"What? Shouchun was captured and Ji Ling surrendered directly? This traitor failed my trust in vain!" As soon as Yuan Shu arrived in Hefei, he heard about Ji Ling's surrender and Shouchun City was broken. He heard the news that he was furious and cursed.

What he scolded was not Shouchun's capture. Although it was the "capital city" he carefully selected, since he had decided to give up, it was abandoning it, and there was nothing worth nostalgic about. What he scolded was Ji Ling's surrender, believing that Ji Ling's surrender betrayed him, and he had been trusting and valuing the other party for so many years.

But Yuan Shu didn't think about his unfair treatment at all, let alone the reason why he promoted Ji Ling's official position in the end was that Ji Ling could block Pei Qing's pace with his life.

However, no matter how angry he was, Yuan Shu did not stop escaping at all. He decided to continue to flee to Lujiang, where only there was the possibility of ensuring his safety.

The Chief Secretary Yang Hong tried hard to persuade Yuan Shu to continue to escape, because Hefei's geographical location is very important, and it has always been known as the "head of Jiangnan and the throat of the Central Plains". Whether it is Jiangnan or Central Plains, it has always been a place where military strategists must fight. Moreover, the walls of Hefei are strong and the city is full of materials. As long as you stick here, it is very likely to persist until Pei Qing retreats his troops. Even if you are really defeated, it is convenient to escape from the water. Once Hefei is given up, it will inevitably be occupied by Pei Qing. At that time, Lujiang will be surrounded by Pei Qing on the north and east sides. Once Pei Qing cooperates with Jiangxia on the west side of Lujiang, it will form a three-sided encirclement of Lujiang. Moreover, Shu County, the county seat of Lujiang is located on a plain, with no danger to guard and is easily surrounded. It is actually not an ideal place.

However, Yuan Shu refused to listen at all. He led his army without hesitation to easily give up all the land in Jiujiang County and fled directly to Shu County, the capital of Lujiang County, where he strengthened the city defense and prepared to defend the death.

In Yuan Shu's opinion, there are many benefits of staying in Lujiang. First, it is that it is getting farther and farther away from where Pei Qing is, which leads to longer supply lines and difficulty in transporting food in Pei Qing. This is their greatest advantage. In addition, whether it is Qiao Rui, who was conquering Guangling or Liu Xun, who crossed the river to conquer Danyang, they all have a deep connection with Lujiang. Qiao Rui is from Wan County, Lujiang, and his family is in Lujiang. Liu Xun is now the prefect of Lujiang, and his family is also in Lujiang. So as long as Yuan Shu controls Lujiang, it is equivalent to controlling the families of the two military leaders in his own hands. In this way, they are not afraid that they will not be loyal to themselves.

The two armies can have 80,000 people, and the 30,000 personal soldiers he personally led, a total of 110,000 people. No matter what, it is impossible to defeat Pei Qing's troops. Yuan Shu even thought of using defense instead of attacking. After defeating Pei Qing, he not only regained Jiujiang, but also took the opportunity to regain Yuzhou and Nanyang, and further occupied the Central Plains and dominate the world.

It is precisely because of this idea that Yuan Shu would rather give up Hefei than firmly control the Lujiang area. This is his hope, and it is the key to his efforts to turn the berserks and turn defeat into victory.

Pei Qing was still a little nervous when he led his army to Hefei, because once Yuan Shu defended it to the death, it would not be easy for him to conquer it. Not to mention Yuan Shu's own 30,000 troops, and Qiao Rui who was able to return to the rescue in time, the opponent would have an army of 60,000. At that time, under the attack of these troops, even if he could win in the end, he would only have a tragic victory, and he would definitely pay a heavy price. Not to mention dealing with Yuan Shu, it is not certain whether he could protect the territory he had already occupied.

But when Pei Qing heard that Yuan Shu had led his army to evacuate Hefei and rushed to Lujiang, Pei Qing was very happy, because he knew that once Yuan Shu went to Lujiang, the prospects would be desolate. First of all, Qiao Rui's army was isolated between Hefei and Guangling. Even if he wanted to turn around, it would be difficult. As long as he could hold on, he would only need to send a talented man to understand the pros and cons and speak out, and he would be able to easily persuade Yuan Shu to surrender. As for Liu Xun's army to conquer Jiangdong,

In fact, it is not difficult to deal with. Not to mention that Liu Xun could not withdraw when fighting Sun Ce's army. Even if he really came back, he could defeat Liu Xun's army first by surrounding and attacking the morale of the defenders and Liu Xun's army. As long as he persisted for a little longer, once the food and grass of Liu Xun's army were used up, the army would soon collapse. As long as Liu Xun's army was finished, the soldiers guarding the city would inevitably collapse quickly. In this way, it would be very expected to capture Yuan Shu.

"Hehe, this Yuan Shu is really stupid. He actually chose to do this. This means that he will kill himself. No one else has to blame."

Pei Qing had no only worry in his heart after receiving the news. He believed that since the moment Yuan Shu decided to escape to Lujiang, he had been doomed to be defeated.

So Pei Qing occupied the important town of Hefei without any effort, which not only blocked Qiao Rui's retreat, but also formed a situation of encirclement on both sides or even three sides of Lujiang.

As soon as he heard that Yuan Shu fled to Lujiang, he immediately sent Deng Zhi to Jiangxia and persuaded Jiangxia prefect Huang Zu to agree to send troops to cooperate and attack Lujiang together.

This time, in order to make sure that Pei Qing had transferred Deng Zhi to his camp in advance, in order to prepare for such diplomatic affairs. The facts proved that Pei Qing's preparation was not in vain. It was this key first-hand arrangement that ultimately completely defeated Yuan Shu's will.

Since he knew that Yuan Shu was already a turtle in a jar and a dry bone in the tomb would sooner or later, Pei Qing did not rush to advance, but ordered the soldiers to station in Hefei, build city defenses, deep ditches and high bases to avoid fighting with it, and also set up a counterattack strategy.

It can be said that Pei Qing has already made complete preparations now, just waiting for Qiao Rui to surrender step by step according to his design.

"Lord, Qiao Rui's army is only ten miles away, and it is estimated that it will only be half an hour at most." In Hefei City, the spy sent by Wen Ji, the general of Pei Qing, heard the news. After he received the news, he hurriedly reported to Pei Qing.

"Oh? It's coming very quickly." Pei Qing said with a smile on his face after receiving the news.

Wen Ji smiled and said, "Actually, according to Qiao Rui's army's itinerary, it should be the earliest to reach the city tomorrow morning, and it may even pass by directly. However, our spy pretended to be a farmer and told him the "insider" when he was inquiring about the news, saying that our main army had just left, and there were only three thousand soldiers in the city who were holding on. Qiao Rui was very happy after learning the news and ordered the army to speed up the itinerary."
Chapter completed!