195. Yuan Shu's Last Stand At Runan

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Gao Shun and Zhang Liao who heard this immediately kneeled down, asking Lu Lingqi to not do so as they would be punished by Lu Bu and Chen Gong for breaking military law, and smuggling Lu Lingqi to live with a bunch of men, where they would be executed by Lu Bu for doing so.

Lu Lingqi was angry seeing their request, and she told them that she would do it whether they liked it or not, which panicked Zhang Liao and Gao Shun, making Zhang Liao and Gao Shun beg her to not do so.

Lu Lingqi felt helpless as she knew that she was much better than almost all of Lu Bu's generals except for Zhang Liao, but because she was a woman and Lu Bu's only daughter she wasn't allowed to go out to battle.

Fortunately for Zhang Liao and Gao Shun, Lady Yaj heard the commotion as it wasn't that far from her and Lu Bu's room, She heard the topic of the conversation and immediately scolded Lu Lingqi.

Lu Lingqi immediately ran away when she heard her mother sound, Lady Yan seeing this only shook her head as her daughter was becoming more unladylike, causing her to worry about her marriage prospects.

Different from the atmosphere at Puyang which was filled with Celebration of Lu Bu's success, at Runan the atmosphere was gloomy, and fear enveloped the people of Runan due to the approaching armies of Lie Fan and Cao Cao.

Yuan Shu is sitting on his Imperial Throne which was made from expensive materials, holding the Imperial Seal like a drug addict holding it's drug. He ignores his advisors who are talking below, but he focuses his attention when he hears Hou Zui's words.

Hou Zui: "My Lord, we should only defend Runan through the battle of attrition! Their supplies are not as much as ours, and if we collect all the supplies outside of Runan we could stay here for about 3 years!"

Advisor 1: "Hou Zui are you crazy?! The people will be outraged by that and will no longer support our lord! Since you joined us, everything has been going badly and Master Yang Hong and Master Yang Dajiang are much better than you!"

Yuan Shu: "Bastard! How dare you say the name of these two traitors! Men take him out and behead him for me!"

Advisor 1: "Wha-!? My Lord, please spare me! I'm only saying the truth, please don't believe the words that come out from Hou Zui's mouth!"

Advisor 2: "My Lord if you execute someone right now, it will only lower the morale of our men and the people of Runan, please spare him!"

Hou Zui: "My Lord what he has just said is true, we should not execute anyone as it could backfire on us, why dong we just put in him prison for a while and release him after we win our battle?"

Yuan Shu: "Humph! then we follow Hou Zui's suggestion, have him imprisoned, and do not release him until we win our battle against Cao Cao and Lie Fan!"

Everyone except for Hou Zui bows down, indicating that they understand his words. Yuan Shu then followed by saying that all of them would do as Hou Zui had suggested, which was to collect all of the supplies outside of Runan.

Yuan Shu's general after the meeting, goes out to Runan with thousands of men to take all the supplies and taxes early. The people of Runan Commandery show as still under Yuan Shu's jurisdiction can only cry for the injustice that just happened to them.

Lie Fan and Cao Cao who were pacifying Runan Commandery from east and west respectively received the news, one laughed loudly at Yuan Shu's stupidity while the other gave a smile at a successful plan.

2 weeks and a half passed and Cao Cao and Lie Fan alongside their army finally arrived at Runan at the exact same time, Yuan Shu's 140,000 men faced off against 275,000 combined men of Lie Fana and Cao Cao.

Since this was a subjugation battle under an 'Imperial' edict, Lie Fan honored it by merging his forces with Cao Cao and having Cao Cao as the leader of the combined army, with him as the vice leader.

Cao Cao was surprised by this move at first, but then praised Lie Fan silently in his heart as by doing so, Lie Fan could receive more rewards from the Emperor, as Lie Fan didn't contend for a leadership position and even relinquished it to Cao Cao who was 'appointed' by Emperor Xian.

Maybe in terms of material and monetary rewards were not many due to the Han Dynasty treasury now in the hands of Li Jue and Guo Si, so they needed to give more in terms of titles and positions, which helped Lie Fan more in the long run than the materials and monetary rewards.

Since Lie Fan and Cao Cao combined their army, this meant their generals and advisors had to work side by side together, which was a hurdle at first especially for the generals as they were more brash than the advisors.

Right now Lie Fan and Cao Cao are enjoying tea together, allowing their men to rest for a day and their engineers to prepare their siege weapons, Lie Fan's trebuchet is a marvel for Cao Cao and his men who see it for the first time.

Lie Fan: "Brother Mengde once again we work together, we are truly fated to continue working together side by side since our first meeting battling the Yellow Turbans!"

Cao Cao: "Haha what Brother Fan said is true, I didn't expect that the young man I met at the time would keep working together alongside me, even having the same position as me!"

