Chapter 85 Section VI Assassins

According to Liu Xiu's strategic deployment, the battle of destroying Shu was a two-fisted attack. Cen Peng and Lai She went hand in hand, pinching each other from the north to the south, and finally joined forces in Chengdu.In order to coordinate the time and unify the pace, Cenpeng, who had a difficult road, attacked first, and waited until Cenpeng took Jiangguan and entered Bashu, and then dispatched troops from Laishe. Let's say that when Cen Peng entered Jiangguan and came to She to hear the news, he was overjoyed, and immediately sent his troops to the south to approach Hanzhong.Gongsun Shu Hanzhong guard general Wang Yuan and Huan'an stationed troops in Hechi.Lai She besieged Hechi, broke it, took advantage of the victory and advanced towards Baishui Pass.

The straight-line distance from Chengdu to attack Hechi is less than 400 kilometers.Chengdu was shocked and everyone was in danger.Gongsun Shu heard about Lai She's reputation for a long time, and Kai Xiao was destroyed in Lai She's hands. If Lai She could be eliminated, the morale of the Han army would undoubtedly be greatly reduced, and the immediate crisis would be greatly alleviated. Therefore, he secretly selected assassins and sneaked into the Han army camp. In the middle, the assassination came to She. The name of the assassin is unknown today, but he is definitely a master.As for the assassination process, the annals also did not record it. Perhaps the historians felt that there was no need to waste energy on such a small person, and let this kind of person be famous in history.In short, according to the historical records, the next shot was a successful assassination, and suddenly a sword was inserted into Laishe's chest, and it seemed hopeless.

Lai She knew that he would die, so he ordered Gai Yan, the deputy commander, to be called urgently.Gai Yan rushed to see Lai She lying paralyzed on the couch, her face was as white as paper, blood was flowing all over the ground, she felt great grief in her heart, fell to the ground and wept, unable to look up. Seeing this, Lai She scolded angrily: "I'm not a child, why are you crying! I met an assassin and I can no longer serve the country, so I called you here to entrust you with the military. If you dare to do this again, even though I have been hit by a sword , can't you order someone to kill you?"

Gai Yan suppressed his grief, stopped his tears and stood up.After explaining the military affairs to Gai Yan, Lai She calmly wrote a book and briefly explained the funeral to Liu Xiu, then threw a pen on the ground, pulled out the sword from his chest, blood gushed out like a fountain, and died in a moment. When Liu Xiu heard that Lai She was assassinated and died, and saw Lai She's last book, she shed tears like rain, feeling inexplicably sad. Liu Xiu has only respected two people since he was a child: one is his elder brother Liu Yan, and the other is his cousin Lai She.And these two people also really love him, and gave him the protection he needed most when he was not strong.When he came to She for the funeral and returned to Luoyang, Liu Xiu personally wore a filial piety, and took the scorpion, and went to the funeral at the hanging.

Fan Ye's "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" praised Lai She and said: "The money you pay to the uncle, the words are innocent. Fang Xian presented three victories, and fell forever with a sword." Since then, She's achievements in pacifying Kaihuo should be among the twenty-eight generals of Yuntai He must be listed, and must occupy a high position, but because he is Liu Xiu's cousin, as a member of the royal family, he has no choice but to avoid suspicion. Like Deng Chen and Li Tong, he will not be listed in the end, what a pity. After Laishe's death, the Qiang rebelled in Longxi again, which was so powerful that it endangered Sanfu. Liu Xiu had to urgently recall the Guanzhong army to put down the Qiang rebellion first.

Unpredictable, the planned deployment of attacking Shu from the north to the south has been completely disrupted, how will the war progress next?Liu Xiu then sent a letter to Cen Peng, informing Guanzhong of the withdrawal of the army, and seeking Cen Peng's opinion: If you intend to attack Shu alone, I will not stop it.If you feel that without the support of the Guanzhong army, it is difficult to succeed in destroying Shu, and it is not appropriate to go deep alone, then temporarily suspend the troops to calm the people, and it will not be too late to attack Shu when the Guanzhong army is free.In short, you are on the front line, it is up to you to decide whether to fight or retreat.

