Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 112 106. Plan Complete
"Password!"

Zhou Da ran all the way and returned to the Wu army camp before dawn, but Zhou Da was not a professional spy after all, so he was still discovered by the patrolling soldiers.

"Hardworking little perch! I am a member of Captain Zhou Cang's family, and I am here to do some work for Captain Zhou Cang!"

Zhou Da answered the command easily and made up an excuse to shirk responsibility. The patrol soldiers were only responsible for identifying whether this person was a spy or not. Seeing that he answered the command and was the family member of an officer in the army, they didn't bother to care what he was doing and let him go.

Zhou Da returned to the stable, tied up his horse, and walked quickly back to the camp where Zhou Cang was. Zhou Da happily pushed open the curtain of Zhou Cang's tent and walked in with an appearance of having accomplished a great task.

"...? How is the thing I asked you to do going? Why are you so happy?"

Zhou Qian was a little surprised to see Zhou Da's expression as if he had eaten bee poop, and he couldn't figure out what he was doing.

"Hey, Master, I have done what you asked me to do. I personally met a great general from the Shu army, as well as several people dressed elegantly! They looked like high-ranking officials! They asked me a lot of questions, and then told me to tell you: be prepared, my navy will come to pick you up in three days."

Zhou Da excitedly told Zhou Qian the result, but Zhou Qian thought for a moment, raised his hand and interrupted Zhou Da's endless chatter.

"Let's not talk about this for now. Tell me what happened after you arrived at the Shu army camp."

Zhou Qian was a meticulous person. He didn't believe that the other party would accept his surrender so easily, so he wanted to know the details to avoid any omissions.

Zhou Da nodded and immediately began to talk about the whole process from being stopped by the Han army patrol to meeting Feng Xi.

After hearing Zhou Da handing in his letter of surrender, everyone in the tent was quite skeptical. Zhou Cang nodded. This was human nature. After all, the two sides hadn't started fighting yet, and suddenly someone said he wanted to surrender. Even the dumbest person would be suspicious.

Then, when Zhou Cang heard Zhou Da talking about Feng Xi's inquiry about cutting off hair in broad daylight to replace the head, Zhou Da's reply, and the white-browed scholar next to him seemed to be hesitant, he could not help but smile knowingly.

Since he had decided to feign surrender, he was willing to pay the necessary losses. In the past, General Huang Gai was willing to be whipped by Governor Zhou, so what was wrong with cutting off some of his hair?
Then Zhou Da continued to recount the heated discussion that broke out in Feng Xi's tent because of this matter. Zhou Qiang couldn't help but clap his hands and laugh, which stunned Zhou Da who was still talking eloquently next to him.

"Um... Master, do you need me to continue?"

Zhou Da looked at his master's strange expression with some worry. He didn't quite understand why he had such a big reaction since he was about to surrender.
Zhou Qiang realized that he had lost his composure and waved his hand, asking Zhou Da to continue. Seeing this, Zhou Da went on to talk about how Feng Xi finally overwhelmed everyone's opinion and decided to accept Zhou Qiang's surrender, and they agreed on a date to act according to the signal in the letter.

"Good! Good! Good! You've worked so hard. Go down and have a rest. I'll reward you handsomely in the future!"

Zhou Qiang was very happy and even stood up and patted Zhou Da on the shoulder, which made Zhou Da, who was kept in the dark, confused. But since his master said so, he could only nod and leave Zhou Qiang's tent.

After Zhou Da left, Zhou Qian immediately got up and went to Xu Sheng's camp to report the good news to Xu Sheng.

"General, Captain Zhou is here."

The guard at the door lifted the curtain and reported to Xu Sheng in a low voice.

"Hmm? Please let Captain Zhou in. You guys stay on guard outside and don't let anyone in." As someone who knew about Zhou Cang's plan, Xu Sheng knew that Zhou Cang would not come to see him before dawn for no reason. There must be some variables.

"General Xu."

Zhou Cang entered the tent and bowed.

"Zi Yu is visiting at this time, could it be that something unexpected has happened?"

Xu Sheng put down the military book in his hand and looked at Zhou Cang.

"The Shu army has fallen into the trap! My confidant Zhou Da has been to the Shu army camp tonight. According to Zhou Da, he should have met the Shu army commander Feng Xi and Feng Xiuyuan. After Feng Xiuyuan received my letter, he verified the hair-cutting matter with Zhou Da and readily agreed to the surrender request in my letter. He also agreed with me that he would send a navy to pick me up three nights later."

Zhou Cang's unconcealed excitement in his words made Xu Sheng look sideways.

"The Shu army fell into the trap? Great! I will immediately have General Zhou Tai prepare fire ships for you. In three days, General Zhou Tai and General Ling Tong will also personally lead troops to pretend to hunt you down and help you gain the trust of the Shu army."

Xu Sheng was naturally delighted to hear the result of Zhou Cang's report. Xu Sheng had thought about what to do if Feng Xi saw through it, but the current situation of Wu Jun left him no choice.

If I don't take a gamble here, but instead attack the Han army step by step, let alone whether I can defeat them, even if I am really possessed by a military god and manage to defeat the Han army with conventional tactics by outnumbering the larger force, it will take forever.

It is still unknown what the situation in the entire Chinese land will be like by then. Will the State of Wei just sit there and watch the two sides confront each other?

Therefore, the Wu army had no other choice but to hope that this wave of eastern expeditionary forces would completely defeat the Han army and make it unable to invade the east in a short period of time. In this way, the Eastern Wu would have the ability to protect itself, and the Han army would not have any problems relying on the natural barriers in Sichuan.

This is the tragedy of a weak country. You can keep winning, but you can never afford the cost of losing once.

The annihilation of the main force in the previous Battle of Yiling had left Dongwu with no capital to lose again, so in this battle of Dongting Lake, Dongwu had no choice but to win. If Xu Sheng and his men lost, then the demise of Dongwu would only be a matter of time.

Xu Sheng immediately wrote a letter, specifying what Zhou Cang needed, and asked Zhou Cang to take his letter to find Zhou Tai at the navy camp on the other side of the river. Although most of the Wu generals were good at naval battles, Zhou Tai and Ling Tong were undoubtedly the most suitable to command the navy at this moment, while Xu Sheng, Ding Feng, Quan Cong and others could focus on strengthening the land camp.

Zhou Qian waited silently for Xu Sheng to finish writing, nodded, took the letter with the ink still wet, and left in a hurry.

Xu Sheng waited until he was the only one left in the tent, then he sighed and rubbed his temples carefully to relieve the pain in his brain that had been caused by excessive thinking in recent days.

Xu Sheng himself knew that even if Dongwu won a lucky victory three days later, it would not have the power to fight back. The biggest possibility was that Cao Wei would take advantage of the situation and occupy Jingzhou.

But Xu Sheng had to do this. After all, he should be loyal to his employer. He could not decide what happened in the past, but this was the only way to preserve the foundation of the Eastern Wu.

(End of this chapter)