Chapter 21: Trapped in Kaiyang

  Kaiyang, which was originally the seat of Langya Commandery, is a large city that is now desolate.

  The entire city is intact and unscathed, without any signs of war, but the flags on the city walls and the soldiers have vanished! The large gates at the bottom of the city are also unguarded, and the entire city is like a naked young woman beckoning to the great army!

  Lü Bu's army entered the city without any effort and closed the city gates!

  "What's going on? Where is Zang Ba?! Why can't I see a single soldier in the entire Kaiyang?! Lu Bu furrowed his brow, if Cao Cao had attacked Langya, it was impossible for Kaiyang to have no signs of war at all! If there was no attack, why was the entire Kaiyang completely unguarded?!"

  Could it be that Zang Ba surrendered to Cao Cao? Impossible! If he had really surrendered, he should have been stopped at the city gate when he entered the city!

  "Master has made it clear! Zang Ba, he...he dispersed the troops!" Zhang Liao led his men to ask some of the remaining soldiers who had not yet escaped.

  "Disbanded the troops?!" Lü Bu was taken aback. In a chaotic world, how could one survive without troops? Suddenly, Lü Bu burst into a fit of rage: "This Zhang Bao and Zhang Yan are nothing but trash! I originally thought they were still men of some stature, but it turns out they're just a pair of cowards!"

  "My lord, calm down! Calm down!" Chen Gong stepped forward. "My lord, do you know that the only one who sent troops to rescue Xiaci was General Zang Ba?"

  "Is that so?!" Lü Bu's mood had just improved a bit, but immediately became extremely annoyed! He and Chen Gong had planned to take control of the troops and military equipment of Zang Ba in Langya, and make a comeback! But now Zang Ba and his brother Zang Yan had dispersed all their troops! How could they be taken over? How could they make a comeback?!

  "Zang Ba, where is he now?!" Lü Bu rubbed his head and asked.

  "General Zang is rushing over here!" Zhang Liao found Zang Ba when he was already preparing to pack up and escape, but Zhang Liao couldn't say it out loud! He could only tell Lü Bu that Zang Ba was coming over.

  Before long, Zong Bai put on his armor and entered the city gate!

  "Zang Ba Zang Xuan Gao, pay respects to the lord!" Zang Ba lowered his head and bowed. He and Lü Bu were not those old brothers who had been through life and death together, but rather friends who had been beaten out of each other!

  Lü Bu is really admirable! Originally, he thought Lü Bu was already trapped in Xiapi and couldn't get out! Because the siege of Shuijing is simply unsolvable! Zhang Liao had also dispatched troops to assist, but was forced to retreat by Cao's army!

  Lü Bu is gone, and Zang Ba's heart has also cooled down. If even Lü Bu couldn't be a match for Old Cao, how could he, Zang Ba, possibly be? So Zang Ba dispersed his troops and prepared to flee the countryside to become a wealthy gentleman!

  Now seeing Lü Bu standing alive in front of him, Zang Ba's heart has risen again!

  "Zang Ba, Zang Xuan Gao! You still know how to address me as your lord? You're muddled, utterly muddled!" Seeing that Zang Ba still knew to wear his armor and come before Lü Bu, his anger subsided a bit. How could he not understand what Zang Ba was thinking? "You think I, Lü Bu, have been defeated, Cao Cao's army is approaching, you can't resist, and in the end, you'll be captured and certainly won't have a good outcome, right?! So you dispersed your troops and escaped to the countryside to change your name and become a wealthy gentleman?"

  "Master?!" Lu Bu's words hit the nail on the head, and Zhang Fei's face flushed with shame!

  "Zang Ba, you fool!" What is called hero admiration? For Zang Ba, who has the same pride as himself, Lü Bu still likes him from the bottom of his heart!

  "I, Lü Bu, consider myself the greatest warrior under heaven, but I don't dare to roam the world alone. Why is that?" Lü Bu pointed at Zang Ba and said: "Two fists can't contend with four hands. If you had your troops in hand, Cao Cao might still have been wary of you and tried to persuade you to surrender! But once you disband your troops, you're just a fish on the chopping board, and sending out just one company of soldiers would be enough to capture you, Zang Ba, and behead you!"

  "Me?!" Zang Ba was overwhelmed with shame.

  "Report!" A scout ran over, "Lord, outside the city, outside the city, Cao's cavalry has been discovered!"

  "Oh?" Lü Bu spared Zang Ba and led his generals in a rush towards the city gate.

  Under the city, a large team of black armored cavalry was lined up in an orderly formation under the leadership of a great general, gazing at the city wall. The whole team was silent, and this is absolutely the elite among the elites!

