When Sun Ce and Zhou Yu arrived at Qiao Mansion, they saw two soldiers standing at the door.
When Zhou Yu asked, it turned out to be Yuan Xi's Youzhou Army, who had been ordered by Yuan Xi to escort Qiao Rui back to Anhui from Hefei, and then stayed to protect the hospital.
After hearing this, Sun Ce felt a little uncomfortable for some reason, and took Zhou Yu inside.
When he arrived in front of Qiao Rui's bedroom, he saw two young girls wearing dark clothes with cross-collar collars. They lowered their heads and gathered their knickers to greet them.
Sun Ce and Zhou Yu met Qiao Qiao for the first time. When they saw her, they were immediately shocked. Only then did they realize that Qiao Rui's usual boasts about the beauty and beauty of his two daughters after getting drunk turned out to be true!
Big and small Qiao opened the door and led the two of them in. Sun Ce and Zhou Yu went in and saw Qiao Rui half lying on the couch. She reluctantly turned sideways and smiled bitterly at the two of them: "Bo Fu, Gong Jin, please forgive me for not getting up. excuse me."
Sun Ce saw that his complexion was ashen, his chest was wrapped in linen, and there was faint blood seeping from it. He hurriedly stepped forward two steps and asked, "Why is Mr. Qiao so seriously injured?"
"Why don't you find someone to treat you?"
Qiao Rui shook his head and said: "It can't be cured. Now I just linger and wait to die."
Sun Ce didn't believe it and said: "I have a doctor accompanying me. Let him come in now to help Mr. Qiao diagnose and treat him!"
Qiao Rui couldn't resist, so she had to ask Sun Ce to call in his most capable doctor. The doctor approached and carefully opened the linen, and an unpleasant stench suddenly filled the room.
When the doctor looked at the wound, his expression became grim. Finally, he looked at it hesitantly for a few more times before carefully wrapping the linen back around him and bowing to Sun Ce: "The disease is deep in my heart, and there is really nothing I can do for you."
Zhou Yu asked, "Can you prescribe some medicine to relieve Mr. Qiao's pain?"
The doctor shook his head and said: "At this time, all the medicine and stones are useless."
"The doctor before simply treated the wound extremely well and delayed the deterioration of the injury. I can't say it is worse than that."
After hearing this, Sun Ce became even more unhappy. He waved the doctor away and turned to Mr. Qiao: "Mr. Qiao insists on returning to Shouchun, why bother!"
Qiao Rui smiled and said: "That's fine. I act with a clear conscience and have not sorry to anyone."
"And I will have no regrets if I can see you two before I die."
At this time, Xiao Qiao came in with tea. His eyes instantly turned red when he heard this. Qiao Rui saw it and said to the two women: "You guys should step back first."
When Sun Ce saw the two girls leaving, he sighed: "Mr. Qiao has raised a pair of good daughters. If something happens to Gong Qiao in the future, what will happen to the family?"
After hearing this, Qiao Rui said calmly: "Of course they have their own way of living, just let nature take its course."
"What's more, Wancheng is now located behind the battle line. Yuan Shijun treats the people in the city well. To the south is Bo Fu's territory. Bo Fu is also on good terms with Yuan Shijun. I think this place should be peaceful in the past few years."
When Sun Ce and Zhou Yu heard this, they couldn't say that they were here to capture Wancheng, so they had to chat with Qiao Rui for a while. Sun Ce then stood up and said, "I will be in this city these days. If there is any difficulty, just send someone." Come to me."
Qiao Rui agreed and sent someone to send the two of them outside the mansion. Sun Ce called the doctor and asked, "How many days does Mr. Qiao have to live?"
The doctor thought for a while and said, "It's only about a month old."
After hearing this, Sun Ce said to Zhou Yu: "It's really strange. According to the friendship between the two parties, he should be entrusted to us."
Zhou Yu sneered: "Looking at the soldiers at the door, doesn't Bo Fu understand?"
