Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 498. Surrender
At nightfall, the city of Hefei was dead silent, with only torches burning. A few soldiers on duty yawned in boredom and occasionally spoke to each other in low voices.

"pat"

Suddenly, the sound of stones clattering woke up several sleepy Wei soldiers. They immediately became alert and looked towards the city.

"who!"

With the help of torches and moonlight, they saw a dark shadow standing stealthily under the city wall. It was probably him who threw the stone just now.

"Hurry up and pull me up! I need to see General Cao Xiu urgently!"

The people below lowered their voices so that only the people on the city wall could hear them and they would not be heard too far.

"Who are you? Why are you sneaking around here in the middle of the night? I have no right to bring you up here!"

The soldier on night duty didn't want to pay any attention to him and wanted to shoot the enemy with arrows immediately.

"I'm here on behalf of my master! I want to seek refuge with the Grand Marshal!"

When the people below saw the tense situation on the city wall, they screamed in fear, but then they seemed to remember what they were saying and lowered their voices.

Naturally, such a major event as surrender was not the responsibility of these big-time soldiers. They could only report it step by step, and finally it reached Le Chen, who was in charge of guarding the city wall that night.

"To lobby for his master?"

Le Chen was stunned for a moment, then he thought about it and stood up.

"Ready your crossbows, pull him up and see what he has to say."

Le Chen was also not an ordinary person. The situation of the Han army during the day made him know what had definitely happened. Now some unexpected changes occurred just as night fell. Le Chen also wanted to figure out what the Han army was doing.

Le Chen personally came to the city wall, and several soldiers had already pulled the man up with a basket. The man was a little fat, so the soldiers had to work a little harder.

In the light of the fire, Le Chen took a look and saw that the man was plump, smiling, and dressed in silk. It was obvious that he was not from an ordinary family and was most likely a housekeeper or a confidant.

"Who are you? And who is your master?"

Le Chen did not avoid this man. The long spears and short arrows were pointed at this man. If he dared to move, he would be turned into a sieve immediately.

"General, my name is Zhu Fu, and I am General Zhu's steward. I came here to see the Grand Marshal because of my master."

Zhu Fu did not show the slightest disrespect towards the young man in front of him. He kept smiling, nodding and bowing, making it impossible for people to feel bad about him.

"Oh, what a Zhu Fu! You look like a smiling tiger. Is your master Zhu Yi?"

Le Chen sneered, did not move, and continued to question Zhu Fu.

"No, or rather, that is the young master. My master is naturally Master Zhu Huan."

Zhu Fu bowed respectfully.

"Zhu Huan?"

Le Chen was stunned for a moment. He had only heard of this name, but he was not familiar with it. Le Chen felt that this matter was no longer something he could get involved in, so he just had Zhu Fu searched and confirmed that he had no weapons or dangers before escorting him to meet Cao Xiu with a team of soldiers.

"Zhu Huan's confidant?"

Cao Xiu put down the military book and raised his eyebrows. "Bring it in."

Immediately, Zhu Fu was escorted by several soldiers and brought before Cao Xiu.

"Meet the Grand Marshal."

Zhu Fu's attitude was humble and his face was full of flattering smiles, so Cao Xiu had no opinion of him.

"No need to be polite. You said you were here to lobby for Zhu Huan? I heard that he lived in seclusion in Wujun after surrendering to the pseudo-Han. What does this have to do with him?"

"You don't know, Grand Marshal, that my master had no choice but to surrender to the Han. My master received great favors from the King of Wu, but the King of Wu died tragically at the hands of the Han army, which still made my master bear a grudge. As a result, I don't know what rumors the Han army's commander-in-chief Feng Xi heard in the past few days, saying that my young master colluded with the Wei army in Huainan, so he let your army go in the battle a few days ago.

Feng Xi then called my master to Jiangling and questioned him in every way. Finally, my master signed a military order in desperation, begging for the execution of his entire family if Hefei could not be captured. Only then could he escape from Jiangling safely.

As a result, we didn't want to come to Huainan. The Han general Hu Ji made things difficult for us in every way and put the blame for the failure to achieve a complete victory a few days ago on the young master. My master had a quarrel with him. It turned out that Hu Ji was so bold that he pointed at my master, the young master, and General Ding Feng next to him, and said that we were all rebel generals who surrendered from Dongwu and had ulterior motives.

So General Ding Feng left in anger, and my master and the young master also left with their troops in anger. Now my master is being suspected in every way, and he has nowhere else to go but to find the Grand Marshal, hoping that the Grand Marshal will forgive the past and take him in. "

After Zhu Fu finished explaining the reasons, Cao Xiu nodded. It was pretty much as he had guessed. There was indeed a conflict within the Han army.

"You said you signed a military order. How do you prove it?"

But Cao Xiu was not that stupid and asked back.

"You can go to Jiangling to investigate. Feng Xi made this matter known to the whole city in order to prevent my master from having a way out."

Cao Xiu nodded and said he would check it later. But the other party was so confident that it couldn't be fake. Cao Xiu also knew Zhu Huan well, and he was half an acquaintance.

In the original timeline, during the Battle of Yiling, Cao Ren would personally lead the troops to march to Ruxu. However, in this timeline, because Yiling was defeated too quickly, the Han army marched directly into Jingzhou, so Cao Ren did not leave Nanyang, and was replaced by Cao Xiu.

However, Cao Ren did not come, and Cao Xiu did not have many troops. He only fought a few small battles with Zhu Huan who was stationed in Jiangbei at the time. When he saw that the Wu army's defense was sufficient, he withdrew. It was at this time that the two of them fought against each other several times.

"This matter requires long-term consideration. How about this? I will send an envoy to accompany you to meet your master and discuss surrender. What do you think?"

Cao Xiu had several purposes for thinking this way. First, he took the opportunity to find out about the situation of the Han army and see if the Han army really had conflicts as Zhu Fu said.

The second is to check on Zhu Huan’s situation and verify whether what Zhu Fu said is true. After all, seeing is believing.

"Of course, before I left, my master also hoped that if the Grand Marshal agreed, he could send someone to discuss it with him at any time."

Zhu Fu agreed readily, without any nervousness or panic at all, which made Cao Xiu believe the matter even more.

Cao Xiu asked Zhu Fu to go down and rest for a while, while he himself had to give some instructions to the people sent to the Han camp.

"When you get there, ask Zhu Huan this question and pay attention to what happens... Do you understand?"

After Cao Xiu gave some instructions, his confidant Cao Yi nodded and kept Cao Xiu's instructions in mind.

"Go with peace of mind. If anything happens to you, your family will be properly taken care of."

Cao Xiu also comforted Cao Yi and told him not to feel any psychological burden. Cao Yi nodded. He was originally a member of Cao Xiu's family, and now that Cao Xiu had made a promise, he naturally would not make any excuses.

So Cao Yi and Zhu Fu came down from the city at night. Under the leadership of Zhu Fu, they avoided several Han patrols and arrived safely at Zhu Yi's camp.

(End of this chapter)