  "Tiger and Leopard Cavalry!" Lü Bu's eyes narrowed as he gazed at the elite heavy armored cavalry below.

  At some point, Lü Bu also had a detachment of Bianzhou Wolf Cavalry that didn't belong to the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry. With them, he could come and go as he pleased in the midst of a million-strong army! No one could stop his footsteps!

  But now! The Pingzhou Wolf Riders are still there, but the horses are gone! The Pingzhou Wolf Riders who broke through Wanjun with tens of thousands of people now have less than a thousand people left.

  These are all brothers who followed Lü Bu from Pingzhou!

  "If I had a war horse in my hand! I would definitely rush out and compete with the Tiger and Leopard Riders!" Zhang Liao was so angry that his teeth itched, but the Tiger and Leopard Riders were still not in his eyes! The Pingzhou Wolf Riders have never been afraid of challenges!

  "Enough!" Lü Bu stopped Zhang Liao's discontent and turned his head to Chen Gong, "Gongtai, what should we do now?" Originally, they had planned to obtain supplies from Langya and then leave Xuzhou far behind!

  But now Kaiyang only has less than 10,000 troops brought by him! Outside, there are also the tiger and leopard cavalry of Cao's army!

  Tiger and leopard cavalry belong to heavy armored cavalry, which is not suitable for attacking cities, but has strong mobility. If they surround the city, they can really trap Lü Bu's army in the city!

  It's really getting harder and harder for infantry to break through! Just escaped from Xiapi, now being trapped in Kaiyang again?!

  Lü Bu closed his eyes, he was now furious! If he didn't close his eyes, he feared that he wouldn't be able to restrain himself from killing Zhang Fei!

  "Ah!" Chen Gong did not expect that Zang Ba, Zang Xuan Gao would do it so thoroughly! Disperse the troops! This really requires a certain determination!

  "General Zang, I don't know how many grains and grasses are stored in Kaiyang now, or how many helmets and armor are there, or war horses!" Chen Gong said to Zang Ba with a bow.

  "This!" Zang Ba was embarrassed, he dispersed the troops and naturally would also distribute the grain and fodder, now there are less than 5,000 stones left in the city!

  "Only 5,000 stones are left, and the armor and weapons are almost gone. At most, we can only equip one battalion! War horses! War horses!" Xuzhou originally belonged to the Central Plains region, which was originally short of war horses. "There are less than a hundred war horses!"

  "50,000 bushels! 100 war horses! One battalion of soldiers?! Kaizhou may be big, but can it compare to Xiaopei? 10,000 people may be many, but can they compare to the original 70,000-strong army of Lü Bu?"

  An army of 10,000 people will eat up 100 dan of grain in just one day! Five thousand dan is enough for more than a month?!

  "Dirty words are high, good, very good!" Lü Bu chopped off Zhang Fei's heart!

  "My lord, calm your anger! Now we can only wait for the opportunity! Let's see if we can break through at night!" Chen Gong also felt helpless. Once they were trapped by the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry here, Cao Jun's army would march south, and they would be unable to fly away!

  It's like this now!

  Lü Bu's army, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun, etc. assigned the task of defending the city, this ten thousand is newly surrendered soldiers and horses, so they must be extra careful, if not, there may be a rebellion!

  "Lü Bu? Kaiyang!?" Cao Chun laughed at the city below. If Lü Bu's army had taken the small road to Mount Tai, perhaps Cao Chun would have been powerless against him. But Lü Bu was foolish and wanted to get the support of Zang Ba from Langya, so he entered Kaiyang.

  He also learned from the fleeing refugees that in Kaiyang, Zang Ba had already dispersed his troops and the civilians inside had all fled. Therefore, there were only 10,000 soldiers left in Kaiyang who could truly block Cao's army!

  "Xiaoyi has taken your life! Let the open plain be your tomb!" Cao Chun said with a smile, "Pass on the order to report to the Prime Minister, saying that the old tiger is trapped and waiting for the one who will strike it down!"

  "Yes!" The communications soldier took orders and left!

  "Tiger and Leopard Riders, take orders! Divide into groups of 200 people to patrol Kaiyang day and night in shifts! Not a single soldier from Lü Bu's army is allowed to escape!"

  "Yes!" Two hundred heavy cavalry, you don't have a thousand infantry that can't be eaten! With this period of time, the remaining tiger and leopard riders can quickly support.

  The tiger and leopard cavalry are useless in siege warfare, but they excel in field battles! Humph! Even if it's Lü Bu's strongest ambush camp, Cao Chun dares to fight them head-on!