The Three Kingdoms: If you don't have money to buy an official position, you can only be the em

Chapter 14: Treacherous Cao Cao
It turns out that not only Liu Bei was fighting in the wild, but Cao Cao, who had only the title of general but could only recruit local militia on his own, was also fighting in the wild.

However, unlike the penniless Liu Bei, Cao Cao was born into a wealthy family. His father could buy the first position of one of the Three Dukes with 100 million coins, so he naturally had no shortage of money and food.

He used his own money to organize a cavalry of 500 people, and was now fighting against the Yellow Turbans.

Not for the purpose of seizing spoils, but for the purpose of training.

"So it's General Cao." After hearing this, Liu Bei immediately dismounted and clasped his fists, saying, "I am Liu Bei, with the courtesy name Xuande, and I am a descendant of Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan. When I heard that my teacher Lu Zhi was leading an army to fight against the Yellow Turbans, I brought my two sworn brothers and the local warriors I recruited to come and help."

He was a man who could speak well. He mentioned his identity as a relative of the Han royal family as soon as he opened his mouth, and also pointed out that he was a disciple of Lu Zhi.

Let Cao Cao not treat him as a nobody.

"Master Lu's disciple?" Cao Cao's expression remained unchanged.

Lu Zhi was the commander-in-chief of the expedition against the Yellow Turbans, but after obtaining the horseshoe from Jiang Cheng, he had already become a general through some operations.

His status is no lower than that of Lu Zhi.

Just no real power.

"Then why are you in such a mess?" Cao Cao asked again.

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei did not hide anything and told everyone that the three of them had been ambushed.

As for who ambushed them, no one knew.

"I don't know whose generals they are. I only saw that there were two flags. One had the word 'Zhang' on it, and they should be the personal soldiers of the bandit leader Zhang Jue. The other had the word 'Yan' on it, and the word 'Shennong' was written below it!" said Liu Bei.

These words made Cao Cao stunned.

He immediately laughed loudly and said to the forest ahead: "Brother, since you are here, why don't you come out and see me?"

He guessed that it was Jiang Cheng's men.

It’s not that he is smarter than Liu Bei, but the information is asymmetric and Liu Bei doesn’t know much about Jiang Cheng.

"I was wondering who it was. It turns out to be Junior Brother Meng De." Jiang Cheng came out riding a warhorse, followed by Chen Gong and Zhang Yue, as well as Zhang and Yan's men.

The two parties were ten steps apart, neither of them dismounted, and they were talking cordially.

"Brother, do you blame me?" Cao Cao said.

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng asked back: "Why should I blame you?"

"It was my mistake to trust a villain and let him introduce me to the emperor, which led to your misfortune of becoming a bandit." Cao Cao said, riding his horse forward with a gleam in his eyes.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Cheng also took a step back.

Chen Gong quietly waved his hand and asked the special operations battalion to set up their bows and crossbows.

Seeing this, Cao Cao immediately retreated.

It turned out that he knew Jiang Cheng didn't know martial arts, so he wanted to try to capture him by surprise. But Jiang Cheng saw through him and kept a distance of ten steps, so Cao Cao's plan failed.

"Junior brother, you are not honest." Jiang Cheng said.

Cao Cao was thicker than a city wall and shook his head, saying, "I can't help it. Since ancient times, it has been difficult to be both loyal and righteous. Now you have become a traitor. As a Han official, I have no choice but to be your enemy!"

After saying that, he carefully looked at Jiang Cheng's men and estimated their chances of winning.

I soon realized that my chances of winning were slim.

Although Cao Cao's troops were not weak, and even had some shadows of the later Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, the "Shennong Army" behind Jiang Cheng stood in neat rows, all with expressionless faces, and were the type of people who were ruthless and didn't talk much.

With just one order, nearly a thousand arrows can be shot out in an instant.

Cao Cao only has 500 men, how to fight him?
"So, we are going to kill each other today?" Jiang Cheng said coldly.

It’s not that he talks a lot, but he is also trying to scare Cao Cao.

I didn't plan to start a fight.

