Chapter 297: Rescuing Lv Fan
Pan Zhang was also one of the war faction in Jiangdong. After Dantu County was surrounded, he was ordered to lead twenty thousand troops to guard East City. With Sun Quan assassinated, Jiangdong completely collapsed, and he also led twenty thousand troops to surrender to the Cao Army.
However, Pan Zhang did not expect that Cao Cao would assign him to Sun Ben. Of course, Pan Zhang and Sun Ben had extremely good personal relations. During the Sun Ce era, Pan Zhang repeatedly plundered citizens’ property, violating military law, and was almost executed several times, but Sun Ben saved him each time.
Precisely because of this, Pan Zhang was relatively loyal to Sun Ben. This time, he was appointed by Sun Ben as the vanguard, leading five thousand troops with half a month’s dry rations, hurrying at full speed to Yuzhang Commandery to capture Yu County.
Seven days later, Pan Zhang led his army to arrive at Yu County. Clearly, Yu County did not expect troops to suddenly attack. There were no garrison troops inside the city, only a few dozen old soldiers responsible for opening and closing the city gate. The county chief and a group of officials, to protect the citizens, were forced to surrender outside the city. Pan Zhang occupied Yu County without bloodshed.
The Yu County county chief was named Jiang Ying. He was brought before Pan Zhang by soldiers. Pan Zhang did not allow his troops to plunder the citizens, which made Jiang Ying feel very fortunate, so he was also very polite to Pan Zhang.
“Greetings, General Pan!”
Pan Zhang waved his hand. “Please sit, County Chief Jiang!”
Jiang Ying sat down tremblingly. Pan Zhang asked, “How can there be over ten thousand shi of grain in the granary?”
Pan Zhang was a bit puzzled. Yu County could only be considered a mid-sized county; how could it have so much stored grain?
Jiang Ying gave a bitter smile. “This is tax grain, shipped over from Nanchang County. Nanchang County is rebuilding its granary and temporarily has no place to store grain, so the tax grain in the warehouse had to be temporarily distributed to the warehouses in various counties. Our Yu County received ten thousand shi of grain, with handover records as proof.”
Jiang Ying’s explanation was reasonable, and Pan Zhang believed it. They happened to have no grain supply, and in a few more days, the dry rations would be gone too. This ten thousand shi of grain was like a timely help.
Pan Zhang nodded and asked again, “If Yu County is captured, will they know over in Nanchang?”
Jiang Ying thought for a moment. “Probably not!”
“Why?”
“Because Yu County is not on the military’s defense list. They have no garrison in Yu County, not even observation posts. If something happens here in Yu County, I think they probably don’t know.”
“No way! Yu County isn’t important?”
Pan Zhang found it a bit strange. Yu County was an absolutely important strategic location; how could the military not pay attention to it?
Jiang Ying saw that Pan Zhang was starting to have suspicions, so he hurriedly added an explanation: “Not to mention Yu County; for these past few months, even Nanchang County has had not a single soldier. Nanchang County only got troops in the last few days.”
This sentence immediately dispelled Pan Zhang’s doubts. Indeed, for these past few months, the Western Chu Army had all been concentrated in Chaisang, with no attention paid to the hinterland at all—not even Nanchang, let alone Yu County.
However, since the Western Chu Army’s attention was shifting southward, they might also pay attention to Yu County and send troops there, which would likely lead to a major battle.
Pan Zhang immediately sent someone back to send a letter to Sun Ben, requesting reinforcement to ten thousand troops.
A month later, five thousand reinforcements arrived, but the Western Chu Army never sent troops to Yu County. Pan Zhang was initially very nervous, but as time passed, he gradually relaxed his vigilance.
Autumn passed and winter came; time reached mid-November. In the Yingchuan Restaurant in Xuchang County, Lv Fan was drinking alone in a private room on the second floor. Not far from him stood two Imperial Guard guards with arms crossed, coldly watching Lv Fan as he drank.
