@On the second day of March, the newly appointed commander of the first town of Qingtang, Gaotang County Gong Liang Huaijin, and the Minister of Household Affairs Zhang Xuanyan left Luoyang and headed for Weizhou.
On March 15th, the group arrived in Guantao County in the north of Weizhou and met Lu Huaizhong.
In fact, there is nothing else to do but read out the saint's will.
The reason why he chased him all the way to Guantao was because Lu Huaizhong accepted Shi Renyu's surrender here.
The governor of Bozhou was executed by the state general Wang Ju, and the city surrendered. Now there are only a few stragglers left who insist not to surrender. Lu Huaizhong has sent troops to kill him, and he will be victorious soon.
Speaking of Wang Ju, we have to mention Luo Shaowei's persuasion to surrender.
When the city of Weizhou was defeated, Wang Ju was still hesitating. If the army hadn't been approaching gradually, he might not have been so happy. Anyway, he was quite a typical Tang warrior: being ignorant of current affairs was their biggest characteristic.
However, once they decided to surrender, they had no moral integrity and directly killed the governor of Bozhou, who was related to them by marriage, and then led the army to control the whole city, waiting for the Xia army to come and take over, which made people stunned.
Once Bozhou surrendered, there was no point in holding Guantao on. Especially since the Xia people brought some prisoners over and screamed day and night, which caused the morale of the troops in the city to fluctuate and their morale to plummet.
In the past few days, almost every night, sergeants came out of the city to surrender, and some people took advantage of the darkness to escape. Shi Ren didn't stop him when he saw them, everyone settled in their destiny and did whatever they wanted. He didn't want to care about it, and he didn't bother to care about it.
And his laissez-faire attitude will only have one effect, which is to make morale collapse even more completely.
So, today, after Luo Shaowei's efforts to persuade him to surrender, Shi Renyu also felt that the time was ripe. After testing the thoughts of the sergeants, he found that there was not much resistance to surrender, and finally relaxed and ordered the opening of the city.
Lu Huaizhong happened to be suppressing the rebellions one after another nearby. After hearing the news, he rushed to Guantao and accepted the surrender of more than 4,000 Wei soldiers.
At this point, the last organized enemy army in the vassal town of Weibo has been eliminated. Forty-three counties in six states have been included in the territory of Daxia, at least on the surface, which is gratifying.
Although the conquest of Wei took a lot of effort and spent a lot of resources, the removal of one of the richest vassal towns in Hebei had a profound impact on the cause of unification.
Li Keyong, Wang Rong, Lu Yanwei, and Wang Gao, if nothing else happens, their rule has entered a countdown.
"As soon as I arrived in Wei, I heard the good news about the battlefield. When the saint heard about it, he would definitely be happy. I am afraid that Marshal Lu will have to go up." Zhang Xuanyan said with a smile.
"Where can we go up?" Lu Huaizhong also smiled and said: "The place in the Privy Council makes people uncomfortable and boring. Besides, being an official in the court is not my ambition. I am more comfortable leading troops outside.
, Now that the vassal town has not been destroyed, and the world is different, there is no time to think about glory. It is better to fight for the saint while you have the strength."
"Shuai Lu's loyalty is truly astonishing." Zhang Xuanyan sighed.
Lu Huaizhong smiled. If he had a choice, he would even be willing to lead troops outside for the rest of his life. The opportunity to drink tea in the Privy Council should be given to others.
But he also knew that this might just be an extravagant hope. A hundred thousand troops cannot be left in the hands of one person for a long time. Wuwei, Jinglue, and Yi from the three armies have not been out for a short time, and it is almost time to go back and rest, but they are not ready.
I know who will replace me later...
In this battle, he led his army to capture the three eastern prefectures of Zhaoyi and the four prefectures of Weibo. In terms of population and economy, he was no worse than Li Tangbin. Before Zhang Xuanyan came, Gu Chengen, the internal servant, had already been here.
Afterwards, he was rewarded with the property, brocade robes, and chariots given by the saint. Before leaving, Pugu Cheng'en secretly revealed that the saint was going to give him a title, from a county prince to a country prince, and to live in a city of four thousand households.
If Zhao Kuangning is excluded, this is the second Duke of Great Xia besides Li Tangbin, and he is extremely glorious. Moreover, according to the current situation, the number of Dukes must be very rare, and it is very difficult to obtain them, which makes them even more valuable -
——It is impossible for civil servants to be promoted to the title of Duke, and it is extremely difficult for them to be promoted to Duke or County Duke. They are incomparable with military generals.
But Lao Lu still had some regrets. The title was a trivial matter, and the opportunity to lead troops in battle was what he valued more.
"Okay, as the saint wishes, I
Already known." Lu Huaizhong was sitting in the Guantao County Government Office and said, "I will keep an eye on the Weizhou immigration matter. Speaking of which, this matter has been going on for a long time. Immigration has been going on since Xiangwei, so let's handle everything as usual."
Wei Bo has more than 3 million people on its books. After years of fighting with the towns, there are still more than 2.5 million people. In the past, Li Keyong caused the most population losses, but now this title has been lost.
It was left to Shao Shude, who had lost at least more than 300,000 yuan, and even as many as 400,000 yuan through a two-pronged approach of immigration and war.
And he will continue to make troubles and move more Weibo people out of their hometown. For this reason, he does not hesitate to keep the situation in Weibo in turmoil--there are still people in the two states who are defending each other, which is proof of this.
.
"Shuai Lu, the Wei people are cunning. The immigrants need to be escorted by a large number of sergeants. Is the force sufficient?" Zhang Xuanyan asked again: "The sage sent me to tell Shuai Lu. After Li Keyong heard the news of the fall of Weizhou, he might have jumped over the wall and sent all the troops.
