Three Kingdoms: I, Ma Su, just want to die

Chapter 673: Shu Army Returns North

"What should we do? I was just wondering what to do!" Luo Tong replied coldly, and it was obvious that he was in a very bad mood.

He knew from the beginning that the position of the Grand Commander of the Eastern Wu was not easy to hold. Especially when such an important position was suddenly thrown to him, he knew it would be a mess.

But knowing is one thing, and experiencing it in reality is another. When he actually took the most capable navy troops in the entire Eastern Wu to Xiakou, he realized how much of a headache it was.

Not only did he have to face the Shu army, which had abundant logistical supplies, double support in manpower and material resources, and was fighting at home, but while he was responsible for defending the east and west gates of the Yangtze River, he also had to find a way to deal with the pressure from his own Majesty.

Apart from anything else, Sun Quan is very good at putting pressure on his teammates.

Sun Quan: No, brother...

Being pressed so hard, even the usually good-tempered Luo Tong could no longer hold back. After learning that Sun Quan had sent him twelve letters in one day to urge him to return to the army, Luo Tong wanted to curse.

"Write a reply to His Majesty! Tell him that for the safety of Yuzhang County, I cannot leave no matter what. The only thing I can do is to squeeze out as many as 5,000 navy troops as possible to provide support. There is no other way!" Luo Tong suppressed his anger, waved his hand and said.

"If Your Majesty feels that I am not up to the task, please send someone to replace me."

After Luo Tong vented his anger, his subordinate held it in for a long time, but finally couldn't help but ask.

"Commander-in-chief, the enemy only has so few people. Why don't we send a large army to attack them, strangle them at Chibi Mountain, and then evacuate safely?"

"Fight? Captain, do you have any misunderstanding about the combat effectiveness of my Dongwu troops?" Luo Tong looked at his own troops in surprise and asked speechlessly.

"The enemy has 2,000 people who attacked Chibi Mountain by surprise, and now they are defending the dangerous place. Our Jiangdong Qu land warfare is only at this level, and we can't even take Hefei. How can we consider Chibi?"

Are you kidding? Cao Cao couldn't do anything about Chibi Mountain. Moreover, the Eastern Wu was short of manpower, so Luo Tong didn't dare to waste precious troops here.

So now he has basically no other choice but to stay here.

"But... it's not a good idea for us to stay here forever. His Majesty is also under tremendous pressure. With only 5,000 reinforcements, I'm afraid..."

"There's nothing I can do about it. Jiangdong is already leaking air from all sides. If we just tear down the east wall to repair the west wall, the fragile defense line will collapse completely in the end." Luo Tong waved his hand, sighed and explained.

"In the current situation, even if Governor Lu were alive again, he would be helpless. I am just a commoner from Jiangdong, what can I do?"

"That's it. If your majesty blames me, I will die to prove my loyalty."

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As the Han army won victory after victory, the whole country of Yangzhou was shocked as Sun Quan had expected.

In recent years, the Eastern Wu has mostly fought with the Han and Wei in places far away from Yangzhou. Therefore, Yangzhou has been peaceful for a long time, and even if the Northern Army fights near the Yangtze River, it cannot threaten Yangzhou.

But now, their last barrier in the north, Ruxuwu, had fallen. Not only that, it was said that the Han army had also seized a large number of ships, so crossing the Yangtze River was no longer a problem. At the same time, the Eastern Wu navy, which they relied on the most, was still being held up at Xiakou. Under Sun Quan's constant urging, they reluctantly sent back 5,000 people to help.

Five thousand naval troops... If this amount of troops is distributed along the entire Yangtze River coast, on average each person will be responsible for several dozen miles of river bank.

At the same time, in the southern part of Yangzhou, the Han army of Jingnan and the vassal army of Jiaozhou, under the deployment of Guan Yinping, began to continuously threaten Nanhai County.

At this point, Jiangdong was truly surrounded on three sides. The entire Eastern Wu was already shaky under the siege of the Han army, and there was not even a glimmer of hope.

What actually scared the local forces in Jiangdong the most was Zhuge Ke's rebellion. The leader of the Huaisi faction in Jiangdong suddenly broke the rules and personally went out to chop people with a knife, which made the local forces in Jiangdong have some bad associations.

What is the Huaisi faction trying to do? Have they reached an agreement with the North?

Since Sun Quan came to power in the Eastern Wu, the Huaisi faction and the local faction have been fighting each other. Before that, the Huaisi faction had always been the dominant force against the local faction.

But as time went on, local forces began to suppress the Huaisi faction in the checks and balances. So far, the Jiangdong local faction has controlled most of the power.

Originally, this was a peaceful transfer of power. But when Zhuge Ke came down and killed someone, this layer of window paper was broken.

The Huaisi faction has begun to collaborate with the enemy. If they continue to resist, if the Shu army really crosses the Yangtze River in the future, won’t they really become a piece of cake?

Until this time, the local forces in Jiangdong finally felt scared. In Jianye, the capital of Dongwu, all factions were in a state of panic, and they were desperately discussing what to do next.

For a time, the whole Jiangdong was in a panic. At this stage when the Han army was about to attack, almost no one in Dongwu thought about how to resist the enemy.

If the Han army quickly crossed the Yellow River at this time, it would probably cause severe damage to Jiangdong.

However, just as Wu's army was establishing positions along the Yangtze River and even Lu Kang was ready to die for his country, news that shocked everyone suddenly came from Jiangbei.

The Shu army retreated!
After capturing Ruxu Fort, Ma Su led the Han army to rest in the city for more than ten days and rescued many ships. However, he did not choose to continue southward, but instead led his troops back north after leaving some troops to garrison Powu City and Ruxu Fort.

When the people of Jiangdong were in panic and it seemed like the best time to launch an offensive, Ma Su stopped!

This situation completely confused all the forces in Jiangdong. Even Sun Quan's first reaction after hearing this intelligence was,
"That bastard Ma Su, is he planning to pretend to withdraw his troops and then launch a surprise attack?"

As the person with the most radical combat style in Ji Han, Ma Su theoretically had no reason to retreat at this time.

But the fact is that Ma Su really led his troops to withdraw. It was not until Ma Su himself returned to Shouchun that Sun Quan accepted this fact.

After the false alarm, Sun Quan heaved a sigh of relief. While lamenting that this defensive battle was not easy, he also secretly cursed Ma Su.

Idiot! You gave up such a good opportunity. You will never threaten Jiangdong again in your life!
Of course, it was not just the Eastern Wu that did not understand Ma Su's battle plan. When Ma Su led the troops to Shouchun, Zhuge Zhan and others who were with the army were in disbelief.

"Is this a strange deployment? With such a good opportunity, why doesn't the general take advantage of it and march south to conquer Jiangdong in one battle?"

(End of this chapter)