Zhou Xin fell and fainted. Gan Yan asked people to carry him back to the camp, and urgently sent the doctor to save him, and it took half a day to finally wake Zhou Xin up.

"Heavens, how unfair!" Zhou Xin howled and cried loudly, tears raining down.

Gan Yan was speechless. He was also a little confused, not knowing how things could have come to this. But he is not as complaining as Zhou Xin, with a little brain, he knows that he has lost unjustly this time. They were too careless, thinking that behind them was Niuzhu Mountain, a riverbank field that was inconvenient for marching, and Sun Ce was not familiar with the terrain and could not sneak attack from here.

They forgot that Sun Ce was different from them. Sun Ce is a frivolous person, brave and ruthless, greedy and risky. During the battle of Junyi, he once rushed behind Yuan Tan, but was blocked by Yuan Tan, and the two sides fought fiercely, although he was seriously injured and suffered heavy losses, but his risky character was undoubtedly exposed. They only cared about laughing at Sun Ce and suffered for themselves, but they didn't attract lessons, and now Sun Ce seized the opportunity and cut off the back road.

No wonder he didn't attack today, he originally went to copy the back road.

Gan Yan is not Zhou Xin, he has no bitter hatred with Sun Ce, no desire to kill Sun Ce, and no worry that Sun Ce will kill him. He is from Danyang, whoever comes to be the Taishou of Danyang, he can serve, even if Sun Ce is unwilling to get rid of him, he can return to the county to be a small official, and he will not worry about his life. So he is also calmer than Zhou Xin.

"It's a pity that Fu Jun, Shen Fang and others died in battle, but now is not the time to be sad, it's better to think about how to deal with it. There were not many crossbowmen in Stone City, and the strength of the defenders was greatly reduced. Our army will not be able to hold out for long if it is attacked by the enemy. ”

Zhou Xin swept Gan Yan, his eyes were cold. "Does Gan Jun persuade me to escape, or persuade me to surrender?"

Gan Yan was very embarrassed by Zhou Xin's words, and laughed twice. "The prince of the mansion is serious, I am just suggesting, how to decide, it is up to the monarch to decide."

Zhou Xin sat up slowly, rubbing his face carefully. The fall was so bad, the whole face was swollen, and it hurt so much when I touched it. Without Tong Jian, he also knows that his current image is not good. But compared to being played by Sun Ce, the matter of wrestling is not so important. The three brothers, who were full of poetry and books, fought against the father and son of the Sun family, who were born in businessmen, not only did not achieve any advantage, but were defeated again and again. Before, he thought that Zhou Yu and Zhou Ang were too careless, but now that even he himself was plotted by Sun Ce, his face was hot, and it was even more uncomfortable than a swollen fall.

Before deciding to stop Sun Ce, he boasted about Haikou in front of Gan Yan and others in front of Yuan Shao's envoy. If you can't turn defeat into victory, it will not only discredit the Zhou family, but also affect the strategy of Yuan Mengzhu and the great cause of the party.

You can't escape, you can't escape, you can only fight.

Zhou Xin weighed it repeatedly for a while and gritted his teeth. "Although Shen Fang was killed in battle, there were still more than 2,000 people in Shicheng, while Sun Ce only had five or six thousand people, and his troops were insufficient to attack the city. He went around behind me, but he still couldn't break through the positions of our troops head-on, so he had to make this decision. There is still a lot of food in the pavilion of the Isogami Mansion, which is enough for half a month. We have more than 6,000 soldiers, and we can hold on and wait for help. ”

"To whom to turn to for help? Chen Zhijun was in Jiangbei, and it was difficult to cross the river without warships. Wu Jun and Yuzhang are so far away, even if they send someone now, they won't be able to come back after half a month. When they arrived, they were afraid that the food in the pavilion had already been eaten. ”

Zhou Xin raised his head and sneered: "You don't need to be as far away as Wujun and Yuzhang, there is a ready-made candidate, and you can arrive in ten days at most." ”

"Who?"

"Zulang."

Gan Yan frowned. "Fu Jun, Zu Lang is a thief, is it appropriate to do this?"

