Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 241: Poor Zhang Yu, Daring as a Tiger

Linjin Pass, Guanxi military camp.

"Urgent news from Guanzhong!"

"Stay away, everyone!"

The waiting cavalry looked anxious, galloping at the soldiers on the way. The soldiers in the camp saw that it was an urgent waiting cavalry, and hurriedly made way for him.

"Shut up!"

When they arrived at the big tent, the rider grabbed the reins, stopped his horse, quickly dismounted, and rushed into the big tent in a hurry.

"Why is it in such a hurry?"

Li Jue was leaning on the couch, enjoying the maid washing his feet. Seeing someone disturbing his enjoyment, he glanced at the waiting rider and asked lazily.

"General, something bad is going to happen!"

The scout said in panic, "Zhang Yu led his troops to appear in Ya County and is now heading south along the Luo River."

"what?"

Li Jue kicked the foot basin away, frightening the maid so much that she screamed. However, Li Jue didn't care about being gentle with her. He widened his eyes and asked, "You said Zhang Yu appeared in Ya County?"

"Don't dare to deceive the general!"

The waiter lowered his head and said nervously, "According to the report from the Ya County officials, Zhang Yu's army of tens of thousands of people appeared in Ya County the day before yesterday. After resting for a day in Ya County, Zhang Yu continued to lead his troops southward."

"Isn't Zhang Yu in Puban?"

Li Jue showed an expression of disbelief, muttering: "Why would he lead his troops to appear in Ya County today?"

The scout lowered his head and said nothing. It was obvious that Li Jue's question was not something he could answer.

"Quick, gather all the generals to discuss military matters!"

As he spoke, Li Jue did not bother to wipe his feet, casually put on his clogs, and then walked to the entrance of the tent. Looking at the soldiers passing by outside the tent, he shouted: "Notify all troops to assemble!"

"promise!"

As Li Jue's troops were mobilized, the generals arrived at the big tent one after another and soon filled the tent.

"What's going on?" Zhang Ji asked.

Li Jue looked serious and said, "Zhang Yu is not in Puban. He has led his troops to take a detour to Yaxian, and then went down the Luo River and appeared in Fengyi."

"This~"

These words caused an uproar among the generals in the tent. They had been confronting the Bingzhou troops for half a month and thought that Zhang Yu had been stopped in Hedong, but now he suddenly flew behind them, which shocked everyone.

"How many soldiers does Zhang Yu have?"

"Where is Zhang Yu now?"

There was chaos in the tent, and everyone was scrambling to ask for information about Zhang Yu's troops.

"quiet!"

Cousin Li Ying stood up from his chair and shouted, "General Hussar is here, you are not allowed to make noise without permission!"

After Li Ying's rebuke, the generals in the tent quieted down and waited for Li Jue's orders.

Li Jue nodded in satisfaction and said, "According to the report from the scouts, Zhang Yu has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. He arrived at Ya County on the 18th and is now heading south from Luoshui. I'm afraid he intends to occupy a strategic point so that he can fight with our army."

After a pause, Li Jue looked at everyone and asked, "Zhang Yu is going around Guanzhong now. What do you think?"

"General, our army has held Longmen and Puban, and has prevented Zhang Yu from entering from the west. Now Zhang Yu has traveled a thousand miles to enter Guanzhong. The military strategy says, if you are ten times stronger than your opponent, surround them; if you are twice as strong as your opponent, fight them. Zhang Yu traveled a thousand miles to attack us, and his troops are exhausted and their morale is low."

Hu Zhen betrayed Xu Rong in the middle of the battle, causing his defeat. Hu Zhen was the most willing to resist, so he spoke first and said, "Our army is several times larger than Zhang Yu's. We should attack now and inflict heavy damage on Zhang Yu to enhance our army's prestige!"

"Yue also thinks so!"

Dong Yue was full of fighting spirit and said, "Zhang Yu has 50,000 soldiers stationed in Hedong. Now he has penetrated deep into Fengyi, and I'm afraid only half of his soldiers can be used. If we don't attack him now, won't we be laughed at by the officials in Chang'an?"

