There is a reason why Sun Quan chose not to fall out for the time being and stall for time.
In June, Cao Wei once again sent Jiang Jin south. This time, Cao Wei was no longer as secretive as last time, but bluntly proposed to Soochow that the two countries should establish an offensive and defensive alliance to fight together. Shuhan.
What Cao Wei means is very simple. Before, you, Soochow, were growing insignificantly on one side, and even helped the Shu thieves to attack our Wei Dynasty. These big Wei Dynasties can ignore it, but now, the Shu thieves are dominant. If you continue to sit back and watch like this Looking on, after the Shu thieves occupy Heluo and advance to Yanzhou, Soochow and Shu thieves will be directly bordering each other. Does Soochow really think that the Shu thieves will not be tempted by the land of Qingxu? !
If the alliance between Shu and Wu is still the same as before, then Shu may still abide by the alliance agreement. Unfortunately, the current Soochow and Shu are no longer an alliance, and they are only one step away from war.
Coupled with the fact that Soochow Wu attacked Jingzhou several times before, does Soochow think that the Shu thieves do not want to come back with revenge? !
When fighting in Jingzhou, the Soochow navy was strong, and the Shu thieves would throw rat weapons at them, but in the Central Plains, can Soochow withstand the attack of the Shu thieves? !
Now even the Wei Dynasty has lost Luoyang and can only retreat to Yanzhou. If the Shu thieves are allowed to expand wantonly, Soochow's final fate will not be much better.
After Jiang Ji met with Sun Quan and made a strong presentation, he finally convinced Sun Quan and decided to establish an alliance with Cao Wei.
But there are still some small details that need to be negotiated with Cao Wei.
Therefore, in August, a few days before Deng Zhi's mission to Soochow, Sun Quan sent his own envoy to Yecheng to meet with Wei Emperor Cao Rui to discuss specific cooperation details.
There are actually two conditions for Sun Quan.
One is that Sun Quan hopes that Cao Wei will voluntarily withdraw from Runan and hand over Pei and Pengcheng to Soochow.
The other is that Sun Quan hopes that the two countries will exchange protons to ensure the completion of the alliance.
These two conditions immediately exploded as Sun Quan's envoy reached the Wei court.
Cao Rui was confused before agreeing to such a condition.
In the first condition, Pengcheng State is not a big problem. After all, Cao Wei had half-given up, and now it has been occupied by Soochow. Although it is a bit embarrassing to verbally admit that it belongs to Soochow and divide the boundaries, it is not impossible. Accept the result.
But if Soochow wants to conquer Peiguo, then it would be a slap in the face.
Moreover, there is an even more disgusting place here. The place Peiguo was called during the Eastern Han Dynasty. By the time of Cao Wei, Peiguo had long since ceased to exist. The place was renamed Qiaojun.
Why? !
Because Cao Cao was born in Qiao County, Pei State.
After Cao Pi became independent on behalf of the Han Dynasty, he deliberately changed the state of Pei to Qiao County. The administrative seat was established in Qiao County and was established as the "accompanying capital". In terms of status, Qiao County was actually the same as Luoyang.
In other words, Soochow Baba opened his mouth and not only wanted to take away one of the five capitals of the Wei Dynasty, but also this place was the hometown of Emperor Wu, Taizu of the Wei Dynasty. Can Cao Rui agree to such a thing? ! Can the ministers of the Wei Dynasty agree to such a thing? !
Not turning their backs directly and sending troops to Huainan can be regarded as the result of the restraint of the officials of the Wei Dynasty.
In fact, Sun Quan also knew that he would not come to this place, and the geographical location of Qiaojun actually did not have much strategic value to Soochow's current occupied area, but Sun Quan still took the initiative to add this area. Sun Quan actually I just want to tell Cao Wei that the initiative to form an alliance or not to form an alliance between the two countries now lies with me, Soochow.
There was no way, although it was Cao Wei who took the initiative to send Jiang Ji as envoy to Soochow to propose an alliance between the two parties.
But the problem is that the entire Wei Dynasty, from top to bottom, even Jiang Ji, who was sent as envoy to Soochow, looked down on Soochow.
Really, if the situation hadn't collapsed to this point, the entire court of Cao Wei would not have wanted to have anything to do with Soochow given the choice.
Without him, this force's way of doing things is really unpalatable.
Therefore, even though the situation forced Jiang Ji to send an envoy to Jiangdong to seek an alliance, he knew that he had to pay attention to his words and attitude. But sometimes, when his emotions got up, he always felt like he couldn't control it.
Therefore, when secretly discussing the pros and cons of the world situation with Jiang Ji and Sun Quan, Sun Quan could clearly feel that although Jiang Ji respected him on the surface, there was always a feeling of "you don't understand, I will teach you" in his words. How does it feel? How awkward.
Now, you, Wei, have been beaten to the door of your home, and you have almost lost everything you can. At this time, you come to Soochow for help, why do you still act like "I am the boss"? !
Sun Quan was very dissatisfied with this. Although Sun Quan could agree to form an alliance with Cao Wei because of the need of the situation, the leadership of the alliance must be in his own hands.
Therefore, Sun Quan asked the envoys to join the plan to divide the Qiao County. The purpose was not to really get such a piece of land, but to tell Cao Wei that the one who is eager to form an alliance now is not me, Soochow. It should be in my hands, Soochow.
