Chapter six hundred and twentieth third disaster caused Nanyang
Liu Xiu carefully read the dossier submitted by Fu An and asked, "That's all?"
Fu An bowed and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, that's all we've found for the time being."
Liu Xiu nodded, put down the bamboo slips, and said quietly: "Liu Yong is the thorn in my side of the Han Dynasty!"
Liu Yong's move was actually quite cruel. He wanted to mess up Luoyang and the imperial court. Once he succeeded, his third-line battlefield would completely collapse. When Liu Yong took the opportunity to send troops, Luoyang Company could save itself.
No ability.
Fu An looked at Liu Xiu carefully, lowered his head and did not answer.
Liu Xiu now wanted to go on a personal expedition, attack Yuzhou, and directly take Liu Yong's home base, Suiyang. Unfortunately, he really had no soldiers to use, so he could only suppress Liu Yong's thoughts of using troops for the time being.
At present, Liu Xiu is very eager for Wu Han to quickly pacify Jingzhou, withdraw his main army, and then use troops against Liu Yong to eliminate this serious problem as soon as possible.
At present, Wu Han's war in Jingzhou is going very smoothly. They have won successive battles and captured Jiyang first, then Niyang, Yuyang and other places. The army is like a broken bamboo, moving all the way south, approaching Xinye.
Wu Han led more than 30,000 Han troops to take the lead and arrived in Xinye.
The magistrate of Xinye County is named Mou Yang, who is an old minister. The Mou family is also one of the big families in Xinye.
Wu Han originally thought that after he led his army to Xinye, Mou Yang would not dare to resist and would surrender the city. However, he did not expect that Mou Yang would lead his troops and hold on to the city and would never surrender.
In addition, the big families in Xinye City and even ordinary people also supported Mou Yang, providing people, money and food to help Mou Yang resist the Han army.
The local big family in Xinye originally had a very good impression of Liu Xiu. Liu Xiu's wife, Yin Lihua, who is now named a noble, is from the Yin family, a big family in Xinye. They have a natural affinity with Liu Xiu.
feel.
The key issue is that after Wu Han led his army into Nanyang, he did nothing good. He indulged his subordinates and looted everywhere, which made the people of Nanyang complain.
Wu Han himself was from Wancheng, Nanyang, and Nanyang was his hometown. He should treat Nanyang favorably, but the actual situation was exactly the opposite. How could the people of Nanyang not resent Wu Han?
Indulging his subordinates was firstly related to Wu Han's own character. He had a strong ruffian spirit and bandit spirit. He killed, burned, and looted. In his opinion, this was not a big deal.
Secondly, and most importantly, fighting requires money and food.
Now Liu Xiu has just established his capital in Luoyang, and everything is waiting to be done. Moreover, it is a three-front war, and the internal situation is extremely unstable. There are rebels running around, and treacherous officials like Peng Chong have risen in rebellion. Wu Han, who is leading the troops outside, is really
I was embarrassed to reach out to the imperial court for military pay and food.
But without military pay, the soldiers will have no enthusiasm to fight. Without food and grass, the soldiers will starve. What should we do? We can only rob and solve the problem of military pay and food and grass on the spot.
In addition, there was a common concept in the army at that time. The soldiers fought tooth and nail to conquer a city, and the commander must reward the soldiers. Now that Wu Han himself was so poor, how could there be any rewards to distribute to the soldiers under his command?
It's up to the soldiers to grab it themselves.
For these reasons, Wu Han turned a blind eye to the burning, killing, looting and other evil deeds in the places where the Han army passed, and pretended not to have seen them at all.
Wu Han's connivance and the Han army's unscrupulousness naturally aroused strong dissatisfaction among the people of Nanyang. Therefore, Mou Yang wanted to resist the Han army in Xinye with all his strength. He not only received the support of the big families in the city, but also the support of the people in the city.
The Battle of Xinye was a difficult battle when Wu Han led his army into Nanyang.
First of all, the city of Xinye is well defended and easy to defend but difficult to attack. Secondly, there are many defenders in the city, mainly because of the large number of strong men who volunteered to join the city defense. The number of strong men plus the defenders exceeds 10,000.
