The Emperor of Dongguo appeared and set a tone, which made the hearts of the ministers in the court settle down a lot.

Although His Majesty the Emperor's tone was gentle, at least, it was the same as the thoughts of the ministers!

Dong Guo is different from Cang State, this is a country that has existed for 400 years, the change of throne has been very stable, and it has always been the surname Ji in power, and at the same time, it has caused an extremely inevitable situation, that is, the foundation of the family is extremely deep, and the heritage is long, forming a very powerful political force.

They are not only the guardians of the imperial family, but also the overseers of the imperial family, and on many issues, even if the emperor does things, they have to seek a balance.

For example, this time, if they can exchange a prince of the royal family for a respite from the cave country, in their opinion, this is very cost-effective.

Ji Haokong wanted to argue, but when he met the eyes of the cave emperor, he knew in his heart that his father was also afraid.

The reason why he is still kind and pleasant and slowly talking to him here is just because he wants to show a wise and calm appearance in front of the world, and at the same time, he is somewhat afraid of the strength that he, the crown prince, has cultivated in the court during this time.

Especially the guards in the palace, in the past few months, almost all of them have been replaced by people from the prince's family.

Ji Haokong listened carefully, and there was a slight noise outside.

He understood that there were indeed men arranged by his father outside, and if he refused, those good men would immediately rush in and subdue him.

"Prince, please put the country first!"

"I implore the prince to send an envoy!"

"Please send an envoy to the crown prince—"

The ministers all worshipped, and their eyes were cold and pressing.

……

On July 20, the Dongguo delegation arrived at Leyuan City.

Ji Haokong, the prince of the cave country, sat in the prisoner car, tied up with ropes, and escorted to the city gate, unable to kneel for a long time.

The rest of the envoys brought cartloads of gifts and asked for an audience.

Begging and!

Yang Mu glanced at the gift list, good guy, the price of this peace negotiation is really rich, and it is worth two or three years of tax income in the cave country.

If nothing else, just silver, it's 80 million taels.

The rest of the silk and satin, pig iron war horses, are countless.

If it was two months ago, Yang Mu would have been so happy when he saw this fortune, but now, he was not at all interested.

With Cangguo's current strength, if you want these things, wouldn't it be good to grab them?

Yang Mu instructed the people below to detain this group of envoys as usual, and at the same time sent a letter to the two major armies in front of them, asking them to speed up the siege.

Of course, he didn't think that the advance speed of the two armies was slow, but because it was close to the imperial capital of the Dong Kingdom, and there were some loyal and brave people in the Dong Kingdom who rushed over to King Qin.

King Qin's army was not strong, with soldiers from all over the country being the majority, and the number was scattered, with a total of less than 100,000, but to a certain extent, it hindered the speed of the advance of the two armies.

By July 25, there were only about 20 of the more than 300 cities in the cave country, and the battle circle was shrinking, and the baggage used to attack the city was transported to the front line.

In the cave city, plus the army defending the imperial city, there are nearly 200,000 troops in total.

After clearing the surrounding city, the Blue Dragon Legion was the first to reach the outside of the cave city.

At the same time, the Qilin Legion sent 20,000 cavalry to cruise outside the city, and in the event of a war, they could support at any time.

Besiege but not attack!

In this way, the 200,000 troops of the Dong Kingdom were surrounded in the imperial city, and the battle to defend the city that the monarchs and ministers of the Dong Kingdom had prepared nervously did not break out, and they spent day after day in panic.

Everyone understands a truth in their hearts, if it continues like this, sooner or later, the imperial city will be breached.

An army of 200,000, plus hundreds of thousands of people, was a huge amount of food consumption every day, and not only that, but there was another dilemma in the city, that is, firewood.

Because, even if the reserve granary was opened, it was barely enough for the soldiers to eat, but because the city was besieged, there was no firewood to replenish, and even if there was food, there was no firewood for cooking.

It's true that a good woman is difficult to cook without rice, but it is also difficult for a good woman to cook without fire!

As a result, there was a wave of demolition of houses in the city, and all the dilapidated houses were demolished, and even the old cloth and silk were torn off to make fires.

So, after a few days of siege of the city, every time it was time to eat, you could see the smoke billowing out.

At first, the soldiers of the Blue Dragon Legion outside the city thought that the city was on fire, but later learned that it was the smoke from the burning of cloth and fur.

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the twentieth day after the siege.

In the middle of the night, baskets were laid down on the west city wall, and some nobles and officials in the city waved flags and surrendered.

In the next few days, there were representatives of the big families who ran from the edge of the city wall to the outside of the city to surrender.

As the commander of the first army, Wei Zhongquan knew that the main purpose of this battle was to conquer the imperial city of the cave country and completely destroy the country, and the rest of the cadres were not the focus.

So, he accepted this group of nobles, and promised that after the war, they would not have to worry about their lives.

It is precisely because of this that the nobles who knew that the cave city could not be defended knew a lot of news about the court of the cave country.

Among them, there is the real situation in the city at present.

In general, there is no help.

Even the defenders of the city understood that the city would not be able to hold it.

In the court, it was divided into two factions.

On the one hand, it is seeking conditional surrender.

On the one hand, it is planned to seize the palace and then surrender.

The former is mainly members of the royal family, and it is a large family that is loyal to the royal family.

The latter type is mainly the officers and soldiers in the army.

After all, in addition to the 50,000 Gyeonggi Guards, the rest of the 200,000 troops were Qinwang troops from all over the country, and the composition was very complicated.

In this way, the purpose of many soldiers to join the army was originally to eat together, and they basically had little loyalty to the royal family and court of the cave country.

It's even more impossible to throw your head and spill blood!

As the situation deteriorated, some soldiers also had the intention of taking the initiative to surrender.

I have long heard that the Cang army has a tradition of not killing prisoners, if everyone catches the emperor and nobles, and dedicates it to the Cang army together with the city, is it not even necessary to be a prisoner, but a meritorious service?

Under such a psychological effect, the nobles, who were inclined to the second idea, fled from the city overnight and surrendered to the Cang army.

After listening to this, Wei Zhongquan nodded and asked, "How are the people in the city doing now?" ”

"It's not good, it's chaotic in the city right now." There was no hesitation in the noble's answer.

"The people can't live anymore."

"After besieging the city for twenty days, there was not enough food and firewood, and many nobles began to rob the people of their things." A nobleman hesitated. ()