Chapter 154: Zhao Yun captures the general and wins his heart first But Chen Ce was originally a powerful man in Lujiang, similar to Zheng Bao. Seeing the rebellion at the end of the Han Dynasty, they gathered people and went up the mountain, where they gathered more than ten gangs of bandits, occupied the Huoshan Basin, and defended the dangerous places. He was the king here and he dominated the country, going out to plunder from time to time, feeling very comfortable. Because he had heard that Liu Bei had taken control of Huainan and occupied the northern counties of Lujiang, he took advantage of the chaos and went north to plunder several times. He thought that Liu Bei was currently in Shouchun providing relief to the disaster victims and had no energy to manage the affairs in central Lujiang, so he acted quite rampantly. Unexpectedly, just as the heavy snow had melted, we heard that a large army was heading towards Huoshan. Upon hearing that the leader was Qin Zhen, he immediately called all the leaders under his command to discuss the matter: "We brothers have gathered here, hoping to spend our days in leisure." "Unexpectedly, when I sent people down the mountain the day before yesterday, I saw Liu Bei's army heading towards Huoshan. They must be here to do evil to us!" "I heard that the leader is named Qin Zhen, and he is Liu Bei's military advisor. He is a master at using troops. Now he is leading 20,000 troops. How should we fight him?"

As soon as he asked the question, everyone started talking. Then one person stood up and said: "Brother, why are you afraid? In my opinion, although Qin Zhen knows military skills, he has come from far away and does not know the defenses of Huoshan!" "We are now in a strategic location, with a long and narrow valley, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. What is there to be afraid of?" "Now that you have come from Lu'an, if you want to go into the mountains, you must take the Qingshan Road." "I will lead an army forward and set up camp on the road. I will ensure that the enemy cannot enter this mountain." As this person spoke, Chen Ce took a closer look and saw that the person who was speaking was Chen Jin, a member of his own clan. He was in his early twenties, strong and healthy, and was at the peak of his energy. Seeing him asking for orders, he thought for a while, then nodded and said: "If you are willing to go, you can ensure that the enemy will not be able to enter the mountain." "But you must know that Qin Zhen is full of tricks, so remember to stay at home and don't fight him!" Upon hearing this, Chen Jin readily agreed. Under Chen Ce's command, he led more than 8,000 people directly to the foot of Qingshan Mountain and built a camp along the valley road. Before the construction of Dazhai was completed, we heard a report from our commander: "There is a general in white robes leading his troops outside the valley!" When Chen Jin heard this, he immediately thought to himself: "I heard that Qin Zhen is a scholar and not good at fighting. The enemy army must be the vanguard!" "If we can dampen their spirit, we may be able to stop their troops outside the valley!" He immediately led his troops out of the valley, and when they arrived outside the valley, they saw a general in a white robe standing in front of the army. Seeing this, Chen Jin rode out and said loudly: "I am Chen Jin, a general under the command of Lujiang Haoshuai!" "Who are you? How dare you invade our territory?" And he guessed correctly, the approaching army was the 5,000 vanguard troops led by Zhao Yun.

