Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

Chapter 213: As alert as a tiger

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The Zhuozhou Central Army Headquarters was next to the government office, and wailing and groaning could be heard from the office day and night. In this era, there were no drugs such as antibiotics. Soldiers with infected torso injuries could only wait to die slowly, and those with infected limbs could only be amputated, which was very cruel.

The location of Zhongjun was chosen with consideration for the image of the Zhou Dynasty army and not disturbing the people. Seeing that the space in front of the government office was spacious, they set up fences and stationed there; in fact, it was very noisy.

Guo Shao sat in the big tent, listening to the occasional sad cries and the generals' discussions below: Xiao Siwen's troops had already arrived in Zhuozhou.

Guo Shao was a little distracted, and for some reason he suddenly thought of Empress Fu: the Empress's spies were very powerful, he had seen that; he was ordered to garrison in Zhuozhou, the Empress should know that

She must be worried.

Even though Guo Shao had never experienced high-level power struggles, the Queen told him that he must return to Beijing, so he probably understood her plan.

When Emperor Chai Rong passed away, if the army supporting the queen was in the outer towns, 20,000 people would be nothing, and any few local military governorates could gather 20,000 troops; what's more, Zhuozhou was too far away from Tokyo, more than a thousand miles away. But if it was in Tokyo, how to use it would be very particular. Once these 20,000 people had the support of the ruling Privy Council, their power would be infinitely expanded.

Even if there are hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers in Tokyo, they are usually scattered, and it would be very troublesome and noisy to mobilize them. Military generals have no power to mobilize troops in Tokyo. The Privy Council has the final say on where and how many troops are stationed. If the Queen Regent truly trusts Guo Shao, 20,000 people gathered together will be an absolute advantage in Tokyo, and they can easily divide the armies.

Guo Shao joined the Imperial Guards at the age of fourteen and is twenty-two this year. He has been in the Imperial Guards for eight years and he knows the situation of the Imperial Guards too well.

The armies were stationed in many places in the city, and more than half of them were completely dispersed and went home to rest; as long as someone used a certain army without authorization, it would immediately be a real handle for treason. He would be surrounded and attacked by the Queen's trusted troops before he could gather the army. Regardless of who won or lost, the Privy Council would definitely issue several orders to mobilize other armies to fight the rebels together; even if other generals were wavering and waiting, they would not obey the Privy Council's military orders. If they did not obey, it would be disobeying orders, which would be no different from rebellion afterwards. It was not waiting but choosing. Therefore, generals without a position would habitually obey the Privy Council's military orders.

Anyone who rebelled directly in Tokyo would be beaten up by the entire Imperial Guards unless he could replace all the four main generals of the Imperial Guards, or at least replace most of them with generals who supported him. If his influence was so great, then no system would work.

Therefore, Guo Shao had to return to Tokyo and bring his own direct subordinates, the Left Wing of the Tiger Jie Army, back with him, so that he could help the Queen control the situation as quickly as possible; otherwise, the Queen would have no soldiers and would be afraid to do anything, and would not dare to touch those arrogant and powerful generals without the threat of force.

The generals in the tent discussed for a while and now they were complaining. Dong Zunxun said: "We were suddenly asked to defend Zhuozhou, and the military food in the city was not prepared in advance. Now that the food supply route has been attacked, how can we defend Zhuozhou for a long time?"

Luo Yanhuan also echoed: "Xiao Siwen's large group of cavalry left Gu'an and pressed on Zhuozhou. Our cavalry can't defeat him, so we can only let the cavalry harass the grain road; the cavalry of the Longjie Army at Qigou Pass did not move, and did not send grain. This situation is really strange. Is the government going to sit back and watch us in Zhuozhou without caring about it?"

Someone else asked: What if the Khitan leader led a large army to the south to besiege Zhuozhou

Li Chuyun said calmly: The Liao people cannot besiege Zhuozhou, and if they divide their troops to besiege the city, they will not have enough troops to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Great Zhou. Unless the emperor keeps his troops south of Maguan, it is impossible to abandon the elite troops of the imperial army.

Guo Shao, who had been silent for a long time and seemed to be thinking about something, suddenly said: I have an idea. Summon all the generals above the rank of commander and arrange the troops.

Xiao Siwen's large group of troops set up camp ten miles away from Zhuozhou to wait and see. He was already tired of this kind of chase.

First, the light cavalry in the south of Zhuozhou was driven out and surrounded by the Zhuozhou cavalry, and was chased everywhere. Then he led his army to deal with the Zhou cavalry in Zhuozhou; as a result, the Zhou army retreated back to the city. Xiao Siwen could neither retreat nor attack, and there was no way to attack the city. It was obviously useless.

Xiao Siwen had more than 10,000 Khitan Xi cavalrymen under his command. They were a force that could move freely in the field, but they were still not good at attacking cities. The Khitans were not good at attacking cities. More than 10,000 cavalrymen could not even besiege Zhuozhou. How could they attack

The Zhou army general guarding Zhuozhou was unknown, but he was not impatient. Xiao Siwen said, if there is no other way, withdraw the light troops near Qigou Pass and return to Gu'an to wait for a while.

He was feeling depressed when suddenly a personal soldier came in and said: Brother Xi massacred a village in the south.

Xiao Siwen was immediately furious and said: We are out at war, why is he doing that? How did that guy offend him

The personal soldier said: I don’t know.

Xiao Siwen shouted: Call Xige back and ask him to come to me and explain clearly.

