In early April, just over half a month after the Zhou army launched the offensive, the heroic governor of Qinzhou fled to Chengdu, and the mighty governor of Fengzhou was besieged and killed in Weiwu City. No one in Qin and Fengzhou could mobilize troops anymore. The garrison in Guzhen thought that the city wall of the governorate was too low, and Fengzhou to the east was also besieged, so they fled west to Chengzhou. Guo Shao's troops occupied Guzhen without a fight.
Near Tianshui City in the northwest of Qinzhou, it was called Shanggui in ancient times. After the heroic general Han Jixun fled, he transferred the judge Zhao Yan to Qinzhou and ordered him to guard the city.
Zhao Yan felt helpless. He had just taken over the city defense when many deserting soldiers came from the Qinling Mountains and the Wei River. The situation looked wrong. He ordered his generals to capture the deserters and interrogate them. Only then did he know that the Zhou army was advancing into Qinzhou from the north and south.
At this time, the Shu army captured a spy who claimed to be an envoy of the Zhou army and brought him to Zhao Yan.
The messenger tore open his clothes, took out a letter, handed it over in a neither humble nor arrogant manner, and said with his head held high: I am General Xiang Xun, the commander of the Western Expedition Army of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and the governor of Zhen'an. He looked around and continued, "I am Zhang Qi, a guest of the army under my command. Today, the vanguard of the Western Expedition Army has marched straight in and captured more than 10,000 people, and has occupied Guzhen; the towns of Fengzhou are unable to fight again and are surrounded, and Qinfeng has become a siege. Qinzhou is isolated outside the pass.
Fengxiang Army and Zhen'an Army have been approaching Qinzhou from two directions. Why don't you judge the situation and surrender Qinzhou to avoid the suffering of Qinzhou people? Secondly, you should personally promise to the commander-in-chief that you will first treat Qinzhou soldiers well, then ask the court for merit and recommend Qinzhou's chief general to serve as an official in the Great Zhou.
Zhao Yan pretended to be angry and said coldly before the messenger finished speaking: So you are here to persuade me to surrender. Come on, capture him for me!
The messenger raised his head and said: Honest advice is unpleasant to the ears. If you don't listen and insist on going your own way, please throw yourself into the cauldron.
After Zhao Yan retreated to the hall, his cousin hurriedly followed him and said: Qinzhou has become an isolated city, and the Zhou army is approaching. The messenger's words are consistent with the description of the defeated soldiers. The messenger from Chengzhou also confirmed that Guzhen was occupied. Why not take the opportunity to surrender the city? If the situation was not critical, why would Han Jixun flee overnight
Come with me. Zhao Yan led his cousin to the signing room and said in a deep voice, "Although the generals in Qinzhou are panic-stricken and have no desire to fight, I am not familiar with them. If we say we want to surrender in public, what if some general gives an order and rushes up to chop us to pieces? What will you do?"
The cousin said: Brother,
The governor of Chengzhou and Jiezhou are good friends of mine. You can secretly leave Qinzhou and run to Chengjie at night, bringing my handwritten letter to ask them to surrender together. Then you will get more credit. Zhao Yan hesitated for a moment and said, Qinzhou will let me handle it. I will quietly release the messenger and send someone to escort him out. I will ask General Xiangjie to come. When the Zhou army arrives, I will send my trusted generals to guard the east gate, open the city gate and let the Zhou army enter the city, and the great things will be settled.
A few days later, Weiwu City was breached by Wang Jing's troops, and Wang Huan, the governor of Shu Army, was killed in the battle. In mid-April, Qin Chengjie opened the city gates and surrendered in three states.
Fengzhou was surrounded by several armies and became an isolated city. Wang Jing ordered the three sides to be surrounded and the siege was carried out day and night.
Guo Shao personally rushed to Fengzhou, and hurriedly withdrew the First Army of the Hujie Left Wing under the pretext of strengthening defense. The troops were gradually mobilized westward, and Guo Shao could not help but look back at Fengzhou City. A familiar scene was right in front of him. This scene was very similar to what he saw in Jinyang.
Fengzhou is backed by a mountain, and the three walls are covered with people. Looking from afar, it makes people's scalps numb. From the imperial guards to the local military forces, the Zhou army seemed to have no second trick for attacking the city. There was only one way to do it: mindlessly climbing the wall.
In this situation, the whole city looked like a piece of cake thrown on the roadside, covered with a group of ants, with dark figures constantly falling on it. Thick smoke and dust were rising all around, and people's shouting could be heard clearly two miles away.
The wind seemed to carry the smell of burnt hair, mixed with a nauseating fishy smell. Guo Shao did not stop and led his army straight to Guzhen.
That evening, the scouts reported that someone from Tokyo had arrived. Guo Shao hurried out of the barracks and waited outside the town. After a while, he saw a civil servant wearing a black gauze cap and a round-necked green robe riding a horse, followed by several followers and more than ten cavalrymen.
