Chen Jie and Deng Long shouted in unison: "Wronged! My lord, there is absolutely no falsehood in what we have written, please see it! ”

Liu Xin stood up and said, "Okay, this official will believe you once." You two can avoid the death penalty, but you can't escape the living crime, and go to the forced labor with those soldiers. As for your family, I'll let them go for now, but half of the property will need to be forfeited. ”

When Chen Ju and Deng Long were dragged out in despair, Liu Xin handed over the report written by the two of them to Fu Zhu, and said: "Gonghe, according to what they wrote, the big and small officials in Jiangxia City will be screened. Those who had persuaded Huang Zu to go out of the city and surrender and those who had a wait-and-see attitude were still entrusted with their original positions. Those who persuaded Huang Zu to flee and go to war were all sent to forced labor. ”

Liu Xin understands that it is easy to build a city, but it is much more difficult to run a city well, and the key to running a city is people. It turns out that those officials in the city should still have some ability, and they should be more familiar with things than others, and they can't beat them all to death with a stick. Therefore, he used Chen Zuo and Deng Long's eagerness to make meritorious contributions to find out the details of Jiangxia officials. Of course, it is impossible to guarantee that there will be no mistakes, and among those who are sent to forced labor, there will definitely be a few who have been wronged, but Liu Xin can't take care of it anymore.

In this attack on Jiangxia, he also brought some officials with the army, who were transferred from Xiangyang and other counties, and some of these people will stay in Jiangxia and serve as officials at all levels, carrying on the implementation of various policies implemented by Liu Xin. Since Jiang Xiacheng had just been controlled by him, there were still many uncertain factors, so Liu Xin deliberately left Han Opera behind and temporarily acted as Jiangxia Taishou.

Liu Xin's attack on Jiangxia was too fast, and Cao Yu, who was too guarded by Wuling, didn't hear any news at all, so he didn't make any preparations. Xu Huang and other four-way armies attacked at the same time, and the battle went very smoothly. Wuling County has eleven counties under its jurisdiction, and if it weren't for the difficulty of the roads, it might take only one day to take all these county seats. Even so, in the early morning of the eighth day of the second lunar month, the Fourth Route Army still surrounded Wuling City.

However, Cao Yu's situation is a little better than Huang Zulai's. Cao Yu waited for the news of Liu Xin's army two days earlier, and he ordered all counties to defend it strictly to buy time for Wuling City, and on the other hand, he recruited people and arranged city defenses. However, to his surprise, Liu Xin's 40,000 troops came to Wuling City, and did not rush to attack the city, but set up camps at various city gates and key road crossings, completely blocking Wuling's contact with the outside world. Cao Yu sent people to negotiate several times, but Xu Huang and others just ignored them, neither beating nor talking.

This stalemate lasted for four or five days, and Liu Xin, who had finished handling various affairs in Jiangxia, also came to Wuling City with Fu Zhu, Dian Wei, and Gan Ning.

Cao Yu spent several sleepless nights in anxiety, and finally waited for the main master. These days, he didn't understand why Liu Xin's army came here, nor did he know what Liu Xin's ultimate purpose was, and he sent messengers several times, but the answer he got was that everything would wait for the state pastor to come. But he knew that Liu Xin was not going to be happy so much, Liu Xin was not good at it this time!

Now, the state shepherd has been calling for a long time, and Cao Yu suddenly has a feeling that his ugly daughter-in-law is finally going to see her in-laws, and Liu Xin has sent a messenger to ask him to go out of the city tomorrow.

Sending the messenger away, Cao Yu's heart was very conflicted, Liu Xin defeated Jiangxia, and he already knew that all the Huang Zu family died unexpectedly. Now, Liu Xin's army came to the outside of Wuling City again, and asked him to go out of the city to meet him. If he goes out of the city, will Liu Xin take the opportunity to harm him, and if he doesn't go out of the city, will Liu Xin take the opportunity to add a crime to him?

Seeing this, Captain Jin Xuan persuaded: "My lord, I don't know who you think is stronger than Jiangxia or Wuling?" ”

Cao Yu's heart tightened, and he said: "Wuling's troops, population, and money and food are not as good as Jiangxia. ”

Jin Xuan said again: "Then my lord thinks that Huang Zudu has already been awarded the head, what are the chances of winning against Liu Xin?" ”

"This ......" Cao Yu hesitated for a moment and said: "At the beginning, Zhang Ji wanted to use the road to transfer troops to Xiangyang, but everyone persuaded me to block the road and prevent him from crossing. But now......"

Jin Xuan continued: "My lord, this time and that time. When Liu Xin first arrived in Jingzhou, his foundation was unstable, so why did adults need to look at his face. However, now it is different, he has occupied most of Jingzhou, and his troops are strong. Now he is besieging Wuling City but not attacking, and now he invites the adults to meet, because he doesn't want to completely tear his face with the adults, leaving a glimmer of life for the adults. Where to go, please think twice. ”

Cao Yu pondered for a long time, his face suddenly sank, and said, "Are you asking me to surrender Liu Xin?" Hmph, in vain I regard you as a confidant, the enemy is present, but you dare to talk nonsense to confuse the public. How much benefit did you receive from Liu Xin! ”

Jin Xuan hurriedly knelt on the ground, bowed his head and said: "What the last general said, everything from the bottom of his heart, is for the sake of adults, and please understand it." ”

Cao Yu sneered and shouted: "Come on, push him out and cut him!" ”

The generals hurriedly pleaded, and Cao Yu spared Jin Xuan, beat him with twenty strokes, dismissed him from his official position, and expelled him from the Taishou Mansion.