But it is obvious that Sun Quan underestimated Qiaojun's status in the Wei Dynasty.
Cao Rui lost Luoyang, and it can be said that the political loss was very serious. However, with the current foundation of the Wei Dynasty, it was not that the loss could not be afforded. In fact, the nature was similar to Cao Pi's loss of Chang'an.
But if Qiaojun is lost, or lost in this humiliating way of dividing it up to others, that would be a fatal thing for Cao Rui. You can easily divide the land of your ancestors to others. In this world, there are What can't be lost? !
If Cao Rui really dares to agree to Soochow's conditions, he doesn't need to have any second thoughts among the officials of the Wei Dynasty. The Cao Wei clan can directly contact the clan ministers the next day and break into the palace to dethrone the emperor.
It had only been more than ten years since the founding of the country, and the Cao Wei clan was still there. It was not yet time for everyone to forget their place of origin.
For this reason, the envoy sent by Sun Quan was almost driven out of the court by the excited Wei officials. In the end, Chen Qun stepped forward and temporarily saved the envoy on the grounds that the two countries were fighting and the envoy would not be humiliated.
However, Chen Qun also clearly told the envoys of Soochow that if they really wanted to form an alliance, they would negotiate on different terms. Do you want Qiaojun? ! I'm afraid Sun Quan is really confused! ! !
Well, these were Chen Qun's exact words, and they were said directly in front of the Soochow envoy. To a certain extent, the people in the Wei Dynasty did not think highly of Sun Quan.
The Soochow envoy did not expect that the Cao Wei imperial court would react so strongly, and he did not have the time to investigate whether Chen Qun violated diplomatic etiquette by calling the Soochow Supreme by his name in front of him. The envoy could only stay in the hotel behind closed doors. , to calm Cao Wei's hostility, he quickly wrote to the Sovereign of Soochow, requesting the Supreme to change the terms.
When Sun Quan received this letter, it happened to be the days when Deng Zhi visited Soochow.
Sun Quan also didn't expect Cao Wei's reaction to Qiaojun to be so big. This one is not good, and he feels that the alliance will be ruined.
Under this circumstance, Sun Quan, who was already hesitant about falling out with the Shu Han, now did not dare to fall out with the Shu Han immediately.
In addition, Zhang Zhao told Sun Quan at this time that the Shu Han side was probably not ready to fall out immediately, and there was no need to worry that the Shu Han side would launch a war immediately. Therefore, Sun Quan decided to use a delaying tactic to appease Deng Zhi while facing the Shu Han side, and informed Deng Zhi at the same time. The envoy from Yecheng can remove Qiaojun, but the conditions of Pengcheng Kingdom cannot be changed.
With new peace negotiation conditions in place, the alliance peace talks between Wei and Wu can continue.
But when it came to the second condition, Cao Wei began to have disputes.
It is not a big deal for the two sides to exchange protons with each other. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it was normal for the two countries to form an alliance and exchange protons with each other.
But the problem is that Cao Rui has no son! ! !
Although most of the exchanges of protons between the two parties will not directly exchange direct heirs, historically speaking, it is not unprecedented for protons to return to their country to successfully compete for the throne in a special period with the support of allied countries.
In addition, Sun Quan has established Crown Prince Sun Deng, so he has a clear successor, and the country is relatively stable.
But Cao Rui has never had a son, and the issue of his successor has caused a lot of controversy within Cao Wei. Are you sure that exchanging protons will not cause unnecessary trouble? !
If Cao Rui never gives birth to a direct heir in the future, and the clan descendant who was exchanged to Soochow, with the support of Soochow, returns to the country to fight for the throne after Cao Rui's death, wouldn't it be easy to cause domestic turmoil?
Therefore, there is still a lot of controversy within Cao Wei on this issue.
But this matter is actually not a serious matter. If it doesn't work, just find a clan member who is relatively distant from Cao Rui and go to Soochow as a hostage.
Although there are still risks, but similarly, if something happens to the crown prince of Soochow, Cao Wei also has countermeasures.
In this way, after internal discussions, Cao Wei sent Cao Fan, a member of the clan, as a hostage.
Cao Fan is a very interesting person.
He is the grandson of Emperor Taizu Wu, and his biological father is Cao Ju, King of Pengcheng. However, because Cao Cao's other son Cao Zheng died early and had no offspring, he was adopted to Cao Zheng and inherited the family business.
If you want to talk about his identity, he is a bloodline of Emperor Taizu Wu. He is a brother of Cao Rui who has not been out of the fifth server. His status is quite noble.
But you want to say that he is important, right? Cao Zheng passed away as early as the 23rd year of Jian'an, and even during his lifetime, he was not conspicuous among Cao Cao's many descendants.
To put it bluntly, he is just a descendant of a clan who has a fairly noble status, but actually does not have the support of any faction within the Wei Dynasty.
If such a person serves as a hostage, even if one day he returns to China to seize power with the support of Soochow, at least within the Wei Dynasty, no one will respond to him.
The risk is reduced to a minimum.
Of course, Sun Quan was not stupid either. The one Sun Quan sent was his nephew Sun Tai.
As for this Sun Tai, his father is Sun Quan's younger brother Sun Kuang, but his mother is still the daughter of the Cao clan. The result of the marriage between the two families before the Battle of Chibi.
Both sides had their own thoughts, but no matter what, the two sides finally reached an agreement on the exchange of protons and the conclusion of a covenant.
(End of chapter)
