“He is here! Just in time! Slut. I will ask you one more time! Do you agree to kill Liu Mang?” Liu Biao asked Lady Cai fiercely. “If you agree, I promise you that I will not find any fault with you. The Cai Family can continue to have wealth! Think clearly. In the future, Jingzhou will belong to Zong Er and the Cai Family will flourish. If you do not agree, you will die here!” Liu Biao even brought up Liu Zong’s name to persuade Lady Cai. He knew that Lady Cai placed all his hopes in her son Liu Zong.
“I have thought clearly. Just kill me! There is no need to pretend to be a good person!” Lady Cai laughed coldly.
Liu Biao angrily grabbed Lady Cai’s hair and asked. “What is so good about Liu Mang that you are so hell-bent on following him?”
“He is good! At the very least, he is a man while you are not!”
“Slut!” Liu Biao shouted as he slapped Lady Cai. “I treated you so well! You only manage to become my wife because of the close relationship I have with the Cai Family!” Liu Biao shouted as he continued to slap her.
“Hahaha! Good! Hit me more!” The corner of Lady Cai’s mouth was bloody and her face was desolate. “You say you were good to me? It is more like you treat the Cai Family well! This is because you want my brother’s strength! Do you think you could have obtained Jingzhou without the Cai Family? The Wang Family and the Deng Family were also influential but my brother got rid of them for you! The Cai Family received all the criticism while you reap the benefits!” Lady Cai accused. At that time, Liu Biao was alone with an aide appointed by the court. The aide was useless as it was the time where the Han Emperor cannot even protect himself. At this time, Jingzhou was also ruled by Wang Rui who would definitely not allow himself to be chased out. Wang Rui sent out people to kill Liu Biao to solidify his position in Jingzhou.
Without the Cai Family’s help, Liu Biao would have long been dead. It was the Cai Family who fought against Wang Rui’s men. However, protecting Liu Biao alone did not mean Liu Biao could capture Jingzhou. They only protected Liu Biao once out of old relations. They would not offend Wang Rui by protecting Liu Biao a second time. In order to obtain the Cai Family’s support, he proposed to have the Cai Family become a supporting pillar in Jingzhou and married Lady Cai to further obtain their support. At that time, Liu Biao already had a wife. That person was Liu Qi’s mother.
Liu Biao was not entirely harmless and innocent. To placate the Cai Family, he made Lady Cai his main wife. As for his first wife, she suddenly died. Anyone could tell that something fishy happened behind the scenes.
And so, the Cai Family openly supported Liu Biao, allowing Liu Biao to take Jingzhou.
Another thing worth mentioning is that Sun Jian had helped Liu Biao to kill Wang Rui but only ended up dying to Liu Biao. This is why Sun Ce wanted Liu Biao dead.
Now, the Cai Family was like the Sun Family. Liu Biao could kill his wife and Sun Jian. Naturally, he would also be willing to kill off the Cai Family. The only problem is that the Cai Family was too powerful.
“Are you not afraid that I will kill Liu Zong?” Liu Biao’s eyes shone dangerously.
“Zong Er? You can’t!” Lady Cai immediately start to panic. Liu Zong was her one fatal weakness.
“Why not?” Liu Biao asked coldly.
“He is your son!” Lady Cai shouted. Liu Zong was indeed Liu Biao’s actual son.
“My son? How would I know if he is my son? Maybe he is sired by some other man I don’t know!” Liu Biao was already mad from anger.
“No! He is your son!” Lady Cai shook her head and shouted.
“So what if he is my son? Don’t I have another son? So what if I kill this son?”
“You bastard! Even tigers do not devour their own cubs!”
“Slut! Now you know how to be afraid! Come and beg me! As long as you beg me, I won’t kill that vile spawn!”
“I beg you! Show mercy! The fault is mine! If you want to kill someone, kill me! If you want to blame someone, blame me! Let Zong Er go!” Lady Cai kowtowed in front of Liu Biao. Liu Zong was her flesh and blood. She could let go of everything else but she could not let go of Liu Zong.
