Five miles outside the city of Dengzhou, a Wu army of 10,000 people began to camp in an orderly manner.

As the commander, Zhou Ben led several subordinates and galloped towards the city under the escort of five hundred cavalry.

"Governor, there is a city wall ahead." Li Zhang, the commander who accompanied him, reminded.

Hearing this, Zhou Ben reined in his mount, raised his head, looked at the city wall in the distance, and suddenly sneered with a little disdain.

The walls of this city are magnificently repaired, and many places seem to have been renovated recently, so it is obvious that the history of the assassins here is still more concerned about the defense of the city.

However, what good is the use of the walls being built? There were too few defenders in the city, and most of them were old and weak, demoralized, and fearful, as could be seen only from the pale faces of the defenders on the walls.

"Governor, the last general thinks that today we will build siege equipment, and tomorrow the last general will lead the troops to attack the city, and the city can be taken down in an hour at most." Li Zhang continued.

Zhou Ben smiled and said, "Why bother with the army to conquer? Ben will hear that Li Chun, the assassin in the city, is an honest official, has a good official reputation, and has done a good job in governing the place, wouldn't it be better if he could persuade him to surrender? ”

Attacking the city directly, with the current situation, Zhou Ben believes that even if he can't capture the city in an hour as Li Zhang said, he will definitely be able to take the city in three days at most.

Although this city is strong, but now the defenders in the city are demoralized and scarce, and Li Chun, the assassin of history, was also born as a civilian official, and he is not familiar with military affairs, so it is impossible to block the attack of the Wu army.

But if you can take the city without spending a single soldier, which not only saves time but also reduces casualties, and at the same time can subdue Li Chun, a well-known assassin, this choice is naturally better.

"Send someone to persuade you to surrender." Zhou Ben said calmly.

A moment later, a man with a loud voice, escorted by a few of his own soldiers, rode towards the city wall, and when he ran a hundred paces from the city, he came to a distant halt.

The officer shouted to the people in the city: "Listen to the people in the city, I am told by the order of General Zhou Ben, the governor of Wu State, that you have committed many injustices in the Central Plains, and now my Wang Xing's Northern Expedition of 500,000 troops is intended to level the Central Plains, and those who follow will prosper and those who oppose will die." The assassins and generals in the city, if they can lead their troops to attach, they will definitely be able to reinstate their posts; If you dare to resist again, the army will enter the city, and it will be too late to regret it. ”

The sound of persuasion spread far away, and the city and the city were clearly heard, and for a while, the atmosphere on the city tower became strange.

Although none of the defenders said anything, the eyes of many people were already a little uncertain.

Several officers who commanded the army even secretly looked at Li Chun, the assassin, wondering what his expression was.

It's a pity that Li Chun's face was calm at this time, and he couldn't see any panic on the outside; But what he really thinks in his heart, everyone doesn't know.

"Shoot the arrows!" Li Chun commanded in a calm voice.

"Make the king ......" The generals' faces turned pale, and they all showed a look of wanting to speak and stopping.

"The official said, release the arrow!" Li Chun confirmed again.

The generals were helpless, and then sent crossbowmen to release arrows according to his orders.

At this time, not to mention that Zhou Ben and the others are still far away from the city wall, even the few people who persuaded them to surrender under the city are also some distance from the city wall, and it is obviously impossible to hurt them with arrows at this time, at most it is just to show their attitude.

"Dudu, it seems that Li Chun chose to resist to the end!" Seeing this situation, Li Zhang whispered.

"Resist to the end? No! He was hesitating. Zhou Ben smiled disapprenousively: "If he is really determined to resist to the end, why pretend to let people release arrows?" ”

"Someone." After a moment, he whispered to the guards beside him.

Immediately, a guard stepped forward, and Zhou Ben ordered: "Go and tell them, just say that Ben will give them a day, and if they don't surrender after a day, they will attack the city immediately, and Ben will not accept those who surrender at that time!" ”

"Yes." When the guard received the order, he hurriedly stepped forward to pass the order he had given to the officer who persuaded him to surrender, and then the officer shouted to him.

After doing all this, Zhou Ben took the guards around the city for another week, carefully checked the situation of the city defense, and returned to the camp after knowing what to expect.

"Dudu, do you think Li Chun will choose to surrender in the end?" On the way, Li Zhang still asked with some doubts.

