"Hu Guang, I am your brother! Are you not a human being if you want to kill your brother?"
Hutai was like a fat groundhog. He shook his body as hard as he could, trying to get rid of the control of the soldiers around him, and kept shouting.
Ten seconds ago, Hutai was still grateful that he had saved his life and even his wealth, but at this moment, he was suddenly shattered.
That night after Hu Cile and his wife committed suicide by taking poison, Hu Guang only felt sad for a short while, then suddenly found Hu Tai and asked him to call all the officers above Yuhou from the Wuning Army to the office.
Then..., and then there was nothing more. Hu Guang didn't ask for a single guard, didn't even take a knife, and directly convinced more than 20 important officers of the Wuning Army.
Indeed, as Hu Cile's old wife had judged, the Wuning Army had no intention of defending with Hu Cile because they had no need.
Hu Cile had to defend because he had betrayed Emperor Shaoming, but no one in the Wuning army had ever betrayed him!
Before Zhang Zhao entered the Central Plains, they were not Zhang Zhao's subordinates at all, so there was no talk of betrayal.
Even because the Wuning Army did not seek refuge with the Khitan at the Hutuo River, nor did they pay homage to Yelu Deguang, not only were they not traitors, but they still had some semblance of loyalty.
When Hu Guang saw these military academies, he didn't need to say anything but said one sentence.
"The Wuning Army is a military force of the imperial court. It is loyal to fight against the Khitan in the north. It is righteous to not serve in the Khitan. How can you serve the mediocre master of the Southern Wu when you are loyal and righteous?"
Before Hu Guang returned to Zhang Zhao, he was the military envoy of the Wuning Army. He was considered the number one young and promising star in the Later Jin Dynasty at that time, so all the officers in the Wuning Army admired him.
At that moment, only one infantry commander asked worriedly, "Can the emperor really pardon all of us?"
The commander was also involved in Hu Ci's surrender to the Southern Tang Dynasty, so he was very afraid that a high-ranking official of his status would not be pardoned.
Hu Guangze nodded affirmatively, "It's not about pardon or not, because you were not the saint's ministers originally, and you never received the saint's salary. Now you submit to the one who is called obedient and obey the orders of heaven. Not only will there be no punishment, but there will also be consequences.
Reward.”
The commander thought about it and realized that this was indeed the case! Moreover, the military strength of the Southern Tang Dynasty was so rubbish that there was no reason to continue to follow them.
Therefore, Hu Guang, who forcibly suppressed his pain without using any swords or guns, directly persuaded thousands of Wuning troops to surrender.
Except for Hu Guang losing his parents, this is a situation where everyone is happy.
Hu Tai was also overjoyed. Although he betrayed Zhang Zhao, he now helped Hu Guang to persuade Wu Ning to surrender and sacrifice Xuzhou City. His contribution was great. Not to mention getting a reward, at least his merits and demerits were balanced.
.
However, after getting the consent of the Wuning Army to surrender, the first thing Hu Guang did was to have Hu Tai kidnapped.
Moreover, he was not kidnapped by the Wuning Army, but by the Tiger Thorn Leya soldiers who were also from Liangzhou.
At that time, there were a total of 700 soldiers from the six tribes of Xiaoqi who were ordered to go from Hexi to the Central Plains. There were dozens of people who followed Hu Guang back, and there were hundreds of people who ran back one after another.
In the past few years, sixty-seven people were killed in the battle, and there were only fifty or sixty who were too injured to continue fighting. The remaining four hundred or so people became the fang soldiers of Hu Zaile.
Hu Guang didn't even look at Hu Tai, but said to the other tooth soldiers who were sweating: "Hu Tai is the first person who suggested surrendering to the Southern Tang Dynasty. If he doesn't die, how can the Great Merciful Dharma King forgive you?"
At this time, the tooth soldiers finally did not hesitate. They all stepped forward and personally tied up the fat Hutai, making him unable to struggle.
Hu Guang couldn't help it. These four hundred fan soldiers were Hu Ci Le's accomplices. If they failed to succeed, they would definitely fail.
And he also knew in his heart that there were more than 400 people. To put it into detail, it was not a crime that required death.
There is a high probability that Zhang Zhao just exiled them, so he might as well seek stability and give them verbal reassurance first.
When Hu Tai saw that the tooth soldiers were getting serious, he felt completely helpless. He lay prone on the ground with tears streaming down his face.
"Erlang, Erlang, how about you let a certain horse go? I will give you all my property, I just want to remain anonymous and save my life!"
"I don't want your illegal money, so don't struggle. In the past, you, Hu Tai, worked the hardest to persuade me to join the Southern Tang Dynasty. Now that my parents' lives have been risked, do you still want to live?"
When Hu Tai heard this, he understood that there was no way out, and his eyes instantly turned vicious, and he looked at Hu Guang.
"Don't you fucking put the blame on a certain family. The one who worked the hardest back then was not me, Hu Tai, but your brother Hu Wei. If you have the ability, kill him too!"
Huguang's eyes were red. He squatted down and grabbed Hutai's tied right arm.
"You're dead! Hu Wei is no exception. He, Hu Dalang, is a filial son. He must really want to go down there to accompany his parents. I will send him down soon."
The fire in Hu Tai's eyes went out. He looked at Hu Guang with a distorted face and gave up his last struggle.
People would not let go of even their own brothers, so naturally they would not let go of his cousin. After hanging his head for a while, Hu Tai said in a low voice.
