It's not that Zhang Ximeng doesn't want to intervene, it's because he really doesn't have the strength.
An army of 400,000 yuan came overwhelmingly, unstoppable and invincible.
Tuotuo defeated Zhang Shicheng's troops one after another, and then surrounded the city with a large army. At the same time, he also raided the surrounding areas, and Yancheng, Xinghua, and Taizhou fell one after another.
Zhang Shicheng has been compressed into Gaoyou City, and his life hangs on a thread.
His Highness Prince Cheng was desperate and decided to surrender.
That's right, Zhang Shicheng surrendered!
He secretly sent an envoy with a personal letter to see Tuotuo.
Zhang Shicheng's attitude was extremely humble. As long as the Yuan Dynasty court could give him a way out, he was willing to submit to the court, surrender the city, act as the court's vanguard, and help kill the Red Turban Army.
All in all, as long as Dad Tuotuo nods, Zhang Shicheng will be your good son.
At this time, Zhang Shicheng perfectly explained how desperate a person in a desperate situation must be!
Ten thousand versus four hundred thousand!
One city fights the world!
How is it possible to win?
Please, please give me a chance to be a dog!
Facing this letter, if Tuotuo nodded, in an instant, Gaoyou city would be destroyed and Zhang Shicheng would surrender. If nothing else happened, he would become the executioner of the Red Scarf Army like Chahan Timur, Li Siqi and others.
Zhu Jiajun, who is right next to him, will become the first victim.
The overall situation of the world, the rise and fall of dynasties, and the historical trend, all fell into Tuotuo's mind at this moment... Faced with this letter asking for surrender, the prime minister of the Yuan Dynasty, who was both civil and military, said lightly, "No surrender!"
Not only was he not allowed to surrender, Tuotuo added, "When the city is broken, they will all be slaughtered, leaving no one behind!"
The envoy fled back to Gaoyou in embarrassment with a clear answer.
Not even allowed to surrender, how desperate it must be!
Zhang Shicheng is not as stubborn as Zhang Ximeng expected, but he is not even allowed to surrender. The final road is cut off, so he has no choice but to die!
In this case, the only way to live is to die!
Our surname is Zhang!
Zhang Shicheng did not hide anything and directly told the entire city's soldiers and civilians about his attempted surrender, as well as the Yuan army's answer.
"Folks and brothers! It's not me, Zhang Shicheng, who wants to harm the big guy! It's Yuan Ting who has gone too far! If cutting off my Zhang Shicheng's head can save the big guy's life, I will rip off his head right now!"
Zhang Shicheng was full of grief and indignation, "Yuan Tatars are not human beings! They are determined to massacre the city and kill all of us! If nothing else, just stick out your head with a knife, shrink your head with a knife, and ask us to follow Zhang Shicheng to death!"
Zhang Shicheng, who was in desperate situation, completely exploded.
Similarly, the soldiers and civilians in Gaoyou were also angered.
These common people, who are like weeds, don't care who is the master of Gaoyou City. Even if the Yuan army comes and squeezes harder, they can accept it. Anyway, they are just hanging on!
But who would have expected that there are people who don't accept surrender and just want to kill everyone!
In this case, we will fight you to the end!
Grass and mustard are weak, but they are also tenacious. Wildfire cannot burn them all, let alone Tuotuo!
"Fight! Fight with the Tatars!"
“We still don’t know who will live and who will die! Let’s fight Yuan Tatar to the end!”
"King Cheng, don't be afraid, we will definitely win!"
…
In desperation, Gaoyou was united as never before, and the military and civilians put aside everything and went all out.
Zhang Shicheng finally relaxed a little. Who would have thought that he would rely on Tuotuo's help to stabilize the morale of the army.
Immediately in the following days, the Yuan army attacked the city frantically. Zhang Shicheng personally went to the city to supervise the battle. The "eighteen poles" who had joined him in the incident also went to the city to supervise the battle. Gaoyou's soldiers and civilians fought desperately to resist the Yuan Ting's attack.
After days of fighting, corpses piled up under the city, and the canal next to it was stained red with blood.
Facts have proved that no matter how powerful the army is, when faced with a united city, it will be helpless and passive.
Gaoyou City survived the initial attack amid strong winds and heavy rain!
Tuotuo was not a fool. He soon realized that the hope of conquering Gaoyou in one fell swoop was shattered. The war had entered a war of attrition and turned into a competition of internal strength!
It all depends on who can't hold on first!
At this moment, Tuotuo seemed to be hesitant. If he agreed to Zhang Shicheng's surrender, wouldn't it be much easier?
This thing is very ironic. Tuotuo is recognized as a versatile man in both civil and military affairs, with first-class abilities and character.
