I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 150 The Liu Family's Ancestral Skills

The Erya (a Chinese dictionary) says: "潜 means deep."

Qianshan, to put it simply, means deep in the mountains.

The mountains near and far are all hidden, and the crisscrossing lines of the mountains and rivers are not visible. It is no wonder that bandits often raid the counties and prefectures here.

Lu Su took a deep breath: "Is this the only way?"

"That's truly the only way."

Liu Miao turned around and said, "This is the only way for us to avoid Yuan Shu's military might and prevent our soldiers from knowing that Jiangdong is in danger."

"So, our lord intends to lure them into the mountains?"

"Tsk! Why does Zijing use such an awful word to describe 'deceive'?"

However, Liu Miao still smiled slightly: "But calling it a 'deception' is also acceptable!"

"My lord, what is the reason?"

"Is it feasible to outflank Yuan Shu from behind and cut off his retreat?"

"That's a bit of a stretch."

"It doesn't matter. Anyway, I don't know anything about military affairs. They'll have to follow whatever outrageous decisions I make! They'll just curse me a bit when we're crossing mountains and valleys."

"What about supplies?"

Lu Su asked Liu Miao about this matter seriously.

"Once supplies are cut off, the soldiers will surely realize something is wrong!"

"fine."

Liu Miao pointed to the map again: "From here into the mountains, it's only a seven-day journey to Tianzhu Mountain."

Tianzhu Mountain?
As the main peak of Qianshan, Lu Su certainly knew this place, but he didn't know what Liu Miao was doing there.

Fortunately, Liu Miao always shared the intelligence he obtained proactively, and Lu Su quickly grasped the key piece of information.

"Does our lord have designs on Chen Lan and Lei Bo?"

"correct!"

Liu Miao was somewhat excited: "These two probably took a lot of good stuff from Yuan Shu. Putting aside everything else, it's more than enough to support several thousand people."

"Breaking through Chen Lan and Lei Bo will also make it easier to explain to the soldiers, so that they don't return empty-handed."

"After hearing this, Zijing, do you have anything to add?"

"Nothing."

The current situation has indeed led to a dead end.

The rebellion of Sun Ben and Sun Fu was not solely related to military matters; it was also connected to the current power structure under Liu Miao.

If they were to join forces with Zhou Yu, let alone conquer Jiangdong, their army would likely fall into disarray and collapse instantly due to suspicion!

The only course of action now is to be patient and wait until the fire in Jiangdong is extinguished before revealing the truth and gradually stabilizing the morale of the soldiers.

After figuring out the key point, Lu Su was no longer anxious. Instead, he sat down again and stared at Liu Miao with a resentful look on his face: "My lord seems to be completely unsurprised by the actions of Sun Ben and Sun Fu."

"It's quite surprising; Sun Ben shouldn't be that kind of person."

Whether it was the Sun Ben mentioned by Madam Wu that day, or the Sun Ben that Liu Miao observed and knew, both were the patriarchs of the Sun clan who put the rise and fall of the Sun clan first. Logically speaking, such people would generally tend to be conservative in their actions, and no one expected that he would be able to do such an earth-shattering thing.

"Then why is my lord not angry at all?"

"Who says I'm not angry?"

Liu Miao asked Lu Su with a puzzled look.

“If Sun Ben and Sun Fu were in front of me right now, I would definitely try all the cruelest tortures I know on them! I would make them wish they were dead.”

Liu Miao then shrugged and said, "It's a pity that the two of them aren't here now, so what's the point of me being angry? Or is Zijing going to let me vent my anger on their behalf?"

Lu Su quickly bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I am not as thick-skinned as Youping. If you have any grievances, please go and find Youping."

"Zijing! How have you become just like our lord? Doing things that harm others and don't benefit yourself at all!"

Liu Miao laughed again, completely oblivious to the impending doom, and kicked Zhou Tai once more: "Come on! I won't do anything that harms others without benefiting myself. Go and gather the generals! Hold a meeting with the central army!"

When Wu Jing, Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, and others arrived at Liu Miao's camp, they all assumed that Liu Miao was preparing to leave.

They were all taken aback when they heard that Liu Miao actually wanted to lead them into the mountains.

"Why is my lord doing this?"

"That Qianshan Mountain is rarely visited by people; how can we enter it lightly?"

"To take a roundabout route and cut off Yuan Shu's retreat... This sounds rather absurd! I hope my lord will think it over carefully before acting!"

Liu Miao, who was usually very accommodating, acted arbitrarily this time, declaring, "If I say it's okay, then it definitely is!"

"All troops are ready to advance into the mountains!"

As soon as Liu Miao's camp moved, it was immediately observed by Yuan's scouts in Wan County.

The enemy immediately sent a message to Jiangdong, where Sun Fu, who was stationed at Shitou City, immediately led his navy to meet the enemy, intending to attack from both sides and completely annihilate Liu Miao!
They waited from morning till evening, but there was no sign of a boat on the Yangtze River, let alone Liu Miao's flag...

"How is this going?"

Sun Fu hurriedly contacted Yuan Jun and learned that Liu Miao had not entered the Yangtze River from the Wan River, but had gone upstream directly to Qianshan!

"What is Liu Miao doing?"

Sun Fu and Yuan Shu, who had already laid a trap, never expected that Liu Miao would actually leap right out of it!

The seemingly perfect plan encountered an unexpected problem from the very first step, which gave Sun Fu a bad feeling.

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. As long as we can take Jiangdong, it doesn't matter whether Liu Miao lives or dies..."

