Chapter 73: Lü Bu's Fury Burns

  As long as the northwest counties are pacified, because the area directly controlled by the emperor and the court is expanding, this situation will also make the dragon energy stronger, and the dragon energy between heaven and earth will become thicker and show an upward trend. Liu Xuan's cultivation speed will be faster, so although he lost some dragon energy this time, and a few cracks appeared in the dragon egg that was born in his body, the loss is not that great.

  "It would be even more unfortunate if Lü Bu were to die because of this, what a great loss that would be!"

  Liu Xuan thought this way, and it wasn't wrong. If Nan Hua succeeded this time, then there would be a next time. Liu Xuan wasn't the nanny of his subordinates, so he couldn't turn around to protect them, could he?

  In that case, as long as Nan Hua stares at his own subordinates, he can completely suppress his own power in Chang'an City. After the situation in the world has thoroughly deteriorated, Liu Xuan will not be able to restore the Han dynasty's rivers and mountains - In that case, the things done in these few years would have been done in vain, and no one would be willing to do so.

  So, it's better to take drastic measures and make a clean break. Exert some effort to drive Nanhua back and let him understand that his subordinates are not targets he can play tricks on. This will once and for all solve the trouble.

  In this way, if Nanhua wants to achieve its goals, it can only go head-to-head with itself: each side rallies its own forces and then competes for dominance.

  This situation is also what Liu Xuan hopes to see, especially since the troops that Nanhua can lead are the remnants of the Yellow Turbans. These Yellow Turban bandits may not be good at anything else, but they are unparalleled in causing trouble everywhere.

  Moreover, because most of the Yellow Turbans came from poor backgrounds, they harbored deep resentment towards the wealthy, and the great families were naturally among them.

  "I just don't know where Nanhua will start trouble this time."

  He most hopes that Nan Hua will start a war in Guandong, so the Guandong Allied Army can also do more things. It's better than staring at the imperial court's movements and thinking about how to deal with their own arrival.

  The Emperor's seal was put away, and Liu Xuan let out a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, I had specially conferred the title of General of the Western Expedition on Lü Bu before departure." If it weren't for this title being used with this jade seal, Liu Xuan would not have been able to establish contact with Lü Bu, even if he knew that Nan Hua was making a move against Lü Bu, he wouldn't have been able to respond in time.

  He stood up, walked a few steps out of the tent, and saw that the soldiers in the camp were patrolling back and forth. The surroundings of his large tent were even more heavily guarded, like an iron barrel. Zhang Liao was standing at the entrance of the tent, and upon hearing a sound behind him, he knew that Liu Xuan had come out.

  "Your Majesty."

  "Hmm!"

  Liu Xuan pointed at the guarding soldiers: "Except for those on normal shift duty, all the others can go and rest."

  Zhang Liao nodded in response and went to make arrangements. Just as he was about to leave, Liu Xuan said: "Call Xun Yu and Guo Jia over to see me."

  The specific situation naturally doesn't need to be said, Zhang Liao will send someone to invite those two people. Before long, the two of them arrived at Liu Xuan's tent, and saw the Emperor sitting there, gesturing for the two of them to sit down and talk.

  The two had just sat down and hadn't even asked what was going on when Liu Xuan directly spoke out: "Lü Bu has been ambushed, Feng Xiao you should ride a fast horse to hurry up front and see how things are with Lü Bu, whether or not he needs to stop and regroup for a while."

  As soon as this was said, both of them were shocked. Their first reaction was that Guo Si and Li Jue had arranged for soldiers to ambush Lü Bu's Tiger Warriors, but thinking again, it didn't seem right: "Why haven't we seen any military reports?"

  Liu Xuan waved his hand: "It's not Li Jue and Guo Si's soldiers, but a cultivator named Nan Hua who ambushed halfway to kill Lü Bu."

  Xun Yu and Guo Jia did not know what kind of person Nan Hua was, and Liu Xuan did not mention it to anyone after being assassinated by Nan Hua last time. At that time, Zhang Liao only vaguely knew a little about it, but he didn't know who it was either.

  Seeing the two men's puzzled faces, Liu Xuan first explained Nanhua's identity: "This Nanhua calls himself Nanhua Old Immortal, originally cultivating in the mountains, later took a disciple named Zhang Jiao..."

  As soon as this was said, Xun Yu and Guo Jia immediately realized: "It turns out that he is the leader of the Yellow Turban bandits."

  I recall the Yellow Turbans' initial chaos in the world, bringing great disaster to the Han dynasty's rivers and mountains. Especially in their hometown of Yingchuan, it was one of the areas most severely affected by the Yellow Turbans' evil deeds. Therefore, I have an extremely strong sense of hatred towards the Yellow Turbans. Now, since Zhang Jue is the master of the Yellow Turban leader Zhang Jiao and has come to launch a sneak attack on the imperial court's great general, he is obviously also a rebel.

  Could it be that there are Yellow Turbans lurking around here?

  Liu Xuan said, "That old immortal from Nanhua is skilled in the dark arts. I once fought him and although I destroyed one of his puppet clones and ruined one of his magical instruments, I didn't harm him at all. This time he ambushed Lü Bu, if not for me using my treasure and techniques to help him, perhaps Lü Bu would have died at that evil Daoist's hands."

  After saying this, Guo Jia and Xun Yu finally understood the importance of the matter - it turned out that Nan Hua was not leading a group of Yellow Turban bandits to launch a surprise attack on Lü Bu, but rather he had gone alone, relying on his powerful and mysterious martial arts skills to try to kill Lü Bu, and had almost succeeded.

