Chapter 2180: Liquidating the Traitors
The Qin army took over thirty-five counties without any bloodshed, but the remaining nine counties refused to surrender at all, and showed a stubborn attitude of resisting to the end.
The Qing Dynasty's withdrawal from Youzhou was too hasty this time, and basically no preparations were made in advance. Except for a few surrendered generals such as Wu Sangui Shang Kexi who withdrew, those Liaodong families who were treasonous and traitors did not have time to withdraw.
Aguda was too busy taking care of himself now, so naturally he couldn't care about these traitors, so he abandoned them without hesitation.
For their own benefit, the Liaodong family betrayed Gongsun Xuanyuan, Gongsun Shu, Wang Mang, and Chen Baxian, and chose to join the Manchu Qing Dynasty. However, the Manchu Qing Dynasty also betrayed them at the critical moment.
It’s really the reincarnation of heaven that repays displeasure.
The Qin army's attitude towards traitors has always been one of no tolerance.
The eight prominent Shanxi merchant families in Bingzhou were all wiped out because of their collusion with Yuan and Meng.
After Qin Hao unified Jizhou, those Jizhou aristocratic families who did not hesitate to betray the country and secretly sold supplies to Yuanmeng for personal gain were also brutally exterminated.
According to statistics, there are currently more than forty families that were exterminated by the Qin army for treason and colluding with foreign tribes, and three to four thousand people died under the butcher's knife.
Now that the Qin army has completely captured Youzhou, the pace of liquidation will naturally not stop. However, the situation in Youzhou is a bit special, and the polarization is too extreme.
The Yan State under the control of Liu Che was united as one, and almost no one colluded with foreigners. However, the Liao State on the front line was full of traitors. If this was liquidated, no one would be spared.
Therefore, there were differences within the Qin army regarding the treatment of the Liaodong family.
The general faction headed by Wei Xuanyuan and Wei Qing believed that the Liaodong family had done too many bad things that were harmful to nature and was rotten to the core. No one could be spared.
The civil servant faction headed by Wei Yang and Li Hongzhang believed that the law did not punish everyone, and the impact of killing them all was too bad. They should kill a group of evil leaders and pardon a group of accomplices in a merciful manner.
The civil and military factions were quarreling over the family issue, and no one was willing to give in. In the end, Bai Qi stopped it and postponed the issue, preparing to hand it over to Qin Hao for decision.
Although Bai Qi said this, he still favored the military commander faction in his heart, so he later sent Gongsun Xuanyuan to conquer the lost territory, with the natural purpose of letting him take revenge.
The Liaodong family originally thought that the law would not punish the public, but when they saw that the man sent by the Qin army thought he was Gongsun Xuanyuan, they all panicked.
Gongsun Xuanyuan and Xu Ren?
That was the former King of Liao, who guarded Liaodong for many years, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty was not allowed to enter.
Xuanyuan, who had already claimed the title of king, was now forced to surrender. He would end up like this not because of war, but because of the Liaodong family's delay.
The traitors caused Xuanyuan so much harm, and now their lives are in Xuanyuan's hands. Will Xuanyuan let them go?
impossible.
In order to protect themselves, thirty-nine families led by Zhao Ji, Gao Qiu, and Cai Jing, Zhao Gao, Cai Tongliang, Zhang Wang, Zhu Li, etc. joined forces to control the county before the Qin army entered the city, and then closed the county tightly to prevent the Qin army from entering the city.
The reason why these traitorous families did this was naturally not because they wanted to fight to the death with the Qin army. They did not have the courage. They just wanted the Qin army to promise to pardon them.
After Wang Fu, Zhu Meng, and Li Yan were defeated and captured, they were executed in public and died miserably. They did not want to end up like this.
Therefore, as long as the Qin army does not investigate their past, they will immediately open the city and surrender.
In this way, not only can they avoid a war, but the Qin army can also get 20,000 to 30,000 surrender troops for nothing, as well as the money and food support of the Liaodong family. It can be said that it kills three birds with one stone.
But what these traitorous families don't know is that what they see as killing three birds with one stone is completely threatening in the eyes of the Qin army's top brass.
If they voluntarily surrender and accept trial, the civilian faction will still speak for them. After all, there are indeed too many people involved in a complete liquidation.
But they closed the city gates tightly and resisted the incorporation, and they even dared to make conditions to the Qin army?
