Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 537: Trapped Lion
Erzhu Shilon's defeat was not surprising.

All I can say is that these "Erzhus" are typical examples of people who are not fit for important tasks.

In the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, after Erzhu Rong's death, the situation was actually extremely favorable for these "Erzhus".

Although Erzhu Rong was dead at that time, the Erzhu family's huge power was still there, and the powerful army that was invincible was still there.

However, these "Erzhus" either attacked each other for power or became corrupt after establishing their own territories. In the end, they were cleared out one by one by Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai and all of them were killed.

This time, Erzhu Shilon did the same.

When Erzhu Rong led his troops back to Bingzhou, Erzhu Shilon guarded Yecheng.

After Erzhu Rong left, Erzhu Shilon began to exploit Yecheng frantically, forcibly conscripting the people of Yecheng into the army, and even openly letting his soldiers plunder the people of Yecheng.

In order to stop Murong Shaozong, Erzhu Shilon implemented the policy of fortifying the city and clearing the fields, burning the forests near Yecheng.

He was also afraid that Murong Shaozong would instigate the people near Yecheng to attack the city, so he sent troops to massacre the villages near Yecheng.

In addition, Erzhu Shilon also occupied the Bronze Sparrow Tower and abducted the beautiful women in Yecheng to the Bronze Sparrow Tower.

So when Murong Shaozong's army fought all the way to Yecheng, they did not encounter any decent resistance at all, and did not encounter any obstacles when attacking Yecheng.

It was only the elite soldiers of the Erzhu family who were around Erzhu Shilon who protected him and retreated to Santai.

There was enough food stored on Santai, but no matter how elite the Erzhu family's soldiers were, they could only stay on Santai and defend themselves against Murong Shaozong, who outnumbered them by a large margin.

Murong Shaozong simply ignored Santai and only sent Chen Chong to besiege it. He also ordered Peng Le to take over the rest of Jizhou, and the entire Jizhou surrendered.

Once Jizhou was captured, other areas in Hebei, such as Yanzhou and Xiangzhou, quickly overthrew the officials appointed by the Erzhu family and sent envoys to surrender to Su Ze.

In addition to Liaodong which was preparing to surrender, except for Erzhu Rong who was trapped in Bingzhou, and Yuan Ziyou who could only rely on Henan and Luoyang to protect himself, almost the entire north had already belonged to Su Ze.

The general trend of the world has become clear. Many nobles who have been living in seclusion in the countryside since the Six Garrisons Rebellion began to flock to Guanzhong or Niangzi Pass.

It is certainly too late to take sides now, but it is better to take sides late than to be liquidated later.

Send the best son in the family to Chongwen Pavilion, so that he can at least get an official position in the new dynasty.
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In September, Gao Huan invited the Khitan king and leaders of other tribes to Houcheng on the pretext of a meeting to discuss the attack on Shanhaiguan.

The Khitan king had no suspicion and arrived at Houcheng with the leaders of the eight tribes.

Unexpectedly, they were ambushed by Gao Huan just after entering the city, and the Khitan king and the leaders of the other seven tribes were all captured alive.

Immediately afterwards, Gao Huan sent someone to submit a letter of surrender to Yuwen Hu in Shanhaiguan.

Yuwen Tai is now stationed in Pyongyang, and the affairs within Shanhaiguan are basically handed over to Yuwen Hu.

Yuwen Hu had already received Su Ze's letter, so he naturally sent someone to promise Gao Huan that he would accept Gao Huan's surrender.

Gao Huan took off his armor, put on cloth, covered his body with thorns, and came to Shanhaiguan to surrender with the Khitan leaders tied up with hemp ropes in his hands.

Yuwen Hu ordered his men to open the gates of Shanhaiguan, escorted Gao Huan and the leaders of the other eight tribes into the city, and personally led the cavalry to take over Houcheng.

