Stone City.

Chen Wen fell on the sickbed, his face was pale, his breath was short, with a very heavy guttural voice, and every breath seemed to have exhausted all his strength, making people worry that he would not be able to get up if he took this breath.

Chen Deng stayed by the sickbed, napping on the sickbed, and was so tired that he couldn't take care of his image. In just a few days, he was exhausted, even more tired than guarding Shucheng for two months.

After crossing the river, he divided his troops with Fan Neng and rushed to Fuling with a thousand men, and Chen Wen was fighting with Wu Jing. The strength of the two sides is about the same, Chen Wen has a favorable location, but the elite soldiers under Wu Jing's command, especially his personal guard battalion, are extremely powerful, and Chen Wen only has the ability to defend, not the power to fight back. After Chen Deng arrived, he wanted to outflank Wu Jing's back road, but was discovered by Wu Jing and rushed to kill him in reverse. Danyang Bing resisted for a while, and when he saw the ferocity of the other party, he immediately wavered, and he couldn't stop drinking even if he wanted to. Not only that, these routs also disrupted Chen Wen's position, and Wu Jing seized the opportunity to break through Chen Wen's defense line in one fell swoop.

The situation was urgent, and there were no soldiers available in his hands, so all he could do was to escort Chen Wen out of Fuling. He knew that Sun Ce had warships and would definitely blockade the river, so he walked fifty-six miles down the Yangtze River and encountered merchant ships that were blocked by the war, so he requisitioned merchant ships and sent them to Jiangnan. After going ashore, he made a big circle again, taking the lake and Moling. With Chen Wen, the assassin of Yangzhou, they easily got supplies, and recruited some new soldiers, and finally recovered some vitality.

There were rich and soldiers, so he held accountable for the Fuling war, rectified military discipline, killed more than 100 people in one go, and rewarded more than 300 meritorious soldiers. Knowing that there were cavalry patrols on the riverbank, he arranged for more than 1,000 people to ambush Ma Chao, killed 17 people, captured 13 war horses, and temporarily cleared the east of Shicheng.

Now, what he has to do is to break through Li Shu's resistance and rescue Zhou Xin. Encouraged by the victory of the ambush Ma Chao, Chen Wen wanted to launch an attack in one go, but he vetoed it. Li Shu led Sun Ce's personal guard battalion, which was well-trained, and the county soldiers they led were far inferior, and if they attacked in a hurry, they would only be frustrated, and the morale that they had easily accumulated would be lost.

But Chen Wen was in a hurry. He already had an old disease of asthma, and he wheezed badly in the winter, and in the past few days he has been fighting continuously, his body is exhausted, and his condition has become more serious, and it has reached the point of endangering his life. Chen Deng felt very ashamed, and stayed by the sickbed, serving in person, like a child. After tossing all night, it was easy to stabilize a little, and he also hurried to take a nap while waiting for the news of Sun Ce's battle with Zu Lang.

He only arrived in Shicheng last night, and he only knew that Zu Lang had come to help and was fighting with Sun Ce, and he didn't know what the battle was like, and he didn't even know how many troops Zu Lang had. There were people arranged by Sun Ce outside Shicheng, and the defenders in Shicheng didn't dare to go out of the city at all, and they didn't want to go out of the city, so they wanted to see Sun Ce and Zu Lang both defeated.

When he heard the news, Chen Deng could only sigh secretly. Zu Lang is a reinforcement invited by Zhou Xin, the situation is so critical, these people still look down on Zu Lang, I really don't know what they think. Shouldn't we work together at this time to defeat Sun Ce first?

There was a sound of soft footsteps outside the door, and Li Yan walked over. Chen Deng opened his eyes and glanced at him. "How's it going?"

Li Yan looked at Chen Wen on the sickbed. Chen Wen understood, got up on the edge of the couch, and prepared to go out with Li Yan to talk. As soon as his hand moved, he was held down by Chen Wen. Chen Wen's hands were wet and cold, which reminded Chen Deng of snake skin, and he felt uncomfortable for a while.

