Qingzhou Plain County, whose jurisdiction is similar to that of Dezhou, Shandong in later generations, has always been a big city, and is the transportation hub and economic center of the border area between Hebei and Shandong. It is the northwest gate of the Shandong Peninsula, bordering Bohai County of Jizhou in the north, Yanzhou East County and Taishan County in the south, Qinghe Country of Jizhou in the west, Jinan Kingdom and Qiancheng County in the east.

It was still an inland port city in the Eastern Han Dynasty, because the Yellow River was northerly at that time, not the northern part of today's Dongying.

The main force of Pingyuan County Taiping Road is river workers and boatmen, and they are brothers who eat by waterway on the river. During the defense of Gwangjong, they also tried their best to move north to get close to the city of Gwangjong, but after the Han army defended them on the north bank, the two sides failed in their efforts to converge.

Guan Hai and Sima Ju were originally brothers of Qingzhou Taiping Road, and explained the situation in Qingzhou to Zhang Luo.

The city wall of Guangzong City is one zhang and five high, and the city wall of Pingyuan County is two zhang and five high, which is one zhang higher than Guangzong. Moreover, the location of Plains City is excellent, and the several waterways that converge here have become a natural defense barrier for Plains City. Even if Qingzhou Taiping Road gathered 20,000 or 30,000 people, it still couldn't be defeated, so it could only be persecuted outside the city.

The Han army is now on the defensive inside the city, and the Taiping brothers outside the city are in control. Outside the range of the bow and crossbow at the head of the Han army, they were able to act at will. With Sima Ju in contact, he sent a boat to take Zhang Luo from Hebei and go straight to the camp in Henan.

It's raining these days and the river is very watery. The boat was jolting in the river, and Zhang Luo clung to the wooden railing, looking at the plain city in the southeast direction from the river. There was a lot of fog on the river, and the county town in the distance looked shadowy, but the majestic feeling was very clear. For modern military affairs, it is very stupid to rely on honest city walls to hold on. But in this era, the towering city walls are the best defense support.

Sima Ju briefly introduced that Pingyuan City is surrounded by water on three sides, and it is only necessary to guard the land route to the west. The 20,000 or 30,000 people in Qingzhou Taiping Road had nothing to do with the tall walls of Pingyuan City. Even if it was just looking from afar, Zhang Luo didn't feel that he could come up with any good solutions immediately.

The camp of Qingzhou Taiping Road was set up near a river temple, got off the boat, stood by the camp and watched for a while, Zhang Luo didn't know what to say. Regarding the military camp of Guangzong's Taiping Dao, Zhang Luo couldn't see it at all, thinking that it was scum. But it is the army of later generations that can be compared to it.

Now that he saw the "camp" of the local troops in Taiping Dao with his own eyes, he suddenly felt that people had to die more than people, and goods had to be thrown away. The main force of Taiping Dao is no longer a scumbag, but it is still an army. From the perspective of the army, the main force of Taiping Dao is just a very young, very inexperienced, and very scummy army in many places. But Qingzhou Taiping Road?! , it can be seen at first that they are not armies at all, but just a group of people who have gathered to try to fight - a rabble.

First, the people in Qingzhou do not have the concept of camps. The camp is like the sphere of influence of a beast, and a tiger knows very well its living area, hunting area, and patrol area. The same is true of the camp, which can have no walls, no trenches, and even troops simply lying on the ground. These are not the most important, and the most important thing is that an army cannot do without the concept of camps.

At this time, Zhang Luo complained in his heart: This camp, if you have to describe it, is that they just moved their own family over. Depending on the group, there are a variety of different places where the pot is buried. And all of these places are at the center of each team. It's easy to understand that when you eat at home, you don't want other family members to come and share the food. Different territories are divided into a single barracks.

Zhang Luo believes that there is no need to have more illusions about this rabble.

Guan Hai and Sima Ju seem to have a high status in Qingzhou, and there are fourteen or fifteen people who came to greet them. Although he already knew that he didn't have any illusions, Zhang Luo still felt very disappointed when he saw this number.

If it is one, two, or three thousand people, it is normal for such fourteen or fifteen brains to come out. For example, in a factory with one or two thousand people, if you put on a pomp and greet you, there will really be about ten people. But if it is a large enterprise with a scale of 20,000 or 30,000 people, there may not be a small number of people who come to greet it, but there are only one or two real brain figures.

