The Three Kingdoms Fight for the Deer

Chapter 435 Arriving in Xiangyang
"Wen Xiang, what do you think?" Zhou Yu looked at Xu Sheng who had been silent all this time.

"Hey, General Zhou, wherever you are, I will be there." Xu Sheng didn't say whether he wanted to save Sun Quan, he just said that he wanted to follow Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu struggled, and finally sighed: "Hey, let things take their course. If there is really no other way, I can only pray that Li Yuan will not kill them."

Zhou Yu felt so powerless for the first time, no matter how clever he was, there would always be times when he had no way out. In fact, not only him, but many people felt powerless when facing Li Yuan, even Cao Cao.

In the end, Zhou Yu and others stayed in Jizhou to assist Cao Cao in pacifying Hebei. As for the rescue of Sun Quan, the two parties did not mention it again as if they had agreed.

At this time Li Yuan was about to arrive in Xiangyang, and Xu Zhu had already sent someone to Xiangyang to inform Gan Ning in advance.Gan Ning was very happy to know that Li Yuan was coming, so he immediately led Xu Shu, Xiang Lang and Jiang Qin and other officials out of the city to greet him, and a large group of people waited for Li Yuan's arrival at the gate of the city.

"My lord, Xiangyang is just ahead. The last general has already sent someone to Xiangyang to inform Gan Ning to go out of the city to meet him." Xu Zhu pointed to the front.

"Very good. It's been a while since I came to Xiangyang, and I really miss going back to my hometown now." Li Yuan looked around and could already see the people in the city.

After a while, Li Yuan brought the Tiger Guards to the city gate, and Gan Ning and others hurried forward to salute: "The last general, Gan Ning, pays homage to the lord!"

"Hahahaha, I miss Xingba after not seeing you for a long time. Compared with the past, you are more majestic." Li Yuan laughed, got off his horse and helped Gan Ning up, then gave him a firm hug.

Gan Ning was very moved by Li Yuan's actions. Although he hadn't seen him for many days, Li Yuan still treated him well as before. He could feel that this sincere feeling was not just an act.Seeing that Li Yuan and Gan Ning have such a good relationship, other officials showed envious eyes.

Gan Ning clasped his fists and said, "My lord, the general has already prepared a banquet at the state pastoral mansion, please move to the state pastoral mansion, my lord."

"Okay." Li Yuan nodded, and then entered the city with everyone, heading for the State Shepherd's Mansion.

After entering the State Shepherd's Mansion, everyone sat at the banquet one after another, and after drinking for three rounds, Gan Ning asked: "My lord, I heard that you are going to Wuwei to form an alliance with Ma Teng this time, and the journey is far away, why do you want to go in person instead of sending an envoy? "

"Xingba doesn't know something. Ma Teng and I once joined forces to fight against Lu Bu. We have a friendship, but we haven't seen each other for many years, so this friendship has been very weak. But joining forces with him can contain Cao Cao, so just sending envoys is not enough to show my sincerity , so I have to go personally to facilitate this alliance." Li Yuan explained, in fact, Xu Shu had already guessed more than half of it without him talking.

Xu Shu said: "My lord is going to Wuwei this time. If you take Tongguan and take this road, it will be much closer. Why do you take the Hanzhong road? Is it because you are worried that Cao Cao will be unfavorable to you?"

"Yuanzhi is really smart. He was really worried that Cao Cao would find out. In fact, we had already walked under Tongguan more than ten days ago, but we found a very strange thing, so I had to change my mind and take a detour."

"What's the matter?" Xu Shu also felt puzzled. It stands to reason that Li Yuan's trip was not rumored, so it would be impossible for Cao Cao to know about it. Therefore, Li Yuan should not worry too much about being discovered by Cao Cao when passing through Tongguan and other places.

"Everyone knows that Cao Cao is now concentrating most of his troops in Hebei, preparing to annihilate the remnants of the Yuan family in one fell swoop. It's time to employ people, but after I arrived in Tongguan, I found out that Cao Cao sent Cao Hong and Cao Xiu to guard Tongguan. Cao Hong and Cao Xiu They are all important generals under his command, and there is no war in Kansai now, why would Cao Cao send them to guard Tongguan, I guess he already knew that I was going to Wuwei to form an alliance with Ma Teng, that's why he made such a move." Li Yuan explained to everyone.

"So it turns out that Cao Cao knew about the Lord's whereabouts even though he was in Hebei. Could it be that his sources of information are so well-informed?" Gan Ning couldn't figure this out.Gan Ning didn't understand, but Xu Shu knew very well, and said: "General Gan may not know something, and there may be spies sent by Cao Cao in Xiapi."

"A spy sent by Cao Cao?!" Gan Ning was taken aback when he heard the words, "Master, is this true?"

"There are indeed spies in Xiapi." Li Yuan had Xu Shu, Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong supervise Ma Xian before, so Xu Shu knew about it, but Ma Xian behaved very normally at the time, so there is no evidence that Ma Xian was sent by Cao Cao spy.

"If this is the case, my lord should immediately send someone back to arrest this spy, and not let him continue to stir up trouble." Although Gan Ning didn't know who Li Yuan was talking about, he couldn't let him go no matter what.

"This person must be caught, but it's not the time yet. I'll brew him slowly after I go back to Xiapi." Li Yuan is not in a hurry, and he has asked Xi Zhicai to monitor Ma Xian closely, so he is not afraid of Ma Xian would run away and act as if he didn't know anything until he went back.

"My lord, it will take more than a month to go from Xiangyang to Wuwei. The journey is far away. Do you need to send an army to escort you?" Gan Ning was worried about Li Yuan's safety. There are only 300 people, not enough to ensure Li Yuan's safety.

"Xingba don't need to worry. The reason why I only bring three hundred tiger guards is to hide my whereabouts. If I bring more soldiers, it will be too conspicuous. Besides, I have to pass through Hanzhong. Now Zhang Lu in Hanzhong has allied with Liu Zhang in Yizhou. I believe that Liu Bei must have secretly facilitated this, and if Zhang Lu finds out, he will definitely not let me go, and he will notify Liu Zhang as soon as possible."

Li Yuan had to go to Hanzhong, so he didn't want to bring too many soldiers, but there was no danger of going to Tongguan, because Zhang Lu didn't know that he was going to Wuwei, so the defense was not so tight.

"Be careful, my lord. I will send troops to garrison Shangyong. If something is wrong, send someone to Shangyong to inform me immediately. I will send troops to rescue as soon as possible." Gan Ning was still not at ease, and decided to send thousands of troops to garrison in Shangyong Shangyong, in case of emergency.

"Then there will be Lao Xingba." Li Yuan felt relieved when Gan Ning was handling the matter. As soon as he finished speaking, Li Yuan suddenly found that the general sitting next to Gan Ning looked familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was.

Jiang Qin was also at the banquet, he saw Li Yuan looking at him and felt a little nervous, because he was once an enemy, Gan Ning could accept him regardless of the past, but he didn't know if Li Yuan would be so magnanimous.

"Xingba, the general sitting next to you looks familiar, I seem to have seen it before."

"The last general Jiang Qin has met the lord!" Jiang Qin immediately clasped his fists in salute and reported his name.

(End of this chapter)