Chapter 198 I am honest but I am not stupid! Yuan Shao is about to go south, we have to race against time! What's the point of your stubbornness!
Lu Su was completely desperate and wanted to die.

As a minister of the Sun family, since he joined Sun Ce, he has been giving honest advice and fulfilling the duties of a minister.

Even if it was to persuade Sun Ce to seek peace with Liu Bei, it was to find a way out for Sun Ce and even the Sun family.

But what about you, Sun Ce?

Not only did he ignore his advice at first, but now he actually deceived him into wanting to ask for peace with Liu Bei, used him as a pawn, made him break his promise to Liu Bei, and disregarded his life and death!
In order to completely deceive his trust, he even swore by Jiang!
Is this what a wise leader should do?

Even a tyrant like Yuan Shu would not do such a despicable thing.

How could Sun Ce's actions not make him extremely heartbroken and completely hopeless?

At this time, he was naturally ashamed to face Liu Bei, and was disheartened and willing to be killed.

Xiao Fang smiled and turned back to give Lao Liu a hint with his eyes.

He has played the villain role, and now it is up to the lord Lao Liu to play the good role of conquering Lu Su.

"Zijing, get up quickly."

Old Liu stepped forward, helped Lu Su up, and sighed:

"Jinglue often told Bei that you, Lu Zijing, are a loyal and upright person and would never do such a dishonest act."

"I know that this time, you were just being deceived and used by Sun Ce. This was not your true intention."

"Ignorance is not a crime, so why would I kill you?"

Lu Su's eyes widened and he looked at Liu Bei in disbelief, as if he couldn't believe that Liu Bei didn't kill him.

For a moment, Lu Su was in a trance, not knowing what to do.

Liu Bei straightened his clothes and bowed solemnly:

"I know that you, Zijing, have the talent to assist the king. If Zijing does not despise my humble origins, I would like to ask Zijing to help me wipe out the Han thieves in the world, support the country, and rebuild our Han Dynasty!"

Lu Su was confused.

He said he was unaware of the situation, but Liu Bei believed him without any doubt?
Not only did they believe him, they actually regarded him as a talented person who could assist the king!
He actually wanted to use this great gift to recruit him to join his team and accomplish great things together?

This magnanimity and respect were completely beyond Lu Su's expectations, leaving him shocked and amazed.

"Envoy Liu, I, I..."

Lu Su's voice trembled and his emotions were surging. For a moment he was at a loss.

"Zi Jing, you are a man of great wisdom. At this point, can't you see clearly who is the true wise leader and who is worthy of the kings and ministers of the world to fight for?"

Seeing that Lu Su was still hesitating, Xiao Fang gave him another slap on the head.

Lu Su's body was shocked, as if he had suddenly been enlightened.

"Sun Ce was a bloodthirsty ruler. He killed many people when he pacified Jiangdong. When he marched west to Jingzhou, he also wanted to massacre Xiakou. He was indeed a cruel ruler."

"Yuan Shu treated him like a son. He first rebelled against Yuan Shu, but in order to protect Jiangdong, he was spurned by the world and surrendered to Yuan Shu, acknowledging his father."

"Now, you are taking advantage of my loyalty and trying to deceive Lord Liu and pretend to seek peace. This is really despicable and shameless."

"This Liu Shijun treats his people with kindness and righteousness, and treats his subordinates with trust and loyalty. His magnanimity and broad-mindedness are ten times greater than Sun Ce's!"

"Such a wise master invites me with courtesy and respect. If I, Lu Su, do not submit to him, but still want to be loyal to Sun Ce, wouldn't that be foolish?"

Lu Su's thoughts raced, and the remaining hesitation in his heart disappeared in the blink of an eye.

After a while.

Lu Su took a deep breath, straightened his clothes, and bowed deeply to Liu Bei:
"Su was blind and actually worshipped Sun Ce as his master. He ended up like this. It was really his own fault."

"I am truly flattered that Lord Xuande has not given up on me and thinks so highly of me."

"Although I am not talented, I am willing to serve Lord Xuande as my master and do my best to assist him in supporting the Han Dynasty and achieving great things!"

Lu Su finally made his choice.

Liu Bei was pleased, and hurriedly helped Lu Su up, laughing:

"My greatest gain from today's battle is not taking over the outer city of Jinling, but gaining the talent of Zijing, a great king!"

"Come on, hurry up and serve the wine. I want to drink to my heart's content with Zi Jing and talk about the world!"

Old Liu's heroic spirit swept away the gloom in Lu Su's heart, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

A celebratory banquet was held in the outer city of Jinling.

Liu Bei and his generals drank heartily to celebrate the victory over Sun Ce and the return of the talented Lu Su.

"Sun Ce brought disgrace upon himself yesterday. Although he was badly wounded, he still managed to escape with more than 2,000 soldiers and horses. Together with the 5,000 new soldiers in the inner city, there are still 7,000 soldiers and horses available."

"Originally, these 7,000 troops are not a concern, but the inner city of Jinling is built against the Qingliang Mountain and Zhongshan Mountain. Its walls are all made of mountain rocks and are extremely solid."

"There is enough food in the inner city to last for half a year."

"If Sun Ce is determined to resist stubbornly and leads his remaining troops to defend the inner city, our army will have to pay a heavy price in casualties and even take several months to break through the city even if we succeed."

