In late October, the weather gets colder, but the city of Suzhou is full of life.

After Han Jian led his troops into the city, he carried out a series of policies to treat and appease the people of Suzhou, and in less than ten days, the people of Suzhou basically recovered their pre-war living standards.

With the completion of the renovation of the temporary palace, Han Jian also enjoyed the pleasure brought to him by the Suzhou garden architecture. In the first few days of entering the city, in addition to his daily routine inspection of defense, Han Jian would stay in his temporary palace the rest of the time, facing flowers, birds, landscapes, and even tasting wine under the moonlight, watching Fa Yi and Ke Qu'er dance swords, which was also very comfortable and comfortable.

The surrounding area of Jinling City has long been slaughtered, and with the arrival of Su Tingxia's soldiers and horses, the county towns around Jinling City have been closed with city gates. After the winter, the biggest problem of Zhu Tongjing's department and Sima Qi's department was exposed, that is, the lack of food.

Because during the autumn harvest, Su Tingxia, Lin Zhan and Zhang Xing's three-way soldiers and horses plundered the three major grain producing areas of the Southern Dynasty from Chu, Shu and Jiangnan respectively, and Zhu Tongjing was busy stealing power and had no time to take care of anything else, so that the grain of the Southern Dynasty basically fell into the hands of the Northern Dynasty.

The Northern Dynasties were most short of grain and grass, but after this battle, the Northern Dynasties were more abundant than the Southern Dynasties. After entering the early winter, as the battle situation turned into a stalemate, the test of the follow-up grain, grass and materials of all parties will be more arduous, but at this time, the soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasties not only have an advantage in terms of strength and strategy, but also have an advantage in the grain, grass and materials that are already scarce.

On the fifth day of the first month of November, on the tenth day of Han Jian's arrival in Suzhou, Zhu Tongjing sent an envoy from Jinling City to Suzhou City.

This time, in order to seek peace, Zhu Tongjing agreed to give up the name of the new emperor and was willing to honor the Northern Dynasty as the emperor, so as to ask the Northern Dynasty to withdraw its troops.

Han Jian naturally would not agree to Zhu Tongjing's such an "rude" request, it was a very simple matter. What Han Jian wants to do now is to unify the rivers and mountains, not to withdraw his troops after deterrence, and in Han Jian's plan to unify the rivers and mountains, there is no intention of negotiating peace.

The envoy sent by Zhu Tongjing also brought Zhu Tongjing's "greetings", and Zhu Tongjing agreed. As long as the Northern Dynasty withdraws its troops, the Southern Dynasty is willing to cut Jiangbei Yangzhou, Jiangling, Hanzhong, Shu and the Northern Dynasty, and at the same time pay tribute to the Northern Dynasty every year. But Han Jian didn't even see the envoy, and sent the envoy back directly.

On the eighth day of November, just three days after the envoys arrived in Suzhou for the first time, the second envoy sent by Zhu Tongjing came to Suzhou with great fanfare. This time, Zhu Tongjing wanted to show his "sincerity". Several carriages of gold, silver and jewelry were sent directly, and at the same time, twenty beauties from Jinling City were brought in exquisite carriages, saying that they were "tribute" paid in advance before the peace negotiation.

This envoy, before he arrived in Suzhou City, was intercepted by the soldiers and horses patrolling the city, and finally escorted into the city. And the envoy who entered the city this time was named Lin Se, who was said to be a strategist under Zhu Tongjing, and he was quite eloquent.

It's a pity that Han Jian didn't want to hear what this advisor said to him. He didn't have the heart to discuss peace with Zhu Tongjing, and how many people did Zhu Tongjing send. It doesn't matter how much tribute is sent. What Han Jian wants is to unify the rivers and mountains, as for what Zhu Tongjing declared, now that the Northern Dynasty has not yet reached the time to unify the south of the Yangtze River, Han Jian does not think so.

Or Zhu Tongjing thinks that now Han Jian is leading the troops to Suzhou because he is forced to show helplessness. Or Han Jian was afraid of Su Tingxia's rebellion, so he didn't dare to lead his troops to attack Jinling City at the moment, Zhu Tongjing mistakenly thought that as long as he came up with the right conditions, Han Jian would symbolically withdraw his troops to Yangzhou, and at the same time ordered Su Tingxia to withdraw his troops to Jiangjiang. and let him fight with Sima first.

But from the beginning of Han Jian's entry into Suzhou City, he was determined to trap Jinling City, until Su Tingxia felt that Mang was thorned in his back and had to withdraw his troops, Han Jian sent troops to capture Jinling City again.

At first, Han Jian first let go of the civil strife in the Southern Dynasties, and finally sent troops to clean up the mess, but as time dragged on, even Su Tingxia had the possibility of rebellion at any time, Han Jian would no longer use a tortuous strategy, and would use a more direct method to capture Jinling City, which was the best way to collapse the Southern Dynasty regime, and even if there was another war, it would only be sporadic resistance from the Southern Dynasties, Han Jian was even planning how to confront Sima Yi on the battlefield in the future, he always felt that he and Sima Yi, You should first divide the victory and defeat on the battlefield, and as for whether you will continue to be friends in the future, it is irrelevant.

