"Foreign ministers Ma Jie and Pei Yue, pay homage to His Majesty of Jin."

"Ah, Zhongying, it's been ten years since we parted last time. After ten years of seeing each other, Zhongying is more heroic than he has become."

"The foreign minister was worried about His Majesty and was so grateful. I remember that more than ten years ago, His Majesty was in his prime, but now he is working hard on state affairs and has become much more simplistic. When the foreign minister sees him, he feels sad."

"Hehehe, if you are in your position, you will be burdened. Come on, please sit down."

The so-called etiquette first and then military force are approaching the enemy's capital in this era. There is absolutely no reason to start a fight without saying a word. Therefore, even if you know that the other party will not agree, you still have to go through the process of persuading surrender.

Since Li Mi has been compiling the new "Da Han Law" with Rome and Persian scholars since he returned from Taixi, Jian Wushuang was busy in charge of government affairs in Chang'an. So this time, the command fell on Ma Jie.

Of course, the Ma family always talks with a knife, and if you really want to talk, you will humiliate yourself. Therefore, Ma Jie's official envoy is just a name, and the real envoy is Pei Yue.

After both sides sat down, Sima Yan raised his hand slightly: "This Pei..."

"Your Majesty, the foreign minister Pei Yue, has a name called Lingxu. Now the Grand Sima Mansion of the Han Dynasty serves as the military officer."

"Ah, Ling Xu's surname is Pei, I wonder if he is the Shangshu Ling next to me?"

"The father of the foreign minister was named Jun, and the father of the Shangshu Ling was named Qian. The two ancestors were Kunzhong. In the past, his father went to Sichuan for a trip, but Zhang Lu blocked the road and failed to return. Therefore, when he heard about Xi Pei, he left one in Yizhou."

After saying this, Pei Yue turned around slightly, bowed to Pei Xiu and said, "I have met my brother."

For this kind of red (defense and harmony) naked discord, Pei Xiu could only smile bitterly and stood up and bowed.

"The gossip is over. Zhongying and Ling Xu, you two have entered the city today. Is there anything you can tell me?"

"How dare you say that you are teaching to Your Majesty?" The person who answered the conversation was of course Pei Yue: "Foreign ministers and others were entrusted by our Grand Sima to come to the city to pay homage to Your Majesty today. In fact, I will just say one sentence to Your Majesty."

"Oh? What do Guan Zifeng want to say to me? Let me surrender? Hahaha, I feel like I heard that when Emperor Wen attacked Shu in the past five times and Deng Shizai approached Chengdu, the Supreme Emperor of your country had even written a letter of surrender. I would not do this!"

"Ha~" Pei Yue chuckled and bowed again: "My Grand Marshal said that if Your Majesty opened the city at this time and let me, Xia Erlang no longer die in the civil war, then my Han Dynasty could be like Cao Pi's example in the past, treat Your Majesty with a duke, and the Jin Dynasty ancestral temple could be protected. If the city was about to be destroyed, then Your Majesty could be a marquis in the future. If he resisted to the end and destroyed the ancestral temple, he would do it!"

"A man is so brave!" After hearing Pei Yue's words, Sima Yan jumped up suddenly, but the aristocratic education he received since childhood gave him good cultivation: I am the emperor, what are you thinking about with a little person who is passing the message?

"Go back and tell Guan Zifeng that the Great Jin Dynasty was blessed by the heavens and established itself. Although it has suffered temporary setbacks, it will definitely restore its former glory. However, your Han Kingdom has been dead for decades. Now it is just a dead body that is not dead, and it is still causing trouble for the world. Open the city to surrender? I will never abandon my ancestors' foundation so lightly!"

"The foreign minister knows it, and the foreign minister takes his leave."

"Hmph, no gift!"

Although His Majesty the Emperor is on the verge of a rampage, Pei Yue, who had been following Guan Yi for too long and had become devastated, actually blinked at Pei Xiu before leaving.

Everyone knows that this was Pei Yue’s intention, but Sima Yan must have thoughts, right?

...

"So, Sima Anshi really refused to surrender?"

