Please ask me to be the emperor

Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, launched wave after wave of sieges under the city of Luoyang, but Zhang Shun only defended but did not attack.

This is not because Zhang Shun is afraid of the large number of people under Hong Chengchou's command, but because his "appetite" has become much larger since his "resurrection".

His original strategic goal of simply defeating Hong Chengchou has now been revised to "eat" these more than 30,000 elite Qin soldiers.

A great man from later generations once said, "It is better to cut off one of the enemy's fingers than to injure ten of them." Although the rebels won the previous battle at Luoyang City, due to Zhang Shun's accidental death, they did not further expand the victory and only escaped back to the camp at the cost of five to six thousand casualties.

If calculated based on the number of people, the strength of the officers and soldiers is actually still higher than that of the rebels. It's just that the officers and soldiers used more to fight against fewer, the strong bullied the weak, and were severely defeated by the rebels. Their morale was severely damaged, and they were unable to use their original advantages.

Therefore, Zhang used his brains and tried to annex the governor-general of five provinces, Hong Chengchou, in one fell swoop.

When Zhang Shun proposed this plan, not only Zhang Shenyan, Song Xiance and Hong Niangzi were shocked, but even the rebel generals Cao Wenzhao and Chen Changzhen strongly opposed it.

Although there are many examples in history of using less to defeat more, most wars still follow the most basic laws.

"Sun Tzu's Art of War" said: Therefore, the method of using troops is to surround it with ten, attack it with five, divide it with twice the enemy. If the enemy is small, you can fight it, if it is small, you can escape from it, if it is weak, you can avoid it.

Although the numerical value may not be particularly accurate, it can roughly reflect the number of people a party needs to achieve its military goals.

A party with ten times the numerical advantage can encircle and annihilate the other; with five times the number, it can directly attack the enemy; with double the number, the enemy needs to be divided and defeated one by one; and when both sides have about the same number of people, they are still capable of fighting.

Now the rebels can barely make up the number of 30,000, which is still lower than the 35,000 newly defeated officers and soldiers. If they defeat the enemy in a field battle, how can they annihilate more with less?

Zhang Shun quickly told everyone his plan, and then he barely convinced everyone.

It turned out that Zhang Shun's strategy was simple. The first step was to use the false news of his "death" to paralyze the unwary Hong Chengchou and attract him to attack Luoyang City with all his strength.

The specific method was to find Huang Deqing, a disciple of Laoshan Chang Zuo Lengchan, to impersonate the handwriting of Yuanmou, a disciple of Lu Weiqi, and to ask Lu Weiqi's son, Lu Zhaolin, to write a letter of atonement to Hong Chengchou.

Among the letters Hong Chengchou received at that time, except for the spies he sent to Luoyang City, the other two were "Yuanmou's letters" and Lu Zhaolin's letters.

It's a pity that Hong Chengchou is so cunning and cunning that he still hides in the camp and refuses to come out. Fortunately, news finally came that "Chuang Jiang" and others had captured Fengyang Mansion in the central capital. Under the pressure from the imperial court, this guy had to leave his "warm nest" and launched an all-out attack on Luoyang City.

To be honest, Zhang Shun originally planned to let "Chuang Jiang", "Living Cao Cao" and "Eight Kings" cut off water transportation, but he didn't know why he destroyed Fengyang Mansion in the central capital by some mistake.

Fortunately, the effect was the same, and the court was still troubled. Fortunately, it did not affect Zhang Shun's plan.

Of course, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, was not a fool and was determined to leave on his own. Zhang Shun quickly ordered Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao's uncle and nephew to write to Hong Chengchou again, bargain with him privately, and falsely claimed that he was ready to "open the city gate to welcome the king's army", which made Hong Chengchou hesitate.

In fact, when Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, sent troops to attack Luoyang City, Zhang Shun had already sent Chen Changzhen and Li Mou to lead two battalions of 6,000 officers and soldiers secretly westward to attack Yiyang County.

Yiyang County is located on the upper reaches of Luoshui River in Luoyang City, more than fifty miles away. Zhang Shun also captured this city when he unexpectedly attacked the capital camp before, but later abandoned the place in order to concentrate his troops for defense.

The magistrate of Yiyang County was in panic all day long. But after all, he had no soldiers or generals, and he heard that King Shun was benevolent and righteous, not to torture or to kill, so how could he have the heart to defend?

Therefore, Chen Changzhen and Li Mou arrived that night and watched the wind fall in Yiyang County. They did not delay the rebels from having dinner in the city.

The rebels rested for one night in Yiyang County. Early the next morning, only a dozen people were left to guard the county magistrate, and the rest headed north under the leadership of Chen Changzhen and Li Mou.

The topographic and landform characteristics of Yiyang County are exactly "three mountains, six tombs and one river, with a beach in the middle of the southern mountains and northern ridges, and the Luohe River running through the entire territory from east to west."

To the south of the county is the Xiong'er Mountain System; to the north is the remaining Qinling Mountains, blocking it from north to south, with the Luo River running through the entire territory.

According to logic, from Yiyang to the north it goes deep into the mountains and ridges, with no roads connecting them. Fortunately, Lu Weiqi was originally from the Lu family in Xin'an and was quite familiar with the terrain of Xin'an County, so he knew that there happened to be a trail connecting Yiyang and Xin'an.

This Lu Weiqi was originally inclined towards the rebels, but now in order to save the life of his son Lu Zhaolin and for Zhang Shun's promise, he went to great lengths to report this path to Zhang Shun.

After Zhang Shun learned about it, he couldn't help but be overjoyed. He sent two generals, Chen Changzhen and Li Mou, to lead two battalions of troops, preparing to go north from there and cut off the westward escape route of Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces.

It was just after the New Year, the weather was freezing, the trees in the mountains were all bare, light snow was flying, and the roads were difficult to travel. Chen Changzhen and Li Mou simply dismounted and walked with the soldiers.

As they walked, the two men encouraged the soldiers and said: "We have followed King Shun for a long time, and we have already earned acres of land, money and food from 'like a lost dog'. Now I have promised my mother-in-law. If we achieve such great achievements again, we will have a family and a career." Down."

The morale of the soldiers was slightly improved, and when it was getting late, they were able to cross the remaining Qinling Mountains and arrived at the bank of the Jianhe River.

Going west from here, only about a hundred steps away, is the ruins of Hangu Pass in the past. Although this place is not as dangerous as Hangu Pass, Tongguan and other places in Qin Dynasty, it still has the potential of one man guarding the pass and ten thousand people unable to open it.

Li Mou couldn't help but remonstrated: "This place cuts off Hong Chengchou's return route. Why don't we order the soldiers to camp here?"

Chen Changzhen looked at it for a while, shook his head and said: "Although this place is good, it is a pity that the old pass has been abandoned. What's more, since Hong Chengchou has come to the west, Xin'an County should be kept on guard. If the officers and soldiers are defeated when they turn around, and the dog jumps under the wall in a hurry, attacking from both sides, we will I’m afraid I won’t be able to support it.”

"Since we have traveled over the mountains and ridges to get here, the officers and soldiers must be unprepared. Why don't we stay here with more than a thousand people and garrison here temporarily, and I will personally lead five thousand people to attack the city."

"If the officers and soldiers are really unprepared, it will be fine if they are under Xin'an City. If Xin'an cannot be put down, we can retreat and take the next step and station troops here for defense!"

When Li Mou heard this, he couldn't help but hold up his palms and praise him for his kindness, so he led more than a thousand officers and soldiers to set up camp at the ruins of the old Hanguguan Pass. Chen Changzhen led his soldiers to attack Xin'an County at night.