The Three Kingdoms Fight for the Deer

Chapter 368
After Hou Cheng got off his horse, he went to check the tower first. If the enemy had an ambush in the city, he would usually arrange soldiers on the tower.Hou Cheng went up and searched carefully, but found no one, let alone ghosts. Although there was no one in the tower, there were piles of hay all over the ground, thinking that it might be used to feed war horses.

"Could it be that Qu'a has become an empty city?" Hou Cheng walked down from the tower and randomly checked the houses in the city. The result was the same, but nothing was found.

Half an hour later, a loud arrow suddenly rose into the sky. Hou Cheng glanced at it and knew that the soldier had noticed something unusual. He immediately rode his horse and ran to the place where the loud arrow was fired. A soldier caught several civilians, he got off his horse and asked, "What's going on?"

"General Hou Cheng, I found them in a private house. They must be sneaky and malicious." The soldier replied.

"Who are you? Why are you hiding in the house and not coming out?" Hou Cheng glanced at these people. Although they were all dressed up as ordinary people and were short in stature, they had piercing eyes, which were obviously different from ordinary people.

"We are all poor people. I heard that Li Yuan's army is about to come, so many people ran away. Our family has no money, no food, and old parents, so we can't go far, so we can only hide at home. Officer, you Let us go." One of the peasants dressed as a farmer knelt down and begged Hou Cheng.

"What's your name, are these all your family members?" Hou Cheng asked the farmer to speak.

"My name is Zhang San. They are all my brothers and they usually work in the fields." Zhang San introduced his family members to Hou Cheng.

"You guys really don't look alike at all." Hou Cheng stared suspiciously at Zhang San.

"What the villain said is true, please tell the general!" Zhang San lowered his head, not daring to look at Hou Cheng, his face was already covered with cold sweat.

Hou Cheng wasn't sure if Zhang San was lying, because he knew that brothers who were not born to the same father and mother must look alike, and some looked alike and some didn't. He thought of a question , asked: "You said that you are all farmers, you should have a lot of food in your home, why did you say that there is no food?"

"This..." Zhang San hesitated for a long time, unable to explain why.

"Back to the general, the thing is like this. Although we are all farmers, Sun Ce has been fighting a lot recently, and the army has consumed a lot of food and grass, so he forced the food from our people, so we have no food left." A civilian next to him came out to replace Zhang San said.

"Who are you, Zhang San?".

"I'm Zhang Saner and Zhang Er." Zhang Er clasped his hands to Hou Cheng.

"One is called Zhang San and the other is called Zhang Er. Is your boss called Zhang Yi?" Hou Cheng looked at the people at the end of the battle.

"The general is really smart, but you are only half right. I am their boss, but my name is not Zhang Yi, but Zhang Da." Zhang Da bowed down and said.

"It's really random for you to choose your name. Did your parents give you the name?"

"Our family has never been educated. We have been farmers for generations and have no education, so we can only use such unprofessional names. Please don't make fun of me, General," Zhang Da hurriedly explained.

Hou Cheng carefully looked at the three brothers of Zhang's family. Although they didn't look much alike, they were all strong and dark-skinned. They could only get so tanned after long-term exposure to the sun, which indeed fit the characteristics of farmers.

"Extend your palms to have a look." Hou Cheng was still worried, and asked the three brothers of the Zhang family to extend their hands.

The three brothers of the Zhang family quickly showed their palms to Hou Cheng. Hou Cheng saw that they were covered with calluses, so he believed what they said a little bit, and asked, "May I visit your home?"

"Yes, please come in, General." General Zhang Hou Cheng invited him into the room.

Hou Cheng asked soldiers to guard the outside, then walked into the house, and saw that the inside was very simple, with only a bed and a table, and a field of hay was piled beside the table.There were two old men lying on the bed, a man and a woman. He went over to check, but the two old men were already asleep. Instead of waking them up, he went to the hay and asked, "Why do you have so much hay here? "

"Back to the general, the house is simple, there is only one bed for parents to sleep in, and the three of us all sleep on hay, because it is cold at night, so we need a lot of hay to keep warm." Zhang Da replied.

"Do you know there are other people in the city?"

"I don't know about this villain, but I guess there must be someone else. The general may be able to find it if he looks carefully."

Hou Cheng nodded and said: "It can be seen that the three of you brothers are dutiful sons. Although my lord's army is coming soon, we have never done anything wrong to the people. Don't panic when you see soldiers. We will never hurt you." You guys, I wanted to give you some money, but this place has become an empty city. You can’t buy food even if you give you money. When the army comes, I will ask the soldiers to bring you some food. Don’t let your parents starve, they are old It's not easy."

"Yes, thank you General!" The three brothers of the Zhang family quickly knelt down to thank them.

"Okay, let's all get up." Hou Cheng helped them up.

"General Hou Cheng, I also found a few civilians not far away." A soldier walked in and said.

"Well, I'll go and have a look now." After Hou Cheng finished speaking, he left Zhang's house and went to the place the soldier said.

After Zhang San saw Hou Cheng walking away, he said: "Sure enough, as the rumors say, Li Yuan's army treated the common people without offense, and even gave us food. I'm afraid even our master can't do it."

"Okay, don't think too much, Li Yuan may be a good leader, but now we are serving General Zhou, General Zhou treats us well, we must not betray him, and his orders must be fulfilled." Zhang Da took a picture San's shoulder, let him not think too much.

"That being said, but... if the lord is defeated, can we surrender to Li Yuan?" Zhang San couldn't help but said.

"This... That's something for the future, it's useless to think about it now, let's talk about it later." Zhang Da shook his head, not to mention Zhang San, Hou Cheng's actions just now made him have the urge to surrender .

After Hou Cheng left the Zhang family, he went to another family. There were also three brothers in that family. There was only one old father in the family. Because one leg was disabled, it was inconvenient to walk around. Therefore, he did not follow Zhou Yu's army to Wu County, but the strangest thing was It was Hou Cheng who also saw a lot of hay in this family, which made him pay more attention.

An hour later, Hou Cheng led his troops to leave Qu'a and return to the camp.

"My lord, the last general has found out that Qu'a has become an empty city. There are only a few people in the city. Because of various inconveniences, they did not follow Sun Ce's army to Wujun." The information that General Hou Cheng inquired Tell Li Yuan et al.

(End of this chapter)