Ji Han Liu Zhang

Chang'an City.

"Has the Shu army been prepared?" Li Jue hissed coldly. Ever since Guo Si led his troops to attack the Shu army camp at night, he had sent people to prepare a banquet, waiting for Guo Si to return victoriously so that he could congratulate him and celebrate this hard-earned victory.

But what Li Jue did not expect was that Guo Si came back, but not with a great victory, but in disgrace. This time, Guo Si not only lost a lot of men and horses, but also lost Gao Shuo, a fierce general under Guo Si's command. He was really in a miserable state.

Li Jue was surprised and suspicious. He had determined beforehand that the Shu army was unprepared, so he asked Guo Si to attack the Shu army camp under the cover of night, thinking that even if there was no major achievement this time, there would definitely be some small gains. However, it was surprising that the Shu army had anticipated their night attack.

"The Shu army anticipated our night attack and dug a pit in the camp. Gao Shuo led his men to rush into the camp gate, but after a few steps they stepped on air and fell into the pit. The Shu army took the opportunity to shoot at them with powerful crossbows. In this battle, we lost hundreds of brave men in vain." Guo Si sighed.

Gao Shuo, who served as the vanguard, was a fierce general under Guo Si, and the soldiers who were to ascend the river under Gao Shuo's command were the best soldiers under Guo Si's command. Now that hundreds of brave soldiers had been lost, Guo Si felt very painful. After all, there were not many people like Gao Shuo and the soldiers who could serve as the vanguard under Guo Si's command.

At this point, Guo Si could not help but complain: "Zhi Ran, your strategy is too shallow, the Shu army saw through it at a glance."

Facing Guo Si's resentment and complaints, Li Jue did not answer. He just frowned and thought. After a moment, he slapped his forehead and said viciously: "Jia Wenhe."

"Jia Wenhe?" Guo Si was puzzled by Li Jue's inexplicable words. He didn't know why Li Jue mentioned Jia Xu.

Soon, Guo Si also reacted. He said with a bad face: "Zhi Ran, do you mean that Jia Xu was making plans for Liu Zhang and ruined our night attack plan?"

Li Jue nodded silently. After a moment, he cursed, "It must be that Jia Wenhe saw through my plan and warned the Shu soldiers in advance, which led to the failure of your night attack."

"Yes, only Jia Wenhe knows you and me like this." Anger appeared on Guo Si's face. He was extremely unhappy with Jia Xu, a traitor. He wished he could cut Jia Xu a hundred times and chop him into meat sauce to eat with wine.

The Shu soldiers were certainly hateful, and Liu Zhang's son was certainly hateful, but as people from Tongzhou, Jia Xu and Zhang Xiu, who had rebelled and surrendered to Liu Zhang, made Guo Si even more displeased, to the point that he wanted to eat their flesh and drink their blood.

No one likes a traitor, and a traitor will not be liked by anyone.

Li Jue and Guo Si scolded Jia Xu severely, but now the defeat was already decided, and no matter how much they scolded Jia Xu, it was useless. They could not hurt Jia Xu who had fled to the Shu army, so they could only vent their anger.

"Zhiran, if we want to hold on now, the Shu army has powerful weapons like the flying stone cart, which is not good for our defense. But if we want to surprise others, Jia Wenhe will definitely see through our plan... Now we can neither advance nor retreat, what do you think we should do now?" Guo Si asked about Li Jue's plan like a headless fly.

Without waiting for Li Jue to answer, Guo Si lowered his voice and said, "Zhi Ran, right now we only have Chang'an, a lonely city in Guanzhong, and we are in a situation where we have no external aid. This is a deadly place. Why don't we abandon the army and lead our relatives and guards back to Liangzhou? Liangzhou is a vast place, and things can still be done."

Guo Si was ready to retreat. He did not want to stay in the isolated Chang'an City any longer. He believed that Chang'an City was a place of death. Staying in Chang'an City would lead to his death. He wanted to escape...

Li Jue drooped his eyelids, staring at Guo Si with a pair of dark eyes, with an incredible look on his face. He laughed and said, "Guo Aduo, you are confused. This is not the right way to seek medical treatment when you are desperate."

Facing Guo Si who was about to back down, Li Jue sneered: "You can't have such a bad memory... In the past, Prime Minister Dong was harmed by Wang Yun, and Niu Fu was killed by Zhi Hu Chi'er. At that time, our Liangzhou generals were leaderless, and everyone discussed disbanding and rushing back to Liangzhou."

"In the end, it was Jia Wenhe who saw through the weakness of the Chang'an court, gathered everyone, and counterattacked and captured Chang'an...and if we had really disbanded at that time, just as Jia Wenhe said, just one pavilion chief could have tied us up and killed us." Li Jue recited the good points of Jia Xu. Although he despised Jia Xu's betrayal, he still admired Jia Xu's strategy.

