"Zhang Lu! Your people are suffering outside the city! Why did you turn them away from the people who shed their blood for you? ”

Liu Bei was outside the city gate, raised his head and said loudly to Zhang Lu on the city tower.

Zhang Lu looked at the man standing under the city tower, and saw that the man had strange ears, a white face, and was quite handsome, so he knew that this person was Liu Bei. He said loudly to Liu Bei on the city tower: "Liu Xuande, I have no grievances with you, you are now Liu Jingsheng's minions, persecuting my disciples to be in this situation, and you are shameless to ask me." If I open the gates, how many of my followers will die at your hands. Forehead! ”

Ma Hong laughed and said: "Sect Leader Zhang, Ma has a word of advice, you are a county to resist the imperial court, and the fall of the city is a matter of time, why not surrender to the Han as soon as possible." I can give you a way out. ”

Zhang Lu said angrily: "The son of milky smell, dare to let me descend." ”

"Sect Leader Zhang! Don't be anxious, if you surrender to the Han, I promise you to continue to preach your teachings. If we wait for Liu Yizhou's army to arrive and break the city with us, we will ...... then."

Ma Hong didn't finish his words, this is a threat, a **** naked threat.

Zhang Lu's face changed, Ma Hong's eyesight was not so good, but the sharpshooters Gan Ning and Zhao Yun's eyesight was very good, and they could clearly see that Zhang Lu's face became embarrassed.

Seeing that Zhang Lu did not answer, Ma Hong continued: "Your believers are also for my Han people, as Han Chen, how can we kill my Han people, you can open the city gate with confidence and let my Han people enter the city, and I, Ma, promise that I will never take the opportunity to attack the city." ”

Zhang Luyi frowned, looked at Ma Hong downstairs in the city, and said secretly: What kind of conspiracy is this kid playing?

Liu Bei said softly to Ma Hong: "Does the military advisor want to let the people into the city?" But that's fine! I don't want to threaten people's lives. ”

Gan Ning asked softly in confusion: "Military advisor, have you sent soldiers to blend in with the people?" ”

"Does Xingba think that I will send soldiers to blend in with the people, trick Zhang Lu into opening the city gate, and then take the opportunity to take the city gate and let my army enter the city?" Ma Hong chuckled.

Gan Ning nodded.

Ma Hong chuckled slightly: "This is what Zhang Lu is thinking at the moment!" I just promised not to attack the city, and he didn't dare to let his followers into the city easily, and then the trust he had brought with his followers' speeches was cleared again. ”

"Did the military division send soldiers to blend in with the people?"

Zhao Yun also asked.

"Nope!" Ma Hong replied, took a step forward and faced the people, took off the bamboo tube from his waist as a horn, and shouted to the people: "The people of the Han Dynasty! Rest assured, enter the city, and I promise that I will never take the opportunity to attack the city. Now ask your master to open the gates for you. ”

After Ma Hong finished speaking, he waved his hand and ordered the withdrawal of the army, and the army retreated two miles, quietly watching what Zhang Lu should do.

Of course, now Zhang Lu has two choices.

First, if the city gates are not opened, then he will lose a large number of believers.

Second, take the risk of opening the gates.

Of course, after opening the city gates, there are two options.

First, do not do any checks, and let the people into the city.

Second, before the gates of the city were opened, let the demons check the people and find out the soldiers who were mixed with the people.

Third, after bringing the people into the city, they gathered them together, and then checked them one by one, and the people in the city let them go, not the people who killed them.

Opening the city gate is a risky choice, the second and third seem to be more cautious, but Ma Hong dares to be sure that Zhang Lu will open the city gate, and the soldier chooses the second or third choice to open the city gate, as the lord of faith, what he needs is faith, so he will definitely open the city gate.

But! Faith, to put it simply, is just believing, the believers regard Zhang Lu as a god, and at the same time, they also feel that if they believe in the sect leader, there is no action against the sect leader, they also believe that the sect leader will believe them. In the final analysis, faith is just the mutual belief of gods and people, but Zhang Lu is not a god, he is a human, so Zhang Lu will not let all the people go without checking, he will definitely check, then the trust between them will be depreciated, since it is devalued, then the believers will not help Zhang Lu defend the city as wholeheartedly as before, and what Ma Hong did was to make such a thing happen.

Zhang Lu chose to open the city, and after opening the city and letting the people into the city, he chose to send heavy troops to surround the people, and then check them one by one, he didn't want to check outside the city, he was afraid of provoking a civil uprising.

