The Hutuo River is a river located in the north of Jizhou that flows from west to east, and was called Hurong Water during the Warring States Period, Houchi River during the Qin Dynasty, and Hutuo River in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

On the 9th of August, a large army rolled up the dust and roared from the north, drinking horses on the banks of the Hutuo River.

Along the flat terrain on the north bank of the river, many camps are densely set up, and in the largest camp in the center, there is a flag with the word "Gongsun" in the book, which flutters and flutters in the autumn river breeze, and hunts and hunts.

Here, it is the camp of the Chinese army of General Fenwu and Gongsun Zan of Jihou.

Gongsun Zhan, the word Bo Jue, was a native of Lingzhi in Western Liaoning (later Hebei Qian'an). His family was originally a local nobleman, but because of his mother's humble status, he only became a small official in the county when he was young. Later, I don't know what kind of opportunity Lu Dao he had, and he actually worshiped the great Confucian Lu Zhi to study in the Wushi Mountain, which can be regarded as hugging a thigh.

Speaking of which, Gongsun Chan was also a handsome pot when he was young, not only handsome, but also loud and witty. When he was a scholar for Liu Taishou in this county, he was very likable, and when he was a student of Lu Zhi, the treatment was much better than that of Liu Da'er later.

With Lu Zhi, a famous teacher, as the "guide" of the revolution, Gongsun Zhan was soon promoted to filial piety, and then served as the governor of Liaodong. Next, Gongsun Zhan began to fight with the Xianbei people for a long time, accumulated military merits all the way, was promoted to Zhuo Ling, moved to the commander of the cavalry, Zhonglang general, and sealed the capital of Tinghou. After Dong Zhuo dominated Luoyang, while showing Liu Yu as the Taifu and the Marquis of Xiangben, he also listed Gongsun Zan as the general of Fenwu and the Marquis of Ji.

Since the Han Dynasty, there are more and more people who have made military merits, and the difficulty of awarding official positions is also increasing, and later they often put a certain name in front of the "general" as a specific official position, this kind of name is not fixed, and there is no relationship between the names and subordinates, so it is called the miscellaneous general.

It must be known that the rank of military attache in the Han Dynasty was only three levels: general, lieutenant general, and lieutenant. Since generals are not often placed, and when there is a war, they are called the generals who command the troops, so the highest official position that ordinary military attaches can obtain in peacetime is only Zhonglang General.

When Lu Zhi, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, the three bigwigs of the DPRK and China, led the troops to quell the Yellow Turban Rebellion, they were only awarded the position of Zhonglang General by the imperial court.

Therefore, it is not difficult to smell a taste of conspiracy from Dong Zhuo's series of rewards. Gongsun Chan was originally restrained by Liu Yu, although Dong Zhuo gave Liu Yu the title of Taifu, a high position of the third duke, but did not give him the title of a general who could lead troops, but promoted his subordinate Gongsun Chan to a miscellaneous general.

In this way, the relationship between Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan is somewhat unclear.

Liu Yu's most important official position now is Taifu, but the problem is that he was blocked by warlords such as Gongsun Zhan, Han Fu, Yuan Shao and Zhang Yang from taking office in Chang'an, so this position is also a fictitious position, and he can't do it at all.

Fortunately, as long as Liu Yu does not leave Youzhou for a day, no one dares to come to snatch the position of Youzhou pastor as clearly as Yuan Shao did with Han Fu, otherwise Liu He and him, who are fathers, will be homeless.

The current situation in Youzhou is actually that Gongsun Chan occupies the southern part of Liaoxi County, Youbeiping County and Yuyang County, as well as most of Guangyang County and Zhuo County, while Liu Yu occupies the northern part of Shanggu County, Dai County, Yuyang County and Guangyang County with the support of Wuhuan and Youxiong Tribes. As for the Gongsun Du family in Liaodong, they firmly occupied Lelang County, Liaodong County, Xuansu County and Liaodong vassal states.

In terms of territory, Gongsun Du accounted for most of Youzhou, then Gongsun Zhan accounted for three-fifths of the remaining half, and Liu Yu controlled only a few counties near the north of the Great Wall and Bingzhou.

