Cen Peng took Zhao Gui to the Han army's central tent and met with Liu Xiu.
Hearing the news that Cen Peng had successfully persuaded the Gaohu Army to surrender and occupied Qingyuan, Liu Xiu was overjoyed and said to the generals around him with a proud look on his face: "When I asked Jun Ran to lead the troops to Qingyuan, you all were quite happy.
Sorry, what do you think now?"
Seeing Liu Xiu's smile and complacency, all the generals couldn't help but sigh secretly, feeling that the king is really a child at times.
However, everyone did have a new understanding of Cen Peng's ability, and felt that the reason why the king could rely on Cen Peng was not because they were old acquaintances.
Liu Xiu met Zhao Gui in the central military tent. When he saw Liu Xiu, Zhao Gui knelt down without saying a word, kowtowed forward, and said in a trembling voice: "Zhao Gui, a common man, pays homage to King Xiao!"
Zhao Gui was in his thirties, with a medium build, dark skin, and his appearance could not be said to be ugly, but he could not be called handsome either. Liu Xiu looked at him for a moment, waved his hand, and said: "General Zhao, please rise."
Hearing Liu Xiu call himself General Zhao, Zhao Gui was shocked. In front of Liu Xiu, how could he dare to call himself a general?! His general was a self-proclaimed general, and Liu Xiu's Xiao Wang was conferred by the emperor. In front of others, he
He's just a rebel.
Zhao Gui knelt there without daring to move, and whispered: "The common people don't dare."
Liu Xiu smiled, stood up, walked around the table in front of him, walked to Zhao Gui, and stood still. Zhao Gui first took a peek, and then lowered his head, his forehead to the ground, not daring to raise his head at all.
Get up. Liu Xiu bent down, stretched out his hand to help Zhao Gui up, and said: "General Zhao surrendered the city. He is a man of merit. I call you General Zhao, you can afford it."
His words greatly moved Zhao Gui. The latter's eyes turned red and he said with a trembling voice: "Everyone praises King Xiao for his kindness. Today, the common people are lucky enough to meet King Xiao. Only then do they know that the rumors are indeed true."
Liu Xiu laughed, waved his hand to the side and said, "General Zhao, please take a seat."
At Liu Xiu's signal, some soldiers prepared a table for Zhao Gui. Zhao Gui thanked him repeatedly and carefully knelt down on the mat.
Liu Xiu returned to his seat and said slowly: "General Zhao understands the righteousness and is willing to submit to our army. However, compared with General Zhao, Dongshan is barren, Shanghuai Kuang and even Qi Sui are too stubborn.
"
After a pause, he continued: "Now, the Bronze Horse Army and the Heavy Company Army, totaling 200,000 people, are trapped here. The two armies are stubbornly resisting and refuse to surrender. General Zhao thinks how to deal with these people who don't know whether to live or die.
A bandit?"
Zhao Gui was shocked and hurriedly leaned forward and said: "The grass people have always been on good terms with General Dongshan, General Shanghuai, and General Qi. I hope King Xiao can be merciful and spare their lives!" wavv
Liu Xiu nodded and said with a smile: "General Zhao is indeed a man who values love and justice." He waved his hand to the side, and a soldier came forward and brought Zhao Guiduan a cup of tea.
Zhao Gui hurriedly thanked him. Liu Xiu signaled to him, then picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, and said meaningfully: "Since the reckless thief usurped the throne, Hebei has been experiencing constant natural disasters, forcing the people to revolt. Natural disasters have become
Man-made disasters have destroyed lives. Too many people have died in Hebei over the years. As long as there is still a glimmer of hope, I can't bear to commit more crimes. General Zhao may understand Gu's intentions!"
His words spoke to Zhao Gui's heart. The latter choked up and said: "Xiao Wang Mingjian, we were not the original rebels. It was because of natural and man-made disasters that year that the common people and even the brothers around us really couldn't survive.
We had no choice but to take risks and start a rebellion."
Liu Xiu nodded in understanding and sighed: "Back then in Chongling, Gu and his eldest brother got into trouble. Isn't it like this?!"
When Zhao Gui heard this, he felt as if he was meeting an old friend in a foreign land. He said excitedly: "If your Majesty trusts the common people, the common people are willing to go to the Bronze Horse Army camp and persuade General Dongshan, General Shanghuai and General Qi to surrender!"
