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Chapter 497
When Gao Yaxian said this, his eyes were scattered, and Su Dingfang kept shouting: "Father! Father!"

Gao Yaxian finally regained his composure, looked at Su Ding and said in dialect: "We have tried our best to be worthy of King Xia. Zhao Guo took Xia Guo. Within ten years, there will not be a day when we will forget today. In the bloody battle in Gaoyang City, forget about me, Gao Yaxian, but I hope that Lord Zhao will treat the people of Hebei well in the future."

Speaking of this, Gao Yaxian paused and said, "You should lead the remaining brothers to surrender. This is your adoptive father's last wish, and you must fulfill it."

"Father!" Su Dingfang said with tears.

Gao Yaxian said: "Don't act like the sons and daughters that I hate the most. A man should cherish his useful life and do some merit. You are still young, so you don't need to accompany me, an old man. Although King Zhao came from a humble background, he is an old man. Lord Ming, don’t let your adoptive father live up to your expectations.”

Shortly after finishing speaking, Gao Yaxian swallowed his last breath while Su Dingfang and all the soldiers were crying bitterly.
In the end, Su Dingfang and more than a hundred Xia troops in the arsenal surrendered, and the siege general asked Xu Shiji for instructions, and Xu Shiji said to incorporate them all.

The bloody battle in Gaoyang came to an end, leaving behind Gaoyang City that was almost turned into white ground.Although the two armies didn't intend to kill each other, the fierce street battles made the residents of the city very miserable.After Gaoyang broke the city, the generals of Zhao Jun followed Xu Shiji to inspect the whole city, but there were still traces of fierce fighting in the city.

The soldiers were busy collecting the corpses of the two armies and civilians.The vehicles pulling the corpses pushed one after another.

Seeing this scene, Xue Wanjun couldn't help but say: "The gain of this Gaoyang city is really worth the loss. If the Xia army fights like this in every city, our army will capture Hebei even if it takes ten years."

Yuchi said respectfully: "Unless it is absolutely necessary, it is better not to attack the city. The casualties of our army are more than 3000."

General Zhao Quanting said: "Fortunately, Mingzhou is the only important city that the Xia army can defend in Hebei. After capturing Gaoyang City, the grain road between Youjing and Mingzhou has been opened, even if it does not pass through the Yongji Canal, It can also be reached continuously by land.”

Xu Shiji nodded when he heard the words, and said: "The generals are right, all the soldiers have worked hard today, rest for a day, reward the three armies, and go south to attack Xia tomorrow, and send a victory report to Li Yang, saying that our army has captured Gaoyang City."

After the news that Gaoyang City was captured by the Zhao army came out, the defenders in Hejian, Xindu, and Xia's cities no longer had the will to fight, and they all surrendered in anticipation.First, Hejian County and Hejun County came down, and then Xindu County was also attacked by Yinghefu and Ertuo's grassland fanqi, and all counties in the county surrendered.

Yinghefu's general, Qi Ashu, even led Qingqi, broke through Julu City in Xiangguo County of Li Tang, and directly entered Wu'an County.To the north of Mingzhou, Liu Heita's base camp, there were cavalry scouts from Shi Dexi's vanguard.

At the same time, the West Route Army made a breakthrough, and the West Route Army led by Guo Xiaoke continued to advance.

The West Route Army has a total of 5000 troops, most of them are Mohe, Dingling soldiers, and Han army township soldiers from Liaoxi County. After capturing Yanshan County, Bohai County, Guo Xiaoke took Tudiji as the vanguard and led the army southward.
Li Deyi, the grassroots bandit entrenched in Pingyuan County, was originally Liu Badao's old army. Liu Badao started an uprising in Pingyuan, and his subordinates gathered tens of thousands.After Liu Badao's death, Li Deyi continued to command his troops, still named Uncle Army.

