I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 659 Another Betrayal

Late September.

In Luyang City, every autumn rain brings a chill.

Outside the city, Sun Jian's army surrounded the city tightly, and the atmosphere between the military and civilians in the city suddenly became very tense.

Wen Chou's defeat left less than 10,000 soldiers capable of fighting in the city, while Sun Jian's troops outside the city were estimated to have more than 40,000 men.

Although the city defenses have been slightly repaired, under great pressure from Sun Jian, Yuan Tan once again urgently summoned everyone to discuss countermeasures.

However, Sun Jian's strength was obvious to everyone, and everyone was helpless. Apart from proposing some basic measures such as raising vigilance and repairing city defenses, there was no better solution.

"What should I do? What should I do?"

"Our army is small and trapped in an isolated city. If we can't come up with a plan to repel the enemy as soon as possible, once the city is breached, the consequences will be disastrous."

Yuan Tan asked for help anxiously and looked at everyone.

Wen Chou frowned and Gao Gan remained silent.

Seeing this, Feng Ji sighed and said:
"The only solution now is to hold on till death."

"Relying on the defense of the city walls and fighting to the death to defend the city, there may be a glimmer of hope."

"Mr. Feng, do you have any other good ideas?"

Yuan Tan asked unwillingly, he knew that defending to the death was not a long-term solution.

Feng Ji shook his head and said helplessly:

"For now, this is the best option. Our army is currently under pressure and we must not risk leaving the city again."

When Yuan Tan heard this, he felt powerless.

He knew Feng Ji was telling the truth, but a turning point?

Yuan Shu had taken Wancheng and most of Nanyang, so he had sufficient food and supplies. It was impossible for Sun Jian to be exhausted and retreat due to their lack of food.

Then the only chance of turning around is that Luoyang’s allies can send troops to rescue.

However, this is basically hopeless.

Now that the Su and Yuan families have formed an alliance to fight against Dong Zhuo, Yuan Tan has also stayed in Luoyang for a while and visited Lu Zhi and others. Therefore, although he cannot be said to be completely in the dark about Su Yao's arrangements in Luoyang, it is still easy for him to understand the general idea.

When Su Yao came to Beijing from Liaodong, he only brought 800 soldiers with him. Even after he borrowed troops from Nanyang Wenpin and defeated Dong Zhuo and incorporated the Xiliang tribe, he still had just over 10,000 soldiers.

This time, he took another 3,000 knights with him on the Western Expedition, leaving about 7,000 people to be responsible for the defense of the capital and the eight passes. He simply could not spare many people to send troops to provide support.

It was for this reason that Yuan Tan's gratitude to Dian Wei for bringing two thousand soldiers to help him attack Luyang was by no means false courtesy.

This ally is really powerful!

And for this reason, Yuan Tan knew that he could no longer rely on Luoyang.

"Don't panic, sir."

Feng Ji sighed:

"Although Luoyang may not be able to provide support, we still have other allies and reinforcements."

"What does Mr. Feng mean?"

"Yuzhou Governor Kong Zhu and Yingchuan Governor Li Min."

When Yuan Tan heard this, he immediately came to his senses.

That’s right, the world is so big, how can you limit your vision to just one corner?

You know, this is the Central Plains!

Luyang is located at the junction of three counties. The reinforcements from Luoyang are already here, and reinforcements from other places can also be expected.

It turned out that after taking Luyang, when facing the threat of Sun Jian, although Yuan Tan sent Wen Chou out of the city to fight under the influence of alcohol, Feng Ji did not leave all the treasures on him, and also sent out requests for help to the surrounding princes.

The reputation of the Yuan family is still good. After learning about the battle between the two Yuans in Luyang, the nearby princes responded immediately.

They were Kong Rong, the governor of Yuzhou and Li Min, the prefect of Yingchuan, who were adjacent to Luyang County.

Since the seat of the Yuzhou Provincial Administration was in Qiao County of Pei State (now Bozhou City, Anhui Province), which was far away from Luoyang, Kong Jun temporarily stationed his troops in Yingchuan after withdrawing from Luoyang to observe the development of the situation in the world.

After receiving the letter, they immediately mobilized their troops and rushed to Luyang to support Sun Jian and lift the siege of Luyang.
That's exactly how the script should have been written.

However, things took a surprising turn.

The governor of Yuzhou, Kong Zhu, and his subordinate, the governor of Yingchuan, Li Min, actually started a fight! It turned out that although the two were in the same place and were superiors and subordinates, the governor of the Han Dynasty was not a local official with real power.

In name, the Inspector only had the power of supervision and was a minor official with only 600 men. He was not like the later governors who nominally had the qualifications to unify the military and political power of the state.

