I will be the master of Xuande

Chapter 803 Surrender
Sun Qian’s words touched Cao Cao deeply. He slowly stood up, turned around several times, and finally turned his head.

"The Prime Minister doesn't deceive me?"

Sun Qian said, "Lord Cao, the Prime Minister always keeps his word. Have you ever heard of the Prime Minister deceiving others? Moreover, the Prime Minister is now leading the army of the Great Han Dynasty, the army of the kingly way, the army of the emperor, to unify the local area and rule the people from above. Jiangdong was originally Han territory and has never been a foreign territory. Why should the Prime Minister deceive Lord Cao?"

"What's more, with the Prime Minister's current power and strength, it would be a piece of cake to pacify Jiangdong. Why should we deceive Lord Cao?"

"Having reached this position, the prime minister cares more about his own reputation and the dignity of the court."

Upon hearing this, Cao Cao nodded.

"You are right. I, Cao, have misjudged the Prime Minister's mind with my mean heart... But my Cao family had some grudges with the Prime Minister in the past. The clan generals under my command don't understand the Prime Minister's mind and ambition. When I started my army, I relied on the clan. Now half of Jiangdong's military power is controlled by clan generals, and they have a high prestige in the army. If I insist on surrendering, I'm afraid it will cause a mutiny in the army."

Sun Qian said with a smile: "With Lord Cao's ability, Lord Cao's prestige, and the influence he has had in Jiangdong over the years, I'm afraid there will be a mutiny in the army, right? As long as you are here, the army in Jiangdong will not mutiniate."

Cao Cao was stunned when he heard this.

Sun Qian continued, "What Lord Cao fears is that the clan generals will be determined not to surrender and will not get a good ending."

Cao Cao sighed and said, "This is what Prime Minister Liu told you."

Sun Qian said: "Of course, of course, otherwise with Sun Qian's ability, how can I guess Cao Gong's thoughts?"

"The one who knows Cao Gong well is the Prime Minister."

"Don't worry, Lord Cao. The battle should continue. The anger of the royal family generals will be quenched on the battlefield by the Prime Minister."

"Mr. Cao just needs to prepare for his return to the Han Dynasty."

After hearing what Sun Qian said, Cao Cao's heart calmed down for some reason.

The words of Liu Jian, his enemy, actually calmed Cao Cao's heart.

This made Cao Cao feel very strange!

Perhaps this is the charm of the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty.

……

Afterwards, Liu Jian's troops began to advance towards Jiangdong.

Cao Cao was still defending himself, and he mainly relied on the defensive positions along the Yangtze River.

In addition, Xiahou Yuan led his troops to fight against Taishi Ci and Kong Ming.

Cao Ren and Yu Jin went to stop Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

It seems like a standard strategy, but it is completely useless in the face of absolute strength.

One force is better than ten skills.

First of all, although Xiahou Yuan is good at raiding and Cao Ren is also a veteran of many battles, and the two have stayed in Jiangnan for several years and are very familiar with water warfare tactics...but their biggest weakness is that they are seriously short of troops.

First, Cao Ren and Yu Jin faced the army of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

It was simply a fantasy for the elite navy they led to stop the offensive of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei on the Yangtze River.

But the problem is that the coalition forces of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who had just defeated Zhou Yu, had already surpassed Cao Cao's main army.

It would be even more impossible for Cao Ren and Yu Jin to divide their troops and fight against Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

This time, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei adopted a method of advancing both by land and sea.

Guan Yu had headaches from time to time, so he handed over the command of the army to Zhang Fei and Guan Ping.

Zhang Fei boarded a large ship and led the navy from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River eastward!
Ma Chao, Pang De and others led elite cavalry directly into Danyang County from land.

Danyang County has developed well in recent years. Most of the Shanyue people have been conquered by Cao Cao, and there are almost no rebellious forces in the territory.

However, the main forces in the territory were withdrawn by Cao Cao to Jianye to fight against Liu Bei's navy. The defense of Danyang County was weak, and after encountering powerful northern armies such as Ma Chao and Pang De, it immediately began to surrender to them.

Ma Chao and Pang De had a smooth journey in Danyang County, attacking cities and capturing strongholds one after another, advancing at a speed of almost a thousand miles a day.

Zhang Fei knew that although his navy had a large number of warships and sufficient manpower, Cao Ren's navy had the home advantage after all. So Zhang Fei asked Ma Chao, Pang De, Yan Xing and others to lead the elite cavalry of Liang Province into the interior of Danyang County to distract Cao Ren's attention.

In this era, Cao Ren's ability to use troops was completely incomparable to Zhang Fei's. The two people's experiences were completely different.

Zhang Fei, who had experienced many major battles, had rich experience and vision. He saw Cao Ren's weakness at a glance.

Cao Ren, as a general of Jiangdong, naturally understood the importance of Danyang County. Now Jiangxia was controlled by Liu Jian, who completely controlled the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. If Danyang was captured by Liu Jian, the vast areas of Yuzhang and Kuaiji south of Danyang County would be destroyed without a fight.

