Deng Zhi's mission was not completed, but fortunately, he also succeeded in making Jiang Ji's mission not complete.

Although the most critical factor in this is that Sun Quan was not satisfied with the conditions put forward by Cao Wei, so he temporarily shelved negotiations with Cao Wei.

According to what Deng Zhi inquired about, Cao Wei hoped that the Eastern Wu army would withdraw from Runan, and in exchange, Cao Wei could hand over Pengchengguo to Eastern Wu, and the two families would strike and repair.

But Sun Quan was not satisfied with this condition.

More than half of Runan County was already in his own hands, and most of the Wei army of Pengchengguo had already withdrawn into Yanzhou, and Sun Quan could capture Pengchengguo at any time, but it was just to avoid provoking Cao Wei that he did not take further action.

Now Cao Wei wanted to exchange an undefended area for the important land of Runan County, and Sun Quan certainly did not agree. He wanted both.

I have to say that Sun Quan is indeed a little floating now, and he doesn't want to think about it, once Cao Wei's side relaxes, he can rely on the land combat ability of the Eastern Wu Army to be able to hold these places.

Anyway, it is impossible for Jiang Ji to agree to this kind of thing, and it makes no sense that Cao Rong, who is here to deliver the land once by himself, probably can't agree.

The exchange can also take back some benefits, and giving it for nothing can only make Cao Ei more embarrassed.

In this way, the Wei and Wu families, who also couldn't talk together, plus a Han envoy Deng Zhi and Jiang Ji who made trouble from the side, finally decided to return to Yanzhou first, wait for Cao Rong's decision, and then consider the issue of the next envoy.

It was also under such circumstances that Deng Zhi also bid farewell to Sun Quan and wanted to come back as soon as possible to inform the imperial court of the results of the envoy in Jiangdong, and at the same time let the Han court prepare to deal with it.

You can't just watch the Wei and Wu families form an alliance.

After listening to Deng Zhi's description, Zhang Xi also began to seriously think about what kind of countermeasures Jingzhou should take.

Judging from the results of Deng Zhi's envoy this time, the Eastern Wu side was not ready to completely turn the other cheek with the Han Dynasty, although he did not admit his mistakes, but again, there was no overly harsh wording, and there was no change in the confrontation front between the two armies.

In other words, there is a high probability that this matter will not be resolved.

Maintaining the current situation is something that Soochow wants to see, after all, if it fights again, Soochow may not have the heart or ability.

But from Jingzhou's point of view, should we just maintain a tacit understanding to maintain the status quo?!

Zhang Xi thought about it carefully, and seemed to find that there seemed to be no better choice than to maintain the status quo.

The four counties of Jingnan are actually not difficult to fight, if they really want to fight, it may be difficult to attack them comprehensively, but if they want to recover the two counties of Wuling and Lingling, in fact, Zhang Xi is not impossible.

Gradual cannibalization is enough.

But the problem is that once the troops are used in the four counties of Jingnan, a lot of manpower and material resources will be invested in Jingnan, and this investment of manpower and material resources may take longer than just maintaining a campaign.

A year, two years, or even three or five years, it's possible.

The significance of the four counties of Jingnan is not only the face of the Emperor of Eastern Wu, Jingnan has also poured too much money and effort into the Jiangdong family, and the Poyang Lake Plain, which is beginning to take shape, is not something that the Jiangdong family can easily give up.

The use of troops against Jingnan is likely to fall into a protracted tug-of-war, resulting in Jingzhou having no spare energy to do other things, such as planning the Northern Expedition launched by Zhuge Liang.

As for Jiangxia County, it is connected to Xiangyang and Jiangling by land and water, and soldiers can be used.

But the problem is that Jiangxia's place is guarded by Zhou Yu, as long as this old fox is in Jiangxia for a day, Zhang Xi really doesn't dare to use troops against Jiangxia, even if he uses his strength advantage to force Zhou Yu to the limit, he has the ability to fight back.

It's not that Zhang Xi is exaggerating, after all, Cao Cao's 200,000 army asked Zhou Yu to kill with 20,000 people, and it can't be overestimated.

The risk of defeat is too great for Jiangxia to use troops, and even if it can win, the final result of a disastrous victory is not what Jingzhou wants now.

To some extent, it is much more difficult to fight Jiangxia than the four counties of Jingnan.

Moreover, starting from the current general trend of the world, Jingzhou's all-out war with Jiangdong is not a good choice.

Zhang Xi's view of the situation in the world is still the same as Zhuge Liang, the current enemy is still Cao Wei, and only after Cao Wei is completely driven out of the Central Plains can he use his main energy to deal with Eastern Wu.

If there is a war with Eastern Wu now, then Sima Yi, who is in Luoyang, can see that he can laugh with his back molars, and he will not have to hold back his strength and desperately develop armaments.

After these reflections, Zhang Xi felt that maintaining the status quo was not necessarily a bad thing.

It's just that I don't know how long this status quo can last.

After Deng Zhi completed the mission, he immediately returned to Chengdu, and Zhang Xi also began to prepare for the future war.

Not to mention anything else, the reconstruction of the Gangneung Navy must be put on the agenda.

