I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 254: Following Liu He, Going Hungry for Nine Meals in Three Days

After saying this, Duan Ying tightly grasped Yuan Shu's hand, with an expression on his face that showed a fearless attitude towards death.

Yuan Shu saw it and was quite surprised.

It seems that he never told Duan Ying explicitly that he wanted to reform society?
Why is Duan Xing so ready to face death?

Moreover, he felt that this matter actually had little to do with Duan Xing. He wanted to use Yi Xin Hui to transform the society. The military level was an important auxiliary, but not the main means. Of course, military reform was also needed, but it would not require a new set of rules like social transformation.

It doesn't seem necessary for Duan Xing to be so ready to die.

But Yuan Shu thought again and realized that there was still a high probability that this matter would fail. If he failed, Duan Yu, as his follower, would probably not have a good ending either.

From this perspective, Yuan Shu felt that Duan Ying's realization was quite reasonable.

What I have to do is full of dangers, so it would be a good thing to have a strong helper.

Although it was strange, Duan Yu seemed to have guessed what he was going to do. For the time being, Duan Yu would at least not stop him from going to the battlefield in person to gain greater military merits.

So Yuan Shu made a request to Duan Xing, expressing his desire to continue leading his troops to attack Puyang. In this war to quell the rebellion, he needed to gain enough merits and accumulate as much military prestige as possible.

Duan Xing would not stop him. He thought he knew why Yuan Shu did this, so he decided to cooperate with Yuan Shu and do his best to help Yuan Shu gain greater merits, such as building momentum for Yuan Shu in the next battle...

At present, both rebel armies have been defeated by Yuan Shu. The next target is the rebel base camp in Puyang. According to Yuan Shu's interrogation of the prisoners, Duan Xing learned that the rebels still have 50,000 to 60,000 troops in Puyang. However, as they judged at the beginning, most of the troops are temporarily recruited men who have not received any military training and are very weak.

But what’s interesting is that Liu He still felt that his status as a prefect was not enough to lead the rebels, so he openly proclaimed himself as a General of Cavalry, intending to attack the rebellious Yuan family, and at the same time promoted the positions of a group of eunuch remnants under his command.

He just naturally did what only an emperor could do, and actually created an atmosphere that he was the orthodox and the Luoyang court was rebellious.

To the extent that some local officials actually chose to join Liu He in this atmosphere and do things according to Liu He's orders.

For example, officials in Dongjun, Jiyin, Liang, Pei and other places, because they were subordinates of these rebels, out of political inertia, many of them boarded Liu He's pirate ship, regarded Liu He as the orthodox, and even dared to deny the legitimacy of the Luoyang court.

This is simply treason! It's against the Heavenly Gang!

There is no need to say much about the legitimacy of the Luoyang court. They also fought hard to obtain the throne of Emperor Liu Kui. They are much more orthodox than Liu Hong, who was supported by the eunuchs!
As for you, Liu He, who do you think you are?
Duan Xing was very angry.

In fact, he was already very angry before, because Yuan Shu told him that the dead Li Shao dared to call himself the General of Chariots and Cavalry, so Duan Ying kicked Li Shao's corpse several times and spat at him.

"Bah, you daring bastard! What merit have you made that you dare to be a chariot and cavalry general with me?"

If Yuan Shu had not stopped him and said he would chop off Li Shao's head and send it to Luoyang, Duan Yu would have planned to grind Li Shao's entire body into dust to vent his hatred.

As a result, Liu He is even more excessive now!
He even dared to call himself the General of Cavalry and stepped directly on Duan Xing's head!
Duan Xing's face turned red with anger, saying that he had fought very hard to get the title of General of Chariots and Cavalry, but the title of General of Chariots and Cavalry was earned by the corpses of tens of thousands of Qiang people!

This Liu He dared to call himself the General of Cavalry without doing anything. Was he so bold?
Duan Xing was furious and ordered the entire army to prepare to attack Puyang the next day. He wanted to chop off Liu He's head with his own hands and send it to Luoyang!

On December 15th of the first year of Zhengshi, the Han army set out from Baima County and advanced with all their might towards Puyang County.

