August of the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an was a painful time for Sun Quan.

From the time of sending troops to attack Jingzhou in June, most of Jingzhou's territory was obtained in the blink of an eye, but in just two months, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

Lü Meng and Sun Jiao were killed in battle, and a large number of Jiangdong soldiers were either killed or captured, and suffered heavy losses.

This war almost exhausted more than eighty percent of Jiangdong's national strength.

In addition to the loss of soldiers and horses, the heavy burden of conscription and the rebellion that arose in the rear also destroyed the Sun regime, causing the people of Jiangdong to turn away from him, and the people of the family abandoned him.

On November 6, Sun Quan did not dare to stop after fleeing to Chaisang, so he hurriedly changed to a speedboat and went straight to the mouth of the water.

Because Chaisang no longer has many troops to defend, and the Jiangxia Sailor will inevitably go south by boat to continue the pursuit, Chaisang will definitely not be able to defend, so he can only flee all the way to a place where he still has a little strength.

At the same time, the Jiangxia naval army did pursue all the way, but did not go deep into the mouth of the water, but went down the river, arrived at the mouth of Anhui, and then went north from the water to Anhui County.

Su Fei and Chen Sheng, two unlucky guys, were sent by the untruthful Huang Jie to help his "ally" Sun Quan in June, and are still trapped in the city.

Fortunately, the materials were well prepared before they set off, and Sun Quan and Cao Cao put the main force in Nanyang, and only a small part of Sun Quan's army and Cao's army besieged it in Anhui, because there was a city to defend, so there was nothing to do.

Now after Jingzhou is regained and pacified, because Shen Chen wants to stabilize the situation first and recuperate for a while before attacking Wu, he will first send Huang Jie to lead the Jiangxia sailor to bring them back.

Wait until next spring, you can officially go down the river and take Jiangdong directly.

However, even if the Jiangxia Sailor did not mean to kill Wu now, when he heard that the Jiangxia Sailor army had picked up Su Fei and Chen Sheng in Anhui County, and tens of thousands of troops were in the Zongyang area, Sun Quan was still like a frightened bird, so frightened that he fled in panic and ran back to Jianye.

In mid-November, after hiding in Jianye for a few days, Sun Quan was in fear in the mansion every day, until he heard that the Jiangxia navy had withdrawn to Xiling, returned to Xunyang, and did not capture Chaisang, which was a sigh of relief.

But then, in addition to the pressure that the Jiangxia Navy was currently stationed in Xunyang, there were also countless pressures from within, and the news of the rebellion from all sides was gathered to him, which made Sun Quan almost breathless.

In the mansion of Marquis Wu, Sun Quan, who was only thirty-eight years old this year, was sitting under the porch, his face was very old at this time, and his temples were faintly pale, as if he had aged ten years overnight.

Zhang Zhao, Zhuge Jin, Gu Yong, Kan Ze, Sun Shao, Yan Ji, Lu Xun, Shi Yi, Lu Ji and others also sat on the side, and everyone was depressed and sad.

This battle not only lost Jiangdong Qingzhuang, comparable to the Zhao State in the Battle of Changping, but also lost many excellent generals.

Lü Meng, Sun Jiao, Sun Huan, Cheng Pu, Song Qian, Quan Zong, and Zhu Cai were killed, Xu Sheng, Ding Feng, and Jiang Qin were captured, and only a few people such as Pan Zhang, Zhu Ran, Zhu Huan, and Lü Fan escaped, and on the army side, it was less than one in ten.

Now in the whole Jiangdong, every family has the pain of zombies, and there is crying in the room. or die with the door closed, or lose the family. It is more than the passage of the plague.

Outside the mansion of Marquis Wu, many people gathered, and the heads of Jiangdong Qiantou cried and howled outside the door and asked, where is my son?

The sound of mourning shook the city.

After being silent for a long time, Sun Quancai said in a hoarse voice: "Lonely...... What should I do? ”

Zhang Zhao sighed and said, "Marquis Wu should immediately write to Cao Cao and ask for attachment." ”

"Do you want to belong to Cao Cao?"

Sun Quan was silent for a moment, and when he saw that everyone nodded slightly, he sighed: "Lone knows what to do." ”

Zhang Zhao said again: "Although Liu Bei has won now, it is also a tragic victory. For example, in the Battle of Changping, the Qin State won, and it was also very difficult. It is said that the people of Bashu Jingyi are not living well, and the civil strife is not stopping, Wu Hou should appease the people internally at this time, stick to the mouth of the wet beard externally, wait for recovery, and do not use swords and soldiers for at least ten years. ”

"Alas......"

