Before leaving Fancheng, Qin Hao's last order was to have Liu Bei and Yuan Shu take all the prisoners from this battle to Fancheng for centralized custody.
Qin Hao's real goal is of course not the ordinary Yellow Turban prisoners, but the three generals Long Qie Jibu and Zhongli Mei who were captured alive.
As Xiang Yu's right-hand man, the power of Long Qie and other generals is well known to the world, so whether the three generals Long Qie surrender or not, Qin Hao cannot turn a blind eye to them.
Regarding Qin Hao's order, both Yuan Shu and Liu Bei must have been extremely annoyed.
We worked so hard to capture the prisoners. Why do you, Qin Hao, just want us to hand them over with just one sentence?
The two of them seemed to have tacitly forgotten that if it were not for Qin Hao, it would be difficult for them to offend Xiang Yu, let alone capture prisoners, even to save their lives.
The human heart is like this, if you try too hard, you will never be satisfied.
Except for the Zhao brothers and Ji Ling, Yuan Shu's men had no useful talents, and Liu Bei only had Zhang Zhang.
Long Qie is a fierce general who is comparable to Guan Yu and stronger than Zhang Fei. Zhongli Mei and Ji Bu are also top-notch generals in the world, so they want Liu Yuan to make friends honestly with just one order. The two must have their hearts set on it.
Unwillingly.
But neither Yuan Shu nor Liu Bei had the guts to resist Qin Hao's orders. After all, Qin Hao was at his peak now, and even the Han Emperor did not dare to touch Qin Hao.
Liu Bei and Yuan Shu could only try to persuade the three generals to surrender within a time limit. In this case, Qin Hao would not be able to steal them by force, and the result would naturally be a severe humiliation.
Zhongli Mei decisively rejected Yuan Shu and confessed that he would not surrender until he died. Yuan Shu was also prepared to kill him, and he would not take advantage of Qin Hao if he could not get it.
But in the end he was persuaded by Zhao Kuangyin, and after much thought, Yuan Shu decided to secretly imprison Zhong Limei, and then directly replied that Qin Hao had killed Lizei.
In order to prevent Qin Hao from settling accounts later, Yuan Shu used the excuse that the situation in Runan was urgent and led his troops directly to leave Ding Yuan and go straight to Runan.
Runan is the base camp of the Yuan family and has always been the main force resisting the Yellow Turbans. The Yellow Turbans have not taken advantage of several campaigns.
But just after Xiang Liang died in the battle, the newly appointed governor of Yuzhou, Li Mi, concentrated the troops of Yuzhou to attack Runan in order to befriend Xiang Yu. As a result, the Yuan family's power in Runan was completely destroyed.
Today, except for several cities in Runan that are still defending, the entire county has basically fallen. People related to the Yuan family have also been massacred, and the Yuan family has suffered heavy losses.
Yuan Shu went to Runan, firstly to avoid Qin Hao, and secondly to reorganize the Yuan family's momentum in Runan.
After all, for the Yuan family, Runan is equivalent to the Yanmen of the Qin family and should never be abandoned lightly.
Zhong Lizhen refused firmly without saying any unnecessary words, but Long Qie and Ji Bu were different. Not only did they reject Liu Bei, they also severely humiliated Liu Bei.
Liu Bei's current official position is no more than a general, so the only capital he can use to recruit Long Qiejibu is that he does not know the true and false identities of the Han clan members.
But who is Long Qi? That is Xiang Yu's lieutenant, and who is Ji Bu? Qin Hao personally tried to persuade him to surrender for several months but failed.
So what if Liu Bei is really a clan member of the Han Dynasty? I don’t believe that at all.
Both Long Qie and Ji Bu despised Liu Bei from the bottom of their hearts. They also ridiculed Liu Bei for not overestimating his abilities, which made Liu Bei want to kill him.
But when it came time to kill, Liu Bei hesitated.
Yuan Shu dared to reject Qin Hao because his background was so tough that even Qin Hao did not dare to fall out with Yuan Shu easily.
But Lu Zhi, Liu Bei's only backer, is now under Qin Hao's command, so Liu Bei naturally does not dare to disobey Qin Hao.
In the end, Liu Bei failed to persuade him to surrender, so he honestly handed over Long Qie and Ji Bu to Qin Hao, and personally escorted all the prisoners to Fancheng.
When Liu Bei arrived at Fancheng, Qin Hao had already joined Zhu Jun in Wancheng, and then led the army to attack Xiang Yu's current location, Champion County.
Xiang Yu fled overnight to Champion County, which had not yet been captured by the Han army. This gave Xiang Yu a temporary resting place.
But before Xiang Yu even woke up from his sleep, Qin Hao led his army to attack him again. How could he be an opponent when he was short of men and horses?
There are thirty-six cities in Nanyang. Except for the three cities of Wancheng, Fancheng and Xinye, which are in the hands of the Han army, the remaining thirty-three counties are still in the hands of the Yellow Turbans.
Although the Yellow Turbans occupied many cities, the average number of defenders in the city was only a thousand. These defenders were not only poorly trained, but also had a very short time to form an army. How could they be the opponents of the Han army?
If Xiang Yu gathered the garrison troops from all over Nanyang, he could get another 30,000 troops, but this would be equivalent to handing over Nanyang, which he had fought so hard to conquer, to the Han army, and Xiang Yu would naturally not be willing to do so.
Xiang Yu still has not admitted defeat. He feels that with the strength of the Han army, it is impossible to capture Nanyang city by city.
Xiang Yu believes that Qin Hao's target is himself. As long as he can block Qin Hao's offensive, the temperature will drop sharply, and the war can be delayed for at least a few months.
In a few months, I might still have a chance!
At this time, Xiang Yu, who had suffered a lot, finally had his IQ online.
Qin Hao's goal is indeed not Nanyang, but it is not Xiang Yu either.
In the face of a war that affects the world, the gains and losses of one city or one place have no meaning at all. Qin Hao's goal is the entire world, so naturally he will not target any one person alone.
Xiang Yu did not give Qin Hao a chance to attack the city. After gathering nearly a thousand defenders in Champion County, he emptied all the food and grass in the county and broke out to Guangcheng Pass in the north at night.
As one of the Eight Passes in Luoyang, Guangcheng Pass has high walls and is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there are 10,000 defenders in the pass. Therefore, relying on the Xiongguan Fortress, Xiang Yu is confident that he can block Qin Hao's 100,000 Han troops.
What Xiang Yu didn't know was that Qin Hao didn't lead the whole army at all, but just pretended to have an army of 100,000. Xiang Yu took it seriously without knowing the reason.
Champion County, Han Army Camp.
A soldier hurried into the camp and reported to Qin Haohui: "Reporting to General Qi, Xiang Yu led the army to retreat in the direction of Guangcheng Pass."
The first person sitting on the right below was Zhu Jun. After hearing this, he stroked his beard and said with a smile: "My nephew guessed correctly again. What is the situation at Guangcheng Pass? We can't let Xiang Yu escape this time." ”
Qin Hao, who was sitting on the main seat, smiled calmly and said confidently: "General Zhu, don't worry, Hao has already laid a trap, and Xiang Yu will not be able to escape this time even with his wings."
Zhu Jun nodded and said no more, but Lu Zhi, who was first on the left, had a serious look on his face and said: "Now that things have come to this, Xiang Yu still refuses to admit defeat. How much carnage will he cause to the world before Xiang Yu is willing to do so?" Give up?"
"If he admits defeat, he won't be the Xiang Yu I know. The people are just a number in his heart." Qin Hao said lightly, of course, he also said this to himself.