Wei Xiaobao's Three Kingdoms Adventure

Chapter 133: Formal Fight with Cao Cao

Yuan Shao mobilized the forces of four states to attack Cao Cao, but was driven back to Nanpi by Cao Cao. If Liu Bei had not attacked Cao Cao's rear, even Nanpi would have been destroyed by Cao Cao.

After returning to Nanpi, Yuan Shao became angry and died of depression soon after, leaving a mess for his sons.

Feng Ji, Guo Tu and others falsely claimed that Yuan Shao's will appointed his youngest son Yuan Shang as his heir, which aroused the dissatisfaction of Yuan Shao's eldest son Yuan Tan.

Taking advantage of the fact that Cao Cao had divided his troops in Yanzhou to defend Liu Bei, Yuan Tan intended to join forces with Cao Cao to attack Nanpi from the east and west sides.

Guo Jia suggested to Cao Cao that he could take advantage of the discord between the Yuan brothers and let them kill each other, so that Cao Cao could reap the benefits. This plan was also Guo Jia's last contribution to Cao Cao. Not long after, Guo Jia died of illness in Chenliu.

Wei Xiaobao learned from the information he obtained from Liu Ye that Guo Jia had passed away. Despite being stopped by Liu Bei and others, he insisted on going to Chenliu to pay his respects.

Cao Cao also went to Chenliu to personally bear Guo Jia's coffin. Upon learning that Wei Xiaobao had already arrived outside the city, he went to the city gate and cursed him: "Wei Xiaobao, I treated you like a brother and honored you like a distinguished guest, yet you colluded with Liu Bei to seize the cities of Xu, Yu, and Yang, and even took advantage of my Northern Expedition to attack Xudu. Fengxiao always treated you with respect, but in the end, because of your betrayal, he died of depression. Now you have the nerve to come to Chenliu to pay your respects!"

After cursing, Cao Cao ordered the archers on the city gate to shoot without waiting for Wei Xiaobao to reply.

Wei Xiaobao only brought Diao Chan, Shuang'er and Mu Jianping with him when he came to Chenliu. Seeing this situation, he could only retreat.

After hiding in a safe place, Wei Xiaobao shouted to Cao Cao at the city gate: "I have always been on Liu Xie's side. How can I say betrayal? Guo Jia died because he was willing to sacrifice his life to help you conquer the world! I came to Chenliu to pay my respects because of our friendship. Open the door and let me in. I will kowtow and burn incense and then leave!"

Cao Cao said, "Wei Xiaobao, if it weren't for our old friendship, I would have tricked you into coming here and killed you long ago. You're not worthy of kowtow and burn incense to Fengxiao. Leave now before I regret it!"

Wei Xiaobao knew that he could no longer enter Chenliu City, so he had no choice but to dismount, kneel on the ground and kowtow three times towards Chenliu City.

Cao Cao knew that Wei Xiaobao and Guo Jia had a deep bond, but if he let him into the city, even if he didn't do anything, Xun Yu, Xiahou Dun, and the others would never let Wei Xiaobao leave Chenliu alive. Seeing him kneeling on the ground and kowtowing, he couldn't help but feel emotional, and his eyes moistened.

After Wei Xiaobao rode away, Cao Cao sighed and said, "After this farewell, our friendship is severed. If we meet again, we will be enemies for life and death."

When Zhuge Liang learned that Cao Cao had divided his troops in Yanzhou, he gave up the idea of ​​attacking Yanzhou and instead sent people to win over Yuan Tan. He planned to use Qingzhou as his base, send navy to control the river, cut off the connection between Cao Cao's army in Jizhou and Yanzhou, and then plan to destroy the isolated army in Yanzhou.

Cao Cao followed Guo Jia's instructions and agreed to Yuan Tan's request for an alliance. He not only sent food, fodder, and weapons to Yuan Tan, but also took the initiative to send troops to contain Yuan Shang in Nanpi.

Neither Sun Qian nor Jian Yong, the two envoys sent by Zhuge Liang, were able to persuade Yuan Tan to abandon his alliance with Cao Cao and ally with Liu Bei.

