"What? Let me go?! " Sun Qian was stunned. He was already prepared to die. Before he died, all he wanted was to have a complete corpse. But now, the Summit's Wheel had taken a 360-degree turn. Not only was he not going to die, he was even going to be released? How could Sun Qian not be surprised? But Sun Qian still knew how to scheme. He knew that there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. "Don't tell me you want me to be a spy under my lord?!" Sun Qian looked at Liu Mang and Liu Bei with vigilance. Although he was very happy that he didn't have to die, he would not betray Liu Bei. "If that's what you think, then give up! Please kill me, Sun Qian, Sun Gongyou! "Sun Qian shook his head and said.
"Hehe." Liu Mang looked at Sun Qian again. Although his character and ability were not good, at least he was a person who was truly loyal to Liu Bei. He was much better than those who looked normal on the surface.
"Mr. Sun Qian, you worry too much! This Prince will not allow Mister Sun Qian to be a spy. This is an insult to this Prince and also an insult to Mister Sun Qian! This King does not have any conditions for Mr. Sun Qian. I just want to let you go. " Liu Mang was very generous. Originally, he captured Sun Qian to get the 20,000-shi of provisions. Now that the 20,000-shi of provisions was gone, Sun Qian was useless.
"Then I have to thank Your Highness, King Of Shu!" Sun Qian was skeptical. He cupped his fist and said to Liu Mang.
"However!" Liu Mang suddenly changed the topic. This made Sun Qian feel disdain. There were indeed conditions! "Is the King going back on his words? If that's the case, I, Sun Qian, will accept it. Kill me! "Sun Qian was now very strong-willed.
"Mr. Sun Qian, I said I wouldn't hurt you if I let you go, but now is not the time to let you go!" Liu Mang shook his head and said to Sun Qian with a smile, "If I let you go in front of everyone, will you still be able to go back to Runan and work for the Left General?"
"This!" Sun Qian thought about it carefully. That's right. If Liu Mang released Sun Qian openly, Sun Qian wouldn't be able to return to Liu Bei's side. After all, Sun Qian was a captive who wasn't injured at all. Who would believe him if he said that?
"So, I'm sorry, Mr. Sun Qian!" Liu Mang suddenly laughed. This strange smile made Sun Qian feel uneasy. Sure enough, Liu Mang shouted, "How dare you, Sun Qian! You dare to play tricks on me! You burned my 20,000-shi of provisions! Do you really think I don't dare to kill you?"
Sun Qian was not stupid. When he saw Liu Mang, his voice also changed. "Fake King, you want to get my lord's provisions? Dream on! I, Sun Qian, will not give them to you even if I die!" When it came to acting, there was no one in the Three Kingdoms who wasn't a good actor.
"Since you want to die, I'll fulfill your wish. Men, tie Sun Qian up and throw him into the sea of fire. I want him to be buried together with the 20,000-shi of provisions!" Liu Mang roared angrily. "Yes!" Several City Guard soldiers obeyed the order and tied Sun Qian up. One of them even whispered to Sun Qian, "Sir, this rope is loosely fastened. As long as you struggle hard, you will be able to break free. Later, we will also throw you into a large tank filled with water. The water inside will be enough for you to survive the fire. There are also several dozen days of rations in the water tank!" After saying that, they tied Sun Qian up and dragged him towards the fire.
"Fake King, Liu Mang, you despicable person, you hypocrite, you scum of the Han Dynasty!" Sun Qian cursed as he was thrown into a water tank. Sun Qian's voice gradually became softer as if he was being executed.
