Liu Hong's death in battle meant that he was one step closer to the loss of Hangu Pass, and the deputy general at the head of the city saw this, sighed and shouted: "I am willing to surrender, I am willing to surrender."

At this moment, the morale of the defenders collapsed to the extreme, and with the two shouts of the adjutant general, he threw away his weapons, and many defenders also lost their weapons, and the battle picture instantly froze.

Eventually, more and more of the defenders lost their weapons, and those who hesitated to lose their weapons were killed by Cao Ju's soldiers, and the battle was soon over.

Cao Ju entered Hangu Pass, and on the one hand, he sent people to take over the city defense, and on the other hand, he sent people to count the casualties and prisoners.

The battle proceeded quickly, and the casualties on both sides were not large, Cao Ju suffered 800 casualties, the defenders suffered 2,000 casualties, and the remaining 8,000 all surrendered to Cao Ju.

Eight thousand people is indeed not a small number, even if there are more than 30,000 people under Cao Ju's command, at least 3,000 people must be assigned to guard these 8,000 troops.

In the past, the defeat of Ganning was not far away, so the disposal of these 8,000 troops has become a top priority at the moment, otherwise, even if Cao Ju rested, the troops sent to Tongguan, in case the Hangu Pass surrendered troops and rebelled, the news reached Tongguan, and Cao Ju fell between Hangu Pass and Tongguan, which was definitely a dead end.

In the mansion of the guard general of Hangu Pass, Cao Ju sat in the center, the left and right were civil and military, and the one kneeling in the middle was the deputy general who surrendered.

Cao Ju said lightly: "Tell me, how to deal with these 8,000 soldiers?"

The first to express his opinion was Yan Zhong, his eyes narrowed, and he said gloomily: "For the sake of the lord's plan, we should kill all the 8,000 soldiers, and then send the troops to Tongguan, and then take Chang'an."

"Ah......" When the surrendered deputy general heard this, he couldn't help but be taken aback, raised his head, glanced at Yan Zhong, and hurriedly shouted, "The horses spare their lives, and the last general and the others are sincere surrenders, and there are no two hearts." ”

Xi Zhong listened to it and asked, "How can you prove your words?"

"This ......" the lieutenant general froze, indeed, this is really difficult to prove.

Xi Zhong smiled slightly, and asked again: "General Sun, how many of these 8,000 soldiers are brothers, and how many are fathers and sons, do you know?"

The deputy general was stunned for a moment, not understanding what Xi Zhong meant, and hurriedly said: "Lord Hui, there are records on the military strategy."

Cao Ju seemed to understand what Xi Zhong meant, waved his hand and said, "Bonan, Zilian, and you followed General Sun to get troops and came here."

"Whoa." Qin Shao and Cao Hong responded, and took the deputy general to get troops.

After the three of them went down, He Hao asked Cao Ju, "Could it be that the lord has a strategy to break through the Tong Pass?"

Cao Ju said with a smile: "Yes, just wait for the soldiers to take it, and see how many brothers and fathers are together among these 8,000 people, how many fathers and sons are together, and the lonely strategy can be implemented."

The guard of Hangu Pass is Liu Hong, just an outsider, and Xi Zhong's plan to deceive the pass can be successfully implemented, but the same strategy is used in Tongguan, and the guard will be Dong Zhuo's son-in-law Niu Fu, and the strategy will definitely fail.

Yan Zhong asked, "Lord, these eight thousand soldiers ......?"

Cao Ju didn't wait for Yan Zhong to finish speaking, then waved his hand and said: "Don't kill it, in the future, the land of Sanfu and Liangzhou will be the foundation of our army, and among these 8,000 people, most of them are Yongliang locals, if you kill them, I am afraid that we will sit on Yongliang and be unstable in the future, and we must not kill them."

Du Xun also nodded and said: "What the lord said is very true, in the future, if there are surrendered troops, they must not be killed, and once the lord attacks Yongliang, these surrendered troops will lose their old master, and they will sincerely obey the lord."

Huang Zhong also hugged his fists and said: "My lord, the last general also advocates not killing and surrendering troops, thinking that he will plan for the future."

Subsequently, Cao Ren and other generals also expressed their attitude, and Cao Ju nodded with a smile and said: "In this case, Gu will follow the general trend, do not kill and surrender troops, seize Tongguan with a strange plan, and enter Chang'an."

Du Xi said with a smile: "Lord, then Han Sui and Ma Teng have long had the intention of plotting Xiliang, but Dong Zhuo is not dead, these two people dare not act rashly, but if the lord invades the land of Sanfu and excavates the foundation of Dong Thief, then Han Sui and Ma Teng will definitely be moved."

He Hao nodded and said: "That's right, the lord occupies the land of Sanfu, and he can block the army of Dong thieves for the two of them, why not do it." Moreover, if the Dong thief perishes, these two people can attack Chang'an when they enter, and they can defend the land of Xiliang when they retreat. ”

Cao Peng asked: "Lord, in this way, isn't it a matter of raising tigers?"

said with a smile in the play: "General Zixiong is not in a hurry, Han Sui and Ma Teng, the clown who jumped the beam, how can he be the opponent of the lord, hehe, as long as the land of Sanfu is calm, the land of Xiliang will be owned by the lord sooner or later." At that time, the lord sat in the land of Guanzhong, went south to Tubashu, and went east to determine the Central Plains, which was the trend of the unification of the Qin State. ”

The words in the play have completely named Cao Ju's future development path, and the rest of the strategists basically went west after Cao Ju got out of Luoyang, and basically understood Cao Ju's purpose. However, not all of these generals know that when they hear what is said in the play at this moment, they are all overjoyed.

Entering Guanzhong in the west, going to Bashu in the south, and setting the Central Plains in the east, all of them are opportunities for them to make contributions, just imagine which military general is not happy.

Cao Peng immediately grinned and said: "Wonderful, wonderful, from now on, our generals will have the opportunity to go into battle to kill the enemy, well, you adults also have a time to make contributions, I am equally happy, happy."

Cao Ju was also happy in his heart, he had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time, Dong Zhuo and the Kwantung princes were fighting hotly, he got out and went west to capture the land of Sanfu, Dong Zhuo would definitely not be able to take care of it. And once the land of Sanfu is pacified, as long as Tongguan and Hangu Pass can be guarded, unless Dong Zhuo's army of four or five hundred thousand is forced to attack, otherwise, it is absolutely impossible for Dong Zhuo to recapture the land of Sanfu.

Since the 8,000 soldiers decided not to kill, Cao Ju classified the 8,000 soldiers according to the suggestions in the play, the one who was alone as a soldier was about 1,000 people, the one with a family in Xiliang was about 4,000 people, and the one with a family in Sanfu was about 3,000 people.

Cao Ju left behind 3,000 people from his family in the land of Sanfu, and sent Huang Zhong to lead an army of 5,000 to stay at Hangu Pass.

In the other two categories, Cao Ju selected a thousand fathers, sons and brothers who were in the army, and left the sons and brothers in the army, and the five hundred people of the father and brother were led by the deputy general Sun and went to Tongguan to think that they should be in the army.

After the army was repaired for two days, early on the morning of the third day, Cao Juqin led an army of 30,000 and marched towards Tongguan in a mighty manner.

In order to ensure the speed of the march, Cao Ju left all his family members at Hangu Pass, and left the guard battalion under the command of Dian Wei and Shi Ah to protect their safety.