Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 197 191. Attacking the Heart
"Since Lord Ma has made his decision, I will excuse myself and inform Commander Zhang of this matter."

After seeing Ma Su made his decision, Pang Lin also bowed and prepared to leave. After all, Zhang Nan was still waiting for his news.

"Give my regards to Commander Zhang, and thank General Pang again for his help. Since General Pang is busy, I will not keep him here."

Ma Su bowed, and he and Bao Feng saw Pang Lin off to the outside of the tent, watching Pang Lin and his naval soldiers board the ship and leave, heading north.

Ma Su waited until Pang Lin left before bringing Bao Feng and several surviving senior officers such as lieutenants and marquises into the tent to discuss matters.

Since Ma Su chose to continue the attack himself, he had to formulate a new plan. He could not, as before, think that once his troops arrived, the enemy would retreat without a fight or open the city to surrender.

"Commander-in-chief, I think Han Teng is extremely ruthless in his use of troops, and he doesn't seem to care about the lives of the people in the city. I'm afraid it will be very difficult to attack him."

While everyone was silent, Bao Feng was the first to speak.

Although Bao Feng is known for his bravery and is tall and strong, like a black iron tower, he is not a reckless man. When he was in Baojiazhuang, he was also responsible for dealing with people, so he has a high emotional intelligence and IQ.

"General Bao is right. I have even anticipated that even if our army can defeat the enemy, I am afraid that with Han Teng's methods, he will threaten the lives of the soldiers and civilians in Changsha."

Ma Su thought for a moment and agreed with Bao Feng's opinion. As for the Changsha army and civilians, are they really that stupid to be controlled by Han Teng?

The answer is simple: yes. As long as Han Teng orders his confidants to prepare to burn Changsha in advance, the army and civilians of Changsha will have no choice but to let him do whatever he wants. By then, even if the Han army forcibly breaks through Changsha City, what will be left is just a ruined city with heavy losses.

With the meanness and cruelty that Han Teng had shown, the probability that he would really do so was probably not low. It was obvious that Han Teng would not let the Han army have an easy time even if it meant a fight to the death.

"Then, Commander, what should we do? Aren't we being too cautious?"

Bao Feng showed some worry. This brave general was not afraid of fighting with the enemy on the battlefield, nor was he afraid of confronting the enemy's highly skilled generals, but he was unable to do this kind of delicate work that required carefulness.

"It's okay. I have a plan. Attacking the city is inferior, but attacking the heart is superior."

Ma Su lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then slowly spoke the eight words that he should have said during the southern expedition a few years later.

"What is attacking the heart?"

The generals below were all bewildered, not knowing what Ma Su meant.

"Han Teng is so tyrannical that not only our Han army but even everyone in Changsha will feel insecure. However, not everyone can see Han Teng's tyrannical nature. We only need to point this out, and there will definitely be people who are unwilling to perish together with Han Teng. At that time, they will definitely find a way to stop Han Teng."

Han Teng was eager to fight the Han army to the death, but many of his civil and military officials and the big families in the city were unwilling to go along with him.

Now all we need is someone to break this window paper. What Ma Su needs to do is to send a small spark to Changsha City, which is like a powder keg ready to explode.

It has to be said that Ma Su was indeed capable enough to be valued by Zhuge Liang. After suppressing his arrogant thoughts, Ma Su saw through the current situation of disunity in the city after just a little thought.

"So that's how it is..." Many of these captains and military marquises were rough men who only knew about battles and formations, and did not have such delicate minds. It was only after hearing what Ma Su said that they suddenly realized.

Come to think of it, if you put yourself in his shoes, if you met such a cruel and inhumane prefect, you would probably have a lot of thoughts in your mind.

"Immediately call the military clerks, I will personally write a letter of surrender, have them copy hundreds of copies, and shoot them into the city."

Ma Su slapped the documents in front of him and made a decision. Seeing that Ma Su was very confident this time, everyone followed Ma Su's instructions and quickly called the military clerks. Ma Su wrote the first draft himself, and then these clerks worked non-stop to copy the letters.

By the time nearly a thousand letters of surrender were copied, it was already late at night. Ma Su finally came to his senses and ordered the troops to be on guard and have a good night's rest to relieve the fear and anxiety caused by the water attack during the day.

As soon as the sky was bright and people were gathered in the city, Bao Feng personally led more than a hundred strong soldiers to the foot of Changsha city quietly. They used powerful bows and crossbows to shoot all the letters into the city, and then left without stopping.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

Seeing the rain of arrows coming, the soldiers on the city wall quickly sounded the alarm, but the imagined scene of the Han army swarming forward did not exist. The enemy only fired a few waves of arrows and then disappeared, as if it was a false alarm.

"Hey, this is weird, why are the arrows shot by the Jingzhou Army tied with something?"

Soon, some sharp-eyed soldiers discovered something different: some of the arrows that fell around had letters tied to them, so driven by curiosity, they untied the ropes.

"Oh my god, there are so many words. Hey, you know how to read, come and read them to us brothers!"

A few rough guys got a headache when they saw the words written on the letter, so they quickly called some soldiers who could read, and gathered them in groups of three or five to listen to what the letter said.

"Military and civilians in Changsha, you were originally good and brave soldiers under General Guan. Now, our Han army has marched out from Yizhou, down the river, won three battles and three victories, defeated the Eastern Wu army, and recovered Jingzhou for more than a month. Why are you now colluding with the cold-blooded and brutal Han Teng?
Little did they know that Han Teng was able to use the lives of 3,000 innocent young men and women in Changsha as bait yesterday, and he would dare to use the lives of everyone in the city tomorrow. It is not impossible that he would massacre or burn the city by then.

If you still want to live, you should unite and fight with my Han army to defeat the brutal traitor Han Teng. Open the city to welcome the Han army. Then you will all be heroes in the fight against the traitor."

By the time the sporadic chanting stopped, the city wall had become dead silent. To be honest, the scene below the city yesterday did make many people feel terrified, but at the same time they felt a little lucky that they were not the ones below at that time.

But now this letter has made it impossible for everyone to deceive themselves. Han Teng is too cruel. He threw away three thousand young men like a snot rag. Those are three thousand lives. There was crying in the city yesterday, and now there are white flags flying in the streets. It is really tragic.

"..."

The soldiers looked at each other. Those who were there yesterday were conscripts. What about tomorrow? What about the day after tomorrow? Who knows if the governor will repeat the same trick and come up with a few more similar schemes? They had luckily escaped yesterday, but there will always be a time when it will be their turn.

What's more, what was said in the letter was not without reason. It was not inconceivable that a man like Han Teng could force the people of Fencheng into a corner. In fact, according to what was said in the letter, it was very possible.

"What's going on! What happened just now? What are you looking at?!"

Suddenly a voice interrupted the silence at the scene, waking everyone up from their dreams and returning to reality.

(End of this chapter)