As a crisp sound rang out, an object of unknown use fell into pieces after close contact with the ground, leaving only hideous pottery shards and scratches of varying depths on the ground.≥ top≥point≥small≥say,
Even occasionally, some fragments will fly out in a weird arc. The sharp fragments look particularly scary. Even if they cannot kill people, they will still cause huge damage if they pass through some of the more fragile parts of the human body. .
"This is already the first few."
"Who knows, I won't be able to count anymore when it exceeds double digits."
The maids hiding in the shadows spoke carefully. They all had ordinary looks. As for the beautiful seniors, those with brains have now become the concubines of the owner of the house or have been given to the generals of the owner of the house. Those silly girls who have no brains to think that they can be favored by virtue of their beauty and figure have long been buried in a tomb in the suburbs.
Maybe they made some other contributions before they died, but anyway, for the owner of the house, it was nothing more than waste.
So now, only these women who have no outstanding specialties and are cautious can stand here.
Unfortunately, they may not want such an "honor".
Because the risk factor of this kind of work is too high, if you are not careful, you will be like a certain sister a few days ago, who just accidentally spilled a little of the wine on the guests, and was struck by the angry host. He was stabbed to death and his body was found on the spot.
They want to escape from here, but it is impossible for them to escape from here. Not to mention the wolf-like soldiers guarding here, even if they can escape successfully, where can they escape to?
The news among the maids is constantly spreading that famine is spreading outside and many refugees have to exchange their children for food. Women like them, who have delicate skin and tender flesh and do not have much fighting power, can only pray if they want not to become the target of the hungry people. God's gift.
The sound of broken items gradually stops, as if the resentment in the owner of the house has been vented, so the alert maids will quickly run back to their jobs. Then they will pretend to have been standing there from just now until now. Even horses don't know the three expressionless expressions. The eyes look at the nose, and the nose looks at the heart.
"You guys, go in and tidy up."
Sure enough, not long after, a young and beautiful woman walked in from outside and gave them instructions with the same expressionless face.
"Yes." This answer sounded weak, without even a trace of warmth.
The woman in front of these maids is one of the "lucky ones" mentioned before. It is just a "lucky one". But it is impossible for her to be so bossy in front of these maids, because the improvement of status has a great impact on life. Safety has not been substantially improved. The only change may be that many of the tasks that originally needed to be done were taken over by others, and there were one or two more maids around me who were once equal to them. But originally, I could hide and wait. The life that ended when the master was furious turned into a life in which one had to face the master's anger and pray that one would not die due to various accidents.
No one knows whether he will die because his voice is not sweet enough and high-pitched when serving his master at night, or whether he will die because his voice is too sweet and high-pitched to cause the master's rage. Likewise, no one knows whether he will die because he eats too much while accompanying his master. If you are not elegant enough, you will be sentenced to death, or if you eat too slowly, the owner here will think that he is dissatisfied with you and his body and head will be separated.
In comparison, serving those generals may be a good result - perhaps most of the generals behave vulgarly and violently. The situation on the battlefield makes the master's mood always at a low point, and naturally it is impossible to let those generals
They are so happy, but even if they are ruined by playing, it seems better than being killed for no reason all the time.
At least the former can be predicted. Even if you are lucky enough to escape and be thrown into a cold woodshed and survive, it is not a bad luck. Unlike the latter, even if you are not killed, you will not know what day it will be.
The tense nerves suddenly broke and he went crazy.
"ah!"
No, the woman who had just been instructing the maid to deal with the mess had lost her breath because she didn't say a word. With a relieved smile on her face, she was lying on the pottery fragments that had not yet been cleaned up. She seemed a little
Weirdly poignant.
But the two maids became trembling because of this woman's death.
In fact, their guess was not wrong, and not long after, the master chopped off the heads of the two trembling girls in a rage because he thought the woman's smile before she died was mocking him.
It wasn't until the hot blood sprayed on his head, body, and feet that he showed a disappointed expression.
As for what he was regretting, no one other than himself could possibly know.
Perhaps, even he himself didn't know what he was thinking at this time.
In fact, he is not the only one who is so anxious?
Throughout the entire mansion, and even extended to the entire city, such emotions continued to spread.
"Yuan Lang, don't think too much and have a good sleep. If you continue like this, you will be unable to bear it."
It's a pity that even Feng's soft words can no longer have much effect. Yuan Shu's red eyes are like a hungry jackal, full of strong aggression, but essentially full of uneasiness and despair.
.
Yes, hidden beneath that brutal and violent performance was Yuan Shu's heart that was on the verge of collapse.
He no longer knew how to face the situation in front of him.
At this time, he had almost lost all his pride and confidence.
However, the development of the situation did not give him the slightest light of hope, but instead brought him endless darkness.
Originally Yuan Shu also had his glory days.
