122 Su Ming: Wenyuan, I am going to take you on a massive score.

"Put out the fire!"
"Quick, put out the fire!"

Chaos reigned within the Wuchao government office. The garrison soldiers, along with the maids and servants of the estate, were all scrambling to douse the flames. Upon leading a detachment of troops to the office, Lü Xiang immediately headed for the room where Chunyu Qiong stored his gold and treasures.

Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang were brothers and trusted confidants of Chunyu Qiong; they were the ones who usually supervised the moving of these riches into the vault. Thus, Lü Xiang knew exactly where the treasure was kept.

With fires breaking out all over Wuchao and the sounds of battle echoing everywhere, and with Chunyu Qiong missing and his brother Lü Kuang having been beheaded, Lü Xiang knew the situation was beyond saving. His only thought now was to seize the wealth Chunyu Qiong had plundered and make a swift escape.

As soon as he arrived at the office, he ordered his trusted men to extinguish the fires near the storehouses.

"Hey!"
"What is going on? Why is everything on fire?" Just as Lü Xiang was directing the fire-fighting efforts, a wave of alcohol fumes hit him, and someone patted him on the shoulder.

"Why are you standing there like a fool? Why aren't you helping put it out?" Lü Xiang waved his hand impatiently.

However, his voice trailed off mid-sentence. The man who had tapped his shoulder was none other than Chunyu Qiong.

Chunyu Qiong had been drunk and had gone to the latrine; Lü Kuang had been sleeping in his bed and had met his doom in his stead. Having narrowly escaped death, Chunyu Qiong had awakened to see flames everywhere. His head was spinning, and upon spotting Lü Xiang, he had patted his shoulder to ask what was happening.

"Gen... General, where are you going?"
"Wuchao is burning everywhere, the government office is engulfed in flames—it's over! Wuchao is finished!" Lü Xiang said with a grave expression.

Initially, Chunyu Qiong had been too intoxicated to grasp the gravity of the situation. But hearing this from Lü Xiang, the fear struck him, and seven-tenths of his drunkenness vanished, leaving only a faint haze.

"Disaster!"
"My lord entrusted Wuchao to me. Now that it has been burned and the grain supply destroyed, how could he possibly spare me?" Chunyu Qiong thought to himself.

Seeing Chunyu Qiong in this state, Lü Xiang offered a suggestion: "General, we still have the wealth."
"First, put out the fire and salvage the treasure. You have a good relationship with Master Xu You. Use this wealth to smooth things over, beg the high officials around the lord to intercede for you, and your death sentence might be averted."

"Once the death sentence is lifted, won't there still be opportunities to earn merit in the future? Things have come to this, but given your relationship with our lord, the situation is not yet beyond redemption."

Hearing this, Chunyu Qiong realized the logic. The vault was filled with gold and treasures. Once rescued, he could use them to bribe Xu You, Feng Ji, Shen Pei, and the others, then have them speak on his behalf. Yuan Shao was indecisive and easily swayed; if enough people pleaded for him, surely Yuan Shao would not execute him.

Even now, Chunyu Qiong was still pinning his hopes on Xu You. Little did he know that it was Xu You who had defected to Cao Cao and provided the map of Wuchao’s terrain, leading to this very downfall.

With his decision made, there was no more to be said; they focused on saving the gold and treasures.

By this time, the entire city of Wuchao was in utter disarray. Fires were spreading everywhere, and soldiers could not find their commanders, nor could commanders find their men. Everyone was fighting the fires on their own without any unified command. Near one of the wells, soldiers were even brawling over water.

If there had been a unified command, the fire might have been salvageable, as the invading enemy force numbered only about eight hundred men. But a cowardly general makes a cowardly army. Chunyu Qiong was a drunkard, and his officers and soldiers were all useless gluttons. The fire grew larger and larger; once the grain stores were fully ignited, fetching water became as futile as trying to put out a burning cart of firewood with a single cup of water.

Wuchao became a giant furnace. Seeing that the fire could not be extinguished and fearing they would all burn to death, the soldiers began to stampede toward the gates. The North, South, East, and West gates were jammed with fleeing men. They trampled over one another, and many were crushed to death in the chaos.

By daybreak, Wuchao was completely incinerated, and the surrounding area was filled with routed troops. No one could have imagined that before the Battle of Guandu had even truly begun, the first place to collapse would be Wuchao.

On a mountain path leading toward Ye City, outside of Wuchao, Su Ming was resting with his exhausted soldiers in a hidden ravine. Zhang Liao approached Su Ming and asked a question that had been bothering him for a long time.

They had gone the wrong way! According to the original plan, after torching Wuchao, they were supposed to return to Guandu. The route back to Guandu required exiting through the southern gate, but after setting the fires last night, Zhao Que had led them toward the northern gate instead.

"Young Master, did we take the wrong path?"
"To return to Guandu, we must circle around to the south, but we are heading north!" Zhang Liao reminded him.

"Heading north?"
"That's right, we are heading north!"
"Who told you I was going back to Guandu? We aren't going back!" Su Ming patted Zhang Liao on the shoulder.

Su Ming recognized Zhang Liao's ability and held the great general in high regard. He was already contemplating how to lure Zhang Liao away once Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao and unified the north. Cao Cao had plenty of fierce generals; losing one wouldn't matter. The key was that Su Ming would eventually need to fight Sun Quan, and Zhang Liao was a specialist in that field. With Gan Ning’s brilliance in naval warfare and Zhang Liao’s genius in land warfare, they would surely leave Sun Quan reeling.

Seeing Zhang Liao's bewildered expression, Su Ming stopped teasing him. He pulled a map from his robes and said, "Wenyuan, we aren't returning to Guandu yet. I’m taking you to pull off a much bigger deal."

As he spoke, Su Ming spread out the map. His finger pointed directly at Yuan Shao's base: Ye City!

Seeing Su Ming point to Ye City, Zhang Liao was stunned. He realized that the "big deal" Su Ming referred to was Ye City itself. It was precisely because he understood the implication that Zhang Liao was so shocked.

Ye City? How could he dare? They only had eight hundred men in total.