Since Lv Fan did not surrender to Cao Cao, Cao Cao ordered him to be under house arrest in Xuchang, monitored and guarded by the Imperial Guard. Every ten days, Lv Fan had one opportunity to go out drinking, but he was still under strict surveillance by Imperial Guard guards. Besides two guards watching him closely, there were five more Imperial Guard guards outside the door—a total of eight responsible for guarding Lv Fan.
Today was the day for going out drinking. Lv Fan ordered two pots of wine and five or six dishes, pouring and drinking alone.
At that moment, there were two light sounds of ‘ka! ka!’ The two Imperial Guard guards suddenly clutched their necks and slowly fell down. They wanted to shout but could not make a sound. Each had a poisoned short crossbow bolt stuck in their neck, and their necks and faces instantly turned black.
“Mr. Lv!”
Someone shouted softly from the window. Lv Fan immediately stood up and walked to the window. Outside the window was not the main street, but the alley behind the restaurant.
“Come down quickly!”
A long thick rope dangled from the window all the way to the ground, with someone waiting below.
Lv Fan glanced at the private room door. Though extremely nervous in his heart, he unhesitatingly grabbed the rope and slid down.
Two burly men below caught him and immediately helped him onto a light carriage parked in the alley. The carriage set off and left the alley.
At this time, faint shouts came from inside the private room.
The atmosphere in Xuchang grew tense. The city gates quickly closed, teams of soldiers ran on the main street, and Imperial Guard guards conducted searches in various inns inside the city.
Checkpoints on waterways leading out of Xuchang to various places were carefully inspecting to intercept Lv Fan’s escape.
The most dangerous place is also the safest. Lv Fan did not leave Xuchang County; he hid in the wine cellar of a wine shop, which was precisely the Western Chu intelligence station in Xuchang.
To rescue Lv Fan, the Western Chu intelligence agency exhausted all resources and finally learned that Lv Fan had not been sent to Ye but was under house arrest in Xuchang, monitored and guarded by the Xuchang Imperial Guard.
The rescue was handed over to the Xuchang intelligence station. They spent a month figuring out Lv Fan’s situation and discovered an opportunity, successfully rescuing him from the restaurant.
This was also due to the Imperial Guard’s carelessness. They did not take Lv Fan seriously, thinking he was just an ordinary Jiangdong official, never imagining that Western Chu would use every means to save him.
Lv Fan sat at a small table in the wine cellar reading a book when a waiter rushed in and said, “Sir, hide quickly; the searching soldiers are here!”
Lv Fan immediately crawled into an empty wine barrel and fastened the lid tightly. Soon after, a cacophony of footsteps came from outside.
“Open the door!” A fierce voice of an Imperial Guard guard came from outside.
“Sirs, this is just a wine cellar.”
“We have to search the wine cellar too!”
There was a clanking of iron chains, and the wine cellar door was pushed open. Five or six Imperial Guard guards entered.
Upon learning the news that Lv Fan had been rescued, Cao Cao flew into a rage and ordered Imperial Guard General Chen Wei to thoroughly search Xuchang. If the person was not found, he was to bring his head to see him.
Chen Wei then realized he had caused a great disaster by negligently letting Lv Fan escape.
He began a citywide search, checking all shops and residences owned by out-of-towners. Soon they searched the wine shop.
Five or six soldiers knocked on barrel after barrel with their knives, opening every empty one to check. They were about to reach the barrel where Lv Fan was hiding, and the wine shop shopkeeper’s heart was in his throat.
At that moment, a horn sounded from outside—this was the signal for all Imperial Guard guards to assemble. The guards stopped searching and ran outside.
After a good while, the wine shop shopkeeper closed the door and let Lv Fan out.
“What happened?” Lv Fan was puzzled. They were about to search him out, so why did they suddenly stop and leave?
The shopkeeper smiled and said, “We shot an informant arrow to the Imperial Guard, telling them Lv Fan was hiding in some manor outside the city. They needed manpower, so they all went there.”
Lv Fan chuckled and said, “I just thought about it; actually, I didn’t need to hide at all. I could cut off the Beautiful Bearded Duke’s beard, disguise myself as the wine shop’s accountant, and when the Imperial Guard guards come to search the wine cellar again, I could personally lead them.”
Lv Fan and the shopkeeper looked at each other and burst into laughter together.
