flstandardbreds Chapter 112 Caution is also a mistake
Chapter 112 Caution is also a mistake
To lure Wu's army into a trap, Xie Chong dispersed his troops in a particularly wide area, making them appear as if they covered the entire mountainside from a distance. He managed to make five thousand men look like an army of nearly ten thousand.
In addition, he also erected numerous flags and built large camps in the rear, creating a dusty atmosphere and trying to create the illusion that a large army had not yet been deployed to the siege.
The purpose of this was simple: to make Wu Jun mistakenly believe that the attack on Shanyin was by the main force of the Han army, rather than the four or five thousand detachments in front of him.
Only in this way can we lure Zhang Cheng to come out in full force and fight the Han army in Shanyin.
To put it bluntly, it's a scam.
Therefore, after receiving Xie Chong's order to retreat, the attacking army put on another show. Some soldiers suddenly tripped and fell while running, some lost their shoes or their pants fell down. In short, they made themselves look as disheveled as possible.
Chunyu Shi, standing atop the city wall, laughed loudly as he watched the Han army below, pulling up their trousers and running wildly. "It seems General Zhang Cheng has arrived, and the Han army has also received news of his arrival. Now it's our turn to dominate the world."
"Guan Xing, Guan Xing, where do you get your confidence that Shanyin is a place you can come and go as you please?"
During the siege, the banners bearing the character "Guan" fluttered below the city walls, and a young man in bright armor stood beneath them, occasionally speaking to Xie Chong. Xie Chong bowed and scraped to the young man, leading Chunyu Shi to conclude that Guan Xing himself was the one commanding the siege.
Now that Zhang Cheng has arrived, Guan Xing's retreat is about to be cut off and he will be unable to return. Chunyu Shi is naturally overjoyed.
But will things really turn out as he wishes?
Meanwhile, Xie Chong led his hastily retreating army, fleeing in disarray for more than ten miles before finally stopping to rest at the agreed-upon location.
Just now, in order to confuse the Wu army defending the city, the Han army was in chaos and fled in disarray. Now, they certainly can't do that again, otherwise, they would be doomed if they ran into Zhang Cheng.
Upon arriving at the agreed location, Wang Tao, who was playing Guan Xing, immediately waved the battle flag, beckoning the routed soldiers to gather around, and asked, "General Xie, what's the next step?"
Xie Chong laughed and said, "Naturally, we'll retreat towards Shan County. We need to make it look like we're getting ahead of Zhang Cheng in retreating into the ancient road of Shan County, but we can't actually get ahead of Zhang Cheng, understand?"
They were running from northwest to southeast, while Zhang Cheng was running from west to east. The directions of advance of the two armies formed an angle of thirty or forty degrees, which meant that they would soon run into Zhang Cheng.
To avoid a real collision, they would turn east at the last second before the collision, leaving Zhang Cheng with only two options: either follow them and pursue them with all his might to catch up and fight them, or continue south to attack Shan County and cut off the Han army's retreat route first.
Having learned his lesson from pursuing the Han army, Zhang Cheng will most likely not pursue them this time. Instead, he will enter the ancient road through Shan County to attack the county seat, thereby cutting off the Han army's retreat route and blocking them in the Yinyu Plain first.
Once Zhang Chengzhen enters the ancient road in Shan County, Xie Chong will lead his troops back to block the exit of the ancient road, thus cutting off Zhang Cheng's retreat and trapping him in the ancient road, waiting for Guan Xing to break out from Zhuji and annihilate him.
This was Guan Xing's plan. Zhang Cheng wanted to use Shanyin as bait to lure the Han army out of the Jinqu Basin, but Guan Xing had calculated one step ahead of him.
Seeing that the army had almost gathered, Xie Chong said, "Let's continue our journey and head to the ancient pass to meet General Zhang."
The soldiers automatically dispersed, using their rifle barrels as carrying poles, each carrying two scarecrows, and quickly headed towards the ancient road entrance in Shan County.
It's almost 7 PM now, and it's already dark. Visibility is poor at night, so you can't see faces clearly and can only see blurry shadows.
In other words, these scarecrows appeared to Wu Jun as Han soldiers, leading him to conclude that the attacking force was composed of tens of thousands of Han soldiers, which further solidified his resolve to attack Shan County and cut off the Han army's retreat.
