Different from the Baimenlou, Lu Bujun also entered a desperate situation this time, as the only think tank of Lu Bujun, Chen Gong did not blame Lu Bu too much, in Chen Gong's view, Lu Bujun came to this point, in addition to because the opponent was too strong, and then there was Lu Bujun did not firmly maintain the alliance of Lian Tao against Cao, and he cut off the only way back, which led to the final breakdown of the Tao-Lu Alliance, Lu Bu is responsible, Tao should be responsible, and Chen Gong himself is even more responsible - if it weren't for Chen Gong also coveting the five counties of Xuzhou, Several times, he agreed with Lu Bu's idea of taking advantage of the fire to rob, and he would not completely anger Tao Ying, so that the originally promising Taolu Alliance would completely break.

It is precisely because of this, so this time the guilty Chen Gong did not blame Lu Bu for not accepting advice, nor did he blame Lu Bu for not listening to his own strategy, and chose to live and die with Lu Bu, in the case of Lu Bu's depressed will and finally borrowed wine to drown his sorrows, Chen Gong resolutely took up the heavy responsibility of supervising the city and guarding the city, eating and living on the city wall, not only organized the army to repel the Cao army's open attack and steals many times, but also never returned to his home in the city, visited his mother and wife, and did his last loyalty for Lu Bu. also fought for Lu Bu for the last glimmer of almost non-existent hope for life.

In this day, Chen Gong led his own army to inspect the partial division battlefields at the east and west gates of Changyi City, and returned to the main battlefield city wall of the south gate. Chen Gong looked left and right and couldn't see Gao Shun's boss Wei Xu, so he walked up to Gao Shun and asked, "General Gao, where is Wei Xu?" He is the main general of the South Gate, why is he nowhere to be seen? ”

"Oops, hey, hey!" Gao Shun didn't answer immediately, just shouted the trumpet and carefully tamped the soil and stone with the soldiers, and then put down the stone hammer, wiped the sweat on his face and said: "Back to Mr. Gongtai, General Wei saw that the Cao army did not move, so he went back to the city to rest, and when he left, General Wei explained that if the Cao thief came to attack, he would immediately ring the gong to call the police, and he would come back immediately." ”

"Bastard! Sure enough, I went back to the city without permission! Chen Gong was a little angry, "The South Gate is the main battlefield of Cao Thief's siege, as the chief general of the South Gate, he commands almost half of our army's soldiers and horses, and he dares to repeatedly derelict his duties and slack, it is simply lawless!" Wild! ”

Gao Shun was silent, did not echo Chen Gong's accusations against Wei Xu, nor did he have the slightest indignation, he just lowered his head and was silent, as if an old monk had settled down. And Chen Gong sent someone to send an order to Wei Xu, ordering Wei Xu to rush to the city to urge the soldiers to repair the city defenses, and then pulled Gao Shun to a secluded place next to him, and whispered to Gao Shun: "General Gao Shun, do you know that the Xuzhou army has increased troops to the west gate of Changyi again?" ”

Gao Shun shook his head honestly and did not speak, while Chen Gong said in a low voice: "When I inspected the West Gate just now, I saw that there were many more flags of the Xuzhou army in the southern camp of Yuan Shaojun. In addition, I also heard rumors from the sergeants of the army, saying that Tao Ying had concluded an alliance with Yuan Shao, and signed an armistice agreement with Cao Thief. ”

Gao Shun continued to be silent, and only after a long time did he sigh softly, and said in a weak whisper: "It's that we are sorry for him, he did this, and we can't blame him." ”

"Not necessarily ......." Chen Gong originally wanted to point out that Tao Ying may not be without responsibility in the matter of Tao Lu's break, but when the words came to his mouth, he swallowed back into his stomach, but he also sighed, and then said in a low voice: "General Gao Shun, there is a question that I hope you will answer truthfully - after the Xuzhou army entered the camp of Yuan Shaojun, did Tao Ying send someone to contact you secretly?" The matter is serious, and I hope that the general will answer truthfully, and do not have the slightest scruples and concealment. ”

Gao Shun shook his head, his expression also showed some helplessness, and replied in a low voice: "Don't hide it from Mr. Gongtai, when the end of the day and the surname Cao left Xuzhou, Tao Yuanjun once said that if we are willing to keep in touch with him, we can send someone to send a letter or go directly to him at any time, but in order not to let Wen Hou misunderstand, he will not take the initiative to contact us, so as not to ...... and cause more misunderstandings." Tao Zhijun is an honest gentleman and has fulfilled his promise. ”

"Tao Yingzhen said this?" Chen Gong's words carried a little joy.

