Chapter 382: Both from the Yuan Family

Li Jue and Guo Si returned to the camp with unhappy faces. They had not taken it seriously when reinforcements came from Anyi City before, but after today's battle, they realized that they were very difficult to deal with. They were afraid that their hope of capturing the throne was getting lower and lower!

Li Jue kicked the table in anger, "It's all Zhang Ji's fault, that coward!"

"If he hadn't left with his troops, we would have captured the emperor long ago!"

Zhang Ji, a native of Wuwei, was originally a general under Dong Zhuo. After Dong Zhuo's death, Zhang Ji followed Li Jue and Guo Si to capture Chang'an, and was appointed General Zhendong and was granted the title of Marquis of Pingyang.

Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou and Zhang Ji, the four generals of Liang Province, once controlled the court. Later, Fan Chou was killed by Li Jue's men. Zhang Ji had the weakest power and stationed troops in Hongnong. Fortunately, he escaped the fight between Li Jue and Guo Si.

At that time, Li Jue attacked Guo Si. Later, the two sides negotiated peace. The emperor's convoy returned to Luoyang in the east. Zhang Ji followed Guo Si and escorted the emperor back in the east.

But on the way, Guo Si changed his mind and wanted to take Liu Xie back to Chang'an together with Li Jue. Zhang Ji also turned against them and assisted the two in attacking the emperor's convoy, resulting in heavy casualties among the accompanying officials and soldiers.

The emperor set out in July, and it took Liu Xie more than half a year to fight along the way before he finally reached Anyi. On the way, Liu Xie issued an edict to reprimand Zhang Ji for breaking his promise. It was not known whether Zhang Ji was out of shame or other reasons, but he left Li Jue and Guo Si with his troops, using the excuse of running out of food, and went to Jingzhou to plunder Liu Biao.

Hearing what Li Jue said, Guo Si frowned and asked, "Jia Xu has also left. Did he go to Zhang Ji?"

Li Jue sneered, "That's not the case. I heard that he went to seek refuge with Duan Wei."

"Duan Wei?" Guo Si was surprised, then laughed, "Wen He is really getting more and more timid. Why would he follow Duan Wei, who only knows how to farm?"

Li Jue was a little annoyed and waved his hand, saying, "Let's ignore these. The key is what should we do now?"

"Should we continue to attack the city, or retreat?"

"You've seen today that Lü Bu and the Youzhou soldiers are not easy to deal with, and there's also Cao Cao who hasn't made a move yet!"

Guo Si was also a little unwilling to accept it, "I have chased him all the way here, but it's a pity that I failed at the last moment!"

"But with our current military strength, it's unlikely that we can storm the city."

"I heard that Zhang Xiu is now attacking Nanyang Rangcheng, and Duan Wei has returned to Huayin. How about sending a letter to ask them to come and help?"

Li Jue hesitated for a moment and said decisively: "Okay!"

He then sighed, "If only Wenhe were here!"

"I didn't treat him badly. I really don't understand why he left!"

Guo Si thought to himself, since you openly killed Fan Chou, who can trust you again?

I am just isolated and helpless, and was forced to join forces. After all, in today's world, the Liangzhou Army is hated by everyone.

But precisely because of this, the Liangzhou Army had to kill their way forward, making everyone terrified and afraid to become enemies with the Liangzhou Army, so that they could survive!

Yuan Xi, who was far away in Huaicheng, had a mentality very similar to Guo Si at this time. He thought to himself that he might as well let his soldiers kill Wei Xu!

Seeing that Yuan Shu's army had arrived at Huaicheng, their army had already set up camp more than ten miles away from Huaicheng and could attack the city at any time. However, Yuan Xi and Gao Shun looked for Wei Xu several times, and even Chen Gong came out to persuade him, but Wei Xu still had no intention of returning the Xianzhen Camp.

That would be fine. Chen Gong and Gao Shun have always been at odds. Although the two of them cooperated with Yuan Xi's help, it was a bit of a luxury to expect them to be of one mind.

Yuan Xi still hasn't figured out whether Chen Gong is more inclined towards Gao Shun or Wei Xu in the matter of the Xianzhen Camp.

Ultimately, this is a problem left behind by Lu Bu himself. Before he left, he asked Wei Xu to be in charge of the defense of Huaicheng and to supervise Song Xian and others. Even if Chen Gong and Gao Shun joined forces, they could not get real power.

