Although he had decided to assassinate Liu Chong and Luo Jun, the prefect of Yingchuan, Li Su, now the prefect of Yingchuan, was aggressive and launched a small-scale harassment against Yuan Shu, which made Yuan Shu very painful. He had no choice but to order the withdrawal of troops and retreat to Runan in order to make progress in the future.

Not long after he arrived in Runan, Yuan Shu heard about Ji Ling's defeat. Seeing that Ji Ling's 80,000 army was now only less than 20,000, he was furious because in this way, his army of more than 100,000 troops were now only 50,000 or 60,000. Even if the army guarding Runan was added, the total number was only more than 80,000, and the total number of troops was reduced by nearly half, which could be said to be a huge loss for him.

What is even more depressing is that the current Runan County is under the attack of Pei Qing's Yingchuan, Nanyang and Pei Kingdom, Liu Biao's Jiangxia and Liu Chong's Chen Kingdom. Even Pei Qing can send troops from three sides to sneak attack Runan, which makes him unable to defend himself. Therefore, the most urgent task now is to dismantle the power of Chen Kingdom. As long as he occupys Chen Kingdom, he can use this to cut Pei Qing's power into two pieces, so that he cannot take care of each other, and can also threaten Yingchuan, Chenliu and other places at any time to realize his strategic intention of spanning the two prefectures of Yan and Yu.

No matter from which perspective, Liu Chong and Luo Jun must die.

Things went unexpectedly smoothly, because Yuan Shu took the initiative to retreat, and Liu Chong was not prepared at all. That night, an assassin sneaked into Liu Chong's mansion and successfully assassinated him.

Although Liu Chong is very skilled in martial arts, he is not young after all. In addition, he hastily and has no reaction at all. He was stabbed by an assassin. Because he lost too much blood and could not be rescued, he died that night.

However, Luo Jun escaped by chance. On the same day, because he went to Qiao County to congratulate Pei Qing on becoming the governor of Yuzhou, Pei Qing was left in the mansion for having a banquet, so he did not go back. Before he set off the next morning, he saw his personal soldiers coming and told him the news that Liu Chong was assassinated last night.

Luo Jun was shocked when he heard this. He hurriedly asked about the situation of Chen State. Only then did he learn that because Liu Chong had no son and he happened to be not here. Many people were in scattered and fled in all directions because of Liu Chong's death. In just one night, the number of troops was sharply reduced by half.

Luo Jun remembered that he had refused to provide food and supplies for Yuan Shu before, and immediately concluded that the person who killed Liu Chong must be Yuan Shu.

So Luo Jun bowed to the place where Liu Chong was and cried loudly: "King, this time it was because of the officials. The one who died should have died was the officials, because the one who rejected Yuan Shu was the officials. It's a pity that the officials were poor in their abilities and could not avenge you, the king!"

Pei Qing, who came to hear the news, was also shocked. After hearing the news that Liu Chong was stabbed, he sighed and said softly: "Although Uncle Chen is relatively shallow, the old man is warm-hearted and sucks like a spring breeze. He never expected that he would die in the hands of the assassin who died of Yuan Shu. This is really a pity. Yuan Shu thief killed the vassal king because of his personal anger. It is really hateful!"

After hearing this, Luo Jun was even more sad. He immediately fell to the ground and said to Pei Qing: "I beg the envoy to avenge King Chen. The emperor is willing to leverage the power of the State of Chen and let the envoy send him."

Pei Qing hurriedly helped Luo Jun up and said seriously: "There is no need to be polite to Xiaoyuan. King Chen is my Han family. How can I sit still? At present, Chen State has no leader. The most important thing for you is to return to Chen State to appease the soldiers in the army and guard against Yuan Shu's attack. I will send troops to attack his Runan to support him."

However, Luo Jun shook his head and said, "Although the lower officials can govern the people, they still have shortcomings in military strategy. With the lower officials, they cannot resist Yuan Shu's attack at all. Moreover, Yuan Shu has been in Runan for many years. The envoy has not yet been rectified in Yuzhou, and hastily sent troops. Perhaps it is not good. The envoy thought that the envoy would rather lead the army directly into Chen State to help us resist Yuan Shu's attack. In this way, all the people would be grateful to the envoy's kindness."

"But just as King Chen went there, I led my army into Chen State. Yu Li was really disagreeable..."

Pei Qing certainly knew that this was the best time to enter Chen State, but Chen Wang had just died, and Chen Wang had great prestige in Chen State. If Pei Qing went in like this, he would definitely be boycotted by the people and criticized by the government and the people, so he was a little hesitant.

But Luo Jun smiled bitterly and said, "King Chen has no son. According to the system of the Han Dynasty, Chen Wangxian will be eliminated. It will take not many days to become Chen County. What's more, even Chen State is your ruler. You led your troops to protect our Chen State's military and civilians. The military and civilians are too grateful to them, so who will criticize them? Besides, you are a royal relative today, so you should go to the old King Chen to pay tribute."

After hearing Luo Jun's words, Pei Qing immediately understood the other party's attitude. It can be seen that Luo Jun really hopes that he can come to Chen State to take charge of the overall situation.

So Pei Qing no longer refuses, but says solemnly: "Since that's the case, I will lead two soldiers from the personal barracks to Chen State. On the one hand, I am pacifying the military and civilians, and on the other hand, I am also trying to help Chen State defend Yuan Shu. At the same time, I should indeed go and pay tribute to him, King Chen."

Pei Qing then ordered Fan Lin and Xu Chu to escort Luo Jun to Chen State with him. The accompanying staff also included Yin Zhongkan and Xie Yizhen, who had a family background and prestigiousness in Chen State, so that they could do their best to appease the local gentry and people. In order to show sincerity, Pei Qing also went there to wear mourning clothes and carry the etiquette of the future generations.

In fact, it is reasonable to wear filial piety clothes from today to Liu Chong. Although Pei Qing is actually just an outsider, he now represents Liu Ning, which is certainly reasonable.

When Pei Qing led his army into the territory of Chen, military and civilians could be seen running around everywhere. Some of these panicked military and civilians ran to the neighboring Liang State, and some ran to Qiao County. Of course, some of them ran to Yingchuan, but not many of them ran to Runan, because they all knew that Yuan Shu was cruel and had always been a fishing people. When they went there, they also caused trouble for themselves.

After seeing these military and civilians, Luo Jun naturally comforted them one by one, and at the same time asked them about the news that it was said that Yuan Shu's army had reached the border of Runan, less than a hundred miles away from Chen County.

After hearing the news, Pei Qing and the others immediately rushed to Chen County with all their might. Although it was already night, they did not dare to stop at all. They marched overnight and finally entered Chen County before Yuan Shu.
Chapter completed!