Chapter 1007 As long as you hold on, there is hope

Chapter 1007 As long as you hold on, there is hope

Chapter 1007 As long as you hold on, there is hope

In fact, Zhangye County had already kept its troops in place as early as when the army broke into the West Sea.

They once organized reinforcements, but after the messenger reported that Xijun was in rebellion and the prefect Zhao Shi led his troops to block the post road, they stopped.

There are undoubtedly some who are faithful, but they are not many.

If Xijun had not rebelled, perhaps the reinforcements from Zhangye would have already headed for Wuwei. But Xijun rebelled and the road was blocked, so it couldn't be our fault. This is what they thought.

The two counties of Jiuquan and Jinchang to the west of Zhangye are exactly the same.

They did not have a strong desire to rescue Wuwei. If they could, they would rescue him. If they could not, forget it. It was too much to expect the three armies to gather heavy forces and fight to the death with Xijun.

In addition, Dunhuang County directly changed its flag and submitted to Daliang.

This county is located in the western border area, but it is a large county. Before the influx of refugees from Yong and Qin, its population was even larger than that of Wuwei.

Most of the famous noble families in Liangzhou gathered here.

Such as the Longlesuo family, the Guangzhi Gai family, the Yuanquan Zhang family (the Zhang family has a branch in Jinchang, and the clan is also very powerful), the Xiaogu Song family, the Cao family, the Linghu family, the Dunhuang Fan family, the Ma family (the Ma family has a branch in Jiuquan), the Yin family (the Yin family has a branch in Wuwei), the Duan family, the Hou family, the Yin family, etc.

Among them, the four surnames of Suo, Zhang, Yin and Song were the most prominent, occupying most of the positions in the Liangzhou shogunate.

It can be said that more than half of the officers and officials of the Liangzhou Shogunate were from Dunhuang, which shows the important position of Dunhuang County in the twelve counties and three camps of Liangzhou.

The Dunhuang County revolt was actually supported by the major clans, but none of them showed up. Anyway, the prefect Xin Ping "acted on his own will" and said he wanted to submit to Daliang, so there was nothing anyone could do to stop him, right?
They did this mainly to ensure the safety of their clansmen who were officials in Wuwei.

Those who can go there to be officials must be outstanding sons of the clan or elders with high status. Is it reasonable for you to cheat them?

Yang Xuan, the newly appointed prefect of Gaochang County, was Zhang Jun's confidant. Once the Dunhuang uprising broke out, his route to reinforcements was immediately cut off.

Yang Xuan had few soldiers. Apart from the remnants of Zhao Zhen's troops in the Wu Ji Commandery, he only had the two thousand Wuwei soldiers left to him by Zhang Jun. After receiving the news, he immediately prepared for rescue and sent an order to the Yumen Camp, but the latter did not respond.

So things calmed down.

Li Bai, the Chief Clerk of the Western Regions, was deeply indebted to Zhang Gui and trusted by Zhang Jun. After Yang Xuan had stopped his campaign, he wrote a letter in which he cursed loudly and planned to send troops alone to rescue Wuwei. He also sent orders to Shanshan, Qiuci and other countries to send 2,000 cavalry each to join the effort. However, he was dissuaded by his civil and military officers.

The Western Regions Chief Secretary's Office was located in Loulan and was highly dependent on the Central Plains.

Don't think that they joined hands with Gaochang Governor Yang Xuan to conquer Shanshan and other countries last year, and they were so powerful. But in the end, they only have a few thousand soldiers. No matter how small the city-states in the Western Regions are, are they really afraid of your three to five thousand people?
What they feared was that the Central Plains court would be enraged and cause more serious consequences, so they expressed obedience and gave face only.

The Office of the Chief Secretary of the Western Regions, like Gaochang County (formerly the Office of the Wu Ji Commander), faced a very realistic problem, namely, they needed to seek support from the Central Plains court.

Once Zhang Jun of Liang Province was defeated, and they stood on Zhang Jun's side, they would surely suffer a terrible fate when they were liquidated afterwards.

Even if we take a step back, they haven't settled accounts with you, but they don't support you either. How can you still command the countries in the Western Regions?

To put it bluntly, they need to use the Central Plains court's tiger skin, no matter whether it is the Han, Wei, Jin or Liang, you must have one.

They are not qualified to participate in the melee in the Central Plains. They can just wait and see and wait for the military leaders to decide the outcome.

After all these calculations, the situation in Liangzhou became clear:

The southern army led by Jin Zhengtong and the eastern army led by Jin Zhun have joined forces at the city of Guzang. The three counties in Lingnan have rebelled together, and the peripheral forces of Wuwei and Wuxing counties have been basically wiped out - marked by the defeat of Jincheng prefect Dou Tao, generals Song Yi and Dong Guang.

