It is said that in the morning, Yao Lie asked Liu Bei to support Zhuo County without permission, and walked back to his room alone, at this time, in the room, Yao Lie's first seventeen subordinates were waiting anxiously for him in the house, and when they saw Yao Lie returning, everyone hurriedly surrounded him.

"Big brother, how's it going? Did General Liu promise us to send troops to support the lord? One of them asked eagerly.

Yao Lie lowered his head, sighed, and shook his head helplessly.

Seeing this, everyone looked at each other.

"Big brother, seeing that Cheng Zhiyuan's gang of thieves have arrived near Zhuo County, if there is no foreign aid, I am afraid that the lord will not be able to resist it! We can't just watch the lord die! ”

"Yes, yes~ When we are poor, the Lord will take us in! Today, the Lord is in trouble, how can we do things here! The rest of the people began to respond as well.

Yao Lie sighed when he heard this and said, "Alas~ I have already told Brother Xuande these words, but Brother Xuande thinks that this is not the time to send troops!" ”

"When is the time to send troops? Do we have to wait for the lord to die before we go to help? I don't think Liu Bei is as benevolent and loyal as he usually shows, most of them are just pretending to fool his brother! ”

"Hey~ Don't be rude! Anyway, we were also rescued by Brother Xuande and General Gongsun that day, so if we don't repay the favor, how can we still criticize others behind our backs," Yao Lie scolded.

After hearing this, the man said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Big brother, I have followed you for many years, and there are some things that I shouldn't say, but today I have to say that I don't know the righteousness as my eldest brother, but I also know what it means to be loyal to the two masters, even if I am infamous for injustice in the future, I will go to rescue the lord!" ”

"You... Alas~ It's not that I'm not going to rescue the lord, it's just that we only have a dozen or so people, so what's the use of going back? Yao Lie said helplessly.

"Big brother, since Liu Bei doesn't give us people, let's go to other counties to ask for help, there are several counties nearby in addition to Liangxiang County, as long as we know it with reason and emotion, not much to say in a county, a thousand people and horses will definitely be able to lend out, let's go back to the lord together, come to an internal and external attack, and then we will definitely be able to defeat Cheng Zhiyuan's gang of thieves!"

Yao Lie pondered for a while and finally made up his mind.

"Good! Do as you say! ”

After Yao Lie finished speaking, he began to arrange.

Under the jurisdiction of Zhuo County, in addition to Liu Yi's Zhuo County and Liangxiang County where Liu Bei and others were stationed, there were also Fangcheng, Fanyang, Zhuguo, Gu'an and the five counties of Beixincheng mentioned earlier.

"Big brother, when are we going to start acting?" One asked.

Yao Lie thought for a while and said, "The sooner we act, the less dangerous it will be, and this matter should be sooner rather than later!" I'll leave a farewell letter, and we'll leave in the afternoon! ”

"Yes!"

Although he was very dissatisfied with Liu Bei's behavior of not sending troops to rescue, but in the past, Yao Lie still couldn't bear to leave without saying a word, so after hastily eating lunch, Yao Lie left a farewell letter with the pen and ink in the room before taking everyone out of the city.

......

After lunch, Liu Bei and Sun Fei rested and took a nap in the room as usual.

Suddenly, a soldier guarding the city ran outside, and after running to Liu Bei's door, he did not enter the house directly, but knelt in front of the door.

"General! The villain has something important to say! ”

Without waiting for Liu Bei to speak, Sun Fei, who was napping on the side, narrowed a gap in his mouse eyes, and shouted at the man with a displeased face, "What is the matter, can't you wait for me and my eldest brother to finish taking a nap?" ”

"This—" The man buried his head lower, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Liu Bei rubbed his face with sleepy eyes to sober himself up a little, then sat up and said to the soldiers outside the door, "Come in and say something!" Don't kneel outside! ”

When the soldier heard this, he was immediately grateful, and after a busy answer, he strode into the house.

"General! Just now, Deputy General Yao went out of the city with more than a dozen of his subordinates, saying that he was ordered by you to go out of the city to investigate the movements of Cheng Zhiyuan and others! The villain saw that Vice General Yao and the others were dressed a little abnormally, so they hurriedly came to report the matter to the general! ”

"What?" Sun Fei, who was still lying on the bed on the side, heard that Yao Lie and the others were out of the city, and immediately jumped out of bed and came to the man.

"Yao Lie, they're out of the city? Who told you to let them out of town? Sun Fei grabbed the man by the collar and carried the man to himself and shouted angrily.

The man was so frightened by Sun Fei's move that he stammered a little, and replied in fear, "Yao, Vice General Yao is the general's lieutenant, he wants to go out of the city, villains, villains don't dare to stop it!" ”

"You shit!" Sun Fei scolded and then pushed back hard, and the man was suddenly pushed to the ground by Sun Fei.

The man hurriedly got up, then knelt in front of Liu Bei and the others, kowtowed and begged for mercy with tears in his eyes, "General, spare your life!" The villain is a doorkeeper, and the villain is also forced to do so! ”

At this time, Liu Bei looked at the person kneeling on the ground with a fierce face, and after taking a few deep breaths, he returned to a smile and indifferent appearance.

"Get up! It's not your fault either! Tell me where Vice General Yao went after leaving the city? ”

When the man heard this, he hurriedly replied: "General Hui, Vice General Yao and the others walked not far after leaving the city, and then scattered in different directions, because Vice General Yao and they were all dressed the same and the horses they rode were the same color, so the villain did not see clearly which direction Vice General Yao himself went" The more the man spoke, the quieter his voice became, and the last few words could only be regarded as a murmur.

