The Three Kingdoms: The Oath of the Peach Garden, the Rise of the Han Dynasty

The issues between the two parties were resolved quickly.

"King Wei, sir! We must leave quickly! The Han army is about to reach the gates!"

The guards were so anxious they were trembling all over.

Shen Pei shook his head, his expression gradually calming down, leaving only a deathly silence.

He walked to the front of the hall, faced the direction of Yuan Shao's memorial tablet, slowly knelt down, and bowed three times.

The thought of being captured by Zhang Fei made him feel even more ashamed to face Yuan Shao!

"The late king, Shen Pei was incompetent and failed to protect even an inch of land in Hebei."

Today, I will follow the late king.

After bowing, he stood up and drew the sword from his waist.

"Sir! You mustn't!" Yuan Shang hurriedly tried to stop him, but Shen Pei pushed him away.

"Third Young Master, surrender. Xuande is benevolent and will not harm you."

"I am merely unworthy, a disgrace to the late king, and a failure before the prince!"

After Shen Pei finished speaking, he faced south and dared not look at Yuan Shao's memorial tablet again.

With a swift stroke of his sword across her neck, the bodyguard, tears streaming down his face, delivered the final blow to spare Shen Pei the agony of death!

Blood splattered on the pillars in front of the hall, a horrifying sight.

In this life, he died facing south!

"gentlemen!!"

Yuan Shang collapsed to the ground, his face pale with fright.

Just then, the hall door was kicked open with a loud bang.

Zhang Fei strode in carrying his spear, but paused upon seeing the scene inside the hall.

Shen Pei's body lay stiffly in a pool of blood, his face still bearing a stubborn, defiant air.

Zhang Fei looked at him and remained silent for a moment:

"This Mr. Shen is quite a tough guy."

"Guards, give him a proper burial!"

As dawn broke, the shouts of battle in Ye City gradually subsided.

Song Xian and Gao Shun divided their troops to guard the city gates, while Lü Bu led his men to search for and capture the remaining soldiers.

The bodies on the street were dragged away, the bloodstains were covered with sand, and every house was closed, waiting for a new owner.

"General Zhang, one escaped! Yuan Tan fled overnight!"

A deputy will come to report.

Before long, Lü Bu brought in two men and threw them on the ground. "Gao Gan was leading Yuan Tan to run towards the north gate, but I caught up with them and brought them back."

Yuan Tan lay on the ground, his hair disheveled and his face smeared with blood; he no longer resembled a young master at all.

The high-ranking official was tied up behind him, his head bowed and he remained silent.

Zhang Fei glanced at it and waved his hand: "Lock him up first, and wait for your elder brother's decision."

……

In Jizhou, Anping County, the steam from the porridge stalls, carrying the aroma of wheat, wafted for half a mile.

Liu Bei, dressed in a slightly worn brocade robe, was squatting by the soup kitchen, serving soup to the fleeing people.

Jizhou had just suffered a severe drought and was also hit by war, with refugees everywhere. He brought grain and supplies all the way north, opening granaries along the way to distribute food, pacifying counties and prefectures, and arranging for the digging of ditches, the reconstruction of houses, and so on.

I've been staying up for several nights in a row.

"My lord! Urgent report from Ye City!"

The guards rode swiftly from the south, dismounted, and clutched a dusty military report in their hands, clearly very anxious.

Liu Bei paused, his heart sinking.

Before he left, his biggest worry was Yecheng.

Zhang Fei was hot-tempered and Zhang Fei was ambitious. If these two generals got together without a reliable person to keep them in check, something bad was bound to happen sooner or later!

Could it be that there was a real internal conflict, and Shen Pei seized the opportunity to defeat them?

He quickly took the military report, his heart pounding even faster!

He unfolded the military report and quickly scanned it.

The opening lines read, "Zhang Fei and Lü Bu, the two generals, fell out and argued for days," and "Shen Pei launched a night raid on the city."

Seeing this made his brows furrow and his heart leap into his throat!

Just as I thought!

But as you continue reading, the style suddenly changes!

