Chapter 255: Surrender
In order to increase the chances of Lu Qin's troops taking Yuzhang, Li Yuanhui also ordered Zhou Ben's Lujiang Right Camp stationed in Wankou and Wanxian, as well as Xu Xuan's troops who had just surrendered, to be mobilized under Lu Qin, and the defense of Wankou was entirely handed over to the county troops.

After all, when Lu Qin's troops initially led 40,000 men to attack Jiangxia and captured E County and Xiling, they did not replenish their forces and had to divide their troops for garrison. This time, when Lu Qin was given reinforcements, the total number of troops he led was still around 40,000, including 20,000 naval forces and 20,000 infantry.

However, I have to mention here that Murong Jing and Shen Shangfa of Yuzhang had a total of only more than 30,000 soldiers.

Among them, more than 10,000 people were recruited after the last Xunyangshui Battle. The remaining veterans of the two were less than 20,000.

The navy also has hundreds of warships, many of which are requisitioned merchant ships converted into warships.

Lu Qin began to prepare after receiving the military order from Li Yuanhui, and it was not until July that he set out from Chaisang and directly entered Poyang Lake.

The Shangjia Army of more than 10,000 people, led by General Zhou Qiu, took the land route, passed between Lushan Mountain and Mufu Mountain, and headed straight for Haihun.

Because they stayed behind in E County and Xiling, the Huoshan army had only 4,000 people in the Yuzhang battlefield. Together with the 7,000 people of Zhou Ben and Xu Xuan, they boarded the navy's warships under the leadership of General Li Su and arrived at Haihun first. They also carried dozens of siege ladders on the ship. They did not need to build any equipment and immediately launched a siege.

The three armies took turns attacking the city. By the time Zhou Qiu broke through the Wei army camp from the western foot of Mount Lu, Haihun had already fallen.

At this time, Shen Shangfa realized that Li Yuanhui's Jianghuai Army had entered Poyang Lake, and hurriedly led the navy to rescue Haihun.

However, they were defeated by Lu Qin in the naval battle and had to retreat temporarily after losing dozens of warships.

However, Lu Qin took advantage of the situation and continued to chase Shen Shangfa all the way, fighting three times a day, never giving Shen Shangfa a chance to catch his breath.

Shen Shangfa's Poyang Lake navy was completely crippled, and his ship, the Wuya warship, was seized.

Shen Shangfa escaped by water escape, and in fact managed to escape with his life.

After Lu Qin cleaned up the battlefield and took in the prisoners, he took advantage of the situation and led the navy to besiege Poyang. Shen Shangfa, who had just escaped into the city, saw an endless stream of large and small boats on the lake outside the city, which were out of reach. Finally, he sighed and chose to open the gates and surrender the city. However, because the Shen family was in Wuxing, Wujun, Jiangdong, and most of his clansmen served in the Eastern Wei, in order to avoid dragging down the clan, he wanted to commit suicide.

However, his son Shen Youzhi took away his sword and he failed to commit suicide. Once a person wants to die but fails, the will to survive may take over.

So he personally opened the gates and offered the city, but Lu Qin understood the importance of united front work, and treated Shen Shangfa with courtesy, so he smoothly accepted Poyang.

Although Shen Shangfa was treated with courtesy, the remaining Poyang Lake Navy was directly disbanded and incorporated into the Jianghuai Navy.

The Poyang Lake Navy, which was separated from the invincible fleet that Yang Su used to destroy the Southern Wei Dynasty, became a focus and was merged into the Chaohu Navy, which was of the same origin.

After leaving thousands of people to guard the city, Lu Qin took the surrendered Shen Shangfa and the larger fleet after the annexation and headed straight for Nanchang.

Nanchang was the seat of Yuzhang County, located on the bank of Gan River south of Poyang Lake. The navy could directly advance along the Gan River and head straight to Nanchang.

Now, Lu Qin was quite impressed by Li Yuanhui's foresight, because the title of county marquis he was granted was that of Nanchang County Marquis.

"The general has a far-sighted vision and foresight that is beyond the reach of ordinary people."

The army drove straight to the city and surrounded Nanchang.

Shen Shangfa even came to the city in person to persuade Murong Jing to surrender. Murong Jing said, come in and have a chat.

Shen Shangfa actually rode the hanging basket up to the city. Because he and Murong Jing were close friends, they had known each other for many years, and they had joined Wei together. Now they might join the Jianghuai forces together.

"Brother Shen, have you forgotten that a few years ago when Li Yuanhui was in Chaisang, we wanted to coerce him? Can we really ignore these things if we surrender?"