At the same time, Yuwen Tai led the Goguryeo army, crossed the Yajiang River and broke into the Khitan royal city. The eight Khitan tribes, including the Daha clan, formally surrendered to Yuwen Tai, and Liaodong was pacified.

When Su Ze of Niangzi Pass received the news that Liaodong had been pacified, he could only sigh that it was indeed "time for good fortune".

When a country is founded, it is often done in such a devastating way.

In the final analysis, it is because the world has been in turmoil for a long time and people's hearts are longing for peace. Once there are signs of world unification, people will regard it as destiny.

Those who stood in the way of the unification of the world became reactionaries who blocked the destiny, and were either overthrown by their subordinates or became disloyal and self-destructive. During this period, the war situation in Bingzhou also made some progress.

Yu Jin led his troops to capture Linyi, completely controlling the southern part of Bingzhou, and began to lead his troops to harass Jinyang.

After building Niangzi Pass, Su Ze also sent troops to harass Jinyang, and the two sides formed a siege on Jinyang.

Erzhu Rong followed Heba Yun's advice and ordered his soldiers to attack Yanmen Pass, but encountered desperate resistance from Dugu Xin.

There were several times when Heba Yun almost climbed up the city wall of Yanmen Pass, but was defeated each time by Dugu Xin who led his troops personally.

With the support of Hengzhou, Dugu Xin became more and more powerful, and even set up stone cannons inside Yanmen Pass to fire at Erzhu Rong's siege vehicles.

Erzhu Rong attacked for a whole month and used up almost all of his cannon fodder, but he still had no way to take Yanmen Pass.

At the same time, Erzhu Rong received another request for help from Jinyang.

He received two messages.

First, Jizhou was lost and Erzhu Shilon retreated to Santai in Yecheng.

However, Erzhu Rong could no longer take care of Jizhou at this time, and another piece of news gave him a headache.

Su Ze and Yu Jin attacked Jinyang from the east and south respectively. The passage between Jinyang and Shangdang was cut off. Of the three grain-producing areas in Bingzhou, only the Taiyuan Basin remained in Erzhu Rong's hands.

Su Ze obviously intended to fight Erzhu Rong to a draw. He sent cavalry to burn the crops that were about to be harvested, relocated the people near Jinyang, and even burned the mountains and forests near Jinyang.

September was already autumn, and seeing Su Ze's siege step by step, Erzhu Rong's army was running out of food supplies.

In desperation, Erzhu Rong had to give up attacking Yanmen Pass and lead his army back to Jinyang.

When Erzhu Rong led his troops back to Jinyang, Su Ze and Yu Jin immediately began to build a camp.

Su Ze's strategy was very simple. Erzhu Rong, your territory has been squeezed to this point. As long as our army besieges Jinyang through this winter, your army will starve. By next spring, no matter how strong Erzhu Rong is in fighting, he will not be able to fight Su Ze with hungry soldiers.

Faced with Su Ze's strategy, Erzhu Rong had no good solution.

You cannot capture the city, and no one is willing to fight you. Winter is approaching, and Xiurong's ranches will be disturbed by Su Ze again.

Faced with such a dilemma, all Erzhu Rong could do was to send people to challenge Su Ze every day, clamoring to fight Su Ze to the death.

But how could Su Ze agree to this? He hung up a no-war sign every day.

Anyway, the officials behind him were stepping up efforts to integrate the forces of Hebei, and a steady supply of food, weapons and soldiers were sent to Su Ze's military camp.

Let’s just get through this winter first.

As for Luoyang?

Although Yuan Ziyou was well versed in political tactics, he did not realize that he was just a puppet created by Erzhu Rong.

With the young emperor Yuan Xu, the legitimate emperor, still around, who would want to defect to the fake court in Luoyang?

You, Yuan Ziyou, can't even drive Henan out.

Just as the war in the north was taking a break, the fighting in the south was in full swing.

(End of this chapter)