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The Yellow River has frozen in November, the bitter cold wind has made the riverbed thick ice, just after the snow, the white snow covers the ice, at a glance, like a world of ice and snow.

This is Xiayang County of Fengyi County, Guanzhong, on the other side of the Yellow River is the famous Hejindu, on this snow-covered Yellow River ice field, an army of about 30,000 people is marching eastward, soldiers wear thick leather boots, squeak on the dry snow, war horses are also wrapped with hay hooves, belly tightly wrapped in thick linen cloth, to prevent frostbite by the cold of the ice field.

The army went all the way to the east, the flag was unfurled, the red flag of the Han army was hunting and flying in the cold wind, and the general was Zhao Yun, according to Liu Jing's previous unified deployment, after the Central Plains War started, Zhao Yun would lead the army to go straight into the state and seize Taiyuan.

The sun shone on the snow, which was particularly shining and dazzling, Zhao Yun looked into the distance for a moment, and saw a cavalry in the distance rushing towards this side, this should be the scout cavalry.

After a while, the scout cavalry rushed to Zhao Yun, clasped his fists on his horse and saluted: "Governor Qiqi, the five hundred Cao troops in Hejindu have been annihilated by General Wang Ping, and not a single one has escaped. ”

Zhao Yun was overjoyed, turned back to Fa Zheng and said: "French Division, General Wang did not disappoint!" ”

Fa Zheng knew that Zhao Yun especially valued Wang Ping and regarded him as his successor, and also said with a smile: "With General Wang's ability, the small Hejin ferry is naturally not under his control, and the key is that there is no leakage, which creates the best conditions for us to seize Taiyuan." ”

Zhao Yun nodded, and immediately ordered, "Pass my order, cross the Yellow River as quickly as possible, and camp in Hejin to rest." ”

The 30,000 troops picked up speed and rushed to the other side of the Yellow River

And the state is the Hedong region, today's Shanxi Province, was originally also Yuan Shao's territory, by the nephew Gao Gan served as the governor of the state, after Yuan Shao was destroyed, Gao Gan also surrendered to Cao Cāo for a time, and later rebelled, and was finally killed by Cao Cāo, and the current history of the state assassin by the former commander Wang Yan.

Bingzhou originally had 30,000 garrisons, but due to the Han army's attack on Guanlong, Cao Cāo transferred 20,000 Bingzhou troops to Guanzhong, reducing the strength of Bingzhou to 10,000, of which 5,000 were stationed in Taiyuan, and were led by famous generals.

Taiyuan is the seat of the state of Bingzhou, and it is also the largest city in the state, the city is tall and strong, with a circumference of more than 30 li, with a population of nearly 200,000, and it is also one of the five male cities in the northern region with Chang'an, Luoyang, Yedu, and Xudu.

Due to the geographical reasons, the impact of the Yellow Turban Uprising is small, and the land is fertile, the people are generally richer, and the business is also very developed, Taiyuan is the commercial center of the state, and there are all kinds of shops in the city, and wine shops, hostels, green houses, gambling halls and so on can be seen everywhere.

Although two battles broke out in Guanzhong and the Central Plains at the same time, Taiyuan was not affected at all due to the distance of the battlefield, and the people in the city were busy living their own lives every day.

On this morning, a team of mules and horses came from outside the southern city with a load of goods, which is a very common caravan in the Bingzhou area, which is generally composed of more than a dozen small caravans, and this caravan is no exception, with hundreds of mules and horses, more than a dozen merchants, and more than a hundred men, which can be regarded as a large caravan.

When this caravan appeared at the city gate, a garrison officer with a few soldiers came up to meet it, "Where did the caravan come from, can there be a merchant?" ”

After the caravan arrives at its destination, the first thing it does is to report to the local city office for inspection and pay the tax, so that it can sell the goods legally.

Generally speaking, the officers and soldiers guarding the city gate did not need to verify any business citations, which was actually a hint of asking for bribes, and the leading merchant handed him a roll of silk paper and said with a smile: "This is our business quotation." ”

The officer opened the merchant and looked at it, and said with a smile: "Oh! It turned out that I came from Nanyang, and I traveled all the way, which was very hard! ”

"We don't work hard, how can there be a general who works hard to defend the city."

As he spoke, a gold ingot weighing ten taels had been quietly stuffed into the officer's hand, and the officer understood that these merchants seemed to know the rules very well, so he led them back to them, and asked with a smile, "Can you bring prohibited weapons?" ”

"Of course there won't, just some ordinary swords for self-defense, civilian weapons that can be bought everywhere."

The officer looked at the crowd roughly, and did not see the forbidden long weapon, so he said: "Since the tax has been paid, it is a legitimate merchant, we will not make it difficult, let's go to the city!" ”

With a wave of his hand, he shouted to the soldiers defending the city: "Release!" ”

The caravan urged the mules and horses to begin to march into the city, and not long after they entered the city, the Taiyuan lord led a patrol to pass by, and he asked the officer guarding the city: "Where is the caravan?" ”

"General Qiyu is from Xuchang."

The officer was very cunning and didn't dare to say Nanyang, Nanyang was close to Jingzhou, which would cause unnecessary trouble, so he nodded and instructed: "Recently, the battle broke out in Guanzhong, although it is far away from Taiyuan, but we still have to be careful, we must strictly investigate, and we can't take it lightly." ”

"General, please rest assured, the lowly position will never let suspicious people into the city."

