Chapter 46: Ma Chao Assembles His Forces and Plots

  The six of them had already heard Guan Hai's instructions beforehand, and everything was to be done according to the words of this Master Ma in front of them, no matter what they were told to do.

  Although they did not understand the intention of the host, the six people had always unconditionally obeyed Guan Hai's orders.

  "Alright, since you're their master, I'll borrow these six men of yours for a while. Once the task is accomplished, I'll return them to you!" Ma Chao said to Guan Yu.

  "Listen up, you lot! First, follow Master Ma and get the job done. If you don't do it well, don't come back to see me!" At this point, Guan Hai showed his authority as the leader of the gang, and the six men responded in unison.

  Ma Chao secretly delighted, Guan Hai in their stronghold indeed has strength, six confidants seem to be able to control better. The reason for finding Guan Hai to borrow people is because Ma Chao's plan needs manpower next, and relying on him and Cui An alone is clearly not enough.

  Ma Chao took out his own Snow Drinking Knife and handed it to Zhou Yi, "Take my knife to a blacksmith's shop in Donglai Changyang, find someone named Wu Anguo, tell him that I will go to see him in a few days, when he sees my knife, he will arrange everything for you."

  Ma Chao then told the six men the specific location of Wu An's blacksmith shop, and after they had all memorized it, he let them go ahead first. "You can go now, be careful and cautious, don't let anyone notice your tracks!" Ma Chao reminded the six men, who took their orders and bid farewell to Guan Yu and Ma Chao before leaving.

  After the six men left, Ma Chao waited for another half day. In the afternoon, he bid farewell to Guan Hai with Cui An. Guan Hai then led his mountain people to see them off down the mountain.

  Ma Chao said to Guan Yu on horseback: "Sending you a thousand miles, we must part ways. I and the master of the house are also considered not to be familiar with each other without fighting, today we will part ways, Master, take care of yourself, we will meet again!"

  Guan Hai also hastily said: "Master Ma, take good care of yourself too, we will meet again!"

  As soon as the words fell, Ma Chao turned his horse's head and went towards Xuzhou with Cui An. Guan Yu saw that Ma Chao had gone far away and led his men back to the mountain stronghold.

  Under Guan Yu's command, there was a man who gazed at the gradually disappearing figures of Ma Chao and his men, lost in thought.

  By noon of the second day, Zhu Jia's five tigers had received a secret report from Wang Fa, who was sent to monitor Hai Shan village.

  Wang Fa was indeed very capable, and even though he was being watched by Guan Hai, he was still able to pass on the information to Zhu Jia Wuyong. However, Lv Er was also quite clever, as although he didn't discover Wang Fa passing on the information, Wang Fa also didn't realize that someone was watching him.

  It can be said that Wang Fa played a crucial role in Ma Chao's plan, and he was afraid that he would not pass on the information. By passing on the information, he fell right into Ma Chao's trap.

  Zhu Jia's five heroes have been observing the recent movements in Guan Hai Mountain stronghold for nearly ten days, and the intelligence sent by Wang Fa is quite detailed, even including information about Ma Chao.

  "Is this Master Ma?" asked Zhu Jia's fourth son, Zhu Bao.

  "I'm telling you, Old Fourth, didn't Wang Fa's secret report already say that? The one called Chao had already left yesterday!" Zhu Jia Lao Er, Zhu Hu, chimed in.

  "Fourth brother, you're always suspicious of ghosts and gods, what's wrong with that!" said the eldest son of the Zhu family, Zhu Long.

  "Be careful, brother, it's a long way to go! Maybe I'm just being paranoid!"

  Big Brother has spoken, so Zhu Biao didn't say much either. There was no direct evidence to show that Ma Chao would be unfavorable to his own mountain stronghold. Since everyone had already left, there was nothing to do about it. However, Zhu Biao still felt that something wasn't quite right. Although Zhu Biao was smarter than his four brothers, he wasn't a professional strategist after all, so he couldn't see too much into it either.

  "When are we going to wipe out that fake temple of Guan Yu's?! As soon as I heard this loud voice, I knew it was Old Third Zhu Xiong speaking."

  "Third brother, don't worry, there will always be opportunities!" said Old Fifth Zhu Lang.

  "Lao Wu is right, this matter can only wait for the opportunity and cannot be rushed." Zhu Bao said again.

  "Waiting for an opportunity, waiting for an opportunity, how many years have you been waiting, and yet I haven't seen any movement from you!" Zhu Xiong was full of complaints.

