Chinese New Year

Chapter 657: Surrender and Encirclement

A large flag with the word "Liu" on it stood in the south of Ye County.

The soldiers of Liu Ling's army, which had expanded to nearly 10,000 people, were showing off their might. However, in terms of their military appearance, they were not very impressive.

Among the tens of thousands of people, perhaps only the 3,000 who surrendered at the beginning were relatively obedient. They were attracted by Liu Ling's reputation and surrendered voluntarily or were forced to do so. After a winter of training, the army gradually became more organized and had certain combat capabilities.

The composition of the remaining 7,000 people is more complex.

Some of them were pure surrendered soldiers who did not want to die and temporarily joined Liu Ling.

Some are speculators who want to follow Lao Liu to rob and make some money.

The remaining part came from various fortresses and were led by their family heads to surrender. Their family heads were obviously people with a certain vision and were political speculators.

However, when Liu Ba, the governor of Donglai, saw such a chaotic army, he not only did not take the initiative to attack, but instead sent people out of the city to deliver a batch of mutton and wine as a reward for the troops.

On April 28th, Liu Ba's nephew Liu Qun, the gatekeeper of Donglai County, came to Liu Ling's camp again.

"Is General Liu from Donglai?" Liu Qun asked with a smile inside the big tent.

Liu Ling's expression remained unchanged, but he sneered in his heart.

Who doesn't know that he is from Yangping, Hebei? After so many years, my reputation as Liu Ling shouldn't be so small, right? You ask knowingly, are you trying to get close to me?

Thinking of this, Liu Ling felt a little proud and humble.

"No." Liu Ling said coldly, "I am a commoner from Yangping, and I have never met the Liu family of Donglai."

"No." Liu Qun smiled and said, "Yangping Liu family is a branch of Pingyuan Liu family. Like Donglai Liu family, they are all descendants of the Han Dynasty. We didn't know each other before, but now we know each other, right?"

"Stop talking nonsense." Liu Ling looked down on people like Liu Qun and Liu Ba. He slapped the table and said, "Are you going to surrender or not? If not, once Lord Liang arrives, we will recruit men from all the counties and use the surrendered soldiers as the vanguard to capture the counties of Donglai. The Liu family may be overthrown. Give me a straight answer. I can't wait."

Liu Qun choked.

Why does this person speak like this? He is not polite at all, but straightforward, leaving no room for people to guess. He is really a rude person.

But he didn't dare to get angry.

Shao Xun and Cao Yi are different.

When Cao Yi attacked the counties of Qingzhou, Xuzhou in the south and Yanzhou in the west were enemies, and even Leling and Pingyuan in the north were in the hands of Jin. He was surrounded by enemies on all sides. If he encountered a tough opponent, such as the Ju family of Donglai who had resisted him for a long time, he had to compromise and negotiate because he could not afford to delay.

In the end, Ju Peng crossed the sea and left his hometown, Liu became the prefect of Donglai, and Changguang was given to the emerging local tyrant Lu - Chengyang and Gaomi were also given to aristocratic families, but the situation was different from Donglai, where they were forced to appoint a prefect because they could not conquer it.

What about Shao Xun? Can he afford to delay? Liu Qun thought about it carefully and decided that he could afford to delay.

He is already the de facto master of Henan and Hebei. Perhaps due to various reasons, the local people are unpredictable and most of them are forced to surrender temporarily. They will rebel as soon as they get a chance, but the problem is that he has not shown any signs of defeat yet.

It is true that he was defeated when he conquered Henan and Hebei, and several of his generals were killed in the battle, but he eventually defeated his opponents one by one and successfully ascended the throne of co-leader.

As long as he doesn't make any stupid moves, those people with ulterior motives will not only not rebel against him, but on the contrary will fight for him and attack others - such as the Liu family of Donglai.

In such a situation, there is actually no choice but to surrender.

After sorting out his thoughts, Liu Qun asked, "The post of Jiyin governor mentioned by Xi Gongshi is good, but it is too far away. It is not easy to be an official there if you are unfamiliar with the place."

"Don't be so picky." Liu Ling couldn't hold back his anger when he heard this, and said, "This is an official position that Liu Situ (Liu Tun) obtained with great difficulty by asking Lord Liang for it. If you don't want it, can you give it to me?"

Liu Qun almost choked.

Liu Tun was born in the Donglai Liu clan, but he was not from the same clan as Liu Ba and Liu Qun. They had some kinship. On weekdays, they would judge their relatives by their seniority and help and support them when necessary. But if it came to Liu Tun's own interests, would he really be willing to give up his own family's interests to help his fellow clan members?

Liu Bai, the son of Liu Tun, was already a servant of the State of Liang and had officially joined the bureaucracy of the State of Liang. If Liu Tun was not stupid, he would not have upset the Duke of Liang for Liu Ba, a clan member whom he had not seen for several years.

Being able to help in advance and secure a prefectural position for Liu Ba has already been a great favor.

Liu Ling was even more dissatisfied.

Damn it, I worked so hard to become a county magistrate, let alone a prefect. If you don’t want it, just give it to me and stop whining like a woman. In fact, many shogunate officials could only become county magistrates after leaving the government. Liu Ling’s requirements were actually not low.

"I've got your message. Can you give me a definite answer before sunset today?" Liu Ling was too lazy to waste time talking to Liu Qun. He stood up and walked out of the tent, saying, "If you don't surrender, I'll volunteer to be the vanguard and lead the troops to seize Ye County, so that I can earn some credit. The position of an external soldier is still too low in the shogunate. I feel so depressed when so many people are pressing down on me."