"Waste waste!" When Sun Fei heard this, he was about to kick the man, but Liu Bei grabbed Sun Fei, and then said indifferently, "Okay, you go down!" Vice General Yao was ordered by me to investigate the movements of the Yellow Turban thieves, and you are right not to stop it! Go back and guard the city gates, and report as soon as you have something! ”

"General Xie!" When the man heard this, he ran out.

"Brother, I'll take someone to arrest Yao Lie!"

"Forget it! You don't even know where he went, where you went to get him! ”

"Did you just let him run?" Sun Fei shouted unwillingly.

Liu Bei's face sank when he heard this, "Hmph~ Run?" I think he must have run back to Liu Yi's house, since he can't be used by me, then accompany Liu Yi to die together! ”

After saying this, Liu Bei turned his head and said to Sun Fei, "Don't wait until tomorrow, you go and prepare now, and take 20,000 people to camp five miles outside Cheng Zhiyuan's camp!" ”

"Since you want to die with him, then I will fulfill you," Liu Bei said to himself viciously.

......

Speaking of Liu Yi's side, after the "mobilization" meeting in the morning, the soldiers were full of enthusiasm and began to prepare equipment to defend the city, and some soldiers who were in the city also ran home to mobilize their families to help defend the city.

Liu Yi sent people to the Arsenal Division to bring over all the semi-finished weapons that Li Blacksmith and others had not yet built, although they were still semi-finished, but it was enough to use them as ordinary weapons, Liu Yi distributed these weapons to the people who joined later, and then formed a militia reserve of nearly 10,000 people. Because Zhang Fei and Wang San already had nearly 7,000 soldiers under them, Liu Yi handed over this militia reserve to Cheng Yu to lead.

There are all kinds of people in Cheng Yu's militia reserves, some are thin, sick, and some are very old, but for Liu Yi and others now, it is better than nothing.

Looking at the 10,000 extra soldiers all of a sudden, Liu Yi felt a little confident in his heart.

"Sir, do you think we have the strength to fight the enemy now?" At this time, Liu Yi, who was standing on the city tower, looked at the busy soldiers in front of him and said confidently to Cheng Yu beside him.

"Lord, if you want to prevent the enemy's attack, I'm afraid you can't rely on these people alone!"

Liu Yi, who had just gained a little self-confidence, was beaten back to his original form by Cheng Yu's words.

"Why is Sir so disoptimistic about our soldiers?"

Cheng Yu heard Liu Yi's words, pointed to the direction of Cheng Zhiyuan and the others' camp outside the city, and said: "Lord, it's not that I have the ambition of others to destroy my prestige, Cheng Zhiyuan's gang of thieves pursued us early in the morning and not attacked immediately after winning the victory, but camped on the spot and recuperated, and at the same time sent people to wantonly make siege machinery, at a glance, it was clear that this person was not a reckless person like Deng Mao, so I thought that it would be difficult to resist the enemy's attack with the seven thousand defenders in the city and the reserves that had not even touched the weapons!" ”

Liu Yi listened to Cheng Yu's analysis, and suddenly felt a little deflated.

"Sir, what should we do now?" Liu Yi asked.

Cheng Yu thought for a while and said, "I think that although the double reed played by the lord and the guards in the morning is very effective, it is obviously not enough, and I suggest that the lord immediately forcibly recruit troops in the city, and all men over the age of fifteen and under the age of sixty must participate in the war, so that we can at least have tens of thousands more, and when the time comes, we can rely on the tactics of the sea of people, and we can also defend for a period of time!" ”

"No way!" Liu Yi vetoed Cheng Yu's suggestion without even thinking about it.

"Do you know what it means to be forcibly recruited? Even if we hold the city, what will we do? In order to defend a small county seat, but to lose the hearts of the people of the entire Zhuo County and even the entire Youzhou, that would be too much to lose! ”

"But my lord, what if we can't hold it? At that time, not only will there be no more county seats, but even our own lives will be difficult to protect! What's the use of wanting the hearts and minds of the people? ”

"Sir, don't say any more, I've made up my mind! Even if I can't keep it, I don't want to force people to do what they don't want to do."

Cheng Yu sighed helplessly when he heard this, and said, "Alas~ In that case, we can only send someone to find rescuers, and there is no other way to do it!" ”

When Liu Yi heard this, he hurriedly called someone to call Cui Si below.

"What has the Lord called me?" Cui Si, who had been busy with everyone's logistics, asked Liu Yi while wiping the sweat on his forehead at this time.

"Do you have any trustworthy people in the city?" Liu Yi asked Cui Si seriously.

Cui Si nodded when he heard this, "Yes!" Of course! Although my restaurants have been closed since the enemy attacked, those people are still there, and they are now busy with me on logistics and supplies! ”

"Good! You immediately send a few trustworthy people to a few nearby counties to seek help! No matter how many people there are, just come! ”

"Huh? My lord, can anyone else help us in this situation? ”

"Whether we have it or not, we have to give it a try, at least Lu Du Post will help us!"

Cui Si heard Liu Yi talk about his father-in-law, and suddenly felt a little proud in his heart.

"That's natural, my father-in-law is very righteous! But my lord, how can I tell people about the rest of the county magistrate's orders? Why don't we give some gifts? ”

"You don't need to give gifts, you just need to ask your people to bring them four words"

"What four words?" Cui Si asked puzzled.

"Cold Lips and Cold Teeth"