Chapter 352 The Chen Family’s Choice
Zhang Fei finally broke out of the siege at sunset, but almost all the soldiers he brought out were wiped out. He glanced at the army angrily, but there was nothing he could do. He was lucky to be able to break out of the siege today. If he fights back now, , that is to die.
With blood all over his body, Zhang Fei rode his horse and rushed into a dense forest. Cao Jun behind him also rushed in. The saying goes, don't enter the forest. Once this army entered the dense forest, it was naturally difficult to form a joint attack on Zhang Fei. In the end, After Zhang Fei killed several lone teams, he allowed Zhang Fei to escape completely.
Originally, Zhang Fei wanted to go back to Xiapi, but on the way he met Liu Bei, Xiahou Bo, Chen Gong, Chen Qun and others who had escaped from Xiapi.
"Brother?" In the darkness, Zhang Fei's dark face could not be seen clearly by others, but he recognized Liu Bei and hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Brother, why are you here!?"
"Alas~" Liu Bei sighed helplessly when he heard this and said nothing.
Xiahou Bo on the side explained to Zhang Fei: "Third general, not long after you left, a defeated army came over and said that you had fallen into a trap. After hearing the news, the lord wanted to rescue him, but who knew that this defeated army However, it was Cao Jun who pretended to be the enemy and they took the opportunity to seize the city gate. There were few soldiers in the city and they were unable to recapture it for a while. Then Xiahou Dun led his troops and arrived, and Xiapi was... gone."
Hearing this, Zhang Fei knelt down in front of Liu Bei and said, "Brother, it was my incompetence that caused Xiapi to fall due to exhaustion!"
"You are also eager to save Yunchang, but you haven't thought carefully about it." Liu Bei stretched out his hand to help Zhang Fei, and sighed: "Don't say such words again, we will meet with Yunchang first, and then think about a strategy to retreat from the enemy! "
"Um."
The two brothers survived the disaster, but lost the city and the land. They felt complicated and did not reminisce about the past. After taking a short rest, they set off overnight and headed towards Huailin, preparing to meet with Guan Yu before thinking about countermeasures.
On the other side, after Cao Cao captured Xiapi, he quickly contacted the Xuzhou nobles. Even if he had a bad reputation in Xuzhou, as long as he convinced the nobles, Xuzhou would win most of it.
In fact, Xuzhou is not monolithic. The Chen family is a representative of the scholars. Chen Deng is more optimistic about Liu Bei, and Liu Bei has been wooing the Chen family, so he has been assisting him over the years. However, Cao Cao believes that as long as Liu Bei's situation is over, Chen Deng will make the right choice. .
The Mi family is a wealthy family in Xuzhou, and they are friendly to Liu Bei. Mi Zhu even betrothed his sister to Liu Bei, obviously hoping to join the noble family through Liu Bei, and their goal has actually been achieved to some extent. With Liu Bei's dealings and help, the Mi family is now He is considered a die-hard loyalist of Liu Bei, but even though the wealthy merchant family is now considered a noble family, it still has a shallow foundation, so there is no need to care.
What really caught Cao Cao's attention was Tao Qian's old department headed by Xu Dan and Cao Bao.
Yes, everyone fought to the death in the past, but Tao Qian is dead and times have changed. Former enemies may not be able to become friends today.
After all, Xuzhou is so big. If Liu Bei wants to take care of the Mi family and make good friends with the Chen family, the resources in Xuzhou will naturally be tilted towards the forces represented by these two families, and people like Xu Dan and Cao Bao, who are Tao Qian's old subordinates, will naturally be invisible. marginalized.
Cao Cao was able to successfully capture Pengcheng because he relied on the help of Tao Qian's old troops to capture Pengcheng so quickly that Liu Bei couldn't even react.
And Cao Cao's method for Xuzhou was to abandon the Mi family and make good friends with Tao Qian's old tribe and the Xuzhou nobles represented by the Chen family. After all, this was all he could give. If he could take care of them all, Liu Bei wouldn't be defeated so quickly. That's why. Liu Bei was soft-hearted. Since he didn't need him and was reluctant to kill him, even if he didn't kill him, he shouldn't have kept him and just forced him away.
But these are all Liu Bei's problems. After Cao Cao captured Xiapi, he quickly ordered people to capture the East China Sea and uproot the Mi family. He was not in a hurry to continue chasing Liu Bei. He only wanted to uproot Liu Bei's roots in Xuzhou. Even if Liu Bei joins Guan Yu, he will be unable to save his life!
Xiahou Dun was successful in defeating Xiapi. After his official reinstatement, he was sent by Cao Cao to clean up the East China Sea, while Cao Cao began to make arrangements for the remaining Guangling.
Liu Bei is the one to fight in this battle, but fighting is only one aspect. The most important thing is to convince the Xuzhou family to side with them.
After all, now Liu Bei only has Guangling County left, and he has provoked Yuan Shu. As long as Cao Cao secures Xiapi and Pengcheng, Liu Bei will not be able to make any waves!
"My lord, Yuan Shu has already sent out troops. He was taking a boat to cross the river at Ruxukou. It seems that he was attacked by Jiangdong." Yu Jin came to Cao Cao and saluted Cao Cao.
"Don't worry about him for now, let him fight Jiangdong first. After I stabilize Xuzhou, Jiujiang and Runan will be under my rule!" Cao Cao laughed.
Jiujiang and Runan, Cao Cao is dominating the three states of Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and Xuzhou. In terms of momentum, he is at least not weaker than Yuan Shao and Lu Bu. Of course, it would be better if he can win Jiangdong together, but This is unlikely, so Cao Cao's main focus is on Liu Bei and Yuan Shu.
"The soldiers of the three armies have been reorganized and are just waiting for the Lord's order!" Yu Jin stepped in and saluted.
