Gao Baorong surrendered and the Nanping Kingdom was destroyed.
This time, Guo Shao used a treacherous plan. He first lured the soldiers and civilians of Jiangling Prefecture out of the city to greet him in the name of friendly passage, and then suddenly seized the city gate when they were unprepared. In fact, this method was learned from his former enemy Zhao Kuangyin, and Guo Shao found that it was very useful.
Zhao Kuangyin fought the Battle of Chuzhou in Huainan and directly broke through the important town of Chuzhou, which was heavily defended by the Southern Tang army. The method seemed a bit absurd. Zhao Kuangyin first lured the defenders to come out to fight, and then shouted that he only wanted to kill the defenders and had nothing to do with the Southern Tang soldiers. He rode alone to fight the Southern Tang defender and killed the defender; then he took advantage of the situation and led his army to easily seize the city gate.
The implementation of that tactic mainly relied on Zhao Kuangyin's personal military strength and momentum, but Guo Shao studied this battle and found that the key motive for capturing Chuzhou was to seize the opportunity when the defenders temporarily rushed into the city and follow the defenders to seize the gate.
So Guo Shao followed suit and modified his strategy, which really worked in Jingnan. Guo Shao thought that he was a good learner, and even his enemies always had their own unique qualities.
However, destroying the Kingdom of Nanping was nothing, and Guo Shao could not be happy too soon, as the war to attack Shu had just begun.
When the Zhou army entered the city, they ordered the treasury to be sealed and the soldiers to be strictly restrained to avoid unnecessary resistance and bloodshed. No one died before they occupied Jiangling Prefecture, but the first massacre began soon after.
Guo Shao brought his generals and the captives from Nanping to the newly selected central military headquarters. Looking around, he suddenly asked: Who is Li Jingwei
A big man came up from behind and bowed, saying: I am Li Jingwei.
Guo Shao said: Come on, take him out and chop him off.
Everyone was stunned after hearing this, and the surrendered king and ministers of Nanping State were even more shocked. At this time, several big men from the Zhou army came up, one of them roughly pulled off Li Jingwei's helmet and threw it away, and several people dragged him out of the hall.
Soon, the soldiers brought in a bloody head and reported that Li Jingwei had been killed. Guo Shao took a look and did not explain why he killed people, but said to Gao Baorong and others kindly: I only killed Li Jingwei, don't worry. When I go to Tokyo another day, I can be rewarded by the court for my merits of surrendering.
Gao Baoxu and others hurriedly bowed and said: Thank you General Guo for not killing me.
At this time, Zan Jurun, the guest governor who was the supervisor of the Eastern Army, stepped forward and said: "Everyone follow me, I will escort you on a certain day."
After the captives left, Guo Shao said to the generals: "We have strictly ordered the soldiers not to rob. Even if we rob, we cannot take anything away. We still have to go to Shu. Part of the property we got from Jingnan will be handed over to the treasury in the future, and the rest will be divided according to the merits when we return to the capital. By then, everyone will feel it is fair."
When the generals heard Guo Shao actually said to divide the treasury money in public, they were delighted for a moment, and the hall was noisy. Someone shouted unscrupulously: "When we conquered Shouzhou, we divided up all the money in the treasury, haha!"
Guo Shao let them talk. Anyway, no one would punish him even if he divided the spoils, and he didn't really want to divide the treasury. But after thinking it over, he couldn't think of a way to make the soldiers fight hard and restrain them from killing innocent people at the same time. The right way is, you can't expect the horse to run fast without eating grass. After all, everyone wants some benefits after working hard.
He said to the generals in a serious tone: If we allow the soldiers to loot and whoever gets the loot gets it, then what good will it be for those who fight hard in the battle? Everyone will save their energy to go into the city to rob. Therefore, we can't rob like that, but should count according to the merits in the battle. This is fair. Anyone who robs privately will have the things confiscated and severely punished.
Everyone agreed, and they all thought that it was better to divide the spoils this way. Prime Minister Wang Pu stood aside, looking very embarrassed, but he couldn't say anything to Guo Shao. Wang Pu was now appointed to judge the affairs of Chengdu Prefecture. As the prime minister, he certainly wanted to hand over all the money obtained from the war to the Political Affairs Hall to ease the financial tension in the treasury.
Guo Shao wanted to say a few more inspiring words of justice, but the hall was now in an uproar and no one cared about justice. They all hoped to get rich from this battle. Everyone knew that Shu was rich, so there were still great hopes.
So Guo Shao gave up and left the lobby reluctantly.
The guards cleaned up the signing room and put some things on the table, including some blueprints and various letters and files. Guo Shao picked up the pen and made a mark directly at the location of Kuizhou.
He read a lot of history books and military books in this era, but felt that he did not learn much. The ancient books were very vague about the actual strategic analysis of war cases. Guo Shao thought to himself that from the Yangtze River into Shu, the important towns were nothing more than two places: Jiangling and Kuizhou. Jiangling guarded the outer periphery of Shu, like blocking the mouth; Kuizhou guarded the inner periphery of Shu, like the throat with Wushan and the Three Gorges in the middle. The terrain of the mountains and ridges is only a passage like the Yangtze River. Now that the mouth has been torn open, all we need to do is open the throat.
