Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 678: Rebellious Officials and Traitors
There are many people living on the roads of Shangcai.

An inconspicuous captain of the Diannong Army listened to all kinds of whispered insults against Cao's army and carefully avoided the dirty water flowing on the ground.

Holding the records tightly in his arms, he finally crossed the street. After having his token checked by the gatekeeper, the Shangcai government office was right in front of him.

Walk through the hall and see if there is someone in the prefect's room, so wait for a while.

"Are you clear about the military equipment?" The voice was a bit stiff.

The person in the room answered, and then other questions followed, asking in detail about the soldiers' patrol shifts, duty hours, the deployment of various forces in the city, and the preparation of city defense facilities before stopping.

The agricultural official waited until the discussion in the house was completed before he bowed and went in.

"Sir Cheng, this is the inventory of food and fodder in the city right now."

With a light touch in his hand, the booklet was picked up. The agricultural official stood up and saw a governor with a head full of white hair but still meticulous.

"good."

The clear numbers marked the amount of food and fodder, causing Cheng Yu to exclaim in admiration.

After reading it for a while, Cheng Yu looked up and saw the agricultural official still standing there. He frowned immediately:
"Is something wrong?"

"Sir Cheng, the war is about to begin, and the people in the city are all starving and have little food..."

Cheng Yu looked slightly unhappy and shook his head:
"Since we can still survive, why not?"

The agricultural official argued:
"If we can provide food to the people and give weapons to the strong men, we will be able to strengthen the city's defenses."

"Shangcai now has enough food to spare, so could the governor..."

Cheng Yu knocked on the table and said unhappily:

"Since ancient times, the victory or defeat of defending a city depends on persistence. How can we waste food and grass lightly?"

"The people in the city are able to survive and will be of use to others in the future. Why would they want to climb the city walls and die in vain to become a credit to the enemy army?"

"If nothing happens, go and guard the city!"

Seeing the agricultural official walk away in displeasure, Cheng Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

The originally stalemate was caused by a group of barbarians who defeated them at the gates of Wuyin City. From then on, Cheng Yu smelled something bad.

Therefore, he ignored the opposition, destroyed Wufang and Liyang, and retreated to Shangcai with all his strength, just to seek stability.

After all, Shangcai connects the north and south of Yuzhou. As long as Shangcai is not lost, the bandit army that came from Yiyang will find it difficult to move northward without restraint.

In the west of Yuzhou, there are already two powerful armies led by Yu Jin and Xu Huang, and Xiahou Dun has come to support from Shouchun. Moreover, you are personally on the front line and share life and death with the soldiers. Why can't you defeat that rat Liu Bei?

As long as Shangcai is not lost, your great cause can be accomplished. Compared with this, personal reputation and honor are all insignificant!
Liu Bei's army arrived faster than Cheng Yu expected. Just two days after he gave up Liyang, Liu Bei's army appeared at the gate of Shangcai City.

Seeing that there were only tens of thousands of Han barbarians lined up outside the city, Cheng Yu felt relieved.

Sun Tzu said, "If your number is ten, surround it; if your number is five, attack it; if your number is twice as many, divide it."

So what if they are barbarians? Can they escape the art of war as described by Sun Tzu?

Zhang Nan and Feng Xi, who led the troops here with Meng Huo and Wang Ping, also thought so.

"General Wang, Cao's army is now defending the city. How can we, with so few soldiers, get through? It would be better to wait for General Guan to defeat the enemy army in Runan, and then surround them with ten times their number, and then we can conquer it."

The armies led by the four men had been in a stalemate outside Shangcai City for two days. Today, they had already gone to bed in the middle of the night, but Wang Ping clamored to attack the city, leaving Zhang Nan and Feng Xi with no choice but to persuade him.

"If we can't defeat them by attacking on the ground, how about flying up there?"

Wang Ping's question caused Zhang Nan and Feng Xi to look at each other in confusion.

Meng Huo explained:
"When we, the Xiongman army, were in Yizhou, Lord Xuande gave us the title of Wudang Flying Army."

Wang Ping's statement is more direct:

“When I was fighting the barbarians in the south, climbing over dangerous mountains and crossing steep cliffs was a piece of cake. I can even climb up this earthen city wall with my bare hands!” This is not an exaggeration. In order to ensure stability and facilitate construction, the rammed earth city walls in the Central Plains are mostly wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, with layers of rammed earth. Only big cities like Chang'an and Luoyang would build outer city walls as steep as cliffs and difficult to climb.

