Three Kingdoms: Wolong's brother-in-law, tricking Liu Bei into seizing Jingzhou

The granary is gone.

Hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain and grass were burned up in just one fire.

The 7,000-strong reserve army collapsed.

Liu Ye, Jia Xu...these important ministers whom he once trusted, actually followed Pang De's example and joined hands to stab him in the back!

Cao Hong, his most trusted cousin, died just like that?
He was killed by Pang De, the Xiliang rebel!

The bad news came one after another like thunderbolts, striking Cao Cao from the sky and shattering his mind and soul, leaving him with total despair.

"Zi Lian, Zi Lian..."

Cao Cao, who had been stiff and unconscious for a long time, suddenly let out a sad cry to the sky and fell backwards staggeringly.

"His Majesty!"

Dian Wei, Zhang Song and others rushed forward and caught Cao Cao before he fell off his horse.

"How can the vast heaven be so unkind to me!"

"What did I do wrong? Why are you treating me like this?"

Cao Cao was already in tears. He looked up at the sky which was covered with dark clouds and cursed with a heart full of grief and resentment.

"Your Majesty, I have said before that not only Pang De is untrustworthy, but all the people from Xiliang are untrustworthy, as well as Liu Ye and the other people from Guandong. They are all untrustworthy!"

"We Shu people are the only ones who are loyal to Your Majesty!"

At this time, Zhang Song did not forget to seize the opportunity to emphasize his loyalty and to undermine Cao Cao's trust in the Guandong scholars.

"I will kill Pang De, I will kill all the people in Guandong, I will kill them all——"

Cao Cao was like adding fuel to the fire and was instantly ignited by Zhang Song.

He roared and shouted, pushed away the people who were trying to support him, drew his sword, and shouted:

"Pass on my order, continue to rush to the granary. I want to kill Pang De and avenge Zi Lian~~"

Cao Cao was extremely sad and angry, but he still insisted on fighting again.

The Qin soldiers behind him were all terrified and stood still without moving, discussing among themselves.

The granary contained food and fodder for their 90,000-strong army, and naturally everyone in the Qin army knew about it.

The rebellion of the people of Xiliang and the rebellion of the scholars in Guandong were already a heavy blow to the morale of the Qin army.

Now that the news that the grain in the granary has been burned has made their morale even worse, they have fallen into panic.

At this time, the soldiers were all panicking over the lack of food. Who would still be willing to help Cao Cao quell the rebellion and kill the enemy?
Even the generals on both sides looked at a loss, staring at each other, and no one moved.

"Are you all deaf? I told you to kill the grain in the warehouse and follow me to kill Pang De, why didn't you move?"

Cao Cao roared like thunder and swept his angry eyes around to the soldiers on his left and right.

The words trailed off.

From all directions of Chang'an City, dozens of flames and thick smoke rose into the sky almost at the same time.

Immediately afterwards, deafening shouts of killing rang out throughout the city, drowning out the sounds of fighting between the two armies in the east of the city.

"Kill Cao the thief——"

"Kill Cao the thief——"

The shouts of killing that echoed throughout the city startled Cao Cao so much that his body trembled, and his angry and excited expression immediately turned into panic.

He looked around in horror, as if in the blink of an eye, all the soldiers and civilians in the city had rebelled, setting fires everywhere, and the entire Chang'an city was burning.

"How could this be? Isn't it just Liu Ye and Jia Xu who are rebelling against me? Are all the people in Chang'an rebelling against me?"

Cao Cao looked around at the fire, his eyes full of disbelief and his tone extremely sad.

At this moment, he felt sad as if he was abandoned by the whole world.

Zhang Song glanced around quickly, but shook his head and said:

"Your Majesty, how could the people of this city all rebel at the same time?" "I guess it must be Liu Ye and his traitors. They secretly agreed to set fires everywhere at the same time to create the illusion that the whole city is rebelling, so as to disrupt the morale of our army, Your Majesty!"

