Chapter 222: Jiangdong Movement, Zhou Yu's Army Arrives Just as Qin Zhen worried, Jiangdong had actually already sent troops. The development of the matter can be traced back to the Battle of Lujiang on that day. However, in March, Qin Zhen led his troops to annihilate the forces of Chen Ce, Liu Xun and others, and with the cooperation of Lu Su, captured Liu Xun's navy. But under Zhou Yu's plan, this navy was blocked in Chaohu Lake, and some of Liu Xun's naval ships were also captured by Sun Ce. After Sun Ce's victory, he prepared to destroy Taishi Ci, Zu Lang and other troops. As a result, before he could take action, Taishi Ci followed Qin Zhen's order and marched south to Yuzhang. As a result, Sun Ce had no choice but to stop fighting and return to Wujun with his troops. After resting for more than a month, a spy came to report that Liu Bei had sent troops north to destroy Yuan Shu. After hearing the news, Sun Ce was shocked. He also heard that Liu Chong was assassinated, so he summoned all his officials to discuss: "Now I heard that Liu Bei and Liu Chong were on good terms, but unexpectedly Liu Chong was assassinated by Yuan Shu."

"Now that Liu Bei's forces are so strong, if he takes over Chen State, how can our army resist him?" After hearing what Sun Ce said, all the ministers began to talk about it. They did not expect that there would be so many things happening in the world in the past two years, and they were simply overwhelmed to deal with them all. But after thinking for a while, Chen Duan advised Sun Ce: "The current situation in Chen State is probably part of Liu Bei's plan. I heard that Qin Zhen is good at assassination and other things." "It is unknown whether Qin Zhen was the mastermind behind this. If our army wants to fight Liu Bei now, we should launch a surprise attack on Jiujiang and force him to retreat. We should not treat him as if he is going to seize the State of Chen!" Sun Ce thought about the feasibility for a while, but before he made a decision, Zhang Hong stepped out and said: "My Lord, Zizheng's proposal is not acceptable. Our army has been fighting for several months without any rest." "Even if Liu Bei went north, he didn't use many troops." "Now the borders of Lujiang and Jiujiang are heavily guarded, and the defense has never been relaxed. Even if our army launches a surprise attack, it will be of little use!" Hearing this, Sun Ce hesitated for a moment. To be honest, his troops had hardly rested since June last year. They have been at war almost all the time, and most of their food and fodder have been consumed. Although they can now collect some money from commercial taxes, they are still seriously outspending. What Zhang Hong said was what he was thinking in his heart. Even if they had the chance, it would be difficult for them to go north. But seeing that Liu Bei was about to be entangled in the war in the Central Plains, he could only watch Liu Bei grow stronger, and felt a little resentful in his heart. After thinking for a while, he looked at Zhou Yu and asked for his opinion. After hearing this, Zhou Yu directly said to Sun Ce: "The threat to our army now is not from outside, but from within. We should take this opportunity to march south as quickly as possible and wipe out the bandits in the south!" "Then train the navy as soon as possible to prevent Liu Bei from heading south this autumn!" When he said this, everyone was shocked, thinking that although their soldiers were tired, Liu Bei was not much better! Since June last year, we have been fighting wars in the south and the north. Now we are heading north to the Central Plains. How can we have the energy to go south? Sun Ce immediately looked at Zhou Yu with a smile on his face and said: "Could it be that Gongjin was frightened by Qin Zhen? Although this man has the ability to govern the country and the people, he cannot ignore the people's livelihood!" "Huainan is already in ruins, and Liu Bei's troops are exhausted from fighting in the south and the north. How can they go south?" After hearing this, Zhou Yu shook his head solemnly and said: "Brother, you only know that Liu Bei is heading north, but you don't know that Liu Bei is different from our army. His troops don't fight continuously, but in rotation!" "Back in Shouchun, his army was divided into three groups: Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Xu Shu!"

