Chapter 143: Spread the Word
Sun Cejun was on the way back at this time. If we talk about harvest this time, it must be quite impressive. They moved away more than 20% of the most valuable belongings in Guangling County. , a casual estimate, it was over two million dollars.
But Sun Ce's army suffered a lot of losses. He lost six war horses alone, which cost two to three hundred thousand dollars, and it was not easy to replace them.
There was also the loss of cavalry and armored soldiers, which made Sun Ce quite heartbroken.
But all this is nothing compared with Liu Ye and Tai Shici.
"There are so many heroes in the North."
Sun Ce couldn't help but sigh.
"Bo Fu is pitying Guangling?"
Huang Gai came over and his words were full of regret: "There is only one step left. If we can attack the east gate, Guangling will be captured. We won it.”
“No, I feel sorry for Guangling.”
Sun Ce shook his head seriously: "Even if we win, so what, General Zuo won't let me serve as the prefect of Guangling. I'm just making wedding clothes for others."
Now Cheng Pu, Song Qian and others also became interested and asked curiously: "What does Bo Fu regret about?"
Sun Ce sighed leisurely: "I regret Taishi Ci and Liu Ye."
"If we can capture Guangling, these two people must be in my pocket."
Sun Ce said confidently: "Both of them are capable of doing anything. Liu Ye is a scribe. But he dared to sneak into Guangling and speak against brothers Li Luo and Li Zhang. When he learned that we had arrived in Jiangdu, he decisively persuaded the Li brothers to start a rebellion in the middle of the night. How decisive and heroic are these advisers? I can't compare it to the rotten scholars. If I can get it, I will worship him to help the king!"
The upper echelons of Sun Ce's army were aware of Liu Ye's performance through Yuan Sui, and they all admired his strategy and courage.
Sun Ce, in particular, was so thirsty for talents that he hated not being able to capture him alive and use it for his own purposes.
At this time, Sun Ce had almost no advisers around him.
Zhang Zhao was still living in seclusion in Sheyang, and Zhang Hong was in Jiangdu. Although he had known Sun Ce for a long time and respected him very much, he never had any intention of surrendering to him. As for the future three counselors Chen Duan and Qin Song, they are also staying in Guangling, and they don't know Sun Ce yet.
As for Sun Ce's childhood friend Zhou Gongjin, he hesitated in Danyang and did not dare to make a decision easily.
Therefore, although Sun Ce had a friendship with Taishi Ci, he desired Liu Ye more than Taishi Ci.
“There is also the tiger general Tai Shici, who is superb in archery and martial arts, and has courage that no man can match. It is a pity that this man also made a secret investment and ended up being acquired by Liu Bei.”
Sun Ce shook his head and sighed.
It’s not that he looks down on Liu Bei, but he thinks that Liu Bei is average in martial arts and his swordsmanship is good. However, in battle, it is the world of long soldiers, and short soldiers are always too limited.
Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, and Song Qian all nodded in succession, quite surprised at Tai Shi Ci's bravery, and even felt ashamed.
The so-called "Wen Wu is the first and Wu Wu is the second" can only be said when there is not much difference.
If there was no first place in literature, how could Wang Bo’s Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng become famous throughout the ages?
How did Li Bai become known as the Immortal of Poetry?
Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, and Song Qian realized that they might not be able to get out of twenty battles under Taishi Ci's hands, and they would have to fight to the death, or at most thirty or forty battles.
It’s not like they haven’t competed with Sun Ce before. They know Sun Ce’s bravery and strength very well.
Taishi Cineng and Sun Ce were equally victorious, and even had a slight upper hand in the end, naturally surpassing them in strength.
Huang Gai also felt something at this time and said: "The Xuzhou army is indeed as strong as a cloud. Let me face that Pan Zhang and Pan Wengui. This man has a fierce temperament, mighty and brave, and his martial arts is not inferior to mine. But he is here It's really surprising that the Xuzhou Army is just a Sima from another department. Of course, he knows his strength very well.
If Huang Gai could admit that he was on equal terms with him, then it would be at least a 50-50 split, or even more so.
Such a warrior is actually just an individual commander?
There are so many talented soldiers in Xuzhou.
Before heading north this time, Sun Ce actually underestimated the Xuzhou Army.
Although Danyang suffered a setback when recruiting troops, things have become smoother for Sun Ce since he approached Yuan Shu to retrieve his father's old songs. At least it was much smoother than when Danyang recruited soldiers and almost lost his life.
Although Sun Ce was beaten back by Liu Yaojun after several attacks, and he was seriously injured, the Sun family's prestige brought him a lot of benefits. Thirty or fifty people came forward every day. Come and join us.