Now the situation between the two countries is tense with Soochow, and the sailors and warships transferred to Xiangyang will not be able to come back for a while. Zhou Yu, that old fox, how could he let these sailors return to Jiangling to enhance the combat power of the Jiangling navy.

Therefore, the only way to do this is to rebuild the warships in Gangneung and train the naval army.

Fortunately, the Gangneung dockyard is still ready-made, and there is no need to spend effort to rebuild it, just building a warship is also a large expense, which not only involves money and food, but also requires sufficient manpower.

Therefore, Zhang Xi did not hesitate to commit taboos, launched conscription in the winter, and conscripted civilian husbands to serve.

Of course, Zhang Xi still has a little conscience, he still persuaded Wang Ji to use the government's disaster preparedness materials, and prepared thick clothes and charcoal fires for these serving civilians to ensure their heating.

Again, this winter, Zhang Xi lived directly near the dock and supervised the construction of warships on the spot.

It's not that he's worried about the progress of the construction of the warship, Zhang Xi is mainly afraid that the thick clothes and charcoal fires he distributed to the people will be greedy for ink by some shameless things. It's better to stare at the spot than to be the shopkeeper.

In this way, after two months of hard work, at the end of the conscription, more than 30 ships were finally built, and half of them were built on the battlefield.

The reason why it is half a ship is because the construction period is limited, which is only enough to build so much, and on the other hand, Zhang Xi deliberately did it.

This half of the Mengchong warship was only built to the deck, and all kinds of offensive and defensive facilities on the ship were not built, because this Mengchong warship was to install a counterweight trebuchet on it in the future.

The effect of the last water battle was really good, Zhang Xi felt that if he had five such Mengchong warships, and cooperated with two or three hundred Lu Ke to fight, he was really confident that he would directly block the entire longitudinal river.

Although the offensive ability is seriously insufficient and cannot directly threaten the Dongwu Naval Army, the defensive ability is at least full.

In the future, when there is another opportunity to attack the four counties of Jingnan, Zhang Xi can use this set of tactics to not worry about logistics and supply.

Therefore, the main work of the dock now is to meet Zhang Xi's idea and complete the construction of these wonderful Mengchong warships as much as possible.

As for the training of the navy, Zhang Xi has always been concerned, but the problem is that Zhang Xi really doesn't understand the navy.

This person who doesn't understand the navy is not only a half-understanding of the combat command of the navy, but more importantly, Zhang Xi really doesn't know how to train the navy.

Don't say that Zhang Xi won't, now in the entire Jingzhou, there is only one person in Wenpin, the general of the naval army.

Zhang Xi cheekily went to ask for a civil appointment, hoping that he could teach him some of the drills of the navy.

But the problem is that in this era, whether it is the navy or the army, generals who have a set of effective training methods can be called famous generals, and this kind of military training method is generally inherited as a family heirloom and will not be easily passed on to others.

Therefore, Wen Ping completely ignored Zhang Xi's request, and it was impossible to teach the tactics of the navy.

However, Wen Ping still sent his eldest son Wen Dai to Jiangling and asked Wen Dai to help Zhang Xi train the navy.

It can't be taught to Zhang Xi, but he sent his eldest son over to help with the drill, and this favor is not low Zhang Xi appointed Wen Dai as the captain of the Lou Boat on the spot, and fully presided over the drill of the Jiangling Navy.

After all, they are also old acquaintances, and Zhang Xi and Wen Dai also had a friendship in the early years.

Well, the problem of the training of the navy has been alleviated for the time being, but the problem of the leading generals of the navy is still unsettled.

Wen Ping sent Wen Dai to assist Zhang Xi in training the navy, but it was really just to solve Zhang Xi's urgent needs, and Wen Ping really did not intend to let his eldest son Wen Dai command the Jiangling navy.

It's not that Wen Ping doesn't want to bring his son, it's mainly that Wen Dai's ability is really average.

Whether it is Wen Ping or Wen Dai himself, they all told Zhang Ximing that Wen Dai's talent in water warfare is limited, and his experience in water warfare is even more insufficient, so he may not be able to serve as a position as the commander of an army.

Wen Ping is a general who can communicate on land and water, and he can exert his greatest power in Jingzhou, but once he leaves Jingzhou. Both land and water are connected, which actually means that water warfare and land warfare are not at the top level.

Wen Dai, as the eldest son of Wen Ping, naturally inherited a set of tactics from Wen Ping, but his talent level is not as good as Wen Ping, although he knows a little bit about land warfare and water warfare ability, he doesn't even have the level of his father's water and land proficiency, and he can only say that he understands it slightly.

This little understanding is not the "little understanding" of Zhuge Liang in film and television dramas, Zhuge Liang is self-humble, and Wen Dai really only understands a little.

Such a person, rashly leading the army into battle, and under the lack of ability, will not only bury the whole army, but also will not survive.

And water warfare is not the same as land warfare. In the case of land battles, relying on the speed of the horses and the death of the guards around you, the main general may still escape.

But in water warfare, as long as the warship is surrounded, either surrender or die, there is no option to escape at all.

Therefore, in order not to bury the army in vain, and to save his son's life, Wen Ping told Zhang Xi very bluntly that Wen Dai could not be used.

Therefore, the problem of the commander of the navy has to be solved by Zhang Xi himself.

(End of chapter)