Chapter 491 Who is the Hunter

In Houqiu City, Mi Zhen said to Mi Fang: "Brother, you have made several mistakes. If you wait for others to rescue you now, you will only hurt others and harm the Mi family."

Mi Fang's face was rather grim. "My little sister, you are exaggerating too much. The matter may not be that serious!"

Mi Zhen's face was filled with anger. "I misjudged you, brother. You actually used the people of Qucheng as bait. How could this be done by a county governor?"

Mi Fang was displeased after hearing this. "Little sister, if I don't do this, I'm afraid we will all fall into the hands of the enemy. As a woman, what will happen to you? I don't need to tell you, right?"

Mi Zhen's face was icy cold, "Then I will just die!"

"Brother, what are you going to say when you meet Liu Yuzhou?"

Mi Fang's face was uncertain after hearing this. "Don't worry about these things. Although what I did was not appropriate, I have a clear conscience!"

Mi Zhen sneered: "Brother, do you really have a clear conscience?"

"I was originally thinking of a way to appease the people and defend the city!"

"Master Xianyi in Haixi will be here to help in less than half a day. Why are you running away in such a hurry?"

"I thought that the enemy was attacking and that you were forced to abandon the city. Later I realized that you didn't even know the enemy's situation and fled!"

"What on earth do you think, brother?"

Mi Fang's expression became even uglier, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Don't worry about this."

"All you need to know is that I am thinking about the Mi family."

Seeing that Mi Fang refused to listen to her advice, Mi Zhen sighed, turned around and left. As a woman, there was nothing she could do now.

Xun You looked at Houqiu City in the distance and said to Cao Ren with a smile, "I'm afraid Mi Fang has completely lost his mind."

"I don't know if he was too stupid to react, or if he just didn't have the courage to show up, but now no matter what he does, he's just a worm twitching on a fishing line."

"The more you move, the bigger the fish you attract."

Luring Mi Fang to besiege Houqiu can be said to be a key link in the entire plan. To this end, a group of counselors in Cao's camp came up with a series of plans and made many calculations, and finally achieved their goal.

Mi Fang's abandonment of the city was not accidental, but a counselor from Cao's camp pretended to be Yuan Tan's secret envoy and reached a deal with Mi Fang, allowing him to take the opportunity to abandon Donghai. After the deal was done, Mi Fang would receive compensation far exceeding that of the prefect of Donghai.

As expected, Mi Fang fell into the trap. When he learned that there were Taishan bandits outside the city, he thought the time had come and decisively abandoned the city. However, it was not until the Cao army, who was pretending to be Taishan bandits, was intercepted at the ferry that he realized something was wrong, but it was too late.

Xun You could even imagine Mi Fang's helpless and furious look and sneered in his heart. Those who betray their lord will have no good end. Mi Fang's current situation was his own fault.

Mi Fang is now in a state of distress, unable to speak out, and may even try his best to cover up the matter. If the truth is revealed, the Mi family, including himself, will be finished!

Xun You sneered in his heart. Mi Fang had been tricked into losing all his pants, but he had not been squeezed dry yet. He could still be used as bait to maximize the last bit of value that was left.

Caught two big fish.

Now everything is ready, just waiting for the fish to bite the hook, which makes Xun You feel a little proud.

Seeing Xun You's confident look, Cao Ren worriedly said, "I'm afraid they won't come. If so, this plan will fail."

Xun You smiled and said, "Indeed, if both sides hold back, I'm afraid we can only achieve the goal of seizing the East China Sea in this battle, which is obviously a bit disappointing."

"But I guess based on the personalities of both parties, they won't sit idly by."

When Cao Ren saw Xun You's confident look, he murmured in his heart, but he knew that there were some things he should ask and some things he should not ask.

This time, in order to seize Xuzhou, Cao Cao not only sent Li Dian, Xiahou En and others disguised as Taishan bandits to attack Qucheng, and Cao Hong Lejin to besiege Houqiu City, but also secretly sent elite ambush troops led by Cao Ren and Xun You for safety!

It can be said that Cao's army was determined to capture Xuzhou, and had made careful plans for the two big fish they wanted to lure out!

Houqiu was besieged and Tancheng was threatened. Unless Liu Bei had the heart to give up Donghai, he would have to lead his troops to rescue.

Although Liu Bei might have retreated to the city of Guangling and waited for rescue from Yuan Xi's army in Guangling City to lift the siege, Guangling was also under attack from Yuan Shu's army and was unable to take care of itself, making it almost impossible for it to send reinforcements.

Therefore, it is very likely that Liu Bei would make a bold move and give up Xia Pi, or withdraw his entire army to the East China Sea, or send troops to rescue Houqiu.

The latter possibility is very high. After all, Cao Hong only had a few thousand soldiers besieging the city, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei could each lead 5,000 soldiers and seem to be able to relieve Houqiu.

This was just the right number for Cao's army, and they had several countermeasures.

Either sit back and wait for the enemy to come, or attack them halfway. As long as he kills either Guan Yu or Zhang Fei, Liu Bei will lose his arm and there will be nothing to worry about.

But that's not the most important thing.

In this plan, the gains and losses in the East China Sea are all just extras.

Its real biggest goal is the ferocious tiger of the Yuan family!

Cao's trusted generals all received an order.

At all costs, lure out and kill the ferocious tiger!

Over the past few years, the evil tiger has caused considerable trouble to the Cao family. After a long discussion, Cao's advisers finally reached a consensus.

Must kill the fierce tiger!

Originally, killing the children of the Yuan family was extremely risky at this point in time. If Yuan Shao knew the truth, he would probably turn against the Cao family immediately.

So Cao made a lot of preparations, including disguising himself as a Taishan bandit and attacking Qucheng in order to frame him.

