Sun Quan experienced a period of good mood for the first time since his defeat in Jingzhou.
He also granted the title of "General of the Guard" and "Long Bianhou" to Shi Xie who had made great achievements in inducing Yong Kai to surrender.
However, since June, a sealed battle report from Jiaozhou made him feel the ups and downs of life.
Liu Chan, Zhuge Liang, and even Ma Di, the three armies have been overwhelming since they entered Nanzhong. The Nanman soldiers were unable to even resist or contain them.
Whenever he planned to instruct Shi Xie to make some new moves to try to win over Yong Kai, a new battle report would arrive, and the situation would have changed.
Sometimes, due to the long journey and uncertain conditions, two battle reports were delivered one after another.
The battle report the day before also stated that Liu Chan's army occupied Wei County and confronted Yong Kai and Meng Huo. He was just thinking about discussing with the officials how to provide support to Nanzhong.
As a result, the battle report the next day stated that Liu Chan was preparing to attack Dianchi...
"Trash! It's useless!" Sun Quan was so angry that he slapped the table in front of him, "It's rare for Liu Bei to make such a stupid move. With the successive battles, the two states of Jingyi and Yizhou are short of food and grass, so they will definitely not be able to use too many troops. I don't think it will be more than 30,000.
"Moreover, they sent out troops in such a hasty manner and must have insufficient preparation. Under such circumstances, they dared to divide their troops into three groups and go south. How could they not annihilate them? How could the Southern Barbarians resist the imperial court and hold back an army of 300,000 people?!"
At this time, Wu Laoer had obviously selectively forgotten how his tens of thousands of troops were wiped out in Jingzhou...
The ministers below were silent. Sun Quan's temperament had become more and more eccentric and moody since he lost one leg. No one wanted to offend him at this time and become the target of venting their anger.
"Why? Why won't the place Liu Chan conquered rebel?" Sun Quan was puzzled.
When he thought of that arrogant boy by the police station, his teeth itched with hatred...
When he attacked Shanyue, he always carried out a wave of burning, killing, looting, and forced the young men to join the army, so that they would not be able to rebel again.
However, after a period of time, those wild people in the mountains will surely rebel again after they recover. Now there is still a group of people at the junction of Danyang and Lujiang. They are taking advantage of his lack of troops to carry out activities, which gives him a headache.
The Southern Barbarians will only be more difficult to deal with than Shanyue, and Liu Chan does not have many troops, so it is impossible to maintain a sustained high-pressure state in such a large territory.
So why can he advance so quickly? !
But no matter what, there is no hope for the Nanman at the moment. If we fight like this, I am afraid that the Nanman will not be able to contain Liu Bei at all.
He attacked Jingzhou and almost caused Guan Yu and Liu Bei's own sons to be buried there. If he had waited for Liu Bei to prepare properly, wouldn't he have been in danger?
Sun Quan, who gradually calmed down, sighed and asked: "Do you have any good ideas to prevent Guan Yu from sending his army eastward?"
Nowadays, Guan Yu is training his troops in Jingzhou, and it is said that he is recruiting craftsmen to imitate the captured Jiangdong warships. The imitation of many ships has already achieved initial results, but only the building ships have not yet been built.
He couldn't sleep well at night.
Seeing that Sun Quan had calmed down, Zhang Zhao said at this moment: "General, if you want to prevent the Shu army from coming eastward, you can only rely on the King of Wei for the current plan."
Although the report on the complete pacification of Nanzhong has not yet been delivered, the officials all agree with Sun Quan at this time.
It was only a matter of time before Nanzhong was pacified, and there was basically no way to contain Liu Bei.
Sun Quan had no expression on his face and simply said: "Oh? I'd like to hear the details."
In fact, since Red Cliff, he has been quite dissatisfied with these surrender factions. However, he has been entrusted with heavy responsibilities by his elder brother since he was a child. Compared with the interests of the Sun family, other things are unimportant.
Zhang Zhaodao: "Although King Pi of Wei has newly succeeded to the throne, he is both civil and military, talented and strategic, and has cultivated internally..."
"Tell the important point."
"Ahem, in recent months, it has been heard that auspicious events have appeared in various places in the north. Why doesn't the general use this as an excuse to send an envoy to present treasures to the King of Wei, and at the same time write a personal letter to persuade him to come?"
Sun Quan narrowed his eyes and twirled his beard in thought.
Gu Yong's eyes lit up, and he cupped his hands and said: "General, Zhang Zibu's words are reasonable. Judging from Cao Zihuan's recent behavior, it is clear that he intends to take over the throne to replace the Han Dynasty.
"If he really succeeds the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei should naturally first uphold justice and send troops to the north. Even if Guan Yu wants to take revenge, he will not disobey his brother. If Cao and Liu fight together, Jiangdong will be at peace."
Sun Quan nodded and said: "You two are right, I will write a letter and send an envoy to take the treasure north."
Sun Shao, the commander of the Hussars, also said: "Liu Bei should also send envoys to appease him. This person has always had a strong temperament. We should understand the interests and ease the relationship to prevent him from doing unwise things."
Sun Shao was originally a meritorious officer of Kong Rong. Kong Rong praised him as "a talent in Langmiao" and said that he was a talented person who could serve as a high official. He later followed Liu Yao in Jiangdong.
"...Okay." It's never difficult for Sun Quan to give up if he can't beat him. It just depends on whether there is any benefit.
"It's just that in today's world, there is Guan Yu who is on strict guard against us in the west, and Zhang Liao is guarding Hefei in the north... If I want to make progress, where should I go?"