If it was only Cao Cao, he would have ordered an attack long ago. If he could capture Cao Mengde alive, he would be worth 100,000 troops. Even if he could not capture him alive, killing him would mean losing a hero who was fighting for world domination. It would be a hundred benefits without any harm.

But he can't.

Even though Cao Cao only had 500 men, he had more than 1,500, three times the number of troops.

Once the war starts, Liu, Guan and Zhang will not stand idly by.

Two thousand enemies, with five hundred elite cavalry, that's two different concepts. "No, no, no, how can I? You are my fellow apprentice, brother." Cao Cao said, "I have already offended you and served the emperor with loyalty. Now you retreat, I will retreat too, how about we pretend we have never met?"

This is an attempt to stop the fight and make peace.

This made Zhang Fei and Guan Yu behind him look indignant, and they wanted to force Cao Cao to take action.

They just lacked horses, and felt that with Cao Cao's cavalry, they could fight.

But Liu Bei stopped him with a wave of his hand.

"Second brother, third brother, please don't act rashly. After all, they are brothers from the same school. It is hard to tell whether Cao Cao is loyal or treacherous. If they team up with him, my three brothers will be in danger!"

This is not something he overthinks.

In ancient times, family and teacher-student relationship were very important.

When a teacher falls, usually a large group of students are taken away with him.

Brothers are naturally in the same camp.

Who knows whether Cao Cao will surrender to the enemy?

Even if they don't surrender to the enemy, they may still remember their old friendship. If they are forced to take action... after both sides kill their three brothers, they can go back and no one will care!
"Okay, you don't want to fight, and I don't want to fight either, so let's retreat!" Jiang Cheng said.

Then he took the lead in withdrawing his troops and returned with his men.

After a while, he disappeared.

At the original spot, Cao Cao first breathed a sigh of relief, then turned around and evacuated.

But not long after he walked away, he glared.

"wrong!"

"What's wrong?" Liu Bei wondered.

"Since my senior brother has set his sights on you, how could he give up just because of 500 soldiers? He is not a pedantic person. He must be unsure of defeating us, or even afraid, so he might retreat!" Cao Cao suddenly realized.

He slapped his thigh and said, "I fell into the trap!"

The three brothers Liu, Guan and Zhang were all stunned when they heard this.

"I'm also confused, why are you such a coward!" Zhang Fei couldn't help but yelled, "My brother and I only have 500 infantrymen, and we fought them for a long time, and were ambushed and defeated. You have 500 elite soldiers, and my three brothers are helping you, so how can we not fight?"

At this point, Cao Cao finally understood.

"Ah! Go back!"

He was so angry that he gritted his teeth and immediately ordered his men to turn back and chase Jiang Cheng.

Although I don't know how powerful Liu, Guan and Zhang are, they were able to escape from Jiang Cheng's pursuit with less than a hundred people. There must be something about them that Jiang Cheng is afraid of. I'm afraid they are good in martial arts.

In small-scale combat, the commander's martial arts skills are more important than his military skills.

As long as both sides join forces, they may be able to win.

This is a great achievement!
"My three brothers can lend a helping hand to the general!" said Liu Bei.

He finally saw it.

The friendship between Cao Cao and Jiang Cheng was not that deep, or rather, both of them were people who could distinguish between public and private matters, and when faced with a powerful enemy, they would not care about their friendship at all.

I was overthinking at the beginning.

……

On the other side, Jiang Cheng only walked ten miles before he ordered his troops to stop and ambush.

Zhang Yue looked puzzled.

"Sir, what is this?"

"That man is treacherous and may not retreat easily. Especially after learning about the bravery of Liu, Guan and Zhang, he is very likely to lead his troops to chase us!" Chen Gong explained for Jiang Cheng: "Although he may not be able to catch up with us, this is a perfect opportunity to ambush us."

It would be better if we set an ambush, but there would be no loss if we don’t!
Why not?
"Gongtai is right." Jiang Cheng nodded and said, "My junior brother is treacherous. Once he realizes what's going on, he will definitely send troops to pursue us. We might as well lay an ambush and wait for the enemy to come over, then give them a head-on blow."

(End of this chapter)