Gao Shun stopped talking, but nodded solemnly, Chen Gong knew that Gao Shun was loyal and trustworthy, and he didn't speak, so he was even more happy, and said in a low voice: "General Gao, since Tao Ying has this promise, can you please send someone out of the city to contact Tao Ying and hand him a letter?" ”

Gao Shun hurriedly asked Chen Gong, "Mr. Gongtai, what do you want to do?" Let the lord know about this, do I still want to live? ”

"Don't worry, I didn't tell you to betray the lord." Chen Gong replied in a low voice: "On the contrary, I want you to get in touch with Tao Ying for the lord, and then ask the lord to beg Tao Ying to look at the old feelings, open up to our army, and let our army have a way to live, as long as this matter is successful, our army may still have a chance of life, which is far better than sitting and waiting for death in Changyi City." ”

Gao Shun was silent again, and after a long time, Gao Shun said softly: "As long as the lord allows me to do this, I can send someone to contact Tao Envoy Jun." ”

"Lord's side, wrap it up on me." Chen Gong held on to the last glimmer of hope and said: "After Wei Xu is here in a while, I will immediately go to see the lord, explain this matter to the lord, and ask the lord to give you an order in person." ”

As soon as Chen Gong's voice fell, without waiting for Gao Shun to agree, the soldiers of the Lu Bu Army next to the arrow stack suddenly made a noise, and it turned out that a messenger with a white flag came out of the Cao Army formation in the distance, and at the same time, to the surprise of the soldiers of the Lu Bu Army, this messenger with a white flag was actually wearing a tattered Lu Bu Army soldier's uniform, obviously a prisoner of war of the Lu Bu Army who was captured by the Cao Army but had not yet been recruited. After the prisoner of war walked to the city and called the city, Chen Gong, who was eager to grasp the dynamics of the enemy's situation, did not hesitate, and immediately asked someone to put down the hanging basket, hanged the prisoner of war on the city wall, and personally received the prisoner of war in the south gate tower.

Very much to Chen Gong's surprise, after this prisoner of war was escorted into the city tower, not only did he not ask to see Lu Bu, but also took out a letter from his arms, explaining that Cao Ying ordered him to send it, and even more unexpectedly introduced that the recipient of this letter was Chen Gong himself. Chen Gong did not doubt that it was a plan, while asking the prisoner of war about the situation of Cao Jun, he took the letter and opened it, took out the letter and read it, and carefully looked at the content of the letter, and saw that several key places were smeared with ink, and several keywords were also altered and replaced, Chen Gong was a little inexplicable at first, and almost thought that his old friend Cao Boss had made a mistake and sent the draft, but after a little calculation, Chen Gong's little face turned white all of ............ suddenly, "It's broken!" Hit the trick! This time, I jumped into the Yellow River and couldn't wash it! Chen Gong slapped his forehead, and subconsciously wanted to tear up the letter, but as soon as his hands tore open the letter, Chen Gong suddenly woke up and said secretly: "No! This letter cannot be destroyed! If it is ruined, the lord will definitely suspect me of being a thief! ”

Thinking of this, Chen Gong hurriedly raised the letter in his hand with both hands, and said loudly to the soldiers on the left and right: "Soldiers, please read carefully, I Chen Gong just opened this letter and read it, and did not raise a pen to smear and modify a word. This matter is related to Chen Gong's net worth and surname, please don't forget it! ”

When the soldiers on the left and right agreed together, Lu Bu's brother-in-law Wei Xu walked into the city tower, and laughed loudly with the smell of wine: "Mr. Gongtai, what is so important, it is related to the life of Mr.'s net worth?" Also, the Cao thief did not attack the city, and the gentleman hurriedly sent someone to call me back, what is the matter? ”