After hearing what Chen Jin said, Zhao Yun sneered: "I am Zhao Zilong from Changshan, and I am here to fight against the enemy under the order of Liu Yuzhou!" "I am leading the vanguard here, and there are tens of thousands of soldiers and horses behind us." "You bandits have occupied the mountains and are committing a great crime!" "Now that you have heard that I am leading the army to you, why don't you dismount and surrender? Your stubborn resistance is a way to your own death!" Zhao Yun's words naturally made Chen Jin very angry. He thought if it was Zhang Fei or Guan Yu it would be fine, but who is Zhao Yun? How dare an unknown person speak so arrogantly in front of him? "The enemy general should stop being so arrogant!" He immediately drew his sword and urged his horse out, leading his troops to attack Zhao Yun. When Zhao Yun saw this, he sneered in his heart. He thought to himself that bandits were bandits, and if they fought like this, they would just rush forward in a disorderly manner! He was a calm person by nature, so when he saw the troops being mobilized, he did not rush into action. Instead, he shouted at his soldiers to be on alert. I saw the enemy rushing out a hundred steps, their formation was in disarray, and they raised their guns and shouted: "All troops, listen up and follow me to form a battle array and defeat the enemy!" At a command, his soldiers began to form a formation and charged forward. After a while, the two armies collided and people and horses were thrown to the ground. The formation of the bandits under Chen Jin was in disarray, while Zhao Yun deployed his troops, with the center bearing the pressure, and the two wings began to encircle the enemy's flanks. If viewed from the air, it looked like a group of thieves formed a soft fist and crashed into the cotton. In an instant, a large number of thieves died in the first round of attack. When Chen Jin saw this, he was shocked and thought to himself that he had fought so many battles with the government army, but had never seen such elite troops as Liu Bei's army! Facing his attack, she was not at all flustered! In great shock, he surrounded the enemy troops on both wings again, shouting in a jargon, loudly saying: "The wind is blowing! Retreat quickly!" He was about to lead his troops to retreat, but he saw Zhao Yun, with an army, had already broken into the formation and were charging towards him. Seeing Zhao Yun like this, Chen Jin hurriedly returned with a knife. The two horses fought for only a few rounds before Chen Jin's hands and feet started to go numb. He hurriedly said: "Brothers, help me!" After a shout, several men let out strange cries and rushed towards Zhao Yun. Surrounded by several people, Zhao Yun's offensive was blocked, and Chen Jin hurriedly turned his horse and withdrew from the battle group. Unexpectedly, as soon as he turned around, Zhao Yun saw what was happening and shouted: "The thief will leave!" With a loud shout, he danced his spear like a silver snake. In an instant, he stabbed several people to death and rode his horse directly in the direction of Chen Jin. Chen Jin only heard the sound of horse hooves behind him, and his heart tightened. He looked back and saw that Zhao Yun had rushed behind him without him knowing when. Before he could react, Zhao Yun had already stabbed out with his spear! When Chen Jin saw this, he immediately cried out in his heart, "My life is over." But the next second, Zhao Yun bent his spear and hit him on the back.

With a snapping sound, Chen Jin felt a sharp pain in his back and his body fell to the ground unconsciously. When Zhao Yun saw this, he ordered his men to tie him up, and then continued to lead his troops to fight. With Chen Jin being captured, the bandit army fled in all directions and more than a thousand of them were captured by Zhao Yun. Seeing so many prisoners, Zhao Yun simply stopped his advance, blocked the entrance to the mountain road, and sent someone to report the matter to Qin Zhen. However, Qin Zhen and Qiao Rui led their troops westward. When they reached the west of Qianshan, they heard the victory report from Zhao Yun. They were delighted and led their troops directly to Huoshan. When they reached the foot of Mount Huo and entered the camp, they saw Zhao Yun escorting Chen Jin to see them. When Qin Zhen saw Chen Jin, who was dressed in unusual clothes and had a burly figure, he couldn't help but ask, "I heard your name is Chen Jin, but I wonder who is Chen Ce?" Chen Jin was quite sensible. When he heard this, he raised his head and said: "I dare to let the military advisor know that Ce is my brother and I am his cousin!" Seeing Chen Jin like this, Qin Zhen smiled and said: "If that's the case, why don't you surrender when you hear that I'm leading an army here?" "Now I'm kneeling under the tent, I don't know what to think?" Chen Jin heard the mockery in his words, and immediately blushed with shame, lowered his head and said: "I was ignorant and did not know the power of your army. I tried to resist. Now it is too late to regret!" "I am willing to return to the mountains and persuade my brother to surrender, so that my merits can atone for my crime!" But Qin Zhen saw this and shook his head and laughed: "Although you are willing to return, I will not let you go. Wait a few more days, and I will capture Chen Ce and bring him back to you!" Upon hearing this, Chen Jin's expression became gloomy. He lowered his head and said nothing, and was silently pushed out of the camp. The generals were puzzled when they saw this. Zhao Yun asked in confusion: "Now our army is still outside the valley, and we don't know the details, so we won't let them go back to persuade them to surrender, but we will ask about the distribution of their troops." "Why did the military advisor let this man go without asking any questions?" When Qin Zhen heard this, he shook his head and said: "This matter is not urgent. Bandits like Chen Ce have gathered here taking advantage of the chaos and are dependent on each other. This cannot be controlled by imperial decrees." "If they surrender today, they will rebel tomorrow. If you want to conquer a man, you must conquer his heart!" "In this case, we should not try to persuade them to surrender, but defeat them first, destroy their hope, and then we can use benevolence and justice to conquer them." He didn't know much about Chen Ce. He only knew that he was an experience pack for Liu Ye to gain experience. But he was very clear about the mentality of bandits like Chen Ce, who simply bullied the weak and feared the strong. In the original process, Cao sent a general to attack, but was defeated by Chen Ce. It was Liu Ye who proposed a solution to Cao, using sweet treats in one hand and a big stick in the other, first by lure and then by coercion, and only then did he succeed in subduing Chen Ce. But their current situation is different from the situation Cao Cao faced in history.

