Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 40 Tian Dan's Old Plan
Changsha City is not very big, with a circumference of only a few miles, and is a regular city.

More than 100,000 Yellow Turbans were divided into ten camps, with each unit having more than 10,000 people. They were stationed in strategic locations and controlled the surroundings, thus surrounding the Changsha City.

Now Zhang Yu used the method of false and real to break in from the middle passage between Liu Pi's camp and another camp.

The Yellow Turban Army did not expect that the Han cavalry would break through the outer defenses and even blatantly appear in the passage between the two camps, allowing Zhang Yu to easily pass through the bushes and weeds and approach the Yellow Turban Army's encirclement of Changsha City.

When the five patrolling Yellow Turban cavalry saw Zhang Yu appearing alone in front of them, they did not realize that Zhang Yu was a Han cavalry at first, but instead planned to stop Zhang Yu and question him.

Zhang Yu pretended to be unprepared, but in fact he had an arrow in his hand, ready to approach and shoot at any time.

As he was running, he suddenly heard the sound of hurried horse hooves behind him, and someone shouted, "The one riding the black horse is a Han cavalry!"

Before he finished speaking, Zhang Yu raised his hand and shot based on his feeling without aiming, and shot down the only cavalryman among the five Yellow Turbans.

Afterwards, when the infantry was off guard, Zhang Yu reached out to take the heavy arrow, clamped his legs around the horse's belly, and urged the horse to move forward. When he galloped past the infantry, Zhang Yu suddenly turned his head and shot.

The bowstring was taut and the heavy arrow flew through the air.

"Whoosh!"

At a distance of more than ten steps, a heavy arrow whistled. At such a close distance and with such a strong force, Zhang Yu's arrow actually pierced through the shield-bearing infantryman, along with the wooden shield.

The wood chips were flying everywhere, mixed with blood.

Such terrifying archery skills directly frightened the infantry, and they watched Zhang Yu easily pass in front of them.

More than a dozen Yellow Turban cavalrymen followed closely behind, urging their horses to charge.

Now, Zhang Yu was only two or three miles away from the Changsha city wall. He was not in a hurry to enter the city to seek shelter. Instead, he deliberately reined in and walked slowly, waiting for the Yellow Turban cavalry to approach.

"Whoosh!"

Zhang Yu took advantage of the range of his horse bow and shot back with an arrow. With a flash of cold light, the Yellow Turban cavalrymen who were charging in the front were shot down and their bodies rolled off their horses.

Seeing that Zhang Yu's archery skills were so superb, the Yellow Turban cavalry became frightened and dared not pursue him, so they slowed down their horses.

Zhang Yu deliberately slowed down his horse to attract the Yellow Turban cavalry forward.

As expected, someone seemed to see Zhang Yu's provocation, and regardless of everyone's attempts to stop him, he immediately rode his horse forward, holding a small shield in an attempt to approach Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu's eyes were fierce, and he used his left-handed bow skills again. Seeing that the enemy cavalry had approached more than 20 steps, he turned his head to look at the moon and shot a heavy arrow through the air.

"puff!"

The arrow pierced the round shield, causing it to explode instantly. Before the enemy cavalry could dodge, the arrow pierced through his cheek, causing him to faint from the pain and fall heavily off his horse.

The heavy arrow shot at close range, breaking the man and his shield, and this arrow once again frightened all the pursuing enemy cavalry!

Seeing that no one dared to pursue him, Zhang Yu laughed proudly and said, "Tomorrow, I will leave the city from now on!"

"Ha ha!"

Such a heroic scene was seen by the defenders of Changsha, including Huangfu Song who was patrolling the city wall.

Seeing Zhang Yuru entering the empty space, Huangfu Song patted the wall and praised him, saying: "The Han family has such a brave man, why should we worry about the Yellow Turban bandits!"

"Send someone out to meet them!"

"promise!"

