Chapter 182: Stubborn

Yuan Xi stood on the top of the Yun Tower, holding up Yuan Shao's handwritten letter, and shouted loudly.

When the people in the watchtower who were waiting to die with their eyes closed heard what Yuan Xi said, they immediately showed joy on their faces, and even Hou's eyes showed a glimmer of light.

Who would want to die if they could survive?

Moreover, Yuan Shao was quite generous to the gentry and had a good reputation for it. He also sent his son to come in person, which showed that he was sincere. This ignited hope in everyone's hearts.

Gongsun Zan, however, showed disdain on his face: "Things have come to this point, why does the Yuan family still have to pretend to be so righteous?"

The Yunlou was pushed to a place several feet away from the Xiangjuwanglou before it stopped. Yuan Xi tied up the silk in his hand, aimed at the window, and threw it hard.

The silk flew past Gongsun Zan, fell to the ground, rolled for a distance, and stopped not far from Hou's feet.

Seeing that everyone was looking at her, Hou bit her lip, held the swaddling clothes tightly with one hand, bent down to pick up the silk with the other hand, walked hesitantly to Gongsun Zan, and handed the silk to him.

Gongsun Zan snorted coldly and snatched the silk from Hou's hand. Hou was caught off guard and took a few steps back. The child in her arms was frightened and started crying.

Hou hurriedly shook the baby's swaddling clothes. The baby's crying made Gongsun Zan even more upset. He tore open the silk cloth, which was covered with densely written words, as many as thousands of them.

He took a quick look and found that Yuan Shao's words were almost the same as the content of his previous letter of persuasion for surrender, using the same rhetoric.

Yuan Shao mentioned ten reasons in that letter, and Gongsun Zan still remembered them clearly. However, these reasons sounded so reasonable that Gongsun Zan could not refute them and was very angry.

First, it is said that the two sides had a common friendship to fight against Dong Zhuo; second, it is said that Gongsun Zan, as a vassal, had committed many acts of usurpation; third, it is said that the responsibility for the death of Gongsun Zan's brother was not on the Yuan family; fourth, it is said that Gongsun Zan destroyed the people and made their lives miserable.

Fifth, the outcome of the Battle of Jie Bridge was God's will on the Yuan family's side. Sixth, it was said that Gongsun Zan had become the public enemy of the world, not only the people of the Han Dynasty, but also other ethnic groups had become his enemies.

Of course, the tenth point in the previous letter was written by Yuan Shao when he had been attacking Yijing for a long time and failed. He asked for peace with Gongsun Zan and for both sides to cease fire to deal with other princes.

At that time, Gongsun Zan felt that he still had the upper hand and was dismissive of this. But now the conditions of this letter have changed from reconciliation to surrender, and the Yuan family will save the lives of Gongsun Zan's family.

Gongsun Zan was furious. He thought that if he surrendered he might save his life, but there was a high probability that he would be imprisoned in Yecheng for life and become a laughing stock of the world.

Yuan Shao would never let him return to the north and make a comeback!

Living like a dog is worse than being dead!

He turned his head to look at his sister's body on the ground and his family members who were looking expectant. He used his five fingers to squeeze the silk in his hand into a wrinkled ball.

He raised his hand and threw the silk out of the window. The silk stretched and rolled in the air, like a butterfly, and disappeared into the wind.

Everyone's faces turned pale, and they saw Gongsun Zan slowly picking up the long sword beside him and walking towards his family members.

A young woman saw Gongsun Zan approaching, and she hugged the five or six-year-old boy in her arms and cried, "Second brother, this is your nephew!"

"You have just killed my elder sister. Are you going to kill us too?"

Gongsun Zan raised the knife in his hand high and said coldly: "If you fall into their hands, you will be worse off dead than alive!"

The woman shouted, "Everyone heard it just now. The man over there is Yuan Benchu's son himself. He won't lie to us!"

"Your brother-in-law died on the city wall a few days ago. Just leave some blood for him!"

Gongsun Zan paused for a moment with the long sword in his hand, and when the woman showed hope on her face, he suddenly chopped it down.

The woman fell into a pool of blood holding the boy and died.

The family members were suddenly in chaos. Hou sat on the ground holding the baby with a dull look in her eyes.

Gongsun Zan stabbed a few more people to death with his sword, but his attention turned to the tied young man.

He pulled him over, put the bloody long knife on the man's neck, dragged him to the window, and laughed wildly: "Yuan Shao is nothing but a hypocrite!"

"Last time, Yuan Shao and Liu He attacked Yijing together. Liu He entered the city, but Yuan Shao took the opportunity to escape. It was clearly a case of using a knife to kill someone!"

"Yuan Shao talks a lot about benevolence, righteousness and morality, but he is still coveting Youzhou and even the whole world. He talks nicely, but he is actually a fraud!"

Yuan Xi was stunned. He had heard of this young man's name before. He was the son of Liu Yu!

Because of his sensitive identity, he was detained by Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao successively. He finally surrendered to Yuan Shao, but disappeared when he and Yuan Shao joined forces to attack Yijing, and his whereabouts have been unknown since then.

It turned out that he was captured by Gongsun Zan and had been imprisoned in Yijing City!

Liu He said, "If you want to kill me, just kill me. Why are you talking so much nonsense?"

He turned to Yuan Xi and said, "I know I will die today. Please tell Envoy Yuan that I, Liu He, have never had the heart to be independent. You have been a villain in vain."

When Yuan Xi heard this, he realized there was something really going on!

He instantly thought that Yuan Shao might really be able to capture Liu He!

Liu Yu had a very high prestige in Youzhou during his lifetime. After Liu Yu was killed by Gongsun Zan, his former subordinates Xianyu Fu, Qi Zhou, Xianyu Yin and others jointly recommended Yan Rou as the Sima of Wuhuan.

