Can I get to the other side?

The imperial army arrived at Changsha City faster than Xun Yu and others expected, taking only two days.

And he rushed in such a hurry because he was worried that Cao Cao would escape.

The first to arrive were the troops led by Huang Zhong. After the major families in Jiangdong turned their sides and surrendered, he and Guo Jia led the troops to Changsha.

On the day Huang Zhong arrived with his troops, Zhuge Liang also led his troops to Changsha, and the two sides formally met outside the city.

Han army, Chinese army camp.

Guo Jia, Huang Zhong, Ju Yi, and Tai Shici walked into the tent. Seeing this, Zhuge Liang stood up and stepped forward to greet Guo Jia. He saluted Guo Jia and said, "I have met Guo Zhongcheng."

Although he is now highly regarded by the emperor and leads an army, he still has to maintain respect for Guo Jia, the leader of civil servants.

"Kong Ming doesn't need to be polite."

Guo Jia smiled faintly, and then said: "The city of Xiangyang was flooded, Jiangxia was conquered, and Red Cliff was burned. I have heard of your name even in Yangzhou. It is really impressive."

"Such an achievement really puts me to shame."

Zhuge Liang's performance in this campaign of going south to fight against thieves was undoubtedly the most outstanding. He never lost any battles, big or small, and made great progress all the way, and penetrated the most difficult front in the middle.

And he wasted a long time in Yangzhou, and he only succeeded in instigating the rebellion of the Jiangdong nobles with the help of the emperor's pardon order. Compared with Zhuge Liang, he was undoubtedly much worse.

"Guo Zhongcheng is too praised."

Facing Guo Jia's praise, Zhuge Liang said humbly: "It's just a fluke. It all depends on the bravery of Duke Wen and all the soldiers. My little contribution is not worth mentioning."

Guo Jia smiled and praised Zhao Yun's achievements in killing Ma Chao and relieving the siege of Chang'an, and then sat down with Huang Zhong and others.

"Now we are approaching Changsha City, and Cao Cao and the puppet emperor are in the city. They are already a turtle in the urn."

"Is Kong Ming planning to besiege the city or attack by force?"

Guo Jia asked, it was surprising that Cao Cao did not abandon the city with the puppet emperor, but this just saved them from pursuing him.

"Does that need to be said? It must be a forced attack!"

After the words fell, Lu Bu was the first to make the final decision, with a look of reluctance on his face, "Last time I let Thief Cao escape on Huarong Road, I won't let him escape this time!"

"Commander, let me lead the troops to attack the city. I will definitely bring the heads of Cao Cao's thieves and the false emperor to you!"

Lu Bu has always been worried about letting Cao Cao go on Huarong Road.

In his opinion, this is a shame and must be washed away with his own hands!

Faced with Lu Bu's initiative to ask Ying to lead troops to attack the city, Zhuge Liang was about to speak when Huang Zhong and Zhang Liao stood up.

"It's just Changsha City, why does Wen Gong need to take action? I can destroy it by myself!"

Huang Zhong said with a strong voice.

He failed to perform in Yangzhou, and this was his final chance to gain credit. He also wanted to improve his ranking in Lingyun Pavilion.

Zhang Liao said with a serious face: "Changsha City is easy to defend but difficult to attack. If you can't control it, let me do it. I am better at commanding siege than you."

His thoughts are similar to Huang Zhong's.

He didn't get much credit in Yizhou before, and neither did he in the Battle of Chibi. He couldn't fall behind this time.

"No one can compete with me!"

Lu Bu slammed the table and looked at Huang Zhong and Zhang Liao with extremely unkind eyes, "Otherwise, don't blame me for turning against them!"

His tone was full of pressure.

Lu Bu is not coveting this military exploit, he just wants to regain his face, and even after talking to this point, if Zhang Liao and Huang Zhong still compete with him, then he will really get angry.

Seeing that the atmosphere was tense, Zhuge Liang sighed helplessly and stepped in to mediate: "Mr. Wen, General Huang, General Zhang, please calm down first."

"It is not advisable to attack Changsha City by force. Now there are not only the false emperor and Cao Cao in Changsha City, but also Xu Ziyuan."

"Your Majesty has given instructions in the letter, ordering us to try our best to capture the puppet emperor alive and bring him back to Chang'an City; in addition, we must rescue Xu Ziyuan safely."

"If we attack Changsha City by force, Cao Cao will be desperate and will most likely kill both the false emperor and Xu Ziyuan."

"So it's best to adopt the strategy of siege but not attack, and let the Cao thieves surrender voluntarily."

Zhuge Liang told the emperor's order.

With the current strength of the Han army, it is not difficult to storm Changsha City. It will only take some effort at most.

But the key is that Cao Cao still has Xu You as a hostage.

