Shu Han Confucian General of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 40
"My lord!" Wu Dun, who was covered in blood, disheveled hair and disheveled armor, knelt down and cried bitterly as soon as he entered.

"General Wu, what's so sad?" Liu Bei asked hurriedly when he saw Wu Dun's distressed appearance and had an ominous premonition in his heart.

"Lord, the day before yesterday Cao Cao suddenly sent 15 troops to attack the State of Lu. General Sun Guan refused to surrender and led his army to defend the city. He did not want Na Changxi to secretly inform Cao Cao to open the city gate, and the State of Lu fell. General Sun fought to the death and died at the hands of Xiahou Dun Of the [-] defenders, only the last general led hundreds of people to break out of the siege and report to Xuzhou. Now Cao Cao's troops have marched south and surrounded Peiguo." Wu Dun broke down in tears when he said this.

"Changxi!" Liu Bei gritted his teeth in a rare way, then looked at Wu Dun who was still kneeling on the ground, and hurriedly stepped forward to help him up, saying, "It's a blessing that General Wu escaped, but poor Sun Zhongtai... ..." At this point Liu Bei also shed tears.

"General Sun said that Chang Xi was recommended by him, and he didn't want to betray the lord today. His confidant is really ashamed to see the lord again, so he desperately broke the queen, but let the future report to Xuzhou." After Wu Dun said this, tears were already in his eyes. like rain.

"Pass down the order and order people to find General Sun's body and bury it generously." Liu Bei asked Wu Dun to go down to rest again, calmed down his emotions, and turned to Lu Su and said, "I don't want to respond to Mr. Guo's words. Cao Cao's soldiers invaded Yuzhou. I want to personally command the army to fight against Cao Cao in Yuzhou, take back the city, kill the traitor Chang Xi, and avenge General Sun!"

"There is nothing wrong with Shijun's words, but I don't know if the defenders of Pei State can support it. If Cao Cao captures Pei State, there will only be one or two generals left to guard Pei State and Lu State. Therefore, it is impossible to fight the main force of Cao's army in a decisive battle, and it is futile." Lu Su said cautiously.

"Pei State has General Guan and [-] elite soldiers, and Mr. Jian Xianhe is there, so it shouldn't fall so soon. Moreover, if Lu State falls and Cao soldiers invade the country, General Guan will not sit idly by." Zhao Feng thought for a while. Want to also put forward your own views.

"That's not bad. I agree. Tomorrow, [-] troops will be dispatched to rescue Peiguo." Liu Bei summed up the opinions of Zhao Feng and Lu Su, and quickly made a decision.Finally, he looked at Lu Su and said: "Sir, he is very talented in predicting things like a god. Today, Mr. Bei will be conferred as a military commander to offer wine, and he will be rewarded after he has made meritorious service."

"Thank you, my lord!" Lu Su also thanked him, and since then he has also become a member of Liu Bei's group.

The next day, Liu Bei personally led an army of [-] soldiers, together with six generals including Zhang Fei, Zhao Feng, Zhao Yun, Song Xian, Wei Xu, and Chen Dao, together with the new military commander Lu Su, who sacrificed wine to the rescue officer of Peiguo from Pengcheng. At the same time, the state of Lu was recovered, and a group of civil servants such as Gao Shun, Wu Dun and Mi Zhu stayed behind in Xuzhou.

Not to mention that everyone in Xuzhou came to revenge, at this time in Runan City, Mu Guanyu of Yuzhou was furious when he heard the news, and he wished to raise troops immediately to fight Cao Cao to the death.

"Father, please calm your anger. How can you not move lightly when you are stationed in Runan to guard against Liu Biao?" Guan Ping on the side hurriedly remonstrated. "Humph, how dare old Liu Biao violate our borders? I mean, Ping'er, you and Wen Chang stay in Runan, and I will lead an army of [-] to rescue Peiguo. The rest of the ministries should set aside their duties to prevent Cao Cao and Liu Biao!" Guan Yu arranged After it was over, it started to operate quickly without waiting for everyone's opposition.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————— ————————————

"How's the situation ahead?" Among the advancing Xuzhou army, Liu Bei stopped and asked a sentinel who had just returned.

