Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1368 Night Attack
Zhong Yao's answer almost pulled Liu Shao back from the brink of death. He suddenly shuddered and instantly became much more sober. "What is Yuan Chang talking about?"

"Fear?"

"You are almost sixty years old. You have seen a lot of storms and waves. How can you be afraid of a young man like him?"

Zhong Yao sighed, "Don't underestimate him because he is young. He is so talented that I have never seen him before. Yet he behaves so modestly. This shows that he is either a saint or thinks highly of himself and disdains to confide in others."

"This kind of person is the most terrifying. If you treat him well, he will remember it. If you treat him badly, he will remember it even more."

"Chen Qun is a man who only cares about benefits. You can't be close friends with him, but he won't retaliate. Even if you offend him, as long as there are benefits, you can still be friends."

"But Sima Yi is different."

"If you make him bear a grudge against you, then it will be hard to say what will happen."

"Offend gentlemen, but don't offend...people who hold grudges."

"He is so young, yet he has already reached such a high position. Our descendants will have to rely on his protection in the future, so how can we offend him so easily?"

"It would be better to sell him."

Liu Shao was silent for a while before he spoke up: "Then why did Yuan Chang want to support him in the first place? Wouldn't it be enough to stop him from becoming an official?"

Zhong Yao sighed and said, "Who should we choose then?"

"The whole Wei State is full of those who are greedy and servile. Most of them are opportunists and will switch sides when they see the situation is not good. Can we rely on them to support the Wei State in the face of storms?"

"When the late emperor was alive, he showed me and you great kindness. In order to repay this kindness, I have no choice but to choose the lesser of two evils and bet on Sima Yi to turn the tide. If he can't, then no one else can."

"As for you and me, why should we care about what happens after we die? I am a few years older than Kong Cai. After Kong Cai passes away, how many years do I have left to live?"

"When the conflict between Jin and Wei comes, it will no longer be something that you and I, who are in the underworld, should be concerned about."

After hearing this, Liu Shao sat up and sighed, "Yuan Chang, I have been following you for more than ten years. At that time, I was nearly forty years old, but I wasted my time. It was not until I met you that I became famous in the world. With your help, I have achieved what I have today."

"Although I have been displaced, I have never regretted meeting Ming Gong and Yuan Chang."

"No matter how future generations comment on the affairs of Han and Wei, I am still a minister of the Wei Dynasty."

A few days later, Liu Shao died of illness. Cao Pi personally held the funeral for him, and all officials came to pay their respects. Sima Yi saw Zhong Yao in the crowd and realized that he hadn't seen him for more than a year. The other person's hair had turned gray and he looked much older.

He thought to himself, is it possible that this small circle of three of them, which has only existed for a few years, will end in such a sad way?

At the same time, with the arrival of midsummer, the epidemic in the Xianbei camp in Youzhou began to spread.

But the method provided by Sun Quan gave great inspiration to the shamans on the grassland. They found out, or came up with the ancient sky burial ritual of burning corpses. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, effectively preventing the increase in the number of infected people.

Kobe was extremely happy about this. If things continued like this, as long as they were isolated for a period of time, the Xianbei soldiers would recover their morale and be ready to launch a full-scale attack!
After several mobilizations by Kobinen, the Xianbei tribe completely abandoned their fantasies. They slaughtered a large number of cattle and sheep, and even killed the female livestock for reproduction the next year.

However, too many livestock had died of disease previously, so the Xianbei abandoned almost all the elderly and supplied sufficient food to the soldiers to ensure combat effectiveness, while women and children could only get a very small amount of spoiled food to sustain life.

In this situation, everyone knew that the Xianbei were going to make a desperate attempt. Zhang Liao, Gao Lan and others led their troops to attack Daicheng in succession, trying to disrupt the Xianbei's plan of a full-scale military expedition, but they were all beaten back by the Xianbei who had been prepared.

This was soon discovered by spies from the Procuratorate, who reported it to Gao Lan, who was confronting the Xianbei people.

After receiving the news, Gao Lan took out a secret order that he had already written and asked someone to sneak into Dai County and bring it to the assassin from the Procuratorate who was lurking in his arms.

A few days later, the leader of the Procuratorate's death squad in the city received a secret order from Gao Lan and began to secretly recruit people.

When the Xianbei captured Dai County, there were still tens of thousands of people there who had no time to escape. They were made slaves by the Xianbei and forced to build city defenses day and night. Among them were dozens of death squads from the Procuratorate.

And now, after enduring so much, they finally received the order and knew that this moment had finally arrived.

The spies who received the news dug out the weapons and armor parts buried underground, and completed the armor in the shortest time possible. Then, they followed the route they had planned long ago and gathered secretly in a secret house not far from King Kobinen's tent under the cover of night.

The leader of the death squad looked at the more than 40 people standing in a neat line and said, "Everyone, the time to repay the lord has come."

"Without the grace of the lord saving our lives, our family would have died in the chaos of war, or been tortured and enslaved by the barbarians. How could we have enough food and clothing today?"