Li Deyi fought guerrilla warfare in Bohai and Pingyuan counties for several years, but since the death of Li Badao, Uncle's army has gone from bad to worse. Nearby small counties and small towns, all those that could be captured have been captured, and the rest are large County big city.Uncle's army couldn't attack at all.Later, when he heard that Zhao Jun was coming to attack Xia Jun, and saw that Zhao Jun had a huge army, Li Deyi took the initiative to lead tens of thousands of grass bandits to surrender.

Guo Xiaoke was originally from a reckless background, and he would never refuse a grassroots bandit like Li Deyi.At present, Guo Xiaoke made his own claim and replaced Tu Diji, making Li Deyi tens of thousands of grassroots pioneers to lead the way.

Li Deyi readily agreed, and immediately led his uncle's army to open the way.As the rebel army across the Bohai Sea, Uncle's army is a local snake, and they are all familiar with the Hebei border.So when passing through Xia Junzhou County along the road, they all saw similar scenes.

In front are thousands of light cavalry, without saddles, riding bare-backed horses, opening the way in front of the mountain, and a few broken flags with the words "Uncle Jun" written crookedly are waving in the wind.And there is a mass of grass bandits like locusts crossing the border, 4 to [-] thousand horses, soldiers holding rakes, hoes, axes, wearing tattered clothes like beggars crossing the border.

After Uncle's Army, thousands of brave and sturdy Mohe cavalry rolled across, and after that came well-equipped Zhao Army infantry and Ding Lingbu soldiers.

Every time they encountered a city on the road, Zhao Jun was the first to hold the battle, while Uncle's army came forward under the flag, threatening all kinds of threats under the city. Li Deyi simply put up two banners, one of which said that the whole city surrendered, and Qiu did not commit any crimes. On the other side, it says that if you resist, you can wash the city after breaking it.

The defenders on the city were dismissive when they saw the Uncle's army who looked like a mob, but they didn't dare to neglect when they saw Zhao's soldiers and horses pressing far behind.

It is rare for the grass bandits and the regular army to merge together, but the Zhao army is famous for being good at fighting, and the uncle's army is a local snake. How can the two sides join hands with the cities of Bohai County to resist.Under such circumstances, officials and guards in various cities in Bohai Sea surrendered one after another.

For the surrendered city, Guo Xiaoke only left a small number of troops stationed outside, keeping his promise is really nothing wrong with Qiu.Guo Xiaoke even took the officials of the Xia army who had surrendered to the army and asked them to speak out for the cities along the way to speak for the Zhao army.

Under such circumstances, the effect was very good, Zhao Jun broke through seven cities in a row, but hit a wall at Yangxin City, the prefecture of Bohai County.

Xia Jun's sheriff refused to surrender, so Guo Xiaoke and Li Deyi led Zhao Jun and uncle's army to attack the city.In just half a day, the city was breached by Zhao Jun, who outnumbered the defenders by ten times.After the county guard broke the city, he swallowed gold and committed suicide, while Guo Xiaoke promised to let the uncle's army wash the city of Yangxin.

With the example of Yangxin, all the counties in Hebei are surrendering to Guo Xiaoke's despotic power.Many city defenders surrendered the whole city early before the uncle's army's banner arrived.Guo Xiaoke and Li Deyi led the army with almost no blood, and marched southward all the way, breaking through the Bohai Sea and the two counties of the plain, as if entering a land without people.

The smooth progress was not only unexpected by Guo Xiaoke himself, but Wen Yanbo, who was sitting in the rear base camp, also exclaimed.

The current situation of the Zhao army is that Li Chongjiu's [-] troops go deep alone, while Yu Chigong's West Route Army in Zaixin was defeated by Liu Heitai's fire, and returned to Hejian to join forces with Xu Shiji. Ke, on the contrary, Guo Xiaoke, as a side army along the way, rushed five hundred miles, broke through nineteen cities, and took the lead in attacking Qinghe County.

