Kai Fu Han

Chapter 611 Lower Yangzhou

In the end, Zhao Liang did not embarrass Huang Xilu and took him into custody, waiting for the war before handing him over to the alliance leader.

After defeating the remaining navy of Nan Zhao, the three fleet captains drew lots and decided that the third fleet would be responsible for reorganizing the captured Nan Zhao warships to transport supplies to the second and third brigades on land.

The First and Fourth Fleets and the Second Fleet, which had gone north to take credit, continued southward, reaching Hangzhou.

This time we went to Hangzhou not to harass, but to occupy the city before the army did.

……

From Gaoyoujun to Yangzhou, a distance of more than 100 miles, Liu Xinjun spent three days crossing this fertile land in Jiangbei, which was in the midst of a good harvest.

Yangzhou City has already been closed and on alert.

Yangzhou is also known as Jiangdu. A long time ago, the moat of Yangzhou City was a section of the Jiangnan River. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty opened it to become a section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal on the original basis. Therefore, the moat of Hangzhou City is very wide.

A moat that is too wide also has its drawbacks, because methods of crossing the river such as suspension bridges and arch bridges become unrealistic, and continuous permanent flat bridges have to be built.

Including the water gate, Yangzhou City has a total of twelve city gates. Each city gate has a corresponding bridge, which is wide and stable.

In the Yangtze River Basin and Jiangnan area, Yangzhou City is a rare solid city with high walls and strong walls.

According to the firepower of the Xinghan Alliance field army, it is not difficult to capture Yangzhou City. What is difficult is that we only have a brigade of 1 people. If Yangzhou City is captured by force, how to maintain the order caused by the storm in the face of more than 50 people in the city? confusion.

"Let's try to recruit surrender directly." Liu Xinjun sent people to the city wall to recruit surrender.

The Yangzhou defenders entertained the surrender envoys well and accepted the surrender letters seriously, but they refused to give any decisive words, neither surrender nor talk of war.After wasting a day, Liu Xinjun finally realized that the Yangzhou defenders should be waiting for reinforcements, but he was not sure whether they were waiting for reinforcements from Hangzhou to go north, or waiting for the more than [-] forbidden troops from the north to return south.

On leap April 22, Liu Xinjun officially launched an offensive against Hangzhou City.

In order to avoid damaging the stone bridge on the moat and causing difficulties for his own side to cross the river, Liu Xinjun chose to use all explosive bombs.

The Xinghan Alliance Field Army's infantry and artillery coordination has now been used very skillfully. The artillery from behind is constantly bombarding, but the infantry in the front can launch siege normally.

The defenders on the northern wall of Yangzhou City were so bombarded by explosive shells that they did not dare to raise their heads and allowed the field army of the Xinghan Alliance to pass through the stone bridge.The field army did not carry any siege equipment. After reaching the downstairs of the city gate, they directly started the standard siege tactics of the Xinghan League.

Grenades were used to clear the obstacles on the city, and then long poles were used to support the upper city and open the city gates.

Everything went very smoothly, so smoothly that Liu Xinjun couldn't believe it.

It wasn't until Liu Xinjun entered the city and came to Zhizhou Mansion that he finally understood some of the reasons.

It turned out that the army and Nan Zhao navy had come to Yangzhou for supplies, which greatly damaged Yangzhou's vitality. The gentry officials in the city sent out all the capable officials they could use. Less than half of these capable officials were killed by Zhao Nan's people and scared away. Less than half, the rest barely completed the supply mission. After returning, they did not dare to continue to work against the Xinghan Alliance for fear of being killed.

The original garrison in the city helped deliver logistics supplies to the Northern Expeditionary Army, but was blocked to the north of Gaoyou Army.

No one expected that the [-]-strong Southern Zhao Army in Xinghua County would be so vulnerable. Not even a day after Yangzhou City learned the news of the defeat of the Xinghua Army, the Xinghan Allied Forces came to the door. Yangzhou can be said to be The emptiest time.The forcibly recruited militiamen did not have capable officials and garrison officers as the backbone command, and they were more scattered than a pile of sand. The final result was that Liu Xinjun easily broke through the city.

Walking into the lobby of the Zhizhou government office, there were all the officials of Yangzhou imprisoned. No one committed suicide. The loyal and brave ministers who might have committed suicide were killed by Zhao Nan's people when the army of South Zhao and the army were in Yangzhou for supplies.

"The current security in the city is chaotic and we need your help to maintain stability. If anyone is willing to help, please come forward." Liu Xinjun asked the officials in the lobby.

Recruiting surrendered officials is a temporary measure. The soldiers of this brigade still need to continue southward, and it is impossible to spend them all in Yangzhou City.

The people below are all good people, they know what to do when to protect themselves. Some officials obviously want to stand up, but they still carefully look at the official in the middle wearing a third-grade official uniform, waiting to see his statement.

"This is Che Yuwen, the magistrate of Yangzhou." The military officer who was responsible for guarding these officials reported to Liu Xinjun.

"Master Che, let's make a statement first. Time is tight and we can't give everyone too much time to think about it." Liu Xinjun pointed it out directly.

Seeing that he couldn't hide, Che Yuwen had a tangled look on his face. He looked around at the Xinghan League soldiers. They all looked tall and strong, well-trained, and well-equipped with weapons.Any one of them would be a minor general in Nan Zhao, but in the Xinghan Alliance, he would be just a soldier.

The muskets on the backs of these soldiers subverted Che Yuwen's understanding of weapons. The Xinghan League's rise all the way did have its advantages.

"For the sake of the people in the city, I asked the general to promise me that he would allow me to return to my hometown for retirement." Che Yuwen said.

"We'll talk about it later." Liu Xin didn't agree to the conditions proposed by Che Yuwen. These officials themselves didn't know much about them, and they didn't know how many of them had committed heinous crimes. Agreeing to Che Yuwen was equivalent to agreeing to all the Southern Zhao officials who surrendered in the future. Too cheap for them.

Che Yuwen's condition was just to find a way for himself. It did not mean that Liu Xinjun had to agree before he would go out to do things. Seeing that Liu Xinjun did not agree or refuse, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "In this case, I will agree for the sake of the people in the city."

It was unclear what kind of official Che Yuwen was, so Liu Xinjun didn't promise much. He nodded and let him go out of the hall and looked at other officials.

The leader "surrendered" first, and the others naturally borrowed donkeys from the slope. Most of the officials directly agreed to help and followed them out of the hall. In the end, only seven people were more tough and sat on the ground and ignored them.

"Change their custody to another place and free up this lobby for office use." Liu Xinjun ordered his subordinates.

No longer looking at the seven hardliners who were die-hard loyal to Nan Zhao, they turned around and walked out of the lobby.

There are many people in the world who cannot see current events clearly, consider themselves loyal, and feel good about themselves. Generally, such people do not end well.

With the help of surrendered officials who were familiar with the local area, order in Yangzhou City quickly stabilized. The local gangsters, hooligans and other villains who took advantage of the chaos to make money were all executed and hung with ropes around their necks at twelve city gates.

The people in the city could see these killed "chickens" when entering and leaving through the unsealed city gates, and the living "monkeys" became much more obedient.

Even Che Yuwen was extremely surprised. He originally thought that everyone would work together to fight against the Xinghan League and sponsor all their own grain and iron reserves. Unexpectedly, after the Xinghan League entered the city, they would set up stalls in various markets to buy, and they actually collected another 300 yuan. Wanshi grain, 10,000+ catties of iron ingots.

"Hey, I won't complain if I lose."

(End of this chapter)