Vol 2 Chapter 2535: Zheng Zhilong is trapped in Zhu County, Zheng Chenggong plots to save his fathe

Chapter 2535 Zheng Zhilong is trapped in Zhu County, Zheng Chenggong plots to save his father

Chapter 2531: Zheng Chenggong was trapped in Zhu County, and Zheng Chenggong planned to save his father

Lujiang has always been the focus of competition between Wu and Chu. For the eight counties south of Lujiang, the two countries have fought many wars, with no less than 100,000 casualties, but still no one can do anything to the other.

This time Sun Ce led his army to attack Chu. In less than half a month, he captured three strong cities in Tongxiang, Juchao and Wanxian, and annihilated nearly half of the Lujiang defenders. This greatly boosted the military morale of the Wu army. .

With his morale strong, Sun Ce decided to launch a blitzkrieg. He led more than 20,000 elite soldiers to set off overnight to raid Xunyang, without giving Guo Ziyi any chance to react.

Sun Ce was also worried about failure, so before taking action, he specifically consulted Sun Wu for advice, and only sent troops after receiving Sun Wu's approval.

Twenty thousand troops moved together, and the movement was so great that it was impossible to hide it from the Chu army's spies.

 Guo Ziyi was also surprised after receiving the report from the spies. He had thought that the Wu army would rest for a few days after capturing Wan County. After all, the Wu army was exhausted after continuously attacking the city for several days, but he did not expect that Sun Ce would be so unreasonable and act out of common sense.

Sun Ce arrived too quickly, the morale of the Chu army had not yet recovered, and Guo Ziyi was not ready to defend. If he forced a fight with the Wu army like this, once Sun Ce entered the city, he would not be able to escape even if he wanted to.

The more than 10,000 troops in Guo Ziyi's hands are Chu's last troops in Lujiang. Once the entire army is wiped out, Chu's east gate will be wide open, and Sun Ce will invade Jiangxia effortlessly.

After thinking about it, Guo Ziyi decided to give up Xunyang before the Wu army arrived, and retreated to Qichun City to preserve his strength and lure the enemy deeper.

 After receiving the summons from Sima Yi, Guo Ziyi no longer doubted Sun Quan’s intentions.

 Sun Quan, as the prefect of Lujiang, was in charge of the food and grass supply for the 80,000 Wu army. He was able to provide Guo Ziyi with a large amount of confidential information.

Even if the information leaked by Sun Quan is true, as long as Sun Ce's 80,000-strong army fights steadily, Guo Ziyi, who only has more than 10,000 troops, can't do anything to him.

The only way Guo Ziyi could think of was to actively show weakness, and in the continuous retreat, dispel Sun Ce's wariness about him, causing him to miscalculate the strength of both sides, in order to achieve the purpose of luring the enemy deeper.

As long as Sun Ce breaks away from the main force, Guo Ziyi's opportunity will come.

Guo Ziyi's move is not a bold one. After all, even if his goal of luring the enemy deeper is achieved, Sun Ce, as the commander-in-chief of the Wu army, may not necessarily lead the army himself.

If other generals had come, then even if Guo Ziyi could succeed in the ambush, he would have voluntarily abandoned the gateway to the east. The price would be too high.

Furthermore, even if Sun Ce really pursues him, he may not continue to pursue him after occupying Xunyang, so Guo Ziyi's move is a big gamble.

The reason why Guo Ziyi dared to take such a gamble was mainly because Sima Yi and Sun Quan gave him the courage to take the gamble.

He knew that the main purpose of Wu's sending troops to attack Chu was to pave the way for Sun Ce, so he bet that Sun Ce would not rely too much on Sun Wu in order to express himself, and would be eager to open up the situation.

I have to say that Guo Ziyi knew Sun Ce’s thoughts very well, so he made the right bet this time.

Sun Ce marched all night and finally arrived at Xunyang City, only to find that the gate of Xunyang City was wide open and it had become an empty city.

Faced with this piece of fat, Sun Ce naturally would not let it go. He occupied Xunyang City without spending a single soldier and completely expelled the Chu forces from Lujiang County.

After the Chu State occupied the four cities in the southwest of Lujiang, in order to prevent them from being captured by the Wu State, they invested a lot in the four cities and built them into military fortresses.

But now Wu State has regained the four cities in the southwest of Lujiang at a very small cost, and the Chu army was beaten to the point where it was almost impossible to fight back.

This also made many generals of the Wu army become arrogant and began to ignore the Chu army.

Sun Ce would naturally not make such a low-level mistake as underestimating the enemy. After all, this was not the first time Wu and Chu had fought against each other.

Every time, Wu took the initiative to attack Chu, while Chu passively defended.

Every time, Wu had the upper hand, while Chu was passively beaten.

 But each time it ended with Wu's defeat and Chu's defense of its territory.

