Chapter 254: Yuanbi Village Pretends to Accept Amnesty

In the twelfth month of the seventh year of Zhenghe, Cao Jie and his party finally arrived in Shandong after rushing.

Of course, I have to go to Yizhou on the way.

After Yuanbi Village seized power in a coup and replaced Chen Liqing as its leader, it received strong support from Liangshan, including barbarian special forces, new weapons, and heroes from Qingzhou. The decline after being conquered by Zong Ze was instantly reversed.

When his momentum was as high as a rainbow and his strength surpassed that of the old village chief Chen Xizhen, he once again occupied the mountains of Yizhou.

And use the amnesty to delay time and wait for the right time!

Chen Xizhen also made use of his remaining energy and arranged for him to continue working on the work of recruiting people.

This was exactly what he wanted, and he worked hard to cultivate his relationship with Zhang Shuye.

As for going alone to seek refuge, Chen Xizhen was not stupid.

Not to mention that his daughter Chen Liqing is the leader of the rebels, his wanted warrant is still hanging on the city wall, and he has also offended the then Grand Tutor Cai Jing, although that was a frame-up by Cao Jie.

But even if he had ten mouths, he still wouldn't be able to explain it clearly!
If you are caught and sent to Tokyo, you will be cut into pieces in no time.

On this day, the imperial court finally reached a conclusion on recruiting Yuanbi Village.

With Chen Taiwei as the chief officer, Zhang Ganban from the office of Grand Tutor Cai and Li Yuhou from the office of Marshal Gao Dian as deputies, they went to Shandong to recruit amnesty.

Taiwei Chen was still somewhat capable. He tied up the horses, counted the number of people, and had ten generals carry ten bottles of imperial wine, put them in a dragon and phoenix pole, and put a yellow flag in front. Taiwei Chen got on the horse, and five or six of his personal followers, Zhang Ganban and Li Yuhou also rode on horses, with the imperial edict on their backs, leading the group out of Xinsong Gate.

When he arrived in Yizhou, the prefect Zhang Shuye met him, invited him to his mansion, set a banquet for him, and asked him about the issue of surrender.

Commandant Chen has given us all the details.

Zhang Shuye had put a lot of effort into recruiting Yuanbi Village, and he didn't want to waste it, so he said:
"In my humble opinion, recruiting them is the best. But there is one thing: the general must be friendly and use sweet words to comfort them. As long as the great cause is accomplished, the general will leave a good name for eternity. There are a few men in the Yuanbi Village who are as hot-tempered as fire. If they offend them with a word, it will ruin the great cause."

Zhang Ganban and Li Yuhou patted their chests and swore, "As long as we follow the Grand Commandant, there will be no delay. Governor, you just need to teach us to be careful and kind. This will undermine the rules of the court."

Zhang Shuye glanced at them and said nothing more. Only after the banquet did he ask, "Who are those two people?"

Taiwei Chen smiled bitterly and said, "One is an official in the residence of Taishi Cai, and the other is a guard in the residence of Taiwei Gao."

Zhang Shuye waved his sleeves and said, "I have no choice but to let these two people go."

Taiwei Chen shook his head: "They are the confidants of the Cai and Gao families. If we don't take them with us, they will definitely become suspicious. This round of amnesty will not be successful."

Zhang Shuye frowned and sighed, "If these two go, I'm afraid it will be in vain!"

Poems as proof:

A royal edict was sent to Qingyun to specifically recruit the Yuanbi Army.

We can admire Zhang Shuye’s wisdom, who foresaw that it would be difficult to achieve great success.

The next day, Yizhou sent someone to Yuanbi Village to inform them.

However, Cao Jie and his entourage were divided into two groups. Fang Baihua, Yang Zaixing, Pang Qiuxia, Mao Ziyuan and others were sent to Liangshan, while Cao Jie took a detour and arrived at Yuanbi Village.

For a while, it was very busy and lively.

On the same day, a man from Yizhou came to the Juyi Hall of Yuanbi Village with the news, saying, "The court has sent a general, Chen Zongshan, with ten bottles of imperial wine and an imperial edict to pardon and recruit people. He has arrived in Yizhou City. We are ready to welcome him."

