Choose Liu Bei at the start, I am the only one who knows the plot of the Three Kingdoms.

Chapter 414 Cao Cao's real purpose, investigating spies
The Six-Pearl Bodhisattva was defeated by Xiahou Dun in one move, and then glared at Xiahou Dun with resentment on his face.

"Okay, okay, I have taken note of what your Prime Minister and you have done. I will definitely pass it on to our king verbatim. Get ready for war! Get ready for the wrath of revenge from the Western Regions!"

There was a small wound on Liuzhu Bodhisattva's face, which was the scar left by Xiahou Dun's sword when they were fighting just now. There was not only a scar on her face, but also a bigger scar above her chest.

"Oh, when did a small Western Region become worthy of anger?"

Xiahou Dun was even more disdainful. He turned a deaf ear to what Liuzhu Bodhisattva said and ignored it.

Just then, a voice sounded.

"What are you doing? Stop it, stop it."

The two men looked in the direction of the sound and saw Cao Cao appear at their door.

"Prime Minister, what Xiahou Dun just said is also what you think?"

Six-Pearl Bodhisattva said this with a little anger. She also knew that with her level, she could not have an equal dialogue with Cao Cao, let alone be on an equal footing. Therefore, she did not dare to shout out Cao Cao's name in front of him. She still called him Prime Minister. Cao Cao shook his head pretentiously.

"What did Yuan Rang say just now? I didn't hear it clearly. Can you please say it again, Bodhisattva?"

Liuzhu Bodhisattva was about to speak when he suddenly realized that Xiahou Dun never mentioned the matter of not giving them Yizhou, nor did she say a word about dissolving their alliance, as if those were all her own ideas, which left him speechless for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Prime Minister. I'm so abrupt. I came to you this time to ask you when you plan to fulfill our contract."

"Contract, what contract?"

Cao Cao asked with some doubt. Six-Pearl Bodhisattva did not get angry this time. She had completely understood that these people were just muddying the waters and pretending to be confused. So Six-Pearl Bodhisattva no longer made any subtle hints, but spoke directly.

"Regarding the promise you made to us to let us take control of Jingzhou, have you fulfilled it?"

"Oh?"

After hearing this, Cao Cao turned and looked at Xiahou Dun.

"Yuan Rang, is that what you said at the time? That's not what you told me."

"My Lord! That was not what was said at the time. The agreement between this general and the kings of the Western Regions was that after the Prime Minister became the common ruler of the world, Yizhou would be handed over to them and they would take over."

Xiahou Dun clasped his fists and said this. Upon hearing this, Cao Cao turned his head to look at the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva beside him. The confusion on his face could almost directly tell what Cao Cao wanted to say.

"Does the Bodhisattva have any more questions?"

Cao Cao looked at the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva and said, with an expression as sincere as possible on his face. The Six-Pearl Bodhisattva wanted to speak, but didn't know where to start. The Six-Pearl Bodhisattva was speechless by what Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun said. It was obvious that he was the one who was tricked, but why did he always feel that he was the one who did something wrong?

Without giving Liuzhu Bodhisattva a chance to continue speaking, Cao Cao walked towards the door. Just as he was about to cross the threshold, Cao Cao suddenly turned around and spoke abruptly.

"Oh, right, we don't have enough troops to deal with the next war. Bodhisattva, please see if you can transfer some more soldiers. We don't need too many this time. Maybe only a few hundred thousand or eighty thousand can defeat Liu Bei. At that time, in addition to Yizhou, I can also give you half of Jingzhou. How do you think?"

Cao Cao's face was still full of sincerity, and that expression even made Liuzhu Bodhisattva really think that Cao Cao would give them Yizhou and Jingzhou. But now the facts are very clear. Cao Cao was just taking advantage of them for free, letting them use the lives of 220,000 monk soldiers and slave soldiers to wear down Liu Bei's military strength.

"Prime Minister, you think I'm too stupid. Why do you think we will continue to give you troops and let you use our soldiers as cannon fodder?"

Hearing this, a playful expression appeared on Cao Cao's face.

"Oh? So you think you're pretty smart?"

Cao Cao did not continue to enter the house, but stood in the corridor. The expression on his face changed from a hint of teasing to naked sarcasm.

"Well, guess again, why did Liu Zhang of Yizhou only surround the city of Nanjun instead of attacking it during this battle?"

After finishing speaking, Cao Cao looked at the thoughtful Six-Jeweled Bodhisattva and simply sat down at Xiahou Dun's original position. He just looked at the Six-Jeweled Bodhisattva with a faint smile on his lips.

