After hearing Man Chong's words, Cao Cao couldn't help but be overjoyed. His face turned gloomy immediately and he said: "Bo Ning, I heard that Liu Xin has six sworn brothers, and Xu Huang is one of them. And Liu Xin is very good at winning people's hearts.
, if you try to persuade Xu Huang, you may be in vain, so it’s better not to go.”
Man Chong leaned forward and said, "Master, don't worry too much. Brothers can turn against each other, let alone sworn brothers. Xu Huang is the most loyal person. From what his subordinates can see, the reason why he assists Liu Xin is because Liu Xin is a member of the Han Dynasty clan."
It's just a kiss. Now that the emperor has been rescued by the lord, this is the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty. With his subordinate's sharp tongue, Xu Huang will definitely come back happily!"
Cao Cao was suspicious by nature, and even though Man Chong was steadfast in his words, he still didn't quite believe it. After pondering for a while, he asked: "Bo Ning, Xu Huang has retreated to Hongnong City and is not camping in the front. How can you sneak in?"
Man Chong smiled and said: "My lord, there is no need for my subordinates to sneak in. They can go see Xu Huang openly and openly. Xu Huang is a cautious person. Although he returned to Hongnong City, he will set up many patrol posts outside the city. His subordinates dressed up as a
As long as he is close to Hongnong City, he will be captured by the patrol. I say that I am an old friend of Xu Huang, so I think those patrols will naturally take me to him."
Cao Cao hesitated again and again, but finally his idea of recruiting Xu Huang got the upper hand. He nodded and said, "Bo Ning, you need to be extremely careful when you go. If things don't go well, you can return quickly."
Man Chong said disapprovingly: "Don't worry, my lord, even if Xu Huang refuses, he will never embarrass me. If things don't work, I will have a way to escape unscathed."
At this time, the sun had not yet set, and the afterglow poured down, covering the earth with a golden coat. Man Chong changed his uniform to the soldiers beside him, and walked toward Hongnong City against the setting sun. Along the way, the soldiers of Cao Cao who died in the battle were seen.
Bodies could be seen everywhere. Going further, many old Luoyang troops fell dead on both sides, but the bodies of the Jingzhou Army soldiers were not seen. Although Liu Xin always claimed that his army was a Han army, he always raised the word "Han" in every battle.
Although he was called Daqi, in the eyes of other princes, they still only looked at the Jingzhou Army, and Liu Xin was just a prince.
Man Chong certainly knows the truth of "Injury to the enemy by one thousand, loss of eight hundred to oneself". The Jingzhou army first had a battle with Yang Feng's Luoyang old army, and then encountered the elite Cao army. It was impossible that there were no casualties. Could it be that Jingzhou army
The army carried away all the corpses of the fallen soldiers? Man Chong found it unbelievable. In this era when human life is so insignificant, if someone dies on the battlefield, it would be good if someone digs a mass grave and buries him. How can he expect a grand burial?
?How can there be such an army in the world?
The further he walked, the more frightened Man Chong became. Not only could he not see the bodies of the Jingzhou army, but even their armor and weapons were rare to see. Even if the winning side did not clean up the battlefield so thoroughly, he was doing so.
Doubtful, I suddenly heard something moving among the corpses on the roadside, and I couldn't help but yelled: "Who is it! Get out!"
Following his loud shout, three people rushed out from the roadside, each holding a shining steel knife in their hands, surrounding him.
The sky had not yet darkened, and Man Chong could see clearly that the three men were in ragged clothes, and their faces were all covered with rags, but they could not hide their yellow and thin skin. Although they all held sharp knives in their hands, their eyes were full of fear. Man Chong
It was certain that they were not soldiers from either side. They looked like beggars. Although Man Chong was just a counselor, he was also skilled in martial arts and was not afraid. He pulled out his sword with a "clop" sound and shouted sternly: "What are you waiting for?"
Who is this person? How dare you block the road and rob someone in broad daylight!"
Man Chong guessed right. These people were indeed not soldiers. They were just hungry people nearby. After years of fighting and the fields were barren, these people had no choice but to hide in the nearby mountains in order to survive. Today's battle here was clearly visible to them from the hillside.
Chu, waited until all the troops from all sides had dispersed, then quietly walked down the mountain.
The hungry people knew that most of these soldiers had no families and often carried their belongings with them. After these soldiers died in battle, usually no one would come to deal with the bodies until the war between the two sides subsided. They took this opportunity to
Come and make some money from dead people. To make money from dead people, you need to rush early, especially in the hot summer, the corpse will stink in less than two days, and even cause the epidemic of plague, so these hungry people can't wait until dark, so they rush
Busily searching the corpses.
Long-term wars often cause a sharp decline in population. Historically, after the Three Kingdoms' chaos, the country's population dropped sharply from 56 million at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to 16 million at the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, a total reduction of 40 million people.
.In fact, the number of people who died directly on the battlefield was limited after all. For example, in the Battle of Chibi, many people still have great disputes about whether Cao Cao's army could reach 830,000, but even if Cao Cao had so many people at that time, and all of them died,
After all, there were only 830,000 people. In fact, the real cause of the sharp population decline was the two by-products of the war, one was famine and the other was plague.
Although these hungry people did not have much knowledge, their experience told them that many people had died here, and a plague might spread in a few days, so they were even more eager to collect some belongings as a means of escaping to other places.
People who dare to search for property from dead people are naturally more courageous than ordinary people. Now that Man Chong has discovered it, they don't mind adding another dead person to the ground. Originally, there were only three people who jumped out, so they followed Man Chong's steps.
