The negotiation only lasted for two days and could not continue, Li Feng arrogantly interrupted the discussion of Du Qiong, who was discussing academically, and said to Zhang Wen and Zhang Cheng arrogantly, don't say these useless, Cao Wei is rebellious, my Han is orthodox, and the prince of your King Wu is sealed by Cao Wei, which is a fact that no one can deny. We don't ask for anything else, we only ask you to announce that you will abandon the prince of Cao Wei, and then change to my Han Dynasty as a vassal, and make him the king of Wu. It's just a nominal thing, he has nothing to lose, you weishenme want to push back? Reluctant to abandon the darkness and turn to the light, right? Well, since you don't listen to what you say, you can only come to the hard one and destroy you.

Ignoring Zhang Wen and Zhang Cheng's anger, Li Feng brazenly decided to terminate the negotiations, he only gave a deadline, the general said that the end of September is the deadline, if you don't want to have a conflict because of this, then quickly persuade Sun Quan to let him surrender to my Han. Otherwise, on the first day of the first month of October, the righteous division of my Great Han will definitely appear in the territory of your Wu Kingdom.

After sending this sentence, Li Feng walked away. As soon as he left, Du Qiong and Fei Yi couldn't stay still. They are supporting roles, Li Feng is the protagonist, and it is Li Feng who can really make decisions, not them. Li Feng is gone, and it is useless for them to stay here.

Negotiations ended in nothing.

Li Feng's toughness was much beyond Sun Deng's expectations, Sun Quan ordered him to drag it, let him and Du Qiong talk about it, and the longer the delay, the better, but he didn't expect Li Feng, a fool, to ignore that at all, throw out a zuihou deadline, and leave.

This is not a negotiation at all, it is a zuihou spy.

Sun Deng didn't dare to slack off, he could only send the news back to Wuchang. At the same time, a large number of scouts were sent into Guiyang, Lingling, Wuling and other places, and even as far as Jiaozhou, to find out Wei Ba's movements.

……

Without waiting for Sun Deng's scouts to return, Wei Ba's official letter arrived first.

This official letter was sent from Jiaozhou, but when it was issued, Wei Ba was already on his way to leave Jiaozhou. Wei Ba said very politely, the autumn harvest is imminent, according to the custom, after the autumn, there will be a capital test, and the standing troops of each county should be gathered together for review. This year is his third year in mastery of Jiaozhou and Jingnan. Many soldiers will retire and return to their hometowns. It is necessary to levy a batch of new recruits to supplement the army, so this year's scale will be larger and last a little longer, in order to avoid misunderstanding of Wu Guo. So the text informs. Don't be nervous. It's just a normal military parade. Not a war.

This official letter was forwarded by Li Feng, and of course the content of it was clear to Li Feng, and the arrogance on his face could be felt ten miles away. Sun Deng read the official letter. But his face was pale and he was at a loss. Where is this official letter, it is clearly a declaration of war. Wei Ba not only has to assemble a large army on the border, but also conscripts some men of appropriate age for review, the total number will reach seventy or eighty thousand, and at this sensitive time, who dares to really treat him as a review, and who can guarantee that if an agreement cannot be reached, on the first day of October, he will not wave his army into Changsha?

There are only 20,000 people in Changsha, and they can't stop Wei Ba's pace at all. Once Wei Ba launched an attack, the loss might only be a matter of ten days.

After sending away Li Feng, who had a smug face, Sun Deng summoned Zhang Cheng, Zhang Wen and others to discuss. Everyone looked at each other, no one spoke, and the atmosphere was particularly oppressive. From the day they knew they were going to negotiate, they knew that war was possible, but no one expected that war would come so quickly.

It is only the beginning of August, and the autumn harvest is being carried out or preparing in various places, Wei Ba's station is in the south, and the autumn harvest time is also the earliest, and the autumn harvest has begun in the area under his jurisdiction, which will probably be about ten days earlier than the Wuchang area. However, after the autumn harvest, the grain will be completed, and the annual plan will be carried out, and it will be impossible to finish it without being busy until mid-September, which is why Li Yan set the zuihou deadline at the end of September.

They all thought that even if there was to be a war, they would have to wait until late September, and there would be enough time to prepare. No one expected that at the beginning of August, before the autumn harvest was over, Wei Ba couldn't wait to start the pre-war preparations, and sent this official letter in a hurry.

The sound of war drums poured into everyone's ears at once.

"This negotiation probably won't work out." Zhang Cheng coughed, breaking the silence first. In addition to Sun Deng, the nominal supreme general, he is the general who is really responsible for the military of the Changsha Defense Zone, Wei Ba is pressing forward step by step, and the war is about to break out, so he can't help but prepare for war. "The minister thought that he should report to the king immediately and ask the king to get ready. There are only 20,000 people in Changsha, and the troops are seriously insufficient, so the king needs to send elites to help. In addition, our army has prepared a lot of ordnance, and the reserve of fire bombs is almost empty, so do you ask the king to transfer some? ”

Sun Deng smiled bitterly: "All the fire bombs are in Yingchuan, and even Wuchang has no reserves." The homemade fire bomb is not up to par at all, and it is not usable at the moment, at this time, can Wei Ba still sell the fire bomb to us? ”

Zhang Cheng didn't speak, he had already raised the problem, whether it could be solved or not, that was Sun Deng's business. He has this psychological preparation, but the psychological preparation is not enough to solve the problem of insufficient combat preparation, and without the help of fire bombs, Changsha is afraid that it will not be able to hold on.

