Ignoring the advice of Cao Wang and Cao Feng, Cao Qiang insisted on leading his men to tear Cao Changyu to pieces.
Cao Wang and Cao Feng were unable to stop him, after all, Cao Qiang had already made his appearance, and many people still supported him.
In particular, Cao Qiang's original guards and private army commanders were even more obedient to him.
Cao Changyu, a son of a concubine, dared to commit treason and attempt to kill the young master. How could we tolerate this?
Therefore, Cao Qiang led five thousand elite private soldiers directly to the south gate.
Now Cao Changyu only has three thousand elite troops under his command.
The rest were all civilians recruited temporarily. Cao Qiang's 5,000 elite troops had a good chance of defeating Cao Changyu's 3,000.
The civilians who were temporarily recruited were so frightened by Cao Qiang's display that those who could run away did so, while those who could not either surrendered or hid.
Few people would risk their lives for a personal grudge between them.
When Cao Changyu's men saw that these common people were disobedient, they killed several of them in an attempt to intimidate them.
But the people, who had been suppressed for so long, suddenly erupted in anger.
Those who could run ran even faster.
Some, seeing that they had no way to run or hide, even turned their guns on Cao Changyu's men.
Despite having fewer men than Cao Qiang, Cao Changyu held a superior position and fought for over an hour. Cao Qiang gained no advantage and suffered several hundred casualties.
At this time, Cao He frequently sent men to rob and set fires, which made Cao Qiang's private soldiers even busier.
Finally, Cao Qiang withdrew his troops after repeated persuasion from Cao Wang and Cao Feng.
Cao Changyu sat there with a slight frown.
Cao Qiang's return disrupted all his plans.
Regardless, even if he sided with Cao Qiang, given Cao Qiang's personality, he would eventually take action against him.
However, if he continues to stalemate with Cao Qiang, he will not gain any benefit. In fact, when he and Cao Qiang are both severely injured, Cao He and others will definitely take advantage of the situation.
They killed him and Cao Qiang.
Does Cao Qiang not understand this principle, and do his people not understand it either?
Cao Wang and Cao Feng understood.
Unfortunately, Cao Qiang wouldn't listen, and not only Cao Qiang, but Wei Donglai, the commander of the private army, also wouldn't listen.
Wei Donglai and Cao Changyu had a grudge, mainly because Wei Donglai had advised Cao Ying not to spoil Cao Changyu so much.
Cao Changyu did a lot of things to sow discord between Cao Ying and Cao Ying.
On one occasion, Cao Ying almost replaced Wei Donglai as the commander of his private army.
Their private army wasn't under a single commander; Wei Donglai was one of them, but they were all under the management of the head of the household.
Moreover, Wei Donglai also discovered that Cao Changyu was contacting other private army commanders.
This immediately caught Wei Donglai's attention, and he spoke to Cao Ying about it privately once.
To everyone's surprise, Cao Ying smiled and said, "Changyu likes martial arts, which is why he associates with those people. Don't worry too much. The private army will always belong to A-Qiang."
When Wei Donglai brought it up with Cao Ying again, Cao Ying became unhappy and almost fell out with Wei Donglai.
From then on, Wei Donglai could only act cautiously and dared not mention it again.
Cao Changyu had not been in control of the Cao family for long, so he did not dare to directly touch Wei Donglai.
Wei Donglai was overjoyed at Cao Qiang's return. He could never belong to Cao Changyu; given their past grievances, Cao Changyu would deal with him sooner or later.
Now that there is an opportunity to eliminate Cao Changyu, how could Wei Donglai miss it?
Besides Wei Donglai, two other commanders also supported Cao Qiang.
Those two commanders were actually Cao Qiang's men; they were Cao Ying's private soldiers given to Cao Qiang in advance.
During Cao Changyu's rule, they feigned submission until Cao Qiang returned, at which point their hearts were at ease.
Of course, they did whatever Cao Qiang said.
The other commanders who wanted to object dared not voice their opposition, seeing how strong Cao Qiang's desire to fight was.
The fate of the family head, Cao Ying, is unknown, so Cao Qiang is the rightful heir, and of course, we must obey Cao Qiang's orders.
Seeing that they couldn't stop him, Cao Wang and Cao Feng could only sigh and offer Cao Qiang some advice.
Even if we were to fight, we couldn't just charge in recklessly like we did today, allowing Cao Changyu to take advantage of the terrain and cause them to suffer a loss.
"Young Master, Cao Changyu still has a lot of civilians in his hands. Even if these civilians try to run away when a fight breaks out, they will eventually cause turmoil for us."
Therefore, we should also recruit some ordinary people to work for us.
There are not many ordinary people in the city who have not yet been completely harmed.
Cao Wang wanted to gather these people together and then fight against Cao Changyu.
Cao Qiang agreed.
Cao Qiang was not worried about not having enough food. His father, Cao Ying, had prepared a lot of food, which was in the hands of the steward, Cao Feng.
These provisions were sufficient for his army.
Cao Changyu was different; he didn't have much food or fodder, as the steward hadn't provided him with much before.
Cao Changyu's troops could only hold out for four or five days at most before they could not continue due to a shortage of wolf grass.
Cannibalism is only a temporary solution to the immediate crisis, and if too many people are eaten, the people will be even more likely to rise up in resistance.
Cao Wang offered Cao Qiang some advice: "Young Master, if we want to attack Cao Changyu, we must act quickly. Otherwise, Cao Changyu might defect to Cao He and his group."
"What?" Cao Qiang shouted before Cao Wang could finish speaking, "If that's the case, then we should continue fighting now."
Cao Wang smiled bitterly. If he had a choice, he wouldn't have chosen Cao Qiang.
If the main family had another legitimate son, and he was stronger than Cao Qiang, he would want to assist the other legitimate son.
But what can you do when the main family only has one legitimate son?
"Young Master, if we go to fight now, it will be the same as before. We might even suffer losses. We should think it over more carefully."
"You always tell me to take things long-term, but by the time you've finished planning, Cao Changyu will be defecting to Cao He."
Cao Qiang was impatient with these rambling scholars.
Although Cao Wang was also skilled in martial arts, in Cao Qiang's eyes, Cao Wang was just a scholar who was always indecisive and slow in doing things.
Cao Wang had no choice but to patiently explain: "Young Master, firstly, I have already sent people to recruit the people within our jurisdiction."
Cao Qiang nodded reluctantly, agreeing with this point.
However, it is also known that most of the so-called recruitment is forced.
"Secondly, we need to consider the current situation. We can't just look at what's inside the city. Tao Feng outside the city is an even more powerful force."
Cao Qiang said angrily, "How can we resist external enemies if we don't eliminate internal enemies?"
"Young Master, Tao Feng could be an enemy or an ally!"
Cao Qiang was taken aback: "The Cao family and Tao Feng are hostile forces. How could they be allies?"
Cao Wang continued his analysis: "Nowadays, where are there eternal enemies and eternal friends? Of course, we can't really be on Tao Feng's side either, after all, we have our own positions to consider."
However, sometimes, Tao Feng can be used to inflict heavy losses on Cao Changyu's troops.
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