Guangning City, ten miles outside the south gate.

Zhang Liaolema, who was dressed in armor, stopped at the foot of the mountain, looking up at the more than 1,000 graves in front of him with deep eyes, his expression was extremely sad, and his eyes flashed with fierce murderous intent.

Beside him was a middle-aged general in black armor, whose figure was thin, his face was thin, and his body lacked the fierce aura of a military general, but added a bit of scholarly temperament. He is Yan Rou, the leader of the Youzhou rebels who was elected by the Wuhuan tribes as Wuhuan Sima.

Behind Zhang Liao stood a group of Xiliang generals: vanguard generals Zhao Yun and Ma Dai, Feiyan light cavalry battalion commanders Zhang Yan and Xu Huang, Dong Yue, Wang Dang and Sun Qing and other generals.

Three days ago, the Xiliang army entered Guangning City, and the scouts immediately inquired about the location of Yan Rou's rebels, and Zhang Liao, the commander of the Chinese army, sent an envoy to invite Yan Rou to come to the camp to discuss the joint dispatch of troops.

It is called discussing the joint dispatch of troops, but it is actually to incorporate Yan Rou's rebel army. Yan Rou had no objection to the annexation of the Xiliang Army, but he did not agree to send troops to recruit and suppress the Dun tribe entrenched in Shanggu County, and still advocated appeasing Huairou and not using swords and soldiers. Zhang Liao, on the other hand, advocated resolutely exterminating it, even if he took a step back, it would be to suppress it first and then pacify it, behead its leaders, collect weapons and horses, and then subdue its subordinates, and then disperse and resettle.

On this issue, the two sides are very divided, and neither can convince the other. When the dispute continued, the military advisor Guo Jia came forward to mediate and invited Yan Rou to the mass grave in the south of the city.

Today is the first seven days of sacrifice for more than 800 people in the city who died tragically under the sword of the Wuhuan cavalry not long ago. Exceptionally cold.

At the foot of Lema Mountain, Zhang Liao, Yan Rou and a group of more than 200 people did not speak, standing quietly at the foot of the mountain and watching the people pay tribute to their innocent relatives. Listening to the sad and helpless cries in my ears, my heart was extremely painful, full of indignation, and anger filled my heart.

Until the end of the memorial on the mountain, Guo Jiace rode to Yan Rou's side and whispered about the tragic experience of the people of Guangning City six days ago, so he remained silent. There was no persuasion, it was up to Yan Rou to make his own decision.

Just as Yan Rou frowned and pondered with anger on his face, Zhang Liao said in a low tone: "The scene in front of you may not be anything in the eyes of General Yan. It's not uncommon, I'm afraid I'm used to it. In these more than 1,000 graves, more than 1,000 innocent people are buried here forever, and perhaps they are lucky, at least there are people to collect their bodies and bury them after death; Compare to them. The innocent people who died in the wilderness were even more miserable. There is no place to bury the dead, and they are reduced to food for jackals and wild dogs. Over the years, General Yan must have seen this kind of scene countless times, and he had long been numb. ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Liao turned his head to look at Yan Rou, raised his hand to signal that he didn't need to explain, and continued: "For those of us generals who lick blood from the knife all year round, we have long been accustomed to seeing life and death parting. Killing or being beheaded is expected. From the moment we choose to embark on this path of killing, we should have the consciousness of dying on the battlefield. Life and death have long been put aside. However, Zhang can honestly tell General Sù Yan that since my lord raised his army, there has never been a massacre of innocent people in my Xiliang territory. ”

"This ?????? The general is wise and martial, and the Xiliang army is brave and good at fighting, and the last general has already heard of it. Yan Rou's cheeks flushed, her ears were hot, and she nodded ashamedly.

Zhang Liao nodded slightly, then turned his gaze to Guo Jia beside Yan Rou and said no more. Indeed, this kind of thing of persuading others to change their minds is not what he is good at, and he is far less agile and articulate than the military advisor Guo Jia. Therefore, Zhang Liao stopped at the point, no longer bothered to speak, and directly handed over the matter of persuading Yan Rou to Guo Jia.

Guo Jia nodded understandingly, took over the conversation, and said with a smile: "It is said that Liu Yu, the state pastor, had the grace of knowing General Yan before his death, and he was determined to avenge the old state pastor, and he has been leading the old state pastor to fight with Gongsun Zan for many years, and they have won and lost each other. To this day, General Yan has taken the initiative to join our lord's command, which is a wise move, and the next lord welcomes General Yan to join our army. After speaking, Guo Jia bowed his hand, and he was very close.

Yan Rou hurriedly waved his hands and returned the salute, and said respectfully: "The military advisor has a good reputation. Thanks to the military division and General Wenyuan, the last general was able to serve the general this time, which is the honor of the last general. The last general thanked the military advisor first. "It has been nearly two days since he came to the Xiliang Army camp, and Yan Rou found that the military advisor Guo Jia has an extraordinary status in the army, and his prestige is faintly above the main general Zhang Liao. Therefore, he did not dare to slack off on Guo Jia at all, was respectful, and was careful everywhere.

