Zhu Li stationed his troops on the north bank of the Wei River, keeping a close eye on the movements of Tuoba Sigong and Li Xiaochang.
In fact, Zhu Wen had already discovered the situation at East Bridge, but he found that Zhu Li did not lead his troops directly to attack Chang'an. He understood what the other party was worried about. Therefore, he only set up some obstacles and stationed some people between Weishui East Bridge and Weishui Middle Bridge to prevent Zhu Li's sneak attack, and then concentrated on dealing with Li Xiaochang.
Tuoba Sigong and Li Xiaochang certainly also got the news that Zhu Li had captured the Weishui East Bridge without bloodshed, but the two did not send anyone to invite Zhu Li for help. After all, at the beginning, the two relied on their large numbers of soldiers and generals to capture Zhu Li, so naturally they were too embarrassed to ask Zhu Li for help now.
The key lies in the two of them, one is the Jiedushi Yan, and the other is the newly appointed Jiedushi Xia Suiyin. If the battle record of the two Jiedushi cannot compare with that of a small governor, then they will be in great disgrace.
Since mid-July, the Youzhou Army and the Yan Army launched numerous charges towards Qiaonan, but unsurprisingly, they were all beaten back by Zhu Wen.
The battles continued until mid-August. Li Xiaochang and Tuoba Sigong could no longer bear such losses, so they had to stop the attack and try to contact more military governors to come to help.
But war cannot be stopped or started just because you say so. The morale of the two armies of Li Xiaochang and Tuoba Sigong is low, and they are still trying to stop the war. Is this possible
In late August, Zhu Wen and Meng Kai led their troops to launch a surprise attack at night, and they immediately defeated the camp of Tuoba Sigong and Li Xiaochang. When Zhu Li got the news and wanted to go to rescue them, Li Xiaochang and Tuoba Sigong had already disappeared.
In desperation, Zhu Li had to retreat to the northeast. Under the command of Zhou Dewei, the army advanced and retreated in an orderly manner, giving Zhu Wen and Meng Kai no chance to take advantage of, and they safely escaped Zhu Wen's pursuit.
The army retreated to Weinan, where they happened to meet Zheng Ting, who had come to support them after having won a great victory over Shang Rang. So they stationed there, waiting for the pursuers from Zhu Wen and Meng Kai.
The next day, Ning Jiedushi Wang Chongying also came to assist the king and somehow found his way here. The three parties joined forces and set up a line of defense.
After several days, Li Xiaochang and Tuoba Sigong, who had become full of energy again after gathering the remaining troops, also rushed to Weinan. After discussion, they decided to have a decisive battle with Zhu Wen and Meng Kai in Weinan.
The news that two military governors were defeated in the battle on the banks of the Wei River, while a provincial governor surrendered the entire enemy army without bloodshed, spread like wildfire, making Li Xiaochang and Tuoba Sigong of the coalition forces very embarrassed.
Even Emperor Xizong, who was in Chengdu, was very surprised when he heard the news. The emperor liked people who could win battles. Even the powerful eunuch Tian Lingzi was very happy. After all, the eunuchs' power came from the emperor. If the Tang Dynasty collapsed, the Li family's empire would certainly perish, but as powerful eunuchs who called the wind and rain in the Tang court, they would also be in trouble.
Soon, Chengdu issued an imperial edict to the coalition forces, which appointed Zheng Ting as the commander-in-chief of the field army, and Zhu Li as the governor of Hedong, to lead the coalition forces together to attack Zhu Wen and Meng Kai.
The atmosphere in the temporary camp was a bit strange. The strange atmosphere was caused by the change in status. When the Shatuo rebellion was suppressed last time, Zheng Ting was the governor of Fengxiang, Li Xiaochang was the governor of Yan, and Wang Chongying was the governor of Ning.
Shi and Zhu Li were just a small Yunqi Duwei at that time.
After pacifying the Shatuo, Li Xiaochang became the Jiedushi of Yan, Wang Chongying became the Jiedushi of Ning, the only thing that remained unchanged was Zheng Ting, and Zhu Li became just a governor of a lower state, which was indeed insignificant in the eyes of these big guys.
But now it is different. Let’s not talk about Zheng Ting, just talk about Zhu Li. He has now become the Jiedushi of Hedong, and the title also includes the words "field camp", and he is in charge of the three armies. The change in status makes these bigwigs feel uncomfortable.
The big guys who used to be high and mighty now have to sit down and listen to the orders of a young man. It would be strange if the atmosphere was not weird. Even Tuoba Sigong, the newly emerged governor of Xia Suiyin under the banner of serving the king, had a very ugly expression. After all, he had the greatest momentum and brought out most of the elite troops of the Dangxiang, but he was still defeated in the end.
As for Li Xiaochang, he had something to hide. The idea of dividing the troops into three groups was suggested by him to Tuoba Sigong. He saw that Zhu Li had few soldiers and wanted to make fun of him deliberately. However, he failed to make fun of others and became the laughing stock instead.
Zheng Ting was the first to break the awkward atmosphere and said, "Zhu Wen and Meng Kai's army are ahead. If you have a good plan to defeat the enemy, please share it with us so that we can discuss it and see if it is feasible."
Everyone looked at each other but no one said anything. Instead, Tuoba Sigong cupped his hands and said, "General Manager Zheng, our army has just been defeated and all our baggage and food have fallen into the hands of the Cao army. I think we should solve the baggage and food problem first. If our men don't have enough to eat, they can't be loyal to the country." (Tang Dynasty: Jiedushi were generally called general managers, governors, etc.)
