Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3577: Advance

In Fangling City, inside the city garrison, a banquet was set up in the courtyard.

The Di people, including some of their military school non-commissioned officers, chiefs and village masters, drank with Cai Mao and the dozen or so guards that Cai Mao brought with him.

This scene seems a little weird, yet a little familiar.

It was clear that the Cavalry Army was just outside Fangling, but since they did not come to attack, it did not hinder the dignitaries, and they continued to sing and dance and learn foreign languages.

Cai Mao had not said much about other things since he entered Fangling. He did not even mention the previous inspections. This made the Di people, who had made some preparations in advance, feel relieved but also a little disappointed.

Cai Mao seemed to have forgotten about the granaries and just talked about some hometown stories in Jingxiang. He seemed to be intentionally or unintentionally boasting about his background, or his close relationship with Boss Cao, which made the Di people and the military school leaders under him drool at Cai Mao...

It's not that I'm interested in Cai Mao's chrysanthemum, but I think that if I cling to Cai Mao, it will obviously be much better than clinging to a Di general who doesn't even have a name...

The Di general was obviously not as eloquent as Cai Mao, and he could only laugh and let Cai Mao talk nonsense.

However, Cai Mao was obviously very adept at this kind of drinking culture. He not only boasted about himself, but also praised the Di generals. He even spoke well of the military school leaders under the Di generals. He was able to touch the sore spots in these people's hearts, which made people unable to suppress their smiles.

As the banquet continued, the people in Fangling City gradually relaxed and began to toast each other.

After all, the situation in Fangling was tense before, and since Cao wanted to fight with Guanzhong, he ordered a ban on brewing wine, so alcohol was banned on the surface. However, this kind of ban, in ancient and modern times, has always been an opportunity for people with connections to make money. It has always been "repeatedly banned", and the more it is banned, the more expensive it is.

Now that Cai Mao was here, they had the opportunity to drink for free. Cai Mao's guards drank intermittently. However, the Di generals' subordinates, seeing that Cai Mao entered the city calmly without any conflict, many of them finally put their minds at ease and started drinking even more fiercely.

They drank the wine quickly with a lot of laughter. When night fell, many people at the banquet were already staggering.

Cai Mao seemed to be a little drunk. Hearing the noisy drinking below, he couldn't help but slap the table and curse, "A bunch of people who don't care about their lives when they see alcohol! Don't even know how to save some for others!"

The Di general waved his hands, "It's just some wine! What's the big deal?! It's my honor to have the captain here, how can I not enjoy the drink?"

Cai Mao laughed, stood up unsteadily, and staggered as he picked up the wine bowl, "Come on! Let's indulge ourselves today and have a good drink with these warriors! Let me toast our warriors! In future battles, we will have to count on these warriors to bring us victory!"

Cai Mao spoke beautifully, and the Di general naturally had no reason to refuse, so he stood up and followed Cai Mao and walked out of the courtyard.

……

……

Outside Fangling City, in the distant mountains.

"Wait a little longer."

Zhuge Liang gave the same answer when faced with Shamoke's repeated questioning.

"Why not hurry up?"

Shamoke was puzzled, because he knew that they didn't have much food and grass left.

Although Shamoke was not sure how much food and fodder Zhuge Liang had brought, he knew that Zhuge Liang had sent people hunting around in the past two days to collect wild fruits and vegetables to supplement food needs.

Although gathering and hunting are survival skills of human beings since ancient times, it is obvious that if gathering and hunting can meet human needs in the Chinese region, then China would not have taken the farming route.

This extremely unstable food source is naturally risky. Even if you don't get hurt, what if the fruit or plant you pick is poisonous...

If it were before, Shamoke would not have asked too many questions, but now he was eager to know everything. If he was not afraid that his excessive questioning would cause Zhuge Liang's disgust, Shamoke might have already turned into a hundred thousand questions.

According to Shamoke's understanding, now that they have contacted Cai Mao, even if they do not ask Cai Mao for food and grass, they have to cooperate with Cai Mao to some extent, such as sending some soldiers to Fangling to assist Cai Mao and so on.

But Zhuge Liang did not make such arrangements.

"Don't worry, the Cai family can take Fangling." Zhuge Liang seemed to see Shamoke's doubts, and said with a smile, "They don't need our help. At least not now."

"Why?" Shamoke couldn't help asking Zhuge Liang, "I'm not asking why you don't want it, but why you are so cautious?"

Zhuge Liang looked up and gazed into the distance. After a moment of silence, he glanced at Shamoke and seemed to hesitate for a moment, but finally said: "The Cai family had previously married Liu Jingsheng... but now they are inferior to the Cao family..."

Shamoke can be said to be a southern barbarian, and from a certain perspective, a foreign race, while the Cai family is an extremely orthodox Han Chinese. Now Zhuge Liang wants to talk about these problems among the Han Chinese in front of Shamoke.

Because of this, Zhuge Liang did not trust the Cai family or Cai Mao.

In fact, there was another reason in Zhuge Liang's heart, but he didn't want to say this deeper reason.

Shamoko nodded, not quite understanding, "Is that so... Then we wait here, will there be any problems over there?"

