The two dead soldiers, "Open Gun" and "Dark Arrow", a total of thirty people. or pretending to be a riverside fisherman, or pretending to be a soldier of Sun Ce's army, smuggling and infiltrating near Sun Ce's army camp, in groups of three, lurking and waiting for the right time.

Sun Ce has always respected the villagers, and his army has always strictly pursued a style of doing nothing wrong with the people. While reaping good feedback from the people, it also buried a fatal hidden danger for itself.

For example, those Zhang Xiu's dead soldiers who pretended to be fishermen and villagers, although some of them looked very different from the locals in Jiangnan, but the soldiers and soldiers of Sun Ce, who patrolled the sentry, never carefully interrogated these burly and sturdy men with occasional fierce eyes. Occasionally, if you encounter a few extremely ordinary and random checks, you can get through the test in a fool's way, and you will definitely not be able to stand any difficulties.

Of course, Sun Cejun's indifference is also related to the influx of a large number of northern refugees and displaced people in the Jiangnan region in recent years.

Others pretending to be Sun Ce's soldiers were actually more relaxed. Sun Ce commanded many generals, and each general had his own subordinates, ranging from hundreds to thousands. Moreover, the subordinates of different affiliations often have different clothing, armor, and weapons. This gives the fishermen a chance to take advantage of it.

In Sun Cejun's army, there is no such thing as the identity of supervision and inspection among the generals and subordinates of various ministries who are not subordinate to each other. After all, the generals who command the subordinates are essentially equal ranks, and although there are differences in military ranks, there is no relationship between them in terms of belonging and command, and all the subordinates are under the direct command of Sun Ce or the command of the governor appointed by Sun Ce himself.

This means that even if you have 5,000 tribes, I only have 300 tribes. But there is only General Sun Ce who can command me, and you have absolutely no authority to command me, unless you are appointed by General Sun Ce as the governor of the army.

This is Jiangdong's unique military system. Therefore, it is not surprising that Xu Gong's three men turned into soldiers of Sun Ce's army in history, and they were able to approach Sun Ce's side to assassinate.

Zhang Xiu sent the elite of the thirty elites to carry out the assassination mission, in groups of three, that is, in groups of ten. In the end, the hard work finally paid off, and a group of Zhang Xiu dead soldiers who disguised themselves as Sun Cejun's veteran Han Dang's subordinates finally met Sun Ce himself when they were strolling around the foothills of Lushan Mountain to try their luck.

Don't ask how Zhang Xiujun's dead soldier recognized it as Sun Ce's. Putting aside the fact that Sun Ce's age and appearance characteristics are really easy to describe and identify, in fact, Sun Ce's appearance is actually very easy to see. For example, when Sun Cejun first entered Chaisang, he was bound to be on the list. And every time Sun Ce himself captured a city, he had the habit of personally riding a tall horse to patrol the city to appease the people.

Zhang Xiu, who has mastered a lot of practical situations through meticulous work, finally commented on Sun Ce: "If you don't put on a show, you won't die!" ”

Zhang Xiu firmly believes that all accidents are made up of inevitable events.

This is the beginning and end of Zhang Xiuxing's assassination of Sun Ce.

Since Sun Ce is now guaranteed to die, it can be said that the victory of Zhang Xiu's southern expedition is fundamentally guaranteed. Unless Zhang Xiu herself was suddenly infected with the rabies virus and died earlier than Sun Ce.

Putting aside these unrealistic possibilities, Zhang Xiu thought that how far the fate of the Jiangdong Sun family could go now depended entirely on how long the rabies virus in Sun Ce's body had been incubated.

Whether it is a general half a month to three months, or within a year, it doesn't matter to Zhang Xiu, it can be consumed.

After all, Zhang Xiu still has the third important reason for the main force of Jiangdong who is not afraid of Sun Ce.

That was the 40,000 Huainan Army under the command of Ji Ling and Qiao Rui.

At the beginning, there were 120,000 Zhang Xiujun of Zhang Liao, Ji Ling and Zhang Xun gathered in Lujiang County. Zhang Xiu and Zhang Liao led 40,000 Yongliang troops to cross the river to conquer Jiangdong, and there were still 80,000 troops left in Lujiang County. Its role is to protect Lujiang County on the one hand, prevent Sun Cejun from jumping over the wall and crossing the river to the north to attack Huainan, and also prevent Huang Zu of Jiangxia County from attacking. On the other hand, it was to contain Sun Ce's main force of the Jiangdong Army, so that it could not divide its troops and return to the division, and could only retreat slowly with the whole army.

