Liu Bei brought Cai Yong, Wu Kuang and his entourage back to Chuyang to set up a banquet and entertain them, trimmed them for a few days, and invited them to return to Nanzheng to continue the courtesy, saying that Guan Yu was about to get married in the near future, and everyone was invited to drink a glass of wine together and be happy for a few days.

In the whole process, Liu Bei's emotional intelligence and charm are worth fully showing, and many operations that win people's hearts are not just blindly relying on hedonistic treatment, but also saving face for you while giving you preferential treatment, so that you can find your own value, and Li Su is far from sighing.

Within two days, Cai Yong was very happy to work with him, and Wu Kuang, who had made meritorious contributions, was even more grateful to Dai De.

Cai Yong and Wu Kuang were a little embarrassed, and repeatedly said that they would not be punished for nothing, and asked Liu Bei to put business first.

On the eve of leaving Chuyang, Cai Yong admonished: "General Zhengxi, go to Nanzheng for a banquet, and celebrate General Guan's wedding ceremony, these are not in a hurry. The old man was appointed by the imperial court as the Taishou of Ba County, and he took the lead in practicing the boundaries of Ba County and understanding the local situation. Moreover, the Son of Heaven gave an edict to Li Zhonglang, and let the old man and Captain Wu serve as circumstantial evidence.

Why don't we take advantage of Liu Yan's reaction and immediately go to the key places of Shu Road, and use the edict of the Son of Heaven to persuade us to open the city gate and control the local defenders, so as to live up to the value of this edict of the Son of Heaven. If you have an edict and have to go through bloody battles before you can get back the three counties of Shu and the four counties of Nanzhong, wouldn't it be an extra vain death for innocent soldiers and civilians? ”

When Liu Bei heard this, he sighed: "Since Gong Cai has to go to the boundary of Bajun first to take a look at it before he can rest assured, of course he will not stop Gong Cai from doing his best for the imperial court." I'll go with you first, and then go back to Nanzheng to settle down together.

However, according to what I have seen in the past few months, even if there is an edict from the Son of Heaven, it will not be able to enter Liu Yan's hinterland - Liu Yan has analyzed Guanghan County into Guanghan and Zitong counties since May, and renamed Guanghan subject country Yinping County.

In this way, the county jurisdiction of the imperial court was arbitrarily changed, the official positions were added, and the henchmen were sent to guard the key points, and the Jianmen Pass was built in Jiange County. In the south, in the east, at the confluence of the three rivers in the south of Ba County and north of Jiangzhou, Diaoyu City was built. All kinds of actions show that Liu Yan has felt the danger and wants to fight against the imperial court by force. ”

Cai Yong and Wu Kuang didn't expect Liu Yan to be so tough at first, and they thought that the imperial court edict could take a few counties without bloodshed, and they were shocked when they heard the words: "Is this really the case?" Why didn't General Zhengxi attack him at that time? ”

Liu Bei smiled bitterly: "I was only a general in Zhenxi at the time, and the imperial court's will was to sweep away the anti-thief Zhang Lu, how could I arbitrarily poison other Han clan relatives?" Moreover, the land of Hanzhong has just been pacified, the army has no surplus grain, and it is difficult to transport the Shu Road, and it is impossible to ask the imperial court from Chencang for grain to march, so you can only wait for the harvest in the Han Dynasty.

In fact, even at this moment, Beixin couldn't bear to poison Liu Junlang. Alas, the young man is shallow, in the past few years, he has relied on fighting for the national strength and military merits, and in terms of court qualifications, it is far inferior to Liu Junlang, I have always regarded him as a clan uncle in my heart, and I hope he will repent. ”

Cai Yong was in awe: "General Zhengxi is really a benevolent person, he can't bear to take away the foundation of the same sect, even if the other party does something perverse, he still retreats and repeatedly tolerates it."

Liu Junlang still has a glimmer of conscience, he should turn against him, surrender with courtesy, and still spend the rest of his life without losing the forgiveness of his sins, and save the innocent deaths and injuries of the people. ”

……

Everyone agreed, changed the plan early the next morning, and did not return to Nanzheng from Chuyang, but first followed the Ma Ming Pavilion Road on the bank of the West Han River to the southwest of the Sword Pavilion to find out the authenticity.

And the Cai family, the family members of the Zhen family, and even the cultural relics and books transported from Luoyang, these characters who have nothing to do with the war, of course, were escorted back to Nanzheng Xian by Liu Bei as originally planned.

