I practiced magic in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 117: Professionally Selling Teammates for Thirty Years
"Wang Jing, you are going too far!"

Above the gate of Pingyin County, Zhang Xiu stood under the watchtower, his whole body was furious, even the veins on his right hand holding the gun were exposed, his whole body was boiling with anger, murderous aura almost turned into substance and burst out from his eyes, staring at Wang Jing.

Everyone has a weak spot, and Zou is Zhang Xiu's weak spot!

Before his uncle Zhang Ji died, Zhang Xiu had already been drooling over this beautiful "aunt" who was ten years younger than him. However, due to etiquette, he wanted to take it step by step.

After his uncle died in battle, Zhang Xiu thought that his widowed aunt should be taken care of by his nephew. After all, the Han and Qiang people in Liangzhou lived together, so this was not a big deal. As long as the matter was settled privately, it would not be a big deal. Therefore, Zou had long been regarded as a forbidden delicacy by Zhang Xiu, and he regarded her as his own possession.

However, in the Battle of Luoyang, Dong Zhuo was attacked and killed by Wang Jing, and then the Western Liang army was defeated so quickly that he could only focus on escaping and had no time to take Zou away.

Now that he knows that Zou has fallen into Wang Jing's hands, how can he not hate him?
Zhang Xiu was so angry that his lungs were about to explode just thinking about the scenes of Wang Jing and Zou's daily lovemaking. Now Wang Jing was openly mocking him in front of him, and Zhang Xiu suddenly felt humiliated.

Furious, Zhang Xiu immediately assembled his troops and prepared to leave the city to fight a decisive battle with Wang Jing to vent his hatred.

Li Ru, who had been by Zhang Xiu's side since Dong Zhuo's death, immediately stepped forward to stop him: "General, the Art of War says that a lord should not raise an army out of anger, and a general should not fight out of resentment. Now our army is defending the city, enjoying the advantage of the terrain. We only need to wait for the arrival of the follow-up reinforcements. By then, the whole army will be in battle formation, the soldiers will be united, and the military spirit will be high. Even if Marquis Qi has the courage of a hegemon, he will have to retreat sadly. Why bother to fight with him now?"

Li Ru’s words made sense. Zhang Xiu’s anger was instantly diluted and his emotions calmed down a little.

But just when Zhang Xiu gave up on leaving the city to fight in the field, outside Pingyin County, drums sounded deafeningly. A large red and black flag with the word "King" written on it, painted with iron and silver hooks, stood tall and fluttered in the wind.

The battle flag was as red as fire, rising into the sky like a raging flame.

"Marquis Qi is here!"

"Brilliant Feather Blade!"

Many of Zhang Xiu's subordinates were defeated soldiers who had been defeated by Wang Jing. When they saw Wang Jing's battle flag fluttering, they were immediately aroused by the fear of death in their hearts.

Outside the city, Jia Xu was also offering advice to Wang Jing: "The Lord is so famous that all the soldiers in Xiliang are terrified. As long as we raise the flag and pretend to have 50,000 troops, the soldiers in Xiliang will surely be afraid. Then everyone will want to retreat, and it will be difficult to defend the city."

Wang Jing also thought this plan was brilliant, and immediately laughed and ordered: "Okay, let's do it according to this plan."

"Someone, bring me my bow."

Wang Jing ordered his men to bring the Overlord Bow. He held the cold black iron bow in his hand, but his heart was burning with the desire to fight.

A cloth strip was tied to the arrow, with the news that the court had sent Wang Jing to lead 50,000 troops to quell the rebellion. As the bowstring made of black dragon tendons was fully pulled, the fingertips loosened, and with a whoosh, the arrow was nailed to the pillar of the watchtower.

The Overlord Bow was extremely powerful. The arrow could fly over a distance of two hundred feet and penetrate three inches into the wood, becoming nailed on the pillar in front of the watchtower on the city wall.

At the same time, there were also Bingzhou soldiers who were good at shooting and rode around the city on horseback. They shot bows left and right, continuously shooting cloth strips with messages written on them into the city to create chaos.

Li Ru realized something was wrong when he saw this, and immediately ordered someone to pick up one of the arrows. When he took it apart, his eyelids twitched, and he became furious: "Confiscate it immediately. This is fake news deliberately spread by the enemy. Where did Luoyang City get 50,000 troops now?"

When he had served Liu Bian before, he had been exposed to many court secrets, so he was well aware that the empire's current military mobilization capabilities were already stretched to their limits.

