Chapter 566: The army is approaching, the military might of the southern border!

Chapter 566: The army is approaching, the military might of the southern border!

Time flies, and just over four months have passed in a flash. The army in the southern border rushed to the surrounding counties like a surging tide and began to station troops and set up camps. This move made the people in the surrounding counties feel unprecedented pressure, as if the whole world was shrouded by this powerful military force.

As Gao Yao began to deploy troops, many counties and prefectures decisively chose to surrender before his army arrived. This was due to both the pressure of food supply and the disparity in military strength. Xiao He's clever plan further fueled the situation. He deliberately spread the news, emphasizing the difference between voluntarily surrendering and surrendering when the army was approaching. This strategy made some small warlords in various places tempted. After weighing the pros and cons, most of them chose to surrender to Gao Yao.

Not all counties and prefectures surrendered so easily. Some people refused to surrender, and would rather fight to the death than to bow to Gao Yao. Some of these people chose to join Wu Rui out of their confidence in their military strength, while others chose to join him out of loyalty to him.

Gao Yao was extremely firm in his attitude towards those who surrendered. Even those generals who surrendered voluntarily could not directly command their troops and obtain the position of general as some people expected. Gao Yao attached great importance to this point and was very clear about it, and would not allow any compromise.

Gao Yao had made up his mind to implement this rule from the beginning, even if it meant some losses, because he knew that establishing such a rule was of vital significance and benefit to future development.

First of all, more than 80% of the soldiers who surrendered directly did not meet Gao Yao's requirements and standards for soldiers. Compared with the elite-trained Southern Border Army, the quality of these soldiers was far behind.

Especially for some small-scale insurgents and soldiers under the command of small warlords, their composition was very chaotic, with a wide age range, from the youngest being only twelve or thirteen years old to the oldest being over forty years old. Moreover, the management was also very chaotic, and these soldiers often just fought desperately with weapons, without any professional training at all.

Gao Yao actually had his own considerations for these soldiers. He knew that although these people came to surrender, their strength and quality were uneven, and it was undoubtedly a risk to directly use them on the battlefield. After all, war is cruel, and what is needed are truly capable and experienced warriors, not a group of rabble.

Of course, this does not mean that Gao Yao will not accept their surrender. On the contrary, he will deal with this group of soldiers in a more cautious way. Usually, after a team of thousands of people has been screened and selected, there may be less than 200 soldiers left. These 200 people may be relatively outstanding among them, but even so, they need to undergo at least three months of rigorous training before they can really have the ability to go to the battlefield.

However, surrendering to Gao Yao did have some merits. In this chaotic world, Gao Yao also understood this. But the treatment he gave was indeed much lower than that of other princes. The treatment Gao Yao gave was mainly an ordinary official position, and then a lot of money and food as a reward. If these soldiers wanted to continue to stay in the army, then they must meet the martial arts standards, and the highest position they could be given was to lead a thousand people, which was already the highest position Gao Yao could give.

As for the rest of the princes, as long as someone surrendered to them, they would basically retain their own troops and accept deployment. Some of them even brought their cities with them and kept everything basically intact, and also provided certain financial support. In comparison, the superiority and inferiority could be immediately identified, which led to the fact that not many people were willing to surrender to Gao Yao.

As for these small warlords, their vision only goes so far. After all, if they really had a long-term vision and strategy, they would not have remained unknown small warlords until now after Fusu's death. It is because they value immediate interests. Really smart people will understand that the right choice at this time is to surrender to Gao Yao.

Although it seems that they have lost a lot of profits, the profits are huge, the family background is rich, and the military strength is strong. Even if there are only a few thousand or a hundred people, as long as they fight a few favorable battles, they can quickly accumulate a lot of military merits and gradually improve their status and treatment. Moreover, they will have a more stable life, a richer life, and a greater room for future development. This is the fact, but there are too few people who can really see this fact.

There are actually many people in the same situation. The most typical ones are Chen Sheng and Wu Guang. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang started the uprising ahead of time under the promotion of Gao Yao, but under the planning of the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan, the result is basically the same as in history.

After being defeated by Zhang Han, Zhou Wen, a subordinate of Chen Sheng, led his army to hold Caoyang Pavilion and resist the Qin army for dozens of days, but was defeated and retreated to Mianchi. The unyielding Zhou Wen led his troops to fight the enemy for more than ten days despite several setbacks and lack of food and support. In the end, he was outnumbered and committed suicide by drawing his sword.

After Zhou Wen's army was defeated, Zhang Han led his troops to continue eastward. The peasant army besieging Xingyang was in danger of being attacked from both sides. The rebel general Tian Zang disagreed with the fake king Wu Guang and believed that "the fake king is arrogant and does not know military power. He cannot be consulted and must be killed." He even killed Wu Guang in the name of Chen Sheng, which resulted in the annihilation of the rebel army.

The situation began to reverse. The weaknesses and contradictions within the rebel army gradually exposed themselves. On the one hand, after Chen Sheng became king, his thoughts gradually changed and his relationship with the masses became increasingly alienated.

As the anti-Qin struggle unfolded, centrifugal tendencies within the revolutionary ranks also grew and spread. The generals sent by Chen Sheng to various places had different intentions and competed for the title of king, and the rebel army was openly divided.

For example, Wu Chen, who went on the northern expedition, declared himself the King of Zhao and transformed himself into a separatist leader. His general Han Guang also declared himself the King of Yan after conquering the Yan territory. Zhou Fu, who conquered the old territory of Wei, did not declare himself the king, but he made Wei Ju, a descendant of Wei, the Lord of Ningling, the king, and appointed himself as the prime minister of Wei, ceding territory to protect himself. At the same time, the heroes from all over the country who responded to the uprising no longer listened to Chen Sheng's control, and directly isolated Chen Sheng's "Zhang Chu" regime, which was the main force against Qin.

At this time, due to Gao Yao's reasons, the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan recalled Zhang Han in time, but at the same time, the move of conferring the title of king also became the last straw that broke the camel's back for Chen Sheng, because the move of conferring the title of king greatly suppressed the rise of the rebel forces in various places. After all, the rebel forces at this time were wavering as to whether to respect the restoration of the country by the former nobles of the six countries, and at the same time, they were also hesitating whether to revolt or follow the kings.