Qingzhou Taiping Road gathered 20,000 or 30,000 people, and more than a dozen brains came out, which can only show that this armed force is now leaderless, and the command is long. Guangzong Taiping Dao is also a scale of forty or fifty thousand people, and it is Zhang Liang who is really in charge of the military order. Without strong concentration, there can be no strong command capability. If the 20,000 front-line troops with real combat effectiveness were to order the bulls, it would be absolutely impossible to annihilate the 6,000 or 7,000 elite troops of the Han army on the front line of the Zhanghe River.

Before arriving in Pingyuan County, Zhang Luo felt that he might be able to toss up a career in Pingyuan County, at least he could have an excellent table in the battle of besieging the county. Now he felt that he was taking it for granted, and before solving the county town, the first thing to consider was how to solve the scattered situation.

The brothers of Qingzhou Taiping Road are very enthusiastic and polite to Zhang Luo. Everyone looked at Zhang Luo's costumes with curious eyes, especially his epaulettes and armbands. It was sewn with very brightly colored cloth and thread, after all, it was an object that showed its rank in the army, so naturally it could not be unconspicuous. A group of people surrounded Zhang Luo and walked towards the Chinese military tent, asking this and that on the way.

Zhang Luo briefly introduced the recent operations of the main force of Taiping Dao, and mentioned that the main force had gone to attack the county town of Julu County, which had been lost before, and the Qingzhou brothers were all surprised.

After entering the Chinese military tent, all the brothers sat down one after another. As a courtesy, Zhang Luo was arranged to the guest seat. On the main seat sat two leaders in their thirties. The one sitting in the east is called Guan Cheng, and the one sitting in the west is called Cheng Li, according to Sima Ju's introduction before crossing the river, both of them are claimed to have brought seven or eight thousand brothers, but in fact there are only two or three thousand people. The two occupy a leading position in Qingzhou Taiping Road. Most of the other brothers said that they had four or five thousand men, but in fact they had brought only one or two thousand, seven or eight hundred. The total number of people in the camp is estimated to be less than 10,000. Compared with Zhang Luo, a team that really brought more than 1,000 people, the brothers here are nothing.

Things are developing as Zhang slightly thought, this is an armed force that has been temporarily assembled. Cheng Li's mouth is talking about what will happen after the defeat of Plains City. After talking about the beautiful vision for the future, the next thing is the main topic, how to enter the city. At the mention of how to enter the city, a group of people immediately stared at each other. All eyes fell on the newly emerged Zhang Luo.

"How many Han troops are there in the city?" Zhang Luo couldn't help but ask.

"The county soldiers plus the powerful private soldiers estimate that there are five or six thousand people." Wu Fengcai said.

"Who is the county guard and county lieutenant of the Han army?" Zhang Luo then asked.

It seems that this question is not what the Qingzhou brothers are concerned about, and the leaders look at each other, and no one can answer. After a while, Guan Cheng replied: "When I arrived outside the city, the officials and soldiers had already closed the city gates, and no one was allowed to enter or leave. As soon as we approached the city wall, the officers and soldiers used bows and arrows to shoot and bombard with rolling logs, and we don't know exactly who led the army in the city. ”

Zhang Luo had no expression on his face, but he probably guessed in his heart that in fact, how many Han troops there were in the city, and these brothers were not clear. Originally, they were still holding a little expectation, hoping that they already had some battle plans, but now Zhang Luo had no illusions at all.

Make up your mind that you can only do things at your own pace.

"This plain city is so beautiful." Zhang Luo stood on the boat and sighed sincerely.

Naturally, their meeting couldn't have any results, and since Zhang Luo didn't jump out and pretend to be a big head, the meeting would soon be cold. It wasn't that none of them hoped that Zhang Luo would be able to come up with a solution, which just gave Zhang Luo a chance, and he asked to see Pingyuan City in person on the grounds that the situation was unclear. There was no shortage of boats on Qingzhou Taiping Road, and someone immediately volunteered to provide boats for Zhang Luo to watch the enemy's situation.

Accustomed to the bumps of boats on the river, Zhang Luo was finally able to devote more attention to the scenery around him. The river ditch in the north really can't be compared with the river in the south, and when he overlooks the plain city by boat, he sees that the city walls are tall and the cyan city walls give people a heavy sense of history, and he can't help but admire.

After listening to Zhang Luo's admiration, Sima Ju from Pingyuan City had already seen enough and interjected, "Zhang Shuai, these brothers are all my old acquaintances, and they all want to fight with Qu Shuai." ”

There were four leaders who came on the same boat who had already talked to Zhang Luo when they got on the boat, and when Zhang Luo was looking at the scenery, they tried not to disturb them. As soon as Sima Ju greeted him like this, several of them immediately asked, "Qu Shuai, may you take down this plain city?!" ”