In order to prevent Zhu Tongjing from sending envoys to Suzhou City every time, Han Jian specially sent people to receive these envoys, and the envoys came back to give a gift, and the meaning of Jinling City was to send gold, silver, jewelry and beauties to Han Jian, and let Han Jian "distribute them by himself".

Han Jian couldn't help sneering, if he occupied Jiangnan, he would be the lord of the entire Jiangnan, and the entire Jiangnan would be in his hands, whether it was gold, silver, jewelry, or the people of the city, it would be owned by him, so why should he covet this little profit?

Moreover, although Han Jian is leading the troops, there is no shortage of women around him, even if there is no Fa Yi and Ke Qu'er, as well as the accompanying female soldiers.

Han Jian is in Suzhou City as a tourist and enjoys life, as for the military affairs, you can put it off for a while, anyway, the war will turn into a stalemate, and if you send troops too early, you will fall into passivity. Then Han Jian was in the Suzhou garden first, accompanied Fa Yi more, and exchanged feelings with Ke Qu'er more, anyway, Ke Qu'er always had a dislike for him in his heart, and the two just took this opportunity to have a short stay, and they could be opposite each other.

On the 10th day of November, Sima continued to send troops to Hangzhou and marched to Hangzhou, while Zhu Tongjing arranged 20,000 or 30,000 horses in Hangzhou and other places.

After Zhu Tongjing lost the city of the Jiang and Jiangxi generations, in addition to owning Jinling City, he only controlled the few cities around Jinling City, of which Hangzhou City was the largest of the cities. The original purpose of Zhu Tongjing's deployment of heavy troops in Hangzhou City was to guard against the soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasty in Suzhou, but Zhu Tongjing did not expect that Sima Yi would go to "hit the stone with eggs" first, in Zhu Tongjing's calculations, Sima Yi only killed 30,000 or 40,000 horses, and these 30,000 or 40,000 horses were all old and weak soldiers, and there was no siege baggage at all, so how could he talk about being able to capture the well-defended Hangzhou City?

At this time, because Zhu Tongjing gave up the defense of the cities around Jiang and Jiangxi, he surrendered Jiang Jiang to Su Tingxia, so that the local Taishou who had already surrendered to Zhu Tongjing, as well as the subordinates of the King of Linjiang that Zhu Tongjing had once recruited. I don't trust Zhu Tongjing.

Hangzhou was first threatened by the soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasty in Suzhou, and was feeling in danger, but now Sima Yu took advantage of the situation to lead the troops north, and the defenders and defenders in Hangzhou were not very strong, and there was a sense of cowardice and surrender. The main reason is also that the news of Jinling City sending envoys to Suzhou City to sue for peace happened to reach Hangzhou City. This made the local military and civilians in Hangzhou feel even more that Zhu Tongjing was not credible.

Although Zhu Tongjing controlled Jinling City and had nominal authority over the Southern Dynasty, he only nominally coerced the Son of Heaven to order the princes. After all, the empress Xiao Zhan is still in Sima Yin's army, and even Xiao Ling, the king of Hui, is still alive.

Sima did not have many soldiers and horses sent to Hangzhou City, about 15,000 soldiers and horses, plus the people who were requisitioned with the army to transport grain and materials, about 20,000 people. But Sima deliberately made a big noise. More than 20,000 people and horses were used to create the illusion that there were 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers and horses, and the city of Hangzhou has been closed to the outside world in the past few months, so that the city of Hangzhou has not received much information, and even the Taishou of Hangzhou City thought that Sima had requisitioned 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers and horses to attack Hangzhou.

Han Jian was also very "cooperative" at this time, and ordered Zhang Xing to personally lead two thousand cavalry to Hangzhou City to "take a turn" in the starry night. Han Jian's order surprised Zhang Xing, he thought that Han Jian wanted to dominate him. Let him stay away from power, but Han Jian just wanted to use Zhang Xing's deterrent power on the battlefield to let him lead troops to Hangzhou, not to attack the city, but to inspect the local defense situation from the surrounding prefectures and counties along the way, and by the way, to "assist" Sima Yi. Help Sima to help his prestige.

Sure enough, in mid-November, the grass and trees around Hangzhou were full of soldiers. Rumors are flying all over the city, today it is said that Sima Yi and Xiao Zhan have personally led the troops to the city, and tomorrow it is said that the emperor of the Northern Dynasty has personally led a large army to capture Jinling City.

Hangzhou City was originally the most solid bridgehead of Zhu Tongjing. However, because Zhu Tongjing was unable to send troops to aid Hangzhou, Hangzhou fell into a state of ignorance of outside information.

The most important thing for Sima to send troops to Hangzhou was not to besiege the city, because he knew that with less than 20,000 horses he sent, even if he reached Yangzhou City, he would not even be able to surround both sides of the city wall. What he has to do is to cut off the two main directions of Hangzhou City to the west and south, as well as the transmission of information to the northwest.