At this moment, the heart of Liuzhu Bodhisattva could be described as turbulent. Obviously, Cao Cao's purpose was not to attack Jingzhou, so he did not set foot in the battlefield of Jingzhou from beginning to end. Liu Zhang even led an army of more than 100,000 from Yizhou to besiege Nanjun for half a month. During this half month, Liu Zhang only launched a few symbolic attacks, and it is likely that not many people died in total.

Then their target was not Jingzhou, and the reason why Liu Zhang did not attack Nanjun was found. After all, for Liu Zhang, Nanjun was not the target, so there was no need to waste his military strength. So where else could Liu Zhang and Cao Cao's target be if not Jingzhou?

The southern part of Yizhou is where a group of barbarians live. They are extremely brave. In addition, Liu Zhang has always had a good relationship with those barbarians over the years, so their target will not be the southern barbarians, and Cao Cao is even less likely. After all, the two are like grasshoppers tied to the same rope in this war.

Yizhou has four borders. If Cao Cao in the north is eliminated, Jingzhou in the east is eliminated, and the barbarians in the south are also eliminated, who is left? Isn't it just the Western Regions in the west?

Thinking of this, Liuzhu Bodhisattva's expression changed drastically. He looked at Cao Cao fiercely and tightened the rope dart in his hand. Xiahou Dun drew his sword and blocked Cao Cao at the first moment.

"I see. So, your and Liu Zhang's goal from the beginning to the end was just to conquer the Western Regions, and to make Liu Bei and Sun Jian kill each other in order to weaken each other's strength. You and Liu Zhang got away with it pretty cleanly. So, when you asked Xiahou Dun to lead us into Yuzhou, you deliberately bypassed Liu Zhang's Yizhou. Now think about it, you had already started to set a trap since then, right?"

"Hahahaha, not bad, not bad, you're not stupid, you still have some brains, although not much. Let me tell you this, this battle is my first step to the top of the world. You and the king of your shitty regime should thank me for being able to be a stepping stone to this step. I will let you leave a mark in history, hahaha."

Cao Cao looked up and laughed wildly. Liu Zhang had just sent a message saying that he had led a large army to attack Mount Nalanda. All the enemy's elite monks had been given to the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva. The Eighteen Arhats, who had been brought to the Central Plains to protect the Five Kings, were now in Xudu. It could be said that the Western Regions were now an empty space and no one could stop Liu Zhang's advance. That was why Cao Cao sent intelligence to all the generals and asked them to withdraw their troops, but he did not send it to the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva, because Cao Cao wanted the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva to waste enough time there to kill Ma Chao, so that Liu Zhang would have time to go to Mount Nalanda and conquer the Western Regions.

All of this was the plan of the alliance between Cao Cao and Liu Zhang. Originally, they were worried about how to get Sun Jian and Shi Xie to join the game, but they didn't expect that one day, Sun Jian and Shi Xie would take the initiative to come to them and let them complete the last step of the plan. They then continued to play out the show, and this led to this war based on a deception, and this huge plan to conceal the truth.

Cao Cao and Liu Zhang were not stupid, and they both realized that their subordinates might have been infiltrated by Liu Bei's men. Therefore, they did not mention this matter to anyone, not even Liu Zhang's own son, Cao Cao's own son, Xu Chu, Dian Wei, and only he and Liu Zhang knew about it. And the facts also proved that their subordinates had indeed been infiltrated by Liu Bei, because apart from the alliance that only the two of them knew about, all other news, whether it was the deployment of troops or the location of their battle lines, were all known to Liu Bei in advance, which also led to the 220,000 troops in the Western Regions not causing much loss to Liu Bei.

However, these are just icing on the cake for Cao Cao and Liu Zhang. The purpose of their attack on the Western Regions is for the slave soldiers in the Western Regions. Even if they are civilians, they can be trained as slaves. By then, they will have a huge army that can fight regardless of life and death. By then, who in the world can stop them?
The Six-Pearl Bodhisattva was more than ten feet away from Cao Cao at this moment, just behind the attack range of the rope dart. Cao Cao was sitting there lazily, and Xiahou Dun did not completely block Cao Cao because Cao Cao was talking to her. It can be said that now is her best chance to assassinate Cao Cao. As long as she throws the rope dart, it is possible to take Cao Cao's life directly.

But in the end, Liuzhu Bodhisattva still held back, withdrew his hands from his waist, and no longer held the rope dart.

