I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 736: Famous General's Ingenious Strategy to Defeat the Enemy
A strategy of being surrounded by enemies on all sides?

Huangfu Li finally understood what his uncle meant when he heard it.

In the past, when Xiang Yu was trapped at Gaixia, the Han army was afraid that the enemy would fight to the death and both sides would suffer losses, so they ordered the soldiers to sing Chu songs on all sides, which made the Chu army feel homesick and worried about the loss of Chu land. Their morale was low and their fighting spirit was weakened, which eventually led to the defeat of Xiang Yu.

Now, facing the last remnants of Dong Zhuo's army who were defending Meiwu, Huangfu Song decided to use the same old trick again.

In particular, nearly half of his army were Western Liang warriors brought by the Li brothers who revolted in Chang'an City. Most of them were from the same hometown as the defenders here, which made it perfect for the implementation of this strategy.

Huangfu Song immediately called over the brothers Li Ying and Li Li, former generals under Dong Zhuo, and asked them about the situation of the two garrisons and the city defense.

"General, the commander in the city is Yang Ding, a general under Dong's command."

"Yang Ding?"

Huangfu Song frowned slightly when he heard this, and he couldn't remember this person's origin at all.

This is no wonder, because of Su Yao's activeness, not only Dong Zhuo's relatives and high-ranking officials such as Niu Fu, Li Ru and Dong Min were all killed in the battle, but even the remnants of Dong Zhuo such as Li Jue and Guo Si who were supposed to have caused chaos in Chang'an after Dong Zhuo's defeat were all killed by Su Yao.

Yang Ding, a general under Guo Si who had served as General Zhennan and General Anxi during the reigns of Li Jue and Guo Si, was now one of the few remaining senior generals in Dong Zhuo's army.

However, even so, when Dong Zhuo was alive, he was just a young general who was not qualified to be recognized by Huangfu Song.

"Although this man is not a famous general, as far as I know, he is also a fierce general under the command of the thief Dong."

Li Ying reminded:
"He is a brave man and is loyal to the thief Dong. The fact that he was sent by the thief Dong to guard the Meiwu lair is proof of that."

Huangfu Song nodded to show his understanding:
"Dong the thief rose to prominence through military exploits. He has many brave warriors from Xiliang under his command. There are countless brave men like him. He should not be underestimated."

"But no one is perfect. Who can be without mistakes? Since Yang Ding did not show his true colors before, it is obvious that he has his shortcomings."

"What is his personality like? Does he have any weaknesses? Do you know?"

"The general is wise!"

Just as Li Ying was hesitating, Li Li added:

"Although Yang Ding is loyal and brave, he has more courage than wisdom."

"He has a straightforward character, is easily impulsive, and is greedy and lustful. When he was under Guo Si's command, he had conflicts with my brother Li Jue's troops over the ownership of the spoils. If Dong the thief and Guo Si had not blindly protected us, we would have killed him long ago."

Huangfu Song heard this, and a gleam of light flashed in his eyes:
"It is difficult for a greedy and lustful person to have the courage to sacrifice his own life. Yang Ding's character is a good breakthrough point."

Immediately, Huangfu Song ordered the implementation of the strategy of conquering the hearts and minds of the people and persuading them to surrender.

He first calmly set up camp around Meiwu, and sent out small troops every day to call for surrender under the city, while shooting letters of surrender into the city with arrows.

In the letter of persuasion for surrender, Huangfu Song did not pedantically denounce Dong Zhuo's evil deeds and hope that he would mend his ways, but instead put himself in their shoes and planned a way out for the future.

He first described in detail how Dong Zhuo was defeated and died, saying that the Champion Marquis was unstoppable in winning every battle, and that the general trend of the world was unstoppable, and those who followed it would prosper and those who went against it would perish.

Now that Dong Zhuo has surrendered and been killed, his power has collapsed, the overall situation in the world has been determined, and the general trend is irreversible. Continuing to resist is futile.

Immediately afterwards, Huangfu Song made it clear that the court's plan to kill Dong Zhuo and attack Meiwu was only aimed at Dong Zhuo's relatives. As long as the defenders in the city were willing to surrender, the court would forgive their past and spare their lives, and give them corresponding resettlement and rewards based on their performance.

For those ordinary soldiers, Huangfu Song guaranteed that they would be pardoned. Soldiers willing to continue serving in the army would be incorporated into new troops. Those who wanted to go home would be allowed to go and given travel expenses, allowing them to return to their hometowns, reunite with their families, and start a new life.

As for the generals, Huangfu Song also promised that as long as they were willing to open the city and surrender, not only would they be allowed to retain their original positions, but they would also be rewarded and allowed to continue leading troops to serve the Han Dynasty and make achievements.

Huangfu Song's letter of surrender was sincere in words and clear in logic. It not only demonstrated the court's tolerance and magnanimity, but also clearly pointed out the serious consequences of continued resistance. It was very persuasive.

Once discovered by the defenders, it immediately caused an uproar among the soldiers.

"Dong Gong is dead?"

"How can this be?"

"What should we do now?"

In Meiwu City, people from all sides were talking about the situation and were very nervous.

There was no way. Dong Zhuo was defeated too quickly. They had just received a letter from Dong Zhuo a few days ago, asking them to vacate rooms and space in preparation for the arrival of the army.