Sun Quan lamented: "But now that Shanyue is in rebellion, even the people of Wu County and Danyang in the rear have started an uprising, is the sky going to be lonely?" ”

Zhang Zhao said: "Wu Hou doesn't have to worry, the rebellion of the county people is just a trivial matter, and it can be calmed down." Shanyue side doesn't need to pay attention, our people are evacuated to the south of Yishan, we only need to hold some passes, Shanyue people can't afford to turn up any wind and waves. ”

"That's all there is to it."

Sun Quan should do everything, he actually knows that all this is in the interests of the Jiangdong family, so he can only let Zhang Zhao decide.

The Jiangdong family is dissatisfied with Liu Bei's group's policy of suppressing the family and seizing the family's land and population, so it will never choose to move closer to Liu Bei Group.

Even if there are a few of them who betray the class, there can never be a class that betrays the class.

Therefore, most of the Jiangdong families were inclined to Sun Quan's attachment to Cao Cao.

In this way, they can continue to enjoy the privileges of the family without worrying that the imperial court will strip them of their population, land, and political status.

Zhang Zhao, as the main representative of the Jiangdong family under Sun Quan, although he was not from the Jiangdong family, he had the same interests.

Therefore, it is in line with their interests to subordinate to Cao Cao, deal with civil unrest, and recuperate.

Only by stabilizing the interior and recuperating and developing can they reorganize their troops and horses to resist the attack of Liu Bei's group, and at the same time welcome the arrival of the Wang Shi of Cao Wei's group.

At that moment, Sun Quan followed Zhang Zhao's suggestion to concentrate the only remaining 40,000 soldiers and horses in Jiangdong at the mouth of the river, and ordered He Qi and Lü Fan to lead thousands of people back to Danyang Wu County to deal with the problem of civil unrest in the rear.

And September and October are also months full of sadness for Cao Cao.

First Yu Ban was captured, then Guo Jia died of illness, and then Xiahou was killed, if you count Cao Hong, who lost in June, Cao Cao has lost too many veterans and advisers this year.

In November, Cao Cao left Zhong Xuan and Xiahou Yuan behind, returned to Guandong himself, and ordered the Chen capital to be moved to the north again, and retreated to the north of the Yellow River, Chaoge County of the ancient Shang Dynasty.

But at this time, the entire Cao Wei Group was already turbulent and constantly shaking. People all over the world who cherish the Han family think that the revival of the Han family is in sight. Rebellions, rebellions, and invasions are endless, and many people from various places have risen up.

Fortunately, Cao Cao killed a large number of old ministers of the Han Dynasty several times at the beginning, and the last time was in the Jiping Rebellion last year, under the pretext of "those who do not save the fire are not helping the chaos, and the fire is a real thief", and the rest are basically the ministers of the Wei State.

Therefore, although the world in the north is turbulent, the main source of turmoil lies in some local families loyal to the Han family and the people who can't survive to rebel.

And even the wealthy families who are loyal to the Han family are pitiful, under Cao Cao's many years of management, the entire north is Wei Chen, and the Cao Wei group has actually controlled the court and the locality, Liu Xie, the son of heaven, is almost dispensable, and there is no need to use him to attract people's hearts.

It's just that when the two fronts failed, the internal disputes within the Cao Wei group continued, and Cao Cao dragged his sick body back to Yecheng to fight the fire and stabilize people's hearts.

Although the current situation is not very good for Cao Cao, it has not yet reached the point of complete collapse, but there are fires in many places in the backyard, and he has to worry about the situation of Shen Chen's troops in the southern battlefield, so he has to do it.

At this moment, in the mansion of King Wei in Yecheng, Cao Cao's face was sallow, and the whole person lost more than ten catties in just one month, like dead wood, and he was no longer as vigorous as he was at the beginning.

In the hall, Cao Pi carefully knelt aside, and Cao Wei's courtiers such as Yu Yu, Chen Qun, Dong Zhao, Sima Yi, Jiang Ji, Liu Ye, Hua Xin, Mao Jue, Cui Yan, Chang Lin, Xu Yi, He Kui, Zhang Ji, Du Ji, Du Xi, and Wei Qi sat down one after another.

They all accepted the official positions of the Wei State, not the official positions of the Great Han, so they ate Wei Lu instead of Han Lu, and sat upright one by one, raising their heads to look at Cao Cao above, waiting for Cao Cao to give orders.

Now the Cao Wei group is also uncomfortable, it seems that Shen Chen is just captured and beheaded Xiahou, so that Cao Cao has lost more than 60,000 people, but it has not counted other losses.

For example, Zhao Yan's troops were abandoned by them, more than 10,000 people were trapped in Xiangyang, and finally besieged by Shen Chen, Zhao Yan was killed by the generals, and the Cao army in the city fell to Shen Chen, and Zhao Yan and more than 10,000 horses were lost here.

and Cao Hong was flooded before, killing and wounding more than 30,000 people, and breaking the general Cao Hong.

