The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Chapter 108 The transformation is lagging behind.

Although Wu Jun captured Zhuji, Zhang Cheng dared not continue the pursuit.

Since the Han army withdrew voluntarily, pursuing them outside the city could easily lead to the same predicament as last time, where they were constantly being chased and fleeing, and they might even accidentally end up in Shexian County again.

But staying put isn't a solution either. Shan County is still in the hands of the Han army. If we stay in Zhuji and don't move, what if the Han army comes out from Shan County to harass our rear?

Instead of dividing our forces to garrison the area, we should send a detachment to bypass Shan County, keep an eye on the Han troops there, and look for an opportunity to capture the county seat.

Not at all.

Guan Xing excels at defeating enemies one by one. He dealt with Zhou Xun and Zhuge Ke last time, and Shan Yue and Quan Cong this time behind his back. If he were to divide his forces again, he would probably be wiped out again.

Pursuit was not an option, nor was splitting forces. Zhang Cheng dared not make any rash moves. He realized that any movement would lead him into Guan Xing's trap, where he would be defeated or even wiped out.

In comparison, staying put is the safest option. But if he doesn't stay put, what's the point of him coming to Zhuji? Wouldn't it be better for him to go back to Jianye?

After pondering for a long time, Zhang Cheng tragically realized that nothing he did seemed right in front of Guan Xing. When did fighting become so difficult? It wasn't this hard when fighting the Yue tribes.

Zhang Cheng drifted off to sleep amidst his inner turmoil. Before he was fully awake at dawn, he heard a knock at the door. When he opened it, he found You Yong standing there.

You Yong entered the room and bowed, saying, "General, I have something to report to you. The five thousand newly received prisoners can no longer stay with the main army, otherwise there will be problems."

Zhang Cheng's expression changed slightly, and he quickly asked, "What's wrong? Is someone dissatisfied?"

You Yong said with a wry smile, "Our food is worse than that of the Han army, which has caused a lot of complaints from the prisoners. The problem lies in the ingredients, but more so in the cooking skills."

"I don't know how the Han army cooks their food. They use the same ingredients, but it tastes so much better than ours. Even their porridge is better than ours."

"In addition, during my time mining, the Han army set up special hunting teams to go into the mountains to hunt and use the game they hunted to supplement the miners' meals. They claimed that the laborers needed to replenish their nutrition, but I still don't understand what nutrition is."

"But the Han army used some secret recipe, and the wild game they made had very little fishy smell and tasted extremely delicious. It is no exaggeration to say that many miners had never tasted such a delicacy in their entire lives."

"There's another point. The miners drink tea every day. The Han soldiers often say that it's just tea leaves that they don't want, but we don't even have tea leaves."

"Not only is there no tea, but they're too lazy to even boil water, so even though they've only been back for a day or two, some people are already starting to miss their old life as miners."

"Uh..." Zhang Cheng opened his mouth wide unconsciously, completely stunned by what he heard.

Is this even possible?

Zhang Cheng was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses, and angrily cursed, "They've become addicted to mining, haven't they?"

"Where am I supposed to get tea for them at a time like this? Forget tea, we can't even afford to heat water. Do you know how much firewood is needed to heat water for tens of thousands of people? Are you suggesting I go up the mountain to chop firewood for them now that I'm not fighting?"

Having lived in Guanxing, he now also likes to drink hot water, but boiling hot water requires firewood, and firewood is the most important of all.

You Yong said with a wry smile, "I understand these difficulties, but the prisoners don't. They just feel that they've finally come back, but their treatment has not only not improved, but has actually decreased."

"The problem is that we did give them the best, which made the other soldiers very dissatisfied. The current situation is that the soldiers feel that the treatment given to the prisoners is too high, while the prisoners feel that the treatment is too low. Neither side is satisfied, and problems will definitely arise in the long run."

"That's why I said they can't be put together; they must be separated."

Zhang Cheng's head ached from listening to this. He rubbed his temples and said, "But where am I supposed to put these five thousand men? I wouldn't dare put them anywhere. These bastards would probably surrender as soon as they see the Han army."

