This is a bedroom, with a wooden frame behind the bead curtain door, and a burner of incense placed on the table next to it.
The smell of burning spices makes the whole room extremely fragrant.
The house was clean and bright, but dark red blood stains could be faintly seen in the cracks in the floor under the wooden collapse.
Yuan Shao lay on the wooden platform to rest with a pale face. He did vomit blood yesterday, but it was not exaggerated to the extent that he vomited two buckets of blood. He just vomited a puddle, maybe several hundred milliliters.
But this situation was too familiar to him. Back then, his father had a sudden illness and died of vomiting blood, which made him feel that his time was running out.
In fact, after the Battle of Jieqiao, Yuan Shao was suffering from depression. As his army retreated steadily, his physical condition continued to deteriorate.
Although he has not yet reached the point where he has run out of oil, he is not getting better even if he keeps looking for soup and medicine. The originally strong body is losing weight at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his cheeks have even begun to become sunken.
Knowing that he may not die soon, Yuan Shao must hold on to his body to resolve the predicament at hand. If he cannot repel the enemy, then the Yuan family may be destroyed in his hands.
Cough cough cough.
The violent coughing continued for a while. Liu Hui opened the door and came in. He whispered to him: "Ming Gong, General Liu Jun who came to see you has left."
Yuan Shao took a sip of water to calm down his mood that changed due to coughing, and asked: "Who is it?"
"It's Yan Rou, deputy general of Xianyu, and Wang Hu, deputy general of Zhang Liao."
Liu Hui replied.
Yuan Shao nodded: "Not many people in Liu Bei's army know me. There are only Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Chen Mu and a few others. They dare not enter the city. This method should be able to deceive them."
Liu Hui worriedly said: "It's just that many soldiers who didn't know the truth heard that Ming Gong was critically ill, and their morale was temporarily weakened, and their morale dropped to the bottom. What should we do?"
"It doesn't matter."
Yuan Shao said: "Most of the soldiers and horses in the city are new soldiers recruited temporarily, and their combat effectiveness is not high. I don't expect to rely on them to defeat the enemy. As long as Yuan Cai launches an attack, everything will be fine, even if the soldiers in the city
If you can't win a battle with soldiers and horses, you should be able to win a battle with favorable wind."
Liu Huidao: "Ming Gong, I'm still a little worried. The most important factor in this fake surrender is Ming Gong's nephew Gao Gan. According to the plan, Jiang Yiqu will lead the Euphorbia soldiers to surrender to the enemy outside the city. Gao Gan makes a sneak attack from the side, and Jiang Yiqu comes to the battle.
If we turn against the enemy and disrupt the enemy's rear formation, we will be victorious when the time comes, but I'm afraid that Gao Gan will not be able to break through the Qingzhou Army's interception network."
Yuan Shao frowned and said: "He successfully delivered food and grass four times before. There should be no accidents this time."
Liu Hui shook his head and said: "It's hard to say. I've always been surprised. How could there be such a big flaw in Chen Zigui's defense to the west, leaving the road in the direction of Shexian County undefended. Senior officials could easily contact the city. With Chen Zigui's talent,
There's absolutely no way this is going to happen, I'm worried it's a trap."
"A wise man will surely make a mistake if he worries a lot. A fool will gain something if he worries a lot. Chen Zigui is not a god, so how can he possibly cover everything, cough cough."
Yuan Shao covered his mouth and coughed twice, "No matter what, this is our last chance. If we can't break out or defeat Liu Bei, I'm afraid we will never have a chance again. I don't know how long I can last."
, but at least this time we can only take a gamble."
"I see."
Liu Hui looked calm, this was undoubtedly a big gamble.
But there was nothing they could do, because Handan was already experiencing internal and external troubles at this time.
The soldiers in the city were temporary recruits with very poor combat effectiveness and poor fighting will.
At this time, the news of Yuan Shao's death was being publicized in the city. If the generals had not comforted the soldiers and said that they were planning to surrender, they would have rebelled long ago.
