In the past few days, Cao Cao has tossed and turned every night.

Thinking of the upcoming big battle, he was quite anxious.

He knew better than anyone else that the preparations for this southern expedition were very inadequate.

But the progress before was too smooth, the powerful Yuan family was wiped out, and the forces of Liu Bei and Sun Quan could be nothing.

It was this decision that cost Cao Cao a great amount, and as the day of the decisive battle drew nearer, he became more and more uneasy.

It can even be said that this is the most uncertain battle he has ever fought in his life.

As long as Cai Mao handed over his family as a hostage, Cao Cao would re-give the troops in Jingzhou the right to fight, and promised that as long as this battle was won, he would immediately return to the north, and Cai Mao and others could continue to be stationed in Jingzhou.

Cao Cao sent Cheng Yu to give Cai Mao a clear ultimatum - if Cai Mao did not agree, he would rather mobilize the army to meet Cai Mao first. Anyway, the situation in Jingzhou was already quite erosive, and Cao Cao didn't mind making the already very chaotic situation even more chaotic.

Cai Mao thought about it cautiously, feeling that his soldiers still couldn't fight Cao Cao's army on land.

If there is a real fight, let alone whether other people in Jingzhou can reap the benefits, anyway, he and his family will bear the brunt of the ashes.

Cai Mao hesitated all night, and the next day, he expressed his willingness to cooperate with Cao Cao.

But the premise is that Cao Cao must first crown him as the pastor of Jingzhou and the general of Zhennan.

Having the conditions is a good start.

Cheng Yu, who had stayed up all night with Cai Mao, suddenly had a happy face and slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

"General Cai also knows that there are many things that were misunderstandings before. The prime minister has always been concerned about the friendship with General Cai's classmates, and when he breaks through Jiangdong and captures Sun Quan, Zhang Zhao and others alive, he believes that he will be able to release his previous suspicions. ”

Cai Mao also barely squeezed out a smile:

"General Cheng rest assured, it was the traitors and rats who spread rumors before, so I was allowed to wait. As long as the prime minister is willing to believe in me, Cai Mao, I will definitely fight hard and never retreat. ”

Cheng Yu looked happy:

"Okay, then there's General Lao Cai. To be honest, it was Guan Ping's gang who spread rumors and caused trouble before, which made our army quite restless.

As long as General Cai and Prime Minister release their suspicions, we will definitely be able to sweep the southeast and a Kuang Han room! ”

Cai Mao smiled:

"General Cheng rest assured, it was Cai who was careless before. Now that Jiangling is impregnable, Guan Ping will not want to make trouble even if he has three heads and six arms! ”

Of course, Cai Mao is extremely confident in this.

When Cheng Yu came to the door last night, Guan Ping also came to say goodbye, saying that he was going to return to Xiangyang to prepare for the big war afterward.

Cai Mao pretended to be pensive, personally sent Guan Ping to the riverside, and watched Guan Ping's boat leave slowly, so he was relieved.

It was difficult for Cao Jun to solve Guan Ping's small-scale constant raids, but Cai Mao could solve it.

When Guan Ping has no use value, he can also trap Guan Ping, and before that, he can also stop Guan Ping's attack on Jiangling and further raise his clone.

Thinking of this, Cai Mao was in a good mood, he took Cheng Yu's hand and sent him out, both of them were beaming, and they had already begun to think about how to reasonably divide the interests after defeating Liu Bei.

But the two didn't go far before they stopped in unison.

Because they saw a thick smoke rising in the distance.

Catchy, on fire?

"What's wrong!" Cheng Yu was anxious and angry, and suddenly grabbed a soldier from his side and asked.

The soldier was so frightened by the strongman in front of him who was known for his ferocity that he fainted on the spot, Cai Mao snorted and shouted: "Don't go to investigate!" ”

Thick smoke and flames rose into the sky, and Cai Mao's soldiers came and went in a hurry, and soon came back with an astonishing news:

"Back to the governor, Guan Ping attacked, causing people to burn down the treasury. Cao Jun is trying his best to extinguish the fire, and I don't know how many Guan Ping's subordinates have landed on the shore! ”

Guan Ping is here again? Come in the daytime!

Cheng Yu glared at Cai Mao angrily and said coldly:

"Governor, what's going on?"

Cai Mao was a little dizzy for a while, and couldn't help but tremble and read:

"Guan, Guan Ping, don't I know yet? I personally put him on the ship, I, I'm not...... I'm not ......."

Cheng Yu didn't want to listen to Cai Mao's explanation.

At night, Guan Ping could still be said to be unprepared, but it was broad daylight, and the waters near Jiangling were all under Cai Mao, Guan Ping was so rampant, and he also attacked Cao Jun's treasury in a big way.

"Okay, good, you Jingzhou soldiers have done a good thing! Is it tolerable or unbearable! Colluded with Guan Ping to attack Zixiao before, and set fire to it in broad daylight today, is it that Guan Ping will attack the Prime Minister's Mansion tomorrow! ”

The more Cheng Yu spoke, the more angry he became, and he began to say nothing, Cai Mao's eyebrows furrowed, and he clenched his fists in a squeak, he called a personal guard and asked Huang Zhong in a low voice, the personal guard replied that Huang Zhong had left, Cai Mao was helpless, and could only take a deep breath, and followed behind Cheng Yu with a blue face.

Cheng Yu ran out of Cai Mao's barracks in three steps and two steps, grabbed a horse and hurried to the burning position, but at this moment he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

He originally thought that it was the same as before, that it was the Jingzhou soldiers who were unwilling to stop Guan Ping, so he let Guan Ping enter the granary by the river unhindered and commit murder, or escaped by boat after the granary was fired.