Cao Cao looked at the file, thought for a while and said, "That's good. I haven't seen Gongtai for a long time. It's just a good time to catch up with him! Pass my military order and set off to Guangling tomorrow."
"Here!"
…
On the other side, Liu Bei and Zhang Fei met Guan Yu in Tong County. After Guan Yu received Liu Bei's order, he immediately sent his troops to the north. Unfortunately, it was a step too late, allowing Cao Cao to take advantage of the loophole. Not only did Guan Yu lose the city and territory, but also his troops. Most of it was lost.
"Brother, don't worry, let me take back Xuzhou for my brother!" Guan Yu said to Liu Bei after learning what happened.
Liu Bei nodded. The three brothers joined forces and had another 20,000 troops. They were not without the power to fight.
At the moment, Liu Bei asked Chen Qun to stay in Tong County and be responsible for food and grass support with Chen Deng. He took Chen Deng and Guan and Zhang to send troops north again to confront Cao Cao in Xiaxiang.
The commander-in-chief this time was named Liu Bei, but he was actually Guan Yu. Although Cao Cao had more troops, he was unable to suppress Guan Yu after several fierce battles. Instead, Guan Yu won a few small victories.
The two sides fought for half a month in the Xiangxiang area, and it was always difficult to determine the outcome. However, just when Guan Yu was preparing to fight Cao Cao to the death, a letter from Chen Deng came from behind.
The Chen family decided to surrender to Cao Cao.
This decision was not made by Chen Deng. Chen Deng did not betray Liu Bei. However, the Chen family agreed to surrender to Cao Cao, which meant that most of the cities in Guangling would surrender to Cao Cao, leaving Liu Bei with only three cities left.
What Chen Deng meant was that he hoped Liu Bei would join him.
Next, in the tent of Liu Bei's army, Zhang Fei's eyes turned red with anger when he saw the letter sent by Chen Deng. He stood up suddenly and said loudly to Liu Bei: "Brother, the Chen family is really not trustworthy. Treat me little brother." Lead the troops to defeat them!"
"No nonsense, sit down!" Liu Bei shouted.
Obviously, even Liu Bei's character is somewhat uncontrollably irritable at this moment.
After all, the Chen family's betrayal was something Liu Bei never expected. Although Chen Deng said it lightly, in fact, Chen Deng's purpose in sending this letter was to make his departure look better.
But it is okay for the Chen family to betray, but Liu Bei cannot use it to deal with the Chen family. At a small level, it is because the structure is not enough, but at a large level, it is because you, Liu Bei, are incompetent, and you cannot blame the Chen family.
This is a family that puts profit first.
Guan Yu on the side suddenly sneered: "Brother, I suddenly feel that the Guanzhong imperial examination is not really bad."
Because of his early experiences, Guan Yu has never had a good impression of the aristocratic family. Now seeing the betrayal of the Chen family, for Guan Yu, it is a feeling that he had known before. Although he usually gets along with Chen Deng in harmony, at least not Although he had taken action, Guan Yu had always been wary of the Chen family.
Chen Gong opened his mouth when he heard this. In the past, he would have refuted it, but today, he had nothing to say. Liu Bei had not yet been defeated. When he needed support the most, the Chen family jumped to Cao Cao's side. Not to mention that he didn't care about the family. How pleasing Guan Yu is, even he has the urge to kill the Chen family.
"Yun Chang, please don't say such angry words." Liu Bei shook his head and said, "You and I are at the end of our rope. It is human nature to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, let alone the Chen family. The Chen family has been fighting with me until now. You have never failed me, so don’t blame others!”
Although Guan Yu was dissatisfied, Liu Bei said so, so he could only shut up.
Chen Gong felt very comfortable after hearing this. He looked down on Liu Bei at first, but the longer he got along with Liu Bei, the more he admired him.
Although he can occasionally see weakness in him, his attitude is always very positive and he never complains about others. His magnanimity is not comparable to that of Cao Cao.
It seems that origin is really not that important.
"My lord." Just when everyone was at a loss to deal with the situation at hand, they saw Xiahou Bo coming in. He saluted Liu Bei and said, "Cao Cao sent someone here and said he wanted to see my lord."
At this time, when someone is sent here, there seems to be nothing else to talk about other than to persuade them to surrender.
Liu Bei shook his head and said: "Let him go and tell Cao Cao that Bei will not surrender, let alone those who attack our allies for no reason!"
"Here!" Xiahou Bo saluted and bowed to leave.
"Thank you, Lord!" Chen Gong looked at Liu Bei with some emotion. Although Liu Bei didn't say anything, Chen Gong knew that Liu Bei's rejection of Cao Cao was not just because of Cao Cao's unrighteousness, but also because he once served Cao Cao and later betrayed him. If Liu Bei, under Cao Cao, surrenders, how will he fare? Liu Bei's move was tantamount to giving Chen Gong a reassurance that Chen Gong could not be moved.
"Don't be like this in Gongtai. Cao Cao fights without justice. Any righteous person will be ashamed to associate with such evildoers." Liu Bei shook his head and said with a smile.
"That's right, who will surrender him?" Zhang Fei nodded in agreement, and then looked at Chen Gong: "Gongtai, you won't really... then..."
Later, Zhang Fei couldn't say it directly. When Chen Gong came, there were rumors that this man was a disaster star. He would be unlucky wherever he went. He went to Lu Bu's place. It seemed that he was catching up with a natural disaster and went to Liu Zhang's place. , Liu Zhang was gone, and later he organized an alliance to fight against thieves. The alliance became corrupt, and now Liu Bei is like this. Looking at it this way... it really makes sense.
Chen Gong:......
Guan Yu: "..."
Liu Bei: "Don't talk nonsense, Yide!"