The Three Kingdoms: Rise to Power Starting with Intercepting Liu Bei

After the Sun and Liu families finalized their alliance to eliminate Yan Baihu, all their original plans remained unchanged. They continued to look for an opportunity to attack Guangling. It would be best if they could capture it, but even if they couldn't, they could at least deplete Yan Baihu's manpower to the greatest extent possible.

Who told Yan Baihu to want to gain more benefits!

The morning after Sun Quan and Liu Bei formed an alliance, the three allied forces launched another fierce attack on Guangling City, which was guarded by Li Jing.

In order to allow Yan Baihu to launch a fierce attack without any scruples, Zhang Fei under Liu Bei, Cheng Pu and Huang Gai under Sun Ce also joined the siege.

As the earth-shaking bugle calls rang out, tens of thousands of troops, under the furious bombardment of several catapults, surged towards Guangling City from all directions like a rolling torrent, struggling to approach the city despite the counterattacks of the Xuzhou army.

"Archers, prepare!" Li Jing, sword in hand, kept his eyes fixed on the enemy troops below the city, waiting for them to approach little by little.

As the enemy soldiers scaled the city walls using siege ladders, he decisively shouted, "Release!"

In an instant, countless arrows shot out, forming a dense net of arrows that flew towards the reinforcements. In a short time, a large number of soldiers who had been charging forward fell on the fierce battlefield.

At the same time, stones of all sizes and scalding hot molten metal, reeking of foul odor, were poured down from the city walls.

"Ah~~~ Ah~~~ Ah!"

Instantly, screams erupted one after another as a large number of soldiers tumbled down the ladders, killing many unfortunate souls in the process.

Even with the addition of Zhang Fei and others, the offensive of the three-way allied forces could not be improved. In this fierce siege, everyone was equal, and no one cared whether you were a fierce general or a weakling.

At the beginning of the battle, the soldiers' morale was quite high under the personal command of Zhang Fei and others. However, as countless stones and molten gold poured down, even these fierce generals were helpless and could only encourage the soldiers from the rear, not daring to charge to the front.

As time passed, blood flowed like a river beneath Guangling City, and corpses littered the ground.

The three-way allied forces fought from dawn until dusk, and in their unwillingness, they retreated again, leaving behind a large number of corpses with severed limbs, telling the story of what had just happened.

On the city wall of Guangling, watching the retreating figures of the three-way allied forces, Li Jing was still extremely anxious. After the recent battle, his side had suffered heavy losses, and even the arrows, stones, logs, and gold syrup used for defense were almost completely exhausted.

If reinforcements don't arrive by tomorrow, Guangling will truly fall.

"Take a headcount of our remaining soldiers, and notify all the residents of the city to prepare for evacuation. We will leave Guangling in the latter half of the night!"

Li Jing gritted his teeth and ordered his deputy general beside him, "Now we only have one last plan left."

"General, are you really going to do this?"

Upon hearing this, the deputy general standing nearby widened his eyes. The evacuation of all the city's residents meant that they were in dire straits and would have to fight the enemy to the last man. As a general of the Great Wall Legion produced by the system, he was not afraid, but he did not expect the situation to be so dire.

"Go ahead. Reinforcements are still nowhere to be seen. I have to prepare for the worst; we might not be able to hold out until tomorrow!"

Li Jing nodded heavily, his voice tinged with helplessness.

"promise!"

The deputy general had no choice but to do as he was told after hearing this.

"Reinforcements! I need reinforcements!"

After the deputy general left, Li Jing looked at the tragic scene outside the city and muttered to himself.

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Just as Li Jing was preparing for the worst after a major battle, Qin Xuan finally rushed back to Tancheng.

As soon as Qin Xuan led Meng Guang and the others into the governor's mansion, they saw Liu Bowen and the other two staring at the map with furrowed brows.

"How's the situation? Has Xue Rengui's army arrived yet?"

Upon seeing them, Qin Xuan immediately asked the question that he most wanted to know, without even exchanging pleasantries: "What exactly happened?"

