Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

"No!"

"My lord, be careful!!"

"You villain, how dare you?!"

Witnessing this scene, Zu Mao, Huang Gai, Cheng Pu, and the others roared in anger, their eyes wide with fury.

However, the rain of arrows was clearly not affected by their will and did not stop.

On the contrary, Zu Mao, Huang Gai, Cheng Pu, and the others almost only felt a blur before the dense rain of arrows all landed in the deep pit.

The next moment, Zu Mao, Huang Gai, Cheng Pu, and the others scrambled to the edge of the pit and looked down into the deep pit, which was more than two zhang deep.

Sun Jian's lower body was pinned down by his warhorse, and his upper body was almost turned into a hedgehog by the arrows. He was completely silent.

"Ahhh!"

For a time, Zu Mao, Huang Gai, Cheng Pu, and other subordinates who were loyal to Sun Jian were filled with grief and anger. They roared repeatedly and raised their weapons, ready to fight the pursuing soldiers who were constantly approaching from behind.

At this moment, it was Han Dang who still maintained basic reason. He quickly stood in front of Zu Mao and the others, and said urgently.

"Now that our lord has been killed by treacherous men, instead of thinking about preserving our useful bodies to avenge our lord, why are we throwing our lives away in vain?"

"Han Yigong, are you afraid of death?!" Huang Gai, the most hot-tempered of them all, scolded.

Han Dang directly cursed out loud, "You fool! Our lord still has descendants in Wu Commandery. Our lord is dead, but the young lord still lives. We should quickly go and join the young lord, instead of wasting our lives here."

This scolding awakened many of Huang Gai and the others.

Immediately, Huang Gai and the others could only kowtow to Sun Jian in the deep pit with tears in their eyes, and then turned around and mounted their horses to continue fleeing towards the outside of Xian Mountain.

And with Sun Jian's soul dying at Xian Mountain, Huang Gai and the others did not continue to Changsha, but went straight back towards Wu Commandery.

… …

Two days after the Battle of Xian Mountain.

With information being delivered day and night, Li Ji, who had just arrived in Qiao County, received the corresponding news.

Although the Embroidered Uniform Guard's scouts found it difficult to get close to the Xian Mountain battlefield, they did witness only Zu Mao and the other four generals leading dozens of guards fleeing in a disheveled manner.

Sun Jian was never seen to appear.

After the Jingzhou soldiers cleaned up the battlefield and left, the scouts found Sun Jian's warhorse and a large amount of blood in a deep pit.

Based on the descriptions of the various details in the information about Xian Mountain.

It was not difficult for Li Ji to deduce the course of this ambush, and it was even easier to deduce that Sun Jian's soul had died at Xian Mountain, and…

'Sun Wentai fell into a horse pit and died from a rain of arrows. The imperial jade seal must also be on his body, and Sun Wentai had no chance to hand the jade seal over to his family general to take away, which means…'

'The imperial jade seal is most likely in the hands of Liu Biao, the governor of Jingzhou?'

This made Li Ji's brow furrow slightly. He had never expected such a turn of events.

Sun Jian's death was his death, but he didn't even have time to hand over the imperial jade seal, which really made Li Ji feel a little stressed.

Logically speaking, as long as the four loyal family generals under Sun Jian were not completely wiped out, even if Sun Jian died unexpectedly, the four family generals would definitely "loot the corpse" and take the jade seal back to Sun Ce.

This was also the most beneficial direction for Liu Bei.

Even if Sun Ce possessed the imperial jade seal, his temperament would not give rise to any thoughts of proclaiming himself emperor, nor would he directly break with Liu Bei because of this.

At that time, the imperial jade seal would be temporarily kept in Sun Ce's hands.

After Liu Bei completely dominated the world, Sun Ce would naturally hand over the imperial jade seal to the true son of heaven in a sensible manner.

In this way, it could both avoid the loss of the imperial jade seal and prevent any accidents, and also avoid situations similar to Yuan Shu, who would want to proclaim himself emperor on the spot as soon as he obtained the imperial jade seal.

More importantly, with the imperial jade seal in Sun Ce's hands, it could both ensure that the imperial jade seal was always kept within his territory, and also avoid Liu Bei from being burdened with the name of secretly hiding the imperial jade seal. This was almost a win-win-win choice.

In a sense, this was somewhat similar to Yuan Shu's approach in the original trajectory.

In the situation where Yuan Shu had already imprisoned Sun Jian's family members, after Yuan Shu secretly colluded with Liu Biao to ambush and kill Sun Jian, Sun Jian's loyal family generals had only one choice: to bring the imperial jade seal back to the imprisoned Sun Ce.

It was just that Yuan Shu was also extremely concerned about face and cherished his reputation, so even though the imperial jade seal was already in his palm, he did not directly rob it, but chose to let Sun Ce voluntarily offer the imperial jade seal, in order to complete Yuan Shu's self-proclaimed identity as the one destined by heaven.

'Wait a minute…'

After thinking for a while, Li Ji suddenly realized a blind spot.

Now Yuan Shu does not have Sun Jian's family members in his hands, so Yuan Shu has no reason to ambush Sun Jian with the help of Jingzhou soldiers.

As Yuan Shu was about to leave Nanyang to take office as the governor of Runan Commandery, compared to the imperial jade seal falling into Liu Biao's hands, Yuan Shu would definitely prefer that Sun Jian temporarily keep the imperial jade seal and then slowly plan for it.

