Chapter Seventy-Nine: Forming an Alliance with Soochow (2)

After the defeat and retreat of the Wei army, tens of thousands of troops and the Xiongnu soldiers, Liaodong soldiers and bandit soldiers outside Chang'an City all became turtles in the urn, it was difficult to escape, and they surrendered one after another, and the Huns fought back, causing the Cao army to be defeated. For a time, the number of people in the Han army camp increased sharply, and although the seized materials were piled up, there was a shortage of food. Kong Ming returned to the court after victory, I was happy, looking at the empty treasury, but I couldn't help but worry about how to reward my soldiers.

Liu Ba was asked to discuss countermeasures, and Liu Ba came up with three strategies: first, to reward prisoners of war as slaves to sergeants; the second was to sell prisoners of war to Cao Wei; The third is to sell the prisoners of war to Sun Quan, but he is afraid that Sun Quan will not dare to ask for it.

The first snow fell in 221 A.D. At first, it was just small snow chips, and then it was a patch of snowflakes, the sky was full of silver dragons fighting, Qiong Yao flew sideways, the mountains and rivers were white, the rivers were frozen, and the weather was suddenly cold.

I'm not in the mood to enjoy the snow, but I'm glad at all. If the snow falls earlier, the rivers will freeze, and our army will lose the blocking effect of the river, and the enemy will be united as one, and it will be difficult to defeat the enemy. secondly, I am worried that Yongliang is initially determined, and there are many poor and poor people without houses in the territory, and those who lack food and clothing will suffer from hunger and cold, and the scourge of frost and hunger; Once again, I was afraid that the war would be predetermined, and the soldiers and prisoners of war would be frozen in the wild; I am also afraid that typhoid fever will spread after the snow. At that moment, I discussed with my father to open Changle Palace, Ganquan Palace, Shanglin Garden, and several palaces in Guanzhong to accommodate the soldiers and horses. The weather in the north is cold, and the soldiers in Yizhou must be well settled, and in the camp tent, it is naturally far warmer than the palace, but there is no precedent for this matter, and it involves the royal majesty, without my father's consent, I can't be such a big lord. Father nodded in approval. This incident caused a sensation, and many soldiers and civilians would rather be cold than enter the palace until I personally went to appease them. This incident was written by the historians of Wei and Wu, who thought that I had forgotten my ancestors in order to buy people's hearts, regardless of the guidelines. But since then, there have been countless brave soldiers on my battlefield. Mencius said: "The people are precious, the monarch is light, and the community is secondary." "I once thought that in the later period of the Three Kingdoms, it was not who could kill more, but who could live better, and this was just the beginning.

The second is food. I asked that all the wounded horses on the battlefield be killed as food, and at the same time open the official warehouse to allocate grain and grass, borrow grain from rich families in various places, plus the military rations obtained after defeating Cao Pi, calculate the total amount, but it can be supported until next summer. But I was afraid that something would go wrong, and it was always good to prepare more, so I was ready to exchange the prisoners of war for money -- of course, it was not the prisoners of war who were treated as slaves as Liu Ba said, but the prisoners of war that I wanted to sell.

Counting the results, he actually caught a few big fish, Cao Zhen fell into the eight formations and was captured alive, Dong Zhao pretended to be a small soldier in the chaotic army, and hid it for a while, when counting the results, Kong Ming didn't know Dong Zhao, but he saw it at a glance and invited him directly from the crowd, "Such a resourceful soldier is the only one in the world." I found a few soldiers, asked behind my back, and sure enough, I knew his identity. It's a pity that the famous general Zhang He is nowhere to be found in the chaotic army. A few days later, the news of He Jiuqu came from the Water Legion. Originally, I thought that he was blocking the Wei army, covering Feng Xi, and had been killed in battle, but he jumped into the water to escape after being shot and wounded, and after being wounded, he patrolled in the rear of the Wei army, intending to destroy the rear of the Wei army, but failed to catch up with the Wei army, so he made a small boat and pretended to be a ferry, just when he met the Wei State Shangshu Chen Qun came. He led it onto the boat and rowed directly into the Han army. In addition to these three people, there were more than 20 children of the Cao family and more than 50 famous generals and schools who were captured.

