Chapter 925 Tooth for Tooth
After the soldiers stopped attacking and shouted to persuade them to surrender, some time passed before two unarmed enemy soldiers came out of the tent. They walked through their own battle formation and came to the Wei army's formation. They bowed down deeply and shouted: : "My lord, Wang Rui of Zhao County of Qi State, pays homage to King Taiyuan of the Wei Dynasty. My lord is willing to surrender. I only ask that the king have mercy on the soldiers and people in the city and be tolerant and do no harm."
After Li Tai heard this, he replied: "King Gao will surrender, don't ask about anything else. He has been fighting in the north and south alone, and he has not used killing and surrender as a threat!"
This was a rather rude reply, but the current situation was pressing, and Gao Rui inside the tent had no other choice. Under the repeated shouts and urgings of Wei Jun outside the tent, he could only walk out barefooted, followed by two men. The attendants each held his robes, talismans and other items.
"The sinner Gao Rui, pay homage to the king, beg, beg the king..."
Gao Rui had never had such an experience in his life. He was filled with fear and shame at this moment, and he was shaking uncontrollably mid-sentence.
"The king has spared his courtesy and is here to attack the sinners. The king is not the culprit. Now that he has known the sins, he has surrendered. There is no need to worry about his safety."
Li Tai came forward and confiscated Gao Rui's talisman tokens, and personally put a Wei army robe on him. The reason why he was given such preferential treatment was not to win Gao Rui's heart, but mainly to give it to the surrounding Northern Qi people. The soldiers watched it. By treating Gao Rui, the king of the Gao clan, with courtesy, the worries and resistance of the people who surrendered to the Qi army can be greatly dispelled.
After appeasing Gao Rui for a while, he looked in the direction of the tent and asked in a deep voice: "Where is Hulu Jin?"
"Hu Lu and Taishi Hu Lu felt that the defeat of the army had humiliated the country and they were ashamed to see the masses, so they killed themselves in the tent."
After Gao Rui heard this, he lowered his head and replied solemnly.
Li Tai was stunned for a moment after hearing this. After his sergeants disarmed all the soldiers present and conducted a thorough inspection inside and outside the tent, he slowly walked into the tent and saw him soon. He arrived at Hu Lüjin, who was lying on the couch and had been out of breath for a long time.
Although Li Tai had fought against Hu Lujin before, he had never observed him up close. At this time, he stepped forward to take a closer look at his body. He felt quite sad in his heart, and he couldn't help but think of the man who had died of illness before. The boss, Yu Wentai, couldn't help feeling that as these people from the old era gradually passed away, an era was also coming to an end. Although some people from the old era still exist, they are no longer the mainstream of today's world.
He asked people to carry Hu Lujin's body out of the tent, showed it to those who surrendered to the Northern Qi Dynasty, and then said: "Hu Lujin relied on his weak wisdom to lead the army to reject me, causing the two sides to fight for many days and causing heavy casualties. No matter whether there are casualties or casualties, the crime is all on this person. I insisted on asking for the crime, but unexpectedly, this guy was still stubborn and refused to obey the law. He abandoned the crowd and took action. It is unjust!
Only our military government enforces the law strictly, never indulges in injustice, never obeys because of high position, and never loses sympathy because of humble position! Let me tell the people today: Who was ordered to file a complaint the day before, and who should be blamed for the crime? God has the virtue of a good life, but I can forgive you if you have one sentiment, and I cannot bear to harm you, so I live my life in response to the virtue of Heaven! "
It's not that he resented Hu Lujin so much that he wouldn't give up even if he died, but the atmosphere that Hu Lujin brought about was very bad. Isn't it the basic practice of your army to join if you can't beat them? How come you would rather die than surrender when you come here?
As an ordinary person, he understood why Hu Lujin made such a choice. It was simply that he was too closely tied to the Northern Qi regime and was concerned about his children and grandchildren. In addition, he was already so old, so it was better to die than surrender in humiliation.
But I have been fighting with you for so long, not to mention buying horse bones for thousands of dollars. In the end, I was not even given a chance to live or die. How can I agree to this? For such politicians, death is by no means an end, but a new beginning.
Just like in history, his son Hu Luguang, as a hostile party, would try his best to alienate and slander him while he was alive. Hu Luguang was the great traitor of the country. As long as he was in the Northern Qi regime, nothing would be better! The dead Hu Lu Mingyue is a good person, the only pillar of the Northern Qi Dynasty, the light of the family and the country. When the bright moon is there, the country will survive, and when the bright moon dies, the country will perish! The main theme is to kill people and punish the heart. You old people from the Northern Qi Dynasty are not good enough, and your moral character is not good enough!
For Li Tai at the moment, he doesn't have too ambitious plans, he just wants to use this to create some disharmony among the Northern Qi prisoners to facilitate management.
After successive battles, nearly 10,000 Northern Qi captives were captured and surrendered, and the war between Heluo and Heluo was not over yet.
So many prisoners would be a hidden danger if they were not dealt with properly. Li Tai was not so mad as to directly order the execution of tens of thousands of prisoners, nor did he have enough energy and time to organize these people carefully, so he could only resort to the tried and tested method of public trial. The solution came out.
