Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1081 Entering the City
The next day, Qiu Tai convened a court meeting and said that the army was approaching and he did not want to let the people in the city suffer, so he decided to open the city and surrender.

When the civil and military officials heard this, they all beat their chests and stamped their feet, saying that they were incompetent and had caused the king to suffer humiliation, and they were truly unworthy of being his subjects.

But many people secretly breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts. Not having to fight meant that they could all save their lives. Could there be anything better than this?
Qiu Tai took out the surrender letter and handed it to Cao Ang, and even unfolded it for him to see, saying: "Don't worry, sir. I have already written in the surrender letter that the condition for surrendering the city is that the lives of you and your subordinates must be saved."

Cao Ang glanced at the surrender letter and immediately bowed to Qiu Tai and said, "I am deeply grateful for your concern, Your Majesty."

Qiu Tai smiled and said, "To show my sincerity, I want you to lead your troops out of the city and present a memorial to the fierce tiger."

"When two countries are at war, they don't kill envoys. Xionghu will not embarrass you because you presented a memorial. Instead, they will turn hostility into friendship. What do you think?"

Cao Ang immediately replied: "Ang is willing to serve as an envoy for the king."

Qiu Tai was overjoyed, and pulled Cao Ang aside, saying, "Okay, if both sides can make peace, I will send you back home immediately!"

Jia Xu watched coldly from the side, thinking that Qiu Tai was also a capable person, and could carry forward his strategies, even sending Cao Ang as a bargaining chip.

This move was indeed a brilliant one. If Cao Ang was safe, Qiu Tai would be able to do him a favor. If Xiong Hu could not help but kill Cao Ang, Qiu Tai would be able to push the responsibility away when facing Cao Cao afterwards. It was a sure-win deal.

As for whether Jia Xu would remind Cao Ang, Qiu Tai had also thought it over carefully, because he had mentioned to Jia Xu several times about dividing the Three Han Kingdoms, but had never mentioned Cao Ang during that time, which clearly showed that he was trying to bribe Jia Xu alone.

In Qiu Tai's opinion, since Jia Xu could become king of the Three Han, why should he work for Cao Ang?
Soon, the gates of Baekje city opened wide. Baekje had previously sent a letter to Yuan Xi requesting a three-day ceasefire, so the attack on the city wall had stopped. Cao Ang led the remaining six or seven hundred Youzhou rebels out of the city and headed towards Yuan Xi's camp.

Yuan Xi was naturally busy these days. He arranged everything and waited for news from the city. Now, he finally received the envoy and surrender letter from the capital of Baekje.

Yuan Xi accepted the surrender letter, tried to appease Cao Ang with kind words, and then asked Cao Ang to retreat and wait, using the excuse of asking his subordinates to write a reply.

After Cao Ang withdrew, the real surrender letter brought by Qiu Tai's confidant in the delegation was delivered to Yuan Xi.

He compared the two letters of surrender and couldn't help laughing. To be honest, if one of the two letters of surrender was true, things would become difficult later on.

Now, these two fake letters are part of the plan. This is why Yuan Xi sent Jia Xu. Only Jia Xu could come up with such a plan to pit everyone, including Yuan Xi.

He handed the two surrender letters to Tian Yu, who understood their meaning after reading them. He frowned and said, "How could Jia Xu's plan be so sinister?"

"And if the lord wants to achieve his goal, he has to go into the city himself and take the risk. The son of a rich man cannot sit still in the hall, so does the lord have to take the risk himself?"

"What if Jia Xu has evil intentions?"

"And there is Cao Ang, a descendant of the Cao family, inside. If he plots against you, the consequences will be disastrous. I hope you will think twice."

Yuan Xi sighed, "I know this is not a risk-free move."

"But after all the twists and turns, what I want is a just cause. This is the most troublesome and the most important thing."

"Throughout history, if you raise an unjust army to conquer a place, you can certainly suppress it temporarily with force, but there will be endless troubles and rebellions afterwards."

"I conquered Baekje, and the name was that Baekje allowed its soldiers to plunder, which was unjust first, and this is the right way."

"But Baekje has surrendered, and I should accept it out of morality and reason. Otherwise, it will be suspected that we will kill them all, and we will go from being in the right to being in the wrong."

"But after I leave, Baekje will definitely regret it, which means that my battle was in vain. I naturally won't accept it."

"So I can only let Baekje see the benefits and betray us, so that I can attack them in the name of justice and completely cut off their lineage."

"To achieve this goal, I have no choice but to take a risk. The best bait is naturally myself."

"Guorang, rest assured. The soldiers I brought into the city are all elite soldiers from Youzhou. There are not many people in the world who can defeat them."

Tian Yu thought about it again and again, and finally said: "But the Youzhou soldiers that the lord brought into the city must not be many, otherwise the Baekje king would not dare to take action."

“I’m still worried…”

Yuan Xi laughed and said, "Guorang forgot that there is also Zilong."

"After I enter the city, matters outside the city will be handed over to you. Be on standby and ready for action at any time."

"If everything goes well, I can settle the city. If things don't go well, I will send out a distress signal and you will storm the city. How do you think?"

After hearing this, Tian Yu knew that Yuan Xi had made up his mind, so he nodded and said, "I obey your command!" Soon after, Yuan Xi ordered someone to write a reply letter and give it to Cao Ang, asking him to take it back to the city, but he kept the Youzhou rebels under his command.

As soon as Cao Ang left, he gave orders to disarm all these people and then detained and interrogated them separately.

