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

"What? There's a fire?"

Zhang Cheng's expression changed drastically, and he rushed out to check. He discovered that the fire was in the granary, and his feet trembled. He shouted impatiently, "What are you all standing there for? Put out the fire!"

After saying that, he rushed forward, snatched the water bucket from the soldier's hand, and personally threw himself into the sea of ​​fire.

He had no time to investigate the cause of the fire; his mind was preoccupied with only one thought: to put out the fire as quickly as possible and save the grain.

You must know that this is the only grain he has. The grain from Shanyin will not arrive for several days. If this batch of grain is burned, he will immediately run out of food.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng dared not slack off and rushed to the front line of firefighting. This greatly boosted morale, and the soldiers charged into the sea of ​​fire. Among them, Zhu Chao was the fastest runner.

Zhu Chao started the fire, so he naturally knew where to run. He carried the bucket back and forth several times, and only called his friends to leave after everyone was attracted by the fire.

The fewer people who know about the collusion between insiders and outsiders to commit arson, the better. Therefore, he only recruited three people, making four in total with him.

The four men quietly retreated, and once out of Wu Jun's sight, they turned and ran. They ran to the corner of the wall, picked up the stones they had prepared beforehand, and used them to climb over the wall and escape to the city gate. When they reached the city gate, they shouted from afar, "Guan Yu is unrighteous!"

The person on the city wall immediately replied, "Guan Anguo is a scoundrel."

The code matched.

Zhu Chao quickly went up to the city wall and found Zhang Ming, the captain in charge of the city gate, and said: "The granary has caught fire for no reason. The general suspects that it was set on fire by Han army spies. He has ordered everyone to strengthen their defenses and be careful of being attacked by the Han army."

Zhang Ming also saw the fire in the granary and nodded emphatically, saying, "Don't worry, the Han army won't get any advantage here."

Zhu Chao said with a forced smile, "Captain, you've worked hard. I still need to inform the others, so I won't keep you company any longer. Farewell."

After saying this, he called his companions to rush along the city wall to another city gate. After running to the center of the city wall and distancing themselves from the nearby patrol soldiers, they turned around, jumped off the city wall, and ran away, preparing to head to Jitou Ridge to meet up with the Han army that had lit the beacon fire.

"Fuck..."

The patrolling Wu Jun was stunned for a moment before he reacted, and quickly drew his bow and fired, preparing to kill them under the city walls.

Zhu Chao and his men had anticipated this, and they ran in an S-shaped pattern. The Wu soldiers' bows and arrows were of average quality, and after shooting for a long time, they only managed to shoot down one person.

The remaining three continued running, ignoring the unfortunate man who had been shot. They were all adults who had anticipated the danger when they started the fire, and he could only accept his fate after being hit.

Zhu Chao and his two companions quickly ran out of the range of the arrows and changed to a straight line, rushing towards Jitou Ridge with all their might.

Wu Jun was naturally unwilling to let them leave, and immediately sent men out of the city to pursue them.

Meanwhile, the county government's disaster relief efforts were nearing their end; the flames had been extinguished, leaving only lingering black smoke.

Sitting wearily on the steps, Zhang Cheng asked, "How much grain and fodder was burned? Has the loss been tallied?"

You Yong, the county magistrate of Damu County who had been temporarily transferred to his side, said with a wry smile: "The bandits poured oil on the grain bags, making the fire very difficult to extinguish. We rushed as fast as we could but only managed to save half of the grain, which is estimated to last only five or six days."

When they left Shexian, they only had enough food for twenty days. It took them nearly ten days to travel and more than ten days to reach Wushang. The food they had gathered in Shexian had been used up, and the food they were currently using was just transferred from Shanyin a few days ago.

However, it will take time to procure grain in Shanyin, and the first batch of grain is only for emergency use.

Now look what's happened! The second batch of supplies hasn't even arrived yet, and the emergency supplies have already been burned. Damn it!

Zhang Cheng asked through gritted teeth, "The oil... so this was arson? Who did it?"

You Yong said, "This subordinate is currently counting the number of people, and it hasn't been eliminated yet..."

