Zhang Hongdao personally led the vanguard into Qinyang City and sent people to recruit Wang Rong, the Shihou of Huaizhou, to surrender.
Huaizhou is only more than sixty miles away from Qinyang. Wang Rong never expected that the Tang army could break through Luoyang so quickly, seize the Mengjin Ferry, and surrender to Qinyang City.
Tan Macai reported this series of shocking news, and Zhang Hongdao's envoy arrived.
Barbarians have been ravaging the Central Plains for hundreds of years. Today, the emperor has used his divine and military resources to take advantage of the opportunity, rectify the universe, purify the sun and moon, and make the seas and mountains brighter, and the people can regain their robes and etiquette. How can you dare to resist the power of the saint? If you surrender,
You must respect the officials and give them generous gifts to persuade them to come. If you resist stubbornly, the army will reach the bottom of the city, and the city will be isolated and the road will be dead. It will be too late to regret it.
Wang Rong was still hesitating.
He didn't want to surrender so quickly, as it would appear that he was incapable of resisting, and he would naturally not get a good position.
However, only on the fourth day of August the next day, the Tang Army's vanguard troops had already moved northward, blocking Taihang County, one of the eight Taihang Mountains, and cutting off Shanxi's support to the Yuan army.
On the fifth day of August, the garrison of Wuzhi County surrendered with the city. On the sixth day of the eighth month, the Tang army began to march north to Huaizhou and surrounded the city.
The situation became too fast. Before Wang Rong showed his ability to resist, he was already in a desperate situation with no help from the outside world.
At this time, Wang Rong wanted to contact the Tang army's envoys, but found that Zhang Hongdao did not immediately send anyone to persuade Huaizhou to surrender after he surrounded Huaizhou.
This made him even more panicked. He wanted to send someone to express his surrender, but he also thought that maybe he could wait a little longer until a new envoy from the Tang army came over.
But the Tang army was far more decisive and fierce than he imagined. On the day after completing the siege, they started bombarding the Huaizhou city gate with a small artillery piece. Boom!
The city gate shook amidst the loud noise, and huge cracks appeared.
Wang Rong quickly sent people to block the city gate with wood and rocks.
But when the giant tree was pushed to the city gate, he suddenly thought about it and felt something was wrong, and quickly ordered the city gate to raise a flag to signal surrender.
It was only during this series of defeats that the power of the prince began to become less important.
Not as important as life.
As a result, the Tang army captured the entire territory of Huaizhou in just four days, and its troops were directed towards Weizhou.
Since the fall of Luoyang and the Tang army crossing the Yellow River north, many flaws in Yuan and Mongolia's military affairs have led to this situation.
Many worlds north of the Yellow River are divided into different areas, with varying degrees of good and bad. Each has its own agenda and lacks unified control and scheduling.
After the Battle of Sanfeng Mountain, the Mongols had devastated the Jin Kingdom, and now there is some sense of retribution on them.
After all, many of these princes were generals of the Jin Kingdom back then. They were able to carry gold and surrender to the Mongols at that time, and now they can also carry the Mongols and surrender to the Tang Dynasty.
Since it is like this for you to take over others, it is also a common thing nowadays.
What was even more unfavorable for Meng Yuan was that the impact of the previous Battle of Helan Mountain had not subsided, and then the impact of the battle for the throne came over again.
On the tenth day of August, just when Zhang Hongdao was about to recruit Weizhou to surrender, the news that King Yan Zhenjin fell ill had already reached the ears of the princes of Hebei.
For Meng Yuan, this was a case of continuous rain all night when the house was leaking.
For a time, all the princes and nobles in the north supported the Han Dynasty and looked forward to the successor of Zhenjin. Everyone was in danger and extremely frightened.
On August 12, Weizhou, Huazhou, Jiahuo, Gongcheng and other cities surrendered one after another.
While Boyan was still desperately blocking Zhang Jue's East Route Army in Henan, Zhang Hongdao's North Route Army had quickly opened up the situation.
