Because Guo Chongyue and Zhi Tingxiao's troops were either killed or captured in battle, and after the first battle of Yonghe Town, Huanghai sent a large number of scouts to cut off the road between Panyu and Yonghe Town. Therefore, it was not until the early morning of the 16th day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar that Liu Gang got the news that Guo and Zhisuo's troops were defeated, that Zhi Tingxiao was killed in battle, and that Guo Chongyue led the people to surrender. By the time the Southern Han Dynasty and a group of civil and military ministers were summoned by Liu Gang to the Golden Palace to discuss the matter, the Zhou army had already surrounded Panyu City.

When the soldiers are in the city, they must either fight or surrender, and there is no other way. Therefore, the theme of the court discussion of the ministers of the Southern Han Dynasty changed from how to resist the enemy to whether to resist in the end or surrender to the land. In this regard, the military generals of the Southern Han Dynasty present had different opinions and were inconsistent. As for Liu Gang, his heart is very conflicted. On the one hand, in terms of the strength of the two sides, there are now only more than 50,000 new and old soldiers in Panyu City, and no one is sure that they can withstand the fierce offensive of the other side in the face of the nearly 50,000 Zhou land and water army that has just won a great victory in Yonghe Town. What's more, the 50,000 Zhou troops in the direction of Shaozhou were quickly coming to join the friendly forces after quickly capturing Yingzhou. When the time comes, with 50,000 against 100,000, I am afraid that it will be more difficult to have a chance to win. Surrender at this time, although it cannot save the momentum of the country, at least it can end the war as much as possible, so that the people in Panyu City will not suffer from the poison of war.

On the other hand, Liu Gang was lucky. In his opinion, it is now the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and it has entered the season of frequent winds at sea and heavy rain on land. As long as he can defend the city, he can temporarily resist the offensive of the Zhou army and form a confrontation with the Zhou army. Then, in the face of a storm that he had never seen before, and in the face of difficult transportation of supply lines whether by land or sea, the Zhou army would definitely not be able to last. Within a month at most, they will have to withdraw their troops and return north because of difficulties in adapting to the climate and logistical difficulties. At that time, not only can the siege of Panyu be solved, but if it is operated properly, maybe you can take the opportunity to sneak attack and bite the Zhou army fiercely - as for the choice of temporarily asking for peace and begging for a delay, since learning that the peace envoy of the Southern Han Dynasty was sent directly to Kaifeng without even seeing the face of Tang Chao deployed by the Zhou army in this southern expedition, the Southern Han monarchs and ministers have understood that this road is impassable.

Liu Gang's side was engaged in an ideological struggle between surrender and battle, and it was difficult to make a decision for a while. As a result, the deliberations lasted from the early hours of the morning until noon, and still no definite result was reached. It's just that the Southern Han monarchs and ministers will not be commissioned, but the Zhou army will not wait for them to discuss the results before taking action. After noon, the Zhou army, which had already set up camp outside Panyu City and had eaten lunch, lined up in the north of Panyu City and began to fight.

Although the surrender and the battle have not yet been discussed, in the face of the challenge of the Zhou army, the Southern Han monarchs and ministers had to respond. Otherwise, I am afraid that the little military spirit that my defenders have left will be wiped out. Therefore, Liu Gang immediately sent his younger brother, sentenced to the six armies and twelve guards, and Liu Baoxing, the king of Zhen, to lead an army of 5,000 out of the north gate to fight. And he himself stayed in the palace and continued to discuss countermeasures with the military generals.

Speaking of which, Liu Baoxing has a good life. If it was placed in the past, I was afraid that as soon as the Southern Han army went to war, it would become a victim of the Zhou army's artillery fire and become real cannon fodder. But this time, the Yellow Sea deliberately slowed down the pace of the siege, and did not launch an offensive as soon as it came up. On the one hand, the Yellow Sea hoped to preserve the largest city in the Liangguang region as much as possible, so as to create better conditions for the Later Zhou court to rule and manage this region in the future. On the other hand, Huang Hai also wants to wait for the first class of the North Cluster and the Northeast Cluster, especially Yang Xin, the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Cluster, hoping that when the city is broken, the three brothers can enter the city together and share the honor of opening up the territory and expanding the territory, destroying the country and capturing the king - after all, Tang Chao still had the merit of pacifying Hou Shu before, but Yang Xin, like himself, has been stationed in the north, and there is no such special feat as the merit of destroying the country.