"When attacking Shouchun, Liu Bei's troops were used, and when attacking Huainan, Guan Yu's troops were used." "Now when we go north to the Central Plains, we will probably use the troops of Guan Yu, Xu Shu, etc." "So, Liu Bei's main force has not made any moves since the attack on Lujiang." "Until today, we have rested for more than two months. By autumn, we will be able to rest for half a year!" "You fight once every six months, how can you say you are tired? Besides, Qin Zhen is not an ordinary person. Now that his navy is being controlled by our army, how can he just sit there and do nothing?" "They are retreating, they must be waiting for an opportunity, either to relax our army or to wait for external aid. Sooner or later they will march south!" "Now that our army is so exhausted, it is the best time for Liu Bei to march south!" "Even if there is a food shortage this autumn, Qin Zhen will most likely urge Liu Bei to go south!" "If our army does not prepare now, how can we resist Liu Bei when he marches south?" "Therefore, I have concluded that the battle in the Central Plains will not last too long. Liu Bei will definitely return quickly and prepare to march south to Jiangdong!" Zhou Yu was one of the few talents under Sun Ce who had a global strategic perspective. Others just watched Qin Zhen assist Liu Bei in his battles. But he has been paying attention to Qin Zhen's troop mobilization information and other arrangements. When he learned that Qin Zhen only allowed Liu Bei to lead a few thousand soldiers and horses north, he realized what Qin Zhen was thinking! This was obviously not simply thinking that a few thousand soldiers could solve the problems of the State of Chen, but was preparation for future events. After all, the State of Chen borders Cao Cao, so too many soldiers and horses are never too much. Qin Zhen was willing to bear the pressure from Cao Cao and insisted on leading only a few thousand soldiers and horses north, which shows that in Qin Zhen's mind, there was some strategy that was more important than the State of Chen! Looking at a series of military deployments, he was almost certain that Qin Zhen was preparing to attack Jiangdong. If they relax at this time, they will suffer a great loss when Liu Bei goes south! Everyone stopped talking after hearing Zhou Yu's words, except Sun Ce, who frowned and said: "If it seems to be what Gongjin said, then why don't our army stop fighting immediately, recuperate, and continue to march south to eliminate the bandits?" In fact, after Yan Baihu surrendered, the chaos in Jiangdong was largely resolved. Only a small number of Shanyue chiefs and bandits gathered on the hilltops and scattered everywhere. If Liu Bei wanted to go south, they shouldn't go south now. Otherwise, if they continued fighting, by the time Liu Bei went south, their troops would be in an extremely exhausted state. But when Zhou Yu heard this, he firmly bowed and said: "If we don't get rid of internal strife, we can't resist external aggression. Qin Zhen is a very capable person. When he goes south in the future, he will definitely instigate rebellion among our troops!" "If we don't put an end to the chaos now, there will be endless troubles in the future, and we will lose sight of the big picture." "So even though our army is exhausted now, we must wipe out all the chaos with lightning speed so that we can deal with the war this autumn!" After hearing this, Sun Ce no longer hesitated and decided to march south again. With the help of the navy, he first boarded a ship from Lou County and went straight to Kuaiji. He successively defeated more than ten bandit rebels in various places, and Kuaiji was thus secured. In order to completely quell the chaos in the rear, after Sun Ce pacified Kuaiji, he followed Zhou Yu's lead and led his troops into the heart of Shanyue. The battle lasted for more than a month, and dozens of Shanyue chieftains were defeated, tens of thousands of Shanyue people were killed, and countless money, food and slaves were captured.

It was not until early June that news came from the north that Liu Bei and Cao Cao had reached a truce. After hearing this, Sun Ce felt a wave of fear, thinking that it was a good thing that he did not take the opportunity to go north, otherwise once the main force was held back by Liu Bei, the war would have been endless! Seeing that Zhou Yu had successfully predicted the war between the two parties, he asked Zhou Yu again: "Gongjin, now that we have quelled the chaos in the rear, I don't think you Shanyue will dare to rebel again in the short term!" "Since Liu Bei may go south this fall, how should our army prepare for it?" Zhou Yu heard this, thought for a moment, and then suggested to Sun Ce: "If Liu Bei were to go south, he would have to send troops from Liyang, Xiang'an and other places. Now that Taishi Ci has joined Liu Bei's army, he must have entered Yuzhang and joined forces with Hua Xin!" "Now that our navy has occupied the Chungu waterway, it will be difficult for Liu Bei's troops to invade on a large scale." "We must prevent this man from joining forces with Liu Biao and sending troops from Yuzhang to attack our Danyang by