"The general came just in time, the south gate battlefield is temporarily in charge of the general, and the palace must go to see the lord immediately." Chen Gong didn't have the heart to pursue Wei Xu's crime of leaving his post without permission, so he just stood up with the letter and instructed the soldiers on the left and right: "You all go with me to see the lord, and this messenger also brings it." ”

As he spoke, Chen Gong strode to the gate of the city tower with the letter in his hand, but Wei Xu, who was already drunk and blushing and thick-necked, stopped Chen Gong and the others with his open hand, and asked very vigilantly: "Mr. Gongtai, where did the letter in your hand come from?" Also, where did this messenger come from? ”

"I'll tell you later, I must go and see my lord right away." Chen Gong was afraid that it would become darker and darker, so he didn't dare to introduce the truth to Wei Xu, but said in great distress: "I fell for it!" I accidentally fell for Cao Thief's poisonous plan! Cao Apu, you, the world's number one thief, have such a poisonous plan, and you can't think of it! ”

"Cao thief's poisonous scheme?" Wei Xu was even more puzzled in his heart, and suddenly snatched the letter in Chen Gong's hand, Chen Gong was shocked and wanted to take it back, but when he stretched out his hand, he suddenly wanted to go If he competed for the letter, then it would prove that he was a thief, so Chen Gong could only sweat profusely and said: "General Wei, you can see it, but you must listen to my explanation, I haven't changed a word of this letter." ”

No matter how much Chen Gong explained, it was useless, and after carefully reading this letter of lack of virtue that the dead did not lose their lives, Wei Xu immediately became suspicious, and asked: "Chen Gong, the key point on this letter, why did you use a pen to smear and revise it?" What is the original content of this epistle? ”

"I didn't smear it, it's Cao Thief! It was Cao Thief who smeared and modified it himself! Chen Gong sweated profusely and explained, "This letter is a poisonous plan of the Cao thief, the Cao thief knows that the lord is suspicious and light-hearted, and he has a slight edge with me, so he used this poisonous trick to separate me and the lord, and wants to cause chaos within our army, so that he can take the opportunity to break the city!" ”

"You'd better go and explain to your lord, come on!" Wei Xu was willing to believe it, but he just shouted that the soldiers went upstairs, and after the soldiers rushed up to the city tower, Wei Xu pointed at Chen Gong and the others and shouted: "Take them all down!" Look closely! When I go to see the lord in person, ask the lord to come here and take care of them! ”

"General Wei, this is a poisonous plan! This is Cao Thief's poisonous plan! Chen Gong was shocked and hurriedly shouted, but the soldiers of the Lu Bu army behind Wei Xu were willing to listen, and after a bang, they first surrounded Chen Gong, and then forcibly armed several other Lu Bu soldiers, Wei Xu also hurriedly went downstairs to see Lu Bu with the letter, leaving Chen Gong struggling in the city tower and yelling, "General Wei, this is a plan, this is Cao Thief's poisonous plan!" Cao Apu, you thief, such a sinister and despicable poisonous plan, you can think of it! Thief! You are the number one thief in the world! ”

………………………… There was such a big disturbance on the south gate of Changyi, of course, it was impossible to hide the eyes of the Cao Jun scouts under the city wall, and after the scouts flew the news to the Cao Jun tent, Cao Boss immediately laughed and laughed: "Okay, it must have been successful!" Tao Yingxiao'er's plan is really vicious, unless Chen Gong's puppet opens the letter in front of Lu Bu, otherwise, even if there are more people to testify to Chen Gong, Lu Bu's puppet has to suspect that they are all Chen Gong's accomplices! ”

"My lord, the enemy has already had chaos inside, and the last general will wait for the order to attack the city immediately!" Several Cao army generals came out of the ranks, and together they hugged their fists and asked for the siege of the city.

