Sun Jing already knew that Sun Ce died in battle and Sun Quan led his troops to retreat to Yuzhang, so she wrote a letter asking Huang Gai to abandon Liyang and retreat to Shu County first, and then retreat with him to Yuzhang to join forces with Sun Quan.
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Guan Yu and Li Jia led 15,000 troops to guard outside Liyang City, but Huang Gai defended the city very well and they were unable to capture it.
In fact, after learning that Sun Ce died in battle, Niu Zhu was captured by Huang She, and Song Qian was beheaded, Huang Gai wanted to abandon Liyang.
Now, sticking to Liyang alone will lead to death in the end.
Huang Gai began to hesitate where to retreat, not knowing whether to retreat to Qu'a to join forces with Sun Quan, or to retreat to Shucheng to join forces with Sun Jing.
Later, he heard that Sun Quan had retreated to Yuzhang. Now he received a letter from Sun Jing and heard that Liu Bei had led troops to Liyang. He immediately decided to abandon Liyang and retreat to Shucheng.
Guan Yu and Li Jia's soldiers and horses guarded outside Liyang West City.
Huang Gai led five thousand soldiers and horses out of the city from the south. There was not much food and grass in the city, so they did not bring much baggage, so they left with a light army.
Guan Yu received his reward and called Li Jia to discuss whether to pursue him.
"Huang Gai left with a light army. He was marching very quickly, and this man is a little resourceful. I'm afraid it would be unfavorable to pursue him." Li Jia said.
They have been attacking Liyang for so long without making any progress. This shows that Huang Gai is not a mediocre general. Now that he is retreating, he must have a plan to prevent pursuit.
Moreover, Huang Gai's soldiers and horses moved very fast. Even if his own men could catch up, if they could not keep up with the food and fodder, it would be difficult to win.
Guan Yu nodded slightly and was deep in thought for a long time before saying: "Although it is not easy to chase them, we must chase them. We cannot let them leave so easily."
"What does the general want?" Li Jia asked.
"You lead 5,000 men to stay here and wait for my lord, while I lead 10,000 men to chase Huang Gai."
"It's fine, if Sun Quan retreats to Yuzhang, Sun Jing will probably abandon Shucheng and retreat to Yuzhang with Huang Gai. The general leads the troops to pursue him, and Sun Jing can also be made to leave in a hurry, but the general only leads one
Ten thousand troops seems to be a little less, do you want the troops stationed in Hefei to go with the general?"
"No, the soldiers from Hefei cannot move. Cao Cao has long wanted to attack Xu, and Jiujiang is probably the place he wants to attack. Even if he doesn't attack Jiujiang, the soldiers from Hefei can easily go to assist Xuzhou when they arrive. Besides, my lord, the soldiers and horses will be there.
When we get to Liyang, we will just listen to my lord’s orders.”
As the governor of Yangzhou at this time, Guan Yu had different thoughts, and he could also see some of Cao Cao's thoughts.
When Li Jia heard this, he realized that he had not considered enough, and hurriedly said: "The general is very worried. If the lord's troops arrive, they can attack Yuan Shu in the south."
On the second day after Huang Gai left Liyang, Li Jia led 5,000 men to garrison Liyang, and Guan Yu led 10,000 horses to pursue Huang Gai.
When Liu Bei and Zhou Ping arrived at Niuzhu, they asked Cao Cheng to lead two thousand soldiers to stay and garrison, and then led sixteen thousand soldiers to Liyang.
After arriving at Liyang, there were no enemy troops in Jiangdong at this time, Danyang and Wu Commandery were both under control, Niuzhu had left troops to garrison, and there was no need for troops to garrison in Liyang for the time being.
So he took Li Jia and the five thousand soldiers under his command, totaling 21,000 people, and marched towards Shucheng.
Although Guan Yu could not catch up with Huang Gai, he did leave Sun Jing with no more time to prepare. Especially Huang Gai, who had just arrived in Shucheng and had no time to rest, immediately set off again and followed Sun Jing to escape to Yuzhang.
Shucheng became an abandoned city again, and Guan Yu was able to send troops to garrison it.
Sun Jing abandoned the city and retreated, which greatly surprised Yuan Shu.
This incident has shown that Sun will part ways with him.
Hearing that Liu Bei had led his troops south from Liyang, Yuan Shu was extremely anxious.
The deaths of Zhou Yu and Sun Ce frightened him very much. Even someone as powerful as Sun Ce could not stop Liu Bei. With his own generals, how could they possibly stop him?
"What should we do?"
Yuan Shu asked his subordinates anxiously.
Everyone bowed their heads in silence, and no one answered.
