Chapter 65: Xuzhou Changes Hands

  The Battle of Baima ended, Chen Lan was beheaded on the spot, and Chen's army was also incorporated. More than 10,000 Chen Lan troops were left with less than 1,000 people. The two thousand Yu State cavalry came back with only eight hundred wounded. If they hadn't acted quickly, they might have been left behind by Lü Bu's army.

  The 5,000-strong heavy cavalry corps was reduced to less than 2,000, the city guard army lost half of its men, and the imperial guards were completely annihilated.

  "Your Excellency, is Han Yang really all right?!" Chen Gong furrowed his brow and said. Liu Mang had already been kneeling in front of that pile of corpses for more than half a day, not saying a word or uttering a single sound.

  Lü Bu also looked in the direction Chen Gong was pointing, sighed and said "Let him go!" Chen Gong wasn't a war general, he hadn't experienced the pain of losing comrades on the battlefield. Lü Bu had tried it since he became a soldier until now, how many brothers who were once by his side died to protect him, and how many people who fought alongside him could no longer be seen.

  "Hmm!" Chen Gong nodded and stopped talking about the matter, instead taking out an account book. "The treasures and grains inventoried from Mount Bagong, my lord, please take a look!" Mount Bagong had already been taken down, and Chen Lan was dead, so Mount Bagong had become ownerless land. The wealth that Chen Lan had originally hidden away had all become Lü Bu's spoils of war.

  "So much?!" Lü Bu picked up the account book, originally thinking that Chen Lan had left Yuan Shu with at most a thousand gold grains and ten thousand stones of grain, but who would have thought there was so much.

  Gold alone is worth tens of thousands, not to mention precious jewels and stones, and there are also about 15,000 stones of grain and fodder. Lü Bu's account books have already been loaded onto the carriages, with a total of thirty or so carriages full of treasure.

  "Chen Lan is just one of Yuan Shu's generals, how can he have so much?! Even if Chen Lan had plundered Yuan Shu, it should only be grain and fodder, where did all this gold and jade come from? Lü Bu was once the lord of a state, even in a rich place like Xu Zhou, Lü Bu has never seen such wealth."

  "Your Excellency!" Chen Gong shook his head, "The 10,000 stones of grain that were saved by Chen Lanjun indeed came from Yuan Shu's plunder, but the other gold and jade were accumulated by their king Chen Lan and his wife!"

  "Is Yuan Shu so generous?!" Chen Lan originally was just one of Yuan Shu's generals, how could he have accumulated such wealth. This Yuan Shu must be extremely generous to bestow such a large amount. Moreover, Lü Bu also knew that Chen Lan had two thousand cavalrymen under his command, if he could afford to raise two thousand cavalrymen, then he could definitely afford to raise twenty thousand infantrymen, such strength is absolutely that of a wealthy man.

  "It's not that Yuan Shu is generous, but rather that the entire Yuan family will take everything they can get their hands on! Chen Gong said, his anger rising. "Just the wealth in Chen Liu alone could rival that of an entire state, and even if Yuan Shu were to occupy both Yu and Yang states, he wouldn't be able to bestow such generosity upon his subordinates! Do you know why the population of Huainan is so sparse? Apart from the constant wars, it's also due to the heavy taxes. I asked a commoner, and it turns out that Yuan Shu has already collected taxes for ten years in advance! The common people can't even store up a single grain of rice!"

  "Is Yuan Shao really like this?!" Lü Bu thought that he himself was not a good lord, because he had always been exhausting his army and people, Xuzhou had never had a chance to rest and recover under his rule, the common people were barely able to survive. In comparison with Yuan Shao, Lü Bu was indeed a enlightened ruler, the common people under Yuan Shao's rule were already unable to survive, first being exploited by Yuan Shao himself, then again by his subordinates, it could be said that what they exploited was the flesh and blood of the common people.

  "Yuan Gong, Yuan Gong, what a waste of his reputation as a fourth-generation official!" The rulers who throw the world into chaos are all feudal lords, and these feudal lords are mostly descendants of aristocratic families. All the virtues left behind by their ancestors will be completely exhausted by this generation.

  "Gongtai took out the 10,000 stones of grain that Chen Lan had seized and sent them to Yuan Shu in Shouchun!" Lü Bu said.

  "Lord, what are you doing?!" Chen Gong was perplexed. These grains and fodder were obtained by Lü Bu's army at the cost of their lives. Now they were to be sent to Yuan Shu?

  "Chen Lan seized one million stones of grain and fodder from Yuan Shao, which should be used to feed his troops!" Lü Bu said calmly. "One million stones of grain and fodder being seized is a problem for Yuan Shao's troops, but he still borrowed 50,000 stones from me, Lü Fengxian. This favor cannot go unrepaid!"

  "But we've already helped him wipe out Chen Lan's account!" The 5,000 dan of grain was paid to Chen Lan on Mount Baigong.

  Now that Chen Lan is dead, this thing naturally belongs to Lü Bu's army.

  "I don't like owing people favors! My mind is made up, you go and do it!" Lü Bu said, then left. In fact, Lü Bu had another unspoken thought: Yuan Shu was short on food and grass, and definitely wouldn't be able to survive by starving himself! He needed to find food and grass, but within a hundred miles of this place, aside from Mount Bagong, there were no other forces left, only the common people remained. They were already barely scraping by, if Yuan Shu were to plunder them again, their lives would truly be unbearable.

  Providing Yuan Shu with grain and fodder is also a way to reduce his harm to the common people.

  Chen Gong was somewhat reluctant, but there was no way to change Lü Bu's mind once he had made up his mind. Chen Gong ordered the soldiers to count out 10,000 stones of grain and send it to Yuan Shu in Shouchun.

  The arrival of a messenger caused Chen Gong's facial expression to change greatly.

