The battlefield was filled with smoke, and the afterglow of the setting sun shone on the blood-stained earth, reflecting a desolate scene.
The soldiers were exhausted, disheveled, and many of them still had wounds on their bodies, but they still persisted in attacking.
After a while, the infantry began to rest.
Behind, catapults began to pour down stone pellets one after another. Although it was not as powerful as the artillery, it was still shocking. The strength of Thang Long City was beyond imagination.
The imperial court would not lend the red artillery used to attack the city.
Besides, to deal with an Annan, you still need to use red artillery. Isn’t this a cannon to fight mosquitoes?
At this time, in the era of pure cold weapons, siege warfare was indeed an experience for the Qin army.
But 40,000 Qin troops and 5,000 Beijing troops besieged a Shenglong city that was only 20 miles long, and 8,000 people were killed or injured?
How terrifying this is.
Twenty percent casualties!
Thinking of this, he looked at the group of Qin troops who were not afraid of the flag, and he couldn't help but feel distressed in his heart.
The Qin army was built according to the model of the Beijing camp, with a military law department, food and accommodation, a military academy, etc.
Even though the prices in Annan are not as good as those in Beijing, the average cost of training a Qin army exceeds twenty silver coins.
For the Qin State, which only had five palaces and millions of people, this was such a huge expenditure, even with funding from the imperial court.
"Perhaps there is no need for so many, just two or three thousand..."
Zhu Jing was as indifferent as ever.
King Qin breathed a sigh of relief and nodded in agreement: "Yes, I believe in General Zhu's strength."
"According to my opinion, after this battle is over, the court will probably grant a count."
Hearing this, Zhu Jing couldn't help but smile: "It's just the size."
When the dynasty was first established, the fifth rank was divided into two types: earls, marquises, and dukes were hereditary; viscounts and barons were inherited for three or four generations.
Therefore, people at that time called those above earl as nobles, and viscounts and barons were also ordinary nobles.
In other words, only counts and above can be considered true nobles. Viscounts and barons will eventually become mortals in the future.
In the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was not easy to get an earl, but now that the war has subsided, the only place where wars are frequent in the court is in the northwest. It takes several years of eating dirt and sand to get a few earls.
He has been busy in Annan for two and a half years. In the past three years, he has been promoted from viscount to earl, which is considered enough.
According to statistics, in the past twenty years, the number of barons and viscounts has exceeded 400, while there are only about 60 counts, and the number of marquis and dukes together does not exceed 50.
】
Earl, this is the position that many viscounts have longed for.
Annan was able to win the war at a low intensity, which made many people envious.
"There are also objections in the court. It is said that Qin is not a native land but a vassal state. Merits do not count, but His Majesty is arbitrary."
King Qin said softly, with quite a bit of envy in his words: "General Zhu's kindness is not shallow!"
His words came from his heart.
As the eldest son of the emperor, he felt that the emperor loved Zhu Jing far more than he did. He still remembered that when he was a child, the emperor asked them to call him brother.
There were even rumors that Zhu Jing was the default heir when Emperor Long Zhan was in the wild.
In this regard, Zhu Jing could only remain silent.
Suddenly, he picked up the monocular.
At the top of the city, a big man in armor was constantly patrolling. Wherever he went, there were cheers, and the plummeting morale was restored again.
Looking closely, he was in his sixties, but he was wearing heavy armor. Stone bullets were flying above his head, and he could be wiped out in the blink of an eye. However, he moved around without fear. He was so calm and rare in the world.
"Who is this person?"
"It should be Zheng Zha." Zhu Jing said solemnly: "He is the only one in Shenglong City who has this ability."
"The Zheng family has been in power for a hundred years and has been in power for five generations. This person has also been in power for nearly ten years. He is already very capable."
"South Ruan and north Zheng, but if Annam is divided into ten points, the Zheng family has seven points, just like Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms."
King Qin just listened and nodded slightly: "He can be considered a hero in Annan."
"It's a pity that he met us today."
As he spoke, a burst of catapult bombing ended, and it was the infantry's turn to start exerting force.
At this time, Zheng Zha finished his inspection and began to walk down the city wall.
"Your Majesty, with this intensity, I'm afraid I won't be able to hold on for a few more days."
The general on the side said hurriedly: "Now that things have come to this, we must prepare for the worst."
"You should swallow these words to your stomach and don't talk nonsense."
Zheng Zha, who was very old, took off his armor and was panting.
He closed his eyes, wondering what he was thinking.
The next day, the 30,000 Zheng troops outside the city were defeated by the Qin army of less than 10,000 people in full public view.
As a result, the morale of Shenglong City suddenly dropped to the bottom.
Even though Zheng Zha continued to encourage and was generous with rewards, he was not as inspired as he had been a few days ago.
Take advantage of his illness and kill him.