"Zhang Fei offered a plan, and the two generals lured the enemy into an ambush, annihilating more than 10,000 enemy soldiers." "Song Xian tricked the enemy at the gate, and Gao Shun broke through the city." "Shen Pei committed suicide, the two Yuan brothers were captured, and Ye City was secured!"

Liu Bei stared at the words, his eyes even wider than Zhang Fei's, and didn't move for a long time.

The guards beside him were so frightened that they whispered, "My lord?"

Liu Bei suddenly looked up, his face full of disbelief. He rubbed his eyes, then brought the military report close to his eyes and read it over and over again three times.

"...Have you taken Ye City?"

"Yes...yes, my lord, General Zhang offered a plan, and together with General Lü, we captured Ye City!"

Liu Bei straightened up, shook his head. He had stayed up half the night to provide disaster relief, and his head was buzzing.

"Impossible... I must not be fully awake."

As he spoke, he turned and walked toward the temporary government office, muttering, "No, no, I need to sleep a little longer and wake up before I look at it."

The officials and common people were left looking at each other in bewilderment.

Half an hour passed before Liu Bei emerged from the inner room, his hair still a little disheveled, clutching the military report in his hand.

He sat on the threshold, gazing south towards Ye City, and sighed after a long while.

"It's actually true..."

His third brother actually used a "self-inflicted injury" ruse to gain entry to the city gates and even outmaneuvered Shen Pei?!

"This kid, he's actually learned to be cunning." Liu Bei couldn't help but laugh out loud, but then his laughter subsided.

In just half an hour, he accepted Zhang Fei's plan to capture Ye City.

"Shen Zhengnan... is also a loyal subject."

Hebei is a land teeming with righteous men.

"promise!"

Liu Bei immediately wrote letters praising Zhang Fei, Lü Bu, and others.

The gist is: Zhang Fei was very wise, and Lü Bu was incredibly awesome!

The commendation orders were quickly drafted and sent to Yecheng by fast horse.

……

Meanwhile, at this time, the Han army camp was located on the banks of the Yellow River.

Li Chang, Jia Xu, and Cheng Yu stood on the riverbank, gazing south towards Yanzhou, their brows furrowed.

"That's strange." Cheng Yu stroked his beard, utterly puzzled.

"In the past few days, people from Yanzhou have been fleeing north in droves, heading towards our Jizhou territory."

When asked, everyone says there's a disaster and high grain prices in the south. But even if Yanzhou has a poor harvest, why would they need to run to the war-torn Jizhou?

Jia Xu squinted, gazing at the families of refugees dragging their belongings along the distant official road, and stroked his beard, saying:

"Yeah, that's really strange!"

If they were to flee famine, they should head south to Jingzhou or Yangzhou, where disasters are less severe. Coming here would be like running into a battlefield.

There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

That's so strange!

Just then, a fast horse came galloping from the south; it was a scout sent to Yanzhou to gather information.

"Report! Grand Commander, Military Advisor! Something terrible has happened in the south of Yanzhou!"

A great plague broke out in Yuan Shu's army camp!

The soldiers were vomiting and having diarrhea, with persistent high fevers. Hundreds were dying every day, and the camp was almost overwhelmed with burials!

"The word spread among the people that Yuan Shu had usurped the title of emperor and had been punished by heaven, and that his soldiers had all suffered retribution!"

Panic gripped Yuan Shu's camp; desertions grew daily, and local people, fearing the spread of plague, fled north in droves.

The three of them exchanged a glance, and each saw surprise in the other's eyes!

"Plague?" Cheng Yu frowned. "Why is there a plague all of a sudden?"

Jia Xu shook his head in confusion: "I don't know! It's so strange! It's like fate is on our side!"

The two of them looked at Li Chang at the same time.

"Um?"

Upon hearing this, Li Chang immediately said:

"This is a natural disaster, but even more so, a man-made one!"

"By usurping the throne, he incurred the wrath of Heaven and the resentment of the people. Yuan Shu brought this upon himself."

"Heaven's sins may be avoided, but self-inflicted sins cannot be escaped."