Chapter 23: Deceiving Zhang Liao into surrendering
"Your trick of sowing discord is a bit clumsy!"

Zhang Liao was not the kind of reckless man who only had muscles. He was completely unmoved by Ji Hao's deception and continued, "I brought ladders and catapults. Don't force me to attack the city!"

Ji Hao had expected this.

If he could be easily alienated, how could Zhang Liao become the leader of the "Five Elite Generals" later on?
He surrendered to more people than Lü Bu, but why did no one scold him? Because he surrendered only when he was at his wit's end. Otherwise, as long as his lord was still alive, he was a loyal general.

"Then let me ask you, do you know the strength of the defenders of Chengtian Ferry?" Ji Hao asked.

This question really stumped Zhang Liao.

The end of the Han Dynasty was not the modern era, and the flow of information was extremely slow. It was impossible to take photos, so we could only rely on spies to explore and then go back to make a sand table for the commander to see.

Naturally, they don't know much about each other.

"I know you have 20,000 troops and it's not easy to capture, but you alone can't compete with the imperial court!" Zhang Liao finally said: "I advise you to retreat to Qingzhou and stay in Chengtiandu. It will be good for everyone!"

After saying that, he waved his hand and his soldiers pushed the ladder over.

That was a large siege weapon built by Lu Ban. It was originally impossible to get through, but in order to develop Chengtian Ferry, Ji Hao built the "Chengtian Avenue" that led directly to the official road of Luoyang.

Instead, it allowed Zhang Liao to transport the ladders.

But does it make sense?
"It seems that Ding Yuan really wants you to die, otherwise he would not have failed to tell you the true situation of Chengtian Ferry." Ji Hao continued to provoke and waved his hand.

Four portals suddenly opened under the high wall.

Four teams of cavalry, each with 2,500 men, took the initiative to charge out of the gate.

Two teams rushed to the left wing, and two teams rushed to the right wing.

"Array up!"

Zhang Liao was not panicked. He was not worried about the enemy attacking. Instead, he was worried that the enemy would not come out: the main force of the Bingzhou army was the cavalry. The Bingzhou cavalry was invincible in the world and could defeat anyone in the open field.

On the contrary, cavalry is of little use when attacking a city.

But at this moment, Zhang Liao saw an incredible scene: Ji Hao was holding a spear in one hand and something that looked like a bird's wing in the other, and he actually jumped directly down from the city gate!

Also jumping down was a team of about five hundred personal guards.

It was like a divine soldier descending from the sky and heading straight for Zhang Liao.

At the same time, the city gate was opened, and a tall and majestic Red Hare took the lead, leading five hundred war horses to rush out. Just when it rushed in front of Zhang Liao, it caught Ji Hao and others.

Someone may say here, isn’t this like taking off pants to fart?
Wouldn't it be better to just rush out on horseback?
That's not the case.

In war, morale is the key and psychological tactics are the most important. The appearance of the warriors, which seemed like a divine force descending from the sky, stunned Zhang Liao and his bodyguards.

By the time I reacted, the other party had already rushed in front of me.

They subconsciously organized resistance, but once they started fighting, the situation became one-sided: Ji Hao's personal guards were all "kings of soldiers" selected from the major competitions in recent years, and were trained in the way of special forces in later generations.

Equipped with a crossbow.

Before the person arrived, the crossbow arrows swept around.

Immediately afterwards, people rushed forward and the two sides started close combat. The carefully trained "Haotian Guards" were all highly skilled in martial arts, and their armor and weapons were configured according to the specifications of generals.

Not to mention being able to defeat ten with one, there is absolutely no problem defeating three with one.

If the gap is this big, it will be overwhelming.

As soon as they met, Zhang Liao's personal guards collapsed. Coupled with the shock of the divine soldiers descending from the sky before, many people gave up resistance and turned around to run away.

In order to run faster, he even took off his armor.

