All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 351: The Western Liang Army at the End of Its Way
"Yingchuan Guo Jia, I greet the general."

Looking at the young man in front of him, Chen Ran asked curiously, "Aren't you working under Yuan Shao?"

Although Guo Jia is young, he is very capable and his words are clear and logical. "I have great ambitions when I was young, and I want to be on par with Xiao He and Zhang Liang."

"However, there are many good horses, but few good horse trainers."

"I heard that the Yuan family has three officials in four generations, and they are very famous. I went to Hebei to serve him, but after spending some time with him, I saw through Yuan Shao's nature of only caring about family background, and he is not worthy of being my master."

"I heard that the general has set up a talent recruitment hall, recruiting talents regardless of their background. I came here to meet him~~~"

These words were flawless, at least they sounded flawless.

But Chen Ran didn’t think so, because the subtitles were not activated.

"That shouldn't be the case. Jia Xu and Cheng Yu both have it, so there's no reason why Guo Jia doesn't have it."

He dealt with it calmly and arranged for Guo Jia to work for him.

As soon as he turned around, he found Jia Xu and Cheng Yu and told them about Guo Jia's surrender.

Naturally, he wouldn't mention the system, he just said that he felt something seemed to be wrong.

Jia Xu remained silent. He was from Liangzhou and didn't know much about Yingchuan Guo Jia.

But Cheng Yu laughed immediately.

"My lord, Guo Jia is from Yingchuan."

Chen Ran narrowed his eyes and said nothing, but Jia Xu asked, "Zhongde, please tell me more."

"The most prominent family in Yingchuan is the Xun family, and the Xun family's eight dragons are well-known throughout the world. Many of Yingchuan's scholars were supported and funded by the Xun family, and they have a very close relationship with them."

Cheng Yu explained seriously, "Guo Jia is a good friend of Xun Yu, and Xun Yu has now joined Cao Cao and is his military commander."

"So that's how it is." Jia Xu's face suddenly understood, "This is about the embroidered clothes."

The so-called embroidered clothes refer to the embroidered clothes envoys, who are secret police similar to the Jinyiwei.

It usually refers to a spy, or an undercover agent.

"But there is no evidence." Cheng Yu said, "Should we send someone to closely monitor it?"

"It's useless." Jia Xu shook his head. "If I were a spy, I would never have any contact with him. I would only try my best to give advice to my lord and gain his trust. Who knows, I might even make many contributions."

"Only at the most critical moment will a fatal blow be delivered!"

"I already know about this." Chen Ran waved his hand. "You don't need to show it. Just be calm."

"Here~~~"

Regardless of whether Guo Jia came here as a spy, Chen Ran would pay more attention to Cao Mengde and despise Yuan Benchu.

Cao Cao now doesn’t even have his own territory and is living in his good friend’s territory. He has less than 10,000 soldiers and horses, but he has realized early on that he is the strongest opponent and has begun to make plans for himself.

On the contrary, Yuan Shao, whose power had been greatly boosted by gaining Jizhou, did not say a word and only focused on Gongsun Zan in front of him.

The difference in strategic vision is obvious at a glance.

Although Guo Jia is young, his abilities are indeed outstanding.

There was no task that Chen Ran assigned to him that he couldn't do well.

After learning about the deployment against the Xiliang Army, he also took the initiative to make additional suggestions: "We can spend money to buy military rations from the various units of the Xiliang Army at a high price. The Xiliang Army is greedy for money and incompetent, so they will definitely sell food."

Chen Ran was very rich. He saved the city of Luoyang and wiped out the local powerful families in the surrounding area, seizing hundreds of millions of dollars.

Apart from paying military salaries, this money is of little use.

After all, the world was in chaos at that time, and it was difficult to trade because of the independent rule of various places, so the usefulness of currency was naturally greatly reduced.

Jia Xu added, "Feng Xiao is right. The money is only temporarily kept by the Xiliang Army. When we defeat them, we can get it back with interest."

"In the chaos of the Xiliang army, casualties are inevitable." Cheng Yu suggested, "Why not buy back all the dead and wounded and use them as raw materials."

"stop!"

Chen Ran simply interrupted Cheng Yu and said, "Just do as Feng Xiao said."

The price of grain was already extremely high during the turbulent times, and Chen Ran offered several times the price to buy it.

The Xiliang Army didn't think so much and started reselling military rations without hesitation.

They didn't have much food to begin with, after all, Dong Zhuo had stored most of the food in Meiwu.

Wang Yun and others killed Dong Zhuo, broke through Meiwu and took away the food, but it was taken away by Chen Ran again.

The military rations of the various units of the Xiliang Army would only last for half a year to ten months at most.

Now they are reselling military rations on a large scale, and as a result, various units of the Xiliang army that are fighting fiercely are starting to suffer from food shortages one after another.

Li Cui and Guo Si stopped fighting and started looking for something to eat like crazy.

However, most of the people in Guanzhong had been transported away by Chen Ran, and the rest fled into the mountains and forests during the melee among the Xiliang army.

Apart from the soldiers and their families, there were no other people in Guanzhong, let alone food.

After confirming that no food could be found, a battle broke out between the Xiliang troops, which was even more tragic and brutal than before.

They used to fight for power and profit, but now they are fighting to steal other people’s food to survive!

The brutal fighting was so fierce that even the Xiliang Army, which was already known for its brutality, could not bear it.

They sought help in all directions and fled.

Zhang Lu in the south blocked the road, Ma Teng in the northwest directly sent troops to resist, and the grassland tribes in the north fought if they could, and ran away if they couldn't win.

