Chapter 2538: The end of the war, the negotiations between Chu and Wu
Chapter 2538: The end of the war, negotiations between Chu and Wu
Just as Sun Wu's lone army went deep into Jiangxia and moved to Yunmengze, the three battlefields of Jiangling, Shangyong, and Yangpingguan were also proceeding in an orderly manner.
In order to defeat Jiangling City, Xue Rengui transferred a lot of siege equipment from Xiangyang, and his siege combat capability increased several times.
However, Jiangling guard general Ma Yuan did not sit idle. He took advantage of this gap to stabilize the morale of the army, improve the city defense, and also introduced Jingnan reinforcements into the city.
After the Qin army's equipment arrived, they immediately launched an attack on the city. They launched a fierce attack for seven consecutive days, but still failed to shake Jiangling City.
Seeing this, Xue Rengui knew that Jiangling City was not easy to fight, so he simply stationed himself and surrounded Jiangling, switching from a rush attack to a slow attack, preparing to rely on the gift of weapons and equipment to gradually weaken Jiangling City's military strength, and at the same time, he could
Keep your own casualties to a minimum.
Xue Rengui suffered a setback at Jiangling, and Wu Qi also encountered a setback at Yangpingguan.
Yangping Pass, guarded by Liu Yu personally, was nearly perfect in all aspects. In addition, Yangping Pass was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and even if Wu Qi personally commanded it, it would be difficult to break the city.
Therefore, Wu Qi also adopted the same strategy as Xue Rengui, using crossbows, catapults and other siege equipment to conduct long-distance attacks on the Shu army at Yangping Pass, gradually weakening the military strength at Yangping Pass.
Such a style of play is naturally feasible against mediocre generals, but whether it is Jiangling's Ma Yuan or Yangpingguan's Liu Yu, they are both famous generals who have swept through an era. With the geographical advantage, facing the Qin army's tactics,
Naturally, it is not difficult to find a solution.
Xue Rengui and Wu Qi's blunt knife flesh-cutting tactics were very effective in the early stages, causing a lot of casualties to both Chu and Shu. However, as Ma Yuan and Liu Yu's defenses became more and more rigorous, their defense methods became more and more diverse.
The more advanced the stage, the smaller the casualties will be.
However, even if the casualties caused to Chu and Shu were getting smaller and smaller, the Qin army could still kill dozens, or nearly a hundred, every day, so Xue Rengui and Wu Qi were not in a hurry. After all, mosquitoes are still meat no matter how small they are.
If the city cannot be broken in one day, then it will take a hundred days; if it cannot take a hundred days, then it will take two hundred days. Anyway, they are not short of food and grass, so they will slowly spend their time with the Shu and Chu armies to see who can kill the other first.
The two battlefields of Jiangling and Yangpingguan were both at a deadlock. Only Han Xin on the Shangyong battlefield opened up the situation.
In the two counties and ten cities of Shangyong New City, the generals who were willing to surrender to Qin had already surrendered, but they all had their own reasons for not being willing.
Either all the young people are in Xinzheng as hostages, or the control of the city is controlled by aristocratic families. In short, it is unlikely that they will be persuaded to surrender, so Han Xin has only one way to go: attack by force.
After Han Xin captured Fangling City, he encountered not only stubborn resistance from the defenders but also fierce resistance from the local aristocratic families during his attack on Shangyong County.
If it were just the local defenders, it would not be difficult for Han Xin. However, local powerful families also participated in supporting the Shu army against the Qin army. This undoubtedly made it several times more difficult for Han Xin to capture Shangyong.
Great Qin has always had only one word for powerful families who dare to expressly oppose Qin, and that is: kill.
In Jizhou, Youzhou, and Liaodong, a large number of aristocratic families sent troops to resist the Qin Dynasty, but they died directly under the Qin's butcher's knife, or died in the liquidation process after the war, without exception.
Great Qin's ruthless attitude towards aristocratic families made all the aristocratic families in the territory pinch their tails, and they no longer dared to resist the imperial court and Qin's laws.
None of the Shangyong family were fools. Why did they dare to help Shu openly resist Qin when they knew that resisting Qin would be retaliated by Qin?
The reason lies in the word "greed".
Shangyong is surrounded by mountains on all sides and has an extremely closed geographical environment. This has resulted in the aristocratic family's control over the local area being the strongest in the world. No matter how much the outside world beats them to death, it cannot change the pattern of Shangyong.
In today's world, almost all aristocratic families in the world are suppressing them, but only Li Tang makes important use of aristocratic families, so all the Shangyong aristocratic families support Li Tang.
After Li Tang destroyed the country, he was replaced by the Shu Han. Although the Shu Han suppressed the aristocratic families, the intensity was not too great. Therefore, compared to Da Qin, the Shangyong family was more willing to side with the Shu Han.
