At this time, Liu Bei led his troops and horses just past Yinling, not far away. They walked slowly every day, but they were not tired at all.
Today again, the army has stopped and set up camp before the sun sets.
Liu Bei did one thing very well. Every time he set up camp, he would wait until the entire army's tents were arranged before entering the camp, to show that he shared the hardships with the soldiers and refused to settle first.
"We haven't heard from Mr. Wen'an yet. I don't know what happened to him. Can Liu Jingzhou be persuaded to send troops to help? I don't know if Xia Qiu can be defended."
Liu Bei stood on a mound, looking at the mountains and forests in the distance. The setting sun was shining warmly and the cold wind was blowing gently.
The scouts had reported back two days ago. Cao Cao sent troops to attack Xiaqiu and Tongguo. The Xiaqiu County magistrate refused to surrender and led the officials and people in the city to hold on to the city. It was not known whether Cao Cao's troops could break through.
Zhuge Liang stood beside him and said: "My lord, no matter whether Mr. Wen An can persuade Liu Jingzhou to send troops to help, now that Pengcheng, Xiapi and Qili are all indestructible, Xuzhou will be safe. Cao Cao will attack this time." It will be in vain."
"I once thought that Lu Bu would not attack me, but my husband thought that Lu Bu would definitely attack Xia Pi, so I took precautions early, and it turned out to be true. I also thought that Cao Cao would not attack Xuzhou, but my husband thought that he would, and asked Peng Cheng to attack me. Pi had already taken precautions, and now Cao Cao has indeed come to attack. Sir, it’s as if you can see what happened right before your eyes!”
Liu Bei has not seen Zhou Ping for many days, and he is very concerned about him at this moment.
"Sir, you are the one who knows the situation. He avoids Cao Cao and is willing to assist the lord of the left. It can be seen that in your opinion, the general trend is with the lord, and the enemy of Xuzhou will be able to retreat easily this time."
Although what Zhuge Liang said was flattery, it was also what he really meant.
If a person who understands the world's situation chooses to assist you, it means that you are the one with the upper hand.
Even in history, after Zhuge Liang understood the world situation, he still chose Liu Bei because he could see that Liu Bei had the upper hand.
Now that he is only seventeen years old, he can also see that Liu Bei is in control, so he is willing to return to Xuzhou to assist Liu Bei with his brother.
Liu Bei remained silent, but he was secretly happy in his heart and looked into the distance.
At this time, a scout came galloping forward. He reined up his horse until he was at the foot of the mound, and reported to Liu Bei: "General, Xiaqiu and Tongguo have been captured by Cao's army. The two cities... all the people and men in the two cities... Beheaded!"
"What?!"
Liu Bei swayed and almost fell, but fortunately Zhuge Liang held him on.
"Cao Cao massacred the city again?"
"Yes, Cao Bing told the other people that if the general is too slow to return, they will massacre the prime minister and Ling County again." the scout replied.
"Damn Cao Cao!"
Liu Bei gritted his teeth tightly and showed a cruel look in his eyes.
"Brother, give me five thousand soldiers. I will go back and kill those thieves first."
Zhang Fei was so angry that his eyes widened in horror.
"Cao Cao wants to force me to go back and fight him, but he doesn't hesitate to kill innocent people indiscriminately. I will kill such a vicious thief quickly. Give me the order to march quickly starting tomorrow."
Liu Bei knew Cao Cao's purpose of doing this, but he had no choice but to do what Cao Cao wanted.
Because maybe Cao Cao would actually massacre Xiang Xiang and Ling County again. This man was already killing indiscriminately and had no mercy.
"My lord, would you like to bring back General Guan's troops and horses? Our troops seem to be a little short."
Cao Cheng, who never spoke much, also said at this time.
Liu Bei shook his head: "No need for now, Sun Ce is attacking Liyang. If Yunchang is allowed to lead his troops back, Jiujiang will be lost. It's better to wait first."
We'll wait and see what news there is in Jingzhou. We have few troops, so we can keep Cao Cao in Xuzhou. If all the troops in Jiujiang are allowed to return, Cao Cao will retreat, and it will be difficult to destroy him."
