Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Among the deserters, most were the Yanzhou soldiers who had been newly added to Sun Jian's army after he lost a significant portion of his forces at Hulao Pass.

Normally, Sun Jian would have done everything possible to rectify military discipline, pursuing and capturing deserters one by one to execute them according to military law, as a warning to the remaining soldiers.

However, at this moment, Sun Jian no longer had the spare energy to concern himself with deserters, and could only watch helplessly as the trend of desertion intensified, with even some of his direct line of Changsha soldiers beginning to desert.

After days of continuous forced marches, and having abandoned much of their supplies, the army's resources had begun to become strained, with even meals being reduced from the original two per day to just one.

Under such circumstances, how could he prevent resentment from growing among his soldiers?

However, Sun Jian, possessing the Imperial Jade Seal, dared not stop to reorganize his troops, or even enter the county towns along the way to collect food.

Having completely fallen out with Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, Sun Jian had to escape from the Central Plains as quickly as possible and return to Changsha, which he had been developing for some time.

Moreover, during the forced march along the way, the scouts Sun Jian sent out to investigate the surrounding areas repeatedly discovered the movements of spies nearby, and not just from one faction, but from multiple.

How could this not keep Sun Jian's nerves on edge, fearing that if his marching speed slowed even slightly, he might be caught up by unknown pursuers behind him?

Even now that he had reached the territory of Jing Province, Sun Jian still dared not relax in the slightest, hoping to cross the Yangtze River and reach Changsha as soon as possible.

'As long as I return to Changsha...'

'With the Imperial Jade Seal in my possession, the moral high ground will be in my hands, and I will be the one destined by Heaven, with countless people responding and flocking to me.'

'At that time, I will first divide Jing Province and rule across the river, seizing the four commanderies of Jingnan, and then seize the opportunity to attack Yangzhou. With the Sun family's prestige among the Jiangdong aristocratic families and the Imperial Jade Seal in hand, I will surely be able to dominate Jiangdong...'

Sun Jian could only constantly construct the blueprint in his mind to alleviate his physical fatigue and mental anxiety, while he sat on his warhorse and continued to advance with the army.

As for the slight loss of troops at the moment, in Sun Jian's view, it was nothing more than a negligible price to pay.

It was not until Sun Jian, who had been lost in thought all the way, came back to his senses that he suddenly realized he had arrived at Mount Xian.

(PS: This Mount Xian is not the current Xianzhen Town. The current Xianzhen Town is located within Changsha, while Mount Xian during the Eastern Han Dynasty was near Xiangyang.)

This made Sun Jian overjoyed, knowing that reaching Mount Xian also meant leaving Nanyang Commandery, and that he would only need to cross Nan Commandery to reach Changsha.

This place was not far from Xiangyang, where the Jing Province's administrative center was located, and Liu Biao, the governor of Jing Province who was nominally Sun Jian's superior, was also in Xiangyang City not far away.

However, Sun Jian had no intention of going to pay his respects, but instead ordered the army to continue to speed up their march, to avoid being intercepted by the observant Liu Biao, which would only create more complications.

Another order to speed up the march...

For this order, Sun Jian's soldiers undoubtedly harbored resentment, and since leaving Sili, they had heard such orders almost every day.

In response, the almost numb soldiers did not react in any way, but continued to move forward wearily.

As Sun Jian continued to delve deeper into Mount Xian, and estimated that he would soon be able to leave Mount Xian.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Suddenly, countless archers emerged from the dense forests on the left and right sides of Mount Xian, and a large number of arrows rained down on Sun Jian's direction.

Sun Jian suddenly came back to his senses, and his rich battlefield experience made him almost subconsciously shout loudly.

"Form ranks! Form ranks to defend against the enemy, shieldbearers raise your shields to maintain formation, and retreat slowly..."

This was also the optimal solution when facing an ambush.

