Volume 1 Jiangdong Fengyun Chapter 76: Great Fools Appear to Be Wise
After Bai Tu gathered more than a hundred civilian horses in Shucheng, he fled with more than a hundred people overnight. Until noon of the next day, he did not see any signs of pursuers, and he was completely relieved!
It seems that Zhou Yu should have been played ...
This reminded Bai Tu of Zhuge Liang's Empty City Plan in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms - if that really happened, it must have been Sima Yi's situation in Wei at the time that made him want to let Zhuge Liang go for factors outside the battlefield. It is also conceivable how arrogant and aggrieved Sima Yi was at the time.
What was so arrogant was that he actually dared to retreat directly using the excuse of "I think there is an ambush here", without worrying about Cao Wei's blame at all. What was frustrating was that... Zhuge Liang took advantage of the fact that he had to let go of himself and made him play the role of a fool.
Of course, even though he knew Zhou Yu was acting, Bai Tu still kept going - after all, Zhou Yu couldn't be so fake, and sooner or later he would be discovered and pursued.
According to Lu Su's previous plan, Bai Tu and his party took a detour to the east, preparing to cross the river back to Moling from Liyang in Jiujiang County.
Before leaving, Bai Tu also used the official seal to contact his adoptive father Lu Bu, as well as Gan Ning and Chen Gong who were "bluffing" in Moling.
Indeed, just one and a half days after Bai Tu left, that is, after Sun Ce had been foolishly building ladders and battering rams for a day, Zhou Yu could no longer continue pretending and launched an attack. After that... he directly broke into the city and occupied Shucheng, which had not been conquered for two years.
"Gongjin, even a wise man can make mistakes, so don't take it too seriously..."
"Ah, it's also my fault that I didn't stick to my opinion."
"But it still ended well. We didn't lose many men."
"Besides, the old man is sensible. The treasury has already been sealed. Although we have no share in Lujiang, I think no one will say anything if we empty the treasury in the city..."
"Don't blame yourself. Bai Tu and Lu Kang ran away, but as for Ziyi... we'll have another chance to fight each other in the future!"
Faced with Sun Ce's consolation, Zhou Yu became even more depressed - he had actually fallen to the point where he needed Sun Ce to comfort him with "Even the wisest man can make mistakes"?
"The most urgent task is to appease the people of Shucheng and intercept Bai Tu and others as soon as possible. I have sent someone to inform Liu Xun in Wan County on horseback." Zhou Yu said.
In fact, Zhou Yu already knew that Bai Tu should be taking a detour via Jiujiang and wanted to leave from Liyang.
When Zhou Yu received Lu Su’s letter before, he felt very distressed - he felt distressed that Lu Su had actually made a bad decision!
But just as Lu Su said, Zhou Yu needed Bai Tu to return to Jiangdong now, so he was willing to play the empty city plan with him before.
And now he pretended that Bai Tu would return to Yuzhang from Wanxian...
It’s just that Zhou Yu and Lu Su, although they are both wise men of the time, but... human hearts have been the most unpredictable since ancient times. When their opponents no longer have the simple goal of "victory", their plans will also deviate!
For example, Zhou Yu and Lu Su had not expected that Liu Xun from Wan County was leading his men downstream to Jiujiang Liyang...
After Bai Tu appeared in Shucheng and Lu Bu led a cavalry to disrupt the food supply route between Wanxian and Shucheng battlefield, Yuan Shu's men basically understood that Chen Gong and Gan Ning's provocation on the Yangtze River was just a bluff and their purpose was only to rescue Shucheng.
After all, with the military force that Bai Tu had when he first established Jiangdong, even if he managed to cross the river, he would not be able to hold his ground. What was the point of just taking Liyang?
Yuan Shu still has at least tens of thousands of troops in Jiujiang and Shouchun, and Liyang can be recaptured at any time. Moreover, Bai Tu does not have the strength to attack Huanglong directly. Yuan Shu even hopes that he will cross the river to die.
However, when Liu Xun, who was stationed in Wancheng, heard that Sun Ce had captured Shucheng, which he had not set foot in for more than a year, but Lu Kang and Bai Tu had escaped, he immediately chose to lead his troops eastward...
It was not because Liu Xun cleverly realized the retreat route chosen by Lu Su, but because he just wanted to make fun of Sun Ce!
At this time, he was already very annoyed. Bai Tu and Lu Kang underestimated him. He was the second most powerful general in Huainan and the governor of Lujiang, but he had been unable to capture Shucheng for a long time. Bai Tu didn't seem to be very anxious, and as soon as Sun Ce left ... Bai Tu went to rescue him, and even the old man Lu Kang fled without a fight!
In this case, he just wanted to see Sun Ce's joke - Aren't you powerful? Didn't Bai Tu and Lu Kang still escape?
What? Why wasn't I in the Wanxian area to stop them?
I'm sorry, I, Liu Xun, am a man of unparalleled loyalty and righteousness, and I only have my lord in my heart. After I knew that the Jiangdong navy was attacking Jiujiang, of course I went to "rescue" him immediately!
As for intercepting Bai Tu, Lu Kang and so on, that is your job, Sun Ce.
However... when Liu Xun's movements were reported back to Shucheng and known to Zhou Yu, the latter's face turned green!
Is there actually such a thing?
"Go quickly and inform Bofu to return to the city immediately!" Zhou Yu ordered hurriedly.
After Sun Ce came back, he complained that he had not found any trace of Bai Tu and his companions' escape. After seeing Zhou Yu's unusually serious expression, he patiently asked, "Gong Jin, what happened?"
"I may have been fooled by Bai Tu before..."
"It doesn't matter ! Didn't I tell you not to think too much? As the saying goes, a wise man thinks a thousand times..."
"I'm not talking about escaping with an empty city! I just found out that I didn't know enough about them before. Well... I just found out that Lu Zijing, who I mentioned to you last year, has now defected to Bai Tu. If it was Zijing who came up with the plan, Bai Tu and Lu Kang's escape route might be to the east.
It seems to be in a dangerous place, but in fact it is the way out, especially now in the Moling area, there are navy troops from Jiangdong gathering, as long as they break through the port of Liyang County, they can return to Jiangdong from Liyang!" Zhou Yu interrupted.
After listening to this, Sun Ce said in shock: "So that's how it is, they are really smart!"
"So... let's go to Liyang now." Zhou Yu resisted the urge to complain.
"Well? Since we want to chase them, I might as well take a team of cavalry with me. They don't have many people anyway. Gongjin, you should stay and take charge of Shucheng." Sun Ce said.
"No, Shucheng won't fall into our hands anyway, and... I'm afraid you will be fooled by them, so I will go with you on horseback!" Zhou Yu said.
Of course, Zhou Yu’s actual idea was that if Liu Xun didn’t happen to block Bai Tu, he couldn’t really pursue him. But if Bai Tu and his men were unlucky enough to be blocked by Liu Xun, then it would depend on the circumstances - whether to secretly help Bai Tu escape, or to take the lead over Liu Xun and capture Bai Tu first!
Zhou Yu was even considering whether he should rush directly through Liyang and head to Jiangdong to completely turn against Yuan Shu if things didn't work out.
After all, once the white map was left behind, Jiangdong would be nothing more than Yuan Shu's own backyard...
