My father, King Chu, was besieged at Gaixia

Chapter 163: Suicide as a token of gratitude

Chapter 163: Suicide as a token of gratitude
After an unknown amount of time, Xiang Chang finally opened his eyes, which were bloodshot, and spoke in a sinister tone: "Oh, you don't dare to enter the account? He should commit suicide to apologize! He and Zhongli Mei have killed tens of thousands of my soldiers. He and Zhongli Mei will never be forgiven!"

While cursing, Xiang Chang walked out of the tent in a rage.

Anyone could see from this posture that the eldest son was going to disobey again and kill his elders!
"General!" As Xiang Chang walked out of the tent, Qu Fu suddenly knelt on one knee to stop him, and raised his hands high, "Just now, in your name, I have ordered Xiang Guan to leave this place and go to the Overlord to apologize."

Xiang Chang was stunned for a moment, then became even angrier. He drew his sword with a swish and was about to kill Qu Fu, who had taken the initiative to falsely pass on military orders!

However, when the long sword was halfway through, Xiang Chang groaned and pulled it back abruptly, shouting: "Next time you act on your own, I will kill you!"

Qu Fu was almost scared to death at this moment. After hearing these words, he knew that the matter was over as he knew Xiang Chang well. He breathed a sigh of relief and felt that his underwear was completely wet.

Meng Xia was full of admiration and gave him the thumbs up again and again.

Meng Xia obviously saw that the reason why Qu Fu was willing to send Xiang Guan away by falsely passing on the military order despite the anger of Xiang Chang was not to save Xiang Guan's life, but to prevent Xiang Chang from being branded as the murderer of his uncle! After all, the defeat was already certain, and beheading Xiang Guan would not help.

Xiang Chang stopped at the last moment, obviously he was keenly aware of this.

Xiang Chang looked far to the south at the dark old Chu land shrouded in the endless night. His face was angry and gloomy as if water was about to drip from it!

All the generals were silent, and the air was filled with an astonishing and uncomfortable dullness and silence.

"It seems that the Jiujiang Kingdom is determined to serve Liu Bang as a dog! Very good! In that case, there is no need for it to exist! Qu Fu, Tian Jian, Han Hu, Huang Zhong, each of you leads an army and divides the troops into several routes. After entering the Jiujiang Kingdom, you must sweep every city! And what to do after taking the city, you all know it, right?" Xiang Chang's words were filled with murderous intent as deep as the sea, and the chill he emitted corroded the soul.

Zhongli Meigang suffered a great defeat due to the division of his troops, but Xiang Chang did not care at all and continued to follow his old ways - this was certainly not because he had the same arrogance as him.

When Xiang Chang personally led 30,000 cavalrymen to Jiujiang, Chen Xi, who had long heard of his reputation, cautiously gathered all his troops, retreated into Yinling County, and quietly waited for the final battle with him.

Therefore, it can be said that the current Jiujiang Kingdom, except for the area near Yinling County, has few military forces in other cities and has been temporarily abandoned by Chen Xi.

As for the aristocratic families of the Jiujiang Kingdom, they were deeply tied to Chen Xi, so naturally they all brought their family's private soldiers and followed Chen Xi to retreat to Yinling.

Chen Xi expected that facing such a great defeat by Zhongli Mei, Xiang Chang, who was young and full of vigor, would definitely rush to Yinling County to fight him to the death. However, Xiang Chang was so calm that he did not let his hatred cloud his mind and choose to attack Yinling immediately. Instead, he calmly and cautiously adopted a strategy of steady and steady progress.

Generals Qu Fu and others were suddenly cheered up and nodded vigorously at the same time.

Han Hu, who was originally a general under Zhou Yin and was born in the land of old Chu, smiled grimly: "Don't worry, we will do the job! Every time we capture a city, we will uproot the noble families in the city and clean them all up."

"Not only that, we will also refer to the methods implemented in Zhuo County and Ji County. We will plunder all their family's private wealth, capture all the remaining family members, and let the people in the city kill them! As long as we kill the people, we can share the land, real estate, shops, and workshops of these aristocratic families." Tian Jian also interrupted and sneered happily.

"That's right! Didn't all these noble lords run to Yinling? They ran away, but their roots are still there. Hehe, they thought that they could return safely to the city where their family is located after the war, just like in the past, and continue to drive and enslave the people, become high officials, and ride big horses! I can only say that they are wrong this time!" Huang Zhong also growled in a rough voice.

Qu Fu was also born into an old Chu aristocratic family, and naturally belonged to the same camp as the aristocratic families in Chu. But now seeing that Xiang Chang was ruthless and wanted to thoroughly plow through the aristocratic families in all the cities of Jiujiang Kingdom, eliminate them all and carry out a major blood transfusion, he could not help but be shocked and felt very sorry.