In the first battle of Juxian, Cao's army also lost nearly 40,000 people.

From the beginning of this year to the end of the year, the Cao Wei group has lost nearly 150,000 troops, including Xiahoudun, Cao Hong, and Yu Ban, and the strategists have folded Guo Jia and Zhao Yan, and the rest of the generals are countless, and the Cao Wei group is also miserable.

Now Cao Cao only feels that his head hurts, and the whole person is in that state of being groggy and feeling like he is going to die, and he has a splitting headache, and every time he is drowsy, he will have severe pain, even if he wants to die, he can't die, it's better than death.

He propped his hands on the table, closed his eyes, and kept rubbing his forehead, the medicine had been taken, but it didn't work. The hall was silent, full of oppression and dead silence.

After a long time, Cao Cao coughed violently a few times, spit out a mouthful of bloodshot thick phlegm in the basin next to him, and then raised his head slightly cloudy to look at the ministers below, and the courtiers below lowered their heads, for fear that he would suddenly become angry and want to kill whoever he wanted.

"How's the civil unrest going?"

To everyone's surprise, Cao Cao did not get angry, but asked.

Cao Pi replied tremblingly: "It has been calmed down, Zheng Hun, Gao Qian, Shi Jian and others have already reported, and they will return to Yecheng in a few days." ”

"Hmm."

Cao Cao looked around at everyone and said, "There is a little civil unrest, so don't worry. The widow's henchmen are in great trouble, only Liu Beier. However, although he won a new victory, it was also a tragic victory, not only the loss of troops and the loss of generals, the rear foundation is unstable, and he probably will not invade north, so you can relax your mind. ”

"King Shengming of Wei."

Everyone shouted in unison, like insects that responded to the sound.

Of course, they knew that Cao Cao was calming people's hearts, but Cao Cao was actually right.

Although Liu Bei's group killed and wounded more than 200,000 Sun Cao's allied troops on the two fronts of Guanzhong and Jingzhou, they killed 10,000 enemies and suffered at least 4,000 self-losses.

Shen Chen's army in Nanyang also suffered a lot of battle losses, 200,000 troops, and now there are only 1670,000 left. Liu Bei won in Guanzhong, but he was repeatedly defeated in Liangzhou before, and he also lost a lot of people.

The battle loss ratio between the two sides may be that Liu Bei's group lost 670,000 people, Cao Cao's group lost 150,000, and Sun Quan's group lost 130,000.

Because Sun Quan's actual troops were about 150,000, and more than 20,000 Jingnan family troops participated in it. In addition, one or two hundred thousand scattered soldiers fled back to Jiangdong afterwards, so Sun Quan's loss was a little less than Cao Cao's.

But that's not how the accounts are counted.

Sun Quan's national strength may be about 200,000, a discount of 130,000, his headquarters is almost lost, and the rest are mostly Jiangdong Shi clans, so it can be said that Sun Quan is about to become the commander of the light pole.

The war potential of the Cao Wei group can reach 400,000, there are many county soldiers in various places, and there are still tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in the north, so even if it loses 150,000, it can only be said that its vitality is greatly damaged, unlike Sun Quan, who has completely hollowed out the foundation and has no combat effectiveness.

Therefore, the current Cao Wei Group is a little miserable, but it is still too much stronger than Sun Quan. And now that Cao Cao has mobilized troops and horses from the north to the south, as long as he survives next year, he still doesn't have to worry about the risk of the north being invaded.

After Cao Cao first settled the hearts of the people, he continued: "I heard that Xianbei Wuhuan in the north rebelled again, how did Yan Rou and Tian Yu handle it? ”

Cao Pi replied: "It has been repulsed." ”

"Hmm."

Cao Cao said in a deep voice: "Liu Bei is not dead, and it is difficult for the widow to be at peace." Now that Xiliang is obtained by him, in a few years, Guanzhong may also be lost, so that Zhong Miao will move Zuo Fengyi's people to Hedong, where is Du Yi? ”

Shangshu Du Yi came out and said: "The minister is here." ”

"You have been the Taishou of Hedong for many years before, and this time you will continue to return to Hedong to manage the people's livelihood, stabilize the rear, and provide grain and grass for Chang'an."

"Yui."

"Where is Wei Qi?"

"The minister is here."

"You go to Guanzhong and assist Xiangguo."

"Yui."

"Where is Du Xi?"

"The minister is here."

"You are Jing Zhaoyin, responsible for people's livelihood and the transportation of grain and grass in Hedong."

"Yui."

"Where is Zhang?"

......

Cao Cao appointed several people to Guanzhong in one go.

