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

After an unknown amount of time, Zhou Yu's consciousness seemed to be torn out little by little from the deep, endless darkness. He slowly opened his heavy eyelids and saw the mottled roof of the carriage.

"Where am I?"

A thought flashed through Zhou Yu's mind: he remembered that he had fainted from anger.

Then I felt a series of strong jolts in my body, as if I were on a bumpy horse-drawn carriage.

To understand the current situation, Zhou Yu struggled to get up, but his body was too weak to muster the strength for a while. Finally, after several attempts, he managed to sit up.

After struggling to open the car window, I saw that the long night had receded and dawn was breaking. My own soldiers were hastily retreating, and everyone's face showed a sense of relief at having survived a disaster.

"Where are we going?"

Zhou Yu asked a passing soldier about his doubts.

The soldier was startled by the sudden sound. When he realized that Zhou Yu had woken up, he breathed a long sigh of relief and then replied in a low voice:

"My lord, we were preparing to retreat towards Xiapi. The general has decided to heed Liu Bei's suggestion and join forces with Guan Yu, who is besieging Xiapi, before making further plans!"

"Retreat towards Xiapi!" Zhou Yu muttered under his breath, then ordered his soldiers, "Go and fetch General Bofu; I have something to say to him!"

Before the soldiers could move, a familiar voice reached Zhou Yu's ears:

"Gongjin, you're finally awake! How are you feeling? Are you alright?"

Zhou Yu looked up and saw Sun Ce, covered in blood, riding a horse in front of him. Seeing the blood on Sun Ce, Zhou Yu was very worried.

"Bo Fu, I'm fine, but are you injured?"

"It's alright, this is all the blood of the Xuzhou army!"

Seeing how much Zhou Yu cared about him, Sun Ce felt a warm feeling in his heart.

"How is the situation? How many men do we have left? Where are we going now?" Upon hearing that Sun Ce was alright, Zhou Yu breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He and Sun Ce were good friends for many years, and he would be heartbroken if something had happened to him. He quickly changed the subject to business.

Upon hearing Zhou Yu ask about this, Sun Ce's face turned as bitter as a bitter gourd, and he slowly said:

"Xue Rengui's army is too powerful; we were no match for them at all. If we hadn't retreated early, none of us would be alive today!"

Looking at the remnants of his army beside him, Sun Ce gritted his teeth: "Our army has about three thousand men left, while Liu Bei and his men should only have less than two thousand left. And that damned Yan Baihu, upon hearing that we were under attack, didn't come to our aid but instead ran away under the cover of night!"

"After we joined him, we found that his troops had not suffered too many losses. Finally, on Liu Bei's advice, we retreated to Xiapi to meet up with Guan Yu and discuss countermeasures!"

Sun Ce would get furious whenever Yan Baihu was mentioned, his teeth clenched as if he wanted to devour him alive.

When Sun Ce finally managed to escape with his remaining troops, he found Yan Baihu and angrily questioned him about why he hadn't come to their aid. Yan Baihu's answer almost made him lose his temper completely. If Liu Bei hadn't intervened and advised him, they probably would have already started fighting.

After listening, Zhou Yu nodded silently, then pulled his head back into the carriage, leaned against the side panel, and remained motionless.

Sun Ce, who was outside the carriage, knew that Zhou Yu was upset when he saw this scene, so he didn't say anything to disturb him. He just rode his horse and stayed by Zhou Yu's side.

The long, serpentine procession snaked its way along the rugged, bumpy road under the morning sun, making its arduous journey toward Xiapi.

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Inside the Guangling Prefectural Governor's residence, Li Jing and Xue Rengui had breakfast together, during which Li Jing expressed his gratitude by serving tea instead of wine.

"General Xue, if it weren't for your timely arrival last night, Guangling would probably have fallen today, and I wouldn't be able to have breakfast with you. I, Li Jing, thank you for your timely rescue with tea instead of wine!"

As he spoke, Li Jing downed the tea in his hand in one gulp, and the bitter taste could not hide his relief at that moment.

Xue Rengui picked up the tea in front of him and drank it all in one gulp, replying with a smile, "Pharmacist, you're too kind. It's nothing I should do. The lord and the others should be back by now. Let's think about our next plan!"

"Currently, the three-way allied forces are moving towards Xiapi. General Shubao's defenses are insufficient, so I plan to set off for Xiapi this afternoon to strengthen its defenses and await the arrival of our lord and the others."

"I'll leave you three thousand men, and I'll take the rest with me. What do you think?"

After listening to Xue Rengui's plan, Li Jing nodded heavily in agreement. It was truly frustrating that they hadn't been able to completely annihilate the three-way allied forces last night. Of the more than two thousand people in the city, only less than eight hundred remained. This battle was truly humiliating.

"Yes, we should indeed head to Xiapi as soon as possible. Although we achieved considerable success last night, Yan Baihu's troops did not suffer much loss. Once they join forces with Guan Yu, Xiapi will be in danger. General Shubao only has three thousand elite troops, which is simply not enough to hold it!"

In the afternoon, Xue Rengui led his army, which had rested for half a day and replenished its rations, away from Guangling and headed towards Xiapi, where Qin Qiong was stationed.

Just as Xue Rengui's army was heading towards Xiapi, the three allied forces, after a long march, rested and cooked a meal by a wide river.

To prevent Xue Rengui's army from pursuing them from the rear, the allied forces also set up sentry posts. If anything went wrong, they would set up a fire to notify the main force to evacuate.

"My lord, we must be on guard!"

Just as Yan Baihu was resting, one of his clever confidants walked up to him and whispered something that was hard to understand.

"What do you mean? Have you thought of something?"

Yan Baihu, who was eating dry rations, paused for a moment after hearing his confidant's words. He looked at the other person with great surprise. Yan Baihu valued this confidant who was somewhat intelligent. He had helped him out of danger several times and was the most intelligent person by his side.

"My lord, have you forgotten what happened last night? We went too far. Sun Ce and the others are already dissatisfied with us. If we preserve our strength and go to Xiapi with them now, we might as well be lambs to the slaughter!"

"Guan Yu still has several thousand troops there. If they join forces against us, we will be completely powerless to resist!"

"We can't even handle Zhang Fei alone, let alone Sun Ce and the others."

"My lord, you should still be more careful!"

After listening to his confidant's words, Yan Baihu fell into deep thought. He had to admit that his confidant's words made sense. Then he thought of the situation last night. His decision to preserve his strength yesterday had already enraged Sun Ce. If Liu Bei hadn't been there to persuade him, Sun Ce would definitely have fought him.

If these two were to join forces, I would probably have no power to resist. And most importantly, Sun Ce has always coveted Wu Commandery, which I control. If Liu Bei hadn't come to persuade him, Sun Ce would have already sent troops to Wu Commandery.

"So, what good ideas do you have?" Yan Baihu asked, looking at the confidence on his confidant's face after regaining his senses.

After all, if someone can express such concerns, they must have already thought of a solution; otherwise, they wouldn't be so confident!

Sure enough, as soon as Yan Baihu uttered his words, his confidant leaned close to his ear and whispered an idea that made Yan Baihu's eyes widen and his face show an expression of disbelief.