Chapter 479: Verbal Strike
Under this changing situation, Xi Lu stepped into Liu Feng's hall with the reason of mediating misunderstandings.
He knew that this would inevitably be a difficult mediation, but he did not expect that what was greeted was a fierce verbal battle.
When Liu Feng saw Xi Lu coming, he didn't have much friendliness in his heart, but just took care of the court and Cao Cao's face. At this time, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong and Lu Xun, three outstanding people, spoke in turn like three sharp blades.
Their words started with Liu Biao's various actions against the court in his early years.
Liu Biao colluded with Xiliang to rebel, trying to use the power of Xiliang to expand his territory. This behavior was undoubtedly a blatant provocation to the authority of the court. Later, he formed an alliance with Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao was a famous rebel at the time. If it weren't for Liu Feng and Cao Cao's advance westward to welcome the emperor and after returning to Luozhong, he would have brought him to reward and whitewash, Yuan Shao might have been the name of a rebel.
Liu Biao formed an alliance with him, and his intentions and difficulties will not be mentioned for the time being, but it is impossible to whitewash it.
In addition to the above, Liu Biao also provoked rebellion in Shu and fought with Jiaozhou Governor Zhang Jin in the south for years. Last year, he directly interfered in the internal affairs of Yangzhou, took over Yuan Shu's rebellious general Liu Xun, strengthened his own power, completely ignoring the face and laws of the court.
At the end of last year, Liu Biao imposed heavy taxes and forced Zhang Xian to rebel, causing turmoil and uneasy internal situation in Jingzhou.
Although Liu Feng himself was not flawless, he also took some extraordinary measures to survive and develop in this chaotic world, but compared with Liu Biao, he seemed loyal and good.
Liu Feng watched his right-hand men unceremoniously throw out these accusations against Liu Biao one by one. Xi Lu could only listen silently and accept all these words without responding.
For Xi Lu, his mission was to convince Liu Feng to accept mediation, rather than to judge right and wrong, and to uphold justice.
At this moment, he had only one thought in his mind: to convey Liu Feng's words to General Cao Cao and the Emperor in a complete manner. As for how to deal with them in the future, it was not something he could decide.
Just as everyone was talking to each other, Liu Feng suddenly raised his hand, stopped everyone's speech, looked at Xi Lu in the hall with a torch, and slowly spoke, "Since the envoy is here on behalf of the court, let's talk about the court's ideas."
Xi Lu was suddenly shocked. He didn't expect Liu Feng to ask so directly. After a moment of silence, he calmed down and replied, "The court hopes that General Zuo can return the counties, counties and towns in Xiangnan and each of them will return to the state."
As soon as this statement came out, it seemed like a rock and a shocking moment.
Before Liu Feng could respond, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Lu Xun and others all changed their color, their faces full of indignation, obviously they were extremely shocked and dissatisfied with this mediation attitude.
In fact, both Liu Feng and these three wise men knew in their hearts that Xi Lu was just asking for a lot of money and wanted to take the initiative in the negotiations. But since they are ready to bargain, they naturally have to make a tough attitude.
Zhuge Liang stood up first and refuted righteously: "It's extremely absurd! Our Lord is to punish the people for punishing crimes. Since entering Jingzhou, people from all over the country have opened the city and surrendered to welcome the king's army with steaks and pots of slurry. On the contrary, Liu Biao secretly occupied Jingzhou, inherited the orders of the thieves, and did a rebellious act. It is really heartbreaking that the court was deceived by this thief!"
Zhuge Liang's words were not said out of thin air, but were justified and well-founded.
As everyone knows, Liu Biao was appointed as the governor of Jingzhou not by the Han emperor himself, but by Dong Zhuo.
Dong Zhuo's purpose at that time was to strengthen control over the local area and at the same time divide the power of the Kanto princes. The most fundamental thing is that Liu Biao pleased Dong Zhuo, regarded himself as his confidant, and asked Xun Shuang and others to recommend him, which led to his trip to Jingzhou.
It is also because of this that the relationship between Liu Biao and Yuan Shu is so bad. Even if Liu Biao does not hesitate to express his as the prefect of Nanyang in order to please Yuan Shu, he will not be able to obtain the other party's understanding.
Because Liu Biao himself is the strategy and opponent set up by Dong Zhuo to deal with Yuan Shu.
When Dong Zhuo was killed by Wang Yun, the Xiliang army counterattacked Chang'an and took charge of the court, Liu Biao colluded with Li Jue and Guo Si to pay tribute to the court they controlled. This was undoubtedly showing goodwill to the rebel forces and further confirmed his crime of collusion with the traitors.
Therefore, Liu Biao is a traitor, not for unreasonable smear, but for conclusive evidence.
