Xiang Yu's brilliant and frank attitude made Lu Bu feel a little guilty.
After the brief conversation that day, he was in a very uneasy state of mind. He accidentally threw all his future plans out of the window and went on with his own calculations.
Lu Bu had a stern face, looking serious, with empty eyes.
No one knew what a fierce struggle was going on in his mind at this moment.
I am the great Marquis Lu Wen, who was once famous throughout the world, made the enemies tremble in fear, and shared power with Wang Yun!
Now he is reliving his old dream of being someone's subordinate, which is even more tiring than when he served Dong Zhuo.
At least during that period, he just had to stand there, scare the assassins, and occasionally say a few words to the fat thief Dong.
It's not like now, where I have to be on guard against stupid people making stupid moves all day long, and I have to personally come up with plans, which makes me exhausted both physically and mentally!
Now he is just in charge of the power in Chu camp, what's so great about that
Lu Bu raised one leg high, shook it, and snorted with disdain.
If he had followed the plan that Laozi had worked so hard on for him, that fool would never have fallen into the tragic situation of being desperate and committing suicide at the Wujiang River. He might even have gotten the great advantage of unifying the world.
Counting all these things, it is indeed his number one contribution. Anyone who knows what is good and what is bad knows that he should be worshipped like an ancestor!
Thinking of this, Lu Bu was first secretly proud, but also felt a little jealous and couldn't stop sighing.
Alas, why didn’t I have such people and good fortune back then
He couldn't help but feel regretful: otherwise, with his quick-witted brain, he would not have been able to show off like the traitors like Big Ear Liu and Cao!
Moreover, when the day comes when that fool becomes emperor and rewards are given according to merit, he would have saved the fool king countless official titles and gold and silver rewards by running away after having made such a great contribution!
If Xiang Hanzi was a person with a little more sensible, he would probably be grateful to him for his noble character of retiring after achieving success and not coveting rewards.
How can it be called "rebellion"!
Besides, if we don’t leave then, when will we leave
If I really stay, won't I have to worry about this fool all my life and work hard every day
After such wild thoughts, Lu Bu was finally able to get rid of the inexplicable feeling of guilt that had been bothering him for the past few days. He finally stopped tossing and turning, and fell asleep smoothly with this sense of righteousness.
But that night, he frowned, tossed and turned, and had nightmares.
I dreamed for a while that on the day when Hanzi ascended the throne, I really left. As a result, the eight-foot-tall man got furious and showed a terrifying appearance with red tiger eyes.
One day, he dreamed that Hanzi was furious when he found out that he had escaped, and he mobilized 500,000 Chu troops to search for him all over the country. After finding him, he was first whipped a hundred times, and then imprisoned in the palace, where he was forced to give advice all day long.
After a while, I dreamed that when I left, my cheap brother was killed by the fool. The fool also lost the support of the people because of killing the meritorious official. The son of Liu Haozi came back with his old troops and ended up committing suicide in Wujiang River.
For a while, he even dreamed that his cheap brother and that fool saw through his intentions in advance and colluded with him, causing him to fail to escape. He was locked up in the mansion by old man Fan Zeng all day and forced to come up with strategies...
The dream was bizarre and strange, and Lu Bu, who was trapped in it, sometimes grinned, sometimes felt terrified, and sometimes gritted his teeth in anger.
When the sky brightened, Lu Bu, who had been tossing and turning all night, finally woke up.
Not only did he feel sleepy all over, his eyes were red, his eyelids were blue, and even his fair face was blackened by anger.
He glared at the innocent-looking Longyuan sword angrily, gritting his teeth as if he was glaring at its original owner.
—Damn it, how come this idiot is even more lingering than Chen Gongtai and Gao Fujii back then
Although those two were nagging and difficult to deal with, at least they knew how to take turns.
This fool was so unreasonable that he took over his dreams for the whole night!
What Lu Bu didn't know was that even if he hadn't been frightened by Xiang Yu's words that day, and had been able to successfully go north to Wei to seek out his brother Han Xin...
It is destined that you will not be able to join in this fun.
Han Xin ordered his lieutenants to cut wood and buy clay pots, while he stayed at Linjinjin and ordered the soldiers to beat drums every day to create the illusion of forcing a crossing and to tie down the main force of the Wei army. After only three days, everything was ready.