Gongsun Chan and Liu Yu were very different in their attitudes towards the northern nomads, with Liu Yu advocating a policy of gentleness towards the local ethnic minorities, while Gongsun Chan advocated the use of force to kill and resolutely suppress them.

Some time ago, Gongsun Zhan fought a big battle with the Xianbei people north of Lulongsai and won a big victory, which temporarily deterred the nomads from Baitan to Baiwolf. Just as Gongsun Zan led the army back to the Lingzhi area to rest, Xu You, an envoy sent by Yuan Shao, suddenly came.

Xu You said to Gongsun Zhan: "I am glad to hear that the general won a big victory in the north against the Xianbei thieves, and now the soldiers and horses are strong, and the morale is like a rainbow. ”

Gongsun Zhan said with some hesitation: "Jizhou is owned by Han Fu, and his soldiers have enough food, how can they go down in a battle?" ”

Xu You then presented Yuan Shao's handwritten letter to Gongsun Zhan, and after Gongsun Chan read it, he was moved.

Gongsun Zhan then called Guan Jing, a strategist under his account, and his brothers Liu Weitai, Li Yizi, Le Hedang and others to discuss the matter of attacking Jizhou in the south.

Guan Jing is the eldest in the army of Gongsun Zhan, a timid and snobbish person, in fact, he has no far-sighted strategy, but he is very loyal to Gongsun Zhan. Liu Weitai is a divination master, that is, the kind of guy who pretends to be a god and a ghost to tell divination, Li Yizi was originally a cloth seller, and Le Hedang was a businessman who traveled south and north.

I don't know what Gongsun Chan thought at the beginning, but he actually formed a righteous brother with Liu Weitai, Li Yizi and Le Hedang, and called himself Bo, and called the other three Zhong Shuji. The three brothers of Gongsun Zhan, because of their attachment to him over the years, have all amassed as much as hundreds of millions of wealth, and in order to consolidate the relationship between several families, they have also formed a family of children and daughters. For example, Gongsun Zhan's son Gongsun Xu married Li Yizi's daughter.

Gongsun Zhan often compares Liu Bang's businessman-born fierce generals to his brothers, but he doesn't know that Li Yizi and Le He are this kind of trader-born guys, in addition to making money, where can anyone who can fight well!

However, it was said that after Guan Jing and Liu Weitai heard Gongsun Zhan's plan, they expressed their support, because they knew that as long as Gongsun Zhan led his troops south, this opportunity to make a fortune would come.

In order to strengthen Gongsun Zhan's determination to go south, Liu Weitai also pretended to be a hexagram for Gongsun Zhan in public, claiming that "the south is great, and the teacher can be prosperous!" ”

Gongsun Zhan was originally an ambitious person, but now with the instigation of these birdmen, he immediately agreed to Yuan Shao's request to jointly send troops, immediately ordered 20,000 cavalry, and took his generals Yan Gang, Zou Dan, Wang Men and others all the way south, but left 30,000 troops from his younger brother Gongsun Yue, Gongsun Fan and his generals Tian Kai, Shan Jing and others to stay in the old nest.

Gongsun Zhan personally led an army of 20,000 troops from Lingzhi all the way to gallop, and it took only ten days to march thousands of miles and arrive at the bank of the Hutuo River. This astonishing speed can only be achieved by cavalry units.

Youzhou and Liaodong have always produced good horses, Gongsun Zhan has been fighting in circles with nomads such as Xianbei people, Wuhuan people and Southern Xiongnu over the years, and also snatching some things from Liu Yu from time to time, so he has saved a rather eye-catching belongings.

The 20,000 cavalry brought by Gongsun Chan to the south this time, in terms of combat effectiveness, is definitely the strongest one in the entire north of the Yellow River, if Ding Yuan did not cross the Yellow River south with men and horses into Luoyang, then the heroic and warlike Bingzhou cavalry may be able to compete with Gongsun Zhan, the Youzhou cavalry.

If you have to compare, the only cavalry in the world that can overpower Gongsun Zan is the Xiliang cavalry under Dong Zhuo. Dong Zhuo has a fierce bull under his command, that is the flying general Lu Bu, with this goods as the vanguard general, no one in the world can stop its sharpness.

