With Sun Ce and Zhou Yu working together on Piling's defenses, they could basically foil more than ninety percent of all stratagems.
And what scheme could Qin Tian possibly use to break this pair?
Simply put, he would take Wuxi first—a city lying between Piling County and Wu County!
Sun Ce had now been driven into a complete dead end. In all of Wu Commandery, only Shaxian, Wuxi, Wu County, Lou County, and Haiyan remained under his control.
Shaxian and Haiyan had become isolated enclaves after being cut off and surrounded by them.
Once Sun Ben at Youquan had been defeated by Zhang Fei, they only needed to seize Wuxi to leave Sun Ce trapped in an isolated city.
Under such circumstances, if either Wu County or Piling fell, Sun Ce would be unable to hold out.
Thus, if Sun Ce did not wish to suffer a total rout, his only path was to withdraw from Piling and defend Wu County!
At Qin Tian's suggestion, Liu Bei ordered Zhang Fei northward, instructing him to launch a surprise attack on Wuxi from within Zhenze Lake.
Their main force no longer attacked Piling. Instead, they turned their target toward Sun Ce's main camp, using it to draw attention.
As Liu Bei's army changed direction, the pressure on Zhou Yu inside the city immediately vanished. Yet seeing Liu Bei's fierce assault, the generals in the city said:
"Liu Bei is now fiercely attacking our lord's main camp. Why not lead our troops out and strike at his rear?"
Under Liu Bei's assault, Sun Ce's army had fewer and fewer capable generals. At present, only Zhu Zhi, Cheng Pu, and the like remained in the city; Jiang Qin, Sun Fu, Lu Meng, and the others were all under Sun Ce's command.
Hearing the two