Sun Fu waited on the river all day in vain, but didn't see a single fish, so he had to return to Jinling. Sun Fu arrived at the inner city wall of Jinling and shouted upwards, "Lu Kang! Zhang Zhao! Why are you two still so stubborn?"

"Liu Miao is most likely dead by now! What loyalty are you still showing him? What integrity are you upholding?"

"As long as you open the city gates, I guarantee I won't harm your families in the slightest! Then you can come with me to Shouchun and become high-ranking officials in the Zhong family. Wouldn't that be more prosperous than you are now?"

A rustling sound came from the city wall, and the next moment, a rain of arrows poured down, forcing Sun Fu to leave cursing.

"You just wait! Once I've wiped out Jiangdong, let's see how long you can wait inside this turtle shell!"

"..."

On the city wall, Lu Kang, Zhang Zhao, Chen Yu, Gu Yong and others breathed a sigh of relief after watching Sun Fu leave.

"Everyone..."

Zhang Zhao was now fully armored, exuding an aura of ruthlessness.

Holding onto the city wall, Zhang Zhao looked north with worry: "I wonder how our lord is doing now..."

"Don't worry, Zibu, Zhongshan will definitely be fine."

Chen Yu patted his chest.

“Zhongshan and I have long been in sync. Even though we are thousands of miles apart, if he is sad, I am sad; if he is happy, I am happy. Now I can feel that he has been eating and sleeping well these past few days, so there is absolutely nothing to worry about.”

These words sounded like nonsense, but they actually made everyone feel much better.

Lu Kang also said, "There's no mistake. Zhongshan is more slippery than anyone else. How could he be caught and killed by a brute like Sun Fu? With his personality, as soon as he sensed something was wrong, he would immediately run away. How could he be caught like a turtle in a jar?"

"Besides, if something really happened to Zhongshan, Sun Fu would have already thrown Zhongshan's things up from below. Why would he say anything to scare us?"

Everyone agreed that Liu Miao was definitely not the kind of person who would be easily killed.

Moreover, the greatest skill of the Liu family is escaping, and no one believed that Liu Miao, who "had the style of Emperor Gaozu," would not know this!

"There's no need to worry about Zhongshan. The most urgent task right now is to pacify Jiangdong as soon as possible!"

Although Liu Miao was separated from the others, both sides tacitly acknowledged each other's abilities.

Lu Kang asked Zhang Zhao, "Is there enough food and fodder in the inner city?"

"Barely enough."

"How much exactly?"

"Fifty thousand bushels..."

"..."

Everyone looked at Zhang Zhao in surprise.

You call 50,000 bushels of grain barely enough?

Yuan Shu only asked Prince Chen Liu Chong for 30,000 bushels of grain in order to conquer Xuzhou, but you hid 50,000 bushels of grain in the inner city.

"what?"

Zhang Zhao was unhappy with the way everyone looked at him.

"The inner city and the palace were built in Jinling from the beginning to become the last line of defense for our lord. They were designed to hold out for at least 10,000 troops for a year. Is this a lot of food?"

The last barrier built for Liu Miao turned out to be something quite ironic, as Liu Miao himself wasn't even within it...

Lu Kang interrupted the scrutinizing gazes of the crowd towards Zhang Zhao: "In that case, the food supplies are actually quite sufficient, but the military equipment and supplies are probably..."

Zhang Zhao: "I have stockpiled 100,000 arrows, 300 sets of armor, and 200 Han crossbows in the armory."

Everyone: "..."

Zhang Zhao truly spared no expense in building this last barrier for Liu Miao!

"cough."

Lu Kang coughed and said, "With ample provisions and well-equipped troops, we are more than capable of defending the inner city."

"But with these troops, it is not enough to defeat Sun Fu's army. We still need to contact the generals in various places."

As the chief secretary, Gu Yong was aware of the many arrangements Liu Miao made before his departure.

"The lord ordered Huang Zhong to lead 3,000 men to garrison Baishilei in the north, and Xu Huang to lead 2,000 men to garrison Xizhou City in the west. This is the support near Jinling City."

"In addition, most of the soldiers in Jiangdong now belong to Sun Ben's command. Only Zhu Huan, the magistrate of Yuhang, once told the lord that he was "ashamed to be subordinate to others." Therefore, the lord ordered him to command troops independently in the south, which can also be an aid."

Huang Zhong, Xu Huang, and Zhu Huan.

These three were generals within Jiangdong who did not obey the Sun family.

"Among them, Huang Zhong and Xu Huang are closest to Jinling, and Sun Ben must have already ordered his men to surround both places."

"Only Zhu Huan is still in Yuhang and probably unaware of the changes in Jinling... If we can bring Zhu Huan here, the predicament of Jiangdong will surely be resolved!"

But now that Sun Fu has blocked the gates of Jinling, how can he contact Zhu Huan?

In addition, there is another matter that worries everyone—

Zhu Huan, after all, came from a prominent family.

Liu Miao, on the other hand, dealt with all the powerful families of Jiangdong!

Now, who can guarantee that Zhu Huan will definitely support Liu Miao instead of choosing to defect and join Yuan Shu's camp?
"We should at least give it a try, no matter what."

Chen Yu pursed her lips, trying her best to hide the trembling in her face caused by fear.

“Zhongshan’s judgment is never wrong. Since he trusted Zhu Huan and allowed him to lead troops independently, Zhu Huan would certainly not betray him at this time.”

“I, Chen Yu, do not possess the abilities of any of you to fight on the front lines or to coordinate internal and external affairs. In that case, let me go to Yuhang and bring Zhu Huan’s troops with me!”

(End of this chapter)