Three Kingdoms: Wolong's brother-in-law, tricking Liu Bei into seizing Jingzhou

Chapter 441: How can such a stingy person lure you to surrender? Treating me like a beast of burden, and wanting me to be cannon fodder? Naive!

Liu Bei smiled.

Xiao Fang's meaning could not be clearer. Xun You, you want to pretend to surrender, so I will take advantage of you.

First, let Guo Huai start an uprising, then let our army enter the city and capture Jinyang in one fell swoop.

Afterwards, I will set up an ambush with heavy troops outside the north gate, waiting for your 50,000 troops to come and fall into my trap.

The 50,000 Qin troops were completely wiped out, Jinyang was captured, and the entire Bingzhou was recovered by the Han Dynasty.

The battle to capture Bingzhou ended perfectly with a complete victory!

"Snapped!"

Liu Bei stood up and said happily:

"Okay, let's follow the Prime Minister's plan."

"Go back and tell Guo Boji to follow my plan, and he will be the first minister to help me recover Jinyang!"

The confidant in black was overjoyed and hurriedly knelt to receive the imperial edict.

So Liu Bei personally wrote a letter to praise and appease Guo Huai for his surrender, and ordered his confidant in black to return to the city immediately to report.

Following Liu Bei's orders, he mobilized troops from various camps to prepare for the complete annihilation of Cao Ren's troops.

...

Jinyang, within the provincial capital.

Xun You also got Liu Bei's handwritten reply and presented it to Cao Ren.

At this moment, Cao Ren was flipping through Liu Bei's handwritten letter, and the excitement on his face became more and more intense.

In the letter, Liu Bei expressed his satisfaction with Xun You's surrender, and left the position of Nine Ministers vacant for him.

Liu Bei also promised that he would treat the Xun family equally as he treated other scholarly families and would not suppress or treat them coldly.

As long as you are a descendant of the Xun family and pass the imperial examinations, you will be appointed as an official and serve the Han Dynasty.

"The Xun family is the most prestigious family in the world, and in our Great Qin, it is a top-class family of scholars, and everyone can be an official."

"Such a noble family, in his pseudo-Han country, still has to take part in some imperial examinations and pass them before they can become officials!"

"The big-eared thief is really ridiculous. He thinks that he can lure you, Gongda, to join him with such a shabby promise. It's really ridiculous!"

Cao Ren's excited expression was mixed with a sneer of sarcasm, and he made a series of sarcastic and contemptuous comments.

Xun You also raised a hint of sarcasm at the corner of his mouth.

Cao Ren's sarcasm hit the nail on the head.

The imperial examination system of the Han Dynasty was one of the reasons why he was unwilling to return to Han.

Uncle Xun Yu opposed Cao Cao's abolition of the Han Dynasty and his enthronement as emperor, but he did not oppose Cao Cao's Nine-Rank System.

In Xun Yu's eyes, the most ideal situation was that Cao Cao would implement the Nine-Rank System throughout the country while respecting the Han Dynasty.

In this way, the emperor became a figurehead, nominally the ruler of the world, but in reality all the power of the court was handed over to the scholar families.

The emperor was a figurehead, Cao Cao was the prime minister with real power, and they shared power with the scholars and ruled the world together.

This is the ideal world envisioned by Xun Yu, which just forms a three-party balance.

In this way, we can avoid the emergence of incompetent rulers like Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling, who would have triggered the Party and Faction Persecution Disaster, caused chaos in the country and made the people live in misery.

Unfortunately, Cao Cao did not think so. He insisted on kicking out the Han emperor, the figurehead, and becoming the emperor himself. Moreover, he wanted to be not only a figurehead, but a real emperor with real power.

In this way, the Qin State became a country where the emperor and the scholars jointly ruled the world, and could only achieve a balance between the two sides.

Because of different ideals, Xun Yu died.

But Xun You and the Xun family support the current situation.

