In Jiangling City, Yang Wu did not have the same emotion as the generals.

He was not very optimistic about Guo Chongtao's plan at the beginning.

It's not that he can calculate that it will suddenly rain in the sky when the Wu army launches a fire attack, but he feels that it has not rained for too long, as long as it rains on any day in between, the ground will be moist at that time, and the grass and trees will not be easy to ignite, and this fire attack will naturally not be able to be launched.

And now it's the rainy season, and the possibility of rain is already very high, and it doesn't rain all the time, which is an abnormal thing.

However, when he really received the news, he was still very surprised, just when he was about to succeed, it suddenly rained in the sky and extinguished the fire, which is a bit of a coincidence.

After putting away the paperwork, Yang Wu frowned and pondered.

The current situation is indeed not very good for the Wu army, the convergence of the Liang army and the Shu army has basically become a foregone conclusion, and then when the coalition army reaches Jiangling in the south, then the Wu army will have to make a choice, whether to directly launch a decisive battle with the enemy, or withdraw the army and go back, looking for an opportunity to fight again.

On the side, Zhu Jin may have seen his hesitation, and immediately said out: "King, the minister thinks that the current situation is not good for us, and he rashly fights a decisive battle with the enemy, but I am afraid that he may not be able to win." It's better to retire for the time being, and look for opportunities later. ”

Yang Wu nodded, a little noncommittal.

Zhu Jin hesitated for a moment, and then said: "King, I heard that Zhu Wen, the lord of Liang, is seriously ill now, and although he has returned to Luoyang, his condition has not improved in the slightest, maybe he won't survive this time?" He was sixty years old after all. ”

Yang Wu understood what he meant, if Zhu Wen couldn't get through this time, then there would be chaos about the succession to the throne of Liang; Even if there is no chaos, when the new emperor ascends the throne, his control of the court situation will inevitably be affected.

When the time comes, the Wu army will send troops to besiege Jiangling again, and it should be much easier to defeat the reinforcements of the Liang army than it is now; It is not certain that the Liang army will even send troops to rescue at that time, after all, what does the new Emperor Liang think, who can say clearly?

Therefore, Zhu Jin felt that it was better to retreat for the time being and wait for a better time than to rashly fight a decisive battle with the Liangshu coalition army now.

In fact, Yang Wu also knew that it was a good choice to take a step back for the time being, and even knew that Zhu Wen was almost certain that he would not be able to survive.

Next, whether Zhu Youwen succeeds in ascending the throne, or as in history, Zhu Youqi seizes the throne by killing his father, there is a possibility of internal turmoil in the Liang State.

But Yang Wu felt that the price of retreating now was too great.

The first point, of course, was a blow to his personal reputation.

You must know that this time is after all the first time he personally led the troops after the establishment of the state of Wu, if he fails to take Jiangling in the end and returns in vain, this will definitely affect his own prestige.

The second point is that in order to attack Jiangling before, Wu had already invested so many troops, invested so much money and food, and prepared for a long time before sending troops; If it is not achieved now, those investments will be in vain; And the next time the troops are dispatched, they will have to invest a lot of money and food again.

As for the third point, there is concern about the future situation.

Why did you rush to send troops to Gangneung this time when the war in Qianju had not yet been settled? It is nothing more than worrying about the large-scale interference of the Shu army.

At that time, the Shu army had not yet ended the war with the Qi army, and could only intervene in Jiangling with part of its forces; And now that peace has been negotiated between Shu and Qi, if you wait for the next battle, who knows if Wang Jian's next time he frees up his hand, will he invest more troops?

Could it be that we have to wait until Wang Jian is dead before sending troops to attack Jiangling? This is obviously impossible.

It was precisely because of these concerns that Yang Wu was still a little hesitant whether to withdraw his troops or fight a decisive battle with the coalition forces.

After pondering for a while, Yang Wu still couldn't make up his mind, and seeing that Zhu Jin was still waiting for his words, he immediately said: "General Zhu, how to decide, Gu hasn't thought about it now, let's wait for General Wang and the others to come back!" ”

Seeing this, Zhu Jin had no choice but to give up.

A few days later, Qin Pei and Wang Maozhang joined up and headed south together, stationed in the east of Jiangling City.

Yang Wu ordered Li Zhang to stick to the camp, and he led 3,000 Yulin troops to join Wang Maozhang and others.

As soon as they met, Wang Maozhang fell to the ground and pleaded guilty to Yang Wu.

However, Yang Wu did not blame him, after all, from beginning to end, the mistake he made was that he was attacked by the enemy in a tunnel that night, and as a result, he lost the best opportunity to defeat the Liang army.

However, the responsibility for that defeat was not on Wang Maozhang alone, almost all the generals present were responsible; In the final analysis, Kou Yanqing's plan was too ingenious, and everyone didn't notice it at the time.

Therefore, even if Yang Wu wants to blame, he will not only pursue Wang Maozhang alone.

After helping Wang Maozhang up, the generals greeted Yang Wu.

When the generals led the troops to go on the expedition, Yang Wu was seriously ill, and now when he came back, although he had already learned in the document that Yang Wu's condition had basically improved, the generals still had to inquire before they were relieved.

