The Three Kingdoms: Home Travel

The cool night breeze sent a slight chill through his face, but Yuan Shu's heart burned with excitement. Gazing at the approaching south gate of Xuchang, the gains and losses in Yuan Shu's mind were difficult to articulate.

"Squeak..." The city gate opened, and Yuan Shu was overjoyed. A man hurriedly walked out. Yuan Shu recognized him as Liu Ai, the emperor's uncle and the head of the Imperial Clan Court!

"Lord Yuan!" Liu Ai exclaimed anxiously, "Why are you so late, sir?"

As his troops surged into Xuchang, Yuan Shu seized the opportunity to dismount, clasp his hands in greeting, and asked, "Lord Liu, what is the situation in the city?"

"Oh dear!" Liu Ai exclaimed anxiously, "Right now, we are locked in a stalemate with those treacherous officials like Xun Yu and Cheng Yu in the city. Lord Yuan, please send troops to lend us a hand!"

"I understand!" Yuan Shu, overjoyed at the chaos and raging fires in the city, disregarded his chief clerk Yang Hong's words and shouted, "All generals, heed my command! Follow Lord Liu to purge the rebellious officials from the city!"

"Yes! Your subordinate obeys!" Ji Ling, Chen Lan, and Zhang Xun, three generals under Yuan Shu, led their troops into Xuchang, with Yuan Shu and Liu Ai following behind with their central army.

At the same time, Yuan Shu's generals Lei Bo, Mei Cheng, Liu Xun, and Chen Ji also led their troops to launch a fierce attack on the east and west gates in an attempt to disrupt Xuchang.

Unfortunately, the north gate, which Yuan Shu abandoned his attack on due to insufficient troops, was instead guarded by an army that refused to come...

From afar, the general guarding the north gate saw an army rapidly approaching the gate, including several generals on horseback heading straight for it. The general was terrified and shouted for his men to be on high alert. "Silence!" a general shouted from below the gate, surprising the guard.

"Who...who are you?" Liang Qi, the guard of the North Gate, was both surprised and angry. Suddenly, he saw something being thrown at him and quickly blocked it with his hand.

The object landed on the city wall with a sound like metal striking stone, which didn't seem to be a hidden weapon.

Liang Qi hesitated before stepping forward, taking the torch from the guard beside him and shining it on the object. He discovered it was a waist token, picked it up with a puzzled look, and was taken aback.

"Open the gate!" A deep voice came from outside the city.

Liang Qi rubbed his eyes, peeked down at the city walls, and then ordered, "Open the city gates!"

"My lord!" Liang Qi's lieutenant said in surprise, "The city gates must not be opened at night, this..."

"Take a look!" Liang Qi handed over the waist token in his hand. The lieutenant stepped forward in confusion and saw that the token was black with white characters, bearing the three words: Tiger and Leopard Camp!

The north gate of Xuchang slowly opened, and Liang Qi waited respectfully to the side, with his deputy general beside him.

Yang Ding, the deputy commander of the Tiger and Leopard Battalion, gave an approving hum. He said calmly, "After we leave, you all guard this gate well. If anything goes wrong… let's go!"

"Yes, sir!" Three thousand Tiger and Leopard Camp soldiers, clad in black armor, rushed in without a sound. Their murderous aura chilled the hearts of the nearby Cao soldiers.

Only after the three thousand Tiger and Leopard Battalion soldiers had entered did Liang Qi dare to wipe the sweat from his brow and sigh, "The Tiger and Leopard Battalion, indeed, is not to be underestimated!"

His lieutenant also spoke up, saying, "If I could join this army, I would die willingly!"

Liang Qi shook his head and smiled, saying, "Stop talking nonsense. Guard the city gate carefully. If it falls, none of us can escape death!"

"I'll save money!"

Both armies entered Xuchang and headed towards the city center, where the governor's mansion was located. However, the fighting at the governor's mansion had not yet ceased.

Nearly a thousand servants and retainers from powerful families were unable to breach the Situ Jiang residence, which was defended by a mere hundred men. This greatly exceeded the calculations of Wang Hai, the head of the Wang family.

"Ah!" one of the servants suddenly cried out, "Master... Master!"

Wang Hai, his face contorted with rage, glared at the man. Seeing it was one of his own servants, he roared, "What are you yelling about! I've raised you for so long, and now you can't even take down a mere hundred or so men? Useless trash!"

