Chapter 120: Zhao Yun's Power There is no need to mention what Liu Ye and Zhao Yun were thinking. On Liu Bei's side, after dividing his troops and marching south, they went straight to Jundao. But halfway through the journey, Liu Bei said to Qin Zhen: "Now our army is heading south. Although Sun Ce is gone, Qin Yi still has troops." "Our army is only 4,000 strong. If Qin Yi sees us, he might want to fight. What should we do if he divides his troops to ambush us?" He has been fighting for many years and has rich experience. Although he knew that Qin Yi was an isolated force, he did not dare to underestimate him, for fear that the enemy had an ambush. They have only 4,000 soldiers, but Qin Yi has 8,000 to 9,000 men, so it is possible that they will divide their forces to fight. Therefore, when he arrived here, Liu Bei thought about it and decided that he could not relax and move south. Qin Zhen thought for a while when facing Lao Liu's worries, and couldn't help but smiled at Liu Bei: "If you follow my advice, my army may have a hard time reaching Jundao!"

"There are many thieves in this world who can steal for a thousand days, but there is no one who can guard against thieves for a thousand days!" "I see Qin Yi hiding behind his back and not coming out, which shows that he has lost his will to fight." "Otherwise, once Sun Ce leaves, he should take Jundao again!" "But what you said is not without reason. In my opinion, if Qin Yi wants to stop our army, he will definitely set up camp on the road. We can send spies to the south first. If we don't find out that he is stationed, our army can go straight into Jundao." "If there is a camp, there must be an ambush. Our army should not go to dredge the road anymore. We should just camp here and wait for Zi Yang to complete the task before advancing." After hearing this, Liu Bei ordered his soldiers to rest and sent spies south to investigate. After more than a day, the spies reported that Qin Yi had not left the city and there was nothing unusual in the direction of the dredging road. After hearing this, Liu Bei felt relieved and headed south. Before arriving at Jundao City, he sent someone into the city to inform them. The Jundao City was first attacked fiercely by Sun Ce, but Sun Ce later withdrew his troops and there were no troops stationed there. Upon hearing that Liu Bei was leading his army, the county magistrate was overjoyed. Before Liu Bei arrived, he led the people in the city out to welcome him. This allowed Liu Bei to enjoy the treatment of being a royal army leader. He did not dare to be arrogant. He took the county magistrate's hand and walked into the county government. He ordered a notice to be posted to reassure the people and strictly ordered his subordinates not to disturb the people. The people in Jundao City were deeply moved when they saw that Liu Bei's soldiers did not plunder. After all, whether it was Yuan Shu or Sun Ce, no matter how disciplined their troops were, they often bullied the people. Warlords come and go, and it is the common people at the bottom who suffer. Seeing the behavior of Liu Bei's army, the people naturally did not want to let Liu Bei go, and they spontaneously took out the remaining food in their homes and went outside the city to reward the army. Some village elders also came to the county government to plead with Liu Bei to station troops here for a long time to protect the country and the people. Amid those pleas, Liu Bei burst into tears and found it difficult to respond. After finally persuading everyone to leave, he still wiped his tears and said to Qin Zhen: "They are all my Han people, but I didn't expect it to be so difficult. This shows how difficult it is for the people in the world today!"

Qin Zhen followed Liu Bei all the way to the grassroots level, and he also felt deeply about the hardships of people's lives: "It is the rise and fall of the people that makes them suffer. Since Dong Zhuo, the country has been in chaos for several years, and the people have suffered terribly." "As the ancients said: Those who are righteous will have many supporters, while those who are unrighteous will have few supporters!" "The current situation is exactly what people are thinking about. Yuan Shu has lost his way and lost the people's hearts." "Since this is the case, counties like Licheng and Quanjiao must be hoping for our army's help. There is no need to go any further. We can just send people to persuade them to surrender and we can capture the city!" "Our army will stay here. Once Hefei falls, we must immediately govern the city and not lose the support of the people." After hearing this, Liu Bei realized that he had to restore order as soon as possible, so he simply followed the advice and sent people to persuade the counties to surrender. At the same time, Liu Ye and Zhao Yun also arrived at the water fort. However, Zheng Bao was originally a powerful man in Lujiang. Knowing that the world was in chaos, he took advantage of the situation and gathered more than 10,000 common people and refugees in Chaohu Lake. Although this man was a bandit, he had great ambitions. He often wanted to go south, but he was afraid that the people would not follow him. Because Liu Ye's family was a prominent family, he often wanted to recruit them. But Liu Ye had never been involved in it, which he deeply regretted. At this time, when they suddenly heard that Liu Ye was coming, they were overjoyed, thinking that Liu Ye had come to surrender, so they