Rejuvenation of the Han Dynasty in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 369 Raising Soldiers for Revenge
Que Xuan led troops to attack Futu Temple on the Ghost Festival, killing Ruo Rong and thousands of monks in the temple, and countless people died in the war. When the news spread, Xuzhou and Yangzhou were shocked.

Xiapi prefect Cao Xiu hurriedly sent someone to inquire about Cao Song's whereabouts, and learned that Cao Song was also killed by the rebels, and his guard Qin Shao was stabbed more than ten times. Cao Xiu did not dare to neglect, and hurriedly reported the news to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao was discussing how to guard against Lu Bu in Pengcheng, when he heard that the Futu Temple had been bloodbathed and Cao Song was killed, he was so frightened and angry that he jumped up from the table, cursed at Que Xuan, and then fell to the ground crying.

Cao Hong and the others were also greatly shocked, and hurriedly ordered someone to rescue Cao Cao. The entire government office was in chaos, and several relatives were crying.

Cao Cao's face was pale, and he gnashed his teeth and roared angrily, "Que Xuan dares to kill my father, this feud cannot be shared."

Chen Deng had never expected that Cao Song would go to Futu Temple. In his astonishment, an idea suddenly occurred to him. He took the opportunity to clasp his fists and said: "That Que Xuan claimed to be the emperor in Futu Temple, but it was actually Tao Qian who helped him behind the scenes. The two of them had a close relationship, so it must be Tao Qian." Qian secretly hated the general for killing his relative and friend Bian Rang, and deliberately ordered Que Xuan to kill your father."

"Tao Qian, you bastard, I can't let you go!" Cao Cao shouted with red eyes, clenched his fists, "Order the three armies to go to Xiapi to cleanse the Futu Temple, and seek Tao Qian's revenge."

At this time, no one dared to dissuade them from dispatching troops. Xiahoudun, Cao Hong and others were even more furious. They went to dispatch troops one after another and sent troops from all over the East China Sea and Guangling to besiege Fuling Lake and suppress the bandit caves.

When people and horses came to Xiapi, Cao Cao first went to see Qin Zhen, the son of Qin Shao. Qin Zhen wept bitterly when he heard his father's death.

Cao Cao saw that Qin Zhen was heroic and capable at a young age, and he was quite heroic, so he loved him very much. He felt ashamed of Qin Shao, so he adopted him as his adopted son and changed his name to Cao Zhen. live together.

At this time, Cao Xiu had already rectified his troops and horses and waited on the Huai River. Cao Cao took Xiahou Dun and Le Jin as the vanguard, and a total of [-] troops rushed to Huai Ling.

Que Xuan claimed to be the Son of Heaven in Futu Temple, and sent someone to report to Tao Qian, asking him to allocate weapons, money and food to prevent Cao Cao from attacking him. Unexpectedly, five days later, Cao Cao's army had arrived in Huai Ling.

Que Xuan was shocked, he knew that there was Cao Song in Futu Temple, who was also killed by the rebel army, he couldn't help but stamped his feet and shouted: "Ze Rong dog thief, you hurt me!"

He originally thought that after occupying the Futu Temple, he could still share half of Xiapi with the government as before, relying on the advantages of Fuling Lake, enough to deal with the officers and soldiers, and with the help of Tao Qian, he could rule the roost in Huainan, so he didn't expect chaos The army killed Cao Cao's father and attracted tens of thousands of elite soldiers.

From the top of the tower, he saw the flags fluttering outside the temple and the bright armor. Que Xuan had never seen such a majestic soldier before, and his legs and feet became weak with fear.

Cao Song's corpse was mixed with the chaos army and burned up, and there was no way to find it. He knew that this time he had reached the end of the road, and he regretted it.

In desperation, Que Xuan shouted: "Brothers, now that Cao Cao has arrived, we have no way out, how can we wait for death? Follow me and fight out and return to Fuling Lake!"

The thieves were desperate, and they all decided to fight to the death. They followed Que Xuan and gathered in the square, each holding their weapons and rushing towards the four gates.

Que Xuan rushed to the east gate, just as Xiahou Dun led his troops in, blocking his way, Que Xuan leaped over with his spear, the two horses intersected, and before they could meet three times, Xiahou Dun cut him off with a knife, causing the bandit army to flee in all directions.

Cao Cao had already led his troops to surround the Futu Temple on all sides and intercepted it heavily. The infantry opened the way in front, and the archers suppressed it in the rear. The cavalry rushed into the temple, chasing and killing the fleeing culprits.

Xiahou Dun came to the square with Quexuan's head. Cao Cao put it on the lotus platform where he offered incense, drew his sword and chopped it into pieces. Still feeling puzzled, he ordered people to crush it into pieces with stone slabs and sprinkle them around the temple.