As one of the elders and confidants of the Gao Huan Group, Hu Lujin's prestige among the Jinyang soldiers can be said to be no less than that of Qi leader Gao Yang. Now, if they are taken out and criticized, the collective sense of identity and belonging of the Jinyang soldiers will be destroyed, and the tacit understanding between them will disappear, thus reducing the chance of gathering to cause trouble.
With the surrender of Prince Gao Rui of Zhao County and the announcement of Hu Lujin's death, the enemy forces in several other places in the city who were still stubbornly resisting also abandoned their weapons and surrendered. Since then, Jinyong City has been completely controlled.
In addition to these Qi army prisoners, there were nearly 3,000 Western Wei soldiers in the city. Most of these people were captured in the recent Battle of Mangshan and have been imprisoned in Jinyong City since then. There were originally more than 5,000 people, but during Li Tai's siege of the city, these Western Wei soldiers not only had food and drink They were not allowed to receive supplies, and they were also angered and abused by the Qi army. Today, there are only less than 3,000 people left, and each one of them was tortured into inhuman form.
These people originally thought they would die, but they didn't expect that King Taiyuan finally captured the city and rescued them. When they were rescued, they all cried with joy. When Li Tai came here to comfort them, everyone bowed to the ground and burst into tears. First, they thanked Li Tai for saving their lives, and then when they talked about the treatment they had suffered in the prisoner-of-war camp in the past few days, they expressed their gratitude to Hu Lv. Jin and other Northern Qi soldiers gnashed their teeth in hatred.
At the beginning of Li Tai's siege, Hulujin dragged hundreds of Western Wei prisoners of war to the top of the city and killed them to establish their authority. Later, when Li Tai attacked the city with Heyang cannon outside the city, in order to maintain the morale of the defenders in the city, Hu Lujin repeatedly ordered people to tie these prisoners of war within the bombardment range of the stone cannon, and beat the soldiers The fear of this stone cannon attack turned into the unpleasant pleasure and pleasure of enjoying the Western Wei Dynasty's own people beating their own people.
When Li Tai learned about this, his eyes gleamed, and he immediately set out to investigate who else in the Northern Qi army was involved in this matter besides Hu Lujin, the person who gave the order.
War is cruel. It not only destroys human life, but also suppresses human nature. Anything can be done as long as it helps win. Just as Li Tai used ethics, filial piety and righteousness to coerce Hu Luguang into fighting under unsuitable circumstances, it is difficult to criticize Hu Lüjin from a moral perspective for making such an arrangement.
But war is also about victory and defeat. Win is win, lose is lose. Now that Li Tai is the winner, he naturally has no reason to laugh off his past feud. He can ignore ordinary hostile acts and not hold them accountable, but for this kind of extra-conventional means, he must be held accountable to the end, and it must be tit for tat. How you inflict violence on me, I will retaliate.
He selected several hundred sergeants from among the prisoners of war who were the first to expose Hurüjin's crimes of stubborn resistance. His officers led them up the Tushan Mountain, then repaired and set up the Heyang Cannon. After correcting the angle and strength, he let these people control the bombardment into the city. Smash. As for the soldiers of the Qi army who participated in this matter, they were all restrained and thrown into the bombardment range until these people were bombarded into plasma.
This kind of approach was rarely done by Li Tai in his military career. In addition to Qi Jun's previous actions being a bit disgusting, it was also because he had a relatively negative impression of the Jinyang soldiers as a whole. Not only because of the ongoing hostility, but also because of the national sentiment of disgust.
The conflict between Hu and Han lasted throughout the Gao family's regime. Even in the late Northern Qi Dynasty, it did not ease, but intensified. For example, Han Yi, the enemy general who was captured alive by Han Qinhu before, his son Han Feng still committed violence in the late Northern Qi Dynasty and said: "The dog man is too impatient! He must be killed!"
Therefore, even if Li Tai was tolerant of the prisoners of Jinyang soldiers, it was often based on the fact that these soldiers were still strong and available, and he was not as tolerant and preferential as he was to those who surrendered to the Southern Dynasty.
Even if the issue of ethnic inclusion needs to be considered more comprehensively as the status and circumstances change in the future, the people he wants to integrate are also those Xianbei people who are actively seeking integration and striving for progress. As for those who are still stubborn and short of change, as the Being eliminated at the end of troubled times is also the most suitable destination.
After Jin Yong City was captured, Li Tai's troops immediately had a strong tendency to rebel against the enemy in Heluo. The defenses of the fortresses that the Northern Qi Dynasty had built in Heluo in the past few years were almost completely under control, and its military power was suppressed. Reached the corner area.
The barbarian soldiers who assisted in the battle were also very excited about this victory. They felt more and more that King Taiyuan was unparalleled, and he was also extremely generous in doing things, and they could get rich rewards every time they followed him.
This time Li Tai did not treat these barbarians badly. After conquering Jinyong City, in addition to the fine armor and some grain and oil supplies used by the army, the remaining materials in the city's treasury were distributed to these barbarians to reward them for their efforts in the situation. And the loyalty to help each other even when the situation is quite unfavorable.
Because we have Jinyong City and other fortifications in hand, even if there are men and horses from Heyang to attack, we can still hold the city and fight without panic. So after Li Tai took a short rest and arranged the city defense tasks, he personally led 10,000 elite troops and rushed to the direction of Yiyang to assist Gao Le's troops in resisting the counterattack of Duan Shao's army.