Chapter 521 It’s Over
The war in Yangzhou of Wu State has completely broken out. The Yellow Turban army acted with swift and vigorous force. In just one or two days, the troops were completely deployed from Qu'a. A dozen Yellow Turbans led by Taishi Ci broke up into small groups and quickly destroyed the county armies and grassroots institutions in various parts of Yangzhou with an unstoppable momentum.

The whole process was like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves. Without the threat of Wu's main army, the grassroots forces in Yangzhou were as powerless and fragile as a stripped woman in front of these tens of thousands of Yellow Turbans who were as fierce as wolves and tigers.

One month is a tight time frame. Although the Yellow Turbans cannot immediately absorb Yangzhou, after occupying the counties, as long as they leave behind reserve officials to mobilize the people to clean up the local aristocratic and powerful forces, they can slowly take control of this new land.

When the people of Wu were already suffering, the Yellow Turbans' troops, as soon as they arrived, distributed land, fought against the local tyrants, and exempted all kinds of taxes and labor service. This combination of measures alone was more effective than anything else. The people immediately became unfamiliar with Wu and instead welcomed and obeyed the Yellow Turbans' governance with the utmost enthusiasm.

In fact, the power of the people is invincible, they just lack the right leadership.

For example, the Shu Han and Wu courts were representatives of the powerful and wealthy class. When the people were oppressed, they looked up and saw that there was no one who could uphold justice for them. Only when they were pushed to the bottom line would they launch a violent resistance that lacked a strategy, and the power of the people was only reflected at this time.

But no one had ever truly grasped this power until the Yellow Turbans came.

What the Yellow Turban Army did was just to clear out the grassroots institutions of the Wu State. After this task was completed, they did not need to stay for a long time. After that, they only needed to leave behind a few Yellow Turban reserve officials, which would be enough to mobilize the masses to complete the subsequent work.

When the top power no longer represented the rich and powerful, the people began to realize that those powerful families were not so scary after all.

As a result, Yangzhou also ushered in the belated movement of fighting against local tyrants and dividing land. The vigorous reform cause finally appeared on the land of Wu State, and then continued to spread with the footsteps of the Yellow Turban armies.

Wars broke out in various counties and prefectures of Yangzhou. As the capital of Wu, Jianye was the most intense place. The Yellow Turbans were coming with great momentum, and no one could say how long Cheng Pu could hold out by relying on the city walls.

This question also popped up in Sun Quan and Zhou Yu's minds when the expedited military report was delivered to Xiangyang ten days later.

"Urgent report from Yangzhou, the main force of the Yellow Turbans, hundreds of thousands of men ambushed Xuzhou, crossed the river to attack Yangzhou and besieged Jianye ten days ago. I don't know what the situation is today!"

In the Wu-Shu camp, when the messenger shouted "head fell down", Sun Quan was completely stunned.

At first, he didn't react. Wasn't the main force of the Yellow Turbans right in front of him? Why did they go to attack Yangzhou? How could this be possible? Could it be that the Yellow Turbans were all gods who could make rapid progress in a day?
The news came so strangely that Sun Quan subconsciously looked at the ministers around him, but everyone around him also looked confused.

Only Zhou Yu and Lu Su frowned. They keenly felt that something was wrong, but they couldn't tell what it was.

It was not until the messenger forced himself to sit up and spoke again breathlessly that they were all stunned.

"Your Majesty, our army has been fooled. The Yellow Turbans on the other side have always been pretending to be civilians. Their real main force has been ambushing behind Xuzhou from the beginning. When our main force was tricked into coming to Xiangyang, they mobilized hundreds of ships from the rear to transport troops. Now the main force of the Yellow Turbans has crossed the Yangtze River. Yangzhou may be in danger!"

After that, the soldier reached into his arms with his shaking hands and pulled out a letter: "Here is the detailed letter, please have a look, Your Majesty!"

After he finished speaking, the entire tent fell silent. Everyone stared with their eyes wide open, motionless, as if they had lost their souls and had lost all reaction. Their shocked faces were like sculptures.

Sun Quan's face turned even paler. At this moment, all the strange things about the Yellow Turbans on the other side of the river were explained. However, when he understood all this, he did not feel the joy of having his doubts resolved. Instead, he felt a chill all over his body. The Wu Kingdom was finished.
Sun Quan woke up with a sudden shudder. He no longer cared about his dignity as an emperor and rushed forward with a few big strides. Then he snatched the letter from the messenger and began to read it with a pale face.

At this time, Zhou Yu, Lu Su and others could no longer sit still and came forward one after another. However, just as they passed by, they saw Sun Quan collapse and fall backwards.

Everyone was shocked and rushed forward to catch it. Then they saw that tears were already coming out of Sun Quan's eyes.

"The Wu Kingdom is over, the Wu Kingdom is over. Is the foundation of the Sun family going to end in my hands? Father and brother, I, Sun Quan, am incompetent!"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, but their expressions couldn't help but fall. At this moment, their mood was not much better than Sun Quan's. After realizing that they had fallen into a trap, they all knew that the Wu Kingdom was finished, at least Yangzhou was definitely gone, and Yangzhou happened to be the most important base of the Wu Kingdom.

Although there is still Jiaozhou left, the south is already lacking in development. Yangzhou can only be considered mediocre, and Jiaozhou is even worse. It is even directly a wild and miasma-filled place. Only exile would be considered here.

Once the Yellow Turbans captured Yangzhou, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the Wu Kingdom was doomed.

Zhou Yu took the letter from Sun Quan with a serious face. After reading it silently, his expression became even more serious, as ugly as a pool of stagnant water that had been stagnant for a hundred years.

There was not much content in the letter, in fact, it was just the information that the messenger had just mentioned. After all, it was an urgent report sent at the first time, and only the first-hand information was obtained. As for the current situation in Yangzhou, the messenger did not know.

However, there is no need to confirm this kind of thing. Zhou Yu can imagine what Yangzhou looks like now with his butt.

Zhou Yu didn't dare to think too much about how exciting it would be to see hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban main forces being thrown into Yangzhou, which was now poorly defended. Maybe the Yellow Turbans had already taken Jianye by now.

"Go back, gather the army immediately, I want to go back immediately!"

After a period of grief, Sun Quan finally came to his senses. The first thing he thought of was his wife, children and the elderly. He was extremely anxious and could not sit still for a moment.

Zhou Yu and Lu Su looked at each other and sighed. Although they knew that going back was a necessary choice, they were very pessimistic about the outcome.

Ten days have passed now, and it will take at least another month for the army to return. By that time, even if the Wu army can make it back, it will be too late.

Yangzhou was bound to fall. The only thing they could hope for was that they could return to defend and repel the Yellow Turbans and regain the lost territory, which would at least help save the situation to some extent.

After thinking for a while, Zhou Yu stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty is wise. Our army should regroup and return to defend. However, the Wu army alone may not be enough to deal with the Yellow Turbans. It is best for our army to obtain the support of Shu Han. Only if they also send troops to act together, will we have the strength to fight the Yellow Turbans after we return!"

Sun Quan glanced at Zhou Yu and said through gritted teeth, "Alright, do it right away!"

(End of this chapter)