Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 562 Luoyang
During the time when Su Ze was busy moving the capital to Chang'an, Gao Aocao was on a roller coaster ride.

He was first ignored by Yuan Ziyou, but later he got the opportunity to send troops to Henei.

After sending out the troops, Gao Aocao also led all his troops and fought several tough battles, and really opened up the situation in Hanoi.

Prince Yuan Xin of Pei was also a member of the Yuan clan who had no talent. Gao Aocao fought his way to Qinyang and won battle after battle. Yuan Xin was so scared that he fled Qinyang City with his men and led his people to surrender to Yu Jin of Hedong County.

Gao Aocao took advantage of the situation to occupy Qinyang and was even more proud of himself. He immediately sent people to Luoyang to report the victory.

Upon hearing that Gao Aocao had occupied Qinyang, Yuan Ziyou was naturally extremely surprised. He gave him an official position without paying for it (of course his official position was not valuable to begin with), and then took out treasures from the palace and sent them to Qinyang as a reward to Gao Aocao.

Yuan Ziyou was well versed in political tactics and was an expert at winning people's hearts. Gao Aocao gained benefits and felt Yuan Ziyou's attention, so he even threatened to pacify Henei within a month.

The nobles of Luoyang wrote letters one after another to praise Gao Aocao's martial arts. Yuan Ziyou even had them copied into a collection and sent to Gao Aocao, which made Gao Aocao even more proud.

The reversal of the situation in Hanoi excited the silent court in Luoyang.

But only Yang Zhong, who was guarding Beizhong City, was full of worries about this.

Although Qinyang was captured, Hanoi was in constant turmoil and it was not yet time for harvest, so the army was still unable to support itself.

Therefore, all the food that Gao Aocao used for the war was transported from Luoyang.

As Gao Aocao's victories increased, the number of grain transport convoys became fewer and fewer.

Luoyang is short of food.

Yang Zhong even led the defenders of Beizhong City to the nearby fields to dig up wild vegetables to eat. The people of Luoyang would go out of the city to look for wild vegetables whenever they had a break. The entire area around Luoyang had been dug to the point where not a single blade of grass grew.

What’s the point of conquering the land if there’s no food in it?

Can those gold, silver and jewelry alone be enough to feed yourself?

Although Yang Zhong is loyal, he is not stupid. He would certainly not make suggestions at this time and pour cold water on Yuan Ziyou.

He could only try his best to feed his soldiers and wait for changes to happen in Hanoi before making plans.

Moreover, Yang Zhong also heard some news that Xiao Lun, the governor of Xuzhou in Southern Liang, led Xuzhou and Yanzhou states to surrender to Su Ze.

Su Ze sent Yang Kan of the Taishan Yang clan to take over these states and counties.

In addition, due to the civil strife in Southern Liang during this period, the county magistrates of Southern Liang surrendered one after another. Now, almost the entire area north of the Yellow River has fallen into Su Ze's hands.

In other words, Hedong County to the east of Luoyang, Xiangzhou to the west, Jingzhou to the south, and Bingzhou to the north were all areas controlled by Su Ze.

The small court in Luoyang had been completely surrounded, but the rulers and ministers of Luoyang were still celebrating and cheering for such a small place like Hanoi.

Sure enough, everything changed after Gao Aocao captured Qinyang City.

Yu Jin of Hedong County finally sent troops.

Prince Yuan Xin of Pei County had some prestige among the royal family of Yuan Wei. He had also been serving in Hanoi and was very familiar with the situation there.

Nowadays, Hanoi has been hit by continuous wars, and the people have been robbed and become poor. The army brought by Gao Aocao was also recruited from Henan, and each of them was also poor.

A fierce conflict broke out between the two sides. Although Gao Aocao controlled the city, he did not dare to send officials to the grassroots level. Even if a small team of soldiers went out, they would be attacked by the refugee army.

Yu Jin made a decisive decision to send troops.