"That's right, let's solve the problem of baggage and food first." Li Xiaochang agreed. His baggage and food were also lost.
Upon hearing this, Zheng Ting said calmly, "Don't worry, I did capture a large amount of supplies when I defeated Shang Rang. I will share some with you later."
Upon hearing this, Tuoba Sigong and Li Xiaochang looked at each other and hurriedly bowed to Zheng Ting to thank him: "Thank you for your help, General Manager."
"Thank you, butler."
"You're welcome. We are all serving the country." Zheng Ting said modestly, "The army of Zhu Wen and Meng Kai is about the same size as ours. If we fight head-on, it will take a long time, so I think we should focus on a surprise attack."
Everyone nodded silently, but no one spoke. This scene made Zhu Li unable to sit still. He came to this era and found that the biggest problem of Tang Dynasty bureaucrats was discussion. A group of people gathered together to talk nonsense, or simply pondered in silence, but they could not discuss a set of rules. The efficiency was too poor.
So he bowed to Zheng Ting and said, "General Manager Zheng, Huang Chao attacked Chang'an and won the victory on the surface, but he was in a dilemma of being attacked from all sides. Under such circumstances, it is most likely to cause the army to be unstable. Zhu thinks that we can spread rumors to deceive the guards of the grass army. If we can make the enemy's army lose morale without losing a single soldier, wouldn't it be better?"
"Well, Commander Zhu, why don't you explain it in more detail?" Zheng Ting became more alert, and even the others became more alert. After all, Zhu Li's achievements were not exaggerated, but real, and many people present had worked with him before, so they all attached great importance to his suggestions.
Zhu Li looked around at everyone and continued, "We can spread rumors that Huang Chao will definitely lose. It would be best if we can make it convincing and make people believe that the Cao army is big.
"Some of them are civilians, and civilians are blind and most easily misled by rumors. If they believe that Huang Chao is doomed to fail, within a few days, some of the Cao army will surely flee. Once a large number of Cao army flee, won't we be able to defeat Zhu Wen and others without any effort?"
"Good, great idea." Zheng Ting looked at Zhu Li with burning eyes and said repeatedly.
"Yes, it's really wonderful." Wang Zhongying, the only one who had no ill feelings towards Zhu Li, also clapped his hands and praised.
Even Li Xiaochang and Tuoba Sigong acknowledged the brilliance of the strategy. The most important thing was that by implementing Zhu Li's strategy, they would not have to send out any troops at all. It would allow them to catch their breath after their defeat at Weishui and rebuild their military might.
The plan was decided and everyone started to prepare separately. Zheng Ting sent people to collect countless pieces of coarse cloth, cut them into pieces, and then wrote the ten reasons why Huang Chao would definitely fail on the coarse cloth. He tied the coarse cloth to a feather arrow and ordered the guards to shoot it into Zhu Wen's camp at night.
That night, the patrolling guards of the Cao army discovered feather arrows entering the camp and thought there was a sneak attack. However, after countless feather arrows fell indiscriminately into the camp, there was no movement. The patrolling guard pulled out a feather arrow and checked it. He found something on the feather arrow. He took it apart and was shocked.
On the coarse cloth, there are four big characters at the beginning, "Huang Chao will definitely fail", and below these four big characters, there is a detailed analysis of the reasons why Huang Chao will definitely fail: "First, the common people's army plunders everywhere, without thinking about management, so it cannot last long, and the king will not take it, this is the first reason why it will definitely fail; second, the common people's army has secretly occupied Chang'an, and the whole world is shocked. Everyone rises up to attack them. As Huang Chao is a commoner, how can he face the heroes of the world? This is the second reason why he will definitely fail; ... ... "
The reasons listed above were all well-organized and well-founded, which made the patrolling guard sweat profusely and his face turn pale. At this moment, many guards were awakened by the sound of arrows, and quietly took off their bows and arrows, removed the cloth strips. Those who could read began to read them immediately, and those who could not read also asked questions in a low voice to those who could read.
The patrol team realized that something was wrong and quickly ordered people to hand in the arrows. However, at this time, many people pretended to pull out the arrows and hand them in, but quietly put the cloth strips into their arms.
Zhu Wen was also woken up by his subordinates at night. When he learned the reason, his expression changed drastically. He searched the military camp before dawn and confiscated the coarse cloth. However, a lot of brocade with the words "Huang Chao will definitely be defeated" was still missing. Knowing that something was wrong, he quickly convened an emergency military meeting.
Many generals and counselors of the Cao army were awakened by this incident. They put on their armor and dressed neatly and entered the central army tent one after another. The candles in the tent were burning brightly, making it as bright as day.
Zhu Wen sat in the first seat, his face so gloomy that water could drip from it. He looked around at the civil and military officials and said in a deep voice: "Zheng Ting is indeed getting more ruthless with age. This move is really insidious. He wants to defeat my tens of thousands of troops without a single soldier. He deserves death. Everyone, how should we deal with it now? Please do your best to calm this matter down. Otherwise, we don't need to fight, just prepare to run away."
Zhu Wen had many capable people under his command, and now it was an urgent military meeting. Dozens of civil and military officials were standing in the big tent. Everyone took the rough cloth strips and passed them around, but no one spoke for a while.
After a cup of tea, the document was circulated and a sturdy general stepped forward and said, "General, the rumors in the army have not yet spread completely. We might as well take this opportunity to send troops to Weinan and fight Zheng Ting to the death. We still have a chance to fight and dispel the rumors with actual achievements."