In the Three Kingdoms period, the opening scene features the killing of Huang Gai, shocking Zhou Yu!

A gust of wind blew by, and the two who had left Yang Song's residence quickly returned to the City God Temple.

Sun Shangxiang first touched the windowsill with her toes, then twisted her waist and nimbly flipped into the room.

Zhao Yu followed closely behind, gently pulling the window sash closed with his other hand.

I just stepped in and got into position.

Yang Xiu rubbed his hands together and led the remaining men to surround them.

"Brother Zhao, how is it?"

"Is Yang Song a hypocrite in private?"

"hypocrite?"

Sun Shangxiang spat on the ground with immense satisfaction.

"Pooh!"

"Calling him a hypocrite is giving him too much credit. Neither the Prime Minister nor my brother are as dashing as him."

Can you believe it?

That old man pretended to eat only bran and chaff a day in public, but secretly he directly adopted the same tactics Zhao Yu used in Yecheng.

He even upgraded his outfit, holding a Hu woman's hand with his left hand and a beautiful woman from Jiangnan with his right, watching his barefoot concubines dance inside the house! How dashing!

Upon hearing this, the people in the dilapidated temple immediately erupted in uproar.

The veterans, who had been chased away by civilians with brooms during the day, had tears welling up in their eyes:

Damn it!

We're risking our lives on the front lines and we don't even get this kind of treatment. This old charlatan, just by talking nonsense, is living so comfortably?

"That's nothing."

Zhao Yu walked to the fire, warmed himself by the fire, and told everyone about the old man eating canned beef and his plans to run away.

After hearing what Zhao Yu said, the anger in the dilapidated temple doubled.

"Shameless! How can there be such a shameless person in the world?"

Yang Xiu cursed and swore. He no longer cared about being a gentleman. If he tried to maintain his gentlemanly demeanor at this point, he would only anger himself to death.

"This corrupt official with such a long list of misdeeds, and tens of thousands of people outside actually worship him like a god? It's utterly foolish!"

"There's nothing we can do, they just fall for it."

"But since that's the case, let's wake them up in a way they can understand."

Zhao Yu withdrew his hands from the warm water and uttered two words to the crowd.

"Invite the gods."

"Invoking a deity? Didn't Young Master Ang already do that before?"

"There's no other way, this trick is just too effective. Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to go all out."

"Who is the highest deity they worship most in the Five Pecks of Rice sect? It is Laozi!"

As soon as it gets light, we'll go out and spread the word that Laozi will be personally visiting the square that night.

"Let's expose Yang Song completely in front of tens of thousands of people in the city!"

"However, there is still one problem, which is that there is no actor to play the role."

Zhao Yu turned his gaze to Yang Xiu, his meaning all too clear.

Yang Xiu was also taken aback.

Cao Ang's reputation soared after he played Thor.

Some of the unsuspecting soldiers worshipped Cao Ang as a living god, and his prestige in Hanzhong rivaled that of Cao Cao himself!

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to boost your reputation!

Not only can they show off like the best in this remote and impoverished place.

If the story of Yang Dezu's bloodless capture of Chenggu County by transforming into Laozi after the deed is successfully reported back to Yecheng, it will definitely be written into the stories of storytellers and become a legend for generations to come!

Having considered this, Yang Xiu naturally could not refuse.

With an incredibly smooth sliding tackle, he rushed in front of Zhao Yu, without kneeling down—a tactic not popular in the Three Kingdoms period.

"Brother Zhao (in a roundabout way) (Godfather)!! Is this really true?"

Zhao Yu got goosebumps all over his body from the roundabout sound.

He barely suppressed the urge to kick Yang Xiu away.

"Guaranteed authentic! Not only authentic, but also the absolute lead actor—the only one in the entire production! We'll provide you with the best script and the ultimate experience!"

Yang Xiu was even happier upon hearing this.

I wrote the text myself!

