Chapter Nineteen: The Secret Order on White Silk

  Cao Song was very stubborn and couldn't be persuaded, but he could be intimidated. After Cao Xiu and Cao De returned to the Cao family's estate from Ju County, they took turns trying to scare Cao Song. Cao Xiu analyzed the current situation in Xuzhou first, then said: "If Lord Cao stays in Yanzhou, there will likely be another assassination attempt like before. Although we can protect you for a while, we can't protect you forever." Cao Song shook his head: "At least here we have the estate to defend against external enemies. If we go on the road, wouldn't it be even more dangerous with no shelter or support?" Cao De then advised: "Father has accumulated tens of millions of wealth, what's the point of that? Don't you want to hand it over to your brother? If it's robbed by outsiders, you'll regret it too late."

  Cao Song was shocked, grabbing his son's collar: "According to you, they want to plot against my family's wealth?" Cao De spread his hands: "If not for this, sending an assassin to harm Father would be enough, why bother mobilizing troops to come here?" Cao Song's double chin shook violently, and he suddenly jumped up from the couch: "In that case, hurry, hurry!"

  Then they packed up their luggage and set off on the road - including Cao Song's father and son, as well as Cao De's underage son and daughter. The wealth of the Cao family filled twenty or thirty horse-drawn carriages, protected by more than thirty servants who had escaped disaster, as well as Sun Fan leading the Langya soldiers. They left Langya County in no time and entered Taishan Prefecture, first arriving at Huaxian County.

  Zang Ba, Wu Dun and Sun Guan came to pay their respects - Yin Li was stationed in Fei County - Cao Song gazed up at the sky, muttered a few words and sent them away. The group rested for two days inside Huaxian City before setting off again, leaving by the north gate.

  Hua County was just a small county town, and Zang Ba's main force of nearly 7,000 people could not be stationed in the city, so they were divided into dozens of teams, most of which were stationed outside the city or at several key transportation points. Is Xun and others escorted Cao Shi and his son into Hua County, Sun Fan also had to enter the city to report back, but his 300 soldiers were not allowed to enter the city until a group of people left the city and merged with them near Shili Pavilion outside the city.

  However, it was strange that Ji Xun found that the leader of the team was no longer Sun Fan, but a stranger. He called the officer to ask, and the other bowed his head in front of the horse, reporting: "Sun Fan has another mission, I am Xue Tong, ordered to come and protect Cao Gong's party."

  Xue Xin was secretly shocked, thinking that the team leader had been replaced at short notice, but he hadn't heard Zang Ba mention it before. He looked around at the soldiers and saw that more than a dozen of them were also unfamiliar faces, just like Xue Xin. Realizing something was amiss, he ordered: "I carelessly left the official document in the county, turn the carriage around, let's go back to the city first."

  While giving the order, he slanted his eyes and stared at Xue Tong with tension. But saw Xue Tong's face changing from cloudy to clear, suddenly gritted his teeth and shouted: "Take action!" He drew out the knife from his waist and slashed it down towards Shi Yun's face!

  Fortunately, Xun had made preparations earlier and had followed Taishi Ci for a few days to learn martial arts. He was no longer the carefree Lelang tribesman who only knew how to shoot small arrows from a soft bow. As soon as he saw the flash of the knife, he swiftly raised his arm with lightning speed, blocking it in front of him. With his energy concentrated in his dan Tian, he let out a loud shout: "You dare... spare my life!"

  No way, even if his martial arts skills barely rose from H to G, his combat experience was still at J, and his courage was far from sufficient... apart from instinctively covering his face with his hand and apologizing, Xun truly couldn't come up with any other reaction...

  As soon as this knife falls, it will cut off Xue Jun's arm. If Xue Jun's strength is a bit greater, he will directly split his face. In an instant, countless heroic figures flashed in Xue Jun's mind - Dong Zhuo, Sun Jian, Yan Liang, Wen Chou... None of them had a good death. A voice echoed in his heart: "I didn't expect that after crossing through two thousand years of time, I wouldn't have much impact on history, and now I'm going to become a ghost under the knife..."