Only then did Han Xin give new instructions to his puzzled lieutenants - to make wooden jars.
The method of making it was written by him personally, but it was unheard of by everyone: use wood to clamp the bottom of the pot, bind the four sides with a square, and tie them with ropes, so that they are staggered and arranged in a row.
Thousands of poppies are arranged in dozens of rows.
Because Han Xin enjoyed great prestige in the army, even though everyone had doubts, he carried out the order without hesitation. After just two days, he had made the strange-looking wooden jar according to the instructions.
That night, Han Xin ordered his deputy general Feng Jing to stay at Linjin Ferry in his place and continue waving flags and shouting slogans. He then went to Xiayang in the dark and ordered his men to put the wooden jar into the water.
It was not until this moment that the generals realized the true power of this strange wooden pot!
Each vessel could hold two or three soldiers. Once inside, they used their weapons as oars to row forward. Miraculously, the vessel was more stable than those hastily made ordinary boats.
Han Xin also went into Mupeng and crossed the river with the army. Once he reached the other side, he immediately reorganized his troops and quickly advanced towards Anyi.
King Bao of Wei and General Sun Chu, who were still stationed at the Linjin ferry and facing the Chu army from afar, never expected that it was precisely the Xiayang crossing which they thought was impossible to cross that was torn open by Han Xin with a strange wooden jar, becoming a sharp breakthrough point for the Chu army
After several days of surveillance, they relaxed and even enjoyed the ugly situation of the other side, which seemed to be very powerful but could not cross the river due to insufficient boats.
The general Zhou Shu, who had previously made alarmist remarks, became the most common target of ridicule by Wei Bao and Sun Chu.
Uncle Zhou felt something was amiss when he saw that the Chu army had remained motionless and only pretended to build ships in an orderly manner.
However, the king did not believe it, and Sun Chu, in order to curry favor with him, repeatedly ridiculed him.
After this happened too many times, Uncle Zhou got annoyed.
He has a straightforward character, but he is definitely not someone without temper.
Why should he bring humiliation upon himself when his loyalty and courage are met with ridicule from his incompetent ruler and treacherous tyrants
It was the night when Han Xin broke out from Xiayang that Zhou Shu could no longer tolerate it. After a rage, he abandoned the general and left under the cover of darkness without waiting for King Bao of Wei to send people to capture him.
Upon learning the news that Zhou Shuye had escaped, Wei Bao was annoyed and felt that this man was disloyal, so it was fortunate that he had not employed him before.
However, although the current battle situation is in Wei's favor, there are not enough people to chase after them, so they just say bad luck and let it go.
Little did they know that Han Xin, with 20,000 elite troops, had already penetrated deep into the heart of Wei.
Because the main force of the Wei army was attracted by the pretense of crossing the Linjin River, the defense in the Xiayang area was extremely weak. After Han Xin led his troops to break in, he had a smooth journey all the way until he reached Dongzhang, where he encountered the first wave of Wei defenders.
Faced with this powerful Chu army that appeared out of nowhere, the defending Wei soldiers were stunned on the spot.
When Han Xin ordered his men to charge forward, they were caught off guard and killed. The Wei general, seeing that the situation was not good, simply abandoned his men and fled, and the remaining troops were even more routed.
Han Xin won the first battle, but he was not satisfied.
He knew that the time was precious, and took advantage of the fact that the main force of the Wei army was still unaware of their existence, and quickly approached Anyi. Although Wang Xiang, the defender of Anyi, did not abandon his army and flee like the previous general, but chose to go out of the city to fight, he completely underestimated the fighting power of the Chu army. Within a few rounds, he was captured alive by the Chu soldiers.
Seeing their leader captured, the soldiers defending Anyi lost their fighting spirit and either fled or surrendered. Han Xin took the opportunity to capture the city, and after simply rewarding his subordinates, he continued to march towards the Wei capital Pingyang.
When the news of the attack on Pingyang reached Linjin Ferry, Wei Bao dared not believe his ears!
Although he knew that Wei capital still had more than 10,000 defenders holding the city, it was far from being vulnerable to an attack.
However, the rapid fall of Dongzhang and Anyi made him very confused, and he had no idea how many Chu troops there were who had sneaked in right under his nose at some point in time.
His family and treasures are all in the capital Pingyang. How could anything go wrong
Wei Bao was already lacking in courage and strategy, and he was so angry and frightened that he lost his judgment.
