Chapter 332: 326. Help from South China
"Go, let's go!"

A group of Nanzhong soldiers, with their upper bodies naked and painted with strange patterns, escorted a group of Han soldiers to an open space. Opposite them was a group of Han soldiers who were also on high alert, also escorting some Nanzhong captives.

After many rounds of bargaining, the exchange ratio was finally set at 1:2, that is, one Han prisoner for two Nanman prisoners. The Han army had no objection to this. After the previous battles, the Han army already had 3,000 to 4,000 Nanman prisoners. At this time, exchanging half of them for Han prisoners was a profit for Guan Xing.

Even in Guan Xing's opinion, it would be worth exchanging all these barbarians for Han prisoners, but he couldn't do that. Negotiations always require bargaining, and having some prisoners in his hands can also make the southern barbarians hesitate.

"Han people on the other side! Here are 200 prisoners. Do you have enough people?"

A loud-voiced Nanman shouted a few words at the Han army on the opposite side, and a junior officer on the Han army also responded. The Nanman roughly checked and found that the number of Nanman captives on the Han army side was indeed much more than that on their side, so they didn't care.

The two sides began to exchange prisoners according to the method previously agreed upon. Each time the Han army released two people, the Nanman side would release one Han army prisoner. The prisoner exchange did not last long, and was over in just half an hour.

Both sides tacitly returned to their respective camps, and similar prisoner exchanges were to be carried out four more times. After all, it was impossible to bring out too many prisoners at once, which was a challenge both for the escort personnel and the management difficulty, so both sides could only carry out small-scale prisoner exchanges of about 200 to 400 people each time.

It took both sides almost a day to exchange the prisoners, and they also returned some of the bodies to each other. It was quite troublesome for both sides to deal with each other's bodies, so it was better to let them worry about it themselves.

At this point, the peace time between the two sides finally came to an end. Meng Huo's Nanzhong Army pressed back again, ready to pursue the victory. Originally, the morale of Meng Huo's side was not too low. At the beginning, the morale of the Nanzhong Army was high when they chased Ma Zhong and Zhang Yi.

Although the arrival of Guan Xing and his men caused the Nanzhong Army to suffer two small defeats and its morale dropped a bit, Meng Huo was lucky enough to act decisively and ordered King Mulu to take action. They defeated the Han army when the morale of the Nanzhong Army just began to decline and successfully saved the situation.

Now the soldiers of the Southern Central Army were all howling, wishing they could rush over and fight the Han Army to the death. Although Meng Huo knew that they probably couldn't defeat the Han Army if they rushed over directly, it didn't stop him from deceiving these big-headed soldiers and mobilizing their emotions.

"Brother, I'm back!"

Good things come in pairs. Because Meng Huo had been fighting with Yang Feng and the Han army for more than a month, he asked his younger brother Meng You to go to the more remote caves to dispatch troops. Coincidentally, Meng You also came back these two days.

Meng You came back with a tall, burly middle-aged man wearing animal skins. Or rather, the people in Nanzhong all looked pretty much the same, because they hunted and fished all year round, and most of them were tall men like this.

"King Duosi, long time no see. Thank you for helping me."

Meng Huo naturally knew this man. This was the Marshal of Tulong Cave, King Duosi, who had a close relationship with Meng Huo's younger brother Meng You. The two were close friends. This time when Meng You went to mobilize troops, he invited King Duosi to come over to share his brother's worries.

King Duosi is known as the wisest man in Nanzhong. Because of his relationship with Meng You, he is also a staunch supporter of Meng Huo. He often gives Meng Huo advice when dealing with Nanzhong's internal affairs, which is a great help to Meng Huo.

"I heard that the Han army rashly sent troops to interfere in the affairs of Nanzhong. As a native of Nanzhong, Duosi should share the worries of the king."

King Duosi spoke quite modestly, with some of the Han Chinese demeanor.

King Duosi and Meng You brought more than 10,000 soldiers, which just filled the gap left by Meng Huo's many battles. Now that Meng Huo's soldiers have returned to 50,000, Meng Huo has gained a lot of confidence. "King Duosi is here just in time. Please give me some advice. How can we break through the Han stronghold?"

Meng Huo hosted a banquet for King Duosi and King Mulu, and Dong Tuna and Ahuinan were also invited because of their contributions. During the banquet, Meng Huo took advantage of the presence of the senior officials of Nanzhong to ask for their opinions.

"My lord, I wonder to what extent do you intend to fight the Han people?"

Duosi took a sip of fruit wine and pondered for a moment.

"Brother Duosi, what are you talking about? It was clearly the Han people who bullied us first. We can fight back in any way we want. Why are you saying that?"

Meng You didn't know whether he was drunk or didn't understand, so he asked the question immediately, but Meng Huo waved his hand and stopped him from saying anything else.

"In your opinion, how can we get along with the Han people?"

Meng Huo looked at King Duosi, wanting to hear what the wisest man in the South had to say.

"Your Majesty, the most peaceful way at the moment is to let Yang Feng go. Yang Feng and I are no longer on the same page. Even if we force him to stay in Nanzhong, he will definitely be a disaster. It is better to let him go. This will not only fulfill Your Majesty's reputation, but also eliminate the hidden dangers in Nanzhong."

King Duosi saw that Meng Huo had pointed him out, so he stood up and spoke loudly without being pretentious. He had already considered Meng Huo's face and said it in a tough way. He just let Yang Feng go, and had not mentioned surrendering to the Han army.

"No, no, Yang Feng can leave if he wants, but how can we let him take away the 100,000 people of Yinzhi Cave?"

Meng Huo shook his head like a rattle. He didn't care about Yang Feng's life or death from the beginning to the end. He only cared about the land and population of Yinzhi Cave.

"If the king does not want to completely fall out with the Han army, we should also control the scale of the battle. If we anger the Han army, no matter what happens, the army will come to us. No matter what promises others make to us, it will probably be just a dream."

King Duosi and Meng You were good friends, and Meng You was Meng Huo's confidant, so he naturally told King Duosi about Wei's promise to Meng Huo. King Duosi's words also hinted to Meng Huo not to trust Wei. Maybe Wei could really benefit, but we in Nanzhong would definitely be gone.

"The worst option is for us to ignore everything and fight to the death with the Han army. No matter what the future holds, we must fight to the death with the Han army. I don't know what the result will be."

Duo Si finally said the worst possible outcome and shrugged helplessly. If they really fought to the death with the Han army, the future direction would not be clear to him, a small marshal of Nanzhong.

"Hmm...Duo Si's words make sense. We can't be afraid of the Han army, but there's no need to irritate them. Let's put aside these worries and drink to our heart's content!"

Meng Huo touched his chin and did not comment on Duosi's proposal. Instead, he smiled and tried to make the celebration banquet more lively.

(End of this chapter)