This general was none other than Zhu Wen's trusted general Pang Shigu. He was very important to Zhu Wen, and his words were pertinent and could be considered a temporary solution.
"No," Pang Shigu said. An elegant young man with a futon hat and a horse face immediately spoke up to stop him. The man's name was Li Zhen, and he was Zhu Wen's chief strategist.
Li Zhen is the great-grandson of Li Baozhen, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. His family fell into poverty and he failed in the imperial examinations many times. In anger, he defected to the Cao army, where he was appreciated by Zhu Wen. Li Zhen is now Zhu Wen's first counselor.
"Could it be that Brother Li has a way to calm this matter down?" Pang Shigu looked at him suspiciously.
Li Zhen did not look at him, but said to Zhu Wen: "General, the reason why the loyalist army is confronting us is to recapture Chang'an. They are the attacking party and we are the defending party. Now the difference in military strength is not big. The attacking and defending positions must not be interchanged. Waiting for the tiredness and responding to the loyalist army is the only choice to win in a stable manner."
"I have studied Zheng Ting, and I frankly say that if there are still loyal ministers in the Tang Dynasty, then Zheng Ting is undoubtedly one of them. He has served as a secretary of the Central Secretariat, a minister of the Ministry of Revenue, a Hanlin scholar, and a governor of Wuzhou. As a military governor, he is still a novice, which shows that in terms of military strategies, he is more good at planning on paper than actually commanding."
"The situation is that the loyalist army and I are at a stalemate, but the enemy has used such a sharp psychological attack to deal with us. This is not Zheng Ting's style. He does not have the foresight and decisiveness, and he does not know how to grasp the opportunity."
Zhu Wen's expression became more serious when he heard this, and he asked doubtfully, "Is there a capable person among the coalition forces?"
"Yes, General. Even if we quell the rumors, if we don't get rid of this person, it will definitely cause us big trouble." Li Zhen bowed and looked at Zhu Wen sincerely.
Zhu Wen lowered his head and pondered for a while, then suddenly raised his head and shouted, "Come here, check for me who came up with this psychological strategy."
"Li Zhen, it's up to you to calm down this incident." Zhu Wen said to Li Zhen while ordering people to investigate the person who made the suggestion.
"promise"
Since the psychological attack plan was launched, in the first few days, the Cao army guards fled one after another. Zhu Li took the opportunity to let Zhou Dewei and Meng Juehai to gather them, and gradually they gathered more than a thousand people.
But after a few days, the other side had curbed the deserters. The coalition forces were happy for only a few days, and then they began to think hard about countermeasures. It was not that the psychological warfare strategy was not good, but that there were too many capable people in the Cao army. Zhu Li had to admire this.
However, although the psychological warfare was quelled by the other side, it did cause nearly 10,000 of their guards to flee, so it was not without results, and the leaders of the coalition forces could not blame them for anything.
It took Li Zhen a lot of effort to quell Zhu Li's psychological attack. The Cao Army guards were frightened and confused, and they would not be fooled easily.
He first summoned all the generals and listed Zhu Wen's battle achievements one by one, asking them to publicize them among the Cao army. Zhu Wen's record in the rebel army was indeed unquestionable. Although he did not win every battle, he could win eight or nine out of ten times. This stabilized the morale of some Cao soldiers. Zhu Li's goal was to ensure the defeat of Huang Chao, but Zhu Wen's prestige in front of his subordinates was still unmatched.
At the same time, he sent people to capture the fleeing Cao soldiers and chop off their heads in public to serve as a warning to others. This two-pronged approach reduced the number of Cao soldiers to a negligible level. In the end, he gave the Cao soldiers a piece of land.
The big pancakes stimulated their desires, rebuilt their fighting spirit, and completely eliminated the Cao Army guards' thoughts of fleeing.
At this time, Cao Jun also got the news that Zhu Li had proposed a strategy to attack the enemy's heart.
The Cao army was in the meeting tent, discussing the countermeasures to get rid of Zhu Li. Zhu Li's battle record was soon presented to Zhu Wen. To be honest, it surprised all the civil and military officials of the Cao army.
He stopped the army in Weizhou and challenged them to a fight, and killed thirteen generals of Shatuo in battle; he offered a plan to dig a tunnel, which led to a severe defeat of Fu Wenda and his capture of him alive; he offered another plan to seize Daizhou; on the bank of Weishui River, he rode his horse and shot the reins, and captured Meng Juehai with a trick, and captured all of his troops without bloodshed.
Faced with such a brave and resourceful general, even the countless wise counselors under Zhu Wen were worried and did not know where to start for a while.
At this moment, a voice sounded: "General, I know this Zhu Li."
As soon as the voice came, everyone's eyes turned to the direction where the voice came from. Most of them were unfamiliar with this person. He should be just a brigade commander. No one knew how he ran into the army camp. However, at this time, no one cared about this. Even Zhu Wen looked at the man with bright eyes.
He was a sturdy and thin brigade commander with a sparkling eye. He was shrewd and well-behaved, and seemed harmless. His name was Li Yanzhang. When Huang Chao marched south and divided his troops into two groups, he was the captain under Bi Shiduo of the Western Route Grass Army.
After Bi Shiduo was defeated in Tanzhou, he fled and unexpectedly found his way to the eastern route of Caojun and entered Huang Chao's base camp. By coincidence, he became a subordinate of Zhu Wen.
