In fact, Soochow Wu was not ready to completely fall out with Shu Han, otherwise Zhang Zhao would not have taken the initiative to say those words to Deng Zhi.
Didn't that clearly tell Deng Zhi that Soochow's attitude had changed, thus putting Shu Han on guard?
If you really want to fall out, can you tell me this? !
How could an old fox like Zhang Zhao not know that there must be Shu Han's secret work in Jiangdong, and Deng Zhi was also capable enough to spread this matter through the secret work channel.
In doing so, Zhang Zhao was, to a certain extent, wiping Sun Quan's butt.
The Supreme of my family always looks forward and backward when doing things. During the Battle of Chibi, he didn't want to surrender, but he didn't make up his mind to fight. If Zhou Yu hadn't stood up to convince him and really won the battle, How could there be the current Soochow country?
Zhang Zhao also admitted this, but Zhang Zhao did not think that his attitude of surrendering during the Battle of Chibi was wrong.
It can only be said that, judging from the results, Zhang Zhao's original approach of advocating fake surrender to preserve his foundation was too conservative. In fact, after Cao Cao pacified Hebei, his army had indeed reached the end of the war as Zhou Gongjin said. It was not impossible. victorious.
But who could have foreseen it at that time? Even Zhou Yu had no idea before the war that he could reap such great results.
This time, Sun Quan actually committed an old habit again in his attitude towards the Shu Han.
Judging from the situation in the world, Shu Han is now strong and Wu and Wei are weak. Therefore, it is correct to keep a distance from Shu Han, form an alliance with Cao Wei, and inhibit the further development of Shu Han.
However, the current situation in the world is not as good as it was during the Battle of Chibi. Although Shu Han is strong, it is only a little stronger. Although Cao Wei is weak, it still retains the essence of all the land north of the Yellow River.
As for Soochow, even Sun Quan knew in his heart that although Soochow has occupied Qingxu, Huainan and other places, its land warfare level is insufficient, which makes Soochow want to develop further north, but it is full of ambition but insufficient strength.
Therefore, Zhang Zhao approved Sun Quan's alliance with Cao Wei, restrained the expansion of Shu Han, and at the same time bought time to develop his own diplomatic strategy internally.
However, Sun Quan's attitude towards Shu Han has always been a bit wavering.
Logically speaking, since you have decided to form an alliance with Cao Wei, you will definitely turn against Shu Han. Otherwise, what is the purpose of Cao Wei's alliance with you? !
However, they attacked Jiangling three times in a row. Once they were beaten, they had to cede territory and sue for peace. The other two times, they asked for help from you, so they didn’t argue with you. If they really wanted to fight, Sun Quan really doubted that Jiangxia, which he currently occupies, , and even the four counties in Jingnan, can they be saved?
There was no way, Lu Xun had to stay in Huainan, and Zhou Yu's condition kept failing to recover. Zhu Ran was still somewhat reluctant, and the chance of winning against his brother-in-law was really not high.
Therefore, Sun Quan also had a headache. He not only wanted to suppress the expansion speed of the Shu Han, but at the same time he was afraid that he could not defeat the Shu Han. Instead, because of his alliance with Cao Wei, the Shu Han turned the focus of its attack to himself, leaving Cao Wei to rest and recuperate. time.
This time when Deng Zhi came to visit, Sun Quan's ambivalence was reflected to the extreme.
On the one hand, he sent Zhou Yin to Jiangling to greet Deng Zhi. On the other hand, when Deng Zhi arrived in Jianye, he ordered the post to be sealed off and prevented Deng Zhi from going out, in case Deng Zhi learned that he planned to talk to Cao Wei. News of the alliance.
But the problem is, Deng Zhi is not a fool. What he does will only make Deng Zhi more suspicious.
And with Shuhan's intelligence network in Soochow, they will soon find out about this kind of thing. With Deng Zhi's ability, it is impossible for you to let him stay in Guanyi honestly.
Originally, Zhang Zhao was still thinking about how he could help Sun Quan make this matter more perfect, so that he could not only appease Deng Zhi, but also get information about the Shu Han Jingzhou's defenses from Deng Zhi. However, Deng Zhi sent it to him himself. coming.
Then Zhang Zhao played like this.
On the one hand, Zhang Zhao felt that the alliance between Soochow and Cao Wei could not be kept secret for too long. Sooner or later, the Shu Han would know about it. There was no difference between it earlier and later.
So Zhang Zhao directly used the opportunity to refute Deng Zhi's remarks and told Deng Zhi in disguise that Soochow's attitude had now changed.
On the other hand, Zhang Zhao was also testing Deng Zhi, and used Deng Zhi's reaction to judge whether Jingzhou was ready to fall out with Soochow.
If Deng Zhi scolded Zhang Zhao and hurriedly visited the four major families in Jiangdong after leaving the house, or if he returned to the post and stayed behind closed doors, waiting for Sun Quan to summon him, it means that Jingzhou was not ready to fall out with Soochow. Now Deng Zhi is also seeking the possibility of easing relations between the two countries.
