Finally, the army arrived fifty miles outside the city of Hezhou and set up a large camp. In the middle of the night that day, the camp of Gongsun Jian's army was attacked by the other party, but fortunately, Gongsun Jian had already prepared, not only did he not lose anything, but also backhanded the opponent. You must know that Gongsun Jian started by constantly attacking and stealing camps, how could he not be guarded against.

The next day, Gongsun Jian ordered the whole army to rest except for the soldiers in charge of the guard. And this break is three days. At this time, Gongsun Jian was not in a hurry to attack the capital city of Hezhou. On the contrary, he was very patient with the other party. It's like waiting for the other party to take the initiative to attack him after losing patience.

Three days later, the army began to move, and Ma Teng's second division and Xie Wu's reconnaissance battalion were sent out, and the battalion began to clear the surrounding area of Hezhou City. Gongsun Jian's forces were not enough to besiege the huge city of Hezhou, but it did not prevent him from blocking the city's supplies. Maybe the food reserves in the city are sufficient, but there is no firewood to cook rice, can't you eat those rice and wheat noodles raw?

Soon, the city of Hezhou guessed Gongsun Jian's plan, so he also sent people out of the city to encircle and annihilate the troops under Gongsun Jian on the blockade mission. And what Gongsun Jian was waiting for was this opportunity, one trap after another had already been opened, and the two divisions of Tian Kuo and Ding Feng had already quietly left the camp to ambush them under the cover of night the night before.

And so the hunt began. On the first day alone, from dawn to the end of darkness in the evening, a total of more than 5,000 people from the city were annihilated. Such a loss surprised the king of Xiang and his generals in the city. Only then did he realize that he had fallen for Gongsun Jian's scheme. But there is no way to take the other party, if you don't send people out of the city, more than 100,000 people in the city, the firewood needed every day will be burned in a few days, can it be said that it will not be possible to demolish the house and cook at that time?

But if you send people out of the city, first of all, you will be constantly harassed, and there will be no chance for you to chop wood with peace of mind. The second is that even if you send troops to protect it, it is difficult to prevent Gongsun Jian's troops, and if you don't get it, you will be ambushed and lose manpower. The most important thing is that Gongsun Jian's troops are like having eyes in the sky, and as soon as you make a move, the other party will know it at the first time. This caused a headache for the Vietnamese troops in the city.

When there was no way, the Vietnamese army had no choice but to rob the camp again at night, and at the same time organize the people in the city to take the opportunity to go out of the city to cut some firewood and go back. But as a result, the camp was plotted, and the woodcutters were ambushed. In the places with many trees outside Hezhou City, Gongsun Jian's soldiers secretly buried a lot of fire-starting things in advance, and the soldiers who stayed nearby directly attacked with rockets once they found that someone sneaked up to chop wood at night, igniting the entire mountain forest. Not only did the person who let you chop wood come and go, but it also made you not want to come again in the future.

Faced with such a predicament, King Xiang had no choice but to prepare to go out of the city and have a duel with Gongsun Jian. If you lose, you will continue to defend the city, and if you win, everything will be solved. But at this time, Gongsun Jian was reluctant to fight with the other party, just like a cat playing with a mouse.

There was no way, Xiangwang Qian Zhi could only order to attack Gongsun Jian's camp. The result can be imagined, and once again I touched a big bag. With no choice, Qian Zhi could only keep asking the court for help, and at the same time retreated in the city and never came out.

Seeing that Qian Zhi was born, Gongsun Jian divided the army into three routes, and continued to stay on the side of Hezhou City all the way, continuing to harass the other party and oppress. The other two roads went to pick up the remaining three county seats. As long as the remaining three county towns are taken, the entire Hezhou Mansion will fall into Gongsun Jian's pocket except for the capital city. At that time, you can play casually when you come to clean up Qian Zhi.

