However, due to the presence of infantry, a large amount of food, grass, baggage, and siege equipment, the army did not move very fast.
There are not many cities left in the Yan Kingdom. This time, Xiao Jingxuan’s first city to attack is Shenzhou. In addition to Shenzhou, the Yan Kingdom currently only has four remaining cities: Yizhou, Baicheng, Luzhou, and Dazhou. It is a large city, and the rest of the land is mostly sparsely populated.
It is late autumn now, and there is not much time left for Jam Hsiao.
In order to resolve the battle as quickly as possible, Xiao Jingxuan ordered Gongsun Sheng and Hu Yanzhuo to set out first to deal with the counties and villages around Shenzhou. At the same time, they cut off the connection between Yan State and Shenzhou.
It took the army about twelve days to reach Shenzhou. At this time, Shenzhou had already been under martial law. The city gates were closed tightly and there were a large number of soldiers on duty on the city towers.
Xiao Jingxuan did not rush to order an attack, but set up camp first and surrounded Shenzhou at the same time.
In order to prevent the enemy from resisting desperately, Xiao Jingxuan deliberately left a gap in the northeast without encircling it.
After the army rested for a night, Xiao Jingxuan asked someone to shoot a message arrow into the city. He told the defenders in the city to surrender without killing them.
However, the Yan army in the city did not accept Xiao Jingxuan's proposal, and after that, the number of defenders on the city tower was increased a lot.
Seeing this situation, Xiao Jingxuan didn't waste any time and immediately ordered Qi Biao and Qu Qingshan to lead their troops to attack Shenzhou.
After receiving the commander's order, Qi Biao and others immediately ordered their troops to assemble the trebuchet and arrow tower.
Thanks to Fan Yang's sufficient transportation capacity, Qi Biao and others brought a large number of trebuchets and tools for building arrow towers this time.
As the trebuchet was assembled, it immediately launched an attack on Shenzhou. The arrow tower was also being assembled quickly.
In addition, there are also a large number of crossbow arrows. These are not ordinary crossbow arrows, but large crossbow arrows made of giant ox sinew wood.
The arrows of these crossbows are just spears. It can be said that the power of these crossbows is not inferior to that of trebuchets.
Such a fierce attack also made Shenzhou's defenders quite depressed, because the defenders basically had no solution to such long-range attacks.
If the opponent does not have enough troops, we can still lead our troops to attack. However, in front of the enemy's formation is the famous Fan Yang Iron Cavalry.
Moreover, the total number of defenders in the city is only 20,000, and most of them are infantry.
Although it is relatively wretched, Xiao Jingxuan is very satisfied with the infantry's long-range attacks.
Moreover, in order to make the attack more fierce, Xiao Jingxuan even ordered some cavalry to help the infantry collect stones and wood.
Xiao Jingxuan's purpose is very simple, that is to reduce casualties as much as possible. For this purpose, it doesn't matter if it takes more time.
As time passed, the number of trebuchets increased and the attacks became more violent.
Because infantry is responsible for all attacks, Xiao Jingxuan is quite free.
In addition to practicing every day, he also looked at the Kan map in his hand and studied the army's next strategy.
Two days passed quickly, and Shenzhou City at this time could be said to be riddled with holes.
Faced with such a strong attack, the defenders' psychological defense quickly collapsed. Just when Xiao Jingxuan was planning to launch a strong attack, the Yan army guarding Shenzhou finally raised a white flag and surrendered.
Because they knew very well that after the city was broken, it would be difficult for 20,000 old and weak men to stop the brave Fan Yang cavalry.
As a famous Yanjun walked out of the city and handed over his weapons, Xiao Jingxuan's army finally entered the city.
After entering the city, Xiao Jingxuan immediately ordered the army to take over the defense of the city, and posted notices to calm the people, announcing Fan Yang's policy to the people in the city.
After handling these matters, Xiao Jingxuan really had a headache for these prisoners.
For these people, they dare not use it, they cannot kill it, and they dare not let it go. It is really a difficult problem.
Finally, after discussing with his subordinates, Xiao Jingxuan first selected these officers who had been demoted to the rank of commander or above and formed a separate unit to follow the army.
Then the old, weak, sick and disabled among the remaining surrendered troops were selected. Those who were willing to disarm and return to the fields would be given travel expenses, while those who were unwilling would be recruited as field soldiers and would be stationed near Shenzhou.
As for the young and strong people in the surrendered army, some were transferred to Shenzhou, some to Pingzhou, some were added to the command of Qi Biao and Qu Qingshan, and the rest were sent to the field troops.
After solving the problem of surrendering troops, the next step is to govern Shenzhou. Shenzhou is newly attached. There must be an important person to appease the people.
After all, his plan this time is not only to conquer Yan, but if the opportunity is right, Xiao Jingxuan does not mind destroying Yan.
In order to better win over people's hearts, first of all, the tax policy must be the same as Fan Yang.
The twenty-one field tax allows Xiao Jingxuan to quickly appease the people. However, Yan State is bitterly cold and the fields can often only be planted for one season each year. It seems that more matters need to be found about the grains grown here.
In addition, there are many policies that require a heavyweight to take charge.
After much thought, Xiao Jingxuan planned to temporarily transfer Ding Weiran to Shenzhou, and at the same time, transfer a group of officials from the newly admitted officials to serve in Shenzhou. At the same time, he would promote his new policies.
