My father-in-law Guan Yu, I persuaded Liu Bei to launch a surprise attack on Xiangyang at the beginn

Chapter 138: A versatile talent in land, water, and cavalry, Liu Bei is jealous! It's not that I'm incompetent, it's that there are bad people among us!

Knock out Gan Ning?

Liu Bei's thoughts raced, and he was unable to figure out the meaning of Xiao He's words.

Gan Ning is in Chaisang City, how can you knock him down?

If Gan Ning could have been killed, wouldn't Chaisang City have been captured long ago?

"My lord, this is Military Advisor Bowen."

"Gan Xingba is an old friend of mine. He saved my life. I beg you, my lord and military advisor, to spare his life!"

But one person stood up and begged with his hands clasped.

The person who begged was naturally Su Fei.

The two had a close relationship when they worked together at Huang Zu. Gan Ning was able to leave Huang Zu and join the Sun family only after Su Fei's intercession.

Huang Zu died, Xiakou fell, and Su Fei was captured. It was also because Gan Ning pleaded with Sun Quan on his behalf that Su Fei's life was saved.

The two of them are friends for life and death.

Su Fei now thought that Xiao He was planning to kill Gan Ning, and was shocked. Naturally, he stood up and pleaded for him.

Liu Bei suddenly thought of something and said hurriedly:

"Bo Wen, I remember you once said that Gan Ning not only possesses unrivaled courage, but is also proficient in cavalry, infantry, and naval warfare. Furthermore, he possesses remarkable wisdom and strategy, making him a rare all-rounder."

"It would be a shame to kill such a wise and brave general."

Xiao He smiled and asked:
"My lord, General Su, I only said to knock Gan Ning out. When did I ever say I wanted to kill him?"

Liu Bei and Su Fei were stunned, still unable to understand the implication of Xiao He's words.

Xiao He did not explain much and asked Deng Ai to bring pen, ink, paper and inkstone.

"Ziyi, since you are an old friend of Gan Xingba, please write a letter and we can shoot it into the city with strong bows and crossbows."

Su Fei was stunned again.

Liu Bei looked at the writing on the desk and was also confused. He had no idea what Xiao He was doing.

Fa Zheng's eyes lit up first, and he said:

"Military Advisor Bo Wen, are you trying to use General Su's relationship with Gan Xingba to get him to write a letter to persuade Gan Xingba to surrender?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Liu Bei and everyone else suddenly understood.

Liu Bei showed a happy expression and said happily:
"So this is what Bowen meant by knocking it out. It would be great if I could recruit a versatile talent like Gan Xingba into my team!"

After hearing Fa Zheng's explanation, Su Fei knew that Xiao He did not want to kill Gan Ning, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Immediately, Su Fei frowned again:
"It would be best if the Lord and the Military Advisor were willing to recruit Xingba."

"However, Gan Xingba is not a coward, and he has a certain pride in his character. I am worried that a letter from me alone may not be enough to persuade him to surrender."

Su Fei and Gan Ning are close friends, so he naturally has the most say in Gan Ning.

Liu Bei looked worried and turned his gaze to Xiao He.

"Since ancient times, those with great talents have always been proud. A letter alone is not enough to persuade Gan Xingba to surrender."

Xiao He changed the subject and said with a smile:

"This letter from He was not actually intended to persuade Gan Xingba to surrender, but to persuade Lü Meng to abandon him."

Abandon him?

Su Fei was stunned, his eyes fell into confusion again.

Liu Bei raised his eyebrows slightly, and also failed to understand the mystery of Xiao He's words at the first time.

"If my guess is correct, then Military Advisor Bowen is actually planning to sow discord?"

Fa Zheng raised his eyebrows again and was the first to guess Xiao He's intention.

Xiao He looked appreciative, nodded and smiled:
"Then Xiaozhi, why don't you tell me how I plan to sow discord between us?"

Fa Zheng thought for a moment before saying:
"As far as I know, Gan Ning was originally a military commander in Jingzhou, and only later joined the Sun family."

