With Zhang Bao's literary level, the letter he wrote was of course not very convincing, and it did not have any effect of persuading him to surrender. In fact, it can't be effective, and it doesn't have a lot to do with the level of literature, the key is that Zhang Bao did not give Cao Pi any promise in the letter, but just said in general terms that His Majesty is merciful and will definitely spare his life and treat him well.

What does it mean to be merciful to Your Majesty? If this majesty is merciful, how can he lead hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, from the west to the east, from the south to the north, until the heads of the people are rolling and the blood is flowing like a river? Calculate how many cities this little emperor has conquered, how many soldiers and civilians have been slaughtered (Cao Pi thinks so), and how many generals have been killed in the past few years?

Would such a person be merciful? The Hong army killed hundreds of thousands, although it was not killed by His Majesty the emperor himself, but this emperor must have been aware, and he must have seen the scene of the killing, and he knew and could be indifferent after seeing such a cruel scene, which is already very revealing.

In Cao Pi's heart, even if His Majesty the Emperor is not as hard as a stone and a snake and scorpion as a snake, it must have nothing to do with benevolence. Also, what does it mean to be kind to yourself? What is the kind treatment method? Do you put yourself in a prison to be "treated well", or do you put yourself under house arrest with some title?

The point is, these are all Zhang Bao talking to himself, how can he be a general on behalf of the emperor, and can what he said work? Therefore, Cao Pi couldn't believe Zhang Bao's empty words at all, and it was impossible for him to run to surrender stupidly.

After Zhang Bao asked people to send a letter of persuasion, he did not wait for Cao Pi's reaction, and he immediately carried out the second step. The second step is information warfare, specifically the use of hot air balloons to drop leaflets into Chang'an City. This is also an old trick of the Hong army, and the Hong army will often try this propaganda method first, and only start to attack the city when it doesn't work.

These methods may seem simple and useless, but sometimes they can have unexpected effects. Three hot air balloons rose into the air in unison, carrying the urgently printed leaflets into the air, and then scattering them all over Chang'an City.

Originally, Zhang Bao didn't have so many hot air balloons in his hands, but later, when the brigade sent ammunition and grain and grass, he brought two more hot air balloons, which made Zhang Bao have enough hot air balloons to use.

Although the leaflet dropped by the hot air balloon this time was not large, it wrote three aspects, which were for the common people, for the generals and officials of the Wei State, and finally for the royal family such as Cao Pi.

The part written for the people was not to persuade them to surrender, nor to encourage them to riot~ to assist the Shu Han army in seizing the city gates. On the contrary, this part of the content is to persuade the people to stand by and watch. This text is very short, but roughly means:

The Han Heavenly Army will break the city in three days, and at that time, please stay at home, close your doors, and protect yourself from being injured by the rebel army. He also said that war is a military affair and does not need the participation of the people, who are innocent and should not pay the price for the war. He also said that the Han army is a benevolent and righteous army, and it has never committed any offence against the people, and will not break into people's houses, so as long as everyone stays at home, it is safe, please rest assured.

On the surface, this passage seems to be for the sake of the people, keeping the people away from the harm of war, and at the same time comforting the people's panicked hearts. But if you think about it carefully, this passage hides a heavenly opportunity.

First, this sentence revealed the news that the Han army was going to attack the city within three days and break the city, which showed the strong confidence of the Han army. Generally speaking, a large city like Chang'an has a complete range of combat readiness weapons, and there is also plenty of grain and grass, and it is very difficult to break through in a short period of time, even if hundreds of thousands of troops come to attack, it is difficult to break through for a while.

Therefore, it is easy for the war to drag on for a long time, three or five months is considered ordinary, and a year and a half is not impossible. Such a large city is often breached in the end, not by force, but because of a long siege, the city finally runs out of food, exhausts war supplies, and the soldiers defending the city are almost dead before they are broken.

However, the Han army pointed out conclusively that the city would be broken in three days, is this nonsense or do people really have this confidence? Even if they attack the city day and night from now on, attacking him for three days and three nights, they may not be able to consume 10% of the defenders in the city.

There are more than 100,000 defenders in the city, plus some people, this number is extremely impressive, even if so many people stand there and let others cut and kill, it will not be able to kill them in a while and a half. If there are other troops outside the city, you don't need to wonder, you know that they must be.

However, the outside is the elite of the authentic Hong Army, so this is not necessarily the case. In recent years, the power of the Hong army has been famous all over the world, and everyone knows that their unbelievable methods are endless, maybe this time they are really sure that they will break the city within three days.

The people in the city who saw this leaflet talked a lot, and there were people everywhere who gathered to discuss this leaflet in teahouses, restaurants, brothels, streets and alleys, under banyan trees, etc.

As soon as the men saw the patrolling soldiers coming, they dispersed, and when the soldiers left, they gathered again and continued to talk. A large number of Wei troops were on duty on the city wall, and the number of troops patrolling the city to maintain order was insufficient, so that the people had the opportunity to gather and discuss, and the topic of breaking the city in three days was one of the important contents of their discussion.

Another topic that the people talked about the most was the Han army's true benevolence and righteousness, always thinking about the safety of the people, which was not at all like other warlords in the past.

Those warlords were eager to encourage and even force the people to do things for them and fight for them, and they wanted the people to make a rebellion in the city, help them take down the city gate or even the whole city, and let them sit back and enjoy their success, where they would be like the Han army, let the people stay at home and protect themselves.

Unlike ordinary people who only lament the benevolence and righteousness of the Han army, there are also wise people in the Wei court, and they can see that this passage in the leaflet of Shu Han is not so simple, in fact, it has other plans, and it can even be said that it is harboring evil intentions.

First of all, this passage seems to be very benevolent to the people, in stark contrast to the practice of the Wei state. What did Wei do to the people? The Wei State pulled them to be strong, and the strong ones went to the city wall as cannon fodder, and almost had to do coolies to help transport materials for defending the city.

In this way, the people are naturally miserable, not counting the suffering, and they are still at the risk of losing their lives. Such a court, will the people's hearts be towards it? In the past, when there was no comparison, the people may not have too strong feelings, and many people may have become numb and feel that this is a normal phenomenon, and those in power have always been like this, and when it comes to war, the people are the victims.

However, now that the Han army comes out like this, they will immediately have a comparison, it turns out that there is still such a benevolent army in the world, and there is such a court that is so good to the people, is it better to change to a court that is better for the people? This is an idea that has quietly sprouted in the hearts of the people.

A simple sentence made the Wei people lose their hearts, and those smart people of Wei couldn't help but sigh, there are talents in Shu State!