Liu Bei was in the building, not far from Han Xuan and Liu Du. Liu Bei sat with candles in the room, and after the third watch, he was about to go to bed to rest. Suddenly, he heard someone knocking on the door outside the window, Liu Bei opened the door and saw that it was Han Xuan and Liu Du.

Liu Du said: "Xuande, please leave quickly, Cai Mao is probably already leading the troops on the road at this time, and he is going to arrest Xuande!" ”

Liu Bei was shocked and asked, "How can Jingsheng harm me?" ”

Han Xuan said: "This is not Liu Biao's intention, but Cai's and Cai Mao's desire to cut first and then play!" ”

Liu Bei knew that because he was involved in Liu Biao's family affairs, he offended the Cai family. Han Xuan and Liu Du urged Liu Bei to get up and leave quickly, but Liu Bei hesitated: "Before leaving Jingsheng, how can I go?" ”

Liu Du said: "If Xuande resigns, he will be harmed by Cai Mao." ”

Liu Bei said goodbye to Han Xuan and Liu Du, and hurriedly summoned the servants to get on the horse together, and without waiting for the dawn, they rushed back to Xinye in the starry night.

By the time Cai Mao led the army to the pavilion, Liu Bei had already gone far away, and Cai Mao was a step too late in anger.

Han Xuan looked at Cai Mao's appearance and smiled: "General Cai is too late, the assassin has already fled. ”

"Assassins?" Cai Mao was confused and asked Han Xuandao.

Liu Du looked at Cai Mao with contempt, and snorted coldly: "I had a long talk with the Marquis of Chu in the pavilion, but I was ambushed by an assassin, and General Cai was in charge of the defense of the city, so how did he treat the guests?" Tomorrow I will ask to see Liu Jingsheng, Chen Ru and others for dereliction of duty. ”

"This is really a fault of Mao, and I immediately ordered my subordinates to strictly defend the pavilion. I don't know what an assassin looks like, so I'll send someone to chase him! Cai Mao hurriedly apologized to Han Xuan and Liu Du.

Cai Mao left a team of guards, so he said goodbye to Han Xuan and Liu Du and went back, secretly hating Han Xuan and Liu Du in his heart.

The next day, the assassination of Han Xuan and Liu Du in the pavilion spread on the street and reached Liu Biao's ears. Thinking of Liu Bei saying goodbye without saying goodbye, Cai Mao led a large number of soldiers to the post house late at night, and Liu Biao thought that the assassins who assassinated Han Xuan and Liu Du were arranged by Cai Mao.

Liu Biao pointed at Cai Mao and scolded: "I complained that I was too indulgent to you in the past, but now you want to harm Han Xuan and Liu Du." If you succeed, the two families will join forces to attack me, and the land of Jingzhou will fall into the hands of others! You, you......"

The more Liu Biao thought about it, the more angry he became, and for a while his brain was congested and he fainted. When Liu Biao woke up, Cai and Cai Mao knelt in front of Liu Biao's couch, and Cai cried: "My brother is also thinking about the general's foundation, and the land of Jingnan has been in the hands of these two people for a long time, so my brother made this decision." May the husband read it for the sake of the concubine and spare him this time. ”

Cai Mao also said repeatedly: "Sister is right. Mao knew that he was guilty, and now Liu Bei said goodbye without saying goodbye, and Mao was willing to discuss the alliance with Han Xuan and Liu Du instead. ”

Liu Biao was lying on the hospital bed, waved his hand when he heard the words, and asked Cai Mao to do it. Cai Mao then summoned the civil officials and military officials to a banquet, and invited Han Xuan and Liu Du to discuss the alliance.

Cai Mao asked Kuai Yue in advance to discuss and said: "Liu Du and Han Xuan are the heroes of the world, and they must have the intention of annexing my Jingxiang, but they can be removed today." ”

Kuai Yue hurriedly dissuaded: "No, my Jingzhou still needs to unite with it to fight against Cao, and now Cao Cao's army has not yet attacked, how can we destroy the Great Wall?" ”

Cai Mao said coldly: "I have been secretly lord's words here. ”

Kuai Yue sighed and said, "In this case, you can prepare in advance. ”

Cai Mao said: "The east gate of the Da Xian Mountain Road, my brother Cai He has led the army to guard; Outside the south gate, Cai Zhong has been guarded; Cai Xun has been guarded outside the north gate. There is no need to guard the west gate: there is a Tanxi River in front of it, although there are tens of thousands of people, it is not easy to pass. ”

Kuai Yue said: "I see that Zhang Nanxing can't sit away from Liu Du, I'm afraid it will be difficult to start. ”

Cai Mao said: "I am preparing 500 troops in the city. ”

Kuai Yue is still not at ease: "You can make Lu Jie and Wang Zhi set up another seat in the outer hall to wait for the generals." Please stay with Zhang Nan first, and then you can act. ”

Cai Mao listened to Kuai Yue's plan, killed pigs and sheep that day, and feasted on a large scale. Liu Du and Han Xuan came to the door together, and all the officials had already arrived in the hall. Chairman Cai Mao, Liu Qi and Liu Cong's two sons sat separately, and the rest sat in turn.

