Du Huan has been immersed in the officialdom for a long time. When he came back from the Sui Camp, he knew what he should do. He could not persuade Qin Hongwu to surrender. However, many of Qin Hongwu's middle-level generals were from the four major families of Chen, Lin, Li, and Xu in Yulin County. Most of the soldiers were from Yulin County. As long as the four major families were asked to persuade the members of their respective tribes to lead their troops to surrender, the situation was hopeless, and Qin Hongwu would have no choice.

Du Huan knew that Meng Shouyi had been in Yulin County for the past year, and even his wife Chen was from the four major families in Yulin. He came forward to persuade him would be more effective than himself. He also promised Meng Shouyi that if he was the prefect, he would definitely recommend him to be the county magistrate.

Meng Shouyi could not refuse both public and private. He discussed the details with Du Huan again, so he got up and went to his father-in-law's house. His father-in-law was Chen Shouquan, the younger brother of Chen Shouda, the head of the Chen family, the most wealthy family in Yulin.

Seeking profit and avoiding harm is the common feature of the Sui Dynasty families. Whether it is a famous family in the world, a county or a smallest county, they all follow this principle. If this principle is violated, it will lead to disaster and family destruction, especially in troubled times. This is a more precious body protection technique than gold.

The Chen brothers agreed to Meng Shouyi and Du Huan's request without hesitation. The two of them acted separately. Chen Shouda went to contact the other three major families, while Chen Shouquan went to the army to find his nephew Chen Quan, who was one of the three brave generals under Qin Hongwu's tent and commanded a thousand soldiers.

The night fell quietly, and time was gradually approaching. Qin Hongwu was walking back and forth in the tent with distraction. He was Zhang Changxun's fellow townsman and Zhang Changxun's confidant. He could not choose to surrender to the Sui army, but followed Zhang Changxun. At noon today, he had already sent a letter from Eagle to Wuyuan County and asked his lord how to deal with the arrival of the Northern Sui army.

If the lord asked him to retreat, he would lead his army to retreat west without hesitation, but the problem was that the lord's reply was not delayed, so he didn't know what to do.

In fact, Qin Hongwu knew in his heart that his lord's reply would not be available to him at noon tomorrow, and he had to make a choice by himself no matter what.

There are only three thousand defenders, the county town is only two feet high and less than one meter wide. The city has not been repaired for decades, so how can it resist the siege of the 50,000 troops? I am afraid that the city will fall in half an hour at most.

Withdrawal is certain. The key is how to withdraw, whether to withdraw now or not, or to withdraw again. Although they are both withdrawals, their nature is completely different. One is called abandoning the city and fleeing, while the other fights to the death and retreats. Qin Hongwu slowly clenched the sword in his waist. Needless to say, he also knows what he should choose?

Since the Sui army was about to attack the city tomorrow morning, he must now deploy defense. Thinking of this, Qin Hongwu shouted loudly: "Transfer my orders, and all the generals will immediately go to my big tent!"

The soldiers rushed away. Soon, General Jiang Yong and Fei Mingjing rushed over. There should be two generals, one was General Chen Quan and the other was General Xu Xiaoxian. Both of them were locals. Tonight they volunteered, one was responsible for defending the city and the other was responsible for patrolling the city. They should not be in the military camp and did not come so quickly.

After waiting for nearly a quarter of an hour, the two of them still did not arrive. Qin Hongwu suddenly became a little anxious and cursed: "Damn, have these two people fallen out of the toilet when they are drunk? Why haven't they come yet!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of drums outside, and the rumbling drums rang throughout the city. The three of them looked at each other, wondering what happened?

Qin Hongwu strode out of the tent and saw fires lit up in the East City Tower, drums and shouts sounded.

"General, I'm afraid the situation is not good!"

Jiang Yong and Fei Mingjing realized something and told Qin Hongwu together: "Can the Sui army attack the city at night?"

At this time, several soldiers rushed over and said anxiously: "General, Chen Quan and Xu Xiaoxian have offered the city, and the Sui army has entered the city."

Qin Hongwu shouted, and he suddenly understood that the two of them had agreed during the day before they volunteered to defend and patrol the city.

Qin Hongwu shouted in anger: "The whole army will get on the horse immediately and break through the Ximen to retreat!"

Qin Hongwu felt so angry that he wanted to lead his army to kill the whole family of these two people, but he had no time anymore. The Sui army had already entered the city. If he didn't leave, his entire army would be destroyed.

The three of them turned over and didn't care about waiting for the entire army to gather, and ran towards the West Gate with hundreds of soldiers who had already come out of the tent.

The west city gate was wide open, but the Sui army did not enter the city. The three of them were extremely surprised and led hundreds of people out of the city gate and ran into the wilderness outside the city. However, they ran less than a hundred steps away. There was only a sound of drums and fires rising. Ten thousand troops lying outside the city surrounded them.

At this time, a general wearing a silver helmet appeared in the flames. It was Li Jing, the chief general of the Sui army. He did not want to capture Qin Hongwu in the city, so he laid a net of heaven and earth outside the west city, which surrounded hundreds of them.

