Chapter 1192 The troops are approaching the city
In fact, Sun Deng died earlier than Zhuge Jin.
However, in order not to affect the morale of the troops on the front line and to avoid chaos, Sun Deng gave special instructions before his death:
Until His Majesty's decree is sent back, the news of his death must be kept secret, which is the legendary secret of mourning.
Even though Sun Quan had seen strong winds and waves, when he suddenly received the news of Sun Deng's death, he was still shocked to the point of being devastated. He even felt a sense of fear in his heart and his hands and feet were cold.
the reason is simple.
Not only are most of Wu's troops now on the north bank of the river, but even he, the emperor of Wu, is also on the north bank of the river.
The sudden death of Prince Sun Deng, who was originally guarding the rear, left the entire rear feeling truly empty.
If someone is plotting evil in Jianye at this time, the consequences will be simply unimaginable.
Thinking of this, Sun Quan immediately held back his tears—this was not a sad moment!
“Come here!”
“Your Majesty?”
“Immediately send an order for the whole army to retreat!”
“Here!”
“Also, take my order and go to Jingzhou to meet the general…”
When Sun Quan said this, he suddenly paused again, his face a little uncertain.
Finally, he looked at the legacy of the prince that he had been holding in his hand and was reluctant to put it down, and finally relaxed and said:
“Have someone take my order and ask the general if he wants to withdraw his troops.”
“Here.”
After everything was arranged, Sun Quan seemed to have been drained of all his energy, and his body suddenly became rickety.
Sun Quan, who has officially entered the age of ears, finally truly looks like an ordinary old man.
When attacking Hefei, Wang Ling used his fine cavalry to harass the grain roads, hoping to cut off the retreat of the army.
Under the emergency situation, clan relative Sun Shao took the initiative to stay behind. Although he blocked the thieves, when he retreated from the camp, he was still entangled by the fine cavalry of the Wei army.
Sun Shao had few soldiers and only infantry, so his formation was almost destroyed.
Forced Sun Shao to personally lead his bodyguard into battle, and then managed to stabilize the position. However, in the chaos, he was stabbed by the Wei cavalry's halberd and injured.
After returning to the ship, although he tried every means to treat him, he eventually died of excessive blood loss.
Sun Shao's death dealt a certain blow to the morale of the army.
Therefore, after Sun Quan learned that Quan Cong had withdrawn from Shouchun and that Zhuge Ke could not capture Liu'an in a short period of time, he urgently summoned the two of them to Chaohu.
Unexpectedly, just after stabilizing the morale of the army, Sun Quan received the news that Sun Deng had died of serious illness.
The heavy blow of losing two relatives in succession made him unable to bear it any longer.
Sun Quan tremblingly sat down on the desk and spread out the memorial written by Sun Deng again:
“…Lu Xun was loyal and diligent in his time, he was born and worried about his country, he was in public service, and he had the habit of being a bandit…”
He originally wanted to order Lu Xun in the west to retreat immediately, but he changed his mind at the last moment because of Sun Deng's words in his memorial.
At this time, Sun Quan still had a glimmer of hope in Lu Xun.
I only hope that he can be "loyal and diligent in his time" as the prince said, and capture Xiangyang to relieve himself of his worries.
It can also be said that Sun Quan was still unwilling to give in at this time.
This time, the whole country's troops marched northward, and so many people died. If they had not returned without success, it would have taken many years for Wu to recover.
Thinking of the internal and external troubles in the future, when Sun Quan urgently withdrew his troops and returned to Jianye to take charge of the overall situation, he could only treat the dead horse as a living horse doctor and let Lu Xun, who was far away in Jingzhou, take action according to the situation.
After all, although Dongfang did not capture Shouchun, it finally frightened the thieves.
If Lu Xun can really cooperate with the west to capture Xiangyang, this time it can be regarded as achieving his goal.
Sun Quan’s idea was quite good. Unexpectedly, he had just arrived at Ruxukou and Jingzhou, and once again sent someone to deliver urgent news:
General Zhuge Jin died of illness in the army!
Sun Quan, who was standing on the boat, swayed when he heard the news, and his eyes suddenly turned black.
He did not care about maintaining the imperial demeanor in front of all the soldiers, and suddenly collapsed on the deck of the ship, shouting sadly:
“Heaven is about to destroy me, Wuhu!”
Zhuge Ke, who was following him, heard that his master had died of illness, and he also burst into tears:
"The adults are seriously ill, but the children cannot take care of them. It is really unfilial..."
For a time, all the officers and soldiers of the Wu army were in panic, and the army had no fighting spirit.
Quan Cong, who temporarily led the military on behalf of Sun Quan, had no choice but to lead his army by boat and speed away from Chaohu Lake towards Jianye.
As Sun Quan returned to Jianye, news that Prince Sun Deng died of illness finally began to spread.
At this time, Lu Xun, who had been in hiding since Wu sent out troops, finally appeared in the army led by Bu Zhi.
“Come on to the general?”
