"You kings of Chu have always been strong and strong, and have been enemies of our country for many years. Now that I sent you to Jinling, I don't know if I came to negotiate peace or to negotiate surrender? ”

"If it's for the sake of surrender, then you can go back! You and I have been fighting for many years, and I don't know how many soldiers our army has lost, and it is impossible for me to negotiate peace with Ma Yin! ”

"If he is willing to surrender to Lone, then Lone can listen to the conditions he Ma Yin proposed!" After a salute, Yang Wudang asked with a calm face.

This is the first time he has come into contact with Gao Yu, so it is natural to be stronger, and it is best to make Gao Yu feel that he does not have the slightest idea of negotiation, so that he can gain the upper hand in the actual negotiation process in the future.

Gao Yu was shocked for a moment, and then thought a little bitterly: "Sure enough, wanting to negotiate peace is simply an extravagant hope, and there is only a little possibility of negotiating peace." ”

When they discussed with Ma Yin and others in Shaozhou, a small number of people had not yet thoroughly seen the situation, and they still had some illusions in their hearts, thinking that they could negotiate peace with Wu State, so that Chu State could be preserved.

However, most people, including Ma Yin, felt that the possibility was too small, and it was impossible for Yang Wu to let an enemy who had fought with him for more than ten years continue to exist, and only by negotiating surrender could it be realized.

So at the very beginning, Ma Yin was ready to remove the title of King of Chu and the title of Admiral Tiance.

At this time, hearing Yang Wu mention it, Gao Yu replied very directly: "The foreign minister came to Jinling to discuss the surrender!" The king of my family thinks that the strength of the Wu army is strong, and it is difficult for our army to be the enemy, so my king is willing to surrender to the king, and voluntarily remove the title of the king of Chu, and hope that the king can give a place for tens of thousands of soldiers of our army to have a place to live! ”

Whether it is Ma Yin or Gao Yu, they are all practical people, although they also value face, but now that they have reached the point where they are now, the so-called face naturally can't be taken care of.

What's more, judging from the actual situation, it is inevitable to remove the king and ask Wu Guo to surrender obediently, even if it is not mentioned now, it will inevitably be mentioned in the future negotiations.

So it's better to be generous now, say it without any disguise, and at least show your sincerity.

Sure enough, listening to Gao Yu's blunt statement "coming for the discussion", and clearly mentioning that Ma Yin was willing to give up the title of King of Chu, all the ministers of Wu in the court suddenly had some smiles on their faces after hearing this.

And Yang Wu's face also improved a lot, "This Gao Yu is a person who understands, and he knows that speaking out now is better than saying it when the situation forces him to say it in the future." ”

He nodded solemnly and said: "Since it is a surrender, it is inevitable to remove the title of King Chu, and in addition, the title of Admiral Tiance must also be removed!" ”

"Admiral Tiance, that is the title of Emperor Taizong in the past, how can Ma Yin and De dare to compete with Emperor Taizong?" Yang Wu said coldly.

Wu is still under the banner of reviving the Tang Dynasty anyway, and Tang Taizong's status in the Tang Dynasty naturally goes without saying.

Ma Yin was canonized by Zhu Wen and got the title of Admiral Tiance, Yang Wu naturally would not admit it.

Gao Yu also understood this truth, so he replied directly without any excuse: "What the king said is very true, the title of Admiral Tiance really shouldn't be obtained by a minister!" ”

Yang Wu's face improved a little when he heard this, it is convenient to negotiate with people who understand, if you negotiate with those confused people, and you have to quarrel on such a key issue, it will be annoying.

He softened his tone and continued: "Since Ma Yin is willing to remove the title of King of Chu and the title of Admiral Tiance, then Gu should still call him the title of the envoy of the Wu'an Army." ”

"Your marshal and my father are people of the same generation, and you and I have been in grievances for more than 20 years since Sun Confucian's troubles in Jianghuai, and I don't know how many losses our army has suffered."

"Now if he wants to return, I don't know what conditions he proposed?"

Seeing that Gao Yu was so aware of current affairs, Yang Wu did not say anything empty or false, nor did he propose to ask him to surrender unconditionally, but asked Gao Yu for conditions very realistically.

Gao Yu has been staying in his room for so many days, thinking either about how to meet Yang Wu, or thinking about how to deal with his problems after seeing Yang Wu.

However, he obviously didn't expect Yang Wu to start asking about the conditions so directly at this time, and he was stunned for a moment.