Therefore, after seeing the Southern Han army rushing out from the north gate of Panyu, Huanghai did not order an artillery bombardment, but sent a messenger to send a letter of persuasion to the other party's leading general, asking it to be handed over to the Southern Han lord, urging the Southern Han lord Liu Gang to surrender quickly. In this way, it can not only save himself and the civil and military officials of the Southern Han Dynasty from the humiliation of the prisoners, but also save Panyu City from the baptism of artillery fire and the people in the city from the poison of war. Of course, there was a limit to the patience of the Zhou army, and the time left for the Southern Han lord and his civil and military officials was only twelve hours. If the city does not surrender at noon tomorrow, the Zhou army will fire 10,000 cannons, turning the entire city of Panyu into a sea of fire and hell on earth, and the lord of the Southern Han Dynasty and his civil and military officials will also bear all the responsibility for causing such a bad result.

It is said that since Liu Baoxing was ordered to fight, even if the Zhou army did not attack it, he should lead his subordinates to attack the Zhou army camp, so that he could fulfill his responsibility as a leading general and boost the morale of the Southern Han army. But the problem is that now that the Zhou army is already famous, the tragedy of the 6,000 people in Zhi Tingxiao's department was wiped out in less than a pillar of incense happened yesterday, and Li Chengwu's 100,000 army was wiped out in less than half a month. The lesson from the past is not far away, Zhou Jun did not attack him, it is a great luck, Liu Baoxing is too late to steal the fun, how dare he take the initiative to provoke. Therefore, Liu Baoxing fully cooperated with the Zhou army's move to send an envoy to send a letter of persuasion. Not only did he not provoke or scold the formation very tacitly, but also treated the envoy of the Zhou army who came to send him a letter of persuasion with courtesy, politely took the other party in front of him, politely talked with the other party and accepted the letter of persuasion, and finally politely sent the other party back to the Zhou army camp, and then led his soldiers to return to Panyu City, and hurried to the palace to see his brother with the letter of persuasion.

In a sense, the letter of persuasion from the Zhou army was also an ultimatum sent to Liu Gang and a number of civil and military generals of the Southern Han Dynasty, which meant that from the time Liu Baoxing took over it, the time left for the Southern Han monarchs and ministers to decide whether to surrender or fight was only 12 hours. So far, Liu Gang's decision is to do it, and if he doesn't do it, he has to do it. Under such pressure, after another afternoon of thinking and weighing, Liu Gang finally made up his mind and made a decision. On the one hand, he pretended to agree to surrender, and sent the emperor's younger brother, the twelve guards of the Sixth Army, and Liu Baoxing, the king of Zhen, to lead the right servant Xiao Yi, Zhuo Weixiu, the Zhongshu Sheren, and other important ministers of the court to the Zhou army camp with heavy gifts and a letter to surrender. On the other hand, he secretly arranged for his cronies to prepare more than ten sea ships on the coast outside the water gate of Panyu City, loaded with gold and jade treasures and more than a dozen of his favorite concubines, and transferred more than 1,000 palace guards who he thought were absolutely loyal to him to accompany him for protection, preparing to abscond out of the city in the dead of night and run to Qiongzhou Island or the farther Zhancheng Kingdom to temporarily take refuge. In the future, if you have the opportunity, you will make a comeback, and if you don't have the opportunity, you will rely on these gold jewels to become a rich man and continue to live a free life. For this reason, Liu Gang also specially told his younger brother Liu Baoxing that he must meet Tang Chao, who was deployed in the southern expedition of the Zhou army, before he could formally negotiate the surrender, so as to buy more time for his absconding - after all, Tang Chao is still on the way from Yingzhou, and no matter how soon he arrives, he will not arrive at Panyu City until noon tomorrow. By that time, he would have been a hundred miles away, even if Zhou Jun found out and immediately chased after him, where would he go to find himself in the vast sea.

