Three Kingdoms: Let Yuan Shen be great again

Chapter 42 The Master of Silly Fook

The so-called "game of the cowards" refers to a game in which two cowards drive a car—

Liu Ye: "Young Master, what is a car?"

Yuan Yao: "...Two cowards, to prove who is braver, each drive a carriage towards each other. Whoever turns and runs away first before colliding will be considered a coward. But if both refuse to turn, they will both die in the accident."

In this contest, although both are cowards and neither wants to die, in order to win and gain the greatest benefit, they must appear braver and convince the other that they are not afraid of death, thereby forcing the other to back down.

This is the meaning of the cowardly game.

After telling this short story, Yuan Yao continued to analyze Sun Ce's motives from his perspective.

Was Sun Ce truly so enraged by his defeat that he wanted to risk everything and perish together with Yuan Yao?

No, he was more likely putting on a show of wanting to die together, using this as a pretext to force Yuan Yao to back down.

Sun Ce was the ruler of Jiangdong, and Yuan Yao could be considered the ruler of Huainan. Both were prominent warlords, perhaps not among the strongest in the world, but not some nobody could easily challenge them.

Now that both sides are at war, the result will inevitably be mutual destruction. Huainan, as the main battlefield, will certainly not be spared, and Jiangdong will not fare much better. Fires will break out everywhere, and the losses will be heavy.

Then it comes down to who is more cowardly, who is less able to accept the outcome, and who is forced to back down in exchange for peace.

Yuan Yao: "The only way to break the cowardly game is to act even crazier than the other side. Sun Ce wants to force me to back down by pretending to be desperate, so I'll show him the look of a war maniac and let him see who has more courage!"

Yuan Yao admitted that there was an element of gambling involved in his move.

The Jiangdong army suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of Hefei. At least several high-ranking generals, including Xu Kun, Ling Cao, and Chen Wu, were killed in action. Xu Kun was Sun Ce's cousin and right-hand man, while the other two were also Sun Ce's trusted generals. In addition, there were heavy losses of soldiers, including those killed, captured, missing, deserted, and crippled. The once 10,000-strong army was now reduced to less than 2,000 remnants.

Even for Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, such a defeat would have been devastating, let alone for Jiangdong, whose foundation was even weaker, which was tantamount to losing half of its life.

Since his debut, when has Sun Ce ever suffered such a great loss? He is known for his pettiness, so it is not entirely impossible that he was really blinded by anger and decided to risk everything to fight Yuan Yao.

If that were the case, Yuan Yao's decision would only backfire, further exacerbating the conflict and causing the situation to collapse beyond repair.

Therefore, Liu Ye was not unaware that Sun Ce might be bluffing, but from a strategic perspective, he felt it was appropriate to make concessions and there was no need to insist any further.

However, Yuan Yao was determined to gamble.

In fact, Yuan Yao hated gambling. Among the various prohibitions he established in the army, one of them was a strict ban on any gambling games.

However, since his debut, Yuan Yao has been doing all sorts of high-stakes gambles. From the oath of the fat river to fool Liu Xun, to the edict in the belt to scare away Liu Bei, to the shooting down of the sun to overthrow Yuan Shu, and Tian Ji's horse race against Sun Ce, he always gambled on winning without being completely sure of the outcome.

Because he had no other choice, this was the only way to achieve a big win with a small investment and to find a way out for the Zhong family, whose lives were hanging by a thread.

The same is true now.

Rationally speaking, regardless of whether Sun Ce was truly determined to fight to the death, the enemy's reinforcements had already appeared. Since it was difficult for Yuan Yao to annihilate the enemy any further, he should have stopped while he was ahead.

But Yuan Yao was insistent on haggling over every little detail. He was determined to make Sun Ce sue for peace first, in order to obtain more favorable negotiating terms and extract the greatest benefit from the war.

That afternoon, Zhongshi officially dispatched an envoy, Shu Shao, a renowned scholar from Chenliu. With great courage, Shu Shao went to Sun Ce's camp outside the city and denounced him to his face for raising an unjust army, causing great suffering to the people of Huainan, and deserving of death.

Sun Ce was furious and made a gesture as if to have Shu Shao's tongue cut out.

