Han Xiang

Chapter 594: Raising bandits to control Long Xiang

Regarding the rumors about Sun Quan, Cao Cao instinctively thought that it was Long Xiang's method.

After all, killing brothers and generals is not something that an ordinary person can do.

Sun Quan was only in his early twenties, how could he be so ruthless?Cao Cao didn't believe it at all.

Cao Cao felt a little unhappy when he saw the shallow water in Xuanwu Pond, but he felt very good after meeting Sun Quan's envoy.

Cao Cao thought that Sun Quan was going to form an alliance, but unexpectedly the envoy directly handed over a letter of surrender, expressing his willingness to bring the people of Jiangdong to submit, but the condition was to help Sun Quan destroy Long Xiang.

Sun Quan's reason was simple. Long Xiang made a sneak attack on Wu Commandery and Danyang. He not only captured his family members, but also spread rumors and slandered his reputation. Sun Quan had a sworn hatred against him.

Cao Cao immediately agreed to the envoy's request and said that he would soon go south with a million troops.

Sun Quan was asked to send a navy to assist in the attack on Guan Yu. After that, he would go down the river to destroy Long Xiang.

Sun Quan had made two surprise attacks on Shouchun, and it was reasonable for Cao Cao to ask for a certificate of surrender.

It was already early May after a hundred days when the envoy returned to Nanchang.

When Sun Quan received Cao Cao's reply, he immediately fell into entanglement and hesitation.

In the past two years, Long Xiang was not in a hurry to have a decisive battle with Sun Quan, but instead worked steadily to consolidate his victory.

Internally, Long Xiang eliminated the remnants of the Sun family by suppressing rebellions and conquests. Externally, he spread Sun Quan's numerous crimes and recognized Sun Kuang as the heir to the Marquis of Wu, causing internal conflict and division within the Sun family.

By the spring of the 13th year of Jian'an, Long Xiang had completed absolute control of Danyang and Wu County, and successively defeated Zhu Ran, He Qi, Sun Jing and others in Qiantang, Fuchun, Shanyin and other places, and recovered a large area in northern Kuaiji. .

Longxiang also took advantage of the properties of cement to build densely packed sentry towers along the Yangtze River and Lishui River at an incredible construction speed.

The navy warships that Sun Quan was so proud of were unable to effectively harass the waterways, and even several large ships were damaged by wind and waves.

The land area continued to shrink and the navy was completely ineffective. Sun Quan was worried that he would eventually be cannibalized by Longxiang, so he had no choice but to beg Cao Cao for surrender.

As a key figure in the murders of Zhou Yu and Sun Yi, Zhou Shan accidentally fell into the water and drowned after drinking. The two suspects died instantly without any evidence.

Although Sun Quan tried his best to deny it, he knew better than anyone whether he had done anything untoward.

Therefore, Sun Quan cannot fall into the hands of Long Xiang, let alone Sun Kuang.

When life and death were at stake, Sun Quan could only choose to give up his dignity.

If you can embrace Cao Cao's lap, even if you can't compete in the Central Plains, you can still be a free and easy Wuhou.

Sun Quan did not sincerely surrender, so he sent envoys to find a way out.

In the same year as Longxiang's sneak attack on Jiangdong, great changes occurred in Jiaozhou, the southernmost part of the Han Dynasty. The governor Zhang Jin was killed by his general Qu Jing.

In order to increase Liu Cong's reputation, Cai Mao and Kuai Yue appointed Lai Gong from Lingling as the new governor and Wu Ju from Changsha as the prefect of Cangwu.

Shi Xie, a local wealthy family in Jiaozhou and the prefect of Jiaozhi, tempted Lai Gong and Wu Ju to attack each other, causing Lingnan to be in war for a long time.

Lu Meng keenly saw the opportunity and suggested that Sun Quan take advantage of the chaos to seize Jiaozhou as a retreat.

Sun Quan bullied the weak and liked to pinch the weak, and was restricted by Long Xiang's "turret tactics". He was no longer able to recapture Danyang and Wu Commandery, but his [-] soldiers had nothing to do, so he accepted Lu Meng's suggestion.

So he appointed Bu Zhi as the governor of Jiaozhou, and together with his confidants Dong Xi and Xu Sheng, they led eight thousand troops and entered Nanhai County of Jiaozhou from the south of Luling.

Lai Gong, Wu Ju, and Shi Xie were noobs at each other's throats. Sun Quan thought to himself that he had eight thousand arrogant soldiers and powerful generals. Wouldn't he easily capture the city and take the land?

