The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 632: Capturing Cao Mao alive
Wuchang County.

Sun Hao sat in the upper seat, with the important ministers and generals accompanying him on the expedition standing on both sides of him.

The newly favored Shangshu Cen Hun stood in the position closest to Sun Hao.

Sun Hao looked at the people in front of him seriously and said earnestly, "This time, I want to rid the world of the scourge of Cao Cao!"

"First, defeat Guanqiu Jian and Hu Zun, capture Qingxu and Huainan, aim for Luoyang, and capture Cao Mao alive!"

"I will tie up Cao Mao and make him apologize to the people of the world!!"

Sun Hao became more and more excited as he spoke.

If you don’t know, you might think they are the one with the advantage!

At this moment, Sun Hao seemed not to care much about the war. He was looking forward to the day when he could enter the Central Plains, capture Cao Mao alive, and complete his great cause.

Speaking of which, in terms of ambition, Sun Hao was better than his predecessors. At least he really wanted to be the ruler of the world, while most of his predecessors just wanted to protect themselves.

What Sun Hao said was actually somewhat motivating. The generals, who had been in low spirits and had a serious fear of the Wei people, now felt full of courage, as if they could capture Cao Mao at any time.

This guy described his expectations for the future to everyone, and then looked at the generals.

"My Lords! I am not good at fighting. I will leave the task of conquering Guanqiu Jian and Hu Zun to you generals. I will absolutely not interfere!"

"I will stay here in Wuchang, beating drums to cheer on the generals and await their triumphant return!"

The generals saluted Sun Hao.

Afterwards, Sun Hao issued many imperial edicts, promoted many generals, and gave them various rewards.

He entrusted the task of fighting against Guanqiu Jian and Hu Zun to Shi Ji and Ding Feng.

Lu Kang was responsible for repelling Wang Ji, Shi Bao, Huo Yi and others.

His father-in-law was stationed in Wuchang, responsible for protecting Sun Hao and liaising with the two armies.

This also shows that the Wu State was seriously short of talented generals.

There are very few people who can serve as commander-in-chief of an army, and there are only a few commanders left who can take action. There is a gap not only at the top level, but also at the middle and bottom levels.

Because the rulers of Wu State were full of talented people, a large number of outstanding talents were slaughtered and exiled, and the rest ran away.

In the upper-middle ranks, Wu had almost no generals capable of fighting one-on-one with the enemy, none with names that could be spoken to let the enemy know.
Many generals were temporarily promoted by Sun Hao. They were either his father's former confidants or were related to Sun Hao himself.

Sun Hao rarely held a banquet and let them leave after the announcement was completed.

Shi Ji did not leave.

Sun Hao was a little surprised, and then called him to his side.

"Mr. Shi, do you have anything to report?"

Shi Ji then said, "Your Majesty, the Cao rebels' morale is high. It is not appropriate to engage them head-on at this moment."

Sun Hao was a little displeased, "General, are you unwilling to go to war?"

"It's not that I'm unwilling to go. I'm simply saying that once we reach the battlefield, we simply can't engage Cao Cao head-on. We can first divide our forces to garrison various cities, dampen their morale, and then take advantage of their division."

Sun Hao interrupted Shi Ji rudely.

"Didn't I just tell you that I don't know much about the war, so I'll leave it to you. Why are you still telling me all this?"

Shi Ji quickly explained, "I am just worried that someone will slander me, Your Majesty, and accuse me of being defensive instead of offensive."

Sun Hao suddenly realized, and he said seriously: "How could anyone around me know about the war? If they knew about the war but didn't dare to go to the battle, wouldn't that be disloyal to me? If there really are such people, I will no longer treat them with mercy!"

In any case, Shi Ji finally calmed down. He stood up and bowed to Sun Hao again.

"Your Majesty, I will lead the troops there immediately!"

Sun Hao didn't say anything more, and Shi Ji quickly left.

Sun Hao immediately summoned his current confidant Cen Hun.

The confidants around Sun Hao would change frequently. There would be a period of time when Sun Hao would be very fond of a minister and show great love to him, but these people would eventually die at Sun Hao's hands, and then Sun Hao would replace them with someone else to continue favoring.

The person being favored now is Cen Hun.

The two continued drinking, when Sun Hao suddenly asked, "What do you think of Shi Ji?"

Cen Hun smiled and shook his head, "I don't know."

Sun Hao laughed and continued drinking with him.

Among the many confidants of Sun Hao, Cen Hun had the greatest notoriety in later generations. It was because he was written into a novel, so his name was passed down to later generations. Cen Hun was indeed not a good person, but among the many confidants of Sun Hao, he was the only minister who had never framed others.

This person expanded the scope of Sun Hao's troubles.

At his initiative, Sun Hao began large-scale construction projects, and even the middle and lower classes could not escape.

