Chinese New Year

Chapter 529 Certificate of Surrender

Xu Guang walked into Tongjue Garden with a bitter face, but was greeted by a fierce "kill" cry, which frightened him.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the Silver Spear Army stationed in Tongjue Garden was training in formation.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

He had heard too many sounds of killing recently, and he was really scared. Especially that night, he was so anxious that he climbed over the wall and accidentally fell into the East Market. While he was limping, he had several knives on his neck and was almost killed.

That was the closest he had ever been to death, and the memory of it is still fresh in his mind.

"Lord Tao." Xu Guang stepped forward and saluted.

"General Xu." The two men greeted each other according to their former official positions.

"How are the Golden Tiger and Bronze Sparrow towers?" Xu Guangxian asked.

"We are still trying to persuade them to surrender." Tao Bao said, "The garrison of Jinhutai is less than a thousand, and they have already expressed their intention to surrender. This morning, they sent someone down to the stage to ask a doctor to treat the wounds, and Ming Gong agreed. Tongquetai has not agreed yet, but they did not harm the envoy either."

There were more than a hundred wounded soldiers on the Golden Tiger Terrace, many of whom were seriously injured and could not be moved. When the garrison commander heard that the Bingjing Terrace had surrendered, he reluctantly expressed his willingness to surrender, but asked Chen Gong to send doctors to the terrace first to treat the wounded, as some of them were almost dying.

Originally, it was just a test, and he didn't expect the other side to really agree. But who would have thought that Shao Xun promised immediately and immediately sent people to the Golden Tiger Terrace to treat the wounded.

The defending general was convinced and sent people to deliver the weapons down the mountain. He also went down to Tongjue Garden himself as hostages.

There were also a thousand soldiers on the Tongque Tower. They refused to surrender, but did not harm the envoys either.

This is the situation, it is actually very clear.

The Bingjing and Jinhu towers surrendered, and two of the three towers were lost. The Tongque Tower was actually not easy to defend. I don't know what those people were thinking. If they really thought so much of Dahu's kindness, they should have fought hard outside the city.

Some people are so brave when hiding behind the city walls that they collapse at the first blow. I really don't know what to say about them.

"Misfortunes sent by Heaven can still be survived, but misfortunes brought upon oneself cannot. Some people don't want to live, so let them be." Xu Guang sighed.

"You joined the army here just to gather information about the military situation?" Tao Bao pointed at the soldiers, clerks, carriages and horses behind Xu Guang and asked.

"No." Xu Guang said seriously, "Mr. Chen was pleased to hear that Bingjingtai was recovered, so he sent me to take away Dahu's family. All the soldiers guarding the fort will go outside the city and be led by Liu Hedu."

"Liu Hedu? Leading an army alone?" Tao Bao was stunned.

Liu Hedu is the son of Liu Hezhu, whose father is the chieftain of Daluze. If we really want to talk about merit, it is Liu Hezhu, the old fox, who has made greater contributions. However, he also understands that father and son are one, so if he does not promote Liu Hezhu, then he will promote his son and let him lead a group of surrendered soldiers.

etc--

"The surrendered soldiers from Santai were organized into an army on their own?" Tao Bao asked.

"Yes." Xu Guang said, "Mr. Chen personally gave me the military title of 'Loyalty'. I am now the Chief of the Loyalty Army..."

Tao Bao felt like his face was about to be distorted by jealousy.

Xu Guang has become a "regular official", but he is still a "fake official". How can people feel good about this?

"Don't worry, General." Xu Guang took a step closer and whispered, "As long as you finish the following task, Lord Chen will not forget your contribution."

Tao Bao let out a long sigh and a smile appeared on his face.

Xu Guang sneered inwardly.

Tao Bao calls himself a "wise general", but in fact, he only has the "wisdom" of a warrior. His emotions are all written on his face. How much real wisdom can he have?

"What is it?" Tao Bao asked, "I will definitely do it!"

"If Generals Tao, Zhi and Cheng can present Princess Pingjin and Lady Shangdang Liu to Lord Chen, their future will be worry-free," said Xu Guang.

Tao Bao was stunned.

"The people from Jinhutai are coming down--" Zhi Xiong walked over from a distance, and stopped shouting halfway, obviously having heard what Xu Guang said.

His face looked a little ugly.

