Chapter 178 This is the human heart! Did I lose to Xiao Fang again? I have been waiting for you for a long time, you can't escape even if you have wings!
On the upper floor of Ximen City.

Chen Wuzheng stood there holding his sword, his eyes slightly tired, looking suspiciously outside the city in the night.

Something is off about the atmosphere tonight.

According to the calculations of the previous few days, Liu Jun outside the city should have started the tactic of beating drums and gongs to tire out the enemy, and may have even beaten two rounds.

But outside the city tonight, it was surprisingly quiet. Liu Jun acted contrary to his usual behavior and did not launch harassment tactics.

"Could it be that Liu Bei knew about our army's countermeasures and gave up the attack because he felt it was boring?"

Chen Wu guessed this in his mind, the suspicion on his face gradually disappeared, and a hint of sarcasm appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"It seems that this time, Xiao Fang is finally no match for Governor Zhou. He is probably helpless."

"That's good. I can finally get a good night's sleep."

After Chen Wu smiled coldly, he yawned and walked towards the city.

Before leaving, he ordered the generals on duty to remain vigilant and immediately inform Zhou Yu and him if Liu's army really attacked.

Just as Chen Wu was yawning and was about to go down the city and return to the barracks to rest.

On the main street ahead, footsteps were heard, and a group of dark-colored men and horses were heading towards the west gate.

A hint of alertness flashed across Chen Wu's eyes.

Zhou Yu deployed the 3,000 soldiers in the city at the four gates, and all the civilians were driven to the top of the city walls.

It can be said that the inner city of Hulin is empty, and there is not even a patrol soldier.

Where did this group of people come from?

"Could it be that Commander Zhou is worried about the West Gate and temporarily transferred a team of soldiers from another gate..."

Chen Wu immediately made the same guess, and the doubt in his eyes was suppressed.

This was the only reasonable explanation he could think of.

Otherwise, could it be that this group of people in front of us is still Liu Jun?

Hulin is like an iron barrel. Unless Liu Bei's men have wings, how could they appear in the city?
"Whose troops are coming? Did Commander Zhou ask you to come and reinforce the defense of the west gate?"

Chen Wu let down his guard and asked loudly.

No one answered.

The leading general, on the contrary, quickened his pace and strode towards him, appearing in front of him in just a few steps.

This abnormal behavior finally made Chen Wu alert again, and he subconsciously pressed the handle of the knife.

In the light of the fire, the face of the person coming could be vaguely seen.

It was a strange face, one I had never seen before.

"Whose general are you? How come I don't know you?"

Chen Wu asked in a deep voice.

"I am Xu Chu!"

"Jiangdong thief, come and get your life!"

The iron tower-like general roared like thunder, and with the long sword in his hand carrying the force of thunder, he slashed wildly in the air.

Chen Wu was stunned.

Xu Chu...isn’t he one of Liu Bei’s generals?

How could Liu Bei's generals appear in Hulin City?

After being stunned for a moment, Chen Wu's face turned pale with horror and his eyes widened as if he had seen a ghost.

By the time he reacted, the pitch-black long sword had already slashed towards him like the god of death's scythe.

"not good--"

Chen Wu cried out in surprise and quickly raised his knife to block.

It's too late.

Xu Chu's martial arts were far superior to his, not to mention this sudden attack that caught him off guard.

Before he could make any move with his sword, Xu Chu's sword had already chopped him off on the head.

"Crack!"

Accompanied by a loud tearing sound.

In an instant, Chen Wu was split into two pieces from head to tail.

Kill instantly with one move.

The Jiangdong soldiers on both sides were all stunned by this scene.

Suddenly a man appeared and killed his own commander without saying a word?
Is this because he is so sleepy that he is confused and his eyes are hallucinating?

For a moment, more than a hundred Jiangdong soldiers were frozen in place, each of them stunned, and no one reacted.

"Barrier the city gates, lift up the earth and rocks, and let my army enter the city!"

Xu Chu shouted loudly, and the bloody knife in his hand swept out again.

Several unlucky Jiangdong soldiers were beheaded before they could even react.

The three hundred soldiers behind him moved suddenly, like wild beasts out of a cage, and rushed forward to seize the city gate.

It was not until this time that the Jiangdong soldiers suddenly woke up.

"The enemy is coming!"

"General Chen was killed, and the enemy seized the city gate!"

"The west gate has been lost, let's run away!"

Screams of terror rang out one after another, and the Jiangdong army on and outside the city fell into chaos.