"My lord, Cao Cao is now leading an army to attack Pei. General Guan Hai is defending the city and has not yet fallen. As for Lu, Cao Cao left General Li Dian and 8000 troops to garrison. In addition, General Cao Ren led 2 troops under the former army. Fortress, block the way." The sentry cavalry hesitated at this point, and finally gritted his teeth and said: "Cao Cao captured the Lu State and ordered the massacre of the city!"

"Cao Mengde, you murderous demon!" Liu Bei said bitterly. "Brother, wait for me to chop off the head of old man Cao Cao and use it as a stool for you to sit on and use it as a pit for you to piss!" Zhang Fei was also furious. In fact, everyone in Xuzhou was indignant: Cao Cao is really addicted to slaughtering the city.

"Advance at full speed!" Liu Bei was not afraid of an ambush, this area was a plain, and the only way to ambush was to rely on cavalry.And this time, I also brought almost all the cavalry with me. If I really wanted to strangle him, who would be afraid of anyone?

Not to mention that Liu Bei led the army to push forward with all its strength. At this time, under the city of Peiguo, Cao Cao was still making a final effort to persuade him to surrender: "General Guan, Mr. Jian, you two resisted the imperial army, and you are really treasonous. It is not right now to open the city and surrender. When will it be?"

On the top of the wall, Guan Hai and Jian Yong looked at each other, and the latter, who was a literati, was more eloquent, and said in a loud voice: "As Prime Minister Cao, as the imperial court official, you should know that General Guan is the Yuzhou Shepherd appointed by the imperial court. The same is true for General Guan, Prime Minister of the Pei Kingdom. Why are you bringing up an unknown army to invade our borders, so you are not afraid that the world will laugh at you for repeated actions?"

"Jane Zhizhong didn't know that the Yellow Turbans were raging in Yuzhou. Guan Yu, as the governor of the state, incorporated them into the army. As the prime minister of the imperial court, in order to avoid banditry, Cao personally led the army to confiscate them again." Cao Cao said seriously. .

I rely on, this reason is all right?Jian Yong and Guan Hai looked at each other, and in the end Guan Hai said at the top of his voice, "Prime Minister Cao is really suspicious. I used to be a yellow scarf before Guan Hai. If you want to be capable, Prime Minister Cao, fly to the top of the city and arrest me!" Arrows were fired from his head, and Cao Cao's personal guards hurriedly raised their shields to block him, protecting him and retreating to a safe area.

"Siege the city!" Cao Cao also knew that persuading surrender was useless, so he ordered to attack the city.There are only [-] defenders in Peiguo. Apart from Cao Ren and his men defending Liu Bei in the east, he still has no less than [-] troops on hand. He must be able to easily take Peiguo.

Teams of Cao Jun soldiers carrying big shields set up ladders and rushed towards Peiguo.At the same time, when the car was rushed, Jing Lan also started one after another.This is the case with siege warfare in the era of cold weapons. No matter how clever you are, if the opponent is determined not to fight, you can only rely on the big guns to take your life.

"Fire the crossbow!" Seeing that the opponent entered the shooting range, Guan Hai quickly ordered his subordinates to use the big killer.Suddenly there was a sound of "chi chi", and the nearly one hundred ballistas on the Peiguo city tower did not fire at the same time, but were divided into two batches to shoot arrows alternately, so that the firepower would not stop.

After the ballista was designed and improved by Lu Hao and Zhao Feng, it is now the number one defensive weapon in Xuzhou City.After seeing the lethality of this thing, Liu Bei immediately ordered mass production.Zhang Liao's previous offensive and defensive battle of Guangling was just a small test. Now the entire slightly larger city of Xuzhou is equipped with a large number of crossbows. Those giant arrows are used when they are used. hand.

"Huh?" Cao Cao saw a huge arrow as thick as a spear shot down from the top of the city. It was powerful and condescending. His soldiers were often directly shot and nailed to the ground, or three or four people were strung together. In a row, the rough wooden shields were shot through like thin paper, and they couldn't help being mad.

