There were too many affairs to deal with in the military camp after the war, and it was still time for dinner that Uncle Zhou took the time to talk alone with Zhou Shu, the old man of Shangshan, and while eating together, he listened to Zhou Shu's opinion on recruiting and surrendering the Jin Zhai coalition army.

Zhou Shu was also very clear about Uncle Zhou's intentions, and there were no other idle people waiting next to him, so Zhou Shu said directly: "General Zhou, old and foolish, we'd better not persuade Zhang Han, Sima Xin and Dong Fei to surrender to Kaicheng, at least we can't persuade all these three horsemen to lay down their arms and surrender to Kaicheng." ”

"Why?" Uncle Zhou asked in surprise.

"Because if these three horsemen surrender to us at the same time, it will be difficult for us to do the follow-up." Zhou Shu replied more directly.

"What's the next thing is hard for us?" Uncle Zhou was even more confused, and hurriedly asked, "Mr. Luli, how can we do the follow-up things?" ”

"General Zhou, what is your impression of the three puppets of Zhang Han, Dong Peng and Sima Xin?" Zhou Shu asked rhetorically.

"It's bad." Uncle Zhou was not vague, and immediately said: "First of all, I am a Wei person, and my old master Wei was forced to die by them, and I have a deep hatred with them, and I have never had a good impression of them. The second is that I also despise the people of these three puppets, for their personal interests, led nearly 100,000 tyrannical Qin troops to surrender to the princes' coalition army, and later in order to curry favor with Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu, and watched the Western Chu army humiliate and abuse the tyrannical Qin soldiers in every way, and even wantonly torture and kill, such selfish puppets like them, even if they really surrender to us, I will never look down on them. ”

"That's why we can't accept them surrendering together." Zhou Shu said: "General, you are a Wei person, and you still despise Zhang Han, Dong Peng and Sima Xin so much, not to mention those Guanzhong soldiers who were betrayed by them, as well as the Guanzhong people who are connected with those Guanzhong soldiers?" ”

"If we want to recruit Zhang Han, Dong Fei and Sima Xin, the three horsemen, promising to spare them from death must be the minimum prerequisite, after they surrender, in order to set an example for the other princes, so that we can recruit other princes in the future, our king not only can't kill them, but at least have to give them an official title, otherwise, it will definitely be very unfavorable for us to attack other princes in the future. But if our king does it, how can we explain it to the people of Guanzhong? ”

"More than three years ago, Zhang Han and Dong Peng, a group of puppeteers, led 280,000 Guan sergeants out of the customs, not only failed to bring these Guan soldiers back to their hometowns, but also for their own selfishness, betrayed these Guan sergeants to the Guanwai princes, let the Guanwai princes beat and abuse, wanton slaughter, these Guan sergeants' relatives, have already hated these horsemen to the bone marrow, if they see that our king not only did not avenge them, but also gave them official titles, so that they can continue to enjoy the glory and wealth, How could the people of Guanzhong agree? If they refuse to agree, how can our king and our Han army gain the support of the people in Guanzhong? ”

"If our Han army is compared to a big tree, then the young marshal army and old man that our king brought into Guanzhong are of course the trunk, the countless Guanzhong soldiers are our branches and leaves, and the millions of Guanzhong people are our roots. This truth, the old man thinks that our king must also understand, so he definitely does not want to see Zhang Han, Dong Fei and Sima Xin, the three horsemen, surrender to us together and force him to the point of a dilemma. ”

Speaking of this, Zhou Shu paused for a moment, and then continued: "So, General Zhou, now you should understand why the old man stopped you and didn't let you send Mr. Uncle Sun into the city to recruit him, right?" Because once we succeed in recruiting them, not only will the people of our foundation Guanzhong not agree, but our king will definitely not be happy, only by taking this opportunity to get rid of these three horsemen, can we avoid the thorny problem of how to deal with them, and can we also give a bad breath to the people of Guanzhong, so that they will support and support us even more desperately. ”

