Chapter 137: Defeating the Enemy! (4k)
"Military Lord! This is the news from the nearby market."
The Rouran spy reported the information he had obtained in the market to the Rouran military leader in front of him.
The military leader's surname was Yujiulü and his given name was Brahman. From his surname, we can tell that he was a relative of the Rouran king Yujiulü Anagui. In terms of blood relationship, he was Anagui's cousin.
Before Anagui, the Khan of Rouran was his elder brother Yujiulü Chounu. Due to internal turmoil in Rouran, Anagui's cousin Yujiulü Shifa killed Chounu, leading to the division of Rouran.
Although Yujiulü Shifa defeated the Anagui brothers, he had no reputation on the grassland. On the contrary, the Anagui brothers were outstanding in their abilities and bearing.
When Anagui led his people to Luoyang, a Yuefu poem was popular in Luoyang to praise his arrival in Luoyang: "It is said that there is a Xiongnu leader, and the riders raise dust. They stand at Changping Slope and drive their horses to Weiqiao."
More importantly, after Yujiulü proclaimed himself Khan, he launched an attack on his old rivals, the Gaoche people, on the grassland. However, he was defeated in several major battles, which further undermined his prestige.
What was even more fatal was that during the last attack on Gaoche, Yujiulü was shot by an arrow in the battle. Although he escaped back to Rouran, the arrow wound was now bursting out and he could not even ride a horse, let alone lose control of the various tribes.
The military leaders of the royal tent tribe, led by Yujiulü Brahmin, secretly contacted Anagui who had fled to Luoyang, and expressed their willingness to welcome him back to the grassland and support him as Khan to overthrow Yujiulü Shifa.
This is why Yujiulü Brahmin led 5,000 elite Rouran troops to sneak into Hengzhou to prepare for the plan to welcome Anagui.
The spy said, "There are rumors in the market that the Great Wei Yu Lin Xiao Wei had an affair with the Princess Shou Yang, and after the Khan found out, the thief Su led his men to attack the Khan."
Yujiulu Brahmin asked quickly: "And then?"
"I heard that Khan was seriously injured, and because of the urgent battle on the front line, Li Chong led the army north first and left Khan in Pingcheng for treatment."
"what!"
Yujilu Brahmin stood up. Now the tribes on the grassland were in chaos and they needed a prestigious Khan to unite the people.
Anagui had been canonized by the Northern Wei court, was the heir to the previous Khan, and had a princess marrying him, so he was naturally the best candidate.
Although Yujilu Brahmin had no good intentions, he planned to use Anagui's prestige to integrate the various tribes after he welcomed him and supported Anagui to become Khan, and then he would control the grassland through Anagui.
If Anagui died in Pingcheng, wouldn't all my work be in vain?
"What about Suze who injured the Khan?"
The spy quickly said, "I heard that he was also imprisoned in Pingcheng by Li Chong, awaiting the decision of the Wei court."
Yujiulu Brahmin turned his eyes and asked, "Where is the Princess Shouyang who was married to the emperor?"
The spy was stunned for a moment, thought for a moment and said, "It seems that he also stayed in Pingcheng."
Yujiulu Brahmin immediately had a new idea!
If he attacked Pingcheng now and took advantage of the chaos to kill Anagui and Su Ze, given the nature of the Wei court, the princess's adultery with a minister was a family scandal, and it would be legitimate for him to take revenge. If he then forcibly married Princess Shouyang, the Wei court would have to confer the title and posthumously recognize him as the King of Rouran.
By then, he would have the claim and the beauty, and he would have "avenged" Anagui. As long as he defeated the seriously injured Yujiulü Shifa when he returned, Yujiulü Brahmin would become the real Khan of Rouran!
As for the affair between Princess Shouyang and Su Ze? Which grassland man cares about this!
Yujiulu Brahman only had one last thing to confirm, so he said to the spy, "Quickly send someone to Pingcheng to investigate! Once Li Chong's army goes north, immediately gather the troops to attack Pingcheng!"
In the following days, Yujiulu Brahmin did not receive any news from Anagui, but the rumors became more and more intense, with more and more details.
Even the details of Su Ze's secret meeting with the princess were leaked. These kinds of gossips and dirty jokes between men and women always spread the fastest.
The gossips that included the Rouran Khan, the princess, the royal guards, and murder for love and revenge grew wildly in Hengzhou like weeds. When the spies reported to Yujiulü Brahman that Li Chong's army in Pingcheng had already marched northward, Yujiulü Brahman could no longer bear it.
Yujiulü Brahmin sent his men to gather all the cavalry of the Rouran royal tent scattered in Hengzhou, preparing to attack Pingcheng immediately after Li Chong left Hengzhou!
