Wandering the Heavens

Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control, Cao Pi had no choice but to gather a group of people to discuss surrender.

At this point, there was no choice but to surrender. If Cao Cao were still alive, there might be a chance of a comeback. But now Cao Pi's prestige was insufficient, and his military ability was also relatively weak. He had no chance of winning a battle against such a strong headwind.

"Cao Pi is incompetent and can no longer preserve the foundation created by his father. Now the situation is critical. Uncles and elders present here, can you come up with a safe solution?" Cao Pi spoke first, looking at the people with sad faces.

"My lord, I have a plan." Cheng Yu touched the sparse beard on his chin and bowed in response.

When Cao Pi and his advisers and generals saw Cheng Yu step forward, the muscles on their faces began to twitch as if they had discussed it beforehand.

"Mr. Zhongde, your plan should not be immoral, right?" Cao Pi was a very honest child, and he spoke the truth as soon as he opened his mouth.

"This..." Cheng Yuzhen began to hesitate.

When everyone saw how embarrassed he was, they felt even more uncomfortable. Do you really want to go back to your old job?

There was a precedent of Cao Cao massacring the cities in Jizhou and Youzhou and then being tortured to death for several months. Although everyone present had experienced fighting on the battlefield, the tragic scene of Cao Cao being tortured to death still frightened them, and they would rather avoid doing immoral things if possible.

We must surrender, surrender quickly!

"My lord, if we want to fight now, we must fight to the death with the imperial army. If you want to surrender, I think you can send Zi Yang to Luoyang to meet Gao Shun, Lu Xun and Zhuge Liang and ask them to cross the river to receive the army."

Xun You didn't play any tricks and directly expressed his opinion. If we all die together with dignity, if we want to surrender, we should surrender quickly so that we can feel at ease.

The reason why Liu Ye was asked to go to the other side to discuss this matter was because his royal status made it much easier for him to talk to Gao Shun. Not only Cao Pi, but everyone present agreed that Liu Ye should go.

"Mr. Zi Yang?" Cao Pi looked at Liu Ye who was sitting on the side.

"My Lord, I would like to go to Luoyang to see Gao Shun, but..."

Liu Ye's meaning was very clear. It was true that he was a member of the royal family, but compared to the Cao family, he was an outsider. He could run errands, but he could not make decisions.

Everyone present was also very clear-headed. Surrendering to the imperial court was not a shameful thing. It was nothing more than the family being temporarily suppressed. After decades of sleeping on straw and eating bitter food, they would still restore their former glory.

Besides, the imperial court is just beginning to be established, and it will still use foreign troops. Places like the Western Regions, Mobei, and Liaodong have not yet been recovered, so they may not be suppressed and hidden. Maybe they will just change their boss and get their salary.

But the situation was much more serious for the Cao and Xiahou families. The price they paid was far greater than that of the counselors and generals present. They had to sign and claim the title themselves, so a member of the Cao family had to go with Liu Ye to see Gao Shun.

"Mr. Zi Yang is right." Cao Pi admitted the account.

Among the people present, Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong, who were of the older generation, were not suitable. On the younger side, Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen were not qualified, and Cao Zhen was only an adopted son. Cao Pi could not come in person, he had to be here to calm the situation, and could only choose from Cao Zhi and Cao Chong.

Cao Pi was now in a dilemma. If he had known earlier, he should have called Cao Zhang over as well. This younger brother was an honest man with a good status, and an honest person might not make things difficult for him.

Cao Zhi was ambitious. When he heard that the imperial army was coming, he was excited to fight the enemy. After losing Henan, he felt that he could not win and became drunk every day. He was either drinking or on his way to drink. If his father had not just died, he really wanted to chop off his brother.

Cao Chong was too young to make the decision, and he had a conflict of interest with himself before, so this was too sensitive.

If I had to pick the tallest among the short ones, I would have to choose Cao Zhi.

"Zijian."

"Brother." Cao Zhi responded with a bow.

"I will write a letter and I will deliver it to Luoyang and give it to Gao Shun on your behalf." Cao Pi stood up and said.

"As ordered."

Cao Zhi didn't want to say anything more. The empire was about to collapse, and his brilliant articles could not save the situation.

The person who was going to deliver the letter of surrender had been chosen, and now it was a matter of negotiating the price. In fact, everyone knew that they were not qualified to negotiate the price, and they just wanted to be decent.

The fate of Jiangdong was in sight. Sun Quan died in a very undignified way, with his head cut off and sent to the emperor. If you don't want your brain to be on the altar for the emperor to offer sacrifices to the heaven, you'd better be sensible.

The knife was at his neck. Time was pressing and everyone had to talk about the essentials in the meeting. After two hours of talking, Cao Pi summarized it and Cao Zhi put it into writing.

The general meaning is what the Cao family should not have done and what they should have done since the princes started to fight against Dong Zhuo, and now they are talking about a lot of things.

It was dark the next day after writing, but Cao Zhi and Liu Ye still left for Luoyang overnight. Because the food and grass in Yecheng were about to run out, the sooner the deal was done, the better. It would be bad for no one if it dragged on. If a war broke out, everyone would die together. If they were lucky, they might even be reunited in the same pot.

Cao Zhi and Liu Ye traveled day and night to Luoyang to meet Gao Shun. Gao Shun took this very seriously and called Lu Xun, Zhuge Liang, Ma Liang, as well as Mao Jie and Man Chong who were moving bricks on the construction site.

"Xiaoxian, Bo Ning."

Liu Ye thought they were dead, but he didn't expect that they were still here, and seemed to be doing well.

"Second Young Master, Zi Yang." After a moment's pause, the two men saluted Cao Zhi.

"Everyone is here, please take a seat!" Gao Shun greeted everyone while sitting in the main seat.

After hearing the greeting, everyone quickly sat down according to their seats as host and guest.

"Cao Zijian, Mr. Ziyang, now you can tell me why you are here." Ma Liang was the first to ask.

There is no way. Gao Shun is a taciturn person, like a piece of wood. He can train troops and lead them to fight, but he is not good at talking. Fortunately, there are Zhuge Liang and Ma Liang, both of whom are military advisors, who can handle this matter.

"The revival of the Han Dynasty is imminent, and the Cao family follows the will of heaven and the people. Cao Zhi brought his brother Cao Pi with him and sent a letter of surrender to General Gao."

Cao Zhi stood up from his seat and walked to the middle, took out the surrender letter from his arms and presented it with both hands.

Lu Xun also stood up from his seat, walked to Cao Zhi, took the surrender letter, walked to Gao Shun and put it on the table. Gao Shun opened it expressionlessly and looked at it for a while, then actually frowned.

Cao Zhi's surrender book is well written, with gorgeous words and touching quotations from classics. But there is one embarrassing thing, Gao Shun didn't read much, and couldn't understand it, which was a bit embarrassing.

Zhuge Liang and Ma Liang saw that Gao Shun looked unhappy, so they quickly stood up and walked over to ease the embarrassment. The two of them became more and more angry, and it took them almost half an hour to return to their seats.

"Cao Zijian is a brilliant writer, Liang admires him very much!"

Everyone felt a flock of crows flying overhead. Is this the time to discuss the article?

"Master Zijian, Mr. Ziyang. We can accept Cao Pi's surrender, but how to deal with him needs to be reported to the emperor for a decision." Ma Liang stated directly.

The emperor will not interfere in how wars are fought outside, but he must decide how to deal with those who surrender.