Guo Shao had never been a civil servant, and had only worn the official uniform of the governor once, but he had a general understanding of the official uniforms of the Zhou Dynasty, and the civil servants who came were not of high rank. Moreover, he was very young, with a straight face, sitting on the horse in a steady posture, and his face looked pale and thin, and I wondered if it was because of the hard journey.
Guo Shao stood there with a hospitable smile. The civil official saw a military commander surrounded by the generals at the camp gate, so he got off his horse, bowed and asked: "I am Lu Duoxun, the left picker, and I want to see Guo Dushi, the vanguard of the Western Expedition. I was in Fengxiang first, and my colleagues in Fengxiang told me that Guo Dushi was in Guzhen."
I am Guo Shao, I have been waiting for you for a long time. Guo Shao said directly, and then smiled, "So you are my colleague from Tokyo. Please invite Doctor Lu to the central military headquarters."
Lu Duxun hurriedly said: Congratulations, Guo Dushi has been promoted
The generals laughed and were very happy. However, Yang Biao, who was present, completely ignored the etiquette, grabbed Lu Dosun's sleeve and asked: "Don't tell me the whole story. What position did my elder brother get promoted to?"
Lu Duoxun was stunned, but he couldn't shake off his sleeves, so he had to say: Prime Minister Wang personally sent me to deliver the appointment letter. When I left the capital, the court didn't know that Qin Chengjie's three states had been recovered. This time, the Privy Council only commended Guo Dushi for his victory over the Shu army in Huanghua Valley in Weiwu City. I have already informed the commander of the Western Expedition, General Wang Jie,
"Fuck you, why are you talking so much nonsense?" Yang Biao cursed. Everyone smiled and didn't take it seriously.
Lu Duosun was scolded so much that he forgot what he was talking about just now, and could only say: Hu Jie is the commander of the left wing, and also the commander of the Shangzhou militia, and the military supervisor of the Western Expedition Army camp.
Why didn't you say it earlier? Yang Biao cursed again. Everyone was silent for a while, probably wondering how important the position of Xiangdu Commander was. The Hujie Army was one of the four elite troops of the Zhou Dynasty's imperial army. The Hujie Army was divided into the left and right wings, which meant that Guo Shao's military power theoretically had one-eighth of the main force of the entire Zhou Dynasty's imperial army, but of course it would be subject to many restrictions.
Guo Shao laughed and said: Doctor Lu, don't argue with the warriors. We brothers are all rough people.
No, no. Lu Duosun followed Guo Shao into the military camp and casually mentioned that he hoped General Guo would say a few good words to Prime Minister Wang. He just saw that everyone was happy and took the opportunity to say it casually. Maybe the generals didn't care about such a sentence.
Unexpectedly, after Guo Shao entered the camp, he specifically mentioned the sentence just now: I do know Prime Minister Wang, the Minister of Rites. His second son once ran to the Imperial Army camp to join the army. I sent him back, and I became familiar with him. If we meet again next time, I will definitely talk about how Doctor Lu traveled thousands of miles and took the difficult Shu Road to the front line to comfort the soldiers.
A Zuo Shiyi, whose job was to check for omissions and give suggestions to the emperor. Guo Shao thought that it was free to say nice things, so he was quite polite in his words.
Lu Duoxun was young after all, and his behavior seemed to have just been an official for a short time. When he heard that a general treated him so politely, he immediately said sincerely: To be honest, I was born in a humble family, just passed the imperial examination, and was originally a secretary. I wrote a poem to Prime Minister Wang, and then I became the Zuo Shiyi. I feel honored to be entrusted by Prime Minister Wang to deliver official documents to commend the soldiers on the front line on behalf of the court, and I have no hardship.
"If you pass the imperial examination, you are one in ten thousand," Guo Shao said casually, thinking that although he was close to being a high-ranking general, it seemed that he could not recruit an imperial scholar as his staff.
Lu Duosun came with nothing in his hands, saying that the letter of appointment had been handed over to Wang Jing, the commander of the Western Expedition Army. Guo Shao had no choice but to talk to him along with his subordinates. After all, Lu Duosun was a well-read civil official, so he had little to say to the military generals. Apart from Guo Shao, only Li Chuyun could talk to him from time to time.
Soon, the soldiers brought up dinner: a large basket of wheat cakes, two wooden barrels of vegetable soup, and a few pieces of pickled meat.
Unexpectedly, Lu Dosun was not picky at all. He ate three large cakes in a row, drank two iron pots of vegetable soup, chewed them with relish, and threw away his previous elegant manners. He suddenly found that Guo Shao was looking at him with a smile, and hurriedly said: My family can be considered to have studied for generations, but it is a poor family of scholars. If the weather is not good, it is common to eat bran and vegetables. This wheat cake is made of fine grains and tastes very fragrant.
After hearing this, the generals looked at Ludoson with a slightly softer look.
Guo Shao said: The soldiers are charging into the front and fighting bravely. We, as generals, cannot eat better than the soldiers. The food is the same for everyone. We really haven't prepared any dishes. It's fine as long as Doctor Lu gets used to the food.
Yang Biao snorted and said: We had to snatch this food from the Shu army, otherwise we wouldn’t even have wheat cakes to eat.