After all, the emperor failed to make a decision at the court meeting and missed an opportunity to consolidate imperial power and his own prestige.
This disappointed both Zhuge Liang and Chen Yi.
However, the reason Liu Chan gave afterwards made Zhuge Liang very happy. The emperor at least knew the importance of national policy and did not make random decisions, which can be regarded as a wise king.
However, as the emperor, he cannot be responsible for his own decisions, which is not a good thing after all.
Therefore, after the court meeting ended, all civil and military officials left one after another. Zhuge Liang chose to stay temporarily and asked to see the emperor in the side hall.
It is a matter of national policy that cannot be delayed. If such a matter is decided early, follow-up preparations can be made in advance.
This time Zhuge Liang met the Emperor alone, and the conversation was behind closed doors. Therefore, there was no need for Zhuge Liang to hide some words from Liu Chan.
First, he gave Liu Chan some advice on matters that he had not made a decision in the court meeting, and then gave Liu Chan a simple analysis of the pros and cons of the two plans.
To destroy Wei, we will not use too many troops and the risks will not be too great. With Zhuge Liang leading the army on the front line, destroying Wei will basically not be a problem.
However, Cao Wei is now weak. Except for the difficulty of conquering the eastern part of Jizhou where Sima Yi is located, it is not difficult to attack Youzhou. Therefore, even if Wei is completely destroyed, it will not be of any benefit to Liu Chan in establishing his authority in the court.
Moreover, the previous Battle of Yecheng was fought by Zhuge Liang as the commander-in-chief. If he still chooses to destroy Wei this time, then the credit will still be attributed to Zhuge Liang.
Therefore, if Liu Chan chooses to destroy Wei, the risk will naturally be small, but it will not be of much help to his prestige.
And if it is to raise troops to destroy Wu, no matter whether it can be defeated this time, this decision was made by Liu Chan. No matter how much time it took to destroy Wu, the credit belongs to Liu Chan, which is of great benefit to Liu Chan's authority.
But the difficulty of destroying Wu is also before us. Soochow has been recuperating over the years. After several years of accumulation, it has sufficient food and grass.
The biggest obstacle to conquering Soochow is the Soochow Navy. In recent years, the main force of the Soochow Navy has been concentrated in Jiangxia. Under the leadership of Zhu Ran, its combat effectiveness has not decreased. Although the Han Navy has been established for some years, its strength is still not as good as that of the Dongwu Navy. Wu aspect.
Without the support of the navy, no matter how many troops were sent to attack Soochow, Jianye would not be able to be conquered.
Therefore, although destroying Wu would help Liu Chan accumulate prestige, it would be quite difficult.
From Liu Chan's perspective, Zhuge Liang said everything that should be said and could be said, so the rest still had to rely on Liu Chan to make his own decision.
At this time, Liu Chan also knew that he could not hesitate any longer, so he weighed it back and forth again, and then carefully put forward an idea - if he chose to destroy Wu, should he not go into such a big fight? !
Use a small number of troops to attack Huainan or Xuzhou first to cut off Soochow's wings in Jiangbei. Wouldn't it be less difficult? !
After Zhuge Liang listened to Liu Chan's inquiry, he sighed silently.
To be honest, this is not what Zhuge Liang thinks is the best choice.
Zhuge Liang is more inclined to destroy Wei. The best choice is to destroy Wei first, free up his hands, and then send troops from Jingzhou to attack Wu after the Han navy has matured.
However, if you look at it from Liu Chan's standpoint, it is actually a good choice to declare his position to destroy Wu and accumulate reputation, but to be cautious and start from Jiangbei to cut off the wings of Soochow.
The most important thing is that this is a decision Liu Chan made through his own thinking. Zhuge Liang felt that he could not refuse.
Otherwise, the emperor will become less and less confident and will be even more afraid to make decisions related to national policy.
Moreover, Liu Chan's idea is actually not impossible.
Judging from the intelligence received about Soochow, Soochow is now making frequent moves in Huainan and Xuzhou. They are just making small moves. Yanzhou and Yingchuan and other places have already stepped up their alerts. Taking advantage of the situation to attack Huainan or Xuzhou is not a big deal. question.
In this case, Zhuge Liang immediately sent someone to recruit Xu Shu, Zhang Xi, and Pang Tong into the side hall to discuss matters.
The final decision still had to be announced by Liu Chan himself. After Liu Chan announced his decision, the four of them discussed together how to attack Huainan and Xuzhou.
It’s not that we don’t want to recruit other important ministers, it’s that they don’t need their overall coordination for this battle.
In fact, to put it more bluntly, Liu Chan's decision was mainly due to Xu Shu's mission. After all, he was the governor of Yanzhou.
What Zhang Xi wants to do is to lead the 50,000-strong Jingzhou land and water coalition in Jiangling, attack Jiangxia, attract Soochow's attention, and distract Soochow's troop deployment.
Pang Tong's responsibility was to dispatch troops and logistics in Luoyang and provide necessary logistical assistance and military deployment to Yanzhou.
Zhuge Liang was responsible for maintaining pressure on Cao Wei in Yecheng, forcing Cao Wei not to dare to act rashly during the war with the Han Dynasty.
