Chapter 283 Zuo Rong surrenders
Of course, after eight years of running-in with its host, the Strategist System 068 has become a mature system.
Although it was speechless that the host only thought of it when asking for rewards, it did not ask questions like "Do you still remember my existence?" or "Why were all the lives done by the sisters Qiao Lan and Qiao Ting, and Qiao Yan also wanted to apply for achievement rewards?". At most, it replied after being choked for a long time: "You are not Liu Bei's counselor. 】
Since he was not Liu Bei's adviser, why should he receive the reward for helping Liu Bei to become the governor of Xuzhou?
But it turned out that it still underestimated its host's ability to cause trouble.
She replied seriously, "If you say that, it shows that your system is not flexible enough. Can't you first provide a way for someone to get promoted as a non-staff member after waiting for a while, and then wait and see how he performs in this position?"
[…Heretical theory!] You are talking about heresy! 】The system jumped.
"Of course, we have been clear with each other and have already discussed whether or not to really become a counselor. This is at best a reason for you to submit feedback to your superiors when there are errors in the automatic judgment. Is that right?" Qiao Yan had no intention of withdrawing his idea and added another sentence.
The system murmured a few words before saying: [Okay, I request a re-judgment. 】
But as it spoke, it was thinking in its heart, if it really allowed her to get the reward in this marginal way this time, would there be other ways to make her do such a thing in the future?
Although historical events like Yuan Shu's enthronement have only a very small chance of happening, if, because of Qiao Yan, Yuan Shao is promoted to general as in history in order to narrow the gap between the two sides, she won't ask the system for a reward, right?
In order to prevent this situation from happening again and making it speechless, it simply submitted this possibility as well.
It thought it was over, but then it heard Qiao Yan say, "Come to think of it, it's been a while since we've done any business with other systems."
The marksmanship she acquired from the martial arts system was rarely used as Qiao Yan gradually rose in power. At most, it could be used to prevent someone from making assassination attempts on her.
The farming methods obtained from the farming system and the animal training manuals obtained from the animal taming system have been invested in the agricultural and animal husbandry in the three states.
The jade seal given away in the transaction with the former would take another seven years to return to her hands, and the military drills required in the transaction with the latter would still take two times as long as she did, but it was not a big deal.
Given her current position and the talent pool she possesses, she should have enough capital to make the next deal.
With such a useful trading platform cheat sheet, it would be a shame not to bring its role to its full potential.
The system asked: [What system are you looking for? 】
Qiao Yan asked tentatively: "Navigation system?"
The system replied without even thinking: [There is no such thing that I can contact. 】
Although a navigation system may exist in theory, its significance is very limited in most eras because it requires many prerequisites.
After repeatedly binding to the host without the opportunity to put it into practice, the system was reworked.
Qiao Yan muttered to himself and then asked, "What about the tour guide system or navigation system?"
The system was silent for a moment before asking: [Do you think these two systems sound reasonable? It's impossible for them to train their hosts to become a golden tour guide...】
"Occupational discrimination is unacceptable." Qiao Yan replied.
The existence of the system was denied twice in a row, but it didn't seem to affect her enthusiasm for thinking. Suddenly, the system saw her clapping her hands together and said with a smile: "I know, please ask the palace fighting system for me."
【ah? 】The system subconsciously made a sound of surprise.
It's not its fault for such a big reaction. Qiao Yan's previous performances made the system feel that her brain might be half occupied by power struggles and half by infrastructure. Now it suddenly jumped to the palace fighting, which really made it unable to react.
But Qiao Yan went on to explain her reasons: "Do you still remember that not long after you were bound to me, I took out an item from the novice package called [Designated Person Locator], which I used to find Liang Zhongning's location."
Of course the system remembers.
It was originally thought that Qiao Yan would use this thing to find the whereabouts of Cao Cao, Liu Bei and others, but who knew that she used it to find a Yellow Turban leader.
Although it was proved that her choice at that time was not wrong and the reward she got was much higher than looking for a famous person, but thinking of her radical behavior at that time, the system felt that its operating core was severely tested.
"I once asked you in a casual chat why this thing has never appeared in the system's own functions. You said that this is a basic item invested in the main system by other systems and randomly entered into the novice gift package. I didn't ask any more questions. Is there a possibility that this is something in the palace fighting system? If you can't successfully locate the position of the capture character, you can't perfectly realize any perfect encounter, right?"
[Wait, what do you want to do?] 】
Qiao Yan replied: "Locate Gongsun Du's position across the sea. I want a voyage that will never go astray."
If Gongsun Du knew that he was treated like this, he would probably cry.
