C102

Deep in the night, Gongsun Xu was just about to fall asleep when he was called out by him. He took the letter from Gongsun Yi's hands, opened it and immediately fell asleep. In the letter, there was only a single sentence: "On the third day of the third month, Qu Yi will lead the troops to the camp near the pontoon bridge upstream from Xiao Qinghe. There will definitely be no reinforcements for Qu Yi." Apart from this, the handwriting was also quite ordinary.

However, Gongsun Xu knew that this matter was very likely to happen. Nine was the work of's trusted aides in the Boiling City. To spread the news over so quickly, it could only be done by trained pigeons or falcons. There were people who specially trained in Tianjin's army camp to train pigeons and gyrfalcons to send messages. In the near future, they would be able to use birds to deliver important information.

"To the prefectural governor's mansion."

"Young Master, do we need to bring more people?"

"No need, you just have to come with me, and let Xiao A tell Zi Long."

"Here."

After a while, Gongsun Xu and Gongsun Yi arrived outside the prefectural governor's mansion's side door wearing black bamboo hats. Gongsun Yi went forward and lightly knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" the servant on duty asked softly.

"I am General Gongsun Xu's guard. I have urgent business with the prefecture overseer."

"The young duke's guard!" The man inside opened the door quickly and asked respectfully, "Please tell me your name so I can report to the marshal."

Gongsun Xu took off his bamboo hat and said softly: "There's no need, lead the way!"

"This lowly one greets the young duke!" Young duke, please come with me. " Shocked, the man quickly closed the door and led the way.

Gongsun Xu and Gongsun Xu followed the servant and walked deeper. When they reached the second hall, the person stopped and said apologetically: "Young Marquis, this lowly one cannot enter the inner courtyard. Please wait for a moment, I will come forward to report right now."

After the second hall's door opened, Bai Rao personally came out to welcome him.

Gongsun Xu asked in surprise, "Why is Qu General Bai here?"

"General Gongsun might not know this, but the city has not been peaceful for the past few days, so I am personally responsible for the safety of prefectural governor's mansion." Bai Rao softly explained the reason and extended his hand to invite her in. "Young Marquis, please follow me in.

"Thank you, Qu General Bai." Gongsun Xu thanked him, looked at the servant leading the way, and laughed: "Bring him along too." He did not want others to know that he had come here tonight. Thus, he wanted to bring this person along so that the news would not leak out.

"Alright!" Bai Rao obviously knew what Gongsun Xu meant, he coldly ordered the man: "Big Zhao, later go in and play by the book!"

"This little one understands."

With Bai Rao leading the way, and with some people blocking their way, they saw that it was Bai Rao and immediately let them go. The four of them quickly arrived at the courtyard that Zhang Yan was staying in.

"General, please wait." Bai Rao stopped and told Gongsun Xu, before he quickly walked in to report.

Zhang Yan's urgent voice immediately came from inside, "Quickly invite him in!"

Gongsun Xu caused Gongsun Yi to wait outside and he walked into the courtyard with large strides. Realizing that Zhang Yan was standing inside the study room waiting for him, he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed, "I've come to visit late at night, please do not blame me, Uncle."

"Nephew, no need to be so polite!" Zhang Yan laughed: "This old man said that this nephew can come over anytime, quickly come in and speak."

Bai Rao, who was standing outside the door, cupped his hands and said: "Marshal, General Gongsun, I still have to patrol the prefectural governor's mansion, and will take my leave."

Gongsun Xu cupped his hands and replied: "Thank you for leading the way Qu General Bai, please do so."

Zhang Yan looked at Bai Rao and instructed, "This son of mine must have something important to attend to when he comes here, so allow the people below to keep their mouths shut!"

"Marshal, don't worry. This lowly general knows what to do."

They entered the study room and sat across from each other. Zhang Yan picked up a pot of warm wine from the stove beside the table, and poured himself and Gongsun Xu a large cup each, then smiled: "This is the fruit wine personally brewed by this old man, it is chilly at night. Nephew, eat a cup of warm wine first."

