While Zhang He and his men were pulling back from the battlefield, Ji Ling and his 19,500 men returned to Luoyang .

  Before they could resupply and chase after Guan Yu Army, an urgent report came from Yuan Shu’s scouts, who were monitoring Hulao Gate’s movement .

  The reports came to Yuan Shu and Ji Ling that Cao Cao’s forces rushed at Luoyang again with their 25,000 soldiers . Also, a unit of 2,000 light horsemen had already shown up on the horizon, capturing all farmers and civilians beyond the city wall .

  Yuan Shu changed his mind . As he did not want Luoyang to fall, he ordered Ji Ling to defend the city instead of pursuing Guan Yu .

  As such, Ji Ling’s 19,500 men had to face the elite army of Cao Cao .

  Ji Ling did not mind it . Since it was a common sense in this era that an attacker force’s number had to be five times bigger than the defender, Ji Ling did not think that Cao Cao could defeat him with only 25,000 men .

  The next day after they heard the news, Cao Cao did not surround the city like the usual standard siege warfare . He also did not bring any siege tower or siege ladder .

  However, Cao Cao decided to put his new toys into work .

  40 Wheeled cannons were pushed before Cao Cao’s arrays of troops, and they were loaded with regular cannonballs, which used for destroying structures .

  Cao Cao wanted to use more, but the other nine of the cannons were damaged by Guan Yu and Li Ru’s forces many days ago . Moreover, one of the cannons was in Guan Yu’s hands .

  *BOOM*

  *BOOM*

  *BOOM*

  40 Guns sent 40 heavy iron balls flying and smashed onto the wall . The dense mud-and-brick wall of Luoyang resisted against the attack, but the army’s morale took a hit .

  The power of these cannonballs was enough to destroy several sections of the wall, collapsing a couple passageways and battlements .

  *BOOM*

  *BOOM*

  *BOOM*

  The second round arrived . This time, Cao Cao’s cannon crews had adjusted their aim, targeting the defenders on top of the wall and the packed crowd of archers .

  Each cannon managed to kill ten to twenty soldiers on the wall, carrying their corpses and crashing onto buildings in the city .

  The casualty was insignificant since each barrage could only kill a few hundred soldiers . However, these hot weapons terrified the local people, who had no knowledge about guns .

  They thought that Cao Cao’s forces used sorcery!

  Ji Ling even cursed out loud, "Damn you, Cao Cao! Have you sold your soul to Zhang Tong!? Are you Zhang Tong’s dog!?"

  His voice was loud enough that Cao Cao, who stood in the opposite direction of the battlefield, could hear it . The latter frowned as he did not like this nickname .

  ’Zhang Tong’s dog? Well, that’s new . Too bad, I have no intention of being someone’s lapdog . ’

  The cannon barrages continued for half a day .

  After the 50th round of shooting, the cannons ran out of ammo . However, Cao Cao Army managed to destroy Luoyang’s eastern wall and breached several holes .

  With the numbers and breached wall sections, Cao Cao could force the defenders into a ground fight . Still, Guo Jia and Cheng Yu stopped Cao Cao from sending his troops inside the city at the moment .

  Guo Jia had an idea, "My lord, let’s allow them to run . "

  Cheng Yu agreed, "There is no need to defeat Yuan Shu and his army right now . Let him run, so we can occupy the city without losing more of our troops . "

  Cao Cao grinned, "Isn’t this one of Sun Tzu’s basic tactics?"

  Guo Jia nodded, "Yes . A cornered rat will fight like a tiger had we oppressed them to desperation . We must not force an enemy into a desperate fight . Right now, we have scared them with our toys, so they won’t have the will to fight anymore . Let’s leave an escape path for them, so they can’t become desperate . "

  \r \r \r

  "Good . I thought so as well . Let’s camp here for today, and we’ll allow a night for Yuan Shu to run . If he’s not running, we’ll resume our attack!" .

  Within the city wall, surviving soldiers were terrified of the new weapons, as Cao Cao and his advisors had predicted . Less than half of the soldiers had enough courage to stand on the top of the wall .

  As they had seen how gruesome the cannons killed their friends, none of them wanted to stand and be a living target for these flying black balls .

  Moreover, the majority of casualties were not from the cannonballs, but the collapsed battlements . Because several shells smashed and breached the wall, the garrison soldiers on the battlements slipped down from the 20-meter high battlements and fell to their death .

  From 19,500 men, 15,000 survived in one piece .

  Ji Ling and all his assisting generals tried to rally their morale, but the ruins of their defensive wall reminded all soldiers about their disadvantage .

  At night, Yuan Shu and Han Yin led their private troops and fled from Luoyang in secret, leaving Ji Ling and the others behind . The two took their treasures, gold, and provision for their soldiers, escaping to the south .

  In the morning, Ji Ling found out later that Yuan Shu abandoned his army . He screamed in frustration .

  "DAMN COWARD!"

  Ji Ling despaired, realizing that he served the wrong lord . He should not have become too greedy with Yuan Shu’s pay and blindly followed after this faulty emperor .

  "I should have known! Men, raise the white flag! We can’t fight Cao Cao in this condition!" .

