In the Shenzhou grassland, after Li Zheng received Xun You's summons, his expression immediately became stern.

He gently buttoned the desk, and the sound of the buckle was very rhythmic, but it made the study more quiet, quiet and terrifying.

From this letter, Li Zheng thought a lot, and some doubts in his heart gradually cleared the fog.

The mercenary casualty rate of the mercenary guild has increased greatly during this period of time, and the Baiyu department was attacked by fierce beasts in the jungle, and more than 100 people were lost in half a month, so that the morale was low, and the construction of the port in Jiaozhou was not smooth, and the sea beasts attacked the port, causing thousands of casualties, and even landed on land and attacked the village

These kinds of signs made Li Zheng link them together!

Beasts!

Mercenaries are a big increase in mortality because of the beast!

Those who dare to attack the army are fierce beasts!

It is a ferocious beast that attacks the port and the village!

Where did so many beasts come from!?

Where did such a bold beast come from, daring to attack hordes of people, and even attack armies!?

Li Zheng's heart gradually sank

After a long time, Li Zheng suddenly got up and shouted, "Someone! ”

"Pass the order, transfer 10,000 mountain wolf riders, 5,000 golden-winged tiger riders, and take Lu Bu as the general. Immediately rush to Jiaozhou and obey Xun Gongda's orders! ”

"Order Xun Gongda, let him find out the specific situation of these fierce beasts for me, let them kill some samples as much as possible, and transport them back!"

"Wait!"

Suddenly, Li Zheng was stunned and shouted: "Only send a thousand Golden Winged Tigers to Jiaozhou to pass my order, transfer Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and Zhang Xiu back to Lingzhou, I have another appointment!" ”

"Whoa!"

In the evening, Xi Zhicai and Jia Xu came to Li Zheng's study again.

After learning about the specific situation of Xun You's interrogation, the two of them also looked calm.

"Lord, according to the message sent by Xun Gongda, we can know that, first, these beasts are not afraid of humans at all, they are not ordinary beasts, otherwise they would not dare to attack the murderous army, they can be described as fierce beasts. Second, there are many fierce beasts in number and types. Raid coastal cities, ports, attack armies, and kill as promised. The Indochina Peninsula and Jiaozhou, such a large area, have been attacked, both on land and sea, which shows their number and variety! If it is linked to the increase in the mortality rate of mercenaries, I am afraid that of course, this is only speculation for the time being, and the increase in the mortality rate of mercenaries is not necessarily related to this, but it can still be seen that the distribution of fierce beasts is wide. Third, some fierce beasts are very ferocious and powerful, Jiaozhou Baiyu encountered, more than ten fierce beasts were able to kill three people, wound five people, and retreat unscathed, although it was a surprise attack, but from this you can imagine the combat power of these fierce beasts. ”

Hearing the words of Xi Zhicai, Li Zheng slowly bowed his head and said, "It makes sense. Therefore, I have ordered to dispatch 10,000 mountain wolves and 1,000 golden-winged tigers to Jiaozhou and the Indochina Peninsula. ”

"My lord," Jia Xu reminded on the side, "Although the reason for the mortality rate of mercenaries is only speculation for the time being, it must be guarded against. You must know that around Yizhou and Liangzhou, many counties and counties are bordered by wild lands and forests, and many mercenaries are doing tasks in these mountains and forests. ”

Li Zheng's face was solemn, he nodded, and said, "I also thought of this before, so I am ready to send Zhang Liao, Xu Huang and Zhang Ji's nephew Zhang Xiu back. These three people are the strongest martial arts in our army, except for Lu Bu and Pang De, so I want to use them to command all the war cavalry units to guard against fierce beasts. ”

Xi Zhicai and Jia Xu bowed slightly: "The lord is thoughtful. ”

Li Zheng waved his hand and said, "But this is not enough, after all, the number of war horses is limited, and they can only guard some important places in the town." The southwest of Liangzhou and the southwest of Yizhou are all wild and primeval jungles, and if there are really fierce beasts all over them, the battle line will be too long, and the war horses may not be able to turn around. It is also necessary to send a group of foot soldiers to establish a defensive line. ”

The two of them thought so.

