Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 919

Kaiyuan three years, February.

Feng Xiaoci joined forces with Zhao Gui to enter Handan, and Gao Junya's troops in Wu'an County were wiped out.In March, Luo Cunxiao, king of Wei, went to Qinghe and Wuyang counties. Liu Ya, the number one general of the Xia army, was beheaded by Luo Cunxiao's formation at the foot of Guixiang on the east bank of the canal.

In May, the emperor sent generals Pei Renji and Qu Tutong to lead an army from Hanoi to attack Fan Yuan, the governor of Ji County.

Three routes of soldiers and horses, 15 people surrounded Dou Jiande, Cao Bao, and Wei Jun.

By June, except for Yecheng, the whole of Hebei had been in the hands of the Qin army.

Qin Jun formed a complete siege on Xia Jun.

Yecheng was terrified, and the wind and rain were like darkness.

Cao Bao frowned and came to see Dou Jiande again.

"The Qin army is so powerful that it is difficult to compete with it, what can we do?"

Dou Jiande is still under house arrest. In the palace in Yecheng, he is holding a Luoyang newspaper and reading it with great interest. In the past six months, Xia Jun has lost all the territory outside Yecheng after losing all the battles, but Dou Jiande has grown white. A little fatter, even a little fatter.

"A Bao, with the situation like this, why don't you surrender?"

"Surrender? What's the deal?" Cao Bao was not reconciled, and he couldn't surrender. He put Dou Jiande under house arrest in a mutiny and advocated the resistance to Qin.

"I still have one hundred thousand elite soldiers!"

"One hundred thousand elite soldiers? How many people are still willing to fight? It's better to surrender to Qin, and avoid the pain of a siege."

Summer has passed and autumn has come, and the situation in Yecheng is extremely critical.

Because of the long-term siege, the city lacked food, and the people had no food to eat. Every day, people tried to escape from the city and join the Qin army outside the city.

The Qin army set up many big pots outside the city. Every day, the big pots cooked porridge and stewed meat.

Cao Bao couldn't stop it.

Although the soldiers of the army still had food to eat, they felt uneasy and felt that the future was uncertain, and the army was pessimistic.

Dong Kangmai, Wang Xiaohu, Cao Zhan and other Xia generals came to discuss with Cao Bao one after another.

"Before today's discussion, let me make a rule. At the beginning, you and a certain swear to the sky to resolutely resist Qin to the end. Therefore, if anyone dares to surrender to Qin today, don't blame me for being ruthless." After finishing speaking, Cao Bao He untied the fixed sword in his waist, handed it to the head of his personal guards, and told him that whoever dared to surrender to Qin would cut off his head directly.

As a result, Dong Kangmai's generals couldn't help being embarrassed. Originally, they really wanted to talk about surrendering to Qin, but Cao Bao blocked the way as soon as he came.

"Prime Minister, there is no food in the city now, and the food is almost exhausted, what can I do?"

"I intend to go out of the city to fight a decisive battle, break out of the encirclement, fight back to Hejian, and regroup!" Cao Bao proposed a plan that had been brewing for a long time.

Originally retreating to Yecheng, they hoped to take advantage of the terrain at this time to hold on, and then wait for the situation in the world to change.

But who would have expected that the situation would get worse and worse.

During the New Year, the Three Kingdoms of Wu, Chu, and Liang in the south of the Yangtze River reached a peace agreement with the State of Qin. Luo Cheng withdrew the Northern Expeditionary Army and returned the territories captured by the Three Kingdoms.

Among them, an agreement was reached with Xiao Xian of the Liang Dynasty. Qin State exchanged Yiling and other counties south of the Yangtze River for Xiangyang, Nanyang, north of the Han River.

The conclusion of this agreement between the four countries can be said to have shattered Cao Bao's last illusion.

The Three Kingdoms in the south of the Yangtze River professed their vassals to the Qin State, surrendered their vassal vassals, and conferred the title of Kaiyuan Year.