The news of Li Chong's army heading north could not be hidden from anyone. The closer Yujiulü Brahmin got to Pingcheng, the more news he got, and he became more certain that Li Chong had led his troops north.
The closer they got to Naping City, the more detailed the gossip about Su Ze, Anagui and Princess Shouyang became. Yujiulü Brahmin even found out about several people who had "personally witnessed" the incident that night, and their accounts of the incident were also filled with detailed information.
For example, when Su Ze's affair with Princess Shouyang was exposed and the King of Rourun came to confront them, Su Ze took the initiative and led his men to attack the King of Rourun.
Fortunately, General Li Chong arrived in time and rescued the seriously injured Rouran King. He also ordered Su Ze to be imprisoned in Pingcheng.
There is also a saying that Princess Shouyang threatened to commit suicide to prevent Li Chong from punishing Su Ze.
There are also reports that Princess Shouyang felt guilty and served Anagui day and night without taking off her clothes.
Anyway, the news that Yujiulü Brahmin heard was that the Rouran King Anagui, Su Ze and Princess Shouyang were all in Pingcheng and had not left.
After confirming the news, Yujiulu Brahmin no longer hesitated and immediately assembled troops near Pingcheng, preparing to attack Pingcheng!
Pingcheng had been peaceful for a long time and was an important channel for trade in the north. In order to facilitate transactions for merchants, Pingcheng even opened a market near the city wall, and sometimes the city gates were not closed day or night.
Moreover, Hengzhou was a mixed population of Hu and Han people, and the Rouran people could disguise themselves as merchants and sneak into the city. As long as they cooperated internally and externally, they could quickly capture Pingcheng.
These have been researched and confirmed by Yujiulu Brahmin, and he even sneaked into Pingcheng to investigate a few months ago. This is why he was willing to lead his troops into Hengzhou to meet Anagui.
Now that Li Chong's army has left, he will launch a surprise attack into Pingcheng, kill Su Ze and Anagui, seize the princess and force Li Chong to surrender, and let the Wei court enthrone him as the Khan of Rouran. In this way, he will have status, money, food, weapons, and beauties. Then, when he leads the Rouran people who invaded the northern border back to the royal tent, he can naturally become the new Khan!
Thinking of this, Yujiulu Brahmin's breathing became rapid. He ordered his elite men to dress up as merchants, and he led his troops to hide on the main roads near Pingcheng. He would sneak into the city tomorrow and prepare to capture it!
-
[Scout Group A discovered the Rouran camp! ]
[Scout Group B discovered the Rouran camp! ] Seeing the system's prompt, Su Ze finally breathed a sigh of relief. This group of Rouran people finally arrived.
The spread of gossip and rumors was faster than he had imagined. The [Gossip Yulin Army] was indeed professional. The rumors he made up perfectly met the elements of communication and spread quickly along the caravans traveling to and from Hengzhou.
In fact, the success of this set of measures in Hengzhou is also due to the developed trade routes of Hengzhou as a whole.
Nomadic peoples are completely different from self-sufficient farming peoples. Unlike farming peoples who prefer to emphasize agriculture and suppress commerce, nomadic peoples often have an ambiguous attitude towards merchants.
Any grassland tribe has to rely on caravans to exchange necessities. Generally speaking, the regimes established by nomadic peoples are more tolerant of commercial activities.
In the early Northern Wei Dynasty, it was common for officials and the military to engage in business. It was not until Emperor Xiaowen began to sinicize and "dismiss all merchants" that the connection between merchants and the government and the military was nominally severed.
However, as the old capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Pingcheng still has a strong commercial atmosphere.
There are even more markets of all sizes in Hengzhou than those near Luoyang. Caravans travel between tribes, selling all kinds of necessities to the tribes and purchasing livestock and other products from them.
So what is counterintuitive is that the speed at which news spread in Hengzhou is even faster than in the capital area of Luoyang.
The last part of Su Ze's plan was to persuade Li Chong to stay in Pingcheng and wait to snipe the Rouran army.
Yu Jin didn't know how Su Ze convinced Li Chong. In the end, Li Chong not only let the one thousand men led by Su Ze stay in Pingcheng, but also allocated another three thousand men to him for command. Together with the garrison in Pingcheng, a total of five thousand men were handed over to Su Ze.
The scout team estimated that the Rouran army had about 5,000 people, which was similar to Su Ze's estimate. If there were too many people to sneak into Hengzhou, it would make too much noise, and if there were too few people, they would not be able to attack Pingcheng.
Su Ze was still a little nervous. He and Yu Jin studied tactics until late at night, repeatedly confirming various details to lure and ambush the Rouran army that was attacking Pingcheng.