"Thank you, uncle." Gongsun Xu took the cup and slowly tasted it, discovering that the wine was sour and sweet, the taste was not bad, he drank the whole cup in one go and praised: "Uncle's wine is not bad, it has a little taste of the grapes of the Western Regions."

Zhang Yan laughed, raised his wine pot and poured himself another cup, then placed his wine pot down and asked about his purpose in coming here.

"Uncle, please take a look at this." Gongsun Xu took out a letter from his sleeves and handed it over to Zhang Yan. This letter was the letter Tao Sheng had asked him to send over earlier.

After Zhang Yan slowly read through the letter, his expression darkened and he asked: "Where did you get this letter from?"

"Someone threw it into the military camp where this nephew is stationed. This nephew is unable to determine whether it's real or fake, so I came late at night to visit." Gongsun Xu casually made up an excuse.

"The contents of this letter." Zhang Yan muttered to himself for a good while, before slowly nodding: "It's true!"

"What?" Gongsun Xu turned pale with fright, and asked with a suppressed voice: "Since uncle knows that Bai Rao and his grandfather are really in cahoots, why did he even let him be responsible for the safety of the prefectural governor's mansion?"

"Bai Rao and Yuan Shao are in contact, this is my order!" "Ever since this old man came to Bo Ling, I have frequently caught Yuan Shao's spies, and afterwards, this old man had always thought, 'There's no need to be courteous at all'. Thus, this old man allowed Bai Rao, who was my most loyal disciple, to pretend to be with Yuan Shao, and intentionally got Bai Rao to send him some useful information. This old man had lost some rations and some manpower, but Bai Rao had also gained some trust from Yuan Shao."

"So that's how it is!" Gongsun Xu suddenly realized something, and thought that Zhang Yan was indeed not as brash as he looked, but the way he used this chess piece was comparable to tens of thousands of elite soldiers! If he could use Tao Sheng at the same time, coupled with the fact that Xu You was secretly helping him, and the fact that the Youzhou Army had the advantage in numbers, if he still could not defeat Yuan Shao in this situation, he might as well buy tofu and smash himself to death!

Zhang Yan drank a mouthful of wine, and said with a heavy voice: "This old man had originally wanted Bai Rao to deceive Yuan Shao once more at a critical moment, but I didn't think that someone would take the initiative to expose this matter. If nephew does not show this letter to this old man, the messenger will definitely try to sow discord between us! Who was this person? It's impossible for Du Chang! Is it Tao Sheng, or is it Yang Feng? "

Actually, this matter was purely Tao Sheng's fluke. He only knew that there was still another great general under Zhang Yan's command, but he did not know who exactly it was. Coincidentally, Tao Sheng and Bai Rao had a grudge, and so he forged a fake letter that Yuan Shao had to probe, if that person was really Bai Rao, he would think of a way to get rid of Bai Rao, at the very least, he would let Bai Rao lose Zhang Yan's trust, and lose the chance to help Yuan Shao gain merits. If that person wasn't Bai Rao, Zhang Yan would definitely take action, and Tao Sheng would be able to find some clues from it, and figure out the identity of the person who chose to rely on Yuan Shao, and then find a chance to kill that person, so that he wouldn't be placed in a position of importance when he defends himself against Yuan Shao.

He temporarily didn't want Tao Sheng to expose the identity of the traitor, so he hurriedly said in a soft voice, "Uncle doesn't need to randomly guess that the person who caused this trouble might not be some Great Qu General. After all, several Great Qu General have already followed uncle for many years, so logically speaking, they shouldn't be able to betray uncle and seek refuge with Yuan Shao."

"Nephew's words are reasonable!" Zhang Yan nodded, his expression relaxed a little. He knew that Gongsun Xu was just comforting him, but he still hoped that it was the truth, and he could not accept that his old brother had betrayed him.

