The whole of Shouchun suddenly became busy as all the armies began to move. The Black Flag Army, the Formation Breaker and the Wolf Cavalry had gathered in the city. It could be said that about eighty percent of their fighting strength had gathered.
“What is going on? Is the Xiliang Cavalry attacking?” Liu Mang asked after he donned his armor and came out to the walls.
“Milord!” Cheng Yu and Huang Xu cupped their fist the moment they saw Liu Mang arrive. The Xiliang Cavalry had appeared suddenly. Fortunately, it was already night and the gates were already closed. Otherwise, the consequences would have been horrible.
Although it was dark, the Xiliang Cavalry were carrying torches. Based on the number of torches, there were several thousand of them. “What is Hao Shao doing? Why did he not inform us of this? What about the other scouts? Why was there no message from Yang Hong before this?” Liu Mang was angry not only at Yang Hong but also at Hao Shao. There should definitely be signs of the Xiliang Cavalry’s movements but the Xiliang Cavalry managed to reach their gates without warning. This showed their failures to do their duty especially since the Xiliang Cavalry need to go through Guangzhou to reach Yangzhou.
However, Liu Mang had accused them wrongly. After Liu Bei and Zhang Xiu had been chased away, Yang Hong was only had information coming from Sun Ce and Liu Biao. Information from Nanyang had decreased. He then went to Lujiang to invite Yuan Fang. How could he have received this information? It was even worse for Hao Shao. He had noticed the Xiliang Cavalry passing through Guangzhou. He had also dispatched messengers. Unfortunately, all the horses left behind in Guangzhou were worn out horses and could not compete against the Xiliang Cavalry. In the end, the Xiliang Cavalry are the ones that managed to reach Shouchun first.
“Good. Since he dares to come here, I want the Xiliang Cavalry to stay in Shouchun!” Liu Mang’s words were cold. With the Wolf Cavalry, the Urban Army, the Black Flag Army and the Formation Breaker, they would be able to surround the Xiliang Cavalry.
Cheng Yu and Huang Xu did not dare to interrupt Liu Mang’s words when they heard his anger. They could only tell him the situation below. “Milord. The Xiliang Cavalry is not attacking!” Cheng Yu and Huang Xu also thought that this was weird. Not only did they stop below the walls, they also raised their torches when they arrived as if announcing their presence.
“They are not attacking?” Liu Mang frowned. What does the Xiliang Cavalry want? Liu Mang looked at them believing that they were preparing to set up camp and attack the next day as the sky was already dark. Liu Mang would not give them the chance to see the next sunrise. “Cheng Yu. Pass down my orders. Have the Black Flag Army and the Formation Breaker move out from the other two gates and go behind the Xiliang Cavalry to ambush them. They are to wait for my orders before attacking them from three sides!” Liu Mang was already prepared to get rid of the Xiliang Cavalry. He needed to dispatch people to buy provisions the next day and it was not something that could be delayed.
“Yes! This general receives the order!” Cheng Yu and Huang Xu half knelt and cupped their fist. They then gathered a group people with torches before moving out. At that time, the Xiliang Cavalry started to move again.
As the enemy started to move again, Liu Mang also needed to react. “Prepare the ballista!” The soldiers on the walls started to install the ballista again. The ballista was truly great at defending the walls. That was why after Guangzhou, Liu Mang took ten ballista and left the rest with Hao Shao, believing that the man would be able to show off his talent.
This ballista could shoot effectively up to seven hundred paces away. If it is within five hundred paces, they could even shoot through shields. This was also just its first round of fire.
“Wait!” Liu Mang frowned as he looked at the Xiliang Cavalry below him. The ones that moved forward were only a few people. If they truly wanted to attack, they would have attacked with all their soldiers. There was no need for the ballista. Besides that, Liu Mang could see the appearance of the people holding the torch. There were only two warriors amongst these dozen soldiers. One of them was a scholar and there was even a child. The rest wore armor but they were merely guards. Even if they were to attack, they would not use a scholar and a child. In other words, they were here to speak.
“Let them come forward!” Hearing Liu Mang’s words, the ballista was kept back. The people below then approached the moat with relief.
“Is the person up there the His Majesty the Sage King Liu Mang?” The scholarly person asked. “We are Nanyang’s General Yang Wu’s subordinates, the Xiliang Cavalry.
“I am that King of Shu!” Liu Mang replied. Although he was given the title of Sage King by the Emperor and was also called Sage King by others, he could not call himself that and could only say that he was the King of Shu. “Is Zhang Xiu unable to accept defeat so much that he send you guys here to die?”
Zhang Xiu’s Xiliang Cavalry had been severely harmed twice by the Lu Bu’s Army. The first was the Guangzhou ambush and the second was when Lu Bu ambushed them. Based on how much Zhang Xiu loved his pride, he would definitely come back for revenge.
“We don’t dare!” The scholar below quickly replied.
“You don’t dare? Then why are you here? Why are there soldiers at my city?” Liu Mang questioned coldly. There was nobody who liked to have enemies visiting them.
“Your Majesty. We came here today not to fight. We came here to request Your Majesty to seek justice for our General Yang Wu.”
