There was a mourning in the city of Guangzong.

In the Taiping Dao and even in the entire Yellow Turban Army, the great virtuous and good teacher Zhang Jiao was like a life mentor, an immortal who had landed in the world. And the more an organization starts its business, the more emphasis is placed on the worship of its leaders in order to strengthen its control over its subordinates.

This is a huge benefit for an organization in its early days. This is conducive to strengthening the authority of superiors and reducing deviations in the execution of orders; It is conducive to improving the operation speed and action ability of the entire organization, making the organization more combative. Thus, in the early days of an organization's rise, many chose to deify the leader. In history, Liu Bang's snake slashing uprising, Chen Sheng's Wu Guang uprising, etc., all adopted this method.

And the disadvantage is also extremely obvious, that is, because of the over-reliance on the worship of the leader, once the leader dies or because of something, the personality collapses, and the blow to the organization is also fatal. At this time, the Yellow Turban Army was facing this dilemma. As long as you listen to the cries in the city, and then look at the faces of the leaders of the Yellow Turban Army in the Yanai of Guangzong County, who seem to be wrinkled together due to grief and hesitation, you will know that Zhang Jiao's death has a great impact on him.

Although Chu Yan is one of Zhang Jiao's eight disciples, and his martial arts are rare in the Yellow Turban Army, he is still young after all, and has never had the opportunity to take charge alone, so his prestige is insufficient, and the weight of his words is greatly reduced. Although he told the generals of the upper echelons of the Yellow Turban Army about Zhang Jiao's instructions before his death, everyone insisted on their own words, and the noisy shouting was inconclusive.

Some people believe that since the great sage and good teacher have died, Taiping Dao has no future, and it is the right way to surrender to the official and military according to Guo Bin's suggestion. Some people think that the great sage and good teacher must have something to delay, and what Chu Yan said is an ulterior motive. What's more, it is believed that Chu Yan killed the great sage and good teacher, in order to be the position of the great sage and good teacher.

Of course, most people don't believe this nonsense. Chu Yan's feelings for the great sage and good teacher are obvious to all! Zhang Jiao has no wife and no children, Chu Yan was raised as his own son after he picked it up, teaching martial arts, condolences to food and clothing, that is meticulous, Chu Yan is no matter how mad he is, he will not kill Zhang Jiao! Besides, no one may be able to try out how high Zhang Jiao's martial arts are, but everyone knows Chu Yan's martial arts well.

He has good skills, his body is light, and he comes and goes silently, but these are all taught by Zhang Jiao, so he will not be able to defeat Zhang Jiao according to this, right? And Chu Yan's performance over the years is not such an ungrateful person. Moreover, it was he Chu Yan who desperately escaped from the capital and revealed the news of Ma Yuanyi's arrest. The reason why the Yellow Turban Army outside Luoyang City was able to escape was thanks to his kindness.

The great sage and good teacher have just died, and everyone puts their favorite little disciple to death, which is a bit too cold, right? How could it be that these high-rollers did it? Moreover, although the great virtuous and good teacher has passed away, there are local generals Zhang Baotun troops in Quyang, and there are people and generals Zhang Liang sitting in Guangzong.

There are also people who believe that Zhang Jiao's death is probably caused by Tang Zhou and the official army, although Guo Bin said it well, but who knows if he was also involved? If he comes to invite the king into the urn and serves the senior generals of the Yellow Turban Army, who can he talk to? The most people hold this view, probably because of the innate resistance between the rebel army and the official army, right?

Zhang Liang looked at the panicked generals and sighed secretly in his heart: "The tragic death of the eldest brother is indeed the backbone of the Yellow Turban Army. Although he left his last words, asking us and other leaders to live in seclusion from now on and let the 150,000 troops under his command surrender to the official army, how to break through the siege and how to contact the official army are all extremely headaches. ”

Indeed, if you want to say that the Taiping Dao, and even the entire Yellow Turban Army, the most trusted by the high-level and the most familiar with the magnates in Beijing and the rules of the imperial court is Ma Yuanyi. If he were here, he would have been able to give excellent advice. In the Taiping Road, whether it is Zhang Jiao, Zhang Bao, Zhang Liang, the three brothers, or the high-level under his hands, they are all high-rollers who are mixed in the rivers and lakes, and they are not afraid to fight in the rivers and lakes and even on the battlefield, and they can only contact the court to discuss surrender, but it is difficult for the strongman.

Chu Yan looked at the general and the empty throne who were still sitting in the second-in-command seat, and a series of emotions such as frustration, regret, regret, and sadness came to his heart for a while.

Everyone is a good man who is used to mixing in the rivers and lakes, and none of them are the children of rich families, and the biggest officials who have come into contact with them on weekdays may be the small officials and officials in the county, and most of the biggest losses they have suffered may also come from these people, and where do you know the twists and turns in the officialdom? As a result, these people have an inherently distrustful attitude towards people in officialdom.

"Now it's only the general who looks at the people!" Chu Yan said secretly.

Zhang Liang didn't feel good in his heart, he naturally knew that Zhang Jiao's explanation was very reasonable, and it was not a way for him to lead an army of 150,000 to trap the lonely city.

