In fact, when Zhou Yu came forward and reached a private agreement with Ji Han, Sun Quan actually thought about and made preparations for the two strategies of attacking Cao Wei northward and turning back to attack Jiangling.
But at that time, Sun Quan's thinking was more superficial. After all, at that time, Shu Han had not officially "handed over" Jiangxia, and troops had not gathered in Xiangyang. Cao Wei in the north had no obvious loopholes in the defense of Pengcheng and Runan. .
Therefore, Sun Quan only tended to "think" about these two strategies without any specific intention to implement them.
But even so, Sun Quan was still making some preparations in advance.
As for Jiangxia, with Zhou Yu fully in charge, Sun Quan felt more at ease. What he had to do was to mobilize the battle formation in case Zhou Yu wanted to use troops, and he did not have enough support to give Zhou Yu.
As for Jiangbei, although strategic arrangements were also left to Lu Xun, Sun Quan was somewhat uneasy and had also arranged for some people to go to Jiangbei to guard and help.
One of the most important chess pieces was to arrange for his confidant Zhou Li to garrison Dangtu, send Quan Cong to garrison Danyang, and guard Sun Sheng garrisoned in Shouchun.
On the surface, these three troops are all strengthening the defense of Shouchun, and there is nothing special about them. However, if Lu Xun needs to use troops against Runan or Pengcheng, these three troops are ready-made support troops.
Lu Xun's so-called "Runan is desirable" strategy is based on these three troops.
In the direction of Pengcheng, Lu Xun no longer had too many extravagant hopes. At least before Jia Kui was transferred from Pengcheng, Lu Xun was really not completely sure that he could break through Pengcheng.
Even though Jia Kui was just a scribe, he had excellent military strategies. His defense of Pengcheng could be said to be impeccable. He even took advantage of Cao Wei's cavalry in the plain area and used cavalry to respond. Not only did he defend Pengcheng's various areas, The county's defense even seems to be pushing back into Xiapi and Langya counties.
If it weren't for Cao Wei's lack of troops in the Yanzhou area and the need to support Pengcheng State and Runan County on two fronts, Lu Xun might not even have the heart to think about any plan to counterattack Runan now. It is not easy to hold the current territory. Something happened.
This is not to say that Lu Xun is really worse than Jia Kui. It is purely the gap in national power between the two sides and the gap in arms and military systems. This cannot be easily smoothed out by Lu Xun with his own strategy.
But the direction of Runan is different.
Pengcheng State is located in the Xuzhou Plain. The terrain here is relatively flat, which is suitable for Cao Wei's cavalry to fight on a large scale. However, there is no decent cavalry unit in Jiangdong so far. When fighting in Pengcheng State, Xiapi County, Langya County and other places, they can only rely on city defense. In urban warfare, it is normal to be strategically passive.
But Runan is different. Although this place is considered a plain area overall, it also has a lot of mountains, which is not completely suitable for cavalry raids. Using the mountains to fight, Lu Xun is still confident that he will have a head-on confrontation with Cao Wei in Runan County.
In addition, the guard general of Runan County is Cao Xiu.
Cao Xiu is actually quite capable, but his character is really flawed.
This person thinks too highly of himself and is quite restless.
This can be clearly reflected from Cao Xiu's life and his two previous defeats.
When Cao Xiu was young, he was praised by Cao Cao as Cao's Thousand Mile Horse. This was originally a compliment, or an expectation, but Cao Xiu took it seriously.
In the early years, when brothers Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Chun, and Xiahou were all around, the Cao Wei clan was full of talented generals. At that time, Cao Xiu was relatively low-key and knew that he could not be compared with these elders.
But since the older generation of Cao clan generals have passed away, only Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, and Xia Houshang are left in the Cao Wei clan, who can barely support the situation.
At this time, Cao Xiu had always regarded himself as the number one general in the clan.
Then, Cao Xiu was lured deep into the enemy by Zhou Yu's various tricks, and was beaten wildly. Not only did he lose Shouchun, but he was also almost surrounded to death in Huainan. He had to rely on Jia Kui, who had always been at odds with him, to fight for his life. Only after rescuing each other were they able to withdraw to Yuzhou.
After the Eastern Wu Northern Expedition, they attacked Qingxu. Cao Xiu was once again tricked by Zhou Yu. Taking advantage of his differences with Jia Kui, he jumped out of the Huainan encirclement and went north to Qingxu to help in the battle. Qingxu was defeated in one battle and Cao Xiu lost face.
Although Cao Xiu tried to save face and led troops to attack Shouchun, in an attempt to complete the family change and completely cut off the connection between Qingxu and Huainan. There is a saying that the tactics were actually used well, but the strategic timing was not appropriate, and Cao Xiu himself was too eager to use troops. , which led to the three-month attack on Shouchun, until all the vigor was lost, and the situation in Qingxu Land was basically stable, but he did not capture Shouchun.
On the contrary, it made Sun Shao famous.
These two incidents were regarded as a great shame and humiliation by Cao Xiu, but at the same time, they also suppressed Cao Xiu's arrogance to some extent.
After all, the defeat was so miserable that Cao Xiu himself could not find any excuse, and for a time he never mentioned the so-called number one clan general.
If at this time, Cao Xiu could learn from the pain, seriously reflect on himself, and correct his mistake of being impatient in using troops, then he might really be able to become the number one general in the clan.
But the problem is that within half a year, another clan general, Cao Zhen, was beaten to pieces by the Second Northern Expedition commanded by Liu Bei, and escaped from Guanzhong in embarrassment.
