Chapter 227: Lord Yuan Shu: I borrowed this money based on my own ability, why should I pay it back

After finishing these tasks, Su Xuan looked at Sun Sun Jian and said, "Brother Wentai, you had better go deal with your injuries and pacify your troops first!"

"Although I cannot release you all just yet, I will not mistreat you either."

"Just wait quietly for Lord Yuan Shu's reply and arrival."

He believed Lord Yuan Shu would make the correct choice.

If Lord Yuan Shu truly refused to provide compensation and chose to abandon Sun Sun Jian, Ji Ling, and the army of over 30, 00, his reputation would be ruined.

By then, who would dare to risk their lives for him?

Moreover, having abandoned these troops, he would be unable to scrape together enough forces in the short term to participate in the upcoming campaign against Dong Zhuo and achieve any significant results.

At the same time, Su Xuan could take advantage of the situation to seize the entirety of Nanyang.

After all, it was Lord Yuan Shu who sent troops to attack him first.

Even if the Lord Yuan clan is powerful, they should not think they can truly turn black into white.

"Then many thanks, Brother Su Boyuan! Farewell!"

Sun Sun Jian nodded gratefully upon hearing this and immediately turned to leave.

Su Xuan immediately ordered Zhang He, Xu Chu, and the others to help accept the surrender of the enemy soldiers and to confiscate their grain, military supplies, and even their weapons and armor.

"My Lord!"

At this moment, Old Dian Wei and Huang Zhong arrived and paid their respects to Su Xuan.

"Hmm!"

Su Xuan waved his hand and said, "No need for formalities! You all did very well this time!"

"What is the casualty situation among the soldiers in the city?"

Huang Zhong immediately replied, "I haven't had time to fully count the specifics, but I took a rough look; the casualties are not high."

"There shouldn't be any actual deaths, and as for injuries, there are no more than a hundred. After all, they have been cultivating for so many years, and even the weakest among them is at the middle stage of Mingjin."

"Of course, it might also be because the enemy's siege time was too short! It didn't even add up to two quarter-hours before you, my Lord, arrived!"

"Then, Ji Ling panicked and ordered the siege army to withdraw to deal with you, my Lord."

"Clearly, his command was a failure; he completely failed to consider that you might come to reinforce us."

"In the end, he is still too green and lacks combat experience!"

"If the battle had lasted longer, given the several-fold difference in troop numbers, they might have been able to wear a few of us down! Haha!"

But for Su Xuan's army, this was a good thing.

The only downside was that because of Su Xuan's appearance, this battle ended abruptly, resulting in them not earning much merit.

Instead, it was the soldiers of the Personal Guard Battalion and the Brave Cavalry Battalion who earned quite a bit of merit.

"Indeed!"

Su Xuan nodded affirmatively: "This Ji Ling should be a family general secretly cultivated by the Lord Yuan clan; his ability and strength are actually quite decent."

"But as you said, his experience is clearly severely lacking."

"The enemy army is actually the same!"

"However, as time goes on, the troops under each warlord will only become more elite. Remember this, and do not become complacent."

"I imagine you saw it today; that Ji Ling clearly hadn't reached the level of forcibly controlling military formation techniques, yet he still easily formed a 2, 00-man formation."

"And the strength was not weak!"

"If it hadn't been for me bringing the 800-man Personal Guard Battalion and the 3, 00-man Brave Cavalry Battalion to form a formation today, it truly would have been impossible to defeat him so easily."

"What does this indicate?"

Upon hearing this, before Su Xuan could continue, Huang Zhong's pupils shrank sharply: "My Lord, are you saying that Ji Ling... no! That the Lord Yuan clan possesses a very complete set of military formation techniques?"

"Is that how Ji Ling, who lacks combat experience and whose soldiers also lack combat experience and are not elite enough, was able to form such a large formation?"

"Correct!"

