Zhou Xing is also looking forward to it, and is even a little worried, fearing that no one will stay, so his strategy of convincing others with virtue will be a joke.

However, his worries were unnecessary.

As soon as Liu Bei finished speaking, a dozen people resolutely squeezed out of the crowd and walked to the right.

Then more and more people came to the right.

Before long, almost half of the people came to the right and stood still.

At the same time, some people walked to the left, and some shouted to Liu Bei as they walked: "General Liu, we want to go home!"

Liu Bei didn't speak, just nodded silently.

No matter whether they really want to go home or go to Guan Zong, now that I have spoken out, I have to let them go.

There were quite a few people walking to the left who wanted to leave, about four to five hundred people.

At this time, there were still three to four hundred people standing there, hesitating, looking to the right and then to the left, not knowing whether to stay or leave.

"Brothers," Zhou Xing shouted, "I know you want to go home, but the thieves will not be eliminated. Even if you go home, the food you grow will be robbed by the thieves, and you may even watch your family members die tragically.

Under the knives of thieves! It is better to stay and follow Mr. Liu to fight against the thieves. Without thieves in the world, you can truly live at home, be happy to work in the fields, and be reunited with your family in peace!"

"Fellow righteous men," Liu Bei shouted, "Liu Bei is here to promise you that when the thieves in the county are wiped out, I can reduce taxes and reduce taxes so that the people of Donglai can have food in their homes and meals.

One person will starve to death!"

"General, you said you want to reduce taxes and taxes, is that true?" Someone asked loudly below.

"Liu Bei keeps his word, of course it is true." Liu Bei replied firmly.

"Then what do you use to support your troops?" someone asked again.

Liu Bei replied: "If there are no more thieves in the county, we won't be able to raise many soldiers."

"General, how much tax reduction do you want?"

Liu Bei hesitated for a moment: "It's hard to say how much it will be reduced. In short, it will be less than it is now. I will make the people of Donglai live better than the people of other states and counties."

"Okay, General Liu, I believe you!"

Someone started walking to the right.

Immediately afterwards, all the people who were originally hesitant stood on the right, and even some people who had already walked to the left and wanted to leave also walked to the right.

Liu Bei laughed, and Zhou Xing, Li Ye and others all laughed.

After counting, more than 1,200 people were willing to stay and more than 400 people wanted to leave.

Among those who wanted to leave, many were brought by Guan Tong from Beihai.

"Hahaha, Military Advisor Zhou, your strategy of convincing people with virtue is indeed effective!"

Looking at so many people who were willing to stay, Mi Zhu smiled at Zhou Xing.

At this time, he no longer had any wariness or hostility towards Zhou Xing, especially after the other party recommended him as the county magistrate. He felt the other party's tolerance and generosity even more. He was thinking about giving Zhou Xing a good drink after repelling the thieves.

Good wine.

Zhou Xing said with a smile: "It's not that you can convince others with virtue, it's that your lord is truly virtuous in order to convince others!"

"What Military Advisor Zhou said is that if the lord is virtuous, the military advisor is wise, Guan Zhang is brave, Donglai will have no worries!" Mi Zhu said with emotion.

Liu Bei was listening, feeling secretly pleased.

Whether it was Guan Yu and Zhang Fei who followed him to death, or the Mi brothers who married their sisters to support them, or Zhou Xing took the initiative to invest, these people are loyal to themselves because they have benevolence.

No matter what happens in the future, I can't let them down, let alone lose my kindness!

Liu Bei ordered people to cook and feed those who wanted to leave before letting them go. He even asked people to kill pigs and share the meat with them.

"There's meat? General Liu won't let us have a good meal and then trap and kill us, right?" someone exclaimed.

It was benevolent enough to let them go, and he also allowed them to eat well and even gave them meat. This made them unable to believe that Liu Bei really wanted to let them go.

Some people started to get scared. They looked at the meat in the bowl and did not dare to eat it. They were afraid that they would die if they ate the meat.

"Probably not. I have heard of Liu Bei's reputation. He is a benevolent and righteous man. He should not kill us."

"That's it, don't scare yourself. If Liu Bei really wants to kill us, why waste these meat and rice? Just kill us."

