,!
Gao Xiang led the crowd to Liu Zhang's house. Many soldiers followed him along the way. More than a hundred people walked all the way to the house. In the eyes of the city residents, these more than a hundred people were very powerful, but Gao Xiang knew in his heart that to the Han army outside the city, they were just a drop in the ocean. Before and after he arrived at the house, he left most of the people behind and only entered the temple with a dozen of his close followers wearing armor.
Seeing that Liu Zhang and more than a dozen government officials were resting with His Highness, he felt annoyed, so he bowed in the middle with his hands, and then said: "Your Majesty, Chen Shi and I led our troops out of the city to fight fiercely, and we made many gains. But the enemy cavalry came to outflank them. , we and other soldiers fought in a bloody battle, and most of them were killed or injured. I seemed to have broken through the siege, and I dare to ask you to envoy if you die. If you want to defend the city, you should use all your wealth to reward the soldiers! And send out another envoy to order Dong He's troops to go north quickly. !”
Liu Zhang knew about the defeat, but all his belongings had been transferred to Wu Yi, and he had nothing more to use. He could only say secretly: "In this case, I can only borrow one or two on credit first." Then he had to write again. Asking for a letter for help, his servants quickly arranged for him paper and pen, but Liu Zhang waved his hand, tore off a piece of silk cloth from his robe, bit his index finger, and wrote a bloody letter on the silk book. Everyone saw this and was shocked and sad for a moment. After Liu Zhang finished writing, he handed the silk cloth to Gao Xiang and asked him to find some soldiers who dared to die and risked their lives out of the city from the branches of the river in the west of the city. There are only a few words on the silk book: "I will bear death to wait for you, and it will be over!"
When Gao Xiang saw this, he couldn't criticize Liu Zhang too much. He kowtowed in a hurry and left the house.
It was late at night, and the palace was getting colder and colder. Many people had sneaked away, and Liu Zhang slowly fell asleep in anxiety and exhaustion. Slowly the east turned white, and the sound of the Han army's siege in the west of the city gradually faded away. Suddenly a burst of noise came from outside the mansion. Liu Zhang opened his eyes and glanced around. Only three or four government officials were still around. The one close to him on the left was Liu Ba, and on the right was Peng Yi who had just arrived. There were a few Cangtou clearing away debris in front of the door.
The noise soon spread to the house. Liu Zhang saw Wu Yi's son Wu Yun running up with disheveled hair in a military uniform. His heart skipped a beat, thinking that there must be bad news, so he had to force himself to calm down, sit up and wait.
Wu Yun ran and cried all the way. He knelt down in the hall and cried out sadly: "Your Majesty, my father was stabbed in the heart by the loss. He has been seriously injured and is unconscious!"
Liu Zhang was shocked when he heard this. Wu Yi could be said to be the backbone of the entire Mianzhu. If something unexpected happened to him, how would the soldiers and people of Mianzhu defend themselves against the enemy? Therefore, he quickly shouted to Cang Tou: "Go and call Dr. Meng! If you can't cure General Wu, I will hold him accountable!"
Unexpectedly, Wu Yun seemed to have something to say, hesitating and hesitating, looking very embarrassed. Liu Zhang was very impatient when he saw this. He slapped the table eucalyptus, knocking over the wine cup, and shouted: " If you have anything to say, say it quickly! Is there anything bigger than your father’s life?!”
Wu Yun then kowtowed and said in a low voice: "Let me tell you, the young master was beside my family at that time. He was also shot by Chuan Chuan. An arrow penetrated his right chest. He died on the spot."
When Liu Zhang heard such bad news, his eyes suddenly turned black. He hurriedly held on to the beam on the side and confirmed in disbelief: "What did you say? Say it again." Wu Yun repeated it loudly and said to Liu Zhang: " Although the young master is dead, you must hold on, Commander..." As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Zhang was heard falling to the ground, and it turned out that he was already unconscious.
When Liu Zhang woke up again, it was already broad daylight. At this time, Liu Xun was dead and the news that Wu Yi was seriously injured had spread throughout the city. The whole city was in shock, and everyone who heard it was frightened. Without the general, the morale of the army was severely damaged. Even though it was breakfast time, grey-brown gloomy clouds and mist shrouded the sky above Jiangling, and people had no intention of cooking. But looking at the many Han military camps outside the city, they were already in smoke. On a new day, a new round of siege will begin.
At this time, Liu Zhang was surrounded by dozens of government officials. Seeing that he was awake, the government officials came forward to greet Liu Zhang one after another, and advised Liu Zhang to mourn, and then pretended to discuss the next matters of defending the city. Unexpectedly, Liu Zhang got up. Afterwards, he rubbed his eyes, and then said in a tone of voice that was more sorrowful than heartbreaking: "No need to say more, I am determined to surrender to Kaicheng."
Everyone was stunned. Liu Ba persuaded Liu Zhang: "Your Majesty, we have been guarding for ten days now. Dong He's troops will arrive soon. If we hold on for more than ten days at most, His Highness will also arrive. How can we stay here?" If you give up at this juncture, what if you fail in your efforts?"
Liu Zhang waved his hands and said secretly: "In the past, when I followed my father and brother after their death, I only took care of my leisure time and did not know the sufferings of the people. But today, after I lost my son, I know how cruel the war is, and why should the people in the city suffer like this?" ? Besides, now that Hanzhong and Brazil have been lost, what's the use of holding on to Mianzhu? The country will be destroyed sooner or later, so there's no need to force it."
When Liu Ba and others heard this, they didn't know how to answer.
Then Liu Zhang said: "Although my brother has met people, he is only one person after all. He wants to use a corner of Bashu to map the world, plunder the emperor in the front, and plot Jiangdong in the back. It can be said that he has exhausted his plans, but in fact it is a left-right branch. Clumsy. This may be God’s fault, but it probably cannot be undone by manpower.”
