My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 124 Liu Xuande is a man of integrity and righteousness

Zhou Yu actually appeared in Chu County, and as the magistrate of Chu. This was something that no one in Liu Bei's camp had expected.

Even Zhuge Liang, the wisest man in the world, and Zhuge Jin, the time traveler, could not have imagined that—

Especially Zhuge Jin, the "Records of the Three Kingdoms" he had read clearly wrote that before Zhou Yu defected to Sun Ce, he asked to be the Juchao Order.

Moreover, just two months ago, when Lu Su crossed the river, he helped Zhou Yu deliver a letter to Sun Ce. Later, when Sun Ce replied, Zhuge Jin did not withhold it, but openly sent someone to deliver it back to Zhou Yu, that is, to Juchao County.

The combined effect of so many layers of darkness under the lamp made Zhuge Jin not think much about it.

Little did he know that it was the reply letter he asked someone to send to Zhou Yu on behalf of Lu Su that caused the butterfly effect.

Zhou Yu applied for the post of Juchao magistrate half a year ago. At that time, he had a premonition that Yuan Shu might proclaim himself emperor and wanted to lay some groundwork for his escape. Juchao County had an advantage. It was the last county along the Ruxu River and upstream of Ruxukou.

Therefore, once you decide to escape, starting from there, as long as you break through the last pass of Ruxukou, you can directly cross the Yangtze River, which is very convenient.

However, Zhou Yu had originally planned very well, but because of the appearance of Zhuge Jin, he was forced to change his plan.

When Zhou Yu made his plan, Chungu County on the other side of Ruxukou was still the territory of Zulang, a bandit from Danyang. Zulang had no navy and could not stop patrols along the river. Not far downstream from Chungu was Wuhu, which was controlled by Sun Ce. Zhou Yu rushed out of the Yangtze River from Ruxukou and sailed downstream to Wuhu, where he would be safe and would not be intercepted by Yuan's army.

However, the reply sent by Lu Su brought Zhou Yu more latest information about Jiangnan. After Zhou Yu synchronized these intelligence, he was shocked to find that Chungu on the other side of Ruxukou had been occupied by Zhuge Jin! Even Wuhu of Bofu had been occupied by Zhuge's family!

The Zhuge family also had a powerful navy that could patrol the river. This was how Zi Jing was intercepted by Taishi Ci!
After Lu Su's test, Zhou Yu dared not take the risk again. He unfolded the map again and took a closer look. He found that Sun Ce only had Niuzhu and Moling on the south bank of the Yangtze River, while the other side was still Yuan Shu's territory.

In other words, to ensure his absolute safety in escape, it was not enough to ask for the position of Juchao magistrate. Zhou Yu also had to use his connections to ask another local official to do the job.

At that time, Zhou Yu could choose Wujiang County, Tangyi County, or Chu County, which was the next best option. So he asked for permission to go to the front line to help Yuan Shu defend the territory, saying that he was willing to help His Majesty resist Liu Bei.

Yuan Shu was not stupid either. He knew that Zhou Yu had a good relationship with Sun Ce, so he was unwilling to place him in Hekou County along the Yangtze River. Therefore, Tangyi, the "first choice", was rejected and placed in Chu County.

In Yuan Shu's view, Chu County is like Juchao County, and it is impossible to escape directly, because there is a barrier at the river mouth outside. Tangyi County is at the mouth of Tushui River, which is the same as Ruxukou. In this way, Zhou Yu's land warfare talent can be used to defend the land without worrying about escaping through the Yangtze River.

All of this made it possible for Zhou Yu to finally find his new escape base in Chu County after two months of hard work.

When Zhang Fei invaded, Zhou Yu had been in Chu County for less than ten days. Because of the short time and the fact that Chu was surrounded by mountains, the information from scouts was slow to be transmitted, and Liu Bei's army was unaware of the latest situation when making plans.