I think that even if Cao Wei doesn't want those soldiers and horses, he won't want these famous generals and royal children. So I negotiated with Kong Ming and went directly to Cao Pi and asked him to redeem these people with grain and grass. I told Kong Ming that the list should be drawn up by Cao Pi himself, so that if we find people who are not on the list, we can carefully search among the prisoners of war to prevent them from being revealed. Kong Ming laughed at me for being such a good child, and I also learned to be so treacherous. I said in my heart, I am just a little clever, where can I compare to Mr. But he didn't say it.

Sure enough, Cao Pi was extremely heartbroken after losing the battle, and he was surprised to learn that many of the ministers' relatives could be released. In the past few years, Cao Wei's life has been very good, and he gave an order to transport Luoyang's grain and grass through Tongguan like water. Later, in addition to Cao Pi's own list, many people who were not on the list also came to ransom people. I was so happy that I ordered these prisoners of war to be precious, and not to starve them from the cold.

However, on the whole, the people who can return to Cao Wei are a minority after all, 50,000 descendants, and there are not even 5,000 who can return to their homeland. In this way, our army not only did not lose money in this battle, but made a lot of money. It's a pity that Feng Xi's army was hit hard, Wei Yan was almost seriously injured, Ma Chao's elite soldiers were damaged by more than half, and even Kong Ming's men were disabled. Although he made some money, food, and wealth, he still spent the treasury empty.

Cao Pi returned to Luoyang after his defeat, and soon arrived in Yecheng. Luoyang is too close to Chang'an, only separated by a Tong Pass, which is not easy to close. Yecheng was originally the city where Yuan Shao lived, the city was strong and deep, and later Cao Cao lived in it for a long time, and built it on a large scale, and he also lived here for a long time in his later years. Cao Pi transferred Cao Hong to guard Luoyang, Guo Huai to guard Tongguan, and Jia Xu was responsible for military affairs, and he was unable to go west for a while.

After Sima Yi went back, he retired from illness, recuperated at home, and even resigned from his official position as a scholar. He advocated attacking Ji Han, so although the battle was a defeat for the Chinese army, Sima Yi was still affected. However, the Sima clan has deep roots in the court, and his brothers and nephews are all in the court, and although the Sima clan in Hanoi has suffered some blows, it is not very serious.

At this time, it was reported that Liang Xi was seriously ill.

Liang Xizi Ziyu, a native of Zhexian County, Chen County. He served as the commander of Chengshi, Haixi, and Xiapi, and was famous for governing political affairs. Later, Sima led the state to assassinate the history of other departments. At that time, the annexation of the state was initially decided, Yuan Shao's senior cadres governed the annexation of the state, the local chaos, Hu Di was in the boundary, Zhang Xiong was domineering, the officials either fled, or rebelled, and joined the tribes of the Hu people, and the tribes attacked each other, and they were in chaos. After Liang Xi took office, he used tricks to lure and recruit him, and treated him politely. First, people with ability and prestige were included in the shogunate; and took the mighty soldiers as righteous servants; He also said that the army went out to fight and conscripted a large number of men into the army. At this time, all that remained of the people was the old and weak, women and children. He began to emigrate, requisitioning tens of thousands of households to Yecheng. If there are those who do not obey their orders, they will lead troops to conscript, behead thousands, and surrender tens of thousands. The Xiongnu tribes surrendered obediently, and each ministry served and served, just like a household. For a while, the border was cleared, and the people were wild, and he persuaded Nongsang to prohibit it. In the eighteenth year of Jian'an, the state was merged into Jizhou, and he was engaged in Lang Lang and the Western Governor, all of whom belonged to Jizhou, and the general part of the country. After Cao Pi practiced the state, he was reinstated and merged, and Liang Xi became the history of the assassin again, and entered the Shenmen Pavilion Marquis, and there were hundreds of households in the city; Politics is often the best in the world.

