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When Wei Shuo was busy attacking Guanzhong, Tuoba Jue was not idle.

He took advantage of the Southern Dynasty and Hexi to take care of himself, and united with Murong Sheng of Eastern Yan to brazenly send troops to attack Zhongshan.

After Tuoba Jue's troops left Youzhou, they did not go straight to Zhongshan, but first attacked Changshan County in the west.

In the face of the powerful offensive of the Wei army, officials and defenders from all over Changshan fled, surrendered, and the entire county was attached to the Northern Wei.

Successfully took Changshan, which made Tuoba Jue breathe a sigh of relief.

To be honest, before sending troops to Hebei, he had always been worried about the Hexi Army going east to Taihang Mountain.

And taking Changshan is equivalent to blocking the road to the east of Hexi and the Jingcheng Pass, and then he can finally attack Zhongshan with confidence.

Although Murong Lin still controlled the four counties of Zhongshan, Gaoyang, Boling, and Julu, no one thought that he could resist the joint attack of Tuoba and Murong Sheng.

And Changshan looked at the wind and fell, which also showed that Murong Lin's rule was not popular.

On the contrary, the Wei army, with the assistance of Dongyan, was trying to change its original image.

At the beginning, during the attack on Changshan, the Wei army captured a large number of Yan prisoners.

Tuoba Jue changed his habits and ordered all the captives to be released in order to win the hearts of the people in Hebei.

On March 11, Tuoba Jue arrived in Changshan, and he immediately ordered Tuoba Lie to attack Zhao County in order to deter Murong De of Yecheng.

Later, he sent the champion general Wang Jian and the left general Li Li to lead 50,000 people to attack Julu County in the southeast of Changshan Mountain.

At the same time, Tuoba repeatedly ordered that no one should be allowed to take the place captive.

Although this move aroused the dissatisfaction of many Hu Lu, it won the support of a large number of Han scholars and heroes.

On March 19, Tuoba led his army to attack Zhongshan, and after meeting with Murong Sheng, he successfully besieged the city of Lunu.

The next day, the combined forces of the Northern Wei and Eastern Yan launched a general attack on the Later Yan.

Murong Lin, the lord of Houyan, led by example and commanded the defenders to resist with all their might relying on the city walls.

Both sides fought from morning to dusk, and the defenders of the city killed and wounded thousands of allied troops before they could force the other side to stop the attack.

The Wei army was mostly cavalry, good at field warfare, not good at siege.

Dongyan is mainly infantry, but Murong Sheng is cunning, for fear of fighting with Murong Lin and losing both, so that Wei can reap the benefits.

So, after the start of the war, Murong Sheng has not been able to work.

And Tuoba Jue couldn't turn his face with the other party for the time being, so he had to endure his inner dissatisfaction and think of another way.

Seeing that the strong attack could not work, he said to the generals: "As early as before the war, the widow expected that Murong Lin would not dare to fight, and he would definitely choose to stick to the city and survive. ”

"And our army is not good at attacking the city, if it continues to storm the city, it will definitely cause heavy casualties."

"If it can't be attacked for a long time, it will not only waste food, grass and morale, but also put the army in danger."

"It's better to attack other places first, and then go back and attack Zhongshan, so it's more appropriate."

"In addition, after our army leaves, Murong Sheng is afraid that he will be more attentive to the war." The corners of Tuoba Jue's mouth snorted.

Later, Tuoba Jue turned south from Zhongshan and attacked Lukou in Boling County to the east.

After taking Lukou, Tuoba was stationed there.

In the face of the aggressive attitude of the Wei army, the performance of the Later Yan people was not much better than that of the Later Qin people, and officials from all over the country fled.

Boling Taishou Shen Yong said to his subordinates: "Now that the heavens have abandoned the Yan Kingdom, it is beyond human power to resist. ”

"King Wei is wise, generous and benevolent, leading millions of people, and his orders are the same, this is the master of Tang Wu!"

"If I want to surrender, let each of you disperse."

Shen Yong's surrender made Tuoba Jue overjoyed, and this was the highest official among those who voluntarily surrendered since Wei went south.

He not only personally received Shin Yong, but also appointed him as the Zhongshu Order, responsible for drafting the proclamation.

However, after successfully taking Changshan and Boling, and besieging Zhongshan, the Wei army began to suffer setbacks on the northern and southern fronts.

When Murong Hui of Northern Yan heard that the Wei army was moving south, he immediately led the army to march quickly and counterattacked Youzhou.

Although under the insistence of Feng Zhen, Mo Di and other generals, the Liaodong Yan army failed to capture Jicheng, but occupied Yuyang County.

Yuyang County is now Miyun, located in the northeast of Jicheng, which belongs to the junction of Yanshan Mountain and North China Plain.

She is an important gateway from Jicheng to Liaodong, known as the "key to the capital division".