Fortunately, after all, Gao Yu is also a person who has taken on important responsibilities in the Chu State, and he naturally has the ability to adapt.

He immediately came to his senses and said, "My lord, my family marshal has put forward a total of four conditions. ”

"In addition to the removal of the title just proposed, my family marshal is also willing to cede the entire Hunan except Shaozhou, as well as Jingjiang Prefectures and Langzhou, and only retain the four states of Lizhou, Shaozhou, Chenzhou, and Huizhou as the place of our army's rest!"

"In addition, my family is willing to pay a tribute of one million dollars to the king every year."

"As for the last point, my marshal is willing to guard the southwest for the king, and at the same time, if the king asks, our army is willing to fight for the king!"

Although the conditions promised by Ma Yin when he was in Shaozhou were much more lenient than these, Gao Yu was not a fool, so he naturally would not explain his bottom line as soon as he opened his mouth.

Listening to these conditions put forward by Gao Yu, Yang Wu suddenly sneered in his heart, "I thought you were a smart person just now, but I didn't expect to play tricks in a blink of an eye!" ”

He smiled a little disappreciatively and said, "Ma Yin's conditions are really not good, is he treating Gu as a fool?" ”

"What the king said is extremely true, if Ma Yin only has such a little sincerity, then you can also go back, high judge."

"Ma Yin is too insincere, or does he still think that he can't hold an army of 100,000?"

"At the beginning, the first king of my family wanted to negotiate peace with Ma Yin, but he didn't listen at that time; Now that he wants to come to negotiate surrender, he dares to put forward such a condition, it seems that the lesson given to him is not enough! Your Majesty, please send some additional troops to Hunan! ”

On the side, Chen Yanqian and other ministers also began to denounce.

Li Chengsi sneered on the side: "Our army only attacked Langzhou with 40,000 troops this time, and I heard that Ma Yin still has 40,000 or 50,000 troops in his hands, so you might as well gather them all and have a decisive battle with our army, maybe you can defeat our army?" ”

Gao Yu's face was a little embarrassed when he heard this, and at the same time he thought in his heart: "Concentrate your forces to fight a decisive battle with the Wu army?" How can it be! If they fail again and lose the army, I am afraid that without the Wu army sending troops, those barbarians will rise up and rebel first! ”

Of course, he knew that Wu Guoren was not so easy to dismiss, so he decided to release more conditions.

However, at this moment, Yang Wu spoke.

"Since Ma Yin wants to surrender, and the conditions he proposed can't satisfy Gu, then Gu doesn't want to talk nonsense with you, you better go back and think about it first and then come to see Gu!"

He didn't talk nonsense with Gao Yu and sent it away, this summons was just a routine matter, just have some preliminary conversations, there is no need to go into too much detail.

What's more, the specific negotiation matters are also for the ministers below to contact Gao Yu, and Yang Wu, as a king, will naturally not surrender his identity to argue with Gao Yu.

Yang Wudu gave an order to let him go, and Gao Yu had no choice but to ask him to resign.

Although this meeting did not achieve any results, Gao Yu finally met Yang Wu after coming to Jinling, and the matter of surrender also started, and he was no longer as clueless as before.

In addition, he was also told that his residence had changed, and now he was arranged to live with Wang Dingbao and other envoys, all of whom lived in the place used by the Ministry of Rites to entertain foreign envoys, and his living conditions had improved a lot.

"Well, the place where I live is finally on par with Wang Dingbao and other envoys, which shows that Wu Guoren is ready to officially contact the old man, which is a good start."

Unfortunately, to Gao Yu's disappointment, when he was about to meet Yang Wu again a day later, he was told again that Yang Wu had military affairs to do and did not have time to summon him.

At the same time, Chen Yanqian and others also perfunctory him again as before.

This result surprised Gao Yu and became more anxious at the same time.

"Last time, I used such a scoundrel way to let King Wu summon the old man once, do you want to use the same method again this time?"

Gao Yu was a little unsure of what Yang Wu thought, but that kind of scoundrel method was just used once, and it would be too embarrassing to use it many times.

What's more, since Yang Wu made it clear that he didn't want to see him at this time, even if he met Yang Wu, it would be useless.

"It seems that this is the last time I met King Wu, and the conditions proposed by the old man were too low, so King Wu was dissatisfied!"

Although he was anxious in his heart, this time he could only wait for the news, and at the same time thought in his heart how many conditions he should give in after seeing Yang Wu next time.

