Chapter 251: The troops approach Yuyang, Qin Zhen's conjecture Qin Zhen and Liu Ye were both a little surprised when Zhuge Liang suddenly used his trump card. But it was just surprise, not too many strange emotions. After all, we are all in the same army, so when we fight, we will show off our skills. Whoever's strategy is more effective will be used. Anyway, the goal is to seize Jiangdong as quickly as possible, so anyone's suggestions are all the same. On the contrary, this move that Zhuge Liang made in advance fully demonstrated his strategic vision. Not only will it not do them any harm, but it will also allow Sun Ce to catch him by surprise again. After thinking about it for a while, Qin Zhen nodded and smiled: "If General Taishi really has a troop in Yuzhang County, then our army can march northward without any hassle!" "Why not follow Zi Yang's original plan of advancing in four directions and divide our forces into four groups!" "Now Sun Ce has deployed his troops in Wanling. We must be on guard. We should send a force here to confront Sun Ce!"

"The only one in our army who can fight against Sun Ce is General Zhang!" "General Taishi is familiar with the geography of Jiangdong. We can send our warships from Chungu to attack Shicheng!" "In addition, the main force of our army will continue to advance westwards, threatening Yuyang, so that the enemy's sight will only be limited to the western front." "When all three armies are mobilized, the enemy will think that the eastern front is unprepared, and we can send troops from Yuzhang to the east and launch a surprise attack on Kuaiji via the waterway!" "With such a dense net, Sun Ce will have trouble escaping!" He planned the overall strategy again, and everyone nodded again. Seeing that everyone had no objection, Liu Bei once again deployed his troops and appointed Zhang Fei as the chief general of the eastern route, with an army of 10,000 to confront Sun Ce. Taishi Ci led his troops and joined forces with Lu Su and others, using Liyang as a base to attack Shicheng! The main force is still led by Liu Bei, with 20,000 troops heading towards Yuyang! The only problem is the selection of generals to raid Yuzhang from the south! The troops of Yuzhang County are now under the command of Zu Lang, a powerful Shanyue leader who is only friendly with Taishi Ci. Although he has received the seal of Liu Bei’s army, ordinary people cannot subdue him. Qin Zhen's advice to Liu Bei was to appoint Liu Ye as the Military Advisor and General of the Central Army, and lead Wei Yan south to march to Kuaiji together with Zu Lang! Qin Zhen naturally had his reasons for appointing Liu Ye to go south. Because now Sun Ce's two advisers are trapped in their army, and they have the advantage in military strength. Even when dealing with Zhou Yu, there is no need for four counselors to plan at the same time. Therefore, instead of letting Liu Ye gain experience here, it would be better to go south to seize Kuaiji and gain military merit. Naturally, Liu Ye responded to this with pleasure and had no dissatisfaction at all. In fact, he now feels that the pressure is indeed too great. Originally, Qin Zhen's official position was higher than his, and his strategic thinking was forward-looking, so he didn't have many opportunities to make meritorious contributions. Now Zhuge Liang has returned. Although this guy is not as experienced as him, he is also a good strategic man.