Gongsun Chan went south this time and brought the 3,000 "White Horse Yicong" at the bottom of the box!

Baima Yicong is an elite cavalry skilled in cavalry and archery formed by Gongsun Zhan in the course of long-term battles with the Hu people of various ethnic groups in the north. Because Gongsun Chan loves white horses, and may also be out of the desire to show off and play cool, in short, this army is equipped with all white-haired war horses.

This army was loyal to Gongsun Zhan, and every time before the big battle, they would shout in unison: "Where righteousness goes, life and death go hand in hand!" The sky can be learned, and the white horse is the proof! ”

Therefore, the white horse is named from this.

The White Horse Yicong is a typical light cavalry unit with strong mobility and range advantages. Gongsun Zhan relied on this light cavalry force to threaten the outside for a long time, so that the Huns and Xianbei people such brave and warlike light cavalry "families" fled when they heard the news, which shows how awesome and majestic Baima Yicong was at that time!

It should be particularly mentioned that among the three thousand white horse followers, there was a twenty-three-year-old tun chief, who was tall and slender, at least more than eight feet, with a handsome face, few words but sharp eyes. I saw him riding a majestic white horse, holding a bright silver spear more than one foot and four feet long in his right hand, standing on the bank of the Hutuo River and looking south.

This tun chief, who commanded a hundred white horse righteous servants, was named Zhao Yun, and he was a member of the Zhending clan in Changshan, Jizhou.

At the beginning of this year, Zhao Yun was elected by the people of Changshan County and led the righteous soldiers of his county to defect to Gongsun Zhan. Gongsun Zhan asked Zhao Yun at the time: "I heard that the people of Jizhou want to attach themselves to the famous Yuan Shao, how can you be the only one who can get lost?" ”

Zhao Yun replied: "If there is chaos today, I don't know who is the lord of the Ming Dao, but the people are in danger of being upside down, and the people of Jizhou are in danger of being upside down, and they feel that I should take my brothers and sisters to follow the lord who can implement benevolent government, so this time I came to work, not that I deliberately alienated Yuan Shao and favored you, the general." ”

Zhao Yun said this a little toughly, and did not directly admit that Gongsun Chan was the Ming Lord, but later implied that Gongsun Chan was more able to implement benevolent governance than Yuan Shao, which made Gongsun Chan angry or happy after hearing it.

Feeling Zhao Yun's contribution, Gongsun Zhan arranged Zhao Yun in the White Horse Yicong and gave him the position of tun chief. The tun commander is equivalent to the company commander of later generations......

Coincidentally, Liu Bei happened to take his brothers Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to Gongsun Chan at this time, because Liu Bei had studied under Lu Zhimen and could be regarded as Gongsun Zhan's junior brother, so Gongsun Chan was embarrassed and gave Liu Bei a position as Sima of another department.

The so-called Sima of other departments sounds very awesome, but in fact, the number of soldiers led by them is appropriate and not fixed. In other words, as long as Gongsun Chan is willing, he can give Liu Bei thousands of soldiers and horses, if Gongsun Chan is unhappy, Liu Bei can only take his own private soldiers to mess around.

At that time, the big ears inadvertently saw Zhao Yun, and they liked it very much, and they were close to Zhao Yun openly and secretly, and the intention to win over them was very obvious. Although Zhao Yun felt that Liu Bei treated him warmly, he also knew that the master he was loyal to now was Gongsun Zhan, so he tried to avoid meeting Liu Bei in private, so as not to dislike Gongsun Zhan.

This time when he went south, Gongsun Chan did not bring Liu Bei, but let him be controlled by Tian Kai, as a reserve force, and obey the order to go south to support when the war changes.

Because of Gongsun Zhan's arrangement, Liu He didn't have a chance to see Liu Da'er and the two peerless killing gods beside him this time.

However, with the handsome pot Zhao Yun coming with the army, what else is Liu He not satisfied with?

PS: Zhao Yun said: If you don't collect it again, and if you don't vote for recommendation, I'll go back to my hometown to farm!