Chapter 55: Huang Zhong who closed the net
Sometimes I think about it, they had a good life in their own station, and it was really unbearable for me to let them fall into this field, but that's how the war went. I think that when our army was killed by Cao Cao's army in Dangyang, and even Liu Bei's son was almost not saved, didn't he also believe in tears on the slope of Changsaka?
All I can do is to help Liu Bei catch Liu Zhang as soon as possible, so that I may be able to pacify Yizhou with a lot less swords, and many people will be able to suffer less and not lose their lives.
Just when our army followed Liu Zhang's army for a few days, and the number of surrendered troops taken in along the way had even reached seven or eight thousand, even I, who had always been cautious, were infected by Pang Tong's optimistic spirit.
Indeed, even if our side does not need to surrender troops now, plus the five thousand Zhang Lu troops that follow behind, there are more than 10,000 people, and Liu Zhang's army can command about 3,000 troops at most after leaving these seven or eight thousand people, and they must all be tired and hungry. If we were to fight our army all day long and with high morale, I don't think it would be a matter of collapse, and it is likely that they would not even have the strength to collapse now, so they could only be paralyzed in place and left to our disposal.
But as I watched the steep scenery of the mountains on both sides of the road on my horse, I suddenly remembered something.
I remember that in the book, when Liu Zhang sent people to Hanzhong to find Zhang Lu for reinforcements, and promised to take revenge for the land of Twenty Prefectures and let him send troops to attack Jiameng Pass from behind Liu Bei, Jiameng Pass was also under Liu Bei's control. What's more, Ma Chao has already been blocked, and Liu Bei can still send someone to Hanzhong to bribe Yang Song to recall Ma Chao!
What does this mean? The thought of this makes me feel a thrill all over me! This means that even if Huang Zhong guards Jiameng Pass, Liu Zhang's brigade can't go back, but Liu Zhang's army is full of locals, and Liu Zhang can take some generals to leave the troops, directly bypass Jiameng Pass from the path, and desperately rush back to Chengdu!
Thinking of this, I hurriedly went to Liu Bei and told Liu Bei about my Liu Zhang's likely abandonment of the army and the path, Liu Bei's face showed sadness when he heard it, but he still said: "Liu Zhang is also the commander of the first army, he shouldn't abandon his subordinates!" However, he said that from the way he looked at Pang Tong as he spoke, it could be seen that he already believed in this.
Pang Tong was also worried, and he said to Liu Bei almost immediately: "Lord, just in case, please take General Zhuge and lead the army behind, and General Tong will take Wei Yanxuan to ride five hundred steps and immediately chase forward!" Be sure to catch up with Liu Zhang before he abandons the army! After speaking, he didn't wait for Liu Bei to agree, so he rode his horse to chase Wei Yan of the front army, and immediately acted.
His rash action made me think of Luofengpo. However, although there should be Zhang Ren in Liu Zhang's army now, but at this time and that time, I also think that even if Zhang Ren wants to set up an ambush now, it is estimated that it is impossible for Liu Zhangjun's current situation!
In this way, Pang Tong and Wei Yan hurriedly led people to chase after them. I followed Liu Bei and continued to escort the brigade behind and continued to march towards Jiameng Pass at the original speed. When the army drove to the Jiameng Pass, I saw Liu Zhangjun, who was already extremely embarrassed and sat on the ground.
When Liu Zhangjun, who looked like Huazi, saw the arrival of our army's brigade, they all knelt on the ground, claiming that they had surrendered to the defenders of Jiameng Pass. Huang Zhong was afraid of letting them in to make changes, so he ordered them to stay where they were and waited for Liu Bei's army to arrive before being received. So I began to contain them, and put them into the original prisoner of war camp, while the army marched into Jiameng Pass one after another.
However, I didn't see Liu Zhang in these prisoner of war camps, not even a general-like person. The people below inquired and reported that Liu Zhang had already taken a dozen generals and dozens of personal soldiers to find the path back to Chengdu before he arrived at Jia Meng. Pang Tong and Wei Yan, who had pursued them before, also left someone to inform them that they had continued to lead people to chase down the path, so that we could enter the pass as soon as possible and repel Liu Zhang's troops who attacked Jiameng Pass in the south.
