Three Kingdoms: At the beginning, Lu Bu was mistaken for his father-in-law

Chapter 138 137 It takes no effort

In Xiangxian County, inside the General's Mansion, Cao Cao sat cross-legged on the couch, wearing a cloak, warming himself with empty hands above the brazier in front of him, with a very ugly expression on his face.

Two days ago, he was still looking forward to a bright future in Xiaoguan City, the throat of Xuzhou. God knows that the situation will take a turn for the worse within a day.

After laying out the game for so long, Xiao Guan, who finally got it, changed hands like this.

Surprisingly, he was not too unwilling. After calming down, Cao Cao was completely convinced by the loss to Lin Mo this time.

A secret path that shouldn't have appeared was prepared in advance, and a bandit-filled Jinfan bandit was used by him half a year in advance, who can stand up to it?
After pondering Lin Mo for some time, Cao Cao discovered that the biggest difference between him and ordinary counselors is that he is like a chess player, who counts twenty in one move, and is used to counting all unknowns into account.

To deal with such a person, one must be surprised to win, must jump out of the established thinking, and march in an unexpected way.

This is what Guo Jia is best at, but unfortunately, he fell ill at the moment.

There was a sound of footsteps, and Xia Houyuan walked in, looking haggard, clasped his fists and said, "Sikong, the defeated soldiers from all sides have returned to the camp one after another, with a total of 700 people. Except for the leopard cavalry guarding Sikong, all the cavalry of the three battalions were damaged. , more than one thousand one hundred.

Also, according to the defeated soldiers who returned to the camp, Wen Qian and Man Cheng were killed in battle. "

Cao Cao's body froze, and his face darkened instantly.

For two days, neither of them returned to the camp before Cao Cao guessed that something had happened, but after waiting for the exact news, boundless sorrow still beat in his heart like a stormy sea.

Two-thirds of the army was lost, and one-third of the cavalry was lost. He didn't feel bad, but Le Jin and Li Dian died, and his heart was bleeding.

From the ambush outside Peicheng, to the battle of Anfeng, to the battle of Xiaoguan this time.

Cao Xiu, Cao Chun, Li Tong, Le Jin, Li Dian, and Yu Jin whose whereabouts are unknown, I lost so many generals before I knew it.

There are some things that cannot be studied deeply or recalled. Just a simple calculation, Cao Cao closed his eyes with heartache.

He knew all too well that these people were either titans in the army or geniuses in military training, and some of them were even capable of being alone, but after three fights, the opponent only lost one Hao Meng.

Cao Cao could clearly hear that his heart was bleeding, a thousand soldiers are easy to get, but a general is hard to find.

"Miaocai, sit down." Cao Cao pouted towards the small bench beside him.

Xia Houyuan was a little confused, so he sat down and said puzzledly: "Brother is troubled, do you need to invite Mr. Xun over here? He is unparalleled in resourcefulness, and he may be able to relieve your worries."

Cao Cao just shook his head dully.

It is difficult for outsiders to empathize with the mood at this moment. Xun You is still loyal to him, but after all, it is the Yingchuan family, and there is a gap in the middle.

Compared to Xiahou's family who had spent all their wealth and joined forces with him, his family could do whatever they wanted.

"Brother, Yuan Rang should arrive with his troops before tomorrow evening. If he is upset, he might as well attack Xiaoguan and make Lu Bu pay the price!" Baidi General Xia Houyuan's record is worse than Xiahou Dun's.

In terms of personality, like Zhang Fei, he has a fiery temper, and he likes to fight when he disagrees.

It's just that in the later period, Zhang Fei began to slowly become enlightened, and he learned to use his brain no matter when he was doing things or fighting, but this Xia Houyuan, on the other hand, was fighting recklessly.

"I can't fight anymore."

Cao Cao moved his buttocks, changed his posture, and said weakly: "If the fight continues, Lu Bu and I will either lose, and we will be annexed by Yuan Shao, or"

He didn't want to say any more about the latter words.

After hearing that this was a helpless move, Xia Houyuan said again: "Then, should we send a fast horse to inform Yuan Rang so that his troops don't have to go to Xiang County anymore, and slowly return to Xuchang?"

"Just go back like this?"

