Lu Xun's reply seemed very imposing, but as a reasonably qualified lord, Sun Quan certainly understood the true meaning of Lu Xun's letter.
What Lu Xun meant was actually to tell Sun Quan that if you, the Great Wu Supreme, decide to fight, then of course I, as a minister, will have nothing to say and just fight for the strength of the country.
But if you ask me if I am sure of counterattacking Jingnan, "fighting the thieves to death" already explains all of Lu Xun's attitude.
The commander-in-chief of the first army has not even gone out to fight yet, but he is thinking about how to "fight the thieves to death". This does not look like he is confident enough to win easily.
Among the current Soochow army, Lu Xun is already the most outstanding military commander, followed by Zhu Ran. But Zhu Ran has proven that he can't defeat his cheap brother-in-law. Lu Xun's reply has this attitude. How do you choose Sun Quan? !
In addition to receiving the battle report from the front, Zhu Ran safely led the remaining 18,000 infantry and 16,000 Baqiu navy back to Xiakou. The Shu thieves also withdrew from the counties in northern Jiangxia. In addition to plundering some property, they even There is no forced relocation in Dingkou. The attitude is already obvious.
Sun Quan could only order Zhu Ran to continue to defend Jiangxia to prevent the Shu army from rebelling, and then wait for Zhang Xi to send someone to come for peace talks.
Sun Quan had previously sent Zhou Yin to see Zhang Xi and asked the two families to stop fighting. The statement Zhou Yin brought back at that time was that Zhang Xi said that he could consider it. In this case, it was impossible for Sun Quan to take the initiative to send envoys again to negotiate peace with the Shu Han side. of.
This is a procedural issue in terms of diplomatic etiquette, and it is also related to the Wu Kingdom. In fact, to put it bluntly, it is a matter of face.
This face, as long as Zhang Xi is not mentally retarded, he must give it to Sun Quan.
As for Zhang Xi, Sun Quan was not kept waiting for too long.
After the two sides faced off near Jiangxia for almost a month, Zhang Xi sent his own envoy with his own letter to Jiangdong to formally reply to Sun Quan.
The people who sent the envoys were famous people in the world, including Pang Tong and Pang Shiyuan, who were among the Han ministers.
Not only Sun Quan had not thought of this candidate for the envoy, not even Zhang Zhao, Gu Yong, Bu Zhi and others had thought of it.
The standard of this envoy was so high that even if the two sides were currently at war, Sun Quan had to send his own envoy to greet him outside Jianye City in person, and he would arrange a special time to receive him in person.
At the same time, Pang Tong's personal mission also made Sun Quan see that Shu Han was not willing to make a big move against Soochow at this time.
Then there will be a series of political wrangling issues.
Ji Han sent Pang Tong, but in fact it was not Zhang Xi's decision. Pang Tong himself wanted to go to Jiangdong.
In fact, the envoy Zhang Xi originally wanted to send was Pan Jun.
Pan Jun himself is a famous scholar in Jingxiang, and he is also well-known in Jiangdong. As a vested interest in Jingnan, Pan Jun himself has the need to actively safeguard the interests of the Han Dynasty in the four counties of Jingnan.
Sending such a person as an envoy to Jiangdong has sufficient specifications and is much more sincere than Sun Quan sending Zhou Yin.
But, Pang Tong still recommended himself.
This self-recommendation shocked even Zhang Xi.
It wasn't that he was worried about Pang Tong's safety, but that he felt that Pang Tong's status was too high. He was a minister of the Han Dynasty, and he was also one of the top three decision-makers in the Han Dynasty.
Pang Tong really had the right to directly decide the Han Dynasty's political and diplomatic strategies.
For such a person to meet Sun Quan, it seemed a bit too formal.
You know, Han and Wu are now at war, not in the previous alliance. Is it really necessary to send such high-level officials as envoys? !
But Pang Tong also had his own reasons for doing this.
First, after the battle in Jingnan, Pang Tong also saw clearly the strength of Soochow, especially the advantages of the navy.
This battle in Jingnan was really lucky. First, Zhu Ran rashly divided his troops to support Xiakou, which caused Yang Di to temporarily suppress the Baqiu navy by relying on his superiority in troops and warships.
Immediately afterwards, Zhuge Ke commanded blindly, but Wenpin seized the opportunity to defeat him in one fell swoop and suppressed the Xiakou army.
But after that, the Jihan navy obviously had absolute advantages in strength and ships, but it was still unable to fully control the Yangtze River Basin. From time to time, it was counterattacked by the Soochow navy, which caused Zhangxi to collapse the river and attack Changsha County. They always had to worry about the retreat. .
This made Pang Tong understand that although Soochow's army performed poorly in actual combat, there were too many variables in a head-on confrontation with Soochow before the Han navy was strong enough to directly defeat Soochow's navy.
Therefore, Pang Tong believed that taking back the four counties of Jingnan at this stage was the best result. It would be better to postpone the all-out attack on Soochow until the Han navy has fully grown up.
