Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 482 Plans and Changes

Although the army of Baidi City was dispatched, the mountains and rivers in Ba County were difficult to travel, and Wang Sengbian was also a cautious person. The war in Shuzhong entered a state of siege without fighting.

Wang Sengbian was not a fool. He first pretended to fight and then asked for support from the rear.

The same situation also occurred in Liaodong.

Since Gao Huan fled back to Houcheng, he also studied Yuwen Tai's cavalry tactics. He began to integrate the Khitan's power in the name of Liaodong Xingtai. Yuwen Tai in Shanhaiguan launched several attacks, but never achieved the same results as before.

The war in Liaodong also began to cool down.

But in today's world, there is no peace at all.

Dingzhou, Zhongshan City.

After Murong Shaozong captured Liu Lingzhu, he originally planned to send him alive to Zhongshan and present him to Su Ze in person.

But Su Ze's order arrived soon - "Liu Ling is spreading rumors to confuse the people, and he has many followers. Just behead him and send his head to Zhongshan."

Murong Shaozong hurriedly followed Su Ze's order, executed Liu Lingzhu in Ji County, and then sent his head to Zhongshan by express horse.

In March, Liu Lingzhu's head was sent to Zhongshan City. Su Ze ordered it to be hung outside the city. He also reiterated the order prohibiting obscene sacrifices and told the people that this was the end of a demon.

To some extent, Liu Lingzhu's divination that "he would enter Dingzhou in March" also came true.

After Su Ze transferred Dugu Xin to his side and handed over the task of reorganizing the army to him, he finally felt a little more relaxed.

However, this relief was only temporary. Su Ze received an urgent report from Hedong County and immediately summoned Dugu Xin to discuss the matter.

Passing the military situation to Dugu Xin, Su Ze said: "Erzhu Rong can't bear it anymore. Recently, he led his troops out of Chenguan and attacked Anyi."

Dugu Xin read the battle report carefully, put it down and said:

"We can't defend Anyi anymore."

Anyi is an important node of the Chenguan Pass, one of the eight passes in Taihang Mountains. This place also has a long history. There is a word "Yi" in the name of this place, which means that it was once the capital. This place was the capital of the first dynasty, the Xia Dynasty. There is also an altar for worshiping Dayu in the city.

In fact, Su Ze did not expect that Anyi could be defended. The import and export of the entire Chenguanxing was still controlled by Erzhu Rong. He had been managing Shanxi for many years. If he could not capture Anyi, Erzhu Rong would have wasted his time.

The most important one is Yubi City, not far southwest of Anyi.

Dugu Xin also thought the same thing. He said:

"It depends on whether we can defend Yubi City."

Yubi City is a key project of Hedong County. The location was selected by Su Ze himself. It was built on a platform with deep trenches on three sides and a wall on one side, and next to it is a tributary of the Fen River.

After Yu Jin took office as the governor of Hedong County, he began to build Yubi City. Wang Sizheng was in charge of the construction, and Su Tong, a doctor in the Ministry of Works, was responsible for the specific construction.

In order to build Yubi City, Yu Jin mobilized one-third of the Hedong County, nearly 50,000 corvée laborers, to work day and night. The construction was only temporarily suspended for a while when there was a flood and plague last year. It was completed a few days ago.

After Yubi City was completed, officials from the Council of Ministers and the Shogunate went to inspect it. They all praised it as a masterpiece in the history of city defense and an impeccable fortress.

The only thing that worries Dugu Xin is Wang Sizheng, who is now stationed in Yubi City. He used to be a strategist, then worked as a teacher in Chongwen Pavilion, and later became a reviewer. He has a purely civil service resume and has no experience in defending a city.

Su Ze was not worried about Wang Sizheng's ability to defend the city, but he was slightly surprised that Erzhu Rong could attack Hedong County so quickly after just fighting such a tough battle to defeat Chen Qianzhi. Su Ze, who had already overestimated Erzhu Rong's military ability, was still slightly surprised.

Just as Su Ze was busy suppressing the Youding rebellion, Erzhu Rong was also not idle during this period.

After eliminating Chen Qing, Heba Sheng was ordered to attack Xingyang. Yuan Hao, the emperor of Southern Liang who had just changed the reign title to "Jing Kang", was so frightened when he learned that Chen Qingzhi's white-robed army had been completely wiped out that he had already left Xingyang with his men and fled frantically to Xuzhou.

Since the "emperor" had fled, Xingyang naturally had no will to resist. After Heba Sheng had attacked for three days, the wealthy families in the city killed the garrison commander appointed by Yuan Hao and opened the city gates to surrender to Heba Sheng.

At this point, the Henan area south of the Yellow River had returned to the control of Erzhu Rong, and half of Chen Qianzhi's Northern Expedition results had been ruined.

Su Ze couldn't help but sigh, Nanliang is really disappointing!
Chen Qianzhi had such a good opportunity to launch a northern expedition. Even if he could not defend Luoyang, he actually handed over Xingyang to others.

In fact, in the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, Chen Qingzhi was defeated, and the territories occupied by Southern Liang through the Northern Expedition were soon lost. Xiao Yan took the opportunity to occupy several prefectures and counties south of the Yellow River and quickly lost control. Even Xuzhou was quickly taken back by Eastern Wei after Gao Huan came to power.

This time, Southern Liang had a better chance. With Su Ze's intervention, Chen Qingzhi's defeat was delayed for half a year. Moreover, Chen Qingzhi was defeated after fighting with Erzhu Rong until his last blow, and Erzhu Rong also suffered heavy losses.

