Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 522 Unexpected
After hearing that the city wall was broken, Heba Yue stood up with a long sigh. He did not stop the soldiers from blocking the gap. He even ordered the soldiers to give up resistance, take off their armor, and go out of the camp to surrender to Su Ze.

After the vanguard troops completely controlled Jingxingkou, Su Ze rode a white horse to Jingxingkou to accept Heba Yue's surrender.

Seeing Heba Yue kneeling on the ground, Su Ze dismounted from his horse, helped him up from the ground, and said to Heba Yue:
"Heba Lang, how many years have passed since we last saw each other in the Six Towns?"

Heba Yue recalled the days when he fought side by side with Su Ze in the Six Garrisons. Looking at the heroic Su Ze in front of him, he felt deeply moved.

The Su Ze today is completely different from when he was in the Six Towns.

Having been in a position of power for a long time, he has developed a temperament of being intimidating without even having to show off one's authority, which made Heba Yue admire him involuntarily.

From a personal emotional point of view, Heba Yue did not feel any psychological pressure in surrendering to Su Ze.

Their cooperation in the Six Garrisons was quite pleasant, and Su Ze had expressed his appreciation for the Heba brothers more than once.

Together with Su Chi's moving letter of persuasion, these were among the reasons why Heba Yue was able to surrender without much psychological pressure.

The only thing that worried Heba Yue was the brothers who were still with Erzhu Rong.

However, in this day and age, it is normal for a family member to serve different masters. If Erzhu Rong took his anger out on his brothers because of this, it would make him appear narrow-minded.

Besides, it was Su Ze who conquered Jingxing Pass, and Heba Yue surrendered only after Su Ze conquered the city.

In fact, this is just a tacit understanding between both parties.

Heba Yue lowered his head and said:
"After the farewell of the Six Garrisons, Duke Su has become even more impressive, while Heba Yue has become a defeated general."

As the winner, Su Ze showed a tolerant attitude and said:
"General Heba was able to obey orders clearly and prevent the people of Jingxing Pass from suffering. This is already a great achievement."

Su Ze said to Su Bei beside him:
"Hold my military order and strictly order the soldiers to plunder all the property in the city and return the property and food of the soldiers and civilians to everyone. If anyone does not abide by military discipline and smashes, robs, kills, rapes, and plunders, he will be punished by military law!"

Heba Yue lowered his head and admired Su Ze even more.

These days, soldiers are basically the same as bandits.

Even Erzhu Rong sometimes couldn't do anything about soldiers looting, because everyone fought for you at the risk of their lives, so shouldn't they be happy after winning the battle?
Therefore, every defeat is a devastating disaster for the soldiers and civilians of the losing side.

The reason why Su Ze was able to control military discipline was because of his huge prestige among the soldiers and his ability to fulfill his long-term promises to the soldiers.

People always care about their own interests. If they violate military discipline for the sake of momentary pleasure and affect their future commendations and promotions, then the loss will outweigh the gain.

And Su Ze maintained military discipline at Jingxing Pass, so when he fought in the future, the psychological pressure on the enemy to surrender was much less.

Su Ze pulled Heba Yue and said:
"The army has its own rules. Although I know Heba Lang's talents, everything still needs to be done according to the rules. Heba Lang has led the people to return to justice and has made great contributions."

"First, appoint him as the commander of the cavalry battalion and obey the orders of this county lord."

Heba Yue felt a little disappointed, but he could understand it.

Any group, when it reaches a certain size, will form internal factions.

Those who had followed Su Ze earlier had not yet been promoted. For Heba Yue, a newly surrendered general, it was already good enough to get a military position.

If Heba Yue was really rewarded indiscriminately, what would those generals under Su Ze who had fought bravely and bravely for him think?
Su Ze allowed Heba Yue, a surrendered general, to stay by his side as the commander of the cavalry battalion, which was already a way of caring for an old man.

As long as Heba Yue can make contributions, it will be easy to accumulate military merits and get promoted in this position.

So many generals from the Six Garrisons have proved this truth: as long as you follow Duke Su, you will always have a chance to shine.

Heba Yue accepted the appointment frankly and actively cooperated with Su Ze. He selected the elite soldiers who were willing to surrender and incorporated them into the cavalry under Su Ze.

After breaking through Jingxing Pass, Su Ze looked towards Bingzhou. After planning for so long, he finally opened a breakthrough into Bingzhou.

In addition to having already captured Yanmen Pass and preparing to march north to attack Bingzhou, Yu Jin now had the ability to threaten the safety of Erzhu Rong's base in Bingzhou.

The choice facing Erzhu Rong now is whether to continue staying in Jizhou and fighting with Murong Shaozong, or to return to Luoyang to stabilize the Henan area, or to return to Bingzhou for rescue?

