Although it is slow to go upriver from Jinling, it is naturally much faster if you follow the Xiangjiang River from Tanzhou to the Yangtze River, and then go down the river to Jinling.

Just a few days later, Gao Yu came to Jinling with a dozen retinues.

He was accompanied by Ma Ye, the commander of the Wu army, who had been captured by the Chu army.

In order to show his sincerity, Ma Yin did not leave Ma Ye behind, but directly released him.

With this move first, Yang Wu was naturally embarrassed to continue to detain Xu Dexun, and of course he did not release him, but his supervision was relaxed a lot, and he was allowed to meet Gao Yu.

On this day, Gao Yu's temporary residence, Xu Dexun visited under the supervision of several Wu officials.

"The guest house is so simple, it seems that Wu Guo deliberately wants to embarrass the high judge. I am afraid that Wu Guoren will put forward many harsh conditions for this peace! ”

Seeing Gao Yu, whose face was full of bitterness, Xu Dexun was also not very happy in his heart.

This temporary residence used to entertain Gao Yu is not only cramped and cramped, but also has a relatively dilapidated interior.

There were only three rooms in total, one of the main rooms was used as a reception room, and the other two rooms occupied one by Gao Yu, and the retinue could only be crammed into the other room.

In this room, which was used as a guest room, there was nothing but a few chairs and a table, plus two cupboards for things, and even the accommodation where Xu Dexun was now placed as a prisoner was much better than here.

"This is also normal, after all, the two families have been fighting each other for so many years, how deep is the grudge, how easy is it to negotiate peace? The old man was prepared to be harassed before he came, so now he has encountered nothing! Gao Yu said in a calm voice.

"Sit down! There is nothing here, but the old man brought tea leaves, but there is no hot water, so he can't make tea to entertain General Xu. Please forgive me, general! ”

Xu Dexun said disapprerovitically: "After the defeat and capture of the army, the high judge did not dislike the subordinates, and he was already deeply satisfied, where would he dare to have other requirements?" ”

After the two sat down, Gao Yu punched the entourage, and the entourage immediately understood, took out a string of money and went out to buy some wine and meat.

Then, a few entourages dragged the few Wu Guoxiao officials who were following Xu Dexun's side to drink in the next room, leaving only Xu Dexun and Gao Yu in the meeting room.

Those few Wu officials were not worried about Xu Dexun taking the opportunity to escape, after all, the monk who escaped could not escape the temple, even if Xu Dexun escaped, would Gao Yu dare to escape? Do they want to negotiate anymore?

So a few people were relieved and boldly went to the next room.

When only Gao Yu and the others were left in the meeting room, Xu Dexun hurriedly asked in a low voice: "How is the sound insulation of this room?" Can the next door hear you talking here? ”

The next thing they were going to discuss was likely to involve some confidentiality, so it was natural to make sure that no one else could hear it.

Even if it is a few retinues brought by Gao Yu, it is best not to let them hear it, otherwise who knows if any of them wants to betray the Chu State.

"General Xu rest assured, the sound insulation of this house is not bad, after arriving here yesterday, the old man sent someone to try it, as long as the voice is not loud, the people next door will not be able to hear it." Gao Yu said solemnly.

"That's good! It was still the high judge who was careful and thought of this as soon as he came. Xu Dexun breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's just some prevention, but you have to be careful, after all, who can guarantee that you won't make mistakes?"

Gao Yu replied as he walked aside, took out paper and pen and ink from the cupboard, mixed the ink with water, and lit a candle to stand on the table, then signaled to Xu Dexun.

Xu Dexun immediately understood Gao Yu's thoughts, and while chatting with Gao Yu casually, he took a pen and wrote down the issues he was most concerned about.

"The high judge came so quickly, it seems that after the news of the defeat of Tanzhou came back, the king immediately made up his mind! I don't know if I've seen King Wu in the past two days? ”

As he spoke, he quickly wrote on the paper with his pen: "The king has sent you this time to negotiate peace or surrender?" ”

The difference between negotiation and surrender is very big, one is peace talks, and the other is surrender.

The former means that the state of Chu can be preserved, and the latter means that the state of Chu will disappear, at least nominally, and will cease to exist.

Gao Yu took it and looked at it, and said in his mouth: "At that time, the king happened to be in the Shaozhou army, not far from Tanzhou, so the speed of getting the news was relatively fast, and the old man naturally came quickly." ”

"It's a pity that in the past two days since I arrived in Jinling, although I have already met Chen Yanqian, a scholar of Shoufu University in Wu State, King Wu has never seen me, saying that he is busy with something."

As he replied, he wrote with a pen on paper: "I am afraid that it will be difficult to succeed in negotiating peace, and if it can be negotiated, it will be a success." ”

Xu Dexun was silent, he also knew that the so-called peace negotiation was just a nice thing to say, and he wanted to save some face, but in fact, it was still a negotiation.

