The influence of the alliance between Wei and Wu was indeed very detrimental to the Han Dynasty.
The two families stopped fighting and made peace, freeing up each other's hands. If they didn't attack the big man, they wouldn't believe it even if they killed Zhuge Liang and Zhang Xi.
But as for this matter, the big man really can only do this.
After all, what should be done has been done, and what should be fought for has been won. With the world situation like this, it is impossible for Cao Wei to be willing to lose like this again, and it is impossible for Soochow to sit back and watch the Han unify the Central Plains and Hebei, and then turn around and deal with them alone. Wei Wu's alliance was not accidental, but inevitable.
"This time Wei and Wu have agreed to withdraw their troops. Cao Wei will definitely mobilize troops from Yanzhou to the west to Luoyang. Wu may also send troops from Huainan to attack Jingnan. The war in Luo may be repeated. Yuan Chang should carefully monitor it." Zhuge Liang began. , he told Zhang Xidao directly.
But Zhang Xi pondered for a while, hesitated, and then raised his head and asked, "Prime Minister, do you really think that if the two families negotiate for peace, they will easily mobilize troops elsewhere?!"
Zhuge Liang was stunned for a moment, but then he understood the meaning of Zhang Xi's words.
Although Wei and Wu made an alliance, the problem is that the alliance is not a complete guarantee.
Soochow's reputation in this regard is really not worthy of trust. Having made an alliance with the Han Dynasty twice and betrayed it twice, wouldn't Cao Wei reconsider it again? !
For the first time, there was an emperor's edict as a reason. At that time, Sun Quan was the king of Wu of the Han Dynasty. Regardless of whether Emperor Xian of Han was a puppet or not, as a Han minister, he obeyed the emperor's edict. Even if the whole world knew that he was betraying the alliance and attacking Jingzhou, at least there was a reason. A fig leaf.
But the second time, there really was no reason. It was a complete shameless sham. The only thing that could be brought to the table was Liu Bei's so-called "promise" back then.
I really can't explain this matter clearly, after all, Liu Bei is now Emperor Zhaolie.
With such a capricious country, even if Cao Wei was forced to make an alliance with Soochow due to the situation, it is hard to say whether he would trust the other party.
Unauthorized deployment of troops from Yanzhou County to attack Luoyang will inevitably lead to a weakening of Yanzhou's defense against Xuzhou and the Huainan region. Will Cao Wei take this risk? !
As for Soochow, it's not Zhang Xi who belittles his second uncle, but mainly Sun Quan. In terms of magnanimity, he really can't compare with heroes in troubled times like Cao Cao and Liu Bei.
The layout is not even the slightest bit worse.
Based on Zhang Xi's understanding of the monarchs and ministers of Soochow, if Cao Wei did not first dispatch troops from the Yanzhou area to march westward to Luoyang, they would not easily dispatch troops from the Huainan area.
After all, we are used to sneaking up on others. When things change, the first thing that comes to our mind is whether others will sneak up on us.
With just a piece of paper, there is really no way for both Cao and Wei to withdraw their troops with peace of mind, let alone cooperate with each other to attack Jingzhou and Luoyang.
This is what Zhang Xi wanted to express, and Zhuge Liang understood it.
But Zhuge Liang still said to Zhang Xi with a serious expression, "Although what Yuan Chang said is reasonable, you and I hold the power of a land to report to the emperor and provide peace to the people. We must not take any chances."
It is normal to have such thoughts, and there is some truth to them, but we must not use this as a basis to relax our vigilance against the two countries.
After all, with the current situation, the big man couldn't afford to bet on this possibility.
in addition
"In Yiliang's opinion, even if there is distrust between the Wei and Wu families, it is just a delay. Dongwu has been coveting Jingzhou for a long time. The Wei thieves also need to counterattack Luoyang. Sooner or later there will be a battle."
The first sentence is to remind Zhang Xi not to be careless, and the second sentence is Zhuge Liang's true opinion on the alliance between Wei and Wu.
It is true that in the early stages of the alliance, these two families will be wary of each other and withdraw their troops slowly due to mutual distrust. But as time goes by, the two families will eventually break away from contact in places such as Huainan and Xuzhou. Deploy troops to attack the Han Dynasty.
This is the common political need of the two families and cannot be changed. The difference is only a matter of time.
Therefore, it is always good to prepare early.
After Zhang Xi heard what Zhuge Liang said, he thought about it carefully and realized that it was better to prepare in advance than to react on the spot.
"So, does the Prime Minister have any good ideas?!" Zhang Xi asked.
"The land of Heluo has its own advantages. The land of Jingzhou really needs to trouble Yuan Zhang. He just doesn't know what the situation is like in Jingzhou?!" Zhuge Liang asked in return.
How could the dignified Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty not know the actual situation in Jingzhou? Zhang Xi reported to Zhuge Liang every six months the military and government affairs in Jingzhou.
The reason Zhuge Liang asked this was to put the initiative in Zhang Xi's hands. What he really wanted to ask was whether Zhang Xi was confident enough to defend Jingzhou.
After all, if Soochow invades Jingzhou this time, it will not be a small fight like before. Maybe more than 100,000 troops will be mobilized at once.
