Chapter 290 Winning the Bet is Good

Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi couldn’t help but change color when they thought of the pros and cons in an instant.

Only the handsome Yuan Shang had not figured it out. He thought of how Shen Peiping was on good terms with him, but was now speechless after being asked back by Xun Chen.

He was quite dissatisfied in his heart, and relying on Yuan Shao’s previous favor for him, he could not help but say: “Why is Xun Jun so afraid of Liu Xuande that he wants to destroy the morale of our Hebei Province? Liu Bei ignores his high position and noble title and shows off his power on horseback. It can be seen that he is just a brave general. In ancient times, those who rely on bravery will cause chaos, and those who rely on power will be arrogant, and those who are arrogant will be killed.”

“Even if Liu Xuande can win today, he may not win again tomorrow. There are many princes who want to fight for the throne, but they are defeated in a moment. There are also many who are defeated without hesitation. King Fuchai of Wu and King Hui of Yan are both like this.”

Yuan Shang spoke incessantly, expecting Shen Pei to echo and praise him, but to his surprise, not only Ju Shou was shaking his head and sighing, but even Xun Chen looked up at the sky and let out a long sigh.

Shen Pei was speechless and unable to speak.

The dispute among their staff was over the choice between death and surrender to the enemy.

Anyway, Hebei is completely no match for Liu Xuande at this moment. It should take advantage of the soldiers it still has to kill some powerful families to atone for its sins, or it should fight to the death and remain loyal to its principles.

As for relying on them to defeat Liu Bei on the battlefield, that was something they had never even dreamed of. Fighting with the Qingzhou army at this time would be like hitting a rock with an egg or flying into a flame.

After Lord Yuan’s death, there is now a shortage of soldiers in various counties and states, and defense is already stretched. Apart from Lord Yuan, who has been a third-generation official for five generations, who else can gather the troops of the gentry and powerful families to continue fighting against the Han clan?

Who could convince the clan leaders to take out food, cloth, money, soldiers and servants, and lead a group of scattered people to fight against the elite Qingzhou army and offend Liu Xuande?

Apart from the disaster of the annihilation of three clans, nothing was gained.

Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi were not good enough, and neither was Yuan Shang, and his wife Liu was even worse.

At present, Weijun and Bohai are unable to take care of themselves, and other counties are all pretending to obey the governor’s orders but secretly disobeying them. Anping County has only thirteen counties and more than ten thousand soldiers who can be recruited.

How to defeat Liu Bei, who was in charge of Qing, Yan and Xu states and had nearly 100,000 armored troops? In this situation, it would be almost impossible to win.

What’s more, skilled soldiers are not like wheat in the fields. When they are gone, you can just harvest them again. When the soldiers who have served for a long time are all gone, it will take time to replenish them. Without two or three years, you can forget about dreaming of having elite soldiers.

Comparing the combat effectiveness of the remaining soldiers in Hebei with the soldiers that Yuan Gong brought with him when he went on the expedition, the difference is like heaven and earth.

Under such circumstances, if more than 10,000 soldiers met hundreds of Qingzhou soldiers in the wild, they might be beaten to tears.

Seeing that Yuan Shang only looked at the surface and did not understand Jizhou’s foundation, Shen Pei sighed inwardly.

Ju Su smiled bitterly, thought for a moment, and said, “Liu Xuande is now on the verge of rejuvenation and is sweeping across Hebei. We can either die in Xindu or surrender Anping County for the sake of Yuan’s plan. There is no other way.”

The reason why Ju Su was so pessimistic was that he received a letter about the defeat of Bohai.

When Gao Lan was withdrawing his troops back to Bohai, he was ambushed by the Qingzhou army. The rear army ordered Zhang Liao to lead the cavalry to charge, and the formation was instantly in chaos.

When they encountered a comrade with a familiar accent who tried to persuade them to surrender, the soldiers’ morale immediately collapsed. Before the other party could say a few more words, they surrendered without hesitation.

Gao Lan saw that he was caught in a pincer attack and no amount of resistance would avail. He had no way to advance or retreat, and Dong Zhao was still dozens of miles away.

