Vol 2 Chapter 2657: Sun Zhongmou escaped with 350,000 Chu

Chapter 2657 Sun Zhongmou escapes, 350,000 Chu troops attack Wu

Chapter 2653: Sun Zhongmou escapes, 350,000 Chu troops attack Wu

After Sima Yi took care of Xie An and Xie Xuan brothers, he followed the same pattern and told Zhu Ran that Sun Ce had killed his younger brother Zhu Cai, which completely stopped Zhu Ran from turning to Sun Ce.

 After that, Sima Yi tried to win over Pang Juan, Tian Ji, Sun Chengzong, Xu Sheng, Dong Xi, Sun Kuang and other generals with military power, but the effect was not obvious.

Sun Quan is away, and the generals who were once loyal to Sun Quan have now become a piece of scattered sand.

Pang Juan, Tian Ji and others could not see the hope of overthrowing Sun Ce, so naturally they would not act rashly. It would only be a matter of time before they turned to Sun Ce.

Although he failed to win over generals such as Pang Juan and Tian Ji, Sima Yi was not disappointed. With Xie An and Zhu Ran, plus Sun Quan's die-hard Zhou Taizai, the combined strength of these three people may not be Sun Ce's opponent, but It's barely enough for self-protection.

"The news has spread. I hope Liu Xiu can react quickly. Otherwise, when Sun Ce completely stabilizes the situation, it will be difficult for Chu to destroy Wu." Sima Yi murmured to himself.

After Sima Yi received the news that Sun Quan had been captured, he knew that Sun Quan had been completely defeated and that unless a miracle happened, there would be no chance of a comeback, so he decisively betrayed Sun Quan and secretly passed the news of the internal strife in Soochow to Chu.

 Liu Xiu did not disappoint Sima Yi. After receiving the news, he held a meeting overnight. Although he finally decided to use all his country's power to destroy Wu, the process was very tortuous and not as simple as it seemed.

Liu Xiu had actually made a plan to destroy Wu a long time ago. After all, under Sun Quan's arrogance, the internal conflicts in Wu had reached the extreme. Even if Sun Ce did not come back, civil war would break out sooner or later.

Liu Xiu was actually waiting for Sun Ce to come back and become the fuse that ignited the internal strife in Wu. In this way, he could take advantage of Sun Ce's internal strife and unable to concentrate on facing foreign enemies to attack Wu on a large scale, thus destroying Wu at the lowest cost. .

What Liu Xiu never expected was that Sun Ce's coup came so suddenly, and it only took half a day from start to finish.

Sun Ce's coup was over before Chu State had time to react, which also put all Liu Xiu's arrangements in vain, so Liu Xiu was almost going crazy.

“Trash, Sun Quan is simply a trash. With such a huge advantage, he didn’t even hold on for half a day before he was caught by Sun Ce. No wonder Sun Jian never considered letting him succeed.”

Liu Xiu was angry and speechless about Sun Quan's poor performance, but he quickly realized something was wrong.

Sun Quan may not be as good as Sun Ce, but he is definitely not that bad. Therefore, if Sun Ce can defeat Sun Quan so quickly, he must have the support of an expert behind him.

 Liu Xiu eliminated all the people on Sun Ce's side, and finally discovered that the most critical person among them was Sun Bin, whom he had always ignored.

“It’s really not easy for Sun Bin to be able to lay out such a sure-kill situation for Sun Ce.”

Liu Xiu frowned and said to himself: "Sun Ce's coup plan this time can be said to be interconnected with almost no flaws. If you are not careful, you will fall into the trap.

Even if they are aware of it, people who are not highly resourceful will not be able to react in time.

It seems that Sun Quan was defeated at the hands of Sun Bin, and those who lost together were not unjust. "

But soon Liu Xiu realized another problem, that is, Sun Bin was such a talented person and he was a member of the Sun family. Why didn't Sun Jian and Sun Quan reuse him?

 It can be explained that Sun Quan did not use Sun Bin. After all, Sun Bin was a member of Sun Ce's lineage, but Sun Jian also did not use Sun Bin, which is somewhat unreasonable.

Liu Xiu instinctively felt that there must be something wrong with Sun Bin. Otherwise, with Sun Jian's ability to recognize people, how could he let such a great talent as Sun Bin go?

“In addition to Sun Wu, Wu Zixu, Lu Su and Sun Ce, this Sun Bin is also qualified to be my opponent.”

