Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 518: Letter to Heba Yue

Along with the huge stones that could crush the city walls thrown into the city by the catapults, there were also a large number of documents persuading surrender.

These documents were all written by the clerks and attendants beside Su Ze.

[A literati with both voice and emotion]

Name: Su Chi;
Grade: Orange;
Effect 1: The writing is very elegant and can impress the readers;
Effect 2: The article is expressive and vivid, and the scenery it describes comes to life.

Comment: "Nothing can move people's hearts more than emotions"

Price: 500 Wen Tai and Wu Zhu coins, and a monthly maintenance fee of 10 Wen Tai and Wu Zhu coins is required. You can equip literary classics to increase your abilities.

The letters of surrender thrown into Jingxing Pass by bows and catapults were also different from other types of letters of surrender.

Normal letters of persuasion for surrender are either written to the commander-in-chief defending the city, and usually promise benefits, official titles, and rewards, and propose treatment and rewards after surrender, in order to induce the commander to surrender.

Or it could be written to the officers and soldiers defending the city, telling them the rewards they would receive if they killed the commander and surrendered.

This is what Erzhu Rong did when he attacked Yubi City. He first promised Wang Sizheng an official title, and then offered a reward to the officers and soldiers under Wang Sizheng, telling them what reward they would get if they killed Wang Sizheng and surrendered the city.

But this time, the letter of surrender that Su Ze ordered to be thrown into Jingxing Pass was not of these two types.

The letter was also written to Heba Yue.

The article did not start by mentioning the issue of persuading Heba Yue to surrender, but instead first praised Heba Yue.

He first talked about the friendship between Su Ze and Heba Yue when they fought side by side in the Six Garrisons. Su Ze praised the bravery of the Heba brothers.

Then Su Ze praised Heba Duba for his loyalty to the court and praised his contribution in killing Wei Kegu.

Then Su Chi's article took a turn and no longer talked about the past, but instead talked about the scenery outside the Great Wall.

Although the wording of the article is simple, the vast and desolate scene outside the Great Wall is vividly portrayed on the paper. The Six Towns is where the Heba brothers grew up and where they lived in their youth.

Now these places are under the control of Su Ze, and Su Ze is rebuilding the six towns. Su Chi also wrote about the six towns under reconstruction in the article.

Su Chi then changed the subject and began to denounce Erzhu Rong.

First of all, Erzhu Rong arbitrarily established himself as the emperor and controlled the government. He was a treacherous minister and a rebel. The Emperor Yuan Xu in Guanzhong was the legitimate emperor of the Wei Dynasty, and the titles and official positions of the Heba brothers were all awarded by Yuan Xu.

It was also said that Erzhu Rong had a wolfish nature and only employed close ministers of the Erzhu family. The Heba brothers went through life and death for Erzhu Rong, but in the end their official positions and titles did not advance.

Finally, he used Su Ze's tone and promised that as long as the Heba brothers surrendered, they would be treated as generals.

Then, Su Ze ordered the soldiers to sing "Chi Le Song" towards the inside of Jingxing Pass during the intervals of the siege.

Those who followed Heba Yue were basically his old subordinates brought from the Six Garrisons. When they heard the "Chi-Le Song", they also remembered the place where they grew up.

People are like this. The Six Garrisons are indeed not a good place. The land is barren and the climate is harsh. People can freeze to death in the winter. People have to run around for food all day long and have to guard against nomadic peoples in the north.

But Liuzhen is everyone’s hometown after all.

Although other places are good, they are not hometown.

Liuzhen is the hometown where all the people from Liuzhen can never return.

When the Chi-Le Song sounded, the vast melody and high-spirited lyrics reminded the soldiers defending the city of the grassland in their memories. The soldiers thought of their family members who were separated and died in several riots, and their eyes became moist.

At the beginning, Heba Yue ordered all the letters of surrender shot into the city to be burned.

However, as more and more letters of surrender were sent in, many literate officers and soldiers secretly kept them, and Heba Yue could only turn a blind eye.

When he read the article, he also felt that it was eloquent and written with great sincerity.

In fact, judging from the interactions between the Heba brothers and Su Ze, they had a very pleasant time together several times.

When Su Ze first arrived in Liugari and lifted the siege of Wuchuan, he fought side by side with the Heba brothers.

Before Su Ze returned to Luoyang with Li Chong, he also tried to recruit the Heba brothers, but they all refused on the grounds that their father Heba Duba was still in the Six Garrisons.

At that time, Su Ze also presented precious swords to the three brothers and praised them highly.

After Erzhu Rong started his rebellion, Su Ze fought with Erzhu Rong several times, but never directly fought with the Heba brothers.

In addition, friends of the Heba brothers, such as Houmochen Chong and Dugu Xin, who escaped from the Six Garrisons with them, were all from Wuchuan and are now also valued under Su Ze.