……

At this moment, the two armies suddenly met. Zhang Fei heard that the person on the opposite side was a surrendered general who was willing to leave Yuan Shu, and his first reaction was naturally joy.

But he soon realized that the other party was actually here to surrender to Sun Ce, and he had also vaguely heard of the name Zhou Yu, who seemed to be a man under Yuan Shu who had a good relationship with Sun Ce...

However, Zhang Fei didn't know more details, because Zhou Yu was not very famous at that time. Zhang Fei had rarely paid attention to southern figures before, and he was not good at judging people.

Therefore, Zhang Fei simply ordered each unit to be on guard in a rough but subtle way without pointing out any danger, and then took the initiative to meet them, secretly surrounding Zhou Yu's troops on three sides as they were floating downstream.

All this sounds complicated, but it actually took only a cup of tea to complete. Although Zhou Yu was extremely intelligent, the joy of reuniting with Sun Ce made him temporarily relax his guard. When he realized that something was wrong, it was already difficult to retreat.

When Zhou Yu looked at the situation, he realized that the people coming had many times more troops than him, and he only had a few hundred of his own men with guaranteed combat effectiveness. The remaining more than a thousand soldiers were local county soldiers under Yuan Shu and had never been trained at all.

Just when Zhou Yu was alert, Zhang Fei saw that the two armies were about to meet and the other side would not retreat easily, so he finally showed up and shouted, revealing his identity: "Our army is under the command of the General Zhengnan! We are ordered to attack the rebel Yuan Shu. If you are willing to abandon darkness and join the light, the court will pardon you and retain you!

Guangling Commander Zhang Fei is here! Tangyi County has been captured by our army! If you are a loyal warrior who wants to surrender, why don’t you surrender early! "

Zhou Yu was shocked: I was deceived! It turned out to be Liu Bei's troops!
He immediately assessed the situation quickly. He had been careless for a moment. The two armies had approached him to the point where there was no room for retreat. Zhang Fei's troops had surrounded him on three sides. If he wanted to resist at this time, he would be sending his comrades to die in vain.

Moreover, before he came, he had already mobilized them and came to surrender and attack the troops. He also told the soldiers that Yuan Shu would definitely be defeated, so that everyone would have a unified idea.

This was equivalent to destroying the morale of Yuan's soldiers first. Now it would be extremely difficult to encourage them before the battle! How could the soldiers have the will to fight?
If a fight really breaks out, it is estimated that only a few hundred of his own direct subordinates will follow suit, and the rest will simply lay down their weapons.

These considerations are complicated, but in fact Zhou Yu only thought them through in less than ten seconds after Zhang Fei gave the order.

The situation was stronger than the person. Under the pressure of life and death, Zhou Yu was forced to come up with a plan. He immediately chose to surrender on the surface, walked towards Zhang Fei, and bowed deeply:
"So it's Captain Zhang under the command of General Zhengnan? I've long heard of General Zhengnan's benevolence and righteousness. We are being held hostage by the Yuan thieves, and we look forward to the royal army like a long-awaited rain after a long drought! As long as the royal army of the court attacks, our army is willing to abandon darkness and join the light, so why should we be so particular about who to surrender to?

Captain Zhang, please don't give up. I will have to ask Captain Zhang to introduce me to the General Zhengnan in the future! If you can say a few good words and not pursue the sin of serving the false dynasty, the entire Zhou family in Lujiang will be grateful. "

Zhang Fei has always admired celebrities. Hearing Zhou Yu being so humble, and seeing that Zhou Yu was handsome, elegant and had an extraordinary demeanor, he immediately relaxed his guard.

In order to get Zhang Fei to stop being wary of him, Zhou Yu even took the initiative to say, "Captain Zhang, two-thirds of these troops are the county soldiers left behind by the Yuan thief. I can't really control them. If you want to disarm them and reorganize them, that's fine. But after all, they defected in the middle of the battle, not captured after being defeated. Please give them some respect, Captain."

