Chapter 54: The Battle of Xiapi, A Hero's Demise!

  Lü Bu took Chen Gong and broke out of the encirclement, joining forces with Gao Shun near Xiaopei. Xiaopei was no longer tenable, so he led his remaining troops to flee towards Xiapi.

  "My lord, Chen Gong is incompetent and has fallen into Cao Cao's trap. Please punish him, my lord!"

  "What's wrong?" Lü Bu looked at Chen Gong, shook his head and continued to retreat towards Puyang City. Chen Gong knew that Lü Bu's confidence in him had been shaken. Since following Lü Bu, Chen Gong had rarely failed, but this time he had almost lost everything for Lü Bu.

  "My lord, Chen Gong can no longer help you conquer the world, he can only devise a plan to save our lives!" Chen Gong looked up at the sky and muttered to himself, then whipped his horse and followed Lü Bu.

  "Haha, Gong Da, Lü Bu has retreated to Xiapi. It's a desperate fight for him now. Our army will take advantage of the victory and pursue him, we must capture Xuzhou! After capturing Xuzhou, I'll reward you and Gong Da for your contributions!"

  "Thank you, sir!"

  "My lord, although Lü Bu was defeated, our army's grain and fodder also suffered significant losses! If we cannot take Xiapi in time, if Lü Bu is allowed to catch his breath, it will be difficult for us to conquer Xuzhou. I beg my lord to summon General Cao Ren back, to jointly besiege Xiapi!" Man Chong bowed his head, suggesting that Cao concentrate his forces to attack Xiapi.

  Cao nodded and said: "What Benning said makes sense, Rui'er? You're in charge of the documents!"

  "Yes, sir!" Ugh? Writing documents again? Being a clerk is not easy, starting from the basics, documents are the foundation!

  Lü Rui threw down the bamboo slips, stretched his waist and finally completed the statistics of military rations and casualties. Being a supervisor is not an easy job, he needs to take a good rest!

  Lü Ruo Zheng was about to rest when suddenly there was a commotion outside.

  "Your Lordship!"

  "What's wrong? What's going on outside?"

  "Your Lordship, General Cao has returned, defeated and routed. Lord Cao is now meting out military punishment to General Cao Ren!"

  "What? Has Uncle Cao Ren been disposed of?" Lü Bu hastily ran out of the camp and headed for the drill ground.

  "Fifteen!"

  "Sixteen!"

  When Lü Bu arrived at the school grounds, Cao Ren was already badly wounded, with fresh blood flowing from his buttocks. Lü Bu asked: "Evil comes, how many soldiers and horses has Uncle Cao lost?"

  "It seems there aren't many, just now I saw a lot of people and horses returning to the barracks!"

  "One thousand wounded, five hundred dead, and the rest of the soldiers have returned safely!" Guo Jia said calmly from behind Lü Bu.

  "What?" Lü Rui heard Guo Jia's words and was stunned, turning his head to look at Guo Jia with a puzzled expression: "Master? Although Cao Ren's uncle was defeated, he preserved most of the soldiers. Shouldn't this be heavily punished too?" Xiahou Dun had been defeated at Bao Wanzhou Slope, but Old Cao hadn't taken severe action, yet Cao Ren was being flogged?

  "Rui Er, our army's grain was greatly consumed in the battle of Xiao Pei. If we cannot take Xiapi within a year, our army will have to retreat. General Cao Ren, it is just that our lord received military punishment to boost morale!"

  Lü Ru immediately realized that Cao Ren had been made a scapegoat, and Cao wanted to use this to motivate his troops to attack Xiaopei. As expected, the next day, Cao delivered an impassioned pre-battle speech in the drill ground, with Cao Ren as an example, the Cao army officers and men were all brave and surged towards Xiaopei like a tide!

  Lü Bu, holding the halberd Guan Yu had given him, stood on the city wall of Xiapi and gazed out at Cao's army swarming in from all sides. He smiled to himself, gripped his halberd tightly, and began the long defense of Xiapi that would last for months!