"Gan Ning was an outsider to the Jiangdong generals, so there was a natural distance between him and them."

"I just heard that Gan Ning once shot and killed Ling Tong's father, Ling Cao. The two were nominally colleagues, but in reality, they were enemies and had clashed many times. Ling Tong even tried to kill Gan Ning while drunk."

"And now, coincidentally, Gan Ning and Ling Tong are both trapped in Chaisang City."

"With General Su's letter of surrender, Ling Tong, already filled with hostility towards Gan Ning, will surely exploit this opportunity to provoke further conflict."

"As for Lü Meng, he naturally trusts Ling Tong, a native of Jiangdong, more than Gan Ning. He will certainly be wary of Gan Ning and would not dare to use him to defend the city again."

"If this happens, Gan Ning and his elite Jinfan soldiers will lose their trust and become useless. Wouldn't it be easy for our army to attack Chaisang again?"

After the calculation, Fa Zheng bowed to Xiao He:

"Military Advisor Bowen, I wonder if my guess is right or not?"

Xiao He nodded slightly and exclaimed:

"You are indeed filial and straightforward. I can't hide anything from you."

Such praise naturally means that he approves of Fa Zheng's speculation.

"So this letter from Bowen actually has such a purpose!"

Liu Bei suddenly understood and couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

The subject changed, but a look of worry appeared on his face:

"But Ziyi is Gan Xingba's best friend. Knowing that this is a tactic to sow discord, yet you still ask Ziyi to write this letter of persuasion for surrender, it's a bit unreasonable."

When Su Fei heard what Liu Bei said, gratitude flashed across his eyes.

Gan Ning saved him from Sun Quan's sword.

During the Battle of Xiakou, he killed Pan Zhang and surrendered to Liu Bei. He knew that Gan Ning would inevitably be implicated, and he felt that he owed him something.

Now, knowing the truth, he wrote this letter of persuasion to surrender and deliberately plotted against Gan Ning, which naturally made him feel even more guilty.

As his lord, Liu Bei was able to understand his difficulties, so how could Su Fei not be grateful?

"I never said that I wanted you, Su Ziyi, to write a letter of persuasion to Gan Xingba." Xiao He smiled meaningfully.
"Ziyi, you only need to write a letter between old friends reminiscing about the past. There is no need to mention surrender at all."

Su Fei was stunned.

The eyes of everyone present were once again blank.

If the letter did not contain any words of persuasion to surrender, how could it arouse the suspicion of Lü Meng and Ling Tong, and how could it implement the strategy of sowing discord between them?

Although Su Fei didn't understand, he felt relieved and immediately wrote a letter.

The content of the letter was exactly as Xiao He said, just a greeting between friends, without any other words such as persuading surrender.

After Xiao He took the letter and examined it, he picked up a pen and crossed out several parts of it, then handed it to Liu Bei:
"My lord, please immediately shoot this letter from Su Ziyi into the city to Gan Xingba."

Liu Bei looked at the smudged letter with suspicion and confusion in his eyes. He had no idea what Xiao He's strange behavior meant.

Not only Liu Bei, Su Fei, Guan Yu, Huang Zhong and everyone else present were confused and bewildered.

Only Fa Zheng had a gleam in his eyes and a knowing smile on his face.

He raised his head and looked at Xiao He again, with a hint of admiration in his eyes.

"Then... then let's do as the military advisor says and quickly shoot this letter into Chaisang City!"

Although Liu Bei did not understand the deep meaning of Xiao He's actions, he knew that there must be a reason for Xiao He to do so.

Since Su Fei was not embarrassed, he did not ask any more questions and just did as Xiao He said.

A sharp arrow, wrapped with Su Fei's handwriting, shot into Chaisang City.

...

On the top of Chaisang City.

Lu Meng was staring at the Liu army camp outside the city, suspicion burning on his face.

"My plan is flawless, without a single flaw. How could it be discovered?"

