webnovelfull Chapter 350 Pan Zhang's defenses crumbled
Chapter 350 Pan Zhang's defenses crumbled
Putting aside his character, Pan Zhang was also a seasoned general with extensive experience in countless battles. He quickly noticed something amiss in Guan Xing's strange behavior and frowned as he fell into deep thought.
Pan Zhang sat at his desk, carefully considering the recent events several times. Finally, he muttered to himself, "Guan Xing could have won, but he insisted on suffering a crushing defeat. Why?"
"There are many cases of feigned defeat on the battlefield, and the purpose is obvious: to lure the enemy into pursuit and thus lead them into an ambush."
"But Guan Xing's purpose doesn't seem to be that simple. First of all, he only has four or five thousand men, which is too few and they are all rushing towards us. There is no extra force to ambush them. Secondly, who would lure the enemy deep into their own territory?"
"Although he only took four or five thousand men with him on his way back to camp, there are still more than three thousand men in the camp. If the battle becomes stalemate and Wu's army in the camp launches a timely attack, it will be Guan Xing who dies. How could Guan Xing, who is as cunning as a monkey when he gets his hair on, not see the risks and put himself in such a predicament?"
"If it's not about luring the enemy in deep to set a trap and then ambushing us, then what is Guan Xing's purpose? Surely he's not just messing around with us for no reason?"
Pan Zhang was completely baffled and scratched his head in frustration. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him. He looked up, his eyes blank, and muttered unconsciously, "No, the purpose of feigning defeat to lure the enemy is to lead them into an ambush and achieve greater results. Guan Xing must have the same goal."
"Guan Xing wants to achieve something even greater than breaking through the Sun and Moon Lake camp. And what is that greater achievement? Do you even need to ask? It's naturally me, Pan Wengui! That damned Guan Xing wants my life!"
"So his defeat this time wasn't to lure me into an ambush, but simply to lull me into a false sense of security and prevent me from escaping?"
"But Guan Anguo, have you forgotten that I have more troops than you? How could I possibly flee without a fight? You underestimate me, Pan Wengui, too much!"
Thinking of this, Pan Zhang felt a surge of anger at being looked down upon. He slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly, ready to confront Guan Xing. But as soon as he stood up, he remembered something and sat down again, continuing to ponder, "No, Guan Xing's purpose in risking his life to cross Wuyi Mountain and putting himself in such a dangerous and isolated situation is probably not just me, Pan Zhang."
"Now that Grand Commander Lu has broken through Yushan and is heading to Damo, and Lord Lü Dai is about to land at sea and enter Kuaiji, Guan Xing's rear is in great danger."
"Guan Xing must also know this, and he must be eager to resolve the battle here and lead his troops back to reinforce. Therefore, his target is Grand Commander Lu, not me. To defeat Grand Commander Lu, we must first defeat Zhuge Jin and seize Yuhan City, blocking Grand Commander Lu's retreat while attacking from behind?"
"If that's the case, why provoke me, Pan Zhang, instead of directly attacking Yu Han's Zhuge Jin? If you attack Zhuge Jin, I will provide support, but if you attack me, Zhuge Jin may not provide support. Zhuge Jin's mission is to guard the corridor, not to support me, Pan Zhang. So Guan Xing wants to deal with me first and then Zhuge Jin, in order to achieve the goal of defeating them one by one?"
"That must be it, and that's the only way it can be. So Guan Xing wasn't that he couldn't defeat me; he was afraid that after the battle was setbacked, I would retreat to Yu Han and join up with Zhuge Jin. That's why he used the rout to lull me into a false sense of security, so that I could stay at Riyue Lake and buy him the opportunity to quickly annihilate me, Pan Wengui, and then turn around and kill Yu Han?"
"Then another question arises: Guan Xing only has four or five thousand men, so where does he get the confidence to quickly annihilate my eight thousand troops?"
"Considering the unusual behavior of Peng Qi's bandit army, the answer becomes obvious. Guan Xing is waiting for the envoy sent to Peng Qi's bandit army to complete the incorporation of the bandits, and then concentrate his superior forces to kill me. Therefore, he definitely did not retreat to Linru County, but went to the official road leading to Yu Han to block me and prevent me from meeting with Zhuge Jin."
Once you think about it this way, all the anomalies can be explained. But then another question arises: how do we break this deadlock?
The simplest and most direct way is to immediately leave the camp and attack Yu Han, and fight Guan Xing to the death at the place where Guan Xing is blocking. He still has eight thousand elite soldiers, and defeating Guan Xing's four or five thousand men should not be a problem.
However, he had just been outmaneuvered by Peng Qi for several days, and his soldiers were exhausted and in dire need of rest. If they went on the expedition now, their morale would be low, and even if they could defeat Guan Xing, they would likely suffer heavy casualties, which would be a loss.
The key is that defeating Guan Xing is easy, but capturing or killing him alive is very difficult. If Guan Xing escapes into the bandit army and joins Peng Qi, he will still be a big problem for me.
