The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Chapter 380 Zhuge Jin is captured

Seeing the long sword thrusting towards him, Zhuge Jin quickly braked and leaned back to avoid hitting the tip of the sword. He then took a half step back and steadied himself before looking at Liu Zan incredulously and asking, "When did you join Guan Xing's side?"

He never dreamed that Liu Zan would betray him, so he really wanted to ask him why he betrayed him. But Liu Zan had already put a knife to his own throat, so asking him that seemed pointless. He might as well ask something more practical.

Liu Zan replied, "There is something I lied to you about. I did not escape the Han army's encirclement that day, but instead became Guan Xing's prisoner along with my brothers. That's how I learned some things."

"Before the Eastern Expedition, my lord and Gu Yongyu lied to me, saying that Guan Xing had robbed all the property of my Changshan Liu clan and slaughtered all my clansmen. Did you know about this? Did you know all along that they were lying to me? Were you lying to me with them?"

"General, please tell me the truth, considering we've worked together for so many years."

A bitter smile appeared on Zhuge Jin's lips as she said guiltily, "I do know, but I didn't mean to lie to you. It's just that you didn't ask me. If you had asked me, I would definitely have told you the truth."

He finally understood why Liu Zan had rebelled: it was because Guan Xing had settled accounts with Liu Zan, exposing the lies told by the Eastern Wu leadership to the lower-ranking Wu soldiers.

This was unavoidable. The Guan family father and son were gaining more and more foothold in Jiangdong, while the Wu army suffered repeated defeats against them. Their hopes of retaking Jiangdong were dwindling, leading to a decline in the morale of the Wu army and bringing them to the brink of collapse.

That's not the worst part. The worst part is that Wu's army consists of people from Jiangdong, and their families are in the hands of Guan's father and son. Many of them have even had their land divided up by Guan's father and son. If this gets back to Wu's army, they will not only stop fighting Guan's father and son, but they may also mutiny.

So what else could the high-ranking officials of Eastern Wu do besides smearing the Guan family and inciting hatred among the lower-ranking soldiers of the Wu army? They couldn't just surrender to the Guan family, could they?

The high command of Eastern Wu had no choice but to block information from the lower-ranking soldiers and deceive them into continuing the war with lies, saying that they would deal with the rest after defeating the Guan family and recovering Jiangdong.

But a lie is still a lie, and it will backfire once it is exposed. Zhuge Jin is now suffering the backlash from Liu Zan.

Liu Zan stared intently at Zhuge Jin's face and sneered viciously, "Hehehe, you didn't say anything when I didn't ask you. Does the general mean he's blaming me?"

"So here's the question: if the Han army hadn't attacked, if my sword hadn't been pressed against your throat, would you have told me the truth, or would you have continued to lie to me like Sun Quan and Gu Yong?"

Zhuge Jin remained silent. He really didn't know what would happen if the time, place, and scenario were different, but he would most likely continue to deceive him, because the morale of the army was more important than Liu Zan's feelings.

Liu Zan understood his expression, and with tears streaming down his face and panting heavily, he roared fiercely, "Zhuge Ziyu, do you know what it feels like for a parent to bury their child? Do you know how much pain I felt when I learned that my wife and children had been killed? Do you know how I've been getting through these past few days?"

"Do you know that I haven't slept a wink these past few months since you deceived me and I met Guan Xing? Every moment I've been thinking about how to kill Guan Xing to avenge my wife and children. And now you're telling me you were lying to me, that my wife and children are alive and well? All the pain and torment I've endured these past few months has been meaningless. Zhuge Ziyu, I've followed you faithfully for so many years, and this is how you treat me?"

"We've been together all this time. Every day you see me suffering the hatred of my clan's annihilation, aren't you especially excited? Aren't you secretly cursing me for being an idiot?"

"Zhuge Ziyu, even if you look down on me, you should at least treat me like a human being. Do you even consider me a human being?"

Zhuge Jin was speechless when asked the question. He closed his eyes and said in shame, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have kept it from you. Just kill me."

Deng Hong is coming soon. At this time, the best thing to do is not to argue with Liu Zan, but to defeat Liu Zan, reclaim the stairs, and retreat quickly. But Zhuge Jin can't do that.

First of all, he had worked with Liu Zan for many years and genuinely did not want to go to war with him.

Secondly, Liu Zan had more people around him than he did. While transporting grain out of the city, Liu Zan also took the opportunity to bribe many Wu soldiers who were willing to surrender to Han with him, and he always kept this group of people by his side.

After Guan Xing attacked the city, Liu Zan intentionally or unintentionally transferred Zhuge Jin's personal guards away one by one. Now Liu Zan has twenty men standing around him, while Zhuge Jin only has twelve men left behind. If they really fought, Zhuge Jin really wasn't confident of winning.