Uncle Zhou listened carefully and was silent, and only nodded slowly after a while, and said: "Thank you Mr. Lu Li for your advice, this is indeed the truth, for the people of Guanzhong, Zhang Han, Dong Fei and Sima Xin, the three horsemen, are indeed unforgivable, if we promise to spare them from death in order to recruit them, it will be difficult to do things in the future." ”

After approving Zhou Shu's analysis, Uncle Zhou said with some embarrassment: "But now this situation, it is also difficult for us to do, Jinyang City is notoriously strong and difficult to fight, it was soaked by floods for more than a year in the spring and autumn, and the city walls have not collapsed, and now the grain and grass in the city are sufficient, and the defenders are barely enough. ”

"This point, Lao Yu also thought about it for the general just now, so Lao Yu said again, at least he can't persuade these three horsemen to lay down their arms and surrender." Zhou Shu replied: "What the old man means is that it is best for us to persuade Zhang Han Pifu only to surrender to him, and let this man open the city gate to welcome our army into the city. In this way, we can not only justifiably kill Dong Peng and Sima Xin, and give an explanation to the people of Guanzhong with their heads, but also put all the blame on them, so that the people of Guanzhong no longer hate Zhang Han so much, and then even if our king gives Zhang Han a little reward, the people of Guanzhong will not have too many opinions. ”

Uncle Zhou was silent, and pondered for a moment before saying: "This is indeed a way, but Zhang Han and Dong Fei and Sima Xin have worked together for many years, and they have a deep relationship, I am afraid it is difficult to make up their minds to sell them in exchange for their own lives, he hesitates, and we can't quickly break through Jinyang and take the city, I'm afraid we will have a lot of dreams at night, and if it is not good, there may be extraneous branches." ”

"It's not that hard." Zhou Shu immediately said: "The old man has already thought of a plan for the general, the general only needs to act according to the plan, not only Zhang Han will inevitably make up his mind to open the city and surrender as soon as possible, maybe it is also possible for Zhang Han, Dong Fei and Sima Xin to turn against each other and attack each other, which will further reduce our siege resistance." ”

Uncle Zhou was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly asked Zhou Shu what good idea he had come up with, and Zhou Shu, who is from the same sect as Guiguzi, hurriedly attached it to Uncle Zhou's ear and muttered in a low voice, Uncle Zhou laughed when he heard it, clapped his hands and said: "Mr. Lu Li really has a clever plan, just do it!" ”

…………

Completely wiped out the counterattack force of the Dai Jin Zhai coalition army, and also trapped the remnants of the Dai Jin Zhai coalition army in Jinyang City, at the same time, the Han army's partial division Wang Ling was still on the way to Dai County, so that Zhang Han and others had no way to even hope for rescue, things came to this point, not only Uncle Zhou felt that he should send an envoy to surrender, in fact, even Zhang Han, Dong Peng and Sima Xin knew very well in their hearts that the Han army would definitely soon send envoys into the city to persuade them to take the initiative to open the city and surrender.

In this regard, although Zhang Han, Dong Peng, and Sima Xin didn't say much, they all hesitated in their hearts, hesitating if the Han army really sent envoys into the city to persuade them to surrender, how should they choose? Do you surrender to save your life, or do you impassionedly scold the thief and die, so that your name will leave a strong mark in the history books?

Sure enough, the day after the end of the Jinshui War, in addition to moving the main camp to the north of Jinyang City, which was easy to attack, the Han army really sent an envoy to the city with a white flag to call the city, and named Xiang Kang's actual father-in-law Zhang Han, Zhang Han could guess the envoy's intention with his toes, and he also wanted to find out the Han army's attitude and conditions towards recruiting him, but he was worried about the feelings of his comrades-in-arms Dong Fei and Sima Xin, so he had to ask Dong Fei and Sima Xin's opinions first.

