Chapter 316 The choice of the civil servant

Chapter 316 The choice of the civil servant

The flames of the corpse pile gradually increased, and thick smoke billowed.

The flag of the Great Chu Emperor was displayed on the city gate, and the Huns on the other side of the moat looked at each other and smiled, and someone said to Xiao in the Central Plains dialect: "Although the emperor of Chu is small, he is not too timid, let's talk in the past, be louder. Voice, since the Xiongnu has been conquered, you have to concentrate on meritorious deeds and persuade the little emperor to offer the city, and you will be able to make him a king. If you have many daughters, it may not be impossible to marry one to you."

Xiao Sheng smiled and nodded twice, urged the horse to take a few steps forward, looked up, and saw that there were many archers on the city wall, and there were many people standing on the city gate. The emperor immediately cupped his hands and said, "Chen Zuocha, the censor Xiao Sheng, pay homage to Your Majesty!"

The Xiongnu interpreter behind him can interpret to his companions at any time.

Upstairs at the city gate, the one who responded was not the emperor himself, but the general Fan Zangshan. He did not go to defend the city elsewhere, but stayed by the emperor's side. Not only was he tall, but his voice was also loud. thunder.

Fan Zangshan fought against the enemy at the gate of the city last night, killing and wounding countless people. Not only was the city known, but the Huns also heard of his reputation, and they all looked up, without concealing the curiosity and admiration in their hearts.

"Xiao Sheng, do you still have the face to see Your Majesty?" Fan Cangshan spoke for the emperor, but added a little bit of his own understanding.

"The general situation has passed, and the minister is also forced to help. I hope Your Majesty will forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive, tell your Hun master, the Emperor of Great Chu would rather die than surrender, and come to attack the city if he has the ability. The Huns have broken their promises, and the peace talks are still in progress, so come to invade the Great Chu, Xiao Sheng, you stay there It won't end well either."

The interpreter reminded later: "Tell the little emperor of Chu that he was the one who betrayed his promise. Da Shanyu waited for nearly half a year and urged and reminded him several times through the messenger, but he just refused to continue the peace talks, so..."

Xiao Sheng turned his horse's head and said with a smile: "Let me tell you, I know the emperor, and I can't explain the peace talks for a while, and it's a waste of time."

The translator could not be the master, so he said a few words to the leader, and then said in the Central Plains language: "It's up to you, if you succeed, your Excellency is the King of the Huns. If you don't succeed, do you see the moat in front of you? It's quite suitable for you."

Xiao Sheng still nodded with a smile, turned to the city and said loudly: "Your Majesty, Rong Chen briefly said a few words about the current situation."

Fan Cangshan despised Xiao Sheng very much. According to his own opinion, he should have scolded him violently, and then shot the chaotic ministers and thieves to death, but the emperor had other ideas, so he had to reply: "Your Majesty allows you to speak."

Xiao Sheng cleared his throat, "Your Majesty, there are thousands of elite soldiers from the Fuyu country, disguised as the looted Chu people, who were driven from the west by the Huns, and rushed into the pass after being rescued. Entering the customs. The Huns’ army of hundreds of thousands was divided into two groups. One remained in Liaodong, and Da Shanyu personally commanded them to attack the city and loot the land. Passing the city without attacking, traversing the state of Yan and Zhongshan County, and heading straight to Jincheng, the state, is to capture His Majesty alive..."

"What are you talking about?" the interpreter shouted.

Xiao Sheng turned his horse's head again, "Emperor Chu is suspicious by nature, and he must explain the cause and effect clearly before he can completely lose confidence and leave the city to surrender."

Tong Yi frowned, "Long story short, if the little emperor doesn't surrender, we will attack the city. How can I have time to listen to you?"

"Yes, everyone, don't be impatient, it won't take long to introduce the general trend."

Xiao Sheng continued to shout to the city head: "Now the Huns army is two hundred thousand..."

"500,000!" the interpreter corrected sharply.