Who would have thought that in just a few days, the troops at the gate of the city were actually troops from the imperial court, and their leader was the famous general Huangfu Song.

However, the most feared people in the city are the Dong clan members who were settled here.

They didn't expect that the adult and promising members of the Dong family would be wiped out, and now their only support is the defending general Yang Ding.

So, after learning about the situation, the Dong clan members swarmed in, blocked Yang Ding’s door and wailed:
"Captain Yang, Mr. Dong treated you well in the past, you can't just abandon us!"

"Yes, yes!"

"We have thirty years' worth of food here. As long as we hold on, we will follow Captain Yang's lead. The captain can take all the money, food and women for himself!"

Yang Ding sat in the hall, frowning, listening to the cries and pleas of the Dong clan members, his face gloomy. He knew very well that the current situation was extremely unfavorable to him. Dong Zhuo's defeat was like a bolt from the blue, catching him off guard. As a general under Dong Zhuo, his current situation had become extremely dangerous.

For a moment, Yang Ding wanted to surrender.

However, it must be said that money can attract people and power can dazzle people.

He was originally just a Sima of an individual department, but now he was promoted to a colonel for defending Meiwu. After Dong Zhuo's death, he became the pillar of the entire city.

According to the Dong clan members, as long as he was willing to defend the city, all the Dong family's money and women would belong to him.

This is obviously much higher than the price offered by the court.

Didn't he fight for his life on the battlefield just to enjoy himself? Now he can be a local emperor in this city for decades, which is also a good thing.

The only question is whether he can hold Meiwu.

Yang Ding is still very confident about this issue. The attackers are no more than 3,000 people, and although his defenders have only 2,000 soldiers, it can be said that it is easy to deal with it considering the advantages of defending the city.

However, Yang Ding could not be completely sure that he could rely on these two thousand people to hold out for decades.

However, it is absolutely impossible for him to give up the wealth and glory in front of him easily.

So, while Yang Ding tried to appease the Dong clan members and took the opportunity to hold power in his hands, he also secretly sent people out of the city to negotiate and raise the price in the hope of gaining greater benefits.

Not to mention being appointed a general and given a title of nobility, at least all the money in Meiwu City will belong to him.

It would be best if he could be sent to another place and become a prefect.

Yang Ding was not interested in being a high-ranking official in the imperial court. It was enough for him to be a local emperor and live a carefree life.

Therefore, in the first negotiation, Yang Ding made a very high demand. Not only did he want to retain his army and territory and strive for a position of powerful lord, he also wanted to protect the Dong family members, which was considered as doing his best for his benefactor.

However, not to mention that neither Su Yao nor the court could accept such unreasonable conditions, Huangfu Song himself had built many Jingguans and hated evil, so how could he easily let go of the remnants of Dong's evil?

Therefore, Huangfu Song neither refused nor agreed, but asked the Li brothers to send the old soldiers of the Xiliang Army into the city to continue the negotiations. Instead of pretending to be nice, he stepped up the arrangement of his own strategy.

In this way, Yang Ding, who was unaware of the situation, and Huangfu Song's envoys went back and forth, haggling over every detail, and the negotiations alone lasted seven or eight days.

"its not right!"

"Captain Yang, I think we should just get close."

"If this continues, the situation will not be good."

Faced with the advice of his confidants, Yang Ding was upset.

The long negotiations almost exhausted his patience, but he didn't want to lower his treatment.

As a result, when Yang Ding was hesitating, Huangfu Song, who was fully prepared, rejected all his requests in one breath.

"Tell Yang Ding that the court's patience is limited."

Huangfu Song said coldly to the messenger who came to deliver the message:

"If he truly surrenders, the court will give him resettlement and rewards as promised. But if he is greedy and continues to resist, what awaits him will be the iron hoof of the court army!"

After listening to the envoy's report, Yang Ding's face was so gloomy that water could drip out of it. He didn't expect that Huangfu Song would be so disrespectful and dare to fool him!
"Fight if you want! I don't believe that you can capture Meiwu City with such a small number of troops!"

Yang Ding decided to use fighting to promote negotiations. He wanted to teach Huangfu Song a lesson in the battle to defend the city, so that he would be difficult to deal with and would offer higher conditions.

However, he did not expect that his previous wavering attitude had set a very bad example.

Since Yang Ding himself was willing to negotiate and only used the Meiwu and Dong clans as bargaining chips, he did not crack down on the surrender letters sent by Huangfu Song into the city.

As a result, while he was secretly negotiating these days, Huangfu Song did not stop his plan of being surrounded by enemies on all sides, and the influence of the letter of persuasion for surrender was spreading more and more in the city.

Moreover, it is not just a letter of persuasion to surrender.

Li Ying, Li Li and other surrendered generals have organized a group of Xiliang fellow villagers to call for surrender under the city every day, sing songs of their hometown every night, and denounce Yang Ding for disregarding the lives of his fellow villagers and only pursuing his own selfish interests.

When they learned that the negotiations between the two sides had broken down, many defenders in the city were so angry that they cursed Yang Ding for being shameless. They even put down their hanging baskets at night and fled to Huangfu Song's camp.

The solid defense of Meiwu City was torn open by Huangfu Song without any effort.

The situations between the enemy and us are different.

At this time, Yang Dingcai finally realized that he had been tricked.

He was angry and anxious, and suddenly he panicked.

However, the development of the situation can no longer be controlled by him
(End of this chapter)