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The generals heard correctly, Cao Zhen did say that he was ready to surrender to Wu. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

There are three paths in front of them, either sit and wait for the Han army to attack and finally die in battle, or Suo surname give up resistance and surrender to the Han State, and the last way is naturally to surrender to the Wu State.

Cao Ying's capture, the spiritual pillar in the hearts of the generals is gone, not many people are willing to be buried for the empire, waiting for the death of this road, Cao Zhen can choose this way, but the generals present are just a working boy, the boss is gone, the company is collapsed, let them follow the company to the west of course they will not choose.

As for the surrender of the Han State, for so many years, the Han State has been the biggest enemy of the Wei State, and most of the generals present have participated in the battle with the Han army, so that they can submit to the former sworn enemy, and psychologically this level is certainly not easy to pass.

And among the generals present, many of them are generals from Qingxu Huaisi, and they have more or less geopolitical ties with Wu State, and the war between Wu State is nothing more than several battles in Shouchun, Hefei and Xiapi, and the grudge between the two sides is far less deep than that with Han State, so the third way is actually not the best way for the generals.

The generals originally had this intention, but it was just because of Cao Zhen, and now that Cao Zhen took the lead in proposing the plan to reduce Wu, of course the generals agreed with one voice.

In view of the rapid attack of the Han army, Cao Zhen sent an envoy to Jiangdong to meet Sun Quan, the lord of Wu, on the same day.

At this time, Sun Quan had moved to Chaisang to supervise the battle, and the news of the annihilation of the entire Wei army in the Battle of Yecheng reached Chaisang before Cao Zhen's envoy, which shocked the monarchs and ministers of Wu.

For the defeat of Wei, Wu was actually mentally prepared, otherwise they would not have risked breaking with Han to raid Jingzhou, in order to recreate a situation of balance between the three kingdoms, or at least delay the time for the demise of Wei, and buy enough time for Wu to take Jingzhou and even Bashu, and take the Yangtze River.

However, what they didn't expect was that Fang Shao could come up with a strange plan to "freeze" the Wei army, crush the main force of Wei in one fell swoop, and cross the Yellow River south at an incredible speed to seize the hinterland of the Central Plains.

This kind of situation is not only a shock for Wu Guojunchen, but even a blow.

This means that the Wei state has fallen, and the Han army will not only have to take all the northern lands, but also have been able to draw troops to reinforce Jingzhou, and if they cannot capture Xiangyang and Jiangling before then, then the benefits of the surprise attack on Jingzhou will be greatly reduced.

"Your Majesty, the destruction of the Wei State is imminent, and when the Han State thinks of our invasion of Jingzhou, it will be a soldier, and it will be a burden to the ministers, so it is better to withdraw the army and rebuild the old friendship with the Han State." Situ Zhangzhao looked very anxious.

At this time, Lu Meng, the general of the expedition to the north, said: "Situ's words are wrong, since we have turned the face of the Han Kingdom and met each other in arms, how can we want to rebuild the old relationship with it just by retreating from the army." ”

Zhang Zhao frowned and said, "If you don't rebuild the old good, does Ziming think that with the current strength of my Great Wu Kingdom, I can compete with the Han Kingdom, which has obtained the entire north and Bashu and half of Jingzhou?" ”

Lu Meng said proudly: "The destruction of the Wei State is a foregone conclusion, then we should take the opportunity to go north and compete with the Han State to carve up the land of the Wei State, as long as our strength is strong enough, plus there is the danger of the river, what is the Han State afraid of." ”

Lu Meng's bold words made Sun Quan's eyes glow, thinking that the land of Wei in the north of the Yangtze River would be undefended and could be easily incorporated into his own territory, Sun Quan drooled greedily.

But let him make a blockage, Xiangyang and Jiangling are like thorns in the eye, if they are not removed, they will not be able to fight for the Central Plains from Jingzhou to the north, which means that he can only choose one way to send troops north from Huainan. However, the nightmare of the previous battle of Xuzhou still lingers, and Sun Quan is really not confident in whether he can open a breakthrough to the north from Xuzhou.

