Runan County, Ruyin County, Yuzhou, the camp of Cao Xiu, the general who conquered the east.
After Cao Xiu reported to Emperor Cao Rui and requested that troops be sent to assist Zhou Li, he did not wait for the emperor's reply and directly sent troops without permission to station troops in Ruyin to threaten Jiujiang County under Soochow.
But this dispatch of troops was not without opposition within Cao Jun.
For example, Gao Tanglong, who led 20,000 troops to Runan to assist in the war under the orders of Jia Kui, the governor of Yanzhou, was very dissatisfied with Cao Xiu's behavior of sending troops without authorization and sternly opposed it.
Gao Tanglong was a great Confucian. He followed the etiquette and laws, and what he paid attention to was having a famous teacher.
In Gao Tanglong's view, Cao Xiu's dispatch of troops had no righteousness and no order from the emperor. Such dispatch of troops was a disorderly order, wrong, and should not be supported.
Therefore, Gao Tanglong directly rejected the request to go to war with Cao Xiu and stayed at Cai Xiu's original station without moving his troops.
Then Gao Tanglong was deprived of military power by Cao Xiu.
Gao Tanglong is a Confucian scholar, and he has his own persistence, but unfortunately, the gap between Gao Tanglong's status and Cao Xiu's is too big.
Although Gao Tanglong was a great Confucian, Gao Tanglong had not been an official in Cao Wei for a long time. Until the early Huang Dynasty, he was just a Tangyang County magistrate. After Cao Rui succeeded to the throne, he took a fancy to Gao Tanglong's political achievements and reputation and made an exception. He was promoted to be the governor of Chenliu.
As for Cao Xiu, he had already become famous during the period of Emperor Taizu Wu. During the period of Cao Pi, he was already the general of Zhendong and the pastor of Yangzhou.
In terms of government affairs, even though it can be said that they have no jurisdiction over each other, one is the state pastor and the other is the prefect. It is clear who is older and who is younger.
In terms of military affairs, Cao Xiu had led troops for many years. How could his prestige in the army be comparable to that of Gao Tanglong, who had just been the governor of Chenliu for less than three years? !
Therefore, Gao Tanglong was extremely angry that Cao Xiu deprived him of his military power, but he had nothing to do.
As for Cao Xiu, to be honest, Cao Xiu is indeed much more mature now than he was a few years ago.
A few years ago, a man as talented as Jia Kui, who was both civil and military, was still Cao Xiu's savior. Cao Xiu didn't take it seriously, and he would fall out whenever he wanted, and the trouble would be known to the whole world. But now, Cao Xiu even gave him back Gao Tanglong was appointed by Shang Cai to stay behind, asking him to take good care of his hometown during his expedition.
Although it was only a nominal official position, in Cao Xiu's view, he had already given Gao Tanglong a lot of face.
Gao Tanglong was really angry and helpless about this.
He didn't care at all that Shang Cai stayed behind. What he cared about was that Cao Xiu sent troops without an imperial edict. This was unacceptable to Gao Tanglong.
But now that Cao Xiu has led his troops and set off, what can Gao Tanglong do if he is just a polished commander and stays at Cao Xiu's old lair where he has been running for many years? !
Apart from writing a letter to impeach Cao Xiu for sending troops without authorization, Gao Tanglong could not do anything.
What made Gao Tanglong even more embarrassed was that not long after his impeachment memorial was sent out, the emperor's edict arrived at Shangcai.
The emperor appointed Cao Xiu as the General of the Eastern Conquest, and ordered him to send troops to meet Zhou Li. Gao Tanglong didn't know what to say with such a slap in the face.
The impeachment memorial had been sent out, and Gao Tanglong didn't have the face to pursue it. It was also true that Cao Xiu sent troops without waiting for the emperor's order. Gao Tanglong believed that his impeachment was not wrong.
But also, now that the emperor's edict has arrived, Gao Tanglong also ordered the army to quickly catch up with Cao Xiu's army as soon as possible and deliver the edict to Cao Xiu.
After all, when going out to fight, it is very important to be honest. If there is no emperor's edict and only rely on Cao Xiu's one-sided words and prestige in the army, it is easy to say that when things are going well, morale will easily be unstable when encountering adversity.
Gao Tanglong still knew how to prioritize, so he asked people to deliver the edict to Cao Xiu as soon as possible.
And Cao Xiu was indeed relieved after receiving the emperor's order.
There is a saying that Cao Xiu's memorial to the emperor actually concealed his true war intention.
Cao Xiu was not simply trying to support Zhou Li. He was looking for an opportunity to capture Shouchun and retake Huainan.
But if you say this, the emperor will definitely not agree, and Cao Xiu does not have the right to take vacations like Cao Zhen. If he really wants to start a war without authorization based on his surname, Cao, then no matter whether he wins or loses, the emperor will not forgive him lightly. Own.
Otherwise, the world will return to the era of warlords fighting. Cao Xiu knew this very well.
Therefore, Cao Xiu had to submit the memorial and deceive the emperor into agreeing to send troops. When the war actually started, Cao Xiu had many ways to expand the scale of the war.
Originally, Cao Xiu really wanted to wait until the emperor's clear edict arrived before actually sending troops.
After all, this battle was not a unilateral one by Cao Xiu. It also required the cooperation of Jia Kui from Pengcheng. Without an edict from the emperor, it was hard to say whether Jia Kui would cooperate based on the relationship between Cao Xiu and Jia Kui.
However, things often do not develop smoothly. Just when Cao Xiu was waiting for the emperor's order, Zhou Li once again sent a secret letter, saying that Sun Quan seemed to have noticed that he was going to defect to Wei. Lu Yi, the captain of the school affairs office, has been sent to Huainan to investigate in person.