Of course, Dong Fei and Sima Xin were also very aware of the intentions of the Han army envoys, and in order to find out the Han army's attitude towards themselves, of course, they persuaded Zhang Han to meet the envoys, and Zhang Han also sent someone to invite the Han army envoys into the city and meet the Han army envoys in front of Dong Peng and Sima Xin. But what puzzled Zhang Han and the others was that in the letter submitted by the Han army envoy to Uncle Zhou, there was no mention of the surrender at all, just saying that he was entrusted by Zhang Han's daughter and Xiang Kang's concubine Zhang Xun to bring a message for Zhang Xun, saying that she was all right in Xianyang, so that Zhang Han didn't have to worry about her, and hoped to reunite with Zhang Han's father and daughter as soon as possible, and there was no nonsense left.

After reading Uncle Zhou's letter, they tentatively asked if the Han envoy had anything else to say, and the Han envoy bowed his hand to Zhang Han and said: "Acting king, our General Zhou also ordered, if you have any reply to our princess, you can let the envoy bring it back, and he will definitely forward it to the princess for you." If it is inconvenient for the king now, you can also send someone out of the city to contact us in the future, and we are waiting for you at any time. ”

Hearing this, Dong Fei and Sima Xin were of course expressionless on their faces, but Zhang Han was bitter in his heart, and hurriedly shouted: "Go back and tell Uncle Zhou to tell him not to send someone to contact this king in the future, this king will definitely not send someone to contact him, this king has long forgotten that he has a daughter in Xianyang!" ”

Although Zhang Han did not stop him, he said to Dong Fei and Sima Xin immediately after he left: "King Jin, King Zhai, you can rest assured, this king can swear to the sky, he will never secretly send someone to contact Uncle Zhou behind your back, and he will definitely share weal and woe with you, live and die together, and will never give birth to any two hearts." ”

Dong Peng and Sima Xin laughed together, and also said that they could definitely trust their old comrade-in-arms Zhang Han for many years, but they said together in their stomachs: "The ghost believes your words!" The handmaid raised it, it seems that you must be careful to keep an eye on you in the future. ”

Facts have proved that Dong Fei and Sima Xin's caution was right, just arrived in the middle of the night that night, the Jin soldiers patrolling the city wall suddenly noticed that there was an abnormal movement under the city, and quickly stretched out their torches to look down, and the Jin soldiers also clearly saw that a man wearing a military uniform quickly escaped the moat, and rushed to the direction of the Han army camp. When the Jin soldiers searched down the city with ropes, they also picked up a waist card prepared as Zhang Han's personal soldiers at the scene!

Then, in the early morning of the next day, when Sima Xin and Dong Fei told Zhang Han about this with a smile, and put the waist card in front of Zhang Han, Zhang Han jumped into the Yellow River and couldn't wash it completely, so he could only swear again, saying that although the owner of this waist card was indeed his own personal soldier, this personal soldier had disappeared on the night of the Jinshui War, and he didn't know whether he was captured and surrendered, or he had been killed in battle.

There was only one lonely evidence, and there was no confession, of course Dong Fei and Sima Xin didn't continue to say anything, but just smiled and continued to say that they absolutely trusted Zhang Han, and when Zhang Han helplessly thanked him, he couldn't help but say helplessly in his heart: "It's over, these two puppets will definitely not believe me anymore." ”

The matter was not over, at noon that day, the Han army also sent many soldiers to Jinyang City, shouting to recruit the defenders on the city, counting the various sins of Sima Xin and Dong Fei betraying the soldiers of Guan, persuading the Jinyang defenders to kill Dong Fei and Sima Xin as soon as possible to open the city and surrender, and also promised to buy the heads of Dong Fei and Sima Xin at a high price of 10,000 gold, but there was no mention of Zhang Han. Sima Xin and Dong Fei heard it in the city, although they knew that it was likely that the Han army was sowing discord, they were still suspicious, and they were extremely suspicious that Zhang Han had secretly reached a deal with the Han army - after all, Xiang Kang was Zhang Han's undeniable son-in-law, wasn't he?

