Chapter 370

There were only two hundred or so men left by Xia Houyuan's side.

With such a small number, it was naturally impossible for him to be Gu Yi's match.

For this reason, he had already prepared himself to commit suicide.

But for Gu Yi.

Between a captured Xia Houyuan and a Xia Houyuan who committed suicide, the captured one was naturally more valuable.

Therefore, Gu Yi had specifically mentioned the names Xia Houjuan and Lady Bian in front of Xia Houyuan just now.

Provoked by this, Xia Houyuan's body trembled violently.

The next moment.

The six generals Fan Chou, Hua Xiong, Zhang He, Xu Huang, Pang De, and Zhang Xiu surged forward, instantly suppressing and capturing Xia Houyuan alive.

Looking at the captured Xia Houyuan, a playful smile appeared on Gu Yi's face.

"General Miaocai, if Cao Mengde were to learn the news that you led your men to surrender, what would he think?"

Upon hearing this, Xia Houyuan's face showed terror.

What Gu Yi said naturally did not mean that Xia Houyuan had truly surrendered to him.

In ancient times, when news was relatively restricted, sometimes truth and falsehood were not important.

Xia Houyuan and the garrison in Runan City had already been completely taken.

Even if Gu Yi publicly announced that Xia Houyuan had surrendered voluntarily, the people in the Cao camp would not be able to distinguish truth from falsehood for a time.

And what would follow would be the wavering of hearts among the civil and military officials of the Cao camp!

Who was Xia Houyuan?

One of Cao Cao's most trusted brothers of the clan.

If even he had surrendered, how could the remaining civil and military officials of the Cao camp bear it?

This feeling was like two companies competing in later generations.

A veteran executive of Company A suddenly takes the lead in surrendering to Company B.

And this veteran executive who surrendered to Company B is also a relative of the boss of Company A.

For the remaining people in Company A, this is undoubtedly a huge blow to their morale!

【Note: The source text repeats the sentiment of 370-25 in the previous line, but I will translate as written.】

Now.

Whether Xia Houyuan truly surrendered or not was not important to Gu Yi.

In any case, Xia Houyuan and the Runan garrison were both in his hands, and the news received by the outside world would definitely be news processed by him.

If he said Xia Houyuan had surrendered, then the news received by the outside world would definitely be that Xia Houyuan had surrendered!

Even if there were definitely some wise men in the Cao camp who could analyze that the news of Xia Houyuan's surrender was false intelligence.

But there were so many people in the Cao camp; it was impossible for every single one of them to firmly believe that Xia Houyuan had not surrendered.

This scheme, more or less, would deal a huge blow to the overall morale of the Cao camp!

Although he had already guessed Gu Yi's poisonous scheme, Xia Houyuan had no means to stop Gu Yi at this moment.

Having become a prisoner, he could only watch helplessly as Gu Yi led his army to incorporate the entirety of Runan into his territory.

And after dealing with Xia Houyuan and the fifty thousand Cao troops.

What Gu Yi needed to face next was the seventy thousand Yuan troops brought by Yuan Tan from the direction of Jizhou.

These seventy thousand Yuan troops had also crossed the Yellow River by now and arrived at the border of Yizhou.

However.

Because Runan City had been besieged by Gu Yi for the past few days, and the siege was only lifted two days ago.

Therefore, Yuan Tan and the seventy thousand Yuan troops did not yet know the news that Runan had been captured.

Regarding this, Fa Zheng suggested:

"My Lord Chancellor, if Yuan Tan learns the news that Runan has been captured, he will surely immediately take the seventy thousand Yuan troops and return to Hebei or rush to Yanzhou."

"In that case, our army will miss the golden opportunity to annihilate Yuan Tan and the seventy thousand Yuan troops."

"Therefore, I believe we can fake the intelligence."

"Using the time difference, we can make Yuan Tan and the seventy thousand Yuan troops mistakenly believe that Runan is still in the hands of the Cao army."

Gu Yi nodded slightly and praised:

"What Xiaozhi says is reasonable."

"Since that is the case, let Youwei take a team of elite scouts, dressed in Cao army uniforms, and rush to Yuan Tan to fake the intelligence from Runan City." (Zhang Xiu's courtesy name is Youwei)

Regarding this, Zhang Xiu gladly accepted the order.

His current official position was General of the Valiant Might.

Among the many generals under Gu Yi's command, he could be considered a high-ranking general.

But if compared with Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, and others, he was not quite enough.

However, Zhang Xiu deserved much of the credit for being able to trick open Runan City this time.

If he could also trick Yuan Tan and the seventy thousand Yuan troops over, Zhang Xiu would likely be promoted to a General of a Major Title after returning!

Although he would still not be able to catch up with Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun.

His position among the military generals under Gu Yi's command would still be able to rank in the top ten.

And do not think that the top ten position is very low.

You must know.

At this time, among the military generals under Gu Yi's command, the only ones with Major Titles were the Xiliang Army F4, as well as Hua Xiong, Xu Rong, Lu Bu, Zhao Yun, and Zhang Liao—only these nine people.

Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao were considered rising stars.

The remaining seven were all considered veterans.

Xu Rong and Lu Bu were originally the leaders of the Luoyang Imperial Guard faction and the Bingzhou faction.

Hua Xiong and the Xiliang Army F4 were even more the direct descendants of the Xiliang army who followed Old Dong.

That is to say, apart from the seven veterans.

If he were to perform meritorious service again, Zhang Xiu's status and achievements among the rising stars would be second only to Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun, ranking third.

Northeast border of Yizhou

In Yuan Tan's marching camp

After trekking, Yuan Tan led seventy thousand troops across the Yellow River and officially arrived in the land of Yizhou.

However.

When crossing the Yellow River.

Due to the summer floods.

Yuan Tan spent quite a lot of time before leading these seventy thousand troops across the turbulent Yellow River.

Regarding this, Yuan Tan considered that he had done quite perfectly.

But he still lost nearly a thousand soldiers because of it.

The generals of the Yuan camp, regarding the matter of losing these one thousand soldiers, tacitly kept silent, so as not to arouse Yuan Tan's resentment.

But even though the generals were trying their best to avoid this matter.

A certain loudmouth named Qu Yi was the one who brought up the very thing that shouldn't be mentioned.

When Yuan Tan gathered the generals to discuss matters, Qu Yi mocked him in public:

"Yuan Xiansi, you really are good material for leading troops." (Yuan Tan's courtesy name is Xiansi)