With the army approaching, Zhang Shicheng had no choice but to surrender to the Yuan Dynasty. This was a natural thing. As long as a normal person agreed directly, everything would be over, so there was no need to create extra complications!
Even if Zhang Shicheng is pretending to surrender, he can still be caught first, and always give people a way to survive. Surrounding three and missing one is the right way.
Why did Tuotuo lose his mind and insisted on killing Zhang Shicheng? Moreover, killing Zhang Shicheng was not enough, and even threatened to massacre the city. Is this because he thought it was too easy to attack the city and wanted to find excitement for himself?
Even after the review, people only found two reasons. First, Zhang Shicheng had surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty in the early days, but then rebelled again. His character was worrying and he was not worthy of trust.
Secondly, Tuotuo thought he was sure to win, so in order to intimidate the Red Scarf Army in the world, he planned to massacre Gaoyou and use hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians to shock the world and completely suppress the momentum of the Red Scarf Army.
In fact, these two reasons are very pale, because both of them are analyzing why Tuotuo did what he did, but they did not explain clearly the reason why Tuotuo had to do what he did.
Facing the overwhelming tide, those who are among them do not have much room for choice. Even if you are the commander-in-chief of the armed forces or the prime minister of a country, you do not have much room for escape.
Because he didn't dare to accept Zhang Shicheng's surrender!
Governor of the world's army, carrying the king's orders to the south... Tuotuo must have a hearty performance. Only in this way can he explain to the emperor and the people of the world, and suppress those voices that oppose him.
The victory is not big enough and the record is not brilliant enough.
He will be labeled as wasting money and wasting time.
If Zhang Shicheng's surrender was accepted and Zhang Shicheng rebelled again, he would be guilty of fostering self-respect and plotting evil intentions.
In the Yuan court, Tuotuo's political opponents had sharpened their knives and wanted to attack Tuotuo from any angle.
Sitting in Tuotuo's position, even the emperor of Dadu did not trust him.
Tuotuo rode on the back of the tiger. He had no choice. Only victory and cruelty could suppress those chaotic voices. Only hundreds of thousands of heads could restore the majesty of the prime minister.
The enemy in front of him is Zhang Shicheng, and the opponent behind him is Pingzhang Zhengshi Hama, countless Mongolian dignitaries, and the emperor on the dragon throne!
Tuotuo's situation was finally clarified many years later, after Zhang Ximeng obtained the actual records of the Yuan Dynasty in Dadu and conducted a comprehensive review.
This Dayuan's last hope is that he really has too few choices.
After being frustrated in his direct attack on Gaoyou, Tuotuo had to change his tactics. After sweeping around Gaoyou, he then set his sights on a county town.
That’s Liuhe!
This was a very inconspicuous small city, and Tuotuo did not take it seriously. Yancheng, Xinghua, and Taizhou, which one was not bigger than Liuhe? None of these cities could stop the Yuan army, let alone the small Liuhe.
Tuotuo also knew that Liuhe was not under the control of Zhang Shicheng, but under the rule of a man named Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang?
never heard of that!
There are many handsome men in red scarves, but there is no one like him.
In the border between Huaihe River and Huaihe River, there are a lot of red scarf thieves who are kings, including Peng Da, Zhao Junyong, Zhang Shicheng, and Marshal, and there are more than a handful of them, more than a certain brand of potato chips...
In front of so many powerful seniors, Zhu Yuanzhang only dared to be called the envoy of the Suppressor.
What a huge official position and military power this is!
Not surprisingly, Tuotuo underestimated Zhu Yuanzhang.
He sent two Mongolian households to attack Liuhe, intending to take Liuhe lightly as soon as they passed by, completely clearing all the cities outside Gaoyou, and then concentrate his forces to besiege Gaoyou.
The capture and killing of Zhang Shicheng is right before our eyes!
The person responsible for attacking Liuhe was Tuotuo's younger brother, Timur.
As brothers, the elder brother serves as the prime minister and the younger brother serves as the censor. The two brothers cooperated tacitly and maintained a rare period of peace.
First, Timur's highlight moment happened to Liu Futong.
After the rise of the Red Scarf Army in the Central Plains, Timur was appointed by his brother to lead the army to kill Liu Futong... At first, everything went smoothly, with consecutive victories, but suddenly Timur was defeated before Timur, and the defeat was very serious.
awful.
The reason is very simple. The previous results were all achieved by Timur's vanguard general Gong Buban. As a result, in a raid, Gong Buban was killed by the Red Scarf Army. Later, Timur was frightened and embarrassed.
They were defeated and all the cities they recovered were lost to Liu Futong.
If this was the end, that would be it, but Tuotuo loved his younger brother and sent many more troops to him. A total of 300,000 people were gathered to continue the decisive battle with Liu Futong.
