Chapter 38 Chapter 38: The End of the Pseudo-Emperor

Ma Teng, the prefect of Xiliang who had previously formed a party with Dong Cheng and signed the letter of justice, also knew about Liu Xuande's escape from the capital. Maybe he saw the trend of "the future is more distant", or he was alerted to the invasion of Liangzhou by the Hu tribe, and suddenly returned to Xiliang. It was June of the fourth year of Jian'an. Liu Xuande has led his army to Xuzhou. Xuzhou City is currently guarded by Che Zhou, a temporary prefect appointed by Cao Cao. Seeing Liu Xuande's army approaching, Che Zhou went out of the city to meet him in person, and asked Liu Xuande, "I knew at a glance that you were leading the army directly under the Prime Minister's Mansion. I don't know why you came here suddenly?"

Although Che Zhou had doubts, he still held a grand banquet in the city that night to express his condolences to Liu Xuande and his party for their military service. Before going to the banquet, Liu Xuande and Che Zhou met in another pavilion.Liu Xuande said: "This time the prime minister authorized me to bring 50,000 soldiers to Xuzhou. The main purpose is to intercept and kill Yuan Shu on the way to Hebei. The national jade seal was sent to Hebei. Therefore, we must work together with you for this conquest. Please hurry up and send someone to secretly find out Yuan Shu's current situation and the situation in Huainan."

Che Zhou replied respectfully: "I would like to obey Jun's order. I heard that there are two generals in the army sent by the prime minister. Who are they?" "It's Zhu Ling and Lu Zhao." While the two were talking, Liu Xuande's old ministers Mi Zhu, Sun Qian and others also came to visit, and said in unison: "My lord is in good health, I am very happy and encouraged." They attended the banquet that night together. Before the banquet was over, Liu Xuande went out of the city with Mi Zhu and Sun Qian, and returned to the old house where his long-lost wife lived.

Liu Xuande went to his mother's room first, and knelt down at his mother's knees as soon as he entered the door. He stretched out his hand to his mother and said respectfully: "Mother, your son is back today. Please call me Abei, I am Abei." "Oh, is it Abei?" The old mother stroked Liu Xuande's hand, stroked his shoulders and body up and down.After a while, he held Liu Xuande's face in his hands again and looked at it carefully. "Mom, are you all right?" After hearing this, my mother couldn't help but burst into tears.Although she has been blinded and deaf recently and can no longer walk alone, her body is still strong. She usually arranges those soft silks, animal skins and feathers, and prays devoutly for her son to be safe every day.

Liu Xuande leaned close to his mother's ear and said, "Mother, I want to tell you a great news. This time I went to Beijing to pay homage to the emperor. Thanks to the emperor's inquiry, I played the family lineage for the first time. Look up the genealogy. Finally, he said happily: "That's right, Liu Xuande's ancestors are the descendants of our Han branch, and Liu Xuande is my emperor's uncle." Hearing the emperor's jade voice, I finally felt the mighty emperor's grace. We The family has been buried for a long time, and now it is finally on the genealogy of the Han family again. We can also publicly worship the ancestors in the ground to show our hearts. These are all thanks to the strength of my mother. Through the cultivation of my seedling, it finally blossomed Mother, please take care of yourself and live a long life, and see with your own eyes the day when the flowers in Liu’s family garden are in full bloom.”

"Really? . . . oh . . . is it?" The old mother kept nodding her head and shedding tears to show her joy. After a while, the whole family reunited warmly like a spring breeze, and the house was full of laughter.Liu Xuande also met his wife and children, and unknowingly blended into this deep family affection. Yuan Shu of Huainan became even more extravagant after he proclaimed himself emperor.All the palaces where he lived imitated the style of the imperial palace, which cost a huge amount of money.Therefore, he must impose heavy taxes on the people and impose tyranny on top of tyranny.Otherwise, it would be difficult for him to last even a day.Yuan Shu is currently in such a desperate situation.

Of course, such tyranny will inevitably lead to serious consequences of people's dissatisfaction and internal disputes. Lei Bo, Chen Jian and other generals also saw this situation and were deeply worried about their future. They all hid in Songshan to avoid disaster.Coupled with frequent floods in recent years, the government has reached the point of complete paralysis. Under such circumstances, Yuan Shu thought of the only strategy to bring the dead back to life.That is to present the imperial title and the Jade Seal of the Kingdom that he once owned to his elder brother Yuan Shao in Hebei, in order to protect himself in the end.

Yuan Shao originally had a wolfish ambition to covet the world, and besides, he had eliminated Gongsun Zan in Beiping earlier, expanding a large area of ​​territory all at once.He has always been well-equipped with soldiers and food, and his wealth is abundant. It just so happened that the great victory in the Battle of Beiping brought him great power. Therefore, he resolutely replied to Yuan Shu's call for help in Huainan: "Why don't you give up Huainan and move to Hebei, and you and I will plan great things together." After listening to his elder brother's answer, Yuan Shu decided to gather all the troops to move from Huainan to Hebei according to his mediocre opinion—except for those local people who were suffering from floods and were too hungry to walk.

