3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 4

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

8
Xuande asked, "In the days of old, when Gaozu took over the world, did he not entice his enemies to surrender and allow those who obeyed his governance to rejoin society; why do you refuse Han Zhong?"[3] Jun replied, "That was then, this is now. In the days of old, during the time of Qin and Xiang, the world was in chaos, and the people had not chosen a leader. Therefore, enticing the enemy to surrender with the promise of a reward made sense. Nowadays, the country is united, with the exception of the Yellow Turbans who are in rebellion; if we were to allow them to surrender, nothing good would come from it. If we give the bandit rebels a leg up, they will rob and plunder at will; if we cause them to lose the advantage, they can simply surrender; this emboldens the will of the bandit rebels, so it is not a good strategy." Xuande said, "We will not allow the thugs to surrender, and that's that. We now have them surrounded as if they were in an iron barrel; even if they beg to surrender, they will receive no quarter, this will inevitably be a fight to the death. Ten thousand people are of the same mind; resistance is futile. At any rate, doesn't this mean that tens of thousands of city residents now have a death sentence? It would be better to withdraw our forces from the southeast, and focus our attack on the northwest. The bandit rebels will be forced to abandon the city and leave. They will unintentionally get caught up in the heat of battle, and then we can nab them."

9
Jun concurred with him, and they withdrew the forces from the southeast; the two forces, now united, attacked the northwest in unison. As expected, Han Zhong abandoned the city and fled with his army. Jun, along with Xuande, Guan and Zhang, led the three armies on a surprise attack. Han Zhong was killed by an arrow, and the rest scattered in all four directions.

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Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.

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This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.