It didn't matter if Zhang Lu sent someone to investigate, but this investigation found something that he couldn't believe, the ghost pawn found a lot of gold and a letter from a believer, the letter was a letter written by Ma Hong to Yan Pu. Ma Hong wrote in the letter that if Yan Pu could persuade Zhang Lu to surrender, if Zhang Lu did not surrender, he would ask Yan Pu to secretly assist the Jingzhou army to break through the city, and then Liu Biao would make Yan Pu the Taishou of Hanzhong, and also promised to give Yan Pu 30,000 gold.

Yan Pu is the deputy leader of the Wudoumi Sect and Zhang Lu's right-hand man, this may be Ma Hong's conspiracy, Zhang Lu thought so, after he searched out a letter, he closed the news. Except for Zhang Lu's direct ghost, no one knew about it, and Zhang Lu put the letter away. Pretended to have nothing to do and went home.

As soon as Zhang Lu returned to the house, he invited Yan Pu over, and then sighed and was silent for a long time.

Yan Pu also heard about Zhang Lu's scolding with Liu Bei on the city wall, so he told Zhang Lu that he had gathered many believers to help defend the city. After Zhang Lu and Yan Pu also talked about some things about teaching and government affairs, they suddenly asked Yan Pu: "Yan Pu, you have been with me for a long time!" ”

"It's been twelve years." Yan Pu Road.

"Then Yan Pu, I want to ask you a question, I hope you will answer truthfully." Zhang Ludao.

"Excuse me, teacher." Yan Pu didn't know what Zhang Lu was going to trap him, so he said.

"Now that Nanzheng is besieged, do you think we should surrender or continue to defend it?" Zhang Lu asked.

Yan Pu pondered for a while, and said slowly: "Department Master, to tell you the truth, I think it is better to surrender than to continue to resist, if you wait for Liu Zhang's army to arrive, if you want to surrender when the time comes, you can't." ”

Zhang Lu's hand in his sleeve was clenched tightly, and his face remained unchanged and he continued to ask: "Why do you think so, we really can't hold it?" ”

Yan Pu sighed: "Attack from three sides, Jingzhou has nearly 100,000 armor, and there has been no major war for many years, even if we hold this attack, if Jingzhou comes to reinforce the army, we will have no soldiers to resist, and now there are less than 4,000 soldiers in Nanzheng City, and I am afraid that the believers will not be able to hold it." ”

Zhang Lu nodded and said, "Then do you think I want to surrender, who should I surrender?" ”

Yan Pu said without thinking: "Jingzhou, Liu Zhang has a grudge with the department teacher, Xiliang doesn't think about it. ”

That's the way it goes! That's the way it goes! But Yan Pu, now how do you tell me to believe you? How to believe in you! Zhang Lu asked Yan Pu again: "Then if I want to negotiate with Jingzhou, who do you think is better to send to negotiate?" ”

"Yan Pu is willing to go!" Yan Pu propped his hands on the ground, his head against the ground, and asked Zhang Lu to salute his head.

Zhang Lu looked at Yan Pu who was prostrate on the ground, his eyes flashed with tears, his nose twitched, the corners of his mouth trembled and straightened up, looked at the door, opened his mouth, did not speak, opened his mouth again, and closed his mouth again.

Yan Pu was prostrate on the ground, he didn't see Zhang Lu speak for a long time, he raised his head to look at Zhang Lu, but found that Zhang Lu was staring at him, he couldn't help but lower his head again, when he lowered his head. Zhang Lu shouted: Someone!

Yang Huo, the leader of the ghost guards guarding the door, pushed the door in with five ghost pawns, and Yang Huo knelt down and said to Zhang Lu: "Master, what do you command?" ”

Zhang Lu waved his hand and pointed at Yan Pu and said, "Take down the traitor for me." ”

Yan Pu was shocked, and Yang Huo was also shocked, but the sect leader's order could not be disobeyed, and he led people to take down Yan Pu.

Yan Pu was puzzled and said loudly: "Department teacher, what crime do I have? Why do you say I'm a traitor? ”

Zhang Lu took out a letter from his arms and threw it on the ground, saying, "See for yourself!" ”

Yan Pu knelt on the ground, struggling, stretched out his hand to pick up the letter, after reading the letter, he was already paralyzed on the ground, he raised his head and looked at Zhang Lu and said word by word: "Department teacher, it's been twelve years, can't you believe me?" ”

"I want to believe you too, but now how do you tell me to believe you, is it possible that you want to tell me that this is Ma Hong's ploy? Is it? Zhang Lu asked loudly.

Yan Pu was cold, slumped, tears flowed out, he knew that no matter how he explained now, Zhang Lu would not believe him. (To be continued.) )