Chapter 442 Capture Ziyang City

After Du Yongyuan received Lu Chen's second letter, he did not directly choose to surrender.

However, the Northern Army did not launch an attack in the next few days, and the soldiers in Ziyang City tensed up their nerves.

Most of the soldiers knew in their hearts that the reason why the Northern soldiers did not attack after the city wall collapsed was mainly because the Northern King was trying to persuade their general to surrender.

The soldiers were very panicked. After seeing the Daxia soldiers who were killed by artillery shells, they had long lost the will to fight. They just wanted to surrender now, but the court could not let them surrender. If they surrendered, they would Relatives may suffer.

Of course, whether or not to surrender is not up to the small soldiers. The key lies in the wishes of their generals and lieutenants.

A few days later, Du Yongyuan called his confidant Gao Yong into the study.

Seeing Du Yongyuan looking for him alone, Gao Yong realized that Du Yongyuan must have important things for him to do.

Du Yongyuan took Gao Yong to an underground secret room. After confirming that no one was eavesdropping, Du Yongyuan said: "Vice General Gao, do you know why this general is looking for you?"

Gao Yong said directly: "General, you single-handedly led this subordinate. I have participated in many wars with you. I will definitely listen to you. If you have any special tasks for your subordinate, just tell me directly. I will definitely complete the tasks assigned by you next time.”

Du Yongyuan patted Gao Yong on the shoulder and said, "With your words, I will feel relieved."

Then Du Yongyuan said: "I plan to withdraw from Ziyang City with 100,000 soldiers. You continue to stay in Ziyang City to attract the attention of the Northern Army."

Hearing this, Gao Yong was stunned for a moment. Gao Yong thought that Du Yongyuan was planning to surrender to the Northern King, but he did not expect that Du Yongyuan's real idea was to escape from Ziyang City.

Escape was not impossible, but after Du Yongyuan took away one hundred thousand soldiers, it became even more impossible for the remaining one hundred thousand soldiers in Ziyang City to block the advance of the Northern Army.

I am afraid that the one hundred thousand troops remaining in Ziyang City will eventually be blown to pieces by the mysterious weapons of the North.

Seeing that Gao Yong was stunned, Du Yongyuan continued: "After we evacuate, the 100,000 soldiers you lead will also be ready to evacuate.

"I have pretended to agree to the surrender of the Northern King. I can temporarily stabilize the Northern King for a while. They should not notice our movements."

Gao Yong said with some worry: "General, does King Bei really believe that you will surrender?"

Du Yongyuan said: "The King of the North will believe it. The King of the North is young, energetic, and proud. The North has such terrible weapons. He must think that I will surrender to him because I am afraid of the weapons of the North."

Gao Yong continued: "If you retreat like this and lose Ziyang City, will your Majesty..."

Gao Yong did not continue. He felt that if Du Yongyuan escaped like this, he would probably be executed even if he escaped back to the capital.

Escape would be death, and not surrender would be death. It would be better to simply surrender to King Bei.

Du Yongyuan sighed, and then said: "I'm not trying to escape, I just plan to retreat to other cities to look for King Qi's help."

Gao Yong immediately saluted and said: "My subordinates must guard Ziyang City and buy enough time for the general to retreat."

Du Yongyuan thought of something at this time and continued: "By the way, after I retreat, someone will give you a letter. When you see the letter, you should also be prepared to evacuate."

Gao Yong said: "Yes, General!"

…

Early the next morning, when the sky was still gray and bright, Du Yongyuan quietly evacuated from the south gate with 100,000 imperial soldiers. Their movement was very small, for fear of being discovered by the soldiers from the northern country.

Seeing the back of Du Yongyuan leading the soldiers to evacuate, Gao Yong sighed deeply. Although he had been following Du Yongyuan and was promoted by Du Yongyuan, he still felt a little uncomfortable now that he was regarded as the person behind the throne.

Du Yongyuan could have evacuated with 200,000 troops at once, but he did not do so. Apparently he was afraid that the northern soldiers would catch up after discovering it, and in the end they would not be able to escape.

Now there are 100,000 troops in the rear. Even if the Northern Army really finds out that Du Yongyuan wants to escape, with these 100,000 soldiers dragging him, they can buy Du Yongyuan enough time to escape.

Soon Du Yongyuan's 100,000 troops left Ziyang City. However, not long after they left Ziyang City, when they passed through a canyon terrain, the deafening sound of cannons was heard not far away.

Not long after, Du Yongyuan and his 100,000 troops were blocked in the canyon by the Northern Army.

For a moment, the soldiers became extremely panicked.

When did the Northern soldiers run to the back of Ziyang City?

Du Yongyuan shouted loudly at this time, "Don't panic! Follow me and rush out!"

Having said this, Du Yongyuan took out his sword.

However, at this moment, there was a deafening sound of artillery in the distance. For a moment, the artillery bombarded the 100,000-strong army in front and behind, and the dust was flying, so scared that the Daxia soldiers did not know where to escape.

However, the bombardment ended not long after. It was obvious that the North was deterring them in this way, telling them that there was no way to escape.

