Just then, a rustling sound suddenly came from the woods on one side, clearly indicating that someone was stepping on the fallen leaves and approaching their group.
“Enemy…”
Zheng Hun turned his head to look at the dense forest, wanting to warn his men to be on guard, but after opening his mouth wide and only managing to utter one word, he felt dizzy and almost fell to the ground.
Clearly, he was too hungry to even shout, and the other rebel soldiers were like zombies, turning their heads to look into the dense forest.
He neither shouted nor drew his knife in defense; he simply stood there quietly.
In the dense forest, ten soldiers who came near Zheng Hun looked at the miserable state of the rebels and couldn't help but sneer. They then took out arrows with white cloth tied to them and threw them at the rebels.
After throwing them away, a soldier shouted, "General Zhu and General Gongsun have ordered that, except for the bandit leader, all others who lay down their weapons and surrender will be treated leniently by our army, and we will provide them with food!!"
"What.....?"
Upon hearing the soldier's shout, the rebels' eyes lit up. They hurriedly picked up the arrows thrown by the Han soldiers and then untied the strips of cloth attached to them.
Some literate members of the rebel army read the contents of the cloth strip to their companions.
One of the rebel soldiers said, "Could this be a trick by the Han army to lure us out?"
"Damn it, even being killed is better than starving to death. Besides, the Han army is the imperial army, so they shouldn't break their word!"
One of the rebels made a snap decision, threw away his weapon, and walked out of the woods.
"That's right, since we're going to die anyway, we might as well die a quick death!"
Seeing this, the surrounding rebels also threw down their weapons and followed behind.
"Kill...kill them...!"
Watching those people walk out of the forest, Zheng Hun looked weakly at his confidants and ordered them to step forward and execute the deserters.
However, Zheng Hun's personal guards seemed not to hear, standing there blankly, watching their companions walk away, a look of struggle on their faces.
A short while later, one of the guards turned to Zheng Hun and said, "Master... I don't want to starve to death. Please take care!"
After saying this, the guard threw down his weapon and walked out of the forest. The other guards followed suit.
"You...you guys...?"
Zheng Hun pointed his trembling hand at the crowd, then everything went black and he fell backward.
By dawn the next day, the remaining 110,000 rebel troops in Qingzhou had all thrown away their weapons, emerged from the dense forest, and surrendered to Zhu Jun and Gongsun Zan.
Zheng Hun, along with the other scholar leaders, was escorted to Jinan Prefecture by Gongsun Zan's men and handed over to Li Ying for disposal.
Fortunately, when Huang Zhong and his men arrived later, they brought some food, which prevented the surrendered soldiers from causing trouble.
While Li Ying was stationed in Jinan, he not only allocated grain and fodder, but also began to purge and arrest officials, scholars, and powerful figures in Qingzhou who had participated in the rebellion.
Li Xun and a small number of scholars who supported the court jointly issued a proclamation, exposing and condemning the persecution of Qingzhou scholars by the rebels, and blaming Liu Kui for all the deaths of Qingzhou scholars.
Subsequently, Zhu Jun, Gongsun Zan, Huang Zhong, and others selected more than 40,000 people who had been taken hostage by the rebels and pardoned them on the spot. These people were then assigned to assist the royal army in managing the remaining prisoners.
With this, the matter in Qingzhou was completely quelled.
Dongjun, Puyang.
After Huangfu Gui led the Imperial Guard to break through the siege of the Jiyin rebels, he directly led the Northern Army and the Imperial Guard to set up camp twenty miles south of Puyang to contain the Yanzhou rebels.
Chen Man, the rebel leader in Yanzhou, had led his troops to attack Huangfu Gui's camp on several occasions, but suffered heavy losses each time. Huangfu Gui even managed to capture Puyang by using a trick.
Therefore, Chen Man had no choice but to retreat to Puyang and keep sending people to contact the rebels in Jizhou and Qingzhou, but all their efforts were in vain and no news came.
This inevitably made Chen Man and the others feel isolated and helpless. They wanted to go north to Jizhou, but they were worried that Huangfu Gui would cut off their retreat. Helpless, they could only sit and wait here.
Meanwhile, Xun Shuang, together with Xu Rong's Sheshui Battalion and 30,000 recruited young men from Yanzhou, seized the opportunity to recover all the counties and prefectures of Yanzhou.
The wives, children, and elderly people left behind by Chen Man and others also fell into Xun Shuang's hands.
Xun Shuang, a righteous and righteous scholar, like Lu Zhi and Yang Qiu, executed all the officials, scholars, powerful figures, and their relatives in Yanzhou who had defected to the rebels.
For a time, Xun Shuang's reputation for killing rivaled that of Yang Qiu.
Moreover, Huangfu Gui also made a point of spreading the news of Xun Shuang's massacre to Chen Man's army.
Inside Puyang City, Chen Man, along with a group of leaders of the Yanzhou rebels, gathered in the government office with gloomy expressions.
Chen Man looked at everyone and said, "Everyone, Xun Shuang is called a great scholar, but in reality he is a butcher. Now our families have all been killed by him. If we do not take revenge, we will not be worthy of being human!"
"revenge!"
"Kill Xun Shuang!"
The rebel leaders, their eyes red and their teeth clenched, kept shouting.
This group of people has now been wiped out by Xun Shuang and is now all alone; they have clearly lost their minds.
Soon, Chen Man and his men dispatched 70,000 troops out of the city to advance on Huangfu Gui's camp, while the remaining troops stayed in Puyang to defend the city.
News of the rebels leaving the city quickly reached Huangfu Gui's army.
"Waaaaah~!"
As a horn sounded, Huangfu Gui's soldiers quickly began to assemble.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
