Langya.

Brother Pig’s hometown.

What's interesting is that the two characters "Langya", except for the same "wang" or "yu" character, one is a good thing and the other is a bad thing, and then they appear together in pairs.

It's like the good and bad aspects of an event, and it's like people.

Good guys, bad guys, or there are never good guys or bad guys, just twisted, mixed, contradictory but unified people.

A hundred miles outside Langya City, Zang Ba stood on the left side of the road early, with the black cloak behind him fluttering in the wind.

Although it is already past the twelfth lunar month, the cold wind in the first lunar month is still biting.

Taixing six years.

First month.

General Cao Cao patrols Xuzhou.

"General..." said the confidant guard beside Zang Ba, "Didn't I say there are still thirty miles left? Why haven't I seen anyone yet? Do you want to send someone..."

Zang Ba thought for a moment and shook his head.

Behind him, about three hundred soldiers formed an array and waited quietly.

No one likes to wait.

Unless some value can be recovered from the time spent waiting.

Of course, Zang Ba's personal guards were all carefully selected. The soldiers wore battle armor, with cloaks tied on their backs, armed with long spears and shields, as well as swords, bows and arrows. In addition, they had the aura of having experienced battle formations. How could they do it?

They can be considered elites. However, these elites are somewhat restless at the moment. Even if they are standing in place, they are not restless, but the expression on their faces also reveals some uneasiness.

The Taishan Army was a local private army at the beginning. Later, during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, it continued to absorb the remaining Yellow Turban soldiers, and finally formed the current military strength. So from this point of view, there are actually many of these Taishan Army.

The Yellow Turban Thief's job change is somewhat similar to Cao Cao's Qingzhou Soldiers.

It can be said that most of Cao Cao's soldiers are pieced together, and their composition is much more complex than those under General Hussars.

Under General Hussar, Bingzhou soldiers and Xiliang soldiers were the most important pillars of the cavalry force, and the rest of the local soldiers served as supplements. In Cao Cao's case, some of the Yuzhou soldiers were Yuan Shu's remnants, and of course Yuan Shao was among the Jizhou soldiers.

The remaining strength, the Qingzhou soldiers are the transformation of the Yellow Turban thieves, and the Jingzhou soldiers newly incorporated into the system...

Brothers who are related by blood live together, and from time to time they will quarrel or even fight over this or that matter, not to mention these soldiers who are no longer together or even originally hostile? Under a limited economic system, how can

If one party receives more soldiers, food and supplies, it means that others may be short of food and money.

Undoubtedly, the Taishan Army is basically the part that has the least central supply, almost no supply.

Because this is the price the Taishan Army paid for its independence.

Zang Ba is different from other generals under Cao Cao. He has his own small force, his own elite soldiers, and an independent territory. He is responsible for the taxes in his territory. He only needs to pay a small part of it, and he can even deduct it for various reasons.

Although Langya has been abused once or twice by classmate Lao Cao, he still has some foundation after all, and he also has some money and property...

After all, not just anyone can pick up a technician with good skills on the street.

According to the military system of the Han Dynasty, even a general has a certain limit on the number of personal troops he can independently own, that is, private soldiers. Historically, Zhang Babai did not mean that he did not want to cross a thousand, but that he could not cross the line. Other central authorities

No one can move the soldiers dispatched without the tiger talisman.

In addition to the limit on the number of soldiers, financial support is another restriction.

Not everyone has a fiefdom, and now Langya is almost as good as Zang Ba’s fiefdom. As long as Zang Ba wants to explode his troops and can hold on, the number is not just a few hundred, but tens of thousands are possible.

.In addition, Zang Ba has a huge reputation for loyalty among Qingxu, and has many brothers of life and death, and these brothers of life and death also have soldiers...

To put it simply, if Zang Ba is really driven crazy, it is not completely impossible for Zang Ba to raise tens of thousands of elite soldiers between Qing and Xu regardless of his orders.

Therefore, Cao Cao's initial arrangements for Yu Taishan's army were to remain silent rather than moving.

But this doesn’t mean that the Taishan Army will always be allowed to show off like this...

Historically, due to the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao's prestige collapsed in the later period, and coupled with the rebellions that broke out in various places, he did not have time to consolidate the Taishan Army in the later stages. Until Cao Pi came to power, not even a single man of the Taishan Army was available.

He was very old, so he killed Zang Ba with an "unfounded" name.

But now, Cao Cao was stimulated by General Hussar, and Cao Cao had a bad experience in Jizhou...

Although Cao Cao hated others saying that he was born into a family of eunuchs, for Cao Cao, the skills of eunuchs were almost engraved in his bones.

Take advantage of the situation.

The reason why eunuchs are arrogant is that most of the time, they represent the authority of the emperor.

When Cao Cao first started, he was moving around in places like Yanzhou and Chenliu. In addition to his personal martial arts and military strategies, there was also Cao Cao who would take advantage of the situation!

At first I borrowed it from Yuan Shao, and later I borrowed it from the Emperor.

At the moment, Cao Cao took advantage of the momentum of the Yuzhou gentry children to suppress Jizhou. After discovering the backlash, he immediately made peace with the Jizhou gentry children. After negotiating the terms, he turned around. At the time of Qingxu, in front of the Taishan Army...