The next two days were a similar situation, the Han army that had just ended the Jinshui War in addition to seizing the time to rest and rush to build siege weapons, and then there was to send soldiers to the city every day to shout surrender, persuading the defenders of the city to kill Dong Fei and Sima Xin out of the city and surrender as soon as possible, and never mentioned a word about Zhang Han, Dong Fei and Sima Xin became more and more suspicious in their hearts, and had to strengthen the secret surveillance of Zhang Han, after Zhang Han found out about this, in order to protect himself, he could only be forced to secretly keep an eye on Dong Peng and Sima Xin. In addition, it was inevitable that Zhang Han had the idea of betraying Dong Peng and Sima Xin to protect himself.

On the night of the third day, the situation changed again, in the middle of the night, a previously captured Jin soldier suddenly fled to the city of Jinyang, shouting to return to the city, the city defenders used ropes to tie him to the city wall, although the Jin soldier claimed that he escaped from the prisoner of war camp and returned, but Sima Xin and Dong Peng and others who were trapped in the lonely city were willing to believe, and immediately asked people to search him closely, and then unsurprisingly, sure enough, a letter written by Uncle Zhou to Zhang Han was found in the mezzanine of his clothes, and the Jin soldiers could not deny it, had no choice but to confess truthfully, saying that he was bought by the Han army, pretending to return to the city and returning to the team, looking for an opportunity to secretly hand over this letter to Zhang Han.

The content of the letter is not very complicated, in the letter, in addition to saying that the secret envoy sent by Zhang Han before has been in contact with him, Uncle Zhou urged Zhang Han to do it as soon as possible, and quickly find a way to take Dong Fei and Sima Xin to surrender the city, and comforted Zhang Han, saying that Zhang Han had previously led the Guan sergeant to surrender to the princes outside the Guan, so that the Guan sergeant was doubly abused and oppressed, although he made a big mistake, but as long as Dong Fei and Sima Xin surrendered to atone for their crimes, the Han army could put all the fault on Dong Fei and Sima Xin's head, so that Zhang Han could get rid of the infamy, so that Zhang Han does not have any scruples and makes a wise and correct choice as soon as possible.

Needless to say, after reading this letter, combined with the fact that Zhang Han had secretly sent people out of the city before, Dong Peng and Sima Xin were of course all furious, and they all scolded Zhang Han for betraying his friends and seeking glory and shamelessness, and even scolded the Han army for being despicable to the extreme, in order to curry favor with Zhang Han's daughter for Xiang Kang, he actually wanted to impose all the charges of betraying Sergeant Guan on his head.

Things have come to this point, of course, it is absolutely impossible for Dong Fei and Sima Xin to work together with Zhang Han anymore, and they have not waited for Uncle Zhou to implement the next step of the separation plan, Dong Fei and Sima Xin discussed carefully, and simply gritted their teeth and made a decision, "Instead of sitting and waiting to die, and not even daring to close your eyes when you sleep, it is better to strike first, kill Zhang Han first, annex his subordinates, and then defend the city until the Han thieves are exhausted and retreat!" ”

After making this decision, Dong Fei and Sima Xin also arranged a clever plan to invite the king into the urn, first arranged an ambush in Sima Xin's Jin Palace, and pretended to have important matters to discuss with Zhang Han, tricked Zhang Han into the palace to meet Sima Xin, captured the thief first captured the king and took Zhang Han directly, and then took Zhang Han's talisman to take over his army!

It's a pity that after tossing and turning in the past few days, Zhang Han has also been suspicious of Dong Fei and Sima Xin for a long time, how dare he easily accept the invitation and venture into the so-called Jin Palace to entrust his life to others? So after Sima Xin's invitation was sent to Zhang Han, Zhang Han just thought about it a little, and immediately sent his henchman Gao Cheng as a representative under the pretext that he was unwell, and went to see Sima Xin instead of himself, and also asked Gao Cheng to pay attention to the situation in the palace of King Jin and come back to report truthfully.