Hearing Li Jue talking about the old counterattack on Chang'an, and using a classic example to refute himself, Guo Si knew it would be difficult to convince Li Jue, but he still advised him earnestly: "Zhi Ran, the present is different from the past. The court in Chang'an at that time was no match for the young Liu Zhang today. The young Liu Zhang had many soldiers and generals, and his soldiers were very brave. It was difficult for us to fight against him, and it would be too difficult to turn the tables."

"We'd better flee back to Liangzhou. Besides, we are not returning alone. We have relatives and children to protect us. Our lives are safe." Guo Si became excited. As he spoke, he felt more and more that fleeing back to Liangzhou was both feasible and a good idea.

"We are in Liangzhou. Liangzhou is a vast land, and it is also our familiar homeland. We can recruit heroes and Qiang and Hu to help us, and then we can have another showdown with Liu Zhang."

"Hmph." Li Jue snorted lightly. He was very disdainful of Guo Si's words. Guo Si's words sounded nice, but in the final analysis it was just wishful thinking and he was only thinking the best.

Li Jue analyzed, "You and I are fleeing back to Liangzhou, but in the eyes of the Liangzhou heroes, you and I who are fleeing back to Liangzhou are just defeated generals. At that time, no one will help you and me. I am afraid that everyone will dislike us. Who knows, there are heroes in Liangzhou who want to use your and my heads to exchange for a thousand gold coins or a title of nobility from Liu Zhang."

This is a very true statement. As the saying goes, it is easy to add icing on the cake, but it is difficult to provide timely assistance. The heroes of Liangzhou are mostly influenced by the barbarian customs. They are very good at changing their attitude according to the situation, but they do not have the strength to go against the trend.

Upon hearing this, Guo Si murmured and said nothing more. Li Jue's words made sense and he could not refute them.

"And who knows, on our way back to Liangzhou from Chang'an, our relatives and friends, seeing that we are desperate and impoverished, may become murderous towards you and me, and may even exchange our heads for wealth and honor." Li Jue said coldly. These words showed that he did not even dare to trust his own relatives.

Guo Si's face looked a little ugly. He was very unhappy with Li Jue's words, but he had to say that the future described by Li Jue was very likely. There was a high possibility that some of his relatives and children would become greedy for wealth and point the knife at him. After all, Liu Zhang had clearly stated that he only wanted his and Li Jue's heads, and would not ask about the rest of the surrendered people.

"Then what should you and I do?" Guo Si spread out his hands, as if he was forced into a dead end.

"Hold on firmly and wait for an opportunity to turn the tables." Li Jue said these eight words, setting the general plan for their future actions.

Speaking of holding out, Guo Si thought of the Shu army's stone-throwing carts. He worriedly said, "How can we deal with the Shu army's stone-throwing carts? The stones can fly 150 steps and hit the top of the city. We can only take the beating and cannot fight back. After three to five days, the morale of the army will probably be low."

"Hang felt on the city wall and use the softness of the felt to offset the impact of flying stones." Li Jue told the countermeasures he had thought of.

Guo Si's face lit up when he heard this. He clapped his hands and said, "It has to be you, Zhiran."

While Li Jue and Guo Si were discussing, a personal guard came from outside the tent and reported something. After obtaining the consent of Li Jue and Guo Si, he entered the tent and reported to them: "General, a group of soldiers came from outside the city. They said they were captured in the battle last night and were pardoned by the Shu army this morning. They are interested in Liangzhou and are now returning to Chang'an to help."

"Captain Xia sent me to ask for your order whether to let them enter the city." Upon hearing this, Li Jue and Guo Si looked at each other unconsciously, suspicion in their eyes.

Guo Si immediately asked, "Can you see from their appearance whether they are really my soldiers?"

"These people were not far from the city gate. Captain Xia took a closer look and found many familiar faces among them. They were soldiers in our army." The guards asked and answered.

The suspicion on Guo Si's face faded a little, and he nodded and said, "Since they are my soldiers, I will let them into the city first."

After saying this, Guo Si smiled at Li Jue and said, "Liu Zhang, the little brat, pretended to be kind and righteous and actually released these people. He didn't know that these people were loyal to Liangzhou and returned to Chang'an City, and they wanted to fight against Liu Zhang, the little brat."

The personal guard here heard Guo Si's order and was about to accept it, but Li Jue waved his hand and stopped the personal guard who was about to accept the order and leave.

"What's wrong, Zhiran, is there any problem?" Guo Si looked puzzled. He didn't know why Li Jue stopped his order. The soldiers who returned were from his army and they should be allowed into the city.

Li Jue's face was tense, and there was a lot of suspicion between his eyebrows: "Aduo, don't you think something is wrong?"

