Can I get to the other side?.

Chapter 309: Cao Cao is terrified, Lu Bu advances into Yanzhou

Someone sent by His Majesty?

Xu You stopped struggling, but there was a look of doubt in his eyes.

Before he could think about it, Xu Chu's voice came from outside the house: "Mr. Ziyuan, what happened?"

Xu You felt the hand covering his mouth loosen. After a moment's hesitation, he said calmly, "It's nothing, I just tripped and fell."

After dealing with Xu Chu, Xu You got up from the ground and looked at the person behind him, only to find that it was a strange middle-aged man with an unremarkable appearance.

"Who are you? Why are you here?"

Xu You asked with some caution. Although this man told him that he was sent by the emperor, he still didn't dare to believe it.

This is Cao Cao’s residence, and it is heavily guarded.

Moreover, the small courtyard where he was imprisoned was under close surveillance, and the tiger guards were guarding outside. How did this person sneak in?

"Sir, I am the Embroidered Clothes Envoy."

"Code name, Wutong."

Wutong introduced himself and then said, "Your Majesty has not heard from you for a long time, so he specially ordered us, the Embroidered Uniform Envoy, to come to Yuzhou to inquire about you and get in touch with you."

"After much investigation, I learned that the gentleman was imprisoned here, so I sneaked into the room and met with him."

"If I disturbed you, sir, please forgive me."

As Wutong spoke, he took out a handwritten edict from the emperor from his arms and handed it to Xu You.

"This is His Majesty's order."

Xu You took it and examined it carefully. After confirming that the seal of the imperial seal on the handwritten edict was not fake, he finally dispelled his doubts about Wutong.

But what follows is deep worry.

"So it's the Embroidered Clothes Envoy."

Xu You breathed a sigh of relief. Of course he had heard of this famous organization, but he did not expect that the emperor had actually reorganized it.

It even extended its tentacles to Cao Cao's mansion!

Suppressing the shock in his heart, Xu You sighed helplessly: "I have been trapped here for a long time and cannot get in touch with Your Majesty."

"A few months ago, the letter I wrote to Your Majesty was intercepted by Cao Cao, and he learned my identity. Then he trapped me in this courtyard under the pretext of recuperating from illness, and forbade me from contacting the outside world."

He patiently explained it to Wutong.

He had not contacted the emperor for such a long time, and he had to explain clearly. He did not want to be mistaken for a traitor.

"I already know about this."

Wutong nodded. He had secretly gathered a lot of information during this period of time. He also heard the conversation between Xu You and Cao Cao just now and had a rough idea of ​​what was going on.

"Since your identity has been exposed, please return to Yecheng with me. His Majesty is thinking of your contributions and is waiting for you to return and serve as the Minister of the Chancellery."

Xu You was slightly startled, and then his eyes turned red.

I was extremely moved.

He didn't expect that the emperor missed him so much, and still remembered his promise to make him the Minister of the Chancellery!

After wiping away a tear from the corner of his eye, Xu You took a deep breath and said to Wutong seriously, "Thank you for your kindness, but you should leave alone."

"This place is too dangerous. The soldiers guarding outside the courtyard are Cao Cao's Tiger Guards. These guards are elite soldiers picked from a hundred miles away. Each of them can fight ten people at once. With them guarding outside, you can't rescue me."

The Tiger Guards were the most elite team under Cao Cao, with only a few hundred people. They usually served as Cao Cao's personal guards and were led by Xu Chu and Dian Wei.

After Dian Wei's death, Xu Chu was the only one who guarded him.

Previously, he was also responsible for monitoring Emperor Xian of Han.

That day, when Cao Cao heard that Emperor Xian of Han led the Tiger Guards to attack Cao's mansion, he chose not to leave, and a big part of the reason was because of these Tiger Guards.

"It doesn't matter, I..."

Wutong was just about to say something to comfort Xu You when he suddenly heard a burst of footsteps and the sound of armor colliding outside the house. His face changed and he turned around abruptly.

"boom--!"

The door was kicked open, and more than a dozen fully armed guards holding bows and crossbows rushed into the room and surrounded him and Xu You.

Then Xu Chu strode in, his cold eyes swept across Xu You's face, and finally fell on Wutong.

"Who are you to dare to trespass here?"

Wutong was terrified, he knelt down and cried, "General, please spare my life, I just got lost and came here by mistake—"

Before he could finish his words, he took advantage of Xu Chu's relaxed vigilance and jumped out like a civet cat. In the blink of an eye, he slipped through the gap in the crowd and jumped onto the top of the wall on tiptoe!
Wutong's skills of hiding and escaping are extremely impressive, otherwise he would not have been able to sneak past the surveillance of the tiger guards and into Xu You's room.

