Three Kingdoms: I switched to Liu Bei, why are you crying, Cao Cao?

Chapter 81: A Dilemma, Zhou Yu Discusses the Situation

Sun Ce was a man of eight feet in height and had a heroic appearance. The people of Jiangdong called him the Little Overlord.

However, the title of Overlord was not given by Sun Ce himself, but was given by Xu Gong.

This was because Sun Ce was under Yuan Shu's command and fought in all directions. Later, he listened to the advice of Zhu Zhi and others, went south to establish his own regime, and then attacked and captured the counties in Jiangdong.

At that time, Xu Gong was the governor of Wujun. He was defeated by Sun Ce in a battle and defected to Yan Baihu.

Xu Gong held a grudge and submitted a memorial to the court, saying that Sun Ce was a brave and capable man, similar to Xiang Yu, and should be recruited to the court as an official, and should not be allowed to cause trouble outside.

Unexpectedly, before the memorial reached the court, it was intercepted by Sun Ce's officials, and the name became known.

Xu Gong was strangled to death by Sun Ce, but his reputation as a overlord gradually spread far and wide to Jiangdong as Sun Ce conquered the country.

Although Sun Ce was called the Little Overlord, he was not as stubborn as Xiang Yu. He was generous and good at using people.

Many of Sun Jian's former subordinates were convinced and even his brothers followed his lead and were willing to be under his command.

When Sun Ce received the news from the north, he had just captured Jundao City.

This was also the fourth city captured by Sun Ce when he entered Jiujiang.

Unlike Liu Bei who captured many cities easily, Sun Ce had to spend a lot of effort to capture four cities.

Because Sun Ce and Yuan Shu had already had a rift long before the war started.

Therefore, in order to guard against Sun Ce, Yuan Shu ordered the counties along the river to be prepared in advance.

Fortunately, Sun Ce had enough soldiers and Zhou Yu to offer advice, so he captured three cities in a row, but was blocked at Jundao City.

If Zhou Yu's strategy had been followed, Jundao would not have been so difficult to capture.

However, the county magistrate in the city was also a capable man. His name was Li Shu. He was originally from Runan and was quite courageous.

Knowing that Sun Ce was coming to attack and seeing that the city was difficult to defend, he recruited bandits from the surrounding areas to come and help.

Later, they heard that Sun Ce was heading north. The defenders in the city all thought that Sun Ce was going to attack the east city. Only Li Shu saw Sun Ce's march and knew that Sun Ce must be aiming at Hefei.

So they stationed many scouts outside the city in advance, waiting for Sun Ce to arrive.

Unexpectedly, the scout discovered Sun Ce's troops coming for a surprise attack.

Li Shu planned this and laid an ambush outside the city, defeating Sun Ce's vanguard and almost killing Xu Yi under the city of Jundao.

After being defeated, Xu Yi saw that the city was already well prepared, so he reported the matter to Sun Ce.

After Sun Ce received the letter, he was very surprised and summoned Zhou Yu to ask about it.

After hearing Zhou Yu's story, I realized that Li Shu was also a talented person.

Sun Ce himself was a person who admired talents, so he was determined to conquer Li Shu. He led his army to the city and challenged Li Shu repeatedly, but Li Shu refused to fight.

Sun Ce was furious when he saw this, and urged his soldiers to attack fiercely for several days and fight at night, but they were all defeated by Li Shu.

Seeing that his fierce attack was ineffective, Sun Ce naturally summoned all his ministers to discuss the matter.

Compared to Liu Bei who had no one available, Sun Ce had many talents on his side, including Zhang Hong, Qin Song, Chen Duan and others among his advisers.

Moreover, Zhou Yu was good at deploying troops, and seeing that Li Shu did not dare to leave the city, he said to Sun Ce:

"Li Shu is good at defending. If we attack by force, it may be difficult to defeat him."

"I see that most of his men are bandits and are not fit for any major task. Although Li Shu is capable of defending, he is only one man."

"We can use the strategy of tiring the enemy out. We should fight them day and night, and not allow them to rest. When they are exhausted, we can defeat them in one battle!"

Upon hearing this, Sun Ce acted according to the plan and divided his men into three shifts. They launched a feint attack every hour, with each shift lasting four hours!

This went on for several days, leaving the defenders in the city with almost no rest time.

Li Shu was also exhausted, so he ordered his men to take turns to defend the city and then went into the city to rest.

Who would have thought that the strategy of tiring the enemy was just the appearance of Zhou Yu's strategy, but his real calculation was to make the enemy look down upon him.

After a few days, the soldiers in the city had become accustomed to the repeated feint attacks, and they never imagined that Sun Ce would actually launch a full-scale attack at noon that day.