A smile appeared on Su Ze's lips. The chess piece of Kunlong had already been made, and it all depended on how the opponent would make the move.
-
In Luoyang City, Yuan Ziyou, who finally gained power, convened a court meeting and announced rewards for a series of meritorious officials.

The greatest contributor was naturally Xi Yi. Yuan Ziyou directly broke the tradition of not enfeoffing kings of different surnames, and enfeoffed Xi Yi as Shangluo County Duke, and gave him the titles of General of the Cavalry and Grand Marshal. The remaining ministers who surrendered to Yuan Ziyou were all rewarded.

The only tough guy was Liu Gui, the deputy arranged by Erzhu Rong in Luoyang. He would rather die than surrender to Yuan Ziyou and was imprisoned in prison.

Yuan Ziyou was in high spirits, but the development of several things deviated from his expectations.

First of all, there was Su Ze. The court in Guanzhong had no interest in Luoyang at all. Yu Jin of Hedong County did not send troops to Luoyang, but went north to attack Jizhou directly.

The second is the prefectures and counties along the Yellow River, including Xiangzhou, Qizhou, Qingzhou, Northern Yanzhou, and Northern Xuzhou. After the envoys from Luoyang arrived in these prefectures and counties, the local officials did not do as Yuan Ziyou expected and directly change their flags and announce their support for him as the legitimate emperor of the Wei Dynasty. Instead, they imprisoned the envoys and refused to obey Yuan Ziyou's edicts.

What surprised Yuan Ziyou the most was Heba Sheng, the governor of Qizhou.

After learning about the conflict between Heba Sheng and Erzhu Shilon, Yuan Ziyou originally thought that Heba Sheng should lead Qizhou to surrender to him.

However, Heba Sheng did not surrender at all. Instead, he killed Yuan Ziyou's envoy and then surrendered Qizhou to Xiao Yan in Jiankang.

This made Yuan Ziyou very angry.

He was shocked to find that the territory he controlled now was almost the same as the area Chen Qianzhi controlled after he entered Luoyang during the Northern Expedition.

That is, Luoyang and part of the area south of the Yellow River, which was even less controllable than Yuan Hao's control over the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

Yuan Ziyou was a little panicked. Chen Qianzhi had failed to defend Luoyang back then, so how could he do it?

Now all he can hope is that Erzhu Rong chooses to fight Su Ze instead of causing trouble for himself.
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Wuyi.

In October, Erzhu Rong received the news of Yuan Tianmu's death from the envoy who came from Luoyang.

Erzhu Rong suppressed his emotions and asked the envoy in detail about the changes in Luoyang. When he heard that Erzhu Dulü was beheaded and Yuan Ziyou's handling of the Luoyang ministers.

This time even the usually resolute Erzhu Rong couldn't hold on and shouted:

"Xi Yi hurt me!"

Erzhu Rong was not a fool either. It was Xi Yi who had been in charge of Luoyang affairs for a long time. After this coup, Xi Yi was directly named Duke of a county by Yuan Ziyou. He immediately understood that Xi Yi must have played a huge role in this coup.

If there was no Xi Yi, how could Yuan Ziyou, who had already been controlled, launch such a coup?

The death of Yuan Tianmu was undoubtedly a heavy blow to Erzhu Rong.

This is more than just losing a brother.

As long as Yuan Tianmu was in Luoyang, he could send food and grass to the front line. If Yuan Tianmu died, there would be no one in the rear who could stabilize the situation, and the states and counties along the Yellow River would definitely rebel.

By that time, the Jizhou army had no food or fodder, and they had no choice but to retreat.

I don’t know if Su Ze is involved in this matter.

Su Ze must have been behind this!
Even if it was not Su Ze who manipulated it, once the news of the Luoyang Incident reached Su Ze's ears, his sworn brother would definitely take action.

Is it Jizhou? Liaodong? Or Bingzhou?

Erzhu Rong didn't have to guess for long, as he soon received a letter asking for help from Jinyang.

Dugu Xin led an army of 10,000, plus 5,000 cavalry from various grassland tribes, and went out of Yanmen to attack Xiurong.

Yu Jin led 20,000 troops from Guanzhong and marched north from Hedong County to attack Linfen, the southern gate of Bingzhou.

Su Ze personally led the troops, broke through Jingxing Pass, entered Bingzhou on his own, and attacked Yangquan, another important town on Jingxing Road.

From then on, Su Ze led three armies to march towards Bingzhou, Erzhu Rong's old nest!
The choice now before Erzhu Rong is to either abandon Jizhou directly and return to Bingzhou to fight against Su Ze's three armies.

He returned to Luoyang and relied on the areas of Henan and Hebei to compete with Su Ze.

The situation in the north became chaotic and complicated again, and even Erzhu Rong, who had always been decisive, began to hesitate.

(End of this chapter)