At the same time, the news of Li Shao's annihilation also reached Puyang. The rebel leader Liu He was horrified, and Wang Ji and others were even more frightened. The generals in the rebel base camp were also trembling with fear.

Everyone was shocked by the powerful fighting capability of the Han army, which was completely beyond their expectations.

The armed forces they see on a daily basis rarely have elite ones, and they have lived in peaceful areas for a long time. They lack sufficient understanding of truly powerful armed forces, so that they now seem at a loss when facing the real elite.

After the news spread further, Puyang City was shrouded in a doomsday atmosphere. Almost everyone believed that as long as the Han army came, Puyang would definitely fall and they would not be able to defend the city. Stimulated by this news, more than 2,000 people in Puyang City tried to escape within a day. Faced with the threat of death, the soldiers who were originally forcibly conscripted had no intention of dying for Liu He. They would only try their best to escape from the deadly place.

They would not sacrifice their lives for an inexplicable General Piao Ji.

If you follow Liu He, you will go hungry for nine meals in three days.

It was said that there was enough food in Puyang City, but the officials ate and drank to their heart's content, and the soldiers could only drink liquid food and eat pickled vegetables, which was just barely enough to survive. The weather was still cold, and when a gust of wind blew, their poor-quality winter clothes leaked everywhere, and they almost froze to death!

These days, more and more people are suffering from colds and fevers, and more and more people are dying from them.

Even if the person is not seriously ill and can still speak the night before, he will find his body stiff when he wakes up the next morning.

If you die in your own home, there will be people to collect your body. But if you die here, your fate will be to be stripped naked, thrown on a cart and thrown into the wilderness.

He is like a monster when he is alive, and becomes a wandering ghost after he dies. How miserable is that.

So as long as there is one person who takes the lead in running, this terrible chain reaction will immediately begin, and countless people will want to escape together and put it into action.

However, the impact of the soldiers wanting to escape is not that great. From ancient times to the present, countless people have wanted to escape from the military camp. This is not a strange thing at all.

But the problem is that it's not just the soldiers who want to escape. The official figures and important components of the rebels are also beginning to waver, and their wavering is very drastic.

For example, Gao Wei, the magistrate of Puyang County, was a close confidant of Cao Shao and joined Cao Shao in the rebellion. Not long ago, he was appointed as a colonel by Liu He. He was also a well-known figure among the rebels. He was once very powerful and felt that he had found the right path in life.

However, after Cao Shao was defeated and executed, his status plummeted and his military power was taken away. He was already dissatisfied, and now Li Shao was defeated and killed as well. His psychology was severely shocked and he was on the verge of collapse.

After much thought, he felt that the rebels were finished.

The entire army was annihilated by the Han army twice in a row and had no power to fight back. The commander of the Han army was still the killing god Duan Xing, so there was no need to continue fighting.

He was originally just a person working with Cao Shao. Now Cao Shao is dead, Li Shao is also dead, and the rebels are on the verge of collapse. If he continues to hang out with Liu He, he will only become his burial companion.

So he tried to leave Puyang, thinking of surrendering to the Han army directly, handing over some intelligence in Puyang City to the Han army, acting as a tainted witness in exchange for a chance to survive.

He contacted some of his subordinates in the county government and prepared to ask them to leave Puyang and join the Han army. However, one of his subordinates was the cousin of Wang Ji's military advisor Sun Zun. This person wanted to take Sun Zun away and told him not to work for these people, saying it was not worth it.

However, Sun Zun was grateful for Wang Ji's kindness to him and was unwilling to leave. He sold out his cousin, causing Gao Wei's escape plan to fail and he was captured by Liu He's men.

Liu He had become very sensitive because of the series of failures. When he heard that even the officials under his command were going to escape, fear and anger intertwined together, and he immediately ordered the arrest of Gao Wei and executed him by the torture of being torn apart by five horses.

Poor Gao Wei was broken into five pieces.

His broken body was hung by Liu He in the city as a threat to anyone who wanted to escape.

Who dares to escape?
This is what happens to you!

In this way, the thoughts of those who wanted to escape were slightly suppressed for a short period of time.

But Liu He made a big mistake.

Fighting fear with fear is indeed an effective method, but it is meaningless if one party's fear far exceeds that of the other.

(End of this chapter)