The Three Kingdoms: Home Travel

(Okay, debts paid off. Time to go back to work tomorrow. Going to bed early tonight, everyone go to bed early too...^^)

Before sunset, Zhang Yan ordered five hundred Yellow Turban soldiers to go to the city of Xuzhou to collect the remains of the soldiers. He was initially hesitant, but when he saw that the Xuzhou soldiers on the city wall were just watching, he hardened his heart and went over.

Although Tao Ying had been ordered by Jiang Zhe not to attack, he was still sarcastic, pointing at Zhang Yan and laughing, "That treacherous general, if you don't stop fighting quickly, this will be your fate!"

Although Zhang Yan was angry, the situation was against her, so she could only remain silent. The Yellow Turbans looked at the corpses of their comrades, some of whom were already incomplete, and felt sad.

Tao Ying said a few words, but seeing that Zhang Yan didn't reply, he felt bored, muttered a few words, and left.

Zhang Yan surveyed her surroundings, secretly memorizing the terrain of Xuzhou's East Gate. Then, she noticed some broken ice floating on the river outside Xuzhou City. After mentally calculating the schedule, she vaguely had some ideas in mind.

He then glanced at the east gate of Xuzhou, his expression unreadable, but inwardly he sneered, "Hmph! We'll see!"

As night fell, Zhang Yan was reading in his tent when a report came that a spy from Xuzhou had arrived. He frowned and summoned the spy.

"Why have you come?" Zhang Yan was furious. This spy was so ignorant of the rules, coming without being summoned.

"Please forgive me, young marshal, I have important matters to report!" the spy said.

"Let's not talk about that!" Zhang Yan said in a deep voice, "Did you come with anyone?"

"I've been circling around for a while before finally getting here!" the spy said. "This is exactly what I wanted to report: the firewood in Xuzhou City is all gone!"

"Oh?" Zhang Yan's face lit up with a hint of delight, but then she frowned and said, "Is this a trick by Xuzhou?"

"No!" the spy said. "We have gathered tens of thousands of people from all over Xuzhou. Every day, we have to cook, which consumes a huge amount of firewood. Now, the temporary residents near the east gate of Xuzhou have run out of firewood to cook. So I gathered a few dozen brothers and went out under the pretext of looking for firewood."

"The firewood is all gone..." Zhang Yan pondered for a moment, then asked, "What about the grain?" He then chuckled self-deprecatingly, "Xuzhou is a vital granary; how could it be short of grain? I've been so foolish!"

The spy didn't answer, but simply said, "I cannot stay any longer..."

"Yes!" Zhang Yan nodded and said, "I need to consider this matter carefully. You should go back now and make sure you don't give anything away!"

"Yes!" The spy left.

"Firewood?" Zhang Yan chuckled and said, "If I were to join forces with the three gates to besiege the city without attacking, wouldn't Xuzhou have to dismantle houses for timber?"

Shaking his head, Zhang Yan paced a few steps in the tent, muttering to himself, "I'll besiege him for a few more days, and then... humph!"

While Zhang Yan was devising a plan in her tent, Jiang Zhe was quite pleased with himself.

Enjoying the food and drinks prepared by Xiuer herself is so delicious! There's just one problem: the wine in the Three Kingdoms period not only doesn't taste good, but it also has a very low alcohol content. Even someone with a "high tolerance" like Jiang Zhe can drink a lot of it.

However, what Jiang Zhe cared about wasn't that, but rather...

He was staring intently at Xiu'er, and using the excuse that drinking alone was boring, he insisted that Xiu'er keep him company. Xiu'er thought to herself that her husband was tired today, so she went along with him.

So the two sat across the table and drank together, a scene that others envied greatly.

However, this happy time didn't last long, as such a wonderful moment was bound to be disturbed by people.

Chen Deng and Tao Ying arrived. As soon as they entered, Tao Ying saw the dishes on the table and said with a smile, "You seem to be enjoying your leisure time, sir!"

"Teacher!" Chen Deng bowed respectfully.

Jiang Zhe rolled his eyes in exasperation. "It's after get off work hours! Don't you two know that?"

"I'll go get the bowls and chopsticks for Mr. Chen and General Tao..." Xiu'er lowered her head and tried to get up, but Jiang Zhe grabbed her and glared at them, saying, "The kitchen is over there!"

"..." The two were speechless. The meaning was quite obvious!

"Ha!" Tao Ying pointed at Jiang Zhe and smiled before walking into the kitchen.

Knowing his teacher's personality, Chen Deng just smiled wryly and said, "Please forgive me for being so long-winded, teacher. I have something important to report to you."