Zhang Xi actually knew this, so he carefully calculated it in his heart.
Even if Soochow and Cao Wei formed an alliance and wanted to mobilize troops from Huainan to attack Jingzhou, it would be impossible to mobilize all the troops. Some of them would have to be left in Huainan.
Therefore, Zhang Xi estimated that the 50,000 Soochow troops in Huainan would most likely mobilize 30,000 troops, with a maximum of no more than 40,000 troops.
Now, the total strength of Soochow in Jingnan and Jiangxia is a total of 40,000 navy troops and more than 30,000 army troops. Counting the Huainan troops, the total strength should be around 110,000.
If Sun Quan wanted to conquer Jingzhou in one battle, it would be possible to mobilize troops from Jiangdong itself. Then it would not be impossible for Soochow's troops to attack Jingzhou to increase to 150,000.
And Zhang Xi took stock of his belongings.
In Jiangling, there are 30,000 army troops, 20,000 naval troops, and the police and Lingyang policemen on the south bank of the Yangtze River add up to 10,000 people, for a total of 60,000 people.
In Xiangyang, Wenpin had 20,000 navy troops and 10,000 land troops, a total of 30,000 people, as well as the Xiangfan defense system.
In Nanyang County, Xu Shu led 30,000 people to garrison here, including 5,000 people from Zhang Yi's army who occupied Xiangcheng.
After such calculations, if we look purely at the strength data, defending Jingzhou does not seem to be a big problem.
But the danger Zhang Xi faces now is that Soochow's attack can focus on a breakthrough.
In other words, if necessary, Soochow can concentrate most of the 150,000 people to attack one place, either Jiangling or Xiangyang.
Well, it is most likely Jiangling. After all, attacking Xiangyang will be more difficult. The supply line of the Soochow Army is also too long, which is unfavorable for sending troops.
Although the Jingzhou Army in Zhang Xi's hands has more than 100,000, the troops are scattered in three important nodes: Jiangling, Xiangyang, and Nanyang. What's terrible is that Zhang Xi has no choice but to set up defenses at these three nodes, and even mobilize these When local soldiers come to rescue Jiangling, they must be careful to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the chaos to make a sneak attack.
In other words, once the two sides go to war, Zhang Xi will most likely use Jiangling's 50,000 soldiers to resist the siege of Soochow's hundreds of thousands of troops for a period of time, and then make adjustments and choose to dispatch reinforcements.
And in this case, it will be very important who the coach of the Soochow Army is.
If Zhou Yu leads the army, then Zhang Xi will most likely have to rely on the city defenses in Jiangling, Xiangyang and other places, and he will not dare to mobilize troops from other places easily.
After all, that was Zhou Yu. He could defeat 200,000 with 20,000. Although there were many accidental factors in the Battle of Chibi, there is no doubt about Zhou Yu's ability to seize opportunities.
If you deploy troops easily, you may be taken advantage of by Zhou Yu.
In this case, even if important cities like Jiangling and Xiangyang can be defended, other non-strategic cities may have to be given up. In the end, even if Jingzhou can be defended, there is a high probability that Jingzhou will be destroyed in half.
If Lu Xun led the troops to attack Jingzhou, then Zhang Xi would be relatively relaxed.
Of course, it's not that Lu Xun's ability to lead troops is inferior to Zhou Yu's, but that Lu Xun is a person. Based on the historical information Zhang Xi learned and Lu Xun's performance when commanding the Battle of Shouchun, Zhang Xi believes that Lu Xun has some flaws in his use of troops.
In terms of strategic arrangements, Lu Xun's ability is no less than that of Zhou Yu. Even for large corps operations, Lu Xun's strategic planning ability may be even stronger than Zhou Yu's.
Therefore, once Lu Xun led the troops to attack Jingzhou, Zhang Xi could only rely on solid city defenses in the early stage of the battle.
But Lu Xun had a problem, I don't know if it was a habit of using troops. His strategic execution ability was not very high.
Once the battlefield changes, or the enemy responds unexpectedly, Lu Xun will hesitate to respond. Once part of Lu Xun's strategy is seen through and destroyed by the enemy, Lu Xun often does not continue the stalemate, or takes risks to fight. confidence.
In this regard, he is actually very similar to Zhang Xi.
When facing Lu Xun, whose fighting style is quite similar to his own, Zhang Xi naturally knows how to deal with it. Only he knows himself best.
As long as they can seize the opportunity to launch a large-scale counterattack during the defensive process, strive to wipe out all the Soochow troops, and then use the suspicion strategy to contain Lu Xun, there is a high probability that Lu Xun can be forced to retreat voluntarily.
Of course, this also tests Zhang Xi's ability to adapt to the situation. After all, this guy is actually no better than Lu Xun in using troops, and he is the type who easily thinks too much.
As for the remaining Zhu Ran, Sun Sheng and others leading troops to attack Jingzhou, Zhang Xi is not worried at all. In fact, Zhang Xi can resist steadily. Maybe he can find a chance to defeat the enemy outside Jiangling City.
Therefore, in the final analysis, as for Jingzhou, it still depends on how determined Sun Quan is and who he will appoint as his commander.
He can defend, but Zhang Xi can't say what price he will pay.
(End of chapter)
