In the third year of Kaiyuan, February.

Feng Xiaoci united with Zhao Gui and stationed in Handan, and the entire army of Gaojun Yabu of Wu'an County was annihilated. In March, Luo Cunxiao, the king of Wei, went down to Qinghe and Wuyang counties, and Liu Ya, the first fierce general of the Xia army, was beheaded by Luo Cunxiao under the city of Guixiang on the east bank of the canal.

In May, the emperor sent generals Pei Renji and Qu Tutong to lead an army from Hanoi to attack Fan Yuan, the defender of Ji County.

Three soldiers and horses, 150,000 people surrounded Dou Jiande and Cao Bao equal to Wei County.

By June, except for Yecheng, the whole of Hebei had fallen into the hands of the Qin army.

The Qin army formed a complete encirclement of the Xia army.

Yecheng was terrified, and the wind and rain were like obscurity.

Cao Bao frowned, and came to see Dou Jiande again.

"The Qin army is so fierce, it is difficult to compete, what can I do?"

Dou Jiande is still under house arrest, in the palace of Yecheng, he is holding a Luoyang newspaper, reading with relish, in the past six months, the Xia army has lost the battle and has lost all the territory outside Yecheng, but Dou Jiande has grown whiter and even fatter.

"Bao, if this is the case, why don't you surrender?"

"Surrender? How's that? Cao Bao was unwilling and could not be attached, he mutinied Dou Jiande under house arrest, and fought against Qin, now that the mountains and rivers are exhausted, even if he surrenders, Luo Cheng is afraid that he will not give him a good end.

"I still have 100,000 elite soldiers!"

"100,000 elite soldiers? How many are willing to fight? It's better to surrender to Qin, and avoid the pain of a siege. ”

Summer has gone to autumn, and the situation in Yecheng has been critical.

Because of the long-term siege, there was a shortage of food in the city, and the people had no food to eat, and every day someone tried to escape from the city to join the Qin army outside the city.

The Qin army set up many cauldrons outside the city, and every day the cauldron cooked porridge and stewed meat, and the aroma wafted into the city, and I don't know how many hungry people were excited.

Cao Bao can't stop banning.

Although the officers and men of the army still have food to eat, they are also uneasy, feeling that their future is uncertain, and the army is pessimistic.

Dong Kangmai, Wang Xiaohu, Cao Zhan and other Xia generals came to Cao Bao to discuss.

"Before today's discussion, I will first set up a rule, at the beginning, you and a certain person swore to the sky that they would resolutely resist Qin to the end. Therefore, if anyone dares to speak out about those who surrender to Qin today, do not blame me for being ruthless. After speaking, Cao Bao untied the sword in his waist, handed it to the head of his personal guard, and told him that whoever dared to say that he would directly cut off his head.

In this way, Dong Kang couldn't help but sneer, originally they really wanted to say that they would descend to Qin, but Cao Bao blocked the road as soon as he came.

"Prime Minister, now there is a shortage of food in the city, and the food will run out, what can I do?"

"I intend to go out of the city for a decisive battle, break out of the encirclement, kill back to the river, and regroup!" Cao Bao came up with a plan that had been in the making for a long time.

Originally, he retreated to Yecheng in the hope of taking advantage of the terrain at this time to hold on, and then wait for the situation in the world to change.

It's just that who would have expected that the situation is getting worse and worse.

In the New Year, the three kingdoms of Wu, Chu and Liang in the south of the Yangtze River reached a peace with the Qin state, Luo Cheng withdrew to the Northern Expeditionary Army, returned the territory of the three kingdoms that had been captured, and then the three kingdoms also returned the territory of the Qin state that had crossed the Yangtze River to Luo Cheng.

Among them, an agreement was reached with Xiao Milling of the Liang Dynasty that the Qin State exchanged Yiling and other counties south of the Yangtze River for Nanyang Xiangyang north of the Han River.

The conclusion of this agreement between the four countries can be said to have shattered Cao Bao's last illusion.

The Three Kingdoms of Jiangnan declared themselves vassals to the Qin State, surrendered themselves to vassals, and were given the name of the first year.