  Black smoke filled the entire Xiapi, today is already the second month that Cao's army has been besieging Xiapi. Every three days, Cao's army launches an attack. Lü Bu's face was blackened, only revealing two rows of teeth. Looking at the not-so-distant Cao camp, Lü Bu licked his lips and for the first time showed a worried expression!

  "Your Excellency, Yuan Shu's envoy has replied that our army must send Miss to Huainan before they will dispatch troops for relief. Please make a clear decision!" Chen Gong reported to Lü Bu with a tired body.

  "Alright, Gongtai, you stay behind and guard the city. Tonight, I'll take Jing Rui on a surprise attack and send our daughter to Huainan!"

  "Yes, milord!"

  "Are you really going to send our daughter to Huainan?" Yan's wife asked tearfully.

  "Madam, now that Cao's army has surrounded the city, our own is in danger every day. I'm afraid this time we can't escape. The Yuan family has had three dukes for four generations and their influence in Huainan is immense. Even if Yuan Shu were to be eliminated by the other lords, his clan would still be safe. But I, Lü Bu, was born into a humble family, and in order to leave behind even a single drop of my bloodline, there's only this one way!"

  Yan looked at Lü Bu, and there were also tears in Lü Bu's eyes. He couldn't bear to part with his daughter, but what could he do? Now, this was probably the only way to keep his daughter safe!

  Yan nodded and then put on Lv Bu's armor, saying: "General be careful, I'll stay here to cook for you, see off our daughter, and when you return, we'll have a meal together!"

  Lü Bu revealed a comforting smile, took over Fang Tian's halberd, and walked out with his personal soldiers.

  "Rui Er, are you getting used to this inspection?"

  Outside the city of Xiapi, Cao and Guo Jia accompanied Lü Bu to inspect the battlefield, a necessary task for the besieging army, to prevent the enemy from breaking out of the encirclement at night.

  "Heh heh, Uncle Zhong, it's not bad!" This was Lü Rui's first time inspecting the siege camp, and she was very excited. Lord Hou liked this kind of thing, commanding people, moving here and there, fighting a bit, without having to do specific tasks - that was the military life Lü Rui yearned for! Complicated specific work? That was for training newbies, Lü Rui wasn't a newbie, she was an old hand with over 2,000 years of knowledge!

  "My lord! The enemy troops in Xiaopei city suddenly launched a surprise attack, and Lü Bu is covering a horse carriage heading south!"

  "What? Filial piety, let's go and take a look!" The three of them mounted their fast horses and quickly arrived at the south gate. At this time, Lü Bu was leading the way on horseback, covering a carriage as it tried to break through the encirclement.

  "My lord, Lü Bu plans to use this horse carriage as cover and charge out of our army's encirclement!"

  "Not bad, order the men to shoot arrows and stop the chariot from breaking out of the encirclement!"

  Slow!

  Cao Cao and Guo Jia were taken aback for a moment, looked at Lü Bu, and slowly asked: "What do you mean?"

  "General, there must be someone very important to Lü Bu in this carriage. If our army can capture him alive, it's possible that we can make Lü Bu surrender!" Lü Rui saw Lü Bu escorting his daughter out of the encirclement and suddenly thought of trying something - if he captured Lü Bu's family members, would Lü Bu surrender? After all, Lü Bu was one of the warlords in the Three Kingdoms who valued kinship the most.

  "Oh?" Cao turned his eyes, if Lü Bu could surrender it would be best, if not, he would have another bargaining chip in his hands. Thinking of this, Cao said: "Zhong Kang, pass the order down, let Zi Xiang lead people to surround them, pay attention not to hurt anyone inside the carriage!"

  "Yes! My lord!" Xu Chu bowed and led the order away.

  "Make way!" Lü Bu killed several small soldiers with his halberd, then pulled back on Red Hare's reins and looked around. To his surprise, the Cao army did not fire arrows to block him, but instead a large number of soldiers approached the horse carriage!

  "Not good!" Lü Bu reacted, the Cao army's target was the carriage, and it was to capture the people inside alive. Lü Bu let out a loud shout, leading his personal troops to charge in front of the carriage.

