The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 398: General Dies in a Hundred Battles

Wu's General of Cavalry, Lü Ju, began to attack Tuogao, while Liu Zan pretended to attack Shouchun by force.

Sun Jun led his troops to set up ambushes around the area.

The State of Wu originally wanted to launch a small ambush, but Guanqiu Jian had predicted their attack long ago, and things did not develop as Sun Jun had expected.

Liu Zan, who pretended to attack Shouchun, encountered Guanqiu Jian's main force.

This made Liu Zan extremely frightened. Guanqiu Jian's mobilization speed could not have been so fast. The fact that he could encounter his main force only meant that he was well prepared!
Liu Zan quickly sent someone to inform Sun Jun to let the army retreat.

He took the initiative to avoid the enemy's attack, luring Guanqiu Jian's main force to wander around the front line, giving the rear a chance to retreat.

At this moment, Sun Jun met the army under the command of General Zhendong who came to reinforce him in Dongting.

Sun Jun's ambush was originally intended to swallow up the thousands of reinforcements, but when the number of reinforcements increased from a few thousand to tens of thousands, something went wrong.

Wen Qin's vanguard general Jiang Ban fought a fierce battle with Sun Jun. Jiang Ban was so brave and powerful that all his soldiers fought to the death. Sun Jun was defeated and retreated immediately.

Fortunately, he had enough troops under his command and avoided defeat.

However, as a result of Sun Jun's retreat, the connection between the three armies was cut off.

Lu Ju was the first to react and gave up the idea of siege. The entire army began to move forward to protect Sun Jun.

Liu Zan was left alone. Wen Qin and Guanqiu Jian had been friends for many years and their cooperation was perfect. Wen Qin led his troops to cut off Liu Zan's retreat.

At this moment, Sun Jun, who had just met up with Lu Ju, slapped his thigh in regret.

"General, I regret not listening to your advice!!"

Sun Jun's face was pale and full of guilt at this moment. He didn't expect that he would be defeated so quickly. He didn't even lose to Wen Qin, but to a vanguard under his command!
What a shame!

The great general of the Wu State!
But this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is Liu Zan. Liu Zan has a great reputation in the State of Wu and is recognized by everyone as a brave and fierce general.

He still had thousands of elite soldiers under his command. If Liu Zan and those elite soldiers were eaten by Guanqiu Jian, Sun Jun didn't dare to think about how bad his reputation in Wu would be.

Historically, Sun Jun's first attack on the State of Wei ended in failure.

The main reason was that Sun Jun was wary of Lu Ju and did not trust the generals enough.

After the expedition, Sun Jun kept the main force firmly in his own hands and gave Lu Ju very few troops to Liu Zan, allowing them to fight with their own private soldiers and a small number of elite troops. At the same time, even though he saw that Liu Zan was seriously ill, he still let him do the most dangerous thing.

This led to Liu Zan being killed by Jiang Ban in history, and the conflict between Lu Ju and Sun Jun further widened.

Even though his opponent had changed, Sun Jun's problem had not been solved. He was still wary of Lu Ju and still had no sympathy for Liu Zan.

He himself has no combat experience at all. He has never fought a battle at his age. He is good at scheming, but as a commander, he is a complete "rookie".

He brought 50,000 elite troops with him on this expedition, but only gave a small number of them to Lu Ju and Liu Zan, as if he was afraid that they would make meritorious contributions.

Sun Jun took the initiative to grab Lü Ju's hand and said, "General, how can we rescue you now?"

At this moment, Lu Ju looked at Sun Jun suspiciously.

Lu Ju now wondered if this damn Sun Jun was deliberately sending himself and Liu Zan to death.

Liu Zan and I both have high prestige in the army and among the people, and we are not very close to Sun Jun. This time he forced us to go on the expedition and gave us very little troops, asking us to do the most dangerous thing, while he led the main force to guard the rear.

No matter how you look at it, it seems like they want to get rid of me and my elite private soldiers.

However, if Liu Zan and I died here, could he really escape unscathed?
Sun Jun asked, "What should we do now?"

"General, I will absolutely listen to your advice this time. Everything will be based on you."

To Lu Ju, these words had a different meaning.

Are they just going to let me take the blame? If anything happens to Liu Zan, they're going to say it's because of me?
When the commander of an army and his generals do not trust each other, no matter how outstanding these people are, the result will definitely not be good.

This is why Cao Mao did not randomly assign deputy generals to everyone. Putting all the capable generals together does not mean an army will be invincible. The important thing is coordination.

The reason why Jiang Wei could not win in the northwest was because of the discord between generals. The Wu State also had this problem, but the Wei State was better. At least in the major war zones, there was no problem of discord between generals. At most, there was only a few war zone commanders who were at odds with each other.

This is not a big problem when fighting alone, but when several war zones work together, problems can easily arise.

Especially when you encounter an unreliable commander, such as General Wei.

At this moment, Lü Ju said, "General, General Liu is now surrounded by the enemy. We must rescue him. However, the enemy outnumbers us and is well prepared. We must be cautious. I will obey you!"

Lu Ju was unwilling to take the blame.

