Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2557 Ren Gui's Surprise Attack Appears in Xuzhou, Zhou Yu's Brilliant Plan Repels the Han Army
After defeating Xu Shiji, Qi Jiguang was just about to head to Pingyuan when he received news that Lian Po had already captured Pingyuan. He had no choice but to abandon his original plan to go north to Pingyuan.

Qi Jiguang originally intended to get rid of Xian Zhen and Cao Ren, since in the original plan, Xue Rengui's troops were to attack Liu Bei, while Li Mu's troops were to deal with the north.

However, Lian Po, who now belongs to Li Mu's army, has already taken a large piece of their territory. They can't let them continue to take it!

However, Qi Jiguang ultimately underestimated Lian Po's appetite!
Lian Po really intended to continue plundering!

Lian Po not only wanted credit for the victory at Pingyuan, but also wanted credit for Liu Bei's victory.

Therefore, after the Battle of Pingyuan, Lian Po's next plan was not to go north and join Li Mu, but to cross the Yellow River and put Liu Bei in a vulnerable position.

Lian Po's attitude infuriated Qi Jiguang and his men!

This is completely an attempt to claim all the credit for the battle.

However, he really couldn't control Lian Po.

However, what gave Qi Jiguang a headache was not only the inescapable Lian Po, but also the movements of the Qing-Han navy.

After abandoning the Yellow River, Qi Jiguang ordered Han Shizhong to lead a large naval force to search the coastal area of ​​Qingzhou. At the same time, he also used naval troops to block the mouth of the Yellow River.

As for himself, he landed and attacked the northern part of Qingzhou.

The Qinghan Navy had been holding back while they were attacking northern Qingzhou. It turned out that they hadn't actually disappeared, but rather they hadn't appeared in northern Qingzhou.

Liu Rengui knew how to avoid the enemy's strength and attack their weakness. He knew that he was no match for their main naval force in a decisive battle, so he avoided their main force and appeared in Xuzhou in the Central Plains.

The Central Plains have indeed been incredibly unlucky!
When the Japanese invaded, Xuzhou was a disaster area.

After that, it was Huo Qubing's turn to cause trouble.

Furthermore, the subsequent war to unify the Central Plains made things even worse for this region.

In particular, during this period, when Cao Cao's forces were short of food, they followed Cheng Yu's plan and produced special military rations.

Zhao Kuangyin finally unified the country, but before the Central Plains could even find peace, the Jin Dynasty attacked.

After the war in the Central Plains ended, just when everyone thought they could finally rest and recuperate, the three-year pandemic struck again.

Therefore, the Central Plains can be said to have been extremely unlucky.

Five years later, Xuzhou in the Central Plains has once again suffered at the hands of the Qingzhou navy.

Fortunately, the Qinghan army still had some bottom lines.

At least, after landing, they did not massacre the civilians; at most, they only looted some food supplies.

However, due to the appearance of the Qing-Han navy behind Xuzhou, Wen Yanbo, the governor of Donghai County, and Wang Can, the assistant governor, suffered a great misfortune and died in this war.

However, Wu Lin, the Commandant of Donghai Commandery, with the help of Zhou Yu, managed to force Liu Zheng's 8,000 troops to retreat with only 500 commandery soldiers and a small county town.

During the Central Plains War, after Zhao Kuangyin was defeated and killed, his remaining forces consisted of two groups. One of them was larger, namely Tian Dan's forces, which were nominally subordinate to Qing Han. However, even now, they have not completely submitted to Qing Han.

The other one was the Xuzhou Navy, which belonged to Zhao Yanhui.

However, after Zhao Yanhui's death in battle, the Xuzhou navy also suffered heavy losses. Some of its remnants were absorbed by the Qinghan forces, while others were absorbed by Zhu Yuanzhang's forces. Of course, not long after, Zhu Yuanzhang's power also collapsed.

However, although the Xuzhou navy was harassed by these two forces, Zhou Yu did not join either the Qing-Han forces or Zhu Yuanzhang's forces. At that time, Sun Quan had already died, and the vast majority of the Sun clan members either died on the Central Plains battlefield or were betrayed by Miao Xun in the end.

Only a small number of orphans and widows survived because they were located behind Pengcheng in Xuzhou, and because Di Qing had captured Pengcheng.

This included Sun Shao, the posthumous son of Sun Ce.

Zhou Yu wanted to avenge Sun Quan, but he didn't want to involve Sun Shao.

Furthermore, among the Sun family lineage, only Sun Chengzong's branch, which had already entered the Jin army system long ago, was capable of taking on major responsibilities at this time.

Caught between two difficult choices, Zhou Yu ultimately made the same decision as Sun Tzu, choosing to retire to the mountains and live a life of seclusion, detached from worldly affairs.

This was the best option for Zhou Yu.

After all, Zhou Yu would be extremely unwilling to defect to the Jin army. After all, not to mention that Sun Quan's brothers had all died at the hands of the Jin army, even many members of the Zhou family had lost their lives on the battlefields of the Central Plains or the South.

Among them were his own elder brother.

Although he and his elder brother were in different places, one in the Central Plains and the other in the South, and they did not serve the same master, it did not mean that there was no affection between the brothers.

In recent years, although Zhou Yu had lived a life of seclusion, he was not completely detached from worldly affairs like Sun Tzu. At least, he would still actively keep an eye on the movements of people like Sun Chengzong and Sun Shao.

In particular, upon learning that Huo Qubing and Sun Shangxiang had officially married two years prior, he had even arranged for someone to send a gift to their wedding. However, it wasn't in his name.

The person who delivered the gift for him was Wu Lin.

The Sun and Wu families are truly related by marriage. Wu Lin's implanted identity is that of Wu Guotai's nephew, so the relationship between the two families is self-evident.

However, after they joined Zhao Kuangyin's forces, the Sun and Wu families eventually developed a rift due to Zhao Kuangyin's strategy of dividing and winning them over.

It wasn't until after the Central Plains War ended that the relationship between the two families officially began to ease, and they once again moved towards a political alliance.

After all, firstly, it was Sun Quan's lineage that had created a rift in their relationship, while now, the Sun family is headed by Sun Chengzong's lineage.

Secondly, during the Central Plains War, the Wu family's fate was no better than the Sun family's.

Wu Jie, Wu Mingche, and a large group of others launched a rebellion against Zhao Kuangyin, but they fell into Zhao Kuangyin's ambush, and the Wu family line was also wiped out.

Only Wu Lin, who had been captured earlier, escaped this ordeal.

Against this backdrop, with the mediation of Wu Guotai, Wu Lin took the initiative to ease relations with the Sun family in order to gain a foothold in the Jin army.

Especially after Huo Qubing and Sun Shangxiang's engagement was finalized, and even more so after His Majesty personally bestowed the marriage upon them, all the previous unpleasantness between the two families became a thing of the past.

It was precisely because of this foundation laid over the past few years that Zhou Yu secretly contacted Wu Lin once during Sun Shangxiang's wedding.

In fact, that year, Wu Lin was inexplicably stopped by a child, and after receiving a letter from the child, he learned of Zhou Yu's existence and even went looking for Zhou Yu.

Unfortunately, after Zhou Yu's movements were revealed only once, he immediately vanished without a trace. As for Zhou Yu's request in his letter to deliver the gift, he simply considered it a favor.

But Wu Lin never expected that his failure to find Zhou Yu was entirely due to the latter playing a trick on him. This person had been hiding right under his nose all along.

However, it was precisely because Zhou Yu was by his side that he was able to save him this time.