Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong had a heated argument in Luoyang about the timing of moving the capital and the location of the capital, and Zhang Xi had already taken his good apprentice Deng Ai and marched to Nanyang.

Zhang Xi knew that if he stayed in Luoyang, there would definitely be a lot of troubles to deal with, and with Zhang Xi's political status, he would inevitably be pulled by Zhuge Liang for a meeting, and with Zhang Xi's political IQ, there was a high probability that he would only say something like "yes, yes", or "what you said is right".

It is a state that makes sense to listen to anyone's ideas, but let Zhang Xi take his own ideas.

Simply, in order to avoid this situation, Zhang Xi still led his troops back to Jingzhou.

After all, Zhang Xi is the pastor of Jingzhou.

Of course, it is just a convenient matter to go to Yingchuan for a walk, recover a Xiangcheng by the way, let Zhang Wei lead 6,000 troops to garrison Xiangcheng, and then take Wang Ping back to Nanyang.

After this Northern Expedition, Wang Ping inevitably had to be promoted again, but at this time, everything in Luoyang was undecided, and Zhang Xi went south to use troops, and he may also need to use leading generals, so he easily brought Wang Ping with him.

As for Deng Ai, this product is Nanyang Taishou, it's not good to stay in Nanyang, where does he want to go?!

Leading the troops back to Nanyang, picking up Xu Shu and Xiao Yanghu, who were stationed here, Zhang Xi led the troops south again and went to Xiangyang.

Before he arrived in Xiangyang, Zhang Xi received a battle report from Wang Ji - the Eastern Wu had withdrawn.

It was not that one or two lines of battle were unfavorable and the troops were withdrawn, but that the troops were withdrawn on three fronts together, obviously intending to end the war.

This is good news, at least Zhang Xi doesn't have to worry about Jiangling really going to be a problem.

But there's also bad news. Before the retreat of the Eastern Wu army, the population, money, and grain wealth of the four southeastern counties of Jiangling County were all plundered.

Zhang Xi's face sank directly at that time.

In the end, Dongwu is still the Dongwu who likes to take advantage of the fire to rob, even if he can't beat it, as long as he has the opportunity, he will still do this kind of immoral thing of plundering the population.

But. And what can be done?

When Gangneung adopts the strategy of shrinking its forces and focusing on defense, it means that this price may be paid at any time.

If you really want to break it up, it has to be Zhang Xi, Wang Ji and others who abandoned the people first for the sake of strategy, and it was not the people who took the initiative to abandon the Han Dynasty.

Moreover, in these years, after years of war, population is the greatest wealth, and even Zhuge Liang has done this kind of thing in history to coerce Dingkou to migrate, not to mention his 100,000 grandsons in Eastern Wu.

It's just that these people who have to leave their homes and resettle their families and businesses in strange places are suffering.

Zhang Xi was indeed angry, but he was not angry that Dongwu was shameless, he was just angry, he did not fulfill his responsibilities as a pastor in Jingzhou, and did not take care of the people under his rule.

If you want to blame, you can only blame yourself for your incompetence.

Zhang Xi was in a bad mood, and even the frightened little Yanghu didn't dare to speak until he led the troops to Jiangling, Zhang Xi separated from Xu Shu and led the troops south again.

Xu Shu returned to Jingzhou, he must have assisted Wen Ping to garrison Xiangyang, after all, at this time, Wen Ping was still staying in Hanjindu, in case the Eastern Wu Navy went against the Han River again, Xiangyang was only garrisoned by Ma Liang, and Ma Liang was responsible for both military and political affairs, and the pressure was indeed greater.

And Zhang Xi originally wanted to entrust Xiao Yanghu to Xu Shu, but Xu Shu politely refused.

This is your apprentice, not mine.

If you Zhang Xi is leading the troops out on the expedition, then I will help you take a look at the apprentice, and by the way, teach a little bit of the art of war, it doesn't matter, but now you have led the troops back. His own apprentices teach themselves.

In this way, Zhang Xi took the little apprentice and Wang Ping all the way back to Jiangling.

As soon as he returned to Jiangling, Zhang Xi found Wang Ji to learn about the battle situation some time ago.

Wang Ji is naturally eloquent.

But in fact, there is not much that can be said.

Zhou Yu's rapid march and capture of the four counties southeast of Jiangling was originally a strategy of shrinking troops and focusing on defense, so although Zhou Yu marched quickly and the results were not small, the losses on the Jiangling side were not large.

And with Zhou Yu's troops Huarong and being replaced by Sun Sheng due to illness, the rest of the things became simpler.

Under Sun Quan's strict orders, Sun Sheng launched a strong attack on Yingxian, but the problem was that Zhoutai, who had received reinforcements, was able to defend Yingxian with ease.

Yes, Zhou Tai's ability may not be as good as Shi Bao, but when his opponent is Sun Sheng, and he still has the advantage of city defense. Sun Sheng is really not the opponent of Zhou Tai.

Sun Sheng led his troops to attack four or five times, but he still couldn't shake Zhou Tai's defense in Yingxian. Sun Sheng was really anxious.

If he can't capture Yingxian, he will not be able to achieve the will of the Supreme, and Sun Sheng will not dare to retreat, after all, he can be valued by Sun Quan, in addition to his own talent as a leader, obedience is the most important reason.

