Chapter 20 5. The fire at Changsha

There are two main battlefields to deal with the Yellow Turban Army, one is Jizhou in the north, and the North Zhonglang general Lu Zhi is the commander-in-chief, and his opponent is the three brothers Zhang Jiao; the other is Yingchuan County in the south, and the Zuo Zhonglang general Huangfu Song and You Zhonglang general Zhu Jun served as the commander-in-chief, and their opponent was Bocai, the leader of the Yingchuan Yellow Turban Army. Let me talk about the southern battlefield first. The location of Yingchuan County is close to Luoyang, and Bocai is the most strategic general in the Yellow Turban Army. The court did not dare to neglect, and sent Huangfusong and Zhu Jun to fight together.The Yellow Turban Army fought bravely. Facing the two armies of the imperial court, they responded calmly without rush or fear.

Although Huangfusong and Zhu Jun did not suffer a big defeat, their idea of ​​defeating the enemy in one fell swoop did not come true.Despite their experience in countering rebellion, they did not dare to be careless this time. After discussion, they decided to take a steady and steady approach to fight a protracted war and a war of attrition with the Yellow Turban Army. This decision was originally correct, because the team was temporarily formed for their expedition this time, and there was no time for training, and the various ministries and the upper and lower were not familiar enough. It is a force that has not yet fully formed its combat effectiveness. Come, it is necessary.

At the same time, General He Jin is rushing to form a reserve team in Luoyang. Reinforcements from the imperial court will be sent to the battlefield one after another. As long as they persevere, the balance of forces between the enemy and us on the battlefield will change. Bo Cai also saw this level, so he didn't want to fight for a long time, but attacked with all his strength.The main target he chose was the direction Zhu Jun was in charge of, but Zhu Jun couldn't keep an eye on him and suffered a defeat. Huangfusong analyzed the situation and thought that he had to find a solid stronghold to garrison troops and build a stronghold to defend it, so he led his troops back to a place called Changshe.

Huangfusong and Zhu Jun's troops retreated to the city of Changshe, and Bocai then commanded the Yellow Turban Army to surround it layer by layer.The number of the Yellow Turban Army was several times that of the imperial army, and the situation was very dangerous. Huangfusong continued to send out signals for help to Luoyang. In this way, the newly formed cavalry division had a total of more than 5,000 people. Without training, they entered the battlefield under the leadership of the division commander (Cavalry Captain) Cao Cao.It was May of the seventh year of Guanghe (184), just over two months before Zhang Jiao's official uprising.

Changshe is a small county town. Friends who have been to Wanping City in the southwest suburb of Beijing may understand this more easily. Usually such a city has only four gates, and the north gate tower can be seen at a glance from the south gate tower.Usually, the resident population inside is at most several thousand people.How easy is it to rely on such a city to resist the attack of tens of thousands of Yellow Turbans?Huang Fusong, as an experienced general, commanded the defense of the city while thinking about how to get out of the predicament. Standing on the city wall of Changshe, he saw that the Yellow Turban Army's camp was covered with trees and grass. They may have done this to make camping more comfortable. After all, the weather in May of the lunar calendar is already very hot.

There was an imperceptible smile on General Huangfu's face, Bocai, it seems that you are still a little immature because you only rely on self-taught.Huangfusong immediately set it up and prepared fire starters and a lot of inflammables.The soldiers rushed out of the city on a windy night. They rushed to the enemy's camp with torches and fire starters in their hands, and burned all the trees, grass, and tents they saw.At this time, the wind was very strong, and the flames rose quickly. The Yellow Turban Army had not been able to attack the city for dozens of days, and they were already quite tired. Most of the people were sleeping.

Huangfusong immediately led his troops to attack.The Yellow Turban Army suffered heavy losses, but they did not retreat completely, but retreated to a place farther away from Changshe to re-campaign.At this time, the cavalry unit led by Cao Cao arrived. The three men and horses joined together, under the unified command of Bei Zhonglang General Huangfusong. This time Huangfusong changed his style of play and took the initiative to seek a decisive battle with the Yellow Turbans.For the Yellow Turban Army, there is actually no better way. A protracted war can only be more beneficial to the court, and they can only choose a decisive battle.