Cao Cao sneered, as if laughing at himself, and murmured: "Everyone in the world will say that Cao Cao has 10,000+ soldiers, but he can't beat Lu Bu's tens of thousands of soldiers. He is really a mediocre lord."

Ah this
This doesn't work, that doesn't work either, Xia Houyuan said that he was confused, "What exactly do you want, brother?"

"It's best to let Lu Bu take the initiative to ask for peace, or to say please make peace. I will also have an explanation to the court and inside and outside the court when I retreat."

We have lost a big battle, my eldest brother, will Lu Bu come to ask for peace?
Xia Houyuan thought for a while and shook his head. Anyway, he wouldn't do it anyway, but he didn't ask any more questions, feeling that it was wrong to ask anything.

Seeing Xia Houyuan's careful thinking, Cao Cao chuckled, "If Guangling or Lujiang were suddenly attacked, what do you think will happen to Lu Bu?"

"Brother, what information did you receive?" Xia Houyuan suddenly stood up. If something happened to Lu Bu's rear, then he would not beg for peace, but beg for mercy.

"No."

Under Xia Houyuan's surprised gaze, Cao Cao pressed his hand to signal him to sit down, and then said earnestly: "Miaocai, a general should not only distinguish rewards and punishments, and run the army strictly, but also learn to look up at the world.

Although I didn't get any information, I can smell it with my nose. In Danyang, which is more than 800 miles away, Sun Ce is about to make a move to attack Huainan or Guangling. "

Jiangdong Sun Ce?

Xia Houyuan, who sat down slowly again, rolled his eyes twice, and suddenly remembered that Wu Jing, the prefect of Guangling, had invited Sun Ce to settle in more than half a year ago.

At that time, Baiqi robbed the camp, didn't that bastard Gan Ning suffer a lot.

Later, Sun Ce was defeated and defeated Zhou Tai and Huang Gai. Now that he thinks about it, he will definitely not let it go. He must be waiting, waiting for the two sides to fight hard, and then suddenly launch a surprise attack on Guangling or Huainan.

Yes, it must be so!

Having figured it out, Xia Houyuan swept away gloomily, and grinned, "I understand, elder brother can't retreat now, we have to wait for Yuan Rang to lead his troops to confront Lu Bu, in fact, he is encouraging Sun Ce to launch a sneak attack.

As long as Sun Ce succeeds and Lu Bu's backyard catches fire, he must either seek peace with us, or"

Xia Houyuan, who squinted his eyes, reflected the gloomy cold air, and made a gesture of raising the knife and dropping it.

He was excited, but Cao Cao was still very distressed.

This feeling of leaving the future to others to decide is what he dislikes the most.

What's more, victory is victory, and defeat is defeat. This time, it was a real loss, and the loss was so thorough.

Now, I just hope that Sun Ce will not let himself down, not to mention making troubles for Lu Bu, at least force him to return to aid, so that Lu Bu will have to ask for peace with himself, and it will be fine if they have a step down.

After all, at this moment, the morale of this team has plummeted and they cannot fight anymore.

Cao Cao let out a long sigh, lay down on the couch, and said weakly, "Go down, I'm tired."

"Here." Xia Houyuan knew that he was just chatting with him, even he couldn't guess what was going on in his mind.

But what he said just now gave Xia Houyuan some confidence, and he was ready to rectify the defeated soldiers who had gathered together, so as to boost their morale.

"By the way, let's dig out more useful generals in the army, and we can also recruit according to the size of the border between the two states." Cao Cao, who was lying on the couch, looked at the dome and said with empty eyes.

"Here." Xia Houyuan replied again before completely retreating.

In Xiaoguan City, the first thing Lin Mo did when he arrived was to block the tunnel.

For some things, it is enough to do it once. After the news of this war, this tunnel will only become a hidden danger that threatens Xiao Guan, and it will be disadvantageous to keep it.

Looking at the tunnel that was buried after being used only once, Lin Mo didn't feel bad. He just thought it was a good deal to buy Xiaoguan back for [-] gold.

"What are you going to do with those captives?" Lu Bu asked casually after he came out of the abandoned treasury.

"Let them repair the damaged city defenses and houses first, and return them to Cao Cao when it's almost time." Lin Mo patted the dirt on his hands.