"Master!" A servant ran to Wang Hai's side, pointed to a spot, and said, "Master, the mansion is on fire..."

"Hmm?" Wang Hai hesitated, glancing hesitantly in the direction the servant had indicated. Sure enough, it was in the direction of his own residence. The fire was raging. He thought to himself in surprise, "Didn't I leave more than ten men to guard the residence...? What a bunch of useless bastards! If they burn my treasures, I'll break their legs!"

"Ah!" Just as Wang Hai was thinking about how to punish the servants, a member of the household beside him said absentmindedly, "My, how come my mansion is on fire too?"

"It seems the fire has spread, brother, don't worry..."

"Something's not right!" the patriarch exclaimed in alarm. "Nowhere else around my residence is on fire, yet only my own mansion is on fire?"

"Huh?" The other family heads looked in the direction the family head was looking, and their expressions suddenly changed drastically.

"My house also caught fire..."

"I...I clearly left behind more than twenty servants!"

"Impossible! There's an inland river right outside my residence; how could there be a flood?"

Listening to the words of those family heads, Wang Hai felt a sudden unease, a vague sense of foreboding.

"It's time!" Chen Dan, the deputy commander of the elite elite troops guarding Situ Jiang's residence, said with a sneer. "Sound the war horn!"

"Yes, sir!" A guard beside Chen Dan took out a horn from his robes and blew it out.

Cao Ang and Chen Dao, looking exhausted, were being protected by several generals from the Trapped Camp. They asked in confusion, "What's the use of blowing the battle horn? Are there reinforcements coming? If we're to relieve the crisis in Xuchang, we'll need nearly ten thousand soldiers!"

Looking at Cao Ang and Chen Dao with admiration, Chen Dan smiled and said, "There are probably less than ten thousand, but there are still nearly a thousand... However, they are not reinforcements, but ambushes!"

"Huh?" Cao Ang and Chen Dao exchanged a glance. Looking at the dense crowd on the street, they said in astonishment, "What use is a mere thousand more people?"

Chen Dan glanced at Cao Ang indifferently and said with a smile, "Just you wait and see!"

Cao Ang and Chen Dao were puzzled by what he said. Not long after, a sound came from the end of the street, and then the crowd suddenly became chaotic. Some people fled in all directions, while others shouted incessantly. In addition, Cao Ang heard several loud shouts.

"Charge! Charge!"

Cao Ang stood up in astonishment and looked at the end of the street. He saw an army in full silver armor, with long swords in one hand and iron shields in the other, slowly approaching. Anyone who dared to stand in their way was hacked to death by their swords. Their momentum was overwhelming.

"This..." Cao Ang was shocked. There were one or two thousand rebels on this street, but the army only had a few hundred men. They faced rebels who outnumbered them several times over, and they were cut down like melons and vegetables without being hindered in the slightest.

Chen Dao, also filled with admiration, asked with a puzzled look, "This army is...?"

"The Vanguard Camp!" Chen Dan said with considerable pride, then raised his spear and shouted, "Brothers, kill all these rebels!"

The noble families, preoccupied with worries about their homes and facing such an elite force as the Trapped Camp, were terrified and scattered in all directions. Some even threw down their weapons and knelt down to surrender.

Unfortunately, whether they tried to escape or surrendered, they couldn't escape the impending blow from the Trapped Camp.

"By order of Cheng, the Vanguard Camp, heed my command!" Chen Dan roared. "The powerful families of Xuchang, in collusion with the Wang family, are plotting a rebellion. Their crime deserves death. No mercy will be shown; their entire clan will be exterminated!"

"Huh?" Wang Hai, caught in the turbulent current, naturally heard Chen Dan's loud shout and was greatly surprised. When he looked back in the direction of his residence, the fog in his mind immediately dissipated.

"Cheng Zhongde, you are truly a despicable son!" Wang Hai, over forty years old, felt a deep sense of desolation. Suddenly, he heard a warning, turned around, and his eyes narrowed. He saw that the silver-armored soldiers were already behind him, one of them already raising his sword high…

How is that possible? There were clearly quite a few people behind me...

"This is the Trapped Camp?" Cao Ang stared in disbelief.

Chen Dan smiled slightly and said calmly, "This is the Trapped Camp!"