Xiao Jingxuan wrote an official document and gave it to the personal guard to forward it to Zuo Zhang Shi Ding Weiran.
After settling this, Xiao Jingxuan began to discuss with the generals the next move of the army.
After a period of deep thought, coupled with the suggestions of his generals, Xiao Jingxuan planned to divide his troops and take action all the way to Luzhou.
Luzhou is close to the sea, and the fishery is very developed, which can effectively solve the lack of meat in the country and provide an outlet to the sea for the next strategy.
However, Luzhou is not a big city, so it is enough for Xiao Jingxuan to order Huangfu Song and Yang Xiong to lead their troops to attack.
As for the destination of the army on the other side, Xiao Jingxuan set his target on Yizhou, the capital of Yan State.
The Yan State now has about 150,000 troops, of which 20,000 are stationed in Shenzhou, almost 5,000 in Luzhou, and almost 60,000 in Baicheng.
In addition, because Dazhou borders Weiguo, there are also 40,000 troops stationed there.
In other words, the total strength of Yizhou at this time is only 30,000. With the 50,000 troops in Xiao Jingxuan's hands, it is more than enough to deal with the 30,000 troops.
Therefore, after Xiao Jingxuan mobilized five thousand troops from each battalion to garrison Shenzhou, he led the army towards Yizhou.
As the saying goes, before the three armies move, food and grass go first. Xiao Jingxuan did not seize a large amount of food and grass in Shenzhou.
Not only was it not captured, but due to the need to relieve the people and appease the surrendering troops, Xiao Jingxuan also consumed a lot of military rations carried by the army.
For this reason, Xiao Jingxuan had to adjust grain from Yingzhou. If it were not for the bumper harvest in Fanyang this year, it is very likely that this swallow-cutting meeting would have ended hastily.
After the army arrived in Yizhou, they looked at the towering city walls of Yizhou and the densely packed defenders on the city towers.
Xiao Jingxuan also had a headache. He took the generals of each battalion around Yizhou City and found no weaknesses.
For this reason, Xiao Jingxuan had to resort to the old method of attacking from a distance. Fortunately, Qi Biao and Qu Qingshan brought all the siege equipment they used to attack Shenzhou.
Then, the vigorous long-range attack began.
However, the walls of Yizhou City were high and thick, and Xiao Jingxuan was not confident enough to rely on these things to break through Yizhou. So, Xiao Jingxuan also adopted another method, which was to dig tunnels.
In order to deceive others, Xiao Jingxuan ordered the camp to be set up less than five miles away from Yizhou City.
The tunnels were also dug in the camp under the cover of the barracks. For smooth operation, Xiao Jingxuan ordered that five tunnels be excavated at the same time.
Facing Yizhou City, the capital of the Yan Kingdom, Xiao Jingxuan did not expect to conquer it in a short time.
As long as the battle can be resolved before next spring, it will be fine. Now that the Yuwen Clan's Zhao Kingdom and Wei Dynasty are newly established, they still need to stabilize people's hearts and be unable to attack.
However, things will be different after next year's spring plowing. I must return to the army and take up residence in Fan Yang before that time.
The days passed like this. Every day at dawn, Qi Biao and others began to launch long-range attacks on Yizhou, and they ended at dark.
As for the tunnels, they were excavated in shifts every day without stopping for a moment.
During the intervals between battles, there was an endless stream of envoys from both sides. Even as the attacks became more and more fierce, the number of envoys coming and going also increased.
The conditions for the Yan State to seek peace are getting higher and higher. From the compensation of military expenses at the beginning, to the cession of territory and vassalage later.
However, in the face of these conditions, Xiao Jingxuan refused. It was not that Xiao Jingxuan was not moved, but that all the conditions were false when the strength of Yan State was not greatly weakened.
On this day, Xiao Jingxuan was practicing in the commander's tent. There were scouts outside the tent to report. It turned out that a reinforcement force from the Yan Kingdom came from the direction of Baicheng. After the scouts' investigation, the number should be around 50,000.
After hearing the news, Xiao Jingxuan immediately ended his training and asked his scouts to point out the location of Yan's reinforcements on the map.
This time, Yan's reinforcements include 30,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry. Judging from the commander's flag, the leader should be the royal family of Yan.
Although the reinforcements are not moving very fast, they should be able to reach Yizhou City in two days. Upon hearing the news, Xiao Jingxuan immediately summoned the generals of each battalion to discuss matters.
After discussion, Xiao Jingxuan personally led 30,000 cavalrymen from Hu Yanzhuo, Gongsun Sheng, and Ye Xiong to quietly leave the camp under the cover of night and go to intercept Yan's reinforcements.
The remaining 20,000 infantrymen continued to disguise themselves as a large army and continued to attack Yizhou City to confuse the Yizhou City army.
After the strategy was agreed upon, that night, Xiao Jingxuan quietly left the camp with the army and headed towards the reinforcements of the Yan army.
There are many plains in the north, and there are no valleys or other terrain suitable for an army to ambush, so after exploration by scouts, Xiao Jingxuan chose a mountain forest to cover up the whereabouts of the army.
This time, Jam Hsiao did not intend to make a sneak attack. Once the enemy reinforcements arrived, Jam Hsiao would lead the army to charge and have a head-to-head confrontation with the enemy.