"There are no gods or ghosts in this world. Most of them are just charlatans like Zhang Jiao who spread lies to deceive the public. There is no way Xiao He is a disciple of an immortal who has opened his clairvoyance."

"If that's the case, how could he possibly see through my plan?"

"Then how did my plan fail?"

Lu Meng muttered to himself, and the look of doubt on his face grew thicker and thicker.

Being surrounded in Chaisang at this time, he got a chance to breathe, and only then was he able to calm down and start thinking about the details of this disastrous defeat.

This thought is not a big deal, but the more I think about it, the more I feel something is wrong.

"General Lu, could it be that there is a traitor in my Jiangdong army who is secretly communicating with Liu Bei and has secretly leaked your strategy to that big-eared thief?"

Ling Tong, who was standing beside him, suddenly said this.

Lu Meng's body trembled, and his eyes, which were originally full of doubts, suddenly became clear as if the clouds had cleared and the moon was revealed.

"He's right. A spy, there must be a spy secretly communicating with Liu Bei, who leaked my plan, and not that Xiao He who was so clever that he saw through my plan!"

"Yes, it must be so!"

Lu Meng's thoughts came to light instantly, and he suddenly became energetic, with a bit of confidence rekindled on his face.

Then doubts appeared in his eyes again, and he frowned and said:

"Who could have secretly defected to Liu Bei and leaked our military secrets to him?"

Ling Tong's eyes darted around, and he said without hesitation:
"Is there any need to guess? It must be that Jinfan thief Gan Ning!"

"He's originally from Jingzhou. His good friend Su Fei defected to the Big Ear Bandit. It must have been that guy who secretly persuaded the Jinfan Bandit to defect to Liu Bei and revealed your plan, Governor!"

Reminded by his words, Lu Meng's heart suddenly trembled, and suspicion appeared in his eyes.

After a pause, Lu Meng shook his head slightly:

"Gan Xingba has always been a proud man. I don't think he's the kind of traitor who would betray his own people and secretly defect to Liu Bei."

Ling Tong snorted coldly and said disdainfully:
"If he wasn't a traitor, why would he have betrayed Huang Zu and defected to us in Jiangdong?"

"We Jiangdong people are all good men. How could we do such a shameless act of betraying our master and collaborating with the enemy? Who else but him, a Jingzhou native, could have leaked our military secrets to the big-eared thief?"

Lu Meng remained silent, with suspicion growing in his eyes.

At this time.

A man hurriedly climbed up the city wall and bowed to Ling Tongyi:

"General Gongji, our informants have sent back a secret report saying that the enemy army shot a letter through the South Gate guarded by General Gan. The letter was written by the enemy general Su Fei."

Lu Meng and Ling Tong were startled and their expressions suddenly changed.

At this critical moment when Chaisang was under siege, why did the rebel general Su Fei suddenly write a letter to Gan Ning?

What does that guy want to do?

What was written in that letter?
Lu Meng's eyes darted around, and the suspicion in his heart could no longer be suppressed.

"General Lu, this must be the correspondence between Gan Ning and Liu Bei. I'm afraid that the Jinfan thief is plotting to betray us and hand over Chaisang to the Big Eared thief!"

Ling Tong became furious and shouted excitedly and indignantly.

Lu Meng's brows furrowed, and after a moment's hesitation, he shouted:

"Come here, quickly bring Gan Ning to me!"

A quarter of an hour later, Gan Ning rushed over from the south gate and climbed up to the north gate tower.

At this time, he did not know that Ling Tong had placed spies around him, nor did he know that Lu Meng had already become suspicious of him. He just thought that he was summoned to discuss matters related to defending the city.

"Xingba, I heard, ahem..."

Lu Meng did not tear his face off, but was still thinking about how to find out whether Gan Ning had secretly communicated with Liu Bei without provoking him.

After all, it was all speculation and he had no solid evidence.

Ling Tong, standing by, lost his temper and shouted angrily:
"Gan Ning, you ungrateful, shameless traitor, how dare you betray your lord and our Jiangdong!"

(End of this chapter)