Lujiang County, Anhui County.

The sound of horses' hooves drifted into the city, and then a team of armor soldiers appeared on the official road three miles outside the city gate.

With the sound of the falling suspension bridge of "Quack", the gate of Anhui County was opened, and a scribe in a brocade robe led more than 100 defenders out of the city to greet him.

"Welcome to the city!"

Without waiting for the Kuiwei general who led the army to turn over and dismount, the brocade-robed scribe walked up quickly with a group of armor soldiers and bowed down.

The majestic general flew off his horse, stretched out his hand to help the scribe, and said with a pleasant face: "Why should Yuan sigh and be polite, please get up quickly." ”

It is true that this mighty general leading the troops is Sun Ce Sun Bofu, who is majestic in Jiangdong, and the scribe who led a group of subordinates out of the city to greet him was Gu Yong, a famous scholar of Wu County, whom Sun Ce was quite respected.

After a little greeting, Sun Ce looked up at the city in front of him and couldn't help but sigh.

Anhui City is no stranger to him. At the beginning, he led his deceased father's old department to be expelled by Tao Qian in Xuzhou, and when he was desperate, he defected to Yuan Shu's tent, and then was ordered to lead his troops to attack Lujiang.

At that time, Lu Kang, who was the Taishou of Lujiang at the time, was furious by Yuan Shu for refusing to pay the 30,000 stone grain demanded by Yuan Shu, so he was besieged and besieged by Yuan Shu's army. In his early years, he was awarded the title of Loyal General by Emperor Ling, and his rank was higher than that of Jiuqing. It was Yuan Shu who sent his generals to attack Anhui County repeatedly, but they failed to attack it for more than a year, until Sun Ce led his troops to defect under Yuan Shu. He was then sent to Anhui County to continue the siege.

Sun Ce is known for his bravery and good at fighting, and he must take the lead in every battle, so the soldiers and horses he leads are often very strong in combat. After he took over the siege of Anhui County. He repeatedly led his army to attack the city, so that the pressure on Lu Kang, who defended the city, increased greatly, and after holding out for several months, Sun Ce captured the city. Then Lu Kang was captured, and soon died of illness in prison, implicated by him, most of the children of the Lu family died in the war, only the youngest son Lu Jihe was sent back to his hometown Wu County by Lu Kang in advance. Narrowly escaped.

After Sun Ce led the army to capture Lujiang, Yuan Shu sent Yuan Yin to serve as the Taishou of Lujiang. When Yuan Shu became the emperor, Yuan Yin rose with it. Ranked in Jiuqing, and then Liu Xun took over as the Taishou of Lujiang.

Now, Yuan Shu has fled, and Liu Xun has led the remnants and the leaders of the hidden mountain thieves, Lei Bo and Chen Lan, all to serve under Li Li. And Sun Ce took advantage of the gap in leading the army to pursue Yuan Shu. Send Gu Yong and Zhou Tai to lead a group of men and horses to capture Anhui County. So as to achieve the strategic intention of occupying the entire Lujiang County.

In addition, the reason why he sent Gu Yong to lead the troops here was not just for a county seat, but for other purposes.

In the southwest of Anhui County is the hidden mountain, and there is a rather dangerous cottage on the mountain. In the past, it was the camp where Lei Bo, Chen Lan and others occupied the mountain as the king, but now it has changed hands, and that is the purpose of Sun Ce's personal army this time.

After the army entered the city, Sun Ce couldn't take a break, and immediately convened the generals under his command to discuss the hall.

The main minister sat down, and Sun Ce did not say anything polite. asked Gu Yong directly, and said, "Yuan Si has led the army to besiege Yuan Shu's old thief for more than half a month. It's just a grass camp, why can't it be conquered repeatedly? ”

Gu Yong was obviously prepared, and immediately said without thinking: "The lord is angry, and let the truth be revealed." Twenty days ago, Yuan Shu fled to Qianshan in panic, wanting to take refuge in the camp of Chen Lan and Lei Bo, but these two refused to take them in, so that Yuan Shu was angry and ashamed, and immediately ordered Ji Ling to lead the army to capture the cottage, drive Chen Lan, Lei Bo and other thieves away, and occupy the Qianshan camp.