Otherwise, if it were discovered that the Han army only numbered four or five thousand, Zhang Cheng might realize something was wrong and hastily retreat to Zhuji, in which case their plan to encircle and annihilate Zhang Cheng might be aborted halfway.
This is what we call details; the more critical the moment, the more important the details become.
As for the scarecrow, Xie Chong had prepared and hidden it beforehand, all for this moment.
Xie Chong led his army, carrying straw men, to continue their retreat towards the ancient road pass. The commotion of thousands of people naturally did not escape the notice of Wu's scouts.
Several miles away, a group of Wu scouts frowned as they watched the advancing Han army.
The Han army, numbering no less than ten thousand, formed a long line, which looked quite intimidating, but something just felt off.
The situation was urgent and left no time for the scouts to think things through. Moreover, the Han army also had scouts who were constantly patrolling the surrounding area to protect the main force.
Fearing discovery by Han scouts, Wu's scouts promptly returned to report to Zhang Cheng.
At this moment, Zhang Cheng was less than twenty li away from the Han army. At such a short distance, he could even hear the footsteps of the Han army while lying on the ground.
Fearing that the Han army could easily retreat back to Shan County via the ancient road, Zhang Cheng kept shouting, "Speed up, speed up!"
During their advance, a scout returned and shouted from afar, "General, the Han army is getting closer and closer to the ancient pass, and they are marching very fast. They are very likely to enter the ancient pass before us."
Zhang Cheng's expression changed slightly, and he quickly asked, "How many men are there in the Han army, and who is leading them?"
The scout replied, "There are about 15,000 men. I can vaguely see banners with the character 'Guan' on them, and also banners with the character 'Xie' on them."
Zhang Cheng snorted coldly, "Guan Xing and Xie Chong have both come, so they must be the main force of the Han army. Brothers, let's work harder and make sure we get into the ancient pass before the Han army."
Xie Chong was Guan Xing's top general, practically the second-in-command of the Han army. The fact that he came with Guan Xing was enough to prove that Guan Xing had truly mobilized all his forces this time.
Now that they were out, Zhang Cheng naturally wouldn't let them go back. He took off running ahead, and Wu Jun, seeing his general leading the charge, was equally unwilling to fall behind and quickly followed.
Half an hour later, the two armies successfully collided at the ancient road entrance and faced each other.
At this moment, the two armies were less than two miles apart, or about a kilometer apart. At such a close distance, they could clearly see each other.
After exchanging glances, both sides accelerated simultaneously, each trying to get ahead of the other into the ancient road entrance. After running for several hundred meters, seeing that the other was less than five hundred meters away, the Han army seemed to realize that they could not outrun the Wu army, and decisively turned around and fled eastward.
Zhang Cheng did not turn around to pursue, but continued to rush towards the ancient road entrance. He had suffered too many losses at Guan Xing's hands and no longer dared to expect to settle the matter quickly in one battle. He could only proceed cautiously and slowly, but sometimes caution is also a mistake.
Under Zhang Cheng's relentless pursuit, the Wu army successfully occupied the ancient road pass, but instead of advancing further, they stopped to rest and wait for supplies and provisions from the rear.
The distance from Zhuji to this place is over a hundred li. The soldiers were exhausted from the long march and could no longer run.
Moreover, the objective of seizing the ancient pass before the Han army was achieved, so there was no need to fight any further.
Nothing more was said that night. At dawn, the supplies arrived safely, and Prefect Chunyu Shi also came to report. He walked up to Zhang Cheng and said, "General, the Han army is heading towards Yuyao. I have ordered the magistrates of the coastal counties to defend their cities to the death, so that they can buy us at least half a month."
Zhang Cheng said, "Half a month is a bit of a luxury. I'd be grateful if I could last seven days."
Chunyu Shi shook his head and said, "General, don't worry. The gentry of Wushang and Zhuji counties have seen what happened to them. Even if they don't serve you, they will fight desperately to block the Han army for their own sake."
The Han army seized land from local tyrants and distributed it to the wealthy in the Jinqu Basin, tormenting the local gentry to the point of near madness. Other gentry who did not want to suffer the same fate had to fight to the death.
Zhang Cheng breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this and continued, "It's time to move on to the next step. Should we continue south to attack Shan County, or should we advance eastward to gradually erode the main force of the Han army?"