  When people are nervous, they can't help but close their eyes. But just as soon as his eyes were closed, he heard a miserable cry coming from in front of him, followed by the sound of something heavy falling to the ground. Xun mustered up the courage to open his eyes and saw that the knife's light had already disappeared. He looked down and saw that Xue Tong was lying on his back in front of the horse with an arrow stuck in his neck, its feathers still trembling. Who was it? Who saved my life?!

  As soon as he lifted his head, he saw that more than a dozen unfamiliar faces had already drawn their swords and were rushing towards Cao's horse carriage. The situation arose suddenly, and neither the Cao family servants nor the strong and brave men, nor the Langya soldiers guarding them, could react in time. They were about to rush in front of Cao Song. Old Cao was also frightened stiff, his whole body trembling with fat, and he didn't even have the strength to roll out of the carriage.

  Xu knew someone was coming to rescue him, and his courage suddenly surged. He hastily grabbed his bow and arrow and shot one, hitting the carriage directly. With a "thud", Cao De covered his head, Cao Song closed his eyes, but also scared away a stranger who was rushing towards Cao Song with a knife, causing him to stumble. The knife missed its target and only chopped onto the carriage wheel.

  Xu was the first to shoot, but his arrow missed. The second arrow did not miss - it was still within twenty steps - and hit that unfamiliar face right on target, causing blood to spurt out and splashing Cao De's head and face. Just as they were momentarily stunned, the Langya soldiers were still in a daze, hesitating, but several of Cao's brave men had already reacted, rushing up to protect the carriage, each holding their weapons, and fighting with those rebellious soldiers.

  An arrow flew from a short distance away, shooting down another enemy. Xun shouted loudly: "Protect Cao Gong, take down those losers!" While turning his head to look around, he saw a horseman approaching like the wind, with a person of average height on the horse, with a common face, who was none other than Zhang Ke, whom he had seen not long ago!

  Zhang Ke urged his horse to come before Shi Xun, with a flattering smile all over his face, saying: "Mr. Shi was frightened." Shi Xun pointed at him: "You... you... you..." but for a moment could not speak. In just this short time, the number of attackers was too small after all, and their leader had already been shot dead. Soon they were killed or captured by Cao's brave soldiers and the Langya troops, and the situation was finally under control.

  Cao De ordered Ding Yong and others to continue protecting his father, wiped the blood from his face, jumped off the carriage, and ran to Shi Xun and Zhang Jin's horse. Zhang Jin hastily dismounted and knelt on one knee: "I have seen Master Cao. I, Zhang Jin, received the alarm and hurriedly came to rescue you, fortunately Master Cao is unharmed..."

  Cao De panted and asked: "Wh-what's going on?"

  "Those were new recruits from Hua County, and this morning they killed Sun's team in a secret location within the city, stole the command arrow, and wanted to come and assassinate Lord Cao."

  At this time, Xun finally cleared his head. He estimated that these were also assassins sent by Yuan Shu's co-conspirators in the state, mixed into the escort team, waiting for their own side to relax their vigilance before making a move to murder Cao's father and son. Fortunately, he was relatively sensitive, and as soon as he felt something was wrong, he immediately wanted to turn back to the city, so they were forced to launch ahead of time. However - "Who are you? How did you think of coming to save us?"

  Zhang Ke took out a bundle of things from his bosom and handed it to Shi Xun with both hands, saying: "The humble one has been ordered to protect Mr. Shi and Cao Gong." Shi Xun took it over and took a look, and found that it was a piece of extremely light and thin white silk, which was about the size of a palm when unfolded, with several lines of neat small characters written on it:

  "Escort General Cao before going to Yanzhou, ensure that Shi Zhen and the Cao family father and son do not lose face, otherwise come back to see me with your head in hand."

  The signature at the end is: "Hóng".