Lu Xun’s sudden appearance came as a surprise:
"Why are you here? Your Majesty..."
Lu Xun raised an arm to signal Bu Zhi not to continue:
“Let’s talk about it inside.”
He immediately took the lead and headed towards the commander's tent.
Looking at Lu Xun's appearance, Bu Zhi frowned slightly, then followed him.
When the two came to the tent, Lu Xun turned around, faced Bu Zhao who was following behind him, and asked seriously:
"General Bu, a few days ago I only asked you to retreat to Bianxian County (i.e. the border of Wei, Wu and Jingzhou) to wait for orders. Why did you retreat directly to Dangyang?"
Lu Xun nominally had the right to take charge of everything west of Zhangyu.
But in fact, in order to ensure the stability of Jingzhou's power and prevent Lu Xun from becoming dominant, Sun Quan took great pains in personnel arrangements.
He allowed Bu Zhao to lead an army alone and garrisoned Xiling (that is, Yichang City, not far from Yiling). He also guarded against Ji Han and Wei State, and directly obeyed his orders and was not subject to Lu Xun's control.
The reason for this arrangement is that Lu Xun is a representative of a large family in Jiangdong, while Bu Zhi is from the Huaisi Group.
In the early years of Ji Han, the foreign veteran faction, Jingzhou faction, Dongzhou faction, and Shudi faction who entered Shu earlier, all fought overtly and secretly for the interests of their own factions, competing for the right to speak.
Even now, faced with the gradual rise of the Yongliang wealthy families, the newly incorporated Guandong aristocratic families are willing to put down their status and seek a place in Jihan.
In the State of Wu, the Jiangdong Native Group and the Huaisi Nanxia Group were the two most important political and military forces in the Sun Wu regime.
It is naturally impossible for these two major forces to be selfless, put aside their prejudices and selfishness, and work together to build a beautiful Wu.
In order to prevent Lu Xun from getting into trouble with General Bu Zhao, Sun Quan placed the kind-hearted Zhuge Jin in Jingzhou.
Zhuge Jin had a good relationship with Lu Xun. At the same time, he also made friends with Bu Zhao in his early years and traveled throughout Wuzhong.
It can be said that over the years, it is precisely because Zhuge Jin coordinated between Lu Xun and Bu Zhi that the two have always been able to coexist peacefully.
Although Bu Zhi’s official position is not as good as Lu Xun’s, his qualifications are much older than Lu Xun’s. Naturally, it is impossible to show weakness at this time:
"General, it's not that I don't want to obey your orders, but that your Majesty hastily sent someone to deliver news about the death of the prince."
Bu Zhao stared at Lu Xun closely, "Your Majesty's letter to me mentioned that Wu's rear area is empty, so he has led his troops back to Jianye, just in case."
"Now that the general (i.e. Zhuge Jin) has passed away suddenly, people in Jingzhou are also in turmoil. I am taking this action just in case."
Lu Xun, however, did not listen to Bu Zhi’s explanation and just asked:
“Has your Majesty ever issued an order for the general to withdraw his troops?”
Bu Zhao didn’t answer in silence.
Sun Quan naturally did not explicitly give in to Bu Zhao and retreat, but how could Bu Zhao not know His Majesty's concerns after following Sun Quan for so many years?
“Since Your Majesty has not given in to the retreat of the general, the general must still obey my orders.”
Lu Xun’s tone became stern:
"I can tell General Bu that there is nothing wrong with Jingzhou! I now want General Bu to return to the north immediately as planned."
Bu Zhao continued to remain silent.
Seeing this, Lu Xun took a deep breath, softened his tone and said:
“General Bu, this time Wu’s troops marched northward, the cost was incalculable, and a lot of supplies were borrowed from the Han Dynasty.”
“If we return without success, Wu will be defeated and will be unable to use the sword again for at least a few years.”
“Now that the power of the Han Dynasty is increasing day by day, the Wei thieves have divided their capitals to rule. The strong ones are getting stronger, and the weak ones are getting weaker. It is not yet known how long the three kingdoms can maintain their power.”
"Based on the current situation in the world, the best is to unite with Wei and resist the Han, and let the Han and Wei thieves fight to the death; the next best thing is to unite with the Han to destroy Wei, and try our best to swallow up the territory of Wei and strengthen Wu."
“However, the only common border between Wu and Han is Yong’an. Its terrain is so dangerous that even a million-strong army cannot attack it against the current.”
“And now the Wei thieves can’t protect themselves. If Wu and Han are at odds with each other, Wu will lose a lot of assistance and it will be difficult to make up for it from the Wei thieves.”
"So now we can only take it down and continue to unite with the Han Dynasty to destroy the Wei Dynasty." Lu Xun said so much in one breath, and then he breathed a sigh of relief, "Xiangyang is the barrier of Jingzhou."
"After the destruction of Wei, Wu faced Han. If there was no Xiangyang, it would be impossible to defend Jingzhou and make generals. This is a battle for the fate of the country!"
