Chapter 765 The Last Level
For four months, a full four months, Qin Sheng led his troops in and out of the grassland seven times, and he picked out all the combat-capable tribes.
During this period, Tuoba Doji could not stand the pressure and wrote to Xie Zhan, hoping that he would send troops to attack Pingzhou, so as to share the pressure of Xianbei.
Xie Zhan simply ignored the Xianbei's request for help. He would never do such a thing as diverting trouble to someone else.
Dali's inaction made Tuoba Duoji curse Xie Zhan as "a boy who is not worthy of being consulted".
During these four months, Tuoba Doji was often extremely anxious and unable to sleep at night.
During these four months, the second son Tuoba Jin died in the territory of Dali, the seventh son was captured, and the third, fourth and sixth sons all died on the battlefield.
Now, because of the strength of the Jintai army, countless Xianbei herdsmen came to him and begged, "Khan, let us surrender?"
Tuoba Doji's hair had turned completely white at this time, his complexion was not good, and he exuded a deathly aura.
Hearing the herdsmen's plea, he smiled bitterly. It was not a question of whether he was willing to surrender, but whether Pingzhou was willing to accept their surrender.
Now, the only ones left in their Tuoba family are him, the old immortal, and his fifth son Tuoba Meng. Oh, and there is also the seventh son Tuoba Lian who was captured in Pingzhou.
He now understood Pingzhou's intentions. If Pingzhou wanted to accept the Xianbei's surrender, he, the culprit, must die, and the next Khan of the Xianbei must be Tuoba Lian.
Faced with Pingzhou's relentless pressure and the herdsmen's desperate pleas, Tuoba Doji knew that he didn't have much time left.
He first ordered the execution of his fifth son Tuoba Meng, and then called in Dugu Zhong, the only remaining general in the Xianbei royal court.
"Go ahead and cut off my head." Tuoba Doji said to Dugu Zhong.
"Khan!" Dugu Zhong knelt on the ground, tears in his eyes.
Tuoba Duoji sighed, "I am a sinner of the Xianbei, and my death is not a pity. This war started with me, and I will end it too."
What a pity, his lifelong dream of ruling the Central Plains. Three years ago, or seven years ago, he never doubted that his ambition could not be realized. He even dreamed of the scene of him riding his horse across the Central Plains, and the entire Xianbei people followed their Tuoba Wang family to live a prosperous life in the Central Plains.
Now, the dream is shattered.
Lu Songli is really amazing.
The Hancheng Alliance has three leaders. Song Mo has passed away and is about to die, leaving only Lu Songli as the sole leader.
Tuoba Doji seemed to have already seen the grand scene of Lu Songli unifying the Central Plains.
Three days later, Dugu Zhong held Tuoba Duoji's head and asked Qin Sheng to surrender, representing the Xianbei's acknowledgment that all the territories previously occupied by Pingzhou would be transferred to Pingzhou.
Afterwards, he presented Pingzhou with ten thousand taels of gold and five hundred cattle, sheep and horses as tribute to welcome back the seventh prince Tuoba Lian.
These are the greatest sincerity that the Xianbei can offer.
In the second year of the Daoming reign, the Xianbei begged for surrender in Pingzhou, and the governor of Pingzhou, Lü Songli, agreed, accepted their surrender letter and tribute, and released Tuoba Lian.
When Tuoba Lian was welcomed back by Dugu Zhong, at the last moment before leaving Pingzhou, he took a last look in the direction of Changli.
Now Pingzhou no longer needs to worry about the Xianbei invading the south again. At least as long as Lu Songli is in power, he will not have any such thoughts.
Or perhaps, during his lifetime, he had no ambition to invade the south. Perhaps the next generation would still be content.
The Xianbei completely surrendered to Pingzhou, and the Pingzhou newspaper reported the event. The people of Pingzhou were proud of it, while the people of Dali were surprised and amazed at the strength of Pingzhou, and they yearned for it.
Pingzhou, Changli
The battle between Pingzhou and Xianbei lasted for four months, despite the fact that Pingzhou had the upper hand, until the Xianbei were subdued and had no power to resist.
When the manpower, material resources and financial resources consumed by this war were calculated, the officials in Pingzhou were silent.
Many people do not understand why Lu Songli spent so much manpower, material resources, military forces and financial resources to attack the Xianbei, and was willing to pay such a huge price to continuously weaken the Xianbei, wishing to wipe out their clan.
But Lu Songli himself knew that the rise of foreign races and their control over the Central Plains would be the biggest disaster for the Han Chinese.
From the history she knew, whether it was the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China or the Ten Days of Yangzhou after the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, it was probably because they were not of the same race, their hearts must be different. These were all cases of foreign races invading the Central Plains on a large scale and implementing strict racial segregation and cruel oppression and exploitation on the Han people.
Their plunder and persecution of the Han people were extremely cruel.
The Five Barbarians invaded China, killing over ten million civilians and causing the Han population to plummet from 20 million to four million. The Central Plains was a living hell, with only one in ten people left alive. The Han people faced severe genocide and oppression.
After the Manchus entered the Central Plains, the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty frantically expanded their territory and massacred and exterminated families wherever they went. In less than 30 years, the Han population south of the Great Wall was reduced by two-thirds.
County annals from all over the country have descriptions of the time when China had "no intact village in the county, no intact family in the village, and no intact person in the family." Bones were exposed in the wild, and no roosters crowed for thousands of miles.
