Chapter 57: Luring the Enemy into a Trap

  In May of the seventh year of Guangzhong, on the day of wu-xu, Huangfu Song and Zhu Yun led their army to attack Changping, and it was broken. Peng Tuo led a crowd of more than 700,000 to come and rescue, and confronted Huangfu Song's main force at Xiaoye, twenty miles east of Changping.

  The two armies fought each other in several battles, with casualties on both sides.

  The rebel army's morale is high, and they are twice as strong as the government troops. Huangfu Song feared that a major battle would result in heavy casualties and affect the overall plan to pacify the rebels, so he withdrew his troops back to camp and gathered his generals to discuss strategies for defeating the enemy.

  Chinese military commander's tent.

  Huangfu Song looked around at his generals and asked: "Now the rebel army's morale is high, what strategies do you have to defeat them?"

  Zhu Yu stroked his beard, his eyes gleaming brightly, as if he had already made up his mind.

  Cao Cao got up and walked to the military map hanging on the screen, pointing to a low valley ten miles north of Changping: "General, please take a look. This place is low in the valley and dense in forest, which is very beneficial for our army to ambush. If our army sets an ambush here, we only need to lure Peng Yue's rebel army to come, and when the time comes, all the ambush troops will be released, and we can defeat the rebel army in one battle."

  Huang Fu said in a low voice: "However, if you want to make Peng Tuo fall into the trap, I'm afraid it's not that easy."

  Zhou Jian said, "This is easy. Even if Peng Tuo can see through our army's plan to lure the enemy, the Yellow Turban rebels are just a mob after all. Our army only needs to lose ten battles and we will be able to make the enemy arrogant and lure them into an ambush."

  Huangfu Song said with a smile: "Very well, Cao Cao and Zhou Jian, listen to the order."

  Cao Cao and Zhou Jian hastily stepped forward, clasped their hands together in salute and said: "Your subordinate is present."

  Huang Fu said: "Order you two to lead your respective troops, tomorrow come out of the camp and engage in battle, only allow defeat, do not permit victory, lure the enemy into an ambush."

  "I will obey orders."

  The two of them hastily obeyed the order.

  Zhou Jian changed his mind and said: "But please let General leave behind the commander's flag to confuse the rebel army."

  Huang Fu's eyes gleamed with delight, and he exclaimed: "This plan is truly ingenious! With the commander-in-chief's banner still in place, order the soldiers to retreat while displaying many flags to confuse the rebels. I'm sure Peng Tuo and his bandit followers will fall into our trap."

  Zhou Jian then bowed his hands again and immediately turned around to join the ranks.

  Huangfu Song then arranged for a large army to set up an ambush and immediately dispatched various generals.

  That night, the army of 40,000 took advantage of the darkness and left in batches.

  The next day at dawn, Cao Cao's army tent.

  Zhou Jian bowed his hands to Cao Cao and said: "General Cao, why don't I lead the troops to fight, and you stay in the big camp?"

  Cao Cao said: "Alright, General Zhou, just lead your troops forward. I will personally ensure that the main camp is secure."

  Zhou Jian immediately bid farewell and left the tent to inspect the troops.

  Each of them had 4,000 soldiers under their command, totaling 8,000 people.

  Zhou Jian led 6,000 infantrymen out of the main camp and went to the front of the rebel army's formation to challenge them to battle.

  Cao Cao then led two thousand infantrymen to guard the large camp, and his two thousand archers also followed Zhou Xiang out to battle.

  The two armies faced each other on the battlefield.

  Xu Chu rode out on horseback and successively defeated five great generals of the Yellow Turban rebels. In an instant, the morale of the rebel army plummeted, and their soldiers lost the will to fight.

  On the other hand, the morale of the government army soared.

  "Hurray for the Chinese army!"

  "We will win if we fight."

  A thunderous roar like a landslide and tsunami almost overturned the sky, shaking the yellow turban soldiers in front of the formation to pale.

  Rebel rear guard.

  "Hey!"

  Peng Tuo fiercely swung his whip and loudly shouted: "Pass the order, the great army will attack, break through the government troops."

  "Understood."

  There were already close guards who quickly received orders and immediately galloped away, swiftly passing down the military order.

  In the midst of the earth-shaking drumbeat, the Yellow Turban rebels surged forward in a chaotic manner and launched a fierce charge against the government army.

  Peng Tuo was not good at commanding troops, and the more than 70,000 rebel soldiers didn't even have a camp, only choosing a small hill package, digging several trenches around it to defend against the official army's surprise attack. Although the defensive works were extremely simple, the large army leaving the camp was also much more convenient.

  More than 70,000 rebel troops surged forward, although they were a motley crew, but the momentum was quite spectacular.

  Zhou Jian led his troops in a brief skirmish, but unable to resist, he retreated and fled back to the main camp.

  "Chase up and give this official army a good stab in the butt."

  The rebel rear array, Peng Tuo saw that the government army was defeated and fled, and suddenly his spirit was lifted, shouting loudly.

  More than 70,000 rebel troops swarmed like locusts, without any formation to speak of, and chaotically followed in pursuit.

  Zhou Jian led his troops in a 'retreat' into the large camp, Cao Cao had already assembled his soldiers and was waiting to receive them at the front of the camp.

  The Peng Ze rebels had just chased to the gate of the camp, when they saw arrows flying like locusts in the camp, a piece of black cloud gathered and shot out, more than a thousand yellow scarf rebels fell down with a loud cry, and the front row of the rebel army fell down one after another.

