Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 184 The Curtain Ends Here
The fire quickly spread in the watchtower, and Gongsun Zan's family members cried out, some wanted to put out the fire, some wanted to escape down the stairs.

Gongsun Zan looked crazy, he spread his arms, blocked the stairs, and shouted: "No one is allowed to leave!"

"Today, my Gongsun Bogui is buried here, and I will never bow to Yuan Shi!"

Looking at what happened in the watchtower, Tian Yu wanted to speak up several times, but in the end, he suddenly realized that everything was meaningless.

Gongsun Zan has become like this, what else can he do?
The fire was getting bigger and bigger. Some people were on fire, rolling and crying on the ground, while the rest kept crying, and the floors and walls made of wood also started to burn.

Hou Shi was sitting in a corner with her baby in her arms, her gaze was dull. Now she seemed to have lost all her strength.

Liu He wanted to jump over Gongsun Zan and escape downstairs, but was kicked down by Gongsun Zan, unable to get up on the ground.

Yuan Xi loudly ordered the soldiers below to push the Yunlou closer, approaching from several feet to ten feet, the bottom of the watchtower collided with the bottom of the Yunlou, and the top could no longer get closer.

Yuan Xi shouted to Liu He: "Jump over here!"

Liu He barely sat up, struggled a few times, but failed to stand up.

Yuan Xi shouted: "Marquis Ji!"

"If you let Liu He go, I will keep your family safe in front of my father!"

Gongsun Zan's family members were already in despair. Hearing Yuan Xi's promise, they immediately knelt down and kowtowed, while crying for Gongsun Zan to spare his life.

Gongsun Zan's face was ferocious, and he roared, "Don't try to confuse me!"

"Yuan Shao is a hypocrite, and so are you!"

"You guys, no one is trustworthy!"

Yuan Xi saw that the fire spread to the outer wall of the watchtower, and the stairs also started to burn. The thick smoke billowed and choked everyone coughing. He sighed in his heart. He tried his best this time, but there was really nothing he could do.

At this moment, on the stairs of the watchtower, a man braved the fire and walked up step by step.

Gongsun Zan, who was blocking the stairs, saw that it was Tian Kai, who was carrying a wooden plank more than ten feet long on his shoulders.

He roared: "Tian Kai, are you going to betray me too?"

Tian Kai was on fire, and the stairs under his feet were crumbling. He walked a few steps quickly and went up to the top floor. The stairs under his feet wobbled a few times, and then collapsed.

When everyone saw this, they became even more desperate, and Gongsun Zan burst out laughing.

Tian Kai walked to the wall and stepped on it.

The wooden wall was already burnt to dilapidation, Tian Kai kicked a big hole immediately.

However, Tian Kai stuck the wooden plank on the edge of the watchtower, pushed the other end towards the Yunlou, and the wooden plank fell upside down.

He yelled, "Catch it!"

Yuan Xi and the others just woke up like a dream, they quickly caught one end of the board and put it down.

This piece of wood is put between the watchtower and cloud tower, and it becomes a wooden bridge!
Yuan Xi was overjoyed, and shouted to Liu He: "Come quickly!"

Liu He took a deep breath, stood up suddenly, rushed forward a few steps, and stepped on the wooden board.

The wind was so strong at the height that it made his clothes rattle, and his body was also tilted, almost falling off the plank.

Liu He's face turned pale, but his figure didn't stop at all. He lowered his body and walked quickly. He walked across the wooden bridge in a blink of an eye, and was pulled into Yunlou by Zhao Yun.

Gongsun Zan still wanted to stop him, but Tian Kai stopped him. He said angrily, "Tian Kai, you dare to cooperate with the enemy!"

"Are you a spy!"

"Do you want to beg for surrender from Yuan Shi?"

Tian Kai sighed: "If he dies, the general's family will not survive either!"

Gongsun Zan was furious: "I'm about to die, why should they live!"

