Liu Xie began to encircle Qishan on Xinyou in May. As he said, there was no sign of launching an siege on the spot. Instead, he built a long moat on the outside and planned to besiege the city for a long time. In fact, there is no need to do this. The soldiers led by Zhang Liao and Dong Zhao have been traveling back and forth between the mountains since late April. They barely have a few days to rest. Even though they are all veterans of the army, many of them have blisters on the soles of their feet while climbing up the rocks. inconvenient. But seeing that he was about to return home, he had to be forced by the Western Dynasty to return to Qishan, which greatly demoralized the soldiers. What's more, there are Western captives in the city who can serve as internal agents. If the city really needs to be attacked, even if Qishan Fort is fully fortified, Xifu may have a 70% chance of winning.
But in order to avoid the reputation of regicide, Liu Xie had already made up his mind to kill by starvation. He also saw through the Shu army's plot, which was nothing more than to use Hanzhong reinforcements to attack the flanks of Xifu and force the Western army to come to relieve the siege. This is difficult to deal with in the wide terrain around Qishan, but it will take time to mobilize reinforcements from Hanzhong, which gives Liu Xie time to seize the advantage. After discussing with Duan Xuan and Pang Tong, he ordered Zhang Yi and Li Xian to set up strongholds at the mouth of Du Valley and Gaoya respectively. Both places were at the narrowest points on the Qishan Road, which was enough to make it difficult for the Shu army to move.
Sure enough, in June, Zhang Liao and Zhang Lu led their troops across the road to rescue the siege. However, facing the mountain stronghold between the narrow roads, the Shu army had no good way to attack the city and could only fill the ravine with flesh and blood. However, comparing the numbers of the two armies, the Hanzhong Army did not have the upper hand. The Xifu Army only had to replace its exhausted divisions every day and take turns garrisoning between the two villages. The fortresses remained as immovable as rocks. Even if Zhang Lu used his prestige among the Qiang people in Wudu to mobilize Baima Di, Xingguo Di and other Qiang Di to come to the rescue from other roads, it still had no effect.
At this time, the news gradually spread to Xiangyang. Knowing that the emperor was trapped in Qishan, Liu Fan began to withdraw his troops back south one after another, and mobilized part of the navy to openly enter Hanzhong from Mianshui. Chen Chong and Liu Bei also heard about the changes in Guanzhong at the same time, and hurriedly wrote letters to the court, stating that they would return as soon as possible.
But misfortunes never come singly. Just when Chen Chong was about to return to Beijing first, Zhang Ji, the governor of Yuzhou, received news that Wu troops had left Huaibei and besieged Ruyin and Longkang. Although Yuzhou has taken precautions against this since last year, in order to avoid more variables, Chen Chong chose to postpone his return to Beijing and instead moved to Xu County, Yingchuan, as if he would fight a decisive battle with the Wu army.
For a time, the focus of all parties in Kyushu shifted to the Qishan Mountain Fortress between Longshu and Longshu. Time soon came to July. As Duan Xuan said before, there was not enough food in the mountain fort. After a long siege, the food quickly ran out. Even though the soldiers in the city halved their daily food intake, large-scale famine was inevitable. The soldiers in the city first discovered rats underground, cicadas and birds by the trees, and then wild vegetables and tree roots on the mountain fort. However, they soon faced the dilemma of having nothing to eat. Then one day, the Westerners below the city They smelled the smell of meat coming from the city. They were surprised and then shuddered: the tragedy of cannibalism may have begun in the city.
Someone approached Liu Xie and said, "The city is starving and we must have lost courage. We might as well take the opportunity to attack the city, and we will be able to defeat it in one fell swoop!" Liu Xie waved his hand and refused, saying, "The emperor is in the city, and we attack the city recklessly. If Who can be responsible for what happened to His Majesty?" So the siege continued.
By mid-July, the second wave of reinforcements from the Shu army arrived in time, led by Pan Jun, and tried to attack Chencang northward, using the strategy of besieging Wei and rescuing Zhao to ease the siege of Qishan. However, Xifu expected that Pan Jun could not break the city and still defended the siege. Do not move. Pan Jun's reinforcements attacked Chencang for ten days, resulting in thousands of casualties, but they were unable to do anything against Chencang. In the end, they could only bow to the west and lead his army to turn around and return.
In the blink of an eye, it was early autumn and August, and the Westerners below the city could no longer hear a single chirp of birds or cicadas in the fort, let alone the sound of human activities. Only at night, when there were lights on the walls of the mountain fort, could they It is certain that the defenders in the mountain fort are not dead yet.
One afternoon, the sky was dark and gloomy. It seemed like rain was coming, but the rain never came down. When I breathed, I could only feel the smell of dust. It seemed that the strong wind in the distance had stirred up the sand, and the sand floated over and filled the air.
Seeing the weather, Duan Xuan, the commander-in-chief of the Xifu Army, and Liu Xie, the crown prince of the Dai Dynasty, rested together in the tent and talked about the situation in Guandong. They were enjoying themselves. Suddenly, a close relative came to report that someone in the mountain fort was shouting from the tower. Duan Yan said "Oh" and said, "It's really strange. What was he shouting about?"
"I asked you to surrender," the confidant replied.
Duan Xuan turned to Liu Xie for advice. Liu Xie lowered his head and looked at his nails, making it difficult to see his expression. He said, "I went out hunting with Governor Duan today and didn't know about it." The confidant immediately understood the meaning of refusing to surrender and asked no more questions. Then he ducked out and exited.
