Chapter 442 Conquering Ziyang City

After Du Yongyuan received Lu Chen's second letter, he did not directly choose to surrender.

However, the Northern Army did not launch an attack in the next few days, and the soldiers in Ziyang City tensed up their nerves.

Most of the soldiers knew in their hearts that the reason why the Northern soldiers did not attack after the city wall collapsed was mainly because the Northern King was trying to persuade their general to surrender.

The soldiers were very panicked. After seeing the Daxia soldiers who were killed by artillery shells, they had long lost the will to fight. They just wanted to surrender now, but the court could not let them surrender. If they surrendered, they would Relatives are likely to suffer.

Of course, whether or not to surrender is not up to the soldiers. The key lies in the wishes of their generals and lieutenants.

A few days later, Du Yongyuan called his confidant Gao Yong into the study.

Seeing Du Yongyuan looking for him alone, Gao Yong realized that Du Yongyuan must have important things for him to do.

Du Yongyuan took Gao Yong to an underground secret room. After confirming that no one was eavesdropping, Du Yongyuan said: "Vice General Gao, do you know why this general is looking for you?"

Gao Yong said directly: "General, you single-handedly led this subordinate. I have participated in many wars with you. I will definitely listen to you. If you have any special tasks for your subordinate, just tell me directly. I will definitely complete the tasks assigned by you next time.”

Du Yongyuan patted Gao Yong on the shoulder and said, "With your words, this general will feel relieved."

Then Du Yongyuan said: "I plan to withdraw from Ziyang City with 100,000 soldiers. You continue to stay in Ziyang City to attract the attention of the Northern Army."

Hearing this, Gao Yong was stunned for a moment. Gao Yong thought that Du Yongyuan was planning to surrender to the Northern King, but he did not expect that Du Yongyuan's real idea was to escape from Ziyang City.

Escape was not impossible, but after Du Yongyuan took away one hundred thousand soldiers, it became even more impossible for the remaining one hundred thousand soldiers in Ziyang City to block the advance of the Northern Army.

I am afraid that the 100,000 troops remaining in Ziyang City will eventually be blown to pieces by the mysterious weapons of the North.

Seeing that Gao Yong was stunned, Du Yongyuan continued: "After we evacuate, the 100,000 soldiers led by you will also be ready to evacuate.

"I have pretended to agree to the Northern King's surrender. I can temporarily stabilize the Northern King for a while. They should not notice our movements."

Gao Yong said with some worry: "General, does King Bei really believe that you will surrender?"

Du Yongyuan said: "The King of the North will believe it. The King of the North is young, energetic, and proud. The North has such terrible weapons. He must think that I will surrender to him out of fear of the weapons of the North."

Gao Yong continued: "If you retreat like this and lose Ziyang City, will your Majesty..."

Gao Yong did not continue. He felt that if Du Yongyuan escaped like this, he would probably be executed even if he escaped back to the capital.

Escape would be death, and not surrender would be death. It would be better to simply surrender to King Bei.

Du Yongyuan sighed, and then said: "I'm not trying to escape, I just plan to retreat to other cities to look for King Qi's help."

Gao Yong immediately saluted and said: "My subordinates must guard Ziyang City and buy enough time for the general to retreat."

Du Yongyuan thought of something at this time and continued: "By the way, after I retreat, someone will give you a letter. When you see the letter, you should also be prepared to evacuate."

Gao Yong said: "Yes, General!"

…

Early the next morning, when the sky was still gray and bright, Du Yongyuan quietly evacuated from the south gate with 100,000 imperial soldiers. Their movement was very small, for fear of being discovered by the soldiers from the northern country.

Seeing the back of Du Yongyuan leading the soldiers to evacuate, Gao Yong sighed deeply. Although he had been following Du Yongyuan and was promoted by Du Yongyuan, he still felt a little uncomfortable now that he was regarded as the person behind the throne.

Du Yongyuan could have evacuated with 200,000 troops at once, but he did not do so. Apparently he was afraid that the northern soldiers would catch up after discovering it, and in the end they would not be able to escape.

Now there are 100,000 troops behind them. Even if the Northern Army really finds out that Du Yongyuan wants to escape, with these 100,000 soldiers dragging them around, they can buy Du Yongyuan enough time to escape.

Soon Du Yongyuan's 100,000 troops left Ziyang City. However, not long after they left Ziyang City, when they passed through a canyon terrain, the deafening sound of cannons was heard not far away.

Not long after, Du Yongyuan and his 100,000 troops were blocked in the canyon by the Northern Army.

For a moment, the soldiers became extremely panicked.

When did the soldiers from the Northern Kingdom run to the back of Ziyang City?

Du Yongyuan shouted loudly at this time, "Don't panic! Follow me and rush out!"

Having said this, Du Yongyuan took out his sword.

However, at this moment, a deafening sound of artillery sounded in the distance. For a time, the artillery bombarded the 100,000-strong army in front and behind, and the dust was flying, so scared that the Daxia soldiers did not know where to escape.

However, the bombardment ended not long after. It was obvious that the North was deterring them in this way and telling them that there was no way to escape.

