The battle situation is as expected. Yuan Jun has successively achieved his set goals. After successively destroying the outer mountain fortresses of Tongbai Mountain, now even the wall at the foot of Taiping Peak has been lost. Now as long as he attacks Taiping Peak, everything will be fine.
But unexpectedly, Yuan Shao took the initiative to send people up the mountain to negotiate with the Yellow Turban Army.
In fact, the reason for this is that the Yellow Turban Army showed its value in the previous battle, which allowed Yuan Shao to see the bloody spirit and toughness of the Yellow Turban Army.
He understood that if the fighting continued like this, even if Yuan Jun captured Taiping Peak, he would surely suffer heavy losses. He will not forget what his real strategy for this battle is, which is to sneak through the three passes of Yiyang.
Once they pass the three passes of Yiyang and enter the hinterland of Jingxiang Plain, it will be like poking a hornet's nest. Liu Biao will definitely attack Yuan Jun at all costs.
If the losses during the campaign to suppress the Yellow Turban Army were too great, Yuan Shao's plan to invade Jingzhou might be ruined.
Therefore, Yuan Shao asked a visitor from the army to go into the mountain with his letter.
In the letter, Yuan Shao put forward three conditions to Liu Pi.
First, the Yellow Turban Army abandoned Tongbai Mountain and Dabie Mountain and fully entered Runan to establish households. Second, the Yellow Turban Army will be organized into rural households and be responsible for farming. Third, the Yellow Turban Army fully accepted the management of Yuzhou, and Yuzhou appointed teachers and guards in various places.
It can be said that after these three articles, what Yuan Shao gave Liu Pi was not a so-called peace treaty, but a total surrender.
But Liu Pi agreed, and despite the dissuasion of the core members of the sect, he surrendered.
There were many reasons why Liu Pi was willing to surrender, including the fact that he did not want to increase casualties, that the situation was over, and that the Qingzhou believers in the east were living well after the surrender.
There are all kinds of reasons, but there is only one real reason, and that is that the visitor privately promised Liu Pi that his master Yuan Shao was willing to guarantee Liu Pi's wealth and would represent him as Zhonglang General.
Therefore, for the sake of power and wealth, Liu Pi betrayed his comrades who died at the foot of the mountain. At this moment, the deaths of Gong Du and Wu Ba were simply a joke.
When Liu Pi agreed to surrender, chaos ensued in Taiping Mountain.
The large number of remnants of the Yellow Turbans who had a blood feud with the Yuan family simply could not accept this result, so they burned Taiping Mountain and took advantage of the chaos to retreat towards Nanyang to the west.
Liu Pi, who was no longer able to restrain the believers, quickly let Yuan Jun at the foot of the mountain enter the mountain to suppress them. But when the fire burned down all the houses and markets on the mountain, not a single soldier of Yuan's army came up.
Obviously, Yuan Jun is not willing to take this risk.
In this way, in the black smoke rising into the sky, Liu Pi led the remaining party members down the mountain and formally surrendered to Yuan Jun's camp.
The career that soared due to chance finally fell to the ground because of fate. In the final analysis, Liu Pi is just a middle-class talent.
In this battle, Yuan Shao led 30,000 yellow turban soldiers and more than 100,000 Shanliao soldiers, and his power was greatly shaken.
But when all parties thought that Yuan Shao was going to stop his troops and rest, he was already pointing his sword at three levels.
……
Kyoto, outside Hakuba Temple.
Liu Bei, who had just come out of the White Horse Temple, was feeling miserable because he had just met someone in the temple.
The White Horse Temple in Kyoto naturally needs no introduction. It can be said to be the best temple in the world. This temple was first built by Emperor Ming. It was named "Baima Temple" because it housed two Tianzhu masters and the scriptures carried by Baima.
There is a special thing in Baima Temple, that is, the pomegranates and grapes cultivated by the monks in the temple in front of the Pagoda of Baima Temple. These two rare objects were transported from the Western Regions along with the scriptures of that year.
The fruit trees planted in Baima Temple are even more luxuriant and have sweet fruits. A grape is bigger than a date, and a pomegranate is as big as a small melon.
It can be said that these two things are not only unique to White Horse Temple, but also rare in Kyoto. I don’t know how many ministers from all over the country have been attracted to the capital.
It is precisely because of its preciousness and rarity that it has been a heavy gift given by the Han family to their subjects since its cultivation. Those who were given it regarded it as a treasure and would not eat it easily.
And Liu Bei, who had just come out of White Horse Temple, was naturally well entertained.
But no matter how sweet the pomegranate is, it can't relieve the bitterness in his heart at this moment.
And all of this started ten days ago, on the Double Ninth Festival.
The Han family has always attached great importance to the Double Ninth Festival on September 9th. Because nine is the number of yang and the sun and moon coincide, it has an auspicious meaning of long and eternal life.
Believe it or not, who doesn't want good luck, so the emperor of the Han Dynasty has always attached great importance to this day, and will have a high banquet with all the officials on the high platform.
Moreover, this year's Double Ninth Festival feast is different, because this time there are new guests in Kyoto.
They were envoys from Khotan, a great country in the Western Regions.
The young emperor Liu Bian attached great importance to the arrival of the Khotan envoys. One of the reasons is that Khotan was the core vassal of the Han family in the Western Regions. After Banding conquered the Western Regions, although Khotan rebelled several times, it generally maintained an attitude of contributing to the Han family.
But the more important reason is that this Khotan delegation did not go to the closer Xijing Chang'an to meet his brother, but continued to come to Kyoto according to previous practice.
