Chapter 988: The Last Meeting Before the War (Part 1)
Less than a day after Zang Ba and his party left, an army of 10,000 Cao soldiers appeared where they had stayed. It was the pursuers arranged by Charlie Cao. Unfortunately, they failed to catch up with Zang Ba's defeated troops in the end. After carefully observing the opponent's whereabouts, the leading general had no choice but to lead his troops back to Mou County.
The war in Taishan County finally came to an end. Except for Gaixian, Feiguo, Nanwuyang and Nancheng in the southeast of Taishan, which belonged to Tuberose, the other eight cities were brought under Cao Charlie's control. Later, Cao Anmin and the Qingzhou Army withdrew from Taishan County and returned to Changyi to return to Cao Cao. What is strange is that Liu Ye continued to stay in Taishan County under the protection of dozens of personal guards, and seemed to be fighting with Cao Charlie. Discussing something.
On the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, Huangfu Chaobo's 5,000 cavalry arrived in Hanoi. However, he did not enter Hanoi City. Instead, he met Hua Xiong's 5,000 Xiliang cavalry and Shegan's personal guards outside the city and immediately diverted. Heading east, more than 10,000 cavalrymen marched towards Wude. Behind them was an army of 10,000 infantrymen from the Leopard Tao Camp. According to Huangfu Chaobo's arrangement, General Hua Xiong led an army of 15,000 Leopard Tao Camp. Stationed in Dangyin, ready to support Wei County at any time.
As the group traveled eastward, Huangfu Chaobo only made a hurried inspection of each county, but the military camps, city defenses, and treasuries were the main places where he focused his attention. Even so, it took Huangfu Chaobo more than ten days to complete the inspection of several counties east of Huai County.
Then, we turned back again and walked along the edge of the remaining mountains of Taihang Mountain in the southwest direction, passing Mengmen Pass and Tianjing Pass, and then returned to Huai County. After continuing to inspect the cities in Hanoi west of Huai County, Huangfu Chaobo once again set foot on the Zhiguan Trail and entered Hedong.
It was now mid-February, less than a month before Huangfu Chaobo's scheduled troop dispatch, so Huangfu Chaobo had to order to speed up his journey again, and finally arrived in Dayang County on the north bank of the river in early March. Maojin crossed the river and entered Hongnong from Shaanxian County.
At this time, Huangfu Chaobo didn't care that Huyang City and Qinhangu Pass to the west of Hongnong were not patrolling, so he led five thousand personal guards back eastward in a hurry, and finally rushed back to Luoyang before dark on March 5. city.
This round of inspections took Huangfu Chaobo nearly two months to inspect all the two counties of Hanoi and Hedong. However, Huangfu Chaobo was also very tired. However, as Tian Feng and Lu Zhi said Huangfu Chaobo quickly felt that his trip was worthwhile. After a round of inspection, he found that the people's support, the morale of the army and the loyalty of officials in the three counties of Hebei had increased to varying degrees.
On the day he returned to Luoyang, Huangfu Chaobo didn't bother to rest. After a hurried dinner, he immediately summoned everyone to discuss matters. Firstly, he wanted to understand the situation of the princes in the world during this period. Secondly, he wanted to know that the war was about to start. How is the preparation of all supplies and troops going?
Soon, everyone summoned by Huangfu Chaobo rushed to the general's mansion.
After everyone saluted Huangfu Chaobo, Huangfu Chaobo waved his hand and said: "Okay, everyone must be more polite. Time is short, let's talk about it one by one. Shi A, in the end, is there any change among the princes in the world? ?”
After Shi A stood up and bowed, he said: "Reporting to my lord, the news coming back from the shadows shows that basically all the major forces have signs of mobilizing their troops, and the specific situation has been sorted out and handed over to Military Advisor Guo."
"What happened to Cao Cao's army?"
"Cao Cao's army has shown signs of mobilizing troops since the end of last year, but the Shadow Guards can only know the general situation. At present, Cao Cao has concentrated a lot of troops on both the east and west fronts. I wonder if he has obtained the upcoming information of our army. News of the attack, the normal defensive posture is still wanting to attack.”
When Shi A said this, he looked at Guo Jia with some embarrassment. After all, he was only responsible for collecting intelligence. For specific analysis, he had to ask Guo Jia. Seeing this, Guo Jia quickly stood up and said, "Jia will report this to the Lord in detail later."
Huangfu Chaobo nodded, then turned to look at Shi A.
"More importantly,
Liu Bei's army in Changsha suddenly sent troops on January 16 and captured Guiyang. Zhao Fan, the prefect of Guiyang, died. His two generals, Bao Long and Chen Ying, were defeated and captured. They then surrendered to Liu Bei's army. Under the influence of the two generals, With help, Liu Bei captured all eleven cities of Guiyang within a month. "
Huangfu Chaobo was stunned. He didn't expect that Liu Bei would rise again so quickly. As expected of Liu Paopao, he ran from Youzhou in the north to almost the southernmost point of Han Dynasty. In just one year, another miracle happened. Like a rise.
Shaking his head, Huangfu Chaobo shook off the things about Liu Beijun in his mind and looked at Shi A again.
"Another thing is that Zang Ba, who disappeared after being occupied by Charlie Cao, suddenly appeared in a place called Santang Town south of Linqu in Beihai a month ago, and then sent people to request Juxian for surrender. Regarding this matter, Xu We will report to you in detail later.”
After hearing this, Huangfu Chaobo said no more and waved for him to leave first. Then he turned his attention to Xu Shu: "How are the preparations for the troops, horses, and supplies?"
"Back to my lord, all the troops and horses have been in place one after another, except for the five thousand cavalry around you. Also, all the garrison soldiers recruited from each county have been organized and in place. How to make arrangements and wait for your follow-up orders!"
Seeing that Huangfu Chaobo did not speak, Xu Shu continued: "The transportation of grain and grass supplies is also continuing. So far, another 100,000 shi of grain, 20,000 shi of fodder, and 200 carts of other supplies have been sent."
"Regarding Zang Ba, Luoyang received a pigeon letter from Cheng Huan, the Prime Minister of Beihai, a month ago. Because the Lord has been on a quick inspection, we have discussed this matter and ordered Beihai to let Zang Ba lead his more than 3,000 troops and hundreds of family members to temporarily settle in Santing Town and wait for the Lord to return before making a decision."
After a little thought, Huangfu Chaobo said: "Order Zang Ba to send all his family members to Luoyang, let their generals and soldiers join Xu Rong's army and listen to the Marquis's orders, and the replenishment of troops will be arranged after this battle. By the way, Zang Ba holds the title of Zhonglangjiang, and the others are all lieutenants. Tell Zang Ba that I am waiting to see their performance."
With the war imminent, Huangfu Chaobo no longer has the time and energy to deal with Zang Ba's request for surrender. He doesn't care whether you are sincere in surrendering or not. He directly tells the other party to send his family members to Luoyang. As for how to arrange it later, the Lord will see your performance later. At this point, Huangfu Chaobo was not afraid that Zang Ba had reached some agreement with Cao Cao and came here to pretend to surrender. Now the arrow was on the string and had to be shot.
After saying this, Huangfu Chaobo continued to wave his hand, signaling everyone to continue.