Liu Jing arrived at Wuting Pass on the afternoon of the third day of snow. There were 8,000 Han soldiers, led by general Wei Yan, who held on for nearly a month. Together with Pinghu Pass on the south, he trapped Liu Qubei's army on this 70-mile straight road.

On the Guancheng, a soldier held an umbrella to cover the heavy snow. Liu Jing stood under the umbrella and stared at the far straight road. There should be a large piece of tinder burning and corpses on the straight road in the Guancheng, but at this time they were covered with snow. A hundred steps away was a gray area and nothing could be seen.

Wei Yan pointed to the front and said, "Your Highness, if the weather is good, you can see an earth wall three miles away, about two meters high, lying above the official road."

"What is that?" Liu Jing was a little puzzled.

"That was a blocking wall built by Liu Qubei who was afraid that the soldiers would come to surrender, so he specially built a blocking wall to prevent the soldiers from surrendering without permission. Unfortunately, this blocking wall was meaningless, and there were still many Hun sentries secretly coming to surrender."

"What's the situation over there?" Liu Jing asked again.

Wei Yan shook his head and sighed, "The situation is very bad. They have cut off their food and can only kill horses for food. But the horses are gone. Most of the war horses starve to death and have no meat. It is said that in less than a month, they have killed nearly 20,000 war horses, and hundreds of war horses would rather jump off the cliff than be killed by them."

“Is there water inside?”

"There are springs flowing down the mountain. Many soldiers want to cross the mountain to escape, but most of the soldiers rolled down and fell to death. Some soldiers who climbed over the mountain could not survive. There are one mountain in the top of the mountain, stretching for hundreds of miles, and there is no food. They either starve to death or become food for beasts in the mountain."

When everyone said this, a soldier suddenly pointed to the front and shouted, "Look, some Hun soldiers are fleeing."

A few dozen steps away, three or four Hun soldiers staggered towards this side. One of them had an arrow on his back. Before he could run to Guancheng, the soldiers who were caught in the arrow fell head-on and no longer moved. Soon, the body was covered with heavy snow.

"Pull them up!"

The Han soldiers put down several large baskets and pulled up three Hun soldiers. They were all hungry and skinny, with a starving cold light flashing in their eyes, and they couldn't even speak. Wei Yan immediately ordered the soldiers to take them down to drink two bowls of hot porridge.

Liu Jing was also eager to know the situation on the straight road, so he followed him. Three Hun deserters sat next to the fire and drank a few bowls of hot porridge before finally recovering.

A Han soldier asked them a few words in the Xiongnu words, and then said to Liu Jing: "Report to your Highness, they said that there were hundreds of guards from Liu Qubei in the earthen wall, and more than twenty of them were fighting to escape together. The rest of the soldiers were killed, and only a few of them came over the wall."

"You ask them, how does it affect the heavy snowfall over there?"

The soldier asked a few more questions and turned around and said, "They said it was very miserable. Six thousand people were frozen to death on the first snowy night, and more than two thousand people were frozen to death last night. Although Liu Qubei blocked the news, everyone knew that the soldiers there would not survive."

Liu Jing nodded and said to Wei Yan: "We need to increase our vigilance in the past two days. I guess something will happen on the straight road tonight or tomorrow night."

At night, Liu Jing was sleeping when he was suddenly awakened by the guards. The guards whispered: "Your Highness, something happened on the straight road."

Liu Jing suddenly woke up. He put on his military uniform and a thick cloak. He quickly walked to Guancheng. Guancheng was full of thousands of soldiers, holding crossbows, waiting for the battle. More than 20 catapults were ready to attack at any time.

Liu Jing walked to the city wall, Wei Yan bowed his fists and said, "Your Highness, the fire was lit up on the straight road just now, and there was constant shouting of killing. It seemed that something big happened? And there was no dry firewood on the straight road. Such a big fire must have been lit up by the tent."

Liu Jing focused his mind and looked straight into the distance. The fire was much smaller, but he could see a little, but the shouting stopped. At this moment, a loud "boom!" sounded suddenly from the front, as if it was the sound of the house collapse. A soldier immediately reacted and shouted: "This must be the blocking wall being pushed down."

Liu Jing also felt that this was the case, and he immediately ordered: "The crossbowman is ready. Without my order, no arrows are allowed!"

A soldier ran and shouted, "Your Highness has an order, and the crossbowman is ready. Without His Highness's order, no arrows are allowed to be fired!"

At this time, countless black figures appeared in the night, and groups of people walked towards Guancheng. They walked fifty steps away, but stopped again. A Hun officer ran up and shouted under the city: "We have killed Liu Qubei, and are willing to surrender to the Han army and beg for surrender!"

In the darkness, all the figures knelt down. Wei Yan ran to Liu Jing and whispered: "Your Highness, I'm afraid he's a fraud!"

Liu Jing nodded. There is indeed a possibility. Liu Qubei was forced to the last moment and it is possible to use fraudulent surrender to seize Guancheng. However, intuition told Liu Jing that it is more likely that Liu Qubei's soldiers had a mutiny.

At this time, Wei Jin stepped forward and bowed: "Your Highness, I am willing to go and investigate the situation."

Sending people to investigate the real situation was the only way, and Liu Jing immediately agreed, "You can bring a few more soldiers to investigate."

"I understand that if the enemy forces surrender, I will raise a torch as a letter."

Wei Jin and several soldiers sat down in a big basket and walked quickly to the surrendered army. Liu Jing's eyes were closely watching Wei Jin's figure. He said a few words to the headed Xiongnu officer, and then followed him into the crowd.