From the fact that Liu Xiu ranked Sun Ce after Sun Wu, Wu Zixu and Lu Su, it can be seen that Liu Xiu did not value Sun Ce very much, but cared more about the other four.

Liu Xiu never underestimates his opponents, and judging from Sun Bin's performance in this coup, Sun Bin poses an even greater threat to Chu than Sun Wu.

Sun Wu's ability to command an army was unparalleled in the world. Except for being tricked once by Tao Qian and captured alive by Zhu Yuanzhang, he had never been defeated again.

 But no matter how capable Sun Wu was in fighting, he was still just a soldier.

 In the battles between countries, in addition to military duels, political games are also equally important.

Sun Wu almost never lost a battle against Chu, but Chu became stronger and stronger with each defeat. No matter how many times he lost, he would never be completely defeated by Wu.

On the other hand, Wu State became weaker and weaker as it won. After Jiangxia suffered a disastrous defeat, the gap between it and Chu State was completely widened. If you are not careful, your country may be destroyed.

The main reason for this situation is that the monarch of Chu State, Liu Xiu, was much more capable in politics and governance than Sun Jian and Sun Quan of Wu State.

Even if Wu has an undefeated general like Sun Wu, who can defeat Chu repeatedly and weaken it to offset Wu's disadvantage as a monarch, Chu will not collapse as long as Liu Xiu is still there.

 But under Liu Xiu's governance, Chu State became more and more stable, its national strength became stronger and its talents became more and more abundant.

At this time, even if Sun Wu wanted to defeat Chu, it would not be easy.

This is also the main reason why Sun Wu was unable to conquer the Chu State later, because the Wu State was still the same Wu State, but the Chu State was not the original Chu State.

Now the Chu State has completely surpassed the Wu State in military terms.

As for military commanders, although the Chu State still does not have a top commander at the level of Sun Wu, it does have many famous generals such as Guo Ziyi, Ma Yuan, Wei Zhang, and Cao Shen.

Although the Chu State was not as good as the Wu State in terms of the quality of its commanders, it also surpassed it in terms of quantity.

What's more, in addition to this, Chu State also has one of the biggest advantages, and that is its political advantage.

The King of Chu Liu Xiu was one of the wisest monarchs in the world and almost never made mistakes, but Sun Quan of Wu State made many mistakes. Under his governance, Wu State was full of internal contradictions. Therefore, as long as Sun Quan is still the king of Wu, the gap between Wu and Chu will only become wider and wider, and this is Liu Xiu's biggest reliance.

But the appearance of Sun Bin changed everything, and the greatest advantage of Chu was instantly wiped out. This made Liu Xiu not afraid of Sun Bin.

"Sun Wu's leadership and Sun Bin's wisdom are both rare to see for hundreds of years, but they were born into the Sun family at the same time. God really loves the Sun family."

Thinking of this, Liu Xiu felt envious of Sun Jian. If he had been assisted by Sun Wu and Sun Bin, he would have unified the south long ago and then went north to compete with Ying Hao. How could he have wasted so many years in Jingnan.

 But what about Sun Jian? Not only are there two unparalleled talents, Sun Wu and Sun Bin, but there are also Wu Zixu, Lu Su, Lu Meng, Xie Xuan, Xie An, Pang Juan... and many other great talents that are rare in the world.

The State of Wu obviously has so many talents, but cannot make good use of them. If the country is not destroyed, it would be really unreasonable.

You are not polite. If Wu Guo does not fight, he only needs to use his talents to use it. Even if there is no top war general, Chu State has no chance to destroy Wu at all.

However, Sun Quan happened to be born in Wu State, which made the originally iron-clad Wu State leaky. This gave Liu Xiu the hope of destroying Wu.

Liu Xiu knew the importance of talents in troubled times, and if he wanted to compete with the Qin Dynasty, he had to destroy Wu and collect the talents from Jiangdong for his own use.

But now Sun Quan has been captured by Sun Ce, and Sun Ce has completely gained the advantage. If the Chu State sends troops to attack Wu at this time, it is very likely that it will stimulate the internal affairs of the Wu State, unite for self-protection, and concentrate their forces to attack the outside world.

 If this situation really happens, it will actually help Sun Ce gain power.

If Sun Ce is really allowed to completely control Wu's military power, and Sun Wu, Wu Zixu, Lu Su and others are allowed to regain military power, it will be more than ten times more difficult for Chu to destroy Wu.

 In addition, the situation in the Central Plains was also a major reason why Liu Xiu did not dare to send troops easily.