  "Hey, this damn archer."

  Peng Tuo, seeing the division clearly in the middle army, couldn't help but slap his thigh heavily and shouted loudly: "Attack, don't stop, today General Peng must trample the official army's camp. As long as we destroy this group of officials, the court will no longer be able to do anything to us."

  "Understood."

  There were already loyal soldiers who hastily responded to the order and left.

  Under the drive of the Central Army, the rebel vanguard retreated without any place to retreat and had no choice but to charge forward with a hard scalp.

  In the government army's large camp, arrows fell like rain, two thousand archers constantly drew their bows and poured down a rain of arrows on the Yellow Turban rebels' heads.

  The rebels finally rushed to the front of the government army camp after nearly 5,000 casualties.

  Peng shouted loudly: "Charge forward, charge into the camp!"

  However, before he could rejoice for long, the rebel army was once again subjected to a crushing defeat at the hands of the government troops.

  Thousands of Yellow Turbans had just rushed to the front of the camp, and before they could even pull out the fence in front of the camp, they fell into a trench covered with thin wooden boards and floating soil, heavily hitting the sharpened deer horns.

  A shrill and mournful howl suddenly shattered the long silence of the sky.

  Thousands of Yellow Turbans were crowded together, with people constantly being squeezed into a trench that was five zhang wide and three zhang deep, where they were easily pierced by sharp and pointed deer horns through their flesh.

  The Yellow Turbans who had rushed up to the foot of the palisade also fell under the hail of arrows shot through the loopholes.

  "Hey, I'm suffocating too!"

  Peng Tuo's face turned pale with rage, he let out a loud roar, seeing the heavy casualties of his troops, and hastily ordered: "Pass on the order, retreat!"

  "Understood."

  The guards hastily obeyed and left.

  In an instant, the Yellow Turban rebels retreated like a receding tide.

  Cao Cao, dressed in military attire, walked up to Zhou Jian with big strides and laughed three times: "The rebel army has retreated, haha!"

  Zhou Jian wiped the blood from his face and said in a steady voice, "Although the rebel army is numerous, they are nothing but a mob. It won't be easy for them to break through our camp. But this is only the first battle, we still have to lose ten more times!"

  Cao Cao cupped his hands and smiled: "I am no match for General Zhou's military prowess. I will just defend the camp and observe how you use your strategy."

  Zhou Jian said: "This is a matter within our own ranks, today the rebel army has retreated, let's fight again tomorrow!"

  The rebels retreated immediately, and the two of them ordered the army to rest and clean up the bodies in the trenches in front of the camp, and repair the barracks.

  The next day, Zhou Jian led his troops to battle again and was defeated once more by the rebels.

  The third day

  The fourth day

  The fifth day

  ……

  The tenth day.

  Zhou Jian led the army to fight, and was defeated again by the rebel army, fleeing in disarray. After escaping back to the main camp, Peng finally came up with a clever plan after ten days, sending 5,000 infantrymen to sneak past Zhou Jian's army and launch a surprise attack on the main camp from the side and rear.

  Cao Cao was caught off guard and his camp was breached by the rebel army, so he had to lead his troops to join forces with Zhou Jian, killing their way through the intercepting Peng Ze's rebel army as they retreated in disarray to the northwest, abandoning countless banners and heavy equipment along the way.

  Peng Tuo saw the government army's camp being raided and occupied, and suddenly felt relieved. The suffocation of the past ten days was swept away, and he shouted loudly: "Stop just looting food, let General pursue them, and wipe out this group of dog-fucking government troops."

  Soon, the Yellow Turban thieves who rushed into the government army camp to rob food and supplies were driven out of the camp by the shouting and driving of their leaders, and they swarmed forward, pursuing the "defeated" government army.

  Ten miles north of Changping, on a mountain cliff with a rather high terrain.

  Huangfu Song and Zhu Yun's faces were expressionless, they stood with their swords at the ready, gazing in a southeasterly direction.

  Sudden rapid footsteps suddenly sounded in the distance, startling countless birds in the forest.

  One of his attendants rushed up the hill and reported: "Report, Cao Cao and Zhou Jian's army is fleeing in defeat and has already arrived five miles away."

  Huangfu Song's face showed joy and he heavily slapped his thigh, saying: "Good! Peng Yue has already fallen into the trap. Pass down orders to all generals to act according to plan."

  "Roger that."

  The guards hastened to carry out their orders and left.

  Huangfu Song sighed and said to Zhu Zan: "I see that Cao Cao and Zhou Xun, the two generals, have some talent. If they can be slightly nurtured, it will not be difficult for them to become pillars of the court in the future. When we are old, the court will not worry about having no capable generals who are good at fighting. Therefore, I often let them command troops alone and use the suppression of the Yellow Turban Rebellion to temper them. This time, they succeeded in luring Peng Tuo into an ambush, and these two men did not disappoint my expectations."

  Zhu Zan said: "The general's painstaking efforts are indeed a blessing for both the military and the imperial court!"

  Huang Pu Cong glanced sideways at the southeast direction, and his eyes suddenly froze, "He's here!"

  Zhu Ling turned his head to look, and saw that three miles away, at the corner of a mountain, a cavalry unit was turning around, hastily retreating, and rushing towards the low valley where the main army was ambushing. They were constantly abandoning their banners and heavy equipment in the mountains and fields, while the Yellow Turban rebels pursued and killed them.

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