Seeing that the two City Guard soldiers had returned and the fire seemed to have gotten bigger, Liu Ye asked, "Milord, do you really want to send Sun Qian back? Although Sun Qian has not surrendered, Ye is confident that he can be persuaded! " Liu Mang cupped his fist towards Liu Mang. Sun Qian had the talent of a Prefectural Governor. Yangzhou had three prefectures, Shouchun, Hefei, and Anfeng. However, Liu Mang did not have three people who could govern a prefecture. Among Liu Mang's subordinates, only Xu Shu, Liu Mang, and Yang Hong were able to govern a prefecture. However, Xu Shu and Liu Mang needed him to help govern the entire Yangzhou. How could he let him govern a prefecture? That would be a waste of talent. What Liu Mang needed the most was for him to bring back the books that he had brought back. If his industrial zone had really taken shape, it would be many years ahead of the world. Now, the ballista and cement had already brought such changes to Liu Mang's army. If he were to develop gunpowder later on, he would be able to dominate the world. Yang Hong was in charge of intelligence gathering under Liu Mang and was also an indispensable person. Moreover, Yang Hong was the diplomat of the entire Lvbu's Army. His true talent was in making alliances. In Lujiang, he had cheated Sun Ce of Jiangdong and Liu Biao of Jingzhou of grain and money. It was because of those grain and money that Liu Mang's army was able to persist until now. If not for the grain and money from Jingzhou and Jiangdong, the millions of people would have eaten Liu Mang dry.
What about Huang Zhong?! It wasn't that he didn't want Huang Zhong to be the governor of a county, but Huang Zhong didn't want to. He was already dead set on going wherever Liu Mang went. As for Zhao Yun, Xu Sheng, and the others, they had to lead the army. It was impossible for them to change to civilian positions.
With Sun Qian, Liu Mang could relax in a county. In the future, Liu Mang's army would have a larger territory and would need more talents. However, Liu Mang just let Sun Qian go. Even if he didn't want to kill Sun Qian or persuade him to surrender, he should have at least kept Sun Qian to exchange for provisions with Liu Bei.
"Ziyang. These brainwashed people are the hardest to shake." Liu Ye did not know but Liu Mang knew how terrifying these brainwashed people were. They would even disregard their own lives. There were many such people in his previous life. There were men, women and even children. Now, Sun Qian was determined to follow Liu Bei. He was as loyal as a dog. No matter what Liu Bei did to him, he would not leave. Therefore, even if Sun Qian surrendered, Liu Mang would have to be wary of him. Rather than wasting time talking, it would be better to just let him go.
In the end, Liu Mang still let Sun Qian go. Keeping Sun Qian in his hands was at most a prefectural governor. Perhaps killing Sun Qian would make Liu Mang feel better, but Liu Mang wanted to make his enemy uncomfortable. Letting Sun Qian go, he wanted to use Liu Mang to kill Sun Qian. Sun Qian and Pang Tong would not let this matter rest! In addition to their previous disagreements, Sun Qian and Pang Tong basically had no room to maneuver. Either Pang Tong or Sun Qian would die. With Sun Qian restricting Pang Tong in Liu Bei's Army, many of Pang Tong's plans would be messed up or even backfired. After all, Sun Qian had connections in Liu Bei's Army. Although Pang Tong was intelligent, he had just joined Liu Bei's Army. If he had taken control of the situation, he would have gotten rid of Sun Qian himself instead of using Liu Mang.
Therefore, leaving Sun Qian and Pang Tong by Liu Bei's side to fight amongst themselves was definitely more meaningful than letting Liu Mang keep Sun Qian.
Now that Sun Qian's matter was settled, Liu Mang was worried about his army's rations. "Ziyang, how much rations do we have left?!"
"The army's rations are less than five thousand dan!" Liu Ye stepped forward and explained. As the military advisor of an army, other than being responsible for military planning, he was also responsible for the army's rations. Other than the general, the military advisor had the greatest responsibility.
"Less than five thousand dan? Didn't Ziyang obtain more than ten thousand dan of rations from Yingshang? Why are there only five thousand dan left?! "Although Liu Mang did not obtain any rations from Ruyin, he still obtained a lot from Yingshang and Anfengjin.
"Milord, when we were at Yingshang, didn't we already send ten thousand dan of rations to Yuanzhi at Shouchun?!" Liu Ye said while flipping through the account book in his hand.
