Xue Ju had long been prepared for Yang Chong's attack, and after Zhong Juqiu announced his independence in Di Dao, Xue Ju took the opportunity to conquer Tianshui County and moved the capital to Tianshui, leaving Zhong Lishu and his youngest son Xue Renyue to guard Jincheng, and his wife and uncle Koji to guard Xiping. The private soldiers of the Minshan Qiang, the horse thieves and the Jincheng clan became the main force guarding the two counties, and together there were 20,000 people who controlled the strings.

Xie Yingdeng led Ma Gongyou, Luo Shixin, Wei Wentong, and Gao Bei as the forwards, and encountered Zhong Lishu at Qilihe. The Hexi Army is mainly equipped with horse lances, spears, and strong crossbows, with Wei Wentong's chain armor horse in the middle, and the two wings of Ma Gongyou and Luo Shixin are covered by light horses; The Qiang soldiers were long in rushing and killing, short in cooperation, and were defeated after several battles, and were beheaded 3,000, captured nearly 5,000 people, 4,000 horses, and countless ordnance.

After Yang Chong, Ling Jing, Shan Xiongxin, Li Yun, Tianjian, and Peng Liao led the rear army of 5,000 people to arrive, they ordered more than 1,000 Han people and Jincheng County people to recruit troops, as long as they were willing to join, they were welcome, and all the more than 700 people who did not want to join were released, and 3,000 Qiang people were taken back to Wuwei as prisoners of war to do hard labor. After Li Yun surrendered to Yang Chong, he served as an eagle attack general under Shan Xiongxin, and dissuaded: "Releasing prisoners is equivalent to funding the enemy, it is better to send them all back to Wuwei." ”

Yang Chong said decisively: "Li Yun, this is a civil war, we must encourage the opponent's army to surrender, if we do not treat the prisoners well, then the opponent can only resist desperately, anyway, surrender is death, it is better to die in battle." Treating our captives well can make more people see the benefits of surrendering to us, and holding on to them for a long time can greatly reduce our pressure. ”

Yang Chong's thinking came from an army that treated prisoners well in later generations, if it weren't for the fact that the war costs needed to be made up and Zhong Lishu had not been captured, Yang Chong even wanted to let go of these 3,000 Qiang people. Ling Jing smiled and said: "General Li, you are not used to it, just wait for a long time, don't forget, in our concept, the Qiang people are also our compatriots, not to mention the people of Jincheng County." ”

Li Yun suddenly woke up to the fact that Yang Chongzhi was in the world, but he was too limited to the present; Li Yun hurriedly confessed to Yang Chong, and Yang Chong smiled: "It's okay, it's good after a long time." ”

Zhong Lishu lost 8,000 people in the first battle, and Xue Renyue hid in Jincheng County and did not leave the station, so Yang Chong asked Shan Xiongxin and Tianjian to start digging tunnels and preparing to blow up the city wall; According to Tianjian's estimates, the city wall of Jincheng County is tall, twice as much as Dunhuang, and it takes five days to dig. After only two days of digging, Yujuluo sent Yu Jinyi to send a war report, and the five cities of Huangshui County had been taken, capturing more than 10,000 enemies, 2,000 war horses, 15,000 cattle and sheep, and a large number of food and equipment. Yu Jinyi gave a detailed report on the battle.

Xiping County governs Huangshui and Hualong counties, and the county governance is in Ledu City in Nanliang and Huanghe City in Qianliang respectively; In fact, in addition to the two county seats, Xiping County also has Linqiang, Poqiang, Anyi, Po, Xiping five big cities in the Han and Wei dynasties, except for the collapsed city belongs to Hualong County, the other four cities all belong to Huangshui. Last time, Xie Yingdeng's attack only involved Ledu City and Huanghe City, and the other five cities were not involved in the west and south.

The Koji family, who married Xue Ju, has more than 1,000 elite private soldiers and 800 strong crossbows; The head of the family, Lu Zhu, contacted Minshan Qiang Zhong Lishu and transferred 3,000 Qiang reinforcements, forming a total of 6,000 Western Qin coalition troops; The preparation was to carry out guerrilla warfare in the vast area of Huangshui once it was not possible, and to send grain, grass, equipment and other materials to Poqiang and Xiping as soon as possible.