As a result, the decisive battle ended with a great victory for the imperial army, Bocai abandoned the army and left, and the Yellow Turban army was beheaded by tens of thousands.Emperor Ling ordered Huangfu Song to be the Marquis of the capital. Huangfusong and Zhu Jun, along with Qin Jie, the prefect of Nanyang County, and Cao Cao, the captain of cavalry, continued to pursue and expand the results of the battle. Yu Wancheng beheaded Zhang Mancheng, another leader of the Yellow Turban Army, and finally Yu Yangzhai and Xihua found Bocai and the Yellow Turban again. The main force led by the army leader Peng Tuo won a big victory.

The imperial army won all three battles, and the Yellow Turban Army was forced to withdraw from Yingchuan, Nanyang and other places, and the situation in the southern part of the capital turned from danger to safety.In the first battle, Zhu Jun’s troops were defeated, so when Huangfusong reported the credit, he deliberately distributed more credit to Zhu Jun. Emperor Ling issued an edict to make Zhu Jun the Marquis of Xixiang, and the right middle man was changed to the township. Thieves Zhonglang will. In the past, although they were all Zhonglang generals, the left was superior to the right, and the right Zhonglang was actually the deputy of the left Zhonglang general.Zhu Jun no longer serves as the right middle man, which means that he will act independently from Huangfusong.Sure enough, the imperial court ordered the two to divide their troops. Huangfusong led his troops and cavalry captain Cao Cao's troops to live in Dongjun, the governor of Yanzhou in the eastern part of Luoyang, where Bu Si, the leader of the Yellow Turban Army, gradually became popular.Zhu Jun still calmed down the rest of the Yellow Turban Army in Nanyang County.

Huangfusong and Cao Cao led the army to Dongjun, defeated the Yellow Turban Army of Dongjun, captured Busi alive, and beheaded more than 7,000 people. Let's talk about the war in the north. After Lu Zhi arrived in Jizhou, he used his fame to recruit a large number of soldiers and horses to strengthen his strength.In this recruitment activity, two people have to be mentioned, they are two students of Mr. Lu: Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei.They didn't come together, but they didn't come alone, and they brought many people with them. Among the people brought by Gongsun Zan, there must be one named Zhao Yun, and among the people brought by Liu Bei, there were two people named Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. .

