Yecheng has fallen into complete chaos.
Not long after, the seven gates of Yecheng were opened, and countless people swarmed out and fled overnight. The Jin army who came after hearing the news could not stop them, so they could only shoot arrows to calm them down.
A large number of troops and horses were also mobilized outside the city, trying to intercept the fleeing enemy troops.
Shi Le sent more than twenty soldiers to inform everyone.
Chaotic streets hampered their movement.
Tongtuo Street - the street in the middle of Yecheng that leads directly to Zhongyang Gate and has 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, just young men brought in temporarily, so why not treat them without leaving?
The county soldiers under Tao Bao also stood still.
Most of the cavalry had already fled away one after another, and the remaining people were blocked in the city, shouting curses in a hurry, but they didn't know who to curse, because they were confused now and didn't know what happened.
It is true that everyone knows that the outer city will be destroyed sooner or later.
The only ones that can really fight are more than 10,000 infantry. They rely on them to drive more than 10,000 temporarily recruited men, which can barely hold the city wall, but there are not enough reserves - unless the cavalry are dismounted to help defend the city - the city defense is very fragile.
.
But no matter what, we 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 that someone had just seen Da Hu rectify the defeated troops and lead people to patrol the city.
It must be the fault of those Wuhuan people who opened the door and fled!
While cursing, the commanders were secretly annoyed as to why they had not made up their mind earlier and ran away with the Wuhuan people. They did not consider that it was the running of these bastards 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 and grassland, which is quite large.
After the Hu cavalry left the Yanqiu Gate of Ye Palace, they returned to the Tongjue Garden, then headed north, leaving the stable gate and running northward.
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 Jinming Gate, 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.
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, one went south into Zhulifang, and the other went north into Tongjue Garden. They searched repeatedly and defeated anyone who ran away.
The defenders collided randomly and controlled various key points.
Therefore, it is not a good idea to escape from here, because there are a lot of Jin troops here, but for the cavalry, this is their best escape route. The reason is that it is wide enough.
When Liu Hezhu, Liu Hedu and their sons led their troops past Santai, they hesitated.
The so-called three platforms, namely Bingjing, Bronze Bird and Golden Tiger, are arranged on the western section of the city wall from north to south.
In the winter of the fifteenth year of Jian'an (210), Tongque Terrace was first built. It was based on the city wall, ten feet high and had 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 rooms.
In the 19th year of Jian'an (214), Bingjing Terrace was built to the north of Tongque Terrace, which was eight feet high and had 145 houses.
There is an ice well in Taichung, also called 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 dangerously strong and has repeatedly become the last stronghold in history is that its terrain is relatively high - when Cao Cao was controlling water in the west of Ye, all the soil he excavated was used to build up Santai.
The existence of the platform also made the city wall in the western section of Yecheng irregular.
If you want to go up 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 had already approached. After one last look 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, two messengers sent by Shi Le hurriedly arrived.
One of them staggered and was still bleeding. The other was uninjured 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 sealed 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, searching while
Advance, and finally meet up with the Silver Spear Army entering 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, and they basically just shouted and then 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 were also hundreds of soldiers in the Prime Minister's Mansion (the Prime Minister of the State of Wei) who refused to surrender.
There are about 500 people in the Yushi Dafu Mansion (Yu Shi Dafu in Wei State).
On the Qi Dou Tower of 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 were scattered resistances in the aristocratic residential area (Qili) in the northeastern part of the city, but they were 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 core members may be less than one-third, and the rest are mostly recruited temporarily.
This was probably the last remnant of Shi Le's core troops when he prepared for the worst, abandoned the outer city and retreated to Santai - 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 were cleared, the outer city of Yecheng was 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 at a commanding height, making it very convenient to defend, so they could only surround it but not fight.
At this time, good news came one after another.
"In Bai Cangku, we captured the pseudo-centre general Zhi Xiong in the yellow stable." General Cai Cheng reported softly.
Bai Zangku, under the southwest city wall, has 174 rooms. It was originally a place to store money and grain. After Shi Le occupied Ye City, it was turned into an arsenal - in fact, there is nothing left.
Chenghuang Stable is a huge stable used to store military horses. There is also a military camp nearby. During the Cao Wei Dynasty, there were Hu Ben, Yu Lin, and five battalions of garrison troops stationed there. The barracks here can accommodate more than 10,000 horsemen.
"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, where 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 directions gathered. Trade in the three markets was very prosperous every morning, noon and evening.
There is a wall outside the East City. It is very thin and low. It has no military defense function. It only encloses the East City. Its greater function is to facilitate tax collection.