"Where to go!"

Xu Chu was furious when he saw this. Without waiting for his order, the tiger guards under his command drew their bows and crossbows and shot sharp arrows.

More than ten sharp arrows flew towards him. Wutong felt a great sense of crisis emerging from his heart, and he actually twisted his body forcefully in the air, avoiding most of the sharp arrows.

But even so, he was accidentally hit by two arrows in his left arm, and blood gushed out immediately.

But he didn't care about the injury at this time. He endured the severe pain and jumped and tumbled on the roof. Seeing this, Xu Chu took people to chase and kill him without saying a word.

Shortly after.

Upon hearing the noise, Cao Cao rushed to the courtyard. He looked at the tied-up Xu You and the spots of blood on the ground outside the courtyard, and a trace of anger flashed in his eyes.

He stepped forward and grabbed Xu You by the collar, angrily saying, "Who was that man just now? What did you say to him?"

Xu You responded coldly and remained silent.

Cao Cao became murderous upon seeing this. Just when he was about to interrogate him, Xu Chu returned with the Tiger Guards, carrying a corpse with him.

"My lord, the man has been caught!"

Upon hearing this, Cao Cao looked at the body on the ground, only to see more than a dozen crossbow arrows sticking into the body. It was already dead beyond dead.

The corpse was naturally Wutong.

Although he was agile, it was impossible for him to escape from Cao's mansion without being discovered, as it was heavily guarded and everyone was equipped with bows and crossbows.

Before he could leave the inner palace, he was shot dead on the spot by a volley of bullets from the Tiger Guards who came rushing in after hearing the noise.

"My lord, this was found on him."

Another tiger guard handed over something, which was the emperor's handwritten edict that Wutong had held before.

Cao Cao took the imperial edict, took a closer look at it, and his expression changed immediately. He said in a lost voice: "Embroidered Clothes Envoy? He is an Embroidered Clothes Envoy?!"

Embroidered Messenger!
This secret agency of the imperial court that had disappeared for hundreds of years had now reappeared in the world, and even sneaked into his heavily guarded mansion and met with Xu You right under his nose!

What frightened him even more was how long this person had been in his house? How long had he been in contact with Xu You? Had Xu You already passed on all his plans through this person?

In an instant, fear and anger overwhelmed Cao Cao.

He stared at Xu You with an extremely ferocious look and said word by word: "Throw him into the dungeon! Torture him to extract a confession!"

"Yes!" Xu Chu clasped his fists heavily and had Xu You dragged away.

Before being taken away, Xu You said to Cao Cao quietly, "Ah Man, you will regret this."

Cao Cao was furious and said, "I don't need a prisoner like you to teach me how to do things!"

Xu You sneered and was taken away.

But Cao Cao was still furious, and ordered Xu Chu: "Double the number of guards in the mansion, and check the identities of everyone in the mansion every day! This must not happen again!"

He was extremely scared. If the embroidered robe envoy was coming for him, he would be in danger even if he had the Tiger Guards by his side.

And he was not sure how many people were lurking in the mansion!
For a moment, Cao Cao felt that the darkness around him was full of dangers. He added to Xu Chu anxiously: "Zhongkang, you sleep with me tonight."

"what?"

Xu Chu was stunned when he heard this, and the tiger guards around him were also stunned.

My lord...actually you have a relationship with Long Yang?
Although he was extremely reluctant, Xu Chu hesitated again and again, and finally decided to go all out, gritting his teeth and saying, "I obey your command!"

The tiger guards all looked at him with admiration.

He is worthy of being a general. His loyalty is truly admirable!
Cao Cao did not notice Xu Chu's abnormality. He left the courtyard with a worried look on his face, intending to write a letter and hand it to Cao Ren immediately.

The retreat must be accelerated.

……

The Han army had been on the march for several days.

Lu Bu led 5,000 Bingzhou cavalry, 1,000 Xianzhen Camp soldiers and more than 24,000 infantrymen, marched south from Jizhou and headed straight for Yanzhou.

Sima Yi was still the military advisor for this march. The difference from the past was that Chen Gong was not here, but stayed in Jinyang City to assist Zhang He in guarding Bingzhou.

In the central army camp.

Sima Yi was explaining his plan to Lu Bu, pointing to the geomancy map and saying, "Lord Wen, the most important thing for us in this battle is to cross the Yellow River and capture Dongjun."

"Only by taking Dongjun can our army gain a foothold in Yanzhou. After entering Yanzhou, we can cross Baima and Yanjin, and then go straight to Guandu and attack Xu County, the base camp of Cao thieves."

