Early in the morning, a mist hung over the outside of the camp.

In the mist, a large group of soldiers were digging a big pit with hoes and shovels, these people were all Yunzhong generals under Zhu Xiuzhi's command, and they were all captured with Zhu Xiuzhi and surrendered to the Northern Wei Dynasty.

No one spoke, the diggers dug silently, and the pickers silently carried the baskets of dirt to the side of the pit and piled them up.

This big pit was prepared by them for their former comrades, more than 1,000 comrades participated in the rebellion last night, the emperor ordered to kill these people, the entire Eastern Expedition army tens of thousands of horses, the emperor did not call other people to dig the pit, did not call those people to dig the pit, but let them, the former comrades, dig the pit, no matter how stupid people are, they know what is going on.

No one knows why the military Sima Xu Zhuo and the more than 1,000 comrades rebelled, no one knew what was going on, even if those former comrades really wanted to rebel, the emperor asked them to dig a pit and stabbed them in the chest!

Zhu Xiuzhi stood aside and watched the soldiers dig the pit, they dug very slowly, but no matter how slow they dug they were, there was a time when they finished digging, he gritted his teeth and put on a straight face, but he couldn't stop the tears from flowing down.

"General, General Zhao and General Hua are here!" Deputy General Xing Huaiming reminded him on the side.

When Zhu Xiuzhi heard this, he hurriedly turned his head and raised his arm to wipe away his tears, then turned around to meet Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan, showed a smile on his face and hugged his fists and said: "Brother Zhao, General Hua, let you see the jokes, it was Zhu who was not strict, so that the more than 1,000 brothers ended up like this!" ”

Hua Mulan looked at him and sneered slightly: "In this case, why did General Zhu ruthlessly betray his brother and the more than 1,000 soldiers under his command?" Not afraid to chill other soldiers? ”

Zhu Xiuzhi's positive color: "Although Xu Zhuo and more than 1,000 soldiers under his command are Zhu's brothers, they conspired to launch a rebellion for betrayal and disloyalty!" As the old saying goes, 'loyalty and righteousness cannot be both', if I am righteous to my brothers and soldiers, it is disloyal to Your Majesty and Great Wei, they have launched a rebellion without telling me, they do not treat me as a brother, they are not worthy of being my brother, I am righteous and destroy my relatives! General Hua, what would you do if it were you? ”

This question made Mulan unable to answer, and she asked herself, if she was Zhu Xiuzhi, what would she do? She ······ I don't know!

Zhao Junsheng saw that Mulan was stabilized, and the atmosphere seemed awkward and cold, so he took over the topic and said: "Look at Brother Zhu's eyes are red, it seems that he ······" The latter words were not spoken, but everyone present knew what they were.

Zhu Xiuzhi sighed: "People are not plants and trees, how can they be ruthless? After all, Zhu has been a brother with them for so many years, and now he wants to send them on the road in person, it is inevitable that he will be sad and sad! It's just ······ Zhu Mou inevitably felt cold in his heart, thinking that I, Zhu Gongzu, have never had two hearts since I joined the Great Wei and served His Majesty, and I have never slackened off in military affairs! When Zhu found out that his brothers were trying to rebel, he was hesitant to report to the emperor, but in the end, I still reported and exposed their crimes without hesitation, but the emperor asked Zhu and his soldiers to dig a pit and send them on the road, which was a stab in the heart of my Zhu and thousands of brothers! ”

Zhao Junsheng carefully observed Zhu Xiuzhi, trying to see something from his face, but he found nothing, so he had to comfort: "Brother Zhu, I think you have misinterpreted the emperor's meaning, the emperor doesn't distrust you!" ”

"Oh? That······ What did the Emperor mean by doing this? I, Zhu, am stupid, and I ask Brother Zhao to solve my doubts! Zhu Xiuzhi hurriedly clenched his fists and said.

Zhao Junsheng looked at Hua Mulan, he and Hua Mulan came from the emperor just now, and they came to comfort Zhu Xiuzhi on behalf of the emperor, and said with a smile: "The emperor is just going to let you completely break off with the past and help you make up your mind!" ”

Zhu Xiuzhi was stunned for a moment, as if he understood the emperor's good intentions, turned around and bowed down in the direction of the palace and shouted: "Your Majesty Shengming!" ”

The pit was finally dug to a depth of one and a half feet, and all the soldiers who had dug the pit climbed up and retreated around the pit with shovels and hoes.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way!" With several shouts in succession, the soldiers in the clouds holding shovels on the left moved out of the way.

Two columns of cavalry ran over to separate the shovel-wielding generals from the passage, forbidding anyone to approach the passage.

Genga personally led the team, and a large number of cavalry escorted more than 1,000 soldiers who participated in the rebellion through the passage to the side of the big pit.

"Go down! I'll tell you to jump, jump! A cavalryman with a spear shouted at the rebel generals at the front of the passage.

The cavalrymen in charge of the escort began to use weapons and bows to drive away the rebels.

Faced with the threat of broadswords, spears, bows and arrows, the generals involved in the rebellion had to jump into the pit one by one, like dumplings.

These people shouted in the pit, and some tried to climb up from other positions, but the cavalry brought by Genga quickly took over the area around the pit and stabbed all those who tried to climb up, whether he lived or died, as soon as he climbed up, he used his sword and opened his bow.

