Chapter 295: Leave His Body Intact, Ultimatum In April of the fourth year of Jian'an, the battle in Jiangdong ushered in a decisive turning point. Under Liu Bei's all-out offensive, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu personally formed a line of defense in Piling. The two sides fought fiercely for more than half a month. Finally, Sun Ce could no longer withstand the attack and was ready to abandon the camp and retreat into the city. However, due to repeated military defeats, Sun Ce's powerful deterrent power could no longer control his generals. Among them, Ding Fan from Kuaiji and Gui Lan from Danyang rebelled and informed Liu Bei of the news. Liu Bei then sent out almost all of his troops to prevent Sun Ce from returning to the city. In this battle, Liu Bei's army deployed more than 30,000 people, while Sun Ce and Zhou Yu deployed more than 10,000 people. But the end result was that Sun Ce's tens of thousands of troops were defeated and his own 8,000 troops were completely wiped out. More than 3,000 reinforcements fled, and only dozens of riders escorted Sun Ce into Piling City. Generals Cheng Pu and Lu Meng were killed in the battle, and Jiang Qin, Sun Fu and others were captured one after another.

In contrast, Liu Bei's army suffered less than 4,000 casualties and more than 5,000 prisoners. If there had not been this battle, Liu Bei's process of unifying Jiangdong might have been more bumpy. But with this battle, it was only a matter of time before Liu Bei took control of Jiangdong. After winning the victory, Liu Bei was not too happy, but went into the tent to meet the heroes and surrendered generals of the battle. To be honest, Liu Bei has always looked down on those who surrender to the enemy in the middle of a battle. But when he met Gui Lan and Ding Fan, he still met them quite kindly. After knowing all the causes and consequences, Liu Bei sighed: "So, the two of you are not wholeheartedly betraying Sun Ce, but the Sun family is unpopular here?" Facing Liu Bei's sigh, Gui Lan hurriedly defended himself and others: "General, please understand that we are not born to be rebellious." "Because Sun Ce is an okay person, but his Sun family members are not good people." "His sister was born spoiled. She liked swords and guns when she was young, and she enjoyed parading in the streets and teasing others!" "His younger brother, Sun Yi, was not yet an adult, had a violent temper and liked to whip his soldiers." "This cousin Sun Fu is not a good person either. He either beats or scolds us." "He treats us like this and wants us to die for him. How can we be willing to do that?" "I know you are here, so I came to let you know." "We have won the victory today, but we dare not take credit for it. We will leave it to you to decide!" As soon as he finished speaking, Ding Fan beside him nodded and agreed: "We have betrayed our master, and we dare not take credit for it. We will leave it entirely to you, sir!" Seeing the two of them like this, Liu Bei smiled slightly and said kindly: "You two don't have to do this. Without your help, our army will have a hard time winning this time." "But Jiangdong is still unsettled, so this is not the time to show off."

"Just remember this achievement first, and then reward him later." After he said this, they were both delighted and thanked him again. After this conversation, Liu Bei asked the two to rest first, then looked at Qin Zhen and Zhuge Liang and asked: "From your perspective, can these two people be used?" Zhuge Liang shook his head upon hearing this, and Qin Zhen said: "Although they cannot be used, they must be used. However, they are not good people and cannot be used for garrisoning." "You can take him back to Shouchun and assign him a new position later." "I agree with the military advisor. Ding Fan is okay, but Gui Lan is a villain!" Liu Bei gave his own evaluation and waved his hand: "Well, even though he is a villain, he can still be used. Let's not discuss it!" "Now that our army has won consecutive battles, the enemy forces in the city may only have three or four thousand people." "I wonder what you two think our army should do now!" As he said this, Liu Bei felt a little tired as he had been fighting in succession for more than half a year. Summer is coming soon, and if possible, he really doesn't want to stay here any longer. If we can defeat Sun Ce as soon as possible and organize the people's livelihood, there will still be some hope for Jiangdong this year. Otherwise, when winter comes, we will have to spend money on food relief, which will be a loss no matter how you look at it. So now he just wants to end this war quickly. Qin Zhen and others naturally knew Liu Bei's thoughts, and Zhuge Liang said directly: "Given the current situation, it is better to attack their hearts than to attack the city. Perhaps we can send an envoy to persuade them to surrender!" After hearing this, Qin Zhen shook his head and said slowly: "If Sun Ce surrenders, it will be difficult to deal with him. He is not Lu Bu, and our army will be difficult to control!" "In my opinion, why not lead the army to besiege the city, send a letter to the city, and persuade Sun Ce to surrender today!" "If you surrender, you can keep his body intact, and his family can be saved!" "If you don't surrender, our army will launch a strong attack at noon tomorrow. When the city is broken, all the prisoners in the city and their families will be killed!" "This way, we can force his soldiers to become alienated and force Sun Ce to surrender!" As soon as he said this, Zhuge Liang and Lao Liu could not help but be surprised. It should be noted that Qin Zhen has always valued the lives of his soldiers, especially captured soldiers. But now this strategy directly sentences these soldiers to death. If Sun Ce insists on not surrendering, they will obviously execute him when the city is broken! After all, military orders are the most important in the army. If he announces this time that they will not be killed, then their threats in the future will have no deterrent effect! But the condition Qin Zhen offered to Sun Ce to surrender was only to leave his body intact. This means that Sun Ce has to make a choice: everyone dies together, or Sun Ce dies alone.