Among this group of rebels, there are naturally Yuan Xi's spies, and there are quite a few of them. As for the others, they are highly suspected to be spies from other forces.

Yuan Xi's action of using Cao Ang to lure people was to kill two birds with one stone. He first used the spies from the Procuratorate to incite the Youzhou soldiers who were guarding Cao Ang, who were already dissatisfied or were spies, to plan a rescue operation to help Cao Ang escape.

Transferring these people out, gathering them around Cao Ang, and exposing them through the defection incident was itself a big trick. These people never dreamed that Cao Ang had already been used by Yuan Xi for various reasons.

This seemingly impossible thing naturally has its reasons. This condition is naturally the bait used to catch Cao Ang.

Mrs. Ding.

This bait is a series of tricks, and its insidiousness is comparable to Jia Xu's plan. Yuan Xi admitted that he was not a good person. He could not learn from Liu Bei in fighting for the world. If he had done that, he would probably have died on the road long ago.

So now, he can only try his best to make use of all possible conditions and strive to the end.

When Qiu Tai learned that Cao Ang had returned to the city, he was quite surprised. He thought that Xionghu was quite magnanimous and actually let Cao Ang go. He must have fallen into a trap, right?
He had not yet made up his mind, but then the news that the defecting Youzhou soldiers were detained and even executed spread into the city. Qiu Tai was relieved. Xionghu was still brooding over the defectors, and he took action without entering the city. It was obvious that he was fearless and thought that Baekje's surrender was real!

On the contrary, if Xionghu treats the defecting soldiers well, Qiu Tai would have to think twice, because it is possible that Xionghu is trying to appease the people, and he might even be plotting against him!

Only then did Qiu Tai make up his mind, open the city gates, and order 10,000 Baekje soldiers in the city to leave the city. At the same time, he sent a letter to Yuan Xi, inviting him into the city for a banquet.

Just as Qiu Tai had expected, after receiving the letter, Yuan Xi immediately agreed and entered the city with hundreds of troops.

Of course, in Qiu Tai's opinion, Yuan Xi was very alert and even sent soldiers to block the four gates of the capital. In this way, even if the Baekje soldiers outside the city defected, he could close the city and defend himself.

When Qiu Tai heard this, he was very proud. He thought that Xionghu was too arrogant and would naturally pay a heavy price. Now even Jia Xu didn't know about his arrangements in the city. Once the attack was launched, Xionghu would be doomed!
He stood up and went to the palace gate to welcome Yuan Xi with civil and military officials.

Not long after, Yuan Xi came with his troops, riding on horses, with a proud look on his face. People on both sides of the road were watching him curiously.

Most of them were not familiar with the name Yuan Xi, but in this era when wars often led to massacres of cities, it should not be a bad thing that the enemy did not make things difficult for the local people after entering the city, right?

Of course, the officials and landlords of Baekje would not think so. They had heard that Yuan Xi had brought a lot of refugees for resettlement, which would undoubtedly occupy their land and squeeze their property income.

More importantly, Yuan Xi would definitely place his own people here, and most people in the new dynasty would be demoted or even lose their jobs. This would make many officials follow Qiu Tai with bitter faces, as if they had lost their parents.

Yuan Xi jumped off his horse, and Qiu Tai hurriedly came up to him, bowing and saying, "My young king Qiu Tai has led Baekje for thirteen years. I now pay my respects to the king and hope that the king will grant me your approval."

Yuan Xi laughed, helped Qiu Tai up, and said, "The King of Baekje knows how to deal with current events. I like people like you."

He turned to the civil and military officials behind him and said, "You have given proper advice, and the king of Baekje can make the right choice. You are all talents that can be used. I promise that you can keep your official positions, and there will be additional rewards in the future!"

At this moment, all the civil and military officials were smiling, kneeling on the ground, sticking their buttocks out, and praising him repeatedly.

Yuan Xi was somewhat surprised to see these people change their attitudes so quickly. He thought that the Baekje tradition was indeed to say one thing in public and another behind people's backs. He was afraid that after he left, as soon as there was an opportunity for rebellion, they would immediately turn against him.

Therefore, in the history books of later generations, the evaluation of the peninsula countries such as Goguryeo was that they were not always rebellious and surrendered. They surrendered when the soldiers came and rebelled when the soldiers left, and they kept making small moves.

This is also because the Chinese people care about their reputation and like to be educated by Huaide, so they believe his sweet words. Unfortunately, the people here were not well educated from the beginning.

But speaking of it, the Koreans were lucky. They met the Chinese, and at least they had the benefit of being honest and submissive. If the Anglo-Saxons from the Age of Discovery had come to colonize, I'm afraid the Koreans would have been killed long ago.

Yuan Xi knew the hidden dangers of the Korean Peninsula in the future, so he naturally would not leave them to future generations to solve. Everything will happen today.

He and Qiu Tai, each with a smile on their face, walked into the palace together for the banquet.

Qiu Tai ordered his people to prepare a grand banquet. This time he spent a huge amount of money and took out all the good things in the treasury. Baekje was located on the coast of the peninsula. Although it was a backward tribal system, it did have many specialties, delicacies from mountains and seas, and even rare medicinal materials and fine furs. Otherwise, it would not have become a port for caravan trade.

Of course, another very famous one is what later generations called Silla maid.

Silla was located to the east of Baekje, and the two kingdoms shared the peninsula. However, Silla was weak, so beautiful women were often abducted by Baekje to serve as palace maids.

Now Qiu Tai summoned dozens of Silla maids to dance and urge Yuan Xi to drink.

(End of this chapter)