It’s not that Zhang Lu could not bear the blow, but that Ma Chao’s handwritten letter hit him too much, and it was really too blowing to others.

Ma Chao's letter made it very clear that after the letter shot to the city gate, within an hour, if Zhang Lu did not open the city to surrender, he would immediately order the water to flood Nanzheng. Even if Zhang Lu opened the city to surrender, it would be too late. This is what Ma Chao meant in the letter, so after Zhang Lu read it, can he not be hit? So within an hour, you must decide whether to open the city to surrender or be flooded.

Zhang Lu didn't think what Ma Chao was talking about was a joke, so he was still making such jokes at this time. Moreover, it was raining heavily these days, but he was careless. So it was very likely that Ma Chao would let the water flood Nanzheng. The key is that Ma Meng and Liangzhou army acted like this, and he didn't know it. Now there is less than an hour left, and what can one hour be used for? What else can it do? Besides, even if you take a step back, the soldiers guarding the city can escape, but can the people of Nanzheng be well?

OK, let’s take a few hundred thousand steps back, even if the people are fine, what should the people do if the people’s property is flooded? Once the flood is flooded, the losses will be great, and he will be sorry to the people of Nanzheng. Zhang Lu quickly summoned everyone and everyone discussed what was going on. In fact, he already wanted to open the city to surrender, but he still had to discuss it with his subordinates.

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Ma Chao's camp, now all Ma Chao's men and horses have retreated to the west coast of the Han River. It depends on how Zhang Lu makes a decision at this time.

Jia Xu's plan was to flood Nanzheng, but others in Ma Chao's army were not clear about it, but Jia Xu knew very well about Hanzhong. Just as he said, he had come to Hanzhong when he was young. And of course, Jia Xu, he, knew that it was a particularly important military center. So he stayed here for more than a month. At that time, he chatted with local farmers. As a result, people told him that fortunately he came early. If it was not until June, it would be much more embarrassing to catch up with the rainy season in Hanzhong.

As a result, Jia Xu became interested and asked him questions, so he told him a lot. Anyway, June every year is the rainy season in Hanzhong. Even if it doesn’t rain heavily a few days ago, it will rain heavily within ten days. Then it rains intermittently throughout June, just like that. Although Jia Xu doesn’t know much about meteorological things, he remembers this. In June, Hanzhong rainy season, it rains heavily, and it will continue to fall intermittently.

So Jia Xu had told Ma Chao about his ideas before. Although Ma Chao didn't know much about meteorological things, he had at least two thousand years of experience. So although he didn't know what the climate was in Hanzhong in the 21st century, at this time in 192 AD, Hanzhong had this climate. In June, the rainy season and then heavy rain. So he immediately patted the board and made a decision, waiting for the water to flood Nanzheng.

So Ma Chao sent people to the intersection of the Han River and Bao River, which made nearly a hundred people busy for several nights, and finally they were ready. Now the water storage capacity is enough to flood Nanzheng. If you want to say that Jia Xu said this place is indeed the best place. Nanzheng is next to two rivers, the first one is naturally the Han River, and Nanzheng is in the northeast of the Han River. The second one is the Bao River. The place where the Bao River and the Han River meet is not far from Hanzhong, and it is even closer to the place where Ma Chao is stationed.

As a result, Ma Chao was busy for several days, but Zhang Lu did not notice that, after all, it was indeed a little farther from them than Ma Chao. Originally, Jia Xu meant that he would just let the water flood Nanzheng and just let the city flood, and then Zhang Lu had to surrender or something else. But Ma Chao didn't think so, because in his opinion, if you can not let the water flood Nanzheng, try not to let the water flood. After all, the people are the foundation, and let the city flood is a bad strategy, which is a forced way to do things.

As for the decision of Ma Chao, Jia Xu, at least he has never refuted it to this day, and it is the same at this time. In fact, he also knew that his lord had his own ideas in his work, and it would be difficult for ordinary people to change his decision. But this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is Jia Xu's personality. That's it. If he can refute it and argue with reason, he would not be the Wuwei Jia Xu and Jia Wenhe who is good at protecting himself. However, Jia Xu actually felt that his lord was doing right, but he had to wait for Zhang Lu's final decision.

In fact, why Ma Chao made such a decision, there are two main reasons. The first is Hanzhong and the people of Hanzhong. Because Hanzhong is a place that he must obtain, and after he is occupied, it will be under his jurisdiction. So today if you make the people of Nanzheng lose, then when you rule the land in the future, you will inevitably lose some people's hearts. Of course, this people's hearts can be made up, but the people cannot come back.

This is what Ma Chao is even more worried about, because the people are the foundation. In the years of war, the Han people were fewer and fewer. Ma Chao remembered that he had seen a set of data in his previous life. He said that Liu Hong had actually had a large number of people at that time, but from the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the end of the Three Kingdoms, there were really not many. It can be seen that many people were gone so far as the war was gone, otherwise peace would be valuable. "People are not as good as the peace dog in troubled times". Isn't that the case? The Han people were fewer, and there were more and more people from foreign races in the future, so it eventually caused greater chaos, which was inseparable from the reduction of the war.