Compared with the attitudes of the generals who requested to send troops to fight, Jia Xu stroked his beard and remained silent, seeming to hold an opposing attitude.

Seeing this, Li Jue could not help but feel suspicious and asked, "Wenhe is so wise, why is he not saying anything now?"

"Oh!"

Jia Xu seemed to have just woken up from a dream, and he said with his hands clasped, "General, I have heard that soldiers are hungry after marching a thousand miles, and they cannot sleep well after cooking. Now Zhang Yu is going around to collect mulberry leaves in order to enter Guanzhong, so his soldiers must be short of food. If you can send other generals to guard the dangerous places, we can build a strong camp and avoid fighting."

"If we cannot fight him in front, it will be easy for him to retreat. If we leave him with nothing to plunder in the wild, within a month, Zhang Yu will surely be defeated due to lack of food. Now Zhang Yu has come from a long way, and his situation is like a trapped beast. We must be afraid of the fight of a trapped beast. I hope the general will think carefully about the advantages and disadvantages of using troops!"

Zhang Yu dared to take a single gamble, crossed the river from Caisangjin, and raided Guanzhong. Jia Xu admired him sincerely. However, admiration did not mean that Jia Xu would not offer advice to Li Jue. In Jia Xu's view, if Zhang Yu wanted to achieve hegemony, he had to occupy Guanzhong at least, and now whether he could defeat Li Jue was the top priority. If he could not even deal with Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Ji and the like, it would be a foolish dream for Zhang Yu to unify the world, so there was no need for him to submit to Zhang Yu.

Li Jue pondered for a moment and said, "Although Wenhe's plan is good, if Zhang Yu reaches the north of Wei, the people of Chang'an will be afraid to surrender to him. In my opinion, we should take advantage of Zhang Yu's arrival in Guanzhong and gather all the troops under his command. With a large force, we can defeat the small and tired army and intimidate the officials of the court."

Seeing that Li Jue rejected his idea, Jia Xu couldn't help but scold Li Jue for being arrogant and stupid. The court officials were almost cowardly, and they couldn't accomplish anything big except assassination. Sending thousands of people to guard the officials in Chang'an would deter them.

Of course, although Jia Xu secretly scolded Li Jue for being stupid, he had no intention of correcting his mistakes. After all, it was only his duty to offer advice, but it was not up to him to decide whether to listen or not. If he got too involved with Li Jue, he would be on the list of people to be liquidated in the future!
Not to mention that when Li Jue learned of Zhang Yu's troop movements, he decided to summon Guo Si, Fan Chou, Li Meng, Dong Yue, Hu Zhen, Zhang Ji and other generals in Guanzhong, hoping to defeat Zhang Yu with the help of their many troops.

Now, after Zhang Yu left Ya County, he went south along the Luo River, collecting food and grass along the way, and stationed troops in Suli on the bank of the Luo River. He also sent out scouts to investigate Li Jue's troop movements.

March 21st, Bingzhou military camp.

"Your Majesty!"

Shi Yi quickly stepped into the tent and said, "Li Jue has summoned all the generals in Guanzhong to join our army!"

"Okay!"

Zhang Yu waved his fist happily and said with a smile: "Our army has brought half a month's worth of food, and now more than half of the food and grass are gone. If Li Jue holds Qingye, the situation will not be in our army's favor. Now Li Jue has gathered a large army and wants to fight with our army with his courage, which is a great advantage for our army!"

Zhang Yu burned his boats and abandoned his food, marching deep into Guanzhong alone, which must have taken both possibilities into consideration. If Li Jue adopted Jia Xu's strategy, Zhang Yu would have to change his response strategy and go straight to Chang'an to force Li Jue to fight. Now that Li Jue relied on his large army to attack, it would be a great advantage for Zhang Yu.

"Sir, how should we deploy our troops now?" Liu Bei asked.

Zhang Yu pondered for a moment and said, "Tomorrow we will march south forty miles to Puling. Puling is a place with hills and reeds. If we fight Li Jue in the field, we must have the hills on our right and the water on our left, making it difficult for the enemy's army to move."

As he spoke, Zhang Yu looked at Shi Yi and said, "You will be in charge of the waiting cavalry. See if you can sneak into the camp and find out the situation of Li Jue's troops for me!"

