Chapter 252: Desperate Zhou Yu, heading north to Jiujiang In ancient wars, it was difficult to determine the winner between two people of similar level who had been fighting each other for years. Due to the differences in transportation levels and combat methods, the tactics of this era tended to be rigid. Once you have figured out the opponent's tactics, it will be basically difficult to achieve a decisive tactical victory. The most famous example is Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang. In the early stages of the war, Zhuge Liang was able to gain tactical advantages by taking advantage of the enemy's lack of understanding. But in the middle of the war, as Sima Yi figured out Zhuge Liang's tactics and adopted a strategic defensive stance, ordinary strategies could no longer be effective. Zhou Yu and Qin Zhen are now in such a situation. After experiencing many failures, Zhou Yu has figured out Qin Zhen's tricks. In Zhou Yu's opinion, the most terrifying thing about Qin Zhen is that he never plays by the rules. This was the case in the previous Battle of Shouchun, and also in the recent Battle of Fanchang. Qin Zhen would never act in the direction expected by the other party! On the contrary, all the strategies Qin Zhen had always deployed were based on seeing through the opponent's strategies and taking advantage of them. This would give people a feeling that even though their plan was going smoothly and everything was going as expected, Qin Zhen would still turn defeat into victory in the end.

So when faced with Liu Bei's army's sudden withdrawal, Zhou Yu was immediately confused. Obviously, Liu Bei's sudden withdrawal now is not in line with the current situation, nor in the interests of Liu Bei's army. Then why did Liu Bei suddenly choose to retreat when he was halfway through his attack? First of all, we can rule out the possibility that Lu Bu’s dispatch of troops caused Liu Bei to retreat! Because in terms of time, the time they sent the envoys to the north was no more than twenty days. The envoy traveled from Wujun to Xuzhou by sea and land, and then went to Xia Pi from Xuzhou. It would take at least half a month on the road. Even if Lu Bu sent troops, it would be impossible for the news to reach Liu Bei's army so quickly. Secondly, we can rule out the possibility that Liu Bei was preparing to build up his military forces to stop the war! The climate is now starting to get colder, but it is not yet to the point where we cannot attack the city. There is no need for Liu Bei to stop the war now! Apart from these two possibilities, it is almost certain that there was some reason that forced Liu Bei to withdraw his troops suddenly. Regarding the speculation about this reason, Zhou Yu also thought of two possibilities! The first possibility is that Liu Bei's coming to Yuyang was Qin Zhen's strategy. They came to Yuyang to let Sun Ce relax his vigilance, and now they turned around to catch Sun Ce off guard. The second possibility is that Qin Zhen saw that the siege on the city failed, so he used the tactic of playing hard to get! This trick was not something Qin Zhen had not used before. Before in Shouchun, Qin Zhen had pretended to divert water to flood the city, forcing Ji Ling to send troops. Under these two possibilities, the outcome of his pursuit would be completely opposite. In the former case, if he sends troops to follow the enemy, it will be very effective and he can catch the enemy off guard and launch a surprise attack to defeat them. If he sends troops to follow the latter, he will most likely suffer heavy casualties. Qin Zhen is waiting for him to leave the city to fight! Thinking of this, Zhou Yu stood up and paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, a very conflicted look on his face. Xu Yi looked at Zhou Yu like this and hesitated for a moment. "If the governor does not want to pursue us, we can just defend the city tightly. Why make it so difficult?" "I will pass on the order right now, ordering all the generals not to pursue!" "Wait a minute, let me think about it for a moment before making a decision!"