-
The next morning, Yujilu Brahmin's warriors disguised themselves as merchants, hid their weapons in trucks, pushed the carts to the gate of Pingcheng, and lined up to enter the city.
Pingcheng is the strategic point of Hengzhou. A large number of merchant caravans were already queuing up before daybreak. The warriors of Yujiulü Brahmin could only queue up and wait to enter the city.
The clerk guarding the city gate was obviously one of the common cunning clerks. He didn't even bother to look at the goods. He lay on the straw mat with a large sun umbrella. Naturally, his soldiers came forward to demand bribes.
Everything was the same as the last time Yujiulu Brahmin sneaked into Pingcheng. Yujiulu Brahmin's assassins also lined up obediently, weighing how much bribe to give.
What they didn't know was that this cunning clerk's eyes were rolling around, sizing up the merchants entering the city.
As a [Corrupted Western Merchant] with the [Corruption] attribute and a blue-quality follower, he has rich experience in traveling around the country.
He could tell who was a real businessman and who was a fake businessman at a glance by the way they bribed.
Su Ze and Yu Jin discussed and deduced the plan of the Rouran people. Pingcheng is a city after all, and the grassland army lacks the means to attack the city. The only way to capture Pingcheng is to send people to infiltrate Pingcheng and capture Pingcheng with internal and external cooperation.
To this end, Su Ze took two steps. First, he sent [military judges with strict law enforcement] to patrol the military camp in Pingcheng and catch the spies who had infiltrated the city. Second, he sent followers with corrupt entries to guard the city gates. Sure enough, he discovered this group of assassins who were preparing to infiltrate Pingcheng.
Su Ze, who was already waiting in the city at this time, saw the prompt messages on the system one after another, and sighed that his cheat had become so powerful that if he still couldn't win, he would just kill himself.
After Yujilu Brahmin's soldiers entered the city gate, they immediately took out the weapons hidden in the carts and quickly controlled the city gate. Then they shot out whistling arrows as a signal. Yujilu Brahmin, who was ambushing outside the city, immediately led 200 elite cavalrymen and rushed directly into the city gate.
Brahmin Yujiulu was so nervous that he felt dazed even when he rode his horse and stopped on the main road of Pingcheng.
The old capital of the Wei Dynasty, the important Hengzhou, was occupied by himself just like that?
No, he had to take control of the government offices and military camps inside Pingcheng as soon as possible, as well as the other city gates, to truly control Pingcheng!
But standing on the main road of Pingcheng, Yujiulü Brahmin sensed something strange again.
It's so quiet.
Normally, the last time I came to Pingcheng, this avenue was busy with traffic, and there were mobile vendors parked on the side of the road to sell their wares, as well as banners of shops encroaching on the streets to do business.
Even if you enter the city by yourself and scare away the vendors, the streets are so clean!
Both sides of the wide street were completely cleared, and not even a single person could be seen.
Yujiulu Brahmin instinctively sensed the danger, but just as he reacted, he saw a group of figures appear at the far end of the street.
The armored cavalrymen, fully covered in armor, flashed a dark metallic luster in the sun. The leading [Calm Armored Cavalryman] looked at the Rouran cavalry in the distance, covered his face with the visor, and raised his right hand high!
He struck his breastplate with his right hand, making a buzzing metallic sound. The twenty riders behind him also struck their breastplates, creating a subtle resonance.
Then the armored cavalrymen's horses began to move slowly.
Even the warhorse that Su Ze carefully selected, carrying such heavy armored cavalry, needed to start slowly and accumulate kinetic energy.
But when the twenty armored cavalrymen moved forward, they really had the momentum of thousands of troops, and the entire street was shaking.
The flat and straight street was the most suitable place for the armored cavalry to charge. As the speed of this armored cavalry team increased, the city gates began to shake.
Yujiulu Brahmin finally understood where the fear came from. The ghost masks covering the faces of the armored cavalrymen were like evil ghosts crawling out of hell, rushing towards the Rouran elite cavalry behind him.
Immediately afterwards, the Rouran soldiers who were thought to have controlled the city gate were suddenly attacked. A shield-axeman suddenly emerged from the secret passage of the city gate. He shouted and rushed forward. The shield-swordmen behind him immediately followed and killed most of the Rouran soldiers who were only wearing light armor.
[Reckless Shield Axeman] cut off the rope controlling the city gate with one sword. The rope of the city gate controlled by the machine rose quickly and the city gate slowly closed.
Swordsmen and archers poured out of the barracks on the city wall and quickly recaptured the city wall. Outside the city, Su Ze personally led the army and appeared behind the Rouran army.
A melodious military call sounded, Su Ze drew out his sword, pointed it at the rear of the Rouran cavalry, and shouted, "We will defeat the enemy today!"
(End of this chapter)