In 192 A.D., the two overlords of the north Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zhan's long-term war finally divided the victory and defeat, Yuan Shao, who had the fourth and third dukes, went through hardships and finally defeated the brave and warlike white horse general Gongsun Zhan at the boundary bridge, and the strategic idea of unifying Hebei and the four states was about to become a reality.
Yuan Shao, whose prestige was in full swing, led a large army to temporarily stay in Boluojin, and feasted the generals with great ambition to celebrate this hard-won victory. Just as everyone was singing praises to each other and drinking heartily at the banquet, suddenly a cronie ran to Yuan Shao's side and whispered a few words, which frightened Yuan Shao immediately and dropped the wine glass in his hand to the ground.
It turned out that Yuan Shao's base camp Jizhou was deceived from the hands of the former Jizhou Mu Han Fu, and after Yuan Shao took office, in order to consolidate his position and strengthen the centralization of power, he wantonly replaced the original officials at all levels and replaced them with his own cronies, so there are powerful people in the place who are dissatisfied with Yuan Shao. This time, taking advantage of the opportunity of Yuan Shao's main force, some people in Yecheng joined forces to stay in the garrison, openly held a rebellion, and united with Zhang Yan, the leader of the Montenegrin Army, to take all the families of the officers and soldiers of the Yuan army who stayed in Yecheng hostage.
Yecheng was Yuan Shao's place of governance, and according to the practice at that time, the families of his subordinates and generals had to stay here as hostages, so the family members of Yuan Jun at this time were almost served by others, and the pressure and blow to Yuan Shao and Yuan Jun can be imagined.
However, Yuan Shao was a hero for a while after all, and he quickly stabilized, blocking the news on the one hand, and on the other hand, the pro-unification army hurried to Yecheng, hoping to recover Yecheng before the news fermented. Unexpectedly, a great happy event was ushered in on the way.
It turned out that Zhang Yan had a general named Tao Sheng, who felt that there was no future for the bandits, and he had long wanted to take refuge in the imperial court, but he had no chance, and this time the Montenegrin army entered Yecheng and finally let him get a good opportunity. Tao Sheng was named "General Pinghan" in the Montenegrin army at this time, he gathered all the families of important people in the Yuan army together on the grounds of taking care of the hostages, sent troops to take care of them, and then took advantage of the fact that the generals of the Montenegrin army were all looting in the city, he actually took his cronies and subordinates and returned all the families of the Yuan army to Yuan Shao on the way back to the army.
Yuan Shao was overjoyed to see Tao Sheng and his family, and immediately informed the whole army, the whole army immediately boiled and the morale was high, Yuan Shao took advantage of the situation to personally lead the army to attack Yecheng, the rebellious soldiers and the Montenegrin army were caught off guard, and they lost the support of the hostages, and they were defeated into an army, Zhang Yan saw this, and had to collect his subordinates and flee back to the Taihang mountains to continue to fight guerrillas.
Zhang Yan's original surname was Chu, and she was a native of Changshan Zhending, although she was a fellow villager with superstars Zhao Yun and Zhao Zilong, she had a different value orientation. When he was young, he relied on his martial arts to be a ranger, and when the Yellow Turban Army revolted, the brave Zhang Yan gathered a group of outlaws to respond, because of his good command, it developed to tens of thousands of people in a short period of time, and returned to Zhending, which can be described as a real return to his hometown.
At this time, the army of Zhang Niujiao of Boling was even more powerful, so Zhang Yan led the army to converge, and respected Zhang Niujiao as the commander, and he was only a deputy general. During the attack on Taocheng, Zhang Niujiao, who was the first soldier, was shot by an arrow and was seriously injured, and before he died, he warned his subordinates that he must serve Zhang Yan as the commander to have a way out. Zhang Yan already had a high prestige in the army, so he naturally inherited the position of commander. In order to express his nostalgia for Zhang Niujiao, he changed his surname to Zhang.