"Not necessarily. If Liu Bei wants fame, he will definitely not kill us directly. Maybe he will give us a good meal on purpose to gain fame. As soon as we leave the city, they will fire thousands of arrows from behind. I'm afraid that by then we will all be dead.

He's going to be shot to death by random arrows."

"It's possible that we don't want to stay. He must be afraid that we will go back and continue to follow Mr. Guanfu and become his enemy. I just want to go home. What should I do now? Do we still want to leave?"

"Go, of course I have to go. I want to go home to see my son. I believe General Liu is not that kind of person. He will definitely let us go if he says he will let us go."

Some people chose to believe Liu Bei and started eating meat.

Seeing this, the others were hesitant, but when they looked at the meat in the bowl, they also chose to believe Liu Bei, eating the meat with relish, and repeatedly exclaimed "delicious".

On the other side, among those who were willing to stay, after selecting the weak and injured, only about 800 people were incorporated into the army.

Zhou Xing asked Li Ye, a meritorious official, to find three people among these people. These three people were all from Huang County, and all of them had family members staying in the city.

He asked these three people to go out of the city with those who wanted to leave, and then go to Guan Tong and mix with Guan Hai's thieves, which meant that they became spies.

Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you be victorious in every battle. Even if you don't understand the art of war, Zhou Xing still understands this simple truth.

We don't know much about Guan Hai's situation now. Only by knowing how many people there are and what their combat strength is, can we know how to deal with them.

He asked Liu Bei to give each of these three people five shi of grain and deliver it to their homes, and also said that they would be rewarded heavily when they came back.

Guan Hai's men have not yet arrived at Huang County, and there are still two days to go before the scouts come to report.

Liu Bei ordered people to open the city gate and let the more than 400 people out of the city.

These people looked at the open city gate and hesitated to go out.

"Hey, come on, what are you thinking about?" Zhang Fei shouted.

He was disgusted with these people who wanted to leave, and he wanted to rush up and chop them all.

Now I want to let them go, but they don’t seem to want to leave.

"Death is death!"

Some people gritted their teeth and walked out of the city first.

Someone took the lead, and everyone else followed, hurrying out of the city.

After leaving the city, they walked for three or four miles until they were sure that no soldiers and horses were chasing them, and then they really felt relieved.

"Haha, General Liu really let us go! He really kept his word!"

"I told you, you must believe in General Liu, he is a benevolent and righteous man!"

"Then when the city gate opens, why aren't you the first to go?"

"I...I'm wondering whether to stay."

"Then you go back now."

"No, I want to go home to support my parents!"

These people cheered and ran, half of them wanted to go home, and only about 200 people wanted to go to Guan Tong.

The three people sent out by Zhou Xing were also among them.

At this time, in the city, Liu Bei asked Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, as well as Mi Fang and Liu Zheng, to command 300 men each to guard the city gates on all sides.

The thieves came from the west. Guan Yu was stationed at the west gate, Zhang Fei was stationed at the south gate, Mifang was stationed at the north gate, and Liu Zheng was stationed at the east gate.

Liu Bei originally had 1,500 men, but he took in 800 prisoners. Now he has a total of 2,300 troops.

In addition to the 1,200 people stationed at the city gates on all sides, there were still 1,100 people left, as well as 1,000 strong common people recruited, all of whom were personally led by Liu Bei.

Public security in the city is entrusted to Huang County Magistrate Wang Xiu, who leads the county officials and soldiers to patrol the city to guard against anyone taking the opportunity to cause trouble.

Many people in the city received the food provided by Liu Bei and saw Liu Bei releasing the prisoners with their own eyes. At this time, they were convinced that Liu Bei was a benevolent and righteous man and a man of his word.

At the same time, the news spread by Zhou Xing that Kong Rong sent 3,000 troops to help was still spreading in the city.

Because the people in the city trusted Liu Bei, they all began to believe that Kong Rong had really sent troops and horses to help. Therefore, the people in the city were not afraid, but expected Liu Bei to destroy the thieves in one fell swoop, so that they would no longer worry.
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As for the city wall, it was repaired every year when Guan Tong was there, and it was very strong. There was no need to repair it at all. All the city defense equipment needed to be moved to the city wall.
Chapter completed!