"Zu Lang is just a thief, but the father and son of the Sun family are national thieves. Those who do big things are not informal, and they are in a hurry, and they can't care so much. Zhou Xin turned over and sat up, and said loudly: "Someone, pass on my order, alas......" When he spoke, his mouth opened wider, pulled his face, and suddenly inhaled cold air in pain. Gan Yan looked in his eyes and shook his head secretly, but he couldn't say anything.

Zhou Xin beat the drum and gathered the generals, ordered the camp to be moved immediately, abandoned the Niuzhu camp, and the whole army retreated to Niuzhu Rock to hold on, and at the same time sent his cronies to Jing County to contact Zulang and others.

——

Sun Ce soon received the news.

Knowing that Zhou Xin retreated to Niuzhuji, Sun Dai didn't believe it very much. He personally rushed to the foothills of Niuzhu Mountain to check the situation, confirmed that it was correct, and couldn't help but laugh dumbly.

Zhou Xin has no problem sticking to Niuzhu Rock, but he shouldn't give up the Niuzhu camp. The big camp and Niu Zhuji are each other's horns, and in the absence of sufficient superior forces, he really does not dare to act rashly. Now that Zhou Xin took the initiative to abandon the Niuzhu camp, he only needed to send some people to cut off the exit of Niuzhuji, the main force could be transferred to attack Shicheng, and Ganning's sailors could be used to block the dock of Niuzhuji.

Zhou Xin has no way to escape, and has become a turtle in an urn.

Sun Ce immediately arranged for Li Shu, the captain of the guard battalion, to lead 1,000 people to stand on the south side of Niuzhuji to block the road for Zhou Xin's southward retreat, and sent someone to inform Gan Ning to let him enter the Niuzhu camp, and at the same time sent some warships to block the dock on the east side of Niuzhuji to prevent Zhou Xin from escaping with merchant ships. In front of the warships, the merchant ships had no power to fight back. Cheng Pu immediately surrounded Shicheng and seized the time to prepare for the siege.

While arranging to besiege Zhou Xin, Sun Ce discussed Zhou Xin's possible plans with Guo Jia, Chen Duan and others. With the information collected by Jiao Zhongqing before, it is not difficult to guess what plans Zhou Xin may have. Soon, Chen Duan proposed a possibility: Zhou Xin was so resolute, he should have felt that we could not break through Shicheng and would only attack him, so he immediately made a decision and quickly retreated to Niuzhu Rock, not giving us a chance. From a defensive point of view, the Niuzhu camp has an advantage in waterproof surface attack, in the case of Niuzhu Mountain is occupied, it is easy to be attacked from both sides, it is indeed better to retreat to Niuzhu Rock, condescending, easy to defend and difficult to attack, you can concentrate on defense.

The art of war is cloudy: no help, no defense. Zhou Xin didn't want to break through, such a decisive defense, naturally there were reinforcements. In the case that Chen Wen and the others were trapped in Jiangbei, and they did not have a warship, Zhou Xin should not count on Chen Wen. The reinforcements he can count on should be the county soldiers of Wu County and Yuzhang, but it is more likely that they are local bandits in Danyang.

There are many hills in Jiangdong, and there are many bandits. These bandits are not exactly thieves, many of them are inextricably linked with the local tyrants, and even the forces controlled by the local tyrants. Because of the difficulty of conquest and suppression, the Taishou of the four counties of Huiji, Wujun, Danyang, and Yuzhang usually do not take the initiative to use troops, and adopt Huairou politics as much as possible, acquiescing in their existence, and having nothing to do with each other. Zhou Xin has been a Danyang Taishou for several years, and it is impossible not to have contact with the bandits. Usually, you may not look down on them, but now that they are in trouble, it is completely capable to ask for help from the bandits.

According to the information collected by Jiao Zhongqing and others before, the closest county to Zhiwanling in Danyang County is Jing County, and there is a group of powerful bandits in Jing County, and the handsome man is named Zulang. Jing County to Niuzhuji is about more than 200 miles, there are waterways to pass, most of them are plains, there is only a small part of the mountain road, if it is fast, it will take five or six days, and if it is slow, it will take ten days, and these people can arrive. Zhou Xin gave up the Niuzhu camp and insisted on holding on to Niuzhu Rock, probably just to hold out for a few more days to ensure that he could hold out until the reinforcements arrived.