Shouting loudly, seven or eight more people actually came out. The first three people who came out were still a little undecided, but now they became more courageous. The leader said in a loud voice: "We are just blocking the road and robbing, so what?"
?If you are wise, hand over the money you have with you as soon as possible, maybe I can save you a way out."
Although these people said they were cruel, they had not actually killed anyone. They just hoped to scare Man Chong away so that they could continue to make money from his death. Of course, Man Chong's soldier uniform still made them quite afraid.
If Man Chong refuses to give in, these people will definitely kill him.
Manchong always wore a sword on his body every day. This time, in order to dress up as a pawn, he changed to a waist knife. But he was not used to this waist knife. The hand holding the handle of the knife could not help but sweat, and his body could not help but shrink back.
I winced and secretly regretted that I should have brought a few followers with me when I went out this time.
Suddenly hearing the sound of horse hoofbeats from behind, a large group of cavalry in black clothes and black armor swarmed over. The leader was a general holding a big axe. It was Xu Huang. Man Chong turned around and looked overjoyed, and quickly shouted: "Gong Ming, save me."
!Gongming save me!"
As soon as Man Chong finished speaking, the cavalry team came close and surrounded more than ten people. There was a "ping ping ping ping ping" sound, and the hungry people who came to make money by killing people had already thrown their sharp knives to the ground, with both hands
Holding his head, he squatted aside obediently.
Xu Huang took the lead, swung his ax in his hand, pointed it at Man Chong, and asked sternly: "Who are you? How do you recognize this general?"
Man Chong also hurriedly threw away the sword in his hand, raised his hand and said: "Gongming, don't you recognize me? I am Man Chong Man Boning."
Xu Huang took a closer look and found that it was indeed Man Chong. He threw the big ax to the soldiers beside him, jumped off the horse and said, "It turns out to be Mr. Boning. I haven't seen you for a long time. Why are you here?"
Man Chong sighed and said, "Gongming, this is not the place to talk. Why don't we wait until I follow you back to Hongnong City and we can talk in detail?"
Xu Huang couldn't help but feel secretly vigilant. Man Chong and he hadn't seen each other for nearly ten years, and how could he know about Hongnong, who he had just arrived today? It seemed that this encounter was not a coincidence, and there might be some mystery in it. Xu Huang
Akira remained calm on the surface, and said with a smile: "It's okay, you and I haven't seen each other for many years, so of course we have a lot to say. After I finish taking care of things here, we can have a long talk."
While talking, many people came over from behind, but they were a large number of civilians. These civilians were carrying spades, pickaxes, and big bags of white powder. Following the order of the guarding soldiers,
These civilians were busy digging pits and carrying corpses.
Seeing this scene, Man Chong felt strange. He raised his hands and asked, "Gongming, what are you doing?"
It turned out that Liu Xin learned that Liu Xie had defected to Cao Cao, and was worried that Xu Huang, Gao Shun and others were still no match for Cao Cao, so he sent Chen Gong to lead 5,000 cavalry and escort a large number of baggage to come for reinforcements. When Chen Gong arrived,
In Hongnongli, Xu Huang and Gao Shun happened to be escorting Fu Shou and his family members, escorting the remains of the fallen soldiers back to the city.
Liu Xin was well aware of the seriousness of the plague, so after every battle, the bodies of the fallen soldiers could be collected. As for the corpses of the other party's soldiers, he would also organize soldiers and civilians to bury them at the bottom of the corpse pit and on top of the corpses.
Spread lime all over.
In several battles today, Xu Huang's men suffered huge casualties, and the casualties on the other side were several times more severe. However, for fear of being attacked by the enemy, Xu Huang did not rashly organize the burial of the bodies along the way.
Now that Cao Hong had been identified, Li Dian returned to Luoyang, and he was reinforced by highly mobile cavalry. Xu Huang felt relieved, so he organized manpower overnight to bury the bodies of the dead.
These people were all from Hongnong City. Although Xu Huang promised to pay everyone their wages after the work was completed, not many people believed his words. They were frightened while working, for fear of accidentally offending the soldiers.
He disfigured his body and became a member of the corpse pit he dug.
Man Chong understood Xu Huang's purpose of organizing the people to come here, and was very surprised. He didn't expect Liu Xin to think about things so carefully. His view of Liu Xin quietly changed. Just as he lowered his head and thought.
Son, Xu Huang has already taken care of the matter of the dozen or so hungry people. These people are local villagers who hid in the mountains to escape the war. Xu Huang has promised to send people tomorrow to send money, grain, and seeds to help them rebuild their homes.
, although the farming season has been missed now, we still have to think about next year.
Because too many people were killed in the Luoyang old army and Cao's army, the entire burial work was not completed until the second watch. Under the protection of the cavalry, all the people returned to Hongnong City safely, and someone took them to collect today's
The wages, and the wages for burying the body that night were really quite a lot, far from what they imagined.
The common people had never encountered such an army before, and they all burst into tears of gratitude. They rushed to the prefect's mansion one after another, asking to see the general and express their gratitude to him.
Xu Huang tried his best to comfort him, and then returned to the back office with Man Chong. The guests and hosts sat down and asked: "Bo Ning, since we are old friends, there is no need to beat around the bush. If you have any intention of coming, just tell me."
explain."
The things that happened tonight have shaken Man Chong's confidence, and as soon as Xu Huang sat down he directly asked him the reason for his visit, which caught him off guard. Man Chong held it in for a long time, and finally said: "Gong Ming, good bird selection."
Living on a tree, a good minister chooses his master and works! You should have heard this sentence."