Cao Cao suddenly realized, his despair turned into anger, and he shouted:
"Quickly dispatch troops to put out all the fires for me, and kill all the rebels who set the fires!"

The generals on both sides looked at each other, but no one moved.

The situation had deteriorated to such an extent that hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain and fodder had been burned, the army's food supplies had been cut off, the army's morale had plummeted to the bottom and was on the verge of collapse.

It's come to this, and you still want to put down the rebellion?

Do you think you can defend Chang'an by suppressing the rebellion?
Abandoning the city and retreating westward is the wisest choice right now.

All the generals had the same idea, but no one dared to speak out, for fear of offending Cao Cao.

"His Majesty!"

Zhang Song finally couldn't hold back any longer, and said solemnly:

"The granary was burned down, our army's food supply has been cut off, the soldiers have nothing to eat, and the army's morale is about to collapse."

"I believe that at this point, Chang'an City is no longer defensible. It is not the fault of Your Majesty and I for not fighting."

"Your Majesty, abandon Chang'an in time and lead the army to retreat south to Hanzhong."

Zhang Song finally spoke for the generals.

There was no way. He also knew that mentioning the abandonment of Chang'an and even Guanzhong would run the risk of angering Cao Cao.

But if he did not persuade Cao Cao and allowed him to act recklessly, if Liu Bei's army broke through Chang'an by force and his 90,000-strong army was defeated, he might die in the chaos.

In order to save his life, he had to persuade Cao Cao to abandon the city.

All the generals looked at Cao Cao, hoping that he would make a wise choice.

"What? You want me to abandon Chang'an?"

"If Chang'an is lost, how can Guanzhong be saved? Are you asking me to give Guanzhong to that big-eared thief as well?"

"I will never abandon the city, I will never give up Chang'an, I will never give up Guanzhong——"

Cao Cao was indeed provoked, and he roared at Zhang Song in a hoarse and angry voice.

"Your Majesty——"

"The situation has come to this point. With your majesty's divine power and wisdom, how could you not know that Chang'an is undefendable?"

"If Your Majesty insists on defending to the death, we, the officials, will die here for Your Majesty and for the Great Qin, and live and die with Chang'an City."

"But your majesty is the body of the Ten Thousand Saints. The safety of our Qin country and the lives of millions of people in our Great Qin are tied to your body. If anything happens to you, our Great Qin will be finished!"

"Your Majesty, I beg you to put the country of Qin first, and the people of the world first, and endure the humiliation and abandon Chang'an!"

"If Your Majesty does not wish to retreat to Hanzhong, you can first retreat westward to Longxi. Then, you can rely on Yizhou in the south to provide troops, money and food, and you can use Longshan in the east as a barrier to block the Han army's westward advance."

"In this way, we can not only stay in a corner of Yizhou, but also stop the big-eared bandits from invading from the west. If we advance, we can cross the Longshan Mountains to recover Guanzhong and even Chang'an!"

"Your Majesty, I beg Your Majesty to put the overall situation first, abandon Chang'an, and retreat west to Longxi!"

Zhang Song fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face, and begged desperately with a dignified and righteous voice.

He originally wanted to persuade Cao Cao to retreat to Yizhou and simply abandon Liangzhou as well. In this way, Cao Cao would have to rely on his ministers from Yizhou, and it was possible that he would not be appointed as prime minister.

But seeing that Cao Cao was reluctant to cut off his flesh, he had to settle for the next best thing and trick Cao Cao into going to Longxi and Liangzhou to save his life.

"Your Majesty, I implore you to put the country first, abandon Chang'an, and retreat west to Longxi!"

All the generals knelt down and kowtowed in unison.

Looking at the generals kneeling on the ground, looking at the panic-stricken soldiers, listening to Zhang Song's earnest analysis of the benefits...

All of Cao Cao's anger, excitement, and persistence gradually disappeared.

After a long while, Cao Cao sighed helplessly and waved his hands helplessly:
"Abandon it, abandon it. I will obey you. Abandon Chang'an and retreat to Longxi..." (End of this chapter)