Soon, the shouts of soldiers from the Northern Kingdom came from the top of the mountain, "My king has an order. You are all citizens of Daxia. Anyone who abandons his troops and surrenders can live, and you can choose whether to go home after the war."

Hearing this, some soldiers dropped their weapons. Seeing this, Du Yongyuan roared, "No surrender! Whoever dares to surrender, I will kill him!"

At this time, no soldiers listened to Du Yongyuan's orders, and more and more soldiers dropped their weapons.

Du Yongyuan saw that the situation was over, and he looked up to the sky and roared, "Your Majesty, it is my incompetence that I failed to defend Ziyang City. I will die to apologize!"

Speaking of this, Du Yongyuan directly raised his sword and cut his neck with one sword.

Seeing that even Du Yongyuan had cut his neck and committed suicide, the soldiers who had planned to try to charge had to give up the idea of ​​resistance.

In the end, all the 100,000 troops were captured.

At the same time.

Gao Yong also noticed the movement in the south. After realizing that something was wrong, he quickly sent spies to investigate the situation, and he himself came to the tower of the South City.

Not long after, the soldiers who had been investigating came back. They looked extremely panicked and pale.

Gao Yong asked hurriedly: "Tell me, what happened!"

A soldier replied: "The general was ambushed by the Northern Army. Seeing that he could not escape, General Gao committed suicide!"

This...

Gao Yong's face turned pale in an instant, and he sat down on the ground weakly, "How could it be..."

"The Northern Army actually went around to the back of Ziyang City and ambushed..."

In this era, most wars require the occupation of cities one by one. If the city is not occupied, the enemy in the city may run out to cut off the logistics. If the logistics are cut off, the soldiers fighting on the front line may be defeated.

Gao Yong did not expect that the Northern Army would not follow the convention and directly bypassed Ziyang City and ran to the back of Ziyang City.

What to do now...

The Northern Army ran to the back of Ziyang City, which means that Ziyang City has been surrounded.

Du Yongyuan had taken away 100,000 troops, and now there were only 100,000 soldiers left in Ziyang City. In addition, the city wall of Ziyang City had been broken, and the Northern Kingdom had such powerful weapons. Once the Northern Kingdom launched an attack, Ziyang City would be impossible to defend.

Gao Yong's face was full of dejection, and he sighed deeply.

At this time, a Northern Kingdom soldier suddenly came under the tower, and he said loudly: "General Gao, here is a letter from General Du, take a look."

Seeing that it was a letter sent by a Northern Kingdom soldier, Gao Yong frowned, and it seemed that it was a letter of persuasion to surrender.

Gao Yong immediately asked his subordinates to bring in the letter from the Northern Kingdom soldier.

However, when Gao Yong got the letter, he was stunned for a moment. This was not a letter of persuasion to surrender, but a letter from Du Yongyuan.

What's going on?

Gao Yong immediately opened the envelope and looked at the contents inside.

The content of the letter was very simple, telling Gao Yong that if they failed to evacuate, they should surrender directly, as if Du Yongyuan knew their fate in advance.

Gao Yong sighed deeply again. He had no doubt that this was written by someone pretending to be Du Yongyuan. After all, Du Yongyuan told him yesterday that a letter would be delivered.

Gao Yong asked the soldiers of the Northern Kingdom on the city wall, "Is General Du really dead?"

The soldiers of the Northern Kingdom replied, "General Gao, General Du has indeed committed suicide."

After receiving a definite answer, Gao Yong stopped struggling and said directly to his subordinates, "Raise the white flag!"

Hearing this, the people behind Gao Yong breathed a sigh of relief. They were afraid that Gao Yong wanted to avenge Du Yongyuan, and then he would fight the Northern Kingdom army to the end. They had just prepared to kill Gao Yong together and then surrender.

Since Gao Yong surrendered voluntarily, there was nothing to say.

Surrender, anyway, their generals have committed suicide.

In the end, Gao Yong led the remaining defenders of Ziyang City out of Ziyang City and surrendered to the Northern Kingdom.

A few hours later.

Lu Chen's study.

Lu Chen sat at the desk, looked at the sturdy man in front of him and said, "General Du, what do you think of my arrangement?"

Du Yongyuan immediately half-knelt down and said, "Thank you for not killing me, my lord. I am willing to serve you in the future."

Lu Chen continued, "I have sent people to protect your relatives. After the news of your suicide reaches the capital, I believe that the people in the court will not embarrass them. I will take them to the North Kingdom in a while. During this time, you stay in Anping City and don't show up."

Du Yongyuan continued, "Thank you, lord!"

For Lu Chen, these 200,000 Daxia captives are still very useful.

In ancient wars, siege is not the most difficult thing. The most difficult thing is how to defend the conquered land.

After Lu Chen conquers Qi State, he needs a large number of soldiers to occupy the conquered cities. If all the northern soldiers occupy those cities, how many people will be left when he arrives in the capital?

Now these 200,000 captives came into play. He could send people to do ideological work on these 200,000 soldiers and make them his own soldiers. He did not need these soldiers to be absolutely loyal. Anyway, he did not plan to send them the weapons of the Northern Kingdom so soon.

With the weapons of the Northern Kingdom as a deterrent, they did not dare to easily become enemies with the Northern Kingdom. (End of this chapter)