Can I get to the other side?.

Chapter 328 Sun Quan: Send troops to Hefei to deal with Zhang Liao first

There were corpses everywhere in Tongling Ferry.

Following Lu Meng's suicide, the remaining soldiers of Sun's army either chose to commit suicide or surrender, and no one resisted anymore.

Cao Cao also rushed over quickly. When he saw the corpses of many Cao’s soldiers at the ferry, he couldn’t help feeling deeply heartbroken.

Because the loss this time was extremely heavy.

Not to mention the 3,000 defenders originally stationed at the ferry, this battle alone had cost him no less than a thousand men.

Thinking of this, Cao Cao's eyes became more violent, and he coldly ordered Le Jin: "Kill all the captives! Throw their bodies into the river to feed the fish!"

These guys caused him such a heavy loss.

It deserves this outcome!

"promise!"

Le Jin clasped his fists and accepted the order, then, ignoring the curses and pleas for mercy from the surrendering soldiers, he beheaded them all and threw them into the river along with Lu Meng's body.

When Cheng Yu saw this scene, he immediately showed a look of regret.

Such good food! What a waste.

Shaking his head and retracting his gaze, Cheng Yu said, "My lord, this time the Sun army used despicable means to cross the river. We need to be careful next time."

"We can no longer relocate the people, and we must conduct more checks on the people and merchants who come and go in the future to prevent what happened today from happening again."

Normally, there is no need to check ordinary people and businessmen, but now that something like this has happened, we have to be careful.

Who can guarantee that the enemy will not continue to disguise themselves as civilians and cross the Yangtze River?

We were lucky this time and managed to recapture the ferry before the arrival of Sun Quan's army, but we can't say for sure what will happen next time. Every failure makes us wiser.

Cao Cao's eyes changed when he heard this. He snorted coldly and said, "Pass my military order to stop the migration of civilians, block all ferry crossings, and prohibit any civilians, merchants, or ships from traveling!"

"Anyone who dares to cross the river without permission will be killed without mercy!"

Even though he felt reluctant to abandon the people and supplies from Jiangbei who had not yet migrated there, he had no choice now.

I can only reluctantly give up Yuzhou and the counties in northern Jiangbei!
Li Dian couldn't help but ask: "My lord, General Cao Ren is still resisting Lu Bu in Guandu. If we give up Yuzhou, then they..."

"I have my own arrangements."

After Cao Cao said this, he turned and left expressionlessly.

……

Jiujiang County, Yinling.

It was originally occupied by Cao's army, but Cao Cao did not deploy many troops here, so Sun Quan sent Lu Meng to secretly cross the river and seize Tongling Ferry while also sending troops to capture here.

It’s not that Sun Quan didn’t want to lead his troops into Jiangbei as soon as possible, but doing so would expose his intentions and arouse Cao Cao’s vigilance, so he just chose to capture Jiujiang County first.

Jiujiang County has many waterways that can flow downstream into the Yangtze River. The fleet can reach Tongling Ferry in just five days along the river, making it convenient for him to rush to Lu Meng's aid at any time.

However, the changes in things were beyond his expectations.

Several days had passed since Lu Meng captured Tongling Ferry. He dispatched all his fleets to Tongling Ferry early in the morning, but Cao Cao's reaction was much faster than he expected, and the fleet encountered many obstacles on the Yangtze River.

"Can't the fleet break through if it's blocked? Cao Cao's troops are all from the Central Plains. Can they still defeat our fleet on the water?"

Sun Quan was furious in his study.

As time passed, he became more and more anxious, because every day that passed meant that Lu Meng and his men, who were advancing deep in the enemy's territory alone, were in greater danger!
Zhou Tai replied helplessly: "My lord, although Cao's army is not good at naval warfare, they have a large number of warships and dare to use them to ram our fleet directly."

"Either they chain the warships together with iron chains and block them across the river to prevent our fleet from passing. We really have no other options."

In terms of naval battle, Cao's army was indeed no match for them, but what could they do? They dared to ram them directly with their boats, simply not treating the boats as boats. What could they do?
Hearing this, Sun Quan clenched his fists.

His eyes were filled with anger.

Cao Cao does not have so many warships, but he can now mobilize so many warships to block his fleet, which shows that he has the support of major Jiangdong families behind him!
"A bunch of shameless villains!"

Sun Quan was filled with hatred. If he could return to Jiangdong, he would definitely deal with all these noble families who were following the trend!
Taking a deep breath to suppress the anger in his heart, Sun Quan gave the order in a cold voice: "Abandon the water route, and the army will march by land instead!"

"We must reach Tongling Ferry within three days no matter what!"

