Chapter 2537 Sun Wu VS Liu Xiu + Guo Ziyi + Chai Rong + Li Xin
Chapter 2534: Sun Wu VS Liu Xiu + Guo Ziyi + Chai Rong + Li Xin
"Report... to the lord, a large number of Wu troops appeared outside Xiling City."
"What?"
Liu Xiu and Guo Ziyi both exclaimed. Obviously, they did not expect that in addition to Sun Ce, there was a Wu army deep into the hinterland of Jiangxia and they had all been transported to the Xiling District of the capital.
"Lord, Sun Quan is in charge of the Wu army''s logistics. He knows most of the Wu army''s movements, but the information provided does not mention this army.
This shows that this army only took action after Sun Ce, and was separated from Brother Sun Ce for one day, so it was not encountered by the last general. ” Guo Ziyi analyzed.
Liu Xiu nodded and said, "So that''s it. This army is here to pick up Sun Ce, but it''s one step late. When he arrived, Sun Ce''s army was wiped out.
They wanted to rescue Zheng Zhilong, but they were worried that they were not our opponents, so they had just arrived at the empty Xiling, so they attacked Xiling and wanted to give me a siege of Wei to save Zhao. ”
At this point, Liu Xiu sneered at the corner of his mouth and continued, "But what they didn''t know is that even if the troops in Xiling City were empty, it would be okay to hold on for a few days. With this time, I would have conquered Zhu County."
After saying that, Liu Xiu looked at the spy below and asked, "Can we know who is the general of the Wu army leading the army?"
"What the other party is using is the banner of Sun Wu, the governor of the Eastern Wu."
"What?"
Liu Xiu and Guo Ziyi exclaimed again, obviously not expecting that the person raiding Xiling would be Sun Wu.
All Liu Xiu''s previous analysis is that he firmly believes that even if Xiling City is empty, he can hold it for at least a few days.
But if Sun Wu led the army, Liu Xiu was really not sure. After all, even he was not Sun Wu''s opponent, and he didn''t know whether the Xiling guard could defend Xiling under Sun Wu''s offensive.
If the Xiling Guardian fails to defend it, the consequences will be unimaginable. After all, Sun Ce is locked in Xiling City.
After Guo Ziyi captured Sun Ce alive, in order to ensure that he was not rescued by Wu, he immediately moved him away, and the first stop was Xiling City.
Liu Xiu originally thought that after he seized Zhu County, he would transfer Sun Ce to the capital Changsha, but he did not expect that before he even took back Zhu County, Sun Wu had already reached Xiling City.
"Lord, now Xiling City has empty troops, and Sun Ce is in Xiling City. Once Xiling is captured by Sun Wu and Sun Ce is rescued, our army''s plan will be vain." Guo Ziyi said in a deep voice.
"General Guo, what do you think our army should do now?" Liu Xiu asked.
"Zhi County, and even the entire Jiangxia, are not as important as Sun Ce. It is urgent to give up the recovery of Zi County and rescue Xiling at full speed." Guo Ziyi said seriously.
Liu Xiu also agreed with this. After all, Sun Ce alone was related to the plan of Chu to unify Jiangnan. As long as this goal could be achieved, it would not be unacceptable to abandon Jiangxia and Lujiang counties for the time being, so Sun Wu must not be allowed to rescue Sun Ce.
"Sun Wu, Sun Wu, you are really worthy of being you. You have caused such a big trouble to me as soon as you take action."
After taking a deep breath, Liu Xiu ordered: "I will pass on the order of the whole army to withdraw and go to rescue Xiling."
Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong and his son on the tower of Zhu County were all ready to fight to the death, but they never expected that the Chu army, who was preparing to attack the city, suddenly withdrew for no reason.
Zheng Zhilong and his son were also extremely confused about this and did not understand why the Chu army withdrew their troops, but since the Chu army had already withdrawn, they could naturally withdraw their troops.
Zheng Zhilong was also worried that Liu Xiu was pretending to withdraw his troops to lure them out of the city, so he specially sent spies to stare at the Chu army until the Chu army retreated thirty miles before he felt completely relieved.
Zheng Zhilong was about to evacuate from Zhu County, but received a letter from Sun Wu.
In the letter, Sun Wu informed Zheng Zhilong about the withdrawal of the Chu army and told him not to withdraw and to continue to stay in Zhu County to defend the enemy. The main army would arrive soon, and then Zhu County would naturally be safe.
With Sun Wu''s words, Zheng Zhilong naturally would not withdraw his troops, but he was extremely worried about the lonely army going deep into Sun Wu.
What Sun Wu is doing now is actually no different from Sun Ce, and it is several times more dangerous. After all, Sun Ce only faces one Guo Ziyi, and Sun Wu has to face Liu Xiu at the same time in addition to Guo Ziyi.
If Sun Wu has sufficient troops, it would be fine, but the problem is that Sun Wu can secretly move to Xiling, and there will be no too many troops in his hands, at most only tens of thousands of troops.