Of course, Liu Biao could also argue that he was loyal to the emperor, but in this troubled times, isn’t Liu Feng just missing a suitable excuse?
In an era when strength is respected, it is natural that whoever is strong is right. The current situation is obviously Liu Feng has the upper hand, otherwise he would have been at the city of Xiangyang in just a few months, posing a huge threat to Liu Biao.
After hearing the words of the wise men in Yangzhou, Xi Lu was secretly surprised. He tested the tough attitude of Yangzhou forces and Liu Feng.
In desperation, he had to change his strategy and tentatively again: "With General Zuo's opinion, what should I do?"
When Liu Feng heard this, he looked at Pang Tong. Pang Tong understood it and suddenly said, "If you follow my lord's will, you should eliminate all evil things. You must capture Liu Jingsheng in Xiangyang, and then offer prisoners to Luozhong to correct the national law!"
Xi Lu's face instantly became very ugly. He stared at the expressions of the people in the hall, trying to see some flaws and deep meanings from them. But no one here is a person with outstanding wisdom and deep mind, so how could he easily see the flaws?
In desperation, Xi Lu knew that he could not delay any longer and had to release a trump card that Cao Cao had prepared for him in advance.
"General Zuo, have you ever remembered the request of State Chen?"
That's right, the first trump card Cao Cao prepared for Xi Lu was Chen Guo.
According to the initial agreement that Cao and Liu's two families divided the weight in Yuzhou, Chen State originally belonged to Cao Cao. However, Chen State has a strong power and is also a royal family. King Chen, Liu Chong, and Prime Minister of Chen State Luo Tong are famous and respected. Cao Cao is very jealous of this.
Previously, Cao Cao was trapped in the war in Yanzhou and had no time to take care of the Chen State; later when he wanted to do something, he encountered Liu Feng petitioning on his behalf.
In the end, Chen State changed to Liu Feng's guarantee to pay the tax, while Cao Cao temporarily tolerated Chen State for joint protection for Cao Liu.
In this matter, Liu Feng owed Cao Cao a considerable favor, and Cao Cao's strength was enough to make this favor heavy.
After Xi Lu raised this matter, Liu Feng finally spoke: "Feng dares not forget the care of the general in the past."
"Master!"
Zhuge Liang and the other two showed anxious expressions on their faces, and they all spoke to dissuade them, but Liu Feng raised his hand to stop them. Afterwards, Liu Feng continued, "Since that's the case, I will take a step back. I will give up on Xiangyang. The fact that I offer Liu Jingsheng to the temple is related to my loyalty to the emperor and the court. This matter must not be changed. However, the Wancheng County north of Xiangyang is willing to sever two-thirds of the general, leaving only Zhuyang, Shandu, Dengxian, Chaoyang, Xinye, Caiyang, Zhangling, Xiangxiang, Huyang, Anzhong, Suicheng and Xiangyang thirteen counties."
Nanyang County is the largest county in the world, with many counties and towns under its jurisdiction, with a total of thirty-seven counties. Liu Feng is now only thirteen counties, but it is exactly one-third.
If you count carefully, these twelve counties except Xiangyang are actually important cities that cover Xiangfan in the north.
There is something that needs to be specifically stated here. Although the counties and towns such as Lu, Qi, Zheng and Yicheng protect Xiangfan in the south, they are also very close to Xiangyang, but none of these counties and towns belong to Nanyang County.
The counties facing south of Nanyang County only reach Xiangyang and then go south. All the counties and towns in Zhonglu belong to Nanjun.
Since these cities in the south do not belong to Nanyang, Liu Feng naturally did not mention them. But in fact, the counties and towns such as Zhonglu, Qiguo and Yicheng are still in the hands of Liu Biao and have never fallen.
To be fair, although the sincerity of the proposal proposed by Liu Feng was far less true than what he said, he really made concessions.
Although Liu Feng hasn't even found the border in Nanyang County yet, judging from the development of the situation, these territories are actually under the control of the Yangzhou Army. As long as there is no interference from Cao Cao and the court, Liu Feng has a high probability of conquering Xiangyang City within the year according to the current progress.
With the advancement speed of Liu Feng's army, he can reach the city of Xiangyang within one month, and it can also ensure that the logistics channels are unobstructed and the safety and worry-free side and rear. At that time, the Defighting Army will be used as the general reserve team to block the Xiangyang defenders from going out, and at the same time, they will supervise the production of counterweight catapults, rushing vehicles, chasing vehicles, and earth platforms, and then use the Wanlan Army to sweep the Nanyang city in the north of Xiangyang to block the safety of the rear of the cover, and finally break the city.
Now that Cao Cao interferes, Liu Feng's all his calculations are naturally lost. However, Liu Feng was not stupid either. He used these land waste that were originally available to him as bargaining chips to the negotiating table.