Liu Gang planned very well and calculated very thoughtfully, but it is a pity that "people are not as good as heaven", he was thinking in the palace about how the golden cicada would get out of his shell and escape overseas to continue to enjoy the glory and wealth, but he didn't know that those eunuchs and forbidden troops who worked for him were also calculating when the country destroyed the city and broke the city. In the eyes of the eunuch Le Fan, who was in charge of this matter, instead of escorting Liu Gang to abscond out of the city and go overseas to continue to be powerful, he still had to be a slave and a cow and horse at the feet of the other party. It is better to take advantage of this chaotic situation and others have no time to take care of themselves as a nobody, take these dozen boats of gold, pearls and jade treasures as their own, and flee overseas to be a master and enjoy glory and wealth. So, after preparing the sea boat, Le Fan secretly found the leader of the forbidden army who was in charge of the guard, and on the condition that half of the gold beads and jade treasures belonged to each other, and all the concubines and concubines belonged to the other party, he effortlessly pulled the other party into his plan.

In the evening of the same day, an hour before the absconding time agreed with Liu Gang, Le Fan and the leader of the guards of the forbidden army ordered the boat to sail out to sea and run into the distance.

As the saying goes, "the plan does not change quickly", just when Le Fan and the leader of the Forbidden Army were sitting at the same table, looking at the direction of Panyu City, which had disappeared into the night, while toasting and looking forward to the upcoming good life, a fleet suddenly appeared on its route, several strong lights illuminated its ship as bright as day, and ordered them to stop the ship for inspection, so that their so-called "good life" could only appear in imagination and sleep.

An hour later, when Liu Gang stood on the southern wall of Panyu, looking at the empty sea outside the Water Gate, full of anger and fear, including Le Fan, the leader of the Guardian Forbidden Army, more than 1,000 forbidden soldiers, and more than a dozen beautiful concubines who were like flowers and jades had been escorted to the Yellow Sea, and the gold beads and jade treasures on the more than a dozen sea ships were also moved to the shore and sealed on the spot, waiting for the end of the war to be transported to Kaifeng and put into storage.

Standing there "looking at the ocean and sighing" for a long time, Liu Gang looked lonely and staggered down the city wall. This night, Liu Gang almost stayed awake all night, and did not fall asleep in a daze until the next day when it was dark. It's just that not long after Liu Gang fell asleep, he was woken up by the eunuch who reported the incident - according to the report of the defending army, Tang Chao and Yang Xin, the deputy commander of the Southern Expedition of the Great Zhou, had led 50,000 troops to arrive at the city of Panyu and joined the Huanghai, another deputy deployment of the siege for two days. Today, the Zhou army outside Panyu City has nearly 75,000 cavalry, and if you add the naval boat division at sea, the total strength has exceeded 100,000.

After listening to the report of the eunuch, Liu Gang suddenly fell asleep, he quickly turned over and sat up, and asked anxiously, "What time is it?" Did the Zhou army ever attack the city? Has King Zhen ever returned to the palace? Can he negotiate peace with Zhou Jun have a result? ”

"Qiqi Guanjia, it is the beginning of the time, the Zhou army has not yet attacked the city, and King Zhen and Xiao Servant have not yet returned to the palace." The eunuch, who was taken aback by Liu Gang's reaction, replied with some trepidation.

