flstandardbreds Chapter 124: Making Guan Yu serve tea and water?
Chapter 124: Making Guan Yu serve tea and water?
Inside Jianye City, at the General's Headquarters.
With everything going smoothly lately, Guan Yu was in a great mood. When he got home that evening, he took a rare bath and lay comfortably in bed.
He closed his eyes and tried to think for half an hour, only to find, to his dismay, that he had insomnia. For some reason, even though he didn't want to think, those troubling thoughts kept popping into his mind.
Guan Yu had no choice but to give up resting and began to think about the current battle.
The crisis in Jianye has now been resolved. Zhang Zhao and Lü Meng are busy suppressing internal strife and have no time to attack the city, giving him ample time to train his troops.
Good news also came from the south: scouts reported that Quan Cong's right wing army had been defeated by Guan Xing, and even Quan Cong himself had become Guan Xing's prisoner.
When Guan Yu received the message, he was stunned for a long time. As a military general, he knew all too well the difficulty of taking the head of a general from among thousands of troops. Guan Xing was able to capture him alive every time, which was really surprising.
He admitted that he had not paid much attention to his second son, Guan Xing, until after the attack on Jianye, when he reassessed Guan Xing's abilities, only to find that he had still underestimated him.
This was a good thing. The only thing that bothered him was that Guan Xing hadn't reported the victory to him, and even Deng Hong, who had been specially sent to deliver the message, hadn't been heard from. It was really infuriating.
Jiangdong is safe now. As long as Guan Xing defeats Zhang Cheng again and stabilizes Jinqu, I can take the initiative to advance the plot, go out of the city to attack the Wu army and lure the Wei army south.
What worries him now are Guan Ping in Jingnan and Liu Bei in Chengdu.
Guan Ping is calm and steady in his work. This kind of personality can ensure that he does not make mistakes when he has the advantage, but when he is at a disadvantage, he is prone to missing opportunities and being slowly crushed by the enemy.
To put it bluntly, the more disadvantaged you are, the more you need Guan Xing's kind of risk-taking spirit.
According to Guan Xing, if you lose everything, what else is there to lose? Stability is what the rich pursue, while the poor can only take risks and gamble if they want to turn their lives around.
When Guan Ping retreated to Jingnan, he only took forty or fifty men with him. Even with the support of the Wuxi barbarians, he was still at a significant disadvantage against the Wu army. Moreover, he did not possess Guan Xing's gambler's spirit, which was truly worrying.
And then there's Liu Bei. Jiangdong and Bashu are too far apart, and news can't be exchanged. I wonder if my elder brother has seen Zhou Cang yet? If he hasn't, what will he do? If he has, how will he react?
If he disagrees with the Northern Expedition and insists on the Eastern Expedition instead, all my efforts will probably be in vain.
The war in Jiangdong was going smoothly, but the war in Jingxiang made Guan Yu more and more worried. He pondered for an unknown amount of time and was just about to fall asleep when he suddenly heard someone outside the door shout: "My lord, the swordsman Deng Hong has returned."
Who is Deng Hong?
Guan Yu instantly lost his sleepiness. He braced himself on one hand and was about to jump off the bed and rush to the door, but he forgot that his arm had been treated for poisoning by scraping the bone and the wound had not yet fully healed. With the slightest exertion, a sharp pain shot through the wound, and his body, which had just been propped up, unfortunately crashed onto the edge of the bed, almost breaking his spine.
At this age, osteoporosis means I'm not as resilient as I was when I was younger.
Guan Yu gritted his teeth and silently got up. After a moment, he regained his balance and said as if nothing had happened, "Come in and go call Wang Sima here as well."
Deng Hong must have brought important military intelligence with him, and we must discuss it with Wang Fu.
The door opened, and Deng Hong entered and bowed, saying, "This humble general, Deng Hong, greets Your Excellency."
Guan Yu stared at him for a moment before questioning, "Why has there been no news for so long? Why didn't you report that Quan Cong was captured? What was the purpose of sending you to Wushang? Why did I have to be notified by someone else of such an important victory?"
Deng Hong's forehead began to sweat, and he said weakly, "The Second Young Master said that there is no need to report such a trivial matter as capturing Quan Cong. It is not too late to report it after we capture Zhang Cheng."
A trivial matter of capturing Quan Cong?
