Just when Li Su thought that this wave of crazy advancement had encountered a bottleneck again, the troops were blocked by Zhou Yu and Cao Cao's coalition forces who reorganized effective resistance near Ankou (Anqing).

He never expected that Gan Ning, who had been sent by him to the enemy's backbone, pretended to surround Wei to save Zhao, completed the task better than he expected, and gave him a little surprise during the closing stage.

Li Su cleared three counties in Jiangxi on the sixth day of the second month. Four days later, on the tenth day of the second month, Gan Ning, which had been missing for a month and a half, suddenly sent people to cross the Huangshan Mountains on the border of Zhejiang and Jiangxi in later generations, and passed through the mountainous areas ravaged by the Shanyue tribes, and reported to the court the latest progress he made in the southern part of Kuaiji County.

Because Li Su himself was still in Xiakou, and the commanders of the Wankou front were Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci, the envoy from Gan Ning was escorted upstream along the Yangtze River. He only saw Li Su on February 15th to report the results of the battle.

Li Su was also quite pleased when he heard the news. He asked someone to take a map to check it out and asked in detail about the situation in the southern part of Kuaiji County, Ganning, and Danyang County She County, which was in the Huangshan Mountains.

The process was nothing outstanding. It turned out that Gan Ning had been frightened by Zhou Yu, heading south from the estuary of the Yangtze River, and then passing through the estuary of Zhejiang, and became a pirate along the coast for more than half a month.

Li Su originally gave him the order to pay attention to the speed of material consumption. If there is not enough material and cannot get supplies, then it is a good day. Go south from the southern coast of Zhejiang and pass through the coast of Fujian. As long as you arrive at Jieyang County (now Chaoshan area), the northeastern coast of Nanhai County, you can get supplies from the territory of the Jiaozhou governor.

However, Gan Ning has always been a bit ambitious. He found that he stayed on the southern coast of Kuaiji County and snatched some food and vegetables every few days, which was not difficult.

If you break through the coastal fishing villages and towns in Linhai County, you can also find mountain and mountain people hunting and selling wild animals in the city to fight for the teeth. If you really can't meet a mountain and mountain caravan to sell mountain delicacies, you can also occupy an island outside Linhai County and fight sea fish to supplement your meat (equivalent to the coastal islands of Taizhou in later generations, Ningbo Xiangshan).

As a result, Gan Ning waited for good news during the harassment behind enemy lines. One day, he landed in Linhai to grab things and found that even the county town was in chaos. Many defenders fled, and Shanyue was ready to move. He simply broke the small county and arrested the county magistrate and asked about the situation. Only then did he know that Sun Ce was dead and even the news spread throughout Kuaiji.

In this case, Gan Ning tried to persuade the county magistrates of several local counties, and even the chiefs of the Shanyue tribe, to be respected by Liu Bei as the first emperor. Unexpectedly, it was settled soon, and it was difficult for Gan Ning to imagine that it was successful.

Later, when I asked, on the one hand, Sun Ce died, the local Shanyue people were dissatisfied with it. Now that I have the chance, even if I just change my master in name, it is better than nothing.

Anyway, Liu Bei is farther away and is beyond reach. Liu Bei doesn't need to often capture Shanyue people to enrich the taxpayer of Kuaiji County. As long as the Shanyue chiefs allegedly admit Liu Bei, they would certainly admit it.

The reason why those civil officials appointed by the court and Han people who were not Shanyue also tended to obey Liu Bei was because of other factors: First of all, there were several counties in the southern part of Kuaiji, and some were old officials left by Wang Lang, the prefect of Kuaiji three years ago.

Wang Lang's last official position before his death was the governor of Jiaozhou. Although Wang Lang was sent by Liu Xie to Liu Bei to mix sand in Jiaozhou, he did not completely surrender to Liu Bei. However, after Gan Ning found out about the situation, he would naturally play Wang Lang's card, indicating that "Whether Wang Lang's old officials abandoned the secret and surrendered to the Ming court, he was given priority to promotion."