The Northern Army arrived at Xihai in early May and defeated it in one blow.

Xihai Governor Zhang Su led his troops south and fell ill on the way.

The soldiers were at a loss and had decided to surrender.

The counties west of Wuwei either surrendered, or kept their troops in place, or wanted to provide rescue but were dissuaded or the roads were blocked.

In short, Zhang Jun only had the city of Guzang left.

******
On the third day of May, when the Northern Army attacked Weng City on the border, the small cities on the east and north sides of Guzang had already been captured.

Dongcheng was captured by Jin Zheng who drove the Hu soldiers.

The name of this city is "Jiangwuchang".

The circumference is no more than a thousand steps, with fruit gardens in some areas, and a military training ground with hundreds of soldiers stationed inside.

The leader of the Lushui Hu, Juquzha, led his men and some Xianbei people, and attacked Guzang from three sides, despite the arrows fired at the city wall. After paying the price of more than 2,000 casualties, they finally captured the city.

The Heilongjiang Right Camp also attacked once to accumulate combat experience.

Although this unit has been trained for several years, it has fewer opportunities to go to the battlefield.

When conquering the Xiongnu, they attacked some forts in Shangjun.

In the previous Battle of Hongchiling, they also participated in the battle array, but they did not actually engage in combat from beginning to end. They only felt the atmosphere of a large-scale battle field.

During the attack on Wuwei East City, the commander-in-chief Zhao Wei personally beat the drum and thousands of people attacked in batches, and the performance was quite good.

Jin Zheng never indulges anyone. Anyone under his command must go to the battlefield to fight. It is not the case that the imperial guards can avoid fighting.

The North City was captured by the Tufa and Qifu clans, and the casualties were similar to those in the East City.

The city was named "Xuanwupu", with fruit gardens and medicinal herbs planted inside. There was a very small house, which was Zhang Jun's "temporary palace".

After the Hu soldiers rushed into the city, they looted everything they could.

Weapons, food, cloth, livestock, etc. were all swept away, but unfortunately the proceeds were still too little to make up for the deficit.

After the capture of Jiangwuchang and Xuanwupu, nearly a thousand defenders on the west and south sides surrendered directly, were ordered to leave the city, and were detained.

Since the main force arrived in Guzang on April 26, a total of seven or eight days had passed. Except for the first few days which were spent on reorganizing the various troops that had arrived here and making siege equipment, the following days were spent on siege and even siege.

Now that the small cities on all four sides have been breached, there is no need to worry about flank attacks. The time is ripe for a large-scale siege.

The strength of the defenders in the city has been clearly explored.

There were no more than 6,000 elite soldiers capable of fighting, and there were about 15,000 men who were strong.

The situation in Liangzhou is special. Even the militiamen are experienced in warfare and can fight in field battles, let alone defending a city.

It is believed that there are still sufficient food and military supplies, so we can hold out for half a year without any problem.

If we really attack by force, the losses will be huge.

Although Jin Zheng did not care about the lives of the soldiers, and even his own life, he also knew that if you really inflict a heavy price of tens of thousands of casualties and injure the soldiers brought with you, even if you finally capture Guzang, you will definitely not end well.

Fortunately, at this time, the morale of the Guzang defenders was low, and there was no need to defend stubbornly. Perhaps there were other ways to break the city.

On this day, he wandered around outside the city, and then summoned the elders of various noble families and tribal chiefs in Wuwei to discuss major plans with them.

******
There are indeed undercurrents in Guzang City.

Since the army surrounded the city, Zhang Jun had summoned the shogunate officials to Xianyu Hall to discuss matters almost every day, and today was no exception.

Inside the magnificent palace, Zhang Jun's expression looked particularly ugly.

He was a man of his own ideas, and once he made up his mind, he would do it, and his will was very firm. But at this critical moment of life and death, he hesitated, lost his former decisiveness, and followed the arguments of his staff, sometimes leaning towards surrender, sometimes leaning towards fighting to the death, wavering.

Those who supported him were mainly from the Song family of Dunhuang.

This was a powerful clan that only began to prosper during the Jin Dynasty, but its status was low.

After Zhang Gui governed Liangzhou, faced with the reality of powerful families everywhere, he vigorously promoted powerful families and Hu chieftains.

In the past, the Di chieftain Dou Tao suppressed the Han aristocratic families in Jincheng.

Later, the Song family, which was powerful and militaristic, promoted the old clan and gave them many positions to offset the influence of the old clan.

It was Song Pei who fought for Zhang Gui in the battle to establish his power. He beheaded more than 10,000 people and forced more than 100,000 Xianbei tribesmen in Wuwei County to surrender.

