Liu Bei led Cai Yong, Wu Kuang and his group back to Mianyang to host a banquet for several days, and asked them to go back to Nanzheng to continue their courtesy, saying that Guan Yu was about to get married soon, so he asked everyone to have a wedding banquet together and have a few days of fun.

During the whole process, Liu Bei's emotional intelligence and charm are worthy of full display. Many operations that win people's hearts are not just about enjoyable treatment, but also about giving you good and generous treatment, so that you can discover your own value. Li Su sighs far away.

Within two days, Cai Yong was very happy to work with him, and Wu Kuang, who had made contributions, was even more grateful.

Cai Yong and Wu Kuang were both a little embarrassed and said that they would not receive any reward without merit. They asked Liu Bei to put the important matter first.

On the eve of leaving Mianyang, Cai Yong advised: "The general who conquers the West, goes to Nanzheng for a banquet, and celebrates the marriage ceremony of General Guan Tongqing. I am not in a hurry. I was appointed as the prefect of Ba County by the court, and I should first practice the territory of Ba County and understand the local situation. Moreover, the emperor issued an edict to Li Zhonglang, asking me and Wu Xiaowei as evidence.

Why don’t we go to the key pass of Shu Road before Liu Yan could react and immediately go to the important pass of Shu Road with the emperor’s clear edict to persuade the city gates and control the local defenders, so as to live up to the value of this emperor’s explicit edict. If we have an edict, we will have to go through bloody battles before we can take back the three counties in Shu and the four counties in the south. Wouldn’t it be that innocent soldiers and civilians die in vain?”

Liu Bei sighed when he heard this: "Since Mr. Cai wants to go to the Ba County territory first to take a look before he can rest assured, of course, he will not stop Mr. Cai from doing his best for the court. He will accompany you first and then go back to Nanzheng together to settle down.

However, I have a good idea first. According to what I have sent to do in detail in the past few months, even if there is a clear edict from the emperor, I will not be able to enter Liu Yan's hinterland. From May, Liu Yan has analyzed Guanghan County as Guanghan and Zitong County, and changed the Guanghan vassal state to Yinping County.

In this way, he changed the jurisdiction of the court and counties, added officials to send his confidants to guard the key points, and built Jianmen Pass in Jiange County. The south of Ba County to the east, and the intersection of the three rivers north of Jiangzhou, built Diaoyu City. All the actions indicate that Liu Yan was already feeling the danger and wanted to strengthen the walls and clear the fields to fight against the court with force."

Cai Yong and Wu Kuang did not expect Liu Yan to be so stubborn at first, and they thought that the imperial edict could at least take down several counties without bloodshed. After hearing this, they were shocked: "It's true? Then why didn't the general of the Western Expedition attack him at that time?"

Liu Bei smiled bitterly: "I was just a general in the west at that time. The imperial court's order was to eliminate the rebel Zhang Lu. How could he attack other Han family members by himself? Moreover, the land in Hanzhong had just been pacified, and the army had no surplus grain, and it was difficult to transfer the Shu road. It was impossible to ask Chen Cang for grain to advance, so he could only wait for the Han Mid-Autumn Festival to harvest.

In fact, even at this moment, Bei was extremely reluctant to take the slaughter against Liu Junlang. Alas, Bei’s young family was shallow. In recent years, he has relied on fighting for national strength and obtained military achievements. In terms of court qualifications, he was far inferior to Liu Junlang. I have always regarded him as my clan uncle in my heart, and hoped that he would repent."

Cai Yong was solemn and respected: "The general in the Western Expedition is really a kind person. He cannot bear to take away the foundation of his fellow clans. Even if the other party does this, he still retreats and repeatedly tolerates him.

If Liu Junlang still has a first-line conscience, he should turn against the enemy and surrender with Eli Lilly. He will still spend the rest of his life without forgiveing ​​his sins and avoid innocent casualties from the people."

...

Everyone agreed to change the plan early the next morning, and did not return to Nanzheng from Mianyang, but went along the Maming Pavilion Road on the banks of the Western Han River to the southwest Jiange to find out the authenticity.

The Cai family, Zhen family's family, and even the cultural relics and books transported from Luoyang, these people who had nothing to do with the war were of course sent by Liu Bei to escort back to Nanzhengxian as originally planned.