In just a few months, four to five thousand people who admired Sun Jian's reputation and grace gathered from the Jiangdong area, allowing Sun Ce's headquarters to suddenly grow to six to seven thousand people.
It can be seen that Sun Jian has a high prestige in the hearts of the people at the bottom of the Jing and Yang areas. In contrast, the high-ranking nobles in these two regions often looked down upon Sun Jian.
But even so, Sun Ce could not find a warrior who could match Pan Zhang, let alone Tai Shi Ci.
The only one who came was Chen Wu, who was recommended by himself. Although he was not as good as Tai Shici, he was still far from satisfactory.
In fact, it was Sun Ce who didn’t know the specific situation. It had only been more than half a year since Pan Zhang had joined Liu Bei. To be able to become a commander of another department was because Liu Bei and Liu Fenghui knew people well and dared to boldly promote young generals while catching up with them. This gave Liu Bei the opportunity to annex the Danyang and Taishan armies, reorganize the national troops in Xuzhou County, and expand the direct line headquarters on a large scale.
Otherwise, even if he is Liu Feng's confidant, he will be at most a Qu Junhou at this moment, or even just Liu Feng's personal guard commander.
After pondering for a long time, Sun Ce solemnly warned the generals around him: "In the future, you must not underestimate the Xuzhou army and treat it as a formidable enemy."
Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, and Song Qian all took it seriously. They nodded. Sun Ce's words were exactly what they were thinking.
After Sun Ce finished speaking, he fell into silence again.
He was lying on his back on a baggage cart with a sheepskin quilt under his body to ensure that his wounds would not be broken.
Sun Ce actually had a strange idea in his mind, but he couldn't tell Cheng Pu and the others.
He always felt that the names of Tai Shi Ci, Pan Zhang, and Liu Ye were familiar and particularly friendly. He didn't know what happened, as if they were destined to him.
Just as Sun Ce had judged, he didn't see any sign of Xuzhou's pursuing troops until he met reinforcements sent by his uncle Wu Jing halfway.
Sun Cejun joined his friendly forces and retreated all the way to Jiangdu.
On the Guangling side, the Li family is still quite knowledgeable. They know that their legs were weak this time, and they still lost points when they wanted to withdraw from Guangling, and now they are trying to make up for it.
Naturally, he didn't dare to say anything about Liu Feng's suggestion and agreed immediately.
The situation on the Guangling battlefield once again calmed down.
However, this is not the result of the battle, but the war has just begun. Both sides continue to mobilize troops and accumulate strength, and a bigger battle is about to take place.
With the ownership of Guangling City, news spread in all directions, and various surrounding forces also had different reactions.
Guo Gong was panicked. As early as when Liu Bei mobilized and started to go south to Guangling, he felt that Liu Bei was really ambitious, just like Cheng Yu said.
Once Liu Bei is allowed to unify Xuzhou, he will definitely turn his attention to Yuzhou.
Before Liu Bei took over Xuzhou, he held the title of governor of Yuzhou. Not to mention that Liu Bei has a large public base in Yuzhou, especially in Pei State, and the powerful nobles have a good impression of Liu Bei.
Therefore, Guo Gong’s worry is warranted.
Originally, Guo Gong specially sent an envoy to the State of Chen, hoping to win over Chen Wang Liu Chong and Chen State Prime Minister Luo Jun to send troops together, but Liu Chong and Luo Jun sternly refused.
This is not to say that Chen Wang Liu Chong and Luo Jun have any good impressions of Liu Bei. In fact, Liu Chong is not very cold towards Liu Bei and does not even admit that the other party is also of Han family blood.
I just don’t like Liu Bei. I don’t like Liu Bei. Who are you, Guo Gong, to be worthy of commanding me?
The envoy from Guo Gong was driven back directly.
Guo Gong, who did not have the support of Chen State, only had one Liang State with only 13,000 or 13,000 troops. He wanted to move, but he did not dare.
Just when he was in a dilemma, he received such news. He was immediately stimulated and decided to attack the state of Lu first.
The State of Lu is small and has few borders with Xuzhou. Moreover, after taking over the State of Lu, it can also swallow up the northern part of the State of Pei, connecting it in one fell swoop, and forming a strategic advantage over the State of Pei.
The most important thing is that, in Guo Gong's view, the movement of taking over the state of Lu is much smaller than that of taking over the state of Pei, and it will not be easy to stimulate Liu Bei.
With all the above reasons, Guo Gong finally started to take action.
