Chapter 297

Even if they were reorganized, it would take a lot of effort to reverse their style and habits.

There were even many middle and low-level officers in the army who were children of gentry and powerful clans attached to Lord Yuan Shu.

Su Xuan wanted these people even less.

Because the loyalty of these people is hard to guarantee.

Unless Su Xuan is willing to spend a lot of effort to rectify and reverse it.

It's too troublesome, it's better to recruit new soldiers to cultivate.

It's still more cost-effective to sell them to Lord Yuan Shu, and the ransom obtained is enough to cultivate more loyal and reliable troops.

"What?"

Lord Yuan Shu was stunned: "You are willing to let me go?"

"Hmm, hmm!"

Su Xuan nodded affirmatively: "Naturally! You and I are old friends for many years! Old friendship! Isn't it?"

"Plus, Brother Gonglu, you are the legitimate son of the Lord Yuan family, and your status is noble! Naturally, you should be different from other warlords!"

"Killing you directly would offend many people!"

"Therefore, as long as you, Brother Gonglu, are willing to pay me a satisfactory ransom as a hard-earned fee, I am naturally willing to let you and your troops go!"

"Of course, don't even think about Nanyang, this will be my territory from now on!"

"After all, this place also belongs to Jingzhou. I lent it to you, Brother Gonglu, to stay temporarily just considering your intention to conquer Dong, but now the matter of conquering Dong has ended, so this Nanyang should naturally be returned to me, right?"

Although this sounded good, Lord Yuan Shu knew that he was going to lose Nanyang.

But compared to his own life and even these tens of thousands of troops, Lord Yuan Shu felt that it was not unacceptable.

It's just that he was afraid he would bleed heavily this time.

After all, redeeming Ji Ling, Sun Sun Jian, and the 40, 00 troops last time cost him a million shi of grain and three hundred thousand gold.

This time, even he himself was captured, and there were more troops than last time, so he was a bit panicked, not knowing how much Su Xuan wanted this time.

"Brother Su Boyuan is right! Nanyang naturally belongs to you now! It belongs to you!"

"The ransom is also negotiable!"

Lord Yuan Shu said with a smile.

"Very good!"

Su Xuan was very satisfied with Lord Yuan Shu's knowledge of current affairs, and said immediately: "Then please, Brother Gonglu, go with me to persuade your troops to surrender!"

"Lest there be too many casualties, my income will decrease, and your strength, Brother Gonglu, will also weaken, right? Please?"

"Please!"

Although Lord Yuan Shu had cursed Su Xuan ten thousand times in his heart, he still had to pretend to be smiling on the surface, accepted Su Xuan's invitation, and under Su Xuan's "protection," began to persuade the vanguard and rear armies to surrender.

Things went smoothly afterward,

With Lord Yuan Shu, the lord, persuading them to surrender, plus Su Xuan's army being fierce and brutal, Lord Yuan Shu's army soon surrendered one after another.

Finally, Su Xuan's side counted, and the various routes killed 5, 67 of Lord Yuan Shu's army, Lord Yuan Shu's army had more wounded, and including the wounded, there were a total of 64, 53 captives.

Among them, naturally, included the Great General Ji Ling, who was captured twice.

At this time, Ji Ling was also depressed and gloomy.

Feeling extremely aggrieved in his heart.

"Haha! Brother Ji Ling! We meet again! How have you been?"

Especially when Xu Chu saw the surrendered Ji Ling, he happily patted him on the shoulder and teased him.

Which made Ji Ling even more ashamed and angry.

If he didn't want to die yet, and still wanted to serve his lord, he would have wanted to hit his head and die.

Being captured alive by the enemy twice in a row, it's simply...

He guessed that when the world knows, they will all laugh at him, right?

Xu Chu didn't care much when he saw Ji Ling looking ashamed and angry and not speaking.

However, he didn't continue to make things difficult for him or tease him.

If he couldn't bear it and committed suicide, the loss would be huge.

"Brother Su Boyuan! I don't know how much money and grain you need this time to be willing to let me and the troops under my command go?"

"By the way! Also include those troops and officials I left in Nanyang, I want to take them all away! I hope you can make it convenient, I am willing to pay ransom for all of these!"

After receiving the surrender of Lord Yuan Shu's troops, Lord Yuan Shu found Su Xuan and asked.

"This is great!"

Su Xuan was happy.

Lord Yuan Shu didn't want to stay, and he didn't want those officials either!

It's better to take them all away, so as not to be troublesome to deal with.

Can't kill them all, right?

Su Xuan replied immediately: "Last time, for less than 50, 00 troops, I only asked for a million shi of grain and three hundred thousand gold;"

"This time, including you, Brother Gonglu, the troops here alone are more than 60, 00, and those in Nanyang add up to no less than 30, 00 or 40, 00;"

"Then I will count you as a total of 100, 00 troops!"

"I'll give you a discount, you give me 2 million shi of grain and 1 million gold, and you can take all these troops out of Nanyang safely. I will send people to personally escort you out of the border, how about it?"

"What?"

Lord Yuan Shu widened his eyes and said loudly: "2 million shi of grain? And 1 million gold? Why don't you just rob?"

For a time, where would he get the money and grain to fight for?

Even emptying the Lord Yuan family wouldn't... uh! Emptying the Lord Yuan family could still take it out, and even more than that;

This huge amount of money and grain would at most empty half or one-third of the Lord Yuan family's accumulated money and grain!

But taking out such a large amount of money and grain made his heart ache!

With so much less money and grain, his expansion and development afterward would be greatly affected.

"Eh!"

Su Xuan heard Lord Yuan Shu's words, his face darkened slightly, and he said with some displeasure: "Brother Gonglu, saying this shows a lack of sincerity, right?"

"With our military strength, if I send troops to attack your old nest in Runan right now, do you think you can stop it?"

"Definitely can't stop it, right?"

"By then, wouldn't the hundreds of years of accumulation of the Lord Yuan family all benefit me?"

"In that way, I would actually gain more!"

"I only want this little bit now, it's actually very little!"

"Plus, I am also willing to let your 100, 00 troops leave Nanyang. Brother Gonglu, are you sure you don't understand my painstaking efforts?"

"Or are you willing to let me raid your old nest, or are you willing to leave all this for Lord Yuan Shao to inherit, rather than use it to redeem your own life?"

This pattern is wrong, isn't it?

Money and grain are external things, why are you, Lord Yuan Shu, so unreasonable?

— Author's Notes —

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