Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 322: Conquer Longyou in One Move
In September, the nights in Longshan are getting colder, the air is filled with chill, and the night sky is dotted with stars.

The Lueyang camp was on fire. Han and Qiang soldiers patrolled the camp, and their footsteps made rustling sounds.

Inside the big tent, Han Sui took the letter from Yan Xing, glanced at the name on it, confusion and doubt flashed across his face.

"Zhang Yu has already rejected our army's request for peace, but now he has sent an envoy to communicate with me. I wonder why?" Han Sui asked his confidant Yan Xing while opening the letter.

"Maybe Zhang Yu regretted it!"

Yan Xing bowed and said, "The messenger, General Yan, is waiting for your reply immediately!"

"Ok!"

Han Sui unfolded the letter, and the traces of smudges between the lines made Han Sui suspicious. He wondered why Zhang Yu sent him a smudged letter. Suppressing his doubts, Han Sui carefully read the contents of Zhang Yu's letter.

In the letter, Zhang Yu mentioned the matter of surrender, saying that Han Sui's surrender conditions were not tempting enough, so he listed several requirements. When the second item mentioned Song Jian, the sentence was completely blacked out, and only the first and third conditions at the beginning and end could be known.

"This~"

Han Sui frowned in confusion and muttered, "Zhang Yu is a general after all. He is very meticulous in commanding troops, but how could he be so careless in writing a letter?"

After taking a few glances, Han Sui hesitantly picked up the pen and was about to write a reply to Zhang Yu.

Suddenly, Song Jian's voice was heard outside the tent, which surprised Han Sui. The ink-stained pen in his hand trembled slightly.

"General, Song Jian is outside the tent asking for a meeting!"

"please!"

Han Sui frowned slightly, thinking that Song Jian's visit had a deeper meaning. He subconsciously glanced at the smeared letter. Han Sui turned the letter back to avoid Song Jian's suspicion.

After a while, Song Jian hurried into the tent and saw Han Sui, who had left the table to greet him. He asked, "Wen Yue, I heard that Zhang Yu sent you a letter. I wonder what the letter talks about?"

"Just watch for yourself!"

Hearing this, Han Sui's heart sank. He and Song Jian had a conflict in their early years, and now they were cooperating to fight against Zhang Yu. If he saw the smeared letter now, he wondered if Song Jian would become suspicious. He would probably have to explain himself later.

Song Jian first glanced at Han Sui, and seeing that the back of the letter was facing up, he reached out and turned it over.

The traces of smudges on the letter also attracted Song Jian's attention, and he asked, "Why are there smudges on the letter? I wonder what the content is?"

"If that's the case, I don't know why!" Han Sui asked, trying his best to explain.

Song Jian took a closer look and saw the word "Song" in the erased words. He asked again, "Why was the second detail written by Zhang Yu erased?"

"That's what I'm suspicious of!" Han Sui said, "Zhang Yuyan's letter of peace terms had four details, but for some reason one was erased, leaving only three of the four."

"When sending someone a letter to discuss a surrender, how could you be so careless as to alter the letter? Could it be that the letter was afraid that I would know the details, so it altered it first and doesn't want me to know the details." Song Jian said suspiciously.

Song Jian was suspicious without reason, and Han Sui was inconsolable. He said, "I'm afraid Zhang Yu sent it by mistake!"

"I do not believe!"

Song Jian stared at Han Sui's expression and said, "Zhang Yu is a vassal lord who controls two states. How could he make such a mistake?"

Because Song Jian was suspicious of Han Sui, the atmosphere in the tent suddenly became heavy. No one dared to breathe. The flickering candlelight seemed to hint at the unrest in the minds of Han Sui and Song Jian.

After a while, Han Sui, considering the overall situation, sighed and said, "I fought alongside Boli. I don't know why Boli was suspicious and why he didn't want to believe me."

Hearing this, Song Jian was speechless. The reason why he was suspicious of Han Sui was that he did not trust the cunning Han Sui. When they both rebelled against the court, Han Sui turned against them and killed people faster than turning the pages of a book. He did not dare to trust Han Sui.