Four thousand men were left to guard Liang's hometown, and Guo Gong raised an army of ten thousand and marched north along Paoshui, passing through Feng and Pei counties, detouring around Weishan Lake, and entering Lu from Qi county.
Chen Yi, the Prime Minister of the State of Lu, was the son of Chen Fan, a famous official in history. Chen Fan was an extremely important and key person during the period of Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and was also related to the historical positioning of Emperor Huan Ling.
It was precisely because of Chen Fan's existence that objectively the second emperor Huan Ling became a faint king.
Especially for Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty, his posthumous title was obviously a beautiful one.
To expand the land far away and serve the country is called Huan; to conquer the net and move the people is called Huan; to expand the land and conquer the country is called Huan.
Isn’t this a beautiful posthumous title for an emperor who can open up land, annex other countries, and fear his own people?
Zhuge Liang, however, paraphrased Liu Bei's sentence about the two emperors Huan and Ling, and forcibly downgraded Emperor Huan of Han to a faint emperor on the same level as Emperor Ling.
This shows the strong historical influence of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang.
In fact, in real history, Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty was not a faint king. He was a capable, accomplished, ambitious and capable king who also knew how to reconcile.
Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty endured for thirteen years, relied on the eunuchs to destroy his relatives Liang Ji's family in one fell swoop, and regained real power. Later, he exiled this group of arrogant eunuchs, and truly took control of the government.
Different from current history, Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty paid great attention to the balance of political power and wanted to restore the balance of the three major forces of the Eastern Han Dynasty. To this end, he did not hesitate to compromise with the nobles many times.
Including Chen Fan, many scholars were personally promoted by Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty, especially Chen Fan, who was almost single-handedly pushed to the position of the Third Duke by Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty.
At the same time, Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty also compromised with Chen Fan and adopted the Dou family, a relative recommended by Chen Fan. You must know that the Dou family was extremely sensitive in the Eastern Han Dynasty, because his ancestors, Empress Dowager Dou and Dou Xian, even wanted to usurp the throne for the Han Dynasty. He was executed by the emperor's clan.
And this Dou Xian is exactly a branch of the Dou family that was originally executed.
Only Chen Fan Tou Tie still dared to recommend Dou Miao as the queen to Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty.
At that time, Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty wanted to make his favorite concubine Wang the queen.
In the end, Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty made concessions and tolerated even this. You said that he only favored eunuchs. Isn't this an injustice to him?
Shouldn't Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty love Chen Fan the most?
In addition, he also reused Sanming of Liangzhou to solve the Western Qiang problem that plagued the entire Eastern Han Dynasty in one fell swoop. In the middle and early stages of the dynasty, this was a great achievement in opening up the territory and enclosing the wolf.
But unfortunately, Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty was born too late.
If he could live for fifty years, he might be a wise king.
But when he succeeded to the throne, the accumulated problems of the Eastern Han Dynasty were too great to be reversed by manpower.
Even though Chen Fan repeatedly threatened Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty realized that the power of the gentry had expanded too much.
But Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty still did not take action against Chen Fan. This must be said to be Mingjun's doing.
In the two disasters caused by party imprisonment, Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty did go too far this time, which caused a backlash from the imperial power.
However, Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty still cautiously restrained the imperial power. Even half a year before his death, he had begun to pardon the nobles and lifted the party ban.
But before the matter was finished, Emperor Huan of Han died.
Chen Fan was still upset, and the target of persecution this time was Dou Miao, the empress dowager of Emperor Huan of Han Dynasty.
Dou Miao did not have the control ability of Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty, so he directly let the eunuchs get the news and coerced Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty to kill Chen Fan and Dou Miao's father, General Dou Wu.
Just imagine, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty had only two roads in front of him at this time.
The first rule is to make mistakes and take charge yourself.
The second one is to admit that the eunuch deceived him, so as to give power back to Dou Miao. At this time, Dou Miao's father had just been killed. What would be the outcome waiting for Emperor Ling?
Therefore, Chen Fan's death created a fundamental and irresolvable conflict between Han Ling Emperor and the nobles.
Liu Feng felt that, in a sense, the chaos in the late Han Dynasty began with Chen Fan.
Chen Yi, the son of Chen Fan, had been on the run for more than ten years. He was hidden at the border of Ganling by Chen Fan’s friend Zhu Zhen, and preferred to die to keep it secret. Finally, during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty granted amnesty to all the gentry in the world. time.
But compared to his father, Chen Yi is completely mediocre.
After all, Chen Fan still had the ability to govern, but he had some congenital flaws and was too upright.
