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Left without any defenses and a strong army to defend against Zhang Lu's Army's sudden attack, after around 3 days of defensive battle Shangyong raised a white banner to surrender, causing Yang Song to be ecstatic as he could further expand his clandestine activities, and Zhang Lu's Army victory soon was known across the land and doesn't cause much shock except to Liu Biao who couldn't do anything to even do some attempt to regain Shangyong.
Liu Biao could only announce his contempt for Zhang Lu and swore that he would repay the embarrassment that Zhang Lu had given him tenfold.
Unfortunately for Liu Biao, his threat was very laughable in the eyes of every Warlord especially Zhnag Lu, because everyone knew that Liu Biao was in a precarious situation and couldn't do anything thanks to Liu Bei who usurped the northern part of Jing Province.
Also, the continuous losses he had against Liu Bei, Lie Fan, and the Sun Clan destroyed any credibility he had as a threat to other Warlords, unlike in the past when he was the hegemon of Jing Province controlling a large army and navy with a vast domain.
Being informed of what the land was thinking about him, Liu Biao could only grit his teeth enduring the humiliation he had and swore that he would rise again and pay back all the humiliation he had received.
He was very optimistic that everything was a setback and that sooner or later he would rise once again, not realizing that everything was slowly crumbling around him as Cai Mao and Lady Cai had a secret meeting he didn't know about.
As the Cai Clan had fallen out of power, many clans were challenging them for the lands and shops they had under them, even when Liu Biao had blocked them subtly they still tried to take them from the Cai Clan.
Without any power to protect themselves, Cai Mao could only use the personal power and the power of the Cai Clan he had accumulated over the years to well any attempts against him and the Cai Clan.
Both brother and sister blamed all of this on Liu Biao who stripped Cai Mao of the position of Grand General, which caused everything that happened right now to the Cai Clan making them miserable.
Cai Mao: " Sister we should do something, Liu Biao is killing us now and maybe due to his old age he has become senile and forgotten who had helped him keep Jing Province stable for him!"
Lady Cai: "Keep calm brother, we need to tread carefully because any wrong move would cause us to fall deeper into the pit, and even my charm couldn't convince him to do anything for the Cai Clan anymore."
Cai Mao: "Damn it! That old fool, if he weren't the Lord of Jing Province how could I allow my precious sister to marry him?! We still need to do something because Sooner or later our power and money will be spent just besting these damned bugs!"
Lady Cai: "Then brother, why don't we put Liu Cong as the new lord? We could control him from the back and use him to increase the power of the Cai Clan, even exceeding our heyday in the past!"
Cai Mao: "Hmm we could do that but it's very risky, we need to collect allies who will support us and wouldn't stab us in the back, we can be sure that Zhang Yun would support us but only him isn't enough."
Lady Cai: "I will try to use my influence in the circle of the noble ladies, some will definitely listen to their wives or mistresses, let's see the resin from here and then continue our plan ahead after seeing the reaction."
Cai Mao listening to what his sister had just said nodded his head in agreement, testing the circle of the noble ladies was the best course of action because no matter how people who found out about this traced it to Lady Cai, Liu Biao would not believe any of the report.
Why he could be so confident, because Liu Biao still doted on his second wife who was much younger than him and could be said to be the most beautiful among the ladies of his retainer.
This gave him face and prestige in his mind, so he always treated Lady Cai kindly not knowing that he was taking care of a poisonous plant, one that would definitely come to bite him in the back.
As Cai Mao and Lady Cai were plotting to overthrow Liu Biao from his position and place Liu Cong to replace him, far to the northwest of Wuling, Ma Teng and the Ma Clan were holding up at Tianshui.
Zhao Ang who was the Governor of Tianshui welcomed them in and had Ma Teng alongside his family received with a lavish feast, and even gave some supplies for the next battle handing them out to the Ma Clan's Army.
In the original timeline, Zhao Ang and the Ma Clan become opposing sides when the Ma Clan led by Ma Chao at that point in time rebelled against Cao Cao who was the de facto head of the Han Central Government.
However, his plan failed as Cao Cao later managed to defeat Ma Chao and his allies at the Battle of Tong Pass, which caused Ma Chao to constantly raid the Liang Province and take over the land by force.
When Ma Chao reached Tianshui, Wei Kang the inspector of Liang Province took pity on the plight of the people and planned to start peace talks with Ma Chao, which Zhao Ang tried to dissuade Wei Kang from doing so but was ignored by him.