  Lü Bu's martial arts are so powerful, and with the secret techniques given by Liu Xuan during this period, his strength has long been unstoppable for ordinary people. How could he be defeated by Nan Hua?

  Xun Yu sighed inwardly: "My initial speculation has actually come true!" At the same time, he began to ponder that if the Yellow Turbans were to rise again, with someone like Huangfu Song around, it would likely be much more difficult to quell them than before.

  At the same time, Nanhua launched a surprise attack on Lü Bu. Can this western expedition continue? Is Lü Bu injured? What are the casualties of the vanguard army? None of these are clear. It seems that the Emperor ordered Guo Jia to hurry up and catch up with the vanguard army, just to check on these matters.

  Guo Jia remained silent, and after hearing this, he already understood the beginning and end of the matter, and also figured out his own task. He cupped his hands and said: "I will certainly not betray Your Majesty's trust."

  Liu Xuan nodded, but immediately said: "If Fengxian insists on advancing, Fengxiao will stay in the vanguard army and temporarily serve as a staff officer." In fact, he didn't know whether Lü Bu would listen if Guo Jia was sent to him. However, with Guo Jia by his side, it was certain that Lü Bu wouldn't fall for the enemy's strategy and suffer defeat.

  What's more important is that Guo Jia also practiced the techniques he taught, and the moves Guo Jia grasped were quite unusual. If Lü Bu encountered such a situation again with Guo Jia by his side, even if he didn't help himself, there wouldn't be any danger to his life.

  Having given his orders, Guo Jia departed, leaving only Xun Yu alone in the tent. Liu Bei saw that he was not speaking and smiled: "Wenruo is worried about those Yellow Turban bandits?"

  Xun Yu shook his head: "If it were only the Yellow Turbans, there would be no need to worry. But I wonder how many more men like Huangfu Song are out there?"

  Liu Xuan heard Xun Yu's words, blinked his eyes, and silently counted in his heart: "It shouldn't be too many, at least as far as I know, it should not exceed a dozen."

  His tone, which seemed utterly indifferent, nearly made Xun Yu spit blood. There were several of them, not just a couple, and if all these powerful individuals were to jump out and challenge the imperial court, wouldn't the world be thrown into chaos?

  Liu Xuan smiled and said: "What's the point of having more? Just kill them all, Wen Ruo is thinking too much."

  Xun Yu remained silent. Although he felt that the Emperor seemed too optimistic, he couldn't think of any words to refute him and had to bring up the situation in the northwest again.

  Liu Xuan's side had no more disputes, but Lü Bu on the other side had a dispute with his subordinates.

  After all, it was because of Nan Hua's interference that the generals under Lü Bu's command thought it would be better to hold back for the time being and wait for the arrival of the main army before making further plans.

  Especially the battle between Lü Bu and Nan Hua, these few people watched with bated breath, feeling that it was no longer a fight between humans, but a showdown between gods - they couldn't even get involved.

  This battle also made them very fearful, especially worried that the old Taoist was a high-ranking person invited by Li Jue and Guo Si. If so, rushing up like this would be no different from seeking death.

  Kong Rong would not agree, he was burning with anger, and when he heard that the old Dao might be Li Jue or Guo Si's man, he immediately wanted to rush up and fight the two thieves to death, in order to vent the evil air in his chest.

  "Today's humiliation, if I can't avenge it, I'm not a man. If that old Taoist is really the one those two villains invited, this battle will be a good opportunity to settle this grudge once and for all."

  Order the troops to set up camp and rest for a night, cook at four watches in the morning, then proceed, must arrive at the front line in the shortest time, and have a decisive battle with those two thieves.

  Many generals advised against it, but had to obey orders. However, before the battle even started, Lü Bu lost his Red Hare horse and nearly lost his own life as well. The morale of several of his generals was severely damaged, and things were not looking good for them.

  Lü Bu, although enraged, saw clearly and thought for a moment before coming up with a plan - this plan was simple: he would lead the cavalry first, while the other generals followed slowly with the infantry. When they encountered the enemy, he would charge forward himself, killing a few to boost the morale of his troops before considering anything else.

  After this decision, the next morning they acted according to law, and the generals did not say anything, but just obeyed orders. The Hu Bao army quietly rushed for several days, and finally arrived at the front line on this day, colliding with Li Jue's vanguard troops.

  Two vanguard troops unexpectedly collided head-on, and there was nothing to say. They just opened their formation and started fighting. What surprised Li Jue's army was that a general rushed out from the imperial court's side, and as soon as he saw Lu Bu's armor and the Guandao in his hand, he immediately recognized his identity.

  "It's Ruby!"

  Right in the midst of panic, it was suddenly discovered that Lü Bu didn't care about the troops behind him and charged out on his own, not only had the formation not been set up, but also many of the cavalry behind him hadn't even caught up.

  This man didn't understand what illness Lü Bu had contracted, but such a good opportunity couldn't be missed. If he could kill Lü Bu, he would make a name for himself throughout the world: "Haha, you're delivering yourself to death, don't blame me!"

  With a wave of his hand, the commander ordered the archers to move forward: "Release your arrows and kill him with a hail of arrows!" As soon as the words fell, the sound of bowstrings echoed from behind, and countless arrows flew out in unison, forming a dense swarm that seemed to block out the sky like a plague of locusts. In mid-air, they suddenly changed direction and came crashing down on Lü Bu's body.

  Lü Bu saw this scene, not only was he not surprised, but instead let out a loud shout: "Rebel traitor, accept your death!" He then wielded the Guandao in his hand like a spiral propeller, and sent all the arrows that filled the sky flying to one side. Not a single arrow touched his body.

  Li Jue's soldiers were stunned by this sight, as if they had seen a ghost, their faces frozen in shock.