They all knew in their hearts that they could not stop Liu Bei, but they could not persuade Yuan Shu to retreat or surrender to Liu Bei.
"You guys are talking! Zitai, Master Yan, please tell me quickly."
Yuan Shu had to answer by name.
Liu Xun, the prefect of Lujiang, thought for a while and replied: "General, Liu Bei has succeeded in killing Sun Bofu, and his power will become even stronger. If he raises his troops, I am afraid it will be difficult for us to resist, and Lujiang will not be able to defend it."
"I know Lujiang cannot be defended, so I asked you what to do!" Yuan Shu said helplessly.
"One person is weak, but everyone is strong. Although the Sun family is defeated, they still have a lot of troops. They retreat to Yuzhang, why not...we also retreat to Yuzhang and give up Lujiang River to Liu Bei. If so, when we get to Yuzhang,
The Sun family will definitely still obey the general's orders, and Liu Bei may not attack Yuzhang again after he has captured Lujiang. Even if he does, it will be easy to hold it with the combined efforts of us and the Sun family."
"Absolutely not," Yan Xiang, the chief registrar, said hurriedly. "Sun Bofu is dead. Zhu Junli, Lu Ziheng and others have taken his younger brother Sun Quan as their leader. Although Sun Quan was young, they did not retreat to Lujiang, but retreated directly to Henan.
Zhang, it can be seen that they no longer have a general in mind. If the general retreats to Yuzhang, I am afraid it will be difficult to become the guest, and the Sun family may not be willing to obey the general's order."
"If we don't retreat to Yuzhang, what else can we do? Do we have to defend Lujiang?" Liu Xun asked rhetorically.
Yuan Shu felt that what Liu Xun and Yan Xiang said were reasonable, but he didn't know what to do.
Yan Xiang said again: "What's wrong with guarding Lujiang?"
"Master Yan, tell me quickly, how should we defend Lujiang?" Yuan Shu asked urgently.
But Yan Xiang just looked at Yuan Shu and remained silent.
Yuan Shu said anxiously: "Master Yan, it's already this time, what else are there to say? Just say it quickly!"
Yan Xiang looked at the hall. Except for himself, there were only Yuan Shu and Liu Xun, and there was no one else. Then he replied: "General, we can ask General Zhang Xun to return to Wancheng to defend together, and at the same time ask General Yuan for help."
"Ask Yuan...ask Yuan Benchu for help?"
Yuan Shu was a little unbelievable that Yan Xiang actually asked him to ask Yuan Shao.
Liu Xun nodded secretly. It wasn't that he hadn't thought of this question, but he just didn't dare to say it directly.
"Exactly, the general can give the imperial seal to General Yuan, and the general will send troops to rescue him. I heard that Cao Mengde and the general joined forces to attack Gongsun Zan, and they are about to win. If Gongsun is destroyed, the general will fight with Cao Mengde
Yanzhou joins forces to attack Xuzhou. If this can be done, Liu Bei will probably be destroyed. At that time, the general can still be appointed as the shepherd of Yangzhou and take charge of Yangzhou. Compared with retreating to Yuzhang, what does the general think is better?"
Yuan Shu thought carefully and found that there were three paths before him.
The first is to defend Lujiang and fight Liu Bei, but the result is conceivable, I am afraid that I will be like Sun Ce.
The second is to retreat to Yuzhang as Liu Xun said, but the result may be as Yan Xiang said, Sun did not listen to his orders, and he is likely to get the same ending as Liu Yao.
The third is to listen to Yan Xiang's advice and hand over the Jade Seal of the Kingdom to Yuan Shao and ask Yuan Shao for help. If Yuan Shao gets the Jade Seal of the Kingdom and bows to him, for the sake of being brothers of the Yuan family, he will definitely come to his rescue.
And it is very likely that, as Yan Xiang said, after Cao Cao and Yuan Shao defeated Gongsun Zan, they joined forces to attack Xuzhou and destroyed Liu Bei. In this way, they could be saved and get the land of Yangzhou, and it would be easier to develop in the future.
too much.
After much deliberation, Yuan Shu still felt that he should ask Yuan Shao for help as Yan Xiang said.
Although he would bow to Yuan Shao because of this, under the current situation, he had to bow his head.
He was no longer able to fight against Liu Bei on his own. Moreover, Yuan Shao got help from Liu Bei and moved the emperor to Yecheng. He could hold the emperor hostage and command the world. He was also honored as a general. He was no longer worthy of him. He would not lose his status by bowing to him.
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Yuan Shu thought about it and couldn't help laughing: "Hahaha... Master Yan really has a good plan. He immediately sent an order for General Zhang Xun to return to guard Wancheng."
