"Judging from the speed of Zhao Jia's northward journey, he may be in Anyang City ahead, or he may have just left."
Meng Tian held the chariot and wiped it with his hands, stood on the chariot, and looked at a city in the distance.
Zhao Jia thought that the strength of Dai City and the dead soldiers in the city were enough to withstand the Qin army's siege for several days. In addition, the Qin army needed repairs after breaking the city, which would definitely take a while.
Therefore, they did not rush northward, but instead forcibly recruited people and gathered food along the way to slow down their escape. After all, there are only a few people in the land. If he didn't recruit soldiers here, he would have no one and no food when he got to the north.
But this also gave Meng Tian the opportunity to catch up with them.
But Meng Tian was a little worried.
"Anyang was the fiefdom of the prince of Zhao State in the past. It has a large population. It is a large city to the north of Dai City. If the Dai people in the city cooperate with Zhao Jia to resist and want to annihilate it, it will be a bit troublesome. You should be careful during this trip. superior."
Half an hour later, Meng Tian's worry disappeared, and his face was filled with astonishment.
Because it was different from what he imagined, with the city gates of Anyang City closed and the people in the city holding weapons and on guard for defense.
Before getting close, you can hear faint crying coming from Anyang City.
As for the city gate, it was even more open. After seeing the Qin army's chariots and cavalry arriving, the wealthy people in the city did not avoid danger. They knelt down outside the city gate and kowtowed, saying that they were willing to surrender to the Qin army.
"Where is Zhao Jia?"
Meng Tian strode over, his tall body casting a shadow in front of the city gate.
A wealthy man from Anyang cried out in elegant language: "The Zhao Jia traitors, regardless of the feelings of the emperor and his subjects, colluded with the barbarians to plunder the countryside. They not only forced the men in my city, but also robbed a lot of food and property. My son stopped them, and they actually My son was killed on the spot. Zhao Jia and I are absolutely incompatible!"
The others bowed their heads to Meng Tian and said: "General, we only hope that the general can lead the king's army to capture and kill Zhao Jia and drive out the Hu people. If we can prevent the death of the conquered men in our city, we will sincerely surrender to the Qin State. Never again."
"Yes, General, please capture Zhao Jia and expel the barbarians!"
"Then Zhao Jia and the Huns have only been gone for less than half an hour. If the general pursues them immediately, they will definitely catch up!"
Outside the city gate, the wealthy and noble people in Anyang wept and worshiped each other.
They were the rich and noble people in Anyang, with a lot of wealth and a lot of food. They suffered the greatest losses due to the joint plunder by Zhao Jia and the Huns, so they all hated the acting king.
After these wealthy people, the common people in the city who had been plundered by the Dai army and the Huns also came out, kowtowed to the Qin army one after another, and begged Meng Tian to lead his army to hunt down Zhao Jia.
When Meng Tian saw this scene, he was overjoyed and said with an upright tone, "Don't worry, Zhao Jiaxing has committed such an unjust act. I will not let him go. Su Jiao!"
"The general is here!"
When Su Jiao heard the call, he immediately came over and accepted the call.
"Send fast horses to report the general's military situation here, and leave two hundred people to station in Anyang to protect my retreat and meet the general's army. After the remaining riders and horses finished eating, they immediately set off on the road to pursue the attack. This time, the general will decide We must capture Zhao Jia!"
"only!"
…
To the north of Anyang, the flood waters flow slowly.
The water was as muddy as yellow soup and the river bed was unstable. In later generations, it was also called the Yellow River.
Because the water control in this section is not too wide and fast, the locals built a wooden bridge on the river to travel from north to south. However, this wooden bridge is not very wide and can only accommodate two horses running parallel or one car passing slowly at a time.
At this moment, on the bank of the water-controlled river, an army composed of Dai and Hu people was crossing the river through a wooden bridge.
The Hun cavalry walked in front and had crossed the bridge first.