Li Jing stroked his beard and said loudly: "I am Li Jing, so General Qin has not surrendered yet?"

Qin Hongwu saw thousands of military crossbows aimed at him. He could only sigh, roll over and get off the horse and kneel down and say, "Qin Hongwu does not recognize the power of the heavenly army, and is willing to surrender to the general!"

Seeing that the lord general had surrendered, Jiang Yong and Fei Mingjing had to dismount and surrender. Hundreds of soldiers knelt on the ground and begged for surrender.

Li Jing was overjoyed and took Yulin County without any bloodshed, opening a good start for his Western Expedition.

Qin Hongwu immediately ordered the two thousand defenders of Fuchang County and Yunzhong and Liangu to surrender. The Turkish wolf-headed flags were pulled off from all over Yulin County and replaced them with the Qinglong Red Flag of the Northern Sui Dynasty.

Li Jing immediately appointed Du Huan as the prefect of Yulin County and Meng Shouyi as the county magistrate. He ordered the two of them to mobilize the people to increase the thickness of the city walls, and ordered the Huya Lang general Wei Yincheng to lead an army of 5,000 to guard Yulin County.

Three days later, Li Jing led his army to leave Yulin County and fought along the south bank of the Yellow River to Wuyuan County thousands of miles away.

.........

A dramatic scene in Loufan County was born. Seven days ago, the Turkic army retreated westward, and the Sui and Tang dynasties followed, but seven days later, the Sui and Tang dynasties retreated eastward, while the Turkic army chased after them.

The key is that Zhang Xuan saw through the Turkic army that could not cross the river and fled west, and just wanted to lead himself to the west and wiped out all his annihilation. He stopped chasing and led his army back to Jingle County.

At the same time, Qi Liang, a general of the Northern Sui Navy, led a hundred winding boats to the surface of the Yellow River in Loufan County, completely cutting off the idea of ​​Chuluo Khan's crossing the river and retreating west. Considering that the cattle and sheep they carried could last the army for at most half a month, Chuluo Khan burned his boat and fought back to Jingle County regardless of everything. In any case, they wanted to fight the Sui army to the death, which was their only hope for survival.

But Zhang Xuan refused to fight the Turkic army at this time. He continued to lead his army to retreat south and returned to the previous camp. The Turkic army still had 90,000 cavalry, and Zhang Xuan was not sure of winning, so playing to his strengths and avoiding his weaknesses was his choice.

He wanted to use the high walls of the military camp to kill and injure enemy soldiers as much as possible and weaken the morale of the enemy. He would not attack until the last moment and completely annihilate the Turkic army that invaded the south.

That afternoon, the sound of drums and horns whimpered more than ten miles north of the Sui army camp, and 90,000 Turkic troops came in a mighty battle.

The Sui army was already on high alert. On the wall of the camp, ten thousand Sui army opened their bows and arrows, and sharp arrows flashed coldly in the sun. Nearly a hundred heavy catapults were ready to be shot. The long arm rod could swing a thousand pounds at any time.

A thousand honeycomb heavy crossbows were lined up in three rows. This was the most mysterious and powerful long-range attack weapon of the Sui army. It would give Turkic cavalry a devastating blow at any time.

Surrounded by dozens of generals, Zhang Xuan stood on the camp wall and watched the Turkic army arrive from afar. A contemptuous smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

He turned around and said to everyone, "If I were a Turkic Khan, when Loufan Pass was cut off, I would judge the situation and give full play to the cavalry's advantage. When the Sui army headed north, they would throw their troops to give the opponent a thunder strike. They would never give the opponent a chance to build a wall. Now, after nearly half a month of struggle, they still returned to the starting point. The morale has disappeared. They lost three points in this battle."

Pei Xingyan smiled and said, "The general is right. The battle between the army is about playing to its strengths and avoiding its weaknesses. The strength of cavalry lies in its impact and fighting. The weakness of cavalry lies in abandoning its horses to attack the city. This time, the Turks were completely reversed. They continued to attack the city since the attack on Mayi County. The cavalry was sharp and they had never used it once. The failure of the Turks was already destined."

Fang Xuanling smiled aside and said, "The root cause is still in Luo Khan. This person is stubborn and self-righteous, suspicious and unwise, and his colleagues are indecisive, merciless and mean, and cannot see through the overall situation. Shibi Khan's army of 400,000 attacks Yanmen County. When the army of kings from all over the country arrived and had not yet confronted him, Shibi Khan knew that the situation was going to go, and led his army to retreat north, which was a big view.

Chuluo Khan was short-sighted. He knew that the Sui and Tang Dynasties had sufficient preparations for war and suffered heavy losses in Mayi County, but he did not want to retreat north and continued to go south to plunder wealth. He made mistakes again and again. This is because he did not understand the overall situation and did not know how to advance or retreat. Such people are the lord of the grassland. No wonder so many people were not convinced of him and wanted to replace him. This is also God favoring our Northern Sui."

The words made the generals very energetic. They rubbed their hands and wanted to go into battle immediately with the Turkic army.

Zhang Xuan said lightly: "We will never take a step forward until the Turkic army is completely exhausted." (To be continued.)8
Chapter completed!