Each state and county has become an independent kingdom, the major families in the capital are deeply rooted, and Wang Jing is a member of the New Party, and is not favored by the Old Party forces such as Yuan Wei and Yang Biao. Where can he recruit 50,000 troops to quell the rebellion?

Therefore, Li Ru knew that this must be a strategy of the enemy army and a false threat, so he acted decisively and wanted to stop Wang Jing's strategy of deceiving the enemy.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Dozens of cavalrymen shot at least hundreds of arrows into the city. The news had spread widely among the people and the army and could not be controlled at all.

Moreover, the more Li Ru forbad it, the more the soldiers under him believed that the news was true. They thought that Wang Jing, the god of death, was really coming with 50,000 royal troops.

Suddenly, inside the small Pingyin County, there were three shocks a day and rumors were spreading, so that the Xiliang soldiers under Zhang Xiu were all in a panic, fearing that the imperial army would come at any time and bury them in a foreign land.

These Xiliang soldiers were all from Liangzhou. They obeyed Dong Zhuo's orders before because they thought they could enjoy a good life in the glamorous world of Luoyang, so they were willing to work for Dong Zhuo.

Now that Dong Zhuo has been killed by Wang Jing, they can no longer stay in the capital. The coalition forces of various princes are calling for their death, and hundreds of thousands of troops are gathering outside Hulao Pass. Wang Jing comes from a noble family, and in the eyes of most Xiliang soldiers, Wang Jing and the coalition forces are actually in the same group. Therefore, they all believe that Wang Jing can gather 50,000 people.

That’s 50,000 troops!

The troops were led by a famous general like Wang Jing, so the Xiliang soldiers under Zhang Xiu had no intention of fighting. They only thought about escaping as quickly as possible. The farther they were away from Wang Jing, the god of death, the safer they would be.

When Li Ru realized that something was wrong, it was already too late.

Zhang Xiu was also very depressed: "Law Master, you advised me not to go out of the city to fight in the field before, as long as we can defend the county, we will win. But now we are trapped in the city, so the morale of the army is shaken, and the soldiers have no desire to fight. Can we still defend this county?"

He finally raised an army of more than 10,000 people, and joined forces with Li Jue to defeat Lu Bu. He was planning to counterattack Luoyang and look for an opportunity.

But Zhang Xiu never expected that instead of finding an opportunity, he would end up seeking his own death. Who could bear this?

Li Ru was also full of helplessness at this moment. He originally thought that Dong Zhuo could accomplish great things, so he did not hesitate to betray his old benefactor Liu Bian. However, just when he had gained Dong Zhuo's trust, this fat man was killed by Wang Jing!
Because of Liu Bian's death, Li Ru is now stuck with no way out and can only follow the Xiliang Army. He analyzed for Zhang Xiu: "There must be someone around Wang Jing who is very familiar with our army, otherwise he would never offer such a vicious plan to him. Now that morale has been lost, it is meaningless to defend the county. General, you should quickly prepare to break out, otherwise you may not be able to leave."

He said he would defend before, but now he said he wanted to flee. Zhang Xiu was immediately upset and glared at Li Ru with a very dissatisfied tone: "Law Master, are you also scared by the so-called 50,000 troops?"

Li Ru looked straight at Zhang Xiu and asked coldly, "General, why do you have to ridicule Yu Ru? An army of 50,000 is a joke, but Qi Hou's ability is unpredictable and he has the courage of ten thousand men. The Grand Master had thousands of people protecting him that day, but he was still killed by Wang Jing in public. Later, Wang Jing defeated many of our troops single-handedly. If the general meets him later, do you have the confidence to escape from his hands again?"

Zhang Xiu was speechless and could not answer.

Because he himself had no confidence that he could survive Wang Jing's hands, especially since the Hongming Sword had been subdued by Wang Jing. With such a magical weapon in his hand, how many heads would be enough for Wang Jing to chop off?
The last time he was able to escape was because his uncle Zhang Ji personally led his troops and risked his life to cover his retreat, but he no longer has another uncle to rely on.

At night, the night was as cool as water and Pingyin County was quiet and silent.

Zhang Xiu and his 1,000 Xiliang cavalry had already made their preparations quietly and were ready to escape from the city at any time.

"Where is the doctor's messenger?"

"General, Ru is here."

Li Ru also changed out of his scholar's attire that was inconvenient for travel, put on a set of tight clothes, and rode a horse.

Although Li Ru's previous ideas did not work, victory and defeat are common in the military. Zhang Xiu still valued Li Ru, the only think tank in his team, so before leaving, he asked about the strategy: "Our army has assembled, how do we break through?"