As soon as Xu Yi finished speaking, Zhou Yu spoke up to stop him because he thought of another possibility. Could it be that Qin Zhen acted like this because he realized that they wanted to contact Lu Bu to attack? Are they withdrawing their troops now to test whether he has sent an envoy to contact Lu Bu? If this is the purpose, he must send troops to try to pursue and must not let Qin Zhen notice anything unusual! Qin Zhen is an incredibly meticulous person. Perhaps a small suspicion will allow Qin Zhen to discover their overall strategy! After thinking about it for a while, he suddenly stopped and said in a deep voice: "Quickly send a messenger to inform the lord that Liu Bei's army has withdrawn!" "Be careful to prevent Liu Bei from returning and attacking Wanling!" "Also, General Sun Hao should immediately order his troops to pursue the enemy troops." "Be sure to send more spies to investigate. Report any abnormalities in the enemy forces to me." "If you find any signs of the enemy returning, return to the city immediately!" "Send another 500 soldiers and horses out of the city to burn down the enemy camps. Do not leave any siege equipment behind." With his order, Xu Yi dispatched troops and sent pursuers to Liu Bei's rear. It can be said that in order to ensure the smooth implementation of his strategy, Liu Bei had to bear this risk even if he had other purposes. Naturally, the news of the expedition from Yuyang did not escape the notice of the spies left behind by Liu Bei. As soon as Zhou Yu sent out his troops, the spies rushed towards Liu Bei's army, and by the evening, they finally arrived at Liu Bei's army. Hearing that Zhou Yu had taken the initiative to send troops to pursue, Liu Bei was overjoyed and hurriedly said to Qin Zhen: "It seems that the military advisor was over-worrying this time. Zhou Yu was not determined to defend to the death." "You only have a few thousand soldiers now, but you still dare to send out 3,000 soldiers to chase us. Is this an intentional move to delay time?" When Qin Zhen heard this, he looked thoughtful, wondering if he had guessed wrong? But his guess may be wrong, but his intuition is not wrong. Now the only way for Jiangdong to turn things around is to seek external help. Sun Ce might not ask Lu Bu for help because of his self-esteem, but Zhou Yu would not! Zhou Yu was a man of high magnanimity and long-term strategic vision. He would not abandon this strategy just because Lu Bu had betrayed them before. After thinking about it for a while, he turned his gaze to Zhuge Liang and said: "I wonder what Kong Ming thinks. Does Zhou Yu have the same idea?" Zhuge Liang thought for a while after hearing this, and then said with a smile: "In fact, my opinion is similar to yours. Zhou Gongjin's insistence on this strategy is quite unreasonable." "But Zhou Gongjin is very careful in his actions, so it is difficult to test his true intentions with this trick." "In my opinion, it is better to spy on the enemy's pursuit troops than to spy on Zhou Yu." "We only need to find out whether this force is really coming to pursue us, and then we will know what Zhou Yu is up to." "It is getting dark now, so we can rest and cook. If the enemy is really coming to pursue us, they will surely come to test us when they see this." "If this army is Zhou Yu's attempt to cover up his purpose, they must stop moving forward!" "We can divide our forces and attack them from behind!"

"If we act this way, no matter how the enemy moves, it will be beneficial to our army!" After hearing this, Liu Bei immediately nodded in agreement and ordered the soldiers not to set up camp but to start cooking directly. Chen Dao also led 3,000 elite troops to take advantage of the opportunity to go around and launch a surprise attack on Sun Hao. Naturally, their actions were discovered by the Jiangdong Army's scouts, and soon the news reached Sun Hao. Speaking of Sun Hao, he was also a member of the Sun family clan and the son of Sun Jing, Sun Ce's third uncle. In the original story, after Sun Ce's death, this person participated in the Sun family's power struggle, but was persuaded by Yu Fan to withdraw his troops. Compared with Sun Ben, Sun He and others, this man is more brave than wise. If Zhou Yu asked Sun Hao to pursue the enemy alone, Sun Hao would have chased to the rear of Liu Bei's army without any hesitation. But Zhou Yu ordered him to investigate the enemy's movements and report on them while pursuing them! This was obviously not intended to allow him to pursue directly, but had other purposes. He was stunned when he saw Liu Bei's army suddenly stop on the road to rest, without setting up camp, but just cooking. I wondered what Liu Bei was doing? Didn't he know that it was getting late and cooking without setting up camp was a taboo in military strategy? Seeing such a good opportunity, he wanted to catch up and fight, but he was afraid that Zhou Yu's plan would be ruined. With no other choice, he had to stay where he was and send Liu Bei's army's movements towards Zhou Yu. As a result, this stop caused great trouble. After hearing that the pursuers had stopped at the spot, Liu Bei said in a deep voice: "It turned out just as the military advisor predicted. Zhou Gongjin really wanted to get Lü Bu to go south!" "You sent the pursuers here now, you must have known our intention to test us, so you are fulfilling our wish!" Old Liu was not stupid. After listening to the analysis of Qin Zhen and Zhuge Liang and seeing the state of the pursuers, he knew something was wrong! When Qin Zhen saw the unusual behavior of the enemy, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It is because you are not afraid of any conspiracy or tricks of the enemy; you are afraid that the enemy has used a trick and you don’t know it! Now that he had discovered Zhou Yu's unusual behavior, he dared to conclude that Sun Ce had most likely sent an envoy to the north! Similarly, Zhou Yu's current deliberate concealment also reveals a message. Now Zhou Yu’s plan has not succeeded yet, otherwise Zhou Yu would not have to take the risk of sending troops to pursue! In other words, they still have time to find a solution now! After thinking all this through, he smiled and said to Liu Bei: "Since we know Zhou Lang's plan, our army should turn back. Why not set up camp here and return to Yuyang tomorrow!" Liu Bei listened, nodded, and ordered his men to have a good rest. On the other side, Sun Hao was waiting for Zhou Yu's reply, but unexpectedly he heard a report from a spy saying that Liu Bei's army had begun to set up camp. When Sun Hao heard this, he was surprised and wondered how in this world could one eat before setting up camp? While I was thinking, I suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves in the distance. I looked up and saw a scout riding towards me and shouting: "General, something terrible has happened. Our army has detected enemy troops marching towards us!" Seeing this, Sun Hao was horrified and hurriedly ordered his troops to withdraw, and led his men to retreat towards the city of Luyang. At this time, the messenger soldiers sent by Sun Hao also arrived in the city of Yuyang.

