Three Kingdoms New Lü Bu

  Lü Bu sat in the main seat, Zhao Yun stood behind him, and dozens of elite guards stood on both sides. Zhang Yide and Chēn Qiān were brought to the hall below under escort. Lü Bu placed his hands on the table and said: "Everyone has been defeated today, what do you think?"

  Zhang Niujiao raised his head and turned to one side, saying: "However, for the time being, I was caught off guard by your momentum. If it were a frontal battle between two armies, victory or defeat would not have been decided yet."

  "Hahaha... In a battle between two armies, the winner is always the one who does not follow expectations. If we were to fight head-on at every turn, that would be like children fighting, relying solely on brute force. That's not how I, Lü Bu, do things."

  Chu Feiyan was shocked and asked: "Lü Bu? Isn't he also known as the Northern Territory's Dragon, Lü Fengxian?"

  Lü Bu laughed and said: "Hehe. Lü Bu is indeed, when did I have the reputation of being a dragon in the northern border, it's really unknown."

  Chu Feiyan sighed and said, "How can the people of the north not know that there is Lü Bu in the northern border? The title of 'Dragon' has been passed down among the people. Alas... if it were General, we would not have lost unjustly."

  Zhang Niubang also asked in doubt: "Is the general Lü Bu? But I have heard that the northern border army left Daijun only three or four days ago, how can they come so quickly?"

  Lü Bu heard this and was suspicious in his heart. He did not answer, but instead asked: "Who are you? How do you know that our army will leave Daijun in three or four days?"

  "Haha. I am indeed Zhang Niujiao of Boling, Hebei Province. I have my own connections within the imperial court to inform the officials and military about certain matters."

  Lü Bu's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he sighed at the corruption of the Han court. He then asked Chai Fengyan, "And who are you?"

  Chu Feiyan and others did not think that Lü Bu would be so polite to them, so they also politely said: "Zhāng Shān is really determined, Chu Fei Yan."

  Lü Bu nodded and said: "Now that you have been captured, are you willing to surrender today?"

  "Ha ha, today I was intimidated by General's aura, so I made a mistake and got caught. As for surrendering, the Emperor is muddle-headed, the court is dominated by treacherous officials, and we will settle accounts after autumn."

  Lü Bu said in a cold voice: "If you don't surrender, death is near."

  "Ha! The officials force the people to rebel, and the government oppresses the commoners deeply. Without a livelihood, it's death; rebelling is also just one death. What difference does it make whether we die today or tomorrow? Our lives are as cheap as grass, can you kill us all?"

  Lü Bu didn't think that this horned cow was a good man, and he was distressed about how to deal with these people. He had few soldiers, and it was unlikely that he could guard them. How could 5,000 soldiers guard tens of thousands of surrendered troops? The surrendered troops were fearful in their hearts, and if they were not careful, they would riot. Moreover, he still had to go to Guangzong to fight Zhang Jiao. Kill them? That was even more impossible. They were all Han people, not northern frontier slaves. If they were northern frontier slaves, it would be easy to handle, a massacre, let alone tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. But these people were all fellow Han people like himself, and the fraternal feelings taught by later generations made Lü Bu unable to bear killing his own kind. At this time, Lü Bu thought about whether he should secretly release them.

  Lü Bu also knew that the current imperial court was really oppressing the people, and the land distribution was severely unfair. These rebellious Yellow Turbans were basically farmers who had been forced to live in desperation. However, as a military man, Lü Bu's mind was still stubbornly adhering to the idea of obeying orders. So he had this stubborn thought that the imperial court was the government, the state administration center. No matter how angry he was with the imperial court, Lü Bu had no intention of disobeying it. Therefore, he was now being held back by these Yellow Turbans.

  Lü Bu twisted his chin with one hand, bowed his head in deep thought. For a long time. The people in the mansion did not know what Lü Bu wanted to do. Behind him, Zhao Yun quietly reminded: "General, how should we deal with this?"

  Lü Bu raised his head, gazing at Zhang Fei and others, with a hint of pity in his eyes. After a moment, he said, "Take them to the camp outside the city first."

  Then Zhao Yun led the captured Zhang Fei, Guan Yu and others to go outside the city. Just as they were about to leave the gate, Lü Bu said: "I suppose even captives can't escape, Subdragon can untie all the ropes."

  Zhaoyun listened and looked back at Lü Bu, seeing that Lü Bu was deep in thought. He secretly thought to himself: "If we take them out of the city like this, isn't it just letting them escape?" But he still followed orders and untied the ropes binding Zhang Fei, Chao Da, and others.