In the face of Lu Meng's arrogance, Zhang Zhao sneered: "Ziming is easy to say, now that Xiangyang is not down, how can our army go north to fight for Wei soil, is it difficult to fly over the territory of the Han State?" ”

Lu Meng disagreed: "If Xiangyang can't be attacked, then we will divert the army from Huainan, we have the convenience of waterways, we can take Qingxu first, and then take Yanyu, the current situation, the Wei State will be all over the garrison will be looking at the wind." ”

"Xuzhou still has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of Cao Zhen to guard, this person is an important minister of Wei, how can he easily surrender, if he swears to defend the land, Ziming will not remember the lesson when he stepped forward to attack Xuzhou." Zhang Zhao poured cold water again.

However, this scoop of cold water poured Sun Quan's mind, thinking about the last attack on Xuzhou, his 200,000 army, besieged Xiapi for nearly half a year and could not be broken, and finally the battle of Pengcheng, Lü Meng's 50,000 male soldiers, but was defeated by Cao Zhen's 3,000 cavalry, making Wu up and down, everyone was afraid of Cao Zhen. And now, if he raises troops to attack Xuzhou again, Sun Quan's heart is really bottomless.

Lu Meng didn't squeak at this time, the previous battle of Pengcheng, his own 50,000 elite soldiers, but was defeated by Cao Zhen's 3,000 cavalry, which is really a shame that is difficult to wash away for Lu Meng, since returning to Jiangdong, Lu Meng also felt that he couldn't raise his head, this time he was poked by Zhang Hezhao, Lu Meng naturally felt quite uncomfortable.

In Lu Meng's heart, there was still some fear of Cao Zhen, who was guarding Xuzhou.

The atmosphere in the hall fell silent for a while, and at this moment, the attendants who hurriedly entered delivered an urgent report from Zhu Ran, the general of Shou Chun, to break the slightly deserted atmosphere.

As soon as Sun Quan opened the letter, he didn't realize that Long Yan was happy, and exclaimed excitedly: "Great, God really helps me!" ”

The two ministers of civil and military affairs were all surprised, and hurriedly asked what the happy thing was, Sun Quan spread the letter in front of the case, and said with a smile: "Zibu, it seems that your worries are too much, Cao Zidan of Xuzhou is already ready to submit to me." ”

Lu and Zhang were pleasantly surprised, and they were anxious to snatch Zhu Ran's letter to take a closer look, and Fang Shao believed what Sun Quan said.

Lu Meng said excitedly: "Your Majesty, if Cao Zhen comes and surrenders, then our army will get Xuzhou without wasted effort, and with this as a breakthrough, there will be no more obstacles to the northern struggle for the Central Plains, Your Majesty, please quickly issue an edict to move troops to the southeast." ”

Now that he heard that Cao Zhen had returned to obedience, Zhang Zhao could no longer object, and changed his surname and said: "Your Majesty, Zi Ming is reasonable, without further ado, we must quickly take over Xuzhou and fight for Wei soil as much as possible." ”

With the joint support of the two important ministers of civil and military affairs, Sun Quan made a decision and immediately sent an edict to Lu Xun, who was besieging Jiangling on the front line, ordering him to withdraw from the siege and return to the east, leaving 50,000 soldiers and horses to guard the land of Jingzhou, and the rest of the soldiers and horses were transferred to Xuzhou.

Chaisang was only a few days away from Jiangling, and the edict to withdraw troops was quickly sent to the front line.

At this moment, Lu Xun was personally commanding nearly 60,000 Wu troops to besiege Jiangling, and it was nearly April now.

Although the Wu army was ten times superior to the enemy, although the Wu army had the absolute superiority of the naval army, and although the city of Jiangling was besieged, in the case of heavy casualties, Lu Xun could not help the second largest city in Jingzhou guarded by Xu Shu and Zhang Liao.

