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

Jicheng.

There was a dead silence in the palace hall.

Cao Cao held his forehead with his hand, staring blankly at the word "Lueyang" on the map, with sadness written all over his face.

He was still one step late.

When the messenger who abandoned Lueyang and retreated southward arrived at Lueyang City, Liu Bei had already learned the news of the great victory at Chencang, and his 300,000-strong army surrounded Lueyang City, making it impossible for any escape.

Yu Jin and the ten thousand Qin soldiers were all trapped in the isolated city.

He definitely doesn't dare to rescue her.

There are only more than 70,000 soldiers available at hand. If we go north to rescue Lueyang, we will have to face 300,000 Han troops.

Isn't this just seeking death?
Now he could only hide in Jicheng, watching ten thousand soldiers trapped in the isolated city, waiting helplessly for the news that Lueyang had been captured.

"Yu Jin has been with me for ten years. He is my most trusted minister among all non-officials. After the city is captured, he should die for me..."

Although Cao Cao had given up hope that Yu Jin could break out of the siege, he had already started planning for this trusted old minister about how to deal with the aftermath of the city's fall.

Dying in battle for the country and dying for the king was naturally the most perfect ending he had planned for Yu Jin.

At least it can be used to encourage military morale and make up for the unfavorable battle situation.

"Lueyang City is protected by the Ice Armor and can hold out for at least another month."

"There may be some changes in this month. Your Majesty, we must think of a way to rescue those 10,000 soldiers."

"Ten thousand troops are extremely valuable to our Great Qin's current national strength. We should save them if we can."

Amid the gloomy silence, Huang Quan suddenly spoke.

As soon as these words were spoken, Zhang Song frowned and looked unhappy.

Yan Xing and Cheng Gongying are the only remaining members of the Liangzhou faction. Wouldn't it be great to let them be trapped and die in Lueyang City?

Now that the Liangzhou faction is finished, won't it be more beneficial to our Shu faction?
You said that you, Huang Quan, a member of Shu faction, are obsessed with rescuing those two members of Liangzhou faction?
Why are you pretending to be selfless?
You must be bored because you have eaten too much.

Zhang Song was extremely dissatisfied with Huang Quan, but he couldn't express it openly, so he could only give him secret glances.

Huang Quan, however, turned a blind eye and continued to give advice to Cao Cao, offering several strategies in an attempt to rescue the 10,000 Qin troops in Lueyang City.

"Gongheng, you are selfless and impartial. I am very pleased!"

Cao Cao nodded in approval, but then sighed bitterly:
"But those strategies you mentioned are nothing but an egg hitting a rock in front of the 300,000-strong army of the Big Eared Bandits."

"I cannot sacrifice more of the Qin people just to save those 10,000 men."

Huang Quan's heart trembled.

Cao Cao's meaning had been made clear enough. It was obvious that he wanted to treat Yu Jin and the 10,000 soldiers as abandoned pawns.

This was also the first time that Cao Cao publicly expressed this idea in front of his ministers.

"Let's not talk about Cheng Gongying and Yan Xingxian. General Yu is your Majesty's minister of great merit. He has followed your Majesty since you started the army in Chenliu. But now..."

Huang Quan stopped talking halfway through and could only let out a sigh of helplessness and regret.

When Cao Cao heard this, his face darkened slightly.

Huang Quan's words were like blaming him in front of all the ministers for being heartless and ungrateful and for not saving the old minister Yuan Gong!

What do other people think of what you said?
Are people thinking secretly, Your Majesty didn’t even save an old minister like Yu Jin, let alone people like us?

Is such a monarch worthy of our loyalty?
Cao Cao was already in a bad mood, and Huang Quan's words irritated him so much that he immediately became furious and was about to slam the table in a fit of rage.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

"General Yu has returned with his troops and has now reached the northern bank of the Wei River. I request Your Majesty to send a boat to help us cross the river!"

The Royal Guards rushed in and shouted excitedly.

The hall was in an uproar.

The anger on Cao Cao's face instantly turned into endless surprise, and he jumped up.

"Wen Ze and his men actually managed to break through?"

"I knew that Yu Wen Ze would not let me down. He is worthy of being my old minister and the number one general outside my Qin!" "Quick, follow me to welcome Wen Ze!"

"Hahaha--"

Cao Cao was overjoyed. He walked down the stairs laughing and ran excitedly out of the city.

It was a miracle that Yu Jin was able to break through the siege of 300,000 Han troops, fight his way out, and retreat to Jicheng alive.

This miracle is enough to greatly boost the current low military morale.

Cao Cao was naturally overjoyed and wanted to go outside the city to greet him in person.

"They actually escaped. What a pity, what a pity..."

Zhang Song, however, looked unhappy, as if he had eaten a fly.

All the ministers followed Cao Cao out of the city and went to the south bank of the Wei River in the north of the city to welcome him.

At this time, in order to prevent the Han army from crossing the river on ice, Cao Cao had broken the ice. The 5,000 Qin soldiers on the other side could only send boats and rafts to transport them across the river.

An hour later.

Yu Jin knelt down at Cao Cao's feet with tears in his eyes, crying:
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I can hardly come back alive to meet Your Majesty!"

Cao Cao hurriedly helped Yu Jin up and praised him with a smile:

"Wen Ze, I'm glad you came back alive and brought so many soldiers back to me."

"This time you were able to break through the encirclement of 300,000 Han troops, fight your way out, and bring back 5,000 soldiers. This is truly an incredible feat!"

"I will reward you handsomely, handsomely!"

The eyes of the generals on both sides looking at Yu Jin were all filled with admiration.

For them, breaking through the siege of 300,000 Han troops with only half of their troops lost was an almost impossible task.

Even Xu Huang, the most powerful general in the Qin camp, did not have this confidence.

Yu Jin completed this impossible task.

I can’t accept it!
"Your Majesty, I, ahem..."

Yu Jin looked embarrassed and stammered for a moment, not knowing how to respond.

aside.

Cheng Gongying did not dare to hide it and could only sigh:

"Your Majesty, in fact, we did not succeed in breaking through the siege, but, but..."

Cao Cao noticed something was wrong from their expressions and words, and the smile on his face gradually faded.

"What happened? If you didn't succeed in breaking through, how could you have returned alive?"

Cao Cao became suspicious and asked loudly.

Cheng Gongying swallowed his saliva and told the truth:

"Your Majesty, General Yu and I had originally planned to fight to the death to break through the siege, but we didn't expect that Yan Xing would rebel for Liu Bei and choose to surrender to the fake Han."

"Yan Xing was afraid that we would lead our army to attack him, so he offered Liu Bei a condition to let us and 5,000 Yizhou soldiers evacuate Lueyang safely."

"I have discussed with General Yu that the loss of Lueyang is a foregone conclusion. Even if we attack Yanxing, it will not change the facts. It is better to save the lives of these 5,000 soldiers for Your Majesty."

"Therefore, for the sake of the overall situation, we had no choice but to withdraw from Lueyang and bring these 5,000 soldiers back to Your Majesty!"

Cheng Gongying knew that the truth would come out sooner or later, so he had to tell the whole story.

Of course, this explanation had to be embellished, so that their fear of death was disguised as helping Cao Cao to preserve his 5,000 troops.

The truth came out.

Cao Cao was furious, his eyes burning with anger, and he cursed:

"What a good Yan Xing! I treated him well, but he actually dared to betray me. I will exterminate all his clans——" (End of this chapter)