The ancestors of each of these noble families had been wealthy, and some were even famous. But after being manipulated by Xiang Chang, their roots were completely cut off!

Qu Fu opened his mouth to dissuade him, but when he thought of the defeat of Zhongli Mei's army and the death of Ji Bu of Youjiang Army, he finally sighed and closed his mouth dejectedly.

Xiang Chang glanced at him and suddenly said, "General Qu Fu will stay with me and temporarily command my personal guards in place of General Meng Xia. General Meng Xia will lead an army to attack Jiujiang."

Qu Fu was stunned for a moment, then he smiled bitterly and shook his head, completely giving up the thought in his mind.

Originally, he planned to leave some roots for these aristocratic families after capturing the city, but he did not expect that Xiang Chang saw through his plan and directly revoked his right to lead the troops.

Qu Fu was also angry, thinking angrily: "You brought all this upon yourselves. The situation at Gaixia was already clear enough, but you still followed the Han camp to the end. You deserve it! Maybe you were forced by Chen Xi. Since you are afraid of Chen Xi, you are obviously not afraid of the Great Chu. You must be happy to be cut off like this! From now on, you can only wish for the best."

Qu Fu, who now respected Xiang Chang like a god, immediately realized that he was too sympathetic to the noble families of the old Chu. Although they all came from the same origin, they were now in the enemy camp and could not tolerate any warmth. Xiang Chang was tolerant and did not blame him, but he immediately became alert, quickly adjusted his mentality, and secretly cut ties with these noble families.

In the following days, Xiang Chang led 10,000 cavalry troops to advance in the middle, slowly heading towards Yinling. The other four generals, including Tian Jian, led four armies in four directions, advancing in unison, and continuously captured cities one after another.

After the conquest, according to the established strategy, without any distinction, all the remaining members of the noble families in the city were captured, and all the wealth, land and women were collected. Then the people in the city and the slaves of these noble families were summoned. Anyone who dared to kill would be rewarded immediately. Women were given to women, land was given to land, and wealth was given to wealth...

Profits move people, and great rewards will attract brave men! The Chu army, which had already mastered this set of tactics, had almost formed an assembly line operation, and it could be said that the implementation was extremely smooth.

In this way, cities were captured one after another - but the capture this time was different from the past. These cities undoubtedly became the iron territories of the Great Chu camp!

When the Chu army captured more than a dozen cities, Yinling County immediately received the news. The noble families in the city were all in an uproar, filled with shock and anger, and indignation.

They gathered at the city lord's mansion and besieged the chief general Chen Xi. Some of them shouted that Chen Xi should send out troops immediately to beat the Great Chu army like he did to Zhongli Mei's army, and smash them into pieces. This was because the family's roots had been cut off by the Great Chu. Some of them shouted that they should withdraw the family's private soldiers and rush back to the city where the family was located to protect the family members and family property. This was because the city where the family was located was imminent and was about to be captured. Some of them advocated asking Liu Bang for help immediately and asked him to bring troops to rescue. This was because the family's city was temporarily safe, but the prospects were obviously not good. Chen Xi, who was under siege, had a headache from the noise, and he naturally did not accept any of these words.

At present, the 10,000 Chu cavalry led by Xiang Chang had leisurely arrived in front of the city, eagerly waiting for him to come out of the city for a battle - he must be crazy to choose to fight the Chu cavalry in the field!
But if they did not go to war, the troops dispatched by Xiang Chang would keep swallowing up one city after another. He could bear it, but the noble lords gathered in the city could not!

So Chen Xi miraculously found himself in a dilemma.

He never expected Xiang Chang to do this. Instead of attacking the city, he forced Chen Xi to fight outside the city. Chen Xi truly felt how difficult Xiang Chang was!
"This wild boar is in trouble now. There must be a big commotion in the city right now. I'm afraid this guy will be held hostage by the nobles gathered in the city and will have to choose to fight us in the field." Qu Fu accompanied Xiang Chang, and circled around Yinling County under the protection of the guards, spying on the movements in the city, and said in a relaxed tone.

Xiang Chang, who was riding on the big black horse, couldn't help looking at Yinling City. Hearing this, he slowly shook his head and said, "This wild boar is also a ruthless person. I'm afraid he won't easily change his established strategy."

Qu Fu was shocked and said hesitantly, "How dare this guy go against the will of the world and kill all the nobles who supported him with all their strength?!"

Xiang Chang remained silent and returned to the camp, ordering: "Use the following infantry to bring enough siege equipment and come quickly without delay."

Xiang Chang originally wanted to force Chen Xi to go out of the city for a battle in the field, but now he no longer has this extravagant hope, and instead decided to attack the city.

Of course, even if we attack the city, we have to do it after all the enemies in Jiujiang Kingdom are wiped out.