After Sun Kuang established himself in Guangling, Sun Quan only had more than [-] soldiers left, and he allocated [-] infantry and stallions to attack Jiaozhou. The rest mainly relied on naval forces to protect themselves.However, Cao Cao's request for a "certificate of surrender" was imminent, and Sun Quan hesitated and summoned Lu Meng for discussion.

"Ziming, Cao Cao has accepted the letter of surrender, but he wants us to send troops to Fancheng, retreat from Guan Yu first, and then attack Longxiang. But we don't have many soldiers now. If Longxiang repeats his old tricks and launches a sneak attack, won't we have no place to stand?"

"In the past two years, Liu Bei has been very popular, so it makes sense for Cao Cao to attack Jingzhou first."

Lu Meng frowned and stroked his beard and pondered, then suddenly his eyes lit up and reminded Sun Quan:
"Since my lord has presented the letter of surrender, if I don't comply, I fear that Cao Cao will be suspicious. However, my lord has a father's enmity with Jingzhou. How can the Xiangyang Navy allow our army to pass?"

You can report these difficulties to Cao Cao and promise that when he defeats Guan Yu and captures Jingxiang, we will definitely send troops to assist him. "

"Ziming doesn't know something."

Sun Quan looked bitter, shook his head and explained: "Liu Cong surrendered before us. Cao Cao promised that our troops will march into the Han River. Not only will there be no obstruction along the way, Cai Mao and Kuai Yue will also arrange for labor."

"Huh? This"

Lu Meng was so shocked that he kept silent for a long time. It took him a long time to ask: "I wonder when Cao Cao will send troops? How many troops will he bring south?"

"It is expected that this summer, the time is very close, as for Cao Cao's troops."

Sun Quan gave it a try, then raised a finger and said, "There is this number."

"One hundred thousand?"

"Oh, you underestimate Cao Cao, it's 100 million!"

"What? Millions."

Lu Meng's eyes widened, he swallowed hard, and murmured to himself: "If there are really a million soldiers, wouldn't they sweep the world? It seems that my lord is right to surrender. No prince can stop him."

"Mainly because of the soldiers and horses he obtained in Hebei, the Black Mountain Army Zhang Yan gathered and surrendered, the surrendered soldiers left by the three brothers of the Yuan family, and the countless Wuhuan people. No wonder Cao Cao has been fighting against Hebei for the past few years. This time he really made a fortune .”

Sun Quan sighed sadly, thinking that if he had captured Shouchun, he might have been able to replace Cao Cao.

If Cao Cao has made the same fortune, Liu Biao, Liu Bei, Long Xiang, Chen Deng and the like will have to kneel down if they hear about the millions of troops.

Lu Meng saw that although Sun Quan had a frown on his face, there was no look of panic on his face. He seemed to have a countermeasure, so he asked tentatively:

"Since we have to send troops to respond, we have to find another way to deal with Long Xiang. I wonder if my lord has any ideas?"

Sun Quan nodded and said: "My uncle has died in Fuchun. Yi Feng and Gong Miao have been defeated many times. There is no point in continuing to defend Kuaiji. I want to withdraw them to Yuzhang, but I am afraid that Long Xiang will take advantage of the victory to pursue me, so I Unable to decide"

"Zhu Yifeng and He Gongmiao have nearly [-] troops. If they can really withdraw in time and leave some naval forces to cooperate, Long Xiang will not dare to attack from far away."

Lu Meng nodded in affirmation first, and then added: "There are more mountains in Kuaiji than in Danyang. Long Xiang wants to completely control Kuaiji, and he won't be able to do it in a few years. How about using money as bait to instigate the mountains in the south to move north and cause rebellion?"

"Feeding money and food to support the bandits? How wonderful."

Sun Quan stroked his purple beard and praised him, his soft eyes suddenly became sinister, and he snorted coldly: "It's worth the money and food to drag Longxiang into the quagmire. I will send someone to take charge of this matter. As for leading the navy to help Cao Cao, that's it. I leave it to you to handle everything. By the way, Long Xiang used rumors to slander him before, does that have any influence on the military officers?"

"There is still some influence, especially Jiang Gongyi, who has a very good relationship with Governor Zhou."

Lu Meng's words stopped abruptly at the end.

Hearing this, Sun Quan half-squinted his eyes and remembered Zhou Yu's last words.

Zhou Yu appointed Jiang Qin to take over before his death. Did this guy discover something?
"Loyalty is the most important thing for a general. Since his loyalty has wavered, he might betray me. Ziming took him to the Jingzhou battlefield and borrowed Guan Yu's hand."

(End of this chapter)