After one attack, it was easily captured by Sun Ce, and Li Shu was captured by Sun Ce while fleeing.

Because Sun Ce valued his talent and gave him kind advice, Li Shu felt grateful and joined Sun Ce's army.

Sun Ce was very happy as he captured the city and gained talented people in one fell swoop.

He ordered the troops to rest for three days before marching to Hefei.

Unexpectedly, a big problem occurred during this rest. First, a spy reported that Qin Yi, a general of Yuan Shu's army, led his troops into Hefei city.

News came from the north again, saying that Liu Bei had already taken control of the Huai River line, defeated Yuan Shu's army, and was approaching Shouchun.

After receiving this news, Sun Ce hurriedly called everyone to come and discuss the matter:

"When I was in Jiangdong, I heard of Liu Bei's name."

"But I've never heard of this person being so good at fighting!"

"How come we have already taken all the northern cities after such a short time of marching?"

When everyone heard this, they were naturally at a loss. Even Zhang Hong, who was from Xuzhou, was confused after hearing it.

Only Zhou Yu had just escaped from Yuan Shu and knew the details. He immediately said with a serious face:

"If you think Liu Bei is still the same as before, you will suffer in the future!"

"In my opinion, Liu Bei is no longer the same person he was before. He is a great enemy for our army to conquer Huainan!"

Compared to Sun Ce's heroic appearance, Zhou Yu's appearance is quite handsome, but not feminine. Instead, he is the typical sunny and handsome man.

When Sun Ce heard what his good brother said, he was stunned:
"What do you mean, Gongjin? How is Liu Bei different now?"

Seeing that he didn't know, Zhou Yu explained in detail:
"Brother, you are far away in Jiangdong and don't know what's happening in the Central Plains, but you should know someone. His surname is Qin, his name is Zhen, and he is Cao Cao's chief strategist!"

Hearing the name of Qin Zhen, not only Sun Ce, but even a group of counselors showed strange expressions.

Sun Ce not only knew about it, but also followed the trend and wanted to recruit him.

However, Qin Zhen disappeared without a trace afterwards, so they gave up.

Seeing Zhou Yu mention Qin Zhen's name, Sun Ce said in surprise:

"I naturally know Qin Zhen as my brother. I have heard that he is very talented, but what is his relationship with Liu Bei?"

Zhou Yu couldn't help laughing when he saw this, and pointed at Sun Ce and said:
"It's been only two years since we last met, and you've become so slow!"

"I said that Liu Bei is no longer the same as he was before, and I mentioned Qin Zhen's name, but you still don't know why?"

He and Sun Ce had been good friends since childhood and had a very good relationship. Sun Ce did not take such an action seriously. He just listened to his words and suddenly reacted, staring and said:
"My dear brother, do you mean that Qin Zhen has already joined Liu Bei's army?"

Everyone was also surprised when they heard this. You must know that when Qin Zhen left, all the great princes recruited him, and then he disappeared. They thought he might have been killed by Cao Cao.

I didn't expect that I would serve under Liu Bei!
It was not the two Yuans, not Lu Bu, or even other great princes, but an ordinary Liu Bei who had no place to stand!

Zhang Hong was quite friendly with Zhou Yu, and he could not help but wonder:

"What evidence do you have for what Gongjin said?"

But when Zhou Yu heard this, he looked very confident;
"Why do we need evidence? Judging from the way Liu Bei's army acted, it was undoubtedly Qin Zixuan's plan!"

As he spoke, he informed everyone of the information he knew.

Among them naturally are the various actions taken by Qin Zhen after he joined Liu Bei's army.

Finally, he looked around at everyone and said:

"Speaking of which, Qin Zixuan's plan was really amazing. He trapped Yuan Shu, Lu Bu, and even Cao Cao in just a few moves."

"But even though his plan is amazing, it can't be hidden from outsiders like us!"

At this point, he said to Sun Ce:
"If you don't believe me, you can go find out Wang He's family background. It must be Qin Zhen!"

"Liu Bei already has soldiers and generals under his command, and now he has Qin Zhen's assistance, which is beyond what he could have done before."

Zhou Yu said this, but people had different reactions.

After all, now they want to take Huainan, and Liu Bei has Qin Zhen's assistance, which is not good news for them.

To put it simply, they had just finally captured four cities, but Liu Bei had already broken through the barriers and reached the city of Shouchun.

If Shouchun is captured by Liu Bei again, the next step will naturally be Hefei!
There is no doubt that they will confront Liu Bei directly sooner or later!
Thinking of this, Zhang Hong bowed to Sun Ce and said:

"My lord, I have heard that Qin Zhen is good at planning big things. If he is really under Liu Bei's command, our army may not be able to accomplish anything."

