The battle between iron and blood was over, and with the sun rising in the east, it was all over. The pen & fun & pavilion www.biquge.info Taniguchi, which is the battlefield, is already full of corpses. Many of them are from Shi Xie's side, and many of them are from Li Sheng's side. The battle had just ended, and Li Sheng had not had time to clean up the battlefield.

"The mourning soldiers will win. Although in the environment last night, Shi Xie's mourning soldiers did not achieve the final victory after all, but it also gave us a headache. We did a lot of calculations, but we didn't calculate how powerful their final blow would be. With 10,000 soldiers, he fought against 3,000 remnants of the enemy, and there were more than 4,000 dead and wounded. This can only be regarded as a pyrrhic victory. We've always played too well, and we've underestimated the world. Standing on a small hill on the edge of the battlefield, away from the smell of blood, looking down at the busy and sad scene below, Li Sheng sighed and said to Zhuge Liang who was standing beside him.

"That's right. The first time I saw such a tragic battle, it was completely a life-for-life battle, which made Zhuge Liang have a deep feeling for last night's battle, and he has been thinking about a question: "Why are all the people in Shixie's army willing to fight to the death with Shixie?" Such a tough combat attitude was not at the beginning, nor was it when he was ambushed for the second time, but at this last moment when it was even possible to surrender and be relieved, he chose to die with Shixie. What is this for? ”

"I guess it's for three things." Li Sheng looked into the distance and exhaled softly.

"Which three?" Kong Ming looked at Li Sheng puzzled, his eyes full of eagerness.

"The soldiers of Shixie are mainly private soldiers, supplemented by soldiers from states and counties. Unlike our Central Plains, which directly recruited displaced people as private soldiers, the private soldiers of the Shi family were basically selected from among the orphans. Although the training cycle is relatively long, it can ensure their loyalty, so that they have a sense of identity with the scholar family and are willing to die for the scholar. This is one of them. Second, since the private soldiers of the Shi family were cultivated by the Shi family since childhood, then after they grow up, they will inevitably marry the Shi family and let their children grow up in the Shi family. The Shi family is a big family with a history of more than 100 years, and there are not many servants who have gone through several generations in its portal, and many of them have been closely linked with the Shi family, and they naturally have a lot of feelings for the Shi family. Coupled with the talent and charm of Shi Xie, they all regard the Shi family as their home. Kong Ming, think about it, if your own plus is attacked, where will you not fight hard? This brings us to the third point. Li Sheng explained with a smile: "Because of the above three points, most of these people who can follow Shixie here can follow Shixie to fight to the death." and we ended up fighting such a lose-lose situation. ”

"It's not a lose-lose situation. It's true that we are wounded, but isn't the enemy also destroyed? This can only be described as a pyrrhic victory at best. Zhuge Liang tried to accurately describe the outcome of this battle, and when he saw that Li Sheng seemed to be a little uninterested, he also explained with a light smile: "The lord is not like this. Although the casualties of our army are higher at the moment, they are still within the range of bearability. Morale or something, it didn't affect much. And we have already achieved our original goal, as long as we take down Shi Xie's head and use it to deal with Shi Yi in Changping City, then everything should naturally be done smoothly. ”

"Are you so sure that Shi Yi in Changping City will surrender when he sees his brother's head?" Although Li Sheng could do things so smoothly at best, he didn't think that what he thought and things would develop the same. He thinks that after Shi Yi sees his brother's head, it is also possible to be angry and avenge his brother. Because he also heard that Shi Yi had a good relationship with his brother Shi Xie. Therefore, Li Sheng couldn't help but wonder about Kong Ming's self-confidence: "Aren't you afraid of what happens?" ”

"No in case." Zhuge Liang shook it gently, and the encounter in his hand involuntarily fanned slightly: "If the lord understands this person, the lord will definitely not have such thoughts." In the words of the lord before, there are generally two kinds of people in this world, except for those who are only promised, one is the person who is more rational than the sensibility, and the other is the person who is more emotional than the rational. It is true that Shi Xie and Shi Yi have a good relationship, but unlike Shi Xie, who is more emotional than rational, Shi Yi is a person who is more rational than emotional. He is calm, good at thinking, and good at analyzing situations. For the time being, among the three factors that affect a person's decision, reason, emotion, and situation, the situation has completely favored us: Shi Xie's death has completely turned Shi Yi's Changping into an isolated city, and this isolated city is not garrisoned by pure Shi Jiajun, which makes Shi Yi have no ability to fight us at all. In such a situation that is not conducive to himself, I think it should be easy to guess what decision the always rational Shi Yi will make. People born into a family like him should think first and foremost about nothing else, but about the survival and interests of their own family. As long as the lord can appropriately relax some punishment for the Shi family, so that they can support it and not kill them all, I think Shi Yi should surrender to us. Because he can't fight us with the life and death of his entire family. ”