Under the careful defense of Liu Ye, the Taishou of Zhang Xiu's Lujiang County, Ji Ling and Zhang Xun's 80,000 Huainan Army protected the entire Lujiang County tightly. In addition, under the active mediation of Zhang Xiu's envoy Lu Su and Lu Zijing, Jingzhou Xiangyang and Jiangxia Taishou Huang Zu both agreed to a temporary treaty of friendship alliance with Zhang Xiujun, and Xiangyang Liu Biao mobilized the main force of the Jingbei Army to go south to suppress the rebellion of Zhang Xian, the Taishou of Changsha, and Huang Zu cooperated with Zhang Xiujun to contain Sun Cejun so that he could not act rashly.

However, containment is always only containment, not blocking sniping or anything, and it cannot completely stop the determination and pace of Sun Ce and his Jiangdong disciples to return to Jiangdong.

Under the leadership of Sun Ce, the Jiangdong Army left behind all heavy ordnance and equipment. Including those made by skilled craftsmen in Koto and transferred to Chaisang by large ships, large ballista trebuchets, and so on.

These fortification equipment, ballistas, catapults, and catapults were originally prepared for Huang Zu, his Xiling City, and the five thousand spearmen sent by Liu Biao. Now, it can only be discarded casually at Chaisang Wharf, ready to burn or sink into the rivers and lakes at any time.

After Sun Ce returned to the division, it was Huang Zujun who occupied Chaisang. I have to say something about Huang Zu here, it is not good to fight hard, but it is still quite slippery to fight with the wind. After receiving the news that Sun Ce was seriously injured in the attack and Zhang Xiujun secretly drew Jiangdong from the bottom of the Chen Cang kettle, Huang Zu immediately gathered all the land and water troops of Jiangxia County in Xiling. As soon as he saw that Sun Ce's army showed signs of withdrawing and returning to his division, Huang Zu immediately led the main army to set foot on the land on the south bank of the Yangtze River. When Sun Ce's army began to retreat, he waved his army to take Chaisang, an important town in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

The importance of Chaisang is self-evident, and its strategic position can be seen from Sun Quan's personal presence in Chaisang during the Battle of Chibi. Huang Zu took Chaisang, which meant that he controlled the throat gateway of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and Jingzhou could henceforth not worry too much about the threat from Jiangdong.

Of course, Huang Zu also took a great risk to take Chaisang. The main force of the Jiangxia army left Xiling and crossed the river to the south, which meant that Jingbei completely opened the door to Zhang Xiujun. However, Huang Zu expected that Zhang Xiu would never be able to take the risk of a war between Jingzhou and Jiangdong.

In fact, Huang Zu was right, although Zhang Xiu asked Ji Ling and Zhang Xun to take the opportunity to take the important town of Chaisang before leaving, but now he can only say that the plan can't catch up with the changes.

However, for the sake of the Jiangxia County Sailors working hard to chase and kill the Jiangdong Naval Army, and Huang Zu personally leading the army to chase behind the main force of Sun Cejun, Ji Ling and Zhang Xun could only pretend to smile on their faces to congratulate Huang Zu.

Suddenly, the Huainan Army and the Jiangxia Army almost reached the point of intimacy. Huang Zu took the initiative to take the risk of being killed by Sun Cejun, while Ji Ling led the 40,000 Huainan Army of his headquarters to follow the eastward pace of Sun Cejun's eastward march on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and was ready to support Huang Zu's army at any time.

In this situation, although Sun Ce could completely destroy either Ji Ling and Huang Zu, at this moment, Sun Cejun did not dare to have the slightest idea of leading the army to counterattack. is not only because the vast majority of Jiangdong soldiers are eager to save their hometown, but also because Sun Ce himself is not sure to solve the embarrassment of Ji Ling and Huang Zu at one time.