He nodded, and after a few more commands, he turned his horse's head and walked towards the west gate, and when the lord was about to go away, the officer pinched the heavy gold in his arms, rejoiced in his heart, and said to his soldiers: "Fight up the gods to do things, and I will invite everyone to drink at night." ”

The caravan entered the city, and did not rush to find the shop merchants to sell goods, but came directly to the southwest corner of Taiyuan, the people in this area are more complicated, the fish and dragons are mixed, it was originally the concentration of the ownerless cemetery, desolate and dilapidated, wild foxes infested, but since a large number of Hebei refugees entered Taiyuan to escape the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the government assigned the desolate southwest corner to them to live, and the displaced people lived in the shacks, so that the southwest corner of the city became the concentration of the poor in Taiyuan.

The caravan walked through a dirty side street, and came to an inn at the end, and the leading merchant looked at the sign of the inn, and said to the people: "This is it, everyone go in!" ”

A few men walked out of the hostel, they recognized the leader of the businessman, and hurriedly led everyone in, at this time, a man whispered to the leader of the businessman: "General Wu, please come with me." ”

This caravan was played by the Han army jīng sharp eagle strike army Qiao, the leader of the merchant was the deputy commander of the eagle strike army Wu Ban, he was sent by Zhao Yun to enter Taiyuan in advance, in fact, before him, there were several groups of eagle strike soldiers in various ways into Taiyuan City, Wu Ban is the last group.

This hostel is the contact point of the Han army in Taiyuan City, specially located in the slum area in the southwest corner, one is the larger place, and the second is that the government is not too concerned, as long as you spend money to buy the scoundrel and ploppy leaders in this area, you can basically be safe.

Wu Ban followed the man to the back hall quickly, and a middle-aged man greeted him and saluted him: "See General Wu!" ”

The middle-aged man is the shopkeeper of this hostel, named Zhang Qu, a civil official in the Han army, he was sent to Taiyuan five months ago, bought this hostel, and established a contact point, Wu Ban nodded and smiled: "Zhang Yuanjun doesn't need to be polite, I have a heavy responsibility, let's go into the house and talk!"

"General Wu, please!"

The two walked into the inner hall and sat down, and Wu Ban first asked, "Why don't you see the two hundred brothers who came before?" ”

Zhang Qu smiled and said: "They have been scattered all over Taiyuan City, mainly because they are now very strict, hundreds of people stay in one place for a long time, and they will be suspected, so I rented a few mansions and scattered them to live together, so they can be gathered at any time." ”

Wu Ban nodded, and said, "There is also the problem of weapons and armor, can it be solved?" ”

Zhang Qu got up and smiled mysteriously at Wu Ban and said, "General, please come with me!" ”

They walked into the inner room, which looked like a study, Zhang Qu pushed open a row of bookshelves, revealing a small door behind it, Zhang Qu opened the door and led Wu Ban into this secret room, which was a stone room without windows, the room was large, and there were more than a dozen rows of shelves, the shelves were full of crossbows, shields, swords and armor, and large bundles of spears were placed in the corners of the room.

"Although Taiyuan City is not allowed to bring prohibited weapons into the city, but that is only a recent regulation, in fact, as long as there is money, all kinds of armor and weapons can be bought at will, all of them are the armor of the regular army, there are five hundred sets of armor here, and the general can use them at will."

Wu Ban stepped forward and took a spear, waved it twice, nodded and put it back in its place, and picked up a crossbow, the crossbow string has been removed, as long as it is installed, it can be used at any time, which made him very satisfied, and turned back to Zhang Qu and smiled: "With the weapon, I put down my heart, Zhang Envoy Jun is very well prepared, if it is a great success, I will play the credit of Envoy Jun." ”

"Thank you, General Wu, for your kind words! Don't know when to do it? ”

"Come on! When I came, the Han army had already captured Hejin and was heading in the direction of Taiyuan, and I estimated that the army would arrive in Taiyuan within three days. ”

Speaking of this, Wu Ban ordered: "The time is coming, please ask Zhang Envoy Jun to inform all the brothers to gather here tonight, I am going to arrange a task." ”

"Don't worry, general, I'll send someone to inform you immediately."

Three days later, the 30,000 Han troops killed from Hejin passed through Lishi County and entered the territory of Taiyuan County, at dusk, 30,000 Han troops finally arrived in Taiyuan, the army stretched for more than ten miles, the banner was unfurled, the momentum was huge, and it slowly slowed down at a place about ten miles away from Taiyuan City.

The arrival of the Han army made the people in Taiyuan panic, the families closed their doors, did not dare to go out, the official road and the wilderness were empty, and there was no figure to be seen, at this moment, a group of Han army scouts rushed in, and they brought a messenger, who was sent by Wu Ban before the city gate was closed, and the messenger was quickly led to Zhao Yun.

"See the Governor!" The messenger bowed and presented the token token.

Zhao Yun looked at the token and asked with a smile, "How is General Wu now?" ”

"General Hui, we are ready, in the southwest corner of the city, we will capture the west gate tonight, the time is two watches, I hope the governor can send troops to cooperate."

The Eagle Strike Army is Liu Jing's direct army, not under the jurisdiction of Zhao Yun, so Wu Ban can ask Zhao Yun to cooperate, and more importantly, the Taiyuan city gate has been closed, and the messenger can't go back, and it's just that the Han army outside the city will take the city according to Wu Ban's plan.

Zhao Yun nodded, "It's hard work, let's go down and rest first!" ”

He ordered the soldiers to take the messenger down to rest, and then Fa Zheng stepped forward and said with a smile: "Since we are taking the west gate, then we should camp at the east gate." ”