After settling down completely, Yang Wu asked: "Generals, the current situation must be clear to everyone, whether you should temporarily withdraw your troops and go back, or whether you should fight a decisive battle with the enemy, you might as well speak freely!" ”

The main task of today's deliberations is to decide the next course of the army, whether to fight or retreat, and we must come up with an idea as soon as possible; Otherwise, when the combined forces of the Shuliang family arrived, it would not be so easy for them to withdraw.

"The king, the minister thinks that he should retreat and go back at this time and rest in order to fight again in the future!" As soon as Yang Wu's words fell, Qin Pei was the first to stand up and mention it.

"King, I heard that Zhu Wen is now seriously ill, and the government of Liang State is a little unstable, at this time, there is no need for our army to fight hard with the enemy, as long as we wait until Zhu Wen dies, the situation in Liang will inevitably give birth to chaos, and when the time comes, we will definitely be able to achieve victory if we send troops again!" Wang Maozhang's opinion is similar to Qin Pei's.

Yang Wu frowned, and looked at Guo Chongtao again.

It's a pity that Guo Chongtao also nodded and said: "Your Majesty, the minister agrees with the opinions of General Qin and General Wang, and at this time, the troops should be temporarily withdrawn and go back to rest." ”

Yang Wu was silent, he turned his head to look at the other generals and said, "Do you also have this opinion?" ”

The others glanced at each other, and Hou Zan stood up as a representative and said, "The opinion of the ministers is also to withdraw the troops temporarily, and it is safe to be safe!" ”

This result was really a bit unexpected for Yang Wu, among the two choices of retreat and decisive battle, the generals unanimously chose to withdraw their troops, which made him extremely surprised.

At this time, Wang Maozhang stood up and said: "King, I got a piece of news before, although I haven't had time to confirm it, but the last general feels that the news is very likely to be true!" ”

"Oh, what is the news that makes you all think you should withdraw your troops?" Yang Wu was a little curious.

It stands to reason that these generals should be the most unwilling to admit defeat.

Although the Wu army failed to defeat the Liang army in advance and allowed the Liang army to successfully merge with the Shu army, even if the Liang army and the Shu army converged, the combined strength of the two forces may not be stronger than the Wu army.

Now in a decisive battle, it is not necessarily impossible to defeat the enemy army.

So Yang Wu was very curious about what kind of news made them think that they should withdraw their troops.

Wang Maozhang said: "King, I just got the news that it is said that the 15,000 army led by Liu Yan, the general of the Liang army, is heading south, and now it is said that it is almost to Jingmen. ”

"What? The Liang army came to reinforcements again? Yang Wu was really a little surprised at this time.

What he didn't know was that if he hadn't personally led the troops, Jing Xiang wouldn't have to attach so much importance to this battle; And the reason why Liu Yan went south was mainly because he was worried that Kou Yanqing's little force would not be able to stop the Wu army led by Yang Wu himself.

"The Liang army actually has another 15,000 troops to help, but I didn't expect it!" Yang Wu pondered in his heart.

No wonder all the generals felt that they should withdraw their troops at this time.

After all, Zhu Wen is seriously ill and may die of illness at any time; If he really died of illness, then when the time comes, if the Wu army takes the opportunity to send troops again, Liang is afraid that because of the turmoil in the internal situation, he may not send troops to rescue Jiangling.

When the time comes, if you only need to deal with the Shu army, everyone will naturally be very confident.

Seeing that Yang Wu was silent, the generals followed one by one without speaking, quietly waiting for Yang Wu to make a decision.

They knew that Yang Wu had always been a very assertive person, and when the generals unanimously agreed that the troops should be withdrawn, he remained silent, which showed that he was in favor of a decisive battle with the enemy in his heart.

However, what the generals don't understand is that at this time, the decisive battle may not be sure of victory!

However, in Yang Wu's eyes, it is a different view.

Why was Li Cunmiao, the king of Jin, able to scare Zhu Wen into fleeing overnight?

It's not just because Zhu Wen is old and faint, and he can't compare with that year; More importantly, every time Li Cunqiao personally commanded a major battle, he finally won the victory.

His prestige is the prestige of the play, not the prestige of relying on the title of King of Jin.

And what about Yang Wu? He used to have a great reputation in the world, although his prestige has been weakened because he has not led troops to fight in Jinling in recent years, but in general, his name can still deter the world.

For example, this time, after Jing Xiang heard that he was leading an army to fight in person, he decided to send another 15,000 troops led by Liu Cheng to help.

Why is that?

It's not because Yang Wu's prestige was too strong a few years ago.

And this time, it was the first time that Yang Wu led the army to recruit in person after he founded the Wu State, and if he retreated like this, it would inevitably damage his prestige.

The people of the world don't care that Yang Wu couldn't personally lead the troops during this period because of his illness, they only knew one thing, that is, Yang Wu personally led nearly 100,000 troops to attack Jiangling, but was beaten back by Kou Yanqing and Wang Zongshou, two generals.

At that time, not only Yang Wu's prestige will be damaged, but Wu Guo's prestige will be affected.

He has tried his best to improve the prestige of Wu Guo and himself over the years, but if he is damaged just because he retreats like this, the price will be too great.

Thinking of this, Yang Wu instead strengthened his idea of starting a decisive battle with the enemy.