After all, the combined number of soldiers and horses of the Jiangxia Army and the Ji Ling Army far exceeded Sun Ce's 60,000 soldiers and horses, and there were 40,000 soldiers and horses of Zhang Xun's Department who could support at any time behind the Ji Ling Army. If Sun Ce had the ability and certainty to defeat an army of more than 100,000 with 60,000 men who could not fight for a long time, it would be better to directly attack Huainan in the north and take Huainan to compete with Yuan Cao for the Central Plains.

So I walked all the way back to Jiangdong with grievances, and the land route that was originally completed in a month ended up walking for nearly two months!

Fortunately, after Huang Zu captured Peng Ze in the end, the Jiangxia army no longer followed the Jiangdong army. The deterrence of the remaining Ji Ling army was greatly reduced, and the marching speed of the Jiangdong army was greatly accelerated, and it finally came out of the normal speed in the mountainous and rainy areas, and also broke through the Lingyang area of Danyang County under the rule of Zhang Xiu, and approached Jing County.

Because if Zhang Xiu was not stupid, he would definitely order the 40,000 soldiers and horses of Ji Ling's army, which was marching east parallel to Sun Ce's army across the river, to cross the south from Liyang and land from Niuzhu Beach to join Zhang Xiu's southern expeditionary army.

In fact, Zhang Xiu did arrange it this way. Ji Lingjun did not have the strength to take the initiative to attack Sun Ce's main force, so he could watch Sun Ce return to his division all the way. However, if you arrive in Liyang, you can cross south and meet with the 20,000 army led by Zhang Xiuqin. Zhang Xiu's confidence in the face of Sun Ce leading the main force back to the division lies in this.

What Sun Cejun urgently needs to do now is to take Wanling City before Ji Lingjun crosses south and Zhang Xiujun will meet, gain a foothold, and ensure that short-term food and grass are safe.

I heard that in the past few days, the Danyang County soldier who had burned and looted the six cities of Moling not long ago returned to defend Wanling City. I heard that there are a lot of soldiers in Danyang County, and the Danyang soldiers still boast of being elite soldiers, I don't know how many days they can block in front of my Jiangdong soldiers.

By the way, I heard that the Danyang Lieutenant appointed by Zhang Xiu is called Zu Xun, isn't that the former Marshal of Jing County, how could he become Zhang Xiu's lackey accomplice, and he also became a general who commanded more than 10,000 troops.

But no matter how much he changes, Zu Xun can't get rid of the background and urine of the bandit giant. No matter how famous his reputation is, he is just a thief, why is he the enemy of the rebellious general?

What no one expected was that the 60,000 Jiangdong children led by Sun Ce had not yet fought with Zhang Xiu, but they had eaten a big deflated under Zu Xian's hands first.

When Sun Cejun laid down Lingyang's battle report and handed it to Zhang Xiu, Sun Ce had already waved his army to take Jing County. By the time Zhang Xiu led the army to Danyang County, Sun Cejun had already arrived at Wanling City.

It will take more than ten days to rush from the border of Danyang County to Wanling. In the past ten days, Zhang Xiu has been able to receive Zu Xun's battle report every day. A few days ago, Zu Xun was not slow or anxious in the battle report, and it also recorded in detail the casualties of his own side in the siege battle and the annihilation of the enemy against Sun Ce's army. However, from the fourth day, perhaps because of the news that Zhang Xiu was about to lead the army to help, Zu Xun mentioned his own casualties more every day in the battle report, but he mostly mentioned the situation of Sun Cejun.

Finally, on the eighth day, Zu Yang sent two battle reports in succession. One of them still has blood stains, and I don't know if it was Zu Xun or Sun Ce's pawn. The gist of it is that Wanling City has defended the city at most today, and the Jiangdong army will have many soldiers, and there are also brave generals who lead their troops to raid the city at night, and the ants will not stop attacking the city from day to night. And the Danyang elite soldiers and descendants under Zu Yang have basically all been lying on the wall of Wanling, and they can no longer withstand any wave of large-scale sieges.

According to Zu Yan's description, more than half of the tens of thousands of defenders of Wanling City have suffered casualties in just eight days under the strong attack of many generals of the Jiangdong Army. Of course, Zu Xun did not fail to capture, not to mention how many Jiangdong soldiers were killed and wounded, but he shot and killed a Sun Ce's cronie general Xu Kun.

On the ninth day, Zhang Xiujun did not receive any routine battle report from Zu Xun all day. None of the waves of scout sentries sent to Wanling returned.