The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Guan Xing began a forced march as soon as he left the county town, and did not dare to stop at night until dawn before finding a place to rest.

The reason he was working so hard was to catch Zhou Xun off guard.

At present, Zhou Xun probably thinks the same as Zhuge Ke that he has gone to Shexian County. If he can launch a surprise attack on Wushang City, the outcome of the battle will be a foregone conclusion.

However, if Zhou Xun discovers their advance, they will have no choice but to launch a direct attack. Zhou Xun has at least three thousand men under his command, and Guan Xing is at a disadvantage in terms of troop strength. Even if they can defeat Zhou Xun, they will suffer heavy casualties, which is not what Guan Xing wants.

Therefore, secrecy must be maintained during the march, and they must sneak into Wushang City without anyone noticing.

In order to achieve his goal of surprise, Guan Xing could only travel by night and hide during the day for the next few days, and finally arrived in Wushang after traveling for four whole nights.

They then found a place to rest and waited for Ning Huan and Guan Yan, who had been sent ahead of time, to return and reunite.

Around 5 PM that afternoon, Ning and Guan returned on time and reported to Guan Xing: "Captain, I entered the city ahead of schedule as you ordered, and found the city to be very peaceful with no disturbances."

"Zhou Xun didn't do anything special. All the defenses in the city were carried out as usual. It seems he really thought we went to Shexian County."

Guan Xing laughed and said, "That's great. Tell the brothers to eat dry rations when they're hungry and drink raw water when they're thirsty. Don't light any fires or make any noise. Hold out until midnight when we launch our attack."

With the order given, the soldiers once again found themselves in a tedious and lengthy wait.

Meanwhile, Zhou Xun, who was in the city, was restless in the county government office. Since last night, his right eye had been twitching incessantly, and his heart was pounding along with it.

Zhou Xun's eyelids twitched violently again, and he became uneasy, frowning as he wondered, "What's going on? Has Guan Xing attacked?"

"That shouldn't be the case. Didn't he go to Shexian? Besides, his troops don't pose a threat to me."

"What's going on? Could it be that the Shanyue are up to something? But that doesn't make sense. How dare the Shanyue interfere in the war between the Wu and Han armies?"

"Forget it, better safe than sorry. It's always better to be cautious."

Thinking this, Zhou Xun summoned his personal guards and ordered, "Send a messenger to Da Mo to find out about Guan Xing's current situation, and send scouts into the mountains to see what those Yue tribes have been doing lately and whether there are any signs of them gathering troops."

To be fair, Zhou Xun's reaction was undeniably quick, but his quick reaction was useless because even the best strategy needs to be implemented by subordinates.

The private soldiers of the aristocratic families he led were loyal and capable, but their vigilance was vastly different from that of the regular army.

It is important to understand that people are inherently lazy. Private soldiers from aristocratic families rarely participate in brutal battles and find it difficult to keep pace with or empathize with their generals.

From the soldiers' perspective, Guan Xing had already been driven to Shexian by Zhang Cheng, and the Yue people had been defeated by the Wu army, so they certainly wouldn't dare to attack them. Wushang was not in any danger at all.

With this in mind, the scouts sent out let their sheep graze as soon as they left the city, taking only the main roads and avoiding the side paths, so they naturally couldn't find Guan Xing hiding in the mountains.

Nevertheless, Zhou Xun chose to trust his intuition and more than doubled the number of sentries on night duty, reminding them not to doze off or sleep before dawn.

Then he went to sleep.

On the Han army's side, it was finally the hour of Yin (3-5 AM) in the dead of night. Guan Xing summoned his generals and ordered, "Prepare for action. This time, Gan Xun and I will lead the charge again, quietly sneaking onto the city wall and opening the city gates."

"Meng Jun, you lead the army and wait for my signal fire. If I light the fire below the city, you lead the army to quietly enter the city. If I light the fire on the city wall, you abandon your hiding and rush into the city as quickly as possible."

Having tasted success in Guan Yu's surprise attack on Jianye and in the previous capture of Zhuge Ke, he now increasingly favors this style of attack.