A mere tens of thousands of troops want to fight in the heart of Chu. If you are not careful, it will probably end up with the next Sun Ce.
"Sen''er, do you think the Grand Governor can return safely and save the prince?" Zheng Zhilong asked.
Zheng Chenggong was silent. To be honest, he didn''t think Sun Wu could do these two points, after all, his opponent was too strong.
"The Grand Governor is different from the Prince. Since he chose to go deep into the army alone, he must have thought about it carefully and should have already made a complete solution."
Zheng Chenggong said, but his tone was a little weak, obviously not very confident.
"Oh, I hope the Grand Governor can return safely." Zheng Zhilong sighed.
Although Zheng Zhilong was defeated by Sun Wu many times, it was precisely because of this that he was convinced by Sun Wu and naturally did not want a genius commander like Sun Wu to lose to the State of Chu due to Sun Ce''s mistakes.
Zheng Zhilong was willing to support Sun Wu, but Sun Wu asked him to defend Zhu County, and he had no intention of asking him to support him. Moreover, he was afraid that he would lead his army to Xiling, and instead was caught by Liu Xiu''s plan, so he didn''t listen to Sun Wu and stayed in Zhu County honestly.
Zheng Zhilong looked at the direction of Xiling and murmured to himself: "Governor, if it were you, you will definitely be able to do it."
On the other hand, Liu Xiu, who went to rescue Xiling, had left the territory of Zhu County, but had been paying attention to the movements in Zhu County.
If Zheng Zhilong chose to withdraw from Gui County and return to Qichun after he withdrew his troops, Liu Xiu would not mind splitting out 5,000 troops and taking over Gui County and chasing Zheng Zhilong and his son.
This possibility is not small. After all, Zhu County is not a strong city like Qichun and Xunyang, and it is not a strong city. Zheng Zhilong''s persistence is not very meaningful.
Liu Xiu was disappointed that Sun Wu had already calculated this point, so he arranged everything for Zheng Zhilong in advance to prevent him from withdrawing from Zhu County, which also made Liu Xiu''s plan fail again.
Zheng Zhilong did not withdraw from Zhu County, and Xiling was in danger again. Liu Xiu naturally would not force Xiling. The most urgent task is to first resolve the danger of Xiling.
"Where is Guo Ziyi and Chai Rong?"
Hearing Liu Xiu''s words, Guo Ziyi and Chai Rong immediately stood up, knelt down on one knee, and shouted, "The last one is here."
"You two lead an army of 10,000 each. Guo Ziyi takes the northern route to prevent Sun Wu from fleeing back to Qichun, Chai Rong goes south, prevent Sun Wu from going south to the Yangtze River, and fleeing back to the east of the Yangtze River by water. The king personally leads 20,000 troops to the center to prevent Sun Wu from fleeing back to Zhu County."
At this moment, a cold light flashed in Liu Xiu''s eyes and he said coldly: "Sun Wu is the first general of Eastern Wu. All the generals of our Chu State, including this king, have been defeated by him. However, since he dared to come to Xiling alone, he must not let him escape back to the general alive."
"No." The generals said in unison. With Liu Xiu''s order, the 40,000 Chu troops began to divide into three, marched from three directions, surrounded Sun Wu like a fishing net, preparing to completely block Sun Wu''s retreat.
Faced with a famous general like Sun Wu, Liu Xiu usually did not dare to divide his troops, but Jiangxia prefect Li Xin had already sent a letter to him, saying that the Wu army was in a hurry and did not carry large-scale siege equipment. It was fine to hold on to Xiling for several days.
It was Li Xin''s guarantee that Liu Xiu''s goal changed from rescuing Xiling to surrounding Sun Wu, and he would never let him escape back to Jiangdong.
At the same time, outside Xiling City.
Sun Wu looked at the city wall as high as ten meters and the large and small cities guarding equipment on the city tower, and suddenly felt that his decision to raid Xiling was a bit hasty.
After Liu Xiu left, Xiling City was indeed empty, with at most three thousand defenders, but Xiling City itself is a strong city, and it is not difficult for three thousand defenders to defend for a few days.
Suddenly, Ling Cao ran over and reported:
"Grandmaster, Liu Xiu withdrew his troops from Zhu County and divided into three groups, surrounded by Xiling from north and south, and arrived at Xiling at most two days."
"What?"
Zhou Tai screamed in shock. If this is true, their retreat would be cut off. They could only capture Xiling and then defend to the death, waiting for reinforcements in the rear to take this path.
But can we really capture the strong city of Xiling within two days?
Zhou Tai really didn''t have much confidence in his heart.
Sun Wu was not panicked by the upcoming three-way Chu army, and his attention fell on Liu Xiu''s reaction speed.
"Was Liu Xiu actually coming so fast this time?"
