Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 361: Lost Jieting

Su Ze took Wang Sizheng into Chongwen Pavilion, only to see a young man sorting out classics.

"General, this is Cui Wenzheng's youngest son, Cui Jie."

The young man was wearing mourning clothes and looked very honest. When he saw Su Ze, he immediately bowed to him.

Su Ze stepped forward to hold him and said:
"Mr. Cui was my half-teacher. It is a pity that I cannot go to Luoyang to pay my respects to him after his death."

Cui Wenzhen was the first important official of the Northern Wei Dynasty that Su Ze met in Luoyang, Cui Guang, the chief academic officer of the Imperial College.

Cui Guang had died in Luoyang two months ago. The court decided to give the posthumous title of "Wenzheng" to this veteran minister who had served three dynasties.

He died at the age of seventy-three without being bedridden. He passed away before the fall of the Northern Wei Dynasty, for which he had served all his life. He was also given the beautiful posthumous title of Wen Zheng. Cui Guang was already the happiest among Emperor Xiaowen's old ministers.

Su Ze also recalled the time when he was dating Cui Guang in Luoyang, and he also felt that time had flown by and things had changed.

When Cui Jie heard how Su Ze respected his deceased father, he said quickly:

"When my father was alive, he often talked about the general, and he always told my brothers and me that we could serve him."

Su Ze continued:

"I regret that I can't meet Mr. Cui again and discuss state affairs."

Cui Jie was moved to see that Su Ze was also expressing his true feelings, and he said:

"My father asked me to give all his life's manuscripts and historical books to the general. As well as the classics collected by our Cui family, they have all been transported to Chongwen Pavilion."

Su Ze held Cui Jie's hand and said:

"Thank you for your hard work, Cui Lang, for coming all the way here! This general's shogunate also needs talents like Cui Lang."

Cui Jie said quickly:

"My father has just passed away, so it is not convenient for me to take up a post right now. I only ask for a thatched cottage outside Xiazhou City to mourn for my father."

"What a filial son you are! When Cui Lang's mourning period is over, I will recruit you as an official."

Cui Jie hurriedly thanked Su Ze, and the two talked about some old stories about Cui Guang. Then Cui Jie took his leave from Su Ze. Cui Jie really built a hut outside Yongle City to observe mourning.

Filial sons have been highly respected in all dynasties, and Cui Jie's filial piety is also sincere. Su Ze said to Wang Sizheng:

"Mr. Cui's life can be considered complete."

Wang Sizheng was born into the Wang family of Taiyuan, so he naturally knew the life of the former head of the Qinghe Cui family.

When he was young, he served Emperor Xiaowen and planned the Sinicization reforms for him. In his middle age, he assisted Emperor Xuanwu. After the young emperor ascended the throne, he gradually faded out of politics and preserved himself and his family from the political turmoil in Luoyang.

Cui Guang seemed to have a foreshadowing before his death, and he actually asked his son to bring everything he had written throughout his life, as well as all the books collected by the Cui family over the generations, to Su Ze.

Just because of this friendship, Su Ze will take care of Cui Guang's descendants.

The Qinghe Cui family is no ordinary family.

Su Ze looked at a set of silk books and asked Wang Sizheng:

“Is this the National Chronicle?”

Wang Sizheng also lamented:

“I didn’t expect that the Cui family still had the National Chronicle.”

This book can be said to have a great origin. It once brought disaster to the Qinghe Cui family, which was almost exterminated. This is the History of the Northern Wei Dynasty compiled by Cui Hao, a famous minister in the early Northern Wei Dynasty, for Emperor Taiwu!

Cui Hao was once the most trusted Han minister of Emperor Taiwu, who also entrusted him to revise the national history of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Cui Hao wrote the truthfully recorded history of the Tuoba clan in detail and without reservation, including some of the early history of the Tuoba clan that they did not want people to know.

Then they engraved "State Records" on a stone stele and allowed passers-by to see it. This incident made the Xianbei nobles, who already disliked Cui Hao, a Han Chinese, even more crazy. They reported Cui Hao for "exposing the evils of the country". Then Cui Hao was executed along with his entire family by Emperor Taiwu, the stele forest of "State Records" was destroyed, and the manuscripts were all collected and burned.

Cui Guang was also from the Qinghe Cui family. Such a large family was not immune to the elements and by the time of Cui Guang's generation, he had become an important official in the government.

It is also understandable that the Cui family privately kept the "National Records".

Because the Cui family is a family of historians.

Most of the manuscripts written by Cui Guang throughout his life were national histories compiled by him. The Cui family has had the habit of compiling history for generations. What Cui Jie brought to Yongle City was almost a complete set of national history of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Faced with such a generous gift, Su Ze must make Cui rich and prosperous!
"Copy out the part about Emperor Taiwu taking Guanzhong and send it to the front line."

The Northern Wei Dynasty also fought many wars in Guanzhong. For example, the territory where Su Ze was located was the Huxia regime established by Helian Bobo. Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao had attacked Xiazhou many times.

In addition, the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty fought for Guanzhong. At that time, Liu Yu formed the Queyue Formation on the bank of the Yellow River and repelled the Northern Wei army. The processes of these wars were recorded in the national history of the Cui family.

These are all very important war records. Su Ze asked Wang Sizheng to sort them out and send them to the front line as a reference for the frontline troops. Of course, the battle in Guanzhong is actually no longer suspenseful. Su Ze's three armies are dispatched together. Even if Mo Zhetian is very powerful, he will only be defeated in the end.

The strength gap between the two sides is too great. Su Ze has well-trained soldiers and sufficient food. As long as they can attack Qinzhou, Mo Zhe Tiansheng will have no way to defeat him.

