Chapter 574 The Sima family’s overtures
When Ma Di summoned Sima Wang, the prominent families in Hanoi were actually discussing countermeasures.
Hanoi County is a large county in Hebei Province that is affiliated with Sizhou. The influential families here are intertwined and have extraordinary influence. Among them, the Wei family, the Zhang family, the Sima family and many other Hanoi families were extremely powerful in the Cao Wei court.
However, no matter how great their influence was, there was nothing they could do when the Han army attacked them. In addition to resisting as a whole family and overdrawing the family's authority to pull the entire Hanoi County to resist, they have no other power.
Ma Di didn't want to massacre the city. If Cao Cao came instead, they would most likely have to behave like dogs with low eyebrows and submissiveness.
But now, tens of thousands of Han troops are close at hand, and the reinforcements sent by Cao Wei are indeed very few, and several prominent families themselves are also panicking. Especially this time, it was Ma Di who was fighting. This notorious butcher put tremendous pressure on Hanoi's prominent families.
Therefore, several prominent families discuss with each other every day and discuss how to overcome the difficulties next.
Among them, their most pessimistic discussion was actually that the Han army refused to surrender and massacred Hanoi counties. In that case, they would have no choice but to give up all their property and flee with only a small number of their legitimate children.
And when Sima Wang came to Hanoi in the name of the General of the Han Dynasty and expressed the Han Dynasty's intention to surrender to these fellow villagers, several prominent families in Hanoi were overjoyed.
Finally, we sent someone to recruit them. If they don't come, they will really run away.
However, when Sima Wang arrived, what he brought was not good news. He made it clear that General Ji Han was unwilling to massacre the city, so he asked him to come and surrender.
Moreover, even if they want to recruit and surrender, the requirements will be extremely harsh, and Hanoi noble families will have to make their own judgment before negotiating. If you can't accept it, then simply don't come, just stay at home and wait to die.
When Sima Wang said this, several wealthy families couldn't help but take a breath of air. They didn't expect that the Han army would be so determined and even prepared to massacre Hanoi!
"What are the conditions of this General Han? You can't ask us to hand over all the family property ourselves, right?" The head of the Wei family couldn't help but ask.
"I don't know, but according to General Ma's character, he will most likely be very harsh." Sima Wang shook his head and said directly.
"I suggest you prepare for the worst"
As soon as Sima Wang said this, several family heads fell into silence. In each other's eyes, they both saw deep fear.
Ma Su did not put forward his own conditions, so these wealthy people had to guess on their own.
Among them, the Wei family is the most pessimistic about the future. After all, they started out in Confucianism, and the unification of Confucian annotations that Ma Su is currently promoting is undoubtedly digging their roots!
Here we need to mention again the issue of unified annotation of the classics. In fact, the Hanoi noble families did not have unified opinions on this issue before.
The unification of scripture annotations indicates that all assessments will begin to be well-founded, which is a good thing for the country. But actually putting it into practice is what all the readers are least happy about.
After all, the unification of the annotations of the classics meant that most of the knowledge they had studied so hard in the cold window was invalidated. They need to abandon the family education they have studied for half a lifetime, and then delve into the official annotations again. This impact is no less than the Shu Tongwen of the Qin Dynasty.
Especially for a big family like the Wei family, which was founded in Confucianism, this would almost dig out their roots.
But at this time, Sima Wang began to persuade them from the perspective of fellow villagers.
"I suggest you all accept it, otherwise Ma Di would really dare to massacre the city!" Sima Wang said seriously.
"Besides, the Han Dynasty is currently short of people. If we surrender now, we can gain some benefits to make up for the losses. If we force the Han army to take action, I'm afraid everything will be lost!"
"Don't think that the Han army can't do it. Hasn't this hussar general done enough?"
Under Sima Wang's scaremongering, all the noble families were extremely desperate. Under coercion and inducement, they finally had to choose to accept their fate.
However, when several wealthy families went from despair to resignation, they did not notice an imperceptible smile on Sima Wang's lips.
In fact, he knew very well where Ma Su's bottom line was this time, and it was actually a loose group. However, he did not tell these fellow villagers, and he even hinted that his own clan members would be the first to express their willingness to accept it.
We must know that the influence of this group of noble families in Hanoi is very great, and their statements will even indirectly affect the bottom line of the entire Kanto gentry when they surrender.
This is a great achievement. If these fellow villagers are not sold at a good price, their Sima family will not be able to make progress in the future.
As for the losses suffered by their Sima family. This is completely irrelevant under the temptation of progress. Anyway, their Sima family has always lived a long life, so the worst they can do is start over from scratch.
It can be said that Sima Wang's plan was very successful. In the end, under some intimidation, all the noble families in Hanoi had no choice but to make concessions, and fully accepted the most demanding conditions under the threat of life and death.
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With Sima Wang's push, the progress of the negotiations far exceeded Ma Su's imagination. The entire Hanoi County surrendered almost unconditionally, and took the initiative to deliver a large and wealthy county to Ma Di.
Originally, Ma Su was ready to make certain concessions, but in the end, the Hanoi noble family did not mention any conditions. Not only that, everyone also became a good citizen. Even the Wei family abandoned their own family education and actively expressed their willingness to endorse Ji Han's Confucian classics.
Ma Su was not a fool, so he knew the key to all this. Obviously, this was a gesture of goodwill from the Sima family in Henei by selling their fellow townsmen.
"I understand how good the Sima family is at scheming, and this gesture of goodwill is so sophisticated." Ma Su shook his head speechlessly, and couldn't help but sigh.
Originally, Ma Su was thinking that he would have a chance to clean up the internal affairs in the future and find a reason to clean up Sima Fu who surrendered. As a result, after such a generous gift and gesture of goodwill, Ma Su hesitated whether he should take action.
It can be said that Sima Wang gave a generous gift this time. In the future, all the Guandong nobles will probably have to refer to the surrender conditions of the Henei nobles when they surrender.
But who would have known that all this was actually made up by Guandong's own people...
"General, now all the counties in Henei have opened their cities and surrendered." At this time, Jiang Wei from the front line also rushed back and reported with surprise.
"These people in Guandong are so rich that the county coffers are full of food and fodder. Their weapons, armor and arrows are all of high quality. This is the first time our army has been so wealthy since I took charge of the six garrisons!"