12dz Chapter 43 Su Yu's attempt to recruit Xu Rong: Will he succeed?
Chapter 43 Su Yu's attempt to recruit Xu Rong: Will he succeed?
"Who are you?"
Xu Rong looked at Su Yu warily.
His intuition told him that the person in front of him was extremely dangerous.
As a general with considerable command ability, Xu Rong naturally possessed excellent judgment.
He had long suspected that someone else was behind Cao Cao.
In retrospect, his guess was correct.
The young man in front of us is most likely the culprit who caused Cao Cao to take the mountain road and circle around to the rear of Xingyang!
"My name is Su Yu, Su Ziyi."
"General Xu, to be honest, our army encountered Fan Chou and even fought a battle with him."
"However, our army did not take his life, but released him back to Chang'an."
Even Xu Rong was quite shocked to hear this explosive news.
He even scratched his ear, as if afraid he had misheard.
Release Fan Chou?
This is... the more I listen to it, the more surreal it seems!
Who is Fan Chou?
He was the most trusted and trusted general of Xiliang under Dong Zhuo!
Given the deep-seated grudge between Cao Cao and Dong Zhuo, would he really release Fan Chou?
Is this a joke?
You should know that when Cao Cao attempted to assassinate Dong Zhuo, he almost lost his life!
"General Xu, if I'm not mistaken, you must be wondering why my lord released Fan Chou, right?"
Xu Rong remained silent for a long time.
His thoughts were as clear as a mirror, and the person in front of him could see right through them.
Actually.
It wasn't difficult for Su Yu to guess Xu Rong's thoughts.
Xu Rong had just complained about unfair treatment in a "resentful woman" tone, which showed that he was more or less jealous of the Xiliang direct line group.
The true nature of the relationship between Xu Rong and Fan Chou is not important.
Su Yu didn't care about this issue.
However, Fan Chou, as a member of the Xiliang direct line, and Xu Rong, as a man of misfortune from the Luoyang Imperial Guards, could not and would not become true friends.
It's like.
A working-class person longs to empathize with friends from wealthy families.
How is this possible?
One was riding a small electric scooter, and the other was driving a Rolls-Royce.
People with different consumption levels and exposure to different things will naturally have different levels of cognition and ways of thinking.
Fan Chou could not possibly empathize with Xu Rong.
He would never understand Xu Rong's constant worry about his brothers in the Luoyang Imperial Guards not being able to get enough supplies!
“General Xu, killing Fan Chou means nothing to my lord.”
"But releasing Fan Chou would have a very different meaning."
"General Xu, you just said that the Liu Han imperial family's rule should have ended long ago, and was merely providing fertile ground for ambitious people, is that right?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Rong nodded.
At this moment, he was very curious about what profound insights Su Yu would utter next.
Seeing that Xu Rong had taken the bait, Su Yu smiled and said:
"As I just said, General Xu is both right and wrong."
"General Xu, are you perhaps referring to Dong Zhuo as the ambitious one you speak of?"
Xu Rong immediately retorted:
"Is not it?"
"Prime Minister Dong led tens of thousands of armored soldiers, commanded an army of 300,000, and held power over the Han dynasty."
"Even the likes of Yi Yin and Huo Guang in the past are still far inferior to the prestige of Prime Minister Dong."
"Isn't a prime minister like Dong Zhongshu qualified to be the next person to change the dynasty after the Liu Han imperial family?"
Before he could finish speaking, Su Yu retorted:
"He doesn't deserve it!"
"Or rather, the Xiliang army is unworthy!"
"Let's not even talk about the various warlords in the Guandong region."
"Could Dong Zhuo handle the internal conflicts within the Xiliang army alone?"
"If he could handle this well, General Xu, you should have been given an important position long ago!"
"Throughout history, without exception, every founding emperor who changed dynasties never relied on only one faction for his rule!"
"Under Dong Zhuo's command, the Xiliang faction held absolute power."
"Don't even mention General Xu, even Lü Bu is nothing but a lackey!"
"After the capital is moved to Chang'an, the conflict between the Xiliang direct forces and other armies will only get bigger and bigger."
"In the end, the one who will be destroyed by this conflict is none other than Dong Zhuo!"
"Why?"
"Who else could be behind the Xiliang loyalists if not Dong Zhuo?"
"General Xu, what if you are not given an important position by Dong Zhuo?"
"If Lü Bu were to approach you at this time and promise you that after killing Dong Zhuo, he would ensure that all of your brothers under General Xu have enough to eat, would you be tempted?"
Like a thunderbolt from the blue, Xu Rong stood frozen in place, at a loss for what to do.
He asked himself honestly, if Lü Bu really tried to win him over, would he be tempted?
To say I wasn't tempted would be a lie!
Even if Xu Rong is not tempted, how could the soldiers of the Luoyang Imperial Guard under his command not be tempted?
To put it bluntly, it was because Dong Zhuo treated them so poorly.
Without the Xiliang direct line as a comparison, the Luoyang Imperial Guard might have been able to barely endure the days of irregular meals.
But what kind of life do the direct descendants of Xiliang live?
One is heaven! The other is earth!
Comparing the two situations, Xu Rong simply couldn't find a reason not to oppose Dong Zhuo!
Of course, the prerequisite for opposing Dong Zhuo is having the confidence to win.
Otherwise, it's just throwing your life away for nothing.
Unbeknownst to him, in just a few words, Xu Rong had already fallen into the verbal trap that Su Yu had set for him.
Why did Su Yu ask Xu Rong that question just now?
Ultimately, this is because Xu Rong in the original history had made a similar decision.
The story of Xu Rong being killed by Xiahou Dun in the Battle of Xingyang is a fictionalized account and did not actually happen.
Xu Rong lived until 192, the same year Dong Zhuo died.
After Lü Bu rebelled, Wang Yun used grain and supplies as bait to lure Xu Rong into joining the "Lü Bu-Wang Yun Alliance".
Xu Rong listened to Wang Yun's offer of a hand.
But soon after, Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou, and Zhang Ji, following Jia Xu's advice, raised an army to avenge Dong Zhuo.
After comparing the differences in combat strength between the two sides, Wang Yun and Lü Bu decided to defend Chang'an to the death and not to take the initiative to go out of the city to fight.
However, Wang Yun did not want to abandon those strongholds outside the city.
Therefore, he sent Xu Rong to garrison Xinfeng, which is thirty miles away from Chang'an.
Xu Rong accepted the order and left.
According to the plan agreed upon by Wang Yun and Xu Rong, Wang Yun and Lü Bu would send reinforcements to support Xu Rong within three days of Xu Rong holding Xinfeng.
Xu Rong waited and waited, guarding Xinfeng for a full ten days, suffering heavy casualties among his soldiers, but Wang Yun and Lü Bu still did not send troops to help.
Keep in mind that the distance between Xinfeng and Chang'an is only thirty li!
But it was this short distance of thirty miles that buried Xu Rong!
The valiant general Xu Rong ultimately died in the chaos of battle.
After Xu Rong's death, Wang Yun was killed by Li Jue and Guo Si, and Lü Bu led his remaining troops to escape to Guandong.
In other words, Lu Bu and Wang Yun, these two teammates, were like bots, completely unaware of the concept of "if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold."
It's just a pity about Xu Rong; when he died in battle, he couldn't even feed his brothers properly.
Now, Su Yu is suggesting that Cao Cao recruit Xu Rong, not only because he values Xu Rong's talent.
Furthermore, we do not want an outstanding general like Xu Rong to die such a miserable death as he did in the past!
……