Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 565: Battle of Nanzheng
A whole day and night had passed since Yang Song, Yang Bai and Ma Chao joined forces to attack Nanzheng...
Nanzheng City went through several stages, including Ma Chao's attack, Zhang Lu's escape, the Xiliang army's entry into the city, and the Chu army's reinforcements!
Now most of the southern city wall has collapsed, and the wall in the city wall used to attack the enemy troops entering the city is also not intact. Ten miles to the southwest, it is even more of a mess, as if two Kuns had mated...
At the same time, the news of the battle of Nanzheng City also spread like wildfire. Hanzhong is a separate area in terms of geographical location, but because it is now the hope of the world, the news spread quickly.
After fighting for a day and a night, the Chu Army, which entered the battlefield last, won in the end. The Xiliang Army, which had just entered Nanzheng, was defeated by the Chu Army's guns and the civil strife in Nanzheng City, and finally had to withdraw from Nanzheng.
The "battle of gods" between Sun Ce and Ma Chao also ended in a draw - Ma Chao felt that he had won, but... there was no life or death, and no influence on the battle situation, so who dares to say that he won?
Not to mention that there was no witness, Ma Chao himself did not publicize anything...
After the Chu army entered the city, they immediately issued a notice to reassure the people - calming the people after entering the city was also one of the Chu State's procedural training procedures. The steps were clear and specific, and armies above the brigade level were equipped with special pacification departments!
There was no shortage of military clerks in the State of Chu.
For Nanzheng, it is particularly noteworthy that after the Xiliang Army withdrew, Zhou Yu immediately began to take over the military power of the remaining Tianshi troops in the city.
The original impression of "reinforcements recruited by the Heavenly Master" suddenly became " allies who protected the people after the Heavenly Master escaped", which caused some of the Heavenly Master's remaining troops to feel a little uneasy.
However, compared with the Western Liang Army, the Chu Army was obviously more acceptable. Firstly, Chu was indeed an ally of Hanning Hou, and it had defeated the enemy Western Liang Army and entered the city; secondly, compared with the Western Liang Army, Chu's methods were obviously much more "gentle".
Zhou Yu did not completely "destroy the bridge after crossing it" as for these old subordinates of the Tianshi Mansion. Instead, after entering the city, he took back the power and rewarded and praised all the soldiers who rose up to resist.
At the same time, the publicity focused on the "escape of Marquis Hanning" and the "atrocities of the Western Liang Army", and these were not rumors!
Officially, the Chu army never mentioned the Tianshi Dao, as if in the eyes of the Chu State, there were only "Han Ning Hou" and "Xiliang Army", and they knew nothing about the Tianshi Dao.
Gradually, they also ended up not recognizing the teaching position of Tianshi Dao, and only recognized the official position conferred by Hanning Hou!
In short, he was portraying himself as a brave man who supported his allies and protected the people of Hanzhong, and he also praised the Hanzhong generals who had responded to him in the past...
However, generals who surrendered to the enemy, such as Yang Song and Yang Bai, were quickly tried and executed by Zhou Yu - they were directly sent to the military criminal court of the Privy Council, without even going through the Ministry of Justice.
And the charges for his final execution were "collaborating with foreign enemies" and "treason", but it did not specify which country he had betrayed.
At the same time, when emphasizing propaganda, all the crimes of these people who usually bully the people and run rampant in the countryside were exposed.
Therefore, if one looks at it from the perspective of a "pure passerby", the current situation in Nanzheng City is that there is an internal strife in the Tianshi Dao. A section of the sect that usually bullies the local people has colluded with brutal foreign enemies to slaughter innocent people in Hanzhong, while another section of the top leaders has already abandoned the people and fled.
At this time, Chu, as an ally, sent troops to protect the people of Hanzhong and drive out the brutal foreign enemies...
Even the remaining members of the Tianshi Dao mostly accepted the rewards and commendations from the Chu Army, at least... on the surface!