"That's right." Li Sheng nodded understandingly, and thought in his heart that Zhuge Liang had some truth, but even so, he still had some doubts: "But does Kong Ming think that the punishment should be mitigated by the Shi family?" ”

"No...... The punishment should not be mitigated. Zhuge Liang smiled and shook his head seriously, "Those who dare to resist us need to be severely punished, this is a principle, we must stick to it." And now it is not only the Shi family who is resisting us, but also most of the families in the south of Jiaozhou. If I don't punish the Shi family, then there is no way to punish the other families. There is no way to punish them, and naturally we cannot get what we need from them. This is a very unfavorable thing for us who do not have any foundation in Jiaonan. ”

"Then why do you say that you want to use the method of letting go of the punishment of the Shi family so that the Shi family can support it? Isn't it a contradiction to say that? Li Sheng frowned, still puzzled.

"It is necessary to severely punish the Shi family and the great clans of Jiaozhou, but it is also necessary to give them certain benefits so that they can maintain themselves and not cause great local unrest. A chaotic Jiaozhou is not the Jiaozhou we want to see. Even if the lord only wants to develop the navy here, we can't let Jiaozhou be chaotic. In fact, as long as the operation is good, punishment and poly are not irreconcilable. Zhuge Liang explained with a smile. At this moment, he already has a belly case in his heart, so he naturally seems very confident.

"Please." Li Sheng waved his hand and made a gesture of please.

"The benefits of the South China Sea mainly come from shipping. Most of the development of the Jiaozhou clan came from this, but the windfall profits in the South China Sea were also accompanied by high risks, which made the people of Jiaozhou buy more land, recruit private soldiers, build houses and forts in order to protect themselves after obtaining violence, and also learn from the people of the Central Plains to buy more land, recruit private soldiers, build houses and forts, thus forming the so-called Jiaonan clan. However, due to the development of maritime trade in Jiaozhou, they are very different from the Central Plains people, that is, their interests come more from the sea than from the ground. If the lord confiscates their possessions and shelters their private soldiers, they will feel pain, but they will not despair. Because as long as there are boats, they have a chance to reap the benefits again. Therefore, they were able to accept the punishment of their lords for their land, their soldiers, and horses. And giving them some preferential treatment in trade and shipping on the basis of this punishment may give them a respite and convince them of the Lord's heart. Losing land is a punishment, and giving a merchant is a reward, and the fact that all the private soldiers in their hands have been confiscated makes them incapable of rebelling. In this way, won't they follow the lord closely? Of course, this is only a rough outline. As for the specific steps, it needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis. But I think as long as we do it with this principle, the taxi in Changping City will definitely agree to this situation where we will lose if we continue to fight against us. Zhuge Liang said his plan.

"Will he say yes? It's hard to talk about people's hearts. However, there is some possibility of what you are talking about. Li Sheng shook his head slightly, smiled noncommittally, and then ordered: "Give me Shixie's body with a board cart." All the troops are reorganized, and we will go to Changping City now. ”

"Don't you need a head?" The soldiers took the order and left, but Kong Ming was surprised by Li Sheng's sudden order to load Shixie's body with a plate cart.

"Since we don't plan to uproot the scholars, it's better to leave some room for each other. Although Shi Xie was an enemy, although he also did a criminal slaughter of the city, in the end he fought and died. The people are dead, along with the soldiers who slaughtered the city, everything can go with the wind, what else do we need to be so harsh on them? It's a matter of two things for us. Anyway, we just need to inform Shi Yi of the news that Shi Xie is dead, so why do we have to behead him. Now that the head has been cut off, and the remaining body of Shixie cannot be buried, he must also be taken with the army. The mutilated and blood-drenched appearance was really ugly. It's a real trouble. Li Sheng said with a frown.