Seeing that Liu Feng was willing to give in, Xi Lu felt a little relieved. But these conditions are still far from the bottom line set by Cao Cao for him, so Xi Lu naturally would not be satisfied easily and had to continue to fight for it.
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"General Zuo, Nanyang County is not in your hands now. There are still tens of thousands of troops to fight in Xiangfan City, full of weapons and full of food and grass. The victory or defeat is really unpredictable."
Xi Lu continued, "It would be a bit ridiculous for General Zuo to return the general to Liu Zhennan, right?"
After hearing this, Liu Feng was displeased and said coldly: "How can Liu Jingsheng be my enemy? Nanyang is just a temporary man, just keep it for me."
Xi Lu took the opportunity to reply, "Did General Zuo forget the court? This is the purpose of the court sending me here."
Liu Feng remained silent, obviously understanding the threatening meaning hidden in Xi Lu's words. If the court (actually the general Cao Cao) took action, Nanyang might not be his possession.
After a moment of silence, Liu Feng spoke again: "Since the court insists on taking care of this matter, let's talk about the regulations for handling it."
Seeing Xi Lu open his mouth and want to speak, Liu Feng interrupted him and warned seriously: "The envoy is an angel, and every word and action represents the court. If he talks nonsense like before, then this meeting will end here."
Liu Feng's words were obviously directed at Xi Lu's unrealistic remarks that wanted Yangzhou to withdraw its troops and withdraw from Jingzhou.
After Xi Lu received the warning, all the things he wanted to say were swallowed back into his stomach. He thought about it carefully, weighed the pros and cons before he spoke again: "I dare not hide it from General Zuo. The bottom line of the court is to stop the troops on the spot and reconcile the two sides."
This time, Xi Lu obviously played another trump card.
Jingzhou in this dynasty has always had seven counties and states, but now it has become eight counties because Liu Biao set up Zhangling. But for Cao Cao, most of the land in Jingzhou has nothing to do with him. Even if he is involved in Jingzhou affairs now, only Nanyang County can really get involved. Even if it is just Nanyang County, it is enough to make Cao Cao salivate because Nanyang is so valuable.
Nanyang was harmed by Yuan Shu in the past, so miserable that nine out of ten households were empty in the local area, but this does not mean that the more than two million people in Nanyang have all died.
In fact, not all the remaining populations, not all the people who disappeared from their household registration were dead. Although many of them died, a large number of people moved south to Xiangfan area to seek a stable life; they hid in the mountains and forests to avoid war; or were recruited by the gentry and became hidden people.
In short, the disappearance of household registration does not mean that people are really dead.
Therefore, since Liu Biao drove Yuan Shu away, Nanyang began to regain vitality.
As the gateway to Xiangyang, Liu Biao knew the importance of Nanyang, so he invested a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources, which made Nanyang recover very quickly.
Except for the few counties near Guanzhong in the northwest corner that were difficult to recover due to frequent wars and the Xiliang army in Guanzhong and plundered the local area every year, other counties and towns have more or less recovered 20 to 50% of their vitality.
Although it is far from being compared with its heyday, Nanyang County is huge and the best in the Han Dynasty. Even if it is only 20% of its vitality, it is equivalent to the scale of other counties and countries at its heyday. If calculated based on 50% of its vitality, it is equivalent to half of Xuzhou at its heyday. This makes Cao Cao not jealous and how can he not want to include Nanyang in his own pocket. The size and plumpness of Nanyang County also made Cao Cao feel very satisfied.
Therefore, Cao Cao gave Xi Lu the bottom line to protect a county in Nanyang.
Xi Lu no longer spoke loudly this time. If he could reach a local slap with Liu Feng, the conditions were still above the bottom line and he could make another great contribution.
But what Xi Lu thought was too beautiful, so how could Liu Feng agree to stop the troops on the spot?
Before Liu Feng could speak, Pang Tong shook his head and opposed it: "It is unfair to stop the troops on the spot. Our army has gone through a lot of hardships. Now it is the time to pick the results. How can we stop there?"
Lu Xun even sneered: "My lord respects the court, and he does not follow his orders in any disorderly life."
Lu Xun seems to have a low-key and humble personality, but in fact he is also a big sarcastic person. He only lost to Sun Shiwan and was beaten to death by the latter.
Pang Tong and Lu Xun's words were very ugly and quite rebellious. Xi Lu was shocked and scared when he heard them. Only then did he remember that the prince in front of him was a vassal of all kinds.
Fortunately, Zhuge Liang spoke at the right time, half comforting and half reminding: "My lord had a word before. Nanyang has thirty-seven counties and towns, and my lord only takes thirteen counties. It's not too much. Why should angels demand bad things about my lord?"
(This chapter ends)