However, Lu Xun was not discouraged, he believed that as long as the war between Han and Wei continued, then he would have enough time to break through this indomitable city.

However, in the Battle of Yecheng, the Wei army was completely annihilated, and the news of Cao Ying's capture broke Lu Xun's wishful thinking, and the ensuing order of Sun Quan to withdraw his troops made Lu Xun's situation even worse.

"General, Jiangling City is about to be breached, and withdrawing troops at this time will not be a failure." Zhu Huan, the general of Fenwu, expressed his dissatisfaction.

Lu Xunyu closed the edict, walked out of the tent, looked at the smoke-filled Jiangling City from afar, and sighed: "How many years have I endured in Dongwu, only to wait for such a God-given opportunity to attack Jingzhou, but now His Majesty is tempted by the benefits of Xuzhou, withdraw the troops to the east, you must know that although Xuzhou is large, but the Han army has the advantage of cavalry, once the south fights, our army is difficult to resist, and then Xuzhou is not going to give up to the Han State, I am only afraid that this time it will be lost at both ends." ”

Zhu Huan frowned, and hurriedly said: "Since this is the case, why doesn't the general make a proposal to His Majesty, let him withdraw his order, and still concentrate his forces to capture Jiangling and Xiangyang?" ”

Lu Xun just looked at the city and sighed, but he had no words.

In fact, Lu Xun also has his own difficulties, this time he was named the general of Zhenxi, and led the army to attack Jingzhou, one is the means of Sun Quan's eastward Jiangdongization, the second is also to confuse Guan Yu, and the third is the merits he has made over the years, in fact, the people Sun Quan really trusts are still Lu Meng and Zhang Zhao.

And this Lu and Zhang are the core figures of the Huaisi scholars, and now Xuzhou can go down without attacking, and with this "heaven-given" opportunity, Zhang and Lu will naturally try their best to persuade Sun Quan to move his troops to accept Cao Zhen's surrender. If he Lu Xun raised objections at this time, he would not only be opposed and hostile to the Huaisi scholars, but also make the suspicious Sun Quan doubt his intentions, and some of the military power that he had finally obtained from the Huaisi scholars would not be able to be taken back by Sun Quan in this way.

That's why Lu Xun is so hesitant and worried, and his concerns can only be said to Zhu Huan, who was born in Jiangdong, and he can't confide in them all.

"That's it, the king's order cannot be violated, if Your Majesty wants to withdraw the troops, then let's withdraw." After pondering for a long time, Lu Xun finally reluctantly made a compromise.

Three days later, 150,000 Wu troops withdrew from the siege one after another, and Guan Yu, who was isolated north of the Han River, was able to cross the Han River south into Xiangyang again after four or five months.

Although the two important towns of Xiangyang and Jiangling were preserved, Guan Yu found that his territory had been seriously reduced: the four counties of Changsha, Guiyang, Lingling, and Wuling had been acquired by Eastern Wu, and all of Jiangxia County's Jiangnan and parts of Jiangbei had also fallen into the hands of Wu, and part of the southern counties east of Jiangling had also been taken by Wu.

This means that Jingzhou, which is now in Guan Yu's hands, is only one Nanyang County, Beijiangxia County, and the northwest of Nanjun.

At this time, Zhang Fei's troops had broken through Hangu Pass and were advancing to Luoyang, and Fang Shao's exploits in the north were even more remarkable, and he Guan Yu not only did not make an inch of merit in this battle to destroy Wei, but lost his troops and lost his face.

All this made Guan Yu both ashamed and resentful, and on the second day after entering Xiangyang, Guan Yu sent a table to Chang'an, asking the imperial court to transfer troops to help him attack Wu and recapture Jingzhou.

After waiting for a few days, Guan Yu not only did not wait for reinforcements from the imperial court, but waited for the imperial court to summon him to the imperial court's auxiliary government, which made Guan Yu feel quite surprised.

(To be continued)