Summoning the Peak of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 2542 The end of the war, Chu and Wu negotiations

Chapter 2538: The end of the war, the negotiations between Chu and Wu

Just as Sun Wu went deep into Jiangxia alone and moved to Yunmengze, the three battlefields of Jiangling, Shangyong, and Yangpingguan were also proceeding in an orderly manner.

In order to break through Jiangling City, Xue Rengui transferred a lot of siege equipment from Xiangyang, and the siege combat capability has been improved several times.

However, Ma Yuan, the defender of Jiangling, was not idle either, but took advantage of this interval to stabilize the military's morale, improve the city's defense, and also brought Jingnan reinforcements into the city.

After the Qin army's equipment arrived, they immediately launched a siege. They could attack for seven consecutive days, but they still failed to shake Jiangling City.

Seeing this, Xue Rengui knew that Jiangling City was not easy to fight, so he simply stationed and surrounded Jiangling, changing from a quick attack to a slow attack. Casualties are minimized.

Xue Rengui suffered setbacks in Jiangling, and Wu Qi also suffered setbacks at Yangpingguan.

Yangping Pass, guarded by Liu Yu himself, is almost perfect in all aspects. In addition, Yangping Pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack, even if Wu Qi personally commands it, it is difficult to break the city.

Therefore, Wu Qi also adopted the same strategy as Xue Rengui, using siege equipment such as bed crossbows and catapults to attack the Shu army at Yangping Pass from a long distance, weakening the strength of Yangping Pass little by little.

This kind of play is naturally feasible to deal with the generals, but whether it is Ma Yuan of Jiangling or Liu Yu of Yangpingguan, they are all famous commanders who swept an era. Naturally, it is not difficult to find a way to solve it.

Xue Rengui and Wu Qi's blunt-knife-cutting tactics worked very well in the initial stage, causing a lot of casualties to Chu and Shu. The later the casualties, the smaller the casualties.

However, even if the casualties to Chu Shu are getting smaller and smaller, the Qin army can still shoot dozens of people every day, but it is nearly a hundred, so Xue Rengui and Wu Qi are not in a hurry, after all, no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat.

If they can't break the city in one day, it will take a hundred days. If they can't break it in a hundred days, it will take two hundred days. Anyway, they are not short of food and grass, so they will slowly consume the two armies of Shu and Chu to see who can consume them first.

The two battlefields of Jiangling and Yangpingguan were both at a stalemate. Only Han Xin in the Shangyong battlefield opened the situation.

In Shangyong New City, the two counties and ten cities, the generals who were willing to surrender to Qin had already surrendered, and they each had their own difficulties if they were unwilling.

Either the small family is in Xinzheng as the hostage, or the control of the city is in the hands of the noble family. In short, it is unlikely that they will be persuaded to surrender, so Han Xin has only one way to go.

After Han Xin breached Fangling City, he not only met the stubborn resistance of the defenders, but also the fierce resistance of the local aristocratic family in the process of attacking Shangyong County.

If it was just a local defender, it would naturally be no problem for Han Xin, but the local nobles also participated in it and supported the Shu army against the Qin army, which undoubtedly increased the difficulty for Han Xin to capture Shangyong several times.

Daqin has always had only one word for the noble family who dared to clearly oppose Qin, and that is: kill.

In Jizhou, Youzhou, and Liaodong, a large number of aristocratic families dispatched troops to fight against Qin, and they did not know they died directly under Da Qin's butcher's knife, or died in the process of liquidation after the war, without exception.

Da Qin's ruthless attitude towards the aristocratic family made all the aristocratic families in the territory pinched their tails, and they no longer dared to resist the imperial court and the Qin Fa.

The Shangyong family are not fools. Why would they dare to help Shu fight against Qin when they knew that they would be retaliation by Da Qin?
The reason is still a 'greed' word.

Shangyong is surrounded by mountains on all sides and has a very closed geographical environment, which has resulted in the control of the aristocratic family over the local area, which can be called the best in the world.

In today's world, almost all the world is suppressing the family, only Li Tang reuses the family, so the Shangyong family supports Li Tang.

After Li Tang destroyed the country, he was replaced by Shu Han. Although Shu Han suppressed the aristocratic family, the force was not too great. Therefore, compared to Da Qin, the Shangyong family was more willing to stand in the line of Shu Han.

After all, if Da Qin occupied Shangyong, according to Qin law, most of the land owned by the Shangyong family would be taken away and distributed to the local people, and only a small part of the property, slaves, and tenant farmers could be retained.

