Chapter 121 Enemies on All Sides, Qin Yi Surrenders With Zheng Bao's death, his subordinates naturally did not dare to resist. Because Zheng Bao was just a local tyrant, he recruited talents by either bribery or coercion, and people had no respect for him. What's more, with Zhao Yun, the god of death, ahead of them, how dare they move? He knelt on the ground and dared not say anything, he could only beg for mercy. Seeing this, Liu Ye smiled and said to everyone: "Since you do not wish to cause trouble to us, you can leave. We will not blame you." When everyone heard this, they retreated as if they had been pardoned. Zhao Yun took one look and thought something was wrong, so he stepped forward and said: "Since we are eliminating the thieves, why not kill them all? If we let them go, they may cause chaos again!" You have to know that they are now in a den of thieves, and these people are the leaders. If anyone is dissatisfied and goes back to bring people here, they will probably all die here! When Liu Ye heard this, he smiled at Zhao Yun and said:

"Now that Zheng Bao is dead, the bandits are leaderless. If we kill them, they will scatter on their own and we can't use them!" "You must persuade them well and conquer their hearts, only then can you use them to your full potential!" "But they are bandits after all, and they should be deterred by troops. General, go and lead the troops here quickly. I will stabilize the situation here!" Zhao Yun was unwilling to hear this. "If Yun leaves, who will protect you, sir?" But Liu Ye lifted up Zheng Bao's head and chuckled: "Since I have Zheng Bao's head in front of me, who dares to harm me? General, don't say anything more, go and come back quickly!" Seeing him holding the head and still chatting and laughing, Zhao Yun couldn't help but be secretly surprised at how brave this young man was. He didn't hesitate any more and walked out of the camp. After Zhao Yun left, Liu Ye put away his sword, carried Zheng Bao's head, and went to the village. He found a man and asked who was the leader in charge of the village, and then went to visit them one by one. Most of these leaders were born as common people. Although they committed evil everywhere, no one had ever seen someone like Liu Ye who waved human heads around. He was already afraid in his heart, and when he saw Liu Ye coming again, he dared not act rashly. In addition, Liu Ye talked about the pros and cons along the way, and everyone listened and bowed their heads. Before Zhao Yun led his troops to arrive, Liu Ye had already taken control of the entire water fort. After asking, I learned that there were nearly 5,000 soldiers in the water stronghold, plus their families and the surrounding dependents, there were as many as 20,000 people. There were tens of millions of gold and silver in the stronghold, as well as 70,000 to 80,000 dan of supplies and grain. Zhao Yun was shocked by the data, but Liu Ye became more and more angry. Although these things are a lot, they are the people's hard-earned money. If Zheng Bao's family hadn't looted everywhere, how could they have so many! After the two of them discussed it, they decided to take all the young and strong men with them, making a total of seven or eight thousand people, and marched out of the water stronghold and headed north towards Hefei. The news also spread to Liu Bei. Seeing Liu Ye and Zhao Yun single-handedly rush into Zheng Bao's hometown and control the entire water fort, Liu Bei was amazed and said: "I saw that Ziyang was still underage, and I thought he was not capable of handling important matters!"

"Looking back now, it was my fault. Although Ziyang is young, he is a rare talent in the world!" If Xu Sheng brought Liu Bei a surprise before, then Liu Ye brought Liu Bei a shock! He had seen many geniuses, but he had never seen a young man as brave and careful as Liu Ye! He is both strategic and courageous, and acts carefully and decisively. He is definitely a young version of Qin Zhen! While thinking, he couldn't help but smile at Qin Zhen: "I think Zi Yang is quite like a military advisor!" When Qin Zhen heard this, he shook his head and laughed: "In terms of courage, I am far inferior to Zi Yang!" He still had self-knowledge. In terms of martial arts and courage, Liu Ye was much better than him. At least when he saw the battlefield for the first time, he vomited so hard that the sky turned black. It was his first time killing someone with his own hands, and he almost had a traumatic shock. How can he compare to a warrior like Liu Ye who started killing people at the age of thirteen. The reason why he could become a military strategist was because he had been leading troops for many years and had some insights that were ahead of his time, which made him famous and gave him this position. If we talk about the initial panel, I am afraid that except for the governance, all others will be crushed by Liu Ye, so he cannot accept Liu Bei's praise. But when Liu Bei saw it, he just smiled and said nothing. In fact, in his opinion, Liu Ye and Qin Zhen were really somewhat similar. Both of them are courageous and resourceful, but Liu Ye is both wise and brave, while Qin Zhen is better at strategy and more cautious. With the addition of Xu Shu who can lead the troops into battle directly, the number of wise and strategic men under his command increases. Thinking about this, Liu Bei became happier and couldn't help but smile at Qin Zhen: "Now that Zheng Bao has been executed, how should our army advance?" Qin Zhen thought for a moment and said: "Zi Yang and others have led the army northward, and our army should move eastward. If we advance from both sides, Qin Yi will not dare to fight!" "You can order Zi Yang to wait for an opportunity and go and persuade Qin Yi to surrender." In this situation, he didn't want to steal the credit. Since Liu Ye had already planned it out, he simply let him do the whole thing and use this credit as the foundation for his career. When Liu Bei heard this, he knew what Qin Zhen was thinking, so he sent Liu Ye back and asked him to persuade Qin Yi to surrender. After the military order was passed back, Liu Ye was naturally delighted. He hurriedly asked Zhao Yun to lead the army here, while he headed towards Hefei alone. At this time, in Hefei City, Qin Yi was horrified when he heard that Liu Bei's army had killed Zheng Bao and accepted his surrender. He hurriedly called everyone to come and discuss: "We thought that when Liu Bei went south, his heart was not in Hefei." "Now that I see it, Liu Bei's heart is still more like Sun Ce!" "This man knew that he didn't have enough soldiers, so he killed Zheng Bao from Chaohu and took over his troops. Now there are more than 10,000 soldiers and horses. How can we defend the city alone to resist them?" After hearing this, all the generals lowered their heads and were unable to utter a word. In fact, from their perspective, it is difficult to predict the current situation. Because when Liu Bei went south, his total force was only 5,000 men!