Shu Shao remained completely unfazed, only requesting that he be allowed to finish speaking so that he could relay Yuan Yao's words verbatim to Sun Ce:

"If you want war, then let's fight!"

Next, in response to Jiangdong's escalating actions, the Zhong clan was not to be outdone and also intensified the war effort.

All spring plowing in the entire Lujiang County was suspended. All able-bodied men were either incorporated into the army or used as logistical laborers. It was estimated that more than 20,000 additional soldiers would be recruited within half a month.

On the main battlefield, facing Sun Ce's army outside Wan City, Zhong's army began to build fortifications around the city, preparing for a long-term resistance.

The same was true in the rear. The most elite troops of Cao Xing and Guan Yu were urgently deployed to the vicinity of Wankou, waiting for an opportunity to cut off the Jiangdong army's rear route, so that not a single horse could return south.

During this process, the Jiangdong army was not idle either, and continued to strengthen its military strength. Several Jiangdong bigwigs, whose status was no less than that of Xu Kun, such as Wu Jing, Sun Ben, and Sun Fu, appeared one after another on the banks of the Yangtze River. Generals such as Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu, and Taishi Ci also crossed the river one after another.

This game of cowards escalated rapidly in just a few days, and it was on the verge of getting out of control. If things went wrong, the consequences would be unimaginable.

As the situation rapidly escalated, the pressure on Yuan Yao also increased.

For the first two days, in order to show his attitude, Yuan Yao would deliberately sit on the city wall and read every day to show that he was not afraid of the Jiangdong army at all.

But he soon couldn't keep up the pretense any longer.

Because the Zhong clan's ministers could no longer withstand the pressure.

Many officials came to see Yuan Yao in tears, saying that the lives of hundreds of thousands of people were in his hands, and the situation was still deteriorating. Sun Ce showed no sign of yielding. If he misjudged the situation and caused Huainan to fall into an abyss, wouldn't he become a sinner in history?

More and more people were doing this, and eventually even some people in Wancheng came to Yuan Yao, saying that they were willing to defend their homes and fight for Yuan Yao. But the current situation was meaningless. It could have been avoided, so why deliberately destroy everything?

Yuan Yao then realized what his problem was and hurriedly went to find Liu Ye.

"Ziyang, this can't go on."

Yuan Yao was very frank; he had underestimated Sun Ce, a hero who had dominated Jiangdong and was confident of winning this cowardly game.

There was no way around it; Sun Ce knew Zhong Shi too well.

Perhaps Yuan Yao saw through the truth in advance, but with a bunch of people holding him back, can he really hold on until that critical point?

Yuan Yao knew he couldn't do it alone; he had to do something.

But it is not a compromise.

Yuan Yao: "I am no match for Sun Ce, and Sun Ce knows this too."

Liu Ye: "So, what does Young Master plan to do?"

Yuan Yao: "So I'm preparing to use my trump card!"

Liu Ye: "A trump card?"

Yuan Yao: "Sun Ce is a master, but have you ever heard the saying, 'Foolish Fool is a master'?"

Liu Ye: "..."

Yuan Yao: "Don't misunderstand, I'm referring to someone else. Help me pass on a message to Yang Hong, and use his connections to send a message to the Jiangdong army."

The message stated that Yuan Yao could no longer tolerate the current situation and had decided to seek another ally, offering to cede half of Lujiang in exchange for the support of Huang Zu, the governor of Jiangxia.

Whether it's a cowardly game or any other kind of gambling, it can't handle two special cases: one is a truly insane person, and the other is pure luck.

The behavior of these two types of people is completely unpredictable, rendering all common sense and logic invalid.

Yuan Yao admitted that Sun Ce's skill level was indeed higher than his, and he still couldn't be sure whether Sun Ce was bluffing or not.

But it doesn't matter, as long as Huang Zu gets involved, everything will come to light.

A day later, Shu Shao, the messenger of the Zhong clan who had been detained by Sun Ce, returned to Wan City, bringing with him a message from Sun Ce.

"I admire you, let's talk."

Yuan Yao breathed a sigh of relief.

The crisis that threatened to destroy Huainan has been resolved.