"Anyway, let the king get ready." Zhang Wen also sighed: "When the tiger is coming, either feed the meat or take the knife, you can't have nothing to prepare." Wei Ba has been recuperating all these years, and he probably hopes to give it a try. ”

Sun Deng glanced at Zhang Wen and said nothing. He heard the meaning of retreat from Zhang Wen's words. Wei Ba has been recuperating in the past few years, even when Li Yan captured Nanyang, Wei Ba did not go all out, he only used 10,000 standing soldiers and 3,000 personal guard battalions, and the losses were very limited. It can be said that in the past three years, although the ten counties under the rule of Wei Ba have not been peaceful and prosperous, compared with other places, this is undoubtedly a peaceful place. In contrast, Wu Guo has been rejuvenating the army for many years, and has hardly used soldiers for a year, and has paid a huge amount of nearly 200,000 gold in order to buy fire bombs and war horses, and has long been emptied of his family.

When comparing the two, it is clear who has the advantage. Since there is no advantage, there is no need to resist hard, it is not an expedient measure to bow your head, feed the tiger a few pieces of meat, feed it to the full, and fight for a respite.

This is what Zhang Wen meant, and probably what those Jiangdong families with families and businesses mean, they don't want to fight. Who Sun Quan is a vassal to, it has no impact on them, and there is no need to fight for such a name. Once the war starts, Sun Quan, who is already very poor, will definitely have to take money from them again: whether it is borrowed or not.

Sun Deng looked at Zhang Cheng, but Zhang Cheng was silent. Sun Deng looked at Sun Song again, Sun Song shook his head gently, his face was heavy, and he was obviously not very optimistic about the prospects. Zhang Wen is the representative of the Jiangdong family, Zhang Cheng is the representative of the Jianghuai family, and Sun Song is the representative of the Sun clan, none of them are in favor of war, but Zhang Cheng and Sun Song are not as straightforward as Zhang Wen said.

Sun Deng had no choice but to reseal Wei Ba's official letter and send it to Wuchang, and at the same time attached a preparation for war, reporting the current situation to Sun Quan in detail, explaining his shortage of materials, and hoping that Sun Quan could make up for it as soon as possible, so as not to miss the war.

……

Just when Wei Ba's thin piece of paper made Sun Deng tremble, Meng Da led 10,000 elites and intercepted a huge transportation team.

Three thousand war horses.

With so many war horses, of course, it is not a business that ordinary horse dealers can afford. This is the war horse that Zhuge Liang sold to Sun Quan, and the person in charge of escorting it is Jiang Wei's fellow villager Yin Xian, who is now joining the army in the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Facing Meng Da, who was blocking the road and robbing, Yin Xian argued vigorously, this is a normal transaction, it is a transaction between Prime Minister Zhuge and King Wu, everything is legal, King Wu has already paid all the money, he was just ordered to escort the war horse to Wuchang and hand it over to Sun Quan. Besides, it's not the first time that such a transaction has happened, there were no problems the first few times, and weishenme had a problem this time?

Meng Da's explanation is very simple: the general has an order, and before Sun Quan declares himself a vassal to the Han Dynasty, he is a potential enemy, and no strategic materials can be transported to the territory of Wu, and war horses are of course no exception. I don't want your war horses, but I just detain them first, one day Sun Quan agreed to the general's proposal and submitted a letter of state to the emperor Bixia to claim the title of minister, I will return these war horses in full, and promise that there is not a single horsehair missing. Of course, if Sun Quan refuses to be a minister, my subordinates will ride these horses into battle and defeat Sun Quan to bow down. It's just that at that time, it was impossible for him to return the horse.

Meng Da also said to Yin Xian with a sincere face, I am also doing the prime minister a favor. War horses are the big animals of the country, when the Han-Wu War was about to begin, how could he sell war horses to Sun Quan? This is a collaborator. I also want to share the worries of the prime minister, don't worry, go back and report the prime minister truthfully, I believe he won't blame you.

Yin Xian was extremely angry and accused Meng Dadao, the negotiations have just begun, and you think that the negotiations will not be successful? You are clearly breaking the covenant and forcing Wu to turn around, if you cause a war, can you afford such a responsibility?

Meng Da was dismissive. What virtue does Sun Quan have, can I not know? That's a bastard who doesn't fight and doesn't obey. What do you see General Zhennan bullying him into, and he is not as obedient as he is? The prime minister was good to Sun Quan, but Sun Quan didn't want to get cheap at any time. This kind of person, if he doesn't fight and is not honest, just giving benefits will only spoil him.

When encountering a veteran ruffian like Meng Da, Yin Xian's eloquence was useless, so he had to leave in disgrace, the three thousand war horses were gone, and he didn't even get a receipt. He rushed back to Guanzhong day and night, and reported the news to Zhuge Liang as soon as possible.

……

After Zhuge Liang listened, he sat silently for a long time, and said to Jiang Wei and Yang Yi who rushed to hear the news: "Could it be that Li Yan and Wei Ba are really ready for war and want to fight Sun Quan?" ”

Yang Yi was speechless, but Jiang Wei was a little gloomy. Zhuge Liang had analyzed before that it was impossible for Wei Ba to really want to help Li Yan fight this battle, but now he raised such a question, which can only show one problem, Zhuge Liang has no confidence, he doubts his previous judgment, and his once incomparably strong self-confidence began to shake unconsciously.

The three armies can win the commandery, but the horseman cannot win the ambition. When self-confidence begins to waver, how long can Zhuge Liang last?

Jiang Wei felt confused in front of him

(To be continued......)