One day in early August, Wang Bao, Fan Tie and Hu Wei were treated by Liu Yin again in front of Liu Cong, compared to the previous two times they saw Liu Cong. Wang Bao and others were much calmer. The first assassination was unsuccessful and he was almost killed, and the second time he followed Liu Cong to Xudu to assassinate Jia Xu quite smoothly. With the first two foreshadowings, Wang Bao and the others are not nervous, they are all people who have died several times.

Seeing the three of them coming in, Liu Cong also felt a lot of emotion. Fortunately, my life was big for the first time, otherwise there would not be many stories behind, including the testimony that Wang Bao and others such as Kuai Yue's uncle and nephew are key tasks.

Today, Liu Cong called the three of them to have a special task to hand over to them.

"Wang Bao, Fan Tie, Hu Wei, General Ben now has an extremely important thing to order you to do. Can you guarantee that you will be able to complete the task? ”

|“ The general treats me like a mountain, and a few of us have already died many times, as long as the general orders, we will not hesitate to go up to the oil pot down the mountain. ”

"It's not that serious, but it's an extremely important thing, as long as you succeed and don't fail. Be ye mentally prepared. ”

"If the general has anything, just give it his orders, and the little ones will give up their lives to complete the general's orders."

"Well, General Ben has a great belief in your ability and talent to entrust this matter to you. That's the case, there is a famous man named Xu Shu Xu Yuanzhi in Xinye City, I think you have also heard of it.

This person loved fencing at an early age, acted chivalrous and righteous, and often regarded himself as a benevolent hero. In the last years of Zhongping, he complained about people, killed people and fled, and was captured by officers and soldiers, but he kept his mouth shut and did not say his name. Since then, he abandoned the sword, searched for famous teachers, and after hard study, he made great progress in his studies, and finally became a generation of famous men. Now he is the military advisor of Uncle Liu Huang of Xinye City, and the most important staff officer ......"

"The general wants us to sneak into Xinye to assassinate this person?" After Wang Bao and others followed Liu Cong and Xu Du back, they were incorporated into the Wei Yan Army's military drills, and they also knew a little about Liu Cong and Liu Bei's past. Liu Cong was not afraid of danger, and went to Xu Du in person to assassinate Cao Cao's strategist Jia Xu, so that Wang Bao and others admired him. Now that Liu Cong is talking about his Xu Shu, coupled with the discord between Liu Cong and Liu Bei in the past, Wang Bao naturally thinks about the future.

In the eyes of Wang Bao and others, the assassination of Jia Xu is thanks to Bai Xiaoqing's help, but to enter Xinye City, it is really not a simple matter to assassinate Xu Shu, not to mention how brave Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are, even if Xu Shu himself has good swordsmanship, he has killed everyone when he was young. Of course, if Liu Cong had orders, Wang Bao and the others would not be afraid of hardships and dangers at all.

Liu Cong shook his head: "Xu Shu himself has good swordsmanship, if it is to assassinate the three of you, the strength is obviously not enough." In order to avoid the war, Xu Shu and Shi Tao moved their families south to the Jingzhou area. In Jingzhou, Xu Shu got acquainted with Cui Zhouping, Meng Gongwei, Kong Ming, Pang Tong and others who lived here. His father had invited him many times, but he politely refused, but he never thought that he would follow Liu Bei later.

Now that Cao Cao is marching south, Liu Bei will escape! Xu Shu has a mother in Xinye, and Xu Shu is a dutiful son. I'm afraid that he and his mother will have an accident this time, so I want to ask the three of you to sneak into Xinye City in disguise and secretly protect his mother. If Liu Bei is defeated and flees, you can follow his army. If necessary, he can take his mother to Fancheng or Xiangyang to live temporarily. ”

"General, it turns out that this is what you said, this matter is simple, if the three of us can't protect it, the old woman will come to see you!" Wang Bao and others said in unison, it is true that compared to assassinating Xu Shu, protecting Xu Shu's mother is simply not a task.

Liu Cong knew that Liu Bei would escape, and he was using the people as a shield. History records that Xu Shu's mother was intercepted by Cao Cao while fleeing with Liu Bei's army.

Xu Shu had no choice but to go north and return to Cao Cao. Now that he is doing in Xiangyang, Xu Shu must have heard of it, and when the war is over and Liu Bei is cleaned up, Liu Cong is sure that Zhuge Liang will come forward to persuade Xu Shu to work for him.

Therefore, it is very important to protect Xu's mother, and Wang Bao and others naturally cannot foresee the difficulties they may face in the future.

