Dragon of the Three Kingdoms

Because Liu Ye's defection to Li Yi was actually not voluntary, but forced.

A few months ago, Li Yi's army marched into Jiujiang. Liu Ye was very optimistic about Li Yi, but he just ran away. He didn't want to be affected by the war, and he didn't want to join Li Yi. It was just bad luck, and he just ran away. He was followed by Sun Ce.

Liu Ye looked down on Sun Ce. He also knew that once he surrendered to Sun Ce, he would suffer disaster if Sun Ce was defeated in the future. His reputation would be ruined, and his life might even be in danger.

Therefore, under the pressure of Sun Ce, Liu Ye had no choice but to choose to move closer to Li Yi, and Li Yi simply appointed him an official position and brought him to Shouchun. Became Li Yi's man.

However, although he joined Li Yi's command, Liu Ye neither deliberately pandered to flattery nor did he act independently. For a long time, he didn't even give a single word of advice, and he was completely "out of the crowd".

It's not that Liu Ye is ignorant, but that he found that Li Yi is ambitious. Although he is famous all over the world for his loyalty, he has the same thoughts as Yuan Shu.

And Liu Ye, as a clan member of the Han family, naturally didn't like this. It was just that the Han family was declining. He was very sad, but he couldn't change anything. Outside of Li Yi's inner circle.

However, today's quick talk made him have to walk in front of people.

Although he was a little depressed, Liu Ye seemed calm on the surface. After thinking for a while, he said, "Then Zheng Bao's family is on the bank of Chaohu Lake. Although no one in the family is an official, it has been run by a local wealthy family for many years, and it is quite famous in the local area."

"Furthermore, Zheng Bao himself is highly skilled in martial arts, he is quite wise in his actions, and he donates money with righteousness. He is bold and can win people's hearts. Many people are willing to follow him. Earlier, his subordinates heard that Zheng Bao had thousands of young men under his command, but Yuan Shu also Because of the defeat in Jingzhou, the slump, and the lack of control over Yangzhou, Zheng Bao deliberately took advantage of the opportunity to raise cavalry troops, but fortunately, the lord's heavenly soldiers arrived suddenly, and Zheng Bao was intimidated by the lord's power, so he dared not make any more moves."

"Zheng Bao's situation is roughly the same. As for why he attacked the lord's soldiers and horses this time, the specific reasons are unknown to the subordinates, so they dare not speak nonsense."

After Li Yi listened to Liu Ye's explanation, the more he thought about it, the more puzzled he became. According to what Liu Ye said, this Zheng Bao is not only not an idiot, on the contrary, he is also a character with some skills. Why did he rush to touch the tiger's ass?

While meditating, Lu Su stood up and said, "My lord, Zheng Bao's subordinates have also heard about it."

"Oh?"

Li Yi looked at Lu Su and said, "Then you can tell the story too."

Lu Su pondered for a while, and said slowly: "Then Zheng Bao is very prestigious in the local area, and he has gathered many people. His subordinates are like Zi Yang, and he was invited by him. I’m afraid I’ve already gone to Chaohu Lake”

Li Yi gave Lu Su a strange look, not knowing how to complain.

This guy who appeared out of nowhere almost recruited Lu Su?This thing sounds like a joke.

Lu Su looked up at Li Yi and saw that he was not angry, so he continued: "What Zheng Bao did was indeed disobedient, but the Lord's army frightened Yangzhou, and ordinary Xiaoxiao was naturally afraid, and Zheng Bao was no exception. There is no reason to cause chaos, but the lord ordered General Gong to garrison Hefei, which happened to be close to where Zheng Bao was. Although the lord did this to guard against Sun Ce, it was a military strategy secret, and Zheng Bao naturally didn't know it. Then, he saw the lord was there When using troops in Hefei, it is easy to think that the lord's troops are actually targeting him, so what Zheng Bao did is understandable."

After Lu Su's words, everyone lowered their heads in deep thought, and then they all showed sudden expressions. The more they thought about it, the more they felt that his guess was reliable.

Li Yi also felt the same way. Commonly speaking, Zheng Bao would not dare to provoke him, but the rabbit would bite when he was in a hurry. Since Zheng Bao misunderstood that Li Yi wanted to kill him, he would naturally fight to the death.

At this moment, a guard ran in quickly and bowed to Li Yi: "My lord, there is someone outside the mansion asking to see him. The man claimed to be Zheng Bao's messenger, and said that there was a great gift for the lord."

Li Yi was startled, then laughed angrily, and scolded: "This guy really treats himself as something, kills my soldiers, and dares to send a messenger to see me, doesn't he know about the past between Cao Cao and Kong Rong?"

Seeing that Li Yi was furious, fearing that he would give the order to kill people in the next moment, Kuai Yue wiped off his sweat, and hurriedly persuaded him: "My lord, the envoy deserves to die, but he should meet with him first, and then kill him again." late."

Although Li Yi was unhappy, he was not the kind of person who would not listen to persuasion. He looked at the expressions of the others, suppressed his impulse temporarily, and said to the guard, "Bring him up to me!"

Not long after the guard retreated, he and another guard escorted a tightly bound middle-aged man to the main hall, without giving him any emissary treatment at all.

The guards who can follow Li Yi are all smart people. Since Li Yi is angry, they will naturally not give good fruit to the visitor.

The envoy felt that he had received a great humiliation after being treated like this. When he entered the door, he wanted to ask Li Yi how to treat guests, but when he looked up at Li Yi's murderous eyes, he felt a chill in his heart and lowered his head again. He didn't know where he forgot what he was going to say.

