Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 361 The Difficulty of Solving the Open Situation
Thick smoke billowed up from the valley, turning half the sky black.

The drumbeats and shouts were already coming, and the footsteps and noise were quite clear.

On the other side, the sound of bugles could be faintly heard from Tugu County. Each county in Qingzhou had official garrisons, which were equivalent to stationing troops in each county post. After seeing the beacon fire, the defense response speed was ridiculously fast.

Le Jin led his troops and turned towards the smelting site.

Instead of acting impulsively, he displayed his flag upside down, tied a long white banner to the butt of his gun, held the gun upside down, and personally led the charge with the banner in the lead.

Flipping flags backwards and raising long banners are all ways to signify "no war" and to communicate; battlefield envoys usually do this.

But when they reached the vicinity of the smelting site, the soldiers who came towards them were extremely arrogant. They completely ignored the long banner that Yue Jin had raised and shot crossbow bolts from more than a hundred paces away.

The enemy was few in number, but their crossbow bolts were quite accurate. After one volley, several of Yue Jin's men fell.

Le Jin ducked to avoid the attack, had his men fetch shields to protect his head and face, and shouted at the other side, "Stop! Someone in charge, come and talk to me!"

He was still thinking about purchasing grain. Cao Cao's side had run out of food, and no matter how much he suffered here, bringing the grain back was his main task.

However, a voice came from afar: "Hold them back, don't let the thieves escape!"

Le Jin recognized the voice clearly; it was the fat man's voice.

Looking up, Le Jin could vaguely see the slightly chubby figure behind the opposing troops.

Even from a distance, it was still vaguely visible that the man was wearing a full suit of armor, with white feathers on his helmet.

Le Jin shouted hoarsely, "You villains have framed me! Dare to speak out!"

"Le Jin! You've robbed the government granaries, committed murder and arson! Surrender now!"

The fat man's voice came again, but it sounded even more distant.

This guy is going to run away.

Le Jin's heart sank...

The other party had planned this all along, intending to lure me here.

Yesterday, Guo Jia was sent to the camp to weigh and exchange the money, but only about eighty carts were exchanged.

Guo Jia must have already led the money brokers to the camp, but the carts and horses carrying the money and the retainers have already left the camp and come here, which means that Guo Jia has been stood up.

If everything is normal, then it's fine. If we can get more money in return, then we'll do it. Even if Guo Jia investigates, he'll hold the fat man responsible. Le Jin and Cheng Yu haven't done anything wrong. Anyway, it doesn't matter who we exchange with.

But in this situation, with the smelter burned down, and this fat man saying that Le Jin robbed and set fire, what will Guo Jia think?
Last night, Le Jin and Cheng Yu went to see Zhang Fei, but Zhang Fei said he couldn't help them either—Zhang Fei knew that the two were dissatisfied because they hadn't exchanged enough large sums of money.

This makes it even harder to explain...

Zhang Fei had no idea that Le Jin was coming here to exchange things privately; instead, he would think that Le Jin was harboring resentment and acting impulsively.

Can you explain why I didn't kill anyone or resist?

If he doesn't resist, the other side won't hold back... They'll fire crossbow bolts as soon as they see him, clearly intending to kill him outright.

The reason they didn't confront him directly at the smelting site was twofold: first, they were worried they couldn't defeat the convoy he brought; second, they wanted to wait until he left so they could set up the scene and solidify the charges... After all, over 20 million coins had already been loaded into Le Jin's convoy.

We must catch that fat guy... otherwise it will be hard to explain.

"...Charge! Capture the one wearing the feathered helmet...alive!"

Le Jin yanked off the long banner from the handle of his spear, spurred his horse, spear in hand, and charged toward the fat man with his entourage.

Le Jin led his elite troops, while the opposing crossbowmen numbered only about a hundred. Although almost all of them were armed with crossbows, they still couldn't stop Le Jin's fierce attack.

Armor cannot stop crossbow bolts at close range, but Le Jin disregarded the casualties of his troops and charged towards the crossbowmen with his shield.

This cost the lives of dozens of comrades, and in return, created an equal number of corpses for the enemy.

