On July 15, under the city of Xiangping.

The atmosphere of the battle situation has still reached the fixed point of slaughter.

Because the entire territory of the four counties of Liaodong, except for a few remote small counties that still fell into the hands of the Goguryeo people, the rest were swept away by the Han army under Liu Bei and initially controlled, only the last stronghold of Zhang Chun in front of him, Xiangping County, where the county was located.

However, since Xiangping can become the largest city in Liaodong, the defense is still quite strong.

rammed earth walls up to four zhang (9 m 4); women's wall buttresses, city towers and arrow towers are complete defense facilities; and the moat formed by the water of the Liao River, all tell that it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Three days earlier, the Han army had just built a weir and cut off the waterway between the moat and the Liao River, turning the moat into stagnant water.

Today, under the personal supervision of Liu Bei, the Han army launched the first operation of filling the moat with trench bridge carts and wooden donkey shield carts. And sent 6,000 archers to suppress the west gate and the south gate at the same time, covering the friendly forces in the operation.

(Note: Outside the east gate and the north gate is the Liao River, so it is impossible to attack from those two directions)

After a day of disgraced tentative attack, the Han army lost more than 100 people, and it is estimated that only a few dozen rebel archers were killed, but they finally filled in a few large and small gaps.

After all, in the face of the condescending shooting of the rebels at the head of the city, even if the number of archers of the Han army was several times greater and the defensive shields were also erected, the exchange ratio was still a loss.

In a real siege war, we must be mentally prepared for this.

After supervising the battle for a day, Liu Bei returned to the camp with an expressionless face, picked up a large scoop of cold water and drank it ton by ton, wiping his mouth: "What does Boya think about the battle situation?" ”

The time was already July, and Li Su was too hot to do it, so he waved his feather fan: "The only way to fight is to fight, and now there is no room for calculation." Fortunately, Zhang Chun's men and horses were besieged in the city by our groups, and they could not harass our army to control other counties. Therefore, the autumn harvest work and tax collection in the counties of the Liaohe River basin next month should not be affected.

In some counties where the war and famine are more serious, the elder brother can also declare the benevolence of the imperial court and exempt the tax for one year this year. Anyway, the imperial court doesn't know when we will recover it, and the state and the imperial court will not ask for any taxes to be paid this year. This grace should be in the name of the brother, so that the people will be grateful and of one heart and one mind. ”

If you recover the territory before the autumn harvest, you will have a righteous name. For individual places where it is difficult to collect taxes and offend people and can't collect much food, Liu Bei can give a reduction or exemption, but the kindness of this reduction must be remembered clearly, which is Liu Fujun's great kindness.

Liu Bei also laughed when he heard this: "Boya said that the war has not yet been completed, but he will comfort me with the benefits of pacifying the people first." ”

Li Su put down the feather fan and said: "This is the right way, as long as the entire territory of Liaodong is controlled by us, Zhang Chun will die sooner or later, he can't harvest a grain of grain this autumn, even if he guards it for a long time, he will starve to death sooner or later."

Although it is impossible for our army to wait for him for so long, the reason for attacking the heart cannot but be explained. We should even send good news such as the good news of our army's determination of the counties and the order of grain collection and taxation into the city with a book of arrows. Let the soldiers and people defending the city understand the truth in this, and know that following Zhang Chun will die sooner or later.

This can not only hit the morale of the defending army, but also persuade the big families in the city to go anyway, or induce Zhang Chun to kill the powerful families in the city out of anxiety - the brother has not encountered the resistance of the local family so far, which is mainly due to the fact that Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun plundered very urgently, and there were many looted people.

But in other words, Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun acted like this, in fact, they also helped us clear some obstacles to control the place and did the wicked.

Especially in this Liaodong County, Changli and other places were small places before, and there were no well-known wealthy families with power throughout the county, and occasionally, in order to avoid the war, they also took the initiative to move to Xiangping in advance, or were forcibly abducted to Xiangping by Zhang Chun. Now that we are facing this last lonely city, we might as well think more about how to borrow a knife to kill people......"

"The court is a benevolent and righteous herdsman, how can he do this trick of killing people with a knife! Even if the Haoqiang family is a hidden household, after all, it is the savings of the past generations, not all of them are scheming, and the crime is not to death. At best, they can only do it according to the law against those who harm the people, how can they fight against thieves without distinguishing between right and wrong! Liu Bei couldn't help but interrupt.

Li Su was stunned.

Liu Bei reacted so violently, but he didn't expect it.

After thinking about it, it is understandable - the world is still in turmoil, and Liu Bei has not seen how the local family forces fought against the mobilization of the princes after the complete collapse of the prestige of the imperial court, so the hatred and hostility towards the family forces cannot be compared with Liu Bei ten or twenty years later in history.

Although Haoqiang's selfishness and concealment of household registration and land annexation have been old problems that have lasted for at least nearly a hundred years, before Emperor Ling's death, in the face of the mobilization of the imperial court, the Haoqiang family still showed great loyalty and loyalty.