  "Pull all troops back into the city!"

  Lü Bu personally escorted the carriage to the back of the hall, and it safely returned to the city. Lü Rui did not know that this butterfly effect would affect his life in the Three Kingdoms, and later events related to Lü Bu would leave him crying with laughter!

  It has been a month since Lü Bu broke through the siege, and Cao Cao is still unable to take down Xiapi. Lü Bu relies on the solid city walls of Xiapi to stubbornly defend the last stronghold in Xuzhou. Chen Deng has already pacified Guangling and brought his troops to reinforce Cao Cao at Xiapi.

  Cao sat in the main seat, spat out a mouthful of air, and instantly formed a mist in front of his face. The attack on Xuzhou had been going on for several months, and now it was already winter. He himself had not yet won, if he could not take down Pengcheng before the New Year's Eve, the morale of the army would be unstable!

  "Gentlemen, our army has been besieging Xiaopei for many days. Lü Bu is fighting a desperate battle, and it's taking a long time. Does anyone have a clever strategy to defeat the enemy?"

  Xun Yu stepped forward, cupped his hands and said: "My lord, I have observed that Xiapi is heavily guarded, with high walls and an inner city. Our army lacks siege equipment, so it's not suitable to attack the city. I think our army can take advantage of the Si River!"

  "Gongda means excavating the Si River? The water overflows below Pei?"

  "That's right, milord! Although this isn't some clever plan, it can still break through Lü Bu's army's last line of defense!"

  "Do you also think so, Filial Piety?"

  "My lord, I second Gong Da's proposal!"

  "Yuan Long is from Xuzhou, does he agree with this plan?"

  "Yuan Long thinks this is the only way to quickly defeat Lü Bu, and asks Lord Cao to make a decision!"

  Lian Chen and Deng both agreed. Cao immediately made up his mind, saying: "Good, let's follow Gongda's plan! Flood the city of Xiapi with the Sishui River!"

  Soon, Cao Cao ordered his troops to divert the Sishui River, flooding Xiapi.

  "It's finally done! General Song, shall we have a drink?"

  "General Hou? Is it our lord?"

  "Mind your own business! I've made this achievement, and yet Master is still punishing me?"

  "General Song, General Hou is right. This haunted place of Xia Pi? Without drinking wine, how can one get through the winter?" After Xia Pi had been soaked by the flood, it became cold and damp. Think about it, if water entered your home in the severe winter, what would be the effect?

  After listening to their advice, Song Xian also didn't care about anything anymore and followed them in drinking.

  "Song Xian, Hou Cheng, Wei Xu, what are you doing?" Lü Bu patrolled to this place and saw the three men drinking. Suddenly, his anger ignited. He had already issued a ban on wine to resist Cao's army, but the three of them dared to ignore it?

  Hou Cheng immediately made a fist and said: "Master, I have just discovered Liu Bei's spy in the city, trying to seize 50 of our army horses and surrender to Liu Bei. He has been executed by me. Let's drink with the two brothers!" Hou Cheng smiled at Lü Bu, expecting some reward for his achievement.

  "Bastard, you dare to take credit in front of me for such a small achievement? Come on, give each of them twenty military lashes!"

  "Your Excellency, spare my life, spare my life!"

  "Take them away!" Lü Bu ordered without hesitation. Soon, the three men's mournful cries could be heard.

  "General Hou? Lü Bu is too ruthless!"

  "Hum, Lü Bu, we have been following you for many years as your subordinates, how can you treat us like this now?"

  "General Wei, General Song? Now that Cao's army is so powerful and Lü Bu treats us like this, why don't we turn against him?"

  "Obey General Hou Cheng's orders!"

  In Hou Cheng's house, Hou Cheng, Wei Xu and Song Xian were discussing how to surrender to Cao Cao. Lü Bu, the number one warrior in the world, was about to walk towards the end of his life! (Sorry for updating so late today, everyone has been busy at work, sorry readers!)