Second, Pang Tong, with such a high status, took the initiative to send an envoy. On the one hand, he could better win Sun Quan's trust and let Sun Quan see the sincerity of the Han Dynasty, and then give up the idea of a decisive battle with the Han Dynasty. On the other hand, Pang Tong wanted to make trouble known to the world and thus alienate the alliance between Wei and Wu.
Pang Tong believed that Cao Wei in the north would not know about the integrity of Soochow. As an envoy to Soochow, Pang Tong would not be able to refuse him a visit regardless of etiquette. As long as Sun Quan accepted him according to normal diplomatic etiquette. Cao Wei and himself will definitely be suspicious.
After all, there is nothing worthy of mutual trust between Wei and Wu, and as far as Soochow's reputation is concerned, who can trust it? !
This trick is not a conspiracy, but when used on Soochow, it becomes a conspiracy even if it is not a conspiracy.
In this way, Pang Tong personally crossed the river as an envoy to Soochow. As for Soochow, due to diplomatic etiquette, even though Sun Quan could not come to greet him in person, he sent Gu Yong as his special envoy to go out to Jianye City Gate to greet Pang Tong in person. .
When Pang Tong was in Jiangdong, Gu Yong would accompany him in all public activities. It was inconvenient for Sun Quan to directly appear in the truce and peace talks between the two countries. Therefore, the specific matters were personally presided over by the old prime minister Zhang Zhao.
There is no way, in Soochow, the only person who can barely suppress Pang Tong, a famous person in the world, is Zhang Zhao.
Gu Yong is not good at it. Even if his teacher is the great scholar Cai Yong, Gu Yong's achievements are really incomparable with the current Pang Tong.
One is a famous person in the world and a great minister in the Han Dynasty.
A great person is just a famous person from Jiangdong and a candidate for prime minister.
Therefore, only Zhang Zhao, a man with enough qualifications and great achievements in Soochow, could come forward to suppress Pang Tong.
As for the peace talks between the two parties, there really isn’t much to talk about.
Sun Quan hoped to restore the boundaries drawn when the Xiang River was demarcated, but now that Soochow is fighting a bad war in Jingnan, even Sun Quan is embarrassed to make such a shameless request.
Therefore, the upper limit of Sun Quan's peace negotiation requirements was that the Shu Han ceased its troops in Jiangxia and returned to Changsha, but it could occupy Guiyang. The lower limit was that the Shu Han was required to make a clear stance and remove Jiangxia from Jingzhou and incorporate it into Yangzhou of Soochow.
In other words, Jiangxia must belong to Soochow, whether it is actual occupation or legal ownership, it must be clear.
If Jiangxia is still under the jurisdiction of Jingzhou, the Shu Han can use the excuse of regaining lost territory to attack Jiangxia again at any time. But if Jiangxia belongs to Yangzhou and not Jingzhou, then the official excuse for the Shu Han to attack Jiangxia is gone.
Sun Quan is really, really weird.
He himself may not take the covenant seriously and betray the alliance if he says so, but he actually still believes in Shu Han's attitude towards the covenant. He believes that as long as Jiangxia is separated from Jingzhou, Shu Han will lose the official excuse to attack Jiangxia. , then at least in a short period of time, Shu Han will really not attack Jiangxia.
It's a weird idea, but that's really what Sun Quan thinks.
And Pang Tong. Pang Tong was actually very hesitant about this matter.
There is no other way. Ji Han is the continuation of the two Han Dynasties. It is the orthodox regime in the world. In everything, it is important to have a master who has a reputation.
Once Jiangxia is really moved out of Jingzhou, it is really difficult to directly attack Jiangxia without finding a more suitable excuse, and we have to engage in some sneaky infiltration.
If this happens, the strategically important area of Jiangxia will really not come back in a short time.
For this reason, Pang Tong and Zhang Zhao quoted from scriptures and argued with each other about the historical ownership of Jiangxia.
As for the four counties in Jingnan, no one mentioned it.
After all, you have already beaten me, do you still expect the big man to return it to you? !
Sun Quan likes to take advantage, but Zhang Zhao is not the kind of person who can't see the situation clearly. He can save Jiangxia, which is already very good.
The two sides fought hard for about half a month in Jianye and finally finalized a simple agreement.
The two sides used the current actual control area as the boundary and stopped fighting. As for the ownership of Jiangxia, Pang Tong said that it could be temporarily recognized as belonging to Soochow, but it would not be placed under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou. This needs to be determined by the exchange of credentials between the two sides.
Therefore, the Sovereign of Soochow was also asked to send an envoy to Chang'an to formally make the request to the Emperor of Han, and the two sides would finalize it.
Sun Quan had no objection to this result, and at the same time sent Bu Zhi as an envoy to follow Pang Tong back to Jingzhou, and then went to Chang'an together to meet the Emperor of Han.
The reason for sending Bu Zhi was, on the one hand, to correspond to Pang Tong's specifications for his mission to Soochow. Soochow also had to send an important minister to Shu Han, and Bu Zhi, a hussar general, was obviously of sufficient weight.
On the other hand, well, the current Empress Dowager of Han Dynasty is Empress Dowager Bu.
Bu Zhao's clan sister.
(End of chapter)
