Tiger Guards

Chapter 742 Worst-Case Plan

At night, Sun Ce awoke from a feverish coma.

Looking up and opening his eyes, he saw Zhou Yu's silhouette illuminated by the candlelight, as he held a brush and wrote.

Upon seeing this, the personal guard stepped forward, knelt on one knee, and asked softly, "My lord?"

"water."

Sun Ce uttered a single word. Sleeping on his stomach was very uncomfortable for him, but he was in a daze due to the high fever. He could feel this discomfort, yet he was able to endure the discomfort and fall into a deep sleep amidst extreme resentment.

Even drinking water was inconvenient at this moment. The guard brought warm tea, and in the bright red lacquered wooden cup was a newly shaved bamboo straw.

Sun Ce secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the straw. If he had to be in a disheveled position just to get a sip of water, he would rather not drink it at all.

Upon closer inspection of the bodyguard, he smiled and said, "So he's Deng Dang's brother-in-law."

"It is your humble servant, your humble servant Lü Meng."

Lu Meng introduced himself in a gentle voice. At this moment, he noticed footsteps behind him. Lu Meng remained unmoved and continued to kneel on one knee, holding a lacquer cup with both hands to serve Sun Ce water.

Sun Ce drank most of the water in his cup and then asked, "Where is Chen Wu?"

Lu Meng paused briefly, then replied in a low voice, "Commander Chen has taken responsibility and accepted fifty lashes. He is currently on duty outside the tent."

"Foolish man, summon him to see me."

"Here."

Lu Meng agreed, slowly backed away with the lacquered wooden cup in both hands, and stood up after five or six steps. He then took two or three more steps back before turning around to put the cup down, and then left the tent.

Sun Ce glanced at Lü Meng's retreating figure and sighed to Zhou Yu, "Now that he is wounded, the morale of the army will immediately change. It is fortunate that he was wounded at this time. If he had been wounded when fighting Zhao Yuansi, our great foundation would have been destroyed in an instant."

Zhou Yu moved a folding stool over and sat down next to Sun Ce. He naturally agreed with Sun Ce's point of view and continued, following Sun Ce's words, "What you say makes sense, my lord. The difficulty now lies with Zhao Ji and Zhang Zibu. I'm afraid the two of them will not trust our army."

War cannot be based on trust. Sun Ce and Zhou Yu did not have any detailed large-scale strategic plans. They only had one ultimate strategic goal. If all actions and choices could reach the final goal faster and more efficiently, then they could do it.

If we pursue flexibility and variety in our methods, then we cannot be constrained by outdated rules and customs.

It is true that Yuan Shao took the initiative to attack Langya to draw Zhao Ji away, thus creating an opportunity for Yuan Shao to break the deadlock; it is also true that Sun Ce was unexpectedly injured and his army's morale was unstable, so he sent Sun Quan as an envoy to Jinyang to allow Zhang Zhao to lead his troops westward intact.

If the opportunity arises, it is not impossible to break the agreement and attack the weakened new and old populations of Langya who are being relocated by Zhang Zhao.

Sun Ce never bound himself, and Zhou Yu was by no means a gentleman who kept his promises.

With their combined wisdom, they naturally understood Zhao Ji's mindset at the time: he didn't want Sun Yi as a hostage.

They were all young people, and they all understood Zhao Ji's arrogance.

It was Zhao Ji's arrogance and his release of Sun Yi that emboldened Sun Ce to respond to the coup in Xuchang, thus making them adversaries.

If possible, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu would definitely destroy the old and new people of Langya under Zhang Zhao's administration. Once these people went to Xizhou, they could immediately make up for the Zhao family's unstable foundation.

Zhao Yan is already very old, and no one knows how long he can live. If he lives to be ninety like Zhao Qi, then many people and many things will lose hope.

If Zhao Yan's lifespan had been more tumultuous, and he had died, Zhao Ji would have lacked someone to oversee the entire situation and would have lost his fellow villagers from Langya. In that case, there would have been unpredictable upheavals within the Zhao clan.

This year, the Zhao family purged the Qi clan and the Pei clan. This was not only because the Zhao family had noticed this hidden danger, but also because the Pei clan was too large and the people of Hedong were too powerful. Anyone in the Pei clan with a little foresight should have known that such a fierce clash would occur.

The Pei family is just the beginning; there will certainly be other families that rise to prominence and challenge the Zhao family in the future.

