Super Cultivation System of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 981 Special Temptation
"General..."

At nightfall, the curtain of General Xiahou Yuan's tent was lifted by someone, who turned out to be a scout in the army.

"What's going on? Is there any unusual movement in Zhang Yong's army?" Xiahou Yuan asked impatiently.

The scout knelt down and replied: "General, the enemy soldiers are in a hurry. It seems...it seems..."

"It seems like that. Tell me quickly." Xiahou Yuan became a little anxious.

"It seems like he is packing his bags..."

The scout's words stunned Xiahou Yuan and other generals.

"Pack your bags! Is Zhang Yong going to withdraw his troops overnight?" a general asked in confusion.

Another person nodded and said, "That's possible. Although Zhang Yong is a good commander and survived the ambush by our army, he was planning to rush to the rescue of Shenyang County. He and our army have been fighting here for two days, and it seems that it will be difficult to determine the winner in a few days. Given the sworn brotherhood between Zhang Yong and Cheng Liang, he is naturally anxious. It is reasonable for him to withdraw his troops and take a detour at this moment."

"Not bad, not bad. I agree with this as well."

Many military generals echoed this.

"This..." Xiahou Yuan frowned and fell into deep thought.

"General, since the enemy is trying to retreat secretly, our army should pursue and kill them with all their strength."

A general suggested.

Xiahou Yuan was still hesitant: "I'm afraid this is Zhang Yong's plan to lure the enemy."

"General, this opportunity is rare. If you miss it, it will never come back. Zhang Yong is such a great man. If you don't seize the opportunity and capture him this time, it will be too late to regret it."

"Yes, in the current Jingzhou army, Cai Mao, Zhang Yun, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan and others are highly valued by the lord. I and others have not received any rewards for a long time. I am often ridiculed by the Jingzhou generals. How can I tolerate this?"

"General, the future and honor of me and others depends entirely on your decision."

All the generals asked for orders in unison.

Seeing this, Xiahou Yuan's eyes gradually became firm.

"Well, since you are all united, how can I retreat alone? Pass the order down, the whole army is ready for battle, but do not alert the enemy. When Zhang Yong breaks camp, send people to follow him. If he retreats fifteen miles and is still marching at full speed without stopping to ambush, we will immediately send troops to pursue him."

"I will obey your orders!"

More than three hours passed in the blink of an eye.

At this moment, it was already the second half of the night. In the night sky around Taohe River and the Stone Forest, the only sound was the chirping of insects. In the starry night, it was unusually quiet.

Xiahou Yuan paced back and forth in the general's tent, his face full of anxiety. The other generals also stretched their necks, looking outside the tent, eagerly waiting.

"Thump, thump, thump..." The sound of hurried running was heard, causing everyone to look outside.

"General..." As soon as the scout came in, Xiahou Yuan took the initiative to greet him.

"how?"

The scout said with a happy face, "As the general expected, the enemy retreated without stopping after breaking camp. They left in such a hurry that they left many tents, baggage and other items in the camp. Now they are following Tao River upstream, and they crossed the river at a shallow beach not long ago and are heading southeast."

"Okay, it's true." Xiahou Yuan was overjoyed, and all the generals were also very happy.

"General, Zhang Yong really wants to withdraw his troops secretly and take a detour to Shenyang City. This is a good opportunity that must not be missed."

"Yes, General, give the order!"

The cheers of the crowd also made Xiahou Yuan feel very excited.

He walked quickly to the weapons rack, took his spear, walked out of the tent, and pointed forward.

"Pass my order, the whole army will set out to pursue Zhang Yong!"

From the generals to the soldiers, all of Cao's army were ecstatic. They didn't even bother to pack up their camp. They just picked up their weapons, took some dry food and water, and hurriedly chased after them.

A distance of only fifteen miles was not far. Xiahou Yuan was always known for his fast marching. At this moment, everyone in the army was anxious and wished they could grow wings under their ribs. Therefore, they all ran as fast as they could. Not long after, they saw Zhang Yong's army marching ahead in the distance.

A general said happily: "General, look, that's the enemy."

Xiahou Yuan nodded and said, "Yes, good, very good. This is a wilderness, there is no place to set an ambush. It seems that Zhang Yong really wants to escape. Chase him quickly and don't let him escape."

After Xiahou Yuan finished speaking, he whipped his mount hard with the whip.

"Kill it..."

