In the eighth year of Yanxi of the Han Dynasty and the fourth year of Jingchu of Cao Wei, three full years have passed since the last battle in Yanzhou.
In the past three years, the Han Dynasty has been quietly accumulating its own strength in preparation for the sixth Northern Expedition, while Cao Wei is also seizing the time to recuperate and actively prepare for war.
Everyone knows that there will be a battle between Han and Wei next, and for Cao Wei, this battle is the battle that determines the fate of the country.
In the past three years, the general trend of the world has been slowly undergoing various changes.
Judging from the external situation, the Han Dynasty is now the dominant family, but it does not mean that the Han Dynasty has the ability to push Cao Wei and Soochow equally.
Regarding Cao Wei, although Sima Yi lost his military power and was idle at home, Guo Huai is still in the south of Jizhou. The commander guarding the natural dangers of the Yellow River is Guo Huai.
The southern part of Jizhou is across the river from Dongjun in the northern part of Yanzhou, and there are two ready-made ferries, Baima and Yanjin. The defense here is naturally the top priority.
Cao Wei not only sent famous generals like Guo Huai to guard it, but also sent Jiang Ji as envoy to Soochow, and once again signed an agreement similar to an offensive and defensive alliance with Soochow.
The general meaning is that if the Shu thieves take advantage of the trend and move north, Soochow will take the initiative to attack Yanzhou to reduce the defensive pressure of the Yellow River in the south of Jizhou. When Cao Wei counterattacks Yanzhou, Soochow will also send troops to support it. Afterwards, Cao Wei will follow Dongwu. Wu Ping divided Yanzhou.
Of course, the opposite is also true, it is a covenant that supports each other and responds to each other.
Although both sides know that such a covenant may not be very reliable, at least with this covenant, the Shu bandits have to take precautions. This will inevitably involve some of the Shu bandits' troops in Yanzhou, which will be helpful for Guo Huai's defense of the Yellow River defense line. Benefits.
As for Hedong, Qin Lang was still stationed in Heyang County, and Xiahou Ba was still stationed in Wen County. They were attacking from both sides, besieging the Han's only stronghold on the north bank of the Yellow River, the north bank of Mengjindu, and Beizhong City.
It's not that Qin Lang and Xia Houba didn't want to take these two places, but that they couldn't take them. In three years, Qin Lang and Xia Houba tried to send troops to capture the north bank of Mengjindu, and their final goal was to capture Beizhong City. But all failed.
On the contrary, Liu Yin, who had been stationed on the north bank of Mengjindu for the past three years, and Zhang Yi, who was in charge of the defense in Beizhong City, became famous.
Zhang Yi, in particular, once relied on the 3,000 soldiers in Beizhong City to face the joint attack of 30,000 troops from Qin Lang and Xiahou Ba. He held out for ten days and finally waited for Liu Yin's reinforcements. There is no general in the world who is good at defending. this.
Mengjindu and Beizhong City could not be reached, and the Han Dynasty always had a bridgehead on the north bank of the Yellow River, which made Cao Wei very uneasy.
But the current situation is that Han is strong and Wei is weak. Cao Wei cannot defeat Beizhong City and Mengjindu. No matter how uneasy he is, he can only endure it.
The situation on the northern front is that Cao Wei is now in a defensive posture.
Here on the southern line, the situation in Soochow is much better.
On the one hand, Soochow's current national strength is not bad. Since the Battle of Jingnan, Sun Quan has not launched any large-scale war for more than five years and has been recuperating.
On the other hand, Soochow was protected by a powerful naval force on the Yangtze River, and the Huainan area was guarded by the world-famous general Lu Xun.
After the Battle of Chibi, the Soochow Navy was recognized as the best in the world, and Sun Quan still had this strategic vision. After the Battle of Chibi, Sun Quan keenly discovered that if he wanted to preserve the foundation of Jiangdong, then The navy is his most reliable capital.
Therefore, in the past twenty years, Sun Quan has never reduced his investment in the navy, and has been trying to ensure the combat effectiveness of the navy.
Although, with the decline of naval commanders in recent years, Soochow's naval combat capabilities have indeed declined a bit, but these are basically due to poor application at the tactical level, and the deterrent effect at the strategic level is still there.
Although the Jingzhou Navy of the Han Dynasty developed rapidly under the leadership of Wenpin and Yangqi, for now, it is still unable to compete with the Jiangdong Navy led by Zhu Ran in terms of strength and combat experience.
Therefore, in the past three years, in addition to developing Jingnan, the most important thing for Jingzhou was to strengthen the training of the navy to prepare for emergencies.
As for Huainan and Qingxu. Three years ago, after Xu Shu took office as the governor of Yanzhou, he began the campaign to regain the southern areas of Yanzhou.
However, the combat effect was very unsatisfactory.
Xu Shu's opponent was Lu Xun after all.
Lu Xun, although he no longer had the record of burning Yiling in this time and space, his victory over Cao Xiu in Huainan can be regarded as a start to his reputation. But what really made Lu Xun famous all over the world was his battle with Xu Shu in Yanzhou within these three years. A back-and-forth battle.