Moreover, his situation was different from Han Sui's. He was arrogant and was on Zhang Yu's must-kill list, but Han Sui was different. Zhang Yu allowed him to surrender, and he was afraid that Han Sui would kill him and ask for peace with Zhang Yu. Therefore, when Song Jian learned that Zhang Yu avoided him and sent a letter to Han Sui alone, he could not help but have doubts, and now he came to meet Han Sui specially.

Han Sui was deep in thought. When Song Jian was silent, he immediately knew why Song Jian was suspicious of him, so he asked, "Does Boli suspect that I am the only one begging for surrender?"

After these words were spoken, Song Jian, for the sake of face, did not say much and just nodded.

Seeing this, Han Sui explained: "You and I are all the generals in Longshang as one. If I surrender alone and wait for Longyou to be pacified, I am afraid Zhang Yu will not tolerate me. Besides, I have already made a plan. If I cannot fight now, I will withdraw to Jincheng and occupy Zhang Yu with difficulty. So how can Bo Li doubt my intentions?"

Seeing that Han Sui's words were powerful and his attitude was sincere, Song Jian's doubts were temporarily dispelled.

"If Zhang Yu doesn't accept your and my surrender, the army will have to withdraw to Jincheng," Song Jian asked.

"Of course!"

Han Sui nodded slightly, and in order to unite Song Jian, he said: "If our army withdraws, Zhang Yu will lead his troops to pursue. At that time, I will leave elite troops to guard the rear, and you will retreat with me to Jincheng." "What about Ma Teng?" Song Jian asked.

Han Sui said: "We can only let Ma Teng retreat to Longxi County to avoid Zhang's army for the time being. When the winter snow comes, Zhang Yu's troops will be exhausted from the long journey and food and grass will be scarce. Now is the time for you and my army to make achievements!"

Han Sui had intended to let Song Jian stay behind in order to preserve his own strength. But now Song Jian was suspicious of him, so how could he be willing to stay behind? He could only trick others into staying behind, otherwise the army would be hard to withdraw.

"good!"

Although Jia Xu's letter did not cause Song Jian and Han Sui to kill each other, they had a rift in their hearts and could no longer work together to resist the enemy. While Zhang Yu was trying to alienate Song Jian and Han Sui, Ma Teng, who was leading the army alone in Weinan, was suspicious of Han Sui's intention to surrender to Zhang Yu.

Weinan, Ma Teng’s military camp.

Inside the big tent, Ma Teng put down the letter in his hand and said to his attendants, "I heard that Han Sui and Zhang Yu were discussing surrender, and now Zhang Yu has sent someone with a letter to ask for surrender. What do you think?"

Pang Rou pondered for a moment and said, "Zhang Yu cut off the Huachuan River, preventing the grain from Jincheng from being transported to Lueyang. Because our army is close to Longxi, we can still confront Generals Man Chong and Xu Huang. From the perspective of the situation, when the grain in Lueyang runs out, Han Sui will be defeated, so it is true that Han Sui and Zhang Yu will negotiate peace."

"If Han Sui surrenders, our army is weak and cannot defeat Zhang Yu. If we surrender to Zhang Yu now, we may be able to obtain high positions and titles. As for the military power, according to what Zhang Yu said, we can allow the general to keep 5,000 soldiers. This condition is acceptable!"

Ma Teng nodded. He was the son of a Qiang people and made a living by chopping wood. He joined the army not for the so-called justice of the Han Dynasty, but to make merit and kill the enemy, to stand out from the crowd, to marry and have children.

As for becoming a rebel and becoming an enemy of the imperial court, it was not his original intention. At that time, Li Can, the governor of Longxi, rebelled, and he followed him without knowing what was going on, and gradually became the leader of the rebels.

Now that Zhang Yu was marching west to Longyou, Ma Teng's inner thoughts were simple: if he could fight, he would fight; if he couldn't fight, he would surrender and make good use of himself.

"Father, the situation is still good now, why surrender to Zhang Yu?"