With his outstanding family background, excellent abilities, and the extremely comfortable career that followed, Yuan Shu was once a glorious and proud son of heaven.
Although he experienced the resentment of losing his position as leader of the alliance in the battle against Dong, and also experienced the chain reaction of Sun Jian's death in the battle, he had to leave Nanyang and defeat Yuzhou, which made him seem to be inferior to Yuan Shao, who was prosperous in Hebei.
Lack of some confidence.
But this still cannot erase his efforts.
For example, Yixiao Yixin won over Sun Jian, which not only greatly improved his status in the coalition forces, but also allowed him to suppress Liu Biao of Jingzhou for a time. Even if he was unfortunately defeated and returned to Yuzhou, he could immediately regroup because of the previous
During this period, a rather solid foundation was laid. It can be said that if it were not for Sun Jian's slightly strange death, Yuan Shu's performance could be regarded as excellent.
But even if he encountered an unexpected disaster like the death of Sun Jian, Yuan Shu could quickly regain his composure, and boldly activated the young Sun Ce. The reward for this move was that Yuan Shu became a leader with a sphere of influence spanning Yanyu.
Xu Yang's powerful princes.
At that time, Li Shushi was just dealing with the barbarians in a third of an acre of land in Bingshuo, and Yuan Shao was suppressed by Yuan Shu's ally Gongsun Zan. Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, had become famous together with Sun Jian in the battle against Dong.
The vassals were beaten so hard by Sun Jian's descendants that they almost lost their confidence in continuing to fight for world supremacy.
Tao Qian of Xuzhou seems to be very independent, but in fact, except for the northern part of Xuzhou where Liu Bei is located, which is temporarily beyond Yuan Shu's reach, the top and bottom of Xuzhou have been eroded and disintegrated by Yuan Shu's various strategies. There are also countless Yellow Turbans.
Under Yuan Shu's offensive, the remnants became Yuan Shu's hegemony's accomplices, so that Yuan Shu's enemies often had to run around to deal with them.
Yuan Jiujiu was so high-spirited at that time.
It's a pity that since the severe drought, Yuan Shu, who had unlimited violent troops and didn't know how to sort out internal affairs and only resorted to extortionate expropriation to maintain financial balance, suddenly lost the power to continue moving forward. Although he has a low reputation in a certain game of Mowing Empire
It's outrageous, but apart from losing a few titles, it actually has more advantages than disadvantages in unifying the country, but it is obviously impossible in the real society.
After all, Yuan Shu's actions would also affect the vital interests of the vast number of powerful landowners and even some aristocratic families in the occupied areas.
When Yuan Shu's power was still strong, the dissatisfaction accumulated by this policy could not explode on a large scale. However, when Yuan Shu showed a little fatigue, this kind of public support snowballed, making Yuan Shu appear to be extremely powerful.
collapse.
Well, what happened in Chen County proves that even when Yuan Shu seems to be strong, as long as the external forces can give the local forces a certain degree of confidence, they will continue to fight on the front line against Yuan Shu.
It can be said that because of Yuan Shu's increasingly disappointing ruling model, the original die-hard loyalists are wavering, while those who were not firm in the first place are beginning to plan for another way out or simply raising the flag of rebellion.
However, Yuan Shu, who was greatly weakened, lacked effective sanctions against these people.
Maybe he still had Sun Ce's trump card in his hand at that time, but as mentioned before, Yuan Shu was unwilling and unable to use this trump card, no matter in terms of face or actual benefits. In order to use it once, Liu Yao came to attack because of this.
The common enemies of Yuan Shu and Sun Ce - the latter's cousins and uncles were bullied by Liu Yao in Jiangdong.
After some exchanges, Sun Ce happily set off for Jiangdong.
It's a pity that the team may have been purified a lot because of this, but the lack of combat effectiveness is real.
As a result, not long after, Yuan Shu, who was not strong on the outside and even more dry on the inside, was hit hard again - I wonder if it was affected by Li Shushi's performance in Chen County. For Lujiang County, Yuan Shu was also affected.
The region was extremely dissatisfied with its rule. Cao Cao followed suit, and even with the ace card of the emperor, Cao Cao occupied the highest point in terms of righteousness.
Taking advantage of the fact that Sun Ce was still in Jiangdong, not only needing to attack the city and plunder the territory, but also fighting wits and courage with those powerful men who were extremely dissatisfied with him, Cao Cao's soldiers directly surrounded Shouchun City.
Liu Xun, the prefect of Lujiang who had an old relationship with Cao Cao, was appointed by Yuan Shu, but it could be said that Yuan Shu was already declining, while Cao Cao was like the rising sun, and he had the emperor's edict as a good step to climb down, so he surrendered simply -
- Anyway, the condition offered by Cao Cao is that Liu Xun will continue to serve as the governor of Lujiang, and he can also be granted the title of marquis and general, which is really great.
