Chapter 137 A loyal minister of Wei?

On the trip to Lu'an, Li Yuanhui only brought Zhang Jian and his 800 men, as well as a team of heavy cavalry.

The rest of the tribes almost came out in full force.

Among the infantry, the troops under the command of Captain Zhou Ben, the troops under the command of Marshal Zhu Xingzong, the troops under Zhang Zhen'e, and the troops under Captain Liu Ju, totaling 3,000 infantrymen boarded the ships of the Chaohu navy out of Ruxukou and into the Yangtze River, and landed at Wankou. Together with the cavalry under Ma Deyi's command who encircled them from the direction of Shuxian, 1,000 cavalrymen under Wang Tong, more than 4,000 soldiers from Xuzhou, 2,000 county soldiers from Lujiang, and 4,000 newly recruited soldiers, totaling more than 16,000 navy, infantry and cavalry, they launched a joint siege attack at the same time, with the aim of wiping out several gangs of bandits roaming in Lujiang.

Only Yin Gong's 800-odd men remained in Hefei.

Two days later, Li Yuanhui met with the Jianghuai thief "Guo Fenghuang" on the banks of the Feishui River outside Lu'an City.

Even though he knew that the new General Pingnan was a young man of only sixteen years old, Guo Fenghe still felt a little surprised when they met.

He looked very young, just like a young boy, wearing brocade robe and gorgeous clothes, with an imposing manner, which made Guo Fenghe sigh that he was born rich.

The conversation between the two took place on a boat, with only Zhang Jian and Guo Fenghe's son Guo Xing accompanying them.

As soon as they got on the boat, Li Yuanhui joked, "Chief Guo, you and Mr. Guo can sit by the window. If we want to attack you, you and your son can jump into the water and escape."

Guo Fenghe didn't expect that Li Yuanhui would discover his thoughts just by glancing at the window. "Hahaha, thank you General Li for reminding me."

On the other side, after getting on the boat, Guo Xing kept looking at Zhang Jian, who was standing with his hands behind his back beside Li Yuanhui.

Consciously, he told him that this person was dangerous. Putting aside his intuition, the fact that Li Yuanhui was around and the two dared to come to see him and his son showed that this person must be very skilled.

Guo Xing was very worried that Li Yuanhui's meeting with them was a Hongmen Banquet, so he was very nervous.

However, after Li Yuanhui and Guo Fenghe sat down on the boat, they got straight to the point.

"Mr. Guo, please tell me about your origins. Don't say that you are a poor man from Huainan Zhongli. The Xiping Guo family was a famous and prominent family in the Former Wei Dynasty. Why are you hiding now?"

Upon hearing this, Guo Fenghe laughed and said, "Hahahaha, if the general hadn't told me, I would have almost forgotten that I was born into the Xiping Guo family."

Guo Xingze looked at Li Yuanhui with cold sweat, but he didn't expect that the other party could directly tell him the origins of them father and son.

Li Yuanhui chuckled and said, "Haha, this is not a secret. More than 30 years ago, Emperor Wen of Yan led his army to pursue the former Emperor Gong of Wei and his entourage to Huainan. Although Emperor Gong of Wei successfully crossed the river and fled south, his son, Prince of Zhao Cao Qi, Sikong Guo Zhengzhi, and Right General Xiahou Cheng were all lost in Huainan and their whereabouts are unknown. I wonder which Sikong Guo is related to you?"

Guo Fenghe stood up after hearing this, clasped his hands and said, "Guo Sikong is my father. I am the youngest son, and my brothers all died in the chaos. I didn't expect that General Li still remembered the old things decades ago."

Li Yuanhui said: "As former ministers of the previous dynasty, you have always taken refuge in the mountains. This is really admirable. You have the spirit of ancient sages, such as Boyi and Shuqi who refused to eat Zhou grain. It's nothing more than this."

Originally a compliment, Boyi and Shuqi were dissatisfied with King Wu of Zhou's destruction of the Shang Dynasty, so they lived in seclusion in Shouyang Mountain. They refused to eat Zhou millet and instead ate wild vegetables.

It would be a bit ironic if Guo Fenghe heard it.