Later the peace talk was made and finalized, but Ma Chao killed Wei Kang and took over Tianshui where he then jailed Zhao Ang and his son Zhao Yue, causing Wang Yi who was Zhao Ang's wife to approach Lady Yang which were Ma Chao wife telling her that Zhao Ang is loyal to Ma Chao.
This proved to be a good one as later on Zho Ang was released, he then plotted with many people to overthrow Ma Chao and succeeded even driving him out of Liang Province where he and his allies even managed to kill Ma Chao's wife and children.
Of course, all of that happened in the original timeline and in Lie Fan's timeline all of this hadn't happened, Zhao Ang even became the Governor of Tianshui much earlier and was at the young age of 23 but was chosen by Ma Teng due to his talent.
Zhao Ang: "My Lord, I think we need to be careful because by essence the force under My Lord and that traitor Han Sui was a coalition of many forces, so we need to be very careful in determining who is enemy and friend."
Ma Teng: "I agree Zhao Ang what you said is correct, I have sent Ma Chao and Pang De to inspect who are the allies of the Ma Clan and the enemies of the Ma Clan, also I don't know if are you even truly loyal to me hmm?"
Zhao Ang: "My Lord you have known how loyal I was to you! It's because of you that I have become the Governor of Tianshui, and I have even delayed my wedding to send troops to support your campaign to take over Chang'An from Han Sui!"
Ma Teng: "Haha! I know I know Zhao Ang, I was just jesting. How is the condition of your wife? I hope that she isn't angered by your delaying the wedding for you to support my campaign."
Zhao Ang: "She had forgiven for that My Lord but I think she still holds a grudge against you and the Ma Clan because to support your campaign, I had to delay our wedding at the time, and had punished me that we can't have an intimate relation for a year."
Ma Teng: "What?! Preposterous! How could a woman do that ordering and pushing her husband like that, Zhao Ang you're the head of the household you should show your backbone!"
Zhao Ang shake his head and told Ma Teng that his wife Wang Yi wasn't wrong in doing so in his mind because the marriage ceremony was once a lifetime for many people including her.
Him violating the chosen day of their marriage ceremony was a taboo and her not allowing him to be intimate with her wasn't a bad punishment, because he still could spend some time with Wang Yi.
Ma Teng was somewhat speechless by what Zhao Ang had just said because it was against the normal norms of this day and age, but before he could comment any further suddenly a guard barged into the hall.
The guard was panting heavily but still reported to both Zhao Ang and Ma Teng that Cao Cao's Army was spotted several kilometers from Tianshui, and when they heard this both of them immediately stood up and ordered the town to be on lockdown and the Army to enter defensive formation.
Soon Zhao Ang and Ma Teng's order spread across the entirety of Tianshui, causing some panic among the populace where they could only stay inside the safety of their house.
Ma Chao and Pang De on the other hand had the Ma Clan Army that had been reinforced, raising their number to 150,000 men stationed across the wall of Tianshui and entering a defensive formation.
The both of them were joined by Ma Teng and Zhao Ang later on in the Eastern Wall, where without waiting for a long time they saw Cao Cao's Army on the horizon approaching Tianshui.
When Cao Cao's Army reached Tianshui, Cao Ren immediately ordered the entire army to enter battle formation, and Han Sui who had recuperated his strength formally joined Cao Cao's banner and became his retainer.
In terms of rank as general, Cao Ren was superior to Han Sui so he followed the order that was given by Cao Ren and Cao Ren only, as for Zhang Ji and Xu Huang the two of them were ignored by Han Sui.
Even though they were angered by what Han Sui did to them, Zhang Ji and Xu Huang chose to hold themselves back until they won the siege of Tianshui, where under Cao Ren's order begin with Han Sui led his men to attack the Eastern gate of Tianshui with Cao Ren overseeing it.
Zhang Ji will lead his army to attack the Northern gate and Xu Huang lead his army to attack the Sother gate, which was the plan made by Jia Kui who had studied Tianshui defense capability, with the additional presence of Ma Teng and his army he feels that this is the best course of action takedown Tianshui, and so the siege of Tianshui begins with Han Sui and Ma Teng meeting once again in the field of battle.
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Name: Lie Fan
Title: Three Heroes Who Defeat Lu Bu
Age: 31 (198 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 825
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 936 (+20)
VIT: 598 (+20)
AGI: 583 (+10)
INT: 587
CHR: 96
WIS: 509
WILL: 397
ATR Points: 0