“Haha! Good! If you want me to let you go, get out there and kill Liu Mang!” Liu Biao laughed and dragged Lady Cai up by pulling her hair.
As the prison floor was rough, Lady Cai’s skin was scratched and bloody after she was dragged away.
“Zong Er! Zong Er!” Lady Cai was afraid. Her heart hurt more than her flesh.
“Milord!” The jailors cupped their fists when they saw Liu Biao come out. They saw Liu Biao grabbing hold onto Lady Cai and could not bear to see her bloody figure.
“Come. Take the Lady away and help her groom herself. Have her wash her dirty body with salt water!” Liu Biao ordered the female servants.
“Salt water?” The servants were shocked. Lady Cai’s body was full of injuries. They should be using medicinal water not salt water.
“Did you not hear what I said?” Liu Biao asked with killing intent.
“We will do as ordered.” The nearby guards helped the servants to reply.
“Good. It is time to go out and meet our King of Shu!” Liu Biao let go of Lady Cai’s hair. Some of her hair had already been pulled off and fell to the ground. He then took a towel given by the guards to wipe the blood off his body.
Chapter 540
Liu Mang’s Army obtained Yingshang. Normally, the soldiers of the surrendered army would temporarily be imprisoned as a safety precaution. However, Mi Fang pleaded for leniency.
Zhang Liao had no choice but allow it as not only is Mi Fang and his sibling working for Yangzhou, his brother was also the Chief of Commerce. By right, Zhang Liao should be respectful towards Mi Fang. Of course, this is not the only reason. Zhang Liao gave Mi Fang face mainly because Mi Fang was the one that captured Yingshang.
Mi Fang had also sworn to take responsibility with his life in the event that these Yingshang soldiers were to rebel. Although he was a Second Grade general, he was useful. With his help the distribution of the provisions went smoothly. He was also able to placate the common people of Yingshang.
Zhang Liao could not help but nod at this. In his report, he wrote a little more about Mi Fang saying that the man was not talented but had potential.
As for Lu Bu, he managed to capture Ruyin extremely quickly. Ruyin’s defenders did not have the time to react at all when they noticed Lu Bu’s Army arrive. In half a month, Yangzhou already captured two counties.
****
“Report! Yingshang and Ruyin has fallen into the enemy’s hands!” Liu Bei felt his head ache. He now understood Cao Cao’s suffering during the battle at Guandu.
The two counties had a total of a hundred and fifty thousand people. Yet both counties fell with barely any resistance. Yingshang City in particular fell without any resistance at all.
“Mi Fang Mi Zifang!” Liu Bei gnashed his teeth in anger. The Mi Family has made him embarrassed. Now the whole of Yuzhou knew that Mi Fang was alive. That would make the title he gave the Mi Family worthless. The documents he sent to Xudou was also being questioned.
Liu Mang gave Mi Zhu the title of Marquis Guang while the title Liu Bei gave was just on the level of a county marquis. This was like a demotion.
“Milord. There is no need to worry. Yingshang and Ruyin are not important locations!” Sun Qian placated Liu Bei. Yingshang and Ruyin used to be granaries but now they were worthless. When Sun Qian remembered the empty city strategy, he was also filled with anger.
“There were only ten thousand weak soldiers and not much provisions. Defending would be impossible! Losing these two counties may even be beneficial for us!”
“Beneficial?” Liu Bei did not understand Sun Qian’s meaning.
“Milord. Yangzhou captured these two counties in less than half a month without losing much. They would definitely become complacent. Pride comes before a fall, our army deal a heavy blow towards the Yangzhou Army.” Sun Qian replied.
“Deal a heavy blow?” Liu Bei still could not understand. He thought Sun Qian meant attacking the Yangzhou Army but this was impossible with his current strength.