"Since there is no war with the princes at the moment, you may be able to send some troops and horses from the Eastern Army and the Southern Army to establish a defensive line on this line." Xi Zhicai said.

"And the Western Legion." Jia Xu said: "The Western Army guards Dunhuang, and to the south is Qilian Mountain, and it is close to Altun Mountain (at that time, this mountain seems to have no name, and it cannot be found on the historical map) and Kunlun Mountain. If these mountains are also full of fierce beasts, the situation of the Western Legion may not be good. ”

Li Zheng's eyes narrowed slightly, and he nodded: "What Mr. Wenhe said is not bad. ”

"Then he sent 50,000 troops from the Eastern Army to return and establish a defensive line in the west and south of Liangzhou. Dispatched 30,000 soldiers and horses of the Southern Army to return and establish a defensive line on the west and south lines of Yizhou. As for the Northern Army, it could not move. Now that they are about to clean up the Xianbei people, the oppression is terrible, if they withdraw part of the troops, it is difficult to ensure that the Xianbei people will not rebound. In addition, Li Luo of the Western Legion was ordered to temporarily shrink his forces, abandon the Western Regions strategy, and retreat to the city pass. ”

The two nodded yes.

Jia Xu also added: "The sea beast is large, and it is difficult for ordinary sword soldiers to cause effective damage, so the lord must equip the army with heavy offensive and defensive weapons to ensure that nothing goes wrong!" ”

Li Zheng's frequent deployment of troops and generals immediately made the princes everywhere tense their nerves.

But to their surprise, Li Zheng actually withdrew part of the troops on the border with them!

Irrationality!

Immediately, the princes became suspicious.

desperately began to inquire into the news inside Li Zheng's territory, wanting to know himself and his opponent.

However, before the major princes could hear the useful news, shocking events happened in their respective territories!

The first to suffer was Sun Ce!

Sun Ce defeated Liu Miao and occupied several counties around the estuary of the Jiangdong River, but suddenly, the rivers and coastal areas of these counties were attacked by sea beasts!

Sun Ce got the following summons, and at first he didn't think about it, but he didn't expect that in just a few days, more than a dozen counties along the lower reaches of the Great River and along the coast of Wu County had fallen! Thousands, tens of thousands, of huge sea beasts actually landed on land and attacked counties and villages everywhere, so the army and people who were killed and wounded were simply countless!

Even Wu County, where Sun Ce himself was seated, was attacked by water monsters from Zhenze (Taihu Lake)!

Wu County!

Nancheng, near the corner of Zhenze.

This city wall has completely collapsed, and the moat, which was originally used to defend against enemy attacks, is completely an ornament in front of the sea beast, but has become a help!

Sea beasts, large and small, struggling with their bloated and hideous bodies, swarmed into Wu County from the collapsed city walls, and countless people cried out like headless flies, scurrying in panic.

Although the sea beast was not agile enough on land, it was large enough, and the largest of them was even bigger than all the ships, and it could crush a piece with a slight roll, and the house would collapse if it moved. The smallest, also comparable to a horse, and more agile, chasing those soldiers and the people to bite.

The entire county of Wu has become a killing field!

Stumps and severed arms were everywhere, and people were desperate, crying, and had no choice but to flee, without the power to resist.

Sun Ce led a group of soldiers and horses and fled from the east gate with his important civil and military generals.

He was dressed as a wolf, his face was sad, and he no longer had the high-spirited color when he captured Jiangdong earlier.

"Bo Fu"

On the side, Zhou Yu, who was originally rich and handsome, lost that kind of demeanor at this time, he looked at Sun Ce and didn't know what to say.

The enemy is a beast!

What can you say?!

The army under his command, in front of these fierce beasts, is like papier-mâché, and it is ready to break at the touch of a button. Swords and arrows are basically useless, and the city wall fortifications will fall down if you touch them!

Run, what else?

Sun Ce watched the foundation he had worked so hard to build was crushed into ruins by the beast, and the pain, loss, and desolation in his heart were indescribable.

He is powerless.

He boasts of unparalleled force and is known as the Little Overlord, but in front of these huge, ferocious and unbelievable beasts, what is the Little Overlord? The old overlord is useless either!