The Cao army soldiers rushed over from the rear, roaring.

"Oh no! Cao's army is catching up. Let's meet them quickly..."

Zhang Yong was extremely frightened and shouted loudly.

However, when Zhang Yong encountered an ambush in Shilin before, he was instinctively alert when facing this kind of terrain and had issued a military order to be on alert early on, so he was naturally able to respond quickly.

But now it was different. They had traveled fifteen miles without seeing anything unusual. Even though Zhang Yong was still a little wary, the soldiers had already become lazy. Faced with this sudden fight, they naturally quickly fell into chaos.

Therefore, as soon as the two sides fought, Cao's army quickly gained the upper hand, and in a blink of an eye, forced the Han army to retreat repeatedly.

This scene made the already excited Cao army soldiers even more excited, as if they were given an injection of chicken blood. Their eyes were bloodshot, they let out bursts of roars in their throats, and they fought tirelessly with their hands.

Seeing that the battle was going badly, Zhang Yong hurriedly shouted: "Retreat quickly... abandon the baggage and armor, and travel light..."

The weapons, armor, and dry food used by the Han soldiers were all superior to those of Cao's army. However, as the equipment became superior and sophisticated, its weight naturally increased. Not to mention anything else, the weapons used by the Han soldiers, even the gun barrels were made of metal, which were much heavier than the wooden gun barrels of Cao's army, and the same was true for their armor.

With Zhang Yong's military order, the Han soldiers hurriedly took off their armor, threw away the dry food bags wrapped around their waists, and even threw away a lot of military flags. Suddenly, the wilderness was covered with Han army equipment and weapons.

After getting rid of the restraints, the Han soldiers felt much more relaxed, and their escape speed increased significantly, and they soon got rid of the battle.

"Haha, they escaped, they escaped..."

"Look, this is the spear used by the enemy. Wow, this spear head and this spear shaft are not much different from General Xiahou's spear."

"Yes, although we have seen the excellence of the enemy's weapons, but now we can actually seize them and hold them in our hands, the feeling is really different from usual."

Many generals picked up some weapons discarded by the Han army and played with them in their hands, with envy on their faces.

Even they were like this, and the eyes of those ordinary soldiers who had little knowledge lit up after seeing these supplies and weapons.

"Ah... this... this is meat. The Han army soldiers actually carry beef jerky with them. Oh my God, this... this is too luxurious, right?" A soldier picked up a dry food bag. A meaty aroma immediately wafted out, making him take a bite impatiently.

"It feels so good. It's been a long time since I last ate meat, especially beef. It smells so good. It's so delicious!"

"And this, it looks like pickles, and this thing, it looks like steamed buns, but it's whiter than steamed buns, and it's also very soft. Come, let me try it... Well, it's delicious, really damn delicious, especially with this pickle, it's amazing, if my family can have such delicious food on weekdays, I can have a good New Year."

Although flour has been available for a long time, the ability to grind such fine flour and make such excellent white flour steamed buns was the masterpiece of Ning Lian and Wang Shan, a couple who owned the "Chef's Record".

The soldiers of Cao's army usually eat thin porridge with coarse grain cakes. In such troubled times, being able to eat enough is a blessing, so how can they enjoy delicious food?

Now, white flour, pickles, pork jerky, beef jerky and many other delicious foods are right in front of them. To these ordinary soldiers, they are more attractive than weapons and armor.

Seeing that a great battle had been won, the Cao army soldiers, who had been extremely nervous just now, instantly relaxed and began to scramble for the delicious food in the face of these temptations.

"this is mine……"

"Give me back my beef jerky..."

"Damn it, you are just a small soldier. You dare to snatch meat from this sergeant? You are asking for a fight..."

Compared with their brutality and chaos, the generals, although slightly more civilized, were also fighting with each other.

"This long sword is good. It belongs to me."

"Nonsense, you are obviously a halberd wielder, why do you need a knife? I think you should just give it to me."

"You guys fight for that big sword, but this dagger, hehe, I just tried it with my own sword, and it was cut in half with just one strike. What a good thing, what a good thing, it's mine."

"This armor is much better than what I wear. Come, let me try it..."

Xiahou Yuan was furious when he saw this, and stepped forward to snatch the armor from a general's hand and asked: "What are you doing?"

"Ah... I almost forgot about the general. Come on, now that we have the spoils, we should let the general choose first."