  Cao Cao observed Luoyang City on his watchtower . Upon seeing the garrison force raising white flags, he snickered .

  "Yuan Shu must have run away . Tell the men to accept their surrender . Remind our men, if I find anyone plundering the townspeople, I’ll execute him and his nine generations!"

  Cao Cao’s men increased from 25,000 to 40,000 with Ji Ling’s surrender . Through ups and downs, it made Cao Cao laughed in sarcasm and joked with his advisors that when he had first mobilized his force to Hulao Gate, he had 40,000 men . After he had taken Luoyang, the number of his troops was the same .

  The Marquis of Wei had not finished his job with just taking Luoyang . He sent an envoy to Hongnong, so he could trick Liu Bei into surrender to his army as well .

  Although Cao Cao knew full well that Liu Bei would eventually betray him whenever he had a chance to spread his wings, the Marquis had another plan to counter Liu Bei’s betrayal .

  The Marquis summoned Guo Jia and Cheng Yu to his private tent during his free time .

  "Both of you, do you know a person named Zhuge Liang?"

  "Zhuge, who?"

  "Zhuge Liang . He should still be a child right now . Can you tell all of your intel agents to find this person?"

  "We can, but why? Is he someone important?"

  "Very important . "

  "What do you want to do with him, my lord?"

  "Recruit him if you can . If he refuses, kill him . "

  "…… Didn’t you say he’s still a child?"

  "Yes . "

  "But, you’re killing a child?"

  "Well, it’s complicated . Zhuge Liang is a dangerous foe if he reunites with Liu Bei or joins forces with anyone but me . Zhuge Liang is also a talented scholar that can rival both of you . "

  Cheng Yu and Guo Jia’s face changed when Cao Cao spoke highly of this person .

  ’Zhuge Liang, is it?’ Guo Jia took a mental note .

  Cheng Yu pondered, being wary of Zhuge Liang, ’This man is so talented that even Mengde fears him? That’s unusual . ’

  "Is there anything else that we should know about this Zhuge Liang?"

  Cao Cao laughed . His eyes revealed his playful thought yet sinister .

  "He should also have scholar friends . If I remember correctly, they should be Xu Shu and Pang Tong . Make sure to find them as well . "

  "Where have you heard about these individuals anyway, my lord?"

  Cao Cao took a country map and pointed at Xiangyang, the capital city of Jing Province, where Liu Biao resided .

  "I don’t know where their hometown is, but we should start from here!" ……

  Wan City, south of Luoyang City

  This city was Yuan Shu’s home ground, where he raised his own forces and became independent from the Han Court . This city was more advanced in terms of the military than Luoyang, where Yuan Shu salvaged from the Xiongnu .

  This city was also devoured by the chaos as Liu Biao, Huang Zu, Huang Zhong, and Liu Pan invaded them with 50,000 soldiers .

  This city was defended by Yuan Yao, who led 20,000 men to protect the walls .

  However, Huang Zhong was still in good shape . He sniped all leading officers one after another with his arrows, using the same tactic when he fought against Tong’s garrison forces at Liyang . By standing on a top of an arrow tower, he could pin down garrison soldiers with ease .

  This time, he killed Yuan Yao and all defending generals without trouble .

  After ten days of nonstop sieging, Liu Pan’s forces overwhelmed the wall and captured the city . Still, they sacrificed 10,000 men in the siege battle .

  The defenders were left with only 2,000 men when the smoke died down, and they agreed to surrender to Liu Biao Army .

  As Liu Biao Army was cleaning the aftermath, their scouts returned from their mission .

  These were the scouts that Liu Biao sent to gather information from Luoyang and Hongnong .

  "Report! Guan Yu has betrayed Yuan Shu and captured Hongnong City . Cao Cao had already taken Luoyang when we arrived at the city!"

  Liu Biao nodded, "Any info about Yuan Shu? Is he dead?"

  "No, my lord . From our Intel, Ji Ling surrendered to Cao Cao after Yuan Shu had fled the city . His current whereabouts are unknown . "

  "Ah, coward bastard . Then, does Cao Cao have the Imperial Seal?"

  "No, my lord . Yuan Shu took it with him . "

  "Good . Then, let’s search the perimeter . Find Yuan Shu and that Imperial Seal ASAP!"

  Liu Biao spread words and placed a bounty on Yuan Shu’s head, which attracted all locals, hoodlums, mercenaries, and merchants . Word of mouth got to the neighbor cities as merchants, scholars, and peasants traveled to the surrounding counties . .

  Xiangyang Commandery

  At a rural mountain outside Xiangyang City, a courtyard filled with young scholars were listening to their seniors, teaching them about his worldly knowledge and the current trend of the land .

  The speaker was called Sima Hui, a famous scholar in Jing Province .

  Among the children who were listening to this senior, many of them were also known as talented individuals .

  Had Tong been here, he would have ordered his men to recruit all of these men or kill them all like Cao Cao had told his strategists .

  10-year-old Zhuge Liang,

  12-year-old Xu Shu,

  13-year-old Pang Tong,

  And many talented scholars gathered in this courtyard, debating about the movements of Tong, Cao Cao, Yuan Shu, the Xiongnu, and Sun Fang .

  The new generation strategists were watching their movements with interest .