Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1283 Bloody Battle

Seeing that everyone was silent, Sun Quan stood up angrily, drew his sword and walked around the room. Every step he took seemed to step on the hearts of the officials, making everyone feel nervous.

Sun Quan suddenly stopped and asked, "How many soldiers are there in the city?"

Zhang Zhao said, "There are still about 20,000, but they are all used to defend the city, and most of them are new soldiers."

Sun Quan suddenly said, "Yan Jun!"

Yan Jun, who was sitting below, did not expect Sun Quan to call him directly, and subconsciously said, "I am here."

Sun Quan resolutely said: "I appoint you as the commander of the central army. Take all the people with you to help Zhuge Jin defeat Liu Bei!"

Everyone was shocked. Zhang Zhao was the first to speak up: "Your Majesty, please think twice. If this happens, Nanchang will be empty. It is unclear whether we can stop Liu Bei. What about the Jin army?"

Sun Quan sneered, "You can't even win the first battle, and you're still thinking about the second one?"

"Now we have to risk everything to have a chance of survival. I will go with the army and will not return to Nanchang until Liu Bei is defeated!"

Everyone was speechless. There were no soldiers in Nanchang. If the enemy attacked, what would be the point of your king coming back or not?

Sun Quan ignored them and sneered, "Since Liu Bei wants to destroy my Wu Kingdom, I will fight him to the end!"

"As for the Jin army, I admit that it is difficult for Wu to defeat them now. If we deal with the Jin army first, it will only benefit Liu Bei, the villain. In this case, I will drag Liu Bei into the water!"

"severe!"

"Assemble the troops immediately and set out early tomorrow morning to go to Chaisang to assist Zhuge Jin!"

Seeing that Sun Quan had made up his mind, everyone dared not say anything more and had to withdraw.

Seeing that there was no one around, Zhang Hong approached Zhang Zhao and whispered, "Zi Bu, what on earth does the king think?"

"He is giving up Nanchang directly. Isn't he afraid that once the Jin army arrives, the nobles in the city will defect and surrender?"

Zhang Zhao said calmly, "Does it mean that those families will not collaborate with the enemy if the king is in the city?"

"You must know that many of the noble families in Jiangdong have been secretly colluding with the State of Jin because of the Wu family's surrender, right?"

"When the Jin army is at the gates of the city, these families may rebel and plan to betray the king and surrender the city. Can Nanchang really be defended by then?"

"How could the king not see this clearly? He must have long been disappointed with the Jiangdong nobles. In this case, it is better to lead the troops and fight Liu Bei to the death. If you win, you can have a chance of survival."

"Otherwise, if we just stay in the city, Liu Bei and Xiong Hu will slowly eat away at Wu's territory, and in the end, Nanchang will be the only lonely city left. What's the point of that?"

"Your Majesty's move is to risk your life in order to survive. It can be said that this is the most correct decision Your Majesty has made in the past few years."

Zhang Hong said in a hoarse voice: "But if this is the case, will the Jiangdong nobles think that the king has betrayed them? If the king leaves first, they will follow."

Zhang Zhao sighed and said, "So we can only save ourselves."

"After the king leaves, if the Jin army attacks, we can only unite all the nobles in the city and ask them to hand over all their slaves to defend the city, otherwise everyone will be finished."

"But if the nobles pretend to obey but secretly disobey, then things will be very difficult to deal with. Everyone says that our Jianghuai faction is the surrender faction, but in fact, our faction is the one that has no way out."

Zhang Hong was puzzled and said, "I don't agree with what Zi Bu said."

"We foreign nobles don't have deep roots in Jiangdong, and our property and land are far less than those of the Jiangdong nobles. When the Jin army attacks, they will suffer far more damage than we do, so they should be more determined to resist than us."

"A few days ago, Xionghu slaughtered the nobles in Xuzhou, which is also a huge threat to the Jiangdong nobles. If the Jin army comes, won't the Jiangdong nobles be afraid that Xionghu will take the opportunity to kill them and rob their property?"