"How...... How's it going? Chen Wen struggled to open his eyes and slowly turned his head.

Chen Deng had no choice but to signal Li Yan to say here. Li Yan swallowed his saliva, glanced at Chen Deng again, and saw that Chen Deng had no intention of changing his mind, so he said: "Zu Lang was defeated by Sun Ce, and it was a big defeat, there were routs everywhere outside the city, Sun Ce went to chase Zu Lang." ”

Chen Wen's eyes rolled. "Yuanlong, we ......"

Chen Deng looked at him. "Is the envoy trying to recruit Zulang's defeated subordinates?"

Chen Wen gasped vigorously, straightened up, and nodded again and again.

Chen Deng shook his head. "Not for the time being, these people have just been defeated by Sun Ce, their morale is low, and they can't fight even if they are recruited. Besides, Zu Lang's life and death are uncertain, in case he is captured by Sun Ce, then he will ascend to the heights and shout, these people may have to go back to Zu Lang, we are busy in vain, and a lot of food is consumed. It's better to wait, if it's certain that Zulang is dead in battle, or has run away, it's not too late for us to gather some more routs. ”

Chen Wen thought about it, felt reasonable, and slowly lay back again. He thought about it, his hand slowly groped in the quilt for a while, and laboriously pulled out a leather bag, he wanted to lift it, but he had no strength, so he could only look at Chen Deng with his eyes. Chen Deng knew at a glance that this was Chen Wen's Yangzhou Thorn Shi Seal, and immediately understood what Chen Wen meant, and his mood was excited, but he didn't say it.

Chen Wen gasped for a long time, and finally took a breath.

"Yuanlong ......"

"Envoy, Deng."

"The world...... In chaos, the imperial court is in the middle of the Guanzhong, the alliance leader is far away in Hebei, and he is unable to take care of Yangzhou, Sun Ce is cunning, only you can match him, I ...... Old and frail, life is not long, when Yangzhou trusts. ”

Chen Wen trembled and stretched out his hand, grabbed Chen Deng, put the leather bag in his hand, and slowly covered Chen Deng's fingers.

"Work hard!"

Chen Dengbai collapsed in front of the bed. "I make you wrong to love, and I am grateful, but I can be shallow and thin, and I have no reputation, so I am afraid that it will be difficult to convince the public."

Chen Wen gasped for a while, then took out another thing from his arms and put it in Chen Deng's hand. This is Chen Wen's own private seal. "Go to Yuzhang and find Xu Zijiang, he will help you." After a while, he said again: "If possible, rescue Zhou Xin, the Zhou family is a big family of Huiji, there are many in-laws, and there is an enmity with the Sun family, they will also help you." ”

Chen Deng nodded repeatedly. "Thank you envoy, Deng Bucai, I will definitely do my best to deal with Sun Ce."

Chen Wen let out a long breath, closed his eyes, and bursts of cold sweat poured from his forehead. Chen Deng helped him lie down, and asked the healer to come. The healer took a pulse for a while, got up and said, "Jun has exhausted his mental strength, I'm afraid he won't be able to last a few days." ”

Chen Deng couldn't help but cry.

There was another sound of footsteps outside the door, and Chen Deng turned around and motioned for someone to come softer, not to disturb Chen Wen. Li Yan greeted him, whispered a few words, and when he came back, his face was even more ugly, attached to Chen Deng's ear, and said softly: "Zu Lang surrendered to Sun Ce." ”

Chen Deng clenched the leather bag and seal letter in his hand, and his face became more and more pale. It was a long time before he breathed a sigh of relief. "Ordered the whole army to go to the city and defend it. Li Yan, you want to find a way to go to Niuzhuji, meet with Zhou Fujun, tell him the news, and ask him to be ready to break through at any time. ”