I am Li Shimin of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 241 Capture Xi County
When Zhang Liao heard this, his brows were filled with joy. In this way, Hanzhong Pingding is just around the corner.He naturally believed in Zhuge Liang's judgment, after all the previous series of inferences had come true.

Sure enough, within a few days, Zhang Lu sent an envoy to the camp to submit a form of surrender, expressing his willingness to surrender.

In fact, there is nothing to hesitate. If you can't fight and fight, you can't run and run. Zhang Lu still doesn't want to kill himself, so what choice is there, just surrender.

Then Zhang Liao led his army all the way south to Bazhong, where he accepted Zhang Lu's surrender. So far, Zhang Liao's army successfully captured Hanzhong at a negligible cost.

At the same time, Zhang Liao sent troops to continue eastward, occupied Xicheng and Shangyong, and opened a passage connecting Jingzhou. It also prevented Liu Biao from Jingzhou from getting involved in Yizhou, so that the entire Hanzhong was completely pacified by Li Shimin.

Cheng Lian's army also took advantage of Liu Zhangfang's unresponsiveness, and decisively took down Yang'an Pass and Baishui Pass. Together with the already occupied Bazhong, it can be regarded as completely strangling Bashu's throat, laying a good foundation for the future army to capture Bashu. Base.

Li Shimin was also very happy when he learned that Hanzhong was pacified and Zhang Lu surrendered. This marked that all the strategic goals of the Hanzhong battle had been achieved. He had locked Yizhou in advance, and Yizhou would definitely be his own in the future.

Immediately, by the order of the imperial court, Zhang Lu was granted the title of General of Zhennan, Marquis of Langzhong, [-] households in Shiyi, and Zhang Lu's five sons and others as Liehou, and ordered Zhang Liao to lead the army to escort Zhang Lu to Chang'an.

In addition, he appointed Yang Ang and Yang Ren, Zhang Lu's men, as the generals of the army, and continued to stay in Hanzhong to obey Cheng Lian's orders and assist in guarding the main roads of Hanzhong.

Li Shimin left Cheng Lian and Zhuge Liang behind, and continued to run Hanzhong, set up fields to train troops, and provide food and grass guarantees for the future conquest of Yizhou. After all, it was too difficult to transport grain from Guanzhong to here. Hanzhong is also a famous granary in the world. The land is fertile and rainwater Sufficient, the grain and grass produced in the Hanzhong Plain in one year are enough for 20 troops for more than half a year, so it is very important to run Hanzhong well.

The second is to collect information on Yizhou, find out in advance the route to enter Bashu in advance, find out the various routes in the middle of Shu, draw them into a book, and hand over Liu Yu, the school lieutenant of Yizhou Baiqi Division, to Zhuge Liang's direct leadership.

Many years ago, Li Shimin had secretly dispatched a group of spies to Shu to join the "Dongzhou Soldiers" formed by Liu Yan. Nowadays, many spies with good martial arts skills have mixed into the positions of lieutenants.

The territory controlled in Hanzhong and its surrounding areas, and civil affairs were all entrusted to Kong Ming, while the military affairs were entrusted to Cheng Lian for overall planning.

Although the total strength of Zhang Liao and Cheng Lian's army has reached 15 at this time, which is a little more than Liu Zhang's army in the middle of Shu, the road to Shu is difficult to reach the blue sky, the road is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it took Liu Bei two days to take Shu. In addition, there are many ethnic minorities here and the situation is complicated. If we want to seize the land of Shu, we must have sufficient preparations.

Therefore, Li Shimin transferred the main force of Zhang Liaolong's army back to Chang'an. After a short rest, he planned to transfer to the Central Plains battlefield. The next step was to launch the final decisive battle against Cao Cao who was entrenched in Yanzhou, Qingzhou and Yuzhou.

………………

On the Nanyang front line, Gao Lan and Lu Bu have also started to act.

Gao Lan's [-] trapped troops moved southward from Wuguan with lightning speed, and went straight to Xixian County. The guard of Xixian County was Yuan Shu's confidant general Qiao Rui. Revenge, therefore, let his confidant General Qiao Rui lead [-] elite troops to garrison Xi County.

Although Gao Lan was caught by surprise, he still couldn't get past Qiao Rui's eyeliner arranged in advance. When the army was fifty miles away from Xixian County, Qiao Rui had already received the news, and immediately closed the four doors and prepared to defend. At the same time, he rushed to Yuan Shu in Wancheng. Report the military situation and ask for support.

Originally, Gao Lan didn't expect to be able to avoid the enemy's eyes and ears and take down Xi County by surprise. Yuan Shu naturally attached great importance to the front line of Wuguan. He had already deployed heavy troops, and the purpose of his army was to attract Yuan Shu's attention. Create conditions for the surprise attack of Lu Bu's army.

The [-] troops set up camp [-] li outside Xixian County, taking a rest for a day. The soldiers were also very tired from the rapid march along the way, and at the same time, they were waiting for the rear army's logistics team to bring up the siege equipment.

In the early morning of the next day, Gao Lan, who was all ready, rushed towards Xixian County. The army was solemn and morale was like a rainbow.

"Ho Ho Ho..." The tens of thousands of troops erupted in a shocking roar, their murderous aura was wanton, and Qiao Rui at the top of the city was terrified when he saw it.

"This is the enemy's entrapment army. It's an old opponent. We have learned how powerful the enemy is at Wuguan. This battle is very fierce." Qiao Rui had previously attacked Wuguan with Yuan Shu, so naturally he knew the strength of the entrapment army. of.

"Ho Ho Ho..." Dozens of powerful soldiers pushed the catapult from the back to the front. When they were ready, Gao Lan drew his sword and shouted: "The catapult, attack!"

"Xuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu......" A dozen catapults showed their power together, and the huge boulder roared and flew towards the head of Xixian County.

"No, this is the enemy's catapult. Send an order to tell the soldiers to hide and don't show their faces. Hurry up..." Qiao Rui had heard about the power of the Bingzhou Army's catapult, and when he saw it today, he found it terrifying.

"咚咚咚..." Pieces of flying stones whizzed, cut through the void, drew a perfect arc in the sky, and hit the top of the city. Immediately there was a ghost cry and wolf howl on the top of the city, accompanied by the splash of rocks , the scene was extremely chaotic.

Since it was the first time they saw the enemy's catapults, many soldiers ran around the city to avoid them in a panic, but they all became the targets of the catapults. fly.

"Help, brother, I beg you to save me..." A soldier who was hit in the lower body wailed mournfully, and asked the soldier hiding under the low wall to save himself, and the soldier next to him closed his eyes with a look of resentment.

The catapults were still outputting crazily, and there was no intention of stopping at all. The city gate tower was riddled with dense artillery stones, and a section of the low wall was also damaged, with bricks splashing everywhere.

Gradually, the defenders seemed to have adapted to the enemy's shelling, and most of them hid in strong places such as the foot of the city wall.

After the shelling lasted for more than half an hour, Gao Lan waved the command flag, and the forward five thousand soldiers, under the cover of crossbowmen on both sides, held up their shields and pushed a dozen ladder carts towards the city wall.

The defenders lost all momentum after being hit by the catapult. They climbed to the top of the city in a daze and began to counterattack. Immediately, the crossbowmen on both sides began to attack each other from a long distance.

(End of this chapter)