It now appears that these prisoners were not unsuccessfully reformed by the Han army; it's just that the Han army's reform was delayed and its effects only became apparent after they abandoned the reform.

Guan Xing's ability to reform prisoners is terrifying.

But what do we do now? What do we do?

Zhang Cheng was so anxious he felt like dying. He paced back and forth on the ground, pondering for a long time before finally saying, "Why don't we leave them to guard Zhuji and go after the Han army?"

You Yong hesitated and said, "Isn't that a bad idea? What if they turn against us after we leave and cut off our escape route?"

It's possible that the group of prisoners had no hostility towards the Han army, nor were they loyal to the Wu army, so they were completely unworthy of being given important positions.

Are you sending them to escort grain supplies?

But the provisions travel with the army; if there are no provisions, they can't be sent to escort them.

Or should we let them withdraw to Jianye and leave the trouble to the Grand Commander?

Even worse, the morale on the Jianye side is already low. If they go back and instigate and mislead them, there's no point in fighting anymore.

Countless ideas popped into Zhang Cheng's mind, but he rejected them one by one. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said, "I don't want these prisoners anymore. Return them to the Han army and order them to set off in half an hour to act as the vanguard in pursuit of the Han army."

Since they dared not stay behind, they might as well push themselves to the front, so that even if they defected at the last minute, they would have enough time to react.

In other words, the prisoners were used as resources to weaken the Han army, and even if they were to fight the Han army one-on-one, it would not be a loss.

Lower your expectations to the minimum, and consider anything that exceeds them a pleasant surprise.

Just do it.

You Yong hesitated and said, "Isn't this inappropriate?"

Zhang Cheng shrugged and said, "Do you have a better idea?"

Seeing You Yong shake his head, Zhang Cheng immediately ordered a meal to be prepared. After the meal, he ordered Chunyu Shi to lead 5,000 troops to stay and guard Zhuji. He also ordered the prisoners to be the vanguard to pursue the Han army, while he himself followed closely behind. The plan was to attack Shan County first and cut off the possibility of the Han army advancing north.

Once we have captured all of Zhuji and Shan County and ensured that our rear is not attacked, we will then attack Wushang step by step.

And so, five thousand prisoners, still dressed in tattered clothes and without even changing them, were forced out of the city and chased after the retreating Han army.

Zhang Cheng didn't not want to change their tattered clothes, but there were no clothes for them to change into. The army was so busy that they couldn't even transport all the grain, let alone carry extra clothes.

Not to mention ordinary soldiers, Zhang Cheng's clothes hadn't been washed for dozens of days.

But the prisoners didn't understand. In their eyes, Zhang Cheng didn't even provide them with clothes and weapons before ordering them to chase the Han army. What did he take them for? Scarecrows to consume the Han army's arrows?

As a result, the prisoners forced out of the city were extremely demoralized, walking slowly at the front, complaining to their comrades as they went.

"General Zhang Cheng is actually making us do corvée labor. He's not treating us like human beings at all!"

"And those Wu soldiers, they look at us like we're country bumpkins. How dare they? We followed our lord to fight Zhang Liao, even though we were chased and killed by Zhang Liao for dozens of miles. It's not up to those aristocratic private soldiers to look down on us, is it?"

"If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have preferred to mine for the Han army. At least I could have filled my stomach. Unlike now, I not only don't have enough to eat, but I also have to endure people's contempt. How could I have been so blinded by greed and refused to be reformed?"

When the conversation turned to something sad, everyone couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

Ugh……

what……

Before the sighs had even finished, a piercing scream reached their ears, startling all the prisoners who turned to look at it.

Then I saw a colleague lying on the ground, clutching his right leg and groaning. A bamboo skewer about the thickness of a finger was sticking out of the top of his foot.

The prisoners quickly surrounded him, carrying the wounded prisoner back the way they came, saying as they ran, "Quickly report to General Zhang Cheng and ask the army doctor to come and treat him."