A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

After several days of standoff, Geshu Han finally received a reply from the imperial court.

Geshuhan looked at the imperial edict in his hand and sighed deeply.

If he hadn't been incapable of quickly and completely eliminating the rebels, things wouldn't have come to this.

With the same number of troops, he was confident he could annihilate the enemy, but it would take a considerable amount of time.

Maintaining such a large-scale military expenditure puts immense pressure on the imperial court and is also a huge burden on all the people in the two prefectures.

It is still a huge risk.

Moreover, if the imperial court suffers too many losses in this war, it could affect how other countries view the Tang Dynasty, making the current situation of the Tang Dynasty even worse.

"Someone, take this over there."

Geshuhan waved his hand, and a guard took the imperial edict from his hand and sent it out of the military camp through a special channel.

What was shocking was that the imperial edict was destined for the rebel army camp.

Soon, these rebels gathered at the tent of Du Hong, the military governor of Hedong.

"Old Du, has the imperial court sent a reply?"

Someone asked anxiously.

Du Hong nodded and took out a bright yellow imperial edict, which was sent by Geshu Han.

"By His Majesty's grace, if we surrender and assist the court in quelling Zhang Huai's rebellion, we will certainly not be spared death, but our families will not be implicated."

Upon hearing Du Hong's words, everyone in the tent breathed a sigh of relief.

Now that they have started a rebellion, they are destined not to live. The court will not allow the ringleaders of the rebellion to live, otherwise, wouldn't everyone follow suit?

But as long as their families are not implicated, they are content.

Although they are destined not to achieve great things due to their influence, it is enough as long as they can continue their lineage and not let their descendants die out.

"Everyone has seen Zhang Huai's behavior these past few days. Just because I talked back to him a few times, he wanted to beat me to death."

"If we continue to follow Zhang Huai, we will only face death if we are defeated."

"Even if Zhang Huai wins against the imperial court, we are still doomed."

"It's just a matter of whether he dies at the hands of the imperial court or Zhang Huai."

"Everyone, if anyone wants to withdraw, it's not too late."

"Everyone is just trying to make a living, and I will not stop them."

As soon as Du Hong finished speaking, someone immediately echoed his words.

"Zhang Huai has gone too far! My troops have all been absorbed. I want him dead! I want him to witness his overwhelming advantage being squandered! I want him to die in regret!"

"Me too. My trusted and beloved general, just because he was loyal to me and refused to submit to him, was sent to the front lines to die. When his body was brought back, it was covered in arrows, and he died with his eyes wide open!"

Everyone was filled with righteous indignation, and they gritted their teeth when they mentioned Zhang Huai's actions during this period.

During this period, Zhang Huai relied on his control of the army to continuously suppress these people and weaken their influence on the alliance.

He was willing to do almost anything to achieve this, and he schemed against everyone present.

Seeing the indignation on everyone's faces and the genuine hatred in their eyes, Du Hong felt extremely satisfied and let go of his murderous intent.

He said that those who didn't want to participate could leave, but in reality, to prevent leaks, anyone who didn't participate would never be able to leave his tent.

"Then it's agreed that one day from now, at three-quarters of a minute, we will act together, using the white cloth tied to our left sleeves as a signal, to coordinate with the imperial court from within and without, and jointly attack Zhang Huai!"

All the military governors nodded in agreement and, without disturbing anyone, returned to their respective tents through the secret passages that had been painstakingly dug out in recent days.

But Huang Ce still noticed their little tricks.

Huang Ce shook his head and did not tell Zhang Huai about it.

He'll just stay here and die with Zhang Huai; as for the rest, he'll just give up.

Silent all night.

At noon, as agreed upon by Geshu Han and the other military governors, the imperial court urgently dispatched a large army to launch a pincer attack on the rebels from all directions.

Zhang Huai quickly mobilized troops and generals to guard the four directions.

But he was only one person, and with Huang Ce, there were only two of them. Facing the Tang army attacking from all directions, he was no match for them. He had no choice but to reluctantly hand over command of the army to other military governors with whom he had a slightly better relationship, and order them to go to other directions to meet the enemy.

These military governors bowed their heads to obey orders, mostly to conceal the glint in their eyes.

After gaining military power, these military governors allowed the Tang army to enter according to their respective plans.

At the same time, Hai Zhong and his troops tied white cloth strips around their necks and charged towards Zhang Huai with the Tang army.

Zhang Huai was surrounded by enemies on all sides, including Tang troops and rebel armies of various military governors.

"You betrayed me!"

Zhang Huai's eyes were wide open, as if they were about to burst.

These good-for-nothings in his eyes actually dared to betray him!

Damn!

These people all deserve to die!

He shouldn't have listened to Huang Ce and let them go; he should have killed them one by one according to his own ideas!

Just then, Huang Ce arrived with his troops to provide reinforcements, and Zhang Huai sneered:

"Look at these people you suggested protecting, they're all ingrates."

Huang Ce remained silent upon hearing this. "General, now is not the time to talk about this. Let's break through first."

Zhang Huai snorted and nodded. He needed people right now. Although Huang Ce was a bit useless, he was loyal. Even now, he didn't doubt that Huang Ce had betrayed him.

"I still have 8 troops in Yunzhong and Zhenbei City. As long as I go back, I can make a comeback!"

As Zhang Huai thought to himself, his eyes turned extremely fierce, like a vicious dog driven to the brink of despair.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Zhang Huai and Huang Ce led their elite cavalry guards and charged northward.

They gathered many defeated soldiers along the way and marched north with them.

By this time, the various military governors had also discovered Zhang Huai's escape. Naturally, they were unwilling to let go of the culprit who had brought them to this predicament, and they all issued orders: "The one wearing the red cloak is Zhang Huai! Whoever kills Zhang Huai will be rewarded with a thousand gold pieces and promoted three ranks!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Huai looked around and realized that he was indeed the only one wearing a red cloak, a symbol of his status as the leader of the alliance. Now, he had no choice but to reluctantly give it up.

Zhang Huai took off his red robe and handed it to a guard beside him, ordering him to put it on to attract the pursuers.

After the guards did as instructed, they were quickly captured by the Tang army. Upon seeing that it was not Zhang Huai, the allied forces continued to shout, "The one with the long beard is Zhang Huai!"

"The soldiers all shouted in unison, 'The one with the long beard is Zhang Huai!'"

Zhang Huai was shocked and reluctantly stroked his long beard, which was his most prized possession. Although it couldn't compare to the magnificent beard of the man from before, it was still among the top three he had ever seen.

But now, for the sake of his own life, Zhang Huai had no choice but to reluctantly cut off his long beard.