Zhang Zhao sighed, "That's the problem. I have been observing the behavior of fierce tigers for many years."

"He wasn't actually targeting the Jiangdong nobles. He was just particularly cruel to his enemies."

"Although he has many officials and generals of humble origins, he also has many children of great families. It can only be said that Xionghu is able to make the best use of his people. He does not make enemies everywhere, but chooses his enemies with clear goals."

"The Wu family is a signal of goodwill that he has sent to the Jiangdong nobles. The Jiangdong nobles have long been divided. If the king leaves Nanchang, he will be able to escape the vortex of oppression. However, those of us who are not good at fighting have been abandoned."

After listening to this, Zhang Hong said in a hoarse voice: "Does the king not even want his family anymore?"

Zhang Zhao looked towards the north and thought to himself that Sun Quan didn't even want his mother, let alone others?
A few days later, Sun Quan led the remaining 20,000 troops of Wu to Chaisang, more than 200 miles north of Nanchang, which was also the last line of defense of Wu.

The geographical location of Chaisang is very important. Since the Spring and Autumn Period, it has been an important town on the eastern line of the Chu State, used to fight against the Wu State at that time, known as the head of Wu and the tail of Chu. In this era, Chaisang is the gateway to Jingzhou. Sun Quan sent troops to attack Changsha, and also used this place as a bridgehead. Liu Bei counterattacked, and naturally fought all the way back. At that time, Zhuge Jin had been beaten by Liu Bei. Although there were Huang Gai and others to support him, Liu Bei's army was not weak in siege land warfare. He first used the navy to compress the front line, block the river, and then launched a fierce attack on Chaisang City.

Under the division and encirclement of Liu Bei's navy and the Jin army's navy, the Wu navy almost completely lost control of the Yangtze River and could only retreat to the water stronghold for defense. Fortunately, they had the support of Chaisang and had not completely collapsed.

But on land, the situation was very embarrassing. Liu Bei's army was like crazy and launched a fierce attack on Zhuge Jin day and night. Countless soldiers and generals died on both sides. The heavy casualties made Zhuge Jin's heart bleed, and he lamented how he could meet such a crazy opponent like Liu Bei.

Liu Bei's behavior was actually very unwise. This kind of reckless sacrifice of lives was not just a serious injury to Hannan and Wu, but rather a loss of limbs!
Zhuge Jin couldn't help but lament that Sun Quan had really miscalculated this time. Who could have thought that Liu Bei would go to such lengths to avenge his brother?

At this time, both sides were in a dilemma. The corpses of soldiers from both countries were piled up under Chaisang City. Almost all the survivors were injured and exhausted. However, Zhuge Jin's side was already showing signs of defeat. He estimated that in three or four days, Chaisang City would not be able to be defended.

At this time, Sun Quan arrived with his army. He sent Yan Jun to launch a fierce attack on Liu Bei's flank. After Liu Bei learned the situation, he knew that it was Sun Quan who came in person. He immediately gave up Chaisang temporarily and turned around to attack Yan Jun's army.

Liu Bei sent Zhang Nan and Feng Xi as vanguards to launch a fierce attack on Yan Jun's central army. The Wu State took the opportunity to send an army to launch a surprise attack on Liu Bei's central army.

Originally, Liu Bei only needed to guard the central army, but when he heard that the attacking general was Zhu Ran, the one who killed Zhang Fei, his eyes suddenly turned red, and he wanted to lead the army personally to kill Zhu Ran and avenge Zhang Fei.

At that time, Ma Liang, who had come from Jingzhou to join Liu Bei in the army, urged Liu Bei not to act rashly to avoid falling into the enemy's trap. However, Liu Bei was eager for revenge, so he called Chen Shi to come and attack Zhu Ran's army with him.

Chen Shi was also a veteran who had followed Liu Bei for many years. Of course, he led his soldiers to attack Zhu Ran's army, and a fierce battle broke out between the two sides.

At this time, Sun Quan appeared with the remaining 5,000 soldiers of the Wu army. He said to the two deputy generals on his left and right: "The whole army is pressing forward, and we will take Liu Bei's head!"

