Chapter 350: Turning against the enemy before the battle
Chapter 350: Turning against the enemy before the battle
Xu Zongxuan said slowly: "General, have you ever thought of turning to the King of Jin?"
Yuwen Shu smiled bitterly and said, "Of course I have thought about it. I was one of his trusted confidants back then. After his fall, I turned to the Crown Prince. I'm afraid he won't accept me."
"I'm surprised by the general's words. This is a fight for the world, not a child's game. How can you hold a grudge? If the King of Jin doesn't even have this much tolerance, how can he rule the world? Moreover, the general has a large army in his hands. If the general surrenders to the King of Jin, the King of Han will collapse. With such an important role, how could the King of Jin not welcome the general?"
After a pause, Xu Zongxuan continued, "The key is how to ensure the safety of the two young masters. Does the general have any arrangements?"
Yuwen Shu nodded, "I have already made arrangements. They can escape from Taiyuan. It won't be a big problem."
At this time, a personal soldier walked in quickly and whispered something to Yuwen Shu. Yuwen Shu's eyes lit up and asked, "Where is the person?"
"Just outside the tent?"
"Bring it in quickly!"
Yuwen Shu excitedly said to Xu Zongxuan: "His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin has sent someone."
Xu Zongxuan was overjoyed, "What a great news! Should I step aside for a while?"
"You don't have to avoid it!"
Xu Zongxuan was Yuwen Shu's trusted aide and had followed him for many years, and Yuwen Shu trusted him very much.
Soon, the guards brought in two soldiers, who knelt on one knee and saluted, "Greetings to General Yuwen!"
"Please stand up, both of you. Are you the people of His Royal Highness Prince Jin?"
The leading soldier nodded and said, "We are all guards of His Royal Highness Prince Jin. We pretended to collect firewood and sneaked into the barracks!"
"How did you find me?" Yuwen Shu asked puzzledly.
"General, there are other people to help!"
The leading soldier took out a letter and presented it to Yuwen Shu, "This is a handwritten letter from His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin to the General."
The other party did not want to say it clearly, and Yuwen Shu did not ask who helped them.
He took the letter and opened it to read it carefully. After reading it, Yuwen Shu breathed a sigh of relief. Xu Zongxuan was right. The Prince of Jin hoped that he would bring his army to join him.
What particularly moved Yuwen Shu was that the King of Jin promised him the position of deputy prime minister. The deputy prime minister is also the prime minister. To be promoted from a general to a prime minister, isn't this the greatest pursuit in everyone's life?
Yuwen Shu asked his personal guard to take the two soldiers down to rest for a while, and then he handed the letter to Xu Zongxuan, "Sir, take a look!"
After reading the letter, Xu Zongxuan smiled and said, "Congratulations, General!"
"Do you think King Jin is sincere?"
Yuwen Shu was a little worried and said, "Maybe they are trying to fool me and give me a false promise. To be honest, I am a little worried!"
"If you want to fool the general, you can just make him a prince or a left or right prime minister. Isn't that more attractive than a deputy prime minister? I think that giving the general a deputy prime minister is the biggest concession the King of Jin can make. And he must surrender with his army, otherwise he won't get the deputy prime minister. This shows that the King of Jin is setting conditions based on merit. If the King of Han collapses because of the general's surrender, then the condition of deputy prime minister is appropriate."
Yuwen Shu nodded, "You have a point. The point is that although I betrayed the King of Jin, I did not do anything to hurt him. On the contrary, the current emperor and I have a grudge against each other for killing our sons. His eldest son lost his hand because of me, and his third son died in Queshu Valley because I trapped him. He will never forgive me, and I must overthrow him, otherwise my descendants and I will die without a burial place!"
Yuwen Shu then wrote a letter, expressing his willingness to be loyal to the King of Jin. He gave the letter to two of the King of Jin's guards and sent someone to escort them out of the military camp.
The next morning, Yuwen Shu pretended to be ill and asked his son Yuwen Zhiji to take care of him. He also sent his personal soldiers to inform the third son Yuwen Zhiji to transfer his son away from Yang Liang.
Although Yang Liang was lustful and had more than a dozen concubines around him and a constant supply of wine, he did not neglect his duties because of his indulgence in wine and women. On the contrary, he paid special attention to the movements of the soldiers in the army.
In the afternoon, Yang Liang received news that many soldiers in the army wanted to surrender to King Jin. This made Yang Liang nervous all of a sudden. He immediately sent someone to invite military advisor Wang Yu to discuss countermeasures.