Su Xuan nodded affirmatively: "It must be so! The Lord Yuan clan has served as the Three Ducal Ministers for four generations and has been secretly plotting to replace the Han. It would be strange if they did not have complete military formation techniques in their hands!"

"Perhaps their trump cards go even further than that."

"New trump cards may appear in the future."

"For a top-tier noble clan with a heritage spanning hundreds of years, heaven knows what trump cards they have accumulated over the past."

"Therefore, one must never be careless when engaging with these top-tier noble warlords!"

It was not just the Lord Yuan clan; Su Xuan believed that the Hongnong Yang clan, the Henei Military Sima clan, the Taiyuan Wang clan, and others all held many unknown trump cards.

Even the Yingchuan Xun clan, where his father-in-law belonged, likely had many trump cards.

Xun Shuang had never mentioned this, but he had warned Su Xuan not to underestimate those great noble clans with long histories.

Otherwise, he would suffer.

That was all there was to it.

"So that's how it is!"

Huang Zhong and Old Dian Wei both nodded with solemn expressions: "It seems we truly underestimated them in the past!"

These noble clans were indeed not to be looked down upon!

"It's fine! It's not too late now!"

Su Xuan smiled slightly: "I will have the Secret Guards pass this message to every officer under my command later, so they can keep it in mind."

One must never be careless.

Half a day later,

A horseman rode non-stop from Xinye at top speed to Wancheng, met with Lord Yuan Shu, and handed Ji Ling's letter to him.

Before Lord Yuan Shu even read the letter, just seeing that the messenger lacked armor and weapons and looked utterly disheveled, he knew things were likely not good.

He immediately opened the letter to read it.

Dozens of seconds later,

"Trash! Trash! Ji Ling, you piece of trash!"

"How could you lose so easily, and even surrender directly?"

"Why don't you just go die? How do you have the face to send a letter asking to redeem your army?"

Lord Yuan Shu was so angry he exploded, roaring like a grave.

He had imagined many outcomes, but he never expected it to turn out like this.

An army of 30, 00! Plus Sun Sun Jian's 20, 00, that was 50, 00 troops.

Even if they were 50, 00 pigs, it would take more than this amount of time to catch them, right?

From the start of the battle to the defeat and surrender, they had lasted less than an hour.

He was so angry he laughed.

"And that dog Sun Sun Jian, he actually dared to disobey orders and refused to fight? What does he want to do?"

Lord Yuan Shu was clearly also very dissatisfied with Sun Sun Jian's actions.

"My Lord!"

At this moment, Yan Xiang walked in quickly, bowed, and asked: "I heard a battle report came from Xinye? What was the outcome?"

"Heh! Outcome?"

Lord Yuan Shu laughed in anger: "There was only battle, no outcome! 'Crushing defeat' isn't even enough to describe it this time!"

"I can already imagine how the warlords of the world will mock me later!"

"Here... there is no battle report, but there is a plea for help. Take a look! It will definitely open your eyes, heh!"

Saying this, Lord Yuan Shu sneered and handed the intelligence in his hand to Yan Xiang.

Yan Xiang took the letter with some confusion and read it through quickly.

Upon reading it, he was completely stunned.

"What the hell is this? How exactly were Ji Ling and Sun Sun Jian fighting?"

"Are they just too useless, or is Su Xuan really that strong?"

"How could they lose so farcically?"

Yan Xiang couldn't help but complain in astonishment.

He really couldn't help but complain.

He simply couldn't accept this result!

Were Ji Ling and Sun Sun Jian actually actors by trade?

Were they just putting on a show?

"Heh!"

Lord Yuan Shu sneered: "Right? Otherwise, why would I be so angry and speechless?"

"Tell me, should I redeem these people? And should I still go to Xinye to negotiate with Su Xuan?"

Lord Yuan Shu really didn't want to go.

"We must redeem the people, including Sun Sun Jian and his subordinates; they must all be redeemed."