"But we need to be vigilant. Cao Cao has set up ambushes at these ferry crossings. He will not watch us so easily and bring his troops to the gates."

"This crossing of the river will be a fierce battle."

Bai Ma, Yanjin and Guandu were their first line of defense in attacking Yuzhou and also the last line of defense in Xu County. Although according to their previous inference, Cao Cao would concentrate heavy troops in Guandu, the other side would certainly not ignore their crossing of the river.

There must be ambushes at these ferry crossings.

Because crossing the river is the easiest way to cause casualties to their attacking party, he didn't believe that Cao Cao would waste this opportunity.

So they can't rush it.

This time they have sufficient troops and complete logistics, so they don't need to fight as quickly and urgently as they did last time when they attacked Bingzhou. They can take their time.

"What this general is best at is fighting a fierce battle!"

Lu Bu was not afraid at all when he heard this. Instead, he seemed extremely excited. "Three years ago, when we attacked Yuan Shu, we crossed the river as well. Didn't we defeat him just the same?"

"This time Cao Cao will suffer the same fate!"

Sima Yi felt a headache when he heard this. Of course he had heard of the Battle of Huaihe River where Lu Bu fought Yuan Shu, but that was completely an exception.

It was only because Lu Bu shot and killed a local general across the river with an arrow, causing the enemy to be in chaos and their morale to drop, that Lu Bu was able to successfully cross the river at a very small cost.

Otherwise, with Yuan Shu's military strength at the time, if Lu Bu wanted to forcibly lead his troops across the river, he would definitely suffer heavy casualties.

What's more, can the Huai River be compared with the Yellow River?

Sima Yi patiently advised: "Lord Wen, it is better to be cautious. Why not send some scouts across the river to investigate the situation and see how many troops the enemy has deployed on the other side of the river and how they are defending. Then we can take countermeasures."

"What you said makes sense."

Although Lu Bu felt that there was no need for that, as they had to attack in one go after crossing the river, Sima Yi was right, it was always better to be cautious while marching and fighting.

So he summoned Wei Yue and gave him an order: "Arrange some scouts to go and investigate the Cao bandits and see if they have any ambush on the other side of the river."

"promise!"

Wei Yue took the order and retreated.

Sima Yi was relieved when he saw this, and then he warned: "The army must set up camp and stay away from the mountains and forests."

"Be careful of the enemy's use of fire attacks."

With an army of 30,000, the camps often stretch for several miles. If they are attacked by fire, the entire camp will be burned down, causing heavy casualties.

Even though they were near the water at this time, they could not be unprepared.

"As you say."

Lu Bu agreed without hesitation. These were just trivial matters and there was no harm in listening to Sima Yi. Before the army set out, the emperor had also instructed him to listen more to Sima Yi's advice on marching and fighting.

He had no objection as long as Sima Yi didn't interfere when he was leading his troops into battle.

That night, the army set up camp along the banks of the Yellow River.

Two days passed like this.

The scouts sent out came back in batches to report. These scouts disguised themselves as merchants and civilians, and conducted reconnaissance and intelligence gathering at various places on the other side of the river.

The information they reported was all consistent - no ambush was found on the other side of the river, nor was any camp of Cao's army found.

They even searched the mountains and forests, but did not see any trace of Cao's army.

"How can this be?"

After hearing the report from the last scout, Sima Yi stood up in shock, his face full of disbelief.

There was no ambush on the other side of the river?

Did the other side really gather all their troops at Guandu, or gave up on Baima Ferry and gathered their troops in Yanzhou?

"Look, Military Advisor, you should have listened to me earlier!"

Lu Bu laughed loudly, and with a refreshed look on his face, he gave the order: "Pass my order, the whole army crosses the river!"

"slow!"

Sima Yi's expression tightened, and he spoke again to stop Lu Bu, and said very seriously: "Mr. Wen, there must be a trick here!"

Lu Bu was stunned and asked in great confusion, "Haven't we already checked to see if there are any ambushes? How could this be a trick? Military Advisor, are you too suspicious?"

Sima Yi shook his head and said, "No, Lord Wen, think about it carefully. Baima Ferry is so important, how could Cao not defend it? In my opinion, he must have stationed his troops in a place we would never expect, even in the upper reaches of the Yellow River."

"They want to wait for us to let down our guard and the army to start crossing the river before they suddenly attack us and catch us off guard!"

"Humph, I've already seen through this trick!"

Sima Yi sneered. He could not hide the other party's little trick from his eyes. He thought that he was too naive to use this method to confuse people and attack them halfway across the river!

(End of this chapter)