In desperation, Zhuge Liang had to send heavy troops to defend Xuzhou.

In the northwest, Ma Teng and Guo Si had also formed an alliance and were preparing to attack Xuchang.

Liu Biao once again chose to wait and see, neither joining Cao Cao's army to support the king nor joining Liu Bei's camp.

Zhuge Liang took full advantage of Liu Biao's wait-and-see attitude and ordered Liu Ye to go to Jingzhou to spread rumors that Zhang Lu was preparing to attack Jingzhou under the pretext of defending the king.

As expected, Liu Biao fell into the trap and sent Wen Pin, Huang Zhong and Wei Yan to Shangyong to stop Zhang Lu.

At the same time, Zhuge Liang planned to capture Wancheng, which was guarded by Cao Ren, before the arrival of the Northwest Allied Forces, to divert the fighting away from Xuchang and ensure the safety of Kyoto. Wancheng was exactly what Wei Xiaobao was most concerned about, so he volunteered to follow Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun to lead the troops into battle.

Cao Ren had already built a large number of arrow towers outside Wancheng, taking a defensive stance, ready to wait for the arrival of the Northwest Allied Forces before fighting with Zhang Fei and others.

The arrow towers were arranged in groups of three or two to form a corner. Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun attacked them several times but failed.

The Northwest Allied Forces have already left Chang'an and will reach Wancheng in half a month.

One day, Zhang Fei was drinking alone in his tent. Seeing Wei Xiaobao enter, he pulled him aside and said, "Come, drink with me, Third Brother!"

Wei Xiaobao was worried, fearing that the Northwestern Allied Forces might enter Wancheng and join Cao Ren at any time. After sitting down, he refused to drink and instead advised Zhang Fei: "Third brother, it's already this late and you're still only thinking about drinking."

Zhang Fei was also depressed. "That arrow tower formation is weird. A brute force attack will only lead to wasted manpower. We are at a disadvantage, so a fire attack will be useless. If I had known this, I should have asked the military advisor to come with us. Maybe he would have already thought of a way to defeat the enemy."

Zhao Yun came back from the front line and heard the conversation between the two as soon as he entered the tent.

Zhao Yun asked, "Yide, how much wine is left in the army?"

Zhang Fei was puzzled: "You don't usually drink much, why are you suddenly interested in me?"

After Zhao Yun sat down, he took out a piece of silk from his bosom, spread it out on the table, pointed at the red dot on it and said, "I have thought of a way to defeat the enemy, but I need your wine."

Zhang Fei said excitedly, "As long as you can capture Wancheng, I will give you all my wine."

Zhao Yun continued, "These towers are adjacent to each other and connected by covered bridges. A fire attack would be the best strategy. However, we are located in the east, and the wind is blowing from Wancheng. Even if we can set fire to one or two of the towers to the east, it will be useless. If we can set fire to them from the west, just setting one tower ablaze will completely consume the entire area."

Wei Xiaobao said, "We tried to set fire to the tower the other day, but we were shot like hedgehogs before we even got close to the tower. The group of soldiers I led fled back without even lighting a single tower on fire. If we want to set fire from the west, Cao Ren will have to get drunk and burn down his own tower."

Zhao Yun laughed heartily. "I don't know if Cao Ren will be drunk, but these soldiers will definitely be. It's freezing cold, and the archers up there are high up. We've been harassing them for days, so they must be cold and tired. If we can get some wine there, I guarantee they'll all be rushing to drink to keep warm."

Zhang Fei asked, "How do we deliver the wine?"

When Zhao Yun told them the plan, Wei Xiaobao and Zhang Fei praised it in unison.

On the second day, Zhang Fei led his troops to retreat more than ten miles and ambushed in a forest.

For three consecutive days, Zhang Fei did not allow the soldiers to cook and only allowed them to eat cold food to fill their stomachs.

When the soldiers on the watchtower relaxed their vigilance, Zhao Yun and Wei Xiaobao led a group of soldiers, disguised as farmers, and emerged from the forest pushing more than ten carts. The large wine vats on each cart were filled with wine, and the wheels had left ruts on the ground.

(End of this chapter)