Liang Yan, the chief secretary, stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "Since our army was trapped in Changsha, we have lost contact with General Zhu. Now we finally have scouts to attack the camp, which is really not easy!"

"With news of foreign aid, the generals in the city can rest assured!"

After a pause, Liang Yan looked worried and said, "Although we have received news from General Zhu, the most important thing now is how to defeat Bo Cai and his bandits."

Huangfu Song suppressed his smile and said, "Use extraordinary tactics to fight. In the past, Tian Dan defeated the Yan army with fire bulls and restored the foundation of Qi. Although the Moth Bandits have more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, they are not as elite as ours. In ancient times, the weak defeated the strong by relying on the two tactics of water and fire. Now there is no water to use, so we can only rely on fire attack."

"Fire attack?"

Hearing this, Liang Yan perked up and said, "General, do you want to defeat the enemy with fire?"

"Of course!"

Huangfu Song pointed at the Yellow Turban Army camp outside the city and said, "I climbed the city walls to look at the camp recently. The enemy camped on the grass. If we can set fire to it, why worry about the enemy not being defeated?"

"But we lack the help of wind?" Liang Yan said.

After that, a strong northwest wind suddenly blew in the sky, and the flags on the city wall fluttered.

Seeing this, Huangfu Song laughed loudly and said, "God helps the Han Dynasty. The moth thieves will be defeated right now!"

Liang Yan's face changed when he heard the wind, and he said in shock: "General, can't you borrow the wind?"

Huangfu Song stroked his beard with his hand, smiled and said nothing.

The strong northwest wind at this time was purely an accident. After asking the villagers, he only knew that northwest wind would occasionally blow at Changsha nights in April. It was considered a lucky encounter at the moment.

"General, the scouts have entered the city. Should we summon them right away?" asked the attendant.

"Summon him in the palace hall!"

Huangfu Song was in a very good mood and said with a smile: "Let's go and take a look at the Han army's brave cavalry."

"promise!"

Inside the government hall, Zhang Yu was led by someone and had arrived early to wait.

After a while, the armored general with flowing beard and resolute face came into the hall with fierce strides. Behind him followed several civil and military officials, who attended the meeting in order of status.

"Greetings to the Left Lieutenant General." Zhang Yu bowed to Huangfu Song who was sitting in the main seat and said, "I, Zhang Yu and Zhang Ji'an, are the Wumeng attendants of Yuzhou. I am here to enter the city on the orders of the Right Lieutenant General!"

Huangfu Song looked amiable and said with a smile: "Zhang Gongshi rushed into the enemy camp as if he were in an empty space. He is truly a tiger warrior!"

"My humble skills are beyond recognition, and I am not worthy of your praise, General!"

Zhang Yu took out a brocade bag from his bosom and handed it over, saying respectfully, "General Zhu's message is all in the bag. Please check it out!"

"good!"

Huangfu Song opened the brocade bag and found a letter written by Zhu Jun.

After watching for a while, Huangfu Song smiled and said to his attendants, "All the troops in Yuzhou have come to General Zhu's command. Cavalry Commander Cao Mengde has led several thousand infantry and cavalry to set up camp fifty miles away. If you follow my plan, both inside and outside will rise up and attack from all sides. The moth bandits will surely be defeated!"

"We will defeat the thieves!"

"Congratulations, General!"

The civil and military officials in the hall were whispering to each other. The gloom caused by being surrounded had long been replaced by joy.

"quiet!"

Huangfu Song raised his hand to stop talking and asked, "Consigliere Zhang, does General Zhu have any other military orders?"

Zhang Yu shook his head and said, "General, General Zhu has no chance to defeat the enemy for the time being. If General Huangfu has a plan to defeat the enemy, I would like to accept your advice!"

Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun each held a scepter and were appointed as the left and right Zhonglang generals, respectively, and both had the same status. Now in this critical moment, Zhu Jun was willing to cooperate with Huangfu Song, which was considered Zhu Jun's self-depreciation.