All the Han generals present narrowed their eyes in unison.
You must know that Zhao Gui's surrender was deceived into surrender by Cen Peng. Now he is saying nicely that he is going to the Bronze Horse Army camp to persuade Dongshan Huangtu and others to surrender. What if he has other thoughts?
Wouldn’t our side let the tiger go back to the mountain?
People looked at Liu Xiu together. Although they didn't say much, they all reminded Liu Xiu with their eyes not to believe Zhao Gui's words easily.
Seeing the strange looks in the eyes of the Han generals present, and Liu Xiu not answering immediately, Zhao Gui sighed inwardly, King Xiao still didn't trust him!
While he was thinking about it secretly, Liu Xiu slowly said: "What I'm worried about is that General Zhao's trip is too dangerous."
"Ah?" Zhao Gui looked at Liu Xiu in surprise and didn't react for a while.
Liu Xiuyu said earnestly: "Dongshan Huangtu, Shanghuai Kuang and others are incompatible with our Han army. General Zhao went to persuade us to surrender. I am worried that Dongshan and Shanghuai will ignore your previous friendship!"
It turns out that King Xiao was worried about this! Zhao Gui looked excited and said excitedly: "Now the Bronze Horse, Chonglian, has been trapped here, isolated and helpless, unable to fly. There is no other way but to surrender. For the sake of twenty
The lives of brothers Wan, the common people are willing to take this risk! Moreover, the common people believe that General Dongshan, General Shanghuai, and General Qi are all people who understand the truth and will not insist on going their own way. We hope that your Majesty will give you permission!"
Zhao Gui now understands two points. First, the Bronze Horse Army and the Heavy Company Army are indeed in a desperate situation. If Qingyuan City is still there and the two armies fight to the death and break through to Qingyuan, they may still have a chance to survive.
But now because of his own relationship, Qingyuan City has fallen into the hands of the Han army, which is equivalent to completely cutting off the retreat route of the Bronze Horse Army and the Heavy Company Army. Secondly, Liu Xiu is indeed not a cruel and easy-to-kill person, so he took refuge with Liu Xiu.
Xiu, this is not a bad thing for the rebels on our side. At least they no longer have to worry about it and live a precarious life.
Because he had made up his mind to join Liu Xiu, Zhao Gui also had to consider his future career.
At the moment, persuading the Bronze Horse Army and the Heavy Company Army to surrender is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a great contribution. Once you accomplish this, under Liu Xiu's command, you no longer need to consider yourself a surrender general. You can straighten your back and raise your head as a human being.
.
There is no doubt that Liu Xiu was very capable of leading troops in battles. After all, Liu Xiu had too many glorious achievements, but just because he was good at fighting did not mean that he was really willing to fight in his heart.
In fact, Liu Xiu himself was a person who hated war very much, and he was extremely unwilling to see the tragic scenes of corpses everywhere on the battlefield.
His ideas have always been deeply influenced by Confucianism and Taoism. This was especially obvious when he later governed the country. However, all warlike people were basically excluded from the core of power by him.
Those closest to him, such as Deng Yu, Jia Fu and others, all held the same ideals as Liu Xiu.
War is only one of the political means. In order to achieve political demands and goals, there are actually many means, war is just one of them, and it is also a poor strategy.
The best strategy is to subjugate the enemy without fighting and to achieve one's political goals without fighting or killing people. This has been clearly described in Sun Tzu's Art of War.
The first is to attack the enemy, then the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the enemy, and then the second is to attack the city. The method of attacking the city is the last resort.
Conquering a city is the last resort that has to be adopted after all means have been exhausted but still don't work.
Now 200,000 rebels were placed in front of Liu Xiu, asking him to kill them all. He could not be so cruel, but if he did not defeat them and let the Bronze Horse resurrect, they would still be his biggest threat in Hebei in the future.
If the 200,000 rebels could be persuaded to surrender, this would be most in line with Liu Xiu's wishes. And the person who went to persuade them to surrender, Zhao Gui, was indeed the best candidate in Liu Xiu's mind.
Liu Xiu pondered for a moment, nodded, and said: "If General Zhao can really persuade Dongshan, Shanghuai and others to surrender to our army, it will be a great achievement. But I still don't worry about General Zhao's safety.
