My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 289: The brave one wins when we meet on a narrow road
Sun Ce's first attempt to "test the waters" was very successful. Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu, out of concern for the people, did not take advantage of the opportunity of Sun Ce opening the city gates and the chaos to use heavy troops to attack and seize the city.

After learning the result, Sun Ce finally breathed a sigh of relief and thought he had come up with a good plan. This made him even more determined to use the people as human shields to fish in troubled waters.

As for Zhang Zhao's return to the city, he relayed Zhuge Jin's final offer to Sun Ce, but Sun Ce was not interested at all. He did not want "self-government in the islands of Yongdong like Fuchai" or a title of marquis to wander in a remote place. He directly rejected it.

So in the next five or six days, Sun Ce's army did this two times again, and each time more and more people were released, from more than 20,000 to 30,000 or 40,000. Moreover, Sun Ce was very patient and did not smuggle any contraband twice.

This is a typical "crying wolf" move, which is intended to paralyze the enemy.

Unfortunately, he met Zhuge Jin. Even though Sun Ce had not smuggled any smuggling, Zhuge Jin always kept the troops on alert, and he also personally inspected the camps. If he saw any troop slacking off because they were used to nothing happening, Zhuge Jin would deal with it seriously and enforce military discipline.

Moreover, looking at Sun Ce's actions, Zhuge Jin also had some enlightenment in his mind. He decided to strengthen the weakest link in the blockade line that was used to lure the enemy to break through, that is, the cavalry of Zhang Liao patrolling between Moling and Jurong.

Regardless of whether Sun Ce has any tricks or not, Zhuge Jin must be prepared for any eventuality.

Finally, the time came to the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month.

This day was another day agreed by Sun Ce's army to release the civilians to surrender, and the scale of the surrender was unprecedentedly large. It was estimated that most of the remaining civilians in Moling City would be released.

However, just before the people were allowed to surrender, early in the morning, before dawn, some minor incidents occurred in the Yangzhou Mu Mansion in Moling City.

According to the original plan, the people who surrendered out of the city should be led by Zhang Zhao, and he also had to conduct the routine handover with Chen Qun who was sent by Zhuge Jin to receive them.

But today, Sun Ce did not plan to let Zhang Zhao go out for the handover. He also did not want to make things difficult for Zhang Zhao, so he just laid it out directly.

"Mr. Zhang, you don't need to leave the city today to take over. I will do it myself. The seal of the Danyang governor is here. After I leave the city, the defense of Moling City will be entrusted to Mr. Zhang.

I also know that Mr. Zhang has been feeling depressed recently. If you don't want to hold on, you can surrender to Liu Bei in three days. At that time, Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin will give you wealth and honor. Even if the official position and power are not as good as mine, it can be regarded as a stepping stone for retreat. Considering that we have been friends for four years, I will entrust you with this matter in the end. You can always see it through to the end, right?"

Zhang Zhao was stunned when he heard this, and he did not react for a while. It was not until this moment that he realized that his surrender tendency had completely caused Sun Ce to distrust him. Sun Ce had used a trick before, but he even hid it from him.

Sun Ce was seeking talented people, but there was not much use in keeping a loyal minister.

Out of his last soldier's credit and pride, Zhang Zhao had no choice but to accept the task. He just smiled bitterly and said, "When the lord leaves the city, he will take all the main soldiers with him. The most he can leave for me is some civilians.

It was possible to rely on these people to defend Moling for three days, attract the enemy's attention for the lord, and buy time to break through to Jurong or even Piling. But if Guan Yu really attacked by force, I am afraid that the civilians in the city would suffer heavy casualties and their morale would collapse.

At that time, I can only swallow my pride and try to beg Zhuge Jin for leniency. I will explain to Zhuge Jin the three-day agreement between the lord and me. If he is willing to trust me and allow me to surrender after three days and not attack for the time being, that would be the best. I really can't bear to do anything else."

When Sun Ce heard what Zhang Zhao said, he knew that Zhang Zhao still had some dignity and decided to keep his promise in this final relationship between the king and his subject. So he had nothing to worry about.

As for what specific means Zhang Zhao would use to achieve his goal, Sun Ce didn't care. All he wanted was the result.