"Gong Wei is able to put the overall situation first. Song is fortunate and the Han Dynasty is fortunate!" Huangfu Song sighed.

Huangfu Song paused, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "I have come through the enemy camp, have you found anything unusual?"

Zhang Yu thought for a moment and said, "I have come here to break into the camp. I think the Yellow Turbans are called rebels, but in reality they are peasants who have just experienced military affairs. If they are defeated and run away, no one can stop them."

"Not only that, I have seen the bandits build camps out of grass and wood. If we can set fire to them and send troops to attack them at night, they will surely be defeated and flee, and we will not be able to stop them."

Although Zhang Yu's words were brief, they surprised many people in the hall. Huangfu Song was even more shocked and looked at Zhang Yu in front of him again.

If Zhu Jun or his officers had advised Huangfu Song, he might not have been so surprised.

But at the moment, he was just a minor official of a hundred stones. Based on what he saw and heard in the enemy camp, he directly proposed a similar plan to defeat the enemy to Huangfu Song, which could not help but be shocked.

"Has Mr. Zhang learned military tactics?" Huangfu Song asked.

"I was born in Yunzhong. I often wrestled with the Hu people and gained some benefits. Fortunately, I was favored by the former Hongnong prefect Chang Wengong, who recruited me as his son-in-law and taught me military books," said Zhang Yu.

Huangfu Song couldn't help but nod and smile, saying: "Young hero, the future is promising!"

After a pause, Huangfu Song asked, "Since your thoughts are similar to mine, I wonder if you would be willing to take the trouble to pass on the order to General Zhu."

"I am willing to obey military orders!"

Zhang Yu asked knowingly, surprised: "General, your thoughts are similar to mine, what do you mean? Could it be ~"

Zhang Yu had heard about the Battle of Changsha, where Huangfu Song defeated Bo Cai with fire. In order to win Huangfu Song's appreciation, Zhang Yu deliberately proposed the strategy of fire attack when Huangfu Song was in a good mood. The situation was just as Zhang Yu expected, but Huangfu Song admired Zhang Yu even more because of it.

"Ok!"

Huangfu Song stood up from the couch, patted Zhang Yu on the shoulder, and said admiringly: "To be honest, the northwest wind is strong today, and I have already told the generals about the strategy of using fire to defeat the enemy."

"I almost fell down and forgot the direction of the wind!" said Zhang Yu.

"hehe!"

Huangfu Song stroked his beard and smiled, saying: "You are a young man with little experience in military affairs. If you hone yourself more in the future, you will become a great man."

If it were normal times, Huangfu Song would not bother to talk so much with Xiao Xiao Gongshi. Today, Huangfu Song got a strategy to defeat the enemy, and with the help of Zhang Yu, he was able to contact Zhu Jun, so he was naturally happy.

Especially when Zhang Yu proposed the strategy of fire attack, which was similar to his own strategy of fire attack, Huangfu Song was delighted and felt a bit of appreciation, so he said so much to Zhang Yu.

"Thank you for your appreciation, General!" Zhang Yu bowed.

"Have a good rest tonight, and eat and drink as much as you want!"

Huangfu Song asked, "I will leave the city tomorrow. Do you have any other requests?"

"General, please send someone to pretend to leave by the same route tomorrow, and I will secretly find another way to leave." Zhang Yu said.

"it is good!"

Huangfu Song ordered his attendants, saying, "Tomorrow we will send another fifty elite cavalrymen to provide cover and ensure that Zhang Congshi can leave the city smoothly."

"promise!"

"Thank you, General Huangfu!"

"correct!"

Before Huangfu Song left, he seemed to remember something and asked, "Is your name Yu?"

"General, my surname is Zhang, my given name is Yu, and my courtesy name is Ji'an." Zhang Yu introduced himself.

"good!"

Apparently, Zhang Yu's bravery and wisdom made Huangfu Song remember him.

(End of this chapter)