Sun Ce clearly knew how difficult the Chu army was, and also knew that a few small victories were of little significance. The real victory would only be achieved in the end, so naturally he would not make such a low-level mistake as underestimating the enemy.

However, in this battle, Sun Ce felt the power of blitzkrieg for the first time.

This kind of strategy of disregarding logistical supplies, rushing forward with all one's heart, and never giving up until the enemy is defeated is really too fascinating and to his liking.

 Captured four cities so easily and drove the Chu army out of Lujiang. This gave Sun Ce the illusion that Chu's eastern troops were empty and that Guo Ziyi was incompetent.

“Liu Xiu was a wise man, and he always judged people very accurately, but unexpectedly he fell in love with Guo Ziyi.” Sun Ce sneered in his heart.

 At this time, Liu Xiu had not realized the mistake of hiring people. Sun Ce naturally wanted to expand the results as much as possible and occupy more territory before Liu Xiu replaced Guo Ziyi.

Qichun is the east gate of Jingzhou. If this city is captured, the eastern part of Jingzhou will be opened wide, and Jiangxia will also wave to Wu.

So Sun Ce rested for the night, left three thousand defenders in Xunyang, and set off again towards Qichun.

This time Sun Ce not only did not discuss with Sun Wu, but also left Sun Wu's army behind. In his opinion, there was no need for his uncle Sun Wu to take action against the incompetent Guo Ziyi.

When Sun Ce's army arrived in Qichun, the Chu army had entered the city half a day in advance. Although they had been making various arrangements, they were still not fully prepared.

Sun Ce saw the loopholes in the city's defense at a glance, and personally led his elite troops to attack the city. Carrying a ladder, he directly launched an attack on the city. Three top generals, Li Hu, Li Lu, and Li Yang, also participated.

A **** of war, three peak generals, and an elite battalion, the fighting power unleashed is terrifying. Even without extra siege equipment, they still managed to capture the Qichun Tower by relying only on ladders.

After the Wu and Chu armies fought fiercely for two hours, Guo Ziyi ordered Wuzhiqi to withdraw from Qichun, and then the entire army withdrew to Zhu County.

The Qichun defenders have clearly not lost their fighting spirit, but Guo Ziyi took the initiative to withdraw?

This reaction fell into the eyes of Sun Ce, and naturally it became that Guo Ziyi did not dare to fight to the death, which was a sign of cowardice and incompetence.

Although the Chu army suffered heavy losses and withdrew from Qichun, they were not defeated. This was the best time to take advantage of the victory and pursue the attack.

However, it was already dark at this time, so Sun Ce could only give up temporarily and take a rest.

Sun Ce dared to march at night, but he did not dare to pursue at night. After all, the risk of doing so was too high.

Although the continuous battles and victories made him a little superior, he has not lost his mind after all. It would not be a joke if he fell into a trap. The next day, at dawn, Sun Ce led his army and set off again, heading straight for Zhu County, leaving two thousand defenders for Qichun.

Sun Ce was also worried about encountering an ambush, so he marched in two groups this time, one led by Zheng Zhilong, and the other led by him himself.

Both armies had only one purpose, which was to take advantage of Guo Ziyi's unstable foothold to arrive at Zhu County as quickly as possible and capture it.

Zheng Zhilong was implanted as a Jiangdong water bandit and ran rampant in the Jiangdong area for many years, but no one could do anything about him.

 After the Yellow Turban Uprising, water bandits were everywhere in the Jiangdong area, among which water bandits were the most serious problem, and Zheng Zhilong was the most powerful family among the water bandits.

The major princes in Jiangdong sent troops to encircle and suppress him several times, but they were all defeated by Zheng Zhilong, including Sun Jian.

At that time, Sun Jian personally led the army to suppress the bandits. However, Zheng Zhilong was so cunning and had great water warfare abilities that he failed to succeed in two consecutive sieges.

It was not until Sun Jian occupied Jiangdong and ordered Sun Wu to lead the army to clear out the bandits in Jiangdong that Zheng Zhilong's power was completely wiped out, and Zheng Zhilong also surrendered to Soochow.

As the number one man in Jiangdong Green Forest, Zheng Zhilong’s surrender not only allowed the Wu State to recruit more than 10,000 elite sailors, but also made bandits from all over the Wu State fearful and choose to take refuge.

With Zheng Zhilong alone, Sun Jian was able to put down all the banditry in Jiangdong within a very short period of time.

After Zheng Zhilong surrendered to Soochow, he was highly used by Sun Jian because of his excellent water warfare skills. During this attack on Chu, he was transferred to Sun Ce's command.

Sun Ce divided the army into two groups. After leading one group, he left Zheng Zhilong to lead the other group, which shows his status in the Wu Kingdom.

After Zheng Zhilong separated from Sun Ce, he led an army of 7,000 people and took a small road to the west. After two days and one night of rapid march, they finally arrived outside Zhu County.