Li Zitong of Huainan wanted to be a vassal of Qin and refused, but the Three Kingdoms betrayed Li Zitong, and Qin Qiong gathered troops and horses in Pengcheng to march south.

Before the army crossed the Huai River, Li Zitong's subordinates rebelled and surrendered to Qin.

A mutiny, Li Zitong fled from Jiangdu City in embarrassment, he crossed the river to join Shen Faxing, but was lured by Shen Faxing, and instead sent him across the Yangtze River to Qin Qiong, who arrived in Jiangdu.

Qin Qiong sent people to escort Li Zitong directly to Luoyang, and the old Li Zitong troops in Huainan were attached one after another, almost without a fight.

From the mouth of the Han River to the mouth of the Yangtze River, the north of the river belongs to the Qin State.

And this section of the Jing River from Hankou to Zigui, although the north bank of the river to the south bank of the Han River is still Xiao Milling, but the north of the Han River has also been returned to the Qin State.

Not to mention the Bashu place that returned to the west after Zi, it is now almost a matter of transmission.

To the south of Wuling, Lingnan East and Lingnan West are now renamed Canton Road, Guangxi Road and Guangnan Road, as well as Yunnan Road and Qianzhong Road in the southwest, all of which have changed their flags and changed their banners, nominally attached to the Great Qin and unified under the banner of Kaiyuan Zhengshuo.

Even the original Shuo Fang's Liang Shi was a hard bone, although he also wanted to resist to the end, but his generals He Sui, Suo Zhou and others led their troops to surrender the cities they guarded, and for a time, the twelve cities surrendered to Qin.

Liang Shidu could only retreat to Shuofang City for a while.

Siye led the army to besiege Shuofang, and pulled out the east city, and the Liang division retreated to the west corner of the city to resist stubbornly. However, at this time, he was embattled, and even the Jihu tribesmen who he originally relied on as his confidants were unreliable. Liu Rucheng, the commander of Jihu, saw that Liang Shi was in trouble, so he secretly sent someone to ask for an heir, and he was about to respond.

In May, Liang Shidu's subordinate generals Xin Fang'er, Li Zhengbao, Feng Duan and others wanted to surrender, and Liu Wen and Liu Lancheng also secretly sent people to contact the heirs.

At the end of May, Li Zhengbao and others sent troops to raid the palace of Liang Shidu, Liu Rucheng led his troops to open the city gate to lead the Qin army into the city, and in the chaos, Liang Shidu's cousin Liang Shiluo stabbed his brothers, and the head of Liang Shidu knelt down to welcome the Qin army.

As soon as the Liang division died, all the soldiers of the northern Liang surrendered.

In the entire Guanlong area, there is no one against the king.

Cao Bao pinned his hopes on a big change in the situation, and then made a comeback, which was obviously impossible. Seeing that the grain and grass are decreasing day by day, he can only hope for a breakthrough.

Although the north is now unified, breaking through the siege, and there is no place to escape, he is not unwilling to surrender.

Outside Yecheng.

The three-way army of 150,000 horses besieged Yecheng like an iron bucket.

Seeing that it was already autumn, Cunxiao was not in a hurry to storm the city.

"According to intelligence, there are only 100,000 Xia troops left in the city at the moment, they have been trapped for a long time, the grain and grass will be exhausted, and now the Liang division has also been destroyed, Li Zitong has been captured again, the whole world, my Qin army is invincible, all surrender, Cao Bao and others have no illusions, they are about to go out of the city to fight to the death."

"Dashuai, Cao Bao will really go out of the city for a decisive battle?"

"This information is very credible, and now there are many people in Yecheng who are looking forward to us recovering the city as soon as possible, so there is a lot of news."

So far, there is no suspense in the battle.

Cunxiao's three-way army fought all the way, recovered all parts of Hebei, and annihilated nearly 100,000 horses and horses of the Xia army, and now there is only one Yecheng and 100,000 lonely troops left, Cunxiao does not have to fight, as long as they are besieged, they can be trapped to death.

The war in the north has ended, and even in the south there will be no war for the time being, the Great Qin soldiers have enough fine food, and the grain and grass have arrived in a steady stream, even if they are surrounded for another half a year, there will be no incident.

