People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 572 Too difficult

The battle was still going on. Whether it was Zhou Yu, Liu Bei, Sun Quan and others in the distance, or Xu Chen who was closer, all of their attention was focused on the war front. However, they had two completely different reactions to the performance of the war.

Zhou Yu's face was gloomy, and no matter what the situation was on the front line, his expression did not change at all, because he had witnessed all this once more than ten days ago, and the current situation was completely within his expectations.

The Yellow Turbans are still as powerful as ever, even more invulnerable than last time, and the intensity of our attack is not even as strong as it was a dozen days ago.

This time, Zhou Yu had no way to inspire morale, and he couldn't even maintain morale. As time went on, the morale of the Wu and Shu armies was rapidly declining.

In fact, the soldiers had already begun to feel tired of war. They did not want to continue starving, and were also afraid to fight a desperate battle with the Yellow Turbans.

Although Zhou Yu was able to tempt them to fight as bravely as possible last time, the aftereffects of this approach have begun to appear.

A battle a dozen days ago had awakened all the Wu and Shu soldiers by the Yellow Turbans. They no longer dared to dream of any title. War-weariness and fear of death began to reappear, and these emotions would only be doubly strong when they reappeared.

This time, it was the reorganization of the army and the deterrence of the supervision team that forced the soldiers to take to the battlefield.

Can such a large army fight? Of course they can, and they are fighting now, but how long they can fight is a huge question. Zhou Yu has no idea at all, and he would not even find it strange if the army collapsed and surrendered under the high pressure in the next moment.

The war nowadays is not about victory at all, but just an unwilling struggle and an attempt at luck.

It is like the struggle and trembling of a body before death from suffocation, or like a gambler who knows that he has lost all his fortune and can only bet his life on the gambling table with red eyes.

Rather than saying that Zhou Yu was commanding the war, it would be more accurate to say that he was silently witnessing the final demise of Wu and Shu.

Zhou Yu actually accepted his fate calmly, but Sun Quan beside him seemed to still be a little unwilling.

Sun Quan was still nervous and anxious about the situation on the battlefield, unlike Zhou Yu who was calm.

"The fierce fighting on the front line has been going on for a long time. I think our army's offensive has run out of steam. What should we do?" Sun Quan finally couldn't sit still anymore. Seeing the dangerous situation on the front line, he immediately looked at Zhou Yu, hoping that Zhou Yu could turn the situation around.

Zhou Yu sighed. Although he knew that it was impossible to do anything, he still needed to fulfill his mission as the Grand Commander. "Now, we can only dispatch the reserve army to supplement the front line and rotate the attack, so that we can continue the offensive."

Sun Quan felt relieved after hearing this, but he still asked: "The situation is not favorable. I am afraid that adding more troops will not improve it. Perhaps we can retreat for a while to rest and then attack again?"

Zhou Yu heard this and looked over. "Your Majesty, you don't know that I led the attack more than ten days ago and then retreated. But once the war started, it was difficult to stop. Under the pursuit of the enemy, I lost tens of thousands of soldiers to barely preserve our army's strength. If we retreat now, I'm afraid the disaster will happen again. Moreover..."

Sun Quan was already nervous, and when he heard Zhou Yu's "and", he became even more uneasy, so he quickly asked, "and what?"

Zhou Yu shook his head and said bitterly, "Besides, our army is still in danger of being surrounded by the enemy in the rear, and the food supply is insufficient for a long time. This battle does not allow us to take our time. The only way we can do is to attack with all our might."

Sun Quan was stunned for a moment, and only then did he finally face the reality after hearing Zhou Yu's words. This battle was more difficult than he had thought.

But soon, he laughed at himself and felt that he had thought too much. Could it be that he really expected to win the battle against the Yellow Turbans?
Having said that, he still had that one tiny fantasy in his heart. Even if he had to struggle, he had to struggle a few more times, right?

Then he looked at Zhou Yu again: "If so, how can we stop this war?"

Zhou Yu said: "The only plan now is to wait until nightfall when the Yellow Turbans can no longer pursue us, and then we can send our army forward to support us, and then we can order a retreat."

Sun Quan could only nod, but then he couldn't help but sigh. Even the retreat had to be so cautious and serious. One could imagine how difficult this battle was.

He did not doubt that Zhou Yu was making a fuss out of nothing. After all, Zhou Yu had suffered a great loss in this regard. Now no matter how careful he was in dealing with the Yellow Turbans, it would not be excessive. Perhaps one negligence would lead to a total collapse.

Moreover, Sun Quan could see that the thousands of cavalrymen roaming outside the Yellow Turban camp were threatening the Wu and Shu armies at all times.

In terms of cavalry strength, Wu and Shu were completely lacking, and Zhou Yu could only deploy heavy troops on both wings to minimize the direct threat of cavalry. But once the retreat began, the formation loosened, and these cavalry would be difficult to restrain, and would become a noose on the army's retreat.

Sun Quan clearly felt that no matter what Wu and Shu did in this battle, they would not be comfortable. This was the impact of the direct gap in strength between the two sides.

At the moment, he could do nothing but watch the dangerous battlefield situation develop silently. Just as Zhou Yu said, there was little tactical room in such an attack on a city, and all that could be done was a brute force attack.

Even when the Yellow Turbans attacked the city, they could only attack with brute force, the only difference being that they had an additional tactic of blowing up the doors.

This made Sun Quan feel helpless. If possible, he would even be willing to fight the Yellow Turbans in an open terrain. However, the Yellow Turbans would never give them this opportunity. Knowing that Wu and Shu had only one way to actively seek an attack, the Yellow Turbans would naturally not give up the geographical advantage of their camp.

The Wu-Shu offensive was barely maintained under Zhou Yu's command by constantly rotating troops.

Countless times, the dangerous situation on the front line made Sun Quan tremble with fear, as if the battle line would collapse at any time. However, every time Zhou Yu made arrangements in advance with his keen military sense, and the situation was immediately remedied when the front line was in danger.

This gave Sun Quan the feeling that the Yellow Turbans guarding the camp were the attacking party, while Wu and Shu were the passive defending party.

When Zhou Yu finally ordered a retreat as dusk approached, Sun Quan's first feeling was not regret for not being able to shake the Yellow Turban camp, but gratitude that his army had held on until dusk to retreat.

Yes, just holding on until there was enough opportunity to retreat made Sun Quan feel relieved.

After witnessing the war with his own eyes, he finally understood how powerful the Yellow Turbans were, and realized that he really had no right to blame Zhou Yu.

It's difficult. Too difficult.
Watching the Wu and Shu armies retreating in the increasingly dark sky, Sun Quan sat down listlessly, his expression suddenly becoming dazed and dull.

When he thought about having to endure this torture again tomorrow, he couldn't help but feel like retreating and escaping.

(End of this chapter)