Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 447: War and Peace

Su Ze in Fan Yang had already received Su Xiang's report, but it was probably too late for him to send people to inform the Government Affairs Hall now.

Su Ze could only hope that the ministers under him would take some responsibility.

However, Su Ze still sent envoys to instruct the Government Affairs Hall to prepare medicines and food for disaster preparedness.

Su Xiang's weather predictions have always been very accurate. When he said that Luoyang was going to be flooded, Su Ze believed it.

Henan's geographical features determine its climate characteristics of severe droughts and floods.

The warm air containing water vapor blowing from the southern sea cools down after encountering the cold air moving south from the north, resulting in rainfall.

Shanxi, to the north of Henan, is mountainous and forested. If the warm front airflow from the south to the north is blocked in front of the mountains of Shanxi and merges with the cold air from the north, it will form heavy rain.

Su Ze still remembered that before he traveled through time, Henan had experienced many heavy rains, and even the subway in the provincial capital was flooded.

Once the warm air is powerful enough to break through the mountains in Shanxi, the rainfall line will move northward, and Henan may not have rain for the entire summer.

This phenomenon is particularly obvious during periods of temperature fluctuations due to climate disorder. For example, from the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms to the end of the Jin Dynasty, the Central Plains suffered more disasters than the two Han dynasties combined.

Now is also such a period, disasters are frequent. There was a locust plague last year and a flood this year. No wonder the Northern Wei Dynasty perished so quickly.

Su Ze is not worried about the flood.

Guanzhong is located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. To be selfish, even if there is a flood in Henan, it will never reach Guanzhong.

But Su Ze was worried about the epidemic caused by the flood.

There will definitely be a major epidemic after a major disaster, and there will definitely be a plague after a flood.

After the battle of Fushan Weir that year, although the dam collapsed and flooded the Nanliang military camp, the direct casualties were not serious.

Finally, the rampant epidemic in the Southern Liang army really hurt the vitality of the Southern Liang army. Later, Li Chong seized the opportunity to defeat it, which earned him the name of Crouching Tiger.

Big cities like Luoyang were even more prone to the spread of plague than military camps. The drainage and sewage treatment systems in big cities of this era were crude. Once heavy rain occurred, sewage would backflow into the city, and the mixture of fecal water, rainwater and drinking water would make it even more likely to cause plague.

For example, after Liu Yu led the Northern Expedition and occupied Chang'an, he left his son and Wang Zhen'e and Shen Tianzi to guard Chang'an because of an incident in the rear.

The failure of the Northern Expedition was certainly due to the internal strife and killing between Wang Zhen'e and Shen Tianzi, but another reason was that heavy rain in Chang'an at that time caused a rampant plague in the city, and most of the Liu Song troops left behind in Chang'an were killed or injured.

The poor water supply and drainage system of the old Chang'an city resulted in the Northern Wei Dynasty never considering making Chang'an its capital.

Although the Northern Zhou Dynasty established its capital in Chang'an after that, after Emperor Yuwen Yong, it also had two capitals, switching back and forth between Chang'an and Luoyang.

When the Sui Dynasty chose another location and built a new Chang'an City next to the old Chang'an City, Chang'an regained its original appearance as a capital city and acquired the grandeur of the world center where all nations came to pay tribute during the Sui and Tang dynasties.

The epidemics of this era are devastating blows to cities.

But facing the epidemic, even though Su Ze was a time traveler, he didn't have any better means.

In Su Ze's opinion, most of the prevention and treatment methods in time-travel novels are to use the organizational capabilities of modern bureaucracies to fit the realities of ancient times, which is completely an idealized fantasy.

Not to mention how poor the government's administrative capacity is today, just from an economic perspective, those prevention and control measures are not feasible.

It is taken for granted to advocate boiling water to prevent epidemics.

Su Ze was very familiar with the lives of ordinary urban poor. Every winter, countless people froze to death due to lack of firewood.

If a flood really happens, where will ordinary people get fuel?

It is even more impossible for sparks to burn the body.

Setting up epidemic villages and isolating patients, transferring and isolating them in modern society can bankrupt the government. How could you, an ancient government, implement such a decree?

In this era, there is only one way to fight the epidemic, which is to wait for the epidemic to pass on its own.

When an epidemic broke out in Luoyang, how could Guanzhong, which was not far away from Luoyang, be spared?

Even if Su Ze closed Guanzhong, Hedong County, which was adjacent to Luoyang, did not have the natural barrier of Tongguan.

Whatever we can save is better.

Su Ze looked at this chaotic world and, as a time traveler, he also hoped that this world could suffer less.

If a disaster occurs in Luoyang, Chen Qianzhi will not be able to hold on in Hanoi, right?
Su Ze felt a little regretful. It seemed that he would not be able to see the most famous general of the Southern Dynasty, who was avoided by thousands of soldiers and horses in white robes. According to the time, his sworn brother should have dealt with Xing Gao and had time to deal with Luoyang.

In a way, the disaster in Luoyang was also good news for Su Ze.

Under the disaster, Erzhu Rong would not attack Luoyang in the near future. This was not because Erzhu Rong was merciful, but because he was afraid that his army would be infected with the disease. After all, in the face of disease, no matter how heavy the armor was, it would not have any defensive effect, and even the strongest warrior would lose half his life if he got the disease.

Taking advantage of this time gap, Su Ze dealt with Du Luozhou and completely connected the northern border.
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September, Qingzhou.

Just as Su Ze expected, Xing Gao could not hold out for long under the attack led by Erzhu Rong himself.

September 11th.