"What the hell is this?" Cao Cao asked in shock when he saw that the first wave of attack was defeated.The surrounding people looked at each other in blank dismay, they had been supported by Nei Yingchang when they attacked the Kru kingdom before, so they had not seen the power of this ballista.Now Chang Xi is guarding against Liu Bei with Cao Ren, so no one can answer his questions.

"Peiguo has such a sharp weapon, I'm afraid it will be difficult to conquer it in a hurry!" Cao Cao murmured, but his heart was a little hairy: According to his and Guo Jia's vision, they wanted to take down Peiguo and Luguo with a thunderous force, so he decided to Divide 2 troops and let Cao Ren go to the east to stop Liu Bei's reinforcements for several days.But now that Guan Hai has this sharp weapon for defending the city, I'm afraid he won't be able to take it for ten days and a half months.And for ten days and a half months, Cao Ren formed a fortress with [-] horses in the plain to block Liu Bei's army, no matter how good he was at defending, it would be difficult to resist.

And once Liu Bei's army reaches Pei, he can only retreat to Lu at most, and this time the cutting plan can only be half successful. "My lord, I have a plan to take Pei Guo quickly." At this time, a black-clothed scribe on the left stepped forward and remonstrated.

"Oh, what's Wen He's trick?" Cao Cao asked quickly when he saw it was him.He is none other than Jia Xu and Jia Wenhe who just defected here with Zhang Xiu.

"Although the bow and crossbow of Peiguo are strong, I have heard that Liu Bei regards himself as benevolent. We can gather the people in the surrounding villages and drive them to attack the city. If the defenders can't bear to attack, we can take the opportunity to take the city; if they kill the people, it is inevitable. The morale of the army will be disturbed, and the crossbow arrows will be consumed, so we will get twice the result with half the effort if we step up the attack!" Jia Xu said without any emotion.

"Huh?" Cao Cao was noncommittal, while Guo Jia and Xun You hurriedly spoke to stop him. "My lord, this is absolutely unacceptable. If you use this strategy to win the Pei Kingdom, it will be hard to win the hearts of the people here." Guo Jiazuo said.Xun You directly reprimanded Jia Xu: "Jia Wenhe, the former Fanlu Kingdom surrendered, why did you let the prime minister slaughter the city? Today you want to drive the people to attack the city again, are you really bloodthirsty?"

"There are hundreds of thousands of people in the state of Lu. If we don't slaughter them all, wouldn't it be possible for us to attack the city here and be copied at any time? We have to do this just in case." Jia Xu said disapprovingly. The name really lives up to its name.Although the surrounding military generals such as Xiahou Dun and others were also murderous, they couldn't help but feel a chill after hearing these words.

"My lord, it's better to let the last general call for battle. If Guan Hai can be mobilized to come out as a general, as long as he is killed, it will be easy to break the city." Seeing signs of dispute among the several counselors, Xu Huang hastily stepped forward to propose a compromise scheme.

"That's fine, Gong Ming is more careful!" Cao Cao also hesitated, and immediately agreed to Xu Huang's proposal.So Xu Huang led his troops to scold them, but after scolding for a long time, Guan Hai just shrank his head.The last time he saw the martial arts of Cao Jun's generals in Xuzhou, he knew that most of his battles would be defeated but not won, and it was better to stick to the city.

"Siege the city!" Seeing that Xu Huang had returned in vain, Cao Cao continued to give orders to attack the city, but he still didn't immediately adopt Jia Xu's strategy. Guo Jia and others were also slightly relieved.All of a sudden, the city of Peiguo was full of killing sounds, crossbows and giant arrows flew across the sky, and pots full of kerosene were thrown down, smashed and set on fire, and a smell of burnt meat immediately permeated the air.

At the same time, Liu Bei and Guan Yu's two reinforcements, the former had arrived at Cao Ren's Dazhai, and the latter had also arrived at Liang Guo to join the guard Mi Fang there.

(End of this chapter)