Chapter 715: Surrender
Chapter 715: Surrender
Li Yuan was stunned for a moment, and after a while he said, "Once Bashu withdraws its troops, all our previous efforts will be wasted."
"Your Highness, can the 80,000 troops of Bashu be self-sufficient in terms of money and food now?" Yuan Xiaoju asked.
Li Yuan shook his head. "It can sustain half of it. The other half needs supplies from Chang'an."
"In that case, why not withdraw half of the troops?"
Li Yuan smiled bitterly and said, "You may not know. We are barely maintaining the balance with 80,000 troops. If we withdraw half of them, the balance will be broken. First, we will lose Meishan County. Secondly, the enemy's navy will enter Shu County. We will only have Chengdu County left. Once the enemy cuts off our supply, we will lose Chengdu County. This means that everything will collapse."
Dugu Tuo shook his head and said, "That's why we suggest you give up Bashu and withdraw all 80,000 troops. Bashu is not like Longyou. Longyou is related to the safety of Guanzhong, but Bashu is not. Bashu is just expanding. If the situation is unfavorable, then you should temporarily give up expansion and protect yourself. When you become stronger, it will not be too late to retake Bashu. Your Highness, which one is more important, Bashu or Hedong? Please consider it yourself."
Neither of them supported recruiting soldiers, and they all unanimously asked Li Yuan to withdraw his troops from Bashu. Li Yuan also understood that they were unwilling to give money and food, so he could only sigh in his heart and nodded, "I'll think about it!"
When Yuan Xiaoju returned home, he immediately sent someone to invite Yuan Shou and Yuan Hongsi.
The three of them sat down in the inner hall, and Yuanshou asked, "What does the Tang King want you to do?"
Yuan Xiaoju sneered, "He wanted to recruit soldiers, but he was short of money, so he planned to beg for alms from the Guanlong nobles. Dugu Tuo and I refused and explicitly asked him to abandon Bashu and withdraw his troops to protect Hedong."
Yuanshou nodded, "This is a wise move. Bashu is only a temporary balance. He cannot defeat the King of Jin, and will lose it sooner or later. He should withdraw his troops to protect Hedong."
Yuan Hongsi said solemnly, "I just got the news that Li Mi's army has captured Taiyuan City, and Taiyuan Governor Xiahou Duan has surrendered."
All three of them were silent. The capture of Taiyuan City meant that the ownership of Hedong Road had changed. Especially since Li Mi controlled Hedong Road, it would be ten times more difficult to take it back.
Yuanshou shook his head and said with a smile: "Li Yuan cannot afford to lose Hedong. Now he must withdraw his troops from Bashu and do his best to take back Hedong."
Yuan Xiaoju paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, and after a while he said, "Actually, I asked you to come here to discuss another matter. I also want to talk to the King of Jin again."
Because of the death of the previous emperor Yang Guang, Xiao Xia and the Guanlong nobles fell out. Yuan Xiaoju had no choice but to fully support Li Yuan. But now Hedong was lost, Longyou was lost, and Bashu was not taken. Li Yuan's power was only limited to Guanzhong, Guannei and Hanzhong. Yuan Xiaoju began to regret it and wanted to cling to the thigh of Prince of Jin again.
Yuan Shou and Yuan Hongsi looked at each other, and Yuan Shou asked, "Does the Patriarch think we can still talk to the King of Jin?"
Yuan Xiaoju was silent for a moment and said, "I read the proclamation of the King of Jin to send troops to Bashu to fight against the rebellion. He blamed the death of the previous emperor on Yu Wenzhi's rebellion and mentioned a series of names, including Wang Long, Yu Wenzhi, Sima Dekan, Zhao Xingshu, Chen Botu, Pei Qiantong, Linghu Xingda, Zhang Kai, and Sigong Wei. But there were no names of the children of the Guanlong nobles. Yuan Min and Dugu Huai'en were not mentioned. Therefore, I think the King of Jin does not intend to completely turn against the Guanlong nobles. Considering that our friendship was good before, I think we can still talk about it."
Yuan Hongsi's mind moved, and he asked, "When the head of the family persuaded Li Yuan to abandon Bashu and retreat north, was he also trying to give the King of Jin a token of his allegiance?"
Yuan Xiaoju nodded, "That's indeed what he meant. Dugu Tuo originally insisted on taking over Bashu, but today he actually said the same thing to me. I guess he also vaguely guessed my intention, which means that his position has begun to waver."