After all, under the nine-rank official system, top families like the Xun family got the biggest piece of the pie. Dozens of Xun family members in Qin State held high positions from the imperial court to the local level.

But if he defected to Liu Bei, he would no longer have such preferential treatment.

If you want to be an official, you can only take the imperial examination. Only if you pass can you become an official. If you fail, you can only stay at home.

Xun You naturally had confidence that even without fame or qualifications, he could still climb to a high position in the new dynasty relying solely on his own abilities.

The Three Dukes might be in jeopardy, but the Nine Ministers are definitely out of the question.

He also believed that there were many outstanding descendants in the Xun family who had real talents and could pass the imperial examinations and become officials.

The problem is that there are so many descendants of Xun family, not all of them are well-read, and there are also many who are just for show.

There is a high probability that they will never be able to pass the imperial examination in their lifetime, which means that they will never be able to become officials in this lifetime.

What to do with these people?
Compared with the "cruelness" of the Nine-Rank System, in the Qin State under the Nine-Rank System, even those incompetents among the descendants of Xun could still become officials by relying on their family's influence.

Compared with Han and Qin, being loyal to Qin was obviously most beneficial to most people in the Xun family.

Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Xun You naturally had to do his best to defend the Qin State.

To defend the Qin State is to defend the interests of the Xun family.

Cao Ren certainly understood the pros and cons, which is why he made such sarcastic remarks about Liu Bei just now.

"From what we can see so far, Yang Dezuo's plan of feigning surrender has indeed been successful."

"After three days, Liu Bei will most likely gather a large number of troops outside the South Gate, waiting for me to seize the gate and let him into the city. The troops surrounding the North Gate will definitely be empty."

"General Hussar, prepare yourselves quickly and break out through the north gate."

After hearing Xun You's judgment, Cao Ren laughed and immediately ordered all the generals to make secret preparations for the breakout.

"General Huqi, there is another extremely important matter that needs to be arranged."

Yang Xiu suddenly spoke.

Cao Ren hurriedly asked what was going on.

"After three days, if there is no mutiny in the city and no one opens the South Gate for the Han army, Liu Bei will definitely be alert. I am afraid he will immediately launch an attack on the South Gate."

"So we still need to deploy a troop at the South Gate to block Liu Bei's attack on the city and buy as much time as possible for our main force to break out."

Yang Xiu's reminder made Cao Ren suddenly realize his mistake, and his eyes immediately swept over the generals present.

The generals lowered their heads, intentionally avoiding Cao Ren's gaze, fearing that they would be chosen to guard the south gate. Everyone knew that they would face Liu Bei's heavy troops attacking the city, and if they could not withdraw in time, they would most likely die at the south gate.

This is a life-threatening mission, almost a cannon fodder mission.

We are not stupid, so who would be willing to be cannon fodder?

When Cao Ren saw that no one volunteered, his face darkened, so he raised his hand and appointed someone himself.

"General Huqi, I am willing to take on this important task and cover the rear of our main force!"

At the critical moment, a young general stepped forward and volunteered.

The one who asked for battle was Guo Huai.

Cao Ren was overjoyed and a look of approval appeared on his face, but at the same time, he glanced at Le Jin, Zhu Ling and others with disappointment.

You old guys are all veterans of the Cao family, but at the critical moment you all cherish your lives and act like cowards.

Look at Guo Huai, he is so young and has only surrendered to the Qin Dynasty for a few days, but he can still risk his life at the moment of life and death.

Don’t you feel embarrassed?
Le Jin, Zhu Ling and the others all felt ashamed. Some coughed and howled, and some turned their heads away.

"Guo Boji, I was not wrong about you. You are indeed a loyal and courageous person!"

Cao Ren stood up and stepped forward, patting Guo Huai's shoulder heavily:

"I will leave the important task of stopping the big-eared thief to you. You must buy as much time as possible for my main force!"