"What kind of tacit understanding has been reached between Mr. Qiao Cheng and that fierce tiger!"
"Mr. Qiao actually chose to believe in someone like Fierce Tiger. He's really confused!"
"I suspect that his two daughters are all going to be given to Fierce Tiger, right?"
Sun Ce waved his hand and said: "It doesn't matter, right now we still have plans for Lujiang."
"As for her two daughters," Sun Ce said with a smile, "Is Gong Jin interested in them?"
"I remember you wanted to take a concubine a few days ago, right?"
"How about I speak to Gong Jin and Qiao Gong?"
Zhou Yu shook his head and said: "Forget it, look at Mr. Qiao's nervous look. He is afraid that the girl will be married to someone else as his wife. How can he be willing to let her be his concubine?"
Sun Ce heard this and said disapprovingly: "If he gives his daughter to Fierce Tiger, wouldn't she also be giving him a concubine?"
"But this is really not the time to cause unnecessary problems. If the money is not flowing to outsiders, why don't we wait until Mr. Qiao passes away. By then, the Qiao family will only have two orphans. Shouldn't we have the final say?"
Zhou Yu saw Sun Ce standing at the gate of Qiao Mansion, talking carelessly and without restraint, and said quickly: "Bo Fu, we will talk about this when we get back."
The two then mounted their horses.
When the sound of horse hooves faded away, on the other side of the Qiao Mansion courtyard wall, Xiao Qiao stood up from the grass and looked at each other, their expressions not very good-looking.
The two of them walked to the backyard in silence. On the way, Xiao Qiao stammered: "Maybe the two generals are worried about our future whereabouts."
Da Qiao suddenly said: "My little sister usually likes to wear low-cut skirts, so why did she temporarily change into a high-necked dress today?"
Xiao Qiao panicked and covered it up: "Is there any?"
"A dark coat is much more formal than a skirt, I."
Da Qiao thought to himself: Why didn't you have so many scruples when Yuan Shijun lived in Qiao Mansion?
She tentatively asked, "If my father were to marry you to Mr. Gong Jin, would you agree?"
Xiao Qiao panicked and covered it up: "How is it possible? Brother Gongjin already has a wife?"
Da Qiao stared at Xiao Qiao, "Which unmarried young man is interested in me?"
Xiao Qiao became even more panicked, "Why do you ask me this, sister?"
"Where's my sister?"
"Sister, what do you think of Sun Bofu?"
Da Qiao didn't expect Xiao Qiao to be a guest, but she was more mature than Xiao Qiao after all, so he said calmly: "I'll wait for my father to arrange it."
Xiao Qiao stamped her feet angrily, what kind of answer was this!
While Sun Ce was hesitating in Wancheng, in the north of Hefei, Yuan Xi was intensively planning to attack Shouchun.
Everyone in the world thought that Yuan Xi was going to sit back and watch the fight between tigers and wait for Cao Cao and Yuan Tan to defeat the main force of Yuan Shu's army before going out to reap the benefits, but Yuan Xi suddenly made an unexpected decision.
Get ahead of everyone and attack Shouchun!
When the parties that were fighting with Yuan Shu's army in the north learned that Yuan Xi's army was attacking Shouchun in an all-out manner, they were a little overwhelmed. Shouchun was not a small earth city like Hefei, but a city with a population of hundreds of thousands. A large fortified city!
There are not many ways to deal with the big city. If extreme measures are not taken, it is very common to fight for a year and a half.
And the most effective way is to besiege the city, cut off its external supplies, and starve the city of food. This process is actually very long. As long as the food consumption in the city is controlled, it will not be a problem to last for several months.
If the siege party cannot capture the city within this period of time, they will be taken advantage of by the forces coming from behind. At the same time, the number of troops required to siege the city is not large, which is also a great pressure and test for the supply line.
