The land of Nanyang was occupied by Cao Cao in the early years, as the frontier of resistance to the Chu State!

At the beginning, Cao Cao's southern expedition, the Chu State was also here to fight with it in a series of bloody battles, both sides suffered heavy casualties, lost troops and generals, Guan Hai, Yang Feng and other old ministers of the Chu State, all died here!

Two years ago, the first Northern Expedition of the Chu State also suffered a fiasco here, so much so that the entire Nanyang County was lost, and even Wang Xu almost broke his soul!

Again and again, year after year!

It can be said that this place in Nanyang has become a sad place for the soldiers of the Chu State, and it is also a lingering nightmare for the soldiers of the Chu State!

Up to now, Wang Xu led his troops on the second Northern Expedition, and finally successfully recovered the entire territory of Nanyang with absolute strength.

With the recovery of Wancheng and the removal of the last nail of the Cao army to contain the Chu State, the entire Chu State military camp is boiling, such a victory, they have been waiting for too long, too long!

On the night of the breakthrough of Wancheng, Wang Xu ordered to reward the three armies and celebrate this great moment with more than 100,000 soldiers of the Middle Route Army.

The next day, Ju Yi and other generals who were still staying in Xinye as a reserve force were also ordered to set off overnight to join the morale-boosting Central Route Army of Chu and embark on the Northern Expedition.

On March 14, 208 AD, the Northern Expedition Middle Route Army, led by Wang Xu, arrived at Yingchuan Dingling!

But the footsteps of the army did not stop at all, and the three generals Han Meng, Yan Liang, and Ju Yi each commanded 20,000 people as the front, attacked in three ways, leveled all the cities along the road, and went straight to Chenliu.

How dare those local officials resist, with those one or two hundred county soldiers who maintain local law and order, it is okay to scare the people, facing the elite division of the Chu State. That is, how much time is lost!

The vast majority of local officials make wise choices. Kaesong surrenders!

In this day and age. It is very common for local officials to be held accountable, regardless of whether their own forces win or lose, as long as there is no special reason.

If there is the only exception, I am afraid that only in the face of foreign invasion, or the invasion of Xiliang, will always resist desperately.

This is also because the Han Dynasty has not long been in decline after all, and people are in their minds. I have always been soberly aware that this is just a battle in the world, a civil war!

But foreign invasion, it is completely different, at this time, the Han Dynasty's 400-year-old concept of martial arts, so that all the people, whether scholars or ordinary people, have pride in their bones!

This is also one of the reasons why the land of China has always maintained its inheritance after suffering!

The vast majority of people can fight to the death on their own. The only thing to resist is foreign rule, especially in this day and age. Even if you sink for a while, there will be a moment of explosion!

In today's world struggle, in the face of an absolutely irresistible enemy, it has always been common for local officials to surrender!

Wei is like this, Wu is like this, and Chu is of course no exception, if Cao's army fights Chu and Chu is powerless, it is also normal for local officials to surrender!

As for the few who insisted on resisting in Wei, they were all under the iron hooves of the army of Chu and slept forever!

…………

On March 24, the army of Chu successfully advanced to the territory of Chenliu, and the front led by the three generals Ju Yi, Yan Liang, and Han Meng arrived outside the city of Chenliu County in the first place, facing the 40,000 garrison troops of Cao Ren and Zhu Ling.

Wang Xu received the report, and then personally led the main force in the rear and stationed in Kaifeng County, more than 100 miles west of Chenliu, preparing to attack the Yu Ban and Wenpin Department stationed in Sujube and Fengqiu!

The Northern Expedition has been in full swing ever since!

However, the advance speed of the three-way army was so fast, but it kept the court ministers in the rear busy.

Fu Zhu, Chen Deng and other important ministers were anxious all day long, and they could hardly rest for less than three hours a day. They have no choice, it is impossible for the advancing army to wait, it is impossible for them to stop because of their heavy affairs, logistics and transportation must keep up at all times, and behind the army, countless manpower is needed to maintain the smooth flow.

It's just that although these courtiers of Chu State are tired and the people are tired, their faces are full of smiles and happiness.

Because the king of Chu has returned, they feel the taste of victory again, the strength of the state of Chu, and the peace of mind, which can be described as painful and happy!

…………

Two days after Wang Xu entered Kaifeng, the good news was passed on again!

After Zhou Zhi and Wang Fei led their troops to seize Yuyuan Pass, when the middle route army attacked Chenliu here, they went straight to Luoyang and joined forces with the White Tiger Army led by Zhang Liao, Huang Quan, and Liao Huasuo to encircle the point and send reinforcements!

From the north of the Yellow River, Wei twice mobilized troops and horses to gallop south to aid Luoyang, but they lost the opportunity and suffered a painful lesson.

Zhang Liao set up an ambush in Pingyin, with a small number of soldiers and scarecrows in armor, plus a fictitious camp tent to confuse Cao Hong, with this way of fiction and reality, successfully made Cao Hong, who was anxious to rescue Luoyang, misjudge the deployment of Chu's troops, and finally tossed and turned, and walked into the real encirclement.