"Since Mr. Zhang is so frank, I have nothing to worry about. I have heard that a gentleman does not speak ill of others when he leaves a friend, and a loyal minister does not leave his name unsullied. Mr. Zhang has a consistent attitude, and can be compared to Yue Yi of ancient times."

After Sun Ce said these last words, he donned his armor and mounted his horse, and led his troops out of the city, leaving Moling and those in the city who were unwilling to follow him to Zhang Zhao.

He compared Zhang Zhao to Yue Yi, not to say that Zhang Zhao's talents qualified him, but the two sentences he just quoted were from Yue Yi's reply to King Hui of Yan.

Zhang Zhao watched Sun Ce lead his troops away and felt mixed emotions as he became an abandoned minister.

He saw with his own eyes that the elite soldiers taken away by Sun Ce all wore ordinary people's rags over their armor.

When leaving the city, the two teams on the left and right were all real civilians, but there were soldiers in the middle. It was obvious that they wanted to sneak out of the relatively loose encirclement of Liu Bei's army.

……

Sun Ce's army left the city quickly, using as many as 50,000 to 60,000 innocent civilians as smokescreens to cover their passage, completely attracting the attention of Liu Bei's army. His more than 20,000 soldiers and conscripted men were hiding among them.

The two sides had reached a tacit understanding to peacefully hand over the surrendering civilians three times before. The soldiers of Liu Bei's army still stayed at least ten miles outside the city gate. They could only see the city gate opening and the crowd leaving the city from afar on the horizon, but they did not take advantage of the chaos to attack and kill them.

Seeing that his plan had worked, Sun Ce drove the people towards Liu Bei's camp, while he immediately led his main force to accelerate and begin a forced march to escape in the chaos.

Moreover, Sun Ce had played a little trick before: the first three times he released the surrendered civilians, he also chose the time of Mao Hour, and he never changed it. But now it is the coldest month of winter, and when he released the people for the first time ten days ago, it was already a little light in the sky. When all the people left the city, it was bright. But today is close to the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, and when Sun Ce's army released the people with torches, it was not bright at all, which made it easier to deceive.

There were tens of thousands of civilians acting as human shields on his left and right wings. Unless Liu Bei's army rushed and trampled on these people, it would be impossible for them to catch up with him immediately, and they would not even be able to realize what was happening here at the first time.

Sun Ce rode on his warhorse and shouted loudly to boost morale: "All the troops, follow me to Huaipu Pavilion! As long as we rush there and defeat Zhang Liao in the chaos, our army will be able to break out successfully! Liu Bei's army has already believed that we let the people out of the city in order to save food and grass and hold the city longer. They will never expect that our army will do the opposite, driving the people out to save food and grass while taking the opportunity to break out!"

All the soldiers in the army tried their best to muster up their determination and followed Sun Ce to seize the opportunity to escape. They rested early last night and had enough sleep. Sun Ce also changed his previous practice of saving food and only giving two liquid meals a day two days in advance. He fed the soldiers well starting from lunch the day before yesterday in order to prepare for today's escape.

The soldiers, who were full of energy, ran all the way under the encouragement of Sun Ce. They were about twenty miles away from the encirclement. Only then did Guan Yu and Zhao Yun realize, amid the chaos of the people, that Sun Ce had abandoned the city and broken through.

In the chaos, Guan Yu and Zhao Yun naturally had to divide their forces to pursue, while Zhuge Jin also had to find a way to force the people left behind in Moling to land and find out the identities of the generals who stayed behind. Although these things could be done in parallel, contact and communication would at least take a while.

Sun Ce took advantage of this opportunity and tried to keep as much distance as possible.

……

Huaipu Pavilion is a pavilion in the southeast of Moling City, located on the bank of the Huai River.

During the Han Dynasty, the river south of the Yangtze River around Nanjing was also called the Huai River. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that the river around Nanjing was renamed the Qinhuai River to distinguish it from the Huai River north of the Yangtze River.

Huaipu Pavilion is roughly located in the core area of Nanjing's Jiangning District in later generations, the Fangshan Scenic Area of Jiangning. It is thirty miles away from Moling City, and fifty miles to the east is Jurong County.