  "Old Three, you can't hold back. We brothers think the same as you, but without a good opportunity to strike, the best result is also two losses!" Zhu Long became severe towards Zhu Xiong, and after his big brother spoke, Zhu Xiong didn't say anything more.

  Zhu Bao patted Zhu Xiong's shoulder and said, "Alright, Third Brother, there will always be opportunities for you to show off your skills in the future!"

  Ma Chao and his men bid farewell to Guan Yu, and the two of them walked for a while. When they had gone far enough, Ma Chao turned back with Cui An from another road.

  During this time, Cui An also asked Ma Chao why he came back again. Ma Chao told Cui An that there were fun things to do. As soon as Cui An heard that there were fun things to do, his eyes lit up and he didn't ask any more questions. Anyway, in his opinion, if the lord said it was fun, then it must be absolutely right, and following the lord would be fine.

  Two days later, the two arrived at Pingzhou City in Beihai. Ma Chao and Cui An bought five large boxes in Pingzhou and then rented a room in Pingzhou City to stay overnight and store their boxes.

  After everything was arranged, Ma Chao and the other stayed in Pingshou for a night. The next day, they set off again to rush to Donglai Changyang to find Wu Anguo. After rushing for two days, the two arrived at Wu Anguo's blacksmith shop. When Wu Anguo saw that it was Ma Chao and the others who had come, he looked extremely delighted.

  Although Zhou Yixiao and others had told him before that Ma Chao would arrive soon, he did not expect them to come so quickly.

  When Zhou Yi and others came to find Wu Anguo, he knew that the master must be looking for him to do something. Although he didn't know what it was, Wu Anguo was also excited enough. After all, it was Ma Chao's first time finding him to do something, and he made up his mind to make a good show in front of the master.

  "Master, Foda, you've all arrived!"

  "Are Zhou Yi and the others all right?" Ma Chao asked Wu An Guo.

  "They're all here, they're all here."

  "Let's go find them and discuss it together!"

  "Alright!" said Wu An Guo, and then he led Ma Chao to find Zhou Yi and the others.

  This time, Ma Chao specifically found Wu Anguo because he was his own man. Although there were Zhou Yi and the other six, they were still under Guan Yu's command now, and they didn't know about Ma Chao and Guan Yu's relationship either. Using them would not be as convenient as using Wu Anguo, who was one of their own. Moreover, Ma Chao also wanted to train Wu Anguo a bit, if he couldn't even handle this small matter now, how could he talk about going to battlefields in the future? So he intentionally let Wu Anguo start with killing mountain bandits.

  So he let Zhou Yi and others go to find Wu Anguo first, knowing that Wu Anguo was illiterate, writing letters was useless, Ma Chao handed over the Xueyin knife as a token to Zhou Yi. After being with Wu Anguo for more than three months, he could say that he was quite familiar with the Xueyin knife, and as an ironworker, Wu Anguo knew even better that Ma Chao's Xueyin knife was not something that could be made by imitation, no matter how it was imitated, it was not as good as the original one.

  So when someone came with the Snow Drinking Sword, Wu Anguo believed that it was the lord who had sent someone to find him. He wouldn't think that someone had snatched Ma Chao's sword or picked it up halfway. His own lord knew the extent of his fondness for this sword, almost inseparable from it, and yet Ma Chao used his sword as a token, which meant that something must have happened. It has to be said that Wu Anguo was quite right in his thinking, and it wasn't in vain that Ma Chao had cultivated him.

  Wu An led Ma Chao and found Zhou Yi with six people. The six saw Ma Chao and hurriedly paid their respects and asked after his well-being.

  "No need for formalities!" Ma Chao laughed and waved his hand.

  The six men had been repeatedly warned by Guan Yu, so they didn't dare to be slow in front of this Master Ma. Among the six men, two were still eyewitnesses to Ma Chao's battle with Guan Yu that night, and they knew more about Ma Chao's skills, so they were even more respectful.

  "I know you've all been curious about what I wanted to see you for!" Ma Chao looked at the six of them, then looked at Wu An Guo.

  The six of them indeed didn't know, but hadn't asked either. Now although they weren't speaking, their eyes also had a curious gaze.

  Ma Chao smiled and continued: "I know you people in charge haven't said anything, now I'll tell you something!"

  The six people heard the words and immediately perked up their ears, of course Wu An Guo and Cui An also made a serious listening expression, after all this was also something they had to do.

