Chapter 2533: Sun Wu besieged Wei to save Zhao, and Zheng Chenggong deceived himself to protect himself
Chapter 2533: Sun Wu surrounded Wei to rescue Zhao, Zheng Chenggong pretended to surrender to protect himself
Sun Wu, who had just arrived in Wan County, had just set up camp when he learned that Sun Ce had succeeded in his surprise attack and had captured Xunyang City. He immediately led his troops to break camp and leave for Xunyang.
But when they arrived in Xunyang, Sun Wu did not see Sun Ce. He asked the guard general to inquire and found out that Sun Ce had led his army to continue attacking Qichun City.
Sun Wu's expression suddenly changed and he said angrily: "This is simply nonsense. Going deep alone is risky, but we must do it one by one, otherwise it will be easy to be ambushed.
Now that the eastern part of Chu State is empty of troops, our two armies on the waterway are marching together. We can achieve success by just fighting steadily, so why take this risk?
Why don't you persuade the prince?"
Zhu Heng, the guard general, complained bitterly in his heart when he heard this, and explained: "I reported it to the Commander-in-Chief, and the general persuaded me, but the prince wanted to capture Wu Zhiqi alive, and he said that Guo Ziyi was incompetent, so this risk cannot be considered a risk at all.
The prince insists on going his own way, and even the general cannot persuade him."
Hearing this, Sun Wu took a deep breath and became increasingly helpless at Sun Ce's recklessness. Obviously, this was not the first time that Sun Ce showed his bravery.
Sun Wu knew that Sun Ce saw Wu Zhiqi's strength and was happy to see Wu Zhiqi. He wanted to capture Wu Zhiqi alive so that he could add a strong general to Wu.
The idea itself is not wrong, but it is not the approach either.
Putting the entire army at risk for one person is undoubtedly picking up sesame seeds but losing watermelons, and it is very possible that Sun Ce was doing all this on his own initiative.
Even if Wu Zhiqi is still a low-ranking official, he may not be willing to surrender to Wu after being captured alive.
Sun Ce's behavior reminded Sun Wu of himself back then.
Sun Wu was kind enough to help Tao Qian, but he was tricked by Tao Qian and was eventually captured alive by Zhu Yuanzhang. This became the darkest moment in Sun Wu's life.
At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to conquer Sun Wu, and Sun Wu also clearly told Zhu Yuanzhang that he would rather die than join in with him.
But Zhu Yuanzhang was not discouraged when he was rejected. Instead, he asked him about his welfare and tried to influence Sun Wu at all costs.
Once Sun Wu found an opportunity to escape, but was captured by Zhu Yuanzhang. In order to prevent Sun Wu from escaping again, Zhu Yuanzhang could only cripple Sun Wu's skills, cut off his martial arts foundation, and make him unable to advance for the rest of his life, so he could specialize in the art of war.
Except for this incident, Zhu Yuanzhang was not unkind to Sun Wu, but this was just self-righteousness and sentimentality, and he did not ask Sun Wu how he felt.
Even if Sun Wu was not deposed, it would be impossible for Sun Wu to submit to Zhu Yuanzhang, let alone Zhu Yuanzhang derailing his martial arts path, so Zhu Yuanzhang was naturally wasting his efforts.
What Sun Ce is doing now is no different from Zhu Yuanzhang's in Sun Wu's opinion. They are both self-righteous and sentimental.
If you want to conquer Wu Zhiqi, have you ever understood them? Have you ever asked them what they think?
You don’t know anything, you know nothing, but you dare to take such a big risk. What else is this if it’s not being conceited?
Sun Wu was very angry now. He felt that Sun Ce had not made any progress at all and was still so reckless and rash, but there was nothing he could do about it. Who made him the crown prince of Wu?
Sun Ce made a mistake, and as his uncle, Sun Wu naturally had to wipe his ass.
"General Zhu Heng, you immediately lead an army of 10,000 to respond... Forget it, let me personally lead the army to respond to the prince. The prince now only wants to capture Wu Zhiqi. Even if you go there, you won't be able to persuade him."
Sun Wu said with a headache. He was actually very tired now. After all, he had not had much rest during the continuous march. However, in order to prevent Sun Ce from continuing to advance rashly, he had to work hard again.
In this way, the main force of the Wu army arrived in Xunyang. Before any rest and recuperation, Sun Wu led an army of 10,000 people and marched in the direction of Qichun.
