At a command, Liu Fu wrote furiously, pen in hand, a letter vehemently criticizing the emperor of the Linren Kingdom.
Then, they sent someone to deliver the head of the Scaled Man general, along with this document, to the border between the Later Han Dynasty and the Scaled Man Kingdom, and then threw the document in front of the Scaled Man Kingdom's garrison.
When it comes to surrendering, once one person starts surrendering, everyone will soon follow suit.
In the following days, the vast majority of the rebels, including a large number of barbarian soldiers, had no choice but to surrender in order to save their lives.
Liu Fu accepted all the surrendered soldiers without exception.
Since the barbarian soldiers are restless, put them in shackles and then handcuffs, and send them to the northern border to build the Great Wall.
After this battle, more than 80,000 soldiers surrendered.
The last few who put up a stubborn resistance either starved to death or were shot dead by the Han army while trying to break through the encirclement.
It took Liu Fu less than 20 days to quell the rebellion.
He successfully fulfilled his promise, and the Han army quelled the rebellion of 140,000 men without losing a single soldier.
"General Zhao Kang, the war in Dongjun has been quelled, but we need to appease the fleeing civilians. You will lead 5,000 troops to garrison here, welcome the fleeing people back, and then quell the rebellious mountain bandits. After this, you will surely receive credit for suppressing the rebellion."
Liu Fu disliked Zhao Kang's smoothness and old-fashionedness, finding him lacking in backbone for fighting, but he was capable of pacifying the common people.
Liu Fu did a very good job in recognizing and utilizing talent.
Zhao Kang was initially resentful after being reprimanded by Liu Fu, but now that the rebels have been completely quelled, Liu Fu has indeed not lost a single soldier.
This achievement alone made Zhao Kang admire Liu Fu immensely and completely submit to him. His previous resentment disappeared, and now he only felt regret. He felt that his smooth-talking had made him lose face in front of Liu Fu and was afraid that he would offend the Eighth Prince of the Han Dynasty.
Unexpectedly, Liu Fu said today that he also deserved a share of the great credit for suppressing the rebellion, and he was immediately moved to tears of gratitude.
"Your Highness!"
"I will definitely reflect on my mistakes when I return. Today I am truly convinced by Your Highness. From now on, this sinful subject will do his utmost!"
Liu Fu helped Zhao Kang up and spoke earnestly:
"If you do good deeds for the people, they will naturally remember your kindness. They will erect monuments and write biographies for you. If the general has an excellent reputation and is loved by the people, the court, unless it is a fool, will surely promote you to a higher rank. Do a good job in the future."
Zhao Kang knelt heavily and nodded, saying:
"Your Highness, please rest assured, I will definitely wipe out the bandits here and restore a brand new Dongjun to the people!"
Leaving Zhao Kang behind, Liu Fu led Zhou Zhenguo with 15,000 troops straight to the rebel army's main camp—Chizhou City.
Ouyang Fang was able to rebel because he had powerful clans, aristocratic families, and wealthy merchants backing him up, providing him with a continuous supply of food and military pay.
The stronghold of these wealthy merchants and powerful clans was located in Chizhou City.
A few days ago, Liu Fu sent his elder brother Liu Shan with his own military order to cut off all the passages to Chizhou, in order to prevent any wealthy merchants from escaping.
At this time, the army marched into Chizhou, and within two days, the entire city was completely surrounded.
But at this moment, in Chizhou City, the brothers Ouyang Hu and Ouyang Hong showed no panic whatsoever regarding the Han army's siege of Chizhou.
"Patriarch Ouyang, why can't we get in touch with our allied forces? Have you received any news from Ouyang Fang these past few days?"
"The Han army has more than 10,000 men and has besieged our entire city of Chizhou. I don't know what's going on, and I feel very uneasy."
"Yes, there's another piece of news. I don't know if you've heard, Patriarch Ouyang, but Master Wang has sent out more than a dozen scout teams out of the city these past few days, and none of them have been able to make contact with our allied forces. Moreover, all of these scouts have never returned. I'm afraid something terrible has happened to the allied forces at the front..."
Inside the main hall, Ouyang Hu, as the mastermind behind the alliance, lowered his hand to signal them to be quiet when he heard the questions from the other wealthy families and gentry heads. Then he analyzed:
"The Later Han court has no money to quell the rebellion now. Moreover, our allied forces are growing rapidly. They have now reached 140,000 men and will reach 200,000 men in less than half a month. The Later Han court is powerless to resist them. You can rest assured."
At the same time, Ouyang Hu's younger brother, Ouyang Hong, also stood up and spoke:
"As the commander of the 140,000-strong allied army, you may not believe in the abilities of others, but don't you know his talents?"
"Who still remembers the famous general Zhao Hua from back then? He conquered forty-eight cities in a single month. Fang'er is his prized student. What problems could there be with his military prowess? In my opinion, Liu Laowu, that old scoundrel from a peasant background, knows that if we let our allied forces continue to expand, they will eventually reach his palace. So he has saved up some money to send troops to quell the rebellion."
"Now they have sent more than 10,000 troops to surround our Chizhou City. One purpose is to intimidate our allied forces, and another purpose may be to take this opportunity to switch our supply of food and fodder to the allied forces. In this way, they can form another Han army to fight against Fang'er. It seems that this possibility is very high now."
After being analyzed by the brothers Ouyang Hu and Ouyang Fang, the other wealthy and powerful families also felt that this explanation was quite reasonable.
"Don't worry, everyone. The Later Han only has a little over 200,000 soldiers. They need to send troops to guard the border and the capital. In the southeast, there is the Japanese. A month ago, the Linren Kingdom also cooperated with us to raise an army and has been harassing the border. Liu Laowu can only send out less than 100,000 soldiers in total."
"Take a look at our Chizhou City. We recently reinforced the city walls to 42 meters high. We have over 10,000 soldiers in the city, and our stockpiled military rations are enough to last a year. Even if 100,000 troops attack the city, we can hold out for at least half a year. In addition, Ouyang Fang is an outstanding military leader, and he has 140,000 allied troops at his disposal. Our allied forces will surely win this battle, and Liu Laowu will surely be defeated!"
The powerful families of Chizhou City did not believe they would lose.
Meanwhile, as soon as 15,000 Han soldiers surrounded Chizhou City, Zhou Zhenguo accompanied Liu Fu on a tour of the city to observe the terrain.
Zhou Zhenguo's face was full of worry.
"Your Highness, the rebels are easy to defeat, but taking over Chizhou City will be difficult."
oh?
Liu Fu asked Zhou Zhenguo:
"What's so difficult about it?"
Zhou Zhenguo sighed and said helplessly:
"Since ancient times, siege warfare has been the most difficult, and among siege warfare, city siege warfare is the most difficult. Your Highness, look at this city. The city walls are over forty meters high, and the city walls are extremely thick. According to the information I have received, the wealthy merchants in this city have stockpiled enough grain to last for at least a year. Even if we have 100,000 men, we may not be able to take it even after half a year of attacking!"
"Yeah?"
Liu Fu drew out a meaningful sound, then said to Zhou Zhenguo:
"If the city falls before tomorrow, Lao Zhou, how about you treat me to a whole roasted lamb?"
Zhou Zhenguo was taken aback:
"Your Highness is joking. Let alone taking the city before tomorrow, if Your Highness can take the city within three months, I, Old Zhou, am willing to give you my head as a chamber pot."
"Okay, it's a deal."
Liu Fu smiled meaningfully.
It was late at night, when all was quiet and everyone was asleep.
Suddenly, terrifying and enormous phantom figures appeared in front of each of the four city gates of Chizhou City...
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