Chapter 256: Gao Tang’s fall

After Wang Ti was killed by Li Jiqian and others, Liu Ying saw that the Zhao army had landed one after another, and knew that it would be futile to stay here. He immediately led the remaining troops back to Gaotang City. In this battle, the Qi army suffered heavy losses. Before coming, there were 50,000 people. Later, the Song people rebelled, with more than 10,000 people. In addition, Wang Ti was killed and the Zhao army attacked, the losses exceeded 20,000 people. Liu Ying only brought more than 10,000 people back to Gaotang City.

After Liu Ying retreated, Li Jiqian took a group of Song people to clean up the battlefield. After Zhao Xin landed on the shore, Li Jiqian brought Guan Jun, Hu Yansong and Zhao Xuan to Zhao Xin and bowed to him, "The last general Li Jiqian (Guan Jun, Hu Yansong, Zhao Xuan) to see General Zhao Xin!"

Thanks to Li Jiqian and others in this battle, the Zhao army was able to easily break through the Yellow River defense line and land on the Central Plains. Zhao Xin was in a good mood at this moment and said with a smile: "Okay, General Li did a good job, and I will fulfill my promise. In the future, whether you want to join the army or return to Jibei, but this will only last until the war is over."

"Thank you General!" Li Jiqian and others were overjoyed. Zhao Xin was indeed a trustworthy person. As for the war, Li Jiqian and others could understand it. After all, Jibei is still in the hands of Qi, and they can't go back.

After Zhao Xin arrived, tens of thousands of Zhao troops also landed one after another. After Zhao Xin took a break, he led a large army to Gaotang City. At this time, Liu Ying had returned to Gaotang City. The Zhao army arrived in an instant, leaving Liu Ying with little time. Once Gaotang was lost, the entire Yellow River defense line would collapse immediately. What Liu Ying could do now is to defend Gaotang to delay time, and at the same time send a fast horse to notify Han Qing.

Less than half an hour after the fast horse left, Zhao Xin led tens of thousands of Zhao troops to the city. The Gaotang City is now in panic. There are less than 20,000 people in the entire city, and it has just been defeated. The morale is at the bottom of the valley. It is a dream to block the Zhao army's attack, but Liu Ying dared not retreat. Now the troops and horses in various parts of the Yellow River defense line have not yet reacted. Once the Gaotang is gone, they will easily be defeated by the Zhao army one by one, so Liu Ying must defend Gaotang City to the end and delay time.

After arriving at Gaotang City, Zhao Xin sent someone to the city to persuade him to surrender. Liu Ying had to think about it for several days before he could give a reply. After hearing this, Zhao Xin couldn't help but smile. It was time for Liu Ying to be so late and he was still thinking about delaying the time. It was so whimsical.

Zhao Xin understood that Liu Ying said this to delay the time when the Zhao army conquered Gaotang so that Han Qing could respond, but how could Zhao Xin give him this opportunity? So Zhao Xin ordered that if Liu Ying did not surrender, he would immediately attack the city.

An hour passed quickly. Zhao Xin looked at Liu Ying, who had no intention of opening the city, and lost his patience and ordered the siege. Liu Ying on the top of the city looked at Zhao's army rushing in the city, and was also numb and ordered the soldiers to fight back.

However, Gaotang City only has more than 10,000 people, and there are many injured and low morale. How can it stop tens of thousands of Zhao troops like tigers and wolves? Although Liu Ying has led his troops to fight to the death, it is futile. After only half a day of resistance, Gaotang City Gate was blown away by the Zhao army. Liu Ying and his more than 10,000 soldiers were killed in battle. However, the Zhao army was not happy, with more than 30,000 casualties. However, all this was worthwhile in Zhao Xin's opinion. Once the Gaotang was broken, the Yellow River Defense Line of Qi and Wei collapsed, and hundreds of thousands of Zhao troops in the north of the plain could land in the Central Plains continuously through Gaotang. Finally, it was time to sweep Qi and Wei.

In Gaotang County Government, Zhao Xin sat in the main seat, and there were a group of generals below. It is worth mentioning that in order to show his importance to Li Jiqian and others, Zhao Xin directly let Li Jiqian sit in the first place on the left, while Guan Jun, Hu Yansong and Zhao Xuan followed closely behind.

