The Three Kingdoms: The entire Cao Cao camp thought I was weak and frail.

"wait for me."

After saying this, he mounted his horse, never looking back, and led a group of personal guards away in a cloud of dust.

Only after the group of figures completely disappeared at the end of the official road did the reluctance and disappointment on Xun Hao's face slowly fade. He turned around, his expression returning to its usual coldness.

"Someone come here." He summoned a personal guard. "Take a few capable brothers and prepare generous gifts. Go to Yingchuan and bring my sister-in-law and nephew to Puyang."

The guard was taken aback, somewhat puzzled: "Sir, although Yanzhou is now pacified, the roads are still not safe..."

"It's alright," Xun Hao interrupted him. "Your journey is not about speed, but about stability. By the time you reach Yingchuan, Yanzhou will surely be a peaceful and prosperous place."

He paused, then added, "Also, tell your sister-in-law that... your brother is very busy with official duties, working day and night, and misses his family very much."

After dismissing his personal guards, Xun Hao turned and looked towards the direction of the council hall.

As soon as Cao Cao arrived at the council hall, he saw Xun Hao already waiting there. Xun Hao seemed somewhat different today; his complexion was still fair, but his clear, cold eyes seemed to be burning with two flames, shining astonishingly brightly.

"Yanruo is in good spirits today," Cao Cao joked with a smile.

"My lord, time is of the essence. We must immediately send troops to wipe out the remaining bandits in the state!" Xun Hao said bluntly and urgently.

Cao Cao was taken aback. He was preparing to launch his campaign once the various "Qingtian" settlements were on track and supplies were plentiful.

Why is Yanruo so energetic today?

"Yanruo, there's no rush..."

"Urgent!" Xun Hao interrupted him. "As long as the remnants of the Yellow Turbans are not eliminated, Yanzhou will never be at peace. The 'Qingtian' strategy cannot be fully implemented. Our army has just won a great victory, and morale is high. We should press on with this momentum and sweep across the world with thunderous force!"

His words were so powerful and resonant that they stirred Cao Cao's blood.

"If Yanruo has any brilliant plan, tell us."

"Liu Shi, the Yellow Turban leader entrenched in Shanyang County, is an ignorant man who believes in ghosts and gods. I intend to use him as a breakthrough point to take Shanyang without bloodshed." Xun Hao's tone was calm, yet it exuded confidence.

"Without bloodshed?" Cao Cao raised an eyebrow. "What brilliant plan do you have?"

"In the past, during the Battle of Shouzhang, our army used the 'Blessing Lantern' as a signal, as my lord already knows. I wish to use this lantern again, but this time, it is not for blessing, but for taking lives." A very faint smile appeared on Xun Hao's lips.

He slowly revealed his plan.

They could make hundreds of prayer lanterns, and write prophecies such as "Heavenly retribution is coming, Liu Shi will surely perish" on the four sides of the lanterns with cinnabar, along with a specific date of death, such as "seven days later, at noon." Then, for several nights in a row, they would release these lanterns from outside Shanyang City, letting them drift into the city on the wind.

"Liu Shi was a devout believer in ghosts and gods, and many of his followers also believed in witchcraft. At first, they may not have believed, but after several days and nights of this, by the seventh day, the morale of the army in the city had already collapsed, and everyone was in danger."

Cao Cao nodded in agreement: "Warfare is based on deception. The best strategy is to achieve the greatest results with the least cost. This plan only requires a little bamboo paper and lamp oil, but it may be possible to take a prefecture without bloodshed. Whether it succeeds or not, our army will suffer no losses. It is worth a try."

Xun Hao mobilized all the skilled craftsmen in Puyang City to work through the night to make prayer lanterns. He also selected several hundred clever soldiers and taught them how to identify wind direction in the wild and how to control the height and direction of the lanterns as they rose into the air.

In just two days, hundreds of exquisitely crafted prayer lanterns were completed.

In the valley outside Shanyang County, the night wind swirled withered leaves, causing them to fall to the ground.

Cao Hong rubbed his arms, leaned closer to Xun Hao, and asked in a low voice, "Yanruo, are you sure this method will work? A few broken lanterns are enough to make Liu Shi surrender? If you ask me, we should sneak over at night with our thousand men and take down the city wall. Wouldn't that be much more satisfying?"

He was naturally restless, and leading a thousand elite soldiers to feed insects in this valley was almost making him sick.

Xun Hao didn't even open his eyes. He leaned against an old tree, a thick cloak draped over his shoulders, as if he weren't there to set up an ambush, but rather to take a rest in the countryside. "Our lord and brother were worried, which is why they sent you with a thousand elite soldiers. In my opinion, a hundred men would be enough."

Cao Hong curled his lip, thinking to himself, "With your physique, you'd fall over in a gust of wind. Of course you don't know the dangers of leading troops into battle." Just as he was about to say something more, he saw Xun Hao suddenly sit up straight and wave his hand towards the distance.

Upon receiving the signal, the soldiers lying in ambush immediately lit their "prayer lamps." In an instant, hundreds of lights appeared in the darkness, like will-o'-the-wisps rising from the ground, swaying and drifting towards the night sky.

The Yellow Turban defenders on the walls of Shanyang City quickly discovered this horrifying scene.

"Look! What's that?!"

"They're lanterns! How can there be so many lanterns in the sky!"

"It's will-o'-the-wisp! It's will-o'-the-wisp!"

Panic spread across the city walls. These lanterns, though untethered, rose into the air on their own, carried by the night wind, drifting straight into the city.

As they flew closer and closer, the guards could even make out the large, blood-red characters written in cinnabar on the pale lanterns.

"Divine retribution is coming; Liu Shi is doomed!"

"Defying the will of Heaven will surely lead to your demise!"

The Yellow Turban defenders' hands trembled as they gripped their weapons, their teeth chattered, but they dared not utter another word, for fear of disturbing the "ghosts and gods" filling the sky.

Liu Shi was awakened from his sleep by his personal guards. When he saw the lantern they presented him with the date of his death, his face instantly turned pale. He had risen to power by spreading the prophecy "The Blue Heaven is dead, the Yellow Heaven shall rise," and he deeply believed in ghosts and gods. Now, this "divine retribution" had directly befallen him.

"Shoot them down! Shoot them all down!"

Upon receiving the order, the archers hastily drew their bows and nocked their arrows, sending a sparse volley of arrows flying into the air.

Several lanterns were shattered by the arrow and fluttered to the ground. Liu Shi rushed over, stomped on one of the lanterns, and picked up the silk cloth with writing on it. He saw a line of smaller characters underneath:

"In the dead of night, when chickens and dogs are restless, this is an omen of divine wrath."

It's the third watch of the night!

"Bang—bang—bang—"

The moment the third clapper fell, a strange change occurred!

"Ooh ooh ooh—"

A loud, high-pitched rooster crowed, piercing the night sky without warning.

Immediately afterward, as if startled by the rooster's crow, the barking of dogs came from not far away.

One dog barked, which attracted another dog to bark.

Soon, dogs from all over the neighborhood joined in.

The barking of dogs rose and fell, mingling with the crowing of roosters. The people living near Liu Shi’s mansion were all awakened by the sudden commotion. In an instant, the entire area was filled with shouts of alarm and cries of children.

At midnight, the rooster crowed, and a pack of dogs barked wildly.