Chapter 1007 As long as you persevere, there is hope
In fact, Zhangye County had already stood still when the army broke into the West Sea.
They once organized reinforcements, but they stopped after the messenger reported that Xijun rebelled and the prefect Zhao Shi led his army to block the post road.
There is no doubt that they are loyal, but not much.
If Xijun hadn't rebelled, perhaps Zhangye's reinforcements had already headed for Wuwei, but if Xijun rebelled and the road was blocked, then we couldn't be blamed. This was their thinking.
Jiuquan and Jinchang counties to the west of Zhangye are generally the same.
They had no particularly strong thoughts about rescuing Wu Wei. Save if you can, forget it if you can't. It's too much to expect the three armies to gather heavy troops to fight with Xijun.
In addition, Dunhuang County directly changed its flag and submitted to Daliang.
This county is located on the border of the Western Frontier, but it is a large county. Before the large-scale influx of refugees from the Yong and Qin Dynasties, it even had a population greater than that of Wuwei.
Most of the famous wealthy families in Liangzhou gather here.
Such as the Longsuo family, the Guangzhi Gai family, the Yuanquan Zhang family (the Zhang family has a branch in Jinchang and has a strong clan), the Xiaogu Song family, the Cao family, the Linghu family, the Dunhuang Fan family, and the Ma family (the Ma family There is a branch in Jiuquan), Yin family (the Yin family has a branch in Wuwei), Duan family, Hou family, Yin family, etc.
Among them, the four surnames Suo, Zhang, Yin and Song were the most popular, occupying most positions in the Liangzhou shogunate.
It can be said that more than half of the generals in the Liangzhou shogunate were from Dunhuang. This shows the important position of Dunhuang County in the three camps of the twelve counties in Liangzhou.
Dunhuang County's uprightness and return to justice were actually supported by all the big clans, but none of them came forward. Anyway, the prefect Xin Ping "went his own way" and said he wanted to submit to Daliang, so there was nothing anyone could do to stop him, right?
They did this mainly to ensure the safety of their clansmen who were serving as officials in Wuwei.
The ones who can be officials there must be the more outstanding children of the clan or the elders with good status. Are you kidding them?
Yang Xuan, the governor of Gaochang County who was newly established, was Zhang Jun's confidant. Dunhuang acted righteously and immediately cut off his access to aid.
Yang Xuan didn't have many soldiers in his hands. Apart from Zhao Zhen's remnants of Wuji Xiaowei Mansion, he only had the two thousand Wuwei soldiers that Zhang Jun had left for him. After receiving the news, Yang Xuan immediately prepared for rescue and moved to Yumen Camp. , the latter should not.
Then things stopped.
Li Bai, the chief official of the Western Regions, was greatly favored by Zhang Gui and trusted by Zhang Jun. After Yang Xuanyan died, he wrote a letter and cursed, intending to send troops alone to rescue Wuwei. He also sent orders to Shanshan, Qiuci and other countries to send two troops each. Qianqi came to the meeting, but was dissuaded by his civil and military officers.
The Changshi Mansion of the Western Regions is located in Loulan and relies heavily on the Central Plains.
Don't look at it. Last year, they joined forces with Yang Xuan, the governor of Gaochang, to conquer Shanshan and other countries. They were extremely majestic. But after all, there are only a few thousand soldiers. No matter how small the city-state in the Western Region is, are we really afraid of three to five thousand people like you?
People were afraid that the Central Plains court would be angry and cause more serious consequences, so they just showed submission to save face.
The Western Region Changshi Mansion, like Gaochang County (formerly Wuji Xiaowei Mansion), faced a very real problem, that is, they needed to seek support from the Central Plains court.
Once Liangzhou Zhang Jun is defeated, and their position is on Zhang Jun's side, they will definitely be miserable when they are liquidated afterwards.
To put it bluntly, they haven't liquidated you, but they don't support you either. How can you order the countries in the Western Regions?
To put it bluntly, they need to pull the tiger skin of the Central Plains court. No matter whether the tiger skin is Han, Wei, Jin or Liang, you must have one.
They are not qualified to participate in the melee in the Central Plains. They can just wait and see what happens and wait for the military leaders to decide the winner.
After such calculations, the situation in Liangzhou is basically clear:
The South Route Army led by Jin Zhengzheng and the East Route Army led by Jin Zhun have joined forces at the foot of Guzang City. The three Lingnan counties rebelled together, and the peripheral forces of Wuwei and Wuxing counties were basically wiped out - led by Jincheng Prefect Dou Tao, General Song Yi, Dong Guang's defeat was a symbol.
The Northern Route Army arrived at Xihai in early May and was defeated with one blow.
