Attaching Yueting to the south, Cao Shixiong also spent a lot of effort to win the trust of the local forces in Lanzhou. Whenever possible, he certainly wanted to join the local forces in Lanzhou and join Chihu.
Although Wang Gaoxing, Xun Yannian, Qian Zerui and other officials were officials appointed by the imperial court to serve in Lanzhou, none of them came from Lanzhou, but Wang Gaoxing, Xun Yannian, Qian Zerui and other officials led the imperial court and the Xiang army.
The minor and subordinate officials, generals and military officials, can all be said to be people from Lanzhou and nearby counties, and they are representatives of local forces.
If Cao Shixiong could control Wang Gaoxing, Xun Yannian, Qian Zerui and others immediately, but with the force he directly controlled, he could coerce the subordinate officials, soldiers and Xiang troops who had no one to take the lead and had their own plans, and surrendered together.
Attaching the Red Guards will be a matter of course.
At that time, even if there are some people who are determined to die and are unwilling to surrender, it will not achieve anything; and the local forces that all surrender to Chihu will inevitably follow his lead and become vassals of his Cao family, and truly become Tianxiong.
The foundation of the army.
However, he had not carefully considered his decision to surrender to the Yue court before, blindly believing that it would be easy for the Vietnamese troops to seize Yunshuo and other generals, so that he missed a move and was unable to make the move while riding a tiger.
How dare Cao Shixiong dare to act hastily this time?
For the sake of caution, even though he secretly met with Yue Hailou several times, Cao Shixiong finally made up his mind after the Chihu people formally defeated the main force of the Yan army.
However, Cao Shixiong did not expect that Wang Gaoxing, Xun Yannian, Qian Zerui and others would be vigilant first. They would also gather military equipment belonging to the Xiang army such as soldiers from various courtyards, county sword archers and so on, and supervise the prefecture, county, military and horse departments.
When the Yamen takes control, things will become more troublesome.
Of course, in Cao Shixiong's view at this time, things were only a little troublesome.
In order to launch a rebellion at any time and coordinate the Red Husband's cavalry invasion to the south, Cao Shixiong transferred Meng Ping's troops to garrison Kelan City before his second northern expedition to Yan, and strengthened his control over Lanzhou, the economic, military and political center of the city.
Meng Ping's troops, including their generals and officers, were almost all from the Shun Army of the Qing Dynasty and the Han people of Shuozhou. Unlike the 800 elite soldiers who accompanied Cao Shixiong back from Ningwu this time, they had no loyalty to the Southern Dynasty.
He only obeyed Cao Shixiong personally.
However, the yamen of prefectures, counties, and military and horse supervision departments are not surrounded by thick city walls. Although the total number of troops in each department is nearly 2,000, how can Cao Shixiong not know what combat effectiveness these troops have?
If they really wanted to attack Zhouya by force, they would be able to capture it easily. However, after sending troops to surround Zhouya last night, Cao Shixiong had not ordered a strong attack until now.
He mainly wanted to exert pressure through various means to force Wang Gaoxing, Xun Yannian, Qian Zerui and others to take the initiative, or to lure the generals to tie up Wang Gaoxing and others and open the gate of the state government to surrender.
In this way, he can win the support of local forces in Lanzhou with relatively moderate methods.
For this reason, he didn't mind delaying it for a few more days. At the same time, he also sent people to "invite" some core officials in the state government to come over and help persuade him to surrender.
He believes that there may still be people who choose to wait and see, but as the Red Husband Cavalry completely wiped out the remaining troops of the Yan Army, and as the Red Husband Cavalry captured the cities of Yingzhou, Yanmen and Fanzhi, these people are completely desperate.
After that, you will be able to know the trade-offs and make a choice.
Since ancient times, I have been able to go to the dead with dignity,
How many people can there be?
In the morning light, Cao Shixiong, wearing armor, personally walked behind the barricade in front of the main gate of the state government. He learned from Meng Ping some of the conditions in the besieged state government. He was about to shout to the state government to persuade him to surrender, but he heard a rush of horse hooves.
The sound came from the direction of the east city gate.
Cao Shixiong turned his head and looked over in confusion, his view blocked by the people behind him.
They were rich in experience and could tell by the sound of horse hooves that there were about a hundred fast horses galloping here. However, the cavalry of the Qing Shun Army was also destroyed in Datong City. There were not many cavalry in the entire Lanzhou. Cao Shixiong finally only gave himself
He barely scraped together 800 cavalry soldiers. Where did this cavalry come from, and how could they break in through the east city gate without his orders?
What medicine did the Dongcheng guard take by mistake?
The sound of horse hooves galloping like thunder in the morning light also made the people in the city who had not slept well all night become more and more frightened.
After the Chihu people declared war on the Yan army, rumors spread in Kelan City that Cao Shixiong had surrendered to the enemy. However, when faced with extremely bad predictions or guesses about the situation, most people usually felt lucky and thought that the situation would not be so bad.
Last night, Cao Shixiong sent troops to besiege the prefecture government. It was not everyone's fantasy or luck. Most people still deceived themselves and others, thinking that it was something else. That was why Cao Shixiong and Wang Gaoxing and other officials were incompatible with each other and ended up fighting each other.
At this time, I heard cavalry galloping into the city again. Those who were a little braver peeked out from the gaps in the window lattice and saw dozens of cavalry passing by on the street.
It was completely shattered in a moment.
The man's hair is shaved off his forehead and the top of his head, and his manes are braided down. Aren't these cavalrymen the legendary Red Guards?
Zhizhou Cao Shixiong really surrendered to the Red Husband?!
