After Zhong Yao committed suicide, there were several more days of winter rain, and the weather in October began to be filled with the chill of all things dying. After Zhong Yao was hastily buried, the remaining prisoners began to be escorted on their way, but there was no response from the court, as if they did not exist. That month, Taiwei Fazheng, who had been imprisoned, died suddenly. One official reported that the weather was cold and gloomy, and he accidentally contracted a cold illness and died. But Fazheng was only fifty years old, in his prime, so his sudden death was extremely suspicious. Even though the people who served him said that Fa Zheng died of illness, everyone still had some doubts. After all, political assassinations have been commonplace since ancient times. It is indeed difficult to distinguish what is the truth and what is a lie.
For more than ten days after that, Chen Chong worked in the palace and did not go to the palace to meet the Queen Mother again. Until November, the weather cleared up, the sun was shining, and suddenly even the plum blossoms filled the courtyard. Chen Chong thought that he couldn't keep delaying it like this, so he sent an order to all officials to hold a court meeting in the palace. Before the court meeting, Chen Chong sent a palace official to ask the Queen Mother to listen to the government, but after waiting for half a day, Liu Jia was still nowhere to be seen. At this time, the palace servant came to report: "The Queen Mother went to pay a visit to Zhaoling. She said that everything will be presided over by the Prime Minister, so there is no need to go overboard." care."
Chen Chong understood that Liu Jia was dissatisfied and was using the excuse of going out to hide from him. This made him helpless. Killing Liu Dan was not his original intention, but he threatened with a knife. Could he still let Jiang Wei and the others wait for death? But there are many things that don't make sense, and she did kill her son and depose her nephew. Liu Jia may have felt that everything was turned upside down, so he felt even more resentful towards himself.
But Chen Chong didn't have any more objections to Liu Jia, and he didn't know how to appease her, so he simply followed her wishes and let her calm down for a while.
At the court meeting, Chen Chong reiterated some previous matters, such as the exemption of farmers from taxes and the elimination of redundant officials. The important matter that had been debated in the court for months was now smoothly advanced. There were no more quarrels and objections, only submissiveness. But Chen Chong is not relieved because of this. He always remembers the shadows of the dead and realizes that these all have a price.
But anyway, the hardest days are over. With the arrival of the dry season in winter, Zhou Yu's navy's offensive had stalled. On the premise that the Wu people were unable to break through Fancheng, they could only plunder some people in Nanyang, and then retreated to Xiakou at the end of October. On the Liaodong side, Cao Zhen's offensive was not sincere. After a few tests, he found that there was not much chance of winning, and there were already signs of retreating. However, Chen Chong still wrote to Jiang Ji, asking him to be on guard and beware that the Liao people were just trying to catch him, and they would try to escape and come back again. The outcome was as Chen Chong expected. In late November, Cao Zhen pretended to withdraw his troops, but suddenly turned around and returned on the road. He saw that Lulong was well-armed and had a forest of soldiers, so he gave up the idea of attacking.
The new year has arrived. This is the first year of Liu's ascension to the throne, and it is necessary to change the name. Holding the good vision of long-term peace in the country, Chen Chong named the new year Yanxi. However, the reality is always very deserted. At this time in previous years, Chen Chong would often visit Guan Yu. The two families would hold a few banquets together, and on New Year's Eve, they would go to the palace to visit Liu Jia. But that won't be the case this year. Chen Chong lit firecrackers for Chen Xiu and cooked a meal for his family. The year was over. There were also very few guests who came to visit. Apart from his son-in-law He Yan, there were only a few old subordinates such as Li Yi and Wei Yan left.
But there was also good news. In the second year of junior high school, his adopted son Fu Qian finally arrived in Luoyang. As soon as he got off the carriage, he took his wife and children straight to the Prime Minister's Mansion, specifically to say hello to Chen Chong. Chen Chong was very relieved when he saw him coming, so he started chatting with him. At this time, Fu Qian mentioned a piece of news. He said: "Sir, when I came here, I passed by Jinyang. I heard from the locals that the people in Hedong Mr. Jiao, it seems that he has ascended to immortality on Fajiu Mountain!"
Chen Chong thought for a while and realized that he was talking about Jiao Xian. It was the hermit who wanted to discuss success or failure with him thirty years later when he was in Hedong. Now that I think about it, it seems that there are only three years left until the agreement was made. Chen Chong was deeply impressed by him. Is he already dead now?
When Chen Chong was stunned, Fu Qian continued: "According to the locals, in the past few years, Jiao Gong has been building a hut on Fajiu Mountain. There are only straw mats in the hut, and he only eats one meal a day. Even if the thatched hut catches fire or There was heavy snow in the sky, but he was unmoved. Finally on the Double Ninth Festival, when everyone was climbing the mountain, they found that Jiao Gong was already at the top of the mountain. He said to people: "We are about to go." Then a strong wind blew, and for a while, sand and rocks flew, and everyone could not open their eyes. Eye, when the wind stopped, Mr. Jiao was nowhere to be found! So the locals said that Mr. Jiao had already ascended to immortality."
Only then did Chen Chong realize that he had ascended to immortality in a literal sense. He immediately burst into laughter. Was he considered a loser? If someone really can leave this world, it has nothing to do with him. He likes this land and can be buried among the mountains and rivers. This is his greatest wish. If there is any regret worth mentioning, it is that he has not yet realized his family. Unify the country. Thinking of this, it's hard for Chen Chong not to feel sad. This year, he will be sixty years old, and he doesn't have a few more years to live. And before he dies, can he really see the unification of China? Chen Chong thought of disciples like Kong Ming and Shi Yuan and felt a little more at ease.