"You have a retreat, but I, how can I retreat?"

Seeing his family members rushing towards the plank, he was so angry that he picked up the ring-shoudao that had fallen from the ground with both hands. With this force, the blood from the wound on his arms spurted out again.

With a loud roar, he slashed the woman's vest who had just stepped on the plank.

The woman screamed and fell from the wooden plank. Her body tumbled and fell more than ten feet in the air, and then collided heavily with the ground, falling out of shape.

Everyone at the scene cried out in unison, they rushed onto the planks one after another, and rushed towards the Yunlou desperately, and a few people in the middle stumbled and fell.

Gongsun Zan followed up and swung the saber again, but Tian Kai stood in front of the saber, the long saber pierced his shoulder, and blood gushed out, but Tian Kai remained calm.

Gongsun Zan said angrily, "Tian Kai, why are you ruining my affairs!"

Tian Kai stretched out his hand to hold the blade: "General, you made a mistake. This is the end, at least this is the last time, don't make another mistake."

Gongsun Zan shouted, "How dare you teach me!"

Tian Kai saw that everyone had almost escaped, but Hou Shi was still in a daze in the corner, so he said: "Madam, take the child and go quickly."

Only then did Hou wake up like a dream, and stood up while leaning on the wall.

Gongsun Zan wanted to stop him, but Tian Kai held onto the blade tightly, blood dripping down, and shouted loudly, "Jihou!"

"Let the lady and child go!"

"At least there is a possibility of survival, it is better than no hope at all!"

Gongsun Zan wanted to raise his saber to attack Hou, but he was stunned when he heard Tian Kai's words.

He murmured: "At least there is still hope."

"At least there is hope?"

He looked up to the sky and laughed loudly: "It's too late!"

He turned the long knife around and pierced his chest with a puff. After a while, he collapsed and died, his eyes still wide open.

Hou exclaimed loudly, knelt on the ground, and cried bitterly on Gongsun Zan's body.

The hearts of everyone on Yuan Xi's side felt sad, and the curtain of a generation of heroes came to an end.

The fire was getting bigger and bigger, Tian Kai said: "Madam, it's time to leave."

Hou shook her head and said sadly: "He is dead, do I want to stay in this world and be scolded by others?"

Tian Kai pointed to Hou's arms, "Ma'am, do you want this child to be buried here too?"

Hou was stunned, she wiped away her tears, hugged the child tightly in her arms, and stood up slowly.

Holding the child, she struggled to walk to the front of the plank. A gust of wind blew her body up and down.

Her face was pale, the plank was too narrow, she dared not walk across it with the child in her arms!

Seeing this, Yuan Xi said, "The lives of the madam and the child rest with the madam."

Tian Kai also said behind his back: "If you can't go through, you can only die."

Hou cried again: "Why do you all force me?"

"Why do you want to force me?"

Seeing that Hou Shi was still lingering in front of the board, Yuan Xi said, "Ma'am, Jihou has already gone, life or death depends on Madam's thought."

He stepped on the template, took two steps forward, stretched out his hand, and said, "Ma'am, General Tian used his life in exchange for a lifeline for Madam's mother and child, should it be wasted like this?"

Zhao Yun and Sun Li were shocked, and quickly grabbed Yuan Xi's other hand hand in hand.

My lord is too capable of killing me, what if I fall?
Yuan Xi was actually a little scared, but now he has realized that Liu He and Hou's mother and son can survive, which will be of great use to his future plans in Youzhou!

Otherwise, he would have been on the sidelines long ago.

Hou heard Tian Kai say behind her back: "Madam, let's go."

"The general is dead, Madam doesn't need to be buried with Gongsun's family."

After hearing this, Hou gritted her teeth, rushed onto the plank with her swaddled baby in her arms, lowered her head and ran wildly.

The wooden board was wobbly, Tian Kai stepped forward and pressed the wooden board firmly.