Guan Yu felt a surge of anger rising in his chest. Quan Cong was, after all, a rising star of the younger generation in Eastern Wu. In Guan Xing's eyes, such a person didn't even deserve to be reported to?
Wait, what did he just say?
Guan Yu suddenly realized what was happening and quickly asked, "Anguo has captured Zhang Cheng again?"
Deng Hong raised his head, feigning confusion, and said, "Huh..."
Now it was Guan Yu's turn to be dumbfounded. He was an acquaintance of Zhang Cheng and knew Zhang Cheng's abilities well. Moreover, Zhang Cheng had led a full 30,000 troops in this battle and had been captured by Guan Xing once before, so he must have learned his lesson. Yet, he was captured by Guan Xing again.
He had never captured the same general twice when he was at a disadvantage.
Even Cao Cao and Liu Bei never did it, so how did Guan Xing manage to do it?
Guan Yu was stunned for a long time before he reacted. He took out a tinderbox to light the oil lamp, then poured a bowl of water and personally brought it to Deng Hong, saying with a smile, "You must be thirsty from the journey. Drink some water and tell me in detail."
Guan Yu personally served tea and water; even Zhuge Liang didn't receive such treatment.
Unexpectedly, Deng Hong became arrogant, patted the thermos cup hanging around his neck in a cloth cover and said with a smile, "My lord, please have some. I have some here."
Then, under Guan Yu's astonished gaze, he took out the thermos cup that Guan Xing had given him, gently unscrewed it, blew on the steam, and was about to leisurely sip it when he suddenly felt a strange killing intent. He looked up and found Guan Yu glaring at him. Startled, he quickly handed the thermos cup to Guan Yu with both hands and said with a smile, "My lord, would you like to try this?"
Guan Yu took the cup, looked at the tea leaves stuck to the cup, and asked, "What is this stuff?"
Just as Deng Hong was about to explain, he suddenly heard Wang Fu shout, "Deng Hong is back! Where is he? Where is he?"
Before he could finish speaking, he rushed in, looking at Guan Yu and Deng Hong with surprise, "What are you two doing?"
Guan Yu returned the cup to Deng Hong and said, "Let's get down to business. Tell me in detail how Anguo captured Zhang Cheng again?"
Wang Fugang had just arrived and was unaware of the situation. Upon hearing this, he asked in surprise, "What? Zhang Cheng has been captured again?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt Guan Yu's death stare and quickly shut his mouth, looking at Deng Hong.
The three sat down, and Deng Hong began to recount: "This is what happened..."
Guan Yu and Wang Fu listened silently to how Guan Xing used the son of the chieftain Pan Lin to destroy the mountain tribes, then captured Zhou Xun and Zhuge Ke, and then led three thousand men on a rapid march to defeat Quan Cong before he could cross the river, and how he outwitted and outmaneuvered Zhang Cheng...
Especially the battle against Zhang Cheng, the level of danger made Wang Fu break out in a cold sweat. This battle was really too risky. Even the two of them might not have dared to fight it. In the end, Guan Xing not only fought it, but also won it.
After listening quietly to Deng Hong's account and digesting it for a long time, Wang Fu sighed and said, "Second Young Master has the talent of a great general. However, my lord, Zhang Cheng lost a full 50,000 troops in this battle. This loss is not something that Eastern Wu can afford at present."
"I believe that once the news gets back, the internal problems that Zhang Zhao and Lü Meng have been struggling to suppress will definitely erupt completely. The tens of thousands of Wu troops outside the city will collapse on their own without us having to lift a finger."
Guan Yu calmly said, "Continue, I'm listening."
Wang Fu continued, "Lu Meng brought back only 30,000 Wu troops from Jingzhou, of which 5,000 were captured by the Second Prince, and the rest were all private soldiers of the gentry."
“These days, Zhang Zhao and Lü Meng have deliberately cut off Jianye’s connection with the north, and have also used various means to force away aristocratic generals such as Zhang Wen and Gu Hui, and have firmly grasped the private armies of the aristocracy, which has aroused strong dissatisfaction among the aristocracy.”
"Now that Zhang Cheng has lost another 40,000 to 50,000 private soldiers, the Jiangdong gentry will definitely not continue to indulge them. After all, no matter how wealthy the gentry are, they cannot withstand such misery."
"So I guess that as soon as news of Zhang Cheng's defeat reaches Jianye, some of the gentry will definitely rise up in rebellion, and even a riot may occur at Ruxukou."