In order to load the imperial items, hundreds of vehicles were used just for dispatching at the palace gate.In addition to the vehicles carrying the beauties of the harem and the donkey team for the old and young of the Yuan Shu family, it winds for several miles.Of course, there are also a large number of troops on horseback and on foot, and a large number of chariots and horses carrying the families and wealth of the soldiers.Yuan Shu organized an unprecedented and large-scale migration.In this dragon-like long column, tens of thousands of people persevered like ants across the fields, around the mountains, and across the rivers.In the morning, set off quickly in the morning fog, and in the evening, stop temporarily at sunset.

north!north!The huge flow of people kept going northward. Yuan Shu's brigade finally arrived near Xuzhou. Liu Xuande's army has long been ready. With a total of 50,000 troops, Zhu Ling and Lu Zhao guarded the two wings, Liu Xuande commanded in the center, and surrounded Yuan Shu's army with a crane wing formation. "You weaver of straw mats!" Yuan Shu's vanguard, Ji Ling, came out to challenge with a loud cry. Seeing him, Zhang Fei shouted, "Come on, I've gotten impatient for a long time!" After finishing speaking, I applaud the horse and face the battle.When the weapons met, the silver light was shining, and after only ten rounds of fighting, Zhang Fei picked Ji Ling off his horse with a single shot.

"There are still people who don't know how to die, sign up in front of me, Zhang Fei!" Zhang Feiyao shouted majestically, and threw Ji Ling's body to the enemy line. Although some people under Yuan Shu's command came out to fight one after another, the momentum of the battle dropped sharply.What's more, there was chaos in his rear, and a group of people suddenly appeared, attacked Yuan Shu's central army, and looted a large amount of military food and treasure, women and children, and the carriages and horses they carried. While the two sides were still fighting, these thieves dared to loot wantonly in broad daylight, and the thieves army was the generation of Chen Jian and Lei Bo, Yuan Shu's former ministers who hid in Songshan after despairing of Yuan Shu. "You disloyal and unrighteous rebels!" Yuan Shu was furious.In order to rescue the crying women and children, he ran wildly with a gun in hand.But when he looked back, he saw that the vanguard of his army had collapsed at some point, and the second line of defense had also been breached.Under the bleak moonlight, there are countless dead bodies of our own soldiers everywhere. "Oh, I can't protect myself!" Yuan Shu finally realized that he was also in a dangerous situation, so he fled day and night with the remnants of his troops.On the way, due to the threat of bandits and bandits, the strong soldiers left the team and fled.When they finally fled to a place called Jiangting, Yuan Shu counted the number of his army, and found that there were less than a thousand people, and half of them were obese clansmen, useless old officials, women and children. It was a very hot day in the sixth month of the lunar calendar, and Yuan Shu's remnants were in dire straits. The sun is scorching hot, and the heat is unbearable. "I can't even walk a step." Some old people lamented. "I want to drink water, give me water!" some wounded and sick cried out in despair. The number of defeated troops will be reduced by ten when they travel ten li, and by fifty when they travel fifty li. Yuan Shu ordered desperately: "We must abandon those who cannot walk and the sick and wounded to move forward lightly. If we slow down in a hurry, we will all fall into the hands of Liu Xuande's pursuers." Yuan Shu left the old and young clansmen and wounded and sick subordinates without mercy, and continued to flee in a hurry. After fleeing for a few days, all the rations he carried were exhausted, and he had to eat the unpalatable wheat bran.Yuan Shu resisted eating for three days, and the wheat bran was quickly eaten up. The number of people starving to death continued to increase.In the end, even the clothes he was wearing were robbed by the robbers.Yuan Shu staggered and fled for more than ten days in a row. One day, he suddenly found that only his nephew Yuan Yin was left by his side. "I see a farmhouse over there. Let's keep going there." At this time, Yuan Shu was on the verge of death, and he didn't even have the strength to walk.His nephew Yuan Yin put Yuan Shu's hand on his shoulder and walked desperately under the scorching sun. The two of them crawled into the kitchen of the farmhouse like hungry ghosts. Yuan Shu shouted loudly, "Farmer, farmer, give me some water. Is there any honey water?" A man who looked like a commoner sneered and replied: "What, do you want water? There is only blood here, so there is no honey water. You should drink horse urine." Hearing such a cold answer, Yuan Shao raised his hands and stood up unsteadily. He cried mournfully: "Ah, am I really alone? Have I fallen to such a miserable state that no one gives me water?" He howled loudly, and suddenly, "Wow", spit out about two buckets of blood, and the whole person fell to the ground like a piece of rotten wood and died. "Ah, uncle!" Yuan Yin caressed Yuan Shu and called loudly, but this time Yuan Shu never answered. Yuan Yin cried and buried Yuan Shu's body, and fled towards Lujiang alone.On the way, he was captured by a local official named Xu Wei in Guangling.When searching Yuan Yin's whole body, Xu Wei accidentally found the Jade Seal of Chuanguo that he secretly kept with him. "How do you carry something like this?" After Xu Qiu's torture and torture, Yuan Yin had to confess in detail about Yuan Shu's final fate. Xu Yu was taken aback when he heard this, and immediately wrote a report to Cao Cao, and sent it to Cao Cao together with the Chuanguo Yuxi. Cao Cao asked for rewards for his achievements, and made Xu Qi the prefect of Guangling. On the other hand, after Liu Xuande achieved the expected goal, he ordered the two generals Zhu Ling and Lu Zhao to return to Xudu. As for the borrowed 50,000 elite soldiers, they stayed in Xuzhou in the name of "to defend the territory of Xuzhou".After Zhu Ling and Lu Zhaoer returned to Xudu, they reported the reason to Cao Cao.Cao Cao was furious after hearing this: "Without my permission, why did you leave my soldiers in Xuzhou?" Cao Cao was about to behead the two generals. Xun Yu remonstrated: "The Prime Minister has previously agreed that Liu Xuande is the marshal of this army, so of course the command of the army belongs to him. The two of them are Liu Xuande's subordinates, so they dare not disobey his orders. Now we can only Give advice to Che Zhou to attack Liu Xuande." "you are right!" Cao Cao agreed with Xun Yu's proposition, and immediately began to prepare for the elimination of Liu Xuande. At the same time, he secretly sent someone to Che Zhou to send a secret letter with the plan to destroy Liu Xuande.