In addition, Zhuge Jin's personal guards also overheard his conversation with Liu Zan and learned that he had been deceived by the high-ranking officials of Eastern Wu. They looked at Zhuge Jin with some doubt in their eyes. Under such circumstances, how could Zhuge Jin fight?

Liu Zan really wanted to stab Zhuge Jin to death with a sword. "I treated you like a leader, but you treated me like a fool. I would really be letting myself down if I didn't kill you."

But when he heard Zhuge Jin apologize, Liu Zan's anger subsided considerably. He sheathed his sword and sighed, "General, surrender. You can't escape. I've already handed over all the grain transported outside the city to General Guan Xing. This grain is enough for General Guan to use for half a month, so it doesn't matter whether the grain inside the city is burned or not. What do you say?"

Zhuge Jin's lips twitched violently as he said, "I will not surrender. Leave Zhengming to face the sword."

After saying that, he swung his sword at Liu Zan. Liu Zan instinctively swung his sword to meet the attack, but as soon as the two swords collided, Zhuge Jin's sword flew out of his hand, and he himself fell to the ground with a scream due to loss of balance. Liu Zan was stunned on the spot.

I didn't use any force, so why did you fall over?

Zhuge Jin was no weak scholar who couldn't even kill a chicken; he was a towering man from Langya, eight feet tall, whose martial arts were no less than Liu Zan's, and who took the initiative to attack, giving him a clear advantage.

On the other hand, Liu Zan was seven or eight centimeters shorter than Zhuge Jin and was caught off guard. It would be good enough if he wasn't defeated by Zhuge Jin. How could he possibly defeat Zhuge Jin instead?

That damned Zhuge Jin clearly did it on purpose.

Realizing this, Liu Zan immediately ordered, "Tie up General Zhuge."

Zhuge Jin's personal guards were not fools. Instead of stopping them, they all retreated and made way, allowing the soldiers behind Liu Zan to capture Zhuge Jin.

Then Liu Zan turned to the Wu soldiers who were still fighting the Han army and roared, "I am Liu Zan, the Colonel of the Cavalry. General Zhuge has been captured. Now I order all of you to lay down your weapons and surrender to the Han army."

Wu Jun had long since given up on fighting, and upon hearing Liu Zan's order, he immediately chose to obey without any hesitation.

This was ordered by the Commandant Liu to surrender, not their own voluntary surrender. If there's a problem, go find the Commandant Liu.

The rest was simple: the entire Wu army surrendered, laid down their weapons, and retreated into the city. The Han army took over the city walls and opened the city gates to invite Guan Xing into the city.

Guan Xing led Ning Huan, You Chong, and others into the city. At the city gate, he saw Zhuge Jin with his hands bound. He then ran up to Zhuge Jin, bowed deeply, and said, "Nephew Guan Anguo greets Uncle Ziyu."

This made Liu Zan's mouth twitch wildly. Although he knew that Guan Xing respected Zhuge Jin because of his brother Zhuge Liang, he still couldn't help feeling unbalanced.

I risked my life and struggled for so long, but it's not as good as someone else's brother being a high-ranking official on the enemy side. What kind of world is this?

Zhuge Jin accepted Guan Xing's bow with a smile and said, "Anguo, I didn't expect you to have become so accomplished after just a few years. Indeed, heroes emerge from among the young, and like father, like son."

Guan Xing smiled honestly and said, "Uncle Ziyu, you flatter me. I am unworthy of such praise."

He quickly stepped forward to untie Zhuge Jin and said with a smile, "Please bear with it for a few days, Uncle Ziyu. Once the war with Grand Commander Lu is over, I will send you to Jianye to see my father."

Zhuge Jin was not someone he could summon to surrender; Guan Yu had to personally intervene. Therefore, he didn't intend to go to any trouble and simply treated him like an ancestor, leaving the rest to Guan Yu and Wang Fu.

After exchanging a few more meaningless words, Guan Xing ordered his men to take Zhuge Jin away, and then asked Liu Zan, "Lieutenant Liu, is it possible to catch up with the grain supplies that are being transported to Lu Xun?"

Liu Zan shook his head and said, "It's no use. We've been traveling for over ten days and are probably at the end of the road. Besides, Zhou Fang personally escorted the supplies, so even if a small force catches up, they might not be able to finish them."

Guan Xing said, "Then forget it. Let Zhou Fang transport the grain directly to Damo and store it for us. After we defeat Lu Xun, the grain will still be ours. Everyone go and rest. We'll send troops to Damo to fight Lu Xun first thing tomorrow morning."