Upon learning that Chen Wu had been killed, the morale of the Jiangdong soldiers, who were already low, suddenly became confused and most of them scattered.

Some Jiangdong soldiers mustered up the courage to try to retake the city gate, but they were killed in an instant by the elite Xu family's tiger soldiers, and they fled in panic.

The Jiangdong guards at the west gate collapsed in an instant.

Xu Chu divided his troops to block the city gate, while the rest of his men picked up tools and frantically dug at the earth and rocks blocking the gate.

And this time.

The people of Hulin who were huddled under the city wall were all awakened and finally understood what was going on.

These were the special forces of General Liu. They appeared in Hulun City like a miracle, ready to welcome General Liu's army into the city.

"It's Lord Xuande's men. We are saved!"

"Hurry, everyone, help open the city gate!"

"Only Lord Xuande's army can enter the city to rescue us~~"

Shouts of surprise rang out one after another, and the people of Hulin rushed forward to help Xu Chu dig out the earth and rocks that were blocking the door.

Xu Chu widened his eyes and looked at these crazy people in disbelief.

He originally thought that these people were coming forward to stop him from digging up the city gate, and he was prepared to kill a few people to intimidate and scare these people away.

However, they did not expect that the people did not stop them, but instead helped them dig the door.

Even harder than them.

“Is this what people think?”

Xu Chu suddenly realized what was going on and sighed, then put down the sword he had raised.

With everyone working together, it didn't take long before all the soil and rocks sealing the door were removed.

The city gate burst open and the drawbridge fell down.

A beacon fire rose on the city wall.

Soon, the earth outside the city shook and countless Liu army soldiers poured into the west gate of Hulin like a tide.

On the tower, the flag with the Chinese character "Liu" slowly rose. …

The inner chamber of the county government.

Zhou Yu was still tossing and turning on the couch, his thoughts churning like the tide.

"Yuan Shu will definitely take advantage of the situation and impose extremely harsh conditions on Bofu."

"Given Bofu's temperament, he will never be without bottom line even if he endures humiliation. He will most likely bargain and at least delay for a month before Yuan Shu's army will come to the south to help."

"Now that I have broken Xiao Fang's tactic of exhausting the enemy, I think he has no more tricks to use. I should be able to hold out for more than a month without any problem..."

"When Bofu leads the Sun-Yuan coalition to rescue us, I will be able to regain Bofu's trust, and I will still be Jiangdong's chief strategist..."

Zhou Yu raised the corners of his mouth, with a smile on his face, and fell asleep in his fantasy.

"boom!"

The door was suddenly pushed open.

"Gongjin, Gongjin!"

"Liu Bei has captured the west gate, and the enemy has entered our Hulin City!"

"The west gate has been lost, Liu Bei is charging in!"

My cousin Zhou Hui shouted tremblingly and rushed in with a panic on his face.

Zhou Yu, who was sleeping, suddenly woke up and sat up with a somersault.

"Brother, what did you say?"

Zhou Yu was no longer sleepy, with a look of endless astonishment on his face. He grabbed his cousin and asked him excitedly.

"Gongjin, the west gate has been lost, and the enemy has entered Hulin!"

"We are finished, we are finished~~"

Zhou Hui's voice was hoarse, almost like crying.

Zhou Yu's head was buzzing and his eyes were filled with endless astonishment, as if he had heard the most incredible thing in the world.

"That's impossible. There are soldiers guarding the west gate. Even if Liu Bei ignored the civilians and attacked at night, how could he capture it so quickly?"

"Impossible, this is absolutely impossible~~"

Zhou Yu shook his head like a rattle, refusing to believe it.

Zhou Hui sighed and said with a bitter face:

"Liu Bei did not ignore the people and attack them. He used some unknown means to sneak a group of troops into our Hulin City."

"It was this group of people who caught Ximen off guard from the inside and killed Chen Wu in one fell swoop, and then they captured Ximen!"

Zhou Yu froze again.

This time his eyes widened to the point of popping out, and the original look of disbelief had turned into endless horror.

"This is even more impossible. Brother, are you confused?"

"My four gates are like iron barrels. How could Liu Bei's troops sneak into my Hulin City?"

"Unless they have wings, it is impossible~~"

Zhou Yu shouted hoarsely and excitedly at Zhou Hui.

Zhou Hui had a bitter face and shook his head:

"I thought so too, but Liu Bei's troops sneaked into Hulin. I can't figure out what means he used."

Zhou Yu froze again, his thoughts racing, thousands of guesses running through his mind.