  Zhang Niujiao and others did not understand what Lü Bu meant, they looked at each other, and were immediately escorted by Zhao Yun's elite guards to the camp outside the city. Along the way, Chu Feiyan quietly asked Zhang Niujiao: "What does General Zhang think of General Lü's intention?"

  Zhang Niujiao shook his head in confusion and said: "I don't know what you mean, it seems like you have no intention of killing us."

  Chu Feiyan said: "I thought Lü Bu had a mind to secretly release us."

  Zhang Niujiao was shocked and hastily said in a low voice, "Don't say anything for now, let's talk when we get back to the camp." So the dozen or so people obediently headed towards the camp outside the city.

  Lü Bu and others returned with Zhao Yun, who asked: "General, our army is small in number. If the surrendered soldiers mutiny, I fear we cannot hold them back."

  Lü Bu sighed and did not respond, turning to Zhao Yun: "Zilong, take the soldiers to inspect the city's wealth, grain, and fodder. We will head south to Guangzong in a few days."

  Zhoa Yun saw that Lü Bu didn't say much about the matter of surrendering, so he guessed a few points of Lü Bu's thoughts. So he also stopped asking and led the order to inspect the wealth, grain and grass in the city. Just arrived at the gate of the prefecture, he heard Lü Bu say behind his back: "Zilong, if there are not enough people, call Wen Far to bring the guards into the city to help."

  Zhoa Yun immediately understood, checking the city's wealth and grain only required a hundred or so people, why bother recalling Zhang Liao's guards? It was clear that Lü Bu intentionally released the surrendered soldiers. Zhao Yun then sent someone to find Zhang Liao outside the city.

  At night, Lü Bu ordered Xu Huang to lead a group of soldiers into the city to transport food for the surrendered Yellow Turbans. As they did so, the number of soldiers guarding the surrendered troops decreased again and again. Soon after, Lü Bu issued another order to reward his soldiers, and once more had Xu Huang lead some of his troops into the city. By the time the surrendered Yellow Turbans were eating their meal, there were fewer than 500 Northern Territory soldiers left to guard tens of thousands of surrendered troops. The eastern part of the camp was even more thinly guarded.

  In the camp, Chu Feiyan was eating rations while saying to Zhang Niujiao: "General Zhang, I'm telling the truth. Seeing the soldiers on duty decreasing one by one, Lü Bu actually has a mind to secretly release us."

  Zhu Feiyan was speaking when he saw a cow horned general running towards Zhang Niubang with his waist bent, and Zhang Niubang asked in a low voice: "Li Daming, what's the matter that you're so excited?"

  Li Da Mu lowered his voice and chuckled: "General Zhang, the east side is unguarded, the government troops simply blocked the eastern gate with two tree trunks. General Zhang, shall we..."

  Zhang Niujiao sank into thought, and Chu Feiyan said: "General Zhang, you can have someone spread the word in all directions. When General Zhang gives the signal, we can escape from the east."

  Zhang Niujiao nodded and said, "Since Lü Bu has the intention of secretly releasing us, we will escape tonight. And inform everyone to not harm Lü Bu's officers and soldiers. Lü Bu is righteous, so we cannot be unrighteous either." Everyone was overjoyed and nodded in agreement as they went to spread the word.

  Before long, Lü Bu's official army changed shifts and guarded the north border. The soldiers were all at the west-south corner of the camp. As soon as Zhang Jiao saw this, he passed on a message to flee eastward. At that time, the Yellow Turbans fled in disorder, taking advantage of the night to move away from the eastern gate tree trunks and escape eastward.

  The Yellow Turbans fled more than half, and the soldiers of the northern border only discovered that the Yellow Turban prisoners were escaping when they blew the special horn to report the alarm. For a time, the shouting voices rose, and there were also soldiers going to report to Lü Bu in the city. By the time Lü Bu led his troops to hurry over, the Yellow Turbans had almost all escaped.

  Lü Bu ordered his men to shoot a few arrows, but did not pursue them. He sighed and said: "Alas! The enemy is numerous, it's really hard to guard against them. Chasing after them will be of no use, let's go back and rest for now, we'll head to Guangzong tomorrow." And so he led his soldiers back into the city to rest.

  Seeking gold medals, seeking collection, seeking likes, seeking comments, seeking red envelopes, seeking gifts, all kinds of seeking, whatever you want, just throw it over!