At this time, another general came to report: The cavalry from Zhuozhou has come out and is heading towards us.

Xiao Siwen immediately put Xige's trouble out of his mind and asked hurriedly, "How many people are there?"

The general who came to report said: Fifteen thousand, maybe two thousand.

After hearing this, Xiao Siwen smiled and immediately called the troops, ordering one part of the troops to go north and another part to go south, preparing to attack Zhou's army from behind. Then he led the main force to break camp and fight head-on. At this time, his general Xige also came back, but Xiao Siwen was only concerned with the battle and didn't care about him.

Unexpectedly, the Zhou cavalry came out and ran, and probably discovered the Liao army's intention to encircle them, so they turned around and ran away. Xiao Siwen led his troops to the city of Zhuozhou and found that the Zhou cavalry was still outside the city. He immediately ordered the heavy cavalry of the Southern Court to be the vanguard and charge directly.

In an instant, it seemed that neither side had prepared yet, and the fighting began. The two armies charged back and forth, and the battle was indisputable.

When Xiao Siwen rode forward, he saw the horses fighting under the city running wildly in a whirlpool, the roar of horse hooves on the plain was like thunder, and the sound of killing was deafening. He ordered more generals to lead the army to encircle the city from both sides and attack the two sides of the Zhou army.

When the large cavalry forces on both sides had just set out, they suddenly saw the city gate opened, and the rear of the Zhou army filed back into the city. As soon as the rear army left, the front army immediately became unstable, and before the Liao army's reinforcements could arrive, the Zhou cavalry was defeated.

At this time, the general next to Xiao Siwen said: The Zhou army opened the gate and fled in the battle, the Liao army cavalry must take the opportunity to follow into the city. Could this be the way to capture Zhuozhou

Xiao Siwen said: There are so many people ahead, it's too late to tell them to come back. Besides, why can't we enter the city

None of the generals could explain why they could not enter the city. Fear of an ambush was rare. The Liao generals present had never encountered a defender who would take the initiative to open the city gate and let the army into the city for an ambush. Wouldn't that be playing with the city? The Han people often defended the city. The Liao army had fought with various dynasties for decades, and almost as soon as they opened their eyes, they regarded this as common sense: to attack a city, breaking through the city wall was equivalent to conquering a city.

At this time, a young general said: If the Zhou army has prepared an ambush in the city, we will suffer.

After hearing this, Xiao Siwen turned around and said: "Climbing up the wall from the inside is as easy as walking on flat ground. How can the Han people ambush us?"

The young general said: "I was ambushed three years ago in a place called Wuqi Town in Luzhou, Hedong. I thought so at that time. I thought it was easy because the town wall was dilapidated. Unexpectedly, I rushed into the gate and found that Haner had built fortifications in the town. It was really weird. We have never seen people defending a city without defending the wall, but building fortifications inside. I led my troops to be besieged, and dozens of people died before I escaped by chance.

The Khitan generals were also surprised to hear this. They had never seen a city being defended without defending the gates and walls. Throughout the land, the Han people were the ones who always built cities to defend. When the Khitans attacked cities, they almost always attacked the cities of the Han people. From what they had seen, the Han people used every possible means to defend the walls and gates. The various methods of defending the walls were dazzling, such as boiling dung water to make gold water, and using mud to paste the gates to prevent fire. But they had never seen the gates being opened to let others in and then fight.

Xiao Siwen twirled his beard, thought for a moment, and said: Send someone to find Xige and tell him to be on guard against Han'er's treacherous schemes and ambush. Tell him that the Khitans must be like tigers, fierce and alert.

At this time, the gate of the city was in chaos. The Khitan cavalry and the Zhou army soldiers were fighting and rushing into the city gate. There were soldiers everywhere inside and outside the city gate, so it was impossible to lock anyone in. Anyone who tried to move the city gate would be shot into a hornet's nest or beaten into a pulp by the Khitan cavalry.

Xiao Siwen's followers found Xige. There were screams and the sound of horse hooves all around. He had no choice but to shout: The king asked me to tell the general to be on guard against Han'er's evil schemes. The king asked the general to be as alert as a tiger.

Xige cursed: "The city of tigers and beasts has been breached. This is the first time I have seen a defender use a treacherous trick to open his own city gate." After that, he ignored it and rode away, away from the entourage of King Nanyuan. Then he said to the people around him: "The king is becoming more and more timid."

Xige followed a large group of cavalrymen into the city. On the one hand, he sent his men to dismount and attack the tower along the stone steps of the city wall, and on the other hand, he chased the defeated Zhou Dynasty cavalry who were running around on the central axis avenue in the city.

These cities were originally built by the Han people. They were basically square in shape with four gates, and two cross-shaped main roads in the middle, which were designed to facilitate the rapid maneuvering of troops to reinforce the four walls when defending the city.

More and more cavalrymen of the Liao army poured onto the main road and ran very smoothly on the flat and wide central axis road.

Countless horses were roaring, and the whole city seemed to be trampled under the iron hooves. After entering the city, Xige shouted happily: If you don't put down your sword for three days, kill them all!

The people and horses spread everywhere like a flood, and the streets were gradually filled up like ditches.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, a red square flag suddenly hung on a tower in the city, and then many fireworks flew into the air and exploded in the sky. Even many Khitans couldn't help but look up, but unfortunately the blue sky and white day were not so beautiful, instead, the black smoke from the fireworks lingered in the air for a long time.

Not good. Brother Xi's face changed. He didn't know what was going on for a moment, but this sign was very wrong, and he had a bad feeling.