Because they never refused to surrender to Yan because of their integrity, in the early years it was because they had no connections. If they rashly exposed their identities, who knows what might be waiting for them. In recent years, because the court has become more and more chaotic, Dayan is like a leaky ship, there is no need to jump on it, so they have been watching from the mountains, gathering grain and soldiers.
In fact, Guo Feng and his fathers did not want to eat Zhou's grain and lived in seclusion in the mountains to avoid disaster. But those old ministers of the previous dynasty were no longer alive, and those who are still alive now are all waiting for an opportunity to act.

An empty slogan of national restoration will not make them work hard for it.

After all, in the first twenty years after the founding of Dayan, many descendants of the Wei royal family organized resistance in various places.

It has only been quiet for the past ten years, and the bloodline after Emperor Wen was basically killed, and it can be said that those who cherished their homeland have almost died. Now the most prosperous branch of the Cao family in Qiao County is the lineage of Chensi Wang Cao Zhi, because they have a queen of Dayan.

Guo Fenghe smiled awkwardly and said, "General, you are overpraising me. I just don't do certain things. I can't compare to the ancient sages. I came here today at your request. Please speak frankly."

Li Yuanhui nodded and said, "Okay, then let's be frank. You are taking in refugees in the mountains and defending yourselves. This has nothing to do with me. I also want to keep my distance from you. But I heard that 'I cannot allow others to sleep soundly beside my bed'. I think Mr. Guo should also understand this principle, right?"

Guo Fenghe frowned when he heard this. Li Yuanhui's words were very direct. He was not the kind of person who wanted to just gain some experience in Jianghuai and then leave.

This place is his "bed", which means this is where I want to be my base. If you know what's good for you, surrender quickly.

"General, that's a bit too aggressive. Although the plan to close the mountain is a safe one, it's time-consuming and laborious, and you may not be able to afford it."

"Hahaha, I'm only sixteen years old, and you, Chief Guo, want to fight with me? I only need to move all the people in Lu'an and Wanxian to Hefei. Can you hold on for three years? You should know that Liu Ju, who sold you salt, has surrendered to me. I know you still have connections in Lujiang, but I tell you, before I came to Lu'an the day before yesterday, I had mobilized more than 10,000 cavalry and infantry, plus the Chaohu navy, to encircle and suppress those bandits in Lujiang County. I don't believe that after seeing the might of my army, those powerful families in Lujiang dare to transport grain and salt to your Tianzhu Mountain. If there are only a few thousand people, you can still make a living, but your tribe has tens of thousands of people. You can't feed these people just by relying on the little land by the mountain, right?"

Guo Fenghe was not excited when he heard this, but said slowly: "General, of course there is time, but if you focus all your energy on Tianzhu Mountain, will the situation in the world give you time?"

Li Yuanhui laughed loudly upon hearing this, "Hahahaha, I am the fourth child in my family, and I have three older brothers, all of whom are outstanding people of the time, with talents and military strategies that are ten times better than mine. My father, Duke Tang, is even more far-sighted. I only need to manage the Jianghuai area well, and the rest is not something I need to consider."

Guo Fenghe frowned again when he heard this, thinking that this young man was quite difficult to deal with, as he couldn't reveal a single word in his words.

Li Yuanhui continued, "It doesn't matter if you can't figure it out for a while. I'll give you some time to think about it. If you want, you can come to Hefei to see me anytime. But you don't have much time left. After the fifteenth day, I will immediately start to relocate the mountain people to build forts and beacons, and close the mountains. But I want to remind you that after closing the mountains, I will no longer accept surrenders. In fact, you still have another way, or you can cross the Dabie Mountains and go to Jiangxia County."

After saying this, Li Yuanhui stood up first and left with Zhang Jian.

Guo Fenghe also stood up, then got off the boat and joined the people waiting outside.

Xia Yuanhong, or should we call him Xiahou Yuanhong, was relieved when he saw Guo Fenghe coming out and said, "Mr. Guo, how is it?"

"Yuanhong, from now on you don't have to call yourself Xia Yuanhong. You can restore your old surname."

Xiahou Yuanhong was a little surprised, but he only saw Guo Fenghe sighing.

"Do I need to choose between dying in the mountains and going down the mountain to survive?"

(End of this chapter)