Soon, the shouts of soldiers from the Northern Kingdom came from the top of the mountain, "My king has an order. You are all citizens of Daxia. Anyone who abandons his troops and surrenders can live, and you can choose whether to go home after the war."

Hearing this, some soldiers dropped their weapons. Seeing this, Du Yongyuan roared: "No surrender! Anyone who dares to surrender will be killed by this general!"

At this time, no soldiers were listening to Du Yongyuan's orders, and more and more soldiers were throwing away their weapons.

Seeing that the situation was over, Du Yongyuan looked up to the sky and roared: "Your Majesty, I am incompetent and failed to defend Ziyang City. I will die to apologize!"

Having said this, Du Yongyuan directly raised his sword and wiped his neck with it.

Seeing that Du Yongyuan had committed suicide by cutting his throat, the soldiers who had originally planned to charge had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​resistance.

In the end, all the 100,000 troops were captured.

at the same time.

Gao Yong also noticed the movement in the south. After realizing that something was wrong, he quickly sent spies to investigate the situation, and he himself came to the tower of Nancheng.

Not long after, the inquiring soldiers came back, looking extremely panicked and pale.

Gao Yong quickly asked: "Tell me, what happened!"

A soldier replied: "The general encountered an ambush from the Northern Army. Seeing that he could not escape, General Gao committed suicide!"

this……

Gao Yong's face turned pale instantly, and he sat down on the ground weakly, "How could..."

"The Northern Army actually went around to ambush behind Ziyang City..."

Most wars in this era require the occupation of city after city. If the city is not occupied, the enemy troops in the city may come out and cut off the logistics. If the logistics is interrupted, the soldiers fighting on the front line are likely to be defeated.

Gao Yong did not expect that the Northern Army would not follow the usual rules and directly bypassed Ziyang City and ran to the rear of Ziyang City.

What to do now...

The Northern Army ran to the rear of Ziyang City, which meant that Ziyang City had been surrounded.

Du Yongyuan originally took away a hundred thousand troops, but now there are only one hundred thousand soldiers left in Ziyang City. In addition, the walls of Ziyang City have been broken, and the North Kingdom still has such powerful weapons. Once the North Kingdom launches an attack, Ziyang City will be impossible. Keep it.

Gao Yong's face was filled with despair, and he sighed deeply.

At this time, a soldier from the North suddenly came under the tower. He said loudly: "General Gao, here is a letter from General Du. Take a look."

Seeing that it was a letter sent by soldiers from the Northern Kingdom, Gao Yong frowned. It seemed that it was a letter to persuade him to surrender.

Gao Yong immediately asked his subordinates to bring in the letter from the Northern soldiers.

But when Gao Yong got the letter, he was stunned for a moment. This was not a letter to persuade him to surrender, but a letter from Du Yongyuan.

How is this going?

Gao Yong immediately opened the envelope and took a look at the contents.

The content of the letter was very simple, telling Gao Yong that if their evacuation failed, they should just surrender, as if Du Yongyuan knew their outcome in advance.

Gao Yong sighed deeply again. He had no doubt that this was written by someone else pretending to be Du Yongyuan's handwriting. After all, Du Yongyuan told him yesterday that a letter would be delivered.

Gao Yong asked the Northern soldiers on the city wall, "Is General Du really dead?"

The northern soldier replied: "Back to General Gao, General Du has indeed committed suicide."

After receiving a definite answer, Gao Yong stopped struggling and said directly to his subordinates: "Raise the white flag!"

After hearing this, the people behind Gao Yong breathed a sigh of relief. They were afraid that Gao Yong would want to avenge Du Yongyuan, and then fight to the end with the Northern Army regardless of life or death. They had already prepared to join forces to kill Gao Yong. chant, and then prepare to surrender.

Since Gao Yong surrendered on his own initiative, there is nothing more to say.

Surrender, their generals have committed suicide anyway.

In the end, Gao Yong led the remaining defenders of Ziyang City out of Ziyang City and surrendered to the North.

A few hours later.

Lu Chen's study.

Lu Chen sat at the desk, looked at the strong man in front of him and said, "General Du, what do you think of my king's arrangement?"

Du Yongyuan immediately knelt down and said, "Thank you very much, Your Majesty, for not killing me. I am willing to serve Your Majesty from now on."

Lu Chen continued: "I have sent people to protect your relatives. After the news of your suicide reached the capital, I believed that the people in the court would not embarrass them. After a while, I will take them to the North Kingdom. During this time Just stay in Anping City and don't show your face."

Du Yongyuan continued: "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

For Lu Chen, these 200,000 Daxia prisoners were still of great use.

In ancient wars, sieging a city was not the most difficult thing. The most difficult thing was how to hold on to the conquered land.

After Lu Chen captured the Qi Kingdom, he would need a large number of soldiers to occupy the captured cities. If he let the Northern Kingdom soldiers occupy those cities, how many people would be left when he arrived in the capital?

Now the 200,000 prisoners will come into play. He can send people to do ideological work for the 200,000 soldiers and make them his own soldiers. He doesn't need the absolute loyalty of these soldiers, and he doesn't have them anyway. Plan to send weapons from the North to them so soon.

With the weapons of the North as a deterrent, they did not dare to easily become enemies of the North. (End of chapter)