Xing Gao also understood how powerful Erzhu Rong was, so he built a camp and deployed a military formation, and he also had elite cavalry on standby. He fought with Erzhu Rong who was crossing the river to attack him south of the Ji River.

The result of this battle can only be said that Xing Gao was also tenacious. Although his army was broken through by Erzhu Rong twice, he still stubbornly gathered the remnants of his army and fought again.

The battle lasted until the afternoon, and Xing Gao's army was finally defeated in Erzhu Rong's third charge. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Xing Gao fled eastward along the Ji River under the escort of his troops.

Erzhu Rong ordered to continue the pursuit, and on September 17, they fought again in Bohai County.

This time, Xing Gao was not so lucky. He showed signs of weakness on the battlefield. The big families in Bohai defected one after another, and Xing Gao fled eastward again.

Another small incident occurred during this period. After the incident in Bohai County, Gao Yi, the head of the Bohai Gao family, who had been appointed as the governor of Dongjizhou by the court, led his troops to surrender to Erzhu Rong on the battlefield.

When Erzhu Rong learned about Gao Yi's family background and experience, he suddenly ordered his men to capture Gao Yi.

Erzhu Rong believed that Gao Yi was indecisive. He was first favored by the court and was appointed as the governor of Dongjizhou after being driven out of Bohai County, but he surrendered to Xing Gao again.

Now that Xing Gao was defeated, Gao Yi surrendered to Erzhu Rong again.

Erzhu Rong ordered Gao Yi to be beheaded and his head hung on the city wall to awaken the fickle villains in the world.

For a moment, the Bohai clans were terrified. Fortunately, Erzhu Rong did not continue killing people, but continued to lead his cavalry to pursue Xing Gao towards Qingzhou.

Xing Gao fled to Dongyang City, the capital of Qingzhou. He was considered tenacious and actually gathered a team to fight Erzhu Rong again.

However, Xing Gao's elite troops had been killed in the previous battle, and after his army was defeated by Erzhu Rong this time, it was never reorganized again.

But Xing Gao's good luck came to an end. He was hit by arrows on the battlefield and fell off his horse to his death.

At this point, everyone in the Qi and Lu regions was shocked and surrendered to Erzhu Rong one after another.

This time, Erzhu Rong did not kill anyone. He left Liu Gui to handle the surrender affairs in the Qi and Lu regions, and then returned with his army.

But on the way back from the great victory, Erzhu Rong heard bad news.

The army he sent to attack Dingzhou was ambushed and defeated by Su Ze, with more than half of the soldiers lost. The commander Heba Yue led the remaining troops back to Yecheng and had already been imprisoned.

Han Lou of Youzhou surrendered to Su Ze in all aspects, and when Erzhu Rong attacked Qingzhou, Su Ze also defeated Du Luozhou and captured Dingzhou!

After hearing the news, Erzhu Rong felt depressed for a moment.

His sworn brother was really pressing forward step by step. Now that the northern border had been connected, Su Ze had already grasped the strategic initiative and could go south through multiple channels.

His own situation was a bit delicate. It seemed that the controlled area had doubled, but he was also bordering enemies on all sides.

To the west and north is Su Ze, to the south is Chen Qingzhi and the pseudo-imperial court in Luoyang, and the Southern Liang that occupied Yanzhou and Xuzhou.

However, Erzhu Rong did not feel discouraged at all. Instead, he became more motivated. He thought that only in such a time of great contention could he have the stage to give full play to his talents!
Erzhu Rong was determined. He did not go to Yecheng to rest, but led his troops directly to Xiangzhou. Now it was time to deal with Chen Qingzhi and the pseudo-court in Luoyang!
Erzhu Rong was somewhat excited at the thought of fighting with Chen Qianzhi. He had already known the strength of Chen Qianzhi's White Robe Army from the battle report sent by Yuan Tianmu.

I didn’t expect that the cowardly Southern Dynasty had such a powerful force!
Erzhu Rong listed Chen Qianzhi's name on the list of opponents he respected, and went to Ji County with great interest to personally see Chen Qianzhi's true qualities!
When passing through Yecheng, Erzhu Rong ordered the pardon of Heba Yue and ordered him to lead the remaining troops to reunite with him.

But what Erzhu Rong didn't know was that the great battle he was looking forward to was ultimately ruined by God's arrangement.
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Yuan Tianmu, who retreated from Ji County, did not retreat too far.

After the defeat in Ji County, Gao Huan advised Yuan Tianmu that Chen Qingzhi had elite troops but few in number and an unstable rear, so even if he controlled Ji County, he would not be able to attack Xiangzhou.

Yuan Tianmu followed Gao Huan's advice and chose to station his troops in Anyang City, Xiangzhou, where he gathered the remaining soldiers and recruited new soldiers from Xiangzhou, waiting for further orders from Erzhu Rong.

Gao Huan took off his armor. He had just returned from inspecting the military camp in the city and hurried to report to Yuan Tianmu.

After seeing Yuan Tianmu, Gao Huan immediately said:
"Your Majesty, the water in the military camp has been drained, but most of Anyang City has been flooded."

Even yesterday, a rainstorm swept across Luoyang, Hanoi, Xiangzhou and hit the entire middle reaches of the Yellow River. Anyang City also suffered a rainstorm that was rare in 20 years, and the city was severely flooded.

Gao Huan was arranged by Yuan Tianmu to inspect the military camp.

Yuan Tianmu looked towards Luoyang with concern. The heavy rain disrupted the plans of both sides and added a lot of variables to the confusing game of dragon fighting.

Oh my god, why can't you just be at peace?

(End of this chapter)