Super Cultivation System of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 896: Killing Before Leaving
Liu He was extremely furious and just wanted to kill Cao Cao as soon as possible.

The reason was very simple. The letter sent by the flying eagle only contained one piece of news: Cao Cao colluded with many ethnic minorities and local tyrants, promised to cede Youzhou and Liangzhou to them, and promised Shi Xie autonomy in Jiaozhou and to become the real local emperor of Jiaozhou, in exchange for the support of all parties for his Han court in Yuzhou.

Now, Goguryeo and Buyeo joined forces and sent 250,000 troops to attack Youzhou. More than 20 tribes of Western Qiang rose up with more than 300,000 troops to rebel and invade Liangzhou. Shi Xie declared Emperor Xian as the orthodox and sent 100,000 troops to enter Jingzhou to prepare to assist Cao Cao in the war.

Liu He certainly understood that Cao Cao, who was known as the number one treacherous hero in the late Han Dynasty, would naturally not really hand over the territory of the Han Dynasty to others. He did this just to trick them into sending troops to help. Once the situation in the world was decided, wouldn't people like Shi Xie and Goguryeo be at his mercy?

But understanding it theoretically is one thing, but being able to accept it emotionally is another.

As the emperor of the Han Dynasty, Liu He had long regarded the entire world, every inch of territory, and every citizen as treasures. How could he allow Cao Cao to carry out such an evil plot?

He was extremely hateful and angry, and the speed at which he killed people was obviously much faster. He rushed forward as if he was in an empty space, and was getting closer and closer to Cao Cao.

At this moment Cao Cao finally changed his color. He wanted to disrupt the formation of Zhu Ye and others by attacking Liu He, but he did not expect that Xu Shu would continue to command. Although Zhu Ye, Zhang He and others were a little anxious at first, no one left the battlefield. Now, seeing that Liu He was unharmed and Cao's army was scattered, they were not worried but became more excited.

"Brother is really amazing, haha..."

"My fellow soldiers, your Majesty has risked his life personally to stand with us, to live and die together. How can we not repay him with our own death?"

Not only Zhu Ye and Zhang He, but Zhou Cang also had an expression of admiration and generosity on his face.

"I have long heard that the emperor is kind and brave, but I never thought he could be so powerful. No wonder the great and wise teacher was killed by your majesty. Now that I have been able to join such a wise master, how can I, Zhou Cang, not fight to the death for him?"

He was wielding a big knife in his hand more and more vigorously. Inspired by him, Pei Yuanshao, who was originally a little timid, also became brave and moved forward.

Cao Cao never expected that his plan to disrupt the enemy's morale would actually make the enemy even more courageous. The two sides were originally in a stalemate, but now his 50,000-strong army was in danger of being counterattacked by Zhu Ye and his men's mere 20,000 troops. He was both shocked and annoyed.

Seeing Liu He rushing towards him like a madman, Cao Cao was frightened, but he still did not retreat a single step. The enemy's morale was high now. If he retreated, the morale of the army would definitely be damaged. As one side gained strength while the other lost, he would definitely be defeated.

But if he did not retreat, he would be doomed to die when Liu He arrived in front of him. This put Cao Cao in an extremely difficult dilemma.

Just when he was in a hurry, a man on horseback came galloping towards him on the official road behind Liu He. When Cao Cao saw this man, his eyes lit up.

"It's saved."

The man ran to Xu Shu and shouted to Liu He, "Your Majesty... Urgent news from Jingzhou..."

Liu He and Xu Shu raised their brows. Xu Shu didn't dare to accept the urgent report, but seemed to have guessed what the content was. He looked at Liu He with some worry.

Liu He hacked and chopped his way out of the encirclement and retreated to the top of the slope. The Cao army soldiers were intimidated by his powerful force. In addition, they were all infantry, so it was even more difficult for them to charge upwards from the foot of the slope. Just when they were in a dilemma, Cao Cao suddenly ordered a temporary halt to the offensive. The soldiers retreated in a hurry as if they had been pardoned.

Liu He snatched the urgent report almost as if he was snatching it away. After just one glance, his eyebrows seemed to stand up.

"Cao Cao appointed Huang Zhong as the commander and Wei Yan as the vanguard, leading 150,000 soldiers from Jingzhou, marching from Xiangyang into Runan County. Now they are less than 50 miles outside Pingyu City."

Xu Shu slapped his thigh fiercely: "I have calculated everything, but I forgot to take into account the troops of Jingzhou. But Jingzhou is restrained by Jiaozhou and Yangzhou, how could it be..."

Liu He had a gloomy face and waved his hand to interrupt him: "This is the letter sent by the eagle just now. Yuanzhi, please read it yourself."

Xu Shu took it with some doubt, but then his face turned into extreme shock.

"How dare Cao the thief... This... This will leave you with an infamy that will last forever..."

"How could Cao Cao care about such a false reputation? As for Sun Jian of Yangzhou, he is gaining fame and his army is strong. I just received a memorial from Liu Yao not long ago, requesting that Sun Jian be transferred from Yangzhou to another place. It can be seen that there is a lot of grudge between the two. I just learned that my third brother had escaped and didn't take this matter into consideration for the time being."

Liu He said this with a gloomy face, and Xu Shu immediately understood.