These two people, one above and one below, sandwiched him in the middle, which made him feel very depressed. Just like Qin Zhen's idea, he thought that instead of joining together, it would be better to split him up and seize Kuaiji. Since you can take credit for yourself and not be suppressed, why not do it? So after such a discussion, Liu Bei's army officially began to divide its forces. The next day, Liu Ye took Wei Yan and five hundred soldiers to the west, preparing to take a boat south to Yuzhang. At the same time, Liu Bei's army was divided into three routes and began to advance in the three directions of Wanling, Yuyang and Chungu. Naturally, the news of Liu Bei's military division could not be concealed from Zhou Yu and Sun Ce. Regarding this situation, Zhou Yu, who was still ill, sighed at his desk: "Brother Bofu only thought that Liu Bei would still advance eastward to Wanling. Don't you know that Qin Zhen and others are capable of doing so? How can they help our army achieve its goal?" In fact, when he received the transfer order from Sun Ce, he refused. After all, the situation in Jiangdong is becoming more and more complicated. Although he can resist Liu Bei's army, he does not have enough experience. As many of Jiangdong's generals died in battle, the power of the Sun family's in-laws grew. Sun Ce appointed him as the Grand Commander, which was almost like putting him on the fire. Not only would Cheng Pu and others find it hard to accept, but if he failed again, the Sun family would tear him to pieces alive. But after learning the news of Huang Gai and Han Dang's death, he forced himself to take on the responsibility. Because he knew how difficult the situation Sun Ce was facing now, letting him take the position meant placing hope on him. If he refused the task again, he would be forcing Sun Ce to death. As Sun Ce's good brother and last resort, he must shoulder this heavy responsibility! At this time, Sun Ce actually had more than 20,000 troops on the northern front. However, because there were too many cities on the northern front, the troops were more dispersed. Therefore, after Zhou Yu led Xu Yi's 5,000 troops north, the first thing he did was to order Cheng Pu to station 6,000 troops in Shicheng. Secondly, Zhu Zhi led 4,000 soldiers and horses to garrison Jiangcheng, and Sun Hao led 6,000 soldiers to garrison Moling. Finally, Lü Fan and Xu Kun led the remaining 5,000 people to defend Qu'a and Dantu. His strategic thinking was opposite to Sun Ce's, and he did not think that Liu Bei would adopt the strategy of combining forces. Thinking of using one or two lines of defense to resist Liu Bei's troops is simply wishful thinking! The reality was just as Zhou Yu had expected. Liu Bei divided his troops and gave up Wanling which Sun Ce wanted to defend, and headed straight towards Yuyang. In response to this, Zhou Yu sighed and ordered Sun Hao to send 3,000 more troops to set up camp in the south of Yuyang to prepare for Liu Bei's attack. Under such circumstances, in late October of the third year of Jian'an, Liu Bei's army arrived outside the city of Yuyang. It should be mentioned here that this Yuyang is not Yuyang. Just like the geographical changes of Wuhu, the Yuyang City of this era is not the Yuyang City of later generations. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yuyang was approximately located in the west of Youzi Mountain, dozens of miles east of Gaochun District in later generations. The north and south are protected by Shijiu Lake and Gucheng Lake, and the east is protected by Youzi Mountain.

Although the terrain is not as dangerous as Fanchang, it is also an important town in Danyang and the gateway to Wujun. After breaking through this city, they could directly advance into Yangxian, an important town in Wu County. After arriving here, Liu Bei sent people to challenge each other for several days, hoping to lure Zhou Yu out of the city on his own initiative. However, Zhou Yu adhered to the strategy of hiding himself and refused to fight no matter how Liu Bei shouted and cursed. In response to this situation, Zhuge Liang gave Liu Bei a plan to lure the enemy. To put it simply, the Yangtze River and Taihu Lake in this era are connected by the Yushui River, so troops can be sent from the waterway to enter Taihu Lake through the Yushui River, making a surprise attack from behind and forcing Zhou Yu to come out to fight! Liu Bei followed this plan, built a hundred bamboo rafts, and led more than a thousand soldiers and horses to go down by water at night. As soon as the soldiers and horses arrived at Gucheng Lake, they saw a group of soldiers rushing out, blocking the river and pushing his army back. It turned out that Zhou Yu had already seen the weak points in the defense and sent Sun Hao to station in the south to prevent Liu Bei from advancing eastward by water. In a small battle, Liu Bei lost hundreds of men and had no choice but to give up this plan! Seeing that Zhou Yu was holding his ground, Liu Bei was reluctant to attack rashly, so he ordered his soldiers to cut wood and build siege equipment in order to prepare for a strong attack on Yuyang. But for several days, Zhou Yu did not take any action. Seeing this, Liu Bei became angry and ordered his soldiers to build a large number of ladders in preparation for a direct attack on Yuyang. But at this moment, Qin Zhen came to Liu Bei's military tent and said: "Mingsir, our army cannot attack this place so aggressively!" Liu Bei thought Qin Zhen was here to offer advice, but he didn't expect Qin Zhen to come to dissuade him. This puzzled him for a while. "I don't know what the military advisor means by this. Why do you say that we cannot attack this place by force?" "Winter is coming in a month or so. Although our army has already established itself in Jiangdong, Sun Ce still has two counties." "If we can capture Yuyang, then our army can march directly into Wu County in the spring." "If we don't seize this city now, what else can we do?" But when Qin Zhen heard this, he said solemnly: "In my opinion, our army should retreat southwards to see how Zhou Yu responds!" When Liu Bei heard this, he was full of confusion and hurriedly asked Qin Zhen the reason. Qin Zhen then gave Liu Bei a guess. Zhou Yu is probably trying to delay time by doing this! It turned out that after arriving in Yuyang, Qin Zhen had been thinking about a question. Now they can infer Sun Ce's strategic thinking. To put it bluntly, Sun Ce's strategy was to use Zhou Yu to turn the tide of the war. Just as they were preparing for a surprise attack on Kuaiji, Sun Ce wanted to change the situation of the battle, and the variable lay in Zhou Yu. But as Zhou Yu is Sun Ce's hope, what kind of plan does he have? As Zhou Yu's old rival, he did not think that Zhou Yu was the kind of person who could only engage in passive defense. Even when he was surrounded from both sides, Zhou Yu was still looking for ways to defeat the enemy.