Ordinarily, when you meet an envoy, you have to wait for the other party to greet you, but Li Yi didn't have that patience today, and said directly: "Tell me, why did Zheng Bao attack and kill my soldiers? Don't talk nonsense, or you will be pulled out and chopped up to feed the dog!" !"

The emissary secretly complained, although he knew that today's matter was a hard job, but Li Yi had a good reputation, so he didn't worry too much, but he didn't know that the rumors were credible until we met, but it was too late to regret it now.

The envoy lay down on the ground and said: "Hsianghou Mingjian, that incident was not done by the Patriarch of my family, but by two villains, Yan Yu and Yan Baihu. I hope Xianghou will investigate clearly!"

Li Yi narrowed his eyes and asked, "Yan Yu?"

The envoy hurriedly explained: "It's them, the brothers of the Yan family fled to Chaohu Lake from other places more than a month ago, and my Patriarch learned about it and ignored it. Unexpectedly, three days ago, the brothers of the Yan family somehow went mad and attacked and killed the soldiers under the command of the Marquis Xiang. , My Patriarch was very frightened and furious when he heard about it, so he got all the young and strong in the family, beheaded the brothers of the Yan family, and asked the villain to present the heads of the two evil thieves."

After the envoy finished speaking, Li Yi also noticed that the guards were carrying two wooden boxes in their hands, presumably they were the heads of the Yan brothers.

This was a bit unexpected. At first, the Yan brothers didn't fight Li Yi, so they were frightened and ran all the way from Wujun to Lujiang. Li Yi originally thought they would go to Sun Ce, but they never received any relevant information. The news, coupled with the fact that Li Yi's hand on the Lujiang River hadn't reached out, slowly lost their traces. Unexpectedly, they went to Chaohu Lake, and even had an intersection with this Zheng Bao.

For a moment, Li Yi really believed the messenger's words, but immediately he realized that this guy was lying!

Li Yi had already seen the courage of the Yan brothers, and they ran away all the way. They were running out of soldiers and horses. At this time, the possibility of asking them to take the initiative to attack him was too low.

Moreover, even if it was the Yan family brothers who did it, according to what the messenger said, Zheng Bao and the Yan family brothers had a mediocre relationship, how could he kill the Yan family brothers so quickly and send their heads?

You know, Gong Du's battle report has just arrived in Li Yi's hands.

After going through this information in his mind, Li Yi immediately came up with a deduction. The brothers of the Yan family fled to Chaohu and joined Zheng Bao. When Zheng Bao saw the soldiers and horses of Gongdu, he worried that they were attacking them, so he acted first. Afterwards, Zheng Bao found out that he had made a mistake. In order to protect himself, he decisively killed the Yan family brothers and used their heads to please himself.

Straightening this out, Li Yi became even more determined. Zheng Bao had to be killed, and it was nothing more than killing him clearly, or using some means.

After the envoy finished speaking, seeing Li Yi's silence, he felt uneasy, and couldn't help but said again: "My Patriarch abides by the law and has no reason to offend the Marquis of Xiang. Please also learn from the Marquis of Xiang!"

"hehe"

Li Yi sneered, and suddenly asked, "Do you have someone who came with you?"

The envoy was taken aback, and subconsciously replied: "Of course there are."

Li Yi nodded and said: "That's good, Zijing, I will write a book later and ask someone to tell Zheng Bao, and order him to come to Shouchun to plead guilty within ten days, and if it doesn't come within ten days, I will personally lead the army to Chaohu Lake and slaughter him." The Zheng family is full of families, so don't say that you are unpredictable!"

Hearing these murderous words, Lu Su's heart was thumping wildly, not to mention the messenger, who shouted in a hurry: "Mr. Xiang, this matter was not arranged by the head of my family. Wouldn't it be wrong for Mr. Xiang to make such a decision?" Good man!"

Li Yi glanced at the envoy, waved his hand and said, "Take him away, find a lively place to scrape, I want everyone in Yangzhou to know that this is what happens if you fight against me, Li Yi!"

"Here!"

The guard responded and dragged the messenger out, but the messenger was buzzing in his head, and collapsed immediately. He never thought that Li Yi would be so ruthless that he would kill someone without saying a few words.

"Xianghou, spare your life, spare your life, Xianghou!"

"I'm wronged, I didn't do anything, Xianghou Mingjian!"

"I recruited, not the brothers of the Yan family, but the one killed by Zheng Bao, I am willing to testify for the Marquis Xiang!"

Hearing the messenger's wail all the way, Li Yi sneered. Originally, he was afraid that someone would believe that guy's nonsense and felt that Zheng Bao was wronged, but now he doesn't have to worry about it.

When the messenger's voice completely disappeared, Li Yi looked away from the door, then looked around, and asked, "I decided to take a detour to kill Zheng Bao first when I dispatched troops to the Lujiang River. Do you have any objections?"

Naturally, there are no dissenting people, because Zheng Bao bears the brunt no matter in terms of geographical location or Li Yi's personal feelings.

But just when Li Yi was about to make a decision, Jiang Gan stood up and said, "My lord, I have a plan to take Zheng Bao lightly!"

Li Yi's mood had calmed down, and when he saw Jiang Gan's suggestion, he asked gently, "What's Ziyi's plan?"

Jiang Gan replied with a smile: "Your Majesty, please spare the life of the envoy first, to appease Zheng Bao, so that Zheng Bao can let go of his guard, and then the Lord can take advantage of his unpreparedness and lead his troops to Chaohu. Zheng Bao is caught off guard. Down, you will definitely be defeated!"

Jiang Gan's strategy was good, reasonable, and immediately attracted the approval of many people. Jiang Gan also stroked his neatly repaired mustache with some complacency, feeling a little flustered for a while.