Such a person with flexible political skills and good at governing the county and the people cannot be used by me, and it has always been my hate. At this time, Liang Xi was seriously ill, and the Xiongnu tribes were no longer at peace, so I should meet Liu Bao. Liu Bao did not attack Chang'an at first, and later counterattacked, causing the soldiers and horses outside Chang'an to collapse, which also contributed to it. Although I hate him for being a grass on the wall, many things in the world rely on strength, so I don't mention it, but only inform him about the annexation of the state, let him make his own arrangements, and let him leave with the whole army. Liu Bao was grateful to me, returned to Bingzhou, and began to make trouble, at this time the helmet incident broke out, and the Wei army knew about his collusion with me. Liu Bao had no way to retreat, and the whole clan rebelled, and fought several battles with the Wei army, but they all won. Coupled with our army's secret help, Cao Pi was also difficult to take care of for a while.

With the great victory of our army, Yadan, the prime minister of the Western Qiang State, led the troops to surrender, Jiang Wei occupied the entire territory of Qinghai Lake, burned most of the Qiang surrendered, and a new county was set up here, called Gangcha County, and there were five cities under it, namely Gangcha, Republic, Tianjun, Wulan, and Qilian. The Western Qiang Kingdom was defeated, and the lord of the country, Cherrigi, led his army to flee to Gersen. This is a rare victory in hundreds of years. At the moment, Jiang Wei was sealed as the Hou of Guan. I asked Jiang Wei to do a good job in political work, respect the customs of the local people, not to destroy the temple, rob property, everything is implemented according to the five policies of Liangzhou, and the matter of Liang Xiping's annexation of the state is recorded in detail for Jiang Wei's reference.

The leader of Hexi Xianbei took the initiative to collude with me and asked for a mutual market. Naturally, I agreed, exchanging cattle and sheep for silk, salt, ironware, etc. The West is safe. The time has come, I asked You Chu to be the protector of the Western Regions, Guan Ping Zuozhi, pacify the Western Regions, and open up the road to the west.

The Yumen Pass in the west of Dunhuang is the west gate of Ji Han, and further west is the barren Yanze, which has to go through a desert journey of more than 200 miles to reach Loulan, an important city in the Western Regions - the eastern end of the Tarim Basin. Yanze is the Lop Nur Desert, where it is rare to see a drop of water in later generations, and it is the only way for merchants from the Han Dynasty and the Western Regions to travel back and forth. At this time, there is also the Kuluk River, which is lined with rows of aspen and red willows. There was a fortress that continued to face each other and crossed the salt sawa, and the Han Dynasty soldiers who defended the trade routes were stationed. When the merchants of the Han and Western Regions crossed the Yanze Desert, there were post stations for rest along the way.

In the Han Dynasty, trees were protected as military supplies and could not be harvested without permission, so the Western Regions were far from being as desolate as later generations. Knowing these news, I couldn't help but be very happy, and admired the prophetic wisdom of my ancestors.

Koto finally has news. After Sun Quan learned of the great victory of our army, he took the initiative to show goodwill while raising troops to the north, and sent a letter of state to his father to congratulate him on his accession to the throne as emperor. He also agreed to unconditionally return the captured Jingzhou soldiers and their families to Jihan without any conditions.

My father was very happy after the victory, but when he saw Sun Quanguoshu, he was furious and vowed to take the opportunity of the victory to attack Eastern Wu in the south. But his body was even worse because of this, and he fainted on the spot. I swore to him that I would personally go down to Yizhou to ask Sun Quan and give him a satisfactory answer.