The imperial court allowed all localities to build their own armed forces to crusade against the Yellow Turbans and counterattack Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun Districtxing, and the powerful families also sent troops to crusade, although their private armed forces also became stronger after the battle, they were nominally loyal to the Han.

Today's Liu Bei has not yet reached the point of completely eliminating the strength of this "selfish, but nominally loyal" family.

And the reason why Li Su felt that "those family forces in the territory that can resist the princes should be suppressed as much as possible" is entirely because he is based on his understanding of history. He knew that after Liu Bei entered Shu in history, the yang and yin of the Shu Wang clan violated the yang, and he was also well aware of Sun Quan's pain of being restrained by Gu Lu, Zhu Zhang, the four lords of Jiangdong.

That's why I feel that now that Liaodong has been recovered, it is also time to carry out an unwitting murder and liquidation of the roots of Liaodong's land annexation and population concealment: it just so happens that these wealthy families have fled to Xiangping City, and they borrowed Zhang Chun's knife to kill some, just to fight the local tyrants and divide the land......

It's a pity that Liu Bei's cognitive level still needs to be upgraded.

Li Su had no choice but to retreat first, and wait for Liu Bei to slowly adapt:

"It's my unscrupulous means, since my brother is unwilling to purge comprehensively, at least kill the thieves and screen them. I remember that when my brother followed Zhu Jun to ask for the Yellow Turban, Zhu Jun once said, 'Now the sea is unified, only the Yellow Turban rebels, if it is allowed to surrender, there is no way to persuade goodness', and my brother also thought so.

Therefore, since ancient times, those who have suppressed rebels have been rewarded by the first righteousness, and those who have fallen last are killed, which is also a natural principle. Today, our army should also sound the arrow book, affirm the truth, and clearly say that the donors will be rewarded, and severely punish those who still fight side by side with Zhang Chun when the city is broken, which is also the credit of the Ming court, brother must not contradict. ”

This statement narrowed the scope of the attack a little, and added the original views of the three heroes of the Yellow Turban, Liu Bei was not easy to refute, and after thinking about it, he half-pushed and half-smelled on the spot.

"That being the case, Boya is at her own disposal...... No need to ask! Liu Bei decided that out of sight was clear.

Li Su smiled proudly and went to prepare without mentioning it.

……

In the following days, the moat near the west gate and the south gate of Xiangping City was almost destroyed.

The moat, which is already a stagnant ditch, is already easy to fill in several sections, and it doesn't have to pay much price.

The Han army destroyed the sheep and horse walls and suspension bridges one by one, and the heavy siege equipment could finally reach the city.

Whether they were ramming the door with a car, or digging rammed earth with a wooden donkey cart to destroy the walls, or flying ladders to the city, the two sides fought back and forth, and the casualties increased day by day, and the pressure felt by the rebels increased.

On the twentieth day of July, during the siege of the city, the Han army under the city finally shot some letters to the people in the city, especially the family, by tying books with a Ming Di.

Ordinary people are illiterate, but there are still some tosses and turns that fall into the hands of those wealthy families.

The Gongsun family, who had been officials in Xiangping County and Xuansu County for all dynasties, and the Tian family, a famous family in eastern and western Liaoning, all received Li Su's "open letter".

The surnames of Gongsun and Tian are also very common in the western part of Youzhou, and there are many branches.

The head of the Gongsun family on the Xiangping side is named Gongsun Zhao, who served as the magistrate of Xiangping County and the magistrate of Goguryi, and he has a cousin who also served as the magistrate of Xigaima County. This Gongsun Zhao is not related to Gongsun Zhan, so it can be regarded as a distant branch of the Gongsun clan.

And the local head of the Tian family is called Tian Shao, and he is also very distant from Tian Chou and Tian Yu, who are later generations of famous ministers of the Youzhou Tian family.

These two people didn't know that although they escaped the rebellion of Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun in history and were able to protect themselves, they were finally killed by Gongsun Du after he was appointed by Dong Zhuo as the Taishou of Liaodong.

Li Su was not aimed at anyone, and his letter did not name him, and he didn't even know the names of Gongsun Zhao and Tian Shao.

But as long as Li Su vaguely remembers that Gongsun Du was too punctual in Liaodong in history, he killed a group of people before he sat firmly in the position of Liaodong Taishou, then Li Su didn't mind playing a pole with or without dates, and borrowed Zhang Chun's hand to casually kill some families to pave the way.

Gongsun Zhao and Tian Shao have the ability to control a city gate and sacrifice the gate to surrender, then it is best to leave the family who sacrifices the gate to be promoted to appease and declare the "first righteousness", and kill a few other unknown families to punish the "final surrender", anyway, Li Su will not suffer no loss.

After the arrow book entered the city, everyone in the city was in danger.

Because Gongsun Zhao and Tian Shao were too hesitant, Zhang Chun, who was already nervously suspicious and suspicious, took the lead and launched a civil war in the city, and a civil war broke out with the private soldiers of the Gongsun family and the Tian family.

Hundreds of relatives and dead soldiers of the Gongsun family and the Tian family were all killed by Zhang Chun, but Zhang Chun also paid the price of hundreds of casualties.

