Chapter 716: The Wei Army's Defeat
Seeing Zhong Hui leading a group of men and chasing him with murderous intent, Sima Zhao's anger suddenly rose.
Zhong Hui was the first talented person he recruited when he became an official, and he was also the one who stayed with him the longest. From beginning to end, Sima Zhao had great trust in Zhong Hui.
Na Zeng thought that his most trusted subordinate personally sent him into a pit of fire!
"Zhong Hui! You two-faced villain! I'm sorry I trust you so much!" Sima Zhao yelled through gritted teeth, looking at Zhong Hui with murderous intent.
"I have a grudge against you for killing my father, and you are a regicide. The whole world should fight against you. What does your false trust mean?" Zhong Hui, however, did not have any moral baggage at all, but turned disdainful. mocked.
"What's more, you are a power seeker who relied on a coup to gain your position. What qualifications do you have to criticize me? Didn't I, Zhong Shiji, learn all this from you, Situ?"
Zhong Hui's ridicule made Sima Zhao suddenly feel red and warm. If he couldn't defeat him, Sima Zhao would have drawn his sword and slashed him.
"Zhong Hui! How brave!" Sima Zhao gritted his teeth, but did not dare to delay at all. While yelling at Zhong Hui, he led his troops and fled towards the east gate.
He only had this few people under his command, and they were very tired after a night of running around. But Zhong Hui was a new force, and Sima Zhao could clearly see the gap in combat power between the two sides.
After all, if you keep the green hills, you won’t have to worry about running out of firewood. When he reaches Julu, it won't be too late to gather his troops and fight back!
Zhong Hui was obviously unwilling to let Sima Zhao escape, so he kept pursuing him. It's a pity that Zhong Hui is still a snake swallowing an elephant in the final analysis. He has too few men to stop Sima Zhao.
In the end, Zhong Hui could only watch as Sima Zhao rushed out of the east gate and fled straight towards the giant deer in the north. But he stood firm at the east gate and did not choose to continue the pursuit.
"Stop the pursuit and let Sima Zhao go! Everyone, follow me to gather Yecheng's armed forces, and control Yecheng first!"
Rather than killing Sima Zhao alone, Zhong Hui thought it would be better to take the credit for himself.
What's more, most of Hebei's military forces are now taken to the front line by Sima Division. The troops on Julu's side are pitifully small. They only need to gather the armed forces of Yecheng, and it will be easy to destroy Sima Zhao!
So, with this in mind, Zhong Hui began to gather the pieces scattered in Yecheng.
At this time, Yecheng's armed forces, including the two thousand forbidden troops, had been confused all night. Under Zhong Hui's series of advance arrangements, all the units were left leaderless and did not dare to leave their base.
Zhong Hui relied on Sima Zhao's cronies and his identity as a central guard to quickly seize the command of each branch. By daybreak, Zhong Hui had basically controlled all the troops in Yecheng and had nominally taken over Yecheng.
Of course, it should be said that Yecheng is mostly in ruins.
Thanks to Zhong Hui, most of the entire city of Ye has been engulfed in flames, and many places have been burned to rubble. Except for the inner city controlled by the rich clans that survived the fire extinguishing by the rich clan's servants, there are basically not many complete buildings visible in the outer city.
The most important town in Hebei was turned into ruins overnight.
But even so, Zhong Hui had no intention of stopping just yet. After gathering all the pieces, you immediately took the next step.
"Generals, listen to my orders and follow me to burn the inner city and force those officials to follow me south and surrender to the Han!" Zhong Hui waved his hand and said energetically.
He had just disintegrated the entire Cao Wei rule from within with a series of deployments. Now he had a great sense of accomplishment, so he finally set his target on those wealthy families.
Dragging them all together to surrender was definitely a great achievement. If anyone doesn't want to, kill him on the spot... Well, Ma Su does this every time, so he can't go wrong.
In this way, Zhong Hui led his troops into the inner city with confidence.
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"Yecheng...has fallen?"
When Master Sima received the letter, it was already a few days later. He read Sima Zhao's letter several times and still murmured in disbelief.
Previously, the dead men he placed in Yecheng all reported that the situation in Yecheng was stable. Even if the whole of Hebei is in chaos, Yecheng will still not be affected at all.
It has only been a few months, but Yecheng has disappeared in such a daze?
Even the emperor is gone?
"General, Situ has now surrendered his bail on Julu. I would like to ask you what to do next..."
"I don't know what to do..." Master Sima smiled bitterly, feeling a wave of exhaustion seeping into his whole body, making this general in his prime suddenly feel a little more old-fashioned.
"We have reached this point, and there is no way to break the situation. No matter what we do, the defeat is irreversible."
At this moment, he could truly understand how desperate Ji Han was when he was in Yizhou. Even if you work hard to the extreme, even if you do whatever it takes to win, there is still no hope.
The gap between the two sides has long been beyond human control. And at this juncture, there was such a big problem behind them, which became the last straw for Sima Division.
"Withdraw... withdraw the troops!" Master Sima slowly gave the final order, and then his body tilted and fell to the ground!
"General! General!"
"Quick! Call the doctor!"
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Sima Shi's fall completely crushed the low morale of the Wei army. When the order to retreat was just issued, the Wei army on the front line collapsed on its own. A large number of officers directly disobeyed the command and began to disperse.
Fortunately, Sima Shi still had some dead soldiers to protect him, and they covered the unconscious Sima Shi in the chaos. Cao Wei's last troops on the front line finally collapsed in such an outrageous way.
In the Han army camp not far away, Ma Su watched the whole process with a confused face. It was not until the Wei army fled that Ma Su reacted and ordered a pursuit.
In this way, Ma Su's final battle to recover Hebei ended in such a whimper. Such smooth progress made Ma Su feel a little magical.
When did fighting become so easy? Thinking back to the time when they fought Chang'an, their entire army almost suffocated on the banks of the Wei River. As a result, such a large Hebei seems so fragile?
At this time, the news from Yecheng also reached Ma Su, but the news he received was slightly different from Sima Shi's intelligence.
"Regicide?" Ma Su was shocked when he saw just this word.
Oh no, if Cao Fang dies, who can I catch to sit in the seat of His Majesty!
I can't let Liu Chan prepare a seat for more than ten years, and finally never wait for the guest to arrive, right?
"Let Liu Yin come in, take the cavalry and let's go straight to Yecheng!"