If Deng Zhi walks away without saying a word, and rushes to leave Jiangdong and return to Jiangling the next day, it means that Jingzhou is ready to fall out with Soochow, and may even choose to preemptively attack the enemy. The four counties of Jingnan.
If you really want that, then just turn your back and start a war. Anyway, there is no room for recovery.
Fortunately, Deng Zhi's response was the first.
This also gave Zhang Zhao peace of mind, and he quickly entered the palace to see Sun Quan and asked him to summon Deng Zhi quickly to appease him.
In other words, Deng Zhi actually let the old fox Zhang Zhao figure it out.
Deng Zhi was very anxious after leaving Zhang Zhao's Prime Minister's Palace.
On the one hand, he wanted to convey the news to Jiangling quickly so that Zhang Xi could be prepared to prevent Soochow from launching a sneak attack.
On the other hand, Deng Zhi immediately visited Zhang Wen, the family of the Zhang family in Wuzhong, hoping to contact the talkers of the four major Jiangdong families through Zhang Wen, and through them, tell Sun Quan his interests and delay the alliance between Sun Quan and Cao Wei.
However, while Deng Zhi was busy visiting "friends", he suddenly received a notice that early the next morning, Sun Quan would summon Deng Zhi at the court meeting and return his credentials to the Emperor of Han.
Deng Zhi was surprised at that time. His secret letter had just been written and he had not yet had time to contact the big man Xizuo lurking in Jianye.
But no matter what, this is an opportunity, an opportunity to persuade Sun Quan head-on. Deng Zhi cannot let it go and must prepare carefully.
But just as Deng Zhi prepared a lot of rhetoric to persuade Sun Quan to give up the alliance with Cao Wei at the court meeting, Deng Zhi found that his rhetoric was completely useless.
Because Sun Quan didn't mention anything about falling out with the Shu Han, and when Deng Zhi was questioned, he just used old words, saying that the first lord Liu Bei promised him to seize Yongliang and then deliver Jingzhou to Soochow. As a result, now the Shu Han even Luoyang We captured it but didn’t even give it to Jiangling. Since you promised but didn’t give it to me, it’s reasonable for me to go get it myself, right? !
When Sun Quan said this, he couldn't directly defeat Deng Zhi. What did your prime minister say yesterday, "The virtuous ones will take possession of all the territory in the world"? !
Now that he has gone back to his old ways and used such nonsense, wouldn't it mean that Deng Zhi could only respond in the same old way of "demarcating the Hunan River", and in the end it turned into a quarrel and nothing was settled? !
When Deng Zhi tentatively asked about the contacts between Cao Wei and Soochow in the north at the court meeting, Sun Quan only vaguely used the excuse that the northern border was undecided and the two countries were discussing the demarcation of the border, so they communicated with each other.
Deng Zhi was puzzled. Sun Quan's attitude at the court meeting didn't seem like he was about to fall out.
So what is Soochow’s true attitude? !
Are you going to fall out with the big man, or is the attitude of "the virtuous will take possession of all the territory in the world", which is the opinion of Prime Minister Zhang Zhao? !
The more Deng Zhi thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. The more he thought about it, the more he realized there was something wrong. He almost made a mistake in his response to Sun Quan.
Fortunately, Deng Zhi is also a quick-thinking person, so he did not make a fool of himself.
After getting the credentials from Sun Quan to Liu Chan, finishing dealing with the court meeting, and returning to Guanyi to look through it carefully, Deng Zhi still had no clue.
The credential is very normal, just like the previous credential exchanges between the two countries. Sun Quan still calls Liu Chan the Lord of Han. There is no emphasis on the orthodoxy of Soochow in the words of the credential.
In addition to taking advantage of Liu Chan on a daily basis and treating himself as an elder, you really can't find in this credential that Sun Quan has any intention of falling out with the big man.
But Zhang Zhao's statement, and he took the initiative to talk about it in front of himself, couldn't be false.
You can't use Zhang Zhao's rhetoric. He's just a fool. If he can quote scriptures like this, then Zhang Zhao is a bit too powerful.
In the meantime, there is a high probability that something happened, which led to Sun Quan's final move to ease the relationship between the two countries.
But Deng Zhi didn't know what it was exactly, but what Deng Zhi was sure of was that there had indeed been some changes in Soochow's attitude. Maybe it wasn't a change, but it had really changed.
It is even possible that this letter of credence is just a delaying tactic used by Soochow to paralyze the Han Dynasty.
No matter what, Deng Zhi felt that he still had to return to Jiangling as soon as possible and reminded Zhang Xi to prepare early.
Now that Deng Zhi's mission has been completed, there is no need to pass the news through the fine work channel. After all, fine work is not easy to lurk, so try not to activate it if possible.
Besides, the transmission speed of the detailed passage may not be as fast as that of returning to Jiangling from Jianye in an honest way.
In this way, Deng Zhi hurried back to Jiangling and informed Zhang Xi of the changes in Soochow.
After Zhang Xi and Wang Ji heard what Deng Zhi had learned about his mission to Jiangdong, they directly began to strengthen Jiangling's defense without saying a word.
No matter whether you change your attitude in Soochow or not, it is always right to prepare in advance.
(End of chapter)