But the Xia army is different, no matter how strong Yecheng is, it is only a lonely city, after losing all the territory on the periphery, not to mention that the grain and grass in the city will be exhausted, even the firewood for burning is gone.

"100,000 hungry troops want to break through, beware of them fighting the trapped beasts." Qu Tutong reminded.

Cunxiao was not in a hurry, "It's okay, I have already got a clever plan here, just waiting for him to break through." ”

It turned out that as early as half a month ago, Cunxiao had already judged through intelligence that the Xia army was going to break through the city, so he deliberately secretly organized many people and auxiliaries to cut off the flow of water in the upper reaches of Zhangshui and build a river embankment to store water.

Just wait for the Xia army to leave the city, and flood the Seventh Army.

Really.

Within three days, Cao Bao really opened the gate of Yecheng early in the morning and led the army to break through.

The 20,000 cavalry of the Xia army were the vanguard, followed by the infantry auxiliaries, protecting the emperor Dou Jiande and the families of the generals and colonels, etc., and the mighty protruding city came straight to the Qin army camp.

The Qin army relied on the camp and launched a fierce battle with the Xia army.

From morning to afternoon, the cavalry of the Xia army was surrounded by the Qin army, and its infantry was surrounded by the two wings of the Qin army that arrived later, and nearly 100,000 infantry and their families could not advance, and the retreat and return route was cut off again, so they had to be driven to the east.

They were driven to the banks of the Zhangshui River.

The Xia army, who was losing and retreating, found that the water of the Zhanghe River was shallow and could cross the river directly, and they were overjoyed.

And then they don't know that it's all a trap.

When countless Xia troops began to cross the river, the time finally came.

Luo Cunxiao ordered the upstream to burst the embankment and release the water, and the turbulent river rolled down, rushing down in an instant, and the originally extremely shallow riverbed suddenly rushed to the river, and the water depth quickly reached more than a zhang deep, and the water flow was turbulent.

The tens of thousands of Xia army infantry who were driven here did not expect that there would be such a disaster, and thousands were drowned for a while, the team was scattered, and the army was no longer in formation.

The 80,000 infantry and thousands of Xia soldiers were crushed, and the 20,000 cavalry were completely alone, besieged by the Qin army near Yecheng.

Cao Bao and a few other generals fled.

The vast majority of the Xia army eventually surrendered.

After the cavalry surrendered, Cunxiao sent people to start pulling nets to hunt down the infantry who were crushed by the flood.

In the face of the light cavalry of the Qin army, the infantry of the Xia army had no fighting spirit, and they all put down their weapons and raised their hands to surrender.

On the third day of the eighth month, the two brothers Cao Bao and Cao Zhan were surrounded by female soldiers led by Dou Hongxian in Qinghe County, but Dou Hongxian was unceremonious to his stepmother's brother.

She personally carried the horse lance to chase and kill Cao Bao.

The Cao Bao brothers were only a few dozen horsemen around them, and how could they be the opponents of Dou Hongxian and her thousand female soldiers, and in the end, the brothers were shot by random arrows, and Dou Hongxian personally cut off the heads of the two.

And Dong Kangmai and Gao Ya, Xia Jun, did not escape in the end.

The whole of Hebei has set up a big net, searching everywhere for arrests, and after these Xia generals fled the battlefield, they were all arrested one after another.

The Xia Emperor Dou Jiande surrendered outside Yecheng, and in the face of the Qin army's light cavalry, he did not resist at all, calmly told them his identity, and surrendered.

The fifth day of the eighth month.

The good news of Cunxiao's report was sent to Luoyang.

Yecheng victory, capture Dou Jiande, kill Cao Bao, Dong Kangmai, etc., Hebei Pingding!

Fang Xuanling, the prime minister on duty, received this good news, and went to the palace impatiently, but the emperor didn't wake up yet, but he was woken up by the chamberlain.

When the emperor came to Yanying Hall to see Fang Xuanling, the prime minister excitedly offered good news.

"Your Majesty, the north is unified!"

Luo Cheng took the good news and quickly swept it.

Then the emperor leaned back and half reclined in his chair.

Long.

The Emperor finally let out a long sigh.

"Although I have expected this day for a long time, I am still a little excited when this day really comes."

"Congratulations, Your Majesty, to unify the North!"