The only possibility was that Liu Bei secretly dug a tunnel into the city so that he could send his special forces to sneak into Hulin without anyone noticing.

But digging a tunnel would require massive construction underground. He had already buried underground jars at the base of the city wall to monitor the environment at all times. How could he have gone so many days without noticing?
"This doesn't make sense. Liu Bei couldn't have dug a tunnel."

"But if he didn't dig a tunnel, what other means did he use?"

"Could it be that Xiao Fang, that country bumpkin, has come up with some trick that I haven't thought of yet?"

Zhou Yu muttered to himself and kept shaking his head, he was completely confused.

"Gongjin, don't think about it anymore. The enemy's entry into the city is a foregone conclusion, and the fall of Hulin is also a foregone conclusion!"

"What should we do? Are all of us brothers going to die here?"

Zhou Hui grabbed Zhou Yu and cried out in sadness and panic.

Zhou Yu was suddenly awakened, as if hit hard by a heavy hammer in the heart, and the surging blood rushed to his throat.

"I have signed a military order with Bofu, and I will definitely defend Hulin for him!"

"It's only been a few days since the city was lost. How can I face Bo Fu——"

Zhou Yu cried out in grief, drew his sword in despair, and was ready to commit suicide.

Zhou Hui was startled, and hurriedly stopped Zhou Yu, trying to persuade him:
"Gongjin, you can't commit suicide. If you die, what will we do?"

"Jiangdong is full of mediocre people. If Bofu loses you to give him advice, how can Jiangdong be defended?"

"Gongjin, even if you have to endure humiliation and hardship, you must live!"

Perhaps he still had a glimmer of hope in his heart, or perhaps Zhou Hui's persuasion worked, Zhou Yu finally put down the sword.

After a moment of grief and indignation, Zhou Yu gritted his teeth and said:

"Brother, you are right. Bofu cannot live without me. I cannot die yet. For Bofu's hegemony, I must live!"

After saying this, Zhou Yu struggled to get up and said sternly:

"Brother, quickly gather the remaining troops and break out from the east gate!"

Zhou Hui saw a glimmer of hope, but then said:
"But Liu Bei's camp is surrounded on all sides, and we only have less than a thousand men left. How can we break out?"

Zhou Yu snorted coldly and said confidently:
"Liu Bei will gather his main forces at the west gate, and the other gates will certainly be empty. We are determined to break through, and we may be able to get out!"

Zhou Hui thought it made sense, and there was nothing he could do at the moment, so he had to follow orders.

Zhou Yu and his entourage immediately left the mansion in a hurry and rushed to the east gate before Liu's army broke into the county government.

After joining forces with several hundred defenders at the east gate, the Jiangdong Army, which numbered less than a thousand, opened the city gate and followed Zhou Yu to flee eastward.

The sounds of killing behind him were getting farther and farther away. In front of him, the camp of Liu Jun on the east side was faintly visible. With the help of the bright lights, it could be seen that there were no heavy troops stationed along the line of the camp wall except for the soldiers on duty.

"Gongjin, just as you expected, Liu Bei's East Camp is empty. We have a chance to break out!"

Zhou Hui's expression turned from gloomy to bright and he shouted happily.

Zhou Yu secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and raised a slightly sarcastic smile:

"That Xiao Fang was careless after all. If it were me, I would have deployed a large number of troops in Dongying as well. Wouldn't it be difficult for me to survive then—"

The word "escape" did not come out of his mouth.

The sound of war drums suddenly rang out, breaking the silence above Liuying.

More than a thousand torches were lit, illuminating Liu’s camp as bright as day.

When the blinding light of fire came, Zhou Yu instinctively raised his arms to block it. More than a thousand Jiangdong soldiers who were fleeing also stopped and crowded together.

After a while.

Zhou Yu's heart was pounding, and he took a deep breath as he slowly lowered his arms.

That face was frozen in the moment of despair.

The Liu camp, which was originally short of troops, was now filled with Liu's soldiers, nearly ten thousand in number.

The camp gate was wide open and the soldiers opened a passage.

Liu Bei held his sword and spurred his horse forward, slowly walking forward and pointing his whip forward:
"Zhou Yu, I, the military advisor Jinglue, have already determined that you dare not live and die with Hulin, and you will definitely escape from the east gate."

"I have been waiting for you here for a long time. You can't escape tonight!"

Zhou Yu's whip fell from his hand, and he stood frozen on his horse with a dull look in his eyes, as if he had lost his soul.

(End of this chapter)