"Foreign ministers Ma Jie and Pei Yue, meet Your Majesty of the Jin Kingdom."

"Ah, Zhongying, it's been ten years since I said goodbye last time. I haven't seen him for ten years, and Zhong Ying is more and more heroic. ”

"Your Majesty is concerned and grateful. Thinking back to more than ten years ago, His Majesty was in his prime, but now, he is engaged in state affairs, which is much lighter. When the foreign minister saw it, he was very sad. ”

"Hehehe, people are in their place, and they will suffer from it. Come on, come on, please take a seat. ”

The so-called salute before the soldiers, in this era, are approaching the enemy's capital. There is absolutely no reason to start fighting without saying a word. Therefore, even if you know that the other party will not agree, you still have to go through the process of persuasion.

Since Li Mi had been compiling the new "Great Han Laws" with Roman and Persian scholars since his return from Taixi, Jian Wushuang sat in Chang'an to preside over government affairs, and his feet did not touch the ground. So this time, the envoy fell on Ma Jie.

Of course, the Ma family has always spoken with a knife, and if you really want to play tricks, you will bring humiliation on yourself. Therefore, Ma Jie, the envoy, is just a name, and the real envoy is Pei Yue.

After the two sides sat down, Sima Yan raised his hand slightly: "This Pei ......"

"Your Majesty, Foreign Minister Pei Yue, the word is ordered. Now the Great Sima Mansion of the Han Dynasty holds the post of recording and joining the army. ”

"Ah, Ling Xu is also surnamed Pei, I don't know who this Shangshu Ling next to me is?"

"The first father of the foreign minister was secretive, and the book made the father secret. The two ancestors were Kunzhong. In the past, my father went to Shu to play, but Zhang Lu blocked the road and failed to return. Therefore, Wen Xi Pei's also left one in Yizhou. ”

After saying this, Pei Yue turned around slightly, bowed to Pei Xiu and said, "Brother has seen brother." ”

For this kind of naked (anti-harmony) nudity, Pei Xiu could only get up with a wry smile and return the salute.

"The gossip is over, Zhong Ying, Ling Xu, the two of you entered the city today, do you have anything to teach me?"

"How dare you speak to your majesty?" Of course, it was Pei Yue who answered: "The foreign ministers and others are entrusted by my family's great Sima to enter the city today to meet Your Majesty." In fact, I will transfer a sentence to Your Majesty. ”

"Oh? What does Kwan Zifeng want to say to me? Let me surrender? Hahahaha, I heard it, in the past, Emperor Wen attacked Shu on five roads, and when Deng Shizai approached Chengdu, the emperor of your country even wrote a letter of surrender. I don't think so! ”

"Heh~" Pei Yue chuckled and bowed again: "My family's big Sima said that if Your Majesty opens the city at this time, so that my Zhuxia Erlang will no longer die in the civil war, then my Han can follow the example of Cao Pi in the past and treat Your Majesty as a duke, and the Jin Dynasty Temple can be protected." If the city is about to be broken before taking the initiative to open the city, then His Majesty can be a marquis in the future, if he resists to the end and destroys the temple, he can do it! ”

"Puff is so daring!" Hearing Pei Yue's words, Sima Yan jumped up all of a sudden, but the aristocratic education he received since he was a child made him have a good cultivation: Emperor Zhentang, what do you care about with a little person who spreads words?

"Go back and tell Guan Zifeng that Dajin is blessed by the sky and stands at the right time. Although it has suffered a temporary setback, it will certainly return to its former glory. But your Han kingdom has been dead for decades. Now it's just a dead corpse, still writhing to the world. Kaesong surrendered? I would never abandon my ancestral inheritance so lightly! ”

"The foreign minister knows, and the foreign minister retires."

"Hmph, don't send it!"

Although His Majesty the Emperor was already on the verge of going berserk at the moment, Pei Yue, who had followed Guan Yi for too long and had already become bad, actually winked at Pei Xiu before leaving.

Everyone knows that this is Pei Yue's intention, but Sima Yan must have an idea in his heart, right?

……

"So, then Sima Anshi really refuses to surrender?"