The Qingzhou Army outside the city was watching eagerly. More than 100,000 people surrounded Handan. Although there were high-ranking officials outside the city to provide reinforcements, everyone knew that the Qingzhou Army was not a fool and could not be unprepared for the high-ranking officials.
It’s just that they didn’t figure it out. Gao Gan sent scouts to try to contact the city for the first time. Along the way, Chen Mu’s tribe, Zhang Fei’s tribe, and Gao Shun’s tribe stationed in the west didn’t respond. Except for some sentries placed on the road, the trails
Undefended.
Although Gao Gan was puzzled, he contacted the city through scouts. After learning that there was not much food and grass in the city, he immediately sent people to transport a lot of food and grass into the city from the small road overnight. The quantity was not much the first time, because it was just
The food delivery is tentative, so there are only about a thousand trucks, which can only solve urgent needs.
By the second, third and fourth times, Gao Gan became more and more courageous and helped Yuan Shao solve the food problem in the past few months. Although the population of Bingzhou is not large now, Hedong has been quite wealthy since ancient times. Gao Gan
Having occupied Hedong and the two counties of Yanmen Shangdang, it is still quite powerful.
Here, Yuan Shao is preparing to fake a surrender, intending to let Jiang Yiqu lead the remaining elites to surrender to Liu Bei, and then let high-ranking officials launch an attack. Over there, Liu Bei, Xian Yufu and others are discussing in the general's tent whether to accept Yuan Jun's surrender.
How to accept Yuan Jun’s surrender?
Liu Bei still sat high on the throne, Chen Mu, Xian Yufu, Zhang Liao sat in turn, Xun Chen still sat opposite, the generals and generals stood in the tent, and below Yan Rou and Wang Hu were kneeling on one knee, reporting to Liu Bei what they saw in the city.
What you see and hear.
"Ming Gong, we observed carefully when we entered the city. We saw that the soldiers in the city had no fighting spirit. There were no people patrolling the streets. There were very few soldiers guarding the city walls. Many people were sitting under the city wall to bask in the sun."
Wang Hu said: "I think those Jizhou soldiers should be on the verge of losing their morale. If it is our soldiers like this, I can't imagine it."
"Yes, this is indeed the scene in the city. When we entered the mansion, we saw Yuan Shao's soldiers crying. A man with a pale face was lying on the ground in the hall with a mat underneath, wearing rich clothes, with his arms exposed.
.”
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Yan Rou said: "Based on appearance alone, you can't tell whether the person is really dead or fake. Later, I came up with a way to pretend to be Yuan Shaoshang.
Xiang kowtowed and deliberately touched Yuan Shao's arm. It felt cold to the touch and had no feeling of heat, just like a dead person. Moreover, what I touched was the wrist and there was no pulse. He should be dead, but I don't know if this person is.
Yuan Shao."
"What does this person look like?"
Liu Bei asked.
There are actually not a few people in the Qingzhou army who have seen Yuan Shao. Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Chen Mu Dianwei, and even Zhao Yun, Huang Zhongwu, Anguo, Guan Hai, Tian Feng and others all met him when they were challenging Dong.
But these people are all senior generals or senior counselors in Qingzhou. It is too risky to send them to the city to see, so we can only let Yan Rou and Wang Hu go.
After the two went there, they wrote down Yuan Shao's appearance and then reported back. In fact, Liu Bei himself had not seen Yuan Shao for seven or eight years. A person's appearance would constantly change depending on whether he was fat or thin, so this method was difficult to do.
Discrimination.
However, after Yan Rou and Wang Hu finished describing it, Liu Bei and Chen Mu looked at each other and nodded slightly. The description was indeed exactly the same as that of Yuan Shao. The most important thing was that Yuan Shao had a mole on his forehead. This cannot be faked.
In ancient times, when there were no cameras, it was difficult to determine a person's identity, so people were often identified by their appearance.