After the battle in the past few days, the rebel garrison troops, which originally had only about 4,000 people left, have lost the total strength of thousands of people after this wave of internal friction and cannibalism, and only 3,000 soldiers are left, and the battle situation has become more and more glorious.

And Liu Bei, who was outside the city, hurriedly accelerated the pace of attacking the city when he heard that Zhang Chun was afraid that the family in the city would surrender and surrender, so he actually launched a massacre and purge of the family.

On the third day after Gongsun Zhao was killed, when Liu Bei attacked the city with all his might, some of the remaining big families in the city were afraid that the city would be classified as the "last surrender" after the city was broken, so they finally mustered up the courage to cooperate with the outside and launched street battles in the city at the same time.

Although Zhang Chun was already very cautious, the city gates on all sides were defended by his own descendants, and it was impossible to give the private soldiers of the small family in the city a chance to donate the door. But this kind of street fighting also restrained at least half of Zhang Chun's defending forces for a while.

With only more than a thousand soldiers left on the four city walls to fight Liu Bei, it was finally inevitable that there would be loopholes.

On the evening of July 20, at a section of the city wall north of the west gate of Xiangping City.

There are two sections of the city wall before because the Han soldiers hid in the wooden donkey cart to dig rammed earth, and the collapse of the soil has formed a wall slope, no longer as steep as when it was intact before.

Dian Wei and Zhou Tai respectively led hundreds of Danyang warriors, all of whom were new forces with abundant physical strength, replacing the friendly troops who had spent most of the day before, and launched a wave of sudden charge.

Dian Wei was the first to wear double layers of heavy armor, and Zhou Tai switched to a steel sword shield, and he used a double shield with both hands to cover the arrows and a steel knife in his mouth, and they all rushed up the slope of the dug wall.

It wasn't until he rushed to the top of the wall and entered close combat that Zhou Tai threw a shield and smashed an enemy soldier, then took the knife in his mouth and turned over and slashed forward.

Hundreds of Danyang soldiers charged intensively, and the sharp axes and war hammers flew over, and finally occupied the section of the city wall north of the West Gate and gained a firm foothold. At this point in the battle, Zhang Chun's soldiers and horses finally couldn't hold on anymore and completely collapsed.

Dian Wei led people to open the west gate, let Guan Yu and Zhang Fei ride directly into the city, and the whole battle entered the bloody street battle.

In the middle of the night, Zhang Fei finally stabbed a person with a snake spear that had completely poked his face, and rushed to Liu Bei to make a contribution: "Big brother, Zhang Chun's head is here!" I can't be wrong, my second brother and I led troops to surround him with hundreds of personal soldiers, and all of them were killed. ”

Liu Bei nodded with satisfaction: "Good job!" What's going on in the city? ”

Zhang Fei: "In addition to the Gongsun family and the Tian family, which were killed by Zhang Chun, there are also three other families with big surnames and relatives who have suffered a lot of losses, but they all say that they should have merit in helping the war, and they ask the eldest brother to meet them."

As for the people, Zhang Chun didn't kill indiscriminately, but he didn't have much grain in stock, and he was robbed by Zhang Chun. Zhang Chun still has a lot of money and food that has not been used up, and it is all hoarded in his puppet palace, which is the original Liaodong Taishou Mansion. ”

Liu Bei bit his lip and thought about it, and patted Zhang Fei's shoulder: "There is no need to say these to the outside world, when the time comes, we will help and save the people by ourselves." ”

Although the money originally belonged to the people and was robbed by the rebels, since it was a relief for the people of the military disaster, this favor still had to be done by Liu Bei himself, and the people should owe him personal favors.

This is also Liu Bei's recent bad learning with Li Su.

Zhang Fei didn't know the twists and turns in this, but he only knew that the eldest brother could do what he told, and there was no need to talk too much.

Liaodong County, which has been turned back into a blank piece of paper, is very suitable for repainting.

The ice in Liu Bei's heart couldn't help but loosen a little:

Although Boya didn't say that he wanted to kill the people of the Gongsun family and the Tian family, Zhang Chun did it for him after all, and looking at these land deeds, there are at least thousands of hectares of fertile fields in the Liaohe Plain that can be used as mature fields for the imperial court and rented to landless homeless people at a high price......

With such a big benefit, even if Liu Bei still wants to completely adhere to benevolence and righteousness, he has to be a little moved.

"That's it, I didn't expect to fight these families who were already slightly guilty, and they could get so much borderless land to distribute to the people, and I still don't have to ask about it in the future, as long as Boya can find an excuse and not damage his reputation, let him do it...... Unless it's going to ruin your reputation, let's stop it. ”

Liu Bei vaguely thought in his heart.

——

PS: Three more! Completely pay off the debt of the tip and the first/average order!

Yesterday there was a long traffic jam on the highway, and it was very tiring to drive, so the update was not on time this morning. Starting tomorrow, we will strive to ensure that there is a shift before 8 a.m. and a watch at noon.