"The 500,000 Hun army has entered the customs." Xiao Sheng corrected immediately, "Within today, Your Majesty will either leave the city and surrender, or the city will be destroyed."

Hearing this, the interpreter nodded in satisfaction and quickly interpreted to the leader.

There was a commotion upstairs at the city gate, Fan Chongshan wanted to scold again, but he endured it and did not speak, Xiao Sheng waited for a while, and then said: "The Chu army is scattered all over the place now, and it is absolutely too late to rescue them. I heard that there are tens of thousands of people. The Northern Army is coming to meet His Majesty, but the Huns are already prepared, and the cavalry several times this number are now ambushing in the surrounding mountains, waiting for work, the Northern Army is definitely not an opponent!"

Tong Yi sneered, the Huns' plan was not leaked, Xiao Sheng obviously guessed it by himself, but he was not afraid, as long as the northern army took the bait, and he could scare the little emperor.

There was another commotion above the city gate, which soon ended, which was bad news for the besieged.

"After conquering Jincheng, the Huns' army will turn south, join forces with the Qi rebels, and encircle and wipe out the Chu army led by General Cui Hong. At that time, the Great Chu will lose half of the country, and there will be few troops in the pass, and the other half will soon be lost. There are still many Chu troops on the front line of the northern border, but the dragons have no leader, and they are fighting each other, and they are not the opponents of the Huns."

While translating, the interpreter listened to the leader's orders, and said at this time: "Tell the little emperor that Da Chanyu appreciates him a little, and is willing to give him a way to survive. As long as he surrenders, he can still retain the title of emperor, and Da Chanyu's daughter and granddaughter will be appointed to him. Pick - don't be jealous, he is an emperor after all, and he is treated better than you."

"That's natural." Xiao Sheng said without turning his head, took a deep breath, and said loudly: "Your Majesty, the situation in the world is generally like this, Your Majesty has only one way to go."

The interpreter thought that it would be logical to persuade him to surrender. He was very satisfied and quickly interpreted it to the leader. He did not expect Xiao Sheng to say something else. He was too surprised. Prevent.

"Zhuo Ruhe has already escaped from Liaodong, and is patrolling the frontier as an imperial envoy, gathering all the troops inside and outside the customs, and will arrive in a few days. I hope your majesty will stick to it and do not go out.

"Shut up!" Tong Yi roared angrily, before slapping his horse, he pulled out his waist knife.

"Chen Xiao Sheng is negligent, goodbye Your Majesty..." The sound of the horse's hooves getting closer and closer, Xiao Sheng couldn't wait any longer, and without turning his head, he raised the whip in his hand and slammed the horse fiercely. The horse was startled and moved forward. Jumping, after a few steps, he jumped straight into the moat.

Up and down the city, everyone was surprised.

The interpreter glanced at the river, knowing that he couldn't save anyone, and there was no need to save him. He turned around to explain to the leader that arrows were raining down on the city, and the Huns had to retreat.

On the top of the city, everyone was silent, and no one ordered that round of archery. I don't know who started the shot, and all the soldiers followed suit.

No one thought that Xiao Sheng would commit suicide to prove his innocence. It turned out that he endured humiliation and persevered until now, just to tell the emperor the current situation and ask the emperor to persevere.

One person and one horse quickly sank into the water, the horses still whined, but the people were silent.

Fan Chongshan suddenly took a few steps back, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed, "I, Fan Chongshan, have eyes but no pearls. I misread Lord Xiao, and I apologize to you."

The one who was most surprised was Han Ruzi himself. He wanted to get some information from Xiao Sheng, but he never expected that he would commit suicide.

Xiao Sheng was never a staunch supporter of the emperor. At Shenxiongguan, the two even became enemies for a time. After that, they repeated several times in the battle for the throne, and their character was even lower. In Han Ruzi's plan, after the world was settled, Xiao Sheng He was one of the first ministers to be replaced, and he was given the title of imperial envoy just to temporarily appease people's hearts.