The real main force of the attack had to be the Yanzhou County soldiers led by Xu Shu.
In order to successfully complete the mission of attacking Qingxu, not only all soldiers from Yanzhou County must participate in the battle, but some soldiers from Heluo County must also be transferred eastward to participate in this war.
As for the general candidates for the expedition, in addition to Guanqiu Jian, Wen Qin, Hu Zun and others in Yanzhou, Zhang Ni from Yingchuan, Wang Chang and Wang Ling from Heluo will all lead troops to Yanzhou to assist in the battle. The total strength will be on the 15th About ten thousand people.
After discussing these matters, Liu Chan issued an edict to the world, announcing that the Han Dynasty would choose a day to attack Wu and unify the world.
Zhang Xi, Pang Tong, Xu Shu and others returned to their guarded places as soon as possible and began to prepare for war according to the original plan.
When the news that the Han Dynasty was about to conquer Wu reached Youzhou, Cao Shuang was even more ecstatic.
In fact, not long after Cao Shuang seized Tian Yu's military power in Youzhou, envoys from Soochow arrived in Youzhou by sea and met with Cao Shuang.
Of course, when the envoy from Soochow came to Youzhou at this time, no matter how stupid Cao Shuang was, he still knew what Soochow was planning.
But, Cao Shuang didn't expect that Soochow's appetite was so big that even Cao Shuang couldn't accept it.
The envoy from Soochow, under the guise of reaffirming the alliance between the two countries, proposed to modify the conditions of the alliance.
Not only was Cao Wei asked to surrender to Soochow, but Cao Shuang was also asked to provide thousands of war horses as a new condition for alliance.
They are not here to sign a covenant, they are here to take advantage of others.
Of course, Cao Shuang would not agree to such conditions.
If he declares himself a vassal to Soochow, the final legitimacy of the small court of Cao Wei will be lost. And to say sorry to the ancestors of the Cao family, Cao Shuang cannot choose to surrender to the Han Dynasty. He will trade the land of Youzhou and Jizhou in exchange for the peace of the Cao family. It's not something that can't be done.
As for tens of thousands of war horses, only Sun Quan dared to think about it.
Now that the small court of Cao Wei is short of horses, it hopes to have more horses to rebuild the cavalry force of the Wei Dynasty. Tens of thousands of horses are not enough by themselves. If they are given to Sun Quan, then it will not even hope for a final comeback.
Therefore, Cao Shuang directly rejected the request of the Soochow envoy.
But, because of the inconvenience of sea transportation and Cao Shuang's unwillingness to completely fall out with Soochow, he cut off this last ally. Although Cao Shuang rejected the request of Soochow envoys, he still sent his own envoys to follow Soochow's fleet to build the Ye, met with Sun Quan to discuss other terms of alliance.
Counting the time, we should have arrived at Jianye by now.
At this time, news came out that the Han Dynasty was going to attack Soochow. In this way, Cao Shuang was really not afraid that Sun Quan would not let go of his conditions.
Either we all form an alliance to fight against the Shu thieves, or we finish the game together.
This was Cao Shuang's idea, but Huan Fan, Cao Shuang's envoy in Jianye, really didn't think so.
Now that the general situation in the world is like this, the question of Shu Han is not whether they want to conquer Wu, but when they will conquer Wu. Therefore, when the news of Liu Chan's edict to conquer Wu came to Soochow, everyone in Soochow was not surprised at all.
Cao Wei had already been crippled by the Shu Han. As long as the Shu Han had some ambition to dominate the world, wouldn't it be logical to defeat Wu?
During this period, Soochow Wu kept deploying troops in Xuzhou and Huainan areas, wasn't it just to cope with possible attacks by Shu bandits and to constantly adjust the deployment of troops.
Cao Shuang, who was in the north, might not know these things, but how could Huan Fan, who was sent as an envoy to Soochow, not know.
Another thing is that now Wei is weak and Shu is strong, and Wu is strong. If the Wei Dynasty wants to continue to hold on and seek changes, it must rely on the help of Soochow. If nothing else, the climate and grain production conditions in Youzhou, To maintain such a large military expenditure, how could it be possible without the help of low-cost grain transportation from Soochow.
Therefore, it is now the Wei Dynasty that seeks help from Soochow, not Soochow Wu that seeks help from the Wei Dynasty.
Huan Fan's negotiation process in Jiangdong was originally difficult, but now it is better. The monarchs and ministers of Dongwu completely ignored Huan Fan on the pretext of preparing for war.
For this reason, Huan Fan was really anxious and had to adjust his psychological bottom line again and again. He kept visiting Jiangdong celebrities and tried to reach an agreement as soon as possible.
Finally, Huan Fan reached a "brotherly agreement" with Soochow. Wu was his brother and Wei was his younger brother. At the same time, the Wei Dynasty provided Soochow with a thousand war horses every year, and returned to Youzhou.
When Huan Fan returned to Jicheng with the covenant, Cao Shuang saw such a covenant and directly ordered Huan Fan to be dismissed from his official position and never to be hired again.
There is no way, after signing such a contract, someone has to stand up and take the blame. If Huan Fan doesn't take the blame, how can it be that Cao Shuang can't take the blame? !
(End of chapter)