"My lord, General Xue has already set off. According to my calculations, he should arrive in Guangling early tomorrow morning. However, I do not know whether Guangling has already fallen. There has been no news from General Li Jing yet!"

Upon hearing Qin Xuan's voice, the three immediately snapped out of their reverie and Liu Bowen provided Qin Xuan with the answers he sought.

"What about Xiapi?"

"My lord, Xiapi is garrisoned by General Qin Qiong with a large army, so the situation isn't too bad. However, Liu Yao and Guan Yu are extremely cunning, and General Qin Qiong has no way to reinforce Guangling!"

Zhang Juzheng added from the side.

"Wenhe, do you have any solutions?" Qin Xuan looked at Jia Xu, who was standing silently to the side, and then added, "You have many ideas, so don't hold back now."

Qin Xuan was passing the buck to Jia Xu, knowing that he was new and that Liu Bowen and the others might not yet be aware of his abilities. He wanted to let Jia Xu show his skills, and also because Jia Xu's schemes were extremely ruthless and he could manipulate human nature at key points to achieve unexpected results.

Seeing that Qin Xuan had thrown the question at him, Jia Xu knew he couldn't remain silent any longer; otherwise, pushing the other party too far might lead to his death. After a moment's thought, he pointed to the map and spoke eloquently:

"My lord, after careful observation, I've discovered that the three-way alliance might not be so solid. Look at Yan Baihu, who occupies such a large territory in Wu County; the other two might very well have their own ambitions!"

"Moreover, how many troops does the three-party alliance have? I think they might not be able to hold out for such a long time, and they will definitely know that you, my lord, are rushing back to Xuzhou day and night."

"Therefore, they will definitely try to take advantage of the gap before our reinforcements arrive and capture Guangling as soon as possible!"

"The key to breaking this deadlock, or even turning the tide, lies with Yan Baihu. If we can persuade him, we might be able to eliminate the other two sides!"

Jia Xu devised this plan to turn defeat into victory only after analyzing maps over such a long period of time and combining them with the characteristics of human nature. No alliance of any kind is completely reliable; only interests can sustain their existence.

If the interests are not evenly distributed, or if the ultimate goal cannot be achieved, the two sides of the alliance will develop rifts, or even become enemies.

Then, as if he had thought of something, Jia Xu added:

"My lord, our most pressing issue right now is that we have no chance to persuade Yan Baihu. The only way to break the three-way alliance is to sow discord between him and Sun Quan and Liu Bei. But I have no solution!"

After hearing Jia Xu's words, everyone fell into a silent silence. To persuade Yan Baihu, one had to be his most trusted subordinate. Others would not achieve the desired effect and might even have the opposite effect.

Just when everyone was at a loss, Meng Guang suddenly spoke up:

"Young master, perhaps I have a way!"

"What?! Tell me quickly!"

Upon hearing this, a look of surprise flashed in Qin Xuan's eyes, regardless of the other party's intentions.

Liu Bowen and the other two also turned their attention to the unremarkable man brought by Qin Xuan, wanting to know what method he could use to persuade Yan Baihu.

"Young Master, the Black Ice Guard has placed a trusted confidant by Yan Baihu's side. I can write a letter and deliver it as quickly as possible, allowing him to persuade Yan Baihu!"

Meng Guang's words immediately caught Qin Xuan's eye. When he was checking the Black Ice Guard's list, he seemed to have discovered that Yan Baihu also had someone planted next to him.

At the time, Qin Xuan asked why, and Meng Guang explained that their undercover agents were developed randomly, and they only provided intelligence to the Black Ice Station on a regular basis to select the most valuable ones.

"Okay, quickly write the letter and send it as soon as possible!"

After solving the biggest problem, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Then Qin Xuan explained Meng Guang and the Black Ice Platform to the three of them.

When they learned that the other party was actually a descendant of Meng Yi of the Qin Dynasty, everyone was stunned, especially Jia Xu, who looked at Qin Xuan with a hint of fear and awe. What he was thinking was unknown to anyone but himself.