More than 1,000 rebels were all driven into a large pit, which was nearly five meters deep, how could these people climb up so easily?

Angry scolding and crying mingled.

"Bow and arrow ready—" Genga raised his hand and shouted, and the cavalry around the pit raised their bows and arrows to aim at the rebels in the pit.

"Release the arrows-" With Yuan He's roar, countless arrows kept shooting into the big pit, and the soldiers in the pit were hit by arrows one by one or fell directly or screamed.

Zhu Xiuzhi closed his eyes and turned his head, not daring to look at this scene, no one noticed that he was trembling slightly.

Pit killing, not burying alive! Would the living be willing to stand still and be buried? Unless he is tied up. For example, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty and the Biography of Yuan Shao recorded that Cao Cao narrowly won the battle of Guandu and "exhausted the pit" of a Yuan army that was forced to surrender, which means that all the surrendered troops were killed and the corpses were gathered to dig a big pit for burial.

Some people think that pit killing is just to gather the corpses and not bury them, forming a deterrent effect, which is obviously incorrect, and the corpses are concentrated and piled up to call Jingguan to boast of martial arts. Why is it called pit killing, there must be a pit, what is it called pit killing if you don't dig a pit?

After a few waves of arrows, everyone in the pit fell, and many people were even shot like hedgehogs.

Zhao Junsheng is extremely opposed and shameless to this kind of concentrated massacre, what do these ordinary soldiers know? They are simply doing what they are told or being bewitched, and the real culprit is the leader!

But this is the emperor's will, the king is angry, and millions of corpses are ambushed! However, the meaning of this sentence is not that the emperor directly ordered a mass murder, but that the anger of the king will cause many deaths, whether directly or indirectly, in short, many people will suffer.

An emperor actually ordered a large-scale massacre, which made Zhao Junsheng's opinion of Tuoba Jian change, in any case, this kind of thing should not happen to an emperor, the emperor's prestige in the world does not rely on the deterrent power of slaughter, the massacre will only expose the cruelty in this person's heart.

"Fill the earth!" Zhu Xiuzhi endured grief and yelled.

The soldiers took shovels through the gaps between the cavalry and began to fill in the earth, and a puff of dirt was swept into the pit.

At this time, the eunuchs around the emperor came to convey the will and announced that the generals of the various armies would go to the palace to discuss matters.

Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan knew that the emperor was going to order the siege of the city, and as for where the soldiers and horses would attack the city, it depended on how the emperor planned it.

Tuoba Jian sat on the throne and looked at the military generals of Wenchen and said: "I sent someone to issue an ultimatum to Feng Hong to lead the whole city to surrender, three days have passed, Feng Hong has not sent anyone to negotiate the surrender, which shows that he has decided to defend Dragon City, I can't wait any longer!" ”

"The siege equipment has been built, and I will begin the siege today. Where is Daqian? ”

The general of Zhengbei came to Daqian and stood up and hugged his fists and said: "The minister is here!" ”

"Order you to lead the Wangshi Army, the Zongzi Army, and the Yulin Army to attack the city!"

"Command!"

Cui Hao, Kou Qianzhi and the others were quite surprised by the emperor's order, didn't they say last night that Zhu Xiuzhi's Yunzhong Army would be in charge of attacking the city? Why did you change your mind?

Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan and other generals also felt very strange, it stands to reason that it is most appropriate to use infantry to attack the city, and Zhu Xiuzhi's men and horses are almost all infantry, and Zhu Xiuzhi's men and horses are not used but several other armies, what does the emperor think?

After the military discussion was over, Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan walked out of the palace, and the two of them walked towards the camp in the direction of the southern city wall.

"Brother Junsheng, why didn't the emperor let Zhu Xiuzhi's men and horses attack the city, but let the Wangshi army, Zongzi army and Yulin army attack the city?" Mulan asked.

Zhao Junsheng thought for a while and said: "I'm just guessing, and I don't know if it's accurate, I guess the emperor probably has two considerations, first, he just killed Xu Zhuo and more than a thousand cloud Chinese troops, and he must appease Zhu Xiuzhi, so that they can attack the city a little unreasonable; Second, the emperor may have had concerns that Zhu Xiuzhi's men would surrender to the enemy during the siege, and keeping them by his side could prevent this from happening; As for whether the emperor thinks so, we will know in a few days! ”

Mulan asked, "What do you say?" ”

Zhao Junsheng explained: "If until the end of the war, the emperor did not let Zhu Xiuzhi's Yunzhong army participate in the siege, this means that my guess is right, if the siege does not go well in a few days, the emperor let Zhu Xiuzhi's men and horses go to the siege, it means that my guess is wrong!" ”

On the first day of the siege, Lai Daqian, who was in his forties, commanded the Wangshi Army, the Zongzi Army and the Yulin Army to take turns to attack the city, but the effect was not great, and the loss of troops was very large, and more than 1,000 people were killed and wounded on the first day.

The Yan army defended without leaking, only suffering more than 300 casualties, and also destroyed and burned many siege equipment of the Wei army.

On the second day of the siege, the siege continued, the Wei army was not afraid of death, and launched an attack on Longcheng like a tide under the command of Lai Daqian, and the newly made ladders were used in large quantities, but the Yan army used the height and solidity of the city walls and the defense equipment to repel the Wei army's attacks again and again.