The Moon in the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 576 Destroy Yan!

Wang Jian only gave them two days. If they failed to capture Linle City within two days, they would withdraw directly.

The two of them naturally knew the importance of this. If they were removed, they would no longer have any chance to develop in Daqin.

But the two of them were not panicked at all.

The power at his disposal was too great. He could use the advantage of numbers to defeat a group of rabble who were blinded by money. Moreover, his soldiers were stronger, their morale was higher, and their weapons were more powerful. If he still couldn't defeat them, Wang Jian would have killed them on the spot, but that was already because they had connections in his harem.

The two men began to attack the city without hesitation, and the battle became intense as soon as it started. Fifty catapults made the city wall shaky, and the huge crossbows made it so that no officer dared to show his head on the city wall.

The Qin warriors came forward like ants, and their morale was high. Not only the generals wanted military merit, but the soldiers wanted it even more!

You know, if the journey goes smoothly, the vanguard generals can get some military merits, although not much, but at least there are some. But the lower-level soldiers really have nothing. If they really end the journey without firing a single arrow, the reward they can get in the end is probably just a little bit of money and food as a consolation.

In recent years, the Qin Dynasty has developed more and more smoothly, and it has become easier and easier to gain merit on the battlefield. However, for grassroots soldiers, the opportunities to gain military merit and receive titles are becoming fewer and fewer.

It's so hard to find someone seeking death, and now there's such an opportunity to make a contribution, how can we not rush forward?

After the city was captured, all the people in the city were reduced to slaves, and all their properties were confiscated. Thirty percent of the wealth belonged to the soldiers who broke into the city. With both military merit and wealth, and a sure victory, how could they not rush forward screaming?

The Qin crossbows and arrows covered the sky and the earth, and thirty large siege machine beasts directly broke through the doors and destroyed the walls.

The Yan army collapsed at the first blow of the war. From the time the first catapult stone landed on the city wall, it took only a quarter of an hour for the first city gate to be breached.

And this time no one can escape.

Ji Wuye and Bai Yifei did not choose to attack by surrounding three sides and leaving one side open. Instead, they surrounded all four sides and attacked from all sides at the same time, leaving no chance for escape or surrender.

An hour later, the city wall was breached and Linle City was completely captured.

It was not until now that someone knew to surrender. Someone killed Chengyang Jun and wanted to surrender, but it was too late.

The Qin army had extremely strict laws. They required people to lay down their weapons and kneel down to surrender. No one dared to kill prisoners.

But surrender will only save you from being killed. You can escape the death penalty but not the living punishment.

As the Qin army occupied the entire city, follow-up troops also came in to reinforce, and all people, whether military or civilian, male or female, young or old, were put under surveillance.

Noble officials were guarded separately from commoners.

After the people have been sorted out, all the nobles and officials in the city, regardless of whether they participated in the resistance, supported it, opposed it, or just watched, will be executed along with their entire clans.

Not only was the execution carried out in front of everyone in the city, but all the noble officials and prestigious people from other surrendered cities were also invited to Linle City to watch the execution.

All the remaining civilians and soldiers, totaling more than 60,000 people, regardless of gender, age or status, were demoted to slaves and escorted to Luoyi (Luoyang) for processing.

The entire Linle City became a deserted city.

All the wealth was collected and taken to Xianyang, and 30% of it was left to the soldiers attacking the city.

As for what to do with this city and land? Naturally, they will be rewarded to those who have made contributions.

Qin Jun's extremely horrific handling frightened everyone.

Looking at the tragic situation in Linle City, all those who surrendered were grateful.

The orders of the King of Qin are indeed absolute. The King of Qin's words are as good as gold, no matter whether they are good or bad.

Wang Jian gave the final characterization.

The heavenly army has arrived, but there are still foolish people who do not know the will of heaven and want to go against it. They support evil villains like Yan Xi and are tantamount to aiding and abetting Zhou's evil!

Anyone who aids the tyrant, whether actively or by tacit consent, is guilty!

There are lunatics who go against the will of heaven, and sitting back and doing nothing is also against the will of heaven. Anyone who waits and watches is also rebellious!

Even though the king had already issued an imperial decree, you still dared to resist!

Don’t say you don’t have the ability to resist the rebels. Not opposing these rebels is support! Even tacit approval is support!
Anyone who supports a shameless, immoral, and unethical villain like Yan Xi is not a human being and must be severely punished!
If you are guilty, you must pay the price. The king has already issued an imperial decree, and everything will be done according to his orders!

Then Wang Jian slowed down the pace of his advance a little and asked people to spread the news about Linle City as quickly as possible, in order to completely eliminate the desire for resistance.

