I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 153 The Pacification of Jiangdong
Zhou Yu rose with satisfaction, picked up the letter in his hand, and threw it directly into the oil lamp.

"What is Gongjin doing?"

Sun Ce was in a state of utter confusion, completely unaware of his location or intentions.

"Bo Fu, from this moment on, you must insist that you have never received any letters from Sun Ben and Sun Fu!"

The flames that devoured the letter were reflected in Zhou Yu's eyes.

"From this day forward, even if the lord or your aunt asks, you must not tell anyone that you received a letter!"

Sun Ce nodded in confusion, but quickly looked at Zhou Yu with puzzlement: "Gongjin, do you think... that neither my lord nor my mother trusts me?"

"This has nothing to do with whether they trust you or not! Regardless of your true feelings, as long as you get involved with Sun Ben and Sun Fu at this time, you will inevitably be isolated by everyone from now on!"

Zhou Yu watched as the letter turned to ashes, then asked Sun Ce, "Where is the messenger who delivered the letter?"

"Still in my camp."

"Kill them immediately!"

Sun Ce trusted Zhou Yu unconditionally and immediately went back to kill him and dispose of the body properly.

"Gongjin, what should we do next?"

Although Sun Ce felt somewhat relieved, he still made a decision: "Should we immediately lead the army back to Jiangdong to quell the rebellion and prove our innocence?"

"No need!"

Zhou Yu shook his head.

“If Sun Ben and Sun Fu were able to control the situation, they would definitely not be writing to you now.”

"At the same time, if our lord really couldn't control the situation, he would have called us back long ago. How could there be no movement until now?"

“Lu Zhongyi and Zhang Gong are both reliable and experienced ministers. Xu Huang and Huang Zhong are also generals entrusted with important responsibilities by our lord! With them in Jinling, there is absolutely nothing to worry about.”

Zhou Yu, with his keen insight, instantly realized that although the rebellion of the two Suns sounded alarming, it was not actually a real danger.

The real danger right now is that the rebellion of the two Suns could very well cause a violent upheaval in Liu Miao's internal military power!
Sun Jian's former subordinates were, after all, the core of Liu Miao's military power structure. If this matter was not handled properly, it might cause the once thriving Jiangdong to decline instantly, wasting several years of its potential!
But time waits for no one, so how can we afford to waste any more years?

In just two short years, Yuan Shu retreated to Huainan, Lü Bu seized Yanzhou, Tao Qian ceded power to Liu Bei, the emperor fled east to Luoyang, Cao Cao reclaimed Yanzhou, and Yuan Shu declared himself emperor, causing a great upheaval...

If a crisis of trust were to break out because of the matter of the two Suns, causing Liu Miao to distrust Sun Jian's former generals and Sun Jian's former generals to distrust Liu Miao, and if it really caused a delay of several years, who knows how many things would be missed!

At this moment, Zhou Yu and Liu Miao, who was far away in Qianshan, had the same idea!
The rebellion of the two Suns must not be allowed to shake the trust between Liu Miao and his generals, otherwise it would be fatal to the great cause of Liu Miao's group!

Therefore, Zhou Yu was certain that he absolutely could not lead his troops back to Jiangdong!
"Bo Fu, we need not worry about the situation in Jiangdong. Even if things go badly, our lord can mobilize Ziyi's troops to go back and suppress the rebellion. What we need to do is follow our lord's orders and continue north to rescue Liu Bei!"

Before Jiangdong is completely pacified and the rebellion of the two Suns is resolved, any unnecessary actions will only widen the rift between Liu Miao and Sun Jian's former subordinates.

After Zhou Yu roughly understood the potential crisis and consequences of this matter, he immediately concluded that they absolutely could not afford to lose their composure!

"Bo Fu, let's go! What happens next has nothing to do with us."

"Instead of worrying about Jiangdong, we should help Liu Bei defeat Yuan Shao's army and defend Xuzhou as soon as possible!"

At this point, Sun Ce had no idea what the specific logic of the matter was.

But it doesn’t matter.

"Anyway, Gongjin wouldn't harm me!"

Sun Ce temporarily ignored the affairs of Jiangdong and pressed his hand on the ancient sword at his waist: "In that case, let's defeat Yuan's army first!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Sun Ben and Sun Fu waited in vain for news of Sun Ce, but news of Zhu Huan's approaching day by day kept coming in.

"Zhu Huan's army has arrived in Wu County!"

"Zhu Huan's army has arrived in Jurong!"

"Zhu Huan's army has arrived in Dantu!"

"Zhu Huan's army has arrived at Baishilei and joined forces with Huang Zhong!"

"..."

When Sun Ben and Sun Fu heard that Zhu Huan had arrived in Jinling, they finally gave up their intention to resist.

"Let's take our families and troops to Huainan!"

The two brothers secretly recalled the soldiers who were blockading Jinling and besieging Xizhou City. This unusual scene immediately aroused the vigilance of Lu Kang, Zhang Zhao, Xu Huang and others.

Xu Huang personally led several dozen cavalrymen to the inner city of Jinling. When he heard that Zhu Huan had already led his troops north, he was overjoyed: "It seems that Sun Ben and Sun Fu must have realized something was wrong and want to cross the river to escape north!"

Lu Kang and Zhang Zhao also agreed.

"We will work with Yuan Tan to appease the people of Jinling. As for those two traitors, we'll have to rely entirely on you, General!"

"Here!"

Xu Huang led his troops to Stone City and indeed saw Sun Ben's soldiers loading military equipment and supplies onto the ships. He immediately flew over and said, "Sun Ben! Sun Fu! You two have abandoned the Han Dynasty to honor yourselves, abandoned your lord to serve the false emperor and the traitorous Han?"