I won’t cry because I’m moved.
How Qiao Yan is going to hand this positioning device to her fleet is obviously not a problem that the system should be concerned about.
It just asked a very practical question: [If the palace fighting system really exists, what is your bargaining chip? 】
"A professional clothing design team, and enough money to bribe her superiors and subordinates. Or, if she happens to want to turn the palace fighting system into a rebellion, I can also provide some technical support..."
"system?"
The moment the door was disconnected, Qiao Yan immediately realized that the system, which had already developed a psychological shadow, chose to run away and negotiate a deal.
Before running away, the system was filled with thoughts like, why is it that she is studying archaeology... and yet she is so proficient in this kind of plot?
But what can I say? No matter how speechless the system is about Qiao Yan's unconventional approach, it cannot change the fact that it is already a success.
Those who are in Xuzhou at this time are all confused.
Chen Deng in the north originally thought that welcoming Liu Bei back to Xuzhou would be the turning point for Xuzhou after Tao Qian's death.
Because Liu Bei sent Jian Yong to Yecheng to inform Yuan Shao and seek a title of governor, at the same time he made an orderly arrangement with the troops in Pei State to prevent the place from falling into Yuan Shu's hands again after he withdrew from Pei State and causing the other party to vent his anger, Chen Deng became more and more convinced that Liu Bei's character would undoubtedly be able to inherit Tao Qian's foundation in Xuzhou and that he was the most suitable candidate for the governor of Xuzhou.
However, when he returned to Xuzhou with Liu Bei's team, he heard a piece of news that was like a bolt from the blue to him -
Zhang Yi, the former governor of Guangling, sought the position of governor of Xuzhou from the court in Chang'an, entered Gaoyou County from Sheyang, and directly seized Zuo Rong's granary. Then, with the support of reinforcements from Jiujiang, he stopped Zuo Rong's soldiers from fighting back.
This means that this person who was once expelled from the position of prefect has regained his foothold in Guangling.
If Liu Bei had not existed, the scholars of Xuzhou might have really chosen him to be the successor governor of the province.
But after reaching an agreement with Liu Bei, Zhang Yi's existence became extremely useless.
And because of their different positions, Zhang Yi and they are bound to be enemies!
What the hell is going on!
No one expected that Zhang Yi, a prefect with mediocre qualifications, would quietly reach a reconciliation with Qiao Yan and obtain an imperial decree from the Chang'an court, with an efficiency no worse than theirs.
Because he had the support of Zhou Yu, he also had a team at his disposal.
He also boldly announced that he would personally eliminate the shameless scum Zuo Rong.
"This doesn't seem like something Zhang Zitai could do." Chen Deng said calmly, "We still underestimated Zhou Gongjin."
Zhou Yu was able to help Sun Ce expel Yuan Shu from Yangzhou, and also assisted Sun Ce in gaining a foothold despite the dislike of the Yangzhou gentry. He was definitely not an ordinary person.
This series of actions was more like Zhou Yu's plan than Zhang Yi's idea.
Liu Bei did not interrupt Chen Deng, nor did he say at this time that since Zhang Yi was already here, he could retire after accomplishing his mission.
From the moment he accepted the commission from the court in Yecheng, he had to regard himself as the governor of Xuzhou and could not show any hesitation because of these unexpected events.
Chen Deng saw Liu Bei's performance, and his mood, which had been upset by the unexpected news, improved a little.
At least he hasn't welcomed a governor who is a hindrance to Xuzhou.
Seeing that Chen Deng's expression had calmed down a little, Liu Bei asked, "In Yuanlong's opinion, what should we do now?"
Chen Deng replied: "Please lend me General Guan for a while. Now that Xuzhou has a new master, I naturally need to use him to establish my authority!"
Zhang Yi was still in Guangling, separated from them by the north and south. Even though he knew that the other party's presence in Xuzhou was the biggest obstacle for Liu Bei, he had no chance to get rid of him immediately.
Now, those who can fight them directly are——
Only Zuo Rong!
Zuo Rong was about to vomit blood.
More than 20 days ago, he gained crazy fans due to his performance at the Buddha Bathing Festival in Guangling, as the people there really believed that he was the spokesperson for the Buddha.
After he decisively took the opportunity to eliminate Tao Qian, he used the opportunity to shift the blame to others and recruited a group of people who were willing to work for him to attack the Xuzhou provincial capital.
It seemed as if God was helping him. When he deployed his troops in Huaiyin and led them across the Huai River, he met his opponent Wang Lang, who was good at governing prefectures and counties but not good at military affairs.