He had been with Shi Le for a long time, and like Wang Yang, Kui An, Tao Bao, Ji Bao and others, he was one of Shi Le's early "Eight Riders" - "Eighteen Riders" was a general term, but in fact the early "Eight Riders" could be divided according to their seniority, and there were always those.

After the defeat of the Da Hu, he was hunted down by the Jin army. He did not have the courage to commit suicide, so he surrendered in a daze.

After surrendering, he found that his loyalty to Da Hu was not as strong as he had imagined, and he felt very ashamed.

But after feeling ashamed, he still accepted the job when Shao Xun assigned him one.

After I accepted it, I felt even more ashamed...

He is so ashamed that he actually wants to offer his former mistress to Mr. Chen. This, this, this - has his bottom line been crossed again?

Perhaps he has no bottom line at all.

When he first joined Da Hu in the uprising, he mainly robbed people just for money.

It turns out that I am really a bad person.

Tao Bao's face was relatively calm. It was obvious that he had prepared himself earlier and more fully than Zhi Xiong. After hearing Xu Guang's words, he only asked, "Is this an order from Lord Chen?"

"Mr. Chen has not issued any order." Xu Guang said seriously, "I heard that Mr. Chen wants to organize the soldiers under Tao and Zhi into one army, but I don't know who will lead the army. We need to be more proactive in some things..."

Peach Leopard looked up at the sky.

After a while, he seemed to have given up, and he called his personal soldiers and asked, "Where are Shi Le's family?"

"Rest in the garden." replied the soldier.

Tao Bao nodded, and then said in a trembling voice: "I heard that Lady Shangdang is a beauty, and she should be presented to Lord Chen for his enjoyment. Please ask them to get in the car."

The personal soldier's expression was not very good, but he still agreed.

"General Zhi..." Xu Guang looked at Zhi Xiong again.

"I--" Zhi Xiong opened his mouth.

"General Zhi, there are some things that you won't be able to do after today." Xu Guang said earnestly, "I heard that you have a mansion in the city, it's magnificent, and you've offended many people in the past. If you're a commoner, can you keep all of this?" "I--" Zhi Xiong stammered, then said dejectedly, "General Tao and I will offer Madam Liu to you."

Xu Guang smiled and said, "Why bother? By attacking Santai, we have already broken off relations with Shi Le. The rest is just a matter of convenience."

After saying this, he stood with the two of them and waited quietly.

Soon, Cheng Xia, who received the news, ran over, first looked at Tao and Zhi, then looked at Xu Guang, quietly pulled him and whispered something.

Xu Guang looked a little embarrassed and shook his head from time to time.

Cheng Xia's face was full of pleading, and he bowed repeatedly.

After a while, Liu and others were brought over by soldiers.

In order to prevent someone from being loyal to Shi Le, his family was released, and the people escorting them were all Tao Bao's confidants when he was the governor. However, although Liu's face was full of anger, she did not seem to want to die. Cheng stood behind her holding the baby, her face full of fear, and she seemed to be much more inexperienced than Liu.

The group quickly got on the carriage and headed for Ye Palace.

******
Inside the Prime Minister's Mansion in Ye Palace, Shao Xun sat at the top, listening to reports from Yu Chen and others.

"Since the autumn harvest, we have cut 300,000 bushels of 'unowned grain' from the wilds, all of which have been stored in the Baizangku." Yu Chen said, "With this grain, we can support 30,000 soldiers for three months. The nobles in Ji, Wei, and Dunqiu counties have donated another 300,000 bushels of grain, which have not yet been shipped."

"The grain donated by the nobles can be stored in Anyang." Shao Xun said, "Then send people north to the counties of Guangping to collect the grain and return."

"Okay." Yu Chen agreed.

"What do you plan to do about Hebei?" Shao Xun asked.

"Please leave a battalion of elite soldiers to help defend the city," said Yu Chen.

Shao Xun did not answer immediately.

In fact, he was fighting in Hebei, but other places were not peaceful and there were many problems.

Because he captured Wancheng in the first half of the year, Jianye was stimulated. Sima Rui took out the secret decree and "approved" Zu Ti as the governor of Xuzhou and led the army north to Shangpi.

The Jiangnan nobles did not oppose openly, after all, Sima Rui even took out the secret decree. But not opposing openly did not mean they would not hinder.

After all the wrangling, Sima Rui was able to gather only a few thousand soldiers for Zu Ti, which was really shabby.

