Chapter 1354: No cruelty to the people

Chapter 1354: No cruelty to the people

"Reporting to my lord, Qiantang City has been captured by the Tang Army..."

A speedboat drove quickly towards the south bank. The soldier on the boat looked dejected and said to Hou Andu who was standing on the shore.

Without the reports of these soldiers, Hou Andu had already seen the chaos in Qiantang City. After hearing this, he just nodded slightly, and then said in a deep voice: "The ships are ordered to retreat quickly and do not fight with the enemy. Block the river and prevent the enemy from crossing south!"

The fall of Qiantang City would be a heavy blow to Jiang Defense, but with the natural danger of the Qiantang River, Chen Jun still had an absolute advantage over the naval force of the Navy. The top priority was to strictly guard the Qiantang River defense line and not to be defeated again. The enemy breaks through.

"But there are still many soldiers at Qiantang Water Gate waiting for rescue..."

After hearing this, the sergeant quickly spoke again.

In order to restore the decline and defend the city, a large number of soldiers from the south bank were carried north by warships to participate in the battle, and more than 10,000 people were invested. Now that the city has been captured by the Tang army, tens of thousands of defeated soldiers have gathered at the Shuimen Pier in Qiantang, and they must have enough boats to support them before they can return.

Hou Andu frowned deeply after hearing this. He looked across the river at the situation in the north and saw that the Watergate Pier was crowded with people. It seemed that the Tang Army was already trying to attack Watergate. He hesitated in his heart. Then he said in a deep voice: "Those who are unable to fight against the enemy are already guilty but have no merit. If in order to rescue them, the Tang army is allowed to wait for an opportunity to seize the ship, causing the river defense to be broken again, it will be even more regrettable for these disciples to die!"

In order to ensure that the Tang army would not take away the ships and obtain the vehicles to cross the river, Hou Andu decided to abandon the defeated troops on the north bank.

Those people are already in dire straits and their morale is low. Even if they come back, they may not have the courage to continue participating in the war. On the contrary, it may affect the morale of the southern division and brigade.

Leaving them on the other side, if they were tortured and killed by the Tang army, would allow the defenders on the south bank to see the enemy's ferocity and cruelty, thus strengthening their determination to fight.

If the Tang army wanted to recruit and surrender these troops, it would take a certain amount of time to recruit them, and he was also planning to take advantage of the Tang army's unstable foothold in the city to try to retake the city. These troops staying there could serve as internal support. Even if they did not have such subjective intention, once the south bank launched a counterattack, the Tang army would inevitably be distracted and wary of these soldiers taking the opportunity to cause chaos.

No matter how you think about it, risking the ship to be intercepted and robbed by the Tang army to rescue the defeated people is not as effective as leaving them on the other side.

Following Hou Andu's order, the ships that were still cruising on the river near Qiantang City retreated to the river behind them. When the defeated soldiers who were waiting for the ships to pick up at the Watergate Pier saw this scene, they said, Suddenly, he let out a desperate cry and begged: "Don't go, don't... help, help! The Tang army is coming, come and save..."

However, no matter how they screamed and wailed, the ships on the river continued to move farther and farther away. Seeing this, some of the defenders jumped directly into the river and swam quickly in the direction of the ships.

However, it is still the cold season of late winter and early spring. Now it is the evening when the temperature drops sharply. The defeated soldiers have lost their courage and blood. No matter how good the water quality is, once they jump into the cold river water , it would still lose body temperature quickly, and soon its hands and feet would twitch from the cold, and then it would sink uncontrollably into the river.

As for those ships, they were ordered to stay away from the river quickly and not to be bullied by the Tang army to seize the ships. Driven by the military orders and worried about their own safety, they naturally would not stop and wait for those who desperately wanted to swim aboard. The sergeant still headed towards the river resolutely.

At the same time, the Tang army that entered the city had also completed the purge of the city, and separated a group of troops to go to the water gate in the south of the city. Tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers crowded into this small space in the south of the city. Even the pier made of bamboo and wood that poked out of the water creaked under the tread, and it seemed that it would soon break and fall into the river.

The soldiers of the Tang Army were eager for military glory and came all the way. The defeated soldiers who gathered here waved their weapons to resist at first, but when they saw more and more Tang troops coming towards them, they suddenly became frightened. The boats that were supposed to come to meet them also evacuated one after another, leaving them more and more in a dilemma.

"I'm willing to surrender. I'm willing to surrender. I beg the general to spare my life, spare my life..."

Seeing that there was no hope of escape, some sergeants dropped their weapons one after another in order to survive, and fell on the ground begging to the Tang army for surrender. However, the crowd at the rear was so dense and crowded that they could not even kneel on the ground and begged for surrender, and could only roar at the top of their lungs. Begging for life.

At this time, the chief general of the Tang Army, Shi Ning, also entered Qiantang City under the guard of his own soldiers. Xiao Mohe, a subordinate general, was allowed to follow the general because of his heroic performance on the battlefield and the fact that he was once the lord of this city. Enter the city together.

The fighting in the city has ended and the riots have subsided. The wailing and begging coming from the south of the city has become particularly harsh.