Therefore, the officials of various counties who had worked with Wang Lang surrendered one after another. The same is true when Zhao Yun arrived in Luling County, those small officials who were former officials of Zhuge Xuan's family before last year also surrendered one after another.

As for why the people and gentry were happy to surrender to Liu Bei, this is not to say that they had changed their minds and actually "liked the imperial court that implemented the imperial examination system". The small group of powerful families in the southern part of Kuaiji County were not that stupid.

They were purely because the last battle when Sun Ce pacified Wang Lang was "the East was slaughtered, the Wang Lang was slaughtered, and the Kuaiji was pacified" (this point has not been modified. According to the original historical process, the only black spot in Sun Ce's massacre of the city written in "The Three Kingdoms" is here. Sun Ce did not massacre other places, so it should be a temporary measure)

The reason why Tu Dongzhi was the reason that the last battle against Wang Lang was to cross the sea. Sun Ce did not bring enough food, and he was afraid that if he could not fight quickly, he would be dragged down by Wang Lang, so he had to establish his authority in an instant.

But no matter what, the sequelae of Tu Dong's reign has now erupted. While officials missed Wang Lang's surrender, the powerful people of the folk family also followed suit to Liu Bei, and the vast mountainous areas south of Kuaiji County were completely lost.

Li Su finally took the map and looked at it. It was equivalent to extending westward from the Poyang County Poshui (Le'an River, a tributary of the Ganjiang River in Jiangxi Province in the Huangshan Mountains), extending westward through Pogu, connecting to Danyang She County at the source of Jianshui (Xin'an River in the upper reaches of Zhejiang), and Kuaiji Shixin County.

Then we pass through Jiande County (now Jiande), Wushang County (Yiwu, Jinhua), Linhai County (Taizhou), and all the way to the seaside.

As for Quzhou, which is equivalent to the two prefecture-level cities in southern Zhejiang in later generations, Lishui and even the entire Fujian Province in later generations, this large and semi-developed Shanyue area was of course swept by Gan Ning. Although there are still some tribes in the deep mountains that have not been formally incorporated, they have basically changed their flags.

The land on the south bank of the Yangtze River was actually just the point downstream of Anqing, Anhui and Wuhu in later generations. In addition, the Jiangnan part of Jiangsu Province, as well as the north of the Shaoxing (Kuaiji, Shanyin) and Ningbo (Juzhang, Yinxian) in Zhejiang, all the others were lost.

...

Sun Quan's situation was so precarious, but he could win over Cao Cao to take his fire and invest heavily in Lujiang County, the north bank of the Yangtze River to defend Ankou. This was obviously not costless.

The weaker Sun Quan's situation was, the more dignity he had to pay for asking Cao Cao for help.

On February 16th, Gan Ning's messenger went to Xiakou to report the results of the battle to Li Su. On the day after he reported the results of the war, Huainan County north of the Yangtze River, the last solid lonely city in Shouchun.

You read that right, it is Shouchun.

Shouchun is the intersection of some tributaries communicating with the Yangtze River to the south. It is already low-lying and easy to defend and difficult to attack, so it is not surprising that it lasts for half a year.

In history, there were frequent cases of separatist regimes in which the North and South confronted each other. After the Northern Army reached the vicinity of Shouchun/Shouzhou, the war was held for several years. For example, the Later Zhou and Southern Tang fought in Shouzhou for many years, and later the Song and Jin Dynasties were ruled.

Most of the players who have played "Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11" are very unforgettable to the terrain design of Shouchun in the game.

In the game, there is a depression outside Shouchun City. The embankment of water conservancy artificial lakes such as Shaopi is set to be attacked by the troops. After the durability is returned to zero, the dam will be broken and released. At that time, no matter how many troops from the siege outside Shouchun City are directly judged to be killed in seconds.

(The historical battle in the game "Battle of Hefei" also implies that players use this setting to defeat Sun Quan, because there is no "Hefei" city in the game, and Shouchun is used instead of Hefei)

Cao Cao has now begun to surround Shouchun in September since the Mid-Autumn Festival last year. Under Yuan Shu's last "live day is one day" to defend, he has really survived the difficult winter of siege. Now that February is in full bloom, and Cao Cao has received news of the incident in the south, he wants to puppet Sun Quan, so he is naturally even more reluctant to drag on Yuan Shu.