Only Zhang Ji of Wancheng provided some food supplies for the sake of his colleagues.

But it's just a drop in the bucket and is not enough at all.

At this time, the generals of the Xiliang Army were finally willing to bow their heads and took the initiative to send envoys to Luoyang to express their willingness to pledge loyalty to Chen Ran. "You can pledge loyalty, but I don't need you to fight for me."

Chen Ran told the messenger very bluntly, "All tribes should disarm and disperse their troops to various places. From now on, put down your swords and guns and pick up hoes."

It means stripping the generals of their military power and making them village heads or something like that.

As for those Xiliang soldiers who looted everywhere and killed countless people, they can only become farmers and work hard on the land in the future.

In Chen Ran's opinion, he had already shown leniency. After all, the soldiers from Xiliang had done all kinds of bad things, and they would not die unjustly if they were killed one by one.

But for the Xiliang army, which was used to being wild, not only Li Cui and Guo Si would not accept it, but ordinary Xiliang soldiers would not do it either!
What does an army do when it runs out of food and is hungry?
Of course I robbed it!
The Western Liang army, whose offer of surrender was not accepted by anyone, first went south to fight Zhang Lu, but the road to Shu was difficult to travel and they could not get through at all.

They tried to return to their hometown in Liangzhou, but were beaten badly by Ma Teng and Ma Chao, father and son.

As for going north to Hetao, the nomadic tribes there run faster than rabbits.

With no other options, the Xiliang Army could only attack Lu Bu in Hongnong to the east.

When Lu Bu heard the news, he was furious.

"You think I, Lu Fengxian, am easy to bully, right?"

An enraged Lu Bu led the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry to fight against the hungry Xiliang Army.

As a result, Lu Fengxian, who was known to be unrivaled in the world and second only to his sworn brother, was defeated and had to abandon Hongnong and flee to Luoyang, begging his elder brother for help.

"Brother, I~~~"

Lü Bu arrived in Luoyang exhausted, his face filled with shame, "I feel so ashamed of my brother~~~"

"It's okay~"

Chen Ran smiled and waved his hands, "Victory and defeat are common in the military. Just burn the military rations and prevent them from falling into the hands of the Xiliang army."

"It's natural."

Lu Bu stamped his feet in anger and said, "Don't worry, brother. Not only did I not leave them any food, I also burned down the city."

Chen Ran chuckled, "Fortunately, we didn't leave any soldiers in Hongnong to set up military settlements. You are only fit to be a dirty knife."

"Second brother," he told Lu Bu, "go back and get some rest, and follow me to the battle in a few days!"

"Here~~~"

As the saying goes, a person's name is like the shadow of a tree.

When the news came that Chen Ran was personally leading the troops to attack, the entire Xiliang army was trembling.

The Xiliang Army had witnessed how powerful this man was when they were friendly forces.

Not only is he unrivaled in the world, he is also outstanding in commanding ability, and can be said to be invincible.

The Xiliang army, which had run out of food, did not dare to engage in a decisive battle with Chen Ran. They had no confidence that they could win.

The result was that they simply headed south in a panic, heading straight for Wancheng.

Among the Xiliang army, the only one who was looked at differently by Chen Ran was Zhang Ji.

Not only did he bring him under his command, he also gave him a piece of land, Wancheng.

Zhang Ji's job was to resist Liu Biao in the south, and he did a pretty good job.

However, when his old brothers came to join him, Zhang Ji was in a dilemma.

If he accepts it, it means breaking with his lord, and his family members who remain as hostages in Luoyang might be in trouble.

If you don't accept it, these are all old brothers of the Xiliang Army~~~
In the end, the Xiliang Army soldiers under Zhang Ji helped him make the decision.

Looking at their former comrades who had starved to death and collapsed on the ground along the way, the Xiliang Army guarding the city opened the city gates, not only letting them in, but also taking out military rations to provide them with relief.

In this case, Zhang Ji had no choice.

The only thing he could do was pray to God, praying that Chen Ran would be kind-hearted and spare his family.

"Zhang Xiu."

Looking at Zhang Xiu who was tied up and pressed, Chen Ran simply said, "Your father betrayed me. You are a hostage. Do you have any complaints about being executed at this time?"

Zhang Xiu's tears were falling, but he had nothing to say at this time.

I finally spent a few comfortable days in Luoyang City. Although I was a hostage, I had a salary and a house, and my status and position were not bad. I lived a happy life.

Who would have thought that Ji's father would actually betray his lord and take the initiative to accept those Xiliang soldiers!

As a hostage, what else can he say at this time?

Chen Ran waved his hand and said, "Drag him away and behead him!"

If you break your oath and choose to rebel, the hostage must be dealt with, otherwise you will be laughed at by the whole world and your prestige will be lost.

"My Lord~~~" Zhang Xiu, who was dragged away, shouted loudly, "It is not a pity for Xiu to die, I only ask my Lord to forgive my aunt~~~"

"Don't worry." Chen Ran responded righteously, "I will take good care of her!"

Zhang Ji's wife, Zou, who was also a hostage, was taken to the mansion that night.

This Ms. Zou is indeed a beauty, no wonder Cao Aman would kill three sages because of her.

After giving Zou a good lecture for a few days, Chen Ran convened a military meeting to discuss sending troops to eliminate the remnants of the Xiliang Army.

"My lord," Jia Xu said with a smile, "but wait a moment. Wancheng's military rations are only enough for the defenders for a month. Now there are tens of thousands more mouths to feed. They will have to be eaten up in ten days at most."

"When the food runs out, we can send troops and achieve twice the result with half the effort."

"good."

(End of this chapter)