Liu Bei heard this and thought for a moment, then frowned and said: "Although this plan is feasible, is it too hasty?" "In the past, Lü Bu had not surrendered, and he was able to avoid defeat. Now, if Sun Ce surrenders, he will only have his body intact." "Even if Sun Ce is difficult to control, we can still spare his life and slowly deal with it!" In fact, compared to saving Lu Bu's life, Liu Bei would rather keep Sun Ce. Because Sun Ce gave him a really good impression and was much more pleasing to the eye than Lu Bu. If he could recruit Sun Ce as a general, he would still like to give it a try. But when Qin Zhen saw his expression, he knew what he was thinking, and shook his head and said: "I know you admire Sun Ce's bravery, but Sun Ce is different from Lu Bu." "The reason why Lu Bu was tolerated by our army was because he made enemies everywhere and alienated his officers and soldiers." "However, Sun Ce is wise and brave, and everyone in the world knows that, with Zhou Yu as his assistant, if we allow him to do this, he will surely cause great disaster sooner or later." "So Sun Ce must not be allowed to stay, at most his family should be kept." "In this way, the generals under his command will be leaderless, and our army can use him with peace of mind." "Otherwise, even if Jiangdong is taken over in the future, it will be difficult to use the people under his command." "Rather than using Sun Ce alone, our army should place more emphasis on the talented people under his command." "Furthermore, the reason why Sun Ce's army has not surrendered yet is because our army has been too benevolent and righteous in the past, and it is difficult to deter those rebels!" "If we spare Lu Bu once, we can win people's hearts. If we spare Sun Ce, they will all be lucky in the future, and our army will never have peace!" Compared with Liu Bei's inclination to keep Sun Ce, he preferred to kill Sun Ce to establish his authority. After all, they had given Sun Ce chances, but Sun Ce still resisted stubbornly, so they had to give him a thundering blow. If Sun Ce does not surrender now, not only Sun Ce will die in the future, but his entire family will also die. Similarly, if in this situation the soldiers in the city are still unwilling to surrender. Then they should be even more ruthless and let the people of Jiangdong know that they are not just based on benevolence and righteousness. If you dare to rebel, I'm sorry, your entire clan will be exterminated and your bones will be crushed to ashes! This was indeed contrary to the benevolent policy he had always pursued, but it was better than getting a Jiangdong full of hidden dangers. He prefers to eliminate all hidden dangers in the bud. After listening to his explanation, Liu Bei remained silent for a while, while Zhuge Liang understood and nodded: "Mingsir, what you said makes sense. In troubled times, severe punishments should be used." "Sun Ce has resisted so stubbornly until now. If we don't kill him, it will be difficult to explain to our soldiers who died in the battle." Seeing that Zhuge Liang also joined in the persuasion, Liu Bei no longer hesitated: "Well, since you two have advised me in this way, then our army will act accordingly!" "I just hope Sun Lang can think of his soldiers and stop killing them."