In fact, the reason why ambushes can often achieve great victories with the weak overcoming the strong is not only because they occupy a favorable terrain first, but more importantly, the sudden attack causes great psychological pressure on the soldiers of the attacked party.

This psychological pressure is no less than when walking on a night road and entering a dark alley, when suddenly a woman in red with disheveled hair and an unclear face rushes towards you.

In this case, even if you are a sports student, and the other party is actually just a prank by a young girl, how many people's first reaction is to fight back instead of running away?

The relationship between the ambusher and the ambushed is exactly like this!

For the bottom-level soldiers, the first feeling is that there are an unknown number of enemies appearing from all directions, and they will subconsciously produce serious chaos.

And as long as the formation is chaotic, in cold weapon warfare, it is almost equivalent to giving away for free.

What's more, what morale does Sun Jian's current army have?

Amidst Sun Jian's repeated shouts, many soldiers not only did not quickly calm down and form ranks to defend against the enemy, but instead ran away like headless flies.

Sun Jian looked at this scene, almost angered to the point of having smoke coming out of his seven orifices.

"Fools! A bunch of fools!!!"

If they could quickly form ranks to defend against the enemy, perhaps there would still be a glimmer of hope.

But now that the formation is completely chaotic, with everyone running away, they are just lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

"Lord, Lord, retreat quickly!!"

At this moment, Zu Mao and Huang Gai, who were originally escorting the supplies in the rear, rushed towards Sun Jian's direction at a rapid pace, saying.

"They are Jing Province soldiers!"

Now that Sun Jian was in the center of Mount Xian, with dense forests on the left and right sides, it was difficult to identify the identities of the attacking soldiers for a while.

However, the supplies had just entered Mount Xian, and the attack on the supplies was launched almost simultaneously, which allowed Zu Mao and Huang Gai to clearly see the identity characteristics of the ambushing soldiers.

It was just that Sun Jian's keenness in military affairs, even without Zu Mao and Huang Gai's reminder, understood that the only one who could mobilize troops to attack in an area extremely close to Xiangyang was Liu Biao, the governor of Jing Province.

The current formation was in chaos, and the supplies had also been seized by others, which made Sun Jian, who had always been fierce in nature, completely extinguish his thoughts of counterattack, and could not help but loudly curse.

"Liu Jingsheng, I, Sun Jian, will definitely avenge this sooner or later!!!"

However, it would have been better if Sun Jian had not shouted.

This shout, however, instantly confirmed the location of Sun Jian himself to Huang Zu, who was leading the troops to ambush here.

Immediately, at Huang Zu's order, the confidants on the left and right sides all drew their bows and nocked their arrows, and directly shot a large number of arrows in the direction of Sun Jian.

Sun Jian's face changed slightly when he saw this, and he no longer cared about cursing, and quickly turned his warhorse, while using the ancient fixed knife in his hand to deflect the arrows, while decisively abandoning his soldiers.

Then, under the protection of Zu Mao and Huang Gai, he broke through in the direction outside Mount Xian.

Cheng Pu and Han Dang, who were originally clearing the way in front of the army, also quickly broke away, and then converged towards Sun Jian's direction to protect Sun Jian and break out of the encirclement.

A continuous stream of arrows came towards Sun Jian and others, but with the protection of the four great generals and a group of personal guards, Sun Jian was not harmed in the slightest.

However, seeing that they were about to leave the Mount Xian area, Sun Jian, who had always been accustomed to taking the lead, almost subconsciously sped up.

But at this moment, the ground under Sun Jian's warhorse suddenly became empty, and Sun Jian and his warhorse directly fell into a pre-dug pit.

Zu Mao, Huang Gai, and others, who were four or five steps away from Sun Jian, almost subconsciously leaped high or quickly bypassed from the side, thus avoiding the fate of falling in as well.

However, before Zu Mao, Huang Gai, and others could quickly rein in their warhorses and then rescue Sun Jian from the pit.

Another wave of arrows was thrown high and shot, and the target was directly aimed at the pit where Sun Jian had fallen.