Chapter 700: Soldiers Approaching the City
Kill prisoners and make revenge? Lu Zheng stared at Meng Shanming in a daze, and his heart was shocked again. How could he not have revenge if he massacred 600,000 prisoners of Song State at one time?
Not only is it an enmity, but it is a great enmity, and it will definitely become an unforgettable shame for Song Guo. If Song Guo has the opportunity, how can he not avenge this hatred!
This turned out to be intentional, in addition to the grand strategy that Gong Lince said before, it also wanted to cut off the attacking soldiers of the Song Dynasty and force them to fight bravely to the death!
It turns out that killing prisoners can also be a way to boost morale!
He understood that there were so many reasons behind it, no wonder Meng Shuai insisted on doing this despite the infamy and the pressure from the three major factions...
The army left Qunluo Mountain and escorted groups of captives to leave Qunluo Mountain. All the luggage carried by the army forced the captives to bear the burden, which relieved the burden of the people of Yan State.
In this place soaked by water, although the ground has dried up a lot, the road under the walking footsteps is still muddy, and the trek is a bit difficult.
For the captives who bear the burden, Meng Shanming is unwilling to waste food on them, and only gives some soup to eat and drink. The situation is conceivable because they are weak and difficult to bear the burden.
Almost all of these captives were wounded, they all lost an ear, and there were bloodstains running down their cheeks.
The ground was muddy, and the marching speed of the army was slow.
...
"Master Dao, Gongsun Bu's letter, and the red-faced monkey's letter arrived almost at the same time."
In the mountains, Guan Fangyi took out two letters.
Niu Youdao read Gongsun Bu's first, and nothing else. He just reminded that the army of Yan State in Qunluo Mountain had already set off again.
After seeing what Yuan Gang delivered, it was handwriting that only the two of them were familiar with. Niu Youdao knew it was top secret information.
At first glance, Gao Jiancheng from Yanjing had a reply.
It is understandable that Gao Jiancheng's news came late. Out of the need for confidentiality, he did not let Guan Fangyi and others around him know that he had contact with Gao Jiancheng.
Niu Youdao cheered up and read Gao Jiancheng's opinion carefully, which was very pertinent.
Gao Jiancheng first mentioned Yanjing's plan to use 600,000 captives as bargaining chips, and let Niu Youdao know what to do first.
After that, Gao Jiancheng didn't say whether the 600,000 captives could be killed, but only put forward his opinions for Niu Youdao's reference.
After all, there are 600,000 captives, killing these 600,000 people, not to mention other things, the impact on Meng Shanming's reputation is conceivable, at least one's reputation as a "killer" may not be able to escape.
If you don't kill them, it's obviously unnecessary to raise and consume food and grass. It's better to be a bargaining chip for the court.
If you want to kill, you have to be a bit particular. It's best not to kill too directly. It's more appropriate to kill after using it as a bargaining chip.
This bargaining chip does not refer to the bargaining chip of the imperial court, but the bargaining chip of Shang Chaozong or Meng Shanming.
What Gao Jiancheng meant was to let Meng Shanming ask the Song army for food and grass. When the news was sent back to Song Jing, there must be two groups of people arguing in the court of Song Jing.
The premise of this argument is that Yanjing is using 600,000 captives as the condition for the Song army to withdraw troops, and has added requirements for food and grass. State of Song, therefore, it is inevitable that there will be disputes between two or more factions in the Song Jing Dynasty Hall.
There are several advantages to doing this.
Once the captives are killed, the court will investigate, Meng Shanming can complain about the lack of food and grass, and resist the court's accountability. Who knows that there is not enough supplies here, and the court cannot provide them.
On the other hand, Meng Shanming can say that Song Guo did not have sincerity and killed them in anger, which can offset some of the negative effects of killing prisoners. He can put some responsibility on Song Guo, accusing Song Guo of not wanting to save these prisoners, which can weaken the hearts of Song soldiers. and morale.
The last advantage is that once the captives are killed, those in the Song and Jing courts who advocated the supply of food will inevitably blame those who did not agree to the food.
In the final analysis, what Gao Jiancheng meant was that if he did something bad, he had to have a reason to argue that he was not a bad person, and he had to take the opportunity to create some trouble for his opponent.
After reading Gao Jiancheng's opinion, Niu Youdao smirked, and found that people who have been immersed in the court for a long time are people who have been immersed in the court for a long time.
Niu Youdao still had the same attitude. If it was not necessary, he didn't want to interfere too much in the affairs of the battlefield, and left the special affairs to professional talents to do it freely, so he sent a message to Meng Shanming about Gao Jiancheng's opinion.
Of course, there won't be any traces of high opinions, and all of them have been transformed into their own meanings.
The distance between the two sides is not too far, Gongsun Bu received his letter very quickly, after translating the secret letter, he handed it to Meng Shanming immediately.
The road was muddy, Meng Shanming was sitting in the slow-moving carriage when he saw the letter, the letter was handed in by Gongsun Bu through the window and handed over by Luo Daan, and Lu Zheng was driving the carriage as the driver.
After reading the letter, Meng Shanming stroked his beard and shook his head, and sighed softly, "The Daoist is the Daoist, and even the temple has a good plan."
He sincerely admired him. Although he was good at fighting, he was not very good at things in the court, such as the evaluation of outsiders.
To be exact, it's not that he's stupid, but that he doesn't pay much attention to it, and he doesn't want to devote energy to pondering it. People's energy is limited, and if they are too scattered, they can't be good at one. When King Ning was alive, he could just concentrate on studying war. He didn't have any unreasonable thoughts about the affairs of the court, and King Ning blocked him. Now he doesn't need to care about the thoughts of the court.