Looking at the fleet outside, the large and small boats were lined up in a long line, with no end in sight. The infantrymen under the city were also setting up camps, as if they were ready for a long-term siege.

Murong Jing didn't want to fight this battle, but he was afraid that Li Si would settle old scores with him after he surrendered.

After all, if Li Si had not brought enough people and boats, he might have been captured by the two of them and sent to Jiangdong as a token of his loyalty. So Murong Jing was very worried.

Shen Shangfa said, "Surrender. I heard that the King of Tang is a kind elder, and General Li has been in Jianghuai for several years. He is also kind to others and has the ambition to rule the world. Such people will definitely follow the example of Emperor Guangwu and Emperor Wei Wu and put aside past grudges. If we resist stubbornly, we will be defeated sooner or later. Emperor Cao has stationed 100,000 troops in the Ruxu area. There are deep trenches and high ravines. He will not stop until he can break the city. Waiting for him to come and rescue us is nothing but a pipe dream. Although the two of us have had a fight with General Li, we have never fought. Whether we have a blood feud or not, it is better to surrender early. If Li is determined to rule the world, he will definitely not kill the surrendered people without authorization."

After these words, Murong Jing sighed and said, "Brother, I will consider your words carefully. Today, we are in front of the two armies, so I won't keep you to reminisce about the past."

Shen Shangfa nodded, then took the hanging basket and went down to report to Lu Qin.

"Murong Jing no longer has the will to fight. From what I know about him, he has already thought about surrendering. What he is worried about now is nothing more than the old incident of the conspiracy to kidnap the general in Chaisang. If General Lu can explain to him the general's kindness and generosity, he will definitely open the city and surrender."

After hearing this, Lu Qin nodded, wrote a letter in his own hand, removed the arrowhead, and shot it into the city.

In his heart, he was endorsing Li Yuanhui's character and advised Murong Jing not to resist.

Sure enough, two days later, Murong Jing opened the gate and surrendered.

This also means that the entire Yuzhang County fell into the hands of Li Yuanhui.

Regardless of whether it was Murong Jing or Shen Shangfa, when they chose to surrender, a big part of the reason was Li Erfeng's extremely brave "routine operation" on the battlefield of Jingzhou.

The three passes of Yiyang, Sui County, Biyang, Yiyang, Geyang and other places all fell into the hands of the Western Yan army within a month. The Western Wei army in Jingzhou trembled when they saw Li Er’s military flag.

The gates of Wancheng were also opened and the city was surrendered. Although Xiangfan could not be captured for the time being, the power of the Li family had successfully established a foothold north of the Han River and captured the two large counties of Nanyang and Jiangxia. Now Lu Qin's troops had successfully occupied Yuzhang. For Western Yan, the military operations over the past six months can be said to have achieved a great victory.

However, the tenacity of Cao Xuan's Western Wei regime exceeded the expectations of Li Yuan and the Li brothers.

After Li Sanlang failed in his repeated attempts to capture Fancheng, he came to the conclusion that it would be very difficult to completely destroy the Western Wei in the short term.

If too many resources and manpower are consumed under the city of Xiangyang, it will be a loss for the current Western Yan forces.

The ownership of the Jingchu land is undoubtedly a trivial matter for the Li family who want to dominate the Central Plains.

What is truly important is, of course, the Central Plains, Luoyang, and Hedong and Hebei.

It is undoubtedly unwise to invest a lot of resources in fighting Jingchu when these places are not in your hands.

Whether it was Qin's conquest of the six kingdoms, Han's unification of the world, Guangwu's restoration of Han, or Wei Wu's waving of the whip and Yan's invasion of the Central Plains.

They first completed the unification of the north and the Central Plains.

Therefore, after completing the goal of opening up the connection between Jianghuai, Madam Li first withdrew her troops from Yiling and returned to Yong'an.

Later, Li San also retreated from Fancheng to Xinye, preparing to monitor Xiangfan from Xinye.

Li Da stayed in Wancheng. In addition to managing an army of over 100,000, he also had to carry out post-war appeasement work for Wancheng and Huangniujiao.

The ruling system of Wancheng has been restored.

These things are often inconspicuous but very important work. Among the brothers of the Li family, although Li Er and Li San are more fierce than the other in fighting, when it comes to this work, they are not as good as the eldest brother.

Only Li Er was extremely happy. After having someone deliver a letter to his brother, he led several hundred cavalrymen directly to Jianghuai.

(End of this chapter)