"How does Ben know? The road is given to him, and it is up to him to choose how he chooses. Although this person has a good official reputation and has a good performance in governing the place, the king also said that if he surrenders to such a assassin, he can continue to retain, but if this person chooses to resist to the end, then he can only kill the killer. ”

Zhou Ben has been guarding Xiangzhou for many years, and he has some knowledge of the history of assassination in several states near Liang State, and even has a certain understanding of those middle-level officials, so he has prepared a plan to deal with these people in advance.

Night falls.

Under the moonlight, the besieged city of Dengzhou was silent, except for the patrol soldiers on the city, the continuous bonfires and camps in the Wu army camp outside the city made people frightened, and a string was tense all day.

In the Assassin's Mansion, Li Chun walked back and forth in the room uneasily.

"Envoy, the Wu army suddenly went on a northern expedition, with great momentum, and it was the famous general Zhou of Wu, and now the defenders in the city were less than 2,000 people; If you don't surrender the city as soon as possible, it will be difficult to get good results when you attack the city tomorrow...... Even if you send someone to ask the court for help, I'm afraid that no one in the court will be able to send troops to support. Li Chun's confidant Zhou Zhuang cautiously persuaded.

As the war between Liang and Jin failed one after another, the state of Wu was growing stronger, as early as a few years ago, many people felt that once Wu went on a northern expedition, the Central Plains would no longer be owned by Liang; It's just that Wu Guo has not moved in the past few years, so that these assassins from all over the world have a heart.

However, what should come will always come, and now that the Wu army suddenly went on a northern expedition, it was impossible for the defenders in Dengzhou City to block the enemy, and the situation on the imperial court side was even worse, and it was impossible to send troops to rescue Dengzhou.

How could Li Chun not know such a truth.

It's just that Li Chun is the assassin of Dengzhou, especially since he is a scholar, unlike those generals, he still has some loyalty in his heart, and if he surrenders without a fight, he is really unwilling.

"Envoy, the strength of the Wu army must also make the monarch understand, if the envoy insists on not surrendering, once the Wu army breaks through the city, I am afraid that the soldiers and civilians in the city will be affected, wouldn't this damage the envoy's love for the people? Therefore, the old man felt that it was better for the envoy to surrender directly to protect the soldiers and civilians in the city. Zhou Zhuang continued to persuade.

Li Chun hadn't made up his mind when he heard this, and at this time, the guards came to report and said, "Envoy, all the generals outside have arrived." ”

Li Chun hurriedly said, "Then let them all come in." ”

"Yes."

After a while, a group of officers walked in under the leadership of the leader, and as soon as they saw Li Chun, all the generals knelt down and said: "I implore you to put the safety of the people in the city first and ask the Wu army to surrender!" ”

"What are you ......" Li Chun was stunned for a moment, and suddenly understood that all the generals were unwilling to resist.

Seeing this, he couldn't help but sigh and said, "That's it, let's come down tomorrow!" ”

Early the next morning, Li Chun personally led the guards in the city, with the official seal given to him by the Liang court, to the Wu army camp to surrender to Zhou Ben.

As previously agreed, Zhou Ben directly appointed him to continue to serve as the assassin of Dengzhou, and waited until he settled down in the future to make further disposal.

Just when Dengzhou surrendered to the Wu army, Junzhou to the west of Dengzhou and Qinzhou to the east both surrendered shortly after the arrival of the Wu army.

According to the arrangements made by the Wu court before the war, Zhou Ben disposed of the officials in these two places respectively, some of them continued to be retained, some of them were sent to the south to serve, and some of the officials with poor reputations.

This method of disposal brought two different effects for a while, the first effect was that those who were usually relatively decent officials were now relieved, knowing that Wu Guo would not be too harsh on them, and would continue to be used even if they surrendered; But the other officials who usually acted indiscriminately became frightened at this time, and one by one they suddenly extinguished the idea of surrendering and began to think about how to resist the Wu army.

In addition to the impact on Liang officials, another effect of Zhou Ben's disposal plan was the enthusiastic support of ordinary people for the arrival of Wu Jun.

In the past few years, the Liang State and the Jin State have been defeated in wars for many years, even if the Liang State has a thick foundation and can withstand consumption, but it has to do its best to exploit the people, making the lives of ordinary people difficult.

