"My Lord, who do you think we should destroy first, Yuan Shu or Sun Ce?" Zhou Ping asked.
Liu Bei looked at Zhou Ping doubtfully,
Logically speaking, with Yuan Shu as the master and Sun Ce as the assistant, it was natural that Yuan Shu should be destroyed first.
Since the gentleman asked this, he definitely does not think that Yuan Shu should be killed first.
If you think about it carefully, Yuan Shu could only control 30,000 soldiers and horses, but Sun Ce could control 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers and horses, which was far more than Yuan Shu.
Moreover, in terms of combat power, Sun Ce's troops and horses are much higher than Yuan Shu's.
But to capture the thief first, capture the king. Since Sun Ce is a general under Yuan Shu, shouldn't he destroy Yuan Shu first?
Liu Bei was thinking about it when he heard Zhang Fei reply: "Of course we must destroy Yuan Shu first. Sir, why do you ask such a simple question?"
Zhou Ping laughed and said, "Haha, I was wrong. I thought we should kill Sun Ce first."
"Why?" Zhang Fei asked doubtfully.
"Although Sun Ce was a general under Yuan Shu before and listened to his orders, now that Sun Ce has many soldiers and horses and is stronger than Yuan Shu, he is naturally not willing to listen to his orders anymore. Therefore, Yuan Shu's strength relies on Sun Ce's soldiers.
If Yuan Shu is destroyed but Sun Ce is not damaged, his foundation will still be there. Only if Sun Ce is destroyed first, Yuan Shu will have no foundation, and it will not be difficult at all to destroy him."
Liu Bei felt that he was justified. Although the Sun family still obeyed Yuan Shu's orders in name, in fact, Sun Ce's power was now stronger than Yuan Shu's. Naturally, he no longer wanted to obey his orders and would leave at any time.
Therefore, destroying Yuan Shu would leave Sun Ce almost unscathed, and would also allow him to be freer without having to worry about being labeled a treasonous person.
Yuan Shu is currently defending Wancheng, and there is no threat to him at all. The person who can threaten him is Sun Ce. Only by destroying Sun Ce first can he be safe, and Yuan Shu can also be easily destroyed.
"It's just," Liu Bei said hesitantly, "Sun Ce's troops stationed in Liyang are still there. Do we have to turn our troops back and attack Liyang?"
"No, the return of the troops and horses may be detrimental to morale." Zhou Ping said, "Liu Jingzhou sent the Jiangxia prefect to send troops to attack Yuan Shu, and Huang Zu sent his sons Huang She and Chen Gongtai to lead 10,000 naval troops to garrison on the river. We happened to be with them.
Join forces and attack Sun Ce together."
Liu Bei couldn't guess what Zhou Ping meant, so he quickly asked: "Sir, please elaborate."
Huang Zu, the governor of Jiangxia, previously sent troops to attack Lujiang and attracted Sun Ce from Jiujiang. However, he was defeated by Sun Ce, lost his troops and generals, and fled back to Jiangxia.
Now Liu Biao was ordered by the emperor to attack Yuan Shu together with Liu Bei. Liu Biao asked Huang Zu to send troops again. Huang Zu did not lead the attack personally this time, but asked his sons Huang She and Chen Gong to lead 10,000 people in a boat.
But Huang She was afraid of Sun Ce's power, so he just led his men and horses to camp on the river to build momentum from a distance.
"Sun Ce did not lead troops to come to the rescue. He must have known that Sun Jing would abandon the city and retreat. Even if we advanced again, Zhang Xun and Sun Jing would still abandon the city and retreat to Wancheng. In any case, Sun Ce would not have led troops to come to the rescue. He would only sit down and retreat.
Look at us wasting food, grass and time here."
"Sun Ce does not need to save Wancheng, but Danyang and Wu County are the places he must save. My lord, with peace of mind, we will also abandon Shucheng and attack Xiang'an. Then we will join forces with Huang She and cross the river to capture it.
Spring Valley. If we can cross the river, we can turn north to attack Danyang and Niuzhu, and then attack Sun Ce."
"If we can cross the river, as I predict, Sun Ce will definitely return to fight, and he will never let us attack from Hefei. If he doesn't return to fight, we can directly attack Qu'a and Dantu.