Now facing the heavy trust placed in him by Sun Ce, it is clear that this person would not be without a way to reverse the situation. Faced with their strategy of dividing the troops, this person did not concentrate his forces, but instead dispersed the already small number of troops further, which was obviously unreasonable! Similarly, now that they were ready to attack, Zhou Yu still did not take action! All these signs prove that Zhou Yu should be waiting for some turning point! This turn of events is most likely enough to reverse the current situation and even allow Jiangdong to switch from defense to offense. That's why Qin Zhen came back to advise Lao Liu to change direction first and see what Zhou Yu would do! If Zhou Yu is still holding on, it means that Zhou Yu is only concerned about stability and the turning point must be in the outside world. If Zhou Yu sent troops to investigate their abnormal behavior, it would prove that Zhou Yu had not yet made up his mind. Hearing this, Liu Bei frowned and thought: "Then according to the military advisor, if Zhou Yu really has other plans, where do they come from?" The current situation would have been fine if Qin Zhen hadn't said anything, but as soon as Qin Zhen said it, he realized that something was wrong. It is true that Jiangdong is now at a disadvantage in every aspect, but even if it holds on now, it will not help the situation. If they can hold out through this winter, they will be able to continue their advance next spring. In other words, Zhou Yu's current strategy of holding on is meaningless without external help. The key lies in the direction and which side this external force will help from! When he asked this, Qin Zhen said with a confident look on his face: "If you ask me about this, I think it's probably Lu Bu's fault!" "Since there are no major enemies around our army at the moment, Cao Cao has sent troops to Nanyang and has no intention of heading south." "Liu Biao was fighting with Zhang Xian and had to guard against Cao Cao, so he couldn't look west." "Only Lu Bu, although he has joined forces with our army, is actually at odds with us and poses a huge threat to our army!" When he said the name Lu Bu, Liu Bei frowned even more: "Let's not talk about whether Lu Bu will send troops. Lu Bu and Sun Ce are enemies, and our army is on good terms with him." "Under such circumstances, is Lu Bu really willing to join forces with Sun Ce?" In a sense, Lu Bu lowered Liu Bei's perception of the bottom line of the princes. But he is willing to be kind to others and is not willing to make enemies with his allies. However, Qin Zhen saw this and shook his head and smiled: "Whether it is true or not, you will know it after trying it. You should not have the intention to harm others, but you must be on guard against others!" "If Sun Ce really intends to contact Lu Bu, then our army must be prepared as soon as possible." "Otherwise, if Lu Bu attacks our rear, it will be difficult for our army to conquer Jiangdong!" When Liu Bei heard this, he suddenly recalled the ambush by Lu Bu three years ago, and he immediately decided to withdraw the camp! Then at noon that day, Liu Bei ordered his troops to withdraw. He did not even dismantle the camp. He left the half-finished siege equipment behind and retreated directly to the south. As soon as they left, the news spread into the city. Upon hearing it, Xu Yi came to Zhou Yu with excitement and said: "Commander-in-chief, good news! Liu Bei's army will withdraw at noon today!"

"Their camps have not been dismantled yet, so they may have been attacked from the rear." "Should we send out an expedition to test the enemy and see what they want?" After hearing this, Zhou Yu put the pen on the table and said with a puzzled look: "Liu Bei withdrew his troops? Is this true?" "It's absolutely true, the enemy has indeed withdrawn!" "I have already left the city to investigate. All the enemy troops have withdrawn from this place!" "If our army wants to pursue, we must leave the city as soon as possible, otherwise it will be difficult to catch up with the enemy troops!" But when Zhou Yu heard this, he fell into deep thought for a moment and began to wonder what tricks Qin Zhen was playing. (End of this chapter)