Hearing his old friend shouting in the enemy camp, he learned that Yuan Gong had been defeated and died. He immediately lost his will to fight, turned around and ordered the soldiers to tie him up with hemp ropes, and then went to surrender. He couldn’t help but sigh to the military officers: “Yuan Gong led a million troops, but was still defeated. I, Gao Lan, am just a minor general with less than a few thousand soldiers under my command. How can I not surrender?”

Dong Zhao was luckier, as Gao Lan’s troops blocked the way in front of him, allowing him to successfully retreat to Nanpi County.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. Liu Bei immediately ordered Zhang Liao, Yu Jin and Zhao Zhen to lead 3,000 combat soldiers and 6,000 auxiliary soldiers each to attack the four counties of Dongguang, Chonghe, Yangxin and Gaocheng in Bohai, and then besieged the county seat Nanpi.

Before the army reached Bohai, the county magistrates and county officials of Chonghe and Yangxin took the lead in fleeing. The county soldiers were taken back to Nanpi by Dong Zhao for garrison. Only a group of servants were left to maintain order. They were staring at each other. How could they defend the city?

The county magistrate ordered his men to defend the city while he packed his bags and fled at night with a dozen servants and weapons as guards. As he had few horses, he did not even take his maidservants with him.

The county lieutenant and the county magistrate followed closely behind, fleeing to their hometowns to avoid disaster. The rest of the officials followed suit, packing up their money and fleeing.

In addition to some common people who took advantage of the city gates being wide open and the officials having fled, they ran barefoot into the county town to look for various utensils left behind. Even the common lacquered spoons, hooks, scissors, and tiger claws in the officials’ homes were fought over.

The only one left was Zhen from Wuji, Zhongshan, who had been sold to Chonghe County by merchants, and had not yet escaped with the officials.

Not only that, under the astonished gaze of the servants and maids of the officials’ families who had no time to escape, Zhen used hundreds of troops to restore order in the city. Anyone who dared to steal or kill was sent to the county prison.

At the same time, he had people carve a plain silk flag with the word “Liu” on it and put it on the watchtowers on the four city walls so that people could see the flag fluttering in the wind on the top of the city wall from afar.

He also chose an open space in the city, set up a tent, and distributed some money and corn to calm people’s hearts.

In an instant, the noisy Chonghe County was calmed down. Seeing this, Zhen’s followers all gave him a thumbs up and praised him, saying, “You have treated the people with leniency and there has been no unrest. This is all thanks to Lord Zhen!”

When the common people saw that they could really make a profit, they couldn’t help but applaud with joy.

“Mr. Zhen, you are so kind!”

Zhen Jun is naturally the concubine that Wuji Zhen wanted to give to Liu Bei. Women in the Han Dynasty could also be respectfully called Jun. Along the way, many schemes of selling money came from the women of the Zhen family, and many troops benefited from it, so the servants willingly respectfully called her Zhen Jun.

The daughter of the Zhen family, who was sitting in the courtyard with a book in her hand, heard her maid come to report that someone outside was praising her. She just smiled and shook her head, saying modestly: “People should be humble and respectful, put others before themselves, do good without acknowledging, do evil without denying, be modest, and you will be blessed in the end.”

She had a fair and rosy complexion, clear and distinct eyes, a small mole under the corner of her eye, and dimples when she smiled. Just as the head of the Zhen family said, this girl had beautiful eyebrows, white teeth, and a graceful figure.

The daughter of the Zhen family stopped laughing, but she could not help but frowning, and said worriedly: “Fighting for land means killing people all over the field, fighting for cities means killing people all over the city. This is what we call ruling the land and eating human flesh. I hope that Envoy Liu can pacify Hebei as soon as possible and put an end to the chaos, and restore order to the people as soon as possible.”

Ever since she learned that her clan was going to give her to Liu Qingzhou, a man whose reputation was known all over the world and who was feared thousands of miles away, as a concubine, Zhen’s daughter has always felt uneasy.

Sometimes she couldn’t help but wonder what kind of person Liu Shijun was, why he could easily win the praise of many people in the Zhen family, and why he had to send her out at the critical moment of the decisive battle between Liu and Yuan.

On the way, she was thinking about the story of Guo Shengtong, but she was more grateful that Wuji Zhen was far less powerful than Liu Yang, the King of Zhending back then, and she didn’t have to be caught between Liu Shijun and Madam Yin.

“I hope I won’t end up like Guo.”

The daughter of the Zhen family sighed darkly.

(End of this chapter)