Chapter 244: Fighting Sun Ce, Surprise Attack on Spring Valley Just as Zhao Yun, Xu Sheng, Taishi Ci and others were mobilizing their troops, Liu Bei had already been fighting with Sun Ce for more than half a month. This is what happened, and we should start from the time when Liu Bei became prosperous. However, Liu Bei wanted to make a breakthrough at a single point according to Qin Zhen's plan, so he led his army to the Fanchang Mountain Road. After a battle between Zhang Fei and Sun Ce, Sun Ce retreated into the hiding place. No matter how Liu Bei's army shouted and cursed, they all held their ground in the camp and did not go out to fight. Instead, they sent people to curse back at them. Although Liu Bei usually had a very good temper, he was still a hot-tempered man. Seeing Sun Ce being so arrogant, he returned to the camp and summoned all the generals: "Sun Bofu is really rude. He set up a camp here but didn't fight. Who dares to take the lead? Go and take over the second camp!" At this time, it is time for the military generals to come forward. Immediately, Zhang Fei, Chen Dao and others came out to ask for battle, all wanting to take the first credit in this battle. Seeing this, Liu Bei watched the generals go out. Although he was happy, he also had a headache.

He thought that Zhang Fei and others were brave and could be used, but Wei Yan, Chen Ce and others had just arrived and also wanted to make achievements. If you order this, you will have to ignore that. It was a bit difficult to decide for a while. Qin Zhen saw this and said to him with a smile: "There are many generals in our army, and Sun Ce is no match for them. But you all are willing to attack the stronghold, so who should be elected?" "In my opinion, we might as well go out and have a fight to decide who will win!" When the generals heard this, they all became interested and wanted to compete. This frightened Liu Bei, and he hurriedly said to everyone: "Wait a minute, everyone. You must know that swords and spears have no eyes. If you have the strength now and don't fight the enemy, how can you fight among yourself?" When the generals heard this, they all stopped, but once their desire to win was aroused, they became a little impatient and looked at Qin Zhen one after another. Seeing this, Liu Bei also looked at Qin Zhen, not knowing what Qin Zhen meant. Qin Zhen saw this and smiled at the generals and said: "I wanted to ask you to compete, but my lord is right. With a powerful enemy in front of us, how can our army kill each other?" "However, if all the generals are willing to take this camp, why don't you lead more than a thousand soldiers to challenge us?" "Win with archery. Whoever kills the most enemy soldiers within an hour will win the battle!" This competition method was indeed new, and all the generals nodded in agreement when they heard it. When Liu Bei saw this proposal, he said no more and asked everyone to leave and prepare. After everyone left, he breathed a sigh of relief and said: "The military advisor came up with a good plan, but it almost caused a fight among the generals. What would we do if one of them got hurt?" As soon as he opened his mouth, before Qin Zhen could say anything, Liu Ye smiled and said: "My lord, you don't know. This is the strategist's plan to provoke the enemy. Since the enemy army is not coming out, our army wants to lure the enemy into a fight. Instead of yelling and scolding, it is better to provoke the enemy." "The military advisor's plan can not only arouse the generals' desire to win, but also anger Sun Ce." "Now that the generals have gone, if Sun Ce sees our soldiers testing their targets, he will surely be furious and rush out. We should go and support them!" After this explanation, Liu Bei understood Qin Zhen's meaning, and Qin Zhen smiled and said nothing when he saw it. So after the generals set out, they brought their troops to the hillside to watch the battle. The generals led thousands of people to the front of the village, but did not attack. Instead, they ordered one man with a bow and arrow to stand in front of the village and shoot at the sentries one by one. Whenever someone hit the target, the three armies cheered at the same time. Whenever someone missed the target, they lowered their heads with a look of shame.