Of course, this clumsy plan was easily exposed. Afterwards, as long as Yuan Tan, the governor of Qingzhou, investigated the troops under his jurisdiction, it would be easily revealed.

But the Cao family had already made plans.

Yuan Tan had a motive to kill Yuan Xi.

Ever since the birth of Yuan Xi's two sons, the issue of Yuan family inheritance rights has become confusing again. Yuan Xi has actually become a thorn in the eyes of Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang.

To outsiders, it seemed that both brothers had the motive to kill Yuan Xi.

Especially as for Yuan Tan, Cao had several pieces of evidence that he had plotted against Yuan Xi before. When the time came and he killed Yuan Xi, they would throw the evidence out. Yuan Tan would not be able to clear himself even if he jumped into the Yellow River.

Moreover, the plan devised by Cao Cao's advisers was almost an open conspiracy, because given Yuan Tan's character, even if he knew the inside story, he might be happy to see it happen. After all, it would be more beneficial to him if Yuan Xi died!

Yuan Tan is in Qingzhou. When Yuan Xi dies, Yuan Tan can openly invade Youzhou and Xuzhou territories left by Yuan Xi!

For Yuan Tan, who is currently confined to Qingzhou and whose surrounding territories are blocked by his two brothers, what would he think when faced with such a great temptation?

This strategy goes straight to the heart of the matter. It is the conclusion drawn after accurately predicting Yuan Tan's thoughts, namely that Yuan Tan will sit idly by and will most likely pretend to be stupid even if he knows the truth!

As to whether the fierce tiger would come to rescue Houqiu, Cao's advisers were divided on the issue.

Some people believed that he would definitely come, because Yuan Xi was the governor of Xuzhou. When Cao's army massacred a few cities, Yuan Xi would inevitably be unable to restrain himself and would come out to stop it.

But some people think that although Yuan Xi values ​​his reputation, he is a cunning person. In this situation, he is likely to send his generals to deal with the situation instead of taking risks himself.

The key to the matter is Yuan Xi. As long as he is not dead, killing a few of his generals will not help the ultimate goal.

Moreover, Cao's army has a huge weakness.

No navy!

If Yuan Xi guards the waterway tightly, Cao's army will be unable to do anything to him!

Therefore, Cao Ying had a backup plan for this, but the key point was known by only a few people, not even Cao Hong's team.

Now, the generals of Cao's army are like patient and ruthless hunters, waiting for their target to step into their net step by step.

In Qucheng, Lu Xun stood up and blocked Yuan Xi's way, saying firmly: "Xun is firmly against your leaving the city."

"The situation outside the city is unclear, the enemy is unknown, and Houqiu is still a hundred or two hundred miles away. Do you still want to rescue Mi Fang?"

"You really didn't go there for the girl from the Mi family?"

Ju Su couldn't help laughing when he heard this, "Bo Yan is getting anxious. He is usually a modest gentleman, but he can be forced into this state by the envoy."

Lu Xun realized that he had spoken out of turn, and his face flushed. He still said forcefully, "Cao Mengde must have something to rely on if he openly attacked Liu Yuzhou. What if he is targeting you, young master?"

"If something happens to you during the chaos, you can just pretend you didn't know!"

Yuan Xi and Ju Shou looked at each other and couldn't help laughing. He asked someone to take out a map and spread it on the table. He said to Lu Xun: "Of course I know that this matter is very strange."

"But staying in the city may not be a solution."

"Bo Yan has also read the military intelligence sent back from all around. If you have any thoughts on the current situation, you can deduce it on the map."

After hearing this, Lu Xun picked up a charcoal pencil and circled the cities of Houqiu, Tancheng, Qucheng, Haixi, Xia Pi, and Guangling.

Then he drew some arrows around several circles, representing possible marching directions and troop strengths, and began to speak.

He spoke very cautiously, constantly changing the direction of the arrows and increasing and decreasing the number of arrows. Sometimes when he could not deduce any further, Ju Su would give him some advice, and Lu Xun would suddenly understand and continue drawing.

This time, they talked for two hours. At the end, Lu Xun was sweating profusely and almost exhausted. He put down the almost used charcoal pencil and said to Yuan Xi: "These are the dozens of possible changes that Xun can think of."

"Most of them are extremely disadvantageous to you, and there may even be a few enemy ambushes that you missed."

"No matter what the situation, it's not easy for us to deal with it."

"So Xun advises you not to leave the city."

Yuan Xi smiled at Ju Su and said, "What do you think of what Bo Yan said?"

Ju Su stroked his beard, looking pleased, "I'm afraid within five years, I won't have anything left to teach you."

"The thing I am most proud of in the past few years is snatching this disciple from Feng Xiao."

Yuan Xi thought that what Lu Xun said just now was very right and much more thoughtful than he thought.

However, the only thing Lu Xun didn't know was what he really wanted to do.

He said, "I admit that what Bo Yan said was very good."

"Normally speaking, I should wait for Youzhou Guangling to come to my aid."

"But Cao Cao wants to kill me, so do I?"

"He forced me to leave the city, but he also had his reasons for leaving the city."

"This is a golden opportunity to weaken Cao's army. You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a child. If I don't build a city, how can they be fooled?"

Lu Xun just realized what Yuan Xi wanted to do, and said in a lost voice: "It's too dangerous!"

Although he knew that Cao Cao was indeed difficult to calculate and Yuan Xi had this idea out of helplessness, it was still too reckless to take the risk himself!

And how could we know that Cao Cao had guessed Yuan Xi's thoughts and was using the same trick against him?

Ju Shou sighed, "I knew you would think so."

"But have you ever thought about what role Yuan Qingzhou played in this?"

"Also, is Liu Yuzhou really reliable?"