Blood and Fire in Puyang (2)
The whole thing happened in the blink of an eye.
I thought it was over when Chen Gong stepped back, but the moment Zhang Miao and his brother Zhang Chao rose from their seats and hurled their wine cups, assassins came pouring into the government hall.
“Kill Cao Cao! Kill Cao Cao—!”
CRACK!!!
The instant the assassins charged with blades drawn, Xiahou Dun snatched the leg of the wine table in front of him and smashed it straight into the nearest assassin’s skull.
The wooden table shattered into pieces, leaving only the table leg gripped tightly in Xiahou Dun’s hand.
“Hmph!”
Xiahou Dun hurled the broken leg aside and drew the sword at his waist.
“A-Man, it looks like Xu Shu was right! These Puyang bastards really can’t be trusted!”
Xiahou Dun had spent the entire evening simply drinking, yet in this moment he felt incredibly reassuring. With Xiahou Dun guarding Cao Cao’s front, me standing at his side, and Cheng Yu and Xu Shu stepping forward to protect him, our formation was complete.
“Uncle, we must retreat!”
“There’s no need to cause a fuss.”
“Uncle!”
Even in the middle of this chaos, Cao Cao calmly emptied the wine cup on the table and turned his gaze toward Zhang Miao and Zhang Chao.
“Zhang Miao, Zhang Chao. So it really was you two who betrayed me?”
“Betrayal? Wasn’t it you who betrayed us first, Cao Cao?!”
The confused local nobles began murmuring, trying to intervene.
“C-Commandant Zhang, what is the meaning of this? How could you draw your blade against the Inspector of Yan Province…?”
SHIIING—
“Lord Yang!”
One of the nobles who tried to mediate was cut down by an assassin’s blade and collapsed, vomiting blood. In this situation, even the slightest wrong movement would bring assassins swarming to take your head.
“Fine. Let’s hear your reason. Why are you pointing your blades at me?”
“Cao Cao, didn’t you kill Elder Bian, the great patriarch of Yan Province’s noble houses, along with his son?! We’re obviously next!”
When his younger brother Zhang Chao drew his sword, Zhang Miao finally revealed his true intentions.
“What does that have to do with you people? Even if you were born in Yan Province, if I hadn’t taken you in, you wouldn’t even have graves in your homeland, would you?”
He was right.
“Cao Cao! Everyone in the world knows you raised an army with Wei Zi’s wealth, subjugated every noble house in Yan Province through his sister Wei Hong, and now you plan to suck them dry and throw them away!”
“I thought I made a perfectly reasonable proposal. If that’s why you’re doing this, then why did that noble just die?”
“Y-You—!”
Even with Zhang Miao and Zhang Chao holding swords and hundreds of assassins surrounding them, Cao Cao continued to press them for justification.
At that moment, another assassin raised his blade and charged straight at Cao Cao.
“Yaaah—!”
SHWAAAK—
With a single swing, the assassin’s body was split cleanly in two. Blood sprayed in every direction across the banquet hall. The nobles had already turned deathly pale, and even the other assassins showed clear signs of panic.
“Anyone else want to charge in recklessly?”
Xiahou Dun casually wiped the blood from his sword using the hanging banners in the hall.
In this moment, Xiahou Dun moved with only one purpose—to protect Cao Cao. The killing intent radiating from him was truly terrifying, even to his own allies.
Then Zhang Chao personally drew his sword and shouted.
“Cao Cao! Did you think we wouldn’t know? You’ve already received gold and treasures from Yuan Shao of Hebei and are acting on his orders to kill us brothers, aren’t you?!”
“…Hah.”
At that moment, Cao Cao let out a bitter laugh.
“Did you really think we would just sit here and let you kill us?!”
Even while laughing, his eyes were razor sharp.
“Yes, that’s certainly a solid justification. If you were going to point your blades at me, you should have said that from the beginning.”
“What are you all waiting for?! Cut off Cao Cao’s head right now! Five hundred gold to whoever takes his head—!”
CRACK!
In that instant, Cao Cao snatched up a metal wine cup and hurled it with all his strength straight into Zhang Chao’s face.
“Guhhhk! Urk!”
“B-Brother!”
Even a glass cup would hurt, but this was a jagged bronze vessel slammed directly into his face. Zhang Chao’s face became a bloody mess, blood pouring from both nostrils and his mouth.
“Damn it! Kill them!”
The assassins charged all at once. Xiahou Dun, Xu Shu, and Cheng Yu all raised their swords to block them—when Cao Cao suddenly stood up.
“Insolent… you insolent bastards!!!”
“!?”
Cao Cao burst forward in an instant, piercing straight through the chest of the nearest assassin before yanking his sword free.
“Guh, hurk!”
Blood gushed like a fountain from the assassin’s pierced heart, spraying everyone present.
“Uncle!”
As I hurriedly drew my sword and moved to protect Cao Cao’s side, he wiped the blood from his face with his hand and roared.
“This is my command! From this moment on, do not leave a single one of these bastards who dared raise a blade against me alive!”
“We receive and obey your command!”
At Cao Cao’s order, Xiahou Dun, Xu Shu, Cheng Yu, and I charged toward the assassins. The banquet hall instantly transformed into a slaughterhouse.
Xiahou Dun and Xu Shu rushed in first, swinging their blades at the assassins before them. Screams rang out one after another as blood sprayed through the air.