Then it was ordered to all the counties to slaughter all the people in the temple, no matter Que Xuan's subordinates or the people who were captured to work, to avenge their father.

Within a day, the Futu Temple was slaughtered again, blood flowed into rivers in the temple, and bones were piled up like mountains. Until the evening, there were still screams from time to time.

That night, Cao Cao burned all the corpses outside the east gate, and led them to worship in the temple. He dressed Cao Song in hemp and mourning, and burned incense and paper to comfort the spirit in heaven.

On the second day, Cao Cao ordered people to change the pagoda temple into a pavilion for the elderly. He demolished all the Buddha statues, incense burners and other bronze utensils, melted coins, and converted the pagoda and pavilion into a living room. It was specially used to support the parents of his soldiers. All soldiers who died in the war , family members can provide support in the nursing home.

When Tao Qian heard that Que Xuan had killed Ruo Rong in Shouchun, he was overjoyed and ordered Lei Xu to lead troops to Futu Temple. In the name of providing financial support, Tao Qian actually wanted to kill Que Xuan, annex his tribe, and take away the property of Futu Temple. All robbed.

When Lei Xu led his troops to Zhongli, they were discovered by Cao Jun's scouts. Cao Cao immediately sent Xiahou Dun to ambush him on the road and intercepted and killed Lei Xu on the way. The army marched to Jiujiang and took Shouchun directly.

Tao Qian didn't expect Cao Cao to come so quickly, and Que Xuan was even more vulnerable. Hearing that Cao Cao's troops had arrived, he hurriedly closed the city gates to refuse to accept them.

Cao Cao led his troops to the city and surrounded Shouchun. The army and horses formed a formation, and the Chinese army raised two banners with the words "revenge and hatred".

Cao rode his horse to the city gate, dressed in plain clothes, pointed at Tao Qian with a whip and cursed, threatening to avenge his father.

Standing on the tower, Tao Qian looked at Cao Bing's majesty, regret and anger in his heart, clasped his fists and said: "Qian has no grievances with General Cao, why did you suddenly send troops to invade the territory?
Cao Cao laughed back in anger, and cursed: "Old man Tao Qian! You instigated Que Xuan to kill my father, why don't you go down to the city and die?"

Tao Qian didn't know that Cao Song was in Futu Temple, so he sighed helplessly: "Que Xuan and Ruo Rong have mutual grievances. They are enemies. They accidentally hurt your father. It has nothing to do with me. I hope the general will investigate!"

"Hahaha, this has nothing to do with you!" Cao Cao looked up to the sky and smiled sharply: "Not to mention that you secretly colluded with Que Xuan to rob the people and make money. Yesterday, you sent Lei Xu to Huailing to assist Que Xuan. How dare you talk nonsense?"

Tao Qian looked embarrassed, forced a smile and said: "I sent Lei Xu to send troops to attack Quexuan to help the general fight the bandits, and I don't want to be misunderstood by the general..."

"Shut up!" Cao Cao scolded angrily: "You are a brilliant man, a gray-bearded old thief! You should have been killed by Jiuquan a long time ago. How dare you harm anyone here? Today will be your memorial day next year."

Cao Cao yelled loudly, but Tao Qian knew he was in the wrong and couldn't answer. He retreated to the back of the city in embarrassment, ordered the soldiers to guard the city, and discussed with his generals how to retreat from the enemy.

Cao Cao immediately sent an order to the three armies to attack Shouchun. In a short time, there was loud drumming inside and outside the city, shouting all over the sky, and the arrows were like flying locusts on the top of the city.

Tao Qian returned to the government office and said to everyone: "Cao's army is powerful, Lei Xu was killed, and there are unscrupulous generals guarding the city. What should we do?"

Cao Hongjin, a confidant, said: "Cao's army is large and he has raised troops to avenge himself. We share the same hatred with the enemy. We cannot fight with them at this time. Shouchun is approaching Xuzhou, and Cao's reinforcements will arrive very soon. My lord, it is better to retreat to Lujiang."

Tao Qian frowned and said, "Is it impossible to give up Jiujiang?"

Cao Hong said: "You can order Lu Kang, the prefect of Lujiang, to send troops to Hefei to defend, and then order Sun Jian to cross the river to the north. This man is known as the tiger in the east of the river. If he dominates the east of the river, he will be able to fight Cao Cao."

Tao Qian was already worried about Sun Jian's growing strength. Hearing this plan, he put his palms in his hands and laughed and said, "How wonderful! This is a plan where two tigers can eat each other!"

(End of this chapter)