Each time the Zhao family launched a brutal crackdown, it led to subsequent challengers choosing an even more ruthless attitude of resistance.

Now, destroying the Langya group is tantamount to destroying the future of the Zhao family.

Given Sun Ce's personality, he had already turned against Zhao Ji... even if it meant death, he wanted to make Zhao Ji very unhappy, to ensure Zhao Ji would remember him vividly. He didn't see anything wrong with gambling with Sun Quan's life.

Although his son was young, Sun Ce had a better successor, namely Sun Yi.

As for the ancient clans and powerful families in Qi... they simply couldn't spare the resources. Once Yuan Shao broke the deadlock and was able to restrain Zhao Ji, Sun Ce would also seek to break the deadlock. Even if he couldn't take them all the way back to his hometown of Wu, he would at least have to cleanse the ancient clans and powerful families in Qi.

Judging from Sun Yi's personality, he has a strong ability to execute tasks in this kind of situation.

Despite being wounded and with morale low, Sun Ce was still planning for the distant future; Zhou Yu was no exception, since Sun Ce's physique meant he could certainly recover from this injury.

Once they recover their health, the currently unstable morale of the troops will stabilize.

The two chatted for a few more minutes, and Chen Wu, who had been punished with military flogging, limped into the main tent. Zhou Yu then stepped aside to continue processing official documents.

Sun Ce comforted Chen Wu, telling him not to blame himself, that no one wanted this to happen, and that ultimately it was his own problem and bad luck.

After dismissing Chen Wu, Sun Ce remained lying on the couch, seemingly asleep, his expression quite unpleasant.

When Sun Jian attacked Liu Biao, he stationed himself at Xian Mountain south of Xiangyang City. He was ambushed and lured to his death by the Jingzhou army at a small mountain pass southeast of Xian Mountain, beside the Han River.

Who would have thought that there is also a small but significant Daxian Mountain in the southeast of Linzi?

Sending Sun Quan away was also intended to help him find his own way to survive and avoid becoming a puppet supported by the powerful ancient clans of Qi.

Compared to Sun Quan, Zhou Yu definitely preferred the strong-willed Sun Yi.

If he wanted to retake Jiangdong, and with Xu Yang holding the southeast, then besides himself, the only other option was Sun Yi, who had the strongest pioneering spirit.

Only Sun Yi could firmly unite the old troops of Huai and Si under the Sun family's banner.

Given Sun Quan's personality... well, Sun Ce himself didn't want to have any deep dealings with someone like his second brother, let alone those battle-hardened veterans.

Perhaps Sun Quan could coax the enemy into a frenzy, making them fight desperately regardless of the consequences.

But you can only coax them once, unless you coax them to the point of death in battle, which would end the matter once and for all, without having to consider any subsequent fulfillment issues.

Otherwise, given Sun Quan's personality—his attitude towards employing people was one thing, and his attitude towards not employing them was another—it would have been difficult for him to gain the support of the army.

Sun Ce himself did not value rules, but when it came to fulfilling responsibilities and obligations to veterans, he truly dared not be negligent.

In order to acquire land, military pay, and women, Sun Ce was willing to kill anyone.

As long as the army supports him, there is no one he wouldn't dare to kill.

Clearly, Sun Yi was similar to him, while Sun Quan was just a little lacking.

On the battlefield, when two armies are locked in a bloody battle, it might be because you lacked a little something that caused an insignificant battle formation on one front to unexpectedly collapse.

It wasn't just Sun Yi... When the situation deteriorated to a certain point, he actually hoped that Zhou Yu could stand up and take the lead, so that most of Sun's relatives and in-laws could escape unscathed.

Judging from Zhou Yu's family traditions and traditions, he would only take on such a burden that would endanger the lives of his entire clan and damage the reputation of his family, unless he was absolutely forced to do so or when he was absolutely certain of success.

How can a ruler only reap the benefits without paying the price?
The more prestigious the family, like Zhou Yu's, the greater their concerns in this regard.

This is the difference between risking everything to burn through one's clan's fortune and taking a big gamble, or maintaining one's family's reputation and ensuring that one's descendants can hold high-ranking official positions for generations.

As Sun Ce pondered, a sense of fatigue washed over him, and he glanced up at Zhou Yu's back.

Zhou Yu continued writing rapidly, his posture very focused under the candlelight.

(End of this chapter)