After all, if he surrendered to the Western Liang army, he would just be a defeated general, but if he surrendered to the State of Chu... not only would the "shade of the tree" be greater, but because the State of Chu came to rescue Hanzhong as an ally, it would be considered "surrendering" rather than "surrendering."
Although Zhou Yu stripped almost all military power of the former Tianshi Mansion generals for the sake of stability, he also hinted that when the situation stabilized and they were willing to join the State of Chu, the Privy Council would re-employ them.
In terms of governance, Zhou Yu also activated the Chu army's existing "wartime state" and quickly took over the political affairs of Nanzheng. He never mentioned Tianshi Dao openly, but in actual practice, the officials with higher status and deeper ties in Tianshi Dao were more completely idle. On the contrary, some grassroots officials who were not deeply involved in the sect were quickly promoted.
As for how to distinguish?
The lurking Fengbuwei and Enlightenment Department were not just for show. They had already passed on the "personality" information of Hanzhong officials that they collected on a daily basis to Zhou Yu through covert channels.
Therefore, the backlash suffered by the Chu army in Nanzheng was much smaller than when the Western Liang army entered the city - coupled with the decisive factor of "the Chu army's strength", the city of Nanzheng soon stopped having any overt noise for the time being.
However, the Xiliang army only withdrew from Nanzheng City, not Hanzhong...
There are a total of nine counties in Hanzhong. Nanzheng is the center of the western part of Hanzhong and also the most densely populated area in Hanzhong. To the west of Nanzheng is Mianyang. As the name suggests, it is located on the north bank of the Mian River, which is the Han River, and is adjacent to Yangping Pass. When Zhang Wei withdrew from Yangping Pass, Mianyang was equivalent to being abandoned.
In addition, there is Chenggu County in the east, Baozhong County not far to the north, and Anyang County a little further away...
As for the eastern part of Hanzhong, the most important ones are Xicheng County and Shangyong County, and the others are Xi County and Fangling County which are adjacent to them respectively.
Among them, Xicheng is the Xicheng in the line "You were so lucky to capture three cities in a row, but you shouldn't be so greedy and seize my Xicheng at the same time", which is also the place where Zhuge Liang performed the "legend" of the empty city plan.
As for Shangyong and Fangling...
In history, when Guan Yu died in battle, Meng Da surrendered to Wei, and Shu Han declined, Shangyong and Fangling also returned to Wei along with Meng Da. This shows that their terrain was still somewhat separated from the western part of Hanzhong, and their population was relatively small.
The Western Liang army has now captured Baozhong and Chenggu, not far from Nanzheng, and is attacking Xicheng and Anyang.
After gaining a foothold in Nanzheng, Zhou Yu's further goal is to continue to recover Chenggu and Baozhong. As for Shangyong and Xicheng, they are closer to Wudang. They were places that Sun Ce and Zhou Yu had passed by before, and more navy will continue to arrive later!
…
Just as Zhou Yu was sorting out Nanzheng, Zhang Lu finally crossed the Migang Mountain Road and returned to the Bazhong area with his remnants. Bazhong also has mountainous terrain and a sparse population. Zhang Lu was preparing to follow the Migang Mountain as the source of the Qianshui River, which was the Jialing River in later generations, to Hanchang, the central county of Bazhong today.
What made Zhang Lu relieved was that, just as Yan Pu had expected, the people of Xiliang had no intention of pursuing them. Although the mountain road was rugged, he was able to escape danger in the end.
However, the next scene made Zhang Lu feel cold in his heart...
"Report! Heavenly Master, there is a group of troops ahead, heading towards us! Look at the flags... they are not the Heavenly Master's army!" The scout who went forward hurriedly reported to Zhang Lu.
"What? Not one of ours? Could it be Liu Zhang?" Zhang Lu felt dizzy .
Even though they brought several thousand people with them, they were now exhausted. If they were really the Xichuan Army, they would probably be in trouble!
"Well, it doesn't look like it. Judging from the flags... it seems to be the Chu army. I wonder if it's a trick." The scout said nervously.
"Chu?" Zhang Lu was stunned when he heard this, not knowing what to expect.