Judging from the sparse number of defenders on the city tower, Zheng Zhilong judged that the number of defenders on the city tower should not exceed a thousand. In other words, the Chu army's defeated army was overtaken by Sun Ce's army before it retreated to Zhu County.

Zheng Zhilong was not worried about Sun Ce. After all, with the strength of Guo Ziyi's defeated army, it was impossible for him to be a match for Sun Ce's newly victorious army, so he ordered an siege.

The total number of defenders in Zhu County was less than a thousand, and it was not a fortified city. Naturally, it could not withstand the fierce attack of 7,000 Wu troops.

After attacking for three hours, Zheng Zhilong’s son Zheng Chenggong killed the defender of Zhu County. The Chu army no longer had any intention to fight and surrendered to the Wu army. The Wu army only suffered more than 300 casualties.

Zheng Zhilong was naturally overjoyed when he conquered Zhu County. After all, after Zhu County, there was Xiling City, where Jiangxia was governed. This was obviously a great achievement.

 But Zheng Chenggong’s reaction was completely opposite to Zheng Zhilong’s, without any joy at all.

"Sen'er, how come you have a sad expression after winning the battle?" Zheng Zhilong asked with a smile.

Zheng Chenggong said seriously: "Father, something is wrong.

Logically speaking, even if he catches up with Guo Ziyi's defeated army, it has been so long and the prince should have arrived at Zhu County. "

Zheng Zhilong was startled, then frowned and said: "It's true. How powerful is Guo Ziyi's defeated army? It's impossible to hold off His Royal Highness for so long. Maybe there are other things that delayed him on the way."

"But father, not only did the prince's army not come, but not one of Guo Ziyi's defeated army escaped to Zhu County. This is simply unreasonable."

Hearing Zheng Chenggong’s words, Zheng Zhilong’s face changed drastically and he said solemnly: “Sen’er, do you mean that the prince has encountered a strong enemy?”

Zheng Chenggong shook his head and said, "No, what I mean is that His Highness the Crown Prince may have been ambushed, and we fell into Guo Ziyi's trick of luring the enemy in."

"But with Guo Ziyi's defeated army, how could he have the energy to set up an ambush? Even if he really set up an ambush, it would be impossible to deal with the crown prince's elite." Zheng Zhilong asked with a puzzled look on his face.

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier came to report: "Report to the general, a large number of Chu troops appeared outside the city, probably no less than tens of thousands of troops."

"What?"

Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Chenggong and his son exclaimed at the same time, their eyes full of shock and uneasiness, and they immediately climbed up the tower to investigate.

As expected, there were tens of thousands of Chu troops outside the city, and they were flying the flag of the King of Chu, which showed that Liu Xiu himself was outside the city.

“Father, we have fallen into a trap.” Zheng Chenggong said with a bitter look on his face.

Zheng Zhilong nodded numbly, but felt extremely regretful in his heart. He regretted not advising Sun Ce not to be greedy for merit and rush forward.

In his opinion, when Sun Ce continued to attack Qichun City after taking Xunyang, he should have advised Sun Ce to stop, but instead he supported Sun Ce, which was really inappropriate for a general.

“Sen’er, what should we do now? Let’s abandon the city and break out of the siege.”

Zheng Zhilong asked. He knew that the situation on Sun Ce's side must be bad, but now he couldn't protect himself, so he couldn't care about Sun Ce.

After Zheng Chenggong heard what his father said, he said without thinking: "We must not break out of the siege. If we leave the city, we will die."

 “Then wait for help?”

Zheng Zhilong asked, but he didn't have any confidence in his heart.

The leader of the Chu army outside E County was none other than the King of Chu, Liu Xiu. Except for Sun Wu, no one in the Wu Kingdom could resist him.

Zheng Zhilong had also been defeated at the hands of Liu Xiu. Naturally, he did not think that his mere 7,000 defenders could defend E County, which was not very defensive, under the fierce attack of Liu Xiu's 30,000 to 40,000 troops.

Zheng Chenggong also knew that E County was not as strong as Xunyang and Qichun. Because it was located close to the hinterland of Jiangxia, it rarely experienced wars, and Chu State did not invest many resources, so it was not a strong city.

You will definitely not be able to defend it if you stick to it, but if you leave the city, you will definitely die.

 What should we do?

Zheng Chenggong was extremely anxious about this. After a long time, he felt something in his heart and murmured to himself: "Since we can't defeat him, we can only outwit him."

Sorry, I’ve been too busy this week. The author has worked overtime for four consecutive days and didn’t go home until nine o’clock in the evening. I was too exhausted and had no intention of typing, so I stopped updating for so long.

I won’t go out to play this weekend, so I won’t say that I can add more updates, but I will definitely update them normally.

　　

　　

 (End of this chapter)