"Aiya, I forgot!" Liu Mang rubbed his head. He really did not know how expensive food was until he was in charge of the household. Previously, the army's rations and provisions were all coordinated by his father-in-law, Lü Bu. He only had to accept it passively. But now, he had to dispatch it and the rations were simply not enough.
"Ziyang, how many days will it take for us to reach Runan?!" Liu Mang asked Liu Ye. Liu Ye had traveled through Yuzhou and was very familiar with the terrain. Therefore, many of Liu Ye's suggestions were accepted by Liu Mang.
"If we rush the army, it will take fifteen days. If we march normally, it will take more than a month!" Liu Mang calmly explained to Liu Mang.
"Fifteen days?!" Liu Mang frowned. Rushing the army would definitely not work. Because if the entire army rushed, how much fighting power would they have left by the time they reached Runan? If they were ambushed halfway, then they would not be able to move. Therefore, even if Liu Mang's Urban and Black Flag armies were elites, it would still take twenty days to reach Runan. Twenty days plus the siege, the one guarding Runan in Yuzhou was Liu Bei's second brother, Guan Yu. Moreover, Jian Yong was also in Guan Yu's army. These two people were not easy to deal with. There was a reason why Liu Mang took Shouchun in one day. First, Guan Yu wanted to preserve his strength. Second, Guan Yu had never seen a ballista before. Now that Runan was Liu Bei's lair, how could Guan Yu preserve his strength? He would definitely go all out. Runan was also a strategic town. When the time came, the siege would take more than half a month. Adding all of these together, it would take more than a month.
For more than a month, Liu Mang's provisions would not be enough. Moreover, Yangzhou was currently in a crisis. If Liu Mang could take Runan in more than a month, then it would be fine. If he could not take Runan, then Yangzhou would be lost. The Runan army would also be completely annihilated. That would be the end of everything!
Originally, they had provisions from Ruyin city to pay for a while. But now, Pang Tong had burned them all. This was equivalent to cutting off Liu Mang's hope of going north to attack Runan. This Pang Tong was indeed a phoenix chick. Not only did he kill with a borrowed knife, he also killed two birds with one stone. Fortunately, this time the one going to battle was him. If it was his father-in-law, then the real Sun Qian would have been beheaded.
"Let's return to the army!" Liu Mang rubbed his forehead. These days, for the sake of Yangzhou's situation, Liu Mang was really hurting his head. His conscription order was originally well-intentioned, but in the end, it turned out to be a bad thing. Now that the three armies were besieging Lü Bu, it was really a headache.
"Milord, are we going back to Shouchun?" Liu Ye frowned and asked.
"Why? Is there a problem? "Liu Mang asked. Now that the provisions were insufficient and Shouchun was in a state of emergency, where would they go to Shouchun? Could it be that they would go to Lujiang? Would they give up the whole of Yangzhou?
"We can't go to Shouchun!" Liu Mang directly rejected Liu Mang's idea.
"We can't go to Shouchun? Ziyang, what do you mean? " Liu Mang was not a headstrong person. Since Liu Ye said that they could not go to Shouchun, then naturally, there was a possibility that they could not go. Liu Mang needed to listen to Liu Ye's opinion and then make a decision based on his own thoughts.
"Milord, if you can go back to Shouchun along the Huai River, you can solve the crisis for a while. But what about after that? Milord, do you want to know why we attacked Yuzhou? "What reason could there be? Naturally, it was for provisions because there were more than a million mouths to feed in Shouchun. Although Liu Mang had a lot of fertile land, they were all abandoned.
"Milord, if you go to Shouchun, then Yangzhou will not be able to be defended and will have to be given up. You might even become a prisoner!" Liu Mang was not being an alarmist. It was the truth. If Liu Mang really went down the river to Shouchun, he could only temporarily solve the crisis and have the soldiers to defend the city. But what about after that? He would only be trapped in Shouchun with the army. What Shouchun lacked the most was provisions. Liu Mang's arrival would not only make it impossible for Shouchun to shoulder the burden, but also because of the 10,000 soldiers that came, Shouchun would suffer. If it was a field battle, then the result would be even worse. 20,000 Xiliang Cavalry, 5,000 City Guard, and 5,000 Black Flag Army would not be able to resist the enemy even if they were all wiped out. At that time, they would really be trapped to death.