“We just need to defend the city!” Sun Qian said and pointed at the map. “Right now, Xiangcheng and Nandun has about twenty thousand soldiers and three hundred thousand citizens. If Milord were to spread the news that Yangzhou was going to massacre them, the citizens will go to war. Even if Yangzhou have more soldiers, they would be trapped outside Xiangcheng. How many soldiers does Milord think they would have right now after capturing two cities?”
“That’s right!” Liu Bei’s eyes glinted brightly. Xiangcheng had lots of common people. Although they could not be used to attack the enemy, they could still defend the city. Liu Bei was also adept in framing people. He still had many faithful followers from when he painted Cao Cao as an evil person in Xuzhou.
“Men! Take the provisions sent by Cao Cao and distribute eighty percent of it to the people of Xiangcheng and Nandun!” Liu Bei gave the order. After distributing the provisions, he would only be left with ten thousand provisions. Liu Bei would have no choice but to be frugal.
“Cao Cao, Cao Mengde! You played a good move!” Liu Bei praised Cao Cao though he wasn’t feeling grateful at all. Cao Cao provided just enough provisions for Liu Bei to deal with Liu Mang. However, there would not be enough for Liu Bei to expand his army. Cao Cao had no intentions to allow either forces to become more powerful.
However, Liu Bei was not one to be defeated so easily. He would first deal with his current problem and then formulate a new plan.
****
Ruyin and Yingshan fell easily but the people of Nandun vowed to fight to the death. Yangzhou’s persuasion for their surrender fell on deaf ears.
Zhang Liao said that they had little provisions left but the defenders of Nandun took out provisions and even showed it to the Yangzhou Army. They even arrogantly said to the Yangzhou Army that these provisions came from Xudou.
Lu Bu had the Yangzhou Army attack once but they were beaten back. The Nanjun defenders fought with their lives. They fought so hard that the Formation Breaker and the Xiliang Cavalry felt ashamed. These defenders were like elites.
With great difficulty, they managed to capture one. After interrogation, they found out that Liu Bei had spread the rumor saying that Liu Mang will massacre everyone in the city after capturing it. As many of them were from Xuzhou, many of them also listened to Liu Bei. Thus, Nandun had become a strong wall. A hundred thousand people was a large number.
It was just like when the people of Wan helped Liu Mang protect the city from Sun Ce. Zhang Liao and the others did not dare to use catapults. This is because Liu Mang needed the people from Yuzhou. If they were to use catapults, the misunderstanding would deepen. Many of the common people were helping to defend the walls. The catapults would not be able to differentiate whether they were soldiers or the common people.
Once the common people were killed, their resistance would become even fiercer. The army stopped and sent a letter to Jingzhou to request for Liu Mang’s instructions.
****
“Cao Cao gave Liu Bei provisions?” Liu Mang muttered as he read the reports. He initially thought that the battle would go smoothly as Liu Bei had lost troops and would lose popular sentiment for being unable to pay back the provisions. However, Cao Cao had suddenly interfered, allowing Liu Bei to feed his troops and maintain his popularity.
“Cao Cao, Cao Mengde is truly ambitious!” Liu Mang sighed. When Cao Cao attacked Liu Mang last time, Liu Mang was able to see Cao Cao in his most miserable moment. At that time, Cao Cao’s sorry figure was disgraceful. However, that was part of his ambitious character.
He had not even pacified Hebei and he was already meddling with the Central Plains.
“Milord. Cao Cao, Cao Mengde is too free. He would stir up trouble if he has nothing to do!” Jia Xu smiled. Cao Cao had already laid the ground work for Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang to fight each other. Now he just needed to watch. If he did not need to wait for them, he would have already assembled his army. As he was free, he would definitely find things to do.
“Since he is free, let us give him something to do!” Liu Mang said coldly.
“Milord, you seem to have a plan!”
“Wenhe. What about you?”
“How about we both write down our plans on our palm?”
“Good!” Liu Mang agreed and the two wrote down a character on their palm. When they were done, the character ‘Xu’ was written on both their palms.