From the superficial comparison of military strength, it can be seen that it is difficult for Liu Bei to capture Hefei, so they were not on guard. As a result, who could have imagined that while Liu Bei captured Lu'an and Jundao, he would actually take action against Zheng Bao. Now, as Zheng Bao's troops moved north, they instantly fell into Liu Bei's encirclement. To the north were the twenty to thirty thousand troops led by Zhang Fei in Shouchun, to the south were the Chaohu bandits, to the east were Liu Bei's four thousand troops, and even Lu'an in the west was taken by Liu Bei! The four directions of southeast, northwest, northeast and southwest were all blocked by Liu Bei. Even if the enemy did not attack the city, he could trap them here to death. Therefore, the generals naturally had no solution, but they also knew that Qin Yi was like this, and they were afraid that there was nothing they could do. Then another person stood up and said: "General, the current plan is that Hefei is difficult to defend, so we may break out from Lu'an and go south to General Liu Xun!" Since we can't hold on, the best way now is to break through. But as soon as he finished speaking, a general said in a deep voice: "If we break out earlier, we can still succeed. Now Liu Bei's troops are coming, so we will be safe in the city. If we abandon the city and leave, Liu Bei will surely chase us!" "It's a long way to Shu County. If we let them catch up with us, how can we end it peacefully?" The general who was speaking was the deputy general under Qin Yi. His surname was Chen and his name was Zhang. He was from Jiujiang. As soon as he spoke, the person who advocated breaking out retorted: "If General Chen says so, then we have no choice but to surrender." Upon hearing this, Chen Zhang naturally retorted: "I am not advocating surrender, but for the sake of the general, we must not lose any more soldiers and generals!" "In the current situation, instead of breaking out, it is better to ask Liu Xun for help to solve our difficulties!" As soon as he finished speaking, another general stepped out and said: "General, you and Liu Xun are not on good terms. If you surrender, Liu Xun will accept you." "Now that we are surrounded and asking for help, how could Liu Xun come easily?" Seeing this, Chen Zhang refuted again: "We are all from the same army, why doesn't Liu Xun help us?" "If we don't ask for help, what should our army do?" When he said this, the man was unhappy and started arguing with Chen Zhang. For a moment, everyone had different opinions. Some asked for help, some wanted to break out, but no one dared to surrender. Because they all knew one thing, that is, Qin Yi's family was not here! Like many generals under Yuan Shu, Qin Yi was a general stationed outside the capital all year round, without his family by his side, so he needed to stay with Yuan Shu as a hostage. After Shouchun moved its capital, his family was moved to Xincai. In this situation, asking Qin Yi to surrender would mean asking Qin Yi to abandon his family. Therefore, no one dares to touch this bad luck. But their quarrels made Qin Yi impatient, and he waved his hands and said: "Forget it, forget it. If there is no other solution, just go back. Why bother us here?"