"And it does." Zhuge Liang nodded understandingly, gently patted his father-in-law's wide back, and said with a smile: "I know your biggest opinion on death." But now is a troubled time where everyone is doing that, and if you don't do something extraordinary, I'm afraid no one will be afraid of it. 'Re-enactment in troubled times'. This canon contains cruelty, incomparable cruelty. ”

"I know that, and I'll do it when I have to. However, after all, such a thing is hurtful to the heavens and the peace, so it is better to do less or less. Li Sheng shook his head, still insisting on his opinion.

"You......!" Kong Ming couldn't listen to Li Sheng, and wanted to say something more, but he gave up because of the report from the soldiers below. In fact, he also knew that what he said was basically useless to his father-in-law - he didn't know why his father-in-law insisted on the death penalty unusually. "Forget it, why bother thinking so much? And that's just the details. Maybe if you handle it well, you can use such a thing to build momentum for Brother Sheng. Well, there's a lot of room for it. He quickly began to think about it, bent on making up for Li Sheng's lack of domineering because he refused to use heavy punishment.

With the completion of Li Sheng's cleaning of the battlefield, the team that had been reduced by the trauma and many people was gathered again. There were more than 6,000 people in the group, and Li Sheng saw many disabled people among them.

"Looks like we're going to have to pick and choose." In this regard, Li Sheng thought. He clearly understood that if he brought all these injuries and illnesses under his command together, he was afraid that it would affect the prestige of the army, and it was very likely that Shiyi would see the "weakness" on his side, and he would make up his mind to fight to the death. This was something Li Sheng did not want to see, so he planned to leave the seriously wounded behind and leave a thousand soldiers to protect them. This is a very natural and ordinary thing, and it was originally just a direct order. However, Li Sheng took into account the mood of these soldiers, but still comforted them lively, and did not say the reason why their presence would affect the strength of the army, but only said that they were injured and had to be sent to the rear for better treatment.

It was so busy for a long time, but it was close to noon. After sending off those "disabled people", Li Sheng faced the team that had almost half of the team, and became worried again: "The number of people is too small, is this enough to deter Shi Yi?" Li Sheng frowned tightly because of this.

In the middle of his headache, he suddenly saw a report from the four directions: "Lord Qi, Lord Huang Zhong led 5,000 troops to help." ”

"Oh?" Li Sheng was slightly surprised, and his frowning brows suddenly relaxed: "Master came really in time." Just solved my big trouble. He laughed, and then ordered: "Go, go and meet the old general." ”

The team rose from camp, marched south, walked eight or nine miles, turned into a valley, and saw Huang Zhong's army standing in it, quietly waiting for the arrival of his side. Because Li Sheng was very influenced by the theory that the military training of later generations must pay attention to the queue, he forcefully implemented the military column standing method in his own army, requiring every soldier to quickly and neatly stand in his position, so Li Shengjun's formation is so powerful, full of majesty and vitality, this is where he far surpasses any other heroes in this world.

Thus he stepped into the warehouse, passing in front of these soldiers who were standing straighter than the spears they held in their hands, and Li Sheng felt the majesty emanating from them, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face. It wasn't the first time he'd seen such a procession, and it wasn't the first time he'd walked like this in front of them, but all the feelings hadn't faded from habit. Every time he passed by them like this, he had a trace of excitement and pride in his heart, which he could not suppress and did not want to suppress. Just like seeing his son thrive, he always felt like a father to himself and the team he had trained.

After meeting Huang Zhong enthusiastically, Li Sheng greeted him as a disciple for a long time, and after telling each other in detail about their respective battle experiences, he put what he wanted to do now directly on the table: "I want to ask Master to combine his men and horses with my side into an army to intimidate Shiyi in Changping City and make him surrender out of the city." ”

"That's a good idea. It's just that I'm artificially merging into one road, and it's still wonderful to divide into two roads. Huang Zhong listened to what Li Sheng said, gently stroked his long white beard, thought for a while and suggested again: "Of course, it is necessary to cooperate, but it is only suitable for 4,000 of my 5,000 people." In this way, the lord has 7,000 men and horses in your hands, and there should be no problem in using them to pretend to be 10,000 people. The lord can lead people to Changping to negotiate with Shi Yi first. If Shiyi promises to surrender, it is the best. If not, I will use my own banner to join the siege of Changping in the name of the vanguard army at dusk. Today's Changping is a lonely city. Once we put on such a posture, we are afraid that the fear in Shiyi's heart will be even more reinforced, and he will be forced to make a final decision. ”

"Is that so?" Li Sheng thought about it and felt that it made sense, so he immediately decided: "That's it." So the army moved again, and in an hour they had divided their ranks and lined up their formations and were ready to go out for battle.