'But if it wasn't Liu Biao colluding with Yuan Shu, Liu Biao, who is far away in Jingzhou, has no deep hatred with Sun Jian, and the matter of Sili has not yet been fully transmitted to Jingzhou, why would Liu Biao set up an ambush so early…'

Suddenly, a face that was usually unremarkable and full of dullness appeared in Li Ji's mind.

Liu Qi!

Among the lords who were part of the coalition against Dong Zhuo, Liu Qi, who represented Jingzhou, had an extremely low presence. Unless Liu Bei took the initiative to talk to him, Liu Qi would almost always hide in the corner with a dull and peaceful expression, except for necessary etiquette.

"I underestimated you. Could it be that there really isn't a truly honest person in the old Liu family?"

Even if Li Ji doesn't have any substantial evidence now, he is almost certain that Liu Qi is definitely not as dull and foolish as he appears on the surface.

On the contrary, Liu Qi, who is also a member of the Han imperial family, may have also discovered the problem with the seal on the edict, and then, based on Sun Jian's sudden break with the two Yuans, guessed that the imperial jade seal was on Sun Jian's body.

In this way, it is not difficult to understand why Liu Biao would set up an ambush in Jingzhou so early.

Liu Qi must have quickly transmitted his guesses and deductions back to Jingzhou. Knowing that Sun Jian had the imperial jade seal, how could Liu Biao let Sun Jian pass through Nanjun smoothly?

However, before Li Ji could carefully calculate the various influences that the imperial jade seal might have if it fell into Liu Biao's hands, Liu Bei's excited voice suddenly came from outside the tent.

"Zikun! Wake up! Victory! Victory!!!"

The next moment, Liu Bei rushed straight into the tent, but went straight to the bed on the left without looking back, completely unaware that Li Ji was already sitting at the desk on the right dealing with official business.

It was not until Liu Bei rushed to the bed in a few large strides that he noticed that there was no one on the bed.

Liu Bei's series of actions can be described as smooth and flowing, and like a swift and decisive action, Li Ji was unable to react.

More importantly, Liu Bei's familiarity with the position of the bed in his tent made Li Ji feel a little strange.

However, while Li Ji's eyes twitched slightly, he quickly got up and said.

"My lord, I am here."

Hearing this, Liu Bei turned around and saw that he couldn't help but show a somewhat embarrassed smile, and then quickly walked towards Li Ji and said.

"Why did Zikun get up so early to deal with official business? Why don't you rest a little longer?"

"I'm used to it."

While answering, Li Ji sat down with Liu Bei and asked.

"My lord, if you want to find Ji next time, you only need to send someone to convey a message. It is inconvenient to break in like this."

However, in this universal view, which often expresses closeness by means of "heart-to-heart talks" and "sleeping with feet touching", Liu Bei smiled indifferently.

"Hahaha, Zikun's temperament is introverted. There are no women in the tent, so what could be inconvenient?"

Last night, Liu Bei had a heart-to-heart talk with Xu Shu all night, examining Xu Shu's recent homework, and he had high expectations for Xu Shu.

Even though Liu Bei's mind is broad, he is still holding his breath in his heart!

Liu Bei covered his heart and asked himself, since he had Li Ji's assistance, when had he ever suffered such grievances?

The Yingchuan aristocratic families and scholars look down on him, and even Zikun is looked down upon.

This made Liu Bei feel more and more uncomfortable, so he had some thoughts of cultivating Xu Shu into a talent, and then using his power to suppress the Yingchuan aristocratic families and scholars.

Along with this, Liu Bei has recently paid more attention to and become closer to Guo Jia.

As for Liu Bei's familiarity, Li Ji has really had no way to deal with Liu Bei for so many years.

And this, in a sense, fully shows that Liu Bei has never regarded Li Ji as an outsider who needs to be polite, and entering Li Ji's military tent is as comfortable and relaxed as returning home.

Therefore, Li Ji no longer bothered with this issue, and instead asked. "Then I wonder what great victory made my lord so happy?"

At this moment, Liu Bei did not have the excitement to share just now, but instead aroused a bit of playfulness and said. "Zikun might as well guess."

Hearing this, Li Ji was a little dumbfounded for a moment.

As far as things related to Liu Bei are concerned, except for Madam Gan herself, there is almost nothing that Li Ji does not know.

Therefore, as long as Liu Bei mentions the words "great victory", Li Ji has already accurately guessed what the news is.

However, it was rare for Liu Bei to be so interested, so Li Ji naturally would not spoil the fun, and showed a look of contemplation, pretending to think for a few breaths, and said.

"The great victory that can make my lord so excited, could it be that Marquis Wushuang led his army to break through Hangu Pass and wiped out the remnants of the Dong rebels?"

"No."

Li Ji frowned, maintaining a perplexed expression for a good while, before sighing and cupping his hands in a bow. "Please forgive my foolishness, my lord, I truly cannot imagine where this great victory was achieved."

Liu Bei couldn't help but reveal a face full of smiles, pointing his finger at Li Ji, and said.

"So, Zikun, you also know how to flatter people."

"Hahaha… …"

Immediately, Liu Bei and Li Ji looked at each other and smiled. Then, Liu Bei stopped being cryptic and took out a bamboo scroll, handing it to Li Ji as he said.

"However, I really didn't expect that Zikun would leave behind a brilliant plan from a thousand miles away, resulting in the crushing defeat of over a hundred thousand rebel troops in Yangxian in an instant… …"

"Ah?"

Li Ji… … was stunned for a moment. (End of Chapter)