However, in terms of the overall war situation, the Wu people still have a long period of strategic opportunities. After Sima Yi fled south, Xiangyang could no longer be recovered in a short period of time, and Yiling and Yidao were also returned to the hands of the Wu people. This also means that the Wu people completely control the vast Jingchu Plain and can invest their troops elsewhere. From what Chen Chong thought, the Wu people would definitely not give up their naval advantage and continue to fight the Han army in Fancheng. There were only three possible directions for expansion: one was to send troops to Huainan, the other was to go back to Bashu, and the third was to send troops to Huainan. It is the struggle to balance Nanzhong.
As Zhuge Liang said before, Huainan is the barrier between the three Wus, Sun's minions, and the springboard to the north. It is of great strategic significance and must be recaptured by the Wu people. But if the Wu people are planning a long-term confrontation, the strategic value of Bashu is even higher than that of Huainan. From the perspective of actions, when the Wu people enter Shu, they can also take advantage of the naval advantage, which is obviously more feasible. Entering Nanzhong is a weak area to attack the Han army. It is easy to make progress but the profit is not much. In essence, it is also paving the way for the attack on Bashu and playing a strategic role in containing and surrounding Bashu. Therefore, it can also be said that seizing Huainan is the best strategy for the Wu people, entering Bashu is the middle strategy, and invading southern China is the worst strategy.
In order to make corresponding preparations, Chen Chong wrote to Ma Chao and Zhuge Liang at the same time in early February, asking them to seize the time to build the city. As for Zhuge Liang, Chen Chong is not too worried. After all, the Hefei camp left by Zhou Buyi is still there. He can use this as a basis to expand Hefei's city defense system. But the pressure on the Xifu was too great. If the Wu army followed the conventional thinking and attacked the cities one by one, it would be fine. But if the Wu army used the navy as a supply, abandoned the city instead of attacking, and instead drove straight along the river into Badong and Qianwei, forcing the Han army to fight in the field. , then there is nothing we can do. Therefore, in his letters with Ma Chao, Chen Chong discussed in detail some measures to obstruct boats, such as laying wooden piles in shallow water, pulling iron cables in narrow places of the river, training people who are good at water to cut boats, etc.
But Chen Chong was still worried. In March, he transferred 20,000 war horses from Longyou to Shu. He also sent a letter to Zhang Fei, ordering him to send 30,000 Beifu troops to Luoyang. Chen Chong had already made a plan in his mind. If the war in Bashu was unfavorable this summer, Chen Chong would personally lead the Beifu Army and Shanglin Army into Shu to fight.
In late March, the Wu navy showed signs of action again. A large number of ships left Jiangling and began to sail upstream, docking in the Xiling area. A large amount of grain, armor, and money from Jingnan and Yangzhou were continuously transported to Yi Dao, and the atmosphere of war was extremely strong. Secret spies from the south of the Yangtze River also came to report at the same time, saying that the governor Zhou Yu had submitted a petition to Sun Quan, claiming that "the world is divided into two parts, with Bashu as the base", while in the Northern Dynasties "Liu Xie's new defeat made him worried, his morale was depressed, and the three armies were difficult to revive", so it was possible that Taking advantage of this opportunity, "connect the barbarians to the south and advance with all their strength to Shu, and we can achieve success in the north and south."
This news reached Luoyang, and both the government and the public were extremely nervous. Chen Chong specially set up two hundred couriers for this purpose, and changed Bashu's military report from one report every ten days to one report every day. Ma Chao, Zhang Ji and others on the front line were training their troops day and night. At the same time, they were trying to find out the latest trends of the Wu army day and night, lest they lose this battle for national destiny again. UU reading kanshu.et
However, what was unexpected was that after May, the Wu people's military operations suddenly stalled. They neither marched westward to Bashu nor returned to the generals. They just stagnated in the Yi Dao area without any action. Ma Chao was unable to directly learn about the Wu army's movements from the Yi Dao camp, so he had to resort to insidious measures and sent people to bribe Wu Lingman to send envoys to inquire about the movements. As a result, Wu Lingman wrote back and said that they did not see the governor Zhou Yu when they went to Yi Dao. , it was Cheng Pu, the governor of Xiakou, who received them.
Could it be that Wu Jun's actions have been secretly changed? Ma Chao continued to drive his scouts for signs of Zhou Yu, but the result was unexpected: by June, rumors had spread among the Wu army that Governor Zhou seemed to be dead. As for the reason, some said it was the recurrence of the injury last year, some said it was a sudden illness this year, and a few people said it was the Supreme Sun Quan who ordered his death. Although these remarks are not completely credible, one thing is certain. Lu Xun, the governor of Anlu, has rushed to Yi Dao and officially took over the army in the camp. At this time, the Yi Dao had gathered as many as 80,000 troops, which could be described as a cloud of victorious troops. If Zhou Yu had not been injured or had other inconveniences, it would not have been possible for Lu Xun to go to the Yi Dao to meet the generals.
There were many doubts for a while, and in early autumn, Chen Chong discussed with the staff of the Prime Minister's Office, suspecting that Sun Quan and Zhou Yu had a political struggle, maybe because of differences in strategy.
Until October, signs from all sides showed that Zhou Yu was indeed dead for some unexplained reason. Sun Quan used a series of appointments and removals to dismantle Zhou Yu's many subordinates and transferred most of them back to Jianye. Only 40,000 people were left and handed over to Lu Xun, the governor of Anlu, who was ordered to take over Zhou Yu's position. In any case, the Sun family was busy with power transition and re-stabilization, which led to the complete bankruptcy of the Bashu strategy this year, and the war was quietly eliminated.