After hearing this, the two lieutenants immediately led their troops to charge forward and headed straight for Liu Bei's central army. Liu Bei saw this but was not afraid. When he saw Sun Quan's royal flag, he immediately mounted his horse, holding two swords, and led his troops to rush towards the royal flag, but was stopped by a general from Wu.

The general shouted: "I am Quan Cong, quickly dismount and surrender to the king!"

Liu Bei heard this and sneered, "Your Majesty?"

"Today I will chop off your head and avenge my third brother!"

He personally picked up the sword and attacked, and in just a few rounds he overwhelmed Quan Cong, making him sweat profusely. Quan Cong resisted hard, wondering how Liu Bei's martial arts were so high. If no one came to support him, he would probably die in a dozen rounds!

At this time, Liu Bei was in the mood for killing. With a thrust of his two swords, he had already separated Quan Cong's long sword. He immediately raised his two swords and was about to chop down Quan Cong, but at this moment, he heard a bow sound, and an arrow hit Liu Bei's side, piercing his armor, and the arrowhead penetrated several inches into the flesh.

The one who shot the arrow was another Wu general named Ma Zhong, who had been watching coldly. When he saw Liu Bei's flaw, he shot an arrow and injured Liu Bei.

Liu Bei could not help but scream in pain after being shot by an arrow, and immediately fell back on his saddle. Seeing this, Quan Cong chased him relentlessly, and when he was about to catch up with Liu Bei, Chen Shi rushed out from the side and stabbed Quan Cong in the shoulder with a spear.

Quan Cong was wounded and fell off his horse. Before he could stand up, Chen Shi's personal soldiers rode up on him and trampled him to death.

Just as Chen Shi was about to cover Liu Bei's retreat, another arrow was shot and hit him in the back. It was Ma Zhong's sneak attack again. Chen Shi wanted to turn around and fight back, but blood spurted out of his mouth. Knowing that his internal organs were injured, he had to chase after Liu Bei.

The Wu army took advantage of the situation and defeated Liu Bei's army which had no commander. On the other side, Zhang Nan and Feng Xi had no intention of fighting when they learned that Liu Bei was injured, so they immediately covered their retreat and allowed Liu Bei's army to withdraw. Sun Quan took the opportunity to attack the city and lifted the siege of Chaisang.

Zhuge Jin opened the city gates and welcomed Sun Quan in. He bowed and said, "Jin fought poorly and I am ashamed that the King of Labor came to help me personally."

Sun Quan looked around but didn't see Huang Gai. He asked, "Where's Huang Gongfu?"

Zhuge Jin reported: "General Huang was hit by a stray arrow while defending the city. He is seriously injured and cannot go into battle. His life is in danger. I am afraid he will not live for more than a few days."

Sun Quan was stunned, and the little joy he had left disappeared. How many of the generals that Sun Ce had left for him were left now?

He said slowly: "Send someone to guard the city, I will go see him."

Inside the camp outside the city, when the doctors took off Liu Bei's armor and saw the arrow, they all looked at each other in shock, because only the arrow shaft was left outside, and the arrowhead had penetrated deep into the ribs, and blood kept gushing out of his upper mouth.

Although the doctors in Liu Bei's army were not as good as those in Jin, Zhang Zhongjing had taught many students in Changsha. One of them had received instruction from him. He said, "We need to suture them right away."

"But before that, you had to cut open the skin and flesh to remove the arrowhead, which was extremely painful and required the Ma Fei San invented by Hua Tuo."

"I have another bottle here that can be used, but this medicine is poisonous. It is possible that you will not wake up after taking it. What can I do?"

Ma Liang, who was standing beside him, heard this and asked anxiously, "How can you give this medicine to the king?"

Everyone looked at each other, unable to make a decision. Liu Bei slowly opened his eyes and said, "Pull out the arrowhead and sew up the wound for me."

"Move quickly, and it'd be best if you can finish it within half an hour. I want to counterattack Chaisang immediately!"

(End of this chapter)