At that time, Cao had already dominated the Central Plains and was very powerful. Bandits like Chen Ce were just an insignificant existence in front of Cao Cao's power. But now they only occupy Huainan and other places, and their strength is not strong enough. Even if Chen Ce could be frightened into surrender through short-term intimidation, it would be impossible to win his heart. If you cannot win their hearts, that will naturally be the source of trouble. Once there is any disturbance outside, Chen Ce will become disloyal. Therefore, if you want to subdue Chen Ce, you have to scare them first, use intimidation and then bribery! Use your strength to first defeat Chen Ce, and then use persuasion to let Chen Ce know that even without persuasion, their strength is enough to control the bandits. Under such circumstances, if Chen Ce surrendered again, it would be difficult for him to rebel again. Moreover, attacking Chen Ce was only a secondary target, Liu Xun was the main target. If they persuade Chen Ce to surrender now, it would be difficult to lure Liu Xun into a surprise attack. Therefore, now they still need to make a gesture of pulling with Chen Ce. After explaining this, Qin Zhen said no more, but ordered his generals to set up camp and station at the entrance of the valley. Although the generals were still confused, they did not dare to ask more questions and retreated one after another. At the same time, the news of Chen Jin's defeat also spread into the valley. Seeing his cousin being captured by Liu Bei's army just after he left the house, Chen Ce was horrified: "The generals under Liu Xuande are so brave!" He thought that this was because Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had not come yet, even an unknown Zhao Yun could be so powerful. If Guan Yu and Zhang Fei came in person, how could they resist? At that moment, he lost all his will to resist and could not help but sigh to everyone: "Liu Bei doesn't have many soldiers now, but his fighting power is strong!" "We can't win the battle, so what can we do?" When everyone saw this, they shook their heads and sighed. They had to admit that the current strength of Liu Bei's army was indeed no match for them. What other options are there besides surrender? But at this time, someone stood up and said: "Since we cannot win the battle, we should surrender!" "But I'm afraid Liu Bei won't accept it, which will lead to disaster for Zheng Bao!" As soon as he mentioned Zheng Bao, the bandits were startled. Zheng Bao’s fate is extremely deterrent to them! He had thousands of elite soldiers stationed in Chaohu Lake, but was killed by Liu Bei.

There is not even a chance to surrender! Even if they are willing to surrender now, will Liu Bei's army really accept it? Especially Chen Ce, as the leader of so many troops, would Liu Bei spare his life? While thinking, Chen Ce felt a chill on his neck and quickly stood up and said: "Liu Bei has not expressed any intention of surrendering, but we cannot surrender!" "Stay at your posts and wait for Liu Bei's envoy to arrive, then we can discuss this matter again!" He thought that if he surrendered now, Liu Bei might turn against him. He still had to let Qin Zhen take the initiative to send an envoy, and he could propose conditions at the same time in order to save his life. After making up his mind, he ordered his men to guard all the strategic locations tightly and not give Qin Zhen any chance to attack. And he naturally didn't know that Qin Zhen didn't want to attack either. With his 'tacit' cooperation, the two sides actually confronted each other peacefully on the Huoshan Mountain Road. But that night, after all the generals fell asleep, Qin Zhen recruited a man into the tent. This person is Mei Cheng! (End of this chapter)