My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 262: Wang Lang can take a retreat, why can't the Sun family take it?

After a decisive battle in which the enemy's manpower is annihilated on a large scale, there is often a wave of devastating conquests and territorial grabs. This is a natural law.

Sun Ce lost 20,000 soldiers in the Battle of Jiangyin. After the war, his defense line was full of loopholes. It was reasonable for Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu to take over several counties and block several choke points.

The Battle of Dantu was just a microcosm of this series of changes on the battle front. It was not that Zhou Yu was incompetent, but that there was really no solution. No matter who was the defending general, it would be useless in this situation.

Guan Yu's army finally captured Dantu County completely on May 23, and then spent two or three days clearing out the scattered remaining enemies in the city, forcing the prisoners to surrender, and restoring order.

On the other hand, Lu Su, who attacked Niuzhu from Wuhu, used similar methods and tried his hand at it, and finally captured Niuzhu at the end of May.

In a nutshell, it means attacking the heart first and attacking the city second, relying half on intimidation and half on using tricks and throwing smoke bombs.

After a few days of bluffing and attacking with three sides missing one, the defenders in Niuzhu City misjudged the situation. They felt that there was nothing they could do and that they might be surrounded and annihilated if they did not leave, so they broke out from the north gate of Niuzhu and retreated to Moling in a panic.

Because the process and tactics of capturing Niuzhu are too similar to the story of Dantu County changing hands, there is no need to repeat the specific details.

This was also the first time that Lu Su had made military achievements on the battlefield after joining Liu Bei's camp. As the chief clerk of the General of Chariots and Cavalry, he could also be promoted with this merit and be given a deputy county-level local position.

At present, in Liu Bei's chariot and cavalry general's office, the chief secretary is Zhuge Liang, the military officer is Pang Tong, and the chief clerk is Lu Su. Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong both have county-level local positions, while Lu Su originally only held county-level local positions.

……

After taking Dantu and Niuzhu, the two key points that strangled Moling, Guan Yu's army's situation on the Jiangdong battlefield became perfect.

After entering June, Guan Yu chose to advance step by step and steadily throughout early and mid-June.

From Niuzhu to the northeast, they set up two more camps in dangerous places on the mountains, forming a pincer attack with Niuzhu County. On the other side, they also set up camps from Dantu County to Jurong, cutting off the main roads. Then they built high walls and deep trenches to plan a long-term siege.

After the defeat, Sun Ce's army was unable to organize any counterattack, so they gradually withdrew their forces to Moling, recuperated the wounded, restored morale, and cleared the fields.

Unfortunately, the rice planted in Jiangnan is still a single-season rice, and the people in the area under Sun Ce's rule have not yet learned the method of transplanting rice seedlings. The growth cycle of crops in the fields is extremely long, and the rice can only be harvested in mid-August or even early September.

It was only mid-June now, and Sun Ce certainly had no way of destroying the farmland outside the city while defending it, nor did he want to.

After all, the autumn harvest was still two or three months away, and Sun Ce was also fantasizing that there might be a turnaround in two or three months, and he could turn the situation around after catching his breath. If he cleared the fields so thoroughly now and destroyed the unripe crops, he might end up starving.

Therefore, Sun Ce's army's strategy of clearing the fields mainly focused on collecting food from the people and evacuating the people around Moling back to the city. Even if the fields far from the city were not ripe, they were left to Guan Yu and Taishi Ci's military settlers to continue planting.

If Sun Ce fails to launch a counterattack in September, then the food will be cheap for Guan Yu. If he can launch a counterattack at that time, it will be considered that Guan Yu's military garrison has done voluntary labor for Sun Ce's army for three months, which is fair.

After this round of fortification and clearing the countryside and shrinking the military forces, the main force Sun Ce withdrew from Piling numbered more than 15,000 people.

In addition to the several thousand regular elite soldiers in Moling, as well as the small number of troops withdrawn by Zhou Yu from Dantu and the troops withdrawn from Niuzhu, the number of main combat troops in Moling City once reached as many as 23,000 to 24,000.

There were nearly 200,000 people gathered in Moling City, many of whom were evacuated from other small counties around Danyang County, including part of the population of Niuzhu and Dantu counties.

Sun Ce's army had nearly 10,000 combat soldiers in other key points in the rear, such as Piling, Wuxian, Wucheng, Qiantang, and Shanyin, as well as two or three times that number of local militia and militia that could be temporarily recruited.

Such a troop composition ensures that no matter which side Guan Yu concentrates his forces to attack, he will not be able to advance quickly and achieve results, and the battle line will be completely deadlocked.

Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin actually had the opportunity to stop Sun Ce's army from shrinking, but Zhuge Jin dissuaded Guan Yu from doing so and allowed Sun Ce to gather the relocated population - there was only so much grain in stock in Moling City anyway, and the food that the relocated population carried with them would not last more than a few months.

After September, these people will be a pure food loss for Sun Ce. Every one of them will become a hungry mouth to be fed. Sun Ce will take them away temporarily if he doesn't mind having too many mouths. He will return them after his demise.

……

The time in Moling City quickly came to late June.

After shrinking in the first and middle ten days, the battle lines of both sides have entered a frozen stage. Those who need to build high fortifications and deep trenches have already done so. Now, whoever wants to change the battlefield situation will have to pay a much greater price than the other side. After nearly a month of recuperation, the surface of Sun Ce's wound finally healed completely.

Most of the other generals who were injured in the Jiangyin naval battle have also recovered. Huang Gai has recovered, but Zhou Tai's injuries are more serious. The medical officer believes that he needs to recuperate for at least two more months.

