In fact, Zhangye County had already stopped moving when the army broke into the West Sea.
They once organized reinforcements, but after the messenger reported that Xijun rebelled and the prefect Zhao Shuang led his army to block the post road, they stopped.
There is no doubt that they are loyal, but not much.
If Xijun had not rebelled, perhaps Zhangye's reinforcements had already headed for Wuwei, but if Xijun rebelled and the road was blocked, then we can't be blamed. This is their thinking.
Jiuquan to the west of Zhangye is the same as the two counties of Jinchang.
They didn't have a particularly strong idea of ​​rescuing Wuwei. If they could, they would do it. If they couldn't, just forget it. It would be too much to expect the three armies to gather heavy troops to fight with Xijun.
In addition, Dunhuang County directly changed its banner and submitted to Daliang.
This county is located on the border of Ximen, 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 also has a strong clan), the Xiaogu Song family, the Cao family, the Linghu family, the Dunhuang Hui family, and the Ma family (the Ma family
The Yin family has a branch in Jiuquan), the Yin family (the Yin family has a branch in Wuwei), the Duan family, the Hou family, the 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, which shows the important position of Dunhuang County in the three camps of the twelve counties in Liangzhou.
Dunhuang County's upright movement was actually supported by various powerful clans, but none of them came forward. Anyway, the prefect Xin Ping "had his own way."
If you say you want to submit to Daliang, there's nothing anyone can do to stop you, right?
They did this mainly to ensure the safety of their clansmen who were serving as officials in Wuwei.
Those who can be officials there must be the more outstanding children or elders with good status in the clan. Are you kidding them?
Yang Xuan, the governor of Gaochang County who was newly established not long ago, was Zhang Jun's confidant. Dunhuang acted righteously and immediately cut off his access to aid.
Yang Xuan didn't have many soldiers at his disposal. Apart from Zhao Zhen's remnant soldiers from Wuji School Commandant's Mansion, he only had the two thousand Wuwei soldiers that Zhang Jun had left to him. After receiving the news, Yang Xuan immediately prepared for rescue and moved to Yumen Camp.
The latter should not.
So 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 an order 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.
Even though they joined forces with Yang Xuan, the governor of Gaochang, to conquer Shanshan and other countries last year, they were extremely majestic. But after all, they only have a few thousand soldiers. No matter how small the city-states in the Western Regions are, are they 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 Zhang Jun of Liangzhou 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 give orders to 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. One by one, 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 has one Guzang city left.
******
On the third day of May, when the Northern Route Army attacked Wengcheng on the fortress, the small cities on the east and north sides of Guzang had already been captured.
Dongcheng was conquered by Jin Zheng when he drove out Hu soldiers.
The name of this city is "Lecture on Martial Arts".
The perimeter is no more than a thousand paces, and some areas are planted with orchards and there is also a martial arts field for training, with hundreds of soldiers stationed inside.
The leader of Lu Shuihu, Juquzhe, led Ding Zhuang from his headquarters and some Xianbei people. They carried the arrows from the top of Guzang City and besieged it on three sides. After paying the price of more than 2,000 casualties, they evacuated the city.
The Heishao 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 conquering 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.
During 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.
Kim Jong did not tolerate 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 people from the Tufa Clan and the Qifu Clan, 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 the Hu soldiers poured into the city, they robbed everything they could.
Weapons, grain, cloth, livestock, etc. were all wiped out. Unfortunately, the income was still very small and it was difficult to make up for the shortfall.
After the Jiangwu Field and Xuanwu Po 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 city on all sides has 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 a dozen field battles, let alone defend the city.
The food, grass and military resources 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 paid a heavy price of tens of thousands of casualties and injured the soldiers you brought over, even if you ended up
After taking Guzang, there is definitely no good fruit to eat.
Fortunately, it is now time. The morale of the Guzang garrison is low, so there is no need to defend 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 the big plan 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 person with ideas, and he will do it once he makes up his mind. He is very determined. But at this critical moment of life and death, he hesitated.
He lost his former decisiveness, and as his staff argued, his mind wavered, sometimes leaning toward surrender, and sometimes toward fighting to the death.
Those who supported him were mainly people from the Song family in Dunhuang.
This was a powerful sect that only began to prosper in the Jin Dynasty, but its status was low.
After Zhang Gui took control of Liangzhou, he faced the reality of wealthy families everywhere and vigorously promoted powerful people, Chief Hu.
In the past, there was Dou Tao, the chieftain of the clan, who suppressed the Han aristocratic families in Jincheng.
Later, the Song family was strengthened by force, their family was removed, and they were appointed extensively 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 seeking 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.
Weiyuan General Song Yi, who died in Hongchiling a while ago, and Yanglie General Song Ji, who was defeated by Jin Zhun, were both members of the Dunhuang Song family.
There were also brothers Song Xiu, Song Hun, Song Cheng, Song Yan, Song Ju and Song Pei's son Song Ti, all of whom were outstanding men 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 lower-level 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, and he likes to be brave and energetic like a rabbit. But now it is a siege. I am afraid it is not what Jin Zheng did."
long."
"The people also gathered the traitors and gathered more than 100,000 people. The momentum seemed to be great. But 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 consumed in vain. As time went on, the tribes became resentful.
.”
"Balda, Qifu, Juqu and other tribes had nothing to plunder, but they killed and injured many people during the attack. They will not be able to hold on for long. Jin Zhengruo forced them to attack the city and cause 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 occurs, Shao's soldiers will be discouraged and want to go back. Liangzhou's strong soldiers can follow closely behind and take advantage of the situation to cover up the killing.
, you can win a great victory.”
After saying that, 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 exhausted. 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 to relieve the siege, you will definitely not be able to escape the situation of annihilation."
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 consumed a lot of money. If they can defend for more than three months, they should retreat no matter what. But the question is, can you defend for three months?
Seven days ago, the Liang people drove six thousand Hongchiling troops to the outside of the city, which greatly affected morale.
Two days ago, four small towns in the east, west, south and north were all captured. 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?
Keep it for three months? The thought of it makes you laugh.
When Chief Shi Yinyuan saw Song Ji's focused gaze, he smiled faintly and said: "General Song is a veteran on the battlefield and is experienced in military affairs, so what he said makes sense."
Fu Rong General Zhang Lang also saw Song Ji's gaze, but he was very senior. He had led the rebels to King Qin in 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 is ridiculous to dare to speak so brazenly after such a defeat. My lord, if you listen to your monstrous words, the Zhang family will surely die."
The son is still alive."
"Puff!" Zhang Jun slapped the table hard.
He knew that after killing Xin Tao and Jia Qian, dozens of officials from the Shaofu (Liangzhou Prefecture) and Taifu (Xiping County Duke's House) looked at him differently.
Except for a few people headed by the Song family, most of them did not support him.
This can be seen in today’s discussion.
People arrive, but they don't speak, or they get angry, and some of them 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 develop.
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 Suoxun quickly stepped inside 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.
Chapter completed!