"Do you know Zhu Li?" Zhu Wen asked, his eyes shining as he stared at Li Yanzhang without blinking.
Li Yanzhang knelt on one knee and clasped his hands, saying, "Yes, General. Zhu Li was originally a guard of our Cao Army. By chance, he became a disciple of Wu Xiaowei, an old subordinate of Pang Xun. I heard that they later joined the Hongzhou Yuchi family."
"Yes, that's right. Zhu Li was favored by Li Keju because of the recommendation of Yuchi Xin, the son of Yuchi Tian. When Li Keyong attacked Daishuo, he became famous in one battle and achieved this success." Li Zhen said with a look of sudden realization, and continued, "Before, I only found out that Zhu Li was recommended by Yuchi Xin and was initially appointed as the guard of the northern entrance of Tanzhou. I knew nothing about his past. Just now, I heard from this young brigade commander that he was also a member of my Cao army. It seems that things are getting more complicated."
"He has been in the Cao army and is very familiar with many of our situations. Now he is our enemy, and the danger is even greater." Li Zhen said solemnly with a serious expression.
After hearing what he said, everyone looked even more serious, but the brigade commander named Li Yanzhang said again: "General, superiors, Zhu Li also has a weak spot."
"Weakness?" Everyone immediately became alert when they heard this. Zhu Wen asked eagerly, "What is the weak spot?"
"General, when I met Zhu Li, there were only him and his sister. At that time, there was a news in the army that he and his parents were lost. When I was heading from Tanzhou to Guiguan, I happened to meet a couple on the way. After asking them carefully, I learned that the two people were Zhu Li's parents. At that time, I thought that they were all members of the Cao Army, so I took the couple with me. Now I still place them in the auxiliary army." Li Yanzhang's expression flickered, and there was a hint of ruthlessness and eagerness in his eyes.
"Hahaha, God is really helping me." Zhu Wen was greatly cheered up when he heard that and laughed heartily.
"Hahaha, where can Zhu Li run this time
"Ah Lang and Ah Niang are in our hands, so we can do whatever we want, right?" Li Zhen was also very happy and agreed.
However, in the big tent, although most people looked happy, there were also many people with strange expressions. After all, if the act of threatening others with friendship were to be spread out, it would surely be despised by people all over the world.
However, what they despised even more in their hearts was people like Li Yanzhang, who used the lives of other people's parents as a qualification for advancement and was not worthy of being a son.
Zhu Wen was in a good mood, and as expected, he rewarded Li Yanzhang, adopted him as his adopted son, gave him the name Zhu Yougong, and promoted him to the rank of captain of the personal guards. Although his rank was only promoted by two levels, it was of great significance and made Li Yanzhang very excited.
The next day.
Zhu Wen persuaded Meng Kai to come to the coalition army for the first time to challenge, and specifically asked to fight Zhu Li.
The coalition forces were confused, but had to come out to meet Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen was a general of Huang Chao, and he and Meng Kai were known as Huang Chao's left and right arms. Now that the two of them came together, everyone had to cheer up and deal with them.
The two armies were facing each other. Zhu Wen shouted to the coalition army from a distance of several hundred meters: "I have heard for a long time that Zhu Li of Shuozhou is both civil and military, and I admire him very much. Therefore, I have an unwelcome request. General Zhu Li, dare you come out to see me?"
Upon hearing this, the military governors of the coalition forces looked suspicious. Could it be that Zhu Wen came here just to take a look at Zhu Li? Things were definitely not that simple.
"General, Zhu Wen has countless talented people under his command. He specifically asked to see you this time, so he must have bad intentions. Please be careful." Zhou Dewei stopped his horse to protect Zhu Li and spoke in a low voice.
Zhu Li heard this, glanced at him, and said calmly: "What Dewei said is, no matter what happens, control the army well and be careful not to fall into his trap."
Zhu Li was surprised that the Cao army came rashly to challenge him. The other side came to stop them from moving south, but now they have become the attacking party. Even if Zhu Li racked his brains, he could not figure out what conspiracy the other side was playing, so he could only urge his subordinates to be extra careful.
After instructing Zhou Dewei and Shi Yan, Zhu Li tapped the belly of Yu Qilin horse, drove the horse out of the camp, and galloped towards the battlefield. When he was 150 meters away from the enemy, Zhu Li stopped his horse and bowed, saying, "General Zhu, you asked me to come here. Do you want to challenge me?"
"Arrogant, Zhu Li, who do you think you are to be qualified to fight against my general." The speaker was a mighty and strong man, so tough that even at a distance of hundreds of meters, one could smell the bloody smell coming from him.
Zhu Li ignored him and looked straight at Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen narrowed his eyes and looked at Zhu Li and said, "Zhu Li, if the information I got is correct, you are originally from Xuzhou and were once a member of my Cao Army. Why do you want to be an enemy of King Huang now?"
Hearing this, Zhu Li looked calm. If the other party carefully investigated his identity and origin, he would always be able to find it out. He was not surprised that Zhu Wen knew this. He said loudly: "Since ancient times, officials have forced the people to rebel. This is an iron law. However, looking at history, the consequences of the people's rebellion can only bring greater disasters to the people of the world. Often these poor people, who fight to the death all their lives, end up either making wedding clothes for others or being used by those with ulterior motives. They are the unlucky ones."
"Zhu Li is not talented enough and does not want to follow the grass army to commit crimes. I can only stay and be useful. I will do my best to retreat to one side and protect the people there. General Zhu thinks what I said is right."