Li Ru stroked his beard. Although he was in a similarly urgent mood, his thoughts were much clearer than Zhang Xiu's. He looked up at the sky and then told him his plan: "Escape at night. It seems that there are three directions to go: west, south, and north. In fact, except for the north, the other two roads are dead ends."

Zhang Xiu was puzzled: "Why? Going west should be the fastest. With our speed, it only takes one day to return to Hangu Pass."

Li Ru shook his head after hearing this: "The fastest is indeed the fastest, but it means death is the fastest."

Li Ru then explained the pros and cons to Zhang Xiu and said, "I dare say there will be an ambush in the west. If we really go there, we will never come back. As for the south, there is Lu Bu. Although He Jin's old troops under his command have been defeated, Lu Bu still has more than a hundred cavalrymen from Bingzhou, and eight strong generals including Wei Xu and Cheng Lian are fighting together. If we encounter them, we will be entangled by them and it will be difficult to escape. In the end, we will still die."

"That……"

"General, the only way to survive now is to go north through Baihe Ferry and go upstream!"

After listening to Li Ru's suggestion, Zhang Xiu immediately thought it made sense, so he sent out two decoy troops and ordered them to flee westward and southward respectively after leaving the city, hoping to divert the attention of the soldiers.

At 2 o'clock in the morning, the night was pitch black. Zhang Xiu took Li Ru and a thousand cavalrymen, rushed out of the north gate, and rushed all the way to Baihe Ferry.

Just when he was about to escape, he found himself surrounded as soon as he entered the ferry.

"Haha, Wenhe's trick of catching a turtle in a jar is really powerful." Wang Jing suddenly appeared on the battlefield with three thousand soldiers, cutting off the last chance of life of Zhang Xiu and others. It is obvious that he had set up an ambush here a long time ago and established a huge encirclement, just waiting for the prey to fall into his pocket.

At Baihe Ferry, war drums were beating loudly.

"kill!"

The flaming battle flag fluttered in the wind amid the flashes of swords and sabers.

If Zhang Xiu's troops could maintain their fighting spirit and morale and fight in formation, they might be able to create some trouble for Wang Jing and hold out for a while longer.

However, because of Jia Xu's strategy, Zhang Xiu's soldiers had no fighting spirit, and their generals had no desire to fight. They were also attacked by surprise on their hasty retreat and immediately became a group of lambs to be slaughtered.

In just a cup of tea, Zhang Xiu's troops were completely wiped out at Baihe Ferry by the Bingzhou soldiers led by Wang Jing. At this moment, even the cold river water was dyed red by the warm blood. The flames that shot up into the sky pierced the night sky and were still clearly visible ten miles away.

"Wang Jing, do you dare to fight me to the death!?"

Amid the pile of corpses, Zhang Xiu, knowing he was going to die, forced himself to hold on to his wounded body, took up his gun and abandoned his horse, stepped on the muddy tidal flats, and rushed towards Wang Jing with a roar, hoping to fight to the bitter end.

Hua Xiong, holding a black iron sword, rode in front of the battle and tried to persuade him to surrender: "Wen Jin, now that things have come to this, why don't you kneel down and surrender? Marquis Qi is the bravest man in the world, and it will be easy for him to wipe out the rebels. Why are you still so stubborn?"

"Shut up! You traitor, I am ashamed to be associated with you!"

"you!"

Hua Xiong was furious when he heard this, and was about to go up and kill his old colleague with a knife to show his loyalty to his new boss Wang Jing and his determination to break away from the past.

It was Wang Jing who spoke up to persuade Hua Xiong: "Let him come over."

Hua Xiong did not dare to disobey military orders, and immediately followed Wang Jing's orders, ordering his men to make way for Zhang Xiu to kill his way to Wang Jing.

"You thief, I will never forgive you!"

Zhang Xiu's face was ferocious, his eyes were red with anger. The hatred for his uncle's murder and his aunt's abduction was all in one shot, which he aimed at Wang Jing's face.

The tip of the gun trembled slightly, like the roar of a tiger, shaking the rivers and streams. The whole person soared into the air and turned into a long golden rainbow, piercing through the clouds and the sun.

However, Wang Jing was so strong that he was like the sun rising in the sky, extremely domineering. How could he be penetrated by a mere broken spear?

Nine refinements of true yang!

The sun is scorching!

Under the day and night tempering of the Danyu Holy Flame, Wang Jing's motor system had long been strengthened to an inhuman level. He possessed tremendous strength and was able to throw an elephant and shake a mountain.