Because they just persuaded surrender rather than attacking, and there was no need to bring many people, everyone moved lightly from riding horses and boats to arrive at Jiange in four days.

It was the second day of the 10th month. Cai Yong did not believe in this evil. Li Su sent elite soldiers to protect them with shields. He read out the edict at the head of Jianmen Pass outside the range of crossbow arrows and persuaded the soldiers on the city to open the door.

Wu Kuang was eager to make contributions at first and wanted to show off, but Li Su stopped him carefully and said:

"Prince Wu doesn't have to be anxious. We all know that you are loyal to the court. But the nephew of Ling and the niece of Ling are still in the hands of Liu Yan. Although they are currently regarded as guests, if they hear that the Captain Wu comes to persuade him to surrender, they may be so angry that they kill the hostages.

Therefore, the Chief Wu still advised me first when I see my mentor. If the defenders can speak with their words, Liu Yan will not seem to be completely despicable. Then, if there is another chance next time, I will naturally let Chief Wu show it.”

When Wu Kuang heard this, he was so moved that he turned his head and cried: Li Su was so righteous. At this moment, he was still thinking about preventing Wu Yi and Wu Yi's sister from being killed by Liu Yan so that he would not let him appear.

Even though Gao Shun, who had been silently managing the army for the past month, felt that Liu Bei and Li Su were really righteous in treating their subordinates, and seemed to be more righteous than Ding Yuan and Lu Bu.

Cai Yong had a low voice. When he arrived in front of the pass, there were naturally other professional cursing players shouting the opening remarks: "Listen to the guards at the pass, this is the new prefect of Ba County appointed by the court, Cai Boyi, the famous scholar in the world! He was ordered to be a witness and accompanied the envoy Li Su to Chengdu to announce the imperial edict. The court changed Liu Yan to the young tutor and recalled the capital to reuse! Open the city gate quickly!"

There was a slight riot on the top of the city wall, but no one opened the city gate. It was obvious that Liu Yan had already asked to take care of it.

Cai Yong felt very embarrassed. After all, he had never experienced the fierce beating of war. He had always been the official thinking of the court. How could he bear it when he saw the imperial edict being ignored by a group of big-headed soldiers?

He thought that the people on Guan Shang didn't believe that he was Cai Yong, and he didn't see the imperial edict clearly, so he wanted to go out and get closer to let the people on Guan Shang see clearly.

"Come back! These Dongzhou soldiers killed people without blinking, be careful of crossbow arrows!" Li Su was startled and hurriedly grabbed Cai Yong, and other shield soldiers flocked to fill the seats.

Li Su then had the opportunity to take a breath and explained to Cai Yong: "I heard from the general of the Western Expedition last night that Liu Yan was not popular in Shu, but he recruited another army from Yongliang to Shu a few years ago, called the "Dongzhou Army". Even the Qiang people who rebelled all year round and fought with Huangfu Song, Dong Zhuo, and Que Yi and others were all involved in this!

Liu Yan held his hand with a knife, so he was not afraid of the great families in Shu. These people from Liangzhou and Qiang people did not take the imperial court seriously when they were in the north. Now that they rebelled with Liu Yan, how could they still be afraid of the imperial edict? If they don’t believe it, the son-in-law let the iron-armored warrior take the risk of approaching the imperial edict and withdraw it whenever there is any movement. How about it?”

Cai Yong thought about it and felt embarrassed. Isn’t this a joke about someone else’s life? Even though he has iron armor to protect himself, he is always rash.

"Forget... Since the Dongzhou soldiers are so from such a background and so fierce, let's forget it." Cai Yong compromised.

At this time, a voice came from the side: "Duke Cai, lieutenant, if you need to announce the order, let the general bring the guards and shields to come forward and try it!"

Li Su thought this voice was quite unfamiliar. She turned her head and found out that Gao Shun had just known each other for more than a month but had never heard the other party say a few words.

Gao Shun is a man who is usually very frugal. You are not his direct leader, so he will not come to curry favor with you or report to you on your work.

After hearing Gao Shun's request, not only Li Su seized the opportunity to win him over, but even Liu Bei, who had always watched the show in the distance, came up and asked him not to force him.

