My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 530 No Choice (rd Update!)

The last day of April was also the fourth day after Wu Yi was cut off from returning home by Xiahou Yuan.

Wu Yi, who had been reinforcing the camp for many days and wanted to hold on to the death, welcomed the envoy sent by Jia Xu to persuade him to surrender.

Yang Huai and Gao Pei were not originally notified by Wu Yi and were not supposed to attend the meeting. However, they heard that Cao Jun had sent someone to attend and were concerned about their future, so they also forced themselves to come with their guards to listen.

Wu Yi was helpless and had not yet made up his mind to break up with him, so he let Yang Huai and Gao Pei meet together.

The envoy was of humble status. His name was Wang Guan and he was from Dongjun. He was just a grassroots official close to Cao Cao. He was sent to serve as a liaison when Xiahou Yuan went on the expedition.

Xiahou Yuan and Jia Xu let this young man in his twenties serve as their envoy because they thought his life was worthless and he could not threaten anyone even if he was captured by Wu Yi.

However, Wang Guan certainly has some aspirations of his own, and when he gets this opportunity, he will certainly perform well.

So as soon as they met, he boasted to Wu Yi that the main force of Cao's army would arrive soon, and once the prime minister personally led the army to arrive, they would be in trouble.

After explaining the military situation, Wang Guan threatened bluntly: "General Xiahou said that you have not made any serious mistakes, but you just overestimated your own abilities. If you can turn back as soon as possible, turn your back on the right path, lay down your arms and surrender with courtesy, you will still retain your title of marquis.

If we really wait until the Prime Minister's army arrives, then we will be forced to surrender, and it cannot be considered as voluntary surrender. If you want to keep your title and official position, that is wishful thinking! At most, we can only spare your lives and not punish you. If you dare to resist to the end, you will not even think about saving your life and property!"

Wang Guan pressed forward step by step, laying out his persuasive rhetoric of "the sooner you surrender, the better the treatment will be". As expected, Wu Yi's face changed slightly, and Yang Huai and Gao Pei were even more tempted.

Of course, what Wang Guan said was definitely not true.

He said that it was hard to say whether he could be granted a title of nobility for such a merit as leading 20,000 people to surrender. But he could be granted a title of Dutinghou or Duxianghou, which was also a title of nobility.

After hearing this, Yang Huai, the party being persuaded to surrender, ignored the presence of outsiders and said directly to Wu Yi: "General, the opportunity cannot be missed! It is too late to do anything about it, why not..."

Wu Yi was alert, but he was not sure at the moment, so he pretended to be submissive and raised his hand to stop Yang Huai and Gao Pei from continuing:

"Why are you so anxious? Do you believe what he said? Can Xiahou Yuan make decisions on behalf of Cao Cao? Can he make me a marquis just because he says so? Once I hand over my military power, I will be at the mercy of others. What bargaining is there? I am doing this for the future of my brothers!"

Yang Huai and Gao Pei were originally disloyal people, and after being scolded by Wu Yi, they realized that they were too impatient and had an ugly appearance. Since General Wu could be more reserved and strive for more benefits for his side, they were happy to wait and see what would happen.

Wang Guan, who was standing opposite, was also anxious when he saw Wu Yi's reaction. "General Wu, why don't you believe General Xiahou's promise? Although General Xiahou is only the General of the Western Expedition, everyone in the world knows that the Prime Minister and General Xiahou are like brothers. The Prime Minister will definitely recognize what he promised. What's more, you led more than 20,000 people to surrender. Such a great achievement, you deserve to be granted the title of Tinghou... General Wu, you deserve to be granted the title of Xianghou, and they deserve to be granted the title of Tinghou!"

Wu Yi did not give him a chance to say more: "Since the Prime Minister is leading the army soon, we can contact the Prime Minister's outpost messenger and negotiate with him, and then surrender. Anyway, we will not fight with the Prime Minister's army.

But if you insist on forcing us to surrender early, frame our brothers, and ruin our future, then we can only fight. Tell Xiahou Yuan this, and send him away! "

Wang Guan saw that Wu Yi was gentle but strong, polite and restrained, so he did not dare to force him for fear of ruining the matter. He could only swallow his anger and go back to report.