immediately ordered people to invite him into the water fort and hold a banquet to entertain him. After Liu Ye and Zhao Yun entered the camp, they saw a large number of soldiers and horses in the camp. Although they were surprised, they did not show any fear. When he entered the hall, he saw a man sitting there with a square face, curly beard and a rough appearance. It was Zheng Bao himself. Without waiting for Liu Ye to speak, Zheng Bao smiled and said: "I have heard of Zi Yang's name for a long time. I have tried to invite him many times but he was not accepted. Now he comes without being invited. Why is that?" When Liu Ye saw this, he smiled and said: "I am following the orders of the envoy and want to recruit the commander-in-chief to join us in this great cause!" But when Zheng Bao heard this, he frowned and sneered: "I wonder who the envoy you are talking about is?" He originally thought that Liu Ye came to seek refuge, but he didn't expect that he came to be a lobbyist. Of course he knew who the envoy was, it was none other than Liu Bei. But if he had intended to join others, how could he have maintained his rule until now? So he pretended not to know and wanted to see what Liu Ye had to say. When Liu Ye saw this, he knew what he meant, and smiled lightly: "If we talk about the envoy, who else could it be besides Liu Yuzhou?" "General, you should know that now Envoy Liu has been ordered by the Emperor to attack Yuan Shu. The royal army has entered Shouchun and will move south soon." "I heard that the commander-in-chief has great power and is commanding thousands of people, so he ordered me to come and recruit him!" "I hope the Marshal will follow my advice. I will be promoted to a general and given a title of nobility in the future. It is just around the corner!" Zheng Bao was furious when he heard this. He thought to himself, "I have invited you to come here several times, but you refused. Now that Liu Bei has come, you are the first to persuade me to surrender? You are really not a good son!" But although he was angry, he didn't know what to do. He wanted to kill Liu Ye to vent his anger, but was afraid of the criticism from scholars. He wanted to decline the plan, but was afraid that Liu Bei would cause trouble for him in the future.

After thinking for a moment, he could only smile at Liu Ye and said: "I have heard of the name of Liu Shijun for a long time, but I have not met him yet. I don't know if he is a good person." "I see that you are coming from afar, and a banquet has been prepared to welcome you. Why don't we have a drink first and then discuss everything!" When Liu Ye heard this, he gladly accepted the order. Seeing this, Zheng Bao simply ordered a banquet to be arranged. He then made an excuse to leave the hall and called his confidant to ask: "I thought Liu Ziyang came to serve us, but I didn't expect that he came to persuade Liu Bei to surrender!" "Now that Liu Bei has entered Shouchun, his power is already great. What should we do?" When all the confidants heard this, they all looked sad, but one person smiled and said: "This is a good thing. Why is the commander so sad?" "We have been bandits for a long time. Since Liu Bei is inviting us now, we might as well surrender to him in exchange for official positions, and then we can step onto the right path in the future." When everyone heard this, they looked up and saw that the person who spoke was a scholar. Because Zheng Bao's prestige was very high, many common people and scholars came to him, and he also had scholars to assist him. But after hearing what this person said, Zheng Bao frowned and said: "If I wanted to submit to an official, I would have done so when Yuan Shu was still alive. Why did I have to wait until today to submit to Liu Xuande?" "Call you here and discuss how to send them back without offending Liu Bei!" When he said this, all the scholars frowned and kept silent, only one person smiled and said: "Brother, how could you not know? It was Liu Bei who sent an envoy here, which shows that he has his eyes on us." "If we don't respond now, we will surely incur his wrath. Even if we send the envoy back, Liu Bei will cause trouble when he goes south in the future." "Why not use a strategy to divert the trouble to the east to solve this problem?" "I see that Liu Bei and Yuan Shu are fighting each other now. Although Liu Bei has entered Shouchun, Yuan Shu's troops are still in Anxian and Hefei!" "If you are afraid that Liu Bei will come south, why not tie up his emissary and hand him over to Liu Xun of Lujiang, and give him a hundred gold coins as a reward." "Liu Xun likes money and is a general of Yuan Shu. He is always happy when he sees talented people and always angry when he sees envoys." "Tell him to kill Liu Ziyang, and that will help to remove Liu Bei's hatred." "He still has 20,000 soldiers and horses under his command. Liu Bei is surprised and will definitely march west to fight him." "If Liu Xun wins, we will be safe. If Liu Xun loses, we will know that Liu Bei is powerful. If you are willing to surrender, then surrender. If not, we can cross the river to the south and avoid being humiliated by him!" Upon hearing this, Zheng Bao turned his head and saw that the person who spoke was his leader, named Hu Si. He is usually quite smart and a little clever. He nodded, thinking of Zhao Yun behind Liu Ye, and said in a deep voice: "But I see that the man behind Liu Ye is quite strong. Besides, Liu Ye also practices swordsmanship. It may be difficult to capture him alive with so few people!" Since he wanted to divert the blame, he had to ensure that the two men were captured alive and not let them die in his territory. When Hu Si heard this, he stepped forward and said with a smile: "No matter how brave you are, there are only two of us. How can they be our opponent if we attack them all at once?" "If the Marshal does not want to force this matter, why not take advantage of the banquet to get him drunk and then tie him up!"