Zhang Ji's disciple, my senior brother Peng Jian, told me that my father probably only had more than a year left. I supported my father in the palace day and night, and I couldn't untie my clothes. Kong Ming sat in Chang'an and dealt with post-war affairs. In the spring of the following year, my father's illness improved, and I told Kong Ming that I planned to personally lead the army south.

Kong Ming exclaimed: "Does Your Majesty really plan to attack Eastern Wu?" ”

I shook my head and said, "Our army has not been well rested and recuperated in the new war, so it cannot be moved lightly. But the hatred of seizing Jingzhou is indispensable, and I want to take advantage of the power of this battle to ask Sun Quan for what I should ask for. ”

"Get Jingzhou back?"

I shook my head and said, "No, sir, Jingzhou, I'm ready to give up." Jingzhou is a treasure in Sun Quan's hands, but in our hands, it is a chicken rib. At present, our army has taken Chang'an, and when it is about to recuperate, it is really unable to divide the troops for thousands of miles. What's more, Jingzhou is the land of four wars, far east of Yizhou, and it is divided and occupied by Wei and Wu. If our army is there, it will be alone in the sea, surrounded by it, unable to command, difficult to coordinate, without rear support for the attack, and without strategic depth in the code, and will do more harm than good at any time to contain the energy of our army. Although this place is good, it is of no great use to me, and it is better to have nothing. So I'm going to give up Jingzhou, but I'm going to knock Sun Quan hard. ”

This is something I thought about a few years ago, but I never dared to tell anyone that I would give up the place where Jingzhou started, but I was afraid that a small half of the people in the army would oppose it. I'm not afraid of others opposing me, even my father opposing me, and I'm most afraid of my husband's opposition. Since Longzhong, he has been based on Jingyi Erzhou, dividing his troops into two routes, one to take Wanluo, and the other to Chang'an, not to mention that his family is in Longzhong, and he has been in Jingzhou for 20 years. And my plan to abandon Jingzhou will inevitably meet with strong opposition from him.

To my surprise, Kong Ming did not object, he looked at the sky, was silent for a moment, and sighed lightly like a floating cloud.

"Your Majesty, no matter what, I will always support your decision."

I was moved in my heart and bowed to him deeply: "Thank you, sir!" ”

"The Emperor is there, I'll go and say. His Majesty went to Yizhou in person, and he had plans to come to everything. There is a bright spot, and everything in Chang'an will not distract Your Majesty, and Your Majesty can only rest assured. ”

I nodded. Left Beijing the next day, took the white-eared elite soldiers, and went to Yizhou with Zhao Yun, Feng Xi, and Wang Jun, and brought Zhuge Qiao on the way. Led 5,000 troops, known as 50,000, and went to Jiangzhou. On the way, I heard that Sun Quan's Eastern Route Army was defeated by Cao Xiu when he conquered Tutang, Tuzhong, Xuyi, and Chengde.

I secretly hate Sun Quan, why can't I also fight a few beautiful battles, you know, Cao Wei's strength is still the strongest now, really weaken them, and it will be easier for me to deal with Cao Wei again. I can't help but re-evaluate Cao Wei's combat power, it seems that in history, after every major defeat of Cao Wei, their cohesion and their combat effectiveness will rise. After the Battle of Chibi, even Cao Ren was able to design to shoot and injure Zhou Yu and Zhou Gongjin, who were talented in Tianzong, and Sun Quan's northern expedition never had a good result. This is probably a kind of fate.

Thinking of fate, I fought a cold war myself. There is no destiny in this world, and I was born to change my destiny. Even five years ago, I would have thought that I would be where I am today?

Now that the dust has settled and the battle of Wei and Wu is over, it is time for me to act. After I rendezvoused with Zhang Bao in Jiangzhou, I ordered Zhang Bao to make a sudden attack and destroy several Wu warships. Then he sent a letter to Sun Quan: "Uncle." I'm coming. ”