Zheng~
Hongming is unsheathed, and the divine fire shines across the world.

A knife!

Wang Jing waved the magic weapon in his hand lightly, and in an instant, the blazing holy flame slashed along the blade onto Zhang Xiu's gun.

Kill the gun first, then kill the person!
Steal, death!
There was a flash of sword light and fire, and then Zhang Xiu's head with eyes wide open flew up.

Zhang Xiu died. In this life, he was unlucky. Before he could start his own legend, he met Wang Jing. He died in this small ferry and was buried by the Hongming sword. He became a cold corpse with his head and body separated.

"Give him a proper burial. He is indeed a brave man."

Killing is not the right path, so Wang Jing had no intention of continuing to humiliate Zhang Xiu. After all, he was a brave man in history who had killed Dian Wei and caused Cao Cao to lose his beloved son. He deserved respect.

After the battle, Wang Jing ordered his men to clean up the battlefield and collect the prisoners.

What surprised Wang Jing deeply was that in addition to Zhang Xiu, there was a second big fish caught tonight. Li Ru was identified by his companions and then brought to Wang Jing with hands tied behind his back.

"Are you Li Wenyou?"

Wang Jing looked at the middle-aged man in front of him curiously. He was in his forties, with gray hair and beard, and looked a little old.

Judging from his appearance alone, Li Ru was actually not ugly. After all, he was chosen to be Liu Bian's aide, so no matter how bad his appearance and temperament were, they could not be too bad. At least he was a well-mannered and elegant person.

But Li Ru's eyes gave people a gloomy and vicious feeling, like a poisonous snake.

It is obvious that he is a man who will do anything to achieve his goals.

Facing Wang Jing, Li Ru felt mixed emotions for a moment, and bowed slightly: "Greetings, Lord Qi."

Three thousand armored soldiers stood silently, and the solemn atmosphere actually made Li Ru unable to breathe.

But he always boasted that he could make plans and win battles thousands of miles away, so how could he believe that he would fall into the calculations of others: "Lord Qi, can you tell me who saw through my plan?"

"Wenyou, long time no see, how are you?"

At this moment, Jia Xu stood out with a smile on his face, and stood behind Wang Jing without feeling awkward at all.

The torches held high by the soldiers beside him also clearly reflected Jia Xu's cold yet indifferent face.

"Jia Wenhe, it's you!"

When Li Ru saw Jia Xu appear, he understood clearly that it was Jia Xu who gave Wang Jing advice, saw through his plan, and put him to death.

Li Ru was shocked when he learned the truth. He lost interest and said with a wry smile, "No wonder Marquis Qi knew everything about our movements."

If there is anyone who knows the situation of the Xiliang Army best, then that person must be Jia Xu. In order to protect himself, the poisoner who has been professionally selling out his teammates for thirty years will naturally not show any mercy to his former colleagues.

For Jia Xu, a worker should have the ideological awareness of a worker. He should not always think about working hard for his boss until his death, but should think more about himself and his family.

After so many years, has your salary increased, your official position been promoted, and your future is bright?

Therefore, when accompanying Wang Jing on this expedition, Jia Xu planned to do his best and perform well in order to seek better salary and benefits.

Li Ru, who just realized this at this moment, was filled with hatred. He was such a person, so he instantly understood Jia Xu's choice.

What made him upset was that he didn't discover all this earlier, otherwise he wouldn't have suffered such a devastating defeat today.

After the Western Liang Army was defeated, Jia Xu did not flee with them. At first, Li Ru thought that he was unlucky and might have died in the chaos, but he never thought that Jia Xu actually defected to Wang Jing. Now he turned his guns around and helped the Northern Army to fight the Western Liang Army, intending to kill him and others.

Li Ru was a first-rate strategist and never thought that he was inferior to Jia Xu. He did not expect to be defeated miserably in the first battle. He stared at Jia Xu unconvincedly and said, "Wenhe, how did you guess that I would flee to Baihe Ferry?"

Jia Xu smiled calmly, looked at Li Ru, and said softly: "Smart people's ideas are always easier to guess than fools. Your plan is too perfect, so it happened as I expected."

After hearing this, Li Ru wanted to die. He had never expected that his cleverness would backfire. However, he still looked at Jia Xu unconvincedly and said, "Wen He is so sure that I will fall for his trick? Aren't you afraid that after Zhang Xiu leaves the city, he will ignore my advice and flee westward?"

(End of this chapter)