Cao Rui's mind is still very clear. He probably knows Liu Fang's idea. Although it sounds good, it is a bit too unrealistic.
Apart from anything else, it would take a hundred thousand people to recruit the farmers as soldiers. Not to mention how much food it would cost, but in terms of time, it would take at least half a year from the time the farmers were recruited to the completion of the training and initial combat effectiveness. time.
In this way, whether it can play a key role in Sima Yi's hands remains to be said.
Purely distant water cannot dissolve near fire.
This matter can be prepared in advance in the future, but for now, it is better to follow the advice given by Chen Qun and step down from the stage to avoid greater losses.
After talking about this, Cao Rui brought up another thing - about Soochow's sneaky robbery in the southeast of Yanzhou.
To be honest, this thing made Cao Rui feel more disgusted than Sima Yi's failure to capture Luoyang.
If I can't do it head-on, that's because I don't have the ability.
But you, Sun Quan, are doing this while occupying the cities and lands of your allies under the banner of alliance. Isn't it a bit unethical? !
The disgusting thing is that with the current situation, you really can't fall out with Soochow directly and maintain a good relationship with the alliance. It is very necessary for both parties at this stage.
Cao Rui can now understand the frustration of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang.
After serious deliberation on this matter, in the end we had no choice but to send envoys to Jiangdong. On the one hand, they were accountable, and on the other hand, they wanted to get back the city land that had been occupied by Soochow as much as possible.
There is no other way.
In this way, the unlucky Jiang Ji was once again sent to Jiangdong by Cao Rui's order to meet Sun Quan in Jianye.
As for Sun Quan at this time, Sun Quan received a letter from Zhou Yu requesting to withdraw his troops from Jiangling.
To be honest, Sun Quan actually didn't agree with Zhou Yu's doing this.
Now Sun Quan no longer has much ambition to conquer the world. His biggest goal now is to maintain the current foundation of Soochow and realize the stable transition of Wu's great cause.
To achieve the stability of Wu State's great cause, Jingzhou is the most important link. Half of the natural dangers of the Yangtze River must be in your own hands.
And the most terrible thing is that it is located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Even if we cannot win the entire Jingzhou, at least we must try our best to win the Jiangling area.
Therefore, from an inner perspective, Sun Quan did not want Zhou Yu to retreat under the current situation.
After all, Soochow has attacked Jingzhou several times. Except for Lu Meng's sneak attack, this one is the most likely to succeed.
Most of the Shu Han's energy was concentrated in the Heluo area in the north. Jingzhou was only guarded by its own troops and horses. But this time, Soochow learned from Lu Meng's sneak attack on Jingzhou and mobilized 150,000 troops to attack at once. Xiangyang was also guarded by soldiers and horses. The connection with Jiangling has been temporarily cut off. If Jiangling cannot be captured again, then Sun Quan really doesn't know if he will have a chance to capture this place in the future.
But after the battle was actually fought, Sun Quan realized that Jiangling was really not that easy to fight.
Even with Zhou Yu's ability, his battle of wits and courage with his cheap brother-in-law still failed to achieve the purpose of dividing and mobilizing Jiangling's troops. What's even more terrible is that Zhou Yu is laying siege to the city in the front and attacking the city one by one in the rear. Stab Louzi.
In the case of Zhu Huan, although Sun Quan gave the decision "not to pursue", Zhu Huan and Quan Cong failed to complete the suspicion strategy and contain the Shu army in Xiangyang, and failed to stop the Shu army at Hulukou. The two men who stormed the county are reckless men and fools. Don't dislike the other.
As for Lu Zheng and Lu Dai, Sun Quan didn't know how to evaluate them.
Letting a lecherous man play around caused difficulties in logistics and food transportation. The food and grass supplies for nearly 100,000 troops had to be transported from Jiangdong by water. The logistics pressure was really too great.
As long as there is no problem in either of these two places, Zhou Yu's life under Jiangling City will be easier now. If he attacks Jiangling by force, he may not have a chance to capture Jiangling.
Well, at least that's what Sun Quan thinks.
But the reality is such that Sun Quan has to face it.
If at this time, Sun Quan was still hesitating between continuing to attack and retreating, the arrival of Cao Wei's accountability document confirmed Sun Quan's idea of retreating.
To be honest, what happened in Huainan was not directly instructed by Sun Quan. He did not know that his Huainan Corps was taking advantage of the situation in the southeast of Yanzhou.
However, even if Sun Quan knew about it, he didn't feel that his soldiers had done anything wrong.
The tradition of taking advantage is originally a traditional feature of Soochow, and its source is him, the Great Wu Supreme.
What's more, by taking advantage of the situation this time, Soochow took the opportunity to occupy five counties in Yanzhou. In total, it was almost half a county, which was a big gain.
