C245

Torches and rockets filled with oil poured down from the two storey teahouse. In the blink of an eye, the surrounding houses were set ablaze, and with the help of the night wind, they quickly spread to the surroundings.

Gongsun Xu, Gao Shun and the others hurriedly rushed out of the room after hearing the call. In this short period of time, half of the backyard had sunk into a sea of fire. The dozen or so servants and maids that Lv Bu sent out shouted loudly as they ran outside. Gongsun Xu's guards did not wait for orders before splitting up into half to fight the fire. The remaining twenty odd people quickly ran over and surrounded him.

Gao Shun's face turned ashen, just now he saw that there was a person dressed in the Bingzhou Army's army uniform who looked like a military lord, could it be that Wei Xu also betrayed Wen Hou like that Jiang Quan? If that was really the case, the city would be in danger!

"General Gao!" Gongsun Xu suddenly called out.

"This lowly general is here!" Gao Shun cupped his fists and said: "General, please give the order!"

"This general and General Cao will go to the south of the city. You can handle the matters here!" He did not know that Jiang Hu was only a pawn used to harass him, but he had thought that this fire was a signal to Liu Bei's men outside the city. Hence, he could not wait to resolve the problem south of the city.

"Here!" Gao Shun replied. After hesitating for a while, he lowered his voice and said, "General, please wait!"

"What is it?" Gongsun Xu, who was about to leave, stopped in his tracks.

Gao Shun pointed to the teahouse, and said coldly: "I saw a military lord subordinate to Wei Xu just now, in order to prevent any unforeseen events, I am prepared to personally go and see Wei Xu. After this matter is over, I will go to the camp to take charge, and I would like to request General to dispatch a group of people to maintain order in the city."

Before Gongsun Xu could answer, Cao Xing asked in puzzlement: "General Gao, General Gongsun doesn't have many people, why don't you let our people maintain the order in the city, and make them trouble him instead?"

Gao Shun snorted, but did not answer Cao Xing's question.

However, Gongsun Xu immediately understood what he meant. Jiang Quan had already confirmed his betrayal, and Wei Xu was suspected of being a traitor. How could Gao Shun dare to easily trust others? He could only entrust this matter to his own men! He nodded and said, "No problem! I will send four hundred men to patrol the city later.

"Thank you, General!" This lowly general will go first! " Gao Shun cupped his fist, with his hand on the handle of his blade, he turned and walked away quickly.

At this time, Cao Xing also understood what Gao Shun meant and couldn't help but to let out a long sigh. His expression was extremely ugly, he and Wei Xu had been in the army for many years, and he really didn't want to see the other party betray him.

As Gongsun Xu walked out, he consoled, "General Cao, you don't have to worry too much. General Wei Xu might not have betrayed Feng Xianxiong!"

Cao Xing's expression slightly relaxed, he anxiously asked: "Does General Gongsun think that Wei Xu did not betray us?"

Gongsun Xu did not stop and continued to explain in a low voice: "Just now, General Gao Shun said that the person who set the fire was called Jiang Hu, and had the same surname as Jiang Quan, so maybe that Jiang Hu is also someone with the same surname as Jiang Quan!"

"So it's like that …" Cao Xing's eyes suddenly lit up, and blurted out, "Not bad! This lowly general once heard Jiang Hu calling Jiang Quan uncle, so the general's guess was very likely to be correct. That Jiang Hu must be colluding with Jiang Quan! "

At this time, Gongsun Xu had already stepped out of the main gate. He turned around and looked at the blazing courtyard house, and coldly said. "Regardless of it, the most important thing is to control and control Jiang Quan quickly!"

Cao Xing gnashed his teeth: "If there is a chance, I will personally kill Jiang Quan!"

Just then, a squadron in front galloped over. The one in front was Hou Yong, and when he saw Gongsun Xu, he shouted: "General! This subordinate has brought someone over! Is the general okay? "

Gongsun Xu shouted loudly, "This general is fine! "Quick, turn around and line up!"

Hou Yong responded, raising his right hand up high and shouting, "Stop! Turn around! "

The nine hundred odd people behind Hou Yong suddenly stopped, they were all silent and orderly, and quickly turned their heads in the not very wide street, their movements fast and neat.

Cao Xing was dumbstruck. The cavalry under Lv Bu was also very powerful, but they were unable to move in unison like White Horse Camp Cavalry. During the day on the drill grounds, he had thought that the White Horse Camp's cavalry would only rely on their superior equipment to win. Only now did he know that this troop did not disappoint him, and was indeed a formidable troop that had been banned.

Gongsun Xu took the reins of the warhorse from the guard and jumped on his horse. He shouted: "The last four hundred men will be split into four squads and will be patrolling the city. The rest follow me to the south side of the city!"

At this time, on the southern side of the city wall, Jiang Quan was anxiously staring out of the city gate. From time to time, he would turn his head to look at the burning house, hoping that Liu Bei's army would arrive as soon as possible. He was already regretting it now, he shouldn't have been impulsive enough to let Jiang Hu set the fire. If Jiang Hu was captured and Liu Bei's troops didn't arrive in time, then there was a high chance that his plan would fail. His only choice was to quickly open the city and escape, but if he did that, how could he explain it to his father-in-law, Liu Bei? However, if Jiang Hu knew that he had been scolded by Liu Qing and that Gongsun Xu had almost led his army over, he would probably be lucky instead of regretting it.