Guo Jia shook his head with a smile and said, "General Yan has exalted Guo too much. My lord has always been fair and strict, treating his subordinates and military officers equally, rewarding and punishing them clearly, and governing the army strictly. With the talent of the general, he will be reused, and the time to build a new merit is the day to worship the general and the marquis, Guo is convinced of this. ”

After a pause in his voice, seeing Yan Rou bowing his hand to thank him, Guo Jia returned the salute, and then changed his words and said with a smile: "In the past, Liu Yu tried his best to implement the strategy of leniency, benevolence and gentleness, advocating that the barbarians outside the Saiwai should be appeased, and no swords should be used without permission. It was indeed right to govern in this way, after all, the world had not yet been in turmoil at that time, and many barbarians were in awe of our great man, and it was impossible to appease them. However, at this time and time, the world is in chaos, the Han court is in deficit, and the princes of all walks of life are self-reliant, and they are no longer able to suppress many barbarians. In this chaotic world, it is not the best policy to take a soft and appeased policy.

Let's not talk about these graves in front of us, let's just say that the barbarian tribes have repeatedly plundered the border counties, wantonly plundered, killed people and set fires. In the face of such a situation, it would be too pedantic for us to show favor and indulge in tenderness. At present, these barbarian tribes are like a group of hungry wolves, no matter how much favor he gives them, he is not too much, but his appetite is getting bigger and bigger, and he has to inch in, in fact, he is a group of white-eyed wolves that are not familiar with it. The shape is so bad, and it is not exterminated, but appeased, which is undoubtedly a trouble, and sooner or later it will suffer. I wonder if General Yan thinks so? ”

"This ??????" Yan Rou was speechless, and had the intention to argue a few words, but she felt that her defense was too pale and her thoughts were too simple. Today, with Gongsun Zhan's back to the enemy and his ambition absent, the Wuhuan and Xianbei tribes are indeed becoming more and more unscrupulous and do whatever they want. As Guo Jia said, appeasing them at this time is undoubtedly a disaster for raising tigers, and it is useless at all.

But Yan Rou has his own troubles, after Liu Yu was killed, he was chased and killed by Gongsun Zhan, but was rescued by Wu Yan, the leader of the Wuhuan tribe, and then the leaders of the Wuhuan tribes elected him as the Wuhuan Sima, gathered Liu Yu's old department, and thus formed the current army of more than 30,000 people. At present, he still has a lot of Wuhuan soldiers under his account, and the war horses in the army are also funded by the Wuhuan tribe, and he is very familiar with all Wuhuan departments. At this time, it really made him very difficult to turn the spearhead and fight the Wuhuan people. The Han people have always put faith and righteousness first, and he Yan Rou is by no means a person who will take revenge, otherwise he would not insist on avenging Liu Yu.

However, Guo Jia's words are reasonable, whether it is Wuhuan or Xianbei, these barbarian tribes have great ambitions and have wolf habits in their bones. They are born to recognize only the strong, and have no mercy for the weak, and do not know what satisfaction is, let alone what kindness is. It is their nature to bully the weak, killing and plundering is their way of survival, and the reason why these tribes support him to form an army is nothing more than to use his hand to defeat Gongsun Zhan, who has always been tough on the outside world.

Yan Rou understands these big truths, but he just can't step through the threshold of knowing the grace of retribution. said a thousand ways and ten thousand, the Wuhuan people saved him after all and gave him a lot of help, otherwise he would not have survived today.

Seeing Yan Rou's embarrassed face, and her heart seemed to be struggling violently and hesitating, Guo Jia smiled and said: "It seems that General Yan does have unspeakable secrets, and he is deeply entangled with the Wuhuan tribes, and he doesn't want to be an enemy with him. In this case, Guo can promise you that you don't have to participate in the war against Wuhuan this time, and you don't have to participate in the war with more than 30,000 soldiers and horses. However, you must truthfully report what you know about the locations and troop strength of the Wuhuan tribes, and you must not hide it in the slightest. If this is the case, after the main force of Wuhuan is exterminated, you will still have a share of the credit, and the lord will definitely reward you for his merits and deeds, and he will never treat you badly. I don't know what General Yan thinks? ”

Yan Rou hesitated for a while, and finally nodded lightly, and said in a low voice, "Okay!" Although Yan had received some favors from the leaders of the Wuhuan tribe, in the final analysis, they still used each other and had their own plans. Now these barbarians are becoming more and more rampant, burning, killing and looting are all evil, if they don't use thunderbolt means, I am afraid that the entire Youzhou will fall into the hands of barbarians. ”

After making up her mind, Yan Rou said frankly: "There are thousands of Wuhuan soldiers under the last general's account, if they go out to fight against the Wuhuan tribe, they must be treated cautiously, so as not to turn against them." How to arrange it depends on the military division, and the final general is at the disposal of the general! ”

After Guo Jia heard this, he smiled heartily: "General Yan is well aware of righteousness and admires it to the fullest. Now that the discussion is complete, the general will follow me to see the lord. Hehehe??????"

Yan Rou was shocked when she heard this, and said in a daze: "Lord? General? Is the general also in the army? ”

"Of course." Guo Jia nodded in response, turned his head to look at the South Gate Tower behind him, pointed to the tall figure that was faintly visible on the city tower, and said with a smile: "That's the lord." In fact, General Yan had seen the lord on the first day he entered the camp, and he was sitting in the hall drinking with the generals at that time, but the general had never seen the lord, so he could not find out the identity of the lord. Now that the general has been attached to our army and is under the command of the lord, it is natural that he will go to meet the lord. Does the general think so? ”

"Good!" Yan Rou happily responded, couldn't wait to turn around, and then rode back to the city with generals such as Zhang Liao, Guo Jia, and Zhao Yun.

―――――――― To be Continued ――――――――――― (To be Continued......