"That's true. Grand Sima, Shangguan, Xiaguan were immediately received after entering Luoyang. However, after the meeting, they were immediately expelled from the city. Therefore, there were not many situations in the city. However, Xiaguan could still feel that the entire Luoyang city was full of murderous people. There were also many soldiers coming and going. It should be said that Jin State has prepared to defend the cage city."

"Well. According to Fang Bo and others' calculations a few days ago, the soldiers guarding Luoyang in Jin State should not be less than our current army. If we mobilize young and strong people to go to the city to cooperate in defense, it will be far more than our army... I just don't know how much food they have, which is the decisive factor that determines the enemy's adherence to their beliefs. But just let's do our own thing well. Everyone, start issuing orders now."

"We are waiting for the orders of Grand Sima."

"Chiqian, Ziyang, give you five thousand cavalry each to spread out on both sides of Luoyang. From today on, I will ask the monarch and ministers of Jin in Luoyang to become deaf and blind."

"Yes! The last general will receive the order. Please rest assured that from today, Luoyang City will not receive a grain of food outside the city!"

"Well, Fang Bo, I'll leave it to you to set up a camp. Just build it on the west side of Luoyang. It's ten miles away from the opponent's exterior wall. It's so convenient to control the progress of the siege. However, there are Du Yuankai, Ma Xiaoxing and other generals in the city now, so you still have to beware of the opponent's surprise attack. Therefore, trenches and other things must be dug up."

"Here, please don't worry, Grand Sima."

"Shan, Lingxu, how are the fortunes of the prisoners in the north?"

"Report to the Grand Sima, our Han Dynasty was surrendered about 120,000 in the Eastern Expedition. Among them, 30,000 were surrendered in the Youzhou battlefield. Since these 30,000 were all local farmers in Youzhou and Pingzhou, and the time of joining the army was very short, it was too long before this battle. Therefore, in order to appease You and Pingyou, the general had already put him back to his hometown. The remaining 70,000 in the battlefield of Jizhou and more than 20,000 in Bingzhou were surrendered, and he was being escorted by our cavalry and came south one after another. It is expected that all should be in place in mid-March."

"Very good. You have to pay attention. The officials below you should let the more than 90,000 prisoners preach. Just say that this time they were taken to Luoyang, not to let them fight, but to let them dig trenches. As long as Luoyang takes it down, they can go home on their own. We will also pay a certain amount of money and grain as travel expenses."

"The official understands it, and I'll make arrangements right away."

For giant cities like Luoyang, when the enemy's will to defend and sufficient soldiers are relatively strong, ants attacking the city is a suicide act.

And when facing the opponent's strong city walls, dense castle and defensive system built by the stone-cattering mechanism, a simple stone-cattering machine is useless - the example of Zhang Zun's attack on Tongguan is ready-made.

So, in the face of such a strong city and a giant city, what should we deal with if we want to attack the city?

The easiest way: long-term siege. The enemy has so many soldiers to defend the city, and there are a large number of princes, nobles and ordinary people in the city. The food consumption is amazing. Moreover, in terms of the sanitary conditions of ancient cities, the population density is too high, and the possibility of a plague will also increase sharply. Therefore, it is most feasible to siege the other party for a long time and wait for the other party to collapse.

But Guan Yi was unwilling because there were too many things waiting for him to do later. Not to mention anything else, now that Luoyang is trapped, the original eight states of Guandong in Jin State have fallen into a state of weak local governments, and families in various places have ushered in a carnival feast. Every time Guan Yi stays in Luoyang City for one more day, he may say that thousands of self-cultivated farmers will disappear in the eight states of Guandong.

Although Ji Han's food route was finally completely unobstructed with the arrival of Tongguan, and the former military and civilians could have been reduced from 100,000 to 50,000, it was still a state of continuous war. The harm to the country was still very great.

Moreover, the Grand Sima has been out of Chang'an for almost two years. His youngest son and daughter have been born for more than a year and have never seen his father. The longing for this couple is often difficult to suppress.

As a superior, he was like this, and the ordinary generals and soldiers below were even more or less tired.

Therefore, it is not advisable to siege the enemy and wait for it to collapse.
Chapter completed!