Chapter 525: Arrest and Recruitment
Yecheng has fallen into complete chaos.
Not long after, the seven gates of Yecheng were opened, and countless people swarmed out, fleeing overnight. The Jin army who came after hearing the news could not stop them, so they could only shoot arrows to calm them down.
There are also a large number of troops mobilizing outside the city, trying to intercept the fleeing enemy troops.
Shi Le sent more than twenty soldiers to inform everyone.
The chaotic streets hampered their movement.
Tongtuo Street - the street in the middle of Yecheng that leads directly to Zhongyang Gate, with the same name as Luoyang - is full of sergeants running around.
Most people threw away their equipment and went home. They were originally from Ye, they were just young men brought in temporarily. How could they be treated without leaving?
The county soldiers under Tao Bao also stood still.
Most of the cavalrymen ran away one after another, and the remaining people were blocked in the city. They were so anxious that they cursed, but they didn’t know who to scold, because they were confused now and didn’t know. what happened.
It is true that everyone knows that the outer city will be broken sooner or later.
The only ones who can really fight are more than 10,000 infantry. They rely on them to drive the more than 10,000 temporarily recruited soldiers, which can barely hold the city wall, but there are not enough reserves - unless the cavalry are dismounted to help defend. City - The city defenses are very fragile.
But no matter what, you can still hold on for three to five days, right?
It had only been less than a day, and the outer city was completely gone. It was surprising. It was clear that someone had just seen Dahu finish reorganizing his troops and leading people to patrol the city.
It must be the Wuhuan people who opened the door and fled!
While cursing, the ministers were secretly annoyed that they had not made up their mind earlier and ran with the Wuhuan people. They didn't even consider that it was their gang's escape that further undermined the morale of the army.
After venting their anger, they did not hesitate and immediately set off from their base to join the escape.
Because of the special nature of the cavalry, they need a relatively wide area, so some of them are stationed in Ye Palace and some in Tongjue Garden.
Ye Palace has gardens, including Wenchang, Tingzheng, Duanzheng and other halls. The Tongjue Garden is a large garden grassland, which is quite large.
After leaving the Yanqiu Gate of Ye Palace, the Hu cavalry returned to the Tongjue Garden, and then headed north, exiting the stable gate and running northwards.
But the road is not easy.
Tongjue Garden is located in the northwest of Yecheng. It can be said that as soon as you enter Jinmingmen, you will see Tongjue Garden on your left. Therefore, a large number of Jin troops gathered here, with a total of no less than two thousand, and they are still pouring in. enter.
Those who entered the city in front have already rushed forward, heading towards the Danong Temple and other core areas in the center of the city. Those behind them divided their forces left and right, one went south into Zhulifang, the other went north into Tongjue Garden, and repeated Search and defeat any running defenders and control various key points.
So, escaping from here is not a good idea, because there are a lot of Jin troops here, but for the cavalry, this is their best escape route. There is no other reason, it is broad enough.
When Liu Hezhu, Liu Hedu and his son led their army past Santai, they hesitated.
The so-called three platforms, namely Bingjing, Tongque and Jinhu, are arranged on the western section of the city wall from north to south.
In the winter of the 15th year of Jian'an (210), the Tongque Tower was first built, based on the city wall, ten feet high and with 120 houses. Cao Cao once entertained Cai Wenji here and listened to her singing "Eighteen Beats of Hujia".
In the 18th year of Jian'an (213), Jinhu Tower was built to the south of Tongque Tower, which was eight feet high and had 130 houses.
In the 19th year of Jian'an (214), Bingjing Terrace was built to the north of Tongque Terrace. It was eight feet high and had 145 houses.
Taichung has an ice well, also known as an ice room or a jade well, which is fifteen feet deep and can store ice, food, salt and other supplies in case of emergencies.
The three platforms are sixty steps apart from each other, and are connected by a pavilion-style bridge in the middle.
In other words, the biggest reason why Santai is so dangerous and has repeatedly become the last stronghold in history is that its terrain is relatively high - Cao Cao used all the soil dug out to control water in the west of Ye. Three towers were piled high, and the presence of the three towers also made the wall in the western section of Yecheng irregular.
If you want to get to Santai, you have to dismount first and then walk a long climb...
The Liu family and his son quickly gave up because the Jin soldiers were already approaching. After one last glance at Santai, they roared away and disappeared into the Tongjue Garden.
Not long after they left, the Jin army began to advance towards Santai, climbing up the slope to attack.
At this time, the two messengers sent by Shi Le hurriedly arrived.