More than a hundred Huqi galloped directly to the barricade outside the south gate of Zhou Yamen and stopped. Hu Lejian raised his chin slightly and looked up at the situation of Tianxiong's army besieging Zhou Yamen.
Cao Xuanwen and Meng Jian rolled over and dismounted as if they were rolling, walked to Cao Shixiong and reported: "Hulejian Baihu received orders from General Yan to come to Kelan to meet the commander-in-chief!"
"What is going on?" Cao Shixiong asked Meng Jian with a slight frown when he saw the red guard Bai Hu sitting proudly on his horse.
Cao Shixiong led 800 soldiers back to Kelan, joined Meng Ping and surrendered Wang Gaoxing, Qian Zerui and others. However, in order to prevent any changes in Shuozhou's troops and horses, he deliberately left all four columns of Tianxiong's troops in Ningwu and Yangkou.
In the village, his brother Cao Shili, his eldest son Cao Xuanwen, Meng Jian and others were specially left to sit there.
Mo Lihu had something urgent to report at this time. Normally, Cao Shili, Xuan Wen and Meng Jian would arrange for people to directly escort the messenger to deliver the message. Is it necessary to let so many Red Guards cavalry rush directly into Kelan City?
"Shuozhou has a large number of soldiers and horses at the southern foot of Jingong Mountain between Jincheng and Huairen. General Nayan thought that Shuozhou's move was a repeat of the same trick, intended to attract their main cavalry force on the west flank battlefield.
So that more of the remnants of the army could break and flee toward Shuozhou and Xishan," Meng Jian said. "However, even if he knew that this was a repeat of Shuozhou's old trick, General Yan would not have placed a large number of Shuozhou soldiers and horses with Duke Jin.
He will personally lead a cavalry group to keep an eye on these Shuozhou soldiers and horses on the southern flank of Jinggong Mountain. We are specifically ordered to deal with the remaining resistance forces in Lanzhou immediately and lead our troops into Xishan as quickly as possible. Do not
Call the remaining soldiers of the Western Army and Shuozhou soldiers and horses from there
Li fled to the south, and ordered a hundred households of Khuljian to lead his troops to supervise the battle..."
"What the hell is this nonsense?" Meng Ping heard this from the sidelines, his face twitched twice, and he asked dissatisfiedly.
In order to win over them, the Yue court directly handed over the military and political power of Lanzhou in the west wing to them. They decided to surrender to the Chihu people this time. Even if they did not expect to receive the same attention from the Chihu people, what mandate did they have for them?
It is only reasonable that the Prince of Zhennan Sect issued the transfer order.
It's better now. A mere captain in Molihu was giving them instructions and even directly sent a team to supervise them. What do you think they are?
Not only was Meng Ping angry after hearing Meng Jian's words, but the other generals around Cao Shixiong were also angry: they had never expected that Chi Huren would neglect them like this.
In addition, the people in Tongbai Mountain were unruly and unruly, so Cao Shixiong had always been on guard against Shuozhou.
The Hedong Economic and Strategic Envoy may not know the actual situation of the Battle of Houerwu and the management of the southern Xishan Mountains by Shuozhou soldiers and horses in the past six months, but how could Cao Shixiong and his trusted generals not be aware of it?
At the same time, they would never dare to underestimate the combat effectiveness of Shuozhou soldiers and horses.
Mo Lihu now wants them to clean up the mess in Lanzhou in the shortest time, and then send troops to Xishan to cut off the southward escape route of Shuozhou soldiers and the remaining soldiers of the Western Army. How heavy a price must they pay to do this?
Although they had 15,000 men and horses in Lanzhou at this time, how could they not know what the situation of these 15,000 men was and whether they had the ability to attack Xishan, where Shuozhou troops had been operating for half a year?
"What does Shili think of this matter?" Cao Shixiong couldn't help but his face darkened, and he asked Meng Jian in a deep voice.
"The second general said it all depends on the commander-in-chief's decision." Meng Jian said with a wry smile.
If they and Cao Shili had already made plans in Ningwu, why would they directly lead Hulejian and more than a hundred red cavalry to Kelan to meet him?
Seeing that Cao Shixiong's face was gloomy and silent for a long time, Meng Jian speculated in a low voice: "Chihu people urged us to clean up the mess in Lanzhou as soon as possible, and also urged us to attack Xishan regardless of casualties. They even asked us to rush to the south of the remaining soldiers of the Western Army and Shuozhou soldiers.
Cut off the passage before escaping, leaving us with very limited time. Perhaps the Chihu people are worried that we will grow in power and not obey orders, so they force us to fight to the death with Shuozhou at this time?"
For a long time, everyone in Tongbai Mountain has not concealed their wariness towards the Red Husbands. At the same time, they also deeply suspected that it was the people in Tongbai Mountain who secretly spread rumors that the Tianxiong Army had surrendered to the enemy.
It is not difficult to guess their intentions when the people from Tongbai Mountain captured the southern part of Xishan Mountain more than half a year ago and opened up the passage to Fuzhou.
Especially at this time, a large number of remnants of the Western Army were fleeing to Shuozhou City and Xishan. In fact, Xishan was indeed the only channel for the people in Tongbai Mountain to escape south. If they really wanted to attack Xishan, what kind of counterattack would they encounter?
, does this require speculation?
In Meng Jian's view, the most optimistic outcome was that they would only advance into the hinterland of the Western Mountains with a tragic victory.
Based on this, we can speculate that the intention of the Chihu people was that they wanted to consume their vitality without any scruples at the beginning of their surrender.
They had even thought of doing everything possible to absorb the local forces in Lanzhou.