Cen Peng's attitude was extremely firm: "Since I have entered Bashu, there is absolutely no reason for me to return it. My Jingzhou army alone is enough to destroy Shu." Liu Xiu received Cen Peng's book and praised it greatly. However, Cen Peng's mention of "never return" made Liu Xiu vaguely feel ominous. Don’t make the same mistakes you made.” Cen Peng sent his troops to Jiangguan, went straight to Jiangzhou, and besieged Tian Rong.Tian Rong closed the city and guarded, so he bullied Cen Peng and came from a long way. The food and grass are not available, and the advantage is to fight quickly, not to fight with them. When Cen Peng runs out of food, he will naturally retreat.

Cen Peng has been attacking for several days, but there is no result. He knows that Jiangzhou City has a lot of solid food and it is difficult to conquer it in a short period of time.Cen Peng then summoned Feng Jun to allocate 5,000 soldiers and horses, and ordered him to stay and attack Jiangzhou. At the same time, he left most of the meager grain to Feng Jun.Feng Jun asked: "All the food is given to me, so what do you do?" Cen Peng laughed and said: "I don't have any food, but the enemy has it." Regardless of the taboo of military strategists, Cen Peng left the important town of Jiangzhou behind, and brazenly led his army forward, pointing directly at Dianjiang (now Hechuan, Chongqing), breaking through Pingqu (northwest of Hechuan), and seizing hundreds of thousands of stones in Migu.

Cen Peng occupied Pingqu, only 200 kilometers away from Chengdu in a straight line, and Chengdu fell into panic again. When Gongsun Shu ruled the Kingdom of Shu, all the people from his own Gongsun family were employed. Anyway, they were all officials.However, now that the national crisis is imminent, whether the employment is appropriate or not is directly related to life and death. Under the pressure of powerful external forces, the standard of employing people based on cronyism has to be revised to meritocracy.In their Gongsun family, only his younger brother Gongsun Hui is barely available, otherwise, he can only use a foreign surname to surrender.

When the country was in crisis, Gongsun Shu was indeed courageous. He dispatched all the elite soldiers of the Shu Kingdom to Yancen, Lu Yu, Wang Yuan, and Gongsunhui, and refused to defend Guanghan (now north of Suining, Sichuan) and Zizhong (now Ziyang, Sichuan). Defend the eastern gateway of Chengdu and block the only way for Cen Peng to attack Chengdu.Hou Dan was also sent to lead more than 20,000 people to refuse to defend Huangshi (now Jiangjin, Chongqing) and guard the key points of the Yangtze River to prevent the Han army from continuing to advance westward along the Yangtze River.

Cen Peng ordered Zang Gong to lead 50,000 soldiers to stay in Pingqu to restrain Yan Cen and others.On the other hand, he led an elite naval force, went down the Fu River, returned to Jiangzhou, attacked Hou Dan who had refused to defend Huangshi, and broke it, so he went up the Yangtze River, day and night, passing through Jiangyang (now Luzhou, Sichuan), Bodao ( Today's Yibin, Sichuan), Nan'an (now Leshan, Sichuan), detoured for more than 2,000 miles, and finally landed in Wuyang (to the east of Pengshan County, Sichuan today), attacked Wuyang in one fell swoop, and immediately sent elite cavalry to attack Guangdu (now Shuangliu, Sichuan) southeast of the county), the situation is like wind and rain, and everything is scattered. Cen Peng captured Guangdu, only forty miles away from Chengdu.Gongsun Shu was shocked when he heard the news. He always thought that Cen Peng was in Pingqu and was confronting Yan Cen and others. Why did Cen Peng bypass his heavily guarded eastern defense line in less than ten days, like a magic soldier? Skyfall, approaching the empty south wing of Chengdu in one fell swoop!Gongsun Shu couldn't believe it, and asked the spies again and again whether the information was true. The spies swear and swear that they lied to you as a puppy, so Gongsun Shu had to accept the reality, hit the ground with his staff, and sighed: "What god is it!" Gongsun Shu's wife was by his side, heard the words "bah" a few times, and said: "What you said is very unlucky!" Gongsun Shuqi said: "Why is it unlucky?" In Lueyang, Kai Xiao was also startled and said: "What a god!" It was exactly the same as what you said, and then he was defeated and died." Gongsun Shu sighed sadly: "Now that things are up to now, there is no need to care about auspiciousness. "