Over the next month, a strange scene appeared outside Yinling City. The 10,000 Chu cavalrymen neither attacked the city nor retreated. They stayed outside the city every day without moving, and it seemed that they were going to wear out the defenders in the city.

The defenders in the key city also miraculously remained silent. They did not go out of the city to fight in the field, but remained trapped in the city, watching the cities of the Jiujiang Kingdom being swallowed up one after another and returned to the Chu camp.

Just as Xiang Chang had guessed, facing the pressure from the nobles in the city, Chen Xi suddenly took drastic measures and sent his own troops to kill the six or seven most violent nobles in public, and the rest were all locked up.

Without these nobles causing trouble, Chen Xi finally managed to monopolize power and stubbornly fought against the Chu army.

Just when all the cities of Jiujiang Kingdom fell into the hands of Da Chu, 20,000 infantrymen of Da Chu also rushed over from Yan and Pengcheng with siege equipment. Yinling County completely became an isolated city. Chen Xi in the city obviously didn't have much time left but still chose to hold on. Xiang Chang suddenly felt that something was wrong!

Just as he was thinking hard about what conspiracy this guy could have, the shoe finally dropped. A scout from the Great Chu came running from Huaiyang County with a panicked look on his face, bringing a shocking news.

Li Shang, who defeated Zhongli Mei together with Chen Xi, secretly led a cavalry army to raid Chen County in Huaiyang County and captured it in one fell swoop.

The reason why this news is so shocking is that at this time, the Overlord personally led a large army and marched straight in to pursue Liu Bang's army all the way to the Honggou area of ​​the Honggou Alliance!
The cities and counties he passed through were afraid of his reputation and the sharpness of the Chu army, so the city guards and county magistrates surrendered one after another. Chen County was one of them.

Li Ji, the county magistrate of Chen County, was originally a general under the Overlord. After the Overlord and Liu Bang signed the Treaty of Honggou, they led their troops to retreat, and the Han army also broke their promise and took the opportunity to pursue them. In order to escape the pursuit of the Han army, the Chu army, led by the Overlord, launched a counterattack in Guling.

After Liu Bang lost the first battle, he held his ground in Guling with deep trenches and high fortifications to hold back the Chu army. At the same time, he sent messengers to lure Han Xin and Peng Yue to join the expedition with the bait of fiefdoms.

Xiang Yu was defeated and retreated to Chen County. Li Ji, who was the county magistrate of Chen County at that time, did not flee with Xiang Yu, but chose to surrender to Liu Bang like a smart bird.

In the past, after the Overlord was destroyed, he was also named Yingchuan Marquis by Liu Bang. But later, because he was afraid of being eliminated by Liu Bang, he rebelled against the Han Dynasty and was eventually killed by Liu Bang.

It was this kind of person who betrayed his former master. After the Overlord attacked, he opened the city gates, shamelessly abandoned the Han camp again and surrendered to the Chu.

Such a person who was fickle should be killed immediately, but the king was too soft-hearted and too soft-hearted. After all, Li Ji was a general under him, and when he knelt down and begged with tears, he let him go.

It would have been fine if they had let him go, but they actually still let him serve as the county magistrate of Chen County. So when Li Shang led an army to launch a surprise attack, they cooperated with him from inside and outside, and easily captured Chen County again.

Chen County is geographically very important, as Chen Sheng's kingdom was originally built here. But now that it has been lost, the food supply of the Overlord's army has been cut off, and his retreat has been cut off, making it possible for the Overlord's army, which was so powerful and arrogant, to repeat the old story of "the defeat at Guling"!

Therefore, upon hearing the news, the generals under Xiang Chang were all panicked. They also suddenly understood why Chen Xi had been defending the isolated city of Yinling and remained indifferent until now. It seemed that his purpose was to delay Xiang Chang and buy time to make it easier for Li Shang and Li Ji to act.

"My Lord, let this pig be proud for a while, and then quickly go and retake Chen County! Otherwise, the Overlord's army will be in danger!" Qu Fu said urgently with a tremor in his voice.

"Xiang Chang, are you going to retreat now? Hahaha, you'd better be careful on the way, don't get kicked in the butt by our General Chen!" Suddenly, the mocking and triumphant shouts of Chen Xi's soldiers were heard on the top of the city wall.

Inside the tent, all the generals were furious when they heard what was said, and their fists were clenched so hard that they made crackling sounds.

The threatening meaning of the shout from the top of the city wall was self-evident. The wild boar had been trapped for so long, obviously waiting for this moment.

Now the situation has changed, and the Chu army is eager to retreat. How could this wild boar let it go easily and not follow it? Once Xiang Chang's army is entangled or even defeated in one fell swoop, the situation in the Han camp will undoubtedly recover, and the Chu army will inevitably decline again.

(End of this chapter)

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