Chapter 586: Inform the Queen Mother that the Imperial Master Ku He has surrendered to the enemy
May.

The five armies of Qing State advanced in unison and captured three states of Northern Qi in one fell swoop. They should have been able to make unstoppable progress all the way to the capital city.

However, after receiving requests for help from Qin Ye in the rear, several commanders and generals took up a defensive posture, relying on the mountains and narrow passes.

At the same time, the five armies all turned back and cooperated with the 200,000 troops led by Qin Ye to surround the 300,000 troops commanded by Uesugi Tiger at the Wudu River line.

The small Wudu River gathered millions of troops from both countries.

The number of troops that General Qin Ye can now command has suddenly approached 700,000.

Even though his army was twice as large as Uesugi Tora's, he still chose to advance steadily and cautiously, gradually trapping Uesugi Tora's army along the Wudu River.

Uesugi Tora also saw through Qin Ye's intention and tried to lead his troops to break out several times, but was beaten back every time.

After several attempts, seeing that there was no hope of breaking out, Uesugi Tora had no choice but to release a carrier pigeon to ask for help from the capital.

In the Northern Qi court, all the civil and military officials knew that Uesugi Tora was trapped and that troops needed to be sent to rescue him.

Unfortunately, there are not many soldiers available in the court.

After all, the total military strength of Northern Qi was only about 1.2 million, and the area bordering the Western Hu in the north required 200,000 troops to defend.

Uesugi Tora had 300,000 men under his command.

At the beginning of the war between the two countries, Qing Kingdom used thunder tactics to wipe out 300,000 of its troops.

Today, there are only 400,000 troops in Northern Qi.

Among them, 100,000 troops were to protect Shangjing City, and the remaining 300,000 were distributed in more than a dozen prefectures.

At this time, if Northern Qi wanted to rescue Uesugi Tora, it could only transfer troops from the nine border areas.

Not to mention the time that would be wasted, there was a lot of discussion in the Northern Qi court about whether it was worth doing so.

It was not until June that Uesugi Tora broke out several times, suffered heavy casualties, and began to run out of food and grass. He had no choice but to dig earth and build a wall, locking up his 300,000 troops inside, preparing to fight against the Qing army.

"Okay."

Qin Ye calculated the time. Uesugi Tora had been fighting against him for two months, and the food and grass in the army must be very scarce.

Such an army is like trying to break out, but it no longer has the strength.

Afterwards, Qin Ye continued to besiege Uesugi Tora with his own troops, but secretly returned the borrowed troops to the other five routes.

In order to avoid being discovered by Uesugi Tora, he transferred nearby farmers over, had them wear the armor of the Qing army, and continued to pretend that he still had 700,000 troops under his command.

In the blink of an eye, it was August.

Qin Ye's troop deployment was extremely cautious, so even if he replaced the 500,000 borrowed troops and only kept his own 200,000 troops, he was still able to trap Uesugi Tiger in place and make him unable to move.

This siege lasted from May to August.

The food and grass under Uesugi Tiger's command had long been used up, and they could only rely on digging grass roots and fishing to survive every day. Many of their war horses were starving to the point of being skin and bones, and had to be slaughtered for their meat.

While constantly mobilizing troops, Qin Ye was not doing nothing.

In order to break down the psychological defenses of the Qi people, rumors such as "being surrounded by enemies on all sides" and "Northern Qi Grand Duke Wei usurped the throne" were spread.

It can be said that the battle to conquer people’s hearts and minds has never stopped for a single day.

At the same time, the other five armies of Qing Kingdom regrouped and headed north, sweeping across all the prefectures of Northern Qi.

Most of the Northern Qi army had lost their will, and facing the attack of the Qing army, it can almost be said that they all surrendered.

Even most of the 200,000 troops stationed in the nine borders surrendered to the Qing Kingdom.

In October, the five armies gathered together again and arrived outside the city of Shangjing in Northern Qi.

Several generals in the army, as well as Eunuch Yao, the supervisor of the Northern Expedition Army, inspected the attack route together.

Looking at the towering city walls, Eunuch Yao couldn't help but sigh first:

"It is said that the walls of Shangjing City are so majestic and high that one man can block the passage of ten thousand. Since they were built, they have always been breached from the inside. Now it seems to be true."

"Eunuch Yao is very insightful."

Grand Admiral Wang Zhikun laughed loudly, pointed forward and said with a laugh:

"Please look, everyone. Shangjing City is built on the dangerous terrain of the mountains. There are six passes outside and six inner city walls. In addition, there are nearly a hundred arrow towers and high platforms. If you want to break through from the outside, relying solely on the lives of the soldiers, I am afraid that it will take more than a million troops to capture Shangjing City."

Ye Wan, who was standing next to him, drooped his eyelids and continued with a smile, "It's a pity that this pass is so dangerous. Now that our Qing Kingdom has three great masters, the legend that Shangjing City is impregnable will be broken by our Qing Kingdom."

When the others heard this, they burst into laughter.

After a few people laughed, one of them asked Eunuch Yao:
"Eunuch Yao, when will the emperor arrive?"

"How can a servant like me know where the emperor is?"

Eunuch Yao said with a faint smile: "Don't worry, generals. Before the army set out, His Majesty had issued an order that if the Northern Qi still refused to surrender after the army gathered in Shangjing City, they could be besieged temporarily without attacking immediately. Just wait until next spring, and we will find a way to make the Qi people surrender."

After hearing what Eunuch Yao said, several bigwigs discussed it.

The task of besieging Shangjing City was given to Wang Zhikun, while Ye Wan took a part of the army to wipe out the remaining prefectures of Northern Qi that had not surrendered.