Because it was only to persuade to surrender rather than to attack, and there was no need to bring many people, everyone was lightly armed and alternated from riding horses and boats, and arrived at the Sword Pavilion in four days.

This day was already the second day of October, Cai Yong did not believe in this evil, and Li Su sent elite soldiers to protect him layer by layer with shields, and outside the range of crossbow arrows, he read an edict to the head of the Jianmen Pass and persuaded the soldiers in the city to open the gate.

Wu Kuang was also anxious to make meritorious service at first and wanted to perform, but Li Suxin stopped him carefully and said:

"Captain Wu doesn't need to be anxious, we all know that you are loyal to the imperial court. However, Ling's nephew and Ling's niece are still in Liu Yan's hands, and although they are currently regarded as guests, if they hear that Captain Wu came to persuade him to surrender, they may be angry and kill the hostages.

Therefore, Captain Wu still looks at my mentor to persuade him first, if the defenders can move with words and Liu Yan does not seem to have lost his conscience, then the next time he has a chance, he will naturally let Captain Wu behave. ”

When Wu Kuang heard this, he was immediately moved and turned his head to tears: Li Su was too righteous, and at this moment, he still wanted to prevent Wu Yi and Wu Yi's sister from being killed by Liu Yan, so he didn't let him appear.

Together with Gao Shun, who has been silently governing the army and observing silently in the past month, they all feel that Liu Bei and Li Su are really righteous in treating their subordinates, and they seem to be more righteous than Ding Yuan and Lu Bu.

Cai Yong's voice was not loud, and when he arrived at the gate, there was naturally another professional scolding hand shouting the opening remarks: "Close the defenders, listen, this is the new Bajun Taishou appointed by the imperial court, and the world's famous man Cai Bo Cai Gong!" He was ordered to be a witness, accompanied the envoy Zhonglang to go to Chengdu to announce the decree, and the imperial court changed Liu Yan to the young master and recalled him to the capital for reuse! Open the gates! ”

There was a slight commotion at the head of the city, but no one opened the city gate, obviously Liu Yan had already taken care of it.

Cai Yong felt very shameless, after all, he had never experienced the beating of the war, he had always been the officialdom of the imperial court, and he saw that the holy decree was ignored by a group of big-headed soldiers, how could he stand it?

He also thought that the people on the gate didn't believe that he was Cai Yong, and he didn't see the holy decree clearly, so he wanted to go out of the crowd and get closer, so that the people on the gate could see it clearly.

"Come back! These Dongzhou soldiers kill people without blinking, be careful of crossbow arrows! Li Su was startled, and hurriedly grabbed Cai Yong, and other shield soldiers also flocked to fill the position.

Li Su had a chance to take a breath and explain to Cai Yong: "I heard from General Zhengxi last night that Liu Yan is also unpopular in Shu, but he recruited the elite people who flowed into Shu from Yongliang a few years ago to form another army, called the 'Dongzhou Soldiers'. Even the Qiang people who rebelled all the year round and fought with Huangfu Song, Dong Zhuo, Lu Yi and other people were all mixed in!

Liu Yan is holding the knife handle in his hand, so he is not afraid of the counterattack of the Shu family, these people from Liangzhou and the Qiang people, when they were in the north, they did not take the court seriously, and now they are rebelling with Liu Yan, how can they still fear the holy decree? If you don't believe it, how about the son-in-law let the ironclad samurai take the risk of approaching the temptation with the edict, and withdraw as soon as there is any movement? ”

Cai Yong thought about it, but felt embarrassed, isn't this joking with other people's lives, although he has iron armor to protect himself, he is always reckless.

"That's it...... Since the Dongzhou soldiers are so from such a background and so fierce, forget it. Cai Yong compromised.

At this time, a voice came from the side: "Cai Gong, captain, if you need to announce the order, let the last general come forward with a guard shield to try!" ”

Li Sudu felt that this voice was quite unfamiliar, and when he turned his head to look, he realized that it was Gao Shun, who had just known each other for more than a month, but had never heard the other party say a few words.

Gao Shun is a person who usually cherishes words like gold, you are not his direct leader, he doesn't come to talk to you, and he doesn't report to you.

Listening to Gao Shun's request, not only did Li Su seize the opportunity to envelop him, but even Liu Bei, who had always been watching the play from a distance, came up and asked Nuan not to be reluctant.