There was only one entrance, yet it was packed with assassins. They had been blocking the narrow passage, but when we instead pushed forward from within, their panic was obvious.
The swordsmanship of both Xiahou Dun and Xu Shu was on another level. No matter how well-prepared the assassins were, they could not stand against those two.
“You bastard!”
At that moment, one assassin slipped past their blades and charged. I had thought we only needed to break through Xiahou Dun and Xu Shu, but I immediately drew my sword.
CLANG—
I knocked his blade aside and immediately slashed the assassin’s exposed throat. Several more came after him, but I read their openings and cut them down one by one.
After forcing our way through the assassins and finally reaching the outside of the hall…
“G-Good heavens!”
Flames were rising all across the government district of Puyang. If we had dealt with the assassins and immediately gathered the soldiers waiting outside the city, we could have suppressed everything. But these bastards had set the city on fire to trap us.
“They prepared quite thoroughly. They gathered us all in one place and then set the fires, huh?”
“My lord, we must find an escape route!”
At Cheng Yu’s words, Cao Cao waved away the rising smoke with his hand and asked.
“And after we escape?”
“My lord, right now our three thousand guards are being attacked without knowing why and are dying. We must first regroup them, break out of the city, and link up with our main forces.”
“You’re right. Cheng Yu, go with Xiahou Dun and gather those three thousand guards.”
“Yes, my lord!”
“A-Man, where should we regroup?”
I quickly assessed the chaotic situation outside the government office. It wasn’t just soldiers moving—fires were breaking out everywhere without reason, causing merchants and civilians to panic. The entire city of Puyang had fallen into pandemonium.
“The central market of Puyang!”
“What?”
I suddenly remembered what Xu Shu had said earlier.
“Uncle, if we escape the government hall now, we must gather our troops in the middle of the market.”
“Why?”
“The edges of Puyang’s market are lined with blacksmiths and weapon shops full of charcoal and braziers. Once a fire starts there, it spreads rapidly. The center, however, is crowded with merchants who will come out and try to put out the flames, won’t they?”
“To hide a tree, use a forest… Hmm!”
Cao Cao nodded and prepared to escape.
“Xiahou Dun, once you and Cheng Yu have gathered the guards, meet us in the center.”
“A-Man, are you really going to be alright?”
“Just go already!”
In this situation, Cao Cao took only me and Xu Shu with him and immediately attempted to break out. Xiahou Dun and Cheng Yu carved a path through the assassins and Puyang soldiers before them, while Cao Cao searched for other soldiers in the chaos.
“M-My lord!”
At that moment, a wounded officer came limping from afar. He had been struck by arrows but somehow made it before Cao Cao and collapsed to his knees.
“Nui? No, you are…”
“Adjutant Nui… I tried to protect my lord… Hurk!”
He had already been hit by several arrows and was staggering while coughing up blood.
“Say no more! Escape with us.”
“My lord… I am already finished…. Please escape this place and… may fortune be with you…”
Adjutant Nui staggered as he removed his helmet and offered it directly to Cao Cao before lowering his head. Cao Cao silently accepted the blood-stained helmet and pressed it firmly onto his own head.
“…Let’s go.”
Wearing the helmet pulled low, Cao Cao pushed forward through the flames.
“There’s Cao Cao! Catch—!”
I immediately charged and took the head of the assassin who had shouted.
Blood had already splattered across my face countless times, but I paid it no mind. Right now, I was simply fighting to protect.
More assassins burst out from the smoke of the flames, but Xu Shu and I cut them all down.
“This way!”
“Ah, the wall has collapsed here.”
I took the lead, found the gap, and guided Cao Cao out of the government complex. But the moment we emerged, a giant of a man and a group of armed soldiers stood before us.
“!?”
“L-Lu Bu…?”
Xu Shu instinctively spoke the name, then immediately clapped a hand over his own mouth.
Lu Bu? That man was Lu Bu?
The giant general clad in red armor and wielding a long crescent halberd scanned the area with his eyes before spotting us.
“Where did you lot come from?”
“…”
The pressure was overwhelming. Could I possibly face this man right now? If Xu Shu distracted him with his sword and I desperately aimed for a single strike… No, was that even possible? I had to find some kind of opening no matter what.
At that moment, Lu Bu noticed Cao Cao, who had barely escaped while wearing the helmet pulled low, and asked again.
“I asked where you came from. I ordered you to chase Cao Cao, so where did you crawl out from?”
“…”
“Hey, you with the helmet! Answer me properly! Or I’ll cut you down right—!”
The situation was on a knife’s edge.
At that instant, Cao Cao, still wearing the helmet low over his face, raised his hand and pointed in a certain direction.
“Hmm?”
“C-Cao Cao escaped on a yellow horse! Cao Cao fled on horseback!”
The man himself was Cao Cao, yet he lied so naturally while pointing into empty air. I wondered if it would actually work—then Lu Bu flinched and turned toward where Cao Cao had pointed.
“What? What are you all doing?! Find the man riding the yellow horse immediately!”
“Yes, General!”
Lu Bu actually turned and ran off right in front of Cao Cao to chase after him. It was an unbelievable stroke of luck. Cao Cao grabbed my shoulder.
“Mun-yeol… Quickly guide me to that chaotic central market where there are no flames.”
I immediately supported Cao Cao and ran toward the location, avoiding the spreading fires.