Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 490: Seizing Yanmen
If the enemy was someone else, Erzhu Zhao would have already led the defenders in Yanmen Pass to charge out.

But his opponent is Su Ze, and Dugu Xin, who he has been playing against in the past few days, is also a tough character, so Erzhu Zhao still has to be a little more careful.

He said to the cavalry generals who were going out to fight:
"Tomorrow you will go out of the city again, and this time you will go deeper."

The cavalry general took the order and left. Erzhu Zhao looked at the continuous camp of Dugu Xin opposite and the white smoke rising from the camp. He tried hard to suppress his ambition.

For a long time, Erzhu Zhao was the most trusted "Erzhu" by Erzhu Rong, otherwise he would not have been allowed to garrison Yanmen, the gateway to the Erzhu family.

But it was precisely because of this that Erzhu Zhao felt annoyed about being stationed in Yanmen all these years.

Erzhu Rong's eldest son, Erzhu Bodhi, is only ten years old now. Erzhu Rong is not willing to bring a son of this age to the battlefield, so most of the people who are trusted by Erzhu Rong now are his cousins ​​and nephews.

Erzhu Rong is in his prime, but the achievements he makes now will determine his status in the future.

This is also a characteristic of the Hu people's regime in the north. Because they have the broad support of many aristocratic families, they finally have to rely on princes to serve as officials. This is the case with the Northern Wei Dynasty. Otherwise, where did those princes who served as prime ministers and provincial governors come from?
Erzhu Zhao used to be Erzhu Rong's most trusted cousin, but not anymore. Of course, he also wanted to make achievements so that Erzhu Rong would value him again.

What other achievement could be greater than defeating Su Ze, the powerful enemy mentioned by Erzhu Rong?
Erzhu Zhao could no longer suppress his urge to achieve great things, and the next day he sent out elite cavalry to attack Dugu Xin's camp.

This time, Dugu Xin's defense was equally poor, and he was even rushed to the front of the central army tent by elite cavalry. In the end, it was Dugu Xin who personally put on armor and led his personal soldiers to repel Erzhu Zhao's cavalry.

After the battle, Erzhu Zhao watched Dugu Xin's camp from the city wall. The morale in the camp was very low, and even the speed of repairing the camp was much slower.

Erzhu Zhao quickly sent someone to escort the cavalry back to the city. He immediately summoned the cavalry commander to his presence and asked about the situation in Dugu Xin's camp.

"General! As expected, the deeper we penetrate, the more relaxed the enemy camp becomes. In the center of the enemy camp, some soldiers are so hungry that they can't even pick up their weapons!"

Erzhu Zhao also made a judgment that if he were the enemy and the army was short of food, he would definitely arrange the more elite soldiers on the outskirts of the camp and the weak soldiers in the camp, so that the enemy would not be able to detect his strength.

Sure enough, that's how Dugu Xin arranged it.

The soldiers outside the camp were still considered elite, but their true colors were revealed when their own cavalry broke into the middle. The enemy army was indeed short of food!

After confirming this, Erzhu Zhao no longer hesitated. He immediately ordered his men to take out all the food in the city and prepare to distribute it to the soldiers.

The next day, Erzhu Zhao swore an oath to his troops in the city, distributed dry food, put on armor himself, and led the 3,000 troops in the city to fight their way out!
As Erzhu Zhao had expected, Dugu Xin's army was a weakling and quickly collapsed after the close combat.

Erzhu Zhao even felt that if he advanced more fiercely, he could capture Dugu Xin in the central army alive.

But even so, Erzhu Zhao achieved fruitful results. It took him only one hour to completely break through Dugu Xin's army that was besieging Yanmen Pass. At this time, he set his sights on the new city of Yanmen not far away.

Erzhu Zhao licked his lips. The enemy troops surrounding Yanmen Pass were so weak, what about the enemies in Yanmen New City?
Erzhu Zhao hated the new city of Yanmen to the core.

Since the construction of this city, Erzhu Zhao could no longer lead his cavalry into Hengzhou to plunder as he did before.

The new city of Yanmen completely blocked the harassment route from Yanmen Pass to the north.

If the new city of Yanmen was captured, Erzhu Zhao would be able to march into Hengzhou at any time.

Erzhu Zhao, who had just won a great victory, saw the high-spirited soldiers around him, and simply waved his hand, ordering the entire army to advance towards the new city of Yanmen.

Erzhu Zhao chased the defeated Dugu Xin all the way and soon arrived at the new city of Yanmen.

Looking at this new brick city, Erzhu Zhao was drooling. He had to admit that Su Ze's subordinates were really strong in building cities!
Since the construction of the new Yanmen city, Erzhu Zhao has not been able to send any soldiers into Hengzhou. Although the city wall is made of bricks, it is stronger than the rammed earth wall.

Seeing Dugu Xin hastily retreating back to the city, Erzhu Zhao smiled.

Su Ze, whom his uncle valued so much and regarded as his lifelong rival, is nothing more than this!
I heard that Dugu Xin is Su Ze's brother-in-law, but he is so incompetent. It seems that Su Ze is just a fool who favors his relatives.

Wei Xiaokuan on the city wall seemed to be hesitant and did not dare to close the city gate because Dugu Xin was still outside the city.

Thinking of this, Erzhu Zhao immediately ordered his soldiers to catch up with Dugu Xin and directly charge into the new city of Yanmen.

When Erzhu Zhao successfully broke into the city with two thousand vanguards, Wei Xiaokuan at the city gate drew his sword and cut off the mechanism.

The heavy machine started to work, and the gate of Yanmen New City closed quickly under its control.

