The Battle of Liaodong
When Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan fought in Yijing, the political situation quietly changed. Anding and Tianshui had fallen into Cao Cao's hands, and Liu Bei's alliance had been reduced to seven counties. Among them, the strongest was Ma Teng of Xiliang. Because Cao Cao had taken down Tianshui and Anding, he had directly threatened Xiliang. Therefore, Ma Teng did not dare to send troops during the Battle of Yijing. And Hanzhong Zhang Lu because Jin Xuan got Xichuan after the border, more dare not act rashly. Liu Dai, Governor of Puyang, and Kong Rong, Governor of Beihai, were both people who had no achievements. In this changing situation, they felt that their talents were shallow. Seeing that Liu Bei was talented, they handed over all the military power to Liu Bei.
At this time, Liu Bei was in charge of 200,000 troops in three prefectures, Gongsun Zan had 140,000 troops in Peiping and Xiangping, and Fan Chou and Hou Cheng had 60,000 troops. Yuan Shao had four hundred thousand soldiers in five counties.
At this moment, the strength of the Yijing battlefield was 300,000 Yuan Shao soldiers and 260,000 Gongsun Zan soldiers (100,000 Gongsun Zan, 100,000 Liu Bei, 60,000 Fan Chou, and 60,000 Hou Cheng).
Yuan Shao's tent. Yuan Shao summoned his ministers to discuss the matter. At that time, Yuan Shao's civil and military officials, except Yuan Shang, Yuan Xi, Yuan Tan, Ju Hu, Xin Ping, Xin Pi, etc., were stationed in various prefectures. Generals Yan Liang, Wen Chou, Zhang He, Gao Gan, Lv Kuang, Lv Xiang, Tian Chou, Zhang Yan, Chen Zhen, and advisers Chen Lin, Guo Tu, Feng Ji, Xu You, Tian Feng, Wang Can and Shen Pei were stationed in Yijing with Yuan Shao.
"Jin Xuan has already taken seven prefectures of Xichuan," said Yuan Shao."He occupies twenty prefectures, which is almost half of the world. Recently, Cao Cao's forces had reached nine counties after obtaining Tianshui and Anding. If we defeat Gongsun Zan and take Peiping and Xiangping, then attack Liu Bei and take Beihai, Xuzhou and Puyang, our strength will reach ten counties. In this way, we can stand on equal footing. However, Liu Bei's reinforcements have arrived, and the two armies are about the same in strength. Do you have any good ideas?”
Shen Pei replied,"Right now, the three of them have only 260,000 soldiers, while we have 300,000. Moreover, Yan Liang, Wen Chou, and Zhang He are all brave generals who are renowned throughout the world. There was no doubt that they would win this battle. However, victory is a miserable victory, and the lord will suffer great losses. Now Fan Chou has no land to establish a foundation and has no choice but to attach himself to Gongsun Zan. This person is greedy for money and likes profit. If you lure him with high officials and high salaries, he will certainly surrender. If we defect on the spot, the enemy will certainly be defeated, and our losses will be small.”
"It's a good plan. If he surrenders, I'll guarantee that he'll be conferred the title of marquis and general. After the matter is completed, they are all promised to thank him with ten thousand taels of gold. But who can do it?" Yuan Shao said.
Xu You stood up and stepped forward." Fan Chou is an old friend of mine. I'm willing to go and talk to him. However, he is greedy for small profits. You can give him five thousand taels of gold first. That way, you can get twice the result with half the effort."”
Yuan Shao agreed.
At night, Xu You sneaked into Fan Chou's camp with a large sum of money. When they arrived at the camp, Xu You said to the soldiers guarding the gate,"I am Xu You, an old friend of General Fan Chou.”
Fan Chou received the report and welcomed him into the tent.
"I heard that you are with Yuan Shao. Are you here to persuade him?”Fan Chou asked.
"I came here for two things. One is to save General's life, and the other is to give General a great fortune.”Xu You said.
"Oh, I hope so." Fan Chou said.
"Gongsi, who will win tomorrow's battle? Who is wrong?" Xu You said.
"I don't know." Fan Chou said.
"My lord has good soldiers and brave generals. He has many wise men under him. He will definitely win tomorrow's battle. However, I have an old friend with you, so I came to report to you and ask you to take care of yourself.”Xu You saw that Fan Chou was silent and said,""In tomorrow's battle, even if Gongsun Zan wins, you will lose a lot of soldiers. Gongsun Zan and the others have cities and food, and their soldiers can be replenished.”
"What do you think?" Fan Chou felt that what Xu You said made sense.
"If General defected on the battlefield tomorrow, Minister Yuan will grant General the title of Marquis and General. I'll give you 10,000 taels of gold. Now I'll give you 5,000 taels of gold first, and the rest will be paid after the job is done.”Xu You said.
"If that's the case, then Chou will listen to the public security platoon.”Fan Chou was attracted by the high position and high salary.
"How about tomorrow?" Xu You explained in detail the details of the defection in the decisive battle tomorrow.