After several days of fierce siege battles, the Qin army finally reached the top of Shenglong City after laying down two thousand corpses, and the outer city was captured.
The inner city is also in danger at this time.
Even though he still held an army of 30,000 men, Zheng Zha knew that Shenglong had become a dead end and he could not hold it at all.
His son Zheng Gen was dressed as a military general, with blood all over his body and a burly figure. He said in a rough voice: "Father, we can't win this battle."
"I know." Zheng Zhu looked a few years older now. He glanced at his son and said, "This battle is not my fault, but the Ming Dynasty used the big to bully the small."
"I thought I could repeat the old events of the Li Dynasty, but I took a closer look at the Qin army. It seems that they are all from Annan, and many of them are from the Ruan family."
"I can't fight anymore."
Zheng Zhuo shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Time is also destiny. Li Shi is the emperor, and I, the Zheng family, are the king. I will never be able to climb up in my life."
Zheng Gen raised his head and opened his lips, but the pain in his arm made him calm down. He could only lower his eyes and remained silent.
"Sell it for a good price!" Zheng Zha sighed: "A century-old foundation has been destroyed by my hands!"
A few days before the rainy season, Zheng opened the gate of the inner city and surrendered to Qin.
The King of Qin was overjoyed, and according to the agreement, he was granted the title of Duke of Shunming, and then the Li family was granted the title of Duke of Shunyi, which was regarded as an explanation of his old power.
The Zheng family surrendered, and Li Weiyu, the nominal owner of Annan who was trapped in the palace, was the happiest.
You must know that over the years, the Zheng family has been in power, and the Li family has suffered countless disasters. Even as the head of the country, they are not able to live in peace. They are always under coercion and are frightened.
Now that he is finally out of such an embarrassing situation, even as a minister, he is extremely happy.
Sitting in the Thang Long Palace, looking at its over-the-top style, King Qin directly ordered it to be changed and replaced to make it conform to the prince's standard.
"Gaoping's Mo family and Xuanguang's Wu family, it seems they no longer need the general's command."
Zhu Jing responsibly handed over the command to the King of Qin, including the Beijing camp, which originally had five thousand troops, but now only four thousand are left.
These Beijing-based soldiers will take root in the country and either hold important positions or entrust land, which can be said to enjoy wealth.
At the same time, they are also the most powerful pillars of King Qin.
"In addition, Your Highness, in my humble opinion, although the Zheng family and the Li family surrendered and were ennobled, their impact was really too great. How did the Mo Dynasty fall? We have to investigate."
"What do you mean?" King Qin asked casually, with some thinking in his eyes.
"I will bring you back to Beijing." Zhu Jing thought for a while and said in a deep voice: "His Majesty will re-canonize him, so that the two surnames can live in the Ming Dynasty, and they will not be able to affect Qin anyway."
"This is a good idea." King Qin agreed: "But now is not the time to wait until the Wu family and Mo family are captured, and then send them all to Beijing."
"If it doesn't work, I can also throw it to other vassal states."
After the death of Chen Youliang, Zhu Yuanzhang sent his son Chen Li to North Korea, killing two birds with one stone.
Zhu Jing's method is a replica of it, or even a re-read of the book.
No matter what, this method is really wonderful, much better than killing directly.
At this point, the entire Annan, except for the Mo family who occupied Gaoping Mansion and the Wu family of Xuanguang, the rest of the land was taken over by Qin.
The five southern provinces are Saigon, Champa, Phu Yen, Hue, and Tan Binh (Quang Tri).
The fourteen prefectures in the north are Jiaozhou Prefecture, Beijiang Prefecture, Langjiang Prefecture, Sanjiang Prefecture, Jianping Prefecture, Xin'an Prefecture, Jianchang Prefecture, Fenghua Prefecture, Thanh Hoa Prefecture, Zhenman Prefecture, Lang Son Prefecture, Xinping Prefecture, Yanzhou Prefecture, Yi'an Mansion.
Together with Xuan Guang and Gao Ping, that is the Sixteenth House.
The entire Annan has a total of 21 prefectures, 36 states, and 190 counties.
The largest population controlled in the north, according to the Shenglong household department, is almost three million.
In fact, including hermit households, slave households, etc., there are at least five million people.
In other words, the total population of Qin State is at least six million.
This kind of regional division still follows the standards of the Ming Dynasty.
In fact, after more than two hundred years of war, the actual territory and regional divisions have long been imitated, and many people have changed their names and places.
Therefore, for the Qin State, the most important thing at present is to redefine the territory and regulate the division of prefectures, counties, and Zhili prefectures.
In order to show legitimacy, the King of Qin not only had to restore the old system of the Ming Dynasty, but also revised the history books and denounced the Li Dynasty and others.