The lord knows that the terrain of the hidden mountain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is quite a trend that a husband is a man who cannot be opened. Now although Yuan Shu is a lost dog, he still has more than ten generals such as Ji Ling under him, and there are still more than 2,000 remnants, in addition to nearly 1,000 thieves left by Chen Lan and Lei Bo, and the total number of soldiers and horses is not less than 3,000. With the defeat of these remnants, they occupy a dangerous terrain, condescending, and wait for work. What's more, the cottage stored a large amount of grain and grass that Chen Lan and Lei Bo had plundered, with plenty of arrows, high walls and thick walls, and extremely favorable defense. It is difficult to overcome it in the middle of the day. Before Gu Yong's words fell, Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin and other generals nodded in agreement, confirming that what Gu Yong said was true and every sentence was true.

After Sun Ce heard this, his expression was silent, and he knew very well that what Gu Yong said was the truth.

In fact, the reason why he led the army to leave Shouchun in a hurry without Li Li's permission this time was precisely because he got the news in advance that Chen Lan and Lei Bo, who had been taken away by Yuan Shu, were rushing to Shouchun with more than 100 remnants of soldiers, accompanied by more than 1,000 Xiliang war cavalry escorting them along the way. After learning this news, Sun Ce was shocked, and once Chen Lan and Lei Bo entered the city to see Li Li, Yuan Shu's whereabouts were exposed. As a result, Li Li would immediately know that he Sun Ce deliberately concealed the military situation and did not report it, and then took the opportunity to send troops to Lujiang, and even directly attacked him and the Jiangdong Army under his command.

It was Sun Ce who did not dare to delay for a moment, and immediately led the army to evacuate Shouchun. After the army entered the territory of the Lujiang River, the troops were divided into two routes; One way escorted the baggage to the village along the river, and the other road was led by him to go straight to Anhui County.

It wasn't until Sun Ce led his army to leave Shouchun that he knew why Li Li had so quickly occupied Yuzhou and the surrounding counties of Jiujiang. It turned out that as early as when the allies attacked Shouchun City, Li Li secretly ordered Lu Su to lead a cavalry to infiltrate the Lujiang River, persuaded Liu Xun, the Taishou of the Lujiang River, to lead his troops to surrender, and secretly contacted Dongcheng, Juchao and other counties, and took the initiative to belong to Li Li's command.

At the same time, Lu Su personally went to Qianshan to persuade Chen Lan and Lei Bo to surrender; Lei Bo met Lu Su in his early years, and he had a very close personal relationship, and the two sides hit it off. Unexpectedly, Lu Su set off to go down the mountain in advance, and Chen Lan and Lei Bo then led the crowd down the mountain, but they met the defeated army of Yuan Shu who fled here. Immediately, the two sides did not speculate, and fought fiercely, Lei Bo and others were defeated by Ji Ling, and fled in panic, and all the money, grain, and baggage were taken away by Yuan Shu.

Coincidentally. Chen Lan and Lei Bo led the remnants to flee and encountered the Jiangdong army under Sun Ce's tent on the way, and they were defeated by the Jiangdong army again, and in the end, only more than 100 people escaped. However, it was this encounter that allowed Chen Lan and Lei Bo to inadvertently learn the whereabouts of the Jiangdong Army, and knew that this Jiangdong Army was following the defeated army of Yuan Shu.

The matter was as simple as that, but Sun Ce was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat, and without waiting for Li Li's consent, he hurriedly led the army to leave Shouchun, and then led the light cavalry to come to Anhui County in the starry night.

In the lobby, after Gu Yong finished speaking, he stood bent down for a long time, but he didn't see Sun Ce say anything, which made him sincerely frightened and uneasy. Then he looked up the steps, but saw Sun Ce's expression in a trance, his brows were tightly locked, his eyes were full of melancholy, and he looked unrelenting and absent-minded.