When the Han army launched an attack on Xinye, they encountered strong resistance from the Xinye soldiers and civilians. Arrows rained down from the top of the city, and rolling logs and stones were like snowflakes.
The attacking Han army, with a thousand men, did not even need a meal, and they were killed and wounded at least seven hundred and seventy-eight.
On the first day of the attack, the Han army did not go smoothly and suffered heavy casualties, as many as 2,000 people.
The next day, Wu Han personally went into battle and commanded the Han army to attack the city. As a result, the battle was still not smooth and failed to break through Xinye's city defense. On the third day, Wu Han organized his troops again and stormed Xinye, but was repulsed by the defenders.
After attacking the city for three consecutive days, they failed to capture Xinye. Instead, they suffered heavy casualties. This also made Wu Han angry. Looking at Xinye, who was just around the corner, Wu Han gritted his teeth and said: "On the day when the city is broken, I will definitely capture Xinye."
Fall to the ground!"
More than 30,000 soldiers could not attack Xinye, so Wu Han hurriedly mobilized the main troops and horses in the rear. The main force of the Han army was carrying too much baggage and marching slowly. Wu Han mobilized 60,000 soldiers from the main army, went into battle lightly, and attacked Xinye.
With the arrival of these 60,000 new troops, Xinye finally began to be unable to support it. After all, the people guarding Xinye were not regular troops, but the main force was a team of strong men formed spontaneously by the common people.
If the Han army's offensive was not too fierce, they could still hold on, but now the Han army, nearly 100,000 strong, was besieging Xinye City from all sides. This formation alone frightened the people.
The Han army, personally commanded by Wu Han, attacked Xinye North City and took the lead in breaking through the defenders' city defenses and attacking the city walls. The Han troops who rushed up the city wall, like tigers descending from the mountain, started a close hand-to-hand battle with the defenders on the city walls.
There was no city defense to rely on, and the two sides faced off head-on. Compared with the battle-hardened Han army, the combat power of the Xinye defenders was very different. The Han army chopped down the defenders like melons and vegetables.
As more and more Han troops attacked the city, the Han troops began to advance into the city.
The defenders simply could not withstand the Han army's attack and retreated down the steps of the city wall. Some of the defenders retreated into the city, while the other part of the defenders retreated under the city wall and huddled in the area around the city gate.
The Han army temporarily ignored the defenders who retreated into the city, and first launched a siege on the defenders at the city gate cave.
Facing the red-eyed Han army, the defenders were really unable to resist. More than a thousand remaining soldiers put down their weapons and shouted loudly: "Surrender! We surrender!"
The besieging Han troops stopped attacking one after another and looked at each other in shock. At this time, someone among the Han troops shouted loudly: "Three of my fellow villagers have died in their hands, and we will not accept their surrender!"
"My eldest brother also died in their hands!"
"My brother's leg was broken!"
"..." The soldiers of the Han army shouted all kinds of things.
After so many days of siege, the Han army suffered a lot of casualties. It was inevitable that some of their relatives and friends would be killed or injured in the siege. Now the soldiers of the Han army had only one thought: to avenge their relatives and brothers who were injured or killed.
The Han army did not accept the surrender of the defenders, and regardless of whether the defenders laid down their weapons and continued to attack, the next step could not be called a battle, but a one-sided massacre.
More than a thousand desperate defenders, no one was spared in the end, and they were all massacred by the Han army.
Then, the soldiers of the Han army opened the city gate and let the main force of the Han army outside the city into the city. Wu Han, riding a tall horse, surrounded by many generals and guards, entered the city holding a silver halberd with the power of a tiger.
A Han soldier stepped forward quickly, stepped in and saluted, and said: "Report to the Grand Sima, the defenders in the city have retreated to the county government!"
Wu Han raised his lips, sneered, and ordered: "Attack the county government, kill all the enemy troops, and leave no trace behind!"
"Yes!" the Han soldiers shouted in unison and began to advance towards the county government.
On the road, sporadic defenders came out to resist, but they were quickly killed by the Han army. The Han army encountered almost no decent obstruction or resistance, and attacked all the way to the county government and surrounded it.