"Something's wrong." Guo Si was a simple and naive boy with a bit of a nerve.

"Do you think that Liu Zhang can't guess that these released captives will return to Chang'an? Even if Liu Zhang can't guess it, will Jia Wenhe not make suggestions?" Li Jue's eyes sparkled, as if he saw through everything.

"This is a conspiracy, most likely from Jia Wenhe's hand. It must have been Jia Wenhe who strategized and asked Liu Zhang to release these prisoners. There may be some Shu soldiers among them. If we open the city gates, these people will definitely take the opportunity to attack and seize the city gates."

"Xia Yu has seen it, and these are all familiar faces." Guo Si retorted.

Li Jue sneered: "A familiar face!"

"They were captured last night and have been held captive until this morning. Who knows if they were lured by Liu Zhang's son and surrendered to him? These people cannot be trusted, and it is even more impossible to let them into the city... If these people enter the city, I am afraid that your life and mine will be in danger."

When Li Jue finished speaking, he shook his head and sighed.

"What should we do?" Hearing that it was a matter of life and death, Guo Si became as cautious as Li Jue. Even though these people were all his soldiers, compared with his life, they were insignificant.

Li Jue stroked his long beard, looking calm and composed, and gave orders to the guards who came to report the news: "Go, tell Xia Yu to shoot arrows from the top of the city wall to kill and drive away these people, so that Liu Zhang will know that his plan was simple, but I saw through it."

Upon hearing this, the personal guard glanced at Guo Si, but seeing that Guo Si was silent for a moment or two and then nodded, he hurriedly took the order and left.

After the guards who had brought the news left, Guo Si praised Li Jue, saying, "Liu Zhang is on the first level, but he didn't expect that you, Zhi Ran, are already on the second level and have seen through his evil plan."

"That's right." Li Jue said proudly. The word "modest" did not exist in his dictionary.

"We can finally win this time." Li Jue, who had suffered a series of setbacks, said to himself.

……

Huayin.

General Ningji Duan Wei carefully read the intelligence passed by the spy, about the competition between Yizhou Governor Liu Zhang and Li Jue and Guo Si. After a long while, he stroked his beard and smiled, and said to Gong Cao Duan Yu: "Gong Cao, it seems that my choice was not wrong."

As he spoke, Duan Wei handed the silk cloth in his hand to Gongcao Duan Yu.

Duan Yu stepped forward and took the silk cloth with both hands, and also read it carefully. After a while, he placed the silk cloth on the table in front of Duan Wei, cupped his hands, and congratulated Duan Wei: "Li Jue and Guo Si fled Chang'an in defeat. Now there is only one isolated city. The situation is critical and we are in danger of losing our lives."

At this point, Duan Yu congratulated himself: "If the general had gone to Chang'an to help Li Jue and Guo Si, he would have fallen into the same crisis that Li Jue and Guo Si are in today. This shows that the general is wise in foreseeing opportunities, which is beyond the reach of ordinary people."

Duan Yu seemed to have remembered something. He clapped his hands and said, "Liu Yizhou sent an envoy, Cheng Yu, here last time. General, you treated him well and didn't treat him with disrespect. I believe Liu Yizhou must have left a good reputation there. If Liu Yizhou takes Guanzhong, General, not only will you be safe, but you may even become rich and powerful."

General Duan Wei of Ningji smiled when he heard this. He was very happy to hear Duan Yu's praise of him for his "foresight" and "ability to see the opportunity".

"I have heard that Liu Yizhou is a man of unparalleled benevolence and integrity, and a wise ruler who is unique in the world. Now that Li Jue and Guo Si are at the end of their rope, they will be destroyed sooner or later, and Guanzhong will have a new ruler... I am thinking of sending someone to greet Liu Yizhou and express my loyalty to him. I wonder if Gong Cao is willing to go and express my loyalty to Liu Yizhou on my behalf?"

Duan Wei began to think about surrendering to Liu Zhang. When Cheng Yu came here before, he only promised not to help Li Jue and Guo Si, but did not really surrender to Liu Zhang. But now that Liu Zhang's reputation is on the rise, he thinks it is better to join Liu Zhang's army as soon as possible.

"The general has given the order, and I shall obey it." Duan Yu accepted the order with a slight smile on his lips. As an envoy, carrying Duan Wei's intention to serve Liu Yizhou was a good thing for both him and Duan Wei.

"Okay, then I'll trouble you to go to the treasury and pick out a few pleasing gifts to send to Liu Yizhou." Duan Wei saw that Duan Yu accepted the order generously, so he continued to instruct.

"Yes." Duan Yu responded, took a few steps back, and headed for the treasury. As Duan Wei's assistant, he knew the rare treasures in the treasury. In just a few steps, he had already chosen the gift in his mind. (End of this chapter)