And from the perspective of military strength, Yuan Xi has the fewest soldiers among all the forces. After experiencing several battles, he can only use more than 10,000 troops after a full battle. Although Liu Bei's army is helping him, only 30,000 people can survive. It is less than the number of defenders in Shouchun City.
And its supply line is not short. Although it is by water, it only takes a thousand miles to transport it from Guangling to Hefei. How long can the food in Xuzhou be sustained?
Therefore, everyone in Cao camp was puzzled after hearing the news. Where did Yuan Xi get the confidence to do such a thing that violated common sense in the art of war?
Cao Cao called everyone together and said, "What do you think of this matter?"
"Does the ferocious tiger really want to attack the city before everyone else does, or is he just trying to create suspicion and use us to attack Yuan Shu's army?"
Cheng Yu still had linen hanging on his chest and wrapped his arms. After he was shot by Yuan Xi last time, his injury never healed and he often had a fever. Cheng Yu once suspected that the fierce tiger had put poison on the arrow.
He said aloud: "Calculating the time it takes to get the news, the fierce tiger is probably already attacking the city."
"But I really can't imagine that the fierce tiger can capture Shouchun's Pingzhi in a short period of time."
"Unless he can conquer the Huai River and flood Shouchun."
After hearing this, everyone looked stern. They were all those who had flooded Puyang City when they attacked Chenliu. They all understood the consequences of using water to attack. If the Huai River poured into Shouchun, the people who survived in the city would be afraid. Not even one out of ten!
Xun You said: "I don't think it's possible."
"The rule of Jihu is famous for his benevolence and righteousness. No matter whether he is pretending or not, if he braves the disdain of the world and floods a big city like Shouchun, it will be equivalent to what he has done before, and all his efforts have been wasted."
"And it is not that simple to cut off the Huaihe River. It requires recruiting a large number of civilians to dig ditches, which will take at least a month or two. If we have this time, we will have arrived long ago."
"So I think the trump card lies in the navy."
"As long as a few water passes are opened, the navy can enter the moat of Shouchun from the Huai River, and then use warships as bridges to attack the city just like they attacked Hefei."
Cao Cao's eyes were stern, "Gongda is saying."
Xun You nodded, "The official thinks that Fierce Tiger has hidden some siege cards until now."
"You know, the Jizhou Army that the Yuan family relies on is famous for being good at building siege fortifications. The Battle of Yijing is an example!"
Everyone nodded after hearing this. Gongsun Zan built a high-rise building for defense, but the Jizhou army engineers dug tunnels and burned the foundations of couches. After everyone heard about it, they were also filled with admiration.
Xia Houyuan sat sideways and said unjustly: "That fierce tiger is really cunning!"
"I spent so much effort last time but failed in the end. I really can't help my lord!"
He and Cheng Yu now have the same problem. They were both shot and wounded when they attacked Yuan Xi in Xuzhou, and they still have difficulty moving. What makes him even more aggrieved is that even his niece lost the money. After passing it on to Zhang Fei, her whereabouts are unknown, and she doesn't know what she is doing now.
Every time he thought about this, he felt quite ashamed of his deceased disciple, but it was Cao Cao who came up with the idea, so what could he do?
Cao Ren spoke up: "You don't have to blame yourself for being a great talent. Didn't I behave worse than you?"
"Since the envoy said that everything has been revealed, don't mention it again. Just look for opportunities in the future to kill the vicious tiger!"
Everyone echoed, but they all had no idea. In this situation, is there really a chance to kill the fierce tiger?
You know, Cao Cao is in the middle, and Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang on the east and west sides are all children of the Yuan family. No matter if they don't get along with Yuan Xi, they will most likely unite to deal with Cao Cao, an outsider!
Everyone couldn't help but look at Cao Cao. At this time, Cao Cao needed to make a decision!
As a result, as soon as Cao Cao said something, everyone was stunned.
"We are not moving forward."
"Don't you think that the troops and horses brought by the three sons of the Yuan family now have almost the entire strength of the Yuan family, and they are all far away from Yecheng?"
(End of chapter)