“Seek justice for you all?” Liu Mang was confused. What was going on with Zhang Xiu? They were enemies but now Zhang Xiu is acting as though he was Liu Mang’s subordinate. Even though Liu Mang has the title of King, not everyone would acknowledge it.
“Where is Zhang Xiu? Have him come out and speak!” Liu Mang would not be talkative when he did not understand things as there could be a trap. He immediately requested for Zhang Xiu to come out and speak for himself. Cheng Yu had already gone down the walls and the Black Flag Army should already be moving out to the back. With enough time, the Xiliang Cavalry would be trapped.
“Milord General Yang Wu has… already gone back.” The warrior beside the scholar was the one to reply. He seemed to have wept as he spoke.
“Gone back?” Liu Mang wondered if Zhang Xiu had gone back to Nanyang. If that is the case, what kind of justice was Zhang Xiu seeking? Perhaps Zhang Xiu had a falling out with Liu Bei and is requesting him for help. If that is the case, it would be big joke as the two were in their honeymoon period and Liu Bei even lost his White Eared Soldiers to save Zhang Xiu. Liu Bei even lost his general Chen Dao. The corpse had been requested by Zhao Yun to personally bury. Besides that, Zhang Xiu had greater military strength than Liu Bei. Zhang Xiu could throw away his twenty thousand Xiliang Cavalry but Liu Bei’s White Eared Soldiers were all of his elite.
“Milord. Zhang Xiu… should already be dead.” Xu Shu said to Liu Mang.
“Dead?” Liu Mang was stunned. He could not believe that Zhang Xiu was dead. Lu Bu had told him of Chen Gong’s strategy to spare Zhang Xiu. Killing Zhang Xiu would only make the rest of Zhang Xiu’s Army want to kill Lu Bu. Liu Bei would be able to obtain Zhang Xiu’s city and his soldiers. It was better to just wipe out the Xiliang Cavalry to teach Zhang Xiu a lesson. It was also better to spend more energy on wiping out Liu Bei. They could use Zhang Xiu as bait to wipe out Liu Bei’s White Eared Soldiers. Even if Liu Bei did not come to save Zhang Xiu, Lu Bu would be able to find a way to allow Zhang Xiu to escape.
In other words, it was impossible for Zhang Xiu to die. Liu Mang could not believe the words of the people below. However, he would soon hear something even more unbelievable from the person speaking below. “I, Jia Xu, brought the Young Lord Zhang Lei to seek help from Your Majesty. I hope Your Majesty could offer us shelter as an official of the Han.
“Zhang Xiu’s advisor and Zhang Xiu’s son Jia Xu and Zhang Lei?” Liu Mang immediately reacted in alarm.
“What did you say? Jia Xu? Are you Jia Xu Jia Wenhe?” Liu Mang asked. He did not dare to believe it.
“Hm?” Two advisors frowned. The first one was Xu Shu who was standing beside Liu Mang. Xu Shu had also heard of this man before but the man did not have good reputation. Jia Xu had a reputation as one of the surviving members of Dong Zhuo’s Army. He was also known as a traitor to the Han, incapable and selfish.
The reason for this is because Jia Xu was promoted by Dong Zhuo during his rule. Although Jia Xu did not contribute much to Dong Zhuo’s cause, he was regarded as one of Dong Zhuo’s evil members by those who pride themselves on justice. He was like Cai Wenji’s father who did not follow in Dong Zhuo’s footsteps but was still tortured to death by Wang Yun simply for being promoted and was wanted by Dong Zhuo to hide corpses. Wang Yun decided to get rid of him for being a thorn in his side.
Jia Xu escaped to survive. After that, he betrayed the Han by having Li Jue and Guo Si to attack Changan. The Han Emperor was manipulated by these two men for two years, exhausting his prestige.
Xu Shu was not a stubborn person. He did not care whether a man was labelled evil. What he cared about was the other two evaluations which was incompetent and selfish. The people that had made use of Jia Xu such as Dong Zhuo, Li Jue and Guo Si have died while Zhang Xiu only remained in Nanyang. This made people believe that Jia Xu is incompetent.
Jia Xu also continued to run away before his Lord is defeated. This only showed his selfishness.
However, Xu Shu frowned because even his Lord has heard of Jia Xu.
The other advisor that frowned was Jia Xu. He did not understand why the King had lost composure after hearing his name. It should not be possible for Liu Mang to recognize him as they had never met before. Even if Liu Mang had heard of him before, it should be about how he is incompetent and selfish.
Jia Xu could not help but laugh at his own reputation. He was not incompetent. He simply did not want to use his talents as there would only be more casualties. After all, Dong Zhuo, Li Jue and Guo Si were not the ones that would unite the land. Giving these people advice would be like Chen Gong in the past. The only end for him would be death. Jia Xu did not want to end up like that so he chose to keep quiet and not waste his time.
On the other hand, calling him selfish would be unfair. After all, everyone is selfish. Who would want to selflessly die? Why would he actively make enemies if no one tried to provoke him?
Jia Xu looked up at Liu Mang from the ground as he waited for Liu Mang to recover. If Liu Mang acted fishily, Jia Xu would choose the only other option.