When Zhang Fei heard that the enemy was willing to surrender their weapons, he felt relieved at their sincerity and soon started chatting with Zhou Yu. He asked about Zhou Yu's background and when he learned that two generations of the Zhou family in Lujiang had produced Taiwei, Zhang Fei was in awe and took out some wine to toast Zhou Yu.

"Don't worry, County Magistrate Zhou! I will recommend you to my elder brother when I get back. You are from a famous family, but Yuan Shu only wants you to be a county magistrate? He deserves to be destroyed for his blindness! Come on, come on, drink! I, Zhang, respect scholars like you the most."

Zhou Yu drank a few sips with him, and then took the initiative to propose: "Since Tangyi has been taken, I would like to take Captain Zhang to take over Chuxian. With my personal surrender, the whole city will be taken over without bloodshed.

But Chu County is still sixty or seventy miles away, so we can't get there today. We have to camp in the wild at night. I wonder if you want to go there immediately, or rest in Tangyi first? I would like to go back earlier. It was too urgent to go out this morning, and my family hasn't settled down yet. "

Zhang Fei originally still had a little bit of caution, but when he heard Zhou Yu mention his family, and casually glanced at the military formation, he saw that Zhou Yu brought only combat soldiers and indeed had no family, so Zhang Fei felt more relieved.

Zhang Fei thought about it and ordered: "If that's the case, then let's set off immediately. It's a distance of 70 miles anyway, and we won't be able to cover it in a day if we set off tomorrow. Let's go 20 to 30 miles today and set up camp at night."

This morning, Zhou Yu learned that Sun Ce was going to attack at midnight yesterday, and he hurriedly led his troops to support him.

But the way there was to go downstream along the Tushui River. Mountain rivers have a large drop in elevation and a fast flow. The speed of marching downstream and upstream can differ by more than twice, so the return journey cannot be completed in one day no matter what.

Zhou Yu remained calm and followed Zhang Fei's instructions. That evening, when they had traveled about 20 miles upstream from Tangyi to Tushui, it was already dark, so Zhang Fei ordered them to set up camp. Yuan Shu's soldiers were all disarmed, but Zhang Fei was not worried. He drank with Zhou Yu and fell asleep drunk.

There was no conversation that night. The next day, Zhang Fei sent someone to invite Zhou Yu again, wanting to talk to him again. As a result, his officers soon came back to report:
"General Zhang, Zhou Yu is missing! And his trusted followers are also missing!"

"What?" After hearing this, Zhang Fei's remaining drunkenness from last night completely disappeared, and he quickly sent someone to look for him.

He was also afraid that something had happened to Chu County and Tangyi, so he sent people on high speed to confirm. He learned that Tangyi was fine and Chu County had not yet been taken over. He did not care about anything else for the time being, and led his troops on a forced march of 50 miles to take over Chu County.

After arriving in Chu County, they confirmed that the Zhou family members were still there, but Zhou Yu could not be found. Zhang Fei finally concluded that the other party was pretending to praise him and be close to him yesterday, but in fact he wanted to take advantage of his let down guard to escape.

"Alas, I let that guy run away to join Sun Ce! But it's not all in vain. At least I took Chu County without bloodshed, and I also picked up 1,500 surrendered county soldiers. How to deal with these families? I'll go back and ask my eldest brother." Zhang Fei could only think so. ...

Three days later, Zhang Fei roughly completed the occupation of Chu County and the surrounding areas of Tangyi, and immediately sent people down the river to Guangling to deliver a letter.

Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin were also very concerned about Zhang Fei's progress. When they heard about the good news, they came to see it as soon as possible.

Liu Bei seemed very satisfied when he saw that Zhang Fei had captured two counties with almost no casualties and captured three to four thousand surrendered soldiers.

When he saw what happened to Zhou Yu, Liu Bei just frowned slightly, but did not react too strongly.

Only Zhuge Jin, when he saw all this, almost slapped his thigh in regret:

"Zhou Yu?! How could Zhou Yu appear in Chu County? Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Isn't he the Juchao Order?! Could it be..."