Therefore, if Sun Quan eats this bargain, don't expect him to spit it out.
As for Cao Wei's accountability, Sun Quan didn't take it seriously. He didn't need to personally come forward to do this. He could just leave it to Gu Yong, Bu Zhi and others to talk nonsense with Jiang Ji.
What Sun Quan really cares about is that Cao Wei sends Jiang Ji as an envoy at this time. Does Cao Wei still have this leisurely mind? !
Don't you plan to attack Luoyang? !
If this is the case, then the General Shang in Jiangling and the nearly 120,000 waterway coalition forces in Soochow should withdraw early.
He could take advantage of the situation and rob Cao Wei, so how could it be impossible for Cao Wei to sell Soochow back? !
If Cao Wei directly withdraws his troops and retreats to Hulao Pass, withdraws from Luoyang, frees up Luoyang, and divides his troops south to rescue Jiangling, then there will be a battle between Soochow and Shu Han on the border of Jiangling.
This kind of loss-making business cannot be done.
Based on comprehensive considerations of these two aspects, Sun Quan agreed to Zhou Yu's request to withdraw his troops.
But at the same time, Sun Quan still hopes that Zhou Yu can stay in Jingzhou temporarily and maintain pressure on Jiangling. If this attack fails, then we can wait for the next opportunity.
Zhou Yu is not in good health and it is inconvenient to run back and forth. It is better to stay in Jingnan. On the one hand, he will be prepared for possible counterattacks by the Shu Han. On the other hand, it will not be so troublesome when Zhou Yu leads the army next time. .
Sun Quan's decree reached the frontline troops, and Zhou Yu didn't feel there was anything wrong, so he began to arrange the withdrawal of troops in accordance with Sun Quan's decree.
Lu Xun was called back from Yidu County by Zhou Yu, and together with Zhuge Ke, led troops to retreat to Jiangxia by land.
After withdrawing from Jiangxia, Lu Xun left 30,000 soldiers for Zhuge Ke. At the same time, he contacted Zhang Cheng's navy to withdraw troops and return to Xiakou to defend Xiakou, which was under Zhuge Ke's control and defended Jiangxia County.
Lu Xun himself led the remaining 30,000 soldiers from Huainan County and returned to Huainan to set up defenses according to Sun Quan's arrangements.
Zhou Yu himself, with the help of Zhu Ran's navy, led more than 20,000 Jingnan County troops, the last batch of which evacuated from Jiangling City and returned to Jingnan to encircle and suppress the slippery Shibao.
Well, the most important thing is to let the county soldiers from the four counties in Jingnan return to their respective states and counties to strengthen defense.
After returning to the army, it would not be so easy for the ragtag group of Wuxi barbarians led by Shi Bao to go around and plunder like before.
And things did go as Zhou Yu expected. When Zhou Yu led his troops back to defend Wuling County, Shi Bao realized that he had no chance to cause chaos anymore.
But it doesn't matter. Shi Bao's goal has been achieved. Now that Soochow has withdrawn its troops, there is no need for him to stay in Jingnan. From the mountains in the west of Wuling County, he found another way out and came to Wuling County and Yidu County across the river. He sent his bodyguard to swim across the river to contact Zong Yu of Yidu County and ask him to send a ferry to take him and the remaining more than a thousand soldiers back to Jiangling.
As long as he returns to Jiangling smoothly, in addition to his lovely wife and concubine, what awaits Shi Bao is bound to be glory and wealth.
Shi Bao's luck has always been good. He originally expected to stay on the bank of the Yangtze River for a few days, waiting for Zong Yu to raise a boat to pick him up. But coincidentally, when Shi Bao was camping by the river and waiting, he happened to meet To the Jiangling naval force returning from Badong County to Jiangling.
After some explanations, Shi Bao and his party took Yang Ba's boat and retreated all the way back to Jiangling.
As for Zhou Yu, he is not in a hurry to argue with Shi Bao. If he can't block it, he can't block it. There are more important things to do.
After returning to Wuling County, Zhou Yu began to arrange the defense of each county.
Lu Dai was left in Wuling County and replaced Lu Zheng as the prefect of Wuling County. Lu Zhi was transferred to the post of Guiyang Prefecture. There was no guard in Wuling County who was good at suppressing foreigners, so Zhou Yu was worried.
As for Lingling County, Zhou Yu made an exception and promoted Lu Kai, who performed well in this battle, to serve as the prefect of Lingling County.
As for Changsha County, the last of the four counties in Jingnan, Zhou Yu did not appoint any garrison.
Because Zhou Yu planned to personally lead the army and garrison Changsha.
Zhou Yu has also chosen the place to station troops. It is in Baqiu.
Sometimes, fate is really wonderful. Less than half a month after Zhou Yu led his troops back to Baqiu, Zhou Yu fell ill in Baqiu again.
(End of chapter)