One day later, Sun Wu arrived in Qichun and saw that there were no shouts of killing inside and outside the city. The flag on the city tower was also changed to the flag with the word "Wu". Sun Wu knew that Sun Ce had contributed to the city, so he immediately identified himself and led his troops into the city to rest.
But after Sun Wu entered the city and asked the guard Chen Wu, he learned that Sun Ce was no longer in the city, but led his army to continue to pursue Guo Ziyi, heading towards Zhu County.
"You're a reckless man, you're a reckless man."
Sun Wu angrily cursed Sun Ce. After all, going deep alone can only be done once and twice, but Sun Ce actually did it three times.
Sun Wu was angry and a little disappointed at the same time. He felt that Sun Ce could not change his reckless personality at all. If such a reckless man became the king of Wu, would it be a blessing or a curse for the country of Wu?
Chen Wu saw the disappointment in Sun Wu's eyes, so he began to defend Sun Ce: "The governor, Guo Ziyi, was defeated one after another. The morale of the army was depleted and there was not much power to fight back. Therefore, although the prince's move was a bit reckless, it was not too serious.
Take the risk."
Hearing this, Sun Wu snorted coldly: "There is no risk? How do you know that Guo Ziyi is not faking defeat and luring the prince to go deep alone?"
"this……"
Chen Wu was startled and said: "This is unlikely. Guo Ziyi holds several fortified cities, but he can't even fight back against our army. He is just a loser. How can he have the courage to lure the prince to go deep alone?
"
"If Guo Ziyi is really a waste, how can Liu Xiu let him succeed Song Que as the governor of Lujiang?"
Sun Wu asked back, but Chen Wu was speechless, hesitating and unable to speak.
After all, Liu Xiu is very accurate in judging people. If Guo Ziyi is really a waste, there is no way he will become the prefect of Lujiang in the Chu Kingdom.
Sun Wu was not sure if this was Guo Ziyi's plan, but as a soldier, he instinctively had a bad feeling in his heart, so he stood up and said to Chen Wuda:
"General Chen, you are responsible for guarding Qichun City. I will lead the army to meet the prince."
"promise."
Less than an hour after Sun Wu entered the city, he led his army to set off again. The army marched less than ten miles to the west when they met Li Hu, Li Yang and other generals who had fled back.
Seeing the unconscious Lihu and the seriously injured Liyang, Sun Wu still didn't understand and quickly asked: "Where is the prince?"
Li Yang said bitterly: "The Governor, Guo Ziyi adopted a double ambush strategy. The prince led us to kill the ambush in Wohu Mountain, but we didn't expect that there was another way at Tianping Mountain. As a result, we were ambushed by Guo Ziyi and the entire army was wiped out.
The prince and the second brother are both alive and dead, and only two of us brothers managed to escape."
"What?"
All the Wu generals, including Sun Wu, couldn't help but exclaimed, and many even had their eyes blackened.
Although the entire army was wiped out with only 8,000 troops, they included the Jiefan Army, the most powerful force in the Wu Kingdom. In addition, the prince Sun Ce also did not know whether he was alive or dead. How could he tell his master about this?
"How far away is your ambush location from here?"
"Why is it that you are the only ones who escaped but the prince didn't?"
"Is it still too late to go to the rescue now?"
"Why..."
The generals came to Kaihua Temple and questioned Liyang at all times, and they were all so excited that Liyang didn't know whose question to answer first.
"That's enough, shut up, Commander."
After Sun Wu roared angrily, all the generals shut up.
After Sun Wu glanced at the generals, he said in a deep voice: "Don't worry, the Chu State is probably just trying to capture the prince alive to force our army to retreat. It shouldn't kill the prince. We still have a chance to rescue the prince."
Hearing Sun Wu's words, all the generals breathed a sigh of relief, as long as they didn't die.
Immediately, Sun Wu ordered people to escort Li Sheep and Li Hu back to Qichun City, while he himself led an army to meet Sun Ce.
When Sun Wu arrived at Tianping Mountain, it was already dark.
As Sun Wu expected, Guo Ziyi led his army and left, leaving nothing behind except corpses everywhere.
"Grand Governor, all the corpses have been searched, but the prince's body has not been found. It must have been captured by the Chu army." Zhou Tai said solemnly.
"Grand Governor, Guo Ziyi actually retreated to Zhu County, should we pursue him too?" Ling Tong said.
"There is no rush. We still don't know the strength of the enemy's army. If we advance rashly, we may occasionally be put in danger. Let's send spies to find out the situation in E County first."