When you come here, you still have to be careful."
"I can save it." Lu Huaizhong said: "In fact, Li Keyong never stopped. He repeatedly sent troops down the mountain to attack Xing Mingci. He had victories and defeats with the army, but he did not break through the defense line. If he had sent all the troops to come,
, the Jinglue Army alone cannot stop it. I have a sense of discretion in this matter. I will try my best to hand over the escort of the Wei people to Gongchen to save the two armies. The Yi Cong Army has to go back to rest and recuperate, and can also take a group of people away.
Li Ya'er, he has lost his best opportunity and has no chance."
"Shuai Lu is acting prudently, so I feel relieved." Zhang Xuanyan praised: "I still have to go to Chanzhou to see the people who are about to move westward.
"Excuse me, Minister Zhang." Lu Huaizhong said.
****
"Li Gongquan? Am I right?"
"That's right, it's this bitch."
"Why is he back?"
"Back then, he fled from Bozhou and took refuge with Shao Thief. Isn't it normal to come back now?"
"Why?"
"Shao's tactics, hey, he likes to use Wei Bo's traitor."
"Conquer Wei with Wei?"
"That's pretty much it."
Outside Chanzhou City, a large group of Weibo people were resting. They saw an army approaching from a distance. Its generals were riding on tall horses, and they were very conspicuous.
They are all old Wei Bo people, and they know Li Gongquan a lot. After all, the fight for the throne was so famous that many people had seen him, not to mention that before that, Li Gongjian was a government official and was considered a man of the hour in the town...
"This thief earns all his wealth and honor with the blood of our Wei people."
"If you get a chance, play with him."
"Okay, call me then."
"Stop talking, this guy is here."
Gongchen's army stopped outside the camp where the people of Wei Bo temporarily lived. Li Gongquan rode his horse in a circle, and then looked at the people who were either cold-faced, fearful, timid, or flattering towards him, with expressionless faces.
"Everyone! I just came from Bozhou." After a long time, Li Gongjian, surrounded by his own soldiers, entered the camp, climbed onto a high platform, and said, "To be honest, I killed tens of thousands of people."
As soon as this statement came out, everyone was in an uproar, and there was a hint of commotion in the crowd.
Gongchen's soldiers drew their swords one after another and looked coldly at the Wei people who stood up.
Li Gongjian laughed twice, with a nonchalant expression, and said: "When you drove me away, did you ever imagine that today you would have a total of 7,000 households, including the families of Yamen soldiers, the families of town soldiers, and the families of state and county soldiers?
, everyone has a share. I just like to see your expressions of hating me and being helpless."
"Dog thief!" Someone tried to rush forward, but before he could take two steps, he was killed by an arrow.
The crowd was in chaos, more people stood up, and more arrows were fired, and screams could not be heard.
Gongchen's soldiers also rushed into the crowd, slashed with swords, and killed more than a hundred people, regardless of age or sex, until most of the people were afraid and knelt on the ground, and then stopped with a ferocious look on their faces.
"Don't talk to me about the love between family members. When they drove us away, the love was gone." Li Gongjian sneered: "The Gongchen army had five thousand men, and some family members were killed at will.
Some wives were forced to remarry, some fled to other places, and their relatives were separated. How should this account be settled?"
Li Gongjian said this rudely, but no one dared to object in front of him. The bloody corpses were there, and no one was a fool. When he got to the end of the field, he could take a breath and find some weapons and armor.
It's not too late to take revenge.
"Do you know why I massacred ten thousand people in Bozhou?" Li Gongjian glanced at everyone in the camp, and no one dared to look at him.
"There are always some fools who still want to fight against Master Wang." Li Gongjian spat and said, "The evils you have done today are all your own fault. The emperor wants you to leave Weibo and go to other counties for farming. This is not a consultation, but an order.
.Since you disobey the holy order, you can naturally be killed. Not only is it not guilty, but it is meritorious. I want to see how many people have contributed to me along the way."
Speaking of this, Li Gongjian smiled cruelly and said: "Since March, there have been many rebellions in the four states of Wei, Bo, Chan, and Bei. The generals of Daxia have requested orders one after another to massacre all the rebellious counties and villages, but they have all been killed by Lu Du.
Once suppressed, we only killed tens of thousands of people, which was very unsatisfactory."
"Also, there is something I want you to know." Li Gongjian raised his right hand again and said: "In the next few days, thousands more households of Beizhou people will come to join us. I will go to Qingtang in a team of ten households.
On the road, if one person escapes, his whole family will be killed. If there are three or more people, the whole team will be killed. If you don’t want to be killed, just keep an eye on each other. I’ll leave this here. If you don’t believe it, you can give it a try.”
Things like "leading the team to kill" were brought out, and the people in the camp suddenly became silent after hearing this.
Some people subconsciously looked to their side, and then quickly looked away.
Some people were angry, clenching their hands tightly until their knuckles turned white, but they did not dare to stand up and resist.
Some people's eyes were dull and their expressions were numb, as if they had given up.
"Are you scared? Just be scared." Li Gongquan laughed loudly, as if these people's submission made him very happy. He said "shamelessly", "You can scold me all you want, I don't care. I will kill you when the time comes."
It will only make me happier to give you and your wives and daughters to the sergeants for playing with.”
"That's it for now, no more words, please think about it carefully." After saying that, Li Gongjian jumped off the high platform and strode outside.
As soon as he left the camp gate, he asked the soldiers in a low voice: "Have you seen Minister Zhang just now?"
"Secretary Zhang was outside the camp gate and left after listening to half of the story. He must have known about the loyalty of the military envoy." the soldier replied.
"That's good, that's good." Li Gongquan breathed a sigh of relief.
When will his grandma, a great warrior, have to curry favor with these dog-like literati? It’s so difficult in this world.