Zhang Su, the governor of Xihai, led his army southward and fell ill on the way.
The soldiers were helpless and decided to surrender.
The counties west of Wuwei either surrendered, stood still, or wanted to rescue but were dissuaded or the roads were blocked.
In short, Zhang Jun only had one Guzang city left.
******
On the third day of May, just as the Northern Route Army attacked Wengcheng on the fortress, the small towns on the east and north sides of Guzang had been captured.
Dongcheng was captured by Jin Zheng and drove Hu soldiers.
The name of this city is "Lecture on Martial Arts".
The circumference is no more than a thousand paces, and some areas are planted with orchards and there are also martial arts fields for training, with hundreds of soldiers stationed inside.
The leader of Lu Shuihu, Juquzhe, led Ding Zhuang from his army and some Xianbei people. They besieged the city on three sides with the arrows at the top of Guzang City. After paying the price of more than 2,000 casualties, they evacuated the city.
Heijin's right battalion also attacked once to accumulate combat experience.
Although this unit has been training for several years, it has fewer opportunities to go to the battlefield.
When attacking the Xiongnu, they attacked some forts in Shangjun.
They also participated in the previous battle at Hongchiling, but they did not actually engage in the battle from beginning to end. They only experienced the atmosphere of a large-scale battle in the field.
In this attack on Wuwei East City, the warlord Zhao Wei personally beat the drums and thousands of people attacked in batches. The performance was pretty good.
Jin Zheng was not spoiled by anyone. Anyone under his command would go into battle and fight. This does not mean that the Forbidden Army could avoid fighting.
The North City was jointly captured by the Tufa and Qifu clans, and the casualties were similar to those in the East City.
This city is called "Xuanwu Garden", where fruits and medicinal materials are planted, and there is a very small house, which is Zhang Jun's "palace".
After Hu soldiers poured into the city, they robbed everything they could.
Weapons, food, cloth, livestock, etc. were all swept away, but unfortunately the income was still very little, which was difficult to make up for the shortfall.
After the Jiangwu Field and Xuanwu Garden were captured, nearly a thousand defenders on the west and south sides surrendered directly, were ordered to leave the city, and were detained.
Since the main army arrived in Guzang on April 26, it took a total of seven or eight days. In addition to the first few days of reorganizing the various troops here and building siege equipment, the next few days were spent besieging and even attacking. The city is at war.
Now that the small cities on all sides have been destroyed, there is no need to worry about flank attacks. The time is ripe for a large-scale siege.
The strength of the garrison in the city has been clearly investigated.
There are no more than 6,000 elite and capable soldiers, and there are almost 15,000 strong men. Ding Zhuang is not without fighting ability.
The situation in Liangzhou is special. Even Minzhuang is rich in war experience and can fight in field battles, let alone defend the city.
The food, grass and military supplies are believed to be sufficient, and it will not be a problem to hold on for half a year.
If we really want to attack by force, the losses will be huge.
Although Jin Zheng didn't care about the lives of the sergeants, or even his own life, he also knew that if you really inflicted a heavy price of tens of thousands of casualties and injured the soldiers you brought over, even if in the end After taking Guzang, there is definitely no good fruit to eat.
Fortunately, it's now time. The morale of the Guzang garrison is low, so there is no need to hold on and resist. There may be other ways to break the city.
On this day, he walked around outside the city, and then summoned the elders and tribal chiefs of various powerful families in Wuwei to discuss major plans with them.
******
There is indeed an undercurrent surging in Guzang City.
Since the army besieged the city, Zhang Jun has summoned the shogunate generals to discuss matters in Xianyu Hall almost every day, and today is no exception.
In the splendid palace, Zhang Jun's face was particularly ugly.
He is a man with ideas, he will do it once he makes up his mind, and he is very determined. But at this critical moment of life and death, he hesitated and lost his former decisiveness. Following the arguments among his staff, his mind wavered between surrendering and fighting to the death.
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Those who supported him were mainly people from the Song family in Dunhuang.
This was a powerful sect in the Jin Dynasty that had just begun to prosper, but its status was low.
After Zhang Gui took control of Liangzhou, he faced the reality of powerful families everywhere and vigorously promoted powerful people and Hu chiefs.
In front of him was the Di chieftain Dou Tao, who suppressed the powerful Han families in Jincheng.
Later, the Song clan, who was powerful by force, removed his clan and made many appointments to offset the influence of the old clan.
Zhang Gui's battle to establish his power was fought by Song Pei for him, beheading more than 10,000 people and forcing him to surrender more than 100,000 Xianbei tribesmen in Wuwei County.