In the past few days, although Liu Xin's four-way army has not attacked the city, there are a lot of books that are shot into the city every day, and the different endings of Jiangxia officials can be clearly written on it.

The Jiangxia officials who stood on Huang Zu's side were now sent to participate in some kind of forced labor, and they were gone for six years. In the past six years, no matter how much suffering they have to endure, it will be good if they have the life to come back alive. Most of them are the breadwinners of the family, and after six years, even if they can come back alive and safe, what will become of the family, who knows? In such an era, a family without a male head is not far from decline. Maybe by the time they come back, their women have already run away with others, and their children may have become slaves and maids of other people's families.

Seeing Jin Xuan escape from death and being driven out by Cao Yu, no one in the civil and military forces dared to come out to persuade him to surrender. But they all had their own thoughts for a long time, and they refused to come forward to help him with any ideas. Cao Yu asked for a long time, but Zhong Wenwu just didn't say a word.

Cao Yu was furious when he saw this: "I've raised you for so long, I can't even come up with an idea, a bunch of waste!" Get out of here! ”

The officials had no choice but to leave the Taishou Mansion in a huff.

In fact, Cao Yu didn't think about going out of the city and surrendering, but he was afraid of losing the power in his hands, so he could only bow his head, and in the future, the affairs in this Wuling City would no longer be his final say. People will always have such and such **, some people like money, some people like coloring. And Cao Yu is undoubtedly the kind of person who has an infinite desire for power, he has been accustomed to calling for wind and rain in Wuling, killing the son from the heart, and now he wants to let him send people down, which is really more uncomfortable than killing him. Cao Yu hesitated again and again, he couldn't make up his mind, he still wanted to wait and see.

However, he could wait, and his officials could not wait. After leaving the Taishou Mansion, everyone gathered in the Jin Mansion in the name of visiting Jin Xuan.

Although Jin Xuan was beaten with a stick, the soldiers who executed him showed mercy, only wounding some flesh and skin, and did not move his muscles and bones. Even so, his buttocks still bloomed, and he couldn't sit down, so Jin Xuan had to lie on the bed, looking at everyone, with tears in his eyes, and said: "If it weren't for everyone to save each other today, Jin would have ......."

Jun Cheng Limpu said: "General Jin doesn't have to be polite, everyone is a colleague and should be." Now that the army outside the city is pressing, we should help each other and tide over the difficulties together. ”

Jin Xuan sighed and said: "I have tried my best, but Lord Taishou refuses to listen to Jin's words, Wuling City is only broken in the evening, everyone can do it for themselves." ”

Changshi Hu Xin said indignantly: "Liu Xin came to occupy the righteousness this time, he is the state pastor, and he is not the assassin of the past, and it is his duty to remove the Taishou." Cao Yu himself doesn't know the current affairs and seeks his own death, do you still want all of us to die with him? ”

Lin Pu hurriedly said: "Hu Changshi is silent, silent, be careful that the wall has ears." ”

Hu Xin turned his head to look at the officials and said, "I believe that the people in General Jin's family will not go out and talk nonsense, if any of you are willing to die with Cao Yu, you can go and tell him now." ”

Everyone said in unison, "We all listen to the orders of several adults. ”

Hu Xin looked at Lin Pu and said, "Is there anything else Lord Lin has to hesitate about?" It's better to die than to die with a big family! ”

The next morning, there was a drum beat in the barracks outside the city, and a group of men and horses rushed out of the gate. The team came to the city not far from the formation and set up a position, and in the middle of the horse, a flying horse came out, shouting at the city: "Listen to the people in the city, my lord Jingzhou Mu Liu has come to the city, please Cao Tai Shou quickly out of the city." ”

A white flag was suddenly erected on the top of the city, and a group of defenders swarmed out of the city gate. Liu Xin was surprised, but saw a person escorted out of front of the defenders, who was forced to kneel on the ground. I saw a column of people dressed as officials walking out of the group of defenders, coming to Liu Xin, kneeling on the ground together, and said in unison: "Wuling Taishou Cao Yu refused to surrender, and he has been captured by us. ”

Liu Xin didn't expect this result at all, he only thought that it was the best policy to force Cao Yu to surrender, but he didn't expect his subordinates to be unable to stand the pressure first, and they actually captured him and gave up the city, couldn't help laughing, and said: "Everyone, please get up, Liu Mou said that for all those who can take the initiative to surrender, they will not blame the past, and will never break their promises, and you will still be reinstated, don't worry." ”

All the officials in Wuling thanked each other and stood aside, everyone's faces were full of joy.

As soon as Liu Xin urged the war horse to get off his crotch, he was about to lead the team into the city, but he hurriedly stopped him and said: "The lord is slow, do you send someone into the city to find out first, lest someone cheat!" ”