The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Chapter 148 Liu Bei learns that Guan Yu has married Xiao Qiao

Yiling, the main camp of the Han army.

Liu Bei has been in a bad mood lately because he has made all the preparations for the Northern Expedition, but the opportunity to launch it has yet to come.

The opportune moment for the Northern Expedition was when the Wei army took advantage of the chaos in Jiangdong to break through Ruxukou and then launch an attack on Jiangdong.

Having received no news of Wei's army marching into Jiangdong, he could only continue acting in Yiling, which was quite tiring to be honest.

A performance against one's will is much harder than rolling up one's sleeves and getting into a fight.

After inspecting the various camps, Liu Bei returned to his command tent and sighed listlessly, "Damn Cao Mengde, can't you hurry up? Are you just staying in Luoyang to retire?"

He was really getting impatient. Staying here every day would consume food and fodder, and the food for both people and horses was making his already meager life even worse.

These troubles are already annoying enough, but Zhang Fei just keeps coming to make things worse, and here he is again.

Zhang Fei stormed into the command tent, complaining in his booming voice that could be heard from two miles away: "Brother, it's been so many days, why is there still no news from Jiangdong? If this drags on any longer, I really can't keep up the act. I reckon they'll break through Yidao City tomorrow."

Historically, during the Battle of Yiling, Liu Bei never managed to breach Yidao City, the gateway to Jiangling, until his death. But things are different now, because Zhang Fei is here.

Zhang Fei is a well-known offensive general, and taking Yidao City would not have been difficult for him, but he had to play it safe, which was really a bit of a challenge for Zhang Fei.

After all, it's much harder to fight a fake war than a real one, so you need to be careful with the intensity.

Faced with Zhang Fei's complaints, Liu Bei wasn't in the mood to comfort him as usual. Instead, he shrugged and said dismissively, "How would I know? Why don't you write a letter to Cao Cao and tell him to hurry up and go to Jiangdong?"

Zhang Fei: “…”

Why are you so angry? Who offended you?

After waiting for a long time without receiving any comfort from Liu Bei, Zhang Fei stomped his foot like a wronged child and turned to leave. Unexpectedly, as soon as he lifted the tent flap, he saw Huang Quan leading Zhou Cang towards him. He immediately exclaimed with delight, "Brother, Zhou Cang is back! Second Brother's messenger has arrived!"

"where?"

Liu Bei suddenly stood up, jumped over the table, and ran to Zhang Fei's side as fast as he could. After seeing Huang Quan and Zhou Cang, he personally lowered the tent flap and calmly returned to his seat.

Zhang Fei then consciously stood behind him.

Soon Huang Quan led Zhou Cang into the tent, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, General Zhou has returned, and he has brought a letter from General Guan."

Liu Bei nodded to indicate that he understood, then looked at Zhou Cang and asked, "How is the situation with General Guan?"

Zhou Cang, not being good with words, did not answer, but instead tore open his clothes, took out the silk cloth wrapped around his waist, and handed it over.

Huang Quan took the silk scroll and walked to Liu Bei, unfolding it. He was surprised to find that the scroll was unusually wide. Even with his arms outstretched, he couldn't fully stretch it out. He couldn't help but complain, "How much did Guan Yu write on such a long scroll?"

Liu Bei and Zhang Fei ignored his expression and leaned forward to examine the letter closely. After reading only a few sentences, they exclaimed in surprise, "What?! Anguo actually captured Zhang Cheng, Zhou Xun, and Zhuge Ke twice in Wushang..."

Huang Quan was greatly alarmed and loosened his grip, causing the silk to fold up and the writing to become completely obscured.

A hint of resentment flashed in Liu Bei's eyes. He took the silk and carefully laid it flat on the ground. Good heavens, it was more than two meters long.

Now that's good, no one needs to hold them up anymore. Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Huang Quan huddled together to continue watching. After a few glances, Zhang Fei exclaimed again, "An Guo actually won two victories against overwhelming odds, and both were annihilation battles. In just a few months, he increased his troops from three thousand to forty or fifty thousand. Are you kidding me? When did this kid An Guo become so powerful?"

Although Liu Bei and Huang Quan appeared calm on the surface, their hearts were also filled with turbulent emotions.

They were all too aware of the difficulty of annihilation battles. In the past, annihilation battles were fought by using superior forces to surround and annihilate the enemy. Bai Qi only won against Zhao Kuo because of his superior forces, let alone others.

It seems that only Han Xin could annihilate a superior force with a weaker one.