Xiao Maha Xinjing was devastated by the death of his family, and he was still immersed in great sorrow. However, after hearing the lamentations of the soldiers, he still couldn't help but feel compassion.

Especially when he thought that there might be many comrades who had fought side by side and had deep friendship with him in the past, he could not help but kneel down in front of Shi Ning and said in a deep voice: "The soldiers here resisted the king's army before, which is indeed a big crime, but these people are just stray arrows, they are not independent and are controlled by others. They will go wherever Hou Andu and other powerful people want to shoot. Although they have committed crimes, they have no evil intentions. I beg the general to sympathize with them, show mercy and spare their lives!"

Shi Ning heard Xiao Mohe pleading for the defeated soldiers, and after a moment of hesitation, he replied: "Before the king's army came south, a letter was sent to the people of the Three Wus, This trip is only to punish the evil and not to abuse the people. But you fools ignored the king's right voice and listened to the evil talk of the evildoers, which led to this disaster. Even if you all die here, it is your own fault.

However, God has the virtue of loving life, and my Lord Sitian Zhixian has the same virtue. Now I will give these followers a chance to survive. Xiao has indeed made meritorious contributions by returning to justice and killing the enemy. Now that these followers are begging for mercy and life, you will go to surrender. If these followers still do not surrender after one drum, kill them all! "

"Thank you, General, thank you, General!"

After hearing this, Xiao Mohe hurriedly kowtowed to thank him, and then took a few soldiers to the South City Water Gate Pier.

At this time, the pier was noisy and chaotic. On the side close to the Tang army, there were constantly soldiers abandoning their weapons and surrendering, and on the side close to the water, there were constantly people jumping into the river. Although most of them were drowned by the cold river water, at this time of life and death, few people could remain calm.

After Xiao Mohe arrived here, he immediately attracted the attention of these soldiers, and many people asked for help. Xiao Mohe raised his hands, signaling everyone to be silent, and then shouted loudly: "The fall of Qiantang City is not your fault. Chen Hou's followers defied heaven and destiny, and they should be punished by heaven and defeated! Because of being bewitched, we are willing to become the minions of these traitors, and we deserve to be abandoned now.

Only the Supreme Emperor of Tang cares for the people, and the great Tang Wangshi is benevolent and generous, and is willing to recruit the defeated people and save you. If you want to live, you should repent, surrender quickly, and thank Wangshi for saving your lives. Listen to my order, quickly abandon your weapons, and line up to enter the city!"

At this time, the people on the dock had already lost their fighting spirit and only wanted to survive. Hearing Xiao Mohe's words, they immediately became smart. Therefore, they all dropped their weapons, and then lined up in a single long line to the road given by the Tang army on the opposite side and walked back to the city.

Some soldiers were hesitant and wanted more assurances, so they shouted to Xiao Mohe, "Does City Lord Xiao really mean what he said? Will the Tang army really not harm us?"

"The king's army came here to kill the bandits of Chen Hou. If you guys give up your bandit nature, what else is worth the Tang army's expedition to harm? Stop talking nonsense, hurry up!" Xiao Mohe stood on the side of the passage with his sword in his hand and answered angrily.

Although his tone was somewhat unkind, the soldiers felt more relieved after hearing it, and quickened their pace to go into the city. Some officers who had completely given up on Hou Andu kindly reminded him: "It is getting late now. City Lord Xiao needs to remind the generals of the royal army that they must be on guard against Hou thieves relying on their convenient waterways to send soldiers to attack Qiantang City again after nightfall! Since we have surrendered, we will never have the idea of ​​rebellion again. We only pray that the Tang Dynasty's royal army will defeat Hou thieves as soon as possible, so that we can return home as soon as possible!"

Xiao Mohe really didn't realize this for a while, but after being reminded, he suddenly woke up. Seeing that the surrendered people were already entering the city in an orderly manner, he hurriedly turned back to Shi Ning and proposed several plans to change the city defense facilities to prevent the counterattack of the southern boat division based on his understanding of the city defense facilities.

Hou Andu abandoned the soldiers in Qiantang City without hesitation, and those soldiers would naturally abandon him without hesitation. While he was arranging troops and preparing for the next counterattack, the other side had already made targeted modifications to the city defense facilities of Qiantang City to increase the difficulty of the boat division landing.

Hou Andu was thinking about the front-line war and paid less attention to Chen Qian.

Although Chen Qian was not the person in charge of the Qiantang River defense line, the fall of Qiantang City also made him worried, especially the destruction of his general Lu Zilong who stayed in the city, which immediately caused his remaining few forces to suffer another loss. And Xiao Mohe, who went north to support Wuxing Xiangyi, was captured by the Tang army. No matter what the situation was at the time, it showed that the situation in Wuzhong was not optimistic.

Just when Chen Qian was still worrying with his confidants, a soldier came to report that a group of people came to the camp to ask for an audience, and the young man in the lead claimed to be his son-in-law.

"Could there be another incident in western Zhejiang?" Chen Qian was startled when he heard this, and immediately ordered the group to be led into the camp. After a moment's hesitation, he whispered that the matter should be kept secret, and all the soldiers who saw the group coming were temporarily restrained and tried to avoid communication with the outside world.