"This nephew also has a letter that was thrown into the army camp. Please take a look uncle. " Gongsun Xu took out the slip of paper that Gongsun Yi had brought along, unfolded it, and handed it over to Zhang Yan.

"Is this from Yuan Shao?" Zhang Yan was shocked when he saw it, and sighed: "I never thought that Marquis Jin and Nephew would have arranged for such a capable spy to come over to Yuan Shao's side, to actually deliver such important news to him, I am truly impressed!"

"Uncle, you flatter me. I was just lucky!" Gongsun Xu smiled and said modestly.

"Where did all this luck come from?" Zhang Yan shook his head, and laughed: "Does nephew think that the contents of this letter are true?"

"It should be true." Gongsun Xu nodded his head: "It is said that Qu Yi is extremely arrogant and despotic, that Yuan Shao and his subordinates do not hate him, that's all. Now that the great battle is imminent, logically speaking, Yuan Shao should have even more respect for Qu Yi, but from the looks of the letter, Yuan Shao obviously has the intention to kill Qu Yi, but I wonder what exactly Qu Yi did to anger Yuan Shao! "

"Regardless of the reason, being able to kill Qu Yi is a good thing! Qu Yi is too despicable! " Zhang Yan smashed his fist on the desk and asked: "Do you want this old man to help you with your cover?"

Gongsun Xu nodded his head, "Uncle, this is what I meant by you! The day after tomorrow will be the third day of the third month. This nephew will prepare to lead his army and stealthily leave the city tomorrow night, to find a suitable ambush location upstream from the Xiao Qinghe to ambush Qu Yi.

"This …" Zhang Yan hesitated for a moment, then shook his head: "It's not that this old man wants to hurt my nephew, the White Horse Camp Cavalry's fighting strength is truly worrisome! If he were to clash with Qu Yi who went into camp first, I'm afraid! "

"Heh heh." Gongsun Xu laughed and said, "Good uncle knows that my nephew intentionally caused trouble during White Horse Camp's drills, in order to spread the news that 'White Horse Camp won't be able to withstand a single blow' to Qu Yi! Don't worry uncle, the true combat power of White Horse Camp is definitely not inferior to that of going up to camp first! " When he said till here, he added in his heart, 'If I knew that Xu You would take the initiative to come and seek allegiance to me, why would I have done such a thing?'

Zhang Yan was surprised and happy: "Really?"

"Seriously!" Gongsun Xu nodded heavily, and said respectfully: "This nephew knows of a rumor that my father pretended to do those few great things in my name in order to accumulate fame for me! But this nephew can swear to the heavens that whether it is killing Qiu Liju, rushing to the Liucheng, or even the War of Tanhan Mount, this nephew will personally do it! "

"So it's really like that!" Zhang Yan sighed: "I won't hide it from my nephew, this old man has also heard of those rumors, and I'm even a little skeptical, I am truly ashamed! With Bo Guixiong like this, what need was there to worry about his family? It's a pity that my son died early, otherwise I would definitely have him stay by my nephew's side! "

Gongsun Xu knew that Zhang Yan had sent her wife to die early, and had only left a son who had unluckily died in the chaos.

Zhang Yan sighed: "Ai, if my son is still alive, he should be around the same age as nephew!"

Gongsun Xu suddenly had an idea. He stood up and bowed: "If Uncle doesn't abandon me, after this nephew reports to my father, can I take you as my foster father? In the future, this nephew will let his son change his surname to Zhang and let him inherit uncle's family's incense. "

"Is nephew's words true?" Zhang Yan was overjoyed, her voice even started to tremble.

"This nephew will not lie!"

"Good!" Great! This old man is truly grateful for nephew's kind intentions! If that day ever comes, I will die in peace! If nephew wants to do anything, just say it. This old man will fully support you! "

"Thank you, uncle!" "This nephew would like uncle to help spread a few false rumors tomorrow."