Once this atmosphere of surrender is formed, it is very easy to cause more princes to surrender as if they have lost their senses.
Zhang Hongdao is becoming more and more confident.
What he said about taking Hebei for Li Xia is already on track to come true.
Next, he only needs to conquer Zhangde Mansion and Daming Mansion, or even bypass these two places to contact the Zhending Historians and Gaocheng Dong Family.
As long as one of these two families surrenders, they can in turn attack Zhangde and the two daiming mansions from both sides. In this way, half of Hebei can be secured. We can continue to march north and unite with the Zhang family of Shuntian. Our troops can reach Yanjing.
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At this point, the Yuan army troops from Shanxi finally arrived.
Ahema heard that the situation was critical, so he personally led his troops and left Baixing on a starry night.
Baixing is also one of the eight places in Taihang.
Because the Taihang Mountains stretch thousands of miles, isolating Shanxi from Heshuo, the mountains are high and dangerous and difficult to overcome. Only a few rivers that cross the Taihang Mountains cut out valleys and form roads, which are the Taihang Eighth Routes.
The exit of Baixing faces Weizhou, which Zhang Hongdao intends to use as a food and grass distribution place.
Ahema planned to quickly cross the Taihang Mountains and use the Yuan army's cavalry to sneak attack the Tang army's baggage.
This is just like Zhang Honglue's sneak attack on Xia Gui's grain and grass, which caused the Song army to be quickly defeated regardless of the strategic advantages it had accumulated before.
However, Zhang Hongdao was well prepared. While he ordered his infantry to escort the baggage into the city, he personally led his troops to attack Mengmen Pass, a key pass on Baixing.
The Yuan Dynasty originally set up a small number of garrison troops at Mengmen Pass to collect commercial taxes. After learning about the Tang Army's Northern Expedition, it sent a lot of reinforcements, which prevented Zhang Hongdao from breaking through Mengmen Pass at the first time.
However, the Tang army was blocked in front of Mengmen Pass, which completely failed Ahhema's plan to attack the Tang army's baggage.
The two sides faced off, but Zhang Hongdao, as the attacking party, had more choices.
Although his troops were restrained by Ahema, he also sent small groups of elite cavalry to escort Shi Gang and Dong Wenyong to the north.
~~Zhending Mansion.
During the Jin Dynasty, there was a folk proverb in the north, called Splendid Taiyuan City and Huahua Zhending Mansion, which refer to the two most prosperous cities in the north.
Zhending has been an important town since ancient times, and is now considered one of the best-preserved cities in the Central Plains, with even the city walls intact.
The city wall was first built in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, the city was expanded due to the overflow of the Hutuo River. Therefore, it is both simple and strong, and the perimeter is long enough to make the city large.
During the Mongolian War to Destroy the Jin Dynasty, countless cities were burned down and residents were massacred. The historians played a large role in the fact that Zhending Mansion was spared.
On August 14, the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhending City was filled with silence.
Countless people wearing sackcloth and mourning walked silently through the streets and alleys. They were lining up to wait for sacrifices, and the queue filled the entire Nancheng.
At the front of the crowd is a newly built ancestral hall.
In front of the ancestral hall, there is a newly engraved stone tablet, with the Shinto tablet of Prime Minister Shigong on the right, and a long inscription behind it.
Someone is chanting sadly.
The house owner was entrusted by the curtains but not the hard work of the horses. Geng Jia was honored by the bells and cauldrons but failed to fulfill the duties of Jun. Isn't it true that the generals and prime ministers have different weapons and the army and the country are suitable for different purposes? It is not possible to have both benevolence and courage and talent and virtue.
It’s not easy to take it for granted
In just a few sentences at the beginning, Shi Tianze has been described as superior to Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, Geng Yan, and Jia Fu. He was a minister with both civil and military skills, talents and virtues.
As for whether it is qualified or not, apart from anything else, just judging from the record of the defeat at Helan Mountain, it seems to be a bit too much.
