Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 798 War of words

Judging from the experience of later generations, Zhang Zhao during the Three Kingdoms period was a proper surrenderer. Even though he knew that he would be hated by Sun Quan, he never stopped persuading Wu to surrender throughout his life.

In Sun Quan's view, Zhang Zhao's behavior was tantamount to cheating, so even though everyone recommended him as prime minister many times, Sun Quan did not agree.

But judging from the reasons, Zhang Zhao's preference for Cao Cao was not entirely selfish. The main reason was that he insisted that Jiangdong could not confront the Central Plains. It did not mean that he had received many benefits before betraying Sun Quan.

After all, Zhang Zhao has no need or motive to repeatedly offend Sun Quan on this matter. You must know that Sun Quan is a master who dares to kill both his ministers and his sons. What can Zhang Zhao do with his age?

Therefore, Yuan Xi believes that Zhang Zhao is indeed a capitulator, but it is not very likely that his surrender tendency is based on personal interests. He should simply think that Jiangdong cannot be defeated.

Facts have indeed proven that even in the Jianghuai area with developed waterways, Jiangdong was extremely difficult to fight in every battle. Hefei could not be defeated, let alone Shouchun.

Even if Shouchun is captured, they still have to cross the Huaihe River and capture Yuzhou and Yanzhou before they can approach the Yellow River and go north to the hinterland of the Central Plains. I am afraid that no one in Jiangdong in later generations has ever thought about this.

That’s why Zhou Yu adopted the strategy of marching westward, focusing on capturing Jingzhou, taking all Bashu, and occupying the Yangtze River. But in fact, the subsequent experiences of the Shu Kingdom proved that even with Zhuge Liang’s ability and decades of military training, going north from Bashu was still It was extremely difficult, let alone the Jiangdong generals who relied heavily on water warfare.

The Ming Dynasty, which is said to be the only successful Northern Expedition in later generations, was also regarded as the Huaibei Rebellion in the north at that time. Not only horses but also firearms were needed to fight across the Yellow River. This was also the time when plague and floods occurred in the Yuan Dynasty, and the population of the Central Plains was sharply reduced. With a reduction of 20 million, the Yuan Dynasty was unable to govern and most of them retreated to the grasslands.

Therefore, from the perspective of future generations, in the late Han Dynasty when people's livelihood was in decline, the Northern Expedition of Jiangdong was extremely difficult. Among the three routes, Sun Ce and Sun Quan failed successively in the attack on Guangling. On the Chaohu route, the water battle in Jiangdong suffered heavy losses, so No matter what, you cannot avoid the Jingzhou route.

In the view of Jingzhou's surrender faction, Kuai Yue, Jiangdong's plan to capture Jingzhou will never cease. And if Jiangdong captures Jingzhou, it will inevitably use it as a bridgehead to launch repeated attacks on the Central Plains. This will undoubtedly greatly damage the interests of the local gentry in Jingzhou. .

And unlike foreign surrender factions like Zhang Zhao, most of the two major surrender factions, Jingzhou gentry and Jiangdong gentry, are local surrender factions like Kuai Yue. They are extremely resistant to fighting in the local area, so they will fight in the face of When faced with a powerful foreign enemy, there is a very obvious tendency to surrender.

Therefore, when it comes to surrendering to the enemy, Jingzhou Jiangdong is evenly matched, which is also the crux of the matter for both sides. At the same time, it is extremely easy to bribe them. As long as they promise that their interests will not be infringed, they will kneel faster than anyone else.

Yuan Xibao had a profound grasp of the psychology of both parties, pulled them to the same table, and then put forward the condition that the lion would open his mouth, which was to catch their weaknesses.

Although this was a bit unkind to Liu Biao, after all, they were fighting for the world now, and Yuan Xi could not make a strategy that was unfavorable to him just for a little favor from his predecessor.

What's more, Liu Biao may not know what will happen when he sees that the local gentry in Jingzhou are in decline.