A glimmer flashed in Sun Wu''s eyes. After all, according to common sense, after Xiling was exposed, there would be at least one day between them from Liu Xiu''s news to the decision to withdraw troops to support Xiling.
But less than half a day later, Liu Xiu''s army has retreated.
What does Liu Xiu’s withdrawal of troops so impatiently?
Explanation: In addition to Xiling, there were other important things in the city, which made Liu Xiu unable to accept the Wu army''s capture of Xiling, so he directly withdrew his troops without much hesitation and discussion.
What is so important that Liu Xiu withdraws his troops so anxiously?
Only Sun Ce is the only one.
Previously, Sun Wu just thought that Sun Ce was the most likely to be in Xiling and was not sure, but Liu Xiu''s reaction made him 100% sure. Sun Ce was definitely in Xiling City.
After Sun Wu talked to the generals about his own analysis, all the generals were extremely excited. After all, compared to conquering cities and territory, the most important thing is to know the prince''s son Sun Ce.
Originally, Sun Wu was still hesitating whether to attack the city, but since everyone knew that Sun Ce was in the city, he naturally had to stop attacking the city.
After moving outside Xiling City for a week, Sun Wu ordered to concentrate his troops to attack the South Gate, because according to his observation, it was the least difficult to break through the city from the South Gate.
The Wu army had only 10,000 troops, and it was impossible to surround them from all sides, nor could it be surrounded by three or one missing, so concentrating troops to attack one sect is the best solution.
After Sun Wu ordered, Zhou Tai and Ling Tong each led 3,000 troops and launched a fierce attack on Xiling City under the command of Sun Wu.
After a fierce attack on the whole day and night, the Wu army lost more than a thousand soldiers, but still failed to capture Xiling.
The Wu army was brave in fighting, but after all, there were no large siege equipment and only relying on ladders and crossbow arrows, even if Zhou Tai and Ling Tong participated in the war personally, it would be too difficult to break through Xiling.
Li Xin felt relieved when he saw that the Wu army had withdrawn. He found that he was praising him too early.
Wu Jun did not have large-scale engineering equipment, but Sun Wu''s vision was too tricky. He attached importance to discovering loopholes in Xiling City Defense and making targeted arrangements.
If Li Xin hadn''t been cautious and knew that Xiling''s troops were empty and that there would be loopholes no matter how they were arranged, so he had been staying on the city tower and defending the city himself, he would probably have been captured by Sun Wu in less than half a day.
Sun Wu''s offensive was too powerful, and Li Xin could only barely resist it. He wanted to push Sun Ce as a hostage to force Sun Wu to withdraw his troops.
But rationally told Li Xin that he would never do this, because this not only would not force Sun Wu to retreat, but it might also encourage his offensive.
After all, he could not really kill Sun Ce, and Sun Wu must also know this, so if Sun Ce is really pushed out to threaten it, it may in turn encourage the Wu army''s offensive.
The next day at dawn, Li Xin thought that the Wu army would come to attack the city again, but he did not expect that Sun Wu would withdraw his troops on his own initiative.
Zhou Tai and Ling Tong were extremely puzzled by Sun Wu''s decision. After all, the retreat has been cut off, and the most urgent task should be to break through Xiling in one go.
In the face of the confusion of the generals, Sun Wu explained this.
"Since you can''t conquer Xiling in one day, it''s the same for two days. Why not make other preparations early while Liu Xiu hasn''t arrived yet."
The commander''s attributes are as high as Sun Wu, and he cannot conquer Xiling in such an emergency. He only took two days to attack Xiling, so he decided to withdraw his troops and start from other aspects.
On the other hand, Liu Xiu felt relieved when he learned that Sun Wu had failed to capture Xiling.
He had cut off Sun Wu''s retreat and set up an extremely tight encirclement net. If Sun Wu could not conquer Xiling, where could he escape even if he wanted to escape?
"Haha, it''s just a dying struggle."
Liu Xiu sneered. He had suffered a lot of losses at Sun Wu''s hands. Now that he has the opportunity to avenge his previous shame, he naturally will not miss this opportunity.
Liu Xiu is full of confidence in the encirclement he set up.
After all, a 40,000 army besieged 10,000 Chu troops, and Guo Ziyi and Chai Rong, who were leading the army, were also famous generals with great skills, and they also had strong generals to assist them.
This was also the time when Liu Xiu had the greatest advantage over Sun Wu. He didn''t believe that Sun Wu could escape even if he didn''t believe it.
Two days later, Liu Xiu was confidently prepared to launch a decisive battle and completely defeated Sun Wu, but unexpectedly received news of Guo Ziyi''s defeat.
"Report... Report to the lord, General Guo Ziyi was ambushed by Sun Wu''s army under Jueyun Leader, and a total of more than 3,000 people were lost. General Wu Zhiqi was also seriously injured. At present, the Northern Army has retreated twenty miles to rest."
"What?"
Liu Xiu couldn''t help but exclaim.
(This chapter ends)