The reason why Fang Yuan did not immediately investigate the relevant responsibilities was because the war ahead could not shake the morale of the army at this critical time.

After five days, the direction of Haizhou and Xuzhou finally came with good news, Sun Chuanting ordered Niu Chenghu to break off, and Gao Jie withdrew from Huai'an Mansion with the new Ming army and withdrew to Shandong.

And Bai Guangen of Xuzhou also got Sun Chuanting's military order, and also led the army to retreat and return to Shandong.

Sun Chuanting's department only came to Huai'an Mansion to make a big profit when Fang Yuan was on the western expedition. After waiting for Fang Yuan to come back for help, he took the initiative to give up rescuing Fengyang and chose to retreat, and did not clash head-on with the Xuanjia Army in Huai'an and Xuzhou.

Previously, Fang Yuan imitated Li Shimin's most classic siege of the city to fight a reinforcement war, besieged Wang Shichong in Luoyang, and fought Dou Jiande's reinforcements to cross the river. As a result, the two biggest obstacles to the unification of the world were defeated in one fell swoop, and after this battle, Li Tang's domination of the world was ironclad.

Unexpectedly, Sun Chuanting's old and spicy style is far better than that of Dou Jiande back then, and the tactics he adopted were to fight if he could, withdraw if he couldn't, never love war, and preserve his vitality.

This trick made Fang Yuan's carefully planned plan to besiege the city and send reinforcements completely failed, not only failed to seize the opportunity to defeat Sun Chuanting's main force, but also ordered Sun Chuanting to loot two or three million silver in Huai'an Mansion, beating Huai'an Mansion to pieces.

Although Huai'an Mansion is not Fang Yuan's territory, it is also the place where Fang Yuan led his army to garrison, losing a few cities out of thin air, and a large amount of silver to fund the enemy, Fang Yuan's battle is a small loss. When I thought of how to explain to Zhu Yihai when I returned to Jiangnan, I felt very embarrassed.

As soon as Sun Chuanting's reinforcements withdrew, Fengyang, which had been besieged for half a year, became an isolated city, and there was no possibility of resurrection.

Ma Shiying and Huang Degong had no reinforcements outside, and a lonely city had lasted for half a year and still did not fall, and this loyalty alone also made Fang Yuan very moved.

The soldiers and horses of the Xuanjia Army began to assemble in Fengyang Mansion.

Including Jing Jie's 40,000 troops in Xuzhou, Chigutai's 40,000 Xuanjia iron cavalry, Gan Hui's 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers and horses to rescue Suqian, and Zhang Ying's 10,000 elites, and even Shi Lang's 5,000 sailors, also cut off all the waterways in Fengyang Mansion.

For a time, there were as many as 140,000 Xuanjia troops outside Fengyang City.

Fang Yuan decided to give the two people in the city one last chance, and sent a hungry person out of the city to bring a message to Ma Shiying and Huang Degong, informing them that Sun Chuanting's reinforcements had been withdrawn, and Fengyang was already a lonely city, so that the two surrendered as soon as possible.

Ma Shiying and Huang Degong received the letter brought by Fang Yuan, and then stood on the wall to see that the Xuanjia Army suddenly set up a terrifying siege posture, and set up a ten-story camp outside Fengyang City, surrounding Fengyang.

The two of them knew at a glance that the content of the letter was true, and Sun Chuanting's reinforcements had indeed retreated, otherwise Fang Yuan would not have dared to gather the Xuanjia army in Fengyang.

Fengyang's only chance of life has been completely cut off, and the choice left for the two is to commit suicide or surrender.

Ma Shiying and Huang Degong didn't hesitate too much, and immediately rejected Fang Yuan's last surrender, determined to fight to the death of Fengyang and serve his allegiance to the death.

Fang Yuan received a reply from the two, and a kind of gloom was born in his heart, and he secretly sighed that the two were indeed loyal ministers and good generals of the Ming Dynasty. But now, we must also use the most efficient method to eradicate the two and seize Fengyang.

He personally wrote a letter of persuasion, and this time the letter of surrender was not written to Ma Shiying and Huang Degong, but to the soldiers and civilians in the city. As long as the city gate is opened and surrendered, the reward is three thousand taels of silver. Those who can arrest Ma Shiying and Huang Degong, the two culprits, will be rewarded with the commander and acquaintance of the guard.

Fang Yuan ordered the sergeant to copy 300 copies of the letter of persuasion and use a drone to sprinkle it over Fengyang City, breaking the morale of the army in the city.

Ma Shiying and Huang Degong want to be loyal, but their generals may not necessarily want to be loyal in this desperate situation. On the one hand, the family is ruined, and on the other hand, the prosperity and wealth are rich, and most people will choose the latter. According to Fang Yuan's estimate, within three days, Fengyang City will open the door and surrender, and even directly capture Ma Shiying and Huang Degong to the military camp to invite merit.

According to Fang Yuan's estimate, the Ming army in the city was in a desperate situation, where would they accompany Ma and Huang to die together. Ma and Huang Qiuren are benevolent, and they can also leave their names in history, and those big-headed soldiers can't leave their names if they die in battle, let alone say any history books.