This made Liu Bian very happy. The arrival of the Khotan delegation allowed him to taste the supreme majesty of the Han emperor in the past when all nations came to court. This kind of majesty was something Liu Bian had never tasted before.
Therefore, Liu Bian decided to take advantage of the opportunity of the Khotan envoys to host this Double Ninth Festival feast.
After all, this year has been really eventful in Kyoto.
Originally, after the Yuan family was eradicated, the power of the Guandong court reached its peak, at least in the court.
The foreign relatives group headed by He Jin took full control of the court. Later, as Liu Yu, a representative of the Qingzhou clan lineage, went to Luo, as well as Chen Wang Liu Chong, Liang Wang Liu Mi, and Pei Wang Liu Yao of Yuzhou Liu went to Luo successively, the Han Dynasty clan The forces of pro-government have also been developed.
Coupled with Liu Bei, who held military power, the clan, like his relatives, became the two carriages of power in the Guandong court.
But the good times did not last long. With the uprising of Yuan Shao in Runan, the situation in the Guandong court took a turn for the worse. Up to now, among the imperial courts that originally occupied the entire Guandong area, the only ones who still support him are Liu Biao of Jingzhou, Tao Qian of Xuzhou, and Liu Yao of Yangzhou.
But among the three major princes, only Liu Biao could supply the needs of the Guandong court, and the other two were unable to take advantage of it.
Yuan Shao, who had already occupied Yuzhou, cut off the connection between Xu and Yangzhou and Kyoto from Huaisi. It can be said that once Yuzhou was lost, the Guandong court had lost control of the east.
And once this happens, it will be directly reflected in the battle between the two capitals.
Previously, the Kanto court had an unparalleled advantage over Kansai. It can be said that the initiative in the war has always been on the side of Kanto.
But this time, in the recent battle between the two capitals, the Kwantung Army suffered a huge defeat. Not only did they lose the narrow victories they had won in previous battles, but they also allowed the Kwansai Army to advance to the easternmost part of the Weihan Road, Gucheng.
And this time the Kansai Army is obviously different from the past.
Previously, the Guanxi Army could be said to have had many orders, but as Dong Zhuo entered Xijing and took full control of the military with the support of the young emperor Liu Xie, the Guanxi Army was somewhat transformed.
On the day of the Double Ninth Festival, Liu Bei had just come down from the front line and was originally going to ask He Jin for reinforcements.
But he was directly dragged into this Double Ninth Festival feast by He Jin.
That day, Liu Bei met the Khotanese for the first time.
Their appearance is not that of Han people at all. Their thick eyebrows have deep-set eye sockets. Their blue eyes have a strange beauty. Their noses are narrow and high and curved like eagles. They have thick maroon beards under their noses. They all wear mountain-shaped white felt hats. Only one of them wears mountain-shaped white felt hats. The brim is dark black.
On that day, Liu Bei also saw a monk whose skin and hair color were very similar to those of the Han people. It was said that he was from Daxia. There was a young novice monk next to him, but he was as dark as black coal.
Then he learned that the older one was called Lou Jialuo and the younger one was called Tanke Jialuo. They were both very strange names.
In fact, this time the Khotanese delegation certainly had its own purpose, otherwise they would not have traveled thousands of miles to come to Kyoto.
They came here to obtain the approval of the Han emperor and show that King Kumi, who was established by the Han family seven years ago, was illegal.
There is a grudge in this. Kumi is a small country in the Western Regions. Its main reason is that it has a grudge against Khotan. It falsely claims that Zhao Ping, the chief historian of the Western Regions who died of illness in the past and was in office, was killed by the King of Khotan.
Later, the new Han patriarch killed King Khotan, and his son was supported by the people of the country. In revenge, he destroyed Kumi. Then Liu Bian's father Liu Hong sent Prince Kumi who was held hostage in Kyoto back to help him found the country.
And this time, the Khotan people came here just to solve this historical burden.
In fact, these Khotan people are quite clear about the current situation of the Han family. Now there is an emperor in Kyoto and an emperor in Xijing. Logically speaking, it was Liu Hong who did it back then. Later, when Liu Hong arrived in Xijing, these Khotanese should have gone to find Liu Xie.
Not to mention. Xijing is closer to Khotan, and the Kumi people are also supported by the long history of the Western Regions, and now the Western Regions are at the mercy of Kansai.
Therefore, both emotionally and logically, they should go to Liu Xie to negotiate the matter.
But these Khotanese didn't want to, and they went to great lengths to disguise themselves as a caravan and sneak to Kyoto. Are these Khotanese stupid? No, it's just that they are cunning enough.
From the beginning, they did not expect that the Han family would be able to eliminate the Kumi Kingdom with any administrative orders. They knew very well that Liangzhou, which was closest to them, was now full of wars and various forces emerged one after another.
Under this situation, the Han people were completely out of reach of the Western Regions. This gave rise to the ambition of the Khotanese, who planned to directly annex Kumi, and even the entire Western Region.
As the lord of the Western Region, the Huns can do it, the Han people can do it, but we, the Khotanese, can't do it?
Therefore, they imitated the wisdom of the Han people and made close contacts with distant enemies. They first gained the right to send troops from Kyoto, and then directly annexed Kumi. In their minds, the emperor of Kyoto would certainly not mind making trouble for his younger brother.
And the final result was not what they expected. During the audience before the feast, Liu Bian didn't care at all about a country he had never heard of. He just said lightly:
"I am being reasonable. Since you have been wronged in this matter, then I will do as you say."
These Khotan people were overjoyed and praised Liu Bian as the true king of kings who could uphold justice in the world.
But surprisingly, the little emperor didn't care about these compliments, but expressed curiosity about the dark monk in the crowd, so he asked:
"Who is this?"