  "You guys take care of the master's household and help me get rid of those useless Zhu family Five Tigers!"

  The six of them listened and suddenly realized. They thought to themselves, so that's how it is! Since that's the case, the six of them made up their minds to do a good job with Master Ma's instructions. After all, Master Ma was helping them out, and he was even willing to draw his sword to assist them, so how could they not put in their best effort?

  "To be specific, this is a relatively simple trick to lure the snake out of its hole. Because I heard from your master before that in recent years, the five tigers of the Zhu family have rarely shown up, which means they themselves have rarely participated in robbery personally, almost countable with fingers, and I believe you all know these."

  After listening to Ma Chao's words, the six people nodded in unison. The fact is that in the past three years, the five heroes of the Zhu family have rarely participated in robbery personally.

  "So the five heroes of Zhu's family are generally in the mountain stronghold, but we can't directly attack the mountain stronghold. That would lead to mutual destruction and the main culprit may not be eliminated!"

  Ma Chao said these, six people are clear, before and now have discussed this, the strength of two mountain strongholds is almost the same, if really directly go to attack the stronghold, then finally must be both sides suffer, while Guan Hai basically has no grasp on killing Zhu Jia Wuyong in one move.

  A good result would be to kill two, and no matter how well the plan is, only two can be killed. The remaining fish that escape the net will definitely run away. Guan Hai is not afraid, but his brothers will have to bear the revenge of their enemies, so a direct attack on the mountain stronghold is not feasible.

  "So I've come up with a plan to lure them out of their lair. They're not going to come out on their own, are they? So we'll just have to bring them out! The five heroes of the Zhu family are five people, and I'm worried that they won't come out. My prediction is that at least three of them will be lured out. And if three of them do come out, then there will only be two left in the mountain stronghold. At that point, your master can attack the stronghold, and it'll be a piece of cake!"

  The six men heard Ma Chao's plan and thought it was good. "May I ask, sir, how specifically will you lure them out?"

  This was asked by Zhou Yiwen, and Ma Chao could also see that Zhou Yi was the oldest among the six people, and the other five were led by him.

  "It's simple, we'll spend the night in Changyang today and set off for Pingshou tomorrow. I've already rented a house there, and after staying in Pingshou for some time, when the time comes, we'll transport five large trunks!"

  "Five big boxes?"

  "These five large boxes are all empty, to deceive the enemy. The Zhu family will receive news that there is a merchant escorting five large boxes of wealth from Beihai Pingshou to Xuzhou's Langya State for business. With the greed of the eldest and second brothers of the Zhu family, they cannot be unmoved by this. As long as they come out to rob us, no matter how many come, we will kill that many!" Ma Chao said firmly.

  "Yes! Young master is right! However many come, we will kill that many!" The six men said in unison.

  "And before that, I'll have someone inform the head of your household to lead a team to ambush near Zhu Jia Wuyong's mountain stronghold. As soon as anyone from Zhu Jia Wuyong leaves, they will launch a surprise attack on their stronghold and wipe out their lair!"

  The six men nodded in agreement, thinking that Ma Chao's plan was not bad and would definitely work on them. The five Zhu brothers were not much smarter than they were, so it was certain that they would fall into the trap.

  Thinking of this, the six men couldn't help but admire Ma Chao. In their eyes, those who are good at using tactics must be knowledgeable people. And the young master in front of them not only uses tactics well, but his martial arts skills are also superb, it can be said that he is both civil and military. Having such a friend as the leader is also a blessing for the mountain stronghold. Of course, the six men would never have thought that the relationship between this young master and their leader was not simply a friendship.

  Then Ma Chao told them some specific details and things to pay attention to. Of course, this wouldn't be said just once, there were still many days before the formal action, now it was just a rehearsal, Ma Chao was trying to help them remember, otherwise, if any place showed a little flaw, it would be possible to fail, failure often occurred in places where you didn't expect.

  Ma Chao also thinks that there is no certain strategy to succeed, but he has 80% confidence in this plan to lure the snake out of the cave. He doesn't think anyone in Zhu's stronghold can see through this plan, although it's said that Zhu's fourth brother seems to have some brains, but that's only compared to his other brothers.

  If Zhu Jia lao si really had that kind of ability, Guan Hai's mountain stronghold wouldn't exist today and would have been destroyed long ago. The mountain stronghold isn't just saying that the overall strength is similar, even the head of the household has a brain that is half a catty against eight taels. If there was really someone with a bit of ability, it wouldn't be like this situation now.