Chapter 82: Cao Xing

  The number of talents in the imperial court far exceeded Liu Bei's expectations, and it was even more difficult for Li Jue to understand: "That little emperor, where did he find so many outstanding people?"

  Only Xiahou Dun was seen holding a long spear upside down, with a disdainful expression on his face, shouting at Li Jue's army: "The mighty Western Liang army actually doesn't have a single man who can come out and fight me?"

  He scolded for a while, but still didn't see any movement from the other side. Xiahou Dun felt very bored, and just at this moment, he suddenly felt a flash of light in the corner of his eye. Although he couldn't see clearly what it was, Xiahou Dun made an instinctive reaction - dodging to the side. He had just turned his head when he felt an arrow flying past his ear, even feeling the arrow scraping against his helmet.

  "Despicable scoundrel, only daring to launch a sneak attack!"

  Ma Chao's spear, Xiahou Dun followed the direction of the hidden arrow's sneak attack to find the person who shot the arrow. Just as he hadn't found him yet, he heard the sound of horse hooves behind him, and someone should have urged their horse to rush out.

  At this time, the two armies were facing each other, originally very far apart. Xiahou Dun was also ambushed by a hidden arrow because he rushed to the middle of the two armies. Everyone saw a cavalry rushing out from the imperial court's side, with the general on horseback drawing his bow and placing an arrow on it. Immediately afterwards, a blue and white light condensed on the arrowhead, finally transforming into a crescent shape.

  Then a loud shout: "How dare the illegitimate child shoot an arrow to hurt someone, take one of my arrows!" Before the words fell, the bowstring sounded, and a blue and white light flashed between the two armies.

  The arrow shot out at an extremely fast speed, almost in the blink of an eye it had already flown from the Imperial Army's side to Li Jue's army.

  At such a speed, coupled with such a sudden change, what's even more astonishing is that this arrow was able to shoot so far, so the person on the other side didn't have any response at all, and stared blankly as the arrow shot into his own heart, the armor on his body almost had no effect at all, just like mud, it was pierced by the arrow in an instant.

  The arrow shot into his body, and immediately another muffled sound was heard. The people around only saw a blue light bursting out from the bow and arrow, but this blue light flashed by in an instant. Everyone thought they had seen wrongly and didn't understand what happened. They just saw that the person who had previously shot the arrow to ambush Xiahou Dun fell backwards, directly falling off his horse.

  "What a shot! What a shot! What a shot!"

  The imperial court's army couldn't see the situation on the other side clearly, they only vaguely saw one person fall off his horse from the opposite side, and didn't care whether that person was dead or not. This side immediately shouted loudly, especially with the lead of the Tiger and Leopard Riders, many soldiers naturally followed suit.

  "This shot is so accurate even from such a distance, this person is indeed formidable!"

  Xiahou Dun turned his head to look, he recognized that this person was Lv Bu's deputy general, currently serving as the archery instructor of the Hu Biao army, Cao Xing.

  In the past, they didn't get along directly, even though Lü Bu later joined the Emperor's side, Xiahou Dun still had no good feelings towards Lü Bu's generals. However, since the other party helped him out today, he owed this person a favor.

  What's more important is that Cao Xing has the surname Cao, so there's a bit of closeness.

  Cao Xing rode his horse to the front of Xiahou Dun, cupped his hands and said: "I have seized General Xiahou's merit, I hope General Xiahou will not take it to heart."

  Xiahou Dun burst out laughing: "What's the big deal about that? The great achievement is right in front of us, we just need to go and take it, no need to worry about this one."

  The two of them chatted and laughed as if no one was around, it seemed like they were in a tavern rather than on the battlefield.

  "It was Cao's arrow just now, shouldn't it be the Lunar Bow?" Xiahou Dun was concerned about the arrow that Cao Xing had shot out earlier, which was one of the moves in the technique passed down by Liu Xuan.

  Actually, Liu Xuan only taught the second part of the technique to a few close people and Lü Bu as well as Cao Cao. However, these two were very good to their subordinates, seeing that everyone's cultivation was almost done, they then taught those operational skills all at once.

  Just as they were about to set out, most of them had grasped at least one skill, but Xiahou Dun didn't understand the Falling Moon Bow, however his brother Xiahou Yuan happened to grasp this very move.

  "I didn't expect there were many capable people under Lü Bu's command, and Cao Xing has also learned the Lunar Bow!"

  According to the information from Xiahou Yuan, Luoyue Bow and Luori Bow have their own characteristics. Luoyue Bow is faster and has stronger penetration power, while Luori Bow will cause a fierce explosion after hitting the target, with stronger lethality.

  As for the distance of the attack, it is determined by the user's arm strength and bow and arrow. The stronger the bow and arrow used, the farther the arrow will fly.

  So Cao Xing was able to shoot so far, it had nothing to do with his skills, but completely because of his own powerful strength and the good bow in his hand.

  He himself had never learned any skills, and was very depressed. The anger in his chest was all vented on Li Jue's army, and with one breath he killed four colonels before riding back to his own camp.

  At this time, looking at Li Jue's side, his face was as bitter as a bitter melon, looking at the imperial army in front of him. He couldn't fight or retreat, and he felt a wave of discomfort. He said to Yang Ding beside him: "Fight, can't win; retreat, can't retreat! What to do?"