The loss of Yuyang caused a shock in Youzhou, if it weren't for Jicheng still there, Mo Title and other forces, maybe Youzhou has been gained and lost.

When Youyan encountered a crisis, Tuoba Lie, who attacked Zhao County on the southern front, also ran into trouble.

At present, Zhao County belongs to Nanyan, and Murong De has no passive defense.

He sent Murong Qing, the king of Nan'an, and others to lead an army out of the city at night to attack the Wei army, and defeated the Wei army in one fell swoop.

In the end, Murong De, fearing that he would provoke retaliation from Tuoba, forcibly ordered the army to stop the pursuit.

In March of the first year of Long An, it was a mixed blessing for Tuoba.

Since the army left the division, although it has successfully captured Changshan, Boling and other places, it has also accepted many Houyan officials and soldiers.

However, Zhongshan has not been down, and Jicheng has been invaded by Liaodong, and the southward has been frustrated again and again.

This series of defeats made Tuoba Jue realize that after he conquered Changshan, he was too optimistic to divide his troops into battle.

So, Tuoba learned his lesson and ordered a pause to the south, concentrate all his forces, and attack Zhongshan together.

At the end of March, Wei gathered 140,000 people and surrounded Zhongshan.

If the Eastern Yan army is added, the total number of coalition troops will be as high as nearly 200,000.

As a result, the defenders of the city put tremendous pressure on them.

……

Tuoba Jue rode on a horse, looked at Zhongshan City from afar, and suddenly asked Zhang Yan beside him.

"Hong Long, what do you think of the proverb that has been spreading all the rage recently - the saying that 'Hu has no hundred years of luck'?"

"It's just nonsense, Hexi is deliberately disturbing the hearts of my Great Wei people." Zhang Yan said expressionlessly.

On the surface, the Wei State is thriving, and it has a new dynasty atmosphere.

In fact, the dark tide is surging inside, and the contradictions between Hu and Han are already tense, so they just need to light the fuse.

And when the proverb was introduced to the Wei State, it aroused the dissatisfaction and anger of the Xianbei aristocracy against the Sinicization policy.

In their view, only by maintaining national characteristics can we hope to get out of the vicious circle of Hu Wu's century-old fortune.

Otherwise, even if Wei unified the world, it would eventually be assimilated by the Han people and make wedding clothes for others.

To be honest, in the past, Tuoba Jue supported Zhang Yan and other Han literati to promote sinicization, but he did not think about it so far-reaching.

He simply saw that after the implementation of reforms, the national strength of Wei increased greatly.

However, as soon as today's rumors came out, Tuoba suddenly realized that the implementation of the Sinicization policy meant the demise of the nation.

At present, Tuoba Jue has fallen into confusion, on the one hand, reason tells him that if the Tuoba people want to enter the Central Plains, or even dominate the world, they must unswervingly promote Sinicization.

On the other hand, he felt that what those Xianbei nobles said was not unreasonable.

If the Tuoba clan didn't exist in the end, then what was the point of his bloody battle today?

Looking at His Royal Highness King Wei, who was full of confusion about the future, Zhang Yan's mouth was full of bitterness.

Most of them are ruthless, and one move hit the soft underbelly of Wei.

Although the two sides have not yet formally clashed, Wei has already lost the lead.

Not surprisingly, it won't be long before Wei will have a fierce confrontation over whether to go to the left or to the right.

In the end, no matter which faction wins, Wei will be greatly damaged and will no longer be able to compete with Hexi.

Suddenly, a resentment appeared in Zhang Yan's heart, why didn't King Wei come from a Han nationality like Dadu Guardian Shuo?

Or, why isn't that Wei Shuo from a Hu background?

In this way, everyone is on the same starting line, and he no longer has to worry about the trouble in front of him.

When the Wei army outside the city had different thoughts, Murong Lin in the city knew that Zhongshan was about to fall.

At the moment, he hasn't surrendered yet, it's not that he would rather die than give in, but that Murong Lin doesn't dare to surrender at all.

You must know that there is not only the Wei army outside the city, but also Murong Sheng of Dongyan.

No matter what Murong Sheng thinks of his father Murong Bao in his heart, he must put on a filial son and grandson on the surface.

For the murderer of Murong Bao, Murong Sheng will not let it go no matter what.

Since there was no way out, Murong Lin had no choice but to set up a position, intending to fight to the death with the enemy.

The battle was quite fierce, with nearly 200,000 allied troops surrounding Zhongshan and attacking day and night.

The four city walls were in a hurry, and Murong Lin rushed around with his personal guards, encouraging the defenders to block the coalition forces under the city.

Fortunately, most of the defenders in the city were Murong Lin's henchmen, and under his supervision, they finally blocked the first wave of the coalition army's offensive.

However, everyone knows that if this continues, the city will fall sooner or later, and everyone will inevitably die.

As a result, some people were unwilling to die like this, so they plotted to secretly communicate with Tuoba.