"Exactly. Da Sima, all the superiors, after the lower officials entered Luoyang, they were immediately received. But immediately after the meeting, he was expelled from the city. Therefore, there is not much to see in the city. However, Xia Guan can still feel that the entire Luoyang City is now in a slaughter. There were also quite a few soldiers coming and going. It should be said that the Jin Kingdom is ready for the defense of the cage city. ”

"Hmm. According to the calculations of Fang Bo and others some time ago, the soldiers of the Jin State guarding Luoyang at this time should be no less than the current our army, and if the young and strong are mobilized to go to the city to assist in the defense, it will be far beyond our army...... It is not known how much food they have, but this is the decisive factor in determining the enemy's faith. But let's just do our own thing. Ladies and gentlemen, the order is now forthcoming. ”

"I'll wait for the order of the Great Sima."

"Ciqian and Ziyang, give you 5,000 cavalry each, spread out on all sides of Luoyang. From today onwards, this official wants the monarchs and ministers of the Jin State in Luoyang to become deaf and blind. ”

"Whoa! The last general will be ordered. Please rest assured, from today onwards, there will not be a grain of grain outside the city of Luoyang! ”

"Well, Uncle Fang, I'll leave the matter of camping to you. It was built on the west side of Luoyang, ten miles away from the other party's outer wall. It's so easy to keep track of the siege. However, there are now generals such as Du Yuankai and Ma Xiaoxing in the city, and they still have to beware of the other party's raid on the city. So, ditches or something, you must dig them well. ”

"Oh, please rest assured."

"Good, Lingxu, how is the transfer of captives from the north?"

"Back to Da Sima, my Han Dynasty suffered about 120,000 surrenders before and after this expedition. Among them, 30,000 were surrendered on the Youzhou battlefield, because these 30,000 were local farmers in Youzhou and Pingzhou, and the enlistment time was very short, and the time from this operation was too long. Therefore, in order to appease the people in the quiet and peaceful places, the general has put it back to his hometown. The rest, 70,000 on the Jizhou battlefield, and more than 20,000 in Bingzhou, are being escorted by our cavalry, coming south one after another. It is expected that it should all be in place by mid-March. ”

"Very well, you have to pay attention, and let your officials preach to these more than 90,000 captives. Let's just say that this time they were sent to Luoyang, not to let them fight, but to let them dig trenches. As long as Luoyang is taken, they can all go home separately. We will also give out a certain amount of money and food to pay for the journey. ”

"Xia Guan understands, and he will arrange it immediately."

For a giant city like Luoyang, when the enemy's will to defend is still relatively firm, and the soldiers are relatively sufficient. Ant-attached siege is suicidal.

And in the face of the opponent's strong city walls, dense fortresses and slinging mechanisms to build a defensive system, a simple trebuchet siege is useless - the example of Zhang Zun's attack on Tongguan is ready-made.

So, in the face of such a strong city and a huge city, if you want to attack the city, how to deal with it?

The easiest way: a long siege. With so many soldiers defending the city, and a large number of princes, nobles, and ordinary people in the city, the consumption of this food was staggering. And given the sanitary conditions of ancient cities, the population density was too high, and the likelihood of plague outbreaks would skyrocket. Therefore, it is most feasible to besiege each other for a long time and wait for the other party to collapse.

But Guan Yi was unwilling, because there were too many things waiting for him to do later. Not to mention anything else, now that Luoyang is trapped, the original eight states of the Jin Kingdom have fallen into a state of weakness and weakness of the local government, and the families around the country have ushered in a carnival-like feast. Every time Guan Yi stayed under Luoyang City for one more day, it was impossible to say that thousands of yeoman farmers disappeared in the eight prefectures of Kanto.

Although with the arrival of Tongguan, Ji Han's grain route was finally completely unblocked, and the former soldiers and civilians could be reduced from 100,000 to 50,000, but in the end it was still a state of continuous war. The damage to the country remains significant.

Moreover, Da Sima has been out of Chang'an for almost two years, and his youngest son and daughter have not seen their father for more than a year since they were born. The longing for this pair of home is often difficult to suppress.

As a superior, he is like this, and the ordinary generals and soldiers below are more or less tired.

Therefore, it is not advisable to besiege the enemy and wait for him to collapse on his own.

So, how can such a fortress be taken as quickly as possible?