Sun Hao reveled here every night, but fortunately he did not interfere in the war, so Shi Ji got a good opportunity. Now Shi Ji no longer cares about the affairs of the court. When Sun Hao wanted to move the capital, he did not say anything, and when Sun Hao wanted to kill people, he did not object. Anyway, he just wanted to complete the emperor's mission and ignored other things.

Qichun Commandery, Qichun County. Ding Feng looked at the map in front of him, frowning, feeling very conflicted.

The Wu Kingdom was now on the defensive. Wen Qin himself was attacking Qichun County, his general Jiang Ban was attacking Zhu County, and Le Chen was attacking Xunyang. Hu Zun was also attacking Tangyi, Guangling, Hailing and other counties. The situation was not optimistic.

Apart from these major county towns, a large amount of land in the two counties fell into the hands of the enemy.

The only relatively calm area was the central region of Lujiang County, where the government seat was located, and it did not suffer any attacks.

Guanqiu Jian's army appeared in the Tangyi area and assisted Hu Zun in breaking the city.

Ding Feng was a little confused about the enemy's deployment.

However, the defender always has an advantage over the attacker.

Under the current strategic deployment, Ding Feng controls the main cities. Even if the surrounding areas fall, these counties can be firmly controlled by the Wu State.

At this moment, a scout came hurriedly.

"General!!"

Ding Feng looked at the man, and the man hurriedly handed the latest imperial edict to Ding Feng.

Ding Feng looked at it for a moment, then smiled and said, "Tell the soldiers! General Shi Ji is leading a 100,000-man army from Wuchang towards us!"

There are probably less than 100,000 people who can achieve results.

However, in this era, everyone is accustomed to calling out a larger number to deter the enemy and at the same time boost the confidence of their own people.

Ding Feng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

With Shi Ji's arrival, the pressure on him will be much less.

Ding Feng had too many places to defend and the enemy was too numerous. In many places, a few thousand Wu people had to resist the attack of tens of thousands of Wei people. The number gap was several times.

Fortunately, these cities are tall and strong, so it is not easy for the enemy to break through.

But the gap in hard power still made Ding Feng very worried, especially Hu Zun and Guanqiu Jian. Guangling County was captured by them. You know, Jianye can be seen across the river from Guangling!

The Wu navy was already blocking the river, fearing that Hu Zun would directly cross the river and capture Jianye.

The situation has become so bad.

"Report!!!"

Suddenly another scout rushed in.

This man looked even more flustered than the previous one. He gasped for breath and handed the letter to Ding Feng tremblingly.

Ding Feng picked up the letter, looked at it for a few seconds, and suddenly felt a black screen in front of his eyes.

"Hailing has also fallen?!"

"How is this possible?!"

Ding Feng could no longer sit still, and he quickly summoned many generals.

When the generals entered the study, Ding Feng looked in very bad condition. He was staring at the map in front of him with a very uneasy expression.

"Guanqiu Jian's army is converging with Hu Zun. They conquered Guangling and now Hailing. I think they're planning to join forces and take Tangyi. I hear their warships are heading this way, and they've engaged ours several times along the way. Their ship, the Pirate-Breaking Tower, has already appeared near Guangling!"

Ding Feng's voice was trembling when he said this.

Several generals were horrified.

A deputy general asked, "General, didn't they say the enemy's target was Qichun County? How did it suddenly become Jianye?"

Ding Feng looked at the people in front of him at this moment.

"Our prediction was wrong. The enemy's goal is not to capture Qichun at all. They want to attack Jianye Hu Zun, Hu Zun!!"

"I heard a long time ago that Hu Zun is greedy for merit and obsessed with the position of general. They may have originally intended to capture Qichun, but Hu Zun changed his strategy for his own benefit. He wanted to capture Jianye. That's why Guanqiu Jian never launched an attack, and only Wen Qin attacked fiercely here. This is to make us think that their main attack direction and strategy are here. This is misleading us!"

"Hu Zun doesn't care about Qichun or Wenqin at all. He just wants to achieve great merit and become his general!"

Everyone immediately had new guesses, and they hurriedly marked the current positions of several major legions on the map.

At this moment, they suddenly realized.

Ding Feng pointed at the map in front of him and said, "When General Shi leaves Wuchang, he will first encounter Wen Qin's army. Hu Zun's idea is to have Wen Qin detain us in Qichun while he and Guanqiu Jian cross the river to capture Jianye!"

"Hu Zun's troops are continuously entering Guangling and other places, while Guanqiu Jian's troops are constantly rushing towards Tangyi and other places. They are trying to emulate Deng Ai's actions in the past, entangle our army, and then directly attack Jianye and capture Jiangdong."

At this moment, the generals finally understood why Ding Feng was a little panicked just now. If the enemy reached Jiangdong, it would be a disaster!

"General, what should we do then?"

Ding Feng slowly raised his head and said, "Don't worry, this is also a good opportunity for us."

"Crossing the river is not that easy. The enemy commanders are selfish and will definitely be defeated!"

(End of this chapter)