The story about them is not told yet.Let's talk about General Lu's opponent, the Zhang Jiao brothers. After several battles, the Zhang Jiao brothers gradually became exhausted and retreated to Guangzong.Lu Zhi built fortresses, dug trenches, and built ladders outside Guangzong City, preparing to attack the city.When he was about to capture Guangzong in one fell swoop, an accident happened and Lu Zhi was dismissed. The imperial court sent a man named Zuo Feng, an eunuch, to the front line. His purpose of coming was to condolences, but he was actually to supervise the army. After all, Lingdi Liu Hong didn't fully trust these generals who held heavy troops.This Zuo Feng was a layman in war, but a veteran in making money. He hinted to Lu Zhi to bribe himself according to the usual practice, but a few days passed, and General Lu did not show any sign of it, so Zuo Feng went back angrily. It was a very common thing for eunuchs to ask for bribes from front-line generals.Fighting costs money, and the formulation and allocation of war budgets are in the hands of eunuchs. If you don't deal with these corrupt officials, you can't do anything.Duan, who was as fierce as one of the "Three Mings of Liangzhou" back then, knew his power well, so he deliberately curry favor with the eunuch. But Lu Zhi is not Duan, he is essentially a bachelor, and looks down on these eunuchs from the bottom of his heart.Lu Zhi thought that at this time, Emperor Ling should no longer trust these eunuchs.He also didn't believe that the eunuchs would choose this time to find trouble, so he ignored Zuo Feng's complaints and continued to prepare for the siege. But General Lu was wrong. Bad guys do bad things regardless of time.Zuo Feng went back to report the situation on the front line to Emperor Ling, and added fuel and vinegar to say that Lu Zhi was passive and sabotaged, and deliberately did not fight, because he wanted to claim credit.Emperor Ling was furious, and sent a prison car to Lu Zhi, arrested the general before the battle, and escorted him back to the capital for questioning. The person who succeeded Lu Zhi was named Dong Zhuo.Everyone must be familiar with this guy, and this is the first time I'm talking about him here.Dong Zhuo grew up in Liangzhou where the Qiang and Han lived together for a long time. He followed Zhang Huan and Huangfugui among the "Three Mings of Liangzhou" to fight against the Qiang people. Because he was good at fighting, he was promoted to be the governor of Bingzhou and the governor of Hedong County.The imperial court ordered Dong Zhuo to come to Jizhou to command the frontline operations.Emperor Ling reappointed General Dong Zhonglang for him, because it was Lu Zhi who had not been relieved of his duties at the moment. To be honest, in terms of fighting Dong Zhuo was a first-class fierce man of that era, but this king has been fighting the Qiang people for a long time, and he is good at cavalry field battles. He is a speed and strength player. I can't feel it.He wanted to find Zhang Jiao's main force for a decisive battle many times, but he couldn't find it.Emperor Ling waited impatiently, because what Zuo Feng told him was that Dong Zhuo could take down Zhang Jiao in just one meal.Lu Zhi fought timidly, why did he change to a ruthless character, but it didn't work? This instead saved Lu Zhi's life.He was supposed to be severely punished when he was taken to the capital, but Dong Zhuo's military failure proved from the negative side that his strategy of fighting steadily and steadily was correct, so he was only punished by being dismissed from office. Seeing that he couldn't win Zhang Jiao, Dong Zhuo simply wrote a letter to Emperor Ling, saying that he was incompetent, and then recommended a person to replace him to the emperor. This person was Huangfusong who was suppressing the Yellow Turban Army in Dongjun. Dong Zhuo was an old subordinate of Huangfugui, and he was not good at learning, so he had to invite the nephew of the old chief.In this way, Huangfusong took over from Dong Zhuo to command the battle against Zhang Jiao. For Huangfusong, this year was really the pinnacle of his personal career, and he was also extremely lucky.After succeeding Dong Zhuo, the battle was over before he opened his formation.Because Zhang Jiao, the opponent's coach, great virtuous teacher of the Taiping Dao, and Tiangong General of the Yellow Turban Army, died of illness. Zhang Jiao's sudden death dealt a huge blow to the Yellow Turban Army. His two younger brothers, Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao, continued to lead the main force of the Yellow Turban Army.Under the command of Huangfusong, the imperial army won a decisive battle in Guangzong, and Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao were killed successively.Although Zhang Jiao was dead, Huangfusong still pried open the coffin, slaughtered the corpse, beheaded, and sent the heads of the three Zhang brothers to the capital. By the end of the year, the imperial army had received good news from all directions, and various trophies and severed heads were continuously transported to Luoyang.Emperor Ling issued an edict to gather the heads of the rebellious army and cover them with soil. It was as high as a hill, and it was called "Jingguan". Huangfusong made the greatest contribution in suppressing the rebellion this time. Emperor Ling ordered Huangfu to be Marquis of Huaili, worshiped as General Zuo, promoted from Brigadier General to Lieutenant General, and concurrently served as Jizhou Shepherd.Zhu Jun was also promoted to the right general. Those who participated in the suppression of the chaos were given different rewards. Cao Cao, the commander of the Independent Cavalry Division (Captain Cavalry), was appointed Prime Minister of Jinan because of his meritorious service in cooperating with Huangfusong in the battle. Well, everything is peaceful. Brother Zhang Jiao died, and the heads were brought back. The Yellow Turban Army in various places has been suppressed.Emperor Ling thought, it's time to take a breath, this year was really stressful to death. In December of the seventh year of Guanghe (184), Emperor Ling issued an edict to change the yuan to Zhongping, implying that the world began to move towards peace and tranquility after a great chaos. But if he can predict, his heart will be heavier, because this is the beginning of the storm.