Scholar Meng was stunned and looked at me in surprise.
"When did I become your Martial Uncle?”
I smiled and said to him,
"Aren't you Meng Jian and Meng Gongwei?”
"That's me."
"That's right, my master is Mister Zhuge Kongming.”
"You're Kong Ming's student? No wonder. How did you know I had an ambush? And how is it that you're fine after drinking my poisoned wine?”
"Let's talk about this later. In order to avoid killing, you should order your men to put down their weapons and surrender. These people are not our match.”
I shouted,
"Hu Ju, pass down the order."
Hu Ju, who was in the house next door, rushed out and shot a whistling arrow into the air. Soon, the soldiers patrolling outside rushed in and aimed their loaded crossbows at the Cao soldiers.
Seeing that we reacted so quickly and that we weren't poisoned, Meng Jian knew that we were prepared. He could only order helplessly,
"Soldiers, surrender."
The Cao soldiers could also tell that if they did not surrender, they would probably become hedgehogs. Hearing Meng Jian's order to surrender, they all threw down their weapons. The tall and strong young general still wanted to struggle, but Hao Zhao hit the back of his head with a palm and he fell limply to the ground. He fainted and could not resist anymore. Our men tied up these Cao soldiers and brought them out. I said to Meng Jian,
"Martial Uncle Meng, we knew there was an ambush here. It wasn't us who knew how to calculate, but Yang Fu who informed us that something was wrong here. You have to know that I've never drunk before. How can I be drunk?”
When Meng Jian heard that, he was so angry that he gritted his teeth. He glared at Yang Fu and said,
"Yang Fu, you lied to me that these people like to drink. You must ask the messenger to invite them to drink. If I had known this would happen, I would have killed you.”
"Then why didn't you get poisoned after drinking the poisoned wine and eating the poisoned vegetables?”
" Hahaha…" Zhang Bao was the first to laugh. Then, the few of us also laughed, making Yang Fu puzzled. I said to Zhang Bao,
"Big brother, let them take a look."
Zhang Bao took off the battle report. Everyone could see that he had a leather bag tied to his chest. There was a big flat opening. The flat opening was hidden under the robe at his neck. If one did not look carefully, one would not be able to find it. Zhang Bao took off the leather bag and poured out all the wine and food she had just drunk. Yang Fu added,
"Little General, I clearly saw you guys eating just now.”
"That's right, we're eating. But we brought it ourselves."
I showed Yang Fu my sleeve. There was a small pocket sewn inside with some jerky. Meng Jian, Yang Fu, and the others all understood. It turned out that when we used our sleeves to block it just now, it wasn't out of politeness, but because we poured the poisoned wine and vegetables into that leather bag. Then, we secretly took out the dried meat and threw it into our mouths to eat.
Meng Jian couldn't help but sigh.
"The younger generation is formidable. Martial Nephew, I've already fallen into your hands twice in the past five days. Do whatever you want with me, I won't run away.”
"Martial Uncle Meng, who is that fellow with you?”
"Xiahou Ba, the eldest son of General Xiahou.”
Xiahou Ba? Zhang Bao's uncle was a powerful figure in the late Three Kingdoms and had caused a lot of trouble for Jiang Wei. Later, he surrendered to Shu Han and lived there until his old age. He would deal with him later. Hu Ju also came over to report that the Jiang Residence had found more than 200 Cao soldiers, but there was no sign of Xiahou Yuan and the others.
"Martial Uncle Meng, it seems that you want to behead us and use a small force to capture us.”
Meng Jian smiled awkwardly.
"I really wanted to do that, but you ruined it.”
"Martial Uncle Meng, tell me where Xiahou Yuan is. Did he bring the remaining 2000 people outside the city?”
"Yes, General Xia Hou is outside the city.”
I turned around and arranged for Hu Ju to gather the troops. I wanted to go out with my brothers to chase after Xiahou Yuan.
"Nephew, there's no need to chase. General Xia Hou has already gone far away. I've already agreed with him that if I don't send out the signal within an hour, he won't have to care about us anymore. He'll lead the army far away and retreat to Chang 'an.”
"Oh, thank you, Martial Uncle. However, I believe that he won't be able to escape. He took my medicine a while ago. It's been a few days. Without my antidote, he won't feel well.”
Meng Jian snorted and said to me,
"Don't think that you know everything just because you're Kong Ming's disciple. General Xia Hou is known as the Swift General, how can he not escape?”
"Haha, Martial Uncle, there are only a few roads from Tianshui to Chang 'an. How can I not guess? If you run south first, you're just running north. Your target is a mountain pass to the north. By the time we get back to Ji City, Xiahou Yuan will probably be here.”
Meng Jian's expression changed. He didn't comment.
Jiang Xu and Mother Jiang had also recovered. Jiang Xu came over and grabbed Meng Wei's collar. He snatched a steel knife and was about to kill Meng Wei.