Fortunately, before setting off, Jia Xu did not force him to reach a conclusion this time. For such a major event, it is normal for the envoys to delay and negotiate for several rounds. Jia Xu did not necessarily want to persuade Wu Yi to surrender directly at the beginning. This time he was just testing the waters, throwing a stone to test the water.

After Wu Yi pretended to speak nicely to Wang Guan and sent him away, he put on a friendly attitude, as if he was in agreement with Yang Huai and Gao Pei, hoping to discuss the issue of the offer with the two generals.

When the two generals saw that Wu Yi was also planning to surrender to Cao, they relaxed their vigilance, drank with Wu Yi and talked about the inside story of dividing the spoils, and no longer guarded against him. The two generals' personal guards did not follow to the back tent where the banquet was set up.

Wu Yi came to his home turf, drank three rounds of wine to make the other party slightly tipsy, and then began to test the other party's true intentions, wanting to see if there was any possibility of saving Yang Huai and Gao Pei, and whether they were determined to surrender to Cao.

The two of them already thought that Wu Yi had given in, so how could they be on guard? Once they were a little drunk, they would say anything outrageous.

The more Wu Yi listened, the angrier he became. Although he didn't show it on the surface, he couldn't help but sigh.

When he was very drunk, he sighed, went out of the tent to take a breath, and then called his trusted swordsmen.

The executioners entered the tent and chopped the half-drunk Yang Huai and Gao Pei to pieces in a few strokes.

……

The next morning, in the Yizhou military camp, Wu Yi beat the drum to gather the generals and pulled all the soldiers out for training.

After everyone arrived, Wu Yi unexpectedly asked his confidant to throw out two heads and display them in public.

"Yang Huai and Gao Pei secretly colluded with Cao the thief and tried to betray their master, but I saw through his plan and killed him! Don't panic!

The fake news that Cao Cao was about to come in person has been found out. It was fabricated and spread by Yang Huai and Gao Pei for their own future! In fact, the reinforcements of the General of Chariots and Cavalry will arrive at Yangping Pass soon! The General of Chariots and Cavalry will arrive much earlier than Cao Cao!

We have received favors from our lord, so we should repay our country. Our lord has made an alliance with the generals of chariots and cavalry, so even if we have nowhere to go, we should be friendly with our allies, how can we surrender to the enemy?

As long as we hold on and wait until the reinforcements from the General of Chariots and Cavalry arrive, the General of Chariots and Cavalry has promised us that we will be transferred back to the second line and will no longer participate in the subsequent decisive battle with Cao Cao!
In contrast, it is well known how cruel and untrustworthy Cao Cao is! If you surrender to Cao Cao, he will turn around and let you lead the vanguard to fight against the generals of chariots and cavalry! Then you will die without a burial place!"

Wu Yi spoke a lot in one breath. During the first few sentences, the army was so excited that the crowd could hardly suppress them.

Fortunately, Wu Yi spoke quickly and made the point clear at once. By the last few sentences, he had finally stabilized the hearts of most of the soldiers.

Everyone followed this simple logic and thought that it was indeed the case:

Liu Bei is a man of credit, and this is known to everyone in the world. Since Liu Bei has promised that as long as our army surrenders to him, we will not have to participate in the subsequent bloody battles, he will most likely keep his promise.

Cao Cao's credibility is much worse than Liu Bei's. If everyone joins Cao Cao, won't they be used as cannon fodder immediately?

And Cao Cao was indeed capable of such a thing: two years later, Cao Cao went south to attack Liu Biao, and Liu Cong surrendered immediately, but Cao Cao turned around and sent the newly surrendered Jingzhou army to fight the Battle of Chibi with the Eastern Wu. In fact, most of the navy lost by Cao's army during the Battle of Chibi were Liu Biao's surrendered troops. It can be said that no one had a good life after surrendering.

Although this has not happened yet, Cao Cao has made many similar moves before. After his reputation became bad, the armed forces of local princes no longer trusted him in this regard.

