High Martial Arts Three Kingdoms: The Incompetent Strategist

“Brother Zilian, you’re not honest either. You call Cao Cao ‘brother’ to his face, but behind his back you call him Mengde.” Tang Ke couldn’t help but smile. “How about Yuan Shao, who came from a family of four generations of high officials, or Dong Zhuo from Xiliang?”

“I’m just used to calling him that, unlike you, who’s only twenty-nine and keeps calling him Lord Cao.” Cao Hong clearly didn’t have a good impression of Dong Zhuo: “Yuan Shao is alright, but Dong Zhuo? That guy is no good. And you’re going all the way to Xiliang just to become a strategist? The travel expenses must have been huge!”

"Yes, that's why I'd like to borrow some travel money from you. I don't know if it's convenient. I heard the general comes from a very wealthy family..."

Cao Hong refused without even thinking: "It's inconvenient! Those are just rumors. My family barely has enough to eat."

Tang Ke said earnestly, "You're a good person, but you value money too much. You'll suffer a great loss in the future."

"roll!"

"Look how anxious you are. What if all else fails, He Jin?"

"You're really shameless. You're offering the Emperor's brother-in-law as a backup option?"

The two were chatting enthusiastically when they suddenly heard a commotion ahead, with the sounds of fighting echoing incessantly.

Someone shouted, "Who are you, bandits, daring to rob the Commandant?" Then came a cry of alarm, indicating that something terrible had happened to them.

Cao Cao's cries for help rang out: "Zilian, come to my aid at once!"

"Oh no, someone has intercepted the letter!" Cao Hong gripped his broadsword, leaped onto his horse, and galloped towards the camp.

"What are you robbing? Letters? Just for a ride!"

"What?" Before Cao Hong could react, another person leaped up and sat behind him, and the horse's legs seemed to go limp for a moment.

"Brother Zilian, your horse is no good! Its legs are weak after sitting on two people. Is it because your kidneys aren't very strong, like yours?" Tang Ke said leisurely as he sat back-to-back with Cao Hong on a horse.

"Nonsense, my kidneys are perfectly fine." Cao Hong urged his horse forward while trying to push Tang Ke off with his back: "Get off quickly, what kind of generals ride on one horse? It's so embarrassing if people see that."

Tang Ke showed no intention of going down. "My horse is still far away. Let's go check the situation first. This way, we can have a 360-degree defense with no blind spots."

As they were talking, the horse had already stepped into the army camp.

The camp was in a mess, with several cavalrymen lying haphazardly on the ground.

Cao Cao knelt on the ground, supporting himself with a single sword, panting heavily. His shoulder armor had been cut open, and blood was still flowing freely.

The remaining cavalry surrounded the two men, who remained fearless, brandishing their sabers and charging towards Cao Cao. It seemed the encirclement was about to break.

Cao Hong drew his sword and slashed, shouting, "You audacious bandits! How dare you attack a military camp in broad daylight! Surrender now!"

"Hand over the secret letter, and we will spare your lives; otherwise, none of you will be spared."

The person who answered had a high-pitched, thin voice that was extremely unpleasant to hear.

The situation changed after Cao Hong joined them, and the two men slowed their advance slightly.

"Don't panic, Lord Cao, I'm here to save you!" Tang Ke had already slid off the horse's rump before Cao Hong joined the battle. Seeing that the situation was temporarily deadlocked, he quickly stepped forward to show his loyalty.

Cao Cao looked at him with gratitude in his eyes: "Thank you, please help me stop the bleeding first."

If only he had learned some medical skills in the past three years, Tang Ke rubbed his hands and said awkwardly, "I'm sorry, Lord Cao, I'm not very good at this yet. Why don't you bear with it a little longer? I'll go and call the army doctor for you."

"No need to trouble yourself." Cao Cao said speechlessly as he tore off a few strips of cloth from his clothes to bandage his wounds.