At that moment, he directly ordered to move the camp, and led his army towards Piling, dividing it into four camps to surround Piling. At the same time, in Piling City, Sun Ce seemed to be dreaming. In the dream, there was no Liu Bei and no Qin Zhen. He participated in the campaign against Yuan Shu, gained the entire territory of Jiangdong, led his elite troops to attack Jingzhou, beheaded Huang Zu, and avenged his father. Under his command, a group of civil and military officials worked together to assist him in building a great cause. On the day of his enthronement, he smiled knowingly as he looked at the familiar figures. But suddenly, the sky and the earth changed color, and Liu Bei appeared. He worked with Qin Zhen to submerge the dynasty he had just established with a flood. Seeing this, he tried his best to resist, pointing to the sky and cursing, but he could only watch the familiar figures sink into the water one by one. Chen Wu, Song Qian, Ling Cao, Dong Xi, Huang Gai, Han Dang, Deng Dang, Xu Yi, Lü Fan, and Lü Meng. Until Cheng Pu was also submerged, he could no longer hold back his anger and shouted: "Old Liu Bei, don't try to kill my generals. Do you dare to fight me?" He opened his eyes while shouting, and it was as if nothing had happened. He saw an empty room. Sun Ce wanted to move, but he felt a sharp pain in his body, which made him gasp. He looked at himself and saw that he was covered in bandages. Before he could make a move, a guard outside the house saw his abnormality and said in surprise: "My lord is awake? My lord is awake! Commander-in-chief, my lord is awake." "Where is this place? Go and get me a bowl of water to quench my thirst!" When Sun Ce looked at the appearance of his personal guards, he felt thirsty and asked for water quickly. But before he could finish his words, he saw his guards shouting and walking out. After a while, footsteps were heard in the corridor, and Zhou Yu, dressed in military uniform, walked into the room. Seeing him wake up, she quickly walked over to him, squatted beside the couch, forced out a smile and said: "Brother, you woke up early. I thought you needed to sleep for a few more days!" Seeing the tired look on Zhou Yu's face, Sun Ce forced himself to stand up: "Gongjin, go and get me a bowl of water. Where exactly is this place? How long have I slept?" When Zhou Yu heard him asking for water, he turned around and picked up the water jar on the bedside to get some water. When he heard him ask, he sighed: "Brother, have you forgotten everything? This place is Piling!" "When my brother was retreating yesterday, he was ambushed by the enemy. Fortunately, he was protected by his personal guards and was able to enter the city." "Because my brother fought to exhaustion, he has been resting since entering the city." "Although I am thirsty, my brother has lost too much blood and cannot drink water." "You can only take a small sip to moisten your lips, and wait until your blood and qi are restored before you can drink directly." Having said this, he brought the bowl of water all the way to Sun Ce.

Sun Ce took the bowl of water and immediately recalled that it was indeed the case. It was Cheng Pu who protected him and helped him escape yesterday. He fell off his horse due to exhaustion due to multiple injuries and was carried back to the palace by his personal guards. Thinking of this, he felt a flash of light in his mind, and suddenly grabbed Zhou Yu's hand and said: "My dear brother, where is Mr. Cheng now? Where is Ziming now? Where are Gongyi, Guoyi and the others?" But as soon as he asked the question, Zhou Yu's expression became a little gloomy. He seemed to want to force a smile, but he couldn't hide his sadness, so he finally closed his eyes. Although this action did not say a word, it expressed a lot. When Sun Ce saw this, he shuddered and looked down at the bowl in his hand. The water seemed to reflect his disheveled face, yet it also seemed as if there was nothing in it. Subconsciously, he swallowed his saliva, picked up the bowl absentmindedly and took a sip. But suddenly, he felt a fishy taste in his throat and could not bear it any longer, so he vomited a mouthful of blood. Seeing this, Zhou Yu hurriedly took the bowl of water, stroked Sun Ce's back and said anxiously: "Brother was just injured yesterday, how can you be so angry!" But as soon as he said this, Sun Ce burst into tears and said: "Mr. Cheng, Ziming, and Gongyi, I have harmed you all!" "If I hadn't insisted on sending troops, you wouldn't have ended up like this. It really pains me!" Zhou Yu watched her crying and felt sorry for her, so he wanted to say some words of advice. But when the words came to his mouth, he couldn't say anything. After a long silence, he whispered: "Brother, why don't we surrender to Liu Bei now!" (End of this chapter)