The general looked down on Liu Bei, but did he forget about the few generals under him? Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are both people that even the Prime Minister praises. Guan Yu even relied on his thousands of soldiers to block our tens of thousands of reinforcements for nearly ten months. Do you think that Liu Bei is not a threat to Jiangling City?”
As soon as Man Chong finished speaking, Cao Ren said angrily,""Shut up, brat. How dare you spout nonsense to mess up my morale? Chief historian, what about those who disturb the morale of the army?"
Chen Jiao replied,"If it's light, you'll be beaten thirty times. If it's serious, you'll be beheaded."”
Cao Ren glared at Man Chong." I don't have the right to kill you, but I do have the right to supervise you. Men, drag him down and beat him with thirty sticks."”
Cao Ren's current military position was the South Conquering General, the Commander-in-Chief of Jingzhou's military. However, he had not been granted a false festival. Without a false festival, he was not qualified to behead a general like Manchong.
However, 30 strokes were enough to kill Man Chong.
Li Tong hurriedly pleaded," General, General Man is very sincere. It is all for the sake of defending Jiangling. Please forgive me."”
"Defending Jiangling doesn't allow him to make irresponsible remarks. What does he think of me, the South Conqueror? I was the one who guarded Jiangling for ten months, not him. When it comes to guarding Jiangling, no one knows better than me.”Cao Ren said angrily.
His good mood today was ruined by Man Chong's words. In addition, he had always had a grudge with Man Chong. Cao Ren would definitely not let Man Chong off today.
Speaking of the conflict between the two of them, there was a story. Man Chong started as an official and later became the magistrate of Xuchang. He was famous for his strict enforcement of the law. Cao Hong's relatives and guests repeatedly broke the law. As soon as Man Chong took office, he caught them all. Cao Hong's relatives were also Cao Ren's relatives. Their relatives and families used their connections to get to the two of them. The two of them had to go to Cao Cao to plead for mercy because of their reputation.
This incident reminded Cao Cao of Jian Tu, the uncle of Jian Shuo, the eunuch, whom he had killed in the north of Luoyang. Naturally, he would not side with Cao Hong and Cao Ren. Instead, he praised Man Chong for doing a good job.
After that, the Cao brothers became enemies with Man Chong. However, Man Chong was appreciated by Cao Cao and his official position became higher and higher.
"General Cao, what do you think I said wrong? How did I disrupt the morale of the army? Was it wrong to warn the general to be careful of Liu Bei? What a joke." Man Chong sneered.
"Men, suppress him and give him thirty strokes of the cane.”Cao Ren's eyes were about to pop out as he stared at Man Chong, wishing he could pull out his sword and kill him.
A few burly soldiers swarmed up and took Man Chong down. They removed his weapon and escorted him down the city wall.
Full Pet was carried down as he shouted,"Cao Ren, if you don't use 120% of your strength to deal with Liu Bei, Jiangling will be lost.”
Cao Ren took a few deep breaths and suppressed his anger. He said to them,""Such a brat doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth in the eyes of the lord. What does he know about military affairs? He's just a small official.”
"General is right."
Li Tong apologized to Cao Ren and quickly left the city wall.
Cao Ren didn't care that Li Tong was going to save Man Chong. If he really killed Man Chong, Cao Ren wouldn't be able to explain himself.
"General, there's been another major movement in Liu Bei's army.”Niu Jin exclaimed.
Cao Ren looked out of the city and saw Liu Bei's army of thousands walking out of the barracks and heading north.
"There should be about five thousand people. What is Liu Bei doing? Using 5,000 men to stop our reinforcements from the south?”Cao Ren's eyes widened.
"It's possible. Liu Bei's current fighting style should be to block the reinforcements from all over the world and then attack Jiangling."”
"Have the scouts investigate Liu Bei's arrangements.”Cao Ren said.
"Here."
Because of the arrival of the reinforcements, the morale of the defending troops in Jiangling City gradually rose.
Unfortunately, because of Liu Bei's attack on Jiangling, their hopes of returning home were dashed.
The soldiers could not help but curse at Liu Bei.
Originally, there were close to 200,000 people in Jiangling City. However, after the Battle of Red Cliff, these people either fled or were moved to Xiangyang, Xinye, Nanyang Prefecture, and other places. Cao Cao loved to move people.
However, there were still 3,000 ordinary people in the city. 2,000 of them were responsible for cooking and doing odd jobs for the guards, and the remaining 1,000 were women captured by the Cao army.
It was self-evident what these women were used for.
Many people only saw the cruelty of war on the battlefield, but they did not see the cruelty of ordinary people.
Ma Shun was from Liangzhou. According to his family background, Ma Shun could be considered to be from an official family. His grandfather was a county official, and his father was a county magistrate. However, in the early years of Han Sui's rebellion, his father defected to Han Sui. Not long after, the imperial court army attacked. The young Ma Shun experienced a year of escape and finally stopped in Jingzhou. He settled down, married, and had children. It should have been a happy life, but at that time, the world was in chaos, and the commoners had no place to live. Cao Cao went south. Jingzhou was in chaos.
Ma Shun was one of the hundreds of thousands of Xinye citizens who had fled with Liu Bei. Unfortunately, in the chaos of war, even Liu Bei's wife and children had been separated.
Even so, they were still loyal to Liu Bei.
This was not because of Liu Bei's charm, but because of Cao Cao's notoriety.
After his wife and son were separated, Ma Shun used his son's clothes and the birthmark on his arm to find his seven-year-old son, whose head had been trampled by a horse's hoof, in a dirty mud pit. After burying him, Ma Shun endured his grief and looked for his wife.
The heavens paid off. Ma Shun spent 10 hours in the weeds to find his wife, whose clothes were disheveled and had been defiled by the Cao army.
The two of them hugged each other and cried. The Cao army returned and captured two of them.
Afterwards, the two of them were brought into Jiangling City by the Cao Army.
Ma Shun poured the water from the well into a wooden bucket and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He raised his head and glanced at the Cao army on the city wall, who was on high alert. Immediately, a shout came from the side, telling Ma Shun to move faster.
There were still many people queuing up to fetch water.
Ma Shun carried two wooden buckets with a carrying pole and followed the people in front of him who were also carrying water to send the water into the camp.
Ma Shun could only finish fetching water when smoke rose from the camp.
Next, Ma Shun dragged his tired body to the tower. This was the tallest building in Jiangling City, and there were hundreds of messenger pigeons on the tower to contact the various places.
Ma Shun's work for the next day was to raise carrier pigeons and receive letters.
……
There were ten guards in the tower, and only one of them was literate. He was responsible for reading the letters, but this person was extremely lazy. He caught Ma Shun, who was literate, in the labor service and asked him to help write.
It was late in the morning, and the temperature in the tower was so high that people would sweat if they stood still inside. The ten guards had already hidden in the shade at the bottom of the tower to cool down.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]