When the surrendering generals outside Luxiang City entered Luxiang City and formally surrendered to Liu Yu, Liu Yu announced that he would personally go to the camp of the surrendering troops tomorrow.
Liu Yu neither confiscated the weapons and armor of these surrendered soldiers nor placed surveillance troops beside them.
Therefore, when all the subordinates learned that Liu Yu was going to the surrender camp in person, they all advised him not to take risks, because if there were so many people with ulterior motives among the surrender troops, Liu Yu would be in a very difficult situation. It's dangerous.
Those present at that time were not only his own generals, but also generals who had surrendered to the city.
After hearing what Liu Yu's men said, these surrendering generals all looked embarrassed. After all, they couldn't guarantee whether someone among tens of thousands of people would suddenly go crazy and attack Liu Yu, and they couldn't guarantee that such a thing would not happen. will happen.
At this time, Liu Yu said this because he remembered the story of Emperor Guangwu conquering the Bronze Horse Army in Hebei.
When he was in Hebei, facing the surrender of the Bronze Horse Army, Emperor Guangwu knew that most of these rebels were forced to survive and did not have great ambitions. Therefore, after the surrender of the Bronze Horse Army, Emperor Guangwu treated these surrendered troops with sincerity. He often went to the surrender camp in person and had a heart-to-heart talk with the soldiers.
"You are all Qidi nobles, models of filial piety. Since you have agreed to submit to me, I believe you will not hide your intentions. Why don't you go back to the camp to appease the soldiers first? I will personally escort the grain and grass to your camp early tomorrow morning to comfort the soldiers. "Liu Yu said to the surrendering generals present with a sincere face.
These surrendering generals looked at each other in disbelief.
You must know that the number of their surrendered troops is much greater than that of the Donglai Army. If Liu Yu personally entered the camp of the surrendered troops, it would be difficult to prevent someone from making a secret surprise attack.
When fighting against a large number of people with a small number, especially when surrendering troops are difficult to control, most of the surrendered people will allocate the strong ones among them to focus on monitoring and win over. The remaining people will also be reorganized and use trusted troops to monitor and alert. How? Maybe he dared to let the general go to the surrender camp in person from the beginning?
Seeing the expressions of the surrendering generals, Liu Yu emphasized again before sending these suspicious surrendering generals back.
After the surrendering generals left, Liu Yu's subordinates persuaded him to give up his plan to appease the surrendering troops, or it was okay to let one or two of his confidant generals go instead of Liu Yu. This did not mean that Liu Yu had broken his promise. Military generals can also understand.
Liu Yu still insisted on his decision and explained to everyone.
"When Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty and the world was in chaos, Emperor Guangwu raised an army and went to Hebei, accepting the surrender of hundreds of thousands of bronze horse troops. Emperor Guangwu knew that most of these people rebelled because they were forced to survive and did not have great ambitions, so in Tongzhou After the Ma army surrendered, Emperor Guangwu treated the surrendered troops with sincerity and often went to the surrendering army camps in person to talk to the soldiers heart to heart, and he quickly won over the hearts of the people."
Liu Yu glanced at everyone and continued.
"Now, these surrendered troops from Qi are like the Bronze Horse Army back then. They just came here due to the situation. In fact, they don't have much hatred against us. If they did, it was because these Qi tyrants deceived Duke Yin last year. It’s not us who tricked them. Moreover, these powerful tribes do not have high-prestige leaders now, so the soldiers below are very easy to be won over by us. "
"Moreover, we must let them know at the very beginning, when the surrendering soldiers are most helpless and desperate, that we accepted their surrender and gave them another chance to live well. Otherwise, we will wait until they have survived the final During times of poverty, I’m afraid there will still be incidents where people are fighting for their favor.”
"If that's the case, it's better to take a risk and exchange people's hearts with sincerity."
Everyone thinks that Liu Yu's matter is reasonable, and if it succeeds, the benefits will be huge. He can get 30,000 soldiers without any effort.
On the second day.
When Liu Yu led the team transporting grain, grass and baggage into the camp of the surrendering troops, all the generals who surrendered were in disbelief. Could it be that Liu Yu was really not afraid of death? What if a group of lunatics raided him? I'm going to lose my life.
However, these surrendering generals soon discovered that if someone tried to make a surprise attack, it might not be that easy, because Liu Yu also brought hundreds of sheep, saying that he wanted to comfort the surrendering soldiers who were suffering from hunger and cold. These more than a hundred sheep The sheep had seriously blocked the surrounding aisles. Even if someone wanted to make a surprise attack, there was no faster or better way than firing cold arrows.
Yes, the biggest role of these sheep is to block traffic and to prevent someone from raiding.
When Liu Yu appeared wearing bright armor and riding a high horse, bursts of soft shouts broke out among the surrendering troops, full of surprise.
After entering the Jiangbing military camp, the first thing Liu Yu did was to collect and place all the wounded and sick soldiers in the Jiangbing army, and invited medical doctors in the city to treat them.
The second thing is that just like when Emperor Guangwu appeased the Bronze Horse Army, after the initial secret preparation, Liu Yu would talk to the soldiers in the army in a pleasant manner and ask them about their families and children, and he quickly gained Be kind to others with praise and support.
The third thing is to punish the people with bad conduct among the surrendered troops, curbing many attempts to prey on the soldiers, gaining support from the soldiers, and allowing the small and medium-sized officers to have a basic understanding of the military law of the Donglai Army. and compliance.
The fourth thing is that Liu Yu recruited all the powerful men in the surrendered army into his subordinate officials. Using official hats one by one, he transferred these powerful men who could easily mobilize the surrendered army to the city. There, These powerful children will no longer have the opportunity to continue to control the old army. This move of overt and covert promotion basically eliminates the possibility of a certain powerful child with high prestige to take away this group of people in the future.
After just three days, after getting rid of the surrendering soldiers who were determined to leave, Liu Yu almost won the hearts of the remaining 20,000 surrendering troops. As long as Liu Yu entered the military camp, he would always get the support of the soldiers, not only It was Liu Yu who gave them a chance to live, and because Liu Yu always treated them as ordinary friends, unlike the powerful master who treated them before, treating them like livestock tools.
