Rejuvenation of the Han Dynasty in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 208 Outsmarting Xingyang
When Liu Bei saw that Wei Yan had beheaded Hu Zhen, he immediately drew his sword and sent an order, and the left and right armies rushed out at the same time.

The Xiliang army never thought that Hu Zhen would be defeated so quickly, the formation was in chaos, and Liu Bei's army rushed to kill him, throwing away his helmet and armor and fleeing to the city.

Wei Yan and Wenpin led the troops to chase after them, only to kill the corpses of the Xiliang army all over the field. When they came to the suspension bridge, Li Su hurriedly ordered to release arrows in the city. .

The remnants of the Xiliang army circled the city. Wei Yan stopped at the bridge, holding his horse with his sword and looking up to the sky laughing. Hu Zhen humiliated Liu Bei several times and finally let out a bad breath.

Liu Bei sent an order to withdraw the troops, and he stationed himself at the east gate. He ordered Wei Yan to divide his army to camp outside the south gate. After resting, he went to the city to call for battle.

In the evening, Liu He arrived with another 1 horses, and went to the village outside the north gate. Zhang Fei went to the city and scolded for half an hour.

At this time, people in Xingyang City were in a panic, and several generals were killed one after another. Hu Zhen died in front of the battle again, and the morale of the soldiers was extremely low.

Three groups of people surrounded the city, these were Hu Zhen's subordinates, the general was absent, and the army's morale was slackened. They secretly hated Li Su for provoking Hu Zhen to fight. In addition to the grievances between the Xiliang army and the Bingzhou army, no one listened to their orders.

Li Su secretly scolded Hu Zhen in the city for his lack of ability, and he went to provoke the Kwantung Army. At this time, there were no generals guarding the city, and sooner or later they would be defeated.

The night was safe and sound, but at five o'clock, the winter sky was still dark, suddenly someone called the door outside the North City, and the defenders were hiding under the turret to avoid the wind, so they hurried to ask questions.

More than a dozen people in the city lit torches, and the first person urged the horse to come forward and shouted: "I'm waiting for you from Hulao, open the city gate quickly."

The defender hesitated for a while, not daring to make a decision, so he hurriedly reported to Li Su, and there was a sound of cursing outside the city, very dissatisfied with the neglect of the defender.

Li Su put on his clothes and came to the top of the city. Seeing that there were Xiliang army uniforms underneath, he was about to order someone to open the city, when suddenly his heart moved and he stopped the man again.

He shouted to the people coming from the city: "It's hard to tell the difference in the night, and we will meet again in the city at dawn."

"Presumptuous, why don't we open the city to welcome us despite the severe cold all night?" The man under the city was furious and shouted, "Are we told to drink the northwest wind outside the city?"

Li Su always felt uneasy in his heart, Li Jue was not like a person who could send troops in time, with his character, he might not be willing to send troops until dawn.

While hesitating, the man snorted coldly, turned his horse's head and waved: "Everyone, it seems that I was waiting too much. Xingyang doesn't need support, so let's go back!"

"Wait a minute!" Hu Zhen's general hurriedly shouted, "Kaicheng—"

Li Su hurriedly said: "Be careful of fraud."

At this moment, suddenly there was loud drumming outside the east and south gates, and countless flames lit up, approaching the north gate.

The general sneered and said: "The enemy troops have all come here, and there are still farts, open the city and open the city!"

crunch--

As the suspension bridge was slowly lowered on the city, the people below the city were also urging loudly. If they were killed by the enemy troops outside the city, they would be in a dilemma.

Li Su couldn't stop it at this time, pinching the goatee's whiskers and looking around, he always felt that something was wrong.

The suspension bridge was lowered, the city gate was opened, and reinforcements rushed in. At this moment, enemy troops also came from behind, and the defenders rushed to advance the city, preparing to raise the suspension bridge.

At this moment, I suddenly saw the soldier running across the suspension bridge behind suddenly draw out his waist knife, slashed at the rope fiercely, and cut the rope in a few strokes.