After analyzing the situation in Jinling's inner city, Lu Su changed the subject and pointed northward:
"But now that Yuan Shu has been killed, Cao Cao will certainly lead his troops south to fight with Lu Bu for Huainan."

"Given the lord's ambition, he will certainly not be satisfied with taking Jiangdong. He will definitely cross the river and go north to take Huainan."

"In this case, my lord, you must quickly take Jiangdong and not give Cao Cao or Lu Bu the opportunity to take control of Huainan."

"Besides, Yuan Shao's troops are now surrounding Yijing, Gongsun Zan's demise is imminent, and it won't be long before Yuan Shao unifies Hebei."

"Once Yuan Shao takes over the four states of Hebei, he will definitely cross the river and march south to the Central Plains."

"My lord, you must take Huainan as soon as possible and occupy half of Jiangnan, so that you can go north to compete with Yuan and Cao for the Central Plains!"

After hearing Lu Su's far-sighted analysis, Liu Bei couldn't help but show his approval and looked at Xiao Fang. Xiao Fang was indeed a man of great insight, and his evaluation of Lu Su was accurate.

Lu Su's overall view is indeed extraordinary. His vision is no longer limited to Jinling or even Jiangdong, but has also taken Huainan into consideration.

Even looking at the Central Plains, he had already planned to compete with Yuan and Cao.

This foresight and overall view are vaguely comparable to Xiao Fang's.

"Jinglue is right. Zijing is indeed a man of foresight!"

Liu Bei nodded in praise, and then asked:

"As Zijing said, we cannot delay the attack on Jinling Inner City for too long. We must break it as soon as possible."

"I wonder if Zi Jing has any clever plan to quickly break through the inner city?"

This question stumped Lu Su.

As Xiao Fang said, Lu Su's advantage is his expertise in strategic planning.

But when it comes to the tactics of capturing cities and seizing territories, that is his weak point.

The saying "being good at the way but weak at the technique" is exactly this truth.

"Su's wisdom and plans are mediocre. He really has no good plan on how to quickly break through the inner city of Jinling."

Lu Su looked somewhat ashamed, and frankly admitted his shortcomings.

Liu Bei knew Lu Su's strengths and weaknesses, but he didn't make things difficult for him.

So he picked up the wine glass, walked outside the tent, and looked up at the towering inner city tower.

"It seems that we need to think long and hard about how to quickly break through the inner city of Jinling."

Old Liu played with the wine glass and sighed.

All the generals at the banquet stopped drinking and started talking to each other.

"My lord, don't worry. I think you might be able to quickly break through the inner city of Jinling without sacrificing a single soldier..."

Xiao Fang sipped the wine in his glass and suddenly said this with a meaningful tone.

Liu Bei's body was shocked, and he suddenly turned around and looked at Xiao Fang with surprise.

...

In the inner city of Jinling, inside the military headquarters.

Sun Ce, who had his wound bandaged, forced himself to walk into the mansion with the help of Sun Yu.

After sitting down with difficulty, Sun Ce raised his head and glanced at his generals, feeling a sense of sadness in his heart.

The scene where there were many brave generals, strategists and heroes gathered together no longer exists.

There were only a few familiar faces left in the hall, such as He Qi, Ling Cao, Zhang Zhao, and the Sun family.

Zhou Yu, Han Dang, Huang Gai, Cheng Pu, Lu Su, Chen Wu, Pan Zhang...

All those great men of letters and martial arts who had followed him, swept across Jiangdong and created his hegemony, have now turned into dust.

This scene made Sun Ce feel extremely sad and he let out a sigh of despair.

"Bofu, we still have 5,000 soldiers available, and we have the inner city of Jinling in our hands. We still have the strength to fight!"

"You must cheer up. The survival of our Sun family still depends on you!"

Seeing that Sun Ce was in despair, his cousin Sun Yu could only persuade him in a low voice.

These words seemed to have worked, rekindling Sun Ce's fighting spirit and rekindling a glimmer of faith in his gloomy eyes.

"boom!"

Sun Ce pounded the table with his fist and gritted his teeth, saying:
"You are right. I still have 5,000 soldiers available, and I still have the inner city of Jinling to defend!"

"As long as we are united and determined to fight to the death, we will be able to hold on to the inner city until Zhongmou recruits new troops."

"I haven't lost yet, I haven't lost yet--"

Although Sun Ce still spoke toughly, he was clearly lacking in confidence, and everyone present could hear the guilt in his heart.

The number of soldiers he had available was really too small. Even if the more than 2,000 soldiers who escaped were included, there were only more than 7,000 people.

With such a small number of troops, if Liu Bei was determined to attack at all costs, even if Sun Ce was determined to defend to the end, it was still unknown whether he could hold out for a month.

"Unfortunately, our army is too small. It would be better if we had 5,000 more soldiers..."

Zhang Zhao shook his head and sighed, pouring cold water on Sun Ce's stubborn attitude.

The words trailed off.

A man stepped forward and bowed to Sun Ce:

"My lord, I have a plan. Maybe I can get you 5,000 soldiers overnight!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the tent became excited and all eyes were focused on the scholar.

The person who uttered such "wild words" was Gu Yong.

Sun Ce was greatly encouraged and asked hurriedly:

"Yuan Tan, do you have any clever plan to recruit 5,000 soldiers for me overnight?"

(End of this chapter)