After all, if Great Qin occupied Shangyong, according to Qin law, most of the land owned by the Shangyong family would be taken away and distributed to the local people, and only a small part of the property, slaves, and tenant farmers could be retained.
This is something that the Shangyong family cannot accept under any circumstances. After all, it is wealth accumulated over generations.
Moreover, if there had been a major murder that caused harm to the country and caused public outrage, Da Qin would re-examine the case and uphold justice for the people to win their support.
The Shangyong family exploited the common people so much that no one had clean hands. In order to avoid being liquidated, they had no choice but to stand on the opposite side of Da Qin.
In addition, in order to delay Han Xin's advance, Liu Yu sent envoys to lobby the major Shangyong families and made two major promises.
The first is to ensure that the property of the Shangyong family is not infringed upon.
The second is to promise to send troops to Shangyong soon.
It was these two points that gave Shangyong World the courage to oppose Da Qin.
The Shangyong family, headed by Shen, Zhang and Zhao, dispatched all their clan troops to support the Shu army in defending the city.
What's more, he even killed the general who tried to surrender to Qin, took over the city defense and army himself, and prevented the Qin army from entering the city.
The decision made by the Shangyong family was obviously stupid, and they soon paid a very painful price for their stupid behavior.
The vigorous resistance of the Shangyong family made it more difficult for Han Xin to conquer Shangyong, but it was only a little more difficult for Han Xin.
Where there is oppression, there is resistance.
Shangyong's oppression of the local people was too serious. The people of Shangyong had been miserable for a long time. They could barely survive, and they were unable to resist, so they continued to endure the exploitation.
Han Xin had conducted an investigation on Shangyong and knew that the people had been dissatisfied with the family for a long time. He saw that the families had turned against Qin one after another. In order to minimize the losses during the siege, he prepared to stir up the hatred of the people against the family and disintegrate the defenses of Shangyong's cities from within.
.
Han Xin wrote a "Letter to Shangyong Ten Thousand People" in his own handwriting, in which he denounced the aristocratic family's oppression of the people and what benefits the people would get after the Qin Dynasty occupied Shangyong. He then copied a hundred thousand copies and shot them into the Shangyong family with bows and arrows.
Among the Yongzhu cities.
After Han Xin had done all this, he encircled Shangyong counties in three and one out of three counties, but did not directly attack the city, and then waited for good news.
Brothers Shen Yi and Shen Dan of the Shen family were frightened to the point of breaking out in cold sweat after learning about the contents of Han Xin's crossbow message.
They even said that the contents of Han Xin's letters were very tempting to ordinary people. Once spread, it would probably cause riots among the people, so they decisively ordered all the letters to be confiscated, and any behavior of circulating or privately keeping them would be treated as treason.
.
Han Xin sent so many letters into the city that the defenders searched and confiscated most of them, but many were hidden secretly by the people.
This order from brothers Shen Yi and Shen Dan caused a large number of people to be arrested, and they killed many people as a deterrent.
It is better to defend the people's mouth than to defend the river.
Brothers Shen Yi and Shen Dan want to rely on power to forcibly silence the people's mouths. It may be useful in the short term, but it is not a long-term solution. Moreover, the more severe the suppression, the greater the hatred that will burst out from the people.
As Han Xin expected, half a month after he besieged the city, the anger in the hearts of the people could no longer be suppressed, and a civil uprising broke out in Shangyong Beiwu County first.
The people were dissatisfied with the family's oppression and killed officials to resist. They stormed the prison, released their imprisoned relatives, and then opened the city gates to lead the Qin army into the city.
And after the first one, naturally there was a second one soon.
After Beiwu County, civil uprisings also broke out in Wuling and Anfu counties. The defenders were restrained by the Qin army outside the city and had no time to react, so the people opened the city gate from the inside.
Three consecutive cities were lost due to civil uprisings, which naturally aroused the vigilance of brothers Shen Yi and Shen Dan. Under strict defense, the civil uprisings that broke out in the remaining Shangyong and other cities were suppressed by the defenders in the city.
However, the Qin army took advantage of the civil strife in Shangyong and launched an attack on the cities of Shangyong.
Brothers Shen Yi and Shen Dan not only wanted to suppress the internal uprising, but also repel the external Qin army. With their abilities, they were obviously unable to do this, so the Qin army easily invaded the city.
On the day when Shangyong City was defeated, Shen Yi cursed Liu Yu in the palace of the city lord, saying that reinforcements would arrive within five days, but he waited for more than half a month, and even when the city was destroyed, no reinforcements from Shu came.
Shen Yi didn't understand at this moment that he was deceived by Liu Yu, and the price was that the Shen family was about to be exterminated.
