Chapter Thirty-Six: Turning Against Each Other for Chen Lin

  Chen Lin's eyes showed a frenzied expression, and she looked up to say: "Your Honor's one poem with an overbearing tone is famous throughout the land, who doesn't know it? Especially that last line: 'Counting the elegant figures, looking at today!' It's truly stirring, making people yearn for it!"

  Li Zhong's face twitched slightly, and he said dryly, "It's just a humble work."

  Chen Lin continued to flatter: "The lord and Cao Mengde single-handedly pursued Dong's villain, with courage and loyalty, also making people very respectful."

  Li Zhong was about to speak, but suddenly a gust of cold wind blew over, causing Li Zhong to cough repeatedly on horseback, his face flushed red, and he could only wave his hand continuously.

  It was a good while before Li Chong recovered his breath. The bandits opposite had been waiting impatiently for some time and now shouted loudly, "Is that token genuine?"

  Chen Lin replied: "It's true. This general is Li Ziyue, who chased Dong Zhuo with Cao Mengde. Lord Li, he has now been promoted to Guangwu Prefect."

  "Damn it!" The leader of the bandits opposite spat a mouthful of saliva, greedily eyeing the military supplies brought by Li Chong, before shouting exasperatedly: "Get out of our way!"

  Li Zhongyi waved his hand and ordered the soldiers to move forward, then bent down and asked: "Who is that person?"

  "Despicable!" Chen Lin said with hatred.

  "Brother Kongzhao, how can you be... here?" Li Chong asked in surprise.

  Chen Lin replied with a sorrowful face: "On that day, the General-in-Chief (He Jin) was going to execute the eunuchs and summoned the border generals to enter the capital. As the chief clerk of the General-in-Chief, Chen Lin naturally tried to dissuade him, but the General-in-Chief did not listen... Later, Dong Zhuo wreaked havoc on the capital, and Chen Lin escaped alone to Henan, where he contracted a cold. After recovering, he was about to go to Yuan Shu's place when he was captured by Wang Da."

  "Oh..." Li Chong understood, because this little butterfly, the Battle of Tiger Trap had occurred ahead of time, and Chen Lin hadn't even had a chance to surrender to Yuan Shao yet. But he still had doubts, so he asked: "Why did Wang..."

  Chen Lin replied: "Because Chen Lin can read and write, Wang wanted me to... write some documents for him."

  Li Zhong's heart moved, and he felt that he should win over Chen Lin. He knew that Chen Lin was a softie, extremely afraid of death, and after being captured by Cao Cao at the Battle of Guandu, he immediately surrendered to Cao Cao without any literary integrity. Li Zhong didn't care about Chen Lin's character, now he had no literati under his command, so he could only grab one and use him.

  Chen Lin did not know at this moment that he had become a bone, being eyed by two hungry wolves, Wang Dang and Li Chong.

  Li Chong made a show of being humble and courteous, and asked in a gentle tone: "Brother Kong Zhang, I'm sure you know that this time I've been appointed as the county magistrate of Guangwu, but I lack a county lieutenant to take charge of civil affairs. Are you interested?"

  "Chen Lin is naturally willing, but how can the adults explain it to Wang Dang?" Chen Lin hastily agreed, he wasn't particularly admiring of Li Chong, and his flattery was just a way to get Li Chong to save him from the tiger's mouth. But compared to Wang Dang, Chen Lin was more willing to do things for Li Chong, in his heart, Zhang Yan and others were still thieves, not officials.

  Li Zhongcai didn't care how he would settle accounts with Wang Dang, at worst they would have a fierce battle.

  Li Chong waved his hand, ordering everyone to stop in their tracks, and said to Wang Dang: "General Wang, Chen Kongzhang is an old acquaintance of mine, and he's also a government official. I don't know why you've detained him."

  Wang Dangleng sneered and said disdainfully, "Li Zihui, don't meddle in other people's business. Leave quickly, otherwise, don't blame Wang Dang for turning his face and not recognizing you."

  "Are you going back on your word?" Li Chong burst into a fit of mad laughter and suddenly shouted loudly: "Where is Taishi Ci?"