Later, Song Pei helped him defeat the brothers Zhang Zhen and Zhang Yue who were trying to seize the position of governor of Liangzhou. He also defeated Pei Bao, the governor of Qinzhou, with great military exploits. He died of illness a few years ago while serving as the prefect of Xiping.
Song Yi, the Weiyuan general who died in Hongchiling a while ago, and Song Ji, the Yanglie general who was defeated by Jin Zhun, were both members of the Dunhuang Song family.
There were also the brothers Song Xiu, Song Hun and Song Cheng, as well as Song Yan, Song Ju and Song Ti, the son of Song Pei, all of whom were outstanding figures for a time.
The older Song Xiu was appointed as the prefect of Wuxing and was imprisoned.
The remaining ones are younger and serve as junior assistants in the Liangzhou shogunate and Xiping County government.
Give the Song family another twenty years, and when these young men Junyi have accumulated experience, Wuwei will almost become the "Song Family Gang".
In fact, they didn't want to see Zhang Jun fail.
At this moment, Song Ji, who had returned from a defeated battle, was talking: "I heard that the Shao thief regarded Jin Zheng as his commander. This man likes to lead troops, brave and vigorous, and moves like a rabbit. But now it is a siege, and he may not be Jin Zheng." Director.”
"The people also gathered the rebels and gathered more than 100,000 people. The momentum seemed to be great. However, when they were about to climb the city and look into the distance, they saw that thousands of livestock were slaughtered every day in Jin Zheng's camp, and food and grass were wasted. As time went by, the tribes became resentful. .”
"The Tufa, Qifu, Juqu and other tribes had nothing to plunder, but they killed and wounded many people during the attack. They will not last long. Jin Zhengruo forced them to attack the city and set off chaos."
"At that time, the lord only needs to send a few elite troops to go out of the city at night to cover up the killing, and all the chaos will happen. And if all the chaos happens, Shao's soldiers will be frightened and want to go back. Liangzhou's elite soldiers can follow closely and take advantage of the situation. Cover up and kill, and you will win a big victory.”
After finishing speaking, Song Ji looked at the others and said: "Now we just need to hold on. If we hold on for one month, the thieves will become a tired army. If we hold on for two months, the thieves' camp will become noisy. If we hold on for three months, if the thieves don't If you leave the siege, you will definitely be destroyed.”
Sima Han Pu's eyes met Song Ji's and he burst into laughter.
The plan is good.
Liang Jun came all the way and wasted a lot of money. If they could hold out for more than three months, they should retreat no matter what. But the question is, can you last three months?
Seven days ago, the Liang people drove 6,000 Hongchiling troops to surrender outside the city, which greatly affected morale.
Two days ago, four small towns in the east, west, south and north were all captured, and two of them even surrendered directly. Can't you tell?
In a few days, if news comes that all the counties in the west have surrendered, what will everyone think when they see that Wuwei is the only city left?
Three months? It makes people laugh when they think about it.
When Chief Shi Yinyuan saw Song Ji's focused gaze, he smiled lightly and said: "General Song is a veteran on the battlefield and is experienced in military affairs. What he said is naturally reasonable."
Fu Rong General Zhang Lang also saw Song Ji's gaze, but he was very senior. He had led the rebels to King Qin of Luoyang many years ago under Zhang Gui's order, and had also served as the prefect of Jincheng, Wuxing and Wuwei counties. , naturally not afraid of provocation from people like Song Ji.
At this moment, he did not give in. He only said: "General Song led 3,000 troops to the east in the first campaign, but only 1,000 soldiers came back. It's ridiculous to dare to speak so brazenly after a defeat like this. My lord, if you listen to your monstrous words, the Zhang family will surely die." ”
"Bang!" Zhang Jun slapped the table hard.
He knew that after killing Xin Tao and Jia Qian, dozens of officials from the Shaofu (Liangzhou Governor's Office) and Taifu (Xiping County Duke's Office) looked at him differently.
Except for a few people headed by the Song family, most did not support him.
This can be seen in today’s discussion.
Some people arrive but don't say anything, or they get angry, or they just yell back.
With such an undercurrent surging, he really didn't dare to think about what would happen in the future.
He is only twenty-two years old, and many people are dissatisfied with him. Now he is in a situation where a large army is besieging the city. If there is any slight disturbance, it is very likely that his elbows and armpits will grow.
Could someone secretly open the city gate?
Will someone take his head and offer it as a sacrifice?
There was a sound of footsteps outside Xianyu Hall, interrupting Zhang Jun's random thoughts.
After a while, Li Cao quickly walked in and reported: "My lord, I led the troops to patrol the city and saw that Yin Zhizhong (Yin Dan) returned from Chang'an with a letter."
After that, he handed the letter over.
In an instant, everyone's eyes were focused on this letter.
(End of chapter)