Before he could finish speaking, someone shouted, "General, the arsonist has been caught!"

Zhang Chengyou and Yong looked over at the same time and saw Zhang Ming, the garrison commander, carrying a man with an arrow wound in his shoulder, walking quickly towards them, saying as he went, "General, I encountered..."

Before he could finish his report, he walked up to Zhang Cheng and threw the man who had been shot with an arrow at Zhang Cheng's feet like trash.

The man who was shot with an arrow had his wound ripped open, and he screamed in agony.

Ignoring his screams, Zhang Cheng asked with a grim expression, "Why did you and Zhu Chao set the fire?"

The man who had been shot with an arrow was also a ruthless person. He struggled to sit up while clutching his wound, looked directly at Zhang Cheng and said, "What else could it be? It's for revenge, of course."

"We were unfortunately captured, but we did not yield to Guan Xing's threats of whips and temptations of food, forcing Guan Xing to release us. We thought that we would be treated fairly when we returned to Wu's army, or at least receive some words of comfort. But what happened?"

"You treat us like trash and throw us away, fine, but you also allow your subordinates to beat and insult us at will. Several of my brothers have had their legs broken and are still lying in bed groaning in pain!"

"Two of our brothers were even beaten until they coughed up blood and were on the verge of dying. Is this the treatment heroes deserve? Is this the result we got for refusing to surrender to the Han army? Would you have rebelled if you were in our shoes?"

Zhang Cheng was speechless when asked the question. Although he knew that the returning prisoners of war had been treated unfairly, he really didn't have the energy to care about such a trivial matter. Who would have thought that these seemingly harmless prisoners of war would give him a fatal blow?

Zhang Cheng rubbed his temples and sighed helplessly, "So the beacon fire at Jitou Ridge was a signal from the Han army to set fire to you. The Han army has already arrived in Wushang, right?"

The man who was shot with an arrow said, "That's beyond my knowledge. I've already confessed everything, and I hope the general can grant me a quick death."

Zhang Cheng drew his sword and swung it forcefully, and the man who had been shot with an arrow was decapitated.

Zhang Cheng, however, had no time to admire his masterpiece. He sighed helplessly, "I originally thought Guan Xing was only worried about his own safety and that he was afraid the prisoners would collude with us from the inside, so he released them. Who would have thought that these prisoners were a poison Guan Xing had given us? What's even more tragic is that we swallowed them all without leaving a single one?"

He now strongly suspects that Zhou Qi, who has disappeared, has returned to Guan Xing's camp.

You Yong said dejectedly, "This matter is not actually the fault of the prisoners. It's mainly because the Wu army has always looked down on private soldiers, and they were also dragged away by Guan Xing for over a thousand miles, so they naturally took their anger out on the prisoners. You already know what happened next."

Strictly speaking, Zhang Cheng was betrayed by his own soldiers this time.

Would this have happened if the soldiers hadn't bullied the prisoners?

Zhang Cheng was so frustrated he wanted to bang his head against the wall. He slapped his forehead and said, "Pass on my order: gather all the prisoners together and keep them under guard. Treat them the same as everyone else in terms of food, clothing, and other necessities. No discrimination is allowed."

"Then order the military doctor to immediately treat the prisoners' wounds. From now on, no one is allowed to maliciously beat or scold prisoners. Anyone who violates this rule will be punished according to military law."

"Furthermore, any prisoners released by the Han army in the future should be gathered together and resettled in a unified manner, and should not be scattered and distributed again."

This lesson was too profound, so profound that he wanted to die. At the same time, he gained a clearer understanding of the danger posed by Guan Xing. This bastard had been using Wu's army against Wu's army ever since he came to Jiangdong, with almost no cost to himself.

Using the enemy's resources against the enemy, which enemy can withstand that?

You Yong nodded and said, "This subordinate will make the arrangements immediately, but General, Guan Xing's army is already at the city gates, and we don't know where he is hiding now. What should we do?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Cheng's expression changed again, and he quickly said, "Zhang Ming, immediately order scouts to go to Zhuji and Shan County to investigate, and at the same time lead troops to Zhuji City to strengthen defenses. Our retreat route must not be cut off by Guan Xing."