The remaining two thousand or so soldiers still had to carry the food they had eaten along the way. They were slow and lagging behind and were slowly crossing the river.
Several senior officers in the army had already reached the north bank first. They climbed up a slope and had a good view, overlooking the army slowly crossing the bridge.
"The king is still too benevolent. Anyang is a big city with a population of nearly ten thousand. As long as we burn all the grain in the city and leave these nearly ten thousand hungry people for the Qin army, it will be a great benefit."
On the slope, King Yan remembered his rejected proposal and shook his head with regret.
Next to him, Chen Yu nodded and said: "The plan of King Yan is indeed a good one. Now that the grain in the ground is not yet mature, if the grain stored in Anyang is burned down, the people of Anyang will have no food to eat."
"In this way, not only will the Qin army not be able to collect food on the spot when it arrives, but if the Qin army wants to stabilize the people of Dai, it will have to use its own military rations to feed the people of Anyang. This will prevent the Qin army from continuing to have food and grass. "
"If Zhao Tuo is stingy with food and is unwilling to give it to the people, the people will not return to Qin. Even if the Qin army goes north to chase us, it will be difficult to stabilize the rear. This is really a strategy that kills two birds with one stone."
"Although Anyang has passed, there are still a few cities to the north of Zishui. In my opinion, it is better to burn all the grain and fodder of the cities that cannot be defended and leave the Qin army to worry. If the king is afraid of tarnishing his reputation, he can take the lead first The Dai army leaves first and leaves the burning of food to the Huns, so that the Qin army can be continuously weakened..."
Hearing this, Dai Wang Jiati said with a livid face: "I am a descendant of the Zhao family. I cannot defend my land and serve the country. Instead, I want to go and seek refuge with the barbarians. I have already dishonored my ancestors. How can I burn the food of my people again?" , If you act like this, how can I be called the King of Dai? King Yan and Mr. Chen, please don’t say this again."
Chen Yu shrugged and closed his mouth.
He is from Wei, and Wei and the Huns have no border, let alone any hatred, so Chen Yu has no objection to allying with the Huns.
As for burning people's food, it didn't matter to him as a Wei man. As long as it could cause trouble to the Qin army, he would be happy to do it.
Yan Wangxi looked at Dai Wangjiazhi and frowned, with dissatisfaction in his eyes.
This kid still can't let go of his moral principles and can't understand the situation.
Dai Wangjia ignored the gazes of the two people and only stared blankly into the distance.
There, a teenage boy who had just been forcibly recruited from Anyang was crossing the bridge. He seemed to be thinking of leaving his hometown and joining the barbarians. He couldn't help but cry and wanted to turn around and go back.
The soldiers beside him scolded him, and the young man took action in anger, which turned into a fight.
After a while, the boy's body was thrown into the water treatment area under the bridge, and flowed into the distance with the turbid yellow water.
"I left my hometown and fled north, and ended up relying on the barbarians...my country of Dai...my Zhao family...how did it end up like this?"
"If the late king had not deposed me as the crown prince and allowed me to take over as King Zhao, how could what happened today have happened?"
When Dai Wangjia saw that scene in the distance and thought of the magnificent scene in the past when Zhao was strong and prosperous, he couldn't help but feel sad in his heart and looked up to the sky and shouted.
"Ugh, the demise of the Zhao Kingdom was actually due to the fact that the late king had no vision and abandoned the elders to establish the young! The late king misled the country, and Zhao Qian misled the country!"
Just when Dai Wangjia was beating his chest and stamping his feet, crying sadly.
The troops who were crossing the river suddenly became confused, and all kinds of screams came one after another.
"Qin Jun!"
"The Qin army is coming!"
Cries of fear echoed in the wilderness.
Dai Wangjia immediately wiped away his tears and turned around to look.
Sure enough, in the direction of Anyang, there was smoke and dust billowing all over the sky, and a black-armored knight loomed in the flying dust.