However, since Meng Huo has already expressed his position, Zhang Nan and Feng Xi have nothing more to say.

The two generals watched as Wang Ping skillfully selected more than a hundred people. Then, this group of people took off their armor and only covered their vital parts with leather armor. They held short knives in their mouths and groped into the darkness.

"General Meng, should we move our troops to the city gate?"

Meng Huo shook his head:
"A big show of force would only alert Cao Cao, and his soldiers would be told to stay prepared and sleep in their clothes."

It remains to be seen whether the Nanman's fighting style can be used here, but considering Wang Ping's bravery, even if it fails, it should not be a problem for him to escape in the middle of the night.

The waiting time became more and more unbearable. Zhang Nan and Feng Xi became restless, and even Meng Huo seemed absent-minded.

There was only one lantern left in the tent. After Meng Huo counted the flickering of the light for nearly a thousand times, he heard a commotion in Shangcai City from afar.

"General..." The messenger came running over. Before he could say anything, Zhang Nan and Feng Xi, who were already waiting in fear, jumped up at the same time:

"Call the troops and march out!"

Even though they slept with weapons by their side, it still took a while to arrange the troops and approach Shangcai City. When the city gate was in sight, the noise in Shangcai City became clearer:
"Seize the door, seize the door!"

"Cao's army is defeated! Cao's army is defeated!"

"The governor has escaped! The governor has escaped! Why don't you surrender to the emperor's uncle?"

Zhang Nan was surprised and asked Meng Huo:
"General Wang actually captured the city with a hundred men?"

Meng Huo certainly didn't know. He looked at the slowly opening city gate and said thoughtfully:
"Or...something happened in the city that we are not aware of..."

At this moment in the city, Wang Ping looked at the agricultural official in front of him and laughed:
"Brother Deng Fan, I will ask Brother Meng to write down clearly what happened tonight. Don't worry, as long as it is your achievement, I will not embezzle a single cent!"

Under the firelight, the agricultural official sighed:

"If it weren't for the general's merits and Liu Yuzhou's kindness, how could this be accomplished? Don't mention the talk of corruption again!"

Wang Ping laughed loudly, then drew his sword and charged forward.

In the government office, Cheng Yu frowned as he listened to his subordinates' reports.

Some barbarians sneaked into the city from outside and joined forces with the bandits inside, setting fires everywhere in the city and causing chaos. Now the chaos is difficult to control.

Yes, in Cheng Yu’s view, they are just thieves.

Cao and Liu had been fighting along the Jing-Yu line for nearly two years, and in the midst of this battle, the bullshit words of benevolence fabricated by Liu Xuande of Jingzhou inevitably spread here.

The people in the settlement were restless, and Cheng Yu believed that if he had not strictly controlled them, nine out of ten of them would have died long ago. Therefore, when he retreated to Shangcai, he simply did what he could and confiscated the remaining food of the bandits who entered the city to prevent them from causing trouble.

But now it seems that these measures have been taken advantage of by Liu Bei...

Sighing and groaning was not his style. After finding out whether the east part of the city was still under control, Cheng Yu decisively gave the order:

"Organize the army, open the east gate and withdraw to Dingying and Zhaoling. Burn all the remaining food and supplies, and do not provide aid to the enemy."

After saying this, Governor Cheng went out first. After mounting his horse, he was protected by his personal soldiers and headed straight for the east gate.

The soldiers who were left behind to burn the city saw the governor's personal troops walking away, so they simply threw two torches at random and then fled.

After waiting at the east gate for a while and seeing that no more soldiers came out, Cheng Yu snorted coldly, "Rebels and traitors."

Although there are only a few thousand left out of the more than 20,000 people, there are many cities in the north that can be used to defend against thieves, so a few thousand people can accomplish the task.

As the order was given, the Cao army, whose faces were still filled with panic, began to slowly turn north.

Unfortunately, after walking a few miles, he saw a group of swift cavalrymen galloping towards him in the moonlight and the firelight of Shangcai. The man in the lead, riding a white horse with silver armor, was particularly eye-catching. However, what made Cheng Yu's eyes go dark was the roaring voice:

"Zhao Zilong of Changshan is here, the thief will surrender!"

(End of this chapter)