In early May, Yu Jin personally led 3,000 soldiers from the Hedong County government to attack the Henei area.

Yu Jin brought not only troops, but also a large amount of food. He used food to appease the starving refugees in Henei, and at the same time sent people to persuade Gao Aocao's generals to surrender. Who knew that this approach was so effective that so many people surrendered to Yu Jin that the generals he sent out to take over were not enough, and he urgently transferred a group of men from Hedong County.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that these are one of the last chances to “get on board.”

Hanoi was unfortunate. Several battles over Luoyang plunged it into war.

Hanoi is lucky because of the existence of Luoyang, this area will always be valuable.

Even though Luoyang may not be the capital of the Xin Dynasty, due to its important geographical location, it must be the secondary capital of the empire.

This is indeed the case. In the history before Su Ze traveled through time, Luoyang had always been the empire's secondary capital, and was even designated as the capital during the Wu Zhou Dynasty.

The Luoyang commoner group was the one that competed with the Guanlong aristocratic group.

Because Hanoi is close to Luoyang, Yu Jin gave it one last chance to get on the bus.

In comparison, the situation in Hebei Province is quite miserable.

Among the Hebei gentry, except for the Taishan Yang family who had already boarded the car, none of the other families placed a bet on this revolution. This meant that when the new dynasty was established, not only would they not be able to get a share of the spoils, they might even become the target of exploitation.

Therefore, the reason why Xuzhou and Yanzhou surrendered so smoothly this time was also because the Hebei nobles put all their efforts into it. They really needed to establish merits in the new dynasty.

By the end of May, Yu Jin had led his troops to attack the city of Qinyang, and Gao Aocao was suddenly caught in a situation where the entire Henei was in rebellion.

The territory that had just been seized was lost all of a sudden, and the arrogant Gao Aocao was naturally unwilling to accept it.

Gao Aocao's subordinates all advised that they could rely on Qinyang City to hold out and wait for Yang Zhong from Beizhong City to lead his troops to rescue them.

However, his subordinates suggested relying on Yang Zhong for rescue, and Gao Aocao immediately became rebellious. He ordered his troops to fight a fierce battle with Yu Jin outside the city of Qinyang.

On May 30th, Gao Aocao left Qinyang City and fought with Yu Jin in the western suburbs.

The result was a defeat in the first battle. Gao Aocao wanted to reorganize the troops, but he could not stop the soldiers from losing their fighting consciousness.

He wanted to lead his troops back to Qinyang City, but found that the big families in the city had joined forces with the defenders to rebel, occupied Qinyang City and surrendered to Yu Jin.

Gao Aocao could only retreat to other cities surrounded by his generals.

Yu Jin advanced steadily and first entered the city to control Qinyang, and then continued to pursue Gao Aocao.

But Gao Aocao's escape was even more difficult.

He fled all the way towards Luoyang, and all the cities along the way surrendered to Su Ze. Most of the soldiers fled on the way.

Yu Jin took over the cities along the way and was able to catch up with Gao Aocao. In this way, Gao Aocao fled all the way to the outskirts of Beizhong City, and there were only more than a hundred people left around him.

Gao Aocao was unwilling to bow to Yang Zhong, so he sent his generals to Beizhong City for help and asked them to open the city gates.

The soldiers on guard naturally did not dare to act on their own and asked Gao Aocao to come forward to verify their identities before they would let them enter the city.

Even at this time, Gao Aocao still refused to lower himself. He said:
"Let this general knock on the door himself! It was this bastard Yang Zhong who deliberately humiliated me! If he doesn't open the door, this general will have his own way to cross the river!"

However, his subordinates were unwilling to follow him, and in the end only a few of them left with him.

Gao Aocao bypassed Beizhong City and looked for a way to cross the Yellow River. He was caught up by a reconnaissance cavalry led by Yu Jin. Before Gao Aocao revealed his identity, he was shot and killed by the cavalry.

On June 2, Yu Jin's troops surrounded Beizhong City.

(End of this chapter)