Not long after, Guo Shao remembered the incident with Chen Jiali and immediately asked someone to bring Gao Baoxu to meet her.
Gao Baoxu was a thin man in his thirties, and he looked a little frightened and confused when he came in. He didn't seem to understand why Guo Shao wanted to meet him alone. Logically, even if someone from Jingnan was to be met alone, it should be the King Gao Baorong.
“Greetings to Marshal Guo,” Gao Baoxu said with courtesy.
Guo Shao casually pointed to a chair in front of the desk and said, "General Gao, please take a seat. I have something personal to discuss with you. About a month ago, General Gao robbed a large amount of property from the Shen, Chen, and Li business gangs in Jingnan. Do you remember?"
Gao Baoxu looked like he was deep in thought and recalling something.
Seeing this, Guo Shao smiled and said: I didn't remember it very well, but I heard that the goods were very valuable. General Gao actually forgot about it. It seems that you have obtained such rich harvests more than once, and you have accumulated a lot.
I remember, I remember. Gao Baoxu said hurriedly, there was such a thing
Guo Shaodao: There is a boss in the Shen, Chen and Li business gang who is close to me. General Gao, can you return the things so that I can ask for a favor in front of my friend
Gao Baoxu nodded and said: "Of course, of course. Marshal Guo, please forgive me. I didn't know that those people were related to you before. If I knew, I would not dare to touch Marshal Guo's things even if I had the courage of a leopard."
Guo Shao said kindly: "Of course I know that General Gao is not the kind of person who would just rob anything he sees. How much did you rob?"
Gao Baoxu hurriedly asked: "Can I borrow a pen so I can write down the rough list?"
Please. Guo Shaodao.
After a long time, Guo Shao picked up a piece of paper with wet ink and pretended to look at it. He was confused because he was not a businessman and did not know the value of these goods. He did not know the value of the things written on the paper.
Guo Shaogang wanted to ask how much Gao Baoxu was worth, but after a moment's thought he changed his mind and said: General Gao, I have something I want to tell you.
Gao Baoxu hurriedly said: I am all ears.
Guo Shao said: Think about Li Jingwei today. His head was cut off at any time. What use is there for a dead person? He glanced at Gao Baoxu and said kindly that Li Jingwei would not only lose his head, but also his property would be confiscated. Since I have killed him, why should I protect his family's property? We are all reasonable people. If we can reach an agreement now, why should I kill General Gao first and then torture your family members to make them confess where you hid your wealth
Gao Baoxu was stunned and looked very unhappy. He could no longer sit still and knelt on the ground with a very sad tone: "General Guo, I really didn't know that the Shen, Chen and Li business gang were yours."
I know, General Gao, please stand up quickly. Guo Shao stepped forward and supported him politely. I don't mean to bully others, I am forced by the situation. If Jingnan was still in the hands of the Gao family, we could negotiate on an equal footing; you see, Jingnan is no longer in your hands, and its life and death are in the hands of others. The basis for our negotiation is completely different. But I still negotiate with General Gao so politely. Do you think I am a very restrained and reasonable person
Yes, Gao Baoxu nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. Every word of General Guo was profound. He paused and sighed seriously, and I suddenly understood something.
Guo Shao looked at the list in his hand and had no interest in listening to his understanding. However, thinking about what Aunt Sun said about the value of the goods being as high as 200,000 strings of cash, he felt that it was worth talking a little more. He then patiently said, "What does General Gao understand?"
Gao Baoxu sighed: I used to think that the most reliable things were gold, silver and money, but now I suddenly feel that those things are unreliable because human life is too unreliable. If you lose your life, no matter how reliable the money is, it will be in vain.
Guo Shao nodded and said: It’s good that people wake up.
Gao Baoxu immediately wrote a new list.
That afternoon, Guo Shao handed the list to Aunt Sun and asked her to take her people and follow Gao Baoxu to clear out the valuables. Aunt Sun specifically asked to see Guo Shao and said: Something is not right.
Gao Baoxu dared to say that this guy really valued money over his life. Guo Shao was also very puzzled.
Aunt Sun said: "No, I am very surprised that the looted property has increased."
Guo Shao:
Aunt Sun said: General Guo has helped a lot. We can't just be greedy for money and ignore integrity. What should we do with the extra money
Guo Shao said calmly: Since Gao Baoxu has admitted it, you can just keep it.
Aunt Sun stepped forward and whispered: "Mrs. Chen will help General Guo sell the extra items for now. The proceeds will be presented to the Guo residence later and will be kept with you for now. General Guo can come and get them when he needs them."
That's fine. Guo Shao laughed dryly. He wasn't really interested. It was a bit strange to think about it. He used to like money, but now he doesn't want to be greedy.
Guo Shao suddenly understood why Zhao Kuangyin sealed up the treasury and handed it over to the government. If a person has the opportunity to become rich, what is the point of coveting that little bit of private wealth