Chapter 65: Inviting You into the Urn

  Over a thousand soldiers burst through the gates of the Youjiao Temple, killing as they went. At this moment, Zhang Yun saw Liu Cong's face filled with cold smiles, and he suddenly felt a sense of unease in his heart, could it be...

  Before he could react, a large fire broke out inside the Yu Jiaolong, with thick smoke billowing into the air and fierce flames burning fiercely. Zhang Yun was stunned, how did the fire start?

  Only to see a group of soldiers rushing out of the house in a panic, an officer stumbled and ran over, hastily reporting: "General, there is no one in the house!"

  Zhang Yun suddenly turned his head towards Liu Xuan, only to see him staring coldly at himself. Zhang Yun suddenly realized he had been deceived and shouted loudly at the military officer, "Why did the fire start?"

  "We also don't know, it started burning from the hay house."

  Zhang Yun wiped the sweat from his forehead, this was obviously Liu Xuan's premeditated plan, he had been caught off guard for a moment and fell into the trap. He suddenly became anxious and shouted: "Quickly go put out the fire!"

  The soldiers rushed to fetch water from the boat, but the fire spread quickly. In a moment, the entire barracks were ablaze. At this time, Liu Xuan calmly said: "General Zhang, I want to remind you that your brother is still inside the barracks."

  Zhang Yun was shocked and shouted frantically: "Quickly go in and rescue people! Quickly save them!"

  Dozens of confidants rushed into the sea of fire with their bedding soaked in water. At this time, Zhang Yun was already confused and frustrated, unable to catch Gan Ning's loss, being outmaneuvered, worrying about his brother, and feeling uneasy about the consequences. Various emotions intertwined in his heart, making him both angry and regretful, hating Liu Xuan to the bone, wanting to kill him with a single knife, but a thread of rationality told him that he couldn't kill him, killing Liu Xuan would put his own life at risk.

  Just then, dozens of soldiers rushed out of the fire with a person, Zhang Yun hurried forward, it was his brother Zhang Ping, his eyebrows and hair were all burned clean, he was severely injured, and his life was hanging by a thread. Zhang Yun was anxious and angry, and said in pain: "Quickly send him back to the city to find a doctor for treatment!"

  The fire at the Yu Jiao Suo was getting bigger and bigger, with flames soaring over ten zhang high, thick smoke billowing everywhere. The entire city of Xiangyang could see it clearly. Zhang Yun let out a long sigh, although he knew this was Liu Jue's plan, but Liu Biao wouldn't believe his explanation. With the Yu Jiao Suo destroyed, it would be really hard for him to explain.

  "What shall we do now, General?" Zhang Yun's deputy general Deng Hun asked anxiously.

  Zhang Yun gazed at the raging fire in front of him, his mind was a mess, he didn't know what to do for the better. After a long time of contemplation, he finally let out a sigh, it seemed that tonight, he could only admit defeat.

  "Take all your brothers back home!"

  "What about you, General?"

  "I went to explain to the governor."

  This is also a helpless measure, and there's no choice but to first tell Uncle everything clearly, otherwise even if Zhang Yun jumped into the Yangtze River, he wouldn't be able to wash away this injustice.

  The army quickly boarded the ships, and one by one, the warships sailed away from the north bank, heading east to return to the naval camp east of Xiangyang. Zhang Yun also boarded a ship but did not return to the military camp, instead sailing directly to the south bank to meet with Liu Biao and explain the situation.

  Soon, the army outside Yousuo was gone without a trace, not a single person left behind. In the empty wilderness, only Liu Jing and his thirty or so subordinates were left. Next to him, Jin Cao Li Jun cursed in a low voice, "Hmph! Not even an apology, just like that."

  "Hmph!" Liu Xuan sneered, "I'm afraid he's now in a state of panic and has rushed to explain himself to the governor. This time, he'll have a hard time explaining himself, I wish him all the worst."

  Li Jun couldn't help but give Liu Xuan a thumbs up, "This thing was done beautifully by Director Cao, and it actually made the cunning Zhang Yun fall into the trap."

  "Is he cunning? I don't think so."