Even though their original intention was just to protect themselves, and the conditions they proposed were quite reasonable, they ignored the most important point. They were not qualified to raise conditions with the Qin army.
"The Governor of Wei Yang, Mr. Li Hongzhang, how do you think we should deal with the Liaodong family now?"
Bai Qi looked at the two of them and asked indifferently. Although he still couldn't see his expression, it could be heard from his tone that he was already angry.
Wei Yang stood up, clasped his fists and said: "The Liaodong family first committed the crime of treason. Instead of admitting their mistakes and repenting, they closed the city gates and resisted the heavenly army. This is an unforgivable crime. I believe that the family must be exterminated in order to frighten the world's families."
Wei Yang gave the Liaodong family a chance, but they failed to live up to their expectations and failed to seize the opportunity. Now that the situation has developed to this point, Wei Yang naturally cannot speak for them anymore.
"Let Gongsun Xuanyuan lead the army to wipe out these aristocratic families. He is most familiar with the land of Liaodong. It will be easy to deal with these rabble." Bai Qi said with a smile.
The troops sent by the Qin army to the four counties and one vassal country were not many, and most of them were cavalry, so they lacked attack power. However, in the process of taking over the four counties and one vassal country, there were also many garrison troops who were unwilling to join the retreat of the Qing Dynasty. The number was about Around 20,000.
With the 20,000 surrender troops, plus the 20,000 Qin troops, with Gongsun Xuanyuan's ability and prestige, Bai Qi believed that he would be able to surround and exterminate all these traitors in half a month at most.
Bai Qi still underestimated Xuanyuan's prestige in Liaodong, so he ordered Xuanyuan to take charge of the army, and good news came back.
"Report...to report to the Governor, Governor, and the people of Feiru, Haiyang, and Xinchang counties that a civil uprising broke out because they were dissatisfied with the family's resistance to our army, and they took the initiative to open the city gates to welcome our army into the city.
After General Gongsun entered the city, he surrendered all the rebels, beheaded Zhao Ji's sons Zhao Huan and Zhao Kai, and captured the traitor Zhang Bangchang alive. "
Hearing this, Bai Qi couldn't help but look surprised. He thought it would take Gongsun Xuanyuan at least half a month to capture all nine cities, but he didn't expect that he had already captured three cities on the first day.
"General Xuanyuan deserves to be the number one general in Youzhou. Go back and tell General Xuanyuan that the five traitors Zhao Ji, Gao Qiu, Cai Jing, Tong Guan, and Liang Shicheng should be captured alive as much as possible. I will do my best to capture them alive in front of the three million people of Youzhou." Execute these five traitors."
"promise."
There is no suspense at all in this Liaodong hoeing war.
Zhao Ji and others never expected that the Qin army would react so violently. They just wanted to be pardoned, but instead they received an even more violent blow.
Gongsun Xuanyuan's prestige in Liaodong was too high. As soon as the army arrived and before they attacked the city, the rebels in the city were already in chaos and did not dare to fight against him.
In the end, five of the nine county towns took the initiative to surrender, and only four resisted.
Under Xuanyuan's fierce attack, these counties fell one after another and could not hold on for even a day. Only Wangping County, guarded by Tong Guan, held on for two days and caused more than 200 casualties to the Qin army.
After breaking the city, Gongsun Xuanyuan was furious and publicly punished Tong Guan, a subordinate who had high hopes for him but had betrayed him.
Xuanyuan felt much relieved after taking revenge, so he did not attack Zhao Ji, Gao Qiu, Cai Jingliang Shicheng, but forced them back to Yanjing to wait for their fate.
Bai Qi read out the treason crimes of the four people in front of all the people of Yanjing, and then executed the four people in a hurry amid the condemnation and insults of the people in the city.
From then on, Wu Sangui was the only one left alive among the traitors who betrayed the Han Dynasty and went to the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
[Ding dong, the host has unified Youzhou. Main mission 5 Emperor Path reward: 1 golden summoning card. Any five-dimensional attribute will be permanently increased by one point.
The current host has: 4 gold summoning cards, 1 gold intelligence summoning card, 2 bronze summoning cards, 2 bronze random summoning cards, 4 million population summoning cards, 1 bronze hundred summons card, 1 random hundred summons card open. 】
(End of chapter)