But Sun Jun was stunned, and his face suddenly became a little ugly. Do you still need to tell me all this?
Do you sincerely want to see Liu Zan die here and damage my prestige?

The two of them couldn't think of a better way. However, Guanqiu Jian calmly began to encircle and suppress Liu Zan.

The brave general Zhang Te followed Guanqiu Jian. Zhang Te was originally a guard under Zhuge Dan. However, because he was rude and not good at speaking, Zhuge Dan thought he had no talent and planned to send him back to be a guard.

Later, when Guanqiu Jian became the General Zhendong, he discovered this man's talent and ordered Zhang Te to guard the new city of Hefei.

Later, Wang Chang, Hu Zun and Guanqiu Jian divided their troops to attack Wu but returned without success. Wu general Zhuge Ke took advantage of the situation to besiege the new city of Hefei. Zhang Te and Le Fang led 3,000 people to defend this place to the death, forcing Zhuge Ke to return without success. Because of this achievement, he was promoted to prefect, and was given the title of general and a marquis.

Zhang Te said, "General, if we delay any longer, Sun Jun might escape."

Guanqiu Jian said seriously, "If Sun Jun insists on leaving, we will have to kill him by force, which will cost us a lot."

"Besides, the problems of Wu cannot be solved by Sun Jun alone. Whether Sun Jun is alive or dead, it will not have much impact on Wu."

"On the contrary, if we can kill people like Liu Zan and Lu Ju, that would be the solution to the Wu Kingdom."

"The generals of Wu are all old. The only ones who can lead troops to war are Lü Ju, Liu Zan, Zhu Yi, Tang Zi, Ding Feng and others."

"Killing these people is the most important thing. A good commander is worth tens of thousands of elite soldiers."

Guanqiu Jian did not take Sun Jun seriously at all. He set his sights on Lu Ju and Liu Zan.

Although the current Wu State has participated in the Three Kingdoms' battle for the worst, it has not yet reached its worst time. Historically, it was not until Sun Chen came to power, executed Lu Ju, killed Zhu Yi, and Tang Zi fled to Wei in fear that the Wu State sounded the clarion call to start the battle for the worst.

The real success had to wait until Sun Hao inherited the throne.

Our Great Wu is in its heyday, so what's wrong with doing some construction?
The old generals had all died at the hands of their own people, and the country was left with only a few men struggling to hold on, but they were unable to withstand the traitors within.

Of course, Guanqiu Jian also had other ideas. He was holding Liu Zan here to put pressure on Sun Jun. Would Sun Jun come to rescue him?
If he comes, I can still bite off a piece of his flesh. If he doesn't come, I will just sit back and watch his generals being killed. I believe that when he returns to Wu, the situation in the country will definitely be even more chaotic, right?

Guanqiu Jian’s perspective was different from Zhang Te’s, so his ideas were also different.

At this moment, Liu Zan led his army on a long journey, breaking through Cao's defense line time and time again, but he was at the end of his rope. The soldiers were extremely tired, and Liu Zan was so ill that he could no longer ride a horse.

"install!"

Liu An quickly stood beside Liu Zan and looked at him calmly.

"uncle."

Liu Zan stood up with difficulty, looked at him, and then handed him his curved seal.

He said seriously, "Since I became a general, I have never failed in defeating the enemy and capturing their flags."

"Now I am seriously ill and exhausted, and I am outnumbered."

"Take these and leave, take a few knights with you, escape from here, and hand them over to the general. Tell him to withdraw his troops as soon as possible."

Liu An was horrified. He quickly said, "Uncle, how could I leave you alone? I am willing to fight with you!"

"What do you know?! Guanqiu Jian is using me to pressure the general! If I were trapped here, wouldn't the general come to rescue me? What good would it do to the country if you followed me and died here?!"

"Go back quickly and inform the general about this matter so that he can evacuate immediately. This is the important matter!"

Liu An refused to obey, "You can leave this matter to others. I am willing to stay and die with you."

"My family has received the emperor's kindness, and I will repay it with my life. You are my brother's only son. Do you want to die here too?!"

Liu Zan was so angry that he drew his sword and slashed at him. Liu An quickly dodged, cried and saluted Liu Zan repeatedly, then hurriedly left with a few knights.

Liu Zan had someone help him up, put on his armor, and stopped hiding, acting as usual.

"I have a common strategy for battle. It's fate that I'm so seriously ill today!!"

Liu Zan clenched the weapon in his hand. Facing the pursuers in the distance, he suddenly took off his helmet, let his hair fall loose, and then he looked up to the sky and blew a trumpet.

The soldiers around heard his roar and responded one after another.

Then, Liu Zan sang loudly and the soldiers responded one after another. After Liu Zan finished singing, he took the lead and rushed towards the enemy. The soldiers shouted and followed him and launched a charge.

September, the second year of Zhengyuan in the Great Wei Dynasty.

Liu Zan, the left general of the Eastern Wu, was killed in battle by Jiang Ban, the general of the Wei army.

He died at the age of seventy-two.

Generals Sun Leng and Jiang Xiu swore to die rather than surrender and were killed together.

(End of this chapter)