After meeting Zhou Yu and talking about everything, Zhou Yu's expression darkened and he sighed: "Send a message to Sun Hao, quickly withdraw the troops back to the city. The enemy already knows our strategy, so there is no need to continue pursuing them!" In this situation, he really feels a little desperate. Qin Zhen is really too difficult to deal with. There cannot be any mistakes in the overall strategy and details. Once anything abnormal occurs, Qin Zhen will catch you! This is the case now. Liu Bei retreated first, obviously testing his strategic intentions. When he was halfway through his retreat, he made this unusual move in the face of his pursuers, obviously still testing them. If he led the army personally, Qin Zhen might not notice anything unusual. But now Sun Hao is leading the army. Let alone stopping, even hesitating for a little longer will arouse Qin Zhen's suspicion. Once this suspicion arises, Qin Zhen will definitely take countermeasures. In other words, his plan to contact Lu Bu to attack Liu Bei's rear is likely to fail again! Thinking of this, Zhou Yu's blood surged again and he fell directly onto the table. After a long time, he finally mustered up some strength and forced himself to walk to the desk and write a letter. The main content of the letter was to advise Sun Ce to prepare to move the capital south to Kuaiji. Be prepared for the worst, and if the front line can no longer hold out, they must prepare to move south. Relying on the complex terrain of Kuaiji, he held out against Liu Bei's army while seizing Jiaozhou. After writing this letter, Zhou Yu seemed to have used up his last bit of strength. He coughed and his face turned even paler. As his letter was delivered, Sun Hao also led his troops into the city. Zhou Yu comforted him with a few words and ordered his men to defend the city strictly and not to have any intention of leaving the city. At this point, Qin Zhen and Zhou Yu completed another confrontation. There was no smoke of gunpowder in this confrontation, but it allowed Qin Zhen to once again discover Zhou Yu's strategy. The next day, Qin Zhen resigned from Liu Bei and prepared to go north to guard against Lu Bu in person. Liu Bei was reluctant to listen to Qin Zhen's words and said hurriedly: "Now our army is trying to seize Jiangdong, how can the military advisor leave so easily?" If possible, he would rather transfer anyone than Qin Zhen. After all, having Qin Zhen around makes one feel safe, and even Zhuge Liang cannot bring this sense of security. But when Qin Zhen heard this, he directly said that Zhou Yu had run out of tricks. Their overall strategy had already been decided. With Zhuge Liang, Liu Ye, Lu Su and others around, it was only a matter of time before Sun Ce's demise. On the contrary, after a year of recuperation, if Lu Bu is really persuaded by Sun Ce, he will not be able to be dealt with by a small general! Apart from him, Zhuge Liang was capable enough but could not command the generals. People like Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci and others are probably no match for Lu Bu.

Therefore, the safest way is for him to go north to defend against Lu Bu personally. After listening to his words, Liu Bei realized the danger that Lu Bu could cause, so he had to stop trying to persuade him. But Qin Zhen could not go north without soldiers and generals, so he transferred Xu Sheng to Qin Zhen's command and led 3,000 soldiers back to the army. After saying goodbye, Qin Zhen left Liu Bei and marched westward with his troops. After taking a boat up the Yangtze River, we entered Jiujiang. At this moment, an urgent message was sent to Qin Zhen. The content was very simple - Lu Bu was planning to attack Jiujiang! (End of this chapter)