He planned to abandon the right Fufeng west of Guanzhong and part of the left Fengyi, use Chang'an as the defensive front line, and Hedong as the rear grain and grass base to resist Liu Bei's army in Nanyang and Hanzhong.

In this way, because tens of thousands of square kilometers of the right Fufeng area have long been deserted, Liu Bei's group and Cao Wei group have appeared a period of no-man's land similar to the Huainan region, and Liu Bei wants to attack Chang'an, he has to travel hundreds of kilometers from Hanzhong to Chang'an City.

The same is true for the direction of Wuguan, although there are no obstacles along the way, but because there are no people, they can't get grain on the spot, so they have to transport grain from the rear, which makes the logistics pressure of Liu Bei's group attacking Guanzhong extremely huge, and it is difficult to break through Chang'an.

In this way, he was able to deploy only a few soldiers and horses in Chang'an to resist the attack of Liu Bei's group. The main defensive direction was placed in the Henan area, so as to reduce the consumption of national strength and the bloated soldiers and horses of the Cao Wei group.

After arranging a series of appointments, as well as the transfer of troops and horses, and the internal affairs of the rear, Cao Cao felt a little tired, so he said: "That's it for today, you guys go your own way." ”

"Yui."

The people were ordered to retreat.

Cao Cao watched everyone leave, and only Cao Pi was left in the hall, so he felt tightness in his chest and coughed violently, causing blood to leak from the corners of his mouth.

"Father."

Cao Pi was shocked, and hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Father." ”

"It's okay....."

Cao Cao waved his hand, his eyes swept to Cao Pi and said: "I probably won't live long, this country is going to be given to you, don't let your father down." ”

Cao Pi knelt on the ground and said in a deep voice: "Father, rest assured, the sons will never let the Great Wei Jiangshan be taken advantage of by Liu Bei." ”

"Hmm."

Cao Cao nodded.

At this time, Xu Chu came in and said, "Report, King Wei, Sun Quan sent a letter, saying that he was willing to return." ”

"Huh."

Cao Cao smiled, turned his head to look at Cao Pi and said, "Sun Quan Xiao'er has lost all the elite in this battle, and the Jiangdong Dynasty is not in danger, so now he can only belong to the widow." ”

Cao Pi hurriedly said: "We are now focusing on defense, how can we still have the strength to take care of Jiangdong, my father should refuse." ”

"Nope."

Cao Cao shook his head: "Why do you want to refuse, you have to make a big show and tell the world that Sun Quan is attached." This can not only stabilize the hearts of the army and the people, but also make Liu Bei a little jealous. ”

"But ......"

Cao Pi hesitated: "We don't have any extra troops to help Sun Quan now." ”

"Help him with what to do."

Cao Cao sneered: "We just need to let people know that Sun Quan is attached, as for whether he dies or not, what does it have to do with the widow." ”

With that, Cao Cao got up slowly, walked to the foyer with his hands behind his back, and looked at the bleak winter wind outside.

The cold winter of November has arrived, and I don't know when it snowed lightly in Yecheng in the north.

The snowflakes are flying, bringing a bit of chill to the earth.

Cao Cao raised his head and looked into the distance.

He had to spread the news of Sun Quan's attachment.

Because this will make the world think that the Cao Wei group is still so strong, and one more prince has joined.

But he didn't have any extra troops to save Sun Quan.

So whether Sun Quan dies or not really has nothing to do with him, he just needs to let the news spread all over the world in a short period of time and stabilize people's hearts.

This means that Sun Quan can only ask for more blessings for himself.

Cao Cao will provide all the support except for sending troops, and even when Liu Bei's group attacked Sun Quan, he hoped that Sun Quan could support him a little longer, so that he could ease his breath as soon as possible.

"Sun Quan'er."

Cao Cao looked at the south with deep eyes, and muttered softly: "Since you provoked this battle, then you will bear it." Although Jiangdong is destroyed, the widow can recover, and if your descendants can flee back to the north, so that your descendants can inherit your title, it will not be in vain for you to prevent this calamity for the widow. ”

As he spoke, he flicked his sleeves lightly and slowly returned to the back house.

The world is in turmoil.

A few families are happy and a few are sad.

Cao Cao was too busy to take care of himself, and he could only sacrifice Sun Quan in exchange for his own time to recuperate.

And Liu Beijun in Guanzhong, after winning the victory in Juxian, also quickly retreated to Hanzhong, so that all the conscripts returned to the local area and began to enter the state of spring ploughing next year.

Although Liu Bei fought this battle, it was also very difficult.

But in the end, it was won.

In terms of war potential, as long as Jingzhou Yizhou can recover as soon as possible, at least in a few years, he can even compete with Cao Wei.

This is a year of Cao Cao and Sun Quan's wailing, and it is also a year of elation for Liu Bei's group.

The general trend of the world has also changed because of this.