Chapter 713 The rumbling wind
Chapter 713 The rumbling wind
Although Zhang Xutuo did not make a wrong judgment, he was not far from it. He only captured one hundred soldiers inside the pass. They gathered together to gamble and were all captured by five hundred soldiers who descended from the sky. No one escaped.
Soon, the Sui army came up with the result of the interrogation. The interrogator reported to Zhang Xutuo: "General, there were originally 3,000 people guarding the pass. They were Zhu Can's army that fled north from Xiyang County. Wang Shichong did not allow them to go to Luoyang, so he asked them to guard Zhuyang Pass. Ten days ago, they could not bear the hardship, so Zhu Can led his army to Lushi County, leaving only 100 people to guard the pass."
Zhang Xutuo was really confused. He thought that taking Zhuyang Pass was equivalent to taking Hongnong County. However, he did not expect complications to arise. The soldiers guarding the pass went to Lu's County without permission.
Zhang Xutuo left a thousand men to guard the pass, and he led the army to continue marching north rapidly. At noon the next day, the army arrived at Lu's County.
The 30,000-strong army was waiting in Shili, and soon scouts came to report that the city gate was open, with only more than 30 guards, all at the gate. There was no one on the city wall, and both sides of the official road outside the city were full of farmers selling vegetables.
Zhang Xutuo laughed. He was not on guard at all. It seemed that it was the same as at Zhuyang Pass. These guys wanted money.
He immediately made arrangements, and two hundred soldiers disguised themselves as merchants and led a large group of mules towards the south gate.
If it weren't for the profit, there wouldn't even be any garrison at the city gates. Zhu Can was not valued by Wang Shichong, so he just gave up completely and spent his days having fun in the city. His soldiers also extorted and harassed the people all day long. They didn't pay a penny when they went to restaurants or brothels, and they would just rob any good things they saw. In just ten days, public resentment was boiling and the people were miserable.
There were more than thirty soldiers outside the South City Gate. They suddenly saw a large group of mule caravans approaching and were immediately excited. They rushed over and shouted, "Unload the goods and take out the money!"
The two hundred soldiers did not expect that the other side would actually come forward to meet them. They immediately surrounded the thirty-odd soldiers and hacked them to death with their swords. The people selling vegetables outside the city gate were frightened and scattered. The two hundred soldiers rushed up and controlled the South Gate.
The three thousand soldiers a mile away could see it clearly, and they immediately ran towards the South Gate. At this time, three piles of fire were lit on the South Gate. This was a signal that the gate had been taken. Zhang Xutuo's army also started, and ran towards the county town from three miles away.
The streets were full of groups of ruffians who enjoyed extortion. Suddenly they noticed countless Sui soldiers rushing towards them from the south. They were so scared that they turned around and fled. In fact, they could not escape because the Sui army had already taken control of the north and south gates.
Soon, tens of thousands of main forces also rushed into the city. The military camp was in chaos. Some wanted to surrender, some wanted to fight. Ten thousand Sui troops surrounded the military camp. The soldiers in the camp finally couldn't bear the pressure, and teams of soldiers raised their hands to surrender.
The Sui army rushed into the military camp and quickly rescued hundreds of young women, who walked out of the camp crying.
General Yu Han stared at every woman with sharp eyes. They didn't find the commander Zhu Can, so they suspected that Zhu Can was hiding among the women.
Suddenly, Yu Han saw a tall woman with heavy makeup on her face, which she covered with her sleeves. Yu Han noticed the woman's thick Adam's apple at a glance. He immediately winked at several soldiers, and the soldiers understood and went around from behind.
Several soldiers took advantage of the woman's inattention and suddenly knocked her down from behind. The women around her panicked and ran away screaming.
The woman was none other than Zhu Can. He disguised himself as a woman and tried to escape during the chaos, but he was in such a hurry that his neck was not covered, thus exposing himself.
Zhu Can was extremely strong. He shook off the two soldiers who were pinning him down. Just as he was about to turn over, five more soldiers rushed over and pinned him down. Zhu Can struggled desperately. At this time, a sharp sword was pressed against the back of his neck. Yu Han said coldly: "If you resist again, I will cut off your neck with one sword!"
Zhu Can didn't dare to move, so the soldiers took the opportunity to tie his hands and feet tightly, like a rice dumpling, and strangled him into a ball, with his hair disheveled and his mouth blocked.
There were still hundreds of soldiers hiding in the city, not in the military camp. Zhang Xutuo ordered a city-wide search for the enemy. These soldiers committed many crimes and hid in civilian houses. They were reported one after another. Teams of soldiers pulled the enemy out of the civilian houses. Some people took civilians as hostages, but the Sui soldiers didn't care about the safety of the hostages. They rushed up and hacked the soldiers to death with their swords. Facts have proved that as long as they dared to be ruthless, the hostages would be safe. In the era of cold weapons, it was not so easy to kill someone.
