Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 92 Dilemma
Wu Jing and others were indeed battle-hardened generals. Facing the piles of corpses under the city wall, they did not even blink.

In their eyes, human lives are nothing but a bunch of numbers.

"Keep beating the drums! The supervisory team, move forward and kill the deserters!"

Wu Jing held the sword with one hand, his expression as calm as a mountain, and gave orders coldly.

As the military order was issued, twelve war drums beat together, making a loud noise that frightened some soldiers who wanted to retreat. At the same time, dozens of arrows were shot from the formation, killing twenty or thirty deserters who had lost their will on the spot.

The soldiers below the city continued to climb the city wall while crying and cursing, stepping on the still warm bodies of their comrades. The soldiers on the ladders kept falling from the air like dumplings.

These soldiers attacking the city were just civilians wearing leather armor.

In order to reduce the casualties of his troops, Wu Jing repeated his old tricks and captured thousands of civilians and drove them to attack the city.

This time he made some cover-ups and did not directly drive the people. Instead, he spent a lot of money and food to forcibly recruit the people near Yongping into the army, named them the "Entrapment Army", and then ordered them to attack the city.

Although Huang Gai and Xu Kun had some complaints, given Wu Jing's qualifications and considering the overall situation, they could only pretend not to know.

In the overall situation, all living beings are straw dogs.

What's the big picture?

The overall situation is to bring the hundreds of miles of land in Danyang and Wujun into the hands of the Sun family!

From Sun Ce onwards, everyone in the Sun family had to submit to this will.

The brutal siege lasted from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. It could no longer be described as tragic, but rather as human lives were like grass, filling the ravines with grass.

"Mr. Wu, the time is almost here. I will take this city as a gift for our meeting."

Huang Gai, who had been silent, suddenly stepped out, walked up to Wu Jing, clasped his fists and asked for a fight.

Huang Gai was already forty years old, nearly eight feet tall, with a strong build and a dignified and resolute face. There were a few wrinkles on his forehead and some white hair on his head, but this did not diminish his dignity in the slightest. Instead, it gave him some more courage and aura from having been on the battlefield for a long time.

He had rich experience in sieges and could be ranked among the top three among the many generals of the Sun family. In history, when Sun Ce attacked Lujiang County, many cities in the county were captured by Huang Gai, including the most important Wancheng and Shucheng.

However, Sun Ce sent him to assist Wu Jing in attacking Danyang, and history had changed.

The time Huang Gai chose to attack the city was when Yongping's defense equipment had been greatly damaged and the defenders were at their most exhausted both physically and mentally.

Wu Jing knew that his siege skills were not as good as Huang Gai's, so he readily agreed, "In that case, I'll have to trouble you!"

Huang Gai put on a spear-point helmet, held an iron whip in his hand, and led two thousand soldiers into battle.

These two thousand soldiers were not cannon fodder mixed with civilians, but the elite troops under Wu Jing's command.

With Huang Gai personally leading two thousand elite fresh troops to join the battlefield, the combat power and momentum of the attackers immediately underwent earth-shaking changes, and their momentum was greatly boosted!

In just half an hour, Yongping was conquered.

Huang Gai, clutching the iron whip still stained with blood and flesh, returned calmly, as if he had simply gone for a stroll. Wu Jing strode forward to greet him, his eyes full of admiration, and he cupped his hands in praise, "Old General, you are truly a formidable commander!"

Generals such as Sun Ben and Xu Kun also came forward to congratulate and show respect to their juniors.

Huang Gai chuckled and reminded, "It will be dark in half an hour. Our army needs to clean up the battlefield as soon as possible."

Wu Jing nodded and gave orders loudly.

drive! drive!
Suddenly, the sound of hurried horse hooves came from the distance.

Three men in black hakama came galloping on fast horses, escorted by more than a dozen cavalrymen of Wu Jing's army.

The leading man, a man of extraordinary bearing, pulled the reins a hundred paces away from Wu Jing, jumped off his horse, and hurried over, presenting a leather bag with both hands: "Greetings, my lord. I am Ma Shun, a subordinate of Captain Zhu. I am delivering this letter under the urgent order of my captain."

Wu Jing nodded slightly, took the leather bag from Ma Shun, cut the opening of the bag with a knife, took out a piece of silk, and looked at it carefully.

His expression was sometimes excited, sometimes thoughtful. After reading it, he handed the silk to Huang Gai and the other two, and passed it around one by one.

Xu Kun and Huang Gai represented Sun Ce's will. After reading the letter, they exchanged glances, each seeing clear excitement in the other's eyes. Xu Kun looked at Wu Jing and spoke first, "Uncle, this is a godsend opportunity. We must not miss it. Our army should quickly capture Guangde. If Guangde falls, we can connect with Guzhang. Then, we can join forces with Commander Zhu to capture Yong'an, and Wujun will be ours."

Huang Gai nodded in agreement, and the expression on his face was no longer eager to try, but impatient.

Three years have passed since Sun Jian's death, and they have been suffocated under Yuan Shu for three years. Thinking back to the exciting years when they followed Sun Jian to conquer the world, and then thinking about the ridicule and exclusion they have suffered in the past three years, their inner emotions have been suppressed to the extreme. They are always eager to break free from Yuan Shu's constraints and regain their former glory and splendor.

Yuan Shu simultaneously wooed and divided them, turning against them if they refused, steadily weakening their military power. In just two or three years, the 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers who followed Sun Jian were dismantled and absorbed by Yuan Shu through various means. Had Wu Jing and Sun Ben not captured Danyang and offered Yuan Shu the enormous benefits of expanding territory, these troops under Wu and Sun would likely have been swallowed up.

Now that Sun Ce has grown up and is showing signs of being a hero who is no less capable than his father, the restless hearts in their chests have long been burning like a raging fire, and their passion is unbearable.

We have endured for three years, just waiting for an opportunity, not to prove how great we are, but to tell the world that what we have lost must be taken back!
Now the opportunity is right in front of us, how can we miss it!
Huang Gai and Xu Kun stared at Wu Jing with fiery eyes.

Wu Jing was startled, knowing that if he said no, Huang Gai, Xu Kun and Sun Ben would probably rush up and tear him to pieces.

He also wanted to restore the former glory of the Sun family, but he had his own ideas on how to achieve this goal.

This idea came from Liu Yao, who had just been appointed as the governor of Yangzhou by the court.

According to the imperial edict issued by the court, Liu Yao should take up his post in Shouchun and establish an administrative center in Shouchun. However, Shouchun had been occupied by Yuan Shu, who had rebellious intentions. Liu Yao was afraid of Yuan Shu's power and did not dare to go to Shouchun to take up his post.

After Wu Jing learned of this situation, he wanted to bring Liu Yao to Qu'a and use Liu Yao's identity as the governor of Yangzhou to develop his power.

This is similar to Cao Cao bringing Emperor Xian to Xuchang, except that Cao Cao used the emperor to control the princes, while Wu Jing wanted to use Liu Yao to control Yangzhou.

I have to say that this idea is excellent, and no wonder Wu Jing is so tempted.

But just when Wu Jing was about to implement this plan, a fierce conflict broke out between Zhu Zhi and Yan Yi in Rencheng. Zhu Zhi then wrote to Wu Jing, inviting him to lead his troops south to attack Yan Yi from both the north and the south, and then occupy Wujun.

This disrupted Wu Jing's arrangements and put him in a dilemma.

(End of this chapter)