"Lord Commander, they didn't come, right?" One of his trusted aides came over and asked anxiously in a low voice.

Jiang Quan said coldly, "Wait a little longer. If Jiang Hu doesn't come back and there is no movement from outside the city, we can only open a city and escape!"

"Lord Commander, this little one has a question, would you like to ask?"

"Speak!"

"Why did the Lord Commander let Jiang Hu set the fire?" This trusted aide was extremely puzzled. Logically speaking, the best time to start a fire was outside the city when a signal was sent. Wouldn't it be easy to be exposed if he set fire to the city ahead of time?

Jiang Quan snorted, and said: "I have two intentions for this action, one is to create chaos in the city, and let Gongsun Xu, Gao Shun and the others have no time to care about this place. Second, tonight, the moon is dark, and I was worried that the people that Master sent would lose their way, so I used this flame to point them in the right direction!"

The trusted aide turned around and looked, and nodded as he praised: "Lord Commander thought deeply, I am extremely impressed! Such a big fire could probably be seen more than ten miles away! I was afraid that Jiang Hu would be captured by mistake, and my lord's soldiers would not be able to make it in time! "

"Let's not worry about that for now!" Jiang Quan waved his hand, and ordered: "Open the city gates! Once things change, we need to hurry up and leave the city, otherwise, with just the hundred over people in my hands, how can I defend against Gongsun Xu and Gao Shun! "

The trusted aide responded and ran down the wall.

After Jiang Quan became the guard of the southern gate, he quietly bought everyone's hearts in accordance to Liu Bei's instructions, thus gaining the support of the southern guards. Currently, out of the two hundred people guarding the city gate, there were one hundred and fifty or sixty who were wholeheartedly following Jiang Quan. When they heard the order to open the city gate, they immediately took action, and those soldiers who had not pledged their allegiance to Jiang Quan and wanted to either block or escape, were all killed or captured on the spot.

After Lv Bu stayed in the Xiao Pei, in order to prevent the citizens of the city and outsiders from secretly communicating with each other, and also in order to prevent the traitors from wreaking havoc, he ordered most of the citizens to move to the north side of the city. Because the magistrate and military camps were all located in the north side of the city, this method of action was more beneficial to controlling the situation. Only a few people heard the screams coming from the vicinity of the city gate, but they did not dare to come out and interfere. Instead, they shut their doors and windows and hid inside their houses, not daring to make a sound in case something bad happened.

When the city gates slowly opened, no one came to the county magistrate or the barracks to inform them. The city gate had already been smoothly opened, and it did not seem to alarm Gongsun Xu and at all. He was given more time to wait for the Great Master's army to arrive, even if the Great Master's army arrived late and caused the city gate to be seized by Gongsun Xu and Gao Shun, would still have sufficient reasons to defend and exonerate himself in front of the Lord. He turned his head to look at the city, which was still quiet. Frowning, he quickly got down from the city wall, took the reins from his personal guards, and walked to the city gate nearby to observe the fire from afar. At the same time, he was waiting for the situation to change.

The trusted aide who was talking to Jiang Quan on the city wall earlier came over and asked softly: Lord Commander, do you want to send someone to help Jiang Hu?

"No need!" Jiang Quan shook his head, and said coldly: "When Jiang Hu went to set the fire, he was probably killed or captured. If he sent someone to help them, not only would it not work, it would even make the time for us to be exposed earlier!" As he said that, he raised his head to look at the street in front of him, and pointed to the corner of the street: "Jiang Da, bring a few people with you to hide at the corner of the street, the moment you see Gongsun Xu or his men approaching, come back quickly and report it!"

"Here!" Jiang Da cupped his fist and ten people ran towards the corner that Jiang Quan pointed at.

Jiang Quan watched as Jiang Da and his men disappeared from his sight, then pulled his war horse and exited the city gate, his eyes staring anxiously ahead.

Jiang Da brought the ten of them to the corner of the street. Just as they hid in the darkness, they heard the sound of horse hooves in front of them. He quickly opened his eyes wide and looked forward. After a while, a large group of mounted soldiers with torches appeared on the street 300 to 400 steps away. From their attire, one could tell that they were Gongsun Xu's White Horse Camp Cavalry.

"Quickly retreat!" With a low growl, Jiang Da turned around and dashed towards the city gates.

The other ten people cursed under their breath and quickly followed behind Jiang Da, running in the direction of the city gate.

Gongsun Xu was at the very front. Suddenly, he heard hurried footsteps from in front him and hurriedly raised his head to look. Under the dim moonlight, he could only see a few blurry black figures.

The six hundred cavalrymen increased their speed along with the sound and followed Gongsun Xu as he spurred his horse forward.

The street corner that Jiang Da and the rest were hiding at was only around seven to eight hundred steps away from the city gate. When they saw that someone was coming over, they immediately turned around to flee. When Gongsun Xu and the others reached the corner, Jiang Da who was running right in front of them was only about five hundred steps away from the city gate.

Using the light from the torches, Gongsun Xu was able to see Jiang Da's figure clearly. He quickly took off his bow and arrows from the horse, nocked and nocked at Jiang Da!

The hum and hum of the bowstring lasted for several breaths before it died down. Following which, Jiang Da dashed forward abruptly, somersaulted a few times, and then fell to the ground, motionless.