"Return my family's lives!"
I hurriedly grabbed Jiang Xu's arm.
"Lord Jiang, please wait. I haven't finished asking. Don't kill him yet.”
"Martial Uncle Meng, you killed Lord Jiang's entire family?”
Meng Jian shook his head and then nodded. I was confused, and so was Jiang Xu. Hu Ju interrupted and said that there were no corpses of Jiang Xu's family members in the backyard.
"Martial Uncle Meng, did you kill him or not? Why are you nodding and shaking your head?"
"Nephew, I don't show any mercy to traitors. I was the one who suggested killing Lord Jiang's family to avoid future trouble. For Lord Anjiang's sake, General Xia Hou has already brought his family out of the city with him. I reckon it's not going to end well.”
Jiang Xu said to me,
"Little General, quickly send troops to save my family.”
When I saw Jiang Xu like that, I couldn't bear it anymore. After all, his family members were still outside the city, so I said to Jiang Wei,
"Big brother, please bring some people out of the city to take a look and try your best to search for Lord Jiang's family.”
After all, Jiang Wei was from the same clan as Jiang Xu. He was a little worried, so he turned around and left without hesitation. Jiang Xu was still worried, so he also apologized to me and followed Jiang Wei out of the city.
When Yang Fu saw Jiang Xu go out, he said to me,
"Little general, I thought you didn't understand what I meant. You scared me just now."
I was amused.
"General Yang, thank you. Otherwise, we would really have been knocked out.”
I turned to Zhang Bao and said,
"Big brother, did you see that? Your uncle even placed a sword on someone else's neck. Do it yourself.”
Zhang Bao chuckled and asked Guan Xing to help him move Xia Houba to the side. I knew that Xia Houba couldn't run away, so let them do whatever they want. The hall needs to be tidied up, right? Since Jiang Xu has left, we will naturally make the arrangements. I sent someone to help Mother Jiang to the back hall to rest. Meng Jian was locked up. After all, he was my martial uncle, so I didn't make him suffer. When I go back, I'm going to hand him over to my master to deal with. After all, I can't let him go back to Cao Cao's side. If Cao Cao's strength is weakened, so be it.
They all left, so I asked Yang Fu about her situation over the past few days. Yang Fu told us about Chen Cang's situation after he broke up with us. It turned out that he had rushed over that night and arrived at Li City the next morning. He met Jiang Xu and urged him to block the road leading south from Cheligu. Jiang Xu's Li City had over 2000 soldiers. If he were to join forces with his good friends Zhao Ang, Yin Feng, Li Jun, and the others, they would be able to gather around 7000 to 8000 soldiers. Jiang Xu had already agreed to it and had already sent out his men to contact Zhao Ang and the others. It should be said that it was quite possible for them to defeat the demoralized Cao Army.。For some reason, when Mother Jiang heard that Yang Fu had arrived, she hurried to the front to see her nephew. She happened to hear them discussing about sending troops to intercept Cheligu and the Cao army that had escaped. Mother Jiang scolded them for being heartless and helping the Great Han Prime Minister Cao to rebel against Ma Chao without caring about his wife and children. She also ordered them not to fight against the Cao army and to cooperate with the Cao army from the central government. Jiang Xu was a dutiful son. Since his mother had already scolded him like this, he could only obey and send people to retrieve those messengers. But in the afternoon, none of the messengers returned. It was Xiahou Yuan's 4000 men who had come. After Xiahou Yuan arrived, he sent Meng Jian to occupy Li City and threw the heads and letters of the messengers in front of Jiang Xu. He also captured Jiang Xu's wife and children to threaten Jiang Xu and Yang Fu. He ordered Yang Fu to write a letter to the pursuers, saying that he would welcome them as soon as possible. Yang Fu had no choice but to write it. In order to prevent me from being ambushed, he even instructed the messenger to invite me to drink so that I would be alert. Xiahou Yuan and the others had set up an ambush outside the city, as well as in Jiang Xu's manor. They were afraid that I wouldn't fall into their trap, so they used a series of schemes. First, they used the ambush outside the city and the fire at the other gates to make me think that the ambush was nothing much, and I was quickly repelled. Then, they deliberately let me save Jiang Xu and the others, so that I could relax my vigilance and rest in Jiang Xu's residence. Then, they will poison us and capture our heads. Then, they will work together to wipe out our pursuers and find an opportunity to counterattack or retreat to Chang 'an. Who would have thought that we would see through these schemes and capture the ambush in the city? Xiahou Yuan had originally left his son and Meng Jian to guard the city, just in case. In the end, both of them had lost everything.