Ministers: "..."
Faced with Sun Quan's farewell proposition, the officials tacitly lowered their heads and remained silent. The scene was like a collective moment of silence.
To talk about this critical moment, it has to be Zhang Zhao. I saw him saying seriously: "The general should cultivate political principles internally, live with the people, and accumulate strength to wait for the right time. When the war between Cao and Liu begins, the world will change, and the general will look for opportunities again. It’s never too late to make progress.”
Sun Quan: "..."
This is very correct, there is nothing wrong with it, but it is basically the same as if it was not said at all.
…
Cao Pi also heard about Liu Bei's pacification of Nanzhong, but he couldn't care about it at this time.
Bashu now has the three counties of Hanzhong and Dong in its hands. Wei Yan is stationed in Hanzhong while further strengthening Hanzhong's defense system.
With the help of Yu Fan, Shangyong Liu Feng gradually strengthened his control over the three counties, making it difficult to attack by force.
As for Jingzhou... let alone fighting, Cao Pi even considered whether to simply abandon Xiangfan, which had few soldiers and food, and simply ordered Cao Ren to retreat to Wancheng.
It was only after the strong opposition of Sima Yi and Liu Ye that he gave up.
In short, as long as Liu Bei doesn't send troops to the Northern Expedition, he can do whatever else he likes.
Cao Pi was busy preparing to proclaim himself emperor and replace the Han Dynasty.
After he came to power, he focused mainly on two things. One was to attack dissidents, strengthen centralization of power, and prepare to become emperor.
The second is to turn offense into defense, enrich the national treasury, and benefit the people.
Before his death, the old father sent troops to three counties, but the veteran general Xu Huang was sent away. Three of the five good generals were gone, leaving only Zhang Liao and Zhang He.
Xu Huang just gave it away. Although Cao Pi felt regretful, after all, he still had good generals under his command, so it would not affect the overall situation.
What really made him feel crushed was that Xia Houshang was also given away...
That was Fa Xiao who he was prepared to entrust with important responsibilities. Xiahou was superior to him, Cao Pi, just like Xiahou Dun was to Cao Cao.
This blow aggravated Cao Pi's concerns about the instability of his power, prompting him to start eliminating dissidents.
Guan Jun, one of Cao Zhi's followers, saw that it was difficult for his master to achieve great things, so he catered to his superior's wishes and wrote a memorial: Linzi Marquis Cao Zhi drank too much, and his words after drinking were disobedient and disrespectful.
Cao Pi used this as an excuse to demote Cao Zhi to the title of Marquis of Anxiang, and executed the traitor You Ci, Ding Yi from Pei State, the two brothers Ding Yao, the minister of Huangmen, and all the men from the two families to death.
And these people are all Cao Zhi's party members.
After cutting off the wings of his brothers and releasing them from the center of power, he appointed Jia Xu as Taiwei, Hua Xin as Prime Minister, Wang Lang as Yushi Dafu, and Xiahou Dun as general.
At the same time, he reused Sima Yi, Chen Qun, Huan Jie and others who had supported him in the past.
If these appointments are considered reliable, then it seems a bit ugly that one of the original "Four Friends of the Prince", Wu Zhi, who was only the county magistrate of a small county, was promoted to the rank of Colonel Shesheng without merit.
Later, Cao Pi adopted Chen Qun's suggestion and began to implement the nine-level Zhongzheng system.
The power to select officials was brought to the central government to further strengthen centralization. At the same time, the nine-grade Zhongzheng system, which used family background, talent, learning, and moral character as the criteria for selecting officials, greatly attracted the aristocratic families.
After these few steps, Cao Pi's conditions for becoming emperor have become more and more mature.
It's just that the Nine-Rank Zhongzheng System is certainly good for stabilizing the rule of the Cao Wei Group, but it also makes the northern aristocratic families begin to evolve rapidly towards abnormal strength... and the class barriers are further strengthened.
Cao Pi, who had basically cleared the obstacles to becoming emperor, began to prepare to completely replace Xian Emperor. One of the signals was that various places began to report auspiciousness.
This month you find yellow dragons, next month I find white pheasants, local officials are very busy...
…
The newly appointed local officials in Nanzhong were also very busy. In order to cooperate with Liu Chan and Zhuge Liang's new policies, they racked their brains.
Some people who are willing to open up wasteland suffer from being alone, with few people and insufficient resources, and working alone is inefficient.
Li Hui used the government to organize these people, coordinate them, and work together to cultivate the wasteland. After the work was completed, the land would be divided equally according to the amount of labor.
Utilizing these stragglers greatly improved the efficiency of land reclamation.
At the same time, the felled trees are also purchased uniformly with food rations, so that these people who open up wasteland do not have to worry about food and drink at this stage.
These high-quality timber were transported to Jingzhou via waterway, sending a large amount of raw materials to Guan Yu who was building ships.
It was transported by land and water to Bashu to provide raw materials for the manufacture of large amounts of water drainage (hydraulic blasting devices) in Linqiong, which was preparing for the Northern Expedition for steel smelting.
In exchange, Jingyi Resources subsidizes Nanzhong, starting a virtuous cycle.
As a company directly under the Prince's control, Manager Zhao would not let go of such a great business opportunity, investing a large amount of resources and playing an important role in it.
The development of Nanzhong gradually got on the right track, and the conflicts between Han and Yi were initially alleviated.
In August, it was time for Liu Chan and Zhuge Liang to return to Chengdu.
(End of chapter)