When Koji learned that Yujura only had 2,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry, he couldn't help but fight a confrontation with Yujura in Huangshui. The Qiang people are mostly cattle and sheep, and the Koji Zhu set up a fire ox array, which was broken by the spear array and javelin in the Yujuluo infantry army, and when almost half of the thousands of cattle died, the cattle turned around in a hurry, but trampled on hundreds of Qiang troops. As for the strong crossbow shooting, the giant crossbow of the Hexi army was a hundred steps ahead, and the power of the bed crossbow was ten times that of the strong crossbow of the Koji family, and in a field battle, the Western Qin army lost nearly 2,000 people and fled into Huangshui County.

Yujuluo did not attack the city, Koji Zhu delayed for a day, suddenly heard hundreds of Qiang soldiers outside the city shouting, sent someone to inquire only to know that Shi Daqian led 5,000 horsemen from the direction of Qinghai to kill, has broken through the three cities of Poqiang, Xiping, and Anyi, a large number of materials and cattle and sheep fell into the hands of the Hexi army, and the Qiang tribes in the west were quickly treated as rebels, and more than 4,000 Qiang people became prisoners. He understood that he had lost the possibility of guerrilla warfare in Huangshui, and immediately decided to retreat to Hualong County.

In the middle of the night, Koji led 3,000 cavalry quietly out of the south gate, and then scattered horses and galloped, not more than twenty miles, suddenly the surrounding flames rushed to the sky, the sound of killing, in the rain of arrows, I don't know how many ambushes. Koji didn't care about fighting back, so he ordered to break through the siege with all his might, and after rushing out of a hundred miles, he packed up the remnants of the army, about fifteen or six hundred people, and had no choice but to retreat to Hualong County; The Han and Qiang soldiers who remained in Huangshui County surrendered the next day.

Yang Chong was very happy after hearing this, and asked Ling Jing to write a letter to Yujuluo, except for the population of weapons, food, war horses, and all livestock, cloth, gold and silver that were confiscated in the army, the treasury, and the treasury, and took out thirty percent to reward the soldiers, and at the same time warned Yujuluo and Shi Daqian that those who robbed the people must be killed.

This is a change after Yang Chong and Fang Xuanling and others discussed, the battle for the world, morality is a very weak thing, interests are the concern of the top and bottom, follow Yang Chong from birth to death, most people are still for glory and wealth. Yang Chong drew a bar, and the internal war did not allow the destruction of cities, extermination, killing and surrendering, and disturbing the people, but following the Sui system, rewarding the army with 30% of the results, and military materials were not among them.

Yu Jinyi hurriedly thanked him, the reason why Yu Juluo sent him was because this was the first reward, and Yang Chong couldn't feel that the generals were seeking personal gain; Yu Jinyi hurried back to Xiping County, Xie Yingdeng and Shan Xiongxin were overjoyed when they heard this, and the treasury of Jincheng County was much richer than that of Xiping County, and they all urged Tianjian to step up preparations. Tianjian could only muttered to Yang Chong in private, this kind of reward is really a double-sided blade, for explosives, Tianjian still followed the step-by-step process, took place on the fifth day, and launched an attack.

The sooner Xue Ren was prepared in the city, as soon as he heard the explosions on the three city walls, he fled from the east gate left by Yang Chong as soon as possible, and let his generals decide for themselves whether to fight or surrender; Zhong Lishu was still leading the troops to fight, most of the soldiers in Jincheng County laid down their weapons, the street fighting only lasted more than two hours, the Qiang people were killed more than 2,000 people, Zhong Lishu was killed, more than 7,000 Han and Qiang soldiers surrendered, and all the Minshan Qiang tribes were taken prisoner.

In Jincheng County, the people of the Xue family have almost moved, and almost all the people with heads and faces have gone to Tianshui, but more than 2,000 slaves and maids of the Koji family are still in Jincheng, and they were all captured after the city was broken.

(End of chapter)