But he ran over and found that the place where the fire started was actually the arsenal on the edge of the city, although it was also by the river, but it was not only close to the river, but there were also many Cao army barracks around it - that is to say, Guan Ping set fire to the Cao army barracks after killing them, and then killed them again.

The soldiers of Jingzhou were all immovable, and the soldiers of the Cao army who strictly guarded the situation took advantage of the chaos to launch an attack on them, but the Cao army had already begun to mess up their positions, and many people even began to take advantage of the fire to loot, and the scene was extremely chaotic and embarrassing.

"Don't move!"

Cheng Yu is also a rare ruthless person in the Cao army, he roared angrily, and the Cao army soldiers saw that he was coming, so they dispersed.

Cheng Yu rushed into the arsenal, only to see that there were traces of scorched fire everywhere, and a large amount of wood stored by Cao Jun before (including spears, wooden poles of iron halberds, and wooden shields) was roasted by the flames.

Cheng Yu stepped forward on the scorching ashes on the ground, stomped his feet in despair as he walked, and shouted loudly:

"What's going on! What's going on! Who told me how it was! ”

"Guan Ping! Who let Guan Ping go! ”

Cheng Yu was incompetent and furious, and Cai Mao's face finally showed a hideous smile:

"Okay, good, you guys of the Northern Army have done a good job. It's unbearable, it's unbearable. Before, you colluded with Guan Ping to attack Zhongye, and set fire to the arsenal today, are you going to attack the Prime Minister's Mansion tomorrow? ”

"Uh......"

This is basically a perfect retelling of Cheng Yu's previous accusations, Cheng Yu secretly complained in his heart, but he was helpless.

He hurried to inspect the loss of the arsenal and inquired about the attack.

All the soldiers said that they had been raided by Guan Ping, but Cheng Yu asked carefully, and these people immediately began to have flaws, especially the description of Guan Ping's appearance was very unclear, and many people gradually confused their speech under Cheng Yu's death gaze, and Ai Ai said nonsense that did not match the preface and the afterword.

Cai Mao sneered and said leisurely:

"It seems that your army has a ghost in his heart, and I, an outsider, don't ask too much.

General Cheng, what should I say? ”

Cheng Yu gritted his teeth with difficulty:

"Don't worry, I'll definitely find out for you."

·

Cheng Yu and Cai Mao took several soldiers to a military tent, and the two personally tortured them.

The soldiers, each fearing death, quickly confessed the ins and outs.

After listening to the confessions of several soldiers, Cheng Yu and Cai Mao's faces became more and more ugly.

This incident was actually set on fire by a group of soldiers in order to cover up the resale of military funds.

The participants here are all the grassroots generals of the Cao army, and everyone has benefited from it, and even being able to set a large arsenal on fire is the result of everyone's concerted efforts.

And what made Cheng Yu even more desperate was that after his repeated torture, these soldiers actually refused to reveal how much military money they sold and what they were selling, and they even sold to whomever they wanted.

Cheng Yu hadn't seen this kind of unyielding person for a long time, and his eyes showed a fierce light.

Okay, it seems that my Cheng Yu's reputation has regressed a bit in recent years, and it has fallen into my hands, I let you survive and not die!

He was about to ask someone to slaughter these soldiers, but Cai Mao grabbed his arm:

"You're looking for death?"

"What does the Governor have to say?"

"Today's fire, at a glance, I know that there are people in your army who are causing trouble, and they want to blame me. So may I ask, who in your army likes to resell military funds the most, and is quite unfriendly with our Jingzhou army? ”

Cheng Yu blurted out:

"Zilian!"

"Isn't that it?" Cai Mao sneered, "You still don't understand? This is all Cao Zilian's trick. This person has a tyrannical temperament, this time I Jingzhou Zhushi surrendered, did not follow his intention to plunder, and always hated me in my heart.

Later, I learned that Guan Ping came and went frequently, and he began to make trouble frequently, wanting to deliberately frame me and others - Fu Xun lived near your army camp, how did their family get away? Why did 'Guan Ping' plan for a long time but couldn't bear to burn grain, but this time he simply burned so much military funds?

Hey, of course Cao Zilian didn't dare to burn food, for fear of starving to death here, but the ordnance and other things could still be rebuilt, so he was naturally greedy at will.

Today I just burned some objects, and if you torture them, the next time you catch fire, you will die. General Cheng, hasn't there ever been a fire in this treasury?

Hehe, don't be afraid of your jokes, our Jingzhou army used to have it, and the generals were tied to food and clothing, and I didn't dare to make a judgment. ”

Cao Hong is indeed the chief greedy in Cao Cao's army, and this person's character is to openly put it on a bad show, so I can't do it at all if I abide by the law.

But Cao Cao has always ignored him, which made Cao Hong even more rampant.

Cheng Yu heard that cold sweat was rolling down his head, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help twitching violently a few times, and finally nodded silently.

"This Guan Ping is really hateful, but he is strong in martial arts, so it is not good to torture soldiers because of this."

Cai Mao was very happy when she saw Cheng Yu's sweaty appearance.

Of course, he could guess what was going on, but he didn't mind adding a little confusion to Cao Jun.

The more messy it is, the better his chances of fishing in troubled waters.

Virtuous nephew, virtuous nephew, why don't you talk to your uncle in detail about this way to make a fortune in advance, and your uncle can help you do better.

Thinking of this, Cai Mao snorted heavily: "Yes, Guan Ping is really hateful!" Damn it! ”