Besides, a large part of the landlords in Fucheng who sent troops to help were not locals in Fucheng, so if they took out their nests, they would not have to die in a hurry. At that time, as soon as the people's hearts were scattered, they relied on Qian Zhi's current hands to see how the seven or eight thousand Vietnamese army in his hands was the opponent of Gongsun Jian.

Although Hezhou City has not yet been taken, it does not affect the reputation accumulated by Gongsun Jian's army before and its own combat effectiveness. It didn't take long for the three remaining counties to surrender and fall.

For a while, there was a wail in the city. The hometowns of many landlords and powerful people have been confiscated. And the family is now hostage in the hands of Gongsun Jian. The next letters from family members made these people even more panicked. It is very clear in the letter that as long as you surrender and lead people to open the gates of Hezhou or capture King Xiang and others alive, you will be considered meritorious, and all previous mistakes will not be blamed in the past, and all treatment will be favorable.

It is conceivable that a few days later, Gongsun Jian took the capital city of Hezhou almost bloodlessly. However, King Xiang secretly fled with his men and horses in advance. It's something that can't be helped. Gongsun Jian still has insufficient numbers in his hands, and if he wants to take the city, he must not have much energy to deal with King Xiang. After all, King Xiang still has six or seven thousand elite soldiers under him.

Run, run. Gongsun Jian stood on the tower of Hezhou City and had a bird's-eye view of the surroundings, and his mood was much more relaxed. It took more than three months, and the four prefectures of Xizhou were finally completely taken by him. The next thing is to continue south, the four southwestern prefectures are still waiting for him!

Just when Gongsun Jian led his troops to occupy the four capitals of Xizhou, the news had already spread to Shangjing. Qian Zhuo, who was embattled, was suddenly dumbfounded. He knew that Gongsun Jian was ambitious, and he also knew that one day he would face Gongsun Jian face to face. But he didn't expect Gongsun Jian's speed to be so fast, and it was only a few months since he finally stabilized the other party, and this guy actually dared to directly lead his troops to capture the four mansions of Xizhou.

The news of the failures came one after another, and in more than a month, Huazhou Mansion, Yongzhou Mansion and Liuzhou Mansion were all lost. Fortunately, there was King Xiang and people resisting in Hezhou Mansion. Now Qian Zhuo has no soldiers who can fight, but fighting costs money, and his treasury is now empty and can starve to death. Where is there extra money to support a war against Gongsun Jian.

After thinking about it, Qian Zhuo had no choice but to make a move that exceeded everyone's expectations. Send someone to contact Wu and cede the three northwestern provinces to Wu. Of course, this is only done in private, and he has not yet dared to do such a humiliating thing in the face.

However, Wu is not stupid on his side, and it sounds good to cede the three northwestern provinces, but who doesn't know that the three northwest provinces of Zhou are all under the control of Gongsun Jian, and if you want to get the three northwest provinces, then you can only meet with Gongsun Jian's sword soldiers. Moreover, Wu Guo is still relatively close to Gongsun Jian's side. Bilateral trade brings great benefits to both sides.

However, people are always not easily satisfied, and the three mansions are not big or small. In the past, although Wu also wanted to occupy it, he might not care so much. But now it is different, the current three provinces in the northwest are not the past, all kinds of new industries and mines, etc., especially the steel mills that Wu has always coveted. And according to intelligence, now Gongsun Jian is leading a large army to attack the four capitals of Xizhou, and it is the best time to send troops at this time. In addition, in order to persuade Wu to send troops, Qian Zhuo promised the other party to supply 2 million stone of salt to the other party for free.

After repeated consideration, Wu finally agreed to Qian Zhuo's request to send troops. What are the three prefectures in the northwest, if you really defeat Gongsun Jian, then you don't take the opportunity to take the four prefectures of Xizhou together, maybe you can be lucky and occupy more territory in the Zhou Kingdom. Emperor Wu is not a fool, after studying with several ministers and Sun Sheng, he not only sent troops on his own side, but also sent envoys to contact the Northern Qi and Southern Han Kingdoms, preparing the three to work together to directly annex and carve up the Zhou State.