Northern Qi’s military strength is now divided into three parts.

Among them, the 300,000-strong army led by Uesugi Tora was trapped on the Wudu River line.

Now the Northern Qi had gathered some scattered and defeated soldiers, as well as a royal support army, numbering about 300,000, and stationed them in Shangjing City.

At the same time, there were more than 100,000 stragglers and defeated soldiers scattered in the three prefectures that had not been conquered.

Now, Ye Wan led his army to sweep across these states, and letters from pigeons begging for help flew towards the capital like raindrops.

In Shangjing City, the Queen Mother of Northern Qi received intelligence reports almost every day, including how many cities had been lost and how many troops had been defeated.

In the blink of an eye, it was the eve of the Spring Festival. Seeing that the entire Qi State only had 600,000 troops in Shangjing City and Wudu River, the Queen Mother of Northern Qi could only pound the table in anger:
"Uesugi Tora is incompetent! With an army of 300,000, he is trapped in a remote corner!"

The civil and military officials in the court watched the empress dowager go crazy and all remained silent.

At this point, anyone could see that the demise of Northern Qi was imminent.

If it weren't for the Jinyiwei Shen Zhong who took over the city defense, he would have chopped off hundreds of heads and hung them on the city walls, intimidating the villains in the city.

I'm afraid that Shangjing City has already been secretly offered to the Qing army.

The Northern Qi was still struggling, but the Qing army finally launched its ultimate weapon - the Grandmaster!

On the eve of the Spring Festival, Emperor Qing brought Ye Liuyun and a monk wearing linen clothes and straw sandals to the outskirts of Shangjing City.

After Wang Zhikun arrived at Emperor Qing, he immediately bowed and said:
"Your Majesty, we are incompetent and cannot capture Shangjing City..."

"It doesn't matter!"

Emperor Qing said to the ascetic monk beside him with a smile:

"Master Ku He, the Northern Qi army seems to be calm and well-prepared. They must be well-prepared. They may have a way to deal with the Grandmaster. This time we need the three of us to act together."

"Master Ku He?"

When Wang Zhikun and the generals of the Qing army heard the 'Emperor of Qing' address the ascetic monk, they quickly glanced at him, and after seeing the monk's appearance clearly, they were all shocked.

At some point, Ku He, the imperial teacher of Northern Qi, also surrendered to the Qing Kingdom.

Master Ku He ignored the surprised looks from the Qing army generals, his face remained calm, and he took only a small step forward before saying calmly:
"Your Majesty, Mr. Ye, please!"

"please!"

Ye Liuyun took the lead and walked forward, slowly approaching the city wall.

'Emperor Qing' followed closely behind.

Master Ku He clasped his hands together and finally followed.

Wang Zhikun looked at the three people's backs as they walked away, and suddenly said in surprise:
"Is that rumor true?"

Ye Wan, Eunuch Yao and the others also changed their expressions.

"Master Ku He surrendered to the Qing Kingdom. It seems that this is the only answer."

At this time, the soldiers on the city wall also saw the three people and quickly shot arrows to warn them.

The three of them turned a blind eye to it.

When the arrow really hit him, Ye Liuyun would just stretch out his slender white right hand, gently push it forward, and deflect the arrow.

The soldiers on the city wall saw that the bows and arrows had no effect, and knowing that the three men were all martial arts masters, they quickly launched siege crossbows specifically designed to attack martial arts masters.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of the three people, this siege crossbow that could penetrate the bluestone was no different from the previous bow and arrow.

The soldiers on the city wall saw the three men waving their hands, and the thick and long siege crossbows were directly blocked by the three men.

Soon, the three men arrived at the city gate under the crossbow arrows.

The gate of Shangjing City is made of extremely hard and expensive iron wood.

Ironwood, whose full name is 'Ironwood Sinking Wood', is the hardest type of wood. Even if it is sent to the desert and exposed to the sun for three years, it will still sink in water.

On the city gate, there are door nails made of gilded brass and door coverings made of brass.

Such a heavy city gate should have taken dozens or even hundreds of hits to break open even with battering rams.

Ye Liuyun was walking in front, and he just lightly threw out a palm.

This palm was just like a white cloud passing through the sky, completely powerless, and it hit the city gate just like a cloud.

Then everyone heard the huge city gate exploding with a bombing sound almost instantly.

The extremely hard and thick city gate immediately broke into pieces and collapsed into debris.

Ye Liuyun turned around and smiled:
"please."

Emperor Qing and Master Ku He also nodded in greeting:
"please."

"please."

Master Ku He's expression remained calm as he continued to move forward with the two men.

The three of them continued to stroll forward, passed the city wall, and walked forward for more than two miles, and finally saw the real gate of Shangjing City.

The commander standing on the top of the city at this moment was Shen Zhong, the commander of the Jinyiwei.

His usual style of doing things was like "lifting a heavy weight with ease", but when he saw the three people walking towards him, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead:

"How is this possible? How is this possible?"

"Go, quickly inform the Queen Mother that the Imperial Master Ku He has surrendered to the enemy—"

In the court, the Queen Mother of Northern Qi was leading the civil and military officials and the young emperor to think about the best strategy to repel the enemy.

After thinking for several months, he still couldn't come up with a good strategy to repel the enemy. Now he has received the news that 'the national teacher Ku He has surrendered to the enemy'.

The young emperor of Northern Qi remained calm, as if this matter had nothing to do with him.

However, the Queen Mother of Northern Qi turned pale and collapsed on the dragon throne.

Finished!

Completely finished!
Even the state teacher Ku He has surrendered to the enemy. Is there any hope for the State of Qi?
(End of this chapter)