They didn't have much time left. If Cao's army reached Tongling Ferry before them, the ferry they had just captured would be lost again.

His only hope of returning to Jiangdong was gone!
"promise!"

Zhou Tai clasped his fists and accepted the order.

But before he could leave, Han Dang hurried into the study without notifying anyone and said to Sun Quan with a sad face, "My lord, something terrible has happened!"

Hearing this, Sun Quan's expression changed slightly.

I felt a little uneasy.

But he remained calm on the surface and asked, "General Han, what happened?"

Han Dang gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice: "Just received news that Cao's troops have arrived at Tongling Ferry. General Lu Meng and General Xu Sheng defended the ferry and fought a bloody battle with the enemy. Our army was defeated!"

"Tongling Ferry... was taken back!"

This sudden news made it impossible for Sun Quan to remain calm. His face turned pale instantly, as if someone had poured a basin of cold water on his head in the middle of winter.

His mind went blank and he had difficulty breathing.

Tongling Ferry was recaptured, and Lu Meng, Xu Sheng and two thousand elite soldiers were all wiped out. His last hope of returning to Jiangdong was gone, and he also lost two generals!
For a moment, feelings of confusion and helplessness emerged in Sun Quan's heart, and he suddenly felt that the road ahead became dark.

Whether it was the death of his elder brother Sun Ce, who had him urgently take over the Sun family's foundation, stabilizing the major families in Jiangdong while fighting against Lu Bu; or being ambushed by Cao Cao and having his retreat cut off, none of them was as devastating as this news.

Crossing the river in white clothes was a strategy on which he gambled his reputation and all his hopes, but now it has failed again!
"My lord, my lord!"

Han Dang and Zhou Tai looked at Sun Quan's dull and distraught expression, and couldn't help feeling extremely worried, so they shouted.

After hearing the two's calls, Sun Quan slowly came back to his senses. He subconsciously looked around and said in a trembling voice, "Where is Gongjin? Quick, call Gongjin over!"

At this moment, facing such a desperate situation, the first person that came to his mind was Zhou Yu.

His elder brother Sun Ce died a few years ago. He was only sixteen years old when he took over Jiangdong. It was Zhou Yu who stood by his side and helped him solve one problem after another.

Only now did he realize how important Zhou Yu was.

As long as Zhou Yu is with him, he has a backbone. Even if he is in desperate situation, Zhou Yu can help him out.

Zhou Tai and Han Dang looked at each other.

Then Zhou Tai said carefully: "My lord, have you forgotten? Zhou Gongjin is now in Xiapi, Xuzhou, and did not come with the army."

Zhou Yu was dismissed from his post as Grand Commander and was still a criminal, so he stayed in Xia Pi.

After hearing Zhou Tai's words, Sun Quan remembered this matter. He felt disappointed and his mood was very complicated.

He admired and envied Zhou Yu. He admired Zhou Yu's talent, but was also jealous that Zhou Yu's prestige was higher than his lord's. Not only was he recognized and appreciated by Cao Cao, but even Lu Su helped him for Zhou Yu's sake.

He is obviously the lord!
But at this desperate moment, he found himself subconsciously wanting to rely on Zhou Yu and seek help from him. How ironic.

"I can do it on my own without him!"

A gleam of determination flashed across Sun Quan's eyes.

He didn't believe that without Zhou Yu's help, he would not be able to find a way out by his own abilities!
At this time, Han Dang asked, "My lord, Tongling Ferry has been recaptured by Cao's army. Should we continue to pass or withdraw our troops back to Xiapi?"

There are only two options before them now: either continue to march towards Tonglingdu or withdraw.

"Get the map!"

Sun Quan did not answer directly, but gave an order.

Zhou Tai ran to get the geomancy map.

Sun Quan knelt beside the table, looked at his position on the feng shui map, frowned and began to think.

The current situation is not optimistic.

The method of crossing the river in white clothes cannot be used again after it has been used once. Cao Cao will certainly become alert. If he wants to return to Jiangdong, the only way is to attack by force.

But the problem was that his army had suffered heavy losses after fighting Zhang Liao for a long time in Xuzhou, and later in the counterattacks on Danyang and Guangling counties, many of them also suffered casualties.

With his current military strength, he cannot attack Jiangdong by force.

Besides, there was not much food and fodder left. He currently needed to replenish his troops and food and gather his strength before making plans.

Thinking of this, he looked at a certain place on the feng shui map.

His eyes moved slightly.

"General Zhou, have the Cao thieves gathered many civilians and supplies in Huainan County and have not yet moved them across the river?"

Zhou Tai nodded and said, "That's right. Tongling Ferry's transportation capacity is limited after all, and it is troublesome to migrate civilians and materials, so Cao thieves have not completed the migration yet."