By then, the Northern Army could completely cut off Cao's army's connection with the South, leaving Cao Cao waiting for death in a remote place.

Therefore, Zhang Fei concluded that Cao Ren must be rescued!

As expected, Cao Ren followed the script Zhang Fei had written for him. He asked Yu Jin to stay along the river to continue guarding against Zhang Fei, while he himself led his troops directly into Danyang County to rescue Wanling.

Wanling is the seat of Danyang County. Once it is lost, Zhang Fei will be able to join forces with Taishi Ci, and half of Jiangdong will be really lost.

Cao Ren did not dare to delay and rode non-stop towards Wanling, but the result was predictable.

The troops he and Yu Jin had were already insufficient, and now that they were divided, they would naturally be defeated one by one by Zhang Fei.

Following Zhang Fei's prior instructions, Ma Chao suddenly stopped his army's march on the way to Wanling, then turned the army around and launched a fierce attack on Cao Ren's location.

At the same time, Guan Ping also led his troops ashore as requested by Zhang Fei, and attacked Cao Ren from the front and back with Ma Chao.

After Yu Jin got the news, he wanted to rescue Cao Ren, but was stopped by Zhang Fei on the water.

Cao Ren was attacked from all sides and was defeated.

However, Ma Chao and Guan Ping did not kill him, but let him go and then trapped him in Wanling.

After hearing the news, Yu Jin was at a loss as to what to do. At this time, Zhang Fei sent people to persuade him to surrender and promised him great power.

In the end, Yu Jin accepted Zhang Fei's surrender.

On the other side, Xiahou Yuan's situation was not much better.

He originally thought that Taishi Ci and Zhuge Liang's armies were fighting across the sea and were a surprise attack army, and their combat effectiveness was not that strong.

But he never imagined that there would never be anyone in the northern army who would take advantage of troubled waters.

The troops under Taishi Ci fought across the sea in Liaodong. They were all elite troops with strong character and good fighting skills.

Xiahou Yuan thought he could defeat them, but when the two sides really came face to face, he realized how big the gap was between them.

The two sides fought on the shore of Taihu Lake west of Wu County. After just one battle, Xiahou Yuan's entire army was wiped out!

The gap in combat power is too huge, and it is not something that Xiahou Yuan alone can make up for.

He himself was beaten and captured alive by Taishi Ci!
Taishi Ci originally wanted to take Xiahou Yuan's head, but was stopped by Zhuge Liang.

Although Liu Jian did not write to Zhuge Liang to state the current situation in the south of the Yangtze River, with Zhuge Liang's intelligence and wisdom, how could he not think of the subtle situation?

He naturally knew that Liu Jian did not want to completely break off relations with the Cao family. Under the current environment and situation, the court had a very good hope of directly conquering the Cao family.

Therefore, generals like Xiahou Yuan must never be killed.

Of course, we can’t let go.

Since Xiahou Yuan was captured alive by Taishi Ci, Zhuge Liang felt that this was an opportunity given by God for the imperial court to conquer the south of the Yangtze River.

……

Xiahou Yuan and Cao Ren were captured alive, and Yu Jin surrendered, which gave a great shock to Cao's army in Jianye. The whole Jianye was shrouded in a dark cloud.

Especially the relatives of Cao and Xiahou families, many of them originally held the attitude of fighting to the death with Liu Jian, but now, they are collectively silent.

Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan were extremely important to the Cao and Xiahou families. If they were captured alive, it would be impossible for the Cao and Xiahou families to ignore their safety and continue to insist on fighting the Northern Army.

Under such circumstances, the number of people who opposed surrendering to the imperial court decreased significantly, while the number of people who agreed to surrender to the Northern Army began to increase.

In particular, Cao Chun from the Cao clan immediately gathered the main generals and many clan elders of the Cao clan, and went to Cao Cao's office overnight to discuss the matter with Cao Cao.

Cao Chun was once captured alive by the North and was eventually released back to the south of the Yangtze River. Although he was not convinced at that time, he had to admit that Liu Jian and Liu Bei did not abuse Cao Chun and treated him with courtesy.

Cao Chun also remembered these things.

Therefore, Cao Chun supported surrendering to the Northern Army.

After Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan were captured alive, Cao Chun's influence within the Cao clan increased significantly.

It can be said that with Cao Chun taking the lead in supporting surrender to the imperial court, many members of the Cao clan, even if they had objections, could not speak out.

Especially since Cao Ren's life was now in Zhang Fei's hands, Cao Chun was even more determined to surrender.

That's his own brother!

And in the final analysis, Liu Bei is also Cao Chun's brother-in-law.

The two families are relatives, and as long as they are willing to surrender, Liu Jian will not do anything extreme.

In the end, under the promotion of Cao Cao and Cao Chun, the entire Cao clan finally reached a unanimous agreement.

That is, they had no choice but to surrender to the imperial court.

(End of this chapter)