But Chen Yi was mediocre. He once listened to the celestial phenomena in Xiangkai under Wang Fen, and actually planned to establish the Marquis of Hefei and depose the Han Ling Emperor. This was outrageous even in an era like the Eastern Han Dynasty, when prophecies were rampant.
They also sincerely invited Cao Cao to participate, which scared Cao Cao half to death.
Cao Cao really wanted to tell them that I thank you, so just forget about me.
However, Cao Cao was really upright at this time. Even if it was so dangerous, he reported the other party without changing his hands. He even wrote a letter to persuade Wang Fen and others not to think wildly.
On this point, when Cao Cao was young, he was really worthy of the word righteousness.
If this letter is discovered by the court, Cao Cao will shed his skin even if he does not die.
However, Liu Feng also suspected that this had something to do with Cao Cao's desperate desire to squeeze into the scholar class. After all, when he was young, Cao Cao, and even the entire Cao family, had an unrealistic desire to leave the officialdom and join the scholar class. .
Xu You, who was involved in this matter, kept his name anonymously and relied on Yuan Shao to protect his life. Wang Fen committed suicide in the plain. Only Chen Yi did not have any trouble and was promoted all the way to the position of Prime Minister of Lu.
It can only be said that fate is really unpredictable.
Just like now, Chen Yi was staying well in the Lu State, just like a little transparent person, trying to survive in the troubled times. However, Guo Gong suddenly came over with a fierce attack, and he had the attitude of annexing the Lu State. .
Chen Yi, a mediocre person, how can he resist?
He began to ask for help.
But after carefully counting the people around him, he found that only Liu Bei could save him.
Needless to mention, Cao Cao was still fighting fiercely with Lu Bu.
Yuan Shu in the south was not only fighting with Liu Bei, Liu Yao, and Liu Biao, but he was also thousands of miles away from Lu.
The only person who could save him was Liu Bei.
So Chen Yi sent envoys to chase Liu Bei at starry night and headed for Yangzhou.
At the same time, in Qu'a County, Yangzhou, Liu Yao also received the news that Guangling was owned by the Xuzhou Army, and he was immediately shocked.
He immediately invited Xu Shao, Sun Shao and Teng brothers to discuss.
Teng Dan, the elder brother of the Teng brothers, couldn't help but ask: "The Xuzhou army is really like wolves and tigers. How could Guangling, such a strong city, fall in just over a month?"
Liu Yao shook his head: "Otherwise, there was an internal response, so the city was captured. However, Sun Bofu also led the Sun family tribe into the city. The two armies fought fiercely for most of the night. Finally, Xuzhou reinforcements arrived one after another. Sun Bofu was afraid of being surrounded and annihilated. Guangling had to be abandoned."
"Sun Bofu's son is extremely brave, and the Sun family's troops are also extremely elite. The Xuzhou army was able to resist the Sun family's army, but it was an unusual force."
Xu Shao. I sighed, thinking that such a powerful Xuzhou army was defeated by Cao Cao's Yanzhou several times, and it was still completely defeated. It was forced to be trapped in Tancheng.
How strong should the Yanzhou Army be?
This world is indeed getting more and more chaotic.
Sun Shao looked at Liu Yao and Xu Shao, considered it for a while and then said: "Then when will the plan we made earlier to attack Liyang Water Village and burn the warships be carried out?"
Liu Yao thought for a while. , shook his head: "It's still early. Although Guangling is lost, General Zuo has occupied Jiangdu. Jiangdu is only twenty miles away from Guangling. If Jiangdu is not eradicated, Guangling will not be safe day and night. I'm afraid the Xuzhou Army and General Zuo will We have to fight for Jiangdu."
Xu Shao nodded in agreement: "Jiangdu is built on the river, and the river is surrounded by the city. It is also a fortified city. It is not easy for the Xuzhou army to capture Jiangdu. We can still sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, waiting for a good opportunity to take action. If the two armies are in a stalemate, then we may wait for the price and sell. Liu Yao, Xu Shao and others were all worried about the strong combat power of the Central Plains army.
Qiao Rui received the news on the third day.
Sun Ce returned to Jiangdu that night, and sent a fast boat upstream that night. It was not until the third day that he arrived at Liyang Water Village.
After Qiao Rui read it, he was also shocked and hurriedly reported the news to Shouchun Fei.
By the time Yuan Shu saw this information, it was already the seventh day.
"Bo Fu is so cowardly, he is truly worthy of being the son of Wentai."
Yuan Shu exploded immediately after reading the information.
(End of this chapter)