Although Zhou Yu agreed to form an alliance with Cao Cao, the specific matters were naturally more than what he had said to Sima Yi before.
In addition to the 10,000 war horses originally agreed upon, Sun Ce subsequently wrote to Sima Yi and added several additional conditions: First, after Cao Cao acquired Huaibei, all the newly acquired people should be moved to Huainan, only occupying the land; second, the previous territory should be returned to Cao Cao. The Wu prisoners obtained in the Battle of Pengcheng were rewarded with tens of thousands of gold to reward the Wu army; the third was the marriage between the two countries. Zhou Yu hoped that Cao Cao could choose one of his daughters to marry Sun Quan. In exchange, Sun Ce would also choose a daughter. The two sisters were married to Cao Cao's son; fourth, the covenant was kept secret, and the Wu army would hand over the cities in the form of a lost city.
Wu Jun's conditions were not harsh, and Sun Ce specifically told Zhou Yu that if he didn't agree at all, he would not retreat at all. When Cao Cao heard about it for the first time, he couldn't help laughing at Cao Ren and said: "Sun Ce has a huge appetite. He wants to live under things at the same time. Aren't he afraid of playing with fire and burning himself?!"
Although the words were harsh, after all, it was Cao Cao who wanted something from Nan. After two days of deliberation, he wrote back to Zhou Yu and agreed to these conditions. But the letter also said that the conditions were complicated and could not be accomplished in one day. Only half of the horses, gold and silver could be delivered first. After all the Wu troops had withdrawn, envoys could be sent across the river to make up for the prisoners and the remainder. As for the marriage, he has to send someone to Xindu to pick up his daughter. If they keep coming back and forth, I'm afraid the wedding will be delayed until March this year. It's better to discuss it in detail then. As for the relocation of the people, Cao Cao agreed verbally, but he didn't agree with it in his heart. He planned to delay the matter after getting the land and let the matter go.
Even though both parties had their own hidden agendas, a covenant was eventually signed. In the middle of the first month of the ninth year of Yanxing, as the first batch of horses and money went south from Langya by sea, and after arriving at Yandu, the Wu people began to retreat.
Zhou Yu first contacted the Eastern Army on the day to abandon the city. After the plan was finalized, he sent a letter to the Western Army to report the emergency, saying that the Eastern Army suddenly pressed in force and he was unable to defeat him, so he came to ask for help. Without waiting for a reply from the Western Army, Zhou Yu immediately picked out hundreds of unruly people from under his control, beheaded them all, and then sprinkled their bones and blood on the city walls, pretending to be a scene of bloody battle. When the Western Army arrived, all they could see was a mess on the ground and the flag of the Eastern Army flying on Xiapi City.
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Zhou Yu did this again and again, and was defeated three times along the way. Within ten days, he brought all his troops to the south of the Huai River, and then stationed them in the three cities of Huaiyin, Xutai and Huailing. After the Huaihe River defense line was rebuilt, he wrote a letter to the Western Army in Lu County to plead guilty, saying that he was incompetent.
When the commanders of the Western Army learned the news, they were all in disbelief. Since sending troops, Zhou Yu's courage and resourcefulness have been obvious to all, especially in the Battle of Pengcheng. He faced several times the enemy's army, and he was especially able to protect himself as a whole. The generals of the Western Army heard about it and regarded him as a famous general in the South. Such a talented person and a queen from a famous family, no matter how mysterious and unpredictable the Eastern Army's offensive was, the Wu army under his command would not last more than two days. Therefore, many generals tried to explain to him, saying that they were afraid that Wu's army would come out of the inner room and they would be caught off guard.
However, Chen Chong repeatedly read Zhou Yu's letters and saw that the letters only said that the East bandits were cunning and that he was unprepared, but there were no other words that mentioned the details of the war. He quickly guessed the truth of the matter. He couldn't help but sigh to Liu Bei: "It seems that I still underestimated Bo Fu! He is unwilling to be inferior to others and is unwilling to drive for me. It seems that he wants to pursue a great cause in Jiangnan before making any plans."
It's just that although I know the reason, I can't explain it to others. After all, it seems that Sun Ce is just sitting back and watching the success or failure of the North and taking advantage of the opportunity to make profits. If he is forced to the east, it will be very disadvantageous. Liu Bei was so angry that he suffered such a heavy loss for no reason. He couldn't eat for several days and even scolded Chen Chong: "Wu Di raccoon, you have no kindness. Although I swallowed my voice today, I will definitely take it in the future." He feeds the fish!”
Even so, Bafu still had to send a letter to appease him. Chen Chong sent a special letter to Zhou Yu. He basically didn't talk about the war. He just scolded the Easterners for being cunning and Cao Cao was unfaithful and unjust. He also talked about Sun Ce's contribution to Yuan Shu's subordinates in the past. Make a big commendation. Incidentally, he also talked about Sun Ce's eldest son, Sun Shao, who was held hostage in Xijing, saying that everything was going well for him. All in all, it's just some backbiting.
But apart from that, the Western Army did not have any more means to change the situation. For the current situation, the changes in the front forced them to withdraw: as soon as Zhou Yu retreated from Xiapi, the Western Army formed a separate army in Lu County. Bulge. The Eastern Army can launch offensives from the east, south and north, and at the same time, it can directly attack the Western Army's rear route from the Shanyang and Xiapi areas. If it still intends to stay in the camp, it is tantamount to closing the coffin and waiting to die.