Because Zhang Yan is fast, riding and shooting, especially when galloping on a horse, he is like a bird, so the army calls him "Feiyan". Zhang Yan understood that in order to confront the Eastern Han court, it was necessary to unite people from all walks of life, so he sent people to establish contact with the rebel armies in the surrounding Changshan, Zhaojun, Zhongshan, Shangdang, Hanoi and other places. People from all walks of life are willing to use the banner of Zhang Yan, and Zhang Yan has become the "chief helmsman" of Hebei's green forest world, and some small leaders such as Sun Qing and Wang Dang simply led the team directly into the gang.
When Zhang Yan's power was at its peak, the team was known as one million, although there was an imaginary number, but the strength should not be underestimated. Although Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was very angry, the official army had been in vain for a long time, and the livelihood of the counties and counties in Hebei was dragged down. Just when his subordinates were enjoying the joy of victory, Zhang Yan decided to accept it when he saw it, sent someone to Luoyang to ask to see Emperor Ling, and offered to recruit An, Emperor Ling was overjoyed, and immediately agreed and named Zhang Yan as the general of the middle of the peace. After Zhang Yan obtained the legal status, he immediately arranged for his subordinates to resume production at the station, putting an end to looting.
After Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, the world was in turmoil again, and heroes from all walks of life in the world raised troops one after another.
At that time in Hebei, Yuan Shao and Gongsun Chan competed for power, and Zhang Yan, who was born as a chivalrous man, naturally preferred Gongsun Chan, who also started with military exploits, so he was repeatedly hit by Yuan Shao. However, due to the fact that Zhang Yan's troops were mainly cavalry, and Zhang Yan's combat was extremely mobile, Yuan Shao, who had the advantage, had no way to take him for a while.
After Lü Bu lost Chang'an and fled to Kwantung, he was under Yuan Shao's command for a period of time, and Yuan Shao immediately arranged for him to go to the Black Mountain Army as a vanguard. Zhang Yan didn't know how powerful Lu Bu was, and seeing that he only had a few hundred cavalry, he actually started a cavalry battle with him, and was beaten by the unequaled flying general on the spot to vomit blood, and was almost killed on the spot. Fortunately, Zhang Yan's eyesight was able to escape.
Zhang Yan, who knew that she couldn't fight with Yuan Shao, chose to fight a guerrilla war, which gave Yuan Shao a headache, and even captured Yecheng for a time, which is the story mentioned at the beginning.
Zhang Yan, who fled back to the mountains again, started guerrilla warfare again and slowly regained his strength. In 198 AD, Yuan Shao surrounded Gongsun Chan in Yanjing, and the desperate Gongsun Chan asked Zhang Yan for help. Zhang Yan understood that once Gongsun Chan perished, he would be next, so he personally led all the main forces to the rescue.
Unexpectedly, the messengers between Zhang Yan and Gongsun Chan were captured by Yuan Jun, and Yuan Shao knew that the two were ready to raise fire as a signal, so he cleverly used the signal to raise fire to lure the main forces of Gongsun Chan and Zhang Yan into his ambush circle respectively, and almost completely annihilated.
After this battle, Gongsun Zhan's demise was irretrievable, and the elite that Zhang Yan had accumulated over the years had also been lost, although he barely fled back to the mountains, his strength could not be restored. After Yuan Shao occupied the four states, his power became even larger, and Zhang Yan was unable to fight against it, so he had to hide in the mountains and barely protect himself.
Fortunately, there is no endless road, soon Yuan Shao and Cao Cao broke out the battle of Guandu, Zhang Yan immediately sent an envoy to Cao Cao's army to express his willingness to submit, Cao Cao, who was in a weak position at this time, was overjoyed, and immediately rewarded him in the name of the emperor, and named him a general, so that he could contain Yuan Shao's soldiers and horses in the north.
After Cao Cao attacked Hebei and captured Yecheng, Zhang Yan, who was hiding in the mountains, came to Yecheng in person to meet him, and Cao Cao immediately named him the general of Pingbei and the Marquis of Anguo Ting, with 500 households in the city, and he was still guarding in the Jinyang area. Zhang Yan died of illness soon after receiving the title, and his son Chu Fang inherited his title. After Chu Fang's death, his son Chu Rong inherited the title.
A ranger, in troubled times, participated in the Yellow Turban, although he was defeated repeatedly, but he almost defeated Yuan Shao, who had just defeated Gongsun Zhan, was booming, and had a unified Hebei meteorology.