Chapter 380 Final Preparation, Cao VS Yuan (1/2)
Chapter 380 – Final Preparation, Cao VS Yuan
Pengcheng County, west of Xiapi.
This was one of Xu Province's most prosperous cities, which was also the largest city in this region.
In historical records, this city was burnt down, and all civilians were slaughtered by Cao Cao.
It began in 193 when Cao Song, Cao Cao's father, wanted to retire from his job and live to his son. At that time, Cao Cao established a firm base on the central plain, so Cao Song wished to reunite with his successful son.
Unfortunately, one of his escorts which was sent by Tao Qian, Zhang Kai, was a former Yellow Turban bandit. He desired Cao Song's wealth, so he murdered Cao Song and everyone else.
The death of Cao Song enraged Cao Cao. He invaded Xu Province, seeking vengeance. During the campaign, his force slaughtered over 100,000 civilians and 10,000 garrison soldiers for the sake of replenishing his army's rations.
Pengcheng was one of the victim city that Cao Cao burnt.
However, in this world, Cao Song had already been secured by Pu Jing's men ever since he had begun serving Cao Cao. Cao Song was now living comfortably in Xuchang, enjoying his retirement with his riches from his past career as a Grand Commandant.
The murder of Cao Song did not happen!
Still, Pengcheng was a territory of Yuan Shao, which Mi Zhu and Zhang Kai were protecting.
.
June 15th.
Cao Cao's 45,000 soldiers from Xiaopei reached Pengcheng City.
As they had planned with Guo Jia, Mi Zhu opened the gates and surrendered. Zhang Kai did not know anything about this arrangement, so he stood in shock and baffled. Still, he followed through with Mi Zhu's lead to survive.
Five thousand garrisons joined Cao Cao, which increased his troops to 50,000!
After the authority handover had been completed, Cao Cao called Mi Zhu and Zhang Kai to meet them.
In Pengcheng government hall, Cao Cao sat on the main seat, looking at the two surrendered officers.
”Mi Zhu, Mi Zizhong, greets Marquis of Wei.”
”Zhang Kai greets Marquis of Wei.”
Cao Cao nodded at Mi Zhu with a smile, but he glared at Zhang Kai with hatred. He had learned about the alternate history timeline from Pu Jing about how Zhang Kai started a war between him and Tao Qian.
Cao Cao wanted to kill this former bandit right away, but it would have caused resentment among the surrendered minor officials and soldiers.
Although he could not kill Zhang Kai, Cao Cao had a thousand ways to kill a commander of five thousand-man-army.
”Welcome. I hope that you can work your utmost best for the people. You have chosen the right side.”
Mi Zhu nodded and bowed, ”Thank you, Marquis! My strong suit is finance. If you leave the financial task to me, I promise you that your territories will prosper!”
”HAHAHA! Don't worry, Mi Zizhong. I'll give you plenty of works. For now, how about the title of secretary of finance sounds?”
Mi Zhu was astonished. He just bootlicked Cao Cao out of courtesy and presented him with what he excelled. No one would have expected a sudden promotion of out the blue.
”T-Thank you, Marquis. I'll do my best!”
Cao Cao nodded.
Meanwhile, Zhang Kai revealed a bashful expression, thinking that he would get a promotion as well.
Cao Cao turned to Zhang Kai with a cold smile.
”Zhang Kai. I'll send you back to Yuan Shao as a spy! I want you to release a piece of fake news that I'll mobilize to attack Xiapi within the end of the month!”
”S-Sir?”
”Didn't you hear me? Do I need to explain your tasks?”
”I-I don't understand, my lord. I've never been a spy-”
Pu Jing coughed and patted his shoulder, ”I'll explain everything. Follow me.”
Zhang Kai looked around in confusion. He followed after Pu Jing, dejected.
Afterward, Pu Jing gave him a scroll, which had details about how Zhang Kai should act within Yuan Shao's ranks. He also explained how he should report to Yuan Shao when he returned.
Pu Jing shoved a leather bag with 30 gold nuggets in it to Zhang Kai.
”Serve our lord well, and you'll get more gold.”
Looking at the gold, Zhang Kai laughed, ”Of course, I understand everything now. You can count on me!”
.
June 20th.
Zhang Kai returned to Xiapi and reported the loss of Pengcheng.
Everyone was panic because Xiapi would be surrounded from all sides, and they were the next target that Cao Cao would attack.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
Despite the noisy and the restless of everybody, Yuan Shao remained indifferent.
”Don't be a fool. Losing a few battles is nothing. What matters is that who will win the war, not small insignificant battles.”
Hearing their lord's encouragement, all officers regained their sense.
”Right! My lord is right!”
”That's correct. It's not over yet!”
”As long as we can kill Cao Cao, we can take all the cities back.”
The buzzing noise died down. Yuan Shao turned to Tian Feng, ”How many cannons we have?”
”Fifty, my lord.”
”Ammunition?”
”Two thousand!”
Yuan Shao smiled, ”Repeating crossbows?”
”100,000!”
”Arrows?”
”Over ten million!”
Yuan Shao turned to his officers, ”We have 70,000 soldiers in this county, and we have rooms to draft militias to help us defend the walls. Yan Liang, conscript 30,000 civilians and train them to use our repeating crossbows!”
Yuan Shao threw a command token stick to Yan Liang.
Yan Liang stepped forward and bowed before he took the command token from Yuan Shao.
”Zhang Kai!”
Zhang Kai stumbled when Yuan Shao shouted his name, ”Y-Yes, lord?”
”You will command those 30,000 militias. Their lives are in your hands!”
Hesitated, Zhang Kai bowed and took the command token.