These shocking figures are the accumulation of human lives.
Lu Songli didn't care when the ethnic groups merged in later generations, but in this era, if she did nothing, the Han people in China would suffer such a disaster, which she could not allow.
"Governor, are we going to attack Dali next?" asked the official below.
Lu Songli nodded, "Hit."
Now that they had beaten the Xianbei into submission, the Pingzhou army could march southwards with the momentum of their victory. Furthermore, with all the preparations she had made, the Dali were now in a good position to fight.
The officials below were talking in low voices, saying that once the Xianbei surrendered, they in Pingzhou could pursue the victory and they should indeed fight.
Furthermore, the Jintai Army, led by General Qin Sheng, had adopted a strategy of fighting to support the Xianbei, resulting in a relatively low consumption of food and supplies. Pingzhou's current supplies were sufficient to sustain a war.
Dali, Chang'an
When the news of the Xianbei's surrender to Pingzhou reached Chang'an, all the civil and military officials in the court fell silent.
The Xianbei were a serious threat to Dali. How could such an enemy be dealt with by Pingzhou?
They had no doubt about Pingzhou's victory, because the Pingzhou newspapers had been reporting on the war between Pingzhou and the Xianbei since it started. They had also read it and had their own judgment on whether the results were true or false.
At this time, the eyes of the court officials were vaguely cast on Xie Zhan, the regent of Dali. Governor Lu Songli and Regent Xie Zhan, the former fiancée, were really powerful. Now they were both the leaders of their respective forces. If they had not broken off the engagement, the world would have long ceased to be named Song.
Xie Zhan ignored their gazes.
Xiao Qun frowned and said in an incredulous tone, "When Pingzhou was fighting the Xianbei, what was Pingzhou trying to do by disclosing these details of the war?"
"They mentioned everything about weapons, manpower, and combat methods. Aren't they afraid of leaking these military secrets and us finding a solution from them?"
Could it be that Pingzhou was so certain that Dali was completely helpless against the Pingzhou army? This was too arrogant!
Xie Zhan lowered his eyes and thought to himself, Pingzhou is certainly doing this to scare the monkeys.
Xie Zhan has already seen clearly that Lu Songli's attitude towards foreigners and compatriots is very clear.
As for Dali, based on their common origin and ancestry, she mainly uses deterrence. If possible, she probably doesn't want to start a large-scale war on Chinese soil.
Lu Songli loves this land and the people on this land.
When Xie Zhan realized this, he found it incredible.
Sometimes Xie Zhan really didn't understand why she could be so kind to the common people, but was so ruthless to him? Every time she attacked him, she wanted to kill him.
While Xie Zhan was thinking about his own concerns, the court officials were also discussing the next plan for Pingzhou.
"Will Pingzhou send troops to Dali next?"
"That's beyond doubt." The woman from Pingzhou is very ambitious.
Now that it was confirmed that Pingzhou would attack Dali, some ministers began to question themselves, "Can we withstand the attack of the Pingzhou army?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire court fell silent.
Those extremely intelligent ministers remained silent, their gazes meeting and then drifting away. On the contrary, some impulsive fools were shouting something like, "Asking this question will only boost others' morale and destroy your own prestige."
"Wait, Pingzhou has so much food and grass?"
This reminded the civil and military officials of Dali. Yes, Pingzhou had just fought a four-month-long war. Could their food and grass support another major war?
One of the ministers reminded him quietly, "You forgot that Qin Sheng fought a war in Xianbei to support his war."
Upon hearing this, the court officials looked at each other in bewilderment. The Pingzhou army was short of food and fodder, and it was very likely that they would resort to this method of fighting to support the war again.
Hearing the discussions of the ministers, Xie Zhan sneered in his heart. Lu Songli would not let the Pingzhou army adopt the method of fighting to support the war. Can't they even understand this?
But he didn't say much, only said, "Let the troops on the front line prepare for battle."
After the court session, Xie Zhan returned to the Regent's Palace.
He gathered in the study with a few confidants.
Faced with the current situation, the expressions of several confidants were very heavy.
Fan Yang looked at Xie Zhan who was sitting in the main seat and boldly suggested to him, "Master, why don't you take the lead in opening the city gates and surrender Pingzhou?"
Xie Zhan was not surprised that Fan Yang made such a suggestion. Fan Yang, Jiang Boya and other confidants were much smarter than some idiots in the court. In addition, he had been collecting information about Pingzhou, so they saw the situation more clearly than those idiots.
"Let's talk about it later." Xie Zhan knew that Fan Yang and the others were just daydreaming. Even if Lu Songli valued his talent and was willing to let him go, the Qin family would not let him go because of his previous engagement with Lu Songli.
What's more, Lu Songli will never let him go. The reason for not letting him go may not be due to personal grudges, but because the two have different governing lines.
Not long after, Xie Zhan adjourned the meeting on the grounds of being tired.
Fan Yang was the last to leave. Before he left, he glanced at the Regent, who was standing by the window with his back to them. He felt a little unsure of the Patriarch's intentions. He was anxious, feeling that he could not guess what the Patriarch was up to.
Xie Zhan put his hands behind his back and looked up at the stars in the night sky.
He said silently in his heart, Lu Songli, you still have one more level to go. Only after you pass this level can you be considered the true master of the world.
In this level, either I help you pass it, or you are eliminated and I take over.
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