Zhuge Liang thought for a moment, "There shouldn't be any problem... If there is a problem, we will attack."

Shamoko frowned and thought for a while, "Do we want them to fight first?"

Zhuge Liang smiled and nodded.

"Won't they hate us?" Shamoke said, "There are many people who say bad things about me and hate me..."

Zhuge Liang nodded again, "Yes, they will hate us... But it is not difficult to solve this problem."

Shamoko asked, "What should we do then?"

Zhuge Liang smiled and said, "You will see it soon..."

……

……

On the streets of Fangling City, about a hundred private soldiers who came to protect Cai Mao were sitting on the ground.

Some other soldiers and military schools in Fangling became the "guests" of Cai's private soldiers. Of course, it can also be said that they were monitoring them.

Of course, eating and drinking on the street, this is not a big problem.

According to Chinese customs, as long as there is food to eat, it doesn't matter where you eat, even in the toilet, and you never know if anyone will ask...

The banquets for these Cai family's private soldiers were much worse than those in the government office.

But even with the relatively poor wine and meat, the Fangling defenders who were far away and on duty at the city gates still kept sniffing and drooling. Poor soldiers, there were only a few times in a year when they could eat meat and drink wine!

In Fangling City, these guarding soldiers were basically the tenants of the Di generals. Every day, they either did this or that for the Di generals. Not only did they have to guard Fangling, they also had to farm and build houses...

Anyway, the Di people will definitely not bear to see them idle!

As long as they see these poor guys doing nothing, the Di people will feel that providing them with food is a loss!

Therefore, the vast majority of the garrison soldiers in Fangling did not like the Di generals, but in this chaotic world, what other choices did these soldiers have?

However, the wine and meat that made the Fangling defenders salivate did not seem to please Cai's private soldiers.

These Cai family private soldiers not only looked gloomy, but they also had little interest in wine and meat, eating only a few bites at a time. However, apart from this, these Cai family private soldiers did not have any other unusual behavior.

Perhaps these Cai family private soldiers are used to delicacies from land and sea and look down on this boiled meat?

Just when the soldiers of Fangling were cursing and envious in their hearts, Cai Mao appeared on the street, staggering, and wanted to toast the soldiers, and even shouted that he wanted to toast the military school of the garrison of Fangling and so on.

This doesn't seem to be a problem...

The Di general thought that Cai Mao was drunk and did not stop him from toasting.

In his opinion, he even felt proud, after all, it was a real marquis of the Han Dynasty who came to toast him!

Cai Mao toasted once, which was not really a round, just for show. Then he shook his head and suddenly slapped the head of the guard closest to him, "What do you mean? Huh? I'm here to toast the soldiers of Fangling, why are you still sitting here? Go up! Toast!"

Cai Mao pointed at the Di general with bleary eyes, "Let's have a toast! You've worked hard defending the city!"

Cai Mao gave the order, and these Cai's private soldiers naturally obeyed it and immediately left the table to toast.

The first to bear the brunt were naturally the Di generals.

At the beginning, the Di general was still very proud. After all, such a proud thing didn't happen often, so no matter who came to the Cai family's private military school, everyone drank the cup. But as they drank, they couldn't bear it anymore, so they began to restrain themselves...

"I drank it! Why didn't you drink it?!" A man who looked like a military school student of the Cai family stood in front of the Di general, his eyes wide open, "Do you look down on me?"

The Di people will frown.

When drinking, the most annoying thing is looking down on others all the time.

The Di general, for the sake of Cai Mao, did not want to bother with this Cai family military school, and turned around to ask his guards to drag this guy away. However, when he turned around, he found that his guards had been dragged to the banquet without him knowing when, and were drinking with Cai family's private soldiers!

The Di general subconsciously realized that something was wrong, but his nerves were slow due to drinking too much. Before he could give any orders or make any moves, he felt a chill between his chest and abdomen!

Beside the Di general, two private soldiers of the Cai family, one on the left and one on the right, had already thrust their short blades directly into the two pieces of armor between his ribs!

When the human body is attacked suddenly, especially when it is seriously injured, it will freeze for a while. Especially when it is an injury that is not prepared for, the freezing time will be longer. By the time the Di people have recovered a little and want to shout for help or call for support, the private soldiers of the Cai family have already pulled out the bloody short blade and stabbed it again!

At this moment, Cai Mao also threw the wine bowl in his hand to the ground. His previous drunken look disappeared, and he shouted loudly, "Do it!"

At Cai Mao's command, Cai's private soldiers suddenly rose up, drew out the long swords and short daggers they always carried with them, and started killing the Fangling defenders who were smiling and eating meat and drinking with them!

Streams of blood spurted out, dyeing everything around red.

The original place of laughter suddenly turned into a battlefield.

The wine and blood mixed together and flowed out, while the cooked and uncooked pieces of meat rolled down in an alternating pattern.

These soldiers defending Fangling were even more destitute than the Di people. Not only did many of them not carry weapons with them, some of them even took off their leather armor when they were drunk. Now that Cai's private soldiers suddenly attacked and killed them, they really had no defense at all. Many of them subconsciously used wine bowls, pieces of meat, and even bone sticks to parry, and then naturally they were hacked to death and cried out in pain.