"Oh, Cao Cao, if you act this way, aren't you afraid that your subordinates will be disappointed with you?"

Liuzhu Bodhisattva spoke, trying to make a final effort to win back Cao Cao, but Cao Cao no longer had the patience to listen to her. He waved his hand and interrupted her impatiently.

"Okay, shut up. If you start rushing to the Western Regions now, you might be able to save the king and save your life. If you delay any longer, you will be punished by your kings."

Cao Cao stood up and walked into the house without wasting time talking to the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva. The Six-Pearl Bodhisattva snorted coldly and also turned away. Xiahou Dun folded his arms across his chest, watching the scene in front of him with interest, his face full of excitement.

After watching the Six-Pearl Bodhisattva leave in a hurry, Xiahou Dun turned and entered Cao Cao's house.

"My lord, this is such a great plan that even we didn't notice it. My lord actually made such a big move."

Cao Cao did not respond, but just sat beside the table and thought quietly. After a long time, he replied to Xiahou Dun.

"Except for Liu Zhang and I, no one else knows about this plan. I didn't hide it from you on purpose."

After hearing what Cao Cao said, Xiahou Dun felt relieved. If Xu Chu and Dian Wei knew about it and he was the only one who didn't know, then wouldn't it mean that in Cao Cao's heart, he, a fellow clan member, was not as good as Dian Wei and Xu Chu, two outsiders? Since only Cao Cao and Liu Zhang knew about it, there would be no problem.

"Why are you hiding it from us? Could it be that there is someone among us?"

Xiahou Dun did not continue speaking. After all, the word was quite sensitive. Cao Cao naturally knew what Xiahou Dun was referring to. He just nodded lightly, confirming Xiahou Dun's thoughts.

"We must have a spy in our ranks. He has just joined the army and has made considerable military achievements. He has been promoted to a person with real power. Remember not to make it public. Do this by yourself. No one else needs to know. Find the person who meets the conditions I just mentioned, and then see who is the most suspicious."

Cao Cao tapped his fingers lightly on the table, his eyes slightly narrowed, his eyes were not clear, but from his expression it could be seen that Cao Cao was thinking.

"My lord, are you sure that there must be a spy among us?"

Xiahou Dun asked uncertainly. After all, this kind of thing was not an easy task and he had to confirm it with Cao Cao first. Cao Cao nodded firmly.

"There must be something. The only thing Liu Zhang and I know is about the attack on the Western Regions. It has not been leaked. This means that Liu Zhang is fine and we can cooperate. Apart from this, everything else seems to have been anticipated by Liu Bei. Even the troops he deployed to break out were just right. How can I not be suspicious?"

"Yes, my lord! I will check it out right away!"

As Xiahou Dun spoke, he clasped his fists in salute and backed out. The door of the room closed. Cao Cao absentmindedly lit the lamp, resting his chin on his right hand, continuing to think about the spies. After a while, there was a knock on the door.

"Enter."

As Cao Cao finished speaking, Xun Yu pushed the door open, closed it tightly, bowed to Cao Cao, and sat down next to the table, opposite Cao Cao.

In fact, Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun had just lied. In addition to Cao Cao and Liu Zhang who knew about the attack on the Western Regions, there was another person who also knew about it, and that was Xun Yu. Xun Yu was also asked to give them advice, which led to this great victory.

"Wen Ruo, how is the investigation on the spies going?"

Xun Yu shook his head and said in a deep voice.

"From the clues we have, we don't have any clues at all. We can't even choose the suspects. Now, we can only follow the master's method and let General Yuan Rang investigate one by one."

Cao Cao still held his chin with his hand and hummed nonchalantly. Xun Yu saw what Cao Cao was thinking and gave him an appropriate reminder.

"What are you thinking about, my lord?"

"Ah."

Looking at Cao Cao's expression, Xun Yu knew that Cao Cao didn't listen at all, so he spoke again.

"My lord, you are wondering, even if the spy got the news, how did he send it out?"

"Uh-huh!?"

Cao Cao suddenly looked at Xun Yu, then said with a smile.

"The one who knows me well is Wen Ruoye, hahahaha, do you already have a clue?"

"I have no clues, but I have an idea. I don't know if it is correct."

"tell me the story."

Cao Cao was very interested.

"My lord, you should know that there are many more fine salt shops in Xudu City now. According to the clues we have, all of this fine salt comes from Liu Bei's Qingzhou. Do these fine salt shops have some relationship with Liu Bei?"

(End of this chapter)