According to rumors, the people of Wu have a relatively easy life, and the average family will have some surplus, and the burden on their shoulders is relatively low; In addition, Wu attaches great importance to civil governance and does a better job than Liang in terms of local governance, so for the people of the Central Plains, they have long been envious of the people of Wu, and in recent years, people have been going south to join Wu.

Originally, these people were worried about whether there would be any killings of the people during the Wu Army's Northern Expedition, but now they are finally relieved that the Wu Army's military discipline is very good, and there is basically no disturbance to the people.

Not only that, but the officials of the Liang State who were the common people before were severely punished by the Wu State, which was a great joy for ordinary people.

This alone made Wu quickly gain the support of these people.

Compared with winning the hearts and minds of the people, the resolute resistance of those officials who usually act mischiefly was less important to the state of Wu.

This is just as Yang Wu said at the beginning, rather than letting this part of the "dregs" infiltrate the Wu court, continue to poison the people, and have a bad impact on the original officials of Wu State, it is better to resolutely eliminate these people from the beginning.

In Yang Wu's view, in history, Li Cunqiao relied on surprise attacks to defeat the Liang State in one fell swoop, which certainly saved him a lot of trouble, and officials from all over the Liang State surrendered to him one after another, but this kind of comprehensive acceptance of the good and the bad also led to the rapid corruption of the Later Tang Dynasty, and left hidden dangers for the subsequent rebellions in various places.

And now, although Wu's methods will encounter more trouble, consume more time, and pay more costs in the short term, it will be worth it in the long run.

While the Wu army on the western front captured Dengzhou, Qinzhou, and Junzhou without blood, Li Jian's army on the eastern front from Shouzhou and Gwangju also progressed smoothly, and one of the assassins in Yingzhou and Caizhou surrendered to the Wu army, while the other abandoned the city and fled before the Wu army arrived.

Only Cao Zhilian, the defender of Pingxing County under Caizhou, was afraid of Wu after learning about the way Wu dealt with these Liang officials, and he couldn't escape, so he led the defenders to resist resolutely.

However, after all, the Wu army is powerful, and Pingxing County is only a small county town, the defenders in the city are less than a thousand, and the city is dilapidated, and there is not much grain and grass in savings, so after being attacked by the Wu army, the city was broken in only three days, and the Liang soldiers who defended the city with Cao Zhi were all killed.

This kind of strong tactics undoubtedly has a strong deterrent effect on those who are lucky, and makes them understand that there is only one way to die if they continue to resist.

In this way, except for those who are really guilty of the worst crimes, the will to resist is suddenly much weaker when there is no hope; Even those who knew that they had committed a serious crime would no longer choose to resist, but fled north before the arrival of the Wu army.

Sixty miles west of Songzhou City, Huajiazhuang, Liang army camp.

Huo Yanwei sent all his generals out, leaving only himself and a scribe to discuss.

"Wu Jun has not moved for so many years; Now, once the Northern Expedition is launched, it will inevitably be huge, and the military strength invested is extremely strong, and our army cannot be defeated. Judging from the news obtained now, the Bozhou side has been occupied by the Wu army, and Wen Tao's whereabouts are unknown. Xiayi, Juxian and other places in Songzhou were occupied by the Wu army, and the current situation is extremely unfavorable to us, I don't know why Mr. taught me? Huo Yanwei asked with a solemn face.

The scribe in front of him is his confidant Chun Yuyan.

This person ascended to the top with the Ming Scripture, and followed Huo Yanwei before he was developed; Once Huo Yanwei was defeated, the army was scattered, and the others fled for their lives, but Chun Yu Yan followed on foot with a sword.

Since then, Huo Yanwei has attached great importance to this confidant, and he has to discuss big and small matters before making decisions.

Huo Yanwei originally didn't know how to read, but he was a typical martial artist, because of Chun Yuyan's assistance, he was able to govern the local area in an orderly manner when guarding various places, and was praised by the people, which was all due to Chun Yuyan.

He stroked his beard, frowned and groaned for a long time before he spoke: "The general thinks that with the strength of Liang and Wu now, which one is stronger?" ”

"Naturally, Wu is stronger." Huo Yanwei replied without thinking about it.

He is now talking to his confidants, so he naturally says whatever he thinks, and he will not have any scruples.

"So which of the two countries is stronger in terms of military strength?"

"If the military strength is compared, the Wu army is also stronger; But if there is no Jin army's containment, our army may not be able to stop the Wu army. Huo Yanwei replied after a moment of silence.