Seeing that Ma Teng was willing to surrender to Zhang Yu, Ma Chao said unwillingly: "Our army is not much weaker than Zhang Yu's. Although Han Sui is negotiating peace with Zhang Yu, there is no final conclusion. Han Sui said that if the peace talks fail, he will flee to Jincheng, and our army can escape to Longxi for refuge, taking the long and difficult journey to occupy Zhang Yu."

Ma Teng frowned slightly and said, "My father occupied the border between Longxi and Hanyang. If we lose the land and flee to Longxi, won't we give up our foundation to Zhang Yu? So it is better to surrender to Zhang Yu as soon as possible so that he can treat us well and reward us. Besides, Zhang Yu has taken control of Shanxi and is gradually showing signs of moving eastward like the Qin and Han dynasties. The Yuan brothers cannot tolerate him. Zhang Yu looks like a king!"

Ma Teng was from Fufeng, and compared with local tyrants like Han Sui and Song Jian, Ma Teng's foundation in Longyou was not strong. Therefore, for Ma Teng, he did not have a strong resistance mentality.

Ma Chao retorted, "Father, you ruled Longshang and commanded the troops. Isn't that impressive? But if you were to prostrate yourself before Zhang Yu, you would have to obey his orders and it would have been difficult for you to achieve your current success. Therefore, in my opinion, since the outcome is unknown, you should not surrender easily. You should buy time and wait and see the situation in Longyou. If Han Sui surrenders, you can then surrender to Zhang Yu."

Ma Chao was only twenty years old, full of youthful vigor. Unless it was due to the general trend, he would not willingly submit to Zhang Yu.

Ma Teng pondered for a long time, and agreed with Ma Chao's words. He said, "In this case, discuss surrender with Zhang Yu while observing the movement of Han Sui's troops. If the situation is unstoppable, we can surrender to Zhang Yu."

"promise!"

During the twenty days of September, Zhang Yu adopted Jia Xu's plan. He first made Song Jian and Han Sui suspicious of each other, and then used the letter written by Han Sui about surrender to make Ma Teng want to surrender. It can be said that the generals in Long had different minds, and few of them were willing to fight.

On September 18, Zhang Yu rejected Han Sui's conditions and closed off his guard to nourish Rui on the grounds that Han Sui was not sincere in his peace talks.

On the 21st, Han Sui saw through Zhang Yu's plan to kill time and wear him down with food and fodder. Considering the shortage of food and fodder in his own army, he left Yan Xing and Cheng Yi to lead 10,000 people to cover the rear. He, Song Jian, Yang Qianwan, Agui and others fled to Xingguo and Changli to find food, and then retreated to Jincheng.

At dawn, Han Sui led his troops to escape quickly, while Generals Yan Xing and Cheng Yi led their troops to cover the rear.

At noon, the news that Han Sui was withdrawing his troops due to lack of food and fodder was reported to Qin Ting's camp through scouts.

"Report!"

Hou rode his horse into the camp at full speed and walked quickly towards Zhang Yu, who was brushing his beloved horse.

"My Lord, the enemy troops in Lueyang are making unusual movements!"

The cavalry returned with a report: "The enemy burned down the barracks and moved northward from Hulu Valley, probably intending to move to Jincheng via Changlishui."

Hearing this, Zhang Yu was overjoyed. He patted his horse's back and laughed, "Han Sui, the old villain, has escaped. It is time for our army to pursue him!"

The white horse raised its head and neighed loudly, its voice was full of fighting spirit for the upcoming battle.

"Come here, tell all the generals to gather their troops and follow me to chase the enemy!"

"Order someone to go south to inform Man Chong that if Ma Teng leads his troops to retreat, there is no need to pursue him. Wait until I defeat Han Sui, then we can turn around and surround Ma Teng!"

"As ordered!"

Jia Xu reminded him, "My lord, Han Sui has a deep strategy. Hulu Valley is dangerous, so he must have left some elite troops behind. If you want to win a big victory, you may need to defeat the troops behind, and then you can pursue him."

Zhang Yu calmed down and said, "Han Sui ran away because his food ran out, not because he was defeated. It's not surprising that he left his elite troops behind. I am chasing him now to kill Han Sui and take Longyou in one fell swoop!"

(End of this chapter)