"Don't worry." Boss Cao waved his hand to stop the generals, and said with a smile: "Launching a siege at this time will only help Chen Palace, and will make Lu Bu Pifu concentrate on defending the city, and he will not have the energy to find Chen Palace's stubble." Patiently watch the show, wait for confirmation that Lu Bu has cleaned up the Chen Palace, and then attack the city before it is too late. ”

Cao Junzhong's generals had no choice but to retreat, but Cheng Yu over there arched his hand and said: "Lord, if it goes well, even if Chen Gong does not die this time, he will inevitably be deprived of military power. Tao Ying's thief once said that Wei Xu is a person who is greedy for a cup of good wine, so why not launch a steal of the city after the third watch tonight? Without Chen Gong making trouble, our army not only has a good chance of stealing the city, but even if it can't succeed, Wei Xu, who is greedy for cups and mistakes, will inevitably be heavily blamed by Lu Bu, which will make the internal estrangement of Lu Bu's army deeper, and it will be more conducive to our army's next siege operation. ”

Boss Cao laughed, nodded first and agreed with Cheng Yu's suggestion, and then instructed Yu Ban to prepare to steal the city at night, and then after a little calculation, Boss Cao suddenly slapped the table in front of him, and said angrily: "Last night, it was Lu Su who carried the black cauldron for Tao Ying's thief, and now it seems that I am carrying the black cauldron for Tao Ying's thief!" That Chen Gong puppet must be scolding me for being deceitful and vicious at this moment, and harming him with such a despicable and vicious trick! Everyone in the world says that I am a Zhan Xiong, I killed Lu Bu for Tao Ying's thief, and I have to be scolded by my old friends for this thief, he is a Zhan Xiong! Thief! ”

.............................. "Cao thief! thief! You thief! Shameless thief! You can use such a dirty and vicious trick! You thief! Thief - ! ”

In the words of poor Cao Laoda, Chen Gong, who didn't know who the culprit was, was really constantly scolding Boss Cao, who was actually very innocent this time, but when Chen Gong scolded with a dry mouth and hoarseness, Lu Bu, who was also drunk and blushing and thick-necked, led Wei Xu and Song Xian and the others to stride into the city tower, and did not show up in front of people for a few days. Not only is there no longer the heroic appearance of the princes of the Eighteen Roads who singled out the princes of the Eighteenth Road under the Tiger Prison Pass, but there is also a decadent atmosphere all over the body, and the officers and soldiers of the Lu Bu Army, who are already not high morale, will inevitably be even more demoralized and shaken when they see the appearance of the boss.

"My lord, I have been wronged!" Seeing Lu Bu coming in, Chen Gong hurriedly shouted loudly: "Please check the lord clearly, although I didn't check the Cao thief's plan for a while, the soldiers present can testify, and I didn't modify and smear a word on that letter!" Please check clearly, don't fall for the thief's divisive poisonous scheme. ”

"Lord, we can all testify, after Mr. Chen Gong opened the letter, he did not erase and modify a word." More than a dozen soldiers present at the time testified to Chen Gong, and some soldiers said: "Lord, Mr. Chen Gong not only did not change a word, but also did not even touch the brush. ”

Lu Wenhou did not speak with a gloomy face, first looked at Chen Gong who shouted loudly, and then looked at more than a dozen trembling soldiers of Lu Bujun, and finally strode to the side of the bookcase, looked down and found that the tips of several brushes on the case were indeed very dry, Lu Wenhou's face just eased, but he didn't think that his brother-in-law Wei Xu came up, pointed to the window behind the city tower and whispered: "Lord, the brush that was used may have been thrown out." ”

"Bring someone down to find me! Find it now! Be sure to find it! ”

Lu Wenhou shouted with a blue face, Wei Xu happily took the order, but Chen Gong shouted in a distraught, "Lord, don't you even believe me and suspect that I will betray you?" It is true that Cao Thief and I know each other, but I have long since broken off my righteousness with him! Lord, you must believe me! ”

Lu Wenhou turned his hazy and drunken eyes, staring at Chen Gong like an eagle falcon for a long time, and only after a long time did he ask in a hoarse voice: "Since you have already severed your righteousness with Cao Thief, then why did Cao Thief send a book, and you didn't present the letter to me intact?" Instead, he hid in this tower, and turned his back on everyone to read the letter alone? ”

"Yes, I made a mistake down there." Chen Gong nodded vigorously to admit his mistake, and hurriedly distinguished: "At first, I didn't know that Cao Thief sent our army prisoners to send me a letter, and I wanted to learn about Cao Thief's military situation from the mouths of our army prisoners, and at the same time, I was worried that our army prisoners would tell Cao Thief's military information in public, I was afraid that it would shake the army's heart, and only after a moment of mistake did I take our army prisoners to the city tower for individual interrogation, and as a result, I fell for Cao Thief's annihilation plan!" But I can swear to heaven that I am loyal to your lord, and I will never rebel! ”

