Wandering the Heavens

Chapter 374 New 3 Kingdoms 14

Wei Xu and Song Xian finally got the chance. They put on the rope and stood on Lü Bu's left and right like thieves. They put it on Lü Bu while communicating with his eyes. After several rounds of pulling, they grabbed one end each and pulled hard...

Cao Cao was having dinner at the time, but Cao Ren came to him and said that Lu Bu had been captured by his subordinates, and now he was waiting for him to send troops into the city for support. Upon hearing the report, Cao Cao quickly threw down his bowl and chopsticks and ordered his troops to advance.

When the work was almost done, Cao Cao stood on the city wall, sighing as he looked at the place he could not capture no matter how hard he tried. The soldiers brought Lu Bu over and handed him over to him for punishment.

"It's tied too tight, too tight!"

Lu Bu obviously had high requirements for the bondage posture and comfort level, and he made suggestions while struggling.

"How can you not tie the tiger tightly? Do you think you are going to play something with Diao Chan?" The officer in charge of the escort seemed to have a rich private life.

"I've treated you well! Why did you betray me?"

Seeing that Wei Xu and Song Xian who were standing aside were struggling even harder, Lu Bu tried desperately to kick them a few times. However, the soldiers escorting them were not simple either. They controlled him so tightly that he could not do anything except walking.

"Hmph, you, Lu Bu, ride the Red Hare and have a beautiful wife and concubines, while we fight our lives and have nothing. Do you think you treat us well?" Wei Xu took a half step back and retorted.

"That's right, Lu Bu, you treated us like this, you deserve this day!" Song Xian also stepped back half a step and joined in.

The Red Hare that Lü Bu rode was a gift from Dong Zhuo, so what did it have to do with them? As for the beautiful wives and concubines, that was even more ridiculous. Did they have to line up? The soldiers didn't care about that and took Lü Bu directly to Cao Cao.

"Isn't this Lu Fengxian? Long time no see!" Cao Cao looked at Lu Bu and said with a smile.

"Isn't this Cao Cao, who pees like a dog while marching?" Lu Bu retorted without any hesitation.

"Now that you're in my hands, you're still so arrogant!" Cao Cao's face and tone turned cold.

It's no wonder that he was defeated. The booklet that appeared after the last defeat in Xuzhou made him a laughing stock in front of the princes of the world. Even a man like Zhang Xiu dared to use the things recorded in the booklet to joke with his subordinates for no reason.

"Alas, I originally wanted to give in and beg for a way out, but now I've changed my mind. I feel it's dirty to coexist with someone like you in this world! Ugh!"

It was hard to imagine that Lu Bu, who had not drunk any water since morning, could actually spit out such a large amount of phlegm. Half of Cao Cao's face was covered with sticky secretions that smelled salty and fishy.

"Ah~ Pull him away, hang him to death and behead him!"

Cao Cao was so disgusted by the thick phlegm on his face that he no longer had the heart to play around. In a rage, he ordered the man to be taken away and executed.

"I'll go wash up first!"

With Yu Xian's secret intervention, Cao Cao did not catch any big fish here. Chen Gong was determined to die, while Gao Shun and Zhang Liao left simply and went to Yizhou through Zhang Xiu.

After integrating his troops, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shu's reinforcements in one fell swoop and arrived at Yuan Shu's base camp. At this moment, Shouchun was short of troops and could only barely defend itself.

Hundreds of years ago, Sun Wu defined the comparison of the strength of the attackers and defenders in a city battle as "If the number is ten, surround it; if the number is five, attack it; if the number is twice as many, fight it."

Although Cao Cao’s military strength is now greater than that of the defenders of Shouchun, it is still not five or ten times as much. In addition, the armies of Sun Ce and Zang Ba may return to support at any time, and Yuan Shao in the north of Yanzhou and Qingzhou may move south at any time.

Therefore, Cao Cao had to capture Shouchun and then deal with Yuan Shao's attack from the north before Sun Ce and Zang Ba could rescue Shouchun.

But now Cao Cao is facing a fatal problem, because the previous attack on Lu Bu took far longer than expected, so when he rushed to Shouchun, the food and grass were almost gone!