"No wonder Cao Cao is so confident. He must have secretly colluded with the civil officials under the governor Liu Yao, slandered him in front of him, and made him balance against Sun Jian. Then he bribed Shi Xie. In this way, he could naturally put aside his worries and fight against Your Majesty with all his strength. I failed to observe this, Your Majesty, please punish me."

Liu He waved his hands and said, "I had never expected this. What crime has Yuan Zhi committed? I just hate that we were in such a good situation today and were about to catch Cao Cao in one fell swoop, but complications arose. I'm afraid it will be hard to find such a good opportunity in the future. How hateful, how hateful!"

In a rage, he swung his sword and split a huge rock next to him.

Xu Shu frowned and said, "Your Majesty, for now, our army has no choice but to retreat. Pingyu City has just been captured, and people's hearts are already unsettled. The few soldiers stationed in the city are even more difficult to defeat Cao's 150,000 troops. Once this city is lost, our army will be caught in a dilemma, and our food and grass will be cut off..."

Liu He naturally understood this truth, but he finally had the opportunity to force Cao Cao to death, and it was hard for him to give up just like that.

Cao Cao was overjoyed watching him from afar. "Haha... This is just a small gift from Cao, I hope you won't despise it."

Liu He's eyes were filled with anger, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Meng De's deep friendship and kindness are deeply appreciated. I will definitely return the favor twice as much in the future as a token of my gratitude."

Zhu Ye and others listened to them talking one after another, completely not understanding what was going on.

Cao Cao clasped his fists and said, "I have been waiting for you, but I don't know if you can live to see that day."

Liu He gritted his teeth and uttered four words: "Sound the horn and withdraw the troops..."

"Ding ding ding ding..."

When the horn sounded, Zhu Ye and others were confused, especially Zhu Ye himself. He was in the midst of a killing spree. Under his double hammers, hundreds of Cao's soldiers had died. Victory was in sight, but they suddenly withdrew their troops, which made him completely confused.

He looked up the slope, trying to see if the messenger had accidentally knocked the wrong number, but Liu He waved to him, and then he took Xu Shu and went down the slope together. Only then did he confirm that the troops were indeed going to be withdrawn.

"What...what does this mean?"

Everyone was full of doubts and very confused, but in Liu He's army, military discipline has always been the top priority and military orders cannot be disobeyed. Although they were very confused, they could only obey orders.

After a fierce battle, only 15,000 to 16,000 soldiers were left out of the 20,000 soldiers, and they quickly retreated.

Cao Cao breathed a sigh of relief, and Cheng Yu and others caught up with him, also showing expressions of relief.

"Fortunately, General Huang acted quickly, otherwise we would all have died here. I didn't expect that Liu He's new military commander had such extraordinary skills and attainments in battle formations."

Xizhong sighed.

Cheng Yu also nodded and said, "Although we are all proficient in military strategy and battle formations, we are far from being as flexible and adaptable as him. We must investigate this person's identity in detail in the future so that we can come up with a countermeasure."

Cao Cao's tense expression gradually returned to normal. He let out a long breath, "Huh... This time was so dangerous, but fortunately I finally won. This Liu He is really hard to deal with. I prepared so many secret moves and back-up plans, but in the end I could only force him to retreat."

"My lord, don't worry." Han Hao stood up. "After all, our army won this battle. Liu He will definitely go north to join Gao Shun and withdraw from Yuzhou. He lost many soldiers and generals in a great battle, but he didn't occupy a single city. In addition, Goguryeo and other countries have invaded one after another. He will definitely not be able to take care of other things in a short period of time. This is the time for our army to grow stronger. If we meet again on the battlefield in the future, the outcome is still unknown."

After hearing Han Hao's words, Cao Cao's expression eased a little: "Yuan Si's insight is exactly..."

He was halfway through his words when he heard a loud shout: "Go to hell!"

Then, everyone saw a long spear suddenly appearing out of nowhere. This sudden scene caught Cao Cao and others off guard.

"Lord, be careful..."

Han Hao was closest to Cao Cao at the moment. He rushed forward without hesitation. The spear pierced his chest directly and then pierced through his body. Even so, the spear continued to fly forward with undiminished force. However, the spear that was originally flying towards Cao Cao changed its direction after Han Hao's pounce.

The spear carried Han Hao's body as it passed by Cao Cao. After more than ten steps, he fell heavily to the ground.

"Yuan Si..."

Cao Cao was horrified and quickly dismounted his horse, ran forward and helped Han Hao up.

Zhu Ye's voice came from a distance: "What a pity, you were killed by this fellow, Cao thief, next time we see each other, I will kill you!"

Blood continued to flow out of Han Hao's mouth. He glanced at Cao Cao, but before he could utter any last words, he just smiled for a moment before dying.

"Yuan Si..."

Cao Cao cried out in pain and was heartbroken.

Han Hao was a man under his command who was both civil and military, and his status in the army was second only to the Xiahou Caos, and was almost comparable to Li Dian, Yu Jin and others. He valued him very much, but he did not expect that after winning the battle and before he could celebrate, he suddenly died. How could Cao Cao not feel remorseful?

With red eyes, he looked at Zhu Ye's departing back, full of hatred: "Liu He... Zhu Ye, I will never reconcile with you..."

(End of this chapter)