On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 536 The Fall of Daxing City

There is no need to worry about whether it was Yu Wenshu who abandoned the city, Gao Jiong, or whether they both ran away together.

In Cui Che's view, the occurrence of such a situation has shown how pessimistic and negative the attitude towards the defense of the city is now after the defenders in the city were bombarded for more than a month.

Cui Che was even more confident about winning Daxing. He said to the generals:

"Our army has been besieging the city for a long time, and now the morale of the defenders in the city has dropped to the bottom. It's time to make a push.

"I have made up my mind. Tomorrow at exactly 8 o'clock in the morning, we will attack Daxing from three sides!"

The generals had besieged Daxing for such a long time, and their patience was almost exhausted, so they all accepted the order happily.

As the night grew darker, all the generals dispersed and returned to their camps to convey the king's orders.

On July 18th, the third year of Zhenyuan (AD 608), outside the dilapidated Daxing City, the Eastern Sui soldiers were arrayed on three sides in the north, east and south. Cloud ladders and siege engines had also been pushed to the front of the team.

Waiting for the moment to arrive.

Even though the three walls have collapsed in many places, the damage to the inner wall is not serious. A ladder will still be needed to climb over the inner wall.

The trebuchets behind him were still pounding the city non-stop, suppressing the soldiers on the city wall to the point where they couldn't even lift their heads.

Gao Jiong used the bunker to look at the Eastern Sui army outside the city. Once upon a time, relying on the strong national power of the Sui Dynasty, he was used to fighting with favorable conditions, but now he also faced such an embarrassing situation.

The panic on the faces of the defenders was clearly visible, even with a bit of relief.

Perhaps they had long been looking forward to the day when the Eastern Sui Dynasty would launch a general offensive, and it would be better for them to live in the shadow of flying rocks every day.

When the hour came, war drums were beaten from three sides, and long horns sounded continuously.

More than 100,000 Eastern Sui infantry marched irregularly and under the cover of trebuchets, approaching Daxing City from three directions.

The army approached the city wall, and the trebuchets behind them finally stopped. However, the Western Sui defenders who were able to take the lead at this time were unable to prevent the siege troops from approaching the gap in the city wall.

Gao Jiong had already made arrangements, and he calmly commanded his troops to block the Eastern Sui soldiers who were about to cross the gap.

But the result was beyond his expectation, or he had expected it but was still unwilling to face it.

The defenders of the Western Sui Dynasty collapsed at the first touch. As soon as they encountered the soldiers of the Eastern Sui Dynasty, they abandoned their helmets and armor and took out their long-collected "A Letter to the Elders of Guanxi" in order to survive.

The infantry of the Eastern Sui Dynasty were also very disciplined. As long as they put down their weapons and issued this book, they could save their lives.

Cui Che, who was watching the battle from behind, couldn't see the specific situation inside the city, but the constant flow of soldiers into the gap in the city wall showed that they were making good progress.

In fact, the outcome of this battle has already been determined.

Gao Zhao and Yu Wenshu gave up on the people of Weibei, but Cui Che did not regard them as a burden and helped the people, so that Cui Che had a large number of civilians to drive and help bombard Daxing. No matter how strong the walls of this city were, they would always be destroyed.

When smashed open.

But what can Gao Jiong and Yu Wenshu do.

Yang Guang was worried that Jiangnan and other places would be out of control and lost the confidence to compete with Cui Che in the north, so he moved south and took away the elite Guanlong troops.

The outcome of this battle had been answered as early as the moment Yang Guang left.

The two palace gates of Daxing Palace, the Xuanwu Gate to the west and the Anli Gate to the east, have all fallen. Even the Wengcheng was captured by more than 30,000 troops camped in the north.

Dou Jiande personally led all the troops in the northern camp, stormed into Daxing Palace, passed through the ruins, and successively captured Yeting Palace, Daxing Palace, East Palace and other places.

The army rushed out from Yong'an Gate to the west on the south side of Daxing Palace, Changle Gate to the east, and Chengtian Gate in the middle, and headed towards the imperial city.

The imperial city was originally the government office of the three provinces and six ministries. Now, as Yang Guang moved south, it has become vacant. The few remaining defenders are not much tougher than their comrades on the other two sides.

Perhaps it was the abandonment of the people in Weibei by Yu Wenshu, Gao Jiong and others, as well as Yang Guang's abandonment of Guanlong and moving the capital to the south, that chilled people's hearts.

Of course, it may also be that the "Letter to the Fathers of Guanxi" distributed by Cui Che completely shattered the will of the defenders.

Only they themselves know the specific answer.

When the army from the north completely captured Daxing Palace and the Imperial City, the armies from the other two sides had also entered the city.

The theoretical alleyway fighting did not occur, and the defenders simply had no determination to resist desperately.

On the day when the Eastern Sui Dynasty launched a strong attack from three sides, Daxing, the former capital of the Sui Dynasty, fell immediately.

Gao Jong did not break his promise. He did not become Cui Che's prisoner, but chose to commit suicide when the city was destroyed.

The battle was over, there were no shouts of killing, and the surroundings were extremely quiet.

Gao Jiong's body was carried in front of Cui Che.

Although he drew his sword and killed himself, his death was peaceful.

Perhaps this death also relieved the heavy burden in my heart and made me feel relaxed.

Cui Che stared at Gao Jiong's remains. Gao Jiong's face was very haggard. Thinking about it, he probably hadn't had a good night's sleep in these days.

Personally speaking, he admired Gao Jiong very much.

Yang Jian created the prosperous age of the Sui Dynasty, and Gao Jiong was truly the number one contributor in terms of both civil and martial arts.

Cui Che and Gao Jiong also knew each other quite early. He first joined the army when he was eleven years old and served as Yang Jian's secretary in the Prime Minister's Mansion. Gao Jiong, who was the Sima of the Prime Minister's Mansion at that time, had already won over him.

It's just that the two were not on the same journey after all. In the early years, Cui Che supported Yang Guang, while Gao Jun opposed Yang Guang.

Now Gao Jun supports Yang Guang, but Cui Che is the rebel leader.

Cui Che whispered:

"Maybe you and I were born to be at odds and can't get together."

With that said, Cui Che withdrew his gaze and ordered Xue to accept:

"Have a good life and bury Duke Gao well."

"promise!"

Xue Shou obeyed the order and led people to carry away Gao Jiong's body.

Cui Che adjusted his mood, took a carriage, and drove slowly into Daxing City.

There was no river of blood as imagined. After a long period of bombardment, the defenders' will to resist was extremely weak.

But there are indeed corpses everywhere. In the past month or so, many people have been killed by stones flying in the city.

The stone does not have eyes, and it cannot actively distinguish whether the people in the city are innocent or not.

Cui Che also deeply understood the pros and cons of this siege method.

The advantage is naturally that it reduces the casualties of soldiers, and can effectively attack and disintegrate the morale of the soldiers and civilians in the city.

The disadvantage is that it requires recruiting a large number of civilians, consuming a lot of food and grass, and more importantly, it will cause a large number of casualties of innocent people, and only one bombed city can be harvested after the war.

But this is war, and even modern wars in civilized societies will affect civilians, so Cui Che naturally doesn't feel guilty.

However, if it is not a last resort, this method should be used less often in the future.

This method of siege is indeed a waste of time. With so many soldiers and civilians gathered, the daily expenses are astronomical.

If Yu Wenshu hadn't plundered all the people in Weibei, Cui Che would have had to support the people of Weibei no matter whether there was a change of ownership or not. He would not have used work in exchange for relief and used such a lavish siege method.

There are only three chapters today

(End of chapter)