"Qin Army? How come the Qin Army came so fast!"
Dai Wangjia was shocked.
"Destroy the wooden bridge quickly!"
Chen Yu shouted.
Dai Wangjia also reacted and immediately ordered the soldiers beside him: "Quickly let people destroy the wooden bridge to prevent the Qin army from crossing the river."
The command is correct.
Destroying the wooden bridge would prevent the Qin army from crossing the river.
But at this moment, the soldiers of Dai were pushing the carts loaded with food across the bridge slowly. When they saw smoke and dust billowing from behind, the Qin army's chariots were approaching. Those soldiers of Dai who were on the bridge or still on the south bank were panicked one by one. Everyone rushed to the bridge, everyone wanted to escape to the north of the bridge, and the traffic jam caused the scene to be very chaotic.
No one listened to Dai Wangjia's order to destroy the wooden bridge. Not to mention that when everyone is fighting for their lives to cross the bridge, the first one who wants to destroy the bridge will be hacked to death by the people crossing the bridge.
At this time, the Qin army's chariots and cavalry on the south bank of the river were almost rushing to the bridge.
On the north bank, the Xiongnu cavalry has always been known to advance when it sees an advantage and retreat when it is unfavorable, and they are not shy about escaping.
When they saw the Qin army's chariots and cavalry on the south bank were numerous and well-equipped, they naturally had no fighting spirit. When Qian Chang gave a shout, they fled straight away.
As for the more than two thousand surrogate soldiers, some of them were willing to fight to the death with the Qin army, but most of them just wanted to escape.
Not to mention that there are hundreds of generations of people who have just gathered and been forcibly recruited from Anyang and several villages. They had no intention of fighting, so they seized the opportunity one by one and took advantage of the chaos to escape, making the scene even more chaotic.
"Run!"
Seeing that the situation was not right, King Yan shouted happily, and immediately ran down the slope regardless of Dai Wangjia and Chen Yu who were standing next to him.
Dai Wangjia and Chen Yu also reacted and immediately followed Yan Wangxi down the slope to find their horses to escape.
But at this time, due to the appearance of the Qin army, the scene was too chaotic. Whether it was the Huns or the Dai people, they were all running in all directions. The short-term soldiers who were originally waiting at the foot of the slope saw that the situation was not good and got on their horses first to escape.
Chen Yu was young and fast. After seeing the short soldiers fleeing, there was still a horse spinning in place, so he immediately rushed over, got on his horse, and ran away.
Dai Wangjia fell behind and went down the slope, but he had no horse to ride.
"Where's the horse?"
"Where's my horse!"
"I am the acting king, let me mount the horse!"
Dai Wangjia was shocked and wanted to ask those who were escaping on horseback to give up their horses to him to escape.
The Huns who escaped did not care about him at all. As for Dai Ren, after Anyang and the previous looting of villages, Dai Wangjia had already lost military morale among the Dai soldiers under his command.
In addition, now that the Qin army has arrived at the south bank, everyone is thinking about escaping. Even his short-term soldiers on behalf of Wang Jia have fled first. How can there be any loyal people willing to give up their horses to this king?
Fortunately, at this moment, a carriage crashed through the chaotic army and stopped in front of Yan Wangxi and Dai Wangjia.
Ju Wu, the Grand Tutor of Yan State, emerged from the chariot and shouted: "Your Majesty, get in the chariot quickly!"
"The great master is truly a loyal and kind man."
King Yan, who was also panicked, was overjoyed and hurriedly climbed onto the carriage.
When Dai Wangjia saw this, he didn't need to think too much. He quickly followed Yan Wangxi and got into the chariot.
The charioteer drives the horses and the wheels roll forward.
In a narrow carriage.
Yan Wangxi stared at Dai Wangjia, who had just followed him into the car.
Dai Wangjia showed an ugly smile.
"I have no horse, and I am riding with the King of Yan."