Gao Shungong bowed: "I have been with Wu for more than a month, but I have not made any achievements. How can I ask about some trivial matters? Li Zhonglang has equipped all our army with fish scale armor and iron shields. For such protection, I am afraid that the arrows on the city will not be able to be achieved."

As he said that, he took the imperial edict from Cai Yong, held high with his hands openly, and twenty shield soldiers from the camp beside him formed a formation to protect him.

He is very skilled in martial arts, so he can naturally be more ostentatious than Cai Yong. He doesn't have to hide under the shield to make the other party unable to see clearly. Even if there are really crossbow arrows coming, he can avoid his head and face and return to the soldier's iron shield formation with Gao Shun's eyes and quick hands.

He arrogantly walked to the front of the pass thirty steps, and raised his imperial edict and shouted: "I am Sima Gaoshun, a member of the Northern Army Captain of the Capital! I am escorting the imperial envoy here by the imperial edict, and quickly open the city gate. If you want to verify the content of the edict with your own eyes, you can also turn on and close the city to check."

At this moment, the Dongzhou soldiers on the top of the city finally could not pretend to be deaf and dumb. They could only either offer the pass or shoot away arrows, and could no longer remain vague.

A few seconds later, several bows and arrows were the first to shoot from the city. Gao Shun's eyes were cold and he saw clearly where the arrow came from. He knew that he didn't need to hide at all. He just took advantage of the opportunity when the other party shot in one wave and waved his hand. The soldiers in the camp also took out the crossbows that had just been put on the string in advance, aimed at the top of the city to reflect. The crossbow arrows shot out from the gap in the shield formation, and actually shot and killed more than a dozen Dongzhou soldiers on the wall.

Unfortunately, the camp only has this opportunity to take action, because they cannot tilt the crossbow with one hand while setting up a shield, and after shooting, they can only retreat to a safe distance.

Moreover, if they hadn't made a sudden move, the defenders at the city would not have been shot so many times because of neglecting defense. Under normal circumstances, the archers on the wall did not shoot arrows with their bodies exposed to the front, but used the inclination of the female wall to hide behind the pile and shoot cross-fire. In this case, it would be difficult to be shot by the soldiers below.

Despite this, the camp shot more than ten people and retreated steadily without any injuries, which still increased the morale of Liu Bei's army, and also hit the enemy's legitimacy, forcing him to an unfavorable mental state of open rebellion.

Li Su looked at the Han-style horse-killing sword made of soldiers wearing fish scales, black armor, crossbows on their backs, holding iron shields in one hand, and long blades and wide backs in the other hand, and slowly retreating without panic. He couldn't help but secretly praise him.

I retreated to a safe distance and checked, and no one died.

"Oh, I really didn't expect that the Shu people didn't know that the capital was turmoil by Dong Zhuo, so they dared to completely ignore the imperial edict and rebel. The authority of the court came to this point." Cai Yong and Wu Kuang sighed with regret at this result.

Li Su and Liu Bei comforted them in turn: "No need to slack off, otherwise this is the case. Since we have come, we will follow the Jialing River in front of the pass and flow up the Baishui and Qiang River coasts, which were originally vassal states of Guanghan, but are now changed to Yinping County by Liu Yan.

These counties did not belong to the territory of Hanzhong Prefect. Although they were not worth much money, they were originally from Liu Yan. Now let’s surrender.”

Cai Yong and Wu Kuang could only retreat and set up a second-hand imperial edict to sacrifice. The group followed the Jialing River in front of Jianmen Pass and swept upstream. Within a few days, the soldiers persuaded the two counties of Baishui and Yinping without bloodshed, but they were not helpful in how to break through Jiange.

Liu Bei was very good at using Cai Yong and Wu Kuang to sincerely praise the achievements of surrendering to the two counties, and then took the initiative to find a way: "Let's go back to Nanzheng to make a long-term plan. Now it is October, and this Jiange Road cannot be broken through this year. Even if he fights, with Liu Yan's will to resist, he will be in danger as long as his army is not well fed, and our army will not be able to maintain its strength.

When the spring plowing is over next year, we will not disturb the farming of the innocent people in Shu County. We will launch troops to fight against the thieves and strive to gain a foothold in the pass before the autumn harvest, and there is no need to worry about supplies."
Chapter completed!