These characteristics are even included in the household registration. The best way to distinguish them is the characteristics of the face, moles, birthmarks, and beards. For example, Guan Yu has a face as heavy as jujubes and a two-foot-long beard, Zhang Feiyan has a tiger's beard, and a leopard's head has ringed eyes.
wait.
In terms of specific characteristics, the Yuan Shao described by Yan Rou and Wang Hu was very similar to the Yuan Shao in Liu Bei and Chen Mu's memory, so everyone believed him and thought that maybe Yuan Shao was really dead.
None of them doubted whether Yuan Shao would cheat his death. There were quite a few ancient people who cheated their own death, but it rarely happened to people of Yuan Shao's level.
The reason is very simple. Yuan Shao is the backbone of Jizhou. Once he dies, the soldiers in the city will immediately collapse, resulting in a devastating defeat.
So you should be able to understand with just your toes that Yuan Shao would not be so stupid.
Then the only thing left is how to accept surrender.
During the Battle of Chibi in history, Huang Gai said he wanted to surrender, so he took his troops and ran towards Cao Jun. As a result, the boat was full of fish paste used to make fire.
Xun Chen said to everyone: "We are willing to open the city gates, dedicate the city, lay down our weapons and surrender. However, the Yuan family treated me well, so the army generals discussed it, hoping that after the funeral of Duke Yuan, he could be released from the city.
The generals are coming with their troops to surrender."
Liu Bei said to Xianyu Fu: "It is human nature to mourn for an old master. What does General Xianyu think?"
"good."
Xian Yufu nodded: "How do you plan to mourn?"
Xun Chen said: "The top general in the city is General Jiang Yiqu. He said he was willing to lead the people to surrender to the general first. After the surrender, he carried the coffin and sent Duke Yuan back to Yecheng. After handing it over to Prince Tan, he returned to Handan and returned to the city.
Do you think it is feasible for the King of Qi and the general to ask the soldiers to hand over their weapons?"
"He won't take the soldiers with him?"
Xian Yufu asked.
"Without it, the soldiers would be afraid of killing, afraid of the power of King Qi and the generals, and would not dare to leave the city."
Xun Chen explained: "So General Jiang only brought out a few people and sent the coffin of Mr. Yuan back to Handan. Then he came back immediately and never broke his promise."
Xian Yufu thought for a while, nodded and said: "If we don't take the soldiers away, it will be fine. King Qi thinks this strategy is feasible."
Liu Bei said: "The general represents your majesty. This time, the surrender can be done by the general."
"Then so be it."
Xian Yufu finally set the tone.
Xun Chen cupped his hands and said, "Thank you so much, King Qi, and thank you so much, general. Then I will go back to the city to report."
The tone of the surrender was thus set. Xian Yufu accepted the surrender of the Jizhou Army on behalf of the emperor, while Liu Bei and others watched the ceremony.
After they dispersed, Liu Bei and Chen Mu returned to their camp in the south of the city. The next day, Chen Mu returned to his camp. Because the city was still preparing for a funeral, they agreed that the day of surrender was three days later.
At that time, the generals surrounding Handan will not be able to pass by, and the defense zone will not be changed again. This is just in case, so Chen Mu has to prepare the defense zone in advance.
As night fell, Chen Mu always felt that something was wrong with this matter, revealing something strange. Although he felt that it was unlikely that Yuan Shao would cheat his death, because Yan Rou and Wang Hu had already determined that there was an atmosphere of sadness in the city. A man with acting skills
, it is impossible for the entire army to have acting skills.
Yuan Shao's fake death would cause the morale of the entire army to collapse. He would not be so stupid. But after thinking about it, Chen Mu always felt that something was weird, but he couldn't pinpoint what was weird. After thinking about it carefully, he decided to
Find someone to ask for advice.
Zhuge Liang is a quick thinker and should be approached. However, in order to prevent Zhuge Liang from hindering Sima Yi, he was transferred to Huai County to do logistics work, so in the entire camp, only Sima Yi could serve as a staff member.