Not only did he lose his city and territory, he was also humiliated, and he was beaten much harder than Cao Xiu's two defeats combined.
No matter what happened, Cao Xiu was defeated by Zhou Yu, a famous general recognized by the world, but Cao Zhen lost to Liu Bei despite having a military advantage.
Liu Bei is a hero, and this is recognized by the world, but people all over the world really have mixed opinions about Liu Bei's ability to use troops.
There was no way, Liu Bei had suffered too many defeats in his early years. Except for a few people as discerning as Cao Cao, few people valued Liu Bei's ability to use troops.
But in any case, no matter how much people recognize Liu Bei's military capabilities, they will not think that Liu Bei can compare with Zhou Yu in leading troops in battle. Apart from anything else, if you ask Liu Bei to fight the battle in Chibi, he will definitely fight it. It can’t be compared with Zhou Yu’s achievements.
After such a comparison, Cao Xiu suddenly felt that he was good again! ! !
Over the years, Cao Xiu has been doing a lot of things in Runan. Not only did he once again start to claim to be the first general of the clan in a high-profile manner, he even went so far as to report to the emperor and impeach his immediate boss Sima Yi. From these actions, we can actually see Cao Xiu's old problems. , committed again.
Lu Xun really didn't need to know too much about Cao Xiu. As for the things Cao Xiu did in Runan, he could get a rough idea with a little detailed inquiry. It was not difficult for Lu Xun to analyze Cao Xiu's mentality from it.
What's more, the lessons learned from Cao Xiu's mistakes are there, and it's hard for Lu Xun not to know them.
Faced with such an opponent who was impatient and had high self-esteem, Lu Xun obviously did not think that Cao Xiu would be more difficult to deal with than Jia Kui.
Therefore, Lu Xun planned to repeat his old tricks and proposed to Sun Quan a set of combat plans to lure the enemy deeper.
He sent people to pretend to surrender and lured Cao Xiu to take the initiative to send troops to leave Runan and go deep into Huainan to weaken Cao Wei's cavalry advantage. Then he used superior troops to surround Cao Xiu, encircle and annihilate him, and finally counterattack Runan.
This was Zhou Yu's old wisdom back then, but Lu Xun felt that it didn't matter whether it was old or new, it just worked.
The matter of pretending to surrender was easy to handle, and Lu Xun had even arranged a candidate for him: Zhou Li.
Zhou Li was Sun Quan's recently promoted confidant. It was a bit strange that a Wujun native was not an official in Jiangdong, but was sent by Sun Quan to garrison Dangtu.
Insiders knew that Zhou Li was stationed under orders, but in the eyes of uninformed people, Zhou Li must have been demoted by Sun Quan.
After all, Zhou Li was the governor of Poyang three years ago, but now he is reduced to being stationed in only one county. It doesn't look like he has been promoted.
Therefore, Lu Xun's suggestion was to spread rumors to the outside world, saying that when Zhou Li followed Sun Quan to attack Jiangxia three years ago, he worked in vain and made rude remarks. Therefore, he was disgusted by Sun Quan and dismissed from his position as the governor of Poyang. He was demoted and sent to guard Dangtu.
Then he asked Zhou Li to send people to Runan, pretend to surrender to Cao Xiu, express his willingness to submit to the Wei Dynasty, offer Dangtu, and open the attack channel to Shouchun.
The geographical location of Dangtu can be said to be very important. It is located northwest of Shouchun. If you want to attack Shouchun, you must first conquer Dangtu.
As for Dangtu County, when Yuan Shu occupied Huainan, it was already operating as a military fortress. After all these years, Dangtu's geographical location is still important and its defense is quite tight. If there is no internal support, Cao Xiu wants to break through Dangtu. It is almost impossible to intimidate Shouchun.
Therefore, in Lu Xun's opinion, Dangtu County was enough for Cao Xiu to take a risk.
As for whether Cao Xiu would believe Zhou Li's surrender, in fact, in Lu Xun's view, it was not that important.
Cao Xiu was willing to believe Zhou Li's surrender, so that was naturally the best, but even if he didn't believe it, Lu Xun judged that based on Cao Xiu's character and the current environment Cao Xiu was in, he would still choose to march into Dangtu County.
There is no other reason than that Cao Zhen is now leading the Sili Army to counterattack Guanzhong, which is going very smoothly.
Cao Xiu's biggest competitor for becoming the number one general in the clan has always been Cao Zhen.
In the past, not to mention the poor brothers, both suffered humiliating defeats. Even judging from the public opinion, Cao Zhen's defeat was much worse than Cao Xiu's.
But it's different now. Cao Zhen led his army to counterattack successfully, and they were almost pushed to Chang'an along the way. Cao Zhen was able to wash away his shame before his eyes. What did you make Cao Xiu think? !
Therefore, Lu Xun judged that even if Cao Xiu knew that Zhou Li was pretending to surrender, he might take the risk and choose to use the Wei army's superior force to march into Huainan and seek victory in a dangerous situation.
Others may not choose such a risky battle, but for Cao Xiu, doing so is entirely possible.
Not only was he anxious to prove himself, but he was also full of pride about himself. Anyway, Zhou Yu was far away in Jiangxia this time, and it was impossible to arrive in Huainan in a short time to command the battle. So what did Cao Xiu have to fear? !
Are you afraid of Sun Sheng, Quan Cong, or some kind of Zhou bream? !
Cao Xiu is not so hopeless! ! !
(End of chapter)
