Outside Tiger Cage Pass, in the isolated city.
Sun Jian's 10,000 foot soldiers were still defending this place.
Several generals surrounded Sun Jian, their expressions cold.
"My lord, we ran out of food yesterday. Today, we sent half of our soldiers out to hunt and dig wild vegetables to satisfy our hunger! " It's winter now, and the food that can be found in the wild is too little. If this continues, we'll collapse without fighting in less than three days.”Cheng Pu was the steadiest. When he said this, the others immediately nodded.
Huang Gai looked worried." My lord, we have formed an alliance with Yuan Shu. He will be in the back, and we will be in the front. He will be the leader, and we will be the second. In the end, he still can't allocate the rations on time. If you ask me, we might as well do it ourselves!"”
Han Dang immediately became excited." My Lord, why don't we attack Yingchuan and plunder Yangdi? Perhaps we can not only obtain a large amount of rations, but also recruit some soldiers to replenish our forces!"”
Zu Mao's eyes flashed, but he raised a different opinion,""If you ask me, when we raided Jingzhou and Nanyang, we were already left with evidence. Yingchuan is a land of outstanding people and many important figures live there. If we plunder there, we will probably become the public enemy of the dukes. In the end, we will probably be punished like Dong Zhuo! In my opinion, it's the same no matter where we go. We might as well break through Tiger Cage Pass and go in to rob that old bastard Dong Zhuo. That way, we can make the dukes look at us in a new light. Perhaps, we can even completely get rid of Yuan Shu's control from now on, or even turn him into our minion!”
Sun Jian's eyes lit up when he heard that.
However, breaking through the Si River was much more difficult than plundering Yingchuan. Not only was Tiger Cage Pass heavily guarded, but it was also blocked by a pass. If they wanted to break through this pass, they had to work together and have some clouds. Otherwise, they would definitely be beaten up.
"Zu Mao's words are to my liking! We've already offended Jingzhou and Nanyang. If we offend the wealthy families of Yingchuan as well, I'm afraid we won't have a place to stand in the future! However, it won't be that easy to break through Tiger Cage Pass. Do you all dare to kill with me?”
"I dare!" Everyone immediately shouted.”
However, Cheng Pu immediately tried to dissuade him." My lord, we dare to follow you and charge in. However, there are 30,000 soldiers at Tiger Cage Pass. We have few soldiers and no food. Isn't this too rash?"”
Sun Jian waved his hand." If we don't break through the pass soon, we'll be starving. We must take Tiger Cage Pass tonight!"”
Zu Mao immediately agreed. In any case, if they couldn't take it down, these subordinates would disband in two or three days. It was better to take a gamble now!”
Not long after, Sun Jian and these generals started discussing. In the middle of the night, with Zu Mao as the vanguard, they quietly arrived at Tiger Cage Pass, planning to launch a sneak attack.
Hwa Xiong was still the general of the city wall. Although he was savage and ignorant, he was still very proficient in fighting.
The garrison was closed in the middle of the night. Hwa Xiong had arranged five teams to patrol the area. When Sun Jian's infantry arrived, the garrison quickly discovered the situation.
"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"
The guards on top immediately shouted, and soon, waves of soldiers came over.
This pass was dangerous and there were only a few dozen people who could attack directly. Sun Jian's ten thousand soldiers immediately became live targets!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A rain of arrows rained down, and Sun Jian's soldiers fell to the ground.
Cheng Pu raised his saber to block, but the arrows were concentrated at the top of the pass, and there was little room for maneuver below. It was difficult to guard against them. In just a few moments, his arms and legs were hit by the arrows. Some brushed past him and were only superficial wounds, while some pierced into his bones and muscles. The pain was unbearable, and blood flowed non-stop.
"Retreat! Retreat quickly! I can't go up!"
Cheng Pu shouted a few times and took the lead to retreat. The surrounding soldiers were originally only afraid of Sun Jian's ruthlessness and were still struggling bitterly. Now that they saw Cheng Pu retreat, they were instantly overjoyed and followed Cheng Pu to escape!
Sun Jian had the intention to berate him, but even with his martial arts skills, he felt that it was strenuous. Seeing that half of the people had left, he knew that he had lost tonight, so he could only leave the scene dejectedly.
At first, Hua Xiong wanted to send cavalry to attack Sun Jian, but Jia Xu's eyes flashed. He was afraid that he would be ambushed, so he persuaded Hua Xiong to give up the idea of chasing him.
Sun Jian led the defeated soldiers back to the city. After counting the troops, he found that more than half of them had been lost. He also heard that less than a thousand had died at the pass, and the rest had become deserters in the dark.
Thus, Sun Jian was dissatisfied and glanced at Cheng Pu from time to time, almost wanting to kill him.
However, at this moment, he realized that Zu Mao, who had led the charge, had yet to return.
"Where's Zu Mao? Where is Zu Mao?" Sun Jian could not help but ask loudly.
Cheng Pu sighed." Before I left, I saw him get shot in the head by the water. He fell down and never got up again. That's why we retreated."”
The generals immediately revealed sorrowful expressions. They all felt the same way about Zu Mao's death.
As they were talking, the soldiers outside started to make a ruckus.
Sun Jian led everyone out to take a look and saw a few soldiers carrying a general with great effort.
The general was covered in blood and his face was covered in arrows. It made one's scalp go numb.
"General, we carried you back!”
The soldier carrying the corpse and the soldiers protecting it cried out in grief as they carried the corpse in front of Sun Jian.
That person's face and armor were stained with blood, so he could not be recognized at all. The weapon in his hand was also missing, so it was difficult to tell who it was.
However, everyone could faintly feel that this was Zu Mao.
"General Sun! We carried Zu Mao back! We are all from the same hometown. When we came out, there were a total of thirty people. In tonight's battle, only the five of us returned from the 30 villagers. Zu Mao is also dead! General, avenge us!"
"General, avenge us!"
The surrounding soldiers knelt down one by one, and many of them shouted that they wanted to charge into the Si River again!
Sun Jian's face was ashen, and his eyes were filled with grief and anger.
If not for the lack of rations, why would they take the risk to attack today?
If he hadn't attacked rashly, Zu Mao wouldn't have died at the pass!
The root of all this was Yuan Shu!
"Everyone, go and rest. Zu Mao will not die in vain today! I, Sun Jian, will definitely give you an explanation!”
The surrounding soldiers went to bury Zu Mao in the dark, and Sun Jian led the generals back. At this moment, the atmosphere in the room was even more solemn.
Sun Jian was silent for a long time. After thinking for a long time, he finally sighed."I underestimated the enemy, I was too impatient! If I could endure a little longer, I wouldn't have suffered today's defeat!”
None of the generals spoke. However, everyone knew that the reason for tonight's defeat was due to the lack of food. However, Sun Jian could not absolve himself of the blame!
Sun Jian saw that everyone's expressions were not right and knew that there was no point in staying here, so he immediately made a decision."Pass on my order. The army will retreat at night and follow me back to the camp. I want to question Yuan Shu face to face!”
……
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