While Zang Ba Sun Guan in the north remained motionless, as if he was going to watch Wang Lang and the Xuzhou gentry fight to a lose-lose situation, Zuo Rong decisively ordered his men to cross the river back and forth, and broke through Wang Lang's defense line north of Huaiyin three times.
If Chen Gui had not returned to Xia Pi and persuaded the garrison soldiers of Xiaxiang, Xia Pi and Huaipu counties to fight back, he would have crossed the Huai River with his troops long ago.
However, even though they were temporarily beaten back, the morale on his side was not low at all.
The previous victory in small-scale battles had allowed Zuo Rong to clearly see the drawbacks of the separation of civil and military affairs in Xuzhou.
Apart from the expenses for building the giant Buddha and the Buddhist temple, the remaining grain reserves in the three counties in his hands were enough to provide food and drink for his followers.
In this way, his victory is just a matter of time.
What made Zuo Rong feel even more fortunate was that, precisely because of this tendency to win, Zu Lang had already firmly believed that he could in turn help the other party defeat Sun Ce, and showed full motivation in cooperating with him in the battle.
This is the exceptionally useful knife in his hand!
But Zuo Rong's good luck ended there.
When Chen Deng and Liu Bei entered the territory of Xuzhou, because of the presence of the person in charge and Liu Bei's persuasion, Tao Shang finally stood up and solemnly announced to all parties that no matter who killed Tao Qian, that person would not be Chen Gui or Chen Deng.
Liu Bei, who was invited back by Chen Deng, worked diligently on farming and made wise judgments in cases within the territory of Pei State. Now, under the appointment of the court, he took over the position of Governor of Xuzhou left by Tao Qian. He was more suitable to be the lord of Xuzhou than Zuo Rong, who only had one-sided testimony.
The position of governor is not inherited by the son after the death of the father. This position is not for the capable person to prove his ability by attacking others, but for the person who can bring stability and development to the people of Xuzhou.
This is the most direct and targeted persuasion to the latter group of people that Zuo Rong has won over!
Although he told these people that Tao Shang only stood up at this time, perhaps because he was coerced by someone and was not really telling the truth, these people couldn't help but be skeptical about him.
Zuo Rong was sure that it was almost impossible for him to get these people to fight for him and die for him.
In the short term, the only people he can continue to mobilize are his Buddhist followers.
But in a very short time, another piece of bad news came from behind him -
Gaoyou changes hands!
This news was a more fatal blow to Zuo Rong than Tao Shang's speaking out.
Anyone who has led troops knows that soldiers must be well fed before they will fight to the death for you.
Especially the group under Zuo Rong, the four words "leaders lead by example, followers follow suit" are most fully reflected in them.
As soon as the news of food shortage reached the camp, those who had already formed the habit of extravagant lifestyle following Zuo Rong could no longer sit still.
Later, when he learned that the one who supported Zhang Yi in capturing the city was Zhou Yu of Yangzhou, and that the other party had led his troops to repel Zuo Rong's returning troops, even Zu Lang could no longer sit still.
In just two days...
Zuo Rong listened to all kinds of rumors in the camp with a gloomy face, and cursed Chen Deng, Liu Bei, Tao Shang, Zhang Yi, Zhou Yu and others countless times in his heart.
Why did they react so quickly that all of his followers, regardless of their background, now had a reason to be discouraged from fighting?
No matter whether the governors of the southern and northern states are unhappy now, Zuo Rong, who is forced into the gap, is more uncomfortable than anyone else.
He soon received another message that Zhang Yi declared that he would expose all of Zuo Rong's scams in Xuzhou one by one.
The first is the sight of thousands of lights rising into the sky.
Zuo Rong's eyelids twitched.
This scene was a meaningful turning point for him, but in fact he had no idea how such a scene was created.
Even though he particularly hoped that he was truly blessed by the Buddha, he was still more inclined to believe that this was a man-made incident.
However, he didn't know who was behind this.
This incident gave him the opportunity to kill Tao Qian, and he instinctively hoped that the person behind the scenes was also supporting him.
Now...now it has become a sharp knife stabbing him.
Zhang Yi had the place where the truth was revealed set up on the north bank of Baima Lake between Gaoyou and Huaiyin.
This is a place not too far from Huaiyin.
The display location was so close that even if Zuo Rong used military camp regulations to restrict the actions of these soldiers, they would not buy into it. They might even think that this was a sign that Zuo Rong was guilty.
Even he himself was driven by curiosity, and after arranging the soldiers to guard the camp, he dragged his heavy feet to Baima Lake.