After going through the fifth Northern Expedition, Xu Shu led the main force of the Northern Expedition to occupy Yanzhou in a devastating manner. After defeating Sima Yi, Xu Shu was already recognized as a famous general by the people of the world.
Although the real reason for the victory of the Fifth Northern Expedition was the accurate strategic planning in the early stage, Cao Wei's own trap, and the desperate fighting of Wei Yan and others after the light troops penetrated deep, not everyone in the world is a strategist after all. It is impossible to see everything so clearly.
Moreover, Xu Shu could use powerful soldiers to force Sima Yi to defend in a panic, which in itself proved his ability.
But just like this, Xu Shu, who was on the verge of a great victory in Yanzhou, was on par with Lu Xun in several battles to regain the southern part of Yanzhou.
In this, of course, Xu Shu and Lu Xun did not want to expand the scale of the war and both wanted to stop fighting, but this in itself was also a reflection of Lu Xun's ability.
Under the command of Lu Xun, the soldiers of Dongwu marched eastward and westward, threatening the safety of central Yanzhou at all times. Sometimes Xu Shu changed from active attack to passive defense while fighting.
This resulted in a small-scale battle between the two sides for nearly three years, with each other still going back and forth in southern Yanzhou.
Xu Shu successfully took back the entire territory of Chen State and added a southern buffer zone to Yingchuan County, but Lu Xun also successfully expelled Guanqiu Jian and occupied Liang State.
Both sides have gained something, but at the same time, they are also helpless at the other end.
Such results greatly enhanced Lu Xun's reputation. After all, everyone in the world knew that the land combat ability of Soochow soldiers was the last among the Three Kingdoms. However, Lu Xun relied on such soldiers to fight on an equal footing with Xu Shu. The record can only show that Lu Xun's ability to command on the battlefield is actually a level higher than that of Xu Shu.
And this is also the main reason why Lu Xun is famous all over the world.
But Lu Xun was a little unhappy.
Lu Xun was very happy that his abilities were recognized by people all over the world. After all, he was already fifty years old.
But, to achieve such a result, Lu Xun was actually under a lot of pressure.
The most important reason is that these four counties in the south of Yanzhou are not within the scope of Sun Quan, the great emperor of Wu.
Sun Quan's current focus is not on foreign wars, but on sorting out the domestic political situation.
In the third year of Jiahe in Soochow, the Han Dynasty launched the fifth Northern Expedition and competed with Cao Wei for Yanzhou. Sun Deng, the crown prince of Soochow, unfortunately died of illness.
When Sun Deng died, Sun Quan not only lost a son, but all his political arrangements within Soochow also lost a pillar to rely on.
During these three years and time, Sun Quan had to start anew and plan the issue of Soochow's successor and political layout.
But unfortunately, among Sun Quan's remaining sons, although Sun Li is already an adult, because Sun Quan had tried his best to cultivate Sun Deng's relationship, Sun Li was a marginalized person, without a political team, and without the ability. If Sun Quan was rashly allowed to If you think about getting the upper hand, you run the risk of being ignored by the wealthy families.
Based on this consideration, Sun Quan could only give up Sun Li and choose from the remaining underage sons. However, Sun Quan was not sure whether he could handle these underage sons until they grew up and successfully establish a sufficient team. .
Therefore, Sun Quan appeared to be more eager and radical in handling some matters.
Therefore, Sun Quan's main energy now is on sorting out internal relations, re-planning the issue of successors, and stabilizing the internal political situation. Externally, Sun Quan actually does not pay attention to it.
As for the four counties in the south of Yanzhou, according to Sun Quan's request to Lu Xun, they can defend it as long as they can. If they can't defend it, they can send people to communicate with the Shu Han and sell it to the Shu Han in exchange for some benefits. , it is not impossible to return it to Shu Han.
As for the alliance between Cao and Wei, the old Cao family used me, Da Wu, as their spearman, and I carried him for three years, restraining Xu Shu from going north for three years. Da Wu was already worthy of Cao Wei.
On the other hand, as for Cao Wei, Xu Shu and Lu Xun fought for three years, but Cao Wei did not see any additional troops sent to the south bank of the Yellow River. Who broke the covenant first? !
Well, at least that's what Sun Quan thought.
But Lu Xun couldn't think like that. Lu Xun really didn't want to give up the four southern counties of Yanzhou easily.
It's not that Lu Xun is greedy for land, he just thinks about it from the perspective of Huainan defense.
With these four counties in hand, if the Shu Han Dynasty goes south to attack Huainan or eastward to attack Xuzhou in the future, Lu Xun will have enough strategic space to dispatch troops and horses, and can better coordinate the defense of Qingxu and Huainan.
But without these four counties in hand, the Shu thieves only need to storm and occupy Xiapi County to completely cut off the connection between Huainan and Qingxu. Lu Xun would not be able to support Qingxu even if he wanted to.
Although Soochow has occupied Qingxu for more than ten years, and the people are still loyal, with the abilities of Zhuge Dan and Zhuge Jin, they can still hold on for a while. But if the Shu thieves really come in full force Woolen cloth? !
Lu Xun could still handle Xu Shu, but if Zhang Xi, Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan, Deng Ai and others all sent troops to Qing Xu, who would be able to deal with it? !
For some things, Lu Xun had to think about the worst.
(End of chapter)