Xu You is a hero on the second level of Lingyun Pavilion and is highly valued by the emperor. They cannot ignore Xu You's life and death.

After Zhuge Liang finished speaking, Lu Bu, Huang Zhong and Zhang Liao had no choice but to cease their activities. Although Lu Bu was unwilling to give up, he didn't say anything.

After all, this is the emperor's order.

Sima Yi frowned and said: "The traitor Cao has done something like pretending to be a false emperor. Whether he surrenders or not is a capital crime for the Nine Tribes. There is absolutely no way he will surrender."

"It's possible to capture the false emperor, but it's probably as difficult as climbing to the sky to rescue Xu Ziyuan alive."

Xu You was a spy who was discovered after sneaking into Cao Cao's camp. Cao Cao would definitely hate him and would support him even if he died.

Zhou Yu also nodded and said: "With the character of the thief Cao, it is indeed impossible to surrender. The thief's tenacity is extraordinary. I am afraid he will resist to the end."

Although he didn't have much contact with Cao Cao, he knew what kind of person Cao Cao was. Such a person was too proud and would not accept being a prisoner.

After Zhou Yu and Sima Yi finished speaking, everyone fell silent.

But at this moment a voice suddenly sounded: "Let me go into the city to persuade them to surrender. Maybe I can succeed."

After hearing this, everyone looked over and saw Chen Gong standing up at some point, and it was him who just spoke.

"Entering the city to persuade them to surrender?"

Guo Jia was stunned for a moment when he heard this, then frowned and shook his head and said: "It's too dangerous. Thief Cao is like a trapped beast in a cage right now. Although he has reached the end of his life, it is also the most insane time."

"If you go into the city to persuade you to surrender, he is afraid that he will kill you directly. This is not an appropriate strategy."

He did not agree with Chen Gong's proposal.

However, Chen Gong shook his head and said: "No, I know Cao Cao. Even if he fails to persuade me to surrender, he will not kill me."

"He and I... are old friends."

Chen Gong sighed slightly, his tone a little complicated.

This statement surprised everyone.

Do Chen Gong and Cao Cao still have a relationship?

Lu Bu blinked and asked doubtfully: "Gongtai, when did you have friendship with Cao Cao? How come I don't know?"

He had never heard Chen Gong talk about it.

Chen Gong said: "It's just a past incident many years ago. At that time, I was still the magistrate of Zhongmou County. At that time, Cao Cao had no intention of rebelling and was a loyal and upright man."

"He absconded after failing to assassinate Dong Zhuo and was wanted by Dong Zhuo. He happened to escape to my jurisdiction and was captured by me."

"I admired his loyalty to the Han Dynasty and his enthusiasm for serving the country, so I gave up my post as county magistrate and left with him, intending to do great things together."

Chen Gong slowly told this old story.

Zhuge Liang also didn't expect that Chen Gong had such an experience with Cao Cao, so he asked: "Then why did Gongtai leave Cao Cao again? But he found out that he had wolf ambitions?"

"No."

Chen Gong still shook his head, with a trace of pain flashing in his eyes, "At that time, after Cao Cao and I escaped from Zhongmu County, we went to Lu Boshe's house to rest."

"Lü Boshe is an old friend of Cao Cao's father. He entertained the two of us warmly, let us stay at home, and went to the next village to buy wine."

"But when Cao Cao saw that Lu Boshe had not returned for a long time, he became suspicious. He also saw the servants of Lu Boshe's family sharpening their swords. He thought it was to harm the two of us, so he started to kill all the servants of Lu Boshe's family."

"Then...then we discovered that the servant sharpened the knife to kill the pig, not to harm us two!"

Chen Gong's eyes were red and his voice was choked.

The death of Lu Boshe's family was an eternal pain in his heart. Although Cao Cao did the killing and his hands were not stained with blood, he still felt that he was to blame.

After choking up, Chen Gong continued: "Cao Cao accidentally killed Lu Boxe's family. Although he felt regretful, he was more worried that Lu Boxhe would resent him when he came back and saw the misery of his family, so he waited for Lu Boxhe to come back and killed him together."

"I asked him why he was like this, and he actually said such cold-blooded words as 'I would rather teach me to betray the world than teach the world to betray me'!"

"It was only then that I realized that I had misjudged the person. Cao Cao was ruthless and ruthless. I despised what he did, so I abandoned him."

Chen Gong did not hide anything and told the past in detail.

He felt very remorseful when he said this.

If he had known that Cao Cao would become a thorn in the side of the Han Dynasty, he would never have let him go. He would have killed Cao Cao even if he endured the rebuke of the people in the world!

"I see……"

The error-free version is being read! 6=9+Book_Bar debuts this novel.

Guo Jia slowly came back to his senses. After listening to Chen Gong's story, he believed that Cao Cao was indeed worthy of the evaluation of "a capable minister in governing the world and a hero in troubled times."