Cao Cao first sent Cao Ren, Xiahou Dun, Li Dian, and Yu Jin to lead 60,000 troops. He first stationed south of Wan County, Lujiang County, to help Sun Quan assist in defense and negotiate conditions slowly. On the other hand, the Qingzhou soldiers did not care about casualties and did chores, which made Yuan Shu's last tone expel.

On February 16th, Yuan Shu finally ushered in the last day of his life.

Yuan Shu had actually expected death. After all, he was waiting to die in an lonely city this winter. Even though he was still the title of a fake emperor, the extravagant materials in the city had long been used up. If he allowed him to live, his living conditions would only get worse and worse. Maybe he would not even be able to maintain his dignity when he died.

The last time Yuan Shu drank his favorite "honey milk tea" in recent years was during the Chinese New Year and the Spring Festival. Later, because the milk tea imported from Yizhou was finished, he could only drink honey water, but at least it was more decent than in history.

At this moment, he seemed to hear the sound of siege outside the north gate of the city, which had already been heard in his pseudo-palace. He was very surprised - why did Cao Cao suddenly attack without regard for casualties at this time? He fought a little slower, and in a month, he would definitely be able to take it down and kill thousands of people less.

Fortunately, his prime minister Yang Hong answered this question for him.

At lunch, Yang Hong entered the palace with a complicated expression and reported to Yuan Shu who was using the last lunch:

"Your Majesty! Cao Cao suddenly attacked at all costs in the past few days. The troops guarding the city repelled a wave of enemy soldiers yesterday and captured several survivors who had no time to jump over the wall. Among them, the highest military rank was the Sima.

The man confessed that there was a major change in Jiangdong. Sun Ce and Li Su fought for several months. Last month, Li Su had just wiped out the main force. Now that his younger brother Sun Quan takes over, he can only curl up in Jiangbei and Wuhui. Everything else is lost. Sun Quan is asking to be a vassal to Cao Cao."

Yuan Shu's eyes, which had no spirit or expression since the Lantern Festival, suddenly flashed a few times, which was a kind of self-mockery relief: "Sun Ce? Sun Ce was actually dead? Still dead before me, who was waiting for death? Haha, haha, God's will is really hard to predict.

Half a year ago, Sun Ce was still attacking my Hefei, Shaobi, Chaohu, and seized half of the land in Huainan County. Now he is dead. He robbed those, and his brother wants to return them to Cao Cao?! Sun Ce, Sun Ce, and Sun Jian, what did you get in the end when you betray me?

Hahaha, it would be a pleasure for me to die after Sun Ce. However, there is nothing to be happy about. Looking back at the time, I always sighed that it would be great if my son had such a promising prospect from Sun Ce, alas."

Yuan Shu smiled for a while and was a little ill. That night, the Qingzhou soldiers under Cao Cao's command indeed attacked Shouchun City. Yuan Shu had set up the last supper in the palace city, but he had no appetite to eat too much. He just drank a glass of honey water, then threw a torch and burned his bedroom.

Yuan Shu ordered the palace servants not to put out the fire, and set fires everywhere in the pseudo-palace of Shouchun. He himself dressed neatly, put on the twelve crowns, and lay on the imperial throne. After being burned by the flames, he was not resistant to the pain of fire burning, and finally committed suicide first, and he didn't know the pain.

That night, Cao Cao personally entered the city, inspected Yuan Shu's body, and found Yuan Shu's body not far from the body. He snatched the imperial seal from Liu Xie, confirming that the person who died must be Yuan Shu himself.

The imperial seal was covered with a layer of black and gray, but the specific heat capacity of Hotan nephrite was extremely large, and it was still not burned by another fire.

Cao Cao wiped the jade seal clean and hid it, and led his troops to rob the sacrificed soldiers who were siegeing the city. Then he was ready to ask Sun Quan to go to Shouchun or Hefei in person to be a puppet.
Chapter completed!