Chapter 246 Cornering Zou Jing

Chapter 246 – Cornering Zou Jing

At noon, Tong secured the camp, and the garrison troops had surrendered. Because of fear, they confessed about Zou Jing's scheme and his whereabouts.

'He's determined, but he's going to keep running at this rate. We've already secured the majority of their logistic convoys so they should run out of food soon.'

Tong looked back at his troops. They did not have a casualty as the enemies were too panic to harm them. All 4,000 soldiers were safe and sound.

"Get ready to move. Zou Jing's men should not be too far, we'll forced-march again."

"My lord, what about the prisoners?"

Tong glanced at the 500 surrendered soldiers, "Send a messenger to Bo Cai. Have him escort these men back. I want him to retreat back to Zhongshan after this."

…

…

March 1st, 183 A.D.

A game of cat and mouse went on for over a week. Zou Jing had escaped outside of the forest with his remaining men.

Looking back at his troops, only four thousand remained. The rest of them either deserted or captured by Tong Army, which was chasing them at a distance of five kilometers away.

Zou Jing did not try to fight Tong again after the burning camp tactic had failed thrice. Moreover, most of his supplies lagged behind and were captured by the chasing troops.

'I'm two days away from the city. I'll return to Ji and gather more troops. I'll also send a message to the volunteer forces to help me! When I have more soldiers, these mongrels won't have a chance.'

…

Meanwhile, Tong and his 4,000 men continued their journey at a fixed pace. Though the quest time limit was short, Tong did not rush his troops to catch Zou Jing or pressured this coward general at night. Since he could not confirm the location of Yan Yan and Liu Yan's missing soldiers, he did not let his guard down as his infantry soldiers were vulnerable to ambushes.

'We're a couple days away from Ji City. If Zou Jing returns to the city, everything will be a lot easier. But if he chooses to run another way, it will be a headache.'

>

A clan message notification sound rang.

'It's been a while. I wonder how's everybody is doing.'

Tong opened the clan chat after weeks of a chasing game with Zou Jing.

A development occurred at Zhongshan as Zhang Liang sent a clan message.

"Tong, Liu Yan's 30,000-men army 20 kilometers northeast from Zhongshan city! We need reinforcement!"

Tong clicked his tongue as he finally understood what Liu Yan was doing. His army was lured out of the city by the bait, Zou Jing.

Jia Xu: Our hands are full. We won't send reinforcement from Julu.

Jia Xu: Fight to the death if you have to.

Jia Xu: If you can't, just withdraw the troops back and abandon the Zhen clan.

Jia Xu: Young master Tong will be fine on his own even if he's isolated.

Jia Xu: You can leave him behind. He'll find his way home like a trained dog.

Jia Xu: I meant an alpha wolf.

Everyone: …

As always, Jia Xu had high expectation of all generals in this force. His strategies were cruel to the allies, especially Tong, but all tactics and placements were efficient.

Tong: Has second uncle returned?

Zhang Bao: I'm in the city.

Zhang Bao: Bo Cai and his gangs are a couple days away from here.

Tong: How many soldiers are in the city?

Zhang Liang: 15,000. I'm telling Zhen Yi to hire some militias.

Tong: Use the woods we gathered to construct trebuchets and ballistae.

Tong: Place them on top of the wall.

Tong: Do you still have the blueprints I gave you?

Zhang Liang: I have. We'll do it.

Zhang Liang: What about you?

Tong: I'm chasing Zou Jing. While I'm at it, I'm sieging Ji.

Tong: You three will have to defend the city on your own.

Zhang Bao: Wait, you are sieging Ji with 4,000 men?

Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang wanted Tong to retreat back to Zhongshan, but Tong refused. Both of them pestered Tong to the point that he got annoyed. Tong disabled the notification and closed the system menu.

There were backlogs of the conversation between the others and the situation in the other cities. However, Tong did not want to interfere or be worried about something that he could not help, so he decided not to touch them until his fight was over.

As long as nothing required his attention, Tong trusted that they would be fine on their own.

'No time to worry about others. I only have less than a month to kill Zou Jing. If I can't kill him in time, I'm screwed.'

Tong glared toward the direction of the exit of the forest. Since he had confirmed the location of the missing soldiers, he did not have to worry about a hidden ambush force of Liu Yan.

'The only worry I have left is Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei. They should gather in Ji next year as in history. I hope that they won't show up this year. '

Though he knew that Liu Bei and his sworn brothers pledged their brotherhood in the year 184, he was not confident that they would do so in this world as in the historical records.

…

Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Jiang Man had gather 1,000 militias, and they had their personal weapons.

Everyone had the same weapon as in the description in the historical record. Jiang Man had a Japanese katana as his weapon since he did not like the usual Chinese double-edge swords.