"I will send you a signal with smoke signals. Once the smoke signals rise outside the north gate, you will lead your troops to join us immediately."

"If we can successfully break through this time, you and Yang Dezu will both be listed as the top contributors. I will definitely ask the emperor to reward you generously and promote you!"

Cao Ren gave earnest advice and made big promises.

Guo Huai bowed his hands and said righteously:

"As a general of the Qin Dynasty, it is my unshirkable responsibility to serve the Qin Dynasty with loyalty and die for it!"

"Please rest assured, General Huoqi, I will fight for you to hold Liu Bei back even at the cost of my life!"

Cao Ren was very satisfied. He patted Guo Huai on the shoulder and praised him highly.

...

Three days later, at nightfall.

Cao Ren stood on the ruined north gate tower, holding his sword, staring at the Han army camp not far away.

This city wall is already crumbling. If the Han army bombards it for five more days at most, the entire wall will surely collapse.

"General, my fifty thousand soldiers have been assembled. Time is running out. Let's break out of the city as soon as possible."

Le Jin climbed up to the top of the city wall to report.

Cao Ren did not respond, but raised his hand and pointed to the North Camp:

"Gongda, Dezu, do you think the big-eared thieves really fell into the trap and moved their main forces to the south gate? Is the enemy camp in the north really empty of troops?"

When the arrow was almost on the string, Cao Ren suddenly felt guilty again.

Xun You looked into the distance at the Han camp, but was unable to give him a definite answer to reassure him.

"Don't worry, General Huoqi. There are only 10,000 soldiers and horses in the northern camp at most. The big-eared thief must have fallen into the trap!"

Yang Xiu beside him was firm and resolute.

Cao Ren looked surprised and turned around to ask:
"Dezu, how can you be sure that there are only 10,000 soldiers in the enemy camp?"

Yang Xiu raised his hand and pointed at the Han camp, sneering:

"In fact, as early as when the General of the Cavalry decided to break out, Xiu carefully observed the enemy camp in the north and counted the number of smoke from cooking fires above the Han camp."

"The number of smoke columns above the enemy camp today is more than double that of the previous few days. From this, we can infer that the number of Han troops in the North Camp has been reduced by at least 20,000 to 30,000."

“That’s why Xiu dared to conclude that the number of Han troops in the North Camp was the largest, at most more than 10,000.”

Cao Ren suddenly understood, and the doubt on his face disappeared, turning into surprise and admiration.

"That's it, that's it!"

"I didn't expect that you, Dezu, are so thoughtful that you could come up with such a method to judge the enemy's strength!"

"Okay, okay, I'm relieved now. A mere 10,000 Han soldiers can't stop my 50,000 strong army!"

After praising Yang Xiu, Cao Ren did not hesitate any longer and happily said:

"Pass on my order. Open the city gates and lower the drawbridge!"

"All soldiers, follow me and charge out of the north gate!"

"Let's break out to Yanmen!"

The order was passed down.

The tightly closed and dilapidated city gate opened quietly and the drawbridge was slowly lowered.

Cao Ren rode out on his horse, followed closely by Xun You and Yang Xiu.

Le Jin, Zhu Ling and other generals urged 50,000 troops to rush out of the city gate like a tide and rush towards the brightly lit Han camp.

now.

On the top of the South Gate, Guo Huai also stood with his sword in hand, staring towards the North Gate.

The sound of horse hooves was heard, and a rider came galloping and climbed onto the city wall.

"General, Cao Ren has led the main force out of the north gate and is heading for the Han army's northern camp!"

Guo Huai's eyes moved slightly, he let out a light breath, and turned to look outside the city.

"Cao Ren, you regard the lives of my people from Bingzhou as worthless, so don't blame me, Guo Huai, for abandoning your Cao family!"

Guo Huai snorted coldly, drew his sword, and shouted:

"Light the beacon fires, open the city gates, and welcome the Han army into the city!"

(End of this chapter)