Besides, everyone in the county turned their backs on Yuan Shu and turned to the court, so it was naturally impossible for Liu Xun to go against the trend.
In other words, the entire Lujiang County can theoretically be said to have surrendered without a fight - in fact, it is just like the peaceful liberation of Beiping in another dimension of history: Cao Cao's army besieged Shouchun, just like the People's Liberation Army liberating Tianjin in 29 hours. The Lujiang Family
The powerful lobbying of Liu Xun was like lobbying Fu Zuoyi through the democratic parties. In the end, the bloodless opening of the city can be said to be a matter of course.
The only difference may be that there was a fashionable "Electric XX" in Fu Zuoyi's time. Anyway, the warlords who experienced the Republic of China still played like this even if they were just across the street. But there was no such high-end thing in Liu Xun's time.
, so he could only go to Cao Cao's army camp outside Shouchun City to have a cordial meeting with Cao Cao. Then he stayed in the army for a while.
Of course, based on the relationship between Liu Xun and Cao Cao, this period of time can be regarded as a good friend reminiscing about old times. Even though there are many rules in the military camp, it is actually nothing to a being like Liu Xun, and after the war, he can still
Go back and be his governor.
And in this matter, the only one who felt aggrieved and depressed was naturally Yuan Shu in Shouchun City, who was "kindly" informed by Cao Cao about this matter.
Therefore, it is not entirely unreasonable to say that Yuan Gongli lost his temper again.
Although in the eyes of most of Yuan Shu's subordinates, their lord is suffering from hysteria, and he is afraid that his time is numbered.
Of course, for those who are still loyal to Yuan Shu, such as Yang Hong, Yan Xiang, Ji Ling, Zhang Xun and others, they naturally hope that Yuan Shu can regain his strength and at least give them a clear path for the future.
Is it a collective heroism, Kaicheng surrender, or some other choice? Anyway, these people are just waiting for Yuan Shu to say a word.
It's just that the main reason why Yuan Shu has not said anything yet is definitely not that he is really crazy, but because he knows very well what these subordinates who have remained loyal until now are thinking in their hearts - they don't want to surrender, but they can easily
They didn't want to be heroic, so the choice they really wanted Yuan Shu to make was to cross the Yangtze River and go to Jiangdong to rely on Sun Ce.
Some of these people knew the relationship between Yuan Shu and Sun Ce very well, such as the several conspirators. Some did not know, such as the several generals. But whether they knew it or not, they all respected Sun Ce as a young man.
Maybe Yuan Shu went to Sun Ce at this time, which did not look good on his face, but after all, Yuan Shu is the direct descendant of the Runan family of the fourth generation and the third prince. Being able to marry Yuan Shu will definitely improve Sun Ce's status, and will help Sun Ce stabilize Jiangdong.
There are no advantages or disadvantages to his rule. Therefore, Sun Ce will definitely treat Yuan Shu, his father-in-law, as a mascot.
Although this ending was somewhat cruel to Yuan Shu, it was still better than losing his life.
The most important thing is that they, the civil servants and generals under Yuan Shu, have nothing to do with Sun Ce, so they can suddenly become Sun's humerus ministers. Even if they are not as good as the old troops left by Sun Jian, they are still more powerful than the aristocratic families in Jiangdong.
Trustworthy.
"Tell me, Cao Jun is besieging the city now. Even if we choose to break through, it will be difficult to leave, let alone rely on others."
After losing his temper a few times and beheading a few innocent concubines and maids, Yuan Shu seemed to have calmed down a lot.
Although Yuan Shu like this still makes everyone who sees him feel embarrassed - his face is no longer as handsome as before, his temples are even whiter, and his eyes are full of exhaustion. If it weren't for Yuan Shu's hands and feet at this time,
Calmly, besides being tired, his eyes were not as full of hostility as they were a while ago. Perhaps everyone would rather believe that their lord was crazy.
Fortunately, Yuan Shu can still give his loyal subordinates a little bit of confidence that may be trivial or extremely important, and his original self-cultivation has returned to him - when convening a military meeting, even if he faces the following group of people who look blank,
Or resolute face, no longer blowing his beard, staring and losing his temper.
Perhaps Yuan Shu felt that facing such a group of subordinates, even losing his temper would be a waste of energy.
Perhaps Yuan Shu was feeling somewhat sad at this time.
However, something that was somewhat beyond Yuan Shu's expectation was that as he spoke his words, which seemed to have calmed down a lot, one could clearly feel that even before he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room immediately became much more lively.
Obviously, no matter how much Yuan Shu is rumored to be crazy, he is still the well-deserved leader of the entire Yuan Shu force. At least when he can appear with a calmer and restrained attitude, everyone seems to have regained a backbone in their hearts.