This was also the reason why Emperor Wu of Han established the Inspectorate to supervise the prefects, and at the same time prevent the Inspectors from establishing their own separatist regimes.

This design of having small officials supervise big officials has been used in the Chinese officialdom for thousands of years.

Over time, the power of supervision over a state, in the hands of a strong governor, is actually no different from that of a governor. However, in the hands of a weaker governor, it is difficult for him to truly control the ambitious prefects under him.

One example is the killing of Jingzhou Governor Wang Rui by Changsha Governor Sun Jian, and Yingchuan Governor Li Min was obviously a fellow criminal.

This Kong Jun was a famous teacher, and like the former Nanyang prefect who was killed by Sun Jian, he was a new official who had just taken office. He was fond of empty talk and had a reputation of "talking about lofty ideas and blowing fresh ones". Such a person obviously could not convince Li Min.

Especially the experience of marching into Luoyang together before, which deepened the conflict between the two.

This time, after learning about the civil war between the two Yuans and asking for help from them, Kong Jun immediately issued an order, requiring Li Min to send troops to rescue Yuan Shao together with him.

Little did he know that his order gave Li Min a great opportunity.

Li Min had always had a good relationship with Yuan Shu. He had helped Yuan Shu a lot when Yuan Shu was stationed in Luyang. This time, the annoying Kong Jun stood on the side of the coward Yuan Shao, so Li Min immediately made up his mind to get rid of Kong Jun.

He first accepted Kong Rong's order and mobilized the Yingchuan troops, and then took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness and launched a sneak attack!
On that day, Kong Jun led 5,000 soldiers under his direct jurisdiction to Li Min's camp to mobilize troops.

Unexpectedly, the soldiers who were supposed to be inspected and set out with him suddenly started killing people under Li Min's order.

Kong Rong was stunned by this sudden change. He tried to organize resistance, but it was too late.

On Li Min's training ground, he had already made careful arrangements. The 10,000 Yingchuan troops quickly attacked when Kong Jun's troops were completely unprepared, dividing and surrounding them.

The battle was extremely fierce, and Kong Jun's soldiers fought desperately, but they were outnumbered and gradually fell into a desperate situation. Kong Jun himself was also wounded in many places in the melee, and his battle robe was stained with blood.

"Governor Kong, surrender!"

Li Min sneered at the side. His voice penetrated the hustle and bustle of the battlefield and reached Kong Jun's ears:

"You are already at the end of your rope. Why bother to struggle any further? Put down your weapons and give yourself and your soldiers a chance to survive."

"Li promises that as long as you surrender, I will never kill you indiscriminately."

Kong Jun felt a chill in his heart as he listened to Li Min's sneer and words of persuasion to surrender.

He looked around and saw his soldiers falling one by one, with wailing and screaming filling the battlefield.

Hopeless, no hope.

Even as a scholar with little combat experience, Kong Jun knew that the situation was hopeless and he could do nothing to reverse it.

But, surrender?
"Li Min, you treacherous villain!"

Kong Rong's eyes widened with anger, staring at Li Min and shouting:

"You betrayed the court and murdered your superiors. You will be infamous for eternity! Although I, Kong Zhu, am dead, I have no regrets!"

After saying that, Kong Jun suddenly drew out the sword from his waist and used all his strength to wipe it on his neck. Blood gushed out instantly. His body shook a few times and finally fell to the ground with a bang.

"Envoy! Envoy Kong!"

Upon seeing this, Kong Jun's personal soldiers rushed forward crying and shouting, trying to rescue him, but Kong Jun was obviously very determined and acted very cruelly, taking his own life with one knife.

Li Min looked at Kong Rong who was lying on the ground, and a complicated look flashed in his eyes.

He didn't expect Kong Jun to be so resolute and choose to die to show his integrity.

But soon, his face returned to indifference, and he ordered Kong Ji's head to be cut off and persuaded his followers to surrender.

With the death of their commander, the soldiers, who had no meaning to fight anymore, surrendered one after another and were recruited by Li Min.

In this way, the reinforcements from the princes that Feng Ji had placed high hopes on not only failed to help them, but instead added more than ten thousand helpers to Sun Jian.

That’s right, Sun Jian, the prefect of Changsha, was meritorious in suppressing the rebellion and was not only promoted to General of the Central Army by Yuan Shu, but also appointed as the Governor of Yuzhou after Kong Rong’s death, which was considered to be the fulfillment of his previous promise.

Yuan Shu's only request was that Sun Jian take over Luyang as soon as possible.

Suddenly, the pressure on Luyang City increased greatly and it was on the verge of collapse under Sun Jian's siege.

"How to do how to do."

Yuan Tan was in a panic:
"How come our reinforcements became Sun Wentai's reinforcements?"

"Is this the end of everything?!"

(End of this chapter)