At the end of June, Zu Ti sailed north to Huaiyin, where he won over the powerful and collected supplies. At the same time, he built a furnace and smelted weapons, but there was no further movement for the time being.

In the direction of Jingzhou, because Wancheng no longer participated in the suppression of the rebellion, the court ordered Wang Dun to lead his troops to join the suppression of the rebellion.

Tao Kan and Zhou Fang led the army, advancing both by land and sea, and defeated Du Tao several times, achieving remarkable results.

However, local people such as Du Zeng and Wang Chong successively joined the rebellion, and it was not completely quelled.

Wang Dun did not seem to focus on suppressing the rebellion. He was more focused on winning over and appointing private individuals to expand his power.

When Shao Xun received the news, he ignored it and gave orders to Lekai, the military commander of the Wancheng Shogunate, to recruit young men and strengthen vigilance.

Several counties in the southern part of Yuzhou also received orders to recruit soldiers and guard the borders carefully to prevent any accidents.

The overall strategy was to be defensive, in order to avoid being attacked suddenly and penetrate into the empty hinterland.

As for the direction of Xuzhou, after hearing that Donghai Internal Historian Mi Huang had some minor friction with Zu Ti and was defeated, he was worried that Zu Ti would lose all his capital, so he ordered him to focus on defense and not to act rashly.

Now that Shi Le had been defeated militarily and the political war had begun, Shao Xun wanted to withdraw some of his troops to strengthen the defense in the south, but Yu Chen asked him to leave behind "a battalion of elite soldiers"...

To be honest, Shao Xun now has two and a half battalions of elite soldiers, namely the Left and Right Battalions of Silver Spears, plus the Black Spear Army which counts as half.

The three main forces give you one?
He stood up and walked to the map, looked at it for a long time, and said, "The Black Jade Army has been fighting for a long time since it went north, and there are still 2,900 soldiers. I will leave this army to you, but it will not be stationed in Yecheng, but in Anyang."

After that, he continued, "I have ordered the Silver Spear Central Camp to dispatch two battalions of soldiers to the north, and they should have reached Chenliu by now. Although these two battalions have never fought in a war, they have been trained for a long time and are not the kind that will collapse at the first blow. The Black Sword Army originally had six battalions of soldiers (3,600 men), but now it has been reorganized into seven battalions. There are some vacancies, so we will recruit a hundred strong men without families in Anyang to make up for them."

Yu Chen heaved a sigh of relief and said, "With the Black Jade Army stationed in Anyang, things will be much easier."

These 4,200 soldiers, a mix of new and old, were the "battalion of elite troops" that Shao Xun had promised him.

He never expected Shao Xun to keep the Silver Spear Army in Hebei, which was unlikely at this stage.

Anyang is a very important node, connecting the past and the future, and connecting the Baigou water system. With the Heiliang Army guarding it, Yecheng has the confidence to stand at the front.

Now there is only one problem left: there is no reliable garrison in Yecheng.

"Cai Cheng can be the governor of Wei County." Shao Xun added, "He will not handle government affairs, but will train the soldiers in Yecheng. The soldiers from Nanyang and Guanxi will stay for a while. The total number of surrendered soldiers in Yecheng is no less than 15,000. If you are worried, you can think of a solution from Henan."

Yu Chen smiled bitterly and cupped his hands.

The son-in-law was playing tricks again, asking the Henan gentry to use their savings to help him defend Yecheng.

Of course, each family has some elite troops that they regard as treasures. They are provided with good food and drink on a daily basis, and their equipment is also sufficient as much as possible. In the past, Shao Xun was robbed in Yingchuan, and it was all because of his armor.

He even tried every means to invite officers of the imperial guards to help with training, familiarizing them with drums, gongs, flags, various tactics and military formations in order to improve their combat effectiveness.

It would be very painful for any of these people to die, so no one would be willing to give it up easily.

But what can I say? Mr. Chen has come to this point, you should hurry up and increase your bets. What are you waiting for?

When Mr. Chen really marries Guo Shengtong and doesn't want Yin Lihua anymore, it won't even be time to cry!
So Yu Chen just smiled bitterly but did not refuse.

Of course, he has deeper thoughts, but that is not something that can be told to outsiders.

Uh, one more thing—

Why did they let Cai Cheng be the governor? Why not Yang Dan?

Yu Chen was a little confused.

At this time, Cai Cheng was seen peeking outside and secretly giving Shao Xun a look.

(End of this chapter)