Li Zitong from Huainan wanted to be a vassal of Qin, but he refused. As a result, the Three Kingdoms betrayed Li Zitong, and Qin Qiong assembled troops in Pengcheng to march south.

Before the army had crossed the Huaihe River, Li Zitong's subordinates rebelled and surrendered to Qin one after another.

After a mutiny, Li Zitong fled Jiangdu City in embarrassment. He crossed the river and wanted to join Shen Faxing, but was lured and captured by Shen Faxing, who instead sent him across the Yangtze River to Qin Qiong who arrived in Jiangdu.

Qin Qiong sent people to escort Li Zitong directly to Luoyang, and Li Zitong's old troops in Huainan joined them one after another, almost without a fight.

From the mouth of the Han River to the mouth of the Yangtze River, the north of the river belongs to Qin.

As for the section of the Jingjiang River from Hankou to Zigui, although the north bank of the river to the south bank of the Han River still belonged to Xiao Xian, the north bank of the Han River had already belonged to the State of Qin.

Not to mention the Bashu region that went west after passing Zigui, it is now almost a matter of transmission.

In the south of Wuling, Lingnan East and Lingnan West are now renamed Guangdong Road, Guangxi Road, and Guangnan Road, as well as Yunnan Road and Qianzhong Road in the southwest. new moon.

Even Master Liang of Shuofang had such a strong bone. Although he wanted to resist to the end, his generals He Sui and Suo Zhou led their troops to surrender the cities they guarded. At one time, twelve cities fell to Qin.

Master Liang could only retreat to Shuofang City for a while.

Siye led the army to besiege Shuofang and pull out the east city. Liang Shi all retreated to the west corner to resist.But at this time, he was besieged on all sides, and even the soldiers of the Jihu tribe, whom he relied on as his confidant, were not reliable.Liu Rucheng, commander-in-chief of Jihu, saw that Master Liang was in trouble, so he secretly sent someone to ask to see his successor, and made an appointment with him.

In May, Liang Shidu's generals Xin Liaoer, Li Zhengbao, Feng Duan, etc. wanted to surrender, and Liu Wen, Liu Lancheng, etc. also secretly sent people to contact Siye.

At the end of May, Li Zhengbao and others sent troops to raid the palace of Liang Shidu. Liu Rucheng led troops to open the city gate to lead the Qin army into the city.

As soon as Liang Shidu died, all his Northern Liang soldiers surrendered.

In the entire Guanlong area, there is no anti-king.

Cao Bao hopes that the situation will change drastically, and then make a comeback, which is obviously impossible.Seeing the food and grass dwindle day by day, he can only hope to break through.

Although the north is now unified and there is no place to escape if he breaks out, he is not unwilling to surrender.

Outside Yecheng.

The three-way army with 15 horses surrounded Yecheng like an iron bucket.

Seeing that it was already autumn, Cunxiao was not in a hurry to storm the city.

"According to the information, there are only one hundred thousand Xia troops left in the city. They have been trapped for a long time, and their food and grass are almost exhausted. Now the Liang division has also been destroyed, and Li Zitong has been captured again. In the whole world, our Qin army is no longer invincible. , all surrender, Cao Bao and others have no more illusions, they are about to go out of the city to fight to the death."

"Commander, will Cao Bao really leave the city for a decisive battle?"

"This information is very credible. Now many people in Ye City are looking forward to our early recovery of the city, so there are many kinds of news."

Now that the battle has been fought, there is no longer any suspense.

Cunxiao's three-way army fought all the way, regained all parts of Hebei, and wiped out nearly 10 Xia's army. Now there is only one Yecheng and [-] lone troops left. Cunxiao doesn't need to fight, as long as the siege can trap them to death .

The war in the north has ended, and there will be no war in the south even for the time being. The Qin army has sufficient food and supplies, and food, grass and supplies continue to arrive. Even if the siege lasts for half a year, nothing will happen.