Since meeting Zhao Xin, Li Jiqian has received courtesy that he had never felt in Qi, which made Li Jiqian and others grateful to Zhao Xin. It is also a powerful country in the world, and Qi and Zhao are really not a little worse than Zhao. It seems that Qi will definitely lose this battle.

Thinking of this, Li Jiqian and others remembered their family members in Jibei. Because they were excluded in Linzi, Li Jiqian and others sent their family members back to Jibei. Now, because of their turn against each other, the Qi army was defeated. Li Jiqian and others were very worried that Qi would be detrimental to their families, so Li Jiqian said to Zhao Xin: "General, Jibei is our hometown. We have a lot of prestige in Jibei. The last general asks to lead our troops to take Jibei!"

Zhao Xin could see at a glance that Li Jiqian and others had a little bit of a heart, but he also expressed his understanding. Moreover, attacking Jibei was also in Zhao Xin's plan. With the leadership of locals like Li Jiqian, it was easy for Zhao's army to take down the entire Jibei. So he nodded and said, "Okay, since General Li is willing to attack Jibei, I will definitely not be unreasonable. Let's do this. Now General Li has only more than 10,000 people in his headquarters, and Jibei borders. I am afraid that General Li's troops are insufficient. I will give you some more troops and 30,000 people. I think you can take a look?"

When Li Jiqian heard this, he was overjoyed. Unexpectedly, Zhao Xin not only agreed to his suggestion to attack Jibei, but also supplemented his troops. This was really a surprise.

Li Jiqian said: "Thank you General!"

After Li Jiqian and others went down, they did not take any rest and took 30,000 people straight to Lu County, the capital of Jibei. Li Jiqian and others were all important officials and generals of the Song State in the past, and their prestige in Jibei was even higher than that of the King of Song. As soon as they arrived at the city of Lu County, the people killed the county magistrate and the county magistrate. The county magistrate opened the city gate to Li Jiqian. Li Jiqian took less than ten days to capture the entire Jibei County.

After Li Jiqian took over Jibei County, Zhao Xin asked Li Jiqian to station in Jibei and threatened the rear of Wei. Li Jiqian and other Song people were very satisfied with Zhao Xin's orders. In this way, they would not have to go to the battlefield to fight desperately, but could still stay in Jibei to reunite with their families. Suddenly, Zhao Xin's image in the hearts of the Song people such as Li Jiqian became much taller.

On the south bank of the Yellow River, the main camp of Qi army. Han Qing learned that Li Jiqian and others turned against each other, Gao Tang fell, Wang Pi and Liu Ying died in battle, and tens of thousands of troops were wiped out. He threw everything in the central army's tent to vent his anger. He couldn't understand why these surrendered generals betrayed Qi one by one. Qi State was defeated twice because of these surrendered generals. The first time was because of the rebellion of the Long brothers and Zhang Di's departure, the Qi army was insufficient in sufficient force and had to retreat south. This time, it was because of the betrayal of the surrendered generals of the Song State such as Li Jiqian, which led to the destruction of the Yellow River defense line he had carefully arranged. It was really outrageous.

But no matter how annoyed Han Qing was, it would be useless. Now that the Zhao army has crossed the Yellow River, the entire Yellow River defense line is over, Han Qing must find another way out. Therefore, after careful consideration, Han Qing decided to defend the city to the death. Now all the surrendered generals of Song Chu are no longer there, and no one else will fight back and cause the Qi army to be defeated, defending the city to the old city of Zhao Junshi, and not continuing the logistics. This battle can be turned into victory.

So Zhao Xin ordered the troops to retreat into the city, strengthen the walls and clear the fields, and wait for the Zhao army, while he himself led the main force to retreat into the county.

Han Qing was ready to go all out and waited for the arrival of the main force of the Zhao army, but Zhao Xin did the opposite. Instead of attacking the city of Qi, he left a group of troops to garrison Gaotang City, waiting for the arrival of other Zhao troops. He led 100,000 Zhao troops to rush towards Wei. Among these 100,000 people, there were 50,000 Zhao cavalry. Now Wei did not know that Gaotang had fallen and Zhao army had crossed the river. Zhao Xin was about to catch the Wei army off guard. If he could destroy the 100,000 Wei army in Pang Kuo's hand, then the whole country of Wei would be at his fingertips.
Chapter completed!