Just like Qian Hong's evaluation of his third son who usurped the throne and came to power, Qian Zhuo is good at forbearance, and also has some conspiracy methods and cleverness. But in terms of overall control, it is really too far behind. Just staring at the throne that he felt had supreme power was, in fact, just a joke. What you can really control is not under your control, and who can really obey you. In order to show his ability and existence, as soon as he came to power, he did something to the nobles, and even did not hesitate to kill Gongsun Jian, who had helped him, but unfortunately, he was not able to do a good thing. If these things were really that easy, Qian Hong would have done it a long time ago, and you would be able to do it.

In the palace, Qian Hong smiled coldly after hearing that the old eunuch under his command had told Qian Zhuo about his decision. He knows very well that the country that he and his ancestors have worked hard for nearly a hundred years is completely finished.

waved away the palace maids and eunuchs who were waiting beside him, Qian Hong asked the old eunuch lightly: "Are those people who contact you really reliable?" ”

"Your Majesty, the slave is just a message. Everything is up to you. But according to the judgment of the old slave, it may be an opportunity. As long as you can regain control of the situation, there is still hope for everything to be redeemed. ”

Qian Hong nodded slowly, thought quietly for a moment and said, "Then you can contact them again." As long as I can abolish that bastard and let me wait for Dabao again, even if I share the country equally with them, anyway, my Qian family's world is about to be destroyed by that bastard boy. It can only be a dead horse as a live horse doctor. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty. The old slave went to contact them personally. ”

What happened in Shangjing City Gongsun Jian is not very clear for the time being, but his layout has already been launched. He dared to dare to launch a military operation against the four prefectures of Xizhou, how could he not leave a little behind. Besides, he didn't want to be robbed of the fat that should have belonged to him by a group of hungry wolves when his wings were not fully plump. The situation of Zhou being divided by the Three Kingdoms was the last thing he wanted to see.

Now Gongsun Jian is busy receiving people from the Lee family in Jeju Prefecture. This time, it can be said that the Li family is determined to climb onto Gongsun Jian's warship. The previous business is also considered to be bought and sold. But now it's different, the Li family's performance is obviously gambling with the fate of the family.

The first time was to help Gongsun Jian escape Qian Zhuo's pursuit, all the way back to Linshui County, and later continued to help Gongsun Jian collect salt and other material trade, now after Gongsun Jian led the troops south, Li Wenhao, the head of the Li family, came directly to meet Gongsun Jian, saying that he had contacted most of the families in the southwest, and was willing to return to Gongsun Jian. Even Jeju Prefecture can be taken directly without the need for Gongsun Jian to use a sword and a soldier.

The situation of the four southwestern prefectures of the Zhou State is somewhat special, some of them border the Southern Han Kingdom, while the west is full of reckless mountains. In addition to wild beasts, there are only a few tribesmen and fugitives who really can't survive. Therefore, although this area of the mountain, which is unknown, borders the states of Wu, Zhou, and Southern Han, no one is interested in making it their own territory.

Such a geographical location makes the four southwestern provinces not valued in the Zhou State. However, the land is rich in products, and the land is fertile, but the folk customs are also exceptionally strong. The control of the imperial court in the local area was not as strong as that of the local families. Therefore, it can only be suppressed and tender. This also caused most people in the four provinces to not have much sense of belonging to the Zhou court.

Just like the Li family, it can be said that they have one hand to cover the sky in Jeju Mansion, and the Li family has a daughter who marries into the palace, but it does not change the essence of their only seeking benefits for their own family. The main reason for this is that they have not received much political status. This is also the reason why the Li family is willing to make great efforts to support Gongsun Jian after seeing Gongsun Jian. Once this investment is successful, the status of the Li family will immediately change, and it will no longer be a rich landlord in the remote area of the southwest, but a wealthy family from Conglong.