……

Cheng Yu was driving the carriage northward at breakneck speed.

Le Jin wanted to capture the mastermind, which was one possible solution, but Cheng Yu still planned to find Guo Jia or Zhang Fei as soon as possible to try and clarify things first. When they arrived, Le Jin led the transport team, while Cheng Yu led the elite troops.

Now, Cheng Yu is leading the transport team.

Cheng Yu himself, accompanied by his entourage, drove at breakneck speed at the front, while the transport trucks behind him were dragged far behind, forming a long line.

But after running for only a mile, at the northern hilly pass, a group of people who looked like militiamen appeared on the road leading to Dongpingling.

The leader was a skinny man with a greasy face.

If Yue Jin were here, he would definitely recognize that this lean fellow was the one who struck up a conversation with him outside the money shop; he was the fat man's subordinate.

To reach Dongpingling, the carriage had to take the official road. This place was a mountain pass with mounds on both sides, and the official road in the middle, which was only one and a half feet wide, was only wide enough for carriages and horses to pass through.

Many sections of the road in the Tugu area are like this. The hills in this area are relatively gentle, and people can easily climb the hills, but supply vehicles cannot. At these intersections, there is only enough room for two vehicles to pass each other.

At this moment, the group of militiamen had blocked the passage with crossbows.

Clearly, the other side deliberately waited until Le Jin left the smelting site with his carriages before causing trouble, not only to set up the scene but also to temporarily block the intersection.

Upon seeing Cheng Yu, the 'militia' also raised their crossbows and fired.

Cheng Yu was not hit by an arrow, but the horse pulling the carriage was shot dead on the spot, and the attendant driving the carriage was also hit by an arrow.

The loyal and brave attendant tackled Cheng Yu off the carriage, and then he was hit by two crossbow bolts.

The carriages behind caught up, but they couldn't get through.

Cheng Yu quickly ran backwards, using the carriage as cover to organize a defense, and also raised a white banner.

This matter requires communication and clarifying the facts; Cheng Yu does not want to fight.

However, if we don't want to fall into this trap, everyone needs to exercise restraint.

Cheng Yu had a personal guard of about thirty men who planned to go over to negotiate while carrying a white banner, but they were shot back as soon as they showed their faces.

The enemy kept firing arrows to suppress Cheng Yu, giving him no chance to communicate at all.

The majority of people in the caravan were laborers. The carriages did have knives and guns for self-defense, but there was neither armor nor ranged weapons. The laborers hid under the carriages and dared not show their faces.

However, the convoys that lined up in long queues on the official road could not form a proper formation.

A chariot formation is meaningless if it lacks sufficient crossbows for a counterattack.

Many laborers were shot to death in the chaos, and two of Cheng Yu's guards also died, one of whom was Cheng Yu's distant nephew.

"Everyone assemble at the rear... dismantle the truck bed to make shields! Scatter up the mounds, then charge together... surround and kill these thieves!"

In this situation, no matter how much Cheng Yu didn't want to fight, he had no choice but to clear the way with force.

He ordered his followers to disperse, each leading a group of laborers, dismantling the wagons and carrying the wagons up the hills to surround the enemy.

The laborers had limited combat capabilities, but Cheng Yu's personal guards were quite skilled, and since these laborers were originally recruited by Cheng Yu, they were relatively obedient.

After all, there weren't many people blocking the road, and they looked like just militiamen, the only difference between them and laborers being that they were carrying crossbows.

Cheng Yu didn't care about the casualties among the laborers; he only wanted to save his own life and see Guo Jia as soon as possible.

Although Guo Jia is annoying when it comes to exchanging large sums of money, at least he is a reasonable person who can consider the overall situation.

Cheng Yu knew the consequences... If he couldn't quickly meet with and persuade Guo Jia, then this matter would be a loss regardless of victory or defeat, and could very likely lead to a breakdown in the relationship between Cao Cao and Liu Bei.

If not handled properly, it could even endanger the lives of Cao Song and Cao Ang.

This is a clear situation, but it's difficult to solve.

But in any case, the first priority now is to save my own life.

(End of this chapter)