The team of 7,000 men marched forward in a neat formation, at a rapid trot. But in less than three moments, they had already traveled more than 20 miles and came directly to the city of Changping.

Because they marched with great fanfare along the way, and did not do any hidden work, so when they arrived under the county seat of Changping, the people in the county town already knew the news of the arrival of the enemy army, and pulled up the suspension bridge outside the city early, putting on the appearance of leaning on the city and sticking to it. In fact, there is no way to do it, it is less than ten days before Shiyi returns to Changping after his "miserable victory", and the miscellaneous soldiers of the Shijia Army, who have been frightened by Li Shengjun's toughness, have not calmed down their uneasy hearts at all, and naturally they do not have the courage to face Li Sheng and them in a face-to-face decisive battle outside the city.

Since Shi Yi made the appearance of defending the city, withdrew all the soldiers outside the city, and gave up all the territory outside the moat to Li Sheng, then Li Sheng naturally did not make sense. He angrily put the team under Changping City, spread the team, and set up camp on the other side less than a mile away from the city. Who said that the team brought by Li Sheng was full of 10,000 people, but looking at the camp he set up, it seems that the camp of 7,000 people is made as tens of thousands of people. That arrogant appearance made the people in the city understand very clearly: "Li Shengjun outside the city didn't take them, the defenders of the city, into account at all. ”

"Bastard, what is this? We have nearly 10,000 people here. The generals, who stood at the top of the city and watched all this, were indignant at this obvious contempt.

"Nearly 10,000 people, do you have the courage to go out of the city to fight them?" Shi Yi mocked them with a cold face on the surface, but in his heart he was also worried about the enemy coming from the north: "Brother is still in the north, how could they come from there, right?" ”

In the midst of his doubts, he suddenly saw the gate of the enemy's camp open, and a cart, escorted by nearly a thousand soldiers, came to the gray city wall with their commander.

"What's that?" They looked at each other puzzled, and in confusion, they suddenly saw a big banner erected in Li Sheng's army under the city, with these few big characters written on it: "The corpse of Jiaozhou Shixie".

There was no slander, nor any honorific title, so he pointed out Shi Xie's belonging, but deprived him of his official position. This is also a kind of punishment, a punishment for the slaughter of the people. Originally, Li Sheng wanted to add the title of a butcher to Shi Xie, but after seeing Shi Xie's own fierceness and considering that Shi Yi would be forced to surrender next, Li Sheng deleted the title added to Shi Xie. Of course, because they were enemies of each other, and Li Sheng was extremely disgusted by Shi Xie's massacre, he did not add his own official position to Shi Xie - this may be regarded as a kind of punishment for Shi Xie. There is no beheading, no "slander", just going to Shixie's official position, and this kind of punishment is not too much. At least that's what Li Sheng thinks.

"Brother......!" The taxi at the head of the city saw this scene from Li Sheng, and immediately cried bitterly. He cried bitterly and gritted his teeth: "Okay, you Li Sheng, you actually exposed my brother's corpse to the sun like this, I have to crush your bones and scatter ashes." Seeing such a situation suddenly, his heart was violently impacted, and Shi Yi thought that it was not Li Sheng's "mercy" and "generosity" to his brother, but a strong blame for Li Sheng. He consciously thought that Li Sheng wanted to expose his brother's body outside the city. This is also a punishment no less than whipping the corpse, and he is naturally unwilling.

This was undoubtedly an impulsive order from Shi Yi. For such an order, Shi Yi himself is confused, and he is very interested in wanting to do it. However, the rest of the city, the commanders of the private soldiers of the large and small local scholar clans in Jiaonan, did not have the confidence to tie their children and their lives to the chariot of the scholar family anymore.

