The drums of war soon subsided, and the camp returned to calm, but Yuan Tan and Xin Bi's mood was difficult to calm down for a long time.

Cheng Yu and Zhu Ling quickly sent people to report, and they said the same thing: 200 horsemen passed between their camps, and the soldiers on duty who tried to come forward to intercept were routed, with more than 30 casualties. These are all secondary, and there is one piece of information that is critical.

Sun Ce himself may be among these two hundred horsemen.

Yuan Tan was embarrassed, and he couldn't tell what he felt in his heart. He was still torn between the excitement of being able to kill the Sun family's father and son at the same time and the worry of not being able to trap the Sun family's father and son, and now it proves that his excitement or worry is meaningless, it is purely his thinking too much.

Sun Ce came and left, not giving him a chance to try at all.

Simbi slapped the railing twice, his face becoming more and more gloomy. When Yuan Tan saw it, his heart tightened, and he hurriedly asked, "George, what's wrong?" ”

Xin Bi raised his head and looked in the direction where Sun Ce and the others had disappeared. "Lure the wolf into the house, open the door and steal, Shanyang is in danger."

Yuan Tan's face changed slightly, and then blurted out. "Won't it?"

Xin Bi looked at him, showed a helpless wry smile, turned around and went down the watchtower step by step. Yuan Tan hurriedly followed. He was flustered, his legs were a little weak, and he almost fell. Fortunately, Simbi was prepared and caught him. The two of them walked towards the big tent. Xin Bi didn't say a word, Yuan Tan's face became whiter and paler, and his back was full of cold sweat.

Sun Ce is anti-guest and wants to plot against Shanyang? Shanyang is not only a densely populated county, but also the governor of Yanzhou, and his Yanzhou assassin is stationed in Shanyang. If Shanyang is taken away by Sun Ce, his face as a Yanzhou assassin will be gone.

Why did I lure Sun Ce to Shanyang? It's a burning. The more Yuan Tan thought about it, the more he regretted it.

"George, what can I do?"

"There's no hurry." Simbi walked briskly into the tent and found the map and laid it on the desk. He said that he was not in a hurry, but there were beads of sweat on his forehead. Yuan Tan saw it really and smiled bitterly. There aren't many things that can make Simbi so nervous. Xin Bi lay on the map, his eyes wandering back and forth for a moment, and he knocked on Shanyang vigorously. "Envoy, immediately strengthen the forces of Rencheng, Nanpingyang, and Lu Sancheng to prevent Sun Ce's main force from entering Shanyang from here."

"Sun Ce went west, why did he want to strengthen Rencheng in the northeast instead?"

"Only a few hundred cavalry went west, which could play a role in harassment, but could not attack the city. What can really threaten our army is Sun Ce's main force of foot soldiers. There is Lu Qian in the lake and land, and there is Cao Ang in Fang He, and it is difficult for Sun Ce to break through directly, so he can only make a detour to Rencheng. ”

Simbi pointed to the map and explained. The more Yuan Tan listened, the more frightened he became, and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. The prospect that Simbi described was too scary for him to believe, but he had a hunch that what Simbi said was likely to come true, and that Sun Ce was not just satisfied with rescuing Sun Jian, he probably wanted to capture Shanyang.

One entered Shanyang via Rencheng, and the other went north to Jiyin from Suiyang, plus Sun Jian's subordinates, Sun Ce may have gathered at least 30,000 people to fight for Shanyang. Once successful, not only Shanyang and Rencheng will change hands, but Jiyin south of Dingtao will also become Sun Ce's bag, and the battle will advance to Lu, Changyi, and Dingtao.