After receiving a positive answer, Sun Quan made up his mind and said, "In this case, let's take Huainan County first, and then the three counties in Jiangbei!"

The three counties north of the Yangtze River are Huainan County, Lujiang County, and Jiujiang County.

As long as he can capture these three counties, he will not only be able to quickly replenish his strength with the materials and population there, but also gain a firm foothold!

Han Dang hesitated and said, "But my lord, Zhang Liao has already led his troops into Huainan County. If we attack Huainan County, won't we have to compete with him for it?"

Fighting for Huainan County would mean a fall-out between the two sides.

Although they pretended to surrender to the court in order to buy a chance to catch their breath, Han Dang felt that it was too fast to turn against them now.

"There is no other way."

Sun Quan said expressionlessly, his eyes were very deep, "We will eventually continue to fight against the imperial court. Before that, we must do everything we can to improve our strength."

"There are a large number of young and strong people and supplies in Huainan County. If we take over Huainan County, we can greatly enhance our strength."

"Zhang Liao only brought 10,000 men with him into Huainan County this time. If we launch a sudden attack, we may be able to destroy him and his 10,000 men."

"This way we have one less strong enemy."

It was impossible to surrender to the imperial court. Not to mention whether his generals were willing to do so, even he himself did not believe the emperor's promise.

Since we have to fight sooner or later.

It would be better for him to strike first!

After dealing with Zhang Liao and taking Huainan County, the remaining troops of the imperial court could not do anything to him for the time being, so he had a chance to catch his breath.

After hearing what Sun Quan said, Han Dang and Zhou Tai were also somewhat moved, after all, they were both in favor of war.

"My lord, Zhang Liao is currently stationed in Hefei. After he entered Yangzhou, he dispersed his troops to various places to gather and appease the people."

"If we want to take over Huainan County, now is the best time to attack!"

Zhou Tai said excitedly, full of fighting spirit.

Sun Quan nodded deeply and ordered: "Send a message to General Cheng immediately, asking him to stop leading his troops to Tongling Ferry and head towards Huainan County instead."

"We will also lead our troops to Hefei, capture Huainan County in one fell swoop, and kill Zhang Liao!"

Zhou Tai and Han Dang respectfully accepted the order.

……

Huainan County, Hefei.

It has been some time since Zhang Liao led his troops into Huainan County. The first thing he did was to clear out Cao's army in Huainan County and rescue the people.

The people were basically forced to migrate, and many of them even came from Yanzhou. Because Cao's army was unable to relocate all of these people to Jiangdong at once, a large number of them were stranded in Yangzhou and Yuzhou.

Due to the long migration and trekking, many people died of starvation, disease or even exhaustion. Fortunately, it is not winter now, otherwise even more people would have died.

Receiving, reorganizing and pacifying these people is a very troublesome task, but as the imperial army, it is certainly impossible to ignore these people.

Therefore, after Zhang Liao had cleared out Cao's army, he began a new round of busy work, but at the same time he did not forget to pay attention to Sun Quan's situation.

When he learned that Sun Quan used the method of crossing the river in white clothes to capture Tongling Ferry, he was quite surprised.

"How could this fellow be so despicable and shameless?"

"He is on par with Cao thief."

Zhang Liao was amazed. Cao Cao and Sun Quan, one broke the alliance and stabbed his ally, while the other crossed the river in white clothes and broke the bottom line of marching and fighting.

It is impossible to say which one of them is more shameless. We can only say that when two rats collided with each other, they were equally matched.

Qu Yi said: "This is news from a long time ago. Tongling Ferry has been taken back by Cao Cao, and all the troops that Sun Quan crossed the river have been annihilated."

Zhang Liao frowned upon hearing this and asked, "What is this Sun Quan kid doing? Why didn't he inform me when he captured Tongling Ferry?"

His troops were in Huainan County. If Sun Quan notified him immediately after capturing Tongling Ferry, he would be able to cross the Yangtze River and lead his troops into Jiangdong.

But now the ferry has been taken back again, and such a good opportunity has been lost in vain!
"I do not know either."

Qu Yi shook his head. He had heard scouts report that a large number of Cao Cao's warships had arrived at Tongling Ferry and that a fierce battle had broken out at the ferry, so he sent people to investigate the situation and eventually learned that Sun Quan had sent troops to cross the river disguised as civilians.

Otherwise they might be kept in the dark.

Zhang Liao's eyes turned cold, and he snorted, "This blue-eyed thief is really dishonest. He agreed to surrender this time, I'm afraid he has ulterior motives!"

"I just don't know what his conspiracy is."

(End of this chapter)