Without provisions, not to mention the enemy, even the people in the city would rebel. After all, Liu Mang had previously said that he would provide the fertile land for the people to be responsible for the rations. The people came to Shouchun for a way to survive. But now that there was no way to survive, as long as Liu Bei's Army was outside the city, Shouchun would be broken. No matter how strong the 10,000 soldiers were, they were nothing in front of millions of people.
"But if we don't go to Shouchun, where should we go?" Liu Mang was really confused. Now that they could not attack Runan and they could not go to Shouchun, could they just let Liu Mang's Army stagnate? What was the difference between this and waiting for death? Now, the reinforcements from Lujiang had not arrived.
"Milord, let's go back to Yangzhou!" Liu Mang said to Liu Mang. This made Liu Mang even more confused. Didn't he want to go back to Yangzhou? What was this Liu Ye trying to do?
"We will not go to Yangzhou. Instead, we will take a detour from Anfengjin to Huai River and go upstream to Yiyang Pingchun!" Liu Mang took out a map and pointed at a few points on the map. Yiyang Pingchun happened to be at the edge of Huai River. The army's provisions would have to pass through here.
"Ziyang, what do you mean?" Liu Mang gradually began to understand.
"Milord, Liu Bei was able to enter Yangzhou because of his army! His quick attack had caused the people of Yangzhou to panic. Now, other than Shouchun and Lujiang County in our hands, the other cities in Yangzhou had either been captured or had surrendered at the sight of the wind! However, Liu Bei also left a big flaw! Where does he get his provisions from? " Liu Ye nodded and pointed at Runan. "It came from Runan. The first batch of provisions must have followed the army. But what about the second and third batches?" It must be known that Yangzhou did not have any provisions and could not even protect itself. Normally, when attacking a city, Liu Mang was using the battle to support the battle. After capturing a city, there would naturally be provisions. But now, Yangzhou was so poor that they could barely eat. How could they have extra provisions for Liu Bei's Army? When Liu Bei captured a city, other than receiving the soldiers inside, he could not get anything else. Naturally, the army's provisions would have to be transported from the rear. Moreover, Liu Bei was not only using his own provisions, he was also very generous with Zhang Xiu's provisions. Therefore, the consumption of provisions must be large. And now that Liu Bei had already entered Yangzhong's Mansion, the battle line was very long. His supply line must also be very long. This gave Liu Mang an opportunity!
"We are at Yiyang and Pingchun to intercept his provisions!" Liu Ye finally said. "As long as we capture Yiyang or Pingchun, we can use the city to wreak havoc and harass Liu Bei's provisions. If Liu Bei does not send an army, then we will directly swallow his provisions and let his army starve to death in Yangzhou. If he sends an army to protect the provisions, it will be impossible to stop us without at least 20,000 soldiers. If they send too little, we can just swallow them. If they send too much, we can also reduce the pressure on Yuanzhi's Shouchun. We can even send the provisions back to Shouchun by water." Liu Mang did not finish his words, but Liu Mang knew that when the time came, it would depend on who could hold on. If Shouchun could hold on until Lü Bu's reinforcements arrived and Liu Bei's provisions were used up, then Liu Mang would win and Liu Bei's army would collapse. If Liu Bei took Shouchun before the provisions were used up, Liu Bei would win and Liu Mang would cause the Lvbu's Army to completely disappear from the stage of history because of this defeat.
But Liu Mang did not have a choice! Liu Mang stood up. "Ziyang, let's fight it out!" Liu Ye also nodded heavily. Liu Mang directly pulled Liu Ye's hand.
"If we win, there will be no one in the Central Plains who can match us. If we lose, the Lvbu's Army will disappear from the stage! "
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