At this time, Liu Gang also recovered from the shock of hearing that the main force of the Zhou army had arrived in the city, and remembered that when the emperor's brother Liu Baoxing and the ministers Xiao Yi, Zhuo Weixiu and others left the palace to go to the Zhou army camp, he had instructed them not to be in a hurry to negotiate peace, and they must wait until Tang Chao, the commander of the Zhou army, arrived before negotiating sincerely, so that he had enough time to escape from Panyu. But now, that Le Fan actually teamed up with the leader of the Forbidden Army to steal his treasure ship and kidnap his concubines, so that his originally planned plan of "golden cicada out of the shell" failed, and there was no way out. Now it is meaningless to continue to delay with the Zhou army, not to mention that Tang Chao has already led the army to the city, even if Liu Baoxing, Xiao Yi and others want to delay, there is no excuse. Rather than leaving an impression that the Zhou army is not true and untruthful, and is not sincere in negotiating peace, it is better to take the opportunity that the door of peace negotiation has not been completely closed to fight for more benefits for yourself, so that you can live a little more comfortable in the second half of your life - although the Zhou army is in the city, there are Liu Jiyuan, the lord of the Northern Han Dynasty, Zhou Baoquan, the lord of Hunan, and Meng Chang, the lord of Later Shu, and Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, as examples, Liu Gang is not worried about the lives of himself and his family. So, after only a little weighing, Liu Gang had already made up his mind, and immediately wrote a secret decree, ordering someone to be sent to the camp of the Zhou army and handed over to Liu Baoxing, the king of Zhen, to surrender to the Zhou army under the condition of guaranteeing the life of the Liu clan and a certain treatment.

Waiting for news is always painful, especially when the news involves the lives of oneself and its people, and the future of oneself. Therefore, since he sent someone to send a secret decree to Liu Baoxing, the king of Zhen, Liu Gang has been anxiously waiting for the result of the peace negotiation. Although it was only an hour from the messenger leaving the palace to returning, Liu Gang felt that it was longer than a year. It wasn't until the messenger who sent the letter brought back the news that the proposal had been completed, and Liu Gang's heart that had been hanging on the ground fell to the ground. Although Tang Chao, the commander of the Zhou army, only promised to guarantee the lives of all members of the Liu clan after entering the city, he could not guarantee how the official family would judge when he entered the capital to meet the saint. But with the examples of the previous lords there, Liu Gang still believes that he can be safe and sound after arriving in Kaifeng. As for Tang Chao's request for Liu Gang to immediately order the prefectures and counties of the Southern Han Dynasty that had not yet been captured by the Zhou army to surrender and submit to the Great Zhou, in the latter's opinion, it was a normal and reasonable demand, and it was naturally implemented without objection.

On the afternoon of the 17th day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar in the sixth year of Jianlong, Liu Jun, the lord of the Southern Han Dynasty, dressed in a white horse, led a group of clans and officials out of the north gate of Panyu City, and entered the Zhou army camp to ask Tang Chao and other generals of the Southern Expeditionary Army to surrender. Tang Chao undertook the release of the system, led the army into Panyu City, and sent Liu Gong and others to Longde Palace for temporary care, and then sent to the capital to see the driver after the situation stabilized. On the same day, Fan Chongche, who had been stationed in Fengzhou, also led some of his generals to Panyu City and surrendered to the Zhou army.

On May 25 of the lunar calendar of the sixth year of Jianlong, according to the plan formulated before, Yang Xin, deputy commander-in-chief of the southern expedition and commander-in-chief of the Northeast Cluster, was the envoy of the pacification and control of Quanliangguang, and led the 15th Regiment of the 5th Synthetic Infantry Division of the "Feilong Army", the 2nd Regiment of the Marine Corps, the 4 regiments of the "Black Jiao Battalion" and the "Security Army" and 20 warships to stay in Panyu. On the one hand, it appeases the Liangguang region and deters the prefectures and counties that have not formally surrendered to the Zhou army or have surrendered to the Zhou army but are disgruntled. On the other hand, it was also to manage the Liangguang region before the arrival of the political, legal, and military officials and generals sent by the imperial court, so as not to fall into chaos because there was no one to govern the area.

On the same day, Tang Chao led the southern expedition to the northern cluster and other soldiers and horses in the northeast cluster to escort Liu Gang, the Liu clan and a group of civil ministers and military generals from the small court of the Southern Han Dynasty to return to Kaifeng.

On the same day, the main fleet of the Yellow Sea Expedition to the south and other soldiers and horses boarded the ship and sailed away from Panyu, returning along the route from which it came.