A funny scene occurred. Liu Futong's tentative night attack caused a mutiny in the military camp of 300,000 people, and Timur was so frightened that he ran away first.
Made the same mistake twice!
The Yuan army, who did not know what was going on, trampled on each other. From 300,000 people, only 10,000 were left in the end, and they retreated hastily.
This Battle of Shahe was also a turning point in the early days of the Red Turban Army. After this battle, Liu Futong relied on the Dabie Mountains and used the Yellow River and Ru River as his defense line to fight the Yuan army.
Inspired by this, red scarf armies sprung up like bamboo shoots after a rain... Sesame Li, Bu Wangsan, Meng Haima, and Guo Zixing were all figures who emerged during this period.
First of all, Timur was a guilty minister. Fortunately, he was protected from being beheaded by Tuo Tuo. However, the impact of his failure was very large, and even affected the current Battle of Gaoyou.
Why did Tuotuo have to go all the way to mobilize troops from the Western Regions? It was not because his good brothers had lost all the elite members of Yuan Ting, so he could only mobilize troops from the faraway Western Regions.
But even so, Tuotuo was still very kind to his younger brother and still granted him military power.
Not long ago, Timur also led the troops behind Zhao Junyong in an attempt to invade Chuzhou.
But Zhao Junyong was defeated in one fell swoop.
There were obviously 20,000 people coming, but such a big thing was placed right in front of us. Why was it gone?
At first, Timur was too scared to attack, so he just waited.
Then Peng Zaozhu sent someone over to deliver a letter to him, telling him about his revenge on Zhao Junyong for killing his father, and expressed his willingness to surrender to the imperial court.
He also asked Tamerlane first, and then asked many questions about Chuzhou, trying to find out what was true and what was true.
Finally, Luo Guanzhong's opportunity came. He picked up a big pen and started writing nonsense information.
This Mr. Luo can really write, from food, clothing, housing and transportation, personal preferences, to the situation of his subordinates, to military disciplines and regulations... He has compiled a complete set.
It has tens of thousands of words, just like a novel.
After Tamerlane received it first, he became more and more interested in reading it, and even forgot to eat and sleep while reading it.
How interesting!
Zhu Yuanzhang was a little monk in his early years, and he was begging for food. He had never eaten good food. His favorite thing was roasted centipedes. Centipedes more than half a foot long were roasted on the fire. They were crispy and fragrant. He could eat hundreds of centipedes in one meal.
.
In order to satisfy his appetite, Zhu Yuanzhang mobilized his men to look for centipedes, and some people were bitten by them. The people of Chuzhou called Zhu Yuanzhang General Centipede...
There is also Zhu Yuanzhang who is afraid of his wife. He only relied on her power to get where he is today.
But Ma was jealous and did not allow Zhu Yuanzhang to take concubines. One day, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and sharpened his knife and wanted to kill Ma... But at this moment, Ma suddenly came and asked him why he was sharpening his knife.
Zhu Yuanzhang immediately replied: Seeing that his wife is emaciated, he will kill a sheep for her!
This interesting description made Tamerlane smile. A vulgar, henpecked, and unambitious Zhu Yuanzhang emerged vividly on the page.
Is this person worthy of being an enemy of the Yuan Dynasty?
As long as the army pounces on him, it might scare him to death!
First, Timur was unscrupulous. Wherever the Yuan army passed, the people fled and fled, and mourning was everywhere. Thousands of people ran to Liuhe, praying for Zhu Jiajun's protection.
At this moment, due to reorganization matters, Feng Guoyong, who was originally stationed in Liuhe, is not here. Only Geng Junyong and Geng Bingwen and his son are here, and the troops are also very limited.
The two men went to the city in person and saw the people kneeling on the ground outside the city. Their scalps were numb and their palms were sweating.
"My son, what do you think we should do?"
Geng Bingwen gritted his teeth and said, "What else can I do? Let's fight with the dog Tatars!" The young man leaned out of the crenel and looked at the crowd outside.
"Folks, the Yuan Tartars are committing a heinous crime by massacring all living beings. They don't give people a way to survive! If you want to live, don't kneel down and beg us! You must pick up weapons and fight the Tartars to the death! Protect yourselves!"
"Stand up, don't kneel!"
"If you are brave, go to the city to get weapons and fight with the Tatars! If you are not brave, I will arrange for people to send you to the back!"
Geng Bingwen actually studied under Zhang Ximeng for several months, and his eloquence is very good.
After some agitation, about seven to eight hundred people stood up angrily and were willing to help defend the city.
Geng Bingwen brought these people into the city and stood ready. The rest of the old, weak, women and children, as well as the elderly and children in Liuhe City, were immediately sent away.
Geng Junyong mobilized the army and the people, racing against time to dig trenches, reinforce the city walls, and prepare defense equipment. He was also waiting for Timur's arrival...