The reason why Lu Bu trusted Wei Xu so much was because he and Wei Xu were related by blood, and he also had an affair with Wei Xu's wife, so they were true like-minded people.

A few days ago, Yuan Xi met Madam Wei Xu in Lu's mansion. She had a plump figure and indeed had a different charm from Yan. No wonder Lu Bu couldn't control himself.

Yuan Xi secretly cursed Lu Bu for being entangled. It is a taboo to attack the wives and daughters of subordinates. Is Lu Bu really not afraid of causing trouble?

It seems that Lu Bu is quite happy with this affair. Maybe Yan is too strong and cannot satisfy Lu Bu's sexual preferences, so he seeks excitement?

At this moment in the hall, Yuan Xi is sitting in the guest position. Wei Xu, Hou Cheng, Chen Gong, Gao Shun, Cheng Lian and Song Xian have all arrived and are arguing endlessly.

Yuan Xi felt a dull headache after hearing this. There were serious problems with three of these six people. In later generations, Wei Xuhou, Cheng Songxian and others betrayed Lu Bu together. But if Yuan Xi told the story now, no one would believe it.

Finally, Wei Xu decided to lead the Xianzhen Camp into battle himself tomorrow. Everyone was at a loss after hearing this and thought, let's just give it a try.

What if the Xianzhen Camp could still win without Gao Shun's command?

Seeing this, Yuan Xi thought that he could only take it one step at a time. Anyway, he did not expect to rely on Lu Bu and his generals to repel Yuan Shu's army. He could only hope that Lu Bu would return to support him, or that Yuan Shao would send reinforcements in time, so that he could counterattack Yuan Shu's army.

The next morning, Yuan Shu's army set out and arrived at the city of Huaicheng to challenge the enemy.

Yuan Xi, standing on the top of the city wall, looked through the telescope and saw from afar a man riding a horse out in front of him. He had an ordinary appearance and his riding posture did not show that he had been fighting in wars for many years, but he was guarded by two generals on both sides.

One of the generals was Qiao Rui, whom he captured that day.

Yuan Xi was very surprised. Qiao Rui was a general under Yuan Shu, and the other general was probably of the same status as him. Who could be protected by these two people?

Soon, the three men led their troops to the front, and some soldiers came out and shouted to persuade them to surrender.

After listening for a while, Yuan Xi suddenly discovered that the other general was Zhang Xun, a general as famous as Qiao Rui, and the man in the middle was even more powerful, he was Yuan Shu's son Yuan Yao!

Moreover, he guessed from the words of the soldiers that this was the other party's first time leading troops, and he was afraid that Yuan Shu wanted to build up momentum for his son.

Yuan Xi felt jealous. He thought that they were the real rich second generation. He had fought from Beixin City to now, and he only had a few thousand soldiers at most, and was often forced to fight with a few hundred soldiers.

Look at Yuan Shu's son, who leads an army of 20,000 or 30,000 at a time. It's really frustrating to compare yourself with him.

Although Yuan Shu often lost battles in later generations, he was able to immediately mobilize tens of thousands of troops after each failure, which can be regarded as a legend in the late Han Dynasty.

The reason for this is that Yuan Shu has an extremely strong foundation and can withstand such attacks from him.

His prestige was no less than that of Yuan Shao, and he was undoubtedly the legitimate son of the Yuan family. He started out in the relatively wealthy Yuzhou and Yangzhou, so he could raise a large army with just a wave of his hand.

At its peak, it was said to have an army of 300,000. The tens of thousands of Yuan Yao's men under the city were just a drizzle in comparison.

Yuan Xi stared at Yuan Yao's smug face and thought to himself, he is much uglier than me, why is he here to scare people?

Just shoot him to death?

He couldn't help but take off the longbow from his back, put it in front of his eyes to compare, and after calculating the distance, he felt that there was still a big difference, so he had to give up in disappointment.

It seems that although Yuan Yao is not very good at forcing a fight, Zhang Xunqiao Rui on both sides are very experienced and know to stay at a safe distance. Otherwise, if he comes a few dozen steps closer, Yuan Xi will definitely let Yuan Yao know how powerful Yuan Xianyi, the handsome and charming archer who is famous in the north and specializes in shooting enemy generals in the forehead, is!