Wang Yu comforted him, "Your Highness, most of these rumors are exaggerated. There are definitely soldiers who want to surrender, but there won't be many. Moreover, if some soldiers have different intentions, it will at most affect the morale of the army, but it will have no impact on the situation. I think if Your Highness is not sure of replacing the emperor, then send someone to negotiate with the emperor and ask for autonomy for Hedong and Hebei, and all financial, military and political powers belong to Your Highness, that is, to establish Your Highness as king, and Your Highness will not be emperor. This is the feudal system in the early Han Dynasty." Yang Liang shook his head, "I can accept this, but the problem now is not the court, but the King of Jin. If the King of Jin does not agree to the feudal system, what's the point?"
Wang Yu sneered and said, "Your Highness can join forces with the court to deal with Prince Jin. As long as both sides reach a compromise, they can definitely join forces."
Yang Liang walked a few steps with his hands behind his back and said, "To be honest, I am very worried about Yuwen Shu. He is known as a slave of three surnames. I did not trust him from the beginning. I only used him because of his military talent. Now I feel that he is becoming more and more threatening to me. I am very worried that he will surrender to the King of Jin."
"Your Highness wants to seize his military power?"
Yang Liang nodded. "I originally wanted to replace him with He Dangui, but I was worried that He Dangui's qualifications were too shallow and his prestige was insufficient to control the army. Now I am considering replacing him with He Ruobi."
Wang Long thought for a moment and said, "He Ruobi's position and achievements in the army far exceed Yuwen Shu's. It is completely possible to replace Yuwen Shu with He Ruobi, but Your Highness must be careful to keep the secret. Once Yuwen Shu learns that Your Highness wants to replace him with He Ruobi, he will definitely rebel."
"Does the military advisor have any good ideas?"
Wang Yu smiled and said, "The King of Qin was destroyed. Your Highness urgently summoned Yuwen Shu to discuss countermeasures. Isn't it easy to just take him down?"
Yang Liang nodded, "It's decided!"
Yang Liang immediately sent someone to summon Yuwen Shu to discuss emergency countermeasures.
Unexpectedly, the subordinate came back soon to report, "Your Highness, General Yuwen is a little unwell and cannot come to discuss matters, so he specially sent Deputy General Heshan Gui to come to discuss matters on his behalf."
Yang Liang was immediately furious. He wanted to let Heshan Gui control the army, but he didn't expect that Yuwen Shu would send Heshan Gui.
He immediately sent a guard with his gold medal to notify Yuwen Shu to come over for a meeting, and even if he was sick, he had to crawl over.
Yuwen Shu was originally a little suspicious. He wondered if Yang Liang wanted to take him down by summoning him to discuss matters at this time, so he sent Hedan Gui over. Unexpectedly, Yang Liang actually used a gold medal to order him.
This confirmed Yuwen Shu's guess that Yang Liang wanted to seize his military power.
He immediately gave the order: "Beat the drums, gather the troops!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The bell sounded to gather the troops, and a hundred thousand soldiers rushed out of their tents and formed up in battle array.
Yang Liang's Han army camp was arranged in an east-west direction, stretching for nearly twenty miles, and was divided into three camps: east, middle and west. Yuwen Shu was in the east camp with 80,000 troops, Yang Liang was in the middle camp with 30,000 personal guards, and Xiao Moke was in the west camp with 50,000 troops.
The three camps were about three miles apart and basically independent of each other. If they were together, Yang Liang would have led his troops directly to capture Yuwen Shu. It was because they were not together and were independent of each other that Yang Liang was helpless. In the end, he used the excuse of an emergency meeting to trick Yuwen Shu into coming to the central camp, but he failed.
When Yang Liang heard the drumbeats, he was startled. What was Yuwen Shu going to do?
Yang Liang suddenly remembered something and said hurriedly, "Go ask Huangfu Sima where Yuwen Zhiji is?"
Soon, Sima Huangfu Dan came running to report: "Your Highness, Yuwen Shu fell ill, Yuwen Zhiji went to visit his father and asked for a day off. He will be back tomorrow!"
Yang Liang's eyes went dark and he almost fell down. He immediately understood that Yuwen Shu was going to turn against his country and surrender.
Wang Long came running over and said in a hurry: "Your Highness, tell the three armies to prepare for battle. I am worried that Yuwen Shu will come to attack us and use Your Highness as a token of his loyalty!"
Yang Liang was terrified and ordered urgently: "Order the three armies to enter a defensive state!"
There was chaos in Yang Liangzhong's camp. Some soldiers were gathering, while others were running to the front of the camp to defend. More than a dozen armies were each forming their own formation. At the same time, the West Camp also received a rescue order, and Xiao Moke immediately ordered his troops to gather for the rescue.
At this time, Yuwen Shu led an army of 80,000 and rushed out of the camp, heading towards the camp of King Jin, 50 miles away in the south.
(End of this chapter)