Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1519: Chapter 1462: Anticipating the Enemy

Fortunately, Yu Jin was not overly aggressive; today’s objective wasn’t to capture Chenliu, but simply to showcase his strength and utterly collapse the already wavering morale of Chenliu City.

Currently, Liu Bei’s power is substantial. The aristocratic families who voluntarily left Liu Bei’s jurisdiction have begun to harbor different thoughts. Although Liu Bei manages the aristocracy strictly, he has never particularly sought to denounce them.

As Chen Xi put it, whether they are common people or members of aristocratic rich families, there’s really no difference to them. They are all just ordinary citizens, as long as you act according to regulations, Chen Xi and Liu Bei have no interest in pursuing such trivial matters.

Thus, if the situation in Chenliu City becomes unstable, naturally some aristocratic families would be willing to collaborate with Liu Ye to seize Chenliu from within and without. There’s simply no need for a direct assault. As for those like Le Jin and Li Dian, they certainly won’t notice the secretive actions of the aristocratic families inside the city. Once they enter the city, Liu Ye ensures a victory over the Cao Army, whose morale is already near freezing point.

However, no matter how well Liu Ye has calculated, he hadn’t considered that Xun You was already in the city, and this situation was entirely transparent to Xun You, who naturally made preparations to counter with a stratagem of his own.

Although under Le Jin’s legion talent, the soldiers would share his heart and will, his legion talent could only cover three thousand men. After witnessing Li Dian’s defeat in open battle, the already low morale inside the city was nearly frozen.

”Wen Ze, your legion talent is indeed handy.” Liu Ye remarked in amazement after Yu Jin called off the troops and returned.

Such a talent to have a regular army formation breaking a rebel army’s formation is frankly unstoppable, unless someone can take advantage before the rolling snowball effect of Yu Jin’s legion talent sets in during the initial cloud qi transition, and prevent Yu Jin from utilizing it to organize the army.

Otherwise, any rebel army made of elite troops facing a regular soldier formation is bound for destruction, as regular soldiers can kill even those with inner qi manifestation fighting alone, let alone scattered rebel soldiers; it’s exceedingly easy to slaughter them.

”It’s not that; it’s just Li Dian is too weak, and the Cao Army is unworthy of being called elite.” Yu Jin said with a confident smile. In fact, he was in a great mood after testing his legion talent in the first battle and achieving such results.

”What should we do next?” Chen Dao returned on horseback, slightly injured, as Cai Yang’s skills were indeed very solid.

”Wait, very soon Chenliu City will respond as we wish.” Liu Ye replied with a smile, ”But Shuzhi, you got injured? Is Cai Yang that formidable?”

”Not just formidable.” Chen Dao replied with a bitter smile, ”His sword technique feels continuous, yet grows stronger as he fights. As the battle continues, his momentum increases; in a face-off with similar conditions, he’ll keep getting stronger.”

”Oh, it doesn’t matter, as our goal isn’t to kill him. Let’s first seize Chenliu City then discuss further.” Liu Ye’s expression grew slightly serious for a moment, then returned to normal with a smile.

[Cai Yang, having such strength...] Liu Ye’s eyes revealed a hint of surprise, yet his demeanor remained calm.

In Chenliu City, even though Le Jin broke through his limitations, the situation didn’t improve at all. Cai Yang’s defeat had already dented morale, and now with the defeat under Chenliu City, the Cao Army’s morale plummeted towards freezing point.

If not for Le Jin maintaining some composure, even the morale of his three thousand soldiers would’ve dropped to its lowest point. But even so, it couldn’t change the shadow of defeat over Chenliu City.

”What do we do now?” After a long silence, Li Dian asked. Le Jin did not blame him excessively for the previous defeat, as Li Dian’s performance was without flaw; the defeat was due to Yu Jin’s unforeseen actions.

”We aren’t their match, but that doesn’t mean others aren’t.” Le Jin broke the silence and, with two others, went to seek Xun You.

Xun You did not disappoint Le Jin. After analyzing the current situation, he shared his comprehensive strategy with Le Jin, who was overjoyed.

In the following days, the situation in Chenliu deteriorated further. Even individuals like Li Dian and Le Jin, who were considered remarkable generals of the time, started defending their troops, yet some soldiers deserted, highlighting the dire situation in Chenliu.

Naturally, unrest spread within Chenliu City, and the Cao Army’s resolve faltered further, though only the Xie family in Chenliu truly decided to take action.

”You say the Xie family has control of a city gate and can let us in at any time?” Liu Ye asked, looking at a servant who appeared sharp-eyed, ”Without evidence, why should I believe you? What if it’s a feigned surrender?”

Xie Yun remained calm, unafraid of Liu Ye’s questioning, and replied, ”Whether feigned or real, once the city’s gates open, given Chenliu’s current troop strength and morale, isn’t it something you, Military Advisor Liu, can easily handle?”

Liu Ye looked up at Xie Yun with a smile of noncommittal satisfaction, ”Then when do you propose to open the gate for us to enter?”

”The sooner, the better, even during your assault tomorrow morning, we’ll directly open the gate.” Xie Yun calmly responded to Liu Ye’s inquiry. Upon hearing this, even Yu Jin and Chen Dao sensed the Xie family’s sincerity.

Unlike sneaking the gate open at night, during the daytime assault, the Xie family couldn’t possibly buy off all the soldiers stationed at the gate to be their own. To forcefully open the gate like this, they would have to directly engage in the inside-outside collusion, which could even possibly fail given the stationed soldiers nearby.

Should their ploy fail in such a scenario, the Xie family might truly be finished, implying they couldn’t be setting a decoy strategy, as whether true or false, with the current situation, once the Xie family opens the gate, Liu Ye could forcibly take Chenliu.

”In that case, let’s do it tonight.” Liu Ye smiled and told Xie Yun, ”No need for your Xie family to make such a sacrifice.”

Coming in, Xie Yun considered many possibilities, yet never imagined Liu Ye to be so resolute, setting the operation for tonight.

”Since you’ve already gained control of a city gate, what difference does it make between tonight and tomorrow night?” Liu Ye countered.

Thus Xie Yun found no reply, nodded instead, and said, ”Then we ask Military Advisor Liu to await the Xie family’s signal. Once the torches along the eastern city wall go out in succession, Military Advisor Liu can act.”

Liu Ye smiled, ”Then I shall await good news from the Xie family.”

Xie Yun wasted no words further and left promptly. Given it was already midnight, any delay would mean daylight, so he quickly returned to Chenliu to prepare the plan.