Zhang Zhao is indeed a smart man. He was the first to realize that he would be used by Yuan Xi, so he ignored Kuai Yue and directly said to Yuan Xi: "For this peace negotiation, Zhao comes with my Lord's sincerity, but the envoy It’s hard for people to believe that you are sincere if you do this.”

Yuan Xi glanced at Zhuge Liang, who understood and said: "Zhang Changshi's words are wrong. It makes people unable to see his sincerity. Isn't it Sun?"

"More than a month has passed since the Battle of Chaohu. Jiangdong only sent people at this time. People who don't know better think that Jiangdong won."

"The Sun family broke the treaty twice and tried to plot Wancheng. Yuan Shijun was so generous that he originally gave up the city, but he didn't expect that Jiangdong was still unwilling. He killed the lord and important ministers and went even further to plot Shouchun. Could this be the Sun family? What’s so-called sincerity?”

Zhang Zhao secretly gritted his teeth and snorted coldly: "Yangzhou belongs to Jiangdong, and Sun Hou (Sun Ce) is the adopted son of Yuan Gongdao, who helped him sweep the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers. Jiujiang and Lujiang were all conquered by him. How can he give it up to others?"

Zhuge Liang laughed loudly, "The land in the two counties was originally occupied by Yuan Shu without authorization. My lord was ordered by the emperor to attack Yuan Shu and the territory he conquered was of course my lord's. At this time, Sun Hou, who was also ordered by the emperor, was in where?"

Zhang Zhao knew that Zhuge Liang was mocking Sun Ce for accepting the edict but not openly fighting Yuan Shu, so he couldn't help but said to himself: "Sun is loyal to the emperor, and heaven and earth can learn from it. At the same time, he accepted the imperial edict to welcome the emperor, which shows that the emperor trusts him." , It’s a pity that the year has passed, and someone has plotted against you, and the place where it happened is in Wancheng, so it is natural for my lord to avenge his brother.”

Zhuge Liang had a mocking look on his face, "So Jiangdong came to attack Lujiang because he thought my lord was the murderer?"

"Does Chang Shi have any evidence?"

"Chang Shi personally led the Jiangdong tiger generals and went north to the Han River. He wanted to have a glimpse of the scenery of Xuzhou. I wonder what he saw?"

Zhang Zhao's face turned purple after hearing this. His sneak attack on Guangling was unsuccessful and he returned home in disgrace. This was something he was ashamed to say, but Zhuge Liang exposed his shortcomings and made him speechless.

What makes Zhang Zhao depressed is that Jiang Dong was wrong in this matter first. If Sun Quan hadn't strongly requested it, he wouldn't have wanted to come at all. It was originally a treacherous sneak attack by Jiang Dong. What else could he have said?

And the guy opposite, Zhuge Liang, is so young, so why is he so venomous?

At this time, someone from Jiangdong spoke, "The military advisor's remarks are a bit excessive."

"This time Zhang Changshi accepted my lord's order, which shows my lord's sincerity. The military advisor is always making things difficult. Isn't it necessary for us to stay?"

Zhuge Liang glanced at Lu Xun who was silent and knew that it was inconvenient for him to speak at this time, so he spoke out: "Everyone knows who will win and who will lose in this battle. If you want to negotiate peace, you must come up with corresponding conditions and let the other party see it." Sincerity." Zhang Zhao originally wanted to delay for some time, but he didn't expect Zhuge Liang to bring the conversation to him again. He knew that although he would inevitably avoid it sooner or later, the presence of Jingzhou's side at the moment really made him feel like a light on his back. too disgusting!

He cleared his throat and said: "Jiangdong has also exhausted his inventory for this large-scale use of weapons, but he will do his best." Then he said some gifts.

When Yuan Xi heard this, he realized that they were all specialties made of silk cloth, as well as elephants and tigers. He still wanted to give them away as rare treasures, and feed these things with grain and meat when he was full?

He sneered and said, "I can have as many tigers as I want from Youzhou. How about I give a hundred of them to Jiangdong?"