After several loud-voiced soldiers finished shouting in turn, Yuan Yao rode out on his horse, looking confident of victory, quite like a crown prince.

He said, "My father, Yuan Gonglu, has won the loyalty of all the heroes in the world. Hearing of the bravery of Marquis Wen, he sincerely intended to form a marriage between our two families, and specially ordered Yao to come and marry the daughter of Marquis Wen."

"Please invite Lord Wen to come out of the city to see me. I will be delighted to see Lord Wen's elegance!"

Yuan Xi thought that this was a very high-sounding statement. Twenty thousand people are needed to welcome the bride?

How much food would be consumed going back and forth?

All of Lü Bu's generals were on the top of the city wall. Wei Xu motioned Chen Gong to come forward and speak. Chen Gong did not refuse and shouted on the top of the city wall: "I am Chen Gong. I am grateful for the kindness of Envoy Yuan and Master Ji. But the Marquis Wen drank too much yesterday and is still hungover. It would be rude for me to come out to meet you."

"Please leave for now, sir. When Marquis Wen recovers, I will go out of the city to meet him. How about that?"

After hearing this, Yuan Yao sneered, "Chen Gong!"

"You can't fool me!"

"Marquis Wen left Huaicheng a long time ago!"

"I am speaking to you kindly for the sake of Lord Wen, but you are trying to deceive me. Isn't that the right way to treat guests?"

Chen Gong heard this and said, "Please forgive me, my lord. I don't have any reason to complain."

"How about you wait a few more days until Marquis Wen returns and then talk to me?"

Yuan Yao waved his hand and sneered, "Who knows when Wen Hou will come back?"

"The Yuan family and the Lu family have agreed on a marriage, but now they are rejecting me. Isn't that too much of a disregard for my Yuan family?"

"If you really want to have a good talk, open the city gate now and let me in!"

"Otherwise, don't blame me for not giving you face!"

Chen Gong realized that he couldn't convince anyone, so he turned around and saw Lu Bu's generals. Most of them showed distrust towards him. He felt quite uncomfortable. He had betrayed Cao Cao and defected to Lu Bu, but because of Cao Xing's testimony, he was suspected of colluding with Yuan Shu!

It's all my own fault. Who told me to advocate a marriage between Lu Bu and Yuan Shu?

He thought of what Yuan Xi said when he visited him the other day.

Mr. Gongtai, have you ever thought that there are people in this city who want you dead?

Yuan Xi turned his head slightly and saw the expression on Chen Gong's face, then slowly glanced at the generals on the city wall and found that several of them looked very unnatural.

Although Yuan Yao is an external threat, the root of the problem lies with the generals within the city.

If a forced assassination is desired, it is not impossible. The hundreds of personal guards left behind were all carefully trained by Qu Yi. They are good at fighting, and can also act as spies and carry out assassinations.

But regardless of how much the loss is, the key is who to kill.

Yuan Xi still hasn't figured out whether Chen Gong defected to Yuan Shu, and why Wei Xu and Song Xian kidnapped Chen Gong in later generations.

Is it a personal vendetta, or is he being bribed?

If you fail to figure out the relationships among the people and rashly kill key figures, the situation may collapse, leading to the loss of Huaicheng, and you won't be able to escape.

Seeing that Chen Gong stopped talking, Wei Xu went up and said a few words, but was refuted by Yuan Yao and was speechless. He was originally a military general, how could he compete with a young man from a noble family like Yuan Yao in verbal combat?

Yuan Xi saw that it was time for him to come forward, so he walked up to Wei Xu and said, "General, we are both descendants of the Yuan family, so maybe we can have a say. How about I say a few words?"

After hearing this, Wei Xu thought to himself that before Lu Bu left, he said that he would take care of the military affairs and Yuan Xi could help with the internal affairs. So now is this considered a military matter or a internal matter?

He hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Then I'll trouble you, sir."

It's just a few words. At worst we'll part ways on bad terms. What kind of trouble can this cause?

Yuan Xi walked to the edge of the city wall, fastened his helmet first, then stuck his head out and waved to those below.

"Hello everyone!"

"Hey, isn't this Mr. Qiao? I haven't seen you for a long time. How are you?"

"Are you all here to congratulate me on marrying the daughter of Marquis Wen?"