After Sun Ce recovered from his injury, he began to patrol the city personally and reorganize the defenses.

It was June 22nd, and it was Sun Ce's first tour of the city after his recovery. Because he had just recovered, he was still a little weak. After just inspecting the north and east of the city, he was already out of breath and sweating slightly.

Zhou Yu accompanied him to inspect the defenses, and when they arrived at the east gate tower, Zhou Yu advised him to stop sweating, drink some hot water, and then take off his armor while taking a break. He should not take off his armor directly when he was very hot after exercise, as it would be easy to get "armor-taking wind".

Sun Ce is young and has strong cardiovascular system, so he is not afraid of a stroke. However, he must pay attention to the special period after the injury.

"I didn't expect that after being shot by an arrow, I am still so weak after recuperating for more than a month! It's really frustrating." Sun Ce took off his armor and slapped his thigh, annoyed at himself for being useless. It was obvious that he was very angry and depressed.

After sighing for a while, Sun Ce wiped his sweat and seemed to recall something disturbing. He lowered his voice and said to Zhou Yu:

"I wanted to seize the opportunity, take advantage of the golden opportunity of the Central Plains princes being inseparable, and make the best of both worlds to expand Jiangdong. I didn't expect Liu Bei to be so vicious. On the surface, he claimed to be following the imperial edict, but in the end he didn't fight Cao Cao, but instead concentrated his forces to expand his territory in the south!

What a despicable person who says one thing and means another! He said he was following the imperial edict to fight against the thieves, but he didn't fight against the real thieves that the imperial edict ordered him to fight, and instead clipped the wings of the so-called real thieves! How can such a despicable act of picking fruits and only squeezing the weak ones convince the people of the world! "

Zhou Yu had nothing to say about Sun Ce's complaints. After all, everyone was fighting for territory.

Sun Ce had such emotion simply because Liu Bei had left people with the impression over the years that he had always "strictly obeyed the orders without compromise." This time, he suddenly became proactive and had the ability to be more flexible, so Liu Bei's enemies were a little surprised and depressed.

Sun Ce sighed a few times, but got no response from Zhou Yu. He had already vented his anger and suddenly felt a little depressed. He changed the subject and asked for advice:

"Gongjin, do you think we still have hope if we continue to hold out like this? If there is a chance of a turnaround in the future, what will it be?"

When Zhou Yu heard this, he became a little alert. He was afraid that Sun Ce would let out his anger and become depressed.

The general of an army can be replaced, but the will of a common man cannot be taken away. At this critical moment, the Jiangdong army needs a resolute leader even more.

So Zhou Yu immediately racked his brains to find a way to help Sun Ce deduce, half to comfort and encourage, and half to give advice:
"Bofu must not slack off! Victory and defeat are common in the military. Although our army has lost Dantu and Niuzhu, and nearly half of the soldiers have been killed, we can still hold on to Moling for a long time and wait for reinforcements! The forces of both sides are similar, so what if we hold out for a year or two? We can definitely hold on!

Although it is impossible to eliminate Liu Bei by our own strength, in my opinion, we still have three possible chances to turn the tables. The first is to wait until Yuan and Cao are determined. As long as Cao Cao wins the Battle of Guandu, we still have a chance of survival, and this has never changed.

Secondly, even if Wuhui cannot be defended, as long as Cao Cao can hold on in the end, we can reorganize the warships and try to... move forward. Even if we cannot achieve our goal, at least we can save our family and never reach the point of desperation."

As Zhou Yu spoke, he could not help but become somewhat discouraged. His original intention was to tell Sun Ce: no matter how the battle went, the Sun family would definitely have a way out, and it would not be completely hopeless, at most it would be impossible to achieve great things.

Although Sun Ce is ambitious, he is still young after all. He can climb fast but fall fast. Even if he has to endure setbacks, he can still withstand the pressure in his heart.

Historically, when Sun Ce was dying, he had no obvious military enemies outside. There was only Liu Biao of Jingzhou who was at war with him. However, Sun Ce still had doubts about whether "the Sun family can gain a foothold in Jiangdong for a long time". When he entrusted his son to Zhang Zhao, he even said discouraging words like "If Zhongmou cannot defend it, please take care of the Sun family and return west slowly."

In other words, he hoped that Zhang Zhao would take the Sun family back to Huaisi and give up the fight for hegemony when Sun Quan could no longer hold on to his base in Jiangdong.

In this life, Sun Ce's personal health was much better than in the same period of history. Thanks to his obedience to Cao Cao's edict, he was now nominally a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty, and his rule was authorized by the court, so internal resistance was temporarily reduced. The assassins who tried to assassinate him also stopped, so he was not assassinated for a long time.

However, the external military pressure that the Sun family is facing now is much more severe than in the same period in history. Today, the combat effectiveness and will of Liu Bei's army are far from comparable to that of Liu Biao in a parallel universe.

It is normal for Sun Ce to be depressed and discouraged, and think about "what to do after giving up the struggle for hegemony, how to save the lives of his people", and think about the way out. Zhou Yu also had to help Sun Ce think about the way out in advance, which was also a kind of comfort.

(Note: Historical records show that the person who assassinated Sun Ce was a guest of Xu Gong. However, it is still questionable whether Xu Gong, a former county-level civil servant who was killed, left such a great power after his death. Therefore, there are quite a few opinions that there are other forces behind the assassin who assassinated Sun Ce.

In this time and space, Sun Ce and Cao Cao are teammates in the same trench. Cao Cao's potential power will not harm Sun Ce, and Liu Bei is not an assassin, so I think it is reasonable that Sun Ce was not assassinated.)
(End of this chapter)