But Han Xin was facing a bunch of scoundrels, while Guan Xing was facing Zhang Cheng. Who was Zhang Cheng? He was Zhang Zhao's eldest son, a famous general in Jiangdong second only to the Twelve Tiger Generals. Yet he was defeated by Guan Xing, a greenhorn.

twice?

Zhang Fei was still somewhat skeptical, and looked up at Zhou Cang, asking, "Is this true? Could it be that Second Brother is acting out of selfishness, deliberately giving his war merits to his son?"

He watched Guan Xing grow up. He knew exactly what that kid was going to do the moment he bent over. But after not seeing him for a few days, he found out Guan Xing had a huge poop.

Zhou Cang said in a muffled voice, "No, General Guan has been in Jianye, which is more than 800 li away from the Second Young Master. When the news came back, General Guan was also quite shocked."

Zhang Fei stroked his beard and said timidly, "Brother, did I beat that kid Anguo too badly? Will he hold a grudge?"

Zhang Fei's fiery temper even led him to beat Guan Yu, not to mention Guan Yu's two sons, whom he had fought with since childhood.

Liu Bei rolled his eyes at him and said, "Don't worry, Anguo is not good at fighting, he can't beat you."

Hearing this, Zhang Fei breathed a sigh of relief and continued reading with Liu Bei. When he got to the end, he couldn't hold back anymore and exclaimed in an even louder voice than before, "What?! Big brother has married Xiao Qiao?"

His shout made even the command tent tremble three times.

Zhang Fei realized he had been too loud and looked at Liu Bei and Huang Quan guiltily, only to find that the two of them were frozen in place as if they had been struck by a spell. He hadn't even managed to wake them up with his loud voice.

The commotion didn't wake those inside the tent, but it alerted those outside. Zhang Bao, who was standing outside guarding the command tent, immediately grabbed his spear and rushed into the tent, exclaiming in the same volume as his father, "What's going on? Is someone rebelling?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt Zhang Fei's murderous gaze and shrank back in fear, asking, "What's wrong, Dad?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Fei instinctively recalled Guan Xing's glorious achievements. Looking at his own good-for-nothing son, he was filled with anger and reprimanded him unhappily, "Get out."

Zhang Bao's personality was just as volatile as his father's. When his father scolded him, he got even angrier and said sharply, "I am now the king's personal guard. No one but the king has the right to order me around, not even you."

After saying that, instead of leaving, he picked up his gun and stood next to Huang Quan. Only after making sure that he was at a safe distance from his father did he look down. After a short while, he exclaimed, "Wow, really? When did An Guo become so fierce? I never noticed before!"

He was the strongest fighter among the second generation of the Shu Han dynasty, able to hold his own against Guan Ping, let alone the weakling Guan Xing. From childhood to adulthood, Guan Xing had never won a fight against him, but today…

How come I never realized Anguo was such a smart aleck? He's got some serious brains.

Zhang Bao's shouts woke up Liu Bei and Huang Quan. Liu Bei clutched his chest, trying to calm himself down, but to his dismay, he found that he couldn't calm down at all. He could only grin and say, "I didn't expect that my second brother and Anguo would raise an army of 100,000 so quickly. Why retreat to Jiaozhou now? Let's fight the Wei army directly in Jiangdong."

He did indeed want Guan Yu to retreat to Jiaozhou and then circle back to Shu. He even sent an envoy to Jiaozhou to negotiate to ensure his safety. Now it seems that the trip was in vain. If only he had known...

Huang Quan said with equal shock, "Yes, we all thought General Guan had a near-death experience in Jiangdong, but who would have thought that he and his son could cause so much trouble."

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei and Zhang Fei's faces contorted in shock. Ever since Guan Yu's defeat at Maicheng, they had been unable to eat or sleep, worrying about Guan Yu's safety every day. They had thought that the father and son were battered and bruised and on the verge of death, but it turned out that the two of them were robbing and marrying in Jiangdong, living a much more comfortable life than they were in the mountains feeding mosquitoes.

So we're the clowns here?

"Regardless, this is good news. Now that Lü Meng has retreated due to Zhang Cheng's defeat, the Wei army should head south, and our northern expedition can begin..."

Just as Liu Bei was about to offer himself a few words of comfort against his will, he inadvertently noticed Zhang Bao quietly retreating out of the tent and asked in surprise, "Xingguo, where are you going?"

Zhang Bao said with an awkward smile, "Your Majesty, I find that staying here is somewhat of an eyesore. It would be better to go out."