Lie Fan: "Oh yes Brother Mengde I would like to congratulate you for saving Your Majesty and having Xuchang as the new capital of Han!"

Cao Cao: "It was a burden and an advantage, which I know Brother Fan understands completely, but to choose a different path than me, as if you want you actually could shelter the Emperor like me."

Lie Fan and Cao Cao laugh together after Cao Cao finishes saying that, both actually know that they will face each other as enemies in the end but they feel connected and regard the other as friends due to how same they were in terms of mindset.

A day has passed since their rest, Lie Fan and Cao Cao together sitting on their horses, watching the battlefield where 275,000 men facing off against Runan a fortress city with 140,000 of Yuan Shu's men defending it.

Guo Jia, Jia Xu, and Xun You became their main advisors, the others helped by delegating the orders to the generals and even helped them organize their battalions, to ensure the command was received well.

Cao Cao commanded the army to march and attack Runan, the generals who led from the frontline were Xiahou Dun from Cao Cao's side and Dian Wei from Lie Fan's side.

Lie Fan sent his cavalries to surround Runan, which Cao Cao agreed to as they could prevent Yuan Shu from escaping Runan and support it by also sending his cavalries alongside Lie Fan's cavalries.

Cao Cao and Lie Fan's combined infantry was around 150,000 men, Yuan Shu who was standing on the top of Runan's wall turned pale seeing the large number of enemies coming toward Runan.

Cao Cao's catapult and Lie Fan's trebuchet were fired at Runan's wall, which caused some heavy casualties to Yuan Shu's army. Battering rams were deployed to knock down Runan's gate, and siege ladders were put to the wall.

Yuan Shu's soldiers under Yuan Shu's general lead fired their arrows at the sea of soldiers below them, since it was packed full of people they didn't need much accuracy as their shots would hit their target.

Lie Fan seeing this, suggested to Cao Cao to order their archers to fire their arrows at Runan's wall which Cao Cao agreed to.

The battle was bloody, as Yuan Shu was optimistic that he would win this battle as long as he could hole up himself at Runan and that he would not be defeated, as he didn't want to even though of his fate if he was defeated.

Lie Fan and Cao Cao continued to lead their army attacking Runan, supervising and giving orders after receiving advice from Guo Jia, Jia Xu, and Xun You. What marvels Lie Fan is that Guo Jia's Military mind alone could rival Jia Xu and Xun You which showed how big of a threat he is.

For some days it was a stall mate, neither side won or lost but received casualties each day. It was at this time, that Jia Xu suggested to Lie Fan privately that to contact Hou Zui and order him to betray Yuan Shu.

Lie Fan agreed for this to be done, so under the cover of night, a bird was released from Jia Xu's tent and flew towards Hou Zui's quarter in Runan. When Hou Zui received the letter and read the content inside it, he knew that it was time for him to return to the shadows.

The next day, Yuan Shu was shocked by the news that Hou Zui was found dead inside his quarters, his body was found by some maids, with stab wounds all over his body and his face was full of burned wounds.

Yuan Shu hurriedly walked towards Hou Zui's quarters, where he saw a body lying down being covered by a white sheet. He immediately opened it, ignoring the objection from his subjects.

Yuan Shu wanted to vomit seeing the condition of 'Hou Zui's' corpse and since the face was disfigured he couldn't know exactly if this was Hou Zui, but the clothes it was wearing were the clothes Yuan Shu gave to Hou Zui as a reward for his services so Yuan shy recognize it.

At this time Yuan Shu remembers that Hou Zui once told him that he had a scar on his left shoulder due t own accident, he sees that both of the corpse's shoulders don't have wounds and he orders a servant to roll up the corpse sleeves.

A servant comes forward and carries out Yuan Shu's order, when Yuan Shu sees the scar on their left shoulder he lets out a shout of distress as he feels that he has lost his most able and trusted advisor.

Yuan Shu suddenly became paranoid, thinking that there was a traitor just like Yang Hong and Yang Dajiang, he immediately ordered the previous advisors who were put in jail to be executed thinking that he was the mastermind.

Many of his advisors told him to not do so, as the loss of Hou Zui have dealt a huge blow to their army morale, if Yuan Shu suddenly executed another person and branded him as a traitor without evidence, this would have dealt a catastrophic blow to their army morale.

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Name: Lie Fan

Title: Three Heroes Who Defeat Lu Bu

Age: 25 (192 AD)

Level: 15

Next Level: 1.588.000

Renown:  605

Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)

SP: 371.700

ATTRIBUTE POINTS

STR: 906 (+20)

VIT: 578 (+20)

AGI: 563 (+10)

INT: 567

CHR: 93

WIS: 489

WILL: 377

ATR Points: 0