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Bao thought it was feasible, so he sent someone to fetch a few jars of fine wine. While he was making plans here, Liu Ye in the hall saw that he had not returned for a long time, and he could not help but raise his eyebrows, turned around and whispered to Zhao Yun: "If he is like this, I am afraid he wants to cause trouble. He must be arranging manpower now. Are you afraid, General?" Zhao Yun heard this, his eyebrows raised, and he said in a deep voice: "What's there to be afraid of? I'm only afraid that I might hurt you and it would be hard to get back to you." "If you are afraid, why don't you evacuate now? I will lead you out of the village!" After hearing this, Liu Ye secretly admired Zhao Yun's courage and shook his head. "Don't be impatient. I don't think Zheng Bao would dare to take action forcefully. If we have a banquet later, General, you can take action when I smash the cup. If you can capture and kill Zheng Bao, you will succeed!" When Zhao Yun heard this, he said nothing more, but remained silent, holding the hilt of the sword with his head held high. Seeing Zhao Yun so calm, Liu Ye couldn't help but secretly praise him in his heart: What a tiger general! While the two were talking, Zheng Bao had already returned to the banquet, but with many more leaders following him. Seeing this, Liu Ye couldn't help but smile at Zheng Bao and said: "Does the commander want to capture me?" Zheng Bao was startled and laughed dryly: "Because I am not good at drinking, I specially invite you to sit with me." He introduced them one by one, and found that they all looked ferocious, which made Liu Ye frown. But Zhao Yun seemed calm and composed. When they sat down at the table, everyone toasted him one after another, hoping to get Zhao Yun drunk first. When Zhao Yun saw this, he accepted everyone who came and seemed to be completely unprepared. Zheng Bao was sitting in the main seat. Seeing Zhao Yun like this, he raised his glass and said with a smile: "General, you have a big heart. I offer you a toast!" Seeing this, Liu Ye raised his cup and smiled, then stood up and said to Zheng Bao: "If I have to pay tribute, I'd pay tribute to the Marshal first. I've been so tired of the Marshal's invitations that I couldn't come. Now I have to apologize!" Zheng Bao saw him stand up and had no choice but to drink the next glass. But Liu Ye stepped forward, came to him, poured the wine himself and said: "This is my apology. I'll give you another one as a token of my gratitude!" After saying that, he filled another cup for Zheng Baosheng and handed it to him. Zheng Bao didn't like drinking, but at the moment he had something on his mind, so he had to pick up the cup and drink again. Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished drinking, Liu Ye laughed and said: "This is the last one. May we live in harmony and achieve great things together in the future!" After two cups in a row, Zheng Bao was already a little drunk. Seeing him drink another cup, he couldn't help but glared and said: "Sir, you keep pouring me wine, what do you want to do?" But as soon as he finished speaking, Liu Ye threw the cup down, grabbed the hilt of the sword with one hand, and shouted:

"The commander-in-chief has brought the wine, what do you want to do?" He shouted loudly, his face flushed red, his eyebrows raised, and he looked furious. Everyone was shocked when they saw him. Seeing this, Zheng Bao knew that the truth had been revealed, and he immediately shouted: "Everyone, hurry up. Oh!" He shouted, but heard a clang, and a wine jar came flying towards Zheng Bao. The huge wine jar shattered and almost killed Zheng Bao on the spot. When everyone saw this, they turned around hurriedly, only to see that Zhao Yun had already stepped over the table, like a leopard, and rushed forward with his sword drawn, grabbed Zheng Bao's hair, and killed him on the spot with one stroke. In an instant, blood gushed out, turning Zhao Yun into a bloody man. The leaders were all horrified when they saw this. Some drew their swords, some screamed, and then they saw Liu Ye holding up Zheng Bao's head and shouting: "The envoy has ordered that the bandit chief Zheng Bao should be executed for his crimes. Anyone who dares to move against him will be punished with the same crime!" For a moment, blood flowed from his hands and continued to flow to the ground. The scene was quite bloody. Zhao Yun turned around and said sternly: "If you dare to move again, you will die here!" He raised his brows, held a knife in his hand and walked towards the crowd, scaring the bandits so much that they retreated one after another. They had never seen such a ruthless man before, and they no longer had the will to resist. Hu Si fell to his knees and shouted: "We are willing to surrender, General. Please spare our lives!" After he took the lead, everyone knelt down and shouted for mercy. The two of them stabilized the situation in an instant. (End of this chapter)