It is just like the saying goes "throw away all the armor and weapons".

"Stop, everyone, stop right there. No matter how strong they are at fighting, they only have 500 men!" Zhang Liao was stunned by the sudden attack, but he quickly calmed down and organized a counterattack.

It seems that the chaos is about to be brought under control.

But at this moment, Ji Hao fired a shot.

"Using the gun as a heavy weapon?" Zhang Liao was puzzled, feeling that it was not a move used by a "peerless general".

Subconsciously he raised the weapon in his hand to block.

As a result, he did not feel any weight - when the spear chopped down, Ji Hao used his extreme strength to bend it, making the spear shaft bent into a semicircle.

As a result, the length was reduced and it passed Zhang Liao's weapon.

Then, it instantly straightened up and rushed towards his shoulder, piercing into his shoulder before Zhang Liao could block it.

The armor was as thin as paper and was pierced through directly.

"There is such a move?"

Zhang Liao was shocked, but he did not lose the strength to resist. Instead, he slashed at Ji Hao's neck with a knife.

Wanting to take the opportunity to kill him,

Unexpectedly, Ji Hao did not retreat but advanced. When the big knife was coming towards him, he suddenly held the gun with one hand and reached out to Zhang Liao's knife handle with the other hand, just in time to grab it.

And then... there was nothing after that.

This is Ji Hao's unique skill of "grabbing weapons" that he has practiced for three years.

Relying on the accuracy acquired through hard training, he grasped the connection between the gun head, the knife head and the pole, and then used his own strength to hold on directly and not let go, thus destroying the opponent's weapon.

Such as this time.

After Zhang Liao was grabbed by the hilt of the knife, he tried to pull it back with both hands, but found that he could not do it at all.

Instead, Ji Hao held a knife in one hand and a spear in the other, lifted him up and hung him in the air, laughing and saying, "I have captured your commander, why don't you surrender quickly?"

After saying that, he looked at Zhang Liao's flag with the word "Liao" on it, walked over and kicked it in pieces.

Hang Zhang Liao on it.

The army was thrown into chaos in an instant, and they were defeated and ran towards Ding Yuan crying for their parents.

As for Zhang Liao, at this moment he wanted to die.

"Ji Hao, killing is not enough, how dare you insult me ​​like this?"

He thought Ji Hao did it on purpose and wanted to kill him in this way to shock Ding Yuan.

However, when the army was defeated, Ji Hao let him go.

"Someone, come and heal Wenyuan!"

At the command, a military doctor immediately took out alcohol, first disinfected the wound, then sewed it stitch by stitch, and finally wrapped it with gauze.

Zhang Liao was stunned.

"You're not going to kill me?"

"What good will it do me to kill you?" Ji Hao said, "Just surrender! Ding Yuan may not want to kill you through me, but letting you attack Chengtian Ferry means he is either crazy or he wants to consume your troops and weaken your influence in the Bingzhou army!"

These words made Zhang Liao fall into deep thought.

It was indeed a bit strange that Ding Yuan suddenly asked him to attack Chengtian Ferry.

Although he was more inclined to believe that Ding Yuan became arrogant after occupying the imperial city and thought that Chengtian Ferry was within his grasp, did he really not have the idea of ​​sending himself to fight a "battle of siege" and forcibly attack the city, thus wasting his own troops?

Not necessarily.

Otherwise, wouldn’t it be better to first join forces with Lu Bu to kill Dong Zhuo, take over the Xiliang Army, and then come to Chengtiandu?
"I can surrender to you, but I will not sell out any Bingzhou military intelligence, nor will I help you fight Ding Yuan, otherwise you'd better kill me!" Zhang Liao finally said.

Ji Hao smiled at this.

"You don't have to fight, and you don't have to worry about it - after today, there will be no Ding Yuan in this world anymore! Just follow me to the main battlefield and stand aside and watch!"

(End of this chapter)