Cao Xiu also heard about this school affairs office through detailed work in Soochow. It was a confidant of Sun Quan and was specially used to target some "disobedient" Soochow officials.
Once someone is targeted by them, they are basically on Sun Quan's blacklist.
Zhou Li also made it very clear that once the people from the school affairs office arrive in Runan, no matter whether Cao Xiu is ready to deal with him or not, he will definitely start an uprising and will not sit still and wait to die.
Therefore, Cao Xiu could not wait any longer.
Although Cao Xiu is still wary of Zhou Li, if Zhou Li sincerely surrenders, but because his side's advance is slow and unable to respond to Zhou Li in time, regardless of whether he can get a springboard to attack Shouchun, it is said that Zhou Li was defeated by Sun Quan. After the execution, the political impact was not small.
Those who wanted to defect to the Wei Dynasty failed because of the Wei Dynasty's slow response, and even their lives were not saved. Who would dare to defect to the Wei Dynasty again in the future? !
Therefore, Cao Xiu had to send troops in advance. For this reason, he even did not hesitate to offend Gao Tanglong and confiscated the 20,000 Yanzhou soldiers brought by Gao Tanglong.
But precisely because of this, although the 20,000 Yanzhou soldiers obeyed Cao Xiu's orders, their morale was not high.
Even though Gao Tanglong had only been the governor of Chenliu for less than three years, he had already gained quite a reputation in Yanzhou by virtue of his political achievements and clean style.
These Yanzhou soldiers also knew very well that Cao Xiu had forcibly taken over the command of the Yanzhou soldiers. Whether it was due to personal conflicts or a struggle for power, they did not know and could not intervene, but it was somewhat difficult for them to go to the front line to fight under such circumstances. Unwilling.
Therefore, the morale of Yanzhou soldiers is not high, and incidentally, it will also affect the 10,000 Yingchuan County soldiers who come to help.
These 10,000 soldiers from Yingchuan County were lent to Cao Xiu privately by Wang Ling. This unjustified situation was even more serious than that of the soldiers from Yanzhou.
If there is no righteous name that can make these soldiers recognize their combat purposes, they will be just a bunch of miscellaneous troops with low morale and their own agendas.
Originally, Cao Xiu was still worried about this, but Gao Tanglong hurriedly sent him the emperor's edict.
Now, Cao Xiu had a rightful name.
The emperor's edict was read out in public, which stabilized the morale of the army. Cao Xiu breathed a sigh of relief and led his troops to leave Ruyin and march towards Dangtu County.
Halfway through the journey, Cao Xiu received news from Xizuo in Dangtu County - Zhou Li directly removed the flag of Soochow and replaced it with the flag of Wei without waiting for Cao Xiu to arrive with his troops.
He rebelled in advance! ! !
Then, Cao Xiu received another letter from Zhou Li, hoping that Cao Xiu would lead troops into Jiujiang County as soon as possible to respond to his uprising. At the same time, Zhou Li also sent troops to the three counties surrounding Dangtu County, Xiacai, Ping'a, and Yicheng. The deployment was all told to Cao Zhen.
Dangtu County is located in an important place, so Zhou Li has 5,000 soldiers to garrison it, while the other three counties have 3,000 soldiers to garrison each.
Soochow's original intention was to build a three-dimensional defense front centered on Dangtu County and surrounded by three counties. The total force deployed in the four counties reached 11,000 people, plus Shouchun behind him. Being able to provide timely reinforcements, this kind of defense system can completely block the threat from Runan.
Cao Xiu could understand this point without Zhou Yi reminding him.
And Cao Xiu also understood that the core point of this frontline defense system was Dangtu County where Zhou Li was stationed.
Once Zhou Li in Dangtu County raises the rebel flag, it will temporarily cut off the channels for the other three counties to support each other. What Cao Xiu has to do is to divide the encirclement attack before Shouchun's Soochow Army supports the three counties or counterattacks Dangtu. With the lower three counties, half of the land in Jiujiang County would fall into the hands of the Wei Dynasty, and at the same time it would also open a channel to attack Shouchun.
This is the combat strategy. Now that Zhou Li has launched a rebellion in advance, all that remains is for Cao Xiu to divide his troops and send people to attack the other three counties.
However, compared to his previous arrogance, Cao Xiu was really more cautious now.
Last time, Cao Xiu was careless and was lured deep into the enemy by Zhou Yu. He was pushed to the ground and beaten so hard that he almost died. If he hadn't learned his lesson, Cao Xiu would no longer be considered by Cao Cao to be the "Cao family's thousand-mile horse".
Although Cao Xiu was still executing according to the original plan this time, he was not careless, or in other words, he did not fully trust Zhou Li.
Therefore, the combat arrangement given by Cao Xiu is as follows.
He ordered Zhang Te, the captain of Yingchuan County sent by Wang Ling to support him, to lead 10,000 Yingchuan County soldiers to attack Xia Cai, ordered his general Zhang Pu to lead 10,000 Yanzhou County soldiers to attack Ping'a, and ordered another general Xue Qiao to attack Xia Cai. Lead 10,000 troops to attack Yicheng.
For these three people, Cao Xiu gave them enough superior troops, so he asked them to fight quickly and capture the three counties as soon as possible.
Cao Xiu himself took his own 20,000 Runan soldiers and advanced towards Dangtu County unhurriedly.
Anyway, he will never go deep into it easily this time. Cao Xiu will never enter Dangtu County before the three counties are captured and his flanks are not protected.
(End of chapter)