"Everyone, go down, and don't discuss this any further!" When everyone saw this, they said nothing and left the hall one after another, except Chen Zhang who stayed behind. Qin Yi frowned when he saw it. "Chen Wenji, why don't you go?" Seeing this, Chen Zhang said to Qin Yi: "I am not going because of the general's plan. I have seen that the general has not yet joined Liu Xun, which shows that the general has no intention of joining him." "Later, he followed my advice and did not fight with Liu Bei." "Now that we are surrounded, why not surrender?" He and Qin Yi were from the same hometown, so he considered himself closer than the foreign generals and dared to speak openly about some things. Qin Yi was quite displeased when he heard his words. "All the generals knew that my family was not here, so they did not dare to advise me. Why are you the only one who dares to say this?" When Chen Zhang heard this, he said in a deep voice: "It is because I am from the general's hometown, and I do not want the general to suffer the same fate as everyone else, that I am willing to speak frankly!" "General, you see they are silent, but in fact they all have the intention of surrendering in their hearts, but they are afraid of your power and dare not speak!" "I think they are pretending to obey but secretly disobeying. If we leave today, I'm afraid they will secretly cooperate with Liu Bei to do something." "If the general is willing to listen to what I say, we should decide as soon as possible whether to flee or fight." "Such indecision will lead to disaster sooner or later!" After saying this, he bowed to Qin Yi again before walking away. When Qin Yi heard his words, his heart sank. He had wanted to establish his own regime here, but Liu Bei did not give him the chance. The current situation is exactly as Chen Zhang said, people's hearts are scattered. If he doesn't make a decision, I'm afraid the generals under his command will really sell him out! While I was thinking, I heard a soldier come to report: "General, there is a man outside the city who calls himself Chengde Liu Ziyang and wants to enter the city to see you!" Hearing the three words "Liu Ziyang", Qin Yi felt a chill in his heart again. Although he was from Huainan, he had also heard of the name Liu Ye. Now even Liu Ye has joined Liu Bei's army, which shows that Liu Bei really will not leave! He made up his mind at once and invited Liu Ye into his house. As soon as they met, without waiting for Liu Ye to speak, he said bluntly: "Sir, are you trying to persuade me to surrender?" When Liu Ye saw Qin Yi's expression, he knew what he was thinking and immediately smiled and said: "General, why do you ask when you already know the answer?" "You must know that now Envoy Liu's momentum to take over Huainan is unstoppable!" "I heard that the general has always been at odds with Liu Xun, and now he has not yet gone south to join him. It is clear that the general has no intention of going south!" "In this case, why not lead the people to join our lord's army!" "Your Excellency is in need of a talent like the general. If you were to join our army, you would be given important positions in the future based on your merits. It would be just around the corner for you to be promoted to a marquis or a general. Wouldn't that be better than being trapped like this?"

Listening to Liu Ye's words, Qin Yi said with a sad face: "Sir, you are also from a famous family in Huainan. I don't want to hide it from you. It's not that I don't want to surrender, but my family is still a hostage, so I dare not surrender easily!" As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Ye smiled and said: "A real man only worries about not having any achievements, not such trivial matters!" "Furthermore, General, you may not know that when my Lord goes south, he is also planning to take over Xincai and other places!" "The general also knows the capabilities of our army. I am afraid that Xincai has already fallen into our hands." "The general's family is the hostage, and I'm afraid they are among them. The general's family is captured by our army, so why would he make things difficult for us?" "It is better to surrender first while the situation is favorable. If my lord sees your merit, he will certainly treat you well in the future." "On the contrary, delaying here now is not a wise move and is not friendly to our army!" When he said this, Qin Yi was already moved. He was originally wondering why Liu Bei sent more troops after defeating Sun Ce, and did not just lead 5,000 soldiers south. I didn't expect that the troops would be divided into two routes! If Liu Bei could really capture Xincai, it would naturally relieve his worries. While thinking, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes and looked at Liu Ye and said: "Does your army really have the ability to capture Xincai and save my family?" "The news has not yet arrived, how can Ye be sure?" Liu Ye smiled leisurely, looked at Qin Yi and said: "But General, you must know that our army is not without the ability to fight. It's just that we don't want to fight again because of the severe drought." "If the general is willing to surrender, it would be a great honor to surrender as soon as possible. If you delay like this, you will surely suffer great disaster!" "That's all I have to say. General, make your own decision!" "Ye will be waiting outside the city. If the general is interested, he can send an envoy. Ye will personally present a petition for surrender!" As he said this, he also smiled, bowed and was about to leave. He has said what needs to be said. Whether to surrender or not is Qin Yi's business, and there is no need for him to waste time here. But as Liu Ye turned and left, he heard a voice behind him after walking a few steps: "Sir, wait a minute!" Liu Ye turned around and looked at Qin Yi, and saw Qin Yi slowly stand up, take off his sword, and offer it with both hands: "Please go back and report to the envoy. I am willing to lead the army to surrender!" (End of this chapter)