  Liu Xuan shook his head, "He's just a bit clever, but he really has brains. Why didn't he think about it? I'm just a small patrol station, how can I hide over 500 people? Even if I could hide them, who knows what kind of state they'd be in? In this situation, there's no need to go inside, just surround the place and shoot arrows, the people inside will naturally come out."

  "Du Cao is right, there are actually many loopholes in this, and Zhang Yun didn't even think of them, it can be seen that he was blinded by his own self-righteousness to the point of madness."

  Liu Jiong looked at Li Jun with some surprise, he was a bit strange, these words were not something that a small Jin Cao could say.

  Liu Xuan became even more curious, and he inquired about Li Jun's background from Lu Sheng, but found that no one knew anything about Li Jun's background. It was impossible for someone without a background to hold the lucrative position of You Jiaojin Cao, which was in charge of waterborne tax inspections. His surname was Li, could it be that he had some connection with Xiangyang Governor Li Gui?

  。。。。。。。。。。

  Zhang Yun had just arrived at the southern shore when he ran into a large crowd surrounding Liu Biao, who was on his way to meet him. The great fire set by Yu Fan had alarmed Xiangyang and Fancheng, and Liu Biao had naturally received an urgent report about it. He guessed that Zhang Yun must have caused the disturbance, and his heart was filled with both anger and hatred.

  Liu Biao went out of the city to meet Yu Fan, and those who came with him were still Cai Mao, Kuai Yue, and Li Gui, the governor of Xiangyang Prefecture, among other officials.

  Zhang Yun's heart was filled with a wave of dizziness, and he had no choice but to force himself to go forward, kneel down on one knee, clasp his fists and report: "Your humble servant begs for punishment from Your Excellency."

  Liu Biao gave a cold glance, let out a heavy hum, and ignored Zhang Yun, walking directly towards the boat. Zhang Yun's face turned red as he didn't know what to do, when Cai Mao walked up to him and reminded him: "General Zhang, let's get on the boat first! We can talk about it at the scene."

  Zhang Yun had no choice but to follow the boat, and several boats sailed towards the north shore.

  At this time, the sky had gradually brightened, and the temple grounds were almost burned to ashes. The fire had been extinguished, but a thick smoke still lingered. Men, women, old and young people who came from Fang City to watch the commotion surrounded the temple grounds in three layers inside and out, with tens of thousands of people, all discussing in an uproar.

  Soon, Zhang Yun's revenge on Liu Xuan and the burning of You Jia's house spread rapidly among tens of thousands of people through word of mouth. Almost everyone knew what had happened, and some eyewitnesses who saw the warships leave were even more vivid in their descriptions, as if they were reliving the scene, adding to the evidence.

  As for Liu Xuan and Zhang Yun's private grievances, the reasons are even more bizarre, but the most convincing version is that they were caused by emotional changes.

  Tao Zhuang, under the escort of a dozen or so attendants, also rushed to watch the excitement. At this time, she had changed into women's clothing, with her hair styled in two buns, wearing a red silk jacket on top, and a white fox fur coat outside, with a pale purple gold-edged long skirt below, which was tied under her armpits, making her look slender and beautiful.

  Tao Zhuang was only fourteen years old this year, the youngest daughter of the host Tao Sheng. She had just grown up and was very pretty. Her figure was plump, her skin was white, her eyes were not big, but they were exceptionally bright and moving. Her eye waves flowed, her smile was sweet, and her black hair was thick and dense, making her a perfect beauty.

  Although Tao Zhuanshu was spoiled by her father, she was not arrogant. On the contrary, she was very clever and had an extraordinary sensitivity to numbers. Since last year, Tao Sheng has handed over the entire family business to her for review. She would go through every account clearly, and no details could escape her eyes. With a meticulous mind like silk, everyone in the Tao family respected and feared her.

  Tao Zhu had an aunt named Tao Yun, a young widow who was skilled in the art of disguise. She could change not only her appearance but also her voice. Tao Zhu followed his aunt to learn the art of disguise from a young age and surpassed her skills.

  However, there was once she disguised herself as her father and even deceived her mother. It was that time when she was severely scolded by her parents and aunt, from then on, her disguise had a limit and she didn't dare to disguise herself randomly again.