Those country bumpkins can't understand the Tao Te Ching, so I'll write them a simplified, "dimension-reducing" version!

They'll be completely fooled!

Having secured the male lead, Zhao Yu began preparations for the "production crew."

Creating a god requires not only words, but also physical cheat codes.

"Tomorrow morning, I'll set off on my own to the pharmacy to buy realgar and saltpeter, and also find some scrap colored mineral powder! I'm going to set up colored smoke bombs around the square!"

"And Sun Dazhuang!"

Sun Shangxiang, who had thought it was none of her business, immediately straightened her back upon hearing Zhao Yu's call:

"Yes, boss! Do you want me to go chop someone up?"

"Who are you going to chop? You're the strongest, so you're in charge of the most important job in this scene—the rope directing."

"Rope? Pshaw..."

Sun Shangxiang pouted, her face clearly showing her displeasure, but she still came closer.

The so-called rope command requires extremely rigorous mechanics and camouflage techniques; not the slightest mistake can be made.

Yang Xiu's outer Taoist robe was a disguise, mainly yellow, so he used hemp rope of the same color.

Also, how do you tie a hemp rope?

Zhao Yu wouldn't be foolish enough to just tie a rope around Yang Xiu's waist.

The rope can't be tied outside either, otherwise, if someone is floating in mid-air, they can see the rope as soon as they look up, and the deception will be exposed on the spot.

The correct way to tie it is to use several cowhide ropes to first create a "mountain climbing safety harness" that distributes the force evenly for Yang Xiu. The harness should be tied tightly against Yang Xiu's inner clothes, with the ropes extending out, and then the Taoist robe should be put on.

With Zhao Yu's smoke grenades providing cover, it was a perfect cover, and that was it.

……

The next day, just as dawn was breaking...

Zhao Yu and the other veterans of the "She Niu" disguised themselves and changed into the most inconspicuous clothes.

They were scattered around various charitable homes, wells, and outhouses in Chenggu County.

"Oh, sir, have you heard? The Celestial Venerable appeared to you in a dream last night!"

"The Celestial Venerable says that a great demon has emerged in our Chenggu County, deceiving Heaven and Earth, extorting money from the people, and angering the Heavenly Court! Tonight at midnight, the Supreme Lord Laozi will personally descend to the mortal realm to cleanse this place in the county government square!"

"What, you don't believe me?"

"You have no idea, you have no idea! My eighty-year-old leg, which was suffering from rheumatism, was cured last night when I was strolling around the square and was struck by a golden light from the sky. Now I can walk and jump again, absolutely genuine..."

At first, only a few villagers who got up early to fetch water listened with some skepticism.

But the news spread too quickly, and by noon it was already the talk of the town.

But the news spread too quickly, from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred, and by noon, it was the talk of the town.

Even the ghost soldiers under Yang Song's command were gossiping privately; they knew immediately that someone was plotting against Yang Song.

To be honest, Yang Song's most direct interaction with them was money.

There are also some who genuinely want to maintain the status quo and have long been dissatisfied with Yang Song's extravagance. The common people may not know, but how could the ghost clan not know?

So they simply embellished the story and spread it.

By the afternoon, even farmers from the surrounding villages and towns outside the city carried their hoes into the city (Xiahou Dun deliberately let them in) just to wait for the day when Laozi would appear.

The news naturally reached Yang Song's ears as well.

Yang Song didn't take it seriously at first, and even kicked out the trusted ghost soldier who came to deliver the message, cursing him for talking nonsense.

It wasn't until four or five groups of people came to report that they realized how dangerous the situation was.

At such a dangerous moment, the slightest disturbance could shatter his lifelong dream of a life of luxury.

Feeling guilty, he didn't even bother to drink the freshly warmed wine from the Western Regions, and forced himself to get up from the soft couch.

He decided to personally take action—to convene a "Faith Recharge Conference" that evening, which is essentially a "crisis management" event in the modern sense, in order to counteract the Heavenly Emperor's temptations.