Yuan Tan suddenly thought of a question. "George, can Sun Jian hold out for that long? It has been seven or eight days since he was driven out of Changyi, and the food brought by Zhu Zhi should have been eaten. Although Sun Ce came, how much food could the cavalry bring? It's a drop in the bucket. ”

Xin Bi looked up at Yuan Tan. "The envoy is right, this is indeed a gamble, whether it can succeed or not, I'm afraid Sun Ce is not sure. But Sun Ce dares to bet, but we dare not bet. First, because it is unlikely and the counties are not on guard, Sun Ce may win in danger. Second, Sun Ce can bear the result of losing both, but we can't. ”

Yuan Tan's face was whiter, and cold sweat was dripping. Xin Bi is right, even if it is a lose-lose, Sun Ce can bear it, no one can accuse him of anything, and Sun Jian can't either. But he couldn't afford it, if he lost Shanyang, the prestige he had accumulated by defeating Sun Ce the year before was swept away, and his father Yuan Shao might also be "disappointed" in him, and maybe he would take this opportunity to remove him from the post of Yanzhou assassin.

"George, what are we going to do?"

Xin Bi tapped his finger lightly on the table and was silent for a long time. "The king, the one who is good at war, brings to men and not to men. Sun Ce wants to be anti-guest-oriented, and we can't follow his pace. Counting the time, whether it is from the east or from Suiyang, there are at least three or five days. If we can annihilate Sun Jian's troops within three to five days, then the internal troubles can be eliminated, and then we can divide our troops to resist the enemy outside the country, and we will still have a chance to win. ”

Simbi raised his head, his eyes fierce. "Even if you lose in the end, Shanyang is lost, and defeating Sun Jian is enough to atone for the crime."

Yuan Tan met Xin Bi's gaze, weighed it for a long time, and gritted his teeth. "Okay, I'll listen to George." He stood up, paced back and forth for two steps, waved his hand, and said loudly: "Spread the generals' deliberations." ”

The muffled drums of war sounded, and the heralds galloped out of the camp.

——

After Sun Ce broke through the defensive line, he didn't go too far.

He heard the war drums of Yuan Tanzhong's army and frowned slightly. This is the drums of war for the generals, he doesn't know what kind of decision Yuan Tan will make, whether to send people to encircle and suppress him, or will he immediately launch an attack on Sun Jian?

There are two possibilities.

He brought Sun Jian a thousand stones of grain and 100,000 arrows, which seemed to be a lot, but in fact it was far from enough. Sun Jian still has more than 10,000 people, and if the quota is given according to the standard of six liters per person per day, these grains will only be enough to eat for two days. One hundred thousand arrows would not even meet the minimum ration of thirty arrows per archer, and probably not enough for two days. Two days later, Sun Jian will be in the dilemma of having no food and no arrows.

But he can't help it, Qi County has so much inventory. Other counties have them, but it will take time to mobilize transportation.

Now it's all about time, and whoever is more efficient will have the possibility of winning the final victory. The first thing to fight for in combat is logistics supply, and Yuan Tan is fighting locally, and this advantage is obvious. The reason why he broke through to the periphery was to cut off Yuan Tan's supply lines and weaken Yuan Tan's advantage.

"Big brother, what should we do?" Sun Yi asked.

"Wait." Sun Ce took the reins of his horse and quietly looked at Yuan Tan's camp in the distance.

"What are you waiting for?"

"Wait for the opportunity."

Sun Yi blinked, as if he understood. Sun Ce didn't explain much. Sun Jian entrusted Sun Yi to him, and he already had the intention of fighting to the death, he would stick to the camp, anchor Yuan Tan here, and create an opportunity for Sun Ce to raid. He didn't approve of Sun Jian's approach, but he couldn't change Sun Jian's approach, just as he didn't know if Sun Jian would be willing to kill horses and eat meat in the end. Four hundred horses can feed ten thousand people for at least three days, and these three days are likely to be the difference between victory and defeat. But if Sun Jian was reluctant to stay for one more day, the four hundred horses would have to eat nearly fifty stone of grain, which would undoubtedly make the food already scarce even worse.

Everyone knows that you should make a decision on the spot, but how many people can really make a decision on the spot? For Sun Jian, who was seriously short of horses, it was by no means an easy decision to kill these 400 horses for meat.