Ordinary people would definitely feel guilty if they accidentally killed a good person, but Cao Cao chose to eliminate the root cause to avoid future troubles. This kind of mentality is extraordinary.

No wonder he became a powerful enemy of the imperial court.

"Such a person must die. If he does not die in Changsha, he will definitely become a disaster in the future!"

A cold look flashed in Guo Jia's eyes.

No matter what, even at the cost of Xu You's life, he would not let Cao Cao walk out of Changsha alive.

"Thief Cao is truly a beast among beasts!"

After hearing this, Huang Zhong's eyes widened with anger and he cursed angrily, feeling deeply disdainful of Cao Cao's actions.

Zhao Yun also snorted coldly: "If I capture Thief Cao, I will poke a hundred holes in his body with a spear!"

"Traitors like these will only bring disaster if they remain in the world!"

Chen Gong had calmed down at this time, raised his head and said to Zhuge Liang: "Military advisor, let me enter the city to persuade him to surrender."

"Although Cao Cao is ruthless and ungrateful, he and I have been friends in times of need, and I have helped him save my life. He will not do anything to me."

Cao Cao was a very complicated man. He did feel very regretful when he killed Lu Boxe, but the mistake was already made, so he simply chose to kill Lu Boxe without doing anything else.

But this does not mean that Cao Cao is truly ruthless, because a ruthless person will not regret, nor will he assassinate Dong Zhuo.

"this……"

Zhuge Liang showed hesitation. He did not want Chen Gong to go to persuade him to surrender, but if he wanted to capture the false emperor alive and rescue Xu You, persuading him to surrender was the only way.

And among the people present, there is no one more suitable than Chen Gong.

After much thought, Zhuge Liang finally agreed and said, "In that case, let's go to Gongtai, but we must be careful not to anger Cao Cao."

"I have my own sense of proportion."

Chen Gong nodded, bowed to everyone, turned around and walked out of the military tent.

"Gongtai!"

Lu Bu trotted forward. After hesitating for a moment, he said seriously to him: "Be careful and come back alive."

Seeing Lu Bu's concerned eyes, Chen Gong showed a rare smile and strode away immediately.

…

Changsha City, Sikong Mansion.

A courtyard deep in the mansion.

After Cao Cao left his bedroom, he dragged his sick body to this courtyard. The soldiers guarding outside the courtyard saluted when they saw him.

"You all leave."

Cao Cao coughed twice and waved to them.

The soldiers did as he was told.

Then Cao Cao walked into the courtyard alone. It was September now, and the osmanthus tree in the courtyard was about to bloom.

The sun was scorching, but it was cool under the tree.

Xu You was sleeping on a bamboo chair, holding a bamboo slip in one hand and a wine gourd in the other, and his voice was deafening.

Cao Cao walked to the stone bench next to Xu You and sat down.

He did not wake Xu You up, but just sat there, watching the fish swimming in the pool in the yard, his eyes as deep as the pool water.

After an unknown amount of time, Xu You slowly woke up. He sat up and stretched, then raised his hand to wipe the saliva from the corner of his mouth, and chanted: "Once upon a time, Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he was a butterfly, fluttering around like a butterfly, thinking that he was happy and not knowing that he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly, he woke up and found that he was Zhuang Zhou... huh?"

"Cao Cao? When did you come?"

When Xu You opened his eyes, he saw someone sitting next to him. He was startled and said in surprise.

Although Cao Cao had his back to him, he was so familiar with Cao Cao that he could recognize him even from his back.

"It's been a while."

Cao Cao said without turning his head, continuing to look at the fish in the pond, "You are sleeping soundly."

Xu You snorted coldly and said, "Why should I sleep uneasy? You should be the one who should sleep uneasy."

"Let me guess, you lost again?"

Xu You's tone was full of teasing. Every time Cao Cao came to find him, it meant that he was defeated by the court again.

So he was happy to see Cao Cao coming.

Without waiting for Cao Cao to reply, Xu You looked out of the yard again and asked, "Why didn't Xu Chu, that fool, come with you?"

"No one bought good wine for me after he left."

When Xu Chu was guarding him in the past, the wine he gave him was of the best quality, but now that someone else was guarding him, the wine he gave him was muddy wine.

"He died in battle."

Cao Cao said calmly, as if he was talking about a trivial matter.

Xu You was stunned after hearing this.

And it was not until this time that he noticed Cao Cao's current appearance. He looked sick and weak.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "Did the imperial army attack?"

Xu Chu was Cao Cao's personal attendant. Even Xu Chu died in battle, which meant that Cao Cao suffered a great defeat and encountered a life-and-death crisis.

"Yeah."

Cao Cao did not deny it. He withdrew his gaze from the pool and looked at Xu You.

"Remember what I said before, if I end up losing, I hope you can promise me something?"

"Now is the time."