  "What? You say Yuan Road has left Luoyang and departed from Shouchun?!" Lü Bu was somewhat incredulous, it had only been a few days, the great army said to leave and they would leave.

  "Where did he go?!" Chen Gong asked with purpose.

  "I heard he went to Hebei!"

  "Has he gone to Hebei? What about Yuan Shao?" Lü Bu gradually came to understand that after Yuan Shu was defeated by Cao Cao, Yuzhou was occupied and Yangzhou was also in a state of disrepair, it was not a place where one could stay. Staying here would only mean waiting for death. So Yuan Shu thought of his brother Yuan Shao. Previously, Yuan Shu had not left, probably because Chen Lan and Lei Bo were delaying him!

  Lü Bu was now focusing on dealing with Chen Lan and Lei Bo, so Yuan Shu seized the opportunity to make a run for it.

  "Isn't Xuzhou already under Cao Mengde's control?! Lu Bu received news that Cao Cao and Yuan Shao had already stationed troops at Guandu and were likely to engage in battle at any moment. Xuzhou was already occupied by Cao Cao, would he be so kind as to let Yuan Xu go to Hebei?"

  "Your Excellency, Your Excellency! This Yuan Highway has brought us two more pieces of news besides the one about his departure!" Chen Gong replied.

  "Another two?!"

  "Hmm! The first one is that the current master of Xuzhou is no longer Cao Mengde!" Chen Gong said.

  "Isn't it Cao Mengde?!" Lü Bu exclaimed in surprise, "Has Yuan Shao already launched an attack from Qingzhou to Xuzhou?!" Xuzhou was a place of four battles, apart from Cao Cao's Yanzhou which could send troops directly, there were also three other states - Qingzhou, Yangzhou and Yuzhou - that could reach it!

  Yuzhou is also in Cao's hands, and Yanzhou's Yuan Shu can't even protect himself, so there's only Yuan Tan, the eldest son of Qingzhou's Yuan Shao.

  "It's not Yuan Tan!!" Chen Gong shook his head "It is a master that you can't guess!"

  "I couldn't guess who it was!" Lü Bu really couldn't think of anyone now who could snatch food from Cao Cao's hands.

  "Liu Bei! Liu Xuande!" Chen Gong exclaimed with a look of utter astonishment on Lü Bu's face.

  The surname is Liu.

  "Liu Bei?!?" Lü Bu clearly remembered that Xuzhou was taken from him by Liu Bei after Tao Qian gave it to the latter. Liu Bei hated him, not even a bit, and he could even join Cao Cao to attack Xuzhou. But wasn't Liu Bei now on good terms with Cao Cao? Cao Mengde always addressed Liu Bei as "younger brother". "Isn't Liu Bei surrendering to Cao Cao now?!?"

  "It's not surrender, just hiding!" Chen Gong's eyes became complex as he looked at Lü Bu. In fact, Liu Bei and Lü Bu were quite similar. Although Lü Bu was said to be a three-surname slave because he betrayed three masters, wasn't Liu Bei the same? From the Yellow Turbans to serving under Lu Zhi, then defecting to Gongsun Zan, and finally to Tao Qian, it could be said that every person Liu Bei had defected to had ended up with no good outcome. Liu Bei had also abandoned them very early on.

  The only difference between Liu Bei and Lü Bu is that Lü Bu personally took the initiative to get rid of his boss, while Liu Bei slowly hid himself and quietly let others get rid of his boss.

  Later, the two joined forces. Lü Bu first surrendered to Liu Bei and almost killed him to seize Xu State. Later, Liu Bei pretended to surrender again and joined Lü Bu, secretly plotting with Cao Cao to kill Lü Bu, who barely escaped death at White Gate Tower.

  Now that Lü Bu is gone, Liu Bei was worried and killed Cao Cao's appointed governor of Xu Zhou, Che Zhou, and established himself.

  "Liu Bei, Liu Xuande!" Lü Bu's expression was also complex. He had seized Xuzhou from Liu Bei and been driven out by Cao Cao, only to have Xuzhou fall into Liu Bei's hands once again - it was truly a case of fate playing tricks on people.

  Xuzhou is Liu Bei's now, and Liu Bei should no longer be able to block Yuan Shu's path.

  "And here's the second piece of news!" Yuan Shu brought another message.

  "There's another piece of news: Liu Bei from Runan has surrendered to Yuan Shao!" Chen Gong said.

  "Did Yunnan Liu Bei surrender to Yuan Shao?!" Lü Bu's eyebrows furrowed, Liu Bei had seized Xuzhou, Lü Bu wasn't so worried, after all Xuzhou was no longer his, he didn't care who got it, he even hoped that Liu Bei and Cao Cao would exhaust each other in Xuzhou, this way he could gain a lot of time.

  But now this news has given Lü Bu a headache, as Ruyang is their only land route to Xinye. Lü Bu and Yuan Shao have had dealings with each other before, and one of the main reasons Lü Bu left Puyang for Yanzhou was because of his past dealings with Yuan Shao.

  Now Yuzhou has been occupied by Yuan Shao! This is not easy to handle. If we don't take the land route, we can only take the water route, cross the river and go to Xinye! However, the risk of taking the water route is too great, Lü Bu himself is not very familiar with naval battles, once something happens on the water, it's really possible to be completely defeated.

  "My lord, what about the 10,000 units of grain and fodder?" Just as Lü Bu was still hesitating, Chen Gong suddenly brought up a completely unrelated matter.

  "Leave the grain and fodder for the army!" Lü Bu said with a wave of his hand.

  "Yes!" replied Lv Bu, Chen Gong smiled and responded, ten thousand stones of grain and grass were enough for a large army to eat for more than a month, how could they bear to give it to Yuan Shao.