  Tai Shi Zi responded with a loud voice and rode his horse straight towards Wang Dang.

  Wang saw that Li Chong dared to make the first move and became furious, pointing his spear at Taishi Ci while calling on his men to charge forward.

  But during the Three Kingdoms period, the official road between the two counties was not wide, only about one zhang (about 3.3 meters), and Taishi Ci rode his horse in front, almost blocking the entire road.

  Only one or two soldiers could follow Wang Dang to besiege Taishi Ci together, the roads on both sides were about one meter deep in snow, and it was impossible to fight, let alone move by oneself.

  In the blink of an eye, Wang Dang and Taishi Ci clashed in a fierce battle. No matter how hard Wang Dang tried, he found himself no match for Taishi Ci's spear techniques, which rained down on him like a storm, almost covering the entire official road. All he could hear was the whizzing sound of air explosions around his ears.

  "Ah!" Wang shouted in surprise, holding his long spear in front of him and repeatedly parrying Tai Shi Ci's spear.

  Wang Dang could still withstand a few moves, but the soldiers beside him couldn't even block one spear. They couldn't see where Taishi Ci's steel spear was coming from, and even if they were lucky enough to touch his spear shaft, it was useless - they couldn't budge Taishi Ci's long spear. In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen soldiers had been stabbed by Taishi Ci.

  This is still too much mercy from Shi Cai's hand, otherwise there would be more than a dozen corpses on the ground.

  "Enough!" Taishi Ci suddenly shouted, like a thunderclap on a clear day, stunning Wang Dang and making his head spin. Taking advantage of the situation, Taishi Ci thrust his spear onto Wang Dang's shoulder, causing the iron armor to split in two with a loud "crack". Blood and flesh flew from Wang Dang's shoulder as he let out a pained cry and fell off his horse.

  Tai Shi Zi knew that Li Chong did not want to kill Wang Dang, and it was unwise to make an early enemy of Zhang Yan. He only scratched the skin of Wang Dang.

  Wang Dangda lay on the snowy ground and shouted loudly: "Taishi Ci, if you have the guts, kill Grandpa."

  Tai Shi Ci let out a cold laugh, his steel spear pierced into the snow beneath Wang Dang's body with a "chi" sound, and with a burst of strength, Wang Dang suddenly flew down towards the official road, still cursing in mid-air: "Grandpa... Ahh..."

  As soon as Wang dove head-first into the snow pit, several bodyguards immediately followed suit, jumping in like they were diving into water.

  "Are you going to let me through?" Taishi Ci's spear quivered, emitting a "whooshing" sound that broke the air, frightening the nearby enemy soldiers into involuntarily retreating several steps.

  "Let's go, Brother Kongzhao." Li Chong smiled and beckoned someone to bring over a war horse.

  "Thank you, Master Li, for saving me!" Chen Lin was also a clever person and knew what to say. She immediately showed her attitude and acknowledged Li Chong's identity.

  "Haha......" Li Chong burst out laughing.

  Seeing the commander-in-chief being wounded by Taishi Ci, these enemy soldiers looked at each other and didn't know who moved their feet first. The official road gradually opened up a path. Taishi Ci stood on horseback at the side of the road, personally cutting off the rear, waiting for the large army to pass before leaving behind 50 cavalrymen to block the road.

  After a while, Taishi Ci let out a loud laugh and led his fifty cavalrymen in a swift gallop away.

  After passing through Langmen County, continuing forward would lead to Jiuyuan within the borders of Xingxing Prefecture. Li Chong's troops also took this opportunity to rest and reorganize, as they had been camping in the icy snow for a long time, and the soldiers' bodies could no longer withstand it.

  Li Chong arranged for the soldiers to prepare dinner at the abandoned military camp in Jiuyuan, and also had someone go out to buy some strong wine to keep warm, only then did he have time to talk with Chen Lin.

  Before long, the soldiers bought back some strong wine. Li Chong invited Taishi Ci to join them as a companion and gave Chen Lin a drink to refresh himself after his journey.