Chapter 445

Cao Cao nodded with satisfaction and waved his hand: "Then proceed with my plan immediately!"

"I will allocate ten thousand gold to you as operational funds to grease the wheels and bribe Xu You and the others! Go quickly!"

The Office of Affairs was an intelligence agency created by Cao Cao, modeled after Su Xuan's Secret Guards and the Han Dynasty's Embroidered Uniform Guards.

Since its establishment, it had never failed him in any mission.

He believed this time would be no exception.

"Yes!"

The commander of the Office of Affairs accepted the order happily and left.

With ten thousand gold as operational funds, everything would be even easier.

On Lord Yuan Shao's side.

After Liu Bei returned from the battlefield, Lord Yuan Shao hurriedly summoned him and asked: "How was it? Was that person your second brother Guan Yu?"

"Indeed!"

Liu Bei nodded affirmatively: "I verified it with my own eyes; that person is indeed my second brother Guan Yu."

"I fear he has truly been deceived by Cao Cao's schemes!"

"However, now that he knows I am here with you, my lord, I believe my second brother will definitely not appear on the battlefield again to be your enemy and work for Cao Cao!"

"At the same time, I also believe he will definitely leave Cao Cao's side as soon as possible and come to reunite with me!"

Speaking of this, Liu Bei was full of confidence.

"Oh?"

Lord Yuan Shao's eyes lit up: "Are you sure? Will he really come to my side?"

"Naturally!"

Liu Bei nodded affirmatively: "I know my second brother very well; he is a man of unparalleled loyalty. It would be one thing if he didn't know I was with you, my lord, but now that he knows, he will definitely rush to reunite with me as soon as possible!"

"When he arrives, I will recommend him to you, my lord, and then have him serve you to defeat the Cao traitor!"

Clearly, whether it was being defeated by Cao Cao earlier and losing his base in Xuzhou, or his second brother being deceived by him and beheading Lord Yuan Shao's two generals, causing him to almost be executed by Lord Yuan Shao, all of this made Liu Bei hate Cao Cao to the bone.

If Guan Yu came, Liu Bei would absolutely not mind letting him help Lord Yuan Shao destroy Cao Cao.

As for whether Lord Yuan Shao would occupy most of the world because of this, become the number one warlord in the world, and thus seize the entire world?

Liu Bei couldn't worry about that for now.

Of course, he believed it shouldn't go that far.

After all, there was still Su Xuan in Jingzhou!

That person was very powerful!

It wouldn't be easy for Lord Yuan Shao to defeat him easily.

Not to mention Sun Ce in Jiangdong, Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu in Yizhou, Xu Rong in Guanzhong, Ma Teng and Han Sui in Xiliang, Jia Wu in Bingzhou... and so on.

This world was still far from being unified!

As long as it wasn't unified for a single day, he still had a chance to make a comeback, seize the world, and restore the Han Dynasty for the third time.

"Good!"

Lord Yuan Shao cheered loudly and looked at Liu Bei with burning eyes: "As long as Guan Yu can really come to my side and serve me as you say, I will write off his crime of beheading my two generals and won't hold it against you. Furthermore, if he can help me defeat Cao Cao, I will have additional heavy rewards! Haha!"

"Then many thanks, my lord!"

Liu Bei immediately bowed and thanked him with a smile.

Two days later,

The letter Guan Yu wrote to Liu Bei, after being altered by Cao Cao, was successfully delivered to Lord Yuan Shao through the Office of Affairs.

At the same time, the Office of Affairs had already arranged everything, including Xu You, who had secretly been bought off by the people from the Office of Affairs.

Of course, at first, Xu You didn't want to agree.

Because, clever as he was, he knew very well that Cao Cao's purpose in doing this was not just to eliminate Liu Bei, but to completely obtain Guan Yu's loyalty.

This was disadvantageous for Lord Yuan Shao defeating Cao Cao.

Although Xu You loved money like his life and often lacked integrity, compared to Cao Cao, he was still more willing to assist Lord Yuan Shao in succeeding.