  This time, Tao Zhan was entrusted by her father to come to Xiangyang to investigate Liu Xuan's understanding of the situation between the Tao and Sun families. Her disguise even deceived Liu Xuan, which made her very pleased.

  At this time, she was smiling all over her face as she listened to the discussions of people around her about Liu Xuan and Zhang Yun's feud.

  "Zhang Yun and Xuan Gongzi are maternal cousins, by rights they should be as close as brothers, but they have become sworn enemies due to a matter of the heart. Zhang Yun is still unmarried to this day, it's said he has taken a liking to Cai Jia's daughter, with intentions to marry her, but Cai Jia's daughter was instead betrothed to Xuan Gongzi, thus Zhang Yun harbors deep resentment towards Xuan Gongzi."

  Tao Zhuang of course knew that the contradiction between Liu Xuan and Zhang Yun was actually caused by the 500 military slaves, but this did not affect the woman's innate gossip heart. She listened with great interest and was about to ask something interesting when someone next to her asked instead.

  "Does Master Na Zhen like Miss Cai?"

  "Of course, she is the only legitimate daughter of Cai Junshi, and marrying into the Cai family, who wouldn't like that? However, I heard that the prefect's wife dislikes Gongzi Cui very much and drove him out of the house. Now Gongzi Cui lives in Fan City."

  "Isn't Madame Zhou the sister of General Cai's teacher?"

  "Exactly!"

  Tao Zhuang's excitement grew even thicker, and it turned out that there were so many interesting things in here.

  At this time, the soldiers on the dock shouted: "The governor is arriving, retreat!"

  Hundreds of guards landed and began to drive away the onlookers, who retreated but still lingered at a distance of two or three hundred paces. The prefect himself came to deal with this matter, and no one was willing to leave.

  Liu Biao's sedan chair had arrived at the shore, his face gloomy as he gazed at the smashed remains of Yu Mi's boat. His heart seethed with anger, and when he saw the charred remains of Yu Mi's boat, the fury in his eyes became even more uncontrollable. Even Li Gui, the governor of Xiangyang standing beside him, had a dark expression on his face. Zhang Yun had gone too far.

  At this time, Zhang Yun completely lowered his head and anxiously waited for the punishment to come, the key was that he had no evidence to prove any relationship between Gan Ning and You Chou.

  Liu Biao got off the boat, and Liu Xun came forward on his knees to report: "I beg to report to the Governor, Zhang Jianwei abused his power and broke the law, disrupted official business, and privately led soldiers to come and force me to release his brother who was punished for violating the rules. I did not comply, so he set fire to the tax collection office."

  Zhang Yun was like a foot in the air, his head spinning wildly. He never expected that Liu Xuan would pin this crime on him.

  He hastily knelt down and explained: "I report to uncle, nephew has no such intention, nephew is here to capture Gan Ning."

  Liu Biao said coldly: "General Zhang, there is no uncle-nephew relationship here. I am the Governor of Jingzhou and General Who Pacifies the South. Please distinguish between public and private affairs."

  Zhang Yun wiped the sweat from his forehead and had to explain again, "I report to General Zuo Nan, I have no such intention, I am here to capture Gan Ning."

  Liu Jue sneered, "This is strange. Gan Ning is stationed at Fengyiting Post Station west of Fan City. Don't you know? What are you doing here to catch people?"

  "My humble self first went to Fengyiting Station, but unexpectedly it was empty. Then I heard they escaped to Youjiaosuo, so I chased after them again. Burning down Youjiaosuo wasn't my doing, it was his plan, and he framed me for it."

  "Nonsense!"

  Liu Jue thundered, "You say Gan Ning has escaped to the Youjia Village, what evidence do you have? Your troops surrounded us in the middle, thousands of your men rushed in and smashed everything, finally setting fire to the village to cover up your crimes. Now you still dare to falsely accuse us of starting the fire ourselves! Does Zhang Yun still have any shred of integrity?"

  Zhang Yun was so angry that his whole body trembled, pointing at Liu Xuan, "You, you bloody mouth!"

  Just then, Kuai Yue, who had been silent all along, suddenly asked: "General Zhang, you've been saying that you want to capture Gan Ning. I'm very curious, what kind of heinous crime has Gan Ning committed that requires your personal attention and the mobilization of troops to capture him?"