Sun Wu said in a deep voice, and immediately sent detective horses to E County to find out the situation. However, 40,000 soldiers from the Chu Kingdom were surrounding Zhu County.
Sun Wu thought for a moment and then muttered: "It seems that General Zheng Zhilong has only just conquered Zhu County on his front foot, and he has been besieged by Liu Yu on his back foot, making him unable to advance or retreat.
Guo Ziyi calculated all this accurately. Not only did he ambush Bo Fu, he also wanted to devour Zheng Zhilong's troops."
"But in that case, why didn't Liu Xiu attack the city?"
Sun Wu also felt a little strange about this, and after much deliberation he could only conclude that Zheng Zhilong should have used a special method to frighten Liu Xiu, or pretended to surrender, or something else, so Liu Xiucai did not attack the city immediately.
Sun Wu's guess was correct. Zheng Chenggong knew that it would be extremely difficult to defend Zhu County with only their small force, so he offered Zheng Zhilong a false surrender plan.
Zheng Chenggong suggested that he could pretend to surrender to Liu Xiu first, but in reality it was just to delay the arrival of reinforcements.
In order to implement the fake surrender smoothly, Zheng Chenggong personally entered the Chu camp and told Liu Xiucheng that his father and his son were willing to surrender. However, most of the generals in the army were loyal to the Sun family and were unwilling to surrender to Kaicheng. If the father and his son went against the will of the people,
, I am afraid that they will be held hostage by the generals below, so I hope Liu Xiu can give them a few days, and then surrender immediately after these people are dealt with.
Naturally, Liu Xiu would not fully believe Zheng Chenggong's words, but he did not see Zheng Chenggong's flaws. In addition, he also had a sense of luck in his heart, so he made the same mistake as Xue Rengui.
Liu Xiu warned Zheng Chenggong not to lie to him, and then promised to give Zheng Chenggong two days, after which he would attack the city no matter what.
In this way, Zheng Chenggong bought Zhu County two days. He didn't know whether reinforcements would arrive in two days, but other than that, he had no other option.
"Grand Governor, although I don't know why the Chu army did not attack the city, now is a good opportunity to rescue the prince. Rescue the prince," Ling Tong said.
"How to save?" Sun Wu asked.
Ling Tong said: "The Chu army has not discovered our existence yet, so it is completely reasonable for us to join forces and attack the Chu army outside the city."
"With our tens of thousands of exhausted troops? Even if we use Waihe, it is impossible to defeat the 40,000 Chu troops outside Zhu County, let alone rescue the prince."
Hearing Sun Wu's words, Ling Tong was speechless.
Although they are unwilling to admit it, under the continuous rapid march, their army of tens of thousands is already very tired, and its combat strength is only 50 to 60% of its peak.
Even if the army regains its combat effectiveness after a day's rest and cooperates with Zheng Zhilong inside the city, it may not be able to defeat Liu Xiu who is fighting outside the city.
This was not the first time that Sun Wu and Liu Xiu had faced off, and they knew how difficult the Chu army led by Liu Xiu was.
"Regardless of whether Liu Xiu can be defeated by internal and external cooperation, even if he can defeat him, he may not be able to rescue the prince. Bo Fu may not be in Liu Xiu's army now." Sun Wu sighed.
"Then what should we do? Is it too difficult not to save the prince?" Zhou Tai said with a look of unwillingness,
Sun Wu began to think about it, and soon he had a plan in mind, so he said: "Since Liu Xiu personally led the army to besiege Zhu County, Xiling City must be empty.
We can seize Xiling first. Once Liu Xiu learns that Xiling is in danger, he will naturally not care about Zhu County. He will definitely go to the rescue himself. By then, the crisis in Zhu County will be resolved.
In addition, Xiling is the most likely place to transfer Bo Fu besides Liu Xiu's army. Capturing Xiling can save Bo Fu.
Even if Bo Fu is not in Xiling City, as long as Xiling is captured, Xiling and the new city can be used to negotiate with the Chu army in exchange for Bo Fu."
Zhou Tai and Ling Tong looked at each other. They both felt that Sun Wu's plan was more risky than Sun Ce, but they still chose to believe Sun Wu out of trust.
Two days later, Zheng Chenggong did not surrender to the Chu army in Kaicheng as he had said before. Instead, he continued to delay, saying that it would take another day to completely eliminate the generals loyal to Soochow in the city.
Seeing this, Liu Xiu still didn't understand that he had been tricked by Zheng Chenggong, so he decisively ordered the entire army to attack the city. However, it didn't take long before he received an urgent report from Xiling.