The Three Kingdoms Fight for the Deer

Chapter 369 Seeing Through the Enemy's Plan
"Does that mean it's safe to enter the city now?" Li Yuan asked.

"That's right, the last general didn't find any enemy soldiers, so there shouldn't be an ambush." ​​Hou Cheng nodded.

"Okay, let's go to town now!"

"My lord, wait a moment," Xi Zhicai came out, and said to Hou Cheng, "Hou Cheng, tell me everything you saw in the city, and don't miss any clues."

"Yes, military advisor, I searched the city and didn't miss any place. Except for some common people, I found no one else. I also checked carefully on the tower, and there was no trace of the enemy." Hou Cheng replied truthfully.

"How many people are there? Why didn't these people leave with Sun Ce's army?"

"The number of people should be less than a hundred, because many people have no food left at home, so they can't follow Sun Ce's army so far, and many people have old parents at home, they can't keep up with Sun Ce's marching speed, so they didn't leave Qu'a."

"Are the people mainly young people, are they strong and dark-skinned?" Xi Zhicai continued to ask.

"The military master expected that the people who stayed were mainly young people, and there were also old people. Because most of them were farmers, they were still strong. Their palms are covered with calluses, so they should all be farmers." Hou Cheng explained the investigation process.

As soon as Hou Cheng finished speaking, Li Yuan had already heard something strange, and said: "Hou Cheng, your judgment is not entirely correct. Farmers have this characteristic, and soldiers also have it. Soldiers who train regularly must be strong and have dark skin and hands. In fact, because you have calluses when you carry weapons all year round, the people you are talking about are not necessarily farmers, but may also be soldiers left by Zhou Yu."

"My lord is right, but the general was careless." Hou Cheng suddenly felt that he had taken it for granted, but he still didn't understand one thing, "If these are really the soldiers left by Zhou Yu, then there are only less than 100 soldiers. The strength of the army can't deal with us at all, are there more people lying in ambush in the city without being discovered by me?"

"Did you find any other unusual places in the city?" Xi Zhi asked Hou Cheng to think carefully.

Hou Cheng remembered one thing, and said: "There is indeed one thing that I am very concerned about. I found a lot of hay in the city."

"Hay?" Li Yuan and Xi Zhicai glanced at each other.

"That's right," Hou Cheng nodded, "There are hay in the city towers, people's homes, and even around the houses."

"Could it be used to raise war horses, so so much hay is needed?" After finishing speaking, Li Yuan felt that it was wrong. How many horses can there be in Jiangdong, there is no need to use so much hay.

Xi Zhicai lowered his head and thought for a while, then smiled and said, "Hahahaha, so that's the case, I know what Zhou Yu wants to do."

"Could it be that the military adviser meant that Zhou Yu wanted to use fire?" Li Yuan immediately realized what Xi Zhi was going to say.

"That's right, Zhou Yu took away all the people in the city, and then left some soldiers pretending to be people, piled up hay and fuel around the city, waited for our soldiers to enter the city, waited for an opportunity to set fire, and wanted to use fire to kill us all. "

Hou Cheng shuddered when he heard the words. He didn't expect Zhou Yu to be so courageous, and burned a city to deal with their army. If Zhou Yu was to succeed in this plan, at least half of their tens of thousands of troops here would have to be lost.

"Zhou Yu is really good at thinking of such a strategy to deal with us when we are retreating. Thanks to Zhicai, otherwise my tens of thousands of troops will be handed over to Qu'a." Li Yuan secretly rejoiced, and at the same time ordered, "Where is Zhongkang?"

"The end is here!" Xu Zhu came out and said.

"Immediately lead the Huwei battalion into the city, and together with Hou Cheng, arrest the Jiangdong army pretending to be ordinary people. Shoot and kill the rebels, and we must eliminate the enemies in the city without any omissions!"

"It's the lord!" Xu Zhu and Hou Cheng took orders and left.

Hou Cheng and Xu Zhu led the soldiers from the Huwei camp and ran into the city.Hou Cheng searched according to the record, and the first one he found was the Zhang family. He kicked open the gate of the Zhang family, and seeing the three brothers of the Zhang family and his old parents were there, he said angrily: "You are so brave, you dare to deceive I, General Xu Zhu, are them!"

"General, what is going on here? Why did you come back to arrest us?" Zhang Dalian knelt down and asked.

"Huh, you are still acting with me until now. You are obviously a Jiangdong soldier, and you still pretend to be a commoner in front of me. Thanks to my master's wiseness and martial arts, the strategist is an excellent strategist who can see through your tricks. You can fool me, but you can't fool my master. military adviser!"

"General, I didn't lie to you, I really..."

"It's your uncle, tie them all up for me!" Xu Zhuke didn't listen to Zhang Da's explanation so patiently, he slapped Zhang Da until his eyes were staring.The soldiers from the Huwei camp swarmed up and tied up the three brothers of the Zhang family and the two old men. Then Xu Zhu asked the soldiers to search separately and search house by house.

The soldiers of the Tiger Guard Battalion were very efficient and completed the task in less than two hours, arresting more than 100 people in total.After clearing out the enemies, Li Yuan led the army into the city, and then asked the soldiers to put hay and other flammable items at the gate of the city to prevent any fish that slipped through the net from suddenly igniting.

After Li Yuan entered the city, he immediately interrogated the enemies who were ambushing in the city, and Hou Cheng brought the three brothers of the Zhang family up.

"You are the so-called Zhang Da, Zhang Er and Zhang San?" Li Yuan heard about these three people from Hou Cheng, and he knew that the names must be fake.

"It's us." Zhang Da replied.

"Irreverent, why don't you kneel down when you see General Li!" Hou Cheng shouted.

"I only kneel down to my parents, heaven, earth and my lord, and never kneel down to my enemies." Zhang Da and the others have backbone.

Xu Zhuke didn't have such a good temper. He kicked the three of them hard at the joints of their legs. Zhang Da and the three of them knelt down in pain.

"Zhou Yu left you in Qu'a and piled up hay and fuel everywhere. He wanted to use fire to wipe out our army, but our army master was able to see through this plan. Do you feel dissatisfied?" Li Yuan stood up and went to Zhang Da said beside him.

"I'm not dissatisfied. It's because I didn't act well that I was discovered by you." Zhang Da lowered his head, feeling sorry for Zhou Yu in his heart, and they screwed up Zhou Yu's clever plan.

"Zhou Yu wants to confuse our eyes with the old and the disabled. Are the old parents and those with disabilities in your family really your relatives?" Li Yuan asked.

"No, the old man has nothing to do with us, they are just ordinary people. As for the disabled, they are all soldiers who were injured on the battlefield. Please let General Li spare them." Zhang Da pleaded.

(End of this chapter)