Although Cao Xiu is a bit arrogant and can't quite figure out how much he weighs, that doesn't mean he is an idiot.
Cao Xiu actually didn't believe Zhou Li's letter of surrender when it was delivered to him.
Soochow has almost never been at a disadvantage in the wars with Cao Wei in recent years. Why did Zhou Li surrender so suddenly? !
Another thing, according to the information Cao Xiu received, Zhou Li was born in Yangxian, Wu County. Even fools knew that Wu County was the base of the Sun family in Jiangdong.
He was born in Wu County and was single-handedly promoted by Sun Quan. As a general who is responsible for defending a territory, you say that Sun Quan is suspicious of you, so you want to surrender. Unless Cao Xiu is out of his mind, can he believe it? !
Therefore, Cao Xiu really didn't believe Zhou Li's surrender from the beginning.
But, the geographical location of Dangtu County is really important.
As long as Dangtu County is captured, the defenses on the northwest side of Shouchun City, an important town in Huainan, will be cleared and a springboard for the attack on Shouchun will be established.
Afterwards, whether it is to clear the defenses around Shouchun or directly attack Shouchun, we will have a good base for advancing.
The most important thing is that Dangtu County is not far from Runan. Even if there is a conspiracy, Cao Xiu will not suffer much loss as long as he withdraws his troops in time.
Therefore, although Cao Xiu did not trust Zhou Li, he still followed the procedure of persuading him to surrender and wrote a letter back to Zhou Li.
There is only one content, and that is to question Zhou Li - why should I believe that you sincerely want to join me, Dawei?
Then Cao Xiu received a sincere reply from Zhou Yi, as well as a section of the letter.
Zhou Li cut off his ambition and expressed his sincerity of surrender to Cao Xiu.
This sincerity really moved Cao Xiu.
This is not the case in modern times. Modern people have to get their hair cut once a month. They are used to getting their hair cut off in barber shops.
Anyone who has a little knowledge of ancient etiquette knows that this is an era that pays attention to "the body, hair, and skin are received by the parents." Cao Cao cut off his head and Xiahou Dun drew his arrows and licked his eyes, which are all manifestations of this etiquette.
By the way, hair loss was a very serious punishment in this era. It was called Kun punishment. It was a very humiliating punishment.
Zhou Li's cutting off his hair was actually equivalent to using his own head to assure Cao Xiu that he sincerely surrendered.
Faced with such sincerity in surrender, Cao Xiu really believed it.
However, he only believed it a little bit, and he still didn't dare to completely believe Zhou Li.
There was no way, the first two times he was tricked were a bit miserable. Whenever Cao Xiu felt that he had a chance to win, someone named Zhou would always jump out and give him a slap in the head.
Although Zhou Yu is from the Zhou family of Lujiang and Zhou Li is from Wu County, they are neither a family nor the same class, but it is always right to be careful.
According to detailed intelligence, Zhou Yu is now stationed in Jiangxia and has moved his headquarters from Xiling to Xiakou. He has put forward a posture that may threaten Xiangyang along the Han River. It is indeed unlikely that he will come to Huainan to command operations. Based on this, Cao Xiu had a dubious attitude.
If Zhou Yu led his troops to Huainan, Cao Xiu wouldn't believe a word of Zhou Yu's words. It was definitely Zhou Yu who was tricking people again.
But now that Zhou Yu was not in Huainan, Cao Xiu suddenly felt that he might have a chance to do something to Huainan through Zhou Li's surrender.
Even if it is done, it is not impossible to take back Huainan and cut off the connection between Qingxu and Jiangdong.
But after Cao Xiu calmed down and thought about this matter carefully for a while, he felt that it was not that easy.
Again, the court disagreed. Cao Xiu had no right to take holidays. He had no say in many matters.
The Runan garrison force that Cao Xiu could directly deploy was only 30,000 people. If he wanted to rely on these 30,000 people to attack Shouchun, even with Zhou Li as the leader, it would not be able to pose a substantial threat to Shouchun.
Secondly, the only grain and grass supplies that Cao Xiu can dispatch are in Runan. If a local defensive war is to be carried out, the grain and grass supplies are more than enough. However, if he takes the initiative to launch an attack, the grain and grass that Cao Xiu has hoarded can only support the military for two months at most. If he cannot accomplish his combat objectives within a few months, he must withdraw his troops.
After all, Cao Xiu had learned the lessons from the previous two defeats. He now did not dare to underestimate Shouchun's defense at all.
According to Cao Xiu's prediction, even if Zhou Li sincerely surrenders and is willing to lead the way, it is normal for the attack on Shouchun to fail and last for three to five months or even half a year. The food and grass reserves are simply insufficient.
Finally, and the most fatal problem - Cao Xiu, on the one hand, without the emperor's edict, and on the other hand, without the right to take a vacation, launched a military operation against Soochow without authorization, and had no righteousness.
There were too many unfavorable conditions in front of him. Even if Cao Xiu wanted to send troops, he still had to think carefully.
But Cao Xiu is Cao Xiu after all.
One is a character flaw, arrogance, and the other is that Cao Xiu also urgently needs to prove himself, stimulated by the war in Guanzhong.
After repeated considerations, Cao Xiu's inner desire finally defeated his reason, and he decided to write a letter.
