Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 101 95. Xi Hong Plan
Xi Zhen's offensive was broken, so it was Zhang Bao's turn to attack. After swinging Xi Zhen's broadsword away, Zhang Bao used the momentum of the snake spear to chop down. If this strike had been successful, Xi Zhen's kidneys would have been chopped into small pieces.

With no alternative, Xi Zhen had to try his best to shrink his body backwards, barely avoiding the fate of being used as a stake, but the sharp snake spear tip left a long bloody mark on his abdomen.

"Good! You've done a pretty good job of dodging this move!"

Zhang Bao became more and more excited as the fight went on, which made Xi Zhen feel a little pressured.

After the two sides fought back and forth for several rounds, Xi Zhen was ultimately no match for Zhang Bao in martial arts. Zhang Bao seized on Xi Zhen's weakness and knocked him off his horse with the front of his snake spear.

"Tied!"

Zhang Bao's snake spear was pressed against Xi Zhen's throat. Several minions behind him reacted quickly, immediately stepped forward to tie Xi Zhen up and took him back to their camp.

When the more than a thousand soldiers brought by Xi Zhen saw their commander being captured, their morale plummeted. Some of them even fled in all directions under the leadership of some generals, running in groups of three or five towards Lingling City behind them.

Seeing the Lingling defenders in such a miserable state, Zhang Bao sneered a few times and rode back to the battle formation.

Zhang Bao attacked first and captured the enemy general. Zhang Fei was not in a hurry to attack the city immediately, but ordered his army to set up camp first, surround three gates and leave one, and encircle Lingling.

Inside the big tent, Zhang Fei finally had time to interrogate Xi Zhen, and immediately ordered someone to bring Xi Zhen in.

"Who are you from Lingling County?"

Zhang Fei looked at Xi Zhen with a bit of scrutiny. Xi Zhen looked decent, and his martial arts were also at a lower-middle-second-rate level. It was obvious that he was not an unknown person.

"I am Lingling Commander Xi Zhen."

Xi Zhen stood in the tent with a calm expression, as if he was not captured but invited as a guest.

"Who is the current governor of Lingling?"

Zhang Fei asked casually. He really didn't care who was standing in front of him before.

"Liu Xian, son of Liu Du, former governor of Lingling."

Xi Zhen was like an intelligent assistant, answering every question. Zhang Fei was stunned when he heard the name.

Zhang Fei naturally knew Liu Xian. When Liu Du tried to stage a poor plan of feigning surrender, which was discovered by Zhuge Liang, Lingling General Xing Daorong was killed by Zhao Yun. The scene of Liu Xian and his father surrendering together was still vivid in Zhang Fei's mind.

But what Zhang Fei couldn't understand was that his father had surrendered, so why did this guy become the prefect of Lingling in Eastern Wu?

"Let me ask you, isn't Liu Xian's father Liu Du? Why is he working for the Eastern Wu now?"

Xi Zhen was stunned for a moment when he heard this, but then he realized that Liu Xian's defection was probably a trivial matter to Zhang Fei, so he naturally didn't know the inside story.

Xi Zhen then told Zhang Fei the truth about how Xi Xian had been resentful of Liu Xian for not inheriting his father's business, and how he had defected to Wu and now had returned home in glory.

"This kid..."

Zhang Fei shook his head, feeling both angry and amused, and then looked at Xi Zhen.

"What about you? Why do you want to talk to me so much about the inside of Lingling County?"

Zhang Fei found Xi Zhen's attitude of answering every question very strange. Moreover, the other party did not have any deep hatred for him or beg for mercy directly. It was as if a subordinate was answering a question from a superior, which made Zhang Fei more interested in Xi Zhen. "General San, can you send the others away?"

Xi Zhen looked around and saw that there were other deputy generals and captains in the tent. He did not dare to say much, for fear that too many people would gossip and reveal important matters. Instead, he asked Zhang Fei to let them leave first.

"You should go and reorganize the troops first to prevent the enemy from attacking the camp."

Zhang Fei cooperated by waving his hand and asked the officers to leave first. Soon, only Zhang Bao, Zhang Fei and Xi Zhen were left in the tent.

"Now it's just you, me and Bao'er, there's no one else, what do you have to say?"

Zhang Fei sat in the first seat with his legs crossed, wanting to see what the man in front of him could say.

“Originally, after I was captured by the three generals, I was going to pretend that I would rather die than surrender, so that the three generals would think that I was truly surrendering.

I will then tell the three generals that Lingling's grain and grass are stored in a secret granary in a mountain valley 20 miles southeast of Lingling, and lead the three generals there. Liu Xian has already ambushed many soldiers and horses there. Once the three generals arrive, Liu Xian will set fire to it and defeat the three generals first."

Xi Zhen opened her mouth and told him all her original plans.

"Heh... Liu Xian is just like his father, only able to play this unreliable trick of false surrender... Then why did you say it out loud? Could this be your plan?"

Zhang Fei laughed twice, then looked at Xi Zhen again. Although Zhang Fei was a little reckless, he had been tricked many times when he was young, and he became a doctor after being tricked for a long time. Naturally, he would not easily believe what Xi Zhen said.

After all, who knows whether Xi Zhen's confession of the truth, which was like spilling the beans, was actually part of the real plan?
"Because this plan was proposed by my younger brother, Xi Hong, who is a member of Lingling. My brother and I are not from Dongwu, but from Lingling."

"Oh? Then why did you two follow the bandits and block the advancement of my royal army?"

Zhang Fei was over fifty years old, and it was not so easy for him to be convinced by just a few words, so he continued to question Xi Zhen.

"When the Eastern Wu invaded, I wanted to join forces with Fan Zhou. But my brother Xi Hong dissuaded me, saying that the Han army had not yet set out, and even if we rashly launched an attack, it would be difficult to sustain and would be defeated one by one by the Eastern Wu.

In addition, I later received a handwritten letter from Ma Liang, the head of the Jingxiang Ma family, so I followed my brother's advice and stayed dormant for the time being, waiting for the arrival of my Han army. Ma Liang's handwritten letter is now in my possession."

Zhang Fei glanced at Zhang Bao. As a son, Zhang Bao could only sigh, went over and fumbled around on Xi Zhen's body for a few times, and took out a letter.

Zhang Bao opened it and took a look. He found that it was indeed written by Ma Liang to the wealthy and powerful families in Jingzhou before the army left Sichuan, so he handed the letter to Zhang Fei.

"Hmm...it seems that what you said is quite credible. Then why don't you just kill Liu Xian and open the city to welcome our army?"

“Reporting to the three generals, although Liu Xian has betrayed our Han Dynasty, he is just a person without talent but with a desire for power, and his nature is not bad.

He calls us brothers brothers, and we cannot bear to kill him. We also hope that he can recognize himself, so I have devised this plan, and I hope the three generals can spare his life, even if it means he can be an ordinary person. "

At this point, Xi Zhen, who had been standing, knelt down and begged Zhang Fei for Liu Xian's matter.

Zhang Fei sighed and thought of the sworn brotherhood he had with his elder and second brothers. Zhang Fei admired such righteous people and nodded, agreeing to Xi Zhen's request.

"Then tell me about your subsequent plans and how you told Liu Xian about it?"

After a while, Zhang Fei asked Xi Zhen again, and he was already planning to agree with Xi Zhen's brothers' plan.

(End of this chapter)