Yuan Hongsi quickly suggested: "The head of the family can spread the word and let Xiao Xia's intelligence center know that it was the head of the family who persuaded the King of Tang to give up Bashu!"
Yuan Xiaoju smiled and said, "This method can be done!"
Yuanshou asked again: "Who does the master of the family plan to send to Jiangdu?"
"I plan to send Yuan Wenzhen to give gifts to the children of King Jin as my apology. If King Jin is willing to accept them, it means that he is willing to accept my apology. Then Yuan Wenzhen can continue to run Wuchuan Commercial Bank and reconcile step by step. Don't be too hasty, otherwise you will achieve your goal in a hurry."
Yuan Xiaoju immediately ordered: "Go find Yuan Wenzhen!"
Not long after, Yuan Wenzhen hurried over. He knelt down and kowtowed, "Yuan Wenzhen greets the head of the family and the two elders!" Yuan Xiaoju asked him to stand up and asked with a smile, "What are you doing now?"
Yuan Wenzhen was the illegitimate son of the Yuan family. He had no chance to stand in front of the three elders of the Yuan family. He was in Jiangnan before because he was in charge of the business in Jiangnan and gradually became the representative of the Yuan family in Jiangnan.
Yuan Wenzhen stood with his hands down and said respectfully, "I am managing the business of the Chang'an store!"
Yuan Xiaoju nodded, "I decided to let you go to Jiangnan. Do you understand what I mean?"
How could Yuan Wenzhen not know? "Junior understands!"
Yuan Xiaoju sighed and said, "We are not on good terms with His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin right now, so you have a heavy burden. Not only do you have to improve our relationship with His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin, but you also have to rebuild trust. I should have gone, but we can't leave, and we can't let Li Yuan get suspicious, so this difficult task is handed over to you."
Yuan Wenzhen took a deep breath and said, "I will definitely live up to the trust of the Patriarch!"
Xiao Xia still stayed in Xingyang County, closely following the changes in the situation every day. At the same time, he was also preparing to launch a campaign against Luoyang.
That morning, Zhang Liang hurried over and handed him a tube of intelligence. "Your Highness, this is an urgent report from General Zhou Faming!"
Xiao Xia quickly opened the pigeon letter and read it. He was overjoyed. Li Xiaogong had already led 80,000 troops to evacuate Bashu. He said to Zhang Liang, "Does Chengdu have any information? The Tang Wang army has evacuated."
Zhang Liang nodded. "I received the information today, but I don't know whether the enemy in Chengdu is evacuating Bashu or Chengdu. Now it seems that they are evacuating Bashu. There is also information in Chang'an."
Xiao Xia asked, "What does Chang'an's intelligence say?"
"It is said in Chang'an that Li Yuan originally wanted to recruit troops, but he was short of money, so he wanted to beg for alms from the nobles in Guanlong, but was rejected. Yuan Xiaoju and Dugu Tuo suggested that Li Yuan withdraw his troops from Bashu."
Xiao Xia asked curiously, "This should be confidential information! How did the Chang'an Intelligence Agency get it?"
"Your Highness, the news has spread in Chang'an. Someone is deliberately spreading the news."
Xiao Xia paced back and forth with his hands behind his back. He vaguely guessed that this must be the news spread by the Guanlong nobles, who were telling him this information. It was they who persuaded Li Yuan to withdraw his troops from Bashu. Seeing that Li Yuan was in a bad situation, the Guanlong nobles began to surrender to him.
As a mature superior, he would naturally not wipe out a certain force. Balance is the essence of an emperor's mind. He had broken with the Guanlong nobles before to make his attitude clear, but he couldn't do anything extreme. Therefore, he did not mention the Guanlong nobles in the manifesto to attack Yu Wenzhi when he sent troops to Bashu. This was to leave a leeway.
If things are really taken to the extreme, the Guanlong nobles will have no way out. They will support Li Yuan with all their strength, and the cause of unification will be subject to a lot of trouble.
On the contrary, if he left a way out for the Guanlong nobles, they would not fully support Li Yuan. Facts have proved that his decision was correct.
As long as the Guanlong nobles are not allowed to become a dominant force in the world, but are made one of many forces, they will become a useful chess piece in balancing the famous families.
Thinking of this, Xiao Xia smiled at Zhang Liang and said, "I want to borrow your pigeon letter to send a letter to my family."
Xiao Xia needed to remind his wife that if the Guanlong nobles sent anything as a gift, she must accept it.
(End of this chapter)