"Humph!" Lu Wenhou was willing to believe there, and after snorting coldly, Lu Wenhou said gloomily: "When I was in Zhongmu County, Gongtai had a life-saving grace for Cao thieves, but now Cao thieves are besieging the city on all sides, and the city of Changyi is in danger, so Gongtai really has no plans to rebuild the old friendship with Cao thieves?" ”

"Ahh Poor Chen Gong couldn't tell the difference, so he could only look up to the sky and roar with tears in his eyes, "The sky is above, if I, Chen Gong, am really the person who is greedy for life and afraid of death, why should I abandon Cao and follow Wen Hou to be born and die?" If my Chen Palace is the person who covets glory and wealth, in the whole world, in the palace of that prince, can there be no place in my Chen Palace? Why bother not to abandon a Lu Wenhou who is already at the end of his rope, and decide to live and die with him?! ”

Hearing Chen Gong's heartfelt scream, and remembering that Chen Gong had never abandoned him over the years, sharing weal and woe, Lu Wenhou, who had extremely soft ears, was inevitably a little shaken, and carefully picked up the extremely despicable letter to read. But at this time, Wei Xu rushed in with a brush and shouted: "Lord, I found it, I found it, I found it under the city tower!" Lord, please see, the tip of the pen is wet, and you can still write! ”

Seeing the brush in Wei Xu's hand that he got from nowhere, of course Lu Wenhou was almost not mad, but Chen Gong over there was scattered and yelled in disbelief: "No! I didn't throw the brush out the window! Fake, this brush is also fake! I didn't alter the letters, I didn't throw a brush! ”

"Someone!" Lu Wenhou roared with a blue face, and the soldiers in the hall who held down Chen Gong and the others also yelled and agreed, and then Lu Wenhou yelled again: "Tell Chen Gong to push out ......." ”

After all, Lu Wenhou is not the boss Cao who would rather teach me to bear the people of the world and stop teaching the world to bear me, let alone Deputy Director Tao who would rather teach the people of the world to bear and teach me to bear the people of the world, Lu Wenhou still has a little conscience and affection, so after the words came to his lips, thinking of Chen Gong's merits and loyalty, Lu Wenhou finally changed his mind, and no longer shouted the words of beheading Chen Gong, but instead shouted: "Push Chen Gong out and put him in prison!" All the people who were present at the time were also imprisoned, and I will deal with them after I have carefully investigated! ”

"My lord, I have been wronged!" More than a dozen unlucky soldiers who were unlucky with Chen Gong screamed miserably, and the generals of Lu Bujun who were present also knelt down and pleaded, saying that the current enemy is present, and resisting the enemy is the best, and the general must not be detained and shaken the heart of the army, but Lu Wenhou shouted angrily: "Shut up!" If I didn't behead him for public display, I would already be extrajudicial! If you say anything more, you will be guilty of the same crime as Chen Gong! ”

The generals of Lu Bu's army were helpless, so they had to shut up obediently, but Chen Gong never said a word, neither begged for mercy, nor pleaded for mercy, but strode out of the city tower under the escort of the soldiers, and after going out, Chen Gong suddenly stopped, first looked up at the blue sky and white clouds in the sky, and then sighed: "We are all dead and have no place to be buried." ”

Hearing Chen Gong's sigh, Gao Shun, who was not far away, was expressionless, just twisted his head away, and couldn't bear to look at the tragic situation of Chen Gong being detained and imprisoned by soldiers, but when he turned his head, Gao Shun inadvertently saw the surname Cao who rushed to inquire about the situation after hearing the news, and the two of them looked at each other, and they both saw the frustration in each other's eyes, as well as complete despair.

Different from the frustration and despair of Gao Shun and Cao surnames, on the city tower at the same time, General Wei Xu, Lu Wenhou's brother-in-law, was full of smugness in his eyes, looking at Chen Gong's thin back, and his heart was full of schadenfreude, "Piff!" See how you will sue me in front of my brother-in-law in the future, saying that I have withheld the soldiers' rations? ”

(To be continued)