Chapter 114 - Sun Ce Retreat Alone To Avenge His Losses (1/2)
Chapter 114 – Sun Ce Retreat Alone To Avenge His Losses
Translated by Bloodfalcon, Edited by Krayto
Back to Sun Ce's POV
Meanwhile at Xiakou, Jing Province’s Army and Jiangdong’s Army had been skirmis.h.i.+ng naval battles for almost 50 times. Because of those skirmishes, almost all of Yangtze River are filled with corpse and blood.
“DAMMIT!!!!” Cursed Sun Ce while looking at the Jing Province naval camp. Originally, after conquering Xiakou, Jiangxia should not have been able to fight back Jiangdong army, but who would have expected that Liu Biao was able to muster a naval force numbering 70,000 troops in just a short time. Moreover, the one that made Sun Ce very helpless is not Huang Zu or a senior general, but a new lieutenant general called Wen Ping.
Although Wen Ping did not fight Sun Ce, he had dueled with Sun Ce's senior general Tais.h.i.+ Ci and was able to fight with him for 300 bouts evenly. Along with that, this person also excelled at naval battles and was in sync with Huang Zu. Those pair let Jiangdong’s navy suffer a heavy loss. In several days, Jiangdong’s Army has suffered more than 7,000 troops, while the opposite Jing Province Army also lost more than 10,000 troops.
With Jiangxia now being in a very difficult situation and the loss of Lujiang, mad Sun Ce truly agitated.
“Milord, Strategist Zhou Yu seeks an audience with you!” The main camp guard inform Sun Ce.
“Audience denied!!!” Sun Ce replied it subconsciously due to his agitated state.
“Yes sir!!!” The bodyguard quickly retreated to inform Zhou Yu but suddenly stopped by Sun Ce's shout “Wait, let Gongjin come in!!!” Sun Ce knew that Zhou Yu must have some reason for coming to see him.
“Milord!!!!” Zhou Yu quickly entered the main camp while holding his fist toward Sun Ce. He knows that Sun Ce's mood is truly bad right now but these matters is too important to not inform him...
“Gongjin, why are you so hesitant? Quickly say the news! Speak frankly!!!” Sun Ce waved at Zhou Yu. He hated to be the person who hesitated to say one this piece of information.
Zhou Yu took a deep breath and organized his words. His opening he said “Milord, I have some bad news and good news!!!”
“A good news and bad news?!” Sun Ce stunned.
“First, I start with good news!!!” Zhou Yu decided it himself “The good news is Chen Duan's clansmen have been exterminated by Lu Bu!!!”
“The Chen clan was exterminated?!” Sun Ce stunned and quickly changed his expression into anger “Gongjin, why do you treat this genocide as good news, would you care to enlighten this brother of yours?! Oh, Uncle Zizheng, Sun Ce is truly sorry for harming you!!!” From Sun Jian's time, Chen Duan and his clansmen are one of the retainers of the Sun clan. Later, when Sun Jian died, all of the Sun clan's retainers were scattered everywhere, leaving only small amount of retainers. This Chen Duan, stayed at Sun Ce's side ever since then, helping him to get through tough times and a.s.sisted him to pacify Jiangdong.
Now, when he heard the news of Chen Duan's clansmen’s extermination, a wound appeared in Sun Ce's heart.
When Zhou Yu looked at Sun Ce's expression, he knew that Sun Ce has misunderstood him. He quickly said “Milord, the matter of Mr. Chen Duan's clansmen also saddened me a lot, but people will need to look at the future, if not those bones who died will be of no value if one kept brooding about the past. Milord, Mr. Chen Duan of Chen clan was Wancheng city’s top n.o.bles. Because Milord had conquered Wancheng city and put Chen Duan as top official, the Chen clan has become the representative of Wancheng city n.o.bles. But now Lu Bu has extinguished the Chen clan. He did not just offend us, but offended all of n.o.ble families in the entire Wancheng city, even more all of Jiangdong's n.o.bles have been offended by his act!”
The more Zhou Yu said the advantage, the more Sun Ce's eyes got brighter. Sun Ce also had offended n.o.bles a lot. In the past, when he was still 20 years old, he had destroyed Lu clan of Wancheng city. Although Sun Ce did not personally kill them, he made the Lu clan die of starvation. Only Lu Xun, Lu Ji and Lu Xun's sister were spared.
The more territory Sun Ce got, the more he regretted his decision for killing the Lu clan. Why is that? Because the Lu clan represented one of the n.o.ble clans, and they represented one portion of power in this Han Dynasty.
Those n.o.bles who have big connections with the Lu clan quickly alienated Sun Ce. Once in a while, they sent small amounts of soldiers to settle the score with Sun Ce and all of scholars from those n.o.ble families did not allow their clansmen to become Jiangdong's official putting Sun Ce in a big dilemma.
A domain needs people to govern it, with n.o.body wanting to become an official, it was truly disastrous!!! What would you do, if suddenly the grain prices rose up until commoners were unable to eat they starve to death? That will only invite troubles and chaos.
And if you force people to become officials, with grudges like that become your official, is not that like putting up Damocles sword over your head? Those n.o.bles have many private soldiers and you have offended them to the extreme, naturally they will wait to exact revenge on you. They will not attack you directly but they will concoct plans with other warlords to seize your city or secretly destroy your resources.
TL: Damoclès Swords idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+sword+of+Damocles+hangs+over+head
In the past, this is how Chen clan of Guangling colluded with Old Cao to expel Lu Bu from Xu Province. They really thought that Lu Bu was not good for long terms prospects, but due to Chen Gui dyeing Xiapi, the Chen clan of Guangling was extinguished by Old Cao and Chen Deng himself is a vagabond with Lu Bu.
n.o.bles who did not support a warlord is bound to die in a very short time. For example Gongsun Zan. When Gongsun Zan killed Liu Yu, he lost the entire You Province n.o.bles support and in the end, he joined the rank of the dead.
Nevertheless, the death of the Chen clan of Wancheng city is a good news for Sun Ce.
Chen Duan is truly worthy of his status as Jiangdong's official. Even if he was dead, his death is also a worthy death, he contributed his final strength for his lord.
“Prepare a funeral for Chen Duan, an honorable funeral reserved as this Sun Ce's uncle!!!!” With this treatment, Sun Ce has recognized that this Chen Duan has been loyal and pure to him until the end even burying him with full honors as his uncle. With this, Sun Ce also needed to wear mourning clothes as a nephew. Chen Duan was truly an honored with the biggest courtesy.
“Is anyone still left from the Chen clan?!”
“Yes, there is one. Currently he is studying in Hueiji, therefore he can escape destruction!!!” Said Zhou Yu. The Chen clan has been destroyed completely, leaving one person, the last of his surname.