Sun Ben and Sun Fu did not expect Xu Huang to arrive so quickly, and had to leave in a hurry.

Many soldiers in the city had not yet boarded the boat. Seeing that Sun Ben and Sun Fu were about to leave, they quickly jumped into the water and clung to the hull, crying out, "General, don't you want us anymore? We've followed you through all this, and you're going to abandon us?" Seeing this, Sun Fu, fearing the boat would capsize, immediately grabbed an oar and slammed it down on the soldiers trying to pry it ashore, creating a huge splash—

"Let go! Let go now! Do you want us all to die together?"

Many soldiers were hit hard on the head several times, and then their eyes rolled back and they sank into the water, leaving only rings of bubbles that gradually shrank.

Sun Fu himself slammed heavily onto these soldiers, and ordered the soldiers who had already boarded the ship to knock these underwater soldiers down with them!

Some soldiers had already raised their oars to strike, but when they saw the familiar faces in the water, they couldn't bring themselves to do it...

"Row! What are you waiting for?"

Seeing that the boat was about to capsize, Sun Fu, in a moment of panic, actually used the oar to hit the soldiers on board: "Run!"

Those who didn't get on the ship were beaten, and those who did get on the ship were also beaten!
For a moment, even the veterans who had followed the Sun family for over a decade glared angrily at Sun Fu.

Sun Fu was frightened by the stares of the crowd, and then he remembered his elder brother. So he quickly hid behind Sun Ben and dared not look.

Sun Ben was exhausted. Seeing that Xu Huang was about to catch up with him, he finally lost all his last bit of energy.

"Oh!"

"Brother, what are you doing? Stand up!"

At this moment, Sun Ben actually knelt down directly in front of his soldiers, ignoring Sun Fu's attempts to pull him away, and kowtowed three times to them.

“You are all brothers who have followed me and Marquis Wucheng through thick and thin! Now, I, Sun Ben, have dragged you all into this mess because of my own selfish reasons!”

"It is I, Sun Ben, who have let everyone down! But as you all know, I, Sun Ben, only have this one brother! I really cannot let him die here!"

Sun Ben kowtowed to the soldiers again and prostrated himself on the ground—

"I beg you all, for the sake of our more than ten years of comradeship, to send my brother to Jiangbei! At that time, I, Sun Benyuan, am willing to atone with my death!"

Sun Fu was stunned and quickly pulled Sun Ben aside, saying, "Brother, what are you saying? How could you say such a thing?"

But Sun Ben refused to get up, so Sun Fu could only lie on Sun Ben's body and wail.

"It's all my fault, brother!"

Although the soldiers on both sides disliked Sun Fu, they still felt pity for him when they saw Sun Ben kneeling on the deck.

The soldiers in the water resigned themselves to their fate and loosened their grip on the boat. The soldiers on the boat rowed with all their might, finally getting the boat away from the ferry and into the water.

Seeing that the ships were about to enter the Yangtze River from the Huai River, Xu Huang immediately ordered his soldiers to fire arrows.

Unfortunately, after firing wildly, the ship still sailed away, leaving Xu Huang anxious and helpless.

"Gongming!"

Just as Xu Huang was getting anxious, a shout suddenly came from upstream.

It was Zhu Huan and Huang Zhong who arrived quickly from Baishilei by ship!
Upon seeing a boat, Xu Huang immediately pointed ahead, disregarding his own warhorse and the fact that half of his body was already submerged in the water: "Those on the boat ahead are the two Suns! Don't let them go!"

Zhu Huan and Huang Zhong, one from Wu County and the other stationed in Changsha for a long time, were both experts in naval warfare!
Seeing that Xu Huang had pointed out the direction, the two immediately boarded a boat and headed after the ship in front of them!
The two ships soon sailed into the Yangtze River together.

Along the Yangtze River, many fishermen were rowing their boats, curiously observing the two vessels, wondering what they were doing.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Huan immediately shouted to the fishermen, "The ones on the boat ahead are traitors who betrayed Liu Yangzhou and defected to Yuan Shu! Please help me stop them!"

"Traitor?"

"Were the events in Nanjing these past two days orchestrated by them?"

"Damn it! How dare he betray Liu Yangzhou? Beat him up!"

Fishing boats began to arrive one after another, which greatly alarmed Sun Ben and Sun Fu!

"Damn it! This is a warship! How dare you ram it?"

"I hit you!"

Today, most of the fishermen living around Nanjing are people who migrated from Huainan.

Putting aside Liu Miao's kindness in settling them down, their resentment towards Yuan Shu for forcing them to leave their homes was enough to make them charge forward without fear of death!
"If I kill you all on behalf of Liu Yangzhou today, tomorrow my family tree will have its own page! I'll beat the bastards to a pulp!"

Fishing boats began to either ram or intercept the ship carrying the two people.

at last.

As a fishing boat three zhang long blocked the way in front of the ship, the collision almost broke the fishing boat in half, but it also created a large hole in front of the ship, and river water kept pouring into the cabin and quickly submerged the ship completely.

All the soldiers on the ship fell into the river. The fishermen around them were very "polite" in rescuing them, then pretended to have accidentally bumped into them, beat them up, and then handed them over to Zhu Huan and Huang Zhong, who arrived late.

When they finally met Sun Ben and Sun Fu, the two brothers had been beaten so badly they were unrecognizable.

It's unclear which fisherman with an artistic flair used a fish-killing knife to carve an exquisite character "袁" (Yuan) on the two brothers' faces!

"Excellent knife skills!"

Zhu Huan praised the choice and was once again glad he had made it.

If you're even slightly out of your mind, those words will probably be etched on your face!
"Withdraw the troops! Send a message to the lord that Jiangdong has been pacified!"

(End of this chapter)