"In addition, with the reinforcements in Hefei now, it will be difficult for our army to capture this city easily. It would be better for us to go north to Shouchun first to test the intentions of Liu Bei's army. We can first take Shouchun with Liu Bei and then think about how to capture Hefei!"

Zhang Hong is currently serving as the lieutenant commander under Sun Ce and also serves as a military officer.

Together with Zhang Zhao, he is known as the "Two Zhangs of Jiangdong". He is quite good at strategy and has always been valued by Sun Ce.

So when Sun Ce heard Zhang Hong's words, his eyes furrowed and he looked at everyone and said:

"What do you think of what Mr. Zhang said?"

When Qin Song and Chen Duan saw each other, they both bowed and said:

"I'll wait for the second opinion!"

Only Zhou Yu seemed to be in deep thought and did not speak.

Upon seeing this, Sun Ce asked Zhou Yu:
"Why is Gongjin like this? Don't you agree to go north?"

Zhou Yu heard this and shook his head:
"No, Mr. Zhang's words are those of a mature and prudent person. I have no objection to them."

"I was just thinking about something, so I didn't say anything!"

Without waiting for Sun Ce to ask, he spoke directly:

"Because I have seen that Qin Zhen's various plans are all planned before taking action."

"The fact that Liu Bei was able to successfully capture the counties this time shows his ability to plan!"

"Since this man is so good at planning, why doesn't he have a plan to seize Shouchun?"

"Originally, four families received the imperial edict to attack Yuan Shu. Liu Bei was the closest, but he was the last to send troops. This shows that Liu Bei's army had already decided on the strategy before they came."

"With Qin Zhen's wisdom, he would have considered the situation of our army heading north. Since he has considered it, he naturally has a way to deal with it."

"Under such circumstances, our army's march north may not be successful!"

Everyone was a wise man, so they naturally understood the deep meaning in Zhou Yu's words.

Theoretically, they should go north now to test Liu Bei's attitude and see if they can stop Liu Bei from taking Hefei. Otherwise, after Liu Bei takes Shouchun, he may compete with them for Hefei.

But in fact, since Qin Zhen had already formulated a strategy for Liu Bei, would he have taken them into account?
Could it be that they are heading north now, just falling into Qin Zhen's trap?

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone frowned again and began to think hard.

This is a dilemma, and the key lies in Qin Zhen!
After thinking for a while, Sun Ce looked suspicious and said:

"Gongjin, is Qin Zhen really as powerful as the rumors say?"

Zhou Yu heard this and sighed:
"In fact, I also had doubts before, wondering if this person was praised too much."

"But after seeing this man plotting against Yuan Shu and Lu Bu, I dare to assert that this man's ability to scheme is extremely amazing!"

"Moreover, this person's calculations have always been untraceable, making it difficult to figure out what he is thinking."

"This is also the reason why I suggest that you take Hefei first. Although Qin Zhen can plan, he cannot control our military strategy. As long as our army follows its own strategy, we will not fall into his trap."

"It's just that I miscalculated one thing. I didn't expect Liu Bei to reach Shouchun so quickly."

Different from his image in the novel, Zhou Yu is not only handsome but also quite humble. He is far from being a petty person.

Seeing that there was a problem with his strategy, he said to Sun Ce:
"The current situation is all my fault. If I had known this earlier, I would have headed north to join the army!"

"This way, Liu Bei won't be able to take control of the situation and put our army in a passive position!"

But as soon as he finished speaking, Sun Ce patted him on the back and said with a smile:
"It's been a long time since we last met. Why is Gongjin acting like such a little girl?"

"Although you offered advice, it was for my brother. If it succeeds, it's your credit. If it fails, it's because my brother didn't implement it well. It has nothing to do with you!"

"Don't tell me about my merits and demerits. Let me ask you, given the current situation, what should our army do?"

"If you can't, I will lead the army north. I want to meet Liu Bei and Lu Bu!"

Listening to Sun Ce's words, Zhou Yu was also moved.

This is his good brother Sun Ce, who has a broad mind and is far more broad-minded than Yuan Shu and his ilk!

He thought about this for a while, then said to Sun Ce:

"If our army wants to break through the current situation, the key is still in Hefei."

"If you really want to go north, I have a plan. Maybe we can take advantage of the situation to seize Hefei and resolve the current situation!"

Upon hearing this, Sun Ce hurriedly asked:

"What's Gongjin's plan?"

As soon as he asked, Zhou Yu said:

"Our army can follow the strategy of attacking Guo through a false route, openly attacking Shouchun but actually taking Hefei!"

(End of this chapter)