Chapter 354

If Yuan Shu were truly unwilling to provide compensation and chose to abandon Sun Jian, Ji Ling, and his army of over 30,000, his reputation would be ruined thereafter.

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 subsequent campaign against Dong Zhuo and achieve sufficient results.

At the same time, Su Xuan could take advantage of the momentum to seize all of Nanyang.

After all, it was you, Yuan Shu, who sent troops to attack me first.

Even if your Yuan clan is powerful, don't think you can truly turn black into white.

"Then many thanks, Brother Boyuan! Farewell!"

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

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

"My Lord!"

At this moment, Dian Wei and Huang Zhong hurried over to pay 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 of 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, and the casualties are not high;"

"There should be no actual deaths, and as for injuries, they won't exceed a hundred people. After all, they have been cultivating for so many years, and even the worst have reached the mid-stage of the Anjin Realm."

"Of course, it could also be that the enemy's siege time was too short! It didn't even add up to two quarters of an hour before you, My Lord, had already arrived!"

"Then, Ji Ling panicked and had the siege army withdraw to deal with you, My Lord;"

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

"He is still too green after all, lacking combat experience!"

"If the time had been longer, with a several-fold difference in troop numbers, they might have been able to wear a few people to death, who knows! Haha!"

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

The only downside was that this battle became anticlimactic due to Su Xuan's appearance, 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 house general secretly cultivated by the 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 passes in the future, the troops under the various warlords will only become more elite. Remember this, do not become complacent."

"I imagine you saw today that Ji Ling clearly hadn't reached the point of forcibly controlling military formation techniques, yet he still easily formed a military formation of 2,000 men;"

"And the strength wasn't weak!"

"If it weren't for the fact that he ran into me leading a military formation composed of 800 Personal Guards and 3,000 Brave Cavalry today, it would truly have been impossible to defeat him so easily."

"What does this indicate?"

Huang Zhong heard this, and before Su Xuan could continue, his pupils constricted sharply: "My Lord, are you saying that Ji Ling... no! That the Yuan clan holds a very complete military formation technique;"

"That is the only way someone like Ji Ling, who lacks combat experience and whose soldiers in the formation also lack combat experience and aren't elite enough, could form such a large military formation?"

"Correct!"

Su Xuan nodded affirmatively: "It must be so! The Yuan clan has served as the Three Excellencies for four generations and has been secretly plotting to replace the Han. I would find it strange if they didn't have a complete military formation technique!"

"Perhaps their trump cards go even further;"

"New trump cards might appear in the future;"

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

"Therefore, when engaging with these top-tier noble warlords, one must absolutely not be careless!"

It is not just the Yuan clan; Su Xuan believes that the Hongnong Yang clan, the Henei Sima clan, the Taiyuan Wang clan, and others—many top-tier noble clans—all possess many unknown trump cards.

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

Xun Shuang had not mentioned this, but he had warned Su Xuan not to underestimate those great noble clans with long-standing heritages.

Otherwise, he would suffer.

That is all there is to it.

"So that's how it is!"

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

These noble clans really cannot be looked down upon!

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

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

One must absolutely not be careless.

Half a day later,

A rider on a flying horse traveled non-stop from Xinye at top speed to Wancheng, met Yuan Shu, and handed Ji Ling's letter to him.

Yuan Shu hadn't even read the letter yet; just seeing that this messenger didn't even have armor or weapons and looked extremely disheveled, he knew things were likely not good.

He immediately opened the letter to look.

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? You still have the nerve to send a letter asking to ransom your army?"

Yuan Shu was absolutely furious, roaring like a grave.

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

An army of 30,000! Plus Sun Jian's 20,000, that's an army of 50,000.

Even if they were 50,000 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 actually lasted less than an hour.

He was so angry he laughed.

"And that dog Sun Jian, he actually dared to defy orders, actually dared not to fight? What does he want?"

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

"My Lord!"

At this time, Yan Xiang walked in quickly, cupped his hands, and asked, "I heard there was a battle report from Xinye? What was the result?"

"Hehe! Result?"

Yuan Shu heard this and laughed in anger: "There was only battle, no result! '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 absolutely open your eyes, hehe!"

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

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

Upon reading it, he was completely stunned.

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

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

"How could they lose so childishly?"

Yan Xiang couldn't help but complain in astonishment.

There was really no way not to complain.

He completely could not accept this result!

Were Ji Ling and Sun Jian actually actors by trade?

Are they putting on a play here?

"Hehe!"

Yuan Shu heard this and also mocked: "Right? Otherwise, why would I be so angry and speechless?"

"Tell me, should I ransom these people? And do I still need to go to Xinye to negotiate peace with Su Xuan?"

Yuan Shu really didn't want to go.

"You must ransom the people, including Sun Jian and his subordinates, all must be ransomed back;" ===== CHAPTER 356 =====