"Oh?" Jiang Zhe asked curiously, "Could it be that the Yellow Turbans are...?"

"No, that's not it..." Chen Deng was saying when Tao Ying came out of the kitchen and handed Chen Deng a set of bowls and chopsticks.

"What's that?" Jiang Zhe frowned as he watched Tao Ying put a piece of braised pork into his mouth, his heart bleeding. That was what Xiu'er gave me! Damn it!

"Is it urgent?" Jiang Zhe asked as he picked up some food, while Xiu'er got up and filled the three of them's glasses with wine.

"Thank you, Master's wife!" Chen Deng thanked her, then said, "It's not that urgent, but the firewood in the city is running out, and it's inconvenient to start a fire. I came to ask you for your advice." After taking a bite of the dish Xiu'er had made, he smiled and said, "Master's wife's cooking is still the best..."

I understand now... Jiang Zhe glanced sideways at the two people in front of him.

"It's none of my business!" Tao Ying immediately said. "Yuanlong said he would report this to you, sir. I was just accompanying him." Then, deliberately, he added, "Just as Yuanlong said... it was quite a delightful experience!"

"..." Jiang Zhe shook his head helplessly, took a sip of wine, and said, "Have any people gone out to look for firewood?"

"Ah!" Upon hearing this, Chen Deng immediately exclaimed in admiration, "Teacher, you truly are a teacher. I knew I couldn't hide it from you. Just now, dozens of people from other places left the city. I learned of this and came to report it to you, Teacher. I fear that there may be Yellow Turban spies among them, secretly communicating with each other."

"Hmm!" Jiang Zhe pondered for a moment and said, "Has there been any disturbance at night lately?"

Chen Deng immediately said, "I have already asked Brother Xuanyang, and he said that everything was fine last night and no people were seen lingering. However, I am worried that the Yellow Turbans have lost several thousand men and might be resorting to trickery."

"What do you think?" Jiang Zhe glanced at Chen Deng, thinking to himself, this "student" is at least an IQ of 80 or above, let's hear what he has to say first.

Chen Deng thought Jiang Zhe was testing him, so he immediately put down his chopsticks and said respectfully, "In my opinion, we should use a counter-strategy to lure the Yellow Turbans into taking the city, and then attack them in the chaos! We will surely win a great victory!"

"..." Jiang Zhe was immediately disappointed. How come your thinking isn't much better than mine? He had seen this kind of situation many times on TV in later generations. Disappointing, so disappointing.

Seeing that Jiang Zhe remained silent, Chen Deng assumed he was pondering his plan and was immediately overjoyed. He said, "The Yellow Turbans will surely use a signal to capture the city. We will ambush them inside the city and attack when they feign a capture of the city gates. The enemy will flee at the mere sight of us, and then you, Master, can lead your army to pursue them and achieve a great victory!"

"..." Jiang Zhe was speechless for a moment, then said, "Use a fire as a signal?"

Chen Deng's eyes lit up, and he immediately exclaimed, "Teacher, you are truly talented!"

Jiang Zhe found it amusing. Why did people in the Three Kingdoms always use fire as a signal when they were trying to deceive others? Weren't they afraid of being seen?

"What the students are worried about right now is that they don't know where the Yellow Turban spies are or how many there are. If they alert them, it will be bad..."

"There's one more thing..." Chen Deng continued, "Regarding the password given by the teacher, could we set up two sets of passwords, one for the outside and one for the inside? The outside one should be given to the people in the city, and the inside one to the soldiers guarding the city. That way, even if the Yellow Turban rebels disguised themselves as soldiers of Xuzhou, they wouldn't be able to detect it!"

"Huh?" Jiang Zhe was somewhat surprised this time. This "student" was indeed knowledgeable. It seemed that he had underestimated him just now!

"That's excellent!"

"Please give us the routine commands, teacher!"

Jiang Zhe was about to ponder when he turned around and saw that Tao Ying had silently eaten most of the dishes on the table. He immediately felt a pang of heartache, and a classic line popped into his head: "Not much, not much! Is it too much? Not at all (＾＾)!"

The previous few sentences were somewhat traceable, but this one left Chen Deng dumbfounded and utterly bewildered. "What... does this mean?"

Jiang Zhe, who was currently fighting with Tao Ying for food, said upon hearing this, "You can think about it yourself!"

Xiuer smiled slightly, rose gracefully, and walked towards the inner room (not the bedroom). Looking at the memorial tablet placed to one side, she murmured, "Father, after my husband defeats the enemy army, Xiuer will bring him to visit you and Mother..."

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