The next morning, Gongsun Zan ascended the tent, with Liu Bei and Fan Chou seated on either side.
Gongsun Zan said," Today, we will fight. I will be in the middle. General Liu will be in the left wing, and General Fan in the right wing. If we lose this battle, our foundation will be lost, and General Liu's territory will become Yuan Shao's meal. Thus, we must work hard in this battle to win.”
"Yes, sir." The generals stood up.
At noon, the two armies faced each other.
Gongsun Zan knew the bravery of Yan Liang and Wen Chou in Yuan Shao's army. If he sent his generals to fight, they would definitely be defeated. He did not answer, but led his army to attack. The two armies fought.
Fan Chou couldn't hold on any longer, and he led his troops to squeeze towards the middle army.
"General Gongsun, we have urgent military intelligence.”Fan Chou said loudly to Gongsun Zan.
Gongsun Zan did not suspect anything and rode over. Just as he arrived beside Fan Chou, Fan Chou pointed behind him and said,"The Middle Corps can't hold on any longer."
Gongsun Zan was shocked and turned his head to take a look. It was too late to say, but in the blink of an eye, Fan Chou's hand was raised and his knife fell. Gongsun Zan, a brave general of his generation, had actually died at the hands of a villain.
As soon as Gongsun Zan died, Fan Chou defected, and Liu Bei could not support him alone. He led his troops to retreat to Peiping.
Fan Chou commanded the soldiers to clean up the battlefield. A general from Yuan Shao's army hurried over on horseback. "Prime Minister Yuan wishes to see General Fan," he said.
Fan Chou felt that he had made a great contribution and did not suspect anything else. He only took a hundred or so bodyguards and rode to Yuan Shao's tent.
As soon as he entered the tent, he heard Yuan Shao say,"Take this thief down.”
Before Fan Chou could react, he was captured.
"What does Minister Yuan mean by this?" Fan Chou shouted anxiously.
"You're a heartless person. Gongsun Zan and the others aren't weak, but you harmed him like this. Come on, push him out and kill him." Yuan Shao said.
Only now did Fan Chou understand that karma was this fast. He had tricked Gongsun Zan into killing him, causing the alliance army to be defeated. But now, Yuan Shao was killing the donkey when he was done grinding. Not only did he use him to win the battle, but he also wanted to annex his troops and take back the five thousand gold he had given him last night.
Gongsun Zan would never have thought that the person who avenged him was his mortal enemy, Yuan Shao.
In this battle, Yuan Shao had wiped out 30,000 enemies and captured 40,000. Adding on the 60,000 troops that he had annexed from Fan Chou, Yi Jing's forces had risen to 280,000. After a few days of rest, Yuan Shao ordered Gao Gan to lead 50,000 troops to garrison Yijing and attack Peiping.
Liu Bei fled to Peiping and gathered 100,000 defeated soldiers. At that time, Gongsun Zan's younger brother Gongsun Yue and son Gongsun Gong saw Gongsun Zan dead and Yuan Shao led his troops to pursue him. They were afraid and helpless, so they asked Liu Bei for advice.
"Yuan Shao is attacking with 230,000 troops," said Liu Bei."Gongsun has just died, and the morale of the army is unstable. It would be better to abandon the city and go to Xiangping. If Yuan Shao sent more troops to attack, they could take the sea route to Beihai and slowly recover.”
Gongsun Yue and the others went back to make preparations. They packed up their troops, money, and food, and left Beiping overnight.
After Yuan Shao got Peiping, he transferred the garrison of Yijing to guard it and led the army to attack Xiangping.
Liu Bei and others saw that the situation was urgent, and Gongsun Yue and others retreated along the coast to the North Sea. The two prefectures of Liaodong had already belonged to Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao assigned officials and sent troops to guard them.
Liu Bei saw that Yuan Shao had taken the east of the river and would attack the north sea in a few days. He was busy arranging defense and collecting food and grass.
Gongsun Yuan, the second son of Gongsun Zan, was young and brave. He was appreciated by Liu Bei and was appointed to preside over the defense of Xuzhou.
Chen Gong had been in Xuzhou and had not been appointed by Liu Bei. After the defeat of Liaodong, Liu Bei gathered troops to defend various places. Liu Bei saw that Chen Gong was stable, cautious and thoughtful. He had a deep conversation with him and knew that he was a great talent. He worshiped Chen Gong as a military adviser.
Liu Bei occupied three prefectures and had 240,000 soldiers. After Chen Gong took office, he believed that Yuan Shao's attack would first take Beihai. He ordered Mi Fang and Mi Zhu to lead 50,000 troops to garrison Xuzhou, Liu Pi and Sun Qian to lead 40,000 troops to garrison Puyang, and Liu Bei to lead Gongsun Yue, Gongsun Gong, Gongsun Yuan, Jian Yong, Chen Deng, Lei Bo, Guan Hai, Han Zhong, Gong Du, etc. to gather 150,000 troops to garrison Beihai. --
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