Meng Jun nodded emphatically and said, "Yes."

"Let's go." Guan Xing led twenty or thirty elite soldiers, led by Gan Xun, to the foot of the city. He stood against the wall with his left knee slightly bent and his hands clasped together with palms facing up. Gan Xun stepped on his palms and leaped up. With Guan Xing's push, he successfully climbed onto the city wall and then reached out to pull Guan Xing up as well.

The others followed suit and soon all of them had climbed the city wall.

Guan Xing stood on the city wall and looked up, only to find that there were twice as many soldiers as he had expected, but they were all fast asleep against the battlements. He was speechless.

It seems that Zhou Xun sensed the danger and made arrangements, but unfortunately his soldiers were too incompetent and their execution was inadequate.

It's understandable. The garrison is mostly young, and they're naturally prone to drowsiness. They simply can't stay awake at this hour. After all, the Han Dynasty doesn't offer you Douyin (TikTok) to watch videos.

In this situation, Guan Xing naturally had no need to kill anyone. He simply knocked them all unconscious with a single palm strike, then successfully opened the city gate and lit torches outside the city, waving them a few times.

Upon seeing the firelight from afar, Meng Jun immediately ordered his soldiers to bite onto tree branches and stealthily make their way to the city gate.

After successfully meeting up with Guan Xing outside the city, Guan Xing immediately ordered: "Ji Jie, stay and guard this gate. Meng Jun, go to the east gate. Gan Xun and I will head to the county government office to capture Zhou Xun. Let's move out."

Wushang only has two city gates, and they had spent a few days in the city to familiarize themselves with the layout, so there was naturally no problem with their actions.

Guan Xing easily led Gan Xun to the county government office. After sending men to guard all the exits, he climbed over the wall and entered the office, heading straight for the magistrate's bedroom.

The county government office in a small county town wasn't particularly luxurious, and there were only a few good rooms. Guan Xing didn't believe that Zhou Xun would give up a luxurious single room and move into a servant's room.

As expected, there were sentries in all four directions of the room. Guan Xing easily knocked the sentries unconscious, took out a dagger, inserted it into the crack in the door, and gently pried open the bolt to prepare to push the door open and enter.

Unexpectedly, something went wrong when I tried to push the door open. The old door was in disrepair and difficult to push, and it would make an unpleasant creaking sound if touched even slightly.

Such a sound would startle anyone in the quiet of the night.

Guan Xing was startled and, without thinking, pushed open the door and rushed inside.

At the same time, Zhou Xun, who was fast asleep, was also awakened by the creaking sound. With something on his mind, he quickly rolled over and grabbed the sword next to him the moment he heard the sound, and then got up and drew the sword at the same time.

Zhou Xun sat up and assumed a defensive posture without even opening his eyes, a remarkably quick reaction, but Guan Xing reacted even faster.

As soon as Guan Xing entered the door, he grabbed a basin from the doorway and threw it at Zhou Xun. Zhou Xun had barely sat up when the basin hit his head.

"what……"

Before he could even scream, Guan Xing, who had followed closely behind the wooden basin, swung his iron fist and punched him in the corner of the mouth. Zhou Xun was sent flying and crashed into the wall.

Guan Xing quickly got onto the bed, kicked Gan Xun's wrist to disarm him, then straddled him and punched him in the face with his left fist while grabbing the sword with his right hand and throwing it aside. His combo was swift and professional, leaving Gan Xun completely dumbfounded.

He was stunned, but Zhou Xun was knocked unconscious. Guan Xing found some strips of cloth and skillfully tied Zhou Xun's hands and feet, then hoisted him onto his shoulder like a sack and disappeared.

Poor Zhou Xun was captured before he could even see who attacked him.

Gan Xun quickly stepped forward and took Zhou Xun, exclaiming in astonishment, "Second Young Master, your technique is too skilled! Where did you learn it?"

Guan Xing clapped his hands and laughed, "Nothing special, just practice makes perfect."