By the afternoon, Zhu Can and his 3,000 soldiers were all captured. Zhang Xutuo ordered that Zhu Can and his 3,000 soldiers be taken to the top of the city wall and beheaded in public. The whole city was immediately jubilant. The man-eating devil Zhu Can ended his sinful life in Hongnong County.
After taking Hongnong County, Zhang Xutuo immediately opened up a military grain channel. Five days later, 10,000 camels carrying 50,000 dan of grain from Nanyang County arrived at Lu's County.
In March, a feeling of uneasiness disrupted the tranquility of Chang'an. A rumor quickly spread in Chang'an that 200,000 Wagang troops had invaded Hedong. The rumor became more and more mysterious, and finally it became that 500,000 Wagang troops had occupied the entire Hedong area. In the afternoon, two carriages stopped in front of Dugu Mansion. Yuan Xiaoju and Yuan Shou got off the carriages and walked up the steps.
Dugu Wudu was waiting at the door, clasped his fists and said, "Two seniors, the master is in the back hall, please follow me!"
Yuan Xiaoju and Yuan Shou looked heavy-faced and quickly came to the back hall, where Dugutuo was already waiting.
"I know why you two are here. Please come to the hall and talk!"
The three of them entered the inner hall and sat down. Yuan Xiaoju asked anxiously, "So, the rumors in Hedong are true?"
Dugu Tuo nodded, "It is indeed true. The Wagang Army had already entered Hedong ten days ago."
"what!"
The Yuan brothers looked at each other in bewilderment. Yuan Shou asked anxiously, "What is the situation now? How many troops does the other side have? How does the King of Tang plan to respond?"
Dugu Tuo hesitated and said, "I only know that the enemy is attacking Taiyuan City. This was the situation three days ago. I don't know the current situation. As for the enemy's military strength, it is about 160,000 to 170,000. However, many officers and soldiers surrendered along the way. Now it must be more than 200,000."
"Have we sent out troops?" Yuanshou asked again.
Dugu Tuo nodded and said, "Yesterday the Tang King appointed Yuwen Chengdu as the General of the Eastern Expedition and led 30,000 troops to Hedong."
Yuan Xiaoju's heart sank. They had just set out yesterday, and where had they reached now? They were still far from Pujin Pass. He was extremely anxious and said, "Why is the King of Tang so slow to react? And there are only 30,000 men, while the other side is Li Mi, who has an army of 200,000!"
Dugu Tuo sighed and said, "When it rains, it pours. Xue Ju, the governor of Jincheng County, rebelled. An army of more than 100,000 soldiers is attacking cities in Longyou. The King of Tang has ordered Li Shimin and Qu Tutong to lead 80,000 soldiers to encircle and suppress Xue Ju and his son. There are only 50,000 troops left in Chang'an. It's good enough to send 30,000. We can't transfer Qianniu Guards and Wuhou Guards to the battlefield as well!"
"What about the troops elsewhere?"
Dugu Tuo shook his head. "How many troops are there elsewhere? 20,000 troops in Xiaoguan, 30,000 troops in Shangluo County, and 10,000 troops in Tongguan. Otherwise, we can only transfer back Li Xiaogong's 80,000 troops to attack Shu. But now Bashu is barely in a state of balance. Once the troops are transferred back to Chang'an, I'm afraid Chengdu will not be able to be saved."
Yuan Xiaoju was stunned for a long time and said, "How could it become so embarrassing? It is completely different from our previous plan!"
Dugutuo sighed, "The key is that the Bashu plan did not go smoothly. We were at a disadvantage in the battle for Bashu with the King of Jin. After the setback in Bashu, everything went wrong."
All three of them were silent. The root cause was that Prince Jin had lost the competition. Once Prince Jin took over Bashu, he would control most of the Sui Dynasty, and the situation would be very unfavorable for Prince Tang.
At this time, Yuanshou remembered something and said quickly: "Li Mi was planted in the Wagang Army by our Guanlong nobles. Can't Brother Gu Du persuade him?"
Dugu Tuo's face was filled with a bitter smile. "Li Mi is too ambitious. He is no longer under the control of us Guanlong nobles. I wrote to him, but he simply ignored me. If he still had a little bit of consciousness as a Guanlong noble, he would not have invaded Hedong."
At this time, the butler reported in the hall, "Master, the King of Tang has summoned you, Master Yuan, please come with us!"
(End of this chapter)