Chapter 611

Once Liu Bei's side exerted their strength,

the entire defensive line seemed to explode with a bang and disintegrated directly!

The rear-guard soldiers saw the situation was bad and turned around to run for their lives.

The clever soldiers also began to scatter in all directions!

Very quickly,

Sun Quan's entire army was routed for a thousand miles!

Liu Bei's soldiers chased and killed while shouting,

"Drop your weapons!"

"Kneel and you won't be killed!"

The desperate soldiers threw down their weapons one after another and knelt to beg for mercy.

Liu Bei's reputation for benevolence and righteousness was known throughout the world; these soldiers were not worried about being killed after surrendering. Rather than turning around and running, not knowing if they would live or die, it was better to eat prison food for a few days.

The incident last time when Chen Wu's nearly ten thousand men were released had spread throughout Jiangdong, and Liu Bei even gave them grain and fodder. This was too rare, and everyone remembered it.

Liu Bei had his soldiers round up the surrendered troops while he led men to continue chasing Sun Quan.

It would be best if he could kill Sun Quan,

but if he didn't catch him, he could still crush him completely in one battle!

Over there, Yue Jin really couldn't hold it in anymore and cursed out loud,

"Trash, Sun Quan is just trash!"

This battle was fought too miserably; it was clear that their side was not at a disadvantage, yet they were inexplicably defeated by Liu Bei's direct strike at the commander.

Yue Jin sighed with emotion,

"If my lord were here, he wouldn't have let Liu Bei win so easily! Brat Sun Quan is not worth plotting with!"

He ordered several thousand men to cover the retreat while he led the rest to withdraw. This battle was already lost; bringing these soldiers back to Shouchun was the most critical thing.

Liu Bei did not have many troops and did not pay much attention to Yue Jin's force. Seeing them retreat, he did not block them too much.

Wei Yan led troops to start chasing Sun Quan's routed soldiers. This time, the goal was to crush Sun Quan; killing a few thousand more of Yue Jin's troops was irrelevant to the overall situation.

Routed soldiers were everywhere across the mountains and plains, and everyone was running for their lives, not daring to stop at all.

On the walls of Wancheng,

Li Shu was dumbfounded. Sun Quan, who had been showing off his power just before, had actually been defeated by Liu Bei in a single battle.

"This defeat happened too fast!"

He had previously worried that Liu Bei only had twenty-five thousand men and might not be able to stop the eighty-thousand-strong Cao-Sun army, but now it seemed that worry was somewhat redundant.

"Xuande is actually this valiant and good at fighting!"

Li Shu hadn't had any personal experience of Sun Ce being defeated by Liu Bei several times before, but now he truly admired him from the heart.

"Quick, open the city gates and follow me to pursue Sun Quan with Xuande!"

"Yes!"

The pursuit lasted for an entire day.

Liu Bei rounded up troops along the way and incidentally captured quite a few generals.

Three great generals—Zhu Huan, Sun Shao, and Dong Xi—were captured!

Under the desperate protection of Zhou Tai, Sun Quan escaped to the banks of the Yangtze River and boarded the warships that Zhou Yu had brought to rescue him!

But there were even more soldiers without ships to pick them up, and every ship was packed to the bursting point.

Zhou Yu made a decisive decision to have the warships sail away from the shore; if Liu Bei's army caught up later, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The naval forces of Lu Xun, Gan Ning, and Xu Sheng were also rushing over; once entangled, it would be a disaster.

Soldiers shouted in despair on the riverbank,

but unfortunately, the warships ignored them and sailed eastward.

Sun Quan stood on the ship, his face pale and his body trembling. He had lost all confidence after this one battle, and looking at the desperate soldiers on the shore, his heart felt like it was being cut by a knife!

"Gongjin, I am not suited for war... It is I who harmed so many Jiangdong soldiers!"

Zhou Yu sighed in his heart,

"My lord, we still have tens of thousands of troops; only by fighting steadily and surely can we still block Liu Bei."

Sun Quan looked at the soldiers on the shore,

"Gongjin, what should be done about these troops?"

Zhou Yu sighed,

"My lord, they will become Liu Bei's prisoners, but my lord need not worry too much; Liu Bei is benevolent and virtuous and will certainly not mistreat them."

Sun Quan smiled bitterly in his heart; even his own top general, Zhou Gongjin, felt that Liu Bei was benevolent and virtuous...

Sun He cupped his hands,

"My lord, our Jiangdong soldiers have excellent swimming skills; how about letting them swim across the Yangtze?"

Sun Quan seemed somewhat hesitant,

"It is freezing cold; I fear it will be difficult for the soldiers."

In his heart, he still hoped the soldiers would swim back, but he couldn't say it out loud.

Sun He saw this and began ordering the soldiers to shout,

"Take off your armor and swim across the river!"

When Liu Bei arrived at the riverbank with his troops, he was surprised to find that there were actually thousands of people winter swimming.

"Crossing the Yangtze in the middle of winter? The Jiangdong soldiers' swimming skills are truly not bad."

More soldiers did not move, and seeing Liu Bei arrive with troops, they threw down their weapons one after another and knelt to surrender.

There were still three thousand troops huddled together, resisting to the death.

Liu Bei took a look and saw that the leaders were his old acquaintances Chen Wu and Ling Cao.

Liu Bei drove his horse over, shouted for his soldiers to back off, and yelled,

"Chen Zilie, Ling Cao, everything is over. Do not make meaningless resistance; it will only waste your lives!"

The soldiers all looked at Chen Wu and Ling Cao; everyone else had surrendered, so why keep fighting?

Chen Wu and Ling Cao looked at each other, sighed deeply, and threw down their weapons.

Liu Bei had his soldiers take these surrendered troops back to assemble, while he drove his horse to where Chen Wu and Ling Cao were.

Chen Wu's old face flushed red; he was already an old acquaintance of Liu Bei, and yet here he was again, a prisoner of Xuande.

Liu Bei dismounted, patted Chen Wu on the shoulder, and laughed loudly,

"It's been over a year; Chen Zilie, you've gotten stronger again. You haven't gotten fat, have you?"

Chen Wu suddenly felt a wave of warmth; Xuande not only didn't mock him but treated him like an old friend.

He cupped his hands,

"Xuande is looking more youthful and heroic than ever."

Liu Bei looked at Ling Cao again,

"I heard of Ling Cao's fame for bravery back in Jingzhou; you were Sun Ce's favorite vanguard general, a man of chivalry and courage, brave enough to lead the three armies."

Ling Cao cupped his hands,

"Xuande is too kind with his praise."

Being praised by the world-renowned Liu Bei, Ling Cao was still quite excited inside.

In the original history, Ling Cao followed Sun Ce to attack Huang Zu and was shot to death by Gan Ning, which made his son Ling Tong and Gan Ning bitter enemies.

Come to think of it, it was Liu Bei who took in Gan Ning and saved his life.

Liu Bei held both of their hands,

"Alright, be guests in my army for a few days, and then I will let you go back."

The soldiers saw this and whispered to each other,

"So the two generals have such a good relationship with Xuande; then why were we fighting..."

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"Xuande is victorious in every battle; how could we possibly defeat him?"

"Isn't it better to be so harmonious?"

Just at this moment, on the river to the west, hundreds of warships appeared; it was Liu Bei's naval force.