Someone was sent to call Sima Yi. After Sima Yi bowed his hands and saluted, Chen Mu rubbed his temples and said, "Zhongda, you should have heard the news about Yuan Shao's death."
"I heard about it yesterday."
Sima Yi replied.
Chen Mu said: "Some people in the city came out and said they wanted to surrender to us, what do you think?"
Sima Yi thought deeply: "This is not a good thing."
"It's really not a good thing."
Chen Mu said solemnly: "But let's not talk about the matters in the court, just talking about the surrender of the city, I always felt something was wrong, so I asked King Qi to pass the matter to Xian Yufu."
Recommending Xian Yufu to Xian Yufu was a clever move. Liu Bei was already a very popular minister, so it would make no difference if he got more credit than he did.
And if this matter is pushed to Xian Yufu, if he messes up, the blame will be his. If it is done well, Liu Bei will have some success, so it is definitely not a bad thing to blame Xian Yufu.
More importantly, Xian Yufu was a close confidant of Liu Yu. He asked him to accept the surrender of the Jizhou Army on behalf of the emperor. First, he was cautious to avoid being suspected of overstepping his subordinates and being arrogant and domineering in front of the world. Second, he wanted to show his goodwill to Liu Yu and let the court relax its vigilance.
, it can be said that it kills two birds with one stone.
Therefore, Liu Bei cannot take credit for this matter.
However, Chen Mu always felt that something was wrong with the whole thing. After all, he knew that Yuan Shao was supposed to die in two years, so he still had some doubts about whether Yuan Shao would fake his death.
Sima Yi then said: "Pushing the matter to Xian Yufu is a clever trick. Now that the matter has been pushed out, what are the young masters worried about?"
Chen Mu shook his head: "I'm thinking, if I were in Yuan Shao's position, would I choose to fake death and let the generals fake surrender? But I'm also thinking, if he chooses to fake death, he won't hide the generals, but he will definitely hide the common people.
Soldier, the soldier's morale is shattered, even if he pretends to surrender, what can he do to fight us?"
Sima Yi thought about it and said softly: "Maybe he still has foreign aid?"
"foreign aid?"
Chen Mu's face changed slightly: "High cadre?"
It’s not that the high-ranking cadres were ignored, but that the high-ranking cadres did not have many troops in She County, and they were already being guarded by Zhang Fei’s and Gao Shun’s troops. There were also Qianzhao and Zang Ba’s troops in the south not far away, and they could come over at any time.
support, so from the beginning, Chen Mu did not regard senior officials as a threat.
But after Sima Yi's reminder, Chen Mu suddenly remembered that if the soldiers in the city could not be used, it was because of morale problems. Once they pretended to surrender, it would be difficult for the military morale to recover in a short time, but the army with high ranking officers could use it.
After pretending to surrender, they turned against the enemy and the army was in chaos. The high-ranking soldiers and horses, and even some cavalry from various tribes, were very likely to take advantage of this chaos to defeat them in one fell swoop.
Things may become different by then.
"Fortunately, I pushed this matter to Xian Yufu and found a scapegoat." Thinking of this, Chen Mu suddenly laughed, turned to look at Sima Yi, and praised: "Zhongda, you are very good."
"Thank you, Master, for the compliment."
Sima Yi saluted.
Chen Mu said: "If this is the case, then your matter should be revealed. I will report to the King of Qi tomorrow. Then you will receive the Ten Army Staff, then be relieved of your official position and return to Hanoi."
Sima Yi was shocked at first, but soon figured out that Chen Mu was protecting him, so he quickly saluted again and said, "Thank you, young master."
"Go back and rest."
Chen Mu said calmly.
"Yi resigned."
Sima Yi stood up and left.
Chen Mu looked at his leaving figure and nodded slightly.
He was indeed protecting Sima Yi.
If you ask for a crime now, it would be a crime of dereliction of duty at most.
If you wait until high officials send troops, it will be a serious crime and you must be executed.