"Ugh—" There was also a shrill scream from under the city gate, followed by the sound of weapons hitting.

"No, it's been tricked!" Li Su shuddered, then tore off a few beards, turned around and ran towards the south gate.

At this time, the other two coalition forces had already arrived outside the west city, rushed up the suspension bridge and rushed into the city, Xingyang city suddenly burst into flames, and there were shouts and fights everywhere.

It was Zhang He and Zhu Ling who advanced into the city. As soon as they entered the city, Zhang He beheaded the generals who were responding, and Zhu Ling cut off the ropes of the suspension bridge to guide the rear troops into the city.

Zhang Fei and Yan Liang led troops from the north road to kill them, and Wenpin from the south road also led troops into the city. They each walked a street to chase and kill the fleeing Xiliang army.

At this time, the defenders in Xingyang City had no command, and the defenders fled in all directions. Zhang Xi led his troops straight to the government office, killed the defenders of the government office, rushed into the hall, but saw that there was no one there, and rushed to the barracks again.

Later, Liu He and Liu Bei also led troops into the city, ordering the whole army to surrender and avoid death.

At dawn, the city of Xingyang had been successfully captured, most of the defenders were killed, more than [-] people were captured, and countless supplies and weapons were seized. The three armies celebrated.

Liu He gave half of the supplies to Liu Bei, but Liu Bei refused again and again. The first contribution to breaking the city was the contribution of Liu He's subordinates, and he refused to accept it.

This made Liu He a little dumbfounded, saying that Liu Bei's benevolence was just pretending, anyway, he hasn't seen it until now, and he doesn't know what will happen in the future.

However, in Liu He's view, a person who can say "don't do evil because it's small, don't do it because it's small" before dying, at least has a very high level of thought, even those great Confucian scholars who cultivate their morality, There may not be such a high awareness.

And Liu Bei lived with benevolence and morality all his life. He didn't massacre the city as tragically as Cao Cao, nor did he massacre the officials in his later years like Sun Quan.

In other words, the evaluations of later generations are just speculations, but the authorities have seen it with their own eyes. Tao Qian let Xuzhou three times, and Liu Biao also asked Jingzhou to entrust his funeral. Are they all blind?
However, historical judgments are always controversial. What is needed now is cooperation. Liu Bei treats each other with sincerity. Naturally, Liu He will not calculate with him, and transport all the grain and grass from Ao Cang for the use of the whole army.

After arranging the defense of the city, everyone went to the government office to celebrate. Now that Xingyang City is the stronghold, the soldiers have a place to live, and they no longer have to camp and suffer in the cold winter months.

Liu Bei said: "We took Xingyang and killed Hu Zhen. This man is Dong Zhuo's confidant. If we send a large army, what can we do?"

Zhang Fei laughed and said, "I'm about to get the old thief Dong Zhuo to come, and I can stab him 1 holes to relieve my hatred."

Liu He stopped Zhang Fei and said with a smile, "It's freezing cold today, so it's really not suitable to send troops. Dong Zhuo's power in the court is not stable, so maybe he will send a large army."

Chen Gong nodded and said: "What the general said is true, this time the Xiliang army is defeated, Dong Zhuo will only increase his troops to Hulaoguan, and defend this place to the death. We just rest and reorganize our troops, and wait for the princes from all walks of life to gather together, and then we will work together to punish them. Country thief."

At this moment, the Malai reported that Cao Cao raised [-] troops in Shandong, and fraudulently forged three official documents with Qiaomao, the prefect of Dongjun, and sent them to all states and counties, counting Dong Zhuo's crimes, and jointly released the national crisis and restored the throne of King Hongnong.

When the call to arms was issued, heroes from all walks of life rushed to Xingyang to meet up. Bohai Governor Yuan Shao responded at the same time and persuaded Jizhou Mu Han Fu to raise troops from Hebei to join Wang Kuang in Hanoi.

(End of this chapter)