On the first day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar in the sixth year of Jianlong, Tang Chao's department arrived in Kaifeng, and Liu Gang and others were sent to live in Yujin Garden. The next day, Zhang Weixin came to Yujin Garden in the name of the Zhou court and impeached Liu Gang for gathering soldiers and horses to resist Wang Shi's crime. Liu Gang naturally didn't dare and couldn't admit it, but put all the charges on Gong Chengshu, Li Tuo, Xue Chongyu and other important ministers of the Southern Han Dynasty.

Regarding Liu Gang's practice of shirking responsibility, Gong Chengshu, Li Tuo, Xue Chongyu and others did not admit it, nor did they admit it. admit it, and the accusation of the baptism of war in the land of the Southern Han Dynasty will fall on them, and once they are investigated, they are afraid that their own heads will not be protected. If you don't admit it, it is contrary to the way of being a courtier, and it is inconsistent with the education and code of conduct you have received since childhood. Therefore, after listening to what Liu Gang said, they could only bow their heads and remain silent, neither admitting nor denying it, and expressing their attitude in silence.

Seeing this scene, Sun Pan, who accompanied Zhang Weixin and was very clear about the attitude of the imperial court towards Liu Gang and his subordinates, couldn't help but get angry, he pointed to Gong Chengshu, Li Tuo and others and asked: "In the past, when I was in Panyu, the important affairs of the puppet Han court have always been good at relying on Er, and after Wang Shi entered Liangguang, you and others asked for troops to resist. When the war is unfavorable, it is still you who resist stubbornly to the end. Now that the army has been defeated and captured, and has been taken to the capital, who else are you going to blame? After saying that, he felt puzzled, and spat on them in the face and even slapped them.

Up to now, if Gong Chengshu and others still don't understand the meaning of the Later Zhou court, they are really fools. Seeing that it was impossible for him to escape this catastrophe by being silent, Gong Chengshu and the others had to kneel down and plead guilty, so that they could exchange their heads for the lives of their masters, which could be regarded as fulfilling their duties as courtiers.

Two days later, after being tied up in the temple and the shrine with white silk, Liu Gang and his subordinates were taken to Mingdemen to see the driver. Faced with the accusation of himself for arrogating the title of emperor in the imperial edict read on the spot, Liu Gang once again sacrificed the method of "the great transfer of Qiankun", and put all the responsibility on Gong Chengshu, Li Tuo and others, and justified: "The minister is sixteen years old and has a false name, and Chengshu, Li Tuo and others are all old ministers. Every major event is decided by Chengshu and others, and the minister has no chance to put his beak in it. When he was in Lingnan, the minister was more like a courtier, while Chengshu and the others were more like kings. Then he fell on his knees and waited for sin.

The edict to criticize Liu Gang was just a passing scene, no matter whether Liu Gang's excuse for self-defense was justified or not, the Later Zhou Emperor Chai Zongxun would use this as a reason to exonerate him. Therefore, after listening to Liu Gang's self-defense, Chai Zongxun immediately issued an order to push Gong Chengshu and others out of the palace and behead them, and then pardoned Liu Gang, the Liu clan and other former Southern Han officials, and rewarded them with crowns, goods, saddle horses and other things, and at the same time, crowned Liu Gang as the prince of Pengcheng County, and Liu Baoxing as the left prison guard to lead the government rate, in order to show appeasement.

At the beginning of August of the lunar calendar of the sixth year of Jianlong, the civil and military officials at the provincial, prefectural and some newly deployed county (prefecture) levels appointed by the imperial court arrived in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, which had not been established soon, to take up their posts. With the arrival of these officials and generals, Yang Xin, the pacification envoy of the two Guangzhous, also successfully retired, leading the "Flying Dragon Army" and part of the "Security Army" to leave Panyu and return to Kaifeng.

At this point, the battle of the Southern Expedition to pacify the Southern Han Dynasty can be regarded as a successful end. At the cost of no more than 1,000 casualties, the Zhou army achieved an excellent record of killing, wounding, and capturing more than 200,000 enemies, thus bringing nearly 1.5 million people in 60 prefectures and 214 counties of the Southern Han Dynasty under the rule of the Great Zhou.