After our army turned against Liu Zhang, the remaining generals in Chengdu would gather the remaining troops in Shu to attack Jiameng Pass, which everyone, including me, could think of. However, Jiameng Pass is garrisoned by Huang Zhong, and the pass is steep, and the main force of Liu Zhang's army has gone out with him again, and it is estimated that he will not be able to gather heavy troops in a hurry, so I have not been worried about this.
But when I got to Jia Meng, I didn't see Huang Zhong, which surprised me a little. Huo Jun, the chief general of Guanshang at this time, came to see Liu Bei and me, and told us that Huang Zhong was directing the soldiers in Guanzhong to defend against Liu Xun's attack in Guannan these days, and at the same time, he was sending scouts to inquire about the movements of Liu Zhang's army. During the period of waiting for Liu Zhang, our old general Huang also sent people to find out the remote road that can be bypassed and lead to Chengdu from the north of Jiameng Pass. When Tanma reported that Liu Zhangjun was less than 100 miles away from the pass, he left Huo Jun here to guard the pass, and personally took 500 people to an ambush on a mountain road that he thought was the best and easiest to go back to Chengdu, and I don't know if it has become a great achievement now!
When Liu Bei heard this, he wanted to send someone to answer it, but at this time, Liu Xun led people to storm Jiameng Pass, and Huo Jun had confidence because my army entered the pass, so he asked Liu Bei to send troops to repel Liu Xun and relieve the siege under the pass.
Because the previous intelligence said that Liu Zhang's troops are now less than a hundred, and in addition to Huang Zhong, who was ambushed on the mountain road, Wei Yan and Pang Tong are chasing behind, there should be no problem. Therefore, Liu Bei pressed the idea of answering, rested for a while, and led the troops out of the pass after Liu Xun's attack failed to succeed and the soldiers were tired and retreated.
Although I didn't follow this battle, I made an exception and asked Zheng Liang to lead someone to protect Liu Bei. I clearly saw at the gate that Liu Xun's face changed as soon as he saw Liu Bei, and before the two armies could fight, he immediately led the army to retreat.
Soon the front army returned, Liu Xun led the troops to retreat to Fucheng without a trace, and the front army of our army was still pursuing. It's just that Pang Tong's side has not moved so far, which makes me deeply worried about it. Fortunately, after waiting for another two hours, after Liu Bei also collected his troops and returned to the pass, Huang Zhong and Wei Yancai all came back with their soldiers beamingly.
As soon as I saw this, I saw Liu Zhang, who had a decadent face, Zhang Ren, who was tied up and still gritting his teeth, as well as Wu Lan, Wu Yi, and even Yang Huai and Gao Pei, who were put back by me before. Liu Bei's face was naturally unnatural after seeing Liu Zhang, and he waved his hand to let Liu Zhang go down to take care of him first, and then he was ready to deal with these captured generals.
Very unexpectedly, Pang Tong did not appear, and Liu Bei was told that Pang Tong was injured by Zhang Ren's ambush with an arrow! My heart chuckled, but fortunately, after hurriedly going to visit Liu Bei, I found that he was only shot in the right arm, and it was no longer a big problem after taking the arrow and bandaging it.
It turned out that when Liu Zhang was fleeing along the mountain road to Chengdu, Zhang Ren took the initiative to lead people to break the rear behind. However, with Liu Zhang's ability at that time, he could only leave him twenty soldiers. Zhang Ren chose a more dangerous place to wait for our army's possible pursuit, Pang Tong and Wei Yan chased for a long time to see that it was okay, so they walked more and more ahead, Zhang Ren seized the opportunity and ordered his subordinates to shoot only at Wei Yan and Pang Tong.
Fortunately, although these twenty soldiers were all selected by Liu Zhang when he left the army, because he was hungry for days, the range and accuracy of archery naturally decreased. Wei Yan, who was superb in martial arts, retreated in embarrassment when he suddenly shot indiscriminately, but he was finally not injured. But Pang Tong was not so lucky, and subconsciously used his right arm to block under the random arrow, and was shot fiercely.
After shooting the cold arrow, Zhang Ren didn't even think about it, and immediately led people to withdraw, thinking about finding another steep place and repeating the old trick. What he didn't expect was that Liu Zhang, who was in front of him, had already been ambushed in advance, and after learning that there were still people who broke off, he was not polite, so he directly gave Zhang Ren another set, tied up these twenty-one people, and escorted them back to Jia Meng.