"The lord promised that no matter whether we can return alive or not, he will support our family for life. We are not ungrateful to him. The day of repayment is tonight!" "We are all from Youzhou. If we can exchange our lives for the life of the Xianbei Chanyu, hundreds of thousands of people of our Youzhou clan will be spared from death. This is a big profit!"

When everyone heard this, they roared in unison: "Die for our lord!"

"Die for Youzhou!"

Kobinen's royal tent was actually in the private residence of a wealthy family in the city. It was used because the courtyard was spacious and clean.

However, Kobineng did not live in the house. Instead, he set up a tent in the yard as the royal tent. The tent was surrounded by patrolling guards, while the clan leaders and important officials lived in the houses around the royal tent. The outer walls of the courtyard were stationed with layers of soldiers.

In this way, these lines of defense eliminated the risk of Kebineng being assassinated to the greatest extent. As a matter of fact, after Kebineng entered the pass, the State of Jin did not take any corresponding assassination measures.

However, that evening, when Kobineng was hosting a banquet in the royal tent to invite important ministers and clan leaders to prepare for the full-scale military deployment a few days later, something unexpected happened.

With the sound of explosions, hundreds of mines and fire bombs were thrown into the house from all directions. For a moment, the thick smoke and pungent smell produced by the explosions covered the courtyard, a raging fire broke out, and screams were heard everywhere.

Kobe quickly learned that a large group of bandits were attacking the house. Due to the chaos, the number of bandits was unknown, but the exploding bamboo tubes and fire tubes were extremely powerful, and they were obviously unique to the Jin army!

Hearing this, a trace of anger flashed through Kobe's heart. It must be that there were spies from the other side mixed in with the slaves in Dai County, and they used the weapons buried in advance. If he had known this earlier, he would have killed all of them when entering the city!
But now that things have happened, they can only find ways to remedy the situation. Kobe made a decision immediately. Since the enemy's situation is unclear, there is no need for him to be brave. He just needs to find a safe place to hide, avoid the opponent's most violent attacks, and then wait for the soldiers to arrive and kill all the rebels!

Kobe could think very clearly. He didn't need to stand up in person to show his support. For the Xianbei tribe now, being alive was more important than anything else. Saving his own life was the first priority!

As soon as he thought of this, he stood up and said to the panicked crowd: "Don't panic, there is a secret room in this house for refuge. Please follow me and avoid the assassin's attack first, and then wait for reinforcements to arrive."

Jia Xu, Sun Quan and others were surprised and asked, "Secret room?"

"where is it?"

Kirby laughed and pointed to the fire in the middle of the tent and said, "Right here!"

The guards pushed the charcoal away and cleared the dirt on the ground, revealing a three-foot square iron plate with a copper ring.

When the guards pulled the copper ring and lifted the iron plate, they discovered a secret passage with stairs leading downwards.

Kobe went down first and said with a smile: "This is what my soldiers found when we entered the city. Now it is just in time to use it. You all follow me. The guards will guard the entrance of the cave. We are not afraid of any assassins!"

Immediately, the clan leaders, Jia Xu, Sun Quan and others followed him down the stairs, only to find that the bottom was not deep, but just a hall of several feet in radius, with some sundries piled inside.

This should be the secret room that the rich used to store their property. There must have been a lot of things stored there, but they were all taken away when they escaped, so it looks extremely empty. The space is large enough for the forty or fifty people present to take shelter.

As the iron plate above was lowered, the cellar fell into darkness. Everyone panicked, but Kobinen said, "Don't panic, I've asked someone to investigate. There is an airway leading to the outside. It won't suffocate people. All we have to do is wait patiently."

"But if we ignite it, problems may occur, so please be patient."

After hearing this, everyone quieted down and listened to the sounds of fighting coming from overhead. After a while, everyone was surprised to find that the explosions gradually became sparse, which should be because the Xianbei guards had the upper hand!
However, no one noticed that in the pitch-dark cellar, someone was tiptoeing towards a corner.

He touched the wall lightly and finally touched a heavy wooden box covered with iron sheets. The box was extremely large and heavy, and it should be fixed to the ground and locked.

Because it was empty, the Xianbei people did not open it to check. They just thought that the owner took the things inside and locked it.

But the man took out a key from his pocket, slowly put it into the keyhole and turned it. With a click, the lock popped open.

The sound was extremely harsh in the room, and Kobe Neng and Sun Quan shouted immediately, "Who is it?"

The man didn't care about anything else at this point, he pushed open the heavy lid of the box a little, then rolled in.

As his supporting hands dropped, the heavy lid of the box fell and was fastened again.

At that time, Kobe knew something was wrong, so he ordered people to light torches and start counting the number of people. He immediately discovered that Jia Xu had disappeared!
Seeing the locked box in the corner, Kirby instinctively felt something was wrong and yelled, "Go, get out!"

However, it was too late. Jia Xu, who was inside the box, had already found the mechanism at the bottom of the box and pulled it hard.

Several feet underground, as the mechanism above was pulled, a phosphorus powder fuse was ignited by the flint. The match burned rapidly and ignited hundreds of barrels of explosives neatly stacked underground.

With a loud bang, the entire underground of Dai County began to shake violently.

(End of this chapter)