They gathered the troops of Wuhuan and Xianbei, plus their own original troops, totaling tens of thousands of people, and with Liu Yu's son Liu He as the banner, they attacked Zou Dan, the governor of Yuyang under Gongsun Zan, and eventually killed him, and fought all the way to the city of Yijing.

Yuan Xi wondered if Yuan Shao was worried about Liu He's power, so he deliberately watched him die in the last battle of Yijing?

Seeing Gongsun Zan's blade on Liu He's neck and about to stab him, Yuan Xi hesitated for a moment.

If Liu He is rescued, will it ruin Yuan Shao's plans and affect his own layout in Youzhou?

But if you don't save...

He couldn't help but turn his head slightly and look at Zhao Yun beside him, and found that his face showed a very complicated expression.

At this moment he suddenly woke up and shouted, "Help!"

Liu He must be rescued!

Otherwise, I would just be a hypocritical person who can only speak nice words. Who would trust me in the future?

Hearing Yuan Xi's roar, Zhao Yun showed a relieved expression on his face. He pulled out the longbow from behind, bent the bow, put the arrow on it, and shot the arrow in an instant!

Not one arrow was shot at Gongsun Zan, but three!

Taishi Ci and Sun Li, who were hiding behind, shot arrows at the same time!

With two "pu pu" sounds, the arrows of Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci respectively shot into Gongsun Zan's right arm holding the sword. Gongsun Zan screamed and the long sword fell to the ground.

At this time, Sun Li's arrow was half a beat slower and hit Gongsun Zan's left shoulder.

Sun Li cursed loudly, "Damn it, it missed!"

Everyone....

Gongsun Zan took a few steps back and finally sat down on the ground weakly, blood constantly flowing from his arms. Liu He took the opportunity to escape.

Yuan Xi thought that it was a blessing in disguise. Looking at Gongsun Zan's injuries, he couldn't use the knife with both hands.

He stood up and said to Gongsun Zan who was sitting on the ground: "Marquis Ji, the situation is over, surrender now."

"My father will not lie to you. I will use the reputation of the Yuan family to guarantee the safety of the Marquis Ji and his family."

In fact, Yuan Xi understood that killing Gongsun Zan would certainly have its benefits, as it would be a legitimate way to avenge Liu Yu, but it would be unnecessary to bring harm to his family.

In fact, during the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, with the exception of the Sima family, other great aristocratic families would hardly do such a thing for the sake of their reputation.

So when he saw Gongsun Zan killing his own family members from the Yun Tower, he couldn't understand why Gongsun Zan thought that Yuan Shao would wipe out the whole clan.

However, if the Yuan family fell into Cao Cao's hands, it would be hard to say.

There are two records about Cao Cao's capture of Ye City in later generations.

"Records of the Three Kingdoms" - The Duke visited Shao's tomb and wept bitterly; he consoled Shao's wife, returned treasures to his family, gave them silks and cotton, and provided them with food.

"Book of the Later Han" - Cao Cao attacked and massacred the city of Ye, and many women and children of the Yuan family were invaded.

Yuan Shao's wife was Madam Liu, and she probably had a good ending because she offered Zhen Mi to Cao Pi.

But the other female members of the Yuan family were not so lucky.

The so-called invasion generally means being plundered and robbed, just like when Liu Bei was defeated by Cao Cao at Changbanpo in later generations, his wife and daughter were captured and never appeared in any records again, so they should have been taken by Cao.

By the way, this was not the first time Cao Cao did such a thing. He had captured Madam Mi during his previous expedition to the east against Liu Bei, and her whereabouts have not been recorded in history books since then.

Compared with Lu Bu who launched a surprise attack on Xia Pi, captured Liu Bei's family and then returned them, it can be said that Cao Cao did something even more ruthless than Lu Bu.

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi suddenly understood Gongsun Zan's idea. In Gongsun Zan's eyes, the two sides were already in a situation of life and death. How could Yuan Shao let his family go?

Therefore, people have very different ideas and it is difficult for them to understand each other.

Gongsun Zan suddenly burst into laughter. He stared at Zhao Yun and shouted, "Zhao Yun, I was wrong about you!"

Zhao Yun took a step forward and said in a deep voice: "I have never been sorry for the general, it is the general who is sorry for Lord Liu!"

Gongsun Zan shouted, "What do you know!"

"Do you understand the hardships of someone like me who climbed up from the bottom?"

Zhao Yun said coldly: "General, you are wrong."

"There are many injustices in the world, but some people use injustice as an excuse to become bandits and harm the people, while others risk their lives to save the people from danger."

"Justice and morality are in the hearts of people. Regardless of whether they are rich or poor, noble or humble, everyone has a ruler in their hearts."

"In the past, the governor of Zhuo County married his daughter to the general, which enabled the general to rise to power. Now the general wants to kill his wife. Isn't this ungrateful?"

"The Han Dynasty granted you the title of nobility, but you wantonly killed the head of the Han Dynasty clan. Isn't that forgetting your roots?"

Yuan Xi thought to himself, well said, when did Zhao Yun become so reasonable?

Gongsun Zan's face turned red and white. He stood up shakily, and blood kept flowing from his arms.

Upon seeing this, Hou rushed over to help, but Gongsun Zan kicked her away, and she and her swaddling clothes fell to the ground.

He laughed wildly, "Get lost, everyone has betrayed me!"

"Bitch, just go and kowtow to the Yuan family!"

"But first you have to survive!"

He stretched out his hand and knocked the oil lamp beside him to the ground. Fire suddenly jumped up and spread all around.

Zhao Yun's eyes turned cold, and he said to Yuan Xi: "He poured the lamp in the house in advance!