Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 550 Dying
When Gao Huan was under the rule of Erzhu Rong, Erzhu Rong did not pay attention to civil affairs at all.

Although Yuan Tianmu was in charge, the locals were afraid of Erzhu Rong's military power and often did not cooperate with his rule.

As a result, even after Erzhu Rong occupied Jizhou for many years, he was often unable to collect taxes and had to rely on the army to collect taxes every time.

However, when Gao Huan passed through Jizhou, which was also under the rule of Su Ze, he saw a completely different scene.

Jizhou is the region most devastated by war, without a doubt.

But the ravages of war are like burned mountains and forests, and the burned giant trees are opportunities for new forests to grow.

For example, the Sikong Zhang family of that year was the Zhang Yi family whose mansion was surrounded by the imperial guards during the Yulin Rebellion.

Zhang Yi's son Zhang Shijun once served as the governor of Jizhou. The Zhang family owned more than 100,000 hectares of land in Jizhou. But even so, the amount of land owned by the Zhang family could only rank among the top ten among the powerful people in Jizhou.

The situation of land annexation in Jizhou is very serious.

However, with the death of Zhang Yi and the death of Zhang Shijun during the Six Prefectures Rebellion, the Zhang family began to decline.

This decline reached its peak with the Second Rebellion of the Six Garrisons.

A large number of fortresses and farms in Jizhou were destroyed, the Zhang family's land was occupied by refugees, and the wealthy families who owned large amounts of land in the prefectures and counties began to flee.

By the time of Erzhu Rong's reign, these powerful families had almost all died out.

This provided Su Ze with a large amount of land base for implementing the equal-field system in Jizhou.

Of course, there were also descendants of the Zhang family who held land deeds and land deeds and demanded that the government return their land.

But local officials refused flatly.

Hebei region was the last region to submit.

The Guanzhong region, which is the base of the county dukes, has already implemented the equal-field system. How dare you, the Zhang family of Jizhou, ask for land?
Under such a system, Su Ze ordered the refugees to be resettled locally and granted land, and this policy was quickly implemented.

Gao Huan passed through Jizhou. Although the city was still devastated by the war, the people in this land had obviously changed in their mental outlook.

Some villages have already begun to reclaim land and repair water conservancy facilities during the winter in preparation for next year's spring plowing.

What can Erzhu Rong use to fight Su Ze?
Gao Huan understood this and felt that Erzhu Rong's defeat was not unfair.

During his time in Liaodong, he deeply felt this gap.

Yuwen Tai’s combat experience is not as good as his, and his troops are not as many as his, but he has the cooperation of the entire system, so he only needs to worry about strategic matters.

But he had to worry about all kinds of problems, even the Khitan people had no food to eat.

Gao Huan felt bitter again. It turned out that it was not that he was inferior to Yuwen Tai, but that he was competing alone with Yuwen Tai and Su Ze behind him. How could he win?

The little ambitions that Gao Huan had left also vanished. A surrendered general like him would probably be allowed to live in the country of the future and live out his life as a wealthy man.

Su Ze and Gao Huan were just reminiscing about the past, and in the end both hosts and guests had a great time. Su Ze did not mention giving Gao Huan an official position.

This is not because Su Ze does not cherish the old friendship, but rather he does remember the old friendship.

Now that the wars that need to be fought in the world have been almost fought, the founding heroes are making the next sprint for the sake of future generations.

There is no chance for a surrendered general to come to the fore.

Even Su Ze's closeness to Gao Huan would be resented by other important officials under Su Ze, and Gao Huan would definitely have a bad ending in the future. For such a surrendered general, giving him an honorary position in the future and keeping him in the new capital would be the best ending.

After seeing Gao Huan off, Bingzhou suddenly encountered a heavy snowfall, and before they knew it, the end of the year had arrived.

In Jinyang City, Erzhu Rong had a difficult year-end.

There was a shortage of fuel in Jinyang City, and some people had already dismantled their houses for heating.

But this behavior is like drinking poison to quench thirst. When the weather gets colder, people in the city will freeze to death.

Of course Erzhu Rong would not be cold, and neither would the soldiers under his command, but this was not a decisive battle in the wild, and the outcome of the battle could not be decided by a few thousand elite soldiers. Defending the city required a large amount of manpower.

Without craftsmen to repair the city walls, the enemy would be able to break in through the cracks.

Without the people in the rear making weapons to defend the city, there would not be enough weapons to defend against the enemy's attack.

The saying goes, "United forces make strength." When defending a city, we must unite everyone, otherwise morale will quickly collapse.

Erzhu Rong had no choice but to send his elite soldiers to protect the craftsmen and mine coal near Jinyang.

Coal is coal. Bingzhou has a lot of coal, but the coal in Bingzhou is toxic (carbon monoxide poisoning and toxic smoke containing sulfur impurities). In the past, people in Bingzhou would not use coal for heating.

I can't take care of so many things this year.

However, people used coal for heating at home, and many incidents of coal poisoning occurred one after another, which caused rumors to spread in the city, and even rumors of divine punishment were spread.

Erzhu Rong was somewhat superstitious to begin with, and due to his years of military career and excessive drinking, he often had nightmares.

We asked the wizard in the city to pray, but it still had no effect.

This made Princess Beixiang very anxious, but there was no good solution.

Erzhu Rong would go up to the city wall every day and look at the huge Su Ze camp. His mood changed from anger and anxiety over wanting to have a decisive battle with Su Ze to the calmness he has today.

Now the initiative is in Su Ze's hands. The other party refuses to fight and wants to exhaust him to death. What else can he do?

Erzhu Rong himself was an expert in military strategy. As soon as he saw the camp, he knew that Su Ze's defense was tight and it was definitely not something that could be broken through by the few thousand cavalrymen in Jinyang City.

The only thing he regretted was allowing Su Ze to develop in Guanzhong.

At that time, Erzhu Rong controlled Bingzhou and should have entered Guanzhong, but at least he should have occupied Hedong County and sealed off Guanzhong.
-
In addition to Erzhu Rong, Xiao Yan in Taicheng also felt very regretful.

Xiao Yi's arrival once gave him hope.

But his hopes were soon dashed.

Wang Sengbian only led his troops to fight with Heba Sheng, and then just like when Xiao Xu led the troops, he hid in the camp and did not leave.

Xiao Yan was furious. He had forgotten Chen Qingzhi's last words before his death. He selected a thousand loyal and brave soldiers in Taicheng and ordered them to break out of Taicheng at night, rush into Xiao Yi's camp, seize the military power of this rebellious son, and ordered the entire army to attack Heba Sheng.

But no one knew how the news leaked out, and this elite force was discovered by Heba Sheng as soon as they broke through. Heba Sheng then personally led the troops in pursuit, and the thousand-man army was killed into hundreds.

But when these hundred people rushed to Xiao Yi's military camp, Xiao Yi refused to let them in, saying that he did not know whether these people were Heba Sheng's army in disguise. He also ordered his soldiers to shoot arrows to force back these assassins who rushed out of Taicheng.

In grief and anger, some of these soldiers rushed back to fight Heba Sheng to the death, while others simply surrendered to Heba Sheng.

(End of this chapter)