After Gao Cheng entered the palace, seeing that Zhang Han refused to be fooled, Dong Peng and Sima Xin of course did not dare to make a mistake, and sent him out of the palace after a few casual words with Gao Cheng, but what they didn't expect was that Gao Cheng, who was quite thoughtful, actually found their hidden knife and axe hand in the corridor, and reported it to Zhang Han truthfully after going back, Zhang Han was shocked and angry when he heard the report, and smashed his fist on the case in front of him, and roared: "Fortunately, this king was not fooled, otherwise he would have been killed by these two thieves today!" ”

"King, King Jin and King Zhai are determined to harm you, blindly preventing it is definitely not the way." Gao Cheng, who is also from Guanzhong, persuaded: "Since they are unkind, they can't blame us for being unjust, and your subordinates think that it is best for the king to make a decision as soon as possible." ”

Gao Cheng persuaded him to beat around the bush, but Zhang Han immediately heard his voice, and after thinking about it again and again, Zhang Han finally made up his mind, gritted his teeth and said: "Let our army prepare for war secretly, in the name of sentry detection of the enemy, send someone out of the city to contact General Zhou, and ask him to immediately send troops to meet outside Jinyang City, as soon as his army arrives, we will immediately start to receive the army of King Han into the city!" ”

Zhang Han's plan also failed to succeed, when his messenger came to the city gate in the name of a sentry and asked to leave the city, the Jin soldiers guarding the gate not only refused to let Zhang Han's scouts out of the city, but also immediately reported the news to Sima Xin, and at the same time, the secret preparations of Zhang Han's army were also reported to Sima Xin by the eyes of the Jin army at the same time. Sima Xin, who guessed Zhang Han's plan, had no choice but to quickly organize the army to prepare for war with Dong Peng, and at the same time, in the name of visiting the sick, sent dead soldiers to assassinate Zhang Han!

It's a pity that the dead soldiers sent by Sima Xin and Dong Peng have not been able to enter the camp of Zhang Han's army, Zhang Han has already received the news that Sima Xin and Dong Peng's army are preparing for war, knowing that the matter has been revealed, and there is no other choice, Zhang Han can only let the army guard the camp while sending people to set fire to Jinyang City, creating chaos and notifying the Han army to send troops. After Sima Xin and Dong Fei saw the fire in the city, they also knew that Zhang Han was jumping over the wall in a hurry, and they also had no choice but to lead the army to storm Zhang Han's camp.

During this period, after receiving the news of the fire in Jinyang City, Uncle Zhou immediately understood that Zhou Shu's shameless trick had succeeded, and immediately organized an army to attack, and hurriedly came to attack the city with the siege weapons that had been made in the past few days. And when they received the news of the emergency at the city gate, the consequences that Uncle Zhou and Zhou Shu did not expect appeared, Sima Xin and Dong Peng, who were storming the camp of the Zhang Han army, not only did not send troops to reinforce the battlefield of the city wall, but shouted together with grief and indignation: "Beat the drum!" Total Attack! Even if he dies, he will pull Zhang Han, a horseman, to us for burial! ”

In the end, Dong Fei and Sima Xin achieved their wishes, the Han army crashed into the north gate of Jinyang at the same time, the Jin Zhai coalition army also successfully entered the camp of Zhang Han's army, after a scuffle, Sima Xin and Zhang Han both died in the chaos, Dong Fei led the army to open the south gate of Jinyang and fled, but was also stopped by the Han cavalry in time, several times to rush and kill can not break through, desperate, Dong Fei is very simply drawn his sword and killed himself. The three giants of the Qin army's Guanzhong Corps, Zhang Han, Dong Fei and Sima Xin, died in Jinyang on the same day, and walked the Huangquan Road together.

"Why didn't this king make up his mind earlier?" This is the unwilling last words that Zhang Han roared out when his chest was pierced by the spear of the Jin sergeant.

"This king was convicted by heaven, and he should end up like this!" When he put the sword around his neck, the last thing Dong Fei said was like this.

"King of Western Chu, this king has made such a great contribution to you, why did you seal me to the border with the Han thief?" This is the wail that Sima Xin issued when he was trampled by soldiers and horses' hooves after being stabbed off his horse by Zhao Ben, the general of Zhang Han's army.

If you want to know what will happen next, please see the next chapter "Xiang Kang VS Han Xin"!