But even so, Xiao Yan still did not send anyone to take over Xingyang, an important town in the Northern Expedition, and watched Yuan Hao lose Xingyang without sending anyone to support him.

It’s no use even if I give you a chance!
Su Ze could only sigh that, in fact, the current problems of Southern Liang were already very serious, and it was only the division of the north that gave Southern Liang a chance to survive.

Since Xiao Yan came to power, the army of the Southern Liang Dynasty is no longer the elite Southern Army that fought the Battle of Zhongli. Chen Qingzhi's White Robe Army may be the last ray of light of the Southern Liang Army. Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi have fallen into the hands of Erzhu Rong, so it is a natural choice to seek Hedong County.

Su Ze also operated Hedong County as a military fortress for a long time.

This time, Erzhu Rong brought out all his capable men.

It’s a pity that because of Su Ze’s interception and poaching, the generals under Erzhu Rong in this life have become much dimmer.

Yuan Tianmu stayed in Luoyang, Gao Huan supported Liaodong, and the rest, apart from the Erzhus, were the three Heba brothers and Liu Gui.

However, the Erzhus under Erzhu Rong were also very capable fighters. As long as they were not allowed to make decisions alone and only executed Erzhu Rong's orders, these officers who were trained by Erzhu Rong since childhood were also the best officers of this era.

Facing Su Ze, his destined opponent, Erzhu Rong also used all his strength.

The Erzhu family had 6,000 troops from their own headquarters, 30,000 rebels from the six towns in Hebei, and 20,000 elite soldiers captured in the battles near Qi, Lu and Luoyang. They claimed to have a force of 200,000, and requisitioned food from their hometown of Bingzhou, and went south along the Fen River to provide support and besiege Yubi City.

It can be said that this time when Erzhu Rong attacked Yubi City, he put all his money into it and was determined to swallow up the entire Hedong County.

Just after Erzhu Rong took action, Su Ze was about to take action.

In the game of dragon chess, plans always lag behind changes.

Originally, Su Ze still wanted to be cautious and thoroughly resolve the problems in the north first, defeat the rebellious Khitans, and then go south to swallow up the world.

However, as Gao Huan entered Liaodong, he integrated the power of the Khitan and forced Yuwen Tai to return to the defensive.

At this time, Gao Guiyi, who had been on a diplomatic mission to the grassland and had made great contributions in Youzhou, also rushed to Zhongshan from Yongle City and advised Su Ze that the offensive against Liaodong should be slowed down.

Gao Guiyi's reasons are also very sufficient. He said:
"The eight Khitan tribes were originally just a loose alliance. Although the Dahe clan was the most powerful tribe, it had no way to overwhelmingly rule the remaining seven tribes."

"Each of the eight Khitan tribes advocates expansion, and some tribes are dissatisfied with the rule of the Daha clan."

"Now that the Dahe tribe has been conferred an imperial title by the pseudo-imperial court in Luoyang, if the Duke continues to attack Liaodong, the Dahe tribe can use this opportunity to integrate the power of the Khitan."

"On the contrary, if you suspend the expedition against Liaodong, I am willing to go to Liaodong as an envoy to confer titles to other unconvinced tribes among the Eight Tribes and incite them to internal strife. This is a better way to solve the Liaodong issue."

Su Ze was also a little hesitant about Gao Guiyi's suggestion.

In his opinion, Yuwen Tai's method would be the best option if it could solve the Liaodong problem in one fell swoop.

But now God has chosen the answer for Su Ze. There is no such thing as having both in this world.

There are only so many troops and resources in total, so naturally they should be placed in the most important places.

Even Liu Bang signed the Treaty of Baideng with the Huns, and Li Tang, when he started his career, also paid tribute to the Turks. The environment he was in was much better than theirs, but he just couldn't destroy the Khitan in one battle.

Besides, if we confer the title on them first and win them over, there will still be opportunities to fight again in the future.

Su Ze ordered Yuwen Tai to take a defensive stance.

Su Ze also made up his mind and finally accepted Dugu Xin's advice to take a defensive stance in Hedong County and an offensive stance in the north.

He began to draw forces from Dingzhou, Youzhou, and Hengzhou, and also drew troops from Xiazhou and Gaoping to gather in Wuyuan, and then gathered in Pingcheng, Hengzhou, preparing to attack Erzhu Rong's old nest, Bingzhou.

In fact, it was not Su Ze's turn to choose. Erzhu Rong had already chosen to attack Hedong County, and now he could only defend Yubi City.

If Su Ze didn't do something while Erzhu Rong was attacking Yubi City, he would not be qualified to play the game of dragon fighting.

On the wooden sand table, Yanmen Pass was highlighted. This gateway to Bingzhou was Su Ze's target.

The war in the Central Plains is on the verge of breaking out. Just like in the game of Go, both sides have already moved most of their spare pieces, and now it has come to the stage of robbing each other and slaying the dragon.

When the war in the Central Plains reached such a critical moment, Chen Qianzhi finally returned to Jiankang City under the escort of his troops.

When he saw Jiankang City, Chen Qingzhi's eyes were already filled with tears.

When the 7,000 white robe soldiers swore to go to war, I was so full of vigor and enthusiasm.

But now, there are only a few dozen personal guards left out of the 7,000 white robe soldiers.

However, to Chen Qingzhi's surprise, when he was outside Jiankang City, he received an order from Xiao Yan, asking him to rest outside the city for a day and wait until the ceremony was held tomorrow before entering the city.

Chen Qianzhi was a little confused. He was just a defeated general, so why should a ceremony be held?
(End of this chapter)