This is something that the Shangyong family cannot accept anyway, after all, it is the wealth accumulated over the generations.

Moreover, if he had committed a major murder case and caused public anger in the past, Daqin would also try the case again, uphold justice for the people, and win the hearts of the people.

The Shangyong family exploited the immediate people too much, and no family had a clean hand at all. In order not to be liquidated, they could only stand on the opposite side of Daqin.

In addition, in order to delay Han Xin's advance, Liu Yu sent envoys to lobby the major Shangyong families and made two major commitments.

The first is to ensure that the property of the Shangyong family is not violated.

The second is to promise to send troops soon.

It is these two points that give Shangyong World and Daqin the courage to fight against each other.

The Shangyong family, headed by Shen, Zhang, and Zhao, dispatched all their clan soldiers to support the Shu army in defending the city.

What's more, he even killed the defender who tried to surrender to Qin, took over the city defense and the army himself, and prevented the Qin army from entering the city.

The decisions made by the Shangyong family were obviously stupid, and they soon paid a very painful price for their stupid behavior.

The resistance of the Shangyong family made it more difficult for Han Xin to attack Shangyong, but for Han Xin, it was just a little more difficult.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance.

Shangyong oppressed the local people too seriously, and the people in Shangyong have been suffering for a long time, but they can barely survive, and they are unable to resist, so they have been enduring exploitation.

Han Xin has investigated Shangyong and knows that the people have been dissatisfied with the family for a long time. Seeing that the family has turned against Qin, in order to minimize the loss of the siege, he plans to provoke the people's hatred of the family and disintegrate the defense of Shangyong from the inside. .

Han Xin personally wrote the "Shangyong Wanmin Book", in which he denounced the family's oppression of the common people, and what benefits the common people would gain after Daqin took over Shangyong. In the city of Yongzhu.

After Han Xin had done all this, he encircled the counties of Shangyong, but did not directly attack the city, and then just waited for good news.

Brother Shen Yi and Shen Dan of the Shen family, when they learned about the contents of Han Xin's crossbow arrow biography, were so frightened that a cold sweat broke out behind their backs.

They even have the content of Han Xin's letters, how tempting the common people of Shangyong are. Once it spreads, it is likely to cause riots among the people, so they resolutely ordered the seizure of all letters, and all acts of circulation and private storage are treated as conspiracy and treason. .

There were too many letters that Han Xin shot into the city, and the defenders had seized most of them, but there were still many secretly hidden by the people.

The order of brothers Shen Yi and Shen Dan caused a large number of people to be arrested, and they killed many people as a shock.

The mouth of defending the people is better than that of defending the river.

Brother Shen Yi and Shen Dan want to rely on power to forcibly stop the mouths of the people. It may be useful in the short term, but it is not a long-term solution, and the more ruthless the suppression, the greater the hatred that erupts from the people.

As expected by Han Xin, after half a month of besieging the city, the anger in the hearts of the people could no longer be suppressed, and the first civil unrest broke out in Shangyong Beiwu County.

The people were dissatisfied with the oppression of the aristocratic family, killed officials to resist, and stormed the prison, released their imprisoned relatives, and then opened the city gate to lead the Qin army into the city.

And after having the first one, naturally there will be a second one soon.

After Beiwu County, civil uprisings also broke out in Wuling and Anfu counties, and the defenders were pinned down by the Qin army outside the city.

Three consecutive cities were lost due to civil uprisings, which naturally aroused the vigilance of Shen Yi and Shendan brothers. Under strict guard, the civil uprisings that broke out in the remaining Shangyong and other cities were strongly suppressed by the defenders in the city.

However, the Qin army took advantage of the internal turmoil in Shangyong and launched an attack on the cities of Shangyong.

The brothers Shen Yi and Shen Dan wanted to suppress the civil uprising inside and repel the Qin army outside. Obviously they couldn't do this with their ability, so they were easily attacked by the Qin army.

On the day that Shangyong City was broken, Shen Yi scolded Liu Yu in the city master's mansion, saying that reinforcements would arrive within five days, but he waited for more than half a month, and he did not wait for the reinforcements from Shu until the city was broken.

At this moment, Shen Yi still didn't understand, he was deceived by Liu Yu, and the price was that the Shen family was about to be exterminated.

"Liu Yu, you don't believe what you say, I curse you to die."

After scolding, Shen Yi wiped his neck with a sword and committed suicide.