Amid screams, Cai Mao raised his sword high, "The Di people are planning a rebellion! Kill the ringleader now, and the rest must surrender immediately!"

Up to this point, Cai Mao's plans had been going smoothly, but the changes that followed caught Cai Mao off guard.

In Cai Mao's plan, as long as the Di general was lured out and killed in the street, the defenders in Fangling City would be leaderless and would naturally collapse instantly. Then Cai Mao could use the excuse of the Di general's "rebellion" to take control of Fangling City, welcome Zhuge Liang into the city, go back to build the Dongshan camp, and then march to Xiangyang and Jingzhou to achieve Cai's career.

The first half of the plan went smoothly, but after Cai Mao shouted "The Di people are planning a rebellion", things seemed to start to deviate from Cai Mao's plan...

Perhaps although Cai Mao was not drunk, the alcohol he consumed still made his nerves inevitably sluggish. Or perhaps Cai Mao had never faced the Di general alone before, and did not really understand the reasons for the Di people's social structure, so that the slogans or instructions issued by Cai Mao at the moment had basically no effect on the Di people!

In Cai Mao's original understanding, as long as he shouted like this, the remaining soldiers and military academies of Fangling would definitely cry out that they were innocent, and then Cai Mao could naturally ask them to prove their innocence, such as kneeling down, or crawling down, holding their heads with both hands, etc.

During the ancient feudal dynasties of China, two completely opposite legal systems were used.

For the lower classes, the presumption of guilt is adopted. They are all like untouchables, like unruly people who are ready to commit crimes at any time. When something happens, these ordinary people have to find ways to prove their innocence so that they have a glimmer of hope to escape from prison.

In feudal dynasties, the principle of presumption of innocence was adopted towards superiors.

As long as there is no clear, iron-clad evidence to prove his guilt, then he is innocent.

In fact, even an iron plate can be turned over. After all, there are many connections above, and a large group of people in the interest chain can be gathered together to cover up the truth openly or secretly to eliminate the impact, or to detonate some other big melon to divert attention.

For thousands of years, countless law enforcers of China's feudal dynasties turned a blind eye to this division and even took it for granted.

Why do we need help?

The question raised is not about one person's doubts, but the cognition of the bureaucratic system in feudal society accumulated over thousands of years.

Cai Mao also made the same mistake. He thought that if he shouted like this, these people would be eager to prove themselves, and then everything would go smoothly. However, Cai Mao forgot that most of the Di general's subordinates were naturally Di people!

Although the Di people are not Easterners or Westerners, they have one thing in common: they do not abide by the laws of the Han people!

Cai Mao could use this method to order the Han soldiers in Fangling to lay down their weapons, but the Di people did not listen to Cai Mao. And the key point is that the Di generals were also like Cai Mao, many of them were his relatives, so although the Di general died, the Di people soon found the son of the Di general, and then under his leadership, they began to fight to the death with Cai Mao...

In order not to arouse the suspicion of the Di general, Cai Mao did not bring more soldiers. As a result, although he killed the Di general, he failed to make the remaining Di people in Fangling give up their resistance. In fact, because of the counterattack of these Di people, other Han soldiers in Fangling who had laid down their weapons began to hesitate!

In this critical situation, Cai Mao made a prompt decision. He no longer worried about whether he could control the entire Fangling City. He only wanted to open the city gate and then attract Zhuge Liang's reinforcements!

However, something happened that made Cai Mao even more devastated. When he finally opened the city gate and kept having people send signals outside the city, there was no response at all!

At this moment, Cai Mao suddenly became flustered...

What exactly is the Hussar Army going to do?

Have I been cheated?

Could it be that he was betrayed by the Hussars?

But what benefits would the Hussars get if they were sold out?

The Di people of Fangling in front of him were going crazy, and the night behind him was empty and dark. Cai Mao couldn't help shaking his hands and feet as he stood in the city gate.

After half a hero's life, is this the end?

Under the counterattack of the Di people, Cai's private soldiers began to suffer injuries, deaths, and calamities.

Those standing next to Cai Mao were all core members of the Cai family.

Cai Mao looked at them and saw the same despair on their faces as he did in his own heart.

Cai Mao gritted his teeth and suddenly shouted loudly: "A real man should be happy! Let's drink the blood of the enemy chief and die together! Cai's family will fight a bloody battle here today, and I will advance and retreat with you! Hold on for a while longer, the reinforcements will arrive soon!"

After hearing this, Cai's soldiers also shouted in unison and managed to maintain their front line.

It’s not that Cai Mao really has such courage, but he knows that this road has reached a dead end. If he can’t break through the wall and escape, then he will die under the wall!

Escape, where can you escape to?

Even if he escaped, most of the Cai family’s people were in Caizhou, so how could he escape?

Rather than surrendering and being killed, it is better to make one last fight here!

Although he spoke in a heroic tone, Cai Mao's heart was in a state of panic. "If the Hussars don't come, I'll be finished! I can't hold on any longer!"