And it seems that because the situation they are facing is indeed very dangerous, during this period of time, in addition to sighing and getting angry, everyone also did some thinking, although this kind of thinking is more like a drowning person waving his hands aimlessly.
Not only will the arm not be of much use, it will even cause an accelerated loss of physical strength, leading to exhaustion and drowning.
But for some unknown reason, Yuan Shu didn't say much about those obviously nonsense proposals this time. Instead, he would show a thoughtful expression from time to time.
Such Yuan Shu is so abnormal!
Of course, this kind of Yuan Shu is the Yuan Shu they are willing to follow and have followed.
"I have listened to everyone's opinions. It is nothing more than that Cao Cao's traitor is powerful and has His Majesty's edict, so he is unable to defeat him. His Majesty Yang Qingyan pardoned Gongsun Bogui on the advice of Cao Cao's traitor. If we behave respectfully,
, then Cao Cao might not forgive us, because Cao Cao and the slave are finally going to be hostile for the sake of the world. They will definitely not want to devote more energy to us.
But have you ever thought about it, Cao Cao leads an army of tens of thousands and 200,000 to besiege Shouchun City. If we plead guilty and surrender to him at this time, how will he treat us? Should he punish us with full punishment, or should he be more liberal?
?There have been rumors in Yan, Henan, Qingxu and other places that it was me, Yuan Gongdao, who was just someone else who plotted to kill Cao Cao, the father of the traitor and the worm of the country. Could it be that Cao traitor would let go of this opportunity to avenge his private life?"
Yuan Shu's words caused everyone present to immediately fall silent and look at each other in shock.
Their boss is right. Even if there is no Cao Song incident between Yuan Shu and Cao Cao - in the eyes of most of Yuan Shu's subordinates, that kind of incident is completely the fault of Cao Cao. After all, looking at the four realms,
Only Yuan Shu deserves that big hat. Even if others are really responsible, as long as there is not enough evidence, they will not be brought to the table - now Cao
Cao's army suppressed the border, and it was a smooth journey. Not only did Liu Xun surrender with his land, even if there was occasional resistance in Jiujiang County, it was just a desperate struggle. Now Yuan Shu's last stronghold, Shouchun, looks even more shaky. In this case, even if
Cao Cao was really worried about his own casualties and food consumption and finally allowed surrender, and the conditions he proposed must be extremely harsh.
Not to mention what Yuan Shu's fate will be, even if they are the core members of Yuan Shu's forces and the "accomplices" of Yuan Shu, a "criminal villain" who is "full of evil", they will definitely be severely punished.
At the least, you need to start working hard as a civilian or a soldier all the way to the end. In the worst case, you will be sent to a distant place and will never be hired. It is not impossible to just live a life of peace. Or it should be said that it is very likely to happen.
Therefore, if you want to surrender honorably, the first thing you need to do is to be able to overcome the current predicament.
Only if Cao Cao realizes that if he wants to use harsh methods to treat Yuan Shu and his subordinates, a few big teeth will inevitably break. Then in this foreseeable period of time, Cao Cao is likely to have a fight with Yuan Shao or Li Shushi.
When it comes to showdown
In order to ensure that he does not suffer too much loss, Cao Cao may treat Yuan Shu and his subordinates in a more tolerant manner, at least put forward some relatively loose conditions, and there will also be some bargaining between the two parties.
room.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing is easy to say, but it is really difficult to do.
After all, in the current situation, the initiative in the war obviously does not belong to Yuan Shu's army, but is controlled by Cao Cao's army. Maybe the pressure on Cao Cao's army is also not small, but he has followed Li Shushi's example of farming for a long time.
After a year of hard work, the more experienced Cao Cao was able to support him with at least food and grass for a while.
The only thing Yuan Shujun can rely on now may be the unpredictable weather.
At least judging from the recent weather, many local villagers believe that this year's plum rain season will still come early. Heavy rain is obviously not good news for Cao Cao's army who is on an expedition, because it will mean that the soldiers need to endure the rain.
The arduous battles led to a decrease in morale, which also made the transportation of grain and grass more time-consuming, laborious and costly.
Maybe Cao Cao would choose to retreat due to the weather, but would this really achieve Yuan Shu's army's expected goal?
Obviously impossible.
After all, it was Cao Cao who took the initiative to retreat. In fact, for Cao Cao's army, they could be said to be unscathed, and they also made a net profit of one county, and caused serious damage to Chun Bo in another Jiujiang county.
There is no need to wait long, it only takes about half a year. After the autumn harvest, Cao Cao's army can make a comeback.
In other words, relying solely on the weather may not be said to be a poison to quench thirst, but it is by no means the fundamental solution.
Yuan Shu's future seems to have become bleak. (To be continued...)