Lu Bu was dumbfounded by these words, and he stood still, "Give it back to Cao Cao? You are a good man, our people died in vain?"

Lin Mo smiled slightly and made a gesture of invitation, signaling the old father-in-law to go on, "Master Yuezhang, didn't the scouts just say that Xiahoudun's [-] forwards have entered Xiangxian County, you know what the intention of this move is?"

"Xiao Guan was defeated, Cao Cao was unwilling, and wanted to gather an army and wait for an opportunity to counterattack!" Lu Bu turned to look at Lin Mo, this is not obvious.

"No, he is waiting for Mr. Yuezhang to give him what he wants before he will lead the army to leave, or in other words, he will be able to lead the army to leave."

Leading the army to leave and being able to lead the army to leave are two different terms. The more Lu Bu listened to it, the more confused he became. After thinking for a long time, he couldn't figure out what he could give him. He could only look at Lin Mo with questioning eyes, expecting The son-in-law was puzzled.

"Please have a book."

Lin Mo pursed his lips and said, "Master Yuezhang, the proclamation of this poetry meeting shocked the family behind Cao Cao, and even caused a certain amount of turmoil in the court. This does seem insanely clever.

But if he wins, it’s okay to say that he can use this to stabilize his own rear and the anti-war forces in the court. The problem is that he lost, and he won first and then lost. In this way, the rear will fall into chaos.

To stabilize this kind of chaos, we can only return to Xuchang with our letter of peace, and then tell the world, well, they have made peace, and they are still the pillars of the court, so I will not punish them. "

Lu Bu's face showed a look of surprise, so it can be done like this, so it can still be like this.

Sure, if my son-in-law hadn't said it, I wouldn't even know there are these tricks in it.

"I said yes, Xiao Guan was defeated, Le Jin and Li Dian were all killed, the three armies were in turmoil, how could he counterattack, it turned out that he was waiting for me to make peace with him."

"If you make peace, you will get tribute. The 8000 captives are the best tribute."

It's really not that Lin Mo made a decision on a whim.

In fact, both Chen Gong and Jia Xu, that old bastard, had participated in the discussion, and the three of them agreed that Cao Cao could be returned.

First, if these 8000 people waved their butcher's knives, it would be difficult to send away Cao Cao, the god of plague. They came with great fanfare, and they had to give enough reasons to be willing to leave.

Second, the combat power of these eight thousand troops is very ordinary, and they were nothing more than field soldiers before, and they couldn't make any waves.

The third, and most crucial point, is the next battle with Yuan Shao. Once the situation of uniting Cao against Yuan is formed, from the perspective of allies, we all hope that Cao Cao can compete with him for a long time.

Only when Cao Cao's strength is stronger, Yuan Shao will allocate more troops to deal with him, and the pressure on his side will also decrease accordingly.

"It's still you who think carefully. If you don't take care of it, I guess I will be confused about these things again."

Lu Bu was in a good mood. With Lin Mo around, he didn't need to think about many things.

In fact, he seemed to know in his heart that even without Lin Mo, Chen Gong and the others would give their opinions on these matters. The problem is that only Lin Mo said what he said just now, and he is willing to believe and implement it from the bottom of his heart.

If it was Chen Gong, there would inevitably be some doubts about whether he was hiding something, let alone Chen Deng and Jia Xu.

No way, people are selfish, except for Lin Mo, except for his son-in-law, no one can give him such a sense of security.

"Oh right."

While the two were chatting, they walked back to the General's Mansion, and after sitting down by the stone platform under the eaves of the gazebo, Lu Bu suddenly remembered something and said casually: "The wedding date of you and Ling'er is set in Taoyue. People have seen it, the best day of the year is the seventh day of March, and Cao Cao must have retreated by then."

As he said that, Lu Bu breathed a sigh of relief, "If this is done, then Ling Erniang and I will be able to fulfill our wish."

"It's all up to Mr. Yue Zhang." Lin Mo cupped his hands.

In fact, I was very excited in my heart. The wedding date was talked about for a year, and it dragged on for half a year. Finally, it can be finalized.

Ling'er is also a person who doesn't talk too much. They have gone through life and death together, and they still guard themselves like a jade. Now that the wedding date is settled, the stone in her heart has landed.

In case you can only watch but not eat all day long, it is too boring.