But the Xia army was different. No matter how strong Yecheng was, it was still an isolated city. After losing all the surrounding territory, the city would run out of food and grass, even the firewood.

"One hundred thousand hungry and impoverished troops want to break out of the siege, beware of them fighting with trapped beasts." Qu Tutong reminded.

Cunxiao was not in a hurry, "It's okay, I have already got a good plan here, and I'm just waiting for him to break through."

It turned out that as early as half a month ago, Cunxiao had already judged through intelligence that Xia Jun was going to break out of the city, so he secretly organized many civilian men and auxiliary soldiers to cut off the water flow in the upper reaches of Zhangshui River and build embankments to store water.

Just after Xia Jun left the city, a flood came to flood the Seventh Army.

really.

In less than three days, Cao Bao really opened the gate of Ye City one morning and led his army to break through.

The [-] cavalry of the Xia Army led the vanguard, followed by the infantry auxiliary soldiers, protecting the emperor Dou Jiande and the families of the generals.

Relying on the camp, Qin Jun fought fiercely with Xia Jun.

From the morning to the afternoon, the cavalry of the Xia army was surrounded by the Qin army, and the infantry was surrounded by the two wings of the Qin army who arrived later. Nearly [-] infantry and their families were unable to advance, and their retreat was cut off, so they had to be driven away. East.

They were driven to the banks of the Zhangshui River.

The retreating Xia army was overjoyed to find that the Zhanghe River was shallow and could cross the river directly.

Little did they know, it was all a trap.

When countless Xia Jun began to cross the river, the time finally came.

Luo Cunxiao ordered the upstream to break the embankment and release the water. The turbulent river rolled down and rushed down in an instant.

The tens of thousands of Xia army infantry who were driven here did not expect such a disaster. Thousands of them drowned at once, the team dispersed, and the army formation was no longer there.

The [-] infantry and thousands of family members of the Xia army were defeated, and the [-] cavalry were completely alone, besieged by the Qin army near the city of Ye.

Cao Bao and a few other generals fled.

The vast majority of the Xia army eventually surrendered.

After the cavalry surrendered, Cunxiao sent people to pull a net to search for the infantry who had been washed away by the flood.

Facing the Qin army's light cavalry galloping to and fro, the Xia army's infantry had no fighting spirit. They put down their weapons one after another and raised their hands to surrender.

On the third day of August, the two brothers Cao Bao and Cao Zhan were besieged by female soldiers led by Dou Hongxian in Qinghe County, but Dou Hongxian was not polite to his stepmother's brother.

She personally pursued and killed Cao Bao with a horse lance.

The Cao Bao brothers were only surrounded by dozens of cavalry, so how could they be the opponents of Dou Hongxian and her thousand female soldiers? In the end, the two brothers were shot to death by random arrows, and Dou Hongxian personally chopped off their heads.

Dong Kangmai, Gaoya and Xia Jun did not escape in the end.

The whole of Hebei has drawn up a big net to search and arrest them everywhere. After these Xia generals fled the battlefield, they were all caught and arrested.

Xiahuang Dou Jiande surrendered outside Yecheng. Facing Qin Jun Qingqi, he did not resist at all, and calmly told them his identity and surrendered.

August fifth.

Cunxiao's victory report was sent to Luoyang.

Great victory in Yecheng, captured Dou Jiande alive, beheaded Cao Bao, Dong Kangmai, etc., and Hebei was pacified!
The prime minister on duty, Fang Xuanling, received the good news and rushed to the palace impatiently. Before the emperor woke up, he was woken up by the servant.

When the emperor came to the Hall of Yanying and saw Fang Xuanling, the prime minister excitedly presented the good news.

"Your Majesty, the North is unified!"

Luo Cheng took the news and quickly scanned it.

Then, the emperor leaned back and half-lyed in the chair.

a long time.

The emperor finally let out a long breath.

"Although this day has been expected for a long time, when this day really comes, I am still a little excited."

"Congratulations, Your Majesty, for unifying the North!"

(End of this chapter)