Chapter 330 Volume Do you understand the art of war?
After leaving Yangquan, we walked a little further and arrived at Mianshan.

The road from Taiyuan to Jingxing is mostly mountainous, with towering mountains on both sides.

When the army marched here, they often sent scouts to find out the situation in each pass on the mountain road before continuing to move forward.

At this time, a scout came to report that there seemed to be an army stationed at the foot of Mianshan Mountain, and judging from the flag, it was Yuan Shao’s nephew Gao Gan.

“Why are you here?”

The imperial court also obtained a lot of intelligence about Yuan’s army.

They knew that Yuan Shao had built a large number of fortifications in the Jingxing area. In addition, Yuan Shao’s strategic goal of this trip was defense, so there was a high probability that he would rely on the fort to defend the city.

Who would have thought that Gao Gan would abandon his sturdy fortifications and set up camp at the foot of the mountain, wanting to fight the imperial court in the wild?

Although this was a small change, it did not make Xu Huang and other generals too moved.

Anyway, the purpose of their trip is to “defeat” Yuan’s army.

I had thought that if Gao Gan retreated to the dock, it would be difficult to be defeated easily, but since Gao Gan came out specifically to fight, it was actually a great opportunity.

“Just pretend that you didn’t notice the high-ranking army. When they attack, immediately abandon your money, food, and supplies and run away. Remember not to fight them!”

Xu Huang quickly worked out the tactics for the next battle and asked Hao Zhao and Guo Huai to execute them.

“Here!”

Military orders are like mountains.

Even though some soldiers did not understand why they came all the way here just to deliver supplies to Yuan’s army, their gradually developed morale prevented them from asking the reasons.

Passing another corner, Xu Huang was riding his horse forward when he suddenly heard footsteps.

A general flag with the word “Gao” on it rushed out from the corner. The leading general was wearing black armor, had a handsome face, and held a sharp sword in his hand. He led the way and rushed towards Xu Huang.

“Death!”

When Xu Huang saw Gao Gan personally leading his troops to attack, he immediately turned his horse around in panic and said, “My life is over! I have fallen into Gao Gan’s trap!”

After saying that, he ran back without stopping for a moment.

Hao Zhao and Guo Huai had also been prepared. When they saw Xu Huang taking the lead in “escaping”, they were terrified and immediately fled with their soldiers, leaving behind the large amount of money and food they had brought with them.

The Han army retreated for more than ten miles before its speed slowed down.

The soldiers all knew that they were faking their defeat, so they were in a good mood and even had time to comment on others’ acting skills.

“General Xu’s shout just now was really scary. I thought we were really ambushed by Yuan’s army!”

“Isn’t it? General Guo’s acting is OK, but General Hao’s acting is a little fake.”

“hey-hey.”

“…”

Several generals heard the soldiers’ discussion. Guo Huai also chuckled and patted Hao Zhao’s shoulder: “It seems that Bo Dao needs to practice hard. If he encounters such a thing again in the future, I’m afraid that the enemy will find out.”

Hao Zhao looked depressed, but turned to Xu Huang and asked, “General Xu, now that we have been defeated and our baggage and food have been lost, you should at least tell us what the strategy was, right?”

Guo Huai also echoed: “That’s right! We should let the soldiers know why they are pretending to fail. If we don’t tell them the truth, I’m afraid that the fake defeat will eventually become a real defeat and damage the morale of the soldiers!”

Xu Huang hesitated for a moment and felt that what Guo Huai said made sense.

The soldiers carried out their orders without any doubt, and the emperor always gave them an explanation afterwards.

“Actually, Your Majesty…”

Just when Xu Huang was about to tell the truth, a scout suddenly came back from the rear in a panic: “General Xu! Gao Gan has led his soldiers to chase us, and they are less than a mile away from our army!”

“!!!”

Xu Huang, Guo Huai, and Hao Zhao were all surprised: “Why would a high-ranking official come after us?”

The money, food and supplies left behind by the Han army were definitely a huge sum!
Logically speaking, Gao Gan would definitely be bewitched by the baggage and would honestly call back his troops and go back to report the good news to Yuan Shao.

But he would actually chase after me?
“General! What should we do?”

Guo Huai and Hao Zhao both asked Xu Huang nervously.

After retreating ten miles in one breath, many soldiers had almost no strength left.

If we continue to retreat and are accidentally caught up by senior officials, then the fake defeat will become a real defeat!
……

Xu Huang did not expect that the accident would happen to a high-ranking official.

He looked around, but finally had no choice but to change his strategy.

“Hand over all your flags. I can use them!”

……

The senior officials behind him.

After receiving the letter from Yuan Shao ordering him to win and not lose, Gao Gan was a little frightened.

Gao Gan actually participated in the Battle of Anyi in Hedong.

Gao Gan couldn’t help but feel terrified at the thought of fighting against such elite soldiers and generals.

Especially when he heard that the generals who attacked Jingxing this time were Guo Huai and Hao Zhao.

Although these two generals did not appear on the front line of the Battle of Anyi, their deeds of fighting alone with less than a thousand soldiers and resisting Yuan Shao’s army in Jinyang for a whole month have long been spread, and people recognize that these two are also famous generals of the time.