land!" "So in my opinion, our army should not return to Wujun, but should mobilize the main force to Danyang and wait for the enemy's action!" After hearing this, Sun Ce followed Zhou Yu's strategy and began to mobilize troops from various places. In addition to the troops stationed in various places, he personally led an army of 30,000 to station in Wanling, and ordered Wu Jing and Zhu Zhi to guard Shicheng, Sun Ben to sit in Wujun, and He Qi, Sun Hao and others to garrison Kuaiji. At this point, Sun Ce arranged a new line of defense and personally blocked the western line of the three counties of Jiangdong. Unexpectedly, when it was late July, news came from the north that Liu Bei had asked Zheng Xuan to submit a memorial, ordering Liu Biao to join him in attacking Jiangdong. Upon hearing this news, Sun Ce became furious and said: "Old Liu Bei is really hateful. If he is leading his troops south, he should just start the battle. Why bother with all this trouble?" "The other party's navy stayed in hiding, but let old Liu Biao lead the troops. This is really cunning!" Even though Sun Ce had been raising an army for many years and had the demeanor of a local lord, he was still a man who admired the use of force at heart. In his opinion, Liu Bei is coming to attack Jiangdong. If you have the ability, lead your troops south and we will fight with real swords and guns. Now, seeing that the Jiangdong navy is strong, they go to the court to complain and ask for reinforcements. How shameless they are. When Zhou Yu heard this, he felt bitter in his heart, thinking back to a year ago when they were ordered to fight against the enemy. Unexpectedly, a year later, they became bandits that the imperial court wanted to attack! The more he dealt with Qin Zhen, the more he could feel Qin Zhen's experience. Obviously, everyone started from the same starting line, but Qin Zhen saw the greater good and turned them into traitors! If tactics don’t work, use strategy. If strategy doesn’t work, use open conspiracy. In short, as long as there is an advantage, Qin Zhen can make plans. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but secretly convinced. After thinking for a while, he said to Sun Ce: "Brother, don't be angry. Although Liu Bei is asking the emperor to order an attack on our army, Cao Cao and Liu Biao may not agree to Liu Bei's wish!" "If we sit back and watch the two families attack us, our army will surely find it difficult to resist." "In my opinion, our army should seek external help. We should send envoys to the north to confess our crimes to the emperor and ask for pardon, and at the same time persuade Cao Gong to send troops to help us." "Secondly, I heard that Zhang Xian of Jingnan had been at odds with Liu Biao for a long time, and his Gongcao Huan Boxu was a former official of Sun Jian's army."

"Perhaps we can send an envoy to persuade Zhang Xian to send troops to drive back Liu Biao's troops!" "Third, Liu Bei now controls Lujiang. If Liu Biao really moves east, he will definitely send out his navy from Jiangxia." "It will be useless for us to station troops here. We can go to Pengli and see what happens!" "If Liu Biao really intends to send troops, then our army will take the initiative to attack and defeat Liu Biao's navy first, so that Liu Bei will have no navy to move south!" After hearing the suggestion, Sun Ce naturally acted according to Zhou Yu's strategy again and sent Zhang Hong, Yu Fan and others as envoys one after another. He also appointed Zhou Yu as the Central Guard General and commander-in-chief of the navy, and sent him to Yuzhang to meet the enemy. After Zhou Yu took on this responsibility, he led his navy westward until he set up camp on the south bank of Pengli Lake. As a result, just as the water fort was built, news was heard from the west that Zhang Xian had sent troops. Upon hearing this news, Zhou Yu couldn't help but think to himself: "Our envoys have only been out for a few days, so they must not have arrived in Changsha yet." "If Zhang Xian sends out his troops right now, someone must be secretly helping our army to stop Liu Biao's troops!" When he thought about it carefully, he realized that it was most likely done by Cao Cao. Because of the current situation, not only do they not want help from outside forces, Cao Cao also does not want Liu Bei to seize Jiangdong! After thinking through all these issues, he was naturally overjoyed. With Cao Cao holding Liu Biao back from behind, it was likely that Liu Biao would not be able to lead his army eastward. The only threat would be the Jiangxia navy! Seeing that most of the threats had been eliminated, he led his navy all the way into Jiangxia. As soon as Zhou Yu made a move, the news naturally spread in the direction of Sha Xian. Upon hearing that Zhou Yu had led his troops into Jiangxia, Huang Zu became furious and said: "How dare you, a young man, to bully me? How dare you, with thousands of soldiers and horses, invade my Jingzhou territory!" In a rage, he summoned generals such as Su Fei, Chen Jiu, Lu Jie, and Deng Long to discuss matters, and prepared to mobilize all the troops in Jiangxia to defeat Zhou Yu's troops. (End of this chapter)