With such careful preparations, Su Ze didn't think Mo Zhe Tiansheng had a chance to defeat any army.

The part about the war in Guanzhong may not play a big role, but in the history books that Cui Guang asked his son to send, there is also a lot of information about the battle in Hedong.

The history books written by Cui Guang himself also recorded the grievances and interactions between important officials of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which was also very helpful for Su Ze to study the relationship between important officials and aristocratic families.

Su Ze told Wang Sizheng to study it carefully, and then said:

"Mr. Cui's books are worth a hundred thousand soldiers!"

As soon as Su Ze finished speaking, an envoy brought urgent military information that Yu Jin had defeated Su Qin Mingda and occupied Jieting.
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Five days ago, Yu Jin besieged the plateau where Su Qinmingda stationed his troops.

After Su Qinmingda discovered that there was no running water on the plateau, he personally led his troops down the plateau, trying to fight his way out.

But Yu Jin was well prepared.

In fact, it was not completely unreasonable for Ma Su to be stationed on the plateau at that time.

The plateau is high in terrain and difficult to attack from the bottom up, but soldiers on high ground can charge downwards.

After Ma Su was besieged by Zhang He, he led his troops down the plateau many times and almost broke Zhang He's formation several times.

It was also because Zhang He led Cao Wei's elite troops that Ma Su was trapped to death.

So Yu Jin also learned from experience. He was rigorous by nature. Although he despised Su Qinmingda in strategy, he made thorough preparations in tactics.

He ordered his soldiers to dig horse traps, that is, to dig pits in the passages around the terraces to block the cavalry charging down the mountain.

Yu Jin did not adopt a passive defensive strategy. He also took advantage of the fact that the rebels were not good at night fighting and sent troops to attack the plateau at night to consume the energy of Su Qinmingda's army.

Sure enough, the rainwater accumulated in the depression was used up, and it didn't rain. Su Qinmingda's mouth corners were cracked, and he knew that he had to go down the mountain for a decisive battle with Yu Jin.

If we don’t fight a decisive battle now, there will be no chance for a decisive battle.

Su Qinmingda was also a fierce general under Hu Chen's command. He put on two sets of armor and took the lead in rushing down the platform. He actually broke through the first line of defense and was about to make a gap.

But that was where his luck ended.

After discovering Su Qinmingda's elite troops coming down the mountain, Su Deng, who was nearby, immediately sent his [Xian Deng Camp] to provide support.

Su Qinmingda first encountered Hulu Jin's hundred-man team. Hulu Jin's soldiers were good at riding and shooting. They kept Su Qinmingda from a distance and then attacked him with bows and arrows. Su Qinmingda's soldiers were afraid of the rain of arrows and could not continue to attack.

Su Qinmingda was also anxious. Seeing that Su Deng's army was about to close the gap, he once again mustered up his courage and led the charge.

At this time, Su Qinmingda ran into Di Gan (She Di Gan).

Di Gan was also wearing two sets of heavy armor, holding a lance in one hand and a spear in the other. He rushed forward to fight to the death with Su Qinmingda, and actually defeated Su Qinmingda, a long-famous general!
The battle between two armies was originally a matter of one breath. Before Su Qinmingda could even catch his breath, Su Deng's soldiers had already blocked the gap.

Seeing that there was no hope of breaking out, Su Qinmingda also gave it his all and rushed forward to fight with Di Gan.

Di Gan was young and energetic, and of course he was not afraid of fighting. The two fought for dozens of rounds, and in the end, the old and strong were defeated by their fists. The younger Di Gan had better physical fitness, and he seized Su Qinmingda's weakness when Su Qinmingda was exhausted, and ended Su Qinmingda's life with a long spear.

With their main general dead and their water supply cut off, the rebels no longer had the will to fight and surrendered to Yu Jin's troops one after another.

Yu Jin ordered all the troops to accept the surrender of the Qinzhou rebels, and then immediately sent a letter to report the victory to Su Ze.

Faced with the rebels whose number was almost the same as his own, Yu Jin's choice was to confiscate the rebels' weapons, then select the elite among them to train into a new army. As for the other old, weak, sick, disabled and unqualified soldiers who were there to make up the numbers, he gave them rations and had the supervision team escort them to the rear for resettlement.

Of course, Yu Jin was able to do this because this battle was so rich.

The surrendered rebels had lost their fighting spirit, but they were not toothless tigers.

If they were allowed to disband on their own, many rebels would flee back to Tianshui, and the battle would have been fought in vain.

If they were all buried alive, regardless of whether or not this would be an unlucky thing, if the other Qinzhou rebels knew that the government troops buried alive the prisoners, no one would be willing to surrender, and they would fight to the death in every future battle.

Yu Jin's approach is the safest and least troublesome method.

But why don’t most generals use it?
That's because they did not have enough food to accommodate the surrendered soldiers, nor did they have enough time and manpower to identify and reorganize the surrendered soldiers.

When the news of Yu Jin's actions spread, the defenders of Lueyang City were already insufficient, and the main general Su Qinmingda was also killed in the battle. Yu Jin did not kill the prisoners, so the defenders of Lueyang immediately opened the city and surrendered.

Yu Jin occupied Lueyang, which was less than a hundred miles away from Qinzhou's capital city, Tianshui.

The rebels in Tianshui City were in panic, but Mo Zhe Tiansheng had no way to go back to help because he had also encountered tough opponents in Gangu.

Corrections to the previous article: Su Deng’s vanguard camp followed Yu Jin’s advance, not Hou Jing’s. The previous article has been revised.

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(End of this chapter)