Even Xu Shiji, who was fighting hard in Gaoyang City, when he heard the news that Guo Xiaoke had captured the two counties, he shook his head repeatedly, saying that this general who was born in Wagang with him is really amazing.

When Guo Xiaoke's men and horses entered Qinghe County, Linqing, the county seat of Qinghe County, and Guantao, an important town, had surrendered as early as when Li Chong's [-] navy army attacked along the river.The road ahead of Guo Xiaoke's East Route Army was even more unimpeded. Guo Xiaoke and Li Deyi took advantage of the momentum to enter Guantao City and sit here.Guo Xiaoke immediately sent Tudiji to lead [-] Mohe cavalry to cross the Yongji Canal to help Liyang City.

This time, the remaining counties in Qinghe County didn't even have to wait for the flag of the Zhao army.

In fact, after Zhao Jun's East Army arrived in Linqing, they had opened up the back road of Liyang City. Li Chongjiu was no longer alone in Liyang City.

The battle between Li Chongjiu and Liu Heitai in Hebei has become very clear.Liu Heikai was trapped in Mingzhou and could not move. Li Yang, where Li Chongjiu was stationed, although Li had supernatural powers, Wang and Bo's two armies were attacking from left to right. It seemed that they were in a difficult situation.

But as Guo Xiaoke's army arrived in Linqing, Tudiji's Mohe cavalry would reinforce Liyang City in two or three days, and the Prairie cavalry would reach Mingzhou in a few days, and Xu Shiji, Yu Chigong's Zhao Junfu The army can reach Mingzhou within ten days. Zhang Xuansu's strategy of splitting up and attacking together has basically been achieved.

So even Wang Bo was going to plunder in Wuyang County, but he was afraid of the arrival of the main force of the Zhao army, so he retreated across the Yellow River.
Li Chongjiu, who was sitting in Liyang City, heard that Guo Xiaoke's East Route Army was making rapid progress and had arrived in Linqing, and Tudiji was sent to help.At the same time, Xue Wanche and Luo Shixin received news from Qishui that they had destroyed Li Shentong's grain fleet on the bank of Yongji Canal and burned more than a dozen Tang army grain ships.

After Li Chongjiu heard the news, he couldn't help smiling, and Xue Wanshu said to Li Chongjiu: "Tudiji's army has arrived, and the safety of Liyang City is no longer a concern. This is the opportunity to go out of the city and defeat Li Shentong."

Li Chongjiu nodded and said: "That's exactly what I want to do. Let me pass down an order to leave 5000 soldiers to guard Liyang City, and the remaining [-] troops to leave the city. Li Wenxiang is also ordered to lead the troops from Hebei to Qishui to join me."

After Li Chongjiu gave an order, Xue Wanshu was left to sit in Liyang.

He personally led [-] soldiers out of the city, and at the same time Li Wenxiang led [-] troops from Hebei to join forces with Li Chongjiu in Qishui.Li Chongjiu set up camp five miles away from Tang Jun's camp.Right now Li Chongjiu and Li Shentong's [-] Tang troops confront each other across Qishui.Xue Wanche and Luo Shixin's two thousand cavalry were cruising on the back road of the Tang army, threatening the Tang army's grain road.

Li Chongjiu looked at the Tang army's camp from a distance. He speculated that Li Shentong's current situation would either be desperate to fight him and force him to retreat, or he would retreat decisively before his [-] cavalry arrived.

What choice will Li Shentong make?

And this question, in fact, Li Shentong, who was on the other side of the Qi River, didn't know how to answer it.The Xia army was defeated like a mountain, and the speed of the Zhao army's advance far exceeded Li Shentong's expectations. As Li Yuan said, yesterday they were still grazing horses in the fortress, but today they are drinking horses in the Yellow River.

Liu Heita now has nothing to do except guarding Mingzhou.What Li Shentong is now facing is the situation where Zhao Jun's troops from all walks of life are rushing towards Liyang from all directions.

(End of this chapter)