Now, the number of defenders who retreated into the county government was less than a thousand. More than a dozen naked Han soldiers, who were tall and round-waisted, worked together to carry large wooden piles and hit the gate of the county government.
The sound of banging and banging was endless. The defenders in the county government worked together to hold the door of the government house in a final resistance. Unfortunately, the gate of the county government could not withstand such a strong and continuous impact.
Less than a quarter of an hour later, the gate of the county government was violently knocked down, and shouts were heard from inside. Seeing the panicked defenders inside the door, the Han army soldiers roared one after another, holding spears and pointing at
Rush inside.
The county magistrate Mou Yang, holding a sword, personally participated in the battle and killed the invading Han army. As he was leading his men to fight desperately, someone from behind the Han army shouted: "Get out of the way!"
Following the words, Wu Han rode his war horse and rushed directly into the courtyard of the county government. The Han soldiers dodged to both sides to make way for Wu Han. Wu Han rode his horse to Mou Yang and chopped him down with a halberd.
Mou Yang blocked with his horizontal sword upward. He underestimated Wu Han's strength, and also overestimated his own strength. The person in front of him was evaluated by Liu Xiu as the Great Sima of one man against one country, Wu Han Wu Ziyan
.
Wu Han's powerful and heavy halberd sent Mou Yang flying backwards, and the sword in his hand flew far away. Mou Yang fell to the ground on his back, and before he could get up, he spat out blood with a pop.
He struggled to sit up from the ground, only to feel a flash of cold light in front of his eyes, and the mighty tiger's silver halberd penetrated his chest, nailing him to the ground.
In front of Wu Han, Mou Yang didn't even go through a single round, and Wu Han only fired two halberds. One halberd knocked back the enemy, and the other halberd penetrated the enemy. It was neat and tidy, and the two halberds killed the enemy!
After killing Mou Yang, Wu Han still couldn't eliminate the hatred in his heart, so he pulled out his halberd from Mou Yang's body, returned with another halberd, cut off Mou Yang's head, and lifted his severed head high with the tip of the halberd.
, he looked up to the sky and let out a roar.
Wu Han's ferocity frightened the defenders present out of their wits. Mou Yang was dead, and the people lost their will to continue resisting and knelt down one after another to surrender.
Raising his hands and pointing at the kneeling defenders, Wu Han said word by word: "Pull them outside, leaving no one behind!"
He gave the order, and the Han soldiers agreed one after another, picked up the prisoner who was kneeling on the ground, and dragged him out.
Outside the county government, the swordsmen and axemen were ready. The Han army pulled out a group of prisoners and beheaded some of them. In front of the county government, headless corpses piled up in a mountain, as did the bloody severed heads.
Among the defenders, except for the county soldiers, most of them were common people in the city. Now that the Han army wanted to kill their heads, their relatives came to the county government one after another, knelt down and begged the Han army to spare their lives.
The Han army told the people with practical actions that it was impossible to spare the people who joined the defenders. The Han army still dragged batches of prisoners out of the county government and chopped them off one after another.
Many people cried loudly when they saw their close relatives being beheaded, and even fainted.
A young man saw his eldest brother being dragged out of the county house by the Han army. He rushed forward regardless and shouted at the same time: "Let go of my eldest brother! Let go of my eldest brother!"
The nearby Han soldiers raised their spears and blocked his way.
The young man couldn't rush forward, and his eyes turned red. He suddenly pulled out a dagger from his waist and stabbed it into the chest of the Han soldier in front. The Han soldier's eyes widened, with an expression of disbelief on his face, and he stood straight.
The ground fell on its back.
Seeing that their comrades were killed by the people in the city, all the Han troops present stopped fighting. The people roared and rushed to the young man, stabbing them with their spears. A series of puffs and puffs were heard in the ears.
There was a muffled sound, and at least fifteen or six spears were stabbed into his body.
After killing this young man, the Han troops present still could not understand their hatred. People stared at the Xinye people present with bloodshot eyes. They didn't know who it was, and they shouted: "Kill——"
Immediately afterwards, the Han army launched a bloody massacre against the unarmed people present.