As a result, such a person would rather throw himself into the river than surrender to the Xiongnu.

"Xiao Sheng, the censor of Zuocha, is loyal to the country..." Han Ruzi thought for a while, "It is indeed the mainstay of the imperial court, all the ministers should not forget the aspirations of Lord Xiao, and I would not dare to love the body and forget the country, even if there is one person, Great Chu will not die."

The ministers knelt down, although most of them were literati, all of them were all hot, and they felt generous.

However, the Huns could not be defeated by will and morale alone. Han Ruzi immediately summoned the generals of the Northern Army and asked, "Is there any way to inform the main force of the Northern Army not to come to Jincheng?"

"Don't come to Jincheng?" The forward general was taken aback, "But Your Majesty..."

"Master Xiao has made it very clear that the Huns will use me as a bait to attract the Chu army to come and rescue them, and then wait for the work, and ambushed them."

General Qianfeng was not on the city gate just now, but he had heard about Xiao Sheng's deeds and pondered for a moment, "Without the help of the main force of the Northern Army, Jincheng will not last until tomorrow morning."

"Let the main force of the Northern Army choose a dangerous place to camp, and make each other's horns with Jincheng, but if the wall is not strong, the Huns will not immediately attack Jincheng in order to lure the Northern Army into battle."

The reason may be correct, but it is too risky to implement. All the initiative is in the hands of the Huns. The forward general hesitated for a while before saying, "You can use smoke..." He glanced at the thick smoke outside the city, and immediately He changed his mind and said, "Drumming can be used as a trumpet, but it can only be heard for 20 to 30 miles. It is hard to say whether Commander Liu will be able to receive it or if he will not have time to retreat."

The main force of the Northern Army is led by the commander of the Northern Army, Liu Kunsheng. He is loyal and loyal, but he is not the kind of general who can make decisions on the spot, but Han Ruzi has no other way. "Just do it. Don't stop the drums."

"Yes, I will go to the southwest corner to play the drums myself." The forward general also understood that if the main force of the northern army was wiped out, Jincheng would be even more dangerous.

Han Ruzi still did not leave the city tower, looking at the thick smoke, watching the mobilization of the Huns, the enemy army obviously wanted to ambush the main force of the northern army and then attack the city calmly. There were more ambush, he couldn't see it at all.

"I didn't expect Xiao Sheng to be such a person." Cui Teng next to him murmured with a look of confusion, "Fortunately, Zhuo Ruhe escaped. If you can gather all the troops in the frontier, you should be able to repel the Huns."

At this time, there were not many people in the city gate tower, and the East Sea King whispered: "I'm afraid there will be difficulties, Zhuo Ruhe is the imperial envoy who puts out food, and has no right to transfer troops, frontier generals..."

"You know more?" Cui Teng said angrily, he really didn't want to hear bad news.

However, Han Ruzi had to accept the bad news, "The King of the East Sea is right, someone has to go to Zhuo Ruhe with the imperial edict and give him the right to transfer troops."

There were Xiongnu cavalry everywhere outside the city, and the people in the city were hard to fly, and the King of the East Sea kept silent to avoid being selected.

Han Ruzi shook his head. He hadn't thought of a good candidate yet, and now was not the best time to send a messenger. He was most worried about the main force of the Northern Army, and at the same time he was thinking about another thing.

"Yang Feng once said that scholars can also deceive people's hearts and compete for power, but they are different from those who look forward to qi. They have a bottom line in their hearts. Xiao Sheng is a scholar, and he also has his own bottom line. Unfortunately, I am watching Judge him before the bottom line."

"You can't blame Your Majesty..." Donghai King advised.

"So if a person is available or not, you can't just look at his momentary behavior."

The sound of drums from the southwest corner came, suddenly rushed and slow, and only the Northern Army could understand the meaning, but after all, this was not an imperial edict in black and white.