Several soldiers tried to stop the gate from closing, but were trapped in the gate by the closing mechanism and were crushed into meat paste.

At this time Erzhu Zhao also found something wrong. Suddenly, a group of elite troops emerged from the Yanmen New City, led by Su Ze, who had not been seen for a long time.

As soon as Su Ze appeared, all the troops in Yanmen New City, including Dugu Xin's defeated soldiers, cheered loudly.

Over the years, whenever Su Ze personally took action, he basically won an overwhelming victory.

As long as Su Ze is there, the morale of the army will quickly settle down.

There is no other way, this is the role of a god general on the battlefield. Dugu Xin finally didn't have to pretend to be a coward anymore. He saw that the eyes of the guards around him lit up after seeing Su Ze. Whether they were pretending to be defeated or really defeated, the moment they saw Su Ze, they all burst into a completely different fighting appearance.

Dugu Xin finally understood why Su Ze had to carry out this ambush mission personally.

Only Su Ze has such prestige and can pull off such an ambush and reversal.

Dugu Xin waved the sword in his hand and said:

"For the Duke of the County, follow me and kill me!"

The moment Erzhu Zhao saw Su Ze in the new city of Yanmen, he knew that he had been ambushed!

However, Erzhu Zhao was truly brave. After discovering that he was ambushed, he did not lead his soldiers to retreat, but continued to charge towards Su Ze!

Erzhu Zhao was also beaten to a bloody pulp. He also understood that since he was ambushed, it would be impossible to break out.

The only way to survive now is to capture Su Ze and force the defenders in the city to surrender.

It can only be said that the decision made in a split second can also illustrate Erzhu Zhao's true character.

Erzhu Zhao was indeed a fierce general. Even in such a desperate situation, he still wanted to fight to the death.

Unfortunately, Erzhu Zhao had a good plan, and Su Ze also had a "door god to protect him" by his side.

First, Su Bei rushed out holding the [Daxia Dragon Bird] and directly met Erzhu Zhao's long spear.

Chen Shun (Hou Mo Chen Shun) beside Su Ze also rushed towards Erzhu Zhao with a long spear in his hand.

Chen Shun was a fierce general who was able to fight to the death with Po Liu and Han Baling until the last moment in Wuyuan City, and Su Bei was also the most elite guard. Although Erzhu Zhao's martial arts were superb, he was already at a disadvantage when facing these two "door gods".

Su Bei risked his life to expose a flaw. Erzhu Zhao gritted his teeth and drew his halberd. Chen Shun, who had cooperated with him tacitly, counterattacked and directly knocked Erzhu Zhao off his horse!

Su Bei quickly stepped forward and pressed the Great Xia Dragon Bird against Erzhu Zhao's neck, then shouted to Erzhu Zhao's soldiers, telling them that their commander had been captured and to immediately lay down their weapons and surrender.

Erzhu Zhao realized that the situation was hopeless, so he suddenly grabbed the Great Xia Dragon Bird with his hands and exclaimed:

"What a great sword! It's just the right knife to chop off my head!"

After saying this, Erzhu Zhao directly thrust his neck towards the Great Xia Dragon Bird. Blood spurted out from his neck, dyeing half of Su Bei's body red.

Su Ze was also silent. Although these "Erzhus" were the second generation and relatively immature politically, they were worthy of being brought up by Erzhu Rong and were still well-known for their bravery.

Su Ze waved his hand and said:
"Don't desecrate the bodies, shout to the other soldiers to lay down their weapons and not kill!"

Su Ze then said to Wei Xiaokuan who came over:
"Open the city gate immediately and follow me to seize Yanmen Pass!"

After Wei Xiaokuan ordered his men to restart the mechanism and open the gate of Yanmen New City, Su Ze led the army out of the city gate and swarmed towards Yanmen Pass!

Erzhu Zhao was dead, and the soldiers who followed Erzhu Zhao out of the city had also fled. The morale of the soldiers who stayed behind had already collapsed, and Su Ze easily broke through the gate of Yanmen Pass.

At this point, the gateway to Bingzhou, one of the top three passes in the world, finally fell into Su Ze's control.
-
At the same time, Yubi City.

Erzhu Rong's plan to dig a tunnel still failed.

After the initial siege plan failed, Erzhu Rong decided to approach the city by digging a tunnel from the south.

In order to paralyze Wang Sizheng in the city, he built a mound in the north of the city and ordered his soldiers to attack the city day and night.

Wang Sizheng had already seen through Erzhu Rong's plan to dig tunnels. He dug trenches along the city to intercept the tunnels and strictly ordered the soldiers to guard the trenches. Once the trenches outside the city were dug through, they would be captured and killed immediately.

Wang Sizheng also stored firewood outside the trench and prepared enough bellows. If there were any enemies hiding in the tunnels, he would blow air to burn them with fireworks.

After such an attack and defense, all the tunnels dug by Erzhu Rong failed, and Yubi City won again.

Erzhu Rong was extremely furious and ordered his soldiers to shout curses into the city, but they were shot dead by the sharpshooters sent by Wang Sizheng.

Erzhu Rong had no choice but to summon all the generals to discuss the matter again.

Heba Sheng saw that no one was speaking, so he could only continue to speak:

"General Tianzhu, you can make a promise to Wang Sizheng to give him an official position and induce him to surrender."

Erzhu Rong thought for a while and decided to change his tactics. He sent people to make a promise to Wang Sizheng in the city that as long as he opened the city and surrendered, he would be appointed as the Grand Marshal, granted the title of Duke of the Founding County, and given 10,000 households and 10,000 pieces of silk.

(End of this chapter)