In other words, for ordinary soldiers and officers, whether they could surrender to Cao Cao or not depends on the timing.

If after you surrender to Cao Cao, he does not have another war to fight in the short term, then you can surrender to Cao Cao.

But if Cao Cao had another urgent battle to fight, he would definitely not surrender to him at this time, as he would just be cannon fodder.

Now that Wu Yi had made this most basic truth clear, the morale of the soldiers below was reunited, and there was nothing to say about Wu Yi's killing of the two surrenderist deputy generals, Yang Huai and Gao Pei.

The other surviving generals of the Yizhou army also suddenly changed their views of "General Wu".

Unexpectedly, "General Wu" had a very thorough understanding of the principles of right and wrong, and analyzed the brothers' gains and losses in just a few words. Although he killed two surrendering lieutenants, he still stabilized the morale of the army.

However, by reaching this point, the way to waver in surrendering to Cao was completely blocked. Xiahou Yuan would definitely take revenge in the future, and the only thing they could do was to further improve the defense of the camp and wait for Liu Bei to attack them.

……

Because Wu Yi's killing of Yang Huai in Gaopei and the purge of the surrender faction happened after Wang Guan left.

Therefore, Wang Guan did not know at that time that Wu Yi had made up his mind to break with Cao's army.

After he returned to Cao's camp, he boasted a little to Xiahou Yuan, saying that he had completed his mission very well. Wu Yi, Yang Huai and Gao Pei all wanted to surrender, but were still hesitating and wavering because they were worried that the conditions they offered could not be fulfilled.

Upon hearing this, Xiahou Yuan quickly said, "It's good that they are willing to surrender! It's good that they are willing to surrender! Wealth and honor can all be discussed! He just wants a guarantee, let's find a way to give it to them!"

Xiahou Yuan attached great importance to this matter. Since he could not think of how to gain the other party's trust for the time being, he quickly called Jia Xu.

After Jia Xu arrived, he listened to Wang Guan's retelling and discussed with Xiahou Yuan the specific tricks of deception. He also made the surrender conditions more realistic and detailed. He just lacked asking Xiahou Yuan to swear an oath by pointing to the Han River in front of the two armies.

After dealing with these basic operations, Jia Xu reviewed the reactions of Wu Yi, Yang Huai and Gao Pei, and added some suggestions:
"General, I think we should make preparations for both situations. The day before yesterday, I suggested sending people to persuade them to surrender, but it was just a test. I didn't really expect to persuade Wu Yi to surrender. As long as we can undermine the enemy's fighting spirit and make them lose their minds, it won't be in vain.

Judging from the results of the current test, Wu Yi is indeed the most stubborn of the three enemy generals. I heard that he has some kinship with Liu Zhang's family. If he is really worried about the poor treatment if he surrenders, then we will follow the latest discussion and guarantee him a high position and generous salary.

But if this is Wu Yi's delaying tactic, then we must be on guard. So Wang Caoyuan, when you go there this time, you must act according to the situation. If Wu Yi continues to make excuses, you can take this letter and find an opportunity to meet with Yang Huai and Gao Pei in private, and tell them:

If Wu Yi and the others surrender, Wu Yi will be made a marquis of the township and they will be marquis of the pavilion. If they assassinate Wu Yi and surrender, then both of them will be made marquises of the township. In addition, they can also grant the following conditions..."

Jia Xu had a sinister look on his face as he went over the details of his speech in detail, and Wang Guan quickly memorized them all.

After hearing what Jia Xu said, Xiahou Yuan took a deep breath and asked, "Are you sure this will work?"

Jia Xu waved his hand indifferently: "It would be best if it succeeds. If it doesn't, it can still cause chaos in the enemy army and make them kill each other. Whether Wu Yi kills Yang Huai and Gao Pei, or Yang Huai and Gao Pei kill Wu Yi, it's a good thing. And this is the last resort after all. It can't be used unless it's absolutely necessary. Of course, it would be best if we can persuade the enemy army to surrender and subdue the entire division."

(End of this chapter)