What's more, the Ming army in the city has long coveted the silver and women in Ma Shiying's mansion, and the two thousands of households stationed in the city discussed privately, and directly did his mother's money, and first went to ransack Ma Shiying's mansion and robbed the silver and women. After that, he opened the door and surrendered to Fang Yuan in exchange for an official position and a bounty.

These rebels did what they said, and directly led the army to Ma Shiying's mansion to kill.

Ma Shiying, who stayed in the Fengyang Governor's Mansion, knew that he would definitely die, and he didn't want the female dependents in his family to be humiliated by the Xuanjia Army, so he was about to kill all the female dependents and then commit suicide.

Before he could make a move, the rebels had already broken through the gate of the governor's palace, rushed in like wolves, killed the guards when they saw them, moved them when they saw antiques, and robbed them when they saw women.

Ma Shiying's three sons went to resist with more than 20 personal soldiers and guards, but they were chopped into meat by the rebels. The two cardamom daughters knelt in front of him and begged for help, but they were still dragged away alive by the rebels to be humiliated.

Ma Shiying was so angry that he gritted his teeth, his lips were bleeding, but he was helpless, Ma Yishan, the commander of the guards of the Governor's Palace, saw that the chaos was strong, grabbed Ma Shiying's arm and said, "Governor Ma, the chaos is big, let's go to the Huang General Army camp to hide!" ”

The general trend has gone, Ma Shiying is already in despair, since the chaos is large, Huang Degong is also difficult to protect himself, what is the use of going to his military camp? !

Ma Shiying brought the seal of the governor of Fengyang, and ordered Ma Yishan to escort him to the nearest Bei'anmen, and the rebels chased after him, according to the conditions prescribed by Fang Yuan, Ma Shiying's head was at least one guard commander, how could the rebels let go?!

The group fled to the city wall of Bei'anmen, and the pursuing rebels also came one after another, surrounding them in all directions.

Ma Shiying pointed at the rebels and scolded, "Da Ming is the hand of your group of rebels who are insiders and laymen in the civil war!" ”

He knelt on the wall of Bei'anmen, bowed to the north three times and kowtowed nine times, and cried bitterly, "Your Majesty, the old minister is loyal to death today!" ”

Ma Shiying shouted and shouted, just holding the seal of the governor of Fengyang in his arms, flew out of the city wall, and fell to the ground and died.

At the same time that Ma Shiying fell to his death, Huang Degong, who was in the barracks, also noticed the chaos in the army, and the soldiers who were rioting outside the barracks had gathered more and more, shouting for Huang Degong to commit suicide and apologize.

Huang Degong ordered his general Tian Xiong to gather his own troops and prepare to quell the rebellion. Tian Xiong went to gather for a long time, but he also returned in frustration, and brought him desperate news. At this moment, there are less than 300 pro-soldiers who are willing to stand on Huang Degong's side. The rebellious soldiers numbered as many as 5,000 people, all of whom wanted to capture Huang Degong alive and go to Fang Yuan to ask for credit.

As soon as Huang Degong heard this, he knew that the general trend had gone, and today he would either be captured and humiliated by the rebels, or he would die on the battlefield and be shrouded in horse leather.

At the moment of life and death, he was proud all his life, looking at the cronies and generals behind him, the three hundred personal soldiers shouted and said, "Husband, it is better to die in the hands of the Xuanjia Army than to die in the hands of this group of chaotic soldiers." Launched! Let's go out of the city and rush to kill the Xuanjia military camp! ”

Tian Xiong also took 300 personal soldiers on horseback, followed Huang Degong from the barracks and rushed out of the barracks, heading towards the city gate. The rebels were already stragglers, and they were shocked by the three hundred horsemen, and they scattered one after another, watching Huang Degong, Tian Xiong, and three hundred horsemen fly away.

Huang Degong killed the rebels who came to intercept him all the way, rushed to the city gate, and ordered the sergeants guarding the city gate to open the city gate, waving a horse whip, and shouting at Okita Xiong and other generals, "Kill with me!" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a cold arrow shot from behind, pierced through his body, and plunged straight into his chest. A sharp pain came, and blood soaked the armor.

Huang Degong looked back at the person who cast the cold arrow, it was Tian Xiong, the general under his command, who was immediately full of anger, pointed at Tian Xiong and scolded, "Tian Xiong, you, you!" ”

The reason why Tian Xiong followed Huang Degong to the city gate was that he was worried that he would be robbed of the credit by the rebels in the chaotic army, and he wanted to monopolize the credit for killing Huang Degong.

Tian Xiong put down the bow and arrow in his hand, looked at Huang Degong and said with a sneer, "General Huang, if you don't know the current affairs, the horse leather shroud, don't bother the brothers!" Your corpse is still worth a guard commander! ”

Huang Degong endured the severe pain in his heart, covered the blood that was constantly oozing from his chest, and looked around, none of the relatives and soldiers stood up, and they were obviously on Tian Xiong's side.

His solitary loyalty has made him a veritable loner.

Huang Degong was full of hatred, his face was full of tears, and he looked up to the sky and shouted, "I have the intention to kill the thief, but I died at the hands of Xiaoxiao, and I can't see it!" ”

Unable to breathe in anger, he fell off his horse and vomited blood to his death.

Tian Xiong immediately rushed forward and cut off Huang Degong's head. The rest of the soldiers also stepped forward one after another, stabbing his corpse indiscriminately, snatching arms and feet, and making a mess.