He was a little angry in his heart. At this time, Zhang Zhao was not on the road. He was supposed to make a gesture to let Jingzhou see that at least the two sides were on the same page, but in the end, Zhang Zhao didn't even pretend to be pretending. He was so stingy when he came out for peace talks. He really thought What about sending beggars away?

Although he knew the result of the concessions made by both parties during the negotiation, Zhang Zhao set the bottom line so low when he came up. Was it because he clearly believed that he would not attack Jiangdong again in the short term?

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi said coldly: "Lujiang must be given away. In addition, how much land is Jiangdong prepared to cede to me?"

"Yuzhang or Wujun?"

Zhang Zhao shook his head and said: "No, my lord wants to make an agreement with the envoy to jointly govern the Jianghuai River and Huaihe River using the border between Chaohu Lake and Jiujiang Lujiang River as the line."

When Yuan Xi heard this, he calmed down. He thought Lu Xun winked.

Lu Xun understood and knew that he was more suitable than Zhuge Liang to negotiate with Jingzhou, so he said to Kuai Yue: "I don't know what Liu Jingsheng means?"

Kuai Yue said: "My lord wants to join forces with Yuan Shijun to fight against Jiangdong. If Shijun attacks Jiangdong, my lord will do his best to raise money and food support."

As soon as these words came out, Zhang Zhao's expression changed.

Yuan Xi nodded slightly, and Liu Biao knew a lot. He had seen Yuan Xi's actions on the battlefield in the past few years. He knew what to say based on Jingzhou's strength. In comparison, Sun Quan and even Zhang Zhao couldn't do anything. Do you really dare not beat Jiangdong if you treat yourself as a soft persimmon?

However, Jingzhou's performance did not satisfy Yuan Xi. This made it clear that Jingzhou would not send troops to help, but would only wave the flag and shout from behind.

To be honest, Yuan Xi is short of soldiers now, not food. He has been fighting and killing people in the front, leaving other princes to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight. How can it be so cheap?

The so-called allies, one thing is that everyone who should send troops should send troops together, no one can think of being alone, otherwise who would be willing to be taken advantage of?

And looking at this, Kuai Yue also had reservations. It was obviously Zhang Zhao who was the bad guy. Thinking of this, Yuan Xi felt itchy with hatred.

At this time, Zhuge Liang spoke, "Master Kuaifu, what if my lord promises a county in Yuzhang as reward, and agrees to send troops together with Duke Jing Sheng to destroy Jiangdong?"

When he said this, Kuai Yue's expression changed slightly, and everyone in Jiangdong, including Zhang Zhao, panicked. Zhang Zhao told himself to calm down, because the other party might just be scaring him!

Moreover, the entire Lu Xun clan on the opposite side is in Jiangdong, so how likely will they be to avoid rat attacks?

Unexpectedly, Lu Xun smiled at Lu Hao and said, "If this is the case, my brother will not have to go back, and our Lu family will not be cut off."

Zhang Zhao felt nervous again after hearing this. Zhuge Liang smiled at Zhang Zhao and said, "Is Zhou Gongjin seriously injured?"

"If he has three strengths and two weaknesses, who can replace him?"

Zhang Zhao was startled, what does this mean?

Zhuge Liang gently shook his feather fan, "Zhou Gongjin has been conquering all the battles in the north and south with Sun Hou in recent years. He has conquered every attack and won every battle. He has gained such a great reputation. It can be said that apart from Sun Hou, Zhou Gongjin is the one who can stabilize people's hearts the most."

"However, such a character was defeated in a battle and was seriously injured. After that, who else in Jiangdong can take charge of the overall situation in his place and face foreign enemies?"

"It's impossible for the current Lord of Jiangdong to go into battle himself, right?"

"When the time comes for my lord's army to cross south, if Jiangdong cannot withstand it, we won't be able to solve the problem by just sending tigers and elephants."

Zhang Zhao's face turned pale. Zhuge Liang had said it clearly. Jiangdong should not be ignorant. If he is defeated on the battlefield, he should act like a loser. The defeated side should not pretend to be pretentious!

(End of this chapter)