As expected, at this moment, all those who had originally been hoping for the best have now completely given up on any inappropriate thoughts they might have had.

The powerful combat capability of the Qin army made people even less willing to resist.

Similarly, majesty was thoroughly established.

The King of Qin is benevolent, but this benevolence is only given to his people who obey him!
Those who resist him, those who are stubborn and unyielding, those who resist him are not his people and will all meet a miserable end!
Wang Jian waited until the rumor had spread before continuing to advance. Sure enough, things went even more smoothly afterwards.

Fangcheng and Zhuocheng, the two largest and most important cities in the southwest of Jidu, which can be regarded as the throat of Jidu, also surrendered quickly.

The generals and officials who were unwilling to surrender directly fought with the soldiers and civilians who were seeking survival.

Now the soldiers and civilians dare not wait and see, and they definitely do not think that everything is none of their business. They are always paying attention to the movements of the upper echelons, paying close attention to the development of the situation, and taking action.

Naturally, those who were unwilling to surrender were a minority, and those who were willing to fight were even fewer. Once the high-ranking officials defending the city were found to have no intention of surrendering, they would be directly killed by the soldiers and civilians who made up the absolute majority.

Many generals and officials defending the city were frightened and immediately announced their willingness to surrender to the Qin Dynasty.

He also opened the city gates wide, without any defense, and made all preparations for surrender, for fear that he would be misunderstood by the people under his rule and killed before the Qin army arrived.

In the current situation, if you surrender slowly, someone will lend you their head.

Wang Jian's subsequent actions went even more smoothly.

Everyone was rushing to surrender, fearing that if they were slow they would end up like Linle City.

Apart from the battle in Linle City, there was no other resistance along the way.

King Xi of Yan had already fallen into absolute despair. Although he could still receive messages, he could no longer command anyone.

Especially after the news of Linle City reached Ji City, he even had to cook his meals by himself.

Everyone avoided him. He wanted to escape from the palace, escape from Ji City, and run to Liaodong. However, he could no longer even leave the palace.

Even the loyal ministers of Yan State did nothing when they saw the miserable plight of King Xi of Yan.

Even if it is the canal.

The one who actually controls Ji Du now is Jiang Qu, and he is the only one who has the prestige to replace King Xi of Yan in managing Ji Du.

In addition to having people prepare food and drink for Prince Xi of Yan, Jiang Qu also strictly forbade Prince Xi of Yan to leave the palace and kept him under close protection.

We have to protect him, because too many people want to use Prince Xiren of Yan as an advantage.

Similarly, Jiang Qu carefully took care of Jing Ke's wives and concubines, Gao Jianli and others who had been imprisoned for a long time. These people were also to be sent to the King of Qin for punishment. Jiang Qu was ready to surrender. Jiang Qu was a righteous man who valued benevolence, righteousness and morality.

Although he always disliked King Xi of Yan, he remained loyal to the State of Yan and the King of Yan. He served as a minister of the State of Yan for more than 40 years.

But now, he can only make a painful choice.

In the end should he remain loyal to the King of Yan and harm all the people; or should he choose the people and the benevolent King of Qin?

He chose the people.

Jiangqu is almost seventy years old. People say that it is rare to live to seventy, and living to this age is already a rare longevity.

But at this age, when his life is about to come to an end, he has to make such a painful decision, ruining his reputation of loyalty throughout his life.

In the end, Jiang Qu still tried to find a glimmer of hope for King Xi of Yan.

When Wang Jian led his army to Ji City, Jiang Qu prepared the necessary items such as seals, military tokens, household registration files, financial and geographical documents, and keys to the treasury for surrender.

King Xi of Yan was invited to have his face tied and a jade disk in his mouth, and many noble officials were invited to be naked, leading sheep, and to wait for the coffin in a bier.

The surrender was still led by King Xi of Yan. He hoped that Qin would spare his life because of his active surrender and full cooperation. Even if he was demoted to a commoner, as long as he was exempted from the crime of extermination of three clans and could keep his life, that would be good.

Wang Jian accepted the surrender and did not kill King Xi of Yan directly. This was not a decision he could make.

Wang Jian drafted a memorial, stating everything clearly, and sent it to Xianyang along with all the royal family members of Yan State, Gao Jianli and others.

Next, Cai Ze stayed in Ji City to handle all matters related to the acceptance of the State of Yan, while Wang Jian continued to lead the army to take over the cities in all directions. Although the area of ​​Liaodong northeast of Ji City was cold, barren and sparsely populated, there were still thousands of miles of land and it was impossible to give up.

Although there is no time to annex Korea for the time being, Korea will never be allowed to take advantage of the situation. All the land of Yan State must be swallowed up by Qin, and Korea will not have the chance to dream.