"Let's go, Bo Fu!"

"Let's go?" Sun Ce smiled ugly: "Where can I go?" ”

Where can you go?

In this land east of the river, the water system is luxuriant, and the sea beasts can reach it anywhere. It's useless to run anywhere!

"To the north."

Zhou Yu took a breath: "We" Suddenly, Zhou Yu was dumbfounded.

If you want to go to the north, you have to cross the river.

However, right now, in this water, there is a world of giant beasts, how difficult is it to cross the river? It's an act of looking for death!

"Go to Yuzhang first, go up the river, and then go to Jingzhou As for what to do in the future, I'll talk about it later." Sun Ce settled down.

You can't kill yourself because you have lost your foundation, right?

Isn't it ridiculous that the enemy is a beast?

"Let's go, go to Yuzhang first!"

Sun Ce looked at Wu County, who was being ravaged by sea beasts, gritted his teeth, turned around and rode his horse, and walked away in panic.

Compared with Sun Ce's experience, the neighboring Huiji County is even more miserable.

Even Wang Lang, the guard of Huiji County, did not escape the doom, and then died in the mouth of the beast!

He can hold on to Guling City and resist the attack of Sun Ce's army for months, but he can't resist the madness of the sea beasts! What prestige, what city, what army, all have become ornaments, useless!

Huiji, Wujun, and Danyang became a killing field, the people were killed or injured, and the living people dragged their families and moved frantically to the land. This kind of migration boom, because it was too hasty, also caused a large number of deaths, so that the entire Jiangdong land, millions of people, quickly lost people.

On the contrary, the Shanyue barbarians who live in the mountains and forests have not suffered any damage.

Compared with Jiangdong, Xuzhou is also a general end! Of course, because Xuzhou has a vast area after all, and its strategic depth is much stronger than that of several counties in Jiangdong, Tao Qian is quite stable for the time being.

However, many counties along the coast of Xuzhou, Donglai, Langya, Donghai, and Guangling are no different from Jiangdong, all of which were destroyed by sea beasts, and the people were killed and wounded, and the army sent by Tao Qian was almost wiped out.

What made Tao Qian even more uncomfortable was that the sea beast entered the interior of Xuzhou along the Huaishui River, occupied the lower reaches of the Huaishui, and divided Xuzhou into two.

Faced with such a situation, Tao Qian could only urgently entangle the army on the one hand, so as to guard the counties along the Huaishui coast in the south and the coastal counties in the east, and even took care of defending Yuan Shu and Cao Cao, and was busy relocating the people of the neighboring counties to the inland counties for resettlement.

Throughout the Han Dynasty, the plague of sea beasts spread rapidly in many counties along the coast.

From the trend point of view, it first started in Jiaozhou in the south, and then quickly spread to the north, spreading to the coastal counties of Yangzhou, the counties along the lower reaches of the river, Xuzhou, Qingzhou, Youzhou coastal counties, and the counties along the lower reaches of the river!

Except for Sun Ce, who lost his territory and became a bare pole, the rest of the princes all suffered heavy losses.

Cao Cao almost died in the mouth of the sea beast - Puyang was on the lower reaches of the river, so he was naturally attacked by the sea beast.

Yuan Shao is not too good, the counties and counties along the river in Jizhou are also in ruins!

And Youzhou is the same, the counties around the Liaodong Peninsula are also in a miserable situation, and Gongsun Chan is helpless. There are also small barbarian countries on the Korean Peninsula, which are also almost wiped out!

The plague of sea beasts can cause such huge damage, first of all, because the sea beasts came very suddenly, and in this era, the communication system on land is too backward. Often, a county is attacked by sea beasts and left in ruins, and it will not be known to the owner of the territory until a few days later at the earliest.

Secondly, it is because the princes do not pay attention to it. Maybe they learned about the attack of the sea beast early on, but they thought it was absurd and didn't take it to heart, and even punished those officials who 'spread false news'.

Finally, the sea beast is too strong, large, powerful, and has thick flesh and skin, and is not afraid of ordinary sharp weapon attacks. And it can also land, and the whole thing is an amphibious operation.

The princes who could not react in time would naturally suffer heavy losses. (To be continued.) )