Zhuge Jin felt his brain freeze for a moment, and then he carefully pondered the clues provided in Zhang Fei's victory report, and then he regretted it:

"I should have thought of this earlier! I allowed someone to send a reply to him on behalf of Lu Su! After he read the reply, he would definitely adjust his escape plan! What a pity! If my intelligence had been more timely, I would have been able to stop him!"

At that moment, Zhuge Jin felt that this must be retribution. Before, Lu Su did not know that Wuhu had been occupied by him because of the lack of smooth intelligence, and ended up falling into the trap.

Now, because of the poor intelligence on Yuan Shu, I didn't know Zhou Yu had come to Chu County. Otherwise, what would it mean to just take two counties and three or four thousand surrendered soldiers? I must capture Zhou Yu!
Now that things have come to this point, Zhang Fei cannot be blamed. A military commander like Zhang Fei was only carrying out his own plan. How could he be expected to perform exceptionally well and complete things with his own subjective initiative if he had not given instructions?

Zhuge Jin was still a little unwilling, and hurriedly suggested: "Sir, fortunately Zhou Yu had already discovered that he was surrounded by Yide, so he didn't dare to act rashly and could only sneak away on a whim. His family is still in Chu County, and I don't know how to deal with them..."

However, Liu Bei did not intend to use this bargaining chip.

Perhaps he had not yet realized how powerful Zhou Yu was, and felt that it was not worth ruining his reputation for benevolence and righteousness for a determined man.

Liu Bei said frankly: "A real man has his own rules and his own refrains. Last year, when Lü Bu attacked Xuzhou, he still returned my family to me. I should not use other people's families as a threat. Moreover, Zhou Yu was a man of quick wits. He knew that he was misunderstood and in danger, but he still responded flexibly and would rather abandon his family to join Sun Ce.

If I detained his family, I would only be making enemies in vain. It would be better to show mercy to others, so that when we attack Yuan Shu next year, Sun Ce will be grateful and not come to cause trouble - by the way, what kind of friendship do Zhou Yu have with Sun Ce that he is so determined to abandon his family business and surrender?"

Zhuge Jin sighed: "Maybe it's just like Yunchang and the envoy."

Liu Bei's expression became solemn. "Since you are so righteous, we will certainly help you. Sir, you don't have to mind not being able to keep this person. Let's make a good relationship."

……

At the same time, on the south bank of the Yangtze River, in Moling City.

Sun Ce, accompanied by more than a hundred personal guards, rode at full speed and finally arrived, exhausted.

Two days ago, after he had just eliminated Yan Baihu's brother Yan Yu in front of the Qiantang Army, he learned the news that Zhou Yu had gone through many hardships and brought hundreds of troops across the river to surrender.

Sun Ce was overjoyed and did not even bother to count the results of the battle to annihilate Yan Yu. He rode his horse back to Moling.

"Gongjin! You finally escaped from Yuan Shu! I missed you so much! How are your sister-in-law and nephew? How are all the family members?" As soon as he saw Zhou Yu, Sun Ce rushed to him and shook his arm and talked happily.

Zhou Yu's expression was gloomy, but he just forced a smile and said, "I fell into some trap and was almost trapped. Finally, I stole a boat and fled at night. I went through a lot of hardships to get my family from Juchao to Chu County, but I didn't expect that I would fail in the end and didn't bring them out."

Sun Ce was shocked: "Yuan is a ruthless thief. If I don't bring my family with me, won't they be murdered? Then I will be harming my family! No, absolutely not. I will lead the army to Chu County right now. No matter whether I can rescue my family or not, at least I will give it a try. Maybe the local officials have not dared to act rashly. Seeing the threat of our army, they will think twice."