"General, no. Even Lord Shixie, who had 10,000 soldiers, failed, so what can we do? Going out is just sending you to death. What's more, I don't think they look like they want to expose the corpse of Lord Shixie. Because no one is going to put the corpse that is going to be exposed to the sun in a pallet truck. There must be something strange in this, and please ask the general to be aware of it. "Naturally, not all of the private commanders are stupid, and there are also one or two heads who have clearly analyzed the doubts of this matter from the opinion of a bystander. Although he said it in order to persuade Shi Yi not to be impulsive, the meaning of leaving was already very obvious. He clearly told Shi Yi that they didn't want to continue this war with no victory, because they didn't want to die.

"You ......!" When Shi Yi saw them say this, he immediately became annoyed, and just wanted to have a seizure, but he couldn't help but be frustrated by the momentum of their persecution in the end. He has always been a literati to advise his brother, and the so-called commander of the army is just the part of the confrontation with Huang Zhong last time. Speaking of the prestige of being a soldier, he was insufficient, but at this moment, he was frustrated by the other party's force, and he was immediately stunned. This stunned made his head, which was overturned by anger, slightly sobered up, and gradually gained the ability to think about things.

"You're saying they're not going to be a corpse brother. What is the explanation for what is happening right now? Shi Yi's expression softened, and he asked the bystanders a little strangely.

"This ...... I don't know very well. Let's talk about it now, if we really do something degrading to the corpse, it won't be too late for us to go out of the city and rob it. The onlookers shook their heads. If it is said that they are clear in seeing things, they are naturally slightly superior to Shi Yi, but when asked to judge the truth of the matter, they are far inferior to Shi Yi. For the question raised by Shi Yi, they could only be stunned and puzzled.

"Then let's see." For a while, Shi Yi had no other way, and when the people around him were opposed to going out of the city to face the battle, he could only adopt their opinions. So, he opened his eyes and looked down carefully.

It is the beginning of the day, although the sun is in the west, but it has not yet reached the point of sunset, the light is still bright, and the vision is very good. Shi Yi leaned on the battlement at the head of the city, looked down, and just saw all the things below: those people of Li Shengjun didn't seem to know about these arguments above them, and they were still writing their own business. After the body of the elder brother had been pushed out on the cart, they did not bother with him, but gently set him aside, and gave way to the middle way, and the general among them rode out and stood in front of the two armies.

That general was none other than Li Sheng. Shi Yi recognized him, after all, he had met him with his brother. I think that my brother, myself, Li Sheng and Li Sheng's military advisor Mr. Wolong were still talking and laughing in the back garden of Yulin Mansion, telling all kinds of things about the future of Jiaozhou. At that time, he and his brother generally took refuge in Li Sheng's heart, and originally planned to announce this matter after returning to Jiaozhou. I didn't think the end result would be like this. If there really is a providence in the dark, this providence is inevitably too tricky.

Shi Yi looked down, and Li Sheng also looked up. The eyes of the two people in the distance met in the air, and then quickly staggered. For the current situation, whether it is Shi Yi or Li Sheng, in short, the two people who have met each other may not think of each other's existence before they meet again, but after seeing the second meeting, they often remember the past, especially when the position between each other has changed greatly.

"What do you want to say? Lord Lee Taishou. There was no dialogue between the city and the city, but in a shaking look, Li Sheng felt such a meaning that Shi Yi conveyed to himself.

Li Sheng didn't answer, just turned his head to look at the corpse of Shi Xie placed on the side, and once again raised the corner of his mouth to Shi Yi on this wall: "Your brother Shi Yi has commanded nearly 10,000 elites to fight against me. Now that the corpse of your brother Shiyi has been laid down there, you can imagine what will happen to the soldiers in his hands. Nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses have been destroyed, let alone the thousands of rabble in your city? You should also understand that I have not done anything excessively with your brother's corpse, neither slandering him, nor showing his head to the public. It's not that I don't have the ability to do that, it's because of who you are. The battle in Jiaozhou has been enough so far, and the general trend has been determined. Even if you blame me for the death of your heartbroken brother, you should consider your own fate and that of your family. Do you still want to use your family's lives to resist my soldiers in such a situation? In that case, I don't care, it's just a matter of killing a few more people. ”

Shi Yi understood what Li Sheng meant, and lowered his head in a depressed manner. He looked at the people around him, saw the slight timidity on their faces, and finally sighed: "Alas......! Surrender in Kaesong. "The situation has reached such a point that as the chief heir of the Shi family, he Shi Yi has to think about the survival of his family. Although he himself can't say for sure, after the surrender of Kaesong, Li Sheng will still embarrass his family.