After a few more days, Yang Wu still didn't mean to summon him, but Ma Yin couldn't wait.

It has been nearly a month since Gao Yu arrived in Jinling, and it was okay to say at first, but after a long time, Ma Yin naturally felt a little anxious.

Especially in the middle, the Wu army sent troops to attack Langzhou, which made Ma Yin even more shocked.

The total strength of the Chu army is only a little, and the battle of Tanzhou has just ended, and many soldiers are very tired and need to rest.

However, the Wu army was a new force, and the morale was like a rainbow, Ma Yin did not dare to fight with it at all, so he could only send some troops to defend the city, and at the same time send messengers to ask what was going on.

Facing the pressure from Ma Yin's side, Gao Yu naturally felt more anxious.

Fortunately, two days later, Yang Wu finally summoned him again.

The venue of this summons was not the court meeting of the Central Pole Hall, but the Huagai Hall where the cabinet was selected.

At this time, many scholars and scholars of the cabinet were already present, and some officials of the Ministry of Rites were present to take notes.

After the ceremony, Yang Wu also did not go around in circles this time, but said very directly:

"Gao Yu, I summoned you this time, and I won't talk nonsense with you."

"There are five conditions for Lonely, if Ma Yin agrees, this proposal can continue; If not, then the proposal will be stopped! You can also go back and tell Ma Yin as soon as possible, so that he can prepare for the battle with Lone! ”

Gao Yu was shocked in his heart, and hurriedly said: "I don't know which five conditions they are, please show it to the king!" ”

Yang Wuchong nodded at Zhou Zong, the general secretary beside him.

Zhou Zong hurriedly stood up, he took out a document in his hand, opened it and read it: "The five conditions proposed by the king of my family, the first point is that Ma Yin must remove the two titles of King Chu and Admiral Tiance, and accept the official position of the king of my family canonized for him!" ”

After saying the first article, Zhou Zong paused, and at the same time glanced at Gao Yu, and then continued: "Second, Ma Yin must cede all the prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of the three towns of Wuzhen, Jingjiang, and Wu'an, and only keep Chenzhou and Jizhou!" ”

Gao Yu's heart suddenly sank.

The first condition is due righteousness, since it is surrender, then it is natural to remove the titles of the king of Chu and the general of Tiance.

However, the second condition is a bit harsh, the six states of Jingjiang, the five states of Hunan, and the two states of Wuzhen, this is the land of thirteen states.

If it is really ceded to Wu State, it will completely cede most of the territory, and it is still thirteen states with relatively high population and development, and the remaining two states are simply barren areas with few people.

Of course, although this condition is strict, it is also expected before, and Ma Yin also said that only Chenzhou and Jizhou can be retained, and all other areas can be ceded out.

After all, Ma Yin's control over these areas was somewhat insufficient, and the five states of Hunan were a little better, but the eight states of the Jingjiang Army and the Wuzhen Army were only nominally occupied.

At the beginning, not long after he captured the two towns of Wuzhen and Jingjiang, he was faced with a powerful offensive by the Huainan army, and he had no time and energy to purge the local forces, and could only maintain a nominal rule.

Therefore, Ma Yin can't get much oil and water from these areas, and even if he cedes it to Wu State, he won't be too distressed.

And the second and more important point is that Ma Yin also understands that it is impossible for Wu to let him continue to occupy Hunan, which has a high degree of development, so the land of Hunan must be ceded to Wu.

After Hunan was ceded, the five states of Jingjiang in the south were isolated, and even if Wu left these five states to Ma Yin, it would be difficult for him to maintain his possession of this "enclave".

In this way, after the cession of Hunan, there is no need for the five states of Jingjiang to stay.

Therefore, this second condition is barely acceptable to Ma Yin.

However, what makes Gao Yu anxious is that the second condition is so strict, so how strict should the third, fourth, and fifth conditions be?

"The third point is that after the surrender, Ma Yin's forces should be limited......"

"Fourth, in order to ensure that Ma Yin will not betray ...... in the future"

"Point 5......"

Zhou Zong didn't care about Gao Yu's increasingly gloomy face, but read out the remaining three in one go.

These five points are naturally the five necessary conditions that Yang Wu and others discussed at the beginning.

Yang Wu felt that since these five points were the premise of the proposal, there was no need to cover them up, and they could be raised directly to Gao Yu, which would also make him recognize the situation.