Seeing this, Gu Yong realized something in his heart, so he turned his head to look at Zhang Hong beside him, and asked him to intercede for him.

After seeing Gu Yong's eyes asking for help, Zhang Hong nodded knowingly, immediately got up and went out, and said respectfully: "My lord, when I leave Shouchun, it is the day when Chen Lan and Lei Bo enter the city. The matter has come to this point, it is useless to think too much, and please ask the Lord to make a decision quickly, and if it is too late, it will change. Obviously, instead of Zhang Hong coming forward to intercede for Gu Yong, it is better to say that he is reminding Sun Cexing that he is in danger, and there is no time to delay, and he will decide to make a trade-off. The crux of the trade-off lies in the heirloom jade seal in Yuan Shu's hand.

The so-called heirloom jade seal is the seal passed down from generation to generation by the emperors of the past dynasties, which was engraved by the order of Qin Shi Huang. Its square circle is four inches, and the five dragons are handed over to New York, and the front is engraved with the book of Li Si "Ordered by the sky, both longevity and eternal prosperity".

The original intention of the first emperor to engrave this seal was to hope that his country could be passed down from generation to generation, but unexpectedly, the Great Qin Empire died after passing on to the second generation. However, this seal is regarded by the world as a symbol of supreme imperial power, and the Han Dynasty has been using this seal for 400 years, which is the jade seal of the country. Until Dong Zhuo moved the capital to Chang'an and burned Luoyang, the jade seal of the country was lost, and then fell into the hands of Sun Jian.

It was precisely in order to compete for this heirloom jade seal that Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu brothers successively resorted to tricks, so that Sun Jian was ambushed and shot by Liu Biao. After Sun Jian's death, Sun Ce inherited his father's will, but unexpectedly, his fate was not good, and he ran into walls everywhere, so he had to send people to the fence and seek compromise. In the end, Sun Ce still used this jade seal as a hostage and borrowed soldiers and horses from Yuan Shu, thus laying the foundation of Jiangdong.

Therefore, the jade seal of the country is of great significance to Sun Jian and Sun Ce's father and son. Sun Jian died because of this seal, and Sun Ce became the overlord of Jiangdong because of his success.

In fact, this so-called heirloom jade seal, to put it bluntly, is a piece of jade that is rare in the world. That's all.

However, it is this piece of jade that has an unimaginable huge influence, or an incomparable appeal. Especially at present, the Han Dynasty, which has been inherited for 400 years, has been defeated, and the Liu Emperor Zuo has been completely overthrown, and there is no owner in the world.

At this juncture, strength is undoubtedly the most important, and the strong is king. However, I'm afraid that strength alone is not enough.

As the saying goes: if the name is not right, it is not good. Emperor Liu Xie of the Han Dynasty did not pass on the jade seal of the country during his reign, but he was still the emperor, because he inherited the remnants accumulated by his ancestors for hundreds of years, and he was born an emperor, and the imperial power of the Liu family has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. But at present, there is no owner in the world, no matter who wants to win the country, if you want to convince the people of the world, it is particularly important to pass on the jade seal of the country. As a result, under the impetus of the current special situation, the value of this stone has skyrocketed invisibly and has become an indispensable key token.

Therefore, the jade seal of the country is now the most important weapon of the country, and its precious Cheng dù is far more than priceless, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a supreme artifact.

It was precisely when they saw this that Zhang Hong and Gu Yong, as well as everyone in the lobby, were frightened, worried, and uneasy. If Sun Ce insists on refusing to give up the jade seal of the country, then it will inevitably attract Li Li and his army of Xiliang, because Li Li is unwilling to withdraw his troops after occupying Shouchun City, and it is obvious that he is determined to win the jade seal of the country. In this way, a confrontation between the two armies for the jade seal of the country is inevitable, and a big war is about to break out.

—————— to be continued———————————— (To be continued......