Hou didn't know how many steps he ran, but when the strong wind blew, he felt his body suddenly lost his balance, and he was about to fall.

She was waiting to die with her eyes closed, when she suddenly felt someone grab her wrist, she took two quick steps and stood in the cloud tower.

She slowly opened her eyes and made sure that she had walked over safely, only then did she feel her legs and feet go weak, and she slumped on the ground.

Looking at Hou's back, Tian Kai remembered that when he met Gongsun Zan more than ten years ago, Hou was still a newly married little girl, she always smiled at everyone.
So many years have passed.
At this time Tian Yu grabbed the board and shouted to Tian Kai: "Climb along the board quickly!"

The fire has swept through the top of the watchtower, the walls, the roof, the floor, Tian Kai and the wooden planks in his hands.

Tian Kai let go of the board, watched it fall in the air with flames, stood up vigorously, and said to Tian Yu: "I'm tired, you still have a long way to go."

Flames spread from him.

At this moment, Hou came back to his senses a little, his lips trembling, and he stared blankly at the flames starting to engulf Tian Kai's body.

Tian Kai turned to Yuan Xi, "My lord is amazing, but it's a pity that I couldn't fully enjoy myself in the battle of Qingzhou."

"I also hope that the young master treats the country minister kindly."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi bowed deeply, "Remember Brother Tian's words."

"Brother is a hero in this world, it is Xi's lifelong regret that he cannot work with him."

Tian Kai laughed, walked up to Gongsun Zan's corpse and sat down, "My lord thinks highly of me, so I bid farewell."

"I'm not reconciled, who will win in the end..."

The fire engulfed his body.

Yunlou was slowly pushed away by Yuan Jun soldiers, getting farther and farther away from the watchtower.

Yuan Xi stood on the edge of the cloud tower, the burning watchtower in the distance was like a candle, Tian Kai couldn't sit upright, his scorched body was like a wick, illuminating the whole sky.

He said loudly: "Brother Tian, ​​go all the way!"

Tian Yu knelt down with a plop, lowered his head deeply, and buried it in his arms.

Yuan Shao stood at the gate of the city, and saw that the only thing left in Yi Jing, the tallest watchtower, burned and collapsed in the flames.

The counselors and generals under his command came up to congratulate him one after another.

Yuan Shao felt a little emotional, his greatest enemy these years was finally defeated by himself.

Regardless of whether Gongsun Zan died or surrendered, there would no longer be any threat to him.

This result was somewhat beyond Yuan Shao's expectations, because in Yuan Shao's expectation, it would take another three years of preparation to break Gongsun Zan's roots in Youzhou before he could be sure of winning the decisive battle with Gongsun Zan.

And let the surrounding princes restrain each other, so that you can send troops with confidence.

However, there was an accident before, and the surrounding princes were either seriously injured or overwhelmed, and they actually created an excellent opportunity for themselves to send troops.

This is more or less related to Yuan Xi's promotion. Yuan Shao even guessed that Yuan Xi did many unknown things in places that he didn't know about.

This son gave himself too many unexpected surprises.

He began to hesitate, is he really going to adopt Yuan Xi?
Yuan Xiqi's ambition is not small, and now under his own name, how much can he use his family to restrain him? If he breaks away from him, will his two brothers really be able to firmly suppress him in the future?
Yuan Shao hesitated when he thought of the lessons learned from his brother-in-law with Yuan Shu after he adopted him.

But at that time, even if he was not adopted, would he be willing to do nothing and live this life?

Amid the amazement of the soldiers, the watchtower collapsed. Gongsun Zan's soldiers no longer had the will to resist and surrendered one after another.

The bricks and rubble of the watchtower formed a mound, like a tomb, buried Gongsun Zan's bones and his ambitions.

The overlord who once ruled the four northern states and occupied half of the world, the place where he died was not too much soil.

(End of this chapter)