as the General Zhengxi.

Han and Ma were overjoyed when they received the official positions conferred by Li Jue. Ma Teng led his troops to Weibei, and Han Sui stationed his troops in Mei County.

On June 8, Zhang Yu led his troops to set up camp on the east bank, facing Li Song's troops across the Yellow River. When they saw Zhang Yu's troops approaching, Wang Hong, Lu Bu, and Cheng Pu crossed the river and entered the camp.

Inside the big tent, Zhang Yu exchanged greetings with everyone, and then everyone took their seats.

"The situation changes so rapidly that it is hard to be prepared!"

Zhang Yu sighed with grief: "I originally wanted to conquer Niu Fu and then cross the river to destroy the rebels in Guanxi. However, when the troops were halfway, I didn't expect that Chang'an had already fallen. The rebels are really hateful."

"I am incompetent and cannot defend Chang'an!" Lu Bu said ashamedly.

Wang Hong consoled him, saying, "Although Zishi and Fengxian succeeded in killing Dong Zhuo, there were many remnants under Dong Zhuo's command. The old soldiers defected to the enemy, causing Chang'an to fall. It was not Ji'an and Fengxian's fault."

Cheng Pu nodded and said angrily: "The key now is to defeat the enemy and kill all the rebel generals in Guanxi to avenge Wang Situ."

"How many soldiers and horses does Ji'an have now?" Wang Hong asked.

Zhang Yu pondered for a moment and said, "I originally had 16,000 infantry and cavalry under my command, and I have recruited 12,000 soldiers who surrendered from Niu Fu. Now I have a total of 28,000 soldiers."

Hearing this, Wang Hong frowned and said, "The enemy has more than 100,000 soldiers. Ji'an only has 30,000 soldiers and horses. I'm afraid he is no match for Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou and other generals. However, as far as I know, Ma Teng and Han Sui are leading their troops to Guanzhong. If we can get their help, we may have hope of victory."

Cheng Pu had long been indebted to Wang Yun and was eager to take revenge. He said, "The enemy's troops are under different generals, and most of them are old and weak. If you are willing to send troops, you may be able to win."

Seeing that everyone wanted to force Zhang Yu to send troops hastily, Guo Tu stepped forward and said, "According to the report from the troops, Ma Teng and Han Sui have accepted Li Jue's offer of titles, and now Ma Teng is leading his troops to the north of Wei. Moreover, Niu Fu's troops have just surrendered, and most of them are Dong Zhuo's former subordinates, who are easily deceived by the enemy. If we want to use troops now, we may need to make long-term plans."

"What Gongze said makes sense!"

Zhang Yu nodded slightly, and said to comfort the crowd: "I will definitely avenge the prince. However, the situation in Guanzhong is unclear now, so I dare not use troops rashly. Let me discuss countermeasures with the generals."

Lü Bu7 also knew that the situation was complicated, and said, "Ma Teng and Han Sui have joined forces with Li Jue, with an army of no less than . We need to let the Right General consider it first."

ps: The update I owe will be posted tomorrow!
(End of this chapter)