The soldiers on guard at the village were all horrified when they saw what was happening. They dared not show their heads for a moment and sent someone to report the matter to Sun Ce. Sun Ce originally intended to defend Fanchang to the death and wait for reinforcements to arrive before going into battle again. Unexpectedly, Liu Bei's army came to the front of the battle and used his soldiers as targets. He hurried to the front of the camp and saw that the enemy generals were all fighting outside the camp. He was furious and said: "Old Liu Bei is really not a good son. If you want to attack the stronghold, just come here. Why do you want to play with me, a Jiangdong boy?" "This is intolerable! Go and gather the troops. I want to fight to the death with old Liu Bei!" Seeing this, everyone immediately tried to persuade him. Zhang Hong simply bowed and said: "My lord, this is the way Liu Bei's army is trying to provoke the generals. There will definitely be an ambush afterwards!" "Our army is already short of soldiers and horses. If we go into battle and are defeated by the enemy, what will happen?" But Sun Ce was not the kind of person who would swallow his anger. Upon hearing this, he shouted angrily: "Are we just going to let them bully us?" Zhang Hong heard this and came up with a plan, and said to Sun Ce: "My lord, please be patient. The enemy troops are out in full force now and will surely be exhausted at night. There is a small lake on the east side of Baima Mountain behind our camp." "If we swim across here, we can go around to the enemy's rear camp. We might as well send a group of elite soldiers tonight. If we can burn all the food and grass, we can drive the enemy back!" After hearing this plan, Sun Ce suppressed his anger, forced the sentries to leave the camp, and strictly ordered them not to send out troops. As soon as their troops left the camp, Zhang Fei and his men lost their target and could only shout and curse for a while before retreating back into the camp. After a statistics, it was found that Wei Yan and Chen Dao shot and killed the most people, six or seven. People like Zhang Fei and Chen Ce only shot and killed three or four people, while the rest of the generals shot and killed even fewer. Faced with this result, Zhang Fei was naturally indignant. He said that they came on the battlefield late and Sun Ce had withdrawn the sentries, so they could not find the target and could not make any contribution. When Qin Zhen saw this, he frowned and shouted directly: "Sun Ce has withdrawn his sentry post. Everyone has done the same. We are willing to accept the loss. What else can we say?" "General, you are a great general and yet you are like this. Will all the generals in our army try to take credit for the success in the future?" "Retreat quickly, the one who will capture the village in this battle is Uncle Wen!" Zhang Fei was not afraid of anyone except Liu Bei and Qin Zhen. But when he saw Qin Zhen's angry shout, he stopped for a while. He didn't dare to say much, and the other generals didn't dare to say anything either, so they had to let Chen Dao and Wei Yan lead the attack. After things were settled, Liu Bei ordered two generals to prepare to send troops, and then said worriedly: "The military advisor is provoking us like this today. If Sun Ce doesn't come out, something must be wrong!" Qin Zhen listened and smiled, then looked at Liu Ye and said: "I wonder how Zi Yang thinks the enemy will act?" Liu Ye saw this, thought about it carefully for a while, and then said to the two of them: "Today, when we were watching the battle on the mountain, I saw that there seemed to be a lake behind Baima Mountain, or it might lead to the back of the mountain!" "The soldiers of Jiangdong are good at water warfare. I predict that Sun Ce will not come out today and will most likely launch a night attack. Our army must be on high alert!" "Also, I saw a small path to the west of here, which leads to the enemy's rear camp. If we succeed tomorrow, we may be able to find the path and attack them!" Seeing his sharp observation, Qin Zhen smiled and said to Liu Bei: "I agree with you. If Sun Lang comes, he must come tonight!"

When Liu Bei heard what the two said, he ordered someone to call Zhang Fei and secretly ambush him behind the camp. As night fell, Sun Ce ordered Deng Dang to lead more than a thousand elite soldiers out of the camp, bypass Baima Mountain and come from behind the mountain. He swam across the small lake, reached the shore, and sneaked towards Liu Bei's camp. As a result, when we were halfway along the road and the forest was getting thicker, we suddenly heard a loud laugh: "These rats really want to attack our army camp, but where are they going to escape to?" With a loud shout, Zhang Fei led more than a thousand soldiers and attacked along two routes. Deng Dang was horrified upon seeing this and hurriedly ordered his troops to retreat quickly. They retreated all the way to the lake, but were caught up by Zhang Fei. The two fought for two rounds, and Deng Dang was caught off guard and was stabbed in the shoulder by Zhang Fei's spear. Feeling the pain, he gritted his teeth, retreated, jumped into the lake, and never showed his head again. When Zhang Fei saw him running away, he cursed loudly on the shore, then drew his bow and arrow, waiting for Deng Dang to show his head so that he could shoot him. Unexpectedly, Deng Dang was an excellent swimmer and swam dozens of meters in one breath, causing Zhang Fei to lose the opportunity to kill the enemy. Seeing this, Zhang Fei cursed loudly and led his troops towards the camp. Deng Dang was stabbed by Zhang Fei's spear and was already losing blood. He was bleeding profusely due to diving along the way. He fainted as soon as he got ashore and was carried back to the camp by the soldiers. After entering the camp, Sun Ce was furious when he heard