Later, Song Pei helped him defeat the brothers Zhang Zhen and Zhang Yue who were plotting to seize the position of Governor of Liangzhou, and also helped him defeat Pei Bao, Governor of Qinzhou. He made great military achievements and died of illness while serving as the prefect of Xiping a few years ago.

General Weiyuan Song Yi who died in the battle of Hongchiling a while ago, and General Yanglie Song Ji who was defeated by Jin Zhun were both from the Song family of Dunhuang.

There were also brothers Song Xiu, Song Hun, Song Cheng, as well as Song Yan, Song Ju and Song Pei's son Song Ti, all of whom were talented people of the time.

The older Song Xiu was appointed governor of Wuxing and was imprisoned.

The rest were younger and served as junior officials in the Liangzhou Shogunate and the Xiping County Palace.

If the Song family is given another twenty years, by the time these young talents have accumulated experience, Wuwei will almost become the "Song Family Gang".

They actually don't want to see Zhang Jun fail.

At this moment, Song Ji, who had just returned from a defeat, was talking freely: "I heard that the bandit Shao appointed Jin Zheng as his commander. This man likes to lead troops bravely and vigorously, and is as fast as a rabbit. But now it is a siege battle, and I am afraid that this is not Jin Zheng's forte."

"They have also gathered many rebels, and now they have gathered more than 100,000 people. Their momentum seems great, but when I climbed the city wall and looked far away, I saw that thousands of livestock were slaughtered in Jin Zheng's camp every day, and the food and grass consumption was incalculable. If this continues, the tribes will be resentful."

"The Tufa, Qifu, and Juqu tribes have nothing to plunder, but they have suffered casualties in the battles, so they cannot hold out for long. If Jin Zhengruo forces them to attack the city, rebellion will surely ensue."

"At that time, my lord, you only need to send a group of elite soldiers out of the city at night to attack and kill the barbarians. Once the barbarians are in chaos, Shao's soldiers will also lose their courage and want to return. Liangzhou's elite soldiers can follow closely behind them, take advantage of the situation to attack and win a great victory."

After saying that, Song Ji looked at the others and said, "Now we just need to hold on. If we hold on for a month, the enemy will become tired. If we hold on for two months, the enemy camp will start to make noise. If the enemy does not leave after three months, we will be doomed to be defeated."

Sima Hanpu's eyes met Song Ji's and he burst out laughing.

The plan is good.

The Liang army came from afar and was extremely exhausted. If they could hold out for more than three months, they would have retreated. But the question is, can you hold out for three months?

Seven days ago, the Liang people drove 6,000 surrendered soldiers from Hongchiling out of the city, which greatly affected morale.

Two days ago, the four small cities in the east, west, south and north were all captured, and two of them even surrendered directly. Can't you see it?

Wait a few days, and if news comes that all the western counties have surrendered, what will everyone think when they see that Wuwei is the only isolated city left?
Guard for three months? The thought of it makes one laugh.

When Chief Clerk Yin Yuan saw Song Ji's gaze, he smiled faintly and said, "General Song is a veteran on the battlefield and well versed in military affairs. What he said is naturally reasonable."

General Furong Zhang Lang also saw Song Ji's threatening gaze, but he had a long history. Many years ago, he led the volunteer army to Luoyang to defend the king under the order of Zhang Gui. He also served as the prefect of Jincheng, Wuxing and Wuwei counties. Naturally, he was not afraid of the provocation of someone like Song Ji.

At this moment, he did not back down and said, "General Song led 3,000 soldiers to the east before, but only 1,000 of them returned. It is ridiculous that you dare to speak so arrogantly after such a defeat. If the lord believes your lies, the Zhang family will be dead without a single survivor."

"Bang!" Zhang Jun slammed the table.

He knew that ever since he killed Xin Tao and Jia Qian, dozens of his subordinates from the Shaofu (Liangzhou Governor's Office) and Taifu (Xiping County Duke's Office) looked at him differently.

Except for a few people headed by the Soong family, most people did not support him.

This was evident from today's meeting.

People arrived but didn't say anything, or spoke in a sarcastic tone, or even cursed back directly.

With such undercurrents, he really didn't dare to imagine what the future would be like.

He was only twenty-two years old, and there were already many people who did not obey him. Now he was in a situation where a large army was besieging the city. The slightest disturbance could lead to serious consequences.

Could someone open the city gate secretly?

Will someone take his head as a sacrifice?
The sound of footsteps outside Xianyu Hall interrupted Zhang Jun's wandering thoughts.

A moment later, Li Cao Yuan Suo Xun hurried inside and reported: "My lord, I led the soldiers to patrol the city and saw Yin Zhizhong (Yin Dan) personally returning from Chang'an with a letter."

After saying that, he handed the letter over.

In an instant, everyone's eyes were focused on the letter.

(End of this chapter)