Having said this, he paused and then said with a smile: "Besides, I heard that there are quite a few Shu people in the Longshou Army. It shows that he really won't make things difficult for you. Why do you have to stop me?" The government officials were even more helpless. Enough to say.
On the same day, Liu Zhang asked Liu Ba to write a letter of surrender in his mansion of more than 300 words. After writing it, he personally considered the words, deleted the redundant parts, and left more than two hundred words, and then asked Liu Ba to copy it again.
When they heard that Liu Zhang planned to surrender, all the officers and soldiers in the city were extremely depressed. Gao Xiang, Fan You and others also ignored etiquette and entered the house with their trusted soldiers and swords, and they all knelt on the ground. Liu Ba was copying the surrender when he saw the warriors coming in with swords. He was frightened and stopped writing to look at Liu Zhang. Peng Yi, who was present, was relatively calm and asked the warriors, "What are your plans for entering without orders?"
Gao Xiang bowed his head with a knife on one knee and said: "If you want to surrender, where will you put your highness? I will risk my life to advise you. If you think the city cannot be defended, we can burn the grain and fodder and use the remaining soldiers to leave the city in the chaos." , The thief will not take precautions, and when he goes to Jiangzhou to seek refuge with His Highness, there is still the possibility of turning defeat into victory!"
Liu Zhang has never been able to ride a horse, and he has always avoided the issue of traveling, so Liu Fan left him to take charge of Mianzhu. At this moment, asking him to fight his way out of the siege under military escort sounded absurd. He thought for a while, then shook his head and said: "I am not comfortable riding a horse, and the people besieging the city are northerners who are good at riding. They will definitely not succeed. They will die or be captured. It will only increase the humiliation. I have made up my mind, and you don't need to persuade me any more." .If you feel sorry for my brother, come here and kill me with one knife, and then continue to defend the city."
Having said that, the other soldiers had nothing to say and could only quietly retreat outside the mansion. Liu Zhang chose an envoy and asked him to present a letter of surrender.
As soon as the envoy left Wangchun Gate and could not walk more than a mile, he was immediately captured by Han soldiers and taken to Chen Chong's camp in the middle of the camp. The envoy knelt on the ground, handed over Liu Zhang's letter of surrender, and handed it to Chen Chong. Chen Chong was overjoyed when he got the letter. He smiled at the soldiers around him and said, "We're done, all we have to do is wait for Liu Fan!" He immediately ordered the whole army to know. Soon after, all the camps of the Han army were shouting for joy, and the sound of whistles and whistles could be heard endlessly. Chen Chong immediately ordered the camp to be abandoned outside Wangchun Gate, and at the same time ordered the envoy to go back with a message, asking Liu Zhang to leave the city and enter the camp by himself.
At midnight the next day, Mianzhu's Wangchun door quietly opened. Looking inside from the open city gate, it was empty and there was not a single person in sight. Attracted by this, the Han army officers and soldiers flocked to the east and west wings of the city gate with noisy crowds. Countless people crowded in the dark, vying to see the grand occasion of Liu Zhang surrendering and Chen Chong taking over Mianzhu. There was an open space in the middle that led directly to Chen Chong's camp. Countless military flags were flying in front of the camp. Chen Chong and other generals gathered here, waiting to accept the surrender.
Not long after, two shadows, one large and one small, appeared at the city gate. It turned out to be an old man in front, leading a horse. Liu Zhang, dressed in white, tied his hands, tried to sit upright on the horse, facing the crowd. The only way left to go.
When the officers and soldiers of the Han army saw Liu Zhang in white clothes and white horses coming out of the city to surrender, they burst into cheers and threw their hats into the air. The whistle from the north was extremely harsh, and the horse couldn't bear to hear it and became restless. Fortunately, the old man in front held the reins hard to train the horse, otherwise it would have started running away.
But this only happened for a moment. Soon a horse ran out of the camp and shouted back and forth to the soldiers on both sides: "The Prime Minister has an order! Silence! Silence! The whole army is silent!" It was Chen Chong who heard this. Orders, the noise of the sergeants seemed to be strangled by some force, and gradually there was only the sound of bamboo leaves swaying in the autumn wind.
Then the knight arrived in front of Liu Zhang and walked side by side with him. Liu Zhang discovered that this man was actually Li Hui. Li Hui was also a little shy and turned his head away from him, but still whispered: "The Prime Minister knows that this embarrass you, but in order to boost the morale of the army, I have to listen."
Soon, the two horses arrived in front of Chen Chong and others. When Liu Zhang got off the horse, Chen Chong personally untied his hands, and then smiled and said, "Why is Ji Yu so late?" Liu Zhang did not dare to look up at Chen Chong. He only replied: "I'm afraid I won't be able to see my father and brother." Chen Chong knew that his heart was heavy, so he patted him on the shoulder and said, "I have nothing to do with you. Let's finish it today. I will send you to Chang'an tomorrow."
In the past few days, Chen Chong was under great pressure. The scouts in the southwest said that Dong He's army in Nanzhong had rushed to Nanguang and would be able to enter Shu County within a few days. The scouts in the southeast also said that Liu Fan The vanguard of the army has already appeared in Jiangzhou, with flags flowing from west to east, stretching for hundreds of miles, with great momentum. It is obvious that they have made plans to fight to the death with themselves. In about ten days, we will probably arrive in Jiangyang.
But now that Chen Chong had captured Mianzhu before the two, Liu Fan was unable to save him, and the initiative on the battlefield was firmly in the hands of the Han army. The last thing to do now was a decisive battle with Liu Fan's main force.