that his night attack had failed. It was obvious that Deng Dang had lost too much blood and his face was pale. He became anxious again and hurriedly asked the doctor to treat him. When Lu Meng heard that his brother-in-law was injured, he hurried into the tent. Seeing Deng Dang unconscious, he burst into tears. When he heard that it was Zhang Fei who had injured him so badly, he was filled with hatred and wished to kill him as soon as possible. Sun Ce was already angry, and now he became even more impatient when he saw his general was in trouble. He wanted to lead his troops to march, but he could not resist the persuasion of Zhang Hong and others, so he gave up. As a result, on the next morning, a spy came to report that he saw enemy spies entering the mountain to investigate. Sun Ce was just trying to get back at his old self, and upon hearing this news, he thought to himself: "I have set up a small camp between two mountains, and sentries are posted on all the paths!" "The enemy army did not try to explore other routes, but had to explore this route. Could it be that they want to advance from this route?" After thinking for a while, he ordered Han Dang to lead two thousand soldiers out of the camp, advance along the mountain, and ambush at a small path. On the other side, Chen Dao and Wei Yan received the order to attack the stronghold, and each led 5,000 soldiers out of the camp. When they arrived outside the camp, Wei Yan thought about the strategy of advancing, and suggested to Chen Dao: "Yesterday, Lieutenant General Liu said that there is a small road in the west that leads to the rear of the enemy's western camp." "Now that we are attacking the stronghold, we may as well divide our forces and make a feint. The general will make a feint attack here, and I will take a small road to advance. I will definitely be able to destroy the enemy's stronghold." "Once this stronghold is breached, I will send a surprise force to help them from behind, and maybe we can break the enemy's main stronghold!" When Chen Dao heard this, he nodded in response, and then the two of them divided their forces and marched towards the two camps. Chen took the main road here, and Wei Yan took the small road. Unexpectedly, just as he reached the small road, he suddenly saw a figure flashing on the mountain. Wei Yan was shocked and thought, could there be an ambush on the mountain? He wanted to withdraw his troops, but was afraid of causing chaos among his soldiers, so he had to order his left and right troops to change from the rear team to the front team and withdraw one by one.

But his retreat made Han Dang on the mountain notice something was wrong and he immediately started shooting. At the command, a row of archers stood up on the mountain and shot indiscriminately along the road. Wei Yan hurriedly ordered a retreat and then they withdrew from the small road. When he returned to the main road, he saw Chen Dao leading his troops there again. After asking, he learned that Sun Ce was personally leading his troops to defend the city. His feint attack failed, so he had to retreat. The two failed in their surprise attack and were unable to take the city, so they had to lead their troops back to the camp. When they met Liu Bei, they told him everything and then apologized. When Liu Bei heard that the plan failed, he was not surprised and ordered the two men to go down and rest. Liu Ye was shocked when he saw the two armies in such a stalemate. He had previously thought that dividing the troops into different places would make it difficult for Sun Ce to defend. But now looking at Sun Ce's current condition, it is impossible to break through without several times more troops. So he came to Qin Zhen's tent again and said to Qin Zhen: "I had intended to divide our forces into different places and mobilize the enemy troops, but I didn't expect the enemy to hold on like this!" "Thanks to the military advisor's efforts to persuade him, otherwise it would have ruined our army's plan!" Seeing that he had come to express his feelings, Qin Zhen smiled and said: "Zi Yang, there is no need to do this. No matter what you do, it is all for the sake of the country!" "Now that our reinforcements are coming, the enemy will surely find it difficult to defend. If we divide our forces in the future, we will need Zi Yang's help." "But you must remember one thing: even a lion will use all its strength to fight a rabbit. Don't divide your forces easily, and don't underestimate the enemy." "Only by acting so cautiously can you be invincible and unstoppable!" When Liu Ye heard this, he was deeply moved and immediately expressed his gratitude. The two sides fought back and forth in this way for more than half a month in Fanchang, and neither side gained any advantage. Under such circumstances, Sun Ce's reinforcements had already arrived, and Liu Bei also received letters from Zhao Yun and others. Seeing Zhao Yun had arrived, Liu Bei was overjoyed, and immediately ordered his generals to mobilize their troops and prepare for a battle to defeat Sun Ce here. At this moment, Taishi Ci's troops arrived at the city of Chungu first. Because he arrived by water by boat, although he started later, he was able to arrive first. When he heard that Liu Bei and Sun Ce were fighting fiercely on the south bank, he wanted to capture a city for Liu Bei first. So after arriving here, he ordered people to observe the movements of the Chungu defenders and find out the enemy's weak points. After observing for a few days, he saw that the enemy was defending the city and did not go out. He also saw that there were many reeds in the reed marsh west of the city, so he led his troops south first and hid in the reed marsh west of the city. After two days, seeing that the night was dark, windy and covered with dark clouds, they launched a brazen attack on Chungu! (End of this chapter)