What he wants now is not just to defeat Cao Cao, but to take this opportunity to destroy Cao Cao.
Although he has brought back a few soldiers and horses, it is difficult to defeat Cao Cao, but defeat is not that easy.
After waiting for a while, the entire army had set up camp. Chen came and asked Liu Bei to enter the camp and rest.
Liu Bei had just stepped off the mound and walked a few steps when a soldier hurried over and said, "General, two people have come to see you. They call themselves Gao Shun and Cao Xing."
Hearing these two names, Liu Bei was stunned for a moment and didn't think about it. After a while, he remembered that these were Lu Bu's subordinates.
These two men had promised to escort Lu Bu's wife and daughter back to Bingzhou, and then return to serve in front of their own accounts.
More than a year had passed since they left, and Liu Bei no longer took them into consideration, thinking that they were not promise-keepers and would never come back after going to Bingzhou.
Unexpectedly, they suddenly appeared again now. It can be seen that Zhou Wenan was right when he chose to believe them. Sir, he really knows people!
"Where are they?" Liu Bei asked anxiously after remembering.
"Just wait over there." The soldier said, pointing into the distance.
Liu Bei stopped talking and hurriedly walked towards where the soldiers were pointing. Zhang Fei, Xu Chu, Zhuge Liang and others quickly followed behind.
After walking more than a hundred steps, Liu Bei saw two men sitting on horses fifty or sixty steps away, holding weapons in their hands and with a lot of blood stains on their bodies. They were surrounded by dozens of soldiers holding weapons.
A closer look revealed that it was Gao Shun and Cao Xing. Although they had not seen each other for more than a year, Liu Bei still remembered their appearance.
Liu Bei quickened his pace again, but he still felt that he was walking slowly, so he simply started to jog, with Xu Chu, Zhuge Liang and others following behind.
Zhang Fei shouted loudly: "Brother, walk slowly, why are you in such a hurry?"
Liu Bei ignored him and continued to trot forward. Zhang Fei had no choice but to trot behind him.
Gao Shun and Cao Xing were sitting on their horses and saw a group of people running not far away. After a closer look, the person running in front was Liu Bei. It didn't take much thinking to know that Liu Bei was here to greet them.
"Quick, dismount."
Gao Shun said urgently and jumped off his horse first, followed by Cao Xing. The two placed their weapons on the ground next to them, waiting for Liu Bei.
The soldiers surrounding them also saw Liu Bei running towards them and felt that what they just said might be true, so they took a few steps back.
When Gao Shun saw the soldiers retreating, he hurried forward to greet him. When he was about ten steps away from Liu Bei, he stopped and knelt down. Cao Xing followed him and knelt down together.
"Gao Shun pays homage to the lord!"
"Cao Xing pays homage to the lord!"
When Liu Bei approached, Gao Shun and Cao Xing held hands.
"Hahaha..." Liu Bei laughed, helped Gao Shun and Cao Xing up, and found that both of them had tears in their eyes, "Please get up quickly. I believe that you must be the ones who keep the promise. I will wait for you."
Jiu, I finally saw you today, what’s the matter with the blood stains on your bodies?”
Gao Shun and Cao Xing kept their promise and returned, but they did not expect that Liu Bei would be so eager to greet them. It can be seen from this that Liu Bei really valued themselves and it was right to come back this time.
"We went to Xiapi first and were not allowed to enter the city. We also learned that our lord had returned from Lujiang, so we searched for him all the way. We met a group of Cao soldiers on the way and were chased by them. We managed to kill dozens of them before we could escape.
The blood stains belong to those Cao soldiers." Gao Shun replied.
"Are you injured?" Liu Bei asked eagerly.
"Don't worry, my lord, only two or three hundred Cao soldiers can't hurt us." Cao Xing replied proudly.
He seemed to have forgotten that his surname was also Cao.
"It's good that you weren't hurt."
Liu Bei held hands with each other and pulled Gao Shun and Cao Xing back to the tent.