Chen Xizhen was overjoyed, so he took out some wine and food, as well as two colorful pieces of paper, and spent a hundred taels of silver to send the messenger back first.

After Chen Xizhen lost power, he had been waiting for this day, so he said to everyone: "We have been recruited and become subjects of the country. We have endured many hardships and have finally achieved our goal today."

Cao Jie sneered.

Chen Liqing had already made a plan, so she shook her head and said, "In my opinion, this time we will definitely not be able to surrender. Even if we surrender, we will be treated like grass. When Zhang Shuye leads his army here, we will kill him with some ruthless hands, and he will be scared even in his dreams. Only then will we accept the surrender and have some dignity."

Chen Xizhen said anxiously: "If you say so, you will destroy the word 'loyalty'."

"When the noble officials of the imperial court come, they will certainly shout and yell like humans and dogs, which may not be a good thing."

"The edict must contain some threatening words to scare us." "The person coming must be a disciple of Grand Tutor Cai."

Everyone was talking at once, and none of them was optimistic about this offer of amnesty.

Chen Xizhen advised: "Don't be suspicious, just focus on arranging for the imperial edict."

After all, he is the old village chief and Chen Liqing's father. His strength should not be underestimated and he is still somewhat popular.

He sent his men to set up the lower lieutenant's tent, arranged five-colored silk strips, and hung colorful flowers in the hall. He first sent the small chieftain down the mountain in advance and waited for him on the road 20 miles away.

As expected, Zhang Ganban and Li Yuhou were both people who were more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything. They traveled in a group of people, and those who didn't know would have thought that Yuanbi Village had been wiped out by them.

This attempt to recruit amnesty is doomed to fail.

Because Cao Jie did not take action, the officials sent by the court offended the heroes in the village.

What's more, without rewards and official titles, this is not even a recruiting.

This is surrender!

No one would agree to such an offer.

Fortunately, after a few months of truce, Yuanbi Village had a chance to recuperate.

Regained a firm foothold in Yizhou.

He tore up the imperial edict, kicked the imperial wine, and beat up several people.

Chen Xizhen had no choice but to mount his horse himself, escort the general and a group of people to the three passes, and then kneel down and confess his crime: "It's not that Chen Xizhen and others don't want to surrender, it's that the officials who drafted the edict don't know the crookedness of our Yuanbi Village. If you can comfort us with a few kind words, we will be loyal to our country and die without regrets. If the general returns to the court, he will say something kind to us."

Send it through the checkpoint quickly.

The group of people were so frightened that they dared not stay for long and fled to Yizhou.

In the back house of the mountain stronghold, Cao Jie and Chen Liqing had just finished a fierce battle and were panting and exhausted.

"If you fail to recruit them, the imperial court will send a large army to suppress them in the spring. You must be prepared."

"Humph!"

Chen Liqing snorted softly, "I heard that you hooked up with the Saint of the Manichaeism in Jiangnan?"

"She and I are just a deal, it's not real."

"I don't care. I'll squeeze you dry."

After another three hundred rounds of fighting, Cao Jie began to miss his elder sister.

Chen Liqing's Tiangang Five Tigers and Eight Braves are so powerful that he, a single thief like Cao, cannot defeat them for the time being!
She only cares about taking and doesn't know how to be gentle and considerate to others.

Finally, Chen Liqing stopped torturing him and said softly, "Didn't you capture the sick Wei Chi Sun Li?"

"Hmm!" Cao Jie hummed lazily from his throat.

"His family is here to look for him."

"Sister-in-law Gu, the mother tiger of Dengzhou, is here?"

"how do you know?"

If it weren't for the fact that Mrs. Gu was big and strong, Chen Liqing would have been a little suspicious.

"I understand. If we want to truly subdue Sun Li, we still have to start with his family... I am also destined to be a hard worker! I have important things to do tomorrow, so let's go to sleep..."

Cao Jie hung up the banner of refusing to fight.

(End of this chapter)