Gao Shun arched his hand: "I have been with Captain Wu for more than a month, and I haven't made an inch, and I don't have to worry about some trivial things." Li Zhonglang equipped all members of our army with fish scale armor and iron shields, so protective, I am afraid that the chaos at the head of the city will not succeed. ”

As he spoke, he took the holy decree from Cai Yong, raised it with one hand, and the twenty shield soldiers of the trap camp next to him formed a formation to protect it.

He is strong in martial arts, so he can naturally be more flamboyant than Cai Yong, and he doesn't need to shrink under the shield to make the other party unable to see clearly, and even if there are really crossbow arrows coming, with Gao Shun's eyes and hands, he can avoid his head and face and return to the soldier's iron shield array.

He arrogantly walked thirty steps in front of the pass, holding up the holy decree with one hand and shouting: "I am Sima Gaoshun of the other department under the command of the captain of the Northern Military Academy of the Beijing Division!" The edict escorted the imperial envoy here, quickly opened the city gate, and if you want to see the content of the edict with your own eyes, you can also open and close the city to view. ”

At this moment, the Dongzhou soldiers at the head of the city finally couldn't pretend to be deaf and dumb, they could only either surrender the pass or shoot away with random arrows, and they could no longer remain in a vague state.

A few seconds later, a few bows and arrows took the lead in shooting down from the city, Gao Shun's eyes were cold, he saw the way the arrows came clearly, and knew that there was no need to dodge at all, he just took advantage of the gap when the other party finished shooting in a wave, and with a wave of his hand, the soldiers in the camp also took out the hand crossbows that had just been wound in advance, aiming at the city head to reflect a wave, and the crossbow arrows shot out of the gaps in the shield array, and actually accurately shot more than a dozen Dongzhou archers on the wall.

Unfortunately, the trapped camp only had the opportunity to make a move, because they couldn't wind the crossbow with one hand while setting up a shield, and they had to retreat to a safe distance after shooting.

And if they hadn't struck suddenly, the defenders at the head of the city would not have been shot so much because they were unprepared—under normal circumstances, the archers on the wall did not release their arrows with their bodies exposed to the front, but took advantage of the inclination of the female wall battlements and hid behind the battlements to shoot diagonal crossfire, in which case it was difficult to be shot by the soldiers below.

Despite this, the retreat unscathed and steady after shooting more than ten people in the camp still boosted Liu Beijun's morale, and also dealt a blow to the legitimacy of the enemy army, forcing it into an unfavorable psychological state of overt rebellion.

Li Su looked at the soldiers in the trapped camp wearing fish scale armor, crossbows on their backs, iron shields in one hand, long-bladed broad-backed swords in the other, and Han-made horse swords made of iron, and slowly retreated in a hurry, and couldn't help but praise in his heart.

Retreat to a safe distance and check, but no one is dead.

"Alas, I really didn't expect that the people of Shu didn't know that Jingshi was messed up by Dong Zhuo, and they dared to completely ignore the holy decree and rebel, and the authority of the imperial court came to this." Cai Yong and Wu Kuang sighed at this result.

Li Su and Liu Bei comforted them in turn: "Don't slack off, or else, since we have come, let's go up the Jialing River in front of the pass, and persuade the counties along the Baishui and Qiangshui banks that originally belonged to the Guanghan vassal state and are now changed to Yinping County by Liu Yan to surrender."

These counties originally did not belong to the boundary of Hanzhong Taishou, although they were not worth anything, but they were originally Liu Yan's, so now they will surrender. ”

Cai Yong and Wu Kuang could only retreat and set up a small meritorious sacrifice to the holy decree. The group swept upstream along the Jialing River in front of Jianmen Pass, and within a few days, the soldiers persuaded Baishui and Yinping counties to surrender without blood, but it was of no help to how to break through the Sword Pavilion.

Liu Bei is very good at sincerely touting the merits of Cai Yong and Wu Kuang's persuasion to surrender to the two counties, and then took the initiative to find the bottom of the stairs: "Let's go back to Nanzheng and think about it for a long time, it's October now, and this Sword Pavilion Dao can't break through this year." Even if he fights over, with Liu Yan's will to resist, as long as he is strong and clear, our army will still be in danger if there is not enough food.

When the spring ploughing is over next year, we will not disturb the cultivation of the innocent people in Shu County, and we will raise troops to fight against thieves, and strive to gain a firm foothold in the pass before the autumn harvest, and there is no need to worry about heavy supplies. ”

Cai Yong: "That's all it takes, alas, the holy decree we brought is too useless." ”