As for the second one, it is that Ma Chao is sure that Zhang Lu and Zhang Gongqi can surrender to him. Regardless of whether he is sincere or false, Ma Chao knows that Zhang Lu is actually a person who can think about the people. Because Zhang Lu is different from ordinary people, he is a Taoist priest, a person with true faith, and a person of the highest level. People like this will never ignore tens of thousands of creatures. This is what Ma Chao relies on. Now that he forces him to surrender with the people of Nanzheng, Ma Chao is 80% sure that Zhang Lu can surrender.

In Ma Chao's impression, although Zhang Lu did not say that he was good to the people, he was definitely not a villain, and he was actually really good to the people. Especially Ma Chao remembered that when Cao Cao conquers Hanzhong, Zhang Lu could not resist it in the end and had to surrender. As a result, his younger brother Zhang Wei gave him an idea, which meant that he would burn the treasury and could not be left to Cao Mengde.

As a result, Zhang Lu shook his head and said, "The granaries and treasury are not abolished by the country!"

After that, he directly asked someone to seal the treasury, and then waited for Cao Cao to enter the city.

From here, Ma Chao felt that Zhang Lu was actually a more principled person, and at least he knew to protect the treasury, no one could move. Then of course he would definitely protect the people. He was a Taoist practitioner. Although he didn't necessarily say that he had to be compassionate and did things with immeasurable merits every day, Zhang Lu would never have any bad thoughts. This is what Ma Chao thought, so in front of tens of thousands of people, Zhang Lu would eventually choose to compromise, but he would not be the evil person.

In fact, he should all understand. There are only two results. First, he opened the city and surrendered and saved Nanzheng. Second, he was flooded, and then was forced to surrender, or killed or something. Isn’t that the case? So Zhang Lu didn’t know how to choose, so he would be the prefect for nothing and the Tianshi Master of the Five Dogs of Rice Sect for free.

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Zhang Lu summoned all his subordinates and said the content of Ma Chao's handwritten letter, everyone was shocked. Why, of course, Ma Chao was so cruel that he made him surrender, and secondly, he was deceived by others. But he and others didn't even notice it. Isn't this ashamed?

As a result, soldiers came to report that Ma Chao's army had all retreated to the west bank of the Han River.

Everyone knew that Ma Chao had not attacked the city these days, and they thought that he had just been in a truce for the time being, and then they waited for the rest before talking. As a result, he secretly sent someone to store water, and is now preparing to decimate the Han River and Bao River to flood Nanzheng.

Yang Song quickly said, "Shijun, Ma Mengqi will give us an hour. If we don't make plans, our Nan Zheng will be ruined!"

Although Yang Song’s statement may be a bit exaggerated, when the Han River and Bao River flood, Nan Zheng will definitely be seriously damaged by his vitality.

Zhang Lu said: "What do you think sir?"

Yang Song gritted his teeth and said, "Shi Jun, it's better to surrender at this time!"

Zhang Lu nodded dejectedly and said nothing more.

As a result, Yan Pu next to him said, "Yang Song, you are asking Shi Jun to surrender for yourself! Shi Jun, my subordinates, you can surrender, but you have to agree with Ma Mengqi!"

Yan Pu knew that he was careless. Although he had been in Hanzhong for a short time, he also knew that the climate in June was raining all the time. But he didn't care about this, so now he gave Liangzhou army an opportunity to take advantage of it and directly forced Shi Jun to surrender.

Zhang Lu nodded, but he was like this, what conditions could he have to say to him? Zhang Lu suddenly seemed to have been several years older. In fact, he finally felt that his pursuit was nothing. Or that was nothing. He had always been the king, but what could he do after he became king? Is this really what he wanted? Maybe it was not.

At this time, Zhang Lu remembered his ancestors, Zhang Lianggong, the Marquis of Liu of the Han Dynasty. He thought that his ancestors were famous all over the world, but he did not have the intention of becoming a king. He also assisted Emperor Gaozu in seizing the world and retired and became a hermit. He said that no one in the Zhang family could compete with his ancestors again. Not only did he talk about his ability, but he also had this realm. Could it be that with the talent of his ancestors, he could still have no place in the world? But the choice of the ancestors was not to fight for the dominance of the world, but to assist the wise king.

Everyone has different choices, but Zhang Lu doesn't think so completely. He believes that there is also the character of his ancestors, and his ancestors are indeed wise people, and what they pursue is not worldly money, power, and common things. The ancestors are truly for the people, and they have seen through many people.

But I still can’t see through it. Yes, I can’t see through fame and fortune. Is it useless to be the king? Maybe that’s not the path that suits me. What I do should be dedicated to seeking the truth. This is what I should do.

Zhang Wei didn't say anything, and he knew that nothing he said was useless. Of course, he didn't want to surrender, but according to what everyone meant, he wanted to surrender, so what else could he say. This was the first time he didn't follow the crowd and remained silent.

But Zhang Lu said at this time, "Okay, that's it, open the city and surrender!"

When everyone heard this, there was something else to do, and now it was all this. However, what Zhang Lu said was in a very plain tone, as if everything had nothing to do with him. What the prefect of Hanzhong and the king no longer belonged to him. What he would have to take in the future was another path that belonged to him.
Chapter completed!