It took Han Xin more than half a month to surround Shangyong Zhucheng, but it only took three days to let Shangyong Zhucheng fall without attack.

After completely occupying the two counties of Shangyong New City, Han Xin purged the Shangyong family.

All the noble families who dared to join the Qin army, all the blood relatives were beheaded, the men who were not directly related were executed higher than the wheels, and the women entered the Jiaofang Division as official prostitutes.

The three major families of Shen, Zhang, and Zhao, and more than a dozen other families, were all slaughtered.

Han Xin, at a negligible price, successively captured the two counties of Shangyong New City, and then led his army to turn back and headed straight for Xicheng.

Xicheng is the last gate of the three major defense lines on the Han-East Line. As long as Xicheng is broken, Han Xin's army can enter the Hanzhong Basin.

However, Liu Yu was obviously prepared for this. Taking advantage of the gap between Han Xin's attack on Shangyong, he sent an additional [-] reinforcements to Xicheng, bringing Zhang Ren's defenders in Xicheng to [-], which was more than the attacker's. Han Xin had even more troops.

When Han Xin attacked Shangyong, he dispatched an army of 700 troops. The Jintai ambush failed, but was defeated by Zhang Ren, losing [-] troops, and more than [-] troops were lost in the attack on the new towns and counties of Shangyong.

Not counting the surrender, Han Xin still had [-] troops in his hand at this time, of which [-] were scattered and stationed in the major cities of Shangyong, so Han Xin's troops that could be used to attack Xicheng were actually less than [-].

As the last line of defense in the eastern part of Hanzhong, Xicheng has been reinforced many times by Li Shimin, and now it is a fortified city, and the number of defenders in the city is even greater than that of the attackers.

If Han Xin can't lead Zhang Ren out, then there is only one way to attack. Even if he can break the city in the end, I'm afraid he will have to pay a very heavy price.

After thinking for a while, Han Xin still did not choose to attack, but wrote to Ying Hao of Chang'an.

If the emperor must occupy Hanzhong at this time, then he will break the Xicheng at all costs.

If there is still room to turn around, then Han Xin has already contained the main force and will not attack for the time being.

After receiving the summons from Han Xin, Ying Hao immediately convened his advisors to discuss, and finally decided not to attack Xicheng for the time being.

It's not that Ying Hao has no confidence in Han Xin, but that all the attention of the Shu Kingdom is on Hanzhong at this time, so the difficulty of occupying Hanzhong at this time is actually the greatest.

If Han Xin didn't break the Xicheng, it would be fine. If he did, he would force the Shu Kingdom to expand its army to the limit, and then fight the Qin army to the death in Hanzhong.

Shu State is the second largest country after Qin State, and Qin State's next targets are Sui State in Xiliang, and the three kingdoms of Wei, Song and Ming in the Central Plains.

Before destroying these four kingdoms, Qin State will not break out a national war against Shu State.

A decisive battle with Shu at this time will definitely affect Qin's plan to unify the Central Plains, and it will not be worth the loss.

The original plan of the Qin State to send troops this time was only to occupy Guanzhong, but now not only has Guanzhong been obtained, but also three counties of Longxi, two and a half counties of Liangzhou, and two counties of Shangyong have been overfulfilled.

At this point, Da Qin has already taken advantage of it, and if he continues to fight, it will easily trigger a chain reaction, and the end of the war will be the most beneficial.

Therefore, Ying Hao not only stopped Han Xin's attack on Xicheng, but also suspended Wu Qi's attack on Yangping Pass.

At the same time, he ordered Han Xinzhu to form the Shangyong Corps, with an army of [-] people, stationed in Shangyong, Xincheng and Nanyang counties, to contain the Shu army in the direction of Xicheng of the Shu Kingdom.

He ordered Wu Qi to set up the Longxi Army, with an army of [-], stationed in Longxi, Wudu, and Hanyang, and contained the Shu army in the direction of Yangpingguan.

Ying Hao's order basically showed that the war started by Da Qin was also over under Da Qin's leadership.

However, although the war between Qin and Shu ended, the war between Chu and Wu did not end.

The Crown Prince of Wu, Sun Ce, was captured alive by Wuzhiqi. How could Sun Jian, the King of Wu, give up without saving Sun Ce?
However, Sun Jian also knew that dispatching all the troops from the whole country might not be able to rescue Sun Ce, so he planned to negotiate with Chu State first, hoping to redeem Sun Ce through negotiation.

(End of this chapter)