Zhang Nan stood beside Liu Du with a sword, and Lu Jie and Wang Zhi came to invite Zhang Nan to the table. Zhang Nan couldn't refuse, Han Xuan smiled and said, "General Zhang Nan, since the two generals have been warmly invited, you might as well get acquainted with the two of them in the past." In the future, we will all be comrades-in-arms on the same front! ”

Liu Du said to Zhang Nan: "What Han Zixin said is very true, you can go." ”

Zhang Nan reluctantly obeyed the order, Cai Mao cleaned up like an iron bucket outside, and there were killers arranged by Cai Mao inside and outside the courtyard. Cai Mao sent all the three hundred sergeants brought by Liu Du back to the pavilion, and when they were half-drunk, these killers listened to the signal and attacked together.

After the third round of drinking, Yi Ji got up and put on the lamp, went to Liu Du, glanced at Liu Du, and whispered, "Please change your clothes." ”

Liu Du understood, and immediately got up and went to the toilet with Han Xuan. After toasting, Yi hurriedly walked into the back garden, and then Liu Du and Han Xuan said in a low voice: "Cai Mao designed to harm the two, and there are military horses guarding the east, south, and north outside the city. Only the West Gate can go, and the two of you should flee quickly! ”

Han Xuan and Liu Duxin said that it was indeed a Hongmen banquet, and hurriedly untied the reins of the two horses tied to the stable, Han Xuan and Liu Du opened the back garden gate and took out the horses, flew on the horses, ignored the servants in the courtyard, and walked towards the west gate.

The doorman stopped Han Xuan and Liu Du and asked, "Where do you two want to go?" ”

Liu Du and Han Xuan didn't answer, and urged the horse to whip out. The doorman couldn't stop the two of them, and hurriedly went to report Cai Mao. Cai Mao immediately mounted his horse and led the 500 army to chase after him.

The two broke out of the west gate, and they didn't know how far they went, but there was a stream in front of them, blocking the way. It turned out to be Tanxi, about several zhang wide, the water leads to the Xiangjiang River, and the stream surface ripples from time to time.

Liu Du and Han Xuan went to the stream, and seeing that they couldn't cross it, they turned around and saw that the dust was rising in the west of the city, and the chasing soldiers were coming.

Liu Du sighed: "What can I do, you and I are both three-legged cats, how can we resist Cai Mao?" ”

Han Xuan said: "If you want to have Luma, you can also come to perform the Prancing Horse Tanxi!" ”

Liu Du was so anxious that he rode back to the stream, Liu Du saw that the stream was very deep, Han Xuan was still in the mood to laugh there, and couldn't help but be angry: "When is it, are you still in the mood to joke here?" ”

"Afraid of what? Isn't it just death, I'm already a person who has died once! Han Xuan said unhurriedly.

When Liu Du looked back, Cai Mao's pursuers had already arrived closer. Liu Du hurriedly rode down the stream, the stream washed his robe wet, Liu Du said with a sad face: "It's over, do you say that the two of us are the most unlucky traversers, and we are going to die at the hands of Cai Mao, an unknown general!" ”

As soon as Liu Du finished speaking, he saw a team behind Cai Mao rushing over, their clothes and armor were different, and most of their weapons were wooden guns, rattan shields and the like. When they arrived at the stream, Han Xuan looked at the team clearly, and he knew that this was not a regular army, but just a family soldier of a certain clan.

There were also six or seven hundred of these family soldiers, and I saw a young man riding a horse and holding a gun to Cai Mao, Cai Mao looked at him and frowned and asked, "Why did Liao Gongzi come here?" ”

I saw that Liao Gongzi came to Liu Du, dismounted and bowed to Liu Du: "In Xia Liaohua, the character is frugal." I have heard the name of Brother Liu Huang for a long time, if you don't give up, can you go to the house? ”

Liaohua? hat？ Not only Liu Du was stunned, but Han Xuan was also stunned, wasn't Liao Hua the little leader of the Yellow Turban Army in the romance? Why did he appear here, and I heard Cai Mao call him "Liao Gongzi", presumably from a prominent family.

Liu Du immediately reacted, and said to Liao Hua with a smile: "Liao Gongzi is warmly invited, and Du has no choice but to be respectful than obey his fate." ”

Cai Mao thought that he was about to succeed, but he didn't expect Liao Hua to suddenly kill him, and this Liao Hua had nothing to do with the Yellow Turban Army. The Liao Hua family has been a wealthy family in southern China for generations, and when Liu Biao first entered Jingzhou, the Liao family gave him great support.

Moreover, the strength of the Liao family is stronger than that of the Cai family, but the Cai family relied on the in-law relationship with Liu Biao to overshadow the Liao family. Seeing that Cai Mao didn't dare to offend Liao Hua easily, Han Xuan questioned him: "The two of us have no enmity with you, why do you want to harm each other?" ”

Cai Mao respectfully said to Han Xuan and Liu Du: "The alliance has not yet been negotiated, the two of them left the table for no reason, and the last general is just here to recover the two." ”

(End of chapter)