Not to mention Xu Huang, a veteran of many battles and a close confidant of the emperor who had already enjoyed a good reputation in his early years.

Even if the generals who came were not of the level of Lu Bu, Guan Yu and Zhang Liao, Gao Gan was not sure he could defeat them with just these three people.

But when the real battle came, when Xu Huang saw his astonishment.

Until the Han army on the opposite side was about to collapse.

Gao Gan suddenly realized that

“Could it be that I am also a famous general who has never been seen before?”

Yes!

It must be that Xu Huang and others did not expect that they would lead the army out for a field battle, and were suddenly attacked, which is why they were in such an embarrassing situation!

By the time Gao Gan caught up, the Han army had already disappeared without a trace, leaving only piles of money, food and supplies behind!
Big win!

With just one encounter, Xu Huang was scared away, and so many supplies were obtained. How could this not be considered a great victory?
Gao Gan was already thinking about how to praise his own achievements to his uncle Yuan Shao!

“Hurry and go count the results of the battle!”

The soldiers under his command quickly counted the captured items and presented the list to the senior officials.

The senior officials were naturally very happy when they saw the list.

But when he saw the kill data, he was stunned.

“Why? Why didn’t any Han soldiers stay?”

The soldiers under his command also responded helplessly: “It’s really because the general is too powerful that he frightened the enemy into retreating as soon as they met. As a result, we couldn’t catch up with them! In addition, there were baggage carts blocking them, so we gave up chasing them and came back to report to the general!”

Senior officials are naturally flattered and feel proud.

But at the same time, he felt a little worried.

The task given to him by Yuan Shao was to achieve a “great victory”!
What is a “big victory”?
Repelling the enemy and forcing them to flee in panic, leaving behind their money, food and supplies is naturally a “great victory”, but if there is no number of heads to support it, wouldn’t this “great victory” be too exaggerated?
……

After pondering for a moment, Gao Gan finally decided to leave a small number of soldiers to transport the baggage back, while he continued to lead the army in pursuit!

“Damn it! How come that group of enemy soldiers are running so fast?”

Gao Gan chased for ten miles but still didn’t see any trace of the Han army, and he was a little depressed.

After chasing for so long, some of the senior officials were tired and thought about just going back.

Anyway, the money, food and supplies are enough to report to Yuan Shao, so why should we continue chasing him?
Just when Gao Gan was thinking about retreating, thunder suddenly sounded from the mountain walls on both sides!

“What’s going on? Why is there a thunderbolt in broad daylight?”

Gao Gan looked up and was suddenly shocked!
【Xu】! 【Guo】! 【Hao】!
The three flags stood quietly above the valley!
And the person standing below was Xu Huang, who had just retreated in a panic!
But Xu Huang now looked calm, without any sign of panic.
moment.

Many soldiers appeared around Xu Huang, each pushing the boulder to roll up and down.

The “thunder in broad daylight” just now was the sound of rolling wood and stone!

There was also noise coming from the valley ahead.

Guo Huai and Hao Zhao each led their troops to attack from both sides, causing Gao Gan’s soldiers to panic.

“I actually fell into the enemy’s trap!”

The high-spirited senior official, who had just been dreaming of receiving a reward from Yuan Shao, suddenly felt his heart sink to the bottom.

The performance of the soldiers on both sides was even worse.

They had been chasing each other for ten miles on the mountain trail and were already extremely tired. They had no chance to rest.

Now they were suddenly ambushed by the Han army and everyone was panicked, staring nervously at the enemy in front of them.

I don’t know.

Xu Huang, Guo Huai and Hao Zhao were more nervous than them!

Guo Huai and Hao Zhao, who were in charge of the ambush, met each other and reminded each other again: “Don’t rush too hard!”

“At this point, we can only use the excuse of an ambush to achieve a small victory over the high-ranking officials.”

“remember!”

“Don’t, don’t, don’t make it a big victory! Otherwise it will really ruin the emperor’s plan!”

Just now, Xu Huang had informed Guo Huai and Hao Zhao of the emperor’s true intentions.

Both of them were very excited, but at the same time they also understood that they really could not win this round. They had to let Yuan’s army win and make Yuan Shao lose his vigilance to create opportunities for the emperor and his men.

Even now, they can only win small victories, and definitely not big ones!
“Bo Dao, let’s all charge slower, giving that senior official more time to react and let him escape!”

“Don’t worry! I know!”

On the surface, the two of them seemed to be moving with great momentum and were rushing extremely fast, but in reality they were not much faster than walking. The close distance between them made it impossible for them to reach Yuan Jun no matter what.

Seeing that they were about to charge into Yuan’s army, they saw that Gao Gan had not yet reacted, and they became anxious.

“What should we do? If we really rush over and start hand-to-hand combat, then we won’t be able to act even if we want to!”

“Damn it! How could this high-ranking official be such a loser?”

The two men felt depressed for a while, and the senior official opposite seemed to have just woken up from his dream.

But no one expected that when Gao Gan saw Guo Huai and Hao Zhao for the first time, he not only did not run away, but rushed forward with a sword in hand!

no! ! !

Even Xu Huang, who was watching the battle from above, had a twitching mouth.

Does this senior official understand the art of war?

(End of this chapter)