When Chen Dan blew the horn, Xun Yu and Cheng Yu in the Situ Mansion naturally heard it as well.

Xun Yu shook his head and sighed, "Xianzhang's actions are far too ruthless. In my opinion, he probably intends to wipe out the Xuchang aristocratic family this time. Alas!"

"Hmph!" Cheng Yu sneered, gazing at the fire in the city, and said, "Since the aristocratic families harbor treacherous intentions and plot rebellion, what use are they? They only cause trouble. It would be better to exterminate them all today, at least it would be clean!"

"You..." Xun Yu shook his head helplessly, "I hope Xianzhang will stop here. I'm just afraid he..."

"My lords!" At that moment, several Cao soldiers, covered in blood, entered the courtyard and bowed, saying, "Reporting to you both, we are here on General Gao's orders to inform you that Yuan Shu has entered through the south gate!"

"Alright!" Xun Yu's eyes changed, and he said to Cheng Yu, "The bait has been cast, and the fish have come. Why don't we pull in the net? If this continues, Xuchang may be destroyed, and Shouyi will not forgive us afterwards!"

Cheng Yu chuckled, then suddenly said, "But relying solely on those ambush troops might be..."

"Report!" Several more Cao soldiers entered the courtyard, knelt on the ground, and reported, "My lords, the Tiger and Leopard Battalion entered from the north gate and are currently slaughtering rebels as they head this way!"

"They've finally arrived!" Cheng Yu clapped his hands and laughed loudly. "I'll trouble you all to immediately send orders to the Tiger and Leopard Battalion, instructing them to head straight for the South Gate and intercept Yuan Shu!"

"Yes, sir!" The Cao soldiers obeyed and left.

"Wenruo!" Cheng Yu turned to Xun Yu and said, "It's time for us to close the net!"

"Yes!" Xun Yu nodded, summoned his guards, and whispered, "Sound the horn!"

"promise!"

"Woo woo woo..." A horn sound even louder and farther than the one Chen Dan had blown before, and as soon as this sound was heard, other horns around Xuchang City echoed it, and in an instant, it spread throughout the entire city of Xuchang.

"Hmm?" Yuan Shu, who had entered through the south gate, hadn't even reached the city center when he heard the horn and became suspicious. He asked, "Lord Liu, what is the purpose of this battle horn?"

Liu Ai also had a vague feeling that something was wrong. Just then, he suddenly saw a general riding up and shouting, "General Yang!"

It turned out that Yang Feng had arrived. Although Yang Feng was just a commoner, he was not a fool. He had sensed something was wrong when he saw Fang Yue leading his troops and being prepared. So he immediately went to the south gate to inform Liu Ai, but the streets were blocked. The soldiers of the noble families, Cao Cao's soldiers, and the soldiers of the officials were all standing in a tangled mess and could not get in. That's why he only arrived here now.

"Lord Liu!" Yang Feng said urgently, clasping his hands in a fist salute. "Xun Yu and Cheng Yu had planned this all along; today's events are likely a trap!"

"A trap?" Liu Ai frowned, a vague sense of unease creeping into his heart.

"Hmph!" Yuan Shu sneered and said, "I don't care if it's a trap or not. Once we enter the city, do they still have the troops to resist us? How can Cao Mengde's soldiers, who have been fighting for an hour, compare to my elite troops?"

Ignoring Liu Ai and Yang Feng, he led his troops straight in, intending to wipe out Xun Yu, Cheng Yu, and others.

Suddenly, Yuan Shu's expression changed, and he ordered the entire army to stop, his eyes filled with suspicion as he looked at a group of soldiers standing not far from the street.

Suddenly, he heard a few noises. Yuan Shu looked around and saw that countless soldiers had appeared on the houses on both sides of the road.

If they were just ordinary soldiers, Yuan Shu wouldn't have done this, because he had already killed many of Cao Cao's soldiers who tried to intercept him on the way. It was just these ordinary soldiers...

Gazing at the distinctive black armor and the palpable killing intent, Yang Feng's expression changed drastically, and he exclaimed in disbelief, "The Tiger and Leopard Battalion?"

Tiger and Leopard Battalion? Yuan Shu frowned, unlike Yang Feng. Yuan Shu wasn't very familiar with the Tiger and Leopard Battalion, but the upcoming battle would make him remember that name... (End of Chapter)

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