If Dantu is captured, soldiers from Guangling can cross the river to help, which is something Sun Ce cannot accept. Therefore, no matter what, as long as we cross the river, Sun Ce will definitely come to fight."
Zhou Ping analyzed it carefully. In the final analysis, he wanted to borrow Huang She's navy to cross the river and attract Sun Ce's troops to fight.
At this time, it doesn't matter if Sun Ce doesn't want to fight, Liu Bei can change from passive to active, and it's up to him whether to fight or not.
In fact, it was impossible for Sun Ce to let Liu Bei cross the river and enter his rear base camp.
If Liu Bei really crossed the river to Danyang, Sun Ce would come and drive them away no matter what, and the battlefield would change from Jiujiang to Danyang.
The troops of Sun Ce and Yuan Shu are now mainly concentrated in three places.
One is Lujiang, where Yuan Shu and Zhang Xun guard Wancheng and Juchao.
The other was Liyang, with 30,000 troops led by Sun Ce himself.
There is also Qu'a and Dantu, led by Zhang Zhao, Cheng Pu and others, who are on guard against the enemies of Guangling.
Xu Kun's three thousand soldiers were stationed at Xiang'an in Lujiang, and Jiang Qin's three thousand soldiers were stationed at Chungu in Danyang. What they wanted to guard was the road across the river.
It would not have been easy for Liu Bei to cross the river if he had only his own troops, but with the help of Huang Sheshui's army, crossing the river would be easier.
"After crossing the river, our army will penetrate deep into the enemy's territory. Will there be a way out?" Liu Bei asked worriedly.
"After capturing Xiang'an, we can leave a force of troops to garrison as a retreat," Zhou Ping said.
Liu Bei nodded slightly. If he defended Xiang'an, it would be easy to cross the river and retreat.
However, Yuan Shu and Sun Jing have more than 30,000 troops and horses. How many troops and horses should be left to garrison Xiang'an? If they leave too many, they will not have enough troops to cross the river. If they leave too few, they will be afraid that they will not be able to defend Xiang'an.
With this worry, Liu Bei asked again: "Sir, how many people do you think should be left to guard Xiang'an?"
Zhou Ping replied: "Three thousand people are enough."
Liu Bei was shocked and said: "How can three thousand people defend it?"
"My lord, are you worried that Yuan Shu will send troops to attack?"
Hearing Zhou Ping's question, Liu Bei nodded.
"Yuan Shu is now only determined to defend and has no intention of making progress. Even if he comes to attack, he will not come with large troops. There are three thousand soldiers defending the city, but the enemy has no brave generals. Even if twenty thousand people come to attack, they will still be defeated.
We can hold on and there will be no danger. Besides, the soldiers from Hefei can also come to our aid at that time, so don’t worry, my lord."
"Ziyi, Zijing, what do you think?"
Liu Bei turned to ask Taishi Ci, Lu Su and others.
After hearing so much, Taishi Ci and Lu Su both understood Zhou Ping's intention. After abandoning Yuan Shu and attacking Sun Ce, it was indeed a good idea to lure him to fight.
If he wins the battle with Sun Ce in Danyang, he will not only be able to show off his power and destroy the enemy's power, but also gain the land of Danyang.
At this point, Taishi Ci, as the prefect of Danyang, was of course very happy.
"My lord, what you have seen is wonderful. Sun Ce doesn't want to come to rescue Shucheng, but we can cross the river to attack behind him. Danyang is the place where he must save, and he will definitely come to fight. When we get to Danyang, General Ci and Cao can still recruit more
Soldiers to strengthen our army."
The general Cao Taishi Ci mentioned was Cao Cheng.
Cao Cheng is from Danyang, and he belongs to a powerful family in Danyang. It will be easy to recruit soldiers. In addition, Taishi Ci is the prefect of Danyang, so it will be even easier to recruit soldiers.
"It is indeed a clever strategy to cross the river and attack. Yuan Shu is an easy-to-defeat enemy. If Sun Ce is defeated first, Yuan Shu can defeat him without attacking. However, do we need to leave troops to garrison Shucheng?"
Lu Su also agreed with Zhou Ping's strategy of crossing the river.
But for Shu Cheng, he was reluctant to give up.
After all, he is now the captain of Lujiang, and Zhou Ping is the prefect of Lujiang.