Unexpectedly, Pang Tong rushed in not long after, bowed to Liu Xie and said urgently: "Your Highness, a king should have benevolence and love, how can he be so cruel? It would be against heaven to starve all the people in a city to death. Peace!" Liu Xie was furious when he heard this and cursed: "Confucianism! Soldiers are a matter of life and death for the country. It is time to think about the overall situation and abandon one corner. I treat the traitors leniently today, how can I see Zhongliang again in the future!"
"There is still an emperor in the city, how can he be called a traitor? Even if Jiuzhou cannot hear about it today, in the future history will be as iron as iron, your highness will not be afraid of making fun of future generations?!"
These words made Liu Xie's face turn pale. Duan Xuan on the side saw that his hand was holding the knife habitually, and he couldn't help but break out in cold sweat, for fear that something tragic would happen in the tent.
After a while, Liu Xie said: "You want to be a strong commander, but I am not as dim as Guangwu. My original intention is to delay for a long time to kill them. Liu Xie will leave when he says, surrender when he says, really Does the world belong to his family?" After saying that, he turned to Duan Yan and said, "The governor will inform all the ministries and prepare to send people to accept the surrender in an hour."
The rest of the people in the tent breathed a sigh of relief and praised Liu Xie's kindness. However, at this moment, there was a sudden noise outside the tent, as if something big had happened. Everyone came out of the tent to take a look and found a mighty fire dragon boiling up from the mountain castle. The sound of violent burning could be heard for miles below the city. The smoke of gunpowder filled their nostrils. From a distance, it looked like a pillar connecting the sky and the earth, blending into the black and white clouds in the sky. In the dust, there was a faint sound of low thunder, as if God was also mourning for it.
Pang Tong reacted first and loudly shouted to Liu Xie and others: "The emperor will self-immolate!" and immediately ordered people to put out the fire. But in fact, everyone knew that with such a fire, it would be too late to save people. Sure enough, many people were dizzy from the smoke before they even got close to the mountain fort, and they didn't dare to get close at all.
When the clinker soldiers were panicking in front of the city, the door of the mountain fort slowly opened in the heat wave. They saw an old man staggering out with white hair and smoke marks on his face. He was holding a box of wooden letters in his hand and was covered in blood. Trembling, it seemed like he would fall down at any moment. But he still stood still in front of the swordsmen and asked in a hoarse voice: "Where is the prince? I have something important to report."
Listening to his voice, people realized that this person was Jia Xu, who was famous in Chi County. The army knew that Jia Xu was hungry and wanted to give him food first. Unexpectedly, Jia Xu refused and stood there until Liu Xie and his crowd came to meet him.
After the two met, Jia Xu first asked: "Did the plan here come from His Highness?" Seeing Liu Xie slightly nodding, he smiled bitterly and said: "I thought I would be burdened by the emperor, even though I have to bear the name of a traitor, it's probably I can die of old age in Bashu, but I don’t want to be captured by His Highness. There are heroes in our history, and they will never deceive me."
Then he handed the wooden letter in his hand to Liu Xie and said, "Everything your Highness wants is here."
Liu Xie ordered his servants to open it, and what was inside was indeed the Imperial Seal and the Six Seals of the Emperor. Liu Xie immediately asked someone to close it and put it into his account solemnly. Then he turned to Jia Xu and asked, "But I don't know where the emperor is?"
This question is puzzling. Everyone knows that the emperor is under heavy siege. Now the mountain fortress is lit with fire. It is obviously to maintain the dignity of the emperor and avoid humiliation by burning himself.
But Jia Xu heard the deep meaning of Liu Xie, and he said slowly: "Before His Majesty besieged the city, I deceived the Shu thieves and quietly sent Your Majesty away. Your Majesty actually has no interest in political affairs. He just wants to live in seclusion in the mountains and forests, just to be accepted by others." Due to coercion, I have to leave. Now I leave the seal to His Highness, which is also the emperor's order."
"Okay!" After getting what he wanted, Liu Xie beamed with joy, and then asked about the specific situation in the city. It turned out that in the past few days, the food in the city had been exhausted, and most of the people in the mountain fortress had starved to death. Dong Zhao wanted to kill the Han prisoners in the city, but Jia Xu couldn't stop him, so he led his troops to sneak attack in the middle of the night, killing Dong Zhao and the remaining Shu people. After killing them, they were able to open the city and surrender. At this time, there were probably less than two hundred people left alive in the city.
When Liu Xie heard this, he couldn't help but look at Jia Xu in a different light and said, "Jia Gong is really a wonderful person in the world." But he thought in his heart, how should he deal with this man being so clever and scheming? It's better to kill him, otherwise in the future, as an old minister of Liu Xie, if he says something and causes some trouble, the situation will be difficult to clean up.
When he made up his mind, Jia Xu saw the change in his eyes and knew his fate. He had already prepared for this. Although he was lamenting in his heart, his face remained calm and he said slowly: "Chen Gu should die, but the innocent family members , I hope Your Highness will not be involved."
Liu Xie was not annoyed when his thoughts were revealed, but smiled and said: "Don't worry, Mr. Jia, those who want to rule the country will not stop the heirs. I still understand this truth."
After that, he sent someone to take Jia Xu away, and quickly found a pit. He put a heavy earth bag half a man's height on Jia Xu's head, while another person held down the twitching body under the earth bag. . After a while, the body under the soil bag became stiff and motionless.
After the fire subsided, Liu Xie sent people to the mountain fort to count the bones. While counting the bones of the emperor, queen, Dong Zhao and others in the attic, he killed all the remaining soldiers who were still alive, and then filled them together in a pile outside the city. In a big pit.
In this way, all the obstacles to becoming king and emperor were removed. Liu Xiezhi was so proud that he recited a poem to the Han River that night: "The prosperous times have been wasted, and wars have stopped thousands of miles away. Who would have expected that after Hu Guan closed down, he would hear about Chu Ke again?" Song."