Yes, write a letter. Cao Xiu is going to write a letter to someone.
One letter was written to his friend Wang Ling, who was guarding Xuchang, hoping that he could lend him 10,000 troops and provide part of the food, grass and military equipment to support him in sending troops to Huainan.
Another letter was written to Jia Kui, the governor of Yanzhou who was stationed in Pengcheng.
The purpose was to seek Jia Kui's support and send troops to attack Huainan.
To put it bluntly, this is a very difficult thing. Everyone in the world knows that Cao Xiu and Jia Kui have serious disagreements.
With Cao Xiu's character, it was already a surprise to be able to write to Jia Kui to surrender and ask Jia Kui to send troops to assist him.
As for Jia Kui, when he received Cao Xiu's letter, he even doubted whether the Soochow rats had impersonated Cao Xiu's handwriting in order to pull off a clumsy trick to lure the tiger away from the mountain.
This is so unscientific. Would that arrogant and inconsiderate Cao Xiu write to himself? !
However, when Jia Kui carefully compared the seal of the letter with Cao Xiu's personal seal, and questioned the messenger who sent the letter in detail, Jia Kui had to admit that this was really a letter written by Cao Xiu to himself.
When Jia Kui carefully read the contents of Cao Xiu's letter, Jia Kui also fell silent.
One thing to say, when he first read the beginning of this letter, Jia Kui was quite scornful. This Cao Xiu was fooling around again.
Nowadays, the war in the Wei Dynasty's counterattack is at a critical moment. The Luoyang Sili generation is focusing all its attention on the battle in Guanzhong, and all logistical supplies are moving towards Guanzhong.
In this case, the first thing our border guards should do is to ensure the peace of the border and monitor Soochow's movements as much as possible, so as not to repeat the mistakes of five years ago and cause unnecessary two-front battles.
Although the Wei Dynasty is strong, if it always fights on two fronts, it will be defeated sooner or later.
Therefore, when Jia Kui saw that Cao Xiu wanted to take the initiative to provoke a war in Huainan, he immediately thought that Cao Xiu had started to fall into his old habits again, and he was very happy about his success.
Originally he didn't want to deal with this guy, but out of politeness, Jia Kui insisted on reading the letter. After reading it, Jia Kui thought that although Cao Xiu was a little careless this time, it was not completely unreasonable.
Cao Xiu mentioned one thing in his letter that made Jia Kui feel the same - Soochow has been recuperating and recuperating over the years to train its soldiers' land combat capabilities. If this continues, it will become a serious problem in the east in the future.
Cao Xiu could feel things when he was in Runan. Jia Kui was in Pengcheng, bordering Xiapi, Langya, Huainan and other places. Of course he could also feel it, and Jia Kui had a more intuitive understanding of the changes in Soochow over the years. deep impression.
Indeed, we can no longer allow Soochow to develop like this.
Don't look at it. Under Jia Kui's command, Pengcheng is now vaguely planning to counterattack into Xiapi or Langya County. But Jia Kui himself knows very well that it is just an achievement based on the speed advantage of the cavalry. He launched a counterattack to recapture Xiapi or Langya County, but Jia Kui was powerless.
Being able to maintain strategic initiative in the Pengcheng area is already Jia Kui's limit.
And even so, Jia Kui didn't know how long he could maintain his strategic initiative.
Lu Xun of Xiapi County was a man of both civil and military skills. Not only was he very disciplined in using troops, but he also did an excellent job in governing the place. In recent years, under Lu Xun's governance, Xiapi has slowly begun to restore people's livelihood and regroup the population. , transportation and trade have resumed.
As for Langya County, it was Zhuge Jin's hometown. It was easier for Zhuge Jin to govern here than Lu Xun. He was naturally able to get help from the aristocratic families in Langya County.
Although Zhuge Jin is not as well-known as his second brother, his own abilities are not much worse, especially in terms of local governance. The size of a county is not difficult for a great internal affairs talent like Zhuge Jin.
The only shortcoming is probably that Zhuge Jin's military ability is very average. If Jia Kui wants to, he can open up the situation from Langya County, cannibalize Langya County bit by bit, and expand military space for Pengcheng.
In fact, Jia Kui has thought about this and even tried it.
However, Zhuge Jin's military ability is indeed average, but he has a clan brother, that guy named Zhuge Dan, whose ability to lead troops in combat is not low at all.
Jia Kui's several attempts were all seen through by Zhuge Dan and fought back. As a result, Jia Kui lost more than a thousand men and was unable to move forward to Langya County.
Zhuge has so many talents! ! !
So much so that in these years, Jia Kui has been very worried. If he continues to indulge Soochow like this, when Soochow will one day train infantry, or get horses from Shu thieves, and create cavalry, Pengcheng will be in danger. Yanzhou is also in danger.
Therefore, although Jia Kui felt that Cao Xiu's initiative to attack Runan at this time was still a bit inappropriate, it was really necessary to take the initiative to attack.
Moreover, Jia Kui felt that Cao Xiu's battle plan might not be feasible.
Jia Kui felt that he could not decide this matter alone, so he immediately sent someone to invite the Central Guards Jiang Ji to come and discuss the matter.
(End of chapter)