Liu Qun was dumbfounded.

Who among those who have dealt with him in the past was not very literary?
Even if he wanted something, he would ask for it in a roundabout way. If he was dissatisfied with him, he would not be so straightforward, but would use objects to make metaphors.

This rough guy! Liu Qun sighed, stood up, saluted and left.

Liu Ling was in the camp, washing the warhorse and feeding it with his own hands.

After feeding the horses, he took out the weapon that Lord Liang had personally given him: the iron mace.

This thing is very heavy, but it is just right for Liu Ling. When charging, he swings this mace and smashes you to death, regardless of whether you are wearing armor or not. Weapons such as wooden clubs, long axes, and iron maces are very effective against warriors wearing iron armor. If they can't break the armor, they will smash your tortoise shell flat.

Liu Ling had already used this mace to hit many people. With his great strength, there were almost no survivors. If Liu Ba did not surrender, he would smash his head.

Thinking of his pride, Liu Ling couldn't help laughing out loud.

Well, he might be disappointed—

That evening, uncle and nephew Liu Ba and Liu Qun ordered the city gates to be opened.

Thousands of defenders filed out of the city, piled their armor and weapons on the east side, and then lined up on the west side.

The county clerks took the military and household registrations and handed them to Liu Ling personally.

They even kidnapped several officials who refused to surrender and handed them over to Liu Ling for punishment.

Liu Ling looked at the officials in confusion. Their hands were broken and their tongues were cut. Was this necessary? Or was there some other hidden reason?

But he was too lazy to care about these. Maybe Liu Ba was taking the opportunity to purge those who opposed him, labeling them as Cao Wei's party and killing them all. In troubled times, who is simple?

******
In early May, Xi Jian arrived in Ye County.

Within a few days, nobles and powerful people from all over the country heard the news and rushed to pay homage to him.

Liu Ling felt very jealous again.

Your mother and maid! I have been waiting here for a few days, but none of you have made any move. When Xi Daohui arrived, all of you rushed over, being extremely affectionate and flattering.

OK, OK, OK! We'll see what happens next.

In fact, sometimes it is not that Liu Ling thinks too much or is narrow-minded. Rather, this world and this era repeatedly remind us through one small thing after another that you are different from others and you are not the same kind of people as them.

Some people can belittle themselves, lower their status, endure humiliation like a dog, and squeeze into the circle of scholars, and do not care even if they are looked down upon by others.

But Liu Ling is not that kind of person. Even if he is a crude warrior who is afraid of chaos in the world, he cannot bring himself to do that.

I would rather not get promoted than curry favor with you. This is probably his last stubbornness, face is more important than anything else.

Xi Jian came from a noble family and was very comfortable when meeting with the wealthy families of Qingzhou.

In addition to the local nobles of Donglai, those who came to pay homage included officials and nobles from Changguang and Chengyang counties.

After Donglai surrendered, the two counties were also preparing to surrender. The county and county officials who came here were basically here to negotiate terms.

But they were doomed to be disappointed, as Xi Jian was not given much authority. In short, he could not make decisions and dared not make promises.

Therefore, when receiving the nobles of the counties and prefectures, he also sent Liu Ling, Duan Ya, Liu Xia (Shao Xu's son-in-law, the commander of Leling), Gao Jiang, Liu Mi and others to lead their troops eastward and southward to wipe out the remaining enemies while giving those officials and nobles a little deterrence, so that they would be more realistic and not make blind demands.

If we can't end it in the end, someone will lose their life.

"Lord Liang is a generous ruler who does not want to see the people of Qingzhou suffer." Facing the powerful people who were looking at him eagerly, Xi Jian said, "But in this era of great contention, you must also show your abilities before you can be granted official titles."

Although Xi Jian did not receive authorization, it did not prevent him from exercising his subjective initiative and driving these people to work for Duke Liang.

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone basically understood the hidden meaning.

"There are still some people in the counties who are stubborn and refuse to change their ways. They need to be persuaded."

"There are many remaining enemies in the village, and we need to wipe them out immediately."

"Linzi and Guanggu are still held by evil bandits, and must be conquered."

"You all know what to do, right? We haven't done anything yet. Even if I want to recommend credit for you, I don't know how to write it." Xi Jian said finally.

"We will follow Lord Liang's orders." After a moment, people responded one after another.

Xi Jian nodded, his face full of approval.

In the following days, the powerful families such as the Liu family of Donglai, the Ju family, the Lu family of Changguang, and the Su family and the Wang family of Chengyang who had not yet moved south, jointly collected a batch of military rations and sent them to Xi Jian's camp. Finally, they assembled more than 20,000 soldiers and marched to Guanggu to join the siege.

On the tenth day of May, after more than a month of hard fighting, Yang Chen's troops finally captured Linzi City after successive attacks from the Yang family's followers, the surrendered people from Qingzhou, the peasant soldiers from Yanyu, and the Silver Spear Camp.

On the 14th, the army arrived outside Guanggu City.

By this point, the number of miscellaneous troops besieging the city had exceeded 80,000, completely encircling Cao Wei's last stronghold.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that things had changed in Qingzhou.

Except for a few stubborn demons and thieves, everyone abandoned Cao Qi, and his life could be counted in days.

(There will be another chapter tonight. Brothers, don’t hide your votes. Take them out from your shoes, crotches, and underwear and vote for me.)
(End of this chapter)