As for the news transmission channels to the north and east of Hangzhou City, it is natural that the soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasty will cut it off.

In this way, even if the defenders of Hangzhou City did not see large-scale siege and siege soldiers and horses, only occasionally saw some patrols and horses coming in groups, it had already made the city loud, and because all the communication channels to the outside world were cut off, the city did not even know how many soldiers and horses were going to come to Hangzhou, and even Sima Qi's soldiers and horses came, or the soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasty could not be checked.

In this passive situation, Hangzhou Taishou could only continue to send people to ask Zhu Tongjing in Jinling City, and those who went out of the city to deliver the message, even if they were lucky enough to go north through encirclement and suppression, it was difficult for these people to pass the news back to Hangzhou after receiving Zhu Tongjing's instructions. There was no order from Zhu Tongjing in Hangzhou, and he did not dare to act rashly, so he could only wait for news in a kind of despair and helplessness.

Han Jian sat firmly in the Diaoyutai platform.

After November, there was a snowfall in winter, and although the snow in Gangnam was not very heavy, the weather was also cold. In addition to ordering Jiangdu to continuously transport the winter's materials and resources to Yangzhou and Suzhou. Han Jian was also guessing Sima Yi's next move, and it was expected that it would be just two moves, on the one hand, to continue to cut off Hangzhou's communications with the outside world, and on the other hand, to send people into the city to "persuade him to surrender".

Sima Jian was not capable of sending troops to attack Hangzhou City, and since this was the case, Han Jian would not sit idly by.

Han Jian also sent an envoy to persuade him to surrender, with Han Jian's handwritten letter of persuasion, and went to Hangzhou City to carry out "Xiao Yi Dayi" to Hangzhou Taishou and the guards in the city, Han Jian asked himself that the Northern Dynasty was stronger in the army, and should be more feared by the civil officials and military generals of Hangzhou City, and although Sima Yu at this time had Xiao Zhan, the orthodox figure of the royal family of the Southern Dynasty, but after all, Sima Yu also belonged to the characters of King Qin's rebellion against the princes of the Son of Heaven, and there were not many soldiers and horses, even if Hangzhou City really wanted to surrender, it was necessary to weigh who to be loyal to.

Han Jian also made it clear in the letter of persuasion that a gentleman cannot be treacherous, and at the same time, he cannot go to the same time, which means that he cannot take refuge in Zhu Tongjing today, take refuge in Sima tomorrow, and then turn around and take refuge in the Northern Dynasty. Han Jian was also threatening the defenders in Hangzhou in disguise, so that they could weigh who they would be loyal to would be more prosperous and wealthy.

Suzhou City is a lesson from the past, resistance will be attacked, and even the city will be broken only overnight, if the city is broken, the people can be submitted, they can get preferential treatment as now, and those who escaped from the city, even if they turn back and submit, the Northern Dynasty will not accept it. Like those deserters in Yangzhou City, the Northern Dynasty would rather let them cross the Yangtze River south without asking, and would not accept them to reorganize Yangzhou City.

Han Jian is not really to get Hangzhou City's surrender. Han Jian was completely for Sima Yi and Zhu Tongjing to make trouble.

Han Jian's real purpose is in Jinling City, as for the southward attack on Hangzhou City, it is not in Han Jian's plan, even if Hangzhou City surrenders, Han Jian will not send a large number of soldiers and horses to receive it, because this will disrupt his plan to enter Jinling City, from the beginning, Han Jian is very black-bellied, to make Sima worry about this, let Zhu Tongjing worry about this.

At the same time, it also made the defending generals of Hangzhou City and the soldiers and civilians under the Taishou of Hangzhou panic, so that Suzhou completely lifted the threat of Hangzhou.

When Han Jian first entered Suzhou City, he was also worried that Zhu Tongjing would take the initiative to attack, although Zhu Tongjing did not have many soldiers and horses, but the military appearance was also neat, if Zhu Tongjing poured out of the nest from all directions, he could still fight with the Northern Dynasty soldiers and horses led by Han Jian in Suzhou City, but Zhu Tongjing's chances of winning would not exceed two percent. Even if Zhu Tongjing can win, as long as Han Jian successfully retreats to Yangzhou, then Zhu Tongjing's battle will be tantamount to fighting in vain, and it is likely that Sima will take advantage of the situation to capture Jinling.

With the occurrence of the Hangzhou incident, Hangzhou City, as an important fortress of Zhu Tongjing and Suzhou City, has lost its original role.

On October 20, Han Jian actually received a letter from Sima Yi, which also made Han Jian feel very surprised.

In the letter, Sima, in the name of the emperor of the Southern Dynasty, earnestly demanded that the Northern Dynasty comply with the agreement of the previous expedition against the traitor Zhu Tongjing and not invade the territory of the Southern Dynasty, and euphemistically asked Han Jian to withdraw from the battle for the city of Hangzhou. (To be continued.) )