However, after receiving the exact news, he was still very sad in his heart.

Twenty years ago, in the battle of Xuanzhou City, Yang Xingmi defeated Sun Ru, which once swept through the Jianghuai River and shook the major feudal towns in the southeast.

At that time, Liu Jianfeng, Ma Yin and others happened to take 7,000 elites to loot grain and grass in Chizhou and other places.

To the east is Yang Xingmi, who has just defeated Sun Ru and is in high morale, if these 7,000 people go to the east to fight Yang Xingmi, they are undoubtedly hitting a stone with an egg.

As for to the south, it is the territory of Zhong Chuan, the envoy of the south section of Jiangxi Town, Zhong Chuan has been running Jiangxi for a long time, has deep roots in the local area, and has a large number of troops, and it is also difficult for them to be the enemy of Zhong Chuan.

In the end, under the leadership of Liu Jianfeng, the panicked generals moved all the way west, and finally stopped after reaching the border of Hunan.

The local forces here are still very weak, and the local assassins are fighting each other, and a strong force has not yet emerged to integrate the parties.

As a result, with the 7,000 battle-hardened tiger and wolf army in his hands, where are the weak forces in the local area Liu Jianfeng's opponents.

In just a few years, Liu Jianfeng's power swelled rapidly, and his strength even reached 100,000.

After Liu Jianfeng died, Ma Yin took over.

Under the leadership of Ma Yin, these remnants of their former defeated army actually prospered day by day, first conquered the entire seven states of Hunan, and then attacked and destroyed Lei Yanwei in the north of Wuzhen Jiedu, and Liu Shizheng in the south to defeat the Jingjiang army Jiedu, and even more in the east to compete with Huainan, and once won victories one after another, and finally established the state of Chu.

Unfortunately, when the cause of the Chu State reached its peak, the army that defeated them under the city of Xuanzhou in the past was now even stronger, and established the Wu State, which was much stronger than the Chu State.

Under the successive attacks of the Wu army, in just a few years, the Chu State, which looked very strong at the beginning, fell so quickly to the point where it now needs to surrender, which really makes meritorious veterans like Xu Dexun feel sad.

But no matter how sad it is, there is no way to defeat Wu Guo, and now whether the negotiation can be successful, it is difficult to say whether they can find a way to survive for these people, and it is useless to sigh about those past things.

He continued: "It seems that King Wu should want to dry you the high judge first, so that you can feel anxious and uneasy. ”

At the same time, he kept writing the questions he wanted to know on the paper.

After a while, the paper was full, and after reading Gao Yu's reply, Xu Dexun lit the paper full of words on the candle and burned it to ashes, and then took out a new piece of paper and continued to write.

Not only Xu Dexun is asking Gao Yu some questions, Gao Yu also wants to know some news from Xu Dexun.

After all, although Xu Dexun is a captured general and has been in a state of detention, some of their attitudes can also be seen from the treatment of Wu Guoren towards him, which is also very important information for Gao Yu.

It's a pity that the two communicated for a long time, but in the end they were still not sure what Wu Guoren's attitude was towards their peace conference this time, and they didn't know anything about the conditions that Wu Guoren might put forward.

The only thing that can be determined is that the people of Wu will not easily agree to negotiate peace, and the conditions proposed at that time will inevitably be extremely harsh.

This conclusion worries both men.

In the end, the officials who followed Xu Dexun came to urge, and Xu Dexun had no choice but to leave.

"General Xu, but please rest assured, since King Wu didn't directly kill you after you refused to surrender, it means that King Wu has the idea of using you in exchange for some benefits. In the future, the general should have the opportunity to go back to see the king. So during this time, the general will live in Jinling, and the old man will go to see you if he has time! ”

Recalling Gao Yu's parting words, Xu Dexun felt melancholy.

After Gao Yu returned to his room, he was also depressed, and let out a sigh from time to time.

What neither of them knew was that at this moment, at the bottom of their meeting room, a secret agent of the Long Sword Capital crawled out of the secret room, and then scolded stupidly: "These two people are too careful, so I stayed in such a small place as the secret room for so long, and in the end I didn't gain anything at all!" ”

Yes, their reception room had been remodeled, and there was a secret room underneath, and there was a secret passage leading to another courtyard a few dozen paces away.

From the inside of the secret room, you can clearly hear the voices of Gao Yu and the others talking, and even the whispers of the two can be heard clearly.

And the reason why Xu Dexun was allowed to come to visit Gao Yu was also designed in advance, in order to overhear the news that might be revealed during the conversation between the two.

It's a pity that the two of them are so cautious and cautious that they choose to write on paper with great effort, and burn it immediately after writing, leaving no chance to take advantage of it.

In the end, some of the news that the agent overheard was just some unimportant things, and he didn't gain much.