Readers who are familiar with the geography of Nanjing in later times should know that there are many mountains around Nanjing. Therefore, it is impossible for Sun Ce to break out from the east, as he would be blocked by Tangshan and Baohuashan.

So you can only go upstream along the Qinhuai River to the southeast, bypass the mountains to the east of the city, and then turn east to reach Jurong County.

Zhuge Jin on the opposite side certainly knew this, so before the battle he arranged a cavalry team to intercept patrols, led by Zhang Liao, to block that section of the road, patrolling back and forth.

In the previous few months, some Jiangdong troops had tried to transport grain to Moling from Jurong, or wanted to bring letters over, but they were all intercepted and killed by Zhang Liao.

Later, the Jiangdong Army in the rear saw that this was not going to work, faced the reality, and completely gave up their tricks and stopped giving away their heads for nothing.

Now, as long as Sun Ce wants to break out, he will definitely run into Zhang Liao.

……

Sure enough, just one and a half hours after leaving the city, Sun Ce led his troops to gallop more than thirty miles and collided with Zhang Liao's patrol cavalry battalion at Huaiputing, a corner of the Qinhuai River, which is roughly equivalent to the location of the Jiangning Campus of Nanjing Institute of Technology in later generations.

There were hilly forests on both sides, and a plain field about ten miles wide in the middle, with the Qinhuai River running through it. Sun Ce's troops marched rapidly along the south bank of the Qinhuai River, and Zhang Liao's interception troops were also deployed to the south bank in advance.

It was already late in the morning and early in the afternoon, the sky was completely bright, and the visibility was very good. Both sides spotted the enemy from a distance. However, the weather was a bit cold that day. Although it was in the south of the Yangtze River, it snowed heavily, and there was even a thin layer of ice on the Qinhuai River.

The snow in the south of the Yangtze River is high in moisture. When it is soft, it has great friction when you step on it. But once it is slightly stepped on, it will easily melt and freeze again, becoming extremely slippery.

For cavalry, such weather saves the trouble of getting their hooves stuck in the mud in the rice fields, but it also increases the risk of slipping, so it can be said to be a mixed bag of advantages and disadvantages.

As for the infantry, the soldiers in the back row also have to worry about the slippery trampling of the snow melted into ice by the soldiers in the front row after charging. When engaging in battle, they must slow down their sprint speed and advance slowly.

Although Sun Ce was mentally prepared, after seeing the combat environment, he still thought that less trouble is better, so he was willing to spend a cup of tea or two to see if he could convince Zhang Liao not to seek death, which would save him some trouble.

Sun Ce personally rode out on his horse and shouted to the other side: "Zhang Wenyuan! You are just a subordinate of Lu Bu. You have been defeated in many battles and have changed your master several times. Now you only have a thousand cavalrymen. I have an army of 30,000 today. Even if we only use cavalry, the number is greater than yours!
As long as you don't block my way, I will let you go! Even if Zhuge Jin blames you, it's reasonable that you can't stop me because your troops are so weak. Will Liu Bei still enforce military law? Don't make mistakes!"

Zhang Liao on the other side was calm. Seeing that Sun Ce was about to curse, he played along and cursed back at him:
"Sun Ce, you little brat! You can't tell the difference between loyalty and treachery, and you have assisted Cao Cao, a traitor who deceives the emperor. Today is the day you die! Although I don't have many soldiers, General Zhao's cavalry will arrive soon! Do you think your trick of deceiving the world can deceive Mr. Zhuge?"

Sun Ce was furious: "You are a slavish man who served the Three-surnamed Slave! After the Three-surnamed Slave died, you changed masters and followed Liu Bei. You are such a filthy person, and you still have the nerve to criticize me! All troops charge! Follow me to break through Zhang Liao!"

Zhang Liao also raised his weapon and commanded his cavalry to charge, shouting angrily: "How can you judge Wen Hou? Wen Hou may be unjust, but he is absolutely loyal to the Han Dynasty! He died for the emperor's secret edict to suppress the rebellion, and he is a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty! What a traitor you are!"

(End of this chapter)