Liu Bian at the start, so you're called Dong Zhuo, right?

Those men moved slowly and deliberately, seemingly confident that they had Liu Bian and his group under control.

Liu Bian remained calm.

Just kidding, if the people around him can't protect him, then all his planning has been for nothing.

He looked at Cao Cao, seeing no sign of panic in the other's eyes, and slowly exhaled before speaking:

"Mengde, are you confident?"

Before Cao Cao could reply, Xiahou Dun smiled and said, "My lord, if we can't even secure these few melons and dates, we brothers will go back and resign."

Cao Cao smiled too, his eyes showing no sign of the tension of being surrounded. He picked up the bamboo staff and tapped the ground with the end of it, as if testing its strength.

"Young master," he even took the opportunity to educate Liu Bian, "the worst thing in the marketplace is not a large crowd, but a large crowd that doesn't know any rules."

Before he could finish speaking, the tall, thin man in front of him gave a signal, and several burly men approached at once. Sticks were held horizontally, ropes hung down, and their steps were unhurried, deliberately squeezing through the most chaotic gaps in the crowd.

"Don't let him make a sound," the bearded man at the front ordered in a low voice. "I'll restrain the younger one first, and if the others cause trouble, tie them up first."

Those men clearly thought Liu Bian was too young to be easily dragged away.

But they were wrong.

Those men hadn't even reached Liu Bian and the others yet, and their hands hadn't even been raised.

Cao Cao's bamboo cane was extended first. With a light flick and a gentle touch, the tip of the cane gently touched the inside of the opponent's wrist bone, like a snake's tongue licking. The bearded man felt a numbness in his arm, his fingers involuntarily loosened, and the hemp rope fell to the ground.

"Ouch!" he cursed, and was about to lunge again when the bamboo cane swept across him, striking the outside of his knee. The force was not great, but it was enough to make his legs buckle and he fell to his knees with a thud.

The moment he knelt down, the expressions on the faces of the people behind him changed instantly.

Tough stubble.

The group exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and pounced on the attack again.

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Cao Cao, however, seemed to have anticipated this, and whispered:

"Dun, on the left; Yuan, on the right; Ren Shou Gongzi; Hong and Chun, at the rear."

Xiahou Dun chuckled, his entire body surging forward like an ox charging into a crowd. He didn't draw his sword, but simply thrust forward with his arms and shoulders.

"Get out of the way!"

His shout startled several people nearby. Two men wielding sticks, who had intended to flank him from the left, were knocked over by his shove and bump, causing them to smash the nearby stalls and shatter the earthenware pots on the ground.

Before he could even raise the stick, Xiahou Dun had already grabbed one of the men by the collar and flung him aside—the man fell into his companion's arms, and the two rolled around in a heap.

"Don't hit his face, lest you frighten the young master," Xiahou Dun added with a smile.

On the right, Xiahou Yuan is faster.

He moved with the lightness of a cat, his figure flashing as he closed in on a man carrying a rope. The man's eyes hardened, and he jerked the rope forward, intending to strike Liu Bian before Xiahou Yuan could reach him. Xiahou Yuan grabbed the man's wrist, twisted it, and with a flick of his wrist—

The rope fell to the ground with a "thud".

The other man winced in pain and was about to raise his knee to strike when Xiahou Yuan took a half step back and stepped on the other man's instep. With a gentle press, the other man lost his balance and staggered backward, crashing into another accomplice.

The two of them crashed into the crowd, which ironically created a gap in the encirclement.

The lean man in the distance narrowed his eyes, waved his hands to both sides unwillingly, and four more men walked out of the alley.

Cao Ren remained motionless.

He stood half a step to Liu Bian's side, like a wall. If someone tried to squeeze through the crowd, he would simply sidestep slightly to block the gap; if someone reached out to grab Liu Bian's sleeve, he would raise his wrist to block it. The movements were extremely short, but each strike hit the person in their most vulnerable spot—the wrist, fingers, or the inside of the elbow.

Cao Hong and Cao Chun were positioned at the rear.