One person staggered and was still bleeding. The other person was not injured, but also lost his weapon. The two looked at Santai from a distance, sighed, and ran away.
There were more and more Jin soldiers in the Tongjue Garden. They quickly closed the stable door, then walked eastward through the entire garden, arriving outside the west wall of Ye Palace. After breaking open the small door on the wall, They swarmed in, searched and advanced, and finally met up with the Silver Spear Army who entered from the Yingchun Gate in the east of the city in the "Five Gates and Three Dynasties" area of Ye Palace.
On the road, we constantly encountered broken soldiers ranging from dozens to hundreds of people. They basically just shouted and fell down.
Only a few people are still stubbornly resisting——
Wang Yang led more than a thousand people to guard the Prime Minister's Mansion in Ye Palace.
There are also hundreds of soldiers in the Xiangguo Mansion (Xiangguo of the State of Wei) who refuse to surrender.
There are about five hundred people in the Yushi Dafu Mansion (Yushi Dafu of Wei State).
On the Qi Dou Tower on the north city wall, nearly a thousand generals gathered and fought repeatedly with the Jin troops entering the city.
Of course, the Santai garrison has not surrendered yet.
There was also scattered resistance in the aristocratic residential area (Qili) in the northeastern part of the city, but it was out of control.
After hearing the news, the troops entering the city rushed to these locations and surrounded them.
Looking at it this way, those who are really willing to fight for Shi Le are actually only these four to five thousand people. Among them, the key elements may be less than one-third, and the rest are mostly recruited temporarily.
This was probably the last remaining remnant of Shi Le when he prepared for the worst, abandoned the outer city and retreated to Santai, the core of his troops - the generals' personal soldiers and child servants.
******
When the sky was fading, Shao Xun climbed to the high platform outside the city and overlooked the battlefield.
Only one day has passed since yesterday's battle.
Before all the corpses on the battlefield have been cleared away, the outer city of Yecheng has been basically occupied, and now only a few areas are still resisting.
Three of them are probably the most difficult to attack.
More than thirty meters high, the defenders were in a condescending position, making it very convenient to defend, so they could only surround it but not fight.
At this time, good news came one after another.
"The pseudo-center base general Zhi Xiong was captured in the Bai Cangku and Chenghuang stables." General Cai Cheng reported softly.
Baicangku, under the southwest city wall, has 174 rooms. It was originally a place to store money and grain. After Shi Le occupied Yecheng, it was turned into an arsenal - in fact, there was nothing left.
Chenghuang Stable is a huge stable used to store military horses. There are also military camps nearby. During the Cao Wei Dynasty, there were garrison troops from Huben, Yulin and Wuying. The barracks here can accommodate more than 10,000 horsemen. live. "Xu Guang, who joined the army in the Shile Shogunate's Record Office, crossed the wall and fell into the east city outside the city. He was captured by a sergeant." Cai Cheng continued to report.
There is the East Market outside the southern section of the East City Wall. During the Taiping Period, shops were lined up and merchants from all over the world gathered. Trade in the three markets was very prosperous every morning, noon and evening.
There is a wall outside the East Market. It is very thin and low. It has no military defense function. It only surrounds the East Market. Its greater function is to facilitate tax collection.
"The pseudo-Ningshuo general Cheng Ya was captured on the locust tree in front of Wenchang Hall."
Wenchang Hall of Ye Palace was the place where Cao and his son held court meetings, banquets and ceremonies.
Every time during the Zhenghui (Xia Zhengri), Cao Cao would follow Han rites in the Wenchang Palace and ring the bell at seven quarters before the end of the night to receive congratulations. Civil servants and military generals would enter the court carrying zhi, ascend to the hall and sing praises, and then Music was played and banquets were played, and hundreds of lanterns were played inside and outside the palace all night long.
Many locust trees were planted in front of the palace. Every year at the turn of spring and summer, the fragrance of locust trees hit people. Cao Pi often climbed the trees and picked locust flowers for his brothers to eat.
“Guo Ao, a member of the Shile shogunate, fled to the Tongjue Garden and was discovered by the sergeants. During the fight, he was killed in the Changming ditch.”
Cao Cao built the Zhang Canal ten miles west of Yecheng. The weir diverts water from under the city wall between the Tongque and Jinhu platforms into Yecheng. Because there is often an exciting sound of water and rocks colliding, it is named "Changming ditch".
Changming ditch is divided into north and south branches in the city. It flows eastwards and then merges near Changchun Gate (east gate of Ye Palace). It exits under Shidou Weir in the east and flows into the city moat.