Liu Bei was elated as he gazed at his men, "Let's follow the main army. We'll help them eradicating the Yellow Turbans!"

"Do you know where they have headed, Xuande?" Asked Jiang Man.

Liu Bei was stunned for a moment before he rubbed his hands, "I … don't know."

Jiang Man and Guan Yu sighed.

"Let's report force to the authority. Maybe they know where they went."

"I agree with little Jiang. Let's ask the officials first. They might support us with supplies if they see our readiness."

Though they were late because of the lack of weaponry and supplies, Liu Bei force was now ready to make a name for themselves.

…

…

March 3rd, 183 A.D.

Zou Jing returned to Ji with bad news. Only 4,000 men from 20,000 initial troops came back while the rest were either died or captured.

The pale face general with blue fingernails straddled towards the government hall. He bellowed at the officials, "Send out an emergency order. Gather all able men and fortify the city! The Yellow Turbans are coming tomorrow!"

Hearing that they would be attacked by the rebels, all workers were panicked. With the attitude of the paranoid Zou Jing, the commotion became worse.

The command reached Liu Bei and his men. They gathered at the central military field to report for duty.

Liu Bei was not the only force in this gathering. All nobles, merchant, private troops in fancy clothing, and brave vagrants also came. The number of soldiers in Ji City reached 25,000 in a day.

Seeing the gather of many soldiers, Zou Jing felt relieved. His clenched his tattered fists.

'Zhang Tong, you can't beat me again! This time, I'll finish you for good!'

…

The next day morning.

Tong's 4,000 men reached Ji Commandery City. He stared at the high brick wall which thousands of soldiers were garrisoning on top of it.

'If I can steal a few bows from their troops, I can spam homing arrows to my heart content.'

'But first, I have to find Zou Jing.'

Tong guided his men to station in front of the south gate to lure Zou Jing and all commanders to appear.

As soon as Tong Army formed ranks at 500 meters away from the south gate, the soldiers on the wall began their movements. Commotions and shouting could be heard from Tong's position.

'I can lock-on from here, but I don't want to spook Zou Jing.'

Tong signaled his soldiers to maintain position. After which, he rode his horse closer to the gate. When Tong got close to the wall, he shouted, "ZOU JING! COME OUT AND SURRENDER! I PROMISE THAT WE ARE SOLDIERS OF THE PEOPLE. WE DON'T KILL CITIZENS!"

It did not take long as shouts and curses came from the soldiers on top of the wall. Tong ignored the foul languages of the locals, but his eyes darted around to see anyone who stood out from the rest.

While Tong was searching for Zou Jing, an impatient noble drew his bow and fired at Tong.

"DIE, BANDIT!"

*WHOOSH*

The arrow missed its target. It landed 10 meters in front of Tong's location.

Though it did not hit Tong, the arrow was the trigger that aroused the others into taking action. More arrows flew toward Tong as if they organized a volley.

Tong sighed and pulled the reign, making his horse retreat back a hundred meters. All arrows that came after him fell short as Tong had now located 300 meters away from the wall.

'No shield, no general, no sortie troops. Should I start farming?'

Tong withheld his desire and withdrew back to his men.

"Form three teams of one hundred men each. I want the teams to watch the other gates of this city. If you see someone important rush out, report it to me immediately."

"Yes, sir!"

Tong turned to look at the top of the wall, 'No rush. I'll pretend that I'm not here within this army.'

"Soldier, fetch me a bandana."

A soldier took a clean yellow bandana to Tong, which he replaced his war helmet with the head cloth. He also switched out his iron armor with leather armor so he could look like an ordinary soldier.

The Yellow Turban men were puzzled by his action. A grand general dressing like a foot soldier was weird to them.

Tong smiled at them, "Don't worry about it. I'm just disguising myself as an ordinary soldier. I'm fishing out a pushover fool outside of the city."

…

Zou Jing did not show up on top of the wall as he holed himself inside of the government building with hundreds of his guards.

Liu Bei and his brothers could not station on top of the wall as all nobles kicked him and his men away. They did not have a status in the city, so every other force looked down on them.

They heard about the swearing and the commotion from the top of the wall, but they were helpless in this situation.

"I wonder what happens outside," Liu Bei groaned.

"Those buffoons! Big brother, send me outside of the city! I want to kill some thieves!"

"Yide, don't create trouble. Military requires disciplinary and order. Rushing in by yourself will get you and your allies killed."

The three brothers chatted among themselves while Jiang Man pondered about Zou Jing's defeat.

'20,000 had gone out, 4,000 came back, and no intel about the current enemy troops? This is a failure army.'

Jiang Man doubted if it was a correct decision to join Liu Bei at this moment.

Pondering for a moment, Jiang Man decided to make a big move.

'I'll go see Zou Jing myself. How about I offer myself as his strategist?'