However, there is an advantage. Since Annan's history books are all written in Chinese characters, and the same is true among the people, there is no need to burn books and history, and save a lot of material resources.
On the day when Annan was captured, King Qin announced that the name of the country would be changed to Qin, and its full name would be Ming Qin.
And he changed the name of Shenglong Palace to Jiaozhou Palace.
The capital of the country is called Hanoi.
The reign title of the Li Dynasty was abandoned and changed to the eighteenth year of Shaowu.
This can be described as an explosive day for the entire Annan.
Countless scholars sighed, their words finally became independent, and they returned to the dark northern period.
But the scholars' rebellion lasted ten years.
Under the suppression of King Qin, who had a strong and iron-blooded army, all public opinion came to nothing.
Facing the Qin army's pressure, the Wu family still resisted and did not want to give in. Even in the face of the prince's inducement, she was not moved.
In this way, it would be logical for the city to be destroyed and the clan to be destroyed.
This was a huge impact on Mr. Gaoping Mo.
Gaoping has a special geographical location. It is close to the border of Ming Dynasty. In order not to irritate the Ming Dynasty, the Zheng family has been reluctant to move him.
This also means that Gaoping Mo's dependence on Ming Dynasty is too strong.
In this way, under the pressure of Ming and Qin, the Mo family could not move at all and had no choice but to give in.
Mo Jingyao surrendered his land and was granted the title of Guihua County Duke.
Therefore, in the eighteenth year of Shaowu's reign in Ming Dynasty, on the eighth day of June in Xia Dynasty, Annan was changed to Qin.
Folks call it the first year of King Qin.
It was precisely because of his great achievements that Qin King Zhu Cunmei was given the temple name: Gaozu after his death.
He is called King Gaozu of Qin.
But unifying Annan is only the first step for Qin. The real difficulty lies in integrating the millions of people in Annan into one, so as to consolidate the country forever.
To put it simply, when Lao Zhu’s family came back, they didn’t want to leave.
Whether it is a series of policies such as the surname granting order, the household registration order, the land granting order, the taxation order, the land reclamation order, etc., it is easy to formulate but difficult to implement.
Because the people who formulated the rules were all senior officials of the Qin State and were born in the Ming Dynasty, and the low-level bureaucrats who implemented them were mostly local officials.
This is also the current situation after the unification of the entire Qin State:
The decision-making is made by the Han people, and the execution is done by the local people.
Easier said than done, and the road ahead is long and arduous.
…
At the same time, outside Bukhara, a decisive battle was also going on.
Unlike Zheng who clung to Thang Long, Abdullah Khan led the remaining soldiers out of the city for the final decisive battle.
Its scale reached fifty thousand.
There is no way, the Bukhara people are basically nomadic people, they are not good at defending the city at all, and they do not have all kinds of law-abiding like the Han people.
Wengcheng? No.
Horse trails, no.
Its city only emphasizes two points, high and thick.
After all, as long as the city is high and the city is strong, defending the city is easy.
It's a pity that they didn't expect the shortage of food.
After guarding the city for seven or eight days, the entire city of Bukhara ran out of food.
It would be better to go out of the city and fight to the death.
Li Dingguo did not dare to be careless, he understood the principle of fighting even when a trapped animal is trapped.
Therefore, he played conservatively and defended instead of taking the initiative.
"Out--"
Sure enough, the city gate opened and groups of cavalry walked out.
"What's wrong?" Li Dingguo raised his telescope and felt puzzled.
After taking a closer look, he realized: "These people are all old, weak, sick and disabled."
"Sure, I fell into a trap——"
"You mean, Abdullah Khan escaped?"
Jia Daihua said in shock.
"You don't know something." At this time, Reinhardt, who was sitting in the back, said with a big belly:
“This ancestor of Abdullah Khan came from the Astrakhan Khanate, belonged to the Golden Horde, and was a descendant of Jochi Khan.
After his khanate was destroyed by the Rakshasas, Prince Zanibo fled to the Bukhara Khanate. Inskander Khan married his daughter to him, and their sons inherited the khanate. "
"By the way, both are descendants of Genghis Khan. How can people with the same surname get married?"
Jia Daihua said in confusion.
"It's just Tatars, why do you still care so much?"
Li Dingguo said angrily. Is this the point of this sentence?
"What he means is that this Abdullah Khan is not desperate. Perhaps he is eager to return to his ancestral land and gather his troops again!"
Li Dingguo said in a deep voice: "It is also possible to go south and borrow troops from Persia."
"Send someone to chase him and make sure you find out where he went."
"Yes!" Jia Daihua nodded hurriedly.
Sure enough, the rangers came to report that a cavalry force of ten thousand people left the city of Bukhara.
At this time, Li Dingguo pointed to the city of Bukhara with a serious expression: "Now our task is to occupy this city, including the entire river area——"