"You should at least disinfect yourself, so you don't get infected," Tang Ke said guiltily, before turning around and joining the fray against their opponents.

The previously near-eventual confrontation turned into a one-sided affair after Tang Ke joined the fray, with the two assassins being forced into a desperate retreat.

Seeing that the situation was not good, they forced their way out from the opposite direction, one man wielding a knife, the other hanging up his knife, nocking an arrow and beginning their retreat.

Cao Hong led the other cavalry in pursuit. After only a few dozen paces, the archer's arrows never missed. He fired three arrows in quick succession, and the two men fell from their horses.

The final arrow was aimed straight at Cao Cao's face, whistling as it cut through the air.

The crowd was too far away to help, and they couldn't help but cry out in alarm.

Cao Cao was powerless to dodge, and a hint of panic finally appeared in his usually calm eyes.

"boom!"

At the critical moment, a long spear fell from the sky and pierced the ground in front of Cao Cao.

The arrow struck the gun squarely, sending sparks flying.

Everyone stared in disbelief, and after a long while, someone exclaimed, "What excellent marksmanship!"

Tang Ke rubbed his hands together, feeling a bit scared; his palms were sweating profusely.

He was probably gambling with his luck with that shot. If he had used just a little more force, and the spear had moved forward another half a foot, Cao Cao, who had a penchant for married women, would have basically never been happy in his life.

The two assassins took advantage of the chaos to escape quickly, and by the time everyone came to their senses, they were already a hundred paces away.

"Don't run away, stay and fight me for another three hundred rounds." Cao Hong spurred his horse and led his men in pursuit.

"Don't pursue a desperate enemy!" Cao Cao's urgent voice came from behind: "Let them go."

Cao Hong helplessly brandished his broadsword, signaling to stop the pursuit, and watched the enemy disappear from sight. He cursed angrily, "These bastards from the Taiping Dao, they not only stole the letter, but they even dared to injure my brother. I'll definitely lead troops to wipe them out later."

"Zilian, be careful what you say," Cao Cao interrupted him. "Now that the Taiping Dao followers are all over the world, since the letter has been preserved, don't cause any more trouble."

Tang Ke shook his head and said definitively, "These two are not from the Taiping Dao."

He was quite familiar with all the masters of the Taiping Dao above the sixth rank, but the figures and tones of these two were unfamiliar to him.

Cao Cao looked at him suspiciously: "Ziyou, how can you be so sure? Do you know them?"

Tang Ke was taken aback and quickly explained, "Judging from their voices, these two are clearly eunuchs. They shouldn't be involved with any folk religious sects, right?"

Cao Cao gave a wry smile: "That's hard to say. Given the current development of the Taiping Dao, it's likely that all thirteen provinces in the country will fall within three years."

Cao Hong chimed in, "Yes, quite a few high-ranking officials in the capital believe in this stuff, but once we send this letter to the capital, they're basically finished."

Cao Cao glared at him and scolded, "What nonsense are you talking about? We haven't even read the contents of the letter, so why are you making such judgments? I think you're becoming more and more outspoken lately. When we get back, I'll lock you up tight."

"No way, brother! You're only a fifth-rank official. Without my close protection, you'll easily get hacked to death!"

Cao Cao rolled his eyes at him, then turned to Tang Ke: "We accidentally intercepted a secret letter from the Way of Peace in Ji Province. We were preparing to bring it to the capital to present to His Majesty, but we dared not open it ourselves. Judging from the actions of these two assassins who stole the letter today, it is probably not a good thing. We probably need to speed up our journey."

Tang Ke's heart skipped a beat. Suddenly, he remembered something and felt a chill run down his spine.

That was a secret letter contacting eunuchs to act as inside agents in a rebellion! The fatal thing was, he wrote that letter!

I wrote the letter in advance as a backup, only leaving the date blank. I didn't expect Zhang Jiao to have already sent the letter.

Given Cao Mengde's character, this letter must have already been read. If anyone were to write in front of him next, they would surely be exposed.