Cao Cao appeared suddenly, almost as if he had appeared directly from the ground, with a huge momentum, and there were many cavalry in the vanguard. These cavalry had enough maneuverability to move in the relatively flat area of ​​​​Qingxu.

Controls a large area.

After Zang Ba discovered the appearance of Cao Cao's army, he immediately discovered that Cao Cao's cavalry formations appeared in almost three directions, with only the south side being empty...

To alert the snake?

Knocking on mountains and shaking tigers?

Or is it driving away tigers and devouring wolves?

Or some other strategy?

Although Zang Ba's private soldiers are loyal to Zang Ba, it does not mean that everyone in Zhe Langya is willing to die for Zang Ba. For the more ordinary people or soldiers, there is probably not much

People would be willing to get involved in the war between Cao Cao and Zang Ba. As long as Zang Ba's direct lineage is not wrong, it is inevitable to be frightened by Cao Cao's huge momentum and have some other thoughts.

The problem is, no one knows what Cao Cao wants to do!

Even though Cao Cao ostensibly said he was coming to comfort the army and review the Taishan Army...

After getting the news, Zang Ba took action immediately. On the one hand, he met with his subordinates, especially the soldiers of his direct line, to cheer up and stabilize the morale of the army. On the other hand, he arranged military affairs and delivered letters to Sun Guan and others.

In human hands, just in case... If there is any real possibility, as long as there are Sun Guan and others outside and they are not caught by Cao Cao, then even if Cao Cao wants to take action, he still needs to consider one or two things.

After the military preparedness was completed and people's hearts were slightly calmed down, Zang Ba led hundreds of elite guards and went out of the city to greet him. Everyone was neatly dressed and tidied up, and all the etiquette for welcoming a general was done.

He was meticulous and did everything in place so that when Cao Cao arrived, he would not be able to find any faults.

All in all, Zang Ba believed that Cao Cao was willing to come to see him in person, which meant something...

Of course, if the meeting is not ideal, it may be the last meeting.

Various thoughts were weighing various possibilities in his mind, and Zang Ba himself was not a very resourceful person. In the end, the more he thought about it, the more confused he became, and his mood gradually became irritable.

Seeing that the general's expression was a little shaken and even showed some anger, Zang Ba's close guards were secretly uneasy, but they did not dare to say anything more and could only wait with bated breath.

After a while, Zang Ba finally regained his composure and cast his gaze far into the distance. I don't know how long it took, maybe an hour, maybe longer, but I finally saw some smoke and dust in the distance.

Immediately after, more than a dozen cavalrymen from Zang Ba's van came back to report the news, running wildly and shouting: "The general is here! The general is here!"

The formation of soldiers behind Zang Ba couldn't help but stir uproar, and then Zang Ba looked back with a sullen look, and finally calmed down again.

Zang Ba touched the armor straps on his body again and tightened the belt a little tighter. Then he touched the sword beside him and held the handle of the sword. His heart, which was beating wildly, gradually began to beat.

became orderly.

But soon, Zang Ba's brows wrinkled again...

There were more hoofbeats in the distance, and then they rolled like muffled thunder, making the dust on the ground beat!

Where did Cao Cao get so many cavalry?!

Didn't the previous sentinels say that there were only more than a thousand cavalry? Now the momentum is at least three thousand! The sound of the powerful horse hooves is so amazing that it makes the earth tremble slightly, and also makes Zang Ba and the soldiers behind him,

His face turned a little pale!

Anyone with a little battle experience can tell that the thunderous sound of horse hooves means that the cavalry is running at full speed, and it does not slow down at all even when it is close to the surrounding area!

What is Cao Cao going to do?

Do you really want to kill me directly?!

Zang Ba's trusted guard stepped forward and said eagerly: "General! The cavalry is coming at full speed! They must have bad intentions! What should I do? How about I lead people to break up the rear here, and the general returns to the city as quickly as possible!"

Zang Ba took a deep breath to calm down his brain. He looked back at his queue and saw fear and wavering in the eyes of his men. Unknowingly, Zang Ba's hands were already

Holding it on the handle of the sword, if you use a little strength, you can pull it out directly, raise your arms and shout, either to resist, or to protect yourself and retreat to the city!

But at the next moment, Zang Ba let go of his hand. Not only did he loosen the handle of the sword, he even took the entire sword off his waist and handed it to the guard on the side.

The trusted guard was puzzled, his eyes widened, he looked at Zang Ba's sword, then looked up at Zang Ba, "General... this is..."

"Everyone is standing! Get ready to welcome the general in person!" Zang Ba shouted, as if he could not hear the sound of rolling horse hooves getting closer, nor could he see the smoke and dust raised by the wings as high as clouds!

Zang Ba wants to take a gamble.

On the horizon, a dark blue banner representing Cao Cao finally appeared, with layers of canopy and gold and silver ribbons. At the same time, behind the vehicle, there were seven or eight large flags, which were more than half the height of ordinary flags, in the air.

They flutter in the wind, and the tops of these large flags are inlaid with gold melons or long feathers, which are extremely gorgeous.

In front of the large canopy chariot, there were cavalry in black armor, all in black light armor. Hundreds of soldiers came in at once, like a galloping black wave, as dark as if they were about to crash into people.
To be continued...