Zhou Yu shook his head painfully. "Chu County is no longer Yuan Shu's territory. It was just captured by General Liu Bei. My brother is now a Han official again. How can he start a war with other colleagues who are fighting against rebellion? I also thought at that time that Liu Bei is known for his benevolence, unlike Yuan Shu. Moreover, Liu Bei has no grudge against us, so he should not murder my family. Perhaps we can use other methods to slowly deal with it..."

After being persuaded like this, Sun Ce calmed down and said that he didn't need to use troops immediately, but he still had to make careful plans in case of an emergency.

After being disturbed by the affairs of Zhou Yu's family, the two of them lost the mood to drink and celebrate. The joy of brotherly reunion was also completely overshadowed. For the whole afternoon, both of them sighed intermittently and had no interest in talking about anything.

Seeing that it was almost evening, Sun Ce persuaded Zhou Yu that even if he was in a bad mood, he still had to eat and not ruin his health.

After the wine and food were served, a scout suddenly ran in from outside the gate and reported: "General! There are more than a dozen warships coming from the north bank of the river. Sima Zhou sent people to intercept them at first, but they raised a flag and said that they were sent by Liu Bei to return Lord Zhou's family, so Sima Zhou let them land at the pier."

"What? Liu Bei actually returned my family for free? Is there some conspiracy?" Zhou Yu couldn't believe it, but when faced with the good news, he and Sun Ce got on their horses and galloped out of the city to the river.

After a while, the two sides met again. When Zhou Yu saw his wife, son, and other family members, the sense of unreality finally dissipated.

He hugged his wife and children for a while, and then sighed to Sun Ce, "I heard that Liu Bei was attacked by Lu Bu and captured Xiapi. Although Lu Bu returned his family, it took several months for Liu Bei to send people to beg for it.

Perhaps Liu Bei could understand the pain of family separation, and he took the initiative to send us back without waiting for us to ask. In such a chaotic world, there are still such trustworthy people. No wonder Zi Jing didn't want to escape after being detained by him.

After all, Zi Jing and his brother have no friendship, only trust and promise. If he fulfills his promise, he can be independent. When I heard that he stayed, I still complained in my heart, but now I can only say that everyone has their own aspirations. "

Sun Ce also had some resentment for Lu Su's departure. However, he did not resent Lu Su himself, but felt that it must be Zhuge Jin who was despicable and vicious, who detained Lu Su's relatives and forced Lu Su to surrender to Liu Bei.

Thinking about it now, he was actually a little shaken and embarrassed.

"Could it be that Zi Jing felt that Liu Bei was kind and trustworthy, and voluntarily stayed? He is indeed a formidable enemy. After Yuan Shu and Wang Lang are defeated in the future, our two armies will surely have a battle. How should we deal with such a formidable enemy then?"

Sun Ce pondered in his heart, and his alertness was greatly increased, but there was also a hint of excitement and eagerness to try.

He liked to have a fair fight with an upright enemy. The excitement and passion he felt was really satisfying.

　Seeing that so many people criticized me for the poor placement of chapters, I had to suddenly feel guilty and add 5,000 words.

　　Today I have reached 28 words. Looking at the backstage this month, I have updated every day, and I have reached words.

　　Also, now that I have added this update, the next update tomorrow morning will definitely be a little later, and it will definitely not be available by 8 o'clock. I have 0 words in reserve now, and all of them are gone overnight.

　　So, that, I shamelessly ask for monthly votes (but there is no need to rush, you can vote in a few days, I don’t know if there will be any activities at the end of the month)... In fact, those who have read my books for many years know that I haven’t asked for monthly votes in ten years, because I know I can’t make the list. These are the games of the great gods, the water is too deep, why bother to wade into this muddy water.

　　But today I was notified that if I reach 6000 votes by the end of the month (currently it’s only 2400, which seems to be a long way off, I don’t know if there will be any month-end activities this month, I don’t really understand), it seems that next month I can give some coins to book friends who check in, so that everyone can get some money back when reading the book, so I’ll try to ask…

　　If it's too far off, I'll just give up next month and won't bother you any more...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)