  Yang Ding was originally a great general under Dong Zhuo's account, but after Dong Zhuo was besieged by Liu Xuan in Luoyang, he took the opportunity to escape.

  It turned out that his choice was very correct, because it was he who escaped from Luoyang in time, which allowed him to live comfortably in the northwest now.

  But also because of his hasty escape, and not being able to bring many generals with him, he could only rely on Li Jue after arriving in the northwest, no longer being an equal to Li Jue as before.

  At this time, Yang Ding also heard Li Jue's words and was speechless for a moment. However, what he was thinking in his heart was: "If I kill Li Jue and surrender to the Emperor, I suppose the Emperor won't make things too difficult for me?"

  "Why don't we withdraw our troops for now, defend our camp carefully, and then make further plans?"

  Li Jue thought for a moment, but couldn't think of a solution for the time being. Standing here stupidly wasn't going to work either. Was he supposed to watch his opponents take turns coming at him and then use all sorts of unpleasant words to mock himself? Li Jue wasn't a masochist, so it was better to just return to the camp early and avoid trouble.

  At the order, Li Jue's army quickly retreated into their camp. Liu Xuan was delighted at this turn of events, but unexpectedly, Li Jue had withdrawn his troops.

  "Did he actually run away?"

  Xun Yu smiled: "It seems that Li Jue is also in a difficult situation, not knowing how to continue the fight, and was forced to retreat." As he spoke, he glanced at Lü Bu beside him, knowing that it was precisely because of this man that Li Jue had been made so miserable.

  Liu Xuan naturally thought of this too and smiled: "However, Li Jue will certainly not admit defeat so easily, who knows what tricks he might use."

  Guo Jia was beside him and immediately said, "Your Majesty's insight is high, I guessed that Li Jue would not be able to defeat Your Majesty head-on, so he must have used some cunning tricks. Now the imperial army has just arrived, many soldiers are tired, and today they have been facing each other for half a day. It is very likely that Li Jue will take advantage of the night to launch a surprise attack tonight."

  This is also the only way Li Jue can think of now, because the upright and honest Dou Zhang, cannot defeat the court's people. Deploying troops to fight head-on? At this time, the morale of the soldiers is too low, if they really fight, don't look at his many soldiers, it's not guaranteed that he won't collapse before the imperial army.

  So it can only resort to some tactics, and a night raid is the best choice. Not only is it feasible, but also once successful, the results obtained are quite significant.

  So after discussing for a while, everyone felt that Li Jue's possibility of attacking the camp tonight was very high. What to do next is to make preparations in advance and wait quietly for Li Jue to attack.

  It would have been fine to leave things as they were, and Emperor Liu Xuan didn't need to get involved. He could just go back, rest, and sleep, then ask about the outcome early tomorrow morning.

  But little did they know, while several people were discussing, a guard suddenly said that he had caught a spy from Li Jue's army - this was not a rare thing, in a large-scale battle, who would not send a few spies to investigate the enemy's situation? It was normal to deal with the captured spy accordingly, but this spy claimed to be there to deliver a message.

  "What message is being sent?"

  Lü Bu was taken aback, and for a moment he didn't react to what was happening. Liu Bei seemed to have some idea of what was going on, while Xun Yu and Guo Jia exchanged smiles, turned their heads and said to Emperor Xian: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, Li Jue can be eliminated tonight!"

  Liu Xuan had also guessed something, and when he heard Xun Yu say this, he immediately understood: "It's just that I don't know who sent it. Bring the person who delivered the message in."

  As soon as the words fell, the guard pushed a young man who was tightly bound with five flowers into the room. He then gave him another push forward and he thudded to the ground - but this young man was also very tough, and he actually endured it without making a sound. At the same time, after falling to the ground, he immediately raised his head and looked around at the people in the tent.

  "But there is a bit of pride."

  Everyone in the hall saw this young man like this, and there was a bit of admiration in their eyes. Only Liu Xuan coldly snorted and ordered: "You rebels and traitors, seeing me and still daring to be so arrogant? Take him out and behead him!"

  That young man originally had a proud expression, especially after noticing that the eyes of several people in the account were different from their own, and they were still very pleased. However, he didn't expect that the young man sitting in the main seat would open his mouth and want to chop off his head, his face suddenly changed greatly, and he hurriedly said: "My master has a message to convey to you all, it's about the overall situation of the northwest, but if you want to know, you need to agree to some things..."

  Liu Xuan listened and directly waved his hand to interrupt the man's words: "Where are so many idle words, it's just that Li Jue, the rebel, is going to sneak attack the main camp tonight. This kind of small trick, do you think I can't see through it?"

  He paused, gazing coldly at the young man who was drenched in sweat: "Go back and tell Yang Ding that if he wants to surrender, he should make a show of it. Does he think he can still survive after my great army has flattened Li Jue's camp?"

  The young man's face turned even paler, but he immediately came to his senses. This sentence seemed to be saying that he would let himself go back? Wouldn't that mean his life was spared? Upon hearing this, he immediately knelt down and knocked his head on the ground: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for sparing my life! Thank you, Your Majesty, for sparing my life!"

  Everyone saw this man come in the same way, but now he's another one. Looking again, they couldn't help but add a few more contemptuous glances. The man also felt embarrassed and immediately followed the soldiers to leave the imperial court after being forgiven by Liu Xuan.