He immediately decided to let Sun Chu continue to watch over Linjin Ferry, while he himself led his troops to rush back to Pingyang to provide assistance.
Wei Bao imagined that the Pingyang defenders could still hold out for a while, and he would lead 60,000 Wei soldiers to come to the rescue. The Chu army would be isolated and attacked from both sides, so their morale would collapse and they would be easily defeated.
Little did they know that what Han Xin had been fighting from beginning to end was a feint to attack the Wei capital, aimed at the King of Wei.
King Bao of Wei, who was eager to return home, led his army back. When he arrived in Quyang, he ran into the Chu army led by Han Xin head-on, and the two sides immediately engaged in a battle.
After the initial shock, Wei Bao quickly realized that the Chu army that had penetrated deep into the hinterland was not as numerous as he had imagined—no more than 20,000 men at most!
The army he led was three times as powerful as the enemy's, and he was fighting on his own land, so he had the best of both geography and people, and was sure to win.
How could Wei Bao know that the 20,000 Chu soldiers led by Han Xin knew that they were alone and deep in the enemy's territory, with no help or way to retreat.
If you want to survive, you must fight to the death and kill the enemy.
The main general Han Xin who personally led the battle provided them with the strongest backbone - under Han Xin's orderly command, the Chu army changed its formation frequently like flowing water, not only confusing the Wei army in the formation, but also making each of them as fierce as wolves and tigers, and all bursting out with extremely strong fighting power.
After only half a day of fighting, the Wei army was defeated miserably. Wei Bao fought desperately to break out to the Dongyuan area, but was still captured by Han Xin.
Han Xin won a great victory, so he called on the Wei army to surrender and put Wei King Bao into a prison cart. After arriving at Wei capital Pingyang, he used this as a threat to demand the defenders to surrender.
Seeing that the king had been captured, the defenders, who were already afraid of the powerful Chu army, had no intention of resisting and immediately opened the city to surrender, just to save their lives.
After Han Xin entered Pingyang, he began to deal with the follow-up matters in an orderly manner: he imprisoned all the family members of Wei Bao and kept them waiting for Xiang Yu's order; he also persuaded the Wei generals Sun Chu, Zhou Shu and others who were still on their way back to surrender; then he held a banquet to reward the soldiers and at the same time issued strict orders to reiterate military discipline and prohibit harassing the civilians, and then sent people to appease them; finally, he carefully selected the available people from the Wei army prisoners, recruited them into the army, and intensified training.
He was training the newly added 50,000 Wei troops intensively, not willing to slack off for a moment, because his next target was the Yin State occupied by Sima Ang in the east.
The reason why he has not sent out the troops yet is, firstly, because there is no royal order, and secondly, his brother, who has always been far-sighted, may have a plan.
Han Xin was extremely perceptive. Although he did not know the specific circumstances of Chen Ping and others' mission, he guessed it to be about 80% correct.
After thinking it over, he decided to send a military officer to report the military situation to the king. He then hurriedly wrote another letter and sent it to his brother.
At this moment, Deputy General Feng Jing suddenly came into the hall and reported something.
It turned out that among the many concubines of King Bao of Wei, there was one named Bo who was the most favored. Her food, clothing, silk and satin rewards were all comparable to those of the principal wife.
If we trace the reason, it is not just because she is born with a graceful figure or a particularly attractive appearance.
It was because an old woman named Xu, who was good at physiognomy, once asserted that Bo "will give birth to a dragon in the future, and will become an emperor."
Wei Bao was only a king, but he knew that he would have a son who would become an emperor in the future. How could he not be happy? He treated Bo's daughter differently and showed her extra favor.
"Is there such a thing?"
Han Xin frowned when he heard this.
He always maintained a skeptical attitude towards the words of fortune tellers.
After all, very few sorcerers have the ability to see into the secrets of heaven, and most of them are just mortals who deliberately try to be mysterious. They can also be bribed with money and things by concubines who are eager to be favored, and make them speak nonsense.
But once the talk of the 'Son of Heaven' is involved, whether it is true or false, he must not take it lightly in order to avoid getting into trouble.
He pondered for a moment, and quickly made the most appropriate decision: "Send four officials to escort Bo Nu to the king, and then tell him the reason."
As to whether to accept this statement and take the beautiful girl into his employ, it was up to King Xiang to decide personally.