Several generals held the things they had harvested and ran to Xiahou Yuan to flatter him.

Unexpectedly, Xiahou Yuan threw all these things to the ground and angrily cursed: "My order is to chase and kill the enemy and not let anyone escape. When you saw these supplies and weapons, you ignored the order, stopped chasing, and picked up the things by yourselves. You really brought shame to our army."

After being scolded by him, the generals finally came to their senses and couldn't help showing shame on their faces.

"General, please don't be angry. It is I and the others who are confused."

"I know I was wrong. I will reorganize my troops and chase them again."

The generals dropped their spoils, mounted their horses again, and went to gather the soldiers under their charge.

But at this moment, there was a noisy sound of running not far away. Xiahou Yuan was startled and looked in the direction of the sound. He saw that under the starlight, he could vaguely see a large group of soldiers charging towards this side.

Although they did not light torches or raise flags, Xiahou Yuan recognized them at a glance, because the direction they were coming from was exactly the direction Zhang Yong had just led his troops to escape.

"Oh no, I fell into the trap again!" Xiahou Yuan understood everything instantly.

"Withdraw troops quickly... Pass the order down, withdraw troops quickly..."

Even though he shouted at the top of his lungs, the soldiers were so immersed in the delicious food that most of them didn't react at all for a moment.

"Kill it..."

The Han army let out a deafening shout of killing, and in a blink of an eye rushed to the front of Cao's army.

"Ah... the enemy is coming back..."

"Where's my weapon? Where's my shield?"

Cao's soldiers looked around for their weapons, but even in this situation, they were reluctant to throw away the few supplies they had managed to snatch. These supplies might be just a few steamed buns, a few pieces of beef jerky, or half a piece of pork jerky. They seemed insignificant, but in this chaotic world, in the eyes of Cao's soldiers, they were priceless treasures, much more precious than any weapons or armor.

In the blink of an eye, the Han army rushed into the chaotic Cao army. Zhang Yong led the Golden Sword Battalion and charged in front. After the charge, countless more Cao soldiers died.

At this point, Xiahou Yuan no longer cared about the soldiers and horses, and hurriedly fled eastward with thousands of his personal soldiers and a small number of soldiers who woke up in time.

Seeing that the commander and many generals had fled, the remaining 10,000-plus Cao soldiers looked at each other, and finally had no choice but to throw down their weapons and kneel down in surrender.

“Hahahaha…” Zhang Yong laughed out loud. He looked at Xiahou Yuan’s embarrassed back and shouted, “Xiahou Yuan, you will be defeated by me, Zhang Yong, for the rest of your life. You will always be an incompetent rat. Hahaha…”

As soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers under his command also shouted in unison.

"Incompetent rat Xiahou Yuan, incompetent rat Xiahou Yuan!"

Xiahou Yuan listened to the mocking voices coming from behind him and became so angry that he couldn't help but coughing violently.

"Cough cough...cough cough cough..."

"General, how are you?"

Xiahou Yuan covered his chest with his hands, his expression extremely painful and angry: "Zhang Yong... If I, Xiahou Yuan, cannot kill you in this lifetime, I will not be a human being!"

"General, don't be like this. Victory and defeat are common in the military. The only thing to blame is that Zhang Yong was too cunning and actually used such means to lure our army here."

"Yes, as generals, we naturally like those fine weapons and armor. And among the soldiers in the army, many are from our families, and some are recruited by the lord. In short, most of them come from poor backgrounds and have never seen such military rations. It is understandable that they are excited and unable to control themselves."

As everyone was talking, they suddenly saw a man on horseback galloping towards them in the distance ahead.

When Xiahou Yuan was about to ask, the other party spoke first: "Is that General Xiahou Yuan in front?"

The deputy general beside Xiahou Yuan said, "Exactly. Who are you?"

The man rode quickly to Xiahou Yuan and handed him a token and a letter.

"It's the lord's token." Xiahou Yuan recognized it at a glance and hurriedly took the letter.

"Torch over here."

The deputy general raised the torch and moved in front of him. Xiahou Yuan looked at the letter with an extremely angry face, but his anger gradually turned into joy.

"Haha... OK, OK, Meng De is indeed resourceful."

He put the letter away, his eyes full of murderous intent: "Zhang Yong, Zhang Yong, you never thought that retribution would come so quickly, right?"

(End of this chapter)