Therefore, on the seventh day of the Wu Army's southward retreat, the Western Army withdrew from Lu County in batches, abandoned Pengcheng, and slowly retreated from the south bank of Jishui into Pei State. Later, the army was divided into four groups and the defense lines were rearranged: Zhang Ji led 10,000 men to garrison Xiaopei, Zhang Fei led 10,000 men to garrison in Guyang south, Yuan Tan led 20,000 men to defend Xiangxian County, and the remaining 60,000 men were captured. Liu Bei and Chen Chong were brought to Linsui City as reserve troops. Once there are changes in the three cities on the front line, the Westerners can lead a large army to rescue them.
Fortunately, Dongren has no plans to continue attacking for the time being. Although Cao Cao was unwilling to relocate the people, most of the people in Xuzhou had been moved to Huainan in the previous months. The lands in Huaibei taken over by the Eastern Army cannot be called white lands, but it is actually very difficult to use them as a basis for supply operations. Therefore, after taking over Pengcheng and Xiapi, Cao Cao mostly dealt with the construction of cities and farming.
As the Eastern Army gradually expanded its front line, the situation gradually developed in the direction that Chen Chong least wanted to see: after losing the barrier of Xuzhou, the Westerners had to stand alone with the Easterners on the vast plains of Yuzhou. This is really not in line with the original strategy of facing the enemy by controlling others but not by others. But now that the matter has come to this, Chen Chong can only continue to mobilize civilians from Kansai to expand the city where the three armies are stationed. For the Western Army, which had already used a large amount of grain and grass to lure the enemy in Xiangxian County, this was another heavy burden, and would continue to consume a lot of manpower and financial resources every year in the future.
In the spring of the ninth year of Yanxing, the two armies silently built cities and cultivated fields, and tens of thousands of civilians worked between the two states. When the Westerners were working on the right bank of the Suishui River, they often met the Eastern residents on the left bank. However, the two sides did not panic when they saw the enemy people. They seemed to be doing their own thing like one country. This busy scene was in the 20th year It has never been seen in previous peacetimes.
But beneath this seemingly peaceful situation, there are still turbulent waters surging in the dark. In early February, several people suddenly fled to Fuli by swimming and asked to see Wen Ping, the magistrate of Fuli. At first, Wen Ping only thought they were Dongren civilians who had fled the famine, and didn't care about it. But when the fleeers told them their original units and positions, Wen Ping realized that they were originally Japanese soldiers who were captured by the Dong during the Battle of Huoshibu. The soldiers of the Western Army captured by the people.
These people brought news: In the past few days, for unknown reasons, the Easterners gathered the Western captives they had obtained before and carried out a large-scale massacre in Xiapi. They started by beheading them and then dumped their bodies in Surabaya. For several days, the riverside was stained with blood. Even the Wu people downstream felt that the river water had a rusty smell of blood when it was used.
Later, Dongren felt that decapitation was too slow and the smell of blood was too strong, so he simply changed his method and tied a dozen prisoners into a string with ropes, forced them into the river, and soon drowned them . In the battle of Huoshibu, as many as 10,000 soldiers of the Western Army were captured during the battle to seize the bridge. Most of them died in Surabaya in the past few days. Only these few people were left who could barely break free from the ropes and escape from the water.
When the military intelligence came to Sui, the Bafu was extremely sad, so he still sent envoys to Guangling and asked Zhou Yu to collect the bodies of the soldiers downstream. By April, Zhou Yu sent people to drag back more than 3,000 corpses. After being soaked in the river water for many days, it was impossible to tell who was who. The Western Army built a large tomb in the south of the city and buried them all here.
Although they were resentful of the actions of the Eastern Army, for the Bafu generals, it was more important to speculate on the intentions behind them. Liu Bei held a military meeting for this purpose and asked everyone for their opinions. Most of the generals took this as a demonstration, thinking that the Eastern Army would invade again soon.
But Xun You thought otherwise. He analyzed: "If the Dong people are planning to demonstrate, they should bring the crowd to the front of the army to provoke them and build the capital with their heads. How can there be any reason to kill people in Xiapi?" Fa Zheng listened and said, Agreeing greatly, he said: "Of course it's not a demonstration. Cao's thieves are far more numerous than our army. The confrontation has lasted for so long. Isn't there a shortage of food? I dare to guess that he doesn't have much to eat!" At this point, he again Guessing the Dongren's next move, "I'm afraid the Dongthief will withdraw in the next month or two."
Sure enough, by mid-April, some units of the Eastern Army began to break camp and return north. Although there were still many remaining troops in Xuzhou, Cao Cao's Yellow Sky Snake flag was no longer visible. By the beginning of May, most of the Eastern Army had left Langya north, and the newly appointed Xuzhou Governor Yuan Xi also rushed to Xiapi to take office. After secret inquiries, it was found that at this time there were only more than 20,000 troops in Xuzhou's garrison.
At this time, Meng Da, Zhang Xiu and others in the Western Army asked for a fight, intending to take this opportunity to regain Xuzhou. But after discussing with Chen Chong, Liu Bei still refused. For the Western Army, Xuzhou was originally easy to attack and difficult to defend, so it was handed over to the Wu Army. It was only that Wu Jun had no intention of participating in the Central Plains affairs that it turned into the current deadlock.
But now that a city has been built in Yuzhou and a lot of money has been spent, it is not only strategically unnecessary to use troops and extend the front line in a remote and difficult to defend place like Xuzhou, but it is also financially unsupportable. Cao Cao must have noticed this and dared to withdraw his troops.
At this point, Bafu also decided to withdraw its troops. Most of the soldiers looked to the east before leaving, recalling the scenes of fighting on both sides of the river. They thought there would be more melancholy and sadness, but in the end they could only find a little emptiness left in the sun.
The Xuzhou War, which lasted for nine months and was extremely bloody and fruitless, finally came to an end.