Wang Hu, the warehouse official, was so anxious that he asked Cao Cao for advice on what to do. Cao Cao came up with a bad idea and asked Wang Hu to use small buckets of grain to leave the warehouse. Wang Hu said that this could delay the delivery for three days, but it would not solve the fundamental problem. Besides, if this matter got out, the soldiers would tear themselves apart, so they still needed to allocate grain and grass as soon as possible.

Cao Cao looked up at the warehouse official coldly. Wang Hu felt that the atmosphere was not right, but he had to stay because Cao Cao had not promised what to do if the food and grass ran out? How to solve it?

"Just do as I say. I already have a solution!" Cao Cao waved his hand impatiently.

"Yes."

After paying his respects, Wang Hu turned and left Cao Cao's tent, feeling his body getting colder and colder.

That night, all Cao's troops had a dream. In the dream, Cao Cao arranged for Wang Hu to use small buckets to transport rice out of the warehouse to reduce losses. The look in Cao Cao's eyes when he looked at Wang Hu leaving the tent made everyone shudder.

The dietary structure of the Central Plains determined that the army had a higher frequency of eating than the nomadic cavalry. So at the end of three days, when Cao's army found the stove was cold at mealtime, they knew that what they had dreamed of was probably true, and they all rushed to Cao Cao's tent to ask for an explanation. In simple terms, it was a mutiny.

Cao Cao hurriedly called Wang Hu into the big tent. Everyone was looking at the tightly closed door curtain and did not notice that two pieces of talisman paper lightly fell on the tent and turned into starlight and disappeared.

The conversation inside the tent that followed was clearly heard by all the soldiers, shocking the generals, counselors and soldiers outside the tent. Cao Cao's diehard fans wanted to go in to stop it but were unable to move or even utter a word.

Wang Hu: "My lord, why did you summon me?"

Cao Cao: "I want to borrow something from you to appease the troops. I hope you won't be reluctant to part with it."

Wang Hu: "My Lord, what do you want to borrow?"

Cao Cao: "I will lend you my head, but I can only lend it and cannot return it."

Wang Hu: "My lord, my lord, I am innocent, my lord!"

Cao Cao: "I know you are innocent. If I don't kill you, it might provoke a mutiny. Don't worry, after you die, your parents will be my parents, and I will treat them more filially than my own parents. Your son is my son, and I will treat him more intimately than my own son. Besides, your son will not be as promising if he stays with you as if he stays with me, don't you think so?"

Wang Hu: "My lord, please spare my life, my lord, please spare my life!"

Cao Cao: "Hey, come on, execute this man in front of the army!"

Cao Cao spoke for a while but no soldiers came in. He stood up with a stern face, walked around Wang Hu who was kneeling and crying, came to the camp gate and lifted the curtain, but saw that everyone from Cao Ren and Guo Jia to ordinary soldiers were staring at him in a daze.

"Wang Hu, the warehouse official, embezzled military rations, causing everyone to starve. I, Cao Cao, have decided to behead him to uphold military law! Where are the soldiers who are going to execute him?"

Everyone remained silent after hearing this, except for blinking and even their breathing was very light.

"Sergeant of execution, go and take Wang Hu out and behead him!" Cao Cao shouted at the top of his voice when he saw that no one moved.

"My lord, what crime has Wang Hu committed?" asked a counselor with a Yingchuan background, bowing.

"What crime? Are you deaf? Didn't you hear that Wang Hu used tricks to embezzle military rations?" Cao Cao looked at the man and scolded him loudly.

"My lord, three days ago, I had a dream. I dreamed that Wang Hu reported to you that the army was short of food and grass. You ordered him to use small buckets to pay for it to delay the time. Wang Hu then asked when the new food would be allocated. You said that you already have a way to solve it, and your words were full of murderous intent!"

The strategist is also risking his life. I have the support of the Yingchuan family, so there is no need for me to piss myself on you.

As soon as these words came out, the generals and counselors around him looked at him with disbelief, and then looked at Cao Cao who was standing at the door of the tent.

"What the hell is a dream? You're just a counselor. You might as well go back to raising pigs!"

Cao Cao did not notice other people's reactions and loudly rebuked the strategist's ridiculous words and actions. After he finished speaking, he looked at the people around his tent and his personal soldiers.

His summoning of Wang Hu was a very private matter, which could never be known to the outside world, but it was leaked. There must be someone around him who was watching him, otherwise why would the details of the last defeat in Xuzhou and the details of the summoning of Wang Hu three nights ago be known to others.