Liu Cong had no choice but to instruct the three of them again: "If this matter is really simple, this general will not send someone to recruit you, the three of you must remember, protect Xu's mother to successfully arrive in Fancheng or Xiangyang City, and reward each person with 200,000 yuan and 20 acres of fertile land......"

When Wang Bao and the others heard it, this general was really generous, with 200,000 yuan in money and 20 acres of fertile land, and the eyes of the three of them lit up.

"But there are also any forks in it, the old and new accounts in the past are counted together, don't blame me for being more ruthless than Kuai Jian when the time comes!"

"General, don't worry, don't say that there is such a rich reward, even if there is no reward, we will definitely sacrifice our lives to protect Xu Shu's mother."

"It's also important to remember that when protecting your device, you don't have to reveal your identity, and you can only reveal it in times of crisis. Usually, you can't use force on Xu's mother, unless you have to, you can't restrict Xu's mother's freedom, if you annoy the old man, you will also be severely punished! ”

"This ......"

"Don't look at me like that, you have to remember what I said. If Xu's mother is in Xinye City, you can live in Xinye City with peace of mind, eat and drink, and the general will reimburse you, and if Liu Bei escapes, you must protect Xu's mother from being harmed by Cao Jun and Jingzhou soldiers! ”

"Got it!"

"Don't panic when you encounter something, you are the main force to protect Xu's mother, but it is definitely not just the three of you. But as you yourself said, you are going to be a Xiangbo to protect Xu's mother at a critical moment. When the time comes, this general will not treat you badly except for the agreed reward! ”

Liu Cong said so cautiously, Wang Bao and others also understood, probably this General Liu wanted to recruit Xu Shu, so he sent someone to protect his mother. However, this errand is much better than the assassination mission, and Liu Cong said that it is not only the three of them who carry out this mission. Therefore, Wang Bao and others also gladly accepted the order and left.

Sending Wang Bao and others away, Liu Cong called Huang Quan again, with the departure of Cao Cao's army, intelligence work became more and more important, including the mentality of civil and military officials in Xiangyang City and Fancheng and ordinary people.

Of course, Liu Cong came to Huang Quan this time for Xu Shu's mother.

According to Liu Cong's instructions, Huang Quan installed more than a dozen brocade guards among the 3,000 soldiers sent to Liu Bei, and three of them specially confessed to be responsible for receiving Wang Bao and others.

Knowing that Huang Quan had made proper arrangements, Liu Cong was a little relieved.

Although Wang Bao and others have a decent ability to do things, Xu Shu is a rare talent, and now he is in charge of Jingzhou, and Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wan and others can handle the civil officials, Ma Liang, Liu Ba and others are slightly inferior. If Liu Bei can be successfully eliminated and Xu Shu can be recruited, then another strategist will be added to Jingzhou.

Cao Cao set off from Xudu in early July, but he was late in Jingzhou, and Huang Zu and Zhuge Liang, who stayed in Xiangyang, couldn't sit still. Huang Zu entrusted Zhuge Liang to Fancheng to inquire about countermeasures.

As for why Cao Cao hadn't arrived in Xinye from Xudu for a month, Liu Cong also wondered.

The fastest march of the cavalry was 300 miles a day, which was considered the fastest speed. At that time, Lubei traveled with the people, and the daily journey was only more than ten miles. The normal marching speed is about 100 to 200 miles a day. Starting from Xuchang to Xiangyang, the terrain is relatively flat, but it makes no sense.

Liu Cong summoned Wen Ping, Gan Ning and other major generals to hold a military meeting.

Seeing that Liu Cong was also worried about this matter, Zhuge Liang boldly guessed: "Lord, Cao Cao did this, and he wanted to cause internal shock and chaos in Jingzhou, and he occupied Jingzhou without a fight?" ”

What Kong Ming said is not unreasonable. However, I think there is another reason, that is, the number of Cao troops is indeed too large, the consumption is large, and the logistics cannot keep up, so it can't go fast. ”

Jiang Wan's words would be absolutely alarmist if he said this to the soldiers below, but it was very pertinent to put it up at such a meeting of the inner circle.

"The two of you are extremely worried, presumably the Cao thief must be too large in number of troops to go fast, and he just takes this opportunity to sit and wait for chaos in my Jingzhou......"

"In this way, thanks to the wise ...... of the lord" Wen Ping heard three high-IQ people talk about the internal chaos in Jingzhou, and then thought of Liu Cong's previous punishment of Kuai Yue and banishment of Cai Mao, so it seems that Liu Cong's behavior is understandable, and it is a wise move, otherwise at this moment, the two of them are afraid that they have already fanned the flames and messed up Xiangyang.