"The sergeant searched for Ji according to the map and went to Zhang Bin's house in Changshouli. He captured him and is now guarding him at home. He also captured Taobao, the prefect of Wei County in Sizhongli. Baobao said that he had long wanted to surrender. He dispersed the soldiers in the house and captured him. The sergeant didn't bother him, he just kept him at home."
Yecheng adopted the Lifang system, which was very different from Luoyang and quite similar to Chang'an and Luoyang in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
Changshouli and Sizhongli are both "high-end residential areas" in Yecheng, where many officials and nobles live.
Zhang Bin seemed to have the door blocked while he was resting at home.
Taobao did send someone to contact him in advance, but the matter of Jinmingmen’s dedication had nothing to do with him.
There were hundreds of gatekeepers, either ordinary sergeants under Shi Le's tent or temporarily recruited servants from wealthy families. They were not Taobao's Weijun soldiers.
But he did play a certain role and had a small contribution, so there was no embarrassment for him.
"In Fujie Hall..."
Cai Cheng reported for a long time before finishing everything.
Shao Xun nodded and said: "I said beforehand that only Da Hu will be blamed, and the rest will be ignored. The meritorious ones will stay in their original posts and keep their words. The captured pseudo-officials will be let go home first, but Soldiers need to be guarded. I will meet them one by one after I enter the city."
The words were released, and they were unexpectedly generous. They only punished the culprits and never asked questions. It was really very generous. Rarely seen.
He means what he says, and of course he will not break his promise or undermine his political credibility - the better the credibility, the longer he sticks to it, and the better the results will be in the future.
But no matter what, the supervision of these people will not be removed at this stage. What if someone ran away, would you arrest him or not?
He planned to spend some time interviewing them one by one to see if he could make them work for him.
These people still have some energy in Hebei and can help him quickly stabilize the situation and further disintegrate the remaining forces of the Shile Group.
"Those who resist stubbornly are not limited to this." Shao Xun added.
"Yes." Cai Cheng responded.
"Shun Ling, who do you think should be awarded the post of prefect of Wei County? Is Yang Pengzu qualified for the job?" Shao Xun suddenly asked.
Yang Dan entered the city first, which was his first achievement, and of course he should be rewarded.
Considering the special status of Wei County, he needed someone who was more capable of fighting to stay behind, so he wanted Yang Dan to be the governor.
I don’t expect him to be able to govern Wei County well, but he must be strong militarily.
As for the government affairs of Wei County, he would let Yu Chen, the captain of Sili School, actually be in charge.
"Yang Pengzu is brave and good at fighting, so he may be qualified for the job." Cai Cheng replied.
"Do you want to be this prefect?" Shao Xun glanced at him and asked.
Cai Cheng’s heart was pounding.
I have long heard that Chen Gong's personal military governor is a shortcut to promotion, and it is indeed well-deserved.
Of course he wants to be the governor of Wei County, and it's not his character to be coy. As a martial artist, if you want something, just say so. What's the point of being embarrassed?
Therefore, he immediately replied: "I am willing to guard Yecheng for Ming Gong."
Shao Xun laughed, noncommittal, and obviously wanted to weigh it.
The prefect of Wei County was actually a general in Yecheng City, and Cai Cheng understood it very well.
Shao Xun cannot stay here for a long time, and he must appoint a general to stay in Yecheng. This person must also be trusted by him, because Yecheng's status is too high.
In addition, there must be someone in charge of Hebei's military affairs.
This is a general talent, not a general talent. It requires strategic abilities and cannot be limited to the tactical level.
It’s difficult.
A general with tens of thousands of troops under his command cannot be trusted by anyone who is not a close confidant - to put it harshly, ability can be ranked second, but loyalty must be sufficient.
He is in a big situation now, but he still does many things personally.
You could do this when there were more than a dozen people fighting against each other, but you definitely can’t do it now.
He couldn't imagine that when something happened in Hebei, the generals would send reports to Xuchang, and then he would issue orders in Xuchang for micro-management, and the generals would execute them - the day lilies were cold!
Many names popped into his mind and were quickly shot away.
In the end, he actually thought of Liang Laoden!
This person is indeed suitable, but - who am I to take care of him like this?
There is a shortage of talents. There are no accomplished brothers in the clan. They do not have this structure and have not experienced training in this area since they were young.
If it doesn't work, ask my father-in-law to support them, or ask Lu Zhi to come over and do a good job in united front, and then assign them some qualified military generals.
That’s all we can do.
(End of this chapter)