Time passed quietly. After the battle in the west of the city, the defenders of Hezhong City successively left the city and surrendered to the Han army.
At first, soldiers came out of the city in twos and threes at night. Soon, the number of surrenderers expanded to include Li Shouzhen's capital commander Zhou Guangxun, Nie Zhiyu and other senior generals. In the end, even Wang Jixun, the number one general in Hezhong Prefecture, led his troops out of the city. Come to surrender to the Han army.
Guo Wei adopted the advice of surrender general Wei Yanlang and launched flying feathers carrying surrender letters into the city, accepting all those who surrendered without questioning their guilt. Rebel soldiers and soldiers came out of the city and surrendered one after another. According to what the surrendered rebels said, the river city was really starved to death. The soldiers killed horses for food, and the people in the city even began to eat their children. All signs showed that Li Shouzhen could no longer hold on!
The Han army continued to besiege but did not attack until the end of June, when Li Shouzhen personally led his troops out of the city to break out of the siege. After being repelled by the Han army again, Guo Wei finally ordered all the troops to launch an offensive towards Hezhong Prefecture.
In early July, the Han army successfully captured Xiguan City and continued to capture the outer city two days later. Li Shouzhen had to collect the remaining troops and retreat to the inner city.
The Han army was so powerful that all the generals asked for orders to attack the inner city. Before Guo Wei could choose the candidates to attack the city, the defenders of the inner city opened the door and begged for surrender. Then they brought news: Li Shouzhen and his family had burned themselves to death in their house.
Guo Wei first mobilized troops to guard the city gates inside and outside Hezhong Mansion, and then the Han army entered the city to control the situation. There was no resistance in the city, and the rebellious officials and many people knelt down on the street to plead guilty.
Guo Wei read out the Privy Council Order in public at the city gate, pardoned the people in the city, and ordered his generals to arrest the "prime ministers", "privy envoys" and other puppet leaders appointed by Li Shouzhen according to the list.
After giving these instructions, Guo Wei turned to look at Guo Xin: "Erlang immediately led people to Li Shouzhen's house to check the true identity of the thief. If there are any remaining evildoers, we will not tolerate them."
Just as Guo Xin was about to agree, Wang Pu came out from Guo Wei's side and asked for orders: "General Guo doesn't know the details of the Li family. I will go with General Guo."
Guo Wei nodded on the horse: "That's fine."
Guo Xin led his troops and rode towards Li Shouzhen's "imperial palace". After entering the city, I saw that the scene in the inner city was even worse than that in the outer city. Starvation and death were everywhere in the city. What was even more shocking was that the bones of people and horses could be seen everywhere on the streets! The people who were still alive were all sallow and thin, and even the defenders who were waiting to be killed after surrender had a look of sluggishness and numbness.
Now that we've reached this point, how can we still be invincible? However, Guo Xin suddenly felt that Li Shouzhen was still somewhat capable, at least he could make so many of his subordinates hungry for more than half a year and still be willing to stick with him.
The Han troops that had entered the city earlier had begun looting everywhere, and Guo Xin was unable to take care of them. Before arriving at Li Shouzhen's mansion, he asked Wang Shiliang to command his soldiers to block the four gates and walls, and then went inside with Wang Pu and others to search for the whereabouts of the Li family.
When Guo Xin entered the mansion, there was still a burning smell in the air. They walked inside and soon saw that the main hall had been burned into a black ruin. The sergeants rummaged through the embers of the beams and pillars to find more than a dozen corpses. All that was left was a pile of blackened skeletons. The postures looked very distorted. I really don’t know how much pain they endured before death!
At this time, Wang Pu came up and said: "The eight members of Li Shouzhen's family, apart from Li Shouzhen and his six wives and concubines, are the two sons Li Chongyuan and Li Chongyu. There should also be the eldest son Li Chongxun... General Guo should have seen him. He died last year. It’s in Tokyo.”
Guo Xin nodded. He would naturally not forget Li Chongxun, let alone that lady from the Fu family. If Fu Jinlu had really entered the Li family last year, would she be among the pile of blackened bones now?
The sergeant came to ask for instructions, and Guo Xin called to Guo Pu: "Go find the Li family servant to identify the body."
Guo Pu led his soldiers there, and soon brought several servants from the mansion.
The servants lay on the ground and looked at each pile of bones for a long time. Li Shouzhen had a larger body and had a talisman on his body, so it was easier to identify, but the others had no signs. The servants discussed among themselves in low voices. After a while, the bodies of eight members of the Li family were finally identified.
Guo Xin stepped forward to inspect them one by one. When the servant pointed at one of the corpses and claimed that it was Li Shouzhen's youngest son Li Chongyu, Wang Pu suddenly cursed: "Bullshit! How can the body bones of a five-year-old child grow so big?"
The servants were stunned on the spot, and Guo Xin looked at him in surprise. He really didn't expect that the Wang Pu in front of him looked so gentle and gentle, but he could also curse.
Wang Pu came closer and said: "Li Shouzhen was in a hurry and couldn't find any children of similar age, so he pulled many people to self-immolate together to confuse our eyes. Li Shouzhen has always been good at controlling people's hearts. I'm afraid these people have selfish motives." Preserve the blood of the master’s family, otherwise why didn’t the officers and soldiers run away before entering the city and stay at the house waiting for us to catch them?”
Guo Xin immediately felt that what Wang Pu said made sense, nodded and said: "Fortunately, Brother Wang is here, otherwise he would have almost been fooled."
Then he turned around and told Guo Pu: "Go to the house and continue searching. We must find the person."
In fact, Guo Xin didn't really believe that the Li family could have any troubles, but he still felt more at ease by doing everything cleanly. After all, when Wang Jingchong destroyed Hou Yi's family, didn't Mrs. Liu escape with Hou Yi's grandson?
Guo Xin and others walked around the burned main hall and continued inward. They met a soldier who came to report: "Report to the envoy of Guo, the person has been found."
Guo Xin and Wang Pu looked at each other and quickly followed the soldiers away. After bypassing two messy long corridors, they saw Guo Pu and his people gathered around what seemed to be a firewood courtyard.
The sergeants avoided the road for Guo Xin. Guo Xin stepped forward and saw a monk with a white face and fat ears sitting among a pile of dry firewood with a child in his arms.
Guo Pu came over and explained: "This bald donkey claims to be some kind of master of the Qin Kingdom. He wants us to prepare horses and send him out of the city, otherwise we will hold the young son and burn himself... The child has been seen by the people in the house, and he is Li Chongyu."
Guo Xin smiled when he heard this. Guo Wei himself said "never tolerate", didn't he mean not to leave an inch of grass behind? So he said to the monk: "Li Shouzhen has already burned himself to death. What's the use of threatening us with a dead young rebel son?"
The monk held Li Chongyu's waist tightly with one hand, and covered Li Chongyu's mouth with the other hand. The fat on his face was trembling, and his tone was very fierce: "This is the son of the traitor Li Shouzhen. If the general offers him a prisoner, the imperial court will There will definitely be a big reward. I just want to live, why don't you make it easier for me, general?"
Seeing the monk's disgusting expression, Guo Xin shook his head slightly. A dying person would probably grab any opportunity he had. But he lost interest in continuing the conversation, and casually told Guo Pu: "Don't talk nonsense with him. Li Chongyu killed him, but this national master should be kept alive to dedicate to his father."
"It's an order."