At this point, Lu Xun had already spoken sincerely.
Bu Zhao finally stopped being silent:
"I know what the general said. If this is the case, then I will continue to return to the north according to what the general said."
When Lu Xun heard this, he was overjoyed and bowed deeply to Bu Zhi:
"If we can really capture Xiangyang this time, General Bu will be the first to succeed!"
Bu Zhao did not dare to accept Lu Xun's salute. He turned sideways and returned the same salute:
“The stallion is only for the country, not for merit.”
"Then I will work hard with General Bu to capture Xiangyang!"
With the cooperation of Bu Zhao, Lu Xun did not stay for a moment and immediately rushed to Jingcheng east of Dangyang.
50,000 troops have been secretly assembled there, which is the maximum number of troops that Lu Xun can mobilize at present.
Guanqiu Jian's guess was correct. The Wu army in attacking Pizhong did not try their best.
But what he guessed wrong was that it was not that Wu Jun did not want to try his best, but that Zhuge Jin simply did not have enough troops at that time.
Because some of Jingzhou's elite soldiers did not go to Peizhong at all.
Lu Xun also mobilized all the troops in Wuchang, Yuzhang and other places, so that he could gather the 50,000 troops.
Jingcheng is located on the edge of the Han River. At this time, the Han River was densely covered with Wu warships.
Thanks to Ji Han's huge pressure, the Wei army has not harassed the south for a long time.
In addition, Zhuge Jin led his army to attack Peizhong, and Feng Yong led his army to appear at Caoqiao Pass, which made Wei Jun Wuli send a scout horse south to investigate here.
So Guanqiu Jian didn't know at all that there was such a large army that had been secretly spying on Xiangyang.
After learning that Lu Xun had returned, Zhu Ran, Sun Lun and other generals leading the army came to see him immediately:
“Come on, General, you are finally back!”
Lu Xun stood behind the handsome case with a solemn expression:
“Send my order and the whole army will set off immediately to attack Xiangyang!”
Upon hearing this, Zhu Ran and others immediately responded excitedly and loudly: "Here!"
Soon, the sound of war drums and horns sounded in both the water and dry villages.
The Wu army secretly gathered at Jingmen, like a poisonous snake lurking in the shadows, finally showed its fangs.
May is the season for southwesterly winds, and there are also occasional southeasterly winds.
But whether it is southeast or southwest wind, you can just borrow wind power.
The warships of the Wu army on the river, using the building ships as nodes, constantly issued orders, began to raise their sails, and rushed towards Xiangyang in the north.
The Wei army in the north learned that Zhuge Jin had died of illness and saw the Wu army retreating, so they thought the crisis was over.
But he didn't expect Bu Zhao to lead the army and return.
The Wei army in Tiaozhong was almost caught off guard. If there were no fine cavalry as scouts, they would have been attacked by foot stallions.
After learning about the Wu thieves' deception, Xiangyang's general was about to send reinforcements. Unexpectedly, his own bodyguards rolled in and rolled in:
“General, it’s not good! Wu bandits, there are so many Wu bandits…”
“I know about Wu Kou. Isn’t it because Wu Kou came back and wanted to sneak attack on Peizhong? What’s there to be nervous about…”
"No, no!" The guard was so anxious that he couldn't finish his words. He pointed out with trembling fingers, "It's in the water, in the water, Wu Kou is coming from the water!"
"Water surface? What water surface..." Before he finished speaking, the guard's face suddenly changed. He hurried forward and grabbed the guard's collar to drink. "Did the Wu invaders come from Han River?"
"Yes, it is!"
The guard abandoned his guards and walked two steps at a time. Finally, he ran all the way, rushed to the top of the city, and looked towards the river.
Sure enough, on the east side of the river, there was an overwhelming number of warships, as if they were filling the water. They were densely packed, like a plague of locusts passing through, and they were galloping towards Xiangyang.
The guard's legs weakened and he almost lost his balance.
He was holding on to the parapet, his face turned pale, and he murmured:
"Thieves, this is to follow Guan Yu's old plan and separate Fan Xiang!"
The people on the left and right were equally panicked: "General, what should we do?"
"Why are you panicking? Xiangyang is a fortified city. In the past, Guan Yu besieged Xiangfan, and China was shaken, but he still couldn't break the city. How can a mere Wu bandit be as brave as Guan Yu?"
The general of Xiangyang is an old man in the army. He also experienced the Battle of Xiangfan and accumulated military merits before climbing up.
“Send my military order to pull up the drawbridge of the moat and close the city gate!”
“Also, before the thieves cut off the water, immediately send people to the north bank to convey military information!”
Xiangyang is close to the Han River to the north and dangerous mountains to the south. It is also a fortified city. No matter whether the thieves come from the south or the north, they will have dangers to rely on.
There is also Fancheng on the north bank, which echoes each other. It can be said that it is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Although the general of Xiangyang was shocked by Wu Jun's warships, he finally did not forget his responsibilities and began to make arrangements.
(End of this chapter)