Dugu Xin even became Su Ze's brother-in-law and is now guarding Yanmen Pass.

In contrast, the Heba brothers, who had defected to Erzhu Rong early on, were still outside the core circle of the Erzhu family, and their official positions and titles were not much different from when they first defected to Erzhu Rong.

Heba Yue was also very conflicted. His brothers Heba Sheng and Heba Yun were now with Erzhu Rong. If he surrendered to Su Ze with Jingxing Pass, his brothers would definitely be affected.

In fact, thinking about this, it shows that Heba Yue has also been shaken.
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In September, when Erzhu Rong arrived in Jizhou, he quickly took over the army.

When Erzhu Rong took over the army, the entire army's appearance changed immediately, because the defeat in Wuyi was wiped out.

Erzhu Rong announced several personnel appointments on the spot.

First is Yuan Tianmu.

Erzhu Rong appointed Yuan Tianmu to stay in Luoyang and return to Luoyang to preside over the transportation of materials.

There is no way, there is a food shortage on the Jizhou front line.

Today, the grain transportation system in the areas controlled by Erzhu Rong is to transport grain from the Yellow River basin to Luoyang, and then from Luoyang to other areas.

Originally, this system was running smoothly.

However, since Erzhu Dulü took office as the governor of Henan, the political affairs in Luoyang have been in chaos and the flow of military grain in Luoyang has been blocked.

Erzhu Rong was also very troubled. These Erzhus were fine when they were by his side, but once they were sent out to lead a region on their own, they would cause trouble.

When Yuan Tianmu was in Luoyang, Luoyang's government affairs were in order and the transportation of grain and fodder to various places was smooth.

However, Erzhu Dulü's visit caused extreme resentment among people in Luoyang.

There was really no other choice, Erzhu Rong could only entrust Luoyang to Yuan Tianmu again and ask him to rush to the rear to be in charge of the transportation of grain and fodder.

Yuan Tianmu was also very tired, but he had no choice but to agree to Erzhu Rong's request.

Next came the lawsuit between Heba Sheng and Erzhu Shilon.

Erzhu Rong's way of dealing with the two men was to give each of them fifty lashes.

He stripped both of their general titles and ordered Heba Sheng to return to Qizhou, but left Erzhu Shilon under his command to serve under him while serving his sentence.

Erzhu Rong also knew the result of his treatment, which was actually unfair to Heba Sheng.

In order to rescue Erzhu Shilon, Heba Sheng sacrificed many of his own troops this time.

It looked like a punishment of fifty lashes for both parties. As long as Erzhu Shilon stayed by his side, he would always have a chance to make meritorious service.

It is unknown when Heba Sheng will be able to make another achievement.

However, facing a powerful enemy, Erzhu Rong still trusted his own sons more, and Xiurong's soldiers could be safely handed over to Erzhu Shilon's command.

Erzhu Rong didn't care about all these. His compensation to the Heba brothers was to give Heba Yun, who was beside him, an official position and reward Heba Sheng with some treasures.

Not only Heba Sheng was dissatisfied with this outcome, but even the people of the Six Garrisons who followed Heba Sheng were dissatisfied.

However, Heba Sheng calmly accepted the result, decisively handed over the command to Erzhu Rong, and then led his personal troops south.

Before going south, Heba Sheng met his brother Heba Yun.

Heba Yun is the eldest of three brothers, but now he holds the lowest official position among them.

Because Heba Yun performed poorly in the Battle of Yubi, he was dismissed and punished by Erzhu Rong, and now he is only the cavalry commander under Erzhu Rong.

When brothers part, it's natural for them to say a few words from the heart.

However, when the two brothers met, they looked at each other in silence. In the end, they just said a few words of care to each other and then parted ways.

But at the time of parting, Heba Yun had a strange premonition that perhaps this was the last time the two brothers would meet.

On September 20th, Erzhu Rong's troops, after reorganizing, headed north again and fought with Murong Shaozong again in Wuyi.

Although Peng Le was brave and Chen Chong led his troops to charge many times, they were still defeated by Erzhu Rong.

Under the personal command of Erzhu Rong, the Xiurong cavalry displayed terrifying combat effectiveness. Seeing that the situation was not good, Murong Shaozong had no choice but to call back his troops.

Wuyi had no strategic location to defend, so Murong Shaozong was very decisive and directly abandoned Wuyi City and continued to retreat northward to Hejian City.

Erzhu Rong did not give Murong Shaozong a chance to retreat calmly, and personally led his troops in pursuit. Murong Shaozong had to lead the Modao Army himself to cover the rear. He finally blocked Erzhu Rong's pursuit, but his own troops also suffered heavy losses.

By the time they retreated back to Hejian City, they had lost more than 2,000 cavalry and more than 3,000 infantry.

(End of this chapter)