Subsequently, Zhang Liao led his personal guards to Xiaoyaojin and took the lead, launching a fierce attack on Cao Hong's troops, breaking 30,000 Cao troops, and Cao Hong fled!

Almost at the same time as the beginning of the Battle of Pingyin, another Cao army, led by Xiahou Yuan, successfully crossed the river from Wushejin, a total of 30,000 people, and rushed to Luoyang at great speed, but was blocked by Zhou Zhi with 3,000 men.

This is a real battle, Zhou Zhi took the lead and fought bravely, but in the end it was still difficult to defeat Xiahou Yuan's strong soldiers and horses, and he was defeated and retreated to Shouyang Mountain in the northeast of Luoyang.

Unexpectedly, this was just Zhou Zhi's strategy to win in danger, grasping Xiahou Yuan's urgency, and failing to resist with a real one, so that he pursued hard until he entered the urn.

Although the soldiers were lost, they successfully set a fire in Shouyang Mountain, burning Cao Jun to the point of crying and chaos.

Wang Fei, who had already been ambushed, led his troops to wait with a rain of arrows, rolling stones, and sassal wood, and then took advantage of the situation to attack and kill, bringing Xiahou Yuan these 30,000 elite soldiers, all of which were destroyed in one battle, and in the end, only Xiahou Yuan himself got away with dozens of guards!

The two reinforcements were defeated one after another, and Zhou Zhi piled up the corpses of Cao Jun together, spread them on chariots, and sent them outside Luoyang City.

At this time, after many days of siege, Luoyang was barely supporting, when he saw the tattered banners of the two reinforcements, when he saw the reinforcements piled up into the mountain, the miserable corpses, quickly collapsed. Later, Zhou Zhi tried his best to disobey Wang Xu's ban for many years, and promised in public to surrender without killing, and stubbornly resist the promise of slaughtering the three clans!

Luoyang only continued to resist for half a day, and due to cowardice and chaos within itself, the defenders of Dongcheng surrendered, and Huang Quan personally led his troops to take advantage of the situation to break through.

But the matter is not over, the generals thought that the slaughter Zhou Zhi said was just to shake the enemy's faith by taking advantage of the situation, but no one expected that after the city was broken, Zhong Xuan, Xu Rong and the officials in Luoyang City, large and small generals, soldiers, but those who did not surrender, were all slaughtered, and even their relatives and family members were also implicated.

On that day, the executioner's knives were all blunted!

Zhou Zhi's actions before and after are indeed too ruthless, it can be said that they have hurt Tianhe, since ancient times, the generals have done things that hurt Tianhe, and no one has ever been able to get a good death!

But now he knows that he won't live many years, so he can be said to be out of the way!

Just to achieve victory and realize the grand wish of sweeping the world!

Just for the brothers who have come all the way and keep falling!

Just to end this damn war and make the world peaceful as soon as possible, there are already too many people who have died, so many that it makes people numb!

Cruel, but merciful!

When everyone was shocked by his ruthlessness, shocked by his cruelty, and angrily reprimanded his behavior, only Zhang Liao, Huang Quan, Wang Fei and other few people saw Zhou Zhi's continuous tears at that moment, and his painful and distorted face!

Just one day later, Wang Xu got the battle report from Luoyang, and he was furious on the spot, reprimanding Zhou Zhi for being bold and reckless!

But when he saw the letter presented by the sergeant, he fell silent instantly, waved everyone away, and stayed alone in the tent, never coming out for a long time!

The letter was written in cloth, with few words, but it was blurred, because the pen and ink seemed to be wet with water, which were the tears that Zhou Zhi shed when he wrote the letter!

"Boss, I did the bad guy, at this time, the Chu State still needs a wicked person, a deterrent, and that is me!"

"I know you're going to scold me for hurting the peace of the world, but what's the scruple? My life is not long, killing people pays for life, the cycle of heaven, let me pay it back! ”

"I'm not for you, I'm not for myself, I'm for you and my dreams, for the world, for the people, for the end of this damn troubled world, for all those who once fought side by side and are now dead! Do not be in a hurry to remove me from office, not to be in a hurry to cure my sins, and let me finish the work!! ”

This short and somewhat logical letter, Wang Xu kept it close to him and treasured it forever.

Many years later, everyone wondered why the Zhou family was always extra tolerant of the kings of the Chu State!

Why can the Zhou family always get the favor of the kings of the Chu State!

Even if it has been passed down for several generations, even if the Zhou family has no one to serve in politics and the army in the Chu State since Zhou Zhi, that preference has not diminished in the slightest!

Because no one can know that there is such a letter, which has always been passed down among the kings of Chu State!

Because no one knows that there is such a sentence that has been passed down from generation to generation from Wang Xu's mouth.

"Chu country, there is a share of Zhou Zhi!" (To be continued......)