"A certain person's family property is divided into three parts. The eldest brother, the second brother and the youngest wife each have one share. Your sister-in-law is weak-tempered, please help to keep an eye on it and don't let others take over the property."
Huguang turned his back, nodded slightly, then tried his best to suppress the emotional fluctuations in his heart, and said calmly.
"As soon as you have a good meal, let's go on the road! I will tell the saint that you have no shame in seeing him again and have chosen to commit suicide.
In this way, the eldest brother and the second brother will not be laughed at in the future, and the young lady will be able to marry a good husband."
After hearing this, Hutai stopped talking and just sobbed quietly behind him.
.
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Zhang Zhao was very excited after conquering Xuzhou without losing any blood. He was indeed right about Hu Guang. This boy had both loyalty and filial piety, and was a man of great caliber.
However, Zhang Zhao thought that he could persuade Hu Cile to surrender the city, and even prepared to arrange for Hu Cile to be put under house arrest in Luoyang. However, he did not expect that things would be so tragic.
Seeing Hu Guang lose his parents in an instant, Zhang Zhao couldn't express how happy he was.
After a brief thought, he governed the country with loyalty, justice, benevolence and filial piety, and Hushule continuously betrayed him, so he definitely cannot be rewarded, but Hushele's old wife can still be rewarded.
Zhang Zhao immediately issued an order to confer the posthumous title of Zhen, the posthumous title of Hu Ci Le's old wife, as the Dowager Lady of Shache County, and the title of Zhen Hui, Ming Ci, Great Enlightenment and Perfect Good Woman, and granted Hu Guang the Shache Bojin title she deserved.
Arrive at Shachehou.
In response to Hu Guang's plea, Zhang Zhao pardoned the sins of the four hundred people who followed Hu Cile, and deprived them of all their privileges in Liangzhou such as land grants and Liangzhou household registration.
They were ordered to return the pay and silver that Zhang Zhao had given them after they arrived in the Central Plains. In this way, these people were no longer his soldiers and generals, and naturally there was no need for betrayal.
Of course, this is just a step for both parties to get down. Everyone knows that this is a special gift from Zhang Zhao for Hu Guang's sake.
After recapturing Xuzhou, the next step is the strategy.
So far, there has been no alarm at Zhao Kuangzan's station in Hezhong Prefecture, the military envoy of the Protectorate Army, which means Liu Zhiyuan has not descended from the Luliang Mountains in the west along the Yellow River and Fen River.
There was no alarm from Cao Yanming, the envoy for the construction of the sacred capital in Luoyang, so it seems that he had taken refuge with Liu Zhiyuan, the envoy of Zhaoyi Army in Luzhou, and did not have the courage to harass Luoyang.
The most critical thing is that no alarm came from Yan Jin, Duke of Jin, who was guarding Baimajin in Huazhou.
Thinking of it being April soon, the sowing of spring wheat and millet has reached the most critical moment. At the same time, April is also a good time for livestock reproduction.
It seems that Liu Zhiyuan no longer has the courage to go south across the Yellow River to fight him.
Then take this opportunity, Zhang Zhao can also deal with the Southern Tang Dynasty severely.
However, at present, Zhang Zhao does not have the strength to destroy the Southern Tang Dynasty. Wang Yisi predicts that if the Southern Tang Dynasty mobilizes, it will still be able to mobilize an army of 60,70,000, 70,000 or even more than 100,000 troops.
At this time, the people in Huainan and Jiangnan had not yet suffered the most misfortunes from corrupt officials such as the Five Ghosts favored by Li Jing. Most people were still grateful for Li Min's kindness and thought of the good of the imperial court in their hearts.
Moreover, fighting at home to defend the country is completely different from fighting overseas. It is possible to increase the morale and combat effectiveness of soldiers by 20 to 30%.
Moreover, Zhang Zhao himself was relatively weak at the moment. He saw nearly 50,000 troops, but he was almost overwhelming the country. The defense at home was very empty. If there was any trouble in Hedong, he would have to rush back.
What's more, although the disaster situation in the Central Plains has eased at this time, after being ravaged by natural and man-made disasters by the Later Jin Dynasty and the Khitans, the population of Henan has dropped sharply from more than six million to an estimated less than four million.
The land should be even worse.
What is most needed now is to recuperate, appease the people, and then expel Liu Zhiyuan from Hebei, and even suppress the Khitan people from going south.
Well, the Khitans are still going south, but they don't dare to attack. Instead, they take advantage of the chaos and continue to hunt grass and valleys on the border. They must use heavy blows to scare them away.
So, the best way to deal with Nan Tang is to hurt him and then extort a large amount of money and food.
After Hebei was pacified, Liu Zhiyuan was forced to Taiyuan, and he became a slightly larger Northern Han Dynasty, then he came to the south of the Yangtze River.
Before that, turning Nantang into a blood-increasing pack is currently the best strategy.
But this strategic goal is not easy to achieve. Historically, Shizong was able to encircle Shouzhou to send reinforcements because he had no worries and the situation in the Central Plains was relatively stable.
However, Zhang Zhao did not have the time and energy to surround Shouzhou for several months, slowly wearing down the entire Southern Tang Dynasty to fear and wanting only to survive.
Then, he had to take some risks with regard to Southern Tang's strategy. He had to think of a quick, quick and frightening way to defeat Southern Tang.