novelAbuy Chapter 40: Huai'an shouldn't have gone! But thankfully, it was Huai'an who went!
Chapter 40: Huai'an shouldn't have gone! But thankfully, it was Huai'an who went!
Zhou Yu's men were caught off guard by this sudden counter-encirclement.
Some people turned to run, but were blocked by their own people behind them.
Someone tried to draw their bow and shoot an arrow, only to find that they had already thrown away their weapon.
Some people even knelt on the ground, their foreheads touching the ground, and shouted loudly, "I surrender."
Wu Jing first took away a batch of elite troops from Danyang County.
Another batch was swindled away by Liu Yao.
The true nature of the remaining people is self-evident.
The lieutenant rushed to Zhou Yu's side and said frantically, "My lord, forget about them, let's go!"
Zhou Yu stared at Liu Bei's soldiers who were slaughtering his own men in front of him.
His fingers gripped the hilt of the sword at his waist so tightly that his knuckles turned white from the force, and his face was terrifyingly gloomy.
Seeing Zhou Yu's appearance, the deputy general was so anxious that beads of sweat dripped from his forehead.
He was genuinely afraid that Zhou Yu might act rashly and rush forward to fight to the death.
Fortunately, Zhou Yu was not the impulsive type of person.
A moment later, his fingers loosened their grip on the sword hilt.
Zhou Yu let out a long breath.
As that breath of stale air was exhaled...
All the pride, resentment, and anger he had accumulated during this period vanished in an instant.
The lividity on Zhou Yu's face faded, replaced by an unusual calm.
"I underestimated the heroes of the world." His voice was not loud, but surprisingly calm:
"Lu Huai'an is indeed quite capable. Next time, I won't make the mistake of underestimating him again."
Zhou Yu is only nineteen years old this year, a time when he is young and ambitious, thinking he is the best in the world.
To be able to swallow his anger and quickly recover from a crushing defeat at this age shows that his mental fortitude surpasses that of most people.
Zhou Yu glanced back at Xu Sheng's direction one last time, then uttered a single word: "Go."
He then, together with his deputy and a dozen guards, took advantage of the chaos and ran into the dense forest to the south.
Xu Sheng saw someone running away and wanted to give chase.
But then he remembered Lu Yong's instructions to "only defeat them, not pursue them," so he stopped and turned back to continue directing the encirclement and annihilation of the remaining enemy forces.
The battle ended just fifteen minutes later.
Hundreds of corpses lay scattered along the mountain path, and more than three hundred people were kneeling on the ground.
The rest of the people scattered and fled.
Liu Bei's army suffered fewer than twenty casualties in total.
The other side never put up any decent resistance from beginning to end.
Xu Sheng led his men and prisoners out of the pine forest and set up camp in an open area.
The wildfires are out of control.
The fire burned up the mountainside, turning the sky a fiery red.
It's not possible to pass through Qingshan Road for the time being.
However, the number of people who crossed the river initially was not large, so it wouldn't hurt to wait a little longer.
Lu Yongzheng reined in his horse and stood outside the valley entrance to inspect the fire.
A system notification suddenly sounded in his mind.
[System Log: The host successfully foiled the ambush and countered it. Today's achievement +2.]
[Current Achievements Pending Settlement: 2 item.]
After hearing the system notification, a huge weight was finally lifted off my shoulders.
At this time,
The messenger sent back by Xu Sheng arrived on horseback.
He dismounted, approached Lu Yong, clasped his hands in greeting, and said:
"Strategist, our army has killed more than 150 enemy soldiers and captured more than 300."
The opposing leader, along with a dozen or so personal guards, fled south into the woods.
Lu Yong nodded slightly and asked, "Did you get a good look at the leader?"
"The light was too dim in the forest, so I couldn't see her face clearly."
However, the man was dressed in a scholar's robe and was very young, unlike an ordinary military officer.
"Scholar's robe".
young.
"A person who can mobilize over a thousand troops in Danyang County and set up a fire attack on Qingshan Road..."
Lu Yong frowned in thought, and a name involuntarily surfaced in his mind.
"Could it be him—Zhou Yu?"
"The governor of Danyang Commandery was Zhou Shang, Zhou Yu's cousin."
At this time, Zhou Yu had not yet formally joined Sun Ce, and it was not impossible for him to remain in Danyang County...
"If it really is him, we'll have to be even more careful in the future."
Lu Yong thought to himself,
He then glanced at the charred slopes on both sides of the mountain path and said to the messenger:
"We must wait until the fire is extinguished before we leave. Go tell Wenxiang to set up camp here, be on high alert, and wait for the main army to arrive."
"Yes, sir." The messenger mounted his horse and galloped away.
……
That evening,
News of the battle at the front lines reached Liu Bei.
Liu Bei is currently standing at the Ruxukou ferry crossing with Lu Su, personally directing the people to cross the river.
When Liu Bei heard the messenger say the words "ambush" and "oil," he was so scared that he almost jumped out of his skin.
Fortunately, the messenger wasn't out of breath.
He gave a detailed account of the situation on Qingshan Road in one go.
When it comes to the final part, Lu Yong saw through the ambush, turned the tables on the enemy, and achieved a great victory by setting up his own ambush,
Liu Bei then came to his senses and unconsciously patted his chest.
Liu Bei turned sharply to stare at Lu Su and asked, "What was I thinking back then? How could I have agreed to let him be the vanguard?"
Lu Su was baffled by Liu Bei's question.
Before he could answer, Liu Bei added, "Luckily, I agreed to let him play as the vanguard."
"..." Lu Su immediately swallowed back the words of comfort that were on the tip of his tongue.
Liu Bei paced back and forth a few times, then suddenly murmured with a hint of lingering fear:
"A fire attack on the mountain path... If someone else were to go, they might not be able to see through this scheme, and they would most likely be roasted alive."
"Only Huai'an could achieve this level of skill..."
As he said this, he couldn't help but shudder, and he really didn't dare to continue making assumptions.
Because, apart from Lu Yong,
His other generals
They might not be able to see through this scheme, and most likely they'll really be roasted alive.
The loss of either one would be an unbearable pain for Liu Bei, who was already struggling financially.
Lu Su stood quietly beside Liu Bei.
After Lu Yong left, he temporarily took over the duties of military advisor and helped Liu Bei manage the crossing of the river.
Once Liu Bei calmed down,
Lu Su finally spoke:
"To remain calm in the face of the enemy, to not be greedy for profit, to stop when one should stop, and to collect when one should collect—this is the mark of a strategist, no ordinary man!"
After hearing Lu Su's remark, Liu Bei looked up at him and replied with deep feeling, "Indeed... Sometimes I even feel that Huai'an is so composed that he doesn't seem like a young man who has just turned twenty."
The two exchanged a glance and smiled slightly.
Liu Bei suddenly frowned and said, "But there's something I really can't understand... Zijing, tell me, who exactly harbors such malice towards us, wanting to ambush us with fire oil in the mountain path?"
Lu Su had already thought about this issue.
He replied, "The only person who could mobilize several thousand troops within the territory of Danyang County and set up an ambush in the mountain roads is either Liu Yao or Sun Ce."
The battlefield is inherently treacherous, and people will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.
In order to prevent him from entering Jiangdong,
Set up an ambush,
That's understandable.
Liu Bei was not a naive and innocent girl.
After a moment of silence,
He silently quickened the pace of directing the people to cross the river.
……