Chapter 165: The old trick is repeated, and Wan County falls Just as Taishi Ci was sending troops to rescue, a troop of soldiers had quietly arrived outside the city of Wan County. This group of soldiers was none other than Mei Cheng and Chen Ce, who were sent by Qin Zhen to seize Wan County by deception. Because when Qin Zhen used the self-torture tactic that day, he had another consideration. In addition to ordering Liu Xun's troops to surrender, he also asked Mei Cheng to lead his troops to surrender. This army was the key to his capture of Wan County. However, An County is not so easy to take, and we also need to consider whether it will affect the problem of eliminating bandits in the east. Therefore, after ordering Zhao Yun to leave, Qin Zhen left behind 3,000 soldiers and horses to station at the foot of Huoshan as a cover. He personally led more than 6,000 troops, and with the 3,000 elite troops led by Chen Ce, they passed through the Huoshan Basin, circled to the southern part of Longshu City, and quietly arrived in the north of Wan County. The reason why Liu Xun chose Wan County as his base was because of its special terrain. To the north of Lujiang, as part of Huainan, all the cities are located on the Huaihe Plain.

Only in the part south of Longshu, the Dabie Mountains protrude, separating Wanxian and Longshu into two parts. This place is backed by Dabie Mountains in the north, Tianzhu Mountains in the south, and Qianshan Valley Road in the west. It is a strategic location. Often Liu Xun would receive news before the enemy arrived. But since Qin Zhen did not take the usual route this time, it was more secretive, the road was more rugged, and the marching speed was slower. By the time he arrived here, Liu Xun had already sent troops for more than three days. Faced with this situation, Qiao Rui was naturally worried about Qin Zhen and said: "Military Advisor, although our army has now reached the outskirts of Wan County, Liu Xun has been gone for three days." "If Zilong and his men had succeeded, I'm afraid Liu Xun would have been defeated!" "Once the news gets back, our army's plan to deceive the city will be difficult to implement!" In his opinion, deceiving the city lord was a surprise attack, but now Liu Xun was most likely defeated. Once the soldiers in the city hear the news, the difficulty of their deception will increase dramatically. Qin Zhen smiled and said: "That's wrong. In my opinion, Liu Xun's army is probably completely wiped out now." "It's time for our army to deceive the city!" Qiao Rui was shocked when he heard this: "How did the military advisor know that Liu Xun's army had been completely annihilated?" Seeing this, Qin Zhen smiled and said: "It's just because this place is not far from Jiujiang. If Liu Xun sends troops downstream, he can reach Chaohu Lake in at most one day!" "It has been three days now. No matter what, Liu Xun has already reached Jiujiang." "If he had reached Jiujiang, he would have discovered our trap. Now that he has not returned, there are only two possibilities: one is that he was defeated and trapped, and the other is that all his troops were lost!" "If it is the first possibility, then Liu Xun has most likely lost his navy and it will be difficult for him to return."

"If he wants to return to the army, he must seek help from Wan County, go north to Xiang'an for support, and then rescue with the navy." "But until now, there has been no movement of Liu Xun's navy, which means that the reinforcements Liu Xun requested have not arrived yet!" "How could this happen if the entire army had not been annihilated?" "You must know that it is fast to go downstream to Jiujiang, but if there is no boat to return, it will take two or three days even to pass the order." "Therefore, I dare to assert that the soldiers in Wan County have not received any news from Liu Xun until now!" "If we don't use the trick of deceiving the city now, when will we?" When Qiao Rui heard this, he immediately reacted and said happily: "The military advisor's ability to see the big picture from the small details is truly amazing!" "But I don't know what we should do this time?" "This is not difficult, General, please come closer!" As Qin Zhen spoke, he whispered a few more words into Qiao Rui's ear. Qiao Rui was overjoyed and hurried to tell Mei Cheng and Chen Ce to take action. After Mei Cheng came up with the plan that day, he felt that he had achieved great success. After hearing Qin Zhen's words, he and Chen Ce led their troops to Wan County. In broad daylight, the two men led their troops all the way to the outskirts of Wan County. When the guards at the city gate saw this, they were greatly alarmed and quickly closed the city gate. They also sent someone into the palace to report to Liu Xie. There are few records about Liu Xie in history, and he did not have any great abilities. In the original process, Liu Xun annexed many of Yuan Shu's troops, resulting in a shortage of money and food, so he sent Liu Xie south to borrow food from Hua Xin. Hua Xin didn't have much food, so he decided to divert the trouble to another place. He sent a county official with Liu Xie into the mountains to ask the Shanyue leader for food. As a result, after traveling for several months, they only obtained a few thousand bushels of money and grain. This buddy was angry, so he returned to Lujiang and persuaded Liu Xun to attack Haihun. As a result, Sun Ce saw an opportunity and used money and food to lure Liu Xun, causing him to send troops south and seize Wan County. It can be said that Liu Xie was the fuse that led to Liu Xun's defeat. In the current timeline, after Liu Xun sent out his troops, Liu Xie became the main person in the city. When he heard that there were soldiers coming outside the city, he panicked and asked the messenger: "How many soldiers are outside the city? What banners are they flying?" Upon hearing this, the soldier hurriedly said: "There are about two to three thousand people, without any flags, but the leader calls himself Mei Cheng, and he is following the order of the lord to lead his army south to surrender!" Hearing that there were only two or three thousand people, Liu Xie couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He still has thousands of troops in the city. As long as Qin Zhen doesn't lead the troops personally, he has nothing to fear! However, he had only heard Liu Xun talk about Mei Cheng once and did not know the details. So he called for Dong Qian, Zhou Tiao and Kou Cai and asked: "There is a group of soldiers coming from outside the city, claiming to be surrendering under the order of my brother. I wonder if you two know who Mei Cheng is?" Dong Qian was still in deep thought after hearing this, Kou Cai said:

"General, this is true. Mei Cheng is an old friend of mine." "This time, I will personally go north to take over." "That day, we agreed to surrender. Because Mei Cheng was punished with a stick, it was difficult for him to go south with us, so we agreed to stay for a few days. He wanted to take the opportunity to recruit some troops for our army." "Now there are soldiers coming from outside the city, it must be that Mei Cheng has succeeded and is here!" "General, since you don't know this man, I am willing to go out of the city to meet him!" Zhou Tiao saw this and nodded: "I also know this, and I am willing to serve as a witness!" Hearing what the two said, Liu Xie was immediately delighted and said: "So that's how it is. I thought Qin Zhen was leading his army south, so I ordered the soldiers to close the gates!" "If you come to surrender, that's a good thing. I will go out of the city with you to welcome you!" Having said this, he was about to get up and go with the two of them. But at this moment, Dong Qian, who had been silent, spoke: "Wait a minute, General. Beware of a trick!" As soon as he spoke, everyone was stunned. Liu Xie's expression changed and he said: "What do you mean, sir? It's broad daylight now, how can there be any deception?" Seeing this, Dong Qian stroked his beard and said thoughtfully: "The sun is high in the sky, but this is not the time to cheat the city." "But Qin Zhen is a cunning man, so we must be careful!" "Although Mei Cheng is quite smart, we must be careful that he will be caught off guard and be investigated by Qin Zhen, who will send troops to take him here!" "We can't open the door now. We need to first bring Mei Cheng into the city and make sure that Qin Chen didn't force him here. Only then can we open the door!" Although he himself had never seen Qin Zhen, even though he had never eaten pork, he had seen a pig run. Seeing that Qin Zhen is so famous, they have to be careful when facing Qin Zhen. Although Mei Cheng is outside the city, we cannot rule out the possibility that Mei Cheng's plan will be exposed and Qin Zhen will take advantage of the situation. Therefore, they must first confirm with Mei Cheng that there is no problem at all before letting anyone enter the city! Liu Xie didn't know that Liu Xun was already dead. Listening to Dong Qian's words, he couldn't help but secretly think that this man was cautious. But after thinking for a moment, he felt that it made sense, so he smiled and said: "Sir, what you said makes sense. We should first find out whether this matter is true or not!" After saying that, he led everyone all the way to the city gate and took a look. But the soldiers outside the city were quite lazy, and the flags were crooked. Only a handsome man was standing at the foot of the city on horseback. When Liu Xie saw him, he thought that although Mei Chengxing looked extraordinary, he was not a cunning person. Kou Cai was delighted and shouted: "My dear brother Mei Cheng is down there. Can we go up to the city and have a chat?" Mei Cheng looked at Kou Cai sticking his head out and shouted:

"Brother Kou, how are you? I came here just to see you in the city. Why don't you open the door and let me in to chat?" When Kou Cai saw that he was asked to open the door, he looked at Liu Xie. Seeing this, Liu Xie smiled and said: "I am Liu Xie, the younger brother of General Liu. My brother is not here now, so I dare not open the door easily. I hope the general will forgive me!" "General, why don't you send the hanging basket up to the city first, and then we can open the gate after we have verified your identity?" Mei Cheng heard this and said hurriedly: "Of course, General, please lower the basket!" Seeing that Mei Cheng showed no abnormalities, Liu Xie ordered the soldiers to lower the hanging basket to the foot of the city, and when Mei Cheng climbed up, he would be dragged up to the city. However, when Mei Cheng came up to the city, everyone saw that Mei Cheng's body was covered in blood, and Kou Cai hurriedly said: "Brother, why are you like this? Why are you like this?" Mei Cheng heard this and sighed: "I'm not afraid of being laughed at by you all. I was feared by Qin Zhen in the army, and I saw that Chen Ce was no match for Qin Zhen, so I secretly contacted Chen Ce and prepared to go south to join Lord Liu!" "Unexpectedly, I was careless and fell into Qin Zhen's trap. He used me to contact Chen Ce's troops, but secretly sent troops to ambush." "As soon as we left the camp, we were defeated by Qin Zhen, who chased us for dozens of miles. Fortunately, we fought hard and escaped!" "I thought that Qin Zhen had just taken over the main camp and it would take a few days to march south, so Brother Chen and I led the troops over the mountains to here!" "It's a pity that I tried my best to persuade Chen Ce to go south for Lord Liu, but now I only have so few troops left!" Having said this, he looked up and said to Liu Xie: "General, our plan has already been exposed. I'm afraid Qin Zhen is leading his troops south." "If Mr. Liu is not here, you might as well open the gate and let us enter the city." "This way, when Qin Zhen goes south, we will have more strength to defend the city!" After he finished speaking, everyone's expressions tensed, thinking that just as Dong Qian said, Qin Zhen was indeed not easy to deal with. Before Liu Xie could speak, Dong Qian stepped forward and said: "May I ask, General, how far are Qin Zhen's troops from here?" Mei Cheng shook his head upon hearing this: "I don't know about this. After we escaped, we just headed south. I don't know when Qin Zhen will arrive!" "But this man is a great general, maybe he is already following us!" "If the general won't let us into the city, we can only go east first to avoid this man's attack!" Dong Qian felt depressed when he heard this. He thought that Mei Cheng had a grudge against Qin Zhen, and now he was going to the city alone, so he had no reason to lie. It is daytime now, and even if Qin Zhen follows closely, it will be difficult for him to get close to the city. If they let Mei Cheng leave and Qin Zhen led his troops to attack again, the soldiers in their city might not be able to defeat Qin Zhen.

After thinking about it for a while, he said to Liu Xie: "General, Qin Zhen is now very powerful, and General Mei Cheng leading his troops here can also increase the strength of our army!" "Why not open the city gate and let the general and his troops enter the city!" Liu Xie was originally preparing to open the city, but it was unnecessary because of Dong Qian's obstruction. When he heard this, he nodded in agreement. So the gates of Wan County were opened wide, and Chen Ce and others were allowed into the city. In order to welcome Mei Cheng and Chen Ce, Liu Xie ordered a banquet to be prepared, and to add to the fun, he also called on dancers to perform. After the feast, everyone went to sleep. Unexpectedly, at three o'clock in the morning, there was a sudden commotion in the city. Liu Xie hurriedly stood up and asked: "What happened in the city? Why is there so much noise?" The soldier hurried out to investigate, and soon returned: "General, something bad is happening!" "Chen Ce and Mei Cheng are causing chaos in the city!" When Liu Xie heard this, he clapped his head and shouted: "Oh no, I've fallen into the trap of the traitor!" With a loud cry, he hurriedly stood up, asked someone to find him some armor, and walked out of the mansion. Then they saw shouts of killing coming from all over the city. Suddenly, a loud shout was heard from the west, and a man covered in blood came to report: "General, the west gate has been breached by the enemy!" When Liu Xie heard this, he was greatly shocked and hurriedly led his troops to resist. However, when he was halfway there, he saw Mei Cheng and Chen Ce leading their troops to attack him. Seeing Mei Cheng and the other two, Liu Xie immediately cursed: "My brother took Mei Cheng in out of kindness, why did you rebel against our army?" Mei Cheng saw this and laughed: "I am not a surrendered general, why should you accept me?" "Why are you so unwise? You have completely fallen into my military advisor's trap!" While he was still talking nonsense, Chen Ce had already rushed forward with a spear. Liu Xie was caught off guard and was stabbed to death on the spot. At this point, Liu Xun's troops lost their command and surrendered in less than half an hour. With the fall of An County, Lujiang was officially incorporated into Liu Bei's army. When Qin Zhen heard the good news outside, he ordered Qiao Rui and others to post a notice to reassure the people, and then led his troops into the city of Wan County. (End of this chapter)