But one sentence from the commander of the Office of Affairs changed his mind: "Does Mr. Xu Ziyuan know that Guo Tu has long since grasped evidence of you reselling and skimming military rations, but has been holding it back, waiting for a suitable opportunity to bring it out and deal you a fatal blow?"

"Does Mr. Xu Ziyuan think that, given Lord Yuan Shao's personality, if he found out about these things while in a fit of rage, would he kill you in a moment of anger?"

"What?"

Xu You was horrified: "Guo Tu actually knows this and even collected evidence? And is even ready to backstab me at any time?"

"Very well!"

Xu You narrowed his eyes, cold light flashing: "Good for you, Guo Guo Gongze, you're cunning enough! I really underestimated you!"

"Since you are unjust, don't blame me for being unrighteous!"

"I'll remember this grudge! We'll see! Hmph!"

For a moment, Xu You hated Guo Tu to the extreme.

At the same time, he also felt a sense of shame and anger.

Because he had always felt that Guo Tu only had a little bit of cleverness and couldn't be compared to him at all!

This could be seen from the fact that in their daily confrontations, he usually ended up with the upper hand.

Therefore, Xu You had always looked down on Guo Tu.

But now, he had been schemed against by Guo Tu without even knowing it.

If it weren't for the commander of the Office of Affairs, or rather the Cao Cao behind him, reminding him, he might really have been schemed against by Guo Tu in the future and executed by Lord Yuan Shao!

For Xu You, this was simply a great humiliation.

It was like being slapped in the face by a monkey.

How could the proud Xu You accept this?

How could he swallow this anger?

He wanted to take revenge on Guo Tu, a fierce revenge!

After a while, Xu You looked at the commander of the Office of Affairs and said: "I agree to the matter you mentioned! I will help your master eliminate Liu Bei!"

"However, go back and tell your master that this news alone is not enough to offset my efforts!"

"Your master should know very well that a peerless divine general like Guan Yu is worth more than this price!"

"Moreover, although I don't know how your master tricked Guan Yu into serving him, there must be something dishonorable in it!"

"Otherwise, your master wouldn't be so anxious to eliminate Liu Bei, fearing that Guan Yu might meet with Liu Bei, or even communicate with him, right?"

"Let me guess, if Guan Yu knew the truth, he would probably turn against your master and want to kill him, right?"

The commander of the Office of Affairs was slightly stunned, then smiled bitterly: "Nothing can be hidden from Mr. Xu Ziyuan! You are indeed the top strategist in the world today; no wonder my master holds you in such high regard!"

"My master once said, 'He who gains Mr. Xu Ziyuan gains the world!' Now it seems that is no empty talk!"

"That's right! It is indeed inconvenient to let Guan Yu truly connect with Liu Bei. I will report your request to my master, Mr. Xu Ziyuan;"

"I believe my master will definitely remember your kindness, Mr. Xu Ziyuan, and will be willing to owe you a big favor!"

"Hahaha!"

Xu You heard the flattery from the commander of the Office of Affairs and smiled until his eyes narrowed, his face full of self-satisfaction.

The commander's words hit the mark!

At the same time, he didn't expect Cao Cao to rate him so highly and value his talent so much.

"Perhaps, when I can no longer make it under Lord Yuan Shao, going to Cao Cao's side to develop wouldn't be bad?"

Xu You even thought to himself.

This thought didn't pop up suddenly.

It had been there since the commander of the Office of Affairs told him that his reselling of military rations had been discovered by Guo Tu and evidence had been collected.

He didn't have a good way to solve this for the time being, unless he killed Guo Tu before he made his move.

But that wasn't easy.

Thus, his life could be threatened by Guo Tu at any time.

Plus, Lord Yuan Shao had lost two great generals, Yan Liang and Wen Chou, to Cao Cao, and the army was already lacking generals who could command independently!

Although Lord Yuan Shao still had a certain advantage in troops, he had already begun to fall into a decline.

It wasn't impossible that he would ultimately lose to Cao Cao.

— Author's Notes —

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