"promise!"

When two armies are fighting, it is particularly important to choose a place to deploy troops. If you have a large number of troops, you should try to choose a place where you can stretch the length of the queue to facilitate outflanking the enemy. If you have a small number of troops, you need to choose a narrow area to maintain a similar queue length.

After learning that Li Jue had no intention of clearing the countryside, Zhang Yu led 28,000 soldiers to camp around Pu Ling on the 22nd.

When Li Jue led his army to within sixty miles of Zhang Yu's troops, because troops from other units were still on their way, in order to defeat Zhang Yu in one fell swoop, Li Jue had to set up camp and wait.

As dusk fell, the night gradually darkened.

Because Shi Yi led the cavalry to capture and surrender six Guanxi cavalrymen the day before, today Shi Yi led two cavalrymen, put on the military uniforms of Guanxi cavalrymen, and went to conduct reconnaissance near the Guanxi army camp.

As they approached the Guanxi camp, they could even see the figures of Guanxi cavalrymen outside the camp, which made the cavalrymen who were traveling with Shi Yi inevitably feel panic.

"Captain, we are now a hundred steps from the enemy camp. Why don't we return and report?"

Shi Yi remained calm and said, "All the tribes have gathered, the soldiers and officers are in confusion, and you and I are both wearing enemy clothes, so it's hard to tell who's the enemy and who's ours. Now you can just pretend to be a patrol cavalry!"

As he said this, Shi Yi rode forward, led the two riders on his left and right to pretend to be patrol cavalrymen of the Guanxi Army, and circled around the perimeter of the camp. Seeing Shi Yi's boldness, the two riders on his left and right gradually let go of their nervousness and put themselves into the role of patrol cavalrymen.

"Shut up!"

Shi Yi stopped more than a dozen infantrymen who were out chopping wood, held the reins and walked slowly, and asked, "Command!"

"Luo Shui!"

When the old and weak infantrymen saw the Shiyi Hu cavalry dressed like ferocious looking at them, they couldn't help but feel a little scared and gave the order to enter the camp directly.

"go!"

Shi Yi used his whip to signal the infantry to return to the camp, while he and the two riders on his left and right leisurely patrolled. The infantrymen who were chopping wood saw that Shi Yi did not respond to the command, but did not doubt the identities of the three men. They just muttered a few times, and when they saw Shi Yi's fierce face, they carried the firewood back to the camp.

After walking around for a while, Shi Yi used the password to trick the enemy into giving him the complete password. Seeing that his identity was not suspected, he became bolder and went straight into the Guanxi camp, patrolling between the various units, pretending to be a cavalryman in charge of discipline.

"Snapped!"

Seeing two people tearing clothes in front of them and a group of people gathered together, Shi Yi immediately stepped forward and whipped the two people, and shouted in half-familiar Chinese: "Fighting is not allowed in the army. If anyone violates this, he will be punished according to military law!"

As he spoke, Shi Yi shouted at the crowd, "It's getting dark, why don't you return to your tents? If I see you again, I will arrest you and hand you over to the general for questioning."

After Shi Yi's fierce scolding, the fighting infantrymen and the soldiers who were watching scattered in panic, fearing that they would be captured by Shi Yi.

Seeing this, Shi Yi was overjoyed. He did not expect that the military discipline of the Guanxi army was lax, or that the officers were in disarray. Not only did he sneak into the army, but he was even fooled by him.

"go!"

After walking around for a while, Shi Yi silently memorized the situation of the Guanxi troops in his mind. Later, as it was getting dark, Shi Yi and two riders walked out of the gate openly, and the soldiers guarding the gate did not suspect anything at all!
After returning to the tent, Shi Yi told Zhang Yu all the information he had obtained.

After learning what had happened, Zhang Yu praised his men, saying: "Three cavalrymen entered the enemy camp and treated the 100,000-man army as nothing. Shi Yi is as bold as a tiger, and can be compared with Fan Kuai."

"Although the enemy army has a large number of soldiers and horses, their morale is not united. Although each unit is brave, their military discipline is lax. This mob can now be defeated!"

(End of this chapter)