"Liu Yu, you don't keep your word, I curse you to die a good death."
After scolding, Shen Yi directly wiped his neck with his sword and committed suicide.
Han Xin spent more than half a month besieging the Shangyong cities, but it only took three days for the Shangyong cities to collapse without attack.
After completely occupying the two counties of Shangyong New City, Han Xin purged the Shangyong family.
All powerful men from aristocratic families who dared to join forces with the Qin army and all direct blood relatives were beheaded. Men who were not direct relatives were all put to death, while women were sent to the Jiaofang Division to serve as official prostitutes.
The three major families of Shen, Zhang, and Zhao, as well as a dozen other families who had been causing trouble to Shang Yong for nearly a hundred years, were all brutally exterminated.
Han Xin successively captured the two counties of Shangyong New City at a negligible cost, then led his army back and headed straight for the west city.
Xicheng is the last gateway of the three major defense lines on the eastern and eastern fronts of Han Dynasty. As long as Xicheng is conquered, Han Xin's army can invade the Hanzhong Basin.
However, Liu Yu was obviously prepared for this. He took advantage of the gap between Han Xin's offensive and sent an additional 15,000 reinforcements to Xicheng, bringing Zhang Ren's defenders in Xicheng to 40,000, which was more than the attacker's. Han Xin had even more troops.
Han Xin dispatched 50,000 troops when he attacked Shangyong. The ambush at Jintai failed and was defeated by Zhang Ren, with the loss of 3,700 troops. He also lost more than 2,000 troops in the attack on the counties of Shangyong New City.
Not counting the surrender of troops, Han Xin still had 44,000 troops in his hands at this time, of which 5,000 were scattered and stationed in various major cities in Shangyong. Therefore, the total number of troops Han Xin could use to attack Xicheng was actually less than 40,000.
Xicheng, as the last line of defense in the eastern part of Hanzhong, has been reinforced many times by Li Shimin and is now a strong city, and the number of defenders in the city is even greater than the attackers.
If Han Xin could not lure Zhang Ren out, he would have no choice but to attack by force. Even if he could eventually break the city, he would probably have to pay a heavy price.
After much thought, Han Xin still did not choose to attack by force, but instead wrote a letter to Ying Hao in Chang'an.
If the emperor must occupy Hanzhong at this time, then he will attack Xicheng at any cost.
If there is still room for maneuver, then Han Xin will contain the main force and will not attack by force for the time being.
After Ying Hao received Han Xin's summons, he immediately summoned all his advisers to discuss and finally decided not to attack Xicheng for the time being.
It's not that Ying Hao has no confidence in Han Xin, but that all the attention of the Shu Kingdom is on Hanzhong at this time, so it is actually the most difficult to capture Hanzhong at this time.
It would have been better if Han Xin had not conquered Xicheng. If he had conquered Xicheng, he would have forced Shu to expand its army to the limit, and then engage in a decisive battle with the Qin army in Hanzhong.
Shu is a big country after Qin, and Qin's next goals are the Sui State in Xiliang and the Wei, Song and Ming Dynasties in the Central Plains.
Before destroying these four kingdoms, Qin will not break out a national war against Shu.
A decisive battle with Shu at this time would definitely affect Qin's plan to unify the Central Plains, and the gains would outweigh the losses.
The original plan of the Qin State to send troops this time was just to capture Guanzhong, but now it not only captured Guanzhong, but also occupied three counties in Longxi, two and a half counties in Liangzhou, and two counties in Shangyong. It has overfulfilled the task.
At this point in the war, Da Qin has already taken advantage of it. If the war continues, it will easily trigger a chain reaction. It would be most beneficial to end the war at this point.
Therefore, Ying Hao not only stopped Han Xin's attack on Xicheng, but also suspended Wu Qi's offensive on Yangping Pass.
At the same time, he ordered Han Xin to form the Shangyong Corps one by one, with 50,000 troops under his command, stationed in Shangyong, Xincheng, and Nanyang counties to contain the Shu army in the west city of Shu.
Wu Qi was ordered to form the Longxi Army, with 60,000 troops under his command, stationed in Longxi, Wudu, and Hanyang counties to contain the Shu army in the direction of Yangping Pass.
Ying Hao's order basically showed that the war started by Great Qin also came to an end under the leadership of Great Qin.
However, although the war between Qin and Shu ended, the war between Chu and Wu did not.
Sun Ce, the crown prince of Wu Kingdom, was captured alive by Wu Zhiqi. How could Wu King Sun Jian give up if he didn't rescue Sun Ce?
However, Sun Jian also knew that sending out all the troops from across the country might not be able to rescue Sun Ce, so he planned to negotiate with the Chu State first, hoping to redeem Sun Ce through negotiations.