If General Zhao is not completely sure, or feels that the risk is too great, you don’t have to go, I won’t force him!"
Zhao Gui was so moved that he stood up and left the table, kowtowed to Liu Xiu, and said: "I was born in the wilderness, but you are so valued by the king. I am so kind to you, and I will never forget it! Even if you are injured by the king, your body and bones will be shattered.
The general will be there without hesitation!"
Liu Xiu stood up, walked to Zhao Gui, helped him up again with his own hands, and said, "I'll leave this matter to General Zhao!"
"The final general will definitely live up to the mission of the king!"
"Yeah!" Liu Xiu nodded.
Finally, Liu Xiu accepted Zhao Gui's offer and sent Zhao Gui to the Bronze Horse Army station to persuade the Bronze Horse Army officers such as Dongshan Huangtu and Shanghuai Kuang to surrender.
After Zhao Gui left, the generals in the Chinese army tent said one after another: "Your Majesty, if you send Zhao Gui to persuade him to surrender, I'm afraid he will let the tiger return to the mountain, and there will be endless troubles!"
Liu Xiu smiled, turned to look at Cen Peng, and asked with a smile: "What do you think, Jun Ran?"
Cen Peng ignored the generals around him, and just handed over to Liu Xiu and said: "Your Majesty is wise! To persuade the Bronze Horse to surrender and reconnect, there is no more suitable candidate than Zhao Gui!"
No matter who you send from your own side, it will be difficult to win people's trust. If the Bronze Horse Army and the Heavy Company Army don't trust you, how can they surrender?
But Zhao Gui is not like that. He has very good friendship with Dongshan Huangtu, Shanghuai Kuang, Qi Ran and others. The weight of his words in front of these people is greater than that of everyone on his side.
To take a step back, even if Zhao Gui fails to persuade him to surrender, it will greatly shake the morale of the Bronze Horse Army and the Heavy Company Army. In the next war, it will be easier for our side to win, at least it can reduce the casualties of many of our soldiers.
While they were talking, Long Yuan walked in quickly from outside, came to Liu Xiu, bowed his hands, handed Liu Xiu a small bamboo tube, and whispered: "Your Majesty, this is the news from Luoyang from Yunxi Pavilion.
.”
Liu Xiu's face straightened, he took the small bamboo tube, opened the wax seal on it with his fingernails, pulled off the lid of the bamboo tube, poured out a roll of cloth from the inside, unfolded it, and inside it was written: Zhu Tuna, Li Yi, now in Luoyang
Gather troops and horses, and have 200,000 troops.
After reading this information, Liu Xiu frowned. The generals present looked at each other and asked: "Your Majesty, is it possible that something has changed in Luoyang?"
Liu Xiu handed the cloth to Long Yuan and asked him to pass it to the generals for circulation.
After everyone looked at it, their faces became solemn. Ma Wu said with a gloomy face: "Luoyang has 200,000 troops. There are only two possibilities, either to send troops to assist Hongnong or to send troops to attack Hanoi!"
Luoyang belongs to Henan County. It is separated from Hanoi County by a river and faces each other across the Yellow River. Luoyang has gathered an army of 200,000 and may cross the Yellow River and invade Hanoi at any time. This is a huge threat to our side.
threaten.
Yao Qi said quietly: "It is unlikely that Zhu Kun and Li Yi will send troops to Hongnong. If they wanted to aid Chang'an, they would have sent troops long ago. They would not wait until now. In view of the generals, Zhu Kun and Li Yi
, nine times out of ten, they are coming to Hanoi."
Cen Peng said: "If this is the case, Hanoi will be in danger! Now there is only one Kou governor in Hanoi, and it is difficult to fight alone. Once the tuna is transferred, Li Yi leads his troops to cross the river, and the Kou governor will be unable to resist."
Liu Xiu tapped his forehead and fell into deep thought. One wave was not calmed down, another wave was rising. Before the rebel army in Hebei was calmed down, Hanoi was about to fall into crisis again.
He thought for a moment and said to Long Yuan: "Send a letter to Feng Yi and Wang Liang. Feng Yi is stationed at Mengjin. Wang Liang is appointed as the magistrate of Yewang and is stationed at Yewang! The two of them will work together to assist Kou Xun and strictly guard Hanoi without any mistakes!"