One is daring, the other is steady.

Seeing that someone was trying to rush in from behind, Cao Hong grabbed a wooden pole that the stall owner was using to support the stall. He swung it horizontally forward, and the pole shattered with a crack, sending the two people flying.

Cao Chun didn't chase after anyone, but kept his eyes fixed on the tall, thin man. Every time the man took a step, Cao Chun would take a step as well, always blocking the man's path to escape, his eyes like nails, making the man feel uneasy.

In just a few breaths, those burly men had been torn to pieces.

They originally relied on their numbers. But once they encountered someone who truly knew the ropes, their numbers became their weakness – their companions blocked each other's way, they couldn't use their sticks effectively, and they couldn't swing their ropes with force.

The tall, thin man's expression finally changed.

He never expected that these "trading merchants" would be from a military background, and he never expected that a young man could have such guards by his side.

He gritted his teeth, raised his hand and reached into his sleeve, as if to pull out something—not a knife, but something like lime powder or some other underhanded trick.

Cao Chun raised an eyebrow, picked up a stone from the ground with his toe, and kicked it forward. The stone hit the man's wrist squarely.

The man winced in pain, his grip loosened, and the clump of something slipped out of his sleeve and fell to the ground—it was a small packet of grayish-white powder.

The surrounding vendors had already heard the commotion, and when they looked over and saw what it was, they immediately erupted in chaos:

"Lime powder!"

"These people are kidnappers!"

"Quickly summon the market official!"

In the marketplace, petty theft is often ignored; but kidnapping and drug trafficking are deadly offenses. The moment someone shouts, bystanders immediately back away, creating a safe space that only makes the group more conspicuous.

The tall, thin man's heart sank, and he turned to run, but Cao Chun kicked another pebble, which hit him squarely in the back, and the man was knocked to the ground by the force.

Taking advantage of the situation, Cao Hong stepped forward and kicked him on the outside of his shin—not hard, but enough to keep him lying on the ground for a while.

At the same moment, Xiahou Dun also captured someone—not by tying them up, but by pressing them against the stall, twisting their arms behind their backs, causing the person to roll their eyes in pain but unable to make a sound.

Xiahou Yuan, like a fisherman pulling in his net, also pinned down the second man holding the rope, pressing his knee lightly against the man's lower back, rendering him unable to move.

Seeing that things were not going well, the remaining two threw down their sticks and tried to escape into the crowd.

Cao Cao threw his bamboo staff and slammed it to the ground.

With a "thud," the tip of the cane became lodged in a crack in a stone slab half an inch in front of the man's feet, startling him so much that he almost fell over.

Xiahou Dun stepped forward, a wicked smile on his face: "Why are you running? Weren't you going to tie me up? Come on, tie me up."

The man turned pale with fright, his legs went weak, and he actually knelt down.

The situation is now settled.

Cao Cao sheathed his bamboo cane, slowly walked to the tall, thin man, bent down to pick up the packet of powder, weighed it in his hand, and spoke as if appraising a piece of goods:

"Your powder is unevenly mixed; it'll make your eyes sticky if it gets in. It might hurt, but it won't kill you. You're an expert, but not ruthless enough."

The tall, thin man gritted his teeth: "I don't care who you are, offending us is courting death!"

Cao Cao didn't speak, but turned his head to look at Liu Bian.

Liu Bian stood a step behind Cao Ren, his short brown sleeves slightly ruffled from being jostled, but his gaze remained steady. He took half a step forward, like a frightened but defiant shopkeeper, but his tone was clear: "I'm in business."

"But what I hate most is treating people like commodities."

He pointed to the hemp rope and powder bag on the ground:

"Put these things away safely. Then take these people—along with the escort—to the city government."

"I want to see," he said softly, but his voice was like a nail falling from a tree, "whose rules are these in Luoyang?"

Cao Cao cupped his hands in greeting, a hint of a smile flashing in his eyes: "Yes, sir."

Just then, the faint sounds of shouts and footsteps of city officials could be heard in the distance.