If the best way to capture Guan Xing alive and decide the outcome of the battle is to contact Zhuge Jin and launch a pincer attack from both sides, concentrate superior forces to completely surround Guan Xing before he finishes incorporating Peng Qi's bandit army, and then annihilate him.
However, it would take time to send a message to Zhuge Jin. It was more than 200 li from Riyue Lake to Yuhan, and it would take two days for the messenger to arrive. By the time Zhuge Jin prepared to lead his troops to arrive, four or five days would have passed. In such a long time, Guan Xing could very well have already met up with Peng Qi.
Moreover, Zhuge Jin may not be in Yu Han at the moment. Don't forget that Zhuge Jin is also responsible for transporting grain for Lu Xun and patrolling the corridor to ensure the smooth flow of grain. He may be next to Lu Xun or in the middle of the corridor at the moment. If that's the case, it will take even longer.
On one hand, there's the option of quickly defeating Guan Xing and letting him escape to Peng Qi's army to continue causing trouble with his bandits; on the other hand, there's the option of contacting Zhuge Jin to gather Guan Xing together and annihilate him, thus solving the problem once and for all. Which should we choose?
Pan Zhang was caught in a difficult choice. He paced back and forth on the ground, struggled for a long time, and finally made a decision. He sat down at his desk, wrote a letter, and called his personal guards over, instructing them: "Immediately send someone to General Zhuge Jin as quickly as possible to tell him that Guan Xing is with me. Tell him not to worry about the corridor for the time being, but to turn around and deal with Guan Xing with me first. Once Guan Xing is dead, the corridor will naturally be safe."
"Send out all the scouts again to search for Guan Xing and Peng Qi's whereabouts. At the same time, order the local village chiefs, village heads, and other officials to help search as well. I need to know Guan Xing's exact whereabouts."
"Order everyone to eat and rest. Tomorrow morning, the army will break camp and head east, creating the appearance of heading to Yu Han to meet with General Zhuge Jin. I want to see how Guan Xing will react when he finds out."
He figured it out. Since both options had their advantages and disadvantages, he would take both. He would first lead his army eastward in the shape of retreating to Yuhan, then adjust his direction during the march, insert himself between Guan Xing and Peng Qi, and separate them before they could meet. Then he would turn around and attack Guan Xing from north to south, thus ensuring that Guan Xing could only escape to the south after his defeat, and would not be able to escape to the north to meet Peng Qi.
As long as Guan Xing doesn't flee north to join Peng Qi, he won't have enough troops to surround him, and if he can't be eliminated, he won't pose a threat to Yu Han.
Therefore, he didn't need to capture Guan Xing; he only needed to hold Guan Xing back to prevent him from launching a sneak attack on Yu Han and thus cutting off Lu Xun's retreat. The rest would naturally be left to Lu Xun.
Just do it.
"Yes, sir..." The guard acknowledged the order and left.
Pan Zhang quickly stopped him and ordered, "Notify Li Tong to immediately lead troops to the military market and rob all those merchants. We're about to break camp, so there's no use keeping those merchants around. It's time to close the net after setting up this scheme for so long."
"Look..." The guard was overjoyed and ran away. This was a chance to make money, and he had to be proactive. If he wasn't proactive in making money, he was out of his mind.
At Pan Zhang's command, the Wu army sprang into action. Messengers rode out of the camp and headed straight for Yuhan City, followed closely by scouts who scattered like celestial maidens scattering flowers as they searched for Guan Xing and Peng Qi's whereabouts to the east and north.
Qu Chang Li Tong, who was in charge of managing the military market, also led his troops straight to the military market. However, Li Tong had some conscience, and recently he had received too many gifts from the merchants, so he secretly sent someone to deliver a message to the military market before setting out.
Upon receiving the news, the merchants in the military market got up and ran without saying a word, so hasty that they didn't even take their goods with them, nor did they need to.
To prevent Pan Zhang from robbing them, they had long since replaced all their goods with stones, only bringing samples into the market. Once they reached an agreement with a buyer, they would go elsewhere to trade. In short, this so-called military market was just an information exchange center, where they only exchanged information and did not participate in buying and selling. Therefore, even if they were robbed, they would not suffer too much loss, but the premise was that they had to escape. Losing their lives would be a huge loss that no amount of wealth could make up for.
Secondly, they had been warned by Guan Xing half a day earlier and were already prepared to flee. Some merchants had even run away in advance. Now, with Li Tong's reminder, they naturally got up and left.
Li Tong cooperated well, dawdling on the road for half an hour, giving the merchants half an hour to react and escape. Half an hour later, he stormed into the military market. Once inside, he didn't chase after anyone but went straight for the goods.
After pulling all the goods back to the main camp to report to Pan Zhang, Pan Zhang rushed out of the command tent and came to the front of the cart. Looking at the boxes on the cart, he rubbed his hands together excitedly and said, "There's so much stuff! Let me see what treasures are inside!"
As he spoke, he personally opened the box lid, and upon seeing the contents, the smile on his face gradually froze, finally turning into rage.
But he hadn't given up yet, so he quickly opened another box. After seeing what it was, he completely lost his temper, forcefully flipped the box to the ground, and cursed, "Where's the money? Where's the goods? Why are they all stones?"