  Xīn Bǎo handed over the silk to Cao Dé, then deliberately asked: "Who is your master?"

  Zhang Ke replied: "It is just the registrar of the provincial government."

  Cao Hong, it's really him!

  In an instant, everything became clear to him. He glanced sideways at Zhang Ke, who was kneeling on the ground - "You little scoundrel, you've hidden it deep enough!" "Do you recognize the words written on this silk?" Zhang Ke replied with a flattering smile: "I dare not deceive you, sir. I hope you will spare me this time, considering that I helped you shoot the arrow just now." Is Xun asked again: "What are your two names?" Zhang Ke replied: "It's Zhang Changzhang, and my surname is Men Gong."

  So that's how it is! It must have been Cao Hong who secretly ordered Zhang Liao to harm Cao Shao and his son, so as to destroy the alliance between Xu and Yan, and clear Tao Qian and himself of suspicion. As long as they pushed all the blame onto Zhang Liao, who was already dead, naturally most of the lords in the world wouldn't hold Tao Qian accountable, at most they would criticize him for being too lenient with his troops and using people carelessly. That's why later on Gongsun Zan had a reason to send Liu Bei to rescue Xu State. Of course, he didn't expect that Cao Cao had long desired to obtain Xu State, no matter who made the first move, he would have to insist that Tao Qian was the main culprit and eliminate him as soon as possible.

  It's probably the truth about a historical mystery that was originally true!

  But now everything has changed, Cao Hong partially agreed to Xu and Yan's union, because Cao, Mi, and Chen have already formed a united body. No matter who rules Xuzhou, it is difficult to shake his position. In the midst of chaos, rather than handing over Xuzhou to Tao Qian's two incompetent sons, it would be better to temporarily decide to hand it over to Cao Cao. Therefore, Zhang Kun not only stopped being the executioner of Cao's father and son but also became their savior.

  Just as he was thinking this, Cao Song suddenly shouted from the carriage: "Return to the city, hurry back to the city!"

  "It's too late," Zhang Liao hastily said to Xiahou Yuan and Cao De: "I'm afraid there are still their accomplices inside the city, and I've already informed General Zang to search for them. But in recent days, many soldiers from Yan Province have been recruited, and it's hard to distinguish between good and evil. Moreover, even the soldiers from Xu State may not be entirely reliable. Only Sun Quan's troops, who once saved Lord Cao in the Zhuangzi Garden, are likely to be loyal. We should set out immediately and hurry to join forces with Cao in Yan Province."

  Xu Xuan was still hesitating, so Zhang Ke hurriedly made clear his identity: "I am originally a guest of Cao Cao's household, and I was ordered to secretly stay by General Zang's side, for fear that General Zang would compete with General Cao for merit. You, sir, are the son-in-law of the Cao family, which makes you my half-master. I didn't know this before, so I deceived you a bit. But what I'm saying now is all true!"

  Cao De said faintly, "What Commander Zhang has said is reasonable. I will go and persuade my father to continue advancing." He then handed the silk with Cao Hong's secret order back to Zhang Ke. Ji Xun asked casually, "How did you communicate?" It was clear that when he saw Zhang Ke last time, he had not yet received this secret order and was still in a state of deep-sea hiding, unaware of his relationship with Cao Hong, so he had to pretend to be foolish and feign illiteracy.

  Zhang Ke reported in truth: "Use carrier pigeons."

  "Carrier pigeon!" Xun and Cao De couldn't help but exchange a glance, both of them saw the same information in each other's pupils: "So that's how it is."

  I am the dividing line of the curtain

  Langya Ming Lian's assistant, Mr. Fan, after running for six chapters (not every chapter is guaranteed to appear), finally bid farewell to us today, took his salary and left dejectedly. However, reader friends will find that he is not the most miserable one, there is another Mr. Xue who, due to signing up late, had no choice but to make a brief appearance before taking his salary. Come on, let's give him a big round of applause for his selfless spirit and willingness to be a green leaf, and throw some collections, recommendations, and likes his way, please!