"There is one more thing. I wanted to tell you a long time ago, but Cao Cao's surprise attack on Xiao Guan has dragged me on until now."

Lu Bu took a sip of the tea just made by his servants, "The spies from Jingzhou reported that Liu Bei really went to Jingzhou, but he didn't seem to be well received, so Liu Biao sent him to Xinye City, and he was paid monthly. forage."

Shinno
Is this history repairing itself?

The thought just flashed by, Lin Mo knew that he had nowhere to go to Jingzhou. After the battle of Anfeng, he killed him, so it was naturally impossible for him to come and join him.

With Sun Ce on the east side of the river, there was no way to go except to go to Jingzhou in the west.

But ah.
Where could he not go, why did he go to Xinye?

According to history, he was stationed in Xinye for seven or eight years, then met Xu Shu, and finally introduced Zhuge Liang, and embarked on the road to prosperity.

In seven or eight years, I don't know what the situation will be. Now the history has completely changed. God knows whether I can withstand Yuan Shao's Northern Army. Even if I can, it is still uncertain who will win the battle with Cao Cao in the future.

Moreover, Zhuge Liang in this period is only eighteen or nineteen years old, about the same age as himself. Should he directly kill Yongjue, or write a few letters like moving Zhao Yun?
Lin Mo felt that it was a bit whimsical for Zhuge Liang, an amazing talent like Zhuge Liang, to try to recruit him by writing letters.

Liu Bei had to visit the thatched cottage three times.

After thinking about it again and again, Lin Mo still thinks to slow down this matter. Zhuge Liang, even if Liu Bei is ignored, he will not come out of the mountain until seven or eight years later. Who knows what will happen then, if he really has the upper hand, he will send someone at about the same time Just do it.

In case the worst happens, there is no need to embarrass Zhuge Wuhou.

But there is one person, I am afraid that it is safer to die first.

"Master Yuezhang, let Anzi from Jingzhou kill someone."

"Murder? Who?" Lu Bu was a little curious. This was the first time he heard Lin Mo make such a request. This kid is not a fighter.

"Xu Shu."

As long as he is slaughtered, Liu Bei will have no support, and it is very likely that he does not even know the existence of Zhuge Liang.

Before Lu Bu nodded in agreement, Lin Mo hurriedly added: "He is also called Shan Fu, so let Anzi find out more."

Lu Bu scratched his head, frowned and whispered, "Shan Fu?"

"Any questions?"

"Why do I seem to have heard someone mention this name, where did I hear it?"

Lu Bu scratched his ears and cheeks a little bit, it sounded familiar, but he just couldn't remember it.

Lin Mo was even more surprised, there is no reason, Xu Shu became a ranger after murdering, and he has always used a false name, and during that time, it is unlikely that the old father-in-law met him, "Master Yuezhang, think clearly, maybe it is the same name. .”

In the next breath, Lu Bu's eyes lit up, he slapped Shitai and raised his eyebrows and said, "I remembered, I heard from Gongtai that there was a man named Shan Fu in Pengcheng, who had passed the examination of his military strategy, and even Gongtai praised him. It’s true, it’s him.”

Xu Shu came to Xuzhou?Lin Mo's heart beat faster, he frowned and said, "Where is he?"

"It's in your Ziyang Academy."

There is no place to find if you break through the iron shoes, so it doesn't take much effort to get it, right?

Interesting, interesting.

Lin Mo did not expect that such a talent for managing the world would come to his door automatically, and the person who can make Chen Gong full of praise must be him, Xu Shu.

"Then still kill?"

Lin Mo shook his head again and again, "How can I kill him? From now on, he will be our right-hand man, Mr. Yue Zhang. I'm afraid this person's accomplishments in the art of war and strategy will not be inferior to Jia Xu."

Xu Shu said that Zhuge Liang was ten times as talented as him. That was bragging. Zhang Fei was right. These rotten Confucians, who have studied for several years, are terribly humble when they are humble, and crazy when they are crazy.

You know, in the Battle of Chibi, the only person who saw the chain trick was Xu Yuanzhi.

Lu Bu didn't know how powerful Jia Xu was, and naturally he didn't know Xu Shu's ability, but it's not easy to make his son-in-law so excited.

"Well, when I go back, I'll come to invite him in person."

(End of this chapter)