But Kublai Khan still sent Wang Pan, a bachelor of the Imperial Academy of the Yuan Dynasty and a director of the Jixian Academy of National History, to personally preside over the construction of the temple.
This is obviously very important to win over the people of Zhending Mansion.
The Duke's wife, the Shi family, the Li family, the Nahe family, and the Shuhu family, all died before him. He has eight sons and seven daughters. There are sixteen male and thirteen female grandsons.
The long lamentation finally came to an end.
After reading the names of the historians, everyone began to read the inscription.
The Duke of Wei Kaifu, Shen Yi Pang Hong. He was possessed of a transcendent and extraordinary talent. He practiced martial arts after many dynasties, and the Duke was in the army.
The atmosphere was solemn. Shi Zhang, dressed in linen clothes, wearing a mourning hat and wearing hemp shoes, stood at the front of the team.
Different from the childish young man more than ten years ago, he now exudes an aura of majesty.
After Shi Tianze left, he succeeded his father and became the general manager of Zhending Mansion.
As for military power, when Shi Tianze was still alive, he had already taken the initiative to request Kublai Khan to surrender the military talisman. The so-called military and civilian rights cannot be combined into one, and the request should start from the minister's family. However, in fact, although the military talisman was handed over, it was not really Among the Han troops in Dingfu, the generals at all levels were obviously still under the control of historians.
In short, Shi Zhang, who was still relatively young, had already taken on the role of a historian.
At this time, someone squeezed through the crowd of sacrificers and wanted to report something to Shi Zhang. However, seeing that the situation was inconvenient, they first found Wang Yun, an undercover servant of the Shi family.
Generally speaking, Wang Yun has his own judgment on the news. If it is not too important, he will handle it and will not disturb Shi Zhang on such occasions.
However, at this time, before Wang Yun finished reading the inscription, he squeezed in beside Shi Zhang and whispered a few words into his ear.
Someone saw Shi Bang sneaking into the city.
Shi Zhang suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with anger.~~
At night.
The candlelight reflected the silhouettes of the people in the room on the window paper, and the voices of the people in the room could be faintly heard.
Rumor has it that King Yan has died of illness, but the news is still being suppressed.
What's the use of suppressing it? In recent days, many important ministers and princes who are dedicated to practicing Han law have changed their attitudes. Times have changed and things have become easier.
Isn’t this the reason why Wang Zhuangyuan was sent here? We are worried that we historians may also have thoughts, so we need to stabilize our minds.
Don’t you think that these are all benefits but not real things? Wang Zhuangyuan’s inscription is beautiful, but no matter how many complimentary words there are and no matter how high the posthumous official position is, can it change the situation of the country?
To be honest, the nephews and nephews that my father worked hard to cultivate when he was still around are no longer here.
When Shi Zhang, who was standing outside the house, heard this, he took two steps back and gave his subordinates a cold look.
The servants with ropes suddenly opened the door and rushed in. Take it!
Shi Zhang followed behind, and before his feet crossed the threshold, he was already shouting fiercely.
But when he actually walked into the house and took a closer look, he saw the servants standing there stupidly.
Sitting there chatting were Shiro Shidi, Wulang Shiqi, and two other brothers from the clan.
Where is Shi Bang?! Search for me! Shi Zhang shouted.
Second brother, what are you doing? Didn’t third brother become a prisoner of the Tang army?
Don't pretend to be confused and say, where is Shi Gangren?! We have never seen him.
Soon, the search came to a halt, because this was a small and simple teahouse, and it was obviously impossible to find Shi Gang no matter how many searches were carried out. Shi Zhang was stunned for a moment.
He clearly got information from Wang Hui that Shi Bang was here. And after listening to those treacherous remarks in the house, he thought he had confirmation.
Thinking about this, he couldn't help but look at the two brothers with disbelief.
If Shi Bang hadn't come back, who taught you what you said?!