At this moment, Jiang Wei and Jiang Xu came in. Their faces were filled with sorrow, especially Jiang Xu. He was in so much pain that he couldn't even walk. Jiang Wei had to carry him. When I saw this, I knew that things were not good. I was afraid that Jiang Xu's family was all finished. After having Jiang Xu sit down, I asked Jiang Wei in a low voice. As expected, some corpses were found in the forest outside the city. They were all Jiang Xu's family members. Other than Mother Jiang and Jiang Xu, all the other family members were killed. When Jiang Xu saw the miserable state of his family members, he sat on the ground and could not get up. It was Jiang Wei who carried him back. Jiang Xu sat there crying. Mother Jiang heard the crying in the backyard and came over to confirm the news of her family being killed. Without saying a word, she turned around and returned to the backyard. We were all trying to persuade Jiang Xu not to be sad. While everyone was still persuading him, a family member ran over from the backyard and shouted as he ran,
"Lord Jiang, my grandmother hanged herself.”
Jiang Xu quickly got up and ran to the backyard. Yang Fu and the few of us followed him to Mother Jiang's room in the backyard. Mother Jiang had already been put down. There was also a suicide note on the table, saying that she had no words to face the Jiang family and could only die. Jiang Xu was even sadder when he saw this. He had already heard from Yang Fu that I learned medicine from the divine doctor, so he pulled me back.
"Please save my mother."
I motioned for him to stop crying. I walked over and rolled Mother Jiang's eyelids to check her pupils and her heartbeat. I found that her heartbeat was so weak that it was almost undetectable. Moreover, she had been hanging herself for a short time. There was still hope of saving her. I asked some irrelevant people to go out and try to untie Mother Jiang's clothes. Jiang Xu was about to fly into a rage when he saw this. I glared at him.
"If you want your mother to live, shut up and listen to my orders.”
Seeing that his mother could still be saved, Jiang Xu shut up. I placed my palm on the middle part of Mrs. Jiang's sternum to perform cardiac compression. I slowly pressed down and then quickly relaxed. While I was doing the cardiac massage repeatedly, I asked Jiang Xu to place Mrs. Jiang's upper limbs flat on both sides of her torso. I used both hands to hold Mrs. Jiang's forearms (close to the elbow joint) and pulled her arms up at a right angle to her body. Then, he pulled his arms outward to make Mrs. Jiang's limbs cross. This position lasted for two seconds to expand Mrs. Jiang's chest and guide qi into the lungs. Then, he retracted Mrs. Jiang's arms and placed them on the anterolateral side of the chest. He pressed inward (towards the ribs) to shrink her chest for two seconds and squeezed out the qi from the lungs. This was repeated. After massaging her for a while, I could feel that her heartbeat was getting stronger, but she was still not breathing. I tilted her head back as much as possible, held her chin with one hand, and pinched her nostrils with the other to prevent gas from escaping. I took a deep breath first, then aimed at Mother Jiang's mouth and blew hard. After blowing, I listened for the sound of breathing back. If there was a sound of breathing back, it meant that the air passage was unobstructed, and I could blow again. After blowing, he had to loosen Mother Jiang's nostrils and let her breathe. He blew in mouthful after mouthful in a regular manner, the frequency matching Jiang Xu's. Slowly, Mother Jiang's breathing resumed. I signaled Jiang Xu to stop expanding her chest. Mother Jiang coughed a few times and opened her eyes. She looked around in confusion. When she saw Jiang Xu, her eyes stopped moving.
"Son, why are you here? Why is the netherworld the same as our house?”
"Mother, you didn't die. It was Little General who saved you.”
"Why did you save me? Let me die.”
"Mother, you can't die. You're my only kin. What will happen to me if you die?”
"Son, mother has exhausted my grandson to death and caused my Jiang family to die. Mother has no face to face our ancestors.”
I rolled my eyes and pulled Jiang Xu.
"Lord Jiang, what do you think of my Big Brother Jiang?”
"He's a talented man with both martial and literary skills. His future is limitless.”
"Since Lord Jiang's son is dead, and my Big Brother Jiang's surname is Jiang, and he's also a member of the Jiang family, why don't you take him as your foster son and let him support you when you're old?”
Mother Jiang's eyes lit up when she heard that. Her deathly aura dissipated as she tried to persuade Jiang Xu to agree quickly. Jiang Xu hesitated and said,
"I'm afraid your Big Brother Jiang won't agree!”
"You don't have to worry about that. I'll persuade my Brother Jiang.”
I left Jiang Xu alone with his mother, then found Jiang Wei and told him what I told Jiang Xu. Jiang Wei also knew that Jiang Xu and his father were cousins, so it wouldn't mess up the hierarchy if I were to worship him as my father. He only told me that I needed to go back to Ji City to report to my mother and get her permission. He didn't object.
I told this news to Jiang Xu. Mother Jiang and Jiang Xu were in a good mood and urged them to go to Ji City to see Jiang Wei's mother. I still have to persuade them to let us rest for a night before leaving. The two of them were also happy and agreed to our request to rest.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]