In fact, Ying Zheng was overthinking it.

The Gojoseon of the Ji clan had long been weakening and suffered a fatal blow from Qin Kai. It was beaten badly by the State of Yan and had been bullied by the State of Yan for many years. Now they dare not even look towards the Central Plains.

In their eyes, the State of Yan was a behemoth that they could not afford to offend. The State of Qin, which could destroy the State of Yan in just a few months, was even more impossible for them to offend. It was even beyond their imagination.

When the Qin army arrived at Manfanhan and completely occupied all the land of Yan State, the Goshosun finally learned the news that Qin had destroyed Yan.

The relationship between Gojoseon and Central Plains has never been severed. Although the news was a little delayed, it was not completely ignorant of Central Plains.

When he saw that the Qin Dynasty had destroyed the Yan State, he slid down to his knees without hesitation and immediately sent envoys into the army to request tribute to the Qin Dynasty.

Gojoseon originally paid tribute to the State of Yan, but now it seamlessly connected and directly requested to pay tribute to the State of Qin.

The main point is to be sensible!
The one who led the army to fight till the end was Bai Yifei. This was an opportunity to make merit that he had fought hard for, and Ji Wuye was very dissatisfied with it.

He was not completely ignorant of the Gojoseon, but it was too far away after all, so he only knew a little bit.

Fortunately, the process was smooth sailing, with the cooperation of a large number of Yan officials. After much coordination and cooperation, the tribute route of the Gojoseon was opened up.

Although the territory of today's Gojoseon is not too small, it is still too poor and backward, especially after being completely defeated by the State of Yan, and no one takes it seriously now.

In any case, the State of Yan had been completely destroyed.

They started marching in April and captured Ji City by mid-June.

It was even simpler than annexing the State of Zhao, the resistance was weaker, and the rest was just gradually digested.

The original six counties of Yan State did not change much, they were still six counties, with only minor changes.

By now, Daqin was already familiar with the transformation of the newly annexed lands, and everything was proceeding in an orderly manner.

In the 13th year of King Zheng of Qin, the State of Yan, which had been established for more than 800 years, was completely destroyed.

There are only four countries left in the world today: Qin, Wei, Qi and Chu.

The following is the map at the beginning of the succession:

The following is a reference image of the current layout. The coloring is not very uniform, but it is pretty close (the original reference image comes from: Ivar the Boneless in the History Library)

Ying Zheng's pace of annexing the world is completely unstoppable.

The news of the destruction of Yan State quickly spread throughout the world.

King Jian of Qi sighed secretly, knowing that he didn't have much time left.

So he sent Hou Sheng to Xianyang with valuable gifts to congratulate Ying Zheng for his actions in destroying Yan.

Among them was his daughter, who had just turned fifteen and was also sent to Ying Zheng.

He was really happy that the State of Yan was destroyed!

All the countries that attacked Qi in recent years have been destroyed by Qin one by one. The mortal enemies have died in front of Qin and right in front of Qin. This feeling is so good!
Now the only thing missing is the State of Wei!

King Jian of Qi continued to play music and dance, enjoying his peace and wealth.

Compared with King Jian of Qi who continued to play music and dance, King Jingmin of Wei was now almost disheartened.

Of course he knew that Yan was doomed this time, but he never expected that Qin could destroy Yan so quickly and smoothly.

So, it seems that there is no need to consider who will be the next one.

Now, the distance between Daliang City and the nearest territory of Qin State is less than a hundred miles. Although it is not possible to arrive in the same day, the enemy can still attack Daliang City at any time.

The State of Wei is now like a three-year-old child facing a grown man.

Regardless of the timing, the people were definitely not as good as Qin. Facing the huge Qin, everyone in Wei was afraid of Qin like a tiger. Even Wei Yong, who advocated war, had not mentioned being an enemy of Qin for many years, and many people had already turned their hearts to Qin.

As for how many officials and nobles had already colluded with the Qin State, King Jingmin of Wei did not even dare to investigate.

As for geographical advantages, there are geographical advantages, but they are on the Qin side.

I want to cry when I mention King Jingmin of Wei.

Daliang City was the capital of the Wei State that had been carefully built over a hundred years and was the center of the Central Plains.

This place is connected to Qi and Lu in the east, Jiang and Huai in the south, Song and Yue in the west, and Yan and Zhao in the north. It is a hub for all the princes to gather in all directions, and the transportation is convenient. It is an absolute transportation route for the Central Plains and the east.

It has fertile land and dense waterways, making it one of the most prosperous places in the world.

But, that’s where the problem lies.

Daliang City has no strategic location to defend!

(End of this chapter)