First of all, the food problem made him anxious. The officers and soldiers dug a circle of trenches outside the city, and behind the trenches they erected a walled wall with huge logs, and learned Lu Zhi's methods thoroughly. Just looking at this posture, martial arts masters like Zhang Jiao and Zhang Liang can naturally fly out without any danger, but it is absolutely impossible for ordinary soldiers. The most important thing is that once Guangzong City is surrounded in this way, not a grain of grain from outside will be able to enter. At present, it can still be maintained, but if the official army surrounds it for two or three months, I am afraid that the city will be eaten by people.

Secondly, the morale of the military is also a big problem. Not to mention the blow that Zhang Jiao's death brought to the Yellow Turban Army in the city, the 150,000 people alone plus the nearly 100,000 residents in Guangzong City were 250,000. These 250,000 people were crammed into the small city of Gwangjong, and many of them did not even have a place to live. If Zhang Liang also crossed over, he would definitely use canned sardines as a metaphor for the situation in Guangzong City. There is a mess in the city, how can the morale of the army be high?

Again, there is the issue of housing. In order not to disturb the people, many of the Yellow Turbans slept on the streets. The situation was fine at the beginning of the uprising, and the weather was still warm! But now it's almost October, and if the army is still allowed to live on the streets, I don't know how many people will freeze to death after that heavy snowfall.

Finally, there is the issue of the official army. Looking at the posture of Huangfu Song's siege, it is clear that it is a preparation for a protracted war. This is to surround these hundreds of thousands of people in Guangzong City and trap them in the city. Now the Yellow Turban Army is a lone army, no one will come to their aid, and the official army has the entire Han world as the backing, how can this be resisted?

Therefore, Zhang Liang came to the conclusion that if he wanted to save the elite of the 150,000 Yellow Turban Army under his command, there were only two ways. One is to surrender to the official army, as Guo Bin said, these leaders may not be pardoned by the imperial court, and these hundreds of thousands of ordinary soldiers under their command always have a way to live, right?

Zhang Liang also heard about Guo Bin's soldiers besieging Zhu Junshuai's tent outside the city of Changshe and saving 200,000 Yellow Turbans. If he wants to come to the 150,000 Yellow Turban Army in the city, Guo Bin will not break his promise. Moreover, Zhang Liang has dealt with Guo Bin many times and asked himself if he knew who he was. Although Guo Bin is also an official soldier, he has never forgotten to seek benefits for the poor people, that is, in the past month or so, every time Zhang Jiao came back to talk to him about Guo Bin, his mouth was full of praise, saying that Guo Bin not only has a benevolent and loving heart, but also has a way, a good brain, and can achieve great things. The two became friends for the New Year, and naturally they never hid it from Zhang Liang.

At the time, I thought it was funny, the difference between the two was more than 60 years old, but the old one didn't know how to respect himself, and the younger one didn't pay attention to etiquette, and they actually cherished each other. Thinking that one of them was an official and the other was the leader of the rebel army, Zhang Liang could only sigh at the wonder of the world, nothing more than this.

But if you want to let the Yellow Turban Army, which has won many battles, surrender to the official army, it seems that it is not so willing. Because of the small Guangzong City, the imperial court was forced to change the commander twice! Neither Lu Zhi nor Dong Zhuo had ever captured Guangzong City. Zhang Liang still admires Lu Zhi's use of soldiers: old, steady, not arrogant or impatient, tepid, steady and steady, step by step. He didn't use any clever tricks, and with 50,000 officers and troops, he forced the elite of the 150,000 Yellow Turban Army into the small city of Guangzong. Although the number of battles between the officers and the Yellow Turban Army was not large, it made the 150,000 Yellow Turban Army soldiers disheartened, and they could only flee here. Although he didn't want to admit it, Zhang Liang admired Lu Zhi very much in his heart.

Zhang Liang doesn't read much, and if he is a person who is familiar with military books, he will definitely sigh: "Those who are good at fighting have no outstanding achievements." ”

However, the emperor of the court was mediocre and replaced Lu Zhi with Dong Zhuo. As soon as Dong Zhuo took office, he commanded the army to attack the city. Thinking about the months when Lu Zhi was besieging the city, he was not idle, and there were many siege equipment in the camp, and Dong Zhuo used these siege equipment to beat Guangzong City to the ground, and he almost couldn't resist it.

If Zhang Liang hadn't personally led a thousand elites to steal out of the city and attack the flank of the official army, Guangzong City would have been captured by Dong Zhuo a long time ago. In that battle, the officers and soldiers left thousands of corpses behind and withdrew.

After that, the morale of the Yellow Turban Army in the city was greatly boosted, and the bad luck of fleeing in a hurry before was also swept away by this big victory. And the Son of Heaven actually removed Dong Zhuo and replaced him with Huangfu Song, who had made a great breakthrough on the southern front.

Originally, when the enemies met, they were very red-eyed. Huangfu Song broke the Yellow Turban Army's South Road Army in a battle, and the generals of the Yellow Turban Army who got the news were already holding their stomachs. Now that Huangfu Song has been transferred to the front line of Guangzong, everyone is waiting to give him a dismount and "treat" him.

However, several attacks out of the city were blocked by the official army, and the flaws left by Dong Zhuo's defeat were sealed. At this time, all the people in Guangzong City learned about the power of Huangfu Song, and they did not dare to send troops lightly. As Huangfu Song continued to strengthen the camp, the hearts of the generals of the Yellow Turban Army gradually cooled: this one seemed to have adopted the same strategy as Lu Zhi.

This feeling of being unable to eat the tiger made the Yellow Turban Army suffocated, but there was no way but to stick to the camp and live one day at a time.