Da Qin has declared war on the Ming Dynasty. In just the first round of testing, they sent a total of 330,000 troops, which also shows that their estimate was wrong.

Although both the Wei and Song Dynasties had issued documents to reprimand the Qin Dynasty, and openly formed an alliance with the Ming Dynasty, and the three countries united to fight against the Qin Dynasty, the strength of the Qin Dynasty was unfathomable, and even if the three countries of the Central Plains joined forces, they might not be able to withstand it.

If sending troops would definitely destroy Wu, then Liu Xiu would not hesitate too much. But at this time, the internal situation of Wu has been decided, and even if Chu sent troops, it would not be able to completely destroy Wu.

On the contrary, once the Chu State sends troops to attack Wu, there will be no spare power to interfere with the war in the Central Plains.

Once the Great Qin destroyed the Three Kingdoms of the Central Plains, but the Chu State failed to destroy the Wu State, it would be a real disaster for Liu Xiu, and he would no longer be able to prevent the Great Qin from unifying the world.

 At this time, the Chu State was in a dilemma. Even if it could win against Chu, it would not necessarily destroy the Wu State. On the contrary, it would not be able to support the Three Kingdoms of the Central Plains. However, if it did not attack Wu, it would miss a golden opportunity.

No matter whether to attack Wu or not, each has its own advantages and disadvantages, so Liu Xiu had no choice but to consider it carefully, because if he was not careful at all, he would be in danger of annihilation.

Pang Tong, Kuai Yue, Kuai Liang, Liu Ba, Liao Li, Zhufu Yan, Hong Rengan, Meng Gongwei, Shi Guangyuan, Jia Chong and other counselors looked at the frowning and hesitant Liu Xiu, and they didn't know what to do. Advise the king to resolve his doubts.

The current situation is too complicated, and they don't know what Duchu should do.

 The senior leaders of the Chu State, including Liu Xiu, were extremely hesitant about conquering Wu. After all, the current situation was unclear and the variables were too great.

But not long after, a piece of news suddenly came, which made Liu Xiu make up his mind and decisively decided to use all the country's troops to attack Wu, as if he would never give up until Wu was destroyed.

 The news is that Sun Quan was rescued.

 “I am sending an order from the king to raise 350,000 troops today and divide them into four groups to attack Wu.”

"Order Guo Ziyi as the general to lead the three counties of Jiangxia, Nanjun and Lujiang, with a total of 80,000 troops from Beilu County, march from Jiangbei to attack Lujiang County of Wu State."

"Order Ma Yuan as the chief general to lead the two prefectures of Jiaoguang and Guangzhou, with a total of 70,000 troops as the South Route Army. They will march from Nanhai County to attack Wu Guoji County."

“I personally led the three states of Jingzhou and Guangzhou, with a total of 200,000 troops as the middle route army. They sent troops from Changsha and Guiyang to attack Yuzhang and Panyang counties of Wu State respectively.

The king personally led an army of 150,000 to attack Yuzhang County. Cao Shen, as the leader of the partial army, led an army of 50,000 to attack Panyang County. "

The Chu State occupied the three prefectures of Jing, Guang, and Jiao, with a total population of 5.7 million. After extreme military expansion, the total military strength suddenly increased from 200,000 to 420,000, an increase of 200,000. An army of 120,000 people.

At present, Chu's total military strength is 420,000, and Liu Xiu directly dispatched 350,000 to defeat Wu, leaving only 70,000 troops to guard Jing, Guang, and Jiaozhou. The risk is not small.

This also shows that Liu Xiu is completely willing to fight. If he doesn't take action, he will do it. Once he takes action, he will use up all the troops in the country. There will be no room for maneuver. He vows not to give up until Wu is destroyed.

　　——————

 Wu State, Jianye, Xicheng Daying.

Sima Yi, Xie An, Xie Xuan, Zhu Ran, Zhou Tai, Zhu Huan, Xue Zong, Gu Ti and other people from Sun Quan's line were gathering together at this time to discuss what to do next.

Xue Zong, Gu Ti and other members of the family felt that if Sun Quan really could not come back, there would be nothing wrong with supporting Sun Ce, but the premise was that Sun Ce kept his promise and did not touch the interests of the family.

Xie An and Zhu Ran disagreed with everything. After all, one of their fathers died and the other their younger brothers died at the hands of Sun Ce. How could they surrender to their enemies?

Just when the two sides were arguing, someone suddenly broke into the camp, and this person turned out to be the imprisoned Sun Quan.

 At this time, everyone including Sima Yi was completely dumbfounded.