But Sun Sheng is also a qualified general in the end, knowing that such a strong attack will not have a better result except for adding to his own casualties.

In addition, the current weather is not cooperative, the rainy day is three days and two ends, the attack on Yingxian County for a month, Sun Sheng has seen a total of three solar days, the rest of the time is either cloudy or rainy and then fight like this, the army is not going to make a plague.

Just when Sun Sheng was in such a dilemma, Sun Quan's edict arrived.

Sun Quan asked Sun Sheng to choose an opportunity to withdraw his troops, plunder the four counties of Dingkou, and withdraw to Jiangdong.

And with Sun Sheng's retreat, Zhu Ran also began to collect troops and return to Lukou, and Lu Dai, who was struggling to attack in Lingyang, also collected his troops back to Jiangling County, Wuling County, in about a short period of time, and the battle ended.

After listening to Wang Ji's narration, Zhang Xi understood the general process, and carefully calculated the time of the retreat of Eastern Wu, Zhang Xi probably guessed Sun Quan's thoughts.

The time when Sun Sheng retired was in early February, when Zhang Xizheng led his troops south into the northern part of Yingchuan County. But at this time, the news that the Han Northern Expeditionary Army captured Luoyang should have reached Jiangdong.

Now that the Han Dynasty has captured Luoyang, it is inevitable that he will choose to return to the army to rescue Jingzhou, and Sun Quan will continue to entangle with the Jiangling defenders in Jiangling, and it is very likely that he will fall into a bad battle.

In addition, after this dispatch of troops, the time was very unfavorable to the Eastern Wu army, and in this case, Sun Quan could only choose to accept it when he saw it.

Sun Quan's ability to personally lead the troops is very bad, but his judgment of the situation in the world is still very accurate.

This is Zhang Xi's judgment on the withdrawal of troops from Eastern Wu.

Of course, there are some things that Zhang Xi doesn't know.

For example, Sun Quan actually didn't want to withdraw the army so quickly, it was Zhou Yu who persuaded Sun Quan with illness, telling him that if he continued to fight, the hope of capturing Jiangling was very slim, not to mention, once there was a plague in the army, then the price of our troops this time would be too great.

One more. Now that Shu Han has captured Luoyang, although the army has stopped, the focus of Cao Wei's defense must still be on Luoyang.

If we don't take advantage of Cao Wei's Hebei reinforcements before they arrive, then we really won't be able to get any benefits this time.

Therefore, Zhou Yu persuaded Sun Quan to collect troops on the southern front, and let Lu Xun take the initiative to attack on the northern front and occupy Peng Chengguo, which had not been occupied.

At this time, Cao Wei would not have made a bad deal with Eastern Wu because of a half-abandoned Pengcheng State, and if we occupy this Pengcheng State, it is equivalent to mastering the passage to attack Yanzhou, which will be of great benefit to the use of troops in the future.

Sun Quan was a little moved by Zhou Yu's words, but he still couldn't make up his mind.

What really made him decide to withdraw his troops on the southern front were two letters.

One is Sun Sheng's battle report.

In the war report, Sun Sheng pleaded guilty to Sun Quan because he did not capture Yingxian.

But at the same time, Sun Sheng also reported to Sun Quan that there had been more and more soldiers with typhoid fever in the army recently.

The other letter was sent by Lu Xun from Huainan, saying that now that Yanzhou Assassin Shi Jia Kui led troops to support Xuchang, and Yanzhou Qunlong had no leader, whether he would be allowed to march in the direction of Yanzhou at least occupy Pengchengguo, which had not been occupied before.

Sun Sheng's attack was unfavorable, and Sun Quan, in addition to being annoyed, also had to consider the matter of "many diseases in the army" that Sun Sheng said in his letter.

Sun Sheng wrote such a letter to Sun Quan, not just to ask for guilt, in fact, the real intention, Sun Quan also understood. is to euphemistically ask Sun Quan if he wants to risk the possibility of causing a plague and continue to attack.

Once the plague is caused, with the medical conditions of this year, the death of soldiers caused by the plague will be even greater than the siege of the city.

Sun Sheng didn't have as much autonomy as Zhou Yu, so he could only hint to Sun Quan in this euphemistic way. Of course, if Sun Quan really wants to attack Yingxian desperately, then Sun Sheng will also carry it out seriously.

It's hard to say whether Xiaying County will fight or not, but the troops will definitely not retreat.

But your front-line commanders have reached this point, and Sun Quan can understand Sun Sheng's intentions. No matter how indifferent Sun Shiwan is, he will not risk the outbreak of plague in his own army and continue to attack.

When the time comes, those who will die are all soldiers under his Sun Quan.

And Lu Xun's request for war, he can't help but let Sun Quan think more, since Shu Han's side can't get benefits, it's not impossible to make up for it from Cao Wei's side.

Pengcheng is also a feudal country, no less than a county.

I didn't occupy it before, but I was worried that it would stimulate Cao Wei and affect the relationship between the two countries. Now that the threat of Shu Han is getting bigger and bigger, if the Wei and Wu families fight each other again, it will only let Shu Han reap the benefits of the fisherman.

But now, Cao Wei is guarding Yanzhou, and Jia Kui has already gone to Xuchang Just like Zhou Yu said, even if he occupies Pengchengguo, it is estimated that Cao Wei will endure this breath for the sake of the balance of the situation in the world.

Only. Act according to the law.

(End of chapter)