And Niu Youdao did not restrict him in any way from the beginning to the end of the war, and only provided useful help, which made him feel very comfortable, unlike the three major factions who like to intervene.
He feels that it is a blessing that there is a capable person who has been hiding behind the scenes to pay attention to the crisis and help resolve it in a timely manner.
For example, before suppressing the rebellion and the crisis was approaching, no one in Nanzhou noticed it. Only Niu Youdao realized that the court was going to attack the Shang Dynasty. Niu Youdao immediately transferred the 100,000 cavalry from Nanzhou who were about to fall into catastrophe. , let Meng Shanming lead one hundred thousand cavalry out of danger in time.
It was unacceptable to the feelings of Meng Shanming and others to let Shang Chaozong be in danger alone. Meng Shanming wanted to lead people to rescue, but Niu Youdao sent someone to stop him.
Looking back now, to a certain extent, as long as the strength of Meng Shanming and Nanzhou is still there, the imperial court will not dare to do anything to Shang Chaozong.
From another point of view, Shang Chaozong stayed behind to bear the consequences, and suffered a crime, and the killing of Shi Sheng gradually faded away.
Looking back at the situation, Niu Youdao was the most rational and calm person. Combined with the situation of Shang Chaozong at that time, it can even be said that he was so rational that he was terrible.
If it weren't for Niu Youdao, the consequences of the incident can be imagined. They were the ones who shouted to send troops to save Yan, but Niu Youdao was the one who cleared the obstacles for them to send troops and prevented risks. If there was no Niu Youdao hiding behind the scenes Taking action, the consequences of killing Shi Sheng by the Shang Dynasty Zong are unimaginable, and how can the current situation be possible.
A bird appeared in the sky in the distance, and Zhang Hu's voice quickly came from outside the car window, "Commander, Song Jing is here to verify the number of prisoners."
Meng Shanming closed the secret letter in his hand, and said calmly: "Notify all ministries to take precautions and let them verify. In addition, notify the people of Song State that they want the prisoners to bring food..."
...
The negotiations between Song and Yan had achieved results, but they did not stop the Song Army. The Song Army's 500,000 vanguard troops finally approached the city and surrounded Yanjing!
The gates of Yanjing City were closed tightly, and the guards were on the top of the city as if they were facing a formidable enemy. All kinds of defensive facilities were ready, and millions of civilians organized in the city were busy, cooperating with the army to defend the city. It can be seen from this that as long as there is the determination to take precautions, the resistance force in Yanjing City is definitely more than the 200,000 defenders.
Even so, the people in the city are still panicking.
Outside the city, some monks sent Song envoy Qian Liansheng out to meet with the generals of the Song army.
Under Qian Liansheng's persuasion and Luo Zhao's military order, the Song army will only besiege but not attack for the time being, and wait for the negotiation results to be implemented. If the implementation fails, the Song army will immediately attack the city!
The Song army clamored and threatened outside the city, playing drums and trumpets from time to time, creating coercion for the people in the city!
A certain corner of the palace, no one dared to approach it anymore, because some corpses in the palace were gathered here to be cremated.
No one dared to mention the cause of death of the palace concubines, even though they knew they couldn't hide it, the chief executive Tian Yu still issued a ban, and those who make false comments will die!
Shang Jianxiong didn't dare to go back to live in the harem for the time being, even the place where he lived was put together in a small room in the royal study for the time being, what he was afraid of was well known to the people around him, but no one dared to tell.
The enemy army was clamoring outside the city, and in the palace inside the city, Tong Mo took the negotiation results to discuss the implementation steps with Shang Jianxiong and others.
There is no way to discuss this. It is necessary to implement the negotiation results and take into account the emotions of Shang Chaozong. The current situation cannot be controlled by Shang Jianxiong, regardless of Shang Chaozong. Shang Chaozong holds the military power in his hands!
Military power is what civilian officials hate most about military officials, and it is also what civilian officials fear most, so whenever there is a chance, civilian officials would like to impose layers of restrictions on the military power in the hands of military officers.
Dare to annoy Shang Chaozong at this time, it is useless to negotiate any results.
Previously, Shang Jianxiong hoped that Shang Chaozong's 100,000 cavalry would attack the Song army, but now, he was really afraid that Shang Chaozong would impulsively ruin his affairs.
From Shang Jianxiong's point of view, Shang Chaozong had every reason to do so.
When Meng Xuan came, he ignored the guards outside and broke in directly.
Shang Jianxiong stood up from behind the case, and asked eagerly: "Master Meng, have the three major factions on the front line been properly arranged?"
Meng Xuan hesitated for a moment. He was also embarrassed about this matter, and it was a bit difficult to speak. After all, he had made the promise before.
But there is no way, the news sent back by Gong Lince is indeed reasonable. The most important thing is that Meng Shanming and others support themselves, relying on their ability to control the situation, they don't listen to the three major factions at all. At this time, as long as the three major factions still care about their own interests, they dare not do anything to Meng Shanming , otherwise the consequences will be disastrous!
Seeing his reaction, Shang Jianxiong and the others became tense, not daring to breathe.
Meng Xuan finally said slowly: "Your Majesty, it is estimated that the Song army will launch an attack in a short time. Let the army do a good job of defending and prepare to live and die with Yanjing!"
PS: Another person on the Haohanpo immediately hit the knife, thank the new leader "chenrh1974" for supporting!