Time passed little by little, and no torches were raised. Liu Jing let down his heart slightly. It seemed that the army had mutiny and came to surrender. After about a quarter of an hour, Wei Jin finally came back, followed by a Hun centurion, carrying a bag in his hand. The two of them went to the city. Wei Jin stepped forward and whispered to Liu Jing: "It was indeed the soldiers who rebelled. Killing Liu Qubei is not a fraudulent surrender."

At this time, the centurion stepped forward and knelt down and cried, "The villain is called Ning Daya. The soldiers are hungry and cold and do not want to fight again. It is the villain who led everyone to resist Liu Qubei's suppression, killed Liu Qubei, and begged Your Highness to let us go."

After saying that, he presented the bag with both hands, and a soldier took it over and opened it. It turned out that there was a head inside. Some soldiers knew it. It was the head of Liu Qubei, the right wise king of the Huns.

Liu Jing nodded and asked, "How many people are left of you?"

"There are still 15,000 people, and the rest are dead."

Liu Jing also sighed in his heart that 30,000 people were trapped in a straight road, and only half were left in the end, which was indeed very tragic. He asked again: "Are all 15,000 people willing to surrender?"

"Everyone is willing to surrender, not want to fight again!"

At this time, Wei Yan stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, I have a few words to say in my humble position."

Liu Jing walked aside with him, and Wei Yan whispered: "It is a hidden danger to keep these Hun soldiers. Your Highness, why not take this opportunity to kill them."

Liu Jing glanced at him and said lightly: "Ordinaryness is just the auxiliary of the king's way. You should not be reversed by the main and secondary. Simply killing everything is not a long-term way. It would be more useful to keep them."

Wei Yan hit a nail and he hurriedly said, "If Your Highness decides to surrender, there is another suggestion for humble position."

Liu Jing had long discovered that Wei Yan was a man who was complicated and was not as loyal as Zhao Yun and Wenpin. Although he was also loyal to him, he had his own ideas while being loyal. In other words, he always had some ideas that were inconsistent with his identity. For example, the movement of the capital had nothing to do with him, but he wrote a letter to point out that Guanzhong was seriously damaged and suggested moving the capital to Luoyang.

For example, now, Liu Jing appears in Wuting Pass in person. Whether to accept the surrender of the Huns should be decided by Liu Jing. At most, Jia Xu, Fa Zheng and others can make suggestions.

As a partial general, Wei Yan could only execute the order without fail, but he insisted on proposing his own plan to kill all the Huns soldiers. This made Liu Jing really unhappy. If he was not at Wuting Pass today, would Wei Yan decide without authorization to kill the Huns surrendered soldiers?

With Wei Yan's self-righteousness, it is very likely that this is true. However, Liu Jing also knew that Wei Yan had this self-righteous habit. He had been taught many times over the years, but it was still difficult to change. Liu Jing also tried his best to tolerate him and try to see his good side.

Liu Jing held back his displeasure and asked, "What advice do you have?"

"Although the Huns surrendered, Bei Zhi was worried that Liu Qubei would not die, but were mixed with the soldiers. He had tens of thousands of soldiers, so it was easy to find someone who looked like him. Your Highness should be cautious."

Liu Jing asked with a smile: "What should I do if you think?"

"Bizhi suggested that they surrender during the day and pass one by one. And Beizhi knew that Liu Qubei had a wolf head stabbed in the chest, so that they could surrender naked according to customs. Liu Qubei could not escape."

Although Wei Yan was too cautious, his words were somewhat reasonable. Liu Jing pondered for a moment and decided to adopt Wei Yan's plan. He then walked back and said to the centurion: "I believe in your sincerity and accept your surrender. However, surrendering at night is prone to chaos. You can come and surrender early tomorrow morning. According to the customs of the Huns, you will be naked and lined up to pass the test."

After pausing, Liu Jing said again: "Of course, I will give you some dry firewood tonight, and two thousand sheep and three thousand bags of milk wine. You can survive tonight!"

The centurion had no choice but to agree. That night, Liu Jing ordered the soldiers to send dried firewood and sheep wine to the surrendered soldiers. Ten thousand Xiongnu surrendered soldiers set off hundreds of bonfires on the straight road, killed sheep and drank, and spent the most difficult night.

The next morning, 15,000 Xiongnu surrendered soldiers were arranged into five long teams and began to inspect and pass the test one by one. Each soldier who passed the test had to wash his face with snow. Dozens of soldiers who knew Liu Qubei were strictly identified.

Although it was finally confirmed that Liu Qubei was indeed dead, he still captured several Xiongnu nobles who tried to escape the quarrel, which was considered to be a gain. Last night, the soldiers mutiny not only killed Liu Qubei, but also more than a dozen Xiongnu nobles who were with Liu Qubei also died among the chaos.

These three Hun nobles changed their soldiers' clothes in time and mingled in the chaos army before they escaped. In the end, they did not escape the Han army's inspection one by one and were recognized and exposed by other Hun soldiers.

Three Hun nobles were taken to Liu Jing, knelt down and kowtowed to beg for mercy. Liu Jing asked them: "I want to know where Liu Qubei's nest is now? Are you still in Hetao, or have you migrated to Yinshan?"

"Report to Your Highness, Liu Qubei will never let his subordinates go to Yinshan, but he is not in Hetao now."

“So where?”

Three Hun nobles looked at each other, and an elderly chief said tremblingly: "Liu Qubei wanted to seize the Hexi Corridor. Therefore, after sending troops to Gaonu and Lingzhou in August, he ordered his uncle Ge Ye to lead more than 300,000 subordinates to move west to Juyanze for winter, and prepare to launch a large-scale attack on Hexi with his son Liu Meng next spring. This is the highest secret and only a few people know."
Chapter completed!