"The pseudo-Ningshuo general Cheng Ya was captured on the locust tree in front of Wenchang Palace."
The Wenchang Hall of Ye Palace is the place where the Cao family held court meetings, banquets and ceremonies.
Every time during the Zhenghui (Xia Zhengri), Cao Cao would follow the Han rites in the Wenchang Palace and ring the bell at seven quarters of the night to receive congratulations. Civil servants and military generals would enter the court carrying zhi, ascend to the palace and sing praises, then play music and have a banquet in the palace.
There are hundreds of lanterns inside and outside 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, who joined the army of the Shile Shogunate, fled to Tongjue Garden. He was discovered by the sergeants. During the fight, he was ambushed and executed in Changming ditch."
Cao Cao built the Zhangqu Weir ten miles west of Yecheng, and diverted water from the city wall between the Bronze Bird and Golden Tiger platforms into Yecheng. Because there was often an agitated sound of water and rocks colliding, it was named "Changming Ditch".
Changming ditch is divided into north and south branches in the city. They flow eastwards and then merge near Changchun Gate (east gate of Ye Palace). They exit under Shidou Weir in the east and flow 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 took care of him at home. He also captured Tao Bao, the prefect of Wei County in Sizhong Li. Bao Bao said that he had already planned to surrender and dispersed the soldiers in the house.
, and he was captured without hesitation. The sergeant did not give him any trouble, he just kept him at home."
Yecheng adopts the Lifang system, which is very different from Luoyang. It is 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 there are many officials and nobles.
It seemed that Zhang Bin's door was 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 several hundred sergeants guarding the gate, either ordinary sergeants under Shile's tent, or servants from wealthy families temporarily recruited, but none of them were Taobao's Weijun soldiers.
But he did play a certain role and had a small contribution, so there was no embarrassment for him.
"Inside the Fujie Hall..."
Cai Cheng reported for a long time before finishing everything one by one.
Shao Xun nodded and said: "I said beforehand that only Da Hu will be blamed, and the rest will not be questioned. Those who have meritorious service will retain their original posts, and their words will be kept. The captured puppet officials will be released home first, but they must be guarded by soldiers. Wait.
I will meet them one by one after entering the city."
The words were released, and they were unexpectedly generous - only punishing the culprits, and never asking questions about threats. It was really very generous, which is 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 persists, and the better the results will be in the future.
But what can I say, the supervision of these people will not be removed at this stage. What if they run away, will you arrest them or not?
He planned to spend some time interviewing them one by one to see if he could get them to 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 stubbornly resist are not subject to this restriction." Shao Xun added.
"As ordered." Cai Cheng responded.
"Shunling, who do you think should be awarded the post of governor of Wei County? Is Yang Pengzu qualified for the job?" Shao Xun suddenly asked.
Yang Dan was the first to enter the city, which was his first achievement, so of course he should be rewarded.
Considering the special status of Wei Commandery, he needed someone who was more capable of fighting to stay behind, so he wanted Yang Dan to be the prefect.
He is not expected to be able to govern Wei County well, but he must be strong in military affairs.
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 the prefect?" Shao Xun glanced at him and asked.
Cai Cheng's heart was pounding.
I had long heard that Chen Gong's personal military governor was a shortcut to promotion, and he certainly lived up to his reputation.
Of course he wants to be the prefect of Wei County, and it's not his character to be coy. As a warrior, if you want to, just say so. What's the shame?
Therefore, he immediately replied: "I am willing to guard Yecheng for Ming Gong."
Shao Xun laughed and was noncommittal, obviously still wanting to weigh it.
The prefect of Wei County was actually a general in Yecheng City, and Cai Cheng understood him 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 the status of Yecheng is too high.
In addition, there must be someone in charge of Hebei's military affairs.
This is a handsome talent, not a general talent. It requires strategic abilities and cannot be limited to the tactical level.
It's difficult.
A commander-in-chief commanding tens of thousands of troops cannot be trusted by anyone who is not a close confidant - to put it harshly, his ability can be ranked second, but his loyalty must be sufficient.
He is in a big situation now, but he still does many things personally.
You could do this when a dozen or so people were fighting with 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 and make micro adjustments, and then the generals would execute them - the day lilies would be cold!
Many names popped into his mind, only to be quickly dismissed.
In the end, he actually thought of Liang Laoden!
This person is indeed very 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 really doesn't work, ask my father-in-law to support them, or ask Lu Zhi to come over and conduct a united front, and then assign them some qualified military generals.
That's all we can do.
Chapter completed!