Of course it was impossible for Zhang Yi to appear there in person and give Zuo Rong an opportunity to take advantage of him. After all, Tao Qian had already provided everyone with a negative example.
But under his arrangement, his subordinates appeared there one by one with a paper lantern.
It is not easy to quickly produce a batch of bamboo paper lanterns, but fortunately, this difficulty has brought enough rewards.
When these hundreds of lanterns were placed by the Baima Lake, as the heat accumulated in the lanterns gradually rose up, Zuo Rong's face had turned pale.
Although these lanterns that gradually rose into the sky were somewhat different from the sky lanterns that appeared behind the Buddhist temple that day, they also actually flew into the air.
It's in the air indeed!
Zuo Rong looked up at the lanterns rising into the sky, unable to appreciate such a fantastic and magnificent scene.
The hundreds of lights in the sky and the hundreds of others reflected in the lake were like a miracle in the night, but they were also like a sledgehammer hitting him hard.
For a moment he wondered whether the scene at the Buddha's Bathing Festival that day was also described by Zhang Yi and the others, but he couldn't say it out loud.
After he had already tasted the benefits of being the spokesperson for the Buddha, such words would only be seen as an excuse when his tactics were exposed.
Since he had already tacitly acknowledged it, and even made people believe more fanatically that the Buddha's apparition really existed, then Zhang Yi's actions today were indeed exposing his true face.
Zuo Rong had never felt that his hearing was so good.
He heard people around him saying that this thing that looked the most like a miracle was fake, so the various Buddhist things that were previously promoted by Zuo Rong were also just a scam.
He also heard someone say that it made sense. If he could really get the Buddha's blessing, he would not have fallen into such a dilemma. Anyway, no matter what the final situation was, the position of Mu of Xuzhou would not be his.
Some people are also saying...
These chaotic sounds made the thousands of lights in front of him seem like fire burning at him, so that he could no longer stay there for a moment. He immediately turned around and galloped away, jumped on his horse and left.
It wouldn't matter if Zuo Rong didn't run away. After all, the sunk costs invested in him by those who followed him and believed in Buddhism were already too high. It was so high that they dared not yet believe that what they had encountered before were all scams, and perhaps they still had some faith in him.
But his running completely exposed the fact that he had no confidence in front of everyone.
If it weren't for the fact that Zuo Rong had a superior horse, just these people who were forced to wake up would want to pin him down here and give them an explanation.
But even if he ran back to the Huaiyin military camp, he was unable to take the soldiers there to other places.
Before he returned to the camp, he saw another fire appear in his sight two miles away from the gate.
Different from the flickering lights of the thousands of lights beside the White Horse Lake, this was a fire that started inside the camp and quickly spread across the area under the help of the wind!
In the light of the fire, it was clear that the enemy was attacking the camp!
Zuo Rong had no time to think about it. Was it the Xuzhou aristocratic forces across the Huai River that were attacking the camp, or the Zhang Yi forces that had just dealt him a heavy blow at Baimahu? The only thing he could do now was to escape.
Find a way to escape as soon as possible!
Thinking that the relationship between the sects of Xuzhou and Jingzhou had always been bad, and that there was even more hatred between the sects of Yangzhou and Jingzhou, Zuo Rong immediately chose a direction for himself to flee to -
He is going to Jingzhou.
After all, only a few people saw the scene at White Horse Lake. If Liu Biao was willing to support him, he would still have a chance to make a comeback!
However, before Zuo Rong could run far, he suddenly felt a pain on the side of his neck.
When he reached out his hand to touch his neck, he heard the sound of horse hooves coming closer and closer.
The numbness that he had heard someone describe in detail before appeared in his mouth, and even though he had not yet seen the person in the night, he had already guessed the other person's identity.
This is the arrow shot from Zu Lang's hand!
It was also the arrow that Zu Lang used to kill Tao Qian!
But now this arrow was shot by him at Zuo Rong, and it became the weapon that ended Zuo Rong's life.
Zuo Rong fell off his horse and hit the ground heavily. When Zu Lang and his followers came to him, he could no longer utter a word. In his last consciousness, he only heard the other party say, "Don't worry, I won't use you as a token